Wall Street donors have been lavishing the Democrats in the Senate with far more money than their GOP colleagues. The top six recipients (and nine of the top 10) of Wall Street money in 2018 among senators are Democrats. Of the top 20 Senate candidates to receive donations from Wall Street this cycle, 17 are Democrats, up from six in the last midterm in 2014…
Here are the top 12 recipients of Wall Street money. Eleven are Democrats:
Why is Wall Street supporting these Dems? Seventeen Democrats helped repeal portions of the Obama-era Dodd-Frank legislation by voting with Republicans on the Dodd-Frank repeal. Nine Democrats also crossed party lines to appoint Goldman Sachs bailout attorney Jay Clayton to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. 37 Democratic Senators opposed his confirmation.
This is despite Pew saying in a May 2018 poll that two-thirds of Americans support laws to limit money in politics. Truthout says that for this mid-term, Wall Street has donated nearly $43 million to Senate Democrats, compared with only $19 million for Republicans, a departure from typical election years.
The Democratsâ dependence on Wall Street money is not new. In fact, President Obama raised more money from finance than any candidate in history in his first presidential campaign. Even though polling shows deep distrust over Wall Street, most politicians donât seem to care.
Will taking Wall Street money be worth it? Will McCaskill, Tester and Heitkamp hold on? If voters really want this to change, theyâll have to stop electing politicians who represent Wall Street. On to cartoons:
Will Tuesday bring nightmares?
Tuesdayâs choice:
Shouldnât we be more worried about the gerrymandering, the crooked voting machines, the $ billions in corporate money, and the slander and attack ads?
Trumpâs parade:
And a yoga class. The home of the brave has become the fortress of fear:
Keeping out the criminals:
Itâs getting tougher for the GOP to keep using terrorism as their rallying call:
Birthright Citizenship, the common law concept of jus soli, has been the law since the ratification of the 14th Amendment. The Republican concern is that too many illegal immigrants have a child in the US who is automatically an American citizen, and therefore, has the right to vote. The 14th Amendment’s first sentence reads:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
The debate pertains to the clause, âsubject to the jurisdiction thereofâ. Conservatives contend that it means only citizens, while the preponderance of Constitutional scholars say it means located in the US.
Trump first made a case for ending Birthright Citizenship in 2015. Back then, he was following Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who said that Hispanics try to get a foothold in the country by coming here and having a child. King called them âanchor babiesâ.
Trump and the GOP are focusing on a largely imaginary abuse of birthright by foreigners.
Steve Kantrowitz, a US historian of the 19th century, wrote a series of tweets, condensed here: (emphasis by Wrongo)
On birthright citizenship, read the debate in the US Senate, Jan. 30, 1866. The framers of the Civil Rights Act â the immediate precursor to the 14th Amendment, and the first place national citizenship was codified â knew exactly what they were doing. They were clarifying the well-understood principle that children born in the US were citizens regardless of the immigration status of their parents. They even understood this to be true for children whose parents would then have been racially ineligible for citizenship, such as the Chinese. The only people excluded from citizenship on this basis were 1) Indians under tribal government and 2) children born to the families of foreign diplomats.
A new Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship would spark a legal battle, and pave the way for a showdown at the Supreme Court. To help get that party started, The Hill reported that Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) intends to “introduce legislation among the same lines as the proposed executive order.”
Consider the irony: The Republican Party accomplished something hugely enlightened and important with the 14th Amendment. Here is American Civil War historian Eric Foner:
The 14th amendment and birthright citizenship rank among the great and defining accomplishments of the Republican Party, back when it was the Party of Lincoln.
Yet Trump Republicans propose purging their historic accomplishment from the Constitution. The problem with eliminating Birthright Citizenship is that their idea is at its core, explicitly nativist, racist, and xenophobic.
The current Republican Party is showing that it is no longer related to the Republican Party of Lincoln. In fact, it is barely related to the Republican Party of Eisenhower. The only piece of common ground the current Republican Party has with the Party of Lincoln is its name.
