Donald Trump is an idiot, North Korea edition

There is a new blog post, “How Donald Trump captured the Republican Party.” See also in particular an update below published on July 3 at 9:04 am.


About fireworks in Graton

I expect to be home on July 4th. Graton residents should know that while I have never liked the noise and object to the celebration of war that they entail, in the wake of the Sonoma County wildfires, I will no longer be tolerating the fireworks that are routinely set off to commemorate the holiday. This is not a negotiation. I will call 911. All fireworks—including allegedly “safe and sane” fireworks—are illegal in unincorporated Sonoma County and the risk is unacceptable. Period.


Updates

  1. Originally published, July 1, 9:00 am.
  2. July 2, 5:35 pm:
    • North Korea is also expanding a missile plant.[1]
    • Michael Cohen sounds like he’s ‘flipping’ and will cooperate with state, as well as federal, prosecutors, meaning Donald Trump can’t pardon his way out of this one.[2]
    • Republicans may be ducking, but they can’t hide from the Unauthorized migration issue.[3]
    • Philip Zimbardo has defended his Stanford Prison Experiment findings in an interview. The interviewer is unconvinced, but, this being Vox, places excessive faith in scientific method and, through aggressive—even hostile—questioning, doesn’t allow Zimbardo to express himself well. It might be better to do what I have not done, which is to read Zimbardo’s full written response.[4] (Replication)
  3. July 3, 9:04 am:
    • A federal judge has ordered an end to detention for asylum seekers who have passed a “credible fear” test.[5] (Unauthorized migration)
    • It is, apparently by design, all but impossible to reunify separated families.[6] (Unauthorized migration)
    • Somewhat related to the new blog post mentioned above, when presented with the opportunity to offer soothing words to unify the country, Donald Trump instead praised his base.[7] Which is to say that when he looks at the country, he sees only his base and that he is president not for the entire country as it actually is but only that base. This should not be a surprise.
    • Added the notice about fireworks in Graton above.
  4. July 3, 4:49 pm:
    • In a bipartisan report, the Senate Intelligence Committee accepts the deep state’s conclusions that Russia meddled in the U.S. 2016 election and did so at Vladimir Putin’s direction.[8] (Golden showers)
  5. July 3, 8:40 pm:
    • A judge suspects the Trump administration of bad faith in adding a citizenship question to the U.S. census questionnaire and has ordered the administration to explain itself.[9] (Alleged voter fraud)
    • Added a tweet from Laurence Tribe under Golden showers. Tribe seems convinced there was collusion.[10] I don’t have the impression the Senate report goes that far.[11]
  6. July 4, 1:05 am:
    • Functionalist conservatives—specifically, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and so-called ‘free’ traders in Congress are trying to limit Donald Trump’s ability to wage a trade war.[12] (So-called ‘free’ trade)
  7. July 4, 11:51 am:
    • I think Jonathan Chait maybe goes a little too far here, but he thinks that the reason Scott Pruitt hasn’t been fired is that Donald Trump is keeping him on tap to replace Jeff Sessions in a plan to fire Robert Mueller.[13] I guess I’m more interested in why, when he so readily castigates nearly anyone else on Twitter, Trump is relatively silent about or even obsequious toward 1) Russia and Vladimir Putin, 2) Stormy Daniels, and 3) Pruitt. Chait seems close to a common thread here as Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ attorney, did seek to intervene in the case involving Mueller’s raid on Michael Cohen, Trump’s “fixer.” But, for me, the pieces aren’t quite in place.
  8. July 4, 1:45 pm:
    • Added tweet from Michael Avenatti floating the possibility of a run for president against Donald Trump in 2020.

North Korea

So much for Donald Trump’s summit.

Ellen Mitchell, “Satellite images raise alarms about North Korean nukes,” Hill, June 30, 2018, http://thehill.com/policy/defense/394896-satellite-images-raise-alarms-aboutth-korean-nukes

Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick, “North Korea working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear program, U.S. officials say,” Washington Post, June 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-working-to-conceal-key-aspects-of-its-nuclear-program-us-officials-say/2018/06/30/deba64fa-7c82-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html


So-called ‘free’ trade

David J. Lynch and Philip Rucker, “To Trump, Harley’s tariff decision is a personal — and unexpected — betrayal,” Washington Post, June 26, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/to-trump-harleys-tariff-decision-is-a-personal–and-unexpected–betrayal/2018/06/26/a662c718-796d-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html

Patti Waldmeir, “Harley-Davidson workers back Trump despite jobs shift,” CNBC, June 27, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/27/harley-davidson-workers-back-trump-despite-jobs-shift.html

Jordain Carney, “Appeals court nominees languish in Senate as Flake demands tariff vote,” Hill, June 30, 2018, http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/394921-appeals-courtinees-languish-in-senate-as-flake-demands-tariff-vote


