Category: National

* If the State of the Union speech is that important, at least symbolically, then it deserves to look like it. With the focus on POTUS–no matter who that is. The president needs to be the center of attention. Literally. Even this one. It’s his scripted take on the state of our union–from economic report to legislative agenda and national priorities.
To that end, let’s clean up the optics of tradition and get rid of that backdrop of de facto distraction represented by the seated presence of the Vice President and Speaker of the House who share the TV frame with the president. Whether it’s Mike Pence and Paul Ryan, Joe Biden and John Boehner, Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi or Al Gore and Newt Gingrich. They can’t help weighing in with inevitably partisan body language and gestures that range from approving nods and haughty smirks to standing ovations and seated discordance. We’ve seen it too often.
It just so happens that matters are made worse right now with Pence and Ryan, the fawning sycophant and the smug sellout, who are beyond off-putting because they’re doubling down on all that Trump represents and embodies.
No, we don’t have to go back to the early American tradition of a president simply submitting a written report to Congress–however tempting that might seem right now. But we can still take the proper, communication-friendly approach and keep the president, whoever he or she is, appropriately spotlighted.
* Parallels between Donald Trump and the Russia probe and Richard Nixon and Watergate keep coming. High-profile investigations, obstruction of justice scenarios, impeachment talk and antagonistic personalities will yield that. Nixon’s base lionized his tough guy mien, his “moral majority,” take-no-prisoners rhetoric on the anti-war long hairs and his adversarial references to the media. And he had the backing of the Republican establishment–until he no longer had it.
But such analogies typically ignore a basic reality. Nixon, at least, was not unqualified to be president. He was a Navy vet, a Duke Law graduate, a former congressman who served in both the House and Senate and a two-term, Cold War vice president under Dwight Eisenhower. Comparing him to Trump, without underscoring this reality, is unfair to Nixon.
“Tricky Dick” would appreciate the irony.
* Speaking of, uh, foreign meddling, in some ways it looks like others may have gained on the U.S. in today’s 24-7, cyber world of mass communications. Back in the Cold War 1950s and ’60s, the CIA not only had key media operatives helping out, but it also had the capability of placing items directly on the wire service (AP, UPI) tickers as part of its regular propaganda apparatus. Not only has communication evolved, so has “fake news.”
* This Hillary Clinton quote still resonates. May it never reach its ultimate resonance. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
* The new, highly hyped tax law, as we’ve been hearing, will be adding about $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. Remember when that alone would have stoked outrage and worse among Tea Partiers?
* The Trump effect, as we know, is hardly limited to this country. The rhetorical ripples range from North Korea to Great Britain. From foe to friend. We’ve also seen–and heard–the impact from the parts of Europe most immigrant averse, such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. And check out this quote: “I have come to the conclusion that many politicians and journalists have inferior intelligence compared to normal people.” That was Czech Republic President Milos Zeman seemingly channeling Donald Trump.

* “Is Trump Still Sane?” That was the headline recently in the German conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Yes, others notice and also worry.

* That was then, this is now. “Character is the most important qualification the president of the United States can have.” That was, ironically, Richard Nixon before he, let alone his most recent successor, became president.

* One of the terms being bandied about by more than pundits is “suicide” when it comes to the prospect of Donald Trump agreeing to a special counsel’s Q&A under oath. Trump will either lie or incriminatingly confirm–as only he can when he isn’t totally scripted–what has already been confirmed from previous witness testimonies.

* Signage of the times: “Resist, Insist, Persist–and Vote.” That was prominent at more than one women’s march around the country.

* Too bad immigration has to be such a pandering, politically polarizing zero-sum exercise. There’s nothing inherently wrong or xenophobic, for example, with better vetting or merit-based immigration. Ask Canada. But a DACA-Wall tradeoff should be seen for the sham that it is. And who’s paying for that again? Or was that “fake news“?

Another Congress, another presidency, another shutdown, another spending-bill intervention. A couple of weeks, a couple of days. The increasingly familiar scenarios vary. Another day at the dysfunctional office. So much for the “shining city upon a hill.” Legislation by ultimatum.

We now have a budget deal; the government stays fully open for at least, uh, three weeks. Nothing, in effect, has changed. More tarnish for Brand America. We can’t keep governing like this.

“Shut Up” not “Shutdown” would be the better directive. That should have been the operative phrase heard around Washington this week–and for the preceding countdown weeks and months. As in, put away the partisan megaphones, abandon the base pandering and posturing, doff the brinksmanship party hats and take one for functioning–not frustrating–democracy. Do the right thing, not the self-serving thing.

Preening for media attention and political advantage shouldn’t be a viable–indeed, all too predictable–option, when the only relevant game in town has to be keeping the federal government fully operational. And not just most of the time.

Imagine, having to say that!

This isn’t politics, even of the swampy sort. This is legislative negligence of epic proportion, an anti-American badge of disloyalty, and a deadline dagger to meaningful democracy. This periodic perversion of principle should not be part of Congressional culture or updated American exceptionalism. Life, liberty and the pursuit of furloughs.

However, there is this. As happenstance would have it, this most recent, DACA-driven shutdown-crucible has come on the watch of “The Great Negotiator.” The avatar of the artifice of the deal. What a time to make America great again and force feed Congress into a compromise that isn’t seen as anybody’s sellout or surrender. As if. It’s like serving caviar with plastic spoons. Capitol Hill isn’t Mar-a-Lago. And deal-making isn’t done on Twitter.

Here’s a quote for context.

“I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed, and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president should be blamed. If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one who has to get people together.” Yeah. And that, of course, was Trump back in 2011 when we had a “birther”  president.

Now there will be a few weeks before the House retackles the immigration issue, and we see what a Mitch McConnell “pledge” looks like. We could surely use a president with artful negotiating skills, wonk-like retention of details, laser-like focus on the big picture and respect from all parties. And who do we have to “get people together”? Worst than President “Jell-O,” to paraphrase Chuck Schumer. More like a pyromaniac in a field of mid-term-fearing strawmen.

We’re now early into year two of the Trump Administration. Additional outtakes.

* Too bad that the DACA issue can’t be separated out from the rest of an immigration deal. It’s all about being fair and humane. We all know the issues–and the difference between serious security reality and blatant xenophobic bigotry. But a DACA/Wall trade-off!

* We now have more background on Michael Wolff’s  “Fire and Fury” best-seller. He caught Trump’s eye when he criticized some media treatment of the president on a cable talk show. Trump called to thank him. That greased the skids for Wolff’s extended White House exposure to do background on a book. Wolff let it be known that its working title was “The Great Transition.” That apparently seemed more laudatory than ironic.

It also helped Wolff, who took a whatever-it-took approach to ingratiate himself with staff, that he was not well monitored.

* What, pray tell, are those Trump-accepting, hypocritical evangelicals thinking? No problem with the ultimate, porn-again Christian? Perhaps they should abort their rationale for support.

* Duckworthy rhetoric: That was quite the visceral reaction from Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth to Trump’s tweet accusing the Dems of holding the military hostage during shutdown negotiations. The Iraq War veteran is a double amputee and takes such incoming rhetoric personally. Call it ad hominem karma for the president.

“I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger,” zinged Duckworth. “And I have a message for ‘Cadet Bone Spurs’: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops and millions of innocent civilians in danger.”

* President Donald Trump: Andrew Johnson never looked so good.

* John McCain and Bill Clinton. Without their impact, quite arguably, there would not be a Trump presidency.

When McCain put the embarrassingly uninformed, manifestly unqualified, temperamentally ditzy Sarah Palin on his 2008 ticket, he, in effect, validated future deviations from an acceptable norm. That, alas, is part of the “maverick’s” legacy.

