The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 5/14/18

Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 5/14/18 to 5/20/18.

These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration for this week.  All the things on this list should be the catalyst for investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even (by my count of this weeks list) up to five impeachment charges.  Instead, Trump is starting to cosplay the role of an evil dictator while Congressional Republicans act like an absentee parent being forced to attend their kid's Science Fair.

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 - Hillary Clinton effectively trolled Trump, while keeping up with a Yale tradition of their commencement speakers wearing hats.  She wore a Russian hat, telling the students "If you can't beat them, join them."  She got a rousing ovation. (5/20)

19 - The BBC is trolling Trump with pictures of the Royal Wedding crowd size, which was massive, and comparing it to his paltry crowd size numbers for Trump's sparsely attended Inauguration.  (5/19)

18 - Trump decided to pass on attending the dedication ceremony for the new US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel, instead sending a contingency of Senior Administration officials, Trump/Republican bankrollers and Trump daughter and White House staffer doing...something (???), Ivanka Trump.  Trump's schedule for that day was listed as being completely wide open; there's literally nothing on his schedule for the day (something which should warrant it's own countdown position).  By the way, most Middle Eastern experts now say peace in the Middle East is impossible with Trump's embassy move.  58 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces at the border, as the dedication ceremony took place. (5/14)

17 - Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort's former son-in-law Jeffery Yohai has made a deal to cooperate on multiple criminal probes in regards to Robert Mueller's investigations.  It's believed Yohai will specifically be used to apply pressure to Manafort, who recently had another judge deny his attempt to have Mueller's charges against him dismissed.  (5/17)

16 - Congress is putting the breaks on Trump's attempt to privatize the International Space Station.  Trump wants to divert the money from the ISS to either getting the US to Mars, or getting the US back to the moon, without any additional NASA funds.  Congress has pointed out, since the US would still have to pay to send astronauts and supplies to the station, the savings would be so minimal (a few million at best) NASA wouldn't be able to fund any new major space programs.  Plus we'd be out one space station. (5/18)

15 - Trump misspells his wife Melania's name in a tweet.  He referred to her as Melanie.  A reminder:  Trump claimed his Administration would be the most detail oriented Administration, EVER! (5/19)

14 - Trump has asked the Postmaster General, Megan Brennan to double Amazon's shipping rates, because he hates the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.  Brennan has had to repeatedly tell Trump these are contracts which can't be broken, contracts which are subject to review by regulartorty commission, hence she can't do it, even if she wanted to. (5/18)

13 - In more bad news for American farmers, Bloomberg reports Chinese soybean orders from Russia have tripled as the Chinese are actively signing soybean delivery agreements with countries which are not the United States.  It's unclear what Trump and the Administration are trying to do to counter this war on our agricultural sector.  His chief Chinese trade negotiators, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Economic Advisor Peter Navaro are apparently fighting, having profanity laced screaming attacks with each other. (5/17)

12 - It's revealed Trump talks with Fox News host Sean Hannity almost daily, even multiple times a day, getting advice and railing against Trump and Hannity's perceived enemies.  Can you imagine the outrage right now if it was discovered President Obama was talking with Michael Moore or Keith Olbermann on a nightly basis about being President?  There'd be immediate hearings in Congress, with some vocal calls for impeachment. (5/15)

11 - The Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visits New York City and is still refusing to visit any public school.  The VAST majority of schools in this country are public schools and she still has yet to visit one.  She did visit two religious schools, and blasted the idea tax payer money couldn't be used for private religious school education. (5/19)

10 - Trump's trade war stare down with the Chinese has resulted in failure.  The Chinese are refusing to agree to Trump's demands for $200 billion in cuts to the Chinese/USA trade deficit, refusing to set specific figures.  They did say they plan on importing more American products, but insist it only has to do with their population growing, NOT any additional demand, and definitely not due to any threats from Trump.  The White House is claiming victory, but, with China calling their bluff, they've announced they're dropping the threats of tariffs against China, with no concessions to the US. (5/20)

9 - Prior to Trump negating the Iranian Nuclear Deal, our European allies sent him a five page condensed explanation of why it would be a HUGE mistake to negate the deal.  Apparently Trump never even bothered to read the 5 page document.  The US' European allies are furious with Trump's self imposed ignorance. (5/15)

