March 15, 2017--Ministry of Fake News

A friend who keeps up with most things political and refers to the White House as the Ministry (so you know where he's coming from) is very smart, well informed, and through the months tracking the nomination, election, and early days of the Trump administration has generally, by my read, more often than not, got things right.

He is so indefatigable in his pursuit of information about what is going on that most days he even checks what's posted on the White House Website--1600 Daily.

By doing so, this is also evidence that he is willing to submit to self-flagellation in searching for the truth.

There's a section on the Webpage devoted to "News Reports" and my friend points out that it always includes links to a few so-called media outlets. I say "so-called" because, using yesterday as an example, there were a total of four links, two to Fox News and one to Breitbart.

So, if you can't wait to get your news from CNN or the New York Times--news such as how Trump Tower is being bugged via its TV sets and microwave ovens--you can have a peek at the sources Donald Trump himself checks out when his daily intelligence briefings get too boring.

March 6, 2017--Kool Aid

Anyone who thinks Barack Obama during the last months of his presidency had anything to do with bugging Donald Trump's Trump Tower email server is drinking the Kool Aid. This time with Steve Bannon, his Brietbart News, and talkshow lunatic Mark Levin pouring refills.

That Obama would commit a felony, literally a felony in support of Hillary Clinton's candidacy, when it was universally thought she had a commanding lead, is delusional. Starting with Trump who, dangerously, believes this stuff.

The explanation is a lot simpler--

The coverup being perpetrated by the current president and his flunkies is coming undone. Even poor attorney general Jeff Sessions sold his chief out, deciding on his own, without consulting Trump, to plead recusal when it comes to the Russian connection, basically abandoning the president to twist slowly in the wind as one piece of fabrication after another peels away, leaving Trump and his senior staff vulnerable to further exposure.

What happened is as follows--

As part of their routine monitoring of Russian electronic communications chatter, the NSA or CIA or FBI stumbled on conversations between the Russian ambassador and Trump operatives such as Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, both of whom have longstanding ties to high-level Russians, have been on various Russian payrolls, and as a result are significantly compromised, including, as Flynn finally fessed up, engaged in perhaps illegal discussions before taking office about reducing the sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia in retaliation after they were caught red-handed (pun intended) hacking into Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Digging deeper, members of the intelligence community discovered other connections, including, in his own words, Donald Trump, Jr. boasting about all the Russian money "pouring into" various Trump projects. Minimally from black-money laundries such as Wilber Ross' Bank of Cyprus.

With this evidence in hand, including transcripts of these back-channel discussions, it was easy for the FBI (not Obama) to secure FISA-court approval to monitor further conversations between Trump campaign operatives, transition team staff, and various Russian spies. As a result, intelligence officials discovered that the campaign outreach to the Russians and more recently the coverup reached very high into the Trump organization.

So, in the aggregate thus far, we have flunkies such as Flynn and Manafort directly involved in encouraging the Russians to sabotage Clinton's campaign, minimally inappropriately talking with them about what the compromised Trump administration would do after taking office to "compensate" Russia for its help in the campaign, and now of course the massive coverup that likely reaches to Trump himself.

Then of course there is what is revealed in the infamous BuzzFeed dossier about Trump and his Russian capers.

This explains the towering rage Trump unleashed on his staff on Friday after Sessions recused himself without even talking with Trump about his intentions. He opted not to take a bullet for the boss and has as a result already outlived his usefulness. Expect him to be exiled and as the drip, drip, drip continues and various members of the Trump team to begin to peel away. I suspect that this will soon include Rex Tillerson who refuses to drink the Kool Air because he doesn't want the coda to his remarkable career to be that he went down with the Trump ship. And, yes, Watergate style, FBI director James Comey to be fired.

March 1, 2017--A Day Without Trump

Since I noted some improvement earlier this week--mentioning Trump a regressive four times on Monday and then doing only a bit better yesterday, mentioning him "just" three times--perhaps, then, since I ams still disappointed with my progress, maybe I need to adjust tactics for a day to get to my goal sooner--to shake my yearlong addiction to all things Trump.

So today, midweek, I am taking a day off from blogging. I have an early doctor's appointment to see if my Lyme disease has abated and so I thought to take advantage of my busy schedule and not write anything.

That's one way to deal with my problem. Ignore it. Admittedly, not the most therapeutic way--taking it head on would be more beneficial--but perhaps it could still be helpful.

This of course means no comments about Trump's speech last night, no mocking allusions to his having just discovered that repealing and replacing Obamacare is "unbelievably complex" or, better for satire or snarkiness, that "nobody knew [it] . . . could be so complicated." Nobody?

This latter comment alone could under prior circumstances have been subject matter for at least two blogs.

Ignoring Trump I will have no public comments about his budget outline that sees a ten percent increase in military spending and offsetting cuts in domestic allocations, which means cutting back on food and healthcare for the poor to build more weapon systems. Cruel priorities. But I will have nothing to say about that.

I will also not comment on the attempts to plug leaks by the president and White House staff and how press secretary Sean Spicer forced those reporting to him to turn over their cell phones so they can be checked to find out who's been leaking to the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN.  And I won't be writing about the White House banning reporters from these and other "fake news" outlets from attending the first Trump "gaggle" briefing for a select group of reporters,
including one from Breitbart News, Steven Bannon's old shop.

Though I am tempted, you will not hear anything from me about this.

And you will not hear a word here about what is my thus-far favorite flap of the week--the Twitter storm about how Kellyanne Conway took her shoes off and folded her legs under her while sitting on them on the Oval Office couch as President Trump met with a group of distinguished presidents of historically black colleges and universities.

What was she doing there anyway? But you won't see me asking or speculating about that.

When Kellyann's disrespectful behavior was brought to the attention of Trump and his senior staff they were quick to publish pictures of Barack Obama sitting with his feet on the presidential desk. The same president Trump accused earlier this week of being behind all the leaks and leaving a "mess" behind. But there will not be a word about me about that. No leaking here. For me it's still Trump cold turkey detoxification time.

As New York City Mayor Ed Koch used at ask, "How am I doing?"

February 22, 2017--Milo Yiannopoulos

More evidence of implosion--

General Michael Flynn is gone, fired as National Security Council Advisor, replaced by an adult, and with him goes some of the paranoia and conspiratorial thinking that pervades the West Wing.

Many on both sides of the aisle are hoping that chief strategist, Stephen Bannon and his protégée Stephen Miller will soon follow. Kallyanne Conway has already been marginalized. Have you seen her recently? Is she still being "counseled" and reeducated for hawking Ivanka Trump's schematas? Is she the next one to be jettisoned?

If so it could be that there is some low-wattage light flickering at the end of the very long Trump tunnel.

More good news--

The ever-hypocritical Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) has just withdrawn its invitation to senior Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to address their upcoming convention.

Greatly "admired" by Bannon, according to the New York Times, for his alt-right orthodoxy which includes dollops of racism and anti-Semitism, Milo has been in the headlines recently for having been driven away from speaking at Berkeley where protesting students proclaimed with some violence, forgetting the free-speech history of their institution, that there is "no free speech for hate speech."

CPAC made a big deal of this, totally enjoying the irony at Berkeley and, mounting their high libertarian horse, invited Milo to address them as evidence that conservatives are less politically correct and more constitution-minded than liberals.

They were OK with the hate speech part of Milo's repertoire but when it leaked out that he also has spoken positively about man-boy pedophilia, including among Catholic priests, that was too much even for CPACers. They pulled the plug on him and made frantic rounds of the morning talk shows to try to explain away their hypocrisy.

They are for free speech but not when it "crosses certain lines." Clearly one of those lines doesn't include forbidding a CPAC speaker to hint with winks and nods that it's all right to be a white supremacist or anti-Semite.

Does this foretell Stephen Bannon's fate? With Yiannopoulos on the loose and CPAC at a boil, Bannon's presence, whispering in Trump's ear, may embolden Bannon's White House enemies (Reince Priebus and Jared Kushner among others) to put pressure on Trump to do a little more house cleaning.

December 12, 2016--BREAKING (FAKE) NEWS!

Dateline: New York, December 12, 5:24 a.m.

NBC announced late last week that president-elect Donald J. Trump will continue to be the Executive Producer of The Apprentice when it returns to the air on January 2nd. It was not disclosed if Mr. Trump while president will continue to be paid his producer fee or will receive a dollar-a-year. As co-creator he owns a 50 percent share of the program's earnings.

Brian Stelter, host of CNN's Reliable Sources was quoted as saying that no previous president of the United States has had a financial association of any kind with a commercial TV program. When political figures or candidates appear on late-night programs such as the Tonight Show, including sitting presidents, they do not receive the Screen Actors Guild minimum that other guests receive.

Others interviewed who prefer to speak off the record said that this is not only unusual, but that there are other forces as work that explain why Trump is continuing to stay directly involved in the show. All point to the host who replaced Mr. Trump--Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California and the secret previously-unreported relationship between him and the president-elect.

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria when Austria was still behind the Soviet Iron Curtain and sources point out that the recent presidential election was interfered with by Vladimir Putin's K.G.B. which hacked into the voting machines in key states that were subsequently carried by Mr. Trump and thereby clinched for him the Electoral College victory.

They point out further that Trump, as part of his debt to Putin and Russia, even before Election Day, heaped praise on President Putin which was reciprocated.

The same sources noted the close ties between Putin and some of Trump's key appointees.

For example, Breitbart's Steve Bannon, Trump's behind-the-scenes chief strategist, is a long-time advocate of the U.S. forging strong relations with Vladimir Putin as a way of driving a wedge between the two great communist superpowers--China and Russia. He is responsible for convincing Trump to tip global relations from the Asia focus called for by President Obama to a European focus and thereby, through an improved relationship with Putin, link American interests to the growing pro-Russian nationalist movement sweeping Western Europe.

In addition, retired three-star general Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Advisor designee, has for many years been one of Putin's favorite U.S. generals. In 2015, for example, he was the paid guest of honor at a gala honoring RT, a government-owned media outlet. It was hosted by President Putin, who sat at Flynn's table during the festivities.

And just the other day it was revealed that Trump will nominate Rex Tillerson, Exxon-Mobil CEO, to be Secretary of State. In his CEO role, he visited Russia numerous times and is currently actively seeking to put the finishing touches on a multi-billion dollar gas and oil deal with Rosneft, a major state-owned petroleum company. The Wall Street Journal reported that "few citizens are closer to Vladimir Putin than Rex Tillerson," indicating he has spent more time with Putin than any American other than Henry Kissinger.

Tillerson and Putin

It is clear that there are deep connections between Donald Trump, his emerging team, and Russia, largely in various connections to Vladimir Putin.

How does Arnold Schwarzenegger fit into this picture?

During his tenure as governor of California, Schwarzenegger initiated legislation that doubled the areas off the coast of California that could be leased for drilling by major oil companies, including Exxon-Mobil.  Through the Exxon connection, the governor was able to meet and make deals with the Russians who then became major importers of California agricultural products.

When Schwarzenegger was term-limited and ineligible to run for a third term, with his private life in tatters, he turned to Donald Trump to help him resurrect his career. Movie roles followed and more recently, when Trump was let go by NBC as host of The Apprentice, behind the scenes as executive producer, Trump influenced the choice of Schwarzenegger as his successor.

Bannon and Flynn, taking note of this, because of their own on-going relationships to Putin and through him to Russia, used their back-channel connections to NBC to influence the hiring of Schwarzenegger.

Further, knowing the details of the former governor's birth and upbringing and his extensive and dependent relationship to Putin and Russia, to maintain these lucrative partnerships, Schwarzenegger's benefactors see him to be a potential presidential candidate in 2020 if Trump decides not to run for a second term, or in 2024 when it is expected that Hillary Clinton will for the fourth time seek the presidency.

Critics note that to make Schwarzenegger eligible for the presidency, since he was not born in the United States, it will be necessary to amend the Constitution. In secret, Trump and his team, led by Steve Bannon and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are already at work on that process, including exploring if Trump can amend the Constitution by executive order, bypassing Congress and the states.

And although Schwarzenegger was married to Maria Shriver, John Kennedy's niece, there is no direct evidence that the former governor was involved in the 35th president's assassination.

A final note--it is reported that when in New York this group of Trump advisors' favorite restaurant, just a few streets from Trump Tower, is the Russian Tea Room; and in Washington, DC, Russian-connection colleagues Flynn, Bannon, Tillerson, and Trump himself are frequently found at Comet Ping Pong pizzeria. Trump is the one eating his slices with a knife and fork.

Putin and Flynn at the RT Banquet

November 16, 2016--Normalization

Yesterday, the following sub-headline appeared on the first page of the New York Times website--

"Critics lamented what they said was a frightening normalization of the fringe views that Mr. Bannon promoted as chairman of Breitbart News."

The Times went on to say that by president-elect Trump appointing Stephen Bannon chief presidential strategist--responsible for generating ideas that will animate his administration--as one of the founders of the white supremacist alt-right, this designation contributes to legitimatizing racist, homophobic, nationalistic, and anti-Semetic views and behavior. And, of course, will make these kinds of reprehensible thoughts welcome in the White House.

On a very different scale, I have been accused of contributing to the normalization of Donald Trump.

I have been writing here and elsewhere for a year and a half about the unexpected political rise of Donald Trump. And after he won the Republican nomination, in spite of his outrageous words and behavior, I continued to write about him, taking him seriously while most of the others on the left continued to mock and disregard the seriousness and potency of his candidacy.

Almost all of what I wrote through the many months was asserted by me to be an attempt to understand the Trump phenomenon, particularly why he was appealing to so many. Enough eventually to elect him.

My view was and is that we must come to understand why so many white men regardless of educational evil and economic status supported him enthusiastically, why so many Hispanics (close to a third of those who turned out) cast ballots for him, and particularly why more than half of white women (again across the demographic spectrum) chose him to be our next president.

I was criticized widely for not simply condemning Trump's racism and sexism and that, by writing about him and his followers with an dispassionate mind, I was contributing to taking him seriously, rather than treating him as dismissively, and, again, by so doing I helped normalize him.

Perhaps I did not do a good enough job of making the distinction between this effort to understand and what might be viewed as unintended implicit support.  

In other words, I was lectured by many, Trump did not deserve to be taken seriously and by continuing stubbornly to do so I was inadvertently--or perhaps subliminally--endorsing his candidacy.

I can understand the angst and rage and fear that his election is causing many to feel--I as well feel his election has the potential to turn out to be a national tragedy--but I do not understand why simply dismissing him was and is the preferred way to defeat his ideas and reduce his reach.

My view is that just the opposite is true.

We need to gain a nuanced and accurate understanding of Trump's appeal and a clear sense of what is motivating and mobilizing his followers if we are to have a chance to overcome appeals of his kind and the political and culture power that is responsible for the most perversely remarkable presidential election in our history.

Calling that effort normalization misses the point. One has to take the risk of taking Trump seriously (which is different than a show of support) in order to figure out what is seething in the middle of America.

Those who continue to believe that he is evil and that his supporters in one way or another are deplorable, and thereby not worth thinking about seriously, are the ones from the progressive end of the political spectrum who also contributed to his election.

Stephen Bannon