Tag: Swamp

The grave danger in a period of rapid change, like the last six months, is that the new look of things may become normal. In Washington Irving’s famous story “Rip Van Winkle,” the quirky protagonist falls asleep in the mountains and sleeps through the whole American Revolution. When he awakes and walks back into town, he is shocked at the changes which have occurred. Nothing is familiar; nothing makes sense. Yet to those who have been there every day, the new reality is normal; it makes perfect sense. Remember back in 2016 when Marco Rubio famously asked the question, “Can this country afford to have a president under investigation by the FBI? Think of the trauma that would do to this country.” Well, now we have one, and lots of people are treating the situation as nothing to get excited about. The once unthinkable is now normal. A few years back, some home owners on my street painted their house such a god-awful color that the first time I saw it, I nearly wrecked my car from craning my neck and dropping my jaw. Now I don’t even see that house as I drive by. New fashion trends can be startling at first, but within a short time, they look perfectly normal and the styles they replaced look weird and dated.

Since January 20, 2017, things once shocking have become normal and to a large group of Americans even acceptable and desirable. What was once a game-changing scandal is now just a bad news day. A mere eight months ago, the thought of having a president under FBI investigation was widely seen as a disqualifier; now it’s a “meh.” Intelligent people agree that DJT must be removed from the office of president, yet that alone does not guarantee the restoration of that office to the level of respect it has always commanded. It doesn’t automatically return our country and its president to leader of the free world. The damage done to our country and our presidency will outlive Donald Trump. The day he leaves office—whether by impeachment, by the invoking of the 25^th amendment, or by (loud groan!) the expiration of his term—will be a day of celebration but not a day to declare victory. Removing the cause is the first step; restoring the norms will be the harder battle.

Let’s look at how our perception of normal has changed these last 6 months.

1. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear the name Donald Trump? Is it “lies”? If so, you’d be among a majority of people not only in this country but throughout the world who have been stunned by the level of dishonesty coming from our White House. When was the last time a major newspaper compiled a list of a president’s lies since taking office (only 6 months ago) and the list filled a whole page? Um, I believe the answer to that question would be NEVER. Yet the New York Times marked 45’s 6-month anniversary by publishing the lengthy article titled “Trump’s Lies.” When Bill Clinton looked into the TV cameras and declared “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” and we later learned that he did in fact have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, the outrage was outrageous. Most people forgave his marital infidelity long before they forgave him for lying to the American public—if they ever forgave him for lying to them. Now we have a “president” who lies every day, and everyone knows he’s lying; but now instead of demanding his head on a platter, we spend our time psychoanalyzing him, and reputable publications face moral dilemmas about what to call the lies. It doesn’t feel right to publicly call a statement from the president by the name it deserves, a LIE; so editors agonize over what might be a more acceptable term. Some have found “falsehoods” more palatable; others have opted for “contradictory claims,” “misleading statements,” and others. Kellyanne Conway suggested “alternative facts.” But as Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And a lie by any other name would still stink.
2. The reluctance of the press to use the L-word when referring to a statement by the President of the United States stems, I believe, from the general disconnect that currently exists between our cultural image of presidential conduct and what we see daily taking place in this White House. Most of us have been taught that even when we find it difficult to respect a particular president, we must still respect the office. The POTUS is both our national leader and, at least during our lifetimes, the leader of the free world. Even when the person who holds that office espouses policies with which we disagree or is known to have a few private bad habits or indiscretions, we reverence the office which our founders created and defined in our Constitution. Only 44 people have held that esteemed office in the whole of our history (Grover Cleveland is counted twice in the number 45, since he is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms). Only 44. That’s a pretty exclusive club, and we assume that those 44 people have been the best of the best, most deserving of our respect and deference—if not for their personal excellence, at least for their ability to rise to that high level. The disconnect occurs when number 44 is such a boorish, lying, malicious buffoon that he degrades not only himself but the office as well. It doesn’t feel right to say “lie” when speaking of our leader; it doesn’t feel right to say that he’s ignorant or stupid or any of the even less flattering descriptors applied to him. DJT likes to call his style “modern-day presidential,” and that’s the most frightening prospect of all: the possibility that such behavior will become the norm. We can’t let that happen!
3. DJT has weakened our country’s status and our influence on the world stage in too many ways to count, but one of the most disturbing is his failure to distinguish between friends and foes. He has treated our adversaries as friends and our friends as adversaries. In his famous Oval Office video with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he refuses a handshake and resists even making eye contact or a friendly facial expression; but just a short time later, he is photographed in the Oval Office laughing, backslapping, and shaking hands with Russian diplomats. While refusing to say a single negative word about human rights violator extraordinaire Vladimir Putin, he viciously criticizes the American media, U.S. intelligence agencies, some of our allies, anyone who didn’t vote for him or who thinks he’s an ignoramus, Hillary Clinton (still!), former FBI Director James Comey, and most recently his own Attorney General—whom HE appointed. And that’s just the short list! We’re going to need some of these people he’s been alienating, but they may not be available because of the way he’s treated them. Nervous yet?
4. One of the qualities that comprises our old image of what it means to be “presidential” is the ability to speak coherently, persuasively, and sometimes eloquently to American citizens and to citizens of the world. The first thing my stepfather did years ago when he signed up for an Internet account was to search for tapes of FDR’s speeches, because he remembered the eloquence and grandeur of Roosevelt’s orations. One of my most indelible images of Bill Clinton is him speaking at Coretta Scott King’s funeral. Last in the lineup of former presidents who gave tribute to Mrs. King, he stole the audience in the first 30 seconds. Without a single note (the others had pages of them), he spoke warmly and eloquently, and the audience loved him. You can like President Obama or hate him, but you can’t honestly deny the power of his rhetoric. He may very well rank at the top of the list for eloquent oratory. Now George W. Bush could butcher a word—remember “nucular” and “misunderestimated”—but he used complete sentences, finished his thoughts, and displayed at least a passable command of facts (well, WMDs excluded). Compare those examples with this from “President” Trump: “Crimea was gone during the Obama administration, and he gave, he allowed it to get away. You know, he can talk tough all he wants, in the meantime he talked tough to North Korea. And he didn’t actually. He didn’t talk tough to North Korea. You know, we have a big problem with North Korea. Big. Big, big.” And this matters because when our president speaks, he represents us all. He has made our country a laughingstock.
5. Let’s talk about tweets. Sure, President Obama did a little tweeting during his presidency, but he did not use Twitter as a platform to attack rivals, cabinet members, the press; in fact, he didn’t attack anyone. When he had a matter of business to handle, he handled it in businesslike, professional fashion—even when it required making tough calls. He used Twitter to express condolences, for light-hearted camaraderie with friends and other national leaders, you know, the normal Twitter stuff. And he didn’t do anything that the press could describe as “a tweet storm.” Ever. Anyone looking for evidence that DJT is childish, insecure, and above all unprofessional need only look at a few tweet storms. To use his familiar tweet ending, “Sad!”
6. Remember the last president who held campaign rallies AFTER he was elected? Yeah, me neither. The frequency with which the media uses the word “unprecedented” is, well, unprecedented. And on that list of things we’ve never seen a president do before is continue to act like a candidate: holding rallies/aka love fests and catering only to his supporters—everyone else be damned. At this point, no one should be surprised by the extent of DJT’s ignorance; but really, it’s kind of a basic principle that presidents are supposed to serve all of the citizens of their countries, not just those who voted for them or attend rallies to chant their names. The thing that IS still shocking is the fact that DJT gets away with all of this because the Republican party has become too impotent and/or self-serving to set limits and hold him to account for his behavior.
7. Presidents are always criticized; it comes with the job, and most presidents realize ahead of time that a lot of scrutiny is coming their way and prepare their strategy for handling the harsh things they’ll hear about themselves. As human beings, they’re not immune to being deeply hurt by people’s unkind remarks and even by deserved criticism; but the other 43 men who have held the office of POTUS have been adult enough to express their pain in private and for the most part to resist lashing out at their critics or publicly whining about how unfairly they’re being treated. Never in the 241-year history of our republic have we had a president depicted by cartoonists around the world wearing diapers and using a pacifier; never has the world referred to our president as a man baby. That is, never until we elected a man baby. Never have we had a president whose philosophy for handling criticism is when you’re hit, hit back 10 times harder. That’s a schoolyard strategy and has no place in the office of president. Sadly, however, the schoolyard has moved inside the White House.
8. Also unprecedented for a president is DJT’s complex financial issues. His adamant refusal to allow the public to look at his tax returns—something every other president has done for the last 40 years—should be evidence enough that he has plenty to hide. People who have nothing to hide don’t hide things; they welcome scrutiny as an opportunity to prove their honesty and integrity. No other president has ever had to pay out a huge sum of money to resolve fraud charges immediately before taking office or refused to divest from his businesses or panicked when a special counsel appeared to be heading toward investigating his family’s finances. No other president has so blatantly defied the Emoluments Clause of our Constitution. No other president has entered office with as much financial baggage or as much evidence in public record of his previous monetary dealings with a foreign adversary. Yet the Republican response to all of this is just another “Meh.”
9. I’m going to quote Stephen Collinson of CNN on Trump’s abuse of power, because I can’t say it nearly as well as he has: “During his six months in power, Trump has made few concessions to the conventions and protocol of an office shaped by his predecessors for more than two centuries. Though his voice now carries the resonance of a head of state, he’s more often adopted the impulsive boss’ persona that made him a flamboyant Manhattan real estate magnate and star of ‘The Apprentice.’ Now, a series of extraordinary comments and incidents [in the New York Times interview] are raising questions about whether the commander in chief has thought deeply about the institutional curbs on the power of his office, or the duties he owes as President to the rule of law, the public and to the conduct of good governance. . . . It is often difficult to be sure whether the President is pursuing a deliberate strategy to stretch his powers or is simply unfamiliar with their limits.” Yeah, I guess to be familiar with their limits, he’d have had to read the Constitution at least once; and it’s hard to read on a golf course.
10. Decorum. It’s a somewhat old-fashioned word, but I think it expresses what most of us expect from a person in a position of leadership. Here’s the definition from Dictionary.com: “dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.; exhibiting . . . dignified propriety, orderliness, regularity; . . . an observance or requirement of polite society.” President Obama oozed decorum; even President George W Bush knew how to exhibit some class and propriety. Neither of those two gentlemen surrounded himself with people who look and act like thugs and mobsters. Neither of them ogled other presidents’ wives and women attending Oval Office meetings and commented on their beauty or physical fitness. Neither of them sulked in his chair when Angela Merkel asked for a handshake. Neither tweeted attacks against critics. Possibly the biggest reason DJT sought the office of president in the first place is to overcome his lifelong feelings of rejection by “polite society” since he springs from a long line of opportunists and fast-wheeling businessmen. Sorry, Donald, but money doesn’t buy class. I miss having a president with class. I think the lack of decorum is the number-one thing that can’t be allowed to become normal for the presidency. Presidents represent us all, and they should do it with propriety; we deserve it.

I grew up believing that evil is never the final outcome, that it’s never irreversible. I’ve always believed that good can triumph over evil. Sometimes it doesn’t, but it always CAN. Now I and my fellow American citizens find ourselves for the six months past as well as the foreseeable future at the mercy of what seems to be an unconquerable evil—a horror movie, the twilight zone, an old western in which the good guy never shows up and the bad guys get away with unthinkable wrong. I’ve always believed that good, decent people—though our opinions differ on policies, methods, personal preferences—share core values which stem from our common heritage. Yet today we are so deeply divided that we can’t even agree on who our enemies are or on how a president should conduct himself or herself. I’ve always believed that Christians, though they belong to very different denominations and disagree on matters of doctrine and polity, jointly stood for goodness, love, compassion, decency, and a high standard of morality. Now many who claim that label think of a racist, misogynistic, crotch-grabbing adulterer as their “dream president.”

The question “Where’s the outrage?” comes to mind, but in reality there’s plenty of outrage all around. The problem is we’re not even outraged by the same things any more. More to the point are the questions “Where are the adults?” and “Where are the good guys?” Congress is as corrupt as the president is, so we can’t expect them to rescue our democracy from destruction. As I’ve said before, we’re like the alcoholics’ children who are being forced to grow up fast and take charge of the house because our leadership and authority figures are too distracted by their own addictions and corruption to do their jobs. In short, we’re the adults; we’re the good guys. We have to keep showing up. Action is exhausting, but the price of inaction is too high. We’re in this together, and we’re in it for the long haul. Keep up your strength and your resolve, and keep your friends close. We need each other.

For those of us old enough to remember Watergate, Week 20 has been Déjà vu. Experiences such as Watergate and Russiagate are painful and exhausting. They remind us of how precious our democracy is and yet how fragile; how comfortable yet how very messy. I believe I’ve quoted Thomas Paine in this report before, but I’d like to repeat: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” Freedom is indeed precious and well worth our most ardent efforts, but it’s also pricey.  Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at a Civil War battlefield, a portion of which was being dedicated as a monument to those who had paid the ultimate price to preserve our union. After commenting on their sacrifice, he challenged his audience:

“It is for us the living . . . to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is . . . for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”

Our nation is divided again, perhaps more deeply than it has been since the Civil War. Our divisions are no longer North vs. South, slavery vs. emancipation; today we’re divided on what it means to be American, what values should guide our country, who we want to be as a people, and who should be allowed to share in the privileges which our ancestors have purchased for us at such enormous expense. Our greatest challenge is finding those values which define us not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans and then learning to make those American values the bedrock that unifies rather than divides us.  My recommendation for “us the living” is that we all memorize Lincoln’s words and make them the mantra that guides our navigation of these difficult waters.

Here are the highlights of Week 20.

1. For the second time in less than two weeks, England was struck by tragedy on Saturday, June 3, when a car plowed into pedestrians on London Bridge. In what is now known to be a terror attack, the perpetrators “then rushed to the nearby Borough Market, where they ditched their vehicle and began stabbing people in the area” (HuffPost). Eight people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack, the sort of event which would usually inspire an outpouring of sympathy and support from other national leaders. Since the USA, however, is not currently in a business-as-usual mode, our “president” expressed his feelings in his own unique way: he tweeted insults toward the London mayor and used the occasion as a political opportunity to once again plug his derailed travel ban and to ridicule gun-control debates. In one tweet, 45 wrote, “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!” In another, he said, “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!” Most offensive and embarrassing of all is this one responding to his out-of-context version of the mayor’s remarks to the people of London: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!” Anyone with a third-grade reading level would have known the mayor was reassuring Londoners to remain calm in the face of extra police presence, not telling them the attack was no big deal. Perhaps next presidential election, candidates should be required to pass a basic literacy test.
2. In the latest episode of the Reality TV show “Presidenting for Fame and Profit,” the Trump family announced this week a new business venture—adding to, you know, all those other businesses from which they’ve not divested. Since a large contingent of DT’s adoring base could never afford a night in any of the Trump luxury hotels, and since he wants to keep his faithful followers faithful, smiling, and voting, his organization announced on Monday, June 5—according to the New York Times—that they’ll soon be rolling out a three-star hotel chain, called American Idea, in some Trump-friendly areas. (Oh, but this is NOT political, mind you!) The observation on the campaign trail was that lower-priced hotels were pretty generic, different only in the names on their lighted signs. The Trump family plans to set their properties apart by using a kitschy Americana theme, “featuring artifacts of American culture,” such as old Coca-Cola machines. By rebranding existing properties such as Holiday Inns and Comfort Inns, the Trump Organization will be lighting up their first signs pretty quickly; so keep your eyes open on your summer road trip. Personally, I’d rather sleep in my car!
3. I can’t recall in my lifetime a president who has consistently been referred to as angry, seething, enraged, infuriated, shouting, cursing, fuming, and other descriptors indicating a volatile temper and unstable mind. Leaving 45’s mental condition to the professionals, I find it disturbing to think that our government is being run by someone with no impulse control and not enough self-awareness to reflect honestly on his own mistakes. Because of his inability to face himself and to accept responsibility for his actions, we’ve become well accustomed to his habit of blaming anyone and everyone else when things go wrong—which they do on a daily basis. Multiple reports have stated that Trump was and is enraged at his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the investigation in Russia’s meddling in our 2016 election. According to Trump, it was Sessions’ recusal that led to the appointment of the special counsel to take over the investigation. The Washington Post reports, “He has intermittently fumed for months over Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election, according to people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal conversations.” Poor Donald! It’s so hard to be a narcissist when the whole world is watching and expects you to act like a normal president.
4. Donald Trump is not known for his charitable spirit; in fact, he has often been called the least charitable wealthy person in the world. We learned during the campaign last year that the Trump Foundation had been using charitable donations to pay DT’s numerous legal fees and to cover a few personal purchases such as two large portraits of Mr. Narcissist himself and a souvenir football helmet signed by Tim Tebow. This week, we learned that Eric Trump’s charities have been funneling money donated to fight childhood cancer into Trump enterprises. Forbes reported that Eric has hosted an annual one-day golf tournament for the last ten years. Since the event is held at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, Eric has always claimed that since it’s a family biz, there are no overhead costs and 100% of the money donated goes to St. Jude’s to help fund children’s cancer research. The problem is, big surprise, that isn’t true. In fact, Eric’s daddy insisted on billing the Eric Trump Foundation for the use of the facilities, which means the Trump Organization benefited richly from this pretentious charity event. As the Mimi of a childhood cancer patient, I find this personally offensive!
5. On Wednesday of this week, NSA Director Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee and, according to Politico, “repeatedly stonewalled when asked about news reports that Trump asked each of them to downplay or refute the FBI’s probe, which is examining whether Trump’s associates colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.” Although it’s been widely reported that Trump tried to pressure both of these men to influence James Comey to drop the Russia investigation, neither would admit to any such pressure. Yet many feel that they revealed more by their silence than by the words they spoke. Their testimonies left the committee members dissatisfied, a little miffed, and determined to meet these men again for some straight answers.
6. Meanwhile, back at the Senate, while the special committee was questioning witnesses, Mitch McConnell—grateful for the distraction—was making profitable use of his free time by holding closed-door sessions to create a Senate version of the health-care bill which he plans to fast-track through to a vote in the near future. There’s only one thing Mr. Turtlehead forgot: to let the Democrats in on the content of the bill. Oops! Well, he didn’t really forget, obviously. Here’s what the Washington Examiner reported: “Democrats have taken issue with Republicans for not holding a hearing on the Senate version of the American Health Care Act. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called out Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, when he said Democrats were welcome to offer ideas and suggestions for the legislation. ‘When you are saying that you inviting us, for what? We don’t even know. We have no idea what is being proposed,’ McCaskill replied.” Well, isn’t that special?
7. On Wednesday, the former director of US national intelligence, James Clapper, spoke to Australia’s National Press Club. According to The Guardian’s report, Mr. Clapper, when asked to compare the Trump-Russia investigation with Watergate, responded, “I think you compare the two, that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now.” Clapper also called Trump’s interactions with Russia “very problematic,” called Trump’s firing of Jim Comey “egregious and inexcusable,” and said that it is “absolutely crucial for the United States, and for that matter for the world, for this presidency, for the Republicans, for the Democrats and for the nation at large, that we get to the bottom of this.” I agree on all points.
8. Lordy, what a day we had on Thursday! With possibly the largest TV audience for a political hearing since Watergate, James Comey stepped into the Senate Intelligence Committee chamber at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday and swore to tell nothing but the truth about his interactions with Donald Trump. Under oath, Mr. Comey called our “president” a liar, testified that from his very first conversation with DT his gut instinct told him this is a person who can’t be trusted, and unequivocally stated that Russia’s influence in our election was real. Here are his words: “There should be no fuzz on this whatsoever. The Russians interfered in our election in the 2016 cycle. They did it with purpose, they did it with sophistication, they did it with overwhelming technical efforts, and it was an active measures campaign driven from the top of that government.” One of the most notable points of Mr. Comey’s testimony is what it tells us about his reputation. Republicans and Democrats both questioned some of his decisions, but no one questions his integrity. Most of his questioners prefaced their conversations with him by highly commending his integrity and devotion to his country and to his job. Everyone reading this report, as well as the person writing it, has had moments of intense frustration with James Comey and might have fired him ourselves when eleven days before the election he felt compelled to reveal some newly discovered emails from Hillary Clinton’s aide’s ex-husband—a decision which played a large role in throwing the election toward 45. Yet Mr. Comey’s overall reputation as a person of integrity and honor will play a crucial role in this he-said/he-said situation that’s going to determine the future of our republic.
9. There’s been no praise for Donald Trump’s attorney since he made his botched response to James Comey’s testimony. After Robert Mueller was appointed special investigator into the Russia probe and DT was advised to lawyer up, his team began seeking counsel to represent 45 in the long legal battle he faces. Problem is, no one wants to work for him, and the top two reasons given are his reputation for not listening to advice and for not paying those he hires to work for him. Those reasons, along with the potential damage to a legitimate firm’s reputation from being associated with the mob boss, DT, have left Trump and Company in dire straits, with only old friend Marc Kasowitz willing to accept the gig. Mr. Kasowitz, who bills himself on his website as the baddest badass, has a long-standing relationship with DT: “Trump has turned to Kasowitz for matters that include debt restructuring and suing an author who Trump said undercounted his net worth.” In the New York subculture that produced DT, Kasowitz is a star; but in Washington DC political circles, he is outclassed and incompetent. But hey, when he’s all you can get, what’s a prez to do? Kasowitz called James Comey a liar and stated his intention to file a complaint against Comey on Monday of the upcoming week. Comey made his statements under oath, which means Kasowitz has accused Comey of perjury, which is a felony. Mr. Kasowitz seems no more judicious in his public statements than his boss is.
10. And the trophy for most pathetic, disgusting statement of the week goes to our own Speaker of the House Paul Ryan! The Washington Post reports this statement from Ryan following James Comey’s testimony on Thursday: “’People now realize why the president is so frustrated when the FBI director tells him on three different occasions he is not under investigation, yet the speculation swirls around the political system that he is — that’s frustrating,’ Ryan said. He added: ‘I would just say that of course there needs to be a degree of independence between [the Department of Justice], FBI and the White House and a line of communications established. The president’s new at this. He’s new to government, and so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI and White Houses. He’s just new to this.’” Nice try! However, the presidency of the United States is NO place for on-the-job training! This so-called “president” is not only unfamiliar with protocols but is uninclined to become familiar with them. That’s not an excuse; it’s an indictment.

