TGIF 9/7/18

How was your week?

The president had an interesting one, it seems. First there was Fear, Trump in the White House, the new book by Bob Woodward, in which everyone who works for the president says the same stuff about him as my friends (on both ends of the political spectrum, to be sure).

You know: crazy town, elementary school understanding of issues, lots of name calling, lots of out-in-left-field idea like assassinating foreign leaders, and stuff like that. Did I mention name calling? That apparently goes both ways - administration folks calling Trump names, and of course the president doing his best keeping up with them.

The book is out on 9/11 - perhaps that's a particularly pointed jab at the president. I can almost hear the update from the Terrorism Alert Desk...

And then there was the weird op-ed from the anonymous senior official in the Trump administration, which came with this dramatic editorial note:

The Times is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.

 From the author, we see things like this:

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't.

The result is a two-track presidency. 

Um, OK, I guess.  There aren't a lot of details, or a lot of news.  It might even be a nothing burger, as Trumps like to say, except for all of the denying authorship and guessing who might have been the author. And the fact that the president things Jeff  - that would be Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III - might need to do some poking around.

That would make it much more interesting, for sure, especially since the haystack from which he'd need to find the needle could be as many as 4,000 presidential appointees and Senate-confirmed employees. Or, depending on your definition of 'senior official' it could be maybe a dozen or so.  Fun time, fun times.

Who else had an interesting week?  How about Nike? Just do it, someone said - stick with a tradition of  having athletes say controversial things, or have controversial athletes say non-controversial things, just like they've been doing all these years. And it seems to have worked out just fine.


After initial reaction from folks who were aghast at the selection of Colin Kaepernick as the face of the 30th anniversary Just Do It campaign, the stock fell a few points, and several people posted videos of themselves burning their Nike gear.

Which led to the best PSA ever.  Well, maybe not better than the crying Indian, or the first Smokey the Bear, but it's up there.

I expect this coming week will be calmer - Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed and there'll be Democrats voting for him, I'm sure.

Barack Obama will make another speech, as will the president, both stumping for their desired outcome in the upcoming midterms.

The spectacle of protesters being dragged out of a Senate hearing room will be forgotten, quickly - probably almost as quickly as plaid shirt guy, the nonconforming Trump 'fan' who was replaced during the president's ramblin wreck of a rally in Montana.

TGIF, everyone.