Category Archives: Trump
Trump Swamp Drainage Project
Swamp drainage was at a standstill last week. The Washington wetlands are filled with protected species and the permitting process is more complicated than expected.
The Trump Media war ended the week in a standoff when the president took the offensive in an hour and fifteen minute press conference on Thursday.
Leaks and Lies
Eli Lake in Bloomberg View thinks people in the permanent government selectively leaked highly classified information to damage a political appointee. He calls what happened to Michael Flynn a “political assassination”.
Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do…
Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told me Monday that he saw the leaks about Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak as part of a pattern. “There does appear to be a well orchestrated effort to attack Flynn and others in the administration,” he said. “From the leaking of phone calls between the president and foreign leaders to what appears to be high-level FISA Court information, to the leaking of American citizens being denied security clearances, it looks like a pattern.”
Russian Election Hacking
In 2012 President Obama told Russian President Medvedev he would be much more flexible after the election. Obama thought his remarks were private but he was speaking into an open mic in front of tv cameras.
Lucky for him, there was no Republican narrative of Russian election hacking in 2012. It might have seemed plausible, considering the fact that Obama repeatedly mocked Romney for insisting that Russia was our number one enemy. Also, in 2009, Obama halted a missile defense system in Poland and The Czech Republic. Romney described that act as “a gift to Russia.”
Russian Hacking
If the Russians had any incentive to hack a U.S. election, 2012 would seem to be the ticket. After that election they felt comfortable enough to invade Crimea without fear of U.S. sanctions. Obama only got tough with Russia on his way out the door in December 2016. He imposed sanctions after Hillary lost and the Russians were accused of hacking John Podesta’s emails. Which, btw, is the only reason we know Donna Brazile fed debate questions to Hillary.
Those sanctions are the ones Michael Flynn is accused of discussing in December with the Russian ambassador. We know about that, not through an open mic, but from leaked classified U.S. intelligence.
Buy Ivanka Dresses Or Else
When Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s fashion line, President Trump tweeted. He accused the company of treating his daughter unfairly.
Ivanka
Trump isn’t the first president to defend his daughter. A Washington Post music critic once gave Margaret Truman a bad review for a singing performance. Her father, President Harry Truman, gave him hell:
In response to Washington Post Music Critic Paul Hume’s December 6, 1950, review of Margaret Truman’s singing performance at Constitution Hall, stating,
“Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality (she) cannot sing very well is flat a good deal of the time�more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years � has not improved in the years we have heard her � (and) still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish.”
President Truman responded with the following letter to Hume:
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Dec. 6, 1950
Mr. Hume:
I’ve just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an “eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.”
It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you’re off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.
Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!
Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you’ll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.
H.S.T.
Bannon Calls Media Opposition Party
Trump’s top adviser Steve Bannon told the press it should shut up and listen. The media took offense. Their right to not shut up is protected by the first amendment.
Media Opposition Party
But they don’t seem to have taken the listen part to heart. Bannon also said that the media had become the opposition party. On August 8 Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times agreed.
