COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, August 03, 2017

Republicans Rally to Trump's Defense - Oh!

60 comments:

  1. It is clear to anyone that can see, the DC establishment is trying to drive Trump out of office. Will the Republicans defend? I doubt it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A witch hunt in search of a crime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it's the Russian money purchase of Trump luxury condos? Or collusion with a foreign power, hostile to boot, to profit from the proceeds of illegally obtained personal data? Then there is obstruction...

      It looks like the fbi and grand jury could name something.

      Delete
    2. Yes, they can call a ham sandwich a ham sandwich.

      Delete
    3. You support the vile special interests, and MS-13, and criminal illegal aliens, and human trafficking, and higher taxes, and the drug trade, and endless foreign wars, and higher unemployment Ash !

      Delete
    4. Your deepest desire is to weaken America, Ash !!

      Delete
  3. As the saying goes, they started fishing on the Whitewater and ended up hooking and landing a blue dress.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suppose it all depends if it's one's own ox that is getting gored......

      I Demand ! a special prosecutor for Hillary to even things up.....

      Delete
    2. The Donald is soon speaking in West Virginia. Maybe he will have something noteworthy to say....

      Delete
    3. I've been to Huntington, W.V. many a time.

      It does seem a little odd all those economically depressed folks cheering one of the richest men in the world.

      Until we recall that Hillary said she was going to shut all their industry down.....

      Delete
    4. And, they love the 2nd Amendment :)

      Delete
    5. W.V. Governor "Big Jim" certainly has a West Virginia waistline !

      Delete
  4. Toyota, Mazda to build $1.6B, 4,000-job U.S. automotive assembly plant
    Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY Published 8:21 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2017 | Updated 8:24 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2017

    Toyota Motor is investing some $10 billion in the United States over the next five years, including a new headquarters in Texas and a revamped manufacturing facility in Kentucky. Newslook


    Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda plan to announce Friday that they will build a new $1.6 billion vehicle assembly plant in the U.S. that would create 4,000 jobs, a person familiar with the plans said.

    The announcement is likely to be viewed as a victory for President Trump who has been pushing foreign automakers to make more vehicles in the U.S.

    With the capacity to produce about 300,000 vehicles annually, the plant will be operational by 2021 through a new 50-50 joint venture, the person told USA TODAY. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the information prior to the formal announcement.

    The move carries significant political implications following Trump's verbal assault on Toyota and other companies that sell foreign-made cars in the U.S.....

    http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2017/08/03/toyota-mazda-us-plant/538744001/

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. .

    You support the vile special interests, and MS-13, and criminal illegal aliens, and human trafficking, and higher taxes, and the drug trade, and endless foreign wars, and higher unemployment Ash !

    <(:o)

    Deep thoughts from the depths if the IMA.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  8. .

    Who could put up with this?

    The saying is, 'the higher you climb on the mountain the harder the wind blows.

    On the evening of Obama's first inauguration, while he was dancing at the ball, a group of Republican bigwigs were dining in D.C. smoking cigars and drinking and planning a policy of obstruction to guarantee his failure. Mitch McConnell said his intend was to assure Obama was a one term president.

    If Hillary had been elected, there would have been at least as much partisan stuff going down. It's not called the swamp for nothing.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, the FBI woulda been all over Hillary like...

      Comey

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Likewise for the Media:

      They'd be raking Hillary over the coals like Trump's never seen.

      Delete
    4. The FBI would say.....she did all this stuff......but no prosecutor would take the case.....she didn't intend to do it......

      Delete
    5. .

      Same game. Different players.

      Well, that is, unless you share Trump's propensity for blaming everyone else for his mistakes except him.

      .

      Delete
    6. My sources say the Ruskie was trying to help Hillary.

      Delete
    7. Devastating Ash like reply.

      Really refuted my two examples well.

      Not

      Delete
    8. .

      My sources say the Ruskie was trying to help Hillary.

      Right, but then, we all know Doug doesn't know what he's talking about.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      Devastating Ash like reply.

      Speaking of Ash, did you ever provide him your definition of MSM?

      .

      Delete
    10. I'll do it when you own up to the fact that you have no valid arguments to my two examples above.

      Delete
    11. .

      Sorry, Doug, when you start whining I usually slide right on by.

      As for Comey, he may have given Hillary a pass but he also did the same for Trump, something Trump likes to brag about.

      As for 'the media', the Wall Street Journal has as big a circulation as the NYT and WaPo combined. Somehow I doubt they would have gone easy on Hillary. Since you don't define the MSM or what media you mean, it's a little hard for me to go any further than that.

      .

      Delete
    12. You call those examples "whining"?

      Facts are not "whines"

      Delete

    13. Comey had plenty of evidence on Hillary for quite some time.

      At the time of his firing he had none on Trump:

      Your "argument" is invalid.



      Delete
    14. Sorry, Doug, when you start whining I usually slide right on by.
      Quirk

      Translation:

      When Doug makes valid points Quirk quickly leaves.

      Delete
    15. Correct definition of Doug's whine as used by Quirk:

      To argue cogently, rationally and factually about some topic of discussion which causes Quirk to flee after saying "Doug is whining again."

      Delete
  9. SKorea's spy agency admits trying to rig election....DRUDGE

    That doesn't build a lot of confidence in S. Korea's spy agency.

    Maduro in Venezuela did much better.

    There was no question there that the election was rigged and Maduro won.

    S. Korean's spy agency needs lessons from Maduro......or the USA Democrat Party, that rigged their election for Hillary over Sanders....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Native Americans in the USA had a good voting system. Say, for instance, the question was whether to go to war with the tribe over the mountains there.....if you didn't want to do so you voted no and just rode off the other way.

      Those were the days.....was good, now heap shit.

      Delete
  10. Donald Trump got 4% of the vote in Washington, D.C.

    This is the pool from which the Grand Jury is chosen.

    It really is quite the farce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Recall, too, that the defense makes no presentation at all to a Grand Jury.

      "You can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich."

      Delete
    2. The only other nation in the world that uses a Grand Jury system is Liberia.

      from Hannity

      Liberia would have gotten this bad idea from us.

      Delete



    3. :-)


      Same game. Different players.


      :-)


      Delete
    4. .

      Doug continues to whine that his dicks are better than the other sides dicks.

      Some argue Trump is too old and set in his ways to change. The same probably could be said of Doug. All we can do is listen to the whine and sadly smile.

      .
      .

      Delete
  11. QuirkFri Aug 04, 02:22:00 AM EDT
    .

    My sources say the Ruskie was trying to help Hillary.

    Right, but then, we all know Doug doesn't know what he's talking about.

    ************

    Smart ass !

    ReplyDelete
  12. Do NOT slaughter the horses !!!!!

    WHY DO REPUBLICANS WANT TO KILL HORSES?
    An unpalatable and indefensible initiative that cannot end well.
    August 4, 2017 David Horowitz


    Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives recently took the politically questionable – and morally objectionable – step of voting to allow horses to once again be slaughtered on American soil for human consumption.

    It’s a massive power grab by the beef lobby, which would prefer to cull wild horses and burros so public lands can be devoted to livestock-grazing. No one else will rejoice in the heartland at the prospect of being able to chow down on a horse steak or a horse-burger. Most Americans are opposed to hippophagy, the eating of horse flesh. To many Americans in both major political parties, the issue of equine slaughter is on a par with clubbing baby harp seals to death or killing dolphins. And it should be. Horses are companion animals, just like dogs and cats. The horse is the unique symbol of the West and of Americans’ pioneering spirit. Republican celebrities like actress Bo Derek are outspoken opponents of killing horses for food. Republican lawmakers should be too.

    So why now - with the Republican agenda faltering in Congress and the Trump White House under siege - is the GOP formulating new ways to alienate voters and play to their caricature as heartless servants of big business? Why are Republicans hell-bent on resurrecting an ugly, morally reprehensible practice that would put Misty of Chincoteague and Mister Ed back on the dinner table?

    Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee recently approved reversing a de facto ban on slaughtering horses at meat-processing plants. Under current federal law, wild horses enjoy some legal protection; slaughtering healthy wild horses is forbidden. Several states outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Among them are California, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Texas......

    ......This politically tone-deaf move by Republicans to lift a justly popular ban on horse-killing makes them water-carriers for inhumane legislation promoted by a special interest seeking to benefit itself at the expense of a noble creature and an American heritage.

    Given horses’ long history in this country and the reverence in which they are held by Americans, Republicans should halt this destructive campaign and come up with a solution to equine overpopulation that doesn’t involve slaughtering these wonderful creatures for food.


    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267470/why-do-republicans-want-kill-horses-david-horowitz

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    Replies
    1. They are noble animals and brighter than you might imagine, too.

      My daughter's horse could pick out our car from all the others.

      Delete
    2. (I recall once in Vegas when Quirk, admittedly quite under the weather, got in the wrong car and drove himself all the way to Sands Casino before he realized what he had done)

      Delete
  13. Send him to the front lines as David did to Uriah, but for a different reason:

    King James Bible
    And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.



    EXILE: McMaster Being Moved to Afghanistan?
    By Pamela Geller - on August 3, 2017
    PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

    I, too, am hearing that Trump may be preparing a soft landing for H. R. McMaster.

    McMaster has been purging key Trump allies and effective counter terrorism officials.

    McMaster FIRES Another Top Counter Jihad Official at National Security Council

    For months, rumors have swirled around McMaster concerning numerous allegations of leaking. New leak allegations against McMaster have surfaced.

    Follow
    Sara A. Carter ✔ @SaraCarterDC
    Investigating: sources say,"McMaster has been communicating WH internal politics 2 Acting FBI director Andy McCabe." More shake-ups?
    3:28 PM - Jul 28, 2017
    1,020 1,020 Replies 7,213 7,213 Retweets 9,786 9,786 likes

    EXILE: POTUS Considering Shipping McMaster To Afghanistan After Reportedly Caught Leaking To FBI’s McCabe
    Joshua Caplan Aug 3rd, 2017:

    National Security Advisor H.R McMaster has been in the news a great deal this week as he continues his purge of Trump loyalists. Now there are reports McMaster might be shipped off to Afghanistan to oversee the war. The news also comes amid reports McMaster was caught leaking internal White House politics to now former Acting FBI Head Andy McCabe.

    Follow
    Sara A. Carter ✔ @SaraCarterDC
    Investigating: Rumors swirling in Wash circles and sources saying @realDonaldTrump "considering CIA Pompeo to replace HR" wait and see?
    8:59 AM - Jul 29, 2017
    416 416 Replies 2,080 2,080 Retweets 3,409 3,409 likes

    Washington Examiner reports:

    President Trump is looking at shifting CIA Director Mike Pompeo to the White House as national security adviser, according to a report Wednesday evening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The move would bump H.R. McMaster, the current national security adviser. McMaster, a three-star Army general, would in turn be sent to Afghanistan to command U.S. forces in that country, the New York Times reported, citing several unnamed administration officials. The move could help McMaster earn his fourth star.

      Trump has reportedly expressed frustration with Gen. John Nicholson Jr., the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, because the U.S. and its allies are not “winning” the war there.

      The White House shuffle, if it came to pass, would be the latest in a string of staffing changes, including the exit of Reince Priebus as chief of staff. He was replaced by John Kelly, a retired general who had been serving as secretary of homeland security.

      McMaster too has overseen a National Security Council that has recently seen some people ousted.
      In a Saturday afternoon tweet, Circa News’ Sara Carter revealed President Trump is mulling another major White House shake-up, which would see National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

      “Investigating: Rumors swirling in Wash circles and sources saying @realDonaldTrump “considering CIA Pompeo to replace HR” wait and see?”, tweeted Carter.

