Donald Trump is an ass, Dreamers edition: Daily Bullshit, September 12-16, 2017

benfell

There have been two blog posts recently. The latest is The corruption of the Left. And I forgot to include mention of The Ethics of our Society in the last issue. (Yes, it’s been that long.)

Following up on an earlier blog post, “Forecasting Donald Trump’s demise,” it is possible that authoritarian populist disaffection over the alleged Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals deal between Donald Trump, Charles Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi (see Unauthorized migration below) could bring Trump down. Authoritarian populists are the larger part of Trump’s “base.” If they do indeed abandon him, his support will largely be reduced to that of politicians hoping to advance an agenda. That’s a pretty tenuous thread. Paleoconservatives, the more prominent part of Trump’s “base,” have few differences with authoritarian populists on migration, so Trump loses them at the same time—not that this really matters since paleoconservatives are very much a fringe tendency.

The reason this becomes important is that authoritarian populists have a significant presence in Congress. Functionalist conservatives want to keep authoritarian populists on board but are already disgusted with Trump. And in this, they’re joined by the original #NeverTrump folks, the neoconservatives. So if—and this is still a pretty big if—authoritarian populists actually turn against Trump, the remaining members of Congress will have no reason to continue to back him. And they can probably advance their agenda more successfully under a President Pence.

Updates

  1. Originally published, September 13, 4:28 pm, under the headline, “Nothing in particular. Mostly some Hillary Clinton blah-blah.”
  2. September 13, 8:35 pm:
    • Donald Trump reached agreement with the Democratic Party leadership—according to the latter—on enshrining protections for migrants brought here as children in law, although the two sides dispute whether funding for a wall on the Mexican border is to be included.[1] (Unauthorized migration; corrected)
  3. September 14, 10:11 am:
    • Donald Trump denied that an agreement had been reached on protecting migrants who had been brought here as children.[2] (Unauthorized migration)
    • The headline on this post has been changed to “Donald Trump is an ass, Dreamers edition.” If you’re keeping score, predecessors in this series are here, here, and here. As for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, that was here.
    • Authoritarian populist reaction to Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s announcement of a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was fast and furious.[3] (Unauthorized migration)
  4. September 14, 12:42 pm:
    • I added a comment on the alleged Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals deal (Unauthorized migration) to the top of this post.
  5. September 15, 10:46 pm:
    • A federal judge has enjoined Jeff Sessions from cutting funding for “sanctuary cities.”[4] (Unauthorized migration)
    • The Washington Post has more on Republican anger at Donald Trump over his possible Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deal with Democrats.[5] (Unauthorized migration)
    • A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld California’s Foie Gras ban.[6]
    • Added to the commmentary at the top of the post.
  6. September 16, 7:24 am:
    • The California legislature approved a compromise version of a measure to expand protections for unauthorized migrants in the state. Governor Brown was party to the negotiations[7] which I guess means he can be expected to sign it. (Unauthorized migration)

Brexit

I’m a little surprised it’s taken this long for somebody to point this[8] out.

Jennifer Rankin, “Free movement: a circle that cannot be squared in the Brexit debate,” Guardian, September 13, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/13/free-movement-circle-that-cannot-be-squared-brexit-debate

Income inequality

An essential feature of neoliberalism is that it adds a strong anti-labor bias to capitalist libertarianism. This, ultimately, is why Hillary Clinton could not be elected. More on that below.

Catherine Rampell, “No wonder so many American men feel like they’re falling behind. They earn as much as they did in 1972,” Washington Post, September 12, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2017/09/12/no-wonder-so-many-american-men-feel-like-theyre-falling-behind-they-earn-as-much-as-they-did-in-1972/

Democrats

I’m classifying this with the Democratic Party post-2016 election, because, as much as a whole bunch of folks—pathetically including Bernie Sanders—wish and, I think, sometimes delude themselves believing it were otherwise, the Democratic Party remains the party of Hillary Clinton. And there’s too much money and too much power there, even as an “out of power” party, for it to be otherwise. Which is the very point none of these fools will take in: The Democratic Party, no less than the Republican Party, is the antithesis of any project to reduce the influence of money in politics.

