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Conspiracy theory? Sign me up.

1/31/2017

President Trump has succeeded in making me a conspiracy theorist.

No, I don’t believe in the same conspiracies he believes in, but I am beginning to think the President and his tight band of “advisors” – Bannon, Sessions, Moore -- are trying to remake the United States in their image and into something they alone can control.

I know that sounds impossible to some and, probably, logical to others. But with his recent travel ban, I truly believe he hs the potential to ignore any court findings and just continue to do it his way.

A violation of the Constitution, you say? Walking in the opposite direction of American tradition, you say? True, but he is the President after all….but he is his kind of president.

He is not a president that so far shows any inclination to play by at least some of the rules – like apologizing when he’s wrong, or getting along with our allies. Or defending the Constitution he swore to uphold.

And he has sufficient supporters (even though polls are showing his popularity already on the wane) to allow him to do as he pleases. Maybe more importantly, he has his thumbs – so he can access his Twitter account and turn popular opinion against anyone.

There’s an article in the New York Times today that says top corporate CEOs are hesitant to speak out against Trump because they fear what he’ll say about them/their companies on Twitter. There’s another article in the Times today that puts some foreign leaders in the same position. Trump makes nice with them if he’s in a photo opp with them but within hours is saying something that contradicts the charming President they just met with. And that’s just our allies.

Don’t believe me? Ask the president of Mexico who’s been double-crossed twice by Trump. Or ask Prime Minister May of England who met with him and just hours later Trump unveiled his travel ban on people from majority-Muslim countries, even those people who risked their lives to support our military, or doctors doing significant research to find cures to major diseases, and others. No one stopped was barred from entering, based on published reports, probably because they already had been vetted intently by our government. If the President wants to offer up more vetting, that’s a reasonable thing to consider…but these folks already had been vetted. For up to two years.

In his first 10 days in office, Trump has already delivered somewhat on many of his promises, or at least says he did by signing Executive Orders. That seems to be his new way of communicating his direction to the public and the government. They are signed with no explanation by him though.

He even signed an Executive Order telling the Defense Department to deliver a plan to defeat ISIS in 30 days. (I don't believe you need such an Executive Order but it made good TV.)

These are the same generals he said during his campaign, that he knew more than, and that he had his own secret plan that he wouldn’t unveil then and won’t unveil now. But his spokesman said, from the podium the other day, that Trump has passed his plan on to the generals to be part of the eventual master plan.

My guess is that’s about as true as when the President’s spokesmen said that the White House consulted with appropriate Senate and House members before he unveiled its travel ban. Except that the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he was not consulted.

So, what do we do? My best guess is that, one, the people need to keep protesting to keep up the pressure not so much on the President but their House and Senate representatives. And, the courts need to continue to rule (assuming the evidence is there, of course) against the President – or his staff’s, I’m not sure who’s running the store – proclamations. Then, I hope the Republicans in Congress will take actions to rein in the President.

Those elected officials need to get over their decades-old position of lying in fear before finding courage to act. I get why Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell are holding their water. But they shouldn’t. They cannot stand by nodding in agreement when the President goes against the Constitution in his travel ban. They cannot sit by while the President appoints his political Svengali – Steve Bannon – to the National Security Council and at the same time demotes the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs from the same spot.

The NSC doesn’t only discuss war and peace. They take up other matters, trade for example. For those meetings, the appropriate Cabinet members typically are invited. And the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense also should have a voice, not just the guy who opposes trade deals, Muslims, Jews, and others and believes only in “America first” and an isolationist foreign policy.

(A not-so-side note: that proclamation that came out on Holocaust Remembrance Day that didn’t mention Jews specifically? Am I to presume that the soon-to-be solver of Middle East peace, Jared Kushner, the president’s son in law, didn’t see that document before it was released? If he did, he should have inserted “Jews” where appropriate and if he didn’t, I don’t see how he’s in charge of bringing peace to the Middle East when Israel is half of that equation.

