“AOC should apologize at least and probably resign,”
-- Steve Cortes, Republican commentator for CNN

To clarify, what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had said, which Mr. Cortes is so-deeply upset about and referring to is -- "The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps," 

For the record, before we go any further, here are the two, and the only two, definitions of "concentration camp" that are shown in my WordWeb dictionary.

Concentration camp.  Noun.
1.  A penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions)
2. A situation characterized by crowding and extremely harsh conditions

That's it.  That's all it says.  Okay, so we got that out of the way.

As it happens, there were quite a lot of quotes from Republicans faking feathery outrage at the statement that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez made.  The ones that got the most attention were probably the histrionics from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) who pretended to give a "history" lesson about concentration camps, including links to books written by Jewish experts on the Holocaust, like Elie Wiesel.  I'll leave her exact quotes to the dust bin, since that's where they belong.  And as a politician who learned empty cruelty at the feet of her father Dick Cheney, I expect nothing better from her.  That said, I nonetheless do look forward to being pointed to her similar horrified outrage and history lessons she ever sent to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer who, during his time speaking for Trump, referred to Nazi concentration camps as "Holocaust Centers."  Since such criticism of Spicer by Ms. Cheney (or any Republicans in Congress or the administration) doesn't exist, though, no one need expend much energy checking for them.  You can save your energy for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez who seems to terrify the bejeepers out of Republicans, because she's liberal, pretty, danced in college on a rooftop with friends, is popular in her district, and gets news coverage -- the latter of which they have been dearly trying to emulate since she took office..Actually, much of which they wish they could to emulate.

I've also ignored Trump's own attack on Ms. Ocasio-Cortez which was laughable in its attempt to seem offended by her and to try chastising Democrats for not rising in condemnation and thereby lacking such things as, in his words, "character," "spine," "virtue" and "moral."   After all, not only are such concepts outside Trump's scope of understanding, but it's outside the Space-Time Continuum for him to criticize anyone for their language when the words he himself is stuck with are "bone spurs," "Central Park 5," "birther" and "pussy.." 

It's also worth noting that the one thread running through all these Republicans so aggrieved with the vapors is their inability to distinguish - whether knowingly or from ignorance - the difference between "concentration camps" and "Nazi concentration camps" that turned harsh prisons into hell-on-earth crematoriums used to exterminate a race of people.

The other pseudo-outraged Republicans aside, I chose the comment from Steve Cortes to represent them all  since it not only goes beyond an attempt to seem appalled and calls for resignation, but he is someone CNN feels is qualified to be a commentator for today's Republican Party.

Perhaps more than anything, it's adorable that Mr. Cortes, expert analyst for Your GOP, is so fluttery-offended by the correct descriptive use of language that it gives him the vapors -- yet as far as can be seen, he has not been even slightly-bothered by the leader of his own party who has --

Called Mexico "not our friend," "rapists" and "animals."
Called neo-Nazis "some very fine people."
Called Third World nations "shithole countries."
Called the American press "the enemy of the people."
Called the U.S. Department of Justice "crooked" and "an embarrassment to our country"
Called John McCain "dummy," "has done nothing," "failed miserably" and..."very foul-mouthed." 
Called both Guatemala and Honduras “all talk and no action,” “have taken our money for years," "do nothing.”
Called Republicans "disloyal" "selfishly opposed to me," "very sad." 
Called Hamilton "highly overrated"
Called Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro "highly overrated"
Called...sorry, there's a limit to how much of this I can type. And I haven't even included all the mentions of Trump's ongoing love for brutal dictators.

And not a word ever by Steve Cortes, Liz Cheney, or ANY Republicans for Trump to resign for any of this, let alone for all of it, let alone to...Just Once Apologize.

But to Steve Cortes, expert Republican analyst on CNN, Rep. Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez must apologize and resign (resign!!!) from Congress for accurately calling concentration camps "concentration camps."  Resign!

I know, at this point I usually say that this is not about Trump, we know who he is, this is about the officials of the Republican Party who enable him.  But no, instead I'm going to say something different.

I think it's good for TV news channels to have a wide range of political pundits giving their perspective from across the spectrum -- from liberal to conservative and all points between.  But the foundation for every person has to be honesty.  And CNN can do a whole lot better than the disingenuous, hand-wringing, clownish Steve Cortes and absolutely everyone they regularly employ like him.  It's beneath CNN and does them -- and does the American public -- a disservice..

This is an unprecedented video from Friday to watch.  Employees say that the decision to relocate the departments is not for cost-cutting but actually "a way to disrupt their research into climate change."
​

This is the hole that Trump has dug for himself

For the past three years, even before the election, he has been slamming the CIA and all U.S. intelligence services in an attempt to discredit them, most especially with his base.  He's said he believes Russia, out top adversary, over the intelligence services.

Further, as the Washington Post has documented, he has lied or made false statements over 10,000 times since taking office.  That's basically ten lies or false statements a day -- every single day, for 2-1/2 years.  So, his credibility is non-existent.

And if he tries to bring the CIA in to support him, it just compounds his lack of credibility because he's already told the public relentlessly not to believe them.

(I'm not saying one shouldn't believe the intelligence services, just that Trump has no standing with his base especially to use them as sources.)

As a result, when there is finally (supposedly) some national crisis and Trump wants to tell the public about it -- like the threat he insists on from Iran with the recent bombings of ships and earlier attacks around the word -- there is absolutely no reason for anyone to believe him.  And as bad as that is if there is no substance to the threat, it's even disastrously worse if there is.

