Last night, I was reminded of the John Cleese TV series "Fawlty Towers", where the running joke was for the hotel manager, Basil Fawlty, to make some relatively small mistake, and then spend the rest of the episode trying to cover it up, making a huge mess of it. The debacle always ended in total disaster with his complete and utter humiliation. In the next episode, he hadn't learned anything, but did the same mistake all over again.
This is what we are seeing with President* Trump, every week. With John Cleese as a fictional character, it was great and memorable comedy. In real life with the President* of the United States in the lead role, it's not the least bit funny. It's sad, embarrassing, and very, very scary.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Ghosts from the past
In their book "The Final Days", Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein gave a troubling account of the last month of Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974. They described a president suffering from severe paranoia, hiding in the Oval Office during the day and spending his nights walking around drunk in the White House, talking to portraits of previous presidents. The current president of the United States is probably not having conversations aloud with the portrait of his idol Andrew Jackson (perhaps the most controversial of his predecessors), but his behavior signals very clearly that he is becoming increasingly mentally unstable. He literally seems to be coming apart before our eyes, and it's not a pretty sight.
President* Donald Trump has been detached from reality for quite a while, probably since long before he was elected. His wild accusations of massive voter fraud and illegal wire tapping makes it clear that he is now also paranoid and goes all-in on baseless crazy conspiracy theories presented without proof. Paranoia definitely doesn't sit well with being one of the most powerful persons in the world. President* Trump poses a severe security risk to his country, and by extension to the entire world. He must be removed from office as soon as possible, before he does irreparable harm. What he has done so far has been appalling and reckless, but none of his legislation has actually kicked in yet, and there is still time for the Congress to call for support from what few decent people there might be in the current administration, invoke Section 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution and save the world from President* Donald Trump by doing the right thing: removing him from office.
President* Donald Trump has been detached from reality for quite a while, probably since long before he was elected. His wild accusations of massive voter fraud and illegal wire tapping makes it clear that he is now also paranoid and goes all-in on baseless crazy conspiracy theories presented without proof. Paranoia definitely doesn't sit well with being one of the most powerful persons in the world. President* Trump poses a severe security risk to his country, and by extension to the entire world. He must be removed from office as soon as possible, before he does irreparable harm. What he has done so far has been appalling and reckless, but none of his legislation has actually kicked in yet, and there is still time for the Congress to call for support from what few decent people there might be in the current administration, invoke Section 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution and save the world from President* Donald Trump by doing the right thing: removing him from office.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.Having a dangerously insane person like Donald Trump in the Oval Office is disastrous, unsustainable and, frankly, unthinkable.
Monday, March 6, 2017
The rats are leaving the ship
After President* Trump stubbornly refused to back down on his serious accusations, made Saturday morning on Twitter without proof, that his predecessor Barack Obama ordered an unlawful wire tapping of his campaign headquarters in Trump Tower, even his fellow Republicans are dropping support for him.
Their methods differ, but nobody, not even his closest associates, are agreeing with him. Some Republicans voice their doubt and demand more information, and some remain silent or make noncommittal statements. Some, like the White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, try in vain to spin what the president actually wrote on Twitter into something less explosive and less embarrassing, but nobody wants to jump on the crazy train, and everybody seems uneasy, ashamed and generally upset over what President* Trump did.
A particularly clever response came from Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Chaffetz said he hadn't seen any proof, but assumed that President* Trump would not have made the accusation without some piece of evidence:
The ship is sinking, and the rats are leaving. The question is: is there anywhere they can go?
Their methods differ, but nobody, not even his closest associates, are agreeing with him. Some Republicans voice their doubt and demand more information, and some remain silent or make noncommittal statements. Some, like the White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, try in vain to spin what the president actually wrote on Twitter into something less explosive and less embarrassing, but nobody wants to jump on the crazy train, and everybody seems uneasy, ashamed and generally upset over what President* Trump did.
A particularly clever response came from Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Chaffetz said he hadn't seen any proof, but assumed that President* Trump would not have made the accusation without some piece of evidence:
“Look, it’s a very serious allegation. The president has at his fingertips tens of billions of dollars in intelligence apparatus. I’ve got to believe -- I think he might have something there, but if not, we're going to find out.”Now, think whatever you want of Chaffetz, but he is obviously not stupid. Read this quote under the reasonable assumption that he knows that the entire accusation is pure hogwash and has no proof whatsoever except for a crazy Breitbart article about one delusional conspiratorial rant made by a kook radio host. This is very clearly not a statement of support. Quite the contrary: this is Jason Chaffetz preparing to denounce Donald Trump and cut all ties with him. He is not alone. Similar responses were heard from high ranking Republicans, including people in Trump's own administration. Even the infamous Kellyanne Conway, otherwise provenly comfortable with lying through her teeth for President* Trump, took this approach, distancing herself from a massive, incriminating false accusation made by her boss.
