The Screaming Moderate

Can he really be the Manchurian candidate?

2/18/2019

I slowly am coming around to the impossible thought that Donald Trump is working on someone else’s behalf, and not the American people.

I know this possibility has been around a long time – and many believed it -- but I’m just beginning to really accept the possibility. I’ve had disagreements with many presidents, a couple of whom I worked for, but I never doubted they had the country’s best interest at heart. I chalk up Trump’s insan-er institincts to him being stupid or a narcissist or simply trying to keep his base together.

Let us consider that Trump, indeed, was the Manchurian candidate, inserted as our president quite by accident but being leveraged by, let’s say, Vladimir Putin: He certainly is doing all the things Putin would want:

He has upset the Washington apple cart, especially with his power grab to build a wall despite the fact that the Congress won’t approve money for it. If he can get away with that – and he might – he can do most anything as President. There’s nothing wrong with shaking up D.C. some, but Trump is contradicting the Constitution. And with all the judicial appointments he’s made, he could get away with it. He is trying to make Americans, or at least his base, believe there is an “invasion” going on at our southern border. There is not. There are military troops at the border, because Trump forced them there, and now he uses their presence as evidence to support his bogus “emergency.” If you look at the dozens of instances the emergency powers have been used, they are pretty much all for international reasons – boycotts, blockades, tariffs. None, zero are because a President didn’t get his way, which is what Trump is doing. That is not what our Constitution lays out for us.

He has turned international relationships topsy turvy. VP Pence mentioned Trump’s name at an international conference this weekend and there was silence, where normally there would have been applause for an American president. As Karl Kaiser, a longtime German-American analyst put it: “Two years of Mr. Trump, and a majority of French and Germans now trust Russia and China more than the United States.” That makes them even with Trump because…

Trump trusts Putin more than his intelligence agencies. He has said that at least twice. Once with Putin standing alongside him as he said Putin did not mess with our elections (despite heavy evidence to the contrary). And, he recently stated that he trusts Putin saying North Korea does not have the capability to strike the U.S. with its missiles. Our intelligence people believe the opposite. Please read that again because he is jeopardizing the safety of America because he believes our primary geopolitical enemy --Russia.

Dating North Korea. It’s one thing to meet with the tyrant who runs North Korea – and kills his enemies at will (including family members) – it’s another to lust after him as Trump has been doing, even admitting “we fell in love.” Cheap shot, I know, but it’s true. Maybe he thinks his adventures with Kim should earn him the Nobel Peace Prize because …

Nobel Peace Prize. Trump craves the Prize so much that the U.S. government asked Japan to submit a nomination for him. They did. Look, I didn’t think Obama had done anything to deserve the Prize when he got it either, but Trump equally has accomplished nothing yet except to make allies question us.

Damaging U.S. institutions. Trump has criticized judges. He daily criticizes the media, calling them the “enemy of the people,” damaging those institutions more than they’ve ever been. This creates distrust by Americans of the up-to-now trusted institutions that we rely on to keep public officials honest and criminals behind bars. Each can, and has, made mistakes but we aren’t united states without them. He also has criticized the Department of Justice which continues to investigate whether Russia mucked in our elections (clearly they did) and whether the Trump campaign had any involvement with that. It’s beginning to appear that more than a few in his campaign did collude, whether Trump believes it or knew about it or not.

His fellow elected Republicans fear him. Trump, never a Republican, has the Republican Senate scared to death of him so few feel they can challenge him. Why? They fear that if they anger Trump, they will be opposed in party primary and lose. So, their backbones have disappeared, thus killing off one Constitutionally mandated branch of government from restraining Trump from his worst (or Putin’s worst) instincts.

Add it all up, and we are in dangerous territory with at least two years left of Trump’s governing. If the premise of this piece is true, he’s certainly saving his boldest attacks on our country if he gets a second term, when he has literally nothing to lose.

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Random thoughts

2/13/2019

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Random thoughts over the past few days:

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you” -- Friedrich Nietzsche President Trump who you may have noticed likes to lie a lot, has now begun saying things about his border wall like, “the wall is being built.” Which, we know, is not true. Sections already were in place and repairs are being made to those but no new footage is being built. So, it occurs to me why doesn’t he just solve the big problem between himself and the Democrats by saying, “the wall is built!” Then the country can move on to more important things.

“Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately" – Joe Biden Biden seems to be doing the old Mario Cuomo moonwalk, keeping us all guessing as to whether he’ll run for president or not in 2020. While there was a time I would have liked to see a President Biden, that time is long gone. I do think though the wise old men in the Democratic Party should start impressing upon him why he shouldn’t run. Then whoever the Democratic candidate is, he or she will have two of the best surrogates in history – Biden and former President Obama. That would be a fun campaign to watch, those two against Trump, thus keeping the candidate a little above the fray.

Virginia is for... What? One might think that Virginia Gov. Northam is having a bad year already. But, he got very lucky. Rather than the attention being solely on him and why, as a medical student he thought putting shoe polish on his face to imitate an African-American was cool, he now has two other statewide office holders for competition as dumbest elected official in the state. One has admitted to the same offense of putting on blackface and the other is fighting off accusations of sexual offenses. Lucky Northam, unlucky Virginia voters.

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” – Alexis de Tocqueville. The 2020 campaign is already underway. It’s kind of like seeing those Christmas decorations being displayed before Halloween. Uh, too soon? Also, for those of my vintage, it seems the current crop of candidates is diminished in my eyes because I’m older than all of them. No one younger than me should be president! (Just kidding)

Seattle got 6.4 inches of snow on Friday, which is just shy of the 6.8 inches the city usually receives in an entire year. Our Seattle correspondent, Barry Schumacher, reports that as the heavy snows were approaching, consumers rushed to the grocery stores to stock up. There was plenty of milk and bread left on the shelves after the onslaught, but the stores ran out of Kale.

Never Again. Antisemitism has never, and never will, disappear completely but lately it seems to be a lot more public than it has been. The German government has reported a 10 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents last year. A new American congresswoman was forced to apologize for using anti-Semitic tropes. France is calling for a firm response to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents there. Women’s March leaders in this country were criticized for attending an event with Louis Farrakhan who, as always, made incendiary remarks about Jews. All a demonstration of why we can never let our guards down about prejudice against any segment of our society. Bad things are always just a step away.

“You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth” – Donald Trump Jr. President Trump already is using what will be one of his re-election campaign arguments next year – He’s alining Democrats with Socialists and claiming, in effect, that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for socialism. With his record, he knows that his primary path to re-election is to make the Democrats appear worse than he is. This will be a very ugly campaign.

Shutdown Shmutdown. Don’t forget, it was Trump who said he would take “credit” for the first shutdown earlier this year after grabbing the bait Senate Minority Leader Schumer held out to him in an Oval Office meeting. This time, he claimed he “always accepted” blame for the first one (which he didn't) but would never accept it again, if it happens. People, he never was going to shut down the government again after seeing the dire effects the last one had. Plus, he says the shutdown really was to emphasize how bad a shutdown is. People wouldn't have understood it otherwise, he said. Oy.

The Dean’s last words. John Dingell, who served in Congress longer than anyone, died a few days ago and literally on his death bed dictated an op-ed which The Wasahington Post ran after he pased, leaving a message behind for the rest of us. In part his message was:

“In democratic government, elected officials do not have power. They hold power — in trust for the people who elected them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite properly revoked (the quicker the better).”

Amen, Mr. Chairman. RIP

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State of the Union 2.0

2/5/2019

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The White House is guiding reporters that during tonight’s State of the Union address President Trump will call for comity, for a coming together of Republicans and Democrats for the good of the country.

Yes, they are giving that guidance with a straight face.

There will be a great yawn or sense of bewilderment from most of the country because (1) they’ve heard it from Trump before and those good tidings lasted long enough for him to get his thumbs on his Twitter account; (2) because during his two years in office Trump has given away any credibility he might have once had by dissembling at best and lying at his worst on a daily basis, multiple times a day.

He will get through reading his text because he knows that he will have one of his largest audiences tonight and that audience likely reflects the country’s beliefs about him – 37 or 40 percent support him, the rest doubt him at best, despise him at worst. For one of the few times my guess is he will try to appeal somewhat to the more than 50 percent of the country that don’t approve of the job he is doing.

In his heart, Trump knows he cannot win reelection with only his base. Tonight he gets to talk to the rest of America. Time to put on the “let’s all work together” face.

His challenge is: other than his base, his credibility is near zero and why should anyone believe him tonight?

He’ll call for Democrats to join him in a bill to improve the country’s infrastructure, knowing there is general agreement on that issue but he’s had two years to deal with infrastructure, which is easier than most, and instead focused on building his border wall to keep crime, drugs and disease out of the country and in trying to repeal and replace Obamacare and other Obama era initiatives. The Democrats in the hall don’t believe him just because he is upending everything they achieved with Obama.

He has to talk about his support for the wall tonight because his base will be watching. The guess here is, tough, that won't take up much of the speech. He can dodge it by saying there are bi-partisan, bi-cameral negotiations going on now and he wants to see how that goes. Of course, that's after he said last week that those talks will go no where.

He’ll have Speaker Nancy Pelosi over his right shoulder and not the former Speaker, the toady Paul Ryan. Millions of eyes will watch for Pelosi’s reactions tonight. Spoiler alert: She’ll be respectful because she respects the Office of the President.

Trump’s call for comity won’t last long, certainly not past tonight. He can’t operate without an enemy and his enemy is the Democrats, figure-headed by Nancy Pelosi. But he can’t press her tonight for many reasons, not the least of which is he now knows that she is the toughest person in Washington at the moment.

Trump is saying Pelosi won’t cave to his wall demands because she wants the issue for 2020. He’s projecting, here. He knows it is he who wants the issue for 2020. He likely won’t say tonight that he will use his emergency powers to pay for the wall – even Republican Leader McConnell knows that’s a loser. But he may at some point do that because he knows it is an issue that is headed to the courts and I’m sure he’d just as soon see it languish there so he can claim he’s pushed it as far as he can, thus preserving the talking point for his reelection campaign.

He’s “set the table” as he has teased for using the emergency option and he even ordered a few thousand more troops to the border this week to show what an emergency it is. Doing that plus his saying it's a crisis and emergency he beleives makes it so. So far, the troops deployed there have basically been erecting concertina wire. And when his intelligence chiefs delivered the annual terror threat report to Congress last week, the border issue never came up. It is a crisis of his own rhetoric.

If Trump really wanted to display some comity tonight he would start by congratulating Pelosi on her return to power in the House and be sincere about it. But sincerity is difficult for this president to display. He’d make a self-deprecating joke at some point. Something like, “Gee, did you see what happened last November? I lost bigly.” But he won’t. Because he thinks he won the 2018 election.

He likely won’t veer much from his prepared remarks, but that’s when he looks least sincere of all. He should have kept that campaign promise of never using a TelePrompter – he’s really bad at it and shows it in his softer voice, his half closed (sincere look) eyes and his calmer demeanor. We all know by now that is his false look. At least that’s not the character he’s chosen to play in his reality show of The Celebrity White House.

Last year Trump spoke for a Clinton-esque 80 minutes. This year, I'll take the over. He does like being the focus of attention, after all.

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Here's what Speaker Pelosi should say

1/18/2019

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Mr. President,

It is time to end the shutdown. You can have the $5.7 billion you want to build your wall to ensure that brown people seeking a better life don’t come here.

You can have the money because you have damaged this country enough with this shutdown, keeping dedicated federal workers from doing their jobs and stopping millions of Americans from getting the services they pay their taxes for.

You, as the head of the federal government, should know better. But since you don’t, we in the legislative branch will give in to your selfish approach to running this country.

You can have your $5.7 million so we can get back to having a secure nation.

Maybe you hadn’t noticed but polls consistently show that a majority of our country support border security, as do I, but not a wall which will become a symbol not of the beacon of freedom our country has always been, welcoming immigrants from all walks of life, but a wall which blocks people from coming here.

You can have the money because I prefer that when other countries think of the United States of America they see an image of the Statue of Liberty welcoming them, not a wall barring them from our country.

You can have the money not because your wall is right or just, but because while it’s not a piddling amount, it is not enough money to stop this country from being the best in the world. If you are able to build even a mile of the wall before you leave office, I will be surprised, so here's the money...try to build your wall.

You can have the money despite your repeated promise that Mexico will pay for it. You can have the money not because you have fantasized a roundabout way that Mexico will pay for it – they won’t – but because this nonsense has gone on long enough.

You can have the money not because you are a great negotiator – you are not – but because your mean, petulant decision to close our government is unfair to the people who elected you and me to serve them.

You can have the money because federal workers are putting off mammograms because they need to spend what would have been their copay to buy food for their children. These people who dedicate their lives to the rest of us deserve far better treatment than being told to work without pay. Or to stay home and we'll pay you later even though you say this shutdown could go on for years. How do you expect these folks to last years without a paycheck?

You can have the money because we have FBI agents, Secret Service agents, TSA agents and others whose minds are on how they will provide for their families rather than the important jobs they have keeping us all safe.

Mr. President, you can have the money and I’m not asking for anything in return except for you to learn that you and I are not important. The people of this country are.

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The shutdown is solving nothing

1/9/2019

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President Trump’s low-energy performance last night I doubt changed any minds in the general population but I don’t think that was his target audience.

Best guess is it was the minority Republicans in the House and the majority Republicans in the Senate, who really hold the key to whether he wins the border wall battle or not.

Republican Senate support is slowly peeling away and if that disappears, there is no chance of a border wall and Mr. Trump’s presidency will hit a significant turning point. And a significant promise made to his all-important base will be broken.

I think another result of last night’s speech to the nation is that he gave away leverage to the TV networks. All of them carried his speech, as they should have. But it contained no news. Only a partisan pitch for his wall. That allows the nets to be more publicly un-trusting of any White House requests for air time. This time, they really had no choice. Next time, they will. That’s an important tool in a President’s bag to lose.

This administration has lost its credibility with all but his base and when you request network time, there better be a good reason. This speech was not a good reason.

Trump claimed to network representatives at an off-the-record lunch yesterday that he didn’t want to do the speech but his advisors wanted him to. Uh, he hasn’t listened to advisors, especially on media counsel, before and I doubt he did now. Anytime this president goes on TV live, he has a reason and a goal and I doubt his staff forces him to do anything. He also is scheduled to make a trip to the Mexican border this week, which he also claims he doesn’t want to do. Lowering expectations anyone?

From his first sentence last night, he lied or misrepresented the truth. This was his first line: “Tonight, I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.” There is no security crisis at the border. None. Have illegal immigrants snuck through and committed crimes? Yes, but they are isolated incidents, not reaching “crisis” status. And any humanitarian crisis is more attributable to Trump having migrants blocked from entering or taking children away from their parents. (Do we know if they all have been reunited, by the way? I'm asking you, The Media.)

Trump has painted himself into a corner on the wall. So have the Democrats but they actually have the votes to stop a wall. Both sides should agree to end the shutdown which is doing nothing but hurting 800,000 federal employees and their families and the beneficiaries of some key government programs, like food stamps. The Administration agreed to pay those stamps for February. The shutdown is also hurting travelers waiting in long lines at airports, as TSA folks work without pay and are starting to quit their jobs because no pay doesn’t pay the bills. Students are being hurt because they can’t get government approvals on college loans. And a host of other services stopped.

And if, as the President claims, many federal workers support his shutdown and his wall, I’d like to see their names. We know an organization representing border agents supports him because he posed with five agents recently to make that point. But I know of no one else.

That’s a claim similar to Trump saying past presidents support his wall. They don’t. Did any of them support a wall at one time? Maybe but time marched on and technologies have been developed that are more successful at border control.

Trump is trying to keep his biggest promise to voters in 2016. Well, half of his promise. He did say Mexico would pay for the wall. They won’t.

Who’s paying for the wall? You, me and the furloughed federal workers who aren’t getting paid for doing jobs that are important services to the country. I don't see any of us getting a refund for services not given.

And, the President gets elected and paid to lead a government that provides those services. He needs to end the shutdown and start doing his job.

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Shutdown: Will we be reimbursed for the services lost?

1/7/2019

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The partial shutdown of the federal government is ridiculous. The only ones being affected are you and me.

Both sides have boxed themselves into a corner. President Trump says he won’t accept a budget that doesn’t have funding for his wall and Democrats say they won’t accept any wall funding. Hard to find a compromise there.

Trump sells himself as a lot of things but one is that he is the best negotiator in the world. Hard to believe based on his career of business failures but let’s say he is the best: Would the world’s best negotiator lay out a position that can’ be compromised? And now only is that his position. During his campaign he promised, repeatedly to build this wall and have Mexico pay for it.

Clearing he know believes U.S. taxpayers must pay for it and claims we'll be reimbused at least through higher tax receipts based on his new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Truth is, though, that not only is that agreement not yet approved by the Congress, the money we might get from taxes is not a "profit" that then will be moved to the "pay for the wall" account. That's Trump's attempt at sleight-of-hand.

The shutdown’s results are becoming quite real. Airline controllers are working but not getting paid. How long do you ask someone to work under such stress for no pay and as their mortgage and other bills pile up? National parks are left unsafe and with garbage piling up and other health threats rising. I don’t know what the “typical” number of deaths in national parks is, but since the shutdown, seven people have died.

The Internal Revenue Service isn’t sure it can pay out refunds people will be expecting. They don't have the staff they normally would have to help taxpayers with tax questions.

The Housing department has sent letters to 1,500 landlords of public housing asking them to be patient for payment (just as landlord Trump would be patient in their situation, I’m sure).

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who aren’t getting paid and are trying to figure out whether to pay the mortgage or buy groceries. And, yes, there are full-time employed men and women who face those choices now.

And the holdup is a wall, which Trump now is calling a steel barrier, as if that’s any different than a concrete wall. But that’s the Great Negotiator – change the branding and it’s new and shiny - and a compromise.

Needless to say, this is ridiculous, as is Trump’s claim that this shutdown could last “years." Unlikely for a lot of reasons but one big reason is the U.S. economy will be affected. Local residents aren’t getting paid, which means they aren’t paying their normal bills and aren’t going out to eat, or making big purchases; they are cutting costs where they can – all of which affects the local economies. All of which affect the national economy. And all congressmen and the President care about that as they head to the next election cycle.

I don’t know the answer other than for Trump to give up his wall or the Democrats to give up their opposition to his wall.

I do know this: All of them – congressmen and the President – swore to uphold the Constitution, which means serving the people, not themselves, and their adherence to that oath as we speak is questionable.

What can we the people do? Write letters, make phone calls. Make your view known. The President is claiming the people are clamoring for the wall. The Democrats say they aren’t. Let your Congressmen know your view. Send letters, make calls to the White House. Put pressure on them to force them to do whatever it is you want.

Holding up services to the people of this country is not the right answer, no matter how you feel. Will we get a refund for the weeks or months we have to go without those services? Will we only have to pay taxes for the months the entire government was open? Uh, we both know that answer.

Pointing fingers at Washington doesn’t resolve it either. But calling your public servants and making them know what you believe will.

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Stop pointing fingers and do something

12/28/2018

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So the government shut down is all about who’s to blame. Both President Trump and the Democrats on the Hill have made that clear.

Now, I get that politics often is about who’s at fault but this shutdown has seen more discussion about who’s to blame than how to solve it. That was clearest in the Oval Office meeting where Trump, in front of the media and the world, tried to pin Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi down – to blame them. Trump, though, never liking to be challenged – publicly especially – quickly said he’d own it, “I’ll take the mantle,” he said, whatever that means. Schumer smiled smugly knowing he achieved his meeting goal.

So….solved!!! Uh, no.

Trump, once it was explained to him off camera that he mucked up did what he always does – pretended that meeting never happened and moved on on to blame the Democrats.

Good, solved! Uh, no.

Government employees are the pawns in this game as are their banks, landlords and store owners who serve them. Even if some on the Hill think that no one lives paycheck to paycheck, and even if Donald Trump thinks all these employees are Democrats, thus who cares, these are men and women who do difficult jobs made all the more difficult by the current government leadership.

I worked in the government and among many very talented career employees. Were there some duds? Of course, as in any workplace. I got to be best friends with one in particular and, to this day – 35 years later – I don’t know if he was a Democrat or a Republican, or either. I didn't ask. He didn't tell. He just came to work every day and did his job. And helped me do mine.

I knew another employee, very senior, who was “banished” to a lesser office in our department because someone thought he was a Democrat. Honestly, it didn’t matter because even if he was a Democrat, and an active one, there was nothing he could do to change anything the Republican leadership wanted to do anyway.

The blame doesn’t matter. It’s who gets the job done that Americans, including those laid off or furloughed right now, judge their elected officials by.

Through no fault of their own, they can’t do their jobs right now, and probably for a bit longer. Over what? A wall? I think the wall is ridiculous for too many reasons to list here. If I were involved in the discussions right now I, though, likely would cave if I got something decent in return – like dealing with the Dreamers. Even if Trump gets the full $25 billion he’s said he needs to build a wall or steel slats (whatever), it likely will not be built and completed any time soon. Heck, they’ve had over a billion from this year’s budget and haven’t spent it.

It will not be completed by Election Day 2020, as Trump wants – few construction projects are finished on time, from small house jobs to building a wall on the southern border. And, with Trump in charge, based on his private sector performances, this one won’t be done on time either. But he’ll say it was, for sure, Heck, he’s even saying construction has already started. It hasn’t. He claims he awarded a big contract in the Oval the other day. He didn’t. If he had, his people would have released the details by now. Presidents just don’t award contracts (nor should they want to because favoritism will always be charged).

Give him the wall money and get something in return, the Dreamers. A deal that once was on the table and never consummated.

Just quit strategizing ways to blame each other and do something.

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It's time the Hill GOP take Trump seriously

12/22/2018

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If you thought the first two years of President Donald Trump were rampant craziness, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Unless, Republicans in Congress finally get over their selfish ways and put country before anything.

Yes, I’m talking to those of you who came out to mourn the passing of President George H.W. Bush and praise him for his bipartisan approach to the government and as soon as the services were over, went back to wearing blinders.

As we are about to hit the two-year mark of the Trump Administration, we literally are watching this country fall into near disaster.

Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned with a flourish, unlike a career soldier who normally would have more quietly walked into the sunset. But Mattis is a true patriot, pledged to the United States of America, not a two-bit faux-politician. If Mattis’ exit letter didn’t shock the Hill into a new behavior, what will?

President Trump is pulling out troops out of Syria. Now, whether that’s good policy or not can be debated. But what can’t be debated is the slap-dash way the decision was made. Trump was on the phone with the Turkish president who was making his standard case for getting American troops out of Syria and finally Trump said, basically, and this isn’t too far from what he’s reported to have said, “The hell with it, Syria is yours. We’re outta there.” And, getting nothing in return for it.

You may not agree with having our troops on the ground while the fight against ISIS is finished, or the various geopolitical reasons we were there beyond killing ISIS, but to leave and get nothing? To make the decision without consulting your advisors one more time, or the Senators and Congressmen who actually do understand the geopolitics, or our allies who are directly affected by our abandoning the fight? Reckless. Dangerous.

Why? Because there are other countries our troops we are in for similar reasons – not only to fight for the countries and people most directly affected by the bombings and killings and to protect basic human rights but because we fight them there, so they won’t come here – a strategy that’s worked pretty well, until now.

When you see Vladimir Putin praising a U.S. president for a foreign policy decision, you know the wrong decision was made. That’s not a throwaway line – that’s reality.

The President gives his word he will sign a budget agreement to avoid a partial shutdown and two days later, after being pummeled by, get this, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter – talk show entertainers – and some wackos on the Right. he goes back on his word to the Hill and holds out for money to build his silly wall that he promised Mexico would pay for. Plus, do you remember not long after he took office that he asked the then-president of Mexico to go along with the wall, but that it would never be built? I do. Plus an easy majority of Americans oppose the wall.

Trump’s base may love it when he upsets another apple cart but this week proved you need to think before you throw over the cart. The market is in free-fall. Since October, those of us with “portfolios” invested for retirement are down a significant percentage. Will it come back? Normally the market does, but these are not normal times. We have a President who now wants to fire the Federal Reserve chairman he appointed not that long ago because the independent Fed is making decisions Trump doesn’t agree with. That is dangerous.

He’s appointed a temporary Attorney General who thinks like he does except not when prosecutors make independent decisions that Trump sees as hurting him. Then what does he do? He calls the acting AG to complain about it. Wholly inappropriate. The Justice Department is investigating Trump and he calls them to “hint” it needs to be stopped? People, he complains too much about the Mueller investigator for there not to be something there.

There’s more but probably old news by the time you read this, so I won’t list everything going to hell in a hand basket right now.

Our country is facing an extremely dangerous time. And the danger doesn’t come from abroad, it comes from within the White House. Trump has two years under his belt and, while I think he was overwhelmed (as anyone would be) at first, now believes he knows more than anyone thus we are being governed by his gut. He trusts his gut, he says, but he doesn’t trust his foreign policy advisors who keep us safe. He won't read a briefing paper to even pretend he understands a policy before his gut changes it.

He either is the dumbest person to ever hold elected office or he truly is a puppet of the tyrants of the world – Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and others. With our international reputation at its lowest in, well, ever and our economy on the edge of tipping into recession with all of our savings at risk, we have a President who seems to love all the chaos he’s producing. In fact, it emboldens him.

We have a system of checks and balances – but only when those checks and balances are used. Impeachment? I don’t know and doubt this is the right time for that for a variety of reasons. But the Congress can do more – can do something – about checking the Executive’s “power.” Pressure alone would be one thing.

Example? A basic one. The House and Senate could have passed a “clean” bill on the budget – a temporary way to fund the government to punt debates until later – and let the President veto it. The Congress can override a veto – why didn’t they do that a couple of weeks ago when it would have mattered? Instead, the Republicans in Congress caved to the will of Trump, who knows absolutely nothing about appropriately governing this country. Does he have to be like every President before him? No, but there are some good lessons in our 200-plus years of existence. We didn't spring up over night.

I’m not expert of the laws of this country or the rules of the Senate or House, but we have experts in those areas. And we should be using them creatively to stop the madness.

It’s time. It's about to be past time.

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Not Trump's merriest holiday season

12/19/2018

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Being President of the United States in the holiday season should be a fabulous experience.

You host fancy parties for nearly everyone in Washington, D.C., at the world’s most famous address. People stand in line to get a souvenir picture with you. Then you take a few days or more and go to a warmer clime to get some relaxation in, understanding you never take time off from being the President.

This cannot be the merriest of seasons for Donald J. Trump

He still can’t get funding for his most memorable campaign promise, a wall -- that Mexico, not us was supposed to pay for. He said he’d be “proud” to shut down the government if he didn’t get that funding. “Proud!” But as we speak, a deal is being made that will keep the government open and not fund his ridiculous wall.

A poll came out that says a majority of American’s don’t believe what Trump says. The special counsel’s investigation seems to be picking up, not running out of steam. His finances likely are being gone over with a fine tooth comb even after he said going into his family finances was a red line not to be crossed.

In fact, since George H.W. Bush’s death, if it’s possible, Trump gets even smaller in my mind. His tweets aren’t as important on a daily basis, the seldom held White House news briefing are simply lies after lies coming from his press secretary who says she wants her legacy to be that she told the truth and was transparent, a dream long gone. I knew 41 was a fabulous president but hearing his accomplishments repeated for a week and comparing him to the current president just made Bush even bigger in my mind, as Trump became smaller.

The special counsel’s investigation keeps broadening. As that investigation goes on, Trump goes even crazier in his tweets. Needless to say: One doesn’t get that riled when one has nothing to worry about. It may not be collusion (but I’m beginning to believe there was some level of coordination with the Russians); then again it may “simply” be the effect the, I think, 17 investigations into Trump or his various entities (campaign, transition, inaugural, private businesses, his “charity”) have on him because he knows those are going to embarrass him and implicate his kids.

Remember, yesterday Trump and his adult children were banned from serving on charity boards for 10 years because of the way they mismanaged and misused the Trump Foundation. The Trump Foundation spent $7 apparently for his son’s induction fee to the Boy Scouts. But he’s already bragging on things the Foundation did, that it didn’t do. Trump knows there is a there there in his businesses and it must scare the pants off him. The investigations clearly have gone where Trump warned they should not – into his finances. I can only imagine the morass of bad deeds there.

I know, the special counsel investigation was supposed to be about Russian interference in our elections and possible conspiracy with the Trump campaign. But when a prosecutor comes across other crimes, he cannot ignore them.

Plus, The National Enquirer has to be a treasure trove of buried stories about Trump. And the CEO of that outfit is cooperating with the special counsel. We haven’t seen a drip of that leak so far.

Not to mention that the stock market has lost all its 2018 gains, stealing a talking point from Trump about his history-making, in his mind, presidency. The Fed may be about to raise rates, which Trump said they shouldn’t do. So he’ll once again realize that his power as President is not all encompassing, like a tyrant’s.

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Even when he does something good – like finally banning bump stocks – the story doesn’t make the front page because there’s too much news from the investigations.

It can’t have felt good for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to stand before a judge and get lectured about his bad, criminal behaviors as a former general and advisor to the President . And it can’t have felt good, either, for Trump and his talking heads on Fox to hear Flynn say under oath in court that yes, he knew lying to the FBI is a crime. The rug was pulled out from under their “narrative” that the Flynn case would show the special counsel’s work for what they think it is – a witch hunt and a perjury trap.

It’s no witch hunt…and it’s not over.

More shoes are likely to drop. While a successful removal from office is unlikely since there won’t be the votes in the Senate even if the House impeaches him, those who said Trump will resign before his term ends (I live with one of those people) may be closer to the truth than I ever imagined.

So, Happy Holidays, Mr. President. And I wouldn’t go looking in your stocking this year. You may find that product you proudly brag about bringing back – coal.

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RIP, President George H.W. Bush

12/1/2018

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President George Herbert Walker Bush’s death is a gut punch.

I was not part of his inner political circle or a close, personal friend. But I knew him for a number of years and worked for him as deputy White House press secretary. If you met George H.W. Bush, he made you feel as if you were in his inner circle. He was the most genuine person I’ve ever known. And nice. And kind. And gentle. And caring. He was a class act. And, above everything, a decent man.

He had great empathy, and cried quickly and sincerely, so often in fact that he would tone down some speeches so he wouldn’t break down in tears. He had a curious mind. He wanted views from many so he could consider all information before making a decision. He loved his country and his fellow citizens.

