February 25, 2019--Mitt Who??

Rona said--"Do you remember someone named Mitt something-or-other?"

"You must mean Mitt Romney."

"That could be. I think he ran for president a few years ago and then disappeared only to resurface when he had some tough things to say about Trump and Trump University."

"Yeah, he called Trump a phony and that his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University."

"I remember that," Rona said, "Romney also said that Trump was playing Americans for suckers. If I have this right, he also said that Trump was getting a free ride to the White House and all we're getting in return is a lousy MAGA hat."

"That's why I thought he'd be a maverick once he got to the Senate. In the mold of John McCain."

"Then, if I have this straight, he ran for the Senate from Utah where I think he won."

"Yes, it's coming back to me," I said, "I remember seeing Mike Pence swearing him in. I assumed they hated each other and I enjoyed, I'll admit, watching Pence squirm."

"It was as if Romney had him targeted in crosshairs. Though I shouldn't put it that way since clueless Roger Stone got himself in trouble last week for threatening his judge when he tweeted about her being in crosshairs."

"It seemed obvious that Romney got himself elected to position himself for another go at the presidency, either running in 2020, if Trump decides not to seek reelection or, if he thinks he can win the nomination, he decides to challenge Trump in the primaries." 

"And of course Pence is thinking the same thing."

"So," I said, "we expected to enjoy watching Romney and Trump going at each other and of course waiting for more Trump criticism from Senator Romney."

"It's all coming back to me," Rona said.

"And?"

"And nothing. Literally nothing. I was beginning to think, since he's been so invisible, that I was hallucinating about Romney winning Orrin Hatch's old Senate seat."

"It is weird," I said, "One would have expected Romney to have a few choice things to say about Trump's bogus national emergency."

"I can't explain it," Rona said. "What kind of power does Trump have over even someone like Romney who has more money than Trump and very few skeletons in his closet that Trump can threaten him about?"

"It's scary. If someone like Romney is too intimidated to speak out, to at least say something, I'm afraid we may be cooked."

Rona said, "My thoughts exactly."

August 20, 2018--George Lindberg's Nightmare: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library

I received this email from my good friend George Lindberg--

Dear Steven

When you get in a slump because of insomnia, remember you at least have control of how you spend your awake time.  You can change the channel or shut it off at whim.  I on the other hand have no trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.  My problem is what happens while I am asleep.  

The other day you and Rona set some wheels in motion.  It all started the evening following your musings about the numerous presidential libraries you two have visited.  I have never been to any so I can only wonder what would be on display.

As I drifted into slumberland, I made the mistake of wondering what the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library would be like.  Steven, I can’t shut him off . . .

The dream always starts the same way.  I'm driving down I-95, heading toward Queens, the birthplace of Donald, where from a sign I notice that the name of the Throgs Neck Bridge has been changed to the Thongs Neck Bridge. When I get to Jamaica Estates, his boyhood home, I find myself at the new Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. Built on an old swamp that wasn't drained but filled in.

There was some talk of locating it on the campus of Trump University, but no one could locate it and the Wharton School people said, “No way."

In keeping with Trump tradition, the library has been set in a hot-sheet motel. In my dream it is always a pay by the hour place.  I park in a new seven story parking garage.  Funny thing is mine is the only car there.  A welcome sign tells me the place was built on land that was cleared after evicting 5,000 immigrants. 

As I enter I am required to show proof of citizenship.  Lucky for me (it’s a dream remember) I have my birth certificate with me.  Stepping in the foyer a holograph of Ivanka appears, suggesting I genuflect as I pass the life size (both height and width) portrait of The Donald.   “But,” she says, “By no means should you take a knee.”

Behind me is a gentleman who is apparently of foreign decent.  When he apologetically states he has no identification, Poof, the holograph disappears and the booming voice of Donald descends from the heavens, proclaiming --“OUT, OUT, GET THE S.O.B. OUT.  YOU'RE FIRED.”

I had to move on as I was being charged by the hour.

