November 13, 2019--Vice President Nikki

I spoke too soon when I wrote snarkily last week that if Michael Bloomberg wants to enter the Democratic contest and is playing to win, running on a bipartisan ticket with someone like Nikki Haley as his Vice Presidential candidate could be a politically smart move.

But then a couple of things happened--first, I had second thoughts about Haley after a rush of friends' comments inspired me to take a closer look at her resumé. It's not that impressive. She clearly has a lot of personal sizzle but not much substance. 

And, then, in conjunction with the publication of her book, With All Due Respect, she appears to be signaling that she is available right now to run for vice president--not on a Bloomberg ticket but on Trump's, after he dumps Mike Pence.

I can only imagine her pitching Trump that if he taps her that will solve his problem with suburban women. And as a woman of color, that too would be helpful. Win, win, win.

Gossipy books such as this, for which she received at least a $2.0 million advance from Simon & Schuster, need to have enough juicy stories to generate prepublication buzz and advanced orders on Amazon. As of this morning it is 4th on Amazon'a best seller list.

In the case of Haley, the juicy stuff is her claim that in the early days of the Trump administration she was approached by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chief of Staff John Kelly to join them in "saving the country" by "undermining Trump." 

If true, one might call this treason.

But is her revelation true?

She was asked point blank Monday night on Fox News by Sean Hannity if she told the president about this plot. She said, "absolutely."

He failed to follow up. He did not ask her why, then, she did not mention it in her book. If it happened, wouldn't she have written about alerting Trump and wouldn't he, if she brought this treasonous allegation to his attention, have had Tillerson and Kelly escorted by federal marshals to the Oval Office and fired them on the spot?

So I doubt her story and see it as fabricated for an audience of one, Trump, to maneuver him to put her on his ticket. And to sell books.

On the other hand, candidate Bloomberg with a moderate Republican as his vice president may still be a good idea.

September 12, 2019--Bolting

We were having breakfast together and John Allan said, "With John Bolton no longer the National Security Advisor--whether he resigned or was fired not withstanding--unlike most other high-level changes in the Trump administration, this change will make us feel safer."

"How's that?" Rona asked.

"You remember, don't you, that when Rex Tillerson resigned or was pushed out as Secretary of State and Jim (Mad Dog) Mattis, among many others, quit as Secretary of Defense, we felt more vulnerable as they were supposed to be the adults in the room who would restrain Trump from unilaterally implementing policies that would endanger us, that would make us less safe. Like attacking Iran or North Korea." 

"And?" I said.

"And then," John said, "Trump brought in Bolton to be his third National Security Advisor, the first of whom, Michael Flynn, on the same day Bolton was exiting was in New York facing sentencing for admitting to committing perjury while serving in the White House."

"Yeah, Bolton was a five-year-old to Trump's seven-year-old self. That was our foreign policy team. Two impulsive children, with Bolton being the real mad dog--clinically crazy and in that way making Trump look good by comparison."

"Right," Rona said, "by comparison he would make Trump look reasonable."

"But Bolton," John said, "wasn't happy being anything other than in charge of foreign affairs. He saw himself as a version of Henry Kissinger--Bolton fancied himself the preeminent one in the Trump administration, making foreign and even defense policy." 

"The joke, though, turned out to be on him," I said, "Bolton underestimated how much Trump sees himself as the all-knowing expert on global affairs. And everything else."

John said, "Then there is the actual Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who has his own Kissinger-like ambitions."

"With Trump," Rona said, "He will learn, there can be no Kissinger. Except Trump himself. I think as word leaks out about what happened it will turn out that Pompeo did Bolton in. And then of course, Pompeo will be the next to go."

"I wouldn't be surprised," John said. "But back to my point--how Bolton's leaving makes us safer. Unlike, as I said, when, for example, Mattis left we felt less safe. This is because Bolton is a genuine menace. He really wants to start wars all over the globe. Look at the mess he already made in Venezuela. And we know what he had in mind for Iran and North Korea. Wars. With us right in the middle of them. With North Korea, which has atomic bombs and intercontinental missiles."

"These are all good points," Rona said. "With Bolton skulking around the Oval Office and Trump crazier by the day with regard to his reelection chances, we could easily have had a wag-the-dog situation with Bolton urging Trump to start a war to distract the public and to gin up support for him as he faces a tough reelection battle."

With a wink, John said, "I couldn't have said it better. Though, I worry, a war could still happen."

March 13, 2018--Spatting With Friends

I'm spatting again with some of my liberal friends. 

This time about the potential meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

They are sharply critical of Trump for so impetuously agreeing to meet while I, though I too have my reservations, have been asking them what are the better alternatives--Not talking? Exchanging insults? ("Little Rocket Man," "Dotard") Saber rattling? All-out war where everyone agrees hundreds of thousands would die within minutes?

Most frequently, my friends, though they generally feel direct talks are ultimately a good idea, contend it is premature for Trump to agree to meet before traditional forms of negotiation and diplomacy prepare the way for a presidential meeting.

As one put it, "Countries such as North Korea, rogue countries seeking the imprimatur of legitimacy, see being invited to a face-to-face encounter in itself to be a major goal. Trump meeting with Kim would be a sign of welcoming him and North Korea into the company of credible nations. Kim craves a seat at that table. And so for Trump to trade it away, getting nothing substantial in return, is not the way to make a deal with the likes of Kim."

All good points, I concede but continue to ask what are the alternatives. My friends say, "None of the above."

So again I ask, "What should we do?"

My friends continue to say have Secretary of State Tillerson and what little staff he has work on what they would discuss when meeting, preparing the way for it, very much including what the two leaders will say and do when they finally get together. What agreements they can endorse and literally sign off on. Come up with agreements about step-by-step plans for the North that include ratcheting back their nuclear program while we agree to drawdown our military forces that are stationed in South Korea. 

