Tweet Early, Tweet Often

Tweeting All Day:  An increasingly erratic Trump started his Wednesday by retweeting three inflammatory anti-Muslim videos from Britain First, a fringe group of right wing anti-Muslim activists.  One was an Al-Qaeda propaganda video and another claimed to show a “Muslim” migrant beating up a Dutch boy, except that it turns out that the assailant depicted in the video wasn’t a migrant and wasn’t Muslim. Sarah Huckabee Sanders who never fails to go even lower when Trump goes low, defended the despicable tweets by saying “the threat is real, it needs to be addressed.” To say that Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, who was on a visit to Iraq when she learned of the tweets, was distressed would be an understatement.  Her office responded to Trump’s idiocy by saying “it is wrong for the president to have done this, Britain First seeks to divide communities by their use of hateful narratives that peddle lies and stoke tension.”  Wow, if Trump lived in Britain, he’d fit right in with the Britain First crowd. Unable to let May have the last word, last night Trump tweeted back “don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islam Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.”  Way to go Trump, good job offending our long term ally and “special friend.”  About the only people happy with Trump’s tweets were Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke who tweeted “Thank God for Trump! That’s why we love him” and the various lawyers fighting against his travel ban.  Once again Trump has handed them an unexpected gift, more proof that the ban is motivated by religious bigotry.  Words matter and Trump tweets matter even more.

Men Behaving Badly:  Moments after NBC announced that Matt Lauer had been “terminated,” for inappropriate sexual behavior, Trump, the man who now claims that his image and voice were edited into the “fake” Access Hollywood tape and who has managed to escape punishment for what he calls “locker room behavior” launched another set of tweets, this time celebrating Lauer’s dismissal and suggesting that executives at NBC and at its parent Comcast should also be fired for “putting out so much Fake News, adding “check out Andy Lack’s past.” Lack is the chairman of NBC News.  He also wondered will they terminate “low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago?”  That last comment referred to the death of an intern who worked in “Morning Joe” Scarborough’s office in 2001 when he was a Florida Congressman. Although terribly sad, there was nothing  mysterious or controversial about the intern’s death, she died after collapsing from a heart condition.  The attack on Morning Joe wasn’t just small minded, it was also libelous, and is just another one of his ever escalating smacks at all members of the press who don’t work for Fox News, Breitbart or one or another alt-right rags.  CNN, his favorite target, announced that their correspondents will be boycotting this year’s White House Christmas party, Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded by tweeting “Christmas comes early, Finally good news from @CNN.”  As of now no other stations have joined the CNN boycott, but April Ryan, one of the few African American White House correspondents, who has been a frequent press secretary target won’t be attending because for the first time in twenty years she wasn’t invited.  Later in the day Minnesota Public Radio announced that they were terminating their contract with Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame after learning of allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior. The socially awkward Keillor, who just the day before had written a rambling defense of Senator Al Franken published in The Washington Post, said that the allegation refers to a time that he “inadvertently“ touched a woman’s back when trying to comfort her.  The Washington Post said that at this time they are not revising their relationship with Keillor, pending a review. As to Lauer, his womanizing ways weren’t much of a secret before yesterday but to the extent that accusations about his seriously gross behavior are true, and they most likely are, he is now officially another Weinstein Despicable.  The embattled Congressman Conyers hasn’t resigned, yet, but one of his aides reports that he won’t seek reelection, not much of a concession for a guy who is 88 years old and who, even before recent events, had been reported to be showing signs of dementia.     

Tax Reform:  Trump went to Missouri yesterday to continue pitching his tax reform bill.  While there he rallied the gullible crowd by telling them that they were the chief beneficiaries of the bill, a bigly lie since none of them appeared to be millionaires or billionaires.  He also asserted that the tax plan would cost him a fortune, another bigly lie since he is expected to save about $20 million a year, chump change for a billionaire but significant for the rest of us mere mortals.  And of course he attacked Missouri’s Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor, calling her out as pro-crime, pro high taxes and pro illegal immigration.  While he was traveling Republican leadership continued to push the Senate tax plan forward.  It’s not done yet, they are still tinkering, possibly increasing the corporate tax rate up to 22% from Trump’s desired 20% in order to raise hundreds of billions more to pay for the child care credit advocated by favorite daughter Ivanka and a decrease in the rate applicable to pass-through entities for Senators Johnson and Daine.  Other areas still under discussion include Senator Corker’s desired but controversial tax rate trigger, the feature that would kick in when the deficit ballooned into the stratosphere, and Senator Collins $10,000 deduction for state and local property taxes. Though Collins still hasn’t committed to support the bill, she is being seriously courted and has been promised that leadership would support legislation “stabilizing”  the health insurance markets if she votes yes.  Late last night the Joint Committee on Taxation report that Majority Leader McConnell had been trying to avoid was finally released and to no one’s surprise the news isn’t all that good, though more than 60% of households would see at least a very modest tax cut in 2019, that percentage would drop in subsequent years so that in ten years 60% of households would see little, if any, cut in their taxes and many would see increases.  Corporations however, make out like bandits, three of them, Coca Cola, Pfizer and  Cisco Systems, have already said that they would use their tax savings to buy back stock, great for shareholders but not so good for wage growth or new investment.

Other Stuff:  The North Korean missile that lit up the skies over the Sea of Japan this week was even more advanced and capable than previously reported.  Son-in-Law Kushner, who is turning out to be much less capable than he’d like us to believe, spent some time with Special Counsel Mueller a few weeks ago.  He had been brought in to answer some targeted questions about former national security advisor Flynn, primarily to determine if he had anything to say that would prove exculpatory for Flynn.  If he did, it wasn’t enough to stop Flynn from deciding he should cooperate with Mueller. Yesterday Mueller delayed some planned Grand Jury testimony, another sign that his team is working out a deal with Flynn.  One final note, on Tuesday the first round in the legal battle over interim leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went to Trump when a federal judge that he recently appointed denied a request for a temporary restraining order to keep his choice for the job, Mick Mulvaney, from serving as acting director. Don’t be surprised if no one answers the phone next time you call to complain about excessive bank fees or mysterious credit card accounts.