The Trump camp had to fire one of their speechwriters, Darren Beattie, last week because apparently he’d been speaking at White Supremacist rallies. Now this left me asking a very honest yet surreal question: Since when has Donald Trump used a SPEECHWRITER? I mean, I know there have been a few occasions where the words Trump spoke weren’t words that he immediately blasted off from the top of his head, but certainly not full speeches worth, and most of the time, when Trump gives a “speech” he’s just bullhorning his campaign points. He talks about Mexico being criminals, his wall, bad trade and the fake news. Then when he forgets something he’ll talk about the election until he remembers what he was originally on about. It’s a pretty well established pattern at this point. The idea that someone has actually written down those half conscious ramblings is mystifying! At this point, Trump can probably give a Rally speech in his sleep. In fact, I imagine he probably does. The way I see it, if you’re gonna fire a speechwriter for Trump, I’d figure the reason would be because the position was unnecessary.
Ex-CIA director John Brennan went on Rachel Maddow a few nights ago to call out Donald Trump in regards to his revoked security clearance. Some people might say that Brennan is just chewing on sour grapes, but however you choose to characterize a 25-year veteran of the intelligence community, his labeling of Trump as “Drunk with power”, while cliché, feels pretty apt. To call Trump’s behavior erratic and lacking forethought feels like an understatement. He’s all prone to angry outbursts and nonsensical diatribes. For a man who prides himself on having never consumed alcohol or taken drugs, he sure acts like he’s under the influence on a near constant basis. Maybe power really has intoxicated the President. Or he’s a incompetent, bigoted, half wit with zero common sense. But at this point, what’s the difference, really?
What a day yesterday was for the grand scale of the office of the President. You know, I was certain that the biggest news of the day was certainly going to be the conviction of Paul Manafort. After days of deliberation, Trump was starting to brag that this just showed the indecision, and what he saw as a likely acquittal was just more “proof” of a witchhunt. Then the jury came back with “guilty” verdicts and….you know what, don’t care. Not the biggest news of the day! It’s important, but I feel like it was only moments later that the big fish fell on deck: Michael Cohen, Fixer extraordinaire and Ex-Trump attorney, pled guilty to eight total counts, including five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and another count of “willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution” — as well as a count of “excessive campaign contribution.” If you get the chance, I recommend reading the case file. At 22 pages, it’s pretty illuminating, especially the parts that pertain to work Cohen did for “Individual-1”. Now, one would, rightly, assume that Individual-1 is Donald Trump. I mean, if you’re looking for hints, there is a big one in that Individual-1 “had become President of the United States” according to paragraph 2. But how Trump-like would it be for Trump to claim that Individual-1 could be anyone! That the fact that he wasn’t addressed by name is absolute proof of his innocence! Witch hunt!
I guess Trump is cancelling his grand military parade because, at it turns out, to create the parade he wanted, it would run about $92 million! $92 MILLION. If that number doesn’t raise your blood pressure a few points, it should be noted that that number is about $80 million over budget. And that’s not hyperbole. That’s about 766% over the expected budget. And it leaves me once again with the question, who the hell was this parade for? I mean, what was the purpose? Listen, I appreciate the troops as much as the next guy, but sending our tanks and missiles down Pennsylvania Ave. doesn’t make me think of our troops. It makes me think Trump is proud of our guns. And the reality is, I think that’s more of the point. As much as Trump wants us to believe this was about troop morale, I think it’s more akin to Trump really wanting to show off the nation’s firepower. Because we all know what people say about the size of one’s guns…that’s it’s reflective of the size of their insecurity.
Peter Strzok is a recently fired FBI agent who was accused of having a political opinion that didn’t favor the current administration. That accusation is pretty obviously true, if not when the accusation surfaced, then definitely now, as that served as the reason for his job termination. In the wake of that, his friends and family created a highly publicized GoFundMe page to help Strzok in terms of his mounting legal fees and lost income. GoFundMe is a crowdsourced funding site. Basically, you can donate to causes and projects that tickle your fancy. Well apparently rather a lot of people were on board with Strzok, as in less than a day, he blasted past his $250,000 goal, and started closing in on double that amount. When all is said and done, Strzok could walk away with a pretty hefty payday for the sole reason of people thinking he was unjustly terminated. And that HAS to piss Donald Trump right the hell off. Think about it. Donald Trump has put no small amount of energy into tarnishing Peter Strzok’s name and reputation. And he did it because this guy who he feels owed him personal loyalty, didn’t like him. And if there is one thing that Donald Trump hates, it’s the idea that people don’t like him. So the notion that not only are people taking Strzok’s side in this thing, but are actively making sure he’s financially taken care of HAS to stick in Trump’s craw. But I also want to believe that Trump sees this and undoubtedly thinks he could do it better, and raise WAY more money.
Omarosa’s departure from the West Wing may have caused a bit of a diversity problem at the White House. Talking about Omarosa’s book on ABC, when asked by Jonathan Carl who the most prominent black staff member in the West Wing is, Kellyanne Conway struggled to come up with an answer. When she did answer, it was with Ben Carson, a person who by all measures is not a West Wing staffer, and Ja’Ron, an employee of Melania. Now, I’m not sure if she just happens to be uninformed of the general staff of the West Wing or if this is an indication of the lack of diversity floating around the White House, but it’s not a good look for the White House for anyone who isn’t part of the Trump base.
Rumors started circulating a few months back that Donald Trump had made his West Wing staff sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) regarding their work and what they see and hear during their time in the White House. Now, in business settings, NDAs are pretty common practice. Companies have proprietary practices, programs and Tech, and in general lots of things they expect to not have to tell the general public. But as it turns out, you can’t really do stuff like that for government work. Other than stuff that is specifically designated as classified, the public nature and expectation of transparency in public work is paramount in democratic settings. A few days ago, Kellyanne Conway confirmed that everyone in the West Wing was told to sign an NDA, and the question a lot of people were asking was “why?” And not just because it seems sketchy, but because, as many experts have begun pointing out, they are virtually unenforceable. NDAs are corporate instruments, and can’t be used to bar information that is legally available to the public. Freedom of information is literally a law we have when it comes to the government. I can only imagine what it is Trump doesn’t want people talking about.
Sunday’s utterly distasteful “Unite the Right” rally, meant to celebrate the anniversary of what most would consider the tragedy of the events in Charlottesville, was a big fat failure in every respect. First of all, the turnout…well it was actually pretty good for the protestors who came to shame the people throwing the rally. Thousands showed up to let the White Supremacists in charge know how they felt. Unfortunately, the turn out for the actual rally part was rather impotent. I think at last count there were 12 people who ultimately showed up? So much for solidarity. For the millions of people concerned about the rise of this alt-right, neo-Nazi, white radical ideology, the lack of traction of this event should perk you up a bit. Indeed, the fact that thousands of people came out to make their voice heard against this kind of hatred and bigotry maybe shows that our country isn’t too lost after all. We may need to make our voices better well heard, but we still have the numbers. And I have to believe this event sticks somewhere in Trump’s craw. Because whether he’s willing to admit it, this is the voice of his base that’s floundered. While he probably would never openly endorse the success of such a rally, I believe Trump was hoping at least in part that this “Unite the White” event, held out in front of the White House, would have showed the power behind his message and his base. And the fact that it made that group look so small and ineffectual hopefully gives Trump a picosecond of pause regarding his message.
On the same day that Donald Trump condemned racism and violence for the anniversary of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Trump also called his ex advisor, and “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa a “low life.” To me that brings up a whole host of issues. First, it’s important to remember why Trump attacked Omarosa. She of course, among many other claims, has suggested there are recordings of Trump rather frivolously using the n-word. Also (and this may just be reading too much into things, I’ll freely admit that), but the term Trump used to denigrate Omarosa, “low life”, feels a little dog whistle-y. In my defense, when Trump goes for character assassination, he usually finds a childish way to call someone dumb, corrupt or a liar. But “Low life” feels like a term used to describe someone you think is a low class street thug. Again, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but regardless, the whole thing makes Trump’s condemnation of violence and racism ring hollow. But frankly, I feel like Trump’s statements when talking about racism, violence and unity usually do.
Oh goodness, Space Force is still a thing. Initially it was a stupid joke made by Trump. But as with most things that come out of his mouth, upon his own further reflection, he decided it was actually a stroke of genius. Despite being told by his generals that this was a colossal waste of time and money, Trump apparently kept pushing, assigned the task of assembling the Space Force to disinterested high ranking military officers and now, Mike Pence announced that they are aiming to have an operational branch of the military by 2020. What’s more, Pence is talking about having a Special Forces unit to…do what exactly? Ransack a space station? He then went on this ominous sounding rant about making peace through strength, and having the US rule over space with strength…it all sounds a little like the Empire in Star Wars to me, which the more I think about, the more sense that interpretation starts to make.
Mind the Exit 