#110 - You Get What You Pay For

I know my wife thinks I am cheap sometimes. She never says it, but I know. But I like to think I am a just a value shopper.  I want to get my money’s worth. I want to know that as the years go by, I won’t look back and be unsatisfied with my purchase.   I don’t want to suffer… any buyer’s remorse.

But Donald Trump, Donald Trump wants a steal. Life is a series of transactions for the Donald, where he expects to be the undisputed winner.  The Art of the Deal guru likes to go mano a mano and come out on top, every minute of every day.  Whether it’s the venders he has abused over the years, the students of Trump University he defrauded or the debt holders he stiffed in his bankruptcy filings, Donald is always looking to take advantage of an opportunity, or an opponent.

So when Paul Manafort offered to work for the Trump’s Presidential campaign for ...FREE, Donald Trump didn’t think twice.  This  smooth talking operative with GOP street cred dating back to Ronald Reagan, who had the smart sense to actually own an apartment in Trump Tower, and who, most importantly, looked damn good in his very expensive, custom made, suits would be perfect for the Trump campaign.  As to his willingness to work for free?  Well, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to work for….the Donald?

Donny’s dad clearly never had the “Nothing in life is free, my son” speech that every other red, white and blue American received at some point during their formative years from one of their parental units.  And so, without a moment’s hesitation, Donny boy made his purchase, and now he was joined at the hip with this man.

Fast forward two and half years, on the day that Hurricane Florence rocked the North Carolina coast, Paul Manafort rocked the political world

In a case involving Manafort’s work as a political consultant in Ukraine, where his 10+ years of criminal activity would have put him away for the rest of his natural life, Manafort agreed to tell all he knows to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as part of a plea deal that could put together any missing pieces to the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.  Manafort agreed to an open-ended arrangement that requires him to answer “fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” questions about “any and all matters” the government wants to ask…without his lawyers present. 

BINGO.  I’ve got BINGO.

Now, now.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  And that’s exactly what I don’t want.  So, Instead of looking ahead, let’s just look at where we are.  Let’s just look at what we know.  Let’s just look at the facts.

Manafort is the fifth player in the Trump campaign, and the undisputed crown jewel, to plead guilty to criminal activity and to agree to cooperate with the Federal Government.  In addition to Manafort, Trump’s second campaign chairman, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, national security adviser, personal lawyer and foreign policy aide have all become founding members of the Trump Campaign Choir, and have all agreed to sing loudly and long to the sweet sounds of truth, justice and the American way.

In truth, we don’t know if the President is guilty of anything at this point.  But at this point, does it even matter? This is the guy who promised us, he would run the country like a business, and he would hire the best and the brightest, Really? Out of 330 million Americans to choose from, these are Donald’s go-to guys? 

There is so much that is wrong with the Trump Presidency, it will be a gold mine for presidential historians for years to come, and this is just but one sorry symptom.   In Paul Manafort, Donald Trump got what he paid for, because… he didn’t pay a thing, and now, he may pay the utlimate price.

In the hiring of Paul Manafort, we have a metaphor for the entire Trump Presidency. Just think about the buyers’ remorse of the long time Trump supporters, who thought they were buying in to the man who would make America great again, who would drain the swamp, who would repeal and replace, who would eliminate the deficit who would…unite the country.

They were as guilty as Trump was.  They fell for the equivalent of an ordinary shyster’s get-rich-quick scheme.  They bought into the magic elixir that would cure all their ills.  The decision seemed simple,  Donald Trump was the quick, easy fix.  They never considered the down side, they never considered the hidden cost.  They too forgot that.. nothing in life is free.  They too forgot, that…you get what you pay for.  

The desk in the Oval Office of the White House is supposed to be reserved for the best and brightest our country has to offer, for real leaders who are battle tested and who will represent all Americans. It is supposed to be reserved only for those who truly understood that the office of the President is so much bigger than the man sitting in it.  

In Donald Trump, we bought ourselves a tin can version of a president.  In Donald Trump we bought… a lemon, but sadly there is no lemon law for the buyers' remorse that comes with the purchase of an incompetent and immoral president. 

It is a fixed four year lease, and we own it.

#107 - The Week Ending 8.17.18 in the Age of Trump

Every week in Age of Trump is a new adventure, not a Raiders of the Lost Ark type of adventure, but one in which historians will look back and find a treasure trove of rich and relevant material when they begin to document, for generations to come, how America lost its way.