The ship is sinking, and the rats are leaving. The question is: is there anywhere they can go?
Off to Mar-a-la-la-land
We should seriously question the mental stability of President* Trump. His wild accusations against Barack Obama failed to convince anyone, and he spent his weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Florida fuming and ranting over it. According to the Washington Post, he ran into his old friend Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, on the golf course, and he vented to him over dinner on Saturday. Ruddy said that Trump told him: “This will be investigated. It will all come out. I will be proven right.” Ruddy further added about Trump that “He was pissed. I haven’t seen him this angry.”
James Comey, director of the FBI, has made a request that the Department of Justice release an official statement to debunk the false claims about Obama wire tapping Trump Tower. When nobody at the DOJ rose to the challenge, Comey didn't wait. Instead, he decided to make his request known to the public. When the director of the FBI feels an urgent need to tell the country that the President* is lying, it spells serious trouble for that President*.
President* Trump has been living in a bubble of denial, and now he seems to be entering a state of outright paranoia. This is not going to end well for him, and I fear he will do more harm before he's done.
James Comey, director of the FBI, has made a request that the Department of Justice release an official statement to debunk the false claims about Obama wire tapping Trump Tower. When nobody at the DOJ rose to the challenge, Comey didn't wait. Instead, he decided to make his request known to the public. When the director of the FBI feels an urgent need to tell the country that the President* is lying, it spells serious trouble for that President*.
President* Trump has been living in a bubble of denial, and now he seems to be entering a state of outright paranoia. This is not going to end well for him, and I fear he will do more harm before he's done.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Reality refuses to bend to Donald Trump's will
On Sunday morning, the former Director of National
Intelligence, James Clapper, went public on NBC:s "Meet The Press" and
clearly denied that any wire tapping took place in Trump Tower during
his time in office from 2010 to the end of Obama's presidency. He
stated in no uncertain terms that he "would definitely have known about" a
FISA warrant, and that it never happened.
There is no longer any doubt that Donald J Trump once again sank to the level of using his unique and strong platform as the President* of the United States to regurgitate an outlandish lie and a conspiracy theory taken straight from crazy right-wing news outlets. However, his request that the Congress Intelligence Committees look into his unfounded accusations remain. Congressman Jim Himes responded via Twitter: "as a member of the committee onto which you've dumped this mess, I look forward to seeing your evidence".
On the bright side, President* Trump asking his secretary to print out a short Breitbart story and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees dismissing that "evidence" shouldn't take long. The toddler-in-chief might use his marker pen to circle the words "Obama" and "silent coup", but that still doesn't make it true.
There is no longer any doubt that Donald J Trump once again sank to the level of using his unique and strong platform as the President* of the United States to regurgitate an outlandish lie and a conspiracy theory taken straight from crazy right-wing news outlets. However, his request that the Congress Intelligence Committees look into his unfounded accusations remain. Congressman Jim Himes responded via Twitter: "as a member of the committee onto which you've dumped this mess, I look forward to seeing your evidence".
On the bright side, President* Trump asking his secretary to print out a short Breitbart story and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees dismissing that "evidence" shouldn't take long. The toddler-in-chief might use his marker pen to circle the words "Obama" and "silent coup", but that still doesn't make it true.
A business of weasels
President* Donald Trump, or more likely one of his advisors tasked with emergency damage control, found a way of at least postponing the embarrassment from investigating his Saturday morning rage-tweet mentioned in the previous post. President* Trump made careless and most likely groundless accusations that former President Obama personally authorized a "wire tap" in Trump Tower, New York City. Assistants to Mr. Obama have categorically denied the allegations, educating President* Trump about how the surveillance laws in the US work. (The President's executive power does not extend to authorizing surveillance of US citizens. It requires a FISA warrant issued by a federal judge.)
Sean Spicer, the press secretary for the White House, issued this statement later during the day, without presenting any more details or evidence to support the accusations:
"Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling. President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted."Note the last sentence. Damage control has now put the lid on the story, once again deflecting from a clear sign of President* Trump's ineptitude, ignorance and lack of self control. They don't even have to acknowledge his obvious mistake in confusing the executive branch of power (the President and the cabinet) with the judicial branch (the courts and judges).
This weasel move dodges the calls for elaboration and more evidence, and it softens the blow to the President's heavily tainted reputation. The expected revelation that there is absolutely nothing to the allegations will now be delayed until the outrage has blown over, and it can be hidden away in an inconspicuous report released somewhere down the line. This will also let President* Trump off the hook, at least temporarily, for disclosing his sources. Most likely, his sources are woefully inadequate for such a serious, public accusation. Last but not least, it won't require him to reveal any time soon whether there was in fact a FISA warrant against his campaign. The mere existence of a warrant would raise suspicions that there was something illicit going on. For good reasons, there is a high bar for a prosecutor to get such a warrant.
