We pick up here with Part
II, of “A Ghastly Year of Trump.”
Chaos and ineptitude still reign.
To view Part I, follow this
link.
5/23/17: Trump
reveals his budget for 2018 and promises everything will balance in the end.
Defense spending will increase 10%. A cool $1.6 billion will go to build the
Great Wall of Trump. (See: 6/22/17; 7/12/17.)
Social Security and Medicare, the biggest drivers of federal debt,
remain untouched.
Over the next decade $192 billion will be cut from nutrition
programs for children, because, hungry kids, no big deal!
5/24/17: The
New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence agencies collected information
during the 2016 campaign “revealing that senior Russian intelligence and
political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump
through his advisers.”
Sources are three current and former officials familiar with the sensitive intelligence. The names of General Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort had both been mentioned. There was also “information about direct communication between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russian officials.”
Sources are three current and former officials familiar with the sensitive intelligence. The names of General Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort had both been mentioned. There was also “information about direct communication between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russian officials.”
Trump & Co. start complaining about leaks. Fox News amplifies
the message. Sean Hannity insists no Russians have been seen within a thousand
miles of anyone named Trump or Kushner or anyone else—except, maybe, Obama.
“If there ever was any effort by Russians to influence me, I was
unaware, and they would have failed,” Manafort insists.
General Flynn and his legal team are unavailable for comment.
 |
| Something smells fishy in Moscow. |
5/25/17: At a
NATO summit in Brussels, Trump shows his class by shoving aside the Prime Minister of Montenegro so he
can get his scowling mug in every photo.
He then refuses to commit to Article 5, which holds that an attack
on any member of the NATO Alliance is considered an attack on all and all
signatories will come to that nation’s aid.
That provision has been one of the foundations of U.S. defense policy since 1949.
5/26/17: Appalachian
Power, the lead utility in West Virginia, says it plans to increase reliance on wind, solar and other
renewables and natural gas.
Since 2012 the company has reduced reliance on coal from 74% to 62%
of energy production. It has closed three coal-fired plants, which maybe you
can blame on President Obama, but also converted two to natural gas, which you
can’t.
Almost half of all Fortune 500 companies have in place clean-energy
goals, including 23 that expect to run on 100 percent renewable energy in the
future.
That includes Walmart.
At a recent meeting, Chris Beam, president of Appalachian Power
admitted he was in talks to buy, build or lease as many wind and solar farms as
possible across Virginia and West Virginia.
80
solar panels on the roof.
Also: jobs in the coal industry have been declining for
decades—including a sharp drop under Ronald Reagan. In other words, the imaginary “War on
Coal” is pretty much a total right-wing fiction.
5/27/17: Former
GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner tells an audience he supports Trump on some aspects of
foreign policy. Otherwise, “Everything else he’s done has been a complete
disaster.”
Hearing this report, Paul Ryan nods in agreement from the safety of
a secret bunker hideout beneath his Janesville, Wisconsin home.
5/28/17: In the
wake of the NATO meeting (see: 5/25/17) Angela Merkel, leader
of Germany, takes the measure of President Trump. She warns: Europe
nations should “really take our fate into our own hands.”
She continues: “The times in which we could rely fully on
others—they are somewhat over. This is what I experienced in the last few
days.”
America is poised to renounce its role as leader of the Free World.
5/29/17: Did
you know the pharmaceutical industry spent $78 million dollars
in the first quarter of this year on research, because all they care about is
helping you, the typical American who has chronic pain, or cancer or erectile
dysfunction? Hahaha. That’s fake news, suckers!
Big
Pharma employs 1,100 lobbyists.
Big Pharma spent that pile of cash on lobbying because they employ
lots of lobbyists: 1,100, to be exact.
Envision that horde swarming the halls of Congress every time some
GOP shill trots out this gem: “Government isn’t the solution. Government is the
problem.”
By the way, did you know Big Pharma donated $58 million to
subsidize prescription costs for sick children last year? Hahaha.
Don’t be a fool! That’s fake news again!
In 2016 they donated that much to various election campaigns. This
is how the “free market” operates. You get what you pay for and Big Pharma
might as well be writing prescriptions that read, “Take one Congressman to
breakfast in the morning, one to dinner in the evening, and contribute to their
campaigns at the first sign of legislation that might reduce gigantic profits.”
Shimkus
blocks plan to lower drug prices.
Consider Republican John Shimkus, who represents—in theory—the people
of Illinois—even the sick ones. Last year, he worked overtime to gather
signatures from 242 members of Congress and block an Obama administration
project to test ways to lower costs of Medicare Part B.
That program spent $24.6 billion on prescription drugs in 2015.
Hey, the drug companies said, “Let’s
donate $300,000 to Shimkus! He’ll be our bought-and-paid-for stooge!”
I’m not sure how many signers were Republicans. The first fifteen
on the list are and you can check the link if you’d like. Those who
added their names included Steve Chabot, my very own Congressman, Tom Price,
now head of Health and Human Services, Steve Scalise, third-ranking House
Republican, and Lamar Smith, leading climate denier in Congress, if you don’t count “Snowball”
Jim Inhofe.
5/30/17: Trump once
again calls on the Senate to change its rules. “The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and
get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy. Dems would do it, no
doubt!”
He’s not going to be happy
until we have a one-party state, kind of like Italy in 1930.
Maybe
they talked about gardening.
5/31/17: The “Fake News” folks at Vox join the
“fake Russians” fray. Vox reports: “Federal
investigators are fixated on a mysterious December meeting between senior White
House adviser Jared Kushner and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov.” For some reason
Kushner suddenly remembers he
did meet with Gorkov but they only talked about…he can’t be sure …maybe
gardening.
That same day, PBS wonders why Kushner suggested in that meeting that a back channel to Russia be created…using Russian diplomatic facilities. Critics wonder why any private citizen would “try to set up covert communications with a hostile power like Russia, particularly after U.S. intelligence agencies accused Moscow of trying to interfere in the 2016 election to help Trump.” (See 7/8-7/14/17.)
That same day, PBS wonders why Kushner suggested in that meeting that a back channel to Russia be created…using Russian diplomatic facilities. Critics wonder why any private citizen would “try to set up covert communications with a hostile power like Russia, particularly after U.S. intelligence agencies accused Moscow of trying to interfere in the 2016 election to help Trump.” (See 7/8-7/14/17.)
June 1, 2017:
The president, who can’t tell the difference between weather and climate, and
has the same grasp of basic science one
might expect from a pumpkin, withdraws the U.S. from the Paris climate
accord. In so doing, he aligns the United States with two
other “leading” nations: Syria and Nicaragua. The other 194 still
believe climate change is a serious threat.
(In April 2018 more than a
thousand members of the National Academy of Sciences sign a letter criticizing
the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate
accord. “The dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formation has affected
wide areas of social, biological, environmental and physical sciences.”)
6/2/2017:
Reporters ask aides if the president still believes global warming is a hoax.
It’s an easy question. You might as well ask if Trump believes in Santa Claus. Press
Secretary Sean Spicer replies, “I have not had an opportunity to have that
discussion.” (See: 8/27/17; 12/28/17; 1/6/18.)
Trump
has “turned his back on the wisdom of human beings.”
Kellyanne Conway gives a flippant answer, fluffs her hair, and
prances away. “You should ask him,” she says.
In “Fake News,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, invoking her training as a scientist,
tells reporters Trump’s actions:
…will not deter all of us who feel
obliged to protect this earth…We will gather all our strength—in Germany, in
Europe, and in the world—to meet the great challenges of humanity, like climate
change, and to successfully master these challenges. For all whom the future of
this planet is important, I say: Let us continue along this path together, so
that we are successful for our Mother Earth.
Koichi Yamamoto, Japan’s environment minister says the president
has “turned his back on the wisdom of human beings.”
Tonight, I wish to tell the United
States, France believes in you—the world believes in you.
I know that you are a great nation. I
know your history—our common history.
To all scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of
the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France
a second homeland.
I call on them: come and work here with
us. To work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I
can assure you, France will not give up the fight.
I call on you to remain confident. We
will succeed, because we are fully committed, because wherever we live, whoever
we are, we all share the same responsibility: Make Our Planet Great Again.
France and Britain pledge to ban the sale of gas- and diesel-powered automobiles by
2040. (See also: 7/6/17; 7/31/17.)
6/3/17: The
average American worker’s wage grows 0.2 percent in May. This brings the year-over-year gain
to 2.5 percent. That surpasses inflation by 0.5 percent, meaning
the average worker, earning $45,000 annually, has $225 more to stick in the
bank or hide in his or her sock drawer.
By comparison, the top 25
hedge fund managers earn a combined $11 billion in 2016. James Simons leads the
way at $1.6 billion. Simon’s pay for one year equals the wage gains piled up by
7,111,111 average workers.
You know what this proves? We need tax cuts for the ultra-rich!
6/4/17:
Following a deadly terrorist attack in London, Trump decides the best way
to help is to insult the
Mayor of London.
Taking the mayor’s words out of context, he tweets: “At least
7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no
reason to be alarmed!’”
Those who can read an actual newspaper or watch a video for two
minutes without losing focus, know that after the attack Mayor Sadiq Khan
actually said: “Londoners will see an
increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days.
There’s no reason to be alarmed.”
The reaction in The Guardian, a British newspaper,
captures the love Londoners now have for The Tweeter-in-Chief:
6/5/17: Trump
decides to blast the judicial branch again because the courts have blocked
provisions of his travel ban. “In any event,” he tweets, “we are EXTREME
VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The
courts are slow and political!”
At the same time, he remains incapable of letting go about the
attack in London. He tweets again: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan
who had to think fast [emphasis
added] on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. MSM is working hard to sell
it!”
Mainstream media isn’t working “hard to sell it.” They’re quoting
what the mayor said in context.
One is tempted to suggest: the president might
just be a moron.
6/6/17: Orange Leader
decides he has nothing better to do than attack the free press yet again. A stupid
tweet follows: “Sorry
folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS,
washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance winning WH.”
6/7/17: Did
you know deer kill more Americans most years than terrorists and
illegal immigrants combined?
Greedy
drug company executives more dangerous than terrorists.
Do you know what the most dangerous predators might be? Grizzlies?
Despite the claims of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, no.
Sharks? No.
Try greedy drug company executives. According to the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, “Sales of prescription opioids in the U.S.
quadrupled from 1999 to 2014,” but there was no “overall change in the amount of pain Americans report.”
What happened?
Big Pharma pushed the pain-killing virtues of products like
OxyContin. A quick check of Addictions.com turns up this
detail: “According to Fortune magazine, an estimated 254 million
opioid prescriptions were filled in 2010,” the year prescriptions peaked. That
would be “enough to medicate every adult in the U.S. for a month on a
round-the-clock basis. In that same year, pharmaceutical companies generated
revenues of $11 billion from opioid sales alone.”
An effort to curtail
over-prescription of such drugs, including a recommendation that doctors
first prescribe aspirin or ibuprofen to patients complaining of chronic pain,
met fierce resistance from…go figure…major drug companies.
With doctors issuing too many prescriptions, and those
prescriptions running too long (current average 17.7 days), when the
recommended dosage to start would be
three days, billions of extra pills end up circulating.
A chart prepared by CDC shows where most people who abuse opioids first
go to get the drug:
In other words, the problem has long been clear. Most who try
opioids and get hooked start by getting pills from friends or relatives who
have pills left over. Addicts turn next to “pill mills,” physicians and
druggists happy to hand out addictive substances because over-prescribing means
big profits.
The death toll soars.
Big Pharma keeps pushing opioids. According to estimates, patients in this country consume 80% of the world’s supply of opioids.
Big Pharma keeps pushing opioids. According to estimates, patients in this country consume 80% of the world’s supply of opioids.
By 2014, there are 28,647 deaths from drug abuse, more than half a
result of prescription opioids.
The following year is worse: with 59,000 drug-related overdose deaths. And 2017 is
expected to be more deadly yet.
6/8/17: The
attack on the free press continues. Right-wing thinkers applaud newly-elected GOP member of the House of Representatives,
Greg Gianforte. During a heated campaign Gianforte body-slams a British
reporter when the chap has the audacity to ask what he thinks about
healthcare.
The attack never happened, Gianforte and his campaign manager claim. It was all “fake news.”
The attack never happened, Gianforte and his campaign manager claim. It was all “fake news.”
Then a local Fox News reporter and other witnesses back up the
victim’s claims.
Gianforte later pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and agrees to
donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. (See: 7/2/17.)
*
FORMER F.B.I. DIRECTOR Comey spends the day testifying in front of Congress. Five times he implies or refers to the president as a
liar. He has detailed notes on their interactions. Asked
why he kept such notes—when he never felt the need under Bush 43 or Obama—he
says in respect to Trump:
I was honestly concerned he might lie
about the nature of the meeting so I thought it important to document. That
combination of things [Trump’s request for loyalty, among others] I had never
experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write
it down in a very detailed way.
(By December 9, 2017,
polls will show
that 51% of Americans think Trump is not “honest.” Only 36% will think he is.)
6/9/17: The
delusional leader of the Free World wakes up in a chipper mood. Having watched
Comey’s testimony, as filtered through Fox & Friends, Trump tweets:
“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete
vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”
Obstruction
of justice comes to mind.
In reality, it seems Comey was fired because the president wanted
to kill the Russian investigation.
Obstruction of justice comes to mind. So say articles in the Chicago
Sun-Times, the Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The
Hill, Time, National Review, and stories on CNN, NBC
and even BBC News.
6/10/17:
Infrastructure Week, declared on June 6, draws to a close. Since no one seems
to notice, the president’s only tweet of the day tries to draw attention.
