October 1, 2017: Trump Takes Time to Hurl Insults and Go Golfing

 

October 1, 2017: Puerto Rico is still reeling from the blows of Hurricane Irma. Three million people struggle to find food, potable water, and shelter. Power is out across the island. Trump gets madder with each passing day because not everyone agrees he’s doing a fantastic job on relief. 

He decides to devote time to tweeting insults (26 tweets on 9/30/17 alone). He’s mad about “Fake News” because he’s not getting credit for the greatness he knows, every time he gazes in the mirror, that he exudes. He’s still tweeting about NFL players disrespecting the flag, when almost all the players have made it clear. They’re disrespecting him. (See: 9/24/17.) 

 

Trump calls Puerto Ricans “politically motivated ingrates.” 

As for those who are suffering in Puerto Rico, Trump says they have no right to complain. Like NFL players, they should kneel only if they kneel in homage to his greatness. Puerto Ricans who insist on saying what they think are “politically motivated ingrates.”

 

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TRUMP DOES FIND TIME in his busy schedule to make clear he’s ready for war with North Korea. At 9:30 a.m. he fires off one of his many daily tweets: “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...”   

“...Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” 

That’s all the governing he’s up to for the day. He departs from the golf club he owns, where he’s spending the weekend, and heads for a golf club he doesn’t. He devotes the afternoon to watching tournament golf.

BLOGGER’S NOTE (6/26/22): Trump’s “wonderful Secretary of State,” will suddenly become “dumb as a rock”,  Rex Tillerson, according to the president, when his former Secretary of State criticizes him.

October 4, 2017: Secretary of State Tillerson Calls President "A Moron," or "A F--king Moron."

 

10/4/17: The cringe-worthy moments keep coming. Various sources report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called Trump “a moron.” It may have been “a fucking moron.” No one is sure. 

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“Those people that help separate our country from chaos.” 

Sen. Bob Corker

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Tillerson is forced to explain during a press conference. Put on the spot, he praises Trump, because anyone who doesn’t praise Trump effusively gets canned. When asked if he did call the leader of the Free World a “moron,” he doesn’t deny it.

 

Senator Bob Corker decides it’s time to defend Tillerson. He tweets: “I think Sec. Tillerson, Sec. Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos.” 

Speaking of cringe-worthy, Trump’s petulance is on full-blown display all week, regarding Puerto Rico. At a press conference he praises the governor and says the governor isn’t “playing politics.” And what leads the president to this happy discovery? The governor praised Mr. Trump. 

Anyway, isn’t Puerto Rico lucky and isn’t America even luckier to have Donald J. Trump at the helm! Trump riffs on the death toll in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Wow! Only 16 killed. 

In Trump’s warped worldview this proves his administration is fantastic! By comparison, his leadership is way better than President George W. Bush’s, when “hundreds and hundreds” died after Hurricane Katrina. 

Most Puerto Ricans might be without electricity (95%) or cell service (88%). Almost half (45%) might lack access to clean drinking water. In some communities 80-90% of homes were destroyed. But aren’t they blessed to have Orange Leader on the job! Also: they have paper towels! 

In the most cringe-worthy moment of all, the president, who is visiting the island, stands in front of a gathering of first responders, local officials, and ordinary Puerto Ricans. These people have been displaced from businesses, schools, and homes. Gleefully, he tosses rolls of paper towels to the throng. All that is lacking is one of those t-shirt guns they use at sporting events.

 

(The official toll in Puerto Rico was soon raised to 64. An even later study placed it closer to 1,000. Trump only cared, not because people died, but because the higher death toll, he thought, made him look bad.)

November 8, 2017: Even the Secretary of the Treasury is Dodging Paying Taxes

 11/8/17: Trump fans will swear this is “Fake News,” but British papers are digging into 13.4 million leaked files from Appleby, a powerhouse law firm operating out of Bermuda. Nicknamed the “Paradise Papers,” they provide insight into the sleazy world of total tax avoidance. Guess which famous Brit has cash stashed in offshore accounts where avoiding taxes is key? 

The Queen!!                                        

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The Treasury Secretary of these United States is stashing cash overseas in a gambit to dodge taxes.

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As far as this country goes, 31,000 Americans hold Appleby accounts. All are working hard (or paying their lawyers to work hard) to avoid paying any taxes at all, while also covering their tracks. 

Who might some of these evaders be? We mentioned one yesterday (see: 11/7/17). Let’s add to our list. Working hard to avoid taxes we have Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. That’s right! The Treasury Secretary of these United States is stashing cash overseas in a gambit to dodge taxes. (See: 6/29/19 for more detail.)

Where do you stash your cash?

December 7, 2019: Gen. Kelly Out at White House, Rex Tillerson Declared "Dumb as a Rock" by the President

 

12/7/18: Trump’s terrible, no good weekend/week/month/presidency continues to spiral downward. 

First, the president announces that White House chief of staff General John Kelly is leaving; but everything at 1600 Pennsylvania is ducky. Then we learn Nick Ayers will be taking the job. 

Then we learn Ayers won’t be taking the job. 

 

Why not pick a Russian? 

I would like to offer this helpful suggestion: Why not pick a Russian for the job and cut out the middlemen? 

On the international front we have new reports that North Korea is expanding missile-launching bases located along the Chinese border, where it would be beyond dangerous for the U.S. to strike. The North Koreans also appear to be ramping up production of nuclear weapons and missiles. 

