THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT MILITARY PARADE

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- Mark

REPUBLICANS STILL CAN'T SEE IT ...

- Mark

BLOOD ON TRUMP'S HANDS ... IT'S COMING

- Mark

WHAT'S RUSSIAN FOR "USEFUL IDIOT"? A WORD ON SPECIAL ENVOY STEVEN SEAGALL

If you think we're now living in a bad James Bond movie you're not alone. The Late Night Show With Stephen Colbert has a nice take on Russia's "Special Envoy" Steven Seagall ...

For those of you just catching up, know that Steven Seagall's special envoy appointment by Vladimir Putin didn't come out of nowhere.

Seagall has called Vladimir Putin "one of the world's greatest leaders," thinks the NFL protests are a "joke" and "disgusting," and puts no stock in the claim that Vladimir Putin and the Russians worked to rig the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor.

A trifecta in disillusionment for Russia's special envoy.

One more thing. Steven Seagall was granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin in 2016 (in part for his dancing skills, no doubt).

Did I say "a bad James Bond movie"? Make that an Austin Powers movie. Sigh ...

So, what's Russian for useful idiot?

- Mark

KEVIN McCARTHY'S DOUBLE LIFE

For those of you who haven't seen it, below I've attached the article Robert Price - editor and CEO of the Bakersfield Californian - wrote about Kevin McCarthy, our local congressman and aspiring Speaker of the House. 

In "A Tale of Two Cities and One Congressman" Mr. Price writes what Rep. McCarthy's constituents have been grumbling about for years. Kevin is more concerned about his position in Washington than the interests of his constituents, or the interests of our nation. Enjoy.

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Congressman Kevin McCarthy leads a double life.

In Washington, he's golden: Heir apparent to retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, frequent and familiar White House guest, donor-connected darling of vulnerable Republican incumbents.

In Bakersfield, not quite so much anymore: He's still a man constituents really, really want to believe, considering his warm reception at fundraisers and service club luncheons. But recent events have at least some of them wondering on which coast his allegiances truly lie.

In Washington, he collects big checks and hands them out too. McCarthy personally raised $12 million in campaign donations in the second quarter of 2018, running his take in this election cycle to a cool $40 million, and he has already distributed half of that total to GOP candidates. That doesn't include Thursday's haul at the Capitol Hill Club, where McCarthy secured commitments for $10 million from House Republicans — with the biggest check, $6 million, coming from McCarthy himself.

But back in his hometown district, growers are still sweating President Trump's tariffs. California is on the front lines of this growing U.S.-China trade war, and Kern County, the state's biggest agricultural producer, is especially vulnerable. Tree nuts, a huge local crop, have been specifically hard hit, a fact that must be particularly painful given McCarthy's personal connections with people in the Kern County almond and pistachio business.

Thank goodness for that $12 billion federal farm aid package, right? You know, the money that's supposed to ease the impact of China's retaliatory counter-tariffs. Except the people benefitting from the aid package are primarily the producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs — in other words Midwestern states and not (except for dairy) California.

How can that happen, you ask, given McCarthy's co-starring role in the Donald Trump show alongside House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes of Fresno? They're both Trump favorites who've gone to bat for the president time and time again. And they represent vital California farming districts.

Tough luck, Central Valley. Republican strategists know their districts will send McCarthy and Nunes back to Washington in November (and California will still be blue in 2020) no matter what they pull on constituents. But things aren't so certain in vulnerable pockets of the heartland. So, campaign strategy, not district economic need, carries the day.

McCarthy has his challenges in Washington, too. His path to the speakership was cleared considerably when Ryan and the majority whip, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, endorsed him; Scalise had considered a run himself. But it was muddied again Thursday when Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, co-founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus, announced that he would seek the speaker post.

Most House Republicans recognize that Jordan is a long shot. But Jordan could try to extract promises from McCarthy, should Republicans hold the House in November. And one of those promises is sure to involve an immigration game plan that rejects anything that smells even remotely like amnesty.

Already McCarthy has had to go back on a promise to hold a vote before the August recess on a conservative immigration bill that included a much-needed guest-worker program for farmers. That flip put McCarthy in an awkward spot; just last month he had assured several rank-and-file members there'd be a vote, and his assurances compelled at least two congressmen to withhold support for legislation that would have created a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. They figured they'd have the opportunity to do so again in August. Now they probably won't.

“There are those of us (who) need to go back (home) and show that we’re doing all we can to do (on immigration reform)," one of those Republican congressmen, Dennis Ross of Florida, told Politico. "... And if it fails, it fails."

The American Farm Bureau Federation supports a guest worker program, and so does the Kern County Farm Bureau, which reprinted in its members' newsletter one of my recent columns criticizing McCarthy's conflicting allegiances.

Bakersfield has noticed, Kevin.

I'll concede McCarthy has one tough job. He's supposed to keep 236 Republicans in line and on the same page, a task that is quite impossible. He's also supposed to be looking out for the 707,000 people of the 23rd Congressional District, however, and when the interests of those two jobs diverge, he regularly chooses the former over the latter.

In Washington, McCarthy is the golden goose, the man you want by your side if you're an at-risk Republican member of Congress in need of financial assistance.

But back in Bakersfield, if you're an almond grower worried about who might buy your crop next year, or a grape grower wondering who might be picking yours, McCarthy looks, more and more, like a different sort of poultry.

Robert Price's column appears Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Reach him at rprice@bakersfield.com or @stubblebuzz. The opinions expressed are his own.

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- Mark

HOW TO RESPOND TO YOUR "TRUMP'S ECONOMY IS SURGING" SOCIAL MEDIA FRIENDS

I got another FB message from a Trump apologist. He's the the same guy who blamed Obama for not fixing Bush's mess fast enough, and then bought into candidate Trump's claim that unemployment under Obama was really between 8 and 32 percent. He's now bragging about Trump's economy. My response is below. Feel free to cut and paste for the Trump friends you have left.

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"_______, remember when the economy was still in the tank in early 2010, and you said the laggard economic performance was Obama's fault? But now, you're claiming Trump's 'The Man' because he effectively inherited an economy already on an upward trajectory.

Why did Obama get blamed for Bush's mess, but Trump's suddenly some kind of economic God?

What kind of White Privilege, "Blame Bush's Mess on the Black Guy, but Let’s Toast Trump for Obama's Economic Recovery" economic model are you looking at? 

Look, it took Obama more than 2 years to fix Bush's mess, it's going to take Trump a while before he screws it up. And screw it up he will ... 

Remind me again, how much higher is our budget deficit going to be this year, and the year after that?"

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For the record, here's what was happening in the U.S. economy when Trump took over. The employment numbers are from the Federal Reserve ...

The unemployment chart below is from CNN Money ...

- Mark

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PAUL MANAFORT

- Mark

TRUMP GOES AFTER LEBRON JAMES

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By now most of you have seen or heard about Donald Trump's reckless comments about LeBron James, whose commitment to education and his community are genuine, and backed by millions of dollars from his own pocket. Below are just a few of the more humorous, and very serious, comments that others posted after learning about Trump's mindless midnight tweets.

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- Mark

TRUMP'S VACATIONS, THROUGH AUGUST 2018

"Because I'm going to be working for 

you, I'm not going to have time 

to play golf. Believe me ..."

- Donald Trump, 2016

From NBC News we get a detailed listing of Trump's vacations, breaks, and the number of visits to Trump resorts, all paid for by the American taxpayer ...

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You can read "Tracking President Trump's Visits to Trump properties by clicking here.

- Mark

THE WORST PART ABOUT TRUMP ...

- Mark