Speaking of Melania, did
you know her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, have been living in the United States for more
than a year? You might be asking yourself how they entered the country and how
long they plan to stay. Are they on tourist visas and have they asked for
extensions? Could it be they have IR-5 visas which mean they have become
permanent legal residents? Will they ever go home or is this the dreaded “chain
migration” Trump and his base purport to hate?
Reporters for the Washington
Post and other news outlets seek clarification from the First Lady’s
spokesperson and from the White House.
“No comment,” is the
response.
Did you know Melania’s
father was once a member of the Communist Party?
Now you do.
2/15-3/5/18: The last half of
February and the opening days of March have not been kind to our beloved
President Trump. (I’ve been on vacation and will provide highlights to catch up
with my blog.
First, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team continue
to push the investigation into Russian meddling during the last election. This
is the same meddling the president has long insisted never occurred. How could
he be so sure when every U.S. intelligence agency said the Russians were involved?
Trump said he asked Vladimir Putin if he interfered. Putin said no.
Considering the president’s “I-trust-Vlad” stance, it no
doubt came as a shock to many Trump True Believers when, a few days ago,
Mueller indicted
thirteen Russians and three Russian organizations for meddling in the campaign.
Charges included conspiracy, identity theft and failing to register as foreign
agents.
Mueller also charged that several Russians, posing as
Americans, “communicated with unwitting individuals” associated with Trump
campaign “to seek to coordinate political activities.”
At best, individuals associated with the campaign were
unwitting tools. They might not have been crooks. They were definitely fools.
*
AS FOR JARED KUSHNER, the free press keeps digging up evidence of questionable
behavior. It turns out that Joshua Harris, founder of Apollo Global Management,
met at the White House with Kushner to discuss tax and fiscal policy.
How nice of Harris to visit!
How nice of him to later provide the Kushner Group, Jared’s
family business, with a tidy little loan: $184 million.
Still,
the president’s son-in-law, who owes
$1.2 billion dollars on a single property in Manhattan and may not
be able to meet liabilities, wasn’t done with “affairs of state.” Time to pave
the Swamp with gold! Michael Corbat,
chief executive of Citigroup, also visited the White House for a chat. Just
like that, Corbat okayed a $325 million loan for the Kushner Group.
*
MOVING ON, we come to climate change. In Trumpistan, climate
change is not a problem. According to E.P.A. head Scott Pruitt if the entire earth
starts warming like a Dutch oven it might turn out to be good news! (See: 2/9/18.)
Temperature
extremes seen in the Arctic only twice before.
Let’s hope so, since the U.S. Geological Service just reported spring was arriving much earlier this year
across wide swathes of the country. Almost the entire West Coast, large parts
of Arizona and New Mexico and virtually all of Kentucky and Virginia and parts
of many other states recorded spring-like temperatures fifteen to twenty days
ahead of schedule.
True: deniers can look at the map below and say, “Not so
fast. Look, the Deep South has a delayed start to spring!”
This is true. Sadly, if a denier took the time to read the
whole story, said denier would note that the overall trend is clear. Early springs are a sign of a changing
climate and they are coming with increasing regularity. Who says? Scientists.
“We’ve known for over a decade now that climate change is variably advancing
the onset of spring across the United States,” the USGS warns.
Meanwhile, the Danish Meteorological Institute weighed in with what liberals call facts. Large
stretches of the Artic have experienced temperatures 45 degrees above normal
in recent weeks. The sun set in the Arctic in October in case you forget how it
works at the top of the world. It won’t rise again until later this month. Yet
the region is much warmer than normal. Worse, such extremes have been seen only
twice before. Once was last year. The other was 2011.
It’s a bit of a trend.
At the same time, warm air flowed across much of Alaska last
week and temperatures 40 degrees above normal were recorded. Even young conservatives
are getting worried and 23 chapters of College Republicans have joined a conservative coalition “calling for national
action to fight climate change.”
“Adult leaders have not acted efficiently or effectively on
this issue,” one College Republican leader explained, “and we are stepping
forward to fill the void.”
Trump’s head? That void?
*
ON FEBRUARY 16, with half the Valentines’ Day chocolates
still left in Melania’s box, The New
Yorker reports on another alleged affair involving her husband in 2006.
This time the target of Donald’s affection was a Playboy Bunny named Karen
McDougal:
McDougal, a slim brunette…had
been named Playmate of the Year, eight years earlier. In 2001, the magazine’s
readers voted her runner-up for “Playmate of the ’90s,” behind Pamela Anderson.
At the time of the party [at the Playboy Mansion where they met], Trump had
been married to the Slovenian model Melania Knauss for less than two
years; their son, Barron, was a few months old. Trump seemed uninhibited by his new family obligations.
McDougal later wrote that Trump
“immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me - telling me how beautiful
I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he
was all over you—I think you could be his next wife.’”
Can we all agree—liberal and conservative alike—that the
First Lady cannot possibly be pleased?
 |
| Ms. McDougal dressed for success. |
*
A FEW DAYS LATER, Rachel Cooks reasserted a claim she made
during the 2016 campaign. Twelve years ago, she says Trump forcibly kissed her
in front of an elevator on the twenty-fourth floor of Trump Tower.
Naturally, the Orange Buffoon had to up and tweet:
A woman I don’t know and, to the
best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News
Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump
Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with
live security......
....cameras running. Another
False Accusation. Why doesn’t @washingtonpost report the story of the women
taking money to make up stories about me? One had her home mortgage paid off.
Only @FoxNews so reported...doesn’t fit the Mainstream Media narrative.
Naturally, Trump had to flip a few details—putting the
incident in the lobby, where even a serial groper would have known enough to be
wary—and then cited his own propaganda organization to back him up.
*
HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT Secretary Ben Carson is the
latest denizen of the swamp to run into trouble. A whistleblower reveals that rules were broken,
and unauthorized monies spent to redecorate his office after he took
over at HUD. The highlight was a luxurious dining room set, with the tab for
$31,000 to be picked up by taxpayers. The whistleblower claims Carson’s wife
overruled objections about the spending and that she was demoted for taking a
stand.
Once the story broke—don’t you just hate all this “Fake
News”—Secretary Carson insisted he had done nothing wrong. He assured reporters
he was going to ask for “God’s guidance to do what is right.”
Later, he claims, “I was as surprised as anyone to find out
that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered.”
As a reliable, if reluctant taxpayer, might I say I am as
surprised as anyone that Carson’s wife would be so clueless as not to tell him
about the whistleblower’s objections or the fancy new table he was about to
receive. Let me further note that I wouldn’t need to ask God to help me decide
what to do. And even if I did consult God, I doubt He would suggest I demote the
whistleblower in revenge.
*
CARSON WASN’T the only Trump appointee to get his hand
slapped for lavish spending. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was blasted by his own agency’s inspector general. The
matter at hand was a 10-day European trip Shulkin and his wife took in the
summer of 2017—which Shulkin first claimed he paid for himself.
In a 97-page report the inspector disagreed. He outlined “a
number of serious derelictions.” Shulkin had “improperly accepted Wimbledon
tickets” and turned an aide into a “personal travel concierge” to plan “high
tea” and “Roman baths” during the trip, at the request of Shulkin’s wife, a
Philadelphia dermatologist. The inspector general found that Shulkin’s chief of
staff altered an email to make
it appear “that Secretary Shulkin would be receiving an award” in Denmark, so
his wife’s $4,300 airline ticket would be paid by the U.S. government.
Actually, it would be paid for by suckers like me, who didn’t
vote for Trump, and suckers like you, if you did.
Here, I might point out that in criticizing Trump and his swindler’s
crew, I almost never quote Democrats, which would be like shooting catfish in a
cereal bowl.
Let’s turn to Republican Congressman Mike Coffman, instead.
Coffman is a veteran of the Gulf and Iraq Wars. He says he’s “deeply offended”
by Shulkin’s antics and calls for him to step down. “He’s really part of the
culture of corruption that too often defines this [Veteran’s Affairs]
organization. I just don’t think that he has the moral authority to clean it
up.”
Regardless, Mr. and Mrs. Shulkin will always have their
memories of those high teas and Roman baths.
*
SPEAKING OF FLYING FOOLS, let’s not forget E.P.A. head and
Chief Climate Denier Scott Pruitt. It turns out any time Pruitt flies—and he flies
more often than Mary Poppins—he goes first- or business-class.
 |
| Why fly cheap if taxpayers are footing the bill? |
Last June, Pruitt flew business-class, round-trip to Italy,
at a cost to taxpayers of $7,000. CBS reported that the price for his ticket was “several times
the cost of what was paid for other staffers who accompanied him on the trip.”
They all sat in coach. Yet Pruitt claims he must fly at the front for “security
reasons.” Pruitt is the first E.P.A. head ever to set up a full-time security
detail to protect him, 24/7, from tree huggers and crying babies in the backs
of planes.
Pruitt “also flew round trip between Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport and LaGuardia in New York on a shuttle flight costing
$1,641.53. By contrast, the ticket for a staffer who flew with him cost
$238.40.”
(This would seem to indicate Pruitt isn’t worried about
staffers being attacked or deafened by screaming children.)
On yet another occasion, Pruitt stuck taxpayers with a bill for $14,285.71 so he could
take an 83-minute flight on a private jet, from Tulsa to Guymon, Oklahoma, in
his home state. According to Google maps, the 326-mile trip by car would have
taken just over five hours.
So, let me say, as a patriotic American, that the next time
Pruitt wants to travel, I volunteer to chauffer him at a cost of $500 per hour
in my car. That would mean savings of thousands for the federal government
right there.
Pruitt might even keep me busy in retirement because the man dearly,
dearly loves to travel. One trip, via private jet, from Cincinnati to New York
City, cost $36,069.50. A ticket on a commercial flight the same day could have
been had for $350. One estimate puts the total cost to taxpayers for all his
unnecessary private and first-class flights by Pruitt at $200,000.
Other members of the Trump team who find themselves under a
travel cloud include Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin inquired about using a military jet
to fly to Europe for his honeymoon. (At least that request was denied.)
And we might add: these esteemed gentlemen will have to keep
jetting all over the world if they expect to break the record set by HHS Secretary
Tom Price, who stuck taxpayers for nearly a million dollars in
charter flight expenses before the president decided he had to be canned.
To add insult to injury, Price’s hand-picked choice to lead
the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was recently fired after it was shown she traded heavily in drug
and tobacco stocks.
*
NEXT, LET’S TALK about the president’s response to the
Florida school shooting on February 14. For starters, there was his weird
meeting with survivors of the Parkland slaughter and victims of earlier
massacres. That was the meeting where Trump required a cheat sheet, prepared
for him by White House Babe Hicks, to
remind him to show human emotions, such as empathy.
