Progressive Breakfast: Trump’s General Just Announced a New Cold War. Who Will Stop It?
MORNING MESSAGE
Trump’s General Just Announced a New Cold War. Who Will Stop It?
Defense Secretary James Mattis announced a dramatic shift in military policy last week, and it threatens to plunge the world into new forms of conflict. Mattis is not a “Mad Dog,” as his nickname suggests. He's a rational and articulate spokesperson for the national security ideology that has dominated American political life since the end of World War II. That’s disturbing in a very different way.
WH Floats Demands On Immigration Deal
Trump’s Immigration Concession Sets High Price for Democrats. Bloomberg:“The administration Thursday night proposed giving 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children a path to citizenship in exchange for drastically reducing family-based migration, a $25 billion trust fund for a border wall, stepped-up security at ports of entry, and stricter internal enforcement. The framework is, in effect, a bottom line for the president, one White House official said when asked if it was negotiable. ‘These are good people, these are people that should be able to stay in this country,’ Trump said in an interview with CNBC that aired Friday. ‘We’re going to solve the DACA problem. But we also want to solve a tremendous problem on the southern border, which is crime.'”
Giant Tax Cuts Curry Corporate Favor In Davos
Trump wins over global elites at Davos. All it took was a $1.5 trillion tax cut. WaPo:“Donald Trump may have finally gained entry into the exclusive global club of the corporate elites he has long scorned — and which has scorned him. All it took was a $1.5 trillion tax cut and a much more hands-off approach toward regulating companies for business leaders to embrace him. It is a big change in attitude from a year ago, when many in the business elite viewed President Trump’s inauguration and nationalistic brand of politics with high anxiety. Business leaders and their companies slammed the new administration’s ban on travel from six majority-Muslim countries — filling their social media accounts with criticism — and seven months later disbanded advisory councils to the president to protest his racially charged remarks about Charlottesville.”
Case For Trump Obstruction Of Justice Grows
It’s now likely Mueller thinks Trump obstructed justice. Politico:“Thursday’s explosive New York Times story that President Donald Trump ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller last June renewed the public’s focus on the obstruction of justice investigation against Trump, which will soon culminate in Trump’s interview by Mueller. The case against Trump has grown stronger in recent months, and it now appears likely that Mueller will conclude that Trump obstructed justice. Impeding or influencing an FBI investigation is a crime only if it is done with ‘corrupt’ intent—in other words, the intent to wrongfully impede the administration of justice. In my experience, proving a defendant’s intent without direct evidence—that is, without statements by the defendant that directly reveal his or her intent—is challenging.”
MD Judge Upholds Trump Emoluments Case
Trump emoluments case gathers steam. NYT:“A closely watched lawsuit claiming that President Trump is violating the Constitution by failing to divorce himself from his businesses appeared to inch forward on Thursday during a lengthy hearing before a federal judge in Maryland. Judge Peter J. Messitte voiced skepticism about the Justice Department’s arguments that he should dismiss the lawsuit, filed last year by the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland, on the grounds that Mr. Trump’s continued ownership of his businesses was a political issue, not a legal one.”
WH Asks For Van Gogh, Gets Toilet Instead
The Art Museum That Offered Donald Trump a Solid Gold Toilet. Vanity Fair:“What do you give the man who has everything? Well, if you’re the Guggenheim and that man is Donald Trump, you offer up a golden toilet. According to The Washington Post, the White House e-mailed the New York museum asking if it could borrow van Gogh’s Landscape with Snow painting for the private residences of the president and First Lady. Curator Nancy Spector replied that the painting was unavailable, but she did offer Trump the 18-karat golden toilet titled America. The functioning toilet, created by Maurizio Cattelan, spent a year on the museum’s fifth floor in a public restroom for visitors to use. The toilet is supposed to represent America’s wealth and excess, and seems like it would line up nicely with Trump’s taste. His $100 million penthouse in Manhattan is covered in gold trim, decorations, and furniture. In fact, it would be more surprising to learn that Trump didn’t already own a golden toilet.”
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