Stand and Deliver: School's in Session

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [Getty Images]

In the past few weeks Washington, D.C. has witnessed something that's been rare on Capitol Hill lately.

Politicians who are ready to work after eight long, unproductive years of the House of Representatives being run by obstructionist Republican lawmakers more interested in legislating on behalf of their wealthy donor base than on behalf of the majority of Americans and the environment in which we live.

It's been refreshing to watch Democrats take back the levers of power on Capitol Hill.

Does everyone feel that way? Obviously not.

Especially given a shifting American political climate still marked by division, partisan rancor and an unpopular president with a sinking approval rating now hovering in the 38% range according to the latest Gallup poll data for January.

The results of the mid-term elections in November made it clear that independents and suburban swing voters have drifted away from a president many of them supported back in 2016 when they still bought into the idea that Trump was going to be some kind of crusading reformer of "big government" who would "shake up the system."

Now that his signature tax cut gift to the wealthiest Americans has exploded the federal deficit, his self-proclaimed "trade war" with China has raised costs for some products used by U.S. manufacturers and stifled crop markets and prices for many baffled American farmers, the magic has worn off this scandal-plagued administration - for those who believed in it anyway.

As conservative stalwart William Kristol reported for The Bulwark last Sunday morning, veteran New York political operator Bruce Gyory notes that recent Marist poll data conducted for PBS now shows Trump loosing support among his core base of white evangelicals (down 11%) and blue collar white men (down 17%).

And yet Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allow the shutdown to linger on.

Tuesday January 22nd: federal workers line up for
charitable food assistance in Washington, D.C. [AP] 

What the White House doesn't seem to grasp is that most of the people who still support Trump - aside from his right-wingy billionaire mega-donors - actually understand what it means to live paycheck to paycheck in this country.

They may be angry about immigration, guns or women making their own reproductive healthcare decisions - but they're not completely heartless.

And they're beginning to understand that the TSA, IRS and National Park Service are parts of the government they need - and want.

The political views of Trump's base may be out of synch with the vast majority of American people, but you can't tell me that Trump supporters aren't affected by the images of federal workers who haven't seen a paycheck since December lining up in the freezing cold on a Saturday to get free produce and canned goods donated from a food bank.

Like the almost 200 furloughed federal employees did in Rockville, Maryland last weekend.

So this protracted government shutdown resulting from Trump's childlike refusal to sign any legislation that would reopen the closed portions of the federal government that does not contain $5.7 billion for his wall, is not sitting well with many of those who own MAGA hats.

Arguably even some registered Republicans would privately admit to feeling a sense of relief over the legislative branch of government now being in the hands of party that's going to use the powers delegated to them under the Constitution to begin exercising some restraint and control to reign in a chaotic president.

The new Democratic House leadership, Jim Clyburn,
Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer  

The new Democratic House majority under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn have only been in power less than a month.

But they've proved quite adept at schooling Trump on the realties of the powers granted to the House of Representatives.

And how power in Washington, D.C. really works.

Just today Trump received a letter from Pelosi saying that she would not allow him to use the House Chamber to give his State of the Union address next week while major portions of the government are still shut down.

Unaccustomed to being told "no", Trump predictably had a hissy fit, calling Pelosi's decision "a great, great horrible mark." - apparently he's just learning that a president must be invited to deliver a State of the Union address in front of a joint session of Congress, and the Speaker of the House controls whether that happens or not.

Sorry Mr. President, Nancy Pelosi is no spineless do-nothing like Paul Ryan, and she has teeth too; as her decision to have the House Oversight Committee investigate how Trump's self-enriching son-in-law Jared Kushner managed to get access to classified material despite not having proper security clearance demonstrates.

Trump is also facing increased opposition from Democrats on the Senate side too.

If you're not familiar with Democratic Montana Senator John Tester, he's a no-nonsense, down to earth politician who rocks a crew cut and still works as an actual farmer.

Seriously, this guy is a political bad-ass, a Democrat who held off a strong challenge by Trump and the Republican Party to take his Senate seat in conservative-leaning Montana in the recent 2018 mid-terms - dude is tough.