One admonition called upon the president to occasionally say,
“I hear you,” to those who had suffered irretrievable loss.
No
Medal of Honor winners in the GOP, either.
In general, Trump appeared totally clueless in the wake of
the bloodbath. He said he was for raising the age to buy a rifle to 21. Then he
backed away. He told Republican lawmakers they were afraid of the N.R.A.—which
is true. Then he met with N.R.A. lobbyists and said he had a great time. He
said armed teachers would do better
protecting schools because they cared for students more than armed
police officers. Teachers, he said, could shoot it out with intruders and put
an end to school shootings with ease.
Trump felt compelled to label the armed school resource
officer who failed to rush into the building and confront the shooter at
Stoneman Douglas “a coward.” The president said the man “choked.”
Trump also faulted several Broward County deputies who
remained outside as the shooting unfolded. They “weren’t exactly Medal of Honor
winners,” he grumbled. “The way they performed was frankly disgusting. The way
they performed was really a disgrace.”
Then again, there was no doubt in his mind what would have
happened if he had been there that day. During a talk at the White House with
state governors, Trump draped himself in the mantel of hero. “You don’t know
until you test it, but I think, I really believe I’d run in there, even if I
didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have
done that too.”
Yes, despite bad feet—which kept from running into rice
paddies in Vietnam—Trump would have rushed in, unarmed, to save the day.
 |
| Trump needs a reminder to show empathy. |
*
“CHARACTER IS DESTINY,” the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once
said. For Trump and his minions this is clearly the case. When you cram the
White House with bullies, wife-beaters and foul-mouthed louts, people notice.
Trump
finishes behind Buchanan in presidential ratings.
Consider results from a recent Quinnipiac poll: 61% of Americans
said they did not like Trump as a person.
Only 3 in 10 said they did.
Even worse, only 1 in 5 Americans (18%) believe the president
has been faithful to his third wife.
One final poll deserves attention. According to 170
historians, Trump does not rate as one of our greatest presidents, no matter how many times he
says he gets an A+ for the work he’s done. In a poll conducted for Presidents’
Day, Donald J. displaced James Buchanan on the list, moving him up a notch.
That means Trump now nails down last place. That means there’s nowhere to go
but up for the man historians labeled the “most polarizing” chief executive
ever.
Every subgroup in the survey, including self-identified
conservative and Republican historians, had Trump in the bottom five.
Still, there’s always “hope,” if Trump wants
to keep a grip on power. This week the Communist Party was poised to alter the Chinese
constitution and allow Xi Jinping to serve as president for life. Trump seemed
to like the idea of Xi ruling until he died and when he talked about it during
lunch at Mar-a-Lago his fat cat friends agreed. Here’s how Fox News told the tale:
“He’s now president for life.
President for life. And he’s great,” Trump said, according to a recording obtained by CNN. “I think it’s great.
Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
Trump’s remarks were reportedly
met with laughter and applause during a luncheon for Republican donors at his Mar-a-Lago
estate.
Pause for a moment to think how Sean Hannity
and Bill O’Reilly (before he got banned for sexually assaulting a bevy of
beautiful co-workers) would have responded if Obama had made such comments.
“Obama loves communism!” they would have
screamed.
“Obama said a dictator was ‘great.’ He wants
to be a dictator, too!
They’d have gone berserk.
3/6/18: We
learn that George Nader, a Lebanese American gentleman, is cooperating with
Mueller. Nader often works as an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed and the United
Arab Emirates. He normally travels in rarified circles.
Media reports say he was stopped by F.B.I agents after
landing at Dulles International Airport in January. They handed him a subpoena,
relieved him of his electronic devices and questioned him for two hours.
This meant he missed his connecting flight
to…Mar-a-Lago…where he had hoped to help the president celebrate his first year
in office.
What did the F.B.I. want to know? And what is Mueller asking
Nader about now? One possibility is that Nader funneled money from the U.A.E.
into the Trump campaign. That would be flagrantly illegal.
Nader also attended a meeting in the Seychelles Islands
(population: 94,677) in January 2017. If you’re like me, you’re going to have
to Google the islands to find out where they are. Nader found them. So did Erik
Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, founder of Blackwater
Security, and at the time an informal adviser to the Trump transition team.
Who else flew to the islands, just because they are so
conveniently located for visiting? Kirill Dmitriev—representing Vladimir Putin.
You can probably guess where this is going. Dmitriev managed a
powerful Russian trust fund, sanctioned by President Obama.
According to The New
York Times, Nader has since been questioned repeatedly about a variety of meetings,
including at least one with Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon at the White House.
Mr. Prince has denied any secret deals were discussed during
this meeting. Oh, no. He just happened to run into Dmitriev, and they had a
friendly drink.
In the Seychelles.
(The Mueller Report
proves that Prince was lying when he said he just happened to meet Dmitriev for
a drink. The meeting had been arranged by Nader, at Dmitriev’s request. Nader
later gets indicted for sex trafficking of a minor; see: 6/4/19.)
3/7/18: In
more bad news for Trump and his circle, Sam Nunberg, who pretty much got the whole
Trump campaign off the ground in 2015, has agreed to testify before a Grand
Jury on Friday.
On Monday, Nunberg, who had been subpoenaed as part of the
Mueller investigation, was threatening
to rip up the subpoena on national TV. He wasn’t going to “waste 80
hours of his time” complying with a records request. He said Mueller would be
crazy to arrest him. On sober second thought, however, he decided he would
cooperate, because Mueller wouldn’t be crazy to arrest him.
Also, Nunberg said he would soon be entering rehab.
The bad news for Trump? Mueller is seeking documents and
electronic records, from November 1, 2015, till the present, involving Nunberg
and:
Steve Bannon
Michael Cohen
Rick Gates
Hope Hicks
Corey Lewandowski
Paul Manafort
Carter Page
Keith Schiller
Roger Stone
And…President Trump!
You can see why this might bother the whole duplicitous crew.
Gates has pled guilty. Manafort is under house arrest. Hicks just quit her post
after investigators grilled her for nine hours. Cohen is in the news for
arranging a payoff to a porn star.
Schiller has admitted he was “on guard” outside Trump’s hotel room in
Moscow on a night in 2013 when his boss was offered the warm company of five
prostitutes to share his bed. If you missed that story because all you do is
binge on Fox News and fantasize about finding Hillary’s emails, Schiller says
nothing illicit occurred. Around 2 a.m. he claims he wandered off to his room
for a snooze.
And we know Trump would never sleep with high-end
prostitutes.
Right?
3/8/18:
Another crazy day in Trumpistan: The New
York Times reports on possible
witness tampering by the president.
Also: We have fresh news involving Stormy Daniels, the porn
star currently trying to sue the Orange Buffoon.
Pinocchio
Sanders.
Perhaps you watched Press Secretary Pinocchio Sanders
yesterday, as she went through her daily contortions. Her job was to make it
sound as if the Buffoon was as innocent, when it comes to Ms. Daniels, as a
virgin lamb in the meadow. Had Trump ever had an affair with Stormy? Never. Who
then paid the $130,000 settlement to her? Trump? No. Why was Stormy paid to
begin with? Pinocchio didn’t wish to comment. Did Trump know about the payment?
Why, who would think it! Pinocchio tried to claim the porn star was
lying—because Trump had just won an “arbitration” case in which his lawyers
blocked Daniels from speaking out about her story.
By the way, court documents, including a settlement agreement, show
Daniels could be sued for damages in excess of $1 million if she revealed
images, emails or other evidence she might have which would support her claims.
Evidence! Damn it! (See
also: 1/26/18.)
So, to recap: Trump didn’t pay to shut up Stormy. His lawyer
paid out of his own pocket. Trump didn’t know about the settlement. Stormy was
lying. But if Stormy had proof she would be sued if she revealed it—even though
she couldn’t because the affair never happened.
Finally, Trump
knew all about the “arbitration” case, even though he had no idea
what he was suing Daniels to stop her from talking about. (See: 4/26/18.)
Really, with Trump in the White House, never a dull day is
passed. Did you know a friend of the president, David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, allegedly paid another $150,000 for a story Karen
McDougal, a former Playboy Bunny, had written about an affair with Trump?
Pecker’s decision to pay but bury the story to help his
pussy-grabbing pal also came during the lead up to the 2016 election.
That might also turn out to be illegal. (See: 12/13/18.)
McGahn
could prove to be a key witness against the president.
SWITCHING TOPICS, Reince Priebus, Donald McGahn and the two
men’s lawyers, were concerned enough about Trump’s approaches to them, since
both are potential witnesses in the Russian investigation, to report questionable contacts
to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Priebus’s contact seems fairly benign.
McGahn’s encounter is more problematic and occurred this past
January—after he had already given sworn testimony—and after The New York Times ran an article about
Trump’s attempt to fire Mueller in June 2017.
Based on talks with people who had been briefed on both
meetings, the Times reported yesterday:
After the article was published,
the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, told Mr. McGahn that the president
wanted him to release a statement saying that the story was not true, the
people said.
Mr. Porter, who resigned last
month amid a domestic abuse scandal, told Mr. McGahn the president had
suggested he “might get rid” of Mr. McGahn if he chose not to challenge the
article, the people briefed on the conversation said.
Mr. McGahn did not publically
deny the article, and the president later confronted him in the Oval Office in
front of White House chief of staff, John F. Kelley, according to the people.
The president said he had never
ordered Mr. McGahn to fire the special counsel. Mr. McGahn replied that the
president was wrong and that he had in fact asked Mr. McGahn in June to call
the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, to tell him that the special
counsel had a series of conflicts of interest that disqualified him for
overseeing the investigation and that he had to be dismissed.
Or to put it plainly, if McGahn is correct, then the Buffoon
asked him to lie about what had happened last summer.
In legal circles that sounds just like attempted witness
tampering.
(We learn when the
Mueller Report is finally released that the president did indeed ask McGahn to
fire Mueller.)
3/9-3/12/18: Last
week ended on a high note for President Trump. The stock market gained more
than 430 points and February job numbers were excellent, with 313,000 jobs
added to the economy.
The labor participation rate ticked up 0.3 percent, to 63.0
percent, which also indicates an economy in good health.
Normally this humble blogger might credit the president for
his success. Alas, this humble blogger cannot forget the countless times when
Obama was adding jobs and digging the country out of the Great Recession and
Citizen Trump liked to claim 93 million Americans lacked jobs.
That claim was so dumb you had to wonder how anyone could be
dumb enough to believe it.
Oh, yeah, Sean Hannity did—only jacking it up a little, to 95 million.
*
CONTINUING with the “good news,” the GOP-controlled U.S.
