Elizabeth Goitein observes Trump Is Destroying His Own Case for a National Emergency (“By waiting for Congress to act, the president is undermining the legal basis for any declaration”): Here’s how the legal process for emergency powers works: Under the National Emergencies Act, passed by Congress in 1976, the president has broad discretion to declare a…
Trump
Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Trump-Russia
‘Foreign powers infecting the White House like malware’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economy, Federal Government, Never Trump, Transportation, Trump
Commerce Slows
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, Friday afternoon: Trump folds under pressure agrees to a three-week re-opening of the federal gov’t. Of his Rose Garden address this afternoon (one that I watched in full), Jennifer Rubin observes “[m]aybe this is part of an insanity defense for the Russia probe.” One reads that under the shutdown, interstate commerce now slows: Significant…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Education, Innovation Center/Tech Park, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
Ignorant Policymakers Will Produce Ignorant Policies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Rep. Justin Amash, who is as close to a libertarian as any Republican in Congress, offered this observation about Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce: It’s amazing that Wilbur Ross was nominated and confirmed to be secretary of anything. He’s shown over many years that he doesn’t understand basic economics, and to describe him as…
Economy, Federal Government, Trump
The Shutdown Brings…a shutdown
by JOHN ADAMS •
Troy Newmyer reports Economists worry ‘zero growth’ may be reality as shutdown drags on: Kevin Hassett, the Trump administration’s top economist, acknowledged yesterday the economy may not grow at all in the first quarter if the shutdown lasts that long. And White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is eyeing an even longer impasse. He…
Kakistocracy, Never Trump, Presidential race 2016, Resistance, Trump, Unfit
Yet Go He Will…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ted Koppel cautions Don’t expect Trump to go quietly: There is a disarming innocence to the assumption that whether by impeachment, indictment or a cleansing electoral redo in 2020, President Trump will be exorcised from the White House and that thereby he and his base will largely revert to irrelevance. Truthfully, there are few among the…
Trump
Donald J. Trump, 1.14.19
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bigotry, Congress, Politics, Race, Trump
Congressman Steve King, But Not Only Steve King…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bigoted congressman Steve King has lost his committee assignments, should be censured, and truly should leave politics forever. And yet, and yet, while King should go, King shouldn’t head for the exit alone: The condemnations of Mr. King stood in stark contrast to the lawmakers’ willingness to tolerate President Trump’s frequent offensive and insensitive remarks about migrants, black people, Native Americans and other…
America, City, Federal Government, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Local Government, Never Trump, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Trump-Russia Roundup
by JOHN ADAMS •
While the proper focus against Trumpism involves a zealous lawful effort against Trump and his leading operatives, there is also a problem of Trumpism down to the local level. In both cases, officials advancing Trumpism ignore the overwhelming evidence of his betrayal of our own people to the benefit of a hostile foreign power. As…
Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Room Where It Happens
by JOHN ADAMS •
This weekend, Greg Miller reported on the lengths to which Donald Trump has gone to hide the contents of his discussions with Putin from his — Trump’s own — administration. See Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration. Normally – in a properly functioning federal administration – a…
Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
Trump as Fifth Columnist
by JOHN ADAMS •
A fellow traveler is someone who sympathizes with a foreign adversary, but a fifth columnist is far worse: the fifth columnist takes active steps in support of his or her disloyal sympathies. Trump has spoken favorably of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on many occasions, yet he has done far worse: he has acted in ways that actively…
Bad Ideas, City, Congress, Culture, Demographics, Development, Diversity, Economics, Economy, Federal Government, Immigration, Trump
‘Our Guy’ Isn’t Our Guy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some months ago, in a radio interview to tout part of the Trump tax bill, the Whitewater Community Development Authority’s executive director Dave Carlson referred to Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner as ‘our guy.’ Sensenbrenner, a pro-Trump septuagenarian multimillionaire from a gerrymandered district, is – literally – Whitewater’s federal representative. Sensenbrenner has never been – and…
Immigration, Mendacity, Trump
A Fact-Checking Cheat Sheet for Trump’s Immigration Address
by JOHN ADAMS •
Salvador Rizzo, Glenn Kessler, and Meg Kelly have published Your fact-checking cheat sheet for Trump’s immigration address: President Trump will be speaking from the Oval Office tonight to make the case for $5.7 billion to start building a wall along the southern U.S. border — the crux of a funding impasse with Congress that has…