Trumpenstan

  (Editor’s Note: In response to Michael Wolff’s recent best selling book “Fire and Fury”, Donald Trump said he had never met Wolff. That was — as is typical of Trump — a lie. During the campaign Trump was interviewed by Wolff in Trump’s Los Angeles home. The result of that interview was a Hollywood Reporter cover story, which, in retrospect, is an interesting prelude to Wolff’s book. – Mark L. Taylor) By Michael Wolff The Hollywood Reporter (6/1/16) The long day is ending for Donald Trump with a pint of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. We’re settling in for a…

  By Mort Rosenblum Reader Supported News Service (1/9/19) his is just my own point of view, but I’m pretty clear about it after watching reaction to Michael Wolff’s neutron bomb, Fire and Fury: We Americans, collectively, have gone out of our flipping minds. Wolff has spilled enough beans to bury Donald Trump, his clown-car inner circle and the self-serving legislators who enable him. At least, you would think. But a 1980 Newsweek essay by Isaac Asimov is distressingly prescient at a time when human habitats are simultaneously drying up and flooding while an egomaniacal fool fingers a button that could…

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/4/18) Speaking from the egocentric worm hole Donald Trump calls his world, he declared Tuesday that 2017 was the safest year for air travel on record because of — surprise — him. In response to news that there were no commercial airline crashes anywhere in the world last year, Trump claimed responsibility, explaining: “Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!” Of course, Trump’s egocentric declaration came with no supporting…

  Democracy Now! (12/8/17) Questions over President Donald Trump’s mental health continue to grow, following his speech on Wednesday where he slurred his speech and mispronounced words during an address on Israel. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded Thursday to the mounting concerns by announcing that Trump has scheduled a physical health exam. Meanwhile, Pentagon leaders last month told a Senate panel they would ignore any unlawful order by the president to launch a nuclear strike. The testimony came as part of the first congressional hearings in more than 40 years on the president’s authority to start a…

Will the vice president—and the religious right—be rewarded for their embrace of Donald Trump? By McKay Coppins The Atlantic (January/February 2018) No man can serve two masters, the Bible teaches, but Mike Pence is giving it his all. It’s a sweltering September afternoon in Anderson, Indiana, and the vice president has returned to his home state to deliver the Good News of the Republicans’ recently unveiled tax plan. The visit is a big deal for Anderson, a fading manufacturing hub about 20 miles outside Muncie that hasn’t hosted a sitting president or vice president in 65 years—a fact noted by several…

  By Lucia Graves & Sam Morris The Guardian (11/29/17) A growing list of powerful men have faced serious consequences for sexual misconduct allegations but the most powerful one of all has faced none. Instead Donald Trump’s official position, as his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders recently clarified in a White House press briefing, is that the 20 women accusing him of assault and harassment are lying. Trump has also suggested some were not attractive enough for him to want to sexually assault. As the conversation around sexual conduct continues to evolve, and new abusers are revealed, here are the cases against the president. … Read…

  By Jon Swaine The Guardian (12/3/17) Donald Trump’s preferred order at McDonald’s has been revealed as a waistband-busting meal containing alarming amounts of fat and salt. During campaign stops at the fast food restaurant the president would ask for two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fishes and a chocolate milkshake, according to a insider’s account of his presidential bid. Trump’s order amounts to 2,420 calories, according to McDonald’s nutritional data. US authorities generally advise men to consume about 2,500 calories per day. His chosen meal also contains 112g of fat, which is 172% of Trump’s recommended daily allowance, as well as 3,470mg…

The New York Times (11/30/17) To the Editor: I am the editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.” We represent a much larger number of concerned mental health professionals who have come forward to warn against the president’s psychological instability and the dangers it poses. We now number in the thousands. We are currently witnessing more than his usual state of instability — in fact, a pattern of decompensation: increasing loss of touch with reality, marked signs of volatility and unpredictable behavior, and an attraction to violence as a means…

