OrangeVerse (LXVI): WHCA Part 1

For about an hour on Saturday night, the FOTUS rambled on and on at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, rescheduled from April when a man tried to get into the ballroom and assassinate the president and other members of his administration. 

Other presidents who have attended usually speak for 15, 20, or maybe even 30 minutes, nothing like what GOP strategist Alyssa Farah Griffin described as "what felt like 90 minutes we'll never get back of our lives." 

There's so much to unpack, as the punditry likes to say, that I'm breaking it down into bite-sized pieces of poetry. Well, OK, Big Mac-sized bites... giant Diet Coke-sized slurps of verse, if you will. Are you ready?

Karoline

our favorite White House

Press Secretary...who just had her

second child, you and your husband.

She's great. She's done a fantastic job.

We all love her. She's done a fantastic job.

She is another one.

She can be nasty

But sometimes she has no choice, right?

Karoline

may have one of 

the hardest jobs...she

has to deal with all of you 

all of the time,

and you could be very difficult.

You can be very, very difficult people

but I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive.

Sometimes I really do think

That some of you don't like me

I read a report

I get 93% negative publicity,

93, I said, how the hell

did I win the election

by so much?

Think of it, I

don't think that's true.

I can't believe it's 93.

In the 80s maybe, but

not 93.

But this place

is the, really,

the largest group

of Trump Derangement Syndrome

people. Ever put together

at one time, I suspect. Some

of you are lucky

that our last dinner was cut short

because I brought with me

what would possibly

have been,

I'm telling you,

I had, uh...

 I had something

I was gonna go after you.

I was gonna. I feel

so badly doing this.

It's gotta be

such a letdown

Oh yay, yay.

But your lives were really in danger

the last time but for

an opposite reason.

But on the plus side, your

careers were saved and

we have a, uh, we really do.

We have a complete and total,

you know, I love the words

Complete and total

they say, but it means almost

the same thing,

I said, it doesn't matter

when you say it.

It's called emphasis.

It's called emphasis.

But everyone is now

really warming up

the new White House

military center,

drone port,

highly protected

ballroom.

It's, we have

our ballroom.

The windows are this thick.

I said to the people

well, if a bullet hits, what happens?

Nothing. Nothing.

It bounces right off, sir.

This is the greatest bulletproof glass.

I said AK-47,

that's supposed to be a big one.

I don't know so much

about the guns.

My sons know a lot.

But I said

Ah, I know it's big.

What would happen?

They go up, meaning

it could take more.

I said so, if I'm making

a speech and I hear that

pinging sound at a window

what would I do?

Sir, uh, leave the room

right away but

you're gonna be safe.

We're building something that's

gonna be amazing.

And in light of 

what we went through

I think, uh, people

understand it.

 It's 

gonna 

be 

amazing.

I wonder... what could be more amazing than Part 1? Stick around - you'll have a chance to pick your favorite part when it's done. 

Random Thoughts 4/27/26: More Ballroom!

I was up too today.  We have the loudest cat in the history of domesticated felines, and she doesn't take my "stop yelling!!" instructions seriously, at all, at any time of day, particularly during the wee hours of the morning. 

After getting up and trying to appease her with her favorite cat food (which she didn't want to eat today) and getting myself some coffee, I scrolled through the latest news about the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner, which I'm sure by now everyone knows was interrupted and ultimately canceled because a lone gunman who had issues with the FOTUS and/or members of his administration decided Saturday night needed some violence to shake things up. 

While there have been lots of stories about the bad guy's 'manifesto' and about the security and how close he didn't actually get to anyone in the room, and some 'tales from the crypt' from reporters who were there, I spent my time trying to wrangle my random thoughts on statements from the FOTUS and the CoolAide Cabinet (that's the MAGA influencer horde) about how the incident at the WHCA event was a reason why we need the One Big Beautiful Ballroom the FOTUS is dead set on having, whether anyone likes it or not, into something at least somewhat coherent. So, without further ado,

Just THINK of the many benefits that would flow to ALL Americans if we were able to host conventions at the new White House Ballroom and Casino!! Oh, crap - sorry, that last part is top secret. Pretend we're in a Satirical Comedic Information Facility (SCIF).

We NEED a giant ballroom at the White House - what a wonderful way to get Americans into 'our house! I mean, most of us will never get to make a separate trip to take the tour because of our social media history, or our voter registration info (Wrong Party? No Tour for You!), or (especially for the married ladies) the mismatch between our birth certificates and our LinkedIn 'Yes, that's really my resume, not one I pulled off ChatGPT' profiles. 

Now that I think about it, the way things are going, I soon won't know a single person who could pass a security check - and damn proud of it, frankly. But I digress; that's the nature of random thoughts.

Back to the task at hand: think of the activities that could be held there, if only they made the darn thing big enough! A YUGE ballroom is what we need. I mean, if the billionaires who are donating to pay for access to the administration - er, sorry, I meant to proudly pay for the facility - want more ballroom (don't they all?), they just need to spring for a bigger ballroom!! Not this four- or five-story-tall, 90,000-square-foot thing that's proposed, but one that has five, six, or even 1000% more floorspace! Just think of it!

A bowling convention, with temporary lanes, hundreds of teams, and weeks - yes, weeks! - of activity, bringing REAL Americans to the People's House! Or, the NCAA's March Madness Final Four, with boatloads of gamblers who could spend their downtime in the casino wing - darn it, pretend I didn't say that. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna end up in trouble!

CPAC! TPA! NRA! The Union of Out-of-Favor Dictators! Huge Crypto-TikTok-National Security Conferences! The Association of Former White House, Pentagon, and Local News Correspondents! The Billionaire Boys Club - their membership is growing by cheats and bounds, almost daily! Plus, they could probably help out with bunker design! Big Pharma - those conventions are massive, and I've heard they give out lots of free samples! Research Scientists - they don't have anything else to do anymore... why not let them convene at the glorious facility to commiserate, instead of having to do that via Zoom from their basement labs? Gatherings of white South African farmers, or Scandinavian Trump Card holders! The possibilities are endless!

Farm equipment displays all over the White House lawn, and inside the ballroom, especially those from Case and New Holland; after all, they make stuff in red and blue, true American colors! Sorry, John Deere, that green and yellow just don't cut it anymore - Bad Boy Mowers can handle it from here, as long as nobody brings any of those electric and battery models - just the good old 'drill baby drill' kind (insert that famous John Dean scream here). Heck, we could even have a real Tesler car sales floor, not just a couple of cars! And how could I forget military equipment? We have the best of the best, once we replenish our supplies - and we could even have the Trump family drones on display! My patriotic heart is practically beating out of my chest! 

Boxing matches! UFC cage fights! Cornhole Championships! Heck, we could even bring back Jarts, in celebration of our country's glory days when kids were kids and ERs were plentiful! And what a wonderful place to hold the new annual Congressional Paintball Tournament? Much safer than that outdoor baseball tournament, right? 

And medal presentations, in a room full of gold!! The FIFA Peace Prize! The Trump Epstein Prize! The Melania Einstein Prize! And what better place to host ceremonies for Olympic Gold Medals Won by Men! Maybe even the Noble Prize folks would want to come here for their annual festivities! And, oh, for heaven's sake, I almost forgot Pardon Parties! Woo hoo!

And just think of how cool the State of the Gold-Plated Union speeches would be! Lots of political speakers; patriotic music (yes, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, I'm talking about you!); miniature statues and representations of some of our wonderful national parks and monuments; merch tables - can you even imagine?! Dozens of DoorDash Grannies, legally-present farmworkers, many more relatives of crime victims, and so much more! And don't forget the Democratic and Republican Party conventions! How fun!

Between the room rental, banquet setup, media setup, catering and bar fees, entrance fees, and the money spent in the casino (oops, I said it again...), we could probably fund Social Security for another few years, or shave a few thousand percentage points off the National Debt! Not to mention that we'd need thousands of low-paid AMERICAN workers to staff the facility, and if we just hurry up and build the darn thing, they won't have to pay taxes on their tips, OT, or Social Security - honest!

This is a brilliant idea - we REALLY need that ballroom, dammit! Let's end the lawsuits, end the petty bickering, think way more bigger, and get this thing built! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Breaking Fake News Update (v19)

 Fake News Broke on September 9, 2025!

Are you scratching your head about this latest fake news? If yes, you're not alone! 

First, some background. As reported in a previous BFNU, the White House will be hosting a bigly UFC event as part of the slate of events planned around our nation's 250th birthday. Originally planned for July 4th, the Wall Street Journal reported (not fakely) that the event has been moved up a week, to late June. This was disappointing to the FOTUS, and others, who thought that a birthday beating happening on the actual birthday would be more impressive and more illustrative of our 'warrior mentality' and BDE, or whatever you call what Secretary of War Pete Hegseth thinks he exudes. 

Dana White, the UFC guy, said that things will still be hugely celebrated, with weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial, and maybe even warm-ups and a walk from the White House to the cage.

Now, what about Bessent?  Well, boy howdy, he's a fighter! From the linked NY Post article, Bessent got into a heated verbal altercation with Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency

Two sources say that Bessent, 63, threatened to beat up Pulte, 37, for allegedly trash-talking him to President Trump.

At one point, the Treasury chief lashed out at Pulte, saying: “Why the f— are you talking to the president about me? F— you.”

And, from The Hill, 

When the club’s co-owner sought to intervene, Bessent reportedly said to him, “It’s either me or him. … You tell me who’s getting the f‑‑‑ out of here.”

There was more, but you get the drift. It seems Bessent also hit Elon Musk, the Artful DOGEr.

I don't know about you, but that sounds exactly like the kind of nonsense folks are used to seeing in the lead-up to UFC battlers, so it seems like a perfect fit. 

And, I think it sets a high bar for RFK Jr, who's had a very combative few days in hearings on the hill. I'm sure he could rise to the occasion, and if not, maybe Hegseth will step up?

As always, if there's fake news breaking, we've got you covered!

Breaking Fake News Update (v17)

 Fake News Broke on August 30, 2025!

What's up with this particular bit of fake news, you ask? 

Well, it's me, fully embracing the Administration's move to 'classicalify' America, which he's been expressing for a while through Executive Orders. 

First, there was one issued on Inauguration Day, requiring recommendations to "advance the policy that Federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government."

And, there's the MFABA order (Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again) issued on August 28th, which requires new federal buildings to be built

in a way that “uplifts and beautifies public spaces” and “commands respect from the general public.”

The same article quotes Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, who noted, “Classical public architecture is time-honored, timeless, and the mode most associated with our national values and a form of government is quite simply, the architecture of American democracy.”

