Raging Insanity

Shutting Down:  The wheels are coming off, in fact its not just the wheels, the axles are coming off too.  Yesterday, responding to brutal criticism from his right wing critic, most notably Rush Limbaugh, Trump threw the budget deal that he had agreed to out the window and announced that he wouldn’t sign any spending resolution that did not include at least $5 billion for his wall, a wall that he is now describing as a structure with big steel slats that will ultimately be paid for by nonexistent savings from the revised, but not yet Congressionally approved NAFTA trade agreement, which he, and only he calls the USMCA.  Responding to Trump’s demands, late yesterday House Republicans, led by the spineless outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan and the even more obsequious soon to be Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy passed a spending resolution that includes the $5 Billion.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s crowd, who had already passed a continuing resolution that didn’t include $5 billion for wall funding, is now due to vote again today, this time on the House plan, assuming that enough of them manage to get back to Washington from their holiday destinations.  Absent Democratic support, and there probably will be no Democratic support, the Senate will fall far short of the sixty votes needed for passage of the House version of the bill.  As a result, it is now expected that a partial shutdown of the  government will go into effect on Friday night.  Recognizing that Trump boarding Air Force One to Florida while cash strapped government employees downgrade their holiday menus from turkeys and hams to SpaghettiOs was probably not a good thing, last night Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that Trump will defer traveling to Mar a Lago until a budget plan passes both houses.  If the undisciplined Trump sticks with that plan, he is likely to miss the Mar a Lago New Year’s ball because unless he backs off his wall funding demand, the government will close and may stay closed until Nancy Pelosi rides to the rescue in January and by rescue, think slaps Trump back to reality.

Mattis Out: Ordinarily a funding fight and an impending government shutdown would have been enough bad news for one day but not in the Trump universe so the day went further south after Defense Secretary Mattis’ afternoon visit to the White House.  After his last ditch effort to convince Trump to change his mind about withdrawing all US ground troops from Syria failed, Mattis handed Trump his letter of resignation, informing him that he’d stick around until February but only to help with a transition to whichever fool is willing to take on the position.  Reportedly the two then shared some very harsh words.  In an effort to make it seem like Mattis’ departure was his idea, Trump quickly sent out a tweet announcing that “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February,” promising that a new Defense Secretary would be named shortly, which is Trumpspeak for holy crap, now I have to fill still another cabinet position,  finding someone, anyone wo never criticized me and will be willing to put up with my impetuous and irrational decision making.  Not to be outdone, General Mattis had the Pentagon release copies of his very pointed resignation letter in which he totally repudiated Trump’s world view saying “One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies." The letter goes on to say that “It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions—to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.” With Chief of Staff Kelly on his way out and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson long gone, Mattis had been viewed as the last sane and reliable influence over the increasingly unhinged Trump.  Even the usually silent McConnell appears concerned.  Last night he released a rare statement that saying “I believe it’s essential that the United States maintain and strengthen the post-World War II alliances that have been carefully built by leaders in both parties. We must also maintain a clear-eyed understanding of our friends and foes, and recognize that nations like Russia are among the latter.”  By McConnell standards, that was a primal scream.  As to primal screams, anyone and everyone with an equity position of any note is probably screaming too.  Stock markets already feeling the pain of rising interest rates, irrational tariff policies, expanding deficits, and the impending government shutdown are unlikely to find any solace in Mattis’s departure.  Neither are any of our allies who had looked to Mattis as a voice of reason.  Adding to concerns about Trump’s plans to immediate turnover Syria to the Russians, Turks and Iranians, late yesterday the administration revealed plans to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.  Putin hasn’t weighed in on the Afghan move but he did applaud Trump’s Syria decision. On the other hand Israel’s Netanyahu is far less pleased, his decision to place all their eggs in the Trump basket isn’t working out all that well, Israel may now be on its own when it comes to beating back Iran’s Syrian escapades.                  

Justice Unglued:  Yesterday Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker announced that he has no plans to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation, claiming that he passed his Justice Department ethics review with flying colors.  That version of events sounded a bit dicey mostly because it was.  It turns out that the Justice Department’s Ethics gurus informed Whitaker that though an argument could be made that the derogatory and threatening statements that he had made about the Mueller investigation before joining the Justice Department were just opinions that he was entitled to express, those expressions create an appearance of bias and for that reason they recommended that he recuse himself from having anything to do with the Russia investigation.  Not liking that recommendation, Whitaker handpicked a group of advisors to provide him with a second opinion, to no one’s surprise they said that he could supervise Mueller.  As a result, Whitaker intends to be the final arbiter of decisions such as who Mueller can and cannot indict and whether or not Mueller’s final report, which NBC News reports will be ready by February although others doubt that is possible, will be released to Congress or locked in a vault somewhere away from prying public eyes.  At least that’s Whitaker’s plan, a plan that will in all likelihood subject him to withering interrogation by House Democrats including the soon to be chairs of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, Adam Schiff and Jerome Nadler respectively, not to mention a call from Mueller himself who might decide to interview him as part of his obstruction investigation.  As to William Barr, Trump’s choice for the permanent Attorney General position, he is likely to face a rather raucous confirmation hearing early next year with lots of questions about the twenty page unsolicited memo that he submitted to the Justice Department earlier this year.  In that “treatise” he asserted that presidents, most specifically Trump, can fire anyone they want for any purpose, no matter how suspect without being questioned or prosecuted, essentially asserting that Trump’s decision to rid himself of officials including FBI heads who won’t lay off his cronies could never be an obstruction of justice. Today’s NY Times banner headlines shouts “Upheaval in Washington,” that’s an understatement.