It will take time to move Trumpâs Executive Order to a hearing at the Supreme Court. So, announcing this now is really another attempt to energize the Republican base next week.
Republicans are playing to an idea deep in the American psyche that thereâs always âa mob at the gatesâ. The mob wants in, so that they can take advantage of the good things we have, or they plan to lay waste to our culture and way of life. Therefore, we must be vigilant, because our innocence and openness makes us vulnerable to exploitation or infection from outside.
This is what makes the Caravan a huge issue to Republicans. They’re calling it “an invasion” or, “a national emergency”.
The Right Wingâs argument is that we shouldn’t “reward” people who come into the country illegally by “giving” their kids born here citizenship.
They answer the fact that we all came here from over there, by saying “they followed the rules“, even though for most of us, our ancestors faced few, or no rules on immigration.
This is the problem Wrongo has with the GOP. They begin the argument from their conclusion, and work backwards. Any fig leaf will do. So any argument in favor of the conclusion is all they require.
Voters. Please do not take this bait. Let’s keep our eye on the ball: Re-winning at least the House on Nov 6th. This other fight can wait until after the election.
There are two great things about the US: Strong free speech laws, and jus soli. The idea of blood citizenship—which pervades Europe, and the Middle East, is the root of much evil in the world.
Donât bring that evil here, VOTE on next Tuesday.
Fisherman on the Housatonic River near Cornwall, CT â November, 2017 photo by Mike Jacquemin
The World Series is on, and it may actually be over by the time you read this. Wrongo lived in Brooklyn as a young boy, and got to go to Ebbets Field twice to see games. He grew up on Mays, Mantle, Berra, Koufax, Drysdale, Hodges and Snider, each were legends and heroes.
But in 2018? The only baseball Wrongo watches is the World Series, and thatâs only with clicker in hand, vectoring to other entertainment. And he certainly doesnât stay up until the game is over. Let this sink in:Â In 2018, for the first time in baseball history, there were more strikeouts than hits: 188 more to be exact.
So today, who watches these games from start to finish? Itâs doubtful that those under the age of 30 do. Particularly if someone like Wrongo who was a baseball fan 60 years ago, is too disengaged to watch it in real time.
But the weekendâs news wasnât dominated by sports, but by yet another mass shooting. This time, at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 mostly elderly people died at the hands of an anti-Semitic, hate-motivated gunman. He leaves behind waves of grief.
Itâs a sorry commentary that this killing, along with the attempted bombings of 14 Democrats, obscured the hate killing of two African-Americans in Kentucky last Wednesday. Maybe itâs because only two Black murder victims at the hands of a white supremacist doesn’t garner attention anymore.
To those crying out after a wave of pipe bombs and another mass shooting, that this is not who we are, sorry, this is exactly who we have becomeas a people. The MAGA-bomber and the Synagogue murders are the tip of the spear: Alt-right fellow travelers blatantly acting out, seemingly without fear of reprisal, is the world we live in now.
And yet, at a time when America sorely needs moral leadership and unity, consistent reminders that we are one people, that weâre all in it together…we have Trump.
Donald Trump has never once, in his life, spoken…as bearer of the whole nation’s grief, as champion of its faith and resolve–so there is no reason to expect that he could possibly do so now.
More from Fallows:
America has almost always had someone able to play that role….Harry Truman did so, after he unexpectedly became the leader of the postâWorld War II world. George W. Bush did, in his early remarks after 9/11. Even Lyndon B. Johnson, who fit no model of a natural orator, recognized what the country needed from him after history-changing assassinations: of the Kennedy brothers, Jack and Bobby, and of Martin Luther King Jr. Like his predecessors, he recognized what was expected of him, and he tried his best.
Donald Trump cannot and will not do any of this, and the absence of such a voice in national leadership is palpable.
We know that Trump has consistently stoked hatred. He has occasionally encouraged violence. This isnât simply a personal moral failing, if he acts like a fellow traveler with alt-right types, racists, anti-Semites, and misogynists, the worst that our society has to offer.
