Freak Out Friday – August 17, 2018

It’s really true: with the death of Aretha Franklin, there is now an opening for the role of Queen of Soul and there is absolutely no one to fill it. Her passing prompted marvelous words of mourning and sympathy from everyone from private citizens to top leaders.

What did Trump say?

“She worked for me on numerous occasions.”

Because every thing in the world has to be about him. EVERY goddamn thing. He couldn’t just talk about the loss. He couldn’t say a matchless talent has been extinguished. He couldn’t say that her voice reflected “our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect,” which is what Obama said. Nope. Had to claim she worked for him, because in all matters great and small, all that matters to Trump is “How does this reflect on me.” Who worked for him, who treated him well, who complimented him, who betrayed him.

Jesus Christ.

1). Insecurity. . There is an assortment of people who once worked in the American intelligence community who, even though they no longer hold that position, continue to have security clearance. That’s because they serve as a sort of eminence grise, a source of knowledge and influence with whom subsequent presidents can consult over something that seems odd or unusual to them. If trouble is percolating in the Middle East and there’s an advisor who has a long relationship with/knowledge of the people causing it, you’re going to one to bring him in to get his opinion as to how to proceed. Basically these folks are a form of Institutional Knowledge.

Trump, who has little to no knowledge of his own, has zero respect for that. Any intelligent person will tell you that if you’re going to be putting together advisors, you want smart people who disagree with you. Trump doesn’t believe in that. He wants stupid people who follow him without question. And because John Brennan, former director of the CIA, has dared to say critical things about Trump, Trump naturally must seek revenge and remove his clearance. Why? Because he doesn’t have the balls to unleash the shitstorm that would result if he fired Robert Mueller, so instead he’s going after anyone who even remotely supports him. Which is why his next target is Bruce Ohr, former deputy attorney general, and nearly a dozen other people who don’t think much about Trump’s incessant attacks on the intelligence community. Because if you’re president, that’s what you really want to do: piss off guys who excel at finding out dirt about people. If two weeks from now, Brennan shows up on ABC news with the pee tape, don’t be the least bit surprised.

2). Before the parade passes by. At least SOME good news out of DC. Trump’s idiotic military parade has been scotched. Trump naturally has to find someone to blame and picked the government of Washington, D.C., claiming that they had inflated their budget estimates in order to…I’m not sure, really. Profiteer? Why in God’s name would they want to do that? The final budget of the thing was certain to be pored over by every major news outlet; there’s no way they could hide any profiteering prices from major scrutiny. And DC’s mayor immediately fired back, claiming that she was the one who actually managed to talk Trump out of the pointless demonstration of American military firepower. Newspapers are claiming that the budget topped out at over $90 million while Pentagon heads are claiming that amount is pure fiction. Of course, the self-proclaimed billionaire could easily have just contributed the money himself, if it meant so much to him. Yet it’s becoming clear that Trump’s alleged billions are just that: alleged. But they don’t really exist.

3). We have to feel sorry for Omarosa? Really?. If there was ever a woman that America could, as a country, have no patience or sympathy for, it’s Omarosa (for some reason news organizations are suddenly referring to her by her full name, which just sounds weird. It’s like everyone referring to Cher as Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono Allman). Yet now, with her aptly titled book Unhinged, she has come forward with a series of non-revelations telling us that Trump is a racist. Yeah, no kidding. Yet she kept working with him, trying to sell this bonehead, his racism, and all his other crap to the American people. She claims in her book that there is tape of Trump saying the n-word from during “The Apprentice.” My guess is that there isn’t; Mark Burnett doubtlessly erased it. But it doesn’t matter, because Trump’s hard core followers are also racists. So if the tape were produced, all it would do is confirm what one side already knows and brighten the day of the other side that would be cheering its usage. David Duke supports the man, for God’s sake. If audio of him discussing how he likes to grab women by the pussy didn’t short circuit his support, the flat out audio proof of his racism isn’t going to change a damned thing.

And yet Omarosa keeps producing tape recordings to back up other aspects of her book. We can safely assume she doesn’t have audio proof of anything that could get him impeached, because she would have trotted it out already. So she has recordings of Trump denying that he knew anything about her being fired. Of course that’s nonsense. It just proves yet again that Trump will lie to anyone about anything. If Trump really believed she shouldn’t be fired, he’d pick up the phone and tell John Kelly to rehire her. End of story. He wouldn’t just shrug and say it was out of his hands. He’s the president.. The buck stops at his desk, and Omarosa MUST know he lied to her. Even someone who would be stupid enough to keep coming back to work for him couldn’t be fooled by that.

Could she?

4). Remember, remember, the first of September.. Rudy Giuliani, the only lawyer I’ve ever seen who has resting shocked face, asserts that Mueller swore that the report would be done by September 1. So Giuliani asserts that once that deadline passes, any negotiations to have Trump answer Mueller’s questions is off the table.

Here’s my suggestion: enough is enough. Subpoena Trump.

We all know two things: Trump is never going to agree to it. And if Mueller does question him, Trump will lie. How do we know that? Because he always lies. Always. He can’t help himself.

Are there risks to Mueller issuing a subpoena? Hell yes. For one thing, there is no definitive case that speaks directly to forcing a president to submit to a subpoena. Chances are that any such endeavor would be fast tracked to the Supreme Court, at which point we get to find out just how conservative the SCOTUS really is. Experts believe the SCOTUS would never basically say that anyone, even a president, is above the law. But then let’s say that the SCOTUS says Trump has to obey the subpoena and Trump basically responds, “Make me.” Who would be in charge of that? The U.S. Marshals. Who is the boss of the U.S. Marshals? The President. You see the problem.

Trust me when I say this: If Mueller winds up with a subpoenaed Trump on TV, I’m going to be live blogging that.

PAD