TGIF 4/29/22

Golly, it's good week/bad week time again already? Let's see who ended up where...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-I Wish I Knew Who Leaked Those Tapes) had the best bad week, or the worst good week, I can't be sure - but either way, after being exposed as a liar, he was rewarded with a standing ovation when he met with fellow members of the Awful Conference. All anger at Trump has been forgiven, the lying about what he said has been forgiven, and, oh, he's got a boatload of money and he's not afraid to share it.

I'm not sure whether this is indicative of a good week or a bad week, but four progressive Ds  (Reps. Cori Bush, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib) and four conservative Rs (Reps. Lying Cawthorn, MTG, Thomas Massie and Chip Roy) voted against a symbolic bill that urges President Biden to seize and sell the assets of Russian oligarchs, and use the money to help Ukraine. This brought much joy, or chagrin, to the Twitterverse: having these folks on the same side of an issue is a rare treat, for sure.

President Biden is said to be considering erasing $10K in student debt - or possibly more - for all borrowers. In the eyes of many, that's a good week. Others in his party - including Sens. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Jim Clyburn - think that $50K is a nicer number; that might signal a bad week, instead.

I'm not a fan of blanket loan forgiveness, or of the ongoing moratorium on repayment, although I am a fan of ensuring that loan forgiveness programs are fully utilized. So, this might mean I'm going to have a bad week at some point down the road. 

Donald Trump had a bad week - a $10K per day kind of bad week - after a judge ruled him to be in contempt for failing to turn over documents to NY AG Tish James. He's appealing that order, as well as the one requiring he testify under oath in James' investigation. 

On a related note, Trump's lawyer referred to Post-it notes, or rather, the lack of them, in court. However, Michael Cohen, Trump's former 'fixer' provided proof that they exist which is going to make things more complicated for Trump. So, I guess Cohen had a good week. 

And I'll leave you with another good week list-maker; I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so you can see him here. I guarantee it'll make you smile

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v206)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

What's got me wondering tonight? Here's just a sampling.

Do you wonder if Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson got together and decided to tag-team Dr. Fauci, or was it an incredible coinkydink that they both hit out within such a short period of time? Honestly, at any moment I half expected either one of them to shout "You're not the boss of me!" in Fauci's direction, Carlson in particular. 

Now, I realize that things have changed over the course of the pandemic, and what's happening on the ground now is not the same was was happening on the ground back in January; heck, I'd have to wonder about anyone who didn't realize that. The data have changed, the projections have changed, the guidance - and guidelines - have changed, and they'll likely continue to do so. But for Carlson to say that Fauci stuff was 'buffoon-level' was, well, pretty ridiculous, even for someone on Fox. Can't wait to see how the rest of this plays out, and how the other 'buffoon-level' talking heads handle it. 

Speaking of Fox News, I see they've taken Tara Reade off their banner, after she was right there, front and center, for a long time. I wonder why they've moved on?  If you're wondering who or what replaced her, have no fear - I've got you covered.  Here's the old banner, and the new.

What else is going on? 

I wonder if the folks who have been so upset about criminals being released from prison because of the coronavirus  threat are upset about Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Michael Avenatti being released for that reason? And, if there is outrage, will those three get the same share of it? 

I listened to a little bit of the Supreme Court hearing on citizen Donald Trump's taxes. I was happy that there were no random toilet-flushing noises when I was listening - and I still wonder whether the flushing that was heard  during one of the earlier virtual sessions was Brett Kavanaugh 'breaking the seal," as it were. I did get to hear Clarence Thomas ask a question, too; I wonder if he likes the cases, or if he likes the format? Thomas, you may know, once went 10 years, three years, and one year without asking any questions from the bench. 

And now, let's close it out with some good news, shall we? Here are two wonderful stories for you.

• A while back - in March, actually - a Kansas farmer sent an N-95 mask to my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, with a note asking the gov to make sure the mask got to a doctor or nurse working to treat COVID-19 patients. Cuomo told the story at one of his daily press briefings. As often happens with stories like this, things snowballed, the farmer got some unwanted fame, and ended up having a dream of his lifetime come true. I won't spoil it for you, but it's a good one.   

• We've seen incredible pictures of how the environment is healing as people around the world shelter in place, factories stop kicking up tons of pollution, airlines limit flights, and so on. An Australian diving tour company, normally busy with tourists, has instead been busy planting coral on the Great Barrier Reef since their country shut down tourist activity. 

And let's wonder what else people will be inspired to do, to try, to give to others, as we continue down this crazy road. 

What are you wondering about?

Sunday School 4/7/19

Today's classroom adventure comes from CBS and Face the Nation, with Margaret Brennan talking with the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Let's see how it went.

On whether Congress and the public have the right to see all of the information in the actual Mueller report, Rudy would like all of the information to go to the House Intelligence Committee, and eventually to the public.

I would like him to get all of the information...everything... But I can't control that and I can't change the law. And the AG has a difficult job, and I didn't appreciate (Jerry Nadler's) suggestion the AG would be biased. I know Bill Barr for many many years. I think people in this town know him, He's a man of the highest integrity. Also everything he's doing is also being done by Rod Rosenstein. That (summary) was put out by Barr and Rosenstein. 

Brennan wondered if the president was waiving all executive privilege, noting that Trump has said he thinks the report should be made public. To answer, Rudy had to invoke the Ghost of Clintons past.

The - the president's cooperation with with investigation it was unprecedented. Bill Clinton fought every single subpoena. And - and it was a knock down drag out battle.

Brennan noted that Clinton did ultimately sit down and do an interview, and noted that Trump had not.

That's why the president didn't have to because they couldn't win in court. They had every piece of information. They couldn't suggest a question they didn't have the answer to because we supplied them with the answers to everything and the president did answer questions in writing.

Brennan asked if any information would be withheld. Giuliani seemed unsure.

I don't know, Margaret. I don't know. The AG has said he's going to put out the maximum amount of information possible. The only thing that will stop him will be legal barriers. I hop there are a few because I don't like what Jerry Nadler just did. Innuendo and there must be more -- look. Jerry Nadler prejudged this case a year ago. He was - he was talking about impeachment. He was overheard on Amtrak talking about impeachment well before the report came out. So when he talks about the AG being biased, my goodness - and on his committee he's got some of the most rabid people that hate Trump. This is - we're not going before a court here, We're going before a political body -- that is highly partisan and has made up its mind. 

There was more - much more.

Sunday School 12/16/18

He's b-a-a-a-c-k!  Rudy Giuliani made it to a couple of lecture halls this Sunday morning, and boy was he trying to get some attention.

First, let's look at this exchange between Rudy and Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday

Wallace asked about reports that special counsel Robert Mueller was (again) interested in interviewing the president, now that his written responses have been submitted and, I'm sure, reviewed by in detail by the Mueller team.

CW: Has his office reached out to you about sitting own for an in-person interview with the president?

RG: Yes. There are several unpaid parking tickets that night -- back in 1986, 1987 that haven't been explained. You know, we've got to --

CW:Seriously?

RG: Seriously, unpaid parking tickets-- 

CW: No, no no 

RG: it was a movie theater. He didn't pay the proper fee.

CW:  Is the special counsel -- does he want to interview the president?

RG:  Yes, good luck. Good luck. After what they did to Flynn, the way the trapped him into perjury and no sentence for him, 14 days for Papadopoulos. I did better on traffic violations than they did with Papadopoulos.

CW: So, when you say good luck, you're saying no way, no interview?

RG:  They're a joke. Over my dead body, but you know, I could be dead. 

CW: Do they want to speak to the president?

RG: I do have -- I do have other lawyers - I am disgusted with the tactics they have used in this case. What they did to General Flynn should result in discipline. They're the ones who are violating the law. They're looking at non-crime collusion, the other guys are looking at non-crime campaign violations, which are not violations. And they are the ones who are violating the law, the rules, the ethics and nobody wants to look at them. They destroyed Strzok & Page's text, 19,000 texts.

If he had destroyed 19,000 texts, they'd put him in jail

Even though they can't because he's the president. 

Got that? Parking tickets, movie theaters, and talking to Mueller "over my dead body."

Now, let's see what he said in his discussion on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  It started with George playing video of an interview in which Michael Cohen said he acted at the direction of the president, that the payments to the porn star and Playboy bunny were made to help the campaign, and that Cohen gave loyalty to a man who did not deserve a bit of it.

Giuliani's' approach was to attack Cohen as pathetic, a liar, a many who lied under oath repeatedly, a man who can't be trusted.  Even though the Southern District of NY believes Cohen, and Stephanopoulos pointed out they'd not state what they did without corroborating evidence, Giuliani was not having it.

RG: Yes, but there'd be no way they would know other than taking Cohen's word for it. I mean, the conversations they had, even the tape recorded conversation that we listened to is just the two of them.. they don't have corroborating evidence, I'm sure. They don't have corroborating evidence,. Plus they didn't let Cohen plead guilty to a conspiracy. I ran that office, I know what they do. If I'm going to use a cooperator, I make them plead guilty to a conspiracy...

Stephanopoulos talked about the deal that was cut with David Pecker and AMI (the National Enquirer folks) who helped identify and bury stories and keep them from being published  and who agreed to keep Cohen in the loop. Still, Giuliani was not convinced.

GS: But you just said you ran that office. You know how the Southern District is run. You know exactly how the Southern District is run.

RG: No, I don't know -- actually, I don't know how the Southern District --

GS: They wouldn't have put that in the statement of fact if they didn't believe --

RG: I'm disgusted with the Southern District. I'm going to tell you another things. You see what we're talking about? It's not a crime. It's not a crime...

Which of course is consistent with everything that the Trump team eventually says - by the third of fourth or fifth version of the story, they end up telling us some version of 'even if it did happen, it wasn't a crime.'  The two argued back and forth about whether the payoffs were made to help or protect the campaign (what the filing says), or whether they were made to protect Trump's wife and children (Rudy's answer).

Stephanopoulos asked if there were other payments.

RG: Nobody else asked for -- in the past, I can't speak to. I wasn't his lawyer in the past. But at that point, these were the only two that were asking for money. And the amount of money is consistent with harassment, not truth. I have been involved in cases like this. When it's true and you have the kind of money the president had, it's a $1 million settlement. When it's not true, when it's a harassment settlement and it's not true, you give them $130,000, $150,000. They went away for so little money that it indicates their case was very very weak.

He complained that next it would be parking tickets and jay-walking - those must have been the predetermined speaking points. And then he compared these non-crimes to Obama FEC violations, mischaracterizing the nature of the violation and wildly overstating the fines paid, but you know, what's a lie when you're a liar defending a liar by complaining about a liar? Here's the best line of that segment, about the reporting violations which Obama's campaign admitted to.

No, they were not reporting violations. He has people who donated to him that don't exist. They do not exist. They're not human beings.

On it went, for a while, until Stephanopoulos changed the topic.

GS: CNN and the NY Times reporting this week that you're still in discussion with Robert Mueller about whether the - about an interview with the president, are those discussions still going on?

RG: I'm actually not allowed to -- to say that. But -- but the agreement we had did contemplate that there'd be a period of time after the questions that we would have a discussion about whether there should be any further questions. So I'm not saying we are or we aren't but that's in the agreement.  

I love the distinctly different response to the question about whether the president will have a sit-down with the Mueller team.  I mean, we go from "over my dead body" to "I'm not allowed to say that."

Clearly, Rudy knows which audience he's talking to when he has his little chats, would you agree?

See you around campus.

TGIF 11/30/18

What kind of week did you have? 

Was it better than, say, Paul Manafort? I'd say probably. Manafort got himself in to a little hot water with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, will lose his plea deal, and may face new charges and another trial. And, at the same time he was lying and violating his deal with Mueller's team, Manafort's lawyer was sharing information with the president's legal team - pretty ballsy, for sure.  For more information on the trials and tribulations and twists and turns of the Manafort saga, check out this link to stories he's mentioned in from The Guardian.

Was your week better than, say, Michael Cohen's? We now know that he's admitted lying to Congress, which is a bad thing, but he's definitely living up to his 'putting family and country first' mantra much more so now than his old "I'd take a bullet for Donald Trump' mantra of the past - and for that, I like the new Cohen more than the old one. And shame on the GOP for coming to a quick conclusion that there was no 'there' there in their House investigation. You know, the "we love you, man!" probe that was full of nonsense and Nunes... 

The president himself, well, he's not had the best week ever, with these new issues coming out of Mueller's camp. And while 'he' did 'win' the Mississippi Senate runoff between the 'front row seat the the hanging' Republican and 'the guy with the same name as those TV awards' Democrat, Trump and his family (Eric, Donny Jr, and Ivanka) and even Mike Pence all 'lost' the race for the NY House seat, as Claudia Tenney finally conceded to Dem Anthony Brindisi. But, silly me, those House races don't matter, the president doesn't care about them, I forgot.

But there were folks who had really good weeks. Like Riley Morrison, the 9-year-old girl - or should I say, the 9-year-old basketball player - who was disappointed in NBA star Steph Curry, and let him know about it. She wrote him to complain that his signature shoes were only sold under the Boys section of the Under Armour website. Here's an excerpt from Riley's letter to Curry:

I know you support girl athletes because you have two daughters and you host an all-girls basketball camp. I hope you can work with Under Armour to change this, because girls want to rock the Curry 5s, too.

That oversight was quickly corrected - you'll find the Curry 5s under both the Boys and Girls sections of the UA website now. And there's more, as you can see from Curry's response to Morrison. After letting her know the website issue was being corrected, he added:

I want to make sure you can wear my kicks proudly -so I am going to send you a pair of Curry 5s now and you'll be one of the first kids to get the Curry 6. Lastly, we have something special in the works for International Women's Day on March 8, and I want you to celebrate with me! More to come on that, but plan to be in Oakland that night!

And finally, there's a group of people who had also had a really good week. Over 100 NICU nurses at Mercy Children's Hospital in St Louis won $10,000 on the Mega Millions, and promptly donated the money to two coworkers. One had lost her son to suicide, the other's husband is battling cancer. They needed the money more than the winners, and the winners needed to help others more than they needed their post-tax $50 each.

These last two stories made my week a little better; I hope they do the same for you.

TGIF 8/24/18

Raise your hand if you're happy you're not an employee of the Trump Organization, or a friend of the president, or a Trump lawyer, or a former lawyer or campaign official - unless of course, you are one of those, and you got your own immunity deal from the Mueller investigation team or any other prosecutors. You're having a pretty good week, either way.

