Planes, Trains and Automobiles?

Fourth on Steroids: Trump pretty much pulled off his militaristic July 4^th festivities.  Despite the rain and thunder no planes fell from the sky and his prized tanks did not sink into the mud or topple any national monuments.  Instead of going into campaign rally mode he mostly stuck to the teleprompter, delivering an uninspiring speech that read like a Wikipedia description of the Revolutionary War, well almost.  Trump did go off track when he referred to that time when George Washington’s army “manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”  As most, well most other than Trump and his Q Anon supporters know, there were no planes or airports back when George Washington was running things, and the “rocket’s red glare” that inspired the Star Spangled Banner was something that happened later during the War of 1812. Though Trump insisted that he didn’t really need the teleprompter because stable geniuses like him have superior memorization skills, he blamed his airport reference on the rain causing technical difficulties with that teleprompter.  Whatever the reason, the specter of planes flying over George Washington as he crossed the Delaware while his soldiers protected Reagan airport did inject some humor into an otherwise dreary hour long monologue, one that ABC, NBC, CBS and MSNBC opted not to air.   We don’t know how much Trump’s military showcase cost since the usually leaky White House is keeping cost estimates under wraps, but it’s likely that when everything is tallied up we could be taking as much as $100 million because moving warplanes, troops and tanks doesn’t come cheap.  The good news is that Trump saved us some money by getting the famed Gruccis to provide their fireworks for free, the bad news is that they made that donation to compensate Trump for his decision to scrap tariffs on the Chinese fireworks that their business relies upon.  We also know that about $2.5 million or so was transferred out of the National Park Service’s already depleted infrastructure budget, but that amount is chump change compared to the total cost.  On the bright side, well at least the bright side for Trump, his campaign honchos are making sure film from the event doesn’t go to waste, they’ve already produced a campaign video showing Trump and Melania waving the flag and observing the troop parade.  Having your campaign ads paid for by taxpayers is a big “no, no,” but as we know by now violating campaign finance laws doesn’t matter much to Trump or “his” Justice Department.  We also don’t know anything about VP Pence’s last minute cancellation of his trip to New Hampshire to talk about opioids.  The White House insists that the schedule change had nothing to do with illness and pushed aside suggestions that Trump called him in to inform him that he’s being replaced by Ivanka or Niki Haley.  As of now they are teasing that we will find out later, maybe part of the counter programming scheduled during or immediately after former Special Counsel Mueller testifies on July 17.        

Migrant Morass:  A number of Democratic Senators and members of Congress, many of whom are also running for president took field trips to migrant detainment centers in Texas and Florida.  A few even managed to sneak some pictures that confirmed reports from some of the migrants’ lawyers that the facilities are so grossly overcrowded, some standing room only, that they lack adequate hygiene facilities and that they are overridden with lice. Inhospitable to humans, the centers do serve as fine petri dishes for bacteria and viruses. Over the weekend the NY Times published their own description, one that further detailed the horrific conditions. When confronted with those reports Trump said the facilities were more than adequate and better than what the migrants were used to, adding if they don’t like the accommodations they should stay home.  Some Fox News pundits, a number of Republican politicians and various senior officials from Homeland Security and Border Control attacked the Democrats, accusing them of lying about conditions at the facilities, particularly targeting Congresswoman AOC, who they love to hate, after she yelled at a border patrol agent who tried to surreptitiously include her in his selfie.  The Trump/Republican/Homeland Security myth that the facilities were more than adequate took a significant hit after the Department of Homeland Security’s very own Inspector General released a report calling them “dangerously overcrowded and squalid.”  Despite the report, as well as another about two Border Patrol Agent, anti-immigrant Facebook groups, senior officials at Homeland most notably acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan went on various news shows where he continued insisting that his facilities were all in fine condition.  With Independence Day celebrations behind him Trump is back to promising to round up and deport massive numbers of undocumented migrants.  He’s talking millions, though the number is probably closer to thousands.  By publicizing the round-ups Trump is broadcasting to his base that he’s living up to one of his key promises while at the same time making it more likely that instead of bringing in the hard to locate criminal element, his INS agents will achieve their “round up”  quotas by nabbing the “low hanging fruit,” the easier to find families and long term law abiding workers. As to those long-time workers, when asked about his golf clubs’ history of hiring undocumented migrants Trump responded that since he doesn’t really run his facilities he knows little about that and anyway everyone employs the undocumented, why shouldn’t he?  In related news, late on Wednesday the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling blocking Trump from diverting military funds to build his border wall. 

