Donald Trump has always been difficult to listen to, but now, following the end of the Mueller investigation, he will be particularly insufferable.
He claims to have been totally vindicated by the report, but that is far from the truth. On the other hand, far from the truth is where Trump operates.
Mueller concluded that Russia attempted to interfere in our 2016 election by two means: a Web-based disinformation campaign; and the hacking of Democratic emails later disseminated by WikiLeaks.
Trump has often denied those attacks, since it puts an asterisk on his victory. But because he and his people didn't directly assist Russia in making those particular attacks, they were exonerated of collusion.
This doesn't mean there wasn't collusion in some other form. Certainly Don Junior attempted to collude with Russian nationals in getting dirt on Hillary, but that operation failed. And the Russians were apparently not involved in either of the two attacks set forth by Mueller. So it doesn't count, even as an attempt.
Other Trump folks had unreported meetings with Russians, and lied about them to the FBI. Indictments and plea deals have already gone out on those crimes. Again, since these meetings were not apparently related to the two official Russian attacks investigated by Mueller, they didn't count as collusion.
As for obstruction of justice, Mueller offers no opinion, throwing the matter to the Attorney General. He does say this conclusion is not an exoneration of Trump. The AG says he will not prosecute, so I guess the president picked the right guy there.
Trump's position is that because he was not found guilty of colluding with the two specific Russian attacks, he should never have been investigated in the first place. But remember, he doesn't consistently agree there WERE any attempts to influence the election. His real relationship with Russia (and Putin in particular) will probably never be fully known (even by Trump). As a result, the question of his guilt vis-a-vis Russia will remain an open question.
But not to Trump. The only thing open about Trump is his mouth, and we're going to be hearing a lot of fine partisan rhetoric coming out of that turbo-charged device.
Trump is already saying the investigation of his activities began very early on, and illegally at that. I imagine he's referring to the "I was tapped by Obama in Trump Tower" deal. It's not clear if he understands what happened there. Foreign nationals were tapped, and when they called Trump or his people, the Americans were inadvertently recorded.
Trump hints that Obama set this whole thing in motion, maybe even encouraging those foreign nationals to call Trump so Obama could listen in. (Which might explain why Trump called the man "sick.")
Again, full information may never be known, but that never stops Trump from declaring total victory. It's what he does.
The firing of FBI Director James Comey triggered the Mueller investigation. It also triggered non-stop attacks by Trump on those two men, impugning their integrity and so forth. But Comey's handing of the Hillary email situation, especially the reopening of the investigation just before the election, helped put Trump in office.
And Mueller may have just handed Trump his reelection.
Irony is alive and well.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
INTO DARKNESS
It's hard to keep up with all of President Trump's tweets and verbal rants. A few days ago he was blasting away at John McCain, saying the late senator destroyed the Republican dream of "repeal and replace" of Obamacare. Elsewhere, he was marking the twilight of that bane of hard-working folks all over the world: socialism.
But if he really meant to replace Obamacare, wouldn't that entail some version of healthcare augmented for low-income folks? And couldn't that government-assisted system be labeled a variety of socialism?
In fact, we may never know. Congress could never come up with the details of a replacement. We just know it was supposed to be "great" and even cheaper than Obamacare, according to Trump.
But then, the man does exaggerate from time to time.
I presume Trump's comments about socialism (recently and in the State of the Union) are meant to undercut the progressive Democratic dream of extending Medicare to all Americans, a notion promulgated by a larger and larger fraction of presidential hopefuls.
If Trump is reelected, expect that evil chunk of socialism to descend into the welcoming darkness. And that may not be all. Perhaps we will see a further erosion of bedrock socialistic practices, like the building of roads and bridges, the creation of mandatory schooling, and so forth. All the stuff governments (federal, state, and local) do for the people without a lot of input from folks (just a money-grab of income).
All of that (and more) would disappear in a truly laissez-faire economy, of the sort doted on by hardcore capitalists.
The good news for Trump, now that socialism is dropping below the horizon, nobody will expect him to act to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure. It was supposed to be next on the list (after repeal and replace and tax breaks for the rich), but he got bogged down in the border "emergency."
Also, he seems to be waiting for the Mueller Report to define the rest of his term.