Here are just a few story lines which caught my eye last week.

o The prosecution in the Paul Manafort trial rested, and the defense did too, interestingly enough, without offering a defense.   Apparently they were so tired listening to the mountain of evidence against the ostrich-wearing, tax fraud and former campaign chairman for President Trump, they just gave up.  That’s one theory anyway.   The more popular thought is that theyknow that Donny Boy will simply issue Manafort his ‘Get out of Jail Free” card less than one week after his conviction comes down and his “throw away the key” sentence is doled out. 

o By my count, exactly 11 players exhibited some form of protest during the national anthem in the first week of the NFL pre-season (3 Eagles, 3 Jaguars, 3 Seahawks and 2 Dolphins).  These 11 represent less than .5% of the 2,340 players currently on NFL rosters.  Despite this, Trump’s August 10th tweet referenced “NUMEROUS players, from different teams, wanted to show their outrage” and said they “should be suspended without pay”.  These “numerous” 11 players seem to get a lot more attention from our President, while the 565 refugee children who still remain separated from their parents don’t even rate a tweet.  Maybe the President with the big brain needs as remedial math course in order to help him focus on the larger and more important matters.

o Steven Miller, the architect of the Trump Muslim ban (yes, let’s call it by its real name) and the separation of refugee children from their parents was strikingly dressed down by his own uncle in a Washington Post Editorial entitled “Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle”. Dr. David S. Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist formerly of the Boston University School of Medicine, stated that if his nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, his family would have been wiped out. According to Dr. Glosser, his family came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the “America first” nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. And sadly he noted that only seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in their village of Antopol, Belarus survived the Holocaust.  Before this story broke, Miller was a leading contender for the biggest scumbag in an administration of scumbags.  With his own uncle’s latest revelation, he has now vaulted into the pole position.

o Family feuds in the White House were the theme of the week as Kellyanne Conway got into a public spat with her husband over his critical comments about the President . During an interview with Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, Conway complained that her husband’s recent tweets about Trump were “disrespectful” and possibly violated their “marital vows”.  A violation of their marital vows….for having a different opinion, for not drinking the Kool Aid.  It’s  hard to make this up, but with the President now doing his level best to stifle the free speech of his opponents, it looks like Kellyanne thought she would get in the act and decided she would warm up …by dumping on her husband first.

o Omarosa Manigault Newman began the Omarosa Book Tour with lessons learned from her mentor.  The highly paid former Assistant to the President, who was fired in week 10 of the 13 episode first season of the Apprentice, was the only contestant to go 0 for 3 as Project Manager and to offer to have sex with Piers Morgan just to spice up the story line.  Impressive credentials, to say the least.  Omarosa’s first shots were to call “Trump a racist” and declare that “This is an administration where everybody lies”.  Ho-hum Omarosa, tell us something we don’t already know. The White House Office of Personnel has been sifting through resumes for months looking for an adequate replacement for the controversial Apprentice star.  Maybe Gary Busey and Meatloaf are still available.  .

o Trump advocated a boycott of Harley Davidson after they announced they were moving production off shore to deal with tariffs now in play courtesy of the Trump administration. Capitalism, it’s now a crime, who knew?

o Trump sent a message to the entire national security community that dissent with him for any reason will result in personal punishment when he revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. The reason this is so remarkable is that it came from the White House and was never run by Trump’s own intelligence officials.  Many Trump supporters viewed it as a show of great strength from this great man.   The Wall Street Journal called it petty.  And others declared it was a way for the President to distract from the Omarosa Tapes.  If that's true, with a rumored 200 tapes still to go, we should expect to see many more revocations before the final season of this reality TV show comes to a close.

o One last interesting development, a new Gallup poll out last week showed that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 39% while his disapproval rating increased to 56%. 

Perhaps it is now beginning to dawn on a few open minded Trump supporters, that despite all of the adventures, week in, week out, and despite their own earlier desires for disruption, that the grass is not really any greener on the other side.  Perhaps they now see, that it’s turning brown.

#106 - Donny's Latest "Let the Rich Get Richer" Tax Scheme

At the bottom of this post you will find various definitions of ‘cost’ from (i) dictionary.com, (ii) Wikipedia, (iii) generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and (iv) the US tax code

In each case the definition discusses cost as an amount paid, where money is expended, where the money is tied up and no longer available for use.  In none of these definitions do you see the word “inflation”.

OK, what does this have to do with anything ? Bear with me a moment and it will all become clear

Steve Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury and Emperor Trump apparently believe that their god-given powers allow them to re-write over 100 years of established tax law while completely bypassing Congress.  The fact that no other president in the last century never reached this same conclusion, doesn’t matter to this administration, which just makes up new shit every day.

The New York Time’s first reported this late yesterday, stating that the Trump administration is studying this very possibility.  The specific idea is that the Treasury Department would change the definition of cost to include... an inflationary component.  Let me provide a simple example to explain the impact of this.

Under today’s tax law, if you bought a share of stock for $100 ten years ago, and sold it for $200 today, you would have a long term capital gain of $100 and would have to pay a 28% federal capital gains tax or $28.  Under the Emperor’s new rules that $100 cost basis would be adjusted for inflation, so over 10 years the cost basis might rise to say, $150, and the long term capital gain would be reduced to $50 ($200 - $150).  In this example the capital gains tax would be cut in half to $14.

Not bad if you are a rich old white guy with a huge ego who believes his richness is a direct result of his very large brain. 

