Saturday, September 30, 2017

Communist Utopia According to the New York Times

The New Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is on a trip to North Korea, apparently staying in government provided lodgings, and in the spirit of Walter Durante he extolling the wonders of that Communist utopia sending pictures of pizza and amusement parks.  You can bet that Mr. Kristof will not be sending any pictures of the labor camps and bread lines, really, how seriously can any thinking person take the New York Times and its blatant hatred of Trump and love of all things Communist. 
As Gary Player recently said anyone who lives in America should "kiss the ground everyday."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nicholas-kristof-in-north-korea-shares-photos-of-fun-and-pizza/article/2636071

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Who is in charge at DOJ?

I am confused about who runs the U.S. Department of Justice.  According to the organizational chart the FBI is far down the list of organizational components yet the FBI refuses to comply with Congressional requests, subpoenas and Freedom of Information requests, can't the Attorney General simply order the Director of the FBI to comply, for that matter can't the POTUS similarly issues such an order.
https://www.justice.gov/agencies/chart

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Trump and the Congressional Democrats

President Trump and the leaders of the Democrats in Congress have reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and provide aid to the victims of Harvey.   According to reports some Republicans in the House oppose the plan, but Senator McConnell said he would support it.  This could be an important changing point in the Congressional gridlock that has besieged Washington since 2010, there are 48 Democrats in the Senate, if you count Sanders and King, and they seem pretty well united, while the Republicans with 52 seats are sharply divided along idealogical lines.   Moderate Republicans in the Senate together with the Democrats could provide a working majority to get things done, which is what Trump wants.  It will be interesting to see if this partnership holds, while in the House the so called Freedom Caucus seems willing to derail any legislation it disagrees with to prove their points, there are not enough of them to pass anything on their own, but just enough to prevent passage of most bills.  A similar partnership between Trump and Democrats could also arise.  A two thirds majority is not necessary in the House for passage of legislation so united Democrats together with moderate Republicans could strike deals leading to passage of needed legislation.  Fingers crossed!