Abuse of Power

Frazzled and Furious:  Well, it’s fair to say that Trump is handling his impending impeachment about as well as could be expected.  To state the obvious, compartmentalizing isn’t in his DNA.  Yesterday, after a cabinet meeting, one that opened with a prayer led by HUD Secretary Ben Carson who thanked the lord for Trump  who “exhibits great courage in face of constant criticism,” Trump held one of his off the rails press conferences during which he spewed more than his usual quota of lies and insults.  In no particular order, he called all Democrats lowlifes and suggested that House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff was the “whistleblower,” or the spy, whatever.  At the same time he did say that he admired how those corrupt Democrats stick together unlike his Republicans who have to endure the traitorous utterances of Senator Mitt Romney A/K/A Pierre Delecto.  He also said that the Kurds loved him for all that he’s been doing for them suggesting that even they know that a little suffering, his word for annihilation, is a good thing.  Adding that no one ever suggested that we would stick by them forever because they aren’t nice people and besides there’s no Trump Tower in their part of Syria, or the part of Syria that used to be theirs. Proving that Acting for now Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s Sunday morning statement that president or not, Trump “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business” was spot on, Trump again bragged about his beautiful, well situated Doral Golf Resort, bemoaning that because of that “phony” emoluments clause in the Constitution he’s been forced to cancel plans to host the G7 summit there. He added that not only wasn’t he planning to profit on the summit, but that he’d planned to host it for free taking a huge loss because he’s so rich he could do that.  For the record, he’d never suggested hosting for free.  He also said that being president has already cost him $2 to $4 billion promising that we’ll all see how rich and successful he is when he releases his financials, something he plans to do at the appropriate time.  LOL.  He slammed his predecessor, claiming that President Obama had also violated the emoluments clause by negotiating a book deal and lucrative, but very recent Netflix deal that he, Trump, clearly covets, while in office. And finally, because he hadn’t prevaricated enough for one hour, he claimed that, with the possible exception of George Washington, he was the only president to forego his presidential salary.  For the record both Hebert Hoover and John F Kennedy contributed their salaries to charity.  Later in the day, after 185 Republican members of Congress lost their vote to censure Adam Schiff for doing his job too well, it was revealed that the impeachment inquiry will focus on abuse of power, a high crime that Speaker Pelosi believes most will comprehend.

Revolving Door:   Neither of Trump’s two first choices to fill the Homeland Security Secretary job being vacated by current acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan at the end of the month are eligible to take over under the federal law dictating who can fill cabinet positions without Senate confirmation.  This is a bigly problem for Trump because he wants to fill the slot with a Stephen Miller approved hardliner and neither of his two choices, Acting US Citizen and Immigration head Ken Cuccinelli nor Customs and Border Protection head Mark Morgan have been in their positions long enough to qualify for a bump up to acting Secretary.  At least so far, none of the other “qualified” candidates are interested in the job.  Keep in mind that in addition to dealing with all those marauding migrants,  Homeland Security is also responsible for election security, not that protecting the integrity of the electoral process is much of a priority for Trump.  On the testimony front, though a number of the people called in to give depositions are following Trump’s mandate to stay away, there are still plenty of people on the schedule. Bill Taylor, the Acting Ambassador to the Ukraine, who I mistakenly said was due yesterday, is on the schedule for today and Congressional leaders now plan to work on Saturday to compensate for missing Thursday, the day that  the late Elijah Cummings will be lying in state in the Capitol’s Statutory Hall and Friday, the day of his funeral.  As to testimony it turns out that neither former White House Counsel Don McGahn nor Donald Trump Jr ever appeared before former Special Counsel Mueller’s Grand Jury.  In McGahn’s case it was determined that his appearance wasn’t necessary because he cooperated so well during the thirty hours he spent spilling his guts about obstruction to Mueller’s team.  In Trump Jr’s case, its thought to be because his lawyers advised Mueller that he was planning to Plead the Fifth.  That says a lot about Don Jr, doesn’t it?   

The World:  Although his party lost seats in yesterday’s Canadian elections, Justine Trudeau will continue to serve as Canada’s Prime Minister which is more than can be said for Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu.  Yesterday he admitted that he couldn’t form a new government. His rival Benny Gantz will now be given an opportunity to try to form one, a task that may not be possible.  If he fails, Israel will be forced to hold elections again.  That makes three times, if you’re counting but still way fewer than the number of times a UK Prime Minister has tried to get a Brexit bill passed through Parliament. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still trying to get his plan approved but has also sent an unsigned photo copy request to the EU for an extension from Halloween to January 2020 just in case he fails.  Add Chile to the list of countries facing unrest.  Civilians in the nation’s capital Santiago are protesting extreme economic inequalities, while demonstrators in Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon have been demonstrating against corruption and a recently imposed and then scrapped tax on WhatsApp calls.  Things remain turbulent in Hong Kong where protest against Chinese rule continues and all hell is likely to break out between the Turks and the Syrian Kurds momentarily once the five day ceasefire that wasn’t really a ceasefire ends.  But not to worry, because Trump says everything is fine and, despite evidence to the contrary, he insists that the Kurds really still love all things American.