This is simply a boondoggle for the ultra rich who have tons of unrealized long term capital gains just sitting on their books waiting for Emperor Trump to come along

                                                      

The Times sites an independent analysis from Wharton School of Finance, that fine Ivy League institution that still can’t come to grips with the fact that they actually gave the Emperor a diploma a half a century back, which suggest that more than 97 percent of the benefits of indexing capital gains for inflation would go to the top 10 percent of income earners in America. Further, nearly two-thirds of the benefits would go to the super wealthy — the top 0.1 percent of American income earners.  The cost to America will be $109 Billion over the next 11 years

The Times report was confirmed later today when a Treasury official told FOX Business that the economic impact of indexing capital gains to inflation was being evaluated by the administration.

The kicker here is that if  the Trump Administration goes through with this, yes it will eventually get overturned in the courts who will appropriately rule that this power belongs to Congress and that the Emperor really isn’t an emperor e,ven though he thinks he is.  But by the time that happens, it will be too late. You see by then, Donny Jr. and Eric will have teed up and executed a bunch of sales to take advantage of this temporary tax windfall, maybe so they can finally pay down all that Russian debt and laugh all the way to the bank.

Welcome to the New Republican Party. Welcome to the draining of the swamp.  Welcome to the greatness of America.

Nothing the Emperor does any more surprises me, but I really wonder how the rank and file of the Trump base will feel it finally dawns on them, that they were just being used as pawns in the Emperor’s “allow the rich to just get richer” scheme. 

How will they feel when they finally wake up one day and sadly realize that unbeknownst to them, they had been the ones playing the role of the fool all along.

**********************************************************

Definitions of ‘cost’:

Dictionary. Com.   the price paid to acquire, produce, accomplish, or maintain anything

Wikipedia - cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost.

Generally accepted accounting principles hold that the cost principle requires that assets be recorded at the cash amount (or its equivalent) at the time that an asset is acquired. It may be one of the most important underlying guidelines in all of GAAP. 

US Tax Code - Cost basis is the original value of an asset for tax purposes, usually the purchase price, adjusted for stock splits, dividends and return of capital distributions.

#105 - Romancing the Vlad

Donald J. Trump: "I could stand In the middle of Fifth Avenue and French Kiss Vladimir Putin and I wouldn't lose any votersl”

 

OK , you got me, he didn't say that, but it certainly sounds like he did, right?  Admit it though,  for a second there, I had you.   And we all know….he was thinking it. 

Following the end of the Trump/Putin summit in Helsinki which every clear thinking American appreciated was an unmitigated disaster for numerous reasons which don’t need repeating here, even a large number of Republicans came out and condemned Trump’s performance.  Some of the responses were direct and honest (manipulated by Putin...the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory) while others were more muted (not well prepared... misguided).

Still, the weekend poles came in, and to no one’s surprise, 66% of Republicans approved of the president’s handling of the Helsinki Summit, and 88% of Republicans still support this President

Please someone, explain this to me.  Who are these people?  

It seems like a reasonable thing to ask.  Any independent thinker would look at all of his statements, his tweets and his actions regarding both the NATO meetings and the Helsinki Summit and just be completely bewildered.  In Helsinki specifically, he had an opportunity to turn this into something positive for the country and more importantly (in his eyes anyway), for himself.  The stage was set and the curtain drawn, but instead of showing strength against Vladimir Putin, which would have been a slam dunk win, he self-destructed and wilted like a dying weed, and the worst part was, he didn’t even know it.

So, who are these 80+% of Republicans? And what are they thinking?  Don’t they realize the harm he is causing to our allies and the aid he is providing our enemy?  Understanding his base, his supporters, is something I have struggled with for some time. And in the absence of clarity from reputable sources, I am left with more questions.   

1)     Do they just not watch the news at all? This does not make them dumb or deplorable, but it would mean they are uninformed and clearly apathetic. 

2)     Do they simply focus on domestic policy, but ignore geo-political issues?  

3)     Is their only source of news, Fox News? And specifically the Fox News of Sean Hannity?  Do they essentially only hear, what they want to hear?

4)     Do they believe that the summit actually was a complete disaster, but won’t admit it?  For them, is it just better to double down and ignore the President's words and actions… because, he is better than Hillary Clinton?  

5)     Are they so fixated on their personnel single agenda items (pro-life, guns, immigration, taxes, deregulation, trade) that these issues are so paramount to them that nothing else, including treason-like (note, I did not say treasonous) behavior matter

6)     Do they perhaps believe that we should make nice with Russia to avoid a possible nuclear confrontation?

7)     Are they all just descendants of Russian spies sent to live here a couple of generations back by Nikita Khrushchev and they are just now coming out of the closet to root for the Motherland?

OK, #7 is a bit of stretch, but if you've ever watched The Americans, the thought would hit you too . 