But what of socialism on a cosmic scale? Sorry to say, but truly independent citizens might also have to give up any hope of heaven. Why should God reward folks just for doing their duty to the Supreme Being?
Far as I can see, the Afterlife is a socialist boondoggle.
Perform God's work as best you can, then drift off into darkness. Stop trying to "get stuff" out of the universe! Nobody said this life would be a day at the beach.
(After Global Warming gets through with us, we'll probably have to abandon the notion that spending a day at the beach could ever be a good thing.)
But if he really meant to replace Obamacare, wouldn't that entail some version of healthcare augmented for low-income folks? And couldn't that government-assisted system be labeled a variety of socialism?
In fact, we may never know. Congress could never come up with the details of a replacement. We just know it was supposed to be "great" and even cheaper than Obamacare, according to Trump.
But then, the man does exaggerate from time to time.
I presume Trump's comments about socialism (recently and in the State of the Union) are meant to undercut the progressive Democratic dream of extending Medicare to all Americans, a notion promulgated by a larger and larger fraction of presidential hopefuls.
If Trump is reelected, expect that evil chunk of socialism to descend into the welcoming darkness. And that may not be all. Perhaps we will see a further erosion of bedrock socialistic practices, like the building of roads and bridges, the creation of mandatory schooling, and so forth. All the stuff governments (federal, state, and local) do for the people without a lot of input from folks (just a money-grab of income).
All of that (and more) would disappear in a truly laissez-faire economy, of the sort doted on by hardcore capitalists.
The good news for Trump, now that socialism is dropping below the horizon, nobody will expect him to act to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure. It was supposed to be next on the list (after repeal and replace and tax breaks for the rich), but he got bogged down in the border "emergency."
Also, he seems to be waiting for the Mueller Report to define the rest of his term.
But what of socialism on a cosmic scale? Sorry to say, but truly independent citizens might also have to give up any hope of heaven. Why should God reward folks just for doing their duty to the Supreme Being?
Far as I can see, the Afterlife is a socialist boondoggle.
Perform God's work as best you can, then drift off into darkness. Stop trying to "get stuff" out of the universe! Nobody said this life would be a day at the beach.
(After Global Warming gets through with us, we'll probably have to abandon the notion that spending a day at the beach could ever be a good thing.)
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
PRESIDENT QUEEG
It is a cliche of politics that the cover-up is worse than the crime. In this case, the "crime" was just a microscopic hiccup in President Trump's seriously glitchy operating system. He referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple."
Life moved on for a while, then the wheels came off.
At first Trump said he actually uttered the man's last name very softly, in between his first name and the company he represents, like: "Tim [Cook] Apple." Unfortunately, the video record of the event was clear: There was no room in Trump's sentence for another word to have been spoken, softy or otherwise. Plus, his revised version of events made little sense. Why would he say "Tim Cook Apple"? In other words, the lie was not only ridiculous, it was no help at all.
Trump then explained he really DID say "Tim Apple," but it was on purpose. To save words and time, he said, he ran together the man and the company. In print he suggested it would have looked like "Tim/Apple."
He went on to excoriate the Fake News folks for trying to ruin his life, etc.
An unnamed supporter was quoted as wondering why Trump would bother to lie about something so small.
But lie he did. Twice. (So far.) And very badly. The man simply can't help himself.
Trump appears to see himself as a perfect being, incapable of error. That goes for the big issues, like North Korea and the National Wall Emergency, down to the smallest, like a momentary twisting of a man's name.
Perfection is all! And any reports to the contrary must be labeled with withering precision: Fake News straight from the Enemy of the People!
All apparent glitches can be attributed to the Press, you see. Those bastards make this crap up to harm the president and, by logical extension, the country. Trump knows this for a fact and reports it that way to his supporters.
And they appear to believe him.
There have already been attacks on the press by Trump supporters, and in the run-up to the 2020 election, there will undoubtedly be more. There's no escaping this. Anyone attempting to supplant Trump will just naturally cite items in the news as proof the president is unfit. Since (according to the president) all of this so-called news is fake, there must be consequences for those who make it up. Severe consequences.
After all, the future of this country is at stake.
Trump has no sympathy for the lying press. Whatever happens, they bring it on themselves by their treasonous actions. They're only getting what they deserve.
