After Harvey, The Bad News Is Just Beginning

For Houston and the rest of the Texas Gulf coast, unfortunately, the bad news is just beginning. For the last few days the media has been focused on the daring rescues and the neighbor helping neighbor stories that have truly been remarkable. And that is as it should be. But as the rain stops and the floodwaters start to recede, the focus will now turn to the death and destruction that Harvey has wrought, investigating what could and should have been done to mitigate the disaster, and a real focus on the enormous and years long recovery effort that will be necessary to simply recover a significant portion of what has been lost.

The death toll will unfortunately continue to rise. Even as the recovery effort intensifies, water is still rising in the Buffalo Bayou and water is still pouring into to Houston's two reservoirs. For many, it will be days or even weeks before their homes are even accessible. Imagine what will happen to a house that has standing water in it for weeks. Texas already has a huge problem with black mold. In Beaumont, the water system has collapsed entirely because of the flooding. And even when power and water are restored, the remaining standing water will be a magnet for all kinds of diseases. And we haven't even mentioned the toxic waste that will be left behind when the water totally recedes. Between the fire at the Arkema plant, the multiple Superfund sites that were flooded, and the numerous chemical and petroleum plants that were also flooded, it will be almost impossible to know what kind of toxic material has ended up where.

All this will put a real spotlight on the lax regulations of these dangerous materials that Texas has long allowed. The Arkema plant is a perfect case in point, where the dangerous peroxides could have easily been neutralized with a specific agent but that is not required in Texas. Instead, the company was simply powerless to stop these explosions when they lost both regular and emergency power. It will also bring the lack of zoning regulations under scrutiny as well as the inability or unwillingness of the Water Control Authority to adjust to the level of building in Houston.

In addition, with National Guard units already stretched thin because of our ongoing international commitments, those capabilities will be not be fully available to help contain the chaos that is sure to come as food and water become an issue. Moreover, FEMA itself is already underfunded and the state of Texas is certainly unprepared to provide the amount of help needed.

No government is ever really prepared for a natural disaster and neither the state of Texas or the US Government is prepared for a disaster on this scale. Besides the red tape in dealing with insurance companies and the government, the price gouging that will go on in the recovery effort will be enormous. Already a reader in Corpus Christi has received multiple outrageous quotes to get the roof fixed.

Many, if not most, of the homes damaged in Houston were probably not covered with flood insurance. They are potentially total losses. In the initial wave after Katrina, New Orleans lost around 50% of its population and as of two years ago it was still 20% smaller than before the hurricane. Expect the same if not worse for Houston and the surrounding area.

All of these negatives will become the sad story of the next few days and months and even years. It is the inevitable cycle of how the media covers natural disasters. And none of it will put Republican policies or government in a good light.

More Reasons For Stronger Antitrust Enforcement

I have been harping on the importance of a strong antitrust policy for a long time now. As I've written, this one policy can provide enormous benefits across a wide range of policy areas - increasing jobs, raising wages, minimizing the barriers to enter markets, lowering inequality, and reducing the political power of these monopoly firms. There's not many other single policies that can provide those benefits. And two recent stories show the absolute need for stronger antitrust enforcement.

A study now claims that the relaxation of antitrust enforcement in the 1980s has led to the decline of smaller and medium sized cities around the country. The relaxed antitrust rules created a wave of mergers over the last thirty years and the result is that a few large cities have gained lots of jobs, even creating housing shortages, while other cities saw their anchor companies taken over and the jobs disappear. According to an expert on urban policy at the Brookings Institution, "Virtually all cities and metropolitan areas have seen precipitous declines in the number of locally owned corporations". That has "seriously degraded the quality and local focus of regional business leadership, philanthropy, and other resources."

A classic example of this phenomenon is the city of St. Louis which has gone from being the home of 23 Fortune 500 companies to just 9 in the last 35 years. The ancillary effects from a loss of this magnitude was large. Jobs in advertising, public relations, and legal services disappeared. When TWA was taken over by American Airlines, the city lost its status as a major airline hub. In 1997, when Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas, it resulted in 7,000 direct layoffs. A similar takeover of Anheuser Busch resulted in 2,000 direct job losses. As the related white collar jobs associated with these business eventually leave the city, it becomes a less attractive place for business, creating a vicious cycle of decline. In addition, the loss of local control also probably leaves many investment opportunities wasting as there is no one home to actually finance the various projects.

Before the conservative view of antitrust took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, local control was a real factor in determining whether a merger or acquisition should go forward. That, along with so many other considerations that protected jobs and regions, went into the dustbin when the conservative concept of promised lower consumer prices achieved total primacy in antitrust enforcement. Now, admittedly, the decline of St. Louis and other cities has also been effected by the destruction of unions, globalization, and automation. But there is no doubt that lax antitrust enforcement has also been an issue.

Less devastating but equally pernicious is what has happened with Google and the New America Foundation, a leading think tank on the left. Eric Schmidt and Google have given over millions to support the foundation over the years. But when the Open Markets group of the foundation, which focuses on reining in monopoly power, put out a statement supporting the EU's $2.7 billion fine of Google, it was apparently too much for Schmidt and Google to bear. They apparently threatened to withdraw funding for New America unless the foundation agreed to cut loose the Open Markets group. Needless to say, the foundation did exactly that. The specifics of this sordid affair are bad enough. More importantly, it speaks to the power that monopolies like Google have and the influence they have not only in Congress but even in constricting the range of ideas that are allowed in mainstream discourse. Yes, this is probably the least of the problems with monopolies but it is instructive on just how detrimental they are not only to our economy but to our political discourse.

It's simply time to break them up.

More Thoughts On Trump-Cohen-Sater Cabal And 2016 Election

I just wanted to do a quick follow-up on the recent news about the contacts between Trump associates Felix Sater and Michael Cohen and the Russians during the Presidential campaign. For a complete history on Sater and Cohen, I suggest you go over to TPM where Josh Marshall has detailed their long and sordid careers. Suffice it to say, Cohen and Sater have been facilitating Russian money laundering for decades. In addition, Sater apparently gets a free pass from the government for the work he did for the CIA and/or FBI in the wake of 9/11.

