Dirty Mocha Latte

The Barista Boy:  Over the weekend the NY Times reported that the FBI started their investigation into Trump Russia collusion after learning from the Australians that George Papadopoulos, the so called "coffee boy," bragged to an Aussie diplomat that the Russians had serious dirt that would hurt Hillary Clinton.  George made his comments during an alcohol fueled conversation in a London bar in May. At the time the Aussie diplomat wasn't sure if Papadopoulos’ comments were for real but two months later, after the damaging Democratic National Committee emails were leaked he realized that Papadopoulos was in on something bigly so the Aussies passed the information on to their US counterparts who had already heard from other international intelligence agencies that the Trumps had a strange affinity for borscht and blinis.  The Aussie revelation triggered the start of the FBI investigation into the Trump team's curious activities.  For months now, Trump and his enablers have been going with the story that the "sketchy" Steel dossier triggered the investigation, the new information about Papadopoulos and the Aussies should put that myth to bed.  The Trump team has also been doing their best to diminish Papadopoulos' transition team role, referring to him as a coffee boy.  Well he may have been their Starbucks' barista but he was also responsible for a whole lot more than dispensing café mocha locos.  He was involved in the editing of Trump's campaign speech on foreign relations, one that talked about the importance of improving things with Putin.  He also was the Trump teams go to man when they wanted to set up a meeting with Egypt's President Sisi, a task he performed admirably. Email evidence indicates that the barista boy also shared some of his Russian info with other members of the Trump team include such notables as Steve Miller and Sam Clovis, though the emails don’t provide a lot of detail about how much he told them.  Papadopoulos was also angling for a full time position with then security adviser Michael Flynn so he probably kept him in the loop too.  It is fair to assume that a guy who shared so much with a stranger at a bar probably went into even more detail with his transition team buddies, but we will have to wait for another Mueller indictment to know more about those details. For now, Ty Cobb, Trump’s lawyer’s response is that "out of respect for the Special Counsel and his process, we are not commenting on matters such as this."  Trump avoided a direct comment instead tweeting about “fake news.” Representative Devon Nunes, the erstwhile head of the highly dysfunctional House Intelligence Committee is ignoring the news, instead continuing his vendetta against the FBI by subpoenaing all of their records and calling them in contempt for their refusal to comply.  And though we haven't heard much from the ailing Senator McCain lately, he would probably say this was another shoe, make that a boot, dropping from his oft referenced multipede. 

New Year, Same World:  In his new year's statement Kim Jong Un described North Korea as a peace loving country but made it clear that he, like Trump, has a nuclear button on his desk and now also has a credible nuclear deterrent to go with it.  Just what we need, two unstable guys with red buttons.  He may or not have a nuclear weapon that can reach all of the US mainland but the Rocket Man is sticking with the assertion.  While indicating plans to build out his nuclear arsenal during 2018, he also reached out to South Korea with an olive branch of sorts, saying that he wants to meet to discuss sending a North Korean team to the upcoming Winter Olympics.  North Korean participation would insure the safety of the games and even without the upcoming Olympics the South has been eager to start talks with North Korea so this morning the South offered up a January 9 meeting date.  From the US perspective a peaceful Olympics would be a good thing, but the South and North making nice without concessions about the nuclear arsenal is not part of Trump's plan.  On the other hand Trump seems to be enjoying the current state of unrest breaking out in Iran where Iranians unhappy with high unemployment and the economic hardships resulting from sanctions on their government have been engaging in increasingly violent protests across the country, protests that Israeli intelligence reports were not at all anticipated by the Iranian government.  As of Monday twenty civilians and at least one state policeman have died.  Senator Lindsey Graham, who has morphed into a frequent Trump apologist, isn't fully supportive of Trump’s reaction this time.  He warned Trump that tweeting sympathy and encouragement to Iranian citizens is not enough, the US needs a strategy and a viable plan. It’s also hard to miss the irony of Trump lecturing the Iranians on human rights, given his affinity for dictators and his own anti-Muslim rhetoric.  Trump also went after Pakistan, one of our more problematic allies with a Monday morning tweet, threatening to withhold $255 million in aid, funds that are earmarked for the fight against terrorism because, in Trump’s words, they treat us with "lies and deceit" while harboring terrorists.  He has a point, but once again delivering his message via tweet may not be all that constructive.   In response, Pakistan took the rare move of summoning the US Ambassador to explain Trump’s remarks and its Prime Minister has called a cabinet meeting to focus on the “tweet” and deteriorating US relations.             

Same Old Tune: With New Year's eve behind him, Trump is back in Washington and whether he’s ready or not, his agenda is full.  The government will run out of money on January 19 without the passage of another funding resolution. All of the items that were kicked forward in December still need to be resolved. The DACA problem hasn’t gone away, if anything with a March deadline its growing more urgent.  Trump is back to his old position, tweeting  “Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!”  His not so good friends Chuck and Nancy don’t understand, have no interest in funding the wall, and in any case Trump has already spent his “wall money” on “beautiful tax cuts.” In the few remarks that he made on New Year’s at his Mar a Lago retreat, Trump again bragged about the death of Obamacare but Obamacare is alive and a solution to the insurance subsidy payment problem remains one of the items that needs to be addressed before Senator Collins loses her cool, assuming she still cares and has any cool to lose. Trump is also going with the fantasy that its time to move on to something bipartisan like the funding of infrastructure projects.  We’ve been here before, last year he rolled out infrastructure month, but then forgot to do anything about it, and again, with the tax bill blowing a $1.4 trillion or so hole in the deficit, there really isn’t any money for bridges, roads, and dam repairs unless of course, Trump goes with Speaker Ryan’s plan to free up funding by trashing Medicare, Medicaid and the rest of the safety net. Welcome to 2018, it’s a new year but the same battles wage on.     

Judicial Me Too:  Concerns about sexual harassment continue to spread through government.  On Sunday, in response to accusations of sexual harassment in the Judiciary, Chief Justice Roberts announced an initiative intended to ensure there are proper procedures in place to protect law clerks and other court employees, saying it is clear that the federal judiciary “is not immune” from a widespread problem.  Trump who likes to tweet about everything has said nothing about the Chief Justice’s plans, nor has he said much about the fact that as of yesterday the military is open to transgender recruits. The Attorney General Sessions led Judicial Department has dropped plans to appeal the court decisions  that overturned Trump’s transgender ban pending the results of  the Department of Defense’s study due out over the next few weeks.  Neither Trump nor his President- in-waiting, the righteous Mike Pence can be all that pleased about that.

Happy New Year!