With the amazing fiasco that was the Ronny Jackson nomination, the question of who Trump is going to nominate next is floating in the air. Will he take some time to make a more deliberate decision as opposed to offering it as thanks for a questionable medical evaluation, or will he just offer it to the last guy he talked to? I know more than a few news outlets are concerned that he’s basically just offering jobs to anyone who wants them, and that’s pretty clearly not the most effective way to ensure the best people are getting put into the right cabinet positions. But don’t let that worry you, because Trump still wants you to know he only suggests the best people!
So Trump called Kim Jong Un “honorable”, and…well let’s just say it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I mean, I kind of understand where Trump is coming from on this. He’s acknowledging that Kim has given the appearance of openness and open-mindedness preceding talks between world leaders, and that is not a bad thing, but to call him “honorable” feels like a total slap in the face to everyone who opposes him and to everyone under his tyrannical thumb. Seriously, North Korea is on the constant verge of starvation, citizens have very few rights, they’re encouraged to spy everyone around them, which no doubt makes trust impossible. They have gulags and re-education facilities that are basically torture factories, and at the tippy top of that pyramid is Kim Jong Un, a man who never had to work for anything, is pampered and treated basically like a god. “Honorable” is not a word that feels appropriate sitting anywhere near Kim Jong Un.
I wonder if it’s ever going to be too much for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, aka The Huck. I mean, the questions she’s forced to contend with are genuinely unlike anything any other press secretary has had to deal with. I imagine even Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary after the Lewinsky scandal broke wasn’t as bad, because at least in that case, the number of terrible things that were being discussed were limited to one. With Trump, it’s any number of 50 things. This week it’s what Trump meant when he suggested the so-called sanctuary cities as “breeding concepts” . Because obviously there is a racially charged connotation if he was suggesting that said cities were breeding grounds for the Hispanic community. And stuff like this feels almost day to day, where the Huck is out tap-dancing around Trump’s words, and trying to deflect by calling everyone else racist for suggesting Trump meant something racist. There has to be a breaking point, yeah?
Jeff Sessions is not recusing himself from the Michael Cohen fiasco, because of course he isn’t. While many might say there is no distinction between the Cohen investigation and the Russia Investigation, I think it’s fair to categorize them mostly differently. Though I get the feeling that Sessions isn’t thinking so above the board in his reasoning. I’m pretty sure he’s just looking to keep his job. I think everyone realizes that if he had recused himself from yet another investigation that centers around his boss, that he’d be fired so hard and so quick that all that would be left are Session’s Keebler elf ears. Is there a conflict of interest when it comes to being objective about a legal investigation of the man who can fire you?
So the DNC is launching a big new lawsuit against Russia, Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks. It’s a great big mess of a lawsuit, and frankly, I have to wonder what will actually be uncovered through this, though they seem to have a sympathetic judge in their corner, a judge who has history prosecuting the whole Watergate debacle oh so long ago. Trump’s grand plan to deal with this situation? Counter sue! Of course. It’s like his kneejerk reaction. Though the stuff he claims he wants to uncover…doesn’t make sense. Like the server he claims the DNC refused to give to the FBI, which is nonsense, because the DNC didn’t refuse cooperation with the Feds. The whole thing is weird. But for me and my money, my question is….who does he expect to litigate this case for him? Again, the dude can’t find a lawyer, and for a case that’s even less likely to yield a positive outcome, I can’t imagine he’ll have a ton of lawyers chomping at the bit.
Here’s the thing about Hannity and Cohen: I’m having trouble getting too upset about it. Sure, it’s weird that Hannity would use Cohen, considering what his “legal” expertise and practice was used for, and I’d be willing to bet Hannity has some things he’d rather not have disclosed publically, but I really just don’t care much in terms of the ethics of it. Both because I don’t think much of Sean Hannity’s ethics anyway, but also because I can’t apply journalistic standards of ethics to Hannity, as I don’t consider him a journalist. I don’t think many people do. He’s a TV personality that occasionally brings up things in the news, but he doesn’t report things. He editorializes and gives a narrative about it. Usually a scumbaggy narrative that involves slander and defamation. Regardless, it would be like if Jon Stewart and Barack Obama had the same personal attorney when Obama was in office. Sure, some conservatives would probably wanna cry about it, but as Steward himself has said time and again, he’s an entertainer, not a journalist.
I don’t personally know Trump’s plan for re-election, but I suspect, based on all his campaigning that he plans to run again, like literally every first term president before him. But who knows? Maybe it is as the Washington Post suggests and perhaps he is considering calling it the quits after his first term. Or least he might have been if the Washington Post didn’t post said article literally titled “Its Becoming Clear that Trump Won’t Run in 2020”. Even if there was a momentary flash in his weird brain where Trump might have considered the possibility of not running for a second term, it was immediately squashed when his least favorite newspaper owned by his least favorite billionaire ran an opinion piece that I can see totally putting Gas in Trump’s engine. If he does run in 2020, I’m not going to say it’s the Washington Post’s fault, but I’m not going to NOT say it.
So some news outlets are reporting that Ex-White House staffers are having trouble getting work. Now, some claims I can see being an issue. Trump’s unpopularity is not something that looks good on a resume, and associating that reputation with a new workplace is apparently deterring some potential employers. Some of it I find rather unfortunate. Apparently some employers question the judgment of a person who was willing to work under someone like Trump, which might be a bit unfair.
So Michael Cohen may prove to be quite a thorn in the President’s side. The fact of the matter is that Cohen has been seen as Trump’s “fixer” for about 20 years now, and what he might know, and what he has probably done in the name of protecting Trump…I mean we can’t even begin to guess. Trump will admit he was no boyscout, and in the process of trying to figure out how Cohen relates to the bigger picture of Trump and Russia, the rabbit hole of questionable or illegal activity…well it could be damning. Trump has to be sweating over this pretty hard.
Mind the Exit 