"He Has Moved the Bar of Outrage"

Peter Baker, and the signs of the times:

GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — Remember that time President George W. Bush told his attorney general to investigate Al Gore for his “crimes”? Or President Barack Obama called for a Justice Department prosecution of John McCain?

No. Neither thing ever happened.

Trump has:

refused to release his tax returns 

refused to divest from his private businesses

put his son-in-law and daughter on the White House staff

without proof, accused his predecessor of illegally tapping his phones

fired the F.B.I. director who was leading an investigation into certain of his associates

 undercut his “beleaguered” attorney general in public, presumably so he'll resign so Trump can appoint a more compliant A.G., who'll behave like an employee 

On the same day Trump called for a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton by his Justice Department, he also asserted that he had the “complete power to pardon” his friends, relatives, and very possibly himself if necessary, to short-circuit a special counsel’s investigation into any possible collusion between his team and Russia.

This can't go on. This must not continue.

Trump's "Made in America" Week Is Just Like Everything Else About Him -- A Scam

"Made in America" is totally inconsistent with the Trump organization's own business practices. Ivanka's brand of high-priced clothing and accessories is also made anywhere but here. (One exception: Trump himself was made in Russia.)

Bangladesh

China

Mexico

Indonesia

and a dozen other countries with low wages

That's where the Trump brand crap is turned out. Not here. Not in America.

Helen Aguirre Ferré, the White House’s director of media affairs, was asked point-blank at a press conference on Sunday if the Trump "Made in America" media event means he and Ivanka plan to get with the program and start buying from makers in this country. 

“We’ll get back to you on that,” replied Ferré.

Right. We're not holding our breath.

Trump: "Everyone Must Buy American ... Except for Me and My Family"

Hypocrisy Watch: Trump went to Wisconsin yesterday to demand that everyone "buy American" while he and his family are very notorious foreign shoppers.

1. Trump's own clothing line is made overseas. His famous ties are made in China. Last July, he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he “bid out” production for his ties: "You have companies over in different countries where they devalue their currency and they make it impossible for American companies to compete.”

2. During the campaign, Trump said he would label China "a currency manipulator" as soon as he was sworn in (for the reason cited immediately above). But earlier this week, Trump decided against that, soon after he and daughter Ivanka had dinner with China's leader.

3. At the same time that Trump and Ivanka were having dinner with China's leader, Trump was also being awarded trademark protection for his name in China, something he had sought for more than a decade. Money, money, money!

4. Ivanka "has imported 56 shipments of Ivanka Trump products from China and Singapore, part of a total of 215 shipments from Asia since Jan. 1, 2016” (NBC News).

5. Cheap steel for Trump hotels comes from overseas -- we've all known that -- but the Business Insider reports that hotel furnishings and toiletries are also bought from foreign suppliers: ice buckets from Thailand, headboards from China, slippers from Hong Kong, shower gel from Italy, etc.

6. "Hire American"? Not that, either. According to the Washington Post, since 2013 Trump properties -- including Mar-a-Lago, Trump Vineyards, and Trump National Golf Club -- have sought to fill more than 500 positions with foreign workers under the H-2A visa program. "In total, those positions would have earned almost $1 million a month in salary over their durations."

If a Democratic president were this obviously hypocritical, can you imagine the uproar? If a Democratic president had achieved No. 3 alone, impeachment proceedings would already be underway in a Republican congress.

The President's Daughter and the Male Manikin

Interesting article in today's NYTimes about the Jared-Ivanka lock on power at the White House. They have risen as the only antidote to Steve Bannon.

"Even allies acknowledge Mr. Trump is impulsive, indifferent to preparation and prone to embracing the last advice offered."

--Peter Baker, Glenn Thrush, and Maggie Haberman

Jared Kushner

Son-in-law Jared Kushner is now in charge of so much he looks like Swiss Army Man. He's "fixing" everything, apparently, from the Middle East to your cousin's hydrocodone addiction. He can't be fired. Neither can Ivanka, who apparently made the case against Bannon most effectively: "He's puffing himself up, Daddy, at your expense."

Footnote: Stephen Miller, the young white nationalist from Duke University who wrote much of that Day of Doom inauguration speech, has pulled away from Bannon and attached himself to Ivanka. That's a rat leaving a sinking ship if we've ever seen one.

Dumping Coal Waste Into Waterways Is NOTHING Compared To What's Coming

Trump promised during the presidential contest that he would "cancel" the Paris accord on global warming, the 194-nation agreement that all countries -- rich and poor, developed and undeveloped -- will take steps to reduce greenhouse gases. Since the Paris accord was signed, we have experienced two record-setting hot summers and now an unprecedented warm winter, so the urgency to stop the global warmup has become more intense.

Enter Trump. Russia's favorite president has already been peeing on environmental regs. According to leaked budget documents, the president intends to kill off nearly two dozen E.P.A. programs, including the Obama-era Clean Power Program, climate partnership programs with local governments, Energy Star grants to encourage efficiency research in consumer products and climate-change research. Those would be part of a broader Trump budget submission that would cut the EPA’s funding by 25 percent, to around $6.1 billion from $8.2 billion, and its staff by 20 percent.

