Blog post #1
Just a quick note to introduce myself, and explain how I got so interested in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In the fall of 2015, my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and was not given a time frame to live. I made a promise to myself that I would spend every Saturday with her until the end. Every Saturday we would have long talks that would eventually turn to all things Trump. We both realized that we could not stand anything about him. My mom’s final hour started on November 7th and I swear she hung on until November 9th until the results came in, then she passed away, I am sure very disappointed that Trump had won. That is the absolute truth. After that I have been hooked on any and all things that this poor excuse for a public servant is involved in. I am not by any stretch of the imagination an expert on U.S. politics, but have clear opinions on them. I hope I can bring some entertainment and a little clarity to the weekly onslaught of the utter madness of the Trump administration.
ENJOY!
Week of August 25th to September 1st
The afternoon of August 25th we learned of the passing of Senator John McCain, and the memorials and condolences came pouring in from all over the world. Of course there was utter silence from the White House as the President is so petty that he could never bring himself to without serious pressure write or tweet anything positive about a true American hero, because he did not drink the Trump Kool Aid and push his agenda. Shortly after midnight of the same night the flag on the white house was returned to full staff, as the knucklehead has not passed a proclamation to continue half staff flight. He just cant do the right thing. You could tell that when they finally got to him by evening that best he could come up with was nice words to the family, but nothing of the Senator. He spent the day on twitter blathering about Hillary and any other distractions he could come up with.
On Sunday he still had not signed the proclamation to lower flags, and that took all day, as I’m sure he needed lots of prodding. He spent most of the day telling us about Hillary and how there was big news that the FBI had ignored all of her crooked emails, and it was big news that no one was reporting. The reason it wasn’t being reported was it was of Trumps own creation, and the FBI soon put out a clarification tweet that ultimately said there was no evidence to that claim. Again trying to change the news cycle as he was not the star of today’s show. John McCain was stealing too much thunder. He continued to tweet some obscure polls that had him at 52% popularity and how he had created the greatest economy since the great depression, but nobody was biting, and most news services were focused on a true American Hero that had given his life to public service, instead of a grifting draft Dodger who was busy winning bowling trophies, and avoiding STD’s instead of serving his country.
Monday was the announcement of the U.S. and Mexico trade agreement. Started out quite funny as Trump obviously had no idea how to use the phone system on his desk, hey it’s been 18 months and these things are tricky (sarcasm). Finally, he connected with Pieno Niete and had a long on time, short on details conversation. He never seems to be able to tell the public any details, but just says it is good for both, and everybody worked hard and late and blah, blah, blah. If he were pressed for details he could not give any as he just doesn’t understand. He also took a quick shot at Canada, saying that we may not be able to reach an agreement, even though the Mexican president made several references to it. Of course much later on Trump once again talked about how Mexico is paying for that wall, which of course the Mexican foreign minister had to rebuff again, saying in no uncertain terms that they would never pay for that wall. Still though, John McCain dominated the news cycle and I am sure it was driving him nuts. I think the fact that George W. Bush, and Barack Obama would be giving eulogies for McCain is really chapping his ass too, as this man is such a colossal asshole, that he has been banned from 2 funerals in less than a year. Says a lot about his character.
Tuesday was the Florida and Arizona primaries. No surprise in Florida’s GOP nominee, as he is a big Trump hugger, but big surprise on the Democratic ticket. Ron Gillum was the big winner and listening to him talk he sounds like a very level headed, common sense kind of guy who has a bright future in politics. The GOP nominee DeSantis, sounds just like the rest of the new Trump party, even bringing a little racist dog whistle into the equation. They just cant control their dislike of people who are not like them. Of all the words this guy could have chosen, such as mess this up, or mix this up, he chose “monkey this up”. Does not even make sense. Martha McSally won the GOP primary in Arizona thankfully knocking out that Space cadet Ward , and the felon Arpaio, who somehow managed to pull in 20% of the voters? Should not surprise me as voters in Alabama came close to voting in a child molester. Oh yea, and this is the day that Trump decided Google has set up their search engine to only show negative results when his name was searched. I automatically see Humphry Bogart in the Cain Mutiny rolling the balls in his hand saying “ who ate my strawberries” with that level of paranoia. Trump just thinks this way and has no basis of truth, which is just irresponsible. If that wasn’t enough, now he claims that Hillary’s emails were hacked by China! Thanks Hannity for that bullshit nugget. Once again FBI has to straighten things out again. Must be exhausting!
Wednesday, Trump spends the day regurgitating reports from the mothership Fox News, and mostly Tucker Carlson. I don’t know how Fox gets away with it. Obama spys on rival presidential campaign, Hillary paid for Russian Intel to use against her government. These people are out of government and have nothing to say about the current administration, but unless Trump has an enemy that he can use to rile up his base, he is not happy. As long as he can get them chanting “lock her up” he is golden. Also warned the public, if you see something published with anonymous sources, ignore them as fake news. Shortly thereafter puts out statement without any sources. Also announces via twitter that Don McGahn will be leaving his team of White House lawyers, of course not telling McGahn in person, as that would require balls. All the while John McCains funeral retains the majority of the news coverage again drawing major ire from Trump who just doesn’t understand that the countries love of that man could leave him in the shadows.
Thursday was a little more somber as John McCain was laying in state in Phoenix, and had some beautiful words spoken about him from a diverse group of people. None quite so eloquent as former Vice President Joe Biden. Listening to this man speak of his lifelong friend did not leave a dry eye in the house, but he also brought some humor to the occasion. It is obvious they had a special bond, who understood one another, and had each others back. This is something missing from Congress for a long time, civility, and understanding that your beliefs are in the best interest of your party, and does not make you mortal enemies. When debate is done, you can go and have a meal together and enjoy each others company. Listening to Joe Biden speak was like poetry, as that to me is how a politician should speak. Clear and to the point, not word salads that Trump strings together, that will not let him complete a thought. For a guy who went to the best schools, he can not get an entire thought out of his head. Oh how I miss the clear, strong, powerful, and positive speeches of Barack Obama!. Trump continues to rail against the fake news NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and lauds Fox news.
Friday again, Trump aims to sabotage NAFTA negotiations with Canada as he does an interview off the record with Bloomberg, that end up giving the story to The Toronto Star, saying he will not accept any deal that the U.S. does not come out on top of. In my opinion, he does not want a trilateral deal with Mexico and Canada, so that we in Canada can remain his foil, and he can continue to blame us for everything that goes bad in his farmland he needs an enemy for his base, might as well be Canada . I really hope Chrystia Freeland does not give in, and as of late Friday afternoon, it sounds like things are falling apart. Looks like they will continue next week.
. Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!
That is the latest tweet from the President.
This is actually a rather low key week for the administration as there were no court cases or big Joe ups this week. Manafort trial #2 coming soon, an Carl Bernstein’s book being released next week which seems to have Trump a little worked up.
STAY TUNED!!!!
Neil's review on U.S. politics 