Tag: politics

Remember, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe is only successful because he is so much more intelligent than you are. Although I have to admit, I do fight it a little remarkable that Mr. Tribe, who is just as American as any Son or Daughter of the American Revolution, somehow managed to become famous for being a “constitutional law scholar” despite obviously not knowing that the SENATE Majority Leader does not appoint members of the House of Representatives to House committees.

NO CONSPIRACY! Remember that. NO CONSPIRACY!

As is my usual wont, I’m not going to pronounce my opinion on the God-Emperor’s latest announcement until two days have passed. But it’s difficult to escape the impression that he has badly misread the American people here, or failed to understand that he’s not going to win any more points from the public for “making a deal” than George Bush did in his one and only term.

Yielding to mounting pressure and growing disruption, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders on Friday reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over the president’s demands for money to build his long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump announced the agreement to break the 35-day impasse as intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and widespread disruptions brought new urgency to efforts to resolve the standoff.

“I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” he said from the Rose Garden.

After saying for weeks that he would not reopen the government without border wall money, Trump said he would soon sign a bill to re-open the government through Feb. 15 without additional money for his signature campaign promise. He said that a bipartisan committee of lawmakers would be formed to consider border spending before the new deadline.

“They are willing to put partisanship aside, I think, and put the security of the American people first,” Trump said. He asserted that “barrier or walls will be an important part of the solution.”

Mounting pressure from whom? One of the most remarkable things about this shutdown is the fact that virtually no one outside of Washington DC has been negatively affected by it.

Donald Trump was elected to do two things: Drain the Swamp and Build the Wall. Precisely none of his supporters give a fraction of a quantum of a damn about “getting the government back to work” or “getting the Democrats on board” or “making a really, really great deal”. That was the case in 2016. It is still the case now.

It is looking more and more as if Trump is not a wartime consigliere, which is unfortunate because America is at war. And here is a hint: if the headlines are going to read “Trump caves”, then you probably shouldn’t agree to it.

Trump caves: President agrees to open paralysed US government for THREE WEEKS after 35-day shutdown – but claims he’ll shut it down again or declare a national emergency to build border wall if Congress doesn’t fund it

Does anyone doubt that the Democrats and Republican Establishment believe he’s just bluffing at this point? Anyhow, as always, wait two days.

The FBI stages a pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone’s home and arrests him:

Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to US President Donald Trump, has been arrested by the FBI on charges including obstruction and witness tampering. He was arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following Thursday’s indictment by the office of the FBI Special Counsel which is investigating Trump and his associates over allegations surrounding his 2016 campaign.

Stone is facing one count of obstruction of proceedings, one count of witness tampering, and five counts of false statements.

It is alleged that Stone, who officially left the Trump campaign in August 2015, told Trump campaign officials in July 2016 about future WikiLeaks (referred to in Mueller’s document as “Organization 1”) releases of damaging information found in leaked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. US intelligence claims the emails were hacked by Russian “government actors.”

The indictment claims that Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his alleged contacts with WikiLeaks and tried to convince another person to give false testimony.

The FBI showed up at Stone’s door in force. Agents arrived armed with assault rifles and clad in body armor, and without warning. It’s the first time such measures were applied to a person indicted in Mueller’s investigation.

Sounds like the Swamp is trying to put a scare into Stone and his family. I doubt it will work.

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
 “I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”

The God-Emperor should simply issue a blanket pardon for Stone and force the FBI to release him.

The media grades the performance to date of President Trump

Incomplete

Not doing the work: From a conservative perspective, the president had fewer wins in his sophomore years. But there were certainly some. Presidents often get credit for things they have only passing responsibility for. And if it was acceptable practice for past presidents, there’s no reason to expect differently from this White House. So they have every right to crow about great employment numbers and the like. They have a better case to boast about the continuing line of conservative judges and justices he has appointed to the bench, most significantly Kavanaugh. His foreign policy accomplishments in Year Two tend not to improve with scrutiny. The overtures to North Korea looks more like a hollow PR stunt every day, and his decision to pull out of Syria with no real plan in place could be disastrous. This points to the real reason I am giving him an incomplete. He’s not really doing the work. He’s not governing like the president of the whole country, or even making the effort to appear that way. And he faces every test like a student who prides himself on his refusal to study. Sometimes it works out for him. Sometimes it doesn’t. But for a guy called a “chessmaster” by his fans, he seems incapable of planning more than one move ahead. Which is why he stumbled into the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

