Here We Go Again  💩 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 💩 

Déjà vu All Over Again:  Usually a news junkie, I started 2017, binging Law & Order episodes, a way of avoiding what was going on in Washington. This weekend I began watching the fourth season of Slow Horses, the British show based on Mick Herron’s terrific John Le Carre like books. I’d been saving this season’s episodes for a blizzard, but who doesn’t feel like we’re in the midst of a category ten storm? By the way, if you like Slow Horses and, like me, were a Le Carre reader, try Karla’s Choice, a new book by Le Carre’s son.  It takes place in the aftermath of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and these days we’re all George Smiley, facing enemies everywhere.  Now back to 2016 on steroids, the election isn’t entirely over but it’s getting close.  Right now, Republicans appear poised to hold on to the House, so far, they’ve won 213 seats, the Democrats 203, nineteen remain undecided.  Odds are that the Republicans will secure a majority, albeit another difficult to manage small one, we just don’t know how small it will be. Depending on who you ask the make-up of the Senate isn’t set in place either. Republicans have definitely won control; the question is by how much.  Over the weekend Arizona’s Senate race was called for Democrat Ruben Gallego and Nevada’s was called for Democrat Jackie Rosen, impressive given that Trump won both states. That leaves only Pennsylvania’s race between Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and Republican hedge fund tycoon/Connecticut resident Dave McCormick undecided, or maybe undecided depending on who you ask.  The AP has called the race for McCormick, but a number of decision desks still rate it as “too close to call.”  McCormick, who is married to former Trump appointee Dina Powell, spent the weekend taking victory laps. However, 100,000 or so votes, enough to sway the outcome, remain uncounted and though McCormick would prefer they stay that way, Casey is waiting for them to be counted.  Right now, McCormick leads by .6% (39,650 votes). According to Pennsylvania law a recount must be held for any statewide race in which a candidate was defeated by one-half of one percent or less of the votes.  If Casey gains any ground once the outstanding “provisional” votes are counted, the race will go to a mandatory recount. Republicans hold the Senate regardless of who ultimately wins Pennsylvania, but if Casey manages to eke out a victory, their margin will be smaller, giving more power to the Senate’s two most rational and pro-choice Republicans, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins.

Incoming:  Since he’s only a naturalized citizen, Elon Musk can’t run for president, so he did the next best thing, he spent $120 million to buy himself one. Melania and erstwhile Don Jr fiancée Kimberly weren’t in the family photo taken after the election results came in, but Elon Musk was.  Of more concern, he was also on at least part of Trump’s post-election call with Ukraine President Zelenskyy.  Should we be concerned, absolutely.  Musk has decamped to Mar a Lago where he is weighing in on political appointments and has even thrown his weight behind Florida’s Rick Scott, the senator who in addition to wanting to sunset Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA, is vying to take over the Senate leadership role left open by Mitch McConnell’s decision to step aside.  Scott is a dark horse in that race which until now has been thought to be between Texas’ John Cornyn and South Dakota’s John Thune.  Scott upped his chances this weekend by saying that he’d happily allow Trump to circumvent the usual process of Senate confirmation for cabinet and presumably other appointees, allowing Trump to instead fill those positions through edicts. No doubt Cornyn and Thune will now agree to do the same because, of course. Trump’s team has not yet signed the usual documents required to smooth the transition, in part because of all those sticky ethics requirements.  Also, his team wants to do away with FBI background checks.  Remember that promise to be dictator for a day, it’s starting.  On the subject of appointments, Campaign Manager Susie Wiles has been tapped to be Trump’s Chief of Staff, or his first Chief of Staff, and Tom Horman, the former ICE director who on 60 Minutes recently defended caging kids and said that it would be okay to deport US citizen children of undocumented migrants was just appointed Trump’s Border Czar.  RFK Jr is hanging in the wings and appears to believe that he’s up for a key health care position. We should be very concerned about that.  His anti-vaccine positions are based on conspiracy theories and false science. Over the weekend one of his claims, that the HPV vaccine which is coming close to wiping out cervical cancer in Australia, actually causes HPV cancers has been all over social media.  He’s a quack who belongs nowhere near health care. He’s also not a nutrition scientist though he’s now playing one on TV.  I am less concerned about his rants against Froot Loops, but even there he shouldn’t get a toe hold on policy because he’s relentless and dangerous.  For what it’s worth there are some Republican doctors in the Senate who might stand in his way, not quacky eye doctor Rand Paul but maybe John Barrasso, Roger Marshall, and Bill Cassidy who all should know better, particularly if bolstered by Senators Murkowski and Collins, however, if Trump is allowed to circumvent the usual confirmation process, that won’t matter.  One more thing to mention about the Senate, of the seven Republicans who voted to impeach Trump only three, Senators Cassidy, Collins and Murkowski remain. Two of them, Cassidy and Collins are up for reelection in 2026 and are likely to be threatened with an avalanche of opposition if they don’t adhere to the Trump/Musk line.

Fog:  It turns out that last week’s attack/pogrom targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam was planned on Telegram and similar communication apps.  Somehow those plans were missed by Dutch intelligence which might explain why the very chastened Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has cancelled his travel plans to deal with the fallout. Over the weekend, pressured by the US, Qatar agreed to kick out its “nice” Hamas house guests, something about them failing to agree to any ceasefire or prisoner release. It’s not clear when they’ll actually leave or where they’ll be going though Turkey has been mentioned as one possible destination. It’s also not clear what Trump will actually do with the Middle East once he takes over, though Netanyahu says they see “eye to eye,” whatever that means.  This weekend the NY Times reported that his Middle East positions are now being influenced by daughter Tiffany’s Lebanese father- in-law, a sometime Hezbollah supporter, who helped him get votes from Arab Americans in key swingy places like Michigan. Who could have possibly guessed that Trump has few positions that can’t be influenced by the last guy into the room, particularly if that guy delivers some combination of votes and money? Has anyone checked on mega pro-Israel donor Miriam Adelson lately?  

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