Walls and Wheels

Trump Shutdown:  Today hundreds of thousands of government workers including the people whose job it is to keep planes and airports safe, monitor the safety of the nation’s food supply, and protect and manage the national parks will receive cashless pay stubs documenting the number of hours that they worked while contract and “nonessential” workers receive nothing. Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed a bill assuring that essential and nonessential workers will get paid once the government reopens, however the bill doesn’t cover contract workers and does nothing to help cash strapped employees pay for their current food, medicine and housing needs which is why Coast Guard officials have distributed flyers suggesting  that employees consider washing cars, babysitting, dog walking or selling off big ticket items to pay bills. At the end of the day some workers who weren’t allowed to work will get paid anyway, good for them but not so good for taxpayers and probably part of the reason that the shutdown is estimated to be costing the economy $6.5 billion per week. Yesterday, Trump flew to Texas for a series of carefully staged photo ops showing him positioned next to confiscated drugs and weaponry. He uttered some nonsense about walls being as old as wheels saying that since his expensive secret service vehicles still have “medieval era” wheels, only a wall will solve the “humanitarian and security crisis” at the border.  Those words or at least the “humanitarian and security crisis” part were chosen carefully to bolster the case that Justice Department lawyers will have to make to the courts if and when Trump declares a national emergency.  For his part, Senate Majority Leader McConnell continues to refuse to bring any government opening legislation that isn’t preapproved by Trump up for a vote even though such legislation would gain enough Republican votes to pass.  After failing to broker a compromise that would have combined wall funding with DACA relief Senator Lindsay Graham tweeted that he was thoroughly depressed and heading to the gym to run off his frustration. At the same time he encouraged Trump to go ahead with his threatened emergency declaration to get the government open again.  To the extent that Trump does pull the emergency cord, his plans include redirecting military corps of engineering funds previously earmarked for California fire and Puerto Rico hurricane relief to wall construction, hardly a strategy that will go over well in either locale, with Democrats or with defense hawks from both parties but then again Trump doesn’t seem to care probably because California and Puerto Rico are Democratic bastions and Puerto Ricans aren’t really Americans, or at least that’s his belief and he’s sticking with it.   

Mueller Front:  The NY Times reports that Special Counsel Mueller is investigating why so many Russian leaning Ukrainians attended Trump’s inaugural celebrations, specifically focusing on how they obtained access, who paid for their tickets and how their overwhelming interest and support for all things Trump links into Michael Flynn’s promise that sanctions against Russia would be lifted as soon as Trump assumed office.  On the sanctions front, yesterday Treasury Secretary Mnuchin spent some time in a closed door meeting with House members trying to explain why Treasury is lifting, or trying to lift, sanctions against Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum companies. Deripaska is the Putin crony who Paul Manafort promised to make whole with Trump inside dirt.  Speaker Pelosi emerged from the session with Mnuchin to report that his explanation was woefully inadequate, possibly the worst briefing she had ever received. Earlier in the week as a result of Paul Manafort’s lawyer’s ineptly redacted legal filing it was revealed that he had shared proprietary Trump polling data with some Russia tied Ukrainian oligarchs.  Yesterday it was reported that Mueller has spent some time grilling Tony Fabrizio, the Manafort associate who served as the Trump campaign’s pollster until Kellyanne Conway’s company took over the job later in the campaign.  Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer/fixer who knows way too much about Trump and his business “empire” is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on February 7.  His appearance, which has been signed off on by Mueller, is likely to provide another one of those must see TV moments.  When asked about Manafort’s sharing of polling data, Trump denied that he knew about it, when asked about Cohen’s planned TV appearance, he tried to feign indifference though reports are that he sent a few pens flying at the wall and uttered more than a few expletives when he learned about Cohen’s plans.     

2020:  Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist who wants to see impeachment proceedings against Trump begin ASAP, has decided not to run for president, he’s going to continue to advocate impeachment. Bernie Sanders who probably still plans to run hasn’t announced yet, possibly because he’s instead being forced to deal with more accusations about the harassment that took place during his 2016 run.  California Senator Kamala Harris is expected to announce her candidacy on Martin Luther King Day and Beto O’Rourke continues driving around the country taking the temperature of potential voters.  For some reason that process involved the livestreaming of his teeth cleaning appointment. NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is traveling to Iowa.  

International Inconsistency:  Earlier this week national advisor John Bolton insisted that US troops would not be pulled from Syria for at least six months.  This morning the Pentagon announced that the withdrawal has already begun.  Yesterday, during a speech in Cairo Secretary of State Pompeo slammed Obama’s weak and poorly thought out Middle East policies.  Has he met Trump?