Words Matter

Mueller Time:  The Mueller team generally remains mum, we only hear from them when they submit a court filing, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces an indictment or when one or more of the people called in to testify in front of a grand jury talks to the press, so yesterday’s news was unusual on two fronts, first because it involved Mueller and second because it involved a cockamamie scheme to embroil him in a “MeToo” scandal, part of a nefarious effort to force his resignation. Upon learning from a number of journalists that several women had called with stories about been offered money by one or more right wing fringe players to make false claims about Mueller engaging in sexual harassment, the Special Counsel’s office referred the matter to the FBI for investigation because that is what innocent people do when they are falsely accused.  One of the fringe players behind the scheme is a GOP activist named Jack Burkman who previously pushed the fake story about the death of Seth Rich, the young DNC staff member who was killed during a botched mugging during the campaign, the other is a Republican conspiracy theorist named Jacob Wohl.  When contacted Wohl denied his involvement though he couldn’t explain how some related emails about the scheme traced back to his account nor did he have a good explanation for why a telephone number on a related website traced back to his mother.  Note to false accusers everywhere, keep your mothers out of it!  On a separate front, the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of  people recently interviewed by Mueller’s team have been asked a lot of questions about a series of conference calls that were hosted by long time Trump associate Roger Stone during the 2016 campaign. On at least two of those calls, Stone told participants about WikiLeaks’ plans to release information that he said would effect the 2016 presidential election. He discussed communicating with WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange and even referenced one of their dinner meetings.  Though Stone continues to deny all this, saying that he was just joking, tapes of the calls have made their way to Mueller’s office. After the election, when Mueller starts indicting again, Stone may well learn that the joke is on him, and maybe on one or more Trumpsters.   

Pittsburgh Facetime:  Trump went to Pittsburgh yesterday to be seen expressing condolences to the families of the victims of Saturday’s horrendous Synagogue massacre. Though they were invited to tag along neither Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan nor Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer chose to join him.  Instead Trump’s traveling squad included Ivanka, Jared, Stephen Miller, Steve Mnuchin and at Jared’s request, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the US. Oy! The trip was organized by Jared and Ivanka who felt it was absolutely necessary for Trump to show up, whether or not he was wanted, to prove that he isn’t quite the anti-Semitic White Nationalist that anti-Semites and White Nationalists everywhere believe him to be.  Though a few members of the community were pleased that he came, most of the Pittsburgh mourners and the Mayor pretty much ignored his presence, they were too busy attending funerals for the four victims who were buried yesterday.  A number of protestors did “greet” his motorcade with signs saying things like “words matter,” “president hate leave our state” and “we didn’t invite you” but for some reason, though they were probably mostly Democrats, they didn’t throw any Molotov cocktails or appear deranged, disputing the frequent rightwing  assertion that Democratic demonstrators are all flamethrowers.  Anyway, the Trump squad visited the Tree of Life Synagogue, lit a few candles, stopped by the hospital to visit with the first responders and then, optical mission accomplished, skedaddled out of town.

Midterm Madness:  Having completed his Pittsburgh road trip, Trump can now return to focusing on doing what he can to impact the outcome of next week’s midterm elections. Since trying to position the Republican party as the party of health care for all seems not to be working out all that well, that strategy now involves pandering more than ever to his immigrant fearing base by: exaggerating the size of the migrant “caravans,” implying that the murderous hordes will be at the border momentarily though they are far away; sending an outsized number of troops to the border, troops who are supposed to be fighting ISIS or engaging in some other real protective activities; claiming that the migrant hordes are disease carriers spreading among other things smallpox, which was eradicated decades ago; and most recently announcing plans to end birthright citizenship.  As to Trump’s plans to end birthright citizenship, a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle have spoken out against his plans.  The usually complicit Paul Ryan said “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order," adding "As a conservative, I’m a believer in following the plain text of the Constitution, and I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear, and that would involve a very, very lengthy constitutional process.”  At least one politician, Lindsey Graham, who appears to still be trying out for the role of Attorney General, the position that is expected to open up shortly after the midterm elections, is on board.  Constitutional or not, Graham said that he would immediately introduce legislation to push through Trump’s plan. At least for now, one of Trump’s crazier supporters has pulled back, Kanye West who as recently as last week was in charge of the Blacks for Trump contingent and the not really real Blacks Exiting the Democratic Party movement (BLEXIT), is no longer on the Trump team. Yesterday he tweeted  “My eyes are now wide open. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative.”  Kanye or not the mad, mad, mad, mad world marches on.      

Nationalist in Chief

Fake Press and Immigrants:  The Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter who I don’t plan to mention by name because he isn’t deserving of any fame, though he is probably well on his way to becoming a hero and martyr of the white nationalist movement, was inspired to commit his heinous crime by the lethal combination of his rabid anti-Semitism and fear that the Tree of Life community was helping immigrants and refugees “ruin” the American way of life.  At least that’s what he posted on Gab, the social network for haters banned from posting on mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Gab is temporary offline, seeking a new web host, having just been dropped by its old host, one that suddenly found a conscience, or more likely fears the loss of business from its other users. Trump, who last week bragged about being a Nationalist, conveniently leaving out the white part, had to be pressed to strengthen his statement of concern and condemnation of the massacre by first daughter Ivanka and son in law Jared.  He is way more stressed about the possibility that the focus on Pittsburgh will cause a few more white suburban soccer moms to vote Democrat, or worse yet, cause some members of his base to stay home, than the slaughter of eleven Jews, and is already back to his old anti-press rhetoric and doubling down on his anti-immigrant policy. So yesterday, he tweeted “There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...” For her part Kellyanne Conway extended the blame to late night comedians and their anti-religiosity.  During a rare “daily” news conference Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s press targeting saying that he’s “not referencing all media, he’s talking about the growing amount of fake news that exists in the country, and calling that out.” And later, on Fox’s Laura Ingraham, Trump made it clear that he wasn’t targeting all the press, just the fake press, meaning the press that isn’t Fox and doesn’t criticize his actions.  He said “You have news out there that is so fake…. I watched Meet the Press this weekend, everything was so falsely put.”  Funny, I watched it too, and didn’t pick up on any of the false narrative that was so obvious to his twisted mind.  Neither did Kellyanne’s husband George Conway, yesterday he encouraged other twitter users to pile on Trump for his unwarranted criticism of journalists.  As to immigration, yesterday the administration announced that an additional 5200 active duty military troops are being sent to the Mexico border to protect the country from the onslaught of women, children and young men armed with dolls and backpacks seeking refuge and jobs in the US.  That dangerous horde, which Fox’s Laura Ingraham says is infected by HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, TB, shigellosis, syphilis, and Chagas, not to mention athletes foot and halitosis with another Fox guest tacking on leprosy, has already dwindled from 7000 to less than 3500, and if recent history is any guide, will probably be way below 1000 by the time that it reaches the border, something that won’t happen for another month or so. Five soldiers for every migrant, a little overkill don’t you think? Apparently Fox’s own Shepard Smith didn’t get the “stoke the fear” memo, instead he questioned Trump’s anti migrant tirade and Ingraham’s disease drivel saying “Tomorrow is one week before the midterm election, which is what all of this is about, there is no invasion. No one’s coming to get you. There’s nothing at all to worry about." That said, stoking fear and keeping America white remains at the top of Nationalist in Chief Trump’s agenda, Axios reports that he plans to issue an executive order that would remove the right to birthright citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil.  It’s far from certain that he has the power to do that, but then again that hasn’t stopped him before.  Another court fight looms. Also, thought the pipe bomber targeting prominent Democrats and the “fake” press has been caught the pipe bombs haven’t stopped arriving at their destinations, yesterday another one showed up at CNN Atlanta. And that’s why it’s called snail mail.  