      Follow
      Sara A. Carter ✔ @SaraCarterDC
      Investigating: Rumors swirling in Wash circles and sources saying @realDonaldTrump "considering CIA Pompeo to replace HR" wait and see?
      8:59 AM - Jul 29, 2017
      416 416 Replies 2,080 2,080 Retweets 3,409 3,409 likes

      As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Sara Carter of Circa News said her sources told her that NatSec Advisor, H.R. McMaster has been communicating White House internal politics to Deep State Acting FBI Director Andy McCabe. Carter then implied that more White House shake-ups are perhaps on the horizon.

      As TGP previously reported, Comey’s replacement as Acting FBI Head, Andrew McCabe, has ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Left Wing online publication, Newsweek, is reported:

      concerns came after revelations by media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, that a political action committee affiliated with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, who has ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, contributed almost $500,000 to the 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign of McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe. (She lost the election.) She also received $207,788 from the Virginia Democratic Party, which is connected to McAuliffe, a Democrat.
      Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe is also being investigated by the Office of U.S. Counsel violating the Hatch Act according to a new report by Circa News.

      Follow
      Sara A. Carter ✔ @SaraCarterDC
      Investigating: sources say,"McMaster has been communicating WH internal politics 2 Acting FBI director Andy McCabe." More shake-ups?
      3:28 PM - Jul 28, 2017
      1,020 1,020 Replies 7,213 7,213 Retweets 9,786 9,786 likes

      The Hatch Act prohibits FBI agents from campaigning in partisan races. Photos of McCabe campaigning for his wife raised questions about McCabe’s compliance with the law.

      http://pamelageller.com/2017/08/exile-mcmaster-moved-afghanistan.html/

      Delete
    2. The Long Knives Are Out For H. R. McMaster
      Posted at 5:00 pm on August 3, 2017 by streiff

      http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2017/08/03/long-knives-h.-r.-mcmaster/

      Delete
    3. Caroline Glick, who is best know for her work as a Jerusalem Post columnist, published a lengthy Facebook post in which McMaster was portrayed as a virtual jihadi:

      According to senior officials aware of his behavior, he constantly refers to Israel as the occupying power and insists falsely and constantly that a country named Palestine existed where Israel is located until 1948 when it was destroyed by the Jews.

      What hasn’t been reported is that it was McMaster who pressured Trump to agree not to let Netanyahu accompany him to the Western Wall. At the time, I and other reporters were led to believe that this was the decision of rogue anti-Israel officers at the US consulate in Jerusalem. But it wasn’t. It was McMaster.

      And even that, it works out wasn’t sufficient for McMaster. He pressured Trump to cancel his visit to the Wall and only visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial — ala the Islamists who insist that the only reason Israel exists is European guilt over the Holocaust.

      [McMaster] fires all of Trump’s loyalists and replaces them with Trump’s opponents, like Kris Bauman, an Israel hater and Hamas supporter who McMaster hired to work on the Israel-Palestinian desk. He allows anti-Israel, pro-Muslim Brotherhood, pro-Iran Obama people like Robert Malley to walk around the NSC and tell people what to do and think. He has left Ben (reporters know nothing about foreign policy and I lied to sell them the Iran deal) Rhodes’ and Valerie Jarrett’s people in place.

      Delete
    4. August 4, 2017
      Time for Trump to Get Rid of McMaster
      By Eileen F. Toplansky


      http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/08/time_for_trump_to_get_rid_of_mcmaster.html#ixzz4olmqkioK

      Delete
    5. Concerns about McMaster were highlighted by Hugh Fitzgerald in February 2017, when he wrote that "one hopes that the Senators before they vote will take the opportunity to examine [McMaster's] understanding of Islamic terrorism," since McMaster emphasized that "terrorist organizations like Daesh ... cynically use a perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents."

      Fitzgerald asserts that this description of the Islamic State "as 'cynically using a perverted interpretation of religion to incite hatred and justify horrific cruelty against innocents' is most peculiar," since it shows McMaster's belief "that Islam properly understood cannot possibly inculcate anything that might 'incite hatred and justify violence' against non-Muslims." Fitzgerald emphasizes that he is "not sure which would be worse: that [McMaster] may think he must pretend to believe this nonsense in order to avoid being accused of Islamophobia and to safely rise high in the Washington ranks, or that he really believes it."