Raise your hand if you live in Randolph County Georgia and you're happy that the elections board made the right decision today, to keep all of the county's polling places open for the general election this fall. Raise two hands if you're happy it took them less than 60 seconds to do the right thing. You had a pretty good week, too.

Raise your hand if you're a parent and have sent one or more kids off to college in the past few days, or even if you're sending one off in the next few days - kudos to you! I can only imagine the emotions you must be feeling, and I wish you and your kids all the best.  You've had a good week, too!

If you're the person at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who decided that this past Wednesday the Foundation should bump up all non-matched donations made to classrooms around the country through the Donors Choose program, raise your hand. As a result of the Foundation's generosity and the encouragement it provided, over $4M was given in one day; over 20,000 teachers in 13,000 schools had projects receive funding from over 40,000 donors. Teachers, students and yes, the folks at the Foundation, had a great week!

We'll end sort of where we started, with one of Trump's former lawyers, Michael Cohen. He's in the news, of course, because of his guilty plea to eight counts, on the same day that Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts himself. A GoFundMe page has been established to help support Cohen:

On July 2, 2018, Michael Cohen declared his independence from Donald Trump and (his) commitment to tell the truth.

On August 21, Michael Cohen made the decision to take legal responsibility and to continue his commitment to tell the truth.

Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help - to pay his legal fees.

The Michael Cohen Truth Fund is a transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump. 

In two days, the fund has raised nearly $156K of the $500K goal.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v144)

Is your head still spinning from all of the news this week?

Manafort found guilty on eight counts. Cohen admitted guilt to eight counts. Trump knows what he didn't know before when he didn't know anything until he started knowing things unless it wasn't helpful for him to know them in which case he said even if he knew or did things it doesn't matter because they're not illegal, unless they are but even if they are, he didn't know about them or someone else did it and he only found out later.

Michael Cohen used to be his Fixer, when Trump needed a fix for something but now that things have been fixed for Cohen, and not for Trump, Cohen's just a lying dirty rotten lawyer and oh by the way he's always been a lying liar anyway, just ask Rudy. Who thinks the truth is not the truth unless it is, in which case it doesn't matter because even if they told the truth, whatever they did or said is not illegal and oh by the way show us the witches.

Paul Manafort used to be the guy who worked for Trump's campaign for what, 42 days or something? Except it was longer than than and had he been found unanimously guilty on those other ten charges, you can be sure he'd still be the guy who only worked for Trump for a few weeks not a few months but since the jury couldn't decide, Trump can and he's decided that Manafort, a guy who bought really expensive clothes and probably had a gold plated toilet like Trump does now is a good guy who has been treated badly by Mueller and the 13 17 1,000,000 Angry Democrats. And the fact that Manafort has another trial to face, well pardon me boys, but just pardon me, OK?

How horrible must Omarosa the Fired feel - perhaps unhinged? She was the story until she wasn't the story anymore, and there's nothing like being the person everyone wants to hate because when they care enough to hate you, they're talking about you and like the president taught her on his TV show, no press is bad press unless it's a wrinkle in a Manafortian suit or something. But when they stop talking about you because someone else is more important your choices are to claw your way back into the news or die on the vine.

Trump threatened Comey with tapes; he threatened reporters with tapes, he didn't threaten Putin with tapes. Cohen actually has some. Omarosa actually has some. We have no idea who else has any, or who will threaten someone that they have tapes. How many more shoes, how many more shoeboxes of tapes will fall?

Someone at his rally in West Virginia last night tried to say that any man, certainly a man like Trump, would have paid off their paramours because it would be wrong and hurtful to the manly man's wife to have this come out. Not, mind you, that only a person who has an affair can hurt his spouse if she finds out that an affair occurred. Whether it was Stormy Daniels or Karen MdDougal or one of who knows how many other women there might be, I guess they can be blamed for talking about it or trying to, but the 'it' that they want to talk about is the man who cheated on his wife and tried to shut them up with money.

Wondering, this Wednesday, how much lower we will go before we start going back up again?

#MAGA.

TGIF 7/27/18

What kind of week did you have? Was it better or worse than these folks?

How about that Michael Cohen, the president's 'fixer', the deal maker's deal maker?  It seems like just a short while ago that Rudy Giuliani was saying Michael Cohen was an honest, honorable lawyer and yet, last night during an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN, the messer-upper (Rudy) was now contending that Cohen has been a liar from the beginning, lies all the time, which lie can you believe, and so on. And I thought, wow - when the lying president's lying lawyer calls you a liar, that's a pretty bad week, right?