The thing is, though some security experts have noted the likelihood of threats from Iran, the Trump credibility gap already destroyed his efforts.  The Japanese company that owns the ships which were attacked says their vessels were hit above the water by some objects that were flying -- not underwater like the missiles insisted on by Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  And the Japanese also said that the damage was on the other side of the ships than Trump/Pompeo did!  In addition, al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks elsewhere that Team Trump blames on Iran.

And so, whereas in the past, a declaration of such a threat by a U.S. president would be major galvanizing news that pushed the country in the direction of some sort of mobilization, with Trump his storyline fell apart within just days.

As I said, this would be terrible if there is no substance to the threat, and even disastrously worse if there is.

Making this all worse is that it is Trump's own actions which has caused this mess in the first place.  Iran's efforts in the area were reasonably well-contained by virtue of the nuclear agreement we and our allies had with him.  But when Trump tore up the agreement, not only did it free up Iran from acting with far less constraint...but we can no longer rely on our allies to support us here.

"Let me save you from the mess that I created" is never a good way to run a business, and most especially not a country.

Let's put Trump's lying in another perspective -- not that it's really necessary, since most rational people get it.  But perspective is till always A Good Thing for self-preservation --

The problem when a liar lies about a deal is that the other side can release details of that "great deal." And only a pathological liar who has to lie doesn't grasp that concept, because it is meaningless to him -- he is driven to lie, regardless.  And so that is precisely Mexico just did last week.  As a result, we learned (not shockingly) that the paper Trump waved around insisting it was a Great Deal full of major concessions turned out to merely be an agreement to talk later about a deal.

And so we not only had Trump's credibility driven deeper into the group, we were shown documented proof of it.  And maybe his acolyte won't care, but the rest of the country does...and critically, so do the rest of the world leaders.

The problem therefore is not only about this manufactured Great Imminent Threat from Iran that likely has some shadings of truth to it but as been dismissed for the totality -- but what about next time if the threat is real? 

When you have zero credibility, you create a vacuum where it is the last place that should ever be.
​
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/mexico-just-released-the-full-text-of-the-secret-deal-trump-said-they-made/

In case you missed Last Week Tonight on Sunday, here's their main story.  It's a very good look at impeachment, from a fairly focused, pointed and (of course) often very funny perspective.

This week, Al Franken's conversation is with author Michael Lewis, whose books include Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, Liar's Poker and many others.  They discuss Lewis's latest bestseller, The Fifth Risk, which the site says, "Al calls the best book about the Trump Administration, in no small part because there’s very little focus on Trump himself. Instead, Lewis takes us inside of three Cabinet agencies – Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy – and the incompetent, venal, and/or corrupt appointees who find their way into crucial positions within the federal government."

Trump announced yesterday that Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be leaving her job at the end of the month, and offered her big hugs as she heads home to Arkansas, saying that he hoped she would run for governor there.

(This may come as a surprise to the current governor, Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, who was just reelected.  I'm guessing that Trump meant he hoped she would run some day, and when the current Republican governor wasn't running again for reelection.  But given that this is Trump, I long ago gave up trying to translate him or understand or care about his meaning.)

No one is quite sure why she is leaving now.  Some suggest it might have something to do with Trump's disastrous interview on ABC the day before.  I doubt this though for several reasons.  For one, he said a lot more nice things about her than he usually does when canning someone, and spread it out over two tweets.  For another, for all we know Trump thinks it was a great interview.  Then again, who in the world knows?

For that matter, it had been announced at the beginning of the year that Sanders would be leaving her job at the end of the month back then, so until she's on the outside looking in, I look at all of this as speculative.

The timing of it all, though, does have a nice bit of whimsy to it.  That's because earlier in the week, she gave an interview and said how it hurt her when people said she was a liar.  And honestly, I'm sure it does -- after all, most liars are bothered when people catch them in a lie and call them on it.  It defeats the whole purpose of lying.  But of course, as much as she is so hurt when people call her a liar, imagine being on the receiving end of all those lies.

Okay, you don't have to imagine it, since we all have been on the receiving end.

As for her moving back to Arkansas, I know that that's her home, but I think the move there may also be because it's the only place she'll be able to go out to a restaurant without being yelled at and kicked out.

Could she run for governor some day?  And win?  I suppose it's possible -- it's a deeply Red state, and her father was governor there.  But as smarmy and sanctimonious as Mike Huckabee is, he also is a former preacher with a smiling, hands-on, snake-charmer's way about him.  "Smiling charmer" has never been one of Sarah Huckabee Sander's strong points.

The question, now, strikes me as who will replace her?  (If Trump even decides to replace her.)  After all, it isn't easy to find someone so-willing to lie so often and demean people.  Sanders not only clearly had that gene in her, but after a while she had (as the expression goes) "skin in the game," and her reprehensible actions were as much defending herself as they were defending Trump.  A new press secretary won't bring that egregious history to the plate.  And will be coming in at a time of great turbulence, as the Democratic House is ratcheting up judicial, intelligence, ways & means, finance and other hearings on the White House, along with the possibility of hearings for impeachment.

I know that Sarah Sanders was just the spokesperson for Trump and not Trump himself.  And that much of the job entails covering for a crime boss.  But there are good ways of doing the job, and reprehensible ways of doing.  And further, you don't have to take the job.  She seemed to relish doing harm to honesty, decency and the welfare of the country.

No need for her to linger, taking the time to turn the lights out in her office.  I'm quite certain that there's someone around who can do it.