Last February, I wrote a post that speculated the best explanation for the FBI's seemingly reluctance to pursue Trump's Russian connections during the election was simply because that investigation would uncover some important intelligence sources and methods and associated illegality, either by the intelligence agencies or the people they were tracking or both. Trump's long history of building in New York gave him great insight into mob activities that may have been quite helpful to Rudy Giuliani and the New York FBI office in their efforts to destroy the mob families of New York. Sater's work in the aftermath of 9/11 was clearly of importance to US intelligence services at a time when those services were largely unrestrained and clearly breaking US law. When Trump discovered Michael Cohen was buying Trump apartments with laundered Russian money, it was his ticket out of bankruptcy after his casino failures and the fact that the big banks refused to do business with him any longer.

So, when Cohen put Trump together with his boyhood friend Sater, it put together two informants who had been quite useful to the government and intelligence services. And it probably gave the intelligence services a way to monitor Russian money laundering and in some way track what was happening among Putin's oligarchs.

With the news that Trump had signed a letter of intent to put his name on a Moscow tower that was being built by a company financed by Russian banks under sanction, it is hard to believe that US intelligence services were not aware of that transaction. This raises the obvious question of why the FBI constantly downplayed Trump's Russian connections while at the same time elevating Clinton's email server into major scandal during the election.

In retrospect, it seems clear that virtually everyone involved in the decisions regarding Clinton and Trump during the campaign was compromised by their connections to Sater in particular and, by association, Trump. As described above, Sater and Trump probably had potentially damaging information on the FBI and/or the CIA. Comey clearly went out of his way to protect the intelligence services accordingly. What I had not realized was that Loretta Lynch was also compromised by Sater as she had vouched for him as an important intelligence asset in the post 9/11 environment in her capacity as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch apparently flipped Sater back in the late 1990s when he was engaged in a stock swindling scam and oversaw his case going forward. She assisted Sater in trying to get his sentenced reduced in that case and, in her confirmation hearings for Attorney General, she declared that Sater provided "information crucial to national security."

The fact that Trump knew Comey was compromised could also explain why he felt comfortable enough to ask for his "loyalty". It also explains Trump's attacks on the intelligence services in general. In essence, those were warning messages letting the services know he had something on them. In addition, the way Cohen and Sater refer to Trump as "our boy" may also indicate that Trump was almost a junior partner in their money laundering and intelligence scheme.

It should also be noted that both the US and UK have been remarkably uninterested in investigating dirty foreign money that has financed massive real estate buildings in both countries. A recent expose by Buzzfeed showed that the Russians had possibly murdered over a dozen Russian citizens on UK soil over the last few year and the UK government seemed complicit in covering that up. According to on US official, "The Brits made a deal years ago that the Russians could come in and spend money on housing and stimulate the economy and they’ll look the other way."  It seems that the US was certainly also prepared to look the other way when it came to Russian investments in real estate.

For those officials like Comey and Lynch, the election campaign was all about CYA. No one, not even Trump himself, really believed he would win the election. Therefore, making sure that all the dirty laundry did not get aired during the campaign was of primary importance. Most of what I've written here is admittedly speculation. But as the dirty laundry finally gets aired, it will be interesting to see what exactly does come out.

ICE Tries To Destroy Records Documenting Abuses Of Those In Its Custody

In an administration defined by its lawlessness, only Trump himself outdoes the cruelty and disregard for humanity at ICE and CBP. And just as Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio was a direct attack on our judicial system, now ICE and CBP are trying to literally become a law answerable to no one.

According to the ACLU, ICE is currently trying to get permission to destroy all sorts of records about what happens to people in its custody. Those records include information about sexual assaults and even deaths that occur while in ICE custody. Other records include information on solitary confinement, regular detention logs, complaints about ICE abuses, and alternatives to detention. The time frames for these record destructions range from 20 years for deaths and sexual assault to 3 years for solitary confinement.

As Charles Pierce points out, there is no good reason that these records should be destroyed. "It's purely inhumane ass-covering for purely inhumane offenses. Who profits from the destruction of records relating to sexual assaults except the perpetrators and the guards who were supposed to stop them, but who, either through negligence or worse, failed to do their jobs?" Of course, the fact that the victims who are detailed in these records that will be destroyed are not citizens should not go unnoticed.

Worse, it appears that ICE may get its wish as the agency that oversees the records issue, the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), seems inclined to allow this, saying the records "do not document significant actions of Federal officials" and, regarding sexual assault, that the "information is highly sensitive and does not warrant retention." The idea that death while in custody does not document significant actions of federal officials or that sexual assault information does not warrant retention is laughable on its face but frankly a frightening position for the government to take. But it is certainly in keeping with the authoritarian inclinations of the Trump regime.

As the ACLU summarizes, "If the Trump administration has its way, the number of immigrants in detention will increase, detention conditions will deteriorate further and more people will be subjected to life-threatening circumstances and denied their most basic rights. ICE shouldn’t be allowed to purge important records and keep its operations out of the public eye." Without records, the lawlessness at ICE will only continue and grow.

Uber Adds To List Of Crimes, Now Being Investigated For Bribing Foreign Officials

Ah, Uber - along with Wells Fargo, easily my favorite criminal enterprise. With Travis Kalanick as its mob boss, the company has basically ignored the rule of law ever since its inception, essentially daring the powers that be to crack down on it and relying on its huge bankroll of money to survive while it tries to build a monopoly in any one of a variety of endeavors. Now, even as they announce a new CEO, the company still can't avoid the past illegality it has engaged in.

As we headed into last weekend and Jeff Immelt dropped out, Meg Whitman was apparently the choice of the board to become the new CEO. But she demanded far more independence from the board members that still were loyal to Kalanick and Kalanick himself, who still remains a board member, than they were apparently ready to allow. That left the board with the only remaining choice, Expedia's Dara Khosrowshahi, to take the helm.

Meanwhile. it appears the DOJ is now investigating Uber for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, essentially exploring the possibility, or probability based on Uber's history, that the company was paying bribes to foreign officials in order to further its business. It is unknown whether this investigation pertains to just one official or just one country or perhaps multiple officials in multiple countries.

I have to believe that any other company that engaged in as much blatant criminality as Uber would have been shuttered long ago. But the big money in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street apparently have invested so much money into the Uber sinkhole they are unwilling to let it die the death it deserves. And, as I've said until I'm blue in the face, corporate criminality like Uber's will never end unless a senior executive does some serious jail time. And if ever there was a candidate for that "honor", it would be Kalanick.