Largely, he hates those who the alt-right hate; he also supports those who have no issue with using violence.
He draws angry crowds precisely because he reflects his followers’ inner darkness. So, when violence that is aimed at his enemies occurs, he canât even fake compassion, much less accept that his words could have inspired the violence.
After dividing us and pandering to hatred for the past two years, what he says now is too little, too late.
America is about to find out what happens when morality and common decency are abandoned for political gain. If we don’t get Trump out of office, and bring the Republicans to heel, itâs frightening to think about what may happen, where we could be a few years.
So, itâs time to wake up America! The first step on our long road to national recovery begins on November 6th.
Get yourself to the polls, and take a neighbor or two with you.
To help you wake up, listen this morning to the main theme From “Schindler’s List“. John Williams composed the score for Schindler’s List, and played the main theme on piano. Following Spielberg’s suggestion, he hired Itzhak Perlman to perform it on the violin:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Autumn, near Hopkinton, MA â October 2018 photo by Karen Randall
Thereâs been lots of talk this week that the bombs delivered to Democrats were a âfalse flagâ operation, designed by Democrats to make Republicans look bad just before the mid-terms. Rush Limbaugh said: (emphasis by Wrongo)
Thereâs a smell test that this stuff has to pass, and, so far, a lot of peopleâs noses are in the air, not quite certain of what to make of thisâŠ. Republicans just donât do this kind of thing.
Well, itâs early in the investigation, but the guy they arrested has a van with Trump stickers on it, and news sources say heâs a registered Republican.
Some will claim its fake news. Some on the internet are already minimizing the Trump influence, saying heâs âjust another crazy guy, nothing really links him to Trumpâ. Except those stickers on the MAGAbomberâs van.
Can you imagine what Trump would be saying if Republicans had been targeted by a Democrat?
We live in a world filled with hate, mistrust and anger that was hand-built by Trump, for Trump. This is your first view of what might result from that. Every GOP politician now needs to speak up, saying that their political opponents are not an enemy who is deserving of death.
Weâre founded on the belief that we can disagree, that we can be part of our own tribes, but we belong to a super-group: weâre Americans. This incident should impress on the public that angry speech and rhetoric have consequences way beyond partisan political positioning.
Kudos to the DOJ, the FBI and the postal service for bagging the suspect. Notwithstanding recent comments from the president denigrating them, it is a job well done by law enforcement.
Just another week that jangled the nerves! Time to sit out the Norâeaster weâre feeling here in New England. Start by brewing up a hot cuppa Lukeâs Coffee, from Kent Coffee and Chocolates, in Kent, CT. The fine people at Kent Coffee have adopted a dog named Luke from a local shelter, and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Lukeâs Coffee goes to The Little Guild Shelter in Cornwall, CT. Hereâs a picture of Luke:
(iPhone photo by Wrongo)
Luke is Kent Coffeeâs third adoption from the Little Guild. They also make spectacular chocolates.
Now, unplug from your devices, (except for Wrongoâs site), and think about the end of autumn, which is just around the corner. Here, the rain and winds are taking down most leaves, except for those on the Oak trees, which will hang on for quite a while longer.
Settle back and listen to Ed Sheeran sing his song âPerfect Symphonyâ live at Wembley Stadium in London on June 14, 2018. Heâs joined on stage by Andrea Bocelli, and itâs magic. Most likely, this will be the first dance song at weddings for the next decade:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Avoto Metro Station, St. Petersburg, RU – 2014 photo via themindcircle
(Wrongo and Ms. Right are leaving today for Russia. We will be in St. Petersburg tomorrow, and eventually wend our way to Moscow. You should expect that blogging will be light. Regular posting will resume on October 9th. One more thing: We wonât be looking for the real hackers.)
The Trump administration doesnât lack for enemies, but it is considering adding a few more. Bloomberg reports that:
The White House is considering a draft executive order for President Donald Trump that would instruct federal antitrust and law enforcement agencies to open probes into the practices of Alphabet Inc.âs Google, Facebook Inc., and other social media companies.
