Still more legal fun in Trumpland

A New York court handed Donald Trump a lifeline as time ran out for Trump to secure a bond covering the $454 million loss for his recent fraud case. A panel of appellate court judges gave Trump 10 days to secure a far smaller $175 million bond just hours before New York’s attorney general could legally begin the long, slow process of seizing his assets. The reduction in the bond amount does not reduce the total $454 million fine Trump will ultimately be expected to pay if an appeals court upholds the judgment. Rather, a bond works as assurance that Trump will pay the fine’s full amount if his appeal is unsuccessful.

Along with the fine, Trump also faces a ban from running any company based in New York and obtaining loans from any banks in the state for the next three years. The appellate judges agreed to halt both bans as the court decides on the appeal. A court-appointed monitor, who has been overseeing the Trump Organization’s financial reporting over the last few years, is expected to continue oversight of the company for another three years as part of the judgment.

[Effectively, almost no major banks can obtain a loan because just about any bank in New York are head quartered there or generally the US primary branch.]

Trump’s lawyers have said it’s impossible for him to do that for the original amount. They said underwriters wanted 120 per cent of the judgment and wouldn’t accept real estate as collateral. That would mean tying up over $557 million in cash, stocks and other liquid assets, and Trump’s company needs some left over to run the business, his attorneys have said.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan, has scheduled an April 15 trial date for Trump in what will be the first criminal case involving an ex-president, involving allegations that he falsified business records during the 2016 presidential campaign. Merchan made the ruling, but not before scolding Trump’s lawyers as he weighed when to reschedule the trial, after a last-minute document dump caused a postponement of the original date. Merchan had bristled at what he suggested were baseless defence claims of “prosecutorial misconduct.” “Why did you wait until two months before trial? Why didn’t you do it in June or July [2023]?” Merchan asked a Trump lawyer.

Merchan has imposed a gag order on Trump, limiting him from making statements about potential witnesses in the criminal trial relating to hush money payments scheduled to begin next month. Merchan also said that Trump can’t make statements about attorneys, court staff or the family members of prosecutors or lawyers intended to interfere with the case. Trump is also barred from making statements about any potential or actual juror.

Trump attended a pre-trial hearing, where Merchan swiftly rejected the motion seeking sanctions against the district attorney’s office, setting the trial date for April 15. Afterwards, Trump went to his 40 Wall Street building nearby, speaking to reporters to attack the case against him, Merchan and one of the prosecutors on Bragg’s staff who previously worked for the Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo. Then on his social network platform, Trump continued attacking Colangelo, baselessly claiming that the prosecutor was sent to the district attorney’s office to go after Trump as Attorney General Merrick Garland’s “right hand.”

Trump complained that the gag order issued was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.” He said that Merchan, a veteran Manhattan jurist, was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him jailed. In a statement, a spokesperson for New York’s state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago.

Trump is officially selling a patriotic copy of the Christian Bible for $60 themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, “God Bless the USA.” “As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible,” Trump said. Inside, it has the words to “God Bless the USA” and the text of The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and other historic American documents. Promotional material for the Bible shows Trump alongside Greenwood. Various clergy didn’t take long to object to the use of the Bible.

It is also quite expensive for a copy of the Bible. The FAQ section of the “God Bless America” Bible website clarifies that no proceeds from the sales of the Bible will go towards Trump’s presidential campaign. The FAQ goes on to say Trump’s name, likeness and image are under “paid license from CIC Ventures LLC which is linked to Trump.” However, there is no mention of whether any proceeds could be put toward his personal legal troubles. However, there has been no word on where the profits are going to.

[Trump is not a religious man. He rarely attended church – except maybe when someone well known died.]

Jeff Yass, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican mega donor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with Trump’s social media company.

[Now we know why Trump wasn’t to keep TikTok around.]

The Trump campaign said they will have their own super event in Florida on April 6th where they claim they will raise $33 million. This is to out-do the star studded even on March 28th for President Biden that also included Presidents Obama and Clinton which raised an estimated $26 million.

[The campaign already know how much? Sounds like a Russian election where you know that the true leader has won before the election day.]

Trump’s presidential campaign has established titles for the various levels of donations his new joint fundraising operation with national and state Republican Party committees is seeking – as Trump races to find campaign cash for the general election. The levels are:

• “Ultra MAGA” and is designated for individuals who donate $814,600.
• “Team Trump 2024” for those who donate $250,000.
• “Team America First” for $100,000 contributions.
• “Club 47” at $50,000.
• “MAGA 24” at the $24,000 level.

It seems, Trump also has to pay money in the UK. A London appellate justice refused Trump’s request to appeal the dismissal of his case against retired British spy Christopher Steele’s company over his controversial 2016 dossier. Trump had sought permission to appeal Judge Karen Steyn’s February judgment that Trump’s data privacy case — which argued that Steele harmed his reputation by peddling “egregiously inaccurate” claims about his Russian ties — lacked merit and should be thrown out. Steyn also ordered Trump to pay £300,000 [about $513,000] in legal fees to Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, which Trump requested to be stayed.

Former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the January 6, 2021 [a.k.a. The Trump Insurrection], attack on the US Capitol “unacceptable” after years of deflecting on the issue. She said that the Capitol riot “doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party…. We should not be attacking the Capitol; we should not be having violence,”. Asked why she didn’t offer such condemnation as RNC chairwoman, McDaniel responded, “When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team. Right now, I get to be a little bit more myself.”

[A coincidence that she said something after been tossed to the curbed from a coup headed by Trump?]

McDaniel, right after her ouster at the RNC, got a $300,000 a year job at NBC News but other [real] journalists and anchors started a revolt and McDaniel has lost her job.

[Part of the backlash stemmed from her supporting Trump’s 2020 denial and then taking a $300,000 a year contract when staff is being cut across various NBC divisions. As well, even though she was the head of the RNC, she wasn’t friendly with the more moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley.]

Sen. Lisa Murkowski won’t rule out bolting from the GOP. She was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial amid the aftermath of January 6, 2021, is done with the former president and said she “absolutely” would not vote for him. “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind… I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.” Asked if she would become an independent, Murkowski said: “Oh, I think I’m very independent minded… I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”

A California judge recommended that conservative attorney John Eastman be disbarred in the state over his role in developing a legal strategy to help Trump stay in power after his 2020 election loss.

Melania Trump sponsored her mother to immigrate to the United States through a family-based process that Trump aggressively sought to end, according to federal immigration records. The records detail for the first time the full path that the former first lady’s mother, Amalija Knavs, followed from Slovenia to the United States — and how the Trump administration’s policies would have made that far more difficult for others.

Melania Trump used a legal pathway that her husband and his top advisers had repeatedly disparaged as “chain migration,” the right of US citizens to bring their parents to the United States. During his presidency, Trump endorsed a bill called the Raise Act that would have limited priority sponsorship to the spouses and minor children of US citizens, taking parents off the fast-track list.

Did you know that Melania Trump arrived in the United States from Slovenia in 1996 for modelling work and obtained a green card around 2001 based on her “extraordinary ability” as a model.

[Ability?]

There’s is never a quiet week

Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed during his presidency to reverse the 2020 election results, a federal appeals court of three judges said. The ruling is a major blow to Trump’s key defense thus far in the federal election subversion case brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump had argued that the conduct Smith charged him over was part of his official duties as president and therefore shield him from criminal liability.

“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defences of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution,” the court wrote. “Here, former President Trump’s actions allegedly violated generally applicable criminal laws, meaning those acts were not properly within the scope of his lawful discretion,” they wrote, meaning that existing case law “provide him no structural immunity from the charges in the Indictment.”

Trump suggested that he thought there would likely be changes at the Republican National Committee, which is led by Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Why is he doing this? Because he is spending more money to battle Nikki Haley when if he was the actual party nominee the money could be aimed at fighting President Biden. McDaniel has remained loyal to Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign, calling for Haley to drop out after her defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The RNC had just $8 million in the bank at the end of December, the lowest figure since it reported about $5 million in cash on hand in 2014. The committee was outraised by the Democratic National Committee, which raised about $40 million to its GOP counterpart’s $20 million during the fourth quarter of last year.

[It just feels like you can run for the party’s nomination but don’t expect the party to back you unless you somehow with the nomination. Which is unlikely. This is why the RNC declared Trump the nominee and then pulled the announcement. Very democratic.]

Back in November, Trump and his fellow Republicans stated that they would not accept any border bill without including support for Ukraine in the bill.

Guess what? Trump is against the bill saying the bill should just be about the border – nothing else. He and his buddies can’t make up his mind. As usual.

GOP Sen. James Lankford leads a group trying to push a new bill to curtail migrants coming into the US. Trump dislikes the bill and wants to scuttle it as he wants what there currently is used as an election issue. He has therefore took aim at Lankford including claiming that he never endorsed Lankford. He did.

[The bill is supposed to be the largest sweeping bill in decades, closing loopholes and making it more difficult for migrants to stay in the US. Of course, Trump doesn’t want this and has stated previously no bill is better than this bill. Of course he does.]

Quite a few MAGA supporters in the Senate and House didn’t even bother to read the bill. They just took Trump at his word. Lankford has said that when a few did read it, they actually liked the bill while previously said they’d reject the bill.

In the mean time, the House Republicans tried to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

[It’s hard to do your job when the opposition party is stopping, for example, a bill to help ease the border “crisis”.]

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Trump’s motions for a mistrial in the defamation case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll saying Trump’s arguments had no “merit” and are “entirely pointless.”

To show you how mixed up [I’m being nice here] the Republican Party is, the Nevada GOP will have both a primary and a caucus.

The Republicans are ignoring the outcome of Tuesday’s primary — one taking place without Trump on the ballot. Instead, the state GOP opted to award its delegates to the winner of party-run caucuses being held Thursday evening. The fractured process is the result of a 2021 state law that scrapped Nevada’s presidential caucuses in favor of government-run primaries.

The Nevada Republican Party — which is led by Trump loyalists — opted to hold caucuses this year anyway and award the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention based on those results. It also warned candidates who participated in the primary that they would not be eligible for the caucuses or to receive any delegates.

Haley and some presidential contenders like Haley filed to run in the primary. Trump did not. So Trump is the only contender in the caucus and automatically wins.

[I am surprised, at this time, that there is no lawsuit or something filed by Haley’s campaign.]

After Haley’s loss in Nevada in the primary which had no other candidates, Trump said, “Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!”

“We always knew Nevada was a scam,” Haley said in an interview. “Trump had it rigged from the very beginning. … We didn’t spend a day or a dollar there. We weren’t even worried about it.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson says “I am calling the shots” and not Trump. Ya. Sure. Anything you say.

Haley has requested to have the Secret Service with her after threats against her and her family.

[Raise you hand if you think the threats were coming from other right wing people. That many….]

As if they don’t get crazier, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner claims that the CIA stole the 2020 election in support of Biden, and he accused the FBI of covering it up. Warner said the federal agencies at the table “need to clean up” their “own houses” to “restore confidence in our elections.”

[Probably with nothing but (far) right wing people. West Virginia seems to be home to fringiest of fringe people around.]

Trump said he would consider imposing a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports if he regains the presidency. His remarks come at a time of high economic and other tensions between the US and China. As president, Trump slapped tariffs of 25% on $50 billion of Chinese goods in June 2018. Beijing countered with its own tariffs, and the spiral continued until the two countries arrived at an agreement in 2020.

[This may push Americans to buy non-Chinese items but can your typical American afford to pay extra. If you buy 20 items (excluding food), how many of them are made in China? Trump has already said he would raise tariffs on Canadian wood but that would be an issue because of the free trade agreement he brought in. When he tried it under his reign, there were quite a few complaints by American businesses as (for example) Canadian wood is used to build homes in the US.]

Trump is further proposing 10% across the board. The Tax Foundation claims that Trump’s latest tariff proposals would act as a $300 billion tax on most of us plus costing jobs, lowering growth and depressing American wages. He may still add another10% across the board.

Some of those getting prison terms in their part of the Trump Insurrection are betting everything on Trump starting his second reign and they would be pardoned.

Trump knows how to end the war

How Donald Trump would have the US win the war? Trump told a group of Republican donors in New Orleans that the US should paint Chinese flags on its F-22 planes and then use those planes to bomb Russia. “And then we say, ‘China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it,’ and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch,” Trump concluded. His comments were was met with laughter from the crowd of donors. Unsure if laughing at him or with him or thought it was a joke. Of course these are two nuclear powers and Russia can detect the type of fighters going into its airspace. What an idiot.

In the same meeting he said that he also praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “seriously tough” and marvelling at how Kim’s generals and aides “cowered” when the dictator spoke to them [that’s called a dictator, Donnie], claimed he was harder on Vladimir Poutine than any other president, claimed Poutine never would have invaded the country if Trump was president of the US, reiterated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, urged his party to be “tougher” on supposed election fraud, disparaged a range of prominent party opponents and called global warming “a great hoax” that could actually bring a welcome development: more waterfront property.

A plane carrying Trump suffered engine failure late Saturday evening over the Gulf of Mexico, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in New Orleans shortly after taking off from the city and was forced to immediately return to the airport and make the unscheduled landing in Louisiana shortly before 11 p.m. The Dassault Falcon 900 carried a retinue of Secret Service agents, other support staffers, Trump and some of his advisers. The plane belonged to a donor who loaned it to Trump for the evening.

A federal judge, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, denied Trump’s request to countersue magazine writer E. Jean Carroll for violating New York’s law against frivolous defamation lawsuits, criticizing Trump’s legal argument as “futile” and a delay tactic. Trump had asked the judge for permission to use the state’s anti-SLAPP law as a defence to the defamation claims and to countersue Carroll and seek attorneys’ fees, if successful.

The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection, revealing a recent effort by House investigators to unearth information about how the party and the Trump campaign used an email software to spread misinformation about the 2020 election and fuel violence that led to the US Capitol attack.

The lawsuit seeks to stop a subpoena for donor and supporter data from the software company Salesforce, and its public disclosure comes on the same day RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel met with the committee. The Trump campaign and Trump’s PAC in 2020 also used the software, according to the subpoena.

“We have very low debt, are sitting on tremendous amount of cash and have extremely profitable properties,” said Eric Trump. So then exactly why did the Trump Organization require a $100 million loan to pay off another loan?

A new organization, the 65Project — so named for the number of frivolous lawsuits filed seeking to contest the results of the 2020 election — debuted. It announced its mission: Find all the lawyers who violated their professional responsibilities in the wake of the election and ensure they face discipline, including possible disbarment. The group has identified 111 lawyers across 26 states whose names appeared on Trump’s post-election lawsuits.

Former US Attorney General Bill Barr revealed in his new book that Melania Trump saved his job. In One Damn Think After Another, Barr recalls meeting Mrs. Trump, who he called “elegant” and “intelligent.” He also noted an encounter with Donald Trump during which he told him she was the only reason he had a job in the administration.

Two weeks after Melania Trump blasted reports that a charity meant to benefit from her appearance at an April fundraising event was not registered with Florida authorities as “inaccurate, misleading, and outright incorrect,” that same event has been cancelled. She lashed out at the press for reporting on a Florida department of consumer services investigation into whether a charity organization she purportedly raised funds for was properly registered with authorities, accusing reporters of “[cancelling] the hopes and dreams of children by trying to cancel [her]”.

The winner of Melania Trump’s first NFT auction appears to be herself, according to a report. The Bloomberg News analyzed transactions on the Solana blockchain and found links between her — or at least her team members — to the winning bid of 1,800 SOL [the equivalent of $185,000]. In December last year, the Office of Melania Trump announced in a statement that she was starting an NFT “platform, which will release NFTs in regular intervals” on her website. She’s learning from her husband.

“I don’t want my vote or anyone else’s to be disenfranchised. … Do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are, with people just moving around. … Anytime you move, you’ll change your driver’s license, but you don’t call up and say, hey, by the way I’m re-registering.” – Mark Meadows, at the time White House chief of staff, in August 2020. Meadows and his wife, Debra, submitted voter registration forms that listed as their residential address a 14-by-62-foot mobile home with a rusted metal roof that sold for $105,000 in 2021. The forms ask for a residential address — “where you physically live” — and are signed “under penalty of perjury.” Except he never lived there.

Trump favors Putin, GOP moves away from him

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ [Vladimir] Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Donald Trump said. “So Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force,” Trump said. “We could use that on our southern border.

Trump said “tough cookie” who loves his country and he insisted that he had stopped Putin from invading Ukraine on his watch. When was that? Trump suggested during his 2016 campaign that Russia could keep Crimea, another Ukrainian territory which Putin had annexed in 2014. “The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were,” Trump said, parroting a Kremlin talking point.

While most congressional Republicans back Biden’s tough line against Moscow — or argue it should be even tougher — a faction made up of conservative Republicans, supporters of former president Donald Trump and conservative media figures says Putin should be left alone, or even congratulated, by Americans.

Those cronies who agree with Trump’s comments include [not surprisingly Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Mike Pompeo and Paul A. Gosar. But at least most of them have a brain and are against Putin even though a few also are also against what President Joe Biden has done so far.

The Supreme Court said that it will not take up Trump’s case challenging the disclosure of his White House documents to the House January 6 investigation, a formal conclusion to his unsuccessful bid to keep those records secret. The court had previously rejected Trump’s emergency request to block the National Archives from turning over the materials while the court considered whether to take up the case. The documents Trump was trying to block in court are already in the hands of the House Select Committee investigating the Trump Insurrection.

US District Judge Amit P. Mehta rejected Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” from lawsuits accusing him of inciting the violent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, finding that there was evidence to plausibly suggest that he engaged in a conspiracy with organized groups to intimidate Congress into overturning the results of the 2020 election. The judge refused to dismiss three lawsuits against Trump by Democratic House members and police officers seeking damages for physical and emotional injuries they incurred in the assault.

Ivanka Trump, who also served as a senior White House adviser, is in discussions with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection to voluntarily appear for an interview. We’ll see what she says. We’ll see what he does after.

An alternative social media platform, Truth Social, backed by Trump went live, becoming available for download on Apple’s App Store — but access to the service appears limited for now. It is owned by Trump Media and Technology Group, the media company Trump started after leaving the White House. Users who downloaded the app were greeted by a message inviting them to register for the service — but the sign-up process ended in a wait list to access the platform that had already grown supposedly to more than 150,000 [if you believe that number as there has been little to no communication that the app or services was available unless Trump sent out communication privately.]

Even with the app being available and the web site, there have already been plenty of glitches such as “404” web page errors [page not found], confirmation of account, etc. And already there is a German developer trying to take advantage by creating their own “Truth Social” app that requires in-app payment!

So Trump has accumulated by the end of January $108 million to his Save America PAC. In comparison, the Republican National Committee finished last month with about $51.7 million. While he has endorsed over 100 candidates in the mid-term election cycle, how much did he give those who he endorsed? Almost zilch. Nada. Goose eggs. You get the picture. His PAC has donated just $350,500 to candidates since July. That’s less than the $838,000 the PAC spent on event staging and related expenses in January.

For any potential candidate who may run against him for the GOP nomination, he will have a huge advantage. However, that is a huge amount of money. He could use it sparingly as long as he’s winning to keep it available for the actual Presidential battle or pour it on if he isn’t winning [expect him to complain that the RNC is out to get him] or maybe keep what he can to pay some of his bills.

Trump Organization is angling to host events at his golf courses for the controversial Saudi golf league. The Saudis who are making a fierce bid to recruit PGA Tour players and launch a series of golf tournaments. But the majority of golfers are declining. Such a deal would also provide a measure of revenge for Trump against the PGA Tour, an organization that he courted for years but that later enraged him when politics came between them. His golf properties lost at least 2 major events from the PGA, one right after the Trump Insurrection. Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights could also prompt some members of Trump’s club to cancel their memberships.

Eric Trump said COVID-19 vaccines represent the “stripping of freedoms” in the US and that he’s “p?ssed off”. Oh poor him. Stripping freedoms or protecting others. Would you want to get COVID-19 from someone who refuses to take vaccines or wear a mask? What about your freedom. You didn’t ask to be infected. [I’m wondering if there has been any lawsuits related this. Maybe Queen Elizabeth could soon Prince Charles and that woman Camilia for infecting her.]

“T” for Trouble or Trump

If you want to sum up what happened at the Republican National Convention is the word fear. Not only did the speakers say that Joe Biden as President would turn the US into something that resembles hell. You know, MS-13 living next door, higher cost in prescription drugs, mass shootings, open borders, let out many vicious criminals from prison, kill the Second Amendment, etc.

But if you also listened, the speakers also claimed that the US could still be better. For example, cutting down on rioting and taking down statues – meanwhile they happened on Donald Trump’s watch. So even after 3.5 years with Trump in office, at least some things haven’t gotten better. Why is that?

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence [DNI] has informed the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence that it’ll no longer be briefing on election security issues. Instead, ODNI will primarily provide written updates to the congressional panels, a senior administration official said. It also comes after the top intelligence official on election security issued a statement earlier this month saying China, Russia and Iran are seeking to interfere in the 2020 US election.

Trump said that DNI’s “Director [John] Ratcliffe brought information into the committee, and the information leaked,” Trump said at an event in Texas. “So, he wants to do it in a different form because you have leakers on the committee, obviously, leakers that are doing bad things, probably not even legal to leak, but we’ll look into that separately.”

Not surprising the Democrats pounced on the decision. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the decision not to provide briefings an “abdication of the Intelligence Community’s duty” and said Ratcliffe “has made clear he’s in the job only to protect Trump from democracy, not democracy from Trump.”

It also didn’t take long for Trump to lay blame on the Democrats in the committees first blaming “Shifty Schiff” [House Majority Leader Adam Schiff] and others and then said what was leaked was false.

Trump and the Republicans are claiming that the Democrats leaked information to the Russians. The question is why would the Democrats supposedly leak documents to the Russians when the Russians prefer to have Trump as president. In addition, the DNI will now issue information by paper. Isn’t this easier to get into foreign hands? Scan, copy, Email, photo?

The Department of Homeland Security in July withheld an intelligence bulletin warning of a Russian plot to spread misinformation regarding Joe Biden’s mental health. In a draft of the bulletin titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election,” analysts said with “high confidence” that “Russian malign influence actors are likely to continue denigrating presidential candidates through allegations of poor mental or physical health to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.”

The bulletin was submitted July 7 to the DHS legislative and public affairs office for review an, was to be distributed to state, federal and local law enforcement, but not to the public, on July 9. Emails also show that DHS Chief of Staff John Gountanis stopped the bulletin from being sent out. “Please hold on sending this one out until you have a chance to speak to [acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf],” Gountanis wrote.

An 8-2 decision by a federal appeals court restores power to a judge to question the Justice Department’s moves in the politically divisive case, when Attorney General William Barr dropped charges against Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, earlier this year despite twice pleading guilty to lying under oath to lying to the FBI.

Trump callously compared police officers who shoot black men in the back to professional golfers who “choke” over a three-foot putt. This is as close as we will get in Trump sympathizing with Blacks. However for the “law and order” president, he is probably upsetting those that are upholding the law.

“They [Democrats] want to destroy our country. They’re going to destroy our suburbs,” he said during an appearance in the White Shack briefing room.

Trump took credit for “success” in Kenosha in a tweet. “Succes [sic]: Since the National Guard moved into Kenosha, Wisconsin, two days ago, there has been NO FURTHER VIOLENCE, not even a small problem,” Trump tweeted. “When legally asked to help by local authorities, the Federal Government will act and quickly succeed. Are you listening Portland?” Of course he took credit but when things go bad for him, he’ll continue to blame others.

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, failed to condemn the shooter who injured one and killed two in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Does he think what the killer did was justified?

Trump refused to condemn 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who is facing homicide charges for allegedly killing two protesters in Kenosha. Trump, himself, may have finally did something right in his presidency by not seeing the family of Jacob Blake. Trump claimed that he’s not meeting with Blake’s family during his Wisconsin visit because they wanted to involve lawyers. The family didn’t want him around anyways. Biden and running mate, Kamala Harris, have spoken to Blake’s family however. However Trump did visit the city and the wishes of quite a few including the mayor and Wisconsin governor.

Trump also believes paint balls are a “defensive mechanism”. If someone is firing something from what looks like a gun or a rifle, can you tell 25 feet away it is a paint ball gun? [Oh and a group of Republican students are raising money to help fund Rittenhouse’s defense.]

Trump has claimed he ordered National Guard troops into the city to quell rioting and restore order. But in reality, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had already activated the troops before Trump called for their intervention.

Trump claimed without evidence once again that a planeload of violent criminals dressed in black flew together to stir up civil unrest. Ummm. Can known criminals actually get on a flight?

At a briefing Trump said “I think the press, the media is what’s fueling this, more so than even Biden, cause Biden doesn’t know he’s alive.” No comment.

A far right person was shot and killed in downtown Portland, Oregon after an evening of violent clashes between Trump supporters and protesters denouncing police brutality. Trump supporters were firing paint balls at the other protesters. There is already a suspect.

Trump tweeted “The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing….

The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!” He obviously won’t condemn the violence.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticized Trump at a press conference, saying the President has “created the hate and the division…. The tragedy of last night cannot be repeated. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your politics are — we have to all stop the violence.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown also blasted Trump in a statement, saying he “has encouraged division and stoked violence…. it should be clear to everyone by now that no one is truly safe with Donald Trump as President.”

Trump is heading into the general election with the worst jobs numbers of any president, based on records that go back to World War II. The US economy is down 4.7 million jobs since January 2017 when Trump took office, according to the Labor Department. Even after adding over a million jobs in August, it’s unlikely he can get that 4.7 million in two months. There were more were 13.6 million people looking for work and unable to find one.

Trump may claim he added many jobs in his term, but as usual, that’s false. There were 6.8 million jobs added between the inauguration and February of this year, a 5% gain from when Trump took office. Measured by percentage, that’s only the 11th best record out of the last 20 presidential terms.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that he’s not sure what Trump meant when he said earlier that evening that the country is “rounding the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic. “There are certain states that are actually doing well in the sense of that the case numbers are coming down.” A new model often cited by top health officials projected that more than 410,000 people in the US could die from the coronavirus by January 1 unless things improve such as everyone wearing masks and following distancing rules.

Health advisers from the National Institutes of Health, a federal division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, criticized the US Food and Drug Administration’s recent assertion that convalescent plasma dramatically helps in treating patients suffering from COVID-19, an opinion that comes amid continuing allegations that the Trump administration is politicizing federal health agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump on August 23rd, the eve of the Republican National Convention and a day after accusing the FDA of holding up treatments for political reasons, announced an emergency authorization for the “powerful therapy,” which drew rebukes from health experts who characterized the words of Trump and FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn as misleading. Note that Hahn was appointed Trump.

The NIH panel shared in a statement that there was “no difference in 7-day survival overall” in patients that received plasma as a treatment, despite the Trump administration claiming survival rates rose by 35%, with the group further saying, “There are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19.”

So between this and Hydroxychloroquine, another drug or therapy pushed by Trump that has been shown not to help or to be neutral. Who would of thought. Trump is just throwing any drug or therapy that may have saved a few people.

Not surprisingly, Trump has cranked up pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to expedite work both on a coronavirus vaccine and on treatments that might signal to voters there is an end in sight to the life-altering pandemic that has imperiled his reelection prospects. This would give him a small “win” before the election but those who want the vaccine wouldn’t see it for a bit of time.

“Democrats have created that politics is influencing approvals is not only false but is a danger to the American public,” White Shack spokesman Judd Deere said. He will be out of a job in a few months. Anything from now to November is about Trump winning the election. He doesn’t care how it gets done or how many Americans die while trying to do so.

Trump appeared to encourage people in North Carolina to vote twice — once by mail and once in person — during the November general election to purportedly double check that their initial vote was counted, which is already receiving push back from state election officials. Trump essentially encouraged voters to test the state’s voting system.

According to North Carolina law, it’s a felony “for any person with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time, or to induce another to do so, in the same primary or election, or to vote illegally at any primary or election.”

In essence, he wants them to vote by mail. Then on election day, try to vote in person. If they can, then the mailed in vote was never received or accepted. However, if they can’t vote, it was received correctly. However, what if some mail in votes only get counted after the voting period closes? This will add confusion and delay the outcome – something Trump seems to want.

The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after DeJoy missed an August 26 deadline to respond to the committee. The committee, led by Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, says DeJoy has until September 16 to comply with the subpoena.

The US Postal Service responded to the subpoena in a statement, saying, “We remain surprised and confused by Chairwoman Maloney’s insistence on issuing a subpoena to the Postal Service in the midst of ongoing dialogue with her staff on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to produce information in an orderly fashion.” Ummm. If he’d show up when told there would no need to have an ” ongoing dialogue”.

Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services [a non-political appointee], said that the White House’s Operation Warp Speed was “absolutely on track… if not a little ahead” in the race to have a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year.

“We obviously have two of our six vaccine candidates that are in phase three clinical trials right now. … We will have four vaccines in phase three clinical trials by the middle of next month.” Mango added that manufacturing is already underway for three vaccines. With only two candidates in phase three clinical trials right [and not passed], how can you have three vaccines in production? Sound a bit fishy there.

Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is heard on secret audio recordings made by his niece, Mary Trump, saying that Eric Trump is a moron and Ivanka Trump has always been her father’s favorite [his slight infatuation with her is evidence] and is like a “mini-Donald.”

TikTok said it plans to go to court to challenge a Trump administration executive order that seeks to ban the short-form video app from operating in the United States unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, finds an American buyer. TikTok added that while it had tried to work with the US government on a solution to its national security concerns, what it encountered instead was “a lack of due process as the Administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”

Trump won further delay of the enforcement of a subpoena for years of his financial records after the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it should first decide the appeal of his lawsuit to block the Manhattan district attorney’s office from obtaining the documents. The court would hear oral arguments in the appeal on September 25, bringing the court’s decision of the case into mid-fall and making a hand-over of the documents to the district attorney’s office increasingly unlikely to happen prior to the presidential election.

Remember how Trump whined about Hillary Clinton using a private Email server for government related matters? Melania Trump has been using other Email accounts [‘both her own and public servers [=not just Email] like iMessage and Signal and a Trump Organization Email account to send messages about state visits, inauguration finances and other federal government related matters. Is it the same?

A nonprofit organization, Urban Revitalization Coalition, Inc., started by two Trump administration allies that stirred up controversy earlier this year for holding cash giveaways in predominantly Black communities had its tax exempt status auto-revoked after failing to provide legally required forms to the Internal Revenue Service for three years in a row.

Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, announced Friday that his panel is moving to hold Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in contempt of Congress for repeatedly refusing to comply with subpoenas of records related to “his transparently political misuse of Department resources.”

“The Secretary’s ongoing defiance of two duly authorized subpoenas on matters directly linked to American foreign policy toward Ukraine has left the Committee no further option but to begin drafting a resolution finding Secretary Pompeo in contempt of Congress,” Engel said in a statement.

Vancouver’s Trump Hotel has permanently closed, citing the pandemic, but it could reopen under another brand. The land and building is owned by TA Global Berhad of Malaysia, which paid to license rights to use the Trump name. TA Global said its two of its Canadian subsidiaries, which leased and ran Trump Hotel and Tower Vancouver, are insolvent after the pandemic hobbled the hotel business, with revenue plummeting while expenses continued.

The estate of Leonard Cohen said it was considering legal action over the use of the Montreal singer’s “Hallelujah” at the Republican National Convention, calling it a brazen attempt to politicize the song. A recording of “Hallelujah” by Tori Kelly was played at the RNC during a fireworks display on Thursday night that followed Trump’s acceptance speech for the Republican nomination.

Trump tweeted “I’ve been getting really good polls, some over 50%, except for one Fake Poll done by @ABC NEWS, which gives NO INFORMATION about the sample, R or D, or anything else. They did this last Election, with one week to go, down 12 points, and I won. They are disgusting Fake News!” Unsure what pools did he look at or did he think the 41% approval rating was a disapproval rating? Some over 50%? Aside from the obvious, with only two running, if below 50 you are losing! See here.

If you are wondering where the title of this blog came from, it is from Canadian blues rocker Colin James from a song called “T for Trouble” from 1990. This one is a rocker.

Does Trump not like the USPS?

Donald Trump seems to want to kill people – not intentionally – we assume. He wants America to open up and everybody get back to work. But look what has happened since June in many states that followed his request and opened up. Huge spikes on cases and deaths.

Then he is pushing against mail in ballots claiming they aren’t secure, foreign governments can send in votes, etc. He wants people to vote in person which will lead to long lines [if people social distance and/or wear masks. If no social distancing or masks wearing, expect more cases and deaths. But does he care? Meanwhile, he and Melania will be using mail in ballots.

“We are going to win four more years,” Trump said at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. “And then after that, we’ll go for another four years because they spied on my campaign. We should get a redo of four years.” What Trump is proposing is banned by the Constitution, which limits presidents to serving two terms. What Trump deems “spying” was actually an FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

So Trump was whining for the last few months against absentee ballot requests. Recently he and Melania requested one each for Florida. Now it seems North Carolina residences got one though the Republican Party complete with his face on it and “Are you going to let the Democrats silence you?”

Huh? It is Trump who wanted to silence them by blocking absentee ballot requests baselessly asserting that it will lead to voter fraud. On the weekend, Trump warned on Saturday that mail-in ballots could delay the result of the election for “months or for years.” Talking about stretching it.

The Trump campaign said the mailer shows how it “is working to ensure voters in every state know how their state’s sorting system works so that every eligible voter can cast their ballot and have their vote counted.”

The USPS has come under criticism recently. Newly released letters from the USPS have warned nearly every state that slowdowns in delivery could cause ballots to show up late and not be counted. It has been reported that in the last week that USPS has removed letter collection boxes in at least four states: New York, Oregon, Montana and Indiana. The USPS announced it would stop removing postal collection boxes through late November following complaints about how some had been taken away.

While DeJoy may be suspending changes to postal service operations, it doesn’t necessarily mean machines that had been removed will be put back in use, according to an email which was sent hours after DeJoy’s public suspension of changes. It instructs postal workers not to reconnect any mail sorting machines that have previously been disconnected.

DeJoy himself had to be coached in the answers during his interview before getting the USPS job. David Williams, former vice president of the USPS Board of Governors, said DeJoy was one of the least qualified candidates but was pushed into the job by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as well as John Barger, a board member and Republican donor.

Trump said he would send law enforcement officials to polling locations to guard against voter fraud in November’s election, although it’s not clear he has the authority to do so. Trump has no authority to deploy local law enforcement officials to monitor elections, although his campaign could hire off-duty police to work the polls according to an election law expert.

Democrats and voting-rights groups are already saying that Republicans are gearing up to suppress voting in key states. Poll-watching is a common practice, and both parties use it. Observers monitor how ballots are cast, the testing of equipment and counting procedures — looking for irregularities. They also can challenge the eligibility of individual voters.

Trump’s campaign the Republican National Committee and the New Jersey Republican State Committee brought the lawsuit asking the court to overturn Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order instituting the new rules that aim to give voters the option of avoiding voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic. The state decided to leave it up to them to decide if they would like to vote by mail or in person. Hmmm. Wasn’t it the states that decide how citizens vote? It is their ballots.

The lawsuit alleges that the executive order usurps the legislature’s authority to decide when and how elections are held. It also alleges that the “system will violate eligible citizens’ right to vote” [huh? How is that?] and that “fraudulent and invalid votes dilute the votes of honest citizens and deprive them of their right to vote in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Nine states plus the District of Colombia have mail all registered voters ballots for the November election. Why aren’t the others getting sued?

The Democrats are launching an emergency effort to thwart what they warn is Trump’s attempt to squeeze the USPS to suppress the vote in November’s election. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling on the House to return to Washington, likely next weekend, for an unheard of session during presidential convention season. The Democrats have also demanded that new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy [a.k.a. Louis DeJoke] testify on August 24 to answer charges that his controversial new policy changes are intended to deliberately slow voting by mail.

It also comes with many Democrats worried that DeJoy’s policy changes, which have slowed delivery times, removed high-speed letter sorters from commission and included warnings that mail-in ballots will no longer be treated as a priority, will severely impact the election on November 3. Trump admitted that he opposed $25 billion in new funding for the agency because it could be used to expand such ballot access.

US District Judge Victor Marrero said New York state prosecutors could have access to Trump’s accounting records for a criminal investigation and increasing the possibility the tax records could go to a grand jury before the November presidential election. Trump has appeal and came an hour after the trial judge’s decision. He’s asking the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for emergency help as he tries to stop the subpoena from being enforced next week.

New York federal prosecutors charged Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump’s border wall. The four men are indicted for allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to an online crowdfunding campaign called We Build the Wall for personal expenses, among other things.

Bannon, through a non-profit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to “secretly” pay another defendant, Brian Kolfage, and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon’s personal expenses. Kolfage, according to the charges, used more than $350,000 of the donations for his personal use. Trump says he’s not involved but I’m sure Bannon must of told him about the legal part.

Bannon has boasted of his conversations with Trump as recently as a few months ago. The source said Bannon described his discussions with Trump as sounding board sessions covering a variety of topics. Another source says just weeks ago. Yet Trump said “I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time, as most of the people in this room know.”

Vice President Mike Pence dismissed the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers Trump embraced and praised earlier this week. “Honestly, John, I don’t know anything about that. I have heard about it. We dismiss conspiracy theories around here out of hand,” Pence said. Trump, who throughout his political career has embraced a variety of conspiracy theories, congratulated Majorie Taylor Greene nominee – a QAnon follower. The FBI has labeled QAnon a domestic terror threat. Trump said “they are people who love our country.”

Trump’s White Shack chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said this past weekend that Democratic Vice President candidate Kamala Harris is a legitimate candidate even though Trump hasn’t said so. If you recall, for years Trump said President Obama’s citizenship was questionable and then just a couple of months before the 2016 election, he announced his citizen was legitimate.

Kyle McGowan, the chief of staff, and Amanda Campbell, the deputy chief of staff, resigned from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], leaving to start a consulting firm and both left voluntarily. The pair had been criticized by Trump administration officials for not being loyal enough. Sounds a bit like communism there.

At an event aimed at highlighting the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, Trump went after the country’s most admired woman, Michelle Obama as “over her head” after she delivered a scathing, direct-to-camera speech criticizing him at the Democratic National Convention. He calling her speech “extremely divisive”. Divisive? Just attacking him alone? You knew he’d be attacking anyone who spoke at the “convention”.

Far right Laura Loomer is the Republican nominee in Florida’s 21st District, which happens to include Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. She has described Islam as a “cancer on humanity” and said that Muslim candidates should not be allowed to hold office in America. She has called herself a “proud Islamaphobe.”

Trump is calling on his followers to not buy Goodyear tires and threatening to remove them from his custom presidential limousine, despite previously railing against “cancel culture,” after an employee posted a viral photo of a company policy banning “Make America Great Again” and other political attire in the workplace but accepted Pride clothing and other non-political attire.

When a reporter during a news conference pointed to the fact that the Beast uses Goodyear tires [and so does the Secret Service vehicles], Trump said that he would want them changed if there’s an alternative. There goes more money wasted his foolishness. I am sure the bullet proof tires aren’t cheap.

Remember St. Louis homeowners who pointed guns at protesters earlier this summer? They are scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention next week. Shows you the different type of supporters each party has. They were charged in July with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony. Expect Trump to pardon them.