Trump Uses Harvey To Dump Damaging New Contacts With Russia

Hurricane Harvey may be devastating coastal Texas, but it is certainly covering a multitude of sins for Donald Trump. There was the outrageous pardon of Joe Arpaio, followed by the ban on any new transgender service members. But the disaster in Houston has also provided cover for the release of pretty devastating emails showing that Trump was negotiating with Putin and the Russians to get a Trump Tower in Moscow built even as he was running for President. And it shows that even more Trump associates were in contact with the Russians during the campaign.

These emails show that another Trump Organization fixer, Felix Sater, promised to use his extensive Russian connections to help broker the Moscow tower deal and wrote in an email, "Our boy [Trump] can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process." Michael Cohen, the lawyer for the Trump Organization and a Trump campaign adviser, personally lobbied Putin's personal spokesman in order to help move the project forward when it stalled in January, 2016. In addition, Trump himself signed a letter of intent for the project in 2015.

Of course, all this just adds to the Trump lies about not having any contacts with Russian and again helps partly explain his fondness for Putin. Trump had been using his buildings to launder Russian money for around a decade and keeping Putin happy was all part of the long-term business plan. As I wrote back in April of last year, Trump's campaign was initially designed as just a branding exercise to help him expand his business.

All these details and emails were almost surely leaked by Trump's legal team. In addition, they probably also leaked the fact that Mueller is looking into how the original statement regarding Don Jr.'s meeting with the Russians was drafted. This is all an attempt to get the damaging information out there but under the cover of a larger story that will dominate the news. More importantly, the leaks were probably designed to present the damaging information in the best possible light, which makes you really wonder how bad they will look in the correct context. It is also probably no coincidence that Dana Rohrbacher is out there today pushing the story that the DNC hack was actually an "inside job".

Beyond that, it is also interesting to see these emails and reflect back on the 2016 campaign in light of these new details. Remember that the Russians were already under sanctions because of the invasion of Ukraine and the taking of Crimea. It seems hard to believe that our intelligence services would not be aware that Trump had signed a letter of intent on the Moscow Tower. That building would have to involve at least some of Putin's oligarch cronies that would have been under sanction. Instead, we spent all of the time talking about Hillary's emails. It make you wonder what James Comey was actually doing.

UPDATE: Apparently Trump's letter of intent was with a group using sanctioned Russian banks. Makes you wonder how the media and the FBI didn't pick up on this during the campaign... 

Disaster In Houston Exacerbated By GOP Policies

The disaster on the Gulf Coast continues with not only the massive flooding in and around Houston but now, as the storm moves east, Beaumont and New Orleans are starting to also see massive amounts of rainfall.  There are now reports that one of the two main reservoirs built in the 1930s to protect Houston proper is now overflowing its spillway, threatening the city with yet another deluge of water. In addition, the rivers and creeks throughout South Texas will probably not even crest until tomorrow or even Thursday. As of now, the death toll has thankfully been remarkably low but we can probably expect it to unfortunately rise as the storm recedes and the recovery effort expands. Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the storm's path.

While it is true that there was bound to be massive flooding with this unprecedented amount of rainfall, it is also clear that Republican policies and positions over the years have probably greatly exacerbated this disaster. First and foremost among those positions is the refusal to recognize the reality of global warming and climate change. No one storm can be directly linked to global warming but all the models show that massive rainfall events like this are more and more likely as the climate heats up. The challenge of man-made climate change has been front and center for the last two decades and the GOP response has not only been to ignore and denigrate the science but, even worse, actually propose and enact policies that create even more damage, the latest and most obvious being Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Aiding and abetting this Republican position, or perhaps even directing it via political donations, is the power and money of the fossil fuel industry, as illustrated by the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil. Internal documents show that Exxon was well aware of the damage the fossil fuel industry was doing to the climate, but Exxon publicly and purposefully lied about the effects of carbon pollution on the climate. And the pro-business, anti-regulation Republican party was happy to play along with them.

In addition, the refusal to acknowledge a role for government and invest in the country's infrastructure, combined with the decision of Republicans in Congress to oppose anything and everything President Obama tried to accomplish has added to Houston's problems. The upgrade to the Brays Bayou is nearly a decade behind schedule simply because Republicans in Congress have not provided the money to complete the project. As of 2016, the project was still not expected to be completed until 2021.

But it is actually local Republican-controlled Texas politics, with its laissez-faire attitude and lack of regulation, that has really exacerbated the continual flooding in Houston over the last few years. The city's total lack of zoning as well as its allowance of development in the flood plains and wetlands have eliminated much of the city's natural defenses. Since 2010, over 7,000 new homes have been built in the flood plain. This despite the fact that Houston, along with New Orleans, were identified all the way back in 1998 as the two areas of the country with the most repetitively flooded buildings. In fact, a study showed that just 2% of properties were responsible for over 40% of the claims on the National Flood Insurance Program. One Houston property worth only $115,000 produced over $800,000 in payouts after being flooded 16 times in 18 years.

The city has developed over 166,000 acres of coastal plain that held highly absorbent grasses since the beginning of this century. Nearly one-third of the wetlands in an around the city have been developed and destroyed since the early 1990s. Even worse, this unchecked development has depleted the groundwater reserves and, like New Orleans, is actually causing parts of the city to sink. According to US Geological Survey, areas of Houston have sunk by over 10 feet since the 1920s. Northwest Harris County has subsided nearly four feet since 1974 and is expected to sink another foot or so by 2030. All of this is driven by the fact that the rampant, unchecked development in the Houston area sucks around 14 billion gallons a year from the underground aquifer and has drained it by 300 to 400 feet. Accordingly, the ground above will contract and sink which will of course make it more prone to flooding.

In a disaster like the one unfolding on the Gulf Coast, we all pitch in as Americans. That can be seen by the enormous efforts of individuals who have essentially become rescue services as well as all the volunteers doing their best to aid and comfort the thousands who have been displaced. But let's not forget that there are some critical partisan policies and positions of the Republican party that have only made this disaster worse.

Harvey Has Implications Beyond Houston And Coastal Bend

Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Houston. My nephew and his family, who had rebuilt and raised their home after the 2015 flood, were finally evacuated by a neighbor with a boat last night. They are the lucky ones. There are probably thousands of more people currently stranded and waiting to be evacuated from their homes. Right now, it is estimated that around 30,000 people will be forced from their homes because of the massive flooding. And if reports are correct, that number could easily rise even further.