My order of Cakepops from Baked By Yael

Two weeks ago Tester took to the Senate floor to tear into Trump for refusing to sign legislation to reopen the government and using innocent tax-paying Americans as pawns.

Want an idea of how our government is supposed to operate, in particular how the Legislative Branch of the federal government is supposed to keep the Executive Branch in check?

Take a few minutes to watch Senator Tester's floor speech from last Wednesday; this isn't some kind of anti-Trump rant, it's about the responsibility of government. It's old school.

Anyway that's it for this edition.

As I mentioned in my blog post on Sunday, I ordered some Cakepops from Baked By Yael, the bakery in Washington, D.C. owned by small business entrepreneur Yael Krigman after seeing a segment on the PBS Newshour about how her business was being affected due to the government shutdown because none of the foot traffic she gets from the National Zoo across the street have been coming in lately.

I'm happy to say that my order of Cakepops was waiting on my doorstep when I got home from the gym earlier this evenin - so I'm about to go eat do my part for small businesses in America.

The Senate is set to vote tomorrow on two different measures to reopen the federal government, the chance of passage is reportedly slim but at least the Senate is trying to take action - and the two measures may be a starting point to move towards a solution.

My sense is that any solution to this issue is going to have to come from the House and Senate - and that may mean Trump faces the humiliation of a vote to override his veto of any measure that doesn't include money for his wall.

We'll see, things are getting grim out there for hundreds of thousands of federal workers and government contractors; Trump is going to have to understand that his new reality is that he now shares power with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

And like Los Angeles, school is now in session.

The Shutdown's Heavy Toll & The Old Kentucky Home

Washington, D.C. bakery owner Yael Krigman (left)
with WABC-7 meteorologist Eileen Whelan

On the Friday, January 18th edition of the PBS Newshour, I watched national correspondent Lisa Desjardins' segment examining the human toll of the Trump - McConnell government showdown; which is now the longest in American history.

The segment focused on the Washington, D.C. area which is home to thousands of federal workers and federal contractors; including a security guard named De'von Russell and a small business owner named Yael Krigman (pictured left).

They're both staring down the barrel of financial uncertainty thanks to Trump.

At first glance, Krigman and Russell are the kinds of Americans that Republican politicians like to claim they represent - hard-working folks looking to make a better life for themselves and carve out their own little slice of the American dream.

But since Trump has been in office, Republicans have done nothing but screw small businesses, farmers, the middle and working class and the poor, between the trade war with China impacting U.S. farmers, the government shutdown and the massive Republican tax cut - which has caused the federal deficit Republicans whined about incessantly when President Obama was in office to skyrocket*.

*[I tried looking up the Monthly Treasury Report on the Bureau of Fiscal Service website which lists updated deficit numbers - but there's no updated data because the people who get paid to do that aren't doing their jobs because of the Trump - McConnell shutdown.]

As Lisa Desjardins reported, Yael Krigman quit her well-paying job as an attorney to pursue her passion for baking and opened a small Kosher bakery called Baked By Yael across the street from the National Zoo - which normally supplies her and he 17 employees with a steady stream of hungry customers during the day.

Custom "Cake-pops" from Baked By Yael

Thanks to Trump's stubborn refusal to sign legislation intended to reopen the closed portions of the federal government, bills which passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support weeks ago, the National Zoo remains closed to visitors and foot traffic into Krigman's bakery has dried up.       

By the way her custom "Cake-pops" - balls of baked cake batter attached to a stick and dipped in candy coating - looked so good, I went to her website and ordered some of them to be shipped to me.

Hey I figure it's only right to try and support fellow Americans affected by the shutdown right? And, well, I really love cake.

Check out the Baked By Yael website for yourself.

Lisa Desjardins also visited De'Von Russell as he played with his adorable three-year-old daughter Dejah; if you want to see the PBS segment click this link and scroll to 25 minutes 14 seconds.

Russell works as a security guard for the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, he loves his job, but he's one of thousands of federal contractors across the country who probably won't be getting back pay for the two weeks he's been furloughed from work.

As Russell said in the interview, he's managed to pay all his bills for the time being, but like many Americans including myself, he lives paycheck to paycheck.

And if the shutdown continues, he and thousands of other Americans are looking at a bleak month ahead with no end in sight simply because of Trump's refusal to act, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to allow legislation that would reopen the government to even come to the floor for a vote.