Clearly, then, having male visitors to the White House dress as the Founding Fathers did is the best way to illustrate 'the mode most associated with our national values and form of government, right? And the portrayal of the women in classical sculpture is the closest I can think of that approximates the MAGA male's vision of the ideal woman... 

I mean, obviously, Hillary Clinton-style pant suits don't "uplift and beautify" public spaces or "command respect from the general public," do they? And certainly, suitless visitors (I'm talking about you, Vlodomyr Zelenskyy!) and tie-less, stupid-red-hat-wearing officials (I'm talking about you, FOTUS!) don't command respect from us, do they?

Now that I think about it, the creation of the Goldoval Office, the paved lawn in the Rose Garden, the comical Mar-a-lago umbrellas and fast-food-restaurant tables there, and the $200M ballroom aren't doing much to help, either. I hope we still have time to quash that last one, at least, in keeping with the EO. 

As always, when fake news breaks, we'll be here to cover it.

Breaking Fake News Update (v14)

Fake News Broke on August 22, 2025! 

Can you imagine 25,000 spectators at a UFC event at the White House? Can you imagine a weirder way to celebrate our 250th birthday? Those things are real, I can assure you.

And can you think of anyone other than Kristi Noem that would step up so eagerly to help complete the mission? That part is fake, at least so far. We got out in front with the fake news so fast, we may have to wait a little longer for the real news to catch up!

As always, if there's fake news, we'll be all over it.

Wondering on Wednesday 12/2/2020

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

There's much to wonder about today, so let's dive in. 

We know that there are runoffs in Georgia in January, and that the two Republicans are being painted as unethical money-grubbing stock traders, trading on their knowledge and position as senators.  This article, for example, goes into detail on how the two - David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler - made money off the pandemic through what the headline calls their "naked corruption." Perdue is apparently an extremely busy trader; in fact, his nearly 2600 trades in his first term "roughly equal the combined trading volume of the next five most active traders in the Senate." He accounts for nearly a third of all transactions reported during the past six years.  Not only that, but

The data also shows the breadth of trades Mr. Perdue made in companies that stood to benefit from policy and spending matters that came not just before the Senate as a whole, but before the committees and subcommittees on which he served.

I'm wondering how the heck it is that folks in Georgia might actually vote both of these two back in come the first week of January. And I also wonder how calls to boycott the vote, which are coming from the Republicans (go figure), and the president's saying he'll go there to campaign, will impact things. And I wonder how much more of this any of them can take. 

And, speaking of how much more of this anyone can take, I offer these items related to the president's ongoing battle to pretend he wants to stay in office. I say pretend he wants to, because we all know this is about the money he's making through the barrage of fundraising requests - nearly 500 of them since November 3rd - being sent for his (ahem), legal defense fund - $170M since the election.

The surge of contributions has come largely from small-dollar donors, campaign officials say, tapping into the president’s base of loyal and fervent financial supporters, who tend to contribute the most when they feel the president is under siege or facing unfair political attacks. 

Anyway, here's the #AlwaysTrumper, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, making news. He's demanding AG Snitty Snitty Bill Barr produce the evidence he didn't find to prove that there isn't any evidence of voter fraud that will overturn the results of the election.

And here's another #AlwaysTrumper lawyer-not lawyer Sidney Powell, the one who released the kraken and got herself released from official legal responsibilities, is now quoting a prominent QAnon guy in her Georgia election lawsuit. In another lawsuit, she used a person as a plaintiff without his permission. And, there's now apparently a Sidney Powell for President domain. 

As I see, every day on my one social media feed people repeating her baseless claims, I can only wonder when - if ever - they'll come to the realization that this is all a bunch of crap. Every last bit of it.

Powell might not be the stupidest Trump lawyer, though. That honor might go to this guy. 

Joe diGenova, the attorney for Trump's campaign, said during an appearance on "The Howie Carr Show": "Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot."

Which I guess is consistent with what the cultists think. I mean, Steve Bannon called for putting Dr. Fauci's head on a pike back in November.  

I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you’re gone ― time to stop playing games. Blow it all up.

Don't you wonder how it is that the president of the United States managed to find himself surrounded by people like this? Seriously...these are the people the president has, or had, in his inner circle. He can't choose the outer ring of his circle the hangers on, the wannabe close to him people, the big donors; I understand that. But he surely picked these people, or people he picked picked them. If you don't wonder about that, I have to wonder about you.

I'll close with this rather interesting take on the White House Christmas decorations from Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post, in which Melania Trump appears before her, saying 

Follow me, and I will guide you among these ominous trees, through a place where you will hear desperate lamentations and see ancient, disconsolate spirits in torment. Would you like a tour of the White House Christmas decorations?

It's an interesting trip, for sure.  And if you haven't seen them yet, here's a video you should watch before you read Petri's piece. Otherwise you might wonder about what on earth she's talking about.

 What are you wondering about?

Email of the Week (v17), With a Twist

THE LITTLE GARDEN IN THE VALLEY

SYRACUSE

NOTICE DATE: April 30, 2020

NOTICE NUMBER: URA0,45 (EN)

Donald J Trump

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20500

Your Self-serving Letter Has Arrived

My Fellow American:

As you noted in your email, “our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.” I must say, I’m surprised you didn’t call it the ‘Chinese’ coronavirus pandemic, or the ‘Wuhan’ coronavirus pandemic; maybe someone convinced you, finally, that your rhetoric was dangerous, and perhaps ‘inspiring’ attacks on Asian Americans across our country?

What a chuckle I had reading you say “our top priority” is my health and safety. I mean, my top priority is my health and safety, but we all know your top priority is you. After all, 

• Isn’t that why your name is being put on the Economic Impact Payment checks?  
• And isn’t that why this letter is coming from you, not from the IRS, as was done in the past? 
• And isn’t that why your recent press conference/campaign rallies have been so egocentric, filled with your nearly 600 self-congratulatory comments (and over 100 comments blaming others), not to mention the multiple obligatory “Mr. President” callouts from every speaker?

In the midst of this unprecedented public health challenge, it was hard to miss you, the vice president, your daughter and her family, and other members of your administration repeatedly ignoring the guidance issued by your own experts. Good thing you didn’t have to spend a lot of time greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens,” over the past several weeks. And it was a good thing that most people ignored the example you set, and instead followed the guidelines to help slow the spread and flatten the curve.

We received our stimulus payment two weeks ago, making the letter telling us what we’d be getting, and how, even less meaningful than it would have been had it come from the IRS (as it should have) in advance. 

Given how much attention you pay to the news, particularly news about you and your administration, you should have known that it was widely reported in the “lamestream media” and of course on the Trump News Network how the payments would go out, how to find out the status of the payment, and who to contact in case of questions. In addition to the traditional media coverage, there have been ample notifications about this payment across multiple social media platforms, financial institution notifications, on the IRS website, and other outlets as well.

In keeping with your efforts “to protect hard-working Americans…from the consequences of the economic shutdown,” I believe it would be appropriate for your campaign committee to absorb the costs of this self-serving and wasteful letter.

In these challenging economic times, it’s disrespectful for you to spend our money tooting your horn.

TGIF 4/24/20

Hey - look - another Friday. How about that?

We're going to take a slightly different path this week, because I happened to hear someone mention comments made by Piers Morgan about Donald Trump. I was fascinated by the paraphrasing of Morgan's remarks, and I was fortunate that there's a transcript.

Morgan, the person who was telling the story, is one of 47 accounts the president follows on Twitter -- so he's definitely part of the 'in crowd'.  Or, more accurately, he was of the in crowd, and he was one of the 47 lucky accounts Trump follows -- but not any more, at least not as I write this. Because now there are 46, and Morgan isn't one of them.

What did the Brit say that got appear to have gotten him in hot water? Among other things, that he has "been watching these daily briefings with mounting horror, frankly, because this is not what presidents should be doing."

Presidents, Morgan said, have to "be calm, they've got to show authority, they have to be honest, they have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they're telling the people and they have to have an ability to show empathy." And, "on almost every level of that, Donald Trump at the moment is failing the American people." 

It's important to note that Morgan's comments came before yesterday's allegedly joking, sarcastic comments from the president, which we'll get to in a sec.  But first, more Morgan.

Donald Trump's approval ratings are falling and the reason for that is -- he needs to understand this -- they're falling because people don't trust him. They think he's turning these rallies -- these daily briefings into self-serving rallies, and they don't understand why he can't just do the basics of crisis leadership, which is to make the public come with you, and to believe you, and to feel that you're on their side and you're showing them the empathy that they need when so many people are dying.

Attacking Trump's ratings? That's like the third rail of being a Trump friend, I think. But that wasn't all.

Donald Trump, if he's listening to this or watching, you will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win. And, conversely, you will lose the election in November if you continue to make it about yourself, you continue playing silly politics, continue targeting Democrat governors because that suits you for your electoral purposes. None of that matters.

Now, it would appear that Morgan did not make these comments in jest, and it wasn't a really bad attempt at sarcasm. We know this, because he hasn't retracted the comments. And he won't. Because, well, because he has courage, and convictions.

Whereas the president has zero courage, zero convictions, and absolutely no sense of humor. Because apparently, when the backlash struck today, the comments below were said to have been sarcasm.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.  So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.  It sounds interesting.

ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN:  We’ll get to the right folks who could.

THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.  Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.  So it would be interesting to check that.  So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with.  But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me. So we’ll see.  But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.

So, the official White House transcript shows that the president was addressing his remarks to Acting Undersecretary Bill Bryan, who "leads the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security..." - and yet, here's what the president said today about those remarks.

I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,

He's a liar, the president is, as we know. And he's proved that again, as he does regularly. There should be no doubt about that, although I can't imagine how there has been any doubt about that for the past nearly five years - or more.

So, how does all of this tie to our usual TGIF theme? Well, I 'm saying Piers Morgan had a good week, and the president had his typical week, which is usually a bad one. He's among the usual suspects for that dubious honor.

Now, in the interest of something that was actually intended as a joke, and is not true and is completely ridiculous, I offer these remarks, which are funnier if you read them with Trump's voice in your head.

See, you go into the spray tan booth, but instead of spraying you gently with that orange dye, they'll turn up the pressure and blast you at the SAME time with both the UV light AND the disinfectant - at the same time, can you believe it?

The spray will be SO POWERFUL that it will penetrate your skin, and the light will get in there, and the disinfectant will get in there, and it will be like a BEAUTIFUL cleanse - so important, doing the cleanse. Doing the cleanse. And think of it - your pores will be opened up just like our beautiful ECONOMY, the greatest economy EVER, they tell me. Best ever. Even bigger pores, even bigger economy than ever before, even bigger. So important.

And JOBS! Think of all the JOBS, good old American jobs, that's right! We'll buy American UV lightbulbs, made right here in the US, they're going to reopen the plants and make the bulbs, not the orange ones that make me look bad, the good ones, the great US made UV bulbs, only the best and we'll make the disinfectant too.

I can use the D, I'll invoke the D, like never before, nothing like this before, we'll get those factories, GM will get those old factories open again, the people working again, good American people, good American jobs for the bulbs and the spray and the disinfectant, the best in the world. So important, the best in the world. No one can make the bulbs and the disinfectant like we can. 

Like I always say, #BuyAmerican and #HireAmerican, so important, so beautiful. It's going to be beautiful, and clean, so clean. 

TGIF everyone - whether you're kidding, not kidding, being sarcastic, or just plain being honest. Which, as we know, is the best policy. As is washing your hands and keeping your distance. Even from nice people like me.

Trump in Transition (v43)

Taking a break from attacking reporters on an almost daily basis for asking 'nasty' questions and trying to pin him down on what the heck he's talking about, the president sent a letter to NY's Senator Chuck Schumer.

The letter was in response to comments Schumer made in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, I think, and comes at a time when the president regularly calls on all Americans to set politics aside, to come together for the good of the country, for our own health and safety, for the health and safety of our family, friends, perfect strangers, and yes, even people who do not share our political beliefs.

And once again, he ignores his own request, just as he's been ignoring his own rules of engagement during the pandemic. And once again, he exhibits the temperament of a hormonal teenager told to pick up their room or do their homework.

Senator Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Senator Schumer:

Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way.

1. 1. As you are aware, Vice President Pence is in charge of the Task Force. By almost all accounts, he has done a spectacular job.
2. 2. The Defense Production Act (DPA) has been consistently used by my team and me for the purchase of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment, medical supplies, ventilators, and other related items. It has been powerful leverage, so powerful that companies generally do whatever we are asking, without even a formal notice.  They know something is coming, and that’s all they need to know.
3. 3. A “senior military officer” is in charge of purchasing, distributing, etc. His name is Rear Admiral John Polowczyk.  He is working 24 hours a day, and is highly respected by everyone.  If you remember, my team gave you this information, but for public relations purposes, you choose to ignore it.
4. 4. We have given New York many things, including hospitals, medical centers, medical supplies, record numbers of ventilators, and more. You should have had New York much better prepared than you did, and as Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said yesterday, New York was very late in its fight against the virus.  As you are aware, the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments.  Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.

If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the “invisible enemy.” No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary. If they did, they would likely win.

Fortunately, we have been working with your state and city governments, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio, to get the job done.  You have been missing in action, except when it comes to the “press.”  While you have stated that you don’t like Andrew Cuomo, you ought to start working alongside him for the good of all New Yorkers.

I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York, until I became President.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call.  Or, in the alternative, call Rear Admiral Polowczyk.

Sincerely yours,

Donald J. Trump

In case anyone wants to try defend the president because he was only responding to what Chuck Schumer said, don't bother.

It wouldn't matter if Schumer said that the president was a petulant child who bigly needed a diaper change. It wouldn't matter if he said Ivanka was ugly, or if he said that Melania was a man, or if he said that Trump wasn't born here, he was hatched in giant egg in a carnival sideshow.

It doesn't matter one bit what Schumer said. Because the person elected president of the United States, the ostensible leader of the free world, needs to have skin thicker than the thinnest setting on a pasta maker. The president also needs to have a way to vent in private, and needs to be able to act like an adult, especially when being criticized. This president apparently doesn't have the former (or any inclination of finding one) and doesn't have the ability to do the latter (or any inclination thereof).

I'm also not entertaining the argument that Trump didn't want the letter to go out - because the letter did go out. For that to happen, he had to have the letter drawn up on White House stationery, and he had to scribble his name across the bottom of it. And he had to let someone take it from the Oval Office or wherever he was when he signed it, and mail it to Schumer's office. We know he has no self-control - and if he has so little control over the people who work for him that they sent it even if he didn't want them to, may even more shame rain down upon his head.

Not only that - if he didn't want the letter to go out, it wouldn't be posted on the White House website right now, complete with a link to download a copy of the letter. That last part is important, because when the president sends a letter to Congress, there's no download link, just the text. When he issues a statement? No link. When he issues an Executive Order? No link.

In this case, he's so proud of himself that we can get our own copy of the letter, we can see how big and strong and angry his signature is, we can see how POWERFUL he is.

We can see how big a jerk he is.

I'll leave you with a closing thought, from this Esquire article,

This letter should immediately be put on display at the National Archives as a warning to the nation of the consequences of electing a game-show host and failed casino grifter to the highest political office in the land.

Knock Knock. Who's There? Presidential Defenders

Presidential defenders who?

Presidential defenders who are making complete fools of themselves, that's who.

Take Senator Lindsey Graham (R-White House).  The senator, who also serves as acting Secretary of Defense for Impeachment, has suggested that the Trump Administration is so incompetent and hopeless that they couldn't possibly have pulled off a quid pro quo.

Seriously, the Administration's Ukraine policy, if you could even call it that, was incoherent and nobody was in charge, or everyone was in charge and what a mess and these people couldn't 'policy' their way out of a paper bag if their ability to avoid a Congressional subpoena depended on it, or something.

Yep - in this case, the whole is actually less than the sum of its parts, and because of that, no impeachable offense has occurred. So he's writing the whole thing off, Graham is; he's not interested in looking at actual transcripts of actual depositions or anything, he's just going to play golf with the president and let it go at that.

