Like a majority of Americans, I was
stunned when Donald J. Trump was elected president. In my opinion he had shown
himself to be a despicable individual—and I was surprised so many of my fellow
citizens didn’t seem to care.
I know plenty of good people who voted for Trump, though. In several respects I understand why.
I know plenty of good people who voted for Trump, though. In several respects I understand why.
I decided to start a blog to say what
I thought of our president. It’s still a free country, which I think is the key,
and how we want it to remain. As the first chaotic days turned into weeks, it
became ever clearer. “My god,” I thought, “Trump is far worse than I feared.”
I decided to see if I could come up
with examples and evidence which would allow me to mock him and expose the
dangers on a daily basis. It proved surprisingly easy, Trump’s Twitter feed
alone offering up a cornucopia of idiotic statements.
But I couldn’t just laugh. Far too
often Trump has threatened fundamental American values and institutions. He’s a
menace.
I taught American history for more
than thirty years, so I know a little more than average about our nation’s institutions
and founding beliefs. This does not prove my opinions are correct. I taught history. I know people of good will may disagree.
Still, I think all freedom-loving Americans have reason to beware.
Still, I think all freedom-loving Americans have reason to beware.
 |
| In his first year as president, Trump will spend more than one-fourth of his days at his own golf courses. |
PREAMBLE TO DISASTER
January 11, 2017:
President-Elect Donald J. Trump holds a press conference with actual reporters
and allows them to ask actual questions.
His respect for the First Amendment is
immediately clear. Jim Acosta, a correspondent for
CNN raises a hand. Trump points at him and says, “Your organization is
terrible,” and makes it clear he’s not about to call on him.
“You’re attacking us, can you give us a
question?” Acosta replies.
“Don’t be rude,” the rudest man ever elected
President of the United States says. “No, I’m not going to give you a question.
You are fake news.” Trump turns instead to take a question from a Breitbart reporter.
Trump learns about the Steele dossier.
And what has made Trump so angry? Why is CNN
so fakey? They have reported that intelligence officials have briefed Trump on
a mysterious dossier compiled by Christopher Steele.
(This we soon learn is true. Such a dossier
exists and Trump was provided with a heads up about it.)
CNN has not claimed that potentially damaging
information contained in the “Steele dossier,” is true. CNN has simply stated
that the dossier exists.
The Hill, another media outlet,
explains:
The 35-page
document—made up of a collection of memos filled with explosive claims about
the billionaire's relationship to Russia—has reportedly been circulating among
journalists and officials for at least a few weeks.
But the sourcing
on the document is unclear and likely unverifiable. CNN reported that it is
based primarily on memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative
that were intended as opposition research into Trump.
The
president-elect on Tuesday night immediately blasted the report, tweeting,
“FAKE NEWS—A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!”
During the press
conference, Trump specifically called out CNN for pushing the story, saying it
was “disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that
turned out to be so false and fake out.”
“I think it’s a
disgrace, and I say that, and that’s something that Nazi Germany who have done
and did do,” he said.
“I think it’s a
disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got
released to the public. As far as BuzzFeed,
which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they’re going to suffer
the consequences.”
With that, the battle lines are drawn. Breitbart, where reporters fawn over
Trump, is real news. CNN, which questions Trump and reports that a dossier
exists—because a dossier exists—is fake news. A media outlet that makes Trump
look bad is “a failing pile of garbage” and is “going to suffer the
consequences.”
Fox News… will become an essential propaganda arm.
In his first year in office, Trump will give
just one open, solo press conference. It
will not go well. He will then limit himself to appearances on Fox News or
calls to friendly Fox hosts. That network will become an essential propaganda
arm of the Trump presidency, peddling pro-Trump pabulum.
By comparison, other presidents will face the
free press with greater regularity. George W. Bush will brave the fire four
times his first year, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, six, Barack Obama,
seven. Bill Clinton will take questions eleven times. Jimmy Carter will stand
before the free press 22 times and George H. W. Bush will answer questions from
reporters 27 times.
Time magazine has this to say, at the
very dawn of the Trump administration, in February 2017:
Nearly every President has found much to dislike in news coverage—Harry
Truman referred to press clippings as “the daily poison”—but seldom have
reporters been the target of such relentless hostility as we are seeing from
the current administration. Barely a day in office, President Trump declared
his “running war” with the media; top adviser Stephen Bannon calls the press
“the opposition party” that should “keep its mouth shut,” and Kellyanne Conway
suggests that if journalism were a “real business,” 20% of the media would have
been fired for all the things they got wrong.
To demonize the press, to characterize it as not just mistaken
but malign, is to lay the groundwork for repression.
…Time is one of the
few remaining outlets that speaks to a broad and global audience.”
Time editor Nancy Gibbs promises:
We are committed to independent inquiry, defending the
possibility of progress, holding the powerful to account and providing an arena
where diverse voices and visions compete…
The enemy in any democracy is not dissent, from either within or
without. Dissent, in fact, is essential. The enemy is dishonesty, ignorance,
indifference, intolerance.
A FEW HINTS AT WHY A FREE PRESS IS NECESSARY
Nazi
Germany: Book burning. USSR: Government newspaper, Pravda, or, in Russian, “Truth.” Communist China: rampant internet censorship.
Kim Jong-un: government-controlled television. Saudi Arabia: murder of the
journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“The
basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object
should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we
should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government,
I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Thomas
Jefferson
“Freedom of the press is not an
end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society.” Felix Frankfurter
Five days before taking office, in one of the
worst predictions in history, the President-Elect tweets: “For many years our
country has been divided, angry and untrusting. Many say it will never
change, the hatred is too deep. IT WILL CHANGE!!!!”
And then…he’s our president. The sad, sorry
saga of a terrible man at the helm of a great nation begins.
TRUMP TAKES CHARGE
January 20, 2017: Donald J. Trump is sworn in
as 45th President of
the United States. He doesn’t grab any woman in the audience by the pussy. So
you could argue he’s off to a good start.
“American
carnage” optimism from a new president
In his Inaugural Address he offers “cheery” assessment. We have “an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge, and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” We live in a time of “American carnage,” Trump says.
In his Inaugural Address he offers “cheery” assessment. We have “an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge, and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” We live in a time of “American carnage,” Trump says.
No way of knowing if he’s thinking about police shootings of
unarmed black citizens. Not likely.
Nor does he offer tips on how to deal with mass shootings. This
probably has much to do with the fact the N.R.A. loves him and his biggest fans
believe Sandy Hook was staged by President Obama.
He does highlight “the sad depletion of our military.” This seems a bit odd since U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of the next seven top countries combined.
He does highlight “the sad depletion of our military.” This seems a bit odd since U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of the next seven top countries combined.
Journalists “among the most dishonest people on earth.”
1/21/17: On his first full day in office
Trump claims journalists are “among the most dishonest people on earth.” Those
who love the free press have immediate cause for worry. The president is outraged because he says the crowd at his
Inauguration was the biggest ever.
1/22/17: The argument over crowd size takes
a bizarre turn when Kellyanne Conway, top Trump adviser, says, yes, his crowd
was way bigger. She knows because she has “alternative facts” to support her
position.
This strikes many rational human beings as an ominous beginning.
 |
| Trump insists millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary. Maybe even Bigfoot! |
1/23/17: At a meeting with Congressional
leaders, Trump alleges that not only did he win the
electoral vote, massively, but he would have trounced Secretary Clinton in the
popular vote too, except for 3-5 million immigrants who voted illegally. He
says he’s going to launch a big, big investigation! The biggest ever! You
wonder if Tiny Hands doesn’t just want us to believe he has a big penis.
You will wonder that often in the year ahead.
1/24/17: Speaker Paul Ryan says there is “no evidence” to support
Trump’s claim that millions of illegal voters showed up at polls in November.
Concerned that the president is undermining faith in American
democracy—which is not exactly a great look for the leader of that
democracy—Senator Lindsey Graham responds: “I am begging the president, share with us the
information you have about this or please stop saying it.”
Millions of voters illegally registered in two states.
Top White House aide Stephen Miller insists that the problem of
illegal voters swarming to the polls is real. He insists “millions of people who are registered in two states or who are
dead who are registered to vote” show up and vote. A little free press digging
soon reveals that these potential illegal voters include Steve Bannon (registered in both
Florida and New York), Sean Spicer (Virginia and Rhode Island), Jared Kushner
(New York and New Jersey) and Steve Mnuchin (New York and California)
Even Tiffany
Trump—probably the only normal Trump in the whole adult bunch—turns out to be
registered twice (Pennsylvania and New York).
Maybe she voted for Dad in one state and Hillary in the other.
