Russians, What Russians?

Russia, Russia, Russia:  According to NBC News, once it was clear that Trump and Clinton were the presidential nominees, high level counter intelligence officials from the FBI met with each of them to warn them to be wary of approaches by Russians, people with Russian names, people who looked and acted Russian and anyone purporting to know Putin. They urged both campaigns to alert the FBI immediately if they were contacted by any of those Russians.  By all accounts, Clinton took the warning seriously, Trump not so much.  The meeting with Trump must have been just a wee bit awkward for the FBI agents because by the time they sat down with him the agents were already aware that members of team Trump had been having meetings with suspicious Russian characters, and in fact the FBI had already opened an investigation into those activities. Trump either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t take the meeting with the FBI very seriously, because he didn’t come clean about any of the meetings that had already taken place.  Also, he either failed to convey the message to his team or did and they all laughed about it because the Trumpsters continued hobnobbing with Russians.  Kushner went on to meet with the Putin crony from the sanctioned Russian VEB bank, Sessions with Russian Ambassador and spymaster Kislyak and Don Jr communicated with WikiLeaks in the hope of getting the Hilary emails.  The Trump team’s decision to willfully ignore the FBI’s admonition goes a long way towards explaining their collective failure to disclose their Russian meetings in their relevant security filings and makes their collective memory loss that much more problematic. It also puts those texts that came to light last week into a new light.  No wonder FBI Agent Strzok was so freaked out about the possibility that Trump could become president, as the assistant director of counter intelligence he knew about all of those Russian meetings. In other Russia news, Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to meet with Special Counsel Mueller later this week, they are hoping to receive assurances that the investigation is winding down and that Trump will be cleared.  Indications are that they will be disappointed, Mueller’s staff has been told that they should expect to be around through the end of 2018.  With work still in process and the investigation ongoing, Mueller wouldn’t be prepared to tell Trump that he was in the clear even if he was.  Since Trump’s lawyers have been managing his anger about the investigation by telling him that it will be over soon, he will not be all that pleased with their update and could start looking for a fall guy, one less high profile than Mueller. Reportedly that fall guy could be Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, the man who controls the fate of Special Counsel Mueller. He didn’t like his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee and has been referring to him as “that Democrat” even though Rosenstein is a Republican and a Bush era appointee. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are also trying to rush the Russia investigation off their docket.  They’ve been ignoring Democratic members’ requests for additional witnesses, have been limiting their ability to question witnesses, are scheduling interviews at times that interfere with important votes and are aiming to end the investigation by year end.  The Senate Intelligence Committee is taking their role more seriously, so much so that Republican Chairman Burr wants to call in Green party candidate Jill Stein for an interview.  Stein attended the RT dinner in Russia, the one also attended by former security advisor Flynn and Trump BFF Putin.  Stein’s vote count was greater than Trump’s margin of victory in Michigan and Pennsylvania so her role in the outcome of the 2016 election shouldn’t be discounted.        

National Security Trump Style:   Trump delivered his national security speech on Monday.  Naturally, he called his predecessors out for their failed policies.  His speech was brooding, dark and confusing.  He warned about the rising threats from Russia and China and certain rogue states like Iran and North Korea while advocating an America First strategy focused on building border walls, dismantling multi-lateral trade agreements and building up the military, especially the nuclear arsenal.  He couldn’t resist including a plug for his tax bill and the robust state of the stock market.  On one hand he highlighted the Russian threat, but on the other he made no mention of Putin’s election meddling and the need to insure the security of future elections.  He downgraded the threat of climate change, failing to acknowledge the impact that drought, rising sea levels, and intensifying storms have on refugee flows even though the Pentagon continues to see climate change as a major concern and Puerto Rico, where the storm related death count has been restated to over 1000, is still suffering.  He also downplayed the importance of advocating democratic principles, not much of a surprise given his preference for autocrats. The more lengthy full report was prepared by security advisor H R McMaster and his team, who did their best to balance Trump’s campaign promises and philosophy with reality, as a result the document that served as a basis for the speech wasn’t dramatically different from assessments presented by prior administrations. One thing not addressed in the McMaster document was the risk of an increasingly petulant and paranoid Trump throwing the world into a crisis with a morning tweet storm.    

Remorse:  At least four of Senator Franken’s Democratic colleagues are remorseful about the decision to railroad him out of the Senate before he had a chance to go before the ethics committee.  West Virginia Senator Manchin has been the most vocal about his views, going on the record to Politico about his feelings that Franken wasn’t treated fairly, notable because he and Franken are on opposite ends of the Democratic ideological spectrum.  Vermont Senator Leahy, who had been one of the Senators quick to urge Franken to resign, is now on record saying that he regrets his decision. Despite the belated support, all accounts are that Franken believes that his ship has sailed and has no intention of renegging on his decision to resign.  Trump’s been experiencing some remorse about his judicial nominees.  He lost another one yesterday when Matthew Petersen withdrew his name from consideration after a video of his evisceration by Louisiana Republican Senator Kennedy, who had asked him a series of questions concerning judicial procedures that he couldn’t answer, went viral.  Kennedy said that “just because you’ve seen My Cousing Vinny doesn’t qualify you to be a judge” and asserted that Trump thanked him for uncovering Petersen’s inadequacies but in reality Trump was furious about the freshman senator’s brutal treatment of his nominee.  He was also upset with White House counsel Don McGahn for picking Petersen, one of his former colleagues, in the first place. Trump also holds McGahn responsible for recommending the KKK blogger and the ghost hunter, the two other judicial nominees whose nominations were pulled last week.   Although he trumpets Neil Gorsuch’s seating on the Supreme Court as one of his major accomplishments, the thin skinned Trump almost rescinded that nomination too after Gorsuch criticized Trump’s attacks on the judiciary in private meetings with senators during the run up to the vote on his nomination. Gorsuch’s comments caused Trump to question his loyalty, and as former FBI Director Comey can attest, blind loyalty is very important to Trump.        

Attacking Choice: Once again the Trump administration is trying to take away the right to choose, this time by preventing two pregnant immigrant teens from obtaining abortion services.  Both girls are seventeen years old, one is ten weeks pregnant the other is twenty-two weeks pregnant and running out of time.  Yesterday, a judge ruled in favor of the teens citing the need to “preserve the teens constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term,” but she gave the government 24 hours to appeal.  No surprise they have already appealed.  The clock is ticking.    

The Tax Scam:  The really awful reverse Robin Hood tax bill that also throws a dagger into the heart of Obamacare is likely to be law by the end of the week. To the dismay of many, especially those who had put her on a pedestal after she voted against repealing Obamacare, Senator Collins announced that she will be voting for the bill and Utah’s Mike Lee, one of the other remaining hold outs is also on board. As of this morning, Arizona Senator Flake remains the only undecided senator and expecations are that he soon be on board.  The bill still includes the “Corker Kickback,” a provison that provides advantageous tax treatment for real estate partnerships.  Trump must be really enjoying that “Liddle” Senator Corker, the guy who once called the Trump White House an adult day care center, is taking the heat for a provision that provides him with millions, maybe even hundreds of millions in savings, an amount we really can’t accurately compute since we still haven’t seen Trump’s tax returns.  With the bill blowing a huge hole in the budget, it was hugely ironic to hear Trump cite yesterday’s deadly train derailment in Tacoma, Washington as evidence of the country’s infrastructure needs.  Really, Trump, really, with money flying out the door to corporations and rich donors, just how do you plan to pay for all those needs?