CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Trump’s Budget Meets Bipartisan Opposition and Big Sequestration Hurdle.
“Bipartisan.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
March 17, 2017
UPDATE: Link working now.
It’s only a low-follower Twitter account with a bio stating, “The official twitter account for the coordinated effort to end St. Patrick’s Day are raise awareness of the fact that it is a holiday based in white pride.”
But the timeline reads a little too angry and earnest for it to be a parody account — so who knows?
SOMEBODY NEEDS TO BE: Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Skeptical Of Federal Agency Power.
In some of his dissenting and concurring opinions on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, he has called for reconsideration of the Chevron decision.
It is one of the ways in which he is more conservative than the justice he has been nominated to succeed, the late Antonin Scalia. Scalia was generally an advocate of Chevron deference to agencies — his view was that agencies are at least politically accountable, whereas judges are not.
But Chevron “cuts both ways,” as professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University School of Law points out.
“An agency might want Chevron deference when it wants to regulate more, but under the Trump administration, agencies will want to claim Chevron deference when they’re trying to deregulate,” Adler says.
Many Gorsuch defenders argue that having someone on the Supreme Court who is less deferential to agencies should reassure those who don’t trust the Trump administration.
It would be “harder” for a Trump administration to get its way if there were no Supreme Court decision requiring the courts to defer to the agencies, says Jeffrey Pojanowski, professor at Notre Dame Law School.
Senate Democrats are being given all kinds of outs to let this nomination roll through.
CYBERSECURITY: Suspected Hack Attack Snagging Cell Phone Data Across D.C.
An unusual amount of highly suspicious cellphone activity in the Washington, D.C., region is fueling concerns that a rogue entity is surveying the communications of numerous individuals, likely including U.S. government officials and foreign diplomats, according to documents viewed by the Washington Free Beacon and conversations with security insiders.
A large spike in suspicious activity on a major U.S. cellular carrier has raised red flags in the Department of Homeland Security and prompted concerns that cellphones in the region are being tracked. Such activity could allow pernicious actors to clone devices and other mobile equipment used by civilians and government insiders, according to information obtained by the Free Beacon.
It remains unclear who is behind the attacks, but the sophistication and amount of time indicates it could be a foreign nation, sources said.
Well.
LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: Terror ‘Defector’ Stories Hyped by Media Collapse Underneath the ‘Deradicalization’ Narrative.
AARON MACLEAN: President Park’s spectacular fall means nothing good for U.S.-Korea relations.
Park’s ouster may well be a blow for good government—and it is certainly a credit to South Korea’s still young democracy that the impeachment has proceeded without a rupture in the nation’s constitutional order. Unfortunately from the American perspective, that’s it for good news. The next president, whoever it will be, is virtually certain to be less friendly to the United States and more dovish towards North Korea. The happy moment of a coalition of pro-American governments in Northeast Asia (Abe in Japan, Park in Korea, and Tsai in Taiwan) was brief, and it is over.
The candidate currently leading in the South Korean polls, Moon Jae-in, comes from the liberal opposition and is outspoken in his skepticism of the United States and his support of something like the Sunshine Policy towards Pyongyang, which his party pursued from 1998 to 2008. In second place is Ahn Hee-jung, who has a reputation for being more pragmatic and centrist than Moon. He is currently behind Moon by 15 points in polls, and has to run against him for his party’s nomination. President Park’s party has yet to produce a frontrunner for its nominating process, and, to be frank, may as well not bother.
America’s long-planned and controversial deployment of a sophisticated air defense system to South Korea called “THAAD” began (somewhat by surprise) last week, on what appears to be a timeline accelerated in part by Korean politics and the likely accession to the presidency of the Korean left. The deployment will be complete by summer, and substantially in place even by the time a new president takes office this spring. Like entitlements or government agencies, such deployments are much easier to stop before they begin than they are to roll back once in place. Little else in the years to come is likely to be easy.
SecState Tillerson may have to adapt the old North Korean policy of “strategic patience” to South Korea.
OH SHUT UP: College Student Explains Why Milk Is Racist.
