Lock him up
by digby
“When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth so they are not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it is disgraceful — Donald Trump
⭐️ #News • Flynn will invoke Fifth Amendment: AP source: Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will invoke… https://t.co/DjwMIIyUSD pic.twitter.com/YHUR6QylIn— Fallenberg™ 🇩🇿 (@Fallenberg) May 22, 2017
The budget from hell
by digby
President Donald Trump is exhausted. At least that’s what an aide told the press as an explanation for why he used the word “Islamic” rather than “Islamist” in his big speech in Saudi Arabia and ended up offending his hosts. After the speech, Trump canceled his appearance at the Tweeps Forum and had his daughter fill in for him.
He did manage to handle a weird glowing orb and swayed along to a traditional all-male sword dance along with Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House adviser Steve Bannon on the first night of his trip but none of that looked very arduous. And the team brought home a major arms deal, with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arranging a nice discount for the wealthy Saudi government, which will undoubtedly give the war in Yemen a big boost. But the administration didn’t come away empty-handed by any means. The Ivanka Foundation apparently scored a gift from gulf sources, which flies in the face of what Donald Trump once had to say about the Clinton Foundation:
Ivanka Fund got $100MM pledge from Saudis & UAE.
But oops! Trump is like Hallmark cards. There’s an old tweet to celebrate every occasion. pic.twitter.com/ONZzpG5hRM— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) May 21, 2017
For Monday’s stop in Israel, most Israeli government ministers were planning to boycott the airport ceremony until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a fit and demanded that they attend. (The ministers were a little miffed that Trump gave away one of their intelligence operatives while swinging his yuge “intel” around for the Russians.) The White House had previously requested that Israel shorten the welcoming ceremony officials had planned at the airport because of the heat, which is lucky considering that Trump was falling apart just three days into his trip. It seems that our president is lacking in the strength and stamina required for the job. You might even call him “low energy.”
Still, it probably beats being back in Washington and dealing with the Russian investigation. The last two weeks have been historically bad. Even the best-run White House in the world would have had trouble carrying on with the normal business of governing under these circumstances — and I think everyone knows by now that this is not the best-run White House in the world. So it should not be surprising that for reasons that make no sense whatsoever, the Trump administration chose this moment to drop its proposed budget. And it is a bomb.
First of all, it’s bizarre to do this while the president is on his first big overseas trip. As Forbes’ Stan Collender observed, the production of the budget is normally a major political endeavor, choreographed in every detail over the course of at least a week. It usually begins with the State of the Union address, when the president would unveil his major policy proposals to the nation. Then administration officials would strategically leak specific details and issue trial balloons, after which top members of the economic team would hit the airwaves to sell the plan to the public. That’s just the beginning. Collender explained how things normally work:
The budget was then sent to Congress the next day. The president typically held a press conference to take a political victory lap for what he was proposing. Federal departments and agencies would do a briefing that same day for reporters. Cabinet members would appear the rest of the week at congressional hearings on their budgets. In one final gasp, the new president’s budget would then be the prime topic of conversation on that weekend’s talk shows.
None of this is happening. It is also true that even if members of Team Trump tried to follow that script it would be tough because of all the scandals and investigations. But they aren’t even trying. The president will be on the air all week, but he won’t be talking about this. As far as we know, the members of the economic team who aren’t traveling with the president aren’t booked for any TV this week. Even more problematic is the fact that they are dropping this budget during the same week that the Congressional Budget Office report on the Trumpcare bill is scheduled to be released — which will create another round of devastating headlines in local papers all over the country. And for obscure procedural reasons, the House may even have to go through the agony of voting on that toxic waste of a bill all over again.
Needless to say, the leaks we’ve seen suggest this budget is a nightmare that could have been written by the most conservative member of Congress advised by the Heritage Foundation. It is a full-fledged assault on children those who are poor or have disabilities and elderly people. According to Jonathan Swan at Axios, these are the bullet points:
Balanced budget: I am told Trump’s budget will balance over ten years. To get there, it will propose tough cuts on both the mandatory and discretionary sides — e.g. to the EPA and State Department — and will assume that the U.S. economy will grow at 3 percent instead of the 1.6 percent rate it grew in 2016. The 3 percent growth rate will be reached after a few years, not immediately.
Where the entitlement cuts are made: From programs including SNAP (food stamps), CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), and SSDI (Disability Insurance). The budget proposal will also assume that Trump can sign into law the American Health Care Act — the Obamacare repeal and replace bill that passed the House and is now being considered by the Senate. That bill makes substantial cuts to Medicaid.