My recollection is that all the walls were painted a brilliant lily white.  Ivanka is back suggesting I follow the main corridor and at the end not to miss what's at the far right. She also urges me to look around in the High Tariff gift shop and purchase an official DJT gift with the presidential seal made by our good friends in China. She adds, “Please be sure to buy something in the apparel closeout section."

As I walk down the main corridor a screeching sound is heard and a golf cart comes careening around the corner from the alt-right.  It has been customized to look like the original clown car from the 2016 campaign.  At the wheel is Steve Bannon.  Except his hair is combed and bleached blond.  He says, “Get in.  I’ll show you around."    

Room after room passes by but I’m able to read the name plates on each door.

There is the Insults room, with dozens of printed tweets posted on the walls. The first one I see is about Rosie O'Donnell.

The Fake News room has an old teletype machine clacking away.  Lots of stuff is coming in from Fox News.

The Immigration room. On quick glance there are several pictures of families being reunited.  Including dates showing reunions occurring some five years after separation.

The Military Parade room has photos of veterans groups taking a knee.  I notice as a veteran I was in one of the pictures.  Head bowed, fist in the air.

There is the crowded Wives room.

The Promises Made room includes an audio introduction by Jon Luvitz.

The Apprentice room has Meatloaf songs piped in.

In the Law Suits room where there is a life-sized portrait of Roy Cohn.

The Miss Universe room has a for sale sign on the door.

A Space Force room includes mock ups of the first space warriors Trump wants to send to the moon.

There is a wax museum of many of the most prominent players from Trump World --Giuliani, Sessions, Bannon, Kellyanne, Hope Hicks, Anthony Scaramucci, and many more.

Right next to it is the Robert Mueller room and next door to that the Pardon room.

There is the Ladies room with wax likenesses of Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, a couple of Russian working girls, and even Rosie and Megyn.

The Putin room contains memorabilia from all their good times together.  With a newly-released video. I need to get back there to watch it.

I pass the Rocket Man room.

Steven, in my dream I asked Steve Bannon to show me the basement, but he said it was closed.  Something having to do with the base crumbling.

When we get to the end of the first floor hall, I see broom closets that are devoted to black people.  One is for NFL and NBA players, including LeBron James, and another for Maxie Waters and someone named Omarosa.  That name is crossed off and "Low Life Dog" is spray painted in its place.

Bannon tells me there is a wall half built around the library but contractors walked off the job when the residents in Queens refused to pay for it.

There are several floors just like this but the sun is coming up and so I rush to get out.

Sitting out front in a lawn chair I see former CIA director, John Brennan.  He told me they won’t let him in without a security clearance.

Driving home I can hear Tom Bodett saying, "Come back soon. We’ll leave the light on for ya”.

The road is smooth yet my car is rocking and bouncing.

A voice in my head says, "George, George wake up you’re having that nightmare again."

                                            *   *   *

I wrote back--"Somehow having 'library' and 'Donald Trump' in the same sentence is an oxymoron."

George said, "This is supposed to make me feel better?"

Site of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library

July 31, 2018--A Fixer Scorned

To paraphrase a line from The Mourning Bride, a play by English author of the late 17th century, William Congreve, Hell hath no fury like a fixer scorned.

The fixer in this case is Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime flunky and factotum who, to save his skin, seems to be singing like a canary to special counsel Robert Mueller and various DAs in New York City.

Last week we had a taste of the beans he is likely spilling since, being no fool, Cohen is able to corroborate some of their dirty dealings through dozens of tapes he made of their larcenous conversations.

The first recording to be leaked was just a morsel, an appetizer. In a two-minute tidbit we heard Trump and his personal lawyer talking about how to pay off Playboy model, Karen McDougal, with whom Trump had an 10-month-long affair. This was two weeks before the 2016 election and the last thing Trump needed was yet another, as they, forgive me, referred to these matters during Bill Clinton's randy time, a "bimbo eruption."

