;)
The Commentariat -- May 5, 2018
What's worse than having Uncle Fred show up at the family picnic? He brings Uncle Rudy & Uncle Donald:
... Gail Collins writes one of her better columns helping explain to Rudy & Donald what their explaining means. ...
... Trump as "Seinfeld." Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I realized last night that when Trump & the Gang don't utterly horrify me, I react to them as I did to the old "Seinfeld" shows. I've caught myself many times smiling while watching the News about Trump. Really, Trump & the "best people" with whom he surrounds himself are very much like Jerry, George, Elaine & Kramer: they're narcissistic, self-aggrandizing, aggrieved, careless, vindictive, dishonest, fiercely ambitious & not all that bright. The combination of these traits get them into predictable trouble. I had liberal acquaintances who were incensed by the teevee characters' sometimes-cruel behavior. These acquaintances just couldn't get that no matter what awful thing the characters did -- George pushing a wheelchair-bound woman over a steep hill -- but the situations were funny because the joke was on Seinfeld & friends, not on their fictional victims; these acquaintances had so suspended disbelief that they imagined the teevee characters were real. Now they indeed have come to life in Donald & Rudy & Kellyanne & Scotty, etc. The "Show about Nothing" has become the "Show about a Lot." The real-life consequences of the foibles of Donald & Co. are not funny at all, but the real-life actors themselves are LOL hilarious.
... Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump knew about a six-figure payment that Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, made to a pornographic film actress several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April, according to two people familiar with the arrangement.... Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has known since last year the details of how Mr. Cohen was being reimbursed, which was mainly through payments of $35,000 per month from the trust that contains the president's personal fortune, according to two people with knowledge of the arrangement.... If Mr. Weisselberg was involved in directing the use of the funds to silence Ms. Clifford, it could draw Mr. Trump's company deeper into the federal investigation of Mr. Cohen’s activities, increasing the president's legal exposure in a wide-ranging case involving [Cohen].... The payment to Ms. Clifford is a part of that investigation.... Two people close to the president ... said that Mr. Trump was displeased with how Mr. Giuliani ... conducted himself, and that he was also unhappy with Mr. Hannity, a commentator whose advice the president often seeks, in terms of the language he used to describe the payments to Ms. Clifford."
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "As yet another bizarre week comes to a close for the president, no one seems to know the reality of what happened between Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels, and Michael Cohen. The only thing that is proven beyond a reasonable doubt is that the White House is lying about it.... Giuliani told the Post that he had both discussed his plans to disclose the reimbursement with Trump, and that he had spoken with Trump after his Hannity interview, and that Trump was 'very pleased.' Moreover, Trump tweeted a statement (written in legal language, with formal titles, that seemed written by someone other than Trump, though still including a typo) that confirmed what Giuliani had said. Then Friday morning, Trump reversed course. 'Rudy is a great guy but he just started, but he just started a day ago. He's learning the subject matter and he's going to be issuing a statement too,' the president said as he prepared to leave for a trip to the NRA convention in Dallas. 'He started yesterday, he'll get his facts straight. In other words, Trump was saying the account he had both discussed with Giuliani ahead of time and endorsed in his tweets Thursday was not true.... Trump's claim that Giuliani just had his first day was also not true. The White House announced his addition on April 19, and Giuliani has described conversations with Trump about the case stretching back two weeks." ...
... Giuliani's Latest Tall Tales. John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani sought Friday to clean up a series of comments made during a whirlwind media tour meant to bolster the president's standing regarding a payment to a porn star but that instead created new problems for his client. In a statement issued hours after Trump told reporters Giuliani was still getting up to speed on the facts, the former New York mayor said that a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels by longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen would have happened regardless of whether Trump was on the presidential ballot the following month. 'The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President's family,' Giuliani said in the statement. 'It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not.'... In his statement, Giuliani also sought to make clear that he [was] speaking in television interviews about his understanding of events in which Trump had been involved and not about what the president knew at the time." Mrs. McC: Uh-huh. ...
... Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The cautious wording of the written statement released by Giuliani stood in sharp contrast to his previous two days of wide-ranging television and print interviews in which, according to legal experts, he exposed his client to greater legal risks and might have compromised his own attorney-client privilege with the president.... Some Trump advisers said they fear that Giuliani may have waived his right to assert that his conversations with the president are private -- and that government or private lawyers pursuing lawsuits could now seek to interview him.... Giuliani's attempt at damage control will probably do little to mitigate the legal problems he has caused, legal experts said. 'The first rule is to shut up, which he is unable to do,' said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University. 'False exculpatory statements often come back to bite.'" ...
... Ed Kilgore: "In what appeared to be an effort to vindicate the president's prediction that he'd eventually 'get his facts straight,' Trump's new lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, walked back earlier comments in a statement that will probably create fresh confusion about his client's actions and intentions." Kilgore does a nice job of breaking down Giuliani's statement, which, as Kilgore says, "did have the advantage of brevity, and it was pretty clear which earlier comments Giuliani was trying to retract, blur, or place in a different context[.]" ...
... Eileen Sullivan, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump undercut his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on Friday, and said the former New York mayor will eventually get th facts right regarding a payment to a pornographic actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. 'And virtually everything said has been said incorrectly, and it's been said wrong, or it's been covered wrong by the press,' Mr. Trump said. Mr. Giuliani, who joined Mr. Trump's legal team last month, 'just started a day ago,' Mr. Trump said, speaking to reporters on Friday as he left Washington to attend a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas. 'He is a great guy,' Mr. Trump said. 'He'll get his facts straight.' It was the first time the president addressed the inconsistent narrative about the payment made by his personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels. Mr. Trump did not offer any details on Frida to clarify the confusion, but said, 'It's actually very simple. But there has been a lot of misinformation.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jonathan Chait: "This morning, President Trump delivered an impromptu interview to reporters while shouting above the noise of his nearby helicopter. Trump stated, twice, that 'Rudy is a great guy but he started a day ago,' and 'he'll get his facts straight.' Giuliani was, in fact, hired 15 days ago. Trump also insisted that Robert Mueller was treating him unfairly because Mueller 'worked for Obama for eight years.' In fact, Mueller is a Republican who was appointed by George W. Bush, worked for Bush for seven years, and then five under Obama, before retiring. Trump offered, as further reason why Mueller should not be trusted and to explain his reason for not wanting to submit to an interview the 'fact' that Mueller has '13 Democrats' working for him. That is also not true. Donald is a great guy, but he started a day ago, he'll get his facts straight." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "MSNBC's Donny Deutsch dropped a bombshell on Morning Joe Friday, stating that said ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen told him Rudy Giuliani 'doesn't know what he's talking about.... He also said look, there are two people that know exactly what happened. And that's myself and the president. And you'll be hearing my side of the story.'" Mrs. McC: Why, I do believe Michael's going to sing. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Kristen Welker & Dennis Romero of NBC News: "... Donald Trump only recently found out that he reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with adult performer Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed Thursday.... 'I don't think the president realized he paid him (Cohen) back for that specific thing until we (his legal team) made him aware of the paperwork,' he said. Giuliani said the president responded, '"Oh my goodness, I guess that's what it was for."'" Mrs. McC: Totally true, I'm sure; right down to the "oh my goodness" part. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jeff Toobin of CNN: "Consider, alternatively, if Trump's team had told the truth from the start. He would have made a campaign report of a payment to Daniels, and that could have resulted in an embarrassing, but short-lived story. Instead, the lies caused the Daniels fiasco to metastasize into a genuine crisis.... Then of course there is the political (and moral) fallout of the falsehoods: why, now, should the public believe anything Trump says after he so obviously misled the public on this subject of wide public interest? Trump's prevarications also made a mess of the even more consequential story of the firing of James Comey, the FBI director, in May of last year. The simple question of why Trump fired Comey has produced a still-changing collection of answers.... Multiple explanations succeed only in arousing suspicion -- which the President and his allies seem by now to richly deserve."
Travels with Rudy. Chapter 1: Hanging with (Former) Terrorists in Albania. Josh Marshall: "Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) is a notorious cult-like group of Iranian exiles which appears to have close to literally zero support inside Iran but has for years cultivated significant ties to DC Iran 'regime change' advocates as well as a bipartisan list of shills willing to take their money (of which they have quite a lot). It's an odd group which mixes Islam, Marxism and neocon-inflected DC Pay-to-Play values into a bizarre amalgam run by current cult leader Maryam Rajavi. Until just a few years ago the US State Department listed them as a terrorist organization. They appear to be mainly out of the terrorism business now.... With all this you'll be glad to learn that one of their biggest backers is none other than Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton. And perhaps they're most high profile and ardent supporter (and recipient of their cash) is Rudy Giuliani.... In March of this year Rudy traveled to Tirana, Albania to headline a major MEK event."