Unauthorized migration

Reuters, “Migrant children and families now face indefinite detention by US,” Guardian, June 29, 2018, https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/30/migrant-children-and-families-now-face-indefinite-detention-by-us

Rachael Bade, “Immigration storm bears down on Republicans,” Politico, July 2, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/02/immigration-republicans-border-fallout-687895

Isaac Chotiner, “‘This Entire System Is Designed to Make Things Impossible for Immigrants,'” Slate, July 2, 2018, https://amp.slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/child-separation-now-why-its-still-so-difficult-for-immigrant-families-to-be-reunited.html

Richard Gonzales, “Federal Judge Orders Administration To End Arbitrary Detention Of Asylum-Seekers,” National Public Radio, July 2, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/07/02/625504723/federal-judge-orders-administration-to-end-arbitrary-detention-of-asylum-seekers


Donald Trump

Jonathan Chait, “Interviewer Asks Trump to Bring Country Together. He Praises His Base,” New York, July 2, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/asked-to-bring-country-together-trump-praises-my-base.html

Jonathan Chait, “Michael Cohen Apparently Flipping Is Extremely Bad News for Trump,” New York, July 2, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/michael-cohen-apparent-flip-is-extremely-bad-news-for-trump.html


Replication

Brian Resnick, “Philip Zimbardo defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work,” Vox, June 28, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview


Golden showers

Chris Megerian, “Senate panel backs up intelligence agencies, says Russia aimed to help Trump in election,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-senate-russia-intel-20180703-story.html


Alleged voter fraud

Avery Anapol, “Judge orders Trump admin to explain how it decided to add citizenship question to census,” Hill, July 3, 2018, http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/395400-federal-judge-says-trump-admin-acted-in-bad-faith-with-citizenship


So-called ‘free’ trade

Zeeshan Aleem, “Big business and the GOP are declaring war on Trump’s trade agenda,” Vox, July 3, 2018, https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/3/17530516/chamber-commerce-trump-tariffs-trade-war-china


Scott Pruitt

Jonathan Chait, “Why Hasn’t Trump Fired Scott Pruitt? Because Pruitt Can Fire Robert Mueller,” New York, July 3, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-scott-pruitt-scandals-attorney-general-can-fire-mueller.html


  1. [1]Jonathan Cheng, “North Korea Expands Key Missile-Manufacturing Plant,” Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-expands-key-missile-manufacturing-plant-1530486907
  2. [2]Jonathan Chait, “Michael Cohen Apparently Flipping Is Extremely Bad News for Trump,” New York, July 2, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/michael-cohen-apparent-flip-is-extremely-bad-news-for-trump.html
  3. [3]Rachael Bade, “Immigration storm bears down on Republicans,” Politico, July 2, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/02/immigration-republicans-border-fallout-687895
  4. [4]Brian Resnick, “Philip Zimbardo defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work,” Vox, June 28, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview
  5. [5]Richard Gonzales, “Federal Judge Orders Administration To End Arbitrary Detention Of Asylum-Seekers,” National Public Radio, July 2, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/07/02/625504723/federal-judge-orders-administration-to-end-arbitrary-detention-of-asylum-seekers
  6. [6]Isaac Chotiner, “‘This Entire System Is Designed to Make Things Impossible for Immigrants,'” Slate, July 2, 2018, https://amp.slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/child-separation-now-why-its-still-so-difficult-for-immigrant-families-to-be-reunited.html
  7. [7]Jonathan Chait, “Interviewer Asks Trump to Bring Country Together. He Praises His Base,” New York, July 2, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/asked-to-bring-country-together-trump-praises-my-base.html
  8. [8]Chris Megerian, “Senate panel backs up intelligence agencies, says Russia aimed to help Trump in election,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-senate-russia-intel-20180703-story.html
  9. [9]Avery Anapol, “Judge orders Trump admin to explain how it decided to add citizenship question to census,” Hill, July 3, 2018, http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/395400-federal-judge-says-trump-admin-acted-in-bad-faith-with-citizenship
  10. [10]Laurence Tribe, [microblog post], Twitter, July 3, 2018, https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1014296363453026305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
  11. [11]Chris Megerian, “Senate panel backs up intelligence agencies, says Russia aimed to help Trump in election,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-senate-russia-intel-20180703-story.html
  12. [12]Zeeshan Aleem, “Big business and the GOP are declaring war on Trump’s trade agenda,” Vox, July 3, 2018, https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/3/17530516/chamber-commerce-trump-tariffs-trade-war-china
  13. [13]Jonathan Chait, “Why Hasn’t Trump Fired Scott Pruitt? Because Pruitt Can Fire Robert Mueller,” New York, July 3, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-scott-pruitt-scandals-attorney-general-can-fire-mueller.html

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