(Another note: where is the presumably more reasonable chief of staff Reince Priebus in all this? Does he agree with what Trump is doing? Or is he more interested in maintaining his seat of presumed-power. Hint, ,Reince, you aren’t sitting in a power seat unless you’re visiting Bannon and sitting in his chair.)

I’m stopping short on flat-out accusing this Administration of wanting to turn this country from a democracy to an autocracy. At least I am for this week.

And that’s where my new-found conspiracy theory side comes out.

Let’s see what happens when what we hope are more reasonable minds – folks like Secretary of Defense Mattis and Secretary of State-designee Tillerson – are finally confirmed.

Will they have any influence with the President? Or are we to be governed by the alt-right crowd surrounding Trump in the White House?

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Vote investigation would accomplish...nothing

1/25/2017

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President Trump is tweet-threatening to order an investigation into what he calls voter fraud on a massive scale – and everyone else says is a lie.

I hope those who supported him are paying close attention because this may be, even for him, the most selfish thing he has said so far. First, there is no voter fraud. Every study shows that and every secretary of the state (including Republicans) has said there is no such cheating going on such a scale. He claims three to five million phony votes were cast.

Second, he promised to be a president unlike others – seriously putting people first and not himself.

But this is all about the President. He won the election – no one is challenging that. So even if there was such fraud, it didn’t affect the election results. He won the Electoral College; she won the runner-up contest by getting more votes. Like it or not. And coming in second in this case means you lose.

So, rather than focusing his time 100 percent, as he said he would, on families and the American worker, he is focused instead of himself, as he always is.

It’s one more example of his phony campaign. He won because of the promises he made to people to bring jobs back, to make the economy (which is very good at the moment) better and to make us safer. An investigation into voter fraud accomplishes none of those things.

In fact, it accomplishes nothing.

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Trump, the first few days

1/23/2017

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President Donald J. Trump is very good at sowing division, which may be a great strategy for a candidate trying to nail down 270 electoral votes, but it is a recipe for disaster for governing.

I waited a few days before writing a post on Trump’s inauguration because I wanted to see as much of him as I could as President – the pre-ceremony rituals, the acceptance speech, the lunch with Members of Congress, the ball appearances and the first full day in office. I wanted to see if he would behave any differently than he did on the campaign.

He did not.

His acceptance speech – described as “dark” by most of the media and pundits – was far from up-lifting or uniting. It spoke of the “carnage” of America and “America first,” as if his predecessors made decisions without putting their country’s best interests first. He did this in front of four of his predecessors and most of the U.S. House and Senate. They did what you do at such a significant event in our nation’s transfer of power, and showed him polite respect.

It was an ill-timed in your face insult to those who came before him, especially President Obama. Though I’m certain his base ate it up. It was the wrong tone at the wrong time.

In the traditional lunch with Congress he was more chummy and more what we’re told is the behind-closed-doors Trump – collegial, back-slapping, laying the groundwork to make a deal. The same was true in his signings of his first executive orders and appointments of his confirmed Cabinet members.

At the parade, he did not step out of his limo in front of his new DC hotel for the free publicity, which showed restraint and would have been a crude and bold statement of still marketing his holdings. Kudos for not marketing your hotel when you’re marching in your own inaugural parade.

At the balls, he returned to his combative persona and talked of the “crooked media,” his “enemies” and his “movement.” This as he was being celebrated as the President of (all) the United States, not just the ones he won.

His first full day saw him instigate not a debate over the size of his hands but over the size of the crowd that showed up for his inauguration. And he chose for his background to make this statement the wall dedicated to the 127 men and women of the CIA who gave their lives for this country. I’ve seen that wall and you can’t look at it without feeling deep emotion about those brave fallen patriots. Again the wrong tone at the wrong time.

I’m guessing we can expect more debates over size as his presidency progresses. We saw his press secretary come out for his first White House briefing and berate the press – his constituency -- for the crowd-size debate and walk off without taking a single question.

In short over his first weekend as President I saw maybe a glimpse of the “presidential” Trump but it was fleeting.

