Huxtable in Orange

Trumpian Diplomacy:  Remember when Trump said that the world was laughing at President Obama, well they weren’t, but yesterday they laughed at Trump.  After arriving inexplicably late enough to cause a reordering of speakers, he started his speech to the UN General Assembly with the series of fact riddled boasts that he almost always employs during his campaign speeches.  While those friendly audiences of MAGA hat wearers eat up anything he has to say, the UN crowd was less impressed, so after he proclaimed “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” they laughed.  That laugh rolled through the crowd slowly reaching a crescendo as those relying on simultaneous interpretation headphones got its full meaning.  A stunned Trump who missed the humor in his remark responded by saying that wasn’t the response he expected.  Later in the day, he claimed that he was just making a joke and that he appreciated the laughter, but no one was fooled.  The rest of the speech, which was written by immigration guru Stephen Miller but did not appear to have been vetted by any State Department diplomats, was dark.  Trump stuck with his America First theme, calling for all countries to celebrate their own uniqueness, a concept that initially sounds okay until you realize that he is pushing for nationalism over the continuation of the relatively stable world order that his predecessors worked so hard to put in place after World War II.  He bragged about his new friendship with North Korea, a sharp change from last year when he attacked the Little Rocket Man, turning his ire to Iran, a country deserving of some ire but a subject sensitive to many present given his withdrawal of the US from the US initiated agreement that, like it or not, seemed to be delaying its nuclearization. Later in the day National Security advisor John Bolton warned Iran that “there would be hell to pay” if their aggression continues, leaving the distinct impression that the Trump administration may well be on the verge of implementing one of those regime change strategies, something that rarely turns out well for anyone involved. Trump also attacked multinational trade deals, called for refugees to return to their places of origin and criticized a few allies most notably Germany for their agreement to build a pipeline for Russian energy, but said absolutely nothing else about Russia and nothing about Vladimir Putin’s aggressive attack on our elections, an attack that could well be ongoing.  He attacked OPEC for raising the price of oil, but failed to acknowledge that a part of that rise is due to his re-imposition of Iran sanctions and went on to brag about US energy independence. As to that independence he told the audience that they should starting buying energy from America, particularly some of our really clean coal. He said the usual stuff about not being willing to provide disproportionate support to the UN or any other entity or country, no matter how poor, that doesn’t give back something to the US.   Later French President Emmanuel Macron rebuked Trump’s call for isolationism and also said that France would only enter into trade agreements with countries participating in the Paris climate agreement, the agreement that the US is in the process of leaving. Trump diplomacy at its best.

Kavanaugh Hearing:  Tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary hearing is still on.  The Republicans have hired Maricopa County Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, a registered Republican, to serve as their surrogate for the questioning of Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford purportedly because they want to provide a “safe, comfortable and dignified” environment for her but mostly, as the wry Senator Corker implied, because they want to avoid saying something stupid, offensive, tone deaf and/or hostile. If Maricopa County rings a bell it’s because it is the home of the infamous Sheriff Arpaio.  More significantly, Arizona is the home state of Senator Jeff Flake, the selection of an Arizona prosecutor may represent an effort by Republican leadership to get Flake, who has so far been an outlier but is thought to have future political aspirations even if he is leaving the Senate soon, on board for Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  The Democrats are prepared to do their own questioning and might allocate a disproportionate amount of their time to their female members, particularly experienced prosecutors Senators Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, and presidential aspirants like Senator Cory Booker.  In an effort to keep the hearing as short as possible Chairman Grassley plans to limit the amount of time that both sides will have for questioning to a measly five minutes per Senator. It’s looking more and more like the hearing is mostly a formality, at least for Republicans.  There’s been no additional investigation by the FBI, something that Senator Lisa Murkowski said should happen before then saying maybe not after she was told to get back into line.  Also, Republican staff members no showed on a phone call they scheduled  with the lawyers for second accuser Deborah Ramirez, leaving her lawyers discussing her accusation only with the Democratic aides who did show up for the call. Dr. Blasey’s lawyers have forwarded four corroborating statements to the Judiciary committee, but as of now there are no plans to allow any of those people to testify.  For his part, yesterday Trump said that the Democrats are playing a con game, going on to verbally attacked Deborah Ramirez saying she “has nothing, the second accuser thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses.”  Then Trump who has been accused of sexual harassment by many women and who may well have had America’s one time dad, the now imprisoned Bill Cosby on his mind, went on to say “Oh, gee, let’s not make him (Kavanaugh) a Supreme Court judge because of that.”  For his part Senate Majority Leader went ahead and scheduled a committee vote for Friday morning, because regardless of what comes out at the hearing he’s sure, or claims to be sure, that he has the votes to move forward and confirm Kavanaugh to a lifetime Supreme Court position next week.  And then there’s Michael Avenatti, the attention grabbing lawyer that claims to have a third really credible accuser waiting in the wings, or not.    

Rosenstein Woes:  While the Kavanaugh Judiciary hearing proceeds, Trump will be meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  Though no one really knows what Trump plans to do or say during that meeting, its looking more and more likely that Rosenstein will get a pass until after the midterm elections only because Trump has been advised not to do anything that would further impact the outcome of those elections.    That said, Rosenstein’s replacements are waiting in the wings.  Over the weekend Attorney General Sessions decided that his Chief of Staff Mathew Whitaker would take over all of Rosenstein’s responsibilities except for the supervision of special counsel Mueller, that responsibility, which has to be in the hands of someone who has been confirmed by the Senate, would most likely go to Solicitor General Noel Francisco.  However, Whitaker who has previously called the Mueller investigation a witch hunt and who is on record saying that any investigation that involves examining Trump’s financials would be a big step too far would be responsible for oversight of all federal attorneys, including those in the Southern District of New York, the very attorneys who are responsible for the Michael Cohen case and the investigation into those payments that the Trump organization made to hush Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. In other news, it looks like Secretary Nielsen lied when she repeatedly said that Homeland Security didn’t have a policy of separating families.  Documents released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request include a memo on the family separation policy, that memo calls for the criminal prosecution of parents who cross the border and states that Homeland Security can “permissibly direct the separation of parents or legal guardians and minors held in immigration detention so that the parent or legal guardian can be prosecuted.” Equally important, the memo makes no provisions for family reunification. Though the name of whoever signed the memo was redacted it was addressed to Nielsen so it’s kind of hard to believe that she didn’t know about it.