Trump expels" The Americans"

Donald Trump, or as he is now known" Spanky", announced the expulsion of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in retaliation for the Ruskies doing "bad things". He explain his decision as follows:" My cheeseburger and I were watching Fox News last night when there was a commercial break. As you know I have a restless intellectual curiosity and do not wish to waste time so I started surfing through the channels. By chance I came upon a reality show called "The Americans". This program exposed Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Russian agents on our soil. This is obviously intolerable so I have determined to expel them from the country immediately. I quickly turned back to Fox News and was surprised to find no current reporting on these two spies. Of course I often find that my intelligence is way ahead of any thing that appears in the media, even Fox News.

In another development, Trump was questions whether there was time for adequate preparation for his summit meeting with Kim. Trump replied there was plenty of time. In fact, Jared Kushner was even then drafting an agreement. Trump explained this could be quickly done because basically Jared was just changing a few names and provisions in a modest fashion on the agreement with Iran. When asked whether he had thought that was the" worst agreement he had ever seen" Trump replied that was because it was with Iran, a rogue State.

Rumor has it that Trump is planning to have an executive committee of his cabinet composed of those he deems to be the best and brightest. So far under consideration are Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson because they never give him any trouble by asking questions or proposing action. Elaine Chou is out of the running because she is married to some guy who won't do what Trump tells him.

Trump is losing it

I have recently needed to reconsider whether we would be better off with Pence or Trump. That has been prompted by Trump's increasingly erratic behavior. As far as his Cabinet is concerned, he is changing horses like a gypsy. One has to believe that is caused at least in part by his need to blame someone else for the criticism he continues to receive. When he discusses matters impromptu, he seems increasingly deluded. I recently heard a professor of linguistics discussing whether Trump was a serial liar. His opinion was that Trump did not consciously lie. Rather, like a three-year-old Trump simply imagines how he wants things to be and says that they are. The notion that we have a petulant three-year-old at the helm is not comforting

Last Friday Trump's erratic and delusionary behavior improbably reached new heights. He ranted about the legislation he had just signed even though his aids and Republican congressman had said that Trump was satisfied with it. He acted as though he had no idea what was in it until it was presented for signature. He then started demanding things like a line item veto, something that has long ago been declared unconstitutional, and demanded the senate change its filibuster rules. What was most frightening was his demeanor. He seemed completely out of control. He reminded me of Capt. Queeg on the witness stand in The Caine Mutiny movie when Capt. Queeg experienced a complete meltdown.

It is frightening to think of the amount of control he has over foreign-policy and the use of the military. This is particularly true now that John Bolton has replaced McMaster and Mike Pompeo has replaced Rex Tillerson. Mattis is the only adult left in the room. There are no other guardrails.

It really is the time to start thinking about the 25th amendment. The problem there is the feckless Congress and the complicit and sycophantic cabinet other than Mattis. It is interesting to imagine what would happen if Trump had to answer questions from Congress the way the British prime minister does in the House of Commons. I think Trump's head would explode.

For all of these reasons, if somehow Pence could replace Trump and lessen the military adventurism potential and the Democrats could the 2018 midterms we would be about as well off as we could get. Unfortunately, it is not likely that Trump will be impeached or relieved of his duties by the 25th Amendment. We are likely to be imperiled for some time.

Trump seeks advice from Putin

The usual suspects on the usual media are all a -Twitter today because Trump over the strong advice of his national security team called Putin to congratulate him on his reelection. What they apparently haven't figured out is that the congratulatory aspect of the call was a mere pretext. What is clear is that Trump is already running for reelection in 2020. The real substance of his call was to seek advice from Putin as to how he could arrange an election, like Putin does, that he cannot possibly lose. Rumor has it that Putint quite gladly gave Trump advice along these lines because he does not want him out of the White House for a long time. Apparently the substance of the advice was to use all means possible to keep those in opposition from voting. Trump explain that his party was working diligently on that. The other advice was to silence if possible but at least discredit all reporting unfavorable to him.

Trump shared with Putin the fact that he is a keen student of history and really respects things the Italians have been able to do. They had these guys they called Caesars who were emperors. Trump's favorite was of course Caligula. Then they had ruling families like the Medecis and sage advisers like Machiavelli. More recently they had Mussolini and of course Trump's newest favorite Berlusconi. Berlusconi could absolve himself from any crimes of which he was convicted while president and had those fabulous Bunga Bunga parties. Trump can just imagine having all those women who are suing him at the White House for a Bunga Bunga party. They would probably drop their suits, as well as their pants, just for the thrill of it.

It has now been confirmed in an ironclad fashion that the Mueller investigation should go forward. Louie Gohmert, undoubtedly the most stupid man in Congress, has called for an end to the investigation. Any doubts that it should go forward  have been permanently eliminated.

New York Times columnist Ross Doughart has published an interesting editorial today explaining how the mainstream media during the primary and general election campaigns were instrumental in helping Trump succeed by devoting an incredible amounts of time to Trump and having these insipid panel discussions which lent an air of legitimacy to the Trump campaign. They are still at it.

Trump-opioids and economics

Trump held one of his look at me sessions in New Hampshire yesterday to discuss how he was going to eliminate the opioid problem in this country. First, he is going to run commercials showing the effects of over dosing drugs claiming that will stop juveniles from doing so. Gee, I wonder why no one ever thought of that before. He could call that" just say no." He is then going to provide all sorts of mental health treatment and other therapy for drug users. He didn't say he was going to ask for congressional funding for these programs. Perhaps he knows that Paul Ryan and his merry band of tax cutters are even now figuring out how to reduce monies for Medicare Medicaid and all other types of programs that would help many of these people suffering from opioid overdose. He then is going to get" very very strong" against those supplying opioids and perhaps imposing the death penalty. So, we may have lots of dead doctors and nurses and pharmacists littering the country as they are a lot easier to find then the drug Wholesale suppliers. He is also going to keep drugs out of the country by building the legendary southern wall. Apparently no one has told him that most drugs coming in through Mexico or through border crossings or on airlines or ships. But, he is going to get really tough as opposed to actually getting advice and figuring out something that might be helpful.

On the economic front he now has Larry Kudlow as one of his economic advisers. Kudlow is firmly in the" hey tax cut for the wealthy will solve all fiscal problems" camp along with Paul Ryan. Kudlow can tell Trump that his ridiculous tax cuts really do help the middle class and lower as these benefits will trickle down. In fact this could be part of his campaign against drug use because as a result of these tax cuts people will have so much money and be happier that they won't need drugs. Now Kudlow is not in favor of trumps foreign trade policy particularly tariffs. But, he doesn't need to Address of that. He is the domestic economic guy and Peter Navarro can't be easy foreign trade economic guy who tells Trump, as he does, add his trade wars going to be a rousing success. Recently in the New York Times Paul Krugman discussed at length trade policy and tariffs, And area in which he won the Nobel prize for economics which I suppose means that Trump would never listen to him. Suffice it to say that the Krugman does not think Trump and Peter Navarro know what they're doing.

And on other fronts, trumpet is suing Stormie Daniels for $20 million even though he apparently got the sex for free. Now another sweet young thing is suing Trump seeking to put aside the contract by which she was bribed not to blab about her affair with Trump. The funny thing about this is that you know, in his heart of hearts, trunk really wants to talk about how he scored with these two. It's got to be killing him.

The National Security" Trump" card

Cadet bone spur recently imposed tariffs on the importation of steel and aluminum, Justifying that on "National Security" grounds. This enabled him to bypass the primary authority of Congress to pass tariffs. It also probably isolated these tariffs from being a violation of WTO rules. He then blocked the acquisition of a US company by a Singapore company on the same grounds. In each case that rationale was at best flimsy. Now, and unconfirmed rumor from an unreliable source says that Trump has become quite enamored of this tool. He is reported to have said" I need a level playing field when dealing with Kim and Xi and even my friend Vladi-pooh. They have the ability to make treaties without  submitting them to any legislative body(although they control those anyway) and I don't. I need to be the decisionmaker to make incredible deals as I have the ability to do. Also, these guys don't have to put up with criticism from the press in their country. I am beset with criticism based on fake news. I have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether on the grounds of national security I can bypass the role of Congress in ratifying treaties and also silence criticism from the press. That will put me on a level playing field. On any level playing field I will be dominant as I am a genius when it comes to negotiations and dealmaking".

Trump has fired Tillerson , unceremoniously to say the least, as Secretary of State and wishes to replace him with Mike Pompeo. The usual suspects on the usual panels on the usual news networks are ceaselessly chattering about this and how it will affect Donnie's strategy and decision-making. Notwithstanding this pointless speculation  it is abundantly clear that the qualification of Mike Pompeo for this position consists of his being able to respond to Donnie at all times" You are absolutely right". He the thus joins Peter Navarro in the ever-expanding sycophantic chorus. It has become increasingly apparent that Donnie is becoming even more obsessed with his own brilliance and puts the blame for any missteps by his administration on the grounds that he listened to somebody else. He won't make that mistake again.

This nitwit believes he is fully prepared for a sit down with Kim. He needs no preparation. His instinctive brilliance is all he needs to bring to the table. Kim will melt before him.

We can safely bet that going forward Donnie's strategies will consist of a series of impulsive ad hoc notions without the slightest taint of coherency. Strap on your seatbelts.

