Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Proof, Donald, we need proof … yet again!

It’s helpful to keep everything that flies out of Donald J. Trump’s mouth — or shows up on his Twitter feed — in their proper perspective.

It is that the president of the United States is likely to say or tweet whatever the hell pops into his noggin at any time of the day or night.

He now accuses President Obama of wiretapping his Trump Tower offices, allegedly to determine if he had held unauthorized talks with Russian officials before he became president.

Proof? Pffft! Who needs it? Trump seems to ask.

Let us review for a moment a couple of other specious claims that Trump has made.

* He said “thousands and thousands of Muslims cheered” the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t.

* The president said that “millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton” in the 2016 presidential election, giving her the comfortable popular vote margin she scored over Trump while losing the Electoral College. He has yet to prove that, either.

Now this.

Obama had his staff wiretap his office, according to Trump.

No proof has come forward.

How on God’s Earth can we believe anything that this clown keeps saying?

I cannot.

media news, national news, political news

It’s official: Trump has blown himself apart

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After the latest and “greatest” Donald J. Trump tweet-storm — this time regarding his immediate predecessor as president of the United States — I am compelled to ask a simple question.

Can someone explain to me as if I’m a 5-year-old why in the name of all that is holy did 62 million Americans vote for Trump as president?

Trump now says Barack Obama wiretapped the new president’s offices at Trump Tower in New York. He once again offered no evidence. No proof. Nothing to substantiate a single idiotic word he sent out via Twitter.

What’s more, then we get U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican — and former GOP presidential opponent of Trump, saying he is “worried” about the president’s moronic accusation.

What the hell does that mean, senator? Worried? About what?

I can’t tell if he’s worried that the president would resort to such idiocy or he’s worried that there might be something to what he has alleged.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump said in one of his tweets.

President Obama, of course, has denied any such thing ever occurred.

At issue, in case you’ve forgotten, is whether the Trump campaign had any improper or illegal contact with Russian government officials during the campaign or immediately afterward — and before Trump took office. Did they talk about the sanctions that the Obama administration had leveled against the Russians because 17 U.S. intelligence agencies believe they sought to influence the outcome of the election?

Trump now has flipped his beanie. His butter has slipped off his noodles.

Some of us out here warned about Trump’s temperament, his judgment, his fitness for the job he won. The very idea that the president of the United States would launch this Twitter tirade and accuse his predecessor of breaking the law is — all by itself — enough to disqualify this individual from holding any public office.

Then again, I thought so way back when he said Sen. John McCain was a “war hero only because he was captured” by the North Vietnamese and beaten to within an inch of his life while being held captive during the Vietnam War.

My question still stands: How did this clown win a presidential election?

national news, political news

How would Hillary have fared?

I’ve resisted the temptation to ask this question out loud, but I no longer can contain myself.

How would Hillary Rodham Clinton made the transition from private citizen to president of the United States?

I cannot in my wildest imagination think that she would have encountered the problems that have plagued Donald J. Trump, the guy who beat her in the 2016 presidential election.

Russian connection? Inability to find qualified individuals to serve in the Cabinet? Contradictions between what the president says and what he or she means?

None of those issues would be dogging her.

Yes, she’d have her share of issues to settle. The foundation matter; that e-mail controversy; perhaps even Benghazi would continue to fester. Republicans no doubt would ensure those troubles would drag her down.

I am not going to spend too much energy ruminating over this query. I likely won’t have another word to say about how Hillary would have done.

I’m just perplexed at this moment in history at the absolute clumsiness and lack of discipline the president and his senior staff are exhibiting as they seek to get their hands on the complex machinery that operates this federal government of ours.

Hillary Clinton means a lot of things to different people.

She isn’t clumsy. She knows how to govern. She would have zero difficulty assembling her team.

But … we won’t ever know any of that with absolute certainty.

In the meantime, the soap opera at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. continues.

International news

What will it take for Trump to lash out at Putin?

Donald J. Trump is exhibiting a maddening — and frightening — refusal to issue tough talk to Vladimir Putin.

It is baffling to many of us in the extreme. Hell, it’s worse than that! It’s scaring the crap out of me.

Trump tears our allies a new one: the Australian prime minister; the president of Mexico come immediately to mind. The Aussies have died next to our guys on battlefields around the world. The Mexicans are a huge trading partner and we share a lengthy border with them.

The president puts NATO on notice: Pay up or we might not come to your defense if the Russians attack any one of you.

But yet, 17 U.S. intelligence agencies conclude unanimously that Russia sought to influence our election; Trump dismisses their findings. Commentator Bill O’Reilly reminds Trump that Putin “is a killer”; the president says the world has “lots of killers” and adds that the United States isn’t “so innocent.”

The president continues to refuse to release his tax returns so that Americans can see with whom and/or what he does business. Many of us are left to wonder: Does he have some kind of business relationship with Vlad? It’s a fair question, given Trump’s stubborn and, frankly, inexplicable reluctance to talk as tough to Putin as he does to our allies.

Dude, Putin is no friend of this country! He reportedly has ordered the murder of journalists in his country, yet you say the media here are the “enemy of the people”; Putin’s actions against media representatives demonstrates that he share that hideous view.

I’m basically venting at this point. I know Trump isn’t going to do something that little ol’ me wants him to do.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me, I cannot fathom why our president can’t muster up the anger against a guy who in a previous life was spook in chief for the Evil Empire.

business news, national news, political news

Tax return issue just won’t go away

What do you know about that?

Some congressional Republicans have joined their Democratic colleagues in seeking the tax returns of the president of the United States.

Go figure. It seems that some GOP members want Donald J. Trump to disclose once and for all whether he has any business dealings in Russia or has any other kind of relationship with Russian government officials.

The president keeps telling us he doesn’t. He keeps saying it with increasing exasperation. Does he really and truly expect skeptics out here — even in Flyover Trump Country — to take him solely at his word?

The president has broken with tradition set four decades ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Every president since that dark time has released his tax returns. Trump has refused.

Meanwhile all these questions about Russia keep swirling around the president and the White House, around his national security team and now, apparently, around the attorney general of the United States.

As Salon is reporting: “It’s something I feel very, very strongly about,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford told Roll Call this week. Sanford, along with North Carolina Republican Walter Jones signed a letter from New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell calling on the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee to compel the United States Treasury Department to release Trump’s tax returns for congressional review.

Will there be other congressional Republicans who’ll join this chorus? Perhaps. If they do, will the president finally come clean? I have less faith in that happening.

This never has been a matter of nosy Americans wanting to know if Donald Trump is as rich as he says he is. It’s now a matter of urgent national security.

International news

Publicity stunt makes valuable point about a wall

A member of Mexico’s congress has performed a masterful publicity stunt that illustrates something quite nicely about Donald J. Trump’s desire to build a “beautiful wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Braulio Guerra climbed a portion of the wall that’s already been erected. He sat atop it and then boasted about how easy it was to scale it.

He sat 30 feet above the ground.

Hmmm. How does he do that?

The congressman’s point is a valid one. It is that anyone who wants to scale a wall, or tunnel beneath it will find a way. A wall doesn’t protect us any better than what U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies already are doing to ensure our nation’s safety.

In a video he distributed, the congressman said, “It would be simple for me to jump into the United States, which shows that it is unnecessary and totally absurd to build a wall.”

I won’t belabor the point that walling us off from our neighbors is patently in-American on its face. Yet the president of the United States keeps insisting that we’re being inundated with criminals of all stripes who are invading the United States for the sole purpose of preying on Americans.

My wife and I recently visited the border region and witnessed up close a tiny part of what the Border Patrol is doing to protect Americans. Officers are stopping every northbound vehicle at points along the Rio Grande Valley. They quizzed us briefly about our destination, then sent us on our way.

Did they stop anyone? Yes. We witnessed them pulling a motorist over, presumably for more, shall we say, “extreme vetting.”

Can we stop every single illegal immigrant from sneaking into this country? No. We’ve never been able to stop all of them.

A wall won’t do it, either.

media news

Twitter becomes a disgusting weapon

This is one of the things I hate about Twitter.

It can be used for disgraceful purposes, such as what a Chicago man did the other day. Fortunately, it cost him his job.

Daniel Grilo went on Twitter to make a disgusting commentary on the widow of a Navy SEAL who (a) had been killed in combat and (b) had been invited to hear Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president called attention to Carryn Owens, wife of slain SEAL William “Ryan” Owens. She stood and cried while the audience cheered for her. I guess Grilo didn’t like it. So he posted something utterly distasteful about what he had witnessed on television. He tweeted: “Sorry Owens’ wife, you’re not helping yourself or your husband’s memory by standing there and clapping like an idiot. Trump just used you.”

