Amateur Hour

From the recent developments around the Trump presidency, we can conclude several things about the people around Trump, and about the Republican party in general: they are corrupt, evil, desperate and stupid. We can only hope for the US population to see this, and care enough to vote them out of power in a week from now.

Non Sequitur

A Republican-funded poll indicates that the Republican party faces a problem with voter turnout for the midterm elections. At first sight, this appears logical, because it would only be natural for Republican voters to have second thoughts about backing up an insane president and a deeply corrupt party. However, that is not the reason stated in the poll. Instead, the respondents indicated a lack of enthusiasm for voting because they believe the supposed "blue wave" of Democrat voters eager to vote the Congress out of Republican  hands is "fake news", and that - get this - there is no need to vote, because the Republicans are going to win anyway.

Let's think about that point of view for a moment. "The Republicans are going to win anyway, so I see no good reason to get off my as and actually vote for them." The laziness and sheer stupidity of that statement is appalling. This might possibly be a mental block, a way of motivating themselves to pull their support for a criminal to remain in power without actually admitting, even to to themselves, that they don't like him. However, I suppose we should be happy either way. The blue wave keeps gaining momentum, and the Trump presidency will hopefully be washed away by it.

Water is Wet

In a pathetic attempt to look presidential, Donald Trump appeared on TV and told American citizens that hurricane Florence, currently en route to the US, is going to be "tremendously big and tremendously wet".

Yes, seriously. Even for him, this is extraordinary imbecile and deeply embarrassing.

The president of the United States is a man with the mind and vocabulary of a five year old child. "Lookie, I used the big grown-up word twice! Donnie did good?"

President Crazy-Pants

There is no longer any plausible explanation for the tweets and statements made by the so-called president of the United States, other than this: Donald Trump is bat-shit crazy. He is now going down a particularly self-destructive road from which there may be no return. He is out of options, out of ideas, and out of gas. Even the hot air, which he seemed to have in an infinite supply, has started to fizzle. The pathetic shadow of a man residing in the White House has absolutely no clue and is now living in a completely delusional state of mind, obsessing over conspiracies he hears on Fox News instead of fulfilling his duties. If impeachment hearings were started now, it would be a slam-dunk case to remove him from office. Too bad that the Republican-controlled Congress lacks any sliver of decency and are still trying to pretend that Donald Trump us a real president, not only failing to play one on TV.

Truth Isn't Truth

Truth isn't truth. What you see on TV and read in the papers, that's not what's happening. Any negative polls are fake. We presented alternative facts.

These four statements are all authentic quotes from Donald Trump and his spokespeople.

There are no versions of truth and facts. Truth and facts are absolute, and Donald Trump's frenzied attempts to have us believe otherwise must be fought, tooth and nail, at every turn. I get it: it's comforting to pretend that this is not happening, that the US did not let itself be fooled, coerced and swindled to elect an orange turd for president, putting the country to shame and causing damage which will resonate for decades, but we must resist. Reality is real. Truth is truth. Crime is crime, and treason is treason.

"You're Fired!"

In the delusional world of Donald Trump, he can make witnesses to his crimes disappear by firing them. In reality, this only sets them free to tell everything without any loyalty issues, and without fear of further retaliation. He may be hoping to discredit them by making their ouster a public story told in misspelled, lying and juvenile tweets, but if anything, being fired by Donald Trump is a sure sign that they have some serious dirt on him and should be listened to.

The *resident of the United States is a criminal, openly trying to intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice. Everything he does right now is a clear indication of his consciousness of guilt, and in his obsession with smearing the people he fear, he loses what little focus he had on his actual job and becomes even more incompetent at it. The fact that he is allowed to remain in power is an embarrassment to tbe country, and a sign that the entire Republican party is complicit in his mockery of a presidency.

The US has become something very ugly, and scary. Let's hope there is a way back.

Priorities

Donald Trump's world is falling apart. His former campaign manager is on trial, facing a long prison sentence. His closest friend (or, rather, the closest thing to a friend he has) is about to be indicted and arrested. The treasonous connections between Russia and his presidential campaign are becoming public at an alarming rate. His presidency is a big failure, and more or less everyone around him are being exposed as crooks and liars.

So, what does he do? He takes to Twitter to attack a black athlete, LeBron James.

Priorities, indeed.

Miller Time!

In a desperate attempt to distract the general public from his treasonous conspiracy with Russia, involving most of his cabinet, the NRA and large parts of the Republican party, the so-called president of the United States tweeted this:

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

All caps makes you look sincere, doesn't it? (No.)

Threatening another country with war just to create headlines? Bad idea. Fortunately, this threat wasn't issued by a real president, but by Donald Trump, who is completely  out of gas since several months. The message doesn't even appear to be from Trump. The spelling is correct, and the grammar is beyond that of a fifth grader. This tweet appears to have been posted by Stephen Miller, the racist fascist thug whispering poison in Trump's ear. Try reading it while imagining Miller's huge forehead and creepy eyes. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Emma Gonzalez For President

Emma Gonzalez, a high school girl who escaped the Florida school massacre with her life, is Donald Trump's worst nightmare. Smart, verbal, strong, female and of Latin American heritage, she is his opposite in every respect, and a formidable adversary. In just a few sentences spoken to the press, she effectively annihilated him, and suggested we deal with the illegitimate and dysfunctional president by ignoring him. For the narcissist Trump, that's the ultimate horror. Without attention from others, he withers away.

Pity he makes such great documentary drama at the moment. It's hard to look away from the messiest presidential train wreck in history, and it's hard not to comment on it. But for Emma, I will try. I hope she gets into politics. Her voice was a beacon of common sense, clarity and honesty that lit up the day, even against the grim reality of the recent mass shooting.

"Case Closed"

Because the first round of indictments against Russians in the election rigging scandal didn't explicitly state that the outcome of the election was altered nor that they collaborated with any of the people around Trump, he took to Twitter to claim that he had been cleared of suspicion and that we're done. Nothing to see here. His exact choice of words was "case closed".

That is, of course, not the case. There's plenty to see here, and a lot more is coming very soon. Robert Mueller and his team are going to make Trump eat those words.
Dtarting today, I'm having the popcorn ready.

Dead Man Walking

Suddenly, it's all over. With yesterday's announcements that a number of Russian nationals and some Russian organizations were involved in rigging the election for Donald Trump, there is no doubt that Donald Trump is a willing and knowing Russian puppet. Trump himself is if course shouting about how the indictments, which are now just one step away from incriminating Trump and his close advisors, actually vindicate him and show that he did nothing wrong. Of course, he is delusional. Like a headless chicken, he runs around, flapping and making random noises, but soon enough it's bound to register even in his slow, stupid and severely addled mind: his failed attempt at an illegitimate presidency is dead, and he has lost all political power as well as all credibility.

Two Flies In One SWAT

The FBI is investigating the NRA for laundering Russian money to make donations to the GOP. If they find any grounds for the allegations, it will be a very big deal indeed. The NRA could be barred from making any political contributions in the future, and the GOP could be sanctioned or even disbanded for violating US election laws.


Could this be the demise of the Republican party, or the NRA, or perhaps both?

West Winging It

The White House is losing people at an alarming rate, and they are having trouble finding new candidates to fill the vacancies. Exacerbating the problem is their initial reluctance to hire enough people in the first place, with many deputy positions within the administration left unstaffed since Trump took office. The result is as evident as it was predictable: a White House in chaos, struggling to stay on top of even the most important issues. There is no plan, just a daily panic and madness. Balls are dropped, contradicting messages are released, scandals are created around the incompetent people in Trump's orbit, most every official White House statement is a shameless and transparent lie, and the big, ugly ghost of Russia is always lurking in the background.

The West Wing is looking more like the Wild West Wing for each passing day. This is not a healthy way of running a government.

Exodus

All across the US, Republicans are quitting and withdrawing from the mid-term elections in 2018. Most people expect it to be a severely uphill battle for the party, with Democrats set to engage voters like never before and Republicans considerably less eager to vote for a party that is turning hard right and alienating its more moderate sympathizers, not to mention that they are hampered by the most inept president in modern history. Facing a humiliating defeat, Republican senators and representatives choose to drop out of the race instead of running for re-election.

Experienced lawmakers see the writing on the wall. If you are a Republican and have a brain, it's time to leave.

Childspeak

When asked for a comment on one of the most recent exits from his administration, Donald Trump offered this, quoted verbatim but not in full:

"He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he's also very sad now."

Small, simple words. Needless, unimaginative repetitions. Who talks like that? Children with a small vocabulary. Idiots. People suffering from dementia. Donald Trump is not a child, so he is either stupid or demented. Or both.

Falling Down

We are finally at the stage where most people around Donald Trump are ignoring him, realizing that he is incompetent, disgusting, evil and out of his mind. However, he was always like that, and it has been as clear as day since before ue took office. What took them so long to see it?

Repugnicans

The slur "Repugnicans", alluding to the GOP representatives being repugnant, is sadly fitting. The Republican party took another step into darkness when Arthur Jones became the single Republican candidate for an Illinois seat in Congress. Jones is a racist, an anti-semite and a holocaust denier. Yes. Seriously. What's more, he used to be the leader of the American Nazi party. This is beyond crazy. Having that kind of person unopposed on the ballot sends a very clear message that the Republican party is heading full speed into right wing lunacy. The GOP is a scary, ugly mess of angry old white men.

I'm thinking that Lincoln would probably not have approved.

More Parties

The Republican party is at war with itself, with the right wing hijacking their agenda and running roughshod over the more moderate faction.

The Democrats can't decide on a common agenda, as they represent a too wide spectrum of opinions from left to right-middle.

Time for more than two parties in US politics, perhaps?

"No Obstruction"

Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand that he is making things worse for himself. He doesn't even seem to understand the term "obstruction of justice", the crime that brought Nixon down. In a single breath, Trump managed to say that "There has been no obstruction", and that "there is nothing to see here, and the Russia investigation needs to be closed down". The latter statement is precisely what is meant by "obstruction": using undue influence to stop an investigation from running its course.

Trump is making Robert Mueller's job a lot easier by being a moron and running his mouth - two of the very few things that seem to come natural to him.

Village Idiots

When looking for explanations for the strange behavior of Carter Page and Devin Nunes, the only plausible alternative seems to be very simple: these people are unbelievably stupid, too stupid to even understand that they are stupid. They have both repeatedly failed to understand the nature of their Russia problem, acted in clumsy defense only to make things worse for everyone involved, and failed to realize when they should just shut up. A lot of people around Trump are incompetent, but Page and Nunes take the prize for pure, unadulterated stupidity.

However, it's certainly convenient when criminals act in such stupid manners, incriminating themselves and everyone around them as they unsuccessfully enact their badly devised schemes to hide the treasonous crimes committed by the Trump administration.

Last Stand

In these final moments of the illegitimate, failed and embarrassing presidency of the traitorous and demented criminal Donald Trump, we are seeing him fight for his life. The sad thing is that he carries out that task exactly like any other task he has faced as president: badly, with the help of incompetent people, and without a clue about what he is actually doing, or why.

It is, of course, a good thing that a wannabe dictator is this stupid and lazy. He is figuratively lying down for his last stand, curled up on the floor in fetus position, catatonic with fear. If his handling of the now infamous Nunes memo is indicative if how he will fight back from now on, he will be very easy indeed to take down.

Body Language

An amateur's opinion is not enough for a serious news publisher, but this is just a blog, so here comes my speculation on the body language of Republicans versus Democrats.

When you watch Republicans on TV, they often send off signals of something being off. They look uncomfortable, defensive, embarrassed, even scared. It's as if they feel the weight of their conscience and subconsciously send off signals of guilt.
Democrats, on the other hand, act with animosity, outrage, engagement and spirit. They speak their mind, freely and without hesitation,

Simply put, Democrats come across as honest, whereas Republicans do not. Coincidence?

Falling Down

The wannabe Emperor currently occupying the White House, after having cheated his way to power by committing treason, is finally going to face justice. It's not entirely clear whether his deteriorating and deeply addled mind has any concept of guilt, or if he is truly living in the delusional belief that he has done nothing wrong, but the special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, along with the majority of the US population, knows the truth: Donald Trump is a criminal who should be locked away, along with a large number of co-conspirators.

Not Evil Enough

In his efforts to obstruct justice, Donald Trump has intimidated and harassed key witnesses to his treasonous Russian connections. The problem is that he doesn't threaten to kill them, so he isn't having them silenced. He just pisses them off by firing them.

In Russia, many of these peope would run a big risk of getting killed, or even be killed. What Trump doesn't realize is that firing someone doesn't make the person disappear. That was the case on his pseudo reality show "The Apprentice", where Trump would say "You're fired!", and they were out of the show. In real life, however, a fired person can still be interviewed, and will have all the more reason to turn on Trump.

Apparently, Trump is too stupid to understand reality.

It's All True

Seeing how the Trump and his henchmen are spooked, and looking at all the serious  allegations against them, the logical conclusion is that it's all true. Trump stole the election with help from Russia, he has a long history of money laundering, and he has been obstructing justice since he took office to try to bury the Russia story. Furthermore, while it's posible that only Trump's family and a handful of his deplorable associates were actively complicit in the various crimes, it is now becoming obvious that large parts of the Republican party leadership are aware of the crimes but remain silent - in some cases trying to avtively cover them up or create distractions.

It's probably going to be a long time before every crime committed by this atrocious administration is exposed and prosecuted, but we are at least seeing the beginning of the end. Quite a lot of people are going to end up in prison over the bizarre freak show that is Donald Trump's presidency.

Opposites

It's striking how different the special counsel Robert Mueller is from Donald Trump. Mueller is intelligent, disciplined, honest, and extremely good at his job. Patient and relentless, he lets his actions speak and doesn't care for loose talk. Compare that to the president: stupid, fickle, crooked, inept, impatient, easily distracted, all talk and no action. People like Mueller need to get into politics. And people like Trump need to go to jail.

When?

When are the rats going to leave the sinking ship? Not a single Republican senator or representative has clearly and unequivocally disavowed Donald Trump. Now would seem a good time to put some distance between yourself and the toxic president whose time in office is rapidly coming to an end. Instead, the rats seem intent on going down with the ship. They don't have to. It's not as if they are the captain, or tied to the helm to ride out a storm. They're just rats, and they can leave any time. So why are they sticking by Trump instead of trying to save what's left of their careers?

Bully In A China Shop

Name calling is a bully tactic Trump uses, unsuccessfully, to disparage his opponents. The problem with his labels is that they don't stick, because his names are not particularly fitting, neither funny nor clever, and they mostly reflect back on himself very strongly. Like today, when he called the Senate minority leader "Cryin' Chuck Schumer".

This is a person with whom Trump is absolutely forced to negotiate to solve the shutdown debacle more permanently in a few weeks. Bullying him now is not a smart move. Plus, as usual, "Cryin' Donald Trump" is a more fitting label. After making a number of stupid moves that triggered a government shutdown this past weekend, Trump withdrew to his chambers to throw a tantrum and mope. Right now, the Democrats are definitely not the ones doing the crying.

The President needs to grow up, but he lacks the mental capacity to even know what that means.

Egg, Meet Face

"The egg you see on my face is not egg, it's not on my face, and you are not seeing it. And if I did have egg on my face, so what? There's no shame in that. Hey, look over there, what is that? Someone with egg on their face. What a moron!"

That is the entire defense of Donald Trump, regardless of the accusation. Deny, diminish, deflect. Sadly, it seems to work on the rather large percentage of US voters who are, well, idiots. Fortunately, they are not the majority.

Broke

Despite his claims of being a billionaire, Donald Trump is broke. His total debt is massive and probably exceeds the value of his assets by a wide margin, and he is strapped for cash. Hints can be taken from his small scale grifting to transfer money from Secret Service to his company by forcing them to pay for accommodation and golf car rental while he makes his weekly escape from work to play golf, but the most telling sign emerged from his evolving sex scandal involving the porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump didn't use his own money to buy her silence. Instead, he arranged for his campaign to pay her $130,000, which constitutes illegal use of campaign funds. That sounds like an unnecessary risk to take for a self-proclaimed billionaire. On top of that, his inept lawyer failed to disguise the transaction well enough in the books, so now it's clear that Michael Cohen arranged for $130,000 of the Trump campaign funds to be transferred to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.

Trump's debts are causing him a world of pain, and the money trail is going to bring him down.

Poison In His Ear

Donald Trump is running out of advisors. In the wake of several key people resigning, and others falling out of grace with the fickle man-toddler president, it appears that Stephen Miller now has a considerable influence over Trump. Miller is a racist, a scary right-wing extremist and Nazi wannabe, and him running the show for an increasingly mentally vacant Trump is a scary prospect.

Stephen Miller is a monster who needs to be fired and prosecuted for his crimes, not be allowed to stand next to the president and whisper poison in his ear.