Of course, the priority right now is to get as many people to safety as possible. But the recovery from this massive storm will take years, not weeks or months. And there will be many questions and challenges along the way. In the immediate future, it will probably take a massive effort to just get power back to around 250,000 customers who have lost power up and down the coastal bend and the close to 100,000 in Houston alone. With the news this morning that at least one of the Houston's water purification plants is under water, the availability of drinking water as the recovery begins will also be a huge issue. So too is the risk of disease from the standing water that will surely remain. That will be followed by determinations of what buildings are even safe enough to return to and the massive costs of cleanup for the ones that are. It is clear that many houses and office buildings in Houston will be unlivable and unusable for months to come. And, as we have seen with Katrina and Sandy, it will take years for some communities to fully recover, if ever.

There are also some serious political implications for this storm as well. The slow pace of recovery and the flow of government assistance always creates a backlash against the current administration. In the wake of Sandy in New Jersey, it was not only Bridgegate and Christie's national ambitions that sabotaged his popularity at home. It was the fact that, despite multitudes of promises, the cleanup on the shore took far longer and proved far more difficult than people were willing to stand for.

In this case, the need for emergency funds may actually hasten the arrival of the debt ceiling, which Treasury Secretary Mnuchin claims will be hit by the end of September. In addition, there are a number of members of the Texas Congressional delegation who voted against federal aid for Sandy victims without corresponding budget cuts. Those votes may come back to haunt them at least politically now. Moreover, recovery from this devastating storm will require more than just a vote in Congress. The state legislature, having regularly scheduled session only once every two years, is specifically not designed to handle emergencies like this. This emergency will require yet another special session, one of which just ended a few weeks ago with the defeat of the Governor's "bathroom bill". And, because it's Texas, every session of the legislature brings out the right wing lunacy in attempts to pass all manner of crazy and dreadful ideas, such as the just defeated "bathroom bill". For both Congress and the Texas legislature, relief for victims of the storm will not be a one-shot deal. It will come up repeatedly in the next year or two. And one thing that Republicans have difficulty doing is spending money on anything that isn't related to the military.

With Congress already under an incredibly tight time frame to deal with avoiding hitting the debt ceiling and trying to pass a budget, this disaster probably makes the likelihood of a government shutdown far less likely as that would be political suicide in this environment. It may also push back any discussion of tax cuts as it is clear there will need to be more money for FEMA and to fully fund the disastrous National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in anticipation of the coming avalanche of claims. In addition, this disaster will probably mean the end of funding for Trump's wall. Trump is already facing criticism for cutting money from FEMA and the NFIP in order to start funding the border wall. And the prospect of spending money on the wall, or for that matter, cutting the budget in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich, while hundreds of thousands are suffering in Houston may be even too much for Republicans to stomach.

Finally, there are broader economic implications as well. The economic loss to Texas is likely to be enormous and the effects of this storm will be felt nationally as it is sure that the price of gasoline will rise due to the damage to the oil production facilities in the region.

The fact that Trump in particular and the Republican party in general is ill-suited to dealing with what really will be a long-term emergency requiring government intervention and monetary support is not likely to lead to a happy resolution for the victims in Houston and throughout the coastal bend. It's going to be a long and slow recovery for the region.

US Open Analysis And Predictions

Both the men's and women's draw at the US Open, which starts today, is as wide open as we have seen in over a decade. On the women's side, with Serena Williams taking a leave of absence, the last two majors have been totally unpredictable. Jelena Ostapenko came out of nowhere to win the French and Garbine Muguruza resurrected a terrible year with a Wimbledon victory. And, just as in those two majors, there are a handful of players who could easily win here at Flushing Meadows. Simon Halep, Elena Svitolina, Muguruza, the ever-present Caroline Wozniacki, Johanna Konta, Venus Williams, the resurgent Madison Keys, the slumping Angie Kerber, and current number one Karolina Pliskova all would seem to have an equally good shot at getting to the finals. All it takes is to get hot for a few matches. But, based on the past two majors, don't count out a dark horse to crash the party.

Prediction: Angie Kerber will salvage a dreadful season by defeating Venus Williams in a three-set thriller.

One the men's side, a similar situation exists. Both Djokovic and Murray are out of the tournament with injuries and Federer's physical condition is questionable after suffering what is reported as a back injury in the Montreal finals after appearing invincible for the last few months. That leaves only Nadal of the big four as the player coming into the tourney without injury and he is accordingly the number one seed. With the withdrawal of Murray, the draw really opens up for the number four seed Alexander Zverev, the man who ended Federer's undefeated streak in Montreal and who should march unimpeded into the semifinals. Players under the radar who could also benefit from this wide open draw are former winner Marin Cilic, the resurgent Gregor Dmitrov, and the up-and-coming Dominic Thiem.

Prediction: My heart says Federer should reach the final, but his back injury tells me otherwise. Instead, Zverev dominates a tired Nadal in the final.

Natural Weekends - Camas National Wildlife Refuge

After the eclipse, I spent some time going around the Camas National Wildlife Refuge and photographed these marvelous birds.

Trump's Pardon Of Arpaio Moves GOP One Step Closer To Nullification

The reaction to the news that Trump has pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio seems to be that it is not only yet another attack on the Constitution by this President but also potentially laying the groundwork for pardoning anyone and everyone, including himself, in the Russian investigation. And that analysis is entirely correct. Trump may be abusing the Constitution in a more open and direct manner, but the Republican party has been attacking the judiciary and ignoring judicial rulings for nearly a decade now. In this regard, Trump is merely an extension, admittedly an extreme extension, of the Republican party.

In addition, Arpaio was essentially a racist and this pardon again reinforces the notion that the GOP has become a white nationalist party. I assume the usual GOP suspects will be "concerned" about this action, but not enough to do anything about it. (Maybe Gary Cohn can draft another resignation letter he won't send...)

The pardon of Arpaio is particularly egregious because the sheriff blatantly ignored a 2011 judicial ruling that he stop illegally targeting and detaining people simply because he thought they were in the country illegally. That eventually led to Arpaio's conviction of contempt of court. Arpaio was terrible in so many ways, but the crime for which he will be pardoned is blatantly ignoring a judicial ruling. And, with his pardon, Trump is signaling that disregard for judicial oversight is now acceptable.