Bloomberg says that the language of the order instructs US antitrust authorities to: (emphasis by Wrongo)
Thoroughly investigate whether any online platform has acted in violation of the antitrust laws. It instructs other government agencies to recommend within a month after itâs signed, actions that could potentially âprotect competition among online platforms and address online platform bias.â
Assuming that the order is signed in something like its current form, it is an escalation of Trumpâs aversion to Google, Facebook, Twitter, all of whom heâs publicly accused of silencing online conservative voices and news sources. The draft order says:
Because of their critical role in American society, it is essential that American citizens are protected from anticompetitive acts by dominant online platforms….It adds that consumer harm — a key measure in antitrust investigations — could come âthrough the exercise of bias.â
And there you have it. Because these companies allow criticism of the Very Stable Genius, we will get one step closer to government control of what you can say on the internet.
The draft order doesnât name any companies, but it doesn’t have to in order to intimidate Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon’s parentâs other business, The Washington Post, to suddenly insure that their coverage of Trump is a whole lot nicer.
OTOH, there is a basis for what the DOJ is thinking of doing. There have been arguments from the right and the left that Silicon Valley companies including Google and Facebook, engage in anti-competitive behavior. The companies argue they face robust competition, and that many of their products are free.
Before this, bias has not been a factor in antitrust examinations. But, according to Bloomberg:
A Pew survey earlier this year found that 72% of Americans, and 85% of Republicans, think itâs likely that social media companies intentionally censor political viewpoints that those companies find objectionable.
But there is no objective evidence that either Facebook or Google systematically discriminates, left or right.
Even among some on the right, there are misgivings about a Trump administration crackdown on the free speech rights of these firms. The libertarian groups FreedomWorks and ALEC sent a letter to AG Jeff Sessions expressing concern that his:
…inquiry will be to accomplish through intimidation what the First Amendment bars: interference with editorial judgment.
While the political bias aspect of the order is controversial, it probably wonât scare either Google or Facebook. The First Amendment bans the government from restricting or imposing speech.
Federal authorities cannot require any company to publish views it favors, but it can take crippling anti-trust actions until the companies bend their algorithms to favor Trump messaging.
The danger of such thinking is obvious, however, as the Pew survey information above shows, the vast majority of Republicans agree with Trump.
You should agree that the government ought to be paying attention to the outsized market share of these companies.
You should be very afraid of the government going after them for political revenge.
Bryce Canyon NP at sunrise – 2018 photo by ThePeachster
McCain will lie in state in Arizonaâs capitol. Then, he will lie in state in the Capitol Building rotunda in Washington. Two former presidents will give eulogies at his funeral. Wrongo mused with a relative about why John McCain is being treated so differently from most other politicians who die in office.
She said: âAmerica has no heroes.â
John McCain was a senator. His own party never fully trusted him. Democrats never knew what to make of him. He was occasionally with them, but he was against them on everything else. He called himself a maverick; he was certainly a pain. Why are we celebrating McCain as an American hero?
We are at the confluence of two tides in our history. First, we lionize our soldiers. We thank them for their service, we call them warriors. McCain spent 5+ years in a POW prison. He was tortured, and survived. So he is a heroic face for a war that we lost, a war we are still conflicted about, 40 years later.
In our intervening wars, there are individual soldier-heroes, but few stand out to us. The wars grind on, and the stories of the war heroes of our current time are fuzzy. The soldiers serve multiple tours, or we hear that they are coping with terrible post-traumatic stress. We have few contemporary genuine military heroes.
Second, our politicians have long since ceased to be heroic. McCain served six terms in the US Senate. He was old school, and some this week are calling him the âlast lionâ of the Senate. That tells us that despite the longevity of several other politicians of McCainâs (and Wrongoâs) generation, those who remain are merely ordinary.
The media wants us to believe that every American politician who dies is a great American. They seem to think that if that ever breaks down, America may stop being Great. This quasi-religious veneration of politicians is unbecoming of us as a people. It has transformed the majority of public offices into ones that are attractive mostly to people who are unfit to hold them.
