The Horror Show Continues: Days 301 to 365 of President Trump!

The Saga Continues: We have now followed the frauds and follies of President Trump for an entire year. 

It has been a year full of tweets, insults, tweets, racist policies, more tweets, Russians, attacks on U.S. values and institutions, more Russians, and ending with a dollop of porn star loving.

Even a great novelist couldn’t make this all up.

Feel free to relive days 1-100 here. Revisit days 101-200 if you have the stomach. Revel in incompetence, days 201-300. 

THE ARCHIVE

11/16/17: Nine accusers have weighed in to condemn Judge Moore. Eight were teens at the time he tried his slick tricks.

On Fox News, Sean Hannity rants about the hypocrisy of the left, how the left refuses to admit Bill Clinton’s accusers were telling the truth. His nut job case might sound lucid if he dared mention…cough, cough…Roger Ailes.

Or…cough, cough…Bill O’Reilly.

11/17/17: In a Quinnipiac poll 52 percent of Americans disapprove of the GOP tax cut plan.

Only 25 percent approve.

We must assume those are fat cats who have cash stashed in the Isle of Man and other tax havens round the globe. The Economist estimated in 2013 that the wealthiest people in the world had $20 trillion hidden in secret, untaxed offshore accounts.

11/18/17: On this fine Saturday, General John Hyten, top U.S. nuclear commander, is asked at an international security conference what he would do if “Old Fire and Fury,” (President Trump) ever orders an illegal nuclear strike. This follows the first Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in forty years to address the matter of nuclear warfare—not that anyone thinks Donald J. Trump is stark raving mad.

“I provide advice to the president,” the general replies. “He’ll tell me what to do, and if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m gonna say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ Guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up with options of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”

In other words, if the president is nuts, the generals will try to stop him before he goes too far.

I, for one, feel perfectly safe. 

111/19/17: In case you missed it, the president has picked a Twitter fight with LaVar Ball, perhaps the only man in America who might qualify as a bigger douche than Trump.

Ball is father of NBA rookie guard Lonzo Ball and UCLA freshman basketball star LiAngelo Ball. Dad is also the man who averaged something like two points during his college career. Still, back in March, as Lonzo prepared for the NBA draft, dad grabbed all the spotlight he could. “Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one,” he said during an interview.

A shameless self-promoter—like Trump—Papa Ball made it clear he had big plans to sell a Ball-brand line of basketball shoes, Big Baller. The ZO2 model, a low-top, was a bargain at $495. For the true fan you had to consider the autographed-by-Lonzo-in-gold version. They could be yours for $995.

Naturally, Papa Ball loves to tweet. So, tweet he does: “If you can’t afford the ZO2s, you’re NOT a BIG BALLER!”

(He even uses CAPS like TRUMP.)

Now LiAngelo is in the news, one of three UCLA players arrested for shoplifting during a team trip to China. The president says he made a quick call and convinced the Chinese to release the young men without trial.

Alas, in a contest of giant egos and petty personalities, it was hard to predict who might sink to the lowest low. On Twitter, Trump made it clear he expected the young players to thank him. They did.

Then Papa Ball downplayed the president’s roll.

By now we know Trump cannot let any slight go. His response shows how vindictive he would be if he dared. “LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is a big deal,” Trump tweeted. Then the petty climax of his case: “I should have left them in jail.”

Most men grow in the office of president.

Trump shrivels.

11/20/17: The President decides to save the elephants after his administration decides to kill the elephants.

In an effort to cut down on pesky regulations, the federal government announces that big game hunters will be allowed to bring back trophies from exotic African hunts, including various elephant parts. The National Rifle Association supports the policy change, saying it would be a “signficant step forward in having hunting receive the recognition it deserves as a tool of sound wildlife management.” (Yes, sound management: for example, the history of the American bison, c. 1873.)

This policy change is so terrible—the logic so absurd—even Laura Ingraham on Fox News can’t choke it down. When other Fox commentators criticize the change, Trump suddenly realizes that if Fox can’t go along with such stupidity, he might be wise to look at the new policy for the first time.

This “horror story,” he suddenly exclaims, must be stopped! Trump saves the elephants from Trump.

Don Jr. saving an elephant by shooting an elephant.
It all makes so much sense!

11/21/17: Finally outlining his position in regard to Judge Roy Moore, the accused sexual predator and U.S. Senate candidate, the president tells reporters “women are very special.” This is a touching sentiment, with which not even this “Never Trump” blogger can find fault. But does Trump support Moore, accused of molesting teenage girls, in an Alabama special election being held December 12?

Or not???

Well, women are special, but at least the accused molester of women is not a “liberal.”

Trump stands with the molester. He needs Moore’s vote in the Senate, to insure his big, beautiful tax cut.

11/22/17: You can’t say President Trump doesn’t focus, lazer-like, on issues that matter to the average worker and his or her family. Today he spends time complaining again, via Twitter, because LaVar Ball (see: 11/19/17) still isn’t giving him the credit he deserves. That is: all the credit there is. Trump tweets:

It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..

Then, picking up again after running out of characters: “LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”

Yes. The President of the United States is that petty.

11/23/17: Thanksgiving goes well for President Trump. He and his family (minus Tiffany) gather at Mar-a-Lago ($200,000 to join; $14,000 annual dues). Guests talk excitedly about the big tax cuts coming for the superrich …no, we mean…for average workers!

Speaker Paul Ryan has been bragging about the big, beautiful tax cuts coming to the typical family of four. That family will—post-tax-slashing—have a big, beautiful $1,182 extra to spend for the year. So, if we do the math: 169 typical families could pool their typical savings and pay for one membership to Mar-a-Lago. Then a dozen more could team up and pay annual dues.

*

DID GENERAL FLYNN’S LAWYERS just tell Trump’s lawyers they would no longer share  info about the Mueller investigation?

They did.

Does that mean Flynn is cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller? Not necessarily; but the news casts a pall over the dessert course at Mar-a-Lago.

11/24/17: Trump wants us to understand he’s hard at work the day after Thanksgiving. His first tweet Friday is a complaint aimed at NFL players who dare protest during the playing of the National Anthem. “Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players,” he asks. One player who particularly irks Trump is Marshawn Lynch, who was targeted for a special Trump tweet attack earlier in the week.

And what is Lynch protesting against?

See if you can guess from this t-shirt Lynch is regularly seen wearing. Then see if you can guess what amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of players to protest without penalty.

Sixteen minutes later, in a second tweet, Trump says he plans to talk to the leader of Turkey and clean up the “mess I inherited in the Middle East.”

Presidents who inherited messes: Polk, Truman, Obama, et al.

Other presidents who might have squealed about problems they inherited (assuming they had had the maturity of five-year-olds), would include: James K. Polk (inherited messes on the Mexican and Canadian borders) and Abraham Lincoln (mess at Fort Sumter). Also inheriting messes: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman (World War II), Dwight D. Eisenhower (Korean War), a whole string of presidents (Vietnam War), and every occupant of the Oval Office since 1967 (the same Middle East mess that Trump is whining about now).

Barack Obama inherited two wars.

At any rate, the job of running America is so difficult Trump decides he needs time for himself and hits the links. “After Turkey call,” he admits in a third tweet, “I will be heading over to Trump National Golf Club, Jupiter, to play golf (quickly) with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson.”

Trump, who once lambasted his predecessor for playing what he said was way too much golf, has, for those keeping score, been playing way more golf. 

(Quickly.) 

According to Golf News Net, Trump has already spent at least 79 days since taking office at his golf courses. Those trips have cost taxpayers tens of millions and Trump is on pace to spend 300 days away from D.C. in four years.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten; but Citizen Trump frequently attacked President Obama for coming from Kenya, stealing the presidency and hitting the links instead of working hard for the American people. It turns out the pace at which his predecessor played golf was half of Hypocrite-in-Chief Donald J. Trump’s. 

Also: Trump eventually had to admit what every sane American knew. Obama was born in America.

11/25/17: For a few hours it looked as if the president might make it through a day without doing anything stupid or undercutting fundamental American values.

True. He did claim Time magazine talked with him about his being chosen “Person of the Year” for 2017. Time says it never discusses picks until they announce choices on December 6. So, it might have been a white lie.

By lunchtime, however, Trump was all warmed up.

The free press continues to nettle the thin-skinned man in the White House and Donald J. Trump realizes he has no other choice. He must undercut the First Amendment again via tweet:

@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!

Or to put Trump’s thinking more baldly: Wouldn’t it be better for “our nation” if we could shut CNN down?

11/26/17: Reporters stop the president on the South Lawn and pepper him with questions. He’s leaving for Mississippi to lead a rally for Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate runoff election.

Well, they ask, what does he think about the 1,656-page climate report just released by 13 government agencies?

“I’ve seen it. I’ve read some of it. And it’s fine,” he responds in lame-ass fashion. You know he hasn’t read it.

Asked if he agrees with the report’s assessment—that our nation will face serious negative environmental, economic and social consequences from climate change, he replies: “I don’t believe it.”

(See his almost identical reaction to a United Nations report, put together by scientists from 40 nations: 10/11/18.)

