Someone (I think it was on Washington Week in Review) noted Trump's frenetic "quick, look over there!" tactics, which are designed to get everybody agitated about some other issue when one becomes inconvenient.
So what happened to the Senate hearings on Russian hacking? Last I heard, there were 20 more witnesses to be called, but I haven't read anything about this since the end of March.
News outlets seem to have dropped that story like a hot potato, instead chasing after the stories about making Syria and Afghanistan go ka-boom and the recent nyah-nyahing by Mike Pence and Rex Tillerson on the lotline between North and South Korea.
I worry that in dealing with a president whose tactics are distract-and-distort, the press is developing a sympathetic case of attention deficit disorder.
What other stories are fading that need to stay on the front burner? Obama's alleged bugging of Trump? Paul Manafort's involvement with Russians? Mike Flynn's ditto? Disruptions and expenses caused by Trump's inability to stay home? Broken campaign promises?
Related: The FiveThirtyEight assesses of what Trump has done in his first chaotic 100 days, even as Trump tweeted: "No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!"
ReplyDeleteLink to 538: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-isnt-a-do-nothing-president/?ex_cid=trumpbeat
You're right the Senate Intelligence Committee has disappeared, at least from the news. Of course, the hard-working Congress has been on a "break" for two weeks and when they come back, they have five days to decide whether or not to shut-down the government. So much to do; so little time.
ReplyDeleteIt is also possible that Senators Burr (R) and Warner(D), Intelligence Committee heads, are keeping themselves off the front pages to avoid a Nunes blow-up.
It is also possible that the leakers who kept this in the headlines have been shut down, or frightened off. Equally possible that the Senators are finding that the contacts between Russian "agents" and Trump "advisors" may produce a lot of circumstantial "evidence," but nothing that will go beyond the circle of corruption and conflicts of interest that surrounds Trump and his associates, and about which nothing will be done.
Just a gloomy morning assessment.
In an earlier post I had a comment about Adam Schiff. He's the ranking Democratic congressman on the House committee that is investigating the connection between the Russian hacking and the Trump campaign. He's the one who called for the Republican chairman of the committee, Nunes, to recuse himself. The investigation is ongoing. I had a link to a talk he just gave at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics about the investigation.
ReplyDeleteI do think Trump is trying to distract everyone from the topic, but it won't work as far as the investigations go,
Raber reports that Noam Chomsky opined that these investigations are merely ways to drag Trump back to the mainstream GOP fold, and that they'll be dropped when Trump gets in line. Interesting a analysis, but not sure I buy it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's true, at least not true for the Democrats who are part of the bipartisan House and Senate investigations. But they are not the ones chairing the committees, being the minority.
ReplyDeleteKarma is going to catch up eventually. I just hope we're not dragged into another war before it happens. See E.J. Dionne's article on the Commonweal site for commentary on related subject matter.
ReplyDeleteFor all the chaos, Trump has satisfied the conservatives with his Supreme Court confirmation, the hawks with his bombing of Syria, and the alt-right with his deportations.
ReplyDeleteNo one should have thought he would do something about Obamacare in the first 100 days.
Who knew health care was so complicated? Geez.
ReplyDeleteI guess next week Trumptydumpty will found out how complicated tax reform is. It seems like only military matters aren't all that complicated! Drop a bomb! Order the navy to Korea? Geez...it's so easy.
DeleteYes, recent tweet:"Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday"
DeleteHighever, Trump's timetables can be very fluid and his idea of "big" is sometimes hyperbole.
Jerry Brown had that 15% tax plan decades ago. Everybody pays, no exemptions for anybody over a certain income level. It still makes sense to me, especially after that guy on NPR started pointing out stuff in the current tax code.
We could also use simplified tax codes from other countries as models.
I think Americans just hate taxes, period, going back to Shay's Rebellion. Ironic that we've created a code to duck taxes, which means we have to pay taxes to support a bloated IRS to make sure we're following the rules.
Jean: Looks like Chuck Schumer read your post: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sternly criticized Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr Tuesday for moving "very, very slowly" in the panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/25/chuck-schumer-richard-burr-senate-russia-probe-237590
And here comes Sally Yates.
DeleteFormer AG Sally Yates To Testify May 8 In Congressional Russia Probe.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/sally-yates-testify-russia-probe