How the entitlement money will be saved: The source tells me there’ll be an “emphasis on work requirements for able-bodied people” to save money on these social welfare programs.
The new GOP populism looks an awful lot like the old conservative GOP’s politics after all. The only thing missing is the huge tax cuts we know are coming, but Trump will almost certainly insist on a really big show for his “reform” plan. He’ll be happy to go out and tell people how much they are winning. He’s obviously not so keen on owning up to all the losing.
The good news is that this budget is likely dead on arrival. It will bring a few days of very bad press for Republicans and could shave another point or two off the president’s already historically low poll numbers. It suffers from the same dynamic that has made Trumpcare into a giant albatross choking the life out of mainstream Republicans, but with one important difference. Since this austerity budget isn’t something they’ve all been running for office on these past few years (the way they did on repealing Obamacare), it may just die an early death. Which is very much preferable to all the humans who would do so if the bill were passed.
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Normalizing W
by tristero
For a while, the question going around my social media was, “Don’t you wish George Bush was president instead?” And my response was always the same, “You mean, would I prefer dying from pancreatic instead of liver cancer?”
But normalizing W – and by extension, the hideous caricature of an American political party that is the modern GOP – appears to be inevitable. Let’s not mince words here:
What Posner and Bazelon wrote below is as Orwellian a lie as anything coming from Trump’s mouth:
Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama flexed their executive muscles. Mr. Bush enhanced the president’s control over national security after the Sept. 11 attacks by opening Guantánamo, trying terrorism suspects before military tribunals, and authorizing warrantless wiretapping. Mr. Obama took unilateral aggressive actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reform immigration.
They left the office stronger than when they arrived. Although their policies were controversial, both presidents were given deference because they made their judgments conscientiously and led the government professionally.
Bush is now conscientious. The president who famously refused to pay attention to a memo that was entitled “bin Laden Determined to Attack US” in the month before 9/11.
Bush is now professional. The president who praised the incompetent Michael Brown during Katrina with “”Brownie, “you’re doing a heckuva job.””
Bush – the president who presided over the worst economic crash since his fellow Republican Hoover’s regime.
Bush – the president who brought international shame to his office and the United States by kowtowing to right wing religious extremists during the grotesque, macabre Terry Schiavo horror.
Bush – the president who invaded a country on knowingly trumped up (yes, that’s intentional language) lies, which led to Abu Ghraib, which led to ISIS, and to attacks to come against the US that will likely last for generations.
That is the President Bush who is now touted as a paragon of conscientious and professional governance.
Posner and Bazelon both know better. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Retreading Rahm
by Tom Sullivan
Democrats may be “rolling in cash” going into the 2018 midterms, but they’ll need more than money to produce the Democratic wave they last saw in 2006. They’ll need vision and a message. Republicans are awful isn’t the message. Voters already know that.
Politico’s coverage this morning suggests Democrats are rolling out a retread of Rahm Emanuel’s 2006 strategy, even sending senior House Democrats to Chicago to seek Emanuel’s advice:
“In 2006, there was a similar landscape, where Republican-controlled majorities in the House and Senate refused to do anything to hold George W. Bush accountable,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, one of the three Democrats planning the Chicago trip. “The 2006 blueprint will have to be updated and reloaded to reflect the environment of today, but there are some lessons that can be learned.”
Democrats haven’t even finished learning their lessons from 2016. But it’s easier to skip over them and party like it’s 2006. Organizing For Action (OFA) wants to target Republican “Rubber Stamp Reps,” echoing Emanuel’s 2006 effort to name a Republican “rubber stamp of the week.” Firedoglake organized in 2006 to send congressional Republicans actual rubber stamps reading Rubber Stamp Republican Congress. Cute stunt. But in 2018 will it move voters? Did it in 2006?
“The future, in a presidential election, a statewide election, or a congressional, is in the suburbs, where more moderate voters exist,” Emanuel said in last week’s episode of POLITICO’s Off Message podcast. “I purposely recruited candidates who reflected the temperament, tenor and culture of their district. I didn’t try to elect somebody that fit my image. I tried to help elect somebody that fit the image and the profile of the district.”
To repeat: “Democrats rely on polling to take the temperature; Republicans use polling to change it.” Democrats chasing public opinion aren’t leading, they’re following. Voters elect leaders, not followers. Emanuel’s strategy turned candidates in the districts he selected from Democrats into Republican-lite. It boosted Democrats’ numbers, but only over the short term. Where are the Blue Dogs now? That’s what comes of chasing public opinion rather than molding it.
