That's not fair! They've got rocks! All we've got are these machine guns. Oh, mother of pearl, here comes another one.
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| SNIDELY WHIPLASH AWARD WINNER OF 2017 |
LAWMAKERS FRET ABOUT AN 11TH-HOUR PENTAGON SPENDING
BONANZA, "The Pentagon is facing a six-month deadline to spend its
largest budget in years - a crunch that has some lawmakers fretting about a
wasteful year-end bonanza. After a
nearly yearlong pattern of stop-and-go funding, including two government
shutdowns, Congress this month agreed to infuse an extra $80 billion into the
military's budget. But that windfall, and the Oct. 1. deadline to spend much of
it, is raising concerns that the Pentagon will be racing to spend it." [Politico’s
Morning Defense, February 26, 2018]
 |
| MICHELLE OBAMA |
MICHELLE OBAMA MEMOIR: The former first lady's memoir, "Becoming," will be published by Penguin Random House imprint Crown
and hit stores in November. Writing the book "has been a deeply personal
experience," Obama tweeted Sunday.
"I talk about my roots and how a girl from the South Side found her
voice." [Morning Media, February 26, 2018]
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| READ |
 |
WILBUR ROSS
Secretary of Commerce
|
What's next: The much
bigger fight inside the Trump administration concerns whether they'll put
massive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as Wilbur Ross' Commerce
Department "found that the quantities and circumstances of steel and
aluminum imports 'threaten to impair the national security'." That was
part of what’s called a Section 232 investigation.
- Sources with knowledge of the discussions tell me James Mattis,
Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson, and Kevin Hassett all think Wilbur Ross did a
terrible job on Commerce’s 232 investigation and strongly disagree with
his recommendations. (This is the continuation of an ideological battle
that's played out throughout the Trump administration between the
free-traders and the protectionists.)
- One official told me Ross' report doesn’t properly account for the
negative impact of these tariffs on downstream jobs — for example, auto
suppliers and other U.S. businesses that import steel and aluminum to make
their products.
- Mattis' Defense Department pushed back officially against Ross' recommendations: "DoD continues to be
concerned about negative impact on our key allies regarding the
recommended options within the reports."
- The same report conceded that "imports of foreign steel and
aluminum based on unfair trading practices impair the national
security." But the phrase "unfair trading practices" — and
Mattis' subsequent singling out of China — is a clear indication that the
Defense Department doesn't support broad tariffs. [Axios Sneak Peek,
February 25, 2018]
|
Tillerson
to face grilling over State budget
|
|
By Rebecca Kheel
Congress returns from its
Presidents Day recess next week and that means budget oversight hearings get
back into full swing.
In the hot seat this coming week
will be Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is slated to testify before
House and Senate committees.
Much like last year, the Trump
administration proposed deep cuts to the State Department and
foreign aid budget -- 26 percent for fiscal year 2019, compared to the 30
percent cut requested for fiscal 2018.
And also much like last year,
Congress has already said that won't happen.
|
"A strong, bipartisan coalition
in Congress has already acted once to stop deep cuts to the State Department
and Agency for International Development that would have undermined our
national security," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce
(R-Calif.) said in a statement this month. "This year, we will act
again."
Expect to hear more push back at the
hearings, including comments about the military's support for the State
Department budget.
A 2013 quote from Defense Secretary
James Mattis when he was the head of U.S. Central Command has become a favorite
of lawmakers and other supporters of the State Department.
"If you don't fund the State
Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition," Mattis said at the
time.
This year, more than 150 retired admirals and generals
and more than 1,200 veterans also signed two letters urging Congress against
cuts to the State Department. [The Hill,
Defense Issuewatch
Newsletter, February 23, 2018] |
| ACTIVISM |
This is the golden age
of political activism
When historians look
back on the last decade in America they can explore many dark themes: political
polarization, growing inequality, disruptive technological change, and mass
shootings.
But historians should
also note a silver lining: this is a golden age of American political activism.
From Tea Party rallies to Black Lives Matter protests to women’s and
pro-immigrant marches and this past week’s discussion about gun control, the
national conversation is dominated not just by the discussion of politics, but
what they can do about it.
On Friday, as
President Trump spoke at a well-attended conference of conservative activists,
news emerged that there will be major rally in Washington next month featuring
a predicted 500,000 who will speak out on gun issues.
But even on a random
Tuesday when there isn’t a major political event planned, everyday Americans
are contributing to political causes, commenting on social media, and signing
online petitions.
There might not be a
lot of action that has come as a result of all this activity. Sure, candidates
from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump have benefitted in their own way, but
Washington remains as broken as ever. Even with Republicans controlling the
House, the Senate, and the White House, only one major bill has passed in the
13 months they have been in power.
It wasn’t much better
before Republicans had that power. When there was a Republican Congress and
Democrat Barack Obama in the White House, Washington hobbled from one potential
government shutdown to the next.
Nevertheless, the
activism in the last decade has been a flip of the political landscape from
even the ten prior years. Back in the 1990s, the criticism from political
scientists was that not enough people were involved in politics. Reform Party
presidential candidate Ross Perot, at the beginning of the decade, and Green
Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, at the close of the decade, gave the
same explanation for the apathy: the two political parties were essentially the
same.
Not anymore. Over the
course of the last decade the Republican Party has moved further right and the
Democratic Party has moved further left. As these clear lines are drawn, the
conversation among everyday Americans has been less about compromise, and this
has brought them out into the streets.
Americans have done
this before. Historians note that the nation’s first real election, in 1800,
was the nation’s nastiest. Not only was the election between John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson personal, but followers of each didn’t even recognize their
opponents as fellow countrymen. The Civil War took the fight to battlefields
and away from the political arena. The 1960s was an age of American protest,
but not of the scale and the ideological diversity as it is today, particularly
when one factors in social media.
Indeed there are
three things fueling today’s age of activism: technology, political
polarization, and the campaign finance system. [Boston Globe, Ground
Game, February 23, 2018]
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| INFRASTRUCTURE |
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| CANDIDATES |
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
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