So it turns out that Obama knew about the Russian involvement in our elections during the summer of 2016. He considered it, looked at various plans to punish the Russians and finally did nothing. I might have been because he didn’t want to influence the election, or because he was too timid to act, or even because Mitch McConnell and the gang of eight tried strongly to convince him not to do anything at the same time as the the Democrats were calling for stronger sanctions. This is a huge deal and Obama clearly failed at it. It is a bigger failure than the red line failure in Syria.
Obama knew that the Russians were trying to attack Hillary and help Trump. Was his inaction based on the common belief that Hilary would trounce Trump or was it a result of there being no good option? Obama was well known for following the concept that if there is no good option, err on the side of doing less. He did not want to play into Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the election being rigged and a full blown accusation that Putin was trying to rig the election to help Trump could be looked at as just that, even though it came from the opposite point of view. The information from our intelligence agencies said quite clearly that Putin was trying to elect anyone but Hillary. That meant Trump.
The big problem for the Obama administration was that whatever they did, it would come out as being political rather than for security purposes. It’s the same problem faced by Comey with Hillary’s e-mails. Comey chose a path of action that most feel was a mistake. Obama chose a path of reticence that most now feel was a mistake. It seems you can’t win which is maybe why Obama didn’t act.
So flash forward to today and Donald Trump who denies the Russian actions but is still raving about how Obama didn’t do anything to punish them. If there was no Russian involvement then Obama couldn’t do anything but if there was, why isn’t Trump doing anything now? Trump is now the President. He is wasting America’s time with nonsense like phantom tapes, arguments with reporters and lies, lies, lies. Even an orange liar can’t have it both ways.
When Obama sent a bunch of Russian agents home and closed Russian facilities in NY and Maryland, there was confusion about why they were closed. Then Putin didn’t retaliate and everyone wondered why. The same day the closures happened Mike Flynn met with the Russians. Maybe that’s why. Maybe, even though Trump wasn’t in office yet, a deal was made to lift sanctions if Putin sat tight until after Jan. 20th. That way Trump could get the accolades for keeping Putin in line and he could also take credit for closing the gap between the U.S. and Russia. Trump didn’t care that the Russians were attacking our electoral system, he may not have even know about it. But even if he did, his interest in the situation only went then, as it does now, to whether or not it made him look good or bad.
*****
Trump finally came out his week and admitted that he was full of crap in speaking about tapes in the White House. I’ve never felt he was overly bright but tape? How dumb would you have to be after what happened to Nixon with tapes. Then Trump gave us his reason for lying about the tapes. He was just trying to keep Comey honest. Yes, he was just trying to keep Comey honest. I laughed so hard I thought my pants would never dry. Trump was trying to keep someone else honest. That’s rich.
But just as a character thing let’s look at what Obama did at the end of his Presidency. After the animal, Trump had hammered the phony birther thing and called Obama all kinds of names, Obama went to the White House and tried to help the new President get a firm grasp on what it would take to do his job. Of course Trump ignored the good advice and has spent the first five months of his Presidency doing nothing but screwing up. Maybe it’s because he’s never done one that Trump is too grossly ignorant to understand a good turn.
*****
Donald Trump lied his way to the Presidency by screaming that he would, ”Make America Great Again.” That was the biggest lie because in the entire history of this country no President has done so much so fast to make America small. His bullying Tweets about the Morning Joe Show are not only inappropriate but more importantly lacking in any of the attributes we have come, before Trump, to associate with the Presidency. His latest wrestling Tweet just established him as a lowlife punk.
It really isn’t anything new but once again Trump has shown himself to be a disgusting bully and a misogynistic hater of women. That not only diminishes him, but with so much of it evident, the office he occupies and those that surround him. He sent his Press Secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders out to lie to the press and defend his indefensible Tweets last night and all that accomplished was to make Sanders look like the fool and liar she is.
Mike Huckabee, Sara’s father, is a man with whom I seldom agree, but one I have always respected as a gentlemen. What a horror it must be for him to watch his progeny turn out to be the slimy tool of a crooked liar and con man like Trump. And now Trump’s Tweeting targets Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have revealed that they were threatened with sleazy stories in The National Enquirer, a scandal sheet that can be purchased at the checkout counter and used to receive your dog’s excrement. Even Mika’s teenaged daughters were followed and harassed. As reported in he Washington Post, “Mr Scarborough said three White House aides had repeatedly “begged” him to apologize to Mr. Trump for his critical commentary. This would result in the President stopping the Enquirer story from running. This is blackmail, a felony and our President is guilty of it.