In any case, Trump soon loses interest in investigating
imaginary voter fraud. He’s on to his latest pet peeve: “fake news.”
1/25/17: In “fake-but-actually-true news,”
the media reports that membership fees at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago have been doubled to $200,000. But, no, don’t you dare hint
that the Trump clan is planning to profit by his election. Oh, noooooooooooo.
(That figure doesn’t include annual dues of $14,000.)
The president is only interested in helping the average working
stiff. You know: the guy who can afford dues and annual fees at Mar-a-Lago.
1/26/17: On the 25th, Trump taps away on
Twitter: “As your President, I have no higher duty than to protect the lives of
the American people.”
The same day an anonymous individual at NASA tweets back:
The next day, reporters explain why this individual went rogue.
The administration has slapped a gag order on thousands of NASA climate experts,
National Park employees and health officials who might question the Trump Line.
1/27/17: Trump spent his campaign
talking about bringing back waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques to
defeat ISIS.
General James Mattis, his Defense Secretary, explains why
torture doesn’t work and warns that Trump’s plan violates the Geneva
Convention. The president says “never mind.”
Mattis’s opinions will “override” his own.
Mattis’s opinions will “override” his own.
Big fans of torture are miffed.
The
incompetent rollout.
1/28/17: An incompetent rollout of a travel
ban aimed at individuals from seven Muslim nations catches thousands of people
in transit, including potential terrorists such as renowned doctors, students already enrolled in
U.S. universities (representatives from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Texas A&M
and other institutions lodge a protest) and Iraqis who
had previously fought on the American side and were seeking asylum. Even an
Iraqi general headed to the United States to talk strategy is blocked.
With cuts to the number of refugees to be allowed to enter also ordered, Afghans who helped our military are told not to apply for visas.
With cuts to the number of refugees to be allowed to enter also ordered, Afghans who helped our military are told not to apply for visas.
*
NOTE TO TRUMP FANS: Did you know the Iraqis and Afghans are U.S.
allies? No. You did not because you binge on Fox News. So are the Kurds.
The Kurds are fighting hard to retake Mosul. Almost all of these people are
Muslims. They’re on our side.
Even the dimwits who wrote up the first travel ban eventually
realized it didn’t look good to block allies from entering the
country.
Iraq will be eliminated from the second travel ban. (See 2/23/17.)
1/29/17:
In a surprise move the president appoints his favorite political strategist and Darth Vader
aficionado Steve Bannon, to a seat on the National Security Council. One former
GOP official speaks for many when he says he worries “life and death [decisions] for the people in uniform” might be “tainted”
by political calculation. (See: 8/18/17.)
 |
| By year's end, Bannon will be added to Trump's growing list of "losers." |
1/30/17: Administration officials promise Mr. Trump will withdraw from the
Paris Climate Agreement. Every conservative knows climate change is a fiction and
so long as anyone can pack a snowball, what’s the problem?
Besides, how bad could it be, if leaders from only 175 countries signed the original
agreement on April 22, 2015? You didn’t see Saudi
Arabia giving in to peer pressure did you?
No you did not. (See 4/17/17.)
*
NOTE TO TRUMP FANS: The Saudis are our allies. They’re Muslims,
too. So you can’t just pretend all the Muslims in the world want to kill you.
Like most Americans, most Muslims just want to lead happy lives.
(R.I. P. Jamal Khashoggi. You never had the chance.)
Drug
companies collude to raise prices 700%.
1/31/17: Executives at Sanofi, Novo Nordisk
and Eli Lily celebrate a huge increase in profits after colluding to jack up
insulin prices. Insulin is required to keep 3,000,000 type-1 diabetics in this
country alive. (Prices have spiked 700%.) Trump admits drug makers are
“getting away with murder,” but a GOP-controlled Congress remains intent on
turning a blind eye to the murders.
And let’s remember: for every one regulation the Food and Drug
Administration enacts, Trump insists they must now get rid of two, because regulations are
always bad and business, as in Big Pharma, is always good.
That’s GOP gospel.
February 1, 2017: Black History Month starts with a
mighty bang when Trump summons up the name of a
key leader in the fight for equality. “Frederick Douglass is an example of someone who’s done an
amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed,” says the
president.
Apparently, he has not
noticed. Douglass died in 1895.
2/2/17: The First Lady decides not to move to the White House till
summer, so the First Family’s youngest, 10-year-old Barron Trump, can finish
the school year in New York. The cost for extra security is estimated to be $300,000 daily.
GOP fiscal hawks don’t mind, nor does Mr. Trump, even though
they used to blast Barack Obama for the costs of all his golfing and vacationing.
(See 4/17/17.)
Tweeting
about ratings for The Apprentice.
2/3/17: Trump rises early and gets right
down to work. At 6:24 am he tweets about low ratings for a TV show near and dear to his heart: “Yes, Arnold
Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on
the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!”
Later that day a Seattle judge blocks the first travel ban.
Later that day a Seattle judge blocks the first travel ban.
2/4/17: The president angrily tweets: “The opinion of this
so-called judge (see 2/3/17), which
essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will
be overturned!”
Clearly, he fails to understand that all federal judges are actual judges. As the days pass it will dawn on most Americans.
Clearly, he fails to understand that all federal judges are actual judges. As the days pass it will dawn on most Americans.
Trump has never once read the U.S.
Constitution.
“You
think our country’s so innocent?”
2/5/17: The Trump-Putin bromance turns steamy.
When Bill O’Reilly (remember him?) asks Trump about the Russian leader,
O’Reilly refers to Putin as “a killer.” The president, who once praised Saddam Hussein for skill in handling terrorists,
which meant gassing anyone he didn’t like, replies: “There are a lot
of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
The author of this blogs spends the rest of the day trying to imagine the furor on the right, had Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama ever said anything similar.
The author of this blogs spends the rest of the day trying to imagine the furor on the right, had Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama ever said anything similar.
 |
| This won't be the last time Trump mentions Russia. |
2/6/17: Betsy DeVos anxiously awaits a Senate confirmation to
become 11th U.S.
Secretary of Education. Her hearings have not gone well—including her claim
that guns might be needed in schools to keep grizzly bears at bay. Her
cluelessness in regard to various education issues proves so profound one reporter
is moved to say she looked “like a duck trying to read a parking
meter.”
She gets confirmed the next day anyway. Vice President Mike
Pence breaks a rare 50-50 tie vote in the Senate.
2/7/17: President Trump claims the murder rate in the United States
is “the highest it’s been in 47 years.” The press, he grumbles, never reports
on this subject. That’s probably because the murder rate in the U.S. was higher every year from 1967-1998 and fell
for years while Obama was in office, rising only recently. No complete
national statistics have been released for 2016.
2/8/17: Still indignant because the courts
have blocked his travel ban, Trump says “a bad high school student would
understand this.” The ban was written “beautifully.” If courts won’t let him
have his way they are “so political.”
He’s going to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The man with nascent dictatorial instincts doesn’t seem to like
the coequal judicial branch of the federal government.
2/9/17: A new estimate puts the cost of a border wall with
Mexico at $21.6 billion and time to completion at 3.5 years. Senator Mitch
McConnell will be asked by reporters if he believes Mexico will pay for it.
2/10/17: Angry in the face of sustained
mockery on Saturday Night Live,
Trump tweets: “I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not
a good show anymore.” The show is “unwatchable.” “Sad!”
Audiences do not agree. SNL scores its highest ratings in 20 years.
Audiences do not agree. SNL scores its highest ratings in 20 years.
2/11/17: Trump meets with the Japanese Prime
Minister but does not repeat campaign complaints about the Japanese stealing
American jobs, mooching off us for defense, or suggest Japan could use atomic bombs of its own. Since Trump seems to remember
almost nothing from history, he may not realize Japan is the only country ever
targeted for nuclear destruction.
They’re kind of anti-nuclear weapons.
2/12/17: A federal appeals court unanimously strikes down the first travel ban. It seems none
of the three judges can grasp what a “bad high school” student could (see: 2/8/18). They can’t even see how
“beautifully” the ban is written.
Rather, they rule the ban is inherently discriminatory and
therefore…um…um… unconstitutional.
2/13/17: Reporters credit Trump for avoiding “bombastic
pronouncements on Twitter” for an entire day!
At the White House on this Monday, he greets Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau and makes it through an entire meeting without insulting
anyone.
He’s acting “presidential” at last.
General
Flynn resigns after lying to Vice President Pence.
2/14/17: General Michael J. Flynn, Trump’s
National Security Advisor, resigns after it is made clear (by the free press)
that he lied to Vice President Pence about meeting with Russian agents.
Oddly enough, the president knew Flynn had lied for two weeks—and
didn’t fire him till reporters started digging.
Something smells fishy and the fishy smell will only grow more noxious as the weeks and months pass.
 |
| Whose going to get indicted? This guy! |
2/15/17: Anthony Puzder, Trump’s choice for
Secretary of Labor, withdraws his name from consideration. Mr. Puzder’s
problems include employing an undocumented immigrant to work as a maid in his home for years.
This is not the best look for an immigrant-bashing administration.
“Biggest
Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.”
2/16/17: The president touts his November
victory at a press conference and complains how unfair CNN, The New York Times and other media outlets have been. “I
guess it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald
Reagan,” he says. The media might not be happy he won. “But a lot of people are
happy about it.”
A reporter points out that this electoral claim is not true. You
could, for example, go all the way back to 2012 or 2008, when Obama won more
electoral votes. Mr. Trump says you can’t blame him for getting his facts wrong because
that’s what someone told him.
He’s just the president.
He’s just the president.
2/17/17: Trump tweets that the media is “the enemy of the
American people.” Those of us who cherish the First Amendment know this isn’t
funny.
(Looking back to when I wrote this, who could have imagined how
bad it would really become?)
Build that wall—around Trump properties.
“We would lose so much of our individual liberties over
time.”
2/19/17: Reacting to Trump’s comments on the
media, Senator John McCain tells a reporter that dictators “get started by suppressing free press.” Without a media capable of expressing
itself freely, “I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual
liberties over time.” (See 2/17/17.)
The Trump base isn’t worried.
2/20/17: The president’s third choice for National Security Adviser,
General H. R. McMaster, takes charge. General Flynn has been fired. The second
pick, Vice Admiral Robert Hayward, a former Navy SEAL, knows a bad mission when
he sees it and declines a chance to take a bite out of what
he refers to as a White House “shit sandwich.” Other than that, it’s a good day
to be Trump.
He still has Twitter!
2/21/17: The president speaks out against anti-Semitic threats and vandalism in
a St. Louis cemetery. He wants to root out “hate and prejudice and evil.”
This might sound commendable if we ignored Trump’s previous
efforts to stir up “hate and prejudice and evil” against Muslims, Mexicans and protesting American citizens. (See: 3/3/17 and 4/17/17.)
Neo-Nazis
love Trump.
By the end of March it will be reported that anti-Semitic
attacks have surged 86% across the U.S., fueled in part
by the thrill neo-Nazis feel knowing Trump is seated in the Oval Office. Yes,
indeed, neo-Nazis have a real soft spot in their hearts for the brash new Commander-in-Chief!
2/22/17: In Kansas a white U.S. Navy veteran
shoots and kills one man in a bar and wounds a second. “Get out of my country,”
he shouts at his targets, who he believes are
Iranians and therefore Muslim. Trump offers no comment, despite the fact many
blame him for stirring up anti-Muslim hatred.
The two victims are from India.
In a speech to Congress six days later Trump highlights three families who lost loved ones to illegal immigrant killers.
Right-wing killers? No problem!
(Author’s
note: all these killings are
equally terrible.)
 |
| Murder victim, right. Any murder is reprehensible. Just don't blame individual crimes on entire groups. |
2/23/17: Iraqi forces continue their advance to wrest Mosul from ISIS. In the
process they have already lost 5,000 killed and wounded. This is the plan—to
let Iraqis fight their own battles —which Mr. Obama implemented and Trump referred to as “a total disaster” during his
run for office. The U.S. lost 4,539 good men and women fighting in Iraq during
the Bush administration.
Trump
decides criticism is “Fake News.”
2/24/17: In a speech to CPAC, Trump attacks the free press again and claims media enemies won’t credit
him—even if he receives a standing ovation.
“And I want you all to know we are fighting the fake news. It’s
fake. Phony. Fake. A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the
people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people.”
The real problem is that Trump considers any bad news or
criticism related to his policies or actions to be “fake news” and believes only
what he gleans from watching Fox
& Friends. (See 3/5/17.)
2/25/17: Trump tweets: “The media has not reported that the National Debt in
my first month went down by $12 billion vs. a $200 billion increase in Obama
first mo.”
Oh, those terrible people who write newspapers
and talk on TV!
Then again, you need to be suffering from early
onset Alzheimer’s to ignore the
fact the U.S. economy was tanking in January 2009, when Mr. Obama took over. We
do know President Trump suffers from delusions, as when he insists he
“inherited a mess” the day he took office. But did you know the economy had added jobs 76 months in succession before Trump took a seat in the
Oval Office?
Trump fans, now you do.
Trump fans, now you do.
2/26/17: Philip Bilden, the pick for Secretary
of the Navy, withdraws from consideration due to
conflict-of-interest issues. Bilden’s “qualifications” for the post include a
stint in the U.S. Army Reserves and twenty-five years’ work with a “global private equity investment management firm.”
FUN FACT: The populist president displays an
odd affinity for placing billionaires in top cabinet and government roles. They
include Betsy DeVos, the Amway/Scamway Queen, Wilbur Ross,
Vincent Viola (who latter withdraws from consideration), Todd Ricketts and
Linda McMahon, of WWE fame. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is worth a paltry
$300 million. So you could argue he brings the “common man’s perspective” to
White House deliberations.
Who
knew health care was so complicated?
2/27/17: In a meeting at the White House,
Trump explains his difficulty repealing and
replacing Obamacare. “Nobody knew that health
care could be so complicated.”
Seriously?
Every man, woman and child in America, other than the president, knew healthcare was complicated.
Every man, woman and child in America, other than the president, knew healthcare was complicated.
2/28/17: A raid in Yemen ends with death for
one U.S. serviceman, William “Ryan” Owens. Trump shirks responsibility—says the raid was planned before he
took office—says, hey, I’m only the president. It wasn’t my fault Owens was
killed. It was the generals. “This was something
they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do, the
generals, who are very respected, the most respected that we’ve had in many
decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan.”
You know in your
heart: if the raid had been a success, Trump would have claimed the plan as his
own.
March
1, 2017: Trump earns praise from pundits, left and right, for his
speech to Congress the night before. On this fine morning polls show 78% of those who listened responded
positively.
These polls are not “rigged.”
All polls that shed a negative light
on Trump are.
3/2/17: The Illinois offices of the
Caterpillar Corporation are raided by federal agents in an investigation
into tax fraud begun during the Obama administration.
Caterpillar is accused of using illegal tricks to hide money in Switzerland, pay 4-6% in taxes, and
live greedily ever after. And we all know what Trump says: Financial
regulations are sad!
You can always trust business leaders! (See: 4/15/17.)
Estimates put the loss to the U.S. at $2.4 billion—enough, if
you’re a Trump fan to pay for a good portion of the proposed 1,300-mile border
wall!
Sikh
shot in his driveway.
3/3/17: A Sikh gentleman, born in India and
living near Seattle, is approached in his driveway and shot by a white
assailant.
In other words, illegal immigrant criminals aren’t our only
problem and a wall isn’t going to help in this regard.
In the first month after Trump is elected the Southern Poverty
Law Center logs 1,064 hate crimes (thirteen are later
found to be unfounded). These include 26 against Trump supporters.
All hate crimes are repellent.
POSTSCRIPT: People in the U.S. are ten times more likely to be killed by guns than people in 22 other
high-income nations. A child in the U.S. has a far greater chance of being
killed in an accidental shooting than by a terrorist or an illegal immigrant. (See: 4/17/17.).
“Bad
(or sick) guy!”
3/4/17: The Tweeter-in-Chief stuns rational
citizens when he unleashes a flurry of tweets, accusing the previous administration
of illegally tapping his phones. “How low has
President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election
process,” he tweet-fumes.
“This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
The heads of the FBI and NSA later deny his claim. The head of NSA
calls it “ridiculous.” (See also: 3/5/17.)
Trump then takes time out from a busy schedule to tweet another attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger and
his “bad (pathetic) ratings” on Celebrity
Apprentice, because the Free World cares. “Sad end to great show,” he adds.
Sad!
*
OLIGARCHS AROUND THE WORLD: A Chinese news agency reports that
200 delegates to the nation’s parliament—in a communist country, mind you—have
a combined wealth equal to $500 billion.
3/5/17: On Meet the Press former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper rejects the president’s claim that the Obama
administration tapped Trump Tower. Trump probably misses his comments because
he is spending Sunday morning watching Fox
& Friends and tweeting ideas
he copies from the show.
 |
| Trump does love Fox News. Abby Huntsman (above). |
3/6/17: Travel ban 2.0 is issued, but won’t go into effect till March
16, to avoid the wild disruptions that greeted the first ban, although the administration
denies there were any
wild disruptions.
This time, Iraq is dropped from the list,
just because.
The courts block 2.0, too.
3/7/17: Trump takes a long afternoon
nap. For 65 uninterrupted minutes nothing bad happens. (Okay, that one’s made
up.)
Almost every major health organization hates GOP healthcare
plan.
3/8/17: The GOP healthcare proposal is so lousy the American
Hospital Association, Catholic Health Association, Association of American
Medical Colleges, Children’s Hospital Association, American Medical Association
and AARP all voice opposition.
American Nurses Association
American College of Physicians
National Nurses United
National Physicians Alliance
Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons
American Academy of Pediatrics
3/9/17: Congress, with both houses
firmly in GOP hands, sees its job approval rating “surge” to 23%. The boom
doesn’t last and approval ratings plunge as low as 11% by the end of the month.
Even Senator McConnell’s mother thinks he
sucks at his job.
3/10/17: When Bureau of Labor
Statistics show the economy added 235,000 jobs in February, and unemployment
dipped to 4.7%, Sean Spicer is asked if the president still believes the
numbers are “totally fiction” and “phony,” as he claimed when Mr. Obama was
adding an average of 214,000 jobs monthly in his second
term.
Job numbers are “very real now.”
You had to be a complete moron to swallow
that line.
Far too many Trump supporters do.
Far too many Trump supporters do.
3/11/17: Trump tweets (because
that’s how he addresses complicated policy issues): “We are making great
progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse.
Republicans coming together to get job done!”
3/12/17:
Kellyanne Conway claims in an interview that surveillance of the Trump campaign
may have involved “microwaves that turn into
cameras.” Apparently, we also need to fear toasters.
 |
| Your microwave is watching. |
3/13/17: The non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office announces that under the proposed GOP health
care plan, 14 million fewer Americans will have insurance in 2018, 24 million
fewer in 2026.
It took seven years for Republicans to craft this gem.
3/15/17: The Trump administration proposes a 31% cut to funding for the
Environmental Protection Agency, because climate change is a hoax, no one cares
about clean water except poor people in Flint, Michigan, and living near one of
1,800 Superfund cleanup sites is kind of exciting if you think
about it.
Who created almost every one of those toxic sites? Business
people. But we don’t dare regulate them!
ISIS might not get you if the budget for defense increases by
$54 billion, as Republicans now propose. Water from your tap might.
3/16/17: The administration releases what is known as a “skinny budget,”
with details to be fleshed out later with Congress. The Department of Health and Human
Services is scheduled for an 18% cut. The National Institutes of Health would
see a decline in funding of $5.8 billion. The budget would cut grants the
federal government provides to assist poor people, including a decades-old Low
Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps needy Americans with heating
bills.
Why do poor people need heat anyway? We’ve got global warming.
Like
a child who believes in the Easter Bunny.
3/17/17: Trump continues to claim he was
wiretapped; leaders of both parties in Congress say there is no evidence. “No
such wiretap existed,” Speaker Ryan tells reporters.
Press Secretary Spicer says the president stands by his claim. It’s
what he believes—kind of like a child who believes in the Easter Bunny.
Besides, the press is mean! They won’t focus on the fact that there is no evidence of “collusion” between the Russians and members of the Trump campaign. (See 3/20/17; and note the use of a different c-word.)
Besides, the press is mean! They won’t focus on the fact that there is no evidence of “collusion” between the Russians and members of the Trump campaign. (See 3/20/17; and note the use of a different c-word.)
3/18/17: Even Speaker Ryan’s mother calls
his health care replacement plan “garbage.” (Okay, I made that one up.)
Actually, 17% of Americans approve.
Yay: 17%!
A
37 % approval rating.
3/19/17: In a Gallup poll, Trump scores a 37% job approval rating. No
president has ever so quickly dropped so low.
It won’t get much better as the year goes on.
3/20/17: Trump says everything involving
Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election is “fake news.” Russia? He
doesn’t even like Russian dressing! Where is, Russia, anyway? Trump claims not
to know.
F.B.I. Director James Comey informs Congress a day later that there is
an investigation going on. This includes looking for “any
links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian
government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and
Russia’s efforts.”
There may not be links but the fact the F.B.I.
is following various leads is absolutely not “fake news.” (See: 3/23/17.)
The real question: Was there coordination?
Dad
“has no moral or legal compass.”
3/21/17: Hacked phone messages from one daughter of Paul Manafort (Trump’s
former campaign manager) to another indicate she believes their father has
given them “blood money.” Dad “has no moral or legal compass.” “You know he has
killed people in the Ukraine? Knowingly,” she continues.
(As we now know, Manafort is in for a bad
year.)
3/22/17: The Associated Press reports that
Manafort worked with a Russian billionaire and friend
of Vladimir Putin. He was paid as much as $12.7 million to “advance the
interests of Russia.”
Press Secretary Spicer tries to explain that the former
campaign manager “played a
very limited role for a very limited amount of time” during the 2016 campaign.
(See: 3/23/17.)
Poor Sean Spicer!
Poor Sean Spicer!
He may have the worst job
in America.
3/23/17: Did members of the Trump campaign
have illegal contact with the Russians? No one knows for sure; but Manafort is revealed to have had ties to a bank in Cyprus
that laundered money for the Russians. In fact, he used15 different accounts and operated 10 different shell
companies on the island.
Could he be innocent? Yes. But reporting on such ties is not
“fake news.” It’s…reporting.
3/24/17: Speaker Ryan is forced to pull the GOP healthcare law without a
vote; after talking about “repeal and replace” for months, Trump responds by
blaming others. He says the Democrats killed the plan!
Really.
Really.
3/25/17: National Poison Prevention Week ends, having
been proclaimed by Trump executive order. Finally, something Americans can
agree on! Poison is bad. Unless it’s environmental.
Under the Trump administration the E.P.A. no longer cares.
3/26/17: Roger Stone, longtime Trump pal,
offers to testify in front of Congress. Did he contact Guccifer 2.0, a hacking
group known to be a front for Russian intelligence agencies? Well, yes, he
admits, maybe he did, now that he thinks about it. But Stone insists Guccifer
isn’t a Russian front—and who are you going to believe, Stone or U.S.
intelligence which says it is? (See: June 1, 2018.)
3/27/17: Son-in-law Jared Kushner gets a whole bunch of jobs in the new administration.
These include serving as top policy advisor and “primary point of contact” with
leaders and ambassadors from many foreign nations, heading up the White House Office of American Innovation, which will be
“expected to tackle domestic issues such as Veterans’ Affairs, workforce
development and opioid addiction,” and helping “run the government like a great
American business.” Also he must chaperone Ivanka during all dinners and
black-tie affairs at Mar-a-Lago.
A previously undisclosed meeting.
White House spokesperson Hope Hicks admits Kushner had a previously undisclosed meeting in December 2016
with the head of a Russian bank facing U.S. sanctions.
Even more interesting, the bank provided cover
for Russian spying in New York City in 2014.
3/28/17: A new Gallup poll shows job
approval for the Tweeter-in-Chief has slumped to 35%.
3/29/17: In another early-morning
tweet-storm Trump cries about the unfair coverage he’s getting. “If the people of our great country could only see how
viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media!”
Well, there’s always Fox & Friends…and Bill
O’Reilly. (See: 4/5/17.)
3/30/17: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tells reporters: “You
pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about
changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on
getting [Bashar al-] Assad out.”
Syria?
Not our problem. (See: 4/7/17.)
3/31/17: A judge finalizes a
settlement against Trump University, awarding students who were defrauded $25 million. During the campaign, Trump promised to fight
this to the end. Sadly, the settlement does not require him to admit he’s a
scam artist.
April 1, 2017: April Fools. Trump is still president. No, we mean it. America, the joke’s on
you!
4/2/17: Trump declares April 2 World Autism
Awareness Day. No way of knowing if he mocks people with disabilities in the privacy of the Oval
Office.
Would anyone be surprised if he did?
4/3/17: The president donates his first paycheck, $78,333.32, to
the National Parks Service. Conservatives are furious when environmental groups
don’t praise him.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to cut $1.5 billion
from the budget of the Interior Department…which
operates the National Parks.
 |
| Who needs to protect the nation's natural beauty! Let's drill for oil. |
4/4/17: The Assad regime in Syria
apparently decides President Trump is not concerned with
all the killing and launches a poison gas attack which wipes out dozens,
including many children. (See: 3/30/17.)
Bill
O’Reilly is “a good person” and “shouldn’t have settled.”
