The Mooch

Two Peas in a Pod

Has Trump and his henchman finally gone too far for even the GOP and his supporters? Over the objections of several White House staffers, Trump hired his buddy Anthony Scaramucci as the new Director of Communications. Although supposedly Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner endorsed the Mooch. Good call kids. My first, second, third, and... impression of Scaramucci is that he is a sleaze bag, uncouth, big mouthed loose canon. He showed that right from the start with his first news conference and then it went downhill. In an unhinged, expletive laced phone call to The New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, he ranted about White House leaks, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and the rest of the staff. 

The rant was precipitated by a supposed leak of a dinner between the Trumps, Scarmucci, Sean Hannity, and Bill Shine. This was not a top secret meeting and there is no evidence that it was ever intended to be. The Mooch wanted to know who leaked the information to Lizza. Of course, no reporter would reveal his sources. Mooch threatened to fire the entire White House communications staff if Lizza didn't reveal his source. That didn't sway the reporter. 

He specifically accused Reince Priebus of being the leaker. Scaramucci was also upset that his financial disclosure information had been "leaked". He called that a felony and that he would involve the FBI and Justice Department. In fact, those financial disclosure forms are public knowledge and are available for the asking. That's the "disclosure" part. No felony. This Mooch jerk supposedly is a Harvard Law School graduate yet he doesn't know the law concerning a form he submitted and signed. Interesting. 

The rant continued with disparaging and crude remarks about Steve Bannon. 

You can read Lizza's whole article here. It's a is not for those easily offended. 

Although the Mooch's language is deplorable, what bothers me more is his completely unhinged, knee-jerk (emphasis on jerk) reaction to an inconsequential leak, if it even was a leak and the non-felony issue with the financial information.

After the late night phone rant to Lizza, Scaramucci went on a Twitter rant. More Priebus stuff. After a few hours, he deleted the tweets and went on CNN the next morning to try to walk back his tirade and explain himself. Totally unbelievable. Although the Mooch deleted the tweets, you can find them if you look for them. Remember, once on the internet, stuff is there forever. You would think a Communications Director might know that.

West Wing Combatants

Trump hired Scarmucci over the objections of Priebus, Bannon, Sean Spicer, and others on his staff. Spicer resigned in protest. Now we know why. What is sad, is that the Mooch is practically a mirror image of Trump. Crude, rude, easily riled and quick to react before the brain kicks in. Maybe Trump got just what he wanted with Chief Bulldog Scaramucci. Wonder how he feels now that the whole West Wing is ablaze? 

Has Trump finally gone too far? Will those in the GOP and his supporters with any sense of decency and decorum finally rebel? I've seen some cracks in the wall (pun intended) of support. Will Trump change or get run out of town? We all get to vote again in 2018. 

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Transgender Military Ban

Really Donnie

On July 26, 2017, President Donald J. Trump banned, via a tweet, transgender individuals from joining or serving in the US armed forces. 

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump on 7/26/2017

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow..........Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you"

Ironically, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the US military on July 26, 1948. Of course, he did it with an actual official Executive Order.

On January 20, 2017, in his inaugural address Trump said "When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity.""

Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter released the following statement the morning of 6/26/17 on #transgender service in the military:
It is unclear at this point whether an official Executive Order will be forthcoming on Trump's new transgender policy or if just a tweet is binding.

News reports are saying that the Pentagon was caught off guard by this new "policy", so there's no way to know which of "my" generals were consulted. There are no details on how this will be implemented or what will happen to those transgender individuals already in the military. As usual, Trump has done something half-assed. No this is not even that well thought out, more like a quarter-assed or an eight-assed, maybe less. As usual, Trump uses a bogus reason for his actions. This time it is grossly exaggerated medical costs. Trump never met data that he couldn't misrepresent.  

History has proved that Truman did the right thing when he desegregated the military. What will history think of Trump's actions?

This is a sad step backward in the march to grant equal rights to all Americans. It seems his "make America great again" slogan actually is "make America like it was in the 1950's again". A time when bigotry and oppression were the norms. Trump wants white Anglo-Saxon straight Christian males to rule the nation. Screw anyone who is different in any way. 

Another disappointing but not surprising action by this administration. 

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Boy Scout BS

On July 24, 2017, Donald Trump addressed the Boy Scout Jamboree. He should have delivered that speech as the President of the United States, not as candidate Trump or personal citizen Trump. Of course, he didn't act presidential, he rarely does.

He used the speech to brag about his victory in November once again, to bash the media and denigrate the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). 

You can read the full transcript of Trump's speech here. It is an amazingly classless and inappropriate speech considering the audience. Remember, the audience was primarily boys under the age of 18. It should have been a non-political, non-partisan message, complimenting the boys on their achievements and encouraging them to continue their dedication to community and country as they move to adulthood. It should not have been a pro-Trump, anti-Obama, Hillary, and Democratic tirade. Remember, these are kids, not voters, that Trump was addressing. 

He also emphasized one of the tenants of the Boy Scout law. That would be loyalty. It's an issue that Trump seems to be obsessed with. He demands loyalty from those around him, yet doesn't hesitate to throw his allies under the bus and/or abandon them. Trump loyalty is pretty much one-way loyalty. The one-way is loyalty to him, not from him. Unfortunately, Trump forgets the other tenants of scouting - "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." How many of those describe Trump? He hinted during the speech that he was a Scout, yet I was unable to find any verification of that. If Trump was a Scout, he has failed to carry those principals into adulthood. 

Addressing a Boy Scout gathering should be like a high school commencement speech. It should be about the children and their future. It should be encouraging to those young people. It certainly should not be used as a platform to brag or to advance a particular political agenda.  

Ironically, Trump said near the beginning of the speech, "Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. you've been hearing about with the fake news and all of that. We're going to put that...
We're going to put that aside. And instead we're going to talk about success, about how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your dreams, what to think of, what I've been thinking about. You want to achieve your dreams, I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?"

He then made much of the speech political and about fights in Washington.

As a matter of full disclosure, I was a Cub Scout for one year. I earned a couple of minor badges but never really got into scouting. One reason might be that on a field trip, another Cubbie hooked me in the cheek when we went fishing. The hook had to be cut and pulled through. I never matriculated to Boy Scout. That's probably why I turned out to be a derelict. I was also very disappointed a few years ago when the Boy Scouts refused to admit homosexual boys and banned homosexual Scout leaders. They have since backed off from their homophobic stance but it was only because of public and corporate sponsor opposition. 

Maybe some day Trump will learn that there is a difference between campaigning and governing. Maybe he will learn what is appropriate for a US President. Maybe, but I doubt it. 

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Lawyer Up

I watched all four major network Sunday morning political shows. That would be Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and my favorite Face the Nation with John Dickerson. There are also shows on the cable news networks and PBS, but the above mentioned four are the top guns on Sunday mornings. 

These four shows have political leaders from the administration and Congress on as guests. They have both Democrats and Republicans giving their views on the top issues of the week. There is usually a representative of the White House on these programs too. 

The administrations representative on every program this past weekend was Jay Sekulow. Who the hell is he? Sekulow is one of Trump's personal lawyers. Not an official member of the White House staff, not a cabinet member, not even a top executive branch official. Hell, not even a government employee. A personal lawyer of the president. A lawyer who is on Trump's payroll because he may need legal counsel due to the Congressional and Special Counsel Mueller's probes.

One of the talking head panelists on one of the shows referred to it as the full Sekulow.   

This guy never met a question he couldn't avoid. On all the shows, he avoided questions, stated numerous times that he was not Donald, Jr.'s lawyer, didn't know who was paying for him or the other of Trump's personal lawyers, and ultimately blamed this whole mess on James Comey. Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch! He also mentioned alleged Clinton-Ukrainian contacts. So, the scenario has morphed from "there is no Russiam collusion", there is "no there there" to "everybody does it". 

Apparently, this guy is the new official Sunday morning spokesman for the White House. It seems a little strange to me that a personal lawyer represents the president who is not yet under any legal indictments or even accusations. 

Sekulow appears to be the new Kelly Anne Conway. He is just as full of BS as Conway and even more combative. It was ironic to me that he was most argumentative with Chris Wallace of Fox. I thought Fox was a close ally of Trump. 

I'm not sure why these news programs even invite spokesmen from the administration. They never answer a question. I guess the hope is that they will accidentally spill the beans or make a very stupid remark. They often do. 

Is this jackass the Kelly Anne Conway replacement? If so, what the hell is her role?

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If Only

• If only we could afford to see if climate change is real or a Chinese hoax.
• If only we could wait to see the damage done by the repeal & not replace of Obamacare.
• If only we could wait to see the effects of promoting coal and other carbon fuels.
• If only we can allow China and Europe to become the leaders in renewable energy.
• If only we can ignore repeal of numerous EPA regulations.
• If only we can measure the damage done by defunding Planned Parenthood.
• If only we could measure the effects on our economy and way of life by building "The Wall"
• If only we could measure the damage to children and families by deporting long-time, productive residents. 
• If only we could predict the long-term damage of degrading Muslims.
• If only we could project the consequences of favoring the top 1% while devastating the middle class and poor.
• If only we could ignore the continued prejudice against minorities.
• If only we could ignore that Black men are in danger when they have encounters with police.
• If only we didn't have House & Senate members that were more obsessed with their re-election than governing the country. 
• If only we didn't have a narcissistic, unprepared, Tweeting president.
• If only logic and not emotion decided our position on guns.
• If only we can continue to deny science.
• If only we prevented a very few billionaires from overly influencing our elections.
• If only...

