Lock Him Up

Flipping Flynn: We knew this one was coming, but still it was a pleasant surprise after weeks focused on harassment and taxes. Yesterday former national security advisor Michael Flynn, the guy who opened up Trump campaign rallies with his disturbingly exuberant call for Hillary Clinton to be locked up for her imaginary crimes, plead guilty to lying to the FBI.  Remember when Sally Yates, the then acting Attorney General, raced to the White House to tell White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had been compromised by the Russian’s for his deceitful ways, well it’s fair to say that someone named Trump should have heeded her warning instead of quickly firing her and then doubling down by firing former FBI Director Comey while keeping Flynn around for a few more weeks.  Flynn has many other troubles, including his work as an agent of Turkey, but in exchange for pushing those crimes to the side and for leaving his nefarious son alone, at least for now, Mueller has flipped Flynn and extracted a promise from him to cooperate on the rest of the investigation into Trump team collusion and it appears that Flynn’s testimony is already bearing fruit.  Though court documents were intentionally vague and didn’t name the other high placed Trumpkins involved in Flynn’s deceptive behavior, it didn’t take long for the assorted experts and press commentators to figure out that son-in-law Kushner is probably the very senior Trump team official who authorized Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s Ambassador Kislyak and that KT Mcfarland, who was on Flynn’s national security team before she was banished to Singapore to serve as US Ambassador, was the individual that Flynn spoke to about one of his more damning conversations with Kislyak, the one that promised sanctions relief once Trump was inaugurated.  Flynn’s call to McFarland took place while she was at Mar a Lago serving as Trump’s intermediary, possibly a bigly problem for Trump.  As to Kushner, likely with the support of Trump, he directed Flynn to speak with a number of world leaders to get their help deferring a UN resolution critical of Israel.  As part of that assignment, Flynn called his good buddy Ambassador and spymaster Kislyak and though Kislyak didn’t commit to help with the Israel resolution, he did bring up sanctions relief, implying that Trump owed Russia for its support during the election.  Mueller’s investigation has now reached into Trump’s inner sanctum but Ty Cobb his in house lawyer for all things Mueller, wants us to know that it’s not a problem because  “nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn”  and besides “Flynn only served briefly in the administration and has plead guilty to just one count of lying to the FBI,” and, my personal favorite, he was an “Obama administration official.”  Despite Cobb’s assertion that the Flynn guilty plea is not much of a problem, it is.  Trump should be very worried and he’s not alone.  All the other senior members of Trump’s transition team should also be on edge, including VP Mike Pence, Reince Priebus, KT Mcfarland, Steve Bannon and Kushner, who should be in full panic mode because he may be Mueller’s next target.  Wonder if it’s time for Ivanka to reread her prenup?  Flynn’s guilty plea may already be impacting Trump’s plans.  Yesterday he affirmed his support for Secretary of State Tillerson, saying that reports that he was on his way out are just more “fake news.”  Tillerson may have just gained some more breathing room because the time might not be right for another cabinet shake-up and because Trump can’t afford to have another former insider on the outside spilling his guts, particularly one who thinks he’s a moron. A few people on the outside did have a good day yesterday.  The righteous James Comey went biblical, tweeting “but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” And somewhere Hillary Clinton was seen slugging chardonnay while howling “me too” at the moon.  

Tax Breaks for Corporations and Zillionaires:  In what otherwise was a pretty awful day, Trump did receive one bit of really good news, good news for him, bad news for most of the rest of us.   By a vote of 51-49, the Senate passed its version of tax reform.  Senator Corker joined all the Democrats and voted “no” over his valid concern that the substantial corporate tax cuts would balloon the deficit.  All the other Republican fence sitters voted “yes” after they received a combination of payoffs, minor adjustments and promises in exchange for their vote.  The bill opens a 1.5 million acre area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling for Alaska’s Senator Murkowski, a provision that has nothing whatsoever to do with taxes but was useful for getting her on board the tax train, twelve House Republicans are already calling for the drilling provision to be withdrawn when the bill goes to conference so there is a chance that her victory will be shortlived. To meet Maine’s Senator Collins’ requirements, the Senate bill now allows individuals to deduct up to $10,000 of their property taxes and permits lower income individuals to deduct some medical expenses.  She also received a promise from Majority Leader McConnell that automatic cuts in social programs otherwise mandated to cover the large deficit increase would be put off and a commitment that he would “support” the shelved Alexander-Murray Obamacare “fix” legislation. It’s not clear if she checked to see if his fingers were crossed when he made those promises.  Wisconsin’s Senator Johnson and Montana’s Senator Daines got improved treatment for certain pass-through entities, a change that hugely benefits really rich guys like Trump.  Lastly, Arizona’s Senator Flake extracted a commitment from McConnell to support the introduction of DACA legislation for the dreamers.  To partially offset the added costs associated with some of these changes the alternative minimum tax for corporations and some higher income individuals was reinstated. Only the Democrats seemed to think that more time was required to read the 500 plus page incipherably marked-up bill that showed up only hours before the vote and that many Democrats only received from lobbyists who’d gotten an earlier peak.  A vote for extra review time was voted down along party lines.  If anyone had taken the time to read the revised bill in its entirety they would have discovered a provision exempting a college owned by Education Secretary DeVos from the new taxes imposed on other colleges and universities, undoutably many other similarly skewed provisions are hidden within the text.  A last minute amendment, introduced by Senator Cruz, allowing individuals to use up to $10,000 of 529 plan money for fees associated with religious school tuition and home schooling was added with the help of VP Pence who was called in to break a tie after Murkowski and Collins broke rank and voted against the provision.  All in all the plan is awful, even worse than expected, especially for the lower and middle class and anyone from a blue state, but Senate Republicans got their much needed boost ensuring, at least for now, that the spigot of cash from their billionaire donors will continue flowing into the 2018 mid-term elections.  Next up Senate and House Republicans take the bill to conference to work out their differences, and there are many including the elimination of the individual Obamacare mandate which is in the Senate version but not in the one passed by the House.  Following their conference the final bill will go up for two more votes, one in the House and one in the Senate before making it to Trump, who will eagerly sign anything.   

Moore Men Behaving Badly:  Trump doesn’t have the time to go to all the way to Alabama for a Moore rally so instead he’s going to Pensacola, a city that shares its TV stations with Alabama.  That way he gets to avoid standing by child molester Moore’s side while exhorting the local TV audience to vote Moore in the December 12 special election.  On the Congressional front,  Representative Conyers is still a member of the House but his days appear numbered and a number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus are demanding equal treatment, they want to see Democratic leadership put pressure on Senator Al Franken to resign too.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is putting pressure on Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen to resign amid allegations that the freshman Democrat sexually harassed a campaign staffer during the 2016 election.   The Republicans aren’t off the hook either, yesterday it was disclosed that Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold used $84,000 of taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought against him by his former spokeswoman, he is now the only known sitting member of Congress to have used the congressional slush fund to pay an accuser.  Lastly, the NY Post reports that Matt Lauer’s wife has fled to her native home, the Netherlands, possibly with their two younger children. Collateral damage.