— Jonah Goldberg, National Review contributing editor

B+

Room for improvement: To get there, he’ll have to help Republicans recapture the House and hold the Senate in 2020 — and get re-elected himself. We’re at or above full employment overall, and black and Hispanic unemployment numbers are especially good. Jobs for blue-collar workers are also expanding. He has achieved a de-escalation that could lead to peace in Korea and a realignment of Middle East affairs that is in the U.S. interest, particularly with Iran being brought under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab allies. He has renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement that is much more favorable to the United States than the agreement it replaced. Trump stuck it out with Kavanaugh when other GOP presidents would probably have folded, and he has confirmed a lot of other judges. The tax cuts he passed have helped to fuel economic growth. Beyond that, not much. The do-nothing GOP House lost the voters’ confidence, and now Trump has to deal with an obstructionist Democratic House. The worst commentary on Paul Ryan’s Republicans is that Trump might not see much difference, except for the blizzard of subpoenas. As I commented in the early days of his administration, Trump and the congressional GOP should have had bills lined up like airplanes on a runway. Instead, they squandered a rare opportunity. You can blame Ryan if you want, but Trump was the head of the party.

— Glenn Reynolds, University of Tennessee law professor

My grade is an A-. Best U.S. president since Chester Arthur. Hasn’t fully delivered on either Build the Wall or Drain the Swamp, but kept the USA out of war with Russia over Ukraine joining NATO, kept the insane Neo-Palestinians in check, made real progress on the Korean Peninsula, defanged the globalists on the climate and trade fronts, has begun the retreat from Middle East empire, and showed the Republicans the benefits of not cucking every time the Democrats throw a media-enabled hissy fit. May not be a wartime consigliere, probably does not have the will or the understanding to save the USA intact, but don’t make the mistake of counting him entirely out yet. Weakened by his civic nationalism, his advisers, and his continued reliance on establishment figures, but his strategic instincts tend to pull him out of tactical danger time and time again.

This is to discuss the President’s announcement, whatever it might be. Initial reports are that it is an offer to trade Dreamers for the Wall. Sounds like just another cuckish compromise worthy of the Republican establishment.

President Trump plans to use remarks from the Diplomatic Reception Room on Saturday afternoon to propose a notable immigration compromise, according to sources familiar with the speech.

Details: The offer is expected to include Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for wall money in exchange for the BRIDGE Act — which would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — and also legislation to extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Jared Kushner and Mike Pence have led the crafting of this deal and the negotiations with members, according to White House officials. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters he had proposed the idea of a DACA-TPS swap to Trump in December, and that the president called it “interesting.”

But remember, always wait two days before leaping to any judgement.

UPDATE: It’s most likely just positioning for future action:

Top Democrats said they’ll reject an offer expected from President Donald Trump to extend protections for so-called Dreamers for three years in exchange for $5.7 billion in funds for border security as a way to reopen the federal government after almost a month.

Hey, he tried to be reasonable. And they left him no choice but to act in a unilateral manner.

“I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.”
-Donald J. Trump

It had better be one of two things.

1. The God-Emperor is declaring martial law and Draining the Swamp.
2. The God-Emperor is announcing the Building of the Big Beautiful Wall.

The ever-treasonous Theresa May’s fake Brexit deal went down to historic defeat.

Theresa May suffered an historic landslide defeat in the Commons tonight, losing her Brexit deal by 432 to 202 – a huge majority of 230. She suffered a rebellion of 118 of her MPs – with the group including a raft of former ministers. Tom Pursglove and Eddie Hughes quit as ministerial aides tonight to join the rebels.

It was the biggest Tory rebellion for decades – worse than anything faced by David Cameron, John Major or Margaret Thatcher. The revolt includes more than a third of her entire 317-strong party and was led by ringleaders Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

What May should do is resign now and allow a strong Brexiteer lead Great Britain into a no-deal Brexit. But the EU is trying to sell the idea of a false dichotomy between the rejection of a fake deal and a nonexistent rejection of the referendum.

The EU was built upon the practice of making countries vote until they reached a result that the EU wanted, so this is the exact opposite of a surprise.

The EU has hinted that Brexit should be cancelled after Theresa May’s deal was voted down in the biggest defeat suffered by a Prime Minister in over 100 years. EU Council President Donald Tusk suggested if MPs cannot agree a deal and don’t want to crash out without one, they should consider reversing the historic vote.

While EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that ‘time is almost up’ as he announced no deal planning will be ramped up in the wake of the defeat.

He made a dash back to Brussels for emergency Brexit meetings as the deal was voted down by 432 votes to 202 – meaning a staggering 230 MPs voted against her.

Mr Tusk said: ‘If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?’

The truth is that many Brits want a no-deal Brexit, because it will save them billions of dollars. It was the second-most popular option in a recent poll. No one gives a damn about clarity. The important thing is to get out of the EU and reclaim British sovereignty. Everything else can be sorted from there.