4/5/17: Trump defends Fox News host Bill
O’Reilly after The New York
Times reports that O’Reilly had paid $13 million to settle five lawsuits
involving sexual harassment. “I think he’s a person I know well—he is a good person,” says Trump. “I
think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled.
Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything
wrong.”
Two weeks later Fox News decides Mr. O’Reilly
did plenty wrong and cans his right-wing ass.
*
IN 2014, TRUMP boasted about helping Roger Ailes when a former employee claimed to have damaging
information about the Fox News CEO. “When
Roger was having problems he didn’t call 97 people,” Trump told a reporter, “he
called me.”
Accusations against Ailes keep coming. Sexual
predators stick together! (See also:
Judge Roy Moore, 11/13/17.)
4/6/17: Representative Devin Nunes,
Republican chairman on the House Intelligence Committee, is forced to recuse himself after questions swirl over
his decision to visit the White House secretly and talk over the investigation with Trump officials.
Not a good way to run an investigation.
4/7/17: Trump changes his mind after saying the USA should
never get involved in Syria. He orders 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to be fired
at the airfield from which the chemical attack on April 4 was launched. Then he focuses on the “most beautiful piece of
chocolate cake” he’s ever seen.
Launching a military strike on Syria, and maybe getting American
servicemen and women killed. No big deal.
We’ve got dessert!
We’ve got dessert!
4/8/17: Bureau of Labor statistics show the
U.S. economy added only 98,000 jobs in March. February figures are
revised downward. It may be time for Trump to start talking about “phony”
numbers again. (See: 3/10/17.)
4/9/17: USA
Today and
other media sources report that administration officials have told them a
strike force including the aircraft carrier USS
Carl Vinson is heading for
North Korea. (See: 4/12/17.)
With Trump at the helm, America is finally bad ass again!
4/10/17: Neil Gorsuch is sworn in as justice
on the U.S. Supreme Court after Senator McConnell invokes the “nuclear option”
and eliminates the filibuster. This means the Supreme Court is now whatever
McConnell says it is and that means no Merrick Garland.
The
Supreme Court is now whatever McConnell says it is.
It’s a major threat to an independent federal judiciary—and this
threat will not abate if
Democrats regain control of the Senate.
If you love the U.S. Constitution you have cause for worry.
4/11/17: Press Secretary Spicer, defending
the decision to strike Syria, says even Hitler never used chemical weapons on his own
people. No comment needed.
4/12/17: Badass Trump warns that
the U.S. Navy is sending a carrier
strike force to North Korea. “We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have
submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. We have
the best military people on Earth. And I will say this: he [Kim Jong-un] is
doing the wrong thing.” (See: 4/18/17.)
NATO is no longer obsolete.
Trump also explains during a press conference
that NATO, which he said was obsolete in January, is “no longer obsolete.”
Apparently he realizes he
might need help from our closest allies.
As a bonus, President Trump calls Candidate
Trump a liar. China, he insists, is “not a currency manipulator.”
4/13/17: The U.S. drops “the mother of all
bombs” on an ISIS hideout in Afghanistan, killing an estimated 96 enemy
fighters. Not bad. Not bad. But did you know, under Mr. Obama, the Pentagon estimated 50,000 ISIS fighters were wiped out?
Look it up; but don’t forget the “body count” fiasco of the U.S.
military during the Vietnam War.
Every good liberal knows you can’t always trust government.
Conservatives don’t grasp that simple fact about our side.
4/14/17: White House officials tell
reporters they will no longer release records of who visits the White House—because what possible
reason could the American people have for wanting to know who the President
likes to hang out with? Pictures later show Trump’s draft-dodging friend Ted
Nugent posing in front of a painting of First Lady Hillary Clinton in a White
House hallway.
Still
no sign of the tax returns.
4/15/17: Still no sign of the president’s
tax returns as all good citizens file their own 1040s. Trump promised in 2014,
without equivocation, that he would release his taxes if he ran for
president.
Ha, ha, suckers. He lied.
Ha, ha, suckers. He lied.
4/16/17: Mr. Trump insists people who marched by the tens of thousands in protest
on Tax Day, demanding to see his returns were paid to do so.
No pay stubs or evidence is produced.
No pay stubs or evidence is produced.
Also, no tax returns.
Pursuant
to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump.
4/17/17: A white supremacist, Matthew
Heimbach, charged with assaulting an African American woman at a Trump
rally in March 2016, offers up this defense. Basically: “You can’t blame me.
Trump made me do it.”
His lawyer insists Heimbach can’t be faulted. His client “acted pursuant
to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for
President” and that, if found liable for damages, “any liability must be
shifted to one or both of them.” (See:
2/21/17.)
*
TRUMP ADVISERS spend the day arguing over whether or not to withdraw from
the Paris Climate Agreement. New E.P.A. head and noted climate-change denier
Scott Pruitt and Steve Bannon insist the president keep his campaign promise
and exit. Secretary of State Tillerson and co-directors of the Bureau
of Nepotism, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, warn that withdrawal will
erode faith in the U.S., particularly where China and American allies in Europe
are concerned.
POSTSCRIPT: A 2014 poll found the United States has more climate deniers than any other
country. This may prove that money invested in pseudo-scientific work by Big
Oil and Big Coal pays big dividends.
Pseudo-scientific
work by Big Oil and Big Coal.
Read all about climate change in that font of “fake news,” Scientific American magazine. You can go to NASA’s website
and search links. It’s not hard. Do your own work. Act quickly before the Trump
administration slashes funding for climate change research and scrubs the NASA
site.
The future looks grim—unless you have your head so far up your posterior you can’t
catch a glimpse of anything past your small intestine. And remember 195
countries have now signed the Agreement.
You can also check out a letter signed by 375 leading scientists, including
35 Nobel Prize winners, stating emphatically that human activity is causing
climate change.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters can simply stick their heads in
their freezers and pretend 2016 wasn’t the hottest year on record,
beating out 2015 for the old record, which beat out 2014 for the record before that.
4/18/17: The powerful armada Trump claims he
sent steaming toward North Korea—because we all know he’s the biggest badass ever—turns
out to be steaming through the Sunda Strait, going the other way. We do have a
great military, but it’s not going to be easy hitting North Korea from 3,000 miles
away.
 |
| Geography proves not to be Trump's strong suit. |
4/19/17: The Hill reports: “A
Moscow-based think tank linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin created a
plan to swing the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.”
Damn reporters! Always
digging for facts and writing stories based thereon.
4/20/17: Attorney General Jeff
Sessions tells a conservative commentator
he’s “amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific”
could block Trump’s second travel ban.
Hawaii part of the United States!
Sessions apparently forgets all federal judges have such
power and that Hawaii is part of the United States of America.
Geography is not a strong suit of this administration. (See: 4/12/17.)
Geography is not a strong suit of this administration. (See: 4/12/17.)
4/21/17: Six hundred icebergs have
already been seen in waters near Newfoundland; in most years the number at this
point is 60.
Quick, we need more snowballs! (See: 3/14/17.)
4/22/17: Thousands of scientists,
supporters and environmentalists demonstrate across
the nation. Organizers are motivated by Mr. Trump’s attacks on funding for
NASA, his decision to turn the E.P.A. over to a man who could not, in
confirmation hearings, name a single E.P.A. regulation he supported, and in the
face of the president’s claims that global warming is a hoax and vaccines might
be killing children.
Bring back measles and smallpox!
Bring back measles and smallpox!
Dr. Naomi Oreskes, a professor at Harvard,
who participates in the march, explains: “I can’t think of a time where
scientists felt the enterprise of science was being threatened in the way
scientists feel now.”
The president’s grasp of scientific truths has often proved tenuous. See, for example, his idiotic comments on hairspray.
The president’s grasp of scientific truths has often proved tenuous. See, for example, his idiotic comments on hairspray.
POSTSCRIPT: On the eve of the summit with
North Korea, fourteen months later, The
New York Times will report that the White House “has never
added a science adviser or senior counselor trained in nuclear physics.” The
State Department will still not have a chief scientist. Nor will the Department
of Agriculture—although Trump did nominate Sam Clovis for that post, despite
the inconvenient fact that Clovis had zero background in… science. The Interior
Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will both have
disbanded climate change panels. In fact, Joel Clement, an expert in climate
change at Interior, will be reassigned to a new job. That new job: overseeing
fees from fossil fuel drilling.
Dreamers “can rest easy.”
4/23/17: Trump suggests that
Dreamers, young immigrants brought to America as children, and who remained
through no fault of their own, “can rest easy.” He doesn’t want to deport them.
On this spring Sunday, Attorney General
Sessions says that they like “everyone that enters the country unlawfully” are
“subject to being deported.”
Take Jaime Rangel. She was brought to the
U.S. at six months of age. Now attending college in Georgia, she explains, I was brought here,
…before I could
walk, before I could talk, and long before I had any rights to make legal
decisions of my own. I love America. I work hard, follow the rules, and because
I grew up in Georgia, I speak with a southern accent. The United States is my
home, and I don’t know any other—which is why it is so frightening to think
that I could be facing possible deportation to a country I have never known.
You have to be nuts to think deporting Ms.
Rangel makes any sense. Oh, wait. This is the Trump administration.
 |
| Dreamer arrest: We know how this story has worked out. |
4/24/17: With tensions on the
Korean Peninsula rising, the president decides to meet with members of the U.N. Security
Council over lunch at the White House. Meanwhile, the North Koreans detain a
third American citizen. The situation is more complicated than healthcare and
just as complicated now as it was when Presidents George W. Bush and Barack
Obama had to wrestle with similar issues. Might I note, however, that Trump, in
his simplistic days—that is, five weeks
ago—regularly bashed the U.N. and promised to cut funding to the organization.
4/25/17: Trump says he isn’t
worried about an “arbitrary” framework, measuring him by a “first-100-days”
standard. He’s the best president ever. Every foreign leader loves him. He has
great chemistry with them all. And he’s not going to fire Press Secretary
Spicer because the man has higher TV ratings than soap operas.
The unintended irony of that statement is impossible to miss.
The unintended irony of that statement is impossible to miss.
Turning from stupid to sickening: The
president is too obtuse to realize that saying he’s helping CBS (and other
networks) to their best ratings “since the World
Trade Center came down,” might strike most Americans as
repulsive.
It’s like claiming to be a great driver after
you rear-end another vehicle and cause a fiery crash that kills three children.
Yes. Other drivers will slow down to catch a
glimpse as they pass.
What our new president fails to grasp is why so many of us can no longer
turn away. Watching this horrible human being run our great nation is like reliving 9/11. You have the
horror, the senseless destruction, all those innocent lives lost, and the
buildings crashing down.
No funding for the Wall.
4/26/17:
Tough day for Trump fans. Congress isn’t going to fund the big, beautiful wall,
and it’s not going to get “ten feet taller” every time the president is in a
snit. Will Mexico ever pay for it? Sure they will. Kind of like Trump has an
imaginary friend in the White House.
Also, guess who might be
going to jail! General Michael T. Flynn! Wouldn’t that be something! Guess who reported this “fake news.” CNN, the “failing” New York Times…and Fox News.
Speaking of Fox News, the
network is slapped with another lawsuit! Eleven current and former
employees file in court, accusing the company of “abhorrent, intolerable,
unlawful and hostile racial discrimination.” Their lawyer might be overstating,
but explains, “When it comes to racial discrimination Twenty-First Century Fox
has been operating as if it should be called Eighteenth Century Fox.”
And there’s still North
Korea. (That’s a bad one for all Americans and possibly for the entire world.)
4/27/17: Are we almost there? Are we
exhausted by winning yet? Speaking of winners, it’s a great day to be a
billionaire.
President Trump reveals his tax plan, which offers huge cuts for the superrich. The “death tax” will be eliminated on estates worth $5.5 million or less for individuals, $11 million for couples. One policy group notes that under existing law (taxing estates worth $3.5 million or more) only 1 in 500 Americans pays any estate tax. A second policy group estimates that 99.9% of us pay nothing.
President Trump reveals his tax plan, which offers huge cuts for the superrich. The “death tax” will be eliminated on estates worth $5.5 million or less for individuals, $11 million for couples. One policy group notes that under existing law (taxing estates worth $3.5 million or more) only 1 in 500 Americans pays any estate tax. A second policy group estimates that 99.9% of us pay nothing.
So: Let’s consider the average crowd at a
Trump rally—10,000 screaming fans in stylish red hats. (On sale at Walmart: $9.99 each.)
Who will benefit from this change in tax
law?
These tax cuts will pay for themselves.
To hit that 1 in 500, we need twenty people.
Trump would come out smelling like gold ingots. There’s Melania and Ivanka,
Donald Jr. and Eric, Jared Kushner and Secretary of Education DeVos, Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (who delivered the plan yesterday) and assorted billionaires
who donated to the Trump campaign (Robert Mercer, Sheldon Adelson) and
maybe Paul Manafort, who has all his wealth hidden in Cyprus. (See: 3/3/17.)
Throw in the four Walton siblings and there you go!
Throw in the four Walton siblings and there you go!
As a bonus, experts warn the Trump Plan will
add between $3 and $7 trillion to the national debt. But don’t worry! These
cuts will pay for themselves! Last president to make a similar claim: George W.
Bush.
Remember how his tax cuts were going to create
millions of jobs! In the end they added $2.8
trillion to the federal deficit.
Also: the U.S. economy imploded.
4/28/17: Who ever said
making America great again would be easy? Oh, yeah, the Trumpster! Donald J.
Trump swore running the nation would be as easy as grabbing a woman
by the p----. On Day 99, however, he tells a reporter from Reuters, “I loved my previous life. I
had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought
it would be easier.”
Who knew defeating ISIS or dealing with North
Korea might take time and effort and require attention!
Hey, let’s go tweet.
4/29/17: What a bummer. In the first
quarter of the year, in the Glorious Era of Donald, the economy grew more
slowly than at any time in three years. Consumer spending was the weakest since
2009.
It could get better and a sensible person (say:
people who knew you couldn’t blame Obama for every problem the U.S. economy
faced from the second he finished uttering the oath of office) might give the
Tweeter-in-Chief a break. But for now, Trump’s going to have to go back to
saying the economic numbers are “phony,” “totally fiction.” (See: 3/10/17.)
How will we know which numbers are fake? If the
numbers look good we can expect a tweet claiming credit. Then another tweet
because the press won’t stroke the president’s ego.
*
BEST OF ALL, Trump fans, is how exciting the
new tax plan will be for…no, not you. Don’t be stupid. For the president!
According to analysis of the one year of
his taxes we’ve seen (2005) Trump would have saved $31.3 million under his own
plan as a result of repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax. This provision was
added to stop rich cheaters who got away with paying close to nothing.
That’s savings for one year.
Also, he’d pay $27 million less because he
could count more of his money as business income, which would be taxed at a
lower rate than, say, the income you make in wages if you’re a coal miner.
So much winning for the winners of a rigged
game! Repeal the tax on high income earners which pays for the Affordable Care
Act. Another $1.5 million for the president to pocket! Cutting the highest tax
rate…peanuts to Trump, but another $500,000 he won’t have to pay!
Get rid of the estate tax? President Oligarch
(not to mention all his billionaire friends) would save $1.2 billion on his
fortune of $3 billion if he never paid the tax (40%).
4/30/17: The
president proves that anyone with at least one good finger or thumb can run the
greatest nation in the world. He spends Day 101 in office digging into
healthcare policy, perusing thick policy books…no, no, we’re kidding!
He’s tweeting! At 7:09 a.m. he sends out this gem: “The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction. They are only interested in themselves and not in what’s best for U.S...”
He’s tweeting! At 7:09 a.m. he sends out this gem: “The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction. They are only interested in themselves and not in what’s best for U.S...”
At 7:28 he pecks away again: “You can’t compare anything to
ObamaCare because ObamaCare is dead. Dems want billions to go to Insurance
Companies to bail out donors.... New.”
Having exhausted his limit of 140 characters and plumbed the depths
of his knowledge, Trump pauses. Perhaps he takes time out to polish off a bowl
of Fruit Loops.
At 7:32 the American people are treated to another tweet:
“…healthcare plan is on its way. Will have much lower premiums &
deductibles while at the same time taking care of pre-existing
conditions!” (See: 5/4/17.)
May 1, 2017:
This is Loyalty Day. Trump proclaimed it all by himself! He wants all
Americans—well, maybe not the Muslim ones—to “recognize and reaffirm our
allegiance to the principles” upon which our nation was built. “The United
States stands as the world’s leader in upholding the ideals of freedom,
equality, and justice,” the proclamation for the day reads.
Trump
invites a cutthroat to the White House.
Oddly enough, Trump also invites Rodrigo Duterte, cutthroat
president of the Philippines, to visit the White House.
You know they’ll have chemistry. Duterte is anti-free press and
once called Obama a “son of a whore.”
Sure, people who deal in “fake news” will criticize. They will tell
you Duterte is a cold-blooded killer. Time says that as
part of Duterte’s aggressive anti-drug campaign, in 97% of drug busts,
police kill all suspects, not to mention innocent bystanders who
might have criticized Duterte.