House Intelligence Committee has released its long-anticipated report. Yes. The Russians did interfere in the election.
Trump
excited…IN CAPS.
And no, the House report said, the Russians didn’t care who
won. (The F.B.I. and C.I.A. would demur.) “We disagree with the narrative that they were
trying to help Trump,” the head of the House committee said.
The President of the United States was thrilled with these
“findings.” Monday, he tweeted, all in caps:
THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF
COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE
THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
This might impress Trump’s addle-brained fans; but those of
us who have even a tenuous grip on reality understand this panel wasn’t going
to find evidence of anything it didn’t want to find.
And it didn’t want to find dirt on Trump’s hands.
*
ON SATURDAY, March 10, the president speaks at a campaign
rally in Pennsylvania, in support of Rick Saccone, running in a special
congressional election. In a rambling speech, Trump decides to attack the free press again. This time he
labels Chuck Todd, host of Meet the Press,
a “sleepy son of a bitch.”
*
A NERVE GAS AGENT is employed to poison a former Russian
double agent and his daughter in Salisbury, England. Prime Minister Theresa May
blames the Russian government for what she calls an
“indiscriminate and reckless” act, one which left hundreds of bystanders and
first responders subject to contamination.
Asked if the White House is willing to condemn Russia, Press
Secretary Pinocchio can only respond, three times, saying the U.S. supports
Great Britain, our ally. The word “Russia” is frozen from her lips.
Traveling overseas, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson responds much more pointedly Monday night.
This is a really egregious act.
It appears that it clearly came from Russia. Whether it came from Russia with
the Russian government’s knowledge is not known to me at this point…It will
certainly trigger a response I’ve become extremely concerned about Russia…What
we’ve seen is a pivot on their part
to be more aggressive. And this is very, very concerning to me and others that
there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don’t fully understand what the
objective behind that is.
Naturally, on Tuesday morning, the president decides this
would be a perfect time to fire… Tillerson.
And the classiest way to do it would be to tweet the news:
“Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He
will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!”
In a speech to State Department employees later the same day,
Tillerson explains that he had been called by the Orange
Buffoon—three hours after seeing the tweet—to be officially told he was canned.
In his farewell, Tillerson warns diplomats that “much work remains to respond
to the troubling behavior and actions
on the part of the Russian government,” and says Russia could face
“greater isolation on their part, a situation which is not in anyone’s
interest.”
Trump’s response to the poisoning is more restrained. One might
call it cowardly. “As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with
them,” he tells reporters, “we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.”
It could have been anyone. It could have been Monaco. Or
Malta! Or some 400-pound guy sitting on his couch in Madagascar!
*
SPEAKING OF FIRINGS, the week got off to a rocky start for
Johnny McEntee, Trump’s personal aide and close friend of the Trump family.
McEntee was fired Monday and escorted out of the White House without being allowed to
collect personal belongings.
Allegedly, he was axed “because he is currently under investigation
by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes.”
The Wall Street Journal
reports that those crimes involve “online gambling” and “mishandling” of
taxes.
Fortunately, if you’re going to be drained from one swamp
it’s nice to land in the muck of another.
McEntee is immediately hired to work on the Trump reelection campaign.
*
IT IS SAFE TO SAY that as the time comes to think of Trump
serving a second term, we can predict the National Rifle Association will be
backing him all the way. In the wake of the horrific Parkland, Florida massacre,
Trump briefly jumped the reservation. He called on Congress to raise the age to
buy rifles, particularly the kind of assault rifle used in the Parkland
shooting, to 21. He called for legislation to implement near-universal
background checks before purchasing guns, a move first proposed in 2013, in the
wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook.
Within days Trump began backing away from his own ideas. He
saw his own portly shadow and beat a retreat.
“Not much political support (to put it mildly),” he tweeted
Monday morning, in reference to the proposals he had briefly advanced.
Apparently, he has been watching too much Fox & Friends and not listening to
enough NPR. According to a survey conducted by the latter, there was “widespread
bipartisan support for a range of gun-control policies,” including:
·
requiring background checks for all gun buyers
(94 percent)
·
adding people with mental illnesses to the
federal gun background check system (92 percent)
·
raising the legal age to purchase guns from 18 to
21 (82 percent)
·
banning bump stocks (81 percent)
·
banning high-capacity ammunition magazines that
hold more than 10 rounds (73 percent) and
·
banning assault-style weapons (72 percent).
Naturally, the N.R.A. opposes federal action to force all
states to raise the age to buy a rifle to 21.
On the other hand, the N.R.A. favors federal action to force all states to honor concealed
carry permits issued to citizens who might be traveling from states where it is
legal to carry to states where it is not.
3/13/18: Rep. Trey
Gowdy (R-S.C.) breaks with House Intelligence Committee colleagues and says evidence they gathered clearly shows Russia worked to undermine Hillary Clinton and
help Donald J. Trump in 2016. Russian meddling was “motivated in whole
or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her Presidency had
she prevailed.” (See: 3/9/18.)
3/14/18:
Wednesday, the president awakes, vigorously scratches his crotch, and clicks on
the TV. He wants to see how the special election in Pennsylvania Congressional
District 18 turned out. Tuning in to Fox
& Friends, he wonders if he’s in store for good news or bad. Imagine
his pleasure when Steve Doocy explains that Conor Lamb, the likely winner, “ran as a
Republican.”
“Melania,” Trump shouts in the direction of the bathroom,
“did you know Conor Lamb was a Republican?”
He forgets Melania is now sleeping in a separate bedroom (see: 2/13/18). Rumor has it she has a
sign posted on the door: “Go sleep with Stormy, #POTUS, you pussy-grabbing Lard
Ass.”
It takes the president a moment to refocus. Trump knows he
can’t lose, regardless of the outcome of the special election. Lamb, who he
labeled “Lamb the Sham” on Saturday, during a campaign rally for Rick Saccone,
is—like Saccone—really a Republican!
That explains why the GOP spent $10 million in an effort to defeat him. (On Fox
News this somehow makes sense.)
Brian Kilmeade, the other male member of the Three Stooges,
outlines all the reasons Democrats should be worried. Lamb ran away from
Democratic leadership! He didn’t dare take on Trump! Naturally, the president
is lapping up all this propaganda. Ainsley Earnhardt agrees. Lamb “has more of
a Republican agenda than he does a Democratic agenda.” This goes to show you
that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer need to sweat the midterms in November.
Sitting up in bed, Trump throws a fist in the air. “I am the
greatest POTUS ever!” he shouts. For a moment he loses his train of thought.
God,
Ainsley has sweet legs. I’d like to grab some of that!
He refocuses. The Stooges agree that polls showed Lamb
winning by six points just a few days ago; but he won by only two tenths of a percent.
That shows you how much success Trump had when he went to Pennsylvania to
campaign for Saccone. And how about a shout out for Don Jr. and Vice President
Jesus, who both visited Pennsylvania 18 to push for Saccone!
Truly, they must be rejoicing at the Republican National Committee
today. Trump carried the district by 20 points in 2016. Now, a Democrat
a Republican, Conor Lamb carries Pennsylvania 18 by roughly 600 votes.
FUN FACT: Based on my experience, talking to Democrats, I
find they don’t hate America. They also do not hate God. (They do wonder how it
is Republicans always insist God is on their side, even though they are
completely divided in terms of which religion God likes best—choices including
Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Methodist, Mormon, Presbyterian and many, many,
many more.)
Democrats also support the U.S. Constitution but loath the
president because they believe he does not.
 |
| Can you guess which party Lamb, in red tie, belongs to? |
3/15-21/18: Donald
J. Trump hits a tough patch. True, the employment picture is good, especially
for high-priced lawyers. (You could argue Trump is keeping the legal profession
fully employed all by himself.)
Now we learn that Trump wants Congress to pass laws to allow
for the execution of bigtime drug dealers.
Which
bigtime drug dealers?
I think we all know who he’s talking about. Probably John
Kapoor, a well-known drug “king pin” who once made the Forbes 400 list as one of the richest men in America. Founder and
CEO of Insys, Kapoor’s pharmaceutical company has been one of the leading
pushers of opioids for years. Last October, Kapoor was arrested on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and
fraud.
What about Dr. Michael Kostenko?
He wrote more than 40,000 prescriptions for opioids in just
two years. In one week, the West Virginia doctor managed to write 325
prescriptions—totaling an astonishing 19,000 pills.
*
THE PRESIDENT finds time in his busy schedule to call Shirtless
Strongman Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on winning reelection—in a contest
in which leading opposition candidates were barred from running.
Donald
♥’s
Vladimir
Yes, indeed. The President of the United States congratulated
the man accused of ordering spies to use a nerve agent in an attempted
assassination on British soil. This is the same leader who backs Russian
mercenary forces in Syria, which led recently to a bloody confrontation with
U.S. troops and allied forces. (Luckily, U.S. forces called in air strikes and
managed to kill as many as 500 Russians and Syrians with no loss of life on our
side.
Senator John McCain responds:
[An] American president does
not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham
elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every
Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to
determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who
have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.
Later, Pinocchio Sanders admits that Trump did not mention
Russian meddling in the 2016 election during his call.
Apparently, he and Vlad talked about office pools and March
Madness. Putin is picking Trump University to win it all.
*
WHEN IT COMES to dictators and autocrats the current occupant
of the White House has a soft spot for anyone who takes the law into his or her
own hands. Trump has commended Egypt’s brutal president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,
known for killing 800 protesters in a single day and jailing tens of thousands
of dissidents, for doing “a fantastic job.” Trump also told reporters President
Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was doing “an unbelievable job on the drug
problem” in his country when that “job” involved the extra-judicial murder of
more than 12,000 Filipinos.
In fact, when Trump visited Manila he laughed along with
Duterte when the latter referred to reporters as “spies.”
Trump might call all of this “Fake News” but this news has
been widely reported by media outlets and the president is routinely quoted to bolster these tales. His
lips move. Stupid shit pours out.
Now, scumbag leaders are following his lead. According to Reuters, Duterte recently closed down one news site, calling it “a fake news
outlet” that had been “throwing trash and shit all along.”
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak accused opponents of
using the media to spread “fake news” after reporters broke a story about
widespread corruption involving a state-supported investment fund. The “fakest
news” of all would be revelations that $681 million “mysteriously” ended up in
Najib’s personal account.
“Fake news is like poison or a gun
and it can kill our beautiful society.”
Cambodian
official
Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia also cited Trump’s attacks on “fake news” to justify his
decision to shut down an independent newspaper, the Cambodia Daily, which had criticized his rule.
