Comemntary on yesterday’s long expected development is basically divided into 2 main threads.

First is- ZOMG! Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio could win given this Supreme Court! He really can’t because it not just the broad challenges on Constitutionality which are true and precedented, but also the thousands of small lawsuits by Landowners many of whom would just as soon shoot any Government agent who trespasses on their property and have the arsenals to do it. It will kill Republican electoral chances with their most ardent voters and donors. There will be a lot of internal pushback from the Pentagon too because they hate it when you take away their monies, and from those fearful of a Democrat taking away the aforementioned arsenals.

The second focuses on how unhinged and weak Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio looked and the damage he has done to any argument that there is an “Emergency” at the Southern Border except for the Humanitarian one Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio created himself with his Racist policies.

That second line of argument is really the focus of this piece by Spencer Ackerman, a real nice guy and who’s mother I had a chance to sit next to (well, one seat away- TMC was actually next to her) at a presentation by Jeremy Scahill that he moderated. As I recall it was the one for Dirty Wars and Scahill’s introduction to the Q&A was horrifying.

Not that Ackerman doesn’t cover the first thread, I’ll try and elide the boring bits.

Trump Just Put His Own National Emergency Declaration in Legal Jeopardy
Spencer Ackerman and Scott Bixby, Daily Beast
02.15.19

Although President Trump has threatened for weeks to declare a national emergency to build a border wall, his announcement of that emergency on Friday exposed a lack of even basic planning for an act that crosses a constitutional Rubicon.

Officials at the major U.S. agencies that will implement the declaration were unable to identify how it will operate in practice. Legislators overseeing those agencies said they had been told nothing. And legal observers were stunned that Trump himself made an admission likely to set the federal courts on a path to reckoning with their credibility—if not the integrity of the constitutional system itself.

“I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster,” Trump said about a declaration with the potential to redefine the relationship between the presidency and Congress.

That admission, said Liza Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, could dramatically complicate the Trump administration’s standing once the emergency declaration ends up in the courts.

“If the courts are being asked to review whether or not there’s a real emergency here, and the president is on record saying, essentially, ‘No,’ that’s pretty significant,” said Goitein. “Even a court inclined to be deferential will have to take note of this admission.
…
In his Rose Garden address, the president said that illegal crossings across an unguarded border were increasing, with coyotes smuggling duct-taped women and girls being sold into sexual slavery, along with massive amounts of fentanyl. But non-government experts in the field told The Daily Beast that the president’s statistics appear to come out of the clear blue sky and government sources refused to provide data that would underpin Trump’s assertions.

“Not even the most conservative organizations on immigration policy have ever come close to calculating an estimate that high and to date the White House has shown no source for their estimates,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “All of the research I have seen has clearly shown that the number of undocumented immigrants has been steadily falling each year.”

The president’s own answers on the sources of his data were not illuminating either.

“I get my numbers from a lot of sources, like Homeland Security primarily, and the numbers that I have from Homeland Security are a disaster,” Trump said.

Those sources, according to those who work in the field, are either bad at their math or don’t exist.

“The president has a history of throwing around numbers that even the most extreme hard liners have a hard time defending,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of immigration research at the Fiscal Policy Institute. “Researchers have now had decades—more time than anyone ever imagined—to estimate how many undocumented immigrants there are in the United States. The very broad consensus is that the number today is around 11 million.”

Requests for clarification made to the Department of Homeland Security, whose own reports directly contradict each of the president’s assertions, were not answered. The Department of Justice, which oversees the Drug Enforcement Agency, referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security. And the White House did not return a request for the sources of the president’s statistics.
…
Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), the chairman of the HASC subcommittee on readiness, told The Daily Beast that the projects that could be affected stretch from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina—both of which sustained damage during the recent hurricane season—to Travis Air Force Base in California, which was awaiting a new hangar to house the planes that are coming online. Garamendi said removing money from the drug interdiction program was particularly concerning.

“Almost all of the drugs go through the Central American countries now. Pulling money out of that is just the height of, I’ll just say ignorance, to say nothing of hubris,” he said. “If you are building a wall to stop the drug trade, wouldn’t you want to stop it in Colombia and Central America before it ever gets to the shores of America or to the border.”

“What are they thinking?” he said, then quickly concluded, “Well, they’re not.”
…
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Calif.), who chairs the armed services committee, called Trump’s declaration “appalling” and said that Trump’s Rose Garden line about military construction not “seem[ing] too important to me” showed disrespect to the military.

“It is clear that there is no national emergency—only a manufactured crisis—and there has been no attempt to explain how the wall has anything to do with supporting U.S. military needs, as the law intends,” Smith said Friday. “From the beginning, President Trump’s obsession over a border wall has been based on misguided anti-immigrant fervor, not U.S. national security. The American people are utterly opposed to this gimmick, and President Trump should be ashamed of himself.”
…
A more notable conversion came from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has for weeks urged the president to avoid putting congressional Republicans in the position of defending an emergency declaration, which many conservatives view as a dangerous overreach of executive power and a bad precedent to set for the likelihood of a future Democratic president. But when President Trump threatened to start another politically disastrous shutdown over funding for the border wall, it was McConnell himself who announced that a deal had been made and that he would support an emergency declaration.