Reuters reports that Duterte said in his Inaugural Address that his country was infested
with 3.7 million drug addicts. Later, he told a reporter, “I have to
slaughter these idiots for destroying my country.”
Anyway, it’s Loyalty Day, when we celebrate America’s core values;
and Duterte has been invited to the White House for a sleepover. He’s the
guy who said he was going to “forget the laws on human rights” once he took
office.
5/2/17: Trump tries on his
tin-pot dictator hat. He’s frustrated (after three months) with the slow pace
of reforming the country. Hey, why not change Senate rules to give the GOP
total control?
He tweets out a call for
the Senate to ditch its 60-vote rule, required to pass many kinds of
legislation. The votes aren’t there. “We....either elect
more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%.”
If
that doesn’t work, how about this idea: “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in
September to fix mess!”
Yes. You read that right.
The president wants to shut down the government if he can’t have his way.
5/3/17: For
those of us not glued to Fox News, we learn former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates is
preparing to testify before Congress. She will indicate “that she gave a forceful
warning to the White House regarding then-National Security Adviser Michael
Flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired, contradicting the administration’s
version of events, sources familiar with her account tell CNN.”
Yates will tell Congress she informed White House lawyers, “Flynn
was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed U.S.
sanctions on Russia in conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei
Kislyak.” The general’s “misleading comments,” she will warn, would make him
“potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia.”
Yates will be fired for her pains.
Trump & Co. will then blame the fact Flynn was working in the
White House on President Obama, because Flynn won a security clearance while
Obama was in office. All Trump did was hire the man to serve in his campaign
and make him his National Security Adviser. Yep. It was Obama’s fault for sure.
Anyway: Russians!
5/4/17: After
seven years, the House of Representatives votes, 217-213, to repeal and replace
Obamacare.
“Today we made history,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise tells reporters, “by taking the first important step toward rescuing
hardworking families from the failures and skyrocketing costs of Obamacare.”
“A
great plan.”
“Yes, premiums will be coming down. Yes, deductibles will be coming
down,” President Trump promises at a celebratory gathering in the Rose Garden.
“This has brought the Republican Party together. But very importantly, it’s a
great plan and ultimately that’s what it’s all about.”
The plan, he says, is “very, very, incredibly well-crafted.”
If anything, the House plan brings the American people together. By
a huge majority they hate it. In one poll, only
17% approve of the “replace” part of the long-promised GOP “repeal and replace”
plan. (In June, Trump will describe the same plan he touted on this day as
“mean.”)
It’s like he has the brain of a hamster. (See: 6/14/17.)
The Congressional Budget Office warns that Trumpcare will gently
remove care from the reach of 24 million Americans.
5/5/17: Not
everyone recognizes how great the new GOP plan is, including Ghost of Trump
Future, who will eventually clash with Ghost of Trump Past. On this day, Ghost
of Trump Present, failing to realize Australia has universal healthcare
coverage, tweets: “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we
do—everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.”
Next we have a tweet-cry straight from his orange heart: “Wow, the
Fake News media did everything in its power to make the Republican Healthcare
victory look as bad as possible. Far better than Ocare!”
5/6/17:
Apparently realizing his loyal base can’t figure out simple geography, Trump
explains via tweet why he’s heading to New Jersey to spend another weekend at a
Trump-owned golf course. “Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I
will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves
country money!” (See: 8/2/17.)
Many Trump fans are too dumb to realize the president could have puttered
about the White House in his pajamas at no extra cost.
*
SPEAKING OF BEDMINSTER,
by the end of the year we will learn that it costs a little jack to join a
Trump country club. Trump National Gold Club Westchester, in the town of
Briarcliff Manor, New York charges an initiation fee reported by David Cay
Johnston in 2016 to be $300,000. Bill Clinton was once a member—and probably
still is.
You can hang with
Trump and his friends for $200,000.
That same year, Trump
National Golf Club Bedminster charged an initiation fee of $350,000. Of course,
you might call this a bargain, compared to a reported $1,000,000 fee instituted
(in 2012) at the Seabonak Golf Club in South Hampton. I mean who at Seabonak
would want to golf with all the riffraff hanging around like homeless persons
at Bedminster?
And don’t these fees
prove all the people Trump hangs around with, including porn stars, desperately
need tax cuts!
Yes, even Stormy
Daniels! (See: 1/13/18; 1/18/18.)
 |
| Stormy Daniels: Perhaps, Trump liked her golf swing! |
5/7/17: Senator
McConnell spends the day brushing up the prose for an Op-Ed article which will
appear in the Washington Examiner on May 8.
In coal country, meanwhile, we learn life is good for executives, maybe not so good for miners, who do
the dangerous work.
Peabody Energy has gone bankrupt—which Fox News blames on Obama.
Yet Glen Kellow, who ran the company, receives a $15 million stock bonus payout.
Peabody pays its top executive team $75 million (2012-2014) and loses $2 billion.
In 2016 Alpha Natural Resources gives $12 million in bonuses to
executives, apparently for their efforts in 2015, when the company lost $1.3
billion.
Arch Coal executives earn $8 million in bonuses three days before the company declares bankruptcy.
“You
couldn’t say nothing.” And you could get black lung.
Meanwhile, pay for a United Mine Workers of America union member
averages $61,650, and closer to $85,000 with overtime. But only 2% of miners
are unionized today, down from 40% in the 90s. Non-union miners make far less. Carlos
Combs, 64, a third-generation miner lost a union job twenty years ago. Of jobs
with non-unionized operators, which are all he can find now, he says, “You
couldn’t say nothing. You had to take what they gave you.”
Eventually, he developed black lung.
According to The New York Times there is a
bit of good news for men like Combs or their widows. “Congress…reached a
last-minute deal this week to finance health benefits for more than 20,000
retired miners—miners whose employers have long gone bankrupt, leaving
taxpayers to pick up the tab.”
Last week, we achieved the success
that thousands of retired coal miners and their families so desperately needed with the passage of my proposal [emphasis
added]. And with President Trump’s signature, it is now law. You may recall
that at the end of December, their health benefits were set to expire. If
Congress had not acted, approximately 3,000 Kentucky coal miner retirees—and
tens of thousands more around the country—would have seen their healthcare
benefits end. After years of hard work in the coal mines, they deserved better
than having to suffer as collateral damage of former President Barack Obama’s
War on Coal.
Representing coal-dependent West Virginia, Republican Sen.
Shelley Moore Capito agrees. Congress must find a permanent solution. “These
men and women worked hard in dangerous situations to power America and were
promised lifetime health care benefits in return.”
In other words, Americans deserve help with health insurance if
they are represented by Republican
senators. The rest of us don’t.
And why did the healthcare fund for miners dry up? Maybe, it was
because top company executives were greedy. (See above.)
5/8/17: The president wakes up constipated and lets rip in another angry, early morning tweet: “The Russian-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”
5/9/17: In a bold move to end the “taxpayer-funded
charade,” not to mention cover his lard ass, Trump fires F.B.I. director
James Comey. White House aides are at pains to point out that the president “acted
based on the clear recommendations” of two men, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions (who later pisses Trump off; see: 7/20/17) and Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein (See: 7/20/17).
“This has nothing to do with Russia.”
White House officials insist Comey lost control of
the F.B.I. Kellyanne Conway tells Anderson Cooper that evening: “This had
nothing to do with Russia, as much as somebody must be getting $50 every time
the word is said, I’m convinced, on TV. This has nothing to do with Russia.”
“Nada,” you might say. (See: 5/11/17.)
*
THE PRESIDENT is railing about the “Fake News” folks again. That
is: anyone in the news business that doesn’t grovel before his throne.
He tweets:
The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite
the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else,
91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in
working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?
And there you have it. Fake News is really just news that Trump
finds negative. The solution?
Stop lying so much?
No, take away access—take away press credentials—unless
reporters offer up only Sean Hannity-like pro-Trump propaganda.
Joseph Goebbels would approve.
5/10/17: At a morning press gathering Sarah Huckabee
Sanders assures reporters and anyone listening, including Vladimir Putin, that
Trump fired Comey only because of letters he received.
These letters said Comey had lost the confidence of rank-and-file agents at the
Bureau.
The president has a meeting that afternoon
with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. This meeting is kept
secret for two days, in large part because
the “fake media” are banned from attending. Also, because the White House
decides not to mention it, and even after news leaks, decides to release
photos, but crops Kislyak out of every scene.
(For those who forget—like pretty much everyone in
the White House—Kislyak is the same ambassador Jeff Sessions and General Flynn both
forgot meeting. (See: 5/12/17.)
5/11/17: In an interview with Lester Holt
of NBC, Trump explains his rationale for the Comey firing. Holt wonders: How
much of a factor were those recommendations by A. G. Sessions and Deputy A. G. Rosenstein?
