Never Mind

The Demilitarized Zone:  While we were weekending, Trump traveled from the  Osaka G 20 economic summit, first to meet with South Korean President Moon and then to the Korean DMZ and into North Korea to shake hands and kibitz with one of his tyrant buddies, North Korean dictator Kim Jong un.  Trump tried to make it appear as though the meeting with the Little Rocket Man was entirely a spur of the moment idea on his part by tweeting out an invite, but the possibility of the tete-a-tete had been proposed earlier.  We know that because Trump disclosed it to The Hill last week but at his request they kept it quiet for “security” reasons. The meeting made for very Trumpian PR, a distraction from the migrant crisis, and a great photo op, which was probably the whole point, though that key photo op part almost didn’t happen after North Korean Security forces attempted to prevent the US press pool from joining in.  New Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham showed why, despite her history of multiple DUIs, she was hired by forcibly pushing a few of those thuggish North Koreans out of the way to help the US pool get into photo range. Her moves which resulted in her sustaining a few bruises would have been admirable if she, or her boss really cared about protecting the press, but in her case it was all about making sure that the US press got to snap those key front page close-ups. After the meeting Trump praised Kim lavishly and reported that he had invited him to visit the White House.  He also acknowledged that nothing substantive had come out of the side trip when he said he was in no hurry to work out any nuclear agreement.  As to Trump’s feelings about the press, at the G 20 summit, during a joint news conference with Putin, another one of his tyrant buddies,  he joked that they should “just get rid” of journalists, an aspirational comment from Trump but something that good old Vlad actually does, regularly. Trump also made light of that whole Russian election interference thing, because what’s a little election meddling among friends anyway?  On that front former President Jimmy Carter who’s at the age where he says what’s on his mind, questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s election, a comment that didn’t sit well with Trump who retorted that the ”forgotten Carter” was a “terrible president.” The one term Carter was no star while in office but has gained in stature significantly since leaving the  White House, in any case Trump calling him out as terrible is truly ironic.  As to the G 20 meeting,  Trump also met with China’s President Xi, another one of those strongmen that he admires possibly because he’s managed to pull off imprisoning two million of his country’s Muslim Uyghurs in “reeducation camps” with little international pushback while Trump gets slammed for the detention of “only” a few tens of thousands of migrants. After meeting with Xi Trump agreed to restart trade talks, back off on imposing more tariffs, and let up a bit on telecom equipment company Huawei and its spying technology, because at the end of the day goosing the stock market and providing relief to farmers who vote takes on added importance in the run up to the 2020 election.  Trump also spent some quality time with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), another one of those guys with a propensity for murdering journalists.  Though Trump said he was “extremely angry and very unhappy" about the murder of one of those journalists, Jamal Khashoggi, he added that nobody has directly pointed a finger at MBS for the murder, well that is nobody but the CIA and United Nations. For some inexplicable reason first daughter Ivanka was featured prominently during the summit.  She showed up front and center in the group shot of the world leaders, inserted herself into a serious conversation between British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emanuel Macron and presented the official “read out” of her father’s meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Suffice it to say, that is not normal. Though Trump didn’t include a number of key diplomats or advisors on his travel squad, because when you have Ivanka and Jared who needs experts, he did find room on the plane for Fox pundit Tucker Carlson who crossed into North Korea with Trump and defended the visit with Kim Jung un and by extension Trump’s comradery with Putin, MBS and Xi when he said there “is no defending the North Korean regime,” it’s “monstrous…..on the other hand, you’ve got to be honest about what it means to lead a country. It means killing people, not on the scale the North Koreans do, but a lot of countries commit atrocities, including a number that we are closely allied with." Carlson, who gets a gold star sticker for convincing Trump to back off on attacking Iran, at least for now, appears to be gaining prominence in the White House inner circle.  Those other two national security advisors, Sean Hannity and John Bolton, must be very bummed.

2020:  With California Senator Kamala Harris’ star ascending, a few of the same characters and bots who pushed the Obama birther conspiracy have returned and are going after her heritage, some suggesting that she’s not “Black“ enough whatever that means and others going so far as to question where she was born.  For the record Harris was born in Oakland, California to a Tamil Indian mother and a Jamaican father. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Don Jr got into that mix this weekend by retweeting a right winger’s claim that  “Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves, she’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.”  Trumpy Jr responded “Is this true? Wow” before deleting his tweet claiming the whole thing had just been a “misunderstanding.”  Most of the other Democratic candidates jumped to her defense, slamming back at the haters, but sadly this weekend’s shady behavior is probably just the tip of the iceberg of hate that’s about to descend from the Twitter-verse.  As to Harris, her debate performance pushed her up to third place in the polls, she’s now tied with Warren but still behind Biden and Bernie.  Her gain comes mostly at Biden’s expense.  That said the gaffe-making former VP who was out all weekend talking up his civil rights chops remains in the lead.  Harris has definitely proven that her prosecutorial skills translate well to the debate stage but to make it to the top she’s going to have to be more consistent about her positions.  Notably she keeps waffling on health care.  Early on she said that she was for Medicare for All and the elimination of private insurance, before saying she wasn’t, then she again said she was on the Thursday night debate stage only to say that she heard the question as whether she would be willing to give up her insurance for Medicare, not whether she thought that private insurance should be eliminated entirely to speed the move to Medicare for All. If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is.  As to coherent positions it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump doesn’t understand why anyone is upset with Biden’s historical position on busing, the issue that gave Harris her opportunity to shine.  When asked about busing the clueless Trump responded “Well, it has been something that they’ve done for a long period of time, I mean, you know, there aren’t that many ways you’re going to get people to schools. So this is something that’s been done ... it is certainly a primary method of getting people to schools.”  He was similarly confused when he was asked about Putin’s statement that western-style democratic liberalism was obsolete so he responded, “well” Putin “sees what’s going on, I guess, if you look at what’s happening in Los Angeles, where it’s so sad to look, and what’s happening in San Francisco and a couple of other cities, which are run by an extraordinary group of liberal people.”  Those comments would be funny if they were part of an old SNL Gilda Radner skit, like the one where her Emily Litella persona decried violins on television until saying “never mind” after being told the issue at hand was violence not string instruments, not so funny when it betrays the ignorance of the guy who is the leader of the free world.

The Supremes:  Before exiting for the summer holidays the Supreme Court announced plans to take up several cases involving the Trump administration’s efforts to kill the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program during its upcoming fall session but refused to hear a challenge to a lower-court invalidation of a 2016 Alabama law outlawing dilution and extraction abortions, the primary method used in the seven percent of abortions that occur in the second trimester of pregnancy.  As a result the DACA issue will be front and center during the run up to the 2020 election while the overturning of Roe v Wade will remain simmering on the back burner.  Also, on the abortion front, the sole remaining abortion clinic in Missouri was temporarily spared on Friday after a state commission gave it more time to resolve that drummed up licensing dispute with the state health department.

Trump continues to ramp up plans to turn Washington DC’s Fourth of July celebrations into a full on Trump rally.  In addition to extra-long fireworks, military flyovers and one of his rousing speeches, he’s creating a special ticketed VIP section for very special friends and family and, most likely a significant number of major Republican donors.  Though my invitation appears to have gotten lost in the mail,  I plan to cut back on the frequency of my blogs this week. Happy 4^th!