Of course, this request for an investigation will also divert some of the attention of the Senate and House intelligence committees and make their job slightly more taxing. However, as disingenuous as that move is, it won't be enough to obscure the much more serious issue at hand: the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team and the Trump administration all show troubling signs of collusion with the Russian government.
No matter how hard President* Trump tries to spin, dodge and weasel his way out of this situation, he is running out of time, options and trust to remain in office.
(The phrase "a business of weasels" is one way of referring to a group of weasels, like "a school of fish" or "a pack of rats". Another phrase is "a confusion of weasels". Yes. Honestly. Look it up.)
The Trump who stole the Presidency
Early in the morning on March 4, 2017, President* Donald Trump once again took to Twitter to blow off some steam. He was particularly agitated after a couple of days of serious media fallout surrounding his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Following the revelation that during his Senate confirmation hearing, he had made misleading or false statements under oath about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, Sessions chose to recuse himself from investigations into related matters and asked to "amend" his sworn testimony to the Senate. (When ordinary people lie under oath and are caught, they are accused of perjury, but when members of the Trump administration do the same, they apparently get a do-over. However, that is beside the point here.)
In a series of tweets, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of "wire tapping" the Trump Tower in New York. He lashed out at his predecessor and called him a "bad (or sick) guy", in his familiar stunted vocabulary. The tweets were probably spurred by a short reference in Fox News to a recent article from Breitbart about a story from angry right-wing radio host Mark Levin, in turn referencing an old allegation from Heat Street that a FISA warrant had been granted in October 2016 for some kind of surveillance of communication at Trump Tower. Fox is a mainstream news outlet, albeit right-leaning and notoriously apologetic towards Donald Trump. Breitbart is an extreme right-wing source founded by Steve Bannon, and Heat Street is a right-wing source of British origin and dubious quality. Mark Levin, who is at the heart of this story, is one of the more notorious "angry white guy" right-wing conspiracy theorists and has absolutely no credibility at all. President* Trump's lack of propensity for checking his sources is infamous by now. The Heat Street article, which has not been independently verified, was published in early November 2016, but Donald Trump treated the entire story as news, and claimed he had "just learned" about the wire tapping, without citing any sources or evidence.
Now, misinterpreting what was just shown on Fox News and ranting about it in public is nothing out of the ordinary for a president who is well known to have a short temper and bad judgment, who constantly lies about issues great and small, has a weak grasp on reality and displays an utter inability to handle setbacks and criticism. People in his own administration were taken by surprise by the tweets, but being numb from several similar incidents in the past, they didn't really bother responding.
Somewhat surprisingly, several mainstream news outlets did respond, though. In fact, they took the allegations seriously, as if Donald Trump was a real president and a grown-up person, and made a story of it. At first, it seemed strange that they would take anything as outlandish seriously, but a pattern emerged after a while. By taking the preposterous allegations at face value, the mainstream media reported about a president literally accusing his predecessor of criminal activity, which is a very serious matter indeed. As a result, President* Trump lost control of the narrative, and within hours the story turned against him and blew up in his face.
It is a fact that a president of the US cannot legally authorize wire tapping of a US citizen. The so-called FISA bill, signed into law in 2008, makes it possible to monitor domestic communications, but for that to happen, a strong case needs to be made by a prosecutor to a special, secret court, and a warrant must be issued. The claim by Trump that he "has been" wire tapped, not that he "might have been", is an outright admission that he thinks that wire tapping took place. If this was done without a FISA warrant, it is highly illegal, which makes the allegations against former President Obama a very serious matter. It would obviously require President* Trump to elaborate and pursue the matter further. During the day following his morning tweets, he was asked to do exactly that, even by Republicans who would be considered his political allies. Calling for this course of action holds President* Trump accountable for his statements, something that should of course be expected of a real president. In any normal presidency, words from the President of the United States would rightfully be respected and acted upon. For President* Trump, not so much. At least not until now.
If, on the other hand, the surveillance had legal footing, it would mean that some government intelligence authority like the FBI made a case to the FISA court and had a warrant issued. This means that they could present a strong case of someone in the Trump Tower being involved in serious criminal activities involving contacts with a foreign hostile power. This would be very damning indeed to Donald Trump and his administration.
By making these public statements, President* Trump has, figuratively speaking, shot himself in the foot. Either he needs to follow through on his accusations against President Obama, or admit to the wire tapping being legal. In that case, it can be argued that his public admission, in his role as the President, of the wire tapping constitutes a de facto declassification of the existence of a FISA warrant, and that this should be formally acknowledged by the government.