With nothing better to do on a lazy Saturday, he pulls out his
trusty iPhone: “America is going to build again. Under budget and ahead of
schedule. Time to put #AmericaFirst! #InfrastructureWeek…”
Unfortunately, no one cares.
Part of the problem is that Trump can’t stay on message long enough to get his plans across to the American
people. It’s like having a gerbil in the Oval Office. Also, it doesn’t help
that the infrastructure plan has not
actually been released. Finally, it doesn’t help to know that fiscal hawks
in Congress are as interested in spending $1 trillion on anything as they are
in contracting Zika.
6/11/17: As
usual, Trump has a bee in his bonnet—or under that weird shock of swept-back
orange hair. He tweets:
“The #FakeNews MSM doesn’t
report the great economic news since Election Day. #DOW up 16%. #NASDAQ up
19.5%. Drilling & energy sector...”
“...way up. Regulations way down. 600,000+ new jobs
added. Unemployment down to 4.3%. Business and economic enthusiasm way
up—record levels!”
This good news is being
reported. By the end of the June the Bureau of Labor Statistics will note that
under Trump, 1,081,000 jobs have been added to
the economy in the first six months of 2016.
These numbers—duly noted by
the mainstream media every month—are
matched exactly in the first six months of 2016, when, under President Obama,
1,081,000 jobs were added.
6/12/17: For
once, as the sun sets over the White House, Orange Leader is content. Today
he presided over a cabinet meeting for the
ages. Sure, it had a creepy, Kim Jong-un kind of feel. But such praise for
Orange Leader!
Vice
President Jesus leads lovefest at the White House.
Vice President Jesus kicked off the lovefest. “The greatest privilege of my life is to
serve as vice president to the president who’s keeping his word to the American
people,” he opined. Next up was Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta: “I am
privileged to be here—deeply honored—and I want to thank you for your
commitment to the American workers.” Sonny Perdue took his turn. The Secretary
of Agriculture said he had a message from Mississippi, from whence he had just
returned: “They love you there,” he
assures Orange Leader. He thanks him for his greatness, and congratulates him
for selecting so much other greatness, “the men and women you have gathered
around this table.”
Reince Priebus gets his nose stuck up Orange Leader’s ass, summing
up, “We thank you for the opportunity to
serve your agenda.” (See: 7/29/17.)
In an orange glow of pleasure, Trump decides to talk about his
favorite subject: Donald J. Trump. Had there ever been a greater president? He
can’t think of any. Oh, maybe FDR did more in the first few months of his first
term, but no one else is even close to as fantastic.
6/13/17: Trump
surrogates spend the week floating the idea that the president may fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Newt
flips on Mueller.
Newt Gingrich, known for lying to his wives and getting kicked out
as Speaker of the House, because of ethics violations, attacks
Mueller. “Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is
going to be fair.”
This is odd, since a month earlier, Gingrich tweeted: “Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty
and integrity. Media should now calm down.”
6/14/17: Trump
apparently takes a fresh look at the healthcare plan passed by the House of
Representatives (See: 5/4/17.) Now he calls it “mean.”
Displaying his typical lack of understanding of policy details, he
insists the Senate “should add some money to it.” (See: 6/28/17.)
6/15/17: It
turns out not everyone in the world loves Donald J. Trump, self-proclaimed best
president ever (possibly excepting FDR, but, yes, way better than Washington or
Lincoln)! (See: 6/12/17.)
Anyway, Great Britain has placed on hold a plan to host a state
visit for the president. Why? After all, Theresa May, visited Washington, D.C.
Now, The Guardian reports, Trump is worried about his image.
He won’t come to Britain if he’s going to have to face large-scale demonstrations. A British reporter explains:
He won’t come to Britain if he’s going to have to face large-scale demonstrations. A British reporter explains:
Some may be surprised by this. From the
violence and menace that became features of his ugly campaign, it was easy to
assume that he liked a bit of edge at his public appearances. But on those
occasions, he knew he would always have the support of far-right thugs and
hangers-on who could drown out dissent and, if need be, throw a few punches at protesters, passers-by, anyone
who would dare to question him. That intimidation, unprecedented in recent
history, would have been more difficult to replicate here; he could hardly
bring his street fighters with him. There are only so many seats on Air Force
One.
The HeraldScotland piles on the “fake news” with a
similar anti-Trump story headlined
“‘Victory for ‘people power’ as Trump puts UK Visit on Hold.” (See:
6/27/17.)
Perhaps the Queen is hoping Trump will be impeached before she ever
has to greet him in person.
6/16/17: The president
stamps his feet and fumes and tweets. Now he’s mad at Deputy Attorney General
Rod J. Rosenstein. “I’m being investigated for firing the FBI director by the man who told me to fire the FBI
Director!” In case his loyal followers miss it, he adds: “Witch Hunt.”
For anyone who can remember what happened a month ago, this tweet
makes sense only if we ignore the fact the president was going to fire Comey
regardless.
Who said so? Trump said so. (See: 5/11/17.)
6/17/17: The
New York Times reports another
member of the Trump campaign is under investigation.
Rick Gates, a close ally of Paul Manafort, survived Manafort’s demise after his mentor was accused of taking millions from Ukrainian leaders with ties to Russia. In April, amid fresh accusations of Russian influence, Gates was forced to cut ties with the president. According to the Times a lawyer for the campaign has ordered five individuals to preserve all documents and records. Gates joins Manafort and Kushner in the cross hairs of investigators.
Rick Gates, a close ally of Paul Manafort, survived Manafort’s demise after his mentor was accused of taking millions from Ukrainian leaders with ties to Russia. In April, amid fresh accusations of Russian influence, Gates was forced to cut ties with the president. According to the Times a lawyer for the campaign has ordered five individuals to preserve all documents and records. Gates joins Manafort and Kushner in the cross hairs of investigators.
Rick
Gates now under investigation.
During the time Manafort worked in the Ukraine, Gates would fly to
Moscow to conduct business in his name. He would sign documents, including
those related to shell companies in Cyprus, and funnel payments to Manafort and
into secret bank accounts. One client was Oleg Deripaska, who had been denied a
visa to the United States, because of ties to organized crime.
“Everybody has tried to take these instances of anyone in the Trump
orbit doing something in Russia,” Gates tells reporters, “and then
fast-forwarding however many years, and then saying it is evidence of collusion
with Russia over the election. It’s
totally ridiculous and without merit.”
6/18/17: A
poll shows that Congress has an approval rating of 12%. In other
words, Trump isn’t the least popular denizen of the swamp.
In no poll taken during the two-and-a-half years since the GOP took
control of both houses of Congress has that esteemed body had an approval
rating above 23%.
6/19/17: Trump
enjoys tweeting so much he decides to tweet the same message twice. He’s
excited about the special election in Georgia for Tom Price’s old seat in the
U.S. House of Representatives. At 3:29 p.m. he gets his thumbs limbered up
with: “Karen Handle’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he
wants to represent....” and “On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.”
God, what fun! At 3:34 he goes with “Karen Handle’s opponent in
#GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent....” again. At 3:35
Trump clinches the deal: “....because he doesn’t live there! He wants to raise
taxes & kill healthcare. On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.”
Handel does win the special election by a margin of 52% to 48%.
Handel issues a special thanks to President Trump.
Trump then brags about his
great victory—ignoring the fact that the same district went for Price in November 2016 by a margin of 62% to 38%.
Still, for Democrats, a loss is a loss. So let Orange Leader brag.
(When Handel runs for reelection in 2018
she goes down to defeat by a narrow margin with 49.5% of the vote to her
opponent’s 50.5%. Trump decides to brag about something else.)
6/20/17: Trump
hogs credit for bringing Otto Warmbier home from North Korea. He
says Obama failed for eighteen months. The young man “should have been
brought home that same day” he was arrested.
Trump works his “art of the deal” magic and
brings Warmbier back, whereupon the unfortunate young man promptly dies. No one
on the right notices that North Korea still holds three other Americans—and Trump
can’t pry them loose. Normally, we would give a president a pass in regard to
complex foreign policy.
Trump, however, never misses a chance to attack Obama
or simplify truly daunting challenges.
We should point that out. (See: 6/13/18.)
6/21/17: Ford
Motors announces plans to build its popular Focus model in China, not Michigan. The
New York Times reports,
Beijing has put very heavy pressure on
Western automakers to transfer their latest, most cutting-edge technology to
China as a condition of doing business. Many companies, including Volkswagen,
General Motors and Ford, have plans to shift more research and development to
China, particularly around electric cars.
A modern Ford factory in Hangzhou boasts
650 robots. A GM factory in Shanghai uses 530 robots to produce all-aluminum
body Cadillacs. Buick produces its Envision model in China too.
Cheap
labor = more money for CEO’s.
The Times also notes that “veteran union workers
in the United States” earn $28 per hour building cars for Ford. Most
Chinese workers earn around $270 a month.
Cheap labor = more money for CEO’s.
*
IN RELATED NEWS, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner continue to profit from their far-flung business empire. This includes shoe factories in China where Ivanka-brand shoes are made.
Their income for 2016: $195 million.
6/22/17: You have
to admit the orange man in the Oval Office is constantly cogitating.
On the first day of summer, Trump realizes he can build the Great
Wall of Trump and also turn a profit. Fox News reports on his plan to
include solar panels. “Think of it,” Trump tells amazed fans at a
rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “The higher it goes, the more valuable it is.
Pretty good imagination, right? This way, Mexico will have to pay much less
money, and that’s good. A solar wall. Makes sense.”
(No telling why Sean Hannity doesn’t accuse the president of
turning traitor and joining the “War on Coal.”)
6/23/17: The
latest iteration of the GOP Senate healthcare plan allows insurance companies
to offer plans that drop coverage for maternity care, emergency
services and mental health treatment.
The Association of Medical Colleges warns the plan “will leave
millions of people without health coverage, and others with only bare-bones plans that will be insufficient to properly
address their needs.”
Senator Rand Paul still believes the plan is too generous. If he had his way he’d cut
coverage for bandages, splints and blood transfusions. Hell! Who needs nurses?
Give yourself your own damn shots!
6/24/17: A Pew
Research Center survey finds 44% of Americans say they know someone who has been
shot, accidentally or intentionally. For gun owners the figure is higher (51%),
vs. non-gun owners (40%). This difference may have something to do with the
fact 30% of gun owners admit they have “a gun that is both loaded and easily
accessible to [children] all of the time when they’re at home.”
Researchers find 84% of Americans support background checks on private gun sales. Three fourths of
non-gun owners favor banning private ownership of assault rifles and high
capacity magazines. A little less than half of gun owners agree.
Studies repeatedly show much greater rates of gun-related deaths in
the United States, compared to other advanced nations. According to researchers
at the American Journal of Medicine the rate is ten times higher.
Overall, results show that the U.S., which has the most firearms
per capita in the world, suffers disproportionately compared with other
high-income countries. These figures are consistent with the hypothesis that
our firearms are killing
us rather than protecting us. (See
July 1, 2017.)
6/25/17: According
to the Gun Violence Archive, from 2014 to 2016, the number of road rage incidents in the U.S. more than doubled.
During that span 354 drivers or passengers were wounded and 136 killed.
This would mean more
Americans died at the hands of other drivers than at the hands of
terrorists during that span.
June finds Congress hard at work on “Kate’s Law,” named in honor of
Kate Steinle, a young white woman tragically killed by an illegal immigrant in
2015. On Fox News her story gets wall-to-wall coverage. Bill
O’Reilly devotes part of ten shows to the story and might have devoted more, save
for the fact he got fired for sexually harassing co-workers. Anne Coulter joins
the fray. So do Charles Krauthammer, Jesse Waters and Megyn Kelly (when she
isn’t fending off O’Reilly).
All good people feel sympathy for the suffering family of Kate
Steinle. But it might be nice if the talking heads at Fox cared about Philando
Castile—or all the children who die from accidental gunshots annually—or
drivers and passengers slaughtered during incidents of road rage.
6/26/17: The
American Medical Association joins a lengthy list of organizations condemning Trumpcare.
Everyone
hates Trumpcare—except Charles and David Koch.
In a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the head of the AMA warns,
“Medicine has long operated under the precept
of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates
that standard on many levels.”
A list of groups opposed:
The American Hospital Association, which represents 5,000
hospitals;
The American Academy of
Family Physicians, which
warns that the plan would do “great harm to patients;”
The American Academy of
Pediatrics which states
flatly: “The bill fails children by dismantling the Medicaid program, capping
its funding, ending its expansion and allowing its benefits to be scaled back.”
Just for fun, these groups also denounce Trumpcare:
The American Psychiatric Association;
The Federation of American Hospitals;
America’s Essential Hospitals, which warns: “Senate leaders…have
put ideology ahead of lives with a plan that puts health and home at risk for
millions of working Americans.”
The American Heart Association, which says the bill is “literally
heartless;”
The American Lung Association;
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which warns:
Anyone who votes for this bill “cannot claim to be committed to ending the
opioid epidemic;”
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network;
AARP, which advocates for 38 million Americans over the age of 50;
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Ironically, the Koch brothers, Charles and David, don’t think the
Senate bill goes far enough to reduce access to healthcare.
Can you really expect those poor gentlemen—worth more than $40
billion each—to pay higher taxes?
6/27/17: A poll taken by the Pew Research Center shows the president
has made himself wildly unpopular on six of seven continents. No polling was
done among Antarctic penguins. Worldwide, only
22% of respondents say they trust Trump to do the right thing when it comes
to world affairs. By comparison that figure was 64% in the last years of the
Obama administration.
The “good news” for Trump? Only 11% of Russians had a favorable
view of Obama. More than half (53%) now express support for Vladimir’s buddy.
How bad has
the damage to the reputation of the United States been in five short months of
the Trump administration? Worldwide, 71% of respondents disapprove
of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Across 37
nations, 76% say they disapprove of his idea of building a wall on the border
with Mexico. Generally, the rest of the world thinks he’s an obnoxious jerk.