Emanuel’s more conventional strategy of targeting swing districts received far too much credit for the sweep in 2006 and Howard Dean’s 50-state plan too little. Dean put 3-4 professional organizers on the ground in states where Democrats were not considered competitive. What happened?
Governing looked back at Dean’s strategy in 2013:
Here’s how the Democrats fared in the reddest of red states between January 2005 and January 2009, the period when the 50-state project was in operation:
- State House seats: Net gain of 39 seats, a 2 percent increase of all seats in the states analyzed
- State Senate seats: Net loss of two seats
- Governorships: Net loss of one
- Attorney generalships: Net gain of one (elected seats only)
- U.S. House seats: Net gain of three seats
- U.S. Senate seats: Net gain of one seat
- Presidential performance: In 15 of the 20 states, the Democratic nominee saw an increase in vote share between 2004 and 2008. In three other states, the vote share remained constant. It dropped in only two states.
Perhaps not so impressive until one considers the states in question were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. So what happened after Barack Obama pulled the plug on 50-state?
Now let’s compare this record to the one between January 2009 and January 2013.
- State House seats: Net loss of 249 seats, a decrease of 13 percent of the existing seats in those states
- State Senate seats: Net loss of 84 seats, a decrease of 12 percent
- Governorships: A decrease by half, from eight governors to four
- Attorney generalships: A drop by two-thirds in elected AGs, from nine to three
- U.S. House seats: A 40 percent drop, from 44 seats to 26
- U.S. Senate seats: A drop from 11 seats to 8. (It could drop further by 2014: Of those eight remaining seats, three senators are retiring and another three face tough reelection contests.)
- Presidential performance: Only two of the 20 states (Alaska and Mississippi) saw higher support for Obama in 2012 than in 2008. In most of the 20 solidly red states, Obama’s 2012 vote fell back roughly to John Kerry’s level from 2004.
Altogether, these post-2009 declines are, to put it bluntly, pretty catastrophic. In these 20 solidly red states, the Democrats controlled 13 legislative chambers in 2005, a number that fell to just three in 2013. Of the 40 chambers in these states, only two experienced a net gain of Democratic seats between 2005 and 2013; in the other 38, the Democrats lost ground.
Of course, that analysis fails to account for the backlash to Obama after 2008 and other factors. The South has some stiffer challenges, but those libertarian-leaning red states in the Great Plains and the West, and Montana currently, each get representatives and senators too. The map is the math. Rebuilding decayed party infrastructure builds the Democrats’ bench. Shaving the margins out there is a win if it helps tip the balance in Congress and if Democrats take back legislatures from which future governors and congress members arise.
For years, however, Democrats have rarely had time for it. Dean got that. It is disheartening to think the DCCC is going back to Rahm’s playbook. There’s never enough time to rebuild, but always enough time to throw on another patch. The question that Dean’s tenure as DNC chair posed was, do you expand the party by winning elections, or do you win elections by expanding the party? Detroit’s resurrection didn’t come from selling more of the same old cars. It came from selling better-designed cars made in newer factories. That takes investment. As Governing observed, Dean’s experiment demonstrated how “modest investments in party infrastructure can pay tangible dividends — and how those dividends can disappear once the investments dry up.”
This is the most important election of our lives, as I heard once again at a dinner over the weekend. They say it every year. That’s why all the party’s energy and all its fundraising goes towards next November and never towards the two or three after that. It’s a fundamentally defensive strategy.
If you don’t show up to play, you forfeit. It’s one thing Democrats do well.
Sunday Night Soother
by digby
To center yourself for this coming week:
How the ducklings got onto a 6th floor balcony of a Library of Congress building is a mystery.
But the dozen baby ducks and their mother were rescued Tuesday afternoon with the help of the U.S. Capitol Police. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden posted a picture of the ducklings on Twitter.
On Tuesday, around 4 p.m., a Library of Congress staffer noticed the ducklings and their mother go past a window of the 6th floor balcony of the James Madison Memorial Building, which is one of the library’s facilities, said Gail Osterberg, the library’s director of communications.
There is no water around, so it seemed a bit “out of the ordinary,” said Osterberg.
The staffer went to the librarian’s office and got the chief of staff who has access to the balcony. The two went out on the balcony and saw the ducklings and their mother. The birds were trying to get over the walls of the balcony but couldn’t, Osterberg said.
“Clearly it was not a safe environment for them,” Osterberg said.