His death was not a shock, he had been ill, but what is a shock is accepting that this good man is not part of this world anymore. Though he now joins his wife of 73 years, Barbara who died in April, and his young daughter Robin who died from leukemia at age 4 in 1953.

The obits being run all over will give his proud story of service to his country and his fellow men and women, so I won’t repeat all that here. I will tell a few personal stories about him, if you’ll bear with me:

First, while serving as a deputy press secretary to President Reagan, I was among the staff in Santa Barbara, Calif., when the Democrats held their convention in 1988. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy had given a tough speech attacking Vice President Bush and each bullet point he punctuated with “where was George?” as he tried to make the case that Vice President Bush was absent from being involved in anything important The next day, we were preparing for the press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, to brief the press and we knew Marlin would be greeted with taunts from the press of “where was George?”

He told me to develop a response. It came to me quickly and, while I don’t have at hand a copy of what the statement was, it was a series of statements that began with “I’ll tell you where George was, he was….” And a similar series to Kennedy’s but this time rolling out the VP’s contributions to the Reagan Administration. When Marlin finally read it after waiting for the press to finish its chants, the reporters were silent.

Back in Washington the next week, we were in Marlin’s office, again preparing him for his daily press briefing, when the door opened and Vice President Bush poked his head in to say, “Marlin, that was great! You were the only one out there defending me!” Marlin smiled coyly but said nothing while Bush went on with his compliments. Marlin looked, embarrassed, at me and said, “Mr. Vice President, in truth…B. Jay wrote that.” The Vice President looked at me and said, “B. Jay? B. Jay can write?” and then he left.

Second, I had interviewed to be Bush’s press secretary a couple of times. Once when he was VP and again when he was putting his campaign staff together. Needless to say, I wanted the job. On the VP job, he decided not to fill it right away. On the campaign job, I interviewed with his chief of staff, Craig Fuller, and then with the vice president who made the interview almost a chat between friends. As I said, he had that ability.

A couple of Mondays later the VP’s office said it would be making an announcement of the campaign press secretary that day. A little later, I got a call from Fuller. When I answered I said, I’m guessing since you’re calling me the day of the announcement, I didn’t get the job. No, he said, you didn’t and he told me that Sheila Tate was to be named. I said well, she’s a fine choice but can you tell me why Sheila and not me? Fuller said, at the risk of a lawsuit from you, the honest answer is that the Vice President wanted to name the first woman to the job. Honesty. And, candidly, she was probably a better choice than I was anyway.

Third, even in his post-Oval Office days, “41” was very kind to me. Once, I asked him to be in a film I was working on for a client in my PR firm days, and the day I went to his Kennebunkport (Maine) family summer home to tape it, he came bounding over and said, “guess who I’m about to play golf with!” Not waiting for my guess he said, “Freddy Couples and Davis Love!” and he was honestly excited that he was playing with them, not thinking that the two pros probably were more excited to play with him. The second was when my wife and I asked him if we would author the forward to a book we wrote on my former boss the late Secretary of Commerce Mac Baldrige, who was a close friend of Bush’s for decades. He quickly responded yes. (In fact, it was thanks to Bush that Baldrige was in the Reagan Cabinet.)

Last, in his first year in office, the Republican National Committee was having several months of bad press and bad decisions. They got attention because the brilliant and precocious Lee Atwater was the chairman and someone Bush cared about a lot. The RNC communications director was taking a bullet and resigned from the committee and Bush asked me to take his place. A bit of an awkward career move. Normally folks worked at political committees and then moved on to Administration jobs, not vice versa.

During my exit interview with President Bush he said he appreciated me, in his words, making the sacrifice to go from the White House to the RNC, but, he said, “I need someone with grey hair up there.” I truly appreciated his faith in me and the belief that he thought I had the wisdom to calm things down, but I was 41 years old and the grey I have now had not even peeked through yet.

George Herbert Walker Bush was a fine man and a very good President. He gets more credit as the years go by for his contributions, especially in foreign policy and in getting the Americans with Disability Act passed. For the various accolades he deserves for his long life of public service, he deserves many more for being a good and loyal friend to many.

He was taught by his mother not to brag about himself, ever. And he didn’t, making it a bit difficult when running campaigns to take credit for things.

One last story that says a lot about the formation of such a modest and good man:
When a young man, Bush came home and told his mother, Dorothy, he had scored three goals in a soccer match. Mrs. Bush said, “that’s nice, George, how did the team do?”

Every team he ever was on did well.

RIP, President Bush.

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