In todayâs politics, weâre usually trying hard to avoid electing the greater fool among the terrible options available to us. Most of the time, we have done that. But here we are: Donald Trump canât carry John McCainâs jock, but heâs our president. This is from John Pavlovitz:
As the funeral for Senator John McCain approaches, we find ourselves in yet another occasion of national consequence; one our supposed Commander-In-Chief is intentionally excluded from because he is beneath the dignity and capability the moment requires.
More:
This moment plays itself out whenever there is a national tragedy, whenever compassion or decency or strength or goodness are required; whenever an adult leader would be called upon to actually lead us.
Unsurprisingly, these minimal efforts are a bridge too far for Donald Trump.
Thereâs something to be said for being able to display grace and compassion upon the untimely passing of your adversary. After all, youâve outlived him.
Where will we find our heroes in the next few years? It seems almost certain they will not come from Congress or the White House.
McCain was far from the hero that we are portraying him to be, now that heâs gone. But it shouldnât require something heroic from Trump or his advisors to do the right thing.
Our culture is on the skids, led by our small president and his party.
Letâs give the last words to Pavlovitz:
In the meantime, just as today, weâll all have to work together to fill in the spectacular gaps in leadership and compassion and intelligence and dignity that used to be filled by our Presidents.
We simply donât have one right now.
UPDATE:Â After the column above was written, the White House, facing a national outpouring of scorn, relented, and once again lowered flags on the WH grounds to half staff in honor of John McCain. Politicians on both sides, along with veteransâ groups, slammed President Trump as vindictive and petty.
The message was sent, and received by our small president.
Despite re-lowering the flag, and providing a military escort for McCain’s coffin, the point remains that Trump isn’t capable of compassion, or dignity. He’s not a leader.
The majority of Americans under 18 live in households that receive “means-tested assistance” from the US government. In 2016, according to the most recent data from the Census Bureau, there were approximately 73,586,000 people under 18 in the United States, and 38,365,000 of them, 52.1%, resided in households in which one or more persons received benefits from a means-tested government program.
Those programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Medicaid, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the National School Lunch Program.
And when the Census Bureau excluded school lunch programs from its calculations, the percentage of those under 18 who lived in a household receiving means-tested assistance (44.8%), still exceeded the percentage in any other age bracket.
We have now had four straight years: 2013 – 2016, during which a majority of those under 18 lived in a household taking means-tested benefits.
The primary reason for this is that most in this category are single parent households headed by a woman. Many canât find employment paying a decent wage with some benefits. Many have to choose between full-time work and childcare. Some are working 2-3 part time jobs but still can’t cover their expenses.
But, the economy is good, the stock market is great, so why worry about these banana republic statistics, America? On to cartoons.
Trump sings the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, âWhatâs That Smell?â
Speak to a Trumpist, and youâll find a reasonable, fact-driven human being:
Trump tweets about âwidespreadâ killings of white farmers in South Africa. Hereâs the truth:
Immigration unmasks the hate:
DeVos shows that sheâs a helper:
Mitch reserves his looks of disgust only for Democrats:
Palacio del Segundo Cabo, Havana Cuba. Built in 1772, it was the royal post office. 2018 photo by Nestor Marti for Smithsonian Magazine
Are Republicans committed to free and fair elections? Maybe not. Republicans in the Senate had a chance to say âyesâ on August 1st, when an amendment adding funding for election security failed to pass.
With all the cross talk about election meddling, you could be forgiven if you think that our very democracy may be under threat. But when given a chance to take a concrete step, adding $250 million to help confront this challenge, the Republican majority in the Senate said no. FromThe Hill:
Senators voted 50-47 against adding an amendment from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that would have provided the funding. Sixty votes were needed to include the proposal in the appropriations legislation under Senate rules. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was the only GOP senator who voted in support of the amendment to an appropriations measure. The proposal, spearheaded by Leahy, would have provided $250 million for state election security grants.