    By Andrew Spitznas Patheos (10/1/17) Like a bulging medical file for a chronically hospitalized ICU patient, every week sees new additions to the folders of evidence for Donald Trump’s diseased mind and his mental unfitness for the presidency.  This past week, in the “History of Present Illness” section, it was his lack of empathy and blame shifting for the abominable response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.  For “Past Medical History,” it was the unearthed recording of a conversation with trashmaster Howard Stern, wherein Trump appallingly described his neglect and disgust towards an elderly man bleeding on Mar-A-Lago’s floor.  (Just as…

  By Manuel Mogato & Steve Holland Reuters (11/12/17) MANILA (Reuters) – Leaders of Asian nations meeting in Manila on Monday skirted around the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims triggered by Myanmar’s military crackdown, disappointing human rights groups who were hoping for a tough stand on the humanitarian crisis. There was no pressure either from U.S. President Donald Trump over the Philippines’ bloody war on drugs during a meeting on the sidelines of the summit with President Rodrigo Duterte. Trump told reporters that he had a “great relationship” with Philippines leader, who, a year ago, had branded then-President Barack Obama…

Editor’s Note: The Commoner Call runs this cartoon after every headline-grabbing mass shooting (a mass shooting – defined as four or more fatalities – happens daily in the U.S. Most only get local press coverage). Nothing changes but not to worry, the nation’s leaders will keep you in their cynical thoughts ‘n empty prayers if you lose a loved one to a mass shooting. What evil madness! What political cowardice!  – Mark L. Taylor By Lee Moran The HuffPost (11/15/17) People online tore into President Donald Trump after he appeared to offer his condolences on Twitter about the wrong mass…

***** The Dark, Dangerous & Twisted Cult Of Donald Trump By Reza Aslan Los Angeles Times (11/6/17) I am not the first person to point this out: There’s been a cultish quality to President Trump’s most ardent supporters. He seemed to acknowledge the phenomenon when he boasted that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose voters. Throughout the campaign, and in personal appearances since then, Trump has harnessed the kind of emotional intensity from his base that is more typical of a religious revival meeting than a political rally, complete with ritualized communal…

***** Everybody’s Talking About It: For Trump, Words Are Stupidest, Dumbyist, Poo-Poo Things, Ever! By Michael Winship BillMoyers.com (10/27/17) In Britain late last week, Conservative Member of Parliament Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, described Donald Trump as a “daft twerp.” Not quite the soaring rhetoric of his illustrious forebear but succinct. Soames rightly was objecting to a Trump tweet that tried to link a 13 percent rise in the crime rate in England and Wales to radical Islamic terrorism, a notion that the president may have picked up from a conspiracy website. The UK Office for National Statistics that issued…

  Today special independent prosecutor Robert Mueller’s team is scheduled to announce their first arrest(s). Given the shady and outright criminal behavior already known, the possibilities of Trump administration arrests are truly boundless … limitless. As of this writing exactly what – if anything – happens Monday is unknown but let us hope the short video below is a preview of things to come from the Mueller investigation. Thanks to Commoner Call contributor Dan Peak for forwarding it. In the meantime, enjoy… Link to 2-Minute Video

  By Jon Schwarz The Intercept (10/21/17) White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s gruesome defense Thursday of President Donald Trump’s call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson was shocking. But it should not have been a surprise. Any examination of Kelly’s past public remarks makes clear he is not a sober professional, calculating that he must degrade himself in public so he can remain in place to rein in Trump’s worst instincts behind the scenes. Rather, Kelly honestly shares those instincts: He’s proudly ignorant, he’s a liar, and he’s a shameless bully and demagogue. The chief of…

Yo-Hoo, Here’s Some Real History About The National Anthem: It’s Always Been A Focus Of Patriotic Dissent On The Media (9/29/17) Last weekend’s NFL drama touched on many issues, including police brutality, racism, and free speech. For many who opposed the protests, however, it all came down to one thing: respecting the flag and our country’s national anthem. But while critics claim that the anthem is above politics, radical uses and re-writings of the Star-Spangled Banner are, in fact, older than the song as we know it. William Robin is a professor of musicology at the University of Maryland and a contributor to…

  By Pritha Paul International Business Times (9/25/17) Adolf Hitler’s linen boxers were sold for $5,500 at the Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City, Maryland, as part of their “Summer Militaria Auction” on Sept. 14. The item in question is a pair of striped white linen under shorts that have been described as “surprisingly large,” as per the product description on their website. It is 19 inches in length, with a waist of about 39 inches. There are also two pairs of loops sewn on either side of the front of the waist band, whose purpose must have been to support…

    By Chauncey Devega Salon (9/12/17) The president of the United States is a global celebrity whose every action is endlessly commented upon and dissected for meaning by the news media, foreign powers (both friends and foes alike) and the public. In the age of television and now the internet, there are hundreds of thousands of hours of video and audio footage of every president widely available. There are also rumors and leaks from within the White House and other branches of government that can help paint a picture of a given president’s moods, desires, thoughts and other behavior….

  Hustler Trump Profiting Off Hurricane Tragedy By Using The Presidency To Hawk $40 Hats  By Mark L. Taylor The Daily Call (9/4/17) Even by the ever declining standards of his tacky administration Trump’s wearing of his latest 2020 campaign fundraising baseball cap during Hurricane Harvey briefings and visits to Houston is a new cringe inducing low point. To say – as is so often said about this toxic spill of a presidency – that it is unprecedented doesn’t even come close to describing the slimy moral depravity of Trumpian adolescent arrogance. It’s especially disgusting as we know Trump personally…

“Look into the soul of Donald Trump and you will see there is no soul.” – Keith Olbermann Link to 7-Minute Video ***** Donald Trump Cashes In On Hurricane Harvey Catastrophe To Plug His Damn Campaign Merchandise By Jamie Feldman The HuffPost (8/29/17) President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Texas Tuesday in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which ripped through the Texas coast and triggered one of the worst floods in U.S. history, causing catastrophic damage to the greater Houston area and claiming at least 10 lives so far. A visit to a disaster area is not the most appropriate time for product promotion, but here we are. Trump…

  By Jessica Estepa USA Today (8/24/17) The financial strains on the Secret Service under the Trump administration are now well-known. And you can add luxury portable restrooms to their mounting bills. The agency spent thousands of dollars to rent the restrooms during the president’s August “working vacation” at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., according to a review of purchase orders flagged by the progressive PAC American Bridge and verified by USA TODAY. The agency also spent $13,500 of your money on golf cart rentals for yet another Trump vacation. The agency signed a contract with Imperial Restrooms to provide trailers on Aug. 3. That contract was updated a…

  Democracy Now! (8/9/17) As tensions escalate between the United States and North Korea, the U.S. government is particularly ill-equipped to carry out effective diplomacy, thanks to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the State Department. The U.S. currently has no ambassador to South Korea, no secretary of Asian Pacific affairs and no secretary of East Asian affairs. For more on the dismantling of the U.S. government, we speak to longtime journalist and activist Allan Nairn. Link to Story and 6-Minute Video Related Stories: Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Urges Trump to Privatize Afghan War & Install Viceroy to Run Nation…

  By Finton O’Toole The Guardian (8/3/17) The surest mark of regime change is when they start attacking the statues. Americans appreciate this as well as anyone – hence the carefully stage-manged toppling of Saddam Hussein in Firdos square in Baghdad in 2003. Stephen Miller, one of the key ideologues of the Trump regime, surely knew what he was doing when he took a symbolic axe to the Statue of Liberty in a heated argument with CNN’s Jim Acosta over the president’s proposals to drastically limit legal immigration. In fairness, Miller did not attack the statue itself. A horde of boat-trip owners and Liberty…

  By Abby Zimet Common Dreams (7/22/17) So much for marketing. First reviews on Wall Street hedge funder Anthony Scaramucci, the beleaguered Popular Loser’s swaggering, sweet-talking, snappy-dressing, obsequious new White House Communications Director, are less than stellar. Having decided his problem is just poor messaging – not that he’s an awful human being ineptly struggling to advance a cruel, stupid, politically regressive agenda – Drumpf, a sleazy salesman, has brought in another sleazy salesman. “The Mooch”– does he belong in “Good Fellas” or what? – is “a wealthy mini-me Manhattan bro with a wolfy smile and slick coif who will say anything and…