riversedge
riversedge's JournalDonald and the Delusion Discount: Markets are treating Trump as crazy but harmless.
Donald and the Delusion Discount
Markets are treating Trump as crazy but harmless.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/opinion/trump-trade-tariffs.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Paul Krugman
June 10, 2019
The events of the past few weeks destroyed whatever credibility Donald Trump may still have had on economic policy. And investors are celebrating. At this point, evidence that Trump tweets are sound and fury signifying nothing is, in effect, good news.
Let’s review what happened. First, having gone to great lengths to get a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada — an agreement that was very similar to the existing agreement, but one he could slap his own name on — Trump basically blew up his position by threatening to impose new tariffs unless Mexico did something about border issues that have nothing to do with trade.
This obviously weakens if it doesn’t destroy Trump’s ability to negotiate future agreements, on trade or anything else. After all, what’s the point of making deals with an administration that reneges on its promises whenever it feels like it?
But then, barely a week later, Trump called the whole thing off in return for a statement by Mexico that it would do … things it had already agreed to months earlier. .................................
Press: How Speaker Pelosi trumped Trump
I refuse to use trumpys nickname for our Speaker.
Press: How 'Nervous Nancy' trumped Trump
https://thehill.com/opinion/447813-press-how-nervous-nancy-trumped-trump
By Bill Press, Opinion Contributor - 06/10/19 07:14 PM EDT
Donald Trump is not a nice man. He’s a mean, obnoxious bully. For his entire career, first as a phony businessman, and now as a phony president, he’s persevered by beating, berating, degrading, humiliating and personally insulting anyone who dared challenge him.
That’s how he made it in the shady world of Manhattan real estate. And that’s how he bulldozed his way through the 2016 Republican primary. So what if there were 16 more seasoned Republican politicians running against him? Despite having zero political experience himself, he destroyed them one by one with his nasty nicknames: “Lyin’ Ted,” “Little Marco” and “Low-Energy Jeb,” among others.
Once in office, Trump belittled Republican leaders of Congress the same. Line ’em up and beat ’em up: Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Bob Corker, Lindsey Graham, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise. They once represented a totally different Republican Party. But Trump battered them so badly they flipped from never-Trumpers to Trump acolytes.
How fitting in this “Me Too” era, then, that after taking down all those cowardly men one by one, it took a woman to finally put Trump in his place. Trump met his match when he met Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)...........................................................................
It started at an Oval Office meeting on the border wall between Trump, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) .............................................................Score: Pelosi 1, Trump 0.
Their sparring continued at the State of the Union............................................... Score: Pelosi 2, Trump 0.
Next came the double showdown over infrastructure: one meeting where Trump promised $2 trillion, followed by a second ..................................................................... Score: Pelosi 3, Trump 0.
Clearly obsessed by his inability to get the best of Pelosi, Trump chose the Normandy American Cemetery on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day on which to attack her again, blaming her for criticizing him while he was on foreign soil. Even though he’d used his time on foreign soil to call Schumer a “creep,” Robert Mueller a “fool,” the mayor of London a “stone cold loser,” and Pelosi a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person.” For her part, Pelosi, also in Normandy, respecting the sacred ground they were on, refused to respond. Score: Pelosi 4, Trump 0................................................
More ..on today's installation of Ken Cuccinelli at USCIS. A SPECIAL POSITION WAS CREATED FOR HIM...
AND no doubt, the Repugs in Congress will not raise a whisper about this!!
Chris Geidner Verified account @chrisgeidner
6h6 hours ago
Chris Geidner Retweeted Steve Vladeck
Yet another good FVRA question coming out of the Trump administration. Check out this thread —>
Chris Geidner added,Steve Vladeck
Verified account @steve_vladeck
I could be missing something, but by what statutory authority did the President purport to appoint Cuccinelli as Acting Director of USCIS? He doesn't meet any of the criteria under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998:
…
Show this thread
1 reply 28 retweets 76 likes
Chris Geidner Verified account @chrisgeidner
Chris Geidner Retweeted Steve Vladeck
This is such an incredible abuse of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act process, I wonder if any congressional Republican (besides maybe Rep. @justinamash) will call out the administration for doing so.
