“No bedbugs at Doral. The Radical Left Democrats, upon hearing that the perfectly located (for the next G-7) Doral National MIAMI was under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not nice!”
— Trump tweet (8/27/19)
*****
“A source close to Deutsche Bank says Trump’s tax returns show he pays very little income tax and, more importantly, that his loans have Russian co-signers. If true, that explains every kind word Trump has ever said about Russia and Putin.”
— Lawrence O’Donnell tweet, MSNBC Last Word (8/27/19)
By Dan Peak
The Commoner Call (8/29/19)
Dear Fellow Readers,
I nominate the last 24 hours as the oddest news cycle since Trump arrived by way of his golden escalator to announce his candidacy for president. How so, you say with the look of incredulity I can imagine? Here’s the tipping point for me on Wednesday afternoon. About five hours before I am typing this, Trump tweeted:
‘….I don’t want to Win for myself, I only want to Win for the people. The New @FoxNews is letting millions of GREAT people down! We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!’
The second half of the story was this tweet re: Fox and Friends:
“Brian Kilmeade claims Trump has no choice but to finance his border wall with disaster relief funds: “Where do you expect him to get the money from? Cash in Trump Tower? Remortgage it perhaps? What do you want him to do?” ‘
I’m sure you have all kinds of questions so let me answer a few. Yes it’s apples and oranges (pun accepted), Trump was complaining about something said by Fox host Shepherd Smith so the association was circumstantial, appearing in my twitter feed one after another. Digging a bit further in an attempt to learn more I also found that Fox host and Trump propagandist Tucker Carlson tied mass shootings to the dangers of marijuana (shades of Reefer Madness; does this exonerate video games?) and some relationship between Trump, bed bugs, his Doral property and his intent to host the next G-7/G-8 conference at Doral.
To clear up a few loose ends and lurch forward – Trump’s Doral property is suffering bigly financially (net income down 69% since 2015) and Trump was sued by a former guest (March 2016) for bed bugs after paying “$300 a night for the Jack Nicklaus-themed villa”. The case was settled out of court.
Imagine – POTUS tweeting about bed bugs and even that is the fault of Democrats.
I managed to pull myself out of the rabbit hole after realizing maybe Trump’s tweets were NOT the big news and maybe this was:
MSNBC’s O’Donnell: “Single Source” Says Russian Oligarchs Co-Signed Deutsche Bank Loans To Trump
“MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said Tuesday that a “single source close to Deutsche Bank” told him that President Donald Trump’s loans were co-signed by “Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.”
“”If true,” O’Donnell said, “that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin’s publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.””
Independent investigator/reporter Scott Stedman tweeted the key 25-second statement by O’Donnell before noting, “Deutsche Bank loaned Trump over $2.5 billion over two decades” before also noting O’Donnell’s “if true” with, .@Lawrence has a lot riding on this.
O’Donnell announced his bombshell during the transition from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Maddow had just finished her own 19-minute A-block focus on Deutsche Bank and Democratic Congressional efforts to get the bank’s records of Trump loans, but watch her ‘surprise’. For the deep dive, her segment is here.
If True. Trump lawyers immediately demanded that, “NBCU…retract, correct and apologize for the…defamatory statements”. NBC News noted “NBC has not seen the records” and “Deutsche Bank is declining to comment”.
Maddow’s block puts Deutsche Bank right in the center of the arguments following House committee subpoenas of Deutsche and Capital One in April. We now have learned that Capital One has no Trump tax returns, but Deutsche Bank “was in possession of some tax returns sought by congressional subpoena”. Though Trump has made claims about “full cooperation” with investigations , we know better. And in true form, he’s throwing legal roadblocks right and left trying to make sure nothing more is known, at least before the election.
*****
All of this smacks of a POTUS that excels in the ‘unimportant’ and either lies or refuses to comment on the ‘important’. As an example, while Trump offers his ongoing assurances of mutual love with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump ignores his pleas for attention at our peril:
Photos indicate North Korea may be building submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles
Here’s what Trump has accomplished with his Kim bromance:
““The construction and commissioning of a true SSB (ballistic missile submarine) capability would represent a significant advancement of the North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear threat and complicate defense planning in the region, given the difficulties of tracking and/or pre-emptively targeting such capabilities,” the analysts said.”
Instead Trump has regaled us with valuable diplomatic insights such as this about First Lady Melania’s insights:
““I also say that, by the way, with respect to North Korea, Kim Jong Un — who I’ve gotten to know extremely well; the first lady had gotten to know Kim Jong Un, and I think she’d agree with me — he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential,” Trump said.”
Only to be corrected by White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham “noting the first lady has never met Kim”.
*****
On Tuesday, while thinking ahead, I had collected and been sent a handful of links that considered Trump craziness. When the White House rushes to correct Trump’s assertion about Melania’s history with Kim Jong Un, do we care if he believes this or is just a pathological liar? Here’s a ‘sort of’ answer:
Behind Trump’s craziness, there’s always corruption. Here’s the latest.
Washington Post Opinion writer Greg Sargent starts with a round-up of some important Trump news such as his rush to “get the wall faster” even if it involves “skirting laws and regulations”, promising “will pardon them if necessary”. At the same time “Trump recently urged the Army Corps to award a contract to a company he favors, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries”. A company “aggressively pushed by Trump ally Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)” who has also pressured the Army Corps.
Is it corruption if Trump forces the hosting of the next G-7 meeting at one of his failing properties? Is it corruption if it happens in the light of day and there are no consequences?
You know, like stealing an election with the help of an antagonistic foreign power … like Russia. It happened, but so far there are no consequences.
Speaking of… Senate Leader ‘Moscow’ Mitch McConnell is kicking another leg out from under election protections by letting the Federal Election Commission fade into irrelevancy by failing to appoint new commissioners to meet standards for a quorum – “meaning it can’t make decisions”.
*****
Instead of a handful of articles about Trump ‘craziness’, I’ll offer one that is a contender for ‘best’ of the mix. Washington Post Opinion writer and conservative never-Trumper Jennifer Rubin settles on Crazy Trump. Rubin points out that Trump meets a standard of crazy by exceeding norms of “mean and corrupt” while rising to a level of “unfitness”. She makes a good case, and you know who appears ready to agree?
Trump is lying to farmers’ faces, and they’re finally getting angry about it
Sargent notes Trump’s big lie, “farmers are starting to do great again” while Trump doubles-down in his trade war with China. You know who says Trump is lying?
“We’re not starting to do great again,” Brian Thalmann, the president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, told Mr. Perdue (Trump Ag secretary Perdue) at the event. “Things are going downhill and downhill quickly.”
Perdue had a response:
“What do you call two farmers in a basement?” Mr. Perdue asked near the end of a testy hourlong town-hall-style event.
“A whine cellar.”
A cascade of boos ricocheted around the room.
And there it is. Trump and his administration:
Liar, mean, corrupt, CRAZY and UNFIT.