Trump

Tuesday October 22, 2019 

379 Days until the 2020 election and 461 days until the Inauguration

Rachel Maddow’s Monday night show was a tour de force. I know some people don’t like her, think she’s too smug, etc. What many don’t like is that she leads with facts, draws conclusions based on the facts, and asks questions based on the facts and conclusions. 

Last night she brought up a blockbuster piece of news. The dominate news item on Hillary Clinton in the 2016 news was what? Her emails. Front page stuff, day after day, week after week, It’s all we heard about her. There’s been an inquiry by the State Department. First under Rex Tillerson, then Mike Pompeo. During the campaign the chants were “Lock Her Up.” Chris Christie stood at the podium at the Republican National Convention and said how he as a former prosecutor would do all these legal things to Hillary if it were up to him because so many crimes had been committed. Blah, blah, blah.

Well, guess what? Investigation over. Yesterday, after hundreds of interviews and witnesses and thousands and thousands of hours and millions upon millions of dollars the investigation is over.

Four and a half years of government resources and the investigation is over. Why this wasn’t front page news I don’t know, after all the screaming about her emails I would think the results would be important for people to know.

So, if you didn’t know, and if you didn’t watch Rachel last night, here’s what the four and a half years and hundreds of interviews found. Are you ready???? Wait for it….

NOTHING

Hum, kinda like the Starr commission on Bill.

BTW They trotted Ken out recently and he said he didn’t see anything impeachable with Trump, not like Bill Clinton! (Oh man, put delirious grandpa back in the home.)

There’s more. A lot more, but enough for now.

Oh, one last thought. Donald says the Kurds are happy. In fact, everyone is happy over there. Yeah! I suggest he send Ivanka over for a little victory parade and good will gesture. Maybe, she can meet those nice young men who dragged that woman from her car, raped and killed her.

I know. 

Sorry.

379 Days until the 2020 election and 461 days until the Inauguration

PS The Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City

Day 1119 Say It Ain’t True! (But it is!)

Monday October 21, 2019 

380 Days until the 2020 election and 462 days until the Inauguration

The sh*t is coming, fast and furious, I keep thinking it’s hit the fan, but it hasn’t. So strange. 

Let’s take a look at some of the nasty campaign ads that are now running on local TV here in Richmond. They use gray screens over the people they are smearing. They yell out in yellow jagged type. They put up pictures of Warren, Sanders, and AOC with the word “Socialist” next to them. And they put up whomever they are smearing alongside. No facts, just smear. 

Most interestingly, these ads are paid for by American Progress, one of the big Trump PACs. This PAC has been linked to receiving large donations illegally from Russian sources.

Now it’s been revealed that at George Bush’s funeral on December 3, 2018 Rudy Giuliani brought one of the two guys that got arrested recently as his date. Not only that, but more pictures of these two with Trump, or Rudy, or the Trump kids have surfaced. I have to ask how do two guys with no real legal means of support manage to make huge donations to the Trump campaign and other Republicans? The guy that Rudy brought to the funeral has put a gun to the head of his landlord and threatened him. Said landlord got a restraining order. Why the gun to the head? Seems said Rudy-bud wasn’t paying his rent. Yet, he was stopped with three different types of hand guns in his possession. He owns a Porsche Carrera (starting price $113,300.)

Okay, each of these two have businesses. One has a firm called Fraud Guarantee. The other has a night club on the Black Sea called Mafia Rave. Neither business is so big that they can afford to make illegal donations to the Republicans and Trump to the tune of $325,000, but they have. What’s their deal?

They work for Dimitri Firtash who was making billions skimming money off the gas Russia piped into Ukraine. This seemed to have come to an end with the election of anti-corruption officials. Something Joe Biden supported. One of the gas companies, Burisma, hired Joe’s son, Hunter, to try and clean up their image and no doubt get in good with Joe. Did it work? There’s no evidence that it did. Nor is there any evidence that Joe knew about it. I’m sure at some point he was made aware of it. But this is nothing new in the sense that progeny and relatives of elected officials are hired, or used, to try and get close to the powerful person. Remember Billy Carter? But Trump’s kids have taken it to a whole other level. It’s reported that Jared and Ivanka made $60-80 million last year. Doing what? 

I saw a headline last night that said Don Jr. has accused the Bidens of nepotism. Man, that takes something.

Okay back to Russian money. Putin let Firtash extort billions from the Russian gas piped into Ukraine. This gave Putin a large slush fund to corrupt whomever. Biden and our Ukrainian ambassador stood by the dually elected anti-corruption officials. Rudy’s clients used money to get then Rep. Pete Sessions to write a letter to Trump asking for the ambassador to be removed. Rudy also put pressure to have her removed. Trump didn’t just remove her; he yanked her, as in “be on the next plane” yanked her. He said she was “a terrible woman.” Then he said he didn’t really know her. 

Firtash is fighting extradition to the U.S. He was arrested in Vienna and posted bail of $173,000,000.00. Yeah, 173 million. He’s hired some of the fanciest law firms in the U.S. to fight his extradition.

When Lev and Igor, “Rudy’s clients”, were stopped trying to leave the country they were going to Vienna. Rudy was too. Why Vienna? Firtash is there! That’s the only reason to go there. 

Firtash is not only linked to Putin but to the godfather of the Russian mob. Let me ask you, where do you think two guys with little means of legit money are getting barrels full to give to Rudy, Trump, and various Republican Super Pacs, including the Super Pac currently running lying smear campaigns on my local TV station? This is Russian mob money – plain and simple. 

Okay, let’s move on. Hillary made some comments that are exciting a lot of people. She said that the Russians are grooming, or have their eye on, a candidate in the current Democratic field that they hope to back as a third party candidate. 

Boy did that get swift reaction. Both Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein reacted. Let’s not forget that Stein was at that Russian luncheon where Flynn spoke. She publicly admitted that the Russian media was giving her more attention than the U.S. media, and the number of votes she siphoned off from Hillary were enough to let Trump squeak by with a win.

What about Gabbard? If you look at her record and statements she’s perfect for the Russians to back, She was raised by her parents in nutty religious cult that was fervently anti-gay. Although she’s distanced herself from all that, she did make anti-gay comments previously, and many far right sort of statements. She would be a perfect choice for the Russians to back.

What has Hillary’s comment done? Well, I’d say it’s really put a spike in any thought Gabbard may have had about running as a third party candidate, and it’s probably backed off Russian efforts as well.

You’re welcome America. Thank-you Hillary.

In the current crime spree by the president and his associates – oh boy:

Mic Mulvaney held a press conference where, when given a text book example of quid pro quo, said, “We do that all the time.”

Then he tried to undo it by saying he never said quid pro quo. 

This, yet another example of people being corrupted by being near Donald Trump.

Eric Trump said he was honored that the G-7 conference was going to be a Trump Doral. 

Then Trump said they weren’t going to hold the G-7 there and blamed the Dems. The real story is that too may Republicans ganged up on him about it. (Trump, “What? It’s illegal? Really, I don’t think so. It’s unconstitutional? I don’t think so. You think so? I don’t know. I’ve never read it. …”) 

It was only criminal, unconstitutional, and the place has a terrible bedbug problem – other than that.

Then there’s Syria, which Trump just gave to Russia, Assad, Iran, ISIS, and Turkey while betraying our allies in the area – the Kurds. Trump reports that everyone is happy and it’s a great situation Then why are our troops in the area getting pelleted with eggs and rocks? That doesn’t bespeak of happiness.  

Then there’s the anti-corruption investigation and the search for a Democratic server in the Ukraine being carried out by Pompeo, Barr, Mulvaney and others. Egads. 

Okay there are two parts: Ukrainian corruption and the Democratic server. First, there is no Democratic server in the Ukraine. This is some crap ginned up by the Russian dis-information apparatus and the right-wing conspiracy theorists.

As to Ukrainian corruption, there is or had been corruption. Folks closely tied to efforts to keep Ukraine corrupt are Rudy’s two clients and Rudy. If they (Barr, Pompeo, Rudy, etc.) are investigating corruption let them start with Rudy and his pals. Those two guys have apparently been under investigation for a long time. In the charging documents against them the prosecution listed fifty bank accounts. Fifty bank accounts by two guys with little visible means of support. Gee, what does that seem like? Lemme think, Money laundering? 

As I said, if William Barr and Mike Pompeo are really investigating Ukrainian corruption they can start with Rudy and his two pals. Better yet, just let Rudy’s old shop, The Southern District of New York handle it.

380 Days until the 2020 election and 462 days until the Inauguration

( I think I need a new counter – “How many days until impeachment?”

    and “How many days until removal from office?” )

PS On a lake on a river with tangerine skies … Author’s alter ego on a boat ride somewhere in Indonesia

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.

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 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.

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!

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.)