On the Road Again:  Trump’s pre-election travel itinerary is full with visits to red states with especially vulnerable Democratic Senators.  Reports are that he’s mostly given up on maintaining control of the House but is doing his best to make sure that Republicans maintain control of and possibly increase their position in the Senate.  His performance ratings have dropped back to 40%, down from last week’s pre-Pittsburgh and pipe bomb 44%, nevertheless he still has the power to energize his base so the value of his presence in places like Florida, Missouri, and Montana can’t be understated.  It’s not clear that his presence in Pittsburgh is worth much, but as of now, he plans to squeeze in a flyby today so that he can appear to be in solidarity with the Tree of Life Synagogue families, many of whom will be attending funerals during the day and could do without his looming presence.  Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto asked him to “stay away while we are burying the dead”  adding “All attention should be on the victims, we do not have enough public safety officials to provide enough protection at the funerals and to be able, at the same time, [to] draw attention away to a potential presidential visit.”  Still Jared and Ivanka who love to attend funerals so much that they showed up uninvited to Senator McCain’s want him to go, so he will probably show up with them and an appropriately mournful Melania in tow.  Trump isn’t the only one on the road, VP Pence was off campaigning in Michigan yesterday.  Apparently all the Jewish Rabbis in the area were otherwise occupied so instead, in a misguided attempt to show sympathy for the Tree of Life victims or as an intentional slight, take your choice, Pence had his usual opening  benediction delivered by a Messianic Jews for Jesus “rabbi” who opened by invoking "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and father of my lord and savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and my God and father, too." Yikes, not much more to say about that.

The Hate Contagion

Even I am at a loss for words after this weekend’s Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, the horror that followed the pipe bombs sent to at least twelve prominent Democrats and the wanton murder of the two African Americans shopping in a Kentucky grocery store by a gunman who spared a white person as he raced to kill saying “whites don’t shoot whites.”  It was only because he couldn’t get into a nearby church that we didn’t have two house of worship tragedies in one week.  Trump’s response to all this, or at least to the pipe bombs and the synagogue killings were some scripted remarks read in that tone he uses when he’s being forced to say things that he doesn’t feel, followed by a return to form, or at least a return to what he said was a slightly muted form to a crowd of sycophants who were more upset about his toning anything down than massacres and pipe bombs. As far as I can tell he didn’t comment on the Kentucky grocery store killing at all but did manage to comment about his own bad hair moment, first apologizing for his orange fluff looking a bit different than usual because of being caught in the rain and then pointing out that it probably looked even better because, you know, he’s Trump and he’s just such a stunner.  And that comment, given its timing, did stun.

The Republican party line is that none of last weeks horrors were at all influenced by Trump’s rhetoric or the hate being spewed by his friends at Fox. Even they know that’s bunk.  Fox Business News’ SVP denounced and cancelled the replay of a Lou Dobbs segment, the one in which Dobbs shook his head in support as his guest Chris Farrell, a board member of the right-wing organization Judicial Watch railed about the George Soros funded caravan of migrants moving toward the US southern border, while calling the State Department "Soros-occupied" territory. This was after Soros, the Jewish billionaire philanthropist, had already received his pipe bomb.  Similarly Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Majority Leader deleted his “Jewish Cabal” tweet where he said "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. #MAGA.” Like Farrell, McCarthy who is likely to replace Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House if the Republicans manage to retain control, had no problem with his timing, he sent that tweet after Soros had already received his bomb, only deleting it once he realized that there were more pipe bombs in the mail.  As to those pipe bombs, Steyer, an Episcopalian born to a Jewish father received one too, his and Senator Kamala Harris’ were delivered late Friday after, the bomber, an avid Trump supporter had already been captured. And though Trump’s contingent, including Rush Limbaugh who claims that the gun target decals with Hillary Clinton’s head stuck onto the bombers van appeared too freshly applied to be real, claim the whole thing is a hoax, FBI Director Wray, a Trump appointee said that the pipe bombs were real, this was no hoax and Attorney General Sessions said that the mail bombing attempt “appears to be partisan.”  And in another damning footnote, political documentary maker Michael Moore shared a video from one of his most recent film’s outtakes of the pipe bomber cheering along at an early Trump rally.  The Pittsburgh murderer, wasn’t a Trump supporter in part because of Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism but his views on immigration and the so called migrant caravans, the ones that are smaller than those of prior years but that Trump magnifies every time he talks about them were the same, so he targeted the Pittsburgh Jewish community for working with the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society (HIAS) that helps resettle legal refugees, following a long tradition that goes back to the resettlement of Jews from Eastern Europe beginning in the 1880s but now extends to refugees from all over the world.  For his part, Trump keeps tweeting, making it clear that as far as he is concerned he isn’t responsible for the hate contagion, he says the “The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!”  Sadly, many of us do understand, we just don’t agree. He plans to be out on the campaign trail until election day, targeting the most vulnerable red state Senators. He justified his immediate return to politicking in the face of tragedy with another lie, this one claiming that the NYSE opened the day after 9.11; it didn’t.  And tune in Tuesday, when he plans to deliver a speech on immigration policy, conveniently timed to further inflame in the run up to the election.

To the families of Pittsburgh victims Joyce Feinberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Simon Sylvan, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger, may God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.  And to the families of Kentucky victims Maurice Stallard and Vickie Jones may the light of God’s face shine on you in the darkness of your grief.                    

Assigning Blame

Bombs Away:  So far there have been ten pipe bombs sent to eight targets, including two sent to former Vice President, potential future presidential candidate and frequent Trump critic Joe Biden and two sent to Maxine Waters, the outspoken African American Congresswoman who Trump frequently targets for some of his worst, race baiting vitriol.  Though the bombs contained explosive material it’s not clear whether the sender or senders intended for them to explode of if their failure to go boom was an accidental construction flaw made by someone who didn’t pay close attention in his, or her, though most likely his, bomb 101 class.  Kaboom or not the act of sending explosive devices to targets through the mail is still a bigly federal crime, one that, despite conspiracy theories being pushed by a the usual crowd of right wingers including Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Flynn Jr and actor James Wood, even Trump buddy and verbal bomb thrower Newt Gingrich calls an act of terrorism and “clearly an attempt at murder.”  As to the wingnut contingent, they believe that the bombs are just part of a liberal hoax perpetrated by Antifa because Republican terrorists “don’t use bombs,” only machine guns, weaponized cars and Tiki torches.  At this point nobody knows who’s behind the bombs, Democrats, Republicans or just a run of the mill crazy person, but it seems fairly clear that the target list was inspired by Trump’s usual playlist. Anyway, next time you mail a package, make sure to smile for the cameras, it turns out that all post offices have surveillance systems, investigators are searching video logs hoping to pick up a picture or two of the bomber or bombers mailing their packages.  At this point they are focusing on a mail distribution center in Florida as the point of origin for some if not all of the bombs. For his part, Trump has moved off of his let’s bring the country together, unity position, the one he held for the briefest of nanoseconds, now he’s back to blaming his adversaries, chiefly the press.  Yesterday morning he tweeted “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News, It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”  Ben Jacobs, the Guardian correspondent who was beaten up by Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte, the guy that Trump called out as a hero during his recent trip to Missoula, is also fed up with lies, he’s threatening to sue Gianforte who has been telling voters that he only beat the crap out of Jacobs after Jacobs started their fight, a blatant lie that conflicts with Gianforte’s guilty plea and violates the terms of the civil agreement that Jacobs had reached with Gianforte after the attack, one in which Jacobs agreed not to sue Gianforte as long as he stuck to the truth and made a contribution to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  The contribution was made but Gianforte continues to misrepresent the specifics of the beat down on his campaign trail.  Then there is Trump Jr, to no one’s surprise he’s fully on board with his father and the conspiracy contingent, from the get go he’s kept busy retweeting all the conspiracy theories that he can find.