      At the time, Fitzgerald exhorted senators to "find out what McMaster thinks Islam, mainstream Islam, teaches and how it differs from that 'perverse interpretation' to which he keeps referring. The exchange ought to be instructive." Consequently, "[i]t would be perfectly appropriate for the Senators to ask General McMaster what 'perverse interpretation' of Islam he thinks the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda labor under, to explain exactly where the terrorists' interpretation of Islam distorts or veers away from the basic tenets of Islam[.]"


      Delete
  14. It's not called Death Valley for nothing -

    Death Valley breaks 100-year-old record for hottest month ever in July

    Collen Zato and a member of her support team walk to the Whitney Portal during the STYR Labs Badwater 135 on July 12 in Death Valley. July was also the hottest month in Death Valley ever. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
    Joseph Serna

    There’s hot, and then there’s Death Valley hot.

    While Southern California and much of the West cooked in July under a pair of heat waves that killed livestock, knocked out power and encouraged wildfires, nowhere was the heat more brutally enduring than in Death Valley.

    According to the National Weather Service, Death Valley National Park broke its 100-year-old record for the hottest month ever in July, when the average temperature was 107.4 degrees, eclipsing the 1917 record of 107.2 degrees.

    Follow
    Death Valley NP ✔ @DeathValleyNPS
    We broke a record this July--the hottest month ever for Death Valley! 🔥🌡️ https://twitter.com/NWSVegas/status/892771711585800192 …
    3:17 PM - Aug 2, 2017
    8 8 Replies 80 80 Retweets 135 135 likes

    Though 107 degrees doesn’t sound that bad, keep in mind the average includes nighttime temperatures.....

    .....The average overnight temperature in Death Valley last month was 95 degrees.

    The average daytime high was 119.6 degrees, said meteorologist Alex Boothe.

    “It looks like there were a couple of days below 115,” he said — a consolation of some sort.

    The hottest day of the month was July 7, when it reached 127 degrees. It also reached that temperature twice in June.

    The world record for heat was reached in Death Valley on June 10, 1913 when it reached 134 degrees.....

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-death-valley-heat-record-20170803-story.html

    Nice drive through there in he winter.

    ReplyDelete
  15. August 4, 2017
    A better wall
    By Paul Murphy

    Since it is very much not in interest of those who run Mexico to have the United States act to rebalance the labor cost component of cross-border products, I've been expecting the NAFTA renegotiations to quietly include a Mexican government commitment to closing its border – something it would presumably have to use its army to do. However, a better option may exist.

    The land border is about 1,989 miles long, but a highway along its length would be a bit longer – about 2,100 miles. In round numbers, a 2,100-mile interstate-class highway built along the Mexican border using products and labor sourced from both sides of the border should run well under $40 billion if it has 96 exchanges (to accommodate all 48 official crossings); continuous, full coverage; and electronic monitoring. The cost includes ten entirely new state-run air national guard stations for VTOL aircraft set 50 miles or so inland.


    Again in rough numbers, maintenance and operations for all of this would come to something under twelve billion a year – including a number of new border patrol stations along the highway.

    Every inch of this highway, roughly 300 feet across and 2,100 miles long, would be under continuous surveillance. No part would be more than five minutes from a monitor drone, no part would be more than 15 minutes from a border patrol team, and no part would be more than a 30-minute flight for even something as slow as a 1960s troop carrier – the CH-47.

    The highway would bring enormous economic change to both sides of the border – and because no engineer could look at the map without wanting to put part of the highway south of the border, getting it built that way provides an unparalleled opportunity for a long-term co-operative effort addressing a wide range of social, economic, and political problems with one solution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bottom line? A modern interstate makes a better wall: it's wildly positive instead of negative; the two countries get a new transcontinental highway instead of an embarrassing white elephant that will eventually have to be removed; Mexico pays part of the cost; both sides benefit; the wetback phenomenon recedes into history; the drug gangs on both sides of the border get brought under control; and four national guard organizations, including those in Texas and California, get the tools and practice they need to develop as quick reaction forces in the event of the more common types of larger-scale terrorist attacks.

