Yesterday, the Trump administration announced its new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. Yes, the same guy who called Donald Trump a “hack politician” whose rhetoric was “anti-American” on Trump’s very own favorite TV network, Fox.

But that was so long ago one has to cut the politically “inexperienced” Scaramucci some slack. After all, he said all those bad things way back in August 2015, for Pete’s sake!

Of course the former Goldman Sachs banker has since seen the errors of ways and has developed a strong affection for his new boss.

“I love the president and the president is a very, very effective communicator,” Scaramucci said yesterday. And boy does Trump love to be loved!

But besides the love, and the requisite loyalty, Trump expects from all his hires, Scaramucci had that one unmistakable quality the president looks for most in becoming part of his team … inexperience.

The 53-year-old businessman, from a working-class Italian family on Long Island, has no experience in government let alone professional communications. Estimated to be worth in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, about the only political experience the dapper “Mooch” has is that of a donor.

Scaramucci follows in a long line of Trump hires or appointees without any tangible experience for the positions they were hired.

Names such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner immediately come to mind.

Yet one can almost understand Trump’s thinking.

He got elected to the highest political office in the land with zero experience for that position so why not give his supporters what they crave most through his hires … incompetence?

Republicans since Reagan have wanted to cripple our big bad federal government. With Trump and his crew of numbskulls, it seems they have finally gotten their wish.

Photo | theaustralian.com.au

Much has been written about the Republican Party’s Faustian bargain. In exchange for supporting the most unqualified president to ever occupy the White House, it would finally get its radical, conservative agenda enacted into law. By tolerating Trump’s racism, ignoring his corruption and defending his erratic behavior, the GOP’s legislative dreams (repealing Obamacare, shredding the safety net, more tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.) would become reality.

It’s a great storyline but Republicans sold their souls to the devil years before Donald Trump ever came along.

No, they did not make a deal with Satan, Lucifer, the Antichrist or the Prince of Darkness. They struck their bargain with the embodiment of pure evil itself … Mitch McConnell.

After the October 2008 presidential election, before Barack Obama even set one foot inside the Oval Office, Mitch McConnell is reported to have rallied his fellow conservatives to resist the new president at every turn … even on legislation they were in favor of.

According to Michael Grunwald’s book, “The New New Deal,” the then Senate Minority Leader demanded, “unified resistance” from his foot soldiers.

Nevermind the nation was teetering on a fiscal cliff at the time. Nevermind the global economic system was hanging in the balance. Mitch McConnell told his party faithful to put party over country and all would be fine. Sure enough, Republican obstructionism during the first two years of Obama’s presidency paid off. It led to the devastating 2010 mid-term election “shellacking” of the Democrats.

Republicans picked up 60 House seats and 6 Senate seats. Said Larry Sabato Jr., Director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, of Obama’s legislative agenda, “He couldn’t get a Mother’s Day resolution passed in the House at this point. The G.O.P margin is just too large and there are so many strong opponents.”

If you recall, just prior to the 2010 Democratic debacle that swept Republicans into power, McConnell actually spilled the beans by announcing to the world  “my number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president.” The country be damned.

This is the same man who later would stonewall President Obama’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat made vacant by Antonin Scalia’s sudden death … an unprecedented move in American history.

Yes, Republicans sold their souls to the devil to reach where they are today … in full control of both branches of Congress and the presidency. All thanks to the deal they made in 2008 with the devil incarnate himself, Mitch McConnell.

Photo | GQ.com

As the first Fourth of July under “president” Donald Trump is upon us, it is hard for me to feel any real sense of pride or joy as an American. All I feel is sadness. I’m heartbroken that our great country has seemingly lost its way … so fast. The once envy of the world is now a laughingstock.

It appears Trump’s goal, and that of his Republican enablers, is to undo all that has made America great … its unwavering defense of freedom and the rule of law; its respect for, and guarantee of, a free press; its compassion for the less fortunate and it’s universally respected guarantee of equal opportunity for all.

I have just a few words I’d like to say to all you Trump voters. No, not the 30% of you who will gladly follow your man even if he shoots someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. No, I’m talking to:

1. All you “Bernie or bust” supporters who either voted for a third party candidate, sat out the election or voted for Trump in protest.
2. All you independents who believed all politicians were corrupt so you chose to go with the non-politician.
3. All you Obama voters who voted for Trump because you felt our political system needed a shake up.
4. All you who bought into the narrative Hillary was a criminal and could not be trusted with the White House.
5. All you voters who felt a woman should not be president (especially you, white women voters).
6. All you Democrats who thought Hillary had it in the bag and decided to sit out the election.
7. All you people who bought celebrity over substance.
8. All you voters too lazy to fact check fake news.
9. All you people who made excuses for Trump’s bad behavior and felt once in office he’d act “presidential.”
10. All you who believed Trump, and only Trump, could make American great again.

