Texas Crazy

Tilting at Windmills: Yesterday, in a joint news conference with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Trump once again proved that his connection with sanity is tenuous at best.  In response to a question about relations with Russia, he stuck with one of his favorite themes, his victory against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, making it clear that it was a good thing that she lost because she was an advocate of windmills but, unlike him, was weak on the military. He on the other hand is into “massive oil and gas and everything else, and lots of energy.”  In response to a question about whether he planned to sit for an interview with Special Counsel Mueller, Trump said that his testimony wouldn’t be necessary because the whole Russian investigation thing is a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats to justify their election loss, going on to say that “when they have no collusion, and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.”  He then noted that when Hillary was interviewed about her emails she “wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t even given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend… and a lot of people looked up that as being a very serious breach, and it really was.” Sounds very much like Trump, who previously said that he was 100% in on being interviewed as part of the Russia investigation is building the case, at least with his base, for why he shouldn’t agree to a sit down with Mueller. For her part, when asked if she thought that the Russia investigation was the national embarrassment that Trump claims it is,  Solberg smiled at Trump, shrugged and did her best to ignore the question, she was also overheard saying something about Texas which was not an indication that she was planning a trip to the lone star state any time soon.  Apparently Texas is Norwegian slang for crazy.    

Libel and Lies: Driven by his anger over Fire and Fury, the book that he calls a “work of fiction” and his inability to halt its publication and stop its burgeoning sales, Trump called for a change in federal libel laws yesterday and added “taking a look” at them to his administration’s “to do list.”  Putting aside the fact that for the most libel laws aren’t federal, they are a matter of state law and are constrained by free speech protections as interpreted by Supreme Court precedent, there is huge irony in Trump calling anyone out for libel and lying.  Trump’s lack of self-awareness on this subject is stunning to say the least.  After all he’s the guy who advanced the Obama birthplace lie, claimed that Ted Cruz’ father was involved in the Kennedy assassination and according to the Washington Post’s fact checker has lied around 2000 times since taking office.  As Walter Schaub the former direct of the Office of Government ethics, said “if he can’t take criticism, he’s in the wrong line of work.”  Sadly, he is in the wrong line of work, though he doesn’t work all that much these days, most week day mornings, he doesn’t make it to the Oval office until 11 AM because he likes to spend the start of his day in bed watching cable TV and tweeting.  He considers that valuable executive time and except for the tweeting part, we are all probably better off when he’s locked in his room.   

Russia, Russia, Russia:  The intrepid Mueller continues to ignore Trump’s theatrics and rumors about his own impending demise.  While no one was looking he added Ryan Dickey, an experienced cyber prosecutor, to his team. Dickey’s addition implies that contrary to some pundits thoughts that Mueller’s investigation had moved from the crime to the cover-up, his team isn’t just focusing on obstruction of justice but is also diving deep into email hacking and data mining, possibly in an effort to prove that members of Trump’s campaign team conspired with those Russian botniks, violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  Though Trump called her out as sneaky, Senator Feinstein’s only regret about releasing the transcript of the Fusion GPS testimony about the Steele Dossier is that she didn’t give Judicial Committee Chairman Senator Grassley a head’s up in advance.  She blamed her etiquette slip on a head cold that left her a little fuzzy, a dubious excuse, because there is very little about Feinstein that is fuzzy, shrewd maybe, but not fuzzy.  As to that new “sneaky” nickname, Feinstein seemed happy to join the list of Trump adversaries with a nickname, being dissed by Trump will only add to her chances of victory to the extent that she faces a tough primary for her Senate seat.  For his part Grassley backed off his initial outrage about Feinstein’s release of the testimony, saying that he was sure that they could move forward together without a “glitch.”  He also refused to comment on Trump’s suggestion that Republicans should “finally take control” of the Russian investigation, saying he “doesn’t intend to have a discussion with the president” about that.  Separately, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, released a Democratic staff report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.  He called for Trump to stop ignoring the interference and to take action to strengthen our government’s response and to mobilize” to work with an “international coalition to counter the threat and assert our values.”  Of course to do that, Trump would first have to acknowledge the Russian threat.  

Human Resources:  Yesterday California Congressman Darrell Issa joined twenty-eight of his Republican House colleagues by announcing that he too won’t be running for reelection. So far only fourteen Democrats have announced that they aren’t seeking reelection.  A few from both parties are seeking higher office but most are just leaving politics. Issa was facing an uphill campaign, his district, which includes parts of Orange and San Diego counties voted for Clinton during the 2016 election.  Issa is the second California Republican to announce that he’s throwing in the towel, Ed Royce, another vulnerable congressman made his announcement earlier in the week.  Though a Democratic  takeover of the House in 2018 is still far from a done deal, Issa and Royce’s departure along with the departure of a number of other representatives from so-called purple districts is making Nancy Pelosi happier every day.   

On the Horizon:  It’s not clear where Trump is coming out on NAFTA, Canada’s Trudeau is concerned that he really is moving towards pulling the US out of the trade agreement.  On the other hand US farmers are counting on him keeping the US in.  We should learn more soon.  Likewise, Trump needs to make a decision about Iran. Its expected that he will decide to extend sanction waivers, leaving the nuclear deal in place for now, partially because upending the agreement might bolster Iran’s hardliners a time that the country is facing unprecedented unrest.  Little has been done to advance the cause of the DACA kids, if anything Tuesday’s court decision has angered the touchy Trump who hates all court decisions that complicate his plans especially those that emanate from the west coast court, possibly hardening his wall position and has also emboldened anti-immigration House members.  At least for now, the government is still on track to run out of money next week.