Census Imbroglio :  Don’t feel bad if you can’t figure out what’s going on with the 2020 Census and the much disputed citizenship question, you aren’t alone, even the lawyers who’d been representing the administration appear to be in the dark which may explain why it’s now reported that they’ve had their responsibilities transferred to another division of the Justice Department.  Last week, after the Supreme Court pushed back hard against his plans to include the citizenship question, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threw in the towel and announced that the printing of census questionnaires without the citizenship question would start immediately.  The Justice Department lawyers who had represented the administration on the issue confirmed Secretary Ross’s statement and then left town for a much needed rest.  Then just when everything seemed to be moving forward, Trump, likely under the influence of his anti-immigrant guru Stephen Miller and some of his other hard line comrades, tweeted out “The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!” After seeing that tweet, US District Court Judge Hazel convened a call with the then relevant Justice Department lawyers, he chastised them for being out of touch with Trump’s wishes saying that if their client was anyone other than that guy in the White House, he would insist that they drag him into court to get everyone on the same page. The Justice Department lawyers who had pressed SCOTUS to accelerate review of the census case by asserting repeatedly that a final ruling was absolutely, positively needed by June 30 to keep the census on schedule are now saying that their schedule assertion was another Trumpian deception.  Under the direction of Trump the Justice Department is now requesting more time to come up with another rationale for including the question and Trump says that if they can’t get the citizenship question into the questionnaire, he’ll issue an Executive Order commanding its inclusion, an option that most experts say won’t work but that a few, including the ones that Trump is listening to say will because he’s the “king” and as such gets to do what he wants.  The bottom line is that at this point the questionnaires are being printed without the citizenship question, but a citizenship question addendum could still be added at some future date, or then again not.  Confusing enough for you?

2020:  Reports are that two of the many Democratic presidential candidates are coming close to pulling out of the race.  Former Colorado Governor Hickenlooper’s advisors are pushing him to reconsider running for Senator against vulnerable Republican Cory Gardner and members of his finance team have jumped ship.  In addition, California Congressman Eric Swalwell (the pass the torch guy) appears to be having a hard time generating much interest from donors or anyone else.  Though recent polls show that Senator Kamala Harris’s attacks on his civil rights record have dented him a bit, former VP Joe Biden who was out defending his Civil Rights record all weekend, is still leading in the polls but by a smaller margin.  On the money front though he’s polling behind Senators Harris, Warren, Sanders and VP Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has raised a ton of money and is staffing up big time.  And Trump, the guy they are all running against is polling a few points better than he was last week, possibly because the economy keeps humming along or possibly because Democrats’ arguments about busing and the elimination of private health insurance are making him look less atrocious despite all those caged kids and the impending loss of reproductive rights.  As to Trump, during his July 17 rally, it’s expected that regardless of what Mueller says, he will shout his no collusion/no obstruction mantra as loud as possible.  Though no one expects him to attend, Congressman Justin Amash who is already aboard the impeach train, announced that he is no longer a Republican while refusing to deny that he’s considering his own run for president on the Libertarian line. Though it has nothing to do with Russia, Trump could find himself drawn into another “Me Too” case, a really bad one.  Late Friday, the Southern District of New York arrested disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, another one of Trump’s fine friends, for sex trafficking.  Epstein who managed to get off with a relatively light sentence back in 2008 after being convicted of luring young women to his Florida home for “massages,” statutory rape and a little “sharing” with friends is now facing charges in New York.  Trump once referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy” adding he’s “a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Complicating matters even further back when he was the Federal Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta oversaw the Epstein case.  He’s come under significant criticism for the lenient way that Epstein was treated and for hiding information about Epstein’s plea deal from his victims.  At the time of the Florida case, Trump defender Alan Dershowitz, who at least one Epstein victim insists was also a beneficiary of Epstein’s “largesse,” was one of Epstein’s lawyers.  Attorney General Barr’s old law firm Kirkland and Ellis was also involved in the earlier Florida case so it’s possible that Barr might have to recuse himself from this one, something that wouldn’t make Trump, who doesn’t buy into his Attorneys General recusing from anything all that happy.  As to happiness or lack thereof, in addition to Trump a number of others from both sides of the aisle and Atlantic Ocean including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, may be a bit nervous about what their one time friend Epstein might reveal about their participation in some of his not so seemly “activities.” 

International News:  The Iranians have announced that they are back to enriching uranium, a response to the dissolution of their nuclear agreement and the re-imposition of sanctions against them. Turkish President Erdogan fired the head of his country’s Central Bank for refusing to heed his request to lower interest rates, a model that Trump who continues to rail against Federal Reserve Chairman Powell would very much like to follow.  And Chinese President Xi spent part of his weekend pushing back hard at the large number of Hong Kong residents demonstrating against his push to permit the extradition of Hong Kong defendants to the Chinese mainland, part of his efforts to make Hong Kong more like the rest of China.