Eleven Days and Counting:  The midterm election is less than two weeks away. In an effort to sway the outcome, Trump keeps announcing new “initiatives.”  In addition to his faux middle class tax cut promise, he’s now announced a plan to reduce drug costs in an effort to counter Democrats’ upper hand on issues related to the preservation of Obamacare and the coverage of pre-existing conditions because most voters, particularly those outside of Trump’s base, have figured out that Republicans do plan to kill Obamacare and probably won’t help them out with meaningful coverage of their pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately for Trump, his a little bit too wonky drug plan which was announced around the same time that the bombs started landing in Democratic inboxes hasn’t gained much in the way of traction with voters though it does appear to have infuriated manufacturers. With the drug plan falling flat, late yesterday an assortment of official White House leakers reported that Trump is now considering taking executive action to bar migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering from the Mexican border.  The plan which is meant to target the so-called caravans of “criminal migrant hordes” who are at least a month if not longer away from reaching the border is really intended to magnify the immigration “crisis” in the run up to the election. In all likelihood, any such executive action would immediately end up in the courts, pitting those “open border, anti-INS” Democrats against “country first” Republican “patriots,” Trump’s true intention. As to the election itself, there are far too many reports of election finagling, mostly by Republican officials.  In Arkansas the name of the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State was “accidentally” left off the ballot and voters in Dodge City Kansas were sent official notices that included the wrong address for their new way out of town voting location.  Trump who views Florida as his home away from home is so concerned about the outcome of the state’s Senate and Governor elections that he’s added two campaign visits to the state where in addition to squeezing in some quality time at Mar a Lago and golf he plans to campaign for outgoing Republican Governor, Senatorial candidate Rick Scott who depending on the poll is either running either neck and neck or four points behind current Democratic Senator and former astronaut Bill Nelson and for his mini me former Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis who appears to be running a few points behind the Democratic candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.  During their last debate DeSantis harped on allegations that Gillum accepted Hamilton tickets from an FBI agent posing as a contract seeking business man while Gillum who has been targeted by neo-Nazi groups with racially disgusting ads said that though he wouldn’t call DeSantis a racist, his support from White supremacist groups proves that racists believe that he is a racist.

Other News:  Jamal Khashoggi’s son, a dual US and Saudi Arabian citizen, has finally been allowed to leave Saudi Arabia. Together with his family he is now home in the US. He was allowed to leave just as the Saudis admitted that the Khashoggi murder was premeditated.  Though we never really know what’s going on in Mueller land until Rod Rosenstein heads to the podium to announce new indictments, reports are that Mueller is zeroing in on Roger Stone possibly helped by communication possessed by one of Stone’s associates, another right wing conspiracist named Jerome Corsi, that indicates his prior knowledge of WikiLeaks release of the DNC emails. Separately it’s reported the Federal attorneys investigating Michael Cohen have succeeded in blocking release of some search warrants by arguing that they need to keep their details confidential  in order to protect an ongoing investigation, a possible indication that Cohen’s cooperation continues to bear fruit, a problem for the Trump contingent.  As to Trump at a Washington Post sponsored event, the talkative Newt Gingrich said that if Democrats retake control of Congress they would be "trapped into appealing to the Supreme Court" if they attempted to gain access to Trump's tax returns. "And we’ll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it."  So there you have it, a confirmation as to why Trump fought so hard to get Justice Kavanaugh on to the Court. 

Bombs Here, There and Everywhere

Sticks and Stones:  It turns out that words do have serious harm potential, especially when they inspire bomb throwers, or in this case bomb mailers.  Yesterday, the Clintons, Obamas, Eric Holder, John Brennan, and Maxine Waters each were gifted with a pipe bomb sent through the US mail, explosive devices that appear to have been sent by the same person or persons who earlier sent a similar lethal package to financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros. In what was either an attempt to further muddy the waters or a feeble try to misdirect investigators, the bomber included Congresswoman and former DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s misspelled name and Florida office address as the return address for the packages. With the exception of the George Soros package, all of the pipe bombs failed to reach their targets, Holder’s was returned to “sender” and ended up sent to Wasserman-Schultz’s Florida address, Brennan’s was mistakenly sent to CNN though he works for MSNBC and the others were caught by security screeners. To be clear whoever the sender turns out to be he, she or they sent lethal missives to two former presidents, a former Secretary of State, a former Attorney General, a former CIA Director and a sitting Congresswoman.  All of them are prominent Democrats and all have been and probably will continue to be frequent targets of Trump, his ardent followers and press cronies.  As recently as Tuesday, when the only known bomb recipient was George Soros, one of those press cronies, Fox TV’s tone deaf Tucker Carlson, “cackled” in response to a suggestion that Soros had been targeted due to Trump’s attacks, instead saying between his laughs that he too had criticized Soros a thousand times” and “I hope he’ll live long enough I can continue to criticize him.”  While a number of politicians reacted immediately, including VP Pence who tweeted “We condemn the attempted attacks against fmr Pres Obama, the Clintons, @CNN & others. These cowardly actions are despicable & have no place in this Country. Grateful for swift response of @SecretService, @FBI & local law enforcement. Those responsible will be brought to justice, initially all Trump did was retweet Pence’s tweet saying he “agreed wholeheartedly.”  Later in the day at an Opioid treatment related press conference, Trump finally read some prepared remarks but only after Melania started the meeting with her own statement of Trumpian concern. Specifically he said “In these times, we have to unify, we have to come together, and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America. We are extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what we witnessed this morning and we will get to the bottom of it.”  All good but kind of hollow and disingenuous since he followed up by going to a prescheduled campaign rally in Wisconsin, one where he was greeted by supporters screaming “lock her up” and where he highlighted how well he was behaving and called out the constant stream of negativity from the press, rather than his constant attack on the bomb targets, as being the real inspiration for the bomb sender.  Trump plans to ramp up his campaign schedule between now and election day and it’s more than fair to assume that his “restraint” and self-described “good behavior” will soon dissipate, he’ll be calling for Clinton to be locked up and will be attacking “low IQ” Waters again, probably by tomorrow, if not sooner.  It doesn’t look like the bomber is finished yet either. As I write this, the NYC police are racing down the FDR Drive to another similar “suspicious package,” one sent to Robert DeNiro, another frequent Trump critic.  One more thing to consider, Trump’s “lock her up” chant was inspired by his calls for Hillary Clinton to be jailed for her use of a personal email server, one that he said made her the nation’s biggest security risk.  Last night, the NY Times reported that despite the warnings and pleas of the FBI and his staff, Trump continues to use a personal, unsecured iPhone when talking to friends such as Blackstone’s Steven Schwarzman and disgraced Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn, to avoid having his calls routed through the White House switchboard and that a number of foreign intelligence agencies, including those from China and Russia routinely listen in on his conversations, because they can.  Trump’s misuse of his phone was leaked to the NY Times by his staff because they’ve given up on being able to get him to abide by security rules and are hoping that embarrassing him in public might cause him to change his behavior.  They add that though his security leaks are concerning, things aren’t all that bad because he doesn’t really retain much of what he’s told anyway so is unlikely to repeat anything too top secret. Isn’t that reassuring?  Who is the security risk now?  Lock him up?!?

