Infestation

Rats:  In case you missed it Trump spent the weekend twitter raging against Congressman Elijah Cummings, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.  Trump’s fury was most likely motivated by Cumming’s decision to issue subpoenas for Ivanka and Jared’s emails as well as his impassioned questioning of Department of Homeland Secretary Kevin McAleenan over the horrible conditions at the border facilities and the treatment of migrants.  Trump finds the idea of the Oversight Committee actually conducting oversight offensive at best and of course it doesn’t help that Cummings is Black, because for Trump, Cumming’s race makes all the oversight that much more intolerable.  As to Trump’s tweets, he went into race baiting attack mode, calling out Cummings’ Baltimore district as, the worst in the country, a “disgusting rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human” would want to live,  going on to compare it to the facilities at the border which he actually described as clean, efficient and well run despite media and inspector general reports indicating otherwise.  Noting that Trump has a habit of attacking Congresspeople of color and of frequently citing vermin when he does, the slap back, well at least the slap back from those who find racism offensive, was fast and furious with the Baltimore Sun putting it best with their editorial that said that it's “better to have a few rats than to be one” and Charles Blow, the NY Times op-ed columnist saying that the “rot you smell is a racist potus.”  Trump’s response to all the criticism was to double down on hatred, so he then counter-called Cummings a racist and attacked the Democratic party as racists citing earlier comments from the Democratic “squad” who had earlier suggested that Nancy Pelosi, who not so coincidentally grew up in Baltimore, wasn’t respecting them because they were women of color.  A number of media outlets reported that Trump has been advised that his  racially divisive rhetoric helps him with his base, most notably all those white guys threatened by fears that their world is becoming increasingly diverse so this race baiting thing isn’t going anywhere.  That probably explains why Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was so comfortable defending Trump’s speech when he was questioned by Chris Wallace of Fox News. Mulvaney told Wallace to stop reading between the lines, that Trump wasn’t making racist comments, he was just talking about conditions in Baltimore.  When Wallace told him that was a bunch of bunk, Mulvaney then threw in a gratuitous remark about House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, saying that if Trump criticized Schiff’s California district, no one would say he was doing so because Schiff is Jewish, a not so nice way of making sure that Fox viewers not already in the know were fully up to speed on Schiff’s ethnicity.  Remember when presidents did their best to call for inclusiveness over divisiveness.  Hold that memory because at the rate things are going, you won’t be seeing or hearing much of that anytime soon.  One more thing, it turns out that Baltimore isn’t the only place with a vermin problem, last February the Trump Tower Grille in Manhattan was reported for “live mice” and other health code violations. Additionally in July 2018 NYC health inspectors found “evidence of mice or live mice” in and around the kitchen, a violation of sanitary standards that was deemed to be “critical.” The inspectors also found the restaurant to be “not vermin-proof” and said it was “conducive to attracting vermin” and “allowing vermin to exist.” On the plus side for Trump, along party lines, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that $2.5 billion can be diverted from other military spending to the building of the Wall.  That said, don’t expect to see much building anytime soon, there are still a lot of eminent domain issues standing in the way of actual Wall construction.  

  

Human Resources:  As expected Dan Coats, the former Indiana Senator and Congressman who currently serves as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence is leaving the administration.  Coats who was respected on both sides of the aisle, is a known Russia hawk who had no problem speaking truth to power, a significant problem for Trump who doesn’t share Coats’ world view and has no interest in hearing anything that doesn’t fit his narrative particularly with regard to North Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia.  Trump plans to nominate Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist and like minded conspiracist, who “has embraced” Trump’s “theories about the Russia investigation and was among the “sharpest” questioners of former Special Counsel Mueller at last week’s hearings.  Among other things Ratcliffe tore into Mueller for saying that Trump had not been exonerated of obstruction. Ratcliffe’s view is that by investigating Trump for obstruction Mueller had violated the rules governing his assignment.  Bottom line, Ratcliffe, is not at all disturbed about the convincing evidence that Trump obstructed, just that Mueller uncovered that obstruction and then refused to exonerate Trump for his actions. Ratcliffe had been in the running for the DNI position even before the hearing but his performance, which many viewed as his final audition, cemented him as Trump’s preferred candidate. Ratcliffe will still have to be confirmed by the Senate, but this Senate has a habit of confirming Trump’s candidates, even those who are woefully inappropriate for the job and tends to give deference to sitting and former members of Congress.  Reports are that Devon Nunes, that other Trump loyalist/wacko was offered the position, but turned it down because he’d prefer to be Trump’s next CIA Director and hopes to get that spot during Trump’s second term.      

Impeachment Update:  On Friday Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler announced that his committee is filing an application to obtain the grand jury material underlying the Mueller Report. Nadler said that the panel is seeking the material as part of an inquiry to decide whether to recommend articles of impeachment against Trump, a statement that helps with the argument that the Committee should be provided with the relevant information. Nadler’s statement represents the “most significant and public acknowledgement” that impeachment is now more than a possibility.  Notably over the weekend, despite concerns that proceeding with impeachment could hurt the party’s chances of retaking the White House and/or the Senate and even threaten their control of the House, the number of Congressional Democrats supporting impeachment continued to grow, passing one hundred. Some of those new supporters were probably influenced as much by Trump’s increasingly racial rhetoric as they were by the results of the Mueller investigation.  If and when Speaker Pelosi jumps on board that number will exceed critical mass. The House Judiciary Committee plans to continue working during the August recess.  

  

And…:  Prior presidents would probably have commented on the unrest in Russia and Hong Kong, but Trump was far to busy slamming that “enemy” of the state Elijah Cummings, to even note that pro-Democracy demonstrators in Moscow were beaten down by Putin’s police, that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was rushed to the hospital, purportedly due to an allergic reaction but more likely the victim of another Putin authorized poisoning, and that police used tear gas and bullets against Hong Kong residents opposing China’s efforts to impose harsh extradition laws.  Just more crickets from the guy who really isn’t all that into democracy