And, of course, my friends say, to make sure before Kim and Trump meet that there will be verifiable stipulations regarding how the various drawdowns will be verified. To quote Ronald Regan when dealing with the Soviet Union, "Trust, but verify." In Russian, Doveryay, no proveryay.

"Sounds good," I say, "But the sad reality is that Trump does not have a diplomatic team in place or anyone for that matter in his administration who knows anything about East Asia much less Korea. We don't even have an ambassador to South Korea. And so, considering all of this and the reality of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ICBMs, what's the best way to proceed?"

At this point conversation begins to lose velocity with my friends and I at least agreeing that there are no precedents to draw upon and, considering the type of leaders they and we are afflicted with, maybe we have no choice but to try it Kim's and Trump's way--roll the dice and hope for the best. 

With that hope based precariously on the very fact of who are our leaders. One, in Kim, whose favorite American seems to be the preposterous Dennis Rodman while those most on our president's mind also come from the media and popular culture--"Alex" Baldwin and Chuck Todd. 

Before we move on, to underscore why I am attempting to cling to hope, I ask my friends why they believe with a Kim and a Trump traditional approaches, traditional forms of diplomacy have any chance of succeeding. Even if there were the usual Republican foreign policy folks serving in the Trump administration or, for that matter, if Hillary Clinton had been elected and with her there was the usual army of Democratic foreign policy experts, with Trump and Kim why would we expect any of the traditional approaches to foreign policy to work.

"Didn't we try that?" I ask, "Republicans as well as Democrats, when they or we were in power? What evidence of success can we point to from the approaches of the previous four presidents, who, over more than 25 years, tried various strategies, from cajoling and threatening to buying-off (bribing) the North Korean leadership?" 

Pressing further, I also ask, "What did George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama for that matter accomplish with regard to North Korea?" 

And concluding, I say, "During those two-plus decades the North Koreans became a major nuclear power. That's what got accomplished."

One more troubling thing--a friend, who I suspect represents a somewhat widespread feeling in progressive circles, acknowledged that a big part of him doesn't want this approach to work because he doesn't want anything positive to happen during Trump's presidency. Not to the economy and not in world affairs.

"So," I said, "If Kim and Trump roll the dice and that fails won't we then wind up going to nuclear war? If this is where we're already headed, maybe, just maybe . . ."

February 27, 2018--Trump Unfettered

As much as I am enjoying following along as special counsel Robert Mueller makes Donald Trump and those close to him who not only colluded with the Russians but obstructed justice, as much as I like to see them squirm while their world continues to implode and they are forced to face justice--I like schadenfreude as much as the next fellow--I am beginning to worry about some of the unintended consequences of, one-by-one, Trump's people being indicted or copping pleas.

I do look forward to seeing the Trump boys' comeuppance, Hope Hicks being exposed for the enabler she is, as eager as I am to see Ivanka brought down for taking commercial advantage of her First Daughter status, as much as Jared Kushner likely deserves to be exposed and prosecuted for financial shenanigans, and of course above all how I crave the outing and perhaps impeachment or prosecution of the Godfather of the Trump Crime Family, while impatient for all of this, I am beginning to worry what Trump will be like when he finds himself essentially alone in the White House with Hope and Jared and especially Ivanka gone, as one way or the other they all likely will be.

No matter what Mueller finds, even if the Democrats in November take over the House of Representatives and impeach Trump (40/60), he will not be convicted by the Senate, and since he delusionally is not a quitter (his whole being depends upon viewing himself as winning at everything), he will not take a Nixon and resign and we will be faced with two-and-a-half more years of Trump as president with the nuclear codes not far from his night table. 

As fundamentally corrupt and perhaps as felonious as they are, Hope, Jared, and Ivanka may be the only ones who have the access and capacity to have a chance to moderate him, such as moderating Trump can ever be.

With them gone, do we want to see a White House with weaselly Stephen Miller even more empowered, former UN Ambassador John Bolton brought in as head of the National Security Council, and Steve Bannon re-ensconced, this time as Secretary of State?

Whatever small measure of sanity and constraint John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, H.R. McMaster, and James Mattis provide, with the three children exiled, and the hawks more in charge, what would the next two years of Trump's presidency look like? 

War with North Korea? We have a preview of that right now as Trump didn't even give our ally South Korea the courtesy of an additional day or two to close the Olympics before imposing a form of naval blockade on North Korea, virtually an act of war as blockades are.

One more round of indictments of those closest to Trump and . . . 

The one proven thing for presidents to do when cornered, as Trump surely will be, is to start or intensify a war. John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon did that in Vietnam, Reagan invaded Grenada, and George HW and George W did the same in Iraq. As a result HW's approval ratings shot up to 90 percent as did his son's.

To make matters even more psychosomatically complicated, it appears that First Lady Melania is weighing in on the Ivanka-Kushner-versus-John Kelly blood feud. She is taking Kelly's side in a deeply Freudian struggle that ultimately is about the jealousy she doubtlessly feels as Trump so clearly prefers the daughter to the spouse.

While Trump leers at and talks smuttily about Ivanka and gets exposed for cavorting with pornstars and Playmates, Melania seethes and then draws upon her Eastern European DNA to come up with an appropriate form of revenge, that among other things includes getting rid of the competition.

Some of this may be over-speculation, but is it wise to deny that this scenario is plausible and if true imperils us?

I would prefer to wake up one morning to find that the Trumps, grifters that they are, overnight moved out of the White House. But since that is inconceivable, I am thinking it's prudent to hope the three kids figure out a way to hang in. At least through November. Maybe even until 2020.

