Idiocy and Lunacy to the Nth Degree

Trump Shutdown:  On Friday Trump met with Congressional leadership from both sides of the aisle. The theoretical purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to end the government shutdown, however no progress was made largely because Trump shows no interest in moving off his $5 billion plus wall funding demand.  He spent the first part of the meeting ranting, raging and spewing so many expletives that he actually apologized to Speaker Pelosi for his profanity, particularly ironic since he and almost every other Republican as well as a few Democrats later criticized new Congresswoman Tlaib for calling Trump a mothef-er while also demanding that he be impeached. Trump’s rant touched on the disputed wall and border security but also covered a number of other topics including impeachment even though he’s sure that he can’t be impeached because he is doing such a slam bang wonderful job and has accomplished more than any other president in history. In support of Trump’s assertion that only the wall could save the country from the onslaught of vicious migrants crossing over from Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen cited a series of horrifying statistics most of which had been fabricated or were intentionally manipulated to sound scary but had no basis in reality.  Pelosi, who came armed with the real official government statistics called Nielsen out, essentially saying that she was lying. Nielsen, of course, slapped back, a strategy that might not work all that well when she gets dragged to testify in front of the new Democrat led Congress.  When the meeting ended, Pelosi and Schumer emerged looking a little stunned by what had happened, remarkable because in their collective years of service they’ve seen and heard a lot of crazy things.  They reported that no progress had been made on ending the shutdown and that Trump had threatened to keep the government in shutdown mode for months, even years if that’s what it took to get his wall.  Moments later Trump emerged with a number of Republicans by his side including  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Congressman Steve Scalise, and Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen to report that progress had been made.  Notably Senate Majority Leader McConnell who had attended the meeting was no where to be found, he had slithered out some back door, suspecting that nothing good was about to happen and as usual, the soulless yet astute political tool was correct. Trump spoke for almost an hour, he was unhinged, oblivious to reality, and incoherent. At one point after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy uttered a few obsequiously flattering remarks, Trump turned to him and said thank you Steve, and that was probably the most coherent statement he made. In response to one reporter’s question about whether he would considering using his emergency powers to force the building of the wall, Trump disclosed that he was giving that serious thought, that he had teams of his remaining “C” team White House and Defense Department lawyers evaluating the legality of that option. Before leaving he announced that another team, this one headed by VP Pence and son-in-law extraordinaire Kushner would spend the weekend “negotiating” with a Democratic staffers in an effort to reach a funding agreement.  Over the weekend the groups met, however nothing substantive came out of those meetings largely because VP Pence and Kushner do not have the authority to back off Trump’s demands and because the Democrats who still can’t figure out how to negotiate with a crazy man, or to paraphrase Schumer, a man whose positions are as slimy as Jell-O, are holding firm.  Pelosi is on the record saying that the wall is immoral, there is no support among Democrats for funding it, and polls indicate that a majority of Americans think that the wall is a pointless waste of money.  Over the weekend, when asked if she’d give even $1 dollar toward the wall, Nancy said sure $1 but nothing more.  A number of Trump’s spokespeople including Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney, who according to Politico has been encouraging Trump to stay firm on his wall demands,  showed up on news shows, spouting the same mendacious statistics that Nielsen cited during the Friday meeting. Taking a page from Pelosi, Fox News’ Chris Wallace called Sanders out on each and every one of her assertions making it clear that he knew that her numbers were false, noting that the Trump story line that thousands of terrorists had been caught trying to cross into the US from the southern border was a “trumped” up number that reflected the number of people on government no flight lists who had tried to board planes coming from overseas only to be turned away and had little if anything to do with the people actually crossing from Mexico. Stunned that someone from Fox actually expected her to speak truth, Sanders paused but then continued with her lies. Late yesterday, the administration released a letter stating their current demands, they still insist that they must have $5 billion plus in funding but have agreed that the wall no longer needs to be made of concrete because they’ve concluded that steel slats will be sufficient to satisfy their base and might even meet Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh’s requirements.  Additionally the Trump team is now asking for an additional $800 million to better service the needs of the migrant flow, though its not clear if that money is for things like medical care or stronger cages. Legal or not, Trump is also seriously threatening to declare a national emergency, taking him one step closer to achieving true dictator status. For their part Democrats aren’t budging, instead Pelosi plans to start passing funding bills so that among other critical functions HUD can continue to provide housing assistance, the Department of Agriculture can continue funding SNAP (foot stamps) and the IRS can start making refund payments in the hope that Leader McConnell will finally feel the pressure coming from his more vulnerable Republican Senators to start allowing the Senate to vote on those funding bills. Notably those bills are necessary largely because no one in the White House realized that government shutdowns have consequences largely because the Trump crowd believes that government services don’t matter and/or, not realizing that that they do, failed to plan for the shutdown and because Trump believes that deep in their hearts unpaid government workers, tenants who can’t make their rent payments and people lacking resources to buy food understand that his wall and the protection of the border from hordes of “dirty” migrants  is more important than their basic needs.

The Russian Front:  The term of Special Counsel Mueller’s Grand Jury has been extended for six more months which tells us very little about what is going on in Mueller land.  It could mean that Mueller is far from finishing his investigation but could also mean that he is down to final odds and ends and would prefer not to have to bring a new Grand Jury up to speed as he finalizes his mission.  Also, on the Russian front, the facts about Paul Whelan, the former US Marine arrested in Russia for spying continues to get murkier.  It turns out that Whelan, who was booted from the Marines for stealing thousands of dollars while he was deployed in Iraq, carries passports from four countries, the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK, expanding the number of embassies involved in trying to extricate him from his predicament. The Russians insist that no spy swap is under consideration, for now, but that could change on a dime. 

Clean Up Aisle Trump:  Remember when Trump announced by tweet that he was pulling all US troops out of Syria immediately causing then Defense Secretary Mattis to fall off his chair, submit a scathing resignation letter, and deprive the Trump cabinet of its last “adult” in the room.  That is so last year.  Over the weekend National Security Advisor John Bolton traveled to the Mideast to assuage the concerns of the Israelis that an empowered Iran would respond to the US withdrawal by attacking their northern border.  He assured them that the US will not be withdrawing its troops from Syria until each and every remaining ISIS fighter is eliminated.  Additionally, Bolton traveled to Turkey in an effort to convince President Erdogan that he really shouldn’t move forward with his plans to obliterate the Syrian Kurds.  Meantime back at home it was reported that Rear Admiral Kevin Sweeney, the Defense Department’s  Chief of Staff, has resigned to return to the private sector, code word for was pushed out because he was a Mattis guy.  And despite his assertion that ISIS has been vanquished Trump has appointed James Jeffrey, a former never Trumper, as the administration’s new Special Envoy for all things ISIS.  Go figure.