Other News:  It’s reported that CIA Director Gina Haspel has listened to the gruesome Turkish tape of dissident Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, one of those perks of her job.  Without assuming any responsibility, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said that the Khashoggi “crime was really painful to all Saudis, and I believe it is really painful to every human in the world” but then went on to speak about what really concerns him, which is the Saudi Arabian economy and his ability to make sure that the country continues to be very, very rich.  This morning the Washington Post reported that Saudi Arabia now admits that Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated and not a reaction to him initiating a fist fight as if we didn’t know that already.  And as to wealth, if you think your portfolio is down, you’re probably right.  The market has given up all of its 2018 gains most likely in reaction to a combination of tariffs, rising interest rates, and a slowdown in the Chinese economy, in part due to the effects of some of those tariffs.  That said, Trump wants us all to believe that the tariffs don’t really exist, they are just a negotiating ploy, or at least that’s what he’s told the Wall Street Journal. They responded by listing all of the tariffs he’s imposed.  Alternative facts and bombs everywhere.   

Cover Ups

Thirteen Days and Counting:  Trump continues to peddle lies to a gullible electorate.  There’s that horde of George Soros funded violent immigrants gathering on the Mexican border, made up of vicious gang members and sprinkled with Middle Eastern terrorists.  The migrant caravan is thousands of miles from the border and is made up mostly of families fleeing violence in their home countries, a serious problem but mostly a civilian tragedy for the refugees than one that jeopardizes the American way of life.  As to those Middle Eastern terrorists though VP Pence says that statistically there must be at least one hiding within the crowd, most  government officials, or at least those willing to comment, admit that their presence in the caravan is just another Trump dystopian nightmare.  Despite Trump’s warnings about terrorists, so far the most notable lethal act has been one targeted at George Soros, who though he hasn’t been funding any caravans, did receive a pipe bomb in the mail this week, possibly from one of Trump’s more activist fans.  Then there is the whole socialist thing, according to Trump all Democrats are radical socialists who when given the opportunity will foist socialized medicine on the US population thereby turning the nation into some combination of Venezuela, Cuba and Soviet era Russia, except that they all are not, or at least this Democrat isn’t, a socialist radical.  Trump also asserts that Republicans are all-in on health care for everyone especially those with pre-existing conditions except that they’ve tried to kill Obamacare at least 70 times, they rolled back the individual mandate, the feature which together with the now unfunded Obamacare subsidies, are the keys to making the Obamacare math work, and are currently suing to have some Obamacare coverage requirements declared unconstitutional.  And, of course, there’s that promised middle class tax cut, the one that Trump keeps talking about even though Congress isn’t in session and hasn’t been working on any such legislation.  It’s not just Trump, in many parts of the country Republican officials are doing their best to limit voter turnout, or at least turnout in Democrat heavy districts.  Georgia’s Brian Kemp, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who is also the Georgia Secretary of State responsible for election oversite, was taped telling a group of supporters that his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams’ voter turnout operation “continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”  Kemp has already suspended 50,000 voter registrations by disqualifying applicants for failing a controversial “exact match” test, one that boots out any name with a typo or another similar “mismatch” and has purged more than 100,000 other voters from the rolls for failing to vote in prior elections. As of now, to the extent that the close Georgia election ends up in a recount, Kemp would be the official responsible for overseeing it.  In Kansas, where Trump’s favorite voter suppression expert Secretary of State Kris Kobach is locked in a close battle for Governor against Democratic candidate Laura Kelly, the one polling place for the largely Latino Dodge City community has been moved outside of town beyond the reach of municipal transportation, making it inaccessible to many residents.  All is not lost there as a number of organizations and corporations including Voto Latino, Johnny Walker and Lyft are providing rides to what would otherwise be a disenfranchised population.  In Florida, taking a page from Republican candidate Ron DeSantis’ “monkey” playbook, an extremist right wing group sent out a racist robocall disparaging Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.  It’s fair to assume that Republicans and their supporters would not be pursuing such strategies if they were confident of maintaining their positions.  In that regard, projected outcomes aren’t all bad or all good for either side.  FiveThirtyEight, the polling website run by statistical whiz Nate Silver projects that there is a 6 in 7 chance that Democrats gain control of the House but a 4 and 5 chance that Republicans maintain control of the Senate.  They also project that  Democratic candidates will gain more Governor and State Attorney General seats, important for the future because Governors exert significant control over census redistricting and Attorney Generals have the ability to pushback against federal policy initiatives.

Khashoggi Fallout:  It looking more and more likely that Trump has actually been shown some fairly damning and gruesome evidence about the Saudi role in the murder and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  Yesterday he said that those behind the killing should be in “big trouble” before going on to say that the Saudi cover-up was “the worst ever.”  Disturbingly, it appears that he’s more upset about the screwed up cover-up than the actual murder primarily because it is putting his Middle East strategy in jeopardy, so while he continues to say that there is no convincing evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) had anything to do with the rogue slice and dice, he’s canceled the visas of twenty-one other Saudis for their involvement in the Khashoggi killing.  Meantime MBS is doing his best to ride out the controversy.  Yesterday he made an appearance at the Saudi “Davos” investor conference and was greeted with a standing ovation by the attendees, many of whom knew that if they didn’t applaud their days would be numbered.  He also was filmed shaking hands with and expressing condolences to Khashoggi’s son Salah who looked extremely pained by the experience.  Salah Khashoggi has been unable to join the rest of his family in the US because his travel has been restricted by the Saudi government for the past year largely due to their disapproval of his late father’s outspoken criticism of their regime. In another effort to buy himself back into international good graces MBS is spreading money around.  Yesterday Imran Khan, the former cricket player who is now Pakistan’s Prime Minister announced that his country had received a much needed $6 billion infusion from Saudi Arabia, one that will allow the cash strapped country to stay afloat while it negotiates a new IMF agreement. In other international news, its looking more likely that Trump’s announced plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Enforcement Treaty is not a negotiating tactic but is for real.  The nuclear race is once again on because nukes are good, really.  Just one more thing for Trump to discuss with his on again off again BFF Putin during their upcoming meeting, one that national security advisor John Bolton announced is scheduled to take place during Armistice celebrations in Paris in early November right after the midterm elections, the elections that one of Putin’s oligarch cronies is again trying to influence on his behalf.  Somehow or other, Bolton forgot to slap back at Putin’s continued election “meddling” during his Moscow visit. 

What We Want to Believe

Fabricating Fear: It was politics as usual yesterday, that is politics Trump style.  Trump went to Texas where he rechristened Ted Cruz, changing his nickname from Lyin Ted to Beautiful Ted.  The two men went full bromance, remarkable when you consider their history.  Two years ago Trump made fun of the appearance of Cruz’s wife, accused his dad of involvement in the assassination of JFK, called him “unhinged,” “a little bit of a maniac,” and “a totally unstable individual.” For his part the more word adept Cruz had called Trump a “sniveling coward,” a “pathological liar,” a “serial philanderer,” a “braggadocious arrogant buffoon” and a “narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”  But that was then and this is now so Trump embraced Cruz, complimenting him for his accomplishments even though he had previously pointed out that Cruz had none.  Though Senator Cruz continues to dominate his Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the polls, the Trump and Cruz’s performance leaves the distinct impression that the two are concerned that the polls are understating Beto’s appeal.  For his part Beto continues to campaign, spending the record setting amount of money that he’s raised in the hope that he’ll energize enough potential voters, especially those who typically don’t bother to vote, to show up and vote blue. During the day and in Texas Trump stuck with his usual themes, hammering away at the Democrats, holding them responsible for his failure to pass immigration legislation even though Republicans control all three branches of government.  He told the Texas crowds and all who would listen that the Democrats were responsible for the growing “horde” of mostly Honduran migrants traveling through Mexico in hopes of making their way to the US border.  During the day he tweeted that he has “alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy” his spelling, not mine, even though the caravan is more than 3000 miles away from the border and. while certainly a problem, their eventual arrival to the US border is hardly an impending emergy or even an  emergency.  To further flame fears he also declared, without evidence that "Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in." When asked for details about those unknown Middle Eastern terrorists no one from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security was able to provide any evidence that any of them really existed primarily because they don’t, but then again riling up voters rather than truth telling is the point of Trump’s fabrications and sadly, as in 2016, his fear mongering is scarily effective. Building on the anti-immigrant theme, Trump also claimed that Californians are rioting to protest “sanctuary cities,” another fanciful fabrication that neither he nor other members of the White House can document primarily because Californians are not rioting but if Trump’s calculations are correct some people really do fear the specter of rioting Californians, marauding Hondurans and Middle East terrorists crossing the Mexico border enough to show up and vote for his candidates.  And if they don’t believe that, they may believe that a middle class tax cut is forthcoming and that all of their health insurance woes can only be solved by Republicans led by Trump.  

The Murderous Monarchy:  Trump sent out his big guns yesterday to help with the Saudi debacle.  Treasury Secretary went to Riyadh to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman who continues to deny that he authorized or even had anything at all to do with the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  Their tete-a-tete, which was focused on issues related to the prevention of terrorism, may not have accomplished anything on that front, but did show the world that despite his propensity for violence and his murderous ways, the Crown Prince continues to command respect from the Trump administration.  Trump also dispatched CIA Director Gina Haspel, who given her involvement in the CIA’s post 9.11 extraordinary rendition program knows a thing or two about torture, to Turkey to help investigate the events surrounding the Khashoggi slice and dice.  While the two were overseas, the intrepid but usually publicly silent Jared Kushner ventured to New York City to attend CNN’s Citizen Conference.  While there when asked about the Khashoggi murder, Kushner said that Trump was mindful of getting answers but noted that the “Saudis have been a strategic ally of the US and then, after it was pointed out to him that even his father in law had said that there had been “deception” and “lies” from the Saudis in relation to the Khashoggi case, Kushner responded “We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe.”  Those words were either poorly chosen or an accidentally truthful window into Trump’s crisis management strategy.  Yesterday, a video of a member of the Saudi hit squad dressed in a Khashoggi style beard and wearing Khashoggi’s clothing leaving the Saudi’s Istanbul embassy right after the journalist’s murder was believed to have taken place was released.  The video provides further evidence of Saudi deception and the extent to which the Saudi team went to try to cover up their crime.  This morning Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan revealed more details from his country’s investigation.  He said that the murder was planned days before it took place and then went on to provide a detailed timeline of the killing from the moment that Khashoggi entered the Saudi Istanbul embassy, detail that included the departure by the “body double.”  Though it’s still not clear that he has shared the tapes of the gruesome event that he claims to have with outsiders particularly the CIA,  he went on to say what that the murder was a “meticulously planned” “political killing.” Those facts may become harder and harder for even Kushner and Trump not to believe.

And Bolton:  Though he wasn’t in Riyadh, security advisor Bolton was also on the road in Russia, preparing to meet with Putin to discuss and possibly withdraw the US from the Intermediate Nuclear Arms Nuclear Forces Treaty that was agreed to be between Reagan and Gorbachev back in the 1987.  Trump argues that it’s time to build up the US nuclear arsenal, his response to Russian violation of the treaty.  It’s not yet clear if Trump really plans to pull from the treaty or if he is just taking a hardline in an effort get the Russians to behave better.  As to Russian behavior, yesterday Bolton acknowleged their inteference in the 2016 US election but said that it wasn’t a bigly deal since it didn’t effect the outcome, or at least Trump believes that it didn’t effect the outcome.  

Transwhat?

Keyser Soze on Steroids:  Sixteen guys walked into the Saudi Embassy, the one seeking divorce papers got angry, threw a few punches and then was subdued and accidentally murdered by the others, one of whom just happened to have a bone saw.  And to be clear, none of this was authorized by the King, Crown Prince or anyone from the higher echelons of the Saudi government.  After days of denying that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was even dead, the Saudis now admit that he is dead and that some Saudis were involved in his murder but the rogue fist fight story is the best excuse they’ve managed to come up with.  Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS), the guy who probably authorized Khashoggi’s killing is now in charge of getting to the bottom of the sordid affair.  To that end he’s rounding up all of the usual suspects, one of whom has already been killed in a Riyadh car “accident.”  One or more of the others will either end up dead, be imprisoned or will be banished until forgiven as part of some future Ramadan act of royal kindness.  Trump, who first said that it was rash to assume that the Saudis had any involvement in that “foreign” US resident journalist’s disappearance has gone from denying Khashoggi’s death to accepting he’s dead to believing the Saudi’s story to acknowledging that maybe it’s a bit hinky.  Under pressure from a bipartisan group of senators, he’ll probably come up with some mild punishment that he will then label as harsh, but he continues to make it clear that he doesn’t want that punishment to impact any of the Saudi’s purchase of US arms.  As to those arm sales, Trump continues to insist that they total $110 billion though to date the number of executed letters of acceptance is only $14.5 billion.  He’s also said that cancelling the sales would result in the loss of many US manufacturing jobs, a loss he first put at 40,000 but has now inflated to 1,000,000.  Though privately Trump has grown concerned about son in law Kushner’s relationship with the Crown Prince, particularly that it may have led MBS, who had already gotten away with a number of egregious actions like imprisoning and extorting his opponents, a horrendously bloody war in Yemen and the temporary “kidnapping” of the Lebanese Prime Minister, to become overly confident that no one would notice or care if he “disappeared” a journalist,  publicly Trump has also tried to diminish the “boys” relationship by saying that they are just two young men who like to shoot the breeze.  To help, some of Trump’s supporters have been doing their best to throw shade at Khashoggi’s reputation in an attempt to justify his murder, pointing out that he had a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an association that might have been a good reason to have excluded Khashoggi from your next Passover Seder but wasn’t out of the norm for the region and in any case wouldn’t justify slicing and dicing him into little pieces.  Khashoggi was targeted because he was both a member of a prominent and respected Saudi family and an outspoken critic of the Crown Prince’s actions and policies, a lethal combination of characteristics that the thin skinned MBS decided he could no longer tolerate.  US relations with Saudi Arabia will survive this mess, after all they survived the Saudi involvement in 9-11, but Trump who has pinned much of his Mideast policy on Saudi Arabia, particularly his efforts to isolate Iran and achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, is kind of caught in a pickle right now, no matter what he does, MBS’s reputation has taken a big hit, one that makes him a less useful tool for Trump’s policy objectives.

