Hold That Latte

Risky Business:  While Roger Stone, who has never met a limelight that he doesn’t want to bask in, was front and center yesterday morning, glowing as he strutted into a Washington DC court for his arraignment.  Though there were plenty of “lock him up” guys in the crowd outside the court, the cameras were more focused on Stone’s supporters, a mix of his friends from the Proud Boys, the far right neo-fascist group, and some very white suburban women holding signs calling for the firing and imprisonment of Special Counsel Mueller and Hillary Clinton, because when all else fails the rabidly pro-Trump crowd always goes back to Hillary.  For now Stone, who pleaded not guilty in front of a magistrate, is allowed to travel back and forth between his home in Florida and the DC court though he has been required to turn over his passport.  He’ll be back in court on Friday for a hearing in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who also presides over Paul Manafort’s DC case.  Depending on her state of mind Judge Berman could decide to impose a gag order on Stone to keep his TV and radio appearances in check.  For a while it looked like the Stone circus was going to be the story of the day, but then attention shifted to the Senate where the heads of the various US intelligence agencies, including CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were presenting their overview of the international threats facing the US.  The intelligence heads, all appointed by Trump, provided an assessment that was markedly different from almost anything and everything Trump has been saying.  Despite Trump’s assertions to the contrary they said that in their view North Korea would never agree to give up its nuclear weapons, that despite the rhetoric coming from its leaders and despite its nefarious activities in the Middle East, Iran is still adhering to the terms of the JCPOA nuclear agreement, that ISIS is still alive and plotting attacks around the world and that in addition to continuing to engage in cyberattacks against our elections and utility infrastructure, Russia’s interests and actions are increasingly aligning with those of China, another country engaging in cyber warfare against US institutions.  As to Trump’s top focus, the building of a wall along the Mexico border, they ranked threats from Mexico way down on their list of concerns.  When asked if he was concerned about Trump’s habit of having private, undocumented conversations with Vladimir Putin, particularly about their tete-a-tete in Helsinki, DNI Dan Coats responded that was a “sensitive issue” that could only be discussed behind closed doors, presumably he had more to say in the private session that was scheduled to follow the open hearing.  As to that topic, later in the day the Financial Times reported that Trump and Putin had an additional but previously unreported private session during November’s G 20 meeting in Argentina. Trump was accompanied only by Melania, not even a US interpreter was present.  According to the Russians, who undoubtably have detailed notes and maybe even an electronic record of the conversation, the two leaders, or maybe it would be better to say the one leader and his puppet, discussed the Syrian conflict and the detention by the Russians of several Ukrainian sailors, the incident that had led to Trump “cancelling” a scheduled meeting with Putin in the first place. Its notable that it was after that discussion that Trump came to the conclusion that ISIS had been destroyed and that it was time to withdraw the 2000 US troops in Syria. The decision for Trump to exclude even a US interpreter from the meet-up is particularly troubling and may reflect Trump’s concern that the Democratic legislators who have been considering subpoenaing the testimony of the interpreter who sat in on the Helsinki meeting will pursue that strategy and succeed in learning what he and Putin have been talking about. Also on the Russian front, following the Senate vote that fell just three Senators short of the sixty needed to override Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions against Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum companies, the Steve Mnuchin headed Treasury Department quickly followed through.  As a result of that sanctions relief a number of Russian business men, including Deripaska, have seen the value of their holdings rise substantially.  One of those somewhat wealthier guys is Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian born dual American citizen billionaire who also has some business ties to Mnuchin.  A number of members of the House and Senate are now questioning why Mnuchin didn’t recuse himself, or at the very least consult with department ethics gurus before signing off on what they believe, was an all too cushy deal for Deripaska and Blavatnik.  It’s hard not to notice that for some reason almost everything in Trumpland seems to involve Oleg Deripaska.  In other Russian front news, because Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is slow walking the appointment of Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Chair Adam Schiff has been unable to forward transcripts of last year’s most questionable testimony to Special Counsel Mueller. That’s a problem because without those official transcripts Mueller can’t move forward with some of his most anticipated and most hoped for indictments of the other Trump administration and family members who are believed to have lied during their House testimony.  At the top of that list is none other than Donald Trump Jr who is thought to have lied bigly about what he knew about the status of the Trump Tower Moscow project among other things.  At least that’s what Democratic Connecticut Senator Blumenthal keeps implying, which is possibly one of the reasons why Trump has started tweet attacking him again.  There is something very special about a draft dodger with “paid for” heel spurs attacking a one-time Marine reservist for exaggerating his service.  

SOTU:  Stacey Abrams, the popular Georgia Democrat who came close but didn’t quite make it to the Georgia Governor’s mansion, will be delivering the official Democrats rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union speech.  In announcing her selection Senator Schumer said "She is just a great spokesperson, she's an incredible leader. She has led the charge for voting rights, which is at the root of just about everything else."  He didn’t mention that he is trying to persuade the popular Abrams, who wants to make another run for the Governor’s office, to challenge Georgia Senator David Perdue, who is up for reelection in 2020.   As to 2020, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti has announced that he will not be throwing his hat into the presidential circus.  Garcetti, a former Rhodes scholar with Mexican, Italian and Jewish roots had been considered a possible real contender.  Although she is still in the race, it’s reported that Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign is already suffering defections and almost everyone on the Democratic side of the aisle continues to be really, really unhappy with Howard Schultz so much so that a number are swearing off their latte macchiatos and other such things.