A Room Without a Roof

Not Happy:  Although he will probably sign it to avoid another government shutdown, Trump is not happy about the border funding agreement agreed to by the bi-partisan group of legislators who were tasked with finding a solution to keeping the government open.  His unhappiness isn’t all that surprising considering that he’s getting even less WALL money than he would have gotten back in December from the legislation that he rejected then after his right wing media cronies told him not to sign.  Expectations are that despite comments from Sean Hannity, who called the agreement a “garbage compromise” and Ann Coulter who is calling it a “yellow new deal” he will sign on this time only because Republican leadership has made it clear that they’ve had it with his antics and can’t afford any more hits to their popularity.  That said, Trump doesn’t appear to have given up on getting more money for his WALL, or at least that’s what he wants his base to think.  Yesterday he tweeted "Will be getting almost $23 BILLION for Border Security. Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak!" A nonsensical statement that doesn’t reflect reality. No additional wall has been built and he’s only getting $1.375 billion for the wall, an amount that would barely cover land acquisition costs.   He probably will try to move some unspent money away from other critical projects and hurricane relief and could still declare a national emergency but both options would probably end up in the courts so neither will provide him with WALL funding anytime soon.  In addition to being unhappy about the funding agreement, Trump is probably stewing about the number of people who showed up for Beto O’Rourke’s El Paso counter rally.  And he has something to stew about.  Despite his assertion that only a few hundred people were there local officials estimate that 10,000 to 15,000 people marched with Beto.  Officials also dispute Trump’s assertion that the local fire department upped the number of people allowed into his venue from 6500 to 10,000.  They say that no such increase was approved and that only 6500 people were allowed inside, with the overflow hanging outside watching monitors. Trump did get one piece of good news yesterday.  NBC news reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee has found no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.  Committee Chairman Senator Richard Burr affirmed that report by making a similar comment yesterday.  However, Burr’s Democratic colleague Senator Warner disagrees, he said "I'm not going to get into any conclusions I've reached because my basis of this has been that I'm not going to reach any conclusion until we finish the investigation. And we still have a number of the key witnesses to come back." Former CIA chief John Brennan responded by saying that  the Senate Committee doesn’t have “the investigative tools and other things that Robert Mueller has. The special counsel’s team I’m sure has so much more information. Everybody should take a step back and breathe and not make any conclusions about whether or not there was a criminal conspiracy… I am confident [Mueller] has had access to a lot more than the Senate or the House Intelligence Committees.”  As to future witnesses, one of them is Trump’s former lawyer/fixer  Michael Cohen, and no one is all that happy with him right now.  Waiving a doctor’s note that says that he is in pain from recent pre-incarceration shoulder surgery, he has managed to evade showing up for a few scheduled appearances.  However he has been seen eating out in a few NY hotspots, something that isn’t making Senator Burr all that happy.  He said that “any good will” that the committee had for Cohen is now gone.”  Cohen’s days of freedom are running out, the Senate and House really want to speak with him before March 6 when he is due to start his jail term in a room that will most certainly have a roof.   

They Said What?  Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz is still exploring a run for the presidency and is still saying some really poorly thought out things.  First, he doesn’t want to be called a billionaire, he’d rather be called a person of means.  To be clear, he likes being a billionaire but just doesn’t like the way it sounds.  He insists that he can’t spoil the 2020 election because as far as he’s concerned the system is already spoiled so if his candidacy greases the way for another Trump victory, don’t blame him .  He’s not happy about any of those on the “far left” who are calling for a 70% marginal tax rate on high earners because he doesn’t want to pay more taxes and believes that Americans, or at least the really wealthy ones, would never tolerate such a thing but when asked about his tax plan, he admits that he doesn’t have one.  As to race, he says that growing up in the “projects,” a phrase he uses a lot, he never noticed racial differences so there aren’t any so why is that an issue anyway.  His campaign advisor one time Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who for a brief moment had morphed into a left wing media darling because of his rejection of all things Trump, has returned to form.  He stormed off of his own “Words Matter” podcast after his co-host Elise Jordan asked him a few too many tough questions about the Schultz campaign. Future episodes of the podcast have now been cancelled. Let’s hope that the Schultz campaign follows suit. Responding to questions about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Tom Barrack, Trump’s good friend who served as the chairman of the questionably managed Trump Inauguration Committee, told attendees at a Milken Institute conference in Dubai that “whatever happened in Saudi Arabia, the atrocities in American are equal or worse.  The atrocities in any country are dictated by the rule of law, so for us to dictate what we think is the moral code there, when we have a young man and regime that is trying to push themselves into 2030 is a mistake.” In other words who cares if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi, it’s a cultural thing, they murder, get over it.  Lastly, Trump and Pence have both condemned Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic comments with Trump calling for her to step down from Congress and Pence saying “Those who engage in anti-Semitic tropes should not just be denounced, they should face consequences for their words.”  Their words would have more meaning if their hypocrisy wasn’t so stunning, both are  supporters of Iowa Congressman Steve King, the legislator who advocates white supremacy and other such lovely things.  Pence campaigned with him and Trump, who has been known to send out a few anti-Semitic trope filled tweets of his own, got his whole wall idea from King who has been railing about non-white immigration for years.        

2020:  Senator Kamala Harris is all in on the legalization of pot and wants us to know that she smoked a few joints while listening to one or more rap stars while she was in college and Senator Cory Booker says that he’ll look for a woman first as his VP running mate should he manage to win the Democratic bake-off.  On a more substantive note, Senate Majority Leader McConnell is considering bringing “Green New Deal” legislation up for a vote in an attempt to prove that few Democrats are ready to support such a “radical” plan.  He may be right about that but then again, there is nothing wrong with aspirational ideas, especially those that recognize that climate change is real and that something needs to be done ASAP, something other than trying to convince the government owned Tennessee Valley Authority that it should keep an old, inefficient coal burning plant in operation to please a contributor, Trump’s current environment destroying project.    Though he’s not running for president, Mark Kelly, the one-time astronaut and current husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is running for Arizona Senator.  Since Giffords was almost killed in a horrific gun attack that resulted in the death of several others, the couple have become advocates for sensible gun regulations.  Though there is still a chance that Kelly will be challenged from the left, he is a great get for the Democratic party and moves the party one step closer to obtaining Senate control.  Assuming he gets the Democratic nod he’ll be up against Republican Senator Martha McSally who is viewed as very vulnerable.  In November she lost to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema but made it to the Senate anyway after Arizona’s Republican Governor appointed her to serve out the remainder of John McCain’s term after Senator Kyl, who had been appointed as a temporary McCain “seat filler,” stepped down.