Word of the Year

The Codebreakers:  November is National Native American Heritage Month so like presidents before him Trump welcomed surviving members of the Navajo code talkers to the White House to honor them for their brave World War II and Korean war service.  During the ceremony, in front of the elderly heroic former Marines, Trump slammed Senator Elizabeth Warren by throwing in a snide reference to the “Pocahontas” currently serving in the Senate.  The elegant Navajos ignored his ethnic slur during the ceremony and were also too classy to say anything about a large painting of Trump’s hero Andrew Jackson, the man responsible for the killing of so many of their ancestors.  After the ceremony Senator Warren responded to Trump by saying "there he was, at a ceremony to honor Native Americans, men who have really put it all on the line to save American lives, to save lives of people, our allies, during World War II, really amazing people. And President Trump couldn't even make it through a ceremony to honor these men without throwing in a racial slur."  Warren wasn’t the only one who found his comment offensive, Russell Begaye the Navajo Nation President later commented “All tribal nations still battle insensitive references to our people. The prejudice that Native American people face is an unfortunate historical legacy." When asked about criticism of Trump’s culturally insensitive remarks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders reached into her bag of pathetic Trump excuses and said that “was certainly not Trump’s intent, then she went on to slam Warren for lying about her heritage to further her career, a reference to Warren’s old claim that she is part native American. Sanders conveniently ignored Trump’s long time assertion that his family was of Swedish ancestry, a claim his father originated to distance the family from their German heritage when they were marketing apartments to Jewish residents of Queens.  Warren had been on Trump’s mind because of her role in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the entity that Republicans believe is unnecessary because banks and financial institutions “never” treat consumers unfairly.  Budget Director Mulvaney showed up for work there yesterday, pushing aside Leandra English the competing bureau head who continues to assert her position in court.  He immediately started to dismantle the bureau that he hates so much by imposing a hiring freeze and putting a “temporary” halt on new regulations and guidance.  Notably, later in the day Wells Fargo, one of those financial institutions that consumers don’t need to be protected from revealed that they’ve screwed up again, this time the bank that previously issued 2 million credit cards in the names of unwitting clients, overcharged customers for their foreign exchange transactions. Count Mulvaney as another one of Trump’s complicit guys, so fitting since complicit is Dictionary.com’s word of the year.   

Tax Legislation Marches On:  In a pattern reminiscent of the health care battle, the Congressional Budget Office released its report on the Senate tax reform plan and it hurts the poor even more than originally thought. By 2019, those earning less than $30,000 would be worse off, by 2021 those earning $40,000 or less would be net losers and by 2027, most people earning $75,000 would be worse off.  Much of this hit will occur because of cutbacks in government aid for health care. Republican leadership isn‘t all that concerned because millionaires would be big beneficiaries so despite the bad news Republican leadership still plans to move forward by focusing on meeting the requirements of their problem senators, several of whom need to see changes that will further benefit higher earners.  Some accommodation is likely to be made to provide better treatment for small corporations to meet the requirement of Senators Johnson and Daines, by small corporations they mean lowering tax rates for pass-through entities, a change that will also benefit Trump one of those higher earners whose portfolio of real estate investments would qualify for the change.  A few of the deficit hawks including Senators Corker, Flake and Oklahoma’s James Lankford want some type of trigger mechanism that would kick in and raise taxes if the economic growth projections that are key to the plan and are necessary to defray even larger increases in the deficit don’t materialize over a predetermined time period.  Satisfying Corker is important because tax legislation can’t make it through committee and onto the Senate floor without his vote since Republicans hold only a one vote majority on the Budget Committee and no Democrats will be onboard.  That vote is supposed to take place later today.   

Moore from Alabama:  Former Judge Roy Moore, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump’s favorite child molester, finally emerged from his cave on Monday and gave a rousing speech to his dedicated fan base in rural northeast Alabama, sticking to his Bannonesque script he claimed that he had an unblemished reputation not including the two times he was forced to step down from the bench and denied all assertions that he had ever made unwanted romantic or sexual advances to any of those lying women who accuse him of going after them during their teenage years.  Moreover, he likened the assault on his character and the convenient timing of the accusations to the claims against Trump made during the presidential campaign and the allegations of Russian collusion, that he said were invented to interfere with Trump’s legislative agenda. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.  Alabama’s other Senator, Republican Richard Shelby, must have missed the speech, he revealed that he has already mailed in his absentee ballot and that he voted for someone else. Though Trump continues to support Moore from afar, Sarah Huckabee Sanders reports that he is too busy with other things like taxes and golf to join him on the campaign trail.  The controversial right wing Project Veritas group led by conservative activist James O’Keefe has been busy trying to bolster Moore’s chances the old fashioned way, with lies and deception.  O’Keefe had one of his female plants, tell a Washington Post reporter that she had been impregnated by Moore when she was fifteen and that Moore had then taken her for an abortion.  To O’Keefe’s dismay, the reporter researched the woman’s story, found inconsistencies, uncovered her lies and then, instead of publishing the false accusation, an act that would have damaged the veracity of Moore’s other accusers, the Washington Post disclosed the O’Keefe and Project Veritas “false news” trap. By the way, Trump donated $10,000 to Project Veritas in 2015.  In other Alabama election news, Lee Busby a retired Marine colonel who once served as an aide to Chief of Staff Kelly, is launching a last minute write-in campaign to compete against Moore and his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.  With the election scheduled for December 12, it highly unlikely that Busby stands any chance of victory.  It’s also not known who he will hurt more, Moore or Jones.      

           

Transgender Ruling:  On Monday a federal judge ruled that the military must move forward with plans to allow transgender recruits by January 1. The Justice Department had filed notice that it planned to appeal an injunction preventing the implementation of Trump’s plan to block transgender recruits and had asked the judge to clarify that her court's earlier ruling did not prevent Defense Secretary Mattis from "exercising his discretion to defer the January 1 effective date” while the Justice Department pressed Trump’s case.  Rather than clarifying that Mattis could delay recruiting transgender soldiers while litigation continued the judge did the opposite, clarifying that the court's injunction meant the January date has to stay.  Secretary of State Tillerson’s Trump mandated plans to reorganize, and by reorganize think dismantle, the State Department are also facing a speed bump. Last night Bloomberg News reported that the senior official responsible for overseeing the State Department reorganization, a plan that has been criticized by current and former US diplomats, has stepped down. The State Department is still in disarray but now it’s missing its full time reorganizer and Jared Kushner, the renaissance man who previously served many diplomatic functions, can’t step in to help because he has had his wings clipped by Chief of Staff Kelly who has cut back on his expansive list of responsibilities leaving him to focus solely on Middle East peace, innovation, and his legal woes.