But, as I said, this is not unique to Trump, it is a Republican phenomenon. As an example, take a look at the Texas voter ID law, versions of which have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional five times in the last six years. Or North Carolina where continued illegal racial gerrymandering has led to certain, mostly minority, voters having their ballots diluted by being forced to vote in districts subsequently ruled unconstitutional since 2012. While Republican legislators in those states and others did not overtly defy the court orders, they engaged in delaying tactics or claimed that the judicial remedy required had been implemented when it clearly wasn't or essentially passed virtually the same law when one was struck down. And let's not forget that the theory of nullification has been floating around the fringe elements of the Republican party since the culture wars began and the GOP opted to take in the racists with the "Southern strategy".

The pardon of Sheriff Arpaio is not an anomaly that can be laid solely on Trump. It is merely an extreme extension of the Republican party's approach to unfavorable judicial rulings over the last decade and, in reality, since the 1960s.

Natural Weekends - Total Solar Eclipse

I went out West to catch the solar eclipse on Monday. While I had chosen a couple of potential locations depending on the weather, I eventually settled on the Camas National Wildlife Refuge in Hamer, Idaho. And boy am I glad I did. The staff of Camas was so well prepared for the event and did a marvelous job of handling the huge influx of visitors to the refuge as well as being available to all the visitors with questions about the refuge itself. Since the refuge would be open to the public, entry was on a first come, first serve basis and only a limited number of visitors would be allowed in. I got in line for entry at 1 am but the line didn't really start to build until around 4:30 or 5 am. Because of the danger of wildfires and the need for quick evacuation, the cars that got into the refuge were not all crammed together, so you really had some personal space for viewing the eclipse. In addition, the refuge itself was just seeing its first influx of migrating birds so I spent a pleasurable few hours after the eclipse wandering through the refuge as the eclipse watchers departed en masse. All in all, thanks to the folks at Camas, it made an awe-inspiring event just another part of a magical day.

Here are some photos - if you look hard, you can see three sunspots on the sun at around 2 o'clock.

The Myth Of Tax Repatriation

It is pretty clear that tax "reform", in other words huge tax cuts for the rich, will not got done this year, if at all. The admission by the Trump administration that they will not even produce their own detailed tax reform proposal pretty much guarantees as much. It also allows Trump, in his usual fashion, to blame Congress for not getting it done.

But apparently one aspect of tax reform that Trump, Congress, and business all agree must be included in any legislative package is repatriation. For years, American companies have stashed profits from overseas activity offshore in foreign subsidiaries in order to avoid paying US taxes on that money. Only when those profits are sent back, or repatriated, to the American parent company do they get taxed by the US. Of course, those profits may just sit overseas on paper but, as we all know, money is fungible and there are plenty of ways that companies can put those profits to use.

As of 2015, it was estimated that there are nearly $2.4 trillion in profits held by US companies overseas. Over three quarters of that money was held by just 50 large companies, with just four, Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft, and General Electric, accounting for one quarter of the total.

These companies have played this game before. Back in 2004, President Bush and Congress passed a kind of tax amnesty, allowing US companies to repatriate their profits at a discounted tax rate. Having done that once, these companies knew full well that keeping those profits offshore would once again prompt Congress to propose yet another tax amnesty in order to get their hands on those tax dollars. The 2004 deal actually gave these companies an incentive to keep on hoarding their profits overseas.

The fact that such a huge amount of money remains untaxed is constantly used as an example that Republicans trot out to claim that corporate taxes are too high. They propose to reduce taxes on repatriated profits in order to encourage companies to pay US taxes on those profits and then pass on that new revenue in additional tax cuts to the rich. It's a real two-for, as taxes on business and the rich are both cut. At the same time, of course, the GOP also claims that companies that repatriate these profits will invest them in new American jobs.

However, a 2009 study detailed that the 2004 repatriation deal did absolutely nothing to increase domestic investment. In fact, it showed that almost every penny of each dollar repatriated went straight to shareholders in dividend payments or stock buybacks. Virtually none of it went into domestic investment.

As the Vox article makes clear, the tax system for dealing with international profits is broken. The real solution is to force those companies to pay taxes on all profits, international or otherwise. And any profits that are held offshore for a significant period be subject to a penalty rate in order encourage compliance.

That same approach should be extended to corporate profits in general. For a variety of reasons, corporate profits as a share of GDP has been rising since the 1970s, reaching an all time high in the last few years. That certainly argues against the fact that corporate tax rates are too high. In fact, it makes the case that corporate tax rates should be raised to actually put those monies to use, rather than allowing companies to sit on all that cash or distribute it back to shareholders.

Of course, that is not going to happen anytime soon. But just like the argument for actually increasing Social Security, it won't happen until someone, especially Democrats, begin talking about it.

The Increasing Isolation Of Donald Trump

I'm back from a brief hiatus in which lots happened. Steve Bannon got canned while Trump went all in on white nationalism and adopted his version of the Clinton triangulation strategy, which amounts to distancing himself from Republicans in Congress while refusing to even talk with Democrats. It's hard to see how all of this accomplishes anything more than leaving Trump even weaker and further isolated than he already is now.

On the flip side, as Trump's approval sinks even further, Congressional Republicans seem even more determined to move on without him. And Republicans vulnerable in the 2018 election, such as Jeff Flake and Leonard Lance, are starting to distance themselves from Trump as much as they can. (By the way, has anyone tried to pin down Flake on where he stands on the possible pardon of Sheriff Arpaio?) That trend will only increase as next year's election draws closer.

With regard to Bannon, I guess I always thought that he was the one pushing Trump on the racist white nationalism. It now seems more likely that Bannon's position reinforced what Trump already believed and was thinking. But pushing Bannon out and aggravating the Mercers poses real risks for Trump and, again, further isolates him from another part of his base that had significant resources to support him.

To a lesser extent, the news that Kelly is trying to control the flow of information to the President will also make him even more reliant on that coterie of "friends" that Trump is in constant contact with by phone. And it will also make it more likely that Trump will do more and more rallies in order to break the isolation that he feels closing in on him in the White House.

I would also venture that Jared Kushner is taking his lawyers' advice pretty seriously as the investigation into Kushner's actions during and after the campaign as well as the various transactions of the Kushner Cos. become more and more intense. This makes every conversation Jared has with the President a minefield with potential obstruction of justice charges all around. That's not the kind of environment that leads to frank and open exchanges.

On all fronts, Trump is coming more and more isolated and, in his usual way, he simply lashes out. That just continues the cycle all over again as more people in his circle find it prudent to keep their distance. Trump is already dangerous enough as is, but an isolated and angry Trump is particularly scary.

Astronomy Adventure - Nebula

Photos of Messier 8...

and Messier 17

Astronomy Adventure - Globular Clusters

Photos of globular clusters Messier 22...

