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Tuesday Thought #3

In His Own Words _____ Proves Himself Unfit To Lead

We all know that _____ is ill-prepared to be president—most of us knew that all last year—but as we’ve learned last week, with the release of leaked transcripts of phone between _____ and Mexico’s President, Enrique Peña Nieto, and with Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, he is completely out of his depth.

Let’s begin with _____ and Peña Nieto discussing ‘The Wall.’

Candidate _____ used ‘The Wall’ as one of his building blocks of his campaign, stoking the flames of fear of brown-skinned people as drug dealers, rapists and murderers to promise the American people that he would protect us ... by building a wall and having Mexico pay for it.

At the time, when some people I knew said they liked the idea, especially the part about Mexico paying for it, I told them this little story...

Your neighbor has a dog that keeps coming into your yard and digging up your flower beds; you don’t like it, but you cannot stop the dog and the neighbors can’t be bothered. So, you decide you’re going to build a fence to keep the dog out and have your neighbor pay for it.

Yeah, that would never happen; I mean, sure, you could sue to have the neighbor pay, but probably all you’d get is the right to kill the dog if it continues to trespass, or force the neighbor to watch their dog or chain up their dog. But you cannot build a fence on your property, or even your property line, and then make someone else pay for it.

So, why anyone believed _____ is a testament to how idiotic his followers can be, especially given the fact that, at every single turn, Mexico’s President Peña Nieto, said his country will not pay for the wall; not now, not ever; no discussion.

So, in that White House call with Peña Nieto, _____ described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, and tried to force Peña Nieto to stop saying his government would never pay:

“You cannot say that to the press.”

And _____ even promised to get the money some other, but said he would cut off contact if Peña Nieto continued to make defiant statements; seriously. And he added:

“If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

Is it me, or does he sound like a guy begging for sex from his, say Eastern European born wife, and then threatening to hold his breath until he gets some? But he continued to beg, claiming that the wall is “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”

You know, because the base will get riled up and maybe turn on him. But, sadly, this is our president, whining about how another country will build our wall because, if they don’t he’ll stop talking to them.

“On the wall, you and I both have a political problem. My people stand up and say, ‘Mexico will pay for the wall,’ and your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language.”

Um, it’s called Spanish ... but then _____ acknowledged that his threats to make Mexico pay had left him cornered politically:

“I have to have Mexico pay for the wall—I have to. I have been talking about it for a two-year period.”

And so he tried to force Peña Nieto to simply stopped saying ‘No’ to paying:

“We should both say, ‘We will work it out.’ It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, ‘We will not pay,’ and me saying, ‘We will not pay.’”

But Peña Nieto resisted, saying his “position has been and will continue to be very firm, saying that Mexico cannot pay for the wall.” And _____ flipped:

“But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that.”

Perhaps the idea of the President of the United States whining like a little bitch, softened Peña Nieto’s heart because, while he continued to refuse to pay for the wall, he did agree to stop talking about it.

President _____ signed an executive order mandating construction of the wall, though to this day the funding for it remains unclear. And while _____ reiterated his vow that Mexico would pay—as recently as last month at the G20—the House approved a spending bill setting aside $1.6 billion for a wall that is projected to cost as much as $21 billion.

In US dollars, mind you.

And Mexico said, ‘Meh.’

But it wasn’t just a phone call to Mexico that showed the weakness in _____; he also spoke with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the United States accepting refugees ... well, Muslim refugees anyway.

As we know now, with the transcripts leaked to the press, _____ exploded on Turnbull:

“I have had it. I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day.”

Huh; so I wonder who was the nicest person _____ spoke with ...

“Putin was a pleasant call.”

Go figure.

And the phone call became even more contentious when it returned to the idea of the United States accepting refugees from Australian detention centers. While the Obama administration had agreed to accept some detainees _____ was not having it.

“I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.”

Huh? What? Why?

Turnbull tried to explain that the detainees were economic refugees who had not been accused of crimes, and said they were being denied entry into Australia because of a policy aimed at discouraging human smuggling. He even tried to give _____ a way to explain it by doing something _____ loves to do, blame Obama:

“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal. You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”

That only made _____ angrier, saying that the refugees could “become the Boston bomber in five years” before adding:

“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. As far as I am concerned, that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people.”

Look, here’s the deal: this man is woefully out of his league in this job. He has spent a career bullying developers, contractors, designers, vendors, constructions workers to get his way and he thought he could use that same ignorant mentality in the White House and—since we know these conversations took place in late January—we see that even in his first week in office he is ill-prepared and unsuited to be the leader of this country.

But here’s the saddest part of the leaked phone calls: it’s clear that _____ is not really concerned with the resistance—he offers no concrete plans as a result of Mexico and Australia refusing to play ball—he seems most concerned with how this makes him look.

And he should, because he, once again, looks like he has no idea what he’s doing.

WaPo

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David Horsey, Nate Beeler, Adam Zyglis, Steve Sack, Jack Ohman, Rick McKee, Clay Bennett, Gary Varvel, RJ Matson, Nick Anderson

Donny _____ Spills The Tea ... To The Russians

I guess this is what happens when you elect a narcissistic buffoon with a giant ego, a mouth that never stops, a bad rug, and tiny hands to the Oval.

Last week, in a meeting with the Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, _____ bragged about highly classified intelligence—clearly _____ doesn’t know from intelligence—providing details that could expose the ally who provided the information and the manner in which it was collected.

Yup, just cuz, you know.

The intelligence disclosed was about an ISIS plot and was considered so sensitive it wasn’t shared widely within the United States government or passed to other allies.

Until _____. Sadly, _____’s display of ignorance is not illegal because the president—even a buffoon—has the power to declassify almost anything.

However, sharing the information without the express permission of the ally who provided it, could jeopardize a crucial intelligence-sharing relationship and is considered a major breach.

Still, it made _____ feel important; like a big shot.

But here’s the rub; the ally who provided the intelligence has said  it would cut off access to future information if it were shared too widely ... like in a casual Oval office conversation with the Russians who might be able to determine how the information was collected and could disrupt the ally’s espionage efforts.

Beyond angering a partner, an ally, in the War on Terror terror terror and calling into question the ability of the President to keep his fat mouth shut, it also proves the hypocrisy of ____ and the GOP.

While running for office last year he made Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information through her private email server central to his campaign—remember “Lock her up!”?

Yeah, and yet there was never any indication that Clinton exposed sensitive information from an ally or gave it to an adversary.

That’s just _____.

The spin after this latest gaffe is that _____ may have not been aware of the sensitivity of what the info he was sharing. It wasn’t until after the meeting, when notes from the meeting were circulated among National Security Council officials, that it was flagged as too sensitive to be shared ...  even among many American officials.

But we all know—from Twitter and his own incoherent ramblings—the man cannot keep his mouth shut.

_____ lackeys,  Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, national security adviser, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Are saying it never happened, the conversation never took place and nothing classified was shared. But, according to other officials in the room, _____ did discuss the contents of the intelligence, but not the sources or methods used in obtaining it; but this doesn’t alleviate the concerns that, by sharing any information with the Russians, that they could figure out those details.

But that’s _____, as I said, and now it appears that he’s in an alleged "downward spiral" because, not only are democrats angered by the news, even some Republicans are condemning the president. And when your own party finds you to be an idiot who can’t stop yapping, a moron who endangers our allies, well, then, it just bodes well for impeachment or investigations, or a fat golfer from resigning the office.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, a frequent _____ critic, and fellow national security hawk John McCain each called the news “troubling” and “disturbing.”

And David Kochel, a GOP political strategist, wins for best response, putting it like this:

“John McCain probably revealed less to the KGB in 5+ years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton than Trump did in 5 minutes in the Oval.”

Snap!

But one Republican who comes down firmly on the side of the president, because he’s _____’s political caddy is House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Back in July 2016, no one in DC was more appalled, loudly appalled, that the FBI had decided not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime for sending and receiving classified information on her private email server than Lyin’ Paul Ryan:

“No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent. The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions.”

And after his tirade, he asked the Obama administration to stop giving Clinton classified briefings:

“Individuals who are 'extremely careless' should be denied further access to information.”

And so, clearly, Paul Ryan believed the FBI should have charged Clinton for sending and receiving classified information on a private email server she used exclusively as secretary of state.

And yet, in his initial statement about _____’s comments to the Russians, Paul Ryan is trying to play it safe by parsing his words so as not to anger We The People and not to anger ____:

"We have no way to know what was said, but protecting our nation's secrets is paramount. The speaker hopes for a full explanation of the facts from the administration."

Wow; so when the thought that maybe, maybe, Hillary Clinton had done something wrong, Paul Ryan basically shrieked a version of “Lock her up” from the rooftops, but when his own party’s president clearly blabbed top secret information, he treads carefully.

And that is exactly why this party needs to go; as Bill Maher calls it, their “tribal hypocrisy” of bashing one side for some alleged crime, but looking the other way when it’s their own leader.

Ah, but just another day, just another blunder, in America under ____.

Tick tock to impeachment.

NYT

Independent

Washington Post

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