Just think about that for a moment; is he serving the American people, or a constituency of one?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and colleagues search
the Capitol for Senator Mitch McConnell 

On Wednesday, Democratic freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a group of her fellow freshman went on a widely-covered search of the Capitol building and Senate offices to try and find and confront Mitch McConnell face-to-face over his refusal to move on reopening the government.

But evidently the elusive senate majority leader was doing his best to hide from AOC and her Democratic posse - if you haven't seen the video of AOC's hunt take a minute to watch the edited highlights.

For those of you who prefer to geek out on the often-arcane workings behind the scene of the House and Senate, Lawrence O'Donnell's 16-minute segment on MSNBC's The Last Word is worth the watch as he offers some deeper historical context on the significance of AOC and her colleagues trying to bring their demands directly to the floor of the male-dominated Senate chamber.

The system is clearly broken when one cowardly senator from Kentucky has the power to keep major portions of the federal government in a protracted shutdown because he's scared of an erratic president having a temper tantrum that could make his angry Kentucky voter base even angrier.

Sadly, that homegrown Kentucky anger was on full display on Friday in Washington, D.C.

As you may have heard by now some students of the all-boys Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky - a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio located in northern Kentucky - are getting a much-needed lesson in the power of social media.

In a video now seen by millions around the world, a group of mostly white Covington Catholic boys along with what appear to be at least some of their parents in the background, are seen mocking, taunting and blocking a group of Native American activists who were in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Indigenous People's March on Friday.

An unnamed Covington Catholic HS student smugly
stares down Omaha tribal elder Nathan Phillips 

The Covington Catholic boys were in the area to attend the anti-abortion March For Life, apparently the group encountered the Native Americans on their way to, or from the march somewhere near what looks to me like the front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Part of what's troubling is the open hostility many of them display towards a group of Native Americans who were there simply singing and drumming - what is it about the Native Americans that sparked the kind of mob mentality seen in the video?

If you've seen the video, quite a few of the Covington Catholic High School boys are wearing Trump's red or white "Make America Great Again" hats, some have Trump sweatshirts on - as if their parents have indoctrinated them into the kind of openly racist, white supremacist belief system that's become the defining element of the Trump presidency.

The one smirking boy in the gray jacket and red MAGA hat in particular (pictured above) who decided to stand defiantly close to Omaha tribal elder Nathan Phillips, a Vietnam veteran, almost looks like he wants to spark a physical confrontation.

In a short video that I saw posted on actress Alyssa Milano's Twitter page, Phillips reflects on the broader history that the boys who taunted him do not even remotely seem to grasp - even as they can be heard chanting "Build that wall" in the background.

Seriously, these kids live in a cushy suburb and attend a private school with a $10,000 per year tuition, what the Hell do any of them need a wall for?

As USA Today and other media outlets have reported, Covington Catholic HS and the Catholic Diocese issued a joint statement condemning the behavior and apologizing for the student's actions; as well as insisting an investigation of what happened will take place.

#WheresMitch has become a popular hashtag
as politicians wonder why the Senator is AWOL 

As in all things, I think the incident needs to be kept in perspective, this is one group of boys and obviously not all white grade-school boys in this country are ignorant Trump sycophants-in-training openly exploring and expressing their bigotry, and flaunting their ignorance in public.

There are millions of white grade school students who consider the behavior of the Covington Catholic High School boys to be reprehensible, I spent quite a bit of time reading social media reaction to the incident, and people of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities and religions are offended by what takes place in that video.


But given that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell's chief motivation for blocking spending bills that would reopen the federal government seems to be his fear of alienating the pro-Trump voters in his state whose support he will need in the 2020 election, the video of the Covington Catholic HS boys offers troubling insight into the kind of grassroots conservative anger that McConnell fears.

Anger that's hardly unique to Kentucky.

Whatever happens with the government shutdown, or disciplinary actions against the Kentucky students who mocked, taunted and disrespected a Native American elder who served his country in Vietnam, one thing is clear.

The sun is definitely not shining bright on "My Old Kentucky Home" these days.

In fact there's a cloud hanging over it.