Unfortunately, I don't think we can continue to play Russian (pun intended) roulette with our future. Don't we owe it to the young and future generations to think beyond the next election cycle or this quarter's corporate profits?

We should make decisions as a nation based on facts and science. When in doubt, err on the side of future generations. 

If only...

wjh

More Winning

Another batch of Trump and GOP wins starting in June 2017.

• Misinterpreting then ridiculing the London mayor after the London Bridge terrorist attacks. Classy. Could it possibly be because the mayor, Sadiq Khan, is a Muslim? 
• Contradicts several people in his administration by saying the Executive Order before the courts is a TRAVEL ban. 
• The $110 billion arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia turns out to be much more a maybe than a done deal. No contracts, no new jobs, more hyperbole. 
• Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asks Arab states to ease sanctions against Qatar and work it out. The same day, Trump tells Arab states not to ease sanctions. What exactly is our foreign policy?
• Pretends that several of the documents he signs with great fanfare are binding executive orders. Many are merely suggestions or policy statements.
• Comey's Congressional testimony, among other things, calls Trump a liar. 
• Postpones trip to the UK because of protests. Over 300,000 Brits sign a petition urging Parliment to bar Trump. 
• Trump's revised travel ban was again banned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, unanimously. Trump's own tweets were cited as part of their decision.
• Trump claims "total vindication" after Comey's Senate testimony. Now it seems Special Counsel Mueller is investigating Trump for obstruction of justice.
• Trump praised the House health care bill now he calls it a "mean bill". A flip-flop because the bill is so unpopular. 
• Trump tweets he is under investigation by the Special Counsel. His lawyer says Trump is not under investigation, then says he is, then adamantly says he is not. Then admits that he doesn't really know. What is the answer?
• Trump's lawyers have now hired their own lawyers. Seems a little paranoid to me. 
• How can Trump make suits that cost thousands of dollars look so bad? One of his Brioni suits is more expensive than your entire wardrobe. Sad.
• Remember all those Carrier jobs in Indiana that Trump "saved"? Seems that was a sham and many jobs are still going to Mexico. 
• Ford moving Focus production and jobs to China.
• Senate passes Russian sanctions bill 98-2. Trump against it.
• Senate version of TrumpCare not received with glowing endorsement by several Republicans. 
• TrumpCare Senate bill CBO report similar to House bill report. Estimates 22 million fewer will be insured than current Obamacare.
• Senate leaders delay the vote on TrumpCare until after the July 4th recess. 
• Trump launches vicious Twitter attack against Mika Brzezinski. Crosses the line, again.
• Found to display fake Time covers at Trump properties. 

  

  Fake Cover, Fake News

• Most states are refusing to cooperate or provide voter information to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission, in fact, may have violated federal laws in the way it requested the information. 
• Trump says he and Putin discuss setting up a joint cyber group to fight voter hacking. Everybody tells him that is a fox in the henhouse plan. Trump backs off.
• G-20 summit turns into G-19 against Trump on almost every issue.
• Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign manager met with a Russian to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. None of it disclosed. More smoke at least. Junior's explanation is laughable.
• Don, Jr. hires a lawyer. 
• Junior releases damaging Russian connection emails.

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How Quickly We Forget

Remember just a couple of weeks ago when a sick individual opened fire on the Republican Congressional baseball practice? I won't repeat the details of that tragedy. That's not the point of this post. In short, this deranged gunman opened fire on the Republicans because he was upset with their policies and the way they were governing. His solution was to try to eliminate those legislators he disagreed with. Not at the ballot box, but with an assault rifle.

The country united in support of the wounded Congressmen and police officers. Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress came out with statements of unity. There were numerous speeches and pleas to turn down the volume on the incendiary rhetoric from both sides of the aisle. The thinking was that the mean spirited and disrespectful statements by politicians were influencing the public. That rhetoric was evolving into violence by those zealots on the fringes or with mental illnesses.

It is interesting to note that while President Trump decried the shooting, he never suggested trying a more respectful tone of political discourse. Now we know why. His inflammatory tweets and statements never stopped. In fact, his recent tweets against the media in general, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, in particular, have sunk to new lows. 

Now I don't expect a childish bully like Trump to suddenly become civil. I would have expected, or at least hoped, many more of the Republicans to condemn him.

Then again, I have not noticed any change in the rhetoric coming out of Congress, both sides, since the shooting. The pleas for a kinder and gentler legislature have faded. It looked to me that about 72 hours was the complete life cycle of the call for civility.

This is just another example of our politicians spouting empty phrases and wringing their hands in public. As soon as the issue gets off the front page, everybody goes back to business as usual. Even a shooting involving members of Congress doesn't make any difference.

How quickly we forget or to put it another way, it's the same old shit.

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