      Since it is very much not in interest of those who run Mexico to have the United States act to rebalance the labor cost component of cross-border products, I've been expecting the NAFTA renegotiations to quietly include a Mexican government commitment to closing its border – something it would presumably have to use its army to do. However, a better option may exist.

      The land border is about 1,989 miles long, but a highway along its length would be a bit longer – about 2,100 miles. In round numbers, a 2,100-mile interstate-class highway built along the Mexican border using products and labor sourced from both sides of the border should run well under $40 billion if it has 96 exchanges (to accommodate all 48 official crossings); continuous, full coverage; and electronic monitoring. The cost includes ten entirely new state-run air national guard stations for VTOL aircraft set 50 miles or so inland.

      Again in rough numbers, maintenance and operations for all of this would come to something under twelve billion a year – including a number of new border patrol stations along the highway.

      Every inch of this highway, roughly 300 feet across and 2,100 miles long, would be under continuous surveillance. No part would be more than five minutes from a monitor drone, no part would be more than 15 minutes from a border patrol team, and no part would be more than a 30-minute flight for even something as slow as a 1960s troop carrier – the CH-47.

      The highway would bring enormous economic change to both sides of the border – and because no engineer could look at the map without wanting to put part of the highway south of the border, getting it built that way provides an unparalleled opportunity for a long-term co-operative effort addressing a wide range of social, economic, and political problems with one solution.


      Bottom line? A modern interstate makes a better wall: it's wildly positive instead of negative; the two countries get a new transcontinental highway instead of an embarrassing white elephant that will eventually have to be removed; Mexico pays part of the cost; both sides benefit; the wetback phenomenon recedes into history; the drug gangs on both sides of the border get brought under control; and four national guard organizations, including those in Texas and California, get the tools and practice they need to develop as quick reaction forces in the event of the more common types of larger-scale terrorist attacks.


      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/08/a_better_wall.html#ixzz4olqhTsq2

      Delete
  16. GOP SLIMING

    Senate blocks Trump from making recess appointments over break

    Jordain Carney08/03/17 07:40 PM EDT

    The Senate blocked President Trump from being able to make recess appointments on Thursday as lawmakers leave Washington for their summer break.

    Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), doing wrap up for the entire Senate, locked in nine "pro-forma" sessions — brief meetings that normally last roughly a minute.

    The move, which requires the agreement of every senator, means the Senate will be in session every three business days throughout the August recess.

    The Senate left D.C. on Thursday evening with most lawmakers not expected to return to Washington until after Labor Day.

    Senators were scheduled to be in town through next week, but staffers and senators predicted they would wrap up a few remaining agenda items and leave Washington early.

    Trump isn't the first president to face the procedural roadblock from Congress.

    The Senate has used the brief sessions to block recess appointments for decades, including last year to keep President Obama from being able to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat.

    But the current deal comes after Trump repeatedly lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, sparking speculation that he would fire the former senator and try to name his successor while Congress was out of town.

    Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned last month that Democrats had "tools in our toolbox" to block a recess appointment.
    "We're ready to use every single one of them, any time, day or night. It's so vital to the future of the republic," he said.

    A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said late last month that he didn't have any announcements on pro-forma sessions, but noted that "if the Senate doesn't adjourn, typically pro forma sessions happen every three days."

    Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) added earlier Thursday that he expected the Senate would set up the pro-forma sessions, which require a GOP senator to briefly preside over the upper chamber.

    "My understanding is that we will only recess for three days at a time. ...When we were in the majority I had to come down from Delaware and preside," he said.

    Trump also needs to name a new Department of Homeland Security secretary after John Kelly was named as his new chief of staff.

    The GOP-controlled Senate also held pro-forma sessions over the week-long July 4th recess.

    And Democrats held pro-forma sessions every three days in 2012 when Obama tried to appoint National Labor Relations Board members. The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that he overstepped his constitutional authority.

    Asked if he was now glad the NLRB case had been litigated, Coons added on Thursday to laughter: "I think it's important that there be restraints on the recess appointments."

    ReplyDelete