Wars Foreign, Domestic

President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank to freeze individuals’ assets in the U.S. and restrict financial dealings with them. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued a statement that settler violence “poses a grave threat to peace, security, and stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the overwhelming majority of West Bank settlers are “law-abiding citizens.”

For years, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have attacked many of the approximately three million Palestinians to seize land that Palestinians want for a future state. Since the Hamas attack on October 7, attacks have emptied entire Palestinian villages. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis settled in the area designated for Palestinians and oppose any Palestinian state. Reporter Charles Stratford wrote:

“We see settlers acting with either the tacit support or the actual physical support of the Israeli military in these attacks.”

[Right: A Palestinian inspects damage to his home by Israeli settlers in November 2023.]

After the drone attack killed three U.S. National Guard soldiers, congressional hawks call for war against Iran, but the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country is “not looking for war.” Israeli strikes in Syria have caused Iran to reduce deployment of senior officers there, relying more on allied Shi’ite militia.

The Hezbollah Brigades, an Iraq-based, Iran-backed militant group suspected of the drone strike, stated it is suspending attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria after Biden announced retaliatory strikes. They are planned to hit militia in Syria and perhaps Iraq, but not on Iranian land. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, returned after his January hospitalization, said that the U.S. is not at war with Iran and doesn’t know if Iran knew about the drone strikes from the “axis of resistance.”

Yemen’s Houthis claim to be supporting Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa, which accused Israel of indiscriminate killings in Gaza, stated that Israel is continuing its genocide of Palestinians despite a ruling from the International Court of Justice to prevent death and destruction in Gaza. The Gaza death toll is close to 27,000. The U.S. announced it destroyed a Houthi missile before it was fired on U.S. aircraft after shooting down an anti-ship missile. Earlier this week, the U.S. also destroyed a UAV ground control station and ten UAVs in the Houthi-controlled Yemen.

The U.S. considers recognition of a Palestinian state as a first step to resolve the Israeli war although Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution. The UK may provide formal diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state prior to a final peace deal. In a proposed six-week pause in fighting, civilian hostages in Gaza could be released with three Palestinians released from Israeli prisons for each Hamas hostage. Israeli purports 109 hostages remain in captivity with 27 bodies. The proposal also requests an expansion of the humanitarian aid pipeline and Israeli troops moved from the most densely populated Gaza areas.

Israel and Lebanon may have a war, however; Hezbollah and Israel continue to trade destruction along the border. In 2006, the UN stopped a war between the two, but Hezbollah, however, continues to operate along the border, and Israel regularly violates Lebanese airspace and occupies part of its land. Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, daily cross-border strikes between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated while Israel kills Hezbollah and Hamas members in Lebanon and displaced about 87,000 Lebanese from the border area. Israel evacuated 60,000 residents from its side of the border.

Hezbollah won’t agree to a ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border before one in Gaza and refuses to move its forces back from the border. Netanyahu threatens to “turn Beirut into Gaza,” but Hezbollah has 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles of various ranges. Early in the Israeli war on Gaza, Israel had domestic support, but after almost four months, over half of Israelis support war with Hezbollah as a last resort to restore border security. Israel expects its war on Gaza to cost over $50 billion, 10 percent of national economic activity through the end of 2024. A war with Lebanon would sharply increase this cost.

Adding to the strife, Russia still invades Ukraine which is fighting back, and North Korea is launching projectiles into the Yellow Sea near the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stopped negotiating with the U.S. and moved to stronger ties with Russia and China. He also abandoned reunification with the South, threatening to occupy the South if it attacks the North and dropping a 2018 military accord with Seoul restricting military activity near the border. North Korea is growing its economy by secretly selling arms to Russia such as shells and ballistic missiles after increased trade with China.

On the home front, Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) is upsetting his conservative caucus by following the directive of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) to scuttle an immigration bill in the House. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told right-wingers about his extreme disappointment “in the very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill. That’s what we all ran on doing.” He added that “sabotage” of a bill significantly decreasing illegal immigration “is inconsistent with what we told our voters we would do.” According to Crenshaw:

“The height of stupidity is having a strong opinion on something you know nothing about. So, I don’t have a strong opinion on the bill because I haven’t seen it. Nobody has.”