11/27/17: Trump doubles down in his attack on the First Amendment. Hoping to stir his base (to what? violence against reporters?), the president channels his inner Robert Mugabe.

He tweets: “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”

*

IN OLD BUT STILL INTERESTING NEWS, The New York Times offers up the tale of yet another rich businessman who went about screwing his workers in an unwavering effort to fatten his bank account. First, he hired undocumented workers for a job that had to be done. He wanted to knock down an old building so he could put up a mixed-use 58-story skyscraper in downtown New York City.

Second, he conspired to pay those workers less than half what union workers would have demanded.

Third, the businessman required the undocumented to put in 12-hour shifts—but didn’t pay overtime.

Fourth, if those workers—in this case from Poland—complained about working conditions or because their wages were late or sometimes not paid at all they would be threatened with deportation.

The businessman got his start screwing his workers.

How did this scam work? Recently, a judge unsealed records from a settlement, twenty years ago. According to that settlement the businessman was forced, after battling for years, to pay the undocumented workers the money they said he owed. Including legal costs and interest the tab came to $1.375 million.

The businessman testified that he never visited the work site, where the Poles were demolishing the 12-story Bonwit Teller building. A foreman on the job, Zbignew Goryn, disagreed. The businessman, he said, did visit the site, marveling about the Polish demolition crew. “He said, ‘Those Polish guys are good, hard workers,’” Goryn told the judge.

A smaller group of union workers, paid union rates, made fun of the Poles. Adam Mrowiec testified in court: “They told me and my friends that we are stupid Poles and we are working for such low money.”

“We worked in horrid, terrible conditions,” Wojciech Kozak remembered. “We were frightened illegal immigrants and did not know enough about our rights.” “We were working 12, 16 hours a day and were paid $4 an hour. Because I worked with an acetylene torch, I got $5 an hour. We worked without masks. Nobody knew what asbestos was. I was an immigrant. I worked very hard.”

Eventually, pay stopped coming. The Poles found a lawyer, John Szabo, to represent their cause. Szabo went to the businessman’s office to complain. If something wasn’t done, he’d place a mechanic’s lien on the property. If that happened the building could not be sold until the lien was settled.

A representative of the businessman began showing up to pay the Poles in cash. This insured there was no income-tax-social-security-tax-union-dues paper trail. Joseph Dabrowski testified that the businessman appeared on site and told workers, “If you finish this fast” then “I will pay for it.”

Szabo filed a lien. Daniel Sullivan, a labor consultant, said that the businessman came to him for help. He said he had “difficulties…that he had some illegal Polish employees.” The businessman had his lawyer call Szabo. They were going to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service and have his clients deported. Szabo refused to back down in court. Eventually, the businessman wilted and settled the case. The workers were paid 100% of what they had been demanding for fifteen years.

The new 58-story tower went up at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 56^th Street in downtown New York City.

Proud of his accomplishments, the businessman slapped big gold letters on the side of his skyscraper: T-R-U-M-P.

11/28/17:  The Trump “tax reform” plan is being fast-forwarded through Congress. But don’t worry. Everyone will love the final result. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, have donated $200 million to the GOP during the last two presidential elections. Now they’ll be repaid when Congress eliminates the estate tax.

The three Walton siblings, Jim (worth $38.4 billion) Robson ($38.3 billion) and Alice (the poor one, with $38.2 billion) will no longer have to pinch pennies when they head for Olive Garden for the “Senior Special.”

Secretary of Commerce Ross can finally make up for the losses he suffered selling his New York City apartment for $16.5 million and can move out of the dilapidated building where apartments went for as low as $2 million. Ross might be able to use his tax savings and repair the broken light over the front door of his 16,247-square-foot Palm Beach cottage, which he paid $13.3 million for in 2008.

And he can finally put a fresh coat of paint on his digs in D.C., which cost another $12 million.

Luckily, the fiscal suffering of the Trump clan will also be ended. Ivanka will enjoy a huge tax cut and be able to spend $3,000 with ease to buy giant clamshells to decorate her Thanksgiving table. The president will get a huge cut and he can buy Melania another $51,500 designer jacket to wear about town. Don Jr. will see his tax bill go down, which will leave him extra cash to spend on lawyers to protect himself from the Robert Mueller investigation.

The jacket worth $51,500.

11/28/17:  The Trump “tax reform” plan is being fast-forwarded through Congress. But don’t worry. Everyone will love the final result. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, have donated $200 million to the GOP during the last two presidential elections. Now they’ll be repaid when Congress eliminates the estate tax.

The three Walton siblings, Jim (worth $38.4 billion) Robson ($38.3 billion) and Alice (the poor one, with $38.2 billion) will no longer have to pinch pennies when they head for Olive Garden for the “Senior Special.”

Secretary of Commerce Ross can finally make up for the losses he suffered selling his New York City apartment for $16.5 million and can move out of the dilapidated building where apartments went for as low as $2 million. Ross might be able to use his tax savings and repair the broken light over the front door of his 16,247-square-foot Palm Beach cottage, which he paid $13.3 million for in 2008.

And he can finally put a fresh coat of paint on his digs in D.C., which cost another $12 million.

Luckily, the fiscal suffering of the Trump clan will also be ended. Ivanka will enjoy a huge tax cut and be able to spend $3,000 with ease to buy giant clamshells to decorate her Thanksgiving table. The president will get a huge cut and he can buy Melania another $51,500 designer jacket to wear about town. Don Jr. will see his tax bill go down, which will leave him extra cash to spend on lawyers to protect himself from the Robert Mueller investigation.

11/29/17: By now anyone with a modicum of common sense knows the president is a dick. The only surprise is how much of a dick he is.

Today he begins his morning at 6:37 a.m. by re-tweeting three anti-Muslim videos from Britain First, a right-wing fringe group in that country.

Condemnation from decent people is swift. Sen. Lindsey Graham warns that the president is “legitimizing religious bigotry.” When we ask Iraqis or Afghans or Kurds for help this is likely to backfire. “We need Muslim allies in the war on terror,” Graham explains. “I can only imagine how some of our Muslim allies must feel when the president gives legitimacy to it.”

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper calls Trump’s decision to retweet the videos “bizarre and disturbing.”

“Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no friend of ours.”

British lawmaker

Prime Minister Theresa May sends out a spokesperson to relay this blunt message:

Britain First seeks to divide communities in their use of hateful narratives which pedal lies and stoke tensions…. British people overwhelming reject the prejudice[d] rhetoric of the far-right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents; decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the president to have done this.

Members of Parliament join the chorus. Speaking in the House of Commons, one notes:

It appears that the President of the United States has, in recent moments, been retweeting comments from far-fight organisation Britain First—highly inflammatory videos, including some posted by an individual who I believe has recently been arrested and charged relating to certain serious offences.

Another member offers biting assessment: “Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no friend of ours.”

Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo Cox, a British lawmaker, was gunned down by a man shouting, “Britain first!” has this to say. “Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.”

As if on cue, Press Secretary Pinocchio is forced to go out and try to cover again for Trump and his spew. It doesn’t matter if the videos are real or not, Sarah Sanders insists, because “the threat is real.”

Yes. It’s the dick in the Oval Office.

11/30/17: We learn that over the summer, President Trump did his best to convince GOP lawmakers to help him out. Senator Richard Burr, head of the Intelligence Committee, tells reporters Trump spoke to him about how he’d like Congress to conduct its business. “It was something along the lines, ‘I hope you can conclude this [investigation] as quickly as possible.’”

Burr says he responded, “when we have exhausted everybody we need to talk to, we will finish.”

Trump asked other senators, including Milksop Mitch McConnell and Roy Blunt of Missouri, to end the investigation swiftly. Blunt says he was lobbied by the president during an Air Force One flight they shared to Springfield, Missouri. Trump, he said, told him “to wrap up the investigation.”

Yet another Republican senator said Trump did not ask him to help end the investigation.

Finally, the president showed he understood the rule of law…

Ha, ha, I’m just joking. That senator said Trump urged him to begin investigating Hillary Clinton.

Court documents show Flynn lied repeatedly.

December 1, 2017: General Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and agrees to become a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation.

Trump immediately announces that this proves he never colluded with Russians, grabbed women by the pussy, failed in the casino business or cheated on all three wives. On Fox News, every host agrees with this assessment. Sean Hannity insists Trump won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

Court documents show Flynn lied repeatedly about a variety of matters. Also, the plea deal immunizes him only in regard to matters therein mentioned (which this dimwitted blogger just learned is how plea deals work). There are all kinds of matters left out and still hanging over “Old Lock Her Up” Flynn’s head. Nothing, for example, is said of his agreement to help the Turkish government kidnap a dissident living in Pennsylvania and return him to Turkey for trial. In return for such efforts Flynn (and his son) were to be paid more than $530,000.

That would mean Flynn and Flynn 2.0 were working for the Turks—even against U.S. interests.

(The White House tries to make it sound like Obama did it. In a press release after Flynn’s plea deal is announced, he is described as “a former Obama administration official.”)

12/2/17: President Trump has a bad weekend as he begins to feel the heat. What is Flynn about to say?

Trump turns to Twitter to defend himself—with all the logic you can pack into 560 characters (Twitter doubled the maxiumum length of posts to 280 characters a few days ago; and Trump tweets twice). First, we have: “So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday ‘interrogation’ with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times...and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?”