Chris Geidner added,
Steve Vladeck
Verified account @steve_vladeck 
This is how they’re purporting to get around the Federal Vacancies Reform Act:
Create a brand-new deputy position, decree that new position the “first…
2:40 PM - 10 Jun 2019
?Verified account @chrisgeidner
1h1 hour ago
More from @steve_vladeck on today's installation of Ken Cuccinelli at USCIS. https://www.lawfareblog.com/ken-cuccinelli-and-federal-vacancies-reform-act-1998 …
https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1138196988065918976
Chris Geidner
?Verified account @chrisgeidner
56m56 minutes ago
I'd add that this is even more problematic than it at first appears because the creation of this new position is being done by an acting secretary who himself is only in his position because the Trump administration pushed out people ahead of him in the DHS line of succession.
Gym Jordan questioning witnesses now on cspan.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Has a Plan to Overturn Roe v. Wade
except for confirming his judges, Mitch has basically shut down the Senate.
And there is little the Dems can do
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Has a Plan to Overturn Roe v. Wade
https://www.newsweek.com/mitch-mcconell-end-roe-v-wade-judges-1442876
By Nicole Goodkind On 6/7/19 at 4:00 PM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell outlined his efforts to stack the courts against Roe v. Wade in an interview with an anti-abortion rights video channel this week. The Kentucky Republican also indicated that the Senate would likely hold more voters this session on the fate of abortion in the U.S. including on "some kind of legislation related to Planned Parenthood."
The comments, made to EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, came after a number of state legislatures including Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana and Kentucky instituted near-abortion bans in an attempt to challenge the precedent set by Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
In his interview Thursday, McConnell said that there had been "some encouraging decisions already in recent months related to state prohibitions against funding of Planned Parenthood." He continued that a number of judges who were confirmed to the bench under his watch will aid in bringing the case to the Supreme Court. "I've noticed how a lot of the judges that we have already confirmed just in the last two and a half years have voted in these cases," he said.
McConnell spoke with EWTN Pro-Life Weekly shortly after receiving Susan B. Anthony List's 2019 Distinguished Leader Award, which celebrates anti-abortion rights advocates................................
McConnell said that the Senate would likely have the opportunity to vote on something related to the funding of Planned Parenthood, and also possibly another vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act which would require any clinics to care for and try to revive any aborted fetuses "born alive" and prosecute anyone who did not do so. The Born-Alive bill failed to pass the Senate in February, with a final vote of 53-44.
'He needs some victories': Trump lashes out over his Mexico deal
To say that Trump sounds desperate is a grand understatement!!
Would love to see him finally crack up. Then we would end up with Pence and I do not know which would be worse.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/10/trump-mexico-deal-tariffs-1358914
As Trump's presidency reaches the 2.5-year mark, he is more aggrieved than ever, telling advisers that he believes he’ll never get fair treatment.
By ANDREW RESTUCCIA 06/10/2019 01:24 PM EDT
At 8:31 p.m. on Friday night, a triumphant President Donald Trump declared that the latest crisis of his own making would be averted, promising to hold off on stiff tariffs because Mexico agreed to “greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration.”
By Monday morning, the president’s victory lap had screeched to a halt.
As news outlets began chipping away at the agreement’s veneer, pointing out that it wasn’t the game-changer that Trump made it out to be, the president started lashing out, painting himself as a victim and insisting that he’s not getting the credit he deserves.
In the span of three days, he fired off more than a dozen angry Twitter messages complaining about media coverage. He promised there was more to the deal than meets the eye, teasing a “very important” part of the agreement that will be “revealed in the not too distant future.” And he called into CNBC for a 27-minute, impromptu interview in which he bashed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for criticizing his approach to trade negotiations while offering few new details about the deal.
“If we didn’t have tariffs we wouldn’t have made a deal with Mexico,” Trump said, defending his strategy. “This is something the U.S. has been trying to get for over 20 years with Mexico. As soon as I put tariffs on the table it was done — it took two days.”
................................................
“He has this insatiable need to impress people and demonstrate accomplishments and notch achievements,” a former White House official said. “When he feels like he’s done something that should be recognized as a success and people are not recognizing it that way, it poses an existential threat to his sense of self — and this is what you get.”......................................
