Day 818 Thursday April 4, 2019
578 Days to the 2020 election and 656 Days to Inauguration Day
Several things I left out from yesterday’s screed and a few little tiny news items.
These news items are so minuscule they are hardly worth mentioning, but I feel compelled to so do.
There is a report out that the way AG Barr characterized the Mueller report is not in line with what the report says. Shocking, I know. Who would have thought the guy who wrote an 18-19 page memo to the president about why he would make a great AG, specifically because he thought the Special Counsel’s investigation was illegal would write a misleading report? (I did! I did!)
This is the man behind one of the greatest criminal miscarriages of justice in our time. He’s the guy who strongly suggested to Papa Bush (aka Nixon’s illegal messenger boy) that he, the president, pardon all those connected with Iran Contra, thus showing the world that their are two tracks of justice in this country. He’s at it again. ( Warning. Warning. )
Besides that, not much happened yesterday, other than the head of one of the two committees in the House of Representatives that is legally allowed to demand any tax return in the United States of any individual or corporation has done so for one Donald J. Trump and five or eight of his businesses. This demand is for the returns from 2013-2018. He did not have to subpoena them, because by law, he can merely ask for them – by law (Did I mention “by law”?). Why is the law written this way? Before Warren G. Harding was in office, only the president could ask for someone’s tax returns. However, in the bid rigging and bribery scandal known as The Teapot Dome Scandal that involved the president and his cabinet, the law was changed. It was used to look at Nixon’s tax returns. Surprisingly (NOT) Tricky Dick owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes! Why is it Republicans are the ones caught with both hands in the cookie jar? While Dems are caught only with their finger tips? I suggest that it’s more inherent in the Republican nature to cheat (and claim its their god given right or some horse BS.)
So, despite the gaslighting of the right wing media, the president, his children and his flunkies in Congress there is evidence in the Mueller Report that as William Barr said the president is not exonerated. Apparently, Barr’s weird letters painted the president in a more positive light than Mueller’s team suggest. How do we know this? Why some of Mueller’s team are speaking out. They are so outraged over Barr’s slimy attempt to cover up the truth that they are speaking up. This for the first time.
The night before last I saw an interview with Julian Castro, who is running for president. I like him, and I especially like that he has laid out a detailed plan of how to deal with immigration. Apparently, the Trump plan of closing the border and caging immigrants isn’t going so well. Who could have predicted that? (Well, anyone who is not a white supremacist or not a conservative fake economist, like the guy picked to be on the Fed that ran the state of Kansas’ economy into the ground. ie anyone with half a brain.)
What I like about Castro’s plan is that he has gotten to the heart of the problem in Central America and announced a proposal that makes sense. Naturally, this means that Republicans won’t like it because it is based on facts and experience, and an old Republican plan suggested by Henry Kissinger.
Castro has said we need a Marshall Plan for Central America. Kissinger said we needed to spend a ton of money to help the economies of Central and South America or people would be coming to our borders. Guess what? People are coming to our borders, fleeing the terrible economic conditions in their countries that is aggravated by corruption, lawlessness and drug gangs. Who knew? Once again, anyone who was paying attention.
The problem has gotten much worse since Kissinger’s time. The drug gangs have infiltrated the political structure much more. Many of these countries are ruled by a small group of families, some descended from the conquistadors. The problem of corruption in government is huge. One person I spoke to in Mexico said he wished they’d bring in 1,000 Chinese judges to enforce the laws. In that way there wouldn’t be a lot of “so and so is a friend of mine (or part of my family)” excuses, and justice would be done.
The Marshall Plan idea has a lot of appeal and at a high level makes a lot of sense. The question is, can you get the money into the right people’s hands to do the job? If anyone can figure it out in the current crop of candidates it is Castro. He has been a mayor and a member of Obama’s cabinet. He has actually done things! Solved problems, come up with solutions. He’s not talking that garbage that Trump pulled in the last presidential election or Shultz is trying to do now. That “I’ll put smart people in a room and they can come up with a solution” garbage. Hey, why not put the smart people in a room now, come up with a plan, and present it? Don’t tell me you’re going to do it AFTER you get elected.
Oh, and now Trump is claiming that he’ll come up with a great health care plan after he is re-elected. Please. Fool me twice, three times, a hundred? Give me a break. You’re an idiot. You lie. You try to hide the truth that is in plain sight. You haven’t been able to accomplish anything positive as president and you want someone to believe the same old BS you used to sell Trump University and get you elected? As a Cambodian woman said to one of the people in my tour of Ankgor Wat whom she was trying to sell postcards to and he claimed he had no money, “IDON’TBELIEVYOU!” (Must be said in a high pitched singsong voice, for full effect.)
Meanwhile there is an on-going grand jury investigation of a company owned by a country that is being fined $50,000 a day for non-compliance. We don’t know the country or the company, but the probe is on-going. Something left over from the Mueller probe.
So to summarize where we are with Trump, over the last few days these events and facts are still with us:
– The president seems to have no plan on anything, other than to argue and fight back with people.
– There are investigations into Trump’s: campaign, inauguration, administration, charity, university, businesses, taxes, and granting of security clearances.
Let’s talk about the security clearances. Apparently, Jared and Ivanka and some 25 other people were given security clearances that the intelligence community said were a threat to our national security.
In Jared’s case he claimed he went through normal procedures. This is a lie, which surprisingly makes Jared a liar. He was given a clearance despite the conclusions by the intelligence communities that he was a security risk on at least three different fronts: finances, business dealings, and personal conduct. He’s hugely in debt, his dad overpaid for a building in Manhattan that Jared is part of, and he secretly communicates with business and world leaders without telling anyone. Like with MBS using WhatsApp. And he almost started a war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He probably leaked sensitive information to MBS about people in MBS’ family that weren’t completely loyal to him. (They were rounded up a few days after Jared visited MBS.) His personal nature has been discussed by several foreign powers and they see him as naive and easily manipulated. He’s referred to as “the clown prince.” His behavior may have been one of the factors that made MBS think he could get away with killing Jamal Khahsoggi .
578 Days to the 2020 election and 656 Days to Inauguration Day
PS Pablo Picasso “Family of Saltimbanques” 1905, at the National Gallery, Washington, DC.
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