Reuters
explained:
In his latest attack on
Saturday, he backed Trump for announcing “fake news” awards. “I think President
Donald Trump has correctly created an award that he just announced in recent
days, the Fake News Award,” he said. “And in Cambodia there is also this type
of media.”
One Cambodian government official defended such tactics:
“Everyone, including ordinary citizens, has to fight against fake news because fake news is like poison or a gun
and it can kill our beautiful society.”
Someone should get that guy a slot on Sean Hannity’s show.
Speaking of: Did you know Vladimir Putin allegedly has a hit
list of people he’d like to bump off? Sergei Skripal, recently poisoned, made that
list.
Guess who else Vladimir wants to murder?
Christopher Steele: the guy behind the Steele dossier, the
file that hints at all kinds of perverse links between Trump, Trump aides, and assorted
Russians.
 |
| Trump's pal. |
*
MICHAEL COHEN, attorney for Donald J. Trump, files an
unprecedented legal brief in federal court. It’s a complicated legal maneuver,
meant to keep Stormy Daniels, the porn star quiet; but what makes it
interesting is that Cohen must now name his client in the case. That client,
heretofore known in court documents only as “David Dennison,” is Donald J.
Trump.
You can’t make this up. (See:
3/7/18.)
The President of the United States is operating, for legal
purposes, under a fucking assumed name!
For a time, it looked like gagging the porn star (legally
only) had worked. The 2016 election came and went. No one heard a peep from the
porn lady. The parties to the original settlement, a tightly written
non-disclosure agreement (NDA) included “Peggy Peterson” (Daniels) and “David
Dennison.” That agreement stipulated a penalty of $1 million any time
“Peterson” broke silence. Once the free press started digging, it became
obvious who “Dennison” was.
Now Donald/David and Cohen were claiming that Ms. Clifford
had repeatedly violated the NDA and accrued
$20,000,000 in damages.
*
SATURDAY MORNING, the president sleeps in late. His first
tweet comes at 10:00 a.m. and his heart hardly seems in it. “Happy
#StPatricksDay” is all he taps. You could
argue, however, that he was showing restraint because he refrained from calling
Ireland a “shithole” country.
*
EARLY SUNDAY MORNING, the Orange Buffoon tunes in to watch
his favorite cable news show. As usual, Fox News shapes whatever “reality” it
is the president sees. At 7:02 a.m. he tweets: “Wow, watch Comey lie under oath
to Senator G when asked ‘have you ever been an anonymous source...or known
someone else to be an anonymous source...?’ He said strongly ‘never, no.’ He
lied as shown clearly on @foxandfriends.”
Yes. Clearly. On Fox & Friends. At this point, I
think if the hosts of that show claimed
bagels were sentient, Trump would tweet agreement.
Twenty minutes later, denies—via Twitter—that notes former F.B.I. official Andrew McCabe
says he took after
meetings with the president exist. “Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe,”
Trump tappity-taps on his phone. “But he never took notes when he was with me.
I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a
later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?”
You can call them “fake memos” if you want. In court, a judge
will most likely call them “evidence.”
*
TRUMP STARTED the next week the same way he ended the last,
tweet-raging about the Russia investigation. We
can assume his mood did not improve as the hours passed. The stock market took
a tumble after it was revealed Facebook was duped into allowing a data-mining operation to steal the
personal information of 50,000,000 users. What was the name of the company that
did the mining? Cambridge Analytica. Who used that firm during his or
her campaign for president?
Trump.
Christopher Wylie, who helped start
the company before turning whistleblower, described how stolen data could be
used in any political campaign:
Cambridge Analytica will try to
pick at whatever mental weakness or vulnerability that we think you [the voter
whose data has been mined] have and try to warp your perception of what’s real
around you. If you are looking to create an information weapon, the battle
space you operate in is social media. That is where the fight happens.
What kind of sleazy rats run
Cambridge? Of course, there’s a Russian-American, Professor Aleksandr Kogan,
involved! Kogan lied to Facebook, the site says, and got a digital foot in the
door.
Ukrainian girls “are very beautiful. I find that
works.”
Channel 4 News in Britain, where Strategic
Communications Laboratories Group (SCL), the parent company of Cambridge, is located, recently began investigating company practices. An
undercover reporter “posing as a fixer for a very wealthy client” from Sri
Lanka was sent to seek help from Chief Executive Alexander Nix of SCL. Here’s
how Nix explained [punctuation follows the British rule] the way the company
worked, all for the right price:
In one exchange, when asked
about digging up material on political opponents, Mr Nix said they could “send
some girls around to the candidate’s house”, adding that Ukrainian girls “are
very beautiful, I find that works very well”.
In another he said: “We’ll offer
a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange
for land for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the
face of our guy and we post it on the Internet.”
Offering bribes to public
officials is an offence under both the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act. Cambridge Analytica operates in the UK and is registered
in the United States.
…Mr Nix told our reporter:
“…we’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I
look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you.”
Along with Mr Nix, the meetings
also included Mark Turnbull, the managing director of CA Political Global, and
the company’s chief data officer, Dr Alex Tayler.
Mr Turnbull described how,
having obtained damaging material on opponents, Cambridge Analytica can
discreetly push it onto social media and the internet.
He said: “… we just put
information into the bloodstream of the internet, and then, and then watch it
grow, give it a little push every now and again… like a remote control. It has
to happen without anyone thinking, ‘that’s propaganda’, because the moment you
think ‘that’s propaganda’, the next question is, ‘who’s put that out?’.”
Mr Nix also said: “…Many of our
clients don’t want to be seen to be working with a foreign company… so often we
set up, if we are working then we can set up fake IDs and websites, we can be
students doing research projects attached to a university, we can be tourists,
there’s so many options we can look at. I have lots of experience in this.”
In the meetings, the executives
boasted that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company Strategic
Communications Laboratories (SCL) had worked in more than two hundred elections
across the world, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and
Argentina.
As expected, a spokesman for the
British company denied any illegal activities had occurred.
And, just for fun, who do you imagine worked with Cambridge on this side of the Atlantic, possibly
in an illegal way, to shape the 2016 election? How about one-time Trump
campaign manager Cory Lewandowski!
Not to mention—but, yes, him,
too—“Sloppy Steve” Bannon.
Signs of trouble for the president
multiplied all week. Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, Republicans who
still have scruples, warned Trump, who has none, not to fire Mueller. “If he
tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we’re a rule of law nation,”
Graham explained. Rep. Trey Gowdy, famous for leading the Benghazi
investigation and by no means a “hardened Democrat,” said if Trump was
innocent, he “should act like it.”
He isn’t and he isn’t.
Even cowardly Republicans began sniffing
enough shit to realize it was time to watch where they stepped. Speaker Ryan
mustered up a tiny fragment of courage and had a spokesperson say: “As the
speaker has always said, Mr. Mueller and his team should be able to do their
job.”
Postscript: Cambridge Analytica registered
as a limited liability corporation in Delaware in 2013. Cambridge is
essentially a shell company, holding intellectual property rights, but with
almost all work for clients carried out in the United Kingdom by people like Mr.
Nix. The company is owned by Robert Mercer and his family, rich conservative
mega-donors.
According to The New
York Times, during the 2016 campaign, Cambridge shared office space with
Trump’s San Antonio-based digital operation and took credit for his election
success.
On November 9, 2016, Nix explained, “We are thrilled that our revolutionary
approach to data-driven communications played such an integral part in
President-elect Donald Trump’s extraordinary win.”
Trump’s campaign paid Cambridge $5.9 million in five separate
payments and has since tried to deny any links.
Last October, Newsweek
questioned that stance. “Donald Trump’s campaign blatantly
downplayed the role data firm Cambridge Analytics played in helping the
president win last year and even ignored the campaign’s own boasts
following the election after the firm was linked to a collusion effort with
Russians.”
*
TUESDAY, MARCH 20, Trump’s single tweet for the day was in
celebration of an event I suspect most Americans who do not own harvesters do
not know about. “Our Nation was founded by farmers,” he tippity-tapped. “Our
independence was won by farmers. And our continent was tamed by farmers. Our
farmers always lead the way -- we are PROUD of them, and we are DELIVERING for
them! #NationalAgricultureDay”
A
Playboy Bunny files suit.
I waited anxiously all afternoon, hoping the president would
tweet again. Perhaps: “Our farmers produce asparagus and Brussels sprouts and
foods I despise. I did not boink the porn star! NO COLLUSION!”
I thought that would be cool.
By the time Trump settled in for dinner, we knew a Playboy
Bunny had filed suit asking the right to tell the story of a
ten-month affair she allegedly conducted with Citizen Trump in 2006. During the
2016 campaign she was preparing to sell her story when the National Enquirer swooped in and bought up rights for $150,000. But
the company that owns the magazine never intended to publish it because, let’s
face it, that magazine has high standards of journalism.
The owner is also a close friend of Donald J. Trump and this
was standard practice at the Enquirer,
to help friends, using what was called “capture and kill” to bury the story and
keep the Bunny quiet.
Now the Bunny says other promises made to her were not kept
and she should have the right to take back her tale and make it public.
Her tale.
She’s already made her tail public.
*
REMEMBER WHEN Trump said he was ready to testify under oath in the
Russia probe? Realizing how much trouble the president has telling the truth or
even remembering what lies he told ten minutes ago, Ty Cobb, one of his
lawyers, quickly intervened. “Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly and intended
only to say that he was willing to meet. He’s ready to meet with them, but
he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” Cobb said. That was in
January.
Today we hear rumors Cobb is on the way out and John Dowd, a
second Trump lawyer may resign. Dowd has told others he feels he has no way to
control his client.
At any rate, with big globs of feces hitting the fan, a fresh
legal strategy has emerged. First, throw even bigger globs at investigators.
Second, hire a new set of lawyers and get rid of any who might have scruples.
Did we mention that media sources have now revealed that
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed documents from the Trump
Organization—even though we all know there is absolutely nothing fishy going
on—involving: 1) any member of the Trump clan, at least not Barron; 2)
Russians; 3) money laundering; 4) Russians; 5) porn star payoffs; 5) Playboy
Bunnies; 6) still more Russians.
*
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT considers a plea from Pennsylvania
Republicans to block a new map of congressional districts drawn up by state
judges.
The old map was ruled unconstitutional in February by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That map had allowed the GOP to capture 13 out of
18 Congressional seats in 2012, even though they received fewer total votes
from actual people in the state.
Twice the president has tweeted about how unfair the new map
is. On February 20 he offered this assessment:
Hope Republicans in the Great
State of Pennsylvania challenge the new “pushed” Congressional Map, all
the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Your Original was correct! Don’t
let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes &
waste money!