Who else had a bad week?  Mark Zuckerberg and anyone who owns Facebook stock, and anyone who owns Twitter stock, and maybe anyone who owns any other social media stock  Yesterday, Facebook took a huge hit, and in two days its stock has dropped around 20%. Today, Twitter took a huge hit as well, dropping in similar fashion. Both companies have been trying to address bad actors, purging fake accounts, and the like, and also dropping 'real' or 'active' users or at least not growing as fast as investors would like. Facebook faced some particular wrath lately due to its decision not to ban holocaust deniers from the platform. Sure, they're wrong and history deniers and all that, but we have to learn from them and teach them what's right and we can't do that if we shut them down or something. Infowars was another beneficiary of that thinking.

On the good week side of things, there was happy baby news from the Animal Adventure Park, outside of Binghamton, NY: Internet star April the Giraffe and her zoo mate Oliver are expecting another baby in the spring!. Folks will recall the frenzy when the park streamed live footage of April pretty much doing nothing except eating, and sleeping, and eating, and sleeping, for what seemed like weeks on end last spring, with all of the excitement culminating in the birth of baby Tajiri. We're set to go through all of that again early next spring, although owner Jordan Patch noted that while the average or normal gestation period for giraffes is around 15 months, April likes to go longer.

Rod Rosenstein could have ended up on the short end of the stick this week, after the House Freedom Caucus decided to file a resolution of impeachment against him - but that was foiled when lame duck House Speaker Paul Ryan indicated he was not supportive of their shenanigans. The HFC gang decided to table their request and instead will maybe give Rosenstein a contempt of Congress citation if he doesn't start playing better in the sandbox with them.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v140)

Have your phone calls been taped lately? Are you fighting with your former lawyer? If yes, you're just like the president!

I'm wondering how much attention we should be paying to a very short, garbled conversation about a deal between a con man and his lawyer, unless and until we know for sure whether anything illegal transpired?

I mean, we can spend all kinds of time talking about Trump's alleged year-long fling with a Playboy 'model' a decade before the election - but we shouldn't. We can spend all kinds of time talking about how the president lied or presented facts unsupported by any evidence, but we shouldn't - because that happens several times a day, on average, according to the Washington Post. We'd be better served, on the whole, if we spent hours talking about it when Trump tells the truth. That would seem significantly more newsworthy.

We could spend time, I guess, talking about whether Trump's former 'fixer' Michael Cohen is working harder trying to get a deal from the US attorneys in New York, or a pardon from Trump. And I wonder, if he does get a deal from the Feds, wouldn't that make him a better deal-maker than the president?

I wonder if Ivanka thought about turning her clothing line over to her brothers, the way her dad turned over the family business to them? Wouldn't that be better than throwing the whole thing out so she could focus on her work in Washington?  And speaking of Ivanka, I wonder if anyone's seen Jared lately?

We learned late today that Russian President Putin's invitation to the White House this fall, which I swear was supposed to align with Trump's military parade $12,000,000 publicity stunt, has been 'delayed' until sometime in 2019. So, I wonder if they realized that $12,000,000 is a pittance, a mere pittance I tell you, for a military parade especially if you're trying to impress a dictator?  Or is it really what National Security Advisor John Bolton said today.

The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year.

Or, I wonder, is it because it would be silly to have the Supreme Ruler here before the midterms and that the initial invitation was just not well thought out, as aren't many of the things that Trump tosses out like pitches at batting practice? 

And I have to wonder, is that carefully worded 'Putin's not coming' message really a message of another kind? You know -- to Mueller to wrap things up, or else?  To Rod Rosenstein to end Mueller's probe? To Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to get ready to fire Rosenstein if he doesn't pull the plug on Mueller?  I wonder....

What was the name of that old tale, the Saturday Night Massacre? And this fall will mark 45 years from that fateful October day. And Trump is POTUS #45. And on the blog Sacred Scribes Angel Numbers, Joanne Walmsley tells us that

Angel number 45 is a message from your angels to put your efforts towards the things in your life that embrace and enhance who you truly are, your lifestyle choices and your life in general. Be prepared to make necessary changes that will bring auspicious opportunities to advance you along your path. Trust that these changes will bring 'better' into your life in all aspects.

How can I not wonder?

Sunday School 7/8/18

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

That's right -- three of the five major Sunday classrooms gave us a big old helping of Rudy Giuliani today. Let's take a look and see how consistent the president's special mouthpiece attorney was in his appearances, shall we?

First up? Rudy and George, on ABC's This Week; here are the highlights:

• regarding former Trump 'fixer' Michael Cohen's interview last week, Rudy said the president shared his opinion, that Cohen should cooperate, there's no reason to believe he did anything wrong, the president did nothing wrong, what happened to Cohen was horrible
• on what Cohen might say to Mueller's team, no concerns there as long as he tells the truth, we're home free
• there have been on discussions of a pardon for Cohen, it would just muddy the waters, and anyway there's no reason to even think about it
• as far as Rudy knows, the president didn't tell Cohen to make the Stormy Daniels payments, he didn't know about it at the beginning, some foggy point down the road he found out
• there's still no timeline for Trump to sit down with Mueller, but he really wants to, and
• they have to consider that the Mueller investigation is unconstitutional because it violates the Appointments clause, according to several people.