“Even New Zealand, did you see what’s going on in New Zealand? ‘They beat it, they beat it.’ It was like front page, they beat it, because they wanted to show me something,” he added. “The problem is, big surge in New Zealand … it’s terrible.” If New Zealand is terrible with a small outbreak, what is the US with 1000+ deaths per day. New Zealand reported nine new cases – not deaths.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced plans for an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clearing the way for drilling in the remote Alaskan area. Bernhardt said a future lease of the federally-owned land will make the entire 1.5 million acre Coastal Plain area available.

US reaches 100,000 deaths and Trump doesn’t say anything initially

“We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000. To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!” Donald Trump tweeted about 15 hours after the country hit a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths. But Trump — on his 25th tweet or retweet of the morning — didn’t acknowledge it until around 9:30 AM ET.

Trump again claimed without evidence that coronavirus is “going away” and said that there may even be a cure on the horizon. Yet it will still be months before any vaccine can be tested thoroughly and approved.

“I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space.”

“… building the Arena…”? Right away Trump think it is another plot to destroy his ego…. ummm…. party’s image. And this is only the end of May. Almost 3 months away from the convention. Plenty of time for the state to open up fully. Of course right after the state opens up, they will get a wave of new cases and Trump will blame the governor.

The tweets completely blindsided party officials and those involved in planning the convention, who have repeatedly argued that health and safety will come first. The officials have insisted planning for the convention is on track.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has considered establishing a White House commission to study allegations of conservative bias.

Trump tweeted another attack on vote-by-mail, which included several claims for which he provided no evidence. “The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots,” Trump tweeted. “It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history. “People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and ‘force’ people to sign. Also, forge names. Some absentee OK, when necessary. Trying to use Covid for this Scam!” he added.

There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim that “thousands” of forgeries are linked to vote-by-mail or that there is widespread evidence of people being coerced to sign absentee ballots. Of course he is whining about mail-in ballots in Democratic or Democratic leaning states. If Oklahoma did it, he wouldn’t have an issue.

The RNC filed a lawsuit against California that seeks to halt Governor Gavin Newsom’s order to have mail-in ballots, arguing that it “violates eligible citizens’ right to vote.” Aren’t the RNC doing the same? The RNC argue that Newsom’s order will lead to fraud because the state plans to mail ballots to inactive voters automatically, which “invites fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting.”

“There is tremendous controversy of mail in ballots,” Trump said. According to him. In a news conference related to his executive order related to the Communication Decency Act, Trump claims on how mail in ballots have been stolen, how people voted multiple times, how people were coerced to vote, etc. Yet, where is the proof?

White House press secretary Kayleigh “The Parrot II” McEnany is defending her record of mail-in voting – 11 times in the last 10 years by saying “Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason. It means you’re absent from the jurisdiction or unable to vote in person.” She says the Democrats want to “expand mass mail-in voting without a reason…” How about waiting in lines while voting during the middle of a pandemic and where voters aren’t wearing masks [or gloves] and keeping 6 ft away from each other.

McEnany lives in Florida – a state that has “No Excuse Mail-In Voting”. You don’t need any excuse to vote there by absentee ballot. Trump has previously also used absentee voting while living in New York State.

The husband of a woman who died accidentally in an office of then-GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough [now a host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show] almost two decades ago is demanding that Twitter remove Trump’s tweets suggesting Scarborough, now a major Trump critic, murdered her. The wife had an undiagnosed heart condition, fell and hit her head on her desk at work.

When taking questions from real journalists, McEnany defended Trump by claiming Scarborough said worse things than what Trump said. I don’t anything can beat accusing someone of murder even when the official autopsy said she died from heart related issues. How childish is this? Tit-for-tat?

[The husband sent a letter to Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, claiming that Trump violated Twitter’s community rules and terms of service and wanted the posts related to his wife removed. Dorsey refused.]

Trump said that he’s spoken to the family of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis earlier this week. Of course, this is Trump. Did he? Trump was to address the violence during an earlier appearance in the Rose Garden, which was originally billed as a news conference. But after announcing actions against China and the World Health Organization, he walked away without answering questions.

Earlier on Twitter Trump said “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” However, he can do little federally that has not already been done on the state level which controls the Minnesota National Guard.

Trump called out China for “espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many,” announced steps to protect American investors from Chinese financial practices, accused China of “unlawfully claiming territory in the Pacific Ocean” and threatening freedom of navigation. The US will no longer grant Hong Kong special status on trade or in other areas and instead will apply the same restrictions to the territory it has in place with China.

Trump announced the US will pull out of the World Health Organization even as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to claim lives, claiming that China has “total control” over the organization of 194 member states. He said China had pressured the WHO to “mislead the world” over the origins of the pandemic.

Trump is barring “certain foreign nationals from China” from entering the US and sanctioning officials in China and Hong Kong for their direct or indirect role in “smothering” Hong Kong’s freedoms. All those deals in the past year that Trump was so happy to announce have probably gone out the window. Of course Trump will say they are still in place.

Trump has gone after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying Sessions should not seek a seat in congress. And like usually, he called Sessions a bunch of nasty names like incompetent and unfit. Trump says he shouldn’t of been Attorney General. Well who made the final decision to do so?

Trump has long gone after President Barack Obama for golfing when he should have been working. He has claimed that he would be working for the people. Yet he has golfed at least 265 times in the 3.5 years in office. Trump said Obama did nothing about the Ebola epidemic of 2014 except play golf. There were 4 deaths in the US. How many now from COVID-19?

Jeez. Trump promoted a video from some [lame] band called Cowboys for Trump [you read it right] which began with the line “I’ve come to the conclusion that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

Even with the battles going on with Michigan, recently Trump claimed that he was given Michigan’s Man of the Year award. What’s wrong there? The award doesn’t exist.

Trump spent the long holiday weekend bemoaning everything but the tragic roll call of death [just under 100,000 on the weekend] — while also finding time to claim he got “great reviews” for handling the crisis. He went after Obama, Jeff Sessions, Russian investigation, Joe Biden, mail-in voting, conspiracy theories, false COVID-19 therapies…. Really anything but COVID-19 deaths.

So on Memorial Day, Trump attacked a Democratic congressman Conor Lamb who is a Marine veteran [JAG officer] and a former prosecutor, as an “American fraud.” Trump tweeted and misspelled Lamb as “Connor Lamm” and is a “puppet” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and said “He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did.” Except he voted for Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts. Trump said this while trying to support a Republican that is competing against Lamb.

In a poll, “Bill Gates wants to use a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 to implant microchips in people that would be used to track people with a digital ID” were those that watched Fox News for their TV news at 50%, followed by Republicans and those who voted for Trump on 44%. Only 26% of Fox News watchers and Republicans said the question was false, with Trump voters stating it was false 27% of the time. Surprisingly, depending on which cohort, up to 19% of Democrats found it true.

In another poll, 60% of voting Republicans believe the seasonal flu kills more than COVID-19. Trump played a part in it, insisting early on in the pandemic’s surge in the US that it was no worse than the flu. “This is a flu. This is like a flu,” Trump said at a coronavirus press briefing in late February.

Trump vs Comey – round 1

Former FBI Director James Comey accused the Trump administration of spreading “lies, plain and simple” about him and the FBI in the aftermath of his abrupt firing. Comey declared that the administration “defamed him and more importantly the FBI” by claiming the bureau was in disorder under his leadership.

Trump demanded his “loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation by declaring publicly Trump was not the target of the FBI probe into his campaign’s Russia ties.” Trump, in a strange private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed Comey to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. He did this after asking everyone else to leave the Oval Office.

“The Russians interfered,” Comey stated firmly. “That happened. It’s about as unfake as you can possibly get.”

Comey was also asked if he believed he was fired because of the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election as well as Russia’s ties with Trump’s campaign. “Yes,” Comey said. “Because I’ve seen the president say so.”

The White House had said that Comey was fired for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, while Trump said in an interview that Comey was fired in relation to the Russian hacking probe. Both are odd. If you believe the White house, why did he stay around when Trump took over. As for Trump’s reason, you could say Trump either wasn’t happy with the direction or was not going his way.

Comey said that Trump told him: “I hope you could see your way to letting [national security adviser Michael] Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Comey testified Thursday that he took that as “direction” from the president, even though Trump did not explicitly order him to drop the investigation into Flynn.

The RNC and other Trump allies worked feverishly to lessen any damage from the hearing, trying to undermine Comey’s credibility by issuing press releases and even ads pointing to a past instance where the FBI had had to clean up the director’s testimony to Congress.

Trump’s defenders argued that it supported Trump’s claims that the former FBI chief had told him three times that he was not personally being investigated in the Russia probe – according to their interpretations. Trump also continues to deny the allegations. Fine, but it sounds like Trump may have meddled in the investigation.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted if something was wrong, why didn’t he stop accepting contacts with his father. The obvious answer is that Trump is his boss and you don’t ignore him.

A pair of Democrats in Congress are drafting up articles of impeachment against Trump, saying that his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey constitutes an obstruction of justice.

Comey said he had never felt the need to document his conversations with former presidents Barack Obama or George W. Bush [Comey served as deputy U.S. attorney general during the Bush administration].

Trump had contacted Comey 9 times within 4 months compared to 2 times when Barrack Obama was president.

Various bars, at least around Washington, were having hosting “Comey Viewing Parties”.

House and Senate investigators fired off a series of requests after Comey’s testimony, seeking memos of his private discussions with Trump and any records the White House kept of their discussion including audio recordings.

Meanwhile, Trump said he was willing to testify under oath about his conversations with Comey.

After the London attacks, Trump tweeted “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!'” But as usually he took things out of context. Mayor Sadiq Khan was actually informing Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased police presence in the city following the attack.

Trump then tweeted the day after that that Khan had offered a “pathetic excuse” and “had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement.” What about thinking? Such a diplomat.

Senior White House adviser Kellyanne The Witch Conway condemned what she called the media’s “obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president.” So what has he done again since he took office besides tweet?

Trump [or someone handling his Twitter account] started to block Twitter accounts that are unfriendly to Trump. Press Secretary Sean Garlic Spicer said Trump’s tweets from his personal account are considered official White House statements. Some legal experts say, raises First Amendment concerns about what Trump is doing. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University says it’ll consider a lawsuit if Trump doesn’t unblock Twitter users. If Trump’s tweets are considered official White House statements then is a designated public forum. Some of the tweeters claim they were block for something as simple of a joke about covfefe.

According to White House national security aide Sebastian Gorka, on Trump’s tweets he says “It’s not policy. It’s social media.” So whatever Trump tweets are not official? Or official depending on the tweet.

Trump finally came around to blast Qatar for supporting terrorism. Trump said Arab leaders he met with in Saudi Arabia last month had urged him to confront Qatar over its behavior. If so, why did it take him close to a week to come out and say something. Did Arab leaders really ask him? He said Qatar had “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Wonder how things will continue as Qatar hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops and a major U.S. air base.

Trump still pushing for his “travel ban” after being blocked twice. This time he will try the Supreme Court. He then tweets “The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.” He has also hinted that UK wouldn’t of had the recent attacks if they had “extreme vetting” [does anyone know what that really entails?] but how many of them were born in the UK?

Even The Witch‘s husband, George Conway, who declined a justice job [claiming family reasons], tweeted out against Trump’s ban.

Seems like lack of diplomacy doesn’t fall far from the tree. After saying critics of his father are “not even people” in an interview on Fox, Eric Trump calls DNC chairman Tom Perez “a total wackjob.” Trump says Democrats “have no message of their own” and are “imploding”. Yup, a chip off the old block when it comes to exaggerations.

Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord could hit his family hard in the future. The Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the soaring apartment towers bearing his name on Miami-area beaches and his Doral golf course are all threatened by rising seas, according to projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the South Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. The same goes for other low-lying South Florida properties such as his beloved National Doral Miami golf course. Other properties near water include The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, his golf course in Ireland, Vancouver, Panama City, Uruguay and India.

As a photo op, Trump met two families while in Cincinnati who were hit with rising health care costs. He called them “ObamaCare victims” in a tweet. They may not have any coverage with TrumpCare as experts estimate that over 20 million Americans will be off the government plan. As well, Trump spoke in Cincinnati at a marina, with a barge carrying West Virginia coal behind him.

In a meeting, Trump “joked” that Jared Kushner, who is married to his daughter Ivanka and also serves as a White House strategist, has “become much more famous than me,” adding: “I’m a little bit upset about that.” Turn the calendar back about a few months ago. He said “He’s become more famous than me” about FBI director James Comey. A month later, Comey was fired.

Scratching you head time: If true Jared Kushner suggested that it would be better if to contact the Russian government, it would be better to do it from the Russian embassy. If so, the US has no proof or documentation [or recording] of what was said. This goes against US laws which require government communication needs to be recorded.

Like many, President Barrack Obama would not use Trump’s name at a speech in Montreal this week. For example, he said “Obviously I’m disappointed with the current American administration’s decision to pull out of Paris,” when asked about the Trump’s administration to leave the accord. He continued to elude Trump’s name when he said “In an age of instant information, where TV and Twitter can feed us a steady stream of bad news — and sometimes fake news….”

Remember how Trump was boasting following his Saudi Arabia part of his trip that he has deals worth $110 billion signed? Not really. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but no contracts signed. With the drop in oil prices, Saudi Arabia are even cutting back on military purchases.

The family and close friends have repeatedly ask Trump to dial back or tone down his tweeting as it is costing him [what’s left of his] respectability.

In another sign that the economy doesn’t like the administration, Ford is offering 15,000 employees money to leave the company. If not, they’ll probably lay off many.

On March 11, 45% of Americans approved of the job Donald Trump was doing in Gallup’s daily tracking poll. The latest Gallup track on June 3 put Trump’s job approval at a dismal 36% — a single percentage point away from the lowest ebb of his time in the White House. (On March 28, Trump’s job approval was at 35%.) A Quinnipiac University poll released in late May put Trump’s job approval at 37%. A Monmouth poll conducted in mid-May put Trump’s job approval at 39%. In comparison, President Obama was at 61% in the Gallup tracking poll in early June 2009. George W. Bush was at 55% in Gallup at this time in 2001.

Since 1946, according to Gallup, when a president’s job approval rating is above 50%, the average number of seats his party loses in a midterm election is 14. When a president’s job approval rating is below 50%? Try an average 36-seat loss.

 

1469 days until the next Presidential inauguration!

A bit of trivia: Name the action movie in the mid-1990s mentions both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the movie? Scroll to the bottom…]

“I know a lot about hacking.” Boy now Trump is a computer specialist! Trump claimed to have inside information on the matter, which he said he would reveal within the week of saying so – and didn’t. Judging from the history of Trump, it won’t be during that week, the next or the week after. Or maybe ever.

All sixteen federal intelligence agencies in the US plus two private independent security firms all concluded that Russia was involved in the hacking.

“What I can say is that we don’t believe that intelligence efforts should interfere into politics, certainly,” Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said. So this is the equivalent of saying the intelligence agencies should not say that their government was hacked into.

“This report that everyone keeps talking about is not final,” the President-elect’s incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer said. So why was the report released? Did the report say it wasn’t final?

“As President-elect he is privy to information most people aren’t,” Spicer said. Ok, so why mention anything until you can release it.

“And if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong.” True but who knows. With the time wasted going in, the WMDs could have been moved or buried.

Trump’s people can’t get things right. Reince Priebus stated that Trump finally acknowledged that the US was hacked and Trump has promised to retaliate but Trump advisor [and all around odd-ball – for the lack of kind words] Kellyanne Conway keeps on using “alleged” hack because the Russians [she claims] were unsuccessful.

Trump is blaming the DNC for the lack of security to their network but Trump fails to blame the RNC [they were hacked but supposedly (or on purposely)] no leaked data or various government agencies.

Trump having his children or son-in-law as advisors could go against a law created in the mid-1960s which stipulates that family members cannot be advisors or paid. They may be one some committees but unpaid and clear of advising the President. But remember – this is Donald Trump. What’s another potentially broken law?

A full repeal of Obamacare by Trump would cost $350 billion over the next decade, according to a new analysis from the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. This makes its wholesale dismantling much more complicated. Trump himself said [depending on the weather it seems] will either pull all of Obamacare or take the “best” pieces.

The GOP and Trump claim removing Obamacare would be their first item of business. But they have not said what they would replace it with. There is talk that even giving children of illegal immigrants health care as part of Obamacare would be pulled as well as the guarantee of health care even with pre-existing conditions. An estimate 20 million Americans who didn’t have health care prior to Obamacare could potentially lose their health care.

Trump went to Twitter [as usual] to lash out at Meryl Streep after she made comments about him at the Golden Globe Awards. He responded in his usual fashion calling her “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood” and denying he “groveled” at someone during the campaign. If The Pope was to make comments about him I wonder how he’d respond? “Over-rate Pope”? “Pope who has done nothing?” He is a humorless and easily offended public persona.

Trump to criticize Saturday Night Live as “biased” and “unwatchable” on Twitter during the campaign after Alec Baldwin made fun of his looks and manner. But the show just recorded its best ratings in 24 years, thanks to a toxic and highly divisive U.S. presidential election.

Actor Alex Baldwin making fun at Trump with a knock off of “Make America Great Again” in Russian….

Arnold Schwarzenegger took over as “host” on Celebrity Apprentice [which Trump still has a production credit but doesn’t do anything]. Trump went after “Arnie” after the ratings have dropped but also poked fun at him because he supported (John) Kasich and Hillary (Clinton). Arnie did respond in Twitter with “I wish you the best of luck and I hope you’ll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings.”

Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton have decided to attend the inauguration to do so out of a sense of duty and respect for the American democratic process. So has George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter [who previous agreed to attend].

In another about face [well partially] Trump has said he will push to build the “Great Wall” between the US and Mexico now and send Mexico the invoice later. He doesn’t want to wait on the wall. There are currently 700 miles of fence along that track, with another approximately 1,200 miles either open, nearly impossible to actually build on or impassable.

Melania Trump, taking lessons from her husband, has warned that she will sue anyone who calls her an “ex-hooker”. If you recall, a story stated that she came to the US with a non-work visa and yet she was supposedly a model at Trump’s modeling agency. The story said she pulled in $20,000 within months. I would guess not all was modeling – especially since the agency couldn’t put her on their payroll legally. Get the drift?

Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN review has found. The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia.

Trump wants to create a “team” within 90 days of his inauguration on how to tackle hacking. First, you know Trump. It will be long after 90 days – if ever. Second, doesn’t the US already have an intelligence division to handle this? Oh ya. Trump doesn’t trust them.

Trump’s tweeting could cause problems. As of now they have been minor but if he tweets a bad comment, it could cause ripples.

In an example of bad tweeting Trump said “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” In fact most Cruzes are made in Ohio for the US market. The Cruze hatchback is made in Mexico for the international market although maybe 4500 care shipped to the US. After the tweet, GM’s stock market price briefly went down.

During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate or scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement as a means of protecting and creating U.S. jobs. But while NAFTA is still valid, dishing out a “border tax” isn’t allowed.

Then Trump whined again on Twitter about Toyota opening a plant in Mexico and again with the “border tax” except he was technically defending Canada because the “lost” jobs would actually be Canadian jobs. Oh. He got the location in Mexico wrong.

It’s been a policy that when a new president comes in, all the appointments from the previous administration are recalled. Generally they leave by inauguration day. But with the Trump administration, they want everyone out by inauguration day. No exceptions or extensions. That means pulling kids out of school in the middle of the school year, canceling charity galas and supposedly in one case cancer treatment.

Oh. What ever happened to Trump releasing his tax returns. Maybe it includes the fact that it will show Trump’s connections to Russian businesses.

Trivia answer: Die Hard With A Vengeance [the third Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis]. At one point in conversations between the characters of Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, both names came up. Interesting to note that Clinton’s name came up related to the presidency.

So un-presidential is Tump

After keeping quite quiet for two weeks, the dark side of president-elect Donald Trump has come out.

First even with large enough leads in the three states that would make it impossible for Hillary Clinton to capture any of the states, it still bothers Trump that he has to lash out at anyone who wants a recount.

Trump announced that he is leaving his family’s business to concentrate on being the President but gave no details. His s three eldest children – Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka – are expected to run the operations. How he is going to do this will be a mystery as he may have requested top security clearance for the three and Ivanka’s husband. In addition, Trump owns golf clubs, office towers and other properties in several countries. He holds ownership stakes in more than 500 companies. He has struck licensing deals for use of his name on hotels and other buildings around the world. [If you think the supposedly connection between the Clinton Foundation and the state department (that Trump claimed during the election) could be an issue, wait until this progresses.] Ethics experts have pushed for Trump to fully exit the ownership of his businesses using a blind trust or equivalent arrangement.

Experts say Trump may have to sell off his stake in his new luxury Trump hotel down the road from the White Shack. It was originally the central post office and is still government property. Trump too a 60 year lease but part of the lengthy lease documents say anyone in public office can not own or lease the building. Trump put $200 million of his money [supposedly] into renovating the building.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” tweeted Trump. I wouldn’t consider the outcome a landslide [particularly if by some fluke the recounts in the three states went to Clinton.] Trump first alleged hat “millions” of undocumented immigrants voted against him and later directed the inaccurate charges at California, Virginia and New Hampshire. California is one state where he had no chance of winning. So unsure why he would even bother complaining about that state anyways. [That and most immigrants probably wouldn’t vote for him anyways.] Trump may have used the information tweeted by Gregg Phillips of True the Vote, whose baseless allegation was later picked up by some fringe media outlets.

“Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn’t the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!” Trump tweeted.

Tom Rath, the former attorney general of New Hampshire said “This will probably cost me my spot in the Cabinet but there was no fraud, serious or other, in this election in NH. There just wasn’t.”

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla hit back at Trump, tweeting that his “unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd.”

In 2012, he tweeted: “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy” and yet he accepts his win from it. But right after his win he said “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

Trump continues to ignore advisors and his national security briefings. The latest mess has him accepting a call from the President of Taiwan – considered a no-no to appease the Chinese. He could be just turning up the heat a bit as he went after China throughout the elections.

Trump continues to whine in his tweets against Saturday Night Live after the show made fun of him over his diplomatic goof with Taiwan. I’m sure Trump will sign an executive order killing the show in January – if he could. So presidential.

A petition has started on change.org as New Yorkers don’t want to pay the estimated $1 million per DAY security bill [and other costs] to have Melania Trump in New York.

President-elect Donald Trump is “irritated” with top aide Kellyanne Conway’s public campaign against Mitt Romney’s potential nomination as Secretary of State. There is an internal feud between Conway and chief of staff Reince Priebus, specifically about the choice between Romney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani for the nation’s top diplomatic position. She said that Trump supporters felt “betrayed” by Romney’s consideration. Conway and others have pointed to the vicious personal attacks Romney lobbed at Trump throughout the campaign as being different and more severe than many other. Will she still be in the administration by January? New York Rep. Chris Collins called Romney a “self-serving egomaniac.”

Seems that that Donald Trump will have both the technology and the Constitutional authority to send a Tweet, should he wish to, to every phone of every American whenever he wants.

Meanwhile, Trump uses an Android phone. Probably not secure for his position. [I sure hope his Android phone is made in America. 🙂 ]

A CNN survey released last week found that Trump’s favorability rating had gone from 36 per cent a few weeks before the election to 47 per cent 10 days after the vote. A little less than half of Americans said Trump’s actions since the election had made them more confident in his ability to serve as president.

A Quinnipiac poll released last week found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans thought Trump should shut down his personal Twitter account. More than half were concerned that Trump might veto legislation that’s good for the nation if it hurt his business interests.