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two top F.B.I. aides who worked alongside the former director James B. Comey as he navigated one of the most politically tumultuous periods in the bureau's history resigned on Friday. One of them, James A. Baker, was one of Mr. Comey's closest confidants. He served as the F.B.I.'s top lawyer until December when he was reassigned as the new director, Christopher A. Wray, began installing his ownadvisers. Mr. Baker had been investigated by the Justice Department on suspicion of sharing classified information with reporters. He has not been charged. The other aide, Lisa Page, advised Mr. Comey while serving directly under his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe. She was assailed by conservatives after texts that she had exchanged with the agent overseeing the investigation into links between President Trump's campaign and Russia were made public. In the messages, they expressed anti-Trump views but took aim at Hillary Clinton and other political figures as well. The decisions by Mr. Baker and Ms. Page to leave the bureau were unrelated."
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Virginia on Friday grilled lawyers from the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about their motivations and authorization for bringing a fraud case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. 'You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud,' Judge T.S. Ellis III said during a morning hearing. 'You really care about getting information Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment.' Manafort was seeking to have bank and tax fraud charges against him dismissed in federal court in Alexandria, with his lawyers arguing that the alleged crimes have nothing to do with the election or with President Trump. Ellis agreed, emphasizing that some of the charges involve alleged conduct that occurred over a decade ago. But he made no immediate decision on the defense motion. He said even without such a connection the special counsel, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, may well still have the authority to bring the charges. 'I'm not saying it's illegitimate,' Ellis said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ben Mathis-Lilley & Mark Stern of Slate: "... Ellis' apparent objections to the special counsel's prosecution are profoundly flawed and unlikely to be upheld on appeal should he rule in Manafort's favor. When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, he licensed Mueller to look into 'any matters that arose or may arise directly from' that investigation. Mueller was also licensed to investigate 'any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.'... Rosenstein has also expressly authorized Mueller to investigate any crimes Manafort may have committed 'arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government.' One of those alleged crimes was bank fraud, which was necessary to launder money -- the charges at the heart of Mueller's prosecution of Manafort in Virginia federal court" Read on. Mathis-Lilley & Stern make a pretty good case. ...
... Speaking of Rosenstein, Rachel Maddow devoted a segment to him. As usual, she's too long-winded, but if you've got the time, the piece is worth watching:
Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal agents working with Mr. Mueller stopped [Viktor] Vekselberg, a billionaire businessman [upon whom the U.S. imposed sanctions], at a New York-area airport this year and sought to search his electronic devices and question him, according to people familiar with the matter. They confronted him after he stepped off a private plane about two months ago, according to one of the people. There is no indication that Mr. Mueller suspects Mr. Vekselberg of wrongdoing. But Mr. Vekselberg attended the presidential inauguration last year, and the interest in him suggests that the special counsel has intensified his focus on potential connections between Russian oligarchs and the Trump campaign and inaugural committee.... Mr. Vekselberg also attended a December 2015 dinner in Russia where Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump's first national security adviser, was also among the guests and sat beside Mr. Putin.... Another potential area of interest for Mr. Mueller is Mr. Vekselberg's business in Cyprus, the Mediterranean nation considered a magnet for Russian money. Mr. Vekselberg has controlled a company that has been the largest single shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus. Around the same time that Mr. Vekselberg was investing in the bank, Mr. Trump's future commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross, was its vice chairman." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I hope Ross goes down too in this vast corruption scheme. ...
... Devin Nunes Is (a) Nuts, (b) Illiterate, (c) a Colossal Dick. (More than one answer may be correct.) Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) demanded "a fully uncensored version of a highly sensitive document from the Justice Department explaining how the Russia investigation began in 2016," & when he didn't get it, he warned Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein that he would be held in contempt of Congress or impeached. "Facing the growing pressure, and outrage from ... Donald Trump, Rosenstein finally relented in early April -- and granted Nunes and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina access to the document with only minimal redactions.... But when the pair arrived at the Justice Department to review the electronic communication..., Nunes -- sitting with a copy of the document in an unopened folder directly in front of him -- opted not to read it, according to four sources with knowledge of the situation.... The moment marked at least the second time that he has demanded sensitive documents from the Justice Department, only to choose not to read them -- allowing his staff or Gowdy to pore through the materials instead." (Also linked yesterday.)
Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "... Donald Trump harkened back to the racist attack he made on Mexican immigrants on the first day of his campaign in the summer of 2015 during a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention Friday. 'These countries send up their worst,' Trump said, addressing the crowd assembled in Dallas, Texas. 'Remember in my opening speech, I got criticized for it. Remember? Well, guess what. They're not sending their finest....' In his opening speech nearly three years ago, Trump said..., 'When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best.... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.'" ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Speaking at an NRA convention in Dallas on Friday..., Trump did a 'bit' on the perceived meekness of President Obama's stance on North Korea, then slammed the Iran nuclear agreement he is likely to pull out of in the coming days, getting the ultrafriendly crowd to boo the previous administration and John Kerry.... The president followed with an extended riff on the time Kerry broke his leg during a break from high-pressure negotiations crafting the agreement. 'John Kerry ... not the best negotiator we've ever seen,' Trump said. 'He never walked away from the table except to be in that bicycle race where he fell and broke his leg.... And I learned from that -- at 73 years old, you never go into a bicycle race....' Beyond the childishness, Trump was, shockingly enough, wrong on the facts. Kerry was 71 years old -- the same age Trump is now -- when he hit a curb and fractured his femur in 2015, while biking in the French Alps, about 25 miles from Geneva. There is no evidence that he entered a race, as Trump claimed, though he was riding on a section of the Tour de France when the accident occurred. As Trump attacked Kerry's cycling acumen, the Boston Globe reported that the former secretary of State was making a last-ditch, unofficial diplomatic effort to salvage the deal he was instrumental in creating." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only funny part of Trump's riff is where you imagine Trump on a Bicycle.
It's All about the Trump Show! David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "As he has sought to build anticipation for his high-stakes summit with Kim Jong Un, President Trump has delighted in dropping tantalizing hints about where the meeting will take place -- maybe the Korean demilitarized zone! -- and what can be achieved -- perhaps a peace treaty!This week, the president, without direct prompting, casually raised another possibility, noting on Twitter that three Americans prisoners have been held in a North Korean labor camp. But, he suggested in a tweet, that could soon change: 'Stay tuned!'... Who knows? We'll see what happens.... On Friday, as he departed Washington for a day trip to Dallas, Trump reiterated his cryptic prediction in impromptu remarks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.... 'A lot of good things have already happened with respect to the hostages. And I think you're going to see very good things,' Trump said. 'As I said yesterday, stay tuned.' The president often uses such phrases to hype dramatic possibilities.... But in the case of the prisoners, Trump and some key surrogates have again shattered long-standing Washington protocols by speaking so openly about delicate negotiations on American detainees, potentially risking a last-minute setback or coming across as insensitive to the privacy of their families, according to former U.S. diplomatic and intelligence officials."
Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Vice President Mike Pence's physician has resigned, the latest fallout from the collapse of Ronny Jackson's nomination for secretary of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Jennifer Peña, who like Jackson is a military physician detailed to the White House, was among those who detailed claims of professional misconduct against Jackson to senators considering his nomination, according to a person familiar with the events.... The allegations were troubling to many in Pence's office and the White House, who felt that Pena misrepresented the severity of the situation in an effort to harm Jackson, according to the person familiar with the situation." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "More than 50,000 Hondurans who have been allowed to live and work in the United States since 1999 will have 20 months to leave the country or face deportation, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Friday, the latest in a series of DHS measures aimed at tightening U.S. immigration controls. The Hondurans were granted temporary protected status (TPS) in 1999, shielding them from deportation, after Hurricane Mitch slammed their country and left 10,000 dead across Central America. Under President Trump, DHS has been eliminating TPS programs one by one, arguing they were never designed to grant long-term residency to foreigners who may have arrived illegally or overstayed their visas."
Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "California's economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world's fifth largest, according to new federal data made public Friday. California's gross domestic product rose by $127 billion from 2016 to 2017, surpassing $2.7 trillion, the data said. Meanwhile, the UK's economic output slightly shrunk over that time when measured in U.S. dollars, due in part to exchange rate fluctuations. The data demonstrate the sheer immensity of California's economy, home to nearly 40 million people, a thriving technology sector in Silicon Valley, the world's entertainment capital in Hollywood and the nation's salad bowl in the Central Valley agricultural heartland. It also reflects a substantial turnaround since the Great Recession."
John Koblin of the New York Times: "Three women sued Charlie Rose and CBS on Friday, alleging that they were sexually harassed by the former anchorman while working for him and that the network did nothing to stop it. On Thursday, The Washington Post published an article that detailed accusations against Mr. Rose by numerous women, including the three who are suing, and alleged that CBS managers knew about harassment complaints against Mr. Rose before he was fired in November. CBS has said it was not aware of any allegations about Mr. Rose's behavior before a November article by The Post that detailed accusations from multiple women and led to his firing as a host of 'CBS This Morning' and a correspondent for '60 Minutes.' PBS, the longtime home of the 'Charlie Rose' interview show, also cut ties with Mr. Rose."
Beyond the Beltway
Rick Rojas & Kristin Hussey of the New York Times: "The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a surprising reversal of its own decision less than two years ago, ruled on Friday to vacate the conviction of Michael C. Skakel, who had been found guilty of bludgeoning his neighbor with a golf club in 1975. The ruling is not only the latest of the many twists in a legal battle that has been drawn out over decades, but could stand as the conclusion of a case that has attracted the attention of tabloids and television newsmagazines with its blend of a cold-case murder with celebrity and wealth. Mr. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, had been convicted in 2002 of killing Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old in his Greenwich, Conn., neighborhood. Mr. Skakel, also 15 at the time of the killing, was not arrested until he was in his late 30s. He was convicted after a three-week trial that brought to light details including his drinking and drug use."
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Picking up on the idea of Trump-as-sitcom, here is today's paper post (WaPo) Alexandra Petri column on how Rudy violated the "canon" of the Trump universe. I'm assuming that "canon" refers primarily to comic book universes, fantasy worlds, etc.
Sometimes you can discern something about a person by that person's hero–-some individual that they say they admire, like Peggy Noonan once picking the Virgin Mary as the woman she most admires, or your Uncle Jeb who cites George Wallace as his all time favorite Governor. Ron Rosenstein's admiration is for Robert H. Jackson, an American Attorney and judge, served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. In his his office, Rosenstein has a large portrait of Jackson placed where one can see it and Rosenstein–-if he is sitting at the head of the long conference table––at the same time. Nice touch, I think. Jackson was also the prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials and the lone dissenter on the Korematsu (Japanese internment issue) case. Rachel's profile of him and Rosenstein last night (Marie has provided item) was a breath of fresh air––long winded always, but a wind that carried important information revolving around a man that now, is standing by the law and is determined, like Jackson, to do the job he was deemed to do despite Trump and despite those idiots in congress who want him impeached.
I must mention, how for the first time, I got to see Rosenstein's fine sense of humor–-this "Mr. Peepers" appears wonderfully strong and dare I say it? Most attractive.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive. - Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)
“He’ll get his facts straight.”
Could there be a less apt description of this, the most egregiously mendacious and criminal administration in American history?
First, there isn’t a single straight soul in this entire pile of dog shit. They’re all crooked. Even the kid who delivers coffee in this White House takes a path to and from offices more indirect than an addled cow.
Second, it would be physically (and metaphysically) impossible to find an operation more unblemished with facts. Sensors placed hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth to detect the vector of neutrinos from outer space aren’t sensitive enough to detect the residual decay of one part in a trillion of a single fact particle.
As Mary McCarthy once famously said of Lillian Hellman, everything they say is a lie including articles and conjunctions.
PD,
Ol’ Walter ain’t seen nothin’ yet. As accomplished a practitioner of the fictional arts as he was, Scotty could not have imagined a more vicious, deceitful, orange spider at the heart of this web.
@PD Pepe: The full speech that Jackson gave to the Conference of U.S. Attorneys is here. And yeah, Rosenstein is attractive.
Funny, Bea?
Something I struggle with daily. Guess we gotta take the laughs where we can find them, but most days I find it hard.
The Pretender and his gang of boobs, incompetents and grifters, making loud noises, running harum-scarum across the headlines do have all the elements of a fascinating comedy which I sometimes catch myself smiling at, but when it does come, the relief humor provides is only temporary.
I said fascinating, but it's the fascination of the abomination. My go-to reaction to the Pretender and his gang of thieves is horror, mostly unrelieved.
If only the Trumpbots (more than one third of the country) were not taking the Pretender's comedic presidency seriously...
....just as most days, hard as it is on my naturally sunny disposition, I am too.
It is getting really difficult to think of comments. How do you rationalize the irrational? How can you think of the mind of the delusional? We now live in two worlds, one of which (witch?) is called the WH.
I like Mrs. Bea McCrabbie's effort to line the WH with 'Seinfeld'. And as she points out, it makes sense. But the idea that she felt a need to make that connection, the need to make some explanation says it all. We have serious mental illness running the world and all we need is the right persons to stand up and say it.
