Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of forty-one. Sunrise is 7:19 AM and sunset 4:53 PM, for 9h 34m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.4% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred thirty-sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1942, senior government officials of the Third Reich meet at the Wannsee Conference to assure administrative compliance with a policy of deportation and genocide of Jews within the borders of the Nazi state. On this day in 1865, the 25th Wisconsin Infantry reconnoiters the Salkehatchie River in South Carolina prior to battles in the first week of February in defense of the Union.
Recommended for reading in full —
Jennifer Rubin writes Republicans are fooling themselves if they think they have a shutdown leg up [Updated]:
In a vote he surely knew would fail, McConnell (R-Ky.) could not get a simple majority, let alone 60 votes to proceed on the House continuing resolution. While McConnell has not cast his vote, he will likely be compelled for procedural reasons to vote no (to bring up the bill later), thereby leaving the vote at 50-48. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is battling brain cancer, did not vote.
There are several aspects worth noting at this late hour. First, although Schumer lost five Democrats (who voted to proceed), McConnell remarkably lost four votes, making it that much harder to pin the shutdown on Democrats. The degree to which the hard-line anti-immigration crowd has divided the GOP is remarkable. Second, to put on my former labor lawyer hat, McConnell’s lack of urgency today was stunning. This situation is akin to a labor contract negotiation leading up to a strike deadline. Not to have a single joint meeting with Democrats and the president or exchange any proposals in the final day represents a stunning level of irresponsibility. Republicans control both houses and the White House; not to make every effort to initiate talks and find a solution suggests they no longer know how to cut deals. Finally, having a self-described dealmaker in the Oval Office was worthless, since the dealmaker is totally incapable of mastering policy details, expressing a policy preference (and sticking with it for more than an hour) and moving both sides to conclusion. This is what comes from electing someone entirely in over his head. It did not help that Trump reportedly whined to staff about missing his party at Mar-a-Lago. His reputation as a man-child remains intact.
The shutdown awaits, but the weekend provides time to find a solution before the start of business on Monday. Let’s hope saner and more experienced heads prevail.
➤ Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released its report on Profiting from the Presidency: A Year’s Worth of President Trump’s Conflicts of Interest:
During President Trump’s first year in office, CREW worked to monitor, log, and categorize every instance in which government and special interests interacted with the president’s private businesses. The results were posted on the interactive timeline Trump Inc.: A Chronicle of Presidential Conflicts. Ultimately, CREW recorded more than 500 timeline entries related to potential conflicts of interest. While it would be almost impossible to adequately summarize the full collection, we can offer three broad takeaways from this effort:
FIRST, President Trump and other government officials have routinely visited Trump properties and promoted them throughout the past year, signaling to those seeking to influence the government that the president’s commercial properties are important new centers of power and influence.
-President Trump spent a full third of the first year of his administration—122 days—visiting his commercial properties.
-Seventy executive branch officials, more than 30 members of Congress, and over a dozen state officials visited Trump Organization properties during the first year of the Trump administration.
-President Trump and his White House staff promoted the Trump brand by mentioning or referring to one of the president’s private businesses on at least 35 different occasions during the president’s first year in office.
SECOND, far from this signaled access to power being an empty promise, those who patronize President Trump’s businesses have, in fact, gained access to the president and his inner circle. Indeed, it appears that at least some of those guests are trying to use that access to exert influence.
THIRD, the promotion of the president’s businesses as centers of power and influence appears to be paying off: During President Trump’s first year in office, a variety of industry groups, foreign governments, and political committees patronized his businesses.
-There have been more than 40 instances of special interest groups holding events at Trump properties since January 20, 2017.
-Eleven foreign governments have paid Trump-owned entities during the president’s first year in office, and at least six foreign government officials have made appearances at Trump Organization properties.
-Political groups spent more than $1.2 million at Trump properties during the president’s first year in office. Prior to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, annual spending by political committees at Trump properties had never exceeded $100,000 in any given year going back to at least 2002.
(See also the CREW timeline of Trump’s conflicts of interest.)
➤ Judd Legum observes The unrepentant racism of Tucker Carlson Tonight (“A primetime Fox News show embraces white identity politics”):
On Thursday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox News’ highest rated program, the host and his guest, right-wing pundit Mark Steyn, were unrepentant in their embrace of anti-Hispanic racism.
Steyn ominously noted to an audience of about 3 million people that the “majority of grade school students in Arizona are Hispanic.” According to Steyn, this means that “Arizona’s future is as an Hispanic society.” This, Steyn says, is very bad.
“That means, in effect, the border has moved north,” according to Steyn. In other words, Steyn believes that Hispanics are not real Americans.
Carlson replies that this cultural transformation is “bewildering” for “people grew up here,” apparently unaware that millions of Americans are Hispanic and grew up here. “I don’t think you have to be motivated by hate to say maybe I should have some say in how my country evolves,” Carlson argues.
In short, Carlson believes that it is legitimate for white people to want to exclude Hispanics from the the United States to preserve the country’s white identity.
The irony of Steyn’s racist commentary on what it means to be an American is that Steyn is not an American. He is Canadian. There are 56.6 million Americans who are Hispanic. All of them are 100 percent more American than Mark Steyn.
➤ Jon Lovett contends Tucker Carlson’s political evolution reveals where our politics now stands:
Tucker Carlson’s transition from conservative seriousish writer to blustery CNN guy to Daily Caller troll to race-baiting Fox News host is like ice core data on what led to this moment in our politics.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) January 19, 2018
(Lovett’s spot on about this – anyone reviewing consistently the white supremacist publications of the alt right would see that Carlson – more than any other mainstream television personality – receives their admiration and support. By comparison, these publications scarcely care about someone like Hannity. It’s Carlson who excites them, who offers them the malevolent hope of a breakthrough in the middle of Fox’s primetime schedule. No one signals to them like Carlson does. Why, by the way, would anyone review consistently the white supremacist publications of the alt right? One does so not merely because they are the enemies of a democratic society, but because they are the enemies of a democratic society who aim to seize this day, Trump’s time, to become a mainstream movement.)
➤ Explore Portugal’s Castle of Many Colors:
Perched atop Portugal’s Sintra Mountains sits Pena National Palace, an eclectic attraction built in the late 18th century. The castle’s vibrant colors and unusual architecture were the brainchild of King Ferdinand II, who built the palace to serve as a summer home for the Portuguese royal family. Today, it holds the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting visitors from around the world.