U.S. Capitol Police was called. Officers and others were able to safely coax the ducks into two boxes, Osterberg said.
She said they did not find a nest in the balcony area, but staffers believe the mother duck flew up there and gave birth in some nearby shrubbery.
“She flew up there and had her babies in some bushes, overlooking the Capitol,” Osterberg said. “It is a very nice, peaceful spot. Away from the hustle, bustle.
“And then she was trying to figure out what to do from there.”
In yet another duck story, a Republican asshole bitched about some little ramps that were built for baby ducks at the Washington Mall
If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it must be government waste. pic.twitter.com/JKgabZ47O5— Rep. Mark Walker (@RepMarkWalker) May 15, 2017
The heartless creep didn’t know the story, of course. Not that he would care if he did:
The office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol released a statement this week saying four “broods” ― or families ― of ducks live in the pool, including their newly hatched ducklings. The two ramps were installed as part of a collaboration with City Wildlife, a local nonprofit. The group’s president, Anne Lewis, told The New York Times that the ducklings could die without the ramps.
“Ducklings get into the water ― often helped there by visitors ― and then can’t get out because of the high curb at the water’s edge,” Lewis told the newspaper. “They will drown from exhaustion or die of starvation unless they have a way to get out of the water.”
It seems to have worked. The ducklings, who have become social media sensations, are already using the ramps:
He’s compulsive
by digby
Mr. Trump’s aides have also been pressing for more restraint by the president on Twitter , and some weeks ago they organized what one official called an “intervention.” Aides have been concerned about the president’s use of Twitter to push inflammatory claims, notably his unsubstantiated allegation from March that his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, had wiretapped his offices.
In that meeting, aides warned Mr. Trump that certain kinds of comments made on Twitter would “paint him into a corner,” both in terms of political messaging and legally, one official said.
It didn’t take. All these were done after that meeting:
He hasn’t been tweeting on his trip. I’d guess because he isn’t alone. That’s when he gets all excited.
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An Inconvenient Truth
by digby
For Trump and his fans:
Putting solar panels on rooftops and arrays is a labor-intensive process. You need people to design and manufacture the panels. Then people to market the panels to homes, businesses, and utilities. Then people to come and install them.
It all adds up to a lot of jobs. Even though solar power still provides just a fraction of America’s electricity — about 1.3 percent — the industry now employs more than 260,000 people, according to a new survey from the nonprofit Solar Foundation. And it’s growing fast: Last year, the solar industry accounted for one of every 50 new jobs nationwide.
The chart below breaks it down by job type. The majority of solar jobs are in installation, with a median wage of $25.96 per hour. The residential market, which is the most labor-intensive, accounts for 41 percent of employment, the commercial market 28 percent, and the utility-scale market the rest:
To put this all in perspective: “Solar employs slightly more workers than natural gas, over twice as many as coal, over three times that of wind energy, and almost five times the number employed in nuclear energy,” the report notes. “Only oil/petroleum has more employment (by 38%) than solar.”
Obviously, this sort of thing doesn’t help coal miners in places where coal mining once provided a lot of jobs. But that is the story of civilization. I don’t think any liberal or environmentalist believes that the government shouldn’t help people who are displaced by such evolutions in technology. The only people who don’t care about that are the conservatives these folks inexplicably vote for.
But the fact is that there are a bunch of new jobs being created by modern solar technology. And they’re jobs that could be done by at least some of the same people who mined in the past. Or a new generation.
It’s just another illustration of how disillusioning Trump’s empty nostalgia is going to be. Those coal jobs will not come back. And on some level they knew it. But instead of inspiring them to the future the way the best American political leaders have always done, he drew them into a fever dream about a past that cannot be recreated. Since he himself still dwells in the world of his youth in his own mind it was very convincing to these folks.
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The Trump Effect Goes International
by digby
His unpopularity knows no bounds. And his chaos is catching:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has required all cabinet ministers to attend the reception ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday. A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu issued his instructions after finding out that most ministers were not planning on attending the event.
During a Sunday meeting of coalition heads, Netanyahu was notified that there would be a sparse attendance of ministers at the reception and that most party heads wouldn’t participate in it. Netanyahu was furious and blew up the meeting, a senior official who attended the meeting said. Immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister’s Bureau issued an instruction to all government ministers according to which they must participate in the airport reception.
Over the last two weeks the plans for Trump’s reception at Ben-Gurion Airport have seen many changes. The first plans called for a long ceremony, which included speeches and handshakes with all cabinet ministers and other senior state officials who would welcome Trump on the tarmac. But the plans were cut per the White House’s request, which noted that they wanted the reception to be as short as possible due to the warm weather and to include only the two countries’ anthems, handshakes between Trump and Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, as well as a guard of honor.