Four days later he was flailing away on his iPhone again:
“Democrat judges have totally redrawn election lines in the great State
of Pennsylvania. @FoxNews. This is very unfair to Republicans and to our
country as a whole. Must be appealed to the United States Supreme Court ASAP!”
Luckily, there are three co-equal branches of government and
the court turns down the appeal in one sentence: “The application for stay
presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.” Not one
member of the highest court in the land agreed with President Trump.
*
WE ALSO LEARN that U.S. food and soft-drink companies are working hand-in-cookie-jar with the Trump administration
to limit the ability of Mexico and Canada, under NAFTA rules, to warn consumers about the dangers of junk
food. Of course, they want no part of warning labels on American
products. Meanwhile obesity has doubled in at least 73 countries, since 1980.
There had been talk of using easy-to-understand symbols like
colors or shapes to warn consumers. Chile, for instance, began in 2012
requiring black stop-signs on certain packaging.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative, leading
talks, is trying to head off any move to put warnings on sugary drinks and
fatty foods.
In fact, if Trump and his business cronies have it their way,
a Milky Way will end up with a label that reads: “Come on, buy me! You’re not
obese! You just happen to have a 56-inch waist!”
In 1980, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimated that 5.53 million Americans had type-2 diabetes.
By 2014 that number had jumped to
21.95 million. This led to 14 million emergency room visits and 79,535 early
deaths that year alone. In other words, have another super-sized Coke at
McDonalds and we’ll see you in the emergency room.
 |
| You're fine. Have another cheeseburger! |
*
FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, John O. Brennan served with the C.I.A.
He left government service briefly, then returned, heading the Agency from 2013
to 2017.
In theory, of course, he could be just another liar picking
on poor Donald J. Trump.
Under
the sway of Vladimir Putin.
After Trump ordered F.B.I. Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
fired days before he was scheduled to retire, Brennan tweeted this response:
When the full extent of your
venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a
disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat
Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America...America will triumph over you.
So, if you watched Fox, you had to figure: 1) McCabe was a
liar; 2) James Comey was a liar; 3) Brennan was a liar; 4) and former Director
of National Intelligence James Clapper was a liar.
A fifth “liar,” retired four-star General Barry R. McCaffrey,
had harsh words for Trump the same day.
“Reluctantly,” he tweeted, “I have concluded that President
Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect
vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for
some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.”
McCaffrey? What does he know? All he has are three Purple
Hearts, two Silver Stars for valor, and two Distinguished
Service Crosses to his name.
Brennan attacked Trump again on MSNBC. “I’m saying that
perhaps the Russians have something and that’s why Mr. Trump is concerned.” He
could not say what that “something” might be.
This made everyone in conservative La La Land sad. On her nightly show, Laura
Ingraham was aghast. Kim Strassel, a guest, said Brennan should have
made these charges “back when he was in office.” Strassel was ignoring the fact
that Brennan could not have predicted how much of a threat Trump would be as
leader-in-reverse of the Free World, since he was replaced the day Trump was
inaugurated.
3/22/18: John
Dowd, lead lawyer in the president’s dealings with the Mueller investigation
resigns.
Dowd’s replacement will be Joseph diGenova—famous for
floating the theory on Fox News that evil forces inside the F.B.I. and Justice
Department are working to frame Donald J. Trump.
Ironically, just eleven days earlier, Trump employed a pair
of tweets to attack the “Fake News” people at The New York Times:
The
Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy
with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to
help out. Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay
Sekulow. They are doing a great job and.....
...have
shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for
losing….The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows
nothing about me and is not given access.
So, Haberman had lied. She had said Dowd was on his way out.
Now, what do you know?
Dowd is out.
It is also announced that National
Security Adviser H. R. McMaster will be leaving that post. Just three weeks
earlier, Trump had insisted that talk of his leaving was “Fake News.” McMaster
had caused friction with his boss in part because he said proof Russia
meddled in the election was “incontrovertible.” If this were baseball, the
score would read: Fake News 2, Trump 0.
*
THE EVENING ENDS with a “bang” (if you will pardon the word)
when Anderson Cooper interviews Karen McDougal, former Playboy Playmate of the
Year. McDougal explains in detail that she had a ten-month long affair with “Art
of the Cheat on Your Wife Deal” Trump, back in 2006-2007. She mentions that the
first time they had sex he offered to pay her, which took her aback.
She’s sorry now, she tells Cooper. She’s sorry she helped
Trump cheat on his third wife. In one creepy exchange she describes being
spirited through a back entry, into Trump Tower and ushered up to Donald and
Melania’s penthouse suite. She says it made her feel bad and she asked to
leave. You wonder: Was Trump going to ask her to be “intimate” and defile his
marital bed?
The White House denies, pro forma, that this affair occurred.
3/23/18: The
president wakes early. He clicks on Fox News. All the Fox babes and Fox pundits
are calling the new $1.3 trillion spending bill to fund the government for
Fiscal Year 2019 terrible. Trump considers taking decisive action, which he
never thought of the night before. White House officials had announced the
president was going to sign.
Time to tweet!
I am considering a VETO of the
Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients
have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and
the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not
fully funded.
GOP leaders in Congress are left scrambling to deal with an
impending government shutdown. At 11:38 the president announces, again via
tweet: “News conference at the White House concerning the Omnibus Spending
Bill. 1:00 P.M.”
Get that veto pen ready!
No one inside the White House has any idea what the Orange
Buffoon is going to do, including the Buffoon.
Just after 1:00 p.m., the president appears at the podium for
a rambling discourse on why he is going to sign the bill after all, even though
the bill is “ridiculous” and “terrible” and, well, what can he do? He needs the
money to fund the military—which you figure he must have known all along. Well,
don’t blame him for what will soon turn into a huge deficit for the coming
fiscal year.
He’s only President of the United States.
What Congress should do, he explains to a listening nation,
is give up the “power of the purse,” and allow him to line-item veto any
elements of funding legislation he doesn’t like. Alas, someone needs to explain
to him that this matter has already been decided by the
U.S. Supreme Court.
In Clinton v. City of
New York (1998), the court considered a law passed with GOP backing in
Congress and approval from President Bill Clinton, to allow presidents to do
just that. In a 6-3 ruling, the high court declared the law unconstitutional.
Trump
plucks adviser from the ranks of televised bombast.
On Friday Trump also selects John Bolton to be his third
National Security Adviser. Bolton is the latest individual, almost tromping on
the heels of Joseph diGenova, to be plucked from the ranks of televised bombast to join this dysfunctional
administration. You have, for example, Larry Kudlow, new chief White House
economic advisor, and former Fox Business host, a man famously incorrect in insisting the housing
bubble in 2007 was not about to burst. He said people who said it was
hadn’t “done their homework.” Whereas, he had!
How much does Trump love Fox News? He considered Judge
Jeanine Pirro, a Fox host, for Attorney General. Three Fox hosts were
approached about becoming the next White House Communications Director,
including Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Kimberly Guilfoyle. He plucked
diGenova off a Fox show—and made him his lawyer—but diGenova lasted two days.
At any rate, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I would like to
suggest another choice. President Trump should appoint Sean Hannity
Undersecretary of Hair Gel in the Department of Homeland Security.
 |
Need another suck up in the Trump administration?
Why not this guy? |
*
RETIRED ADMIRAL and former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe
James Stavridis, writing in Time,
explains his sorrow at seeing H. R. McMaster step down as Trump’s second
National Security Adviser.
A
man so lacking in principles as Donald J. Trump.
McMaster, he notes, never wanted the job in the first place.
As Stavridis puts it, McMaster is “a good judge of character”
and had doubts about working with a man so lacking in principles as Donald J.
Trump.
Like a good soldier, when the job offer came from the
president, McMaster saw it as if he had received orders. He would do what he
could. He would try to ensure the nation remained safe.
Like a good soldier, “he shouldered the pack and stepped into
the White House to do what he could to create at least part of a guardrail
system around this mercurial and unstable President.”
Stavridis goes on to lambast Trump’s national security
approach:
This is a President who loves
and revels in chaos. For a national security team, that gives birth to the
worst quality of all from an international and especially an allied perspective:
inconsistency. Trump has famously said he doesn’t want
our enemies to know what we
are thinking; the problem is, neither do our friends nor even, it seems
at times, do we ourselves.
3/24/18:
Hundreds of thousands of mostly young Americans join the “March for Our Lives”
in the nation’s capital. They gather to demand action to stem the bloody tide
of gun violence that stains America red. There are “sibling marches” in 800
towns and cities, including 390 congressional districts.
New York City marchers number 175,000. Paul McCartney is
there to remember John Lennon, gunned down by a deranged individual forty years
ago.
The teens who did so much to organize the marches and fuel
them with passion lead the way. More than a thousand kids from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,
where the most recent massacre occurred, attend D.C. events. Survivors of the
slaughter speak eloquently. Emma Gonzalez reads the names of the 17 who died at
her school. Then she stands in silence for six minutes and twenty seconds, the
exact length of time it took one unbalanced young man, armed with an AR-15 to kill or wound 34 of Gonzalez’s teachers and classmates.
“I have learned to duck from
bullets before I learned to read.”
Edna Chavez
Students from across the nation, who have witnessed the
scourge of gun violence play out, speak up. Edna Chavez, 17, from Manual Arts High
School in Los Angeles, tells the crowd about her brother, Ricardo, who was shot
and killed. “I have learned to duck from bullets before I learned to read,” she
explains. Then she leads the crowd in a chant: “Ricardo! Ricardo!”
Trevon Bosley, a high school student from Chicago who also
lost a brother, addresses the crowd. “I’m here to speak for those youth who
fear they may be shot while going to the gas station, the movies, the bus stop,
to church or even to and from school. I’m here to speak for those Chicago youth
who feel their voices have been silenced for far too long.”
Other marchers in D.C. and at other locations include parents
who lost six-year-old sons and daughters at Sandy Hook and Lauren Milgram, 12,
herself a survivor of that heinous attack.
Finally, Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter steps to the
mike. “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,”
nine-year-old Yolanda Ree King explains. “I have a dream that enough is enough.
That this should be a gun-free world.”
“Period,” she adds.
*
THAT MUCH is a utopian dream, but you can hardly fail to be
impressed with the spirit of the young who wish to make America a better, safer
place to live. Well: unless you speak for the N.R.A.
The N.R.A. weighs in with this: “Today’s protests aren’t
spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating
and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second
Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.”
In a video clip released the day before, an N.R.A.
representative, Colion Noir, criticizes the Parkland survivors and what he
calls “a march for their lies.” Apparently, the Second Amendment is the only
amendment Noir likes. “To all the kids from Parkland getting ready to use your
First Amendment to attack everyone else’s Second Amendment at your march on
Saturday, I wish a hero like Blaine had been at Marjory Douglas High School
last month.”
