The “eyes” have it!
Photos | washingtontimes.com, washingtonpost.com
Archives for July 2018
Mueller Offers Sage Advice To Trump
Trump-Cohen Tape … What Giuliani Is Engaged In Is Not “Spin”
Political spin is defined by Encyclopedia Britannia as “the attempt to control or influence communication in order to deliver one’s preferred message” … it refers to “the sophisticated selling of a specific message that is heavily biased in favor of one’s own position and that employs maximum management of the media with the intention of maintaining or exerting control over the situation, often implying deception or manipulation.”
What Trump’s attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, is blasting out over the airwaves is not spin but outright lies.
Now that the Michael Cohen tape of his discussion with Trump, concerning how to deal with paying former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, has gone public, Giuliani is telling anyone who cares to hear his take on the recording that “it’s powerful exculpatory evidence.”
Okay. Good spin, I’ll give him that.
But how Trump wanted to pay McDougal, cash or check, is a whole other issue.
According to Giuliani, in the recording, Trump is saying to his fixer, Cohen, “Don’t pay with cash.”
Yet a careful review of the tape shows that Giuliani has gone beyond spin and into snow job territory.
While the audio is somewhat muffled, Trump can be heard saying to “pay with cash,” and Cohen says, “no, no, no.”
Does this really matter in the big scheme of things? Probably not. Yet it’s another example of team Trump lying to the American people.
Yesterday at a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering in Kansas City, Trump went completely Orwellian when he told his audience not to believe their own eyes and ears.
“Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening,” said Trump.
For many Trump supporters who are either too lazy or brainwashed to actually listen to the Cohen recording, this is exactly what they’ll believe. Fake news.
Photo | rawstory.com/CNN
Trump To Invite Putin To White House This Fall … No This Is Not Satire
If you’re Donald Trump, what do you do after your meeting with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in Helsinki just a few days ago … a meeting that has been roundly condemned and denounced by both Democrats and Republicans?
What do you do after ex-CIA chief John Brennan says this of the press conference you held following your secret two-hour meeting with Putin: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic,he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”
Why you invite the former KGB agent to the White House, of course!
Sticking to tried-and-true Republican tactics, when you’ve made an enormous mistake, you simply double down on your blunder. Admitting error is never an option for it is a sign of weakness.
Whether Trump will actually meet with the Russia Mafia boss responsible for the attack on our presidential election in 2016 (and who is poised to do the same in the 2018 midterms) remains to be seen.
But the sheer audacity!
I, along with many other writers, bemoaned the death of satire in the Age of Trump. When any snarky article you write can actually end up touching on reality, the jig is up. When obvious parody is believed by almost half of all Americans, what’s the point?
I doubt the Putin meeting will take place this fall, but not because Republican “leaders” will have a long talk with Trump. You know, something akin to, “Dear Mr. President the optics are so bad that maybe…”
No, I don’t think the meeting will take place because of what Robert Mueller is almost certain to make public soon about Trump and his criminal enterprise.
The man heading what Trump likes to refer to as a “witch hunt” is our last best hope for reclaiming many of the American values we’ve lost under the Trump regime.
Photo | taskandpurpose.com
Trump Discusses “Abdication” With Putin
Reprint from moronmajority.com
In their historic and unprecedented one-on-one meeting today in Helsinki, Donald Trump discussed his exit strategy with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. News of the clandestine tête-à-tête was provided to the Associated Press by the sole interpreter at the event just hours before his mysterious disappearance.
Sergei Romanov, the interpreter, told the AP that is was Trump’s desire to seek asylum in Russia. Putin suggested a beautiful country estate in Siberia for Trump and his family. Romanov indicated it did not appear Trump knew the location or history of Siberia … an area primarily known for its long, harsh winters and its prison camps.
Asked for comment, both Trump and Putin denied they discussed Trump’s renunciation of his position as capo of the American government. Instead, the coordinated message is that the two men discussed Russian adoptions.
This is a developing story. More to come if, and when, Sergei Romanov is located.
Photo | politico.com
Things Are Starting To Get Interesting!
Time to get out the popcorn!
Photo| cardschat.com
Forget The “McConnell Rule”… Dems Need To Push The “Booker Rule”
Many Congressional Democrats are asking Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to follow his own rule concerning a president’s ability to nominate a new Supreme Court justice. McConnell prevented Barack Obama from nominating a justice to fill the seat of the late Antonin Scalia on the theory that a president should not be able to appoint a new Supreme Court justice during an election year.
Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, has asked McConnell to put off consideration for a new justice to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy until after this year’s midterm elections. But trying to shame McConnell into abiding by his own rule seems like a complete waste of time. The man is incapable of self-reproach.
A better rule for Democrats to use in their effort to stop the consideration of the newly nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Court is the “Booker Rule.” Namely, there should be no Supreme Court pick while a president remains under criminal investigation.
Here is how Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) explained his position:
“President Trump is currently a subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, and any nomination of a Supreme Court justice while that investigation continues is unacceptable because of the clear conflict of interest inherent in the President installing someone who could be the deciding vote on a number of potential issues from that investigation that could come before the Court.”
Democrats need to keep repeating the “Booker Rule” until they’re blue in the face (no pun intended).
It is common sense that no person under criminal investigation should be able to literally pick his own judge. And on that matter, Kavanaugh has written, in a 2009 article for the Minnesota Law Review, that presidents should be immune while in office from “time-consuming and distracting” criminal investigations. “Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the President’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as President.”
No, Democrats should not be playing the “shame” or “hypocrisy” card but the “conflict of interest” card. It is difficult to defend the idea that Trump should be able to choose a justice who may soon decide his legal fate. The “Booker Rule.”
Granted Dems don’t have the votes to block Kavanaugh’s nomination but if enough pressure is placed on a few moderate Republicans, and those Blue Dog Democrats, the day may yet be won.
Photo | Jack Gruber/USA Today
July 4, 2018 – “E Pluribus Unum?”
As we celebrate the second Fourth of July under the Trump administration, it is hard to ignore how much we are divided as a country.
“E Pluribus Unum,” our nation’s motto, literally means “Out of many, one.” Donald Trump seems intent, on a daily basis, to make a mockery out of the sentiment our Founding Father’s held so sacred.
Donald Trump does not even hide his disdain for national unity; for the notion that America is a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities; that we are, and have always been, a nation of immigrants.
To Donald Trump, he is the president of his base… a group of mostly white nationalists who make up a minority of the American population. When Trump speaks about our nation, it is always “us” (his supporters) against “them” (everyone else).
In a recent interview with Maria Bartiromo, Trump was asked, “As the commander-in-chief, as the president of this great country, what can you do to bring us together?”
Without hesitation Trump replied, “Our people are so incredible,” making it quite clear his reference was limited to the people who voted for him: “Do you know, there’s probably never been a base in the history of politics in this country like my base. I hope the other side realizes that they better just take it easy.”
In what seems so long ago, another president had a different take on the question of national unity.
At a speech at the University of Indonesia back in 2010, President Obama said, “In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum — out of many, one. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika — unity in diversity…our nations show that hundreds of millions who hold different beliefs can be united in freedom under one flag.”
And yet, as a preview of what we are seeing today, Obama’s simple statement caused an uproar among tea party U.S. House members—including then-U.S. Representative Mike Pence—who called for Obama to issue a correction stating: “By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent, you are casting aside an integral part of American society.”
Obama was right … we can’t let Trumpism change that.
This Fourth, as you feast on burgers and franks, try to remember we once had a president who understood the source of America’s greatness. We just might survive the Trump nightmare to have such a president once again.
Photo | thedistrict.com