Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell accepts the Joan Thomas Award from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition after being honored by Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Chair Brian Cladoosby (Spee pots)
[Donald] Trump on Tuesday pushed out John R. Bolton, his third national security adviser, amid fundamental disputes over how to handle major foreign policy challenges like Iran, North Korea and most recently Afghanistan.
Calling it a partnership seems like a stretch. It was more like an arrangement.
Few people can last long doing the bidding of neofascist Donald Trump, except for perhaps his children and a few other soulless sidekicks.
The Trump regime has been characterized by turnover since its very first days, when Michael Flynn was forced out as National Security Advisor.
And there’s an even bigger problem that goes beyond turnover. The regime has neglected to nominate people to key posts, leaving lots of holes in the country’s executive branch. As National Security Action noted:
“The senior echelons of our national security institutions may be hollower than ever. The administration has no National Security Advisor, no Secretary or Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, no Director or Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and features acting officials in nearly twenty top positions at the Pentagon and several key ambassadorial posts.”
Christopher Hooks, a journalist who writes about politics for Texas Monthly and The Texas Observer, explains why Republican members of the United States House of Representatives from the Lone Star State are retiring en masse, and what’s going wrong for the Republican Party in one of the country’s biggest states, which is a must-win for Donald Trump in 2020.
Our new Cabinet has no majority and no mandate … It is not a Cabinet of all available talents. It is a faction of a faction, with no counter-balance of opinion to hold it back. Upon Brexit, the Cabinet non–believers are mere window dressing. They will not be listened to, and will always be out-voted.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was battered again on Wednesday as lawmakers from his own party and the opposition pressed ahead to stop his plan for leaving the European Union without an agreement — and then turned down his call for an election.
By the end of another tumultuous day in Parliament, Mr. Johnson’s government had been shredded by no fewer than three defeats.
After opposition and rebel Tory lawmakers seized control of the Brexit process from Mr. Johnson on Tuesday, they doubled down on Wednesday by advancing a bill to block a withdrawal from the European Union without a deal. Then, just hours later, they rejected Mr. Johnson’s request for a snap election, at least until their no-deal Brexit measure becomes the law of the land.
It serves Johnson right.
The hard-charging former Mayor of London — who wants to crash out of the European Union with no deal on Halloween — has adopted a position of “my way or the highway”, splitting apart the Tory Party in gruesome fashion. More than two dozen Conservative MPs have been kicked out of the party for refusing to follow Johnson off a metaphorical cliff, including Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson.
Johnson has yet to win a major vote in Parliament since taking over from Theresa May. He holds the position of Prime Minister, but neither he nor his government command a majority in the House. And he’s certainly not ministering to the people he’s supposed to be looking after in the United Kingdom.
So perhaps the more realistic title for Johnson would be “Prime Spectator”.
Here’s a video showing one of Johnson’s Conservative colleagues getting up and walking across the floor of the House to defect to another political party yesterday, while Johnson was trying to deliver a speech extolling his greatness:
And here’s a video announcing the results of the first vote that went against him:
Given the fine margins Trump is dealing with in his reelection campaign, Fox News could help sink him. Fox can lose some viewers and win the ratings wars; Trump basically cannot lose any supporters and win reelection. You could even make an argument that Trump needs Fox more than Fox needs Trump.
The graphic above shows the podium placement for the third Democratic debate. “The candidates will appear on the stage in the following order, from left to right. Polling averages determined the podium order based on the last 10 polls certified for qualification by the DNC with the highest polling candidates near the center:” (Courtesy of ABC News)
Above: Tsunami wave simulation for Washington State from a hypothetical magnitude 9.0 earthquake (L1) scenario on the Cascadia subduction zone. Developed by Washington Geological Survey hazard geologists.
Increasing funding for geologic hazards research is a top NPI legislative priority.
These summer days won't last! Join us tomorrow evening as we commemorate our sixteenth anniversary with a grand summer picnic at Redmond's Perrigo Park! U.S. Representative Kim Schrier will speak. RSVP: https://npi.li/picnic/
On Saturday, August 24th, we will present the family of @Al_Garman with NPI's highest honor: a Lynn Allen Award. Join us at Redmond's Perrigo Park as we recognize Al's incredible legacy! https://npi.li/picnic
Via Ars Technica: “Election security advocates scored a major victory on Thursday as a federal judge issued a one hundred and fifty-three page ruling ordering Georgia officials to stop using its outdated electronic voting machines by the end of the year.”
Imagine if Tim Eyman became governor and began taking an axe to Washington’s public services. That’s what is happening in Alaska, where right wing extremist Mike Dunleavy is using his line item veto power to force through a 41% cut to the University of Alaska system, plus gut Medicaid, behavioral health, and the Alaska State Ferry system.
In Brief is authored by the staff, board, and contributors of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a netroots powered strategy center working to raise America's quality of life through innovative research and imaginative advocacy.
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