Rick Kinnaird

Day 1115 Are the Wheels Coming Off?

October 18, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 1115 Are the Wheels Coming Off?

Thursday October 17, 2019

384 Days until the 2020 election and 466 days until the Inauguration

I keep thinking the wheels are coming off this bus, but I’m continually surprised how stupid people are in still believing in this fool.

Ah me.

One right wing friend wrote that she’d like to see figures on how much Trump has actually benefitted from his businesses while president. Her buddy chimed in that she thought it was all a lie.

Hum, what are they saying? That Trump is such a bad businessman that he’s still losing money? Probably not.

T-shirt with dog image asking, "Excuse me. Are you going to eat that?" — Well? Are you.huh? Huh? Huh?

I guess they missed the news item about the Saudi Royal family buying a shit ton of rooms at one of Trump’s hotels and this allowed the hotel to be in the black. Not that the king stayed there mind you, he stayed at the Four Seasons. His entourage stayed there for a night and them went elsewhere.

Or did they miss the article about the military planes refueling at the airport in Scotland and the crews staying at Trump’s golf resort?

Or Mike Pence staying across Ireland at a Trump resort and commuting in Air Force II to his meetings at a cost of $264,000 to us the taxpayer?

Or the little tidbit about the cost of protecting Trump while he plays golf? The equivalent of 568 years of presidential salary?

Or Ivanka and Jared raking in 60 to 80 million this year?

Meanwhile I think Donald is trying to do everything he can to get fired from his job. I can’t think of anything else that explains his behavior.

A friend of mine said that lots of people are talking about the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I’m obviously not a lot of people but I’ve never heard of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

It is being used to explain why people are so stupid as to believe Trump. Kind of like a self-inflicted Stockholm Effect. They believe they are better and smarter than they are and can’t recognize their competence or incompetence. In other words – Rick Perry.

Speaking of which, seems like Mr. “Do these glasses make me look smart?” might be in trouble.

Meanwhile back in the bull fighting ring called the inner circle of the White House, Trump is lashing out and crying for help. He sent a letter to Erdogan, which was so stunningly – I’m not sure what to call it – that the news commentators sitting around a table were speechless, and it’s their job to say something! Later, when folks had a moment to think about it the best they could say was that it looked like a letter written in crayon by a five year old.

Trump was seen on TV saying that the Kurds weren’t our problem, the middle east had been fighting for years, that they are fighting over sand and there’s a lot of sand out there. So in less than ten days Trump has managed to destroy thirty years of Middle East foreign policy and let Russia become a big time player in the region. It must be especially galling to the troops that were stationed there to see a Russian flag over their previous location and hear and watch their allies being raped and slaughtered.

But don’t worry Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are in Turkey to straighten out the situation. Yeah, Erdogan and Trump talk. Erdogan tells Trump exactly what he is going to do. Trump agrees. Now Trump sends the Mikes over to clean up his mess. BTW They won’t be able to do that.

Donald is going to get a taste of the art of the deal slapped in his face. Neither Mike will be able to do anything. They will be lucky to meet with Erdogan because he’ll be meeting with his new best friend Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile our troops near the Syrian border are pinned down. The commander in chief has given them a “good luck, hope you get out okay” wish, and – oh yeah – we have fifty tactical nuclear weapons in Turkey. Maybe, we need to get them out?

Latest polls nationwide shoe 52% of people want the president impeached and removed from office.

Adam Schiff has sent a letter to his colleagues explaining a few things, just in case they missed it.

The most significant is the reason they are having to do the investigating, and thus keep things confidential, is the Department of Justice has refused to do anything.

There’s more but I’m a day behind, catch it in the next screed.

384 Days until the 2020 election and 466 days until the Inauguration

PS Dog Shirt

Day 1114 The Debate, The Impeachment, The Kurds

October 16, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 1114 The Debate, The Impeachment, The Kurds

Wednesday October 16, 2019

385 Days until the 2020 election and 467 days until the Inauguration

But first – a little bitchin’

Passport Renewal – You file out a form (DS-82), enclose a check for $110 with new passport photo (taken at Wal-Mart, or CVS) and within two weeks you get a new passport. A few days after that you get your old passport back too, with holes punched in it so folks know it’s no longer valid.

If you wish you can request extra pages in the back of your passport. They call it Large Format, but it’s not like the library meaning where the library means big print. All Large Format means to the passport folks is extra pages in the back of your passport for stamping. It doesn’t cost extra. It’s the same $110.

Global Entry – updating your profile with your new passport number. You can’t do it on-line. You have to go to a global entry office so they can scan your passport into their system. There is a list of offices on-line, but do not trust the hours posted, call first to verify.

Okay, the above information will save you several hours or days of rooting around in various government websites.

Here’s a crazy idea or two:

– Why not have the passport web site list the basic information that most people need to know first on their website?

– Why not have the passport database in the State Department linked to the Global Entry website so you wouldn’t have to go somewhere just to have your passport scanned into their system?

– Why not have the Global Security website tell you that you need to go to an office to have your passport scanned in?

– Why not tell folks what to do to get a new passport and what to expect timewise and deliverywise, like I did above?

Okay enough general bitchin’, now to specific bitchin’

The Debate – The Democratic presidential candidates had a debate last night. It was held at a university in Ohio I never heard of. They were all saying roughly the same things, with slight differences, and picking on each other over those differences. We need a Howard Dean like figure to round them all up and summarize their points on various subjects and then move on.

It reminded me of being in tenth grade English class the day after we had a student council debate and our English teacher summarized a big point that was being argued over and said that the obvious elephant in the room thing about whatever it was that had been argued was missing.

We need someone to round them, the candidates, up and write down their points and their differences.

Let me attempt a little of that summarization and elephant in the room stuff:

– Beto was asked about his take AR-15s and AK-47s away proposal. How are you going to do that? He was asked in multiple ways. OMG! How hard is this? Especially, given that it’s been done. We have a blueprint for doing it.

– Health Care – OMG Again. This is hard, but we have plenty of ways to do it, and lots of examples of how to do it. Why not have the Democratic leadership list each of the ways and who supports what?

– Foreign Policy – I have no idea what Tulsi Gabbard was talking about when she kept going on about regime change war. Finally, one of the other candidates had had enough and called her out on it. The choices are “keep the peace” or “let ‘em fight it out.” I’m not sure where any of the candidates stand on this. I think, like health care, they are all saying roughly the same thing: back our allies, stand up to thugs, promote democracy.

Details on the Debate:

Beto kept using some weird wording to explain how he would enact what he was talking about. The idea is simple: pass a law saying those weapons are illegal. Have a program to turn them in. If you don’t do that and are caught with one, you face penalties as specified in the law. Want to keep your weapon? There could be a rigorous registration process, like we did with machine guns. This ain’t hard.

For me, I’d go further. I’d make the law say that if you choose to keep your weapon and not register it and it is used in a crime, you have to stand as a defendant and you get the same sentence the person who used your weapon gets. I might be willing to reduce that to “if they get murder, you get accessory to murder.” (See, I’m willing to compromise.)

I’d also add in a clause that says any weapon used in a mass shooting would go on a list of weapons that need to be restricted. We could argue about what constitutes a mass shooting. (I can be flexible.)

I’d have the law set up an agency to monitor gun violence and give them the power to pass regulations, specifically to

curb gun violence. I might be willing to have a clause that says after a certain period of time the regulation would be written up as a law for Congress to pass. (See, I’m willing to work with others.)

The elephant in the room here is not to come take your guns away but to curb gun violence. If there’s a way the gun nuts can keep their guns and people aren’t being shot with them great. If not, I know that fewer guns, a lot fewer guns, means fewer deaths from guns.