Second: “Many people in our Country are asking what the ‘Justice’ Department is going to do about the fact that totally Crooked Hillary, AFTER receiving a subpoena from the United States Congress, deleted and ‘acid washed’ 33,000 Emails? No justice!”

In other words, Trump fans, you can no longer trust the F.B.I. You cannot expect justice from the Department of Justice.

You may only trust in Donald J. Trump.

And God?

12/3/17: Speaking of courts—that pesky third branch of government—Trump is on the rampage again.

A jury in San Francisco has listened to evidence in the case of Jose Ines Garcia Zarote and deliberated for six days. Zarote, an illegal immigrant, shot and killed Kate Steinle, an innocent bystander on a city pier. That made him poster boy for Candidate/President Trump, who used the case to prove we needed a giant border wall and a moat filled with piranhas to protect ourselves from “rapists” (but not Judge Moore) and “murderers” (but not Vladimir).

The bullet hit Steinle, eighty feet away, on a ricochet.

The story is a tragedy. Still, the case for murder is weak. Zarote did fire a gun—and as a felon should not have had one in his possession. The bullet hit the pavement and struck Steinle, eighty feet away, on a ricochet. This does not mean Zarote is not vile. This does not mean the Steinle family did not suffer irredeamable loss. It does mean Zarote could not be found guilty of murder, since he had no intent.

Unfortunately, the president has no regard for the rule of law. He wants the courts to make decisions that conform with his furies. Referring to a recent terror attack in New York City he weighed in on what must be done to protect all Americans (not including anyone who might hope to be protected by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments). Trump insisted our court system, as it now stands, is a “laughingstock and a disaster.”

What we needed, he fumed, was “punishment that’s far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are getting right now.”

Postscript: When Trump is greeted with a storm of criticism for yet another attack on the judicial system, Pinocchio Sanders has to stand in front of the press and insist the words that everyone heard coming out of President Trump’s mouth did not come out of his actual mouth.

Apparently, a ventriloquist was involved.

12/4/17: Just when you think it can’t get any worse it get’s worse. The president goes to Twitter and endorses Judge Roy Moore, the accused pedophile, for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

“America no longer has a moral compass.”

It takes Trump two tweets to make a case. The second is most telling: “Putting Pelosi/Schumer Liberal Puppet [Doug] Jones into office in Alabama would hurt our great Republican Agenda of low on taxes, tough on crime, strong on military and borders...& so much more. Look at your 401-k’s since Election. Highest Stock Market EVER! Jobs are roaring back!”

This proves too much for Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. On Twitter he lambasts the man his party put in the Oval Office. “Your refusal to acknowledge you’ve just endorsed a pedophile for the sake of a ‘vote’ tells me Roy Moore will be a Trump puppet and America no longer has a moral compass under your ‘leadership.’”

In Alabama a political action committee, Child Molesters for Moore, starts passing out literature.

Okay, that’s a joke. But admit it: in Trumpistan, you can’t be sure.

Someone from Trump & Company is headed for jail.

12/5/17: Down in Alabama, Steven K. Bannon gives a talk in defense of Judge Moore. Bannon spends a good part of his time bashing Mitt Romney, who had come out against Moore. Bannon goes after Romney on grounds that he hid behind his religion to avoid serving in Vietnam. He wonders why voters should listen to a man with five sons, none of whom served in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Moore did serve in Vietnam.

This might be a solid argument if you didn’t realize that the issue is Moore’s behavior regarding teen girls once he returned to the States.

Also, you’d have to be a drooling idiot not to notice the glaring flaw in Bannon’s case. This is a man who worked heart and soul to see that Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States.

Trump dodged military service with just as much enthusiasm, if not more, as Mitt Romney. He had two sons and a son-in-law who would have been the perfect age to serve our country after 9/11.

None did.

  

Moore and Trump will team up to make America great again.

12/6/17: Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Pretty much the entire world condemns the move. The head of the United Nations warns that this decision creates a “moment of high anxiety.” The Pope criticizes his actions. So do all the countries of the Middle East, including key U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS (Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia). France, Britain and Germany label it a mistake. The European Union opposes.

The president of Indonesia—a moderate nation of 225 million Muslims—takes a strong stance. “This can rock global security and safety,” he warns.

12/7/17: We learn today that Don Jr. was grilled for eight hours by the House Intelligence Committee. Alas, the poor fellow refused to answer questions about what he and his father said, discussing a June 2016 meeting with representatives of the Russian government. (See: 7/8-7/14/17.)

Anyway, Don Jr. now says he can’t answer questions about the discussion he had with good old Dad. Why? House committee members wonder. Client-attorney privilege, Don Jr. explains.

This is odd. Don Jr. is not a lawyer. Don Sr. is not a lawyer. (Don Sr. is not even a very good president).

The Republican-controlled committee decides to let Don Jr. slide.

12/8/17: Speaking in Pensacola, Trump dons the garb of dictator. First, he offers a full-throated endorsement of accused sex offender, Judge Roy Moore. He must have Moore’s vote in the Senate. Even a child abuser is acceptable so long as that child abuser will toe the Trump line.

At a Friday night rally for Moore the president complains to the crowd about the Mueller investigation and the roadblocks in his way under the current government structure. You know: the three branches thing. “This is a rigged system,” he shouts. “This is a sick system from the inside. And, you know, there is no country like our country but we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions.”

Who can cure this cancer?

All hail Trump.

12/9/17: Funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers nine million children from low-income families, ran out in September.

The program costs $14 billion annually and Congress has failed to fund it for the next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the GOP “tax reform plan” is working its way toward a conference committee in Congress. At least $150 billion in tax cuts will go to the very wealthiest families who pay an estate tax.

Just as the Republicans planned! Screw healthcare for kids! Suffering multi-millionaires and billionaires who once had to pinch pennies and bed down at Motel 6 when traveling will be able to upgrade accomodations once the tax plan passes.

Your ordinary oligarch will have a little extra left over to rent the Mark Penthouse, in the Mark Hotel, in New York City. Cost: $75,000 per night. For that Mr. or Ms. Oligarch will get 26-foot ceilings, four fireplaces (with free firewood?), five bedrooms, six bathrooms and 12,000 square feet to kick back and relax after a hard day hedging funds, sending jobs overseas, buying up politicians and explaining why you can’t afford to pay your workers a minimum wage of $15 per hour.

Well, it’s a hard life; but somebody has to create jobs (for hotel maids, etc.). Your ordinary Captain of Industry has earned every amenity. For just $75,000 you also get a steam room, two powder rooms, two wet bars, a kitchen, a conservatory, and a library lounge, although if you are wasting a lot of time sitting and reading, you probably should have stayed home.

12/10/17: Let’s give it up for Trump! The stock market has set repeated highs since his election. In November 228,000 jobs were added to the economy. This means, your “favorite President,” as he has taken to calling himself, has seen 1,916,000 jobs added in the first eleven months of 2017.

He’s doing almost as well as Barack Obama in 2016, when 2,085,000 jobs were added in a similar span.

12/11/17: Trump is grumpy. Trump is grumpy because The New York Times did a story based on interviews with sixty sources. Trump is grumpy because those sources, including members of the GOP, aides in the White House, and friends, paint a less than flattering picture. It is said Trump is prone to furious outbursts if anything fails to go his way. He’s addicted to Diet Coke (a dozen cans per day).

And he watches a lot of television, four-to-eight hours daily.

12/12/17: Trump has a very bad day, starting with a pair of rage-tweets. The first:

Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!

This claim is promptly undercut when People magazine begins posting pictures of the president with several of his accusers.

Ninni Laaksonen, Miss Finland,
one of the accusers Trump said he didn't know and never met.

In his second tweet Trump goes after “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,” who called for him to resign in light of all the claims of sexual harassment leveled against him. The president now follows the sage advice of Michelle Obama, who once exclaimed, “When they go low, we go high.”

Hahaha!

The splenetic man in the Oval Office labels Gillibrand, “a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them).”

The “do anything” phrase is taken by many to be an insinuation Gillibrand would prostitute herself for cash.

For USA Today, a newspaper that charts a middle path in politics, this is too much. In an editorial, titled, Will Trump’s Lows Ever Hit Rock Bottom? editors answer that question:

With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.

…A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.  

…Donald Trump…is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed.

Alabama women send Trump a message.

AS MORNING TURNS to afternoon, afternoon to evening, the mood of the Groper-in-Chief turns sour. Down in Alabama, voters, particularly women, send a message to the White House. The President of the United States might be happy to seat an accused pedophile in the U.S. Senate. They are not.

More than 22,000 conservative Alabamians follow the lead of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, himself an Alabama Republican, but a man who cannot stomach the idea of Moore seated beside him. They cast write-in votes for some other conservative representative besides Judge Moore.

The rest of the electorate splits 50% to 48%, providing Jones a narrow victory. According to exit polls, women go for the Democrat by a 16-point margin. Young Alabamians favor Jones by 23.