Of course, he could just admit that he lied and tweeted baseless claims quoted from a crazy extreme right-wing source without credibility, but that seems to be something which would not come easy to Donald Trump.
The constant stream of nonsense, stupidity and lies from President* Trump is seriously damaging for his public image and his credibility, and he seems unable to act like a responsible adult. The decision by several news organizations to handle his latest tweet-storm as if he wasn't a petulant child shows exactly how he is unfit to serve. A president who can't be taken seriously is ineffective, ridiculous and dangerous. Donald Trump simply cannot be allowed to remain in office.
In a series of tweets, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of "wire tapping" the Trump Tower in New York. He lashed out at his predecessor and called him a "bad (or sick) guy", in his familiar stunted vocabulary. The tweets were probably spurred by a short reference in Fox News to a recent article from Breitbart about a story from angry right-wing radio host Mark Levin, in turn referencing an old allegation from Heat Street that a FISA warrant had been granted in October 2016 for some kind of surveillance of communication at Trump Tower. Fox is a mainstream news outlet, albeit right-leaning and notoriously apologetic towards Donald Trump. Breitbart is an extreme right-wing source founded by Steve Bannon, and Heat Street is a right-wing source of British origin and dubious quality. Mark Levin, who is at the heart of this story, is one of the more notorious "angry white guy" right-wing conspiracy theorists and has absolutely no credibility at all. President* Trump's lack of propensity for checking his sources is infamous by now. The Heat Street article, which has not been independently verified, was published in early November 2016, but Donald Trump treated the entire story as news, and claimed he had "just learned" about the wire tapping, without citing any sources or evidence.
Now, misinterpreting what was just shown on Fox News and ranting about it in public is nothing out of the ordinary for a president who is well known to have a short temper and bad judgment, who constantly lies about issues great and small, has a weak grasp on reality and displays an utter inability to handle setbacks and criticism. People in his own administration were taken by surprise by the tweets, but being numb from several similar incidents in the past, they didn't really bother responding.
Somewhat surprisingly, several mainstream news outlets did respond, though. In fact, they took the allegations seriously, as if Donald Trump was a real president and a grown-up person, and made a story of it. At first, it seemed strange that they would take anything as outlandish seriously, but a pattern emerged after a while. By taking the preposterous allegations at face value, the mainstream media reported about a president literally accusing his predecessor of criminal activity, which is a very serious matter indeed. As a result, President* Trump lost control of the narrative, and within hours the story turned against him and blew up in his face.
It is a fact that a president of the US cannot legally authorize wire tapping of a US citizen. The so-called FISA bill, signed into law in 2008, makes it possible to monitor domestic communications, but for that to happen, a strong case needs to be made by a prosecutor to a special, secret court, and a warrant must be issued. The claim by Trump that he "has been" wire tapped, not that he "might have been", is an outright admission that he thinks that wire tapping took place. If this was done without a FISA warrant, it is highly illegal, which makes the allegations against former President Obama a very serious matter. It would obviously require President* Trump to elaborate and pursue the matter further. During the day following his morning tweets, he was asked to do exactly that, even by Republicans who would be considered his political allies. Calling for this course of action holds President* Trump accountable for his statements, something that should of course be expected of a real president. In any normal presidency, words from the President of the United States would rightfully be respected and acted upon. For President* Trump, not so much. At least not until now.
If, on the other hand, the surveillance had legal footing, it would mean that some government intelligence authority like the FBI made a case to the FISA court and had a warrant issued. This means that they could present a strong case of someone in the Trump Tower being involved in serious criminal activities involving contacts with a foreign hostile power. This would be very damning indeed to Donald Trump and his administration.
By making these public statements, President* Trump has, figuratively speaking, shot himself in the foot. Either he needs to follow through on his accusations against President Obama, or admit to the wire tapping being legal. In that case, it can be argued that his public admission, in his role as the President, of the wire tapping constitutes a de facto declassification of the existence of a FISA warrant, and that this should be formally acknowledged by the government.
Of course, he could just admit that he lied and tweeted baseless claims quoted from a crazy extreme right-wing source without credibility, but that seems to be something which would not come easy to Donald Trump.
The constant stream of nonsense, stupidity and lies from President* Trump is seriously damaging for his public image and his credibility, and he seems unable to act like a responsible adult. The decision by several news organizations to handle his latest tweet-storm as if he wasn't a petulant child shows exactly how he is unfit to serve. A president who can't be taken seriously is ineffective, ridiculous and dangerous. Donald Trump simply cannot be allowed to remain in office.
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