On MTP, Rudy and Chuck Todd talked about and around a number of subjects, with these highlights:

• on his previously saying the 4th of July was some kind of important date on the question of whether Trump would talk to Mueller, Rudy says they'll now need to know some factual basis for the investigation, because so far there's no collusion found by Mueller or by anyone else including the Trump team researching the collusion issue
• Trump's admission that he misled the public about writing Donnie's statement was just an incorrect recollection, no big deal mostly because nothing ever came of the meeting
• yes, the president's anxious to sit down with Mueller because he's done nothing wrong, but it's the lawyers like me that are keeping him from doing so, because the investigation is so biased, not Mueller himself, but the investigation is, and someone needs to investigate the people on the team and read their texts, but the president wants to testify if there's any basis for the investigation
• it's OK if Cohen testifies, he's not going to lead Mueller to the president
• there's no problem with Trump sitting down with Putin, he has to, no matter what the Senate report says about Russian interference, and he is ready to regularize things with Putin but Putin will have to meet Trump more than halfway.

And finally, on CNN's State of the Union, Rudy and Dana Bash chatted on similar subjects, leaving us with these highlights:

• even with all of the leaks, no one's found any factual basis for the investigation, but if there is one the president would be happy to sit down with Mueller's team, and I don't mean evidence of a crime, just some suspicion of one would be nice
• the president can't just fire Mueller, even though this is the most illegitimate investigation ever, and biased and what a mess, but if Trump fired him the media (the enemy of the people, as we know) would say Mueller was fired because Trump was guilty
• Comey is the biggest villain in all of this
• There have been leaks, lots of leaks, they leaked reports, they leaked meetings, they leaked about Manafort and Cohen
• The Trump team has seen everything Mueller has, 1.4M documents, they've debriefed everyone important and so they know that Mueller has nothing which is why he's pushing for the interview with Trump
• We're not banking on him not issuing a subpoena, but if he does issue one, we'll quash it because you can't do that unless you have a really good case that the information you're looking for can't be found any other way
• Mueller wants to interview Trump's Chief of Staff General Kelly, that's being handled by some other attorney, we're saying no because hey, let's see the texts from Mueller's team since this is all after the Horowitz report showing how corrupt everything is
• No, I'm not trying to delay the end of this until after the midterms, I want to get it over with, I'm not worried about any political considerations, but Mueller can't indict, there's no basis for that, but impeachment is what everyone's talking about, look at Maxine Waters and I have to listen to what everyone is saying not just the leaders who aren't saying this but how do I know they're not lying?

I love that last part -- how can we possibly know that everyone else isn't lying? - coming from a guy who's boss lies with extraordinary ease, with great conviction and great results.

See you around campus.

Wondering on Wednesday (v137)

Well, here we are, a Wednesday again, and we're talking and wondering about immigration, and separation of parents and children, and lots of other things, too.

As you likely have heard, the president used that horrible power, the Executive Order, to attempt to end family separation, the ugly outcome of his administration's ill-thought-out zero tolerance policy of arresting and detaining everyone who tries to cross our southern border illegally, instead of giving them an appearance ticket and letting them go, with their children, to either appear as requested or to run and hide.

Why did the president blink, you wonder?  I'm pretty sure he was looking at the revolt within his own party and his base - heck, even his fixer, Michael Cohen, let him have it on this.

As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart-wrenching. While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips. 

The handwriting was on the wall, and the hand-wringing was going on behind closed doors, and on the Sunday shows, and there was that horrendous press conference in which the DHS secretary seemed blissfully unaware (or else she was 'Hucakbeed') of the position of the DOJ, the Chief of Staff and everyone else in the administration -- so I really think he had no choice except to blink, and use the Executive Order -- something he promised not to do - to do something he said was impossible, not up to him, and not his fault.  And now, everyone has to figure out how to get out the mess into which they got themselves. And that's a whole nother post entirely.

There was a bit of good news for the president, though -- he'll get to meet the Queen in July when he goes to London for a working visit (not a state visit) in July. In case you're wondering how that's going to be received, here's a sample from lawyer/commentator Peter Stefanovic:

In the last 3 days president Trump has backed the caging of children, talked of migrants 'infesting' the country, withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council, made repeated lies about crime in Germany and we are honoring him with a visit to Windsor Castle to meet the Queen.

Not so warm and fuzzy, right?  Well, maybe he'll get the adoration he seeks at a rally in Minnesota, who knows.

What else am I wondering about tonight?

Well, on the local front, the battle to see who will go up against Congressman John Katko is coming to a close, with our primary just around the corner. The candidate of the organized Dems is Dana Balter; the candidate of the national Dems is Juanita Perez Williams, notable around here primarily for her loss to Independent Ben Walsh in the race for mayor of Syracuse.

About this race, I wonder how on earth much money the national Dems and their supporting funders are going to invest in this race? I honestly think I get at least two mailings for JPW every 7-10 days.  And they're not convincing me of anything, to be honest - because I don't want Washington anyones picking my candidate, and I want my candidate to represent me, not the people who are pulling the strings.

And, Walsh's predecessor Stephanie Miner has declared her candidacy as an independent, to face either her one-time ally, NY's Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo or Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon on the Democratic ticket, and Dutchess County exec Marc Molinaro on the Republican line, in the race for governor of NY.

What is she thinking? That's something we're all wondering, to be honest. It's late in the game, Cuomo has tens of millions in his account and is moving further to the left with each passing day to counter Nixon, and Miner's tenure as mayor did not really work out as well as anyone had hoped. Her motivation, like Trump's with his about face on the family separation issue, may remain a mystery.

And finally, tonight, something that I've been wondering about for a couple of days now - has ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee ever reported from the Bridge formerly known as the Tappan Zee?

Playing Catch-up

One week. I go on vacation for one week, and all heck breaks loose.  Here are just a few examples, in no particular order.

Kanye West, who once famously declared that George W. Bush didn't like black people suggested that slavery could be a choice, which is of course consistent with a theme in certain quarters in this day and age.You know what I'm talking about, right? That "Democratic politicians have 'enslaved' blacks, by providing cradle-to-grave programs which discourage the recipients from ever doing anything/becoming anything/earning anything on their own" and in return these folks will always and forever vote for Dems.

Many people were appalled at his comments, but Donald Trump ran off to the NRA leadership meeting in Dallas to let them know that, as a result of West's comments, Trump's numbers with African Americans had doubled -- doubled! -- in one week. I'm trying to picture the NRA crowd giving a rat's patoot about Kanye West and what he thinks, but I'm not having any luck with that, even though they did cheer the news about the rising poll numbers, almost as loudly as they did when Trump read the Dallas phone book. (OK, I made that part up. but the crown loudly embraced or disparaged on cue along with the president's wishes.)

John McCain has apparently suggested that President Trump would not be welcome at his funeral. I'm sure other losers (those who were captured, among others) don't want Trump at their funerals, either. In fact, the number of people who wouldn't want Trump to attend their funerals is probably a much bigger number than the number who would want him to attend. I have specific instructions to make sure a certain person doesn't attend my Mom's funeral, so I get why McCain can not only feel this way, but make sure that his wishes were well known. I think, though, that I'd have Melania attend, instead of Mike Pence. She'd almost have to be a better guest, and she seemed to have a genuinely nice time (in the best possible way, I mean) representing the White House at Barbara Bush's service last month. 

Someone thought it was a good idea for Rudy Giuliani to join Trump's ever-changing legal team. I'm not sure whether that person is an idiot or a genius, given Rudy's comments that seem to have made things worse for Trump instead of better, whether it was about the Stormy Daniels thing, or the Russia thing or the James Comey thing. Or any of the things which he said in a subsequent interview.  I don't know who's paying Rudy - could be Michael Cohen, the 'fixer' who takes care of problems for the president. It could be the president himself, or his company, or his campaign committee, but I wonder how long whoever it is would be willing to continue the payments.

There was more -- I'm still going through my news feeds -- but it was crazy week indeed.

Sunday School 4/22/18

One classroom today, CNN's State of the Union, since I haven't spent a lot of time there lately -- and, mostly, because Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway was making an appearance.

First up? Guest host Dana Bash, sitting in for Jake Tapper, asked Conway about the president's tweet disagreeing with a report in the NY Times that Cohen would 'flip' against his boss, and why he'd be concerned about it if he (Trump) had done nothing wrong. Conway suggested that the one tweet Bash mentioned was part of a continuum.

You have to look at everything the president said... he is defending someone who he has worked with and known for a dozen-plus years, Dana, who he things is being treated unfairly.... Also the methods really have disserved the president... 

Conway concluded that section by hitting the FBI about the DNC Server, after which Bash tried again to get her to say whether the president "has anything to hide" and if he "unequivocally" did nothing wrong that he had to worry about Cohen flipping. Conway wasn't having it.

I'm telling you that the president's concern has been for Michael Cohen and the way he has been treated... He stands up for people in his inner circle and people he knows when he thinks they are being treated unfairly... .

I sort of hoped that Bash would ask about Trump's loyalties to his own appointees, including Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, but that might have been a little out there since Conway was on a mission.  The mission? To slam "that guy," James Comey.

He can't even keep his story straight when he's out there among what he thinks is going to be hero's welcome with the mainstream media. And fortunately, many people including your own Jake Tapper, pushed back on him, really filleted him last week...

She was all over Comey, and Andrew McCabe. And, Conway repeatedly and effectively, I think, attacked CNN, the compliment to Jake Tapper notwithstanding, for their attention to tweets instead of to what Trump is focused on. But by far the best part of the interview came when Bash tried to ask about Conway's husband, who has receiving some attention for his own tweets, which are not always kind to the president.