The president's ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, says he worries there will be serious unrest in this country should Trump not prevail in 2020. I'm not surprised. At the last presidential debate, Trump famously said he would not necessarily accept the results of the 2016 election. He was going to wait and see.
From the beginning, then, he's been setting the tone for his supporters: The rule of law is contingent on getting what you want from any given election.
This is no way to run a country.
In the court-martial that concludes The Caine Mutiny, the aggrieved Captain Queeg takes the stand to proclaim the disloyalty of his officers. He says they made up stories to make him look bad. He says, for instance, he can prove by geometric logic that someone had stolen strawberries from the officers' mess. (In the courtroom, folks begin to wonder if this is relevant.) Queeg hauls out his fidget-spinner ball bearings in an attempt to maintain his composure, but it's already too late: Everybody can see he's losing it.
That was then. Nowadays, President Queeg could hustle those steel balls till the cows came home, but none of his supporters would be able to see anything but Fake News.
In America, the obvious is not that obvious anymore.
Life moved on for a while, then the wheels came off.
At first Trump said he actually uttered the man's last name very softly, in between his first name and the company he represents, like: "Tim [Cook] Apple." Unfortunately, the video record of the event was clear: There was no room in Trump's sentence for another word to have been spoken, softy or otherwise. Plus, his revised version of events made little sense. Why would he say "Tim Cook Apple"? In other words, the lie was not only ridiculous, it was no help at all.
Trump then explained he really DID say "Tim Apple," but it was on purpose. To save words and time, he said, he ran together the man and the company. In print he suggested it would have looked like "Tim/Apple."
He went on to excoriate the Fake News folks for trying to ruin his life, etc.
An unnamed supporter was quoted as wondering why Trump would bother to lie about something so small.
But lie he did. Twice. (So far.) And very badly. The man simply can't help himself.
Trump appears to see himself as a perfect being, incapable of error. That goes for the big issues, like North Korea and the National Wall Emergency, down to the smallest, like a momentary twisting of a man's name.
Perfection is all! And any reports to the contrary must be labeled with withering precision: Fake News straight from the Enemy of the People!
All apparent glitches can be attributed to the Press, you see. Those bastards make this crap up to harm the president and, by logical extension, the country. Trump knows this for a fact and reports it that way to his supporters.
And they appear to believe him.
There have already been attacks on the press by Trump supporters, and in the run-up to the 2020 election, there will undoubtedly be more. There's no escaping this. Anyone attempting to supplant Trump will just naturally cite items in the news as proof the president is unfit. Since (according to the president) all of this so-called news is fake, there must be consequences for those who make it up. Severe consequences.
After all, the future of this country is at stake.
Trump has no sympathy for the lying press. Whatever happens, they bring it on themselves by their treasonous actions. They're only getting what they deserve.
The president's ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, says he worries there will be serious unrest in this country should Trump not prevail in 2020. I'm not surprised. At the last presidential debate, Trump famously said he would not necessarily accept the results of the 2016 election. He was going to wait and see.
From the beginning, then, he's been setting the tone for his supporters: The rule of law is contingent on getting what you want from any given election.
This is no way to run a country.
In the court-martial that concludes The Caine Mutiny, the aggrieved Captain Queeg takes the stand to proclaim the disloyalty of his officers. He says they made up stories to make him look bad. He says, for instance, he can prove by geometric logic that someone had stolen strawberries from the officers' mess. (In the courtroom, folks begin to wonder if this is relevant.) Queeg hauls out his fidget-spinner ball bearings in an attempt to maintain his composure, but it's already too late: Everybody can see he's losing it.
That was then. Nowadays, President Queeg could hustle those steel balls till the cows came home, but none of his supporters would be able to see anything but Fake News.
In America, the obvious is not that obvious anymore.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
CRANKING UP THE MACHINE
A year and eight months to go before the 2020 election, and the Democratic field is already crowded. Is that a good thing?
It's like the opposite of 2016, where Hillary Clinton was the presumed candidate from the git-go. (Sorry, Bernie.)
This time Hillary is not running, and that might turn out to be bad news for Donald Trump. In 2016 he campaigned against the woman, using her political baggage (Bill and other items) to demonize her. There's a good chance her presence in the race put him over the top.
This time the only thing he has going for him is that he's the incumbent, which often works in a candidate's favor. Unless he's really a horrible president.
The problem for Democrats is, a very large number of Trump voters simply cannot detect that the man is as horrible as he is.
One of Trump's biggest supporters is Donald Trump. The man thinks he's doing A+ work as president, and can't imagine anyone in the country who wouldn't see the same thing. Based on this, reelection should be a lock.
Trump knows that politics is the only reason anyone complains about him and his excellent performance. What he doesn't get is that opposition to him is based on who he is and what he does (or wants to do).
On the other hand, politics IS the reason he gets a lot of his support. Many Republicans feel stuck with Trump. They don't much like him, but they can't do anything about it. Not now, anyway. Maybe in 2024.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is coming on strong. But he has two problems: every damn day the man gets older, plus he may find it impossible to win a national election for religious reasons.
You may recall leaked emails that had Hillary's folks speculating about Bernie, about the fact he's Jewish. And worse, that he might be an atheist.
Will Americans at large vote such a guy into the presidency? Pretty sure it would be the first time, if they do.
In the meantime, a lot of his ideas from 2016 have gone mainstream among Democratic candidates. And they seem to find favor with a lot of voters, too. Turns out, you don't need Bernie to get Bernie's platform.
Maybe that's his ultimate contribution. That and enthusiastic campaigning for whatever Democratic candidate that emerges from the pack.
And the sooner the better.
The best thing the Democrats could do is settle on a viable candidate as early as possible and begin to pound away on Trump. One on one. If too many people attack the fellow he might emerge with sympathy. That would be annoying.
(Fortunately, Trump doesn't know what to do with sympathy. He's a winner, damn it!)
Perhaps the candidates could collude to limit the field. At the very least they need to fight relentlessly positive campaigns during the primaries. Present themselves to the people and let the process do the work of winnowing.
Keep the focus on Trump right up to the national election. Assuming he's not in prison by then.
It's like the opposite of 2016, where Hillary Clinton was the presumed candidate from the git-go. (Sorry, Bernie.)
This time Hillary is not running, and that might turn out to be bad news for Donald Trump. In 2016 he campaigned against the woman, using her political baggage (Bill and other items) to demonize her. There's a good chance her presence in the race put him over the top.
This time the only thing he has going for him is that he's the incumbent, which often works in a candidate's favor. Unless he's really a horrible president.
The problem for Democrats is, a very large number of Trump voters simply cannot detect that the man is as horrible as he is.
One of Trump's biggest supporters is Donald Trump. The man thinks he's doing A+ work as president, and can't imagine anyone in the country who wouldn't see the same thing. Based on this, reelection should be a lock.
Trump knows that politics is the only reason anyone complains about him and his excellent performance. What he doesn't get is that opposition to him is based on who he is and what he does (or wants to do).
On the other hand, politics IS the reason he gets a lot of his support. Many Republicans feel stuck with Trump. They don't much like him, but they can't do anything about it. Not now, anyway. Maybe in 2024.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is coming on strong. But he has two problems: every damn day the man gets older, plus he may find it impossible to win a national election for religious reasons.
You may recall leaked emails that had Hillary's folks speculating about Bernie, about the fact he's Jewish. And worse, that he might be an atheist.
Will Americans at large vote such a guy into the presidency? Pretty sure it would be the first time, if they do.
In the meantime, a lot of his ideas from 2016 have gone mainstream among Democratic candidates. And they seem to find favor with a lot of voters, too. Turns out, you don't need Bernie to get Bernie's platform.
Maybe that's his ultimate contribution. That and enthusiastic campaigning for whatever Democratic candidate that emerges from the pack.
And the sooner the better.
The best thing the Democrats could do is settle on a viable candidate as early as possible and begin to pound away on Trump. One on one. If too many people attack the fellow he might emerge with sympathy. That would be annoying.
(Fortunately, Trump doesn't know what to do with sympathy. He's a winner, damn it!)
Perhaps the candidates could collude to limit the field. At the very least they need to fight relentlessly positive campaigns during the primaries. Present themselves to the people and let the process do the work of winnowing.
Keep the focus on Trump right up to the national election. Assuming he's not in prison by then.
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