What was always a dumb idea is still a dumb idea that steals money from Red States and has pissed off the Pentagon.

Trump’s border wall is now a monument to his failure
By Paul Waldman, 2019
September 5, 2019

From the outset it was an idea both stupid and malign, but he was committed to it. Yet again and again, he tried to obtain funding for it, only to find that even many Republicans in Congress weren’t interested. He even shut down the government to get it, but failed then, too.

Until this February, when he declared a farcical “national emergency” as a way of circumventing the Constitution, which says that the executive branch may spend money only on things Congress has authorized. The administration will be taking funds from the military budget and using it to build 175 miles of new fencing and barriers at various points along the border.

First, let’s look at what the administration decided to take money from. You can read the entire list of 127 projects here.
…
As The Post’s James Hohmann notes, local media in some of those 23 states are already featuring stories about the funds the states are losing and what the consequences will be, suggesting that there will be political fallout for the president and his party from this decision.

That’s not to mention the fact that it’s all for something that isn’t popular and never has been: Polls consistently show about 6 in 10 Americans oppose the building of a border wall.

Trump’s most ardent supporters are, of course, in the other 4 in 10. But let’s consider what the border wall meant when he sold it to them back in 2016 and what it means today.

The idea of building a wall on the southern border began as an idea some of Trump’s aides had, as a way of reminding their undisciplined candidate to talk about immigration, since it was simple for him to understand and appealing to him as a builder. But when he began talking about it at rallies, the rapturous response from his supporters convinced him that it should be the emotional centerpiece of his campaign.

Before long, he added the idea that Mexico would pay for the wall, using it in a gleeful call-and-response during those rallies. “Who’s going to pay for it?” he’d ask, and the crowd would shout, “Mexico!”

It was never about the money, of course. It was a way of saying to people who felt that the world had left them behind: Make me president, and we’ll stand tall again. I will give you back the feeling of potency that you’ve lost. The point of making Mexico pay was not that we’d save a few billion dollars but that we’d dominate them, humiliate them, and in so doing regain the status people felt we had lost. We’d make them losers, and we’d be winners.

But Trump couldn’t do it. Mexico isn’t paying — instead, U.S. taxpayers are, and we’re doing it by taking money away from military bases and service members’ kids. There is no “big, beautiful wall” stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

This is part of a broader failure of Trump’s on immigration that I’ve discussed before: For all of the venom he spews, all the children ripped from their parents’ arms, all the efforts to make it harder for nonwhite people to come to the United States, he hasn’t delivered what he really promised. The United States has no fewer immigrants now than it did before he was elected. His supporters are no less likely to experience the trauma of being in line at the supermarket and hearing someone speak Spanish. America has not been Made Great Again, in the way they wanted it to be.

So as we embark on the 2020 presidential campaign, what does Trump’s wall represent? Does it, as he had hoped, represent power and manliness, a country reasserting control of its destiny, getting rid of all the no-good foreigners and keeping the rest of them out?

Hardly. The wall barely exists, and accomplishes none of what he promised. It’s a monument to Trump’s failure: his rancid appeals to xenophobia and racism, his grandiose dishonesty and his incompetence.

When he runs in 2020 saying, “I told you I’d build the wall, and I did” (which he will), his supporters will applaud, but not so loud this time. And the rest of the electorate will feel nothing but contempt.

Sometimes I feel good that only 40% of people are racist. Then I feel bad that 40% of the people are still racist.

You know when I was your age, I went out to fishing with all my brothers and my father, and everybody. And I was, I was the only one who caught a fish. Nobody else could catch one except me. You know how I did it? Every time I put the line in the water I said a Hail Mary and every time I said a Hail Mary I caught a fish. You believe that? It’s true, that’s the secret. You wanna try it when we go out on the lake?

Did I say cold? When even your brother has to ditch you, that’s minus 44 cold.

Jo Johnson quits as MP and minister, citing ‘national interest’
by Jessica Elgot, The Guardian
Thu 5 Sep 2019

Jo Johnson had only recently returned to government as a business minister with a brief that saw him attend his brother’s cabinet – after quitting a different frontbench role earlier this year in order to back a second referendum.

His return had raised eyebrows in Westminster after his brother was confirmed as prime minister in July, but he suggested he could no longer reconcile his differences with his brother over Brexit – just days after 21 Conservative MPs lost the whip for backing moves to stop no deal.

In a statement on Twitter, Johnson said it had been an honour to represent Orpington for nine years and to serve as a minister under three PMs.

“In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest – it’s an unresolvable tension and time for others to take on my roles as MP & minister. #overandout,” he tweeted.
…
It is understood Johnson told the prime minister of his decision to quit in a tense phone call on Wednesday night but Downing Street acknowledged the difficulties of the familial dilemma in a statement, thanking Johnson for his time as a minister.

“The prime minister would like to thank Jo Johnson for his service. He has been a brilliant, talented minister and a fantastic MP,” a No 10 spokesman said.

“The PM, as both a politician and brother, understands this will not have been an easy matter for Jo. The constituents of Orpington could not have asked for a better representative.”

Speaking to the Sun, Jo Johnson said his argument with his brother was over Brexit alone. “What is so clearly in the national interest is everything the government is doing in its strong, one nation domestic policy agenda: more police on the streets, more doctors and nurses in our hospitals, a welcoming face to scientists and international students,” he said.

“That’s exactly what a Conservative prime minister should be doing and what Boris does so well.”

I loved you Fredo. You broke my heart..

What will Boris try next?

Stew or vote against himself: what does Boris Johnson do now?
by Peter Walker, The Guardian
Thu 5 Sep 2019

Try again to call an election under the Fixed-term Parliament Act

• This seems most likely, and could happen on Monday, after the rebel backbench bill receives royal assent, but before parliament is prorogued. … Things could be different on Monday – Labour say they want an election, but only after no-deal Brexit on 31 October is ruled out. However, even if Jeremy Corbyn feels sufficiently reassured following the passing of the bill, he could still seek a later election than the 15 October date sought by Johnson.

…
Attempt another method to call an election

• One mooted alternative plan would be for the government to try to pass a simple one-line bill amending the FTPA to say that in this one instance, an election would happen. The advantage for Johnson would be that this would need a simple Commons majority to pass, meaning a handful of opposition rebels could sway it. However, No 10 is not keen on the idea for one reason – any such bill could be amended by the opposition, for example to set a particular election date that Johnson might not want.

…
Call a confidence vote in his government

• This was, in the era before the FTPA, the nuclear option for a beleaguered prime minister – call a confidence vote in which MPs could back the PM or face an immediate election. These days it is less straightforward. The FTPA does give provision for the opposition to call a confidence vote, and while in theory this could be done by the government, it would be seen as unusual. In this case it could end up in the bizarre situation of Johnson and his MPs voting against his own administration, with Labour supporting it. But even if it passed, the FTPA does not stipulate an immediate election, but a 14-day period where an alternative government could be formed. Johnson could thus face being replaced by a caretaker administration headed by Corbyn – or even someone like the newly purged Kenneth Clarke.

…
“Stew in his own juice”

• This is the phrase used by some in Labour for what they would like Corbyn’s tactics to be – only seek a general election for after 31 October, and in the interim allow Johnson to get by with no majority, albeit also with a five-week suspension of parliament from the start of next week.

The bottom line is that (pending approval in the House of Lords for which the stick is ‘Otherwise we will never let you call elections before you suspend Parliament’) the Bills that 1) Forbid a ‘No Deal’ Brexit and 2) Require Boris Johnson to petition for a deadline extension by the EU (ultimately they’ll have to grant it because it’s not official unless Britain says yes) have passed and will become Law.

Because the English Constitution is “Unwritten” (which is to say a collection of self contradictory “norms” hoary with age) there’s really no way to enforce it except another Civil War. I’m not sure everyone is on board with returning to the halcyon days of the mid 17th Century (CE). There was a lot of Plague, Smuggling, and Banditry too.

