Alternative Reality

Trump’s Eye View:  The election wasn’t all bad for Republicans, they managed a net gain of two Senate seats, nothing to sneeze at, but still not all that astonishing given how many of this cycle’s vulnerable Senators came from states where Trump won bigly in 2016.   That said, the results in the House where Democratic gains are already at 37 and could reach 39 by the time the last votes are counted clearly indicate that the blue wave happened.  However, as far as Trump is concerned the election cycle went his way, he takes full credit for the Senate at the same time saying that since he wasn’t on the ticket the House results don’t really count.   Trying to show some compassion for the still unfolding California wildfire tragedy, Trump traveled to the increasingly blue state that he really doesn’t care about to confirm that though he wants good climate, he still doesn’t believe that climate science is a thing and to announce that the fires wouldn’t have happened if only the people in California had spent more time raking around their trees, because that’s what they do in Finland, except that they don’t do that in Finland or at least Finnish president Sauli Niinisto reports that they don’t do that in Finland, he is as baffled as the rest of us about Trump’s assertion but knows for sure that he’s not the one who “educated” him on Finnish forest management practices. In addition to espousing his views on leaves, Trump also spent some time talking to Fox News’ Chris Wallace, weighing in on a few other things of note.  Despite the CIA’s view that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Trump isn’t convinced because MBS says he didn’t know and when it comes to intelligence Trump would prefer to believe MBS rather than the CIA, even if the CIA is headed by his and Secretary of State Pompeo’s handpicked leader Gina Haspel.  Trump might be on team MBS but his golfing buddy Senator Lindsey Graham isn’t buying it, he wants MBS permanently sidelined and emphatically said that he will have nothing to do with any Saudis who had anything to do with Khashoggi’s demise.  He includes MBS’s brother Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US, on that list because he believes reports that Ambassador Khalid convinced Khashoggi to travel to Istanbul at the request of his brother, and we all know how that turned out for Khashoggi. Kirsten Fontenrose, the person at the White House who was leading the administration’s Saudi sanctions efforts also isn’t buying Trump’s assertion that MBS was out of the loop.  She resigned this weekend over differences in policy after her call for tougher action was rebuffed.  Then, when asked about acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who’s job qualifications include shilling a toilet for well endowed men, Trump argued unconvincingly that Matt is a really good guy, the he is supremely qualified because “everyone” says so, going on to falsely assert that he had no idea that Whitaker had spent the better part of the past year attacking the Mueller investigation.  Asked if it would be okay for Whitaker to shut down Mueller’s mission, Trump said that it would be Whitaker’s decision, but one that he would have no problem supporting because Whitaker’s statements about the investigation are correct, it’s a witch hunt, and there was NO COLLUSION!  Trump also confirmed that he was planning to fire and replace up to five members of his inner circle.  DHS Secretary Nielsen remains top on that list because she isn’t being tough enough on those migrants hordes, and if Chief of Staff Kelly takes umbrage at his decision to kick Nielsen to the curb, he’ll  be out too, which is fine because Trump wasn’t planning on keeping him around that much longer anyway.  Others likely to be shown the door are Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.  As to replacing Whitaker with someone with real qualifications, Trump’s in no rush for obvious reasons so unless further pressured by his Republican enablers in the Senate he’ll keep Whitaker around as long as he can.  That said, Whitaker may find it difficult to actually do his job, states are lining up to sue him, arguing that since he’s never been Senate confirmed he’s been illegally appointed to his role, an argument that is likely to make it to the Supreme Court. Moreover, though Whitaker has the title, it looks like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who in the absence of a Senate confirmed Attorney General should be the Acting Attorney General, is acting the part without the title because someone has to keep Justice running. Apparently Rosenstein is still overseeing the Russia investigation except that he has to go to Whitaker for final signoff on anything of note.  As to that anything of note, though we all are waiting breathlessly for Mueller’s next move, hoping that he really gets to make that next move, Mueller appears to be sticking to his own schedule whatever that might be.  Still those who know, to the extent they know anything, think some significant indictments will be handed down soon, perhaps right after Thanksgiving.  

Election Update:  Former Astronaut Bill Nelson can now add one time Senator to his list of accomplishments.  Whether it was the peculiar Broward County ballot, the millions of dollars spent by his opponent Governor Rick Scott, Trump’s campaigning or his aging demeanor, he’s out.  Nelson conceded to Scott over the weekend just a day or so after Tallahassee Mayor Gillum conceded the governor election to former Congressman DeSantis. Scott played hardball up until the end, attacking Nelson, all Democrats and liberals for trying to steal the election that he ultimately won but DeSantis, who ran as a Trump mini me, asked the Republican attack machine to keep his election out of their diatribe over his concern that employing such a strategy was detrimental in the long run and would make it more difficult for him to run the state that he now has to run. Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams finally conceded as well, but she made it clear that she still believes, probably correctly, that she lost because of soon to be Governor Kemp’s successful voter suppression activities.  She might be the loser for now, but she plans to run again and also plans to continue the battle against voter suppression.  One last interesting note that might make future elections in Florida more competitive, though the vote for Governor, Senator and Agricultural secretary were almost evenly split, a large majority voted for Florida Amendment 4, a provision to  restore voting rights to former felons.  Governor soon to be Senator Scott opposed that provision probably because a disproportionate number of those former felons come from minority groups who, to the extent that they take advantage of their regained voting rights, will probably be more likely to vote Democrat.      

Other Stuff:  If you are a podcast listener, or even if you are not, check out the most recent episode of investigative journalist Michael Isikoff’s Skullduggery podcast which features George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband.  Conway, a committed conservative and long time member of the Federalist Society details his true feelings for Trump and to say the least, he’s no fan, in fact as a result of Trump’s actions and the support that he’s gotten from the Republican party, Conway is no longer a Republican.  Conway and 13 other self-described conservative and libertarian lawyers have formed a new group called “Checks and Balances” to provide a “voice” to speak out in favor of principles that it feels are under attack in the Trump era.  To be sure, these guys are still very, very conservative they just despise Trump, his behavior, his lies and some, though most certainly not all, of his policies.  They do however love his judicial appointments.  Last week, Senate Majority Leader McConnell wrote an op-ed calling for bipartisanship as a warning to House Democrats that come January when they take over the House they should be team players or face future failure at the polls.  Further proving his hypocrisy, he followed that plea by announcing that he has no plans to bring Trump’s bipartisan “First Step Act” sentencing reform legislation to the floor of the Senate for a vote.  The legislation which is opposed by some on the right including the very vocal Senator Tom Cotton would pass with the support of Democrats including Cory Booker who though he’d like to see a more encompassing prison reform plan, has jumped on board because he, like a number of Senators and Congresspeople on both sides of the aisle view the legislation as a good first start.  McConnell also continues to sit on Mueller protecting legislation because he’s not all that sure that it is all that necessary.  Hmmm. And then there is Trump, whose “bone spurs” kept him out of Viet Nam.  Over the weekend he tore into retired Admiral Bill McRaven, the Navy SEAL who led the successful bin Laden raid, calling him a "Hillary Clinton fan" during his interview with Chris Wallace. He said that bin Laden should have been captured much sooner, though he did not explain how the Obama administration should have done so. Trump made the comments in response to a question about McRaven's criticism of  his attacks on the press.  McRaven responded by saying that he stands by his criticism though he did point out that he wasn’t a Clinton supporter.  As to attacking the press, there is no chance that Trump will stop any time soon but at least for now the White House will still have to deal with CNN’s Jim Acosta.  On Friday, Timothy Kelly a Washington DC District Court Judge appointed by Trump, ordered that Acosta’s press pass be returned at least for now, siting the White House’s failure to follow a fair and transparent process when it stripped him of his credentials.  The Judge hasn’t yet addressed the case’s First Amendment issues.  It’s worth noting that Fox has joined the case on Acosta and CNN’s side possibly because they realize that at some future date they could be the ones being kicked off the White House coverage squad.