In Part III we find Republicans hard at work on
their great healthcare plan. Trump picks a fight with NFL player and calls them
“sons of bitches” for protesting.
By the end of the year, Orange Leader will discover real love
for protesters—in Iran. (Sadly, if any of those protesters need to flee for
safety they won’t be allowed to enter the U.S.)
Sadly, he will still hate the free press.
Also: we don’t need any immigrants from “shithole” countries. Russians and porn stars help us end the first year with a bang.
Sadly, he will still hate the free press.
Also: we don’t need any immigrants from “shithole” countries. Russians and porn stars help us end the first year with a bang.
THE TRUMP ARCHIVE
9/22/17: Republicans are closing in
on the Holy Grail. They have a new, new healthcare plan. This one is sponsored
by Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy. It is going to…huh? What?
Well, that leaves them with fifty votes in
the Senate. Vice President Jesus can still break the tie.
The president starts cooling the champagne. (See: 9/25/17.)
Trump calls protesting NFL players “sons of bitches.”
Meanwhile, Trump holds a campaign-style rally
(because that’s about the only thing he does well). He calls NFL players who
protest during the National Anthem “sons of bitches.” He says players who
protest should be “fired.”
Various athletes respond. Michael Bennett, who sat in
protest at the start of a game, responds: “My mom is a beautiful lady she has
never been a bitch.” Bishop Sankey tweets, “It’s a shame and disgrace when you
have the President of the US calling citizens of the country sons of bitches.”
Steph Curry, star of the championship NBA Warriors, tells reporters he’ll vote against the
team visiting the White House to celebrate their 2017 title. (See: 9/23/17.)
9/23/17: Trump is up early but he’s
fuming. Forget Puerto Rico! He has more important matters to attend to, such as
salving a bruised ego. “Going to the White House is considered a great honor
for a championship team,” he tweets at 7:45 a.m. “Stephen Curry is
hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” (See: 9/22/17.)
LeBron James enters the fray, tweeting this response: “U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no
invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”
I’m sure we can all agree. This is a great
country where we all enjoy the right to protest and free speech.
9/24/17: Trump insists NFL players
are disrespecting veterans, the nation, the flag, and spitting on mom’s apple
pie.
He thinks they should be punished for
exercising their right to protest, which is just what we’ve come to expect from
Mr. Thin Skin. On this Sunday, players from 28 of 32 NFL teams join in protest,
not against veterans or the flag, but against a president they suspect has
racist inclinations.
Rico Lavell, an African-American, sings the
National Anthem at the Detroit Lions game and when finished takes a knee.
Both teams at the Seattle-Tennessee game
remain in the locker room during playing of the National Anthem. Seahawks
players release the following statement:
As a team, we
have decided we will not participate in the national anthem. We will not stand
for the injustice that has plagued people of color in this country. Out of love for our country and in honor of the sacrifices made on
our behalf [emphasis added], we unite to oppose those who would deny our most
basic freedoms. We remain committed in continuing to work towards equality and
justice for all.
9/25/17: Put away the “repeal and
replace” champagne. Republican Senator Susan Collins says she’ll vote no on
Graham-Cassidy too. The last-gasp GOP healthcare plan is dead.
9/26/17: Trump travels to Indiana
to tout tax reform. He swears he has the biggest, baddest plan ever. He promises the rich won’t get richer. Not
under his plan. Sadly, however, his “plan” is still only half-baked, like the
“replace” part of the GOP healthcare plan.
We do know the Koch brothers, Charles and
David, are excited by the thought of fresh tax cuts under Trump. Why?
Apparently, taxing the rich reduces their incentive to work! Each Koch brother
is currently worth $42,000,000,000. So you
can clearly see they need tax relief.
One exciting facet of the GOP plan: Eliminating the
estate tax—paid by any individual with assets of $5.5 million and up and any
couple with assets of $11 million or more at his or her decease. This “hated”
tax is hated by every one of the 1 in 500 Americans who dies and has enough to
pay any estate tax at all.
In other words, who stands to gain from such
a change? One estimate puts the cumulative savings for members of Trump’s cabinet at $1.5 billion
if this tax is wiped from the books. As for Mr. Trump, the day he passes on to
heavenly glory, his children would be well-repaid for their time working in
government and talking to assorted Russians. Depending on how much Trump is
worth he might save as “little” as $554 million or
as much as $1.9 billion if he can get that estate tax repealed.
9/27/17: We all know Republicans
hate to see tax dollars wasted. Luckily, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Tom Price is hard at work saving tax doll…
Oops.
Politico reveals that Price has shown a fondness
for taking charter flights everywhere he goes. One charter took him to St.
Simons Island, an exclusive Georgia resort, where he and his wife own property.
Another deposited Price at the Nashville, Tennessee airport so he could lunch
with his son. The cost of that charter: $17,760.
Cost of a commercial flight from D.C. to
Nashville and back that same day: $333. Another charter saved Price a grueling drive of thirty minutes from
St. Simons to his next engagement.
9/28/17: Trump is ready to
tout any good news he can. Today, he tweets: “GDP was revised upward to 3.1 for
last quarter. Many people thought it would be years before that happened. We
have just begun!”
Who it was who thought it might take years,
one can only guess. The economy grew at an even better 3.5% in the third quarter of 2016.
Obama was in charge.
9/29/17: Trump & Co. spend the
day grading their own homework. Recovery in Puerto Rico is coming along fine! Deputy
Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke tells reporters, “I’m very
satisfied.” It’s been “a good news story in terms of our ability to reach
people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place.”
Trump assures reporters, as with healthcare,
that helping victims of natural disasters is harder than anyone knew. Did they
realize Puerto Rico was in the middle of an ocean! Well, it is!
“This is an island surrounded by water, big
water, ocean water,” he adds, like a geography expert talking
to children, age 3.
In the afternoon he takes questions from
reporters. “Puerto Rico, as you know, has been going really well,” he claims. “The loss of life, it’s always
tragic. But it’s been incredible the results we’ve had with respect to loss of
life. People can’t believe how successful that has been, relatively speaking.”
The mayor of San Juan does an interview with
CNN and begs for more help. “Well maybe from
where she’s standing it’s a good news story,” the mayor says in response to Asst. Secretary Duke.
When you’re
drinking from a creek, it’s not a good
news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good news
story. When you have to pull people down from buildings—I’m sorry, that really
upsets me and frustrates me. Dammit, this is not a good news story. This is a “people
are dying” story. It’s a life-or-death story.
It might have been cool to have Secretary
Price fly to Puerto Rico to help. I mean: that man loves to fly!
Alas, Price gets canned after Politico reveals he has been taking
unnecessary military flights to cities like Geneva, Berlin and Tokyo. This
brings the total cost to taxpayers for his joyriding
to just under $1,000,000.
9/30/17: The month ends with a
conservative bang! Roy Moore beats Luther Strange in the Republican primary for
a U.S. senate seat in Alabama. As you may know, Trump backed Strange. Trump
responds to this defeat by deleting tweets hinting he ever backed
Luther the Loser.
Who hates homosexuals, besides Judge Roy Moore?
Americans thrill to
the knowledge that Moore may soon be one of a hundred senators to represent the
freest nation on earth. In a 2005 interview he told the reporter Bill Press, “Homosexual conduct should be illegal, yes.”
Press sought clarification.
“Do you know that bestiality, the
relationship between man and beast is prohibited in every state?” Moore
added.
“You mean homosexuality is same thing as
bestiality?” Press wondered.
“It is a moral precept upon which this
country was founded,” Moore explained.
Other gems from Moore: He ruled in a custody
case in 2002 that a mother who had come out as lesbian and sought divorce from
an allegedly abusive husband, could not be granted custody of the couple’s children.
Homosexuality “would render” any man or woman “an unfit parent.”
A woman once asked Moore what he thought
about Muslim-American workers asking for break times at work to pray. Was this a
case of Sharia law trying to take over the land, she wondered? “False religions
like Islam,” the judge assured her, “who teach that you must worship this way
are completely opposite with what our
First Amendment stands for.”
When the people of Minnesota elected Keith
Ellison, a Muslim, to the U.S. House of Representatives, Moore insisted he be barred from a seat.
“Islamic law is simply incompatible with our law,” he warned.
In 1943, we
would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on Mein Kampf, or someone in the 1950s to
swear allegiance to the Communist
Manifesto. Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison
from taking the congressional oath today!
This would make sense only if Moore was too
dumb to read the U.S. Constitution, which he may be. The U.S. Constitution
clearly states that any officeholder must swear to uphold the U.S.
Constitution.
One does not swear to uphold it on some random
book—such as Who Moved the Cheese? or
The Cat in the Hat.
The U.S. Constitution says clearly that no religious test for office
shall be imposed. You can swear on the Bible. You can swear on the Quran, as
did Ellison. You can offer oath of affirmation if you choose.
Then you don’t need a book.
Even the conservative National Review has described Moore as “a bigoted, theocratic and ignorant buffoon.”
*
IN KEEPING with the racist subtext of his
administration, the president answers criticism from San Juan, Puerto Rico’s
mayor in a tweet (see: 9/29). Puerto
Ricans, he grumbles, “want everything to
be done for them.”
Those dirty, rotten, lazy dark-skinned people!
October 1, 2017: Puerto Rico is
still reeling from the blows of Hurricane Irma. Three million people struggle to find food, potable water and
shelter. Power is out across the island. And Trump gets madder each passing day because not everyone agrees he’s doing a
fantastic job on hurricane relief.
Trump calls Puerto Ricans “politically motivated ingrates.”
He decides to devote time to tweeting insults (26 tweets on 9/30 alone). He’s mad about “Fake News” because
he’s not getting credit for the greatness he knows—every time he gazes in the
mirror—that he exudes. He’s still tweeting about NFL players disrespecting the
flag, when almost all the players have made it clear. They’re protesting
against him. (See: 9/24/17.)
As for those who are actually suffering in Puerto
Rico, Trump says they have no right to complain. Like NFL players, they should
kneel only if they kneel in homage to Orange Leader. Puerto Ricans who insist
on saying what they think are “politically motivated
ingrates.”
*
TRUMP DOES FIND TIME in his busy schedule to
make clear he’s ready for war with North Korea. At 9:30 a.m. he fires off
one of his many daily tweets: “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of
State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket
Man...”
“...Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has
to be done!”
That’s all the governing he’s up to for the
day. He departs from the golf club he owns,
where he’s spending the weekend, and heads for a golf club he doesn’t. He
devotes the afternoon to watching
tournament golf.
10/2/17: In
Las Vegas, an American citizen, heavily armed with a dozen guns and thousands
of rounds of ammo, opens fire on a crowd attending an outdoor concert Saturday night.
When the shooting stops he has killed 58
Americans and injured 500 + more. Now it falls on Trump to give a brief
speech. He and the First Lady offer “thoughts and prayers.”
Reporters ask Trump if he plans to take any
substantive action. “We’ll see,” he smirks. What he really means is: I have no
fucking clue.
10/3/17: In the wake of the Las
Vegas bloodbath, leaders of the GOP do their best to obscure the fact they have
nothing in the way of legislative mitigation to offer. Asked what must be done,
Senator McConnell replies: “I think it’s premature to be
discussing legislative solutions, if there are any.”
“Premature to be discussing legislative solutions.”
It was premature after the Pulse Night Club
massacre. It was premature after the slaughter at Sandy Hook. It was premature
after the theater tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. It has been premature too many
times to count.
Speaker Ryan is equally baffled by the
question. He probably wants to check with N.R.A. President Wayne LaPierre first.
Ryan does tell reporters a bill to make it easier for every man, woman, child
and psychopath to buy silencers for guns is no longer up for a vote. This
bill—boosted by lobbyists from the gun industry—and touted by Don Jr. as a health issue (good
for our ears)—is now dead.
Word choice absolutely intentional.
10/4/17: The cringe-worthy
moments keep coming. Various sources report that Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson has called Trump “a moron.” It may have been “a fucking moron.” No
one is sure.
Tillerson
is forced to explain during a hasty press conference. Put on the spot, he
praises Trump, because anyone who doesn’t praise Trump effusively gets canned.
When asked if he did call the leader of the Free World a moron he doesn’t deny
it.
Maybe,
maybe not.
Senator
Bob Corker decides it’s time to defend Tillerson. He tweets: “I think Sec. Tillerson, Sec. Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly
are those people that help separate our
country from chaos.”
That’s a respected Republican senator
speaking. This does not make most Americans feel safe.
Speaking of cringe-worthy, Trump’s petulance
is on full-blown display in regard to Puerto Rico all week. At a press
conference he praises the governor and says the governor isn’t “playing
politics.” And what leads the president to this happy discovery? Ah, the
governor praised Mr. Trump.
Anyway, isn’t Puerto Rico lucky and isn’t America
even luckier to have Donald J. Trump at the helm! Trump riffs on the death toll
in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Wow! Only 16 killed. (The official toll has
since been raised to 64. At least one study places it closer to 1,000.)
In Trump’s warped worldview this proves his
administration is fantastic! By comparison, his leadership is way better than
President George W. Bush’s when “hundreds and hundreds” died after Hurricane
Katrina.
Most Puerto Ricans might be without electricity (95%) or cell
service (88%). Almost half (45%) might lack access to clean drinking water.
In some communities 80-90% of homes are destroyed. But aren’t they blessed to have
Orange Leader on the job! Also: they have paper towels!
In the most cringe-worthy moment of all, the
president stands in front of a gathering of first responders, local officials
and ordinary Puerto Ricans, displaced from businesses, schools and homes.
Gleefully, he tosses rolls of paper towels to the throng. All that is lacking
is one of those t-shirt guns they use at sporting events.
10/5/17: Republicans high-five in
the House of Representatives after passing legislation by a 237-189 vote,
limiting abortion to the first twenty weeks of pregnancy.
GOP hypocrites on abortion.
One House stalwart who voted for the bill
stops high-fiving when a text from his mistress is revealed. She had previously
wondered why he kept posting anti-abortion messages on his Facebook page “when you had no issue asking me to abort our
unborn child just last week.”
10/4/17: The cringe-worthy
moments keep coming. Various sources report that Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson has called Trump “a moron.” It may have been “a fucking moron.” No
one is sure.
Tillerson
is forced to explain during a hasty press conference. Put on the spot, he
praises Trump, because anyone who doesn’t praise Trump effusively gets canned.
When asked if he did call the leader of the Free World a moron he doesn’t deny
it.
Maybe,
maybe not.
Senator
Bob Corker decides it’s time to defend Tillerson. He tweets: “I think Sec. Tillerson, Sec. Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly
are those people that help separate our
country from chaos.”
That’s a respected Republican senator
speaking. This does not make most Americans feel safe.
Speaking of cringe-worthy, Trump’s petulance
is on full-blown display in regard to Puerto Rico all week. At a press
conference he praises the governor and says the governor isn’t “playing
politics.” And what leads the president to this happy discovery? Ah, the
governor praised Mr. Trump.
Anyway, isn’t Puerto Rico lucky and isn’t America
even luckier to have Donald J. Trump at the helm! Trump riffs on the death toll
in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Wow! Only 16 killed. (The official toll has
since been raised to 64. At least one study places it closer to 1,000.)
In Trump’s warped worldview this proves his
administration is fantastic! By comparison, his leadership is way better than
President George W. Bush’s when “hundreds and hundreds” died after Hurricane
Katrina.
Trump tosses rolls of paper towels.
Most Puerto Ricans might be without electricity (95%) or cell
service (88%). Almost half (45%) might lack access to clean drinking water.
In some communities 80-90% of homes are destroyed. But aren’t they blessed to have
Orange Leader on the job! Also: they have paper towels!
In the most cringe-worthy moment of all, the
president stands in front of a gathering of first responders, local officials
and ordinary Puerto Ricans, displaced from businesses, schools and homes.
Gleefully, he tosses rolls of paper towels to the throng. All that is lacking
is one of those t-shirt guns they use at sporting events.
10/5/17: Republicans high-five in
the House of Representatives after passing legislation by a 237-189 vote,
limiting abortion to the first twenty weeks of pregnancy.
GOP hypocrites on abortion.
One House stalwart who voted for the bill
stops high-fiving when a text from his mistress is revealed. She had previously
wondered why he kept posting anti-abortion messages on his Facebook page “when you had no issue asking me to abort our
unborn child just last week.”
Still seated is fellow hypocrite and
Tennessee Republican, Dr. Scott DesJarlais. He likes to brag about his “100
percent pro-life views.” In recent divorce proceedings it has been shown he
encouraged both his now ex-wife and a
patient with whom he was having an affair to have abortions. (See: 4/14/18.)
10/6/17: Normally, you would give a
president a break if job numbers proved weak one
month. But this is Trump we’re talking about. Any good job numbers when Obama
was in office Trump insisted were “rigged.” Any good reports since Orange Leader
oozed into office are absolutely true.
Good reports in February and June, for
example, proved he was the Greatest President Ever. So guess who broke a streak
of 83 months of consecutive job growth. Yes. Donald J. Trump.
In September the U.S. economy shed 33,000
jobs.
A fair person might note that damage from
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma had much to do with the decline.
But when has Trump ever been fair to anyone
besides himself? How often did he say he “inherited a mess” when he took
office, even though jobs had been added every month under Obama starting in
October 2010?
So, here’s the score under President Trump:
Jobs added in the first nine months of 2017: 1,334,000.
Jobs added in the first nine months of 2016,
under President Obama: 1,797,000.
(To be fair, the Bureau of Labor Statistics later revised the
numbers for September upward and said 14,000 jobs were added. The Mostly-Obama
Streak survived.)
10/7/17: Trump rises early on a fine fall Saturday. What’s foremost on his mind?
Gun issues in the wake of the Las Vegas slaughter? How to get aid to a badly
battered Puerto Rico more quickly?
Late night TV hosts are out to get President
Trump.
He’s mad because comedians
are making fun of him. At 7:00 a.m. he yawns twice, rolls out of bed in nothig
but tightie-whities, and tweets: “Late Night
host [sic] are dealing with the Democrats for their very ‘unfunny’ &
repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?”
Apparently, the president forgets he already
has an entire comedy network on his side: Fox News.
Jimmy Kimmel gets wind of the tweet and
responds with one of his own. He offers to trade jobs
with Trump and help him make America great again. This provokes a response from
Don Jr. in defense of dear old President Dad. Don Jr. wants to know what Kimmel
thinks about the story of Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood producer and major donor
to Democratic causes. Weinstein is suddenly up to his pussy-grabbing eyebrows
in a sex abuse scandal of his own.
Don Jr. apparently thinks he has Kimmel in a box. Kimmel doesn’t hesitate in reply. “You mean that big story from the
failing, liberal, one-sided @nytimes? I think it is disgusting,” he says, in
reference to Weinstein’s disgusting behavior. See how easy it is to condemn sex
abuse?
Cough, cough. Your dad!
“Great!” Don Jr. cluelessly replies. He will
“look forward” to a changing tone in Kimmel’s monologues next week.
Kimmel suggests—in the meantime—Jr. might
“enjoy this.” He links a clip of the Access
Hollywood tape featuring Don Sr. and Billy Bush in a philosophical
discussion involving how to get away with assaulting women.
The New York Times, which Don Sr.
and Don Jr. routinely label “Fake News,” published a lengthy indictment of
Weinstein days earlier. Any decent man, Democrat, Republican or Whig, who read
the exposé would be appalled.
And while we’re on the subject of sexual
harassment, we should note that the Times
also published exposes involving Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes.
That’s how real news organizations work.
110/8/17: Today, in honor of President Trump, the nation celebrates the first annual Grab a Woman
(or a Girl!) by the Pussy Day. This marks the anniversary of the release of the
Access Hollywood tape.
Okay, I made that up.
Actually, the president claims
that Sen. Bob Corker “begged” him to endorse him in a run for a third term.
Corker, who announced he would be leaving the U.S. Senate in 2018, responds: “I
don’t know why the president tweets out
things that are not true. You know he does it, everyone knows he does it,
but he does.”
Most likely explanation: the
president is a lying sack of poodle poo.
On the Sunday talk-show
circuit, Corker lambasts Trump. He says he’s treating the office of the
presidency like “a reality show.” Tweeting out policy postions—if you can call
them that—the president has put the United States of America “on the path to
World War III.” “He concerns me,” Corker admits. “He would have
to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”
“It’s a shame the White House has become an
adult day care center,” he adds.
*
VICE PRESIDENT JESUS is busy
on this fine day. First he flies from
Las Vegas to Indianapolis at taxpayer expense. His office puts out a
picture of Pence in blue and white Indianapolis Colts gear.
(It turns out later the photo
is from 2014.)
According to a spokesperson,
the VP will be attending the Colts’s home game, simply to honor Peyton Manning,
longtime Indianapolis star. Manning’s statue is to be unveiled before the game.
It’s just a coincidence that
Pence is there, standing tall, “Mother” by his side, when the first notes of
the National Anthem sound. When players on the San Francisco 49ers take a knee,
as everyone knows some will, Pence and “Mother” bolt for the exit. This wasn’t
planned at all, the White House will claim.
Still, Pence is immediately ready
with a statement and a tweet. On Twitter, he claims, “I left today’s Colts game
because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers,
our Flag, or our National Anthem.”
With that, VP Jesus and Mrs.
VP Jesus hop on Air Force Two and fly back to Los Angeles for the remains of
the day. Estimated costs of this cross-country-and-back
jaunt run from $88,000 to $242,5000.
So, let’s recap. NFL players kneel in protest. Not one player has spoken ill of soldiers—whereas Trump has (McCain; the Khan family). Entire teams have made it clear any protest is not about flags or songs, but directed at a president who offers support to racist policies and racist groups. No player kneeling has engaged in violence of any sort, except tackling his peers. (See: 9/24/17.)
 |
| The kind of protesters Trump hesitates to condemn. |
10/9/17: A writer for The New York Times
sums up the tension between the president and a free press in one sentence.
“The press is in search of truths and the President is a fount of lies, which makes them natural adversaries.” (See: 10/10/17.)
“The press is in search of truths and the President is a fount of lies, which makes them natural adversaries.” (See: 10/10/17.)
10/10/17: Up and at ‘em, Mr. President! You’ve got more stupid tweeting to do. Tappity-tap-tap go his furious
fingers—and out comes this gem: “The Failing @nytimes set Liddle’ Bob
Corker up by recording his conversation. Was made to sound a fool, and that’s
what I am dealing with!”
It’s vintage Trump, including the puerile
insult: “Liddle” Bob Corker.
And there’s the false claim that The New York Times is failing. CNBC reported earlier this year that taking on
Trump had been like “rocket fuel” for the Times.
Both print (11%) and digital subscriptions (62%) are up.
Finally, you have a president too lazy to check facts. Corker asked to be recorded.
The Times obliged. You can listen here for proof if you wish.
Damn. Tillerson was right. (See: 10/4/17.)
*
WHILE THE PRESIDENT spends
time tweeting insults, E.P.A. head Scott Pruitt, tasked with protecting our
clean air and water, is announcing an end to the “War on Coal.” Victory at
last! America wins! Especially Americans who own coal companies. Not so much
children with asthma—or people who enjoy breathing for fun. Under Pruitt’s
leadership at E.P.A., companies may now burn as much coal as they like and no
one will be happy until the skies are all cloudy (with smoke) all day.
10/11-10/12/17: Did the President of the United States just say what we think he
said? Did he just casually threaten to undermine the First Amendment?
He did.
Networks that criticize Trump may have licenses revoked.
If you missed it, on Wednesday he carried his assault on
constitutional norms to a new low. And previous lows have been very low indeed.
Here’s his menacing tweet, aimed at NBC: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake
that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate,revoked. Not fair to
public!”
So silly of anyone to think
Orange Leader wants to stifle a free press.
He’s only thinking of
us. He only cares about what’s good for
the public. In fact, what would be really good for each and every American
would be if we all decided to watch way more Fox News!
*
WHEN THE SUN RISES over the Rose Garden on Thursday, the president
is up tweeting again. At 5:04 a.m.: “Clips from tax speech and @seanhannity on
@foxandfriends now. Have a great day!”
The fool loves Fox
News.
Search his Twitter feed. You’ll see. Twice recently he suggested
everyone watch Jesse Watters on Fox News. Four times he touted a show called The
Five. Sixteen times since swearing to uphold the Constitution and 41 times
as candidate he advocated for Hannity’s show. Bill O’Reilly was a favorite
during the campaign (87 tweets). O’Reilly received only six more mentions after
Trump assumed office. Sadly, this had nothing to do with Trump trying to be “more
presidential.”
It had everything to do with the fact a free press brought the
serial sex abuser O’Reilly crashing down.
10/13/17: Remember watching the president tout his great tax plan? Remember how
he promised his plan would not benefit the
rich?
It’s Friday the 13th and Secretary of the Treasury
Steve Mnuchin lets the truth slip. A key element of the plan is elimination of
the estate tax. “Obviously,” Mnuchin tells an audience at the Institute for
International Finance, this “I will
concede, disproportionately helps rich people.”
Mnuchin—who $tands to benefit greatly, him$elf—explain$, it’$
only “fair” to end the “death tax.” $ome really rich people pay half their
income$ in taxe$ during their live$. Why $hould they have to pay another tax
when they die?
Might we point out again ($ee:
9/26/17) how much Trump him$elf will $ave if the e$tate tax i$ wiped from
the book$?
At minimum: $554 million.
At be$t: $1.9 billion.
Al$o $et to make a killing (bad pun intended) if the “death
tax” i$ repealed: mega-donor$ to the Trump campaign (Rupert Murdoch, Robert
Mercer, Charle$ and David Koch, $heldon Adel$on and many more).
Here’s an idea. If the superrich really hate paying high taxes
maybe they could start paying employees more. You know: spread the wealth around to workers who helped them pile it up.
*
IN FACT, I WOULD LIKE to offer a patriotic suggestion. Let U.S. multi-nationals bring back the
$2.6 trillion they’ve hidden overseas to our shores. Pay the taxes
owed—like regular plumbers, truck drivers and teachers. Pay like the man who
owns the small lawn care service pays—like the woman who runs the corner bar
pays—like the baker who doesn’t want to bake a cake for gays pays.
Congress can use part of the windfall to double the death benefit for families of serviceman and servicewoman killed in combat. That includes DACA enlistees (see: 9/5/17), Muslim-American soldiers and transgender troops.
Congress can use part of the windfall to double the death benefit for families of serviceman and servicewoman killed in combat. That includes DACA enlistees (see: 9/5/17), Muslim-American soldiers and transgender troops.
You figure he needs a little exercise and fresh air on the
links; because he has to be feeling glum.
Since the last week of March more than 150
national opinion polls have been conducted, asking Americans if they approve or
disapprove of the job he’s done. He hasn’t been in positive territory once.
10/15/17: It’s Blind Americans
Equality Day, proclaimed by President Trump. Finally, a
group he hasn’t insulted.
Or groped.
10/16/17: Guess who’s looking
unpatriotic now! Don’t be morons, Trump fans! It’s your boy!
In a fiery speech Monday night Senator John
McCain—yes, that war hero—torches the president. Deeply concerned with the
policy direction being charted (if you can say anything Trump tweets about is
“charted”), McCain has this to say in regard to the current occupant of the
Oval Office:
To fear the
world we [Americans] have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to
abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations
of international leadership and our duty to remain “the last best hope of
earth” for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by
people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic
as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned
to the ash heap of history.
*
General Colin Powell.
 |
| How Americans got hooked. |
10/17/17: Congressman Tom Marino
withdraws from consideration to lead the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. What went wrong? According to Republicans, it was all Obama’s
fault since he signed some bill into law! Who sponsored that bill—and pushed
for policies that were worse? Who snuck in a policy change to the bill that
went unnoticed?
Marino.
What the bill did was make it harder for D.E.A.
and the Justice Department to curb
suspicious shipments of opioids. This was back when the drug was first
flooding the nation and fueling an epidemic of drug-overdose deaths.
And need we mention what this proves again!!!
Government regulation of big corporations is always a terrible idea.
These corporations are run by saints who have
only the purest motives. If major drug manufacturers want to sell more
painkillers why would anyone want to interfere with their painkilling
efforts—and free market profit-making? After all, the drug industry spent $100 million lobbying Congress from 2014 to
2016. Mr. Marino raked in $100,000 in donations himself.
Republican Senator Orrin G. Hatch, who
shepherded a similar bill through the Senate, defended his efforts. Naturally,
he reminded everyone Obama signed it into law. What Hatch did not remind anyone was how he received a $750,000 shot to his
re-election campaign from—big drug manufacturers. (See: 6/7/17.)
(For additional fun with Big Pharma, read
about the “fine work” of GOP Congressman John Shimkus here.)
10/18/17: The stock market closes
above 23,000 for the first time. Trump is still an asshole; but the market is hot.
The president spends the day embroiled in
another controversy of his own making. When asked by reporters on Monday,
October 16, why he had not spoken about, to, or tweeted in regard to four U.S.
soldiers killed in Niger, twelve days before, Trump did what Trump does. Unlike
President Truman, for whom the buck always stopped on his desk, Trump has a
different conception. For Trump the buck stops in the past. He tried to deflect
blame by piling it on predecessors. First, he implied other presidents had
failed to contact families of fallen soldiers.
Not him! He called them all.
Naturally, he mentioned President Obama. Trump
can’t help himself, politicizing even our fallen heroes.
Accusations soon begin to fly. Democratic
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson claims Trump botched a condolence call she
overheard to the widow of one of the dead soldiers. Trump insists Wilson “fabricated”
the story. The widow backs her up.
Assorted veterans, generals and Gold Star families weigh in from all sides.
Some say they appreciated what Trump told them during talks. One Gold Star
father says Trump promised to personally send him a check for $25,000. (The
check had not been sent as of Wednesday morning, the day the story breaks.)
It also becomes clear Trump’s predecessors
had regularly contacted the families of the fallen too. (See: 10/18.)
10/19/17: Trump continues to
undercut every institution that stands in his path. He’s pissed about the
ongoing Russian investigation. So he brings up a dossier of damaging
information about him, compiled during the campaign, and first funded by other
GOP candidates.
Information in the files may or may not be
true; but several accusations have been partially confirmed. (There’s still no videotape of
prostitutes peeing in the bed. But we can hope!) This time the President of the
United States tweets that the F.B.I. might have been involved in nefarious
practices. Did they pay for this “hit job” dossier, which might prove not to be
a hit job at all?
His tweet: “Workers of firm involved with the
discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or
the Dems (or all)?”
Meanwhile, reporters ask Trump to give
himself a mark for his work on hurricane relief. Is anyone surprised?
He gives himself a “10.” He was going to say,
“20, ” but he’s trying to learn to be modest.
10/20/17: General Kelly gives a
moving speech, calling on Americans to hold sacred the sacrifices of our
servicemen and servicewomen. For the first half of his talk he keeps the focus
on the four who died in Niger (see: 10/18/17).
His words in regard to the death of his son bring tears to every parent’s eye.
When women and religion were held sacred.
Kelly begins talking about the good old days,
when women and religion were held sacred and America was great. It’s hard not
to note he works for a president who has
never held women “sacred,” not even his wives. Kelly truly tarnishes his
image when he calls Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who has been critical of
Trump’s response, an “empty barrel.”
He says she tried to claim credit for getting
funding for an F.B.I. building going up in Miami two years ago. Kelly says
Wilson never mentioned two dead agents, for whom the building was being named.
Alas, if you value veracity, a tape shows she
did.
Agreeing that Kelly is in error: Factcheck.org, the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, USA Today, CBS, NBC, CNN, The New York
Times, the New York Daily News,
the Los Angeles Times, McClatchy, Newsweek, the Business
Insider, the Washington Post and
the Sun Sentinel (a South Florida
newspaper).
Later, White House Press Secretary Pinocchio
tells reporters and the American people tuning in that no one should ever question General Kelly—because
he’s a four-star general.
So there.
10/21/17: President Me-Myself-and-I
announces the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa, calling it a
“critical breakthrough.” This means he’s the best president ever. “We have made,
alongside our coalition partners, more progress against these evil terrorists
in the past several months than in the past several years,” Trump asserts.
As usual, Trump supporters are too lazy to think for themselves. They
won’t realize the coalition that defeated ISIS was put together long before Trump took office. All he had to do was
try not to mess up. (See: 9/15/17.)
According to Pentagon estimates 60,000 ISIS fighters had already been wiped off
the map by February 15, 2017.
10/22/17: First things first for
President Trump, when he rises in the morning. Study up on what happened to our
soldiers in Niger? Guess again. Check in on the recovery effort in Puerto Rico?
Why bother? Those people are “ingrates.” What matters most to the man in the
White House?
Tweets.
Trump has to tell the world at 7:08 a.m. that
the American people are coming around. “It
is finally sinking through,” he taps, mostly in caps, “46% OF PEOPLE BELIEVE
MAJOR NATIONAL NEWS ORGS FABRICATE STORIES ABOUT ME. FAKE NEWS, even worse!
Lost cred.”
Trump does something
Obama never could do.
If you like polls, Mr.
President, how about this: 56% of American voters think you’re not fit to serve as president. By 59%-37% the people
of this country think you’re not honest and by a 60%-38% margin they believe
you lack leadership skills.
Last, but amazingly, not least, Trump has
done something President Obama could never do. He has managed to make the
Affordable Healthcare Act popular. Since he took office the “favorable” numbers
of the ACA have been rising, with 49.4% of Americans now in favor of keeping
the law vs. 40.4% still dreaming of some miraculous GOP plan to “repeal and
replace.”
10/23/17: We learn the E.P.A. will block three scientists—from the E.P.A.—from speaking at a
conference in Rhode Island.
The researchers were set to talk about their
findings, included in a detailed 400-page report, linking climate change to
damage to the waters, wildlife and fish in and around Narraganset Bay.
When asked to comment, E.P.A. head Scott
Pruitt replies, “Who cares about fish! I think we should eat coal.”
As for Trump, he is up early and focused on
the gravest threat of all to America’s future. The tweet comes at 6:53 a.m.:
“Two dozen NFL players continue to kneel during the National Anthem, showing
total disrespect to our Flag & Country. No leadership in NFL!”
His second tweet shows just how much he cares
about his own eggshell ego. At 7:30 a.m., after finishing a second bowl of Lucky
Charms, Trump taps out another tweet. “I had a very respectful conversation
with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning,
without hesitation!” he insists.
Yes, Trump fans, it’s true, even if all you
do is stare at the television and never switch off Fox News.
Your favorite president has doubled down in
an argument with another Gold Star family. First, he claimed a congresswoman who
reported on the call he made to Sgt. Johnson’s widow was a liar (see: 10/18/17). Now, after Johnson’s
widow backs up the congress-woman “100
percent,” the President of the United States can’t help implying the widow is lying too.
*
IN AN IRONIC COINCIDENCE, Trump spends part of the afternoon
pinning the Medal of Honor on Vietnam War hero, retired U.S. Army Captain Gary
M. Rose. It’s an honor long overdue.
Not far away, Senator John McCain stops to
chat with a reporter. During the conversation, McCain mentions an unfair
feature of the draft used during the Vietnam Era. “One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever
countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the
highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur.”
He isn’t saying someone got
out of the draft because they had a
bone spur. He is saying they found a doctor who would say they did.
I think McCain is hinting
that while he might not have been a hero according to some, this much is clear.
10/24/17: Some days, you just have
to admit the President of the United States is a giant dick.
Who is pissing off the president today? It’s
Senator Corker, ironically, one of the first
establishment Republicans to back him during the campaign. Now Corker is
one of Trump’s harshest critics.
At 7:13 a.m. Trump launches the first in a
barrage of tweets: “Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran
Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax
Cuts....”
Again, at 7:20 a.m. “...Corker dropped out of
the race in Tennessee when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative
on anything Trump. Look at his record!”
Seventy minutes later: “Isn’t it sad that
lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn’t get re-elected in the Great State
of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus!” Exhausted by all that tapping,
Trump rests his fingers.
At 9:13 he’s tap-tapping furiously again:
“Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, &
look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn't have a clue as.....”
Seven minute pass. Trump must be scratching
his crotch. What to tweet? Ah, it comes to him: “...the entire World WAS
laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the
U.S. way back. Now we move forward!”
This is your president at work.
10/25/17: This much would seem true. “We have a leader who has a personality disorder,” former Senator Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican, says Wednesday. We know Trump craves unconditional love. Increasingly, this is clear: What he most desires is to be fawned over like Kim Jong-un.
“We have a leader who has a personality disorder.”
By now, even his fans probably suspect that the president
suffers from what experts call a “narcissistic personality disorder.” According
to the Mayo Clinic, this condition is rare, with only 200,000 cases in the
United States every year. Let’s check the symptoms Trump has displayed.
An affected
individual may:
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance (slaps name all
over buildings; biggest inaugural crowd ever)
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements
that warrant it (his comparison to all other presidents)
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance,
beauty or the perfect mate (I went to the best schools, I have a great mind)
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally
special people (loves to hang out at Mar-a-Lago and his golf clubs)
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people
they perceive as inferior (rampant)
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their
expectations (demands loyalty from F.B.I director, et. al.)
Take advantage of others to get what they want (marital
history, Trump University)
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and
feelings of others (Gold Star mothers, widows, pretty much everyone)
Be envious of others and believe others envy them (knows
Obama was more popular; knows Hillary got more votes; can’t deal with it)
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as
conceited, boastful and pretentious (belittles aides, calls Jeff Sessions an
“idiot,” etc.)
Insist on having the best of everything—for instance, the best
car or office (calls the White House “a dump”)
At the
same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling
anything they perceive as criticism, and can:
Become impatient or angry when they don’t receive special
treatment (attacks mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico)
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
(can’t get along even with Republicans)
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person
to make themselves appear superior (“liddle Bob Corker,” “wack job,”
“loser,” “sick guy,” “she’s a pig,” etc.)
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior (easily
frustrated; can’t stop talking about Hillary, even to Boy Scouts)
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to
change (whines because no one knows how hard his job is)
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection (aides
must present him daily information praising him)
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and
humiliation (okay, I'm guessing here; possibly has a small penis)
Certainly, we know Trump’s biggest fan is Trump. Questioned by
reporters, he gives himself a “10” for hurricane
relief. He grades all his efforts “A+.”
At the nine-month mark he told reporters he’d done more than any other president in
such a span. You had to think he’d like to see blasting start on Mt.
Rushmore—and if they had to blow up Stone Abe to make room for Stone Don, he’d
be fine with that.
Just yesterday, our Narcissist-in-Chief described a White House
luncheon with GOP senators as “a love fest.” Trump wanted the entire nation to
know he had received “multiple standing
ovations.”
10/26/17: Trump declares an opioid emergency for the nation. Okay,
problem solved. It’s been declared.
Are we going to spend more money to attack the problem? Nope.
Time to get to work on tax cuts for billionaires! Screw anyone who might be
saved by admittance to a full-time addiction treatment center.
That shit is expensive!
Republicans are busy voting, by a 216-212 margin in the House of
Representatives, to speed “tax reform.” No one knows what the reform plan will
look like, not even Speaker Ryan. But it’s going to be great! Most estimates
seem to indicate it will add $1.5 trillion to the national
debt.
This is not as bad as the Bush tax cuts in 2001, which added several trillion to the deficit,
but no one needed to worry then either. Those tax cuts were sure to goose the
economy and pay for themselves.
Democrats had run a surplus four years in a row.
Then we had the Bush tax cuts. Budget deficits combined for Fiscal Years 2002-2009
totaled $3.548 trillion.
10/27/17: Trump is so excited he
nearly pees his Depends. His name has totally been cleared! He has never seen a
Russian in his entire life. Even in Moscow he kept his eyes closed (except when
entering the dressing rooms of half-naked Miss Universe contestants, an
activity he always enjoyed).
Up early on a
Friday, at 5:58 he taps away on Twitter. Birthday greetings go out to Lee
Greenwood. Joy Villa, a singer gets a dose of tweet-tweet love. Naturally, the
president has to insult someone to feel fulfilled. This time his target is the
“wacky & totally unhinged Tom Steyer.”
Between tweets,
the president watches Fox & Friends
and then thanks the hosts for another heaping serving of pro-president
propaganda. Plus he can’t get enough of Ainsley Earhardt’s legs.
Finally, at 8:33 a.m. he buckles down to the
issue at hand. “It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking,
that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!”
he tap-taps.
10/28/17: As one might expect, Trump
has to tweet any good news he can. Yes, it’s true. The economy grew 3% in the
third quarter of 2017. “Very little reporting about the GREAT GDP numbers
announced yesterday,” he whines, “(3.0 despite the big hurricane hits). Best
consecutive Q’s in years!”
Job creation is supposedly picking up. It’s good now. It was good before Trump took office.
Anyone who can click a link and read a chart from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics can see that.
Charging up to $440 per hour for labor.
Know who’s really hiring? Whitefish Energy!
They just landed a $300 million contract to do hurricane repair work in Puerto
Rico. So they need a few electricians, mechanics, linesmen and lineswomen and helicopter
pilots.
That’s because Whitefish Energy has only two full-time workers. The company
does, however, have a close connection
with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. So that helps.
A copy of the contract online (not yet verified), indicates
the no-bid deal calls for Whitefish to charge $188.07 to $440 for hourly labor,
which I’m sure we all agree is a bargain for an island whose electric grid is in
desperate need of repair.
We can assume it didn’t hurt in winning the
contract that a financial backer of this company was a major donor to the Trump campaign. (See: 10/29/17.)
10/29/17: Now that the story has leaked, Puerto Rico scraps the Whitefish Energy contract,
which is sad for both full-time employees. Rumor has it employees gathered at a
Whitefish tavern (where they filled two entire seats at the bar) to drown their
sorrows. Otherwise, it’s a fine fall Sunday and we can assume Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos, a true Christian lady, is enjoying a day of rest.
DeVos needs rest. She has been spending an
inordinate amount of time on the road, visiting America’s elementary and
secondary schools. At least the ones run by for-profit charter operations.
She’s a huge fan of vouchers, charter schools and corporate education. She
believes in her heart that if we put the future of
education in the hands of big business leaders we’ll get “business efficiencies”
in schools and all our children will live happily ever after.
What could go wrong???? (See: Whitefish Energy; 10/28/17. See also: 8/20/17; 9/8/17; 9/18/17; 10/17/17.)
Last but not least—by a few billion—Secretary
DeVos has been working hard to keep students in higher education safe from the
predatory practices of the for-profit college crooks. She has done this by
making it harder to hold those same crooks accountable for those same practices.
Her handpicked choice to guard against fraud in the for-profit college industry
is Julian Schmoke Jr.
What was Mr. Schmoke’s previous job, which
fit him to ferret out fraud? He worked
for DeVry University, which settled a $100 million lawsuit for
perpetrating fraud upon students.
Robert Eitel is another top adviser. His
experience with for-profit colleges includes working with another pirate
organization, one forced to refund $23.5 million to students
related to bogus loan deals.
None of this crookery is to be confused with
famed Trump University (forced to repay $25 million to bilked students).
Nor are we talking about Corinthian College (fined $30 million for deceptive practices, now defunct, leaving taxpayers on the hook for $183 million
in student loans that must be forgiven).
We also do not intend to link the fine
enforcement policies of Secretary DeVos
to stories about Education Management Corporation (forced to pay a $95.5 million fraud
settlement; and later forced to offer $103 million in restitution in a
second case), Career Education Corporation (which paid a $10.25 million fine)
or Ashford University (fined $7.25 million after recruiters lied to students).
We do not mean to say the Secretary would
turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of Charlotte School of Law (forced into
bankruptcy in the wake of a fraud scandal), Chester Career College (fined $5
million after students complained courses were a “sham”), ITT
Educational Services (forced to close 130 locations after students filed a class action lawsuit alleging
predatory lending practices) or Le Cordon Bleu ($40 million settlement in a
suit filed by students).
A for-profit college hires the sluttiest girls it can find.
In fact, let’s finish our list with a for-profit
college bang! Consider the trials (many) and tribulations of
Alejandro Amor, founder of FastTrain College in Florida. Business was good for
a time. Amor bought a 54-foot yacht. He had his own private plane. He could
afford a $2 million home on the beach.
What went wrong at his fine institute of
learning? Investigators found FastTrain had enrolled 1,300 students who lacked
high school diplomas and the school lied about their eligibility to win federal
loans.
Ex-employees
told investigators that Amor boosted enrollments by hiring former strippers as
recruiters, some of whom wore “short skirts and stiletto heels” to work.
Amor told one
employee to “hire some hot mommas” and “hire the sluttiest girls he could
find.”
So it came to
pass. The courts ruled. FastTrain went off the trestle and smashed up in a
ravine. The school closed and Amor went to jail. And the slutty recruiters went
back to doing what they did best.
Stripping.
10/30/17: This is not one of President
Trump’s best days, even though he tweeted early in the morning that there was
“NO COLLUSION” between Russia and his 2016 campaign.
Say what you will, Mr. President, but Paul Manafort, 68, your former
campaign manager, just got indicted
for money laundering and lying all day, every day, and lying in his sleep.
Manafort is almost certain to end up in jail and the only
question is, “How long?”
Naturally, Press Secretary Pinocchio says none of the indictments
have anything to do with the president or his squeaky-clean campaign. Manafort
only worked for Trump for, oh, five minutes.
It was five months.
Also indicted was Rick Gates, 45, a Manafort protégé. Gates was
a part of the Trump Team up to Inauguration Day, when he was part of the
largest imaginary crowd ever to attend Inaugural events. (See: 1/21/17.)
Gates is young. He has a wife and small children to worry about.
He cannot relish the idea of spending twenty years in a jumpsuit.
Gates has reason to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
And if I was a betting man—and I am—I would bet he’s going to flip.
*
IN RELATED NEWS, George Papadopoulos, now described by Press
Secretary Pinocchio as a nobody in the campaign, pleads guilty to federal
charges. Trump surrogates call the young man a “coffee
boy,” of no import during the campaign. The president tweets about some guy named “George,” like he never laid eyes on the
man.
We know Candidate Trump informed the Washington Post that
Papadopoulos was a top adviser on his team. As late as August 2016 a campaign
adviser (unnamed in the indictment) was suggesting “George” take a trip to
Moscow and look into a deal with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.
That means the next
target of investigation may be that top campaign adviser mentioned
in the coffee boy’s indictment. Different sources suggest “George” might have
been talking to Sam Clovis, co-chair of the campaign. He might have been
talking to Cory Lewandowski, another former Trump campaign manager.
Lewandowski denies any wrong-doing, as you
would expect.
In fact, if we are to believe Sean Hannity and all the assorted
liars on the Trump campaign team, all “George” was really asking about was did
the Big Bosses want two lumps of sugar or one?
We do know the F.B.I. interviewed Papadopoulos just seven days
after Trump took office. Agents quickly caught him in several lies, leading to
charges of obstruction of justice. If this sounds familiar it should.
“George,” the coffee boy, lied
about meeting with Russians.
10/31/17: The World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) announces that carbon-dioxide in the
atmosphere spiked last year to levels
not seen in 800,000 years. E.P.A. director Scott Pruitt, tool of Big Coal
and stooge of Big Oil, continues to push increased burning of fossil fuels.
Pruitt won’t be satisfied till we drill for oil in
the Rose Garden and in Hillary Clinton’s front yard.
November 1, 2017: Some days the
news is too depressing to make fun of the president. Another sickening
terrorist attack in New York City kills eight.
The deaths of these eight human beings are a
tragedy. These kinds of attacks make all
good people sick.
Let’s not compound the tragedy. For too many
narrow minds this much will seem true: All Muslim-Americans, and all Muslims period, will be seen as
complicit.
Terrorists are the evil we need to stamp out.
Today, on yet another bitter day in the battle against international terrorism, it would be wise to keep our wits. Informants who help us thwart similar attacks and concerned citizens who alert police to potential dangers are often Muslim-Americans. The Kurds in Iraq have suffered thousands of casualties fighting ISIS. They are Muslims. The Afghan soldiers we have trained, who have fought by our side for years, are Muslim. There are millions of Muslim-Americans living in our midst, who do not carry out cowardly attacks on bike paths in New York.
ISIS and Al Qaeda have killed tens of thousands of Muslims all over
the world. They have slaughtered the innocent in Indonesia, Iran and Iraq. They
have tracked a bloody path across Kuwait, Lebanon, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Muslims
aren’t the problem. Terrorists are the evil we must stamp out.
Keeping one’s head proves too much for Trump.
In a cabinet meeting he describes the kind of quick justice he’d like to see
terrorists receive. “They’ll go through court
for years,” he complains.
At the end, they’ll be—who knows what happens. We need quick
justice and we need strong justice, much
quicker and much stronger [emphasis added] than we have right now. Because
what we have right now is a joke and it’s a laughing stock and no wonder so
much of this stuff takes place.
I think what the president means is:
“Wouldn’t a good lynching be nice!”
We could start with terrorists—lock up political foes next—go after reporters
who criticize, too. Who has some rope???
11/2/17: When the sun rises on
Thursday, the ink is drying (faster than it used to) on a climate report compiled by experts at thirteen U.S.
agencies. The report finds that long-term trends are clear. The evidence is
“unambiguous.” Human activity is causing the Earth to warm. Environmental
damage will continue to accelerate.
Environmental damage will continue to accelerate.
“Whether we’re talking about unprecedented
heat waves, increasingly destructive hurricanes, epic drought and inundation of
our coastal cities,” Michael E. Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Penn
State, explains, “the impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. They are
upon us. That’s the consensus of our
best scientists, as laid bare by this latest report.”
“This report has some very powerful,
hard-hitting statements that are totally at odds with senior administration
folks and at odds with their policies,” Philip B. Duffy, head of the Woods Hole
Research Center—an actual scientific organization with a long history of
investigative work—says.
11/3/17: Revised numbers from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics give Trump something to brag about, not counting the
fact that so far only three members of his 2016 campaign have been indicted.
Job numbers for September have been revised upward to + 14,000 jobs gained,
instead of a previous estimated loss, followed by 261,000 jobs (preliminary)
added in October.
This keeps a healthy string alive: 85 months in a row with job growth—75.629
of those months (figuring from the swearing-in at noon on January 20, 2017)
under President Obama.
11/4/17: Apparently, the president
is thinking about goosing jobs numbers (see: 11/3/17) by adding a few
federal hangmen and hangladies to the Department of Justice payroll. A torture
chamber in the White House basement might be cool. Son Eric could become High
Keeper of the Thumb Screws.
Trump makes it clear again. He is a HUGE fan of executions—and
swift justice—even if people he wants swiftly executed turn out to be innocent
fourteen years later. (See: Central Park Five.)
What the president really wants is to run the judicial branch all
by himself—screw James Comey—and screw Jeff Sessions—without getting tripped up
by those pesky articles and clauses in the Constitution.
Donald J. Trump would love it if the Department of Justice and
F.B.I. stopped investigating crooks associated with him (three down so far;
more almost certain to follow) and stopped asking staffers, aides and assorted
family members about possible obstruction of justice (see, for example: recent
F.B.I. demands for documents from Jared
Kushner). He would like it if they got busy investigating Hillary Clinton and,
the hell with it, just locked her up and said they were done!
As the president admitted in a recent interview he’s very
frustrated by his inability to control the F.B.I. and the DOJ.
Who came up with this goddamn three-branch system of government
anyway!!!!
Last, but not least, Trump weighs in when a military court rules
that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted in Afghanistan in 2009, and ended up
a Taliban captive for five years, should not spend additional time in prison.
Trump had called for Bergdahl to be
executed—which would have made him the first U.S. soldier to be executed
since Pvt. Eddie Slovak in January 1945.
Now Trump calls the U.S. Army judge’s decision “a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”
Stop a moment and parse that nugget of wisdom. According to
Trump the U.S. military was disgracing…the U.S. military.
11/5/17: Conservative friends on
Facebook seem increasingly out of sorts as I continue my quest to mock their
boy Don every day, so long as he shall remain President of these United States.
The political equivalent of the Bataan Death March.
Allow me to quote a few “non-liberal” sources
to bolster my point on Day 290 of the Trump presidency, a presidency which has
been the political equivalent of the Bataan Death March.
Using Democratic politicians to make a case
would be too easy and unlikely to resonate. Let’s stick with conservatives.
George H. W. Bush recently revealed he voted for Hillary in 2016. Donald J.
Trump is a “blowhard” he said. George W., next in the GOP line, voted the
straight Republican ticket in 2016 but left a blank at the top. We know Mitt
Romney said Trump was totally unfit for high office and you can add John McCain
to the list. That means the GOP nominees for president in 1988, 1992, 2000,
2004, 2008 and 2012 are on record as objecting to this objectionable man. (Bob
Dole, bucking the tide, praised Trump’s “strong leadership” in
July.)
John Kasich, Bob Corker, Colin Powell and Robert Mueller have all
been Republicans longer than the president himself. None like Trump.
It was fun to hear what conservative
commentator Bret Stephens said this week. “The truth,” for Trump, he said, “is
whatever you can get away with.”
POSTSCRIPT: And how is the Mueller
investigation going? John McCain told a reporter, “It’s like a centipede.
There’s always another shoe to drop.”
11/6/17: Twenty-six Americans, ages
5-72, do not wake up to worry about healthcare or border walls or transgender
people using the same bathrooms today.
They do not wake up at all.
A gunman armed with a military-style Ruger AR-15, the weapon of
choice of most modern psychopaths, shoots up a church in Sutherland Springs,
Texas. The toll, including wounded, rises to 46.
What an unspeakable tragedy. What will Republican leaders do,
now that they control all levers of
power, to make a change?
They will do nothing.
It will be the same again, again and again, somewhere in
blood-soaked America, and all too soon.
Thoughts and prayers will be offered. That’s not enough.
Somehow, we can spend $21.6 billion (possibly three times that much) to build a “big,
beautiful wall” along our southern border to keep “criminals” out.
Yet we can’t lift a legislative finger to staunch the carnage in
our churches, schools and on our streets. We can’t do anything because in the paranoid
fever-dreams of the gun lobby nuts, the slightest change means an end to the
Second Amendment, root, leaf and branch.
11/7/17: Good morning, Tax-Paying Chumps. I know you plumbers,
educators and tattoo artists pay your taxes each April. You can’t help it. You’re not rich enough to pay a $1,000-per
hour tax lawyer to finagle a deal.
Anyway, you know what Paul Ryan says. What this country needs
most is—healthcare for poor kids. No, we’re joking! Funding for the CHIPS
program is stalled in Congress right now.
Actually, what we need most is to put an end to the estate tax—which
almost no Americans pay. That way poor billionaires like Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur Ross won’t be taxed twice. You know: once on income, a second time when he
dies.
Wilbur Ross won’t even be taxed once.
We all know guys like Ross never game the system! They pay more
than their share. Oh, wait.
A)
Ross has lucrative business ties with Russians, despite U.S. sanctions
imposed after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of the Ukraine.
B) Ross “forgot” to mentions these ties during his Senate
confirmation hearing
C)
Ross has most of his cash stashed
where he doesn’t have to pay taxes,
in secret bank accounts in the Cayman
Islands.
Do you have a secret account to hide your cash in the Cayman Islands,
Mr. or Ms. Tax-Paying Chump?
11/8/17: I realize Trump fans will swear
this is “Fake News” but British papers are digging into 13.4 million leaked
files from Appleby, a powerhouse law firm operating out of Bermuda. Nicknamed
the “Paradise Papers,” they provide insight into the sleazy world of rampant
tax avoidance. Guess which famous Brit has cash stashed in offshore accounts where
avoiding taxes is key?
The Queen!!
As far as this country goes, 31,000 Americans hold Appleby accounts.
All are working hard (or paying their lawyers to work hard) in an effort to
avoid paying any taxes at all while also covering their tracks.
Who might some of these evaders be? We
mentioned one yesterday (see: 11/7/17).
Let’s add to our list. Working hard to avoid taxes we have Gary Cohn, Trump’s
chief economic adviser; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin. That’s right! The Treasury Secretary of these United States is stashing cash overseas in a gambit to
dodge taxes.
 |
| If you don't pay taxes maybe you can have a home like the Mnuchin's in Washington, D.C. |
11/9/17: Syria announces plans to sign on to the Paris
Climate Accord. Nicaragua, one of the last holdouts, signed last month.
That leaves one nation to bravely stand alone, a nation whose leaders are too bleeping
dumb, or too willfully ignorant, or too beholden to Big Oil and Big Coal, to
face the most basic facts.
That country is the U.S.A.
You could attempt to argue with right-wingers
on this topic. It would be like trying to explain Stoic philosophy to a parking
meter.
As for Trump, we have in the Oval Office a
gentleman whose grasp of even second grade science is so poor he can’t understand how the human body produces
energy. According to the president, human
bodies are like batteries. They have “a
finite amount of energy,” which exercise depletes. Once you use the energy up
it’s gone forever.
He’s saving what he has left
to play golf.
11/10/17: Wow! Roy Moore. Roy Moore—accused pedophile—and now GOP candidate
for U.S. Senate from Alabama.
Wow.
11/11/17: Today the Trump clan
celebrates Veterans Day the same way it has since the holiday was created as
Armistice Day nearly a century ago. In keeping with tradition all members of
the Trump brood remain safely at home. Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich, first of
the clan to arrive on these shores, could have enlisted during the Spanish
American War. The 29-year-old did not.
Fred Christ Trump, his son, the president’s
father, turned 36 a few weeks before the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. He would
have been older than most who signed up to fight. Still, the path to patriotism
was open. Henry Fonda joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 when he was 37 and saw
combat in the Pacific. Jimmy Stewart, another Hollywood star, flew B-24 bombers
over Germany at 36. Fred wasn’t interested in fighting and eventually died
peacefully in his bed, aged 93.
President Trump had a chance to serve, turning
18 in 1964, just as the conflict in Vietnam heated up. He avoided tramping
through rice paddies and hacking though jungle, piling up five draft deferments
in a row.
The mountains Trumps battle on have ski-lifts to the top.
Don Jr. and Eric might have rallied to the
flag after 9/11. They were the perfect age to join the fray. Neither young man could
muster any interest in getting the desert sands of Iraq in their gelled hair or
humping weapons and gear up the side of godforsaken mountains in Afghanistan.
In fact, the only mountains on which any of the Trumps have ever done battle
have ski-lifts to the top.
11/12/17: President Trump is still
off on a trip to Asia—and still sucking up to Vladimir Putin. Trump tells
reporters he asked Putin again. Did you meddle in the last U.S. election? Putin says no.
Case closed!
Case closed!
Meanwhile, the president describes former heads of the F.B.I.,
C.I.A. and former director of National Intelligence as “political hacks.”
11/13/17: Wow! Judge Roy Moore! Wow,
wow, wow, wow! A fifth woman accuses him of sexual harassment, this
time Beverly Young Nelson. Mrs. Nelson points out that she and her husband
voted for President Trump.
“No one will believe you. You’re a child.”
As she explains, when she was sixteen, Moore—then
a county prosecutor—offered her a ride home one night, after she finished a
shift as a waitress. He immediately began groping her and touching her breasts.
“I tried fighting him off,” she said, “while yelling at him to stop, but
instead of stopping, he began squeezing my neck, attempting to force my head
onto his crotch.”
Finally realizing he couldn’t force her to
perform, Moore warned her not to complain. “No one will believe you,” he said.
You’re only a “child.”
The young girl used makeup to hide bruises on
her neck, told her sister about the attack two years after the fact, told her
mother years later, and related what happened to her husband before they were
married.
Now Moore, the man who made a Ten
Commandments statue his shield and criticizing those who failed to live by
those rules his brand, has been accused by five women, all teens at the time
they claim they were attacked.
Let’s not forget President Trump. During the
campaign he was accused by five former teen beauty
contestants of walking into their
dressing rooms while they were naked or partially clothed. Trump’s base
insisted it was a liberal smear.
Then CNN dared to dig up a conversation Trump
had with shock jock Howard Stern in 2005. At the time, Trump was proud to admit—at least with older contestants—that
he could get away with anything he liked. “I’ll tell you the funniest [part of
running the pageants] is that I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting
dressed,” Trump told Stern.
No men are
anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and
therefore I’m inspecting it….“Is everyone OK?” You know, they’re standing there
with no clothes. “Is everybody OK?” And you see these incredible-looking women,
and so I sort of get away with things
like that [emphasis added].
Jia Tolentino, writing for The New Yorker, revisits a list of accusers who came out
against Candidate Trump. “By the end of October [2016],” she notes, “twenty
women had gone on the record to describe Trump’s sexual misconduct. Twelve of
them recounted being physically violated, corroborating Trump’s own description
of his behavior—he grabbed women by the pussy, he said to Billy Bush, because
he could.”
So he did.
11/14/17: The GOP is pushing hard to ram a “tax reform” plan through
Congress and have a bill ready for to sign before Christmas. According to the
White House Council of Economic Advisers this bill—not yet finalized—will be great for the
typical household. Corporations will see taxes fall and will pass on the
savings to workers! In fact, the ordinary American family will see an increase
in wealth of $3,000 to $7,000 if the bill passes.
Tax dodgers move hundreds of billions through Luxembourg.
We already know what corporations do to “cut”
their tax burden. They don’t pass savings on to workers. Charles and David
Koch, leading advocates of tax cuts, have both watched their wealth balloon in the
last decade. Each is worth an estimated $48.5 billion. So they
could already give raises to workers. They just don’t. This is particularly
odd since Koch Industries has been revealed to be piling up massive savings by
working a complicated tax dodge through a network of
interlocking companies in havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.
Companies located (on paper) in Luxembourg pay as little as 1% taxes, annually.
It’s not just the Koch brothers. A massive
leak of documents indicates plenty of multi-national corporations have all the
tax savings they need and those savings haven’t translated into higher wages
for workers. The dodgers have moved “hundreds of billions” through Luxembourg
accounts. Those dodgers include American International Group
(AIG), Amazon, Blackstone, H.J. Heinz, JP Morgan Chase, Burberry and Procter
& Gamble.
In fact, donating to the GOP and expecting
payback is a solid corporate “investment.” According to a British paper, seven
large donors to the GOP in 2016, with a combined wealth of $142 billion, kept that
wealth safe by hiding as much as possible in the
Cayman Islands. Those seven include the Brothers
Koch, Warren Stephens, owner of
a payday lending company being sued for predatory practices, and Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who
gave Republicans $100 million in 2012, $77.5 million in 2016, and $5 million
for the Trump inauguration. Rounding out the pirate crew are Geoff Palmer, a dealer in Los Angeles
real estate, Steve Wynn, another
casino magnate, and Paul Singer, a
hedge fund manager and “vulture capitalist.”
In one recent poll 71% of Republicans, 85% of
independents and 85% of Democrats said they did not think corporation tax cuts
would result in an increase in their own pay.
Duh.
$$$$$
11/15/17: The president returns from
his trip to Asia and gives a press conference, missing only questions from the
press. Rambling on for half-an-hour, he
praises himself and whines because the mainstream media doesn’t kneel before
him.
Trump doesn’t dare take questions because he
knows he’ll be asked about accused pedophile and GOP candidate for the U.S.
Senate, Judge Roy Moore. If the Groper-in-Chief says he believes Moore’s accusers
he faces an obvious follow-up question. “Why would the accusers of Harvey
Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Moore be believed, but the women who accused you, Mr.
President, would not?”
If he answers a question and says, no, he supports
the accused pedophile…and that’s not a great look.
#TrumpDidIt.
11/16/17: Nine accusers have weighed
in to condemn Judge Moore. Eight were teens at the time he tried his slick
tricks.
On Fox News, Sean Hannity rants about the
hypocrisy of the left, how the left refuses to admit Bill Clinton’s accusers
were telling the truth. His right-wing, nut job case might sound lucid if he
dared mention…cough, cough…Roger
Ailes.
Or…cough, cough…Bill O’Reilly.
11/17/17: In a Quinnipiac poll 52 percent of Americans disapprove of the GOP tax cut plan. Only 25 percent approve. We must assume those
are fat cats who have cash stashed in the Isle of Man and other tax havens
round the globe.
The Economist estimated, in 2013,that the wealthiest people in the world had $20 trillion hidden in secret, untaxed offshore accounts.
11/18/17: On this fine Saturday, General John Hyten, top U.S. nuclear commander,
is asked at an international security conference what he would do if President
Trump ever ordered an illegal nuclear strike against North Korea. This follows
the first Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in forty years to address
the matter, not that anyone thinks Trump is stark raving mad.
“I provide advice to the president,” the
general replies.
He’ll tell me
what to do, and if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m gonna say, “Mr.
President, that’s illegal.” Guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, “What
would be legal?” And we’ll come up with options of a mix of capabilities to
respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not
that complicated.
In other words, if the president is loony, the generals will try to stop him
before he goes too far.
*
YOU KNOW HOW you can tell
the superrich are suffering from high taxes and desperately need a tax cut? You
can read all the sad stories in the press.
The poor soul who only wanted to buy a simple
painting.
How about the poor soul who
only wanted to buy a simple painting! He had to scrip and save, what with all
the taxes he was coughing up and the millions he was paying politicians to pass
tax laws he liked. But hard work finally paid—that, and having shipped most of
his company’s factory work to China and Bangladesh, where workers sew jeans or
assemble iPhones for slave wages.
Now the painting was up for
auction. The bidding began. Several individuals placed bids. All had scrimped
and saved and worked harder than ordinary American workers. Since they worked
harder they deserved all their wealth and since you didn’t, you deserved a
non-union job with limited benefits and no pension at all.
Fortunately, after all those
taxes, the winning bidder had just enough to get that painting he loved. Last
week a work by Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator
Mundi, went at auction for $450 million.
So, as you can see, the current economic system is totally unfair to the superrich. Not counting the superrich who hide their cash in secret Cayman Island bank accounts!
Speaking of the Cayman
Islands, another billionaire who badly needs relief would be Paul Allen.
Recently his little pleasure craft plowed into a reef along the Cayman coast
and left significant damage in its wake. Now, with the Trump tax cuts coming,
Allen, a perennial member of the Forbes
“400 Richest List” will be able to afford any damages he must pay.
What we have now, as Abraham Lincoln might put
it, is, “Government of the plutocrats, by the plutocrats and for the
plutocrats.”
PHOTO HERE….
11/19/17: In case you missed it, the president has now picked a
Twitter fight with LaVar Ball, perhaps the only man in America who might
qualify as a bigger douche than Trump.
Dueling jackasses! President Trump vs. LaVar
Ball.
Ball is father of NBA rookie
guard Lonzo Ball and UCLA freshman basketball star LiAngelo Ball. Dad is also
the man who averaged something like two points during his college basketball
career. Still, back in March, as son Lonzo prepared for the NBA draft, dad
grabbed all the spotlight he could. “Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan
one-on-one,” he said during an interview.
A shameless self-promoter,
like Trump, Papa Ball made it clear he had big plans to sell a Ball-brand line
of basketball shoes, Big Baller.
The ZO2 model, a low-top, was a bargain
at $495. For the true fan you had to consider the autographed-by-Lonzo-in-gold
version. They could be yours for $995.
Naturally, Papa Ball loves
to tweet. So tweet he does: “If you can’t afford the ZO2s, you’re NOT a
BIG BALLER!”
(He even uses CAPS like TRUMP.)
Now LiAngelo is in the news, one of three
UCLA players arrested for shoplifting during a team trip to China. The
president says he made a quick call and convinced the Chinese to release the young
men without trial. Of course, he expected praise.
Alas, in a contest of giant egos and petty
personalities, it was hard to predict who might sink to the lowest low. On
Twitter, Trump made it clear he expected the young players to thank him. They
did.
Then Papa Ball downplayed the president’s
roll.
By now we all know Trump cannot let any
slight go. His response shows how vindictive he would be if he dared. “LaVar Ball,
the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that
shoplifting is a big deal,” Trump tweeted. Then the petty climax of his case: “I should have left them in jail
[emphasis added].”
11/20/17: The President decides to save the elephants after his administration decides to kill the elephants.
In an effort to cut down on
pesky regulations, the federal government announces that big game hunters will
be allowed to bring back trophies from
exotic African hunts, including various elephant parts. The National Rifle
Association supports the policy change, saying it would be a “signficant step
forward in having hunting receive the recognition it deserves as a tool of
sound wildlife management.” Consider, for example, the history of the American
bison, c. 1873.
You can’t make this up.
This policy change is so
terrible—the logic so absurd—even Laura Ingraham on Fox News can’t choke it
down. When other Fox commentators criticize the change, Trump
suddenly realizes that if Fox can’t go along with such stupidity, he might be
wise to look at the new policy for the first time.
This “horror story,” he
suddenly exclaims, must be stopped! Trump
saves the elephants from Trump.
 |
| Don Jr. shoots an elephant to prove he can. |
11/21/17: Finally outlining his position in regard to Judge Roy Moore, the accused
sexual predator and U.S. Senate candidate, the president tells reporters “women are very special.” This is a
touching sentiment, with which not even this never-Trump blogger can find
fault. But does Trump support Moore, accused of molesting teenage girls, in an
Alabama special election being held December 12?
Or not???
Well, women are special, but
at least the accused molester of women is not a “liberal.”
Trump stands with the molester. He needs Moore’s vote in the Senate, to
insure his big, beautiful tax cut.
11/22/17: You can’t say President Trump doesn’t focus, lazer-like, on issues that
matter to the avearge worker and his or her family. Today he spends time complaining again, via Twitter, because LaVar Ball (see: 11/19/17) still isn’t giving him
the credit he deserves. That is: all the credit there is. Trump tweets:
It wasn’t the
White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called
people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison
sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King,
but without the hair. Just think..
Then, picking up again after running out of
characters: “LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during
Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But
remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal,
especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”
Yes. The President of the United States is
that petty.
11/23/17: Thanksgiving goes well for President Trump. He and his family (minus
Tiffany) gather at Mar-a-Lago ($200,000 to join; $14,000 annual dues). Guests
talk excitedly about the big tax cuts coming for the superrich …no, we mean…for
average workers!
Speaker Paul Ryan has been bragging about the big, beautiful tax cuts coming to the typical family of four. That family will—post-tax-slashing—have a big, beautiful $1,182 extra to spend for the year. So, if we do the math: 169 typical families could pool their typical savings and pay for one membership to Mar-a-Lago. Then a dozen more could team up and pay annual dues.
Speaker Paul Ryan has been bragging about the big, beautiful tax cuts coming to the typical family of four. That family will—post-tax-slashing—have a big, beautiful $1,182 extra to spend for the year. So, if we do the math: 169 typical families could pool their typical savings and pay for one membership to Mar-a-Lago. Then a dozen more could team up and pay annual dues.
*
DID GENERAL FLYNN’S LAWYERS just
tell Trump’s lawyers they would no longer share info about the Mueller investigation?
They did.
Does that mean Flynn is cooperating
with Special Counsel Mueller? Not necessarily; but the news casts a pall over
the dessert course at Mar-a-Lago.
(Flynn was cooperating, as we have since
learned.)
11/24/17: Trump wants us to understand he’s hard at work the day after
Thanksgiving. His first tweet Friday is a complaint aimed at NFL
players who dare protest during the playing of the National Anthem. “Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our
Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players,” he asks. One player who particularly irks Trump is Marshawn
Lynch, who garnered his own special tweet attack earlier in the week.
And what is Lynch protesting
against?
See if you can guess from
this t-shirt Lynch is regularly seen wearing. Then see if you can guess what
amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects
the right of players to protest without penalty.
Sixteen minutes later, in a
second tweet, Trump says he plans to talk to the leader of Turkey and clean up
the “mess I inherited in the Middle East.”
Presidents who inherited messes: Polk, Truman,
Obama, et al.
Other presidents who might
have squealed about problems they inherited, assuming they’d had the maturity
of five-year-olds, would include: James K. Polk (inherited messes on the
Mexican and Canadian borders) and Abraham Lincoln (mess in Charleston, S.C.).
Also inheriting messes: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman (World War II),
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Korean War), a whole string of presidents (Vietnam War),
and every occupant of the Oval Office since 1967 (the same Middle East mess
that Trump is whining about now).
Barack Obama inherited two wars.
At any rate, the job of
running America is so difficult Trump decides he needs time for himself and
hits the links. “After Turkey call,” he admits in a
third tweet, “I will be heading over to Trump National Golf Club, Jupiter, to
play golf (quickly) with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson.”
Trump, who once lambasted his predecessor for playing
what he said was way too much golf, has, for those keeping score, been playing way
more golf.
(Quickly.)
According to Golf
News Net, Trump has already
spent at least 79 days since taking
office at his golf courses. Those trips have cost taxpayers tens of millions of
dollars and Trump is on pace to spend 300 days away from D.C. in four years.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten; but Citizen Trump
frequently attacked President Obama for coming from Kenya, stealing the
presidency and hitting the links instead of working hard for the American
people. It turns out the pace
at which his predecessor played golf was half Hypocrite-in-Chief Donald J.
Trump’s.
11/25/17: For a few hours it looked like the President might make it through a day
without doing anything stupid or undercutting
fundamental American values.
True. He did claim Time magazine talked with him about his being chosen “Person of the Year” for 2017.
True. He did claim Time magazine talked with him about his being chosen “Person of the Year” for 2017.
Time says it never discusses picks until they announce choices on December 6.
So, it might have been a white lie.
By lunchtime, however, Trump
is all warmed up.
The free press continues to nettle the
thin-skinned man in the White House and Donald J. Trump realizes he has no
other choice. He has to undercut the First Amendment again via tweet:
@FoxNews is MUCH
more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN
International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our
Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from
them!
Or to put Trump’s thinking more baldly:
Wouldn’t it be better for “our nation” if we could shut CNN down?
11/26/18: Reporters stop the president on the South
Lawn and pepper him with questions. He’s leaving for Mississippi to lead a rally for Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate
runoff election.
Well, they ask, what does he think about the
1,656 page climate report just released by 13 government agencies?
“I’ve seen it. I’ve read some of it. And it’s
fine,” he responds in lame-ass fashion. You know he hasn’t read much of the
report, if any at all.
Asked if he agrees with the report’s
assessment—that our nation will face serious negative environmental, economic
and social consequences from climate change, he replies: “I don’t believe it.”
(See
his almost identical reaction to a United Nations report, put together by
scientists from 40 nations: 10/11/18.)
111/27/17: Trump doubles down in his attack on the First Amendment. Hoping to stir
his base (to what? violence against reporters?) the president channels his
inner Robert Mugabe.
He tweets: “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks,
plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted
in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad.
Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”
It may be that Trump is striking out because he feels
pressure with the Mueller probe likely to cut a deal with General Flynn.
*
IN OLD BUT STILL INTERESTING NEWS, The New York Times offers up the tale of
yet another rich businessman who went about screwing his workers in an unwavering
effort to fatten his bank account. First, he
hired undocumented workers for a job that had to be done. He wanted to
knock down an old building so he could put up a mixed-use 58-story skyscraper in
downtown New York.
Second, he conspired to pay those workers
less than half what union workers would have demanded.
Third, the businessman required the undocumented
to put in 12-hour shifts, but didn’t pay overtime.
Fourth, if those workers—in this case from
Poland—complained about working conditions or because their wages were late or sometimes
not paid at all they would be threatened
with deportation.
The businessman got his start screwing his workers.
How did this scam work? Recently, a judge
unsealed records from a settlement involved, twenty years ago. According to
that settlement the businessman was forced, after battling for years in court,
to pay the undocumented workers all the money they said he owed. Including
legal costs and interest the bill was $1.375 million.
The businessman testified that he never
visited the work site, where the Poles were demolishing the 12-story Bonwit
Teller building. A foreman on the job, Zbignew Goryn, disagreed. The
businessman, he said, did visit the site, marveling about the Polish demolition
crew “He said, ‘Those Polish guys are good, hard workers,’” Goryn told the
judge.
A smaller group of union workers, paid union
rates, made fun of the Poles. Adam Mrowiec testified in court: “They told me
and my friends that we are stupid Poles and we are working for such low money.”
This was just as the greedy businessman
wished.
“We worked in horrid, terrible conditions,” Wojciech
Kozak remembered. “We were frightened illegal immigrants and did not know enough about our
rights.” “We were working 12, 16 hours a day and were paid $4 an hour. Because
I worked with an acetylene torch, I got $5 an hour. We worked without masks.
Nobody knew what asbestos was. I was an immigrant. I worked very hard.”
Eventually, pay stopped coming. The Poles
found a lawyer, John Szabo, to represent their cause. Szabo went to the businessman’s
office to complain. If something wasn’t done, he’d place a mechanic’s lien on
the property. If that happened the building could not be sold until the lien
was settled.
A representative of the businessman began
showing up to pay the Poles in cash. This insured there was no income tax-social
security tax-union dues paper trail. Joseph Dabrowski testified that the
businessman appeared on site and told workers, “If you finish this fast” then
“I will pay for it.”
Szabo filed a lien. Daniel Sullivan, a labor
consultant, said that the businessman came to him for help. He said he had
“difficulties,” “that he had some illegal Polish employees.” The businessman had
his lawyer call Szabo. They were going to call the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and have his clients deported. Szabo refused to back
down in court. Eventually, the
businessman wilted and settled the case. The workers were paid 100% of what
they had been demanding for fifteen years.
The new 58-story tower went up at the corner
of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in downtown New York City.
Proud of his accomplishments, the businessman
slapped big gold letters on the side of his skyscraper: T-R-U-M-P.
11/28/17: The Trump “tax reform” plan is
being fast-forwarded through Congress. But don’t worry. Everyone will love the
final result. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, have
donated $200 million to the GOP during the last two presidential elections. Now
they’ll be repaid when Congress
eliminates the estate tax. The three Walton siblings,
Jim (worth $38.4 billion) Robson ($38.3 billion) and Alice (the poor
one, with $38.2 billion) will no longer have to pinch pennies when they head
for Olive Garden for the Senior Special.
Secretary of Commerce Ross
can finally make up for the losses he suffered selling his New York City apartment for $16.5 million and can move out of
the dilapidated building where apartments went for as low as $2 million. Ross
might be able to use his tax savings and repair the broken light over the front
door of his 16,247-square-foot Palm Beach cottage, which he paid $13.3 million for in 2008.
Luckily, the fiscal suffering of the Trump
clan will also be ended. Ivanka will enjoy a
huge tax cut and be able to spend $3,000 with ease to buy giant clamshells to decorate her Thanksgiving table. The president will get
a huge cut and he can buy Melania another $51,500 designer jacket to wear about town. Don Jr. will see his tax bill go down, which will leave him
extra cash to spend on lawyers to protect himself from the Robert Mueller
investigation.
111/29/17: By now anyone with a modicum of common sense knows the President is a dick. The only
surprise is how much of a dick he is.
“Promoting a fascist, racist, extremist group.”
Today he begins his morning at 6:37 a.m. by
re-tweeting three anti-Muslim videos from Britain First, a right-wing fringe
group in that country. Coming from a man totally lacking in subtlety and
empathy, who once said “Islam hates us,” and falsely claimed ten thousand New
Jersey Muslims celebrated the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11…oh, hell…why even
bother trying to make sense of this fool and his lies?
Condemnation from decent people is swift.
Senator Lindsey Graham warns that the president is “legitimizing religious
bigotry.” When we asked Iraqis or Afghans or Kurds for help this is likely to
backfire. “We need Muslim allies in the war on terror,” Graham explains. “I can
only imagine how some of our Muslim allies must feel when the president gives
legitimacy to it.”
Former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper calls Trump’s decision to retweet the videos “bizarre and
disturbing.”
Britain First
seeks to divide communities in their use of hateful narratives which pedal lies
and stoke tensions….British people overwhelming reject the prejudice[d]
rhetoric of the far-right, which is the antithesis of the values that this
country represents; decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the
president to have done this.
It appears that
the President of the United States has, in recent moments, been retweeting
comments from far-fight organisation Britain First—highly inflammatory videos,
including some posted by an individual who I believe has recently been arrested
and charged relating to certain serious offences.
Another member offers biting assessment:
“Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United
States is promoting a fascist, racist,
extremist group [emphasis added] whose leaders have been arrested and
convicted. He is no friend of ours.”
Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo Cox, a British lawmaker,
was gunned down by a man shouting, “Britain first!” has this to say. “Trump has legitimised the far
right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred
has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.”
As if on cue, Press Secretary Pinocchio is forced
to go out and try to cover again for Trump and his spew. It doesn’t matter if the videos are real or not, Sarah
Sanders insists, because “the threat is real.”
Yes. It’s the dick in the Oval Office.
11/30/17: We learn that over the summer, President Trump did his best to convince
GOP lawmakers to help him out. Senator Richard Burr, head of the Intelligence
Committee, tells reporters Trump spoke to him about how he’d like Congress to conduct
its business. “It was something along the lines, ‘I hope you can conclude this
[investigation] as quickly as possible.’”
Burr says he responded,
“when we have exhausted everybody we need to talk to, we will finish.”
Trump also asked other
senators, including Milksop Mitch and Roy Blunt of Missouri, to end the investigation swiftly. Blunt
says he was lobbied by the president during an Air Force One flight they shared
to Springfield, Missouri. Trump, he said, told him “to wrap up the
investigation.”
Yet another Republican
senator said Trump did not ask him to help end the investigation.
Finally, the president
showed he understood the rule of law…
December 1, 2017: General Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the
F.B.I. and agrees to become a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation.
Court documents show Flynn lied repeatedly.
Trump immediately announces
that this proves he never colluded with Russians, grabbed women by the pussy,
failed in the casino business or cheated on his wives. On Fox News, every host
agrees with his assessment. Sean Hannity insists Trump won the Medal of Honor in
Vietnam.
Sadly, court documents show
Flynn lied repeatedly about a variety of matters. Also, the plea deal immunizes him only in regard to matters therein mentioned (which I just learned is
how plea deals work). There are all kinds of matters left out and still hanging
over “Old Lock Her Up” Flynn’s head. Nothing is said of Flynn’s agreement to
help the Turkish government kidnap a dissident living in Pennsylvania and
return him to Turkey for trial, for example. In return for such efforts Flynn
(and his son) were to be paid more than $530,000.
POSTSCRIPT: The White House
tries to make it sound like Obama did it.
In a press release after Flynn’s plea deal is announced, he is described as “a former Obama administration official.”
12/2/17: President Trump has a bad weekend as he begins to feel the heat. What is
Flynn about to say?
Trump turns to Twitter to
defend himself—with all the logic you can pack into 560 characters (Twitter
doubled the maxiumum length of posts to 280 characters a few days ago). First,
we have: “So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his
life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI
holiday ‘interrogation’ with no swearing in and no recording, lies many
times...and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?”
Second: “Many people in our Country are
asking what the ‘Justice’ Department is
going to do about the fact that totally Crooked Hillary, AFTER receiving a
subpoena from the United States Congress, deleted and ‘acid washed’ 33,000
Emails? No justice!” In other words, Trump fans, you can no longer trust the
F.B.I. You cannot expect justice from the Department of Justice.
12/3/17: Speaking of courts—that pesky third branch of government—Trump is on the
rampage again.
A jury in San Francisco has
listened to evidence in the case of Jose Ines Garcia Zarote and deliberated for
six days. Zarote, an illegal immigrant, shot and killed Kate Steinle, an
innocent bystander on a city pier. That made him poster boy for Candidate/President
Trump, who used the case to prove we needed a giant border wall and a moat
filled with sharks to protect ourselves from “rapists” (but not Judge Moore)
and “murderers” (but not Vladimir).
The bullet hist Steinle, eighty feet away, on a
ricochet.
The story is a tragedy.
Still, the case for murder is weak. Zarote did fire a gun (and as a convicted
felon should not have had one in his possession). The bullet hit the pavement
and struck Steinle, eighty feet away, on a ricochet. This does not mean Zarote
is not vile. This does not mean the Steinle family did not suffer irredeamable
loss. It does mean Zarote could not be found guilty of murder, since there was
no clear intent.
Unfortunately, the president
has no regard for the rule of law. He wants the courts to make decisions that
conform with his furies. Referring to a recent terror attack in New York City
he weighed in on what must be done to protect all Americans (not including
anyone who might hope to be protected by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh,
Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments). Trump insisted our court system, as it now stands, is a “laughingstock and a disaster.”
What we needed, he fumed,
was “punishment that’s far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are
getting right now.”
POSTSCRIPT: When Trump is greeted with a
storm of criticism for yet another attack on the judicial system, Pinocchio
Sanders has to stand in front of the press and insist the words that everyone
heard coming out of President Trump’s mouth did not come out of his actual mouth.
Apparently, a ventriloquist was involved.
12/4/17: Just when you think it can’t get any worse it get’s worse. The president
goes to Twitter and endorses Judge Roy
Moore, the accused pedophile, for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
“America no longer has a moral compass.”
It takes Trump two tweets,
at 6:17 and 7:08 a.m. to make a case. The second tweet is most telling: “Putting Pelosi/Schumer Liberal Puppet [Doug] Jones into office
in Alabama would hurt our great Republican Agenda of low on taxes, tough on
crime, strong on military and borders...& so much more. Look at your
401-k’s since Election. Highest Stock Market EVER! Jobs are roaring back!”
This proves too much for Michael Steele,
former chairman of the Republican National Committee. On Twitter he lambasts
the man his party put in the Oval Office. “Your refusal to acknowledge you’ve
just endorsed a pedophile for the sake of a ‘vote’ tells me Roy Moore will be a
Trump puppet and America no longer has a moral compass under your
‘leadership.’”
In Alabama a political action committee,
Child Molesters for Moore, starts passing out literature.
Okay, that’s a joke. But admit it: in
Trumpistan, you can’t be sure.
12/5/17: Down in Alabama, Steven K.
Bannon gives a talk in defense of Judge Moore. Bannon spends a good part of his
time bashing Mitt Romney, who had come out against Moore. Bannon actually goes
after Romney on grounds that he hid behind his religion to avoid serving in
Vietnam. He wonders why voters should listen to a man with five sons, none of
whom served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Moore did serve our country in Vietnam.
This might be a solid argument if you didn’t realize
that the issue is Moore’s behavior regarding
teen girls once he returned to the States.
Also, you’d have to be a drooling idiot not
to notice the glaring flaw in Bannon’s case. This is a man who worked heart and
soul to see that Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States.
Trump dodged military service with just as
much enthusiasm, if not more, as Mitt Romney. He had two sons and a son-in-law
who would have been the perfect age to serve our country after 9/11.
None did.
12/6/17: Trump declares Jerusalem
the capital of Israel. Pretty much the entire world condemns the move. The head of the United
Nations warns that this decision creates a “moment of high anxiety.” The Pope criticizes
his actions. So do all the countries of the Middle East, including key U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS (Iraq, Jordan
and Saudi Arabia). France, Britain and Germany label it a mistake. The European
Union opposes.
The President of Turkey and good friend of
“Old Lock Her Up” Flynn (see: December 1,
2017) blasts the move. “What do you want
to do Mr. Trump?” he poses the question in meeting with reporters. “What kind
of an approach is this? Political leaders exist not to create struggles but to
make peace.”
The President of Indonesia, a moderate nation
of 225 million Muslims, takes a strong stance. “This can rock global security and
safety,” he warns.
12/7/17: We learn today that Don Jr. was grilled
for eight hours by the House Intelligence Committee. Alas, the poor fellow refused to answer questions about what
he and his father said, discussing a June 2016 meeting with representatives of
the Russian government. (See: 7/7-7/14/17.)
Anyway, Don Jr. now says he can’t answer questions
about the discussion he had with good old Dad. Why? House committee members
wonder. Client-attorney privilege, Don Jr. explains.
This is odd. Don Jr. is not a lawyer. Don Sr.
is not a lawyer. (Don Sr. is not even a very good president).
The Republican-controlled committee decides
to let Don Jr. slide.
12/8/17: Speaking in Pensacola, Trump dons the
garb of dictator. First he offers a full-throated endorsement of accused sex
offender, Judge Roy Moore. He must have Moore’s vote in the Senate. Even a
child abuser is acceptable so long as that child abuser will toe the Trump
line.
At a Friday night rally for Moore the
president complains to the crowd about the Mueller investigation and the
roadblocks in his way under the current government structure. “This is a rigged
system,” he shouts. “This is a sick system from the inside. And, you know,
there is no country like our country but
we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions.”
Who can cure this cancer?
All hail Trump.
12/9/17: Funding for the popular
Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers nine million children from
low-income families, ran out in September.
The program costs $14 billion annually and Congress has failed to fund it for
the next fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the GOP “tax reform plan” is
working its way toward a conference committee in Congress. At least $150
billion in tax cuts will go to the very wealthiest families who pay an estate
tax.
Just as the Republicans planned it! Screw healthcare for kids! Suffering multi-millionaires and billionaires who once
had to pinch pennies and stay at Motel 6 when traveling will be able to upgrade
accomodations once the tax plan passes.
Your ordinary oligarch will finally have the
chance to rent the Mark Penthouse, in the Mark Hotel, in
New York City. Cost: $75,000 per night. For that Mr. or Ms. Oligarch will get
26-foot ceilings, four fireplaces (with free firewood we may assume), five
bedrooms, six bathrooms and 12,000 square feet to kick back and relax after a
hard day hedging funds, sending jobs overseas, buying up politicians and explaining why you can’t afford to pay your
workers a minimum wage of $15 per hour.
Well, it’s a hard life; but somebody has to create jobs (for
hotel maids, etc.). And your ordinary Captain of Industry has earned every amenity.
For just $75,000 you also get a steam room, two powder rooms, two wet bars, a
kitchen, a conservatory, and a library lounge—although if you are wasting a lot
of time sitting and reading, you probably should have stayed home.
12/10/17: Let’s give it up for
Trump! The stock market has set repeated highs since his election. In November
228,000 jobs were added to the economy. This means, your
“favorite President,” as he has taken to calling himself, has seen 1,916,000
jobs added in the first eleven months of 2017.
He’s doing almost as well as Barack Obama in
2016, when 2,085,000 jobs were added in a similar span.
12/11/17: Trump is grumpy. Trump is
grumpy because The New York Times did
a story based on interviews with sixty sources. Trump is grumpy because those
sources, including many members of the GOP, aides in the White House, and
friends, paint a less than flattering picture. It is said Trump is prone to furious outbursts if anything
fails to go his way. He’s addicted to Diet Coke (a dozen cans per day).
And he watches a lot of television, four-to-eight hours a day.
And he watches a lot of television, four-to-eight hours a day.
12/12/17: Trump has a very bad day,
starting with a pair of rage-tweets. The first:
Despite
thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats
have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on
to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or
have never met. FAKE NEWS!
This claim is promptly undercut when People magazine begins posting pictures of the president with
several of his accusers.
 |
| Miss Finland: One of the accusers Trump never met. |
In his second tweet Trump goes after
“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,” who called for him to resign in light
of all the claims of sexual harassment leveled against him. The president now
follows the sage advice of Michelle Obama, who once exclaimed, “When they go
low, we go high.”
Hahaha.!
The splenetic man in the Oval Office labels Gillibrand,
“a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office
‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them).”
The “do anything” phrase is taken by many to
be an insinuation Gillibrand would prostitute herself for cash.
For USA
Today, a newspaper that charts a middle path in politics, this is too much.
In an editorial, titled, Will Trump’s
Lows Ever Hit Rock Bottom? Editors answer that question:
With his latest
tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors
for campaign cash, President Trump
has shown he is not fit for office [emphasis added]. Rock bottom is no
impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.
…A president who
would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the
toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of
George W. Bush.
…Donald Trump…is
uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a
shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed.
*
AS MORNING TURNS to afternoon, afternoon to
evening, the mood of the Groper-in-Chief grows sourer. Down in Alabama, voters,
particularly women, send a message to the White House. The President of the
United States might be happy to seat an accused pedophile in the U.S. Senate.
They are not.
Alabama women send Trump a message.
More than 22,000 conservative Alabamians
follow the lead of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, himself an Alabama Republican,
but a man who cannot stomach the idea of Moore seated beside him. They cast
write-in votes for some other conservative representative besides Judge Moore.
The rest of the electorate splits 50% to 48%, providing Jones a
narrow victory. According to exit polls, women go for the Democrat by a
16-point margin. Young Alabamians favor Jones by 23.
12/13/17: Trump hops out of bed,
dons his bunny slippers and declares
victory for himself in the Alabama special election. Sure. He endorsed
Judge Roy Moore, who lost. Sure. He made robocalls for Moore. Sure. He told
everyone he needed Moore in the Senate. And, yes, he warned that “Liberal
Puppet Jones…would hurt our great Republican Agenda.”
Now, with Jones heading to Washington and
Moore riding off into the sunset on his favorite horse, “Underage Teen,” Trump
admits he was…right all along. “The reason I originally endorsed Luther
Strange [in the primary] (and his numbers went up mightily) is that I said Roy
Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked
hard but the deck was stacked against him!”
Moore was an accused child molester, Mr.
President. You endorsed him. The shame is both his and yours.
 |
| Judge Roy Moore on his favorite horse, "Underage Teen." The name is a joke. Moore running for Senate and Trump supporting him is not. |
12/14/17: We discover that the
alligator population in the Washington swamp has been cut by one.
Omarosa Manigault-Newman, crack White House
staffer, in charge of who knows what, paid $179,000 to do whatever it was she
did, former star of The Apprentice,
has left the building.
Every detractor will have to bow down.
Press Secretary Pinocchio tells reporters
Omarosa resigned effective January 20. Sources tell White House reporter April
Ryan that Omarosa was fired. An unnamed source tells the Wall Street Journal that she had to be “physically dragged and
escorted off the campus” Tuesday. There are rumors that when told she was about
to be terminated, Omarosa tried to storm the White House living quarters to
plead her case with the president. The Secret Service feels a need to clarify
matters in a rare public statement: “The Secret
Service was not involved in the termination process of Ms. Manigault Newman or
the escort off of the complex. Our only involvement in this matter was to
deactivate the individual’s pass which grants access to the complex.”
Before she’s gone, let’s remember this
chilling statement, delivered soon after Trump was elected. Had it come from any aide to President
Obama, Rush Limbaugh would have been howling for his angry, gun-toting,
conspiracy-nut-loving listeners to grab their weapons and lock and load.
“Every
critic,” Omarosa informed reporters with an icy smile last December, “every
detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever
doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him—it is the ultimate
revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”
Bow
down.
12/15/17: Republicans step up
attacks on the F.B.I. and the Russia investigation. According to right-wing hacks
everybody at the top of the Bureau and all the leaders at the Department of
Justice and all the men and women involved in the investigation have turned out
to be liars.
But you know who you can trust? Donald J. Trump! Trump would never grab women by the pussy (locker room
talk). Trump would never cheat on his taxes (eternally under audit). Trump
would never screw students (Trump University) or workers (hiring illegal
immigrants to build Trump Tower). Trump would never lie about Obama’s birth
certificate (for five years) or to get a doctor to write him a note excusing him from military
service because his feet hurt (his fifth draft deferment).
Everyone else is lying.
12/16/17: Trump has now nominated
four candidates for positions on the federal bench who end up being rated
“unqualified” by the American Bar Association. How about Brett Talley for a
seat on a district court? Why not!
Talley just happens to believe the first version of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s
was a fine civic organization.
 |
| The good old days: when the first KKK could lynch political opponents. |
Did you know two of Trump’s nominees deemed
“unqualified” were rated so by unanimous
vote? Since the American Bar Association started issuing ratings in 1989
only two other nominees have ever been rated “unqualified” unanimously.
Matthew S. Petersen, another Trump nominee,
rated “qualified,” had his name withdrawn after a disastrous appearance in
front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his hearing he pretty much
failed to answer any of the questions put to him by Republican Senator John
Kennedy of Louisiana.
All Petersen really seemed to understand was
that if confirmed for a judgeship he’d get to bang a gavel.
12/17/17: The Thought Police are
hard at work at the Center for Disease Control. Today we learn scientists at CDC were admonished not to use these seven words or
phrases in written reports: “science-based,” “evidence-based,”
“vulnerable,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “diversity” or “entitlement.” Scientists
will no longer blather on about “science-based” findings.
In Trumpistan changing the wording passes for
draining the swamp. You rebrand the swamp a “swimming pool.”
Then you declare victory.
Wow, hot enough today for you, buddy?
The Thought Police have already “drained the
swamp” at the E.P.A., at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration by scrubbing all mention of climate change.
Now, government scientists may only ask in
conversation or for publication, “Wow, hot enough today for you, buddy?”
12/18/17: The Thought Police expand
their efforts in regard to the E.P.A. Scott Pruitt gives approval to hire Definers
Public Affairs to provide “media monitoring.”
Definers, which won a no-bid contract (of course), just so
happens to be affiliated with America Rising, a Republican research group that
spent a good chunk of 2016 submitting Freedom of Information requests demanding
the emails of various E.P.A. employees who had the nerve to:
A)
Speak up at a private lunch and
say the nation might be headed for an “environmental catastrophe.”
B)
Write a letter to Pruitt, raising
the same concerns.
C)
Attend a rally to protest budget
cuts at the agency, which would very possibly cripple the agency and hasten
A/B.
12/19/17: The GOP “tax reform”
package moves to a vote in the United States House of Representatives. Trump is
still busy trying to convince the public that the new rules
are going to kill him. Almost anyone with a third grade math background can see
this isn’t even close to true.
The top tax rate will fall from 39.6 % to 37 %, so that someone
pulling in $50,000,000 just by raising fees at Mar-a-Lago (see 11/23/17),
and not making a penny in any other way would get a cut of $1.3 million.
You might remember when Candidate Trump complained because
hedge fund mangers were not paying their share in
taxes. They were “getting away with murder.”
When he became President of the
United States he was damn sure going to do something about that!
The new GOP plan leaves
the way open for hedge fund managers to keep committing murder.
12/20/17: Republicans celebrate a huge tax victory for the superrich and
promise trickle down benefits for everyone else. Once interested in fiscal
restraint, GOP lawmakers go all in on
deficit spending.
Sadly, since we don’t want billionaires to pay 2.6% more on
their billions, we cannot find a way to fund the Children’s Health Insurance
Program, which protects nine million
American kids.
Hauling away a ruined refrigerator costs $969.
Ironically, Brock Long, the head of FEMA and a Trump appointee, admits his agency is out of money. Many
workers have reached caps on overtime pay. So Congress thinks federal workers
should toil extra hours for free. Meanwhile, who needs to keep an eye on business? Under emergency contracts,
FEMA is coughing up $969 to have private companies haul away a single ruined
refrigerator. Before all the big storms it would have cost $100.
Ultimately, who pays for such gouging? Taxpayers! Isn’t that
cool! Or maybe FEMA will just say, Sorry, we can’t help. Sorry! No more money.
Sorry. No one is going to move your ruined refrigerator.
Talk to Speaker Ryan,
the man who just worked out the big tax cut!
12/21/17: Apparently, Obamacare is not “imploding” as the
Groper-in-Chief has said repeatedly. In an enrollment period
shortened by half, and purposely designed to ensure enrollment fell, so the
Groper could keep insisting Obamacare was dead, a total of 8.8 million Americans signed up for health insurance.
Two red states led the enrollment boom with Florida first (1.7
million) and Texas second (1.1 million).
12/22/17: As another Christmas approaches, Fox News fans, and we do
include the Groper-in-Chief, are still fighting the gory “War on Christmas.”
Once again, millions of “good Americans” (defined by Trump as
“people who love Trump”) will be killed or divested of appendages by toppling,
blinking-light-and-ornament-encumbered pine trees.
So, let me be the first liberal to say to Trump fans: “Merry
Christmas! Merry, Mary, Jesus, Joseph, Lazarus (no Obamacare for you), and everybody
else in the New Testament, Christmas!”
Alien wise men visiting the earth via U.F.O.’s.
12/23/17: In world news the Trump decision to declare Jerusalem capital
of Israel is so popular that in a vote at the United Nations, eight entire countries
side with us. One is Israel. Others
backing us include powerhouses Guatemala and Honduras. Also backing us are
Micronesia, Togo, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau. Admit it. You didn’t
know Nauru was a nation.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warns before
the vote that President Trump will “take this personally.” (Does he ever not take matters personally?) The U.S.
will be “taking names” and may cut off
aid to any country that stabs us in the red, white and blue back.
It turns out “taking names” will take time. Thirty-five nations
abstain from voting; but 128 condemn the move. Afghanistan votes
against the United States. Iraq votes against. Saudi Arabia does too.
Still, we’re making progress under President
“Merry Christmas,” now that eight whole nations are on our side.
This is a huge improvement, compared to the
Trump administration’s Flat Earth position on climate change. Then there
was only one nation pulling
out of the Paris Climate Accord. That would be us.
12/24/17: In positive news the United Nations votes to impose harsher
sanctions on North Korea, potentially cutting imports and exports nearly to
zero. This would be proof Trump’s strategy for containment is working—save for
the fact that Trump likes to claim the United Nations is useless and all other member
countries ever do is take our money.
Meanwhile, his crazy base still believes
blue-helmeted U.N. soldiers are about to invade our shores, make us give up our
Bibles, melt down all our guns, and seat Queen Hillary on the throne.
12/25/17: Merry Christmas, everyone.
According to the Groper-in-Chief, the “War on Christmas” has been won. Liberals
will no longer kick over public Nativity scenes. Commies will cease gathering up
Christmas cards and burning them in bonfires. Barack Obama will never again
come to your house, knock politely and, upon entry, smash your favorite
ornaments.
Trump’s first tweet of the day is a rousing
cheer in the fictitious war that never was: “Merry Christmas.”
In this particular war, Trump fought heroically since there were no bullets
involved. Plus there were presents.
Harder to sue
nursing homes in cases of negligence.
Also, we should say, “Merry Christmas,
Grandma!” At the urging of lobbyists for the nursing home industry another
victory is won when Trump & Co. cut back “unnecessary” regulations.
Say, for example, Granny has an operation.
Doctors implant a medication pump in her abdomen. The sutures don’t hold. Over
a period of eight days the incision opens and the pump sticks out of Granny
like the horrible creature that pops out of that the guy’s guts in Alien.
Granny gets an infection and dies.
Well, now you can tell Granny, “Merry Christmas”
whenever you see her. Except for the minor detail that Granny is dead.
Under new rules it will be much harder to sue nursing homes in cases of
improper care or negligence.
Meanwhile, the average cost of a year’s stay in a
semi-private room in a nursing home is more than $80,000 annually. But don’t
worry. Medicare and Medicaid help pay most of the costs.
Oh, wait, Paul Ryan and the Republicans want
to cut back Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Even Fox News feels it should report on Ryan’s plan since Fox viewership
tends to run high, age-wise. The average Fox fan is an old goat interested in
commercials for Depends and Metamucil.
12/26/17: Our “favorite president”
(as he now calls himself) once again announces the demise of Obamacare. The sad
end comes at 6:58 on a December morning. “Based on the fact that
the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate has been terminated as part of
our Tax Cut Bill,” Trump tweets, “which essentially Repeals (over time)
ObamaCare, the Democrats & Republicans will eventually come together and
develop a great new HealthCare plan!”
(Proof-reading
this blog thirteen months later, I note: We’re still waiting for the GOP plan.)
12/27/17: Governor Mike Huckabee has
apparently taken up smoking the Weed. On Tuesday he watches the Darkest Hour, a film about Winston
Churchill. When the show ends he reaches for his iPhone and tweets comparison. Trump is like Churchill! This is “what
real leadership looks like.”
Several historians label the comparison
“ridiculous.”
Pinocchio Sanders tells the press corps her
dad is wrong. Churchill is nothing compared to Trump. Churchill couldn’t carry
Trump’s golf bag. In fact, Trump is ½ Churchill, ½ Gandhi and ¼ Alvin York.
After months of listening to Pinocchio’ ramblings reporters don’t even bother
to note that her fractions don’t add up.
A lawmaker in Norway provides the best
response to Governor Huckabee’s tweet. “Sure,” she says. “Churchill served his
country 55 years in parliament, 31 years as a minister and 9 as p.m. [prime
minister] He was present in 15 battles and received 14 medals of bravery. He
was one of history’s most gifted orators and won the Nobel Prize for his
writing. Totally the same thing.”
Wait, is she implying Trump is not a great
orator?
Covfefe!!!
12/28/17: Is the Idiot-in-Chief talking
about the global warming hoax again? Yes, the Idiot-in-Chief is.
It’s nippy outside—which is all it takes to convince Trump that climate change cannot be real. “In
the East,” he tweets, “it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record.
Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but
not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against.
Bundle up!”
Thank god he didn’t look in the freezer in the White House kitchen. He’d be
warning that a new Ice Age was in swing.
12/29/17: As if struck by lightning,
it dawns on Trump that he should stand up for human rights, whereas until now
he has been fine with the rights abuses of Putin, Duterte and the late
Saddam—who the president once touted for his skill in handling
terrorists. (Actually, those “terrorists” were Kurds—who have been helping the
U.S. fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria for years.)
In any case, Trump tweets:
“Many reports of
peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption
& its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian
govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express
themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtestsToday.”
This is a surprise because Trump and his base often express hatred for protesters on U.S. soil.
Black Lives Matter protesters, protesters at Trump rallies, “paid” protesters
after he assumed office, Charlottesville protesters (unless they carried Nazi
banners), NFL players protesting, sportscasters protesting, reporters reporting
on protests—the president’s contempt for those who stand up against his regime
has been clear.
Also, Trump
supporters typically hate all Muslims—which Iranians are. (See: 7/13/17; 9/13/17; 9/22/17; 10/8/17.)
12/30/17: We hear rumblings. The
president’s legal team plans to start branding General Flynn a liar. Trump once
talked regularly about what a great man the general was. That was before Flynn began
cooperating with the Mueller investigation. By now this much should be obvious.
In the twisted world of Donald J. Trump every
critic is a liar. Go to his Twitter feed and have a look.
A classic case of projection.
Who does Trump insist is lying? George Papadopoulos, who worked for his campaign, is
a liar. Hillary is a “PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.” James Comey? Wow, “so many false statements
and lies.” The Fake News media deals in “fabricated lies!” Some “POS WSJ LIAR”
needs to be taken down. There’s a “liar sleazeball” in Tennessee. Jeb Bush?
“I’d like to call him a liar, but the truth is he has no clue.”
In what psychologists would no doubt label classic
projection, Trump’s warped world is replete with liars. When the media reports
on women who accuse him of groping and sexual assault, the media is lying. His accusers
deal in “made-up stories and lies.” “Obama is a liar.” Marco Rubio is a
“liar/orator like Obama.” George Will is a liar. Edward Snowden is a “liar and
a fraud.” James Clapper is lying. Robert Mueller is lying. Leadership at the
F.B.I. and Department of Justice is comprised of men and women who can’t tell
the difference between truth and a Twinkie. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and
Bernie Sanders lie. All the students at Trump University were lying about
shitty courses. Jeff Flake was a liar. Ted Cruz was a “world class liar.”
Whole rafts of reporters made a living lying.
Just by chance, it happened these were all reporters who criticized the
Groper-in-Chief. There were flocks of liars at CNN, ABC, MSNBC, PBS, the BBC,
at Time, Newsweek, Reuters, USA Today, The New York Times, the New
York Post, the Washington Post
and any newspaper or media outlet that faulted Donald J. Trump.
12/31/17: Proving once again that it
is impossible for the Tweeter-in-Chief to go 24 hours straight without acting
like a dick, he cannot let the old year end without a petty insult to start us
off in 2018. “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter,”
he tap-tap-taps, “I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies,
haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New
Year.”
Add insincerity to his glaring list of character
flaws. (See also: 1/18/18.)
12/31/17: Proving once again that it
is impossible for the Tweeter-in-Chief to go 24 hours straight without acting
like a dick, he cannot let the old year end without a petty insult to start us
off in 2018. “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter,”
he tap-tap-taps, “I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies,
haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New
Year.”
Add insincerity to his glaring list of character
flaws. (See also: 1/18/18.)
January 1, 2018: Trump decides
to work his diplomatic magic via Twitter. In what will probably be the first of
countless rage-tweets this year he lambasts Pakistan.
The
United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid
over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit,
thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we
hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
Pakistan may be a lousy U.S. ally; but
Pakistan is a U.S. ally. U.S. and NATO supplies and troops needed in
Afghanistan pass through ports and travel
vital road links across Pakistan.
The president and many of his loyal fans tend
to be weak when it comes to geography; so he/they may not realize there is no
direct route into Afghanistan except across Iran or Pakistan or from far to the
north. Sometimes the Pakistani military takes on the Taliban which helps quite a bit.
Sometimes the Pakistani military doesn’t.
Pakistan is the only Muslim nation that
already has nuclear weapons. We want to keep the Pakistanis on our side, in
case Trump forgot.
1/2/18: A fresh year brings fresh
tweets. Starting 2018 the same way he ended 2017, Trump taps his inner fury. He’s
still attacking his predecessor in office, playing to the racist segment of his
base.
He still wants all his enemies—including
those not charged with crimes—promptly locked up:
Crooked Hillary
Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security
protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents.
Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must
finally act? Also on Comey & others
[emphasis added]
In addition, all critics must bow at his feet:
The Failing New York
Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last
chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, “to give
the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or
interests involved.” Get...
....impartial
journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent
“sources,” and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the
next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your
readers for a job poorly done! GL
*
FINALLY, ANGERED by the fact the dictator of
North Korea has claimed to have nuclear weapons ready at his fingertips, the
President of the United States lets rip with this my-penis-is-bigger screed:
My nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than yours.
North
Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk
at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please
inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more
powerful one than his, and my Button works!
At this point, sensible human beings have to
ask. How far off the deep end President Trump has dived? Is the pressure of
doing a job for which he has no real skill causing the increase in erratic
behavior?
Is narcissism metastasizing?
Does Trump not realize the devastation that any single nuclear weapon might cause?
At best, assuming we could decapitate the enemy regime with a sudden strike, an
atomic bomb dropped on the North Korean capital could incinerate a million men,
women and children in a flash. And one bomb surely won’t suffice to finish
North Korea.
Does the Narcissist-in-Chief care about the damage
that might befall the United States? Does he realize what could happen here? He
says the nuclear button is his. “My
button works.” Is this the same argument he had with “Little Marco” about
hand-size—only this time involving nukes?
Michael Leiter, former director of the National
Counterterrorism Center labels the tweet “infantile.” Trump’s national security
team is working to “control the drunk,” Leiter says, and keep him from ramming
the car “into a wall.”
1/3/18: The President of the United States wakes up in a chipper mood.
He yawns once, feels the cold side of the bed where Melania used to sleep, and
grabs his iPhone to tweet some sweet Trump love. “Such respect for the people of
Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government,” he types. “You will
see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!”
Of course, even a casual observer should be able to see
irony. This is the same man who made it one of his first acts in office to try
to insure no one from Iran ever visited the United States. His long history of
anti-Muslim tirades—aimed at all members of that religion, round the world,
which would include, according to
the U.S. State Department, pretty much everyone living in Iran—have long set a
starkly different tone.
Steve Bannon says Jared and Don, Jr.
committed treason.
Trump’s day soon spirals out of control and skunks
begin spraying each other. Skunk #1 (Steve Bannon), once a key campaign
strategist, is quoted at length in a new book, Fire and Fury. Among
other gems, he calls Ivanka “dumb as a brick.” Bannon suggests her husband Jared
and brother Don Jr. may have committed treason by holding the now infamous
meeting with representatives of the Russian government in June 2016.
(At this point I think we can all agree that Tiffany and
Barron are looking more and more like the best children in a dysfunctional
clan.)
Naturally, when a skunk sprays Skunk #2 (Donald J. Trump),
he sprays back ten times harder. The president works on a series of drafts of a
statement blasting Bannon. Finally satisfied, he insists Bannon had nothing to
do with his victory in November. Trump won the election all by himself. Bannon
never had a bit of influence while he worked in the White House.
And when Bannon lost his job, he “lost his mind.”
Press Secretary Pinocchio can hardly believe her
ears. It’s a “ridiculous assertion,” she says of Bannon’s claim.
1/4/18: The president decides he can’t let an entire day go
by without undercutting fundamental democratic institutions. So he does what he
does best. He studies policy.
Ah, hahaha, I amuse
myself.
Of course he doesn’t. He
tweets. Today his topic is rigged elections. Did you know his Commission on
Voter Fraud just disbanded?
“Many mostly
Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the
Commission On Voter Fraud,” Trump tweet-moans. “They fought hard that the
Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people
are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.”
(For the biggest case of voter fraud in
recent memory, see: 12/4/18.)
You may not remember, but last summer a handful of
states, a mere 44, refused
to provide all the information Trump and his enablers demanded...also the
District of Columbia. Alabama did comply
with the Trump administration order which makes it even more depressing for the
president to realize accused child molester Roy Moore still couldn’t get
elected.
Kansas also complied. Kansas is the great state where
the head of the Commission on Voter Fraud, Kris Kobach, got his start cleaning
up all the rampant fraud in state elections. He worked like a right-wing
beaver, Kris Kobach of Kansas did. In a matter of only four or five years he
managed to secure
nine whole convictions for voter fraud,
over the course of multiple elections, in a state with a population of 1.8
million.
Trump tweets once and
then mulls his course. What to do next with his valuable presidential time? He
decides to flog a favorite target. Minorities. No, I mean kneeling NFL players.
(They just happen to be almost all African American.) Really, who could
possibly imagine in their wildest fantasies that Donald J. Trump is playing to
the racist segment of his base? (See:
British press reaction: 11/29/17; 1/13/18.)
More
than any player, Don Jr. and Jared disrespected the flag.
In any case, he tweets
again, this time providing a link to the picture below, from last September. His tweet
reads, “So beautiful....Show this picture to
the NFL players who still kneel!”
Let me interject a
moment. Much respect, I say, to all who have fallen in the fight for American
freedom and to their loved ones who paid an almost equally unbearable price.
Still, as a patriotic
American, who enlisted in the Marines in 1968, I can see why NFL players
protest. If I were to kneel during the National Anthem, would I be
disrespecting the flag, or would I be
standing up by kneeling down. I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment right
to protest. You know who I think really, really disrespected our flag. I think
it was Don Jr. and Jared, when they met with those Russians in hopes of getting
dirt on Hillary Clinton. (See: 1/3/18.)
As for minority players
kneeling, Mr. Trump, perhaps they’re protesting this kind of symbolism and
support for your positions, and your disinclination to condemn such
individuals:
Or it might be they’re
protesting against this kind of police abuse (and no, not all police are
abusive):
 |
| Walter Scott, unarmed and fleeing from police. He still gets shot in the back. |
Again, all sympathy to
that soldier’s poor wife (pictured above) and to the child who will never know
its father.
That doesn’t mean Walter
Scott’s family doesn’t also have a grave to visit and to weep over.
*
LAWYERS FOR THE
PRESIDENT go to court to try to halt publication of the new book, Fire and Fury.
Because that’s what we
do in Trumpistan.
We ban books.
*
THE DEPARTMENT OF
INTERIOR decides to open up almost all U.S. coastal waters to offshore
drilling. This plan, carefully crafted by Secretary Ryan Zinke, is a work of
genius. (See: 1/9/18.)
1/5/18: It’s official. The Greatest-Job-Creator-Ever,
Donald J. Trump, watched in awe (of himself) as he turned the U.S. economy
around in 2017 with no help from anyone else.
He inherited a mess when
he sat his chunky butt down in the Oval Office. Now he has added jobs for 87 months
in a row, starting in October 2010.
Yes. He did it all himself.
Trump went back in time
and started adding jobs at a furious pace. He saved the country and his
hair looked fabulous:
Jobs added:
2011 2,075,000
2012 2,174,000
2013 2,302,000
2014 3,006,000
2015 2,729,000
2016 2,318,000
2017 2,153,000
Of course, sharp-eyed economists might
wonder: Is the Wizard of Washington losing his touch? As the Bureau of Labor
Statistics notes, fewer jobs were added
this year than in any year since 2011. But you figure if Trump keeps firing
White House aides who call him an “idiot” or “moron” or “f---ing moron,” he can
definitely recapture his mojo as the new year progresses.
*
DONALD J. TRUMP wasn’t satisfied just adding
jobs in the past! He also made sure 2017 was the safest year in commercial
airline history. Earlier this week he went to Twitter to save lives. “Since
taking office,” he tap-tapped, “I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation.
Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best
and safest year on record!”
Trump saves lives around the world.
Not a single commercial airline passenger died anywhere in the world in 2017.
This was a first. Trump did that. Trump made sure no planes crashed in England
or Ireland. Trump kept planes from plummeting to earth in Bulgaria, Botswana
and Bangladesh. If you were on a plane, flying to Moscow (not that anyone
working for the Trump campaign did), Trump kept you aloft.
It also turns out, Trump kept Americans safe
in the past. He made sure no commercial
airliner crashed—and no passenger died on U.S. soil in 2014. He did it again in
2015. Wow. Then he pulled off a similar feat in 2016, even with that Kenyan guy
working hard to make sure every plane went smash.
*
We also learn that under Trump’s leadership, the E.P.A. cleaned up way more Superfund
toxic waste sites. In 2016 only two sites were cleaned up and “delisted.”
But this year? Seven!
Seven were cleaned up!!
Again, Fox News fans were treated to this
fabulous news—real news, not “Fake News”—and did the right-wing math. Trump had
cleaned up fifteen more sites than Obama the year before.
Sadly, the “Fake News” folks at Time tried to throw shade on this
achievement. Those rotten reporters claimed the cleanup work done at those
sites was finished before Donald J. Trump took office. They fakely pointed out
that Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to head the E.P.A., was simply the one who officially delisted the sites. Then the
hacks at Time lost their minds. Like
Steve Bannon!
That sloppy bastard!
They failed to credit President
Past-Present-and-Future with all the excellent work he had done during the
years Obama was in the Oval Office, writing letters back home to Mombasa. During
Obama’s two terms in the White House an average of ten superfund sites were delisted every year.
Well, Trump fans know the truth! Trump cleaned
up those sites himself. He scooped up toxic chemicals with his bare hands.
1/6/18: In case you missed it scientists declared 2017 the
second hottest year, globally, since records have been compiled.
The four hottest years
on record are 2016, 2017, 2015 and 2014. They are like “Melania Hot.”
Trump placed
Bannon on the National Security Council
Meanwhile, Trump is
arguing about all the negative comments in the new book, Fire and Fury. First, he has to go after “Sloppy Steve” Bannon—who has
offered the opinion that Don Jr. and Jared Kushner might be guilty of
treason—and, if not, were “unpatriotic” for sure. Well, now we know. Trump
insists Bannon is a terrible person. He always knew Bannon was a bum. That’s
why, on January 29, 2017, just nine days after being sworn in, Trump placed
Bannon on the National Security Council. At the same time, as reported by Time,
Trump “streamlined” the NSC “by removing several officials, including the Director
of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
While Bannon
was sitting in on NSC meetings, General Flynn was doing noble service as
National Security Advisor and giving Trump big, beautiful advice. That is, when
he wasn’t busy secretly taking $530,000 to devote
his efforts to working for the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn was
soon fired after “Fake News” reporters revealed he had been lying to Vice
President Jesus all along. Oddly enough, the White House knew about the lying
for 18 days before letting the liar go—and Bannon got axed from the NSC only in
April 2017.
Anyway,
I’m sure all Americans, liberal, conservative, and Trump’s K.K.K. fans, can
agree. This proves the president has
impeccable judgment. The best judgment ever! In fact, nothing in the book Fire and Fury should scare us. The
President of the United States is definitely not a nut job.
1/7/18: Trump spends a quiet Sunday morning at church. No,
I’m joking. He’s tweeting!!! “I’ve had to put up with
the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for
President,” he grumbles. “Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a
totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it
well. So will I!”
Luckily, we learn his plan to hold his own awards
ceremony, like the Golden Globes, only without the actresses in black,
protesting sexual harassment, is speeding ahead. Again he tweets:
The
Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the
Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th,
rather than this coming Monday. The
interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater [emphasis
added] than anyone could have anticipated!
Trump spends
an hour on four more posts—one correcting his own misuse of the word
“consensual”—to thank Michael Goodwin for praising him in a New York Post column. By now we know the
drill. Any criticism of Trump = Fake News. All fawning praise = excellent
journalism. For example, Goodwin insists we should look at the stock market boom
under Trump. Up thousands of points! Had Clinton been elected the market would
have gone straight into the toilet!
Just like it did under Obama.
Remember how the market began to plunge—because of
Obama—starting on October 9, 2007,
when President George W. Bush was in office? From a peak
that day of 14,164 it skidded to 6,547 by March 9, 2009.
Somehow, that drop
in value—from $22 trillion to $9 trillion—was the Kenyan guy’s fault. It was
his fault even though he had been in office for only 48 days when the market
hit bottom. By the time Obama left the White House, after ruining the stock
market and the job market we had suffered a measly increase
on the Dow to 19,804 and added jobs for a lousy 76 months in a row.
1/8/18: The “Sloppy Steve Apology Tour” continues. Former
top Trump campaign strategist Bannon now says he is really sorry he criticized
members of the Trump family and got quoted in a book. He says he was wrong when
he said Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were possibly guilty of
treason when they took a June 2016 meeting with Russians.
Bannon says Don Jr. wasn’t
“unpatriotic” at all. That’s not what he meant—even if it is what he said. “Donald Trump Jr is both a patriot and a good
man,” he insisted
this week. Don Jr. and Jared
weren’t wrong for “forgetting” the meeting took place (See: 7/8-7/14/17.)
They weren’t being
treasonous when they put out a false cover story about the meeting being
focused on adoption issues.
No. Once it became clear
he was likely to lose his Breitbart job, Bannon realized he was wrong about
those fine boys. “My comments
were aimed at Paul Manafort,” he explained lamely, “a seasoned campaign
professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He
should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends.”
How could Don Jr. or
Jared know you can’t trust Russians? Unless they asked pretty much anyone in
the U.S. intelligence community, or consulted a newspaper in the last ten
years?
1/9/18: It only took a year of random tweeting and general
dithering, but the Trump administration is ready to launch an attack on
America’s biggest drug problem! Attorney General Jeff Sessions is gearing up to
win the “War on Weed.”
Of course nothing
Sessions will do will help the three million Americans who suffer from type-1
diabetes. In recent years they have seen the price of the life-saving insulin
they need skyrocket. Eli Lily has managed to drive
prices up by 700 percent in just twenty years.
Thirty dollars to
produce—you can buy two for $600.
Nor will Sessions’
attack on legalized pot help children subject to severe asthma attacks,
children with dangerous peanut allergies and bee sting reactions, or others who
must keep EpiPens handy. These pens are used to mitigate life-threatening
seizures. According to industry insiders it is estimated these devices, marketed
by Mylan, cost no more than $30 to produce. When Mylan packages
them up, two to a pack, they charge $600. Even better, for Mylan’s bottom line,
the pens lose effectiveness after eighteen months. Then they must be replaced.
Not even total victory
in the “War on Weed” will help those who take Humira for crippling rheumatoid
arthritis or Crohn’s disease. Since 2012 the price has doubled. Humira now sells for $38,000 for a twelve-month supply. That price is
set by AbbVie, a company spun off from Abbott Labs in 2013. When asked to
comment for a story by The New York Times,
company officials politely declined. They may have been busy counting their
money. AbbieVie had $25.6 billion in revenues in 2016.
Almost two-thirds came
from sale of Humira.
Of course, we all know
drug companies are run by fine business people and caring human persons.
Fortunately, with a GOP Congress
and a Republican in the White House, we no longer need fret about unnecessary
government regulation. Also, businesses will get huge, permanent tax cuts,
because clearly they are barely surviving. Two syringes of Humira cost $522 in
South Africa, $822 in Switzerland and $1,362 in Great Britain, where socialized
medicine is in play.
Here we have the freedom
to pay whatever price Big Pharma sets. This is why two syringes in the United
States go for the bargain rate of $2,669.
That’s how capitalism is meant to work.
*
IN OTHER GREAT NEWS, we
can celebrate the tax cuts coming for Big Pharma’s top executives. Under Trump,
hardworking CEO’s like Richard A. Gonzalez of AbbVie will finally catch a
much-needed break. In 2016, the last year for which public records are
available, Gonzalez earned a paltry $20,970,924. You wonder how he managed to
get by, earning only $89,913,309 from 2012 to 2016.
With overtime, Mylan
chairman earns $97,600,615 for the year.
And if you want to
increase the price of Epi-Pens by 400%, as Mylan has in just seven years, you
need a bold leader.
Mylan has been blessed to have such a man. That would be Chairman Robert
Coury, who apparently worked a few hours of overtime in 2016, and with
time-and-half fattening his paycheck, earned $97,600,615. This brought his
total compensation, from 2012 to 2016, to $181,267,633, which allowed Coury to
scrape by.
Of course, if the
government hadn’t been so busy regulating them unfairly, the drug companies
might have had a little more cash to hand out to ordinary workers. Mylan, for
one, had to pay a $465 million fine, just because the federal
government launched an investigation in 2014 under Commie Obama.
The original complaint
accused Mylan of defrauding the Medicare system to the tune of $1.27 billion
over a span of ten years. That would be $1.27 billion in taxpayer-provided dollars.
You can find similar sad
stories if you check out compensation at companies like Eli
Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers
Squibb and Purdue
Pharma to name a few.
I warn you, however. You
will probably have difficulty reading as your eyes will be filled with tears.
You will wonder how
these brave executives carry on, what with the government suing them all the
time for fraud, false claims and dangerous practices. Take Purdue Pharma. The
State of Ohio is suing Purdue and four other companies on grounds they misled
patients about the dangers of various powerful painkillers. Purdue has been the target of regulatory “abuse”
since 2007. That year the company was forced to pay $634.5 million in fines after
investigators indicted Purdue executives for misleading the public about the
addiction risks related to use of OxyContin.
Since 1999, of course, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have quadrupled.
Liberal haters blame corporations. Trump and his base know the truth.
Who killed all those
Americans with Oxycontin?
Labor unions!
How do we keep young
people safe going forward? Less government regulation of the drug industry!
And stop them from
smoking weed!