This is a new and interesting twist on the administration, which is the one we deserve (also according to Graham) and is also the political equivalent of the Keystone Cops. Or maybe of Wile E. Coyote, not sure.

As I said, this is only the latest in a string of 'defenses' the president, his advisers, family members, and scaredycat politicians who do what he says under fear of losing their jobs, have shared with us.

Other lines of defense may or may not include:

• It didn't happen, but if it did happen, it's OK because it's not a crime (a consistent theme with Trump and his minions). 
• And even if it IS a crime, he can't be investigated or charged with anything. But impeachment isn't about crimes, it's a political remedy. (Keep reading...) 
• And even if Congress has oversight responsibility expressly defined in the Constitution, it doesn't matter, because the economy. You know, the black unemployment rate, something that not a SINGLE Republican (and not more than probably a handful of Democrats) ever cared to mention before? Yeah, that's why none of this impeachment stuff matters.
• Impeachment is a sham, just like those phony emoluments.
• The president is not being allowed to face his accuser like he's entitled to in a court of law. I love this one, coming from folks who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, but aren't embarrassed to pretend they don't know the difference between impeachment and a criminal proceeding. 
• They had depositions in secret (a common procedure, as these folks know) to hide what was going on from us (no, not really) and we had to STORM THE GATES to get in the room (because most of us aren't on the Committee handing the depositions) and the Democrats are acting like a bunch of Soviets.
• Well, now that this is PUBLIC we're going to refuse to participate because this is a PARTISAN WITCH HUNT and a HOAX!
• Read the transcript (which is what they call the document clearly noted THIS IS NOT A TRANSCRIPT) it was a beautiful call and nothing that's pretty can be evil, right?
• The president is the Commander in Chief of the country, (which, of course, he is absolutely NOT) and he can do what he wants, and he didn't do anything wrong.
• And even if something did happen, it wasn't Trump.  It was Giuliani. 
• No, wait it was Mulvaney.
• No wait, it was Sondland.
• No, wait, it was Vindman. He's a never-Trumper. He speaks UKRAINIAN!
• It was (fill in the blank).
• But Joe Biden... 
• But Hunter Biden... 
• But Biden the golden!
• But the whistleblower once worked for a Democrat. No wait he worked with Joe Biden. That  completely negates the fact that multiple have corroborated what the whistleblower said (and more).
• But the whistleblower's attorney's tweets!
• But even if the House comes up with articles of impeachment, Senate Republicans won't go along with it.

Just stop. 

Everyone says they want the facts, except when it comes to actually getting the facts. In the face of that, the Republicans are literally - not just Joe Biden literally, but literally throwing everything at this that they can get their hands on.  

It's time to stop talking and start listening. Hear the evidence, read the evidence (and, can I ask, have you read the Mueller Report yet?), and listen to the official arguments when they are presented. 

And then, stop embarrassing yourselves, all of you.

This is not about why someone's nickname is Masha, for Pete's sake.  This is not about political parties. It's not about who is the biggest loser, or the sorest loser.

It's about whether the president of the United States used his office to attack a US citizen who happens to be a political rival, or in any way abused his office for personal gain. That's what this is about.

No one should be afraid of the facts. 

Quick Takes (v40): If True, Dems, Shame on You

I've long complained about the hypocrisy of this president calling for unity and love, and claiming he wants to be the president for all of us.

I find those comments ridiculous, given his daily rhetoric and attacks on anyone who so much as whispers anything less than fabulous about him, and also given that some of those comments come when he's in his 'good people on both sides' mindset, which I also find ridiculous.

In fact, just this morning I called him out for an apparent lack of comity with Democrats, which I discovered on one of my meandering trips through the propaganda pages on the White House website.

What set me off? The president's comments at the swearing-in ceremony for new Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was approved by the Senate in a 90-8 vote. Take a look, particularly at the parts I italicized:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much everybody. We have a very important moment in our country’s history, actually. And we had a lot of our great Republican senators in the White House, and I invited them over and many of them wanted to be here. And as you probably heard, the vote just took place, and it was 90 to 8. That’s a vote that we’re not accustomed to, Mark, I have to say that. So congratulations, that’s great.

So, Esper was approved on a 90-8 vote? That is great (and it's about time Trump put up a reasonable nominee). Now, there are 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the Senate this year. If he was the unity president, as he pretends he is, Trump should have invited every single one of them and 90 of them should have showed up, right?  But he doesn't say he invited all of the Yes votes to the ceremony - just the "great Republicans," which is his standard practice.

But then I read about a Rose Garden ceremony today where Trump signed the bill that extends until 2092 the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The bill passed the House by a vote of 402-12 and the Senate, 97-2.

Of course, during his remarks he had to make sure we knew that he, too, played a role in the aftermath of the attack.  In case you were unaware, he was very engaged. Listen - he'll tell you.

I was down there also. But I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there, I spent a lot of time down there with you.

I suspect many will find that to be just another in a long line of appalling "look at me!" statements, another blatantly self-promoting lie. And you'd be right; after all, Trump lies like the rest of us breathe - but his absurd comment isn't the real shocker from today's gathering.

Nope -- this is the real shocker (emphasis added):

No Democrats attended Monday's event, according to a guest list distributed by the White House, but an official said that every member of Congress was invited. 

If that's true - that they all were invited and none of them attended - shame on them.

Shame on every single one of them.

I get that half of them are running for president and there's a debate on Wednesday and all that, and I get that there is literally no love lost between Democrats in Congress and the president, but "come on, man!" as one House member recently said.

Choke back your bile and show up for something that matters. Show up and respect the first responders and families of those who have passed, who were at the ceremony. If they can do it, certainly a bunch of politicians can do it to.

Be the better person, Democrats - the better person, not the bigger jerk.

Trump in Transition (v40)

Oh, this is just SO rich.

The president, who has been on the record as an enemy of a free press for his entire term, going back at least as far as when lied about the size of his manhood inauguration crowd and threw a fit when the press disproved his blatant false statement.

It has not slowed down, at all.

He loved the press when he was making a name for himself and his gold plated toilets and all that back in the day, but now that the press (other than the Trump News Network, of course) is no longer lapping up what he's dribbling, it's a different story.

The Trump administration equates boisterous, lie-filled, race-baiting political rallies and machine-gun-esque tweet storms and pre-flight gaggles as official communications and transparent dealings with the press, but doesn't like to hold actual press conferences where the people - that's you and me - are allowed, through the press corps, to get answers to some of our questions.

Why? Because administration officials either

• don't like lying on behalf of the president any more, especially since we now know conclusively that they do that, or
• they don't like being called out on their lies, or
• they don't like having to answer questions,or even worse, having to answer followup questions, which you don't have to do on Twitter or Instagram, or
• perhaps they're waiting for their emoji flash cards to come in, not sure. (They probably should have gotten a Prime membership.)

There have been two formal press briefings this year -- two official opportunities for the White House press corps to gather en masse and ask questions, all the while Press Secretary Sarah (Transparent and Honest) Sanders proclaims that this president is the most transparent and accessible ever in his dealings with the media. 

And so we come to this: the administration is revoking the 'hard pass' credentials of many reporters who cover the White House. The hard pass allows them access without additional scrutiny or delay for a two-year period; without it, they have to apply for entry, either for the day, the week, or for six months.  Hard passes are lost if a person hasn't been working at the White House "at least 50% of the time over the previous 180 days." Random exceptions are being granted, although there apparently aren't clear guidelines on what's worthy of one.

Access is not being limited to the Hannitys and Carlsons and Pirros and the Fox-and-Friendsers, of course -- because they are not reporters, and they don't participate as such.

They are the propaganda ministers of this administration, with unfettered, 24-7-365 access to the president, helping drive his #MakingAmericaHateAgain message and helping him swat away the information that's being reported by actual journalists.

The reason for this? It's about security, they say. It seems there is an unknown number of hard passes in circulation, which poses a security risk, according to Sanders.

Which is kind of comical, actually.

• The Trump administration allowed people access to national security information without full and appropriate security clearances. 

• They issued security clearances against the judgment of the people who make decisions on clearances for a living. 

• They dealt with a foreign policy emergency in the public dining room of the president's money-making club, in full view of diners, who were seen taking photos of the goings-on. 

• The president regularly charges the press as being the enemy of the people, which has inspired his followers to send bombs to media outlets, and more.

I don't pretend that all journalists are good ones, or that there isn't a bias in the media -- after all, "there are good people on both sides -- on both sides." Media outlets on the right of center tend to report one way, and those on the left of center tend to report a different way. But that doesn't make them our enemies - it challenges us to read with intention, to discern the unconscious or conscious bias, and to act accordingly.

We have the right and responsibility to determine what to believe.  And we have the right to have elected officials, most importantly the president, answer our questions. That's not a privilege, as this administration seems to think.

And nothing that this White House does in its dealings with the media - and by extension, with you and me - earn it the "transparent" or "honest" label, including this latest action.

Sunday School 11/18/18 (pt 1)

Today our focus is on the guest lecturer in chief, the president of the United States and his interview with Chris Wallace, which aired this morning on Fox News Sunday.

There was SO much going on in this one, it's hard to do it justice but I'll give it my darnedest.

On the state of the White House:

And I will tell you I'm extremely upbeat, the White House is running like a well-oiled machine, it's doing really well, I have great people. I will make some changes but not very many.  I'm very happy with my cabinet, other than, you know, a couple of exceptions and even then I'm not unhappy. And I will tell you that it's so wrong, the reporting about me is so wrong. I'm loving what I'm doing. I did well in France, I did have a problem where I wasn't able to go to a cemetery because the Secret Service would not let me do it... 

About the appearance that the First Lady fired one of his advisers:

Well, I didn't know the adviser well, really, and I know they had a lot of problems. My wife did a great job in Africa an she was not treated properly by the press. She really worked so hard. They came to me. They wanted to go a little bit public because that's the way they felt and I thought it was fine.

The advisor, the Deputy National Security Advisor Mira Ricardel, will move to another position in the Administration and Trump noted, without irony, that she was not very diplomatic.

But, frankly, she is not -- she'll never be put in the United Nations, let me put it that way. 

On General John Kelly remaining as Chief of Staff through 2020:

We -- I wouldn't -- look, we get along well. There are certain things I love what he does. And there are certain things that I don't like that he does - that aren't his strength. It's not that he doesn't do -- you know, he works so hard. He's doing an excellent job in so many ways. There are a couple of things where it's just not his strength. It's not his fault it's not his strength. 

Like being hungry at a meetings, I'm sure.

But I haven't even thought about John in terms of this. But John, at some point, it going to want to move on. John will move on. 

Perhaps as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III did.

About Robert Mueller and his gang of Democratic thugs, there was much discussion, including the written questions he's answering, without his team's help.