Health Care – OMG! Something has got to be done. We can agree on that. Costs are crazy and the game is rigged. Let’s try something. Anything. We have a basket full of options as presented last night.

I like Warren’s vision, and Klobuchar’s practicality. Warren says we need to cover everybody so they don’t go bankrupt and we pay for it by taxing the wealth of the rich. Klobuchar says let’s build on Obamacare and do what Barack originally envisioned. Yang says other countries have tried a tax the rich approach and it hasn’t worked; I’d like to hear more on that. Why didn’t it work? And, he mentioned a Value Added Tax (VAT) did work. (More on that further down.) Buttigieg says Warren isn’t telling how she’d pay for her proposal. She tells him how she would pay for it and he says she’s not telling.

Mayor Pete was disappointing last night. I’ve liked what he has had to say before, but last night I didn’t. His bit on “we can’t wait” on various gun reform ideas, because people are dying right now from guns was odd. Okay, Mayor Pete what would you do? Out of time? Gotta move on? Okay. He seemed platitudinous, much like most of what Kamal has said. Sounds good, but high level.

However, Kamal got in one good one.When asked about impeachment and would she be for it, she said yes and she said it wasn’t a Dem thing but “Just being observant.” She’s right, and this is why I’d like to see her as Attorney General. This “impeachment thing” isn’t hard. As she said, “when someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” Donald has told us and shown us over and over again who he is.

Corey Booker looked goofy and said general things but I didn’t get the specifics from him. However, I do think that this whole lot of candidates would make a great posse – I mean cabinet. Each has things they are passionate about. I’d love to see them each tackle their thing. Booker and violence really made it clear to me.

Bernie – ah me, he was kind of funny last night. When Biden was pointing his way as he talked about some bad guy, Bernie said something like “I hope you aren’t suggesting I’m that guy” and he smiled! Bernie really smiled. How refreshing. For me, Bernie is kind of one note. I think his time is passed. I understand his flash cut to Medicare for All might be the cheapest way to go, but people would want to see that. By giving folks a choice, they will see that over time. Warren’s point that the insurance companies pull the rug out from under you when you actually use them is a great point. I don’t know how you get around that. I like Klobuchar’s idea of build on Obamacare because it is already enacted. I would dangle the Medicare for all option out there because I think eventually everyone would go over to it.

Biden – I like Joe. He has a lot of knowledge and experience. I don’t see that he has the vision.

Taxes & Spending – How do you pay for whatever? Well, first let’s be clear, Democrats spend less than Republicans. It’s been true since WWII. Don’t know before then. This point drives my Republican friends crazy, but the facts speak for themselves. If you want to save money, vote Democratic. There are three ways to tax: tax income, tax spending, tax wealth.

We have income taxes. We have sales taxes, which is taxing spending. Europe has a VAT which is a tax on spending. We don’t really tax wealth. Warren has pointed out that most of the wealth in this country is concentrated in the hands of a very few. Economists and political scientists say that an economy (Or country) is better off when the wealth is spread around. Her proposal to tax the wealth is an attempt to do that. Will it be difficult to implement? Maybe, but I’d like to see us try.

The Kurds and foreign policy – I believe in standing by those who stood beside us. I would go in and support the Kurds. Hell, I’d carve out a space for their own country and take it from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. What we are stuck with is the terrible division of the Middle East after WWI, and the struggle of the smoldering of empires long since gone.

I’m a little more hawkish on this stuff. I’d bring us in big time to support the Kurds. I’d also have a bunch of the Ukrainians over to our country so learn how to us Apache helicopters, and our tanks. Then I’d give them enough of them and anything else they needed to drive the Russian forces out of their country, including Crimea.

Thugs understand power, naked raw power. I’d show it to them – big time.

What else?

Impeachment – I’d move on it like a … legislator. I’d impeach him and throw him out of office. I wouldn’t indict him until after the 2020 election so Pence couldn’t pardon him for his crimes.

I mean if it were me I’d impeach Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Barr, and all the Federal judges that were appointed. I mean, I’m a reasonable guy.

385 Days until the 2020 election and 467 days until the Inauguration

PS Wright Robie House, Chicago, circa 1910

Day 1113 A few minor points

October 16, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 1113 A few minor points

Tuesday October 15, 2019

386 Days until the 2020 election and 468 days until the Inauguration

There has been a talking point by Republicans that the impeachment inquiry is sour grapes for the Dems loosing the 2016 Presidential election. To which I say, BULL.

Let me say this and then let me present the evidence: the current president is a money launderer for the Russian mob. He acts in Russia’s best interest, and his own, NOT the United States of America’s. He has carried out crimes and has been unfaithful to the Constitution and his office.

Among his crimes and misdeeds are: Obstruction of Justice (10 counts), Criminal Conspiracy, RICO, violation of Campaign Finance, Coverup of Campaign Finance, Paying off people for their silence, accepting money from foreign governments (emoluments), accepting money from national interests (emoluments), nepotism, money laundering, failure to pay taxes, bribery, extortion…

Most of these things he has done in plain sight. Many he admits to doing.

One can also argue that his policies have hurt this country. None is more striking than his turning his back on the Kurds. To keep the peace in that area cost us little, one thousand troops, sixty on the front line. He pulled them back. Who does this benefit? Russia, Assad in Syria, Turkey, Iran and ISIS.

Turkey has sent in Arab militias that are raping and killing women. Raping and Killing. That is what president Trump has unleashed on the most dependable ally we had in the region.

Moving on – sort of. The Republicans have trotted out Ken Starr, who says he’s seen nothing impeachable. Oh boy. This is a guy who wandered around in the Clinton administration for two and a half years, demanding all sorts of documents and wasting time and money when the evidence was clear from the start. The evidence being that the Clintons were involved in a land deal, which went bust. Years later their partner in said land deal committed financial crimes which had nothing to do with the Clintons. This wasn’t good enough for the Republicans and they kept the thing alive until Bill had an sexual relation with a 21 year old intern, which only came about because the Republicans caused a government shutdown and only the interns were working in the White House. When Starr’s report came out he barely mentioned the land deal.

Now the Republicans are attacking the process. The evidence is clear. It comes directly from the White House. None of them are disputing that.

Now we get to Rudy Giuliani and his “clients.” Let’s just look at the facts:

– the two clients are Russian born,

– have no discernible jobs

– yet somehow they were able to make donations of $325,000 to the Trump campaign (illegally)

– and get their picture taken multiple times with Trump. Also with Don Jr. and with Rudy (plus video)

– they were trying to leave the country to go to Vienna Austria.

– Rudy was also going to go to Vienna.

– Vienna is where Dmitri Firtash lives. He’s the guy that is mobbed up with the king of the Russian mobsters and has been getting millions, no billions, of dollars, from the Russian gas going through the Ukraine. What does he do with all this money? He keeps officials in the Ukraine, and politicians wherever he can, corrupt. How does he do that? He siphons lots of cash their way.

So let me conclude this little piece by speculating that Rudy’s two “clients” are really in the business of laundering money for Russians and corrupting politicians and bureaucrats.

Please, if any of those of you who have said this impeachment inquiry is about sour grapes on the 2016 election have any evidence, share.

(Articles and evidence from The Blaze, Prager University, Brietbart, AmericanThinker, NRA, among others are not considered by this author to be evidence but rather disinformation.)

Meanwhile a shoutout to Maria Yovanovich, the over 30 year foreign service officer who took an oath to the Constitution and, unlike Rudy or Donald, took that oath seriously and appeared before Congress and told the truth. Not only that but she walked in the front door, and released her opening statement to the press. Rudy’s henchmen, I mean clients, wanted her gone because she was actually opposed to corruption in Ukraine. How can you siphon money off if people like that are standing in the way? What to do? Why make a big donation to a U.S. Republican Congressman and ask for him to write a letter badmouthing Yovanovich, which he did. Trump on his infamous phone call to the Ukrainian president said she was a “bad woman.” Now Trump says he doesn’t really know her. Yet, he sent a message to her through Pompeo’s second in command that she should come home from Ukraine “on the next plane.” Hum, and shortly thereafter Rudy is on a plane to Ukraine to met with crooked prosecutors and his shifty clients to try and cook up something on Biden, a man who also stood by Ukrainians wanting to root out corruption in their country.

Why, I’d have to conclude that at a minimum Rudy at Trump’s direction was carrying out illegal activities. Not only was he trying to get a foreign power to interfere in our election but he was trying to clear the decks of honorable people so the gravy train could keep flowing.

Anyone want to step up and defend Rudy? To deny what I have written?

386 Days until the 2020 election and 468 days until the Inauguration

PS Come on. I dare you.

Michael Coe – a Tribute

October 15, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Michael Coe

I turned on the TV one morning a few days ago and there was Michael Coe talking about Disraeli Gears, the second album by the super group Cream.

I was shocked, “What did Michael know about rock music?”

But, I wasn’t surprised. It seemed that he was a man for all seasons and the type of Renaissance person to take all knowledge for his province.

It turned out not to be Michael, but a doppelganger, Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records.

But for a few moments, I was surprised and convinced it was Michael.

I first met Michael in 2008. He was giving an all day series of lectures on Angkor Wat at the Smithsonian one Saturday. At that time, I had no idea who he was. I had been interested in Angkor Wat since I was a young boy. No doubt, inspired by Richard Halliburton’s writing about the place.

The Smithsonian put Mr. Coe in one of their largest auditoriums and it was packed with over 500 people. At lunch time, everyone exited. I had brought what food I needed with me, in the form of several food-bars and a bottle of water. Michael was sitting on a chair behind the lectern. He was alone with his bag lunch. We were the only two people in the place. He seemed kind of lonely up there on the stage. I went up and asked if I could sit with him. I thought we could talk a bit. At first, he wasn’t sure what I wanted and then he said something like, “Oh, you want to shoot the breeze.”

I said yes, and once he understood, it was fine. I sat on the steps to the stage and he in his chair.

He told me that he had first seen Angkor Wat in 1954. He said, “and then a few things got in the way.” So, he said he became a Mayanist.

I remember we talked about tours he led and he said he did them with Far Horizons.

In 2014, I went to my first Maya at the Lago and the first person I met was Stan Guenter. He told me he was leading some tours to the Mayan world. “Who with?” I asked.

“Far Horizons,” he replied.

I signed up for a 2015 trip to the Peten with Stan, and thus began my association with one of the premiere tour companies in the world.

Several years ago Michael came to a Maya at the Lago and gave a talk. I had found my ticket to his lecture on Angkor Wat. When I showed it to him, I remember him smiling and gesturing with both hands toward it as he exclaimed, “That’s a real artifact!”

What a wonderful person.

PS Michael’s signature on my copy of his and Mark Van Stone’s book “Reading The Mayan Glyphs.”

PPS Mark’s Glyphic inscription is the vertical strip on the left side. It is left to the student at lab time to decipher.

Nevermind. Here’s the answer.

“To Lick from Mark of the Stone”

(It’s an “L” because the Mayans did not have an “R” so I am “Lick” not “Rick”)

Day 1112 What Did You Expect?

October 14, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 1112 What Did You Expect?

Monday October 14, 2019

387 Days until the 2020 election and 469 days until the Inauguration

All the adjectives to describe Donald Trump that I have heard by those outside his circle of sycophants are what we are seeing on display day after day, but they are being generous and kind in their descriptions. I am not. He is stupid and mean. He is naive and gullible. He is narcissistic and a socio or psychopath – take your pick.

What has he accomplished as president? Has he made us safer? Has he made us stronger? Has he helped spread our values around the world? Has he made this* a better place?

