Tag Archives: POTUS

media news

Wondering how FLOTUS deals with POTUS’s bullying

If only I could slip into first lady Melania Trump’s skull, even for just a moment, I think I could learn a thing or two about what she really thinks of life with the president of the United States.

The first lady announced her initiative some time ago to crack down on cyberbullying, which has a terrible effect on our nation’s younger generation. It’s a noble cause. It is worthy of the kind of thing that first ladies take on as issues they want to promote during their time in the White House.

However, Melania Trump has been pretty quiet about that initiative. Why do you suppose that’s the case? Oh, wait! It’s probably because her husband keeps up the Twitter tirades, the cyber rants, the outright “bullying” of his political opponents.

Which brings me to the point I made on this blog, along with others around the world, when Melania Trump first announced her initiative: You need to take care of business at home, Mrs. Trump!

Were I to eavesdrop on the Trumps, I am likely to hear the first lady castigate her husband for making her look like a fool. That, of course, presumes she is able to talk frankly and candidly with her husband, the self-proclaimed “stable genius” and the smartest man in human history.

Well, the more I think about it, the more I am inclined to think that she doesn’t have that capability within the residence of the White House. It’s likely a pretty good bet that Donald Trump rules the roost at home much as he tries to rule the West Wing.

The president’s incessant, relentless bullying of foes sets a terrible example for his wife to follow as she seeks to end the bullying scourge among our nation’s children.

Does any of that matter to the Bully in Chief? I’ll give you three guesses … and the first two don’t count.

media news

Et tu, Fox News Channel?

You can quibble till the paint dries about the quality of Fox News Channel’s political coverage. I do on occasion. The network that calls itself “fair and balance” is neither of those things.

However, news hands at FNC are capable of doing good work. They conduct public opinion polling on occasion that raises an eyebrow or two, such as a recent poll showing how Donald Trump matches up against his Democratic opponents.

The most recent Fox poll shows the president, for instance, trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by a margin well outside the margin of error.

The president’s response? He went after the “friendly” network, suggesting it has gone to the dark side by casting him in a negative light. The poll has him “losing big to Sleepy Joe,” Trump said on Twitter.

Good grief, dude. Take a rest from the Twitter machine. I mean, you’ve got important work to do. You are seeking to make America great again, isn’t that right, Mr. President? These constant Twitter tirades make America laughable.

As for what the polls are saying more than a year away from the next election, I’ll answer with two words: President Dukakis.

In 1988, polling had the Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis about 17 points ahead of Vice President George H.W. Bush heading into that year’s election campaign season. The election, um, didn’t turn out that way … you know?

Don’t misunderstand me. I do not want Trump to turn those polls around. If anything, I hope whoever he faces next fall widens the gap and trounces the incumbent badly. He needs to back to … wherever.

So, the president needs to chill out. Get to work. Quit busying yourself with idiotic tweets and assorted blathering about polls with which you disagree.

Donald Trump

‘Stable genius,’ or unstable imbecile?

Oh, my, Mr. President.

You call yourself a “stable genius,” but your latest Twitter tirade/rant suggests to me that your actions are more like those of an unstable imbecile.

What in the name of 21st-century telecommunication are you trying to say here?

I heard about your latest barrage of tweets where you challenge the “fake news media” and suggest that they’ll wither and die once you leave office. And what is this about your assertion about whether you would have been elected without social media?

Mr. President, I have refrained from offering armchair medical diagnoses, unlike other critics out here. Too many folks think they can parse through your babble and make declarations about the state of your mental health.

This latest bombardment, though, seems to lend credence to what the peanut gallery docs keep suggesting, that you’re off your rocker. That you’ve lost (what passes for) your mind. That the pressure is getting to you. That … oh, crap, I don’t know, that you’ve gone around the bend.

I won’t buy in completely with all of that, but these tweets of yours are troublesome in the extreme. They are absolute nonsense.

You are the commander in chief, the leader of the Free World, the man who occupies arguably the most revered office on Earth — with the exception of the Holy Father, of course.

What in the world is going on inside the West Wing?

I am now forced to ask those who still cling to your pronouncements: Are you still proud of the man you installed as president of the United States of America?

As for you, Mr. President … these moronic tweets give many millions of us cause for serious alarm about your stability.

Honest to God in heaven. They do!

International news

Trashing allies: the latest ‘new normal’ in Age of Trump

British Ambassador to the United States Kim Darroch had some unkind things to say about Donald J. Trump.

The unflattering assessment became known only because of leaked memos. Darroch called the Trump administration “inept,” and “incompetent” and assorted other mean things.

The president’s response? He has not been a “fan” of Darroch, who he said has not served the United Kingdom well. He has declared, too, that he is done dealing with the envoy representing one of this nation’s strongest and — until this moment — most reliable international allies.

I am wracking my noggin trying to remember when I’ve ever heard a president of the United States and a leading allied diplomat trade barbs like this. To be candid, the Brit’s remarks weren’t intended for Trump’s eyes and ears; they were meant to be kept internally, within the British foreign ministry. Trump, though, has taken this fight into the public arena, which is he prone to do no matter what.

I am beside myself trying to understand how this continual back-and-forth between Donald Trump and our allies furthers the cause of international diplomacy and understanding. Or how it strengthens this nation.

Or, for that matter, how it makes America great.

national news

Trump met Reagan, but Reagan never said this

Donald Trump’s lying is becoming more expected all the time, if not quite acceptable.

For instance, Trump today retweeted a message that contained this statement, supposedly from President Ronald Reagan:

“When I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with a president.” 

Except that President Reagan didn’t say it. There is no quote attributed to the late 40th president making such a statement about the young real estate investor he met in the late 1980s. The Reagan Library says the statement is false. Politifact calls the statement a “Pants on Fire” lie.

Oh, but here’s the deal: Donald Trump’s glossary of Pants on Fire lies has grown to unfathomable proportions. Trump tells these lies and they seem to roll off our collective backs.

Trump tells a whopper? Hey, it’s no longer a big deal. He defames individuals with scurrilous gossip and innuendo? No sweat, man. Trump mischaracterizes historical events with more lies? Pfftt! Who cares?

Well, I care. So should you. So should any American who believes truth-telling ought to be an essential requirement in the individual who takes an oath to defend and protect us against our enemies and to honor the Constitution of the United States.

Telling the truth is not part of this president’s DNA. He cannot speak the truth. He dredges up fabrications, such as what he did today with that ridiculous lie about President Reagan. I am forced to ask: To what end? For what purpose? Why does this man insist on lying when he need not do so?

So help me, this man makes me sick.

legal news

Trump and this guy are pals? What the … ?

What in the world is going on here?

Jeffrey Epstein, a New York financier, socialite and mega-rich guy has been charged with sex trafficking involving underage girls. The charges stem reportedly from a decade-old case.

Now we hear that one of Epstein’s BFFs, a fellow named Donald Trump, has yammered about what a “great guy” Epstein is and how Epstein likes the company of beautiful women, some of whom are, um, a good bit younger.

These are federal charges which — if you’re following the news over the past year or so — means that the president of the United States could actually pardon this guy of the crimes for which he has been charged. Of course, I refer to the president being the same Donald Trump who talked about Epstein being such a great guy.

It’s fair as well to wonder: Is there a connection of any kind between this individual’s alleged misconduct with girls and the president of the United States who’s been charged with assorted allegations of sexual assault?

Oh, I almost forgot. We have the matter involving a former Florida federal prosecutor who didn’t file charges against Epstein when they first surfaced. That ex-legal eagle is now Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. It’s a tangled web, indeed … yes?

I just had to ask.

This Epstein matter has the potential of growing some serious legs, if you know what I mean.

national news

POTUS is teeing it up … again, and again, and again!

I follow Robert Reich on Facebook partly because I agree with his political world view, but also partly because he thinks the same way I do about certain politicians … such as Donald John Trump, just to cite the obvious example.

Here is what the former Clinton administration labor secretary wrote today about the current president:

Trump’s golf trips have now cost taxpayers an estimated $108 million dollars. One of the major expenses is his use of military helicopters to fly short distances to his resorts in Northern Virginia and New Jersey.

Remember, this is the same man who railed against Barack Obama, and vowed “he wouldn’t have time to golf” as president. Meanwhile, he is draining the treasury to fund his hobby while cutting programs for low-income and middle-class Americans. Shameful.

Ignore that Reich wrote “dollars” while using the dollar symbol. His point is spot on.