8 - Donald Trump Jr. (Tweedle Dee) has been caught having met with foreign agents during the campaign to help his father secure victory.  He met with Saudi Arabian and UAE princes who had pledged to help Trump win, and he also met with a social media maniluption company, a company from Israel which specializes in online manipulation, using thousands of fake social media accounts.  The Israeli company is named Psy-Group, who's motto is "Shape Reality."  It's unsure the outcome of those meetings, but Psy-Group had taken the next step to consult with an American law firm about the legality of what they wanted to do in the US, implying they were given a 'go ahead' by Trump Jr. (5/19)

7 - Ruh-Roh! It seems Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince, the founder of military contractor Blackwater, has been caught lying under oath to the House Intelligence Committee.  Under oath, Prince had denied there was any contact between himself and the Trump campaign.  A New York Times article shows he did indeed, on August 3rd, 2016, facilitate high level meetings between Trump Jr./Trump Campaign and foreign agents.  Prince set up a meeting with the princes from Saudi Arabia and from the United Arab Emirates.  He also set up the meeting with the social media expert from Israel, who had Israeli government ties. (5/19)

6 - Sounding more like an evil dictator, Trump's demanding the DOJ investigate whether or not the FBI-DOJ infiltrated and surveilled the Trump Campaign, and if Obama was behind it.  What he's referring to is a report an FBI informant approached George Papadopoulos, a horribly incompetent member of the Trump team who blabbed to the Australians the Trump camp was aware of the Russians having the Hillary Clinton e-mails.  The approach seems to have been about determining if the Trump campaign had been compromised, but Trump, scared his BFF Roger Stone is looking to be the next guy charged in the Mueller investigation, is insisting this is proof his campaign (which won the election) was infiltrated.  He's just trying desperately to find some way to discredit and shut down the Mueller investigation. (5/20)

5 - Trump creates a masterpiece of stupidity in tweet form.  He claims the leaks from the White House are fake, created by the media to make him look bad.  IN THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE OF THE SAME TWEET, he calls leakers traitors and cowards and vows to find out who they are.  WOW! (5/14)

4 - It's clear now what the Trump Tower meeting was really about.  Senate investigators have confirmed Donald Trump Jr., in the June 2016 meeting, had asked for damaging information about Hillary Clinton, from a person he thought, and we now know, was connected to the Russian government.  Trump Jr. himself confirmed this to the Senate after witnesses stated the purpose of the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was for the sole purpose of getting damaging information against the Clinton campaign.  Veselnitskaya admitted to NBC News a few weeks back at the time she was indeed working for the Kremlin.  To recap, the Trump campaign and Trump Jr. met with a Russian agent, a self admitted agent of the Kremlin, to get dirt on Trump's campaign opponent in 2016.  Even though Jr. told the Senate he couldn't remember his father's knowledge of the meeting, at any other time in this country's history, with this revelation, this Administration would be finished. (5/16)

3 - A lot more shocking discoveries with the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's documents of the Trump Tower meeting, and the Trump/Russia investigations.  Trump Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has claimed publicly he wasn't interested in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, but we now find out he personally was livid when Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya didn't deliver the knockout punch the Trump camp thought they were going to get.  Donald Trump Jr called a blocked number right before and right after the meeting.  He says he doesn't recall who he phoned, but his father had a blocked number at the time.  It's also been proven the Kremlin used the National Rifle Association to funnel money directly into the Trump campaign.  Two Russians are confirmed to be the point people for working with the NRA, and the NRA seems to have been aware of the entire scheme.  These Senate Intelligence Committee revelations prove the House Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, with their sham findings from earlier this year, were defending Trump, outright refusing to perform their duty of oversight. (5/16)

2 - Trump's horrible negotiation style rears it's ugly head again.  Like a corrupt businessman, he always starts with the most extreme position and tries to work his way back from there.  That's not how diplomacy works.  Not only has that derailed his attempts at trade negotiations, it now seems to be derailing his attempts at peace with North Korea.  Mind you, most of the negotiations up until this point have bene done by the South Koreans and the Chinese, but when the USA let the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un know what we wanted (a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula PRIOR to the US making any concessions) it was a WAY too extreme starting point. National Security Advisor John Bolton called for 'the Libyan Model,' which led to Libya's former leader being killed in the streets.  Anything like, or remotely similar to, 'the Libyan Model' is a non-starter for peace talks, leading some to ask if Bolton was purposely trying to derail them.  Realizing North Korea is starting to balk at such an extreme opening salvo, Trump himself tried to walk back Bolton's Libyan definitives.  As of right now, it seems peace on the Korean Peninsula might not happen due to the White House's ham handed negotiation style. (5/20)