6/28/17: The
more Americans know about the GOP healthcare plan, still stalled in the Senate,
the more they loathe it. A poll shows the plan is less popular than the House-passed version,
which was only slightly more popular than shingles.
Only 12% of Americans want
the Senate bill to pass.
Americans, by a 4-1 margin, now trust Democrats in Congress more than Republicans when it comes to healthcare.
Americans, by a 4-1 margin, now trust Democrats in Congress more than Republicans when it comes to healthcare.
6/29/17: The
splenetic president wakes up in a sour mood and binges on cable news. Then he
decides to tweet.
He attacks MSNBC morning hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough,
who have been critical of his policies. The former, he refers to as “low I.Q
Mika,” the latter he labels a “psycho.” Brzezinski, Trump complains, “was
bleeding badly from a bad face-lift” when he last saw her at his beautiful
Mar-a-Lago estate.
Even Republicans are stunned by the crass nature of such tweets. “I don’t remember
anything quite like this,” says former Republican congressman Vin Weber.
A deluge of “Fake News” follows, involving actual quotes from
actual Republicans who think the president sounds nuts. Senator Ben Sasse
cautions Trump, pointing out, it “isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.” “The President’s tweets
today don’t help our political or national discourse and do not provide a
positive role model for our national dialogue,” Senator James Lankford adds.
Even Speaker Ryan, for whom the Teddy Roosevelt-era insult, “he has
no more backbone than a chocolate éclair” seems fitting, musters up a smidge of
courage. “Obviously, I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” he admits.
Next time Trump decides to grab a pussy, for Ryan’s sake, I hope
he’s not standing close by.
6/30/17: Joe
Scarborough fires back, saying the White House leaned on him to apologize
to the tissue-thin-skinned Tweeter-in-Chief. Otherwise, the National
Enquirer would run an attack
piece on him and his co-host.
In a press gathering Sarah Huckabee Sanders, clearly suffering from
Stockholm syndrome, tells reporters appalled by Trump’s attacks, “You hurt his
feelings. It makes him sad. So he must crush you like vermin beneath his feet.”
(Okay: I admit I made that quote up.)
Meanwhile, we should note the National Enquirer is
run by longtime Trump friend and aptly-named publisher David Pecker. This fine
publication is famous for running the kind of hard-hitting journalism Trump
loves, including a story claiming Ted Cruz’s father played a role in
the killing of John F. Kennedy. There have been countless other Enquirer reports touting the greatness that is Donald J. Trump.
Other headline-grabbing stories from the desk of Mr. Pecker include
the saga of Hillary Clinton who had six short months to live (October 2015), O. J. Simpson who was doomed in four even shorter weeks (October 2014), and Angelina
Jolie, anorexic and definitely dying (August 2015). If Ted Cruz’s father didn’t help kill
JFK, well then, John F. Kennedy Jr. was murdered by the mob. (See 12/13-15/18.)
*
IN OTHER HEAD-SCRATCHING NEWS, the president suggests Congress repeal Obamacare and
figure out what to replace it with later. Who needs healthcare? Not him.
Orange Leader gives up!
The Congressional Budget Office estimates this latest idea would cost 32 million Americans their insurance. Apparently, the GOP goal is to work toward no insurance
for anyone. Their plans keep getting worse.
July 1, 2017: A
disgruntled doctor carries an assault
rifle into a Bronx hospital, kills one doctor and wounds six staff members and
patients.
Trump and the N.R.A. insist that we need more guns to protect
ourselves from all the people who already have guns. (See: 6/24/17.)
We also learn that the average cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home for one year
is now $82,128. According to the Kaiser Foundation one of every three Americans
over age 65 will end up in a nursing home. Of those 62% will be unable to pay
without Medicaid assistance.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the latest GOP “healthcare” plan would lead to a 35% cut to Medicaid by 2036.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the latest GOP “healthcare” plan would lead to a 35% cut to Medicaid by 2036.”
If Trumpcare passes states will carry a greater burden of costs and
will have to decide. Do we cut services for the elderly? Do we cut services for
children? Do we cut services for the disabled?
Hey. Let’s cut services for them all!
7/2/17: Trump
takes his war on a free press to a new low, posting a video of himself
attacking a figure whose face is represented by the CNN logo. Supporters find
the clip hilarious. Just what the Fascists ordered!
CNN is “garbage journalism,” Trump tells rabid fans.
CNN is “garbage journalism,” Trump tells rabid fans.
Unfortunately, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which works to
safeguard reporters in places like China,
Russia and Iran, fails to see the humor. “Targeting individual journalists or
media outlets, on- or off-line, creates
a chilling effect and fosters an environment where further harassment, or even
physical attack, is deemed acceptable.”
Trump’s attacks, the group warns, embolden “autocratic leaders around the world.” (See: 6/8/17.)
7/3/17: Trump
supporters continue to assail a free press. Newt Gingrich claims the media is “a
danger to the country right now.” He stakes out this position on Fox News,
which remains “miraculously” untainted by bias.
Wayne LaPierre, president of the N.R.A., who believes we need a gun in every hand,
and one in ever glove compartment for luck, and toddlers should be able to buy
assault rifles, howls that “academic elites, political elites and media elites”
are America’s “greatest domestic threats.” (See:
6/24/17; 7/1/17.)
Bring
back Joseph Goebbels?
Maybe what the right really wants is total control of all media, to
have Trump appoint his own Joseph Goebbels.
If you’ve forgotten, Goebbels had power under Hitler to forbid the broadcast of stories that lacked government approval, to seize copies of newspapers that offended the Fuhrer, and to burn “offensive” books just for fun. The Nazis created a Reich Chamber of Culture to control what artists, musicians, actors, writers, reporters, radio personalities and film makers did.
If you’ve forgotten, Goebbels had power under Hitler to forbid the broadcast of stories that lacked government approval, to seize copies of newspapers that offended the Fuhrer, and to burn “offensive” books just for fun. The Nazis created a Reich Chamber of Culture to control what artists, musicians, actors, writers, reporters, radio personalities and film makers did.
As William Shirer explained in The Rise and Fall of the
Third Reich:
Every morning the editors of the Berlin
daily newspapers and the correspondents of those published elsewhere in the
Reich gathered at the Propaganda Ministry to be told by Dr. Goebbels or by one
of his aides what news to print and suppress, how to write the news and
headline it, what campaigns to call off or institute and what editorials were
desired for the day.
Section 14, of the Press Law, passed
once Nazis got control in October 1933, ordered editors:
…to keep out of the newspapers anything
which in any manner is misleading to the public, mixes selfish aims with
community aims, tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, outwardly or
inwardly, the common will of the German people, the defense of Germany, its
culture and economy…or offends the honor and dignity of Germany.
“The facts of life,” Shirer wrote, “had become what Hitler and
Goebbels, with their cynical disregard
for truth, said they were.”
Trump Heaven.
7/4/17:
Carmakers announce that June sales dropped for the
sixth month in succession. Last year, American auto plants employed 211,000
workers, up 55% from a 2009 low, during the Great Recession. Ford announced in
June it would move production of its Focus model to China. As The New
York Times notes, “The company had previously planned to
move the car to a new plant in Mexico, but canceled the project after meeting stiff
opposition from Mr. Trump.”
“Ford’s China move will not cost any American jobs,” reporters add,
“because Focus production in Michigan will be replaced by trucks and S.U.V.’s.”
But it won’t add any, either. Scaling back jobs is supposedly part of automakers’
efforts to “avoid bloated payrolls.” Detroit has also hired large numbers of
low-wage entry-level workers to reduce expenses.
Also: to reduce the American
middle class.
“These decisions are always tough, says Alan Batey, GM’s president
of North American operations. “But at the end of the day we have to be
disciplined about our production plans.”
 |
| You can't cut pay at the top, can you! |
7/5/17:
President Trump insists (in a January tweet) that a North Korean test of an
ICBM capable of hitting the USA “won’t happen!” Note the exclamation point!
That tells us this man is serious!!!!
On July 4, however, the North Koreans launch a missile that crosses that line, if just barely. They now
have the capability to hit Alaska. (Sarah Palin can see North Korean missiles
from her house.)
Secretary of State Tillerson calls for global action, including
stronger measures to be enacted by the U.N. Security Council. (The Trump
administration hates the U.N. except when it needs assistance.) The missile
fired on July 4 traveled 580 miles before splashing down in the Pacific but
followed a 1,700 mile arc into space and back to earth. Trump’s advisers say
the administration has laid down no red lines because “they would rather keep
the North guessing.”
Secretary of Defense Mattis says on Face the Nation
that war with North Korea “would be probably the worst kind of fighting in
people’s lifetimes.”
7/6/17: Volvo,
the Swedish carmaker, bows to the reality of climate change and announces all new models, starting in 2019,
will be battery-powered electrics or hybrids.
The American company, Tesla, which promises to build nothing but electric cars, surpasses Ford and General Motors in stock valuation. Change is coming even if President Trump is too dense to see it.
The American company, Tesla, which promises to build nothing but electric cars, surpasses Ford and General Motors in stock valuation. Change is coming even if President Trump is too dense to see it.
“If?”
No, he is.
7/7/17: Trump
is in Germany for the G-20 summit. In Poland, the day before, he gave the best
speech ever given by an American president…according to Trump. Because he cares so much about freedom, the president
decided not to criticize the Polish government which has been subverting an independent judiciary, cracking
down on journalists, and making “unwanted protests”
(protests the government doesn’t like) illegal. Actually, these are ideas our president can get on
board with.
Together Trump and Poland’s leader, Andrzej Duda, commiserate on
the woes of dealing with media outlets
that won’t be cowed. Trump sends Mr. Duda a romantic tweet: “We will fight the #Fake
news together!”
The fundamental question of our time is
whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our
values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens
to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our
civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?
Trump
“grills” Vladimir Putin on election interference.
Now, in Hamburg, he meets with Putin. Apparently, the two would-be
dictators hit it off great. Trump does, however, “grill” the Russian leader on
the fake Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He later provides reporters with a blow-by-blow description of how
he held Putin’s
feet to an Art of the Deal fire:
“I said to him, ‘Were you involved in
the meddling with the election?’ he recalled. “He said, ‘Absolutely not. I was
not involved.’ He was very strong on it. I then said to him, in a totally
different way, ‘Were you involved with the meddling?’ He said, 'I was
not—absolutely not.’”
Problem solved. No more Russians! Special Counsel Robert
Mueller can pack it up and go home.
7/8/17: The New York Times reports that Donald Trump Jr. took part in a secret
meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. Also attending
were Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.
Suddenly, both Jr. and Jared remember—hey—we did have a meeting!
When asked to comment, Jr. issues an official
statement, assuring the Times the meeting was
mostly about adoption policy.
Secret meeting with Russians revealed thirteen months later.
The lawyer in question, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Times continues,
“is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act.
This law was passed to blacklist human rights abusers. Vladimir Putin was so
enraged he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.”
Veselniskaya’s “activities and associations have previously drawn the attention
of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.”
In his statement, Jr. tries to explain away the damage. “It was a
short introductory meeting,” that’s all.
I asked Jared and Paul [Manafort] to
drop by. We primarily discussed a
program about the adoption of Russian children [emphasis added] that was
active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the
Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was
no follow up. I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not
told the name of the person I would be meeting beforehand.
You kind of had the idea he wanted to add: “I could have been
talking with Taylor Swift, for all I remember.”
That same evening, Mark Corallo, spokesman for the president’s lawyer, issues a statement, hinting Jr. was set up. Veselnitskaya and an interpreter who came “misrepresented who they were.”
The Magnitsky Act, named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in police custody under mysterious circumstances in 2009, sanctions 44 Russian nationals and allows the U.S. to deny visas and seize any assets it locates. The U.S. government did freeze, for example, $14 million in the assets of Petr Katsyv. Eventually he forfeited $6 million after Magnitsky accused him of laundering $230 million, gobbling up Manhattan real estate and hiding loot in various New York bank accounts.
7/9/17: On
Sunday, The New York Times reports that Don Jr. met with a lawyer the paper describes as
“Kremlin-connected” after being promised
damaging information about
Hillary Clinton.
Jr. issues a second statement in regard to the meeting he originally forgot having. Suddenly, it’s all coming back! “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he claims,
Jr. issues a second statement in regard to the meeting he originally forgot having. Suddenly, it’s all coming back! “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he claims,
…the woman stated that she had
information that individuals connected to Russian were funding the Democratic
National Committee and supporting Hillary Clinton. Her statements were vague,
ambiguous, and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided
or even offered. It quickly became clear she had no meaningful information.
The conversation turned to adoption policies and the Magnitsky Act,
which Jr. surmised was “the true agenda all along.”
Reince Priebus calls the story a “big nothing burger.”
7/10/17: Jr.’s
story changes dramatically—again—after the Times informs him
it has in its possession emails that blow twenty holes in his cover story. Jr.
tries scrambling for safety, like a rat leaving the S.S. Trump.
What do you know! He has a string of emails he’d like
to put out.
Don
Jr.’s story changes dramatically.
Here are a few keys from the email thread:
From: Rob Goldstone To: Donald Trump Jr. June 3, 2016, 10:36 AM
Emin just called and asked me to
contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met
with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to
provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that
would incriminate Hillary and her
dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father [emphasis
added].
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of
Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by
Aras and Emin.
What do you think is the best way to
handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it
directly?
I can also send this info to your
father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you
first.
Best, Rob Goldstone
Emin is Russian pop star Emin
Agalarov. Aras is his father, a wealthy real estate billionaire sometimes
called the “Donald Trump of Russia.”
Wait. Is that an insult?)
From: Donald Trump Jr. To: Rob Goldstone June 3, 2016, 10:53
Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but
perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially
later in the summer [emphasis added].
From: Rob Goldstone To: Donald Trump, Jr. June 7, 2016, 4:20 PM
Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney [emphasis
added] who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.
A
good deal of discussion follows—time for the meeting, what day—plans get
changed.
Finally,
it’s on.
From: Donald Trump, Jr. To: Rob Goldstone June 7, 2016, 6:14 PM
Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my
brother in law and me. 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.
At this point Donald Jr. forwards the
entire thread to Kushner and Manafort.
*
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, sits down for an interview with a Congressional panel. He is asked three times if the Russian investigation is a “witch hunt.” Like Peter, before the cock crowed, Wray thrice denies the president’s founding premise. Fox News viewers are probably watching another Viagra commercial at the time.
7/11/17: The
President of the United States rises early and starts his day retweeting two
stories from Fox & Friends. Another tweet, lamenting the deaths
of 17 servicemen in a plane crash follows.
The story of the meeting with Donald Jr. and—somebody—about something—is going to be cleared up, the president insists: “My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country!”
The story of the meeting with Donald Jr. and—somebody—about something—is going to be cleared up, the president insists: “My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country!”
On Hannity, Jr. swears the whole story is out. Hannity and Jr.
trade admiring glances. Both are huge fans of hair gel. The meeting was
just Jr. and Jared and Paul and, okay, a Russian lawyer. (See 7/14/17.)
7/12/17: On the
way to France for a meeting with President Macron, Trump sits down on Air Force
One and chats with reporters. He hasn’t been talking much to the media,
probably because when he does they report the stupid crap that spills from his lips like St.
Bernard drool.
Beware
the flying bales of marijuana.
Now he explains his plans for the Great Wall of Trump. When the
Mexicans finally pay he is going to put in a special order. He elaborates:
One of the
things with the wall is you need
transparency [emphasis added]. You have to be able to see through it.
In other words,
if you can’t see through that wall—so it could be a steel wall with openings,
but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side
of the wall.
And I’ll give
you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of
drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see
them—they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over. As crazy as
that sounds, you need transparency through that wall.
Some presidents, like Woodrow Wilson, want to make the world safe
for democracy.
Others want to make Americans safe from flying bales of marijuana.
7/13/17: Proving
that old adage, “Birds of a feather flock, like assholes, together,” Trump’s
personal attorney in the Russian case goes ballistic in a series of emails. The
story is revealed on the thirteenth by ProPublica—which,
in Trumpistan, immediately qualifies the site as “Fake News.” (See:
7/27/17.)
Trouble begins when a retired public relations professional sends
Marc Kasowitz this harmless email:
You don’t
know me. I don’t know you.
But, I
believe it is in your interest and the long-term interest of your firm for you
to resign from your position advising the President re. pending federal legal
matters. No good can come from this and, in fact, your name may be turn out to
be a disparaging historical footnote to the presidency of DJT.
It would have been easy to ignore, but that is not the Trump Way,
nor the Way of the Trump Lawyer. You hit them? The Way is to hit back ten times harder. Urge supporters to punch protesters
and say you’ll pay legal fees. Go after petite female reporters, like 5´ 3" Katy Tur, at
campaign rallies so she must be walked out by Secret Service agents for her
safety.
Brave man, Mr. Trump! What next? Punch a baby?
Contacted by email, Kasowitz decides to go for the baby-punch five minutes later. A classy two-word answer seems to suffice: “F*ck you”
Contacted by email, Kasowitz decides to go for the baby-punch five minutes later. A classy two-word answer seems to suffice: “F*ck you”
Fifteen minutes later, Kasowitz realizes he hasn’t hit back ten
times harder. He decides to punch the baby again: “I’m on you now. You are fucking with me now.”
Considering Kasowitz has the power of the president behind him, his
challenger must be concerned. He responds blandly. This inflames Kasowitz. He
fires off a third email, then a fourth, all in a span of 33 minutes. Based on
the man’s name, Kasowitz decides to punch the baby right in the eye and finish
it: “I’m Jewish. I presume you are
too. Stop being afraid. Call me. Or give me your number and I will call you. I
already know where you live. I’m on you. You might as well call me. You will
see me. I promise. Bro.”
It’s another day in Trumpistan where people working closely with
the president threaten to harm their fellow citizens.
7/14/17: On a
daily basis, the guest list for the
meeting with Donald Jr. and the Russians grows. In an interview with Fox
News, where all Trumps go when sad, Jr. forgets who was there.
Okay, he says. There were two Russians. That’s it. Two! A Russian-American lobbyist named
Rinat Akhmetshin is the second. NPR says he has
been described “as a Russian ‘gun for hire’ and a former Soviet-era spy and has
worked in the West for years as an advocate for Russian interests.”
Okay. No more Russians jumping on the bed. (See: 7/18/17.)
7/15/17:
Trump spends the day
at his golf course in Bedminster, ogling the ladies of the L.P.G.A. as they tee
up their shots. Don’t they look good bending over to putt! Don’t you wish you
could grab one by the…
No, restrain yourself, Orange Leader!
7/16/17: Trump starts tweeting at 5:35 a.m.:
“HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete
33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?”
He’s mad because polls show his approval ratings are low. He
singles out one: “The ABC/Washington Post Poll, even though almost 40 % [approval]
is not bad at this time, was just about the most inaccurate poll around
election time!”
It’s easy to check polls on RealClearPolitics. They’re
all bad for Trump, probably because Americans grow weary watching him behave
like an asshole.
Next, he goes after the free press—again. The president is willing
to tear down any institution, from the judicial branch to the F.B.I. to the
Justice Department, so long as he protects himself. “With all of its phony
unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake
News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!”
Most Americans know who is
distorting democracy.
7/17/17: Trump
campaign promises fall like Napoleon’s infantry during the winter retreat from
Moscow in 1812. Not that we want to keep bringing up Russians! Remember the
nuclear deal with Iran? Trump called it the worst deal ever made, by any
country on earth, including any deal involving any king or queen of Westeros.
He would scrap that deal as soon as he sat down in the Oval Office.
Who said so? Candidate Trump! Also, his sidekick, Vice President Jesus.
“When Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America,”
Mike Pence told a cheering crowd at a rally, “we’re going to rip up the
Iran deal!”
Oddly enough, once in office, the Trump administration discovers the deal is working, not
perfectly, of course, but enough to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
In May and for a second time this day, the president has to recertify the
treaty, indicating to Congress it remains valid.
*
MEANWHILE: DON JR. is in a pickle. He’s no sleazebag, his dad
insists. Trump Sr. tweets: “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting [with
Russians] like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent.
That’s politics!”
Actually, it could be colluding with an enemy nation. Keep
investigating, Bob Mueller. Keep up the good work!
7/18/17: The
nine lives of the Republican healthcare bill are still being squandered. Once
again a GOP plan dies in the Senate when
four Republican senators announce they won’t even vote to allow debate on
the merits.
The bill is that bad.
Trump
promised 68 times to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Some insist this marks the end of a seven-year-long run, during
which Republicans voted dozens of times to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. And
need we remind anyone that “repeal and replace” is what Candidate Trump promised to do 68 times while running for
office?
He would kill Obamacare on Day One.
He would make “repeal and replace” look like child’s play (assuming
that child had no pre-existing conditions). Tweeting in February 2016, Trump promised:
“We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare—and nobody can do that like
me. We will save $’s and have much better healthcare!”
With Republican majorities in House and Senate and rules changes to
make it possible to pass the “carefully crafted” plan by a 51-vote margin,
Trump manages to accomplish… nothing.
*
WELL, THEN, how’s the “witch hunt” going? How many
people with ties to the Russian government were in the meeting with Don Jr.
Okay, not one, not two, but three!
Even Fox News can’t ignore the story. It turns out the eighth
participant in the meeting which Donald Jr. completely forgot about—was a
Russian-American, Ike Kaveladze, an expert on adoption and babies!
Hahaha. No.
Kaveladze works for the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, a man worth
$1.96 billion and known for
close ties with President Trump, a man worth $3.5 billion, and Vladimir Putin, who has spent his time in office
wisely, saving his rubbles. One source estimates Putin may have a secret stash of $200
billion.
Anyway, according to a story in Newsweek, Kaveladze was investigated in 2000, when he was:
Anyway, according to a story in Newsweek, Kaveladze was investigated in 2000, when he was:
…found by investigators with the U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) to have helped move more than $1.4
billion on behalf of a
large number of Russian and Eastern European clients through accounts with
Citibank in New York and Commercial Bank in San Francisco.
Technically, his actions turned out to
be legal. But investigators found he filed papers to open 2,000 shell corporations and U.S. bank accounts in Delaware,
“all on behalf of Russian operators that were used to launder offshore cash
coming into the United States.”
So, as you can see, no sensible person would ever imagine Kaveladze
went to the meeting with Jr. for any other reason except to talk about babies.
7/19/17: The GOP
healthcare plan looks deader than Davy
Crockett at the Alamo. Fingers are pointing in all directions. Even Republicans see the president
“as so out of his legislative depth as to be a liability.”
No matter. Trump demands that Congress remain in Washington and keep working till a really great plan
can be hammered out and slapped on his desk, ready for his weirdly huge
signature. Forget August recess! Stick around D.C. and do the job the people
elected you to do.
Where, exactly was the president the previous weekend, during a
critical stage in the fight for Trumpcare? He was “busy” watching an LPGA
tournament at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
7/20/17: “Made
in America” week continues. You may not have noticed because “Fake
News” keeps uncovering evidence that Russians
had been lurking in every nook and cranny of the Trump 2016 campaign.
On Monday the president is let loose on the White House grounds to play with various machines and products made in all fifty states. You could, for instance, watch him pat the wheel of a giant Caterpillar earth mover.
On Monday the president is let loose on the White House grounds to play with various machines and products made in all fifty states. You could, for instance, watch him pat the wheel of a giant Caterpillar earth mover.
Companies like Ford, GM, GE and Proctor & Gamble gleefully ship
jobs to Mexico and other faraway lands too.
Is the problem too much regulation? Is the problem greedy
union workers who won’t allow companies to cut costs? Perhaps top
executives could take a pay cut—and save a few more jobs.
Consider compensation for
top Caterpillar executives in 2016:
Speaking of greed, investigators are reportedly studying records
related to Trump’s finances at Deutsche Bank. To be fair, no evidence of
wrongdoing has been uncovered yet. Still, Deutsche does have a lengthy rap sheet. The bank once paid a $630 million
fine for helping Russian criminal
interests launder an estimated $10 billion. This came on top of Deutsche
getting socked for a $7.2 billion fine for peddling toxic mortgages and a $2.5
billion fine for manipulating worldwide interest rates.
See! Who ever thinks it’s a good idea to regulate Big Business!
These guys are the best!!!!!!!!!!
*
SPECIAL COUNSEL Mueller is also said to be digging into the
financial records of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager.
Manafort’s forte is setting up fake
companies overseas and opening multiple bank accounts in Cyprus. He used to
work for the president of the Ukraine.
But that guy was driven from power by his own people and fled to...where
else…to Russia!
7/21/17: For
those of us who enjoy mocking the Trump administration this is a black day. Sean
Spicer, who often left listeners in stunned disbelief, resigns. According to
friends “Spicey” wearied of insults
hurled by the president.
His replacement, Anthony Scaramucci, explains the president’s real problem to
reporters. He’s “doing a phenomenal job,” Scaramucci insists, “and we just need
to get it out there a little more aggressively.”
No problem. Scaramucci, “The Mooch,” is on the job! (See
7/27/17.)
Meanwhile, Federal Aviation Administration records indicate Trump is
planning on spending August 3-20 at his
home/golf course in Bedminster. As for Congress, he still thinks legislators
should remain in session and get a healthcare bill on his desk quick. (See:
7/21/17.)
Wait.
Can Congress just mail the bill to Bedminster?
7/22/17: The president rolls out of bed just after 5:30
a.m. in his Wonder Woman pajamas and gets down to the business of governing! He
tweets. He warms up by attacking The New York Times and Washington Post.
Why do these papers keep insisting the Russian
investigation matters! (See pretty much everything above: 7/8-14/17,
etc.)
At 6:35 he gets to the meat of the matter. No one in his administration has ever seen a Russian, touched a Russian, smelled a Russian, talked to a Russian, heard a Russian offer to fatten a bank account, or put Russian dressing on a salad. But if they did—are you listening Don Jr. and Jared?—don’t worry.
At 6:35 he gets to the meat of the matter. No one in his administration has ever seen a Russian, touched a Russian, smelled a Russian, talked to a Russian, heard a Russian offer to fatten a bank account, or put Russian dressing on a salad. But if they did—are you listening Don Jr. and Jared?—don’t worry.
Trump tweets: “While all agree the U.S. President has the complete power
to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.
FAKE NEWS[.]”
The pardon
power—yeah—why would anyone
think about that?
7/23/17: Another
Sunday tweetstorm brews up in Trumpistan. Rap, tap, tap, go the president’s
fingers on the keys to his iPhone: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues,
two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold,
Democrats and Russians.”
“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President.”
“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President.”
A third tweet: “It’s hard to read the Failing New York Times or the
Amazon Washington Post because every story/opinion, even if should be positive,
is bad!”
Fortunately, there’s real news to report—that is, any news that
makes Orange Leader feel good, even when he looks in a mirror and realizes his
hair makes it seem like he has a dead fox sitting atop his cranium.
Tappity-tap-tap: “Thank you to @LOUDOBBS for giving the first six
months of the Trump Administration an A+. S.C.,reg cutting,Stock M, jobs,border
etc. = TRUE!”
7/24/17: Is it
possible the president can bring
us together? In the sense that almost all Americans are beginning to wonder if
the man is nuts?