And Messier 11....

Astronomy Adventure - Open Clusters

Photos of open clusters Messier 7...

and Messier 6

Note To Readers

Light blogging for the next few days as I work on another project and revamping the site. Hopefully, something to look forward to...

You can follow me on twitter as I will probably be a little more active there.

Since there will be light blogging, I'm expecting the worst from Donald Trump. He never disappoints in that regard.

Preparing For The Solar Eclipse Today

Depending on where you are today, there will either be a total or partial solar eclipse. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY AT ANY POINT DURING THE ECLIPSE! Here are a few tips to safely view the eclipse if you do not have the proper eye protection.

Here is an initial test of the solar filter I will be using on my camera during the eclipse:

 

Natural Weekends - More Feathered Friends

Natural Weekends - Feathered Friends

Looks like it is time for a little repair to the osprey nest!

And a heron looks for lunch...

Power Of Military In Trump Administration May Indicate Failure Of Democracy

Joy Reid had Larry Wilkerson on the other night and noted the irony of having generals, in the form of Kelly, McMaster, and Mattis, essentially being the responsible parties in the current administration in keeping civilian control of government. I can only paraphrase Wilkerson's response but it was that this was typical of empires that relied on the projection of military power as they began to fail. The military leaders were the only ones who were seen as having the competence and ability to run the empire. We're not there yet, but it is another frightening sign that our democracy could well be failing, with the resulting rise in the appeal of authoritarianism.

Share Of GDP Going To Profits Is Increasing, Highlighting Need For Strong Antitrust Enforcement

Kevin Drum had an interesting post the other day about the share of GDP that goes to labor and capital. We have known that the share of GDP going to labor has been shrinking for the past thirty years. The assumption has also been that the decreasing share of GDP going to labor was going to capital. But a recent study indicates that capital's share has also been decreasing as well, both dropping by around 5% since the mid-1970s.

So, if both labor and capital's share of GDP are decreasing, what's making up the difference? Corporate profits. And the main reason that corporate profits have increased is that the markup that corporations take on the items they sell has risen to 67% today from 18% in the 1970s. And corporations have gotten away with these outrageous markups primarily because of deregulation, technology, and increased market concentration and power. With labor costs low and easily replaced by technology and most industries dominated by oligopolies who have incredible market power, the environment for generating large profits that gets passed on to shareholders. For many of these companies, there is simply no real competition to undercut these outrageous markups.

This has two important implications. First, it should make clear that offering massive tax cuts to corporations in order to keep jobs or bring jobs to your locality is a fool's errand. The corporations certainly don't need these tax breaks to be competition. And most of these massive tax breaks will be used to further automation within the company and reduce the total number of jobs, in essence paying the company to take more jobs away. You can see this with the Carrier deal in Indiana and the Foxconn deal in Wisconsin. And these corporations certainly don't need another tax cut or even an extra incentive to repatriate their offshore profits. What they really need is an incentive to invest, something that can be accomplished by actually increasing the taxes on their profits.

More importantly, this once again highlights the need for stronger antitrust enforcement, a key plank in the Democratic "Better Deal" plan. Stronger antitrust enforcement will increase real competition, leading to reduced markups which means lower prices. It will mean an increase in jobs as new companies are able to enter existing markets and a resulting increase in wages as competition for workers increases. It will reduce corporate profits which will reduce at least minimally reduce income inequality as well as constrict some the political power of these corporate behemoths. As I've said before, what other single policy can give hit as many important political points as this.

The GOP Assault On Voting Rights Continue

I have written many times about the erosion of our democracy under the relentless attacks from Republicans for the last quarter century at least. Under Trump, the assault on voting rights is actually increasing on both the federal and state levels.

In Indiana, Republican members of local election boards have continually blocked the extension of early voting in the most heavily Democratic district in the state. Meanwhile, early voting in predominately Republican areas has actually increased, resulting in higher early voting turnout among Republicans and lower turnout among Democrats.

The reason this could happen is that state law requires the extension of early voting to be unanimously approved by local election boards. Democrats, who actually believe in the right to vote and extension of the franchise, will approve early voting in Republican as well as Democratic districts. Republicans, on the other hand, rely on voter suppression to maintain their grip on power and routinely block early voting in heavily Democratic districts.

Meanwhile, down in Texas, federal courts have ruled that the election districts in that state were illegally racially gerrymandered for the seventh time since 2011, when the original illegal maps were drawn. After those original maps were challenged in court, new maps went into effect in 2013. After another four years of legal wrangling, those maps have now also been ruled illegal. In effect, elements of the Texas electorate have been voting under an illegal and unconstitutional system for the last three election cycles. And there is no redress for that.

This sets up yet another battle as the state is now required to draw new maps for the 2018 election. The GOP strategy to resolve this issue in the near term will probably to engage in more legal delaying tactics, trying to drag the process out so that the existing maps will have to be used once again in 2018. It is a tactic that was successfully used in North Carolina previously.

On the federal level, Trump's "Electoral Integrity" Commission is determined to scrub as many voters from the polls as it can. In addition, it refuses to fight the increased requirement of voter ID as well as state election roll purges.

The anti-democratic nature of the Electoral College combined with the Republican reliance on voter suppression to continue to win elections is making our country less and less democratic each day. And, accordingly, the faith that our citizens have in democracy is falling.

Trump's Legislative Failures Hide The Damage Being Done At Federal Agencies

While there is rightly a lot of focus on just how little the Republicans and Donald Trump are getting accomplished legislatively, there is still an enormous amount of damage being done with only the use of executive power. From climate change and other environmental issues to voting rights to turning over the airwaves to right wing propagandists, Trump and his executioners are doing real damage, damage that will take years to rebuild.

Scott Pruitt, working under lock and key and surrounded by armed guards, has been systematically removing data from the EPA web site, eliminating monitoring of oil and gas well emissions, and ordering the economic benefits of wetlands to be removed from any analysis of the protection of large bodies of water implemented by the Obama administration. In addition, Pruitt is also planning to water down the limits on water pollution from coal-fired power plants, another rule implemented by the Obama administration. As one environmental lawyer cried, "It’s hard to believe that our government officials right now are so beholden to big business that they are willing to let power plants continue to dump lead, mercury, chromium and other dangerous chemicals into our water supply." Welcome to the Republican party and the Trump administration.

