Friends,
The City of Atlanta is expecting 1 inch of snow tomorrow. All essential state employees have been told to stay home, the City has issued a freeze warning, Emory University is closed and the City is grinding to a halt. God bless the South. That being said here are a few things that aren’t stopped in their proverbial tracks:
1) The United States Government (finally)
2) Possible military intervention in Venezuela
3) Billionaires running for President
4) Robert “Bob” (for short) Mueller… my guy.
Let’s dig in.
(Not) Shutdown
The Federal Government of the United States, as of Friday, is open for business (at least for the next 17 days). Hold your applause.
President Trump signed a three week “stopgap” bill to fund the federal government ensuring federal employees received paychecks for the first time in over a month.
How did this happen?
1) Early Friday, flights into LaGuardia, Philadelphia and Newark airports faced delays, due to a lack of air traffic controllers.
2) On Thursday, two bills, one supported by the Administration failed to pass the Senate. This ended any hope in the White House they could entice centrist Democrats to jump-ship
3) Federal workers missed their second pay check
So, the shutdown is over. Trump must have gotten his money. Right? No.
Oh, then he must have struck a deal, he is, after all, the master “dealmaker”. Right? No.
What? So he caved? After promising never to do so? Yes, yes he did.
Trump lost. After denying he’d ever sign a bill opening the government without his $5.7 billion for a wall, he did just that.
But he must have gotten something out of the shutdown, right? Inflicting financial pain on hundreds of thousands of workers wasn’t all for naught, was it? Yes, in fact, it was.
Trump signed the exact same bill he was presented on December 20th by members of his own party.
Wait.. wait.. no that’s not right. The bill passed in December which was presented by Paul Ryan had $1.6 billion for border security and would have funded the government through Feb. 8. The bill he signed on Friday is ZERO dollars for border security.
So essentially Trump put the nation through a shutdown to get LESS border security money, at least in the short term. Nice.
Moving on… both Democrats and Republicans have vowed to come together on a border security bill but the President has not ruled out using his powers under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to unilaterally build the wall nor is has he ruled out another shutdown.
But for now, legislators, all members of House and Senate appropriations committees, will work on finding a solution led by a bicameral, bipartisan committee which includes:
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. Shelley Morre Capito (R-WV), Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Rep Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. David Price (D-NC), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Rep. Chuck Fleischman (R-TN), Rep Tom Graves (R-GA), Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS).
Fingers crossed.
PS: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the government shutdown cost the US economy $11 billion, $3 billion of which will never be recovered.
Roger Stone
Hours before the government shutdown came to an end, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted Roger Stone on charges of lying to Congress (about his contacts with WikiLeaks), obstructing an official proceeding (false testimony) and witness tampering (coached witness Randy Credico).
Does the indictment directly connect Russia to the Trump campaign? No, but it’s awfully close.
Per Politico:
The indictment states that in June or July, Stone told Trump officials WikiLeaks had Clinton-damaging documents. After the July 22, 2016, release of the stolen DNC emails, a “senior Trump campaign official” was directed to ask Stone what else WikiLeaks had on Clinton.
White House Press Secretary stated the charges “have nothing to do with the president” but others are asking who, in what was a small campaign, could have directed such an action? Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) told CNN “Donald Trump or possibly Donald Trump Jr.”
Stone is pleading not guilty but realistically stands little chance of going free without a Presidential pardon.
Venezuela
Russian backed Socialist Dictator Nicolas Maduro and US backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó are now both actively courting the military in an effort to consolidate power. Presently, Maduro has retained the support of the military, save Col. Jose Luis Silva the country’s top military representative to the US who is backing Guiadó.
Guidó is offering amnesty to any and all military officials that support his claim to power.
Reminder: the US has not removed its diplomats even after Maduro called for their expulsion.
When asked about possibly military action in the country Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney did not rule it out. Adding to speculation, John Bolton was photographed with a notepad in hand, upon which seems to be a note that reads “5,000 troops to Colombia,”.
The international community will certainly look to avoid armed conflict at all costs but it’s clear, no options are off the table.
Bite Sized Politics
- Wallstreet, anxious to see Trump gone, is becoming increasingly wary of Democratic candidates courting the Progressive base
- Tom Steyer, billionaire Democratic mega-donor who plans to spend $40 million on politics in 2019 said Sunday “Unless you support impeachment, we’re not supporting you.”
- Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO, is “seriously considering” running for president as a centric independent candidate. Democrats are frantic that the fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate will siphon votes from the Democratic nominee and hand a second term to Trump. The President wasted no time responding:
- US-Taliban negotiators have agreed in principal to a framework to end the war that’s lasted more than a decade according to the US Special Representative for Afghanistan. The agreement would require the Taliban to prevent the country from remaining a hub for terrorism in exchange for a US withdrawal.
- The Senate voted today to advance legislation imposing new sanctions on Syria while allowing state and local governments to withhold contracts from companies that participate in the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel.
- The Trump administration will not set a drinking water limit for two toxic chemicals (PFOA and PFOS) that are contaminating millions of Americans’ tap water
- Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said the Russian investigation will soon come to a conclusion.
- President Trump will give the State of the Union on February 5th.
- The Justice Department on Monday announced criminal charges against Huawei and its affiliates, accusing the Chinese telecommunications firm in two indictments of violating intellectual property law and lying about its compliance with U.S. sanctions against Iran.
- Finally, I’ll just leave this here….
That is all.
Thanks,
Crawford
The Lens 