Reason Roundup

Eight Minutes of Televised Trump Tonight Could Cause Chaos: Reason Roundup

Plus: Israel boycott bill divides Democrats, Cyntoia Brown gets clemency, and the "skills gap" was a lie.

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Large image on homepages | Chris Kleponis/SIPA/Newscom
(Chris Kleponis/SIPA/Newscom)

Chris Kleponis/SIPA/Newscom

President Donald Trump is scheduled to give an immigration talk tonight, during which we can expect more bloviating about the billions in border-wall funding that he wants. On Monday afternoon, the president tweeted "I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border."

ABC, CBS, and NBC have all announced that they'll air the primetime speech live, starting at 9 p.m. Trump's speech will allegedly last only eight minutes. That move isn't sitting right with some people, since the networks all refused to air a 2015 immigration broadcast from then-president Barack Obama. (Obama didn't get the ratings Trump does, though.) "Cable networks CNN, Fox News, and Fox Business all confirmed they would carry the speech" as well, notes The Daily Beast.

Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) are demanding Democrats get equal on-air time too.

Tonight's Trump talk is predicted to be heavy on The Wall and perhaps include the declaration of a state of emergency.

The White House "knows GOP holding together is critical," tweeted Washington Post political reporter Robert Costa yesterday. "That's why POTUS and VP are phoning mbrs. That's in part why there is a speech to nation and trip to border. Direct msg to skittish Rs that this is the line, this is a crisis, so hold on tight."

The impediments to such action would be myriad, thank goodness. Trump "could declare a national emergency," said Republican Sen. John Cornyn (R–Texas) on CNN. "But what that may mean in terms of adding new elements to this—court hearings and litigation that may carry this on for weeks and months and years. To me, injecting a new element in this just makes it more complicated."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D–N.Y.) said Democrats "will oppose any effort by the president to make himself a king and a tyrant. The president has no authority to usurp Congress' power of the purse."

FREE MINDS

Israel boycott bill divides Democrats. The Senate is voting today on a measure that includes the "Combating BDS Act" from Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.). The measure "seeks to counter the global Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel over its treatment of Palestinians and the settlements," explains the Associated Press. The measure has divided Democrats, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) and other prominent liberal legislators strongly opposed.

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The "skills gap" was a lie. A lot of think pieces and government initiatives were devoted to pondering an alleged skills gap between what U.S. employers needed and what U.S. workers could do. The idea was that massive worker re-training programs might be needed. But, as Vox puts it, "new research shows it was the consequence of high unemployment rather than its cause." Companies requested more specific skills and credentials after being flooded with applications owing to a lot of recently laid-off workers. "The education and experience qualifications employers were looking for got steadily higher as the unemployment rate rose during the Great Recession," writes Matthew Yglesias. But "as the unemployment rate started to fall, so did employers skill needs."

Read the whole study here.

QUICK HITS

• And here's some more:

• However, the state will still make Brown jump through some hoops:

• Rhode Island's iconic Foxy Lady strip club will be able to reopen, at least temporarily, as it fights back against city regulators and vice cops in the state's Supreme Court.

• Former Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love was hired by CNN as a political commentator.

• Owning the libs with grass-fed beef:

• Sigh:

• And another: