So Much Winning: Days 101-200 of Trump

Well, if we weren’t sick of winning after the first hundred days in Trumpistan (covered in a previous post), we must be puking our guts out today. We are now 200 days into the first term of President Donald J. Trump.

Unfortunately, if we’ve learned anything about this President in the last 200 days, it’s that the man is probably nuts. Nutty or not, this much is clear. Donald J. Trump represents a grave threat to our freedoms and values.

This post is of epic length. Feel free to skip around. 

4/30/17: The president proves that anyone with at least one good finger or thumb can run the greatest nation in the world. He spends Day 101 in office digging into healthcare policy, perusing thick policy books…no, no, we’re kidding!

He’s tweeting!

At 7:09 a.m. he sends out this gem: “The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction. They are only interested in themselves and not in what’s best for U.S...”

At 7:28 he pecks away again: “You can’t compare anything to ObamaCare because ObamaCare is dead. Dems want billions to go to Insurance Companies to bail out donors.... New.”

Having exhausted his limit of 140 characters and plumbed the depths of his knowledge, Trump pauses. Perhaps he takes time out to polish off a bowl of Fruit Loops.

Four minutes later, the American people are treated to another tweet: “…healthcare plan is on its way. Will have much lower premiums & deductibles while at the same time taking care of pre-existing conditions!” (See: 5/4/17.)

May 1, 2017: This is Loyalty Day. Trump proclaimed it all by himself! He wants all Americans—well, maybe not the Muslim ones—to “recognize and reaffirm our allegiance to the principles” upon which our nation was built. “The United States stands as the world’s leader in upholding the ideals of freedom, equality, and justice,” the proclamation for the day reads.

Trump invites a cutthroat to the White House.

Oddly enough, Trump also invites Rodrigo Duterte, cutthroat president of the Philippines, to visit the White House.

You know they’ll have chemistry. Duterte is anti-free press and once called Obama a “son of a whore.”

Sure, people who deal in “fake news” will criticize. They will tell you Duterte is a cold-blooded killer. Time says that as part of Duterte’s aggressive anti-drug campaign, in 97% of drug busts, police kill all suspects, not to mention innocent bystanders who might have criticized Duterte. Amnesty International labels such tactics “extrajudicial murder.”

Reuters reports that Duterte said in his Inaugural Address that his country was infested with 3.7 million drug addicts. Later, he told a reporter, “I have to slaughter these idiots for destroying my country.” 

Anyway, it’s Loyalty Day, when we celebrate America’s core values and Duterte has been invited to the White House for a sleepover. He’s the guy who said he was going to “forget the laws on human rights” once he took office. 

5/2/17:  Trump tries on his tin-pot dictator hat. He’s frustrated (after three months) with the slow pace of reforming the country. Hey, why not change Senate rules to give the GOP total control?

He tweets out a call for the Senate to ditch its 60-vote rule, required to pass many kinds of legislation. The votes aren’t there. “We....either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%.”

If that doesn’t work, how about this idea: “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” 

You read that right. The president wants to shut down the government if he can’t have his way.

5/3/17: We learn that former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates is preparing to testify before Congress. She will indicate “that she gave a forceful warning to the White House regarding then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn nearly three weeks [emphasis added] before he was fired, contradicting the administration’s version of events, sources familiar with her account tell CNN.”

Yates will tell Congress she informed White House lawyers, “Flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia in conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak.”

The general’s “misleading comments,” she will warn, would make him “potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia.”

Postscript: Yates was soon fired for her pains. Trump & Co. then blamed the fact Flynn was working in the White House on President Obama, because Flynn won a security clearance while Obama was in office.

All Trump did was hire the man to serve in his campaign and make him his National Security Adviser.

Yep. It was Obama’s fault for sure.

5/4/17: After seven years, the House of Representatives votes, 217-213, to repeal and replace Obamacare. 

“Today we made history,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise tells reporters, “by taking the first important step toward rescuing hardworking families from the failures and skyrocketing costs of Obamacare.”

“A great plan…very, very, incredibly well-crafted.”

“Yes, premiums will be coming down. Yes, deductibles will be coming down,” President Trump promises at a celebratory gathering in the Rose Garden. “This has brought the Republican Party together. But very importantly, it’s a great plan and ultimately that’s what it’s all about.”

The plan, he says, is “very, very, incredibly well-crafted.”

If anything, the House plan brings the American people together. By a huge majority they hate it. In one poll, only 17% approve of the “replace” part of the long-promised GOP “repeal and replace” plan.

The Congressional Budget Office warns that Trumpcare will gently remove care from the reach of 24 million Americans.

(In June, Trump will describe the same plan he touted on this day as “mean.” It’s like he has the same attention span as a hamster. See: 6/14/17.)

5/5/17: Not everyone recognizes how great the new GOP plan is, including Ghost of Trump Future, who will eventually clash with Ghost of Trump Past. On this day, Ghost of Trump Present, failing to realize Australia has universal healthcare coverage, tweets: “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do—everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.”

Next, we have a tweet-cry straight from his orange heart: “Wow, the Fake News media did everything in its power to make the Republican Healthcare victory look as bad as possible. Far better than Ocare!”

Two weeks later, a national poll shows Americans favor Obamacare over the GOP plan, 53-27%.

5/6/17: Realizing that his loyal base can’t figure out simple geography, Trump explains via tweet why he’s heading to New Jersey to spend another weekend at a Trump-owned golf course.

“Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves country money!” (See: 8/2/17.)

Many Trump fans are too dumb to realize the president could have puttered around the White House in pajamas at no extra cost.

*

SPEAKING OF BEDMINSTER, by the end of the year we will learn that it costs a little jack to join a Trump country club. Trump National Gold Club Westchester, in Briarcliff Manor, New York, charges an initiation fee reported by David Cay Johnston in 2016 to be $300,000. Bill Clinton was once a member—and probably still is. Links Magazine put the figure at $200,000 to join in 2012.

That same year, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster charged an initiation fee of $350,000. Of course, you might call this a bargain, compared to a reported $1,000,000 fee instituted (in 2012) at the Sebonack Golf Club in South Hampton. I mean who at Sebonack (not a Trump property) would want to hit the links with the riffraff hanging around like homeless persons at Bedminster?

Stormy Daniels will make news at the end of Trump's first year in office.
It won't be for her golfing skills.

5/7/17: Senator McConnell spends the day brushing up his prose for an Op-Ed article which will appear in the Washington Examiner.

In coal country, meanwhile, we learn life is good for executives, maybe not so good for miners.

Peabody Energy has gone bankrupt—which Fox News blames on Obama. Yet Glen Kellow, who ran the company, somehow receives a $15 million stock bonus payout. Peabody pays its top executive team $75 million (2012-2014) and loses $2 billion.

In 2016 Alpha Natural Resources gives $12 million in bonuses to executives, in recognition of their sterling efforts in 2015, when the company lost $1.3 billion.

Arch Coal executives earn $8 million in bonuses three days before the company declares bankruptcy.

“You couldn’t say nothing.”

Meanwhile, pay for a United Mine Workers of America union member averages $61,650, closer to $85,000 with overtime. But only 2% of miners are now unionized, down from 40% in the 90s. Non-union miners make far less. Carlos Combs, 64, a third-generation miner, lost a union job twenty years ago. Of jobs with non-unionized operators, which are all he can now find, he says, “You couldn’t say nothing. You had to take what they gave you.”

Eventually, he developed black lung.

According to The New York Times there’s a bit of good news for men like Combs or their widows. “Congress…reached a last-minute deal this week to finance health benefits for more than 20,000 retired miners—miners whose employers have long gone bankrupt, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.”

In his Op-Ed article the next day, McConnell will bend reality in astonishing fashion. He writes: 

Last week, we achieved the success that thousands of retired coal miners and their families so desperately needed with the passage of my proposal [emphasis added]. And with President Trump’s signature, it is now law. You may recall that at the end of December, their health benefits were set to expire. If Congress had not acted, approximately 3,000 Kentucky coal miner retirees—and tens of thousands more around the country—would have seen their healthcare benefits end. After years of hard work in the coal mines, they deserved better than having to suffer as collateral damage of former President Barack Obama’s War on Coal.

Representing coal-dependent West Virginia, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito agrees. Congress must find a permanent solution. “These men and women worked hard in dangerous situations to power America and were promised lifetime health care benefits in return.”

In other words, Americans deserve help with health insurance if they are represented by Republican senators.

And why did the healthcare fund for miners dry up? Maybe, it was because top company executives were greedy.

5/8/17: The president wakes up constipated and lets rip in another angry, early morning tweet: “The Russian-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”

5/9/17: In a bold move to end the “taxpayer-funded charade,” not to mention cover his lard ass, Trump fires F.B.I. director James Comey. White House aides are at pains to point out that the president “acted based on the clear recommendations” of two men, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who later pisses Trump off; see: 7/20/17) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (see again: 7/20/17). 

“This has nothing to do with Russia.”

White House officials insist Comey lost control of the F.B.I. Kellyanne Conway tells Anderson Cooper that evening: “This had nothing to do with Russia, as much as somebody must be getting $50 every time the word is said, I’m convinced, on TV. This has nothing to do with Russia.”

“Nada.” (See: 5/11/17.)

5/10/17: At a morning press gathering Sarah Huckabee Sanders assures reporters and anyone listening, including Vladimir Putin, that Trump fired Comey only because of letters he received. These letters said Comey had lost the confidence of rank-and-file agents at the Bureau.

Sanders adds that she, personally, has talked to all kinds of F.B.I. agents who told her they had lost confidence in the Director, themselves.

(In April 2019, Sanders finally admits that was a lie. She hadn’t talked to a single F.B.I. agent at all.)

*

THE PRESIDENT has a meeting that afternoon with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. This meeting is kept secret for two days, in large part because the “fake news” folks are banned from attending. Also, because the White House decides not to mention it. Even after the news leaks, White House aides decide to release photos, but crop Kislyak out of the scene. (See: 5/12/17.)

5/11/17: In an interview with Lester Holt of NBC, Trump explains his rationale for the Comey firing. Holt wonders: How much of a factor were those recommendations by Sessions and Rosenstein?

“I was going to fire regardless.”

“Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump replies. “I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.’” 

That’s right. Comey was fired because of the Russian investigation. Who says so? The fool in the Oval Office.

5/12/17: The Russians prank the president, releasing photos of his meeting with Kislyak, and a variety of other Russians, including representatives of the Russian media. Everyone in the photos appears to be having a great time.

Part of the fun involves Trump telling the Russians he fired Comey because he was “crazy, a real nut job.”

A week later, The New York Times acquires a leaked document outlining what was discussed at the meeting. “I faced great pressure because of Russia,” Trump told his foreign pals. “That’s taken off.”

5/13/17: Super-Christian Donald J. Trump travels to Liberty University for a speech. It’s his third time on campus, he reminds his audience, but who ever thought he’d return as president?

Besides the Russians?

His victory required “major help from God,” he says. “And we got it.”

Trump thanks multi-millionaire Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty, who has profited  handsomely by focusing on the message of Jesus. He thanks the students’ parents. Then to the Class of 2017, he offers this wisdom: “You’re going to go out, you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do, some are going to make a lot of money, some are going to be even happier doing other things.”

His comments have a Dr. Seuss-like inscrutability.

You kind of figure the younger version, or even the current version of Donald J. Trump, wouldn’t make it as a Liberty student. A look at the school’s code of conduct, called The Liberty Way, makes that clear. The code has been liberalized in recent years. R-rated movies and hugs lasting longer than three seconds are no longer taboo. (You figure grabbing women by the pussy still doesn’t fly.) In 2015 the university reduced dress code restrictions, but shorts are forbidden in class. Women’s skirts must reach within two inches of the knee. Even Trump’s hair couldn’t pass the test. For male students, “Hair should be cut in such a way that it will not come over the ears, collar or eyebrows at any time. Ponytails for men are unacceptable.”

5/14/17: POTUS manages to tweet a Mother’s Day greeting without insulting mothers: “Wishing @FLOTUS Melania and all of the great mothers out there a wonderful day ahead with family and friends! Happy #MothersDay”

5/15/17: In an article for Politico, Shane Goldmacher explains how Trump gets his news. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has had to issue a warning to senior staff: “Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Donald Trump.”

Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age. The other, from 2008, was about surviving global warming. Trump got all lathered up again about media hypocrisy. There was only one problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an internet hoax that’s circulated for years.

Staff intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly again about the climate change “hoax.”

5/16/17: The right-wing fairy tale that government is always the problem and regulations are tools of Satan gets a tire iron between the eyes. Benjamin Poehling, a whistleblower with wide experience in healthcare, reports insurers have been “systematically bilking Medicare Advantage for years.”

The Justice Department announces plans to sue UnitedHealth Group. Poehling claims companies like UHG designed special computer programs to gather “evidence” allowing them to make patients appear sicker than they were. The government would pay $9,580 per year for a 76-year-old woman with diabetes and kidney failure. But…if the company could manage to show diabetes caused the kidney problem…

Then they’d be paid $12,902.

According to Poehling he and co-workers were told to “mine” health data. In one email a company financial officer mentions conditions which represent “huge $ opportunities.” “Let’s turn on the gas!” he adds. The scheme, Poehling says, “was not about delivering better care to members—the thing you would expect from a healthcare company. It was about increasing the bottom line.”

Just for fun, because it illustrates the same point, peruse a list of the top penalties levied against drug manufacturers in the United States. If you consider the top 22 examples, eight involve companies bilking Medicaid or Medicare. Total damages recovered in those cases: $6,640,000,000.

5/17/17: Time  reports that U.S. intelligence experts have been hard at work trying to understand the depth of Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. election process. How did U.S. counterintelligence first get wind of enemy efforts to harm the Clinton campaign?

Time explains:

Like many a good spy tale, the story of how the U.S. learned its democracy could be hacked started with loose lips. In May 2016, a Russian military intelligence officer bragged to a colleague that his organization, known as the GRU, was getting ready to pay Clinton back for what President Vladimir Putin believed was an influence operation she had run against him five years earlier as Secretary of State. The GRU, he said, was going to cause chaos in the upcoming U.S. election.

*

DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL Rod Rosenstein appoints Robert Mueller as Special Counsel. (See: 5/11/17.)

5/18/17: During a press conference with the President of Colombia, an aggrieved President Trump insists he is victim of “the greatest witch hunt” in U.S. history.

Nobody in his campaign had anything to do with the Russians.

Period.

5/19/17: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tells members of Congress she hopes to redirect $250 million to a program to help parents pay for children to attend private schools.

A lawmaker asks what she will do if private schools discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students.

Not her problem, she says. “For states that have programs that allow for parents to make choices, they set up the rules around that.” Parents should have the final say on what kind of schools their children attend and what kind of children they sit beside.

I think this is called Plessy v. Ferguson.

5/20/17: The president hops a jet and flees from investigators. He lands in Saudi Arabia, where his gaudy tastes are perfectly matched by the Saud royal family.

(Who wants a $549 million yacht?) 

The brand that inspired Osama bin Laden.

On his first overseas trip Trump makes nice with the Saudis, purveyors of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist brand of Islam. This is the brand that inspired Osama bin Laden and can be seen reflected in the ideals of ISIS.

It goes without saying that neither Trump nor most of the Trump base will have a clue about this topic.

5/21/17: In a speech in Riyadh, before dozens of leaders from across the Muslim world, Trump wimps out—at least according to one of his harshest critics, Candidate Trump. “This is not a battle of different faiths, different sects or different civilizations,” he tells his audience. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion, people that want to protect life and want to protect their religion. This is a battle between good and evil.”

This is not the same as saying, as did Candidate Trump, that you saw a video of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the Twin Towers’ fall. The rhetoric in Riyadh isn’t as stirring as riling up supporters by explaining in an interview, “I think Islam hates us. There’s something, there’s something there, that, that’s tremendous hatred…there…there’s a tremendous hatred there. We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us.”

Nor does Trump employ his “magic phrase” in speaking to Muslim leaders. Candidate Trump, seconded by Fox News, insisted we could never defeat ISIS unless we chanted: “radical Islamic terrorism.”

President Obama was a pansy because he wouldn’t. Now, with a chance to lay it on the Saudis, Trump chokes.

He fails to utter his favorite phrase.

You can go to the White House website and read the entire text of his speech if you don’t believe me.

For Obama haters it must have sounded like Obama Lite, with one stark exception. Where Mr. Obama focused on human rights and democracy in talking to Middle Eastern potentates, Trump professed not to care. America wants “partners, not perfection,” he opined. In other words, if the Saudis want to stone adulterers and arrest women who walk down the street in skirts or dare drive, or torture political opponents, it’s of no concern to the United States. 

5/22/17: It’s on to Israel, where Trump has to deal with the same problems that have vexed the following U.S. presidents, in order: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama and, now, Donald J. Trump.

“Not as difficult as people have thought.”

One might give him a pass in this regard, save for the fact he acts like he has solutions where none of his predecessors did. Trump insists son-in-law and jack-of-all-administration-trades Jared Kushner (who definitely never talked with any Russians) can bring peace to the Middle East.

The president explained in a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the month, “It is something that I think is frankly, maybe, not as difficult as people have thought over the years.” 

(It will be almost three years before Team Trump can craft what the president will call the “deal of the century” to bring peace to the Middle East. Even Fox News will admit the plan is “unapologetically pro-Israel.” Abbas will reject it within hours. See: February 1, 2020.)

5/23/17: Trump reveals his budget for Fiscal Year 2018 and promises everything will balance in the end. Defense spending will increase 10%. A cool $1.6 billion will go to build the Great Wall of Trump. Social Security and Medicare, the biggest drivers of federal debt, remain untouched.

Over the next decade $192 billion will be cut from nutrition programs for children, because—hungry kids—no big deal!

5/24/17: The New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence agencies collected information during the 2016 campaign “revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers.” 

Sources are three current and former officials familiar with the sensitive intelligence. The names of General Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort had both been mentioned. There was also “information about direct communication between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russian officials.”

Trump and his toadies start complaining about leaks. Fox News amplifies the message. Sean Hannity insists no Russians have been seen within a thousand miles of anyone named Trump or Kushner or anyone else—except, maybe, Obama. “If there ever was any effort by Russians to influence me, I was unaware, and they would have failed,” Manafort insists.

(For comparison purposes, see: May 1, 2019.)

5/25/17: At a NATO summit in Brussels, Trump shows his class by shoving aside the Prime Minister of Montenegro so he can get his scowling mug in every photo. He then refuses to commit to Article 5, which holds that an attack on any member of the NATO Alliance is considered an attack on all and all signatories will come to that nation’s aid. 

That provision has been a foundation of U.S. policy since 1949.

5/26/17: Appalachian Power, the lead utility in West Virginia, says it will increase reliance on wind, solar and other renewables and natural gas. Since 2012 the company has reduced reliance on coal from 74% to 62% of energy production. It has closed three coal-fired plants, which maybe you can blame on President Obama, but also converted two to natural gas, which you can’t.

Almost half of all Fortune 500 companies have in place clean-energy goals, including 23 that expect to run on 100 percent renewable energy in the future.

That includes Walmart.

At a recent meeting, Chris Beam, president of Appalachian Power admitted he was in talks to buy, build or lease as many wind and solar farms as possible across Virginia and West Virginia.

80 solar panels on the roof.

Even the Coal Museum in Kentucky recently installed 80 solar panels on its roof to cut costs. 

Coal mining jobs have been declining for decades.

5/27/17: Former GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner tells an audience he supports Trump on some aspects of foreign policy. Otherwise, “Everything else he’s done has been a complete disaster.”

Hearing this report, Paul Ryan nods in agreement from the safety of a secret bunker hideout beneath his Janesville, Wisconsin home.

5/28/17: In the wake of the NATO meeting (see: 5/25/17) Angela Merkel, leader of Germany, takes the measure of President Trump. She warns that European nations should “really take our fate into our own hands.”

She continues: “The times in which we could rely fully on others—they are somewhat over. This is what I experienced in the last few days.”

Trump is poised to renounce our leadership of the Free World.

5/29/17: Did you know the pharmaceutical industry spent $78 million dollars in the first quarter of this year on research, because all they care about is helping you, the typical American who has chronic pain, or cancer or erectile dysfunction?

Okay, I admit it. That’s fake news!

Big Pharma employs 1,100 lobbyists.

Big Pharma spent that pile of cash on lobbying because they employ lots of lobbyists: 1,100, to be exact.

Envision that horde swarming the halls of Congress every time some GOP shill trots out this gem: “Government isn’t the solution. Government is the problem.”

By the way, did you know Big Pharma donated $58 million to subsidize prescription costs for sick children last year?

Hahaha.

Don’t be a guppy! That’s fake news again!

In 2016 they donated that much to various election campaigns. This is how the “free market” operates. You get what you pay for and Big Pharma might as well be writing prescriptions that read, “Take one Congressman to breakfast in the morning, one to dinner in the evening, and contribute to their campaigns at the first sign of legislation that might reduce gigantic profits.”

Consider Republican Rep. John Shimkus, who represents, in theory, the people of Illinois. Even the sick ones. Last year, he worked overtime to gather signatures from 242 members of Congress and block an Obama administration project to test ways to lower costs of Medicare Part B.

That program spent $24.6 billion on prescription drugs in 2015.

Hey, the drug companies said, “Let’s donate $300,000 to Shimkus! He’ll be our bought-and-paid-for stooge!”

I’m not sure how many signers were Republicans. The first fifteen on the list all are. And you can check if you’d like. Those who added their names included Steve Chabot, my very own congressman, Tom Price, now head of Health and Human Services, Steve Scalise, third-ranking House Republican, and Lamar Smith, leading climate denier in Congress, if you don’t count Sen. “Snowball” Jim Inhofe.

5/30/17: Trump once again calls on the Senate to change its rules. “The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy. Dems would do it, no doubt!” 

He’s not going to be happy until we have a one-party state, like Italy in 1930, for example.

5/31/17: The “Fake News” folks at Vox join the “fake Russians” fray. Vox reports: “Federal investigators are fixated on a mysterious December meeting between senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov.”

For some reason Kushner suddenly remembers he did meet with Gorkov, but they only talked about…he can’t be sure …maybe gardening. 

PBS wonders why Kushner suggested in that meeting that a back channel to Russia be created…using Russian diplomatic facilities. Critics wonder why any private citizen would “try to set up covert communications with a hostile power like Russia, particularly after U.S. intelligence agencies accused Moscow of trying to interfere in the 2016 election to help Trump.” (See 7/8-7/14/17.)

June 1, 2017: The president, who can’t tell the difference between weather and climate, and has the same grasp of basic science one might expect from a hamster, withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord. In so doing, he aligns the United States with two other “leading” nations: Syria and Nicaragua. The other 194 signatories still believe climate change is a serious threat.

(In April 2018 more than a thousand members of the National Academy of Sciences sign a letter criticizing the decision to withdraw from the accord. “The dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formation has affected wide areas of social, biological, environmental and physical sciences,” they warn.)

6/2/2017: Reporters ask aides if the president still believes global warming is a hoax. It’s an easy question. You might as well ask if Trump believes in Santa Claus. Press Secretary Sean Spicer replies, “I have not had an opportunity to have that discussion.” (See: 8/27/17; 12/28/17; 1/6/18.)

Kellyanne Conway gives a flippant answer, fluffs her hair, and prances away. “You should ask him,” she says.

In “Fake News,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, invoking her training as a scientist, tells reporters Trump’s actions:

…will not deter all of us who feel obliged to protect this earth [emphasis added]…We will gather all our strength—in Germany, in Europe, and in the world—to meet the great challenges of humanity, like climate change, and to successfully master these challenges. For all whom the future of this planet is important, I say: Let us continue along this path together, so that we are successful for our Mother Earth.

Koichi Yamamoto, Japan’s environment minister says the president has “turned his back on the wisdom of human beings.”

French President Emmanuel Macron is blunt, mocking Trump’s stance. He addresses an audience on TV:

Tonight, I wish to tell the United States, France believes in you—the world believes in you.

I know that you are a great nation. I know your history—our common history.

To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland.

I call on them: come and work here with us. To work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you, France will not give up the fight.

I call on you to remain confident. We will succeed, because we are fully committed, because wherever we live, whoever we are, we all share the same responsibility: Make Our Planet Great Again.

France and Britain pledge to ban the sale of gas- and diesel-powered automobiles by 2040. (See also: 7/6/17; 7/31/17.)

6/3/17: The average American worker’s wage grows 0.2 percent in May. This brings the year-over-year gain to 2.5 percent. That surpasses inflation by 0.5 percent, meaning the average worker, earning $45,000 annually, has $225 more to stick in the bank or hide in his or her sock drawer.

By comparison, the top 25 hedge fund managers earn a combined $11 billion in 2016. James Simons leads the way at $1.6 billion. Simon’s pay for one year equals the wage gains piled up by 7,111,111 average workers.

You know what this proves? We need tax cuts for the ultra-rich!

6/4/17: Following a deadly terrorist attack in London, Trump decides the best way to help is to insult the Mayor of London.

Taking the mayor’s words out of context, he tweets: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”

Those who can read an actual newspaper or watch a video for two minutes without losing focus, know that after the attack Mayor Sadiq Khan actually said: “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There’s no reason to be alarmed.”

The reaction in The Guardian, a British newspaper, captures the love Londoners now have for The Tweeter-in-Chief:

6/5/17: Trump decides to blast the judicial branch again, because the courts have blocked provisions of his travel ban. “In any event,” he tweets, “we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!”

Meanwhile, he remains incapable of letting go about the attack in London. He tweets again: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!”

Mainstream media isn’t working “hard to sell it.” They’re quoting what the mayor said in context.

6/6/17: Orange Leader decides he has nothing better to do than attack the free press once more. A stupid tweet follows: “Sorry folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance winning WH.”

(Too bad they didn’t realize the Russians were helping you out.)

6/7/17: Did you know deer kill more Americans most years than illegal immigrants and terrorists combined?

Greedy drug company execs more dangerous than terrorists.

Do you know what the most dangerous predators might be? Grizzlies? Despite the claims of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, no.

Sharks? No.

Try greedy drug company executives. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Sales of prescription opioids in the U.S. quadrupled from 1999 to 2014,” but there was no “overall change in the amount of pain Americans report.”

What happened?

Big Pharma pushed the pain-killing virtues of products like OxyContin. A quick check of Addictions.com turns up this detail: “According to Fortune magazine, an estimated 254 million opioid prescriptions were filled in 2010,” the year prescriptions peaked. That would be “enough to medicate every adult in the U.S. for a month on a round-the-clock basis. In that same year, pharmaceutical companies generated revenues of $11 billion from opioid sales alone.”

An effort to curtail over-prescription of such drugs, including a recommendation that doctors first prescribe aspirin or ibuprofen to patients complaining of chronic pain, met fierce resistance from—go figure—the drug companies.

With doctors issuing too many prescriptions, and those prescriptions running too long (current average 17.7 days), when a recommended dosage to start would be three days, billions of extra pills end up circulating.

A chart prepared by CDC shows where most people who abuse opioids first go to get the drug:

In other words, the problem has long been clear. Most who try opioids get hooked when they borrow pills from friends or relatives who have extras. Addicts turn next to “pill mills,” physicians and druggists happy to hand out addictive substances because over-prescribing means big profits.

Big Pharma keeps pushing opioids. According to estimates, patients in this country consume 80% of the world’s supply.

By 2014, there are 28,647 deaths from drug abuse, more than half a result of prescription opioids.

Another 33,091 Americans die in 2015.

The following year is worse: with 59,000 drug-related overdose deaths. And 2017 is expected to be more deadly yet.

(President Trump, who blames the overdose epidemic on his predecessor in the White House, has no luck stemming the tide during his first year in office. In 2017, the toll passes 70,000.)

6/8/17: Attacks on the free press continue. Right-wing thinkers applaud newly-elected GOP member of the House of Representatives, Greg Gianforte. During a heated campaign, Gianforte body-slams a British reporter when the chap has the audacity to ask what the candidate thinks about healthcare. The attack never happened, Gianforte and his campaign manager claim. The story is “fake news.”

Then a local Fox News reporter and other witnesses back up the victim’s claims.

(Gianforte eventually pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and agrees to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists.) (See: 7/2/17.)

*

FORMER F.B.I. DIRECTOR Comey spends the day testifying in front of Congress. Five times he implies or refers to the president as a liar. He has detailed notes on their interactions. Asked why he kept such notes—when he never felt the need under Bush 43 or Obama—he says in respect to Trump:

I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of the meeting so I thought it important to document. That combination of things [Trump’s request for loyalty, among others] I had never experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write it down in a very detailed way.

(By December 9, 2017, polls will show that 51% of Americans think Trump is not “honest.” Only 36% will think he is. That last number will continue to decline.)

6/9/17: The delusional leader of the Free World wakes up in a chipper mood. Having watched Comey’s testimony, as filtered through Fox & Friends, Trump tweets, “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”

Obstruction of justice comes to mind.

In reality, it seems Comey was fired because the president wanted to kill the Russian investigation.

Obstruction of justice comes to mind. So say articles in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The Hill, Time, National Review, and stories on CNN, NBC and even BBC News.

6/10/17: Infrastructure Week, declared on June 6, draws to a close. Since no one seems to notice, the president’s only tweet of the day tries to draw attention. With nothing better to do on a lazy Saturday, he pulls out his trusty iPhone: “America is going to build again. Under budget and ahead of schedule. Time to put #AmericaFirst! #InfrastructureWeek…”

Unfortunately, no one cares, partly because the president can’t stay on message long enough to get his plans across to the American people. It’s like having a gerbil in the Oval Office. It doesn’t help that the infrastructure plan has not actually been released. Finally, it doesn’t help to know that fiscal hawks in Congress are as excited about spending $1 trillion on anything as they would be about contracting Zika.

6/11/17: As usual, Trump has a bee in his bonnet—or under that weird shock of swept-back orange hair. He tweets:

“The #FakeNews MSM doesn’t report the great economic news since Election Day. #DOW up 16%. #NASDAQ up 19.5%. Drilling & energy sector...”

“...way up. Regulations way down. 600,000+ new jobs added. Unemployment down to 4.3%. Business and economic enthusiasm way up—record levels!”

This good news is being reported. By the end of the June the Bureau of Labor Statistics will note that under Trump, 1,081,000 jobs have been added to the economy in the first six months of 2016.

These numbers—duly noted by the mainstream media every month—are almost as good as the numbers for the last six months of 2016, when, under Obama, 1,254,000 jobs were added.

6/12/17: For once, as the sun sets over the White House, Orange Leader is content. Today he presided over a cabinet meeting for the ages. Sure, it had a creepy, Kim Jong-un kind of feel.

But such praise for Orange Leader!

Vice President Jesus kicked off the lovefest. “The greatest privilege of my life is to serve as vice president to the president who’s keeping his word to the American people,” he opined. Next up was Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta: “I am privileged to be here—deeply honored—and I want to thank you for your commitment to the American workers.” Sonny Perdue took his turn. The Secretary of Agriculture said he had a message from Mississippi, from whence he had just returned: “They love you there,” he assures Orange Leader. He thanks him for his greatness, and congratulates him for selecting so much other greatness, “the men and women you have gathered around this table.”

Reince Priebus sums it up, “We thank you for the opportunity to serve your agenda.” (See: 7/29/17.)

In a glow of pleasure, Trump decides to talk about his favorite subject: Trump. Has there ever been a greater president? He can’t think of one. Oh, maybe FDR did more in the first months of his first term, but no one else is close.

6/13/17: Trump surrogates spend the week floating the idea that the president may fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Newt flips on Mueller.

Newt Gingrich, known for lying to his wives and getting kicked out as Speaker of the House due to ethics violations, attacks Mueller. “Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair.”

This is odd, since a month earlier, Gingrich tweeted: “Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down.”

6/14/17: Trump takes a fresh look at the healthcare plan passed by the House of Representatives (See: 5/4/17.) 

Now he calls it “mean.”

Displaying his typical lack of understanding of policy details, he insists the Senate “should add some money to it.” (See: 6/28/17.)

6/15/17: It turns out not everyone in the world loves Donald J. Trump, self-proclaimed best president ever (possibly excepting FDR, but, yes, way better than Washington and Lincoln). (See: 6/12/17.)

Anyway, Great Britain has placed on hold a plan to host a state visit for the president. Why? After all, Theresa May, visited Washington D.C. Now, The Guardian reports, Trump is worried about his image.  

He won’t come to Britain if he’s going to have to face large-scale demonstrations. A British reporter explains:

Some may be surprised by this. From the violence and menace that became features of his ugly campaign, it was easy to assume that he liked a bit of edge at his public appearances. But on those occasions, he knew he would always have the support of far-right thugs and hangers-on who could drown out dissent and, if need be, throw a few punches at protesters, passers-by, anyone who would dare to question him. That intimidation, unprecedented in recent history, would have been more difficult to replicate here; he could hardly bring his street fighters with him. There are only so many seats on Air Force One.

The HeraldScotland piles on the “Fake News” with a similar anti-Trump story headlined “Victory for ‘people power’ as Trump puts UK Visit on Hold.” (See: 6/27/17.) 

6/16/17: The president stamps his feet and fumes and tweets. This time the target of his wrath is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “I’m being investigated for firing the FBI director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!” In case his loyal followers miss it, he adds: “Witch Hunt.”

For anyone who can remember what happened a month ago, this tweet makes sense only if we ignore the fact the president was going to fire Comey regardless. (See: 5/11/17.)

6/17/17: The New York Times reports another member of the Trump campaign is under investigation. 

Rick Gates, a close ally of Paul Manafort, survived Manafort’s demise after his mentor was accused of taking millions from Ukrainian leaders with ties to Russia. In April, amid fresh accusations of Russian influence, Gates was forced to cut ties with the president. According to the Times a lawyer for the campaign has ordered five individuals to preserve all documents and records.

Gates joins Manafort and Kushner in the cross hairs of investigators.

Rick Gates now under investigation.

During the time Manafort worked in the Ukraine, Gates would fly to Moscow to conduct business in his name. He would sign documents, including those related to shell companies in Cyprus, and funnel payments to Manafort and into secret bank accounts. One client was Oleg Deripaska, who had been denied a visa to the United States, because of ties to organized crime.

“Everybody has tried to take these instances of anyone in the Trump orbit doing something in Russia,” Gates tells reporters, “and then fast-forwarding however many years, and then saying it is evidence of collusion with Russia over the election. It’s totally ridiculous and without merit.”

6/18/17: A poll shows that Congress has an approval rating of 12%. In other words, Trump isn’t the least popular denizen of the swamp. In no poll during the two-and-a-half years since the GOP took control of both houses of Congress has that esteemed body had an approval rating above 23%.

6/19/17: Trump enjoys tweeting so much he decides to tweet the same message twice. He’s excited about the special election in Georgia for Tom Price’s old seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. At 3:29 p.m. he gets his thumbs limbered up with: “Karen Handle’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent....” and “On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.”

God, what fun! At 3:34 he goes with “Karen Handle’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent....” again.

At 3:35 Trump clinches the deal: “....because he doesn’t live there! He wants to raise taxes & kill healthcare. On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.”

Handel does win the special election by a margin of 52% to 48%. Handel issues a special thanks to President Trump.

Trump then brags about his great victory—ignoring the fact that the same district went for Price in November 2016 by a margin of 62% to 38%. Still, for Democrats, a loss is a loss.

Let Orange Leader brag.

(When Handel runs for reelection in 2018, she goes down in a narrow defeat with 49.5% of the vote to her opponent’s 50.5%. Trump decides to brag about something else.)

6/20/17: Trump hogs credit for bringing Otto Warmbier home from North Korea. He says Obama failed for eighteen months. The young man “should have been brought home that same day” he was arrested.

Trump works his magic and brings Warmbier back, whereupon the unfortunate young man dies. No one on the right notices that North Korea still holds three other Americans—and Trump can’t pry them loose. Normally, we would give a president a pass regarding complex foreign policy.

Trump, however, never misses a chance to attack Obama or simplify truly daunting challenges. (See: 6/3/18.)

6/21/17: Ford Motors announces plans to build its popular Focus model in China, not Michigan. 

Cheap labor = more money for CEO’s.

Meanwhile, the top five executives at Ford pull down almost $50 million combined in just one year.

The New York Times also notes that “veteran union workers in the United States” earn $28 per hour building cars for Ford. Most Chinese workers earn around $270 a month. 

Cheap labor = more money for CEO’s.

In related news, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner continue to profit from their far-flung business empire. This includes shoe factories in China where Ivanka-brand shoes are made. 

Ivanka and Jared’s income for 2016: $195 million.

6/22/17: You must admit the orange man in the Oval Office is constantly cogitating. On the first day of summer, Trump realizes he can build the Great Wall of Trump and turn a profit!

Fox News reports on his plan to include solar panels. “Think of it,” Trump tells amazed fans at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “The higher it goes, the more valuable it is. Pretty good imagination, right? This way, Mexico will have to pay much less money, and that’s good. A solar wall. Makes sense.”

(No telling why Sean Hannity doesn’t accuse the president of turning traitor and joining the “War on Coal.”)

6/23/17: The latest iteration of the GOP Senate healthcare plan allows insurance companies to offer plans that drop coverage for maternity care, emergency services and mental health treatment.

The Association of Medical Colleges warns that the plan “will leave millions of people without health coverage, and others with only bare-bones plans that will be insufficient to properly address their needs.”

Senator Rand Paul still believes the plan is too generous. If he had his way, he’d cut coverage for bandages, splints and blood transfusions. Who needs nurses? Give yourself your own damn shots!

6/24/17: A Pew Research Center survey finds 44% of Americans say they know someone who has been shot, accidentally or intentionally. For gun owners the figure is higher (51%), vs. non-gun owners (40%). This difference may have something to do with the fact 30% of gun owners admit they have “a gun that is both loaded and easily accessible to [children] all of the time when they’re at home.”

According to USA Today, in one year, 141 minors are killed in accidental shootings in this country.

Researchers find 84% of Americans support background checks on private gun sales. Three fourths of non-gun owners favor banning private ownership of assault rifles and high capacity magazines. A little less than half of gun owners agree.

Studies repeatedly show much greater rates of gun-related deaths in the United States, compared to other advanced nations. According to researchers at the American Journal of Medicine the rate is ten times higher. Overall, results show that the U.S., which has the most firearms per capita in the world, suffers disproportionately compared with other high-income countries.

These figures are consistent with the hypothesis that our firearms are killing us rather than protecting us. (See July 1, 2017.)

6/25/17: According to the Gun Violence Archive, from 2014 to 2016, the number of road rage incidents in the U.S. more than doubled. During that span 354 drivers or passengers were wounded and 136 killed.

This would mean more Americans died at the hands of other drivers than at the hands of terrorists during that span.

June finds Congress hard at work on “Kate’s Law,” named in honor of Kate Steinle, a young white woman tragically killed by an illegal immigrant in 2015. On Fox News her story gets wall-to-wall coverage. Bill O’Reilly devotes part of ten shows to the story and might have devoted more, save for the fact he got fired for sexually harassing co-workers. Ann Coulter joins the fray. So do Charles Krauthammer, Jesse Waters and Megyn Kelly (when not fending off O’Reilly).

All good people feel sympathy for the suffering family of Kate Steinle. But it might be nice if the talking heads at Fox cared about Philando Castile—or all the children who die from accidental gunshots annually—or drivers and passengers slaughtered during incidents of road rage.

6/26/17: The American Medical Association joins a long list of organizations condemning Trumpcare.

Everyone hates Trumpcare.

In a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the head of the AMA warns, “Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.”

A list of groups opposed:

The American Hospital Association, which represents 5,000 hospitals;

The American Association of Medical Colleges;

The American College of Physicians;

The American Academy of Family Physicians, which warns that the plan would do “great harm to patients;”

The American Academy of Pediatrics which states flatly: “The bill fails children by dismantling the Medicaid program, capping its funding, ending its expansion and allowing its benefits to be scaled back.”

Just for fun, these groups also denounce Trumpcare:

The National Association of Medicaid Directors;

The American Psychiatric Association;

The Federation of American Hospitals;

America’s Essential Hospitals, which warns: “Senate leaders…have put ideology ahead of lives with a plan that puts health and home at risk for millions of working Americans.”

The American Heart Association, which says the bill is “literally heartless;”

The American Lung Association;

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which warns: Anyone who votes for this bill “cannot claim to be committed to ending the opioid epidemic;”

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network;

AARP, which advocates for 38 million Americans over the age of 50;

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Ironically, the Koch brothers, Charles and David, don’t think the Senate bill goes far enough to reduce access to healthcare.

Can you really expect those poor gentlemen—worth more than $40 billion each—to pay higher taxes?

6/27/17: A poll taken by the Pew Research Center shows the president has made himself wildly unpopular on six of seven continents. No polling was done among Antarctic penguins. Worldwide, only 22% of respondents say they trust Trump to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs. By comparison that figure was 64% in the last years of the Obama administration.

The “good news” for Trump? Only 11% of Russians had a favorable view of Obama. More than half (53%) now express support for Vladimir’s bud. 

How bad has the damage to the reputation of the United States been in five short months of the Trump administration? Worldwide, 71% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Across 37 nations, 76% say they disapprove of his idea of building a wall on the border with Mexico. Generally, the rest of the world thinks he’s an obnoxious jerk.

6/28/17: The more Americans know about the GOP healthcare plan, stalled in the Senate, the more they loathe it. A poll shows the plan is less popular than the House-passed version, which was only slightly more popular than shingles.

Americans, by a 4-1 margin, now trust Democrats in Congress more than Republicans when it comes to healthcare.

6/28/17: The more Americans know about the GOP healthcare plan, stalled in the Senate, the more they loathe it. A poll shows the plan is less popular than the House-passed version, which was only slightly more popular than shingles.

Americans, by a 4-1 margin, now trust Democrats in Congress more than Republicans when it comes to healthcare.

6/29/17: The splenetic president wakes up in a sour mood and binges on cable news. Then he decides to tweet.

He attacks MSNBC morning hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who have been critical of his policies. The former, he refers to as “low I.Q Mika,” the latter he labels a “psycho.” Brzezinski, Trump complains, “was bleeding badly from a bad face-lift” when he last saw her at Mar-a-Lago.

Even Republicans are stunned by the crass nature of such tweets. “I don’t remember anything quite like this,” says former Republican congressman Vin Weber. Sen. Ben Sasse cautions Trump, pointing out, it “isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.” “The President’s tweets today don’t help our political or national discourse and do not provide a positive role model for our national dialogue,” Sen. James Lankford adds.

Speaker Ryan, for whom the Teddy Roosevelt-era insult, “he has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair” seems fitting, musters up a smidge of courage. “Obviously, I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” he admits.

6/30/17: Joe Scarborough fires back, saying the White House leaned on him to apologize to the tissue-thin-skinned Tweeter-in-Chief. Otherwise, the National Enquirer would run an attack piece on him and his co-host.

In a press gathering Sarah Huckabee Sanders, clearly suffering from Stockholm syndrome, tells reporters appalled by Trump’s attacks, “You hurt his feelings. It makes him sad. He must crush you like worms beneath his feet.”

(Okay: I made that quote up.)

Meanwhile, we should note the National Enquirer is run by longtime Trump friend and aptly named publisher David Pecker. This fine publication is famous for running the kind of hard-hitting journalism Trump loves, including a story claiming Ted Cruz’s father played a role in the killing of John F. Kennedy. There have been countless other Enquirer reports touting the greatness that is Donald J. Trump.

Other headline-grabbing stories from the desk of Mr. Pecker include the saga of Hillary Clinton who had six short months to live (October 2015), O. J. Simpson who was doomed in four even shorter weeks (October 2014), and Angelina Jolie, anorexic and definitely dying (August 2015).

If Ted Cruz’s father didn’t help kill JFK, well then, John F. Kennedy Jr. was murdered by the mob. (See 12/13-15/18.)

*

IN OTHER HEAD-SCRATCHING NEWS, the president suggests Congress repeal Obamacare and figure out what to replace it with later. Who needs healthcare! Not him.

Orange Leader gives up!

The Congressional Budget Office estimates this latest “plan” would cost 32 million Americans their insurance. Apparently, the GOP goal is to work toward no insurance for anyone.

Their plans keep getting worse.July 1, 2017: A disgruntled doctor carries an assault rifle into a Bronx hospital, kills one doctor and wounds six staff members and patients.

Trump and the N.R.A. insist that we need more guns to protect ourselves from all the people who have guns. (See: 6/24/17.)

*

WE ALSO LEARN that the average cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home for one year is $82,128. According to the Kaiser Foundation one of every three Americans over age 65 will end up in a nursing home. Of those, 62% will be unable to pay without Medicaid assistance.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the latest GOP “healthcare” plan would lead to a 35% cut to Medicaid by 2036.

If Trumpcare passes states will carry a greater burden of costs and will have to decide. Do we cut services for the elderly? Do we cut services for children? Do we cut services for the disabled?

Hey. Let’s cut services for them all!

7/2/17: Trump takes his war on a free press to a new low, posting a video of himself attacking a figure whose face is represented by the CNN logo. Supporters find the clip hilarious. Just what the Fascists ordered!

CNN is “garbage journalism,” Trump tells rabid fans.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which works to safeguard reporters in places like Russia and Iran, fails to see the humor. “Targeting individual journalists or media outlets, on- or off-line, creates a chilling effect and fosters an environment where further harassment, or even physical attack [emphasis added] is deemed acceptable.”

Trump’s attacks, the group warns, embolden “autocratic leaders around the world.” (See: 6/8/17.)

7/3/17: Trump supporters continue to assail a free press. Newt Gingrich claims the media is “a danger to the country right now.” He stakes out this position on Fox News, which apparently remains miraculously untainted by bias.

Wayne LaPierre, president of the N.R.A., who believes we need a gun in every hand, and one in every glove compartment for luck, and toddlers should be able to buy assault rifles, howls that “academic elites, political elites and media elites” are America’s “greatest domestic threats.” (See: 6/24/17; 7/1/17.)

Maybe what the right really wants is total control of all media, to have Trump appoint his own Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels had power under Hitler to forbid the broadcast of stories that lacked government approval, to seize copies of newspapers that offended the Fuhrer, and burn “offensive” books for fun. The Nazis created a Reich Chamber of Culture to control what artists, musicians, actors, writers, reporters, radio personalities and film makers did.

“A cynical disregard for the truth.”

As William Shirer explained in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:

Every morning the editors of the Berlin daily newspapers and the correspondents of those published elsewhere in the Reich gathered at the Propaganda Ministry to be told by Dr. Goebbels or by one of his aides what news to print and suppress, how to write the news and headline it, what campaigns to call off or institute and what editorials were desired for the day.

Section 14, of the Press Law, passed once Nazis got control in October 1933, ordered editors:

…to keep out of the newspapers anything which in any manner is misleading to the public, mixes selfish aims with community aims, tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, outwardly or inwardly, the common will of the German people, the defense of Germany, its culture and economy…or offends the honor and dignity of Germany.

“The facts of life,” Shirer wrote, “had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.”

Trump Heaven.

(By November 2018, the president will be fantasizing about creating his own taxpayer-funded network. In a tweet, he explains what he sees as the glaring need, “Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair....” [new tweet] ....and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!”)

Hitler also promised to make his country great.

7/4/17: Carmakers announce that June sales dropped for a sixth month in a row. Last year, American auto plants employed 211,000 workers, up 55% from a 2009 low, during the Great Recession. Ford announced in June it would move production of its Focus model to China. As The New York Times notes, “The company had previously planned to move the car to a new plant in Mexico, but canceled the project after meeting stiff opposition from Mr. Trump.”

“Ford’s China move will not cost any American jobs,” reporters add, “because Focus production in Michigan will be replaced by trucks and S.U.V.’s.” But it won’t add any, either. Scaling back jobs is supposedly part of automakers’ efforts to “avoid bloated payrolls.” Detroit has also hired large numbers of low-wage entry-level workers to reduce expenses.

Also: to reduce the American middle class.

“These decisions are always tough, says Alan Batey, GM’s president of North American operations. “But at the end of the day we have to be disciplined about our production plans.”

Making tough decisions is hard work and for that reason Batey earns $5,658,527 for the year.

Batey and others get paid to make the "tough decisions."

7/5/17: President Trump insists (in a January tweet) that a North Korean test of an ICBM capable of hitting the USA “won’t happen!” Note the exclamation point! That tells us the man is serious!!!!

On July 4, however, the North Koreans launch a missile that crosses that line, if just barely. They now have the capability to hit Alaska.

Secretary of State Tillerson calls for global action, including stronger measures to be enacted by the U.N. Security Council. (The Trump administration hates the U.N. except when it needs U.N. assistance.) The missile fired on July 4 traveled 580 miles before splashing down in the Pacific but followed a 1,700-mile arc into space and back to earth. Trump’s advisers say the administration has laid down no red lines because “they would rather keep the North guessing.”

Secretary of Defense Mattis says on Face the Nation that war with North Korea “would be probably the worst kind of fighting in people’s lifetimes.”

7/6/17: Volvo, the Swedish carmaker, bows to the realities of climate change and announces all new models, starting in 2019, will be battery-powered electrics or hybrids. 

The American company, Tesla, which promises to build nothing but electric cars, surpasses Ford and General Motors in stock valuation. Change is coming even if Trump is too dense to see it.

7/7/17: Trump is in Germany for the G-20 summit. In Poland, the day before, he gave the best speech ever given by an American president…according to Trump. Because he cares so much about freedom, he decided not to criticize the Polish government which has been subverting an independent judiciary, cracking down on journalists, and making “unwanted protests” (protests the government doesn’t like) illegal.

These are all ideas the 45^th President of the United States can get on board with.

Together Trump and Poland’s leader, Andrzej Duda, commiserate on the woes of dealing with media outlets that won’t be cowed. Trump sends Mr. Duda a romantic tweet: “We will fight the #Fake news together!”

Oddly enough, Trump’s speech was all about upholding democratic values:

The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

Trump “grills” Vladimir Putin on election interference.

Now, in Hamburg, he meets with Putin. Apparently, the two would-be dictators hit it off great. Trump does, however, “grill” the Russian leader on the “fake” Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He later provides reporters with a blow-by-blow description of how he held Putin’s feet to an Art of the Deal fire:

“I said to him, ‘Were you involved in the meddling with the election?’ he recalled. “He said, ‘Absolutely not. I was not involved.’ He was very strong on it. I then said to him, in a totally different way, ‘Were you involved with the meddling?’ He said, ‘I was not—absolutely not.’”

Problem solved. No more Russians jumping on the bed! (Or hiding underneath. Or snuggling up with you under the covers.) Special Counsel Robert Mueller can pack it up and go home.

7/8/17: The New York Times reports that Donald Trump Jr. took part in a secret meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. Also attending were Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. 

Suddenly, both Jr. and Jared remember—hey—we did have a meeting!

When asked to comment, Jr. issues an official statement, assuring the Times the meeting was mostly about adoption policy. 

Secret meeting with Russians revealed thirteen months later.

The lawyer in question, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Times continues, “is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act. This law was passed to blacklist human rights abusers. Vladimir Putin was so enraged he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.” Veselnitskaya’s “activities and associations have previously drawn the attention of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.”

In his statement, Jr. tries to explain away the damage. “It was a short introductory meeting,” that’s all.

I asked Jared and Paul [Manafort] to drop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children [emphasis added] that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up. I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting beforehand.

You kind of had the idea he wanted to add: “I could have been talking with Taylor Swift, for all I remember.”

That same evening, Mark Corallo, spokesman for the president’s lawyer, issues a statement, hinting Jr. was set up. Veselnitskaya and an interpreter who came “misrepresented who they were.” (See: 7/9-10/17.) 

(The Magnitsky Act, named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in police custody in 2009, sanctions 44 Russian nationals and allows the U.S. to deny visas and seize assets it locates. 

The U.S. government did freeze, for example, $14 million in the assets of Petr Katsyv. Eventually he forfeited $6 million after Magnitsky accused him of laundering $230 million, gobbling up Manhattan real estate, and hiding loot in various New York bank accounts.) 

7/9/17: On Sunday, The New York Times reports that Don Jr. met with a lawyer the paper describes as “Kremlin-connected” after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. 

“A big nothing burger.”

Jr. issues a second statement regarding the meeting he originally forgot having. Suddenly, it’s all coming back!

“After pleasantries were exchanged,” he claims,

…the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russian were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Hillary Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous, and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear she had no meaningful information.

The conversation turned to adoption policies and the Magnitsky Act, which Jr. surmised was “the true agenda all along.”

Reince Priebus calls the story a “big nothing burger.”

7/10/17: Jr.’s story changes dramatically—again—after the Times informs him it has in its possession emails that blow twenty holes in his cover story. Jr. tries scrambling for safety, like a rat leaving the S.S. Trump. What do you know! He has a string of emails he’d like to put out.

Don Jr.’s story changes dramatically.

Here are a few keys from the thread:

From: Rob Goldstone To: Donald Trump Jr. June 3, 2016, 10:36 AM

Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

Best, Rob Goldstone

(Emin is Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. Aras is his father, a wealthy real estate billionaire sometimes called the “Donald Trump of Russia.” Wait. Is that an insult? “Rhona” is Rhona Graff, Don Sr.’s personal secretary.)

From: Donald Trump Jr. To: Rob Goldstone June 3, 2016, 10:53

Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

From: Rob Goldstone To: Donald Trump, Jr. June 7, 2016, 4:20 PM

Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.

(A good deal of discussion follows—time for the meeting, what day—plans get changed. Finally, it’s on.)

From: Donald Trump, Jr. To: Rob Goldstone June 7, 2016, 6:14 PM

Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me. 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.

(At this point Donald Jr. forwards the entire thread to Kushner and Manafort.)

*

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, sits down for an interview with a congressional panel. He is asked three times if the Russian investigation is a “witch hunt.” Like Peter, before the cock crowed, Wray thrice denies the president’s founding premise.

Not a witch hunt.

7/11/17: The President of the United States rises early and starts his day retweeting two stories from Fox & Friends. Another tweet, lamenting the deaths of 17 servicemen in a plane crash follows. 

The story of the meeting with Donald Jr. and—somebody—about something—is going to be cleared up, he insists: “My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country!”

On Hannity, later, Jr. swears the whole story is out. Hannity and Jr. trade admiring glances. Both are huge fans of hair gel. The meeting was just Jr. and Jared and Paul and, okay, a Russian lawyer. (See 7/14/17.)

7/12/17: On the way to France for a meeting with President Macron, Trump sits down on Air Force One and chats with reporters. He hasn’t been talking much to the media, probably because when he does they report the stupid crap that spills from his lips like St. Bernard drool.

Beware the flying bales of marijuana.

Now he explains his plans for the Great Wall of Trump. When the Mexicans finally pay, he is going to put in a special order. He elaborates:

One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it.

In other words, if you can’t see through that wall—so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side of the wall.

And I’ll give you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them—they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall.

Some presidents, like Woodrow Wilson, want to make the world safe for democracy.

Others want to make Americans safe from flying bales of marijuana.

7/13/17: Glaciers around the world are still melting. Ocean temperatures are still rising. The president is still clueless.

That is all.

7/14/17: The guest list for the meeting with Donald Jr. and the Russians continues to grow. In an interview with Fox News, where all Trumps go when sad, Jr. forgets who was there.

Okay, he says. There were two Russians. That’s it. Two! A Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin is the second. NPR says he has been described “as a Russian ‘gun for hire’ and a former Soviet-era spy and has worked in the West for years as an advocate for Russian interests.”

Okay. No more Russians! (See: 7/18/17.)

7/15/17: Trump Sr. spends the day at his golf course in Bedminster, ogling the ladies of the L.P.G.A. as they tee up their shots. Don’t they look good bending over to putt! Don’t you wish you could grab one by the…

No, restrain yourself, Orange Leader!

7/16/17:  Trump starts tweeting at 5:35 a.m.: “HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?” 

He’s mad because polls show his approval ratings are low: “The ABC/Washington Post Poll, even though almost 40 % [approval] is not bad at this time, was just about the most inaccurate poll around election time!”

It’s easy to check polls on RealClearPolitics. They’re all bad for Trump, probably because Americans grow weary watching him behave like an ass.

7/17/17: Trump campaign promises keep falling like Napoleon’s soldiers during the retreat from Moscow in the terrible winter of 1812. Not that we want to keep bringing up Russians. Remember the nuclear deal with Iran? Trump called it the worst deal ever made, by any country, including any deal involving any king or queen of Westeros. He would scrap that deal as soon as he sat down in the Oval Office. Who said so? Candidate Trump! Also, his sidekick, Vice President Jesus. “When Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America,” Mike Pence told a cheering crowd at a rally, “we’re going to rip up the Iran deal!”

Oddly enough, once in office, the Trump administration discovers the deal is working, not perfectly, of course, but enough to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In May and for a second time this day, the president recertifies the treaty, indicating to Congress it remains valid.

*

MEANWHILE: DON JR. is in a pickle. He’s no sleazebag, his dad insists. Trump Sr. tweets: “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting [with Russians] like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”

Actually, it could be colluding with an enemy nation. Keep investigating, Bob Mueller. Keep up the good work!

(The president spends the next two years denying anyone in his campaign ever met with Russians in hopes of gaining information that would swing the election in his direction. Then, asked if he’d take foreign help in 2020, if offered, Trump says he would. Of course, he would. Wouldn’t anyone? See: 6/12/19.)

7/18/17: The nine lives of the Republican healthcare bill are still being squandered. Once again, a GOP plan dies in the Senate when four Republican senators announce they won’t vote to allow debate on the merits.

The bill is that bad.

Trump promised 68 times to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Some insist this marks the end of a seven-year-long run, during which Republicans voted dozens of times to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. And need we remind anyone that “repeal and replace” is what Candidate Trump promised to do 68 times while running for office?

He would kill Obamacare on Day One.

He would make “repeal and replace” look like child’s play (assuming the child had no pre-existing conditions). Tweeting in February 2016, Trump promised: “We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare—and nobody can do that like me. We will save $’s and have much better healthcare!”

With Republican majorities in House and Senate and rules changes to make it possible to pass the “carefully crafted” plan by a 51-vote margin, Trump manages to accomplish… nothing.

*

WELL, THEN, how’s the “witch hunt” going? How many people with ties to the Russian government were in the meeting with Don Jr. Okay, not one, not two, but three! Even Fox News can’t ignore the story. It turns out the eighth participant in the meeting which Donald Jr. completely forgot about—was a Russian-American, Ike Kaveladze, an expert on adoption and babies!

Hahaha. No.

Kaveladze works for the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, a man worth $1.96 billion and known for close ties with President Trump, a man worth $3.5 billion, and Vladimir Putin, who has spent his time in office wisely, saving his rubles. One source estimates Putin may have a secret stash of $200 billion.

Anyway, according to a story in Newsweek, Kaveladze was investigated in 2000, when he was:

…found by investigators with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to have helped move more than $1.4 billion on behalf of a large number of Russian and Eastern European clients through accounts with Citibank in New York and Commercial Bank in San Francisco.