As Steve Bannon suggested at CPAC, why else would Trump have appointed Scott Pruitt EPA administrator except to dismantle the EPA and environmental protections.

According to the reporting of Coral Davenport (with good sources inside the Trump White House),

Next week, Mr. Trump plans to sign an executive order directing Mr. Pruitt to start the lengthy legal process of unwinding Mr. Obama’s E.P.A. regulations for cutting greenhouse pollution from coal-fired power plants. Those regulations are the linchpin of the last administration’s program to meet the nation’s obligations to reduce climate emissions under the Paris agreement.

Davenport also reports that a power struggle has erupted in the White House between Steve Bannon, who published scores of articles bashing climate change as a hoax when he ran Breitbart, and Ivanka Trump, who thinks it would be politically boneheaded to withdraw the US from the Paris accords. According to Davenport, Rex Tillerson, the Exxon man, has formed an alliance with Ivanka in opposing Bannon. Tillerson sees withdrawal from the Paris agreement as potentially hurting the US's reputation (not to mention its honesty and commitment to the world's welfare) among other nations.

When the ex-CEO of Exxon is our best hope for saving the planet, you know we're in #TrumpNation.

ALERT! Squishy Liberals Very Near the Oval Office!

A draft executive order by which Trump would have reversed President Obama's workplace protections for the LBGT community has apparently been scuttled.

The draft EO had circulated within the White House for days and would have extended "religious liberty" to employers who wanted to fire workers because of sexual orientation.

Sources in the White House are crediting Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner with the turn-around. We'd like to believe that Kushner, particularly, has finally had some influence on President Rollerball.

An influential commentator on national politics suspects that it was Ivanka and Jared who leaked that information:

Nate SilverVerified account‏@NateSilver538

Call me cynical but seems very likely that "sources" portraying Jared & Ivanka in an heroic light are actually Jared & Ivanka.

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Trump Will Have To Put a Tariff on Himself

According to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, most of the clothing Americans buy at Walmart and Target is made abroad, including 97% of apparel and 98% of shoes.

All during the recent presidential campaign, Donald Trump made hay with working-class audiences by attacking companies that have sent jobs overseas. He bragged that he would impose tariffs on goods made in China and elsewhere, when those companies should be keeping jobs in the U.S.

But guess what? All the shit that Trump sells at the Trump Tower gift shop -- "Trump National Golf Club" caps and Trump Tower hoodies and $65 white golf shirts -- is manufactured overseas. The vast majority of daughter Ivanka's clothing and accessory lines is made in various Asian countries, including most especially Japan. 

Ivanka was criticized for meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan immediately after the election while also completing a licensing deal with a company whose largest shareholder is wholly owned by the Japanese government.

Almost all of Ivanka's goods are made overseas, according to a New York Times investigation:

[A] review of shipments compiled separately by Panjiva and ImportGenius, two trade databases ... tallied 193 shipments for imported goods associated with Ms. Trump for the year through Dec. 5, mostly Chinese-made shoes and handbags. Her dresses and blouses are made in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to a review of hundreds of clothing tags and financial documents filed by G-III.

So, yeah, slap a big fat tariff on that stuff, Mr. Trump! You go right ahead and do that.

In the meantime, we'll have another cup of coffee while we wait and wonder when your low-information idolaters will finally figure out that you're nothing but a serial liar, a bloated braggart, and a blow-hard.

Government Is About Cashing In, Yes?

Everything's for sale in Trump Nation, especially access to The Man Himself.

Came out that Don Jr. and Eric Trump "dangled a rare opportunity for donors willing to pony up $500,000 and more" to hang out with the new president on the day after his inauguration (photo-op included at no additional charge!) and go on a hunting or fishing trip with one of the brothers. Donors willing to go up to $1 million might get to kiss The Donald's naked ass.

"In the weeks since Mr. Trump’s election, three of his four adult children, who are serving on his transition committee, have been a near-constant presence. One or more of them have participated in a meeting with the prime minister of Japan, joined in on a phone call with the president of Argentina, and sat at the conference table where Mr. Trump met with leaders of major technology companies."

Ivanka has a big hand in promoting Trump properties world-wide, and she owns Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry. She wore a $10,800 gold bangle bracelet when she participated in an interview her family did with “60 Minutes,” and, like, 30 minutes later, her jewelry company sent out a notice to reporters with a photograph of her wearing the bracelet, trying to use the appearance as an opportunity to sell more items. “Please find attached a style alert of Ivanka wearing her favorite bangle from the Metropolis Collection over the weekend on 60 Minutes,” Monica Marder, the vice president for sales at Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, said in the email.

The Eric Trump Foundation famously offered "coffee with Ivanka Trump" for a measly $77,888 -- that is, they offered that inducement until the press got wind of it, and then the offer evaporated like Donald Trump's hairspray. Same goes for that $500,000 to $1 million offer of access to the new president on the day after his inauguration -- withdrawn quickly after it became public.

Don't trust for a moment that supposedly non-profits and Trump foundations are raising this money, presumably for charitable reasons. The people willing to buy access sure as hell aren't doing it for charitable reasons.

The "kleptocrats" are about to move in, and they obviously can't wait. Literally can't wait.