Tag: Chuck Schumer

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

I Dreamed I Was Flying …

I’ve gotten lots of emails in the past few days. Many are gloating, “told you so, liberal scum” type deals. Others are from my fellow liberal scum suggesting that we “accept the findings of the Mueller Report and move on.” Only one problem with either of these suggestions: We haven’t seen the Mueller Report. In fact, Senator Mitch McConnell just blocked Senator Chuck Schumer’s proposal to replicate the House of Representatives’ unanimous vote to release the report.

Listen, people, it’s too early gloat, and it’s too early to lament. We have no idea what’s really in that report. Just chill. And bear in mind, if the report was really a good thing for Trump, the GOP would be passing it out on street corners and using it to sell MAGA hats, not trying to keep it under wraps. Don’t buy the “Trump is exonerated” line until we get to see the actual report and not a brief, butt-covering summation by Trump’s hand-picked attorney general. Stay woke.

And for the record, if the actual report proves that Trump was nothing more than an innocent but useful idiot in the (very real) Russian interference in the 2016 election, and not a knowing collaborator, I will say so in this column. Then you can gloat.

In the meantime, savor these words from Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” written during the darkest days of the Watergate era. Even better, go listen to it. Turn it up.

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
We’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we’re traveling on,
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all, I’m trying to get some rest.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Prospects for good-sense immigration policy were reawakened by “Chuck and Nancy.”

CREDIT: Reuters

Reuters

Sixteen years ago, Senators Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch introduced the DREAM Act on the Senate Floor. Had it become law, the DREAM Act would have offered permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship for young people who graduate from our high schools, have clean criminal records, and want to live and prosper in the U.S.A. These non-citizen kids were (in most cases) brought here by parents fleeing either economic insecurity in Mexico or socio-political violence in Central America and other places in the Americas and the world.

Since the United States shares a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, most of the Dreamers (as kids eligible for protection under the DREAM Act are called) are from that country. When the DREAM Act came up for a Senate vote in late 2010, it was killed by 41 Senators; three Republicans voted for the bill, but two — Senator (now Attorney General) Jeff Sessions (AL) and Lindsey Graham (SC) — campaigned vigorously against the bill, and they prevailed.

Fast forward to 2012 and a tough political campaign between the sitting president, Barack Obama, and former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney. Obama wisely chose to fortify his base with Hispanics and others, and he signed an executive order called DACA, for “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.”

This temporary “fix” allowed young people who had been denied congressional protection through the DREAM Act to apply for “deferred action” concerning deportation proceeding by submitting to a background check and paying a processing fee.

So far, about one million people have taken advantage of DACA; they can attend college, they can work, they can serve in the U.S. armed forces. Additionally, they can buy automobiles, pay rent, contribute to the tax base of cities and towns, and apply their talents and energies in ways too numerous to mention here.

Five years later, we’ve inaugurated a president who championed an anti-immigration platform and promised a problem-solving “beautiful” wall that would separate the U.S. from our Mexican and Central American neighbors.

Apparently prompted by his base — represented in this case by nine attorney generals from conservative states and a looming September lawsuit — to end Obama’s executive order, President Trump announced (through Attorney General Sessions, who gave a disconcertingly giddy but remarkably revealing press briefing) that DACA would not accept new applications and would, essentially, expire six months from now. Trump then kicked the conversation back to Congress, instructing them to come up with a permanent fix (i.e., an ad hoc law) before DACA expires.

Enter Chuck and Nancy. President Trump, since assuming the presidency, has nourished the base with talk of walls, border security and protecting American jobs from rapacious foreigners. But by feeding Chinese food to Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leaders, at the White House last week, the president now seems to understand that lasting policies cannot be made exclusively through the medium of an angry partisan base representing a fraction of the electorate.

Will the DREAM Act become law in the near future? We hope so, but we also know that, for years, the Dreamers have been savaged by detractors as law breakers, jobs takers, and “bad hombres.”