Blaine, in this case, would be Blaine Gaskill, the school
resource officer who quickly shot and killed another school shooter at Great
Mills High School in Maryland earlier in the week.
He continues angrily, “Because your classmates would still be
alive and no one would know your names. And because the media would have
completely and utterly ignored your story the way they ignored his.”
You could easily pick holes in his response. You could start
by noting that these kids undoubtedly
wish no one knew their names—because their names are written in
blood and they speak for dead friends. You could note that none of the leaders
of the “March for Our Lives” had suggested disarming police. You could google
“Gaskill” and find 200,000 stories that mentioned him by name.
Then you could mull the unspeakable tragedy of Jaelynn Willey 17, shot in the head and left
brain dead by an armed classmate before
Officer Gaskill could respond. You could ask if perhaps that didn’t prove the
Parkland survivors had a point.
Postscript:
I think you might convince almost all who marched Saturday that it would be
great to have armed school resource officers—and let’s be blunt, that means
“police”—in every American school. In many cases, you’d probably need more than
one per building to be safe.
There are an estimated 90,000 schools in the United States,
so the Big Orange Buffoon could argue that we would be creating at least 90,000
new jobs if he sent cops into every school.
Say: $50,000 per year and the tab comes to $4.5 billion
annually.
Of course, young Americans, and old, might still get
massacred at the mall, at church, in a theater or while attending a country
music concert.
The N.R.A. would very much prefer you don’t think about
that.
 |
| Exercising First Amendment rights: March 24, 2018. |
3/25/18: With
less than three hours to go, before Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels)
does her interview on 60 Minutes, I
check Trump’s Twitter feed. He last banged away on the keys at 8:45 this morning:
“President Donald J. Trump Proclaims March 25, 2018, as Greek Independence Day:
A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy”
Did you know there was a day to celebrate “Greek and American
Democracy?” I am guessing you did not.
 |
| The ancient Greeks used white slaves. |
Donald
J. Trump if Donald J. Trump had giant boobs
Meanwhile, the Tweeter-in-Chief, who never seems happier than
when he’s insulting critics and enemies, who labels any unflattering story
“Fake News,” has never dared tweet about Stormy.
He has not called her a “liar,” like so many other women who
have accused him of sexual assault. He has not labeled a single appearance by
Stormy’s lawyer or Ms. Clifford “Fake News.”
Something tells me she’s got the goods on our boy Don. And
something tells me the president is hoping neither the First Lady nor Barron,
his young son, tunes in tonight. There are rumors Stormy may in fact possess
evidence, possibly a dress stained with Donald’s “seed.”
This would blow White House denials of an affair to Kingdom
Cum.
Ms. Clifford is, of course, a shameless self-promoter, a
media-savvy performer, only out to make a buck. That makes her the equivalent
of Donald J. Trump if Donald J. Trump had giant boobs.
3/26/18:
Monday, the latest issue of The New Yorker arrives in the mail. If you haven’t heard the hullabaloo over the
cover, you may not know conservatives are furious over the “body-shaming” of
the president. There is outrage at Fox News over the “repulsive” depiction of
poor Trump.
First, we should note that Fox, in a story highlighting
negative “reader reaction” to the cover,
seemed to cite “reader” reaction from people
who never actually read the magazine. “Shame on you for doing this
to anybody, not just the president,” says one reader. Fair enough. A second
“reader” proclaims, “Your readers are snobs.” Apparently, he or she is tired of
being a snob him- or herself. But bonus points for being self-aware? Another
“reader” insists the magazine is “turning into the Mad Magazine” of “urban
elitists.” A fourth goes off the deep end, citing the cover as sad evidence of
“liberal deep state minds at work, only hurting the future of our country, it
[sic] citizens and their own families! What goes around comes around.”
What goes around comes around? Does that mean the artist who
did the cover is going to end up fat and repugnant?
Liberals
attack a leader incapable of shame.
Suddenly, we of a liberal bent were supposed to feel shame
because we had attacked a leader who has proven incapable of shame. This is the
man who insults others on a daily, almost hourly, basis. We were supposed to
feel sorry for Donald J. Trump, who said a woman who accused him of sexual assault wasn’t pretty enough to
warrant attack—not that he attacked anyone. We were supposed to forget he said
he couldn’t imagine voting for Carly Fiorina, because, “look at that
face.” We should feel bad about body-shaming the man who labeled a Miss Universe winner who gained “a massive
amount of weight,” at least in his eyes, a “Miss Piggy.”
Please.
Fox hosts like Bill O’Reilly claimed racism was no longer an
issue in America. But they never balked when one conservative called Mrs. Obama “an ape in heels” or a second said he hoped she’d go back to Africa where she belonged and
“live in a cave” and maybe have sex with gorillas. Nor is the right concerned
now when Alex Jones says he’d enjoy killing a few liberals.
A “nasty” magazine cover?
That’s too much!
 |
This kind of image was once quite common. Fox News never cared. |
Postscript: Even dimwits who pass for
pundits at Fox News should be able to remember what happened when Obama was in
office. No one at the network expressed shock when Ted Nugent said Mr. Obama should suck on his
machine gun or took umbrage when Trump invited Nugent to the White House
soon after taking office.
3/27/18: The
president is having trouble finding topflight lawyers to defend him in the
Russia investigation. Trump, however, is telling loyal fans he can hire any
lawyer he wants, including Perry Mason, Matlock or Saul Goodman, from Better Call Saul. Aides decide not to
tell him those are all fictional lawyers.
*
PROOF THAT THE 1% around the world have more money than they
can spend (but still need tax cuts!): The Asian arowana, popular with
fish-collecting enthusiasts, can sell for $300,000. Known as the “long yu,” or “dragon
fish,” in Chinese, most go for a few hundred dollars. The most “attractive” can
go for tens of thousands—including that aforementioned arowana, sold reputedly
to a Chinese communist official. Kenny Ng, a premier cosmetic surgeon—for
fish—operating in Singapore will give your arowana an eyelift ($90) or a
chin-lift ($60) if you think it might help.
Of course, in desperate times—say if you were trapped in your
house by zombies—the fish might save your life.
You could always eat it if you were starving.
This is probably more than you can say for Barbara Streisand
and her dogs, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett. Both are cloned from her now deceased pet, Samantha, a Coton de
Tulears breed.
Cost per clone: $50,000.
Then again, I guess, if you were desperate, you could make
Miss Violet breakfast and save Miss Scarlett for lunch.
Assuming, again: zombies.
 |
| My owner needs a big tax break. |
*
CLEARLY, WHAT THIS COUNTRY needs is for Attorney General
Sessions to be tougher on crime!
Procured
confessions in more than a dozen murder cases.
Consider the case of Nevest Coleman, arrested and convicted
in 1994 for murder and rape. Coleman, 25, had two children, attended church
regularly, had no previous criminal record and worked on the Chicago White Sox
ground crew.
Well, off to prison you go, scumbag. Coleman just happens to
be African American, I should note.
Twenty-three years later, what do you know! DNA evidence not
available at the time of his arrest proves Coleman was innocent. A suit filed
on his behalf against the city, Cook County and members of the Chicago Police
Department alleges he was coerced into confessing and punched in the face.
“Some of the detectives named in the suit procured confessions in more than a
dozen murder cases in which charges were dropped or the defendant was acquitted
at trial, the Chicago Tribune
reported in 2001.” Semen samples from the victim were tested in 2016, after the
case was reopened and proved to belong to a serial rapist, who had attacked
three more women after Coleman was sent to jail.
This makes Coleman one of 2,192 men and women (representing more than
19,000 lost years) who had sentences overturned, many on the basis of
irrefutable DNA evidence. Almost half of all those wrongly imprisoned
individuals (1,019) “just happen” to be African American.
Coleman walked out of prison into the arms of his now-adult
children. The last time he walked free they were 2- and 3-years-old.
The White Sox did give him his old job back.
 |
| Oops! Wrong guy in jail! Oopsie. |
3/28/18: The
president starts off Hump Day in a chipper mood, even if Melania is hiding out
at Mar-a-Lago and avoiding him like he’s a leper.
Trump believes he’s making progress on the question of
North Korea. Even this Trump-phobic blogger is willing to say this may be
true.
China cannot relish the idea of war erupting on its doorstep.
For that reason, the Chinese may lean hard on North Korea.
Normally, a fair-minded person might credit the B.O.B. in
this matter—and not refer to Trump as the “Big Orange Buffoon.”
Stuck
with an Iran-like nuclear deal.
Unfortunately, this blogger has enough brain cells left to
recall Trump’s stupid comments regarding the foreign policy of his
predecessors. He thinks that the Iraq War was a disaster. I agree. Still, he
has chosen John Bolton, one of the cheerleaders for the 2003 invasion, as his third
National Security Adviser.
As for North Korea, let’s say Trump does manage to get a
deal. Imagine that Kim Jong-un agrees to “denuclearize.” What will that mean?
Who will enforce the pact? How will inspections be handled, to ensure the North
Koreans honor the deal? Will they give up their stockpiles of nuclear material?
Will they destroy the medium and long-range missiles they possess, tear up
their launch facilities and fill in all their underground research and testing
facilities?
Even if Kim Jong-un agrees to denuclearize, what will Trump
end up with? An Iran-like nuclear deal, I suspect.
3/29/18: The
Mueller “WITCH HUNT,” as Donald calls it, continues…even though nobody who ever
worked for or currently works for Mr. Trump ever did anything wrong or even
thought about doing anything wrong. Besides, why can’t the president just
pardon everyone involved?
In recent “Fake News,” we learn:
Rick Gates, Paul Manafort’s right-hand man, has admitted he knew an
individual he was communicating with regularly, during the 2016 campaign, had
ties to Russian intelligence.
Mueller now believes Manafort also knew. You can find these nuggets
in recently released court documents.
Next, the “Fake News” people report that Trump’s personal
lawyer, John Dowd, floated the idea of presidential pardons to Manafort
and Michael Flynn, who like Gates, has plead guilty and is cooperating with the
Mueller team.
Legal experts agree. Any discussion of pardons should have
been handled not by Trump’s personal lawyer—representing Trump, the
individual—but by White House Counsel Don McGahn—representing the office of the
President of the United States, and in adherence to the United States
Constitution.
Of course, none of this proves either collusion with the
Russians—or criminal intent since. It just looks that way.
In Congress, that realization appears to be having an effect. Republican Senator Thom
Tillis of North Carolina has joined Democratic colleague Chris Coons of
Delaware in a call to pass legislation to protect the Mueller investigation and ensure the truth is
ferreted out. In a joint statement, the two men explain: “We have heard from
constituents—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike—who agree that
Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be able to conduct his investigation
without interference. This should not be a partisan issue.”
*
AUBREY O’DAY makes tabloid headlines of her own, hinting broadly that she also had an affair with Donald J.
Trump…in this case, Don Jr. The former contestant on The Apprentice had previously floated the idea that a song she
wrote, “DJT” was about the young Pussy-Grabbing Jedi.
Now, with people wondering why Don Jr. and his wife are
divorcing, rumors are swirling. BuzzFeed
runs a story based on O’Day’s social media footprint. In 2011 she was tweeting
about waking up in a room filled, wall-to-wall, with her favorite flowers,
white lilies. “U gave me a garden of love baby,” she cooed.
“Will he still love me when he’s free?” she wondered that
December. Or would he go back to “the poison?”
In the spring of 2012, she was “Heading 2 my fav sushi spot
in the city w my ny bff, then sprinting 2 the Trump 2 get back in bed w/my
babe...or maybe I’ll just stay in bed.” In fact, by May, she had so many
“homies at the Trump” she could rely on them to give her warnings “on all the enemy
creatures.”
By October, with her romance suddenly on the rocks
(apparently because Don Sr. stepped in to quash the love) poor Ms. O’Day was
trashing the clan in general. In one tweet she said: “Ted Bundy’s lecturing on
feminism… no, wait, it’s just Trump talking the morality of marriage.”
(Bundy was a serial killer.)
Sources say, at one point, with his wife pregnant with their
third child, Don Jr. told her he would be leaving her for Aubrey; but that plan was derailed when
Sr. stepped in and told Jr. “to knock it off.”
On Election Night 2016, with Donald J. Trump Sr. sweeping to
victory, O’Day tweeted pointedly once more: “[M]y story I didn’t tell is worth millions now.”
 |
| Trump men have a penchant for bimbos. |
3/30/18:
Anything new with the Mueller investigation? Friday, as first reported by The
Guardian, a British newspaper, Trump campaign figure Ted Malloch,
was intercepted at the Boston airport after a flight from London.
Malloch was separated from his wife, served a subpoena, and
had his cellphone confiscated by the F.B.I.
Why would Malloch—who most Americans, including this
dedicated blogger, have never heard of before—be of interest to the Mueller investigation?
Malloch has close ties with Nigel Farage—who has close ties with Julian Assange
of WikiLeaks—who helped expose the damaging Clinton/Democratic National
Committee emails—which helped the Big Orange Buffoon get elected.
In an email response to the Guardian story, Malloch,
described himself as a policy
wonk and defender of Trump, [and] said the FBI also asked him about his
relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had
ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder
Julian Assange has resided for nearly six years.
It turns out Malloch was “floated in media reports as a
possible US ambassador to the EU,” in 2016. European officials, “alarmed by
the possible pick and his lack of diplomatic credentials, openly criticised
Malloch, particularly after he compared the EU to the Soviet Union.”
It probably didn’t help his chances of landing the post once
it turned out he had padded his resume. Malloch claimed, variously, that he had
been “a fellow at Wolfson and Pembroke colleges at Oxford, that he had been
called a ‘genius’ by Margaret Thatcher, and that he was the ‘first’ to coin the
phrase ‘thought leadership.’” None of these claims were…technically …true.
A
“psycho,” “a cocaine addict” and a “lying asshole.”
So why might this matter? Mueller’s team is digging into
links between the Trump campaign and Russia—particularly possible links between
Trump surrogates, through WikiLeaks, to Russians.
What we begin to see is a potential merry-go-round of problems for Trump and his
pals. Did Roger Stone knowingly communicate with Russian agents—such as
Guccifer 2.0? It seems he did. Did Stone work with or through WikiLeaks, which
might mean working with or through Russians, to ensure the release of Clinton
and Democratic Party emails to damage her campaign? Did Malloch help? Where
does Strategic Communications Laboratories Group (SCL), the London-based
data-mining company and Cambridge Analytica, its American arm, fit into this
scheme? (See: 3/15-21/18.)
Who has ties to SCL? It turns out Michael Flynn, already
cooperating with the Mueller investigation, was on the SCL payroll.
Finally, we learn this week, that Stone is nervous. Thursday
night, Sam Nunberg, once the brains behind the Trump run for president, said
during a television interview that Stone had tried to “curry
favor with Trump by suggesting he had met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
prior to the 2016 presidential election.”
“He’s always trying to ingratiate himself to Trump,” Nunberg
continued. “I don’t care about Trump. It’s irrelevant to me if I have a
relationship with him again. Roger does. They have a long relationship.”
Stone has denied in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of
places, that he had prior knowledge of coming leaks of emails that would damage
Clinton. And, no, he never worked with Assange to make it happen. Now, Nunberg
was claiming Stone told Trump he met with Assange. This did not sit well with
Stone, who quickly took to Instagram to blast his former friend and ally.
Nunberg, he said, was a “psycho,” “a cocaine addict” and a
“lying asshole.”
3/31/18: In a recent poll only 33% of Americans between the ages of
18 and 34 approve of the job the president is doing.
Luckily for Republicans, people in this age bracket turn out
to vote at far lower rates than old codgers with walkers.
More ominously, for the GOP, 47% of that demographic say they’re
paying greater attention to politics since Trump was elected. More than 7 in 10
say Trump “doesn’t reflect my personal values.” What! No pussy grabbing! No
hating on Mexicans! No banning LGBT soldiers from the military!
Make
America Great Again, c. 1960.
Come on young people! Make America Great Again, c. 1960, when
America was 90% white, interracial marriage was illegal and you could ban
people of skin tones you didn’t like from eating in your restaurant.
Also, women knew their place, which, among other things,
meant no opportunities in sports.
But lots of chances to be secretaries!
Other poll findings paint a grim picture for President Trump.
Six in 10 young Americans think he’s “mentally unfit,” 62 percent believe he’s
“generally dishonest” and 63 percent consider him “a racist.” Almost 7 in 10
favor a pathway to legal status for DACA recipients and others brought to the
country illegally as children.
Finally, 6 in 10 young Americans want the government to take
steps to address climate change. This probably has something to do with the
fact that all the old people who don’t believe in climate change, like the president
himself, will die off relatively soon. The young know they may be stuck living
on a planet where the damage becomes acute. Perhaps, with that depressing
future in mind, 55 percent of those polled favor legalization of recreational
marijuana.
April 1,
2018:
Time for an April Fools’ joke. Here we go: A porn star and a 62-year-old
businessman (a future president) walk into a bungalow. The businessman drones
on about himself. Finally, the porn star grows tired, orders him to drop his
trousers and spanks him with a copy of Forbes
magazine. The businessman’s picture is on the cover. Then they have uninspired
sex.
A decade later the porn star sues the President of the United
States….
Wait. That’s real?
Okay, try this. A right-wing banshee named Ann Coulter
sashays into a bar. Three Trump supporters are drinking in a corner booth. She
walks up to the first guy, swats his red MAGA hat off his head and says, “Did
you know Trump is a shallow, lazy ignoramus?”
The Trump guy replies…
No. Really? She said that? She said that because Trump might give up
his idea to build the big, beautiful wall?
A “mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous
administration.”
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters
Damn. Let’s try a Fox News joke. Once upon a time there was a
network that hated everything government did. No one on the network trusted
President Obama, not even if all he did was scramble eggs and add Swiss cheese.
Then a new leader took over and began lashing out at the free press. Fox News
loved him! Isn’t that hysterical! A purported news organization sucking up to
an enemy of the First Amendment! That would be the best April Fools’ jooooooo…
Are you kidding? Fox News really does support Trump?
Is Fox now nothing more than a propaganda outlet for the
Trump administration? We report. You decide.
A longtime Fox News analyst
sharply criticized the network, denouncing the outlet as a “propaganda machine”
devoted to President Trump, and saying that it was “wittingly harming our
system of government for profit,” in a stunning internal email announcing his
exit from the company.
Ralph Peters, a US Army
lieutenant colonel who served as a military analyst for Fox News, said he felt
“compelled to explain” his departure from the company to colleagues, before
skewering the network he has called home for years. Peters had been telling friends
that he planned on leaving the network in a “nuclear” fashion, one of those
friends told CNN.
“Four decades ago, I took an
oath as a newly commissioned officer. I swore to ‘support and defend the
Constitution,’ and that oath did not expire when I took off my
uniform, Peters wrote in the letter sent to a handful of colleagues.
“Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the
rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among
viewers. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am
ashamed.”
In the letter, which was first reported on by BuzzFeed and confirmed by CNN,
Peters said that he believed Fox News “degenerated from providing a legitimate
and much-needed outlet for conservative voices” to morphing into a “mere
propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”
Peters cited the Fox News
opinion hosts’ relentless attacks on the FBI, Justice Department, intelligence
agencies, and other branches of government. He said he believed Fox News was
knowingly causing harm to the country in exchange for profit.
Who reported this story, cited above? Was it the “Fake News” Washington Post? Nope. It was Fox News.
4/2/18: Trump
wakes up excited. He’s looking forward to the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Aides inform him there will be Bunnies.
The Big Orange Buffoon is disappointed when festivities kick
off and all he sees are little kids.
He was expecting Playmates.
 |
| Not the Bunny he was hoping to see. |
*
YOU MAY RECALL that during his campaign Candidate Buffoon insisted we needed to “open up our libel laws” and make
it easier to sue. A dozen women or more had accused him of sexual misconduct.
“All
of these liars will be sued when the election is over.”
He was going to act quickly one he took office. “All of these
liars will be sued when the election is over,” Trump promised.
Today, he may be sorry he ever suggested the change. Courts
have found over the years that calling someone a liar can be an insult, an
opinion, or hyperbole. Those are forms of free speech protected by the First
Amendment. You can call the coach of the Cincinnati Bengals a “major loser.”
That would qualify as protected speech. Cheryl Jacobus, a political consultant,
tried to sue Trump for defamation, for saying just that about her. A New York
appeals court tossed her case. Such “vague and simplistic insults,” said the
judge, did not rise to the level of defamation.
Okay. Sure. The judge said the president was “simplistic.”
But you can’t take the Buffoon to court just because he’s a buffoon.
In the same way, in 1985, a real estate developer sued an
architecture critic, after the critic said one of the developer’s buildings
would be an eyesore, “an atrocious, ugly monstrosity.” That too was opinion,
therefore free speech. The developer—one Donald J. Trump—lost his case.
The president may now face legal jeopardy, not involving
Russians. Summer Zervos, once a contestant on The Apprentice, was one of many to accuse Trump of sexual
misconduct during the campaign.