Previously, Trump had teased the possibility of declaring a national emergency for weeks, while saying it was his “absolute right” to make such a proclamation.

That too could complicate his current legal standing. Goitein told The Daily Beast that using the possibility of a declaration of emergency as a negotiating tactic “turns the entire purpose of emergency powers on its head,” and could backfire in court.

“The purpose of emergency powers is to give the president added flexibility when Congress doesn’t have time to act,” Goitein said. “The president not getting his way is not a national emergency.”

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It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s totally repurposable. Making extra steak tonight means a stress-free dinner tomorrow

Everything’s better in bowl form, and this salmon dish flavored with a garlicky za’atar dressing is no exception.

It’s an effortless one-pan meal if you have a cast-iron skillet, but if you don’t, just cook the kale mixture in a stainless-steel one, then bake the strata in a 13×9″ baking dish.

This tahini dressing recipe goes especially well with bitter greens but can also be paired with sweeter lettuces such as Little Gem or romaine.

It’s a versatile cake that can be eaten in the morning or as an afternoon snack, and also makes a great dessert after dinner.

Continue reading

Apparently Theresa May’s strategy is to let the clock go “tick, tick, tick” until the Parliament is forced either to accept her terrible plan, which has been shot down yet again by an embarrassing margin in a vote last night, or accept a “No Deal” Brexit.

What’s really just as, if not more, likely to happen is her Government will fall and Snap Elections called or Parliment votes to ask the EU for an extension after which her Government will fall and Snap Elections are called.

It’s a win, win except that Jeremy Corbyn has not exactly covered himself in glory. He’s advocating more concessions to the EU which May will not and can not grant because of her ERG and DUP Freedom Caucus Wingnuts (Softer Brexit), instead of committing to a Second Referendum which is what he should be doing.

I don’t know why having a Second Referendum would be such an affront to Democracy and the Democratic Process anyway.

Theresa May defeated on Brexit again as ERG Tories abstain
By Rowena Mason, Jessica Elgot, and Daniel Boffey, The Guardian
Thu 14 Feb 2019

Theresa May has suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of hardline Eurosceptics, plunging her hopes of uniting the Conservatives around a renegotiated Brexit deal into chaos.

The prime minister failed to win support for her EU strategy after the European Research Group (ERG), led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, abstained on a government motion because it appeared to rule out a no-deal Brexit.

The defeat marks the end of a temporary truce over Brexit among Conservative MPs, who had voted last month in favour of May’s strategy if she could obtain some concessions from Brussels on the issue of the Northern Ireland backstop.

The prime minister was not present for the House of Commons defeat, by 303 votes to 258, in which she again lost control of her party in the crucial final weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU on 29 March.
…
In Brussels, diplomats said the result confirmed that the prime minister was incapable of commanding the support of her party on key votes, and that she needed to work cross-party. “No one can take any good from this,” said one diplomat.

The vote is not binding but it appeared to be a show of strength by around 60 MPs in the ERG, which included Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary; Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary; and Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister. A small number of pro-EU MPs also refused to back the motion.

Senior figures in the ERG used the result to increase pressure on the government to adopt the so-called Malthouse compromise – a proposal to use unspecified technology to avoid customs checks at the Irish border – which the EU appears likely to reject. Many in the ERG would be equally happy to see a no-deal Brexit.

No 10 played down the significance of the vote and insisted that May understood the concerns of the ERG. However, that appeared only to infuriate many remain-supporting Tories who are determined to block a no-deal Brexit.
…
Nick Boles, a former government minister, said the vote should be a wake-up call to May that she cannot rely on the ERG’s support.

“Maybe, just maybe, the penny will now drop with prime minister and her chief whip that the hardliners in the ERG want a no-deal Brexit and will stop at nothing to get it,” he said. “Responsible MPs of all parties must come together on 27 and 28 March and stop them.”

In an escalation of tensions, Richard Harrington, one of May’s business ministers, even suggested MPs in the ERG should join Ukip.

“The prime minister has done a pretty good job of standing up to them up till now, but they were drinking champagne to celebrate her losing her deal and I regard that as being treachery,” he told the House magazine.

“I read that Nigel Farage is setting up a new party called ‘Brexit’ and if I were them I’d be looking at that, because that seems to reflect their views more than the Conservative party does. They should read carefully what that party’s got to offer, because in my view they’re not Conservatives.

“There are people who are very solid and stringent in their views and if I were they I would be looking at a party that seems designed for them – Nigel Farage’s party.”
…
Labour sources said panicking Conservative whips had discussed the possibility with them of accepting a Labour motion and voting with the opposition in order to avoid an embarrassing defeat. Ultimately, however, they decided to accept a humiliating loss rather than appear to join forces with the opposition.

