These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration this week. All the things on this list should be the lynchpin for investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead we have to keep living in this cesspool of never-ending incompetent jackassery coming from our Primate-in-Chief.
A quick Google search will give you plenty of news options on all of these stories. The ranking is purely on me. Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.
On with the countdown!
20 - Michael Cohen has decided to plead the 5th in regards to the Stormy Daniels case against him, citing other investigations into him, and the potential of self incrimination. A judge also told Cohen a special watchdog would be appointed to handle the client files seized by the FBI, which garnered an interesting response from Trump. Through his lawyers, Trump has said he will, as President, make himself personally "open and available" to review the evidence seized during the raid. This should set off alarm bells for everyone. What exactly are in those files? (4/25)
19 - Trump quizzically ended a tweet ripping on former FBI Director James Comey with the weird sentence "Remember sailor!" No one seems to have any idea what the heck he means by this. (4/27)
18 - National Security Advisor John Bolton seems to be implying we should sabotage the North Korean/South Korean denuclearization talks by insisting the North Koreans be held to the 'Libyan model' of de-escalation. That method led to the eventual death of Libyan leader Mummer Gaddafi, hence it'd likely be dismissed by North Korea as a viable option. Everyone knows North Korea would not go for the 'Libyan model,' so why would Bolton even suggest it? (4/29)
17 - Remember when all the Republicans were throwing fits at the idea of Administration members using their own technology for official business? I sure do! Trump apparently uses his personal cell phone constantly to call outside advisers. He does so to avoid Chief of Staff John Kelly from finding out who he's talking to. (4/23)
16 - The Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos still has yet to visit a lower income public school in America, even after the TV show 60 Minutes, in March, exposed her lapse in visiting one. In Detroit, she was asked if she had followed through, and if she had any plans to visit a Detroit lower income public school, some of which were within walking distance of her location in Detroit. She stated no visits were planned, and the minute reporters started asking follow up questions, her staff ended the open forum, whisking her away. (4/28)
15 - Another Trump official is spending US taxpayer dollars like there's no tomorrow. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has spent a million dollars renovating his two offices with lavish and unnecessary grander. When asked about it, he laughably blamed former President Obama. This places the amount of tax payer dollars wasted by Trump Administration officials at well over 3 million, that we know of. This doesn't include any money spent as Trump golfs his own private golf courses, at taxpayer expense, something he's done for a third of his term. (4/24)
14 - According to a senior official, Defense Secretary James Mattis feels as if it's his job to "limit Trump's options," so much so it "verged on insubordination." "Mattis perceives his role as...'babysitter' to the President." It seems he adopted this stance after it became clear to Trump's National Security team that Trump was always in favor of the most belligerent and drastic action available to him. Mattis compared it to a flawed 'Goldilocks problem.' In Goldilocks the moral is to avoid the "too cold" or "too hot" option, and go for the choice which is "just right." Trump would often avoid the "just right" option, and immediately choose "too hot." (4/23)
13 - Trump tweets out an unforgivable racist comment. Clearly implying Mexicans and Latinos, most of whom are US citizens, Trump screams about how "Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept." We should acknowledge the racist tone in the term "crime infested,' but moving past that one, "BREEDING"??? Seriously, the President referenced certain America ethnic groups with the same term used for animal husbandry programs. (4/24)
12 - Trump in Michigan seems to be going against a lot of his campaign promises, or trying to change them to the complete opposite of what he promised. Claiming unemployment has been solved in America, and has now said he plans on welcoming in low skill guest workers back into the country. The line is met with tepid enthusiasm from the far right crowd. This is obviously a sign his immigrant crackdown has made farming far more difficult and expensive in America, so he's throwing this option out to try to calm down his farming base. He also seems to have given up on the tentpole of his Presidential Campaign, Mexico paying for the border wall. He now says if the Republican Congress doesn't completely fund his border wall, he'll shut the government down. (4/28)
11 - Trump's personal doctor Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson is a mess. Trump's nominee to run the Veterans Affairs Administration was called "the Candyman" because of his liberal handing out of drugs to White House staffers. He's accused of day drinking, which might explain his bizarre 'Trump weighs 239' press conference. He's accused of getting into a unprofessional power struggle with a rival physician. He allegedly was drunk and hammering on the hotel door of one of his female employees, so loud he almost woke up the President who was in a neighboring suite. Even with all of these allegations, most of which are coming directly from the military, he says he's going to continue to pursue the Secretary position. (4/24)
10 - The Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released their report on Trump and Russia, and (shock) they cleared him of any wrong doing...or did they. Where they do throw the entire US Intelligence Community under the bus, blaming them for believing the evidence in front of them, they claim Trump did nothing wrong, until you read the following: "they did find poor judgment and ill-considered actions by the Trump...campaign." They go onto to admonish Trump for trying to get in touch with Russians tied to the Kremlin, and with Wikileaks, an organization who they themselves admit worked with the Russians to interfere in 2016. To recap: outside of the collusion like activity, Republicans found no evidence of collusion. Once again, these guys are trying to help Trump...(4/27)
9 - Not only is Trump taking credit for the Korean peninsula talks, he, and many Republicans are calling for him to awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for it. One slight problem: Trump's only contribution was being more unstable and irrational than North Korean President Kim Jung-Un. After Trump looked like a loon ball for the first 14 month of his term, North Korea and South Korea started talking during, and after, the Olympic games. China got involved and outside of one very brief meeting between a pre-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Jung-Un, the US has done nothing else. There are no reports of Trump or any other senior Administration official directly communicating with Jung-Un during these peace negotiations (outside of the aforementioned brief Pompeo visit). This entire process hasn't been done with Trump, rather in spite of him. If that's the standard, then I'm more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize for the Korean Peninsula talks. (4/29)
7 - Trump tells the ceremony honoring the US Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the White House that he tried to watch the Paralympics. Trump said "it's a little tough to watch too much" of the Paralympic athletes. (4/27)
6 - After continued lying over and over again, EPA Director Scott Pruitt admitted to the House that he gave his Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson the order to use a special loophole in the Safe Water Drinking Act to give raises to two of his buddies from Oklahoma whom he hired at the EPA, this after the White House turned down the request for the raises. Even after he's been caught lying repeatedly on this, numerous Republicans on the House Committee jumped up to defend his honor. These would be the same people who kept pushing for investigations into Hillary Clinton because they insisted they were only trying to weed out any lies told to the American people. (4/26)
5 - The case of Ronny Jackson keeps getting weirder. First, it's clear no one in the White House vetted Jackson before Trump put him up to be his nominee to run the Veterans Affairs Administration. There has been revelation after revelation, the latest including giving a substantial supply of Percocet to a military staff member, and getting into a car accident with a government vehicle, allegedly drunk. His nomination has creating a wide fissure in the White House, with one Administration official stating "it's an absolute fiasco." Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed Jackson was a fine candidate. Soon after the latest string of allegations, Jackson withdrew his name from consideration (4/25)
4 - The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower in 2016, Natalia Veselnitskaya has admitted she really isn't just a private lawyer, but actually has close ties to the Kremlin. She's been working with Russia's top legal office against the US Justice Department for years, and even bragged about her work with the office of the Russian Prosecutor General when confronted by NBC News. Basically, she admitted she's a spy. The Trump Tower meeting was officially with a Russian agent. (4/27)
3 - In one of the more brazen admissions ever, Mick Mulvaney the interim Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking executives they needed to 'pay to play.' "If you're a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you." After getting caught, a spokesperson stated "He was making the point that hearing from people back home is vital to our democratic process..." HAHAHA! (4/25)
2 - While at his rally competing with the White House Corespondents Dinner in Michigan, Trump welcomed former disgraced Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to the stage. At a moment he must have thought he was off camera, Lewandowski flashed the modified 'okay' sign with both hands, a symbol of white power, a hand gesture racists have often bragged is code for white power. Lewandowski was on stage, standing ten feet from Trump, flashing white power hand gestures to someone in the audience. (4/28)
1 - Trump decided to call into the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends for what, AT BEST, can be described as a train wreck interview. He said he called because he thought this would be a nice birthday gift for his wife, Melania (???), before admitting he got his wife (a woman who has had to deal with multiple revelations of her husband's chronic infidelity) nothing more than a card. He attacked Senate Democrats, implying they were behind Ronny Jackson withdrawing his name from consideration to be the head of the Veterans Affairs Administration, this after many questionable incidents of Jackson came to light. Trump admitted he lied about staying in Moscow at the time of the alleged urine tape. Trump claimed Cohen did represent him in "this crazy Stormy Daniels deal," but he added Cohen wasn't really his lawyer, more of a private businessman who rarely did legal work for Trump (a public claim which could go a LONG way to removing attorney client privledge on documents seized by the FBI from Cohen's office). Trump then went on a rant against his Department of Justice and how they were against him (at which point Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy reminded him it was HIS DOJ). Trump repeatedly bragged about his electoral college victory (from a year and a half ago), claimed no one talked about the Republican special election victory in Arizona which went from a 21 point district to a 5 (something EVERY news outlet covered), says the path for Republicans to win African American votes is by reminding them of the Civil War (a man who only won 8% of the African American vote is offering advice on how to appeal the that voting block?), and he gave himself an A+ rating on his presidency. It finished up with the hosts, realizing Trump was destroying himself, cutting the interview short (think about that for a second), and one of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade, actually advising Trump to stop watching so much cable news. WOW! For the record, US Attorney's are already using his claims about his relationship to Cohen to remove attorney client privilege on Cohen's seized files, two hours after the interview. (4/26)
Someone asked why somethings get two spots on the countdown, while other big events only get one, such as the case with the Ronny Jackson showing up twice this week (#11 and #5) while the Fox News interview, which was far bigger a story, only got one spot (#1). A lot has to do with the timeline. Ronny Jackson unfolded over a few days, while the Fox News interview was a one time, 30 minute meat morsel of narcissistic, confused stupidity. That's the main reason for why I do or don't split them up.
Remember #2018isEverything! Already seeing suspicious social media accounts trying to start laying the 'Democrats need to turn on Democrats' narrative. Don't believe it. Vote Democrat in November and let's start cleaning this mess up! Get registered, get four of your friends registered, and make everyone pledge to vote in 2018!
Wouldn't the country be better served if the President offered solutions instead of ultimatums. Here's one idea. I'd like to float an idea to help the DACA recipients and immigrants who want to enter the US legally. What if there was a program where they contracted to work a year in Puerto Rico to help rebuild the island. They could receive housing and a fair wage as well as qualify for a path to citizenship. They would speak Spanish which is helpful and meet the merit based system Republicans want. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThanks for cutting through the confusion and putting the week's highlights together. At some point, when this nightmarish administration is just a putrid, steaming speck in the rear-view mirror, a compilation of your blog combined with those of others who are keeping similar lists could make one heck of an amusing (again, only possible in hindsight) and incredible (as in totally appalling and unbelievable that it could ever have happened) story.
ReplyDelete