Barack Obama is busy working the private sector these days. Last week, he was in Las Vegas, speaking at an IT type convention. Nothing too terribly interesting was said, until he talked about the people’s perception of the government and their…energy towards doing their jobs. In effect, he said that there was a public misconception that government workers are lazy. He thinks this perception has more to do with how people get handled about standing in line at the DMV. I would say the perception might also stem from Trump spending all his time at golf resorts, and reports that he spends a good part of the day watching TV and Tweeting. I mean, he’s the President. He is literally the posterchild for the perception of the government. Obama lovingly assure the people that the government is full of hard working people, but people will have a hard time swallowing it, when the guy holding the highest office in the land is so publicly lazy.
Trump’s little weekend diatribes are beginning to be like a tradition. You can usually count on him to say something completely crazy before the weeks is out, whether he’s laying an extra layer of crazy on top of a crazy week, or on the off chance he managed to have a quiet week, he can sneak it a little crazy to make sure the week feels right. This week wasn’t too terribly off script. Lot’s of stuff about witch hunts, and him patting his back. He really wants us to know that it’s unfair that everyone is focused on his potential treason when he wants to take credit for questionable unemployment statistics. But the weird thing that really caught my eye was when he suggested all the “Young and Beautiful” peoples’ lives being destroyed over the investigation. To which I and any reasonable person would ask…which young and beautiful people are having their lives even affected over this investigation, much less devastated and destroyed? I’ve been racking my brain over this for hours, and I can’t think of who he might be referring to. That is unless he for some reason thinks his is the young and beautiful life being devastated. But that would be crazy, right?
Donald Trump seems very concerned about a spy that was in his campaign. He is spending a great deal of time ranting and raving about it, and trying to push for an investigation into the claim. But the problem is that so far, he’s unable to produce any evidence of the claim. Sure we know that the FBI may have asked an informant to question some people in the campaign regarding the Russia matters, but if that’s what he means by a spy, then anyone who ever asked someone to ask another person a question is also a spy. It’s apples and oranges. I mean, I would perhaps give the benefit of the doubt that maybe there is more to this than meets the eye, if during the secretive meeting regarding this that several congressional leaders attended, one of them came out and said they thought the President was on to something, but even the people who are supposed to be on Trump’s side seem to think Trump is off his rocker on this. Either he’s crazy, or he’s trying to further divide people by creating a fake conspiracy, but who would do that, right?
So a sinkhole opened up on the White House lawn. I originally didn’t even read the first article I saw about it, because I thought it was a satire article. Like, it’s such a symbolic thing to happen, and I just assumed it couldn’t be real. Then ABC and NBC and literally every news outlet reported on it and I realized that life has just taken to delivering real life punchlines now. Worse than that, it’s been said that the sinkhole was caused by “Swampy conditions.” SERIOUSLY!? I didn’t even have to write that! It was just there! The person who said truth is stranger than fiction couldn’t even fathom this level of irony and inherent comedic value. The only thing missing from the story was people reporting seeing lava or demons in the sinkhole.
Lesley Stahl is a veteran correspondent for the stalwart and dependable news hour “60 Minutes”. It’s hard to argue the trustworthiness of 60 Minutes and their retinue, because they’ve been so reliable in their integrity for like half a century. So when Ms. Stahl told people at a press awards dinner that Trump personally told her that he bashes the Press for the sole purpose of keeping people from believing the bad press about him, I’m pretty inclined to believe her. But she finds herself in a bit of a catch-22 with this story. If you believe Trump, she’s just another lying journalist lying about making them seem like liars. It’s paradoxical at it’s best, and it’s emblematic of the state of the first estate. Is this what the “post-truth” era looks like?
So, a few days ago, Rudy Giuliani came out and told everyone that Mueller was planning to wrap up his investigation by September 1. And most people, upon hearing that, probably thought “well that’s horsesh*%”. It just didn’t seem credible. But up until that point, Giuliani hadn’t really had a problem with lying. If anything, his issue was that he was probably a little too truthful. He couldn’t keep things under wraps. So it was a troubling statement to say the least. Of course now sources are coming out saying that it was a total fabrication, and it leaves me wondering what changed for Rudy to come out and play this tactic, which most think was just a ploy to put pressure on the investigation. I dunno. I think Rudy just may be a little short on the uptake.
Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State gave commencement speech at the Virginia Military Institute. During his speech…well he basically laid into his former boss about integrity and ethics. He talked about the importance of Truth to freedom and how accepting “alternative realities” as the truth means America loses it’s value as a nation. It was a startlingly poignant speech. I mean, obviously, he didn’t name drop Donald Trump, but it’s hard to say that wasn’t his primary target when he talks about the leadership of the country. Still, Trump would still probably insist Rex was talking about the Democrats.
Trump’s slogans have always been about America being number one. Make it great again! America First! American’s and their jobs should be our first priority! So it came as a bit of a shock this week when Trump told us that he thought some jobs for a Chinese telecom corporation was pretty important to him too. A Chinese company. As in the country that, according to him is basically the economic devil he has sworn to defeat. Could it be that Trump, realizing his nationalistic approach to politics may have been ill-informed? Maybe, but I would bet money that the half a billion dollars that the Chinese government is investing to fund a project with the Trump brand on it Indonesia had a bit of sway on that decision. It’s important to remember that the company Trump has directed our government to help, was deemed a military and intelligence risk as it’s a company that could track service members because they are the biggest telecom company in China, and was fined $1.2 billion for violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Nothing shady there.
Mind the Exit 