It’s just mind boggling that we have a President who can embarrass our country the way he did, and his base will still remain set in their ways, blindlessly convinced that their guy can do wrong.   When black football players kneel at the national anthem (not sit or moon or flip the bird, but kneel) as a form of protest, they should be fired, but when Donald Trump acts like he has been compromised by Vladimir Putin, we should stand by our man.

When our country was the victim of surprise attacks at Pearl Harbor and on 9/11 our leaders rallied the country together to fight back.  In those defining moments, partisanship was left at the border and we moved forward together.  When Russia, according to everyone in our intelligence community, meddled in the 2016 Presidential election, Trump, for his own self-serving purposes that we can’t comprehend, has actually used this attack to divide us.  And while the scale of Russia’s attack pales in comparison to those horrific events for there was no loss of life, the disruption it caused was incalculable.  

For when Trump was elected President, Russia had to conclude that for its small investment in time and technology, they had hit the mother load.

#104 - The Propaganda of Sean Hannity

I realize now why Trump Supporters seem so myopic, why they appear to ignore reality, why they believe their guy is the second coming of Christ, and why they have been blind to the fact that President Trump is a pathological liar.

These are questions I have considered for some time, and now it seems there is a simple explanation to all of them after all. 

You see, I watched Shawn Hannity last night.  And now, everything is crystal clear

I watched all 60 minutes of Hannity and believe me, it was painful.  I felt like I needed a shower 20 minutes in.  The rest of the news world was exploding over the critical take-away from the despicable Helsinki summit, that Trump chose to side with Vladimir Putin over the evidence presented by his own intelligence agencies on the topic of Russian election interference, because as Trump said, Putin denied it strongly and forcefully. 

And Hannity, Sean Hannity the king of conservative Fox News Channel….simply ignored it.  It never came up once.   Not once.   Not even a passing reference, no mention.  Zilch.  You see, in Hannity’s world, it ….just never happened.   Like magic…poof, it was gone.

This was so stunning to me, I thought maybe I was wrong, maybe I missed it or fell asleep, or passed out from the extreme nauseousness of Hannity’s Garbage In, Garbage Out style of journalism.  So to be sure of my facts, I got up at 4:30 this morning and watched the same 60 minutes over again a second time.  I am not lying, I did.  I had to be 100% sure that I was right, and it turns out, I was. I hadn’t missed a thing, because in Hannity World, it simply never happened. 

I have to admit it was brilliant.  I knew that Hannity was a shrewd manipulator, but he outdid himself last night.  He used the protest by democrats about Trump’s embarrassing, shameful, unpatriotic, possibly treasonous comments to paint the Left and the Liberal media as crazy, half wits, without ever disclosing to his audience the reason for those comments.  He positioned it that the Left had no reason to react this way and said they had planned a predetermined over reaction to Trump's masterful summit, even before the summit began.  It was brilliant.  It was smoke and mirrors on steroids.  That he had the audacity to pull this off should surprise no one.  That he was comfortable in grotesquely misrepresenting reality to his audience, knowing that they would never catch on, is the scary part.

In addition to ignoring the most important fact in the miserable history of the Trump administration, Hannity took the “best defense is a good offense” approach to politics and went on to cherry pick a litany of historical Trump talking points .  He was all over the map offering a rehash of the best Fox inspired propaganda with an occasional reference to the summit itself, just to make it all seem current and on topic, when it was anything but.

Hannity’s rant points include the following:

• The Left is peddling new conspiracy theories.  They act like the sky is falling
• A New York Times cartoon showing Trump and Putin as lovers was atrocious.
• Former CIA director John Brennan is a communist
• Where is the location of the Clinton server? Where are the 33,000 emails?
• And this was a new one that I hadn’t heard before….that Barack Obama tried to oust the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using election interference
• There is important diplomacy here, there is a new sheriff in town. He is not weak like Obama.
• Liberals on the Left couldn’t keep up with the speed of everything, they couldn’t keep up with the speed of Trump.  The Left is in total freak out mode. 
• Every major country in the world engages in election interference.
• It was a predetermined outcome, based on their blind hatred, apocalyptic and pathological position.
• The Left is acting like the sky is falling
• The President has never been afraid to call out other leaders
• The mainstream media is corrupt.
• Trump is not giving $150 billion to Iran
• Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are a disgrace to our country
• The economy is doing great, there is great progress on North Korea
• Donald Trump’s success is something the Left just can't stand

While Republicans all over the country were hanging their heads in shame, having witnessed first hand the epoch shit show of all Presidential summits, and despite a title wave of condemnation from the US and all corners of the free world (or what's left of it) Hannity never ever once addressed the elephant in the room.  He never once referenced Trump’s shameless commentary.

In a follow up interview with Trump after the conclusion of the summit.  Hannity served up the greatest softball question of all time, it was so soft mind you, that he turned it into a statement so that Trump couldn’t possibly flub one more thing on this already horrific day

He  told the President “And Putin confirmed they have nothing on you!”