In a nutshell, Bash wanted to know about Conway's husband's negative tweets about Trump and the Administration. The conversation got heated, and there was a lot of crosstalk but here's how things played out..

KC: He writes about a lot of things that are also supportive, and he writes a lot of things about corgis and the Philadelphia Eagles and sports too... But the fact is that -- well, two things I will say to you. Number one, that again, that woman who lost the election whose name I never see on TV anymore is wrong that women -- I think she said white women have to listen to their - the men in their life to -- to form their own political opinions. Wrong again, lady. Number two, it's fascinating to me that CNN would go there, But it's very good for the whole world to have just witnessed that it's now fair... 

Excuse me -- that it's now fair game what people's - how people's spouses and significant others may differ with them. I'm really surprised, but very, in some ways, relieved and gratified to see that. 

DB: And it's not about that (gender). It's about -- It's about -- It's about questioning, publicly questioning what you are doing for a living and with regard to your boss. And it has nothing to do with gender

KC: No, and it has nothing to do with my spouse?  You just brought him - you just brought him into this, so this ought to be fun moving forward, Dana.  We're now going to talk about other people's  -- people's spouses and significant others, just because they either work in the White House or at CNN? Are we going to do that? Because you just -- no, you just went there... CNN just went there. Look, differences of opinions...

DB:By the way, this wasn't critical. I'm just asking about...

KC: Oh, of course it was. It was meant to harass and embarrass. But let me just tell you something... Let me just tell you something. By definition, spouses have a difference of opinion when adultery is happening... By definition, spouses have a difference of opinion when one is, I don't know, draining the joint bank account to support things that maybe the other disagrees with. So this is a fascinating 'cross the Rubicon' moment. And I will leave it at that. 

And of course, they didn't just leave it there. It kept going. Bash was relentless in trying to defend the question, saying it was "actually intended to be somewhat lighthearted about the fact that we are all grownups who have different opinions.

DB: Kellyanne, Kellyanne, here was my whole point in this... is that you are a professional working for the president of the United States and your husband is a very well-respected lawyer. Any my point is that we don't often see - in fact I don't remember the last time we saw somebody working for the president in a high-profile position when their spouse is saying critical things about them. That is all... That is all.

Conway mentioned other people's family members who don't support the president privately and publicly, who worked for or gave money to Dems, but that the whole conversation

is meant to divert attention from, again, the big issues that America cares about. But, like I said CNN chose to go there. I think that's going to be fascinating moving forward... 

Bash reminded Conway about Trump, and Andrew McCabe.

DB: The president went after Andrew McCabe for something that his wife did, ran as a Democrat. And that had nothing to do with the president, so.

KC:  No, no, no, no. The president knew something early that everybody else is now finding out. The president has excellent instincts. And he knew Jim Comey and Andrew Mccabe...

And there: we have circled back around to the Kellyanne Conway we're so familiar with. In a nutshell, the credibility she gained by attacking CNN for being more interested in trivial stuff than in actual stuff -- something all of the networks were guilty of during Trump's campaign, and since --  was lost.

See you around campus.

TGIF 4/13/18

Happy Friday the 13th, Spring 2018 edition. And yes, there is another one this year - in July, in case you want to plan ahead.

We know the president is gung ho on the southern border wall, going so far as to suggest that repairs to portions of the existing fence near San Diego are 'his wall' even though, you know. 

Also gung ho on the wall is boxer Rod Salka, who wore red, white and blue trunks emblazoned with a wall pattern and a America First waistband is too. Sadly, he was defeated by Francisco Vargas, a Mexican boxer.

Who else did not have a great week? How about Elliot Broidy, a person most of us who are not big in Republican circles have never heard of - until now.  It seems Broidy, who was deputy chair of the Republican National Committee, had a fling with a Playboy 'model', a woman to whom he committed to pay $1.6 million to not talk about their affair. Or, I mean, to help her out.

I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate. At the end of our relationship, this woman shared with me she was pregnant. She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period.

Two years worth of payments, to "help her" keep quiet about their affair. With one of those handy non-disclosure agreements orchestrated by Michael Cohen, Trump's 'under criminal investigation' personal attorney, who is still officially involved with the RNC himself.

And that agreement? Supposedly the names used in the document are Peggy Peterson and David Dennison, the same names in the Stormy Daniels NDA. Must be John Doe and Mary Roe were too boring for Cohen?  I'm guessing anyone with the same name as our friends Peggy and David are not having a good week, either.

The president decided to skip the Summit of the Americas, so he could stay in Washington and tweet about not telegraphing his decision on what to do about Syria, which he had tweeted about earlier in the week, and of course to tweet about James Comey and Andrew McCabe. And to Pardon Scooter Libby.  And who knows, maybe to fire someone - Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein are probably at the top of his list.

In fact as I write this, the president is speaking from the Diplomatic Room at the White House, announcing the military, economic and diplomatic response against the Assad regime we are undertaking with our British and French allies.

TGIF, everyone.