Saint Michael?

Stormy Days:  Just a day after the UN released its dire report about the impending impact of climate change  Hurricane Michael, a category 4 storm, arrived with a bang, slamming the gulf coast of Florida before moving on to other parts of the southeast, including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, hitting some areas still trying to recover from Hurricane Florence. Weather forecasters were caught by surprise, stunned by Michael’s speed, strength and impact.  Global warming naysayers otherwise known as the Republicans in power, continue to assert that Michael like all of the recent, more disastrous hurricanes is just one of those acts of nature caused by an almighty god, one who is just punishing us for all those dastardly liberal social policies.  Their solution: stick with carbon emissions but spend more time praying and advancing really conservative justices.  One of those justices, Brett Kavanaugh is already showing that the time and effort spent fighting for his confirmation was well worth it.  At least with regard to the treatment of immigrants, it appears that his interpretation of the law is to the right of Trump’s other recent appointee, Neil Gorsuch, a feat in and of itself.  In a case addressing whether federal authorities must detain immigrants who had committed crimes, often minor ones, no matter how long ago they were released from criminal custody, Kavanaugh weighed in saying that a 1996 federal law required detention even years later, without an opportunity for a bail hearing.    Gorsuch appeared to disagree with his newest colleague, suggesting instead that mandatory detentions of immigrants long after they completed their sentences could be problematic. Kind of ironic that Kavanaugh who has been accused of committing bad acts in his teens and early twenties is all in on denying immigrants bail for past bad acts no matter how minor.  As to Kavanaugh’s alleged bad acts, Chief Justice Roberts finally forwarded the ethics complaints that had been filed against him by various members of the public while Kavanaugh was still serving on the DC court over to the Tenth circuit court for their review.  Unfortunately, by sitting on the complaints until after Kavanaugh’s confirmation was completed, Roberts has probably rendered them moot since Supreme Court Justices are not subject to the lower court’s judicial misconduct procedures.  The other storm front, also known as the stock market also experienced a particularly bad day yesterday, plunging more than 800 points, the largest drop since February.  Experts point to rising interest rates, the increasing size and cost of the national debt used to fund the growing federal deficit, the one that Trump was going to eliminate but instead increased with his tax reform legislation because deficits are only a problem for Republicans when Democrats are running the country, and the effects of the trade war with China, particularly its dampening impact on economic growth.  Trump mostly blames the Fed, particularly his handpicked Chairman Jerome Powell who he says is making a mistake, adding “they are so tight.  I think the Fed has gone crazy” by continuing to raise interest rates.

Revolving Doors:  With UN Ambassador Nikki Haley leaving by the end of the year, speculation is growing as to who Trump will choose as her replacement.  His first choice, first and favorite daughter Ivanka has pulled herself out of the running, possibly because it would be a violation of anti-nepotism laws for Trump to appoint her to serve as his Ambassador.  Though that in and of itself wouldn’t stop him from trying, even his Republican enablers would probably see Ivanka’s appointment as a step too far.  Instead Trump’s first choice appears to be Dina Powell who previously served as his deputy national security advisor before jumping ship to return to her cushy Goldman Sachs position.  This isn’t the first time that Powell’s name has come up in association with the position.  There was a time last year when some thought that Nikki Haley would replace former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Powell taking over her UN slot.  Once Trump decided to go with Pompeo instead of Haley, Powell’s dream of ascending to UN Ambassador went up in smoke and she left for Goldman.  She is apparently now considering whether or not to leave her very lucrative private sector position for the UN slot.  In case Powell says no, Trump is also considering Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, one of those ethically challenged cabinet members who is also a huge climate change denier, so basically a perfect choice for the job.  Though General Kelly is still Trump’s chief of staff, rumors about his impending departure persist. In an effort to push back against those stories and other stories about White House chaos, earlier this week New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi was somewhat stunned to get the opportunity of a journalist’s life time.  As she was departing the White House after finishing up some interviews related to Kelly, she got a call from White House press secretary Huckabee Sanders commanding her to join Trump in his office for an impromptu meeting.  She reports that their meeting which was also attended by Sanders, VP Pence, Kelly and Secretary of State Pompeo was beyond surreal with Trump rambling through 90% of his campaign talking points in an attempt to convey that he really is a stable genius and that he has full confidence in Kelly.  Suffice it to say, she was not buying any of it.  Lastly, Trump continues to ruminate about getting rid of Attorney General Sessions.  Senate Leader McConnell has gone on record saying that he can’t poach any of his Republican Senators as a replacement because regardless of the outcome of the midterms, McConnell doesn’t want to lose any of his votes and most certainly doesn’t want to face the risk that another pedophile runs and loses a seat to a moderate Democrat.  Running out of options, Trump is now considering replacing Sessions with the Justice Department’s chief of staff Matthew Whitaker and has actually talked to Whitaker about it, just another one of his digs at the embattled Sessions, the man who will only leave his position when and if Trump has the locks changed on his office doors.

Mueller Update:  Yesterday, Richard Pinedo became the third person sentenced to prison time as a result of Special Counsel Mueller’s probe into all things Russian.  Pinedo got caught selling fake online identities to Russian trolls.  His business model allowed people to “breeze through PayPal's financial verification steps and, in the case of the Russians, buy ads on Facebook.” Even though he cooperated with prosecutors he was treated relatively harshly and was  sentenced to six months in jail, to be followed by an additional six months of home detention and 100 hours of community service. In other news, the Wall Street Journal reports that Peter Smith, the Republican operative who spent time searching for Hillary’s elusive emails actually did have a business relationship with former national security advisor Michael Flynn.  The two of them met up and discussed business ventures back in 2015.  Before he committed suicide Smith had told the WSJ that Flynn was aware of his Clinton email project and now it appears that his assertion could be true.  

International Intrigue:  US intelligent sources now believe that Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) authorized the abduction and disposal of Washington Post contributor and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.  This is a big problem for US relations with Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner’s plans to make Saudi Arabia and his good friend MBS  the linchpin of his Mideast peace proposal.  Trump still seems to be trying to shrug off Khashoggi’s murder as just one of those things because after all he was just one of those “fake news” guys, however a number of Senators aren’t on board.  Yesterday,  Senators Bob Corker and Bob Menendez, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Graham and Patrick Leahy, chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, sent a letter to Trump demanding a probe of Khashoggi’s disappearance under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.  Mideast peace efforts, never easy, just got more complicated.