October 17, 2017--Jack's Reading

Jack has returned to the diner. But he is careful to avoid coming when Betty is working.

"You've got me reading," he said, clearly feeling proud of himself. I decided to just listen.

"You mentioned it in one of your thingies," that's how he refers to my blog, "The book about Nixon and Kissinger. I forget the exact title." I restrained myself from supplying it.

"I'm sure you're not surprised that I'm a big Nixon fan. Not that I liked Watergate or some of his other capers. He's lucky they didn't put him in jail. But nobody's perfect." He chuckled.

"Look what he did with China and Russia and Vietnam. He got us out of that one." I resisted saying that Nixon escalated the war in Vietnam, kept it going for at least three too many years and during that time 22,000 American soldiers were killed not to mention hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Or, off course, that we lost.

"Until I read that book of yours I thought he did all this pretty much by himself. I totally forgot about Kissinger. Henry Kissinger, who was his Secretary of State." Again, I restrained myself from correcting him--during Nixon's first term Kissiner was National Security Advisor. It wasn't until Nixon's second term that he also became Secretary of State. Nixon and Kissinger hated Nixon's first Secretary of State, William Rogers. They managed to keep him out of the loop, not telling him what they were up to in Vietnam or for that matter China and the Soviet Union.

"From the book it seems they were close partners. They were crazy, I'll admit that, but they were brilliant and quite a team. Both were insecure, needy, a little paranoid [A little?], and very competitive with each other. Both wanted sole credit for all they accomplished. Kissinger sucked up to a whole lot of newspaper columnists and would leak to them what they were up to. Claiming that he was the lead partner. The brains of the operation. Turns out not to be true." 

Jack did get that right. "From the tapes of their conversations and from documents the author [Robert Dallek] turned up it's pretty clear that Nixon was the boss. At least until near the end when the world was collapsing on Nixon and he was drunk and raving most of the time."

He paused, trying to draw me in. I was still into just listening.

"I admit the book [Nixon and Kissinger: Partners In Power] made me thing about my boy Trump." I couldn't wait to hear this. "It looks to me he could use a secretary like Kissinger. This Tilletson guy [Tillerson] is no Kissinger. In fact, I want to check his claim that he was the CEO of Exxon. He feels like a zero. How did he ever get that job? Assuming he's not lying about it. I know, he really was with Exxon. There's no way he could lie about that. But, boy, what a moron. I know, that's funny since he called Trump a moron, actually, a 'friggin moron.' I love the idea that Trump wanted to compare IQs. I'll give you that Trump isn't a Mensa candidate, but Tilletson's the moron, if you ask me. And I know," he smiled, "that you didn't. I mean ask me."

I had no idea where Jack was going with this monologue. I would have thought that since he's so enamored with Trump that he believes he can do anything on his own, including relating to the rest of the world. Or intentionally not relating to it. I would have thought Jack would hope that Trump would be his own Secretary of State. As Nixon was.

"Reading about what was possible to do about Vietnam, forget Russia and China for the moment, I realized that the situation was much more complicated than either bombing them back to the Stone Age or cutting and running. There were a lot more moving pieces, including that China and Russia separately--since even though they were both communists were rivals--were supporting and arming the Viet Cong. Nixon had to figure all that out. If he wanted to make a deal with China he had to figure out a way to either ignore the Chinese helping the North Koreans or make part of the deal that they would be sort of OK with what we were doing there. He knew it was all about self-interest and that the Chinese were probably all right with letting Nixon do his thing in Vietnam so not to screw up the possibility of a deal between us and them. Whew."

I continued to look at him, impressed that he had the outline right about what was going on. The complicated juggling that was required.

"And," Jack continued, "Nixon needed Kissinger to bounce ideas off and needed his hands-on help, including flying back and forth to have secret meetings with the Chinese and also the Russians since they had to be OK with us cozying up to Red China."

He took a deep breath, "And so my point after all this rambling is that even Trump, who is not as smart or knowledgeable as Nixon, I'll admit that, also needs someone other than Steve Bannon, who I assume he still talks with, and his daughter, whatever happened to her--as you said she and the son-in-law have pretty much disappeared--to try ideas out on. Tilletson's clearly not the one. So, to tell you truth [with him telling the truth can be a rarity], I'm a little worried. I don't want to get in a shit fight with Kim-whatever-his-name-is without thinking out all the options and complications."

I smiled. "I did notice," Jack said," that the other day Trump had Kissinger in to the White House to I assume talk some of this over. Kissinger scrunched in a chair in the Oval Office looked like he's 115 years old and has shrunk to four-feet tall. But I assume his big brain is still working. Maybe Trump got some good ideas from him."

If only that were true, I thought.

"One more thing and then I have to run. I wrote it down from the book. It scared me I admit. It comes from one of Nixon's Oval Office tapes. Students were protesting the war and Nixon was trying to coopt them by occasionally meeting with some of the leaders."

Jack pulled a paper out of his fleece pocket. "It's about one of these meetings."

Jack cleared his throat and read--"The meeting left him with a sense of hopelessness about changing minds. 'It's just crap, you know,' he told [his chief of staff] H.R. Haldeman. 'We have to sit and talk to these little jackasses . . . Why don't I just . . . scratch all this crap, really bullshit, all these meetings, this therapy meeting with the little assholes . . . and recognize that we have a crisis in the country in terms of understanding, recognizing that nobody can solve it.'"

"Incredible," I finally said. "I remember reading that and was shocked that . . ."

"That a president could talk this way in the Oval Office? And think this way? Again, he was brilliant, but as I said, also crazy. This is all very scary." He paused.

"Scary?"

"Yeah because who knows how they're talking these days in the White House." This was hard for Jack. "Probably the same way. And how they're thinking," He sighed. "Also probably the same."

Nixon and Haldeman

October 5, 2017--Back to North Korea

While the country has been preoccupied with hurricane news and now the mass murder in Las Vegas, concern about North Korea has largely faded from the front pages. 

It will be back.

In the meantime, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in China last week where he openly stated that the U.S. and North Korea are seeking channels through which to talk with each other about a way forward--"Stay tuned," he said.

Donald Trump, though, did/or did not chide him for that, tweeting, "Rex, don't waste your energy" trying to talk with them. Soon enough they will bear the consequences of their intransigence.

Were they playing good cop/bad cop or did Tillerson go rogue and got slapped down for it?

The over/under betting line is that Tillerson will be gone in a few weeks, or days, especially after he called Trump a "moron." This reliable reported by NBC, among others.

Apparently, after hearing about that, Vice President Mike Pence frantically tried to talk Rex down. We'll see how that works out.

My comment about Trump and Tillerson--that he "did/or did not" chide his Secretary of State--suggests that some or all of this public back forth might be more an act than a reality. To confuse the North Koreans and terrify them that Trump is not bluffing but is actually as crazy as he seems. If true, Trump and Tillerson may be concocting confusing signals that remind one of the crazy-act Nixon put on which was orchestrated by his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, to perplex and frighten the Russians and Chinese.

Last week I wrote about a breakfast conversation with Phil, who laid out four options that might explain what is going on between us and the Kim Jong-un regime.

I have heard from quite a few people about that blog posting, including my ex-wife yesterday who asked, among those options, which I think are most likely. 

Here then is how I see the possibilities, acknowledging I have no special insights or inside knowledge about to what is transpiring. Who does?  

I have ranked these possibilities from the most likely scenario to the least--

Most likely--back channel discussions are in fact inching along. Recall that it took two years back in the early 1950s for us to work out an agreement to suspend the war between North and South Korea, with us, of course, the principal player on the side of the South. 

Are you old enough or immersed in history enough to recall the months it took just to work out the shape of the negotiating table and the height of the chairs? Yes, that was a complicated point of contention. It finally was resolved and the negotiations proceeded. The war was eventually suspended via an armistice (we are thus still technically at war with North Korea) and the rest should have been history. 

I suspect something of this sort is underway now. Tillerson, no Kissinger, carelessly leaked what is happening and therefore needed to be publicly chided to assure the North Koreans we can be trusted to keep our diplomatic mouths shut.

Second most likely--Kim Jong-un will be assassinated. The South Koreans have revealed that they are making plans for this and I suspect they are with our direct assistance. The gamble is that there is enough under-the-surface dissatisfaction with Kim on the part of the North Korean leadership class and that though they may be cowed and/or terrified by him, they also want to live on and not be bombed to smithereens by us. They have their Swiss bank accounts and condos in the West and are as a result not part of a suicide cult. Thus, some of them are likely involved in helping to overthrow Kim, or worse. Or better.

Next--The U.S. has all-encompassing cyber warfare and traditional military capabilities that we have not revealed to potential adversaries. Capacities, if they were known to the Russians or Chinese they could devise ways to counter. 

According to this scenario, using these weapon systems, we pull the plug on North Korea--we bunker-bust their underground facilities, using cyber methods we cut off their power supply, their connection to the Internet, disrupt their financial system, their access to fuel and food supplies, and even disrupt, perhaps disable their nuclear and missile activities. In other words, we may have the ability to shut them down and dramatically reduce their ability to engage in warfare. 

If we did this, if we have the capacity to do this, unleashing these new kinds of weapons would, the theory holds, bring them rapidly to negotiations. It would also mean war. But of a less bloody sort. But a war, nonetheless, with all its surprises, complexity, and dangers.

The good news: least likely--all-out war itself. Shock and awe times ten. What Trump said about "totally destroying" them. This puts Saigon's millions and our 28,000 troops currently in South Korea at great risk, and, who knows, more players in the region--Japan also gets bombed as does Guam and the Seventh Fleet. 

And then there is China--what would they do about the outbreak of a major war, perhaps a nuclear war, on their border? Back in 1950 when U.S. troops pushed across the 38th parallel and began an advance toward the Yalu River that separates Korea from China, China sent nearly 3.0 million "volunteers" across the Yalu to directly confront the American military. 180,000 Chinese were killed as were many thousands of Americans.

They hate Kim and the North Koreans but they do provide a buffer for the Chinese who do not want to see a united Korea with the South and the U.S. dominating. They also do not want millions of North Korean refugees pouring into China.

If I have this right, of the four most likely scenarios, I am seeing the most optimistic one as most likely--negotiations--and the most cataclysmic one--all-out war--as most unlikely. 

At least that's my hope.

Negotiations in Panmunjom

September 27, 2017--Whatever Happened to Jared Kushner?

Has anyone seen Jared Kushner lately? Or for that matter, Ivanka?

I ask because wasn't he the president's chief advisor and wasn't she his external conscience? Jared was in charge of foreign affairs, especially tasked to bring peace to the Middle East (I think Trump said that would be quick and easy) and she was supposed to keep him from being too inappropriate and outrageous. We see how well  that's working out.

I suspect Jared is spending all his time defending himself as special counsel Robert Mueller closes in on his deep involvement with the Russians as they worked collaboratively to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign and, oh yes, dealing with what we just leraned--that Jared hypocritically has been using a private email account during his thus-far White House assignment. So, the Middle East will have to wait but Rex Tillerson maybe can finally become secretary of state.

As for Ivanka, she has her hands full explaining why her fashion business still has most of her stuff fabricated in China. And, also, why she too used a private email account for White House business.

Some of us, early on in the Trump administration, hoped that Jared and Ivanka would act to protect Trump from himself, from his worst impulses. And thereby protect the rest of us from the consequences of his words and behavior.

I wrote a piece back in March, "Ivanka Time," in which I hoped with gathering desperation that she had enough emotional leverage to get him to cut down on the crazy tweets and think twice before addressing the press and the public. That she would be a moderating force.

I speculated that she and Jared had a life of their own that didn't depend on being Trump's favorite daughter or son-in-law and that as he began to spin more and more out of control that they would take him aside for an intervention--to tell him, like it is, how he was losing the support of even some members of his base and was alienating independent-minded Americans.

That they might even, tearfully, tell him that if he failed to ratchet back some of his most inappropriately extravagant behavior they would have to consider leaving Washington, their advisor jobs, and him.

They have lives in New York, friendships with sane and rational people, and they might say, I hoped, that they can't stand with him to the end as he self-immolates. That they couldn't see their own and their children's lives destroyed.

I acknowledge that was wishful thinking. And so here we are. He has had one of his worse weeks--he has inflamed the situation with the North Koreans and we are close to a cataclysmic war, he has ignored Puerto Rico's desperate plight (it will be almost another week before he visits the devastated island), and for the past six days he has been obsessed with the National Football League, tweeting at least 20 times about his outrage that some players in protest against persistent racism have been refusing to stand for the National Anthem. And of course the Mueller investigation ticks closer and closer to him.

So, Ivanka and Jared have slipped from sight. Who can blame them.

September 6, 2017--Jack: Trump's Two Faces

I hadn't seen Jack in what felt like weeks. And then on Tuesday, when we arrived at the Bristol Diner, sitting in his favorite booth, he was all smiles.

"So, how you been?" he bellowed. 

I wasn't ready for all the energy he was exuding or all his good cheer. I knew we would inevitably get to talking about Donald Trump and I wasn't in the mood for that either. Hurricanes were on my mind and, if you pushed me, North Korea. What with their recently claiming to have exploded a hydrogen bomb and us with an embattled president who lacks impulse control. 

I ignored him and headed for another table. Rona poked me in the back as if to say, if you let him get under your skin, he wins. Wins what? I wondered.

But, resigned, with a shrug, I turned toward Jack and slid onto the bench opposite him. Deb had already brought me a cup of half-caf coffee.

Without preliminaries, he said, "It looks as if you've given up on my boy."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but it seems like a month since you've written anything about him. You appear to be obsessed with this audiological business and other irrelevant stories. I can't believe . . ."

"You may not believe me," I grunted, "But a lot of people seem to like my irrelevant stories. Especially the ones about my audiologist." I started to get up to leave, but, under the table, Rona pulled me back into my seat.

"This is hard to believe," he said, "But I sort of believe you." He grinned at me.

I couldn't resist and said, "Why are you so euphoric? You think things are going well? Half of Trump's people have either resigned or are about to. I doubt if chief-of-staff Kelly will stay on for more than another month and secretary of state Tillerson will not be far behind. So you think if things deteriorate further with North Korea your so-called boy has the finesse and temperament to handle the situation? I really believe we're close to a big-time war with them. Maybe with nukes. Nukes deployed by both sides. I can't understand how you seem to feel so bouncy."

"Trump's got everything under control. With need someone with his cojones to handle Kim whatever-his-name-is. You'd rather have your Obama dealing with this? Or Bill Clinton, of, for that matter, Bush? Either one of them? They're a bunch of wimps who had nearly 30 years between them to deal with this. If they had done something years ago do you think that crazy, fat fella would have such an arsenal?"

"It looks like you've moved on from what we talked about a few weeks ago. Charlottesville and Trump's cozying up to the white supremacists. When you told me that weepy story about your father in the Second World War and what he came to feel about the Nazis after seeing the Buchenwald concentration camp, I suspected you were shedding crocodile tears."

"Unfair," he shouted, "The Nazis are disgusting. They're animals. Including the ones here in America. But not everything is about Nazi this, Nazis that. Things are also about the economy, immigrants, the infrastructure, and, yes, North Korea. Tell me the truth, do you care more about the neo-Nazis or North Korea?"

I thought about that for a minute. It was a fair question. "I care about both," I finally said, "but more about North Korea."

Jack just smiled at me, rocking back and forth on the seat.  

I tried to pivot, "You really think he's up to handling all of this? The Russia probe by Mueller is clearly heating up and the noose is getting tighter around Trump's neck. Forgive the image. A lot of that was pushed out of the headlines because of the hurricane in Texas, but it's festering and I am sure the closer it gets to Trump the more scared he's becoming. One way to make even Mueller irrelevant to what you call the liberal media is a big war with North Korea. I confess I'd then turn all my attention to it and hope for the best, even with this president."

"Glad to hear you're so patriotic," Jack said.

"North Korea is a big problem. A very big and dangerous one. And, to tell you the truth, I don't have good ideas about what to do, how to proceed. I don't think anyone else does either. It may come down to war. Sometimes, when all else fails, and it looks as if that may be in the process of happening this time, war becomes the best option. We can't just let things proceed. Our technical people said it would be a few years before Kim would have functioning ICBMs that could reach our west coast and years more before he would have an H-bomb. But it looks like they're wrong and he may already have both. So I don't want to be glib or ideological about this. Trump is our president, and though I hate that, it will be up to him and whoever he listens to to decide what to do. I hope there are a few decent options available that we don't know about."

"Now I'm depressed," Jack said, "I was feeling so good until you arrived."

"We come here for coffee pretty much every day so our showing up should be no surprise. And, for the life of me, I still don't understand why you were so pumped up. Maybe, considering all the messes Trump continues to make you're more hysterical than euphoric and you're putting on a show to cover up what you're really feeling--that he's a disaster."

He smirked.

"And, in fact," I continued, "I've written quite a few pieces about him. Especially considering his various about-faces after the nightmare in Charlottesville. Which, by the way, seems like a pattern to me."

"A pattern?"

"Yeah, how Trump is frequently two-faced when it comes to situations like Charlottesville. How when he speaks off the cuff he gets himself in trouble with most of the media, including at times even with Fox, and much of the public. And then a day or two later he tries to clean things up and, tightly scripted, revisits the story and tries to pave over his true feelings. I'm coming to conclude that he does this semi-intentionally. To literally have it both ways--red meat for his base and seeming reasonableness for others."

Jack sat there not saying a word. Collapsed in the banquette, he looked exhausted. His ability to ignore unpleasant truths about Trump no longer working.

I added, "Even how he dealt with the hurricane was a version of the same thing--first he shows up and speaks extemporaneously, forgetting to mention the victims of the storm or even visiting an area that was struck by the hurricane, commenting about one of his obsessions, how big the turnout was for his visit. But then a few days later, using the teleprompter, he delivers much more measured and appropriate comments. But we know from this two-facedness what he really feels. And it's not attractive."

"I'm ready to order," I said to Deb. She had been hovering close by to listen in.

Jack roused himself, "All the stuff you're focused on doesn't mean a thing. Remember, you heard it here, it's now all about North Korea and you'll be thankful soon that Trump is your president." He resumed his grinning.

"Unlikely, but for the sake of the world, I hope you're right. And by the way--you're sort of right. I have been writing a bit less about him. He is so outrageous in almost everything he does that it's hard to keep up with him. To have the stamina to pay attention, think, and deal with it. I'm suffering from Trump fatigue. Another thing I'm sure he's enjoying--how he seems to be able to silence his critics. He simply wears us out."

Jack, with a sly smile, slid out of the booth, leaving money on the table and headed for the bathroom. It's right by the side door and I wasn't expecting him to return.

Jack, Rona and Steve @ the Bristol Diner

April 15, 2017--America First?

Whatever became of America First? Donald Trump's nationalistic view that we have spent too much time worrying about what is going on in the world and not enough on America's needs? The need for more well-paying jobs, the restoration of manufacturing and extraction industries, infrastructure repairs, and sealed borders?

This was expressed legislatively and though the wielding of executive orders to contain immigration, lower taxes, reduce regulations, and of course "fix" the healthcare system.

But now we have Trump reversing himself in many regards very much including turning considerable attention to foreign affairs.

Most dramatically, he had President Xi of China spend two days bonding with him at Mar-a-Lago, sent Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to the G-7 foreign ministers' summit and then on to Moscow for meetings with his Russian counterpart and a two-hour encounter with President Putin. And there was the missile strike against Syria.

And now North Korea appears to be occupying him. He is attempting to get China to "take care of the problem," all the while moving an aircraft carrier and its armada close to North Korean waters.

Usually it is not until their second terms in office that presidents turn their attention to international issues. To polish their legacies. Unless, like Johnson and Nixon they inherit a war. That by definition gets them involved with other countries.

I suspect Trump has shifted his focus off shore because he has come to realize that to concentrate on domestic issues means having to deal day-by-day with Congress. And we know what that means--a nightmare. Even with a Republican majority in both Houses we still have gridlock. At the moment not a bad thing. That's what happened to the campaign promise to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. With this effort collapsing he came to realize that with the domestic agenda there is very little "winning."

So Trump is pivoting, not from one domestic issue to another or compromising about the details of what might (or might not) replace Obamacare or be included in a tax reform package, but he is now shifting his attention from the U.S. to NATO,  China, Russia, North Korea,  and Syria.

It is in the international realm as commander in chief that he can exert virtually unchecked power. In other words, in world affairs he can behave as a CEO. Which is how he regards himself. And it is there, equally important to him, that he can reap the praise of even Democrats and the mainstream media.

He castigates the media, claiming it deals in fake news; but, let's be honest, would he prefer to hear positive things from Fox News or the New York Times?  The answer is a no-brainer.

April 10, 2017--Trumpology

In the old days of the Soviet Union, since it was a closed system impervious to Western snooping, one way to read the currents and countercurrents of Soviet leadership--who was in, who was rising, and who was about to be disappeared--was to analyze the pictures of the fur-hatted inner circle arrayed on the top of Lenin's tomb during May Day and other revolutionary celebrations.

Kremlinologists in Washington were tasked to figure this out and they did so by comparing from year to year who was moving into closer proximity to Lenin or Stalin and who was about to slide off the picture plane and soon thereafter into the literal abyss.

Where is the notorious Lavrentiy Beria, head of the fearsome KGB, this year? What about Molotov? Is he losing or gaining power and influence? And who is this upstart Nikita Khrushchev who's star seems to be rising--last year he was nowhere in sight; this year he's only four places from Stalin?

With the inner circle of the Trump White House in turmoil, with the Steve Bannon faction trying to oust son-in-law Jared Kushner and his allies, with Reince Priebus struggling to hold on as chief of staff, and with others close to Trump denying that anything of this sort is going on, with everyone spinning and lying, to get to the truth, as with the Russians, we are left with having to analyze images of the president's unruly team in action. We need to do a content analyst of them in much the same way that we used to try to figure out what was happening in Moscow.

Look carefully of the picture below. It is of the Mar-a-Lago situation room where Trump and his team retired Thursday afternoon to discuss the missile attack on a Syrian airbase.