Congress
comes together, 419-3 and 98-2, on sanctions.
The White House has made his position clear. Trump does not want to
impose greater sanctions on Russia—and would like to great rid of sanctions
that exist—and buy Vladimir a pony.
Members of the House of Representatives see it differently. By
a vote of 419-3, lawmakers agree to impose greater sanctions
and tie Trump’s hands so he can’t
remove them without approval.
To recap for Trump fans: the Senate came to the same conclusion
that Russians meddled in the election. The president might want to get rid of
sanctions, whether or not it would be good for our country. On June 20
they voted, 98-2, to pass a similar bill and tie up the guy in the Oval
Office.
*
TRUMP CAPS another wild day by addressing a crowd of 45,000 Boy
Scouts at their National Scout Jamboree. “Who the hell wants to speak about
politics, when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts,” he asks rhetorically. Then he
spews about politics. To encourage his audience to work hard and make America
great again, he assures them Washington isn’t just a swamp to be drained.
It’s a “cesspool,” kids, a “sewer,” he grumbles.
The polls: “that’s also ‘fake news,’” he claims. They won’t even
report the fact the Scout crowd is so large, Trump predicts. His mostly teenage
audience loves the feisty speech, probably because they’re teens.
Teens love fart jokes. (See: 7/27/17.)
7/25/17: Well,
can we at least admit, every time we see the First Lady in public, she looks
striking. That’s the good news for
today.
7/26/17: Pretty
much without warning, Trump does what ISIS can only dream of doing. In three
tweets he “kills,” at minimum, 1,320 transgender U.S. servicemen and
servicewomen. The tweets:
After consultation with my Generals and
military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not
accept or allow......
....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S.
Military [emphasis added]. Our military must be focused on decisive and
overwhelming.....
....victory and cannot be burdened with
the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military
would entail. Thank you
Trump
announces ban on transgender individuals in military.
The New York Times reports, “People close to the Defense Secretary said he was
appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets,” sending the
message to “those currently deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no
longer welcome.”
Trump’s tweet came after Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo) had amended
a spending bill to ban money for hormone therapy.
Mattis is said to have worked to get that removed.
John McCain weighed in: “There is no reason to force service
members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the
military—regardless of their gender identity.”
Asked to comment, Lt. Commander Blake Dremann, a transgender
officer replied, “We don’t criticize our commander-in-chief.” He did say, “we
were doing everything appropriate to continue our honorable service.”
Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, for one, wanted
them out. “Grant repentance to President Trump and Secretary Mattis for even
considering to keep this wicked policy in place,” he said in offering up a
prayer. “Grant them understanding, courage, and willpower to stand up to the forces of darkness that gave birth to it and
wholly to repeal it.”
*
WE SAY “at least” 1,320 transgender service members are affected. A
Rand study for the Pentagon puts the number between 1,320 and
6,630.
Let’s say the number is 1. That would be 1 more transgender
individual serving our country than all the members of the Trump family to serve
in three generations. The president’s father avoided service during World War
II. The president himself dodged the draft in the 1960s. Don Jr., Eric, and
son-in-law Jared all passed on a chance to enlist in the wake of 9/11.
Here we might be wise to remember the wisdom of Washington Irving.
“Teach us,” he said, in 1819, “to distrust and despise those clamorous patriots
whose courage dwells but in the tongue.”
7/27/17: Trump
is in a sunny mood when he awakes. “Wow,” he tweets, “the Failing @nytimes said
about @foxandfriends ‘....the most powerful T.V. show in America.’”
People too dumb to check the story (and that includes far too many
of Trump’s rabid supporters) will miss the point.
They will think the “Fake News” folks have admitted defeat. Fox
& Friends is the best show ever! And since F & F loves
Trump, Trump must be the best president ever!
In reality, starting with the title, Watching ‘Fox &
Friends,’ Trump Sees a Two-Way Mirror, the Times story
drips with disdain:
A deluge of bad news quickly drowns out the syrupy accolades
dished up on Fox & Friends. First, an editorial by Peggy Noonan in
the Wall Street Journal (now taken over by “Fake News” zombies?) lays Trump low. And this from Noonan, who was a speech
writer for Ronald Reagan:
The president’s primary problem as a
leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It’s not that he is
inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling [emphasis added]. It is that he undermines
himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American
masculinity.
He’s not strong and self-controlled,
not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he’s whiny, weepy and
self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He’s a drama
queen. It was once said, sarcastically, of George H.W. Bush that he reminded
everyone of her first husband. Trump must remind people of their first wife.
Actually his wife, Melania, is tougher than he is with her stoicism and grace,
her self-discipline and desire to show the world respect by presenting herself
with dignity.
Noonan goes on to say the way men used to like seeing themselves
was the “strong silent type celebrated in mid-20th century films” of John Wayne
and others.
Trump’s style is more like Woody Allen. “His characters,” she
notes, “couldn’t stop talking about their emotions, their resentments and
needs. They were self-justifying as they acted out their cowardice and anger.
But he was a comic. It was funny…Donald Trump now is like an unfunny Woody
Allen.”
*
IN A PROFANE RANT later that day, Trump’s new communications
director Anthony Scaramucci blasts pretty much everyone on the White House
staff, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Scaramucci accuses him of being a “leaker.”
Besides threatening to get Priebus fired, Scaramucci has this
to say of another rival for the president’s affection: “I’m
not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock.”
*
IN OTHER NEWS, continuing efforts
to force Attorney
General Sessions to resign run into bipartisan blowback. You don’t have to be a
genius to understand the steps Trump is contemplating:
First, force Sessions out.
Second, appoint someone else to run the Justice Department, preferably a hack, Newt
Gingrich or Rudy Giuliani.
Third, have the new A. G. fire Special Counsel Mueller.
Second, appoint someone else to run the Justice Department, preferably a hack, Newt
Gingrich or Rudy Giuliani.
Third, have the new A. G. fire Special Counsel Mueller.
Fourth: Vodka toasts all around the White House!
Fortunately, there are still patriotic Republicans (and Democrats)
in Washington. They warn Orange Leader not to go the full Kim Jong-un route.
There are three branches of government.
Two aren’t run by Trump & Co.
Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) describes Sessions as a man with an
“unwavering commitment to the rule of law” and says his leadership is “needed
now more than ever.” Orrin Hatch cuts the president a bit of slack he
really doesn’t deserve, muting criticism, saying only: “Sometimes he says
things that I’m sure afterwards he wishes he hasn’t said just like the rest of
us.”
Only the rest of us aren’t President of the United States. So
we can’t undermine the Constitution.
*
TO FINISH OFF a bizarre day, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts
of America feels a need to apologize in the wake of the president’s speech
three days earlier. “I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our
Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted
into the jamboree...We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the
Scouting program.”
Chief
of Boy Scouts apologizes for Trump speech.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now clearly entering the Patty Hearst stage
of Stockholm syndrome, insists all she saw was cheering Boy Scouts. All she saw
was cheering Boy Scouts. All she saw was cheering…
Please, can someone rescue that poor
woman!
Finally, in an interview with CNN, The Mooch rounds out the day.
“There are people inside the administration who think it is their job to save
America from this president,” he grumbles. “That is not their job. Their job is
to inject this president into America so that he can explain his views
properly and his policies, so we can transform America and drain the swamp and
make the system fairer for the middle- and lower-income people.”
This might be fine—if so many Americans didn’t truly believe
America must be saved from this man. (See, for example: 7/28/17; 7/31/17.)
7/28/17: GOP
Senators stay up way past Mitch McConnell’s bedtime to put the finishing
touches on their latest Trumpcare plan.
The “replace” part of “repeal and replace” is finally ready. John McCain has
made a special trip back from Arizona, following an operation for a cancerous
tumor behind his left eye. Trump himself has called him—finally—a hero.
At 1:24 a.m. McCain strides across the well of the Senate. His vote
is called by the clerk—and McCain turns one thumb down.
“No,” he says.
Trumpcare is still dead.
*
NORTH KOREA caps a truly terrible day when it launches another
long-range missile, this one capable of
hitting the West Coast of the United States. Clearly, there are no good
choices, moving forward.
Naturally, Trump blames previous administrations for leaving him to
deal with such a mess. With this president, the buck never stops on his desk.
The buck stops in the past.
The buck stops in the past.
7/29/17: With
the planet burning and North Korean missiles threatening the continental United
States, the Tweeter-in-Chief responds in a powerful Twitter rampage. Ten times
he taps away furiously. At 6:07 a.m. it begins with another complaint about the
Russian “witch hunt.” Trump insists the Senate must go to a 51-vote rule on
everything so the GOP can pass any legislation it wants. He doesn’t like the
60-vote rule required to pass various bills in the upper house.
At 6:39 a.m., he’s riled and ready to get down to running the country exactly the way he wants. The Republicans have a 52-48 margin in the Senate. So do the math, people! He complains: “....8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate’s Law (see: 6/25/17) and complete Healthcare. Get smart!”
At 6:39 a.m., he’s riled and ready to get down to running the country exactly the way he wants. The Republicans have a 52-48 margin in the Senate. So do the math, people! He complains: “....8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate’s Law (see: 6/25/17) and complete Healthcare. Get smart!”
Later, Trump complains about “our foolish past leaders” because they couldn’t get China to help rein in North Korea. At 6:35 p.m. he brings a long tweeting day to an end, admitting his disappointment with China: “...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.”
7/30/17: The
steamy bromance between Putin and Trump, making headlines as recently as July
7, reaches a sad denouement. In the face of Congressional sanctions, Putin expels 755 American diplomats
from Russia.
7/31/17: As not
predicted by Anthony Scaramucci, new White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly
fires Anthony Scaramucci. (See 7/28/17.)
A Rasmussen opinion poll has Trump’s approval rating at 39%, his
disapproval rating at 61%. In Trumpistan, of course, this immediately qualifies
as “Fake News” because no one who voted
for Trump likes it.
Again, those of us who possess semi-adequate reasoning skills might
note: four days after Trump’s inauguration, Rasmussen was the one poll that had
him rated most favorably: 57% approval, 43% disapproval.
A Gallup poll on July 31 has Trump down, 37%-59%.
In other words: more and more Americans are coming to realize Trump
is the D.C. equivalent of the Wizard of Oz.
Speaking of frauds, during an afternoon cabinet meeting, the
president tells reporters not to worry about North Korea. In his usual lucid
fashion, he explains, “We’ll handle North Korea. We’ll be able to handle North
Korea. It will be handled. We handle everything.”
Who says this man doesn’t have a handle on complicated policy?
Who says this man doesn’t have a handle on complicated policy?
*
AS FOR THREATS to humanity, generally, the British magazine Nature reports
on a just-released peer-reviewed climate change study. Where the Paris
agreement had set a goal of limiting temperature increases to 2° Celsius or
less—lest the planet suffer devastating harm—experts now warn there is a 95%
chance we cross that threshold by the end of this century.
Some projections put the rise as high as 4.9° C. Unfortunately,
Orange Leader and his allies still believe in snowballs. (See: 5/29/17.)
*
LAST—BUT DEFINTIELY not least—the Washington Post cites several sources aboard Air Force One when discussion
turned to how to handle revelations about Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russian
lawyer. Aides, the Post reports, wanted to release a truthful
statement, to get out in front of the story.
No dice said the Liar-in-Chief.
Trump personally dictated a
statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had
“primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when
they met in June 2016. This is according to multiple individuals with knowledge
of the deliberations.
That false statement, issued to the New York Times as
it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a
campaign issue at the time.”
According to the Post top advisers are now worried
that the president’s actions leave him
vulnerable to allegations of a cover-up.
Think Watergate.
“This was . . . unnecessary,” said
one of the president’s advisers, who like most other people interviewed for
this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal
deliberations. “Now someone can claim he’s the one who attempted to mislead.
Somebody can argue the president is saying he doesn’t want you to say the whole
truth.”
August 1, 2017: In
really “Fake News” a book by Senator Jeff Flake (R-Az.) is reviewed in the
“failing,” faking New York Times.
“Volatile unpredictability is not a virtue,” Flake asserts, with
the president in mind. “We have quite enough volatile actors to deal with
internationally as it is without becoming one of them.” He denounces the
“embrace of ‘alternative facts’ at the highest levels of American life,” noting
that it “creates a state of confusion, dividing us along fissures of truth and
falsity and keeping us in a kind of low-level dread.”
Trump is the reality-show president who knows “once you introduce
conflict, you cannot deescalate conflict. You must continually escalate.”
“Under our Constitution,” Flake adds, speaking to colleagues in
Congress,
…there simply are not that many people who are in a position to do something
about an executive branch in chaos [emphasis added]. Too often we observe
the unfolding drama along with the rest of the country, passively, all but
saying, “Someone should do
something!” without seeming to realize that that someone is us.
8/2/17: I’m up
at 5:14 a.m. I wonder. Is the president up and tweeting too? I check his feed.
Nothing.
Maybe he’s up, but busy puzzling over the dire situation with North
Korean. Maybe he’s studying their defenses. Maybe he’s calmly considering U.S.
military and diplomatic options.
Damn. The crazy fool may lead us into nuclear war.
The
Statue of Liberty is a pigeon roost.
In another stunning, xenophobic development, the Trump administration
announces plans to cut legal immigration in half. From now on, Trump spokesman Stephen
Miller tells gathered reporters, the Statue of Liberty is a pigeon roost on an
island in New York Harbor. It signifies nothing.
Only those immigrants who have important skills and can speak
English fluently are wanted. The plan is supported by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ar.)
and David Perdue (R-Ga.)
This plan is grotesque for many reasons. For starters, many avid
Trump supporters won’t realize, but their own ancestors would have been blocked
from immigrating back when America was great. All those millions of starving
Irish in the 1840s? Low skill people. Spoke Gaelic. Let ‘em starve.
