Seventeen

Hypocrisy:  In what is now the third worst school massacre in the US, seventeen students and teachers were mowed down yesterday by a former classmate using an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon, a weapon that is easier to obtain in Florida than a handgun.  The shooter’s attack appears to have been well planned, he was wearing a gas mask and triggered a fire alarm first in order to get as many of his fellow classmates out in the open and into the line of fire.  Times being what they are, the school had prepared for such a moment and though many were killed and more were injured, others were saved because teachers and students had been trained how to take cover during just such an onslaught.  After the attack, as first responders and emergency workers struggled to identify all of the victims and parents and relatives came up against their worst nightmare, the loss of a loved one, politicians did what politicians do, they expressed concern and prayer.  One of those politicians, Trump tweeted his prayers and condolences, but didn’t appear on camera and didn’t issue a formal statement because what do you say about wanton murder with a weapon that should be outlawed or at the very least subject to stringent purchase requirements when you are in the pocket of the NRA.  Notably two other politicians, Mario Rubio and Florida Governor Rick Scott were more visible, finding no problem publicly expressing their grief while ignoring the easy availability of guns in their state.  Both of them have A plus ratings and have received money and endorsements from the NRA, a “distinction reserved for legislators who have excellent voting records on Second Amendment issues and who have vigorously fought to promote and defend the right to keep and bear arms.”  Governor Scott, a Republican who is expected to announce plans to run against Florida’s incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson in the upcoming midterms, showed up at the crime scene press conference and was standing next to the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel when the sheriff said that something had to be done about the availability of weapons.  Scott maintained a stony visage and appeared to squirm as he looked right through the sheriff.  Senator Nelson, who will face an uphill battle against the popular Scott in a state that Trump won if Scott decides to run,  also spoke out yesterday, his feelings were a bit more genuine, he’s one of those legislators who has an F rating from the NRA.  Connecticut Senator Murphy, who has stood out as one of the most ardent anti-gun legislators ever since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings took to the Senate floor to eloquently chastise his colleagues for their inaction and hypocrisy. Former astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of the permanently disabled former Congresswoman Gaby Giffords also spoke, again pressing the case for rational gun regulation, the mission that he and Giffords have taken on ever since she was shot.  When Trump finally speaks expect him to say the usual nonsense, that now is not the time to address gun regulation because now is the time for mourning. Sadly the next violent rampage is probably just around the corner.

The Porter Problem:  As a result of Rob Porter and the outing of his spousal abuse problem we now know that the White House and the rest of the executive office is full of potential Porters.  Yesterday, a number of news outlets reported that around 130 members of Trump’s senior staff, including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, White House Counsel Don McGahn and Sarah Huckabee Sanders still only have temporary security clearances.  Despite White House assertions that this is relatively normal, it’s not.  The FBI prioritizes the clearance of senior employees, in other administrations the clearance backlogs have been completed within nine months.  In all likelihood many of the people with temporary clearances will never be able to qualify for permanent security clearances.  It’s notable that Stephen Miller, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway and even Trump’s Russia lawyer Ty Cobb, who joined the administration later than many of his colleagues have already obtained a clearance, an indication that if there are no problems with your background or papers, your clearance comes through on a timely basis. Former Federal Attorney Preet Bharara, always one happy to highlight this White House’s failings, tweeted out that all of the members of Special Counsel Mueller’s team have their clearances too.   Another White House employee, National Economic official George David Banks resigned yesterday because of problems with his security status, his infraction was that he had come clean about having smoking marijuana as recently as 2013. Although officials in the Obama administration may have been subjected to additional drug testing if they admitted to a weedy past, they weren’t forced to resign for the infraction, but Jeff Sessions and Trump take a hard line on drugs and from their standpoint pot stands with heroin, it’s a bigly problem, much worse than a history of spousal abuse.  As to spousal abuse, Trump finally made a statement on that subject yesterday saying that everybody knows that he thinks it’s bad.  Trey Gowdy, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee has finally had enough with the White House’s screwed up review process, he’s announced an investigation into the White House’s handling of the Rob Porter affair.  It’s notable that Gowdy is finally doing something but unlikely that much will come of it because he’s a Republican and he’s leaving at the end of his term in part because he really doesn’t want to be around when the sh-t hits the fan especially if it’s Republican excrement.  As to Chief of Staff Kelly, though the gossip mill still reports that he is on his way out with House Majority Leader McCarthy now leading the list of possible contenders for his job, yesterday VP Pence insisted that national hero Kelly will be around for a long time.  Then again Pence never really knows what’s up, or so he says.    

Cabinet Storms:  Troubles with cabinet travel continue to haunt the administration.  Yesterday, the department of Veterans Affairs inspector general released a report saying that VA Secretary David Shulkin’s chief of staff “doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for Shulkin’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer.” Yesterday, while reimbursing the VA for his wife’s travel, Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama administration, called the report “politically motivated.”  EPA head Scott Pruitt’s travel is also raising eyebrows.  He only flies first class, racking up $1000 plus charges for flights from NY to Washington, because he fears that hanging with the hoi polloi subjects him to security risks, possibly true because when you are leading the charge against the environment ordinary people don’t like you much and are willing to say so, to your face, on airplanes.  His office had claimed that he had received a permanent waiver permitting him to always fly first class, however no such waiver exists because waivers can only be obtained on a trip by trip basis.  Pruitt’s office has now walked back its claim.  So far, unlike former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Shulkin and Pruitt are still members of the Cabinet, possibly because Trump is busy dealing with other eruptions.  One of those might relate to adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Now that Michael Cohen, Trump’s long time legal eagle, has come clean about paying her off, or at least has issued a carefully parsed statement about the payment that was made to keep her quiet, her lawyers have concluded that the terms of her confidentiality agreement no longer apply.  We will be hearing more from Stormy shortly.

Immigration:  The immigration debate in the Senate continues on.  In summary, the right wingers have their plan, a group of bipartisan moderates have a different plan and Trump continues to insist that he will veto anything that doesn’t meet his “four pillars,” funding the wall, eliminating chain migration, and ending the visa lottery in exchange for permanent status and eventual citizenship for an expanded group of Dreamers.  In other words, nothing much has happened yet and the March DACA deadline is around the corner.  Immigration is complicated especially when Trump and a vocal minority in the House and Senate really think that all immigration and immigrants are bad, except maybe those guys from Norway and Melania’s parents whose questionable immigration status is now the subject of press attention.  They are now living in the US, possibly the beneficiaries of chain migration, just some more hypocrisy.