Politics Unusual:  The Saudi mess is just a distraction right now, the real story is about the midterms.  In the immediate aftermath of the Kavanaugh affair, the polls indicated a voter shift towards Republican candidates, particularly in the Senate.  The Kavanaugh effect seems to be waning which is probably why Republicans have shifted their strategy and are now addressing health care.  As crazy as it sounds, Republicans, most of whom voted consistently to repeal Obamacare, have adopted the protection of pre-existing condition insurance mandates as part of their party line.  Of course the devil is in the details, the Republican position isn’t that such coverage has to be affordable or comprehensive they just want to be able to say that they advocated for its availability.  Not a problem if the annual cost of an individual policy reaches six figures or if that policy excludes coverage of the specific pre-existing condition, the Republican position is just that insurance should be available.  Trump is bolstering this position by saying that any Republican candidate who doesn’t support pre-existing condition coverage will have to answer to him and we know how consistent he’s been on the subject of health care.  Ironically, one Republican has been speaking some truth lately.  Majority Leader McConnell has been remarkably forthcoming, saying that if the Republicans maintain control over Congress and strengthen their position in the Senate he will revisit and pass Obamacare repeal legislation before moving on to cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits.  On the Senate front, though he leads in the polls, Senator Ted Cruz is probably not all that happy that the Houston Chronicle is endorsing his populist opponent Congressman Beto O’Rourke.  The Chronicle, who endorsed Cruz the last time he ran, says that though they still think that he’s smart, whatever that means, they believe that he puts his own personal interests ahead of those of the state.  They believe that Beto, even if he is more progressive than the type of candidate they usually support, will be a better advocate for the interests of the residents of Texas.  In a move that can’t be making Republican candidate Martha McSally very happy, The Arizona Republic, Arizona’s largest paper endorsed Democrat Kyrsten Sinema for Senator. The paper called Sinema a good natured centrist, rejecting McSally’s assertion that she is a “tutu wearing leftist.”  At the same time, the paper called out McSally for spewing vitriol.  McSally and Sinema are currently locked in a statistical tie making the paper’s endorsement that much more critical.  In other election news, Trump is doing his best to invigorate immigration politics.  He’s blamed Democrats for the growing migrant caravan currently passing through Mexico, even going so far as to suggest that they organized the caravan in the first place. He’s also promising to pass middle class tax cuts before the election, even though Congress is not in session, and in what can only be seen as another nod to his religious right base, his administration is ramping up its war against transgender individuals by seeking to impose regulations that would result in the recognition of only the sexual identity that can be determined by genetic testing, essentially erasing transgender people out of existence, basically taking a sledge hammer to a whole class of people to solve the “bathroom problem.”

Mueller Time:  Special Counsel Mueller has been quietly working away.  Reports are that he’s been keeping a grand jury very busy while the rest of us have been focused on Saudi Arabia and the midterms.  Specifically, reports are that he’s subpoenaed virtually everyone and anyone who knows anything about Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone, Stone’s relationship with WikiLeaks and involvement in the release of the DNC emails.  Given the very reasonable expectation that Trump will act to rid himself of his annoyingly recused Attorney General Sessions and the meddlesome twosome of Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Mueller as soon after the midterms as he can, it’s fair to assume that indictments will drop shortly after the polls close on November 6. The Russians have been busy too.  On Friday, the Justice Department announced a criminal complaint against a Russia woman for conspiring to interfere in the 2018 midterms by pushing out more of those nefarious internet stories that exploit social wedge issues.  She worked for the same Russian media troll company that Mueller previously indicted.        

The Horror Show Goes On

Murder in Istanbul:  Trump now admits that it is likely that Jamal Khashoggi is dead but still hasn’t acknowledged that the US based Saudi journalist was murdered by his BFFs in Riyadh.  Secretary of State Pompeo who, despite his denials, is reported to have listened to the audio tape of the gruesome Saudi Istanbul embassy horror show, announced yesterday that the administration is giving the Saudis a few more days to complete their internal investigation, his way of saying that the House of Saud is being given more time to come up with a face saving explanation for Khashoggi’s death, one that will assert that the murder was committed without the approval of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), even though it most certainly had his approval. The Saudis are taking full advantage of their momentary reprieve by ridding themselves of possible witnesses, yesterday one of the members of the Saudi hit squad died in a convenient Riyadh “car accident.” As part of their strategy, the royals are considering assigning all the blame for Khashoggi’s murder to General Ahmed al-Assiri, a top Saudi intelligence official who is also a top advisor to MBS. The New York Times reports that son in law Kushner who has become close friends and a frequent WhatsApp buddy with MBS, has advised Trump to stretch out the investigation process for as long as possible because he’s sure that it will soon “blow over” as attention shifts to the next news cycle.  He argues that MBS can “survive the outrage just as he has weathered past criticism.”  The Trump team appears to be trying to help that wind storm along by keeping US intelligence reports about the murder out of the hands of the group of Senators who are usually privy to such reports, they’ve halted usual briefings, infuriating Senator Bob Corker who said that the administration’s current position on the murder is “untenable” and that despite their efforts the details will come out sooner rather than later. Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that after consulting with Trump and Pompeo, he has cancelled his plans to attend the Saudi’s “Davos in the Desert” financial conference, an unavoidable decision as virtually no other senior official from any other Western nation will be attending, even Cristine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, who had been a holdout has cancelled her plans to travel to the region, a polite way of saying that she’s not going given the Khashoggi slice and dice. Shortly after Mnuchin’s announcement, Fox Business News, the last major news outlet still planning to attend, finally announced that its business correspondent  and Trump fangirl Maria Bartiromo won’t be attending either, although she said that her plans were flexible, if MBS would agree to grant her a no holds barred exclusive interview she’s reconsider.  Trump certainly isn’t dwelling on the journalist’s murder, last night during a political rally in Montana he praised Montana Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte for assaulting Ben Jacobs, a reporter from The Guardian, during his campaign last May, saying "any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy," he then made a gesture mimicking a body slam.  He went on to say that he knows Montana very well and that at the time he thought that the assault might help Gianforte beat his opponent and it did, so he was right. Despite Trump’s charm, Democratic Senator Tester still appears to be leading his contender, Republican businessman Rosendale, a Maryland transplant. Last night The Guardian’s editor slammed Trump’s comments, pointing out that the “president of the US applauding the assault of an American journalist would only inflame future violence against journalists in the wake of Khashoggi’s murder.”  He added that he hoped that “decent people will denounce these remarks” and that Trump “will see fit to apologize for them.”  Good luck with that.   

Migrant Caravans:  In an effort to shift attention away from the Khashoggi mess and to firm up his midterm voting base, Trump is once again railing against the migrant “hordes” traveling through Mexico in the hope of reaching the US.  Yesterday he tweeted “I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to US,“ his way of slamming both the migrants and the Democratic party in one fell swoop.  There aren’t many criminals, if any, in those caravans, they are mostly made up of young men, women and children.  He went on to threaten to close the US border with Mexico, sending in the military if necessary.  At least for now, Mexico plans to try to stop the caravans to avoid a confrontation with Trump, but it’s likely that a few of the 4000 migrants will make it to the US border and that some of the children will end up in the hands of US authorities in some of those dog cage filled detention facilities because despite Trump’s tweeting and railing, it’s hard to keep desperate people from trying to seek refugee status. That may be why Chief of Staff Kelly and national security advisor Bolton were overheard having a loud and profane shouting match in the White House yesterday.  Apparently Bolton, another one of those immigration hardliners, attacked Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen for failing to stop the immigrant inflow.  Kelly, Nielsen’s former boss and one of her supporters, rushed to her defense.  White House denizens who overheard the screaming match thought that at least one of the combatants, most likely Kelly, would resign in fury.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed that the argument was all that serious, saying that the two guys were just passionate about solving the illegal immigration problem, and that reports that they were shouting angrily were just more fake news.  In other personnel news, in response to criticism following a HUD announcement that Suzanne Israel Tufts, one of their senior political operatives, would be replacing Mary Kendall, the Department of the Interior’s acting Inspector General, an Interior Department’s spokesman announced that the report was fake news, just another example of the press “jumping the gun.” Though her days probably are numbered, the Interior Department’s embattled Inspector General is still at work, yesterday she released a report that found that Secretary Zinke and his wife violated policy for government travel and that he considered making his wife a volunteer to allow her to travel for free. That is just one of the four Zinke reports that Kendall is working on, just one of the reasons that she may be gone soon. So much for draining the swamp?