A happy, happy Cinco de Mayo to one and all. And I'm sure the
president* will wish the same to all of the brown people he's
deporting, or wanting to.
Problem is, here in fruit and farm country, who's going to do all
that back breaking labor? Maybe some of those trumpbots will
be looking for work, but I'm not holding my breath.
I could work 8 days a week with my landscaping business but
I'm too old to take on any more. We don't answer the phone unless
we know who's calling. I have a feeling many workers have gone
to Canada or back to Mexico.
@AK
"Even the kid who delivers coffee in this White House takes a path to and from offices more indirect than an addled cow"
And whatever happened to the Frat Bros vaping and chugging Smirnoff Ice in the Presidential* Personnel Office, while they're supposed to be vetting all of the other criminals and shit stains trying to clamor in through the windows of the White House? You would think a ridiculous scandal such as that one would have resulted in immediate firings and a public statements saying that's unacceptable. I tried looking up some new info., but seems like the e-cig and sugary beer consumption has since resumed as per usual. Either the Frat Boys' parents are sending money into the Trump Org. bank accounts, or Donald really just doesn't give two shits about anything, much less the proper vetting of his personnel to avoid future self-inflicted scandals. With the 7-a-week scandal factory going on, the media can't even press the White House long enough to kick out this group of numbskulls. That bodes badly for the existence of any decency anywhere within this administration.
Then again, "loyalty" being the only character trait that matters, Donald probably doesn't even realize the Office exists and just uses Fox News appearances as his official vetting process.
Re Forrest's lament about the absence of farmworkers, there was a story in our paper yesterday that Maryland does not have the workers to process seafood. Pretty soon your crabmeat will only be served to people like the Stooge-in-chief, for whom cost is not an issue.
Every damn minute there is bad news, either large or small, and no good news to offset it. Sky fairy alert: I'm sure Dolt45 is just the person to headline the "world day of prayer" and appoint someone to further upset people who are victims of other people's religious views. If he were a religious man, maybe he would have a conscience. I say "maybe" because there is no evidence that most of the devout Christians of the US are worthwhile people. The people interviewed at the gun convention are proof of that. One or two positives: Rosenstein's fine appearance and the defeat of fake Speaker of the House by a plucky priest...
Okay, it's time to watch HGTV because my teeth are ground down to a new level.
Interesting thoughts raised by PD Pepe's comment on how one might judge someone by their 'hero." Not sure what mine would say! But gave it some thought and realized that over the years my own hero(s) changed. Not that I had a lesser view of the prior hero...but, the times affected my thinking. Back in my high school days, I would have named Marie Curie. In college, it was Frank Lloyd Wright. During my early career days, Gloria Steinem. Today? I regard the French doctor, Bernard Kouchner who came up with Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières at the top of my list. It is hard to settle on just one.
Most likely we are affected by the times we live in. There are, of course, many people that I have admired. And, those I despise.
(Probably the Seinfeld counterparts!)
Reading poll results shows generational gaps as to how others select their hero...because people tend to think of those who are notable in their immediate lifetime.
That said, I still don't and never got Peggy Noonan's choice!
To get back to Fat Boy making fun of John Kerry’s bicycle riding skills, my hat is off to anyone 70+ years old who can ride trails in the Alps. I’m sure there are plenty of Category 2 and 1 climbs up slopes ranging from 5 to 7% grades, meaning you’re out of the saddle all the way. That is some serious leg burning. Chubby Donnie would be lucky to a huff and puff his way over half a kilometer on flat ground with training wheels and Putin holding his handlebars to direct him.
Wait, that’s actually a pretty good description of his administration so far. I’m betting that the first tough climb he faces he either gets off and has someone walk his bike up while he squeezes his fat ass into an SUV, or he launches over the bars breaking a lot more than his leg.
Puerile, insulting, ignorant, and dim.
All the qualities Confederates look for in their President.
MAG,
About Peggy Noonam’s choice for someone to emulate, I might have thought of Superman and Mighty Mouse as heroes when I was 6 or 7, but since then I tend to choose real people as opposed to fictional or semi-mythological characters.
Years ago I was asked to name my heroes and my list included Emily Dickinson, John Lennon, Thurgood Marshall, Bobby Kennedy, and my mum and dad. Others have joined since (haven’t found a reason to boot any of the original group), but I’m still leaning toward actual people, although I did have a little flirtation with the Countess Olenska from Edith Wharton’s “Age of Innocence” but that was probably more of a crush than actual hero worship.