As Donald Trump rapidly shifts the spotlight from one major issue to the next, he has now landed it on Israel where he is keeping a campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the nation’s capital and eventually move the U.S. embassy there. Of course, there are possible repercussions that come with ending seven decades of American diplomacy, including threats of violence breaking out in the Middle East and the potential for destroying the Trump administration’s hopes to broker peace between Israelis and the Palestinians. Via The New York Times.
Conservative economist and Trump adviser Stephen Moore explains what the GOP tax bill was really about. “It’s death to Democrats,” he said. As Moore says, Republicans used the cut to go after state and local taxes, university endowments and Obamacare. Via Bloomberg View.
Remember the House conservatives? They were relatively quiet during the tax-cut fight, but now they’re back, and Paul Ryan is again left in the middle. Meanwhile, California House Republicans have suddenly become aware that the tax-cut bill will be really bad for their constituents and want to make changes. Via The Washington Post.
Did Susan Collins and Jeff Flake get steamrolled in the compromises they thought they had made in order to get their votes for the tax-cut bill? Or were they just looking for cover? Via The Daily Beast.
This time it’s the CEOs firing back against Trump as outdoor goods retailers Patagonia, REIO and North Face are protesting the president’s executive order to drastically reduce the size of two national moments in Utah. “The president stole your land,” a post on Patagonia’s website said. “This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history.” Via The Washington Post.
This McCay Coppins piece in The Atlantic — God’s Plan for Mike Pence — is getting huge buzz. Will the Vice President — and the religious right — be rewarded for their embrace of Donald Trump?
All that stuff the White House insisted was fake news, at least before Michael Flynn pleaded guilty, now has Trump’s various lawyers scrambling. They can’t quite decide among them how to respond. Via The New Yorker.
Harvey Weinstein’s complicity machine. The enablers. The silencers. The spies. Those he bullied. Those he paid off. Those who looked the other way. Those who stood silent. The New York Times, which broke the Weinstein story, now tells of Weinstein’s warning to the reporters on the story: “I am a man who has great resources.”
From The National Review, Victor Davis Hanson takes on sexual harassment and the cruelty that is so often present. He mentions nearly all those who have made such ugly news on this score. Except for Donald Trump. And Roy Moore. And Roger Ailes. And Bill O’Reilly. So there’s that.
Photo by Dennis Jarvis, via Flickr: Creative Commons
With near universal international recognition of the Israeli Apartheid state occupation of lands in the Middle East that were in no way originally theirs, this is just more evidence that the adults are no longer in charge in the U.S.. It’s amazing that we saw the same type of rationalized obstruction from Republicans when it was time to fix South Africa.
The notion that Trump and his bigoted, religious extremist allies are somehow playing multidimensional chess while Forest Gumping their way through foreign and domestic policy gaffes is absolutely laughable.
Now that his ignorant rhetoric and preposterously simple-minded fiats are actually going to get people killed, it’s time to speed up the investigation that everyone already knows is going to lead to his resignation or impeachment.
There will be no pivot. The emperor’s clothes are not in fact waiting in the closet. He lost the vote by nearly 3 million ballots for a reason.
Obviously.