12/13/17: Trump hops out of bed, dons his bunny slippers and declares victory in the Alabama special election. Sure. He endorsed Judge Roy Moore. And Moore lost. Sure. He made robocalls for Moore. Sure. He told everyone he needed Moore in the Senate. Yes, he warned that “Liberal Puppet Jones…would hurt our great Republican Agenda.”

Now, with Jones heading to Washington and Moore riding off into the sunset on his favorite horse, “Underage Teen,” Trump admits he was…right all along. “The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange [in the primary] (and his numbers went up mightily) is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!”

Moore was an accused child molester, Mr. President. The deck wasn’t stacked against him. You endorsed him.

The shame is both his and yours.

Judge Roy Moore on his favorite horse: "Underage Teen."
(Okay, I'm kind of kidding.)

12/14/17: We discover that the alligator population in the Washington swamp has been cut by one.

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, crack White House staffer, in charge of who knows what, paid $179,700 to do whatever it was she did, former star of The Apprentice, has left the building.

Press Secretary Pinocchio tells reporters Omarosa resigned. We quickly learn that’s a lie. Sources tell White House reporter April Ryan that Omarosa was fired. An unnamed source tells the Wall Street Journal she had to be “physically dragged and escorted off the campus.” There are rumors that when told she was about to be terminated, Omarosa tried to storm the White House living quarters to plead her case with Trump.

The Secret Service feels a need to clarify matters in a rare public statement: “The Secret Service was not involved in the termination process of Ms. Manigault Newman or the escort off of the complex. Our only involvement in this matter was to deactivate the individual’s pass which grants access to the complex.”

Before she’s gone, let’s remember this chilling statement, delivered soon after Trump was elected. Had it come from any aide to President Obama, Rush Limbaugh would have been howling for his angry, gun-toting, conspiracy-nut-loving listeners to grab their weapons and lock and load.

“Every critic,” Omarosa once informed reporters with an icy smile, “every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him—it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”

Bow down.

Omarosa was qualified for a White House position? And why?

12/15/17: Republicans step up attacks on the F.B.I. and the Russia investigation. According to right-wing hacks everybody at the top of the Bureau and all the leaders at the Department of Justice and all the men and women involved in the investigation have turned out to be liars.

But you know who you can trust? Donald J. Trump! Trump would never grab women by the pussy (locker room talk). Trump would never cheat on his taxes (eternally under audit). Trump would never screw students (Trump University) or workers (hiring undocumented immigrants to build Trump Tower). Trump would never lie about Obama’s birth certificate (for five years) or get a doctor to write him a note excusing him from military service (bone spurs).

Everyone else is lying.

12/16/17: Trump has now nominated four candidates for positions on the federal bench who end up being rated “unqualified” by the American Bar Association. How about Brett Talley for a seat on a district court? Why not!

Talley just happens to believe the first version of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s  was a fine civic organization.

Did you know two of Trump’s nominees deemed “unqualified” were rated so by unanimous vote? Since the American Bar Association started issuing ratings in 1989 only two other nominees have ever been rated “unqualified” unanimously.

Matthew S. Petersen, another Trump nominee, rated “qualified,” had his name withdrawn after a disastrous appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his hearing he pretty much failed to answer any of the questions put to him by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.

All Petersen really seemed to understand was that if confirmed for a judgeship he’d get to bang a gavel. 

When the K.K.K. was keeping America great.

12/17/17: The Thought Police are hard at work at the Center for Disease Control. Today we learn scientists at CDC were admonished not to use these seven words or phrases in written reports: “science-based,” “evidence-based,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “diversity” “vulnerable,” or “entitlement.” Scientists will no longer blather on about “science-based” findings.

In Trumpistan changing the wording passes for draining the swamp. You rebrand the swamp a “swimming pool.” 

Wow, hot enough today for you, buddy?

The Thought Police have already “drained the swamp” at the E.P.A., at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by scrubbing all mention of climate change.

Now, government scientists may only ask in conversation or for publication, “Wow, hot enough today for you, buddy?”

12/18/17: The Thought Police expand their efforts regarding the E.P.A. Scott Pruitt gives approval to hire Definers Public Affairs to provide “media monitoring.” Definers, which won a no-bid contract, just so happens to be affiliated with America Rising, a Republican research group. America Rising spent a good chunk of 2016 submitting Freedom of Information requests demanding the emails of various E.P.A. employees who had the nerve to:

A)    Speak up at a private lunch and say the nation might be headed for an “environmental catastrophe.”

B)     Write a letter to Pruitt, raising similar concerns.

C)    Attend a rally to protest budget cuts at the agency, which would very possibly cripple the agency.

12/19/17: The GOP “tax reform” package moves to a vote in the United States House of Representatives. Trump is still busy trying to convince the public that the new tax rules are going to kill him. Almost anyone with a third-grade math background can see this isn’t even close to true.

The top tax rate will fall from 39.6 % to 37 %, so that someone pulling in $50,000,000 just by raising fees at Mar-a-Lago (see 11/23/17), and not making a penny in any other way would get a cut of $1.3 million.

You might remember when Candidate Trump complained that hedge fund managers  were not paying their share in taxes. They were “getting away with murder.” 

When he became President of the United States, he was damn sure going to do something about that!

The new GOP tax plan leaves the way open for hedge fund managers to keep committing murder.

Postscript: By a 60% to 27% margin, Republicans actually think the bill will help the middle class more than the wealthy.

Independents say the reverse: 28% expecting it to help the middle class more, 64% saying it will help the wealthy more.

Democrats say the wealthy will gain more by a 95% to 4% margin.

A new poll shows that 55% of Americans oppose the plan in its entirety and only 33% approve.

12/20/17: Republicans celebrate a huge tax victory for the superrich and promise trickle down benefits for everyone else. Once interested in fiscal restraint, GOP lawmakers go all in on deficit spending.

Ironically, Brock Long, the head of FEMA and a Trump appointee, admits his agency is out of money. Many workers have reached caps on overtime pay. Congress apparently believes federal workers should toil extra hours for free. Meanwhile, who needs to keep an eye on crooked businesses? Under emergency contracts, FEMA is coughing up $969 to have private companies haul away a single ruined refrigerator. Before all the big storms it would have cost $100.

12/21/17: Obamacare is not “imploding” as the Groper-in-Chief has said repeatedly. In an enrollment period shortened by half, and purposely designed to ensure enrollment fell, so the Groper could keep insisting Obamacare was dead, a total of 8.8 million Americans signed up for health insurance.

Two red states led the enrollment boom with Florida first (1.7 million) and Texas second (1.1 million).

12/22/17: As another Christmas approaches, Fox News fans—and we do include the Groper-in-Chief—are still fighting the bloody “War on Christmas.”

Once again, millions of “good Americans” (defined by Trump as “people who love Trump”) will be killed or divested of appendages by toppling, blinking-light-and-ornament-encumbered pine trees.

So, let me be the first liberal to say to Trump fans: “Merry Christmas! Merry, Mary, Jesus, Joseph, Lazarus (no Obamacare for you), and everybody else in the New Testament, Christmas!”

Alien wise men visiting the earth via U.F.O.’s.

This greeting does not go out to any of my Jewish friends—Muslim friends—or my friends who might be agnostic or atheist or Hindu or Scientologists, so that sometimes I just say, “Happy Holidays.” This is not because I want to see Christians crushed by toppling trees, but because I try to be polite. I don’t assume everyone believes what I believe or what my Christian friends believe. And it might seem insensitive to assume Tom Cruise believed in Jesus instead of the holiday story once told by L. Ron Hubbard about alien wise men visiting the earth via U.F.O.’s.

12/23/17: In world news the Trump decision to declare Jerusalem capital of Israel is so popular that in a vote at the United Nations, eight entire countries side with us. One is Israel. Others backing us include powerhouses Guatemala and Honduras. Also backing us are Micronesia, Togo, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau. Admit it. You didn’t know Nauru was a nation.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warns before the vote that President Trump will “take this personally.” (Does he ever not take matters personally?) The U.S. will be “taking names” and may cut off aid to any country that stabs us in the red, white and blue back.

It turns out “taking names” will take time. Thirty-five nations abstain from voting; but 128 condemn the move. Afghanistan votes against the United States. Iraq votes against. Saudi Arabia does too.

Still, we’re making progress under President “Merry Christmas,” now that eight whole nations are on our side.

This is a huge improvement, compared to the Trump administration’s Flat Earth position on climate change.

In that case the U.S. stood alone.

12/24/17: In positive news the United Nations votes to impose harsher sanctions on North Korea, potentially cutting imports and exports nearly to zero. This would be proof Trump’s strategy for containment is working—save for the fact that Trump likes to claim the United Nations is useless and all other member countries ever do is take our money.

Meanwhile, his crazy base still believes blue-helmeted U.N. soldiers are about to invade our shores, make us give up our Bibles, melt down all our guns, and seat Queen Hillary on the throne.

*

ALSO, OUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT comes clean in describing the Trump Tax Plan—which he claimed would not benefit the superrich, people like himself. Not at all, he promised, it would be “one of the great Christmas gifts to middle-income people.”          

Then it was off to Mar-a-Lago for the Christmas holiday—and there, Trump told his fat cat friends the truth. “You all just got a lot richer,” he said, explaining the true impact of his Trump Helps Himself and His Fat Cat Pals Tax Plan.