How is this a partisan issue? Doesnât every American want to protect our electoral system? Republicans argued that more funding wasn’t needed, that states haven’t yet spent the $380 million previously approved by Congress. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said it was “far too early” for the Senate to sign off on more money:
We don’t know how the first $380 million has even been spent, and the intelligence committee did an extensive research on how much money was needed and the $380 million amount was what was needed for the moment.
Sounds reasonable. If only there were some sort of accounting system that allowed you to find out how much was spent, and what the remaining need might be. And yet, not knowing where the Pentagon spends its money hasn’t stopped Congress from giving them even more than they asked for.
Surprising what expenditures cause the GOP to develop fiscal responsibility. They just gave $12 billion to bailout Americaâs farmers. They happily voted to create a $1 trillion deficit with their corporate tax cuts. Trump wants to add another $100 billion in tax cuts, because more has to be better.
But with an expenditure designed to head off a possible vote heist, thatâs when America needs more fiscal accountability.
Weâve learned that Russian cyber warriors already have targeted the re-election campaign of Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-MO), and that Facebook closed 32 accounts because they exhibited behavior similar to that of accounts belonging to Russian hackers. Facebook said that more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the fake pages.
Our electoral legitimacy crisis is real. We are witnessing a slow-moving insurrection driven by the Republicans, the Citizens United decision, Koch operatives, Evangelicals, Russian cyber hacks, along with determined vote suppression by Republican state legislatures. All are working to make your vote less valuable. Republicans have been trying for years to destroy the value of your vote with voter suppression and gerrymandering.
If the Russians want to help them, the GOP seems to be OK with that, too.
The only reason to vote against this bill is because you donât want the money spent to confront the crisis. States canât do this aloneâand too many of them are controlled by people who donât want the job in the first place….The idea that weâre nickel-and-diming this particular problem as what can only be called an anti-democratic epidemic rages across the land is so preposterous as to beggar belief. We are febrile and weak as a democratic republic. Too many people want to keep us that way.
The only thing that can save us is TURN-OUT this fall.
The Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, Cannon Beach, OR – AKA, the âTerrible Tillyâ. The extremely harsh environment has taken its toll: It has been vacant since 1957.
There are two items related to the six-week holiday that Congress is about to take.
First, on July 15thWrongo warned that House GOP Freedom Caucus leaders Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) were considering articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General (and Mueller probe boss) Rod Rosenstein. Wrongo said that Rosenstein was the firewall against Trumpâs potential firing of Mueller.
And Reuters reported that on Wednesday, they filed their impeachment articles:
A group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment to remove Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, escalating a fight over Special Counsel Robert Muellerâs investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, who belong to the conservative House Freedom Caucus, joined nine other House members in accusing Rosenstein of hiding investigative information from Congress, failure to comply with congressional subpoenas and other alleged misconduct.
Rosenstein is the one Department of Justice official whose removal could allow Trump and his DOJ buddies to quash the Mueller investigation.
So is this the throw-down that has our democracy hanging in the balance? Maybe, maybe not. The House is scheduled to leave on Thursday for a recess that extends until after Labor Day.
Congress is taking their bi-annual six-week vacation to campaign to keep their jobs. And even when they return, it’s not certain that a Rosenstein impeachment will gain enough traction with Republicans to move forward, since Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is against it, and AG Jeff Sessions said that Rosenstein has his âcomplete confidenceâ.
As it is, the House plans to use a big chunk of September trying to pass more tax cuts. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has let it be known that the House will debate three tax cut bills even though they have no chance of being enacted.
But all this gives the House Republicans something to talk about while campaigning back home that isnât Trumpâs dodgy trade deals, or being Putinâs poodle.
Is this anything more than a campaign publicity stunt, or just the latest installment of bad-faith politics by Republicans? Weâll find out in the fall.
The second vacation-related issue is: When does the GOP plan to work on avoiding a government shutdown? Stan Collender, a federal budget analyst that you should follow, says on his blog that the GOP has just 67 days left until the government shuts down again.