I close my 20^th Swamp Report with the words of James Comey, excerpted from his Thursday testimony before the Senate intelligence committee. Nothing I can write would be as timely, as eloquent, as powerful, or as impassioned as these words:

“The reason this is such a big deal is, we have this big messy wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time. But nobody tells us what to think, what to fight about, what to vote for except other Americans. And that’s wonderful and often painful. But we’re talking about a foreign government that using technical intrusion, lots of other methods, tried to shape the way we think, we vote, we act. That is a big deal. And people need to recognize it. It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally. They want to undermine our credibility in the face the world. They think that this great experiment of ours is a threat to them. So they’re going to try to run it down and dirty it up as much as possible. That’s what this is about and they will be back. Because we remain — as difficult as we can be with each other — we remain that shining city on the hill. And they don’t like it.”

We cannot, we must not squander our precious heritage purchased at such great cost. We must keep this city on the hill shining for our children and our children’s children! It’s not a choice. It’s a sacred duty.

New series name; same weekly summary

This week’s tension was broken by a bit of levity as the world laughed, joked, and made memes about the meaning of “covfefe,” from Donald Trump’s late-Tuesday-night tweet, which circulated in the twitterverse until Wednesday morning when someone finally saw and deleted it. The incomplete tweet, “Despite the negative press covfefe,” was obviously going to be a criticism of DT’s favorite target, the press; it seems simple enough to figure out that “covfefe” was meant to be “coverage”; and the unfinished thought, typed late at night, would seem to indicate that the typist dozed off mid-sentence. Nothing sinister here; well, except for the intended attack on the press. Dozing off late at night in the middle of watching a movie, grading papers, or tweeting is a pretty human thing to do. Hitting the wrong keys, especially on a tiny iPhone keyboard, is equally common; and sending out an embarrassing auto-correct version of one’s thoughts—well, none of us want to be reminded of the times we’ve done that. So the question which begs to be answered here is “Why not just admit it?” Why not say, “I was tweeting, and I fell asleep—haha”? That would be the normal thing to do; but since no one can accuse anyone in the DT administration of being normal, sycophant-in-chief Sean Spicer explained to the press (with a straight face!): “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.” Spicer’s statement, to me, sums up the depth of dishonesty embodied in this administration. The inability to admit even the most trivial error, the need to turn a simple mistake into something important and symbolic, and the constant challenge to intelligent people’s reason by telling lies so transparent that none can give them a moment’s consideration is corruption at its most profound. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius sees his son Laertes off on a long journey with some fatherly advice that culminates in this line: “This above all—to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou canst not then be false to any man.” In 2017, we’d say, “Here’s the most important thing: If you’re honest with yourself first, you can’t be dishonest with anyone else.” I would argue that if a statement is true, its opposite is also true. In this case, that would mean that if one is dishonest with oneself, it’s not possible for that person to be honest with anyone else. And that, friends, sums up the integrity problem at the core of this nightmare administration: the leader is so self-deluded that truth is non-existent except in the moment, in whatever serves his need and his ego at any given time. To be at the mercy of such a morally decadent person is terrifying.

Here’s a snapshot of the week.

1. With the Trump-Russia scandal at the center of the news for what looks like a long time to come, we have begun to pin our hopes each day on some promising announcement that the truth is being discovered and justice will eventually be done. This week’s good news is that James Comey has been scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, June 8. This portion of Comey’s testimony will be public and is expected to center on the question of whether 45 attempted to persuade Comey to drop his investigation of Michael Flynn. Since 45’s doing so would constitute obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense, the world will be waiting to hear Mr. Comey’s answers to those questions. Although we will probably hear a great deal about Comey’s extemporaneous memos recording 45’s alleged attempts to influence the investigation into Flynn, much of the information which Mr. Comey can share will no doubt be reserved for closed-door sessions with the Senate committee and others.
2. Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed his share of the spotlight this week, again. A CNN article reminds us of Sessions’ statement during his confirmation hearing on January 10 that he “’did not have any communications with the Russians’ during the campaign. He also said in a written statement submitted to the Senate judiciary committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the election.” Sessions has repeatedly denied having had any inappropriate contact with Russian officials, and he failed to report any meetings with Russians on his security forms filed when being vetted for the AG position. In March, however, we learned that he actually had two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; and this week we learned there is a potential third meeting which Mr. Sessions apparently “forgot about” when filling out those pesky security forms. Investigators are looking at evidence of an alleged meeting between Sessions and Kislyak, this one on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, where Trump was making a campaign speech. I guess when your boss is a serial liar, truth becomes whatever you want it to be. Facts be damned!
3. After last week’s defeat in a federal appeals court of Richmond, Virginia, which issued a 10-3 decision to uphold the block on 45’s travel ban, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking the case all the way to the SCOTUS. Since DT’s only hope for sustaining his political power is to keep his base of deplorables happy, it seems he’ll do anything—including fighting for his travel ban and damning the planet by withdrawing from the Paris Accord—to bolster his ego and keep himself politically afloat. It’s all about him!
4. On Wednesday of this week, 45 issued a dozen or so ethics waivers which have caused quite a stir. Ethics waivers are apparently intended to allow specific government officials to do specific things which would otherwise be forbidden by ethics laws. It’s not uncommon for these waivers to be granted; but there are, of course, rules and guidelines governing to whom and for what they can be issued. No one should be surprised to learn that DT did not follow those rules or guidelines. Two particular points of concern are the facts that a number of the waivers made public on Wednesday do not include dates, making it impossible to prove when they were issued or went into effect; and some appear to have been issued retroactively, to cover violations already committed. Walter M Shaub Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics, provided the voice of reason: “If you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule.” Richard W. Painter, White House ethics lawyer under GWB, puts it more pointedly: “The only retroactive waiver I have ever heard of is called a pardon.” It should go without saying that the White House employee to benefit most from these waivers is Steve Bannon, who has violated ethics restrictions by continuing his communications with his old employer, the alt-right Breitbart News. Voila! Now all of those chats with Breitbart editors are okey dokey! What’s next? Waivers for meetings with Russian officials?
5. Subpoenas have been flying around our nation’s capital this week, as both House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the special prosecutor continue their investigation of Russian election meddling and possible collusion by the Trump campaign. On Wednesday, the House committee approved subpoenas for Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who as we all know has so far not been cooperative. According to the HuffPost, “The committee also approved subpoenas seeking information on requests made by former Obama administration officials to unmask the names of individuals mentioned in classified surveillance reports, the Wall Street Journal reported. The subpoenas reportedly focus on requests made by former national security adviser Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan and former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power.”
6. In the made-for-reality-tv climax of the week, on Thursday, 45 dramatically announced from the White House Rose Garden that he is pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Seemingly struggling to read his prepared script, which he appeared to be seeing for the first time, Trump “said the landmark 2015 pact imposed wildly unfair environmental standards on American businesses and workers . . . and vowed to stand with the United States against what he called a ‘draconian’ international deal” (New York Times). Draconian? Anyone who’s gritted their teeth through a Trump “speech” knows that’s not a Trump word! Not to worry, though; this decision places us in great company. We’re now in an exclusive group of only three countries who do not participate in the accord; the other two are Syria, which is a bit distracted right now with their civil war, and Nicaragua, who declined to participate because the agreement didn’t go far enough to suit them. But lest anyone should think our esteemed “president” made this decision unadvisedly, fear not! After agonizing over the impact of his momentous choice, before making the public announcement, 45 made a last-minute call to Kimberly Guilfoyle. And who is Kimberly Guilfoyle? you ask. Is she a renowned scientist? No. Is she a climate expert? No. An energy expert? A local politician? No and no. Ms. Guilfoyle is co-host of a FOX News show. Yeah. That’s where 45 goes when he needs expert advice. He did say that he’d consider re-entering after he can renegotiate the agreement; but other leaders were quick to point out that the accord is irreversible—no renegotiation allowed—and that our withdrawal will take several years to be effective. The earliest we can officially leave the agreement is 2020-2021, which means there may yet be hope, because we should have a new president by then. The other leaders also threw in for good measure that our current “president” is an idiot. But that’s not news.
7. In the aftermath of 45’s ignorant and selfish decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, we see once again the indomitable spirit that has made this country what it is. When there’s a leadership void, citizens step up to fill that void and to keep our finest values and priorities alive. In the Rose Garden melodrama, DT declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” The problem is that . . . well  . . .  Pittsburgh doesn’t want him.  Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto immediately responded with a tweet: “As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement for our people, our economy & future.” Nationwide, 83 mayors have so far vowed to honor the agreement; and they’ve been joined by governors, business leaders, and university presidents. That’s the spirit of the America that has always been great and didn’t need no stinkin’ orange conman to make it great again!
8. David Gergen, whom I deeply admire for his astute and rational political commentary, called Trump’s action in withdrawing from the Paris accord “grotesquely irresponsible.” He explained, “Seventy years ago the United States entered an international agreement called the Marshall Plan, when we came to the aid of Europe, and it was one of the noblest acts in human history. Today we have walked away from the rest of the world, and it is one of the most shameful acts in our history. I think it will be widely seen around the world as a terrible, terrible setback for the planet. We represent as a country four percent of the world’s population, but we represent about a third of all the excess carbon dioxide that is now warming the planet. We are the largest contributor to carbon dioxide in the world, and…as this carbon dioxide threatens the future of our grandchildren, for us to walk away from that is grotesquely irresponsible. It is also true that the nations that are going to pay the greatest price for global warming are the poor nations of the world, and they have contributed the least to global warming. We have contributed the most. For us to walk away from that is immoral.” All I can say is “AMEN!”
9. Trump’s first trip abroad as the United States’ representative to the world—I can’t believe I’m even saying that!—is being called historic, but not for any reason we can be proud of. Among other results, the trip has left European heads of state frustrated, disappointed, and angry. Germany’s Angela Merkel declared this week that her country’s days of depending on the U.S.A. are “over to a certain extent” and that her country, along with other European nations, “really must take our fate into our own hands.” Most heartbreaking of all is that our president is no longer hailed as “leader of the free world.” That title now goes, according to most analysts, either to Angela Merkel or to a triumvirate of Germany’s Merkel, France’s Macron, and Canada’s Trudeau. My God! What have we done?
10. I close with an excerpt from an excellent article published this week by Rebecca Solnit, called “The Loneliness of Donald Trump”:

“The American buffoon’s commands were disobeyed, his secrets leaked at such a rate his office resembled the fountains at Versailles or maybe just a sieve (this spring there was an extraordinary piece in the Washington Post with thirty anonymous sources), his agenda was undermined even by a minority party that was not supposed to have much in the way of power, the judiciary kept suspending his executive orders, and scandals erupted like boils and sores. Instead of the dictator of the little demimondes of beauty pageants, casinos, luxury condominiums, fake universities offering fake educations with real debt, fake reality tv in which he was master of the fake fate of others, an arbiter of all worth and meaning, he became fortune’s fool. He is, of this writing, the most mocked man in the world.”

We must remind ourselves daily that our fellow citizens brought this disaster raining down upon us. As a lifelong educator, I’m convinced one root of the problem lies in our education system’s emphasis on learning job skills to the exclusion of learning critical thinking skills. That has to change. But first, there’s Betsy DeVos. It’s going to be a long, hard struggle.

As I’ve said before, there is one good result that has come from these last 19 weeks of having a toddler in the White House: it has forced the rest of us to become adults. More people are reading the news, joining political groups, speaking out, participating in protests, and in general being politically active and involved than I have seen in my lifetime. Like the alcoholics’ children, we’ve been forced to take on more responsibility for the maintenance of our household than has been common in the recent past. Long after the Orange Menace has been removed from the White House, we need to retain the vigilance this experience has taught us; we need to remain active and involved and above all alert, to ensure that such a national disgrace never occurs again. “Of the people, by the people, for the people” means it’s on us; it’s our responsibility. Kudos to the parents who are involving their young people in the resistance movement; those children will grow into adults who carry the spirit of responsibility to the next generation, so that our work will last beyond our own lives. We’re part of history. What we do matters. Let’s make it good!

Republican President George H. W. Bush challenged us to create “a kinder, gentler nation.” That was August 18, 1988, when Mr. Bush accepted his party’s nomination as their presidential candidate. Republicanism has changed a great deal in the 28 years between George H. W. Bush’s nomination and Donald Trump’s nomination. In the summer of 2016, we heard nothing about kindness and gentleness. We heard about Muslim bans, racism, sexual assault, ridicule of a Gold Star family, ridicule of a disabled reporter, both verbal and physical assaults on members of the press, and too many other unkind and ungentle acts to list here. Trump’s attitudes haven’t changed since he became “president,” and the spillover from those attitudes continues to show up in every area of our lives. This week, the GOP elected a man to represent the state of Montana in the House of Representatives the day after he physically assaulted a reporter. Andy Borowitz, whom I like to call the Jonathan Swift of the Internet, wrote, “Republican voters are electing people like Trump and Gianforte not in spite of their violent bullying but because of it.” I agree. What is happening to us as a culture? Was our perceived conquering of racism really just a veneer of civility that never took root in our hearts? Was this ugly hatred there the whole time, just waiting for a leader to come along who’d give us permission to unleash it again and make it socially acceptable? In a democracy, we can’t compartmentalize our leaders’ attitudes and our own attitudes. If this is a government of, by, and for the people, our leaders are US. We pick them according to the values of our own hearts and consciences, and some of the leaders we’ve picked recently paint a dark portrait of the American soul.

Here’s a look back at Week 18.

1. DT has spent his 18^th week in office far from the Swamp of Washington, D.C. He’s been making his first official international tour, proving he’s just as embarrassing on the world stage as he is here at home. In a video circulating the Internet, our beloved “president” is seen pushing his way through a group of heads of state who are lining up for a photo at NATO headquarters. Just before reaching his goal of being at the head of the pack, he roughly shoves aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, then proceeds to the front row. When he reaches his destination, he stops, adjusts his suit coat, raises his chin, and preens like a proud peacock or the kid who just bullied his way to the front of the ice cream line. Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling was moved to tweet, “You tiny, tiny, tiny little man.” We couldn’t agree more, Ms. Rowling!
2. DT’s “speech” at the NATO meeting was just as embarrassing as his manners. The New York Times account of the entire affair points out many disappointments. Although some had hoped this would be a fence-mending tour of Europe, it turned out to be anything but. The focus of DT’s speech was not, as had been hoped, an endorsement of NATO’s mutual defense pledge. Instead, he chose to “lash out at fellow members for what he called their ‘chronic underpayments’ to the alliance” (NYT). This performance led one blogger to describe DT as “a grumpy New York landlord demanding overdue rent.” And the proudest images for us back here at home are the video scans of his audience—other heads of state—snickering among themselves at the buffoon on the platform.
3. One of the sadder duties of our chief executive is speaking on behalf of the nation in times of tragedy. This week’s unspeakable tragedy in Manchester, England, that claimed 22 lives, most of them lives that were just getting started, required our “president” to issue a statement. In contrast to the eloquent, heartfelt, uplifting expressions of condolence offered by President Obama at such times, DT—speaking from Jerusalem—made this statement: “I extend my deepest condolences to those so terribly injured in this terrorist attack and to the many killed and the families, so many families, of the victims. We stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom. So many young beautiful innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life. I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. They would think that’s a great name. I will call them from now on losers because that’s what they are. They’re losers, and we’ll have more of them, but they’re losers, just remember that.” “Evil losers.” Betcha never heard a head of state use that term in a solemn public address before! Welcome to the new great-again America!
4. Now that hatred and distrust of the press and tolerance for violence have been normalized, even an assault charge can’t keep a GOP candidate from being elected. On the eve of Montana’s special election to fill the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, GOP candidate Greg Gianforte was accused by Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs of body slamming Jacobs, breaking his glasses, and punching him, all the while shouting at Jacobs to “get the hell out of here!” While Jacobs was filing an assault charge with the police, nursing an injured elbow, and making a trip to the emergency room, Gianforte was being elected a U. S. Congressman. Congressman Gianforte was strongly endorsed by both DT Sr. and DT Jr.—no surprises there! For other news on this man, I can’t say it better than writer Morgan Guyton: “Greg Gianforte is not just an average right-wing thug. He’s a fundamentalist Christian activist who funded the creationist Dinosaur and Fossil Museum in Glendive, Montana . . . Gianforte is also on the board of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools. Greg Gianforte is what toxic Christianity looks like. It’s white nationalism wrapped in a tokenistic use of the Bible . . . This is what it’s always been about, even for the past four decades that it pretended to be about family values. Family values is about returning to the social order in the good old days when everyone knew their place.” And of course, that social hierarchy places white men at the top. Just making America great again!
5. The Congressional Budget Office, CBO, released their report on the AHCA this week. You remember, that’s the bill which the GOP was so eager to pass that they just couldn’t wait until the CBO had finished its work. Well, that work is now finished, and none of the news is good. Just for starters, under the American Health Care Act, 23 million fewer Americans would have health insurance than now have it. The bill would also reduce the deficit by $119 billion, mostly attributable to cuts in Medicaid. Medicaid, which serves the lowest-income Americans, would suffer $834 billion in cuts, while repealing many of the ACA’s taxes would benefit the highest-income Americans. The fact that this plan actually sounds fair to many members of Congress as well as to many private citizens is graphic evidence of the sickness at the root of our collective conscience today. Other moral outrages included in the Trumpdon’tcare bill include ending protections for people with pre-existing conditions, reinstituting lifetime caps, allowing higher premiums for older Americans, defunding Planned Parenthood, and cutting Special Education (for children with special needs) funds for schools, and then using the savings to reward the wealthy and corporations with $600 billion in tax breaks. It’s downright criminal.
6. Then came Thursday when we heard from the 4^th S. Circuit Court of Appeals who heard the case on the injunction against DT’s second travel ban and voted 10-3 to uphold the district court’s ruling on the grounds—as stated in that ruling—that the ban violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote the majority opinion, from which this is an excerpt: The travel ban “’drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination,’ thereby violating ‘one of our most cherished founding principles—that government shall not establish any religious orthodoxy, or favor or disfavor one religion over another.’ While Gregory acknowledged that ‘Congress granted the President broad power to deny entry to aliens,’ he insisted that this power ‘cannot go unchecked when, as here, the President wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation’” (from The Slatest). “Drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination”—I certainly can’t add anything to that!
7. If anyone has done a word count of the most-used terms in this week’s news, I’m betting the top three are “Russia,” “Jared Kushner,” and “Michael Flynn.” With the Trump-Russia investigation progressing on several fronts, much attention is being paid to son-in-law Jared Kushner. It was first announced that Kushner is now a person of interest to the FBI. Although no charges have been filed or formal accusations made, it’s no surprise to anyone that the FBI is scrutinizing Kushner because of his known meetings with Russian officials and his failure to disclose those meetings voluntarily. It’s important to note that the term “person of interest” is not part of legal jargon. The term was adopted by the media to label someone who is being watched or investigated but who is not yet the subject or target of an investigation.
8. Shining even more light on Jared Kushner’s moral character, The New York Times reported this week that Kushner has not just one but two real estate empires: the high-end stuff we’ve always known about and also some “often decrepit low-income housing.” According to the Times, “His subordinates aggressively sue tenants for the smallest infractions despite ignoring maintenance needs, and they pursue judgments even when the tenant seems to have been in the right.” The article reports that since 2011, the Kushner family business has acquired “20,000 apartments in 34 complexes in Maryland, Ohio, and New Jersey.” Operating under the name JK2, Kushner’s company has filed hundreds of lawsuits against tenants and in one case garnished a home health worker’s wages and wiped out her bank account. This is the guy DT chose to place in charge of everything!
9. The jaw-dropping Kushner news of the week broke on Friday when The Washington Post reported that during DT’s transition, Kushner and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak “discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.” Michael Flynn also attended the meeting. Although the secret connection was never established, reports of Kushner’s efforts are by far the most damning news to date concerning his contacts with Russian officials. This report raises a multitude of questions, such as why legitimate communications with a foreign power would need to be so secretive, why normal communications channels could not be used, why he specifically asked to use Russian facilities, and why Kushner seems to have more familiarity with and trust in Russian officials than in his own government, along with many others. So far, the White House response to these questions is silence. They don’t want to talk about it. What they are doing is working feverishly to set up a defense strategy and a legal team to face what will be a long, ongoing investigation. I’m sure Mr. Kushner will have a spot or two in our Swamp Report for weeks and months to come.
10. Week 18 ended with a powerful statement of the humiliation the United States now suffers in the eyes of the whole world. Writer Klaus Brinkbaumer delivers this devastating indictment in Der Spiegel: “Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. He does not possess the requisite intellect and does not understand the significance of the office he holds nor the tasks associated with it. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t bother to peruse important files and intelligence reports and knows little about the issues that he has identified as his priorities. His decisions are capricious and they are delivered in the form of tyrannical decrees. He is a man free of morals. As has been demonstrated hundreds of times, he is a liar, a racist and a cheat. I feel ashamed to use these words, as sharp and loud as they are. But if they apply to anyone, they apply to Trump. And one of the media’s tasks is to continue telling things as they are: Trump has to be removed from the White House. Quickly. He is a danger to the world.” Brinkbaumer recommends that“the international community [wake] up and [find] a way to circumvent the White House and free itself of its dependence on the US.” From the guardian of the world to the country no one can trust. Just makes you want to sit down and cry.

To quote another Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, also making an acceptance speech, this time for his party’s nomination to become a senator representing the State of Illinois: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.”

Substitute racism, hatred of the other, violence and bullying, and treasonous relationships for Lincoln’s references to slavery, and our task becomes clear. Our nation is deeply divided, and we want it to be united again; but it must be united for equality and justice, not for acceptance of hatred and violence. It’s going to be a long, hard battle, friends!

The “I” word has been on everyone’s lips this week. I began speaking of impeachment and the need to press for impeachment on the day after the election, as I was attempting to stop the flow of tears and figure out how we were going to get out of the train wreck that had just occurred and from which most of us were still in shock. At first, however, my mention of impeachment or starting a drum beat for it was met with cautious looks. We had to give Trump a chance, right? It was going to be bad, yes, but we couldn’t be certain how bad. We still had 2018; we’d just work really hard to change the balance of power by flipping Congress. This week, however, all of that has changed. The news has tumbled out non-stop, and every headline shouts for impeachment or at least suggests its possibility or desirability. Another word we’ve heard often this week is the “W” word, as the current situation is reminding more and more people of Watergate. Most analysts are saying this scandal will, in the end, far eclipse Watergate: Watergate is what some have called a “third-rate burglary,” though that probably understates its gravity. Russiagate, on the other hand, is a major intrusion of an adversarial foreign power into our government and the possible collusion of high-ranking American officials with that foreign adversary. Talk of treason, obstruction of justice, and questions of who knew what and when have dominated the Week 17 news cycle.

Let’s review the week’s chaos point by point.

1. So, the guy who doesn’t need daily intelligence briefings because he’s “like, a smart person” has proved that razor-sharp intellect once again in his comments early this week on exercise. According to an article published last week in The New Yorker, “Other than golf, [Trump] considers exercise misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy.” This would be shocking from most other people, but since we’ve always been aware of Trump’s disdain for science, it’s not surprising. Anyone who can deny climate change can easily justify lazy exercise habits with lame “scientific” explanations. Taco bowls, double scoops of ice cream, and McDonald’s delicacies combined with little exercise—better hope that battery is the rechargeable type, Donald!
2. This week’s first bombshell was dropped on Monday—starting the week with an explosion that will occupy the news cycle at least until the next Trump-inflicted disaster. The Washington Post reported that in last week’s ill-timed and shady Oval Office meeting when Trump jovially entertained the Russian ambassador and the Russian foreign minister, Trump just happened to drop a little classified information given to our government by one of its allies; The New York Times describes the information as “highly classified intelligence.” The Post did not at first include details of the shared information, to avoid compounding the problem; but they later reported that the intelligence was received from Israel and involved an Islamic State plot to make bombs out of laptop computers, to be used on airplanes. Although it’s been emphasized that what 45 did was not illegal, legality is not the sole measure of one’s actions. Slavery, removal of native Americans, and internment of Japanese Americans were all legal; but they were not moral, humane, decent, or wise. Such careless revelations by our “president” endanger the safety of our country and compromise the trust of our allies. They also further diminish our confidence in and respect for the presidency. It’s already been reported that intelligence officials may have withheld sensitive information from the “president” because they don’t trust him to handle it appropriately. During the campaign, one of 45’s dominant themes was Hillary Clinton’s carelessness in handling classified information—emails!—yet he now seems oblivious as usual to his own hypocrisy. And just in case anyone harbors a small doubt that the Post report is accurate, wonder no more! On Tuesday morning, our brilliant leader announced that he did in fact share information with Russia and that he has an “absolute right” to do so. Well, I’m glad that’s settled.
3. David Brooks published an excellent article in Monday’s New York Times: “When the World Is Led by a Child.” Brooks begins with the statement, “There are three tasks most mature adults have sort of figured out by the time they hit 25. Trump has mastered none of them.” He goes on to list those three tasks: sitting still, possessing “some internal criteria for measuring their own merits and demerits” rather than needing “perpetual outside approval,” and the ability to “perceive how others are thinking.” Brooks offers multiple examples to back up his assessment of Trump’s immaturity. Then he says this about 45’s sharing classified information with his Russian pals: “From all we know so far, Trump didn’t [share classified information with Russian visitors] because he is a Russian agent, or for any malevolent intent. He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires.” Who’d have thought we’d ever look longingly back on the George W. Bush era as “the good ole days” when our president was a mature, intelligent, well-read, well-spoken adult? Strange new world we’re in!
4. As it turns out, we didn’t have to wait long for that “next Trump-inflicted disaster” I mentioned in #2. Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times reported that James Comey began shortly after 45’s inauguration to create a paper trail which would document certain events that made him uncomfortable because they smacked of interference in an active investigation, just in case such documentation were ever needed. And now it’s needed! The existence of Comey’s memos is not doubted among Justice Department personnel, who have been well aware of Comey’s habit of writing contemporaneous memos to record what he considered significant events. The memo whose contents were released on Tuesday revealed an incident which occurred the day after 45 fired Michael Flynn. According to Comey’s memo, 45 asked him to remain behind after an Oval Office meeting, while others were dismissed from the room. With only Trump and Comey left in the office, Trump told Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Jason Chaffetz awoke suddenly from his long stupor to demand that acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe turn over “all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the President.” He gave McCabe a one-week deadline and declared his readiness to subpoena if necessary. He says this may be the proof he needs that 45 is guilty of obstructing justice. Wow! Ya think?
5. In the most surreal, what-planet-are-we-living-on event of the week, Vladimir Putin offered on Wednesday morning to help out his pal and puppet, Donald, by providing American lawmakers “a record” of the Oval Office meeting between Trump and his other Russian pals Kislyak and Lavrov. Calling the furor over the reports that Trump gave these men classified information “political schizophrenia” and “a tempest in a teacup, whipped up for political reasons,” Putin said he’d be more than happy to put everyone’s mind at ease by turning over the “record,” which a Kremlin aide told reporters is a written account, not a recording. As you recall, we are at the mercy of Putin’s charity because our “president” did not allow American reporters to attend the meeting where they could have made their own record of the conversation. Putin finds the whole episode greatly amusing: just we stupid Americans dreaming up “nonsense and rubbish.” He may find the impeachment of his boy Donnie far less amusing.
6. On Wednesday, the news came in a virtual avalanche. In the afternoon, we heard that our national embarrassment was on stage once again, this time presenting a graduation address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy class of 2017. I’m sure those young people will look back on that day fondly, remembering the inspiring speech in which the “president” of their country whined to them about how badly he’s been treated. Not that I’d expect 45 to know such things, but graduation addresses are supposed to be about the graduates: words of wisdom and inspiration to motivate them as they embark on the life path for which they’ve prepared. Instead, in true Trump fashion, this speaker made the occasion all about himself. He whined, “’Look at the way I’ve been treated lately, especially by the media. No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can’t let them get you down.’ Responding to their cheers, he commented: ‘I guess that’s why we won.’” Not only is this inappropriate for the occasion but it’s a double underscore of his extreme immaturity and mental illness. This is not the way normal, healthy people talk. Time to take out the trash at the White House!
7. Later on Wednesday came the first good news of the week: The Department of Justice had just appointed Robert Mueller, former FBI Director, as special counsel to conduct an independent investigation on the Trump-Russia ties. YES!!! Finally, the day we’ve been waiting for has arrived! Even better news is that Mr. Mueller is well spoken of by people of all political persuasions. The New York Times, who broke the news, had only praise for Mr. Mueller: he has “an unblemished reputation”; “Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill . . . view him as one of the most credible law enforcement officials in the country”; “his ‘record, character, and trustworthiness have been lauded for decades by Republicans and Democrats alike” (quoting Ben Sasse); and Mr. Mueller has served under both Democratic and Republican presidents. Although the House and Senate committees will continue their investigations, Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert Mueller offers the greatest hope and encouragement so far that we will eventually know the truth about Russian meddling and Trump’s cooperation with it and that justice will prevail. Interesting side note: no tweets from the tweeter-in-chief. I guess that would be because everyone remotely involved in or subject to subpoena in this case has been advised to “lawyer up,” beginning with you-know-who. Perhaps we finally have someone who can control 45’s twitter finger. Oops! I spoke too soon. The tweeter-in-chief was up and at his post early Thursday morning. In two tweets, he mentioned “illegal acts” committed by Hillary Clinton and President Obama, without offering evidence (I don’t think we even need to say this any more) which did not lead to the appointment of a special councel (his spelling). Then he added, “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” Gee, Donald, could it be that it’s not a witch hunt and you’re just the single most ignorant, unfit, and corrupt politician in American history?
8. Well, all of this Wednesday business was head-spinning enough; but there were a few hours left in the day, so the news wasn’t over yet. The evening brought the revelation of an audio tape recorded in June 2016—before WikiLeaks, before FBI investigation—of some key GOP pals giggling and snorting about Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin. The Washington Post’s Adam Entous reports House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Speaker Paul Ryan, and others were engaged in a private conversation when McCarthy said, “There’s … there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher [Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of CA, openly pro-Russian] and Trump. Swear to God.” The whole conversation was laced with much laughter and conviviality. After this statement, however, Ryan turned somewhat more serious, cautioning his colleagues, “This is an off the record. No leaks, all right? This is how we know we’re a real family here. What’s said in the family stays in the family.” McCarthy’s spokesman Matt Sparks denied the conversation, was informed there is audio evidence, then turned to the it-was-all-a-joke defense. Indeed, those who have heard the tape agree it’s possible that the group was just joking; but as Post writer Aaron Blake points out, “Even sarcasm is almost always laced with truth.” And two truths emerge from this conversation, even if it was in fact all in jest: (1) Talk of Trump’s ties with Russia were spoken of and laughed about privately well before any evidence was made public or any investigations were launched and well before he won the GOP nomination; (2) GOP leaders were so desperate to elect a Republican president that they were willing to sell their souls to the devil in order to make that happen. Controlling the government, repealing the work of the President they despised, Barack Obama, and further enriching the 2% meant more to them than protecting our national security. Remember that the next time you’re in a voting booth.
9. On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein addressed the Senate in a closed-door session to brief them on the independent investigation and what they should expect. In interviews with reporters after the meeting, Senator Lindsey Graham said his takeaway from the briefing is that the investigation into Trump and his associates’ ties to Russia has evolved from a counterintelligence investigation to a criminal investigation. Trump has been advised to retain outside counsel, as have all of those who will be involved. So the good news of the week is that we now have a dedicated, professional investigator commissioned to untangle this whole mess and finally provide all—or hopefully at least most—of the facts on this troubling matter. The not-so-good news is that these things can take an enormous amount of time, and Trump will still be “president” during all of that time. Richard Nixon had the decency to resign; Donald Trump has no innate sense of decency. Tony Schwartz, The Art of the Deal ghostwriter, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper this week, Trump “lacks empathy, the ability to really connect with other people, self-awareness and above all, a conscience … there is no right and wrong – there is winning and losing.” Schwartz predicts Trump will resign, which would be a loss, but only after he has figured out a way to make that loss sound like a win, and he will declare his resignation a victory. I disagree. I believe he’ll show the same defiance he did when people called for his withdrawal from the campaign after the hot-mic tape; he vowed then that there was “zero chance” of his withdrawing. If Trump does stay in, he will increasingly assume a wounded animal stance, which will be dangerous for us all—unless someone can figure a way to change the nuclear codes.
10. Meanwhile, the Embarrasser-in-Chief, along with his wife Melania, prepares to embark Friday on an 8-day foreign tour. His itinerary will include Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels, and Sicily. Although Trump and his staff hoped this trip would provide a desperately needed “reset,” the events of this week will cast a long shadow over his appearances in other countries. Chances of his being well received by other world leaders and citizens, of his staying on script and not saying stupid, damaging things to world audiences, and of his surviving 8 days outside the comfort of his homes—when it’s well known that he doesn’t like sleeping away from his own bed—leave much room for doubt about his chances of scoring the win he so greatly needs right now.

In a New York Times op-ed published on Wednesday, May 17, Nicholas Kristof wrote a parenthetical comment:

“An aside: Thank God for the battle unfolding between The Washington Post and The New York Times. This is the best kind of newspaper war, keeping America straight. I’ve been very critical of media coverage of the presidential campaign, but the rigorous coverage of Trump since he took office has made me proud to be a journalist. And thanks to all those citizens who have subscribed to news outlets in recent months, recognizing that subscriptions are the price for a democracy.”

Amen, Mr. Kristof! Trump has called the press “the enemy of the people.” NO, keeping the Fourth Estate strong, honest, and courageous is our only hope. Let the legitimate press know that you recognize the difference between their work and fake news/aka propaganda by subscribing and then reading regularly. Remember, it was the work of journalists that brought down Nixon. Let’s help them do the same for Trump.