12/25/17: Merry Christmas, everyone. According to the Groper-in-Chief, the “War on Christmas” has been won. Liberals will no longer kick over public Nativity scenes. Commies will cease gathering up Christmas cards and burning them in bonfires. Barack Obama will never again come to your house, knock politely and, upon entry, smash your keepsake ornaments.

Trump’s first tweet of the day is a rousing cheer in the fictitious war that never was: “Merry Christmas.”

In this war, Trump fought heroically since there were no bullets involved. Plus: there were presents.

Harder to sue nursing homes in cases of negligence.

Also, we should say, “Merry Christmas, Grandma!” At the urging of lobbyists for the nursing home industry another victory is won when Trump & Co. cut back “unnecessary” regulations.

Say, for example, Granny has an operation. Doctors implant a medication pump in her abdomen. The sutures don’t hold. Over a period of eight days the incision opens. The pump sticks out of Granny like the horrible creature that pops out of that the guy’s guts in Alien. Granny gets an infection and dies.

Well, now you can tell Granny, “Merry Christmas” whenever you see her. Except for the minor detail that Granny is dead.

Under new rules it will be much harder to sue nursing homes in cases of improper care or negligence.

Meanwhile, the average cost of a year’s stay in a semi-private room in a nursing home is more than $80,000 annually. But don’t worry. Medicare and Medicaid help pay most of the costs.

Oh, wait, Paul Ryan and the Republicans want to cut back Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

12/26/17: Our “favorite president” once again announces the demise of Obamacare. The sad end comes at 6:58 on a December morning.

“Based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate has been terminated as part of our Tax Cut Bill,” Trump tweets, “which essentially Repeals (over time) ObamaCare, the Democrats & Republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new HealthCare plan!”

(In April 2019, the president admits that Republicans will delay putting forward “a great new HealthCare plan” until after the 2020 election. Isn’t that a hoot!)

12/27/17: Governor Mike Huckabee has apparently taken up smoking the Weed. On Tuesday he watches the Darkest Hour, a film about Winston Churchill. When the show ends, he reaches for his iPhone and tweets comparison. Trump is like Churchill! This is “what real leadership looks like.”

Several historians label the comparison “ridiculous.”

Pinocchio Sanders tells the press corps her dad is wrong. Churchill is nothing compared to Trump. Churchill couldn’t carry Trump’s golf bag. Trump is ½ Churchill, ½ Gandhi, and ¼ Alvin York.

After months of listening to Pinocchio’s ramblings reporters don’t bother to tell her that her fractions don’t add up.

A lawmaker in Norway provides the best response to Governor Huckabee’s tweet. “Sure,” she says. “Churchill served his country 55 years in parliament, 31 years as a minister and 9 as p.m. [prime minister] He was present in 15 battles and received 14 medals of bravery. He was one of history’s most gifted orators and won the Nobel Prize for his writing. Totally the same thing.”

12/28/17: Is the Idiot-in-Chief talking about the global warming hoax again? Yes, the Idiot-in-Chief is.

It’s nippy outside—which is all it takes to convince Trump that climate change cannot be real. “In the East,” he tweets, “it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!”

Thank god he didn’t get stuck in the walk-in freezer in the White House kitchen. He’d be warning that a new Ice Age was in swing.

12/29/17: As if struck by lightning, it dawns on Trump that he should stand up for human rights, whereas until now he has been fine with the rights abuses of Putin, Duterte and the late Saddam—who the president once touted for his skill in killing terrorists. (Actually, those “terrorists” were Kurds—who have been helping the U.S. fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria for years.)

In any case, Trump tweets:

Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtestsToday.

This is a surprise because Trump and his base often express hatred for protesters on U.S. soil. Black Lives Matter protesters, protesters at Trump rallies, “paid” protesters after he assumed office, Charlottesville protesters (unless they carried Nazi banners), NFL players protesting, reporters reporting on protests, the president’s contempt for those who stand against his regime has been clear.

Also, Trump supporters typically hate all Muslims, which would include nearly all the Iranians. (See: 7/13/17; 9/13/19; 9/22/17; 10/8/17.)

12/30/17: We hear rumblings. The president’s legal team plans to start branding General Flynn a liar. Trump once talked regularly about what a great man the general was. That was before Flynn began cooperating with the Mueller investigation. By now this much should be obvious. In the twisted world of Donald J. Trump every critic is a liar. Go to his Twitter feed and have a look.

A classic case of projection.

Who does Trump insist is lying? George Papadopoulos, who worked for his campaign, is a liar. Hillary is a “PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.”  James Comey? Wow, “so many false statements and lies.” The Fake News media deals in “fabricated lies!” Some “POS WSJ LIAR” needs to be taken down. There’s a “liar sleazeball” in Tennessee. Jeb Bush? “I’d like to call him a liar, but the truth is he has no clue.”

In what psychologists would no doubt label classic projection, Trump’s warped world is replete with liars. When the media reports on women who accuse him of sexual assault, the accusers deal in “made-up stories and lies.” “Obama is a liar.” Marco Rubio is a “liar/orator like Obama.” George Will is a liar. Edward Snowden is a “liar and a fraud.” James Clapper is lying. Robert Mueller is lying. Leadership at the F.B.I. and Department of Justice is comprised of men and women who can’t tell the difference between truth and a Twinkie. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders lie. All the students at Trump University were lying about shitty courses. Jeff Flake was a liar. Ted Cruz was a “world class liar.”

Whole rafts of reporters make a living lying. Just by chance, it happens these are all reporters who criticize the Groper-in-Chief. There are flocks of liars at CNN, ABC, MSNBC, PBS, the BBC, at Time, Newsweek, Reuters, USA Today, The New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Post and any newspaper or media outlet that faulted Donald J. Trump.

12/31/17: Proving once again that the Tweeter-in-Chief can’t possibly go 24 hours straight without acting like a dick, he cannot let the old year end without a petty insult to start us off in 2018. “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter,” he tap-tap-taps, “I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New Year.”

Sincerity eludes the man.

January 1, 2018: Trump decides to work his diplomatic magic via Twitter. In what will probably be the first of countless rage-tweets this year he lambasts Pakistan.

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!

Pakistan may be a lousy U.S. ally; but Pakistan is a U.S. ally.

U.S. and NATO supplies and troops needed in Afghanistan pass through ports and travel vital road links across Pakistan.

The president and many of his loyal fans tend to be weak when it comes to geography. So, he/they may not realize there is no direct route into Afghanistan except across Iran or Pakistan or from far to the north. Sometimes the Pakistani military takes on the Taliban which helps quite a bit.

Sometimes the Pakistani military doesn’t.

Pakistan is the only Muslim nation that has nuclear weapons. We want to keep the Pakistanis on our side, in case Trump forgot.

1/2/18: A fresh year brings fresh tweets. Starting 2018 the same way he ended 2017, Trump taps his inner fury.

He still wants all his enemies—including those not charged with crimes—promptly locked up:

Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others.

In addition, all critics must bow at his feet:

The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, “to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.” Get...

....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent “sources,” and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL

*

My nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than yours.

FINALLY, ANGERED by the fact the dictator of North Korea has claimed to have nuclear weapons ready at his fingertips, the President of the United States lets rip with this my-penis-is-bigger screed:

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works! 

At this point, sensible human beings must wonder. How far off the deep end has Trump dived? Is the pressure of doing a job for which he has no skill causing the increase in erratic behavior?

Does Trump not realize the devastation that any single nuclear weapon might cause? Assuming we could decapitate the enemy regime with a sudden strike, an atomic bomb dropped on the North Korean capital could incinerate a million men, women and children in a flash.

Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, labels the tweet “infantile.” Trump’s national security team is working to “control the drunk,” Leiter says, and keep him from ramming the car “into a wall.”

1/3/18: The President of the United States wakes up in a chipper mood. He yawns once, feels the cold side of the bed where Melania used to sleep, and grabs his iPhone to tweet some sweet Trump love. “Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government,” he types. “You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!”

Of course, even a casual observer should be able to see the irony. This is the same man who made it one of his first acts in office to try to insure no one from Iran ever visited the United States. His long history of anti-Muslim tirades—aimed at all members of that religion, round the world, which would include, according to the U.S. State Department, pretty much everyone living in Iran—have long set a starkly different tone.

Steve Bannon says Jared and Don, Jr. committed treason.

Trump’s day spirals out of control when skunks begin spraying each other. Skunk #1 (Steve Bannon), once a key campaign strategist, is quoted at length in a new book, Fire and Fury. Among other gems, he calls Ivanka “dumb as a brick.” Bannon suggests her husband Jared (Skunk #2) and brother Don Jr. (Skunk #3) may have committed treason by holding the now infamous meeting with representatives of the Russian government in June 2016.

Naturally, when a skunk sprays Skunks #2, #3 and #4 (Donald J. Trump), Skunk #4 sprays back ten times harder. The president works on a series of drafts of a statement blasting Bannon. Finally satisfied, he insists Bannon had nothing to do with his victory in November. Trump won the election all by himself. Bannon never had a bit of influence while working in the White House. When Bannon lost his job, he “lost his mind.” 