We believe Republicans at the base will turn on their elected officials who support the DREAM Act and, with the Republican Party in control of the House, Senate, and executive branch (plus the majority of statehouses in the nation), it’s refreshing to watch the head of that party, Mr. Trump, offer support for a “deal” that would permanently regularize the immigration status of the Dreamers. Luckily, Trump may have cared more about making a deal than the risk of offending the “Fifth Avenue Phalange” — i.e., those members of his base who, putatively, would support him even if he should walk onto Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody.

Let’s hope no shots are fired, and let’s hope that we have a permanent Congressional solution to 16 years of uncertainty for good kids who want to live here, work here, and study in the America that has always been a nation of opportunity for immigrants.

Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and board chair at Latino Memphis; Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Tigers, Redbirds, Trump, Porn, and Co-Yo

What a week it was. The football Tigers beat UCLA using a combination of great offense, timely defense, and good ol’ Mid-South heat and humidity. Those California dudes never knew what hit ’em.

And the Memphis Redbirds won the Pacific Coast League championship, beating out all the other teams on the Pacific Coast, including the Nashville Sounds, El Paso Chihuahuas, Omaha Storm Chasers, and the fearsome New Orleans Baby Cakes.

To sum it up: Memphis 2, “Pacific Coast” 0.

It was a week where I found myself agreeing with Donald Trump, at least for a few hours. After a Wednesday night meeting with Democratic Congressional leaders, “Cryin’ Chuck” Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Trump began his Thursday morning by tweeting: “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated, and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!” Followed by: “They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own — brought in by parents at young age.”

The paleo wing of the GOP went nuts. Ann Coulter tweeted, “Who doesn’t want to impeach Trump?” Sean Hannity blamed it all on Mitch McConnell for “forcing” his hero to “work with Democrats.”

Trump had seemingly done a complete flip-flop on DACA overnight. My guess is that Pelosi shook Trump’s hand and said, “Oh my, it’s so BIG!!” and Trump agreed to everything she asked, including a deal to save the Dreamers and turn the border wall into a cheery Tex-Mex restaurant.

Sadly, the “deal” only lasted a few hours, and Trump quickly deleted his tweets.

So it goes with this guy. Save DACA. Eliminate DACA. Build the wall, and the Mexicans will pay for it. The wall’s already being built, and we’ll bill Mexico later. Wall? What wall? Trump is a presidential pinball, caroming from one “decision” to another, depending on the last player who flips him.

So what else happened? Oh yeah, Ted Cruz got caught watching porn, or better said, “liking” a porn video with his Twitter account. The New Yorker‘s Andy Borowitz tweeted: “Porn Industry Irrevocably Damaged by Association with Ted Cruz.” Cruz blamed it on his staff, of course. His staff. Huh-huh.

The Emmys happened. Alec Baldwin won an award for his Saturday Night Live impression of Trump. Kate McKinnon won for her SNL impression of Hillary Clinton. And America wept, thinking either of these two comedians would probably make a better president than what we’ve got. Then Sean Spicer got up and reprised his acting gig from the actual White House, and the already fuzzy line between reality and comedy was blurred beyond recognition.

What else? Oh yeah, Trump supporters held the “Mother of All Rallies” in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. About 800 people showed up. Which, as someone pointed out on Twitter, is what happens when you name your march after Mike Pence’s wife. The MOAR crowd was outnumbered by a marching contingent of Juggalos, who are fans of the band, Insane Clown Posse. Write your own Trump joke. You can’t make this stuff up. Though I kind of wish you could.

Back in Memphis, 130,000 people attended the Cooper-Young Festival. I heard a record 37,000 windchimes were sold. I also heard we’re supposed to call Cooper-Young “Co-Yo” now. And I got this from a beardy guy drinking a craft beer, so it must be true.

Overton Park Conservancy director Tina Sullivan went to the Co-Yo Fest and tweeted: “Highlight of this year’s CY Fest was the elderly gentleman asking my opinion on public nudity & saying he might organize a Naked Bike Ride.”