Trump responded bluntly. “To be clear, I never met her at a
hotel or greeted her inappropriately,” he said, as Zervos claimed. Trump issued
tweets directed at Ms. Zervos specifically. At times he called all accusations
against him “total lies” and “totally phony stories.” Now the judge charged
with handling Zervos’s suit for defamation has ruled that absolute denials can
be classed as “assertions of fact” and may represent grounds for a libel
judgment.
What this means is Trump
may have to sit and be deposed.
Statements from other women may be admitted as evidence to
bolster Zervos’s case. Or, as an article by the American Bar Association put it
in 2016, “a libel bully” may end up a “libel loser” instead.
(The president’s lawyers continue to drag this case out,
hoping Zervos will run out of money and go away. Or, maybe Trump will pardon
himself.)
 |
| Zervos is suing for defamation. |
4/3/18:
Speaking of “Fake News,” let’s see how the stock market is doing. If the market
is up Trump and loyal Trumpsters claim all credit is due him. When the market
was down in the past—for stretches under Obama—it was always the fault of the
black guy in the White House.
Nov 7, 2012: The stock
market and US dollar are both plunging today. Welcome to @BarackObama’s
second term.
If the market goes up—and you aren’t even president, but
you’re a candidate—then all credit to you:
Jun 28, 2016: “@arnold_ziffel:
@AnnCoulter also can’t help but notice the stock market’s reaction as
@realDonaldTrump was speaking. #UPUPUP”
Once Trump wins election and has his presidential index
finger on the Twitter button, the tweets begin to flow. Trump is a stock market
hero!
Feb 16, 2017: Stock
market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level
of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout!
Aug 3, 2017: Business is looking
better than ever with business enthusiasm at record levels. Stock
Market at an all-time high. That doesn’t just happen!
Nov 29, 2017: Looks like another
great day for the Stock Market. Consumer Confidence is at Record High. I
guess somebody likes me (my policies)!
In the next tweet, Trump appears
to be quoting a fan, but doesn’t identify who that might be:
Jan 14, 2018: “President Trump
is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more
than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that we’ve
seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in
profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...
“All Trump, not 0 [sic],”
apparently means, any rise in the Dow is due to Trump, whereas Obama never
helped the markets at all.
So, let’s recap. When stocks go
up, Trump gets credit. And Obama was terrible for stocks.
It’s easy to check. The Dow Jones closed at 8,281 on January
16, 2009, the last trading day before Obama took office. By then, the
market had plunged nearly six thousand points from a high in 2007
(14,164). This left Barack Obama to deal with a real mess, dwarfing the
imaginary mess Trump says he inherited.
The Dow bottomed out at 6,547 in March, having lost more than half its value.
Under Mr. Obama the market quickly (and thankfully)
recovered, ending 2009 at 10,428. That would represent a gain,
from Inauguration Day 2009 to New Years’ Eve 2009, of 25.9%.
By April 5, 2010 (the first trading day after Easter
weekend), the Dow stood at 10,974. Starting from Inauguration Day to
April Fools’ Day, the market had risen a shade under 32.5%.
Of course, conservatives never give Obama credit if they can avoid
it. As mentioned, they like to claim that all the gains from the moment
Trump was elected should be chalked up to Trump and the “optimism” he
brings to the market. Suppose a gracious liberal (such as I) gives Trump and
Trump fans that break—credits our current president with all gains from
November 8, 2016, when the market closed at 18,333—and computes stock increases
from that point.
The Dow finished today at 24,033.
That means the market is up 31.1%, giving Trump the best
starting point and more than three extra months to pump up the gains.
It’s not as good as the 32.5% rise under Obama, to the same
point in his first term, but it’s not bad.
*
THE PRESIDENT of the United States continues his assault on the First Amendment. He starts
this day at 5:38 a.m., tweet-bitching again:
The Fake News Networks, those
that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition
and quality of Sinclair Broadcast. The “Fakers” at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS have
done so much dishonest reporting that they should only be allowed to get awards
for fiction!
Trump caps his attacks during a press conference with leaders
of three Baltic republics later the same day. Keep in mind: Those three nations
spent fifty years under the iron thumb of the Soviet Union. In that half-century
their people never enjoyed a single day of press freedom.
Once again, the President of the United States mocks the
American free press, telling the president of Latvia to pick a “Baltic
reporter” to ask a question.
“Pick a reporter, please,” Trump says to
Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis. “A Baltic reporter ideally. Real news,
not fake news.”
4/4/18: Since
the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas the president has done nothing to address
concerns of survivors and parents who visited the White House. (See: 2/14/18.)
Well, who needs more gun legislation! This great nation leads
the world in number of guns in private hands, something like 300
million. And people keep buying more every time talk of gun control is
mentioned. This is why, with so many guns in individual hands, we are the
safest nation in the world and also happen to be one of the leading advanced nations when it comes to murder rates.
So, to be even safer, we need to spend a few billion dollars on a big,
beautiful border wall.
Jermon
Perry might still be alive if he had had a gun.
If only we had that wall—or if only Jermon Perry had had a
gun—he might be alive today. Had he been armed he would have had the chance to
shoot the assailant pointing a pistol at his head. Jermon might be attending elementary school next year, had he had a
concealed carry permit. Jermon was shot and killed by his 7-year-old brother,
who found his father’s gun while looking in drawers for candy.
We all need guns!
What is the solution for every gun problem? Seventeen
teachers and students slaughtered at Stoneman Douglas? Buy more guns! You say Jacob
Burdette, 25, shot and killed his mother and her boyfriend—with a
gun she bought? She should have bought more guns. You are driving down
Interstate 5 and something about your maneuvering enrages another driver. He shoots but misses. You should
have had a gun, should have kept one hand on the wheel and returned fire. Buy
guns!!! A woman shoots three co-workers at YouTube headquarters in
Bruno, California. If those co-workers had all been packing heat, everything
would have been great. You are about to commit suicide? Of all types of attempts, those involving
firearms end in fatalities 82.5% of the time. Drugs or poison (1.5%). Ha. Not
good enough. Jumping? Still not the best way to end it all (34.5%). If you
intend to kill yourself, you need guns!
Playing with your own pistol—and you shoot yourself dead? Should have had an AR-15 to protect
yourself from yourself.
4/5/18:
Recently, the president announced the tariff war with China was on. He was
going to slap those foreign bitches with tariffs on $50 billion in imports.
Today, however, the war is off. Senior Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow
tells reporters, “We’re not in a tariff war.”
As evening falls, the Big Orange Buffoon announces plans to
slap tariffs on another $100 billion in Chinese goods.
The trade war is on again.
4/6/18: The
stock market begins the day by plunging 700 points on growing fear of a trade
war with China.
It ends the day down 572.
Shortly after the market closes, the Treasury Department
announces sanctions on 17 Russian officials, 12 companies, 7 Russian oligarchs
and 6 Lords-a-Leaping. Among the sanctioned: Oleg Deripaska and eight of his companies.
Lots
of Russians with suspicious ties to Trump and his pals.
Can we find any connection to anyone in the Trump 2016
campaign? Yes, we can! But not, “Yes, we can,” in the Obama sense. Deripaska
and campaign manager Paul Manafort had been doing business for years prior to
Trump’s run for the money…uh… run for the presidency. Alexander Torshin, also
sanctioned, worked through the N.R.A. to set up a meeting with Don Jr. during
the campaign. A third gentleman on the list is Suleiman Kerimov, accused of
smuggling cash into France in suitcases, $20 million at a time, and laundering
it by buying villas.
Why might that ring alarm bells in Trumpistan? NPR explains:
The Treasury Department’s
singling out of Kerimov for allegedly smuggling cash out of Russia
followed a report this week by CNN that said Justice Department special
counsel Robert Mueller’s office has been interdicting wealthy Russians as they
fly into the United States in order to interview them about potentially transporting
cash.
If Russia funneled money to
American political campaigns or organizations as part of its attack on the 2016
election, one way it might have done so is by simply smuggling paper dollars in
order to avoid electronic transfer records.
Foreign contributions are barred
in U.S. elections…
One way in which illicit money
allegedly moves out of Russia is via real estate. A rich person buys property
in the West—in London, New York or South Florida—without living in it. Instead,
hot real estate markets in those places make it simple to resell a condo or a
mansion and free up legitimate cash. In Kerimov’s case, he was allegedly using
this scheme in the south of France when he was arrested in Nice last year.
In 2008, Donald Trump sold an
estate he had purchased for around $42 million in Palm Beach, Fla., to Russian
tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million.
Who else was on a January 2018 Treasury Department list for possible sanction? Rybolovlev was one! Aras
Agalarov, who helped broker a meeting (originally kept secret) with Don Jr. in
Trump Tower, was another. Sergei Gorkov, a Russian banker who met with Jared Kushner during the transition period
before Trump took office, was a third. Gazprom, a Russian oil company and Rosneft Oil, tied to Carter Page, the Trump aide who became a
target of the FISA court, would make four and five.
There are so many potentially corrupt links and conflicts of
interest in this story it takes Politico
seven charts to include them all.
*
AT 9:44 P.M., I SETTLE in front of the TV and try a little
channel surfing. I catch Sean Hannity bitching about how the left hates Trump
and never gives him a fair shake.
It makes Hannity sick, he tells three guests, knowing
“this president” has created “3,000,000 jobs.”
Once again, being a fact-based liberal, I check the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Jobs
Report. Trump is enjoying a solid start to 2018. I may look at news with a
left-of-center slant. But the math is the math is the math.
Gertrude Stein said that.
The March jobs report is relatively weak: 103,000 jobs added
to the economy. The first official report for a month is “preliminary” and can
change, up or down, but usually not by much.
Let’s see how Trump has done so far, starting January 20,
2017, when he took office. We’ll give him 11/31st’s of that month’s
job gains. Then we’ll total up jobs added from February 2017 through March
2018. Not bad, President Buffoon. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
in just under fourteen-and-a-half months you have added 2,625,903 jobs.
Not quite Hannity’s “3,000,000.”
Still, not bad.
We now look to see how Obama fared when it came to adding
jobs. For simplicity’s sake we’ll work backward from January 2017. We’ll give
Obama 19/31st’s of that month’s job gains, the same as Trump. (I’m
not splitting January 20, since Trump took over at noon. We’ll just ignore that
day and call it a tie.) Next, we can work backward, fourteen months: December
2016 to November 2015.
We pull out the calculator and the total is—2,933,903 jobs
created in the last fourteen and 19/31st’s months, under Trump’s
predecessor.
Now, let’s Google: “Sean Hannity credits President Obama with
creating jobs” and see what we find.
Okay: Nothing.
I did find this, however, which I definitely found amusing:
