Jeffrey, Who?

Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union? 
-Alexander Hamilton

A creature of their own. That was Hamilton's warning in the Federalist Papers. If only an enemy of the country could get a willing dupe into the Oval Office, incidentally, an Oval Office now decorated like, as one wag described it, "A Dollar Store version of Versailles."

To no one's surprise, in the midst of the administration's punt of the Jeffrey Epstein "files", and the ensuing MAGAruption over the nothingburger delivered by Attorney General Pam Bondi, comes a claim that former President Obama essentially committed treason in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Yes, it's always 2016 in Trumpville. Well, unless it's 2020.

The claim comes from the Director of National Intelligence, the once delectable Tulsi Gabbard. In the midst of the Epstein furor, she has thrown this charge against the wall to see if anything sticks. The claim is that in 2017, the outgoing President ginned up evidence that the Russians wanted Trump to win, and worked hard to make it happen.

Given what we know and have investigated, that's not a real question anymore. But what she has done is conflate two distinct activities by Russia: attempts to hack into voting systems (for which no evidence of vote manipulation was found) and influence operations aimed at swaying public opinion, which have been proven by not just Robert Mueller's investigation, but Republican-led committees in Congress. From the Mueller report...

The Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) later used social media accounts and interest groups to sow discord in the U.S. political system through what it termed “information warfare.” The campaign evolved from a generalized program designed in 2014 and 2015 to undermine the U.S. electoral system, to a targeted operation that by early 2016 favored candidate Trump and disparaged candidate Clinton. The IRA’s operation also included the purchase of political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities, as well as the staging of political rallies inside the United States. To organize those rallies, IRA employees posed as U.S. grassroots entities and persons and made contact with Trump supporters and Trump Campaign officials in the United States.

Russian interference operations against the United States during the 2016 presidential election were vast and complex. That is the conclusion drawn by Special Counsel Mueller, as well as by the Department of Justice, the intelligence community, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in the course of their respective investigations. The Russian government waged a well-documented, sustained campaign to weaken the United States, damage American democracy, and divide American citizens using multiple tools and tactics.

It was Watergate with a mouse and a keyboard.

Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale, wrote in his book, "The Road to Unfreedom...

"Dimitry Kiselev, the leading man in Russian media rejoiced that 'a new star is rising, Trump.' Aleksandr Dugin, a far right Russian commentator posted a video entitled 'In Trump We Trust' and urged Americans to vote for him."

So, the Kremlin's preference in 2016 was obvious, along with Trump's surprise at being rebuffed on Ukraine, but one needs to understand why this is being trotted out now. In the midst of the administration's attempt to jangle car keys in front of the collective American toddler to distract from the whole Epstein mess, the reliably conservative Wall Street Journal presented a bit of an Epstein-a-palooza. Jeff's confidant, or procurer, if you prefer, Ghislane Maxwell kept a scrapbook of his randy 50th birthday cards from various friends. Among them was a line drawing of a naked woman with a suggestive message, and the name "Donald" written in the pubic area. According to the Journal, the suggestive message was an imaginary conversation between Trump and, well, you know who...

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.
Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is. 
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. 
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it. 
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? 
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. 
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.

We haven't seen the actual drawing, that is, until now. "Bloom County" creator Berkely Breathed has apparently revealed the leaked picture...

Actually Trump's friendship with "Jeff" is well known and chronicled. One wonders why, if you know your name will be doubtless in them, you would make such a big deal about the files? Oh, I'm sure he assumed Bill Clinton's name would be the most prominent headline in any story, but still, why take the chance?

And now, to try to put a lid on this, Trump is suing the Journal for $16 billion. That means he is, in essence, suing its owner Rupert Murdoch. You know the "Fox" Murdoch. Thus, he will turn off the Fox News support machine quicker than you can say Stephen Colbert. So, again, you ask why invite all this? The answer is simple: Donald Trump is not all that bright.

Don't forget, in his first term, he had a bevy of babysitters, mostly Generals, Mattis, Kelly, and McMaster. Also, the so-called "Wall Street Wing" of the administration, including economic advisor Gary Cohn. There was an agreed policy that there could never be a time when all were out of Washington at the same time. Someone had to be there to keep Trump's worst instincts in check. That's why tariffs were a fairly minor issue then, but are a boondoggle now.

General Kelly called the President "unhinged" and "an idiot." Jim Mattis called him a "5th or 6th grader." Gary Cohn was described as "astounded" at how dumb he was. Well, now the guardrails are gone, and we will soon see the results.

The administration brags, for example, about how much money tariffs have brought in. And where does that money come from? American companies, that's where. The importer pays tariffs, not the country you are angry at. So Walmart and the car companies, for example, are paying. And they can only eat that for so long before you are the ones the bills are passed to. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and sooner or later, you will all be Peter.

That is why Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is holding off on lowering interest rates. The effects of tariffs on prices haven't yet filtered through the economy.

And in the midst of this, Congress, at Trump's behest, passes an incredibly irresponsible budget bill that will blow the deficit apart. Economists at the Brown School of Business gathered all the computing power they could, even involving the help of NASA and Amazon, and ran the US economic numbers, GDP and debt, into the future.

The computer could not make the math work.

“Their economic models crashed when trying to project out the economy over the long term,” said Jessica Riedl, an economist with the conservative Manhattan Institute who studies the budget. “We cannot even model out a functioning long-term economy under current debt projections.”

And the reason we all think this mess will somehow work out is that we believe in fairy tales. I recently interviewed a US Congressman, a nice guy and not dumb. I asked about the debt,trickle-down and he clung to the old supply-side argument that the tax cuts will spur an economic renaissance that will more than cover the reduced revenue. Except for the fact that it never has. Ever. When I told him, he refused to believe it.

He simply could not believe that while trickle-down may spur some economic increases, they are nowhere near enough to make up for the debt. Like doubts about climate change, the old Reagan arguments (even disputed by Reagan's own economic guru) die hard. And this magical thinking is going to cost us dearly.

In other words, if the debt keeps rising at its current rate and we just do not deal with it, even thousands of NASA and Amazon computers all working together cannot get the math to math.

Really, it's a question of how far can we go before the bond market says, "I just don't believe that you're gonna pay us back.’' You can cut out NASA's Science Department, the Education Department, foreign aid, and staffing at everything from the FAA to NPR, and you still can't come close.

Oh, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Petticoat Junction) says we'll never miss public radio and TV, but here's something he won't tell you. The largest audiences for any national radio program are, in order...

Three of the top 5 national programs are from NPR or American Public Media.

In Dallas, a provably conservative town, KERA, the NPR station has 3 times the audience numbers of the commercial news talk stations. But, that's alright. If they have to sell more "underwriting" they'll be fine.

But back to the subject at hand. If we simply trust a reality show host that everything will work out fine, we will get exactly what we deserve. And frankly, his whims are already being felt in some business sectors.

Agriculture and construction are a couple of industries very dependent on foreign labor, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department, which now has a budget larger than the Russian Army, is and will continue to threaten their livelihoods. The initial promise to rid the country of vicious criminals first has morphed into simple casual cruelty that includes even grandparents and children. I have a good friend who is retired from the foreign service of a US ally and settled in Dallas with a green card and, he thought, permanent residency.

Now everything is in doubt. And honestly, to what end? Seemingly, some daily quota like the US is some sort of small-town speed trap.

At the risk of being an alarmist, I am alarmed. There are now no guardrails in the cabinet, in Congress, or even the Supreme Court, as they have all forfeited their constitutional roles in the scheme of things in return for what, an election endorsement?

I'm beginning to think he really could shoot someone on 5th Avenue.