Theater of the Mind

The stage is set!

Not long ago some neuroscientists realised something that anyone who’s ever done a high school play already knew. The stage isn’t lit up brighter when the curtain goes up, it’s just the house lights are turned down.

Basic car mechanics would tell you, turn on the AC and the engine has to compensate. But for years scientists thought when the brain focused on something, that somehow the brain ramped up attention to the things it was focused on while still running full throttle functions everywhere else.

Today scientists understand that when the brain focuses on one thing, all the other areas of the brain dim. I’m not trying to bash scientists. I love science and neuroscience. I’m just saying, sometimes people are so focused on an idea, because they’re trained in a certain area of expertise, they forget to turn up the houselights and look around.

I think this dimming effect is what’s going on with the impeachment process and people who comment on politics for a living. Just for moment, I’m going to turn off the AC and put the car in neutral so we can look under the hood. Or, if you prefer, I’m going to close the stage curtains, delay the drama, and turn up the house lights.

In case you forgot the branches.

First, there’s a lot of talk about 3 co-equal branches of government. That’s not true. The Founders wanted checks and balances. Equality? Not so much. How do we know this? The Senate has the ability to remove a sitting president. A president can not remove a senator. The Senate can override a presidential veto. A president cannot override the Senate. The House can create laws, but the Senate has to pass them. Even the Supreme Court cannot override the Senate. The Senate just makes another law, and the SOCTUS must consider it.

Everything revolves around power in the Senate. I’m not sure why this is but I think it has to do with the nature of the Senate. It’s 100 people. Two people from each state. That means whether you’re a big state, or small, rich state, or poor, mostly blue state, or red, in the Senate, all senators have equal amounts of power. If there’s any equality anywhere, it’s supposed to reside in the senate, with older, wiser, calmer heads. Please stop laughing.

Second, there’s the issue of party politics. I bring this up because people seem to forget that the RNC exists to keep Republicans in power, not the current president. As the POTUS’s base of white evangelical Christians and women erodes, who is the best person to shore that base up? Mike Pence. It may actually be in the GOP’s interest to flush the current POTUS. It’s about keeping the GOP power, not the POTUS.

As was the case with Nixon, bouncing Nixon got Republicans four more years, under Ford. If it comes down to it, Republicans might vote as a block to remove the current POTUS and replace him with Pence, just to keep control of the WH. If that seems the best way to keep the WH for another 4 years, they’ll do that. Voting as a block will lend weight to that decision and heads off repercussions.

Murkowski votes with POTUS 74.8% of the time. Romney votes with POTUS 80.6% of the time. Collins votes with POTUS 67% of the time. These are not mavericks.

Third, an alternative way to drop the current POTUS without the whole GOP cutting him dead is having a few purple-blue leaning Republican senators defect. You only need a few FOP senators to switch sides to repeal and replace the POTUS. And allowing those GOP senators holding on to marginal seats at home to vote that way ensures that a) they have a better chance of being re-elected by their home state (so the GOP keeps its senate majority and the WH), and b) it gives everyone else in the GOP political cover.

To be honest, there’s no down side for the GOP to flushing the WH clean and turning it over to Pence. In fact, there’s a lot of upside. After the craziness of Trump, Pence seems like a relief. You know Pence will continue the same policies, but without the drama, the twitter rages, and probably without getting caught out doing the stupid and illegal things we all know both he and the POTUS are doing now anyway.

I dunno. Do you really want one?

Fourth, the GOP senators asking for witnesses and documents are the same ones that are in trouble in their home states, and come from purple-blue states. They just make this request for witnesses and documents to “appear” fair at home. My reaction to their request for witnesses and documents? Same old, same old.

These same senators do this same routine every time — and then end up voting with the Republican bloc. Just review your notes on the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. There was a shamefully inadequate investigation, which these senators asked for, and then these senators voted on party lines. it amazes me that the liberal media gets so whipped up about their actions and actually thinks these senators are on the fence somehow or are going to do anything but what’s good for the GOP.

Actually it’s Bully, but that’s for another day.

Fifth, there is actually space for the POTUS to act. On Christmas Day I ran into a friend. She’s white, works hard for her money, and is not a racist. She supports Trump.  Her exact words were, “I don’t hate him.” Okay…. She went on to say, “The world’s doomed and both parties are filled with extremists.” Okay…..

When I asked her about her views of the POTUS, she said, “I think he’s a good person trying to change stuff, but he’s being forced to adopt bad policies.” I said, “The POTUS sets the agenda.” She said, “The people around him are all bad. They’re the problem. The entrenched GOP.” I didn’t bother to say, “He picked his cabinet and chose the party he represents.”

She saw the POTUS, the man in the most powerful office in the world, as a victim. And this is pretty typical actually with GOP white women. Most bullies, when caught out, play the victim card. This is what Brett Kavanaugh did. And GOP white women went, Oh, poor Brett. It’s shameful, but it works on the GOP white women, so it goes on happening.

Because this happens, there’s an opening for the POTUS. There is now one thing the POTUS could actually do to turn things around. He could say it was all the bad people around him. Fire a lot of WH staff, campaign staff, and cabinet members. Blame everything on them giving him bad guidance or leading him astray for their own malign purposes, and then ask people to give him another chance.

People are stupid. It could work. Of course people might then ask why Barr wasn’t going after these people, but that’s not really the POTUS’s problem. He’s always only for himself alone, so what happens to those people….as recent history shows with Manafort, Cohen and a host of others…. doesn’t matter. If he has to kill the GOP goose to keep the WH, he’ll do it.

Order in the … Senate. His facial expression says it all. The SCOTUS has weighty matters to decide. This? This is just shameful. The POTUS should have resigned months ago and spared everyone the bother.

With all this in mind, I now return you to the theater of the US Senate. The house lights are going down, the curtains are opening, and our national drama is about be illuminated. Enjoy the show.

 

 

Coal miner’s lament

In news today from Reuters, US and Russian coal exports are way, way up because China has decided to sanction North Korean coal.

China banned all imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off the country’s most important export product. To curb coal traffic between the two countries, which continued despite the ban apparently, China’s customs department issued an official order on April 7 telling trading companies to return their North Korean coal cargoes.

Trump’s been talking about North Korea since before he was elected. I’ve always wondered why. Consensus states the North Korea is in pretty bad shape and that most of what they say is a lie. It’s doubtful they have anything like a functioning weapon. North Korea, which is hardly worth bothering about. That the POTUS was bothered, always made me wonder. I kind of get it now.

By casting North Korea as a problem, and getting China to agree and ban buying coal from NK, China then has to buy coal elsewhere, which potentially means US coal jobs. Is this what the POTUS meant when he said he would bring back coal jobs? Not so fast. It may sound good on the surface for American workers, but dig a little deeper.

China needs coking coal to make steel, China can’t stop buying this type of coal or its economy will suffer. So …. the US is one place they might buy it from. However, another place, that’s much closer geographically and less costly to buy from, is Russia.  Yes, you read that correctly Russia.

Russia’s coal exports are expected to rise by up to 3.3 pct in 2017 according to a UK Reuters report. Coal is a $10B industry in Russia, increasing it over 3% would be a major economic boost to the economy there. Why does such a boost matter? Because it helps Putin get around US sanctions and helps Putin make more money so he and his oligarchy can stay in office longer.

So, the upshot of Trump being tough on North Korea is Trump is helping Putin avoid the pain of sanctions. By the way, coaking coal prices were at an all time high since a hurricane hit Australia, blanking North Korea from the game … yeah, really good, for Russia.

In case anyone forgot, the sanctions were supposed to weaken the Russian economy and make the Russians rethink the Ukraine situation. In case anyone forgot, Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is in an ongoing war against pro-West, pro-democracy Ukraine. Why? Because Ukrainians cast out their Pro-Putin, national wealth-stealing, puppet president a few years back.

Incredibly, our Mr Tillerson, at the G7 meeting, right before he flew to Moscow, seems uninformed about the whole Russia-Ukraine matter.  “U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked his European counterparts on Tuesday why American voters should care about the conflict in Ukraine, France’s foreign minister said.” Really? You have to ask why? Ugh.

Once again, the Trump administration is showing it’s Pro-Putin, anti-democracy stance. Russia wants Ukraine, Trump is okay with Russians annexing it — from the Ukrainians! This has been a core bargaining chip from the beginning. Trump for president, Ukraine for Russia. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. And yet ….

This is a bit more than removing the anti-Russian, pro-Ukraine plank from the GOP’s platform. This is actively undermining sanctions, actively helping Russia get around US sanctions on Ukraine by pushing China to reject North Korea and buy Russian coal. So, collusion with Russia? You bet, still, ongoing.

Finally, talking about Syria for a moment, Russia’s other abiding interest, if you were wondering about sudden visits from Jordan’s king, Egypt’s general president, and China’s president, to the US, consider Syria’s major import and export partners.

Syria exports primarily to Egypt (25%), Jordan (16%), Saudi Arabia (13%).  Syria imports primarily Turkey (30%) and China (22% — over 1 Billion dollars worth). If you’re interested in what Syria imports from Russia: Propellant Powders, Prepared Explosives, Explosive Ammunition (25.6%) & Postage Stamps (20%) . (This info is all from MIT). Russia’s main interest in Syria is being able to use it for military bases.

Remember Mike Flynn, who was helping both Russia and Turkey? Two countries with pretty warm ties. People were wondering about that. Wonder no more. He was representing two countries with major shared interests in Syria. And that was Trump’s first pick? So Syria was always on the table.

And now, Trump has met with all the principles likely to experience flux if there is a US intervention or regime change in Syria. Right before a low-level Sarin attack fortuitously happens on April 6, exactly while China’s Xi is visiting, and Trump can low-level bomb something.  And the very next day China’s customs department issued an official order on April 7 telling trading companies to return their North Korean coal cargoes.

Interesting.

Eric Trump said to a British newspaper “If there was anything that [the strike on] Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie.” I’m not sure how Eric got there. Logically, because nothing he’s done has helped the US, it would appear that the POTUS had been planning on using Syria and using  North Korea from the start of his presidency for all sorts of reasons that principally benefit Putin.

Fore! POTUS plays, Syria gets bombed

 

 

Just bomb the Syrian air base and talk to Jared.  I can’t bother thinking about politics right now, I’m going golfing with the President of China

Most people, normal people, when they come up against a problem, try to work out what the problem is first, then they try to come up with a range of solutions, and finally, they act. Our current POTUS apparently sees a horrible picture and sends bombs. No thought involved at all. Or maybe it’s just hard to think rationally in super tacky surroundings such as Mar-a-Lago.

I confess to being less than surprised by the POTUS choosing to bomb the Syrian’s govt air base. He’s not a deal maker, as he tells himself. He’s never tried to deal with Syria. He’s gutted the State Dept, so it’s not like Tillerson is allowed to do it. I guess our POTUS had to bomb the Syrian army because Jared wasn’t around to fix things or if he was, he was just about to go on vacation, and being the big infant our POTUS is, he felt he had to do something, now.

Frankly, it was important to first find out if there was a chemical attack and if so what chemicals were used and who used them on them whom. I’m not denying the images, I just can’t verify them. Neither can you. Nor can anyone. I’m not denying the report by the Turkish hospital that said “it’s chemical weapons involved,” but them saying that doesn’t give a POTUS the information they need.

Just after the attack happened, US investigators were sent material from the scene to find out what was used, by whom. It takes a bit of time to do the that of scientific analysis, the kind needed before you can make a political decision. This isn’t another Saturday night party that got out of hand and your cousin’s boyfriend stabbed someone while drunk and so you and your boyfriend go to his house and shoot his mother and brother. This is international politics, which have international impacts.

And by the way, the AP is reporting that two different Opposition observer groups (The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Homs Media Center) have said that while planes took off from the Shayrat air base the POTUS bombed, none of those planes attacked the town where the chemical attack is said to have taken place. So it may be that there was no chemical attack, by the Syrian Govt, and hence, no reason to bomb Syria’s airbase. It could well be the Russians committed the chemical attack, just to get the POTUS to attack Syrian and destroy US-Syrian relations. Mission accomplished.

If analysis said the Syrian Govt used chemical weapons on the Syrian Opposition, then yes, there’s a Syrian problem. At that point, a POTUS has to decide to how to deal with it. Usually you start with diplomatic pressure. In the POTUS’s case, how about asking his buddy-buddies in Russia to lean on the Syrian president. Or making one of those famous “deals.” Or sending your Sec of State, Rex the napper.

How about maybe asking nations in the region, that have interests there to protect, to build a coalition with the US to support the removal of the Syrian president, either through sanctions or arms. Or asking the UN to form a coalition and send UN Peace keepers? Or accusing Pres Assad as a war criminal before the World Court? Or maybe, just maybe, the POTUS can ask Congress to authorize military action, either on behalf of the country, as part of a regional coalition or a UN coalition?

The thing you surely don’t want to do as POTUS is wing off half-cocked and bomb a Syrian govt air base. The other thing you surely don’t want to do, as a POTUS who ran on “American First”, is endanger US troops by your own reckless actions. US soldiers, which you sent there, who are in Syria with the cooperation of the Syrian govt, to weed out ISIS, not to get involved in Syria’s civil war.

Launching an unprovoked attack on a military base in a country where your soldiers are able to operate as guests to help you take down terrorists, and killing that nation’s soldiers is just astronomically stupid. The US just Pearl Harbored Syria. The US has declared war on the Syrian Govt, while our soldiers are there as guests. The only people that helped was ISIS.

