Winning - December 2018

Keeping track of the GOP and Trump Administration:

• The one thing Trump is truly good at, world-class, lying. The latest count is 7,546 in 700 days. Almost 11/day, 15/day in 2018. 
• All the major market exchanges are down for the year. The Dow started 2018 at 24,824, peaked in October at 26,828 and ended the year at 23,327. The biggest yearly decline, 5.6%, in 10 years. Trump took most of the credit for the gains in 2017, now he's silent and looking for someone to blame. Can't have it both ways Donny. 
• Trump says Cohen is lying about the Russian real estate deal. Then adds, even if it was true, Trump did nothing illegal. A typical Trump script when he is caught. Wrong isn't always illegal.
• In a closed-door briefing, Senators are convinced by CIA Director Gina Haspel that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump continues to support MBS.
• 12/04 - Attorneys General from Maryland and DC subpoena financial records and other documents from 13 Trump entities as part of the emoluments lawsuits. Several federal agencies also received subpoenas that have contact with Trump businesses.
• In an interview, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calls Trump undisciplined, doesn't like to read, and tries to do illegal things. No surprises here.
• Trump goes off the rails and sends a tantrum tweet calling Rex Tillerson "dumb as a rock" and lazy. Trump again shows his maturity. 
• "Individual 1", aka Trump, is implicated in court documents in the Michael Cohen cases.
• 12/08 - Trump announces that chief of staff John Kelly will be leaving the White House by the end of the year. Quit or fired? Another adult leaves the administration. Kelly was too disciplined for chaotic Trump.  
• 12/09 - Nick Ayers, Trump's top candidate to replace John Kelly as chief of staff, will not take the job. He will also be leaving the White House by the end of the year. It's tough to find good help when you are a bad boss.
• The ongoing Trump/Russia investigation has determined that at least 14 Trump associates interacted with Russians during the presidential campaign and transition.
• The Fact Checker creates a new category, the Bottomless Pinocchio, to describe the level and number of Trumps lies. He has already been awarded 14 Bottomless Pinocchio awards. Our Liar-in-Chief.
• 12/12 - Former Trump lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, is sentenced to three years in prison for lying to Congress, tax fraud, and election finance violations. 
• 12/12 - Federal prosecutors reveal a plea deal with The National Enquirer's parent company and CEO, David Pecker, in the Trump hush money cases. No prosecution for cooperation. More damning evidence revealed and corroborated. 
• 12/12 - Lobbyist Sam Patten pleads guilty of failure to register as a foreign agent and to steering foreign funds to the Trump inauguration fun. The foreigner was a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch. Very swampy. 
• Federal employee morale and job satisfaction decline at 60% of federal offices. Public criticism and new work policies by the head guy don't help. 
• 12/13 - The US Senate votes to end US participation in the Yemen War. They also unanimously passed a measure blaming the Saudi crown prince for the ghastly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Both votes are a rebuke of Trump's Saudi and MBS support.
• A poll shows that fewer than three in ten Americans believe Trump. Even fewer than 50% of ardent Trump supporters believe him. That can't be a good thing.
• 12/15 - Trump announces that Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke will be leaving his post. Good riddance to a corrupt enemy of the environment. 
• 12/15 - A new report to the Senate Intelligence Committee indicates Russian interference in the 2016 election was even wider and more pro-Trump than previously thought. 
• New Senate report says Russian disinformation teams targetted Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Of course, they did. Putin is trying to help his buddy, Trump. 
• Roger Stone admits spreading lies on InfoWars. As settlement in a defamation lawsuit, he must apologize and publicly retract the statements. What a surprise that Stone would lie. One of the swampiest creatures in Trump's swamp. What a surprise that InfoWars would help spread false information. 
• 12/18 - Trump backs down on his threat to shut down the government over his border (or is it, boarder) wall funding. 
• 12/18 - The Trump Foundation charity will close down. The New York state lawsuit against the charity, Donald, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump will continue. 
• Trump orders the immediate withdrawal of all US troops from Syria. The decision is almost universally disagreed with. The exceptions, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and good buddy Vladamir Putin praise Trump. 
• In more good news for Putin, Trump plans to lift sanctions against Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska and his businesses. Merry Christmas Vlad. 
• It's bad news for the US and the military. Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigns over differences with Trump. The Syria withdrawal seems to be the final straw. Mattis was one of the few in the administration who would challenge Trump. The last of "Trump's generals" to leave. 
• In a temper tantrum after actually reading Mattis's resignation letter, Trump pushes him out effective 1/1/2019 rather than the scheduled February departure. Another mature adult move by our baby president. 
• Patrick Shanahan, Deputy Secretary of Defense, is named acting Secretary replacing Mattis immediately. 
• Brett H. McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, is also stepping down over Mr. Trump’s decision to pull troops from Syria.
• Trump says he'll withdraw about 7,000 troops from Afghanistan. That is approximately half of our forces. Again, it comes as a surprise to almost everyone including the Afghan government. 
• 12/21 - The Supreme Court refuses to allow Trump to bar illegal immigrants from seeking asylum. 
• Perhaps Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be named as our next Secretary of Defense. He seems to have more influence over Trump than former Marine general Mattis did.
• After publicly saying that he would "take the mantle" of responsibility for a government shutdown over the border wall,  “I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.” Trump now blames the Democrats. I was taught that a man's word meant something. Not with this grifter. 
• As 2018 comes to a close, about ¼ of our federal employees are not getting paid and vital government services are not getting done. #Trumpshutdown

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