At this very early stage, Mr. Trump is setting up two things from my perspective:

He will do everything he can to delegitimize the media. If he can spread his spin that the press, all the press, just lies, the people will have nothing to believe but what comes out of his mouth. And so far, we’ve seen more lies than facts from the new president. This may or may not be his intent, but it is how Nazi Germany came to be and other dictatorships and banana republics in the world’s history
He is setting himself up for failure. He won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. He starts his four-year term with the worst approval numbers in history. In other words, the honeymoon never started. He needs to build his broaden base not cater only to it.

And he and his press secretary continue to criticize the media for their coverage. Because of the apparent strategy the White House is using against them, the media will begin to broaden its reporting, paying more attention to the federal departments and agencies because they believe they won’t be able to cover the administration from the White House. This means the media will have even more sources in those places than they do know.

You do not want the bureaucracy and media in even closer relationships as President, because you will not win that battle and it is a battle that needn’t be fought. Donald Trump won the election. He does not need to continue fighting that battle. He won. He was sworn in. He is the president. He needs to forget about those in the country who are having trouble accepting that fact. He's the one who needs to accept it.

Trump may talk of a second term in the opening hours of his first, but cannot be reelected without widening his base. If he continues as he’s started, he will begin losing supporters on The Hill. The millions of marchers may not have influenced President Trump but, trust me, members of Congress paid attention. Mid-term elections are less than two years off. While gerrymandering in the House may protect it from switching parties, the same is not true in the Senate. And those folks think of themselves first, not the President. They will do what they need to do to maintain their offices, and the President will come in second to that goal.

If Mr. Trump thinks he is starting with less than majority support in the country, let him see what governing with one house of Congress Democratic.

He can’t do it. What he needs to do is forget about size and Saturday Night Live and focus on delivering to his supporters what he has promised: an improved replacement for Obamacare, jobs for the jobless, “so much winning that you’ll want me to stop winning” and the eradication of the threat of terrorism.

That’s a pretty full plate …. of an non-debatable size.

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Trump, Priebus prepare for inauguration

1/16/2017

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It's few days before the inauguration and Donald Trump is talking over details with his chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

“Rice, how long should I talk for?” asked the president-elect.

“Sir, first, as I’ve explained before, it’s not Rice it’s pronounced just like Heinz but with an R first. Reince. Second, typically an inaugural address should go about 20 minutes, maybe 30 if it’s got a lot of important stuff to say.”

“Rinse, bubbala, if I’m the president, which I will be when I give this talk, everything I say, is important. In fact, nothing really has changed because everything I say is important when I say it but only when I say it. Because I may say the opposite later in the day. And then that’s important too.”

“Yes, sir, well, again it’s Reince, pronounced Ryns, and I understand that and I believe everything you say is important too. Always have, well at least since you won the primary, before thought I thought you were nuts. But you don’t want to overstay your welcome with the American people tuning in so I'd go no longer than 30 minutes.”

“Rianus, I can’t believe you’re telling me that. Remember, I was a reality TV star – and I should have won the Emmy that year. And I’m a billionaire many times over, a big success…big success, believe me…the American people will stay tuned in until I’m done. And then will want even more. At least the ones I care about – the people who voted for me – will stay tuned in. And the others, you know, my enemies, I really don’t give two, uh, thoughts about. There, I caught myself just like you taught me! I didn’t say two shits like I was going to!”

“Very well done, Mr. President-elect, and, one more time, it’s pronounced Reinz. "

“See, I can change, Rainbow! People think I can’t but I can be presidential. Presidents don’t use that expression, in public anyway, and I won’t either.”

“Fabulous. Sir, two things. One, we know you won't use them but we're putting Teleprompters on the podium for you. We know you won't use them but it will make you look presidential. And, second, I know it’s a few days premature but may I call you Mr. President, since it’s just the two of us?”

“Yes, Rainass, you may. And you should because since I won the election, which I won big by the way, a landslide almost as big as my…Ha .See, i stopped myself again! But since I won the election I have been running this country. I’ve saved jobs already, thousands of jobs. I stopped the House Republicans from gutting their ethics office, well, at least for now. And, I’ve had a few talks with Putty to get things ready for our first meeting. Obama, he’s just keeping the seat warm until I’m sworn in.”

“Putty, sir?”

“Vladimir Putin, Rainbutt! The guy who put me in this job, for cryin’ out loud. And that means you owe your job to him, too. And how many times do I have to tell you: If you are the president, you are presidential just like if you’re the president it’s legal for you to have conflicts of interest. I can conflict all I want and the Constitution endorses it!”

“Well, sir, that’s a debatable point so I wouldn’t be saying that too often. And, Putty, sir?”

“Rice, I’ll say what I want to say where I want to say it and when I want to say it. Always have, always will be straight with the American people!!! How else can I, and I alone can do it, make America great again?? And yes, Rainboy, Putty. That’s what I call Vladimir Putin and have for many years, many years, believe me.”

“Well, again, Mr. President, I wouldn’t say that in public because you’ve said you don’t know Putin, never met him, don’t have a relationship with him. And it’s Reinz.”

“Listen, when I said I didn’t know Putin, I didn’t know him. I never lie.”

“But, Mr. President, you just said you’ve known him for decades.”

“Yes, I have Rainman. Anything else is fake news. If I say X that’s real. And if I say Y the next day, that’s real too. And you better get this straight since you will be running the White House. Well, except for Steve, of course. Oh, and Jared. But you’re next in line. Well, if you don’t count Ivanka that is.”

“Yes, Mr. President, I understand. And you can call me whatever you want.”

“Yes, I know, Reese. By the way, should I mention the big beautiful wall first, or save it for the big finale?”

“Mr. President, I thought you gave up on the whole wall idea.”

“Yes, indeed, I have given up on it! So, should I mention it first or last?”

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Trump and the media

1/13/2017

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In seven days, Donald Trump will be sworn in as our 45th President.

During his transition he has efficiently named his Cabinet members some of whom now are going through their confirmation hearings and some of them are contradicting things Trump promised on the stump (the CIA nominee said he’d quit before ordering torture, the Defense secretary said Russia is the biggest threat to our security and, well, the Secretary of State nominee said he hadn’t yet discussed policy toward Russia with the president-elect).

Policy will work its way out, probably in the same chaotic way we’ve seen in his transition. That’s his management style. We’ll see how effective that is when running the government. I don’t think it’s the right way to go -- and I hope I’m wrong.

To me, the most important thing right now is how he deals with the media. He held his first post-election press conference this week, which also was his first since July. His press secretary kicked it off with a statement haranguing the media over its handling of the story which alleges that the Russians have compromising info about the president-elect.

A lawyer then explained how Trump will handle his conflicts of interest which didn’t pass the smell test and then Trump came on and basically beat up some of the press for their approach to the Russia story, pushing questions about his conflicts of interest out of the interest zone. He is very good at saying pay no attention to that man behind the curtain so he can change the subject.

Now I know a huge number of Americans do not like the media. I’m not in that camp. I don’t like the fake news sites that exist merely to get clicks and run blatantly untrue stories like the Pope endorsed a candidate. I don’t like the right and left wing sites that push their philosophy through their “news stories” but I respect their right to exists and caveat emptor.

But I do respect the mainstream press. I was a reporter way back when and I was a spokesman for Republican Administrations in Washington for a long time.

The truth is, when we in the White House press office would come in and read the Washington Post or New York Times and see a story alleging some bad thing the administration had done, our default was to believe the media. We'd then go and try to check it out internally so we could give an informed answer to the media and we basically knew who among our colleagues in the White House had credibility and which had an agenda so we wouldn’t give them as much credence.

We did not think the media story was wrong unless we found evidence inside to the contrary.

A Trump White House will dub every negative story as “fake news.” No question in my mind. It’s what Trump has done on his campaign and I have seen nothing to believe that will change.

I hope my fellow Americans will default to believing the mainstream press, because, trust me, they will be right far more often than they'll be wrong. Many (me included) may have our gripes with the media but I thank goodness they are there. In the story alleging compromising information about Trump, no mainstream media ran the allegations because for the months they had the allegations, they tried but could not confirm those allegations were true.

I wish the new President the best of luck. His success is our success.

And I hope the media find the way to cover him that is honest and fair and does not back down because he tries to intimidate them.

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Clicking my heels and really trying

1/6/2017

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I’m trying. I’m really trying to accept Donald Trump as president. He's making it very hard.

And I’ve really been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt in these days leading up to his inauguration. I actually thought that he might go a little underground after the election to get his government ready to take over.

But he hasn’t stopped tweeting. Tweeting inane things. Tweeting lies. Tweeting to affect policies while someone else is in the Oval Office.

Upon being elected, he acted as if he is a shadow president to President Obama, rather than playing the traditional role of “there’s only one President at a time.”He’s weighed in on policy, foreign and domestic, and he’s not in office yet.

His ego knows no bounds.

He tweets one thing one day and the opposite the next, just as he always has. He has disparaged our intelligence community, which admits it’s made bad mistakes, but he acts as if the default is they are wrong rather than they are right.

What happens if (pray not) our intelligence community picks up information of an impending attack from, say, Russia and President Trump says, based on nothing, “I don’t agree. My buddy Pooty wouldn’t attack me, uh, I mean us.”

He tweeted that Julian Assange is a good guy. Julian Assange! It's like the conspiracy theorists have taken over the country.

Today, I read he’s meeting with editors of Vanity Fair. But he hasn’t had the traditional after-election press conference yet. Vanity Fair? Really? You really care about what Vanity Fair writes about you, Mr. President-elect? That’s what you’re spending your time on?

I also read today that against precedent he has informed all politically appointed ambassadors to return home by January 20, when he is sworn in. That leaves, us, first, without ambassadors in key countries until Trump names replacements; second, tells these men and women on short notice they have to vacate the residences, get visas so they can remain in the country and, third, worry about whether their kids can finish the school year and if they can find school placements for them when they return. Likely some will not be able to and it could set a innocent kid back in his schooling time. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but probably not. Oh, and we won’t have replacement for most of them for months.

I really am trying. I’m trying to believe Sean Spicer, a good guy, will not cut back on White House briefings. I’m hoping he will not cut back on the pool that follows the President of the United States around for the people’s knowledge, not their own. But they've already started having the president-elect go places without letting the media know.

I’m trying to believe he gave up the idea of his “great wall along the Mexican border” but this morning he apparently said (I say "apparently said" because he may tweet he didn't say it) the U.S. will pay for it and be reminbursed for it by Mexico. Uhhuh. I believe that. I believe that about as much as contractors hired for his D.C. hotel will be paid on time. (For those who haven’t read it yet, he’s already being sued by two contractors for lack of payment.)

I’m really trying. But it’s getting harder and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet.

For me, and I assume for millions of others, he has no credibility because he hasn’t earned it. He doesn’t stick to a position longer than an hour, but then an hour later may reverse himself again.

He’s been insulting our intelligence community – men and women who literally have their lives on the line for us – and then says “no, I haven’t been insulting them. The media is saying that.” Yes, the media is reporting it because you said it, Mr. President-elect. There are tapes –audio and/or video –proving you did.

Heck, last week he promised that by Tuesday or Wednesday he would reveal things “no one but me knows” about hacking. It’s Friday. Nothing yet.

What can we, the people, count on? What can our allies – or enemies –count on when he speaks as President of the United States?

I’m really trying to accept this – I think more so than many others who didn’t vote for him. I thought, for a just a minute, of course because that’s all the time we can believe him he’s proven, that he would try to bring the country together. But not only hasn’t he, he’s talked, I mean tweeted. about wishing his “enemies” a happy new year.

These days, I’m not sure who he means by enemies. We, the people he’s about to govern?

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Conspiracy theory? Sign me up.

Vote investigation would accomplish...nothing

Trump, the first few days

Trump, Priebus prepare for inauguration

Trump and the media

Clicking my heels and really trying

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