Shawn Hannity was offering up Vladimir Putin as the definitive proof statement that Trump had no motivation to suck up to this miserable dictator and that no collusion had occurred.  And he did it with a straight face.

I feel so much better now, don’t you?

Many avid Trump supporters only get their news from a few Fox News talking heads, so they have no real idea what is happening in the world.  Between Trump's Twitter feed and Hanity's disregard of the truth, they are stuck in limbo, lost in a make believe world.  They are not all bad people, and they are not all deplorable, it’s just that some are weak and they have have been swayed by style and form of propaganda that would make Joseph Goebbels smile.  We need to convince them that the Fox News / Trump twitter feed combo is the greatest threat to the future of our country (after Russian election interference that is)

Looking ahead, we should all  do our part to try and expand their horizons and get them to think outside the FOX box, so to speak.   Doing this is the most productive thing we can do, in the Age of Trump.

I started to watch Laura Ingraham at the 10:00 hour, but by then I was sick and vomiting profusely and just had to go to bed.   I recorded her show however, and I will report on Ingram’s take, after I get my strength back. 

#103 - The Patriotism of Donald Trump

So now Donald Trump is blaming Barack Obama for failure to stop the Russian election interference, that same Russian election interference that he enthusiastically egged on during his own Presidential campaign.  

Can someone please explain to me, how anyone can believe this knucklehead...on anything?

Let's not forget that Obama reached out to Mitch McConnell, America's Chief Obstruction Officer, about Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election the month before the election, but McConnell refused to sign on to a bipartisan statement of condemnation.  You're not surprised are you?  I have written several times about McConnell's obstructionist, party over country, swamp-like behavior, and this was just one of many disgusting acts, but it does stand out.  When a Democratic president asked the Republican Senate Majority Leader to put party politics aside, to be a true patriot and send a message to our country's biggest enemy, the Senate Majority Leader didn't think twice about doing the right thing.  He did the right thing ...for his party that is, and kept his silence.   

Of course, Trump conveniently ignores this fact in his attempt to blame Obama for his own failure to take Russian election interference seriously.  

I have written sparingly about the topic of Russian election interference, in part because as of the date of this posting anyway, no Americans have been indited and convicted of collusion or obstruction of justice, but also because there is so much stupidity, incompetence and hatred on display within the Trump administration, that there is more than enough material for someone who still has a day job to write about.   But the indictments against another dozen Russian military members announced by Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the detailed accounts showcase the reality of the attacks on our democracy by the Putin led government and should insult all Americans.  All patriotic Americans anyway.

Donald Trump does not see it this way.  Regarding his upcoming meeting/summit with Putin in Helsinki tomorrow, he says he will ask Putin about Russian involvement in our election.  Ask?  He will ask? What is there to ask?  Sorry, Mr. President, as the so-called leader of the Free World, it is your duty and responsibility to show strength against our enemy and tell our enemy  that we know what they did, that we know he was behind it, and that we won't tolerate it. This is a position maintained by key members of your own administration up and down the line and all you are going to do is ask?   What is wrong with you?   How weak can you be?  This is no longer a debate.  Please Mr. President, show a little backbone when it really matters, not just when its politically convenient.

In an interview in Scotland with CBS Evening News on Saturday Trump continued to criticize the special counsel's Russia investigation, saying it is having an impact on America's standing in the world. "I think we're greatly hampered by this whole witch hunt that's going on in the United States," the president said. "I think it hurts our relationship with Russia. I actually think it hurts our relationship with a lot of countries. I think it's a disgrace what's going on."

Let me get this straight?  Our investigation of Russian election interference hurts our relationship with Russia?  And its a disgrace?!  But....aren't we concerned about Russia?  Just a little bit even?

Trump supporters will deny this, but Donald Trump has a perverse view of patriotism, and he pulls it out only to serves his own selfish purpose.  When NFL players knelt during the national anthem to protest oppression of people of color, he purposely took a small issue and made it bigger.  His divisive commentary was another vile attempt to belittle and denigrate those who disagree with him, by questioning their patriotism in order to use it to fit his own minuscule political purpose.  This made him appear strong to his base, and they ate it up.  But when a really big issue should be made bigger, when real patriotism is required, when Vladimir Putin and Russia attack us, instead of walking tall and carrying a big stick, he calls much of the news media the enemy of the people,  declares the European Union our foe and blames it all on his predecessor.

Welcome to the Patriotism of Donald Trump.

Its hard to comprehend and makes no rational sense. Maybe he is just confused, Maybe he is just trying to buy time.  Maybe he is just waiting for his next orders from the Kremlin.

As I type these words, as unbelievable as I admit this notion is, it is the only logical explanation which fits all the facts.

#102 - Mitch McConnell, the Second Most Dispicable Man in American Politics

President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanough to the Supreme Court was a disturbing reminder to many Democrats that sometimes life is not fair, that sometimes rich, powerful and selfish men will abuse power simply because, they can.