And the real number is probably half that if you factor in vacations and weekends. Collender puts the odds of an October 1st shutdown at 60%.
We already know that the House isnât back until after Labor Day. The Senate will be in town for a while, as Mitch McConnell tries to force a vote on Brett Kavanaugh. Assuming they eventually go home as well, the Senate is very likely to be tied up for days in early September with the Kavanaugh confirmation.
Having a government shutdown in this political environment doesnât seem like something Republicans will want to face just before the midterms. We can expect them to push things beyond the election with another Continuing Resolution, and a promise to pass spending bills in the lame duck session, should they lose control of either chamber of Congress.
You would think that Congressional Republicans would try to move heaven and earth to avoid a shutdown. But, Freedom Caucus members are quite happy with shutdowns.
They are convinced that shutdowns are good for them. Maybe so, but they arenât good for America.
We are at an extremely unpredictable and unstable political point in America.
We have a paranoid President who, along with a delusional Congress, are making it impossible to focus on getting things done in DC.
Denver Botanical Gardens – 2018 photo by J3DImindTRIP
On Monday, the NRA named Oliver North as its next president. North is a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair. He was found to have played a key role in the secret sale of arms to Iran, which was under an arms embargo at the time. Proceeds from the secret weapons sales were funneled to help support the Contraâs armed resistance to Nicaraguaâs dictatorship led by the Somoza family. Under the Boland Amendment, funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.
North admitted during congressional testimony in 1987 to having lied to the House Intelligence Committee about Iran-Contra, and to having destroyed evidence of the schemeâs existence. He was subsequently convicted of related felonies, but they were vacated because of the finding that a witness against North had been influenced by his congressional testimony, which North had given in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution.
In summary, a guy who lied to Congress about illegal weapons sales to Iran is now the president of an organization whose central belief is that legal gun ownership is the key to maintaining a safe country.
A trade association for the arms industry now will be headed by the most famous arms-trafficker in American history. An organization that wears patriotism as though it were the masque of the Red Death will be headed by a guy who sold missiles to one of the worldâs leading sponsors of terrorism.
Last week Israel published intelligence documents, long concealed by Iran, conclusively showing the Iraniansâ regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.
With news like this, how does the Onion stay in business?
Jon Chait argues that the Republicansâ defense of Oliver North begat Donald Trump:
Three decades ago, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North took the Fifth Amendment in a private Senate hearing on the Iran-Contra scandal….Conservatives rallied to Northâs defense, insisting the law barely mattered in comparison to the noble intentions North was following. âIt is not whether some technical laws were broken, but whether we stop communism in Central America,â argued White House communications director Pat Buchanan.
So in the 1980s, Republicans were willing to overlook illegal actions if their own political priorities were supported. The story evolved, as a reading of the National Security Archive makes clear. The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W. Bush, who had been Reaganâs Vice President at the time.
By doing that, Bush went further than any other president with the pardon power. His pardons made it impossible to pursue already-developed plans to investigate Bush himself in greater detail. At the time, the Iran-Contra Independent Counsel, Lawrence Walsh, told Newsweek:
Itâs hard to find an adjective strong enough to characterize a president who has such contempt for honesty.
Until today, The North/Iran-Contra paved the way for our present political predicament where progressives are fighting to find truth hidden by actions in Washington, while Conservative lies distort current American policy. More from Jon Chait:
Of course Trumpâs base would tolerate Trump taking the Fifth in questioning by Mueller. Or pardoning people even before they were tried. After all, Pappy Bush got away with did it. More about the straight line from North to Trump:
Conservatives rallied to Northâs defense because he was on their side, next to which the breaking of âtechnical lawsâ was a trifling concern. Trump can count on the same reflexive defense.
A convicted felon is now head of the NRA, a convicted felon leading the Republican Senate primary in West Virginia.
So, with all his Republican support, why would Trump ever worry about Mueller?
Bryce Canyon NP at sunrise – 2018 photo by 