Clinton’s sexual predations–both before and while president–lowered the sleaze bar for successors. His administration targeted diversionary scapegoats such as independent counsel Ken Starr, the opposition and certain elements of the media. And when his wife was seen by some as an enabler, it made it impossible for her to fully rally the sisterhood and prosecute the case that America should never, ever elect such a despicable misogynist as president of all the American people.

* No, nothing shocks us anymore. If you have a shit-hole president with a shit-holier-than-thou cast of GOPster enablers, this is what you get. And this is who, in effect, speaks for the U.S. around the world. Maddeningly, embarrassingly disgusting.

* “Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This Is Not A Drill.” Imagine if Trump had seen that emergency alert on a Fox News crawl.

* Also imagine what the North Koreans–uncommonly quiet because of Olympic scenarios they hope will alter South Korean-U.S. cohesion–were thinking during that 38-minute period when no one knew this was a false alarm. What they might have begun to do in anticipation of how the U.S.–OK, Trump–would respond.

* Say what you will about Trump (and we’re not through saying it), but there’s one aspect of his presidency that should transcend all others. And, yes, that includes his various pathologies and his blatant unpreparedness for the most important job in the world. It’s his impact on North Korea and, as a result, his impact on the only world we have.

It won’t be much of a consolation if–as an existential red line is being obliterated by name-calling nuclear duelists–it had been looking like politics as usual would be playing out among sycophantic, self-interested GOPsters looking out for incumbency. So much, seemingly, for Trump arrogance, greed, hypocrisy, misogyny, dishonesty and mental laziness. So much for the “wall,” the drilling, the climate accord, the unilateral pullback from international trade, the nativism, the media attacks, the scapegoating, the middle class betrayal. It had all seemed tolerable in the short term–until we were blindsided by the miscalculation from hell before the short term ended.

Trump and Twitter are the unholiest alliance since Cain and Abel. As Conor Friedersdorf recently noted in the Atlantic, “The wrong words about nuclear war could literally end human civilization.”

Hell, George W. Bush never looked so prudent. This is what it took.

* Trump calls himself a “genius”–not just “like, really smart.” And he’s, like, right–if you define “genius” the way he, not Miriam Webster, obviously does. “Genius” to Trump means the ability to know what certain people want and how they need to hear a response, like, voiced. Whether we’re talking Miss Universe sponsors, subcontractors, an Alt-Reich rally, coal miners or selected CEOs. He knows who wants stuff, and he knows who simply needs a cult figure to channel. Jim Jones with a MAGA cap.

* One of the ironies about the Trump Administration going after the credibility of the FBI–as well as that of Robert Mueller–is that the bureau is a literal law-and-order icon known for its right-leaning careerists. No, this isn’t J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, but let’s not forget that without James Comey, this would arguably be a Hillary Clinton presidency. Ironic, indeed.

* “Oprah for President?”

Donald Trump has, among other things, normalized the abnormal. It used to be where party officials and pundits alike could more or less agree–politics notwithstanding–on a given candidate’s credentials and bona fides. As in pertinent–government or military–experience. As in enough familiarization with the world at large. The Oval Office is not entry level for those who aren’t grounded in real-world reality.

With the rules re-written, it’s no longer a reach to consider that a politician and a pop culture celebrity are variations on the same theme. If Trump can be president, then, retrospectively, Pat Paulsen didn’t look so bad.

And Oprah Winfrey, a far better person and billionaire populist than Trump, can legitimately be in this conversation. If she really wants in–and not just to be a resistance icon and an Indivisible Movement avatar–the option is hers. She’s powerful; she cares; she has an eclectic network of talent at her disposal; she’s beyond media savvy; and she can self fund, if necessary.

* Anybody else miss Mitt Romney? He may just have another couple of incarnations left. As a senator from Utah and, who knows, maybe a refreshingly normal, temperamentally safe, Republican alternative in 2020.

* Stephen Bannon: At least Roy Moore still likes him. And he’ll always have a place in cross word puzzles.

* Trump has labeled the mainstream media the “enemy of the American people.” That sustained attack theme won’t change because Trump doesn’t change, and he knows the “fake news” assault works all too well with his base. But how about post-Trump? What will the relationship look like in his chaotic, media-demonizing wake?

Here’s the sobering assessment of presidential historian Jon Meacham. “Will part of the Trump legacy be a permanent state of political and media warfare? I hate to say it–my gut says yeah. But I hope I’m wrong.”

* Here’s a quote to ponder. It’s from Venezuela-born economist Andres Miguel Rondon. “Scandal is no threat to populism. Scandal sustains populism. … Like all populists, Trump offers a much different (scandal-response) deal. ‘Vote for me: I will destroy your enemies. They are the reason you are not rich/have less rights/America is not great anymore.”

Imagine Hugo Chavez and Donald Trump having this much in common.

* Here’s another, beyond sobering, quote to contemplate, this one from author and Nazi-Germany historian Ron Rosenbaum. “Now Trump and his minions are in the driver’s seat, attempting to pose as respectable participants in American politics, when their views come out of a playbook written in German.”

I doubt that Trump & Co. have made some concerted effort to consult “Mein Kampf” for guidance. But there are some, well, haunting similarities between the Fuhrer and the Donald. To wit: Habitual liars. Both weaponized their lies. Both also bluffed their way into power and were consequently normalized by their vulnerable, delusional, partisan societies. Both eroded public trust in the media with repetitious attacks. And both targeted strategic scapegoats. Other than that … .

* Trump to the New York Times: “The Russian probe makes the U.S. look bad.”

Most everybody else: “Trump makes the U.S. look bad.”

* Not that we needed reminding, but back in the day Donald Trump was a client of notorious, Red-baiting attorney Roy Cohn. Other Cohn clients: John Gotti, Sen. Joe McCarthy and Rupert Murdoch. It’s said that Cohn in the 1970s helped nurture a style of bluster and smears that would become a Trump trademark.

* According to a Gallup poll, the most admired man of 2017 was Barack Obama. Runner-up was Donald Trump. Obama had 17 percent; Trump had 14 percent. Usually a sitting American president is a slam dunk to come out on top, so this was atypical. But still, that close?

* We know that erstwhile Trump foreign policy, advisory-team member George Papadopoulos is a Robert Mueller asset and a growing Trump Administration concern. He talked out of school and now he talks to the Feds. The best strategy for this Administration is to do what it always does when confronted and threatened: Undermine the credibility of the threat. Whether it’s Mueller, James Comey, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN or Papadopoulos.

Hence, Papadopoulos was dubbed a 20-something “coffee boy.” A coffee boy who somehow had a seat at the big boys’ campaign table with Trump and Jeff Sessions. Who somehow knew enough to help arrange a pre-election meeting between Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Who somehow set off the Russia-collusion inquiry while on a latte run.

* Yes, there was actually a time when polarization and paralysis weren’t the driving forces of our politics. For example, when Congress established Social Security in 1935 and the interstate highway system in 1954, both were done with solid majorities in each party. And ditto for congressional cooperation when Congress passed civil rights legislation in 1964 and authorized Medicare in 1965. Yeah, that was us.

* Nostalgia. Remember when we use to say that at large family gatherings it was best to stay away from sex, religion and politics? Sex and religion never looked so topically inviting.

* That Congressional GOPster backdrop for the White House tax-plan-celebration photo behind President Donald Trump was a new low in capitol butt bussing. It gave sycophancy a bad name. And you know the vast majority of those behind Trump are only behind him literally.

* No one needed to parse the comments of Trump or America’s United Nations Representative Nikki Haley in expressing disappointment over the UN rebuke on JerUSAlem. “Let them vote against us,” responded Trump. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.” In other words, “When we buy votes, we expect results.” In further words, “We can simply write smaller checks. Moreover, who the hell is the UN to tell us what to do?”

* It’s now official. There is now a robotic version of Donald Trump at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents in Orlando. He’s sacrilegiously posed next to Abraham Lincoln. It includes personally recorded optimistic, clichéd remarks by Trump.

Christmas came early for Saturday Night Live.

* No, you can’t make this up, and Vlad Putin has probably filed it away. A Virginia legislative election has been declared a tie. A three-judge panel finally ruled on a weirdly-bubbled ballot that had previously gone uncounted. Anyway, the winner will now be chosen at random. From a bowl. Yes, a bowl.

* Seems like an eon–and not a decade–ago, but Kirsten Gillibrand, the high-profile, feminist senator from New York who has fought for the rights of assault victims in the military and in higher ed, wasn’t always this progressive. She once advocated for English to be the official language of the U.S. and boasted about keeping guns under her bed. But a congressional race in up-state New York is a light year from being part of the Democrats’ presidential-candidate conversation for 2020.

* This just in from Alabama. No, Roy Moore hasn’t conceded, but we now know more details about the write-in vote (more than 22,000) that was more than Doug Jones’ victory margin. Incumbent Luther Strange had the most. Among the others, in no particular order, Chuck Norris, Jeff Sessions and Bugs Bunny plus God and Nick Saban–who are apparently not considered one in the same. No mention, inexplicably, of George Wallace. This is progress.

* It was encouraging to see Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talking up talking to the North Koreans–“without preconditions.” But skeptics were still wondering if he will he be around long enough to do any of the actual talking? The neoconic Mike Pompeo, of course, looms.

Alas, this just in: Tillerson is no longer talking about talking. He’s talking about, yes, “preconditions.” In fact, North Korea must “earn” the right to negotiate with the U.S., he has now underscored. Obviously, the White House weighed in as only this one can. “North Korea must earn its way back to the table” is now the U.S. negotiating position. Might as well attribute that quote of rebuttal to Pompeo.

I miss John Kerry.

* It doesn’t qualify as Russian “collusion,” of course, but when Trump and Vladimir Putin talk, the resultant Putin outtakes are predictably supportive of the “fake news” Trump position regarding collusion.  “All of it was invented by people who oppose President Trump to undermine his legitimacy,” recently noted Putin from his well-worn script.

And then he added praise for Trump, the economic difference-maker, saying global markets have shown investors’ confidence in his priorities. “We can objectively see quite serious achievements even during his short time in office,” gushed Putin.

* Take a look at the three world leaders who like Trump the most: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaks authoritarian volumes.

* If he’s still in office, perhaps President Trump could campaign for Rick Scott in next year’s Florida senate race. Maybe Medicare fraud, no I-4 rail corridor and Trump-lackey status will finally resonate with voters. Finally.

* The Clintons, for worse not better, remain part of the context of Trump Administration lore. We know Bill preyed and Hillary likely didn’t pray about it. We also know about Private Email ServerGate scenarios.

That said, we also know this. Both Clintons were qualified to be president. That cannot be said with a straight face about the current Oval Office holder.

* We’ve had our share of bombastic populists. From Huey Long to Father Coughlin. But they don’t really explain the American populist appeal–and ultimate election–of billionaire reality show host Donald Trump. Here’s a more pertinent–and contemporary–example: Sarah Palin. She absolutely presaged Trump as an embarrassingly unprepared, temperamentally unsound media exhibitionist.

When she went on the 2008 GOP ticket–just a heartbeat away from what could have been a 73-year-old President John McCain–the rules changed and the candidate-credibility bar hit a new subterranean low. Palin, Trump and a “Make America White Again” base were this country’s  perfect political storm.

* Any country not named Israel thinks the U.S. committed a major, unforced geopolitical error by recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and initiating plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv. It will cost lives as well as U.S. credibility. Hardly relevant to Trump, who can brag over “promise kept” and know he placated the deep-pocketed Sheldon Adelson.

Somewhere, you have to believe, Trump has a JerUSAlem bumper sticker he’s dying to affix, maybe to Jared Kushner’s getaway car.