Elvis and Olives

Another Day, More Insults:  Trump is still going after the members of the “squad” now tweeting that they’re “a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart. They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border...And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!" Trump has a habit of questioning the intellect of people of color, so sadly this slam isn’t that surprising, but it would be naïve to think that his tweet was just more race baiting babble, it was thought out, he also advanced the narrative that the Democratic party is made up of radical leftists who are against any border security.  Speaking at an NAACP conference Congresswoman Tlaib’s took the bait, responding, that she “wasn’t going nowhere, not until I impeach this president,” again not surprising, she’s all-in on the battle of words and has been an early advocate of impeachment.  She might also have made some important comments on policy about such subjects as improving health care and providing access to better education but to the extent she did none of that made it into evening news flow because why cover policy issues when insults are flying.   Unfortunately and, sadly, not surprisingly the war of words is having an effect, and not a good one, Trump’s base is loving it, more voters appear to be gravitating to his side and  a police officer, as in a guy with a gun, in Louisiana posted on Facebook that one of the four “squad” members, Ocasio-Cortez, is a “vile idiot” who “needs a round…. and,  I don’t meant the kind she used to serve,” a reference to bullets rather than her days tending bar.  The officer and another, who “liked” his post were fired for their threat but given all the gun wavers out there it’s only a matter of time before this whole political charade turns violent. Trump has also ratcheted up his war of words against former Special Counsel Mueller who is scheduled to testify before Congress tomorrow. First he tweeted that the “Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple. In the end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt. Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!”  Then he followed with “The questions should be asked, why were all of Clinton’s people given immunity, and why were the text messages of Peter S and his lover, Lisa Page, deleted and destroyed right after they left Mueller, and after we requested them(this is Illegal)?” Needless to say, Mueller wasn’t and isn’t conflicted and those texts were not illegally destroyed, nor were the so-called lovers “Clinton people,” but that’s the view that Trump is pushing and it’s widely expected that the Republicans on the two Congressional Committees hearing Mueller’s testimony will stick with Trump’s theme, by focusing their questions to Mueller on the “questionable” origins of the investigation and the “bias” of his staff rather than asking much if anything about all of the weird interactions between Trump’s team and the Russians or any of Trump’s ten attempts at obstruction.  Although countless pundits and journalists have weighed in with a broad range of suggestions about what they should ask, Democrats are expected to stick to questions about the substance of the report, getting Mueller to deliver the “movie” version of the lengthy, detailed “crime novel” that few in the public have actually read, largely because Mueller is already on record saying that he plans to stick to the substance of his report and that he isn’t inclined to weigh in on things not included in the body of his report.  Though former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who wrote the rules governing the appointment of special counsels say that those rules specify that Justice Department attorneys aren’t supposed to get involved in the process of reporting to Congress, Attorney General Barr has also weighed in, his Justice Department wrote a letter to Mueller telling him that his testimony "must remain within the boundaries of your public report because matters within the scope of your investigation were covered by executive privilege." Similar warning letters were sent to former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former FBI Director Comey before they testified before Congress, both of them went off script anyway, however, it’s not clear what Mueller will do.  He tends to be a “by the books” kind of guy, but the times are extraordinary so he might decide to deviate from his usual practice.  Tune in tomorrow!

Other News:  Trump and Nancy reached a two-year budget deal yesterday that would raise spending limits by $320 billion and suspend the federal debt ceiling until after the 2020 presidential election. Essentially they’ve agreed to raise military spending but by less than Trump wanted and have agreed to raise other spending by a bit more, but probably less than some Democrats in Congress want.  The deficit will continue to balloon but apparently that’s only a problem for most Republicans when Democrats are in power.  On the international front, Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London has been elected to serve as the next British Prime Minister.  Johnson, Trump’s preferred candidate, is a supporter of Brexit, a number of British MPs have already resigned from the government over fears that he will go the no deal Brexit route.  Johnson, who was actually born on the Upper East Side of NYC, is another one of those disruptive politicians who are so in vogue these days.  He once said that his “chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”  It looks like it’s now raining olives in the UK.  As to Elvis, who knows?  In other international news, yesterday Trump said that if he wanted to he could end the Afghanistan war in a minute, suggesting that nuking the country was one of the options he’d consider if all else fails.  He said that during a meeting with Imran Khan, the one-time very successful cricket player who is now Pakistan’s Prime Minister.  For some reason, known only to him, Trump also told Prime Minister Khan that he would be happy to help resolve the long simmering Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, representing that he had Narendra Modi’s,  India’s Prime Minister’s, blessing to get involved.  He doesn’t.  Moments after Trump’s offer went viral India rejected both the offer and the claim that it was ever discussed.  One more thing, rumors that Trump is seriously considering replacing Dan Coats, the well respected Director of National Intelligence continue to percolate. Yesterday Politico reported that Trump met with Devon Nunes, yes the malevolent Devon Nunes who used to be the chair of the House Intelligence Committee until the Democrats took over the House, to get his input on possible replacements and that Trump may actually be considering Nunes for the job.  That brings to mind what Coats said last year during an Andrea Mitchell interview right after she told him that she had just received a note that Trump had invited Vladimir Putin to the White House, “Say that again.”