“I
was going to fire regardless.”
“Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump
replies. “I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it.
And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You
know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.’”
That’s right. Comey was fired because of the Russian investigation.
Who says so? The fool in the Oval Office.
5/12/17: The Russians prank the president, releasing photos of his
meeting with Kislyak, not to mention a variety of Russians, including
representatives of the Russian
media. Everyone in the photos appears to be having a great time.
Part of the fun involves Trump telling the
Russians he fired Comey because he was “crazy, a real nut job.”
A week later, The New York Times acquires
a leaked document
outlining what was discussed at the meeting. “I faced great pressure because of
Russia,” Trump told his foreign pals. “That’s taken off.”
So, yeah, Russians!
5/13/17:
Super-Christian Donald J. Trump travels to Liberty University for a commencement speech. It’s
his third time on campus, he reminds his audience, but who ever thought he’d be
returning as president?
Besides the Russians?
Trump
won with “major help from God.”
His victory required “major help from God,” he explains. “And we
got it.”
Trump thanks multi-millionaire Jerry Falwell Jr., president of
Liberty, who has profited
handsomely by focusing on the message of Jesus. He thanks the students’
parents. Then to the Class of 2017, he offers this wisdom: “You’re going to go
out, you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do, some are going to make a
lot of money, some are going to be even happier doing other things.”
His comments have a Dr. Seuss-like inscrutability.
You kind of figure the younger version, or even the current version
of Donald J. Trump, wouldn’t make it as a student at Liberty. A look at the
school code of conduct, called The Liberty Way, makes that clear.
The code has been liberalized in recent years. That means R-rated
movies and hugs lasting longer than three seconds are no longer taboo. (You figure grabbing women by the pussy still doesn’t fly.)
In 2015 the university reduced dress code restrictions, but shorts
are still forbidden in class. Women’s skirts must reach within two inches of
the knee. Even Trump’s hair couldn’t pass the test. The Liberty Way says, for
male students, “Hair should be cut in such a way that it will not come over the
ears, collar or eyebrows at any time. Ponytails for men are unacceptable.”
5/14/17: POTUS
manages to tweet a Mother’s Day greeting without insulting mothers: “Wishing
@FLOTUS Melania and all of the great mothers out there a wonderful day ahead
with family and friends! Happy #MothersDay”
He did it. Trump went twenty-four hours without acting like a jerk.
5/15/17: In an
article for Politico, Shane Goldmacher, explains how Trump
gets his news. The picture isn’t pretty. In fact, White House chief of staff
Reince Priebus has had to issue a warning to senior staff: “Quit trying to
secretly slip stuff to President Donald Trump.”
Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, deputy national security
adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine
covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age. The other,
from 2008, was about surviving global warming, according to four White House
officials familiar with the matter.
A
fake cover fools Trump.
Trump got lathered up about media hypocrisy. But there was a
problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff
intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly again about the climate
change “hoax.”
What a relief! We wouldn’t want Trump to get out there and peddle
something stupid, would we?
5/16/17: The
right-wing fairy tale that government is always the problem and regulations are
tools of Satan gets a tire iron between the eyes. Benjamin Poehling, a
whistle-blower with wide experience in healthcare, reports insurers have been “systematically
bilking Medicare Advantage for years.”
The Justice Department announces plans to sue UnitedHealth Group.
Poehling claims companies like UHG designed special computer programs to gather
“evidence” allowing them to make patients appear sicker than they were. For
example, the government would pay $9,580 per year for a 76-year-old woman with
diabetes and kidney failure. But…if the company could manage to show
diabetes caused the kidney problem…
Then they’d be paid $12,902.
So what’s a self-respecting, profit-producing healthcare company
supposed to do?
According to Poehling he and co-workers were told to “mine” health
data. In one email a company financial officer mentions conditions which
represent “huge $ opportunities.” “Let’s turn on the gas!” he adds. The scheme,
Poehling says, “was not about delivering better care to members—the thing you
would expect from a healthcare company. It was about increasing the bottom
line.”
More
than $6.6 billion in penalties.
Just for fun—because it illustrates the same point—peruse a list of
the top penalties levied against drug manufacturers in the United States. If
you consider the top 22 examples, eight involve companies bilking Medicaid or
Medicare. Total damages recovered by the federal government in those cases:
$6,640,000,000.
5/17/17: On
May 17, Time magazine reports that U.S. intelligence experts have been hard at work
trying to understand the depth of Russian efforts to undermine the U.S.
election process.
How did U.S. counterintelligence first get wind of
enemy efforts to harm the Clinton campaign? Time explains:
Like many a good spy
tale, the story of how the U.S. learned its democracy could be hacked started
with loose lips. In May 2016, a Russian military intelligence officer bragged
to a colleague that his organization, known as the GRU, was getting ready to pay
Clinton back for what President Vladimir Putin believed was an influence
operation she had run against him five years earlier as Secretary of State. The
GRU, he said, was going to cause chaos in the upcoming U.S. election.
*
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL Rod Rosenstein appoints Robert Mueller
as Special Counsel. (See: 5/11/17.)
5/18/17: The very next day, during a press conference
with the President of Columbia, an aggrieved President Trump once again insists
he is victim of “the greatest witch hunt” in U.S. history.
Nobody in his campaign had anything to do with the
Russians.
Period.
5/19/17: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tells members of Congress
she hopes to redirect $250 million to a program to help parents pay for
children to attend private schools. A lawmaker wants to know what she will do
if private schools discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
students.
Not her problem, she replies. “For states that
have programs that allow for parents to make choices, they set up the rules
around that.”
Parents should have the final say on what kind
of schools their children attend and what kind of children they sit beside.
5/20/17: The
president hops a jet and flees from investigators. He lands in Saudi Arabia,
where his gaudy tastes are perfectly matched by the Saud royal family.
(Who wants a $549 million yacht?)
The brand that inspired Osama bin Laden.
On his first overseas trip Trump makes nice with the Saudis, purveyors
of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist brand of Islam. This is the brand that inspired
Osama bin Laden and can be seen reflected in the ideals of ISIS.
It goes without saying that neither Trump nor most of the Trump
base will have a clue about this topic.
5/21/17: In a
speech in Riyadh, before dozens of leaders from across the Muslim world, Trump
wimps out—at least according to one of his harshest critics, Candidate Trump.
“This is not a battle of different faiths, different sects or different
civilizations,” he tells his audience. “This is a battle between barbaric
criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name
of religion, people that want to protect life and want to protect their
religion. This is a battle between good and evil.”
Trump
fails to use his “magic phrase.”
This is not the same as saying, while running for office, that
you saw a video of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey
celebrating the Twin Towers’ fall. (That whopper won a “Pants on Fire” award
from the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact. No one has seen
the video since.)
The rhetoric in Riyadh isn’t as stirring as stirring up supporters
during the campaign by explaining in an interview with Anderson Cooper, “I think Islam
hates us. There’s something, there’s something there, that, that’s tremendous
hatred…there… there’s a tremendous hatred there. We have to get to the bottom
of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”
Nor does Trump employ his “magic phrase” in speaking to Muslim
leaders.
Candidate Trump, seconded by Fox News, long insisted we could never
defeat ISIS unless we chanted: “radical Islamic terrorism.”
President Obama was a pansy because he wouldn’t. Now, with a chance
to lay it on the Saudis, Trump chokes.
He fails to utter his favorite phrase.
You can go to the White House website and read the entire text of his speech if you don’t
believe me.
For Obama haters on the alt-right it must have sounded like Obama
Lite, with one stark exception. Where Mr. Obama routinely focused on human
rights and democracy in talking to Middle Eastern potentates, Trump professed
not to care. America wants “partners, not perfection,” he said.
In other words, if the Saudis want to stone adulterers and arrest women who walk down the
street in skirts or dare drive, or torture political opponents, it’s no sweat to the United
States. (See: Loyalty Day; May 1, 2017.)
5/22/17: It’s on
to Israel, where Trump has to deal with the same problems that have vexed the
following U.S. presidents (in order): Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson,
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama and, now, Donald
J. Trump.
“Not
as difficult as people have thought.”
One might give him a pass in this regard, save for the fact he acts
like he has solutions where none of his predecessors did. Trump insists
son-in-law and jack-of-all-administration-trades Jared Kushner (who definitely never talked with any Russians!) can bring
peace to the Middle East.
The president explains in a meeting with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the month, “It is something that I think is
frankly, maybe, not as difficult as people have thought over the years.”
Like healthcare. (See: 2/27/17.)
Enjoy your golf conflict cheats.
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