What about Czechs and Slovaks and Poles in the 1880s? Undesirables, for sure!
What about Russian Jews fleeing Czarist oppression in 1900? Or Italians and Greeks arriving in 1910? They would have been barred too. Few could speak more than a few words of English.
What about Czechs and Slovaks and Poles in the 1880s? Undesirables, for sure!
What about Russian Jews fleeing Czarist oppression in 1900? Or Italians and Greeks arriving in 1910? They would have been barred too. Few could speak more than a few words of English.
Who else would have been kept away? How about Friedrich Trump,
first of the line to come to our shores. According to his grandson, on arrival Friedrich knew almost no English.
All his life he spoke German primarily.
 |
| Friedrich Trump. |
Know who else couldn’t have made it had this new policy been in effect a century ago? Stephen Miller’s great grandfather, a Jew fleeing pogroms and abuse in Russia, and speaking Yiddish. He would have been barred. Sam Glosser was his name and he passed beneath Lady Liberty’s torch around 1903. Most East European Jews went straight to work in the sweatshops of the New York City garment industry—low-skilled workers, earning low pay. During that era, virulent anti-Semitism was still common in America. A New York newspaper referred to people like Glosser as “slime” being “siphoned upon us from the Continental mud tanks.”
 |
| Low-skilled Jewish workers in a sweatshop. |
*
THE WHITE HOUSE finally acknowledges that the president did
“weigh in” on the original and completely disingenuous statement issued in Don
Jr.’s name, about the meeting he forgot with a Russian lawyer, on a topic he
couldn’t remember, with god knows how many participants.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters the president was only helping his son, which “any father would do.”
That is, any father who might be trying to hide a trail that seems to hint at collusion with agents of a foreign enemy.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters the president was only helping his son, which “any father would do.”
That is, any father who might be trying to hide a trail that seems to hint at collusion with agents of a foreign enemy.
8/3/17: Trump heads
for Bedminster, New Jersey for the first extended vacation of his presidency.
He plans to relax for seventeen days, perhaps hob-knobbing with buddies at his
exclusive golf club.
Ironically, in 2011 Citizen Trump seemed peeved when he tweeted a
series of complaints, including this, about President Obama:
It may be hard for Trump supporters to grasp: but their hero’s
vacation, 17 days, is longer than Obama’s:
17
-10
7
17
-10
7
Check my math if you disagree.
8/4/17: The president
is off on vacation (as mentioned above). In a sign of how crazy even
Republicans think he is the Senate decides to remain “in session” even if
almost all 100 members are away on vacation.
Bang
the gavel and announce your presence.
Every three days a member must go to the floor, bang a gavel and
announce his or her presence. This “pro forma” action lasting less than a
minute means the Senate is technically in session. That means the
president can’t fire the Attorney General, appoint someone else, and have the
new A. G. fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, powers the president possesses
if the Senate is in recess.
So let’s step back a few months. Remember when he labeled planners for the battle to retake Mosul in Iraq, “a group of losers” for announcing plans
to soon begin the fight, instead of making a sneak attack? Eventually the
second largest city in Iraq was retaken by Iraqi forces, backed by American air
and artillery, with only two U.S. personnel killed (vs. thousands of Iraqi
casualties).
This was just as President Obama
intended.
Attacks from the air had been particular effective.
Trump also tweets: “The United Nations Security Council just voted
15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big
financial impact!”
This is indeed good news—similar to the approach used by Obama to
isolate Iran—but remember all the times right-wingers assailed the U.N. and
said what the organization really wanted was to take over the world?
8/6/17: Big
fans of the president are worried about his ludicrous grasp of foreign policy. Max Boot, a lifelong conservative,
tells Robin Wright, a reporter for the New Yorker: “He seems as
clueless today as he was on January 20.”
And that was stunningly clueless.
“A
feral instinct for self-survival.”
“Trump has an appalling
ignorance of the current world, of history, of previous American engagement,
of what former presidents thought and did,” Geoffrey Kemp says. He worked in
the Ford and Reagan administrations.
“The president has little understanding of the context and even
less interest in hearing the people who want to deliver it,” Michael Hayden,
former C.I.A. director tells Wright. “He’s impatient,
decision-oriented, and prone to action. It’s all about the present tense. When
he asks, ‘What the hell’s going on in Iraq?’ people around him have
learned not to say, ‘Well, in 632…’”
He doesn’t want to listen. He’s got better things to do.
“American leadership in the world—how do I phrase this, it’s so obvious, but apparently not to him—is critical to our success, and it depends eighty per cent on the credibility of the president’s word,” John McLaughlin, who worked at the C.I.A. under seven presidents, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, and ended up as the intelligence agency’s acting director, tells Wright.
“American leadership in the world—how do I phrase this, it’s so obvious, but apparently not to him—is critical to our success, and it depends eighty per cent on the credibility of the president’s word,” John McLaughlin, who worked at the C.I.A. under seven presidents, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, and ended up as the intelligence agency’s acting director, tells Wright.
Eliot A. Cohen, who worked for Bush 43, puts it bluntly:
Trump is completely irredeemable. He has
a feral instinct for self-survival, but he’s unteachable. The ban on Muslims
coming into the country and building a wall, and having the Mexicans pay for
it, that was all you needed to know about this guy on foreign affairs. This is
a man who is idiotic and bigoted and ignorant of the law [emphasis added].
Former C.I.A. director Hayden gets the last word. “It’s like Trump
is captain of the Titanic, but he’s
actually aiming for the iceberg—and we’re all in danger of going down when
the vessel hits. Today, Hayden warns, “the most disruptive force in the world…
is the United States of America.”
8/7/17: Trump
must be feeling good. Day 200 of his presidency kicks off with an early start.
He’s out of “that dump,” the White House. He has an imaginary friend with the
Boy Scouts who called him to say his speech to the boys was the best speech
ever. Everyone loves him, including Ivanna, Marla and Melania. Also Madonna. And Vice President Jesus! VPJ is definitely not planning, just in case Trump has to seek asylum
in Russia, to run in 2020.
At 5:58 a.m. President Trump posts his
first tweet: “The Trump
base is far bigger & stronger than ever before (despite some phony Fake
News polling). Look at rallies in Penn, Iowa, Ohio.......”
In reality, the polls are
grim. GOP leaders know it. RealClearPolitics this morning shows
Trump with an average “favorable rating of 38.7 % across ten polls. His
unfavorable rating stands at 56.2 %.
Is it just possible,
President Trump believes his base is growing because he’s counting the
Russians?
8/8/17: The president takes a tough tone with North
Korea. “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” he
tells reporters visiting him (once again at one of his golf courses). “They will
be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Speaking of Kim
Jong-un, Trump insists, “He has been very threatening beyond a normal state,
and as I said, they will be met with fire and fury, and frankly power the likes
of which this world has never seen before.”
“Fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
The North Koreans quickly respond: “It is a daydream for the
U.S. to think that its mainland is an invulnerable Heavenly kingdom.”
The North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
More recently, the North threatened South Korea and 23,500 U.S.
military personnel stationed there. At the first sign of
any offensive move by our side, Kim Jong-un promises large parts of the USA
“will be reduced to ashes and flames.” North Korean missiles will “turn
Washington, the stronghold of American imperialists and the nest of evil, and
its followers, into a sea of fire.”
8/9/17: A draft report of a major
scientific study due on climate change is leaked to the
press. Government scientists fear (with good reason) that the Trump
administration will whitewash it if they don’t get it out.
The draft states that “evidence for a changing climate abounds,
from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans.”
Alas, the report is headed to a White House committee chock full
of political hacks. By the time E.P.A. head Scott Pruitt gets done the report
will be reduced to one sentence: “Coal
is freaking awesome!”
8/10/17: The New
York Times and other “Fake News” outlets report that the F.B.I. has
conducted a search of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s home. Legal
experts say this is a signal from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III to
Manafort, indicating the investigation is heating up.
Already under fire for his role in a secret meeting including
Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, and shady Russian operatives offering Hillary
Clinton dirt, Manafort may face charges under the federal Bank Secrecy Act.
Citing a Washington Examiner story Trump tweets
excitedly. Almost half of
Americans think he’s doing a good job! “President
Trump is the new ‘comeback kid,’” a reporter for the Examiner crows,
“with his approval rating in a new national poll rebounding after a freefall.”
Not so fast. The Comeback Tweeter fares poorly
in two other polls released the same day. Reuters/IPSOS has him at 37 %-59 %
approval/disapproval. The Economist/YouGov
puts him at 40 %-54 %.
8/11/17: Trump apparently thinks he’s Clint Eastwood, only with nukes!
If North Korea wants a fight he’s ready to challenge Kim Jong-un to make his
day. He’s feeling so frisky he’s ready to send troops to Venezuela. “Venezuela
is not very far away,” he tells reporters, “and the people are dying. We have
many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary.”
Trump channels Clint Eastwood, if Clint Eastwood had nukes.
As for North Korea, President Clint insists U.S. forces are
ready to fight. We’re “locked and loaded.”
On Guam, an American possession—which would be a prime target in
case of war—people worry. Guam’s Office of Civil Defense passes out flyers
titled Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat to aid residents
in readying for nuclear attack.
If North Korean missiles are launched, inhabitants will
have fourteen minutes to take cover. They should head for the nearest
underground concrete structure. If they find themselves outside, too far to
reach shelter, they should go “flat on the ground” and cover their heads. If
they survive they should shower with plenty of soap and water to remove any
radioactive contamination. (See: 8/12/17.)
Praying might also be wise.
8/12/17: Who’s worried about
nuclear war! Not President Clint! Taking time out from a busy schedule, he
calls Governor Eddie Calvo of Guam and offers reassurance. (I guess.) North Korea has
threatened to bracket the island with long-range missiles to prove its strike
capability. Trump tells Calvo not to sweat. “We are with you 1000
percent….Don’t worry about a thing.” Our clueless Commander-in-Chief Clint
congratulates the governor for “becoming extremely famous.” “All over the world
they’re talking about Guam.”
“Tourism…” the president continues in his inimitable, tone-deaf
style, “I can say this… you’re going to
go up ten-fold, with the expenditure of no money….It just looks like a
beautiful place.”
Sadly, the island won’t look like a beautiful place if it
suffers a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.
*
CLOSER TO HOME, a march in Charlottesville, Virginia, involving
neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan types turns violent.
Blame on both sides.
One of the marchers, a 20-year-old from Ohio, decides to prove
his love for the white race by plowing his 2015 Dodge Charger into
a crowd of counter-protesters. Nineteen
are injured, five critically. Heather Heyer, 32, is killed.
At her funeral her father will say she was there to protest
peacefully and “to put down hate.”
In his first comments on the tragedy, Trump makes it crystal
clear he can see equal blame
on “both sides.”
Pretty much everyone in America—not counting professional
bigots—is stunned by his stance.
8/13/17: Chastened by a firestorm
of negative reaction to his “both sides” comment, Trump refrains for an entire
day from tweeting himself. He does provide links to tweets by others, including
one from the Governor of Guam.
The Governor says he has never felt safer than he does now, with Trump “at the helm.” (See:
8/11/17.)
8/14/17: Trump continues to take
heat for his response to Charlottesville. Aides convince him to try a do-over.
All they ask is that he read a prepared statement
without going off the rails. He soon proves he can read a
prepared statement. “As Americans, we condemn the recent violence in
Charlottesville and oppose hatred, bigotry, and racism in all forms,” he reads,
looking like a school boy reciting a story about why he should not grab female
classmates in inappropriate places.
He finishes with a flourish:
No matter the
color of our skin or our ethnic heritage, we all live under the same laws, we
all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God.
We are a Nation
founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. As one people, let us
move forward to rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together
as Americans.
Mission Accomplished. Trump sounds like an actual president.
8/15: Okay: Mission not Accomplished.
In the Marine Corps (I enlisted in December 1968) we had a
saying about people who needlessly fucked up. “He stepped on his dick,” we’d
say.
Somebody shoot the president with a tranquilizer dart!
Trump does just that in a wild,
unscripted exchange in the lobby of Trump Tower. The president is there to talk
about a plan to spend heavily on infrastructure. He even has a cool chart he is
supposed to display.
Aides don’t expect him
to take questions but he does. Before anyone can shoot him with a tranquilizer
dart he goes rogue.
He’s mad about Charlottesville—but not because a young lady was
killed and nineteen injured. He’s mad because the press is mean to him. He
insists he waited to condemn the neo-Nazis only until he “had all the facts.”
Okay, let’s see what he does with those facts. Asked about the
“alt-right,” and whether he condemns them, Trump replies combatively. He
demands that the reporter who asked the question define what “alt-right” means.
Trump still can’t admit these groups are different. “What about
the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right,” he adds angrily.
Then he launches into an elaborate defense of hate groups who, in his view,
were unfairly attacked. He even points
out that the “alt-left” groups (a term he just made up) lacked a permit. Those neo-Nazis, what
solid citizens they are.
They had a parade
permit!
8/16/17: If you love Trump you
probably believe The New York Times is nothing but
fake news. Still, the Times tends to quote actual people. If those people
are actually misquoted they seek retraction.
At the Times, reporters begin coverage for the day by
defining what the alt-right is and what it stands for. It is “anti-immigrant,
anti-feminist, and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights.” (That
sounds a lot like the GOP.) Leaders of the movement believe “higher education
is ‘only appropriate for a cognitive elite’ and that most citizens should be
educated in trade schools or apprenticeships.”
(I think we can assume the alt-right does not believe
dark-skinned people are part of the “cognitive elite.”)
The alt-right is obsessed with a fear of “white genocide.”
The Times explains:
“White genocide
is a white nationalist belief that white
people, as a race, are endangered and face extinction as a result of
nonwhite immigration and marriage between the races, a process being manipulated
by the Jews,” according to Ryan Lenz, editor of Hatewatch, for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Many neo-Nazi types in Charlottesville carried shields painted with
a “14.” The number stands for fourteen words: “We must secure the existence of
our people and a future for white children.” The slogan was created by David
Lane, currently serving a 190-year prison sentence for murdering Jewish radio
host Alan Berg.
Head of American Nazi Party, approves of Trump statement.
Well then, who did enjoy
Trump’s performance the day before? “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the
truth,” David Duke tweets. He’s a leader of the K.K.K. Richard Spencer,
head of the American Nazi Party, is also impressed. “Trump’s statement was fair
and down to earth,” Spencer says.
Pretty much everyone else is appalled. The commandant of the
Marine Corps tweets that there is “no place for racial hatred or extremism in
@USMC. Our core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment frame the way Marines
live and act.”
This makes me proud to say I’m a former Marine.
 |
| That's me in December 1968. Unlike Trump, whose feet hurt to much to serve, I was ready to go to Vietnam. (I volunteered to go twice; but I was never sent.) |
8/17/17: Julius Krein, founder of
American Affairs, explains in The New York Times how he became a Trump supporter. He
admits having seen one of Trump’s campaign rallies, and says, “I was riveted.”
He supported Candidate Trump in dozens of articles and TV appearances.
Now he admits he was wrong.
I can’t stand by
this disgraceful administration any longer, and I would urge anyone who once
supported him as I did to stop defending the forty-fifth president. Far
from making America great again, Mr.
Trump has betrayed the foundations of our common citizenship. For months,
despite increasing chaos and incoherence pouring out of this White House, I
have given Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt.
Krein tried to convince himself Trump wasn’t really a racist, wasn’t catering to racists. “It is now
clear that we were deluding ourselves. Either Mr. Trump is genuinely sympathetic
to the David Duke types, or he is so obtuse as to be utterly incapable of
learning from his worst mistakes.” (See:
8/16/17.)
It is definitely not a good look, when the president’s best
defense is: Forgive him. He’s not a racist, exactly.
He’s just obtuse and incapable of learning.
8/18/17: It’s a sad day for
“alt-right” types (see: 8/15/17).
Steve Bannon, self-proclaimed voice of the movement, is ousted as chief strategist
for the Trump administration.
Alex Marlow, editor in chief at Breitbart News, explains the frustration
right-wing extremists are feeling with Bannon being tossed:
The president
was buoyed to election by capturing the hearts and minds of a populist,
nationalist movement. A lot of it was anti-Wall Street, anti-corporatist,
anti-establishment. And now we’re seeing that a lot of these guys remaining
inside the White House are exactly the opposite of what we told you you were
going to get.
Here, the typical liberal might pose a question:
What fool was ever stupid enough to
believe the GOP establishment—or billionaire Donald J. Trump—would turn on Wall
Street and the multi-national corporations?
8/19/17: The White House announces
that the President and First Lady will not be attending the Kennedy Center
Honors program scheduled for December. “The president and first lady have
decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate
without any political distraction.”
Good job, Mr. President! You are finally
thinking of others!
Oh…wait.
If Trump showed up the gala was going to lack gala.
Honorees for lifetime work in art, music,
dance, film, television and culture make it clear, in light of Trump’s
Charlottesville remarks, they will skip a White House gala normally held in
conjunction with the awards. Three of five honorees have said they’d not be
attending. Carmen de Lavallade, a dancer and choreographer, 86, explains her
decision to bow out. “In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic
narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in,” she says, “and
in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I
will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House.”
So the gala was going to lack gala. A fourth
honoree LL Cool J hadn’t said for sure whether he’d attend.
The fifth, Cuban-American singer Gloria
Estefan, said she’d show up but only to press the president on his immigration
policies.
Trump chickens out.
8/20/17: You know how Republicans always
swear we can trust business people with our lives and even hand over our
wallets—and nothing can possibly go wrong? Wells Fargo (already famous for
signing up customers for millions of credit card accounts they didn’t…um…
authorize) is reported to have tricked
customers into buying car insurance they didn’t need. This drove 274,000
individuals into loan delinquency and caused 25,000 vehicles to be repossessed.
“There to defend the demons.”
8/21/17: Charles Blow, in a New York Times editorial, perfectly
captures the essence of President Trump’s comments on Charlottesville. Says
Blow: “He wasn’t there to plead the case that America could rise on the wings
of its better angels. He was there to defend the demons.”
8/22/17: In another raging speech
in Phoenix, Trump defends his stance on Charlottesville. This time he reads
from his statement on Saturday but conveniently leaves off the “both sides” ad
lib, which faulted everyone equally.
Petulant as always, he calls for a government shutdown in September if he
doesn’t get funding for a border wall. (See:
1/19/18.)
Trump also tells his audience that talking
tough to the North Koreans is working. A North Korean threat to fire
missiles in the direction of Guam has not materialized. Trump can’t resist crowing:
“I respect the fact that he [Kim Jong-un] is starting to respect us.” (See: 8/28/17.)
8/23/17: A Quinnipiac poll finds that by a 2-1 margin (62%-31%),
Americans feel the president is doing more to divide than unite the country. To
put it plainly, many Americans realize Trump is a dick.
 |
| Remember, Mr. President, when Nazis were bad? |
8/24/17: Administration officials
make it clear the president is willing to shut
down the government in September if he doesn’t get funding for his border wall.
Trump fans are too dumb to wonder why Mexico isn’t going to pay, which
Candidate Trump swore a thousand times they would.
Members of Congress in districts along the border are polled to see if they think we
need a big, expensive wall. Eight U.S. senators and eight members of the House
of Representatives all agree.
We don’t.
8/25/17: Staff turmoil continues to roil the White House.
Extreme-right-wing adviser Sebastian
Gorka resigns or gets booted, depending on whom you ask. According to Gorka
he resigned because “it is clear to me that
forces that do not support the MAGA promise are—for now—ascendant within the
White House.”
New Chief of Staff John
Kelly gets credit for pushing Gorka out after pushing Gorka’s main ally, Steve
Bannon, out the previous week.
There are reports Kelly may soon
boot Omarosa to the curb. (See: 12/14/17.)
8/26/17:
With Texas, Louisiana and Florida having been pummeled by wind and rain, a long
recovery looms. Trump seems ready for another “Mission Accomplished” moment (see: 8/14/17). Speaking to reporters in
the Rose Garden he decides, if they won’t pat him on the back, he’ll pat his
back himself.
“We are doing a great job in Texas,” he says, “a great job in Florida, a great
job in Louisiana. We hit little pieces of Georgia and Alabama. And frankly….”
The Great One pauses a
moment.
Puerto Rico is an island. “You can’t just drive
trucks there.”
What’s that other place he’s
supposed to be helping? Oh yeah, Puerto Rico! That’s a little harder even if
you are the greatest. “It’s on an island,” Trump informs stunned reporters.
“You can’t just drive your trucks there from other states.”
Who knew!
At a joint news conference
later, with the Prime Minister of Spain, Trump decides to do all the talking.
As you can guess, he sticks with his favorite topic: Donald J. Trump. He says
the relief work his administration is doing is “amazing,” “tremendous,” “incredible”
and “really good.”
You almost expect him to say
his efforts are “bootylicious.”
8/27/17:
Trump seems surprised experts are calling Hurricane Harvey a “once in 500-year
storm.” If he bothered to read the reports prepared by scientists earlier in
the month (see: 8/9/17) he might
realize they’ve been predicting steady increases in freak weather events as
global temperatures rise. In fact, Harvey
was the Houston area’s third “500-year flood” in the last three years. The
nation as a whole has had
at least 24 of these “500-year” events since 2010.
According to scientists,
we’re due for plenty more.
8/28/17:
So much for North Korea showing respect in the face of the president’s carnival
barking. They fire a ballistic missile
that travels over the top of Japan and breaks into pieces before splashing
down in the Pacific, 1,678 miles away. Clearly, they can hit Guam. (See: 8/11- 8/12/17.)
8/29/17:
The Hill reports
that television evangelist Jim Bakker has warned of disaster if Trump is
impeached. “If it happens, there will be a civil war in the United States of America.
The Christians will finally come out of the shadows, because we are going to be
shut up permanently if we’re not careful.”
For context, we should remember that back in
the 90s, Bakker spent five years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
*
THE DALLAS
MORNING NEWS reports on a change of heart by
conservative congresspersons from Texas. You may remember. In 2012 the eastern
seaboard was pounded by Superstorm Sandy. Damage was incredible. Congress had
to decide—help states like New York and New Jersey recover—or focus on fiscal
responsibility.
Texas delegation in Congress once voted against storm relief.
That was then, when Texas wasn’t hurting.
Five years ago, Tea Party stalwarts wanted to offset every penny the federal
government spent. Almost the entire Texas delegation voted against storm relief.
Today, Senator Ted Cruz (formerly known as
“Lyin’ Ted”) is all in for hurricane aid. Let’s not quibble about pennies—or
billions! Not when Texans are hurting. If they keep hurting they might not vote
for Ted again.
Rep. Peter King is one of a number of fellow
Republicans who does not suffer from amnesia. He greets this change of heart
with scorn. “Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy,” he
tweets, “but I’ll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt
deserve another”
8/30/17:
The Pentagon announces
it has quietly increased the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 11,000.
(The next day Secretary of Defense James Mattis signs orders to send an
additional 4,000 soldiers.) After sixteen years we still can’t win the war.
U.S. casualties number
2,403 dead and 20,000 + wounded.
Our allies have lost heavily over the years too. The cost
to our nation, not counting future expenses to treat disabled veterans, has passed
$1.07 trillion.
If the population of
Afghanistan is 34.66 million (recent estimate) that means we could have given every man, woman and child in that country
$30,871.32 if they simply agreed to give us all their guns.
You know what this means! The
1% need a tax cut!!! (See: 9/6/17; 9/26/17.)
8/31/17:
The remnants of Hurricane Harvey linger over Texas and Louisiana. Before the
storm dies out it will dump fifty inches
of rain in some areas. (Climate change scientists have long predicted
rising temperatures will lead to extreme rain events.) Tens of thousands of homes
are flooded. At least 82 deaths result. Damage estimates
range from $65 billion to as much as $190 billion. (See 8/9/17; 8/27/17.)
September 1, 2017: The month starts with a fizzle. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics tallies
jobs created in August.
A total of 156,000 were
added to the U.S. economy, continuing an 83-month trend that began back in
October 2010 when the guy born in Kenya got the financial recovery off to a
start.
The jobs report is
disappointing to economists and Trump decides not to tweet about such tepid
“success.”
9/2/17: Texas and Louisiana slowly recover
in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. On Fox News, we are treated to extensive coverage of
President Trump and the First Lady arriving in Houston for a visit. We see them
mingle with flooded out men, women and children in a crowded relief center. The
president hands out hot dogs in white containers carrying a Red Cross.
Houston TV channel KHOU catches up for a talk. Trump doesn’t focus on the suffering.
He focuses on—what else—himself. He
wants everyone to know he’s there and he’s doing a fabulous job. He has
spoken with families at the center. They’re happy to see him! “It’s been very
nice. It’s been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful
thing. I think even for the country to watch and for the world to watch. It’s
been beautiful.” This seems an odd way to describe massive destruction, since
the nation’s fourth largest city is a wreck.
Later, Trump notes that coordination between
local, state and federal government officials has been “terrific.”
Who’s terrific?
Trump is terrific!
9/3: It took six months to discover
that the president was: A) a pathological liar; or, B) a paranoid fool.
Trump’s original tweet (see: 3/4/17): “Terrible!
Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the
victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Later he called Obama a
“sick man.”
Now Time
magazine has the audacity to quote the
Department of Justice. That would be Trump’s DOJ:
“Both
FBI and NSD [Department of Justice’s National Security Division] confirm that
they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017
tweets,” the DOJ wrote in a summary judgment
court filing on Sept.
1. “FBI again confirmed that Case 1:17-cv-00718-RCL Document 12 Filed 09/01/17
Page 4 of 39 they do not have any such records by consulting with personnel
knowledgeable about Director Comey’s statements and the surveillance activities
of the FBI.”
There
is a sick man in this story.
It’s
just not who Trump has in mind.
9/4/17: Did you know Texans are really,
really conservative? They don’t want the federal government messing in their
lives! Ever! Think incredible paranoia! Think Walmart and Jade
Helm! Think calls for Texas to secede from the union after Barack
Obama won reelection!
Now, with the Texas coast in ruins, guess
who’s clamoring for federal aid! Go ahead. Guess. We’ll give you ten guesses if
you watch Fox News. (See: 8/29/17.)
It’s Texas!!!
9/5/17: How is Orange Leader doing when it comes to the DACA
program (Deferred Action for Child Arrivals)? During the campaign he promised
to scrap it, build a wall a thousand feet high along our southern border, and
twist the arm of Mexico’s president until the fellow agreed to pay—and said so in
English.
President Obama implemented DACA. If Obama
played a role Trump has to kill it! So Trump
kills DACA.
You came here from Guatemala with your
parents, at age three, and have no memory of any country but this one? Too bad!
Back you go, college student, age 20.
Your parents snuck into the United States
from Bangladesh? You were five? Now you’re twenty-five and working legally as a
nurse—because DACA allows it—and paying taxes like any nurse?
Back to Bangladesh!
Trump talked himself into a corner and can’t
talk himself out. Recently, he told reporters he would treat the Dreamers with
“great heart,” even referring to them by that name. “We love the Dreamers,” he said. Aides portray his order to end DACA
“as a difficult emotional decision for the president.”
