Category: politicians behaving badly

Yesterday’s poll: Prognostications about Trump

April 11, 2018 • 9:20 am

My poll yesterday, “Is Trump toast?” came from my feeling—which I still hold—that he won’t last his first term: that he’ll either resign or be forced out of office.  I asked readers their opinion, and here are the results as of 8 a.m. today:

Only about 28% of respondents agree with me, 43% think he’ll get in trouble (well, he is in trouble already) but weather it, and 25% think nothing will happen. In other words, 68% think that it’ll be business as usual after the Mueller/Stormy Daniels/other Future Fracases affairs are over. That’s either remarkably cynical (but a justifiable cynicism) or a reflection that people think Trump didn’t break the law.  I think he did, but that’s just a guess.

Comey memo: Is Trump finished?

May 17, 2017 • 9:15 am

The events of yesterday may have given Trump’s presidency a fatal blow. First, it’s come to light that former FBI director James Comey wrote a memo to himself in February, noting that Trump had asked him to stop the FBI’s investigation into Michael Flynn. Flynn, you’ll recall, was Trump’s national security advisor, but resigned when it came out that he likely had improper contact with Russian officials before the election.

The New York Times story below (click on picture to access) suggests, if Comey’s memo is authentic (and it seems to be), that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice. That’s a crime. And it’s an impeachable offense. Here’s what Comey reported when sources read parts of the memo to newspaper reporters (it hasn’t been seen by any of them):

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, replying only: “I agree he is a good guy.”

Trump, of course, could claim he never said any such thing. And that’s his line:

In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.

“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

Further malfeasance by the President: we now know that he shared intelligence about ISIS with Russian officials in the Oval Office, intelligence that apparently came from Israel and was conveyed to the U.S. confidentially, as part of our intelligence-sharing operations. It was certainly not intended to go to Putin, who could in turn hand it over it to some of his unsavory allies, like Iran. What this will do, of course, is make our allies more reluctant to share secret information with the U.S., for Trump is untrustworthy and capable of giving that information to anyone on the spur of the moment.

It’s barely four months into Trump’s Presidency, and I hope that those who voted for our Chief Moron realize what they voted for.

My question to readers: Will this have any effect on Trump’s presidency; that is, will he be impeached for obstructing justice? Or will he show his Teflon-like nature again, and slough it off?

The down side of impeaching Trump, of course, is that we’d get Pence as President, but even that’s better than The Donald.

Here’s a tw**t from the “Fire the Fool” site, courtesy of Grania:

 

Alexander Van der Bellen can wear his own damn hijab

April 30, 2017 • 12:15 pm

by Grania Spingies

Alexander Van der Bellen

Racism and bigotry is an ugly thing, it’s inexcusable and any form of assault or attack ought to be vigorously prosecuted in the criminal courts, and the victim or target of the assault should also bring a civil suit for damages against the perpetrator.

It’s a serious problem and it requires serious attempts to resolve. Sometimes public gestures may be effective. In the Netherlands for example, recently Dutch politicians chose to hold hands in public to protest against homophobia.

Whether these sorts of demonstrations actually have the desired effect is unclear, but we can at least accept that these gestures and the participants are well-meaning and if nothing else deliver the message that bigotry is not going to be tolerated by society any more.

So when the Austrian president says he wishes to confront racism in his own country, that is to be commended. Although he says “It is every woman’s right to always dress how she wants” (gee, thanks) he then continues:

“…if this real and rampant Islamophobia continues, there will come a day where we must ask all women to wear a headscarf – all – out of solidarity to those who do it for religious reasons.”

How about no. You don’t combat bigotry by promoting a garment of paternalistic misogyny – or in this case by promoting its use by a group you neatly exempt yourself from: women. The hijab is in any case not actually a quintessential defining symbol of being Muslim. Millions of Muslim women around the world don’t wear the hijab. If it were essential to Muslim identity, then there would be no need or desire for groups like My Stealthy Freedom created by Muslim women who protest the hijab’s enforcement by people unnaturally obsessed with erasing the female body  – and the fetishisation of the garment by well-meaning but woefully ignorant Westerners.

Here’s a video from an Australian cleric telling us not only about the hijab but also what kind of hijab and clothing is more suitable and acceptable for women to wear (his own opinion, of course). The hijab is all about concealment of the female hair and body and displays of modesty for reasons of piety and purity as dictated by male leaders. Note the “we” in this video is men who get to tell their “sisters” what they want them to wear. Is this really the banner you want to march under?

https://twitter.com/LaloDagach/status/858423748558544897

If President Van der Bellen really wants to promote a right to dress how you want and combat racism against Muslims, then he can wear the hijab. After all, if the men of Iran can do it to protest the enforced hijab in their own country, then so can the president of a free, liberal European country where no-one faces criminal sanction for the clothes they wear.

 

Obama gets $400,000 to speak at conference organized by Wall Street investment bank

April 28, 2017 • 8:45 am

Sound familiar? Like what Hillary Clinton did when she got over $200,000 for each of two speeches to Goldman Sachs a few years ago?

Yep, Obama—our Barack Obama, former President—is scheduled in September to get nearly twice as much as Clinton for a speech: $400,000 for one hour’s work (I bet others will write the damn speech). Further, it’s a speech at a health care conference organized by Wall Street bank Cantor Fitzgerald. It’s also exactly the same amount Obama earned per YEAR as President of the U.S. The New York Times reports this:

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama’s spokesman defended the former president’s coming speech, saying Mr. Obama decided to give it because health care changes were important to him. The spokesman, Eric Schultz, noted that Cantor Fitzgerald is a Wall Street firm but pointed out in a statement that as a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama raised money from Wall Street and went on to aggressively regulate it.

Mr. Obama will spend most of his post-presidency, Mr. Schultz said, “training and elevating a new generation of political leaders in America.”

If health care changes are important to Obama, there are plenty of venues where he can express his ideas and program without lining his pockets.

Well, at least Obama isn’t in a position to make policy about healthcare any more, but I find it unseemly for him to be so grasping and acquisitive after he left the Presidency. After all, the man is already wealthy from his earlier books (if you don’t believe me, I’ll show you a picture of his mansion about two miles from where I’m sitting). For one thing, he’ll cop several million bucks as an advance on the book he’s writing. And he won’t lack for opportunities in the future. The fact that Obama regulated Wall Street and cares about healthcare is just an excuse: the real reason is that he wants lots of money. He doesn’t need tons of extra money, especially from Wall Street firms. If he has a message, let him convey it to the American public.

I’m sure there are many readers who will say, “This is fine: more power to him. If somebody’s willing to pay Obama that much for an hour’s work, let him take the dough.” But would Jimmy Carter do that? Can you keep an image as a humanitarian while taking big bucks from Wall Street? Many of us criticized Hillary Clinton for giving $200,000+ speeches to Wall Street firms, and if we now say that what Obama is doing is okay, that’s a bit of a double standard. And yes, I know Clinton did it when it was clear she would run for President, but remember that Obama will still act as an advisor to Democrats.

In fact, even other Democrats, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, were critical of this news. From The Independent:

Bernie Sanders has said he thinks it is “unfortunate” Mr Obama opted to receive the fee and argued the decision signifies the profound influence big business has on the political system.

“I think it just speaks to the power of Wall Street and the influence of big money in the political process,” the Democrat Vermont senator told Bloomberg.

“I think it’s unfortunate. President Obama is now a private citizen and he can do anything he wants to but I think it’s unfortunate. You have the former president of Goldman Sachs is now the chief financial advisor for President Trump, and then you have this, so I think it’s unfortunate”.

. . . Senator Elizabeth Warren has also expressed her reservations, saying she was “troubled by” the speaking fee.

“I was troubled by that,” Warren said on SiriusXM’s Alter Family Politics during an appearance to promote her new book.

“One of the things I talk about in the book is the influence of money. I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington. And that it shows up in so many different ways here in Washington.”

It’s telling that the New York Times, which to my horror seems to becoming more Regressive Leftist (see their claim yesterday that conservatives were bringing trouble on themselves by speaking at Berkeley), gave this headline for its report:

“Balances”? WTF? That’s not objective reporting; it’s an attempt to burnish his image.

And the HuffPo reacts predictably (click screenshot for the pathetic justification):

Okay, now you can go ahead and defend him. I won’t—not on this issue.