Over at the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions is leading the continual attack on innocent undocumented aliens, refusing to defend voting rights, and going after colleges and universities over mythical "reverse discrimination". His latest attack on civil rights was to demand 1.3 million IP addresses accessing an anti-Trump website that was trying to organize protests at Donald Trump's inauguration.

Meanwhile, the goals of Trump's  "Election Integrity" Commission, headed by Mike Pence and Kris Kobach and abetted by Sessions at the DOJ, have made their goals quite clear and that is to make sure that state and local election boards remove as many people from the voting rolls as humanly possible on the flimsiest of grounds. The aim of the commission is to "prove" there are far more registered voters on the rolls than are actually eligible to vote and force the election boards to purge those rolls. Those purges will inevitably lead to eligible voters being unwittingly or illegally purged.

There are plenty of other terrible policies being implemented across a wide variety of federal agencies headed by Trump's oligarchic cabinet. And, like Pruitt at the EPA, much of the dirty work is being done as far under the radar as possible because they know none of it will be popular. The changes these agencies make have no basis in facts or policy and will cause lasting damage. that damage will cause the next Democratic President, whomever that may be, to waste valuable time and resources merely rebuilding what the Trump team has destroyed. But that is pretty much the general GOP policy these days.

GOP Supply-Side Policies Devastate Another State - New Mexico

We already know that GOP supply-side economic policies have decimated the state of Kansas and are currently having a detrimental effect in Wisconsin where Scott Walker is trying to get the state's taxpayers to potentially pay around $1 million per job for around 3,000 Foxconn jobs. We can also add New Mexico to the list of failing states that follow GOP economic policies.

Ever since the Republican Susan Martinez became governor and began implementing tax cuts and deregulation, the state has fallen farther and farther behind its competitive neighbors. Now the state is losing population at an extraordinary rate, an incredible feat for a Sunbelt state in an era where retiring baby boomers are flocking to the region.

In the prior six years, 53,000 more people actually left New Mexico than moved in and it was only new births that allowed the state's population to grown by just 1.1%. That compares to population growth anywhere of 4.6% and 10.8% for its three neighboring states, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. In addition, the majority of the people leaving the state were working age adults between the ages of 30 and 60.

Part of this exodus is due to the fact that the state is more reliant than most on government funding for its major employers such as hospitals, universities, and research laboratories. Martinez's commitment to balanced budgets, deregulation, and tax cuts have unsurprisingly put those employers under pressure and led to reduced funding for basic services such as health care and education, making the state a less attractive place to live. In addition, again unsurprisingly, the tax cuts have not generated the jobs that Martinez promised.

According to various surveys, New Mexico was rated the worst state to live in and ranked in the bottom five in terms of opportunity and education. With a declining labor force participation rate, anemic population growth, and Martinez's supply-side policies, those ratings are unlikely to get much better any time soon. That is truly hard to believe for a beautiful state in the Sunbelt and once again shows the failure of GOP economic policies.

Trump Poses Another Test For Republicans; They Will Fail Again

After Donald Trump's racist rant yesterday, it seems that we have crossed another threshold of shock and outrage that is all too familiar with the President. We heard his racist bile, equating neo-Nazis with those protesting against them. We heard him equating a treasonous and racist Civil War military leader who was in part responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans with the founders of our country. We saw his unrestrained, uncontrolled, and vicious anger. And our immediate reaction is that this can not stand. But, sadly, it will.

Yesterday afternoon felt almost exactly like the immediate aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape where Trump admitted to being a serial sexual predator and when we also thought that Republican support would melt away. But it didn't.

There were forceful statements from Marco Rubio, John McCain, and even Paul Ryan decrying bigotry and hatred and declaring that this is not what the country stands for. But as David Jolly pointed out on Last Word last night, none of those statements denounced Donald Trump for his racist rhetoric and views. And until Republican leaders do that, their words are almost meaningless.

Unless I'm mistaken, it appears that Mitch McConnell has retreated inside his shell once again. And most of the GOP Congressional caucus has joined him in silence. Their silence speaks volumes, making it clear that, even if they actually oppose racism, hatred, and bigotry, which is a real question for many of them, they are still quite happy to have their Republican party have a racist bigot as their standard bearer. In addition, they realize that the core base of support in their party actually believes everything that Trump says and, overtly or tacitly, endorses the racism and bigotry he represents. To oppose Trump is to put their own election in jeopardy. So they stand silent. And so it will continue.

Even Republicans with a conscience, an apparently rare breed indeed, have nowhere to go right now. There is no way to tackle an attempt to remove Trump with the budget and debt ceiling battles needing to be resolved in the next month or two. And that's ignoring that tax cuts that their corporate and oligarchic overlords are counting on them to produce. So, once again, they will give Trump a pass.

Even a token gesture, such as resigning from the Republican party and becoming an Independent would at least be some sort of signal of real opposition to the white nationalist turn of the Republican party. Instead, we just get wonderful words, devoid of any real power or impact. And soon we will move on to the next Trump atrocity and do it all again.

These Congressional Republicans knew exactly what they were getting. From the "Mexican rapists" to Judge Curiel to Gold Star families to a Muslim ban to "inner city carnage", Trump's racism and bigotry was on full display. Whether they believed he personally felt that way or was trying to gain political advantage is irrelevant and now moot as he has shown his true colors. Those Republican leaders and the nearly 63 million people who voted for this monster all knew exactly what they were getting. And they all supported him anyway.

Yesterday, Trump posed another test for the Republican party. It is the same test that he posed when he attacked John McCain, Judge Curiel, Khizr and Ghazala Kahn, and admitted to being a serial sexual predator. It is the same test that he posed when he claimed he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight and still not lose support. In all those cases, the Republican party failed the test. It will be no different today.

New Report Shows Russians Repeatedly Trying To Open Channels To Trump Campaign

A Washington Post report today details that the Russians contacted the Trump campaign on multiple occasions in the hope of getting the Trump team to meet with Putin at some point down the road. The Post report focuses on a young staffer named George Papadopoulos who repeatedly sent messages to senior campaign officials passing along his Russian contacts' desire to set up a meeting between Russian officials and the Trump team. Papadopoulos was one of Trump's original group of foreign policy advisers, along with Carter Page and others.

Those meeting requests were rebuffed by the senior figures in the Trump campaign and that is now being used by the Trump team to support their accusation that the Russian story is a hoax. Paul Manafort's spokesman said the fact that these attempts were rebuffed shows "concrete evidence that the Russia collusion narrative is fake news."