1 - There is brazen, and then there is BRAZEN.  Three days after the Chinese government agreed to put up a half a billion dollars for an Indonesian project which will benefit Trump's personal business (a transaction which undeniably should be getting a tremendous amount of scrutiny itself) Trump seemed to reverse course on a few different campaign promises.  Trump has ordered a US bailout of a Chinese government owned cellphone maker, a cell phone company who's been accused by our intelligence officials of helping the Chinese Government spy on the US, and their phones are currently banned from being used on ALL US military bases.  The company, ZTE, doesn't have a US presence, and it's unsure if any of their parts are purchased from the US (although it's unlikely).  Trump's ordering the US Government to help prop up a foreign company in a foreign country, a move which won't benefit American workers.  The White House is refusing to answer whether there's a connection between the two actions (the Chinese Indonesian investment and Trump's gift to ZTE), with Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah telling media they should contact the Trump Organization (the private business) for details.  To reiterate: the White House told the media to contact a private business for answers on official Government business. WOW! (5/15)

Every freaking week there's SOMETHING Trump and his Administration does which warrants at least a discussion about impeachment, but Republicans are hoping...no PRAYING you forget everything.  Unfortunately, apathetic independents and Democrats are usually too freaking happy to oblige and not participate.  Not this year!

The Republicans know the country is furious about where we are at, and are terrified of what might happen this November.  To keep his far right base in line, Trump is outright pandering to them.  He's putting forward new abortion restrictions and talking about a possible tax cut in November, attempting to dangle carrots in front of his mules.

#2018IsEverything!  If we don't take back the US House (amongst numerous other seats) your outrage will have been for nothing.  Find five Democrats running in seats currently held by Republicans and vow to help them with a donation or by volunteering in some way this summer!

The Friday Link for 5/18/18

The Friday Link this week is adorable, well in a twisted way...

Imagine an evil sea creature, giant crab who's killed thousands over the years.  Now imagine making said giant crab the hero of your film.  By the end of this video, you'll be rooting for the crab.

This is also a student film!  Kids today are amazing.  Last night I was at a school academics display and one kid had built his own computer, one had tested human frailty in a space environment by conducting testing in a space vacuum, and another had built a workable tank for jellyfish.  These are regular kids, at a regular public school, who are wickedly intelligent, yet fail to get any recognition on most days.

Whoever did this deserves the medals.  They also deserve a Disney contract, STAT!  Enjoy The Legend of The Crabe Phare!



Have a great weekend everyone!

You Made Us Do It!

This is a response letter to the highly ignorant and Conservative deflecting op-ed piece the New York Times ran in their Sunday Edition.

Dear New York Times,

I'd like to address the op-ed from Sunday, May 13th's paper 'Liberals, You're Not as Smart as You Think,' by Gerard Alexander.

This editorial tries to lay out the argument people on the Left, due to their arrogance, name calling, and extremist agenda, are the real villains in Trump's America.  It reads more as a Conservative admission and threat; 'We Conservatives now realize Trump's a nightmare, but it was you Liberals who forced us to vote for him, and if you don't stop pointing out our undeniable mistake, we'll do it again!'

Alexander's argument boils down to a few different points.  First is this idea the Liberals were the ones to start picking on conservatives whites.  This is laughable.  This country started down our current political discord path when Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC rules which ensured equitable and balanced points of view were presented.  Within a decade after Reagan removed the rules, quality in media was replaced by conservative ideology and zealotry, aimed specifically at what conservative whites believed where their enemies.  When Fox News came on the scene, their pitch wasn't 'a conservative view of todays news.'  It was "CNN Lies," a preview of the narrative validation the network would spew for over two decades.  Having evolved, the Right's modern mantra is ignore news you don't like, usually screaming about an unfounded bias, while labeling any criticism as 'a personal attack.'

As far as Liberals hurting Conservatives by screaming 'racist,' that's on Conservatives.   When something undeniably bigoted happens (to be fair, usually from a group associated with the far right) Republicans rarely condemn it.  Most times they dismiss the racism/bigotry by implying it's just the Liberal PC police.  Meanwhile they turn themselves into victims, implying anyone condemning racism isn't just attacking the racist and racist behavior, rather attacking all people, a smear campaign against wholesome Conservative values at the hands of an unfair Liberal 'guilt by association.'  It's pity party 101.  Alexander also goes out of his way to dismiss the real racism in this country by implying it's unfounded (his Chinese dress/burrito cart argument).  I notice he avoids mentioning Charlottesville completely.

How can Mr. Alexander overlook the daily name calling and belittling coming from Trump while calling out Liberals for their civil discord?  The right voted for a man who mocked a disabled reporter.  The right voted for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting a married woman.  And they did so proudly and defiantly.  Daily insults, scandals and embarrassments from the President are a far bigger issue in our current uncivilized America.  By dismissing Trump's role in all of this, Alexander wipes away any credibility.

The article goes out of it's way tag the Conservative's many 'liberal demagogues.'  Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Michael Moore are HATED by the right.  At times, they have been somewhat tone deaf when it comes to the working white poor in this country, but Alexander's argument is a comment from Pelosi in 2014, and Obama in 2008, and Michael Moore from 2017, offsets the daily mountain of unacceptable comments, lies and deceit coming from Trump and his Administration.  Sorry they hurt your feelings Gerard, but you seem to be searching pretty hard in the haystack for the needle which you hope you can hide behind.

Mr. Alexander, and bitter Trump fans realizing Rushmore isn't about to get prepped for the fifth head, you're in denial.  Trump isn't what you thought he'd be, and that's got to be hard to accept.  Fair enough.  Take your time.  Just do us a favor and stop with the pathetic "it's not our fault we hate Democrats more than anything else, hence we elected a completely unqualified sketchy businessman to the Presidency because we knew he'd anger Democrats; rather it's the Left's fault we voted for Trump even though to do so we had to get into bed with unprecedented incompetence, hypocrisy, mean spirited arguments and occasional undeniable racism."

And as to your threat to vote for Trump again, you might as well just say "we'll show you who's stupid!"  Yes you would.

The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 5/7/18

Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 5/7/18 to 5/13/18.

These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration this week.  If this was a Democratic Administration, EVERYTHING on this list would have triggered investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges.  Instead we have a man who might have been running a shakedown of corporate America and foreign businesses, funneling money through his lawyer, with the leverage the Presidency of the United States as the catalyst, and the Republican Congressional leadership doesn't even bat an eye.

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. Trump wished his mother a Happy Mother's Day with a nice tribute. What was surprising is that he failed to mention ANY of the mother's of his children, not even current First Lady Melania Trump. (5/13)

19. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has ordered National Park police officers, a group of people hired to specifically patrol the US Park system, to the US-Mexico border to work border patrol duty, in a show of support for the Trump agenda.  The ranks of the US Park police force were already grossly understaffed prior to this announcement.  This is not helping. (5/9)

18. Melania Trump, in an effort to promote positive online experiences for kids, unveiled a booklet as part of her "Be Best" campaign.  The only problem (outside of the name "Be Best" and ignoring her husband's atrocious online behavior), is she basically copied an Obama era phamplet the FTC published.  Besides her introduction, it's exactly the same pamphlet, with the same headers and graphics. (5/7)

17. In what might be the shortest Administration term yet, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen actually drafted a letter of resignation after Trump was unnecessarily brutal to her in a cabinet meeting, where he accused her of failing to secure the US border.  Trump's lengthy tirade was part of an overall demand that more needs to be done to stop non-white immigrants, with Trump viciously singling out Nielsen. (5/10)

16. National Security Advisor John Bolton snapped an the inference the US is going it alone on Iran, stating Israel is on our side.  Table for two then... He also put forward the US will attempt to sabotage the remaining Iranian Nuclear Deal countries from continuing with the agreement without the US, threatening sanctions against companies based in European countries, countries which are supposedly our closest allies.  It should be noted one country who makes out like a bandit with the US leaving the Iranian Nuclear Deal is Russia, whose companies are already planning on massive expansions into the country.  Trump states Iran WILL negotiate with him, or else "something will happen."  It's not clear on what he's implying, and White House officials are playing coy, but the implication is armed conflict with Iran. (5/10-13)

15. Our supposed European allies, befuddled by Trump's withdraw from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, have revealed the Trump White House never once produced an alternative plan to the current deal, only that he didn't like the current plan.  This seems to add more validity to the theory the only reason Trump dumped the deal was because it was completed under the Obama Administration. (5/9)

14. One way to deal with bad news you don't want to believe is to pretend it doesn't exist.  NASA has cancelled a program which tracks carbon and methane gases, the Carbon Monitoring System.  Carbon and Methane gases cause greenhouse effects.  They cancelled the program under direct orders from Trump.  The total program cost per year was only 10 million dollars, and the program was delivering impressive, workable scientific data. (5/11)

13. Politico has the story of the Pentagon's evaluation of Presidential Advisor and Trump son in law Jared Kushner's VA health care initiative, a program meant to make the VA healthcare system more streamlined, with better coverage.  The Pentagon's review labeled the first stage "devastating," with the report detailing 156 'critical' or 'severe' problems in the first stage alone.  To give you an idea of how bad this plan is, usually the Pentagon considers a program having significant problems with 5 'critical' or 'severe' problems. (5/12)

12. Trump's pick to run the CIA, renowned torturer Gina Haspel, testifying to the Senate at her confirmation hearing, pinky swears she would never restart the torture...er, enhanced interrogation program ever again (wink).  To understand what she really thinks about torture, look at her questioning at the hands of former criminal prosecutor Senator Kamala Harris.  Harris repeatedly tried to get her to answer whether she thought torture was immoral.  Haspel refused repeatedly to answer the question.  For a human being with a soul, any human with any humanity, or for a Christian, this shouldn't be a tough question to answer. (5/9)

11. North Korea has released three American political prisoners (which is a good thing!) but leave it to Trump to take the credit for other's people's work, and then fumble the photo op.  From all accounts, the Chinese and South Koreans had far more to do with the release of the prisoners than any negotiations from the USA, something Trump even mentioned when he says he was happy North Korea released the prisoners PRIOR to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with Kim Jong-un.  When the prisoners appeared with Trump on the tarmac in the early morning, he credited North Korea with treating the political prisoners "excellent"(???), and then bragged about how good the TV ratings were for him at 3 in the morning, with the prisoners standing right behind him. (5/10)

10. Trump's FCC Chair Ajit Pai announces net neutrality will end on June 10th. (5/10)

9. More scrutiny is on Trump in regards to the 1.6 million dollar payout from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to former Playboy model Shera Bechard, who allegedly had an affair with top Republican donor Elliot Broidy, an affair which ended with a pregnancy and an abortion.  Research into the arrangement is pointing to the possibility this affair was never with Broidy, but rather with Trump.  The non disclosure agreement was signed by the fake names "David Dennison" and "Peggy Peterson," both of which were the same exact names used in the non-disclosure between Trump and Stormy Daniels.  Trump was close friends with Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, a friendship which came to an abrupt end in 2016, the same time as the alleged pregnancy.  Bechard and Hefner were at one time an item and remained friends.  Brody had potential advantages for taking the fall on this issue too.  He's trying to get the Justice Department to drop a probe of an investment deal he made with Malaysia.  If the probe is dropped, Broidy could make tens of millions personally. And Broidy has a history of bribing public officials. (5/8)

8. Proving this White House has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, White House Staffer and Trump special assistant (?!) Kelly Sadler decided to mock Senator, tortured POW, decorated war veteran and man in the last stages of his fight with cancer, John McCain.  Criticizing McCain for saying he won't vote for CIA nominee and noted torturer Gina Haspel, Sadler made the attempt at what she labeled as 'humor.'  "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."  Sadler has attempted to, privately, apologize to the McCain's for this incredibly insensitive comment.  For some inexplicable reason, she's still employed by the White House, as they seem far more upset the media found out about the joke.  Sadler, apparently promised Meghan McCain, the Senator's daughter, a public apology for her comments.  So far she hasn't publicly apologized.  It seems there isn't going to be a public apology. (5/11-13)

7. Chief of Staff John Kelly is supposed to be one of the few sane people in Trump's Administration, but his latest comments show how low that bar really is.  Kelly stated the vast majority of undocumented workers who come into the US illegally are unwilling or unable to "assimilate into the United States into our Modern society," going onto state the vast majority are "rural people" where "4th, 5th and 6th grade educations are kind of the norm."  He says he's for ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, Nicaragua, and the Sudan.  Nothing from Kelly on white Europeans illegally in the US. (5/12)

6. Trump, to pay for his massive government handout to the ultra wealthy and largest corporations via the Trump Tax Bill, is sending budget cuts to the Congress for approval.  Included in the budget cuts are 7 BILLION(!!!) in cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), meaning he is paying for billionaire tax cuts by removing healthcare for sick needy kids! (5/8)

5. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has now made it an official Trump Administration policy to separate parents from their children as they cross the US border.  To prove how cold hearted he is, Sessions then went to Tennessee where he addressed this new policy, as well as the arrest of 97 workers picked up in a Tennessee raid.  "I'm not shedding tears about them."  Reminder:  Sessions claims to be a devout Chrisitan. (5/11)