1/4/18: The president decides he can’t let an entire day go by without undercutting fundamental democratic institutions. So, he does what he does best. He studies policy.

Of course, he doesn’t.

Did you know his Commission on Voter Fraud just disbanded? “Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud,” Trump tweet-moans. “They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.” (For the biggest case of voter fraud in recent memory, see: 12/4/18.)

You may not remember, but last summer a “handful” of states, a mere 44, refused to provide all the information Trump and his enablers demanded...also the District of Columbia. Alabama did comply with the Trump administration order which makes it even more depressing for the president to realize accused child molester Roy Moore still couldn’t get elected.

Kansas also complied. Kansas is the state where the head of the Commission on Voter Fraud, Kris Kobach, got his start cleaning up all the rampant fraud in elections. He worked like a right-wing beaver, Kris Kobach of Kansas did. He managed to secure nine whole convictions for voter fraud, over the course of multiple elections, in a state with a population of 1.8 million.

Trump tweets once and then mulls his course. What to do next with his valuable time? He decides to flog a favorite target: Minorities. No, I mean, “kneeling NFL players.” They just happen to be almost all African American.

Really, who could possibly imagine in their wildest fantasies that Trump is playing to the racist segment of his base? (See: British press reaction: 11/29/17; 1/13/18.)

In any case, he tweets again, this time providing a link to the picture below, from last September. His tweet reads, “So beautiful.... Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel!”

Let me interject a moment. Much respect to all who have fallen in the fight for freedom and to their loved ones who also paid an unbearable price.

Standing up by kneeling down?

As a patriotic American, who enlisted in the Marines in 1968, I can see why players protest. If I were to kneel during the National Anthem, would I be disrespecting the flag, or would I be standing up by kneeling down?

I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment and the right to protest. You know who I think really, really disrespected our flag. I think it was Don Jr. and Jared, when they met with those Russians in hopes of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. (See: 1/3/18.)

As for minority players kneeling, Mr. Trump, perhaps they’re protesting this kind of symbolism and support for your positions, and your disinclination to condemn such individuals:

Or it might be they’re protesting this kind of police abuse (and no, not all police are abusive): 

Walter Scott, unarmed and fleeing, is shot in the back.

Again, all sympathy to that soldier’s poor wife (pictured above) and to the child who will never know its father.

That doesn’t mean Walter Scott’s family doesn’t also have a grave to visit and to weep over.

*

LAWYERS FOR THE PRESIDENT go to court to try to halt publication of the new book, Fire and Fury.

Because that’s what we do in Trumpistan.

We ban books.

*

THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR decides to open almost all U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling. This plan, carefully crafted by Secretary Ryan Zinke, is a work of genius. (See: 1/9/18.)

1/5/18: It’s official. The Greatest-Job-Creator-Ever, Donald J. Trump, watched in awe (of himself) as he turned the U.S. economy around in 2017 with no help from anyone else.

He inherited a mess when he sat his chunky butt down in the Oval Office. Now he has added jobs for 87 months in a row, starting in October 2010. Trump went back in time and started adding jobs at a furious pace. He saved the country and his hair looked fabulous:

Jobs added:

2011    2,075,000

2012    2,174,000

2013    2,302,000

2014    3,006,000

2015    2,729,000

2016    2,318,000

2017    2,153,000

Of course, sharp-eyed economists might wonder: Is the Wizard of Washington losing his touch?

As the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes, fewer jobs were added this year than in any year since 2011. But you figure if Trump keeps firing White House aides who call him an “idiot,” “moron” or “f---ing moron,” he can recapture his mojo as the new year progresses.

*

TRUMP WASN’T SATISFIED just adding jobs in the past! He also made sure 2017 was the safest year in commercial airline history. Earlier this week he went to Twitter to save lives. “Since taking office,” he tap-tapped, “I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”

Not a single commercial airline passenger died anywhere in the world in 2017. This was a first. Trump did that. Trump made sure no planes crashed in England or Ireland. Trump kept planes from plummeting to earth in Bulgaria, Botswana and Bangladesh. If you were on a plane, flying to Moscow (not that anyone working for the Trump campaign did), Trump kept you aloft.

It also turns out, Trump kept Americans safe in the past. He made sure no commercial airliner crashed and no passenger died on U.S. soil in 2014. He did it again in 2015. Wow. Then he pulled off a similar feat in 2016, even with that Kenyan guy working hard to make sure every plane went smash.

*

WE ALSO LEARN that under Trump’s leadership, the E.P.A. cleaned up way more Superfund toxic waste sites. In 2016 only two sites were cleaned up and “delisted.” But this year? Seven!

Seven were cleaned up!!

Again, Fox News fans were treated to this fabulous news—real news, not “Fake News”—and did the right-wing math. Trump had cleaned up fifteen more sites than Obama the year before.

Sadly, the “Fake News” folks at Time tried to throw shade on this achievement. Those rotten reporters claimed the cleanup work done at those sites was finished before Donald J. Trump took office. They fakely pointed out that Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to head the E.P.A., was simply the one who officially delisted the sites. Then the hacks at Time lost their minds. Like Steve Bannon!

That sloppy bastard!

They failed to credit President Past-Present-and-Future with all the excellent work he had done during the years Obama was in the Oval Office, writing letters back home to Mombasa. During Obama’s two terms in the White House an average of ten superfund sites were cleaned up every year.

Well, Trump fans can’t be fooled! They know Trump cleaned up those sites by himself. He scooped up toxic chemicals in his bare hands.

1/6/18: In case you missed it scientists declared 2017 the second hottest year, globally, since records have been compiled.

Donald Trump has the same poor grasp of science he has on history.

The four hottest years on record are 2016, 2017, 2015 and 2014. They are like “Melania Hot.”

Trump placed Bannon on the National Security Council

Meanwhile, Trump is outraged by all the negative comments in the new book, Fire and Fury. First, he goes after “Sloppy Steve” Bannon—who has offered the opinion that Don Jr. and Jared Kushner might be guilty of treason—and, if not, were “unpatriotic” for sure.

Well, now we know. Trump insists Bannon is a terrible person! He always knew Bannon was a bum. That’s why, on January 29, 2017, nine days after being sworn in, Trump placed Bannon on the National Security Council. At the same time, as reported by Time, Trump “streamlined” the NSC “by removing several officials, including the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

While Bannon was sitting in on NSC meetings, General Flynn was doing noble service as National Security Adviser and giving Trump big, beautiful advice. That is, when he wasn’t busy secretly taking $530,000 to devote his efforts to working for the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn was soon fired after “Fake News” reporters revealed he had been lying to Vice President Jesus all along. Oddly enough, the White House knew about the lying for 18 days before letting the liar go—and Bannon got axed from the NSC only in April 2017.

I think this proves the president has impeccable judgment.

Right?

1/7/18: Trump spends a quiet Sunday morning at church. No, I’m joking. He’s busy tweeting!!!

“I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President,” he grumbles. “Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So, will I!”

Luckily, we learn his plan to hold his own awards ceremony, like the Golden Globes—only without the actresses in black, protesting sexual harassment—is speeding ahead. Again, he tweets:

The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!

Trump spends an hour on four more posts—one correcting his own misuse of the word “consensual”—to thank Michael Goodwin for praising him in a New York Post column. By now we know the drill. Any criticism of Trump = Fake News. All fawning praise = excellent journalism. For example, Goodwin insists we should look at the stock market boom under Trump. Up thousands of points! Had Clinton been elected, the market would have gone straight into the toilet!

Just like it did under Obama. Remember how the market began to plunge, starting on October 9, 2007, when President George W. Bush was in office? From a peak that day of 14,164 it skidded to 6,547 by March 9, 2009.

Somehow, that drop in value—from $22 trillion to $9 trillion—was the Kenyan guy’s fault. It was his all fault even though he had been in office for only 48 days when the market hit bottom. By the time Obama left the White House, after ruining the stock market and the job market, we had suffered a measly increase on the Dow to 19,804 and added jobs for a lousy 76 months in a row.

1/8/18: The “Sloppy Steve Apology Tour” continues. Former top Trump campaign strategist Bannon now says he is sorry he criticized members of the Trump family and got quoted in a book. He says he was wrong when he said Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were possibly guilty of treason when they took a June 2016 meeting with Russians.

Bannon says Don Jr. wasn’t “unpatriotic” at all. That’s not what he meant—even if it is what he said. “Donald Trump Jr. is both a patriot and a good man,” he insisted this week. Don Jr. and Jared weren’t wrong for “forgetting” the meeting took place (See: 7/8-7/14/17.)

Don Jr. wasn’t being treasonous when he put out a false cover story about the meeting being focused on adoption issues.

Not at all. Once it became clear he was likely to lose his Breitbart job, Bannon realized he was wrong about those fine boys. “My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort,” he explained lamely, “a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends.”

How could Don Jr. or Jared know you can’t trust Russians? Unless they asked pretty much anyone in the U.S. intelligence community, or consulted a newspaper in the last fifty years?

1/9/18: It only took a year of random tweeting and general dithering, but the Trump administration is ready to launch an attack on America’s biggest drug problem! AG Jeff Sessions is gearing up to win the “War on Weed.”

