Why Trump Sided With Democrats On The Debt Ceiling

Casting aside all the multi- dimensional chess chin- stroking explanations for why narcissist Man-Baby Donald "Rump" Trump decided to pull the rug out from under his Republican Congressional leadership when he agreed to the Schumer- Pelosi approach for a 3- month debt ceiling increase, Paul Waldman employs Occam's razor to find the truth:

The odds that he [Trump] has an actual opinion about the relative merits of a three-month increase versus an 18-month increase in the debt ceiling are near zero. The political subtleties of the current situation and the potential for a complicated set of challenges in December when the debt ceiling will have to be raised again are probably lost on him. But he knows he was mad at McConnell and Ryan, so making an agreement with the Democrats was kind of like a 5-year-old saying, "I wish Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi were my parents!" when he didn't get to eat cookies for breakfast. Except this 5-year-old is the president of the United States.

Rump, when he tweets or acts precipitously as he appears to have during this meeting, should never be over- analyzed as being tactically or strategically astute. No, he should be seen the way Waldman sees him: as a 5- year- old who happens to be the "president." Sometimes it works to Democrats advantage, as in this instance. But someone as narcissistic and unmoored as Rump can never be trusted as a partner. Just ask Missy McConnell and Lyin' Ryan.

Saturday Morning Reading / Viewing

Let's dive right in (as always, please read articles in their entirety).

-- Martin Longman sees an opportunity for Democrats in Congress to extract some concessions from Republicans who will possibly need their votes on a crucial, recurring matter:

The Democrats have very little leverage to influence policy or stop legislation they don’t like, and so far they aren’t being consulted or asked to provide support for any of Trump’s policies. 

It’s an odd thing that Trump ran successfully by trashing the Republican Establishment but then decided to govern in a way that is completely dependent on them. The Democrats are correct to respond with unflinching resistance, but they should at least explore if the possible inability of the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling on their own will present them with an opportunity to have a say on policy. They have leverage, so the question is really what they can achieve with that leverage. 

It could be as simple as helping craft an infrastructure plan that isn’t a giant looting scheme or something more mundane like a slate of nominees placed on bipartisan commissions. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t come cheap. The Democratic leadership needs to figure out what their “ask” will be. And, needless to say, if Mitch McConnell eliminates the filibuster for Supreme Court judges, the Democrats should be willing to let the world burn before they give any votes to raise the debt ceiling. (our emphasis)

-- The White (Supremacist) House and some toadies in the media are giving neo- fascist malignancy Donald "Rump" Trump credit (a "Trump bump") for the February jobs report that showed a preliminary gain of 235,000 jobs.  Ben White has the context (click on image to enlarge):

Hard to see any Trump bump in these numbers. Nearly identical to last two Febs.
Feb. 2015: 238K
Feb 2016: 237K
Feb. 2017: 235K pic.twitter.com/Mbleugxhmp

— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) March 10, 2017

-- Paul Krugman weighs in on RepubliCare/ TrumpCare ("a dog's breakfast" bill so bad "its awfulness is almost surreal") and concludes:

Given the sick joke of a health plan, you might ask what happened to all those proclamations that Obamacare was a terrible, no good system that Republicans would immediately replace with something far better — not to mention Donald Trump’s promises of “insurance for everybody” and “great health care.” 

But the answer, of course, is that they were all lying, all along — and they still are. On this, at least, Republican unity remains impressively intact.

Can't argue that if's there's one thing Republicans are adept at, it's lying.

-- They're also adept at monumental, soulless hypocrisy:

The man leading "lock her up" chants in this video was being paid by a foreign govt while attending classified intelligence briefings. https://t.co/DVg5YUoEUF

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 11, 2017

After tonight's news that DOJ warned Trump that Flynn was compromised, his RNC speech plays a little differently. pic.twitter.com/eRNWpHV0Kd

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) February 14, 2017

Lock him up! Lock him up!

-- Finally, Steven Harper at Bill Moyers.com has a timeline of the Trump- Russia connection that is updated periodically.  It's a good reference and something to track as the scandal unfolds. Wear a mask, though, to protect you from all the smoke.