Water's Edge

D-Day Histrionics:  Although Trump’s formal D-Day speech was occasion appropriate, he went fully off the charts during a pre-speech interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.  With the somber rows of Normandy grave markers serving as a backdrop he slammed Speaker Pelosi, Special Counsel Mueller and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, ignoring another convention, the one that calls for leaving US politics at the water’s edge especially when overseas for a somber, commemorative event.  As to those slams, he called Pelosi a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person” adding that she was a "terrible person" and a "disaster" saying he calls her "Nervous Nancy" "because she's a nervous wreck." He said she "ought to focus" on her home district in California, where he said that due to her incompetence there are "drug addicts" and "needles all over the place" and "people living in the middle of streets." Then he dissed Mueller, the decorated former Marine and Viet Nam war veteran by saying he had made a fool out of himself the last time he had testified, which must have been a reference to his recent press conference because at least so far Mueller has not testified about the Russia investigation. For good measure while speaking about those members of Congress opposed to his migrant motivated tariffs against Mexico, Trump said “We have cryin’ Chuck Schumer, who’s a disaster by the way. He’s a total political jerk.” When asked about Trump’s insulting comments, Pelosi, who was also in Normandy leading a bipartisan Congressional delegation, refused to take the bait instead saying that “on the subject of our veterans we always strive to work in a bipartisan way” because “that’s a comfort to veterans," her way of saying Trump may be a national embarrassment but I am going to stay above the fray, at least while overseas at this memorial.  Later in the day, Trump finally signed the $19 billion disaster relief package and because he couldn’t just leave well enough alone, he said Puerto Rico should love him because they would have been shut out without him, another one of his frequent boldfaced lies since he opposed funding Puerto Rico’s needs up until the end.  Senator Schumer snapped back "This is a lie. Without your interference, Puerto Rico and these other disaster-impacted areas would have received disaster relief aid months ago. Fortunately, Democrats remained resolute and got this done."  Cryin or not Schumer was spot on.

Abortion Politics:  Just one day after former VP Biden said he was supportive of the Hyde Amendment and its prohibition of federal funding for abortion, he has changed his opinion, he is now fully anti-Hyde.  Although his flip flop most likely was in response to the withering criticism thrown his way by most of the other Democratic presidential aspirants and pro-choice women everywhere he credited the change to recent efforts by Republicans to roll back abortion access in states including Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri, calling them “extreme laws” saying “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code.”  As to one set of those zip codes, the ones beginning with the 631 designation for Missouri, the judge hearing the licensing case for the one remaining Planned Parenthood clinic providing abortion services in the state still hasn’t released a ruling on whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would allow the clinic to remain open.  At least for now the clinic remains in operation but due to new rules mandated by state officials, all women seeking abortion procedures at the facility now have to endure an additional invasive pelvic exam when they show up for their preliminary visit to the clinic; that exam, which is not medically necessary, is on top of an additional exam that they are already required to get the day that they are actually treated, which by Missouri law is at least three days after their “preliminary” visit.  To be clear, there is no reason for the first exam, it’s sole purpose is to make women feel really bad about getting an abortion. Last week in an editorial in which they called the extra procedure just an example of more harassment, the Kansas City Star quoted one physician who wrote that “Today, I was forced by the state of Missouri to perform an unnecessary pelvic exam on a patient terminating her pregnancy for a fetal anomaly. She is heartbroken over her situation, and I was forced to do an invasive, uncomfortable exam. It broke me as a physician to do this to her.”  Missouri is one of those states that has recently passed legislation that would ban almost all abortions, that law isn’t due to go into effect until late summer.  

Flynn Notes:  Something is up on the Michael Flynn front.  The former national security advisor just fired his legal team, the legal team that has done a fairly commendable job keeping him out of jail.  Though Flynn has not yet been sentenced expectations are that  due mostly to their advice and skill he will probably get away with nothing more than probation.  Though it’s not clear why he fired his legal team, or who he’s hired to replace them, supposition is that he is being goaded by family and right wing supporters to pull his plea deal and is once again signaling to his on again/off again bestie Trump that he would be very open to a pardon.  Separately, federal prosecutors released the tape of Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd’s voicemail message to a member of Flynn’s now fired legal team, that’s the voicemail where Dowd dangled a pardon to Flynn in an effort to get him to remain silent about his and Trump’s transgressions or at the very let the Trump team know what he planned to spill to Mueller.  Suffice it to say, Dowd comes off as sleazy, unethical, stupid and behind the times, who leaves voicemails anymore, especially such implicating ones?  One thing we won’t be seeing or hearing are the transcripts or tapes of Flynn’s conversations with former Ambassador Kislyak, those are the conversations about sanctions, the ones that Flynn denied having even though he did and should have known that US intelligence agencies were listening in on Kislyak’s calls because given his experience he knew that Russian calls were bugged.  After first insisting that the transcripts and tapes be released, Flynn’s Judge Emmet Sullivan backed down upon the request of Justice Department lawyers.  We don’t know whether there is something else in those conversations that they don’t want the public to see or if there is something about the transcript and tapes that would reveal too much to the Russians.      

Other News:  It’s not just the fear of additional tariffs that have auto companies concerned about their future revenue, a  group of automakers including Ford, GM, BMW, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen delivered a letter to the White House expressing their unhappiness with the Trump administration’s “far-reaching emissions and fuel economy rollbacks,” the ones they initially wanted but now fear have gone to far.  The letter stated that the collected automakers foresee the rollback of Obama-era regulations causing instability in the automotive market and could seriously hurt company profits.  In other environmental news, former NY Mayor and real billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced that he is donating half a billion dollars to a new environmental campaign to close all US coal plants by 2030, part of his “Beyond Carbon” plan.  Wagging his finger at Trump and his team of moronic science deniers  Bloomberg said “We’re in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years. Mother Nature is not waiting on our political calendar, and neither can we.”