Other than being entirely too generous to Clinton, which I’m almost willing to forgive as a possible attempt to appear even-handed, Sarah Jones does a nice job in a not-quite-harsh-enough review of Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened.[9] For the most part, I think Jones does “get it.” As for the sympathy, see David Remnick, who downplays everything that is important about the 2016 election in order to—I guess, since there’s no other reason I can see—sympathize.[10] There is, despite that, useful stuff in Remnick’s interview and background—I don’t cite it as a book review because it’s surely much more and, really, not all that much about the book.

Sarah Jones, “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Get It,” review of What Happened, by Hillary Clinton, New Republic, September 13, 2017, https://newrepublic.com/article/144797/hillary-clinton-doesnt-get

David Remnick, “Hillary Clinton Looks Back in Anger,” New Yorker, September 25, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/25/hillary-clinton-looks-back-in-anger

Unauthorized migration

Whatever the truth of the outcome of a meeting between Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, and despite cautions present even in the initial reporting,[11] versions of the first Hill headline below spread widely, including on conservative outlets. Breitbart, which is run as authoritarian populist by paleoconservative Steve Bannon, labeled Trump “Amnesty Don” and drew a predictable reaction.[12]

My thoughts are with the ‘Dreamers,’ the migrants brought here without authorization as children. I suppose there’s a silver lining in that at least Trump says he wants a deal, but it seems to me that all this drama can only add to their stress.

John Binder, “‘Amnesty Don’ Trends at Number One on Twitter in Washington, D.C.,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/amnesty-don-trends-at-number-one-on-twitter-in-washington-d-c/

John Binder, “Report: Trump Caves on DACA, Wants ‘Quick’ Amnesty for 800K Illegal Aliens,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/report-trump-caves-on-daca-wants-quick-amnesty-for-800k-illegal-aliens/

Jordan Fabian and Max Greenwood, “Trump, Dem leaders reach agreement on young immigrants,” Hill, September 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/350596-trump-holds-working-dinner-with-schumer-pelosi

Ian Mason, “Steve King: If Reports Correct ‘Trump Base Is Blown Up, Destroyed, Irreparable,’” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/steve-king-if-reports-correct-trump-base-is-blown-up-destroyed-irreparable/

John T. Bennett, “Trump Denies Schumer-Pelosi Claim of Agreement on DACA, Wall,” Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, September 14, 2017, http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/trump-denies-schumer-pelosi-claim-of-agreement-on-daca-wall/

Robert Costa, “Trump’s die-hard supporters are fuming after an apparent about-face on ‘dreamers,’” Washington Post, September 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/14/according-to-democrats-trump-has-done-an-about-face-on-dreamers-his-diehard-supporters-are-fuming/

Jonathan Easley, “Right explodes in anger over Trump’s immigration push,” Hill, September 14, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/right-explodes-in-anger-over-trump-deal-daca-dreamers-democrats-pelosi-schumer-hannity-coulter-ingraham

Brandon Carter, “Federal judge blocks Trump from denying funds to sanctuary cities,” Hill, September 15, 2017, http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/350937-federal-judge-blocks-trump-from-defunding-sanctuary-cities

Jazmine Ulloa, “California lawmakers approve landmark ‘sanctuary state’ bill to expand protections for immigrants,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-lawmakers-take-final-action-1505534909-htmlstory.html

Foie Gras

Maura Dolan, Jenn Harris, and Geoffrey Mohan, “Chefs react angrily as federal appeals court upholds California ban on foie gras,” Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-foie-gras-9th-circuit-20170915-story.html

  1. [1]Jordan Fabian and Max Greenwood, “Trump, Dem leaders reach agreement on young immigrants,” Hill, September 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/350596-trump-holds-working-dinner-with-schumer-pelosi↩
  2. [2]John T. Bennett, “Trump Denies Schumer-Pelosi Claim of Agreement on DACA, Wall,” Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, September 14, 2017, http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/trump-denies-schumer-pelosi-claim-of-agreement-on-daca-wall/↩
  3. [3]John Binder, “‘Amnesty Don’ Trends at Number One on Twitter in Washington, D.C.,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/amnesty-don-trends-at-number-one-on-twitter-in-washington-d-c/; John Binder, “Report: Trump Caves on DACA, Wants ‘Quick’ Amnesty for 800K Illegal Aliens,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/report-trump-caves-on-daca-wants-quick-amnesty-for-800k-illegal-aliens/; Jonathan Easley, “Right explodes in anger over Trump’s immigration push,” Hill, September 14, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/right-explodes-in-anger-over-trump-deal-daca-dreamers-democrats-pelosi-schumer-hannity-coulter-ingraham; Ian Mason, “Steve King: If Reports Correct ‘Trump Base Is Blown Up, Destroyed, Irreparable,’” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/steve-king-if-reports-correct-trump-base-is-blown-up-destroyed-irreparable/↩
  4. [4]Brandon Carter, “Federal judge blocks Trump from denying funds to sanctuary cities,” Hill, September 15, 2017, http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/350937-federal-judge-blocks-trump-from-defunding-sanctuary-cities↩
  5. [5]Robert Costa, “Trump’s die-hard supporters are fuming after an apparent about-face on ‘dreamers,’” Washington Post, September 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/14/according-to-democrats-trump-has-done-an-about-face-on-dreamers-his-diehard-supporters-are-fuming/↩
  6. [6]Maura Dolan, Jenn Harris, and Geoffrey Mohan, “Chefs react angrily as federal appeals court upholds California ban on foie gras,” Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-foie-gras-9th-circuit-20170915-story.html↩
  7. [7]Jazmine Ulloa, “California lawmakers approve landmark ‘sanctuary state’ bill to expand protections for immigrants,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-lawmakers-take-final-action-1505534909-htmlstory.html↩
  8. [8]Jennifer Rankin, “Free movement: a circle that cannot be squared in the Brexit debate,” Guardian, September 13, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/13/free-movement-circle-that-cannot-be-squared-brexit-debate↩
  9. [9]Sarah Jones, “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Get It,” review of What Happened, by Hillary Clinton, New Republic, September 13, 2017, https://newrepublic.com/article/144797/hillary-clinton-doesnt-get↩
  10. [10]David Remnick, “Hillary Clinton Looks Back in Anger,” New Yorker, September 25, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/25/hillary-clinton-looks-back-in-anger↩
  11. [11]Jordan Fabian and Max Greenwood, “Trump, Dem leaders reach agreement on young immigrants,” Hill, September 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/350596-trump-holds-working-dinner-with-schumer-pelosi↩
  12. [12]John Binder, “‘Amnesty Don’ Trends at Number One on Twitter in Washington, D.C.,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/amnesty-don-trends-at-number-one-on-twitter-in-washington-d-c/; John Binder, “Report: Trump Caves on DACA, Wants ‘Quick’ Amnesty for 800K Illegal Aliens,” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/report-trump-caves-on-daca-wants-quick-amnesty-for-800k-illegal-aliens/; Jonathan Easley, “Right explodes in anger over Trump’s immigration push,” Hill, September 14, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/right-explodes-in-anger-over-trump-deal-daca-dreamers-democrats-pelosi-schumer-hannity-coulter-ingraham; Ian Mason, “Steve King: If Reports Correct ‘Trump Base Is Blown Up, Destroyed, Irreparable,’” Breitbart, September 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/13/steve-king-if-reports-correct-trump-base-is-blown-up-destroyed-irreparable/↩

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