Thirty dollars to produce—you can buy two for $600.

Of course, Sessions’ attack on legalized pot won’t do much to help children subject to severe asthma attacks, children with dangerous peanut allergies and bee sting reactions, or others who keep EpiPens handy. These pens are used to mitigate life-threatening seizures. According to industry insiders it is estimated these devices, marketed by Mylan, cost no more than $30 to produce. When Mylan packages them, two to a pack, they charge $600. Even better—for the Mylan bottom line—the pens lose effectiveness after eighteen months.

Then they must be replaced.

Not even total victory in the “War on Weed” will help those who take Humira for crippling rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease. Since 2012 the price has doubled. Humira now sells for $38,000 for a twelve-month supply. That price is set by AbbVie, a company spun off from Abbott Labs in 2013.

When asked to comment for a story by The New York Times, company officials politely declined.

They may have been busy counting their money. AbbieVie had $25.6 billion in revenues in 2016.

Almost two-thirds came from sale of Humira.

Of course, we all know drug companies are run by fine businesspeople and caring human persons.

Fortunately, with a GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican in the White House, we no longer need fret about unnecessary government regulation. Also, businesses will get huge, permanent tax cuts, because clearly, they are barely surviving. Two syringes of Humira cost $522 in South Africa, $822 in Switzerland and $1,362 in Great Britain, where socialized medicine is in play.

Here we have the freedom to pay whatever price Big Pharma sets. This is why two syringes in the United States go for the bargain rate of $2,669. That’s how capitalism is meant to work.

Mylan chairman earns $97,600,615.

In other great news, we can celebrate the tax cuts coming for Big Pharma’s top execs. Under Trump, hardworking CEO’s like Richard A. Gonzalez of AbbVie will finally catch a break. In 2016, the last year for which public records are available, Gonzalez earned a paltry $20,970,924. You wonder how he managed to get by, earning only $89,913,309 from 2012 to 2016.

And if you want to increase the price of Epi-Pens by 400%, as Mylan has in just seven years, you need a bold leader. Mylan has been blessed to have such a man. That would be Chairman Robert Coury, who apparently worked a few hours of overtime in 2016, and with time-and-half fattening his paycheck, earned $97,600,615. This brought his total compensation, from 2012 to 2016, to $181,267,633. So Coury managed to squeak by.

Of course, if the government hadn’t been so busy regulating them unfairly, the drug companies might have had a little more cash to hand out to ordinary workers. Mylan, for one, had to pay a $465 million fine, just because the federal government launched an investigation in 2014 under Commie Obama. The original complaint accused Mylan of defrauding the Medicare system to the tune of $1.27 billion over a span of ten years.  That would be $1.27 billion in taxpayer-provided dollars.

You can find similar sad stories if you check out compensation at companies like Eli Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Purdue Pharma to name a few.

*

THE PLAN PUT IN PLACE on January 4, to allow offshore drilling in almost all U.S. coastal waters, hits a snag. The Republican governor of Florida says he doesn’t want drilling off his coasts.

Secretary of the Interior Zinke has no choice but to agree, since the governor is a Republican and planning a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

Also, Trump might not like looking at oil rigs pumping away, just off the coast of Mar-a-Lago. 

Okay, drilling off Florida’s coast is a bad idea!!!

Drilling off Alaska—or California—or any other state? That is still a cool idea. Zinke loves drilling.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

1/10/18: In an effort to put to rest reports he gibbers during cabinet meetings, Trump allows cameras to roll during a lengthy sit-down with members of Congress. For 55 minutes the world watches as he acts presidential. He promises he wants to save DACA, noting what is needed is a “bill of love.”

At one point, Trump stares into the cameras and admits he is open to comprehensive immigration reform. He as much as says, “I’ll sign just about anything Congress will put on my desk. I’m getting bored talking about policy. Can someone please fetch me a cheeseburger!”

Even more surprising than what he says is what he doesn’t. The president doesn’t insult anyone during the meeting. He doesn’t threaten to lock Hillary up. He doesn’t insist there’s no collusion or conclusion or conflagration. 

He seems almost…normal.

I, for one, begin to wonder if maybe Mitch McConnell has slipped a mickey into the president’s Diet Coke.

Of course, just as water runs downhill and the earth revolves around the sun, Trump can’t act normal for long. His bile rises again when he hears Sen. Diane Feinstein has released transcripts of testimony given months ago by GPS Fusion founders to a Senate investigating committee. (Fusion is involved with the Steele dossier in case you don’t recall. And the Steele dossier, which has neither been verified nor disproven, makes the president sound bad.) 

Naturally, Vladimir’s Secret Santa feels he must lash out. You know what’s coming!

Trump Tweets!

“It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is.”

President Trump

It turns out the leader of the executive branch has several grievances he feels compelled to air. He isn’t just mad at Feinstein. He’s fuming over the actions of a federal judge who temporarily blocked any move to roll back DACA protections for the 800,000 “Dreamers.”

At this point, the whole “acting presidential” shtick goes out the White House window. At 9:11 a.m. Tweet #1 is birthed: “It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.” 

In fairness to the Tweeter-in-Chief, those of us who understand the way the U.S. Constitution works realize he may eventually prevail in the face of this legal challenge. We also understand the system is designed to work as it does, to limit any one man or woman’s power—and clearly the way it works infuriates Trump. Had he paid the least attention in American history in seventh or eighth grade, or had he listened when an aide tried to explain the Constitution following his election, he might know what I’m about to say. 

First, every person has a right to go to court, either to seek legal remedy or in their own defense.

A federal case almost always begins in a U.S. District Court. The party that loses may challenge the court’s finding and carry the case to the U.S. Circuit Court. From there the case may wend its way to Washington D.C. and end up on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court. This is how the system has worked for 229 years.

A pain in his cheeseburger-inflated ass.

Trump has repeatedly balked at court decisions that stymie his moves or don’t suit his tastes (see: 12/3/17). He has gone so far as to label the U.S. justice system a “disgrace.” Actually, this triple level of protection and carefully crafted web of judicial procedures are glories of our system of government. And this system is undergirded by respect for the rule of law.

Trump doesn’t like this system.

Think how dangerous this is. The President of the United States hates the way people who oppose his policies or actions manage to retain lawyers and head for court. He considers legal protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights impediments. He has said he wants to torture suspects to make them talk. If NFL players protest against him he says they should lose their jobs. If the courts worked the way he wants he would already have Hillary, who he has repeatedly labeled a “criminal,” locked up tight—and maybe Barack Obama, too.

He’d throw reporters in jail for fun.

*

IN RELATED NEWS, President Thin Skin makes it clear the free press is an obstruction he’d love to squash. He can’t say it quite so bluntly; but you know what’s in his heart.

He does offer this. He wants a federal libel law enacted—just in time to protect him. (Has someone been talking to him about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, I immediately ask myself?)

Trump explains:

Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or American fairness. You can’t say things that are false—knowingly false—and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that. And I think what the American people want to see is fairness.

That’s right. The American people do want fairness. That’s why most of us don’t like a man who lies flagrantly and then wants to shut down the press for reporting on all his lies. (See: 3/15/18.)

Postscript: Under the Alien and Sedition Acts it was illegal to criticize the president or members of Congress. One unlucky gentleman went to jail for calling President John Adams fat. Trump would love that.

1/11/18: President Trump’s morning gets off to a good start. At 6:33 he is already hard at work, tweet-slamming Hillary. Ten minutes later he cites positive news from a Quinnipiac poll: “…66% of people feel the economy is ‘Excellent or Good.’ That is the highest number ever recorded by this poll.”

In other words, two out of three Americans love Trump.

“Not fit to be president.”

Unfortunately, the Tweeter-in-Chief lacks the attention span to study the poll or he’s being devious in what he passes off as truth.

You can study the numbers yourself if you don’t see the point. A few additional observations from the same poll:

By a 57-40 percent margin, American voters say Trump is “not fit to be president.”

Sixteen percent of voters give the president an “A” for his first year! Yea, Trump! Sadly, 39 percent give him an “F.”

*

IF TRUMP somehow happened to pick up a copy of The New York Times he might feel a little worse than he already does. In a Times review of David Frum’s book, Trumpocracy, The Corruption of the American Republic, one learns that Frum, a conservative, warns that the Trump administration has “imported the spirit of thuggery, crookedness and dictatorship into the very core of the American state.”  Trump has instituted a “regime of deceit and brutishness.”

“All these people from shithole countries.”

Even assuming Trump doesn’t read any books, the day only gets worse. In an afternoon meeting with members of both political parties, discussion turns to renewal of DACA and comprehensive immigration reform. Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin suggest extending protection to various immigrant groups, including people from El Salvador, Haiti and Africa.

The president gets frustrated, as he so often does, and lets his feelings boil up. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he asks. “Why do we need more Haitians?” he wonders, hearing they’d be protected under the bipartisan deal. “Take them out!”

What would be great? Less Haitians and, according to Trump, more Norwegians!

The White House does not initially deny the report about what he said.

