While You Were Eating and Shopping

Some Like it Hot:  In addition to eating, parading, football binging and shopping, Thanksgiving is also a good time to release news that you’d rather no one notice so with that in mind on Friday the administration released the congressionally mandated Government Climate Assessment report, the most comprehensive report to date on global warming and its effect on the economy, health, coastlines and infrastructure.  Suffice it to say, the news is dire. That said, Trump who believes that raking prevents forest fires and who earlier in the week cited the Northeast’s historically cold Thanksgiving weather as proof that global warming is a fantasy dismissed the study.  His position is that the scientists are purposely using worst case assumptions and he knows more than they do because he’s president and they are not. Did I mention that he had an uncle who once taught at MIT?  Sadly, many in his party agree with his assessment or at the very least are unwilling to cross the Koch Brother or any other big donors whose continued multi gazillionaire status relies on the fossil fuel industries that contribute the most to global warming so Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse who likes to present himself as the voice of civility and morality mumbled that reasonable people can disagree about climate issues and, ignoring the grim impact that continued temperature increases will have on the planet, Utah Senator Mike Lee said that addressing climate change would hurt the economy now, implying that the future is someone else’s problem.  Former Senator and two time failed presidential nominee Rick Santorum used his inexplicable CNN perch to say that the government scientists who authored the report weren’t to be believed because they weren’t appointed by Trump and because they are “driven by money.”

Mexican Mess:  The migrant situation took a few turns for the worse this weekend. Going into the holiday Trump authorized US soldiers who are legally prevented from taking up arms inside the US border to use lethal force against any migrants who throw rocks or otherwise threaten US border officials.  Politico reports that  both Chief of Staff Kelly and dead woman walking Homeland Security Nielsen pushed back forcefully against the policy change and that acting White House Counsel Emmet Flood advised that it was likely a violation of the Constitution.  They were all shouted down by Trump’s immigrant hawks including the ever so charming Stephen Miller.  While everyone was involved in what was reported to be a very heated argument, VP Pence took no stand, opting instead to fade into the pasty colored wall paper.  Ultimately Kelly and Nielsen conceded to the hawks/haters, and signed the order, notably no one from the White House legal staff signed on. Then, later in the weekend it was reported that incoming Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had agreed to keep the migrants, most of whom are not from Mexico, on his side of the border where they would remain while they go through the lengthy and increasingly fruitless US asylum application process. Almost immediately after that policy change was stated, Lopez Obrador said that no such plan had been agreed to which probably means that it is being discussed and that Mexico is negotiating for some concessions from Trump, possibly payments to cover the costs of housing the migrants, most of whom will ultimately be denied access to the US. Some discussion of ways to help improve conditions in the migrant’s points of origin are also under discussion.  Remember how Mexico was going to pay for the wall, forget about that, now it looks like we are going to pay them.  In the meantime,  a few hundred of the migrants amassed at the San Diego border, most of whom had been trying to enter the US legally to apply for asylum, tried to force their way in.  None of the newly authorized soldiers took up their arms but border police did fire off tear gas mostly at women and children. It’s worth noting that though  the midterms are substantially over, the Mississippi Senate runoff race between Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy takes place tomorrow. Given Mississippi’s demographics and bright red status, Hyde-Smith should easily beat Espy, however her recently disclosed affinity for hangings, all things Confederate and the fact that she and her daughter went to white’s only private schools have gotten Republicans a bit nervous about the outcome of her election so Trump will be making two campaign stops in Mississippi today to help bring her over the top.  No doubt, his appearance will be combined with pictures of migrants storming the San Diego border, though in all likelihood, the pictures of the women and children getting gassed will be edited out.   Keep in mind that Trump who managed to have a few awkward Thanksgiving calls with members of the military has been too busy to travel to any of their bases but going to Mississippi to help out Hyde-Smith, no problem.  As to those calls, Trump who had earlier said that keeping idle troops at the Mexican border over Thanksgiving was no problem because they knew when they signed up that they’d miss a few family holidays tried to get some of the unlucky recipients of the holiday calls to agree with his immigration policies while bragging about how much he’d increased military spending.  He also tried advocating for steam over electromagnetic catapults because he, via a mind meld with his MIT uncle, is an expert in such things.

Awkward:  A New York judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought by the state's attorney general against President Trump and the Trump Foundation can proceed.  The judge dismissed efforts by Trump’s lawyers to have the case dismissed, ruling that a sitting president can face a civil lawsuit in state court for actions that preceded his time in office.  The judge cited the Supreme Court's 1997 ruling on Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton.  George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband was largely responsible for crafting the Paula Jones brief.  To the extent that any of the issues confronting Trump end up at the Supreme Court, and its highly likely that one or more will, Chief Justice John Roberts will likely play a pivotal role in their outcome so it was notable when he spoke up last week, pushing back at Trump’s assertion that the only reason that so many of his executive announcements have been stymied by decisions emanating from the “liberal” Ninth Circuit Court is because the court is packed with Obama judges.  Without directly mentioning Trump, Justice Roberts said “we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”   Trump of course couldn’t leave that alone, so he stretched out the argument, tweeting his disagreement with Roberts and again asserted that the Ninth Circuit was biased against him.  Curiously, while he was tweet attacking Justice Roberts, the Trump administration announced that they have asked SCOTUS to fast track their military transgender ban.  Though he is still Acting Attorney General, we keep on learning more about Matt Whitaker’s peculiar trajectory into his powerful position.  His financial disclosure documents, reveal that he was paid more than $900,000 by dodgy conservative groups in the months running up to his joining the Justice Department as former Attorney General Sessions Chief of Staff.  Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, the soon to be former Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has subpoenaed former FBI Director Comey and Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to ask questions about their handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails.  Possibly in an effort to get out ahead of what is likely to be a more thorough Democratic investigation, the soon to be retired Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Trey Gowdy has requested more information about Ivanka Trump’s emails.  Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, who will soon be taking over the House Intelligence Committee has been busy too, he posted some want ads for forensic accountants with expertise in money laundering and other such things.  

Disturbing:  Echoing Trump’s decision to ignore the CIA’s conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman authorized the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,  senior Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal said that the CIA is not necessarily the highest standard of veracity or accuracy in assessing situations. Tensions heightened over the weekend between Ukraine and Russia after the Russians rammed and seized some Ukrainian vessels off of the coast of Crimea.  Outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to address the situation.  It’s only a matter of time before Trump concludes, despite any assessments he might get from any of his intelligence experts to the contrary, that the Ukrainian boats intentionally rammed into the Russian warships.