As we proceed into suspension I suspect there will be be more depressingly predictable events, but hey! Maybe some surprises too.

No, we are not finished with the House of Mouse. Jenny recently visited D23, a biennial Disney PR event. Super special visitors get preferred seating at the panels, everyone else (Jenny) SRO.

Jenny Nicholson

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

A massacre at the Munich Olympics; President Gerald Ford escapes the first of two assassination attempts, weeks apart; Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ published; Missionary nun Mother Teresa dies.

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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After winning yesterday’s motion to proceed, today the No Deal, No Brexit Bill passed it’s second reading with further defections. Rebel Tories had their whips removed last night and are effectively banished from the Party. Their departure makes the “Independent” block of Members of Parliament without a Party one of the largest (36). I have no idea how any of them ever get elected again.

The Guardian Brexit Live
Andrew Sparrow, 2.18pm ET

MPs are now voting on amendments to the Benn bill, which is designed to stop a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. We don’t know yet how many amendments will be put to a vote. Each vote takes about 15 minutes. But it may well be that all amendments get voted down.

After that there will be a vote on the third reading of the bill. The result of this is set to be identical, or almost identical, to the vote at second reading – which was the important vote on principle. The opposition and Tory rebels won the comfortably. (See 5.22pm.)

After the third reading the bill will be ready to go to the Lords.

And then MPs will have a 90-minute debate on Boris Johnson’s motion saying there should be an early election. It may be a lively debate – Johnson is opening for the government – but the opposition will not back the motion, and so Johnson will not get the two-thirds majority he needs under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act for an early election to actually go ahead.

The Benn Bill is the one that demands Johnson petition the EU for an extension.

What will happen in the House of Lords? We have this report-

Tory peers accused of wrecking tactics over bill to delay Brexit
by Kate Proctor, The Guardian
Wed 4 Sep 2019

Brexit-backing Tory peers have tabled more than 100 amendments to the motion tabled by Labour’s Hilary Benn should the bill pass its Commons stage on Wednesday.

The Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords, Dick Newby, said: “This is not even a subtle attempt at wrecking, it’s complete straightforward wrecking. It’s a very childish and irresponsible strategy.”

Among the peers to table “wrecking amendments” are the former Conservative leader Michael Howard, Michael Dobbs, Michael Forsyth and the party’s former deputy leader Peter Lilley.

With a lack of rules on the time given over to debates by peers, Labour’s leader in the Lords, Lady Angela Smith, tabled a motion to be debated on Wednesday that ensures Benn’s bill is debated on Thursday should it pass in the Commons, and then complete its final stages by 5pm on Friday.

However, Tory peers have tried to amend this so that precedence is given to a raft of private members’ bills, ranging from legislation on bat habitation, land drainage, local elections, medical records and marriages taking place in a chapel.

None of these private members bills are expected to pass due to Labour and Lib Dems having a majority in the Lords but they will significantly slow down the parliamentary timetable.

Each amendment has to be debated, then a vote held on whether to close the debate, and the subject matter itself. Every time peers head through the voting lobbies it takes at least 15 minutes.

Once the amendments are voted on, Benn’s bill can then begin its passage through the Lords. Peers were expecting to sit at the weekend to ensure it passes all its stages in time for Monday.

Lord Newby, who tweeted a picture of himself saying he had packed a duvet in his suitcase for expected late sittings, said: “This is going to take at least 72 hours. We do hope they’ll give up. It’s OK doing this at 3pm in the afternoon but at 5am the following day …

“The government here has time on its side but ultimately we have the numbers.”

As for the General Election, the problem is that nobody trusts Johnson at all anymore (Suspension of Parliament?) and he’s not willing to provide sufficient guarantees that it will be concluded on October 15th as he now promises and which barely provides enough time to sue for Peace at Any Price.

Of course the Opposition has their own clock ticking and things did not go well in the Scottish Courts.

This is what Pravda and Izvestia are reporting-

Boris Johnson faces another possible rebellion as Parliament debates Brexit delay
By Kevin Sullivan and Karla Adam, Washington Post
September 4, 2019

A day after a devastating defeat in Parliament, a defiant Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to try to salvage his Brexit plans or force a general election next month.

“Let’s get Brexit done,” he said in his first “Prime Minister’s Questions” session since taking office nearly six weeks ago.

Johnson portrayed himself as a “sensible, moderate and Conservative” leader who wanted to deliver Brexit by an Oct. 31 deadline, and he accused his opponents of “dither, delay and confusion” that would guarantee more years of debate and uncertainty about Brexit.

“What we want to do in this government is deliver the mandate of the people,” he said, calling an opposition bill to delay Brexit by three months a “wretched surrender bill.”

He called for a vote on that bill and, if it passes as expected, to “put it to the will of the people in the form of a general election,” meaning polls for all 650 seats in the House of Commons three years earlier than previously scheduled.

Johnson said neither he nor the British people want another general election, which would be the third in five years. But he said voters may have to decide whether they want him or his chief opponent, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, negotiating the terms of Brexit with European Union leaders.

Corbyn shot back at Johnson in Parliament on Wednesday, accusing him of “incompetence.”

“If the prime minister does to the country what he has done to his party in the past 24 hours, I think a lot of people have a great deal to fear from his incompetence and his vacillation,” Corbyn said.

Johnson has demanded that Britain end three years of uncertainty over Brexit by leaving the E.U. by the Halloween deadline, even if that means a no-deal exit without agreements in place to regulate trade and other matters.

Most members of Parliament, even those who support Brexit, disagree with Johnson on that issue. Debate in Parliament on Tuesday centered on fears over a no-deal exit that even government officials predict would lead to food and medicine shortages and other catastrophic economic and social problems.
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For days, Britons have been protesting in the streets around Parliament and Johnson’s office at 10 Downing Street. Many are anti-Brexit, while others are angry at the prime minister for pushing the no-deal option and for planning to shutter Parliament for five weeks leading up to the Oct. 31 deadline.

“We have seized back control of Parliament from a prime minister who is behaving more like a dictator than a democrat,” said Ian Blackford, a member of the Scottish National Party.

Johnson said that a no-deal Brexit, no matter how difficult, would be better than electing Corbyn and sending him to Brussels to negotiate. “He will beg for an extension, he will accept whatever Brussels demands, and we’ll have years more arguments over Brexit,” Johnson said.

After his defeat Tuesday night, Johnson introduced legislation setting the stage for elections. But it is far from clear this will happen. Two-thirds of the 650 members of the House of Commons must vote to hold elections, and Johnson’s opponents want concessions from him before they agree to a national vote.
…
The immediate issue in Parliament Wednesday will be a bill to seek a three-month delay in Brexit and ensure that a no-deal Brexit does not happen.

Corbyn and his lieutenants have said they welcome a chance to defeat the mercurial prime minister in national elections. But they insist on passing the bill and preventing the no-deal exit first.

Labour Party officials also said they need a guarantee that the elections would be held before Oct. 31, to prevent a no-deal Brexit from happening by default on that day.
…
Johnson’s opponents have said they fear he would agree to an October election date, then delay it until after Britain “crashes out” of the E.U. without a deal.

“There’s a real problem with Johnson, and it’s a problem Theresa May didn’t have,” Starmer, the Labour Brexit negotiator, said on Sky News. “People disagreed with Theresa May, but when she stood at the dispatch box and said something, she meant it and she was trusted.

“Johnson is not trusted,” he said. “Even if he says the election will be on the 15th of October, most people in Parliament won’t believe him. This is his central problem.”
…
Johnson’s other urgent problem is a raging rebellion from members of his own party, whose defection Tuesday allowed the opposition to bring the Brexit-delay legislation to the floor on Wednesday.

One after another, Conservative members of Parliament stood to denounce Johnson’s Brexit plans — and Johnson himself — during a passionate debate in which people said Britain’s democracy and future were at stake.

Johnson responded ruthlessly, kicking all the rebels out of the party, making it impossible for them to run as Conservatives in any upcoming election. He hopes to replace them with candidates more loyal to him.

But Johnson’s move excommunicated some of the grandest and most respected figures in the party, including two former chancellors of the exchequer, or finance ministers: Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond.

Also banished, remarkably, was Nicholas Soames, 71, former prime minister Winston Churchill’s grandson, who has served in Parliament for 37 years. Johnson idolizes Churchill and wrote a biography of him.

Bafflement over that stunning expulsion was summed up by Ruth Davidson, who stood down as the Conservatives’ leader in Scotland last week.

“How, in the name of all that is good and holy, is there no longer room in the Conservative Party” for Soames, she tweeted, using the hashtag: #anofficerandagentleman.

On the BBC after the vote, Soames sounded as stoic as his grandfather: “That’s fortunes of war,” he said. “I knew what I was doing, but I just believe that they are not playing straight with us.”

U.K. Opposition Lawmakers Plan to Turn Up Heat on Boris Johnson
By Stephen Castle, The New York Times
Sept. 4, 2019

In the course of Tuesday evening, the prime minister had lost control of Parliament, and with it his oft-made promise to carry out Brexit, “do or die”; possibly fractured his Conservative Party by carrying out a purge of 21 rebel lawmakers; and saw his plan for a swift general election held up by his opponents.

Even if lawmakers ultimately decide to proceed with a quick election, there are urgent questions about whether it will settle anything, given the divisions in the traditional political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, engendered by the Brexit issue.

Wednesday’s events unfolded against a developing consensus among Mr. Johnson’s opponents that he may have overplayed his hand through hardball tactics, devised by his adviser Dominic Cummings, a leading strategist in the main pro-Brexit campaign during the 2016 referendum.

From suspending Parliament for five weeks to kicking out rebel Tories for voting against the government, Mr. Johnson has united disparate elements in the opposition and his own party against him.
…
Those Tory rebels were told immediately afterward that they no longer represented the party, depriving the government of a working majority and prompting a fierce backlash from internal critics, who pointed out that most of the current government ministers had broken with the party in previous Brexit votes without retribution.

For Mr. Johnson’s opponents, the question now is whether to allow an election to take place in October or to delay it into November, once the current Brexit deadline has been put back beyond Oct. 31.

Many Labour lawmakers favor November, fearing that if Mr. Johnson were to win an October election with a clear majority, he could reverse any law they make this week preventing a no-deal Brexit, and pull Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 without an agreement.
…
The rebellion, and the purge of those Conservative members of Parliament, was the culmination of an escalation by Downing Street using unusually aggressive tactics. Some of the party’s best-known and most respected lawmakers were ejected from their political home, in some cases after decades of service.

Those disciplined include two former chancellors of the Exchequer: Philip Hammond, who held the post only a few weeks ago; and Kenneth Clarke, the longest-serving lawmaker in Parliament.

Out, too, went Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill and the grandest and most colorful of the Tory grandees.

Another victim was Rory Stewart, the maverick former cabinet minister who enlivened the Conservative leadership contest that was finally won by Mr. Johnson in July.

“It came by text, and it was a pretty astonishing moment,” Mr. Stewart said of his expulsion from the Conservative parliamentary party. “Remember that only a few weeks ago I was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party against Boris Johnson and I was in the cabinet.”

“It feels a little like something that one associates with other countries: One opposes the leader, and one loses the leadership — no longer in the cabinet and now apparently thrown out of the party and apparently out of one’s seat, too,” he told the BBC.

Michael Howard, a former party leader loyal to Mr. Johnson, defended the purge and told the BBC that in a general election, any Conservative candidate for the party should support the leadership’s hard line on Brexit, suggesting that the party is determined to scoop up voters from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

“Everyone has to know with total clarity that if they vote Conservative and a Conservative government is elected, we will leave the E.U.,” Mr. Howard said.

But the immediate effect for the Conservatives has been traumatic, and has reduced the government’s working majority in Parliament to minus 43 from one.

Minus 43. Fahrenheit or Celsius that’s cold baby.

Cold.

At first I hardly noticed. I’ve been busy, I’ve been traveling, didn’t miss it at all- less to do at night, more news repeats.

But the news got worse and worse and I was developing the shakes along with an overwhelming feeling of despair. I lay awake most nights, staring at the ceiling lit by the flickering light, counting the cracks.

Suddenly I’m inundated. There are those that would urge me to seize the “progress” I’ve made and commit to my detoxification.

Well screw that. I think I’m going to wallow in it now.

Trevor

Stephen

Seth

Told you we’d get around to Toy Story 4. Curse you Disney!

Jenny Nicholson

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Crisis unfolds in Little Rock, Ark. over racial integration in schools; Ford rolls out its ill-fated Edsel; Attorney William Kunstler dies; Mark Spitz sets Olympic gold record; Singer Beyonce born.

If ‘pro’ is the opposite of ‘con’ what is the opposite of ‘progress’?

Paul Harvey

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Alas, not isolated in this case but joined with geographic lost causers and believers in illusions of a legendary West (Guns were strictly regulated most places, what do you think the O.K. Corral was about?

To reduce crime in Tombstone, on April 19, 1881, the city council passed ordinance 9, requiring anyone carrying a bowie knife, dirk, pistol or rifle to deposit their weapons at a livery or saloon soon after entering town.

However it takes a special kind of State to implement new Laws designed to make it easier to get and carry more Guns the day after the second Mass Shoot shooting in 3 weeks and call them “Gun Control Measures”.

Ah yes, a special kind of State where it’s considered normal behavior, nothing out of the ordinary at all, to whip out your Pistol and threaten to kill some hapless minimum wage Fast Food Employee because they’re sold out of the trendy new Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich WHICH HAS BEEN SOLD OUT NATIONWIDE FOR THE LAST 3 WEEKS!

Ya dumbass.

I am not joking at all.

Man threatens Popeyes employees with gun after chicken sandwich sold out
by Martin Pengelly, The Guardian
Tue 3 Sep 2019

A man pulled a gun at a Popeyes restaurant in Houston on Monday, after being told it had run out of the fast-food chain’s insanely popular chicken sandwich.
…
The Popeyes sandwich generated national buzz soon after it was released, with a clever social media campaign, in the middle of August. Long lines formed at restaurants and national newspapers and websites ran reports, reviews and OpEds about an unexpected cultural phenomenon.

In its own review of the sandwich, which simply contains battered chicken, pickles and sauce, the Guardian said: “It’s probably not going to save America and it bears only a passing resemblance to true love, but it is very, very good.”

Last week, Popeyes said the popular new comestible had sold out nationally.

“You ate ’em ALL,” the company said. “Legit proud of you.”

Popeyes told the Washington Post it was “working tirelessly to bring the new sandwich back to guests as soon as possible”. Fans were told they could sign up for the restaurant’s app, through which they would be told when the sandwich was available again.

This news was not universally welcomed. In Tennessee, according to NBC, a man sued the restaurant chain for $5,000, alleging false advertising.

In Houston, things got more serious. Restaurant employees told a local TV station that three men, two women and a baby at the drive-through and were told the chicken sandwiches were sold out. One of the men produced a gun, the employees said, and the group left the baby in a vehicle before trying to get inside the building. They were locked out.

“It was more of an aggravated assault because he was displaying a weapon and threatened employees,” Lt Larry Crowson of the Houston PD told ABC13.

The group left the premises in a blue SUV. Police were viewing surveillance video and asking the public for tips.

I’m told the new Chicken Sandwich is much better than Chick-fil-A who are, in any event, Evangelical Homophobes. Wouldn’t know myself, didn’t get a chance to try it.