Trumps anti-gun violence program

In their reaction to the Florida high school shooting, Trump and his team have outdone themselves. Trump met with high school students from the Florida school and nodded sympathetically, consulting his notes which told him to act in that fashion. Then he had one of his show and tell meetings with legislators, Displaying a willingness to take several measures and showing no fear about the NRA. Then, of course he had a really good very very good incredible meeting with the NRA and started walking back his position. He seems nearly obsessed about videogames and whether they create a tendency towards violence. Apparently he is a Platonist and is worried about inflaming the passions. Just kidding, he probably thinks Plato is a gooey substance children play with just as he probably believes AI does not refer to artificial intelligence but is a steak sauce.

Firmly taking control of the situation, he is forming a commission to study the problem of gun violence. You won't believe who is heading it up so I'll tell you-none other than Betsy Devos. Now we knew after her confirmation hearing that she was totally ignorant about education policy but this Sunday on 60 minutes she demonstrated that not only is she ignorant she is really stupid. It was hard to watch her attempting to answer questions from Lesley Stahl. These were not difficult questions but she was totally clueless. It was embarrassing.

Meanwhile Trump launched his trade war. He will impose on the wholy fallacious grounds of national security tariffs on steel and aluminum. But maybe not on all of the exporters to the United States, but maybe on all of them. You may recall that during the campaign on the advice of Peter Navarro his primary bête noire was China and its currency manipulations. Navarro at that time claimed that all the economic problems of the United States, mainly imaginary ones, would be solved if there was no trade deficit with China. Navarro's most recent pronouncement was that his role as economic adviser was to provide a theoretical underpinning to whatever notion popped into Donald Trump's head. He is a sort of economic counterpart to kellyanne and Sarah in their roles of cleaning up messes. There was an interesting article in the recent issue of the economist about China and that what was needed was a concerted action by the Western democracies and our Asian Friends to put pressure on China to behave. Trump has decided to punish our allies rather indiscriminately when he should be consulting with them and maybe learning something although the odds are against that.

Trump has now announced he is off to have a sitdown with the fearless leader of North Korea. Rumor has it that he is asked  Corleone Family to arrange  secure place to have such a meeting. We await breathlessly further developments on this frolic.

Trump or Pence?

Let us start with the assumption that Donald Trump is more then somewhat less than optimal as a president. That seems not an unreasonable assumption. Just review mentally his actions and statements of the last week or so. There are rumors that he is getting more and more dysfunctional and it is probably stress related. It is probably reasonable to assume that occasionally his delusional cloud parts and he recognizes the nearly overwhelming amount of criticism and disapproval he receives. If Trump work to be removed by impeachment or by operation of the 25th amendment of the Constitution you would be replaced by Mike Pence. That provokes me to consider which of the two non-optimal choices I would prefer period

First let's consider Trump. He is ignorant incompetent, either lying or delusional and a real jerk. In most of Trump's public appearances Pence stands loyally behind him with this sort of frozen solemn look on his face, nodding with approval at Trump's statements. Trumps foreign-policy strategy, if you could call it that, is probably they worst aspect of his presidency. He is against the Paris Accord, the transpacific agreement, inconsistent on NATO, appears ready to tear up NAFTA, seems obsessed with Iran, slavishly appears to support both Saudi Arabia and Israel, is inconsistent as to China and indulges in saber rattling with North Korea. Most people's greatest fear about his foreign policy is that he will either attack North Korea or provoke an attack from North Korea. Pence of coarse has no foreign policy though he pays lipservice to Trump. The best thing you can say about Trump's foreign-policy is that it is so erratic, changes from day to day that for the most part he really has no foreign-policy, just a series of ever-changing ad hoc pronouncements. In the final analysis, I don't have that much concern about his foreign policy mainly because he doesn't have one and is certainly not ideologically hidebound. That said, he is worrisome.

In domestic policy, Trump ricochets between kind of a faux populism and a fawning over the wealthy and their interests. It doesn't appear that he has any idea what he is doing. This is where I think Pence is the most dangerous. He was a totally incompetent governor and probably would not have been re- elected. Absent his being selected as vice president he probably would be back as a Radio talkshow host. From what we know he would likely be a willing advocate for the programs of Charles Koch and his network of institutions like the heritage foundation and the club for greed. He would willingly go along with them and Paul Ryan in an effort to diminish and dismantle programs such as food stamps Headstart ,Medicare , Medicaid and social security. I don't think Trump would do that.

So, odd though it seems, giving my opinion of Trump, I would rather take my chances with Trump than have Pence become president. I also think that in 2020 Pence would have a better chance of being reelected then Trump. I have to admit however that I never thought Trump would be elected.