I don’t disagree with what this guy is saying. But it’s a little ironic that he talks about fighting the last war, because the author himself is focused on an outdated and increasingly irrelevant ideological struggle:

History and theory don’t matter to socialists because they imagine society can be engineered. The old arguments and historical examples simply don’t apply: even human nature is malleable, and whenever our stubborn tendencies don’t comport with socialism’s grand plans a “social construct” is to blame.

These most recent spasms of support for the deadly ideology of socialism remind us that progressives aren’t kidding. They may not fully understand what socialism means, but they fully intend to bring it about. Single-payer health care, “free” education, wealth redistribution schemes, highly progressive income taxes, wealth taxes, gun bans, and radical curbs on fossil fuels are all on the immediate agenda. They will do this quickly if possible, incrementally if they have to (see, again, the 20th century). They will do it with or without popular support, using legislatures, courts and judges, supranational agencies,university indoctrination, friendly media, or whatever political, economic, or social tools it takes (including de-platforming and hate speech laws). This is not paranoia; all of this is openly discussed. And say what you will about progressivism, it does have a central if false ethos: egalitarianism.

Conservatives, by contrast, are not serious. They have no animating spirit. They don’t much talk about liberty or property or markets or opportunity. They don’t mean what they say about the Constitution, they won’t do a thing to limit government, they won’t touch entitlements or defense spending, they won’t abolish the Department of Education or a single federal agency, they won’t touch abortion laws, and they sure won’t give up their own socialist impulses. Trumpism, though not conservative and thoroughly non-intellectual, drove a final stake through the barely beating heart of Right intellectualism, from the Weekly Standard to National Review. Conservatism today is incoherent, both ideologically and tactically incapable of countering the rising tide of socialism.

The real battle is not conservatism vs socialism. First, conservatism is dead because there is nothing left in the West to conserve. Second, the real battle is nationalism vs global imperialism. The most recent offensive of the neo-liberal world order has failed, but its armies have not left the field and its leaders are actively developing new strategies, new tactics, and new false oppositions in order to attempt to pick up where the last attempt left off.

The USA has enjoyed the longest government shutdown in its history without incident:

The partial government shutdown became the longest closure in U.S. history at when the clock ticked past midnight Friday as President Donald Trump and nervous Republicans scrambled to find a way out of the mess.

A solution couldn’t come soon enough for federal workers who got pay statements Friday but no pay.

The House and Senate voted to give federal workers back pay whenever the federal government reopens and then left town for the weekend, leaving the shutdown on track to become one for the record books once the clock struck midnight and the closure entered its 22nd day.

And while Trump privately considered one dramatic escape route – declaring a national emergency to build the wall without a new stream of cash from Congress – members of his own party were fiercely debating that idea, and the president urged Congress to come up with another solution.

‘What we’re not looking to do right now is national emergency,’ Trump said. He insisted that he had the authority to do that, adding that he’s ‘not going to do it so fast’ because he’d still prefer to work a deal with Congress.

Even the black-pillers are beginning to understand that the God-Emperor is serious about building his Big Beautiful Wall. And he is serious about it because he understands that without it, there is no point in even running for re-election.

The Republican Establishment is serious about trying to primary him with Mitt Romney – last week 54 Republican Senators voted to directly attack unalienable American rights at the behest of AIPAC and other Neo-Palestinian interest groups – and President Trump will not be able to defeat that treacherous challenge if he does not deliver on his most important promise to his supporters.

Stand firm and inflexible, Mr. President. Build the Wall. Drain the Swamp. That is the road to victory in 2020.

President Trump is absolutely right to make a stand on the Wall. He’s correct to believe that he will not be re-elected in 2020 if he does not deliver on his second-most important campaign promise, to Build the Wall.

President Donald Trump has boxed himself into a situation with no endgame in his government shutdown standoff over a border wall, a new report claims.

Citing an unnamed former White House official, Vanity Fair reported on Tuesday that Trump believes he will not be reelected in 2020 if the wall is not built, and has made the issue his ‘personal Alamo’.

Trump reportedly told aides that he is prepared to make his ‘last stand’ on the wall issue, staking his entire presidency on constructing the border barrier that he called for forcefully in a Tuesday night address to the nation from the Oval Office.

‘The president put himself in a box,’ the former official in touch with the White House told the magazine. ‘The problem is there’s no endgame. Right now the White House is at a seven on the panic scale. If this thing goes on past the State of the Union they’re going to be at an 11.’

Build the Wall. Drain the Swamp. Nothing else matters. Not the stock market, not North Korea, and not tax cuts. And certainly not ending the government “shutdown”.

Build the Wall and win. Fail to build it and lose. This is not rocket science.