There’s been a “hot mess” this past month in Washington D.C.
One can expect stinky goings-on when a sleazeball is elected to office, and that’s what’s happening now…in spades. Nary a day goes by without word of another scandal, someone cutting a deal with prosecutors, another henchman getting sentenced to prison, etc.
Donald Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, the guy who has “fixed” his bosses legal and personal peccadilloes for many years, has evidently turned on The Donald. Michael Cohen, the guy who paid hush money to Trump’s girlfriends so that the salacious frolicking was kept hidden for the 2016 election, has now dropped a dime on his ex-boss.
This is significant, because the act constitutes a Federal elections crime. Cohen says that Trump knew all about it.
What is more significant is that Mr. Cohen knows many secrets about President Trump, and he appears to be plea bargaining with those assets.
According to Trump (who is an expert at this), Cohen is lying.
Another of the President’s closest buddies, ex-Trump for President Campaign Director Paul Manafort, ran into Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s legal buzzsaw this past week. Manafort was convicted of eight counts of banking and tax fraud. He faces quite a few years in prison for these misdeeds.
Unfortunately for Manafort, he also faces two more trials…the real serious ones…on charges that he and his cronies in the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to sway the 2016 election.
“Never happened”, says the President. Unfortunately for him, his two sons have publicly contradicted him.
No wonder the Special Prosecutor is sniffing around.
As the charges and convictions mount, there will be increasing pressure on Paul Manafort to cut a deal with prosecutors. President Trump is feeling the pressure…
The whole Trump family is sweating out the so-called “witch hunt”.
Yesterday, the CFO of the Trump Organization (i.e. the Trump family business), Allen Weisselberg, was granted immunity by the Special Prosecutor for his testimony in the Cohen hush money scandal. Weisselberg testified that he authorized Trump money to reimburse Cohen for his costs in bribing two women not to blow the whistle on Trump’s extramarital affairs. Weisselberg is one of Trump’s closest partners; his history with the Trump family goes all the way back to Fred Trump, Donald’s father.
In another matter relating to Trump’s affairs and the 2016 election, David Pecker, the Chairman of American Media, Inc. (the publisher of the National Enquirer), testified that he bought, and “killed”, stories of infidelity that would have harmed Trump’s candidacy. For many years, Pecker has been one of the President’s closest political allies.
What do you expect from a guy named Pecker?
In the coming months, we can expect more revelations, as once-dutiful and -loyal Trump associates begin to hear Special Prosecutor Mueller’s footsteps. The floodgates appear to be opening…
As we all remember, candidate Trump promised that he would hire “only the best people” to work in his Administration.
Curiously, one of the first people he hired was Omarosa Manigault Newman…a lady that Trump had fired three times on his Apprentice television reality shows.
Evidently, this three-time loser was just the right person to serve as Assistant to the President and Director of Communications of the Office of Public Liaison (whatever that is!). She was the right hire because she was an African American…the only one in Trump’s White House. (“See how diverse we are!”)
Predictably, President Trump fired her, for a fourth time.
And, then, just as predictably, hothead Omarosa wrote a “tell all” book about her short stint within the Administration. When the Mr. Trump publicly called her a “dog”, Mrs. Manigault-Newman produced audiotape of conversations from the Situation Room in the White House…and promised to have more of them. OMG, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.
President Trump absolutely hates news that doesn’t put him in a good light, and he hates the people who publish negative stories. And, he despises reporters who won’t put a positive spin on fake information that he quotes from Fox News broadcasts, the National Enquirer, or Neo-Nazi websites.
(BTW, if a “news” show opens up its broadcast with a “monologue”, isn’t the show really an Op-Ed opinion piece? It seems to me that virtually all of the Fox News output consists of talking heads giving their opinions on a range of topics. Where is the actual “news”? Answer: It’s not real, it’s entertainment/propaganda. In a word, it’s fake news.)
The President has begun to call mainstream reporters “the enemy of the people”, and some of them have been barred from White House press briefings. So much for Freedom of the Press.
The thin-skinned President, who also has a habit of disparaging the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., recently threw a tantrum when he was criticized by former C.I.A. Director John Brennan regarding the summit meeting with Russian President Putin. In response, Trump revoked Brennan’s Top Secret security clearance, which is quite unprecedented. Our cadre of ex-intelligence officials is a valuable resource, and it is short-sighted to summarily dismiss those with a different opinion.
Then, again, the only opinion that matters to narcissist Donald Trump is his own.
Publicly criticizing, smearing, and libeling politicians and public officials was a sport that Donald Trump excelled in before he became President. It was great fun to claim that Barack Obama was not born in America, that our military leadership was “stupid”, that our trade deals were “giveaways”, and that Hillary Clinton was a “crook”. The guy could really dish it out.
But, he sure can’t take it, now that it’s his turn in the spotlight, and he, his family, and close associates are being publicly chastised as crooks, cheats, and traitors.
“Lock ’em up!”
Almost all of President Trump’s legal and public relations problems are self-generated. He likes to hear himself talk, and he spews out whatever comes to mind…unfiltered. And, he lies a lot.
President Trump is a Special Prosecutor’s wet dream.
In other news, Cadet Bone Spurs’ proposed Grand Military Parade, which he championed earlier this year, isn’t going to happen anytime soon. It was an event that no one besides the President had any stomach for, particularly given the stench of the hot mess in Washington D.C.
Predictably, Trump blamed Washington D.C. city politicians for the collapse of his bad idea: he claimed that they wanted to much Federal money to host the darned thing.
Wouldn’t you know it?…the President blamed the Black guys. That should play well with his political base.
Recall how furious the Prez becomes when someone repudiates him or fails to back his bad ideas?
Senator John McCain is one of the few elected Republicans who has has the moral conviction and intestinal fortitude to stand up to Donald Trump. Serving his country to the bitter end, McCain died of brain cancer this past week.
Our petty/juvenile President then displayed his lack of maturity and judgement by ordering the White House flag flown at half-mast for …ONE DAY (instead of the typical seven days).
Message sent to the bereaved McCain family…and to anyone else who would dare to disagree with Emperor Trump.
If there actually was one patriotic American politician left in this country, it was Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican Presidential standard-bearer. He was a fighter pilot who was shot down, confined for seven years, and tortured by his North Vietnamese captors…before becoming the distinguished U.S. Senator from Arizona. He shed blood while underclassman Trump was chasing skirts in college, thanks to phony deferments.
Our President’s public, childish snub of a true American hero was not taken lightly by the Veterans of Foreign Wars…a key component of Trump’s political base. They were insulted and mad…and publicly dressed-down the Prez.
Cadet Bone Spurs immediately reversed himself and ordered the traditional one-week honor for patriot/Senator McCain.
Oops.
Our clueless, self-centered Commander in Chief just can’t get out of his own way. It’s no wonder why the idiot can’t get anyone to support his military parade: his idea of patriotism is having people salute him.
Way back in 1920, famed journalist H.L. Mencken predicted the election of a narcissistic fool like The Donald:
