So Much Winning: A Hundred Days of Trump!

           

PREAMBLE TO DISASTER

6/9/16: We won’t know this until July 2017; but on this date three leaders of the Trump campaign meet with Russian agents who offer dirt on Hillary Clinton. Those three are: Campaign chair Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka Trump. 

Donald Jr. will later claim the purpose of the gathering was to talk about the adoption of Russian children by American families. That is a bald-faced lie. And there will be countless others.

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7/27/16: By late July, both Clinton’s campaign email system and the email system of the Democratic National Committee have been hacked. A flood of damaging information has followed. 

An F.B.I. investigation continues into Mrs. Clinton’s possible misuse of a private email server, and an estimated 33,000 missing emails. 

 

“A total sign of disrespect for our country.” 

On this day, Candidate Trump holds a press conference and famously asks: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.” 

Reporters ask Trump if he believes Russia is responsible for the hacking. “Nobody even knows this, it’s probably China, or it could be somebody sitting in his bed,” he replies. 

But it shows how weak we are, it shows how disrespected we are. Total – assuming it’s Russia or China or one of the major countries and competitors, it’s a total sign of disrespect for our country. Putin and the leaders throughout the world have no respect for our country anymore, and they certainly have no respect for our leader.

 

Mr. Trump also signals that he would be open to recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The Obama administration and the European Union consider the seizure illegal and have imposed heavy sanctions. 

“We’ll be looking at that,” Mr. Trump said when asked if he would, as president, recognize Crimea as Russian land and lift sanctions that had been imposed after the annexation. “Yeah, we’ll be looking.” 

This would be music to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian ears.

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At one point during the campaign, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suggests that Trump should disown white-supremacist supporters. 

He replies, “Chris, a lot of these people vote.”

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11/10/16: Just two days after Trump’s surprise victory, spokeswoman Hope Hicks told reporters, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

The short list of those who knew at that instant this was a bold, brazen, shameless lie would include, but not be limited to: 

Michael Caputo 

Michael Cohen 

General Michael T. Flynn 

Rick Gates 

Jared Kushner 

Paul Manafort 

Carter Page 

George Papadopoulos 

Roger Stone 

Donald Trump Jr. 

All of the above would later admit having met with Russians or helped set up meetings with Russians. 

One might imagine that Ms. Hicks has been kept in the dark and does not realize she has just told a lie. We don’t know for sure, what Donald J. Trump Sr. knows at that moment. But it would boggle the mind to imagine that the man set to become President of the United States did not know Hicks had just uttered an incredible untruth. 

This, then, is the Ur-lie of the Trump administration, the founding untruth on which so much else will be built. (President Trump will repeat that same lie, in slightly different formulation. See: 5/18/17.) 

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1/5/17: F.B.I. Director James Comey attends a meeting with top White House officials and President Obama. 

He’s worried about Russian contacts with Gen. Michael T. Flynn, slotted to be the next president’s National Security Advisor. Current NSA head Susan Rice sends out this email after the meeting: 

Director Comey affirmed that he is proceeding “by the book” as it relates to law enforcement. From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information. President Obama asked if Comey was saying that the NSC [National Security Council] should not pass sensitive information related to Russia to Flynn. Comey replied “potentially.” He added that he has no indication thus far that Flynn has passed classified information to Kislyak, but he noted that “the level of communication is unusual.”

 

Also in attendance that day: VP Joe Biden and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who will soon warn President-Elect Trump that Flynn has been lying about having had no contact with Russians. 

This previously classified email is not released until May 2019, possibly as part of an effort to fan the fires of right-wing outrage, with the idea that Obama’s people were “spying” on Team Trump. I read it, by contrast, as the previous administration having serious concerns about Flynn, not to mention wondering about Hope Hicks’ blatantly untrue statement on November 10. 

Why would members of Team Trump already be trying to cover up contacts they had with Russians?

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1/11/17: President-Elect Donald J. Trump holds a press conference and reporters get to ask questions.

 

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“To demonize the press, to characterize it as not just mistaken but malign, is to lay the groundwork for repression.” 

Time magazine

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His respect for the First Amendment is clear. Jim Acosta, a correspondent for CNN, raises a hand. Trump points at him and says, “Your organization is terrible,” and refuses to call on him. 

“You’re attacking us, can you give us a question?” Acosta asks. 

“Don’t be rude,” the rudest man ever elected President of the United States sneers. “No, I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.” Trump turns instead to take a question from a Breitbart reporter. 

 

Trump learns about the Steele dossier. 

What has made Trump so angry? Why is CNN so “fake?” The network has reported that intelligence officials have briefed the president-elect on a mysterious dossier compiled by Christopher Steele. 

CNN has not claimed that potentially damaging information in the “Steele dossier” is true, only that the dossier exists. 

The Hill, another media outlet, explains: 

The 35-page document – made up of a collection of memos filled with explosive claims about the billionaire’s relationship to Russia – has reportedly been circulating among journalists and officials for at least a few weeks.

 

But the sourcing on the document is unclear and likely unverifiable. CNN reported that it is based primarily on memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative that were intended as opposition research into Trump.

 

The president-elect on Tuesday night immediately blasted the report, tweeting, “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” 

 

During the press conference, Trump specifically called out CNN for pushing the story, saying it was “disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out.”

 

“I think it’s a disgrace, and I say that, and that’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” he said.

 

“I think it’s a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public. As far as BuzzFeed [which released the dossier before CNN picked up the story], which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences.”

 

With that, the battle lines are drawn. Breitbart, where reporters fawn over Trump, is real news. 

CNN, which questions Trump when it can and reports that a dossier does exist – because a dossier does exist – is fake news. 

In his first year in office, Trump will give just one solo press conference, open to reporters’ questions. It will not go well. 

By comparison, past presidents faced the free press with some regularity. George W. Bush braved the fire four times in his first year in office, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, six, Barack Obama, seven. Bill Clinton took questions eleven times. Jimmy Carter stood before the free press 22 times and George H. W. Bush 27 times. 

Time has this to say, in February 2017, at the very dawn of the Trump era: 

Nearly every President has found much to dislike in news coverage – Harry Truman referred to press clippings as “the daily poison” – but seldom have reporters been the target of such relentless hostility as we are seeing from the current administration [emphasis added, unless otherwise note]. Barely a day in office, President Trump declared his “running war” with the media; top adviser Stephen Bannon calls the press “the opposition party” that should “keep its mouth shut,” and Kellyanne Conway suggests that if journalism were a “real business,” 20% of the media would have been fired for all the things they got wrong.

 

To demonize the press, to characterize it as not just mistaken but malign, is to lay the groundwork for repression.

 

Time editor Nancy Gibbs promises: 

We are committed to independent inquiry, defending the possibility of progress, holding the powerful to account and providing an arena where diverse voices and visions compete…

 

The enemy in any democracy is not dissent, from either within or without. Dissent, in fact, is essential. The enemy is dishonesty, ignorance, indifference, intolerance.

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1/15/17: Five days before taking office, in one of the worst predictions ever, Trump tweets: “For many years our country has been divided, angry and untrusting [emphasis added]. Many say it will never change, the hatred is too deep. IT WILL CHANGE!!!!” 

It’s the first of his many terrible predictions as president. 

And then…oath of office taken…he’s president. The sorry saga of a terrible man at the helm of a great nation begins. 

 

 A FEW HINTS AS TO WHY A FREE PRESS IS NECESSARY 

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”   Thomas Jefferson 

 “Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society.” Felix Frankfurter 

The Nazis held regular book burnings.

 

The name of the government newspaper in the Soviet Union was Pravda, or, in Russian: “Truth.” 

Internet censorship is rampant in Communist China. 

Under Kim Jong-un, the government of North Korea tightly controls radio and television. 

When the journalist Jamal Khashoggi criticized the royal family of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had him executed. 

Think: bone saw. 

  

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“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” 

Mark Twain

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*** 

January 20, 2017: Donald J. Trump is sworn in as 45^th President of the United States. He doesn’t grab any woman on the podium by the pussy. So, you could argue he’s off to a good start.  

“American carnage” optimism from a new president. 

In his Inaugural Address he offers “cheery” assessment. We have “an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge, and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” 

We live in a time of “American carnage,” Trump says. 

No way of knowing if he’s thinking about police shootings of unarmed black citizens. Not likely. 

Nor does he offer tips on how to deal with mass shootings. This has much to do with the fact the N.R.A. loves him and his biggest fans still believe Sandy Hook was staged by President Obama. 

He does highlight “the sad depletion of our military.” This seems odd since U.S. military spending is already greater than the military spending of the next seven top countries combined. 

No matter. He’s going to see that we spend more. (See: 8/14/19 for news on the deficit for FY 2019.)

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: We won’t learn this until July 2021, but the out-going president leaves behind a thoughtful letter for the new man about to take a seat in the Oval Office. 

Looking back four and a half years later, this blogger realizes that an almost prophetic comment from President Obama comes in this paragraph: 

Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties – that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them. 

Trump never did learn or care to learn to follow that advice.

Trump works on his inaugural address.

1/21/17: On his first full day in office Trump claims journalists are “among the most dishonest people on earth [emphasis added].” Those who love the free press have immediate cause for worry. The president is outraged because he says the crowd at his Inauguration was the biggest ever.

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1/22/17: The argument over crowd size takes a bizarre turn when Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump adviser, says his crowd was way bigger. She knows because she has “alternative facts” to support her position.

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1/23/17: At a meeting with Congressional leaders, Trump alleges that not only did he win the electoral vote, massively, but he would have trounced Secretary Clinton in the popular vote, save for 3-5 million undocumented immigrants who voted illegally. He says he’s going to launch a big, big investigation!

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1/24/17: Speaker Paul Ryan says there is “no evidence” to support Trump’s claim that millions of illegal voters showed up at polls in November. 

Concerned that the president is undermining faith in American democracy – which is not exactly a great look for the leader of that democracy – Senator Lindsey Graham responds: “I am begging the president, share with us the information you have about this or please stop saying it.”  

 

Millions of voters illegally registered in two states. 

Top White House aide Stephen Miller insists that the problem of illegal voters swarming to the polls is real. He insists “millions of people who are registered in two states or who are dead are registered to vote” and show up at the polls. 

A little free press digging reveals that these potential illegals include Steve Bannon (registered in Florida and New York), Sean Spicer (Virginia and Rhode Island), Jared Kushner (New York and New Jersey) and Steve Mnuchin (New York and California). 

Even Tiffany Trump, probably the only normal Trump in the adult bunch, turns out to be registered twice (Pennsylvania and New York). Maybe she voted for Dad in one state and Hillary in the other.

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1/25/17: In fake-but-actually-true news, the media reports that membership fees at Mar-a-Lago have been doubled to $200,000. Don’t you dare hint that the Trump clan is planning to profit by his election. 

That figure does not include annual dues of $14,000.

 

* 

IN FAKE, BUT REALLY FAKE NEWS, our new president relates the sad, but not true, saga of Bernhard Langer, who so wanted his vote to count. 

Alas, a writer for Slate explains: 

During a meeting with lawmakers, the newly inaugurated president says that German professional golfer Bernhard Langer was prevented from voting in 2016 because there was a long line of suspicious Latin American individuals ahead of him. Follow-up reporting reveals that Langer is not an American citizen [emphasis added] and did not attempt to vote in the election at all; according to Langer, he heard a similar story from a friend and relayed it to someone who then told it to “a person with ties to the White House,” which would mean that Trump had been told the (obviously false) anecdote fifth hand.  

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (7/4/22): Other than the totally wrong facts (which will be a hallmark of Trump’s one term in office, it’s a great, subtly-racist anecdote. I mean, assuming you’re really fond of racists stories.

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1/26/17: On the 25^th, Trump taps away on Twitter: “As your President, I have no higher duty than to protect the lives of the American people.” 

The same day an anonymous individual at NASA tweets back: 

Reporters explain why this individual went rogue. The new administration has slapped a gag order on thousands of NASA climate experts, National Park employees and health officials who might question the Trump Line.

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1/27/17:  Trump spent his campaign talking about bringing back waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques to defeat ISIS. General James Mattis, his Defense Secretary, explains why torture doesn’t work and warns that Trump’s plan violates the Geneva Convention. 

The president says “never mind.” Mattis’s opinions will “override” his own. Big fans of torture are miffed.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (11/1/21): A military tribunal convenes at Guantanamo Bay to sentence Majid Khan. Khan, “a suburban Baltimore high school graduate turned Qaeda courier,” who plead guilty to terrorism charges in 2012, uses the hearing to offer graphic testimony regarding CIA enhanced-interrogation tactics. (The hearing was long delayed because the CIA wanted to keep its tactics secret.) 

The eight judge-panel sets punishment for Khan at 26 years, starting in 2012, but, as allowed under military rules, seven judges write a letter to the senior official who will review the case, urging clemency for the prisoner. 

The New York Times notes, 

Before sentencing, Mr. Khan spent two hours describing in grisly detail the violence that C.I.A. agents and operatives inflicted on him in dungeonlike conditions in prisons in Pakistan, Afghanistan and a third country, including sexual abuse and mind-numbing isolation, often in the dark while he was nude and shackled.

 

“Mr. Khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history,” according to the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.

 

The panel also responded to Mr. Khan’s claim that after his capture in Pakistan in March 2003, he told interrogators everything, but “the more I cooperated, the more I was tortured,” and so he subsequently made up lies to try to mollify his captors.

 

“This abuse was of no practical value in terms of intelligence, or any other tangible benefit to U.S. interests,” the letter said. “Instead, it is a stain on the moral fiber of America; the treatment of Mr. Khan in the hands of U.S. personnel should be a source of shame for the U.S. government.”

 

…

 

The clemency letter also condemned the legal framework that held Mr. Khan without charge for nine years  [he was first arrested in 2003] and denied him access to a lawyer for the first four and half as “complete disregard for the foundational concepts upon which the Constitution was founded” and “an affront to American values and concept of justice.”

 

We have known, as human beings, at least since the invention of the rack and wheel, that torture “works.” 

If you want to get people to confess – to anything – yes. Torture works. 

Torture Donald J. Trump right now, and he’ll admit he lost the 2020 election (which is true). He’ll also admit to banging a porn star (true), to being a witch (false), and having sex with dolphins while vacationing at Mar-a-Lago (false.)

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1/28/17: An incompetent rollout of a travel ban aimed at individuals from seven Muslim nations catches thousands in transit. This includes potential terrorists such as renowned doctors, students enrolled in U.S. universities (Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Texas A&M and others lodge protest) and Iraqis who  fought on the American side and are seeking asylum. An Iraqi general headed to the United States to talk strategy is blocked. With cuts to the number of refugees to be allowed to enter also ordered, Afghans who helped our military are told not to apply for visas. 

 

* 

NOTE TO TRUMP FANS: Did you know Iraqis and Afghans are U.S. allies? So are the Kurds. The Kurds are fighting hard to retake Mosul, a city held by ISIS. Almost all these people are Muslims. 

They’re on our side. (See: 2/23/17.)

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1/29/17: In a surprise move, Trump appoints his favorite political strategist and Darth Vader aficionado Steve Bannon, to a seat on the National Security Council. 

One former GOP official speaks for many when he says he worries “life and death [decisions] for the people in uniform” might be “tainted” by political calculation. (See: 8/18/17.)

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1/30/17: Administration officials promise Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Every conservative knows climate change is a fiction. So long as anyone can pack a snowball, what’s the problem? Besides, how bad could it be if leaders from only 175 countries signed the original agreement? 

You didn’t see Saudi Arabia giving in to peer pressure, did you? No you did not. (See: 4/17/17.) 

 

NOTE TO TRUMP FANS: The Saudis are U.S. allies. They’re Muslims. You can’t pretend all the Muslims in the world want to kill you. Like most Americans, most Muslims just want to lead happy lives.

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1/31/17: Executives at Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly celebrate a huge increase in profits after colluding to jack up insulin prices. Insulin is required to keep 3,000,000 type-1 diabetics in this country alive. (Prices have spiked by 700% in the last twenty years.) Trump admits drug makers are “getting away with murder,” but a GOP-controlled Congress remains intent on turning a blind eye to the murderers. 

Meanwhile, for every one regulation the Food and Drug Administration enacts, Trump insists they must get rid of two, because regulations are always bad and business, as in Big Pharma, is always good. 

That’s GOP gospel. (See 7/20/17;  10/29/17; 5/27/19; 8/24/19 and 1/20/20, among others.)

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February 1, 2017: Black History Month starts with a mighty bang when Trump summons up the name of a key leader in the fight for equality. “Frederick Douglass is an example of someone who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed,” says the president. 

Apparently, he hasn’t noticed. Douglass died in 1895. 

The president, the future felon (Flynn) and Douglass in the Oval Office.

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2/2/17: The First Lady decides to delay her move to the White House until summer. That way, the First Family’s youngest, 10-year-old Barron Trump, can finish the school year in New York. The cost for extra security is estimated to be $300,000 daily. GOP fiscal hawks don’t mind, nor does Mr. Trump, even though they used to blast Barack Obama for the costs of all his golfing and his vacationing.

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2/3/17: Trump rises early and buckles down to work. At 6:24 am he tweets about low ratings for a TV show near and dear to his heart: “Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!” 

A federal judge blocks the first travel ban.

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2/4/17: The president angrily tweets: “The opinion of this so-called judge (see: 2/3/17), which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” 

Clearly, Mr. Trump fails to understand that all federal judges are actual judges. 

As the days pass it will dawn on most Americans: Trump has never read the U.S. Constitution.

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“There are a lot of killers.” 

2/5/17: The Trump-Putin bromance turns steamy. When Bill O’Reilly (remember him) asks Trump about the Russian leader, O’Reilly refers to Putin as “a killer.” The president, who once praised Saddam Hussein for skill in handling terrorists, which meant gassing anyone he didn’t like, replies: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” 

This is, to say the least, an odd position for an American president to take, defending Putin and comparing his killings to…ours?

Trump is confused from the start about which flag he follows.

2/6/17: Betsy DeVos anxiously awaits a Senate confirmation to become U.S. Secretary of Education. Her hearings have not gone well, including her claim that guns might be needed in schools to keep grizzly bears at bay. Her cluelessness in regard to critical education issues proves so profound, a reporter watching the hearings is moved to say she looks “like a duck trying to read a parking meter.” 

She gets confirmed anyway. Vice President Mike Pence breaks a rare 50-50 tie vote in the Senate.

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2/7/17: President Trump claims the murder rate in the United States is “the highest it’s been in 47 years.” What he really means: It’s all Obama’s fault. 

The press, he grumbles, never reports the truth. That’s because the murder rate in the U.S. was higher every year from 1967-1998. The rate fell for years while Obama was in office, rising only recently. 

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2/8/17: Still indignant because the courts have blocked his travel ban, Trump says “a bad high school student would understand this.” The ban was written “beautifully.” If courts won’t let him have his way, they are “so political.” He’s going to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

The man with nascent dictatorial instincts doesn’t seem to like the coequal judicial branch of government.

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2/9/17: A new estimate puts the cost of a border wall with Mexico at $21.6 billion and time to completion at 3.5 years. Reporters ask Senator Mitch McConnell if he believes Mexico will pay for it. 

“Uh, no,” he replies.

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2/10/17: Angry in the face of sustained mockery on Saturday Night Live, Trump tweets: “I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not a good show anymore.” The show is “unwatchable.” “Sad!” 

SNL scores its highest ratings in 20 years.

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2/11/17: Trump meets with the Japanese Prime Minister but does not repeat campaign complaints about the Japanese stealing American jobs or mooching off us for defense. He does not suggest, as he did last March, that Japan could use some atomic bombs of its own. Since Trump remembers nothing from history, he may not realize Japan is the only country ever targeted for nuclear destruction.  

The Japanese are opposed to nuclear weapons.

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2/12/17: A federal appeals court unanimously strikes down the first travel ban. It seems none of the three judges can grasp what a “bad high school” student could (see: 2/8/18). They can’t even see how “beautifully” the ban is written. 

Instead, they rule the ban is inherently discriminatory and therefore …um …um … unconstitutional.

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2/13/17: Reporters credit Trump for avoiding “bombastic pronouncements on Twitter” for an entire day! 

At the White House on this Monday, he greets Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and makes it through an entire meeting without insulting anyone. He’s acting “presidential” at last.

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2/14/17: General Michael J. Flynn, Trump’s National Security Adviser, resigns after it is made clear (by the free press) that he lied to Vice President Pence about meeting with Russian agents. 

Oddly enough, the president learned that Flynn had lied two weeks ago. He didn’t fire him till reporters started digging.

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2/15/17: Anthony Puzder, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Labor, withdraws from consideration. 

Mr. Puzder’s problems include employing an undocumented immigrant for years to work as a maid in his home.

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2/16/17: The president touts his November victory at a press conference and complains how unfair CNN, The New York Times and other media outlets have been. “I guess it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan,” he says. The media might not be happy he won. “But a lot of people are happy about it.” 

 

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“I guess it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.” 

President Trump on his win; he’s wrong, of course.

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A reporter points out that his claim is not true. You could, for example, go all the way back to 2012, when Obama won more electoral votes. 

Mr. Trump says you can’t blame him for getting his facts wrong because that’s what he was  told.

 

* 

WE COULD KICK the president when he’s already down, but, come on – does this guy know anything about U.S. history? He “piled up” 304 electoral votes. Obama had 332 in 2012. Trump was wrong five times: Obama had 365 in 2008. Bill Clinton had 370 in 1992 and 379 in 1996. 

And George H.W. Bush had 426 in 1988.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (July 6, 2020): Trump’s final vote is raised to 306, when the U.S. Supreme Court rules that two votes from “faithless electors” who had refused to sign his name to their ballots had to be added to his win. 

The decision of the high court was unanimous. Electors must cast their votes for the person they have sworn to voters that they will.

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2/17/17: Trump tweets that the media is “the enemy of the American people.” Those who cherish the First Amendment know this isn’t funny.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: In the next three years, he will use the word “enemy” to describe the free press in far more tweets than all the terrorists, internal and external combined.

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Trump still hiring immigrant labor. 

2/18/17: Trump Winery applies for special visas to hire 23 immigrant laborers at $11.87 per hour. 

Now you know why President Trump opposes raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

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2/19/17: Reacting to Trump’s comments on the media, Sen. John McCain tells a reporter that dictators “get started by suppressing free press [emphasis added].” Without a media capable of expressing itself freely, he adds, “I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time.” (See: 2/17/17.) 

The Trump base isn’t worried – and liberals such as your humble blogger, find that doubly troubling.

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2/20/17: The president’s third choice for National Security Adviser, General H. R. McMaster, takes charge. General Flynn, his first choice, has been fired. 

His second pick, Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a former Navy SEAL, knows a bad mission when he sees it. He declines a chance to take a bite out of what he refers to as a “shit sandwich.” 

Other than that, it’s a good day to be Trump. He still has Twitter!

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2/21/17: The president speaks out against anti-Semitic threats and vandalism in a St. Louis cemetery. He wants to root out “hate and prejudice and evil.” 

This might sound commendable if we ignored Trump’s efforts to stir up “hate and prejudice and evil” against Muslims, Mexicans and protesting American citizens. (See: 3/3/17 and 4/17/17.) 

 

Neo-Nazis love Trump. 

POSTSCRIPT: By the end of March it will be reported that anti-Semitic attacks have surged 86% across the U.S., fueled in part by the thrill neo-Nazis feel knowing Trump is seated in the Oval Office. Yes, indeed, neo-Nazis have a real soft spot in their hearts for the brash new Commander-in-Chief!

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2/22/17: In Kansas, a white Navy veteran shoots and kills one man in a bar and wounds a second. “Get out of my country,” he shouts at his targets, who he believes are Iranians and therefore Muslim. Trump offers no comment despite the fact many blame him for stirring up anti-Muslim hatred.  

The two victims are from India. 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: In a speech to Congress six days later Trump highlights three families who lost loved ones to illegal immigrant killers.  

Right-wing killers? No problem! 

All these killings, of course, are execrable.)

The victim in the Kansas shooting, right, was Srivinis Kuchibhotla.

The killer was a white man.

2/23/17: Iraqi forces continue their advance to wrest Mosul from ISIS. In the process they have already lost 5,000 killed and wounded. This is the plan – to let Iraqis fight their own battles. It was implemented when Mr. Obama was still in office and Trump referred to as “a total disaster” during his run for president. The U.S. lost 4,539 men and women fighting in Iraq during the Bush years. 

Under Obama that number fell, thankfully, to 300.

___ 

 

2/24/17: In a speech to CPAC, Trump attacks the free press and claims media enemies won’t credit him even if he receives a standing ovation. 

“And I want you all to know we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake. Phony. Fake. A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people.”  

The problem is that Trump considers any bad news or criticism related to his policies or actions to be “fake news” and believes only what he gleans from watching Fox & Friends. (See: 3/5/17.)

___ 

 

2/25/17: Trump tweets: “The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs. a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.” 

Oh, those terrible people who write newspapers and talk on radio and TV! 

Then again, you need to be suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s to ignore the fact that the U.S. economy was tanking in January 2009, when Mr. Obama took over. We do know President Trump suffers from delusions, as when he insists that he “inherited a mess” when he took office. 

Did you know the economy added jobs 76 months in succession before Trump took a seat in the Oval Office?

___

 

2/26/17: Philip Bilden, Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Navy, withdraws due to conflict-of-interest issues. Bilden’s “qualifications” for the post include a stint in the U.S. Army Reserves and twenty-five years’ work with a “global private equity investment management firm.” 

 

FUN FACT: The populist president displays an affinity for placing billionaires in top cabinet and government roles. They include Betsy DeVos, the Amway Queen, Wilbur Ross, Vincent Viola (who latter withdraws from consideration), Todd Ricketts and Linda McMahon, of WWE fame. 

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is worth a paltry $300 million. You could argue, if you squint hard enough, that he brings the common man’s perspective to White House deliberations.

___ 

 

“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” 

2/27/17: In a meeting at the White House, Trump explains his difficulty repealing and replacing Obamacare. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

Every man, woman, and child in America, other than the president, knew healthcare was complicated.

­­­___ 

 

2/28/17: A raid in Yemen ends with death for U.S. serviceman William “Ryan” Owens. Trump shirks responsibility – says the raid was planned before he took office – says, hey, I’m only president. It wasn’t my fault Owens was killed. It was the generals! “This was something they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected, the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan [emphasis added].”  

You know in your heart: if the raid had been a success, Trump would have claimed the plan as his own.

___ 

 

March 1, 2017: Trump earns praise from pundits, left and right, for his speech to Congress the night before. On this fine morning polls show 78% of those who listened responded positively. 

These polls are not “rigged.”

___ 

 

3/2/17: The Illinois offices of the Caterpillar Corporation are raided by federal agents in an investigation into tax fraud begun during the Obama administration. Caterpillar is accused of using illegal tricks to hide money in Switzerland, pay 4-6% in taxes, and live greedily ever after. 

Estimates put the loss to the U.S. Treasury at $2.4 billion, enough, if you’re a Trump fan to pay for a good portion of the proposed 1,954-mile border wall.

___ 

 

3/3/17: A Sikh gentleman, born in India and living near Seattle, is approached in his driveway, and shot by a white assailant. The gunman shouts, “Go back to your own country.” (See: 2/22/17 and 7/16/19.) 

In other words, illegal immigrant criminals aren’t our only problem, and a wall isn’t going to help in this regard. 

In the first month after Trump is elected the Southern Poverty Law Center logs 1,064 hate crimes (thirteen are later found to be unfounded). These include 26 against Trump supporters.  

All hate crimes are repellent. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: People in the U.S. are ten times more likely to be killed by guns than people in 22 other high-income nations. A child in the U.S. has a far greater chance of being killed in an accidental shooting than he or she does by an illegal immigrant. (See: 6/24-25/17.)

___

3/4/17: The Tweeter-in-Chief stuns rational citizens when he unleashes a flurry of tweets, accusing the previous administration of illegally tapping his phones. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process,” he tweet-fumes.

 

__________ 

“Bad (or sick) guy!”

__________ 

 

“This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” 

The heads of the F.B.I. and N.S.A. deny his claim. The head of N.S.A. calls it “ridiculous.” (See also: 3/5/17.)

 

* 

OLIGARCHS ROUND THE WORLD: A Chinese news agency reports that 200 delegates to the nation’s parliament (in a communist country!) have a combined wealth equal to $500 billion.

Trump loves watching Fox & Friends.

Abby Huntsman, above.

3/5/17: On Meet the Press former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper rejects the president’s claim that the Obama administration tapped Trump Tower. Trump probably misses his comments because he is spending Sunday morning watching Fox & Friends and tweeting ideas he copies from the show. Trump also salivates watching Abby Huntsman.

___ 

 

3/6/17: Travel ban 2.0 is issued, but won’t go into effect till March 16, to avoid the wild disruptions that greeted the first ban. (The administration denies there were any wild disruptions.) 

This time, Iraq is dropped from the list of countries from which immigrants will not be allowed. 

The courts block 2.0, too. 

(Trump later prevails at the U.S. Supreme Court. That’s how checks and balances work, even if he doesn’t like it.)

­­­___ 

 

3/7/17: Trump takes a long afternoon nap. For 65 uninterrupted minutes nothing bad happens. (Okay, that one’s made up.)

___ 

 

3/8/17: The GOP healthcare proposal is so lousy the American Hospital Association, Catholic Health Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, Children’s Hospital Association, American Medical Association and AARP all voice opposition. 

 

__________ 

Almost every major health organization hates GOP plan.

__________ 

 

Also: 

American Nurses Association

American College of Physicians

National Nurses United

National Physicians Alliance

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

American Academy of Pediatrics

___ 

 

3/9/17: Congress, with both houses firmly in GOP hands, sees its approval rating “surge” to 23%.

___ 

 

3/10/17: Bureau of Labor Statistics show the economy added 235,000 jobs in February, and unemployment dipped to 4.6%. Sean Spicer is asked if the president still believes the numbers are “totally fiction” and “phony,” as Trump insisted when Obama was adding an average of 214,000 jobs monthly in his second term. 

Spicer replies: “They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now [emphasis added].” (See: 4/8/17.)  

You had to be a moron to swallow that line. Many Trump supporters swallow it without a thought.

___

3/11/17: Trump tweets: “We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done!”

___ 

 

3/12/17: Kellyanne Conway claims that surveillance of the Trump campaign may have involved “microwaves that turn into cameras.”  

Apparently, we also need to fear toasters.

Are you watching your food? Or is the microwave watching you?

3/13/17: The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office announces that under the proposed GOP health care plan, 14 million fewer Americans will have insurance in 2018, 24 million fewer in 2026.  

It took seven years for Republicans to craft this gem.

___ 

 

3/14/17: The cherry trees in Washington D.C. are expected to bloom earlier than ever. This is one of countless signs that climate change is real. The previous month, large swaths of Australia reported record high temperatures, including 113° F in New South Wales. (See also: 4/21/17; 4/22/17.)

___ 

 

3/15/17: The Trump administration proposes a 31% cut to funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, because climate change is a hoax, no one cares about clean water except poor people in Flint, Michigan, and living near one of 1,800 Superfund cleanup sites is kind of exciting if you think about it. 

Who created almost every one of those 1,800 toxic sites? Businesspeople. And that’s why government regulations are always bad! 

ISIS might not get you if the budget for defense increases by $54 billion, as Republicans now propose. 

Water from your tap might.

___ 

 

3/16/17: The administration releases what is known as a “skinny budget,” with details to be fleshed out with Congress. The Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled for an 18% cut. The National Institutes of Health would see a decline in funding of $5.8 billion. The budget would cut grants to assist poor people, including a decades-old Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. That initiative helps needy Americans with heating bills. 

Why do poor people need heat anyway? 

We’ve got global warming. 

(Remember that budget cut for NIH, once the pandemic hits three years later.)

___ 

 

3/17/17: Trump continues to claim he was wiretapped. Leaders of both parties in Congress say there’s no evidence. 

“No such wiretap existed,” Speaker Ryan tells reporters. Press Secretary Spicer says the president stands by his claim. It’s “what he believes.” 

Like a child who believes he saw the Easter Bunny. 

___

 

3/18/17: Even Speaker Ryan’s mother calls his healthcare replacement plan “garbage.” 

(Okay, I made that up.) 

Actually, 17% of Americans approve.

___ 

 

3/19/17: In a Gallup poll, Trump scores a 37% job approval rating. No president has ever dropped so low so quickly.

___ 

 

3/20/17: Trump says everything involving Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election is “fake news.” 

F.B.I. Director James Comey informs Congress a day later that there is an investigation going on. This includes looking for “any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” 

There may not be links but the fact the F.B.I. is following various leads is not “fake news.” (See: 3/23/17.)

___

Dad “has no moral or legal compass.” 

3/21/17: Hacked phone messages from one daughter of Paul Manafort (Trump’s former campaign manager) to another indicate she believes their father has given them “blood money.” 

Dad “has no moral or legal compass.” “You know he has killed people in the Ukraine? Knowingly,” she continues.

___ 

 

3/22/17: The Associated Press reports that Manafort worked with a Russian billionaire and friend of Vladimir Putin. He was paid as much as $12.7 million to “advance the interests of Russia [emphasis added].” 

Press Secretary Spicer tries to explain that the former campaign manager “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” during the 2016 campaign. (See: 3/23/17.)

Poor Sean Spicer! 

 He may have the worst job in America.

___

3/23/17: Did members of the Trump campaign have illegal contact with the Russians? No one knows for sure; but Paul Manafort is revealed to have had ties to a bank in Cyprus that laundered money for the Russians. He used 15 different accounts and operated 10 different shell companies. 

Could he be innocent? Yes. But reporting on such ties is not “fake news.” 

It’s…reporting.

___

3/24/17: Speaker Ryan is forced to pull the GOP healthcare law without a vote. After talking about “repeal and replace” for months, Trump responds by blaming others. He says Democrats killed the plan!

___

 

3/25/17: National Poison Prevention Week ends, having been proclaimed by Trump executive order. Finally, something Americans can agree on! Poison is bad. Unless it’s environmental. 

Under the Trump administration the E.P.A. no longer cares.

___ 

 

3/26/17: Roger Stone, longtime Trump pal, offers to testify in front of Congress. Did he contact Guccifer 2.0, a hacking group known to be a front for Russian intelligence agencies? Well, yes, he admits, maybe he did now that he thinks about it. But Stone insists Guccifer isn’t a Russian front. And who are you going to believe, Stone or U.S. intelligence, which says it is? (See: June 1, 2018.)

___

___

3/27/17: Son-in-law Jared Kushner gets a whole bunch of jobs in the new administration. These include serving as top policy advisor and “primary point of contact” with leaders and ambassadors from many foreign nations, heading up the White House Office of American Innovation, which will be “expected to tackle domestic issues such as Veterans’ Affairs, workforce development and opioid addiction,” and helping “run the government like a great American business.” Also, he must chaperone Ivanka during all dinners and black-tie affairs at Mar-a-Lago. 

A previously undisclosed meeting.

 Anything else we should know about Jared? 

White House spokesperson Hope Hicks admits Kushner had a previously undisclosed meeting in December 2016 with the head of a Russian bank facing U.S. sanctions. 

Even more interesting, the bank provided cover for Russian spying in New York City in 2014.

___

3/28/17: A new Gallup poll shows job approval for the Tweeter-in-Chief has slumped to 35%.

___ 

 

3/29/17: In another early-morning tweet-storm Trump cries about the unfair coverage he’s getting. “If the people of our great country could only see how viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media!” 

Well, there’s always Fox & Friends…and Bill O’Reilly. (See: 4/5/17.)

___ 

 

3/30/17: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tells reporters: “You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this [fighting in Syria], it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting [Bashar al-] Assad out.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agrees.  

Syria? 

Not our problem. (See: 4/7/17.)

___ 

 

3/31/17: A judge finalizes a settlement against Trump University, awarding students who were defrauded $25 million. During the campaign, Trump promised to fight this to the bitter end. 

Sadly, the settlement does not require the president to admit he’s a scam artist.

___ 

 

April 1, 2017: April Fools. Trump is still president. No, we mean it. America, the joke’s on you!

___ 

 

4/2/17: Trump declares this World Autism Awareness Day. No way of knowing if he mocks people with disabilities in the privacy of the Oval Office. Would anyone be surprised if he did?

___

 

 

4/3/17: The president donates his first paycheck ($78,333.32) to the National Parks Service. Conservatives are furious when environmental groups don’t praise him highly enough. 

This could have something to do with the fact the Trump administration plans to cut $1.5 billion from the budget of the Interior Department…which operates the National Parks. 

If Trump will give up his next 19,490 paychecks, we’ll be able to cover the entire cut to Interior.  

Who needs national parks!

___

4/4/17: The Assad regime in Syria apparently decides President Trump is not concerned with all the killing and launches a poison gas attack which wipes out dozens, including many children. (See: 3/30/17.)

___ 

 

4/5/17: Trump defends Fox News host Bill O’Reilly after The New York Times reports that O’Reilly paid $13 million to settle five lawsuits involving sexual harassment. “I think he’s a person I know well – he is a good person,” says Trump. “I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.” 

____________________ 

“I think he’s a person I know well – he is a good person. I think he shouldn’t have settled.” 

President Trump, defending Bill O’Reilly

____________________ 

 

Two weeks later Fox News decides Mr. O’Reilly did plenty wrong and cans his right-wing ass. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: In 2014 Citizen Trump boasted about helping Roger Ailes when a former employee claimed to have damaging information, related to sexual abuse, regarding the Fox News CEO. “When Roger was having problems he didn’t call 97 people,” Trump told a reporter, “he called me.”  

Accusations against Ailes kept coming. Sexual predators stick together! (See also: Judge Roy Moore, 11/13/17.)

___ 

 

4/6/17: Representative Devin Nunes, Republican chairman on the House Intelligence Committee, is forced to recuse himself after questions swirl over his decision to visit the White House secretly and talk over the Russia investigation with Trump officials. Not a good way to run an investigation.

___ 

 

4/7/17: Trump changes his mind after saying the USA should never get involved in Syria. He orders 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to be fired at the airfield from which the chemical attack on April 4 was launched. He and his rich friends are hanging at Mar-a-Lago. So, the president focuses next on the “most beautiful piece of chocolate cake” he’s ever seen. 

Launching a military strike on Syria, and maybe getting American servicemen and women killed. No big deal. 

We’ve got dessert!

___ 

 

4/8/17: Bureau of Labor statistics show the U.S. economy added 98,000 jobs in March. February figures are revised downward. It may be time for Trump to start talking about “phony” numbers again. (See: 3/10/17.)

___ 

 

4/9/17: USA Today and other media sources report that administration officials have told them a strike force including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is heading for North Korea. 

With Trump at the helm, America is bad ass again! (See: 4/12/17.)

___ 

 

4/10/17: Neil Gorsuch is sworn in as justice on the U.S. Supreme Court after Senate Majority Leader McConnell invokes the “nuclear option” and eliminates the filibuster. This means the Supreme Court is now whatever McConnell says it is and that means no Merrick Garland. 

This is a major threat to an independent federal judiciary and this threat will not abate if Democrats regain control of the Senate. If you love the U.S. Constitution you have new cause for worry.

___ 

 

4/11/17: Press Secretary Spicer, defending the decision to strike Syria, says even Hitler never used chemical weapons on his own people. 

No further comment required.

___ 

 

4/12/17: Trump warns that the U.S. Navy is sending a carrier strike force to North Korea. “We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. We have the best military people on Earth. And I will say this: he [Kim Jong-un] is doing the wrong thing.” (See: 4/18/17.) 

 

NATO is no longer obsolete. 

Oops! Where is that carrier?

Trump also explains during a press conference that NATO, which he said was obsolete in January, is “no longer obsolete.” Apparently, he realizes he might need help from our closest allies. 

As a bonus, President Trump calls Candidate Trump a liar. China, he insists, is “not a currency manipulator.”

___ 

 

4/13/17: The U.S. drops “the mother of all bombs” on an ISIS hideout in Afghanistan, killing an estimated 96 enemy fighters. Not bad. Not bad! 

Did you know, under Mr. Obama, the Pentagon estimated 50,000 ISIS fighters were wiped out? 

Look it up; but don’t forget the “body count” fiasco of the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. 

(Every good liberal knows you can’t always trust government. Conservatives don’t grasp that fact about our side.)

___ 

 

4/14/17: White House officials tell reporters they will no longer release records of who  visits the White House – because what reason could the American people have for wanting to know who the president likes to hang with? Pictures later show Trump’s draft-dodging friend Ted Nugent posing in front of a painting of First Lady Hillary Clinton in a White House hallway.

___ 

 

4/15/17: Still no sign of the president’s tax returns as all good citizens file their own 1040s. Trump promised in 2014, without equivocation, that he would release his taxes if he ran for president.

He lied.

___ 

 

4/16/17: Mr. Trump insists people who marched by the tens of thousands in protest on Tax Day, demanding to see his returns were paid to do so. 

No pay stubs or evidence to support his claim are ever produced.

___

 

 

4/17/17: The lawyer for white supremacist Matthew Heimbach, charged with assaulting an African American woman at a Trump rally in March 2016, offers up a noteworthy new kind of defense. 

He blames the president.

 

____________________ 

My client, “acted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President.” 

Attorney for Matthew Heimbach

____________________ 

 

Really, no joke! His lawyer insists Heimbach can’t be faulted. His client “acted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President.” If found liable for damages, he says, “any liability must be shifted to one or both of them.” (See: 8/8/19.)

 

* 

TRUMP ADVISERS spend the day arguing over whether or not to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. New E.P.A. head and noted climate-change denier Scott Pruitt and Steve Bannon insist the president keep his campaign promise and exit. Secretary of State Tillerson and co-directors of the Bureau of Nepotism, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, warn that withdrawal will erode faith in the U.S., particularly where American allies in Europe are concerned. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: A 2014 poll found the United States had more climate deniers than any other advanced nation. This may prove that money invested in pseudo-scientific work by Big Oil and Big Coal pays Big Dividends. 

Of course, you could read all about climate change in that font of “fake news,” Scientific American magazine. You could go to NASA’s website. You could do your research. But act quickly before the Trump administration slashes funding for climate change research and scrubs the NASA site. The future looks grim unless you have your head so far up your posterior you can’t catch a glimpse of anything past your small intestine. You can also check out a letter signed by 375 scientists, including 35 Nobel Prize winners, stating emphatically that human activity is driving climate change. 

Meanwhile, Trump supporters can simply stick their heads in their freezers and pretend 2016 wasn’t the hottest year on record, beating out 2015 for the old record, which beat out 2014 for the record before that.

___ 

 

4/18/17: The powerful armada Trump claims he sent steaming toward North Korea (see: 4/12/17) turns out to be steaming through the Sunda Strait, going the other way. We do have a great military, but it’s not going to be easy hitting North Korea from 3,000 miles away. 

(This is not the last time the president will prove he’s a complete numbskull, regarding the U.S. military.) 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (7/4/19): One of Trump’s greatest moments – his claim that in 1781, George Washington captured the airports at Yorktown. 

Almost impossibly ignorant.

Okay, not even close!

4/19/17: The Hill reports: “A Moscow-based think tank linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin created a plan to swing the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.” 

Damn reporters! Always digging for facts and writing stories based thereon.

___

4/20/17: Attorney General Jeff Sessions tells a conservative commentator he’s “amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” could block Trump’s second travel ban.  

Sessions apparently forgets all federal judges have such power and that Hawaii is part of the United States.

___ 

 

4/21/17: Six hundred icebergs have already been seen in waters near Newfoundland. Most years the number at this point is 60. This is more evidence that the Greenland ice sheet is breaking up. 

We need more snowballs! (See: 3/14/17.)

___ 

 

4/22/17: Thousands of scientists, supporters, and environmentalists demonstrate across the nation. Organizers are motivated by Mr. Trump’s attacks on funding for NASA, his decision to turn the E.P.A. over to a man who could not, in confirmation hearings, name a single E.P.A. regulation he supported, and in the face of the president’s claims that global warming is a hoax and vaccines might be killing children.

Bring back measles and smallpox! (See: 4/29/19.) 

Dr. Naomi Oreskes, a professor at Harvard, who participates in the march, explains: “I can’t think of a time where scientists felt the enterprise of science was being threatened [emphasis added] in the way scientists feel now.” 

The president’s grasp of scientific truths has often proved tenuous. See, for example, his idiotic comments on hairspray.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: On the eve of the summit with North Korea, fourteen months later, The New York Times will report that the White House “has never added a science adviser or senior counselor trained in nuclear physics.” The State Department will still not have a chief scientist. Nor will the Department of Agriculture, although Trump did nominate Sam Clovis for that post, despite the inconvenient fact that Clovis had zero background in…science. The Interior Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will both have disbanded climate change panels. Joel Clement, an expert in climate change at Interior, will be reassigned to a new job. That new job: overseeing fees from fossil fuel drilling.)

___ 

 

4/23/17: Trump suggests that Dreamers, young immigrants brought to America as children, and who remained through no fault of their own, “can rest easy.” He doesn’t want to deport them. Attorney General Sessions, however, says that they, like “everyone that enters the country unlawfully,” are “subject to being deported.” 

____________________ 

“The United States is my home, and I don’t know any other.” 

Jaime Rangel, on why DACA is important to her

____________________ 

 

Take Jaime Rangel. She was brought to the U.S. at six months of age. Now attending college in Georgia, she explains,  

I was brought here…before I could walk, before I could talk, and long before I had any rights to make legal decisions of my own. I love America. I work hard, follow the rules, and because I grew up in Georgia, I speak with a southern accent. The United States is my home, and I don’t know any other – which is why it is so frightening to think that I could be facing possible deportation to a country I have never known.

 

You must be nuts to think deporting Ms. Rangel makes sense. Oh, wait. This is the Trump administration.

___ 

 

4/24/17: With tensions on the Korean Peninsula rising, the president decides to meet with members of the U.N. Security Council over lunch at the White House. Meanwhile, the North Koreans detain a third American citizen. The situation is more complicated than healthcare and just as complicated now as it was when George W. Bush and Barack Obama had to wrestle with similar issues. 

In Trump’s more simplistic days – that is, five weeks ago – he regularly bashed the U.N. and promised to cut funding to the organization. 

Now he wants U.N. assistance.

___ 

 

4/25/17: Trump says he isn’t worried about an “arbitrary” framework, measuring him by a “first-100-days” standard. He’s the best president ever. Every foreign leader loves him. He has great chemistry with them all. He’s not going to fire Press Secretary Spicer because the man has higher TV ratings than soap operas. 

The unintended irony is impossible to miss. 

Turning from stupid to sickening: The president is too obtuse to realize that saying he’s helping CBS (and other networks) to their best ratings “since the World Trade Center came down,” might strike Americans as grotesque. It’s like claiming to be a great driver after you rear-end another vehicle and cause a fiery crash that kills ten children. Your story is going to make the nightly news. 

You still killed those poor children.

___ 

 

4/26/17: Tough day for Trump fans. Congress isn’t going to fund the big, beautiful wall, and it’s not going to get “ten feet taller” every time the president is in a snit. Will Mexico ever pay for it? Sure they will! Kind of like Trump has an imaginary friend in the White House. 

Also, guess who might be going to jail! General Michael T. Flynn! Wouldn’t that be something! Guess who reported this “fake news.” CNN, the “failing” New York Times…and Fox News. 

Also, Ivanka got booed while speaking in Germany.

___ 

 

4/27/17: Are we almost there? Are we exhausted by winning yet? Well, it is a great day to be a multi-millionaire.

President Trump reveals his tax plan, which offers huge cuts for the very wealthy. The “death tax” will be eliminated on estates worth $5.5 million or less for individuals, $11 million for couples. One policy group notes that under existing law (taxing estates worth $3.5 million or more) only 1 in 500 Americans pays the estate tax. A second policy group estimates that 99.9% of us pay nothing.

So: Let’s consider the average crowd at a Trump rally – 10,000 screaming fans in stylish red hats. (On sale at Walmart: $9.99 each.) 

Who will benefit from this change in tax law?  

To hit that 1 in 500, we need twenty people. Trump would come out smelling like gold ingots. There’s Melania and Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, Jared Kushner and Secretary of Education DeVos, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (who delivered the plan yesterday) and assorted billionaires who donated to the Trump campaign (Robert Mercer, Sheldon Adelson) and maybe Paul Manafort, who has all his wealth hidden in Cyprus. (See: 3/3/17.) 

Throw in the four Walton siblings and there you go! 

As a bonus, experts warn the whole Trump Tax Plan will add between $3 and $7 trillion to the national debt. But don’t worry! These cuts will pay for themselves! Last president to make a similar claim: George W. Bush.  

Remember how his tax cuts were going to create millions of jobs! In the end they added  $2.8 trillion in federal debt. 

Also: the U.S. economy imploded.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: We learn quickly that the Trump Tax Plan will not pay for itself, see: 2/10/18; 4/17/18; 10/5/18 and 8/14/19.)

___ 

 

4/28/17: Who said making America great again would be easy? Oh, yeah, the Trumpster! Donald J. Trump swore running the nation would be as easy as grabbing a woman by the p***y. On Day 99, however, he tells a reporter from Reuters, “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier [emphasis added].”

___ 

 

4/29/17: What a bummer. In the first quarter of the year, in the Glorious Era of Donald, the economy grew more slowly than at any time in three years. Consumer spending was the weakest since 2009. 

It could get better and a sensible person (for instance: the same kind of people who knew you couldn’t blame Obama for every problem the U.S. economy faced from the second he finished reciting the oath of office) might give the Tweeter-in-Chief a break. But for now, Trump’s going to have to go back to saying the economic numbers are “phony,” “totally fiction.” (See: 3/10/17.) 

How will we know which numbers are fake? If the numbers look good, we can expect a tweet claiming credit. Then another tweet because the press won’t stroke the president’s ego.

 

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Trump gets a big tax cut from Trump. 

BEST OF ALL, Trump fans, is how exciting the new tax plan will be for…no, not you. Don’t be stupid. 

For the president! 

According to analysis of the one year of his taxes we’ve seen (2005) Trump would have saved $31.3 million under his plan as a result of repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax. This provision was added to stop rich cheaters who got away with paying close to nothing. And that’s savings for one year. 

Also, he’d pay $27 million less because he could count more of his money as business income, which would be taxed at a lower rate than, say, the income you make in wages if you’re a coal miner. 

So much winning for the winners of a rigged game! Repeal the tax on high income earners which pays for the Affordable Care Act. Another $1.5 million for the president to pocket! Cutting the highest tax rate…peanuts to Trump, but another $500,000 he won’t have to pay! 

Get rid of the estate tax? President Oligarch (not to mention all his billionaire friends) would save $1.2 billion on his fortune of $3 billion if he never paid that particular tax (40%).

Trump isn't worried. His grandchildren will be.

National Geographic magazine.