*
THE PLAN PUT IN PLACE on
January 4, to allow offshore drilling in almost all U.S. coastal waters,
hits a snag. The Republican governor of Florida says he doesn’t want drilling off his coasts.
Secretary of the
Interior Ryan Zinke has no choice but to agree, since the governor is a
Republican and planning a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. Also, President
Trump might not like looking at oil rigs pumping away, just off the coast of
Mar-a-Lago.
Drilling off Florida’s
coast is a bad idea.
Drilling off Alaska—or
California—or any other state? That is still a cool idea. Zinke loves drilling.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
1/10/18: In an effort to put to rest reports he gibbers during cabinet meetings, Trump allows
cameras to roll during a lengthy sit-down with members of Congress. For 55
minutes the world watches as he acts presidential. He even says he wants to
save DACA, noting what is needed is a “bill of love.”
For
55 minutes Trump acts presidential.
At
one point, Trump stares into the cameras and admits he is open to comprehensive
immigration reform. He as much as says, “I’ll sign just about anything Congress
will put on my desk. I’m getting bored talking about policy. Can someone
please fetch me a cheeseburger!”
Even
more surprising than what he says is what he doesn’t. The president doesn’t insult
anyone during the meeting. He doesn’t threaten to lock Hillary up. He doesn’t insist
there’s no collusion or conclusion or conflagration.
He
seems almost…normal.
(I,
for one, begin to wonder if maybe Mitch McConnell has slipped a mickey into the
president’s Diet Coke.)
Of
course, just as water runs downhill and Planet Earth revolves around the sun,
Trump can’t act normal for long. His bile rises again when he hears Senator
Diane Feinstein has released transcripts of testimony given months ago by GPS
Fusion founders to a Senate investigating committee. (Fusion is involved with
the Steele dossier in case you don’t recall. And the Steele dossier, which has neither
been verified nor disproven, makes the president look bad.)
Naturally,
Vladimir’s Secret Santa feels he must lash out. You
know what’s coming!
Trump
Tweets!
It
turns out the leader of the executive branch has a number of grievances he feels
compelled to air. He isn’t just mad at Feinstein. He’s fuming over the actions
of a federal judge who temporarily blocked any move to roll back DACA protections for the 800,000
Dreamers, as they are often called.
At
this point, the whole “acting presidential” shtick goes out the White House
window. At 9:11 a.m. Tweet #1 is birthed: “It just shows everyone how broken
and unfair our Court
System is [emphasis added] when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA)
always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by
higher courts.”
In
fairness to the Tweeter-in-Chief, those of us who understand the way the U.S. Constitution works realize he
may eventually prevail in the face of this legal challenge. We also understand the system is designed to work as it
does, to limit any one man or woman’s
power—and clearly the way it works infuriates this president. Had he paid
the least attention in American history in seventh or eighth grade—or had he
listened when an aide tried to explain the Constitution following his election—he might
know everything I’m about to say.
First,
every person has a right to go
to court, either to seek legal remedy or in their own defense. A federal case almost
always begins in a U.S. District Court. The party that loses may challenge the
court’s finding and carry the case to the U.S. Circuit Court.
From
there the case may wend its way to Washington, D.C. and end up on the docket of
the U.S. Supreme Court. This is how the system has worked for 229 years.
A pain in his
cheeseburger-inflated ass.
Trump
has repeatedly balked at court decisions that stymie his moves
or don’t suit his tastes (see: 12/3/17).
He has gone so far as to label the U.S. justice system a “disgrace.” In point
of fact, this triple level of
protection and carefully-crafted web of judicial procedures are glories of our
system of government. And this system is undergirded by respect for rule of
law.
Trump
doesn’t like this system.
Think how dangerous this is. The President
of the United States hates the way people who oppose his policies or actions are
able to retain lawyers and head for
court. He considers legal protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights
impediments. He has said he wants to torture suspects
to make them talk. If NFL players protest
against him he labels them “sons of bitches”
and says they should lose their jobs. If the courts would work the way he wants
he would already have Hillary, who he has repeatedly labeled a
“criminal,” locked up tight—and maybe Barack
Obama. He might even throw reporters in
jail for fun.
For Trump, the First
Amendment has proved to be a terrible pain in his cheeseburger-inflated ass.
Having
vented his spleen, the “very stable genius” in the Oval Office moves on to a
fresh target of wrath. He flexes his Twitter fingers, cracks his knuckles, and goes
after the legislative branch. Specifically, Senator Feinstein.
Tweet #2 comes at 10:00
a.m.:
The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on
numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been
found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way [emphasis
added] totally without authorization, is a disgrace. Must have tough
Primary!
Fourteen
minutes later Tweet #3 follows:
The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history
continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was
no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing
at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take
control [emphasis added]!
Think
about what this man is tweeting. Would Trump like to lock up Feinstein, too? He
has already fired James Comey because he was heading an investigation into the
Trump campaign. What does the president mean when he says he wants Republicans
to “take control?”
One
party rule?
*
IN
RELATED NEWS, President Thin Skin makes it clear the free press is an obstruction he’d love
to squash.
He
can’t say it quite so bluntly; but you know what’s in his heart.
He does offer this. He wants a federal libel law enacted—just in
time to protect him. (Has someone been talking to him about the Alien and Sedition
Acts of 1798, I immediately ask myself?)
Trump explains:
Our current
libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or
American fairness. You can’t say things that are false—knowingly false—and be able
to smile as money pours into your bank account. We’re going to take a
very, very strong look at that. And I think what the American people want
to see is fairness.
That’s right. The American people do want
fairness. That’s why most of us don’t like a man who lies flagrantly almost
every day and then wants to shut down the press for reporting what he does. (See: 3/15/18.)
1/11/18: President Trump’s morning
gets off to a good start. At 6:33 he is already hard at work, tweet-slamming
Hillary. Ten minutes later he cites positive news from a Quinnipiac poll: “…66%
of people feel the economy is ‘Excellent or Good.’ That is the highest number ever recorded by this poll.” In other words, two
out of three Americans love Trump.
Unfortunately, the Tweeter-in-Chief lacks the
attention span to study the poll or he’s being devious in what he passes off as
truth.
You can study the numbers yourself if you don’t
see the point. A few additional observations from the same poll:
By a 57-40 percent margin, American voters
say Trump is “not fit to be president.”
Sixteen percent of voters give the president
an “A” for his first year! Yea, Trump! Sadly, 39 percent give him an “F.”
*
IF TRUMP somehow happened to pick up a copy
of The New York Times he might feel a
little worse than he already does. In a Times
review of David Frum’s book, Trumpocracy, The Corruption of the American
Republic, one learns that Frum, a conservative, warns that the Trump
administration has “imported the spirit of thuggery, crookedness and dictatorship
into the very core of the American state.” Trump has instituted a “regime of deceit and
brutishness.”
*
“All these people from shithole countries.”
EVEN ASSUMING Trump doesn’t read the day only
gets worse. In an afternoon meeting with
members of both political parties, discussion turns to renewal of DACA and
comprehensive immigration reform. Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin
suggest extending protection to various immigrant groups, including people from
El Salvador, Haiti and Africa. The president gets frustrated and lets his
feelings boil up, as he often does. “Why are we having all these people from
shithole countries come here?” he asks. “Why do we need more Haitians?” he
wonders, hearing they’d be protected under the bipartisan deal. “Take them
out!”
Norwegians are fine!
The White House does not initially deny the
report.
1/12/18: A new day dawns. A brand
new cover story is ready. Trump denies on Twitter that he used the term
“shithole” in a meeting with lawmakers. Yes, he admits, his language he was
“tough.” He says the “shithole” story is made up. He never insulted Haitians.
“I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians.” All he wants to do is kick
60,000 of them out of this country. Other than that….
The new cover story takes a major hit when
Senator Durbin says, no, Trump did use the term “shithole” and more
than once. “I cannot imagine that in the history
of that hallowed room [the Oval Office],” Durbin tells reporters, “where the
president of the United States goes to work every day, there has ever been a
conversation quite like that. It was vile, it was hateful, it was racist.”
Two Republican lawmakers in
the room issue a non-denial denial. Who, us? We don’t remember
what Trump said.
“All those attending know what I said and how I
feel.”
Senator Graham issues
a lengthy statement which all but says, “Durbin is telling the truth. Trump is
a liar.”
Here are the key lines: “Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly
to him yesterday. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I
said and how I feel. I’ve always
believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals….Diversity
has always been our strength, not our weakness. In reforming immigration we cannot
lose these American Ideals.”
It doesn’t help Trump’s case when Tim Scott,
South Carolina’s other GOP senator, tells reporters, Graham confirmed the shithole comments to him.
Scott calls the president’s response “incredibly disappointing.”
I’m going to go out on a liberal limb and
call it LYING.
1/13/17: What can the president do?
He can’t apologize (see: 1/12/18).
It’s not in his repertoire. He’ll have to ride this “shithole” controversy out.
Trump tries to tweet his way out of a hole. Not that hole! Some other hole. Twice
he tweet-blames Democrats for destroying the chance to save DACA.
On the world stage reaction is universally
negative. The African Union, representing 55 nations, says the president’s
comments were “clearly racist.” The Union statement continues: “The African Union
Mission condemns the comments in the
strongest term [emphasis added] and demands a retraction as well as an
apology not only to Africans, but to all people of African descent around the
globe.” The Vatican calls Trump’s words, “particularly
harsh and offensive.” Rupert Colville, United Nations human rights spokesman, tells
reporters, “There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss
entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes,’ whose entire populations, who
are not white, are therefore not welcome.” A European lawmaker suggests Trump “had
forgotten to engage his brain before talking.”
Even Republican leaders feel compelled to say something. House Speaker Paul
Ryan looks like he’s sucking a pickle when asked for reaction. Showing that
famous Ryan Spine, he says Trump’s words are “unfortunate” and “unhelpful.” Yes,
most Americans agree. Racist comments are “unhelpful.”
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele says the president is a racist. “At this point, the evidence is
incontrovertible.”
Republican Congresswoman Mia Love, herself of
Haitian-American descent, says Trump’s remarks were “unkind,
divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values.” She adds, “This
behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation.”
Someone must be drugging President Trump!
Even Norwegians are not impressed. Says one
veteran journalist, Trump’s comments fall “into a pattern of nativist and very
unpleasant language from a poorly qualified president, if not worse…. [He] seems
to relish in derogatory remarks about others and praise for himself.”
Meanwhile, on his radio show, right-wing nut job Alex Jones explains his latest
conspiracy theory. Someone is covertly drugging Trump.
The president isn’t really a racist idiot. The Deep State folks are
slipping hallucinogens into his Diet Coke.
 |
| Stormy Daniels. Trump wouldn't lie to us, right? |
1/14/18: Critics of the
president spend the day bringing up examples of good Americans who were born in
“shithole” countries. Some cite the example set by Emmanuel Mensah, an
immigrant from Ghana, and a member of the Army National Guard, who died recently after rescuing four
people from a burning building, and going after a fifth. A photo of Alix
Idrache, from his graduation ceremony at West Point, and a Haitian immigrant
himself, goes viral.
Idrache captures the essence of
what has always made the United States great when he posts an explanation of
the scene on the school’s Instagram page.
Three things
came to mind and led to those tears. The first is where I started. I am from
Haiti and never did I imagine that such honor would be one day bestowed on me.
The second is where I am. Men and women who have preserved the very essence of
the human condition stood in that position and took the same oath...
The third is my
future. Shortly after leave, I will report to Ft. Rucker to start flight
school. Knowing that one day I will be a pilot is humbling beyond words. I
could not help but be flooded with emotions knowing that I will be leading
these men and women who are willing to
give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life [emphasis
added]. To me, that is the greatest honor. Once again, thank you.
Speaking of immigration—and DACA—and service
to country—it would be remiss to omit this. Plenty of DACA individuals have enlisted in the U.S. military. Even Fox
News is forced to admit, “President Trump’s decision to end an Obama-era program
shielding illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children has left hundreds of military service
members [emphasis added] facing an uncertain future.”
*
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL,
citing new evidence, reports again that in October 2016 a lawyer for Trump paid a
porn star $130,000 for silence. The Journal
explains that payment was made through a client-trust account handled through
the City National Bank of Los Angeles. In return the porn star agreed not to
tell her story about a consensual sexual relationship she had with Trump in
2006.
This was just around the time Melania
was recovering from the birth of her first child.
1/15: Today marks President Trump’s
first Martin Luther King Jr. Day as leader of the Free World. He has no public events scheduled—probably
because he doesn’t want anyone asking, “Mr. President, are you a racist? Are
you ready to come out of the closet, as it were?”
In the meantime, a White House source is floating a new cover line for
the president. He didn’t say “shithole.” He said “shithouse.”
See. That’s better.
Senator Graham continues to try to keep a
path open to a DACA settlement. That means he’s avoiding throwing Trump under
the bus. Graham does take a verbal poke at GOP colleagues in the room during
the meeting with Trump. The Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier begins an article this way:
After taking the
weekend to reflect on a combative White House meeting in which President Donald
Trump reportedly referred to African countries as “shithole countries,” U.S. Sen.
Lindsey Graham said Monday he is even more determined to
reach an immigration deal with hardliners in his own party.
In his most
extensive comments yet about Thursday's explosive Oval Office meeting, the
Seneca Republican again declined to confirm whether Trump specifically used the
term “shithole” to describe the countries.
But, in what
appeared to be a direct jab at Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, Graham said, “My
memory hasn’t evolved [emphasis
added]. I know what was said and I know what I said.” Sen. Tim Scott, R-North
Charleston, said Friday that Graham told him media reports of what Trump said
were “basically accurate.”
Meanwhile, the president spends the morning
at Mar-a-Lago. Then he heads for his golf course at West Palm Beach.
 |
| When was America great? When segregation meant you couldn't sit at a lunch counter? |
1/16/18: In a Senate hearing,
lawmakers try to dig out answers about exactly what Trump said in the recent
meeting on immigration. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (I think
that’s a Norwegian name), says, well...okay, she did hear “rough language” during the meeting. When his turn to
question Nielsen comes, Senator Durbin asks what that might have been. Nielsen
can’t remember. Trump might have said shithole or Shinola or shin splints.
Durbin probed with a series of questions.
Nielsen had a clear memory when it came to presidential comments on policy
positions. Trump was the best! She admitted Trump had spoken about Norwegian
immigrants and talked about how hard they all worked.
Might we surmise, then, that Trump posited
the idea that dark-skinned immigrants did not?
If she heard “tough language” from Trump,
could Nielsen remember any specific words the president employed? Nielsen said
she could not. Okay, Durbin tried again. Had she heard him use “rough language?” Nielsen immediately answered no. How
about Senator Graham? Nielsen said yes. What a potty mouth! Durbin asked, “Did
you hear Senator Graham repeat exactly the words the president had used?”
Nielsen replied, “Uh... what...I think I
just went deaf!”
1/17/18: The stock market is going
strong. The job market has tightened. Nevertheless, as of today, Trump has an average
approval rating of 39.6%. This can be chalked up to the fact that many
Americans think he’s dishonest—and a dishonest racist, at that.
Shortly before noon, Senator Jeff Flake steps
to the Senate well and delivers a blistering indictment against President
Trump. In his speech he compares Trump’s attacks on the free press to the
tactics of Joseph Stalin.
Правда…(see:
Fox News.)
1/18/18: Can we assume the
president woke up lonely in bed again? I think we can. In Touch magazine is running a 5,000 word interview with Stormy
Daniels, the porn queen who says she slept with then-businessman Trump in 2006.
FLOTUS cannot be amused.
In other news, Senator John McCain is the
second GOP senator in two days to take the president to task for attacking the free press. In
an opinion piece for the Washington Post,
he writes:
[The president] has
threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing “fake
news awards” upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with [emphasis added]. Whether Trump
knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who
are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key
pillars of democracy.
McCain warns that dictators round the world
are listening to the words of our president. Then they launch their own attacks
modeled on his “Fake News” campaign. As it is here in America today, in their
countries, “Fake News” is simply any news Vladimir, Kim Jong-un and Bashar
al-Assad don’t like.
“For decades,” McCain points out, “dissidents
and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into
government corruption to further their fight for freedom.”
That’s still true in America—for now. We want
Fox News to cover the Benghazi story. We want the free press to unmask the
creepy behaviors of Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly. We want CNN to put hard
questions to Trump and his surrogates and not feed us a steady diet of stories of
Trumpian greatness. At the state and local level we want a free press to unmask
crooks in the New York statehouse, to comment on the sexual misdeeds of the
Missouri governor, to give Chris Christie a thumping for masterminding Bridgegate.
Unless we have our heads up our posteriors we want the press to follow leads in
the Russian investigation and see where it ends.
We can’t know yet where that is. No one can.
The news isn’t “fake” a Washington Post
reporter recently said.
“The news is what you can prove.”
1/19/18: As of midnight, on Day 365
of the Trump presidency, the U.S. government is closed. The president cannot
cut a budget or a DACA deal or even cut a new car deal.
“SAD!”
You need those CAPS!
Oddly enough, the President of the United
States does not issue a single tweet for the day, despite having tweeted 2,608 times since taking office. Has he ever touched
on the topic of a government shutdown before?
Let’s try a quick search of his Twitter archive. He has. On August 9, 2013, he speaks his mind for the first
time—and, again, you can’t argue with CAPS: “FACT – the reason why
Americans have to worry about a government shutdown is because Obama
refuses to pass a budget.”
A series of thirteen related tweets follows
by the end of October 2013. From Citizen Trump we learn the shutdown is all the
fault of the Democrats. Still, shutdowns aren’t that bad. “There have been 17 shutdowns
since 1976,” Trump tweets, “14 under Reagan and Bush with Democrat Congresses
who wanted more spending.”
He does not mention the s-word (well, that
s-word) again for almost four years. On May 2, 2017, however, he again tweets:
“either [sic] elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to
51%. Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’
in September to fix mess!”
It’s a little late; but now he has his wish.
 |
| Could there be a more fitting way to end Trump's first year in office? |
End Part III, go to Part I and Part II.
REMEMBER THAT AS WE BEGIN A SECOND YEAR OF LIFE IN TRUMPISTAN.
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