But Mika isn’t the first victim of the misogynist in the White House. He has attacked women all over the spectrum. Katie Tur, Megan Kelly, an Irish reporter in a press conference, the young women into whose dressing room he strode at various beauty contests he sponsored and the women to whom he referred when he spoke of grabbing women by heir private arts. This fat pig hates and fears women.
How much scandal, how much lying, how much degenerate behavior does it take for Trump to finally alienate those who think he will save the nation? This is a sleaze that has displayed depths of unacceptable behavior that would make us throw a drunk out into the gutter.
*****
Yes, this column has had a lot to say about the Republicans lately but who can blame it. I’m looking at a clown named Chris Kobach of Kansas. This idiot is Secretary of State for Kansas but he’s also been appointed by Trump as Vice-Chair of a commission that is going to try to get more voters off the rolls. So Kobach has issued an edict demanding that all the states provide certain voter information. Now most of the states have refused to give the commission most of that information because it is an invasion of privacy. Among the information requests are that the states provide voters social security numbers and guess what? Kobach as Secretary of State of Kansas has refused to provide to himself the SS numbers that he has requested. This is a perfect case of a guy so crooked that he doesn’t trust himself with information that he already has.
******
Watched an interview with New Orleans Mayor, Mitch Landrieu. This is a guy who should be running the country. This is a forward thinking, clear minded man who knows what it takes to make the world function. This is someone who has a grasp of healthcare, race relations, technology and economic facts and how they impact the nation. Mitch Landrieu would make a great Democratic candidate for president in 2020. This was paid for by me.
****
Then there’s the meeting that looms next week between Trump and Putin. The idiots in the White House are allowing this to happen, saying they want to “lance the boil,” whatever that means. It will be more like complete amputation of the head. The very least that Putin will walk away with will be Trump’s balls in his pocket.
But the merry fantasy team in the White House wants them to talk about Ukraine, Syria and ISIS, areas of complete ignorance for Trump. This is a man who can’t hold a serious conversation about healthcare, taxes or the infrastructure, all of which have been foremost on his agenda since before he even entered the White House, what makes anyone think he is conversant on foreign affairs or for that matter, anything that doesn’t involve Tweeting about those who hold him up to ridicule. This meeting will make the New York Giants against the Harper Home for the Blind look like an even bet.
Thomas Bossert, Trump’s Homeland security advisor was on This Week and when shown a Tweet of Trump physically beating up on a CNN newsman thought it was okay. This is the kind of low-life moron that infects the Trump administration. This idiot is supposed to be protecting America. With him guarding the country we are in the gravest danger. This is true with all Trump appointments.
Anna Navarro, a virulent Republican went batshit crazy over this Tweet and Bossert’s reaction to it.. She attacked Bossert and Trump with the greatest vitriol and she should have. The two white bread wimps, Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman both of Politico and both on the panel with her, mumbled incoherent drivel and showed themselves to be useless in any adult conversation. Sherman spoke of CNN people fearing retaliation but Navarro jumped on him again, stating firmly that no one at CNN was afraid of Trump or any of his bullies.
I’ve never been a fan of Anna Navarro but I give her a standing ovation for her reaction to the asshole in the White House.
******
On the President’s un-presidential deportment, mentioned above. Trump’s lackeys all tell us the same story. You knew what you were voting for so what are you complaining about. Well, that may be true for some of us but the majority of voters didn’t actually vote for him. I believe that we are still in the majority even if the fat liar sits in the White House creating scenarios of how he won the popular election out of fantasy lint and spit. But for the minority that elected the president it must be pointed out that in order to get what you thought you wanted in the White House, you have sold the dignity and honor of the office of the American President for cheap cloth.
The fact is, Trump could be failing, as he is now, without being the crass social pariah he now plays on television. The indisputable fact is, he is doing nothing but hurting his own causes. Every Tweet of personal petty vindictiveness draws attention away from some process that needs his attention and it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t have the wherewithal to do both.
He has delegated the running of our military to the generals. That is quite clear. Maybe now he should delegate the running of our domestic affairs to someone else and just concentrate on his Tweets. The problem with that is that due to the pathetic nature of his cabinet appointments, there is no one in that subservient body up to even doing his own job let alone running the country. It seems we are thoroughly screwed.