Sunday, April 30, 2017

WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS...

Trump supporters appear to be impervious to reality.  Perhaps the phenomenon is similar to another I have seen, where a group of adults are in a heated discussion about yesterday's soap operas rather than their own lives.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

DANGEROUS PRECEDENTS

If Donald Trump is not asked to pay a stiff price for failing to provide his income taxes and/or divesting himself of potential conflicts of interest, a dangerous precedent, possibly the most deleterious thing about his Presidency, at least for our progeny, will be set.  Oh, of course, Republicans will be very upset if, in the future, a Democrat does the same thing, but, once set, the precedent will hold unless changed by law.

TIME WILL TELL

The U.S. budget for the new fiscal year was due in October of 2016, and as required by the Constitution, was  to originate in the House of Representatives.  It is, at this writing, 6 months overdue.

The Republican led House, unable to come up with a budget, have passed a Continuing Resolution (C.R.) to enable the Government not to shut down.  They have extended the time, of the C.R. to allow an additional week before Government shut-down.  If they have not been able to come up with a budget in half a year, it would seem to be the height of optimism to be able to do it in one week, however, it certainly is possible, and, of course, time will tell.  It always does.

INEQUITABLE 100 DAY TEST

In all fairness to Trump, not only is the test of accomplishments of the first 100 days, of his term in office, an arbitrary number, but he has not been credited for the 31 days he has spent golfing.  At the very least, the test period should have been extended to 131 days.  A fairer test, still, would have credited him with travel time to the courses.

WHAT IS THE MAN HIDING??

It should be obvious to even the slowest among us, that the only conceivable reason that Trump refuses to release his tax returns is that to do so would make his situation worse than not to release them.  What is he hiding?  

Friday, April 28, 2017

LEARNING TO LOVE TRUMP

Our 3 largest trading partners are learning to love Donald Trump. China, which for centuries, was used to bribing venal politicians, has learned. along with Canada and Mexico, how easy it is to get along with President Trump despite his insufferable egotism.  All China had to do, to tame the paper tiger, was to pat Donald on the head,  saying "good boy" and give Ivanka a few trinkets, namely some patents, which cost the Chinese treasury nothing and can be revoked at will.  Canada and Mexico can just say a kind word  to the Donald to accomplish the same thing, relying on Republican advisors to remind Donald that a trade war with them would throw the U.S. economy into an immediate recession, from which even ladders, that could be used to scale high walls, could not get us out.

THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION

Of one thing we may all be certain, it is not Donald Trump's fault. It is never the fault of Donald J. Trump.  Even though the possibly criminal behavior of Flynn occurred AFTER  he was fired by Obama, and even though White House officials, themselves, have to go to a Federal agency, not the White House, to get security clearances, Obama was responsible for Flynn having security clearance.

Since Gen. Flynn was involved in U.S. intelligence work during the Bush Administration, he received his first security clearances during that Administration.  Republicans, however, reject any responsibility, by the Bush Administration, for vetting, on the grounds that while security clearance is by authorized agencies, vetting is the responsibility of the Oval Office.  When asked, then, why should Obama be responsible for  Trump not  having vetted Flynn when Trump hired him,  Republicans make a vague referral to Obama's special status.  


Thursday, April 27, 2017

WRONG WAY TRUMP

Just as that aircraft carrier went the wrong way when Trump ordered it to Korea, that wall he wants to build on the Mexican border, appears to be in the wrong place.  Mexicans are leaving to go back to Mexico and a wall could only serve to keep them in. The influx of illegal immigrants is coming from Asia which the Mexican border wall does nothing to address.  

Trump, however, is more business savvy, and knows all that but also knows how a wall will be a challenge for small drug dealers but not for sophisticated and  well financed really big dealers who can afford tunnel engineers.  Keeping out competition is what walls are good for.


Sunday, April 23, 2017

DECONSTRUCTING THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE

Despite the Republicans' control of the Senate and the Democrats having only 30 hours of debate, available to them to delay the confirmation process, if they wanted to, when asked, on a Sunday talk show, this date, about the number of unfilled vacancies owing to the fact that candidates have not been nominated, Rance Priebus blamed the Democrats.  No matter that a publically stated policy, of the Trump administration, was "deconstruction of the Administrative State", and a simple majority vote is required to confirm, with some of the jobs not requiring even confirmation at all, the Trump Administration must be held blameless.  It's all the Democrats fault.




Monday, April 17, 2017

LOSING DOUBT

Again Trump reiterates that he would rather have you wonder, whether he refuses to release his tax returns, to hide very unethical behavior, rather than to reveal them and have you lose any doubt.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

REHABILITATING A FALLEN ASSET

Sorry, but no matter that there is an apparent rift between Putin and Trump, over Syria, I am unable to convince myself that it is not a ploy to rehabilitate Putin's greatest intelligence asset.  Trump not only could be the crowning achievement, for an old spymaster, but possibly the most expensive, considering the billions poured into Trump's real estate.  

Sunday, April 9, 2017

WHY DIDN'T TRUMP DESTROY THE RUNWAYS AT THE SYRIAN AIRPORT?

The answer to the question is simple.  Where would the Syrians have put all the planes, that had to be taken out of the bunkers, that were to be destroyed?

Thursday, April 6, 2017

ROUGHING IT IS NOT THE FIRST LADY'S CUP OF TEA

Melania Trump limits the amount of time that she spends at the White House.  Perhaps, the rather rustic appointments at the Washington residence, when compared to the opulence she enjoys at Trump Tower, are such that she just can only take so much of living there.  Who can blame her?

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

WHAT WILL DONALD DO?

The question of the day, stemming from the North Korean missile test and Assad's use of chemical weapons, is what the Trump Administration will do about it.  Trump has used some very tough words about what happened in Syria and his Secretary of State has indicated that the U.S. has said enough on the subject, to North Korea, intimating that henceforward the U.S. will act, not talk.

Only time will tell what will happen; I believe, at the moment, that all this will turn out to be more bullshit that the Trump people will  hope you will forget they ever said. 

SUSAN RICE

A good friend, who happens to be a card-carrying Republican, recently commented about Susan Rice.  Here is my reply:

"Susan Rice, as National Security Adviser, not only had a right but a duty to request a court to unmask the identity of the "American Subject" in those reports.  She had the obligation not to release the name of the person.  Isn't it strange to Repugs that not a word leaked out that it was Flynn, the one who was unmasked, until a RepublicanAdministration got its hands on the classified information?  Flynn was even confirmed in the job until the Acting head of the DOJ, under Trump, exposed him and forced Flynn's resignation, on the grounds that he could be blackmailed by the Russians.  But now it's Susan Rice's fault?  Sorry but Repugs are sick puppies." 

Monday, April 3, 2017

PUTIN'S FOWL COMING HOME TO ROOST?

Earlier in this blog, I posted an item indicating that Putin may be quite shrewd, he lacks wisdom in his decision making.  Even though at home, he has a large Sunni Moslem population who chafe under his rule, he sided with Shias in Syria, in a civil war.

It is possible that Sunni militants, now returning from that same civil war, may be responsible for terror attacks in St. Petersburg.  It was, indeed, predictable.  

IT TAKES A PATHOLOGY

Recently, a Trump claim that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, while in office, was publicly debunked by the head of the F.B.I. among many others of the intelligence community.

Undeterred, Donald insists that his wiretapping claims are turning out to be true.  Perhaps it is time for his relatives to invoke the ADA to prevent further mockery of the old man.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

DISTORTING DEFUNDING

When Republicans talk of "defunding" Planned Parenthood, they are distorting the ordinary meaning of the word.  The funds in question are actually payments made to Planned Parenthood for services rendered, under the law, under the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  If the Government no longer agrees to accept Planned Parenthood as a supplier of these services, the Government would have to reimburse another supplier, for these same services, or as happens, too frequently, there are no other suppliers, of these services, in a reasonable distance from the Planned Parenthood facility, and the needs go unfulfilled.

Since abortions are never reimbursed by the Government, that issue is completely extraneous to the issue of defunding  Planned Parenthood.