Buzzsaw, Not the Movie

Free Expression: As more and more of the gruesome details about the brutal murder of journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi surface, Trump continues to assert that no one really knows what happened in the Saudi Istanbul embassy. He’s even gone so far as to suggest that the widely discussed audio tape of the murder that the Turks assert they have might not be real because he hasn’t heard it.  Trump remains more focused on the value of Saudi Arabia’s US military equipment purchases, an amount that he continues to exaggerate; that Khashoggi, a legal US resident, was a Saudi national so his US status didn’t afford him any protection; and the House of Saud’s denials, than any of the damning facts that in all likelihood have been presented to him by US intelligence agencies. He and son in law Kushner, who has been working behind the scenes to come up with a solution for this horror show, are both reported to be very focused on not doing anything that would cause the Saudis to stop investing in their real estate enterprises because both intend on tapping the Saudi wealth funds again to the extent they survive their years in Washington.  Regarding those facts that Trump doesn’t want to hear or believe, after his meeting with Saudi royalty Secretary of State Pompeo reported that neither he nor the Saudi government want to talk about them, that is they don’t want to discuss them until the US and the Saudis can come up with a mutually agreed upon explanation for how Khashoggi was murdered.  As to that murder, reports are that when the Saudi’s Istanbul counsel grew distressed that the bloody dismemberment was messing up his office, the interrogation/assassination team told him to shut up or face the consequences. He shut up, but to maintain that silence, the Saudi government has recalled him back to Riyadh.  It’s also reported that the buzz saw wielding “forensics” expert who sliced and diced Khashoggi’s body blocked out the noise of his whirring saw by listening to soothing music through noise blocking headphones, something he advised his compatriots to do too to minimize their discomfort. The Washington Post has now published Khashoggi’s last column, a piece received from his translator the day after he disappeared. They hadn’t published it earlier out of concern that it’s release would further inflame his captors in the off chance that he was still alive, but now recognizing the certainty of his death, they’ve gone ahead.  The prescient column titled “What the Arab world needs most is free expression” laments the dearth of free press in most of the Arab world which he said “is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors, but through domestic forces vying for power.”  Sadly, that observation and his willingness to speak openly about repression in Saudi Arabia are probably what infuriated Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, widely believed to be the one who authorized his murder.  

The Revolving Door:  Don McGahn is no longer White House Counsel, he left the building yesterday following his final meeting with Trump, a meeting in which the two discussed how much they disliked working with each other.  McGahn may be gone but the work he did during his time as White Counsel will reverberate for decades as he was depressingly effective at orchestrating the confirmation of a huge number of extremely conservative judges, a list that includes newly minted Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.  In any case, though McGahn is physically gone, his spirit, in the form of the hours that he spent spilling his guts to Special Counsel Mueller about the goings on in casa Trump, is likely to haunt Trump for some time.  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein remains employed, at least for now.  Yesterday, the generally restrained Rosenstein gave an extraordinary interview to the Wall Street Journal. He defending the Mueller investigation, telling the paper that  the probe is both “appropriate” and “independent.”  He said that “people are entitled to be frustrated, I can accept that, but at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence, and that it was an appropriate use of resources.” He also pointed out all of the convictions and indictments already announced as proof that, contrary to Trump’s assertions, Russian election interference really did take place.  Separately, the NY Post reported that Mueller is getting close to completing his investigation, predicting that he will present his findings to Rosenstein right after the mid term elections.  It’s not clear that Mueller’s work is nearing completion, or that either he or Rosenstein will be around for much longer if Trump gets his way, but it any case it is widely expected that additional indictments will be handed down right after the elections.  Suggested targets include Trump’s long-time associate Roger Stone and possibly even first son Donald Jr.  It’s also been reported that former Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, who Trump now refers to as a PR guy who did one or two small tasks on his behalf during their long professional relationship, has been spending lots of quality time, upwards of 50 hours, with an array of federal and state prosecutors from Mueller’s team, the Southern District and the State of New York.  Given Cohen’s tortured relationship with the truth, little of what he says will be taken at face value, but to the extent that what he says can or has already been corroborated those meetings are likely to lead to more and bigly trouble for the Trump dynasty. Though we will still have to wait for Mueller’s results we now know how Buzzfeed received copies of some supposedly highly confidential “suspicious activity reports” from the Treasury, the ones that detailed payments between people like Manafort and his criminal Putinesque cronies.  Apparently a Treasury employee named Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, really that’s her name, leaked them.  She has now been arrested and charged.  She’s claiming that she is a “whistleblower” and that she released copies of the reports to prevent them from being   destroyed.   

And…:  Trump blames the growing deficit on all of those stupid, wasteful projects and programs that the Democrats snuck into the spending bill at the same time that they failed to fund his extraordinarily expensive and unnecessary border wall. To remedy the problem he plans to command his cabinet members to slash at least 5% from each of their budgets. He also called for voters to cast their ballots for more Republicans to make his budget plans more viable.  To that end on the Senate front, prospects for North Dakota’s Democratic Senator Heitkamp took another hit when one of her aides signed off on a “me too” advertisement which was supposed to hit back at her Republican opponent’s dismissal of the whole movement as a farce but instead mistakenly identified some women as victims of sexual abuse without their signoff.  Heitkamp has now apologized and taken full responsibility for the mistake. It’s increasingly likely Majority Leader McConnell will retain his leadership post, prospects in the House continue to be problematic for Republicans, or at least they appear that way for now. Its nail biting season.

Out With the Prince?

Desert Deception:  Saudi Arabian efforts to explain away the murder of journalist Kamal Khashoggi as a rogue interrogation run amuck got a bit more difficult yesterday after Turkish authorities leaked tapes revealing the members of the Saudi hit team involved in the murder and dismemberment “caper.”  A number of them were identified as close associates, bodyguards and/or travel partners of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salam (MBS) providing yet another strong indication that he was behind the “interrogation/murder” fiasco.  A Turkish paper confirmed that Salah Al Tabiqi, Saudi Arabia’s preeminent forensics expert was another member of the team, his presence is another indication that the mission was authorized by high ranking Saudi officials because only someone very high up could have commanded his involvement.  Additionally Turkish intelligence officials have indicated that Khashoggi was killed in a gruesome manner, probably within two hours of entering the Saudi consulate, making it likely that interrogation was never the Saudi objective and that the murder was no “accident.” Though Trump acknowledges that the Khashoggi murder is a horrible thing, despite the mounting evidence he still refuses to blame MBS, Saudi King Salman, or any Saudis for the heinous crime, instead saying “here we go again with you know you’re guilty until proven innocent.” Wonder how Justice Kavanaugh feels about being grouped with the Saudi contingent?  While Trump was reaching for straws, Secretary of State Pompeo made the rounds, first participating in a handshaking and smiling session with the Saudi royals before flying off to Istanbul to meet with Turkey’s President Erdogan.  Though the Saudi’s still haven’t issued a formal explanation/excuse they did “coincidentally” deliver $100 million that they had promised Trump a while back but had failed to deliver until now, money that is to help pay for the stabilization of the parts of Syria recaptured from ISIS.  As to money, Trump, who earlier bragged about his business relations with Saudi entities, primarily loans and property sales, now denies that he’s ever had any business of significance with Saudi Arabia, an assertion that even his friends at Fox find ridiculous, so much so that yesterday they tweeted out a list of the Saudi related items that he had previously bragged about.  While they were busy tweeting, Senator Lindsey Graham, long a champion of Saudi Arabia, said that MBS has “got to go,” adding "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted yourself.”  He might be surprised to learn that Former CIA Director Brennan, once the CIA station head for Saudi Arabia and now on the Trump enemies list, is in agreement, he likened MBS to a cancerous growth that had to be cut out for the rest of the body to survive.