Trump’s hideous criticism of Barack Obama’s golf outings missed the point by a mile. The point, which I have sought to make on this blog, is that president’s are never “off the clock.” I didn’t begrudge Obama’s golf outings when he served as president and, truthfully, I don’t begrudge Trump’s golf excursions now.

Except that Trump made such an a** of himself criticizing President Obama that he now exposes himself to criticism from those who like to point that he “lied” about having “no time for golf” once he became president. Trump told he would be just too damn busy “making America great again.”

America is just as great now as it was when Trump took office — at least I think it is.

If only the president had kept his pie hole shut while campaigning for the office. He wouldn’t have exposed himself to be the lying hypocrite that he is.

However, do the legions of Trumpkins out there care that they are lining up behind an unreconstructed liar? Hardly!

national news

Baffled over ‘airport’ gaffe by POTUS

I need to visit briefly one of the goofy moments that developed during Donald Trump’s “Salute to America” speech Thursday in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

He referred to the revolutionary soldiers taking the “airports” while they fought for the nation’s independence — more than 125 years before the invention of the airplane.

I have questioned whether the presidential speechwriter penned that passage into Trump’s prepared text. If that was the case, was there no one on the staff who read it prior to the president delivering it? Did they not recognize the obvious error that the text contained? If they didn’t notice, were they asleep at the wheel? If they did notice, did they  ignore it to, um, embarrass the commander in chief?

Or did the president, pardon the pun, wing it at that moment, thinking it was a clever addition to the text that had been prepared for him by the “best people” who comprise his speechwriting team.

I just find it weird in the extreme that the president of the United States would make such an egregious error in that particular event.

No need to remind me that presidents are human, that they are entitled to make verbal mistakes on occasion. I get it. However, this president had weeks — indeed, months — to prepare for an event he pledged would be the greatest tribute to America the nation has ever seen.

Oh, wait! He was making a joke! Isn’t that what happened?

national news

‘She’s not my type’?

OK, Mr. President, here is what I heard you say in response to the allegation from writer E. Jean Carroll that you attacked her some years ago.

She says you raped her. You contend it didn’t happen.

Then you said, “She’s not my type.”

Is that some sort of an admission, Mr. President, that if E. Jean Carroll was your “type” that you might have, oh, sought to have your way with her? I mean, you admitted to such boorish behavior in that “Access Hollywood” interview you did in 2005 with Billy Bush, correct? That was you on the recording who said you could grab women by their “pu***,” because you’re such a “celebrity.” Wasn’t it?

Of course, no one can corroborate what she accused you of doing, although a couple of individuals she allegedly told at the time have confirmed that she did tell them “in the moment” that you did what she alleged. Oh, and your statement about having never “met” her has been more or less debunked by that picture of the two of you yukking it up; I believe your first wife Ivana is present in the picture, too. Hey, maybe we ought to ask her. Don’t you think?

This “not my type” denial, Mr. President, is your typically crass response to these serious allegations.

It just goes to show — at least it does to me — what a sickening individual you are.

national news

Bernie still singing off the same song sheet

I just have to get this off my chest: Bernie Sanders annoys me.

The independent senator from Vermont is running for president once again. He sought the Democratic Party nomination in 2016, but fell short of the delegates he needed.

He’s back in the game this year, again as a Democrat.

Why the annoyance? He is singing off the same song sheet he used in the previous election. When given free rein to talk about the issues of the day, he turns to his favorite: income inequality. 

OK, it’s not an unreasonable issue. However, the senator needs to immediately expand his list of talking points. The presidency requires its occupant to focus on a wide range of issues. The war against terror? Russia’s election interference? Syria? NATO? The future of the European Union? Trade policy? Infrastructure repair and rebuilding? Budget deficits and the national debt?

It always turns back to income inequality. All of it. It never seems to fail.

Sen. Sanders has had his day. He came up short the previous time. There now are 24 actual Democrats running for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

I know what you’re thinking. So has Joe Biden had his day. He has run twice for president already. He came up far short both times. Barack Obama selected him to serve as vice president, a task he performed well for two terms.

I just am hearing a more well-rounded, diverse and global list of issues that are driving his candidacy.

Start talking to us, Sen. Sanders, about something other than income inequality. Oh, and tell us just how we will be able to afford to send every student to college for free.