How bad are things in Trumpworld these days? According to a deeply reported Washington Post piece, it might even be worse than you think. Insiders tell the Post that an angry, volatile, fuming, cable-TV-news-obsessed Donald Trump has turned the White House into a place that one Trump ally describes as “pure madness.”
It could be worse. You could be staying at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Panama, where thugs, leeches, shouting and shoving rule the day (and the night). Via The New York Times.
From The National Review, Kevin Williamson says if you think of Trump as “Donny from Queens, you’re on the air,” then you’ll have a better insight into whether Trump says astoundingly stupid things as part of a grand strategy or he says astoundingly stupid things because, well, you know.
Who’s winning the post-Parkland gun debate? It depends on how you do the scoring, writes Peter Bienart in The Atlantic. Conservatives will almost certainly block any new legislation in Congress, just as they always do. But maybe more important than legislative battles is the culture war, and by almost any measure, conservatives are losing that one.
Two Parkland teenagers have their own idea on how to effect change in Florida gun laws — getting their parents and grandparents and every other interested kid’s parents and grandparents to sign a contract, saying they would vote for legislators who support children’s safety over guns. Via The New Yorker.
Hank Stuever: It was a boring Oscars telecast (as usual), but maybe a mostly forgettable show was just what Hollywood needed. Via The Washington Post.
But it wasn’t just talk at the Oscars. In accepting the best actress Oscar for her role in Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand told all of Hollywood that it takes more than words to change things. It takes action. In this case, she said, action means something called “inclusion riders,” which force movie makers to actually be, yes, inclusive. Via Vox.
Foreign allies don’t like it. Republican lawmakers don’t like it. Most U.S. manufacturers don’t like it. Many in Trump’s White House don’t like it. But it looks as if Trump is going ahead with his tariffs on steel and aluminum, dismissing all predictions of a trade war. Via The Los Angeles Times.
Paul Krugman on Trump’s proposed tariffs: Trade war, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. (Say it again.) Via The New York Times.
Is there a way for public-sector unions to survive if the Supreme Court rules against them on so-called “fair share” laws? There just might be if unions and their allies change the rules. Via Bloomberg View.
“A new nationwide Zogby poll of likely voters showed President Donald Trump’s job approval standing at 48 percent”. But it also found some other very interesting results unlikely to be reported in the mainstream media. For example, President Trump’s popularity is growing among millennials; his job approval in the east and south is 52 percent; 56 percent of voters support their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms after hearing Hollywood celebrities speak out against gun control; President Trump’s approval rating matches that of Barack Obama at the same point in his presidency.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/zogby-polls-trump-approval-rating-2nd-amendment/2018/03/03/id/846597/
In a move certain to incite critics of President Trump, he has “voiced support for confiscating guns from certain individuals deemed to be dangerous, even if it violates due process rights.” This is sure to reignite calls for impeachment from those who believe this further validates their belief that President Trump thinks he is above the law.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376097-trump-take-the-guns-first-go-through-due-process-second
David Harsanyi believes President Trump’s contention that he was tougher on Russia than Barack Obama is “at the very least, debatable, and more than likely true.” Mr. Harsanyi says, “Much of the trouble we find ourselves in now can be directly traced to Obama’s feckless policies.”
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/21/democrats-try-to-rewrite-history-on-russia-to-make-trump-look-bad/
HLN commentator S.E. Cupp thinks, “when it comes to guns, news anchors take off their journalist hats and put on their activist hats.” and she’s not afraid to say it. “They never — these ‘journalists’ — ask those lawmakers what Democrats did about gun control when they had the White House, the House, and the Senate for two years under Barack Obama. Because the answer is nothing.”
https://www.mediaite.com/online/s-e-cupp-absolutely-shreds-cable-news-anchors-for-activist-gun-coverage-after-florida-shooting/
The struggle for affordable housing in the San Francisco area is pitting those who support high-rise housing development against those who oppose it. It’s a familiar argument but in California it pits liberals against other liberals.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-s-housing-crunch-has-turned-liberals-against-one-another-n851401
Vermont’s Independent Senator Bernie is upset with Hillary Clinton and not just because she defeated him in the 2016 Democrat presidential primary. Senator Sanders said, “he did not know at the time that Russian trolls promoted his 2016 presidential campaign and wondered why Hillary Clinton’s team did not do more to tell voters about the extent of Russia’s election interference.”
http://freebeacon.com/politics/sanders-blames-clinton-not-informing-people-russian-meddling/