Category Archives: Politics
Stormy White House
The WSJ says, President Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to porn star Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. Stormy says the payment was part of an agreement to keep quiet about an “encounter” between the two in 2006.
Better Offer for Stormy?
But now she wants out of the deal because she says Trump never signed it.
The Washington Post reported Hillary Clinton’s campaign hid payments through a lawyer too. The campaign’s law firm Perkins Coi paid Fusion GPS to make noise by digging dirt on Trump before the election. Fusion GPS in turn hired the British spy Christopher Steel who produced the “salacious” dossier used to gain FISA court permission to spy on Trump associates.
According to a new book, Russian Roulette, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hillary was following in big footsteps. The Obama campaign had hired the same firm to dig dirt on Mitt Romney.
Rex Tillerson: The Final Insult
Former Secretary of State Tillerson says President Trump decided on his own to meet with Kim Jong Un. That was right after Tillerson publicly advised holding off on the meeting.
Trump’s decision to fire Tillerson was his own idea too. Tillerson learned of it when he read the president’s tweet.
Final Insult
Calling Trump a moron appears to have been Tillerson’s own idea
North Korean Reset
President Trump Hits Global Reset Button from Paris to Pyongyang. At least that’s the way a headline in The Hill sees it.
The article is by former Trump Staffer Sebastian Gorka. He claims that if you want to understand The Donald you have to read Art of the Deal. And once you’ve done that you’ll know it’s all about the objective:
The negotiations themselves, or maintaining the established way of doing business, are never the objectives. The real objective is defined by realizing your interests, which may not be possible if the status quo is maintained.
Russian Overcharge
For example, Hillary’s reset (or overcharge) with Russia didn’t achieve an objective.
President Obama sent Hillary Clinton to present a mislabeled “reset button” to the Kremlin. In reality, there was no reset. The Obama administration did not effectively address the expansionist and destabilizing behavior of former KGB colonel Vladimir Putin, not even after he invaded Ukraine.
But Gorka has way more faith in a Trump reset with North Korea:
It is a reset that included tough talk with China and North Korea, talk followed up by actions that have led to a response on behalf of Pyongyang, which may take us to the cusp of bringing peace and stability to the region after 65 years of potential war.
But whatever you do with Dear Leader, don’t go all Madeline Albright. 
The whole thing seemed more upset than reset with Secretary of State Tillerson. He was traveling in Africa when he learned of the dotard’s decision to meet the rocket man. 
So he called in sick.
White Lies of Hope
Republican Congressman Tom Rooney is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Here’s what he had to say to CNN about the committee’s Russian collusion investigation:
“It’s been going on for a year. We’ve interviewed scores of witnesses and now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re literally bringing people in for nine hours just so the Democrats can leak to the press something as ridiculous as ‘white lies.’ “
White Lies
Hope Hicks, the 29 year old White House communications director, was such a witness. Democrat Eric Swalwell asked if she ever lied for her boss. After consulting with here lawyer Hope confessed that yes she had. White lies. Like “the president is in a meeting” when he’s not really in a meeting.
She resigned the next day.
Trumponomics
President Trump yesterday announced a 25% tariff on imported steel. Good news for American steelmakers but not so good for American Steel users. He also slapped aluminum with a 10% charge.
The news came as a surprise to the stock market. The Dow displayed its displeasure with Trumponomics by tanking 420 points. And it opened this morning down another 320.
Trumponomics: Tax Cuts and Tariffs
The news from Dan Henninger in the WSJ yesterday morning (before Trump’s announcement) was that the president is obsessed with jobs.
Every president claims to be a jobs president, but after a year it is becoming clear that this may be the only thing Donald Trump thinks about. He may even impose tariffs soon on imported steel, seeing only the protected jobs in front of him and missing the larger loss of jobs in steel-using industries.
But the bigger surprise might be that Trump’s keeping his campaign promises, from tax cuts to tariffs.
