Freak Out Friday – March 16, 2018

It’s been a relatively quiet week, which is almost a blessing. Nevertheless, there are some things to be addressed.

1). Weathering the Storm. As Stormy Daniels offers to return the $130,000 she was given so she doesn’t have to worry about the gag ordered she signed and Trump skipped, it’s interesting to note that Trump hasn’t said a damned thing about her on Twitter. This makes Daniels unique. Trump actively denied the accusations by previous women, claiming on Twitter that they were lying and also berating them for their claims and even their physicality. But he’s said nothing about Stormy Daniels. I think we can all come to a mutual conclusion about Trump: When he speaks, either aloud or on line, he is lying. And when he says nothing, that is verification that whatever people are saying about him is accurate.

2). We don’t have a trade deficit, eh?. Trump has repeatedly stated that we have a trade deficit with Canada. No, we don’t. We run at an overall surplus with Canada. Here’s the truly amazing thing: It turned out that not only did Trump not know that, but he confessed to not knowing at a GOP fundraiser. He stated that he contradicted Justin Trudeau by claiming that the US did have a trade deficit when Trudeau said we didn’t, but subsequently admitted, “I had no idea.” It is a measure of Trump’s arrogance that he felt the need to contradict another country’s leader even though he had no clue as to what he was saying.

3). Bum bum bum. Another one bites the dust. Bum bum bum. Another one bites the dust. Someone should start a tourniquet concession in the White House because they are hemorrhaging staff. This week another two went. The first was the firing of Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, because of online gambling and questionable finances. The second was the firing of Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state.

Now as I recall, when Tillerson was first given the position, there was not a lot of enthusiasm about it. He was considered supremely unqualified. However he wound up accruing a following some months ago when he was quoted as saying in private that Trump was an f—ing moron. Even I was struck by his candor; he must have known that whoever was in the room when he said it would undoubtedly quote him. In this instance, though, the timing of his firing cannot be ignored. A single day after he stated flat out what England was already saying–that the Russians had arranged the assassinations of a spy and his daughter–that was when Trump got rid of him. A coincidence? I very much doubt it.

4). Another contradiction in terms. But never forget, Trump claims there is no collusion, just the way that the Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee (a contradiction in terms that is right up there with Military Intelligence). While the Democrats assert that there is still plenty of witnesses to be grilled and investigations to be made, the GOP claimed there was no evidence to prove that the Russians interfered with the election for the purpose of putting Trump in office.

How they could come up with such an assertion is an exercise in insanity. Of COURSE the Russians interfered. We know about their tweeting robots and their stunts on Facebook. Does anyone believe for a moment that they interfered in order to benefit Hillary Clinton, who Putin hates? Did Trump, who publicly called for the Russians to hack Clinton’s email, know about these plans? It’s still debatable…except not to the GOP who after a year of half-assed research decided they had found the definite truth. Trump naturally broadcast his declaration of innocence on Twitter with a demented, all caps tweet claiming that the year-long investigation had turned up nothing. Curiously, Hillary Clinton has been investigated for something like the last twenty five years and has never been charged with anything. Yet Trump never once hesitated to refer to her as “Crooked Hillary” and encourage chants of “Lock her up!”

I strongly suggest that everyone invade his Twitter feed and just keep shouting #LOCKHIMUP at him.

PAD