RNC finances and fundraising are the worst that they’ve been in three decades and asking for a $10 million bailout. It ended 2023 with about $8 million and $1.8 million debt. Democrats have outraised the RNC by three to one with twice as much cash available. The disastrous report came out just before the RNC meets in Las Vegas. Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point is meeting next door to “hold the RNC accountable.” Like many other ultra-conservatives, Kirk opposed Ronna McDaniel as the RNC head. Radical MAGA Laura Loomer tweeted that a “grassroots ambush” awaited McDaniel at the RNC’s winter meeting. A major reason for the RNC fiscal problems is DDT because they picked up millions of his legal bills and his choice for president drying up donations.

Swing state GOPs are also in chaos from loss of funding and differences of opinion:

Arizona: Jeff DeWitt, state GOP chair, abruptly resigned after politician Kari Lake threatened to publicize a tape she made in which DeWitt supposedly told Lake that big donors didn’t want her to run for Senate and suggested she try for governor, a position she lost in 2022. The tape was made long ago when Lake worked for DeWitt’s company, and he believes the remarks were edited to remove the context of the private conversation. Missing from the controversy was DeWitt’s position that the request concerned only Lake’s lack of ability to raise the necessary funding for success in a U.S. senate race. Lake has a reputation for wearing a small, concealed microphone to secretly record people for weaponization. At the GOP meeting where she nominated a DDT-supported candidate for the GOP chair, Lake was heavily booed.

Florida: In early January, the state GOP ousted chair Christian Ziegler because a woman’s accused him of raping her. Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler had had a sexual threesome with the woman, and Bridget also had a separate lesbian affair with her. Bridget was a co-founder of the ultra-conservative Moms for Liberty (M4L), known for its anti-LGBTQ+ book bans and school curriculum. She dropped out of M4L but refused to leave her position on the Saratoga School Board despite a unanimous vote for her to resign. She was removed as director of the School Board Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute, an organization that trains conservative activist, but remains on Ron DeSantis’ Disney World oversight board. The scandal went public in early October, but sources said the threesome had started three years earlier.

Michigan: Election denier, anti-vaxxer, and anti-evolution MAGA Kristina Karamo has been voted out of leadership, partly because of the party’s serious financial problems and failure to make loan payments. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ousted-michigan-gop-chair-kristina-karamo-now-claims-the-rnc-is-colluding-against-her   Net income for a nine-month period of $71,000 left it in $600,000 in debt. DDT changed his support for her to the new chair, but Karamo refuses to accept her ousting.

Nevada: The state has largely conceded its GOP caucuses to DDT, but Ron DeSantis claimed officials under indictment were rigging the elections against him, calling state chair Michael McDonald a “Trump puppet.” McDonald and National Committeeman pleaded not guilty to felony charges.

 Oregon: Ten GOP state legislators cannot run for another term because they walked out of last year’s session for six weeks to stall bills. Five of them sued, but the state Supreme Court ruled against them.

DDT continues his journey of confusion when a reporter asked him how he would pay the penalties for the New York court cases. After asking “what penalties,” DDT repeatedly said he “won in the Court of Appeals.” His lawyers may not have told him he lost the E. Jean Carroll civil lawsuit for an additional penalty of $83.3 million and may lose the $370+ million in the business fraud case, to be announced in mid-February.

Biden Visits Maui, GOP Heats Up

Wildfires razed parts of Maui on August 8 and 9, but President Joe Biden waited until August 21 to visit the devastated area. Republicans used his wait to slam Biden for his lack of compassion, and some of the media followed their message, preferring to follow an indicted blowhard who constantly blusters about his personal problems instead of covering the tireless, behind-the-scenes work to make people’s lives better. Pundits demand the excitement of braggadocio while making hay out of a photo to Biden on the beach during his annual vacation. Overlooked is the chaos that a Biden visit would have caused in the already shattered island, reeling from the deadliest fire in recent U.S. history.

After notice of a brush fire on the first day, Biden started monitoring events through frequent briefings. The next day he sent his “deepest condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the wildfires in Maui” sending them prayers from himself and his wife, Jill Biden. He added that he had ordered federal assets to the island, including the Navy’s 3^rd Fleet and the U.S. Coast Guard, and directed the Transportation Department to coordinate evacuation on commercial airlines. On August 10, he opened a speech in Salt Lake City about the PACT Act by reporting he had “approved a major disaster declaration” for aid to Hawaii. Biden also provided information about what he had already done and promised to make every possible “available to them.” He also signed a disaster declaration and ordered federal aid, including assistance for temporary housing, home repairs, property losses, debris removal, and hazard mitigation.

Within the next five days, Biden had deployed almost 1,000 federal personnel to Maui along with meals, water, cots, blankets, and shelter supplies. FEMA’s approval of $700 per household without housing provides funds for essential items such as medication. Affected businesses and non-profits could receive low-interest federal disaster loans, and the Agriculture Department and HHS provided SNAP (food stamp) and healthcare benefits. On the island, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared roads and worked on the electrical grid and removal of hazardous waste. The U.S. Forest Service coordinated with state officials to put out fire and stop outbreaks. The Department of Defense moved supplies.

During Biden’s meeting with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David beginning on August 17, he targeted his announcements to that important summit while he continued to work behind the scenes. Pro-Russian people in the U.S. grabbed that shift to claim that Biden was ignoring the U.S. to help Ukraine. Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, spread that myth to support Russia and China, as Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) wants. Congressional members from Hawaii, however, understand the work that Biden and the federal government has done. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said:

“We in Hawaii have been through hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—but we have never seen such a robust federal response. Thank you.” 

On Monday, when the Bidens visited, Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee said:

“The thousands of people who were in our emergency shelters are no longer there. I think there’s nine people left as of today. Thousands have been moved to transitional quarters like the hotels, who are taking very good care of the people, as well as individual homes and short-term rentals.

“So, I’m sure, as you’re talking to various people, you will hear stories of disappointment, of course, because they have lost a lot. You can’t blame them for being disappointed. But there are many success stories as well.”

Biden assured officials that the recovery effort would respect local traditions.

In an attempt to smear Biden, Fox network began the rumor, based on a low resolution video, that the president of fell asleep at the Maui fire memorial. A higher resolution video from C-SPAN shows Biden sitting at a table where he watches a speaker and coughs. He then looks downward for about ten seconds and then nods in agreement with the speaker.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates wrote:

“It’s unfortunate they feel the need to lie. Instead, they should join him in supporting the people of Maui.”

The conservative media also blasted Biden for petting a dog, saying it “distracted” him. The dog is a cadaver dog with the job of searching for bodies.

David Ingram wrote that unchecked posts spreading on the country’s largest social media platforms—including Elon Musk’s X—use low-quality videos to publish misinformation that researchers call “cheap fakes misleading people with simple techniques.

Back on the U.S. mainland, almost half the people hit the third day of an unprecedented heat wave throughout the Midwest and the South, shattering records for both daytime and nighttime highs. Sixteen states from Minnesota to Louisiana face excessive heat warnings where heat indexes, the air temperature combined with relative humidity, goes as high as 120 degrees, even 130 degrees by Wednesday.

Defendants in the Fulton County (GA) RICO case are also heating up. Former chief of staff Mark Meadows asked for an intension to the August 25^th noon self-surrender for processing at the Atlanta jail; DA Fani Willis replied to Meadows’ attorney:

“Good Morning Mr. Moran, I am not granting any extensions. I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction. The two weeks was a tremendous courtesy. At 12:30 p.m. on Friday I shall file warrants in the system. My team has availability to meet to discuss reasonable consent bonds Wednesday and Thursday.”

The first of the 19 indicted defendants have started surrendering. Bail bondsman Scott Hall arrived on August 21, followed by DDT’s lawyer John Eastman. His disciplinary trial before California’s state bar was delayed by two days to allow for his trip to Atlanta and return to Los Angeles. The process reportedly takes several hours. DDT has repeatedly said he plans to appear on Thursday for his processing.

Meadows and Jeffrey Clark think they’re so special that their parts in the RICO case should be moved to federal court. Clark, shortly DDT’s acting director of the DOJ’s Civil Division, filed an “emergency” request to assert he has immunity from state prosecution and gave the judge a 5:00 pm deadline to rule on it.  When DDT considered making Clark acting AG in after the 2020 election, the goal being the election’s change to DDT’s favor, DOJ officials had threatened to resign en mass. According to the request, Clark explained he needed an immediate decision to avoid “the choice of making rushed travel arrangements to fly into Atlanta or instead risking being labeled a fugitive.” The legal world is amused by Clark’s demand for entitlement and delay of a week to make an appeal.

Another defendant, former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, provided documents showing that DDT’s attorneys, his campaign, and the local GOP urged him to organize the fake electors in the midst of the RICO case. Shafer is charged with racketeering, “impersonating a public officer, forgery, false statements and writings, filing false documents, and violation of oath by a public officer.

If you lose government services in October, blame the House far-right “Freedom” Caucus. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) wants a short-term funding measure to avoid a shutdown, but ultraconservative Republicans say they won’t vote for one if he doesn’t satisfy their demands of right-wing immigration policies, further curtailment of federal law enforcement “weaponization, and blocks unidentified “cancerous woke policies” in the Pentagon. And no “blank check” for Ukraine. No matter what happens, the House will make McCarthy’s life miserable.  

In an effort to satisfy his far-right members, McCarthy told Larry Kudlow that the House could start impeaching Biden as soon as September—evidently forgetting that the House has only 12 days to pass 11 appropriations bill that the Senate will find acceptable. For a reason, he talked about Biden not giving him documents for evidence that prove Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes form Ukrainian officials, proof that they haven’t been able to find for years.

McCarthy is complaining about the White House not providing documents that Republicans haven’t requested, but he has been vague about what documents he wants. The GOP is still pursuing an assertion about a bribe coming from an unverified tip to the FBI now denied by Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky. McCarthy’s complaint contradicts a statement from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) who said in late June that the committee had received “100 percent” of documents requested through subpoenas “whether it’s with the FBI or with banks or with Treasury.”

In Texas, “RuPublicans” are fighting Gov. Greg Abbott’s drag ban, which the GOP calls “sexually oriented performances.” Having hit over their crowd-funding $10,000 goal, the group is using AI reimagining anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans as drag queens on billboards, earning over $16,000.  Here’s one sample of their visuals using former VP Mike Pence.

Wednesday night is the first GOP primary presidential candidate debate among eight candidates who promised to support the primary winner—even if he’s indicted. Fox will broadcast it from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm EST. DDT may be watching it: he’s already taped his interview with Tucker Carlson to be broadcast at the same time.

Biden’s Foreign Policy, Domestic Terrorism

While Republicans complain about President Joe Biden’s inaction and lack of lying bombast exhibited by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), Biden is quietly strengthening U.S. foreign policy.

Today Biden sanctioned 40 Russian groups and individuals for the Russian major cyber espionage operation, operations to elect DDT in the past two presidential elections, the massive Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border, and Russia’s ongoing occupation and “severe human rights abuses” in Crimea. He blocked U.S. financial institutions from purchasing bonds from Russia’s Central Bank, National Wealth Fund, and Ministry of Finance after June 14 and from lending money to these institutions. Biden also expelled ten people from Washington’s Russian diplomatic mission and considers sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. He now proposes a summit where the U.S. and Russia can discuss these problems.

Republicans yell and whine about election fraud, but reports show DDT’s 2016 campaign manager in frequent, covert contact with a Chinese intelligence officer, once his business associate. Paul Manafort passed internal polling data to the operative who asked him to support a proposal to allow Chinese success in the South China Sea territorial disputes. Biden sanctioned the operative Konstantin Kilimnik, identified as a “Russian and Ukrainian political consultant and known Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf.” Manafort promoted the lie, still pushed by GOP congressional members, that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election on DDT’s behalf. The FBI has a reward of $250,000 for Kilimnik’s arrest. DDT pardoned Manafort and freed him from prison. 

Kilimnik’s information from Manafort went through a secret pipeline, perhaps used throughout DDT’s four-year term, directly to Russian intelligence to defeat Hillary Clinton. A Senate Intelligence Committee report, endorsed by Republicans, marked him a “grave counterintelligence threat.” Secretary of State Antony echoed the Senate report by repeating the U.S. intelligence report that Russia “presents one of the most serious intelligence threats to the United States.”

This week, Biden also gave September 11, 2021, as the deadline for removing the last 2,500 U.S. military members from Afghanistan. He selected the 20^th anniversary of the foreign terrorist attack on U.S. soil killing 3,000 people which led George W. Bush to start the “military mission” in the Middle East costing U.S. taxpayers almost $7 trillion. Biden said he will not pass the war to a fifth president and is following DDT’s agreement with the Taliban to withdraw troops.

Today Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed Biden’s announcement with a surprise visit to Afghan leaders in Kabul and repeated the U.S. commitment to helping their government. He emphasized counter-terrorism cooperation and “protecting the rights of women and girls,” according to a department announcement.

Biden has also sent an unofficial delegation to Taiwan as “an important signal about the U.S. commitment to Taiwan and its democracy,” according to an official. Last week, the USS John S. McCain went through the Taiwan Strait, and the carrier Theodore Roosevelt went to the South China Sea for “routine operations.” China typically protests the U.S. being in those international waters, especially with its support for Taiwan.

Biden plans to meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, hoping for a joint statement supporting Taiwan and discussing China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and influence over Hong Kong. Japan and the U.S. have not had a joint statement about Taiwan for over 50 years. The meeting prefaces one in May with Biden and South Korea’s President Moon Jae about managing China’s rising power and that of North Korea with the help of the Quad—Australia, India, Japan, and North Korea.

A U.S. negotiating team in Vienna led by Robert Malley is working with Iran representatives to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement. Initially, they are working on the over 700 sanctions imposed by DDT to permanently destroy the deal. In efforts to scuttle any deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed pleasure when opposing Israelis reportedly bombed an Iranian nuclear facility. If Biden succeeds in redeeming the agreement, he plans to “expand and strengthen” the pact by covering Iran’s militant activities and missile program to obtain support from congressional opposition. Iran may hold off until after their elections in June.

Today, Inspector General Michael Bolton testified before the House Administration Committee about the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and argued for a campus security overhaul. He said a deputy assistant chief of police told officers not to use any weapons including stingballs and 40mm launchers, weapons that could have helped them protect the Capitol. Thus far, one task force and over one-half dozen congressional committees have started investigations into why law enforcement failed to prevent the insurrection when hundreds of DDT’s supporters invaded and vandalized the Capitol building to stop the certification of Biden as the legal president.

Bolton, who may have the most complete examination of problems permitting the Capitol Police to be overrun by “deficiencies,” will continue the probe for several more months. He has already provided Congress with two interim reports about the lack of security clearances, personnel, equipment, and training to respond to these attacks. Calling for a “cultural change,” Bolton said law enforcement at the Capitol must move from the “traditional posture of a police department” to “a protection agency” focusing on preventing events like the January 6 riot. Preparation of a supplemental spending package for reforms of campus security will also use an evaluation from retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré requested by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-CA), in addition to Bolton’s recommendation to invest funding in training. That activity would include gathering, analyzing, and assessing intelligence for responses to future threats.

Following TheDonald.win before the Capitol attack would have made the high danger of violence on January 6 obvious. Participants covered ways to bring guns into D.C., quantity of ammunition, legal weapons such as stun guns and small knives, methods of attacking police officers with flagpoles and other objects, the best type of zip ties to use on congressional members certifying Biden’s election, and discussions of building the most effective gallows for use on disloyal congressional members according to the attackers. “Camarokirk” preferred a guillotine because it’s “more scary.” A dissenter brought up the problem of how “to get that big blade into town,” and the gallows the insurrectionists actually built, intended for VP Mike Pence, cost only $200. Many of the violent ideas on the website came to fruition on January 6 with right-wing domestic terrorists disrupting the presidential vote certification.

DDT encouraged the violence as shown by this tweet on December 19: 

 “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

Website users traded maps, travel information, money, hotel recommendations, and organizations of cross-country caravans. Also available on the website were diagrams of the tunnel systems below the Capitol complex and ways of creating a “wall of death” by pushing the mob forward, forcing police to give up their positions.

A recent report shows that DDT, who told his conservative terrorist Proud Boys to “stand by” in his first presidential debate with Biden, is completely wrong in his obsession about the “left-wing problem” of domestic terrorism. Asked at the debate about white supremacists and fringe militia groups, he saw them as political allies and then pushed the far-left menace as being the danger. According to information from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the new highs of domestic terrorism events are chiefly driven by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim, and anti-government extremists on the far right. The surge is the worst since the 1990s. The WaPo reported:

“Since 2015, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks and 91 fatalities, the data shows. At the same time, attacks and plots ascribed to far-left views accounted for 66 incidents leading to 19 deaths…. More than a quarter of right-wing incidents and just under half of the deaths in those incidents were caused by people who showed support for white supremacy or claimed to belong to groups espousing that ideology, the analysis shows.”

The most common targets in these far-right events are mosques, synagogues, Black churches, abortion clinics, and government buildings, which have been “threatened, burned, bombed and hit with gunfire over the past six years.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) announced his panel would do a “significant dive” into domestic anti-government extremists, including radicalized groups’ possible connections to foreign allies. Earlier, Biden officials announced an overhaul of the government treatment of domestic terrorism with a “comprehensive threat assessment” by intelligence agencies. Former DHS officials from both parties agreed DDT’s failure to focus on “the rise of domestic threats” was among the agency’s problems. According to the NBC News report, these officials agreed:

“[I]t was the four years of inadequately monitoring and communicating the rising threat of right-wing domestic extremists that ultimately led to DHS’ failure to prevent [the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol].”

The New York Times reported that DDT’s administration “diverted” federal law enforcement and domestic security agencies, pressuring officials to “uncover a left-wing extremist criminal conspiracy that never materialized,” even as “the threat from the far right was building ominously.” It added that the FBI, “in particular, had increasingly expressed concern about the threat from white supremacists, long the top domestic terrorism threat, and well-organized far-right extremist groups that had allied themselves with the president.” DDT did not find these issues at all concerning. 

Time to “Build Back Better.”

DDT: Week Twenty-Three – Misogyny, Health Bill, Russia + Falling Numbers

Much of the media this past week about Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) focused on his misogyny and his attempts to pass a health bill that he himself called “mean.” But he managed to continue offending world leaders. During a visit from South Korean President Moon Jae-In,  DDT lambasted the newly-elected official for the U.S. trade deficit. One year ago, South Koreans had 88 percent confidence in President Obama to do the right thing. This year, that number as dropped to 17 percent confidence in DDT.  In whining about the current U.S./Korea Free Trade Agreement, DDT blamed President Obama, but George W. Bush signed the document in 2007. DDT also failed to realize that he was off on his reference to “you know who wanted it,” most congressional Republicans wanted it.

DDT also implied that a trade deficit with a country has to be a bad deal that he will fix. He said, “I actually said to my people, find a country where we actually do well. So far, we haven’t found that country. It’s just losses with everybody and we’re going to turn that around.” His “people” didn’t look very hard; the U.S. has a trade surplus with over 100 nations. DDT also asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel about negotiating a trade deal eleven times. It wasn’t until her eleventh repetition that the U.S. negotiates with the European Union, not Germany, that he stopped asking.

DDT’s actions are unifying much of the world by destroying the country’s international standing. A recent Pew Research Center survey in 37 nations shows that the median in confidence has dropped to 22 percent, less than one-third of the 64 percent median of President Obama’s ability to direct the U.S. role in the world. Only two countries—Russia and Israel—express more confidence in DDT than the former president. Part of the lack of confidence comes from his policies. Over three-fourths oppose his wall along the U.S./Mexico border, and 71 percent are against his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Over half disagree with his travel ban, his withdrawal from free trade agreements, and his negative approach to the Iran nuclear deal.

One issue decreasing credibility in DDT came from last Monday’s White House announcement from sometimes Press Secretary Sean Spicer:

“The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children. The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack. As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. If, however, Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”

With a “normal” president, the public might assume that they are being warned because intelligence identified a chemical-weapons attack. BuzzFeed, however, reported that the Pentagon didn’t know anything about Spicer’s statement. NBC reported that defense, military, and intelligence officials were “caught off guard by the White House statement.” Another “normal” action would be a press briefing. There was none. DDT’s ensuing tweets only promoted Fox network and then attacked Morning Joe hosts. Defense Secretary James Mattis tried to cover two days after Spicer’s statement by saying “he believes Syria has backed down.”

DDT’s foreign policy according to Kevin Drum:

“Trump has been suckered by China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. He has pissed off Mexico, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Australia, and most of our other traditional allies. Nobody knows what his policy toward Israel is. Or his policy in Afghanistan. Or his policy in Syria. Or his trade policy toward anyone. Or whether he ever bothers talking with his Secretary of State.”

And that was before he DDT talked to South Korea.

Polls also show that DDT’s approval rating also continues to drop.  CBS News shows him at 36 percent, DDT’s lowest approval for that source since he was inaugurated; 57 percent disapprove. The loss comes from Republicans: the 72 percent GOP approval is eleven points down since April. Other presidents have seen approval ratings from their own parties this low but not five months into their first terms.

Russia continues to dominate the news:

At least 10 White House officials and former Trump associates have retained private counsel, including VP Mike Pence, DDT’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign advisers Michael Caputo, Boris Epshteyn, and Roger Stone.

Marc Kasowitz, one of DDT’s personal lawyers, may have a conflict of interest with his client because of his firm’s involvement in a real estate sale for Kushner. The property’s loan with Deutsche Bank, part of a Russian money laundering scandal, might be part of Robert Mueller’s investigation in things related to Russia and DDT. Kasowitz is already involved with Russia because of his client OJSC Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank.

Former GOP operative Peter W. Smith asked hackers to get him Hillary Clinton campaign emails before the election and said he had talked about the situation with Michael Flynn, than DDT’s adviser. The conservative Wall Street Journal said that Smith viewed Flynn and his consulting company as “allies in their quest.” Smith died in mid-May, and Flynn isn’t talking—yet. But U.S. intelligence agents have corroborated some of this information. Smith also was connected with Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George, in the Paula Jones case that led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

DDT’s former campaign consultant Paul Manafort has filed as a foreign agent three years after he was paid $17.1 million by the political party for Ukraine’s leader, who fled to Russia in 2014. Manafort is being investigated by the government for the alleged misuse of Ukrainian government funds. He has a history of working for strong-arm leaders throughout the world.  http://www.newsweek.com/russia-investigation-paul-manafort-michael-flynn-foreign-agents-629609

National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers expressed frustration during a closed-session briefing on Capital Hill about DDT’s failure to be convinced that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Rogers also said that DDT lacks focus about Russia’s cyber attempts.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions may be the next person on the hot seat about Russia. Despite his recusal from all things Russian, he had an eight-minute interview about the subject on Fox and Friends. Some of his statements may be taken as an attempt to undermine special investigator Robert Mueller. In March, Sessions’ chief of staff, Jody Hunt, said that the recusal included any media inquiries about Russia.  The comments were curious because a March 2 memo from Sessions’ chief of staff. Fortunately, Sessions has a personal lawyer.

Conservative pundits must have decided that DDT was actually in collusion with the Russians because they now claim that collusion is not a crime. Greg Jarrett made the most blunt statement: “You can collude all you want with a foreign government in an election.” About collusion, Fox’s Bret Hume asked his audience, “Can anyone identify the crime?” Ten expert lawyers cited over a dozen federal statutes that can be used to charge collaborators with Russian intelligence to influence a U.S. election. Dan Friedman wrote:

“Laws against abetting or conspiring to commit computer fraud or identity theft and against soliciting campaign aid from foreign nationals offer two potential areas under which prosecutors could seek indictments, the lawyers say. Prosecutors also could use broader federal statutes related to honest services fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to bring charges against anyone who colluded, according to the attorneys.”

DDT may be personally involved in a crime because he called on Russia “to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” His supporters claim that this was a joke, but with DDT, one never knows. His statement could be construed as aiding and abetting computer fraud.

Some GOP legislators have joined DDT in using President Obama as a scapegoat for the entire Russian hacking problem. During a Senate hearing, Republicans said that the former president knew about the hacking and should have stopped it. Tom Cotton (AK) said, “[President Obama] stood idly by in the 2016 election.” The “idly by” came from Republicans. Two months before the election, the Obama White House briefed top congressional members about Russian activities and asked for bipartisan support so that he didn’t appear to be using the intelligence for electoral ends. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused. Republicans argued against making the information public with the position that releasing the information would help Russia in eliminating confidence in the system. McConnell also said that he didn’t’ believe the intelligence supporting the Russian involvement.

Meanwhile Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, central to many of the Russian meetings, will be hosted at his going-away party on July 11 on his way back to Russia after a decade in the U.S.

DDT: Week Fourteen, More Failures

The quarterly GDP report just came out, and the average 0.7 percent increase is bad news for news for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) who bragged that his leadership would move the gross domestic product skyhigh. Instead the GDP for his first quarter is the worst in three years. Why do people vote for Republicans? In a statement of how DDT is struggling, he said, “I thought it would be easier.” This is DDT’s classic statement as he reflects on his first 100 days. “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going.” Many other people wish he were back in his previous life too after his string of failures.

Alienation of South Korea: After picking a fight with North Korea, DDT attacked South Korea by threatening to terminate the U.S. trade agreement with South Korea because the five-year-old accord was “a horrible deal” that has left America “destroyed.” To make things worse, he told South Korea that they should pay the $1 billion for the U.S. missile-defense system, Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense (Thaad), to be installed in South Korea as protection against a North Korean attack.

Flynn’s Failure: When Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser for 24 days, started the chant of “Lock her up” about candidate Clinton last summer, he said that he’d be in prison if he did one-tenth of the things that she had done. Maybe he will be incarcerated. The investigation into Flynn has already shown that he likely took money from Russia without notification to the U.S. after the Pentagon warned him against doing it and that his work for Turkey has a Russian connection. Meanwhile, DDT is trying to cover for Flynn’s illegal activities by refusing to release any information about him. Now the Pentagon has joined the investigation into Flynn, and DDT’s AG Jess Sessions has recused himself from the whole problem. Maybe if FBI James Comey had been more worried about real treason and not Hillary Clinton’s emails?

The Wall: Press Secretary Sean Spicer is trying to cover for DDT’s backing off from his main promise by saying that it was a priority and not a demand, but DDT tweeted that the drug problem will never be solved without a wall. Yet 56 percent responses to a poll agree that DDT hasn’t accomplished much, and 47 percent of the blame goes to DDT. The GOP gets 25 percent blame and Democrats only seven percent. At the same time, the majority of people—a number that is growing—oppose building the wall, and an increasing number want money put into infrastructure instead. Texans oppose the wall as much as Mexico on the possibility of making Mexico so instable that it becomes another Venezuela as well as flooding and sewage in the Rio Grande River.

Tax Increases: DDT may have hoped that his shiny new tax plan would distract from his other problems, but it’s going downhill fast. Presenter and Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin knows that it gives cuts to the wealthy but can’t guarantee that “no one in the middle class is gonna pay more.” At least DDT will get a big cut with his own plan. A 65-year study by the Congressional Research Office found no correlation between cutting taxes and economic growth.

Latest Executive Order Overturned: Judge William Orrick, of the federal Northern District for California, has blocked DDT’s threat to cut off funds to sanctuary cities if they refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities. A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked an executive order by Donald Trump which threatened to cut off funds to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities. The injunction retains the right to identify sanctuary cities and withhold certain grants but cannot alter the way federal funds are spent because that power lies within the congressional, not the presidential, branch of government. The Justice Department said that the order applies only to the failure in sharing citizenship information as required by law and three federal grants that require compliance as a pre-condition. Orrick said that this defense is worthless because law already permits it, leaving no purpose for the executive order. He also said that DDT’s rhetoric and surrogate statements, including those from the AG, contradicted the interpretation that the Justice Department tried to place on it. Orrick said:

“The President has called it ‘a weapon’ to use against jurisdictions that disagree with his preferred policies of immigration enforcement, and his press secretary has reiterated that the President intends to ensure that ‘counties and other institutions that remain sanctuary cites don’t get federal government funding in compliance with the executive order.'”

Press Secretary Sean Spicer had said that the administration stood behind its threats to eliminate law enforcement funding to those cities. The federal government is now trying to decide on a definition of “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

Massive Donor Errors for Inauguration: Inauguration Donor Fraud?: Follow the rubles. A crowdsourced data project at HuffPost found massive mistakes in DDT’s final campaign report with the was filled with mistakes—missing addresses, vacant lots used for addresses, anonymous or fake names, etc.—showing that even basic checks on accuracy were made.

Failure of Conservative Press Control: Unhappy with the sometimes factual reporting in the mainstream press, DDT has been wooing the far-right outlets and frequently failing. After they didn’t support his healthcare plan, he called them to the White House last Monday to tell them—gently, for him—to shape up. It wasn’t a success: they’re still complaining about the lack of attention that DDT has given them despite his favoritism. They’re also upset that they were told to leave their phones outside the room and not to report on what was said until 30 minutes into the meeting. The result was bad press from conservatives about DDT’s communications team. 

Empty Rooms: Cite Priebus: The Senate has confirmed 26 of DDT’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts, but he’s nominated only 37 people for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation.

Disappearance of Zombie Healthcare Bill—Again: Once again, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) couldn’t get the votes for the revised healthcare bill. The ultra-conservatives loved it because it takes insurance from more people, but the more centrist GOP members balked. One embarrassment for the GOP is that the failed bill exempted members of Congress and their staff: they can keep all their benefits. Once this fact came to light, GOP representatives talked about changing their minds about piece of the bill.

No Budget: The House passed a one-week extension on passing the budget to keep the government functioning for another seven days. The reason may be to prevent a shutdown on DDT’s 100^th day tomorrow. The GOP House follows the pattern of teenagers who do no school work and then ask for an extension. And the action saves DDT the embarrassment of a government shutdown on his 100^th day.

The United States has become so racist—including some law enforcement officials—that Sanya Gragg has published a book on the “talk” with black children: what they should do to stay ALIVE. Momma, Did You Hear The News?, a picture book for small children, gives this directions if they are confronted by the police, even if they’re just innocently walking down the street.

• A – Always use your manners
• L – Listen and comply
• I – In control of your emotions
• V – Visible hands always
• E – Explain everything

Something else that white children don’t have to face.

Much more about DDT’s last week, but tomorrow is his 100^th day—and lots more for another post.

Meanwhile, cheers for recently retired GOP Judge GOP Judge Doug McCullough, who resigned from the North Carolina Appeals Court a month before his date of mandatory retirement to allow the Democrat governor to replace him. McCullough is disgusted with the legislature’s blatant attempt to