* “this” being the nation or the world.

What are the effects of what he has done?

Are the institutions that make our democracy work better off because of him?

It was scary at first. He’s easy to imitate in voice and many have done that.

Many wondered what would happen when he took office.

Wonder no more.

The only thing that seems to continually surprise any of us, is just how bad he can be.

The Kurds are the icing on the cake. This is the second timt they have been royally screwed over by a Republican president. Remember George H. W. Bush and the gassing of the Kurds that he let happen? Yeah. Tough talk, no action.

Reminds me of the Republican debates where Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee and the rest of those yahoos made those chest beating pronouncements how they wouldn’t have made the deal that Barrack and Hillary made with Iran. That they would have been tougher. So we got Mr. Art-of-the-Deal himself as president and what did he do? He pulled out of the deal. What do we have instead? Nothing. Why haven’t any of those chest beating Republicans stepped up to help Donald cut a new deal?

Then there’s the climate change stuff. He pulled out of that. What do we have? A warming planet and no plan.

There’s the stuff about Hillary’s private email server. After how many investigations they found like what? Nothing much. Meanwhile the very Republicans that bitched about the private email server are using their own and sweet titted Ivanka has been using one for White House business and said she didn’t know you shouldn’t. Not that she stopped mind you.

Okay so what’s the effect of the president’s actions in regards to the Kurds? Hum. Where to begin? Let’s see. Lemme look into my cracked crystal ball. (It lights up. You can put your hands on it and watch shadows on the walls. Bought it from a Saudi guy. Cheap. Good deal.)

– The only real folks in the middle east who would fight for us our getting slaughtered.

– The prisoners they hold, ISIS fighters, will probably get free. Thus allowing the reconstitution of ISIS in the Middle East.

– This will only help Russia and Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally, but not the most trusted one.

– The Kurds, what is left of them, will have to turn somewhere for help and that will be to Assad and his regime thus strengthening Russia’s position in the Middle East.

– The U.S. position in the Middle East has been permanently damaged. Well, not permanently, only for my lifetime and those of the next several generations.

But let us step back and look at the bigger picture. What has Trump done to our government?

– Most of the key administrators are “acting” not really confirmed.

– He has hollowed out The Department of State. Attacked the FBI, the CIA, and the rest of the intelligence community. He has destroyed farms and farmers with his trade policy, if you can even call it a policy. He has hurt our manufacturing, and plunged our country into hugely needless debt.

– His immigration policies are cruel.

– His Justice Department is making a mockery of Justice.

– HHS? Oh that’s Mike Pence’s baby. Pence and his “Indiana mafia” have hollowed out that department, spreading his nutty religious beliefs deep into that organization. Any organization around the world that helps women and their reproductive rights is a target. If your organization helps women with abortion consoling you are denied money. So what if you are fighting AIDS or malaria or ebola? The effects on poor women in this country and around the world have been devastating. Take Texas for example, they now have one of the highest rates of STDs. They also have more poor women having babies that don’t want them. Let’s wait 18 or so years and see how that plays out in crime statistics.

Trump’s border wall? The little bit that was built as a test case has become a tourist attraction for climbers. The wall that can’t be climbed? Last I heard the record was 12.87 seconds.

In an interesting factoid, in the last month Trump has made over 800 tweets versus Chrissy Teigen who made 263. Hum. Let’s think about how long it takes to make 800 tweets. At a minute a tweet that would be 13.3 hours. If it takes five minutes a tweet that 66.7 hours. So, to physically put your thumbs on the keyboard to type 800 tweets will take, I’m guessing, between 13.3 and 66.7 hours – just to physically pump them out. What about time to think about them? Is that twice or three times as long? That would be 26.6 to 133.4 hours at the low end and 39.9 to 200.1 hours at the high end.

Then there are all the court cases against Trump. Last week he lost in court five time in one day. That’s a record. One was on revealing his taxes. One was on the wall. Three were on immigration. This does not count his letter to the House Intelligence Committee saying they weren’t going to comply with the requests or subpoenas. The weirdest, saddest, most pathetic(?) (it’s hard to know what adjectives to use) was (were) the arguments the lawyers put up as their reasons.

Then there’s this wacky stuff in Ukraine and trying to get something on Joe Biden. I mean when you got your siblings and their spouses running around the world snatching as much money as they can from whomever they can and you want to go after the former Vice-President’s son for sitting on a board of a gas company?

Then there’s his time at his resorts playing golf. I read somewhere that the U.S. government has spent the equivalent of 568 years of his salary protecting him on the golf course.

Okay so let’s make a monthly time budget for the prez. The average month is 30.42 days long (365/12).

That’s 729.999 hours (30.42 x 24) Oh what the heck, let’s call it 730 hours.

How many hours do you spend sleeping, eating, bathing, getting dressed. Sleeping (7), eating (67 minutes), showering (9 minutes), dressing (There have been four Supreme Court cases on this, but my googling found no figure I could use. Let’s go with 20 minutes a day). The total time is 7+67+9+20 = 103 minutes a day or 52.22 hours washing, eating, dressing, (103×30.42/60), and 273.78 hours sleeping (9×30.42) for a total of 326 hours.

So we’ve got 730 hours in a month less 326 hours you have 404 hours left after sleeping and dressing, eating, and washing.

Let’s take out the tweeting. Physically tweeting takes between 13.3 and 66.7 hours. Thinking about it takes between 26.6 to 133.4 hours at the low end and 39.9 to 200.1. Best case (ie least amount of time is 39.9 hours; worst case is 267.8 hours. (Let’s call it 40 hours and 268 hours respectively.)

So from the 404 less 40 or 268; you have 364 or 136 hours left in the month to do the people’s business. But wait! Ya gotta play golf right? And there’s Fox and Friends! And Hannity.

Let’s do the golf first. Eighteen holes of golf takes between 3 to 4 1/2 hours to play (at 10 minutes a hole for pros and 15 for amateurs) Trump is reportedly going to play 80 rounds of golf this year or 6.6 rounds a month (It is reported he plays every five days versus Obama who played every 12 to 13 days.) Let’s say it take him four hours to play. That’s 26.6 hours (4×6.6).

After the tweeting we have somewhere between 364 and 136 hours left in the month to do something. Less 26.6 you have 337.4 to 109.4 hours left.

Wait! There’s Fox and Friends and Hannity!

OMG. If I take the high end of tweeting time leaving Donald 109.4 hours in the month to do something, that would mean he’s running the country on a daily basis of 3.6 hours a day, and some of that is while watching TV.

Wait, this ain’t working (that should be in a song!)

According to published reports Trump spends nine hours a day in “Executive Time.” That means he has nothing planned and screws around waiting to see what will come up. He’s making phone calls, watching TV, and tweeting during that time.

So let’s look at it from the nine hours a day in Executive time standpoint.

That’s 273.78 hours a month (9×30.42)

Take that away from the 404 and you have left 130.22 hours left to do something planned. Oh wait, there’s the golf! (-26.6) 103.62 hours left!

Car Sticker "I Fart in Yoga Class" — What Did You Expect?

Oh wait, there’s the rallies! Ten in 2017 and 40 in 2018 or one every other week. How long does it take to get to a rally, do it, and return? Ten hours? Maybe six at a minimum, twice a month. Let’s knock off another 12 hours. so were down to 90 hours in a month he could actually do something for the American people. Or about three hours a day.

At best he could send three hours a day on average doing something for the people, but he’s got ceremonies to do. Like giving medals to former crooked Attorney Generals. There are the ceremonies with heads of state, like Finland.

I frankly don’t see that he has time to do his job, and the little time he does spend on it he seems to screw up.

387 Days until the 2020 election and 469 days until the Inauguration

PS Yes, I do. (Fart in Yoga Class.)