Can you hear me now?

As Trump and company dismantle the safety net that many of you depend on, do you now have any regrets? Is that new and better healthcare plan anywhere on the horizon? Has the swamp in Washington D.C been cleared of millionaires and lobbyists? Has our standing in the world improved? Has ISIS been defeated?

Of course, I could go on and on but tell me, are you tired of winning yet?

As you sit down for that great Fourth of July barbecue, and watch those glorious fireworks displays, try to remember America is a resilient country. We bounced back after eight disastrous years of George W. Bush, didn’t we?

Now pass the ketchup, please.

photo | newscorpse.com

After a little more than five months into a Trump administration some are comparing to “theater of the absurd,” we must not forget how far we’ve strayed off the reservation.

There is nothing normal about president Donald J. Trump.

For the first time in American history we have a leader who thinks a supermarket rag sheet, the National Enquirer, is “real news” and one of the most respected newspapers in the world, the New York Times, is “fake news.”

Let that sink in for a moment.

The most powerful man in the world believes what is written in a supermarket tabloid but not in a publication that has been awarded 122 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper?

The man who even Ted Cruz called a “pathological liar” rails against legitimate news sources like the New York Times and the Washington Post for such transgressions as reporting accurately and fact checking his fabrications? Huh?

If you recall, the National Enquirer was Trump’s source for his bizarre accusation that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in JFK’s assassination! Yes, the very same scandal sheet that claimed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered by a $2,000 a night hooker recruited by the CIA who injected him with poison. (I’m not making this up.)

Trump’s love affair with the National Enquirer is nothing new. He has long been a friend of the rag’s CEO, David Pecker. Trump has defended the publication as “unimpeachable” and has even written articles for the tabloid.

And the admiration is mutual. Last August, the Wall Street Journal reported the Enquirer paid $150,000 to prevent a story about Trump’s affair with a former Playboy model from being released and they were one of the only publications to endorse him.

Of course Donald Trump’s favorite cable news outlet is Fox News. You know, the disinformation/propaganda arm of the Republican Party that up until recently went by the Orwellian slogan “fair and balanced.”

An American president’s reliance on junk reporting is truly unprecedented, dangerous and scary.

If stuff like this doesn’t keep you up at night, more power to you.

Photo | thinkprogress.org

There will be no vote this week on the Senate’s bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Realizing he did not have enough Republican votes to pass what many have called “one of the worst pieces of legislation” ever proposed by Congress, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell yanked the “healthcare” bill.

Republicans now plan on rewriting their bill over the Fourth of July recess and get a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office before bringing the legislation to the floor.

But whatever tweaking is attempted during the next few weeks (or months) will not change the underlying fact that the proposed legislation is a piece of turd.

The CBO projected that if the Senate bill had passed, 22 million fewer Americans would have had health coverage. It is for this reason the bill has been broadly condemned as “barbaric and immoral.”

Incredibly, even with an approval rating of only 17%, the Republican-controlled Senate seems hell-bent on ramming its catastrophic bill down the throats of millions of Americans.

But even a few Republicans know putting whipped cream on a piece of turd will not make it more appetizing.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican moderate, said on ABC’s This Week, “I have very serious concerns about the bill.”

Democrats are not celebrating their good fortune. They remember being burned by House Republicans who also withdrew their version of the Obamacare repeal bill due to lack of votes, only to reintroduce a more draconian version a few weeks later. It passed by slimmest of margins.

No. Never sell short the cruelty of Republicans, in general, or Mitch McConnell, in particular. Democrats know this all too well.

“Our mantra is: ‘Do not underestimate Mitch McConnell,’” said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “McConnell is not stupid, but he is heartless,” Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party has stated.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer understands tinkering with bad legislation won’t solve the problem. “No matter how the bill changes around the edges, it is fundamentally flawed at the center.”

All Americans of good conscience need to be vigilant in the weeks ahead and keep up their protests so that this inhumane piece of  **** never sees the light of day.

“Passionate grassroots activism forced McConnell to pull the bill, and passionate grassroots activism will eventually defeat it for good – if we keep it up.” – Joan Walsh/ The Nation.

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)