President Donald Trump has grown sensitive to criticism from Republicans and business groups, who have increasingly expressed opposition to his trade policies. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Chao created special path for McConnell's favored projects
Source: Politico
A top Transportation official helped coordinate grant applications by McConnell’s political allies.
By TUCKER DOHERTY and TANYA SNYDER
06/10/2019 05:02 AM EDT
The Transportation Department under Secretary Elaine Chao designated a special liaison to help with grant applications and other priorities from her husband Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky, paving the way for grants totaling at least $78 million for favored projects as McConnell prepared to campaign for reelection.
Chao’s aide Todd Inman, who stated in an email to McConnell’s Senate office that Chao had personally asked him to serve as an intermediary, helped advise the senator and local Kentucky officials on grants with special significance for McConnell — including a highway-improvement project in a McConnell political stronghold that had been twice rejected for previous grant applications.
Beginning in April 2017, Inman and Chao met annually with a delegation from Owensboro, Ky., a river port with long connections to McConnell, including a plaza named in his honor. At the meetings, according to participants, the secretary and the local officials discussed two projects of special importance to the river city of 59,809 people — a plan to upgrade road connections to a commercial riverport and a proposal to expedite reclassifying a local parkway as an Interstate spur, a move that could persuade private businesses to locate in Owensboro.
Inman, himself a longtime Owensboro resident and onetime mayoral candidate who is now Chao’s chief of staff, followed up the 2017 meeting by emailing the riverport authority on how to improve its application. He also discussed the project by phone with Al Mattingly, the chief executive of Daviess County, which includes Owensboro, who suggested Inman was instrumental in the process.......................................
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/10/mcconnell-elaine-chao-1358068
Past time to bring her down. Chao is as Corrupt as her husband!
https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1138062266702733312
https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1138064408503042048
https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/1138047453788352512
On Tuesday, January 31, (l-r) Elaine Chao after her swearing-in as the Transportation Secretary, with her husband Senator Mitch McConnell, in the Vice Presidents Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House. | Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao
Sen. Mitch McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, wave to the crowd during a parade for veterans in Madisonville, Ky., on Nov. 2, 2014. | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Sen. Tammy Baldwin is on Moring Joe right now.
Drenched US documented its 2nd wettest May on record
I still only have half my garden in. Got stuck with my tiller twice yesterday and gave up.
June 07, 2019
Drenched US documented its 2nd wettest May on record
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/drenched-us-documented-its-2nd-wettest-may-on-record/70008488
By Chaffin Mitchell, AccuWeather staff writer
While the continental United States recorded its wettest 12-month period in recorded history this year, historic flooding and record-shattering rainfall amounts landed May 2019 as the second-wettest month in the United States.
Precipitation across the contiguous U.S. that accumulated over the June 2018 to May 2019 12-month period shattered the previous record for any 12-month period with 37.68 inches, 7.73 inches above average.
"The previous June-May record was 35.47 inches and occurred from June 1982 to May 1983. The previous all-time 12-month record was 36.20 inches and occurred from May 2018 to April 2019," Reppert said.............
Trump DOJ is again NOT defending a federal law...for female genital mutilation in a case in Michigan
This is an important story getting little attention: Trump DOJ is again NOT defending a federal law, this time the first federal criminal prosecution for female genital mutilation in a case in Michigan.
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1137386947977068545
Congress Clashes With Justice Department Over Its Decisions Not To Defend Laws
June 7, 20194:12 PM ET
The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr has declined to defend in court the Affordable Care Act or a congressional ban on female genital mutilation.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Lawyers for the House of Representatives are pushing back on the Justice Department's decision to walk away from a statute barring female genital mutilation — and an unusual argument that lawmakers shouldn't intervene to defend the interests of Congress in the case.
The fight is unfolding over the first federal criminal prosecution for female genital mutilation.
Last year, a judge in Michigan threw out charges against several women who had their daughters circumcised. The Justice Department notified Congress it would not appeal that decision because of constitutional considerations.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote to Congress in April to say female genital mutilation should be "universally condemned" but that DOJ had "reluctantly determined" it lacked a "reasonable defense" of the law following Supreme Court rulings in other cases.
...........
Profile Information
Member since: Wed Aug 15, 2012, 03:24 PMNumber of posts: 70,358