First, I’d like to say that I’m not that “elderly.” And second, I think we should do it around the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue as it’s being taken down.

And in a final somber note to a weird week, British writer Kathy Lette wrote: “Sad news. I’ve just heard that the bloke who invented predictive text has pissed away. His funfair is next monkey.”

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Post-Election Prediction: More Gridlock

Here is your preview of the House and Senate under President Hillary Clinton: Current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said he views a potential Clinton presidency as a third term for President Obama. He promises that Senate Republicans will block Clinton from making good on campaign promises such as raising taxes on the wealthy, hiking the minimum wage, strengthening regulations on Wall Street, and enacting even modest gun control. 

Juan WIlliams

If Republicans retain control on both sides of the Capitol and Clinton wins, it will just result in shameless obstruction of the first female president instead of the first black president. 

The permanent, standing filibuster of legislation and nominations that McConnell implemented under Obama will continue and become the norm. Sixty votes, not 51, will be required to pass anything through the Senate, just as it has been under Obama. If you liked the dysfunction, gridlock, and petulance of the 114th Congress, then you are going to love what’s in store for the 115th Congress. 

Now, some surprising news for Team Trump: It will be much the same for them if he wins. Even with total GOP control of the Senate, the House, and the White House, President Trump is likely to face pure obstruction from Capitol Hill.

The reason is simple: Trump has broken with years of conservative Republican orthodoxy on free trade, military interventionism, U.S. participation in NATO, and, recently, paid maternity leave.

Trump’s positions on these and many other issues are anathema to everything McConnell has said he believed throughout his political career. The same goes for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has accused Trump of making “textbook” racist comments and who will have a GOP majority in the House capable of blocking Trump’s agenda. 

For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has had a vacancy since Antonin Scalia died in February. Senate Republicans have refused to schedule a confirmation hearing much less a vote on Obama’s eminently qualified nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. His confirmation remains stalled. There is every reason to expect more delay if not outright denial of the nominee, especially if Clinton eventually nominates a stronger liberal.

The most recent New York Times “Upshot” forecast says the Republicans have a 58 percent chance of holding the Senate. In his latest “Crystal Ball” forecast, University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato predicts that the Democrats will have at least 47 seats while at least 49 seats will be held by Republicans. Four seats — Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania — are toss-ups, according to Sabato, who predicts that GOP incumbents in Illinois and Wisconsin will lose their seats. 

“Democrats can still manage to win the four or five seats they need to claim the Senate majority, but the battle has shifted from purple states that Barack Obama twice carried — Ohio and Florida — to Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina, where Obama lost in 2012,” The Washington Post noted recently.

Even in the New Hampshire Senate race, Governor Maggie Hassan, the Democratic candidate, is in a dead heat with incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, despite the fact that Hassan is much more popular than Clinton in the Granite State.

At data forecasting website FiveThirtyEight, Harry Enten wrote that the Senate and presidential races are moving in near lockstep. “Polls continue to show a tight race in states such as New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, three of the four most important seats in determining who wins control,” Enten wrote. “Not coincidentally, the contest between Clinton and Donald Trump in those three states is also close.”

If the Democrats pull through to regain the Senate majority, it will be by a thin margin — possibly relying on a tie-breaking vote from a Vice President Tim Kaine. In that scenario, the power of the GOP filibuster returns.

And if Trump wins and faces a Democratic majority in the Senate, the likely Majority Leader, Charles Schumer, will likely follow the Republican playbook used to obstruct Obama. Trump’s campaign has turned off major GOP donors, but their money continues to flow into key Senate races, with the goal of offsetting four more years of a Democrat in the White House. If the polls keep going the way they are, Senate Republicans look like they will pay no tax for their years-long blockade of the Obama agenda. And there is no indication they will pay a price for continuing the blockade under Clinton or Trump.

Even with record disapproval ratings, the GOP House and Senate majority appear to be on track for continuing more of the same gridlock.

Juan Williams is a contributor to Fox News.