Down in Houston, DACA recipient Jesus
Contreras, a trained paramedic, has just finished a week helping people impacted
by Hurricane Harvey. Alonso Guillen, another Dreamer, has drowned while trying to rescue neighbors.
Aracely Martinez-Ramirez, 20, has seen her
family home destroyed. She came to the U.S. when she was two. She works
multiple jobs to help her mother and siblings and watches three sisters, ages
12, 9 and 7. (All are U.S. citizens.) DACA allows her to drive legally and walk
the girls to the school bus stop without fear of being arrested and sent “back”
to a country she can’t recall.
The president makes his bold decision to end
DACA. Then he begins to regret what he’s done. (See: 9/14/17.)
Naturally, it’s not the fate of the Dreamers,
per se, that troubles Mr. Trump. The man has the same empathy for others we
might expect from a garden gnome. No. What worries him is the political math:
9/6/17: Trump heads to North Dakota to
talk about his tax plan. It’s the best tax plan in the history of tax plans.
Okay, true: The plan is expected to add
$1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over ten years. Why worry! The economy
will boom and the cuts will pay for themselves!!! (See: 9/26/17.)
Meanwhile, a Republican-controlled U.S.
Senate passes a $700 billion National Defense
Authorization Act. Republican Senator Bob Corker notes that this is $83 billion
more than Congress agreed to when it put in place spending caps while President
Obama was still in office.
The GOP no longer cares! Deficit-schmefficit.
It’s like 2001 again, when GOP “fiscal hawks”
stopped swooping and diving and decided to fight a war (then a second) and cut
taxes too. When George W. Bush took office the U.S. government had run a
surplus of $128 billion the previous fiscal year—and for four years in succession
under Bill Clinton.
After all the GOP tax cuts—which were absolutely, positively going to cause the
U.S. economy to boom—what was the situation when W. left the White House? By
fiscal year 2009, including policies implemented before Obama took over, the deficit ballooned to $1.413 trillion.
Counting debt service it was $1.632 trillion.
Who “inherited a mess?”
President Obama. (See: 9/26/17.)
9/7/17: We all know how much the GOP
loves big business and how much the GOP hates regulating same. For example, we
would all live in utopia if Republicans could kill the Consumer Protection
Agency. Then Equifax and other credit-rating companies could do their jobs with
skill and speed and…
What the hell!?!
Equifax reports
a massive breach when hackers crack their system and steal the personal
data of 143 million Americans.
No sweat! The Department of Justice is on the
case! I mean, the case involving the baker who doesn’t want to bake a wedding
cake for gays.
I hope nobody stole the baker’s identity—or
the identities of the two gentlemen who wanted the cake.
9/8/17: You know what this country
needs! Less regulation! We don’t need to regulate drug companies. Drug
companies only want to help us with our sad sex lives. Here, have some Viagra!
If you watch a lot of Fox News you know
government is always the problem, especially when courts are processing a rash
of sexual harassment cases against Fox owners, anchors and hosts.
Equifax execs dump stock before the public can get wise.
On this day we get fresh evidence. You can always
trust the business types. We learn that Equifax was hacked five months earlier but didn’t
take the necessary steps to protect itself and its (your) data.
By keeping the hack quiet, company executives
were able to use their time wisely and
sell any Equifax stock they owned, before prices tanked, to suckers.
Also on this day: Facebook admits Russian trolls bought ads and
created countless fake personal accounts and issue pages, all in an effort to
swing voters during the 2016 campaign. Their two main goals: First, undercut
faith in American democracy. Second, insure defeat for Hillary Clinton.
Take Melvin Reddick of Harrisburg, Pa., as
your first example. Pictured on Facebook, you could see him, baseball cap
turned backwards, holding a cute little girl. And you could read posts from
Melvin like this (June 8, 2016): “These guys show hidden truth about Hillary
Clinton, George Soros and other leaders of the US. Visit #DCLeaks website. It’s
really interesting.”
Not only was Reddick not a real person, the DCLeaks website was created by the
Russians, just days earlier.
9/9/17: Trump spends the day rattling the GOP establishment. Angered
by “disloyalty” on the part of lawmakers who fail to do his bidding, he pushes
for primary challenges in 2018. Three moderate GOP members of the House of
Representatives decide serving time in the time of Trump isn’t worth the misery
and pain. They announce plans to retire. Mark Sanford—a fourth—describes the
dilemma his party faces. “It’s a cult of personality.” Trump doesn’t care about
party or principles. “He’s
fundamentally, at the core, about Donald Trump.”
True that.
9/10/17: Hurricane Irma flattens
the Florida Keys. It moves slowly north, pulverizing homes and bringing storm
surge and flooding as far north as Jacksonville. Damage estimates range from
$50 billion to $100 billion. (See: 8/31/17.)
At one point Irma is 420 miles wide, more than twice as wide as Ohio.
9/11/17: The United States marks
sixteen years since the attacks on New York and Washington and the downing of
Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Trump speaks at a memorial service and—stunningly—manages
not to insult anyone.
Meanwhile, ESPN host Jemele Hill excoriates him in a series of tweets. “Donald Trump is
a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/other white
supremacists,” reads one.
“Trump is the most ignorant,
offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white
supremacy. Period,” she tweets again.
“He is unqualified and unfit to be president,” a third reads. Well, at
least we still live in a country that honors free speech. (See: 9/13/17.)
9/12/17: The White House tells
reporters the number of refugees annually allowed to enter the United States
may be cut to 50,000.
Then again, maybe Najib Razak, the Prime
Minister of Malaysia, will be welcome if he ever wants to come. Did
you know rich individuals and their rich children, up to age 21, can acquire
green cards and permanent residency in the U.S.A. by investing $500,000? Well,
now you do. The Statue of Liberty should ditch the torch and start waving a
giant green, copper bank book.
Jared drums up business with Chinese oligarchs.
And guess who pushed to get Chinese oligarchs
(who became rich by rigging a communist system) to invest $500,000 in his luxury apartment
tower?
Jared Kushner!
All kinds of super-rich Chinese “communists,”
oil-drenched Nigerians and even Mexicans carting suitcases
stuffed with drug money manage to enter the U.S. if they have sufficient piles of
dough. You could say, metaphorically, that if Trump does build his wall a
Mexican with connections and plenty of narco cash could stack up his or her gold ingots and come climbing into the
U.S. of A.
At any rate, Trump invites Razak to the White
House. This seems ironic since Razak is under investigation by the Justice
Department. When it was revealed Razak
had a cool $681 million stashed in a secret bank account, his own Attorney
General (way more loyal than Jeff Sessions) swore the Saud royal family had donated the money.
Anyone who said bribery or other crimes were involved
was part of a liberal Malaysian “witch hunt.”
Okay. I made that last line up.
Honestly, however, a few months later Razak
will start talking about shutting down the Malaysia purveyors of “fake news.”
For now, we can say the Prime Minister certainly
know how to spend the dough. So does his wife. She is the proud owner of a
$27.3 million necklace with a 22-carat diamond pendant. She once bought 27 gold
necklaces during a single L.A. shopping spree. The Prime Minister gave
supermodel Miranda Kerr an $8 million necklace. He also handed over $12 million
in artwork to his pal, Leonardo DiCaprio.
9/13/17: Press Secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders makes it clear to reporters how much she and
the boss treasure free speech, free press and the right to protest. Referring
to Jemele Hill and her tweets (see: 9/11/17),
Sanders has this to say: “That’s one of the more outrageous comments that
anyone could make and certainly
something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.”
And there it is. You have a spokesperson for
the President of the United States calling on a reporter to be fired for
comments on Twitter.
Now: Could someone direct Sanders to Donald
J. Trump’s Twitter feed, in which he once called President Obama “a racist.”
 |
| Trump often plays the "racist" card. |
9/14/17: President Trump suddenly realizes ending DACA and deporting 800,000 young people (see: 9/5/17) might be a horrible idea. After talking with his friends,
“Chuck and Nancy” (Schumer and Pelosi), he decides he doesn’t want to deport
all these nice young folks.
In their hearts they’re as American as you or me.
Even Fox News reports in April that the U.S. Army
recruited 359 Dreamers to serve in the previous year. These enlistees are
American in every sense, except on certificates of birth. (We know what Trump
thinks about certificates of birth.) They speak like Americans, dress like
Americans, go to school and off to work like Americans. They even enlist like
good Americans. In their hearts they’re as American as you or me. DACA has been
in place for five years. Let’s take a conservative estimate and say 1,000
recipients have enlisted in the Army during that time.
If Congress fails to protect the Dreamers,
and we lose a thousand troops, the next move is clear. If we lose these patriots
at the stroke of a pen, then White House adviser Stephen Miller must step up. Miller
should rush down to the nearest
recruiting office and join the Marines.
9/15/17: Remember when the
president said he had a plan to defeat ISIS? And remember when he said it was
stupid to tell the terrorists when an attack on Mosul was coming? The city has
now fallen to Iraqi forces. (By October all ISIS strongholds in Iraq will
fall.) Trump decides to claim credit—as usual in a tweet. “We have made more progress in the last nine months
against ISIS than the Obama Administration has made in 8 years. Must be
proactive & nasty!” he taps.
The joy
of tweeting is the simplicity of the arguments you are able to employ; but
the battle to defeat ISIS is complex. Know how many Iraqis (all of whom would
have been blocked from coming to the U.S.A. under Trump’s first travel ban)
were killed and wounded retaking Mosul?
Know who came up with the policy of letting
Iraqis do most of the fighting? President Obama.
Fourteen American servicemen and service
women died in combat in Iraq during all of 2016.
See how that works?
9/16/17: During his run for
president, Trump insisted he would tear up the nuclear deal with Iran as soon
as he took a seat in the Oval Office. “A
businessman-turned-politician who has never held public office,” Reuters
explained, “Trump called the nuclear pact a ‘disaster’ and ‘the worst deal ever
negotiated’…and said it could lead to a ‘nuclear holocaust.’”
Let’s check and see how he’s doing, ripping
up those treaty pages. What! Three times, he’s had a chance to put the deal in
a paper shredder but decided against it. It could be because
his Secretary of Defense thinks tearing up the deal would be
stupid. It could be because his Secretary of State argued against withdrawal.
You can read up on the complexities of the issue if you want.
Or, if you’re a Trump fan, you can just wait
for the next idiotic tweet. You know it won’t be long.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, tasked with monitoring Iranian compliance, keeps reporting that Iran is in compliance. (See also: 10/3/17.)
Do our most important allies support the deal?
Great Britain? Yes. Germany? Yes. How about France? Yes.
9/17/17: Rex Tillerson is busy
bringing “business efficiency” to the State Department. This year only 140 U.S.
officials, policy experts and scientists will be attending opening sessions of
the U.N. General Assembly. Last year twice as many attended. Therefore: big
savings for taxpayers!
Also: no one from the U.S. delegation will
utter the words “climate change,” unless in a sentence including the word “hoax.”
As a bonus for dictators, Tillerson will send no representatives to meetings
devoted to promoting democracy. No State Department personnel will attend
meetings on human trafficking, on oceans and the environment, on cyber issues,
on military issues, or on foreign assistance.
Meanwhile, extreme temperatures—as in climate
change—lead to an increase in wildfires across the American West. On this
summer day there are 23 active blazes in four states. A fire in Montana incinerates 78 square miles of forest in s single night.
In Oregon a major wildfire leaps the Columbia River, which has never happened
before, and traps 150 hikers. Luckily, they are airlifted to safety. For the
year 8.3 million acres have been torched.
That’s like setting fire to Maryland.
9/18/17: How’s the “witch hunt,”
involving Russians, progressing? Trump hasn’t mentioned it on Twitter since
July 29. That could be because he’s worried as investigators discover brooms in
various closets.
Investigators raid Paul Manafort’s home in the dark
of night. They pick his front door lock
because they fear he might destroy evidence, like a drug dealer flushing his
stash down a toilet.
We now know Special Counsel Mueller is
working with the Attorney General of New York and may charge former Trump
campaign aides—and possibly Don Jr. and Jared, too—with state crimes. Why state
crimes? A president can’t use the pardoning power to wipe away state convictions.
9/19/17: Demonstrating his maturity
level, in his first speech to the U.N., Trump refers to the leader of North
Korean as “Rocket Man,” as if he’s back on the campaign trail insulting “Little
Marco” or “Crooked Hillary.” The problem with his approach is that Kim Jong-un
is equally immature.
And both possess nukes.
Trump has plan for incinerating 25 million men, women, children.
Trump warns the world that North Korea must
change course. “The United States has great strength and
patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no
choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
It sounds like the president has a plan—if you call it a
“plan” to talk off-handedly about
incinerating a nation of 25 million human beings, most of whom don’t
like Kim Jong-un any more than we do.
Orange Leader also seems not to understand that North
Korea might in turn incinerate Seoul, South Korea or some random U.S. city if
we set out “to totally destroy” Dear Leader and his country.
9/20/17: The GOP charges ahead on
its latest healthcare replacement plan. This plan is their best plan ever!
Senator Charles Grassley explains to reporters why he expects to
vote for the bill. “You know, I could
maybe give you ten reasons why this bill shouldn’t be considered. But
Republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry
out what you said in the campaign. That’s pretty much as much of a reason as
the substance of the bill.”
Okay, kids, we promised to take you on a boat
ride—even though we know the boat is probably going to sink.
9/21: Three million U.S. citizens in
Puerto Rico wake up to a world turned inside out,
upside down, and stomped flat.
Tens of millions of other Americans—including
President Trump—apparently wake up to the fact Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
Also: Puerto Rico is in the middle of a “big ocean, very big.”
Who knew!
Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, has
caused “apocalyptic damage” across the island. Trump, however, is too busy
tweeting about other concerns to focus on Puerto Rico. He does have time over
the next six days to fire off fourteen
tweets complaining about NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem.
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