That’s the bad news. The good news — from my standpoint — is that the financial firm for which he was set to start work dismissed him.

I hate a lot of things about Twitter … although I do use it myself. I have fired off more than 14,600 tweets over the years, but I have sought to avoid the kind of personal insults that we too often read on this social medium.

We all get 140 characters to say whatever it is we want to say. I try to be more discreet than the idiocy fired into cyberspace by the likes of Daniel Grilo.

Grilo did apologize to Mrs. Owens and to the president in subsequent tweets. I’m sorry to inform you, dude, the damage was done and as an old friend once told me, “You cannot unhonk a horn.”

entertainment news, national news, political news

Oprah in 2020? Please … no!

I have nothing against Oprah Winfrey as a person, as a media celebrity/mogul, as a highly successful businesswoman.

But this notion making the social media rounds about whether she might run for president of the United States of America in 2020 is driving me a bit nuts.

Oprah apparently said out loud recently that if Donald John Trump can be elected president, then damn near anybody can be elected.

I happen to agree with that assessment.

However, the presidency should not become a playground for the rich and powerful. Oprah has as much public service exposure as Trump. That would be, um, none!

I’m a bit old-fashioned in that regard. I kind of prefer heads of state and heads of government to at least have run for something, anything, that demonstrates a commitment to public service.

Oprah is a celebrity. She’s a star, in fact. She’s made some fine films and has been an eloquent spokeswoman for the causes she deems worth espousing. She’s made Dr. Phil McGraw a star. She faced down some angry Texas Panhandle cattlemen who sued her for defamation because she said on the air that she didn’t think beef was safe to eat.

That’s all fine and dandy.

She ain’t presidential material.

I hope this little mini-tempest settles down quickly.

International news, national news, political news

Not feeling good about potential for Trump trouble

My proverbial trick knee has been quiet of late. I haven’t felt it throbbing in some time.

It’s beginning to send me some signals. I don’t like the message the throbs are sending.

They’re telling me that Donald J. Trump’s troubles are just beginning, that all this Russia chatter has the potential of blowing up badly. There well might be a good bit of collateral damage if it does.

Dan Rather, the former CBS News correspondent/news anchor, thinks the “fuse has been lit” and it’s likely to explode.

Yes, I know that CBS essentially fired Rather after that bogus report he delivered about former President George W. Bush’s National Guard service. But Rather has covered more than his share of political scandals in his lengthy career as a broadcast journalist and he doesn’t like what he’s seeing develop with regard to the president and his possible relationship with Russian government officials.

There have been meetings with Russian envoys, allegedly during the 2016 election. The Russians reportedly tried to influence the election outcome. The Obama administration leveled sanctions against the Russians. The meetings involving Trump campaign officials well might have related to those sanctions.

The national security adviser has been fired. The attorney general has just recused himself from any investigations involving the president and Russia. There are questions swirling all over the nation’s capital about who knew about the Russian contacts and when they knew it.

There seems to be no end — none! — to the inquiries that might swallow up the new president’s administration.

That ol’ trick knee of mine is throbbing. I hate it when it throbs like that. It’s beginning to give me the heebie-jeebies about what might lie ahead for our brand new government.

As Rather wrote on his Facebook page: “We are well past the time for any political niceties or benefits of the doubt. We need an independent and thorough investigation of Russia’s meddling in our democracy and its ties to the president and his allies. We don’t know what we don’t know.”

environmental news, national news, political news, State news

Oops! Perry now leads Energy Department

Rick “Oops” Perry is the new secretary of energy.

The former Texas governor is now in charge of formulating U.S. energy policy and is in charge of managing the nation’s still-massive nuclear arsenal.

He also is another one of Donald J. Trump’s Cabinet appointments who — if you ponder it — is patently unqualified for this job.

He once wanted to get rid of the Energy Department. Do you remember that? He stood on that 2012 Republican Party presidential primary debate stage and said he intended to get rid of three federal agencies if he was elected president.

Except he couldn’t remember the Energy Department, prompting the infamous “oops” response from the governor.

I think I have figured out why the president picked him for this post: His brain freeze amnesia excuses him and gives him license to run the agency he wanted to abolish.

Let us not forget also that the new secretary of energy once said of the president that he is a “cancer on conservatism” that needed to be excised.

Gov. Perry must have been kidding.