Total number of nuclear weapons Kim Jong-un has relinquished since June, when Trump declared North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat: 

0.

While we’re on the subject of rogue leaders, CNN acquires a transcript of the tape of the last minutes journalist Jamal Khashoggi spent on earth. According to the translation, Khashoggi can be heard gasping three times, “I can’t breathe,” as a Saudi hit team finishes him off. 

Soon a bone saw is heard. A doctor wielding it tells other members of the team to use ear plugs or listen to music, as he is, if the sound of dismemberment troubles them. The head of the hit squad can be heard talking on the phone. Turkish authorities, who have passed the transcript on to reporters, claim intercepts prove the calls are going to a number at the Saudi royal palace. The other end of the conversation can’t be heard. The assassin tells his listener the “job is done.” 

None of this bothers our president, or Jared, his son-in-law. Trump continues to insist there’s no direct link between the murder and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Jared does a fluff interview with Sean Hannity. Hannity chooses not to ask about the Crown Prince and Jared never brings him up. According to Jared, U.S. intelligence agencies are still trying to figure out who murdered the journalist. It doesn’t much matter in the end. He and “Dad” are focused on other matters.

 

“We’re focused now on the broader region, which is figuring out how to hopefully bring a deal together between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Jared says. Apparently, neither Jared, nor the president realize: Hey, we’re the United States! We could work on more than one foreign policy issue at a time. 

Regardless, the foreign policy hits keep coming. Trump needs a new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and pickings are slim. He looks at his nearly empty bench and sends in Heather Nauert to guard the goal. Because nothing says, “We intend to bolster America’s preeminent role on the world stage,” like elevating a former Fox News host to this crucial post.  

In an interview with CBS, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reveals the secrets of Trump’s foreign policy “success.” On numerous occasions, he tells an interviewer, he had to tell Trump that what he wanted done on the international stage was: 

A)    Illegal. 

B)     A violation of some existing treaty. 

C)    Both.

 

Tillerson proves less than complimentary in describing the president’s deal-making processes. It was difficult, he says, 

to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things. But rather just kind of says, “Look, this is what I believe and you can try to convince me otherwise,” but most of the time you’re not going to do that.

 

Trump responds with his usual maturity in a tweet rant: “Rex Tillerson didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.” 

November 11, 2019: Trump - "Like a Squirrel Caught in Traffic."

 

11/11/19: Happy Veterans’ Day. If you haven’t noticed, a tidal wave of negative testimony, in the form of sworn witness statements, pours out of the House Intelligence Committee. 

The president is reduced to defending himself in idiotic Twitter posts. For example, at 9:12 this morning:

  

Okay, first, is the president drinking? Is he spelling words like they sound when he slurs them?

“Investigared?” 

Secondly, just because the lawyer made it clear, when Trump was running for president, that he thought he was a bum, that doesn’t mean the “Whistleblower” loses all credibility. You’d have to be a nincompoop, or an avid fan of Sean Hannity’s show (that’s redundant) to miss all the ways the whistleblower’s complaint has been validated by witness testimony. 

 

ALL TESTIMONY NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!!!!! 

 

Logic, however, does not compel the president to hesitate and consider what he’s posting. Eight minutes later, without a shred of evidence, Trump posts:

Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. We haven’t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer. Republicans should put out their own transcripts! Schiff must testify as to why he MADE UP a statement from me, and read it to all!

 

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FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR Nikki Haley has a book coming out. President Trump thinks we should read it. Unfortunately, both author and president miss the chilling import of a story she relates.

 

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“They weren’t being insubordinate. They were trying to save the country.” 

Ambassador Nikki Haley

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According to Ambassador Haley, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to “undermine the president.” In one passage she describes how they approached her for help. “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley writes. “Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president’s decisions was because, if he didn’t, people would die.” 

In Haley’s telling, the two men should have gone to Trump to urge him to reconsider any decisions they opposed. Instead, Haley saved America by not joining the plot! “It should’ve been ‘Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing,’” she told CBS News. “But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.” 

The problem, of course, is that two top officials thought the President of the United States was a danger to the country. 

Tillerson has not commented publicly. 

General Kelly told the Washington Post that if giving Nixon (ha, ha, the blogger means “Trump”) “the best and most open, legal and ethical staffing advice from across the [government] so he could make an informed decision is ‘working against Trump,’ then guilty as charged.”

 

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APPARENTLY, TILLERSON AND KELLY aren’t the only people who worked with Trump and came away convinced the man was a loon. In another new book, Lt. Com. Guy Snodgrass, who served as Sec. of Defense James Mattis’s chief speech writer, paints an unflattering picture. 

Snodgrass flew an F/A-18 Hornet in combat over Iraq and later served as an instructor in the TOPGUN fighter pilot program. So, he’s not the kind of guy to fear the Twitter wrath of Trump. 

In one story, he describes the first meeting of Mattis with the new president. It’s a meeting for which Mattis has prepared at length. From the first, however, it proves impossible to keep the Leader of the Free World focused on problems round the world, which Mattis hoped to lay out. Trump veered from topic to topic – Syria – Mexico – a military parade he wanted, with tanks – a recent Washington Post story – like a “squirrel caught in traffic.” As Lt. Com. Snodgrass describes it, “The issues were complicated, yet all of the president’s answers were simplistic and ad hoc. He was shooting from the hip on issues of global importance [emphasis added].” 

He still is.