I am certain that Cohen's very clever lawyer and Clinton intimate, Lanny Davis, dangled this before prosecutors as part of a potential plea bargain arrangement with Mueller and the federal attorneys in the Southern District who raided Cohen's various offices and dwellings in April to get the goods on him so he in turn, to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail (Trump will not be able to pardon him from non-federal crimes he assuredly committed in New York) Davis previewed what his client would share as part of the deal--the rest of the tapes and everything else Cohen wisely squirreled away as he knew in his heart that eventually it would come to this: to save himself Trump would throw him under the bus. 

The very same Trump loyalist who proudly said on many occasions that he "would take a bullet" for the big guy.

If there was so much that could be implicating in only these two minutes what more would the dozens of other tapes reveal? One can only imagine. But one can imagine that before signing a get-out-of-jail-free card for the fixer in chief the various prosecutors will insist on hearing all the dirt Cohen has to dish. 

Get ready for a banquet of dish.

For the literary-minded, here is the larger context for the Congreve quote--

"Heav'n has no Rage like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd."

This connection between love and hatred is instructive to a full understanding of the Cohen-Trump bromance.

First a little background--

Cohen grew up in Lawrence, a middle class suburb on Long Island. A place adjacent to Kennedy Airport where jumbo jets thundered over the Cohen house every minute or two, seven days a week, day and night, shaking the building's foundation. But from Lawrence high ground (there isn't much of it) on a clear day little Michael could catch a glimpse of the New York City skyline, 20 long miles away. Sort of like Gatsby peering at the green light at the end of Daisy's dock that symbolizes his hopes and dreams of breaking free from his origins. And sort of like the similar view that the adolescent Donald could strain to see from his Queens, outer-borough childhood home.

Cohen's mother was a nurse and his father a surgeon.

Cohen earned a bachelors degree from American University and, as a less then stellar student, a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, a diploma mill that came close to losing its accreditation in 2017 and 2018.  After attending a place such as Cooley, no white shoe-law firms in Manhattan were recruiting Cohen and so he had little choice but to began his law career as a personal injury attorney, as an "ambulance chaser," the bottom rung of the plaintiff food chain.

When some years later Trump laid eyes on him he saw a desperate striver, someone hungry to move on and up, but without equivalent street smarts. Someone to use and from whom he could expect unquestioning fealty. Someone if needed who would take a bullet for him.

Cohen was not difficult to reel in. He deluded himself, thinking Trump viewed him as a colleague and kindred spirit, a surrogate son, coming from similar places, having similar aspirations (to get out) but he should have known the truth about the nature of their relationship when Cohen had literally to plead with Trump to get him to come to his son's 2012 bar mitzvah.

Trump came so late, the Wall Street Journal reported, that the blessings were delayed. The future president then gave a speech in which he said he hadn't planned on attending but opted to come after Cohen "begged him to" by repeatedly badgering him, his secretary, and his children. The WSJ said the guests laughed at this, finding it believable, considering what they knew about the one-direction nature of the Trump-Cohen relationship.

And so we now have a sense of the depth and causes of scorned Cohen's feelings and how that unrequited love has turned to hate. 

Cohen thought he was a member of the Trump family but came to discover he was merely hired help.

And we can understand why Trump is again unhinged when he contemplates what Cohen has to share with prosecutors and where as a result the Mueller investigation is heading. 

Over the weekend in a tweet storm Trump (and current flunky, Rudy Giuliani) turned once again to personally excoriating the special counsel, claiming he should step aside because of his having numerous "conflicts of interest," including one I find most bizarre--that Mueller is pursuing Trump because in 2011, when Mueller was F.B.I. director, he had complaints  about membership fees at one of his golf courses. I assume overcharging as he did with Trump University.

Bottom line--Congreve got it right.

Trump National Golf Course

June 8, 2016--Donald trump Is A Jerk

He's not Mussolini; he's not Hitler. He is more mundane than that--he is merely a jerk and not fit to be president of our country.

His overt racism is evident in the way in which he has repeatedly slandered the esteemed judge of Mexican descent who is hearing the class action suit being brought against so-called Trump University.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel is as legally "American" as Trump's sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. Both are decedents of immigrants. He Mexican. She German.

Even Republicans who have reluctantly endorsed him--against their better instincts--about this one are saying no mas. (Spanish intended.)

And I say that too.

I continue to feel it is essential to understand fully the discontents and anger raging in America which have fueled Trump's candidacy. If we ignore these forces, before long we may experience catastrophic culture-changing consequences.

Having said that, he is a despicable person with few saving graces and should be soundly denounced and defeated.

More about this on subsequent days. But today is Rona's almost-big birthday and we plan to spend the whole day having fun.

August 27, 2013--Trump You

Is it any surprise that The Donald is likely involved in a fraudulent "education" enterprise--Trump University, if you can believe it.

But then he is most famous for putting his name on everything from a line of tacky men's clothing to numerous gilded hotels and gambling casinos, golf courses, TV reality shows, and of course cheesy housing and office towers. So why not on a "university"? Especially one that is as much a scam as most of his other ventures.

The New York Attorney General is charging that Trump U is a version of an educational ponzi scheme and is seeking $40 million in restitution for thousands who it is claimed were defrauded by Trump's false claims. In response, eloquent as ever, Trump yesterday called AG Eric Schneiderman a "light weight." Clearly not something anyone would think about calling the ever-inflating Donald.

It is alleged that potential students were drawn into the scheme by first offering access to a free seminar in real estate investing and then from that into a $1,495 (not $1,500) three-day "seminar" which was in fact an "upsell" to increasingly expensive "Trump Elite" packages that could cost up to $35,000 per course and which promised at least some access to Trump himself. 

But of course, as in other classic bait-and-switch scams, things did not turn out as promised. In this case, if students wanted to see Trump rather than finding him in the seminar room, they had to watch "The Apprentice" or check him out on Fox News when he was ranting about Barack Obama's college transcript and birth certificate.

In the spirit of fair-and-balanced, I should note that education scams are sadly not that unusual. There are too many examples of even legitimate institutions of higher learning engaging in shoddy and corrupt practices--like Trump, in order to make money.

My personal favorite occurred in the 1970s when Touro College in New York City bought four nursing homes from Dr. Eugene Hollander, Touro board chair, for $29 million and then leased them back to him to enable him to raise his Medicaid rates so that he could cover the cost of his lease and pay Touro at least an additional $100,000 a year while making a fortune for himself. (Hollander pleaeded guilty to Medicaid fraud, was put on probation for five years, and fined $1.0 million.)

Perhaps flush from its profitable nursing home experience, also in the 1970s, also seeking to make as much money as possible to support its expansion plans, Touro enrolled as adult students hundreds of low-income elderly people, some of whom could not read or write English, in its adult-education programs. Investigators asserted that the programs had been established primarily to help students obtain federal Pell as well as NY State Tuition Assistance Grants so they could pay Touro's tuition. Needless to say, the college, scamming, did not provide anything resembling classes in the nursing homes in which its "students" resided.

My actual favorite higher education scam was an only-slightly facetious program under consideration at a unnamed university well known for its adult degree offerings. 

Under pressure from the host institution to collect as much tuition and fees as possible and spend as little as possible on underpaid part-time faculty, the adult division came up with a number of innovative courses that met at numerous off-campus locations at day and evening hours seven days a week. 

Though it was a thriving enterprise, the adult division came under pressure to provide more-and-more income to feed the overhead of the rest of the university. So much so and so relentlessly that staff proposed a program that would bring in considerable  income but require no expenditures--that it would be an all-profit venture--The Special Degree Program for the Previously Living.

The staff enjoyed the macabre process of developing the curriculum (there were, for example, no political correctness problems with literature courses devoted exclusively to DWMs--dead white males) and writing promotional copy ("learning that lasts an eternity"); but the central administration who at first misread the euphemistic name of the proposed program gave it careful consideration before getting the joke. 

On the other hand, they redoubled their efforts to pressure the dean of the adult division to consider devising programs for the elderly who, because of their low-income status, would be eligible for Pell Grants and  . . .