Human Relations:  Trump won a small victory earlier in the week when a Federal judge dismissed Stormy Daniels’ defamation case against him, ordering her to pay his legal fees. Yesterday, with no appointments on his schedule Trump took to twitter to celebrate, calling Stormy who he had once compared to his favorite daughter Ivanka, a “horse face” and a “total con.”  Because attacking one woman wasn’t enough for one day, he then went after Senator Elizabeth Warren, calling out her ancestry proving DNA test as a sham and telling her that she owed the Cherokee nation, who don’t appear eager to have her as a member of their tribe, an apology. Later in the day, during an interview with the AP, he went after his former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, claiming that he had lied to prosecutors by representing that Trump had authorized him to break campaign finance laws by arranging the hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. In the same interview he said that if the Democrats manage to take over the House in the midterms it won’t be his fault because he’s the best president ever except for maybe George Washington, who he acknowledges was pretty good too.  As to climate science, he said that his uncle John Trump had been a professor at MIT and though he’d never discussed climate change within him, due to familiar DNA he has a “natural instinct for science” and his gut tells him that climate change is bunk.  He again doubled down on that wonderful zero tolerance policy, this time justifying it by saying that most of the separated children were taken away from people who weren’t really their parents but were instead using them as tickets into the country. He again said that to the extent there were Russian hackers, they were working to elect Hillary and then he went on to confirm his plans to run for reelection and if some of those Russian hackers want to help him again, that’s okay too.  As to those plans, he has already raised $100 million for his campaign. In other personnel news, the Acting Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, Mary Kendall, who has served in that position for ten years, is being pushed aside to be replaced by a political appointee from HUD, someone who is unlikely to pursue any of the fourteen separate investigations into Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s alleged misdeeds.  Kendall learned about her dismissal only after The Hill broke the news. If this works out well for Zinke, who’s to say that a similar strategy won’t help Trump rid himself of his Mueller problem.  On the UN front, another name is now in the mix as a possible replacement for outgoing Ambassador Nikki Haley.  Apparently, State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert is now under consideration.  Nauert who was promoted to Acting Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs after Rex Tillerson was booted has little diplomatic experience but as a former Fox correspondent, she is good in front of the cameras, wouldn’t care if the UN Ambassador slot fell out of the cabinet, and would likely have no problem reporting directly to Secretary Pompeo.   

One More Big Thing:  The deficit has grown by 17% to $779 billion and is well on its way to $1 trillion, primarily due to higher spending and stagnating tax revenues, the former partially attributable to large the increase in defense spending, the latter due to last year’s tax cut legislation.  Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s response is that the ballooning deficit is “very disturbing.”  He blames it not on the tax cuts but on all those inflated expenditures on social programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, a situation that he attributes to the Democrats’ unwillingness to cooperate on the dismantling of the social safety net.  Anyway, deficits are really only bad when the Democrats are in charge and with the Republicans controlling all three houses it’s just not a bigly problem, except that it is.            

In Their Genes

Going Rogue:  The consequences of the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi continue to reverberate.  Yesterday, a disingenuous Trump took a page from his Russian playbook, suggesting that since Saudi King Salman had strongly denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment the evil act may have been done by a rogue operative or two, possibly even the same 400 pound hacker who broke into the DNC server. He’s sent Secretary of State Pompeo over to Riyadh to meet with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salmon (MBS) to figure out what really happened or more likely, to come up with a more palatable version of what happened, to the extent that is even possible.  Later in the day it was reported that the Saudis are likely to admit involvement in the Khashoggi affair, however their party line is going to be that they only meant to kidnap and interrogate him because kidnapping and interrogation is apparently okay by Saudi standards.  They will say that they never really meant to murder and dismember him, that part only happened by accident due to the actions of an overzealous group of poorly trained interrogators, a variation of the Trump rogue actors theory. To drive that point home, it’s likely that we will soon learn that the interrogation/hit squad was appropriately punished, possibly by a firing squad, a very Saudi way to get rid of anyone who knows anything that could tarnish, or in this case further tarnish, the royal family. It was also disclosed that the Saudis are now cooperating with Turkish investigators which could mean that Turkish President Erdogan is doing his best to extract a payment of some sort in exchange for “losing” those tapes that his intelligence forces have of what went on within the Saudi embassy walls.  As to reputations, those of both princes, MBS and Kushner, look bigly worse for wear. It turns out that Kushner isn’t really much of a diplomat and is certainly a poor judge of character, his decision to aid MBS’s ascension by sharing confidential information during back channel conversations wasn’t really all that wise. If we weren’t living in an alternative universe, he’d be kicked to the curb for buying into MBS’s  “great reformer” charade.  As to the “great reformer,” having disposed of most of his internal rivals he’ll probably survive too because in the long run money and oil trump all, especially when it comes to dealing with Trump. That said, more corporate sponsors and attendees have pulled from the still scheduled Saudi “Davos in the Desert” conference  but at least for now Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde are still planning to attend. 

Election SNAFUs:  Pollsters and pundits are now predicting a split result for the midterms.  Expectations are that Democrats will eke out a modest House victory but that the Republicans will hold on to the Senate, where they may even solidify their majority position by gaining a few seats.  Of course, Republicans aren’t taking any chances instead they are doing their best to place impediments in front of likely Democratic voters.  In North Dakota, state officials are requiring registered voters to provide their street addresses, a problem for many Native Americans who only have post office boxes and a problem for embattled Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp since Native Americans make up part of her base. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp who is also the Republican candidate for Governor is still overseeing the election process and continues to try to do his best to suppress voter turnout by stalling the approval of 53,000 registrations, a problem for Democratic candidate Stacy Abrams since a disproportionate number of those suppressed voters are from minority communities who make up a portion of her base. For some unfathomable reason Senator Elizabeth Warren decided that instead of focusing all her efforts on helping Democrats across the country win in the midterms, now was the time to send out more signals that she’s gearing up for a  for a presidential run.  To that end she released the results of the DNA test that she took to prove to Trump, who has been baiting her by regularly calling her Pocahontas, that she really is part Native American.  He had challenged her to prove her heritage, offering to pay the charity of her choice $1 million if she could prove Native American ancestry. Fittingly, her charity of choice is the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, an organization that provides funding to abused Native American women.  Yesterday, Trump first claimed that he’d never made the $1 million promise but then after video of his challenge went viral he backtracked and said that he didn’t trust Warren’s results, that he would pay up but only if she’d let him administer the test.  Trump cheek swabbing Warren, not exactly a good image for either one of them, and certainly not something that will help Democrats win any elections.  Of course Kellyanne Conway had to weigh in too, she did so by saying that DNA was junk science so who could believe the results anyway.  Maybe she wants to supervise the cheek swabbing?  Hillary and Bill Clinton are also doing their best to muddy the waters, they’ve announced a joint speaking tour and Hillary is once again defending Clinton’s transgressions. It would be nice if the two of them could just go dark for a while, but sadly going silent isn’t in their DNA. While Maine is in the process of selecting another governor, one who may or may not move forward with the Medicaid expansion that the outgoing and controversial Governor LePage refused to do, it’s only fitting that the Trump administration has tapped Mary Mayhew, an ally of LePage in his fight against Medicaid, to oversee the national Medicaid program. Something fun to do when few were watching.