#69 - The Twilght Zone

Here is the latest from a Fox News poll conducted from 10/22 -10/24 with 2017 registered voters (+/- 3% PTS), regarding the man, the legend, the guy with the “big brain”, President Donald J Trump:

Approval 38%

Disapproval 57%

Not honest / trustworthy 63%

Doesn’t care about people like me 60%

Lacks knowledge to serve effectively 60%

Lacks judgement to serve effectively 60%

Lacks compassion to serve effectively 60%

As someone who has been consistently making all of these points for the better part of 10 months or so, I have to say,

these numbers give me goosebumps.

And let me emphasize the fact that this was a Fox News poll, so if there was any bias in this poll, and I am not saying there was, it would have understated these numbers.

Now while the results of this poll indicate that there is still a large minority of the country who remain hypnotized / bamboozled/ mesmerized / infatuated / intoxicated with the Presidency of Donald J. Trump, it is also an indication that the majority of the country understands that somehow in our recent past, somehow we lost our way, unaware of our own misdirection, and oblivious to the grave error which would cause us to wander into this new, uncharted territory, And it is also an indication that the majority of the country understands, that we can’t get out fast enough.

For on the surface, these numbers are horrific for any sitting president.

Now I’d like to think that my little posts in WMTN(m) in several left leaning politically oriented Facebook groups (the right leaning ones won’t take me) were the turning point and they convinced a small percentage of average Americans “to see the light”, well yes, that would be nice, but, but, but…I know better, a lot better, and that’s because I don’t have the overinflated ego of our President which would permit me the luxury of effortlessly separating truth from reality on a daily basis.  Oh, how I wish I could. 

No, the truth is that DJT’s continuous drop in the polls over the last nine months is entirely his own doing.  He gets all the credit.  Never before in the history of our country have we seen incompetence exhibited on such a consistent basis.   You really have to hand it to the guy, most people would be incapable of screwing up so routinely, dividing our citizens, ignoring the most vulnerable, disrespecting our allies, and insulting our enemies and in the process steering our country, OUR country, into uncharted territory, into..,

“...a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man, a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension which we call the Twilight Zone”.

While the now dearly departed Rod Serling may feel a small amount of redemption for having tried to warn us about this so many years ago, I am certain that he finds no satisfaction in the knowledge that we have landed in the place he knew so well.

And for the sake of our country, I am sure he wants us to get out, I am sure he wants us to find our way back home.

But sadly, Rod can’t help us, we wandered in here all on our own, and so it’s up to us now, to find our own way out.

# 68 - Niger, the Next Benghazi ?

Niger -the Next Benghazi ?

I really, really hope not. The fact that Trump waited two weeks to talk about this does not mean this is a conspiracy,  it's just his typical self-centered stupidity on display,....again.  Its his avoidance gene, which precludes him from every admitting he made a mistake, and it kicks in every time he screws up causes him to... lie and lie and lie. 

It's really a shame we can't get his nose to grow.  I'd pay be bucks to see that.

Yes, Niger needs to be looked at to determine: 

a) what was the military objective?

b) what actually happened?

c) what went wrong? 

d) and most importantly, for the sake of our men and women in military service, what do we need to do to avoid it from happening again?

But that's it friends. One investigation, not 17. 

Some Democrats will look at this as an opportunity for payback for the political posturing
by Republicans who went after Hillary Clinton on the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, relentlessly, over and over and over again, wastefully, and in my opinion, disgracefully, with investigations upon investigation. 

Republicans could not let go of Benghazi, that's because, sad to say, somewhere along their path, they lost sight of their way and concluded that their objective should always be to  put party over country, (said the former Republican).   This is just one of many examples.

Still, I sincerely hope that Democrats will realize that they already have enough crap to take Trump down in the next election (or sooner, if we could be that lucky) without politicizing the loss of four soldiers in the fog of war.    Let the families of these four men mourn their loved ones as peacefully as humanly possible.

Yes, I do hope Democrats can keep it together and show Republicans that there is a better way.  I hope that they can show all Americans what real leadership looks like.  

# 67 - Gold Star Family and the Art of the Lie

Let me distill the politicizing of the loss incurred by our Gold Star Families.  No one is blameless in this shameless endeavor, but once again, DJT and his administration lead the league in offensive fouls because of a now over-used tactic, honed and perfected by President Donald J. Trump over the course of his miserable life, the Art of the Lie. 

1) The absurdity of all this started with DJT.  It always starts with DJT.   DJT made the erroneous statement that Obama and other predecessors never called the families of fallen soldiers, a fact that was successfully disputed about 30 seconds after the words came out of his mouth (DJT Lie #1).

2) This was followed by comments from Congresswomen Frederica Wilson of Florida, a family friend of one of the fallen soldiers killed in Niger.  Wilson was invited by the family to listen to the incoming call from DJT who attempted to offer his condolences.   At best ,DJT was clumsy in his delivery (and Democrats are surprised by this?).  But sadly, Wilson felt compelled to reveal the clumsiness of the Trump conversation about this family’s loss and score political points along the way (Democratic Accurate but Extremely Self-Serving Statement #1).

3) DJT then came out and told the world, the Congresswomen lied about the content of the conversation, a point subsequently refuted by, wait, wait for it….DJT’s own Chief of Staff, John Kelly.  (DJT Lie #2).  When members of the Trump administration can’t even lie in unison…you just have to wonder.

4) Then, Kelly jumped into the fray and was doing an admiral job of defending his boss until, like his boss who never admits an error and responds with more lies, Kelly felt compelled to go in to attack mode.   Kelly accused Wilson of bragging about securing $20 million for a South Florida F.B.I. building and twisting President Barack Obama’s arm to do so.  But  the video, released by The Sun Sentinel, showed that during her nine-minute speech, Ms. Wilson never took credit for getting the money for the building, only for helping pass legislation naming the building after two fallen federal agents. She never mentioned pleading with Mr. Obama, and she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then the House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo; (DJT Lie #3).

For those of this who held out hope that John Kelly would get this administration on the right track, this was incredibly disappointing, as it was now clear that this highly respected individual had now officially been turned to the Dark Side.   Where is Luke Skywalker when we need him?

OK, so now let’s tally up the score.  DJT and his administration outwardly lied three times to make their points, while Congresswoman Wilson spoke the truth but did so to score political points, once.

 

So, The Art of Lie is apparently alive and well and living in the White House.  Unbeknownst to us, this must be the price we have to pay to… Drain the Swamp.  

To put the icing on the cake, when White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took a question about Kelly’s surprising complicity with the Liar-in-Chief, she suggested to the White House Press Corp that it was “highly inappropriate” and inferred it was unpatriotic, to get into a debate with a four star general.  The statement t had most Republicans shaking their heads in dismay….again.

When Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was asked if it was fair to tell Americans that they shouldn’t criticize generals, he simply replied “not in this country”.  

Thank you sir.   As someone who used to lean right, it’s comforting to know that many Republicans still do know the difference between right and wrong.

[Note this is also the same Senator Graham who once called Trump a “race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”  I love it when Republicans channel my inner me.]  

#66 - The Wall of Shame

“It takes a big man to admit a mistake”

Wait. What? Who said that?  

I doubt anyone knows, but it’s my guess that the expression probably evolved when some intelligent, caring individual was trying to encourage a friend, who might have felt slightly ashamed to admit some error, to be honest and forthcoming.   And over time, the expression stuck, because other caring individuals used it to encourage other reluctant friends to be honest as well.  Those offering the guidance understood that any discomfort that comes from the admission of a mistake is fleeting, and once it's past, all is good again.  The expression was always just intended to get their friends over the hump, and it worked. It's frequent use, never implied that it was true, but along the way it became a simple, yet elegant way to teach ordinary men to admit their mistakes.

Because the real truth is, real people, who understand how the real world works

(a) make mistakes all the time,

(b) admit to those mistakes,

(c) apologize for those mistakes,

(d) make corrections, and

(e) most importantly, move on.  

In most cases the whole process takes about as long as it took me to type this sentence.

Most individuals learn this lesson early in their lives.  Sad to say, Donald J. Trump is one of the exceptions.  And for an individual who is so spectacularly incompetent, and on so many levels, it is a shame for him, but worse, it is a disaster for the rest of us, as we are forced to watch it unfold on a daily basis in front our own unbelieving eyes.

Now, I could use this lead-in to talk about any one of a couple hundred unforced errors that have defined the Trump Administration to date. (See posts 1-65), but I can only use it once, so I need to pick wisely.  But it’s an easy call.  It’s the Wall, That’s the one.  It's the perfect lead-in for the Wall.  This was the defining centerpiece of the Trump presidential campaign, so it's only fitting this should be our focus.  And it was back in the news, again, yesterday as Trump has now made building the entire wall along the Mexican border, a requirement of his negotiations with a Democrats over the DACA legislation.  So, yes, let's talk about the Wall.

Perversely, after more than eight months into his new presidency, Mr. Trump cannot give up on his Wall, even after transcripts of his call to the Mexican president on January 27th were released which found him admitting that it's all about the show, it's just political.  

On his discussions with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico around the building and the payment of the Wall, Trump stated:

“I am willing to say that we will work it out, but that means it will come out in the wash and that is okay. But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the Wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important (thing to) talk about.”

Let that sink in

“This is the LEAST important thing that we are talking about, but POLITICALLY this might be the MOST IMPORTANT (thing to) talk about.”

And once more, for effect.

“This is the LEAST important thing that we are talking about, but POLITICALLY this might be the MOST IMPORTANT (thing to) talk about.”

This, from the Republican candidate who said he was going to “drain the swamp”. How do Trump supporters at his rallies who whooped and hollered every time he repeated that phrase reconcile their candidates outright disingenuous commentary, from a politically motivated swamp dweller of the lowest order?

And how does this President respond to the release of the transcripts?  The administration doesn't choose to deny them, but instead they dispatch Attorney General Jeff “I have to do something to get back in his good graces” Sessions to determine the identity of the leaker, and so Sessions considers the use of lie detector tests on the President’s staff.  This apparently is just one many extraordinary benefits of working for this president.

At different times Trump has threatened to shut down the government just to fulfill a campaign promise, that even many of his supporters considered a metaphor for generic border security. Further, the Republican led Senate doesn't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole, and nobody, NOBODY in their right mind believes Mexico is going to pay for it. 

What is even more baffling, is that he has already made great progress in cutting down on illegal border crossings. In July, Fox News contributor and former Trump Campaign operative, Steve Cortes, claimed illegal border crossings were down 70% over the prior year.  Also in July, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told C-SPAN that the significant downturn in the number of illegal border crossers between the U.S. and Mexico is "nothing short of miraculous”.

And so if you voted for Trump based on this metric, then you should be thrilled.  Even better, he did it without spending a dime!  Now it’s true, as part of his immigration crackdown, to send out his message loudly and clearly, Mr. Trump did deport many honest working, (but still illegal) immigrants, and callously ripped them from their families, but in Donald Trump’s view of the world, some good hombres just needed to be sacrificed to rid our country of all the bad hombres. It's just a little collateral damage in his mind.  And why should he be concerned, they didn't vote for him. Mr. Trump has sent a clear and powerful message, to hombres everywhere, get out, we don't want you here.  And by itself, that has been a more powerful deterrent than any costly, physical barrier, which will only cost that much more because of Trump’s promise that...“it will be beautiful”.

I don't agree with his approach at all, but if you measure him solely on the math. it's a win for him, a rare one, but still a win. Now don’t get too excited as this is not a harbinger of future successes to come.  You need only read post #27, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day” to understand.  After all, he is still Donald Trump, and that's not going to change.

Still he wants to spend money on the Wall, even though, foreigners will still come into the country to visit, and may still choose not to leave. Still others will dig tunnels or climb ladders, or come in on parachutes, hot air balloons, catapults, bungee cords and jet packs.  Just as nature adapts, so will people, but they will do so quicker and more efficiently.

Everyone wants tighter border security, including Democrats, but there are smarter ways.  Crack down on the employers and penalize them, secure all borders everywhere through electronic surveillance, add more guards, but the Wall won't help this problem unless you are going to wall every foreigner out and wall the rest of us in.

So why can't he declare the ultimate victory, talk about the accomplishment of reductions in illegal crossings through the sheer force of his own personality and the fear created by his bombastic rhetoric, that no one else could have accomplished.  It's ripe for the taking.

All he has to do is tell the American public: “Hey, we are doing such a great job, we no longer need the Wall, it was a mistake. We found a better way”.

It would be over, his base would still be thrilled, and we could stop wasting the country's time and money on this stupid, stupid, stupid concept.

It would be easy.   A walk in the park.  A piece of cake.

No, it doesn't take a big man to admit a mistake, just a good one.

With Malice Toward None, With Charity For All (…mostly)

www.richardpiccolo.com

#65 - Trump Week In Review - 10.6.17

PUTTING THE PR IN PR - When George W. Bush told his then Director of FEMA, Michael Brown, “Brownie”, that he was doing a great job in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it was laughable, but it only lasted about 12 seconds.  When President Trump arrived on the devastated island of Puerto Rico, reeling from Hurricane Maria, it was clearly for purposes of Public Relations, and the self-congratulatory love fest that kicked off his visit lasted more than 12 minutes, and as a result it was that much more painful to witness.  With only a passing view of the pain and suffering of the residents of Puerto Rico, the focus was clearly on the Trump Brand, as DJT went around the room, teeing up the representatives from the various government groups to let them expound on their own greatness in their response to this natural disaster and to dismiss any dialogue to the contrary as political and fake.  It has never been about Making America Great Again, it's only been about Brand Trump.  If something positive also happens to America, well, that’s just a lucky coincidence.

FROM THE INNER SANCTUM OF TRUMPWORLD- NBC reported it had multiple sources that confirmed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had threatened to resign in July and that said Tillerson referred to President Trump as a moron (aligning his perspective with that of 60+% of the American Public).  When asked about the authenticity of the comment, Tillerson did a typical political pivot common among lifelong Washingtonians, appeared insulted at the question, failed to respond directly, and fell back on the “I’m not from Washington” excuse, adding that “where I come from, we don't deal with petty stuff....Not exactly sure where Tillerson is from, but clearly DJT has never been there.

HONEST REPUBLICAN OF THE WEEK - As reported in Fox News Insider, when asked about a reported feud between the President and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,  Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said “I think Secretary Tillerson, Secretary [of Defense James] Mattis, and Chief of Staff [John] Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos”. That's c-h-a-o-s, spelled T-R-U-M-P ……..the White House tried to spin Corker’s response as if it referred to chaos in the world. Nice try by spin monkeys there, but read the question he was asked, and their excuse fails miserably.

FROM THE “CAN THEY LOOK AT THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR?” DEPARTMENT - President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, as a Georgia congressman railed against the use of private jets by members of Congress, resigned from his post, for … use of private jets.  Republican Congressman Tim Murphy (PA), known largely for his anti-abortion stance promptly resigned his position, once the news came out that … he asked his mistress to have an abortion.

WHEN CORPORATIONS EXHIBIT TRUMPLIKE BEHAVIOR - Facebook, with a mission statement “To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together”, refused to re-release the 3,000+ ads linked to Russian entities and turned over to Congress.  You read that correctly, I said “re-release”, because Facebook was already PAID to release them the first time.  Apparently, full transparency and empowering community are mutually exclusive.  Time to unfriend Mark Zuckerberg.

AMERICANS NO LONGER VOTING WITH THEIR POCKETBOOKS  (Suffolk / USA Today Poll. 9.26 - 10.1) - Despite the stock market being at an all-time high and unemployment at extremely low levels, 64% of American say the country is on the wrong track, while only 24% say country is going in the right direction. 

Further, 57% want Congress to stand up to Trump while just 33% want Congress to cooperate with Trump.  Imagine, Americans now want help from Congress.  Is this the definition of “desperation” in the new millennium?

SADNESS OF THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTING - DJT behaved relatively well in dealing with this horrible tragedy, and for that, we should all be grateful.  In moments like these which shape the psyche of a nation, we want our President to be presidential, even if we disagree with just about everything about him.

37 weeks down, 171 to go.

#64 - The Trump Family's $4+Billion Tax Break

On Wednesday, while speaking about his newly introduced tax plan, President Donald J. Trump
told Americans "I think there’s very little benefit for people of wealth.”

Really? So, how many of you actually buy that one?   I think this one deserves a bit more scrutiny.

On May 17, 2016, then presidential candidate Donald J. Trump filed a new personal financial disclosure form that detailed a net worth of more than $10 billion (Reuters)

$10 billion. Yes, the decimal is in the right place, $10 billion.   Every modern presidential candidate with the exception of Pat Paulson, has released copies of their personal income tax returns, but DJT refused to do so in the past presidential campaign, telling Americans that it wasn't necessary, because the financial disclosure forms actually contained MORE information than his tax returns. Despite ongoing pressure from Democrats, Republicans in congress ignored the matter and didn't make income tax return disclosure a requirement of the campaign, possibly because the little munchkins saw DJT as the wonderful but mysterious wizard and willfully chose to follow him down the yellow brick road, desperately hoping the wizard would fulfill each one of their individual wishes

In the interest of full disclosure, it should be pointed out that several financial organizations such as Bloomberg News estimated DJT's net worth to be closer to $3 billion at the time, but DJT claimed this was fake news at its finest, spread by the liberal elite who were jealous of his greatness.  As always, his audience was his base, and the $10 billion figure, accurate or not, was there to impress all the little people. 

And so if he was worth $10 billion back in May 2016, with markets up over 20% since then, he's probably worth closer to $12 billion today. How could such a great man be worth anything less?

I hope to grow up and be just like him some day.

Fast forward to this week, when DJT announced his new tax plan. 

He had to announce something, for the effort to "Repeal and Replace" the Affordable Care Act was replaced with "Rewind and Regurgitate... Again", and its most recent form, it failed... again (a topic for another day, I promise).

So the new tax plan was pulled out of moth balls, and as we suspected, 
(i) it does very little for the little guy, 
(ii) significantly reduces the income tax burden for the top 1% of income tax earners as it lowers the top income tax rate from 39.6% to 35%, and
(iii) because it's a net tax cut, the country's annual deficits and debt levels will balloon way beyond there already excessive levels. 

Many of my old conservative, and now deceased, good republican friends are rolling over in their graves on the last point. DJT will tell you, worry not, we are going to grow our way out of these deficits, which might be believable if the message didn't come from someone with lower credibility than Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon.

What seems to be getting much less press is the fact that the DJT tax plan also eliminates the estate tax, a.k.a. the death tax.

That's not surprising really, and the reason is the vast majority of Americans aren't impacted by it.  According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 99.8% of estates owe no federal estate tax at all, leaving only the estates of 0.2% of the wealthiest Americans to pay up.  According to the Tax Policy Center, just 4,700 estates were taxable in 2013.

How does the estate tax work? If you have a net worth of $11 million or more, you probably already know, because a married couple can avoid paying estate taxes on this amount, but, and this is the kicker, must pay a 40% federal tax on any excess.  

So if you are in the stratoshere of the ultra-wealthy, this change in the tax law is the holy grail.   And if it passes, just think of all that excess cash that can be freed up to go to in to the new, "Donald Trump is God" Super PAC, which should be up and running around the time the 2020 Presidential election kicks off.

Now while very wealthy individuals can take some steps to lower the impact the estate tax, in the case of the Trump family, based on DJT's personal assessment of his net worth, they could be looking at estate tax bill of roughly $4.8 billion (40% of $12 billion) when the big guy goes to that great big real estate tower in the sky.  Not exactly chump change.

But that all goes away, if he is successful in his effort to repeal the tax, a fact that DJT seemed to ignore when he told Americans  on Wednesday “I don’t benefit. I don’t benefit. In fact, very, very strongly, as you see, I think there’s very little benefit for people of wealth.”

Let's play that one back, again....in slow motion,  so we can all thoroughly grasp his point... THERE'S VERY LITTLE BENEFIT... FOR PEOPLE OF WEALTH

Now I find this remarkable on several levels.  

- First, that DJT can actually make the statement without twitching uncontrollably and exploding like the Hindenburg. 
- Second, that he thinks his base won't be the least bit bothered by his bold face lie.
- And third, that his base won't be the least bit bothered by his bold face lie.

It's just mind bongling, his base seems to epitomize the term "selective recall", as they have the uncanny ability to selectively ignore the collective falsehoods espoused by their man, if they happen to contradict their own personal image of their own personal wizard.

They seem willing to gloss over this massive tax benefit he will deliver to his family and to tolerate absolutely anything he says or does, on any given day, on any given topic, perhaps because they still believe him when he says,

that Mexico will pay for the wall, and it will be beautiful.