Amateur hour (or term) at the whitehouse

No one can deny:

In terms of diplomacy, Trump is an unranked amateur supported by amateurs.

This is not draining the swamp, it is flooding the swamp.

It is obvious to even casual observers that Trump is carrying Putin's water.



the original is here



Follow the money... most trails lead to Russia (or for the son-in-law, China).

Aslo obvious: Trump is not worth 1/10th what he claims...

I watch PBS News Hour a couple of times a week...

And I just don't get it.

It seems to me Trump IS the apprentice... he OWES his master...

and Putin is his master. You know that Putin, unlike Trump, speaks fluent English!

Waiting for the fat lady...

I love errant attribution. Like the Ugaritic "psalms" being written by the mythical King David of the mythical United Monarchy.

I have often heard: "Yogi Berra said 'the game ain't over 'til the fat lady sings'."

In the 25 years that I worked in over-the-air television, I never met a jock that was staggering under the load of a heavy intellect.

Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter said it. When the Aggies rallied for a 72–72 tie late in the SWC tournament finals, Bill Morgan said, "this... is going to be a tight one after all." "Right", said Ralph, "the opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings."

Who cares, really? It's chump change compared to the Donald's whoppers.

Well, if my cancer ever slept, it's waking up. So I am waiting for the fat lady to sing.

"Physicians are much more likely to decline “heroic” measures, such as CPR, mechanical ventilation, feeding tubes, etc."

The Radiolab show (worth listening to) IS FOUND HERE.

In 70 years, I have raised more than my share of hell. I'm o.k. with the closing credits. No Chemo, no dialysis.

Medical resources are best spent on the young.



Self-entitled republican old-farts wouldn't recognize a good time if it hit them in the ass with a wet mop!



No reunion for me. I donated my guitars, amps, and other stuff to Royal-Sunset High School. Yes, electric guitars are part of the curriculum.

The Starcaster wes set up for Jazz.

And the Les Paul was a Rocker.

BTW, I like Sweetwater. Bought a lot of gear there at reasonable prices.



Catch you on the replay. I hope television gets a little better by then. Today? 1,000 channels of nothing to watch.



I will just wait...

Size matters...

Donald "little hands" trumpster in the dumpster just doesn't get it. Why would he... he is, after all, a retard suffering from autism!

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney's said: “Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.”

Millennials and people of color, the voters of the future, are finding the GOP radioactively unsupportable.

Kenney's chief of staff also chimed in on Twitter.
Our party was bigger than yours #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/HIZk8xnJF1 — Jane Slusser (@janeslusser) June 5, 2018

A long time ago, a loser was "a pregnant hooker driving an Edsel to a Nixon Convention."

Today, it's Trump going for a Nobel Prize - for the third time.

Don't get me wrong, there are things I like about the trumpster in the dumpster. A complete list follows:

1. MAD magazine has in trump the greatest of fodder.

2. Trump IS #2

When it came to "Make America Moronic!" Trump, winning, became the master moron!

No one can deny...

Constitutional Crisis?

Trump’s me-above-all persona is also his 'legal stance' on his presidential power.

The specter of a constitutional crisis has long loomed over the Russia investigation.

The memo by Trump’s lawyers, obtained by the New York Times, suggests a crisis has begun.



The most important passage is its assertion of presidential authority.

“The President not only has unfettered statutory and Constitutional authority to terminate the FBI Director, he also has Constitutional authority to direct the Justice Department to open or close an investigation, and, of course, the power to pardon any person before, during, or after an investigation and/or conviction,” they write, “Put simply, the Constitution leaves no question that the President has exclusive authority over the ultimate conduct and disposition of all criminal investigations and over those executive branch officials responsible for conducting those investigations.”

They put it simply. Trump, in their view, has unlimited control to close any federal investigation.

Trump has been tweeting demands that the investigation be halted.

His lawyers are fully endorsing Trump’s right to do exactly that.

Should Trump’s legal case prevail in the courts, it would confer upon any president, but immediately Trump, the ability to prevent investigations of anybody the president wants to protect, beginning with himself.

Indeed, the conclusion of the memo hints: “Every action that the president took was taken with full constitutional authority pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution...” “As such, these actions cannot constitute obstruction, whether viewed separately or even as a totality.”

Trump cannot obstruct justice, according to his legal stance, because justice is whatever Trump says it is. Before this is over, either Trump’s claim will survive, or the rule of law will survive, but not both.

Well... pardon me!

Donald Trump asserted today that the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is unconstitutional and that he has "the absolute right" to pardon himself.

But Trump added that he would have no need to issue such a pardon because he has "done nothing wrong." He wrote online that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

"The appointment of the Special Councel [sic] is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!" he added in a subsequent post. Someone later corrected his feeble attempt at spelling "counsel" in a follow-up tweet.

The memo was published over the weekend by The New York Times. It was sent by the president’s legal team to the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that the Trump campaign colluded in those efforts.

Although Mueller is a registered Republican, Trump complains that his office is stacked with Democrats whose work amounts to a political “witch hunt.”

Mueller’s team is exploring allegations of obstruction of justice against the president, a charge that the letter from Trump’s legal team argues is invalid.

The Constitution, the letter reads, offers Trump the option to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”

The tweet this morning tweet sparked reaction from Democratic lawmakers who disputed Trump's assessment of his own pardon powers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) shared a link back to Trump's original tweet and added, "Mr. President - you are 0 for 2 on the Constitution this morning," while Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) noted that Mueller's probe "has secured guilty pleas or indicted 19 individuals and three companies" and that "three former Trump aides have already plead guilty."

In his own retort, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) cited a Justice Department office of legal counsel published in 1974, four days before the resignation of former President Richard Nixon, that reads "under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself."

Kellyanne Conway, on Fox this morning, echoed the president’s online remark.

The letter was delivered to Mueller’s office in January and authored by Jay Sekulow and John Dowd (who resigned from Trump’s team in March). Rudy Giuliani said yesterday that Trump has the legal authority to pardon himself.

In he halls of congress, the GOP is saying: "Trump is our turd, hanging from our ass, it's up to us to wipe!"

in way over his head...

Trump told donors at a fund-raiser that he invented facts during a conversation with Canada’s prime minister.

The surprise was not that Trump makes things up, but that he actually boasted about it.

Following the disclosure of his remarks, attention focused on whether the president was right or wrong in his assertion about trade. (Hint: to his cult followers, he is ALWAYS right)

But this episode goes to the heart of Mr. Trump: When does he know the things he says are false, and when is he simply bullshitting?

Mr. Trump, after all, has made so many inaccurate claims that full-time fact-checkers struggle just to TRY to keep up.

"Mr Trump keeps getting called on his BS, but still, he keeps on spinning new stories."

Most Americans long ago concluded that "Trump is dishonest."

He doesn't care if he is telling the truth or not.

All he cares about is being the center of attention.

His fall is impeachment powered.