Last One Out...

Homeland Insecurity:  Last week around the same time that the Justice Department said it would take at least two years to put the families separated during the implementation of Trump’s zero tolerance policy back together,  Trump was at the border visiting his wall fragment.  During his visit Trump, increasingly furious about the growing number of those brown people seeking asylum in the US, told a group of border agents to ignore judges when taking steps to remove those problematic migrants, an instruction those agents were then told by their bosses to ignore unless they wanted to end up in bigly legal trouble.   At that time Trump was also ramping up pressure on the now ousted Head of Homeland Security Kirsjten Nielsen to start separating children again.  She refused, telling Trump that returning to the heartless separation strategy, like ignoring judges orders, was one of those politically untenable and illegal things that she no longer felt comfortable doing. Adding fuel to the fire, she actually had the audacity to remind him that citing the horror of his wife and daughter he had signed an executive strategy banning the separation policy last year. It’s reported that her refusal to return to separating kids was one of the things leading up to her forced resignation.  That’s not to say that anyone should be all that impressed by Nielsen’s sudden bout of conscience, she should have stood up to Trump long ago.  In any case, she won’t be alone in hitting the exit.  Yesterday the White House announced that Trump had fired “Dumbo,” not the elephant but his “big eared” Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles, a decorated former Marine.  It’s also reported that Trump has quietly secured the resignation of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna, the Homeland Security Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady, and Homeland Security’s General Counsel John Mitnick. All the firings at Homeland were reportedly masterminded by Trump’s like-minded aide Stephen Miller who is now fully in charge of anything and everything related to keeping people, particularly non Europeans, out of the US.  As to Tex, the “Dumbo eared” Security Service Director, his forced resignation had nothing to do with the recent capture of the Mar a Lago intruder, he’s out because Trump viewed him as too closely associated with former White House Chief of Staff Kelly. Last week Trump announced that he was moving ahead with a tougher immigration policy, clearly the firings at Homeland Security are meant to facilitate that move, or at least reflect his attempt to move quickly in that direction.  Yesterday, a federal judge in San Francisco stepped in preemptively, blocking one of Trump’s newer policies, the one that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases make their way through the US immigration court system.  No doubt, right about now Trump and his devious little puppet master Stephen Miller are plotting ways to get rid of those troublesome judges too.  

2020:  Another day, another candidate.  Last night California Congressman Eric Swalwell, an outspoken member of the House Intelligence Committee, announced on Stephen Colbert’s nighttime show that he is running for the Democratic nomination to help get the country out of the “quicksand” it and we are all mired in.  On the fundraising front, Senator Amy Klobuchar announced that her campaign raised $5.2 million during the first quarter, putting her take in Cory Booker territory but short of Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto and far short of fundraising leader Bernie, who for the record still hasn’t released his tax returns but promises to do so “soon.”  As to Pete Buttigieg, the young and well-spoken Mayor of South Bend continues to be the shiny object of the moment, a position helped by the message he delivered to his fellow Indianan VP Pence on Sunday during a speech to the LGBTQ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch in Washington when he said that if Pence  has "a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me -- your quarrel, sir, is with my creator." He said that while reflecting on his personal struggles with his sexuality, his decision to come out in 2015 and the fact that his being gay is not the result of a personal decision.  Apparently, while a lot of voters still seem to have trouble voting for a woman for president, polls, to the extent they are to be believe, indicate that nearly 70% of Americans are okay with a gay one assuming of course that he is male.  

Other News:  Today is election day in Israel.  The Trump administration has now designated the “elite” Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp as a terrorist organization, not much of a stretch but still somewhat controversial and the State Department has announced the barring of sixteen individuals from entering the US for their roles in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Among those banned  is Saud al-Qahtani, an adviser to Mohammed bin Salman who the CIA suspects organized the assassination.  On the domestic front,  Attorney General Barr is due in front of Congress today, not to discuss the Mueller report or his so-called “Barr Summary” but to present the Justice Department budget to the House Appropriations Committee.  In all likelihood, much of that presentation will be derailed, replaced instead by probing questions about the report/summary, questions that Barr will do his best to ignore.  As to that report, Congress and the rest of us are still waiting to see it, or at least to see the heavily redacted version of it that Barr promised to make available during mid-April.  Odds are that we will see something from Barr way sooner than any of us, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, sees Trump’s tax returns.  Though by law Neal is entitled to see them, Trump has no plans in sharing.  He’s hired another lawyer, William Consovoy, from the  firm of Consovoy McCarthy Park to work on keeping his tax info away from the prying eyes of Congress.  On Sunday acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney said Democrats “will never see” Trump’s tax returns and one time presidential candidate Senator Mitt Romney who’s all in on Trump’s harsh immigration plans, and who did release his returns during his presidential run called Democratic efforts to see Trump’s tax returns “moronic.” As to morons, on MondayTrump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Congress should not be able to access his tax returns because they have no legitimate reason to demand them. Her reasoning: the Ways and Means request does not include a demand to see the tax returns of other US presidents.  Apparently McEnany has no idea that Congress has already seen the tax returns of all the other presidents going back to Nixon. Just another reminder that Trump hires only the best.  Though its not clear that they will be any more successful than Congress,  legislators in New York are planning to introduce a bill that would permit them to access Trump’s NY returns.  And why not try?