Fly Me To the Moon

Smoke and Mirrors:  On Friday Trump announced that he, the greatest negotiator ever, had achieved another stunning success. He claimed that his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico had resulted in the Mexican government agreeing to the deployment of its national guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border and to the expansion of a program allowing asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their US legal cases proceeded.  It’s true, both of those things have been agreed to; the problem with Trump’s congratulatory dance is that they were agreed to months ago, not in response to his recent tariff threats, ironically they were made back when the now fired Kirstjen Nielsen was Secretary of Homeland Security.  The national guard commitment was made in March, the asylum seekers remaining in Mexico  agreement, which is already winding its way through the courts, was made last December. Notably, the Mexicans did not agree to Trump’s third demand, they refused to sign off on a “safe third country” treaty which would have given the US the legal ability to reject asylum seekers if they had not sought refuge in Mexico first.  In addition to tweeting about the success of his Mexico tariff threats, Trump also tweet claimed that “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!” a claim that Trump probably tossed in to placate US farmers hurt by his China tariffs but one that the Mexican ambassador to the US immediately denied.  And, for good measure Trump also hinted that Mexico had made another very important but secret concession, one that was too important to reveal, we’ll just have to trust him about it’s existence.  After a number of news outlets questioned that his tariff threats had led to these “major concessions” by pointing out that they had previously been agreed to, Trump lashed out tweet attacking the “Fake and Corrupt News Media.”Saying “The New York Times and CNN are “truly The Enemy of the People!”  and calling MSNBC, “the opposition,” for broadcasting “such lies, almost everything they were saying was the opposite of the truth.” Adding “I know it is not at all ‘Presidential’ to hit back at the Corrupt Media, or people who work for the Corrupt Media, when they make false statements about me or the Trump Administration. Problem is, if you don’t hit back, people believe the Fake News is true. So we’ll hit back!”  So basically it was a normal weekend  in Trumpland.

Say What?  Late last week Attorney General Barr proved once again why he and Trump are so simpatico.  Just days after Trump attacked his political enemies Pelosi, Mueller and Schumer during his visit to Normandy for the commemoration of the anniversary of D-Day, attacks he made with the graves of US soldiers serving as his backdrop, Barr told a group of FBI Academy graduates that his return to the Justice Department felt like the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day. Saying “I had the thought that my arrival this time felt a little bit, I think, like jumping into Sainte-Mère-Église on the morning of June 5, trying to figure out where you could land without getting shot.” Though some in the audience did laugh historians, the twitterverse and anyone with any appreciation for the sacrifices made by those brave soldiers  found his comparison of joining the Trump administration for the purpose of defending Trump and his imperial presidency to parachuting into real enemy territory quite offensive.  Trump’s inability to communicate coherently hit a new low last week when he tweeted out a some criticism of NASA’s plans to revisit the moon.  Specifically, he said “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!  That tweet led many to believe that Trump thought that our moon was part of Mars.  However, even Trump isn’t that stupid, or maybe he is but not about the moon and Mars. He meant to say that NASA shouldn’t be emphasizing the moon part, that revisiting the moon is just a small part of the bigger project of getting to Mars.  Anyway it was kind of funny for a while to think that Trump thought our moon was part of Mars.  

Politics:  Most of the Democratic presidential aspirants were in Iowa over the weekend participating in several beauty contests and other such things.  Joe Biden wasn’t there, he  was at a grandchild’s graduation ceremony, we know that for sure because Jill Biden tweeted out a picture of the family.  Anyway, Biden plans to go to Iowa later this week as does Trump who is feeling the need to do a little Iowa counterprogramming.  Though the press has spent a good portion of the week harping on Biden’s Hyde Amendment flip-flop, he still leads in the polls albeit by a little bit less than he did before.  He’s followed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris.  Notably Warren seems to be on an upswing, with much of her new support coming from ex-Berniacs.  To the surprise of few, if any, New Yorkers no one in Iowa expressed any preference at all for NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.  Senate Republicans appear to be growing tired of Trump’s propensity for using tariffs as negotiating tools and his preference for all things Saudi Arabia.  There is a teeny tiny chance that they might actually get behind some legislation that would curtail Trump’s “emergency” tariff making ability as well as the recently announced sale of US arms to Saudi Arabia.  Their threats over tariff legislation as well as their warning to Trump that a few of those up in 2020 purple state Senate seats are being made more vulnerable by tariffs probably led to Trump’s decision to announce that “great” faux Mexican agreement.  On the investigatory frount, Watergate era White House Counsel John Dean and a number of former federal attorneys are due to testify this week, part of Democratic leadership’s attempt to educate the populace about all that really implicating stuff in the Mueller Report.  An effort that’s been hindered because, at least so far, none of the real players have been willing to testify.  As expected, Trump isn’t all that happy about that so he tweeted “ No Obstruction. The Dems were devastated - after all this time and money spent ($40,000,000), the Mueller Report was a disaster for them. But they want a Redo, or Do Over. They are even bringing in @CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs - Go back to work!“  Welcome to Monday.