Labour also suffered a split as 41 backbench rebels voted with the SNP to delay Brexit. Those defying the party whip included Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, David Lammy, Luciana Berger and Margaret Hodge. They were joined by two pro-EU Conservatives – Ken Clarke and Sarah Wollaston.

Keep Calm. Carry On.

So last night we had alarms and excursions (Ok, you may not be familiar with that expression, it’s Elizabethan Theater stage direction, an alarm is just that, excursion in this sense means everyone leaves the Stage and “goes on a trip” to the Wings. I use excursion here in it’s secondary meaning of launching into bloviating discourse. Clever eh?) over Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio’s promise/threat to declare a “State of Emergency” and steal money from other Government Programs ($8 Billion is being bandied about currently).

Democrats in Disarray!

Pfui.

The situation is exactly the same as it was when the Congressional Compromise to fund the Government was reached. Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio gets Zero Dollars for his Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racism (the $1.4 Billion is for Fencing, Barriers, and Repairs), in fact the biggest section of the Bill is the list of things Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio can’t do with the money. It passed with a thunderous Veto Proof majority in the Senate and a nearly Veto Proof majority in the House. Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio loses, bigly.

It was always a threat that he’d declare a “State of Emergency” and if he does- so what?

There are at least 2 ways this will be thwarted. First of all Congress can simply vote to lift the “State of Emergency”. Nancy Pelosi will certainly introduce a binding resolution to do so in the House, which she will win. According to the National Emergency Act Mitch McConnell is forced to hold a vote in the Senate where, Surprise!, only a simple majority is needed to pass it.

Why would Republicans defect? Well, there’s this little thing called Eminent Domain that would be needed to seize the land and Republicans as a rule consider that Expropriation of Property which they’re against.

Also, if upheld in Court, Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio will establish the precedent that the next Democratic Administration can take everybody’s Guns away as soon as there’s another School Massacre (sadly inevitable).

And upheld in Court. That’s the second way this will be thwarted. The clear language of the National Emergency Act and the U.S. Constitution make this highly illegal despite the bootlicking opinion of his house lawyers in the OLC. Not to mention that each and every land siezure will be litigated, they already are.

He is losing and is seen as a Loser by everyone except the Media Moron Versailles Villagers who are visibly desperate for any excuse to parrot their Bothsiderist Vacuous Vapidities.

But wait! There’s More!

Trump’s company officially halts hotel expansion
By Jonathan O’Connell and David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
February 14, 2019

President Trump’s company officially shelved plans Friday to create two hotel chains aimed at reaching customers mostly in places where the president has become politically popular.

The president’s eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who took over the company when Trump entered the White House, cited political attacks and negative media coverage in announcing the decision.

The brothers announced plans for the two lower-cost chains in a reception at Trump Tower shortly after Trump took office. Since then, the company has come under near-constant scrutiny from ethics officials and congressional Democrats over its business practices. After initially saying the company had dozens of deals in the works, no hotels, under the chain names of Scion and American Idea, have opened.

“We live in a climate where everything will be used against us, whether by the fake news or by Democrats who are only interested in Presidential harassment and wasting everyone’s time,” Eric Trump said in a statement Thursday.

The decision marked a first voluntary step back for the company since Trump took office.

When it launched the brands, the company announced that the first Scion and American Idea hotels would be in the Mississippi Delta, through a partnership with Mississippi businessman Dinesh Chawla and his brother, Suresh.

The Chawlas, owners of 18 hotels in the Gulf Coast region, are developing a 100-room hotel and conference center on 17 acres in Cleveland, Miss. The project is expected to cost the family more than $20 million and was to be the nation’s first Scion before the Trump Organization cut ties with the family this week.
…
With Trump in office, the Trump Organization agreed not to pursue any new foreign deals, canceling what the company says was “ ‘billions of dollars’ worth of projects.” The company also restricted who could invest in its properties and hired an outside ethics counsel to review any new projects that it was planning to pursue.

But because the president continues to hold a financial interest in the company, the Trump Organization has come under fire from critics charging that the company — and its expansion plans in particular — create conflicts of interest.

In two lawsuits wending their way through federal courts, the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland argue Trump is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars gifts or payments from foreign or state governments.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are preparing a series of investigations into the president’s business, focused particularly on his D.C. hotel, which has benefited from spending by foreign governments and federal lobbyists.

Most recently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote to the Trump Organization demanding information about why T-Mobile executives had booked dozens of rooms at the Trump D.C. hotel after asking the Trump administration to approve a major merger.

With expansion made difficult, the Trump Organization has been left to defend its position in existing properties. The company lost branding and management deals for hotels in Toronto, Panama and New York. And owners of apartment and condominium complexes in New York have taken the Trump name down, saying the brand was hurting their property values.

In recent weeks, the company has been purging undocumented workers from the staffs of at least five of its golf properties.

Trump’s sons indicated they plan to restart their plans when their father leaves office.

“When politics are over, we will resume doing what we do best which is building the best and most luxurious properties in the world — the interest in the Trump brand has never been stronger,” Donald Trump Jr. said in the statement.

It will be interesting to see how Junior accomplishes that from his prison cell in Ossining.