Tells And Tall Tales

For a person who has relied on telling lies for everything he has done, Donald Trump is surprisingly bad at it. He has a habit of going over the top and over-compensating, like when he recently denied being a racist. It would have been perfectly fine to simply say "No, I'm not a racist", but he had to add "I'm the least racist person you've ever interviewed". Being "the least racist" doesn't even make sense, but he feels compelled to brag about being the best at everything.

He also has plenty of verbal tells for when he is telling a lie. He interjects "believe me", "I can tell you", or "it's true", as if he knows the lie is too transparent to stick. A person telling the truth doesn't feel a need to reinforce his statements all the time.

To be even a mildly succesful habitual liar, you really need to be better at hiding and covering up your lies than what Trump is showing at the moment.

Small Man, Small Mind, Small World

Donald Trump is not a great man. He is not even a good man, let alone a good president. His small-mindedness is apparent from his actions, and when you look at what he considers important, it is obvious that his world is very small. The latest example is his reaction to the government shutdown: he threw a fit because it ruined his Mar-a-Lago party celebrating his one year anniversary as president.

The government is shutting down for lack of funding, and the president complains because it rains on his personal parade. This is truly bizarre.

Ebriocracy

Ebriocracy: government by drunks. That is the quality of leadership we can expect in the US right now. Incidentally, "POTUS" means "drunk" in Latin. Fitting, isn't it?

"Excellent Health"

Looking at the published results from Trump's physical, it becomes clear that it was cleaned up for presentation, because it exaggerated his height and decreased his weight to place his BMI just below "obese". He is still at the uppermost end of "overweight" on the scale, but to Trump, his only concern is avoiding the fat-shaming label "obese".

Looking at the results that were probably not altered, he has very high cholesterol, despite taking strong cholesterol-reducing medication, and his coronary calcium is at pathological levels and increasing. Add to this that he keeps a very unhealthy diet with large amounts of fast food and gets almost no exercise at all, and the conclusion is that Donald Trump has a serious heart condition and runs a significant risk of suffering a stroke or a heart attack.

"Excellent health". Yeah, right. They should have had someone with medical expertise clean up the test results before they tried to make that claim. But hey, look, they made it so that he is one pund shy of being called fat, and that's the important thing, right?

Chaos

The White House is burning, figuratively speaking, set ablaze by its crazy occupants, who are digging in and refusing to evacuate. Through the flames you can hear their dying words: "There is nothing to see here, all is well."

Chaos has engulfed the Trump administration. It was bad before, but this is a new level of bad. This has to end soon, or the chaos might set things in motion that can't be undone once sanity returns to the US.

Face Off

The worsening mental condition of Donald Trump is now making it difficult for him to maintain even a half decent facade and hide his most ugly opinions and personality traits from public view. Recently, he has been losing it and exposed his racism very clearly, and it feels like it's only a matter of time before he drops the N-word while obsessing about his predecessor.

Donald Trump's mask is finally coming off, and when he drops the mask, he is losing face as well. What's beneath the mask is neither agreeable nor useful. His face-off with justice is long overdue.

Forgery, Idiot Style

In a way, it's a good thing that the entire gang of criminals around Donald Trump are morons and laughably bad at what they do, no matter what they try their hands at. A letter was presented by the White House, supposedly from the military doctor who did the physical examination of Trump this past week. The letter stated, in an obvious lie, that Trump is in "excellent health". Just looking at the man will tell anyone that this is not the case. However, the doctor didn't lie. He just kept silent when the White House forged a fraudulent letter from him and signed it in his name.

How can we know the letter is a forgery? Well, a doctor would not spell his own name wrong. The letter is signed "Dr. Ronnie Jackson", but his first name is Ronny. Plus, he usually signs "Ronny Jackson, MD", not "Dr. Ronnie Jackson".

You could liken this to a third grader bringing a note to the teacher stating that he is to be relieved of gym class, but with the note written in pencil, in a child's hand, on crayon paper, and signed "My Dad".

This forgery is the work of an inept fool. Sadly, there are plenty to choose from in the White House.

Nightmares

Donald Trump and his gang of misfits are living a nightmare right now. All their crimes and all their lies are being exposed, and they have no way out.
For rhe rest of us, however, the nightmare we have lived for the past year might possibly come to an end soon.

Too Much To Hide

Not only does the Trump administration need to hide their treason to steal the election, as well as hide their appalling ineptitude at governing. In the wake of Michael Wolff's book "Fire And Fury", it is becoming clear that they have worked hard to hide Trump's rapid mental decline and pretend that everything is fine.

However, it seems like the pretending is now on its last legs. Donald Trump has botched too many public appearances, and millions of people are reaching the conclusion that Trump's brain is rapidly turning into mush.

Like, Really Smart

This morning, Donald Trump felt the need to ensure the world via Twitter that he is not crazy and not stupid. He did this by writing that he has always been "like, really smart". Really, Donald? You type something to counter a book that claims your entire staff considers you a moron, and that is what you came up with as a retort?

He then went into hyperbole, as is his habit, and proclaimed himself an outright "genius". A journalist asked him later in the day why he had felt the need to tweet about his intelligence. Trump aswered in a non sequitur way: "Because I went to the best colleges. I went to..." and then he fell silent mid-sentence as if he suddenly couldn't rember where he went to college. He tried to save face by instead saying something generic but exaggerated about his supposedly outstanding performance as a student, but the damage was done.

Donald Trump doesn't seem to recall where he went to college. He is going downhill faster than we imagined.

Stupidly Criminal Or Criminally Stupid?

The President is insane and senile, and the White House is in complete disarray, but a stunning amount of high profile Republican politicians are going to unbelievable lengths in trying to defend Trump, some to the point where they are actually incriminating themselves in the process. Either these people are so utterly ignorant and naive that they don't actually believe the evidence that is now surfacing against the traitor Trump and his gang of deplorables, or they are already deeply involved in the Russia scandal and are desperately trying to protect themselves.

So, a whole bunch of Republicans in the House, Senate and the White House are either stupidly criminal or criminally stupid. Who is what? It looks as if that will be revealed quite soon.

Dave, My Mind Is Going

The quote "my mind is going" is from the script of "2001 - A Space Odyssey", said by the AI named "HAL" when his circuits are being disconnected. Donald Trump should say the same, but he is already too far gone to notice his own decline. Anyone observing his behavior, though, can clearly see a man already far into the fog, losing himself to senility.

At today's press briefing, Trump appeared in a brief pre-recorded video message which was edited from several even shorter snippets, apparently to hide the fact that the president can't speak for a couple of minutes without hitches. Even so, he managed to come across as seriously senile. He didn't look at the camera, he had absolutely no mental presence in his delivery of the speech, and he appeared to have some problem with keeping his right eye open. The video showed a person in very bad shape.

This man is incapable of doing his job, or indeed any job. He needs to be fired.

These Are Not The Droids

Donald Trump seems to think he has Jedi powers and can play mind tricks to make people ignore the obvious even when it's staring them in the eye. Now that it has become clear that Steve Bannon has ratted out his former boss Donald Trump, Trump tries to claim that he hardly knows him. In a tweet, he says that Bannon, his former campaign manager and specially appointed senior adviser was "a staffer" who "has nothing to do with my Presidency", and concludes that Bannon lost his mind along with his job.

No, Mr. Trump. Most people are not stupid enough to believe that. They remember.

Too Many Secrets

Donald Trump's presidency is built on lies, deception and criminal activity, just like his family business. The difference is that he is now in a very public position where he is being closely watched, and the kind of deals a president is supposed to make are not of the kind where you can just declare bankruptcy and quit, fail to pay your bills and bully your contractors to suck it up by threatening to sue them, or use funds obtained by money laundering. (These are the methods commonly used by the Trump Organization when doing business.)

Public scrutiny is a situation completely alien to a man who only ever ran a family business with neither shareholders nor a board of directors to hold him accountable. To make things worse, his shenanigans to steal the election required lots of people. Too many for everyone to keep the many secrets. We recently learned that the Russia investigation was initiated after George Papadopoulos got drunk and bragged to random people about how they had rigged the election with Russian help. An Australian diplomat heard him and reported it to the FBI, and here we are, the ugly truth being dug up piece by piece and the big picture emerging while Donald Trump, his White House and more or less the entire Republican party are trying in an increasingly desperate manner to distract from the scandal. It's not working, and it's not a pretty sight.

Too many people. Too many secrets. Too many lies. And too many eyes and ears, watching and listening.