No, no no not my team. I'm preparing written answers. My - I -- I'm the one that does the answering.

I've completed them. And it wasn't a big deal - by the way it wasn't a big deal. The answers -- the questions were asked and answered. It wasn't a big deal. You know, they make it like I had meetings for many, many hours - -I got the questions, I responded, we read them out, I read them once, I read them a second time, we made some changes. That's it. They were very simple.

On whether it was his final position, that there won't be a sit-down interview with Mueller or anything on obstruction of justice:

I would say probably. Probably. I mean, I can change my mind, but probably. I think we've -- I think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is probably, we're finished.

Asked about the odds of that:

I don't do odds. We would -- I gave very -- (Wallace commented that Trump ran a casino - ed. note) You're right, and very successfully actually. We gave very, very complete answers to a lot of questions that I shouldn't have even been asked and I think that should solve the problem. I hope it solves the problem. If it doesn't, you know, I'll be told and we'll make a decision at that time. But probably this is the end.

Hmm... "very successfully actually" is likely in the mind of the beholder, as is pretty much everything else the president says.

We'll pick this up in a bit; see you around campus.

(Probably. I mean, I can change my mind, but probably I'll see you around campus.)

Swampy Glass Houses and Whatnot

Someone on Twitter questioned why "a victim needed a team of high-powered Democratic-operative lawyers."

This led me to wonder why an alleged perpetrator needed to spend day after day after day after day after day at the White House preparing to answer questions about something he says he didn't do?

Just as he did several weeks ago to prepare for his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Brett M. Kavanaugh was back inside a room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building - again facing questioners readying him for a high-stakes appearance in the Senate.

Commenters on the tweet wondered who was paying for all of that, since the victim is merely a university professor, which caused me to wonder who's paying for all of Kavanaugh's practice. Maybe it's the RNC, which for a time handled the legal bills for the president, a self-proclaimed billionaire several times over (both the number of billions, and the number of proclamations)?

Here are just a couple of mentions of that:

Combined with the Republican National Committee, Trump's campaign paid a total of $5.5 million in legal bills during 2017 amid probes into Russia's role in the 2016 election. The payments were made to law firms, as well as the company owned by the president's family.

The Republican National Committee has for months been quietly paying expenses previously covered by the Trump campaign in an arrangement that experts say is bizarre, but legal. The payments include more than $37,000 a month in rent to president Donald Trump's company, and thousands more in salary to Vice President Mike Pence's nephew, John Pence. The payments started abruptly last September, when the RNC came under pressure to stop paying Trump's personal legal bills in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

Nope -- it's not the RNC. Actually, it's you and me who are paying for Kavanaugh's truth-telling practice sessions.

From the same Washington Post article linked in the second sentence of this post,

This time, the questions were much different. An array of White House aides, playing the role of various senators on the Judiciary Committee, quizzed Kavanaugh last week about his sex life and other personal matters in an attempt to prepare him for a hearing that would inevitably be uncomfortable. 

The article goes on to note

In a preparation session on Tuesday, Kavanaugh faced more than a dozen White House aides in the Eisenhower building, during which aides played different senators for more than two hours.

Dozens of aides, who knows how many hours over the past week or so, spent making sure Kavanaugh tells the truth no matter how he's asked, and that he doesn't lose his cool doing it.

And we're footing the bill.

I wonder why they're not asking Franklin Graham and Ralph Reed and the other evangelical leaders who are threatening the White House that the flock won't vote if the administration doesn't get Kavanaugh confirmed to pay for his 'practice', since they're the ones who have drawn the line in the sand?

Of course, it's nothing new for us to be paying the bills for Trump, his family, his staffers, and his companies.  That's right -- his companies. In this USA Today article from last fall, we learn

Taxpayers are footing the legal bill for at least 10 Justice Department lawyers and paralegals to work on lawsuits related to president Trump's private businesses.

Neither the White House nor the Justice Department will say how much it is costing taxpayers but federal payroll records show the salaries of the government lawyers assigned to the cases range from about $133,000 to $185,000. 

The government legal team is defending president Trump in four lawsuits stemming from his unusual decision not to divest himself from hundred of his companies that are entangled with customers that include foreign governments and officials.

In these cases, Justice Department attorneys are not defending policy actions Trump took as president. Instead, the taxpayer-funded lawyers are making the case that it is not unconstitutional for the president's private companies to earn profits from foreign government and officials while he's in office.

Comically, we're paying them to suggest that there's no difference between foreign government officials and their representatives actually paying to roll around on one of those glorious Trump Hotel mattresses and a different president selling a book.

President Obama, we know he received royalties from the sale of books during his presidency. Did he violate the Emoluments Clause because he likely would have received royalties from the sale of books to foreign government representatives? 

Hmm. Likely would have... actually did...  Yeah, there's a difference there, and you don't have to be a government lawyer to figure that out.

I don't care who's paying Dr. Ford's legal bills - she's entitled to her preparation, just like Kavanaugh is entitled to his. She can choose who'll pay her bills - but we're stuck paying Kavanaugh's, whether we like it or not.

I also care that you and I are constantly paying for the president's money-making business, whether it's office space rentals, or golf cart rentals, or legal bills. And that we pay legal bills for his children. And I care about all of the legal ways campaign contributions can be spent.

The bottom line here? People who are so upset about Ford hiring lawyers should stop and think about the lawyers that they're paying for, without their knowledge, permission or approval.

 And, by the way - people who live in glass swamp houses shouldn't throw pond scum.