The POTUS has now given the Syrian govt a reason to tell its soldiers to kill US soldiers, as well as Opposition forces and ISIS. Basically they’re all the enemy now. Way to think it through and put America First. Bet the GOP base is just thrilled with that. But then, that’s what Republicans do. They don’t think, they just start wars because it’s good for them the their arms manufacturing buddies.

I’m horrified by Syria’s civil war. I’m horrified by the use of chemical weapons. But I’m just as horrified that the POTUS is acting like a dictator himself, sitting at Mar-a-lago, surrounded by millionaires, stuffing his face with caviar, and choosing war as his first resort instead of his last resort.

Proportional response is only justified when you’ve been attacked. And by the way, Russia says on 23 of the 59 Tomahawks reached that air base, other news sources have already shown that the runway is still intact. So, apparently the only things the POTUS did was put a target on the backs of US soldiers, harm the Syrian Opposition, and help ISIS expand. Brilliant.

 

 

 

The Court of public opinion

I’ll start by saying, I find the whole Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), nomination / confirmation process a bit whacked.

I really don’t understand the point of a Democratic filibuster. Why not just vote No if you don’t like him? A nominee needs 60 votes. Gorsuch won’t get 60 votes because no one on the Dem side will vote for him. At that point, the Republican senators will have to change the Senate rules to lower the standard or withdraw the nomination and nominate someone new.

Let’s face it, the POTUS could do worse than withdraw Gorsuch’s nomination and nominate Garland instead. They’re both older white male lawyers with a surname starting with G. He said he wanted to reach out to the Democrats, and punish the GOP for failing to back him. Withdrawing Gorsuch’s nomination and nominating Garland instead might be just the thing to prove to Dem’s he wants to “deal.”

 

I have nothing against Gorsuch personally. His mother was the one that was thrown out of her Republican cabinet post at the EPA for corruption when he was 15. Notoriously, when asked to release records that proved her wrong doing, she said she couldn’t, claiming Executive Privilege covered those records.

Pres. Reagan responded by saying he would “never use executive privilege to cover up wrong doing” and let her fall. I wonder what kind of impact that humiliation had on Gorsuch? It wasn’t his wrong doing, but he did suffer for it. It probably gave him a few negative thoughts about presidents and Executive Privilege.

I question whether Gorsuch (age 49, but not likely to live long, his mother died at 62, his father at 64. That gives Gorsuch about 12 years on the bench) is a good fit for the Supreme Court though. In a decision last week, on one of Gorsuch’s rulings, the SCOTUS knocked down his decision 8-0. That means everyone on the court, liberals, moderates, and conservatives, thought his decision was dead wrong.

If a minority of judges had agreed with him, then he would have had a leg to stand on. But as it is, if every Supreme Court jurist could see his decision was wrong, dead wrong, if it was that obvious his decision was wrong, he doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court. He’s an okay lower bench judge, given his 10 years of Federal court experience, but he’s clearly not qualified to exercise final judgement.

This is true of several other cases that appeared before him as well. A large group of judges decide one way, correctly, and he makes an obviously wrong opinion. Worse, he then goes on to write his minority opinion, and it’s so obviously wrong but not for legal reasons so much as his personal political beliefs.

Having a person like this adjudicate at a lower level is frustrating, but you can almost guarantee his opinion will be reversed on appeal so it’s safe enough. Such a reversal can’t happen if he’s a justice at the SCOTUS. So, to me, it’s just wrong to nominate such a judge for the SCOTUS. He brings nothing to the Court other than his Protestantism (the current court is composed of Catholic and Jewish justices), which I guess is something toward diversity, but little else.

Other problems he has, which are totally not of his making, are the taint on the situation of his nomination, as a result of Republican failure to do their job and advise and consent to Garland, the last legitimate American POTUS’s nominee; and the taint of being nominated by the current POTUS who has as-yet unfinished investigations into his Russian alliances, making Gorsuch a questionable choice.

There’s not anything Gorsuch can do about either of the situations.  He really is sort of an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. Congress really should have declined to consider a nominee, any nominee, by a president under investigation. It clearly doesn’t bother the Republicans to have 8 justices rather than 9, nor does it hamper the Court’s functioning.

At this point, the current POTUS has gutted the State Department, disgraced the office of POTUS, put unqualified people in charge of federal agencies, attempted to destroy the national security branches, subverted the investigation into his administration, and is not making our country safer, stronger, or better in anyway. I see no reason to consider his nominee for SCOTUS.

What happened to Garland (age 64, with a parent still alive, and 19 years of Federal court experience) was unconstitutional. Congress was required to advise and consent, they didn’t even attempt to advise about the nominee. But at this point, Garland was selected by a legitimately elected American POTUS who was in full possession of his mind and had no debt or connection to the Russian government.

I’d go ahead with hearings to confirm Garland instead. It’s really the only way to preserve the integrity of the nomination process and the Supreme Court. As for the POTUS, withdrawing Gorsuch’s nomination and renominating Garland is a way to reward the “disloyal” Republicans who tanked Trump”care” and let them know he means business about dealing with Democrats. Kind of a win-win really.

 

 

 

Trump’s 2005 IRS 1040? Really?

It’s a chipmunk people,  not a squirrel

When things appear out of thin air, I start to wonder. Mostly because a tax return, from our current president, is such a “nut to find” (ie “SQUIRREL”) to the media. Is it real? I dunno. But, I had to look at the documents for myself.

There are a number of interesting things you can learn from the documents.

• There seems to be 2 hole punches at the top. This might imply the original document was kept in a legal binder which suggests a legal office as origin.
• Melania filed using her legal name Melanija Knavs and not Melania Knauss.
• Donald gave $3 to the presidential election campaign fund. I guess he believed in fair elections free of billionaire and corporate money back then. Sad that $3 is really the only verified charitable donation we have on record for him.
• Barron had yet to be born, so no exemptions there.
• He had tax exempt interest and qualified dividends.
• Client Copy stamped on the bottom implies the document was lifted by someone from within the Trump’s own orbit. I don’t suggest he released it himself, but he certainly could have and a case could be made for him doing so. It would be a distraction from the epic fail of Trumpcare.
• The LHA printed at the bottom of the page means his accountant used CCH ProSystem tax software.
• Also, apparently, he filed his taxes late because the bottom has two notes indicating there was interest charged on unpaid taxes and a penalty. Penalties are usually 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month they are late.

Forms that should be attached to this filing include — but no one has yet seen —

• W2s for Wages, salaries, tips, etc
• 1099-INT. Taxable interest is usually money other companies pay you. Tax exempt interest is also declared on a 1099-INT .
• Statements, at least 9.
  • Statement 1 is about  Other income. List type and amount .
  • Statement 2 about his Taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes,
  • Statement 4 is about Melania’s Taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes,
  • Statement 6 about alimony he paid or didn’t pay, and
  • Statement 9 is about Excess social security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld.
  • I can’t tell what Statements 3, 5, 7, or 8 are about. I just know they exist.
• Schedule A Itemized deductions
• Schedule B for taxable interest.
• Schedule C about his business profits.
• Schedule D about his capital gains.
• Schedule E about Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc
• Schedule SE One-half of self-employment tax, which he paid.
• Form 6251 Alternative minimum tax
• Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credits
• Form 3800 General Business Credit
• Form 4136 Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels  For is airplane I guess.
• Form 4868, because he requested an extension on his filing.

I think the weirdest thing was at the very bottom. Weiser LLP, (now called Mazar) the accountant firm who prepared this 1040 is listed at 3000 Marcus Ave, Lake Success, NY. Oddly The Donald J Trump Foundation Inc, had it’s offices there too.

When you live and work in Manhattan — where plenty of accountants exist — having your accountant 20 miles away is weird. Having it 20 miles away and in the same building as your “charitable” foundation that does no charity work? Super weird.

Also there is a claim by Trump that 2005 was the only year Weiser LLP did his taxes. Interesting fact, Wieser LLP prepared a 2004 Statement of Financial Condition on Trump and his entities. That means Wieser LLP was doing multiple years of Trump’s audit work.

A partner in Weiser LLP, Gerald Rosenblum, who worked on the Statement, stated, and I quote from Trump vs O’Brien http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-superior-court-appellate-division/1579526.html

Rosenblum “was asked in his deposition whether he was aware of all liabilities of Trump and his related entities. He responded: ‘I asked the client to provide me with a list of liabilities as they existed at June 30th, 2005. The client presented me with a list, in essence. I was not certain to this day that I was aware of all Mr. Trump’s liabilities at that point in time, and I sought no corroboration.‘ “

Clearly Mr Roseblum isn’t exactly a great CPA. He’s one of those guys that does what makes his client happy. He doesn’t really do his job. He relies on his clients to be honest, knowing that they probably aren’t but not really caring and filing such probably false statements with the IRS and others. Nice.

To me, it seems like the POTUS  just wanted something, anything to cause a stir and distract from the DOA his own party is handing Trumpcare. So he sent out a couple pages of an old return. Pretty typical.

If you think it isn’t typical, just read this excerpt from the rest of the trial.

While O’Brien may have had “unprecedented” access to evidence of Trump’s financial position, nothing in the record suggests that such access was sufficient to permit an accurate estimate of his net worth. Further, it is indisputable that Trump’s estimates of his own worth changed substantially over time and thus failed to provide a reliable measure against which the accuracy of the information offered by the three confidential sources could be gauged. The following exchange from Trump’s deposition is illustrative of this point:

Q Now, Mr. Trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties?

A I try.

Q Have you ever not been truthful?

A My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try.

Q Let me just understand that a little bit. Let’s talk about net worth for a second. You said that the net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?

A Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don’t feel so good about yourself and you don’t feel so good about the world and you don’t feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling.

So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself.

Q When you publicly state what you’re worth, what do you base that number on?

A I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.

Further, as defendants note in their brief, other sources recognized the difficulty of estimating Trump’s net worth and the wide spread of plausible values. Defendants quote a September 9, 2004 article in The Washington Post, which stated:

Actually, it’s hard to know exactly what percent of Trump’s net worth is tied to the casino business, because most of Trump’s portfolio is in privately held companies that don’t report earnings. He’s described himself as “a billionaire many times over,” but who knows? There are skeptics out there who believe Trump has $300 million, tops. And the guy has a reputation for, let’s say, shading the news in a light that reflects his enthusiasms.

An April 12, 2004 article, published in Time magazine stated:

How rich is the Donald? To interviewers, he hints that his wealth is somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion. Rival developers estimate it’s nowhere near even the lower figure.

The article continued by reporting on his successful redevelopment of a building at 40 Wall Street, but then balanced it with a report of his casinos “[s]wamped with debt” and the statement that “Trump has become more front man than hands-on developer.”

An older Fortune article, published on April 3, 2000, noted that

Trump delights in the sort of elaborate shell games and impenetrably complex deals that frustrate the most conscientious efforts to assess a person’s true worth. “It’s always good to do things nice and complicated,” he once told an interviewer, “so that nobody can figure it out.”

That difficulty is compounded by Trump’s astonishing ability to prevaricate․ [W]hen Trump says he owns 10% of the Plaza Hotel, understand that what he actually means is that he has the right to 10% of the profit if it’s ever sold. When he says he’s building a “90–story building” next to the U.N., he means a 72–story building that has extra-high ceilings.

And, finally, defendants point to a January 19, 2000 article in The Wall Street Journal that noted Trump’s boasts of his success but then stated:

But a look at the major sources of his wealth, including the Trump Place apartment development on New York City’s west side, the 70–story Trump World Tower project and the midtown General Motors Building, shows that several of his billions are based on profits that are far in the future—and far from guaranteed.

In summary, we find no evidence to support Trump’s conclusion that the confidential sources utilized by O’Brien were fictitious

Did the POTUS release the pages of his tax return? He seemed to have a pretty cogent response when asked about it. One that cast him as a victim to get sympathy. I’d say the odds are 50/50.

Did Rachel Maddow go overboard hyping on this issue, yeah a little. She gets overexcited sometimes, but that what happens when real journalists who’ve been starving for some truth finally find a kernel of it. Good on you, Rachel!

 

 

Benedict Arnold at least served his country before betraying it

As a registered Independent who didn’t vote for any Republicans this election, I would rather have Mike Pence as president. Just want to go on record as saying that. Pence has government experience. He’s apparently more than a bit gullible, I think of him as Trump’s mushroom — constantly in the dark about everything, but I can live with that. On the other hand, I draw the line at having an actual traitor (or traitors) in any office.

Seriously.

It’s obvious Trump has never had even a basic level of knowledge about the Constitution, how to run a government, or how to do things legally.  I get that. He’s lived in a world where he was just the brand and everyone else did the real work but reported to the brander in chief.

Think about it. He doesn’t have a daughter, she’s a brand. There are no actual people in the family. His sons are just parts of his brand. He doesn’t have a wife, she’s a brand. She just filed a suit in the UK stating she plans to use her term as First Lady to build her brand and make millions of dollars.

However, even as a removed as he is from reality, Trump the candidate must have known undermining the US government’s attempt to curb Russian aggression through sanctions in order solely to benefit himself and become president was treason. Having Gen. Flynn on his campaign staff, as his national security adviser, communicating directly with the Russian diplomats about removing sanctions, was undermining the US govt, and hence, treason.

The most likely scenario, one that I’m sure is on tape at the DOJ, FBI, or CIA somewhere and will come to light shortly, is that Trump promised the Russians relief from sanctions during the campaign, via Flynn, in return for the Russians helping him win the election. I know the focus has been “did Russians hack voting machines” (they didn’t). But that’s not what I mean when I say helping him.

Everyone seems to agree that the Russians hacking the DNC to obtain documents that might be damaging to Clinton, and then releasing them, did something to sway some voters minds. The real issue however, that is very much overlooked, is Russian data mining, normally used in phishing and other scams, that was used to target voters open to suggestion.

Russians are adept at feeding just the right kind of persuasive fake news to people on the voter mailing/email lists, as well as posting such news on various sites where persuadable people who vote, but tend not to do basic fact checking, hang out. That’s targeted marketing, which drives people (misinformed about the facts) to vote the way they’ve been led to. It’s that kind of hack the vote and helping I’m talking about.

I’m not surprised by Trump’s act of treason, for a couple of reasons. American traitors tend to be greed-driven egotists that feel undervalued. That’s Trump’s brand all over. This is not a man that gives a rat’s tail about America or its people. He only cares about himself. Period.

Consider this, Louisiana gets ripped apart by tornadoes and declares a state of emergency last week. What does Trump tweet about? How unfair Nordstroms is being to Ivanka. What does Ms Conway do? She acts as a shill for Ivanka’s brand from the White House press room on live tv (in clear violation of ethics, yet  fails to get dismissed for that).

Or take Oroville, California. It is facing the most massive dam collapse in the history of the country. Does our president tweet that there will be federal support? That this will be part of the much ballyhooed infrastructure bill? Nope. He instead rants about “so-called” justices being unfair and how he has 17th century monarchical absolute power as president. And then talks about sending his son-in-law, a real estate guy, to broker peace between Israel and Palestine.

Sadly, this new administration does nothing but lie, lie, lie and try to trot out distractions when they get caught. No one can believe anything they say. Sean Spicer might as well be a puppet with Trumps hand up his backside. MS Conway lives in the world of alternate facts. Try to do diplomacy when no other country believes you or takes you seriously.

China has already brought Trump to heel. Mexico will likely do the same. That’s not because Mexico or China are great at diplomacy, it’s because Trump is completely irrational. He imagines himself to be PT Barnum and the world his circus. Unfortunately, in reality, the POTUS is a clown and the elephants are just going to sit on him and then the lions are going to eat what’s left of America.

If you’ve got any doubts about this, just look at this morning’s news. The whole of the GOP, including Paul Ryan, came out to talk about Obamacare, to try to get the news cycle away from the fact the Flynn affair should be investigated and that would probably lead to Trump being impeached as a traitor. Of course, that’s only if Jeff Session had any integrity at all.

And what’s really incredible is how today they announce that another former, disgraced, general is to be considered for Flynn’s spot. For those of you that forgot the David Petraeus scandal, it was a an extramarital affair between retired four-star general David Petraeus, then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Paula Broadwell, his biographer. It became public, thanks to the media, and led to the discovery that this former general and current director of the CIA was giving his mistress/biographer classified information.

In other words, Petraeus betrayed his country for an easy lay and this the person Trump is considering for the National Security position Flynn just left. Seriously. This is how completely insane this administration is. I do not understand at all why the majority party Republicans don’t stand up for the USA and end Trump’s administration? Are they all involved in some scandal? Are they being bribed? Or blackmailed?

To me, all this only proves once and for all, the Republican party is not something one should vote for ever again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I, POTUS: A final thought on Executive disOrder

Just to point out the obvious as a final thought. The POTUS said he’d undo all of Obama’s Executive Orders on day 1. He hasn’t. The only thing he’s done is write a bunch of nonsensical new ones and then hold them up for display like it’s some sort achievement.

Here’s my issue with that, the one no one is really talking about.  The POTUS is of the same party holding the majority in the House and Senate and said he would sign whatever came to his desk. So, why isn’t POTUS waiting on his party to send him legislation that’s been thought through by the best most experienced legal minds?

Apparently he just wants to be seen to be doing something important? Because it’s certainly not about writing good law that will help our country. And I’m all for creating modern and better law that meets the needs of our current state. The US has a ton of things that need addressing. Even Republicans agree

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said:

“My biggest fear is that by doing it in this way, by doing it by executive order, by ignoring the Congress, it’s going to make it very hard to get something done that is permanent and that’s really where the solution lies on this issue.”

(BYT, this is Rubio actually talking about Obama’s use of discretion to halt deportation of immigrant youths who had been brought into this country as infants, and failing to realize that a president’s discretionary directive, which is not law, is not an Executive Order, which is law.)

Obama tried and tried to work with Congress to make things happen. But the Republicans took a stance not to do their job (or help the country) by passing needed legislation or even installing a new Supreme Court Justice. Only as a last resort did Obama get into discretionary memos and Executive Orders.

The current POTUS has been wallpapering his new office with ill considered, unvetted, ridiculous Executive Orders and discretionary memos from day 4 (the day he actually got to his office). Why? He only has to ask his party in Congress or his officials at the various government departments if something is possible and then, if so, ask that Department to make it happen.

Why does the POTUS feel he has to use Executive Orders at all? And wasn’t the use of Executive Orders the very thing that had all the Republicans up in arms and calling Obama a petty dictator over? Didn’t the GOP say it was an “unprecedented power grab” using “end-runs around Congress” and “executive overreach” or government by “executive fiat”?

For anyone that cares, there is a list of POTUS discretionary directives/memos, proclamations, and executive orders kept as  running tab by CNN. If you don’t know the difference between these things, you can read the article about by USA Today.

The most important points to know?

Publication: Executive orders are required by law to be published in the Federal Register. Presidential memoranda may be published or not, depending on the subject. But it’s the publication of the memorandum that gives them “general applicability and legal effect.”

Authority: An executive order must cite the authority the president has to issue it. That could be the constitution, or a specific statute. Presidential memoranda have no such requirement.

Amendments: An executive order can only be amended or rescinded by another executive order. A presidential memorandum can only be changed with another memorandum.

Cost estimates: Congress requires the White House Office of Management and Budget to report the cost of ALL executive orders and only those memorandum with an estimated regulatory cost of $100 million or more.

It makes no sense for the current POTUS to be whipping off Executive Orders or directive memos at this point in his administration given he has full support in both houses, unless it’s being used as a means to make certain things law that he and only he as POTUS can reverse, thus all together eliminating democratic government even by the elected members of his own party Congress.

I personally don’t mind having a functioning government. I did not vote Republican this year but I wasn’t going off the rails over having a functioning Republican govt because just functioning was a big step in the right direction. But the truth is, we don’t even have that. We have an actual dictator making law ignoring his own 100% supportive Congress. And the Republican majority just sits there and twiddles their thumbs. Do your job, Congress. Make rational laws, and represent the interests of the nation and the people! Act as a check and balance on the Executive Branch.

Honestly, if you aren’t appalled by all this, you’re probably the citizen of another country.

 

I, POTUS: The Muslim Ban

Look pretty Ivanka and try to keep your dad from saying anything about Muslims before he gets his check.

 

I want to point out that as of January 2016, under Obama, the visa waiver did not apply in cases where a person had previously traveled to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after 1 March 2011 or for those folks who were dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria. Certain categories such as diplomats, military, journalists, humanitarian workers or legitimate businessmen could however have their visa requirement waived but only by the Secretary of Homeland Security. So, in a sense, there was already, under Obama, for a year, a closer scrutiny going on with Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and those designated countries were singled out by Obama’s administration.

So those are facts. Obama’s administration tagged these states. Trump’s just went the extra insane mile on them.

Now could all of this been handled a different way, a better way, a quite way, as Obama had? Sure. The current POTUS could have said, “In 14 days all green card holders and visa holders from a certain regional block (the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Asian subcontinent) have to be in the country or be locked out.” He could have done that. (Not sure on the legality, but he could have said it.)

Instead, POTUS chose to single out the Obama-administration flagged nations.

POTUS also chose to announce on CBN (the Christian Broadcasting Network) that he was interested in helping Christians from these flagged nations, but not anyone else in those nations. Here’s a section of the interview below

DAVID BRODY: “Persecuted Christians, we’ve talked about this, the refugees overseas. The refugee program, or the refugee changes you’re looking to make. As it relates to persecuted Christians, do you see them as kind of a priority here?”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Yes.”

DAVID BRODY: “You do?”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.”

So we are going to help Syrian Christians, but not Syrian Muslims. Does that translate into a Muslim Ban? Yeah, it kinda does. And for the record, all these countries have minority groups of Christians. Apparently even practitioners of other minority religions, like Yazidis, don’t rank for help either despite the fact they went through a genocide at the hands of ISIS.

POTUS could have left current visa/ green card holders alone and simplysaid no more green cards or visas would be issued for certain countries after X date until all current green card and visa holders from those countries were vetted. He could have done that.  But he didn’t. He could even have quietly had all these visa and green cards investigated while quietly ramping down any new visas or green cards to people from those countries. But he didn’t.

So you have to ask yourself, why did he do it this way?

The POTUS wanted to cause a lot of chaos abroad to provoke these nations and at home to create a smokescreen his other actions. This executive action, done this way, was intended to smoke screen changes to the National Security Council at home, without attracting much fuss from the press. Mission accomplished. (Wake up media!) It was also intended to provoke these nations and Muslim groups into overt hostile action so that POTUS can start a war, build up the military, and use nukes. As he’s said over and over, in multiple interviews, he wants to take and keep their oil.

That’s how people in the region will view his actions. I can’t actually disagree with them. It’s how I view them. His actions have no other apparent purpose.

I want to add that cancelling all the visas and green cards from these countries, documents the USA already issued, is just going to result in Supreme Court action because these are federally issued documents. I’m sure we will see a lawsuit Monday morning, as well as more protests.

This is a totally ridiculous ban on refugee and immigrant people who were already vetted once, even more than once in the case of those who served as Army translators (which is how they got documents in the first place). So all of this is stupid and simply intended to distract and inflame.

My guess is that vulnerable poor refugee people will be locked out, indefinitely. They can go to Canada, as Canada has said they would honor those visas and green cards. But it’s insulting. Green cards say right on them “United States of America Permanent Resident”  meaning, they are allowed to be in the USA permanently. There’s nowhere else they can go. Learn to read, POTUS.

Rich people with connections to big companies like Google and Apple will just enter on private corporate planes landing at private air strips. This happens all the time. It’s what being rich is all about. No on bats an eye.

People with moderate means might fly into Mexico and try to get across the border with coyotes or even sail in on boats under the cover of night. If I was Mexico, I’d certainly let them in just to stick it to the POTUS. I’d send them with Mexican troops to help those folks walk across the border.

Let’s face it, all these immigrants / refugees have legal documents allowing them to be in the US and once they are back in the US, what can the POTUS actually do? Nothing.

All of this stuff is just further proof the POTUS needs to be replaced on grounds of mental illness.  To cause this sort of chaos and upset and offense to so many people who did all the right things is just insane. To put our embassies, armies, and business people in jeopardy abroad with this kind of childish behavior is literally insane.

I’d like to think the Republican party will remove POTUS from office in the first 100 days under the 25th amendment. I guess ideally they’d rather he have a heart attack from age or overwork so as not alienate voters who voted for him. But they can hardly act as representatives of the American people, sworn to uphold the government and protect it from all threats foreign and domestic, and let a mentally ill POTUS continue to destroy the nation.

I suppose on the plus side, the Trump children have finally been able to rip control of the Trump businesses from his hands. I expect they actually encouraged him to run in the hopes of doing just that. They seem very much a family being held hostage. Every time I look at poor Melania, I cringe.  So pretty and kind, caring and intelligent, yet the POTUS humiliates her time and again. This week, the Vogue Mexico cover blew up in her face like eggs from a microwave. It’s like he just does these things to her for kicks.

I do think his wife and family genuinely love him. I think they are trying to protect him and the people of America from his madness, but at a certain point, you just have to come clean. It’s not helping anyone to let a madman destroy what it took all of America 250 years to build.

So, that’s my two cents. I probably won’t say more on this subject. You can feel free to disagree. At least for now. I mean I’m not sure how long free speech will be a given.

I, POTUS: The Wall and Immigration

 

I’m just going to touch on the wall issue here as proof of how compromised POTUS is mentally. I’m not at all political and I don’t have a million-dollar business, but even I can understand the problems of a wall. Using a wall to stop illegal immigration is like using Howitzer to kill a fly. With much the same result. You end up destroying your own house.

1. First of all, there’s no way to tax Mexico that doesn’t end up meaning taxpayers foot the bill, twice, and alienating our democratic neighbor to the south. It was stupid to say this from the beginning.
2.  Second, taking people’s wire transfers is stealing. A legal citizen who sends money to Mexico by wire transfer — only to have that legal money confiscated by the US government to pay for a wall — is theft. Pure and simple. Even if the person is in the country illegally, and sending money out of the country, you can’t prove the money wasn’t a charitable gift to that person.

Here are practical cheap ways to curb immigration, using existing systems, without blowing up existing international good will .

E Verify.

It already exists, just make a law saying  every employer and property manager that’s renting property must use it. f employers or landlords fail to E verify they lose tax breaks or are penalized severely. If they are found to have employed or rented property to persons here illegally, the government can seize that business or property.

E Verify could be extended to every school that receives federal funds as well. When a child registers at school, E verify the parents/guardians, if they are not in the country legally. If the school fails to report that, the congress can deny federal funds to that school.

If you have no job and no place to live, and you can’t put your child in school without being deported, you don’t stay.

Refuse Asylum Requests from Citizens of Countries with stable governments

As these countries have the rule of law and stable government, asylum isn’t necessary. This allows the US to immediately deport everyone from these countries — without a hearing — and eliminates people needlessly being stuck in detention centers or let loose in the county for years to await a court date. The immigration courts are currently backed up 5 years with asylum claims — 80% of which are denied. Eliminating claims from a countries with a stable govt means, real cases can be processed quickly.

Remand unaccompanied child immigrants to their embassy or consulate immediately upon arrival.

The best thing for these children is to be in the care of their own countrymen, who speak their own language, and are able to reunite them with their parents. This is why embassy people exist, to help their own people. The country of origin can use its better placed resources to find the parents and pay for the care and then return of the child.

Don’t allow non-citizens to own property.

Sure they can rent it long term, but not own it. Lots of countries do this. They have 99-year leases. It doesn’t effect trade or employment or tourism at all. It’s simple. It keeps American soil in American hands.

Change the 10th Amendment.

The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).

It’s entirely possible with so many Republican governors and state assemblies, that they can change the 10th Amendment. They only need 33 state legislatures to call a convention. currently Republicans control 32. (By the way, media folks and Democrats, you should be all over this fact. You’re failing to see that radical constitutional changes are 1 state away) 

If the 2018 election adds to that number one state legislature, or Republicans can swing one more legislature to vote with them, they can change the 10th amendment so that no one can be a US citizen without being born to a citizen. They might even back date it to anyone born to a non citizen in the last 7 years.

Lots of countries have this rule. This eliminates things like birth-tourism. California recently had Chinese nationals coming in and giving birth to get US citizenship for their children then going back to China. Think about that. Communist Party elite, intentionally come to California to give birth to an “American”, takes that child back to China and raises them in the Communist Party system, then sends that child back at 18 to be claim “US citizenship” and that child is then eligible to be the US President.

No one should be allowed to enter the country without a visa.

Right now we have visa waiver program with some countries (about 40). People from other countries are required to have visas. About 50% of those who are illegal overstayed their visa.  That’s the government’s statistic. Our visa tracking system should issue a BOLO on someone’s passport that person hasn’t left the country after his/her visa expired. Then that person should be deported and banned from returning.

This list below shows only suspected overstays by people from visa waiver countries who remained in the US after they should have left. The reason they’re suspected is because they came in on the waiver, so we don’t really keep that tight an eye on them. This should be changed because, as we know from the terrorists attacks in France and Germany,  Europe’s refugee / immigration confirmation situation isn’t that great.^[45]  

Country	Number of suspected in-country overstays	In-country overstay rate (against total number of expected departures)
Andorra	3	0.24%
Australia	3,964	0.30%
Austria	2,694	1.28%
Belgium	1,477	0.51%
Brunei	10	0.87%
Chile	6,553	2.14%
Czech Republic	1,422	1.46%
Denmark	1,812	0.56%
Estonia	191	0.49%
Finland	747	0.49%
France	11,973	0.68%
Germany	21,394	1.02%
Greece	1,333	1.87%
Hungary	1,860	2.45%
Iceland	199	0.39%
Ireland	1,797	0.40%
Italy	17,661	1.49%
Japan	5,603	0.19%
Korea, South	7,120	0.63%
Latvia	273	1.46%
Liechtenstein	12	0.59%
Lithuania	480	1.81%
Luxembourg	75	0.53%
Malta	44	0.80%
Monaco	4	0.44%
Netherlands	7,723	1.09%
New Zealand	1,451	0.40%
Norway	1,423	0.39%
Portugal	3,822	2.01%
San Marino	16	2.28%
Singapore	481	0.29%
Slovakia	1,043	2.09%
Slovenia	278	0.99%
Spain	12,559	1.21%
Sweden	2,782	0.42%
Switzerland	2,402	0.48%
Taiwan	1,888	0.33%
United Kingdom	18,950	0.43%
TOTAL	153,166	0.73%

Put a stricter controls and limits on all non-immigrant visas.

This would be things such as H2A (agricultural) worker visas, student visas, tourist visas, H1 visas, etc. Stop H1 visas for a couple years. It’s entirely possible to train US citizens to do the work. Companies just want cheap labor. This has been a huge problem over and over again. Student visas are a similar problem. I run into it frequently when I hire people. For example, I actually had Indian woman, a student from a Christian university, call me up in response to a temp job I had posted and tell me I should give her a job but I had to pay her in cash as she was here on a student visa. She wanted to knowingly violate her student visa. I reported her to her school who said “she would be spoken to and her status would be clarified.”

Use a cross check system to eliminate dual citizenship.

It’s not legal for a US citizen to have dual citizenship,  but the US hasn’t really enforced this to date. In order to get US citizenship, you have to surrender your old passport to get a US one. My British friend who became a citizen told me this. The problem is, she can (and did) then go back to her old country’s embassy and get a British passport again because they allow you to have one if you were born there.

This is a problem. It’s divided loyalty for one. We have this law, we just don’t enforce it. Look a the list of countries where dual citizenship is allowed. Note the number of countries that terrorists come from. Do you really want a US citizen to have dual citizenship with Russia? It’s probably time the US tightened up on this law.

Countries which Allow Dual Citizenship

Countries which allow the acquisition of dual citizenship include:

Albania Armenia Austria	Denmark	Grenada	Latvia	Philippines	Switzerland
Australia	Dominica	Hungary	Lebanon	Poland	Syria
Bangladesh	Ecuador	Iceland	Lithuania Luxembourg	Portugal	Thailand
Belgium	Egypt		Macedonia	Romania	Turkey
	El Salvador	Iraq	Malta	Russia	United Kingdom
Brazil Bulgaria*	Fiji	Ireland	Mexico Moldova	Serbia Slovenia	United States of America
Canada	Finland	Israel	Montenegro	Spain	Vietnam
Chile	France	Italy	New Zealand	Sri Lanka	Western Samoa
Colombia	Germany	Jordan	Pakistan	St. Kitts and Nevis
Cyprus	Georgia Greece	Kenya Kosovo	Peru	Sweden

Make GENDER/AGE a consideration for every type of visa.

Something people tend to forget about when issuing visas and green cards is gender. The US should consider gender as a primary factor in granting ANY green card or visa. If they let in 40 single men from on H1 visas, they should let in 42 single women on H1 visas. This not about equality, although that would be a good reason to do it. It’s about keeping your society from experience more crime.

A normal society has 105 women born to every 100 men. When societies end up with more men than women (like India and China, because of years of aborting female fetuses), they tend to end up with a lot of sexual frustration and turn into rape cultures. Poor men can’t afford wives, they have no available women to marry, so …. rape, incest, use of prostitutes, sexual trafficking of young girls and women all becomes way prevalent. In such cultures authorities don’t do much about rape, gang rape, etc, except ignore it or blame the victim. They don’t care about women.

Unfortunately now we see this same kind of things happening in Europe (in places like Germany and Sweden) as a direct result of allowing in a sudden influx of thousands of young male refugees (almost exclusively from countries which have no cultural construct of women’s rights) and refugee families, without admitting thousands of young women.

They have seen an uptick in crimes of a sexual nature. And I’m not accusing these young  refugees. What I’m saying is that refugee/immigrant young men + the native young men, create a sudden and severe gender imbalance that never goes away. And that leads to an increase in crimes of a sexual nature. And while Western governments do prosecute rape and are working harder to integrate people, it’s not going help unless they address the underlying problem, a politically created gender imbalance across the age groups.

If the US wants to keep society on an even keel, it should focus on creating a natural balance of the genders among age groups. When 50 25-year-old men come in on an H1 visa to work. There should be 55  20-25 year old woman allowed in from other countries on H1 visas to work.  This keeps the peace in society. And I’m using gender as a basis understanding that a natural portion of those folks will be LGBTQ as well.

So, to recap.

1. I’m not in any way anti-immigration.
2. I’m not advocating doing any of these things I just mentioned.
3. I’m just saying even I can think of ways that are simple, cheap, logical, largely inoffensive steps (many of which have existed for decades) the US can use to start to fix immigration problems — all of which the POTUS ignored in favor of a sweeping, probably illegal, unconstitutional, totally ill-advised and self-aggrandizing gesture.

To be honest, Republicans don’t really want to fix immigration, at all. They never have. Have you ever seen a Republican govt do anything about immigration? Nope. So this is all about optics. Building a big wall seems like POTUS is doing something about immigration. But in reality POTUS is just inflating his ego, while harming international relations and hurting people.

Okay, the Muslim Ban, next up.

I, POTUS: thoughts on the insanity of the American Caesar

My issue with this whole election and the aftermath administration is facts. I believe in facts. For instance, Hillary Clinton loved her privacy and her blackberry more than her country. That’s a fact. The current POTUS loves himself and his money more than his country. That’s a fact. Both of them were horrible choices for president. I mean, really bad. They’re two sides of the same coin.: billionaire elite, political elite.

What the country really needed in 2016 was a moderate, sane, middle-ground candidate with a rational approach to both foreign policy and domestic issues who was open to looking at immigration reform, tax reform, entitlements, Obamacare, education, and how globalization did and did not work for the US people. Instead, we got the current POTUS, a man that has failed as businessman, failed as husband (3x), failed as philanthropist (his charity only gives to himself), failed as just about everything. And, all due respect, you do have to fail a lot to get it right eventually, that’s true. But no one needs a POTUS failing a lot on the job to learn how to do that job.

My big issue with the current POTUS  is that he is not competent to run a government of any size, due to Alzheimer’s disease and uncontrolled adult ADHD.

Here’s a partial list of Adult ADHD symptoms.

Lack of Focus

Possibly the most telltale sign of ADHD, “lack of focus” goes beyond difficulty paying attention. It means being easily distracted, finding it hard to listen to others in a conversation, overlooking details, and not completing tasks or projects.

Disorganizaton

Life can seem chaotic for everyone at times. But someone with ADHD experiences a more hectic life on a regular basis. This can make it difficult to keep everything in its right place. A person with ADHD may struggle with these organizational skills:

• time management
• keeping track of tasks
• prioritizing in a logical manner
• timelines

Impusivity

Impulsiveness in someone with ADHD can manifest in several ways:

• interrupting others during conversation
• being socially inappropriate
• rushing through tasks
• acting without much consideration to the consequences

Emotional Problems

Life with ADHD can seem chaotic, as though your emotions are on a constantly up-and-down journey. You can easily become bored and go looking for excitement on a whim. Small frustrations can seem intolerable or bring on depression and mood swings. Untreated emotional problems can have a polarizing effect, which can add complications to personal and professional relationships.

Restlessness & Anxiety

 As an adult with ADHD, you may feel like your motor can’t shut off. Your yearning to keep moving and doing things can lead to frustration when you can’t do something immediately. This leads to restlessness, which can lead to frustrations and anxiety. Anxiety is a very common symptom of adult ADHD, as the mind tends to replay worrisome events repeatedly.

Relationship Issues

An adult with ADHD often has trouble in relationships, whether they are professional, romantic, or platonic. The traits of talking over people in conversation, inattentiveness, and easily being bored can be draining on relationships as a person can come across as insensitive, irresponsible, or uncaring. Repeated patterns of relationship issues, including divorce, are common.

Here’s a partial list of Alzheimer’s warning signs from the Mayo Clinic

Memory loss that disrupts daily life
Relying on memory aides (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on their own. POTUS is always in the care of minders or family. They always have to redirect him when he goes off the rails. In fact,  Tim Cooke, CEO of Apple took a meeting with Ivanka and Jared about the immigration ban. Not the POTUS. That’s just weird. POTUS is mentally unable to discuss things with people.

Challenges in planning or solving problems
Some people may experience changes in their ability to develop and follow a plan. They may have difficulty concentrating. POTUS can’t plan anything, seriously. Nothing he has done has a plan behind it. He can’t focus long enough to make one.

Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
For some people, having vision problems is a sign of Alzheimer’s. They may have difficulty reading, judging distance and determining color or contrast. In terms of POTUS, he’s unable to see that his inauguration crowd was smaller than Obama’s.

Problems with words in speaking or writing
People with Alzheimer’s may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea how to continue or they may repeat themselves. They may struggle with vocabulary, have problems finding the right word or call things by the wrong name (e.g., calling a “watch” a “hand-clock”). All of the above happens to POTUS. He rambles about himself endlessly because even he doesn’t know what he’s saying. He forgets his words. Count how often he uses Good or Great in any statement.

Decreased or poor judgment
People with Alzheimer’s may experience changes in judgment or decision-making. For example, they may use poor judgment when dealing with money, giving large amounts to telemarketers — or trying to make Mexico pay for $15 billion wall. Or thinking torture is okay. Or talking about yourself as supporting the intelligence community after saying you didn’t on Twitter. Or groping strange women when you’re already married to a nice woman.

Changes in mood and personality
The mood and personalities of people with Alzheimer’s can change. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, at work, with friends or in places where they are out of their comfort zone. POTUS is pretty much the definition here. Suspicious and confused he’s shutting down all communication between taxpayers and the agencies that work for taxpayers, such as the EPA or the National Parks. The phrase paranoid delusions springs to mind. One of the president’s confidantes told Politico that his staffers have to “control information that may infuriate him,” a task made difficult by the fact that the leader of the free world “gets bored and likes to watch TV.”

I support anyone struggling with Adults with ADHD or Alzheimer’s. But I have a problem having someone with both of these conditions, both untreated, running the USA with a group of advisers that could at best be described as morally dubious, politically sketchy, vultures out to pick America’s bones clean.

Okay, next up. The wall.