Trump’s remarks on Black History Month. OY!

February 1, 2017 • 11:45 am

This transcript was tw**ted by Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, as “the full transcript of President Trump’s speech to his Black History Month event.”

screen-shot-2017-02-01-at-10-55-02-am screen-shot-2017-02-01-at-10-54-25-am

This is the unhinged ravings of a narcissist, ranting about fake news, Omarosa (one of the people on The Apprentice), etc.  What an insult to black Americans—and to the world. What have we done?

Trump just lost any chance he had to be President

July 27, 2016 • 5:57 pm

Donald Trump has recovered from many missteps, but he’s just made one that, I think, is fatal. I refer, of course, to his call that Russia should get hold of Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails and give them to the United States press. See below:

This is, of course, a call for either espionage or the handing over of material obtained already by espionage. And it’s unprecedented.

Now Trump, clueless and ignorant as he is, may be conflating Clinton’s personal-server emails with the Democratic National Committee emails released by Wikileaks, which were probably obtained by Russian hackers and perhaps by Russian government hackers. As his erstwhile ghostwriter says, Trump has zero attention span and may simply be confused.

Regardless, this is an extraordinarily stupid thing to say, and of course the Democrats will make bales of hay out of it tonight.  Even Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-presidential pick, said that releasing illegally obtained emails is a serious matter. Republicans, probably in a state of shock upon realizing who they’ve chosen, have said very little.

My take: although I’ve always thought that Trump wouldn’t win the Presidency, now I’m absolutely sure of it. He won’t recover from this one. Even if he’s leading in some polls, the Democrats will surely get a post-convention bounce.

And, if any of you still think Trump can or will win, please contact me, as I’m willing to bet you good money that he won’t. That’s a bet you can’t lose, because anybody reading this site will be glad to pay off a bet if Trump loses!

The “My Little Pony” defense: GOP tarnishes its image further by refusing to admit plagiarism

July 20, 2016 • 9:00 am

Given the perfidy and bigotry of the Republican party, and the odious candidate they’ve chosen in Donald Trump, I’m not overly concerned about his wife’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s speech. Yes, it was wrong, yes, they should have fired whoever wrote that speech, and yes, they all deserved opprobrium. (Imagine the rancor the Republicans would have displayed had Bill Clinton done the same thing in support of his wife Hillary!) What makes it really bad is that the party and Trump’s flacks are refusing to admit it’s plagiarism. But any thinking person—and yes, even some Trump supporters are sentient—won’t buy that. Have a listen to the blatant cribbing:

What to do? Admit that it was a cribbing by the speechwriter, suggest that it was inadvertent, and apologize. But the GOP won’t do that, and their excuses are simply silly. They’re not even credible enough to fool the average Trump supporter:

“To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd,” Manafort said.

Manafort said the words Melania used were not “cribbed” but are common words.

“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family,” Manafort said. “To think that she’d be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”

It gets worse:

Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s chief strategist, invoked “My Little Pony” in defending the speech in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“Melania Trump said, ‘the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.’ Twilight Sparkle from ‘My Little Pony’ said, ‘This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now,’ ” Spicer said.

He also compared passages of Trump’s speech with phrases from musicians John Legend and Kid Rock.

“I mean if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through a Google and say, ‘Hey, who else has said them,’ I can do that in five minutes,” Spicer said. “And that’s what this is.”

Unfortunately, the cribbing was far more extensive than just “This is your dream. . .” etc. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the plagiarism from CNN:

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 8.37.23 AM

If a student gave me an essay with this kind of unattributed cribbing, I’d fail him. Even Jonah Lehrer was fired by the New Yorker for cribbing less extensive than this.  But even Republicans are not that dumb, and the excuses offered by the party—that this was common usage and not plagiarism—isn’t fooling anyone. Trump had a chance to win (which would have depressed me no end, besides ruining the country), but over and over again his campaign has damaged itself. It’s the Death from a Thousand Cuts. And now the GOP may have done themselves fatal damage by telling the public that they think we’re is credulous and stupid.

It reminds me of Hillary’s email kerfuffle. It wasn’t so bad that she used a private server to host official and sometimes sensitive government emails. That might have been inadvertent. But her lying about it afterwards wasn’t. It’s always best to admit the truth up front.