He gets antsy. And hot. And tired.
In light of those changes, the ministers were at first disinvited from the reception. However, on Saturday evening the plans changed again, and the ministers were informed that they are in fact invited, but that they must arrive two and a half hours in advance and that they will have to undergo a security check. In addition, they will only view the ceremony from the sidelines and will not shake hands with Trump. The Foreign Ministry told the ministers that attendance was not mandatory.
As a result, most ministers said they will not attend.
It appears that Trump is quite a disappointment to the Israeli right. Imagine that:
The Israeli Right’s Love Affair With Trump Goes From Ecstasy to Agony
On the eve of his historic visit, the Russian intelligence scandal proves the president’s problematic personality will burn Israel too
Israel is doing its best to contain the fallout from Donald Trump’s reported faux pas of revealing its innermost intelligence secrets to the Russians. If it had been Barack Obama, right-wing Israeli politicians would be foaming at the mouth, but given that it’s Trump, they’re doing their best to stay silent. Relations are great and will continue to be great, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman pledged.
Israel has no interest in venting its anger in public. Relations with the U.S. in general and intelligence collaboration in particular are too precious. The intelligence agencies will decide how to proceed from here and how to ensure that their information – and agents, if press reports are credible – is protected from the Donald Trump’s leaky mouth, but they will try to do so far away from the headlines. The president’s visit to Israel will start on Monday and the last thing Benjamin Netanyahu wants or needs now is a public spat that will put more strain on an already tense occasion.
Trump’s visit, in fact, went sour before it started. Spats over his speech at Masada, since cancelled, as well as quarrels over the Western Wall, back and forths about moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and, of course, the eruption of the intelligence scandal have already marred what was once slated to be a triumphant tour de force for both sides. Now, Israel will be happy if Trump comes and goes without creating another major headache.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, of course. Although Trump was never anyone’s original cup of tea – you will recall, because he certainly hasn’t forgotten, Trump’s cancellation of a campaign trip to Israel after Netanyahu criticized his proposed Muslim ban – but things changed once he began to lead the GOP race and became its presumptive candidate. Netanyahu even gave Trump a boost by meeting him in New York two months before the elections despite the displeasure voiced by Hillary Clinton. Then Sheldon Adelson started to warm to Trump and Ambassador Ron Dermer became the unofficial go-between even before the votes were counted. Most Israelis still expected Clinton to win, but Netanyahu had hedged his bets well.
Trump’s election, against all odds, fired up the imagination of the Israeli right. This was the redemption they had been waiting for, after eight lean years with Obama. Israeli right-wingers chose to overlook Trump’s questionable statements at the start of the campaign, including his ambition to achieve the “ultimate deal,” his hints that Israel was responsible for the absence of peace, his refusal to endorse an undivided Jerusalem and his curious slip of the tongue that Israel would have to reimburse the U.S. for the foreign aid it had received. They preferred to accentuate the positive policies Trump adopted later in the campaign when he wanted to try and steal Jewish votes from Clinton. Trump would move the embassy, renounce the two-state solution and confront Iran over the nuclear deal, they thought. Israel, they rejoiced, has finally hit the jackpot.
Throughout this time, the Israeli right ignored the fact that so many of its staunchest American supporters, especially neoconservatives, were Never-Trumpers. They turned a blind eye to Trump’s no-holds-barred belligerence during the election campaign as well as myriad allegations and reports of his arrogance, ignorance, inability to concentrate and overall erratic personality. These must all be exaggerations and fabrications, they said, of the leftist media, in Israel and the U.S. alike. We’ve suffered from them ourselves, they told themselves. In any case, many of Trump’s alleged faults seemed less objectionable from Israel, a country not renowned for good manners or dainty etiquette. Trump, as far the right was concerned, not only talked the talk but he also walked the walk. The fact that he threw political correctness out the window and did not hesitate to insult Muslims and brand them as inherently suspect endeared him even more to his right wing Israeli fans.
But the heartbreak began almost immediately. Meetings with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed dissuaded Trump from acting quickly to keep his campaign promises on Jerusalem. His press conference with Netanyahu in February made it clear that while he wasn’t as bothered as Obama had been by Jewish settlements, Israel would not have the free hand right-wingers had fantasized about. Then Jason Greenblatt came to the region sounding like Dennis Ross and Ambassador David Friedman testified in Congress as if he was Martin Indyk. Trump, the headlines said, is preparing an ambitious peace plan that will include the regional elements that Israel had always sought but would nonetheless pivot around the Palestinians, as the Israeli right had always feared.