While it is true that the Post report shows no collusion, it still creates some rather large issues for the Trump team. Obviously, the fact that the Russians continued to probe the Trump campaign even after being rebuffed on multiple occasions shows that they believed that at some point the campaign might play ball with them. And that clearly happened with the meeting they were able to set up with Don Jr. in exchange for promised dirt on Hillary. Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns claim they were not similarly targeted by the Russians.

In addition, the Post reports that Manafort, Sam Clovis, Charles Kubic, and Corey Lewandowski, all senior members of the Trump campaign at one point or another, were all aware of these meeting requests and were included in the decision to rebuff them. That, however, creates the rather interesting question about why the Trump team continues to lie about the contacts they had with Russian interests during the campaign even to this day. Clearly, all four of those people, some of whom have made blanket denials about the campaign's Russian contacts, know that those denials are clearly false.

Lastly, despite Manafort's claim that the Post report shows no collusion, it is entirely plausible to speculate that the Trump team already had established contacts with the Russians and rebuffed this pressure specifically not to highlight the relationship that might already exist. Another plausible explanation is that these attempts to force a meeting were actually a way for the Russians to pressure Trump, knowing they had dirt on him. Or, more likely, it could simply be that these were initial attempts that were rebuffed but eventually the Trump team did agree to meet with these Russian interests later in the campaign. We certainly know that happened with Don Jr.'s meeting.

The most important takeaway from this story, however, is that there is yet more evidence that the Trump campaign was repeatedly being contacted by the Russians. Whether or not those contacts were rebuffed, the Trump team continues to lie about those contacts and downplay them as the details emerge, creating an indelible impression that they really have something to hide.

Sinclair TV Deal Will Enable Right Wing Propaganda To Be A Force In All But Print Media

I just wanted to do a quick follow up to my post about the Sinclair Broadcasting deal with the FCC to purchase another 42 TV channels that would give the company access to nearly 75% of American viewers and how this transaction was just another step toward government "managed media", similar to what Putin has built in Russia.

Kevin Drum kindly points out that we are probably a lot closer to that reality than we think. With the conservative leaning Clear Channel dominating radio with right wing talk shows and Fox News clearly being a force in cable news, the addition of Sinclair would provide the right wing propaganda machine with a triple threat. As Drum says, "Fox News (cable news), Sinclair (broadcast TV), and Clear Channel (AM radio) are essentially state media in the Trump era. That’s a mighty useful thing for a demagogue to have."

US Business Executives Refuse To Stand Up To Trump

It is appears that even leaders of the Republican party have more political courage than the current crop of business "leaders" in our country today. Besides the lone voice of protest from the African-American CEO of Merck, that deafening silence you hear is the rest of the business community's silence in the face of Donald Trump's refusal, once again, to denounce his supporters on the racist far right. At least a handful of GOP Senators managed to say publicly that Trump's statements over the weekend were totally insufficient and enabling the alt-right. No such equivalent has arisen in the business community.

Yes, Trump finally came out today and made a relatively forceful statement but that was after two days of outrage over his refusal to do so. Today's words were the equivalent of a child being forced to apologize for abusive behavior and, when he or she eventually does so, everyone knows that it is not sincere. In addition, Trump followed up that statement of criticism of the far right by apparently floating the idea of pardoning the racist Sherriff Joe Arpaio.

Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of Merck, resigned from the American Manufacturing Council, a presidential advisory council, saying, "America’s leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal." Of course, Trump's response to this resignation was to viciously attack the CEO, tweeting "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

Of course, Trump could address the issue of high drug prices by asking Congress to allow Medicare/Medicaid to negotiate directly with the drug makers. But there is no chance of that happening. Instead, as he always does, Trump will do nothing to alleviate the problem, and blame everyone else instead.

Besides Mr. Frazier, business leaders have condemned the violence and hatred in Charlottesville, but there has been almost universal silence about Trump's clear enabling of the far right racism. Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters gave his clear support to Mr. Frazier, saying "Ken has stood up for true American values. I call on all other members of Trump’s image-burnishing committees to do the same." But you will note that Mr. Glocer is a former chairman and it appears that not many other business executives are heeding his call.

A prime example of how cowardly these business leaders are is one executive who refused to be named who said "Just look at what he [Trump] did to Ken [Frazier]. I’m not sticking my head up." As Larry Summers said back in June, "At what point as a patriot is your allegiance to your country rather to your president? I’ve always thought of my allegiance as a patriot as being to my country." Too bad the rest of his peers in the business community have long given up on that concept. From offshoring jobs to massive tax evasion and/or avoidance to hoarding profits while screwing workers, the words "American" and "business leaders" have basically become an oxymoron.

Charlottesville: Inspired By Trump, Enabled By The GOP

Donald Trump's tepid response to the fatal violence of the white nationalists in Charlottesville yesterday is par for the course for Trump. From not leasing to black tenants at his rental properties to his birtherism to the Muslim ban, Trump has shown his racist streak his entire life. But the Republican party has been playing footsie with these groups since the Democrats threw the racists out of their party in the 1960s and Nixon decided to capitalize on that politically via the "Southern strategy", which has been a staple of every GOP presidential campaign since then.

Yesterday, David Duke said, "This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back." While the white nationalists may have found their voice again because of Trump, they only believe they can "take their country back" because the Republican party has been telling them that for the last 50 years. The "promises" Duke pledges to fulfill are promises that have been made by Republican party for decades and that the alt-right actually believes Trump will help deliver on.

Steve Bannon explained why the Trump campaign was never concerned about Trump's associations with and support from the white nationalists, saying "We polled the race stuff and it doesn't matter. It doesn't move anyone who's not already in her [Hillary Clinton's] camp". In simply and starker words, Trump's Republican supporters who were not already racists did not care that the leader of their party was probably also a racist and that their party was actively seeking the support of racists. They would still pull the lever for Trump.

So, while Trump's refusal to denounce the white nationalist violence yesterday may seem extreme, it really represents the attitude of not only the core of his support but also the core of support for the Republican party. No doubt, some "friend" of Trump will come forward and tell us he's not a racist. But even in the unlikely event that it is true, he is clearly willing to tolerate racists and use racism to his advantage. And the same is true for a large portion of the Republican party writ large. While we should certainly condemn Trump and highlight those few Republican leaders who have spoken out against this racist violence, we should also be crystal clear about where the heart of the Republican party stands.