Mar-a-Lago Situation Room

Seated at the adult table, of course, are Trump at its head and an assortment of Cabinet secretaries. To Trump's left is Rex Tillerson, the almost mute Secretary of State who up to now, nearly three months into the Trump presidency, has not spoken many more than 200 words in public. Across from him, at the president's right are fellow billionaires Wilber Ross, Secretary of Commerce and Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, who is not quite at the table. And then it gets interesting.

To Mnuchin's right, decidedly at the table is Jared Kushner and across from him, not at the table but leaning aggressively forward is Gary Cohn, Trump's favorite economic advisor and Kushner ally, who is being discussed as Reince Priebus' replacement. At the table, with the growing bald spot or tonsure is Priebus himself who appears to need to be careful because Cohn is eyeing him ominously and is about about to pounce on him and seize both his chair and job.

Most interesting to Trumpologists is where Steven Bannon is relegated. Earlier in the week he was unceremoniously dumped from his self-assigned seat on the "Principals Committee" of the National Security Council. Here, about as far away from the adult table at a small children's side table of his own, is the dramatically deflated Senior Strategist. And because of the nasty way in which the picture is framed it looks as if Bannon is wearing a lampshade on his head.

 Moscow, Palm Beach--a picture is worth at least a thousand words.

And, oh, my advice-don't bet against the son-in-law.

March 8, 2017--Ivanka Time

I've been holding off on suggesting this until things got desperate.

They are now that desperate and so--

Have you noticed that President Trump's tweets are at their most outrageous on Saturday mornings? The Jewish sabbath. A sabbath observed by daughter Ivanka and her family since she converted to "modern orthodox" Judaism in 2009.

The orthodox on Saturdays do no work, including turning on anything electrical. Things such as lights, electric ovens, and smart phones. So by posting his most outlandish thoughts and rants on Saturdays Trump figured out that in this way he can avoid the censorious scrutiny of son-in-law Jared and favorite child, Ivanka.

But now with his presidency unravelling and their own lives heading toward decline (economic as well as social--their New York friends are pretty much all liberals, including Chelsea Clinton), it is time for the children to intervene and become the parents of their parent.

When doing so they need to tell Dad over and over how much they love him, how remarkable he is, how magnificent his political assent, and emphasize all the good things he has already accomplished. But, they also need to tell him with affection and love, that his reign is about to come undone and he is in danger of slipping into irrelevancy or worse.

More than anything else, they need to tell him that he has to, desperately needs to get rid of Steve Bannon. That he is a radical anarchist and is in the process of destroying our most cherished institutions, from diplomacy to an independent judiciary to economic fairness to basic human compassion. Among other things, his ideas and influence will bring America to the brink of war. Or worse. All on Dad's watch.

What kind of legacy would he leave, they need to tell him, for his cherished children and grandchildren? What would a war, likely a nuclear war with North Korea, look like and what would remain of all they he literally and figuratively built?

He needs to listen to and bring to the forefront his best and brightest aides and cabinet members--Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Maddis, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. They are mature and loyal (for a few more months at least) and will offer good advice while watching his back.

They need to emphasize that there is still time to begin to become a great president (I choke on these words), but not more than a few more months. The knives are already out. They know most people in the government including Congress either do not feel any loyalty to him or in more fundamental ways care about him.They see him mainly as someone available to sign legislation that he barely understands or cares about. So he really can't count on the Paul Ryans to stand by him and protect him. In many instances, just the opposite.

And then there is the nuclear option (and I am not talking about North Korea)--if Trump resists what they are urging they need to tell him that they will resign, return to New York City, which they already miss, and not be there to prop him up or console him when he screws up, as he did in spades in last Saturday's tweets.

And we know wife Melania has no interest in being in Washington. So he will be alone, for narcissistic types the worst of fates.

With tears and genuine feeling Ivanka and Jared need to say that it's their lives too that are being affected by the outrageous ways in which he is conducting himself. And, more important, their children's lives will be diminished. His grandchildren's.

In the meantime, I'm stocking up on bottled water and dried beans.

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.

February 7, 2017--Glimmers?

My close friend, Dr. Gary Schwartzberg, the best audiologist on the east coast, has been in existential angst since Donald Trump was elected. It is hard to blame him.

But I have taken it as my mission to find things for him to consider that might ease his anguish. Perhaps some have been more stretches of my imagination than verifiably true, more wish than reality. However, struggling to offer him things to feel optimistic about, all right, to not make him crazy, I have come up with a few things these past few days that appear to have helped ease his political pain. Or at least to offer some brief solace.

Here's something I wrote to him over the past weekend, and what he said back to me--

GS  

Because of med-induced reduced energy this, which could be lengthy, will be brief. I am beginning to see some glimmers of hope. All in the realm of our cherished checks and balances-- Asserting that the U.S. government is not made up just of a powerful executive branch, the federal courts have begun to assert themselves. In at least two instances already there have been judicial rulings that suspended Trump's egregious Muslim-ban executive order. And Trump and his administration are obeying these rulings, albeit appealing them. This is most important. It suggest some acknowledgement on their part of the courts' authority and evidence of restraint on Trump's potential imperial aspirations. 

If this gets to the Supremes with the current 4-4 split the other court's rulings will stand. Of course, who knows what will be if the 9th seat gets filled. (it will). But about these kinds of fundamental constitutional matters even conservative justices (sometimes especially conservative justices) are very protective of the Constitution's separation of powers. Though, on the other hand, they have been over-tolerant of protecting presidential authority, which has grown exponentially since the Depression, World War II, and Cold War. Then, there is clearly a blood-struggle for primacy within the White House among some of the senior staff and Cabinet heads. There was a good WaPo piece a few days ago and a Time magazine cover story about the emerging feud between Bannon-Miller, who hatched the exec order without consulting with the Secretaries of Defense, State, or Homeland Security. All three entities headed by mature, powerful, and self-assured men who, if they will continue to act independently (and I feel will  considering who they are and with history watching), will at some point tell Trump it's either them or Bannon.  

And my guess is that Jared Kusher will soon try to pull the plug on Bannon as he did to get rid of Chris Christie. There may not be room enough in the West Wing for those two. Even Ivanka's brand is being hammered by the excesses of Bannon and Miller. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are no longer carrying her line.  I see these to be glimmers of some hope. Of course, as the criticism mounts, Trump may dig in and begin to act out more. Which could be dangerous. But I'm betting on Mattis, Tillerson, and Kelly. And especially Jared and Ivanka. Trump is essentially a small-time mom-and-pop operator on steroids and if his kids do an intervention, it could get interesting and things could get a lot better.  And then thankfully there's the Super Bowl . . .   

SZ

Dr. S responded--

Steve, 

I do see the glimmers and believe that they are real.  Reasonable conservative and liberal federal court judges are beginning to step up to the plate; I am hopeful that more will be energized to do the same.  I read (maybe Times OpEd) that the “so-called judge” tweek was the one of the most dangerous of all--delegitimizing the fed court system.  I also agree, the more extreme and irrational the inhabitants of the White House are, the more likely things will implode sooner than later.   We spent the weekend with my daughter and her boyfriend.  I am encouraged at the intellect and progressive mindedness of some of our youth.   Enjoy the game and help us stay positive my friend.  

G

Then I wrote--

GS 

The Patriots are down by 25 points and I have the TV on mute. Most boring Super Bowl ever! So I have some time to send you one more note before turning it off altogether and hitting the hay. 

Did I read, or am I making it up, that the Trump adminsidtartion has decided not to use off-shore black-op interrogation sites where they torture captives? If true it's another glimmer and likely the result of General "Mad Dog" Mattis asserting himself. 

And in regard to checks and balances we shouldn't forget the American Street.  

Remember the Arab Street during the ill-fated Arab Spring? For the most part things got worse, but it did show the power of an aroused population, even in totalitarian situations. Here, now organized through social media, if the people remain motivated and turn out, that can make a big difference. Remember how street demonstrations helped bring down two presidents--Johnson and Nixon? 

Then again, I can't stop thinking that it may come down to Trump the father and father-in-law versus Steve Bannon, his surrogate whatever. I'm betting on the kids. 

SZ

And then from GS--

SZ 

Speaking of betting, turn on your TV. The Pats are now trailing by only 16 points. Never count them out. 

GS

Finally, I wrote--

GS 

Forget it. There are only a few minutes left and they need two touchdowns, each with two extra points. Can't happen. I'm going to sleep. 

SZ 

December 15, 2016--Am I Missing Something?

If I am, it wouldn't be the first time.

When newly-inaugurated president Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton called for the re-normalization of relations with Russia, in the person of Vladimir Putin, progressives supported that and even chuckled when Clinton brought an actual reset button with her as a present to Putin on her first official visit to Moscow.

Thankfully, we felt, we no longer had a president who proclaimed that he looked in "the man's eye and found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy." The "man" of course was Putin.

We know how that worked out. First with Bush and now with Obama, who not only can't exchange a civil word with Putin or look him int the eye but, more dangerously, we have Russia allied with the murderous Syrian regime, perpetrating a holocaust on opponents to the Assad government, while we stand by impudently doing nothing.

And now we know officially that Putin's people hacked their way into the middle of our recent election in an attempt to bring Clinton down and tip the election to Donald Trump. And once again, we are sitting around fulminating but doing nothing. What was it that the Chinese said about "paper tiger"?

Whatever shred of tiger still resides within us is now expressing itself as moral outrage that Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was too cozy with Russia and Putin during his tenure as CEO for Exxon Mobil.

Almost foaming at the mouth, John McCain, undoubtedly itching to get at the hated Donald Trump, has already declared that he will likely vote against Tillerson's nomination because his "friend" Putin is "a thug, a murderer, and a killer."

I wonder what McCain would have said about Stalin during the Second World War? Someone we disliked but depended upon to win against the Nazis. Historians have concluded that if it weren't for the Soviet involvement--defeating Hitler on the Second Front when he invaded Russia--we might very well have lost.

Stalin, this essential ally of ours, was more than a thug, murderer, or killer. He was a mass murderer the likes of which the world has thankfully rarely seen. He is reported to have slaughtered between 34 and 49 million of his own people. And yet, Roosevelt found ways to work with him.

And then later, President Nixon concluded it was expedient to reset relations with another mass murderer--Mao Zedong, who ordered the slaying of at least 45 million. This outreach to China was and is in our self-interest and therefore our leaders somehow found ways to overlook the flood of bloodshed and move on.

And now with Russia again challenging us, McCain and Paul and Rubio and a host of Democrats in the Senate are threatening to block Tillerson's confirmation.

If we could calm down about Tillerson in 2013 receiving the Order of Friendship medal from Putin, wouldn't we see his "friendly" relationship with Putin to be an asset rather than a killer virus to his confirmation? Or do we prefer the prospect of Secretary of State John Bolton? Or, help us, Rudy?

What would McCain and others have us do with regard to Putin and a resurgent Russia--bomb, bomb, bomb . . . bomb Moscow?

I'm just getting over the results of November's election and now I have to worry about World War III?

This is my 3,000th blog posting. The first was way back in August 2005. Thanks for taking the time to look in on these.

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