REX TILLERSON: U.S. policy of ‘strategic patience’ with North Korea over.
“Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended. We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table,” Tillerson told a news conference in Seoul.
He said any North Korean actions that threatened the South would be met with “an appropriate response”.
“If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table,” Tillerson said when asked about military action.
Tillerson also called on China to implement sanctions against North Korea and said there was no need for China to punish South Korea for deploying an advanced U.S. anti-missile system aimed at defending against North Korea.
China says the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system’s powerful radar is a threat to its security.
THAAD gives Seoul the ability to shoot down ballistic missiles aimed at South Korea. The absence of that ability is a curious security need, unless China’s “security” requires that South Korea (and Japan) is under constant threat from Krazy Kim’s Discount Missile Hut.
OVERKILL: US ally used Patriot missile to shoot down small drone.
Earlier this week Gen. David Perkins told the Association of the United States Army’s Global Force symposium in Huntsville, Ala. that the strike against an Unmanned Aerial System, or drone, was made by a U.S. ally.
“A very close ally of ours was dealing with a adversary that was using the small quadcopter UASes and they shot it down with a Patriot missile,” he said. “Now, that worked, they got it … that quadcopter that cost $200 from Amazon.com did not stand a chance against a Patriot.”
Good to know!
JOSH KRAUSHAAR: Paul Ryan’s Political Blind Spot. “By pushing through an Obamacare replacement that has little support with the public or his caucus, he’s risking a major political backlash against the GOP.”
The emerging mess over selling Ryan’s version of health care reform is exposing an unpleasant political reality for the fiscally responsible wing of the Republican Party: People like free stuff, and it’s awfully difficult to take entitlements away after they’re granted. Ryan’s entire career has been based on the sunny belief that well-intentioned reforms have a sizable constituency of voters worried about budget-busting government giveaways. But there’s a long trail of evidence that points the other way. Just look at Trump’s winning campaign message, unique for a Republican, pledging to protect entitlements.
President George W. Bush learned that the hard way when he tackled Social Security reform at the beginning of his second term. Although Bush claimed a mandate from his reelection, many nervous Republicans quickly defected as Democrats effectively exploited voter anxiety about privatizing a long-standing public program. In 2012, when Ryan was tapped as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Romney distanced himself from the “Path to Prosperity” budget blueprint that Ryan had championed in the House. That didn’t stop Democrats from slamming the ticket for supporting cuts to Medicare—one major reason why the Romney-Ryan ticket ran poorly among working-class voters, especially in the Midwestern swing states that would go on to support Trump in 2016.
Congress is warped because the American electorate has yet to accept that other people’s money does eventually run out — and that we are all the other people.
SURELY KREMLIN STOOGE DONALD TRUMP WILL BAIL THEM OUT? Russia announces deepest defence budget cuts since 1990s.
CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: These 80 Programs Would Lose Federal Funding Under Trump’s Proposed Budget.
How did Paul ever get anything done before Washington started robbing Peter to pay for it?
SEA POWER: Russia’s Most Powerful Nuclear Attack Submarine Ever Is Almost Ready for Sea.
The Russian Navy will take delivery of Kazan in 2018. Once the vessel is operational, she will be the most formidable enemy submarine that the U.S. Navy has ever faced. “It’s probably the most capable nuclear powered submarine out there fielded by a potential adversary,” Center for Naval Analyses Russian military affairs specialist Michael Kofman told The National Interest.
Indeed, Kazan is expected to be substantially improved over her older sister, the Severodvinsk. The vessel incorporates new technological developments that have emerged since Severodvinsk started construction in 1993. Kazan also incorporates lessons learned from testing the older vessel.
“The 885M is really the first ship of the class,” Kofman said. “The 885M is intended as a substantial improvement, based on the lessons learned from the lengthy development, construction, and testing process for the original 885.”
The Project 885 vessels are a departure from previous Soviet and Russian submarine designs. Unlike older Soviet vessels, the Project 885 submarines are multimission boats similar in concept to American vessels like the Seawolf or Virginia-classes.
Technologically, the real proof will be in how quiet Kazan proves undersea. Operationally, that won’t matter if Russia can’t afford to keep the boat at sea frequently enough and long enough to train her crew up to Western standards.
LIFE SUPPORT: Republican health bill still alive despite renegade conservative votes.
Reps. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Dave Brat of Virginia and Gary Palmer of Alabama voted against the legislation. Combined with unified Democratic opposition, the bill was reported favorably by a vote of 19-17.
“This is the conservative health care vision that we’ve been talking about for years,” Budget Committee chairman Diane Black of Tennessee said before the vote. “To my Republican colleagues who have doubts today, don’t cut off discussion.”
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee, and GOP leadership aims to have a vote on the House floor by March 23.
The real trick will be getting legislation through the Senate, where the GOP has only two votes to spare and probably five or more GOP Senators already opposed.
DEMOCRAT FORMER COLORADO GOVERNOR BILL RITTER: Senate should confirm Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to Supreme Court.
Co-signed with Colorado Springs Republican Mayor John Suthers:
Between the two of us, we have more than 50 years of service in government, much of it in elected executive positions. We are of different political parties. We have worked together on issues, and we have been on opposite sides of arguments as well. We both understand how important it is to the public interest that people from different sides of the aisle work together toward finding common ground, even under the most difficult of circumstances.
Looking back, it is easy to see why frustration in the U.S. Senate is at a boiling point. Judicial nominations have been blocked, “nuclear options” have been deployed to change longstanding rules, and major policies have been implemented using procedural maneuvers over the unanimous objection of the other party. Nobody has clean hands. The temptation to retaliate is understandable.
The Senate, though, can break this destructive cycle by rejecting both the filibuster and the “nuclear option,” and holding an up-or-down vote on the merits of Judge Gorsuch’s nomination.
The entertainment value of watching Chuck Schumer let this happen, or seeing his reaction to losing the filibuster… “priceless” won’t begin to cover it.
CHARLIE MARTIN: No, ‘Shared Risk’ Is Not How Insurance Works.
Charlie’s explainers are invaluable.
PRIVACY: You may soon have the right to know when you’ve been hacked.
Speaking at a panel hosted by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a public-private partnership for online security and privacy, the acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen said legislation may soon be on the way. The FTC regulates businesses to protect consumers, and can penalize hacked companies under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act — even though it wasn’t originally written for online issues — because it targets companies for “unfair or deceptive acts or practices.” Although 47 out of 50 U.S. states have their own data breach laws, no federal requirements exist.
“Congress, over the past several years, has been interested in having a national data security and breach notification law, and that is coming back of interest again,” Ohlhausen said. “That could be a very useful tool for the FTC, and has been supported by the FTC on a bipartisan basis for a number of years.”
Maybe the public should also have the right to know when our elected and cabinet-level officeholders have been hacked.
LIEL LEIBOVITZ: Tale of Trump Advisor’s Alleged Nazi Ties Unravels.
Where to begin? Even if you take the Nazis at their word—which is inadvisable, as I realized from the very first time I watched Casablanca at the age of 9—you’ll notice that Pintér isn’t saying that he’d witnessed Gorka’s swearing in; he’s merely saying that he’d met the man because he was an associate of Gorka’s father Paul, a renowned member of the nationalist anti-Communist resistance.
Gorka himself told me that the allegations are flat-out false.
“I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend. Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father’s medal and used the ‘v.’ initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism.” It’s a perfectly plausible explanation, and you’d have to be of a very specific mindset to still pursue allegations of Nazi affiliation.
Why didn’t Gorka simply tell this to The Forward? A source close to the White House, who was briefed on how the administration treated this story, explained things a little more to me.
“These guys genuinely believed that the allegations were so blatantly false and so aggressively poorly-sourced, that no responsible journalist would ever publish them,” the source told me on the phone. “Is Seb Gorka, whose family literally bears the scars of anti-fascist fights, a secret Nazi cultist? Come on now.”
Fear not. We’ll have a new Literally Hitler before the weekend is over.