1/12/18: A new day dawns. A brand-new cover story is ready. Trump denies on Twitter that he used the term “shithole” in a meeting with lawmakers. Yes, he admits, his language was “tough.” He says the “shithole” story is made up. He never insulted Haitians. “I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians.” All he wants to do is kick 60,000 of them out of this country.

Other than that…

The new cover story takes a major hit when Senator Durbin says, no, Trump did use the term “shithole” and more than once. “I cannot imagine that in the history of that hallowed room [the Oval Office],” Durbin tells reporters, “where the president of the United States goes to work every day, there has ever been a conversation quite like that. It was vile, it was hateful, it was racist.”

Two Republican lawmakers in the room issue a non-denial denial. Who, us? We don’t remember what Trump said.

“America is an idea…” Sen. Lindsey Graham

Senator Graham issues a lengthy statement which all but says, “Durbin is telling the truth. Trump is a liar.”

Here are the key lines:

Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals…Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness. In reforming immigration we cannot lose these American Ideals.

It doesn’t help Trump’s case when Tim Scott, South Carolina’s other GOP senator, tells reporters, Graham confirmed the shithole comments to him. Scott calls the president’s response “incredibly disappointing.” 

1/13/17: What can Trump do? He can’t apologize (see: 1/12/18). It’s not in his repertoire. He’ll have to ride this “shithole” controversy out. Trump tries to tweet his way out of a hole. Not that hole! Some other hole. Twice he tweet-blames Democrats for destroying the chance to save DACA.

Reaction from around the globe is negative. The African Union, representing 55 nations, says the president’s comments were “clearly racist.” The Union statement continues: “The African Union Mission condemns the comments in the strongest terms and demands a retraction as well as an apology not only to Africans, but to all people of African descent around the globe.” The Vatican calls Trump’s words, “particularly harsh and offensive.” Rupert Colville, United Nations human rights spokesman, tells reporters, “There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes,’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.” A European lawmaker suggests Trump “had forgotten to engage his brain before talking.” But that’s pretty much a given.

Even Republican leaders feel compelled to say something. House Speaker Paul Ryan looks like he’s sucking a pickle when asked for reaction. Showing that famous Ryan Spine, he says Trump’s words are “unfortunate” and “unhelpful.”

Yes, most Americans agree. Racist comments are “unhelpful.”

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele says the president is a racist. “At this point, the evidence is incontrovertible.”

Republican Congresswoman Mia Love, herself of Haitian-American descent, says Trump’s remarks were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values.” She adds, “This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation.”

Someone is covertly drugging Trump!

Even Norwegians are not impressed. Says one veteran journalist, Trump’s comments fall “into a pattern of nativist and very unpleasant language from a poorly qualified president, if not worse…. [He] seems to relish in derogatory remarks about others and praise for himself.”

Meanwhile, on his radio show, right-wing nut job Alex Jones explains his latest conspiracy theory. Someone is covertly drugging Trump.

Really. I’m not joking.

1/14/18: Critics of the president spend the day bringing up examples of good Americans, born in “shithole” countries. Some cite the example set by Emmanuel Mensah, who came here from Ghana. Mensah, a member of the Army National Guard, died after rescuing four people from a burning building and going after a fifth.

A photo of Alix Idrache, from his graduation ceremony at West Point, a Haitian immigrant himself, goes viral. Idrache captures the essence of what has always made the United States great.

He posts an explanation of the scene on the school’s Instagram page.

Three things came to mind and led to those tears. The first is where I started. I am from Haiti and never did I imagine that such honor would be one day bestowed on me. The second is where I am. Men and women who have preserved the very essence of the human condition stood in that position and took the same oath...

The third is my future. Shortly after leave, I will report to Ft. Rucker to start flight school. Knowing that one day I will be a pilot is humbling beyond words. I could not help but be flooded with emotions knowing that I will be leading these men and women who are willing to give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life. To me, that is the greatest honor. Once again, thank you.

*

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, citing new evidence, again reports that in October 2016 a lawyer for Trump paid a porn star $130,000 for silence. The Journal explains that payment was made through a client-trust account handled through the City National Bank of Los Angeles. In return the porn star agreed not to tell her story about a consensual sexual relationship she had with Trump in 2006. This was around the time Melania was recovering from the birth of her first child.

1/15/18: Today marks President Trump’s first Martin Luther King Jr. Day as leader of the Free World. He has no public events scheduled—probably because he doesn’t want anyone asking, “Mr. President, are you a racist? Are you ready to come out of the closet, as it were?”

In the meantime, a White House source is floating a new cover line for the president. He didn’t say “shithole.” He said “shithouse.”

See. Better.

Senator Graham continues to try to keep a path open to a DACA settlement. That means avoiding throwing Trump under the bus. Graham does take a verbal poke at GOP colleagues in the room during the meeting with Trump. The Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier begins an article this way:

After taking the weekend to reflect on a combative White House meeting in which President Donald Trump reportedly referred to African countries as “shithole countries,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he is even more determined to reach an immigration deal with hardliners in his own party.

In his most extensive comments yet about Thursday’s explosive Oval Office meeting, the Seneca Republican again declined to confirm whether Trump specifically used the term “shithole” to describe the countries.

But, in what appeared to be a direct jab at Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, Graham said, “My memory hasn’t evolved. I know what was said and I know what I said.” Sen. Tim Scott, R-North Charleston, said Friday that Graham told him media reports of what Trump said were “basically accurate.”

The president spends the morning at Mar-a-Lago. Then he heads for his golf course at West Palm Beach.

1/16/18: In a Senate hearing, lawmakers try to dig out answers about what exactly Trump said in the recent meeting on immigration. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (I think that’s a Norwegian name), says, well...okay, she did hear “rough language” during the meeting. When his turn to question Nielsen comes, Senator Durbin asks what that might have been. Nielsen can’t remember. Trump might have said shithole or Shinola or shin splints.

Durbin probed with a series of questions. Nielsen had a clear memory when it came to presidential comments on policy positions. Trump was the best! She admitted Trump had spoken about Norwegian immigrants and talked about how hard they worked.

Might we surmise, then, that Trump posited the idea that dark-skinned immigrants did not?

If she heard “tough language” from Trump, could Nielsen remember any specific words the president employed? Nielsen said she could not. Okay, Durbin tried again. Had she heard him use “rough language?” Nielsen immediately answered no. How about Senator Graham? Nielsen said yes. What a potty mouth! Durbin asked, “Did you hear Senator Graham repeat exactly the words the president had used?”

Nielsen replied, “Uh... what...I think I just went deaf!”

1/17/18: The stock market is going strong. The job market has tightened. Nevertheless, as of today, Trump has an average approval rating of 39.6%. This can be chalked up to the fact that many Americans think he’s dishonest—and a dishonest racist, at that.

Shortly before noon, Sen. Jeff Flake steps to the Senate well and delivers a blistering indictment against President Trump. In his speech he compares Trump’s attacks on the free press to the tactics of Joseph Stalin.

Правда… (see: Fox News.)

1/18/18: Can we assume the president woke up lonely in bed again? I think we can. In Touch magazine is running a 5,000-word interview with Stormy Daniels, the porn queen who says she slept with then-businessman Trump in 2006.

FLOTUS cannot be amused.

*

IN OTHER NEWS, Sen. John McCain is the second GOP senator in two days to take the president to task for attacking the free press. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, he writes:

[The president] has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing “fake news awards” upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with. Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy.

McCain warns that dictators round the world are listening to the words of our president. Then they launch their own attacks modeled on his “Fake News” campaign. As it is here in America today, in their countries, “Fake News” is any news Vladimir, Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad don’t like.

“For decades,” McCain points out, “dissidents and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into government corruption to further their fight for freedom.”

“The news is what you can prove.”

That’s still true in America. For now. We want Fox News to cover the Benghazi story. We want the free press to unmask the creepy behaviors of Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly. We want CNN to put hard questions to Trump and his surrogates and not feed us a steady diet of stories of Trumpian greatness. At the state and local level, we want a free press to unmask crooks in the New York statehouse, to comment on the sexual misdeeds of the Missouri governor, to give Chris Christie a thumping for masterminding Bridgegate. Unless we have our heads up our patooties, we want the press to follow leads in the Russia investigation and see where it ends.

We can’t know yet where that is. No one can. The news isn’t “fake” a Washington Post reporter recently said.

“The news is what you can prove.”

Just the right touch of slutty.
Stormy was paid not to tell about sleeping with Donald.

___

1/19/18: The President of the United States does not issue a single tweet for the day, despite having tweeted 2,608 times since taking office. Has he ever touched on the topic of a government shutdown before?

Let’s try a quick search of his Twitter archive. He has. On August 9, 2013, he speaks his mind for the first time—and, again, you can’t argue with CAPS: “FACT – the reason why Americans have to worry about a government shutdown is because Obama refuses to pass a budget.”

A series of thirteen related tweets follows by the end of October 2013. From Citizen Trump we learn that the shutdown is the fault of Democrats. Still, shutdowns aren’t that bad. “There have been 17 shutdowns since 1976,” Trump tweets, “14 under Reagan and Bush with Democrat Congresses who wanted more spending.”

He does not mention the s-word (well, that s-word) again for several years. On May 2, 2017, however, he again tweets: “either [sic] elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

It’s a little late; but he has his wish.