Technically, his actions turned out to be legal. But investigators found he filed papers to open 2,000 shell corporations and U.S. bank accounts in Delaware, “all on behalf of Russian operators that were used to launder offshore cash coming into the United States.”

As you can see no sensible person would imagine Kaveladze went to the meeting with Jr. for any other reason except to talk about babies.

7/19/17: The GOP healthcare plan looks deader than Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Fingers are pointing in all directions. Even Republicans see the president “as so out of his legislative depth as to be a liability.”

No matter. Trump demands that Congress remain in Washington and keep working till a really great plan can be hammered out and slapped on his desk, ready for his weirdly huge signature. Forget August recess! Stick around D.C. and do the job the people elected you to do.

Where, exactly was the president the previous weekend, during a critical stage in the fight for Trumpcare? He was “busy” watching an LPGA tournament at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

7/20/17: “Made in America” week continues. You might not have noticed because the “Fake News” folks keep uncovering evidence that Russians had been lurking in every nook and cranny of the Trump 2016 campaign.

On Monday the president is let loose on the White House grounds to play with various machines and products made in all fifty states. You could, for instance, watch him pat the wheel of a giant Caterpillar earth mover. This seems ironic, since Caterpillar has long been willing to outsource jobs to places like Mexico.

Companies like Ford, GM, GE and Proctor & Gamble gleefully ship jobs to Mexico and other faraway lands, too.

Is the problem too much regulation? Is the problem greedy union workers who won’t allow companies to cut costs? Perhaps top executives could take a pay cut—and save a few more jobs.

Consider compensation for top Caterpillar executives in 2016:

Speaking of greed, investigators are reportedly studying records related to Trump’s finances at Deutsche Bank. No evidence of wrongdoing has been yet uncovered. Still, Deutsche does have a lengthy rap sheet. The bank once paid a $630 million fine for helping Russian criminal interests launder an estimated $10 billion. This came on top of Deutsche getting socked for a $7.2 billion fine for peddling toxic mortgages and a $2.5 billion fine for manipulating worldwide interest rates.

See! Who would ever think it’s a good idea to regulate Big Business! These guys are the best!!!!!!!!!!

7/21/17: For those of us who enjoy mocking the Trump administration this is a black day. Sean Spicer, who often left listeners in stunned disbelief, resigns. According to friends “Spicey” wearied of insults hurled by the president.

His replacement, Anthony Scaramucci, explains the president’s real problem to reporters. He’s “doing a phenomenal job,” Scaramucci insists, “and we just need to get it out there a little more aggressively.”

No problem. Scaramucci, “The Mooch,” is on the job! 

Meanwhile, Federal Aviation Administration records indicate Trump is planning on spending August 3-20 at his home/golf course in Bedminster. As for Congress, he still thinks legislators should remain in session and get a healthcare bill on his desk quick. (See: 7/21/17.)

Wait.

Can Congress just mail the bill to Bedminster?

7/22/17: The president rolls out of bed just after 5:30 a.m. in his Wonder Woman pajamas and gets down to the business of governing! He warms up by attacking The New York Times and Washington Post in a tweet.

Why do these papers keep insisting the Russian investigation matters! (See pretty much everything above: 7/8-14/17, etc.)

At 6:35 he gets to the meat of the matter. No one in his administration has ever seen a Russian, touched a Russian, talked to a Russian, heard a Russian offer to fatten a bank account, or smelled a Russian fart. But if they did—are you listening Don Jr. and Jared—don’t worry.

Trump tweets: “While all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS[.]”

The pardon power, yeah, why would anyone think about that?

7/23/17: Another Sunday tweetstorm brews up in Trumpistan. Rap, tap, tap, go the president’s fingers on the keys to his iPhone: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians.”

“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President.” 

Fortunately, there’s real news to report—that is, any news that makes Orange Leader feel good, even when he looks in a mirror and realizes his hair makes it seem like he has a dead fox sitting atop his cranium. Tappity-tap-tap: “Thank you to @LOUDOBBS for giving the first six months of the Trump Administration an A+. S.C.,reg cutting,Stock M, jobs,border etc. = TRUE!” 

7/24/17: Is it possible the president can bring us together? In the sense that almost all Americans are beginning to wonder if he is nuts?

Congress comes together, 419-3 and 98-2, on sanctions.

The White House has made his position clear. Trump does not want to impose greater sanctions on Russia—and would like to great rid of sanctions that exist—and buy Vladimir a pony.

Members of the House of Representatives see it differently. By a vote of 419-3, lawmakers agree to impose greater sanctions and tie Trump’s hands so he can’t remove them without approval.

To recap for Trump fans: The Senate came to the same conclusion, that Russians meddled in the election. The president might want to get rid of sanctions, even if that’s not good for the country. On June 20 the Senate votes, 98-2, to pass a similar bill and tie up the guy in the Oval Office.

*

TRUMP CAPS another wild day by addressing a crowd of 45,000 Boy Scouts at their National Scout Jamboree. “Who the hell wants to speak about politics, when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts,” he asks rhetorically. Then he spews about politics. To encourage his audience to work hard and make America great again, he assures them Washington isn’t just a swamp to be drained.

It’s a “cesspool,” kids, a “sewer,” he grumbles.

The polls? “That’s also ‘fake news,’” he claims. They won’t even report the fact the Scout crowd is so large, Trump predicts. His mostly teenage audience loves the feisty speech, probably because they’re teens.

Teens love fart jokes. (See: 7/27/17.)

7/25/17: Well, can we at least admit, every time we see the First Lady in public, she looks striking. That’s the good news for today.

7/26/17: Pretty much without warning, Trump does what ISIS can only dream of doing. In three tweets he kills, at minimum, 1,320 transgender U.S. servicemen and servicewomen. The tweets:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...... 

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..... 

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

Trump announces ban on transgender individuals in military.

The New York Times reports, “People close to the Defense Secretary said he was appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets,” sending the message to “those currently deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no longer welcome.”

Trump’s tweet came after Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo) had amended a spending bill to ban money for hormone therapy.

Mattis is said to have worked to get that removed.

John McCain weighs in: “There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military—regardless of their gender identity.”

Asked to comment, Lt. Commander Blake Dremann, a transgender officer replies, “We don’t criticize our commander-in-chief.” He did say, “we were doing everything appropriate to continue our honorable service.”

Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, for one, wants them out. “Grant repentance to President Trump and Secretary Mattis for even considering to keep this wicked policy in place,” he said in offering up a prayer. “Grant them understanding, courage, and willpower to stand up to the forces of darkness that gave birth to it and wholly to repeal it.”

*

WE SAY “at least” 1,320 transgender service members are affected. A Rand study for the Pentagon puts the number between 1,320 and 6,630.

Other estimates run as high as 15,500.

Let’s say the number is 1. That would be 1 more transgender individual serving our country than all the members of the Trump family to serve in four generations. The president’s grandfather never served. His father avoided service during World War II. The president dodged the draft in the 1960s. Don Jr., Eric, and even son-in-law Jared passed on a chance to enlist in the wake of 9/11.

There may still be hope for Tiffany or Barron.

Friedrich Trump.

7/27/17: An editorial by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal lays Trump low. And this from Noonan, a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan:

The president’s primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It’s not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity.

He’s not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he’s whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He’s a drama queen. It was once said, sarcastically, of George H.W. Bush that he reminded everyone of her first husband. Trump must remind people of their first wife. Actually, his wife, Melania, is tougher than he is with her stoicism and grace, her self-discipline and desire to show the world respect by presenting herself with dignity.

Noonan goes on to say the way men used to like seeing themselves was the “strong silent type celebrated in mid-20th century films” of John Wayne and others. 

Trump’s style is more like Woody Allen. “His characters,” she notes, “couldn’t stop talking about their emotions, their resentments and needs. They were self-justifying as they acted out their cowardice and anger. But he was a comic. It was funny…Donald Trump now is like an unfunny Woody Allen.”

*

IN A PROFANE RANT later in the day, Trump’s new communications director Anthony Scaramucci blasts pretty much everyone on the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Scaramucci accuses him of being a “leaker.” Besides threatening to get Priebus fired, Scaramucci has this to say of another rival for the president’s affection: “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock.”

*

IN OTHER NEWS, continuing efforts to force Attorney General Sessions to resign run into bipartisan blowback. You don’t have to be a genius to understand the steps Trump is contemplating: 

First, force Sessions out.

Second, appoint someone else to run the Justice Department, preferably a hack, Newt

Gingrich or Rudy Giuliani.

Third, have the new AG fire Special Counsel Mueller.

Fourth: Vodka toasts all around the White House!

Fortunately, there are still patriotic Republicans (and Democrats) in Washington. They warn Orange Leader not to go the full Kim Jong-un route. There are three branches of government.

Two aren’t run by Trump & Co.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) describes Sessions as a man with an “unwavering commitment to the rule of law” and says his leadership is “needed now more than ever.” Orrin Hatch cuts the president a bit of slack he doesn’t deserve, muting his criticism, saying only: “Sometimes he says things that I’m sure afterwards he wishes he hasn’t said just like the rest of us.” Only the rest of us aren’t President of the United States. 

We can’t subvert the Constitution.

*

TO FINISH OFF the day, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America feels a need to apologize in the wake of the president’s speech three days earlier. “I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree...We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now entering the Patty Hearst-bank-robber stage of Stockholm syndrome, insists all she saw was cheering Boy Scouts. All she saw was cheering Boy Scouts. All she saw was cheering…

Please, can someone rescue the poor woman!

Finally, in an interview with CNN, The Mooch rounds out the day. “There are people inside the administration who think it is their job to save America from this president,” he grumbles.

“That is not their job. Their job is to inject this president into America so that he can explain his views properly and his policies, so we can transform America and drain the swamp and make the system fairer for the middle- and lower-income people.”

This might be fine—if it weren’t for the fact that most Americans believe America must be saved from this man. (See, for example: 7/28/17; 7/31/17.)

7/28/17: GOP Senators stay up way past Mitch McConnell’s bedtime to put the finishing touches on their latest Trumpcare plan. The “replace” part of “repeal and replace” is finally ready. John McCain has made a special trip back from Arizona, following an operation for a cancerous tumor behind his left eye.

Trump himself has called him—finally—a hero.

At 1:24 a.m. McCain strides across the well of the Senate. His vote is called by the clerk—and McCain turns one thumb down.

“No,” he says.

Trumpcare is still dead.

*

NORTH KOREA caps a truly terrible day when it launches another long-range missile, this one capable of hitting the West Coast of the United States. Clearly, there are no good choices, moving forward.

Trump blames previous administrations for leaving him to deal with a mess. With this guy, the buck never stops on his desk.

The buck stops in the past.

7/29/17: The planet is burning. North Korean missiles threaten the continental United States. The Tweeter-in-Chief responds in a powerful Twitter rampage. Ten times he taps away furiously. At 6:07 a.m. he begins his day with another complaint about the Russian “witch hunt.”

Trump also insists that the Senate must go to a 51-vote rule on everything so the GOP can pass any legislation it wants. He doesn’t like the 60-vote rule required to pass various bills in the upper house.

At 6:39 a.m., he’s riled and ready to get down to running the country exactly the way he wants. The Republicans have a 52-48 margin in the Senate. So do the math, people! He complains: “....8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate’s Law (see: 6/25/17) and complete Healthcare. Get smart!”

Later, Trump complains about “our foolish past leaders” because they couldn’t get China to help rein in North Korea. At 6:35 p.m. he brings a long tweeting day to an end, admitting his disappointment with China: “...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.” 

7/30/17: The steamy bromance between Putin and Trump, making headlines as recently as July 7, reaches a sad denouement. In the face of new congressional sanctions, Putin expels 755 American diplomats.

7/31/17: As not predicted by Anthony Scaramucci, new White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly fires Anthony Scaramucci. (See 7/28/17.)

A Rasmussen opinion poll has Trump’s approval rating at 39%, his disapproval rating at 61%. In Trumpistan, of course, this immediately qualifies as “Fake News” because no one who voted for Trump likes it.

Again, those of us who possess semi-adequate reasoning skills might note: four days after Trump’s inauguration, Rasmussen was the one poll that had him rated most favorably: 57% approval, 43% disapproval.

A Gallup poll on July 31 also shows Trump down, 37%-59%.

In other words: more and more Americans are coming to realize Trump is the D.C. equivalent of the Wizard of Oz. Speaking of frauds, during an afternoon cabinet meeting, the president tells reporters not to worry about North Korea. In his usual lucid fashion, he explains, “We’ll handle North Korea. We’ll be able to handle North Korea. It will be handled. We handle everything.”

Who says this man can’t handle complicated policy!

*

LAST—BUT DEFINITELY not least—the Washington Post cites several sources aboard Air Force One when discussion turned to how to handle revelations about Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russian lawyer. Aides, the Post reports, wanted to release a truthful statement, to get out in front of the story.

No dice said the Liar-in-Chief.

Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016. This is according to multiple individuals with knowledge of the deliberations.

That false statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

According to the Post top advisers are now worried that the president’s actions leave him vulnerable to allegations of a cover-up.

 “This was…unnecessary,” said one of the president’s advisers, who like most other people interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. “Now someone can claim he’s the one who attempted to mislead. Somebody can argue the president is saying he doesn’t want you to say the whole truth.”

Think Watergate.

August 1, 2017: In really “Fake News” a book by Senator Jeff Flake (R-Az.) is reviewed in the “failing,” faking New York Times.

“Volatile unpredictability is not a virtue,” Flake asserts, with the president in mind. “We have quite enough volatile actors to deal with internationally as it is without becoming one of them.” He denounces the “embrace of ‘alternative facts’ at the highest levels of American life,” noting that it “creates a state of confusion, dividing us along fissures of truth and falsity and keeping us in a kind of low-level dread.”

“Under our Constitution,” Flake adds, speaking to colleagues in Congress,

…there simply are not that many people who are in a position to do something about an executive branch in chaos. Too often we observe the unfolding drama along with the rest of the country, passively, all but saying, “Someone should do something!” without seeming to realize that that someone is us.

The Statue of Liberty is a pigeon roost.

8/2/17: In another stunning, xenophobic development, the Trump administration announces plans to cut legal immigration in half. From now on Trump spokesman Stephen Miller tells reporters, the Statue of Liberty is a pigeon roost on an island in New York Harbor.

Only those immigrants who have important skills and can speak English fluently are wanted.

This plan is grotesque for many reasons. For starters, many avid Trump supporters won’t realize, but their own ancestors would have been blocked from immigrating back when America was great. All those millions of starving Irish in the 1840s? Low skill people. Spoke Gaelic.

Who else would have been kept away? How about Friedrich Trump, first of the line to come to our shores. According to his grandson, on arrival Friedrich knew almost no English. All his life he spoke German primarily.

Know who else wouldn’t have made it, had this new policy been in effect a century ago?  Stephen Miller’s great grandfather, a Jew fleeing pogroms and abuse in Russia, and speaking Yiddish. He would have been barred. Sam Glosser was his name and he passed beneath Lady Liberty’s torch around 1903. Most East European Jews went straight to work in the sweatshops of the New York City garment industry—low-skilled workers, earning low pay.

Virulent anti-Semitism was still common in America at the time. A New York newspaper referred to people like Glosser as “slime” being “siphoned upon us from the Continental mud tanks.”

New York sweat shop, c. 1900.

*

THE WHITE HOUSE finally acknowledges that the president did “weigh in” on the original and completely disingenuous statement issued in Don Jr.’s name, about the meeting he forgot with a Russian lawyer, on a topic he couldn’t remember, with god knows how many participants.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters the president was only helping his son, which “any father would do.”

That is, any father who might be trying to hide a trail that seems to hint at collusion with agents of a foreign enemy.

(Your humble blogger soon learns that “collusion” is not a term found in U.S. legal statutes and therefore has no meaning in this context. The President of the United States, however, never really gets it.)

8/3/17: Trump heads for Bedminster, New Jersey for the first extended vacation of his presidency. He plans to relax for seventeen days, perhaps hob-knobbing with buddies at his exclusive golf club.

Ironically, in 2011 Citizen Trump seemed peeved when he tweeted a series of complaints, including this, about President Obama:

8/4/17: The president is on vacation. In a sign of how crazy even Republicans think he is, the Senate decides to remain “in session” even if almost all 100 members are away on vacation.

Every three days a member must go to the floor, bang a gavel and announce his or her presence. This “pro forma” action, lasting less than a minute, means the Senate is technically in session. That means the president can’t fire the Attorney General, appoint someone else, and have the new A.G. fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, powers the president possesses if the Senate is in recess.

8/5/17: Trump claims in a tweet that under his leadership gains against ISIS have accelerated.

Let’s step back a few months. Remember when he labeled planners for the battle to retake Mosul in Iraq, “a group of losers” for announcing plans to soon begin the fight, instead of making a sneak attack? Eventually the second largest city in Iraq was retaken by Iraqi forces, backed by American air and artillery, with only two U.S. personnel killed (vs. thousands of Iraqi casualties).

This was just as President Obama intended.

Trump also tweets: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!” This is indeed good news—similar to the approach used by Obama to isolate Iran—but let’s not forget all the times right-wingers assailed the U.N. and said what the organization really wanted was to rule the world.

8/6/17: More and more experts are concerned by the president’s ludicrous understanding of foreign policy. Max Boot, a lifelong conservative, tells Robin Wright, a reporter for The New Yorker: “He seems as clueless today as he was on January 20.” 

And that was stunningly clueless.

“It’s like Trump is captain of the Titanic, but he’s actually aiming for the iceberg—and we’re all in danger of going down when the vessel hits.”

Former C.I.A. Director and four-star Air Force General Michael Hayden

“Trump has an appalling ignorance of the current world, of history, of previous American engagement, of what former presidents thought and did,” Geoffrey Kemp says. He worked in the Ford and Reagan administrations.

“The president has little understanding of the context and even less interest in hearing the people who want to deliver it,” Michael Hayden, former C.I.A. director tells Wright. “He’s impatient, decision-oriented, and prone to action. It’s all about the present tense. When he asks, ‘What the hell’s going on in Iraq?’ people around him have learned not to say, ‘Well, in 632…’”

He doesn’t want to listen. He’s got better things to do.

“American leadership in the world—how do I phrase this, it’s so obvious, but apparently not to him—is critical to our success, and it depends eighty per cent on the credibility of the president’s word,” John McLaughlin, who worked at the C.I.A. under seven presidents, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, and ended up as the intelligence agency’s acting director, tells Wright.

Eliot A. Cohen, who worked for Bush 43, puts it bluntly:

Trump is completely irredeemable. He has a feral instinct for self-survival, but he’s unteachable. The ban on Muslims coming into the country and building a wall, and having the Mexicans pay for it, that was all you needed to know about this guy on foreign affairs. This is a man who is idiotic and bigoted and ignorant of the law. 

Former C.I.A. director Hayden gets the last word. “It’s like Trump is captain of the Titanic, but he’s actually aiming for the iceberg—and we’re all in danger of going down when the vessel hits. Today, Hayden warns, “the most disruptive force in the world… is the United States of America.”

8/7/17: Trump must be feeling good. Day 200 of his presidency kicks off with an early start. He’s out of “that dump,” the White House. He has an imaginary friend with the Boy Scouts who called him to say his speech to the boys was the best speech ever. Everyone loves him, including Ivanna, Marla and Melania. Also Madonna. And Vice President Jesus! VP Jesus is definitely not planning, just in case Trump has to seek asylum in Russia, to run in 2020.

At 5:58 a.m. President Trump posts his first tweet: “The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before (despite some phony Fake News polling). Look at rallies in Penn, Iowa, Ohio.......”

The actual polls are grim. GOP leaders know it. RealClearPolitics this morning shows Trump with an average “favorable rating of 38.7 % across ten polls. His unfavorable rating stands at 56.2 %.

Is it possible, President Trump believes his base is growing because he’s counting Russians?