Dog Cages!

Cabinet Chronicles:  Trump started yesterday by once again attacking Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General he hates even though he’s the one who is most efficient at carrying out Trump’s policies.  By tweeting “The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself, I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined … and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!,” Trump more or less admitted that his biggest complaint about Sessions is that he was unwilling to violate ethics rules in order to help him obstruct the Special Mueller investigation.  For his part, Sessions continues to act like he doesn’t have a care in the world.  He’s got the job of a lifetime, one that gives him the opportunity to implement his personal objective of freeing the nation of all those undesirable immigrants he finds so objectionable.  Yesterday morning during an interview with Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host who is also MSNBC’s token right wing correspondent,  Sessions defended the administration’s “zero tolerance policy” and  the separation of children from their parents when they are detained or arrested at the border by saying that "the law requires us to keep children in a different facility than we do for adults, and every time somebody gets prosecuted in America for a crime, American citizens, and they go to jail, they’re separated from their children." He went on to say "We don’t want to do this at all," arguing that "If people don’t want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them. We’ve got to get this message out. You’re not given immunity. You have to, you will be prosecuted if you bring, if you come illegally. And if you bring children, you’ll still be prosecuted."  Sessions failed to mention that a good number of those parents and their children aren’t breaking any laws, rather they are turning themselves in at the border, following the legal procedures for those attempting to obtain refugee status. The decision to separate children from parents is his and Trump’s and has little to do with a legal mandate.  As to those children,  NBC reports that they are piling up in facilities without adequate resources and that many of them are being treated like dogs, literally.  Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who was physically denied entry to one facility but managed to get into another, reports that they are  “temporarily” placed in cages while they are “inventoried” and processed to other facilities and though the children are supposed to be “processed” within 72 hours, the backlog has grown so much that many are “crated” for longer periods of time.  One of the facilities being used for temporary housing is an old, now repurposed Walmart.  The government is currently looking into moving a number of the children to military bases where they will likely be held in tents, a step up from a crate, but not much of an improvement.  Yesterday, a United Nations spokesperson weighed in calling for the US to immediately halt the practice of separating families, saying it amounts to “arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child.”  While Sessions continues to imprison children, EPA Director Scott Pruitt continues to rack up controversies while implementing his onslaught on the environment.  Monday it was reported that he had  gone full “ick” by requesting that one of his aides try to buy a discounted used mattress from the local Trump hotel,  then yesterday it was reported that he had his aide arrange a meeting with officials from the Chick-fil-A company.  The Chick-fil-A guys willingly agreed to a sit down, but were somewhat stunned to learn that the purpose of the meeting was to give Pruitt an opportunity to introduce his wife in an attempt to get her a Chick-fil-A franchise.  Though she did obtain an application, Chick-fil-A reports that she never submitted it to the company.  For the record, Chick-fil-A franchises are hard to get and are considered very valuable, who knew? Pruitt, never one to turn down any corporate largesse, is apparently strapped for cash and is having a hard time paying his large Oklahoma mortgage while maintaining a second home with or without second hand mattresses in Washington DC.  Despite all his failings and corrupt acts, he’s still running the EPA because Trump loves his policies.  Nevertheless at least one Republican Senator has had it with his transgressions.  Iowa’s Joni Ernst called Pruitt out as being as “swampy” as you can get, and suggested that Trump should get rid of him.  Ernst, who voted for Pruitt’s confirmation, is probably more upset about a recent biofuels mandate, one that hurts her state but was supported by Pruitt and the White House, than anything having to do with mattresses or the dozen $130 a piece expensive pens that Pruitt recently purchased with government funds.   In other personnel news,   Kelly Sadler, the communications aide best known for dissing Senator John McCain is no longer working at the White House.  Trump was okay with her slamming McCain so in all likelihood she was canned because she had gone after senior communications aide Mercedes Schlapp, calling her a major leaker in front of Trump.  Schlapp’s husband Matt is the chairman of the influential American Conservative Union.     

Bald Eagles:  Trump wants us all to believe that he is far too busy to find the time to prepare for a sit down with Special Counsel Mueller.  An assertion that becomes harder to buy every day given the other things that he manages to fit in his schedule, like tweeting, golfing and slamming Black football players.  Yesterday, after he revoked the invitation previously extended to the Super Bowl winning Philadelphia Eagles because he didn’t want to be embarrassed when so few of the players and coaches showed up, he found the time to participate in an alternative reception, one that celebrated the flag, the one that Trump claims that the Eagles disrespected when so many of them decided to turn down the White House invitation.  It’s worth noting that no Eagles took a knee during last year’s season.  Though the White House represented that they held the “flag” ceremony to accommodate the thousands of Eagles fans who had traveled to Washington to celebrate their team, one reporter in attendance couldn’t find anyone at the gathering who could name any Eagles players.  Two of the public attendees took a knee during the festivities, but Trump probably didn’t notice since he was too busy mangling the words to God Bless America.  As to the Mueller investigation, while Trump and his surrogates continue to eat away at Mueller’s reputation and deny any Russian collusion or obstruction, former campaign manager Manafort’s problems mount.  Yesterday, the Judge handling his case in Washington DC  gave  Manafort’s lawyers until Friday to present a written rebuttal to accusations that he and a longtime associate, most likely Konstantin Kilimnik, the “former” Russian spy, repeatedly contacted two executives at a public relations firm in an attempt to persuade them to provide false testimony about secret lobbying they did for him in 2013.  She also set a date to rule on the status of his bail for the end of next week.  As to that other thing keeping Trump busy, the meeting with Kim Jong Un is still on for next week.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders reports that it will take place at a the Capella Hotel which is located on Sentosa, an island off the coast of Singapore. Though his attendance is not confirmed, reports are that Dennis Rodman, the eccentric former basketball player who is also a BFF of the Little Rocket Man, may stop by to lend a hand.  Just a little more reality TV.  On a more serious note, a number of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle remain concerned that Trump will concede just about anything to the North Koreans in order to direct attention away from the Russia investigation. In other legal news, Trump is facing more trouble on the women front, this time not from Stormy Daniels but from Summer Zervos, the seasonally named former Apprentice competitor suing him for defamation.  A New York Judge ruled that Trump must sit for a deposition.  Zervos’ attorneys are also seeking other related information including the Apprentice tapes that most likely show Trump saying and doing lots of things that he really doesn’t want anyone to see.  Trump’s lawyer Mark Kasowitz plans to take the case to a higher court to the extent that he can convince one that his arguments have any merit.     

Primary Results:  A printing error left more than 118,000 names off the list of voters in  1530 precincts in the Los Angeles area, certainly not one of those things that any of us want to hear given all the heightened concerns about election tampering.  California authorities report that despite the snafu all votes will be tabulated.  As to election results, it’s likely that Senator Diane Feinstein will return to the Senate next year, though she failed to obtain the endorsement of the California Democratic Party going into the primary, she comfortably won the primary and is expected to win the November general election. A Republican name will appear on the ballot for Governor, since the Trump endorsed businessman John Cox came in second in the primary.  He will face current Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to win  in November.  Though the results are not yet final and in some cases are very close, it appears that despite concerns that the overabundance of Democratic candidates would cancel out the chances of all Districts having a Democratic candidate in the fall election, Democrats garnered enough votes and will be represented increasing the chances that the Democrats will gain California seats in November.  In New Jersey, Senator Menendez won his primary but struggled a little, an indication that some voters were turned off by his ethics problems.  He will face Bob Hugin, the somewhat controversial former CEO of pharmaceutical company Celgene who is expected to throw many millions of his fortune into the campaign.