4. In shocking news, Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released stunning information which claims Trump's lawyer Micahel Cohen, in the months after the 2016 election, received $500K in money from a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. It's quite possible this money reimbursed the Stormy Daniel payment.  This is the same Russian Oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, who has already been questioned by the Mueller investigation.  This story so far has been substantiated by AT&T, another company who paid Cohen's private company, Essential Consultants LLC, although they insist their payments were not suspicious, rather just seeking insight and understanding into Trump (BY PAYING TRUMP'S LAWYER!!!).  The New York Times and NBC News have also validated elements of Avenatti's claim, with one source to The Daily Beast  stating "how the F*** did he ever find out about this?" To recap, major corporations and Russians were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars into a company whose sole purpose was to pay off Stormy Daniels.  The company doesn't seem to exist in ANY other capacity.   The evidence points to people paying Cohen for access to Trump. (5/8)

3. Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, appearing on MSNBC brings more fire to the Michael Cohen Essential Consultants LLC story.  He explains many companies were paying Cohen a lot of money for his 'expertise' in fields he has no expertise in, including medial advice, accounting and real estate.  Avenatti also poked more holes in the story that Cohen paid for GOP strategist Elliot Broidy to settle a legal matter he was having with a Playboy playmate he was sleeping with, and who Broidy allegedly got pregnant. The financial arraignment seems to imply something else was going on, as legal matters of this nature are almost always billed hourly, not in lump sum amounts. (5/9)

2. The amount of money Michael Cohen received for 'consulting' work is astounding.  Novartis admits having given Cohen 1.2 million dollars, and they have outright stated they gave Cohen this money because he was promising access to Trump.  Novartis perviously had stated their donation to Cohen was only $300K.  They had one meeting with him, determined he was useless to them, and never met with him again, but they still gave him the money.  It's also looking like AT&T lied about how much money they funneled to Cohen.  Their totall 'investment' was likely three times more than the 200K they initially reported. (5/9)

1. Because he's a major idiot, Trump decided to pull the USA out of the Iranian Nuclear Deal, a deal which had effectively shut down Iran's nuclear program.  He seemingly did so solely because it was former President Obama who signed the deal.  During his announcement, Trump repeatedly boldfaced lied to the American people.  Even Trump Administration and Military officials loyal to Trump were telling him not to rip up the deal, advice Trump either ignored, or eliminated by removing pro-Iranian Nuclear Deal advisors, such as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.  When asked the simple question "How does this make America safer?", Trump was quiet for a few seconds, stated "This keeps America safer," and then wandered away without really answering the question.  Every major country on the planet condemned Trump's ignorance, outside of Israel, who wants the US to fight their war with Iran for them.  The rest of the world has committed to trying to work around the US's withdraw, meaning the US is becoming less important to the international community.  It also implies no one can trust the US when it comes to peace deals (North Korea).  White House officials have admitted part of the reason Trump did this was to watch "experts freaking out on CNN." (5/8)

At this point we have to realize the damage Trump has done to the US' standing worldwide.  Not only has he screwed up our trade relations in stunning fashion, not only has he ripped up successful peace initiatives and global treaties, not only has he stoked the fires of war in the Middle East, he has tied all of us to 'Trump,' whether we worship him or despise him (as most of us do).  It will take decades for the United States to get even close to where we once stood in this world, IF we ever do return to that level.

On the funny side, 200 Presidential Historians have all chimed in and after only a year and a half, EVERY ONE OF THEM has placed Trump as the worst President of all time.  Finally some relief for the Harrison, Buchanan, Harding, W. Bush and Camacho Administrations.

#2018IsEverything! Make sure to pick five Democrats running is districts currently held by Republicans and vow to help them someway this summer.  We have to take back the US House.  The Minnesota House would be a nice get too!

The Friday Link for 5/11/18

Once again, I'm in my May running around mess, so sorry the blog has been light this week.  I'm going to get this done fast as there's a chance I can actually have some down time this evening.

We'll go with Conan first and the return of his best bit, Clueless Gamer.  This time he has Bill Hader join him to play the game, God of War.  Very enjoyable, but some violent images and some adult content.  Viewer be warned!



Next up, two from Arrested Development (sort of). Season 5 is coming to Netflix soon, and I'm so freaking excited!  Love this show, and to get you ready, here's the season 5 preview.



Sweet Lord, but it's topped this week by Ron Howard doing an Arrested Development type of narration for Star Wars.  This is brilliant!



Have a great weekend everyone!  Happy Mother's Day, from one big mother...