Still, Netanyahu and his ministers were willing to look on the positive side. Unlike Obama, Trump did not reprimand Israel for each house it built in the West Bank nor did he care about the Israeli coalition’s ongoing crackdown on dissent. Trump had bombed Syria, was talking tough on Iran and could very well take on North Korea. Given that most Israelis are convinced that any peace process will eventually run aground because of Palestinian rejectionism, there wasn’t all that much to worry about. Trump will come to Israel, say nice things, participate in countless photo ops and generally have a good time, if things went according to plan.
Preparations for the visit, however, revealed the first cracks in this rosy picture. Trump’s advance team seemed just as amateurish and erratic as their boss. More importantly, it soon became clear that Trump was more interested in using his Israel visit as backdrop for his own aggrandizement rather than an opportunity to upgrade relations. Trump’s team insisted that his two main events, at Masada and the Western Wall, be solo performances. Netanyahu was not welcome, they said. Adding insult to injury, the White House couldn’t even bring itself to recognize the Western Wall’s affinity to Israel, as if they were the same lefty pinko Palestinian sympathizers that Israel had thought were gone forever.
The intelligence scandal, the chumminess with the Russians and the realization that Trump may have compromised an Israeli asset and indirectly conveyed Israel’s closely-guarded secrets to Iran and Hezbollah, finally brought everything together. Suddenly the president’s creepy connections to the Kremlin, his lack of discipline and refusal to learn, his capriciousness, impulsiveness and yearning for approval, his shiftiness and his dishonesty and his lack of loyalty to supporters and allies all came home to roost. Israel was burned by the traits that it had preferred to disregard, as if they were detached from the staunchly pro-Israeli Trump of their dreams. The liberal media’s portrayal of Trump, it now seems, were not as inaccurate as they had hoped.
Netanyahu and his colleagues will still try to fete Trump as if nothing has changed. They will praise his leadership, laud his resoluteness, express confidence in his policies and give thanks for his steadfast support. Trump might even be more gracious, given his need to atone for his Russian sin. The declarations, however, will ring hollow. They will be overshadowed not only by the skepticism and apprehension that have now been injected into the Israeli right’s attitude but by the gathering clouds of investigations and impeachment that will henceforth hang over the president’s head. No one will mention their shattered dreams or broken hearts, of course, but some right-wingers are already thinking ahead. Many of them will soon start to pine for Mike Pence. Now there’s a president, they will tell themselves, who is the answer to our prayers.
What you see is what you get with Trump. That freak show is real. An the rest of the world is finding that out, even the right.
But hey, this is the right’s creation and that goes for Netanyahu and his crew too. They helped create this phenomenon.
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What is this creeping fascism you speak of?
by digby
It doesn’t happen all at once. It evolves:
With multiple felony charges brought against more than 200 people on Inauguration Day, police and prosecutors in the District of Columbia are putting activists on notice that legal protections ingrained in the Constitution may not apply to them, according to legal experts.
This new era of law enforcement is affecting policing tactics beyond Washington. The harsh treatment of protesters in the District since Donald Trump assumed the presidency — with a large number of people who did not engage in violence facing decades in prison for simply taking part in a protest — lets law enforcement officials across the nation know that a tough-on-dissent policy is acceptable, the experts said.
[…]
Shortly after Trump took the oath of office on January 20, the official White House website published statements outlining the new president’s six top priorities, including one titled “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.” The White House page explaining this priority said Trump’s administration “will be a law-and-order administration,” committed to ending the “dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America.”
Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, issued a memorandum last week in which he directed federal prosecutors across the country to charge suspects with the most serious offense they can prove. The memo was seen as a reversal of President Barack Obama’s policy shift toward fewer mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and a rethinking of how people charged with non-violent drug crimes are prosecuted and sentenced.
The memo also aligns with how the Justice Department is ratcheting up its prosecution of protesters and could serve as a guide for how state and local jurisdictions treat expressions of dissent, according to Flores-Williams. “Under the Sessions DOJ, states are going to have carte blanche to pass whatever local ordinances they want to eliminate, outlaw, and make protests extremely difficult,” he told ThinkProgress.
These changes are incremental. They don’t always happen in dramatic ways. And while Trump takes his clown show on the road, Jeff Sessions is quietly empowering the police state.
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