On February 13, 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, Texas  Ten days later, the 11 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed a letter to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell stating their intention to withhold consent on any nominee made by President Obama, and that no hearings would occur until after January 20, 2017, when the next president takes office.

With this action, a new political battle line was literally invented overnight. The battle to restrict a sitting President’s constitutional authority had begun. 

On March 16, 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a moderate by almost everyone's definition, but it didn’t matter.  Immediately thereafter, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to block President Obama's Supreme Court nomination, saying the American people should have a "voice" in the process.  McConnell said that the "the decision the Senate made weeks ago remains about a principle, not a person."

It’s not clear to what principle McConnell was referring, for over the course of American history, there have been 24 instances in which presidents in the last year of a term have nominated individuals for the Supreme Court and the Senate confirmed 21 of these nominees.  In no cases were the nominations simply...stalled.  

Perhaps it was the principal employed by all self-serving, despicable, arrogant, outrageous men throughout the course of history that the end justifies the means.   It’s the only possible explanation, for Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the President 'shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... judges of the Supreme Court'.   Though the Senate may ultimately choose not to consent to the president's nominee, under its constitutional responsibility, refusing to perform its ‘advice and consent’ role, was unprecedented   And yet that is exactly what Mitch McConnell did.

So Garland’s nomination never saw the light of day, and McConnell eventually completed his criminal fait accompli shortly after President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court when he eliminated the filibuster rule in the senate, which would have required 60 votes to confirm.  Gorsuch was subsequently approved along purely partisan lines by a vote of 54-45.

In an August 2016 speech in Kentucky, Senator McConnell said, "One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy. 

One of Mitch’s proudest moment was his proactive and clear dereliction of duty.  If he had been in the military, his actions would have led to a court martial, but within the confines of the sick and twisted minds of many Republicans, his actions were celebrated.

I am old enough to remember a time when Republicans, real members of the Grand Ol’ Party used to hold real principals dear.  I remember when they used to stand for something. I remember when Republicans in Congress had….integrity. 

Hell...I even used to vote Republican.

But this is not your father’s GOP.  And in the shadow of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, it’s a reminder to those who believe in honesty, integrity and in justice, that even before there was a Donald Trump, there was a Mitch McConnell. 

#101 - Failure at The Red Hen

Look, I understand why the co-owner of the Red Hen politely asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave her restaurant. But if I could speak with her directly, I would tell her, she was just shooting her cause in the foot.  For a brief moment yes, it allowed her to feel good, but really, what good did it do?  Nothing was accomplished. 

Stephanie Wilkinson, the co-owner of the restaurant, said she asked Sanders and her family to leave because of previous comments she had made defending the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military members.

Wilkinson explained that the restaurant employs several LGBT employees, some of whom voiced concerns over having to serve Huckabee Sanders and said she took her actions in order to uphold her morals.

That sounds fair, on the surface perhaps, but it doesn’t excuse what would normally be described before the Age of Trump anyway, as rude behavior on her part.  

Asking Huckabee Sanders to leave a public restaurant when she was clearly “off the click” that night did nothing to uphold any moral values.  It just provided more fodder for the haters as Huckabee Sanders legitimately became the victim.

With her actions, Ms.Wilkinson, despite her fair and reasonable moral conviction, played right into the open and waiting arms of Donald Trump, the President of Hate and Vitriol (POHAV).  And in doing so, the divide in our country just got a little bit deeper.

No matter how much we disagree with others on the other end of the political spectrum, our goal must be to continue to employ the art of political discourse with the belief that at a absolute minimum, we can reach a point of compromise or possibly, just possibly, convince others that our thoughts, our policies, our ideas… are not as bad, as they might think.

This doesn’t mean we give up our right of free speech or our right to gather and protest peacefully, but we should not intrude in our opponents’ distinctly private pieces of their lives.

We must always treat those with differing opinions with respect, despite the fact that these same words knowingly fall on Donald Trump's deaf ears.

Yes, I know, I can feel your blood boiling. How can I hold Ms. Wilkinson to a higher standard while  Donald Trump has been routinely spewing hateful messages since the day he came down the escalator?

We must accept this unfairness and move forward, for one reason and one reason only. We are better than him.Trump motivates his supporters by branding enemies for them to hate: illegal immigrants, the Deep State, the Liberal Press, the FBI, the Justice Department, any politician with a “D” beside their name, and all the Republican Senators from the great State of Arizona, just to name a few.

For hate is the easiest of motivators. It’s his MO, and there is no one on the planet better at it then him. And he embraces it as a winning strategy, that if he takes us all down to the land of the bottom feeders, this lose - lose proposition is a win for him.  He seems to think this is how to Make America Great Again.

But we have a choice, we all have a choice.  Both his supporters and those who would oppose him. We don’t have to follow him to the bottom. We don’t. 

We win the the battle and the war by not losing our souls. 

#100 - Bizarro World in the Age of Trump

Donald Trump has exhibited an exquisite talent for upsetting the apple cart and casting aside norms that have existed in our society and in our politics for generations.  He has shown a willingness to break things large and small, new and old, giving new meaning to the old expression “a bull in a china shop” along the way.  With a strong propensity for “repeal” and little or no interest for “replace”, all of this comes naturally to him, as if he was born with his middle finger protruding upright as he exited his mother’s womb.  Perhaps it was this early start, that now enables him to execute his unique talent, so flawlessly. 

So, if on any given day, you feel that you that you were the innocent victim in a car crash, and you walked away with a severe case of whiplash that just won’t go away, know this.  You are not alone. 

So, if everything you have come to know and believe seems to be part of a past, long ago forgotten, and the world seems to have been turned on its’ head, know that there is a rational explanation for this.  You see we have now crossed into a new dimension of time and space and entered a new world where up is down and down is up.  We are now living In Bizarro World,

DC Comics described such a world back in 1961  (From Wikipedia). In the Bizarro world of "Htrae" (that’s Earth, spelled backwards), society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!”  

And Bizarro No. 1, a.k.a. Bizarro Superman, the imperfect duplicate of Superman, was portrayed throughout the story's episodes as a character of equal parts humor and confusion.  

Does this sound like anyone we know?

Barack Obama was criticized for failing to execute a consistent foreign policy strategy. His was often distilled into that singular line “Don’t do stupid things”.   In our new Bizarro World, it seems as if Donald Trump lives by the strategy that is best described as, “Do stupid things as much as possible”.

The last few weeks of on-again, off-again, trade tariffs has revealed, to the bewilderment of Democrats and Republicans alike, that our President is perversely obsessed with punishing our allies, while giving the benefit of the doubt to our adversaries.

Born and raised life-time Republicans are shaking their heads, wondering:

(i) How the hell did we get in to this mess?

(ii) What on earth is he going to go next ?

(iii) Which decisions am I supposed to be for and which decisions am I supposed to be against ? I forget.

And please, don’t even think to ask Republicans about Trump's decision to let the Chinese telecom company ZTE, who has been accused of severe security violations, off the hook with a mere, peasant like $1billion fine, for they might start twitching uncontrollably and implode.  Democrats just seem to be walking around in a perpetual fog, affected with a severe case of head trauma caused by Trump’s eradicate actions and spoken words, wondering aloud if all of this would have happened if Anthony Wiener just hadn’t been so obsessed with teen age girls.

In the past week, the activities within Bizarro World were on full display. It started as Trump was about to board his chopper to head to the G-7 summit, when, unbeknownst to all of his own aides (this is how you do things in Bizarro World), he started pitching for the G-7 club to let his personal buddy, Vladimir Putin, back in.  This is the guy who invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, imprisoned his political opponents, poisoned  British citizens and sought to influence and disrupt the US Presidential elections.  

In the normal world, the mere suggestion of this would have automatically led normal folks to conclude that the Steele dossier was 100% accurate, except for one important thing.  It left out all the really good parts. 

In Bizarro World, well, this was just downright normal.

But Trump’s affinity for his buddy Vlad is only one half of this truly bizarre story, the other half involved attacking our oldest and longest international ally, our neighbor to the north, for which no border walls are needed, Canada.  

If seems that Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada issued a statement after the G7 meetings regarding the tariff issue that Canada was not going to be pushed around.  Trump threw a hissy fit and promptly removed the United States from a joint communique the G7 was going to issue and blasted Trudeau for dairy tariffs. Mind you, the US is currently running a trade surplus here, but please let's  not let facts get in the way of the larger point, that the President had kicked his lap dogs into high gear, having them take to the airwaves to attack Trudeau.

Larry Kudlow, the former Fox News business personality, and now the President’s Economic Advisor, claimed that Trudeau had “stabbed them in the back”, proving once again that you can take the fox out of Fox News,  but you can never take Fox News out of the fox. 

Peter Navarro, who may be the only person on the planet who agrees with Trump’s policy on trade said of Trudeau “that there was a special place in hell” for him.  Whoa! Navarro later apologized and walked his statement back, but it was too late for the horse was out of the barn, and the President's real thoughts were there for all to see.

All of this was just a backdrop to Turmp’s historic summit with North Koren despotic leader Kim Jung Un who he basically described as the cuddly, affectionate leader of group of koala bears.  

Barack Obama was metaphorically castrated by conservative Republicans when he merely suggested he would meet with Kim Jung Un. When Trump does it, it’s strategic. 

A few Republican leaders have attempted to push back on what was viewed as an over reach of power by Trump who invoked the national security exception permitting him to usurp Congress’s responsibility to manage tariffs, essentially naming Canada a national security threat.  Let that sink in.  Canada is a national security threat. 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) pressed for a vote that would allow Congress to block Trump’s tariffs.   He’s won support from free-trade Republicans and some Democrats. But GOP leaders would not permit the vote.  It seems that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned last week that HIS Senate won’t pass anything that ties Trump’s hands on trade.

The Republican leadership had concluded that the politics of supporting their own Bizarro Superman were more important than supporting free trade, one of the decades long, core principles of their very own party.  And when McConnell’s office was asked to comment about the administration’s feud with Canada.  There was no response. 

It seems that some things never do change. Even in Bizarro World.

#99 - My 39th Wedding Aniversary

Today is Saturday, June 16, the 167th day of 2018. There are 198 days left in the year.

Today is also my 39th Wedding Anniversary which I share with my wonderful wife Mary.   Early this morning she texted me a picture from our wedding where we were smiling, toasting each other.  I remember the day went by fast, going by in a blurr for both us.  And as we look back now, the last 39 years feel the same, and we wonder how did all go by... so fast.

Now, many of you may not appreciate this, simply because you are not as old and wise as I am now, but he 39th wedding anniversary is an extremely important one.  You see the clock has started ticking and you only have one year left to think up something really special for your 40th.  Failure is not an option here, guys, for the alternative, well, let's just say it's not pretty.  So please put the word out on my behalf.  I'm accepting suggestions now.

After we exchanged anniversary cards (we had already given ourselves our anniversary gift) I did a few of the simple things that make her happy.  I made her coffee, fed the dog and then took the dog for a good walk.  This allowed her to relax, have her morning coffee, read and eventually take her time getting ready for an early lunch we had scheduled at a new spot nearby.

Upon my return with the dog, I went out into our courtyard with a second cup of coffee,  For the record, it was a beautiful morning in the Boston area, sunny, comfortable, with a slight breeze.  I was flipping through the Boston Globe on my IPhone, when the very last article caught my eye, the one you have all seen before, "This Day in History".  Honestly, I never go here, but today, being our anniversary, I dove in with great curiosity to discover all of the tidbits of the day'. 

I discovered that today is Phil Mickelson's birthday.  He is 48.  Now I am not a golfer, but Phil has always been a class act who has carried himself well, so I always end up routing for him on those summer days when I turn golf on in the afternoon, purely as a background for taking a well deserved nap.

On this day in 2008, Tiger Woods, playing on a throbbing injured knee, won an epic US Open after a 19-hole playoff at Torrey Pines with Rocco Mediate.   I can't be certain, but I suspect I actually nodded off on this one as well.

I learned that the Ford Motor Company was incorporated on this day in 1903.  I suspect that this may represent the official birth of the American Automobile industry, so that seemed pretty cool.  That industry is 115 years old, but I also reminded myself that it almost crash and burned in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, but the Obama administration stepped in to support it, and soon it came roaring back.  Imagine that, a so called liberal administration helping corporate America for the good of all.  How is that for a story?

On that same day that Tiger won that playoff, a California Supreme Court ruling that overturned the state’s bans on same-sex marriage became final.   I have written about gay rights several times before, for as I have explained, I have a horse in this horse race.  I have a gay son, of whom I am extremely proud, and I simply want him to have all the rights and all the respect that all Americans deserve.  So this was a good one, I will remember this one on all my anniversaries to come.

Perhaps the best one though, goes back 160 years.  In 1858, while accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the US Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring one of his most well known lines, that ‘‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’’  We could use an Abraham Lincoln today, the gentle man who fiercely held the moral compass for an entire country, and despite the intensity of a devastating civil war, never let go, understanding the importance of keeping the fabric of the country together.  Honest Abe was so good for us, he deserves to be remembered everyday, not just on my anniversary.

But then I came to the very last item on the list, the most recent one, the one that read:

In 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign with a speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

I remember it well, the picture of the Donald descending from the heaven's above, on an elevator no less, with Melania dutifully leading the way, with Neil Young's 'Rocking in the Free World' blaring in the background.  Besides the fact that Neil likely didn't authorize his music for this purpose, it was disturbing scene then, and its just become more terrifying since.   You recall right?  Yes this was the Donald's controversial speech where he stated:

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. ...They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

The Captain of hate and vitriol was just getting started.  That was three years ago today and its been downhill ever since.  

I admit, until this morning I had no idea that this event had occurred on our anniversary. That's probably because at the time, I ascribed so little probability to his success as a presidential candidate.  That's because I was certain that our country would never in a thousand years elect such a hateful, dishonest, morally bankrupt shell of a man.

But it turns out I was wrong, it turns out there are many others in the country that don't share my sentiment, and I was clueless.  My disappointment in our country is profound, and I am unable to shake it, burdened by the belief that the harm this man has caused our country will linger, long after he is gone.  

For the time being I will do my best to focus on the thing that is best in my life, the love of my wife of 39 years who accepts me for who I am.   I love my wife, and I look forward to all of our anniversaries to come,.  And for her benefit as well as my own, I promise  I will focus all my attention on all the other good things that happened on this special day, on This Day In History.    These are the ones that will carry me forward.