Monthly Archives: July 2018

business news

Tax returns? Remember them?

Forgive me, please, for being repetitive.

I believe it’s time, though, to bring up an old issue: tax returns. Specifically, the tax returns of the president of the United States of America. Yes, I know: I’ve traveled down this road already.

Donald J. Trump’s astonishing performance Monday alongside Vladimir Putin in Helsinki has prompted questions about whether Putin has “something” on Trump, as in some sort of business matter that might embarrass the president.

How might we know for certain? Oh, I’ve got it! Tax returns!

Trump refused to release his tax returns when he declared his presidential candidacy in 2015, flouting a tradition followed by candidates of both major parties dating back to 1976. They all did it voluntarily.

Not so with Trump. Why? His returns were “under and IRS audit,” he said. It’s crap. The Internal Revenue Service said an audit didn’t prevent release of those returns for public review.

But now there are questions arising anew about whether the president’s substantial business empire has been caught up in the “Russia thing” that special counsel Robert Mueller is examining as part of his probe into Russian meddling in our 2016 election.

I’ll ask one more, and it likely won’t be the final time: Why not release the returns and shine the light of accountability on your dealings, Mr. President?

national news, political news

Nice try, Mr. President … but there was no one else

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Let’s try to speak with some clarity on this Russian meddling matter and whether the president of the United States actually believes the U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment of the situation.

Donald Trump said Monday he had no reason to believe the Russians would have attacked our 2016 election system.

Then today he said he had no reason to believe the Russians would not have done it.

Oh, but then he said that maybe “others” did it, too, all while expressing full faith and confidence in the CIA, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies’ belief in their conclusions about Russian meddling.

As The Hill reported: “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said, reading from a prepared statement in front of reporters at the White House.

But he added: “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”

Read my lips, Mr. President: Our spooks say the Russians did it! They did it by themselves. They had no help. There was no “400-pound guy lying on his bed.” The 29-page indictment handed down identifies 12 Russian military officers as the culprits … allegedly.

I have to ask, Mr. President: Do you support our intelligence network fully, or not?

And many of us are still waiting for a full-throated condemnation of Vladimir Putin and his Russian hierarchy for launching their attack on our political system, which the president took an oath to defend.

International news

Trump makes it all better? Hardly

Donald J. Trump today sought to insert a single word in a statement he made standing next to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

He said Monday that he “saw no reason to believe Russia would” meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Today? Donald Trump said he “saw no reason to believe Russia would not” meddle.

There you have it. The president misspoke, he said, with an error of omission. He didn’t say “not” in Putin’s presence when he should have said it.

Is this good enough? Does this make it all better now, that the president of the United States really and truly stands behind our intelligence experts’ view that Putin and the Russians attacked our electoral system?

Let me think for a second about that.

Umm. No. It doesn’t make it better.

What we need now is a statement of outrage and condemnation of Russia, of Putin, of the goons who’ve been indicted by a federal grand jury that they conspired to interfere in our election.

Is any of that on the way?

Hmm. Probably not.

International news

Day of infamy? Maybe, to a degree

Jill Wine-Banks is a partisan Democrat and a lawyer who served on the legal staff of the Senate select committee that examined the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.

She needs, though, to calm down a bit while commenting on Donald Trump’s disgraceful performance at that Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin.

She said to describe the president’s comments about Russian meddling in our 2016 presidential election: “His performance today will live in infamy as much as the Pearl Harbor attack or Kristallnacht.”

Whoa, Mme. Counselor. Hold on!

Thousands of American sailors and airmen died at Pearl Harbor. Thousands of European Jews died during Kristallnacht.

No one has died as a result of Donald Trump’s disgraceful comments. I agree that Trump’s disparagement of our intelligence service and his embrace of Putin’s denial of wrongdoing regarding Russian meddling will live in infamy.

However, may we hold back on the hyperbole?

national news, political news

POTUS wasn’t elected ‘easily’ … honest!

As long as Donald John Trump continues to re-litigate the 2016 presidential election, allow me a brief moment to set the record straight.

The president said in that frightening, mind-blowing press conference this week with Vladimir Putin that he was elected “easily” over Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Let’s see. How easy was it?.

Trump finished with 304 electoral votes; Clinton ended up with 227. To be elected, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes.

Trump went over the top on the strength of about 80,000 votes in three critical states: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. A 40,000-vote switch in those states and Clinton wins the election.

Clinton finished with nearly 3 million more popular votes than Trump.

Let me state once again for the record: Donald John Trump was elected fairly and squarely, but not “easily.”

Stop telling that ridiculous lie, Mr. President.

national news

POTUS: Putin meeting went well … oh, really?

Donald J. Trump says his meeting with Vladimir Putin went well.

Sigh …

How will we know? How can we confirm what the president said?

Indeed, Donald Trump’s word already has been shown to be not worth a damn. He cannot tell the truth. He cannot give a straight answer to a straight question.

The meeting with the Russian strongman took place largely between just the two liars. Only their translators were present. There were no senior diplomats, no national security experts. Just the two of them, Donald and Vlad.

So help me, I cannot fathom how we have gotten to this point, how we managed to elect someone who doesn’t take anything except his own poll standing seriously.

He groveled at Putin’s feet in that extraordinary, mind-numbing press event. Then he tells us that his meeting with Vlad went swimmingly.

No American should accept the president’s word at face value. Ever!

International news

No ‘reporting’ necessary on this spectacle

Donald John “Stable Genius” Trump Sr. today posted this item via Twitter: While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!

Let’s see. I need to catch my breath.

There. Breath caught.

I wish to to take note of something that’s been lost on the president of the United States.

Many of us witnessed in real time the president’s astonishing defense of Vladimir Putin. He took the U.S. intelligence community to task for determining that Russia attacked our electoral process in 2016.

There is no “reporting” necessary to tell viewers what they saw in the moment. The president groveled at Putin’s feet. He elevated the leader of a declining power to his own level as the leader of the world’s greatest nation. He gave comfort to an adversarial state.

Donald Trump has the gall, the stones to lay all this on what he calls “fake news”?

Mr. President, many of us watched this unfold before our eyes.

Donald Trump has delivered to Americans yet another shameful demonstration of ignorance.

International news

Resignations should be forthcoming … but will they?

Jon Huntsman should resign immediately as U.S. ambassador to Russia.

John Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general, should hasten his departure and quit as White House chief of staff.

Dan Coats, the former Republican senator, should quit as director of national intelligence.

John Bolton, newly installed as national security adviser, needs to quit, too.

These individuals all have been tossed under the proverbial bus by the president of the United States. Donald J. Trump managed during that jaw-dropping press conference with Vladimir Putin to castigate the U.S. intelligence agencies that have determined Russia attacked our system of government.

Trump has undermined U.S. diplomacy. He has denigrated our intelligence-gathering process. He has weakened the nation he pledged to defend and to strengthen. He has demonstrated a level of ignorance, arrogance and acquiescence that none of us thought would be possible in the president of the United States.

It is enough for Vladimir Putin, the former KGB boss — the top spook in the Evil Empire — to deny doing what the intelligence agencies said he did. Yep, Donald Trump takes Putin at his word, which is about as credible as anything that flies out of the president’s mouth.

I am not holding my breath for any resignations to be forthcoming.

Maybe, though, there might be some spine-stiffening taking place at this very moment.

International news

Condemnation takes bipartisan tone

How in the world will all this play out?

Donald J. Trump has sided with Russia’s strongman in his denial that he ordered the interference in our 2016 presidential election. The president has cast doubt on the assessments of our own intelligence community that the Russians did meddle, that they did attack our electoral process.

What’s happened since that jaw-dropping presser that Trump had with Vladimir Putin? The Republican leadership in Congress has joined their Democratic colleagues in condemning the president’s unbelievable performance.

As The Hill reported: “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump told reporters in Helsinki.

GOP Senate candidate Mitt Romney (and 2012 presidential nominee), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, U.S. Sen. John McCain (and 2008 presidential nominee), Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr all are saying the same thing — more or less: The president delivered an “embarrassing” and “shameful” performance in Helsinki.

What happens now? What will the congressional leadership of the president’s own party do about any of this?

And get a load of this: Dan Coats, the former GOP senator from Indiana who now serves as director of national intelligence, is standing with his intelligence authorities’ belief that Russians are guilty as charged of attacking our democratic process.

My head is spinning. I need to sit down, catch my breath and try to make sense of what has transpired.

International news, national news, political news

So many ‘tipping points’ …

There have been so many instances where you think, yep, this is it … this is where Donald John Trump goes down for the count.

Then he gets up.

He denigrates a Vietnam War hero such as Sen. John McCain. He mocks a disabled New York Times reporter. He brags about grabbing women by their private parts. He disparages a Gold Star family that happens to worship the Islamic faith.

He survived all of those so-called “tipping points” en route to the presidency of the United States.

Today, though, provided the world a fresh glimpse of the Donald Trump many of us feared would present himself. He denigrated the U.S. intelligence network’s belief that Russian goons attacked our 2016 election system, they attacked our very democratic system of government.

He did so in the presence of the man U.S. spooks say ordered it: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president of the United States, for the first time in many historians’ memory, has relegated defense of our democratic system to second place behind fealty to the leader of a hostile foreign power.

Who in the world ever thought they would see such an event, or hear the president say what he said today in casting doubt on our intelligence experts’ view that Russia sought to influence the outcome of a presidential election?

We have crossed a new threshold in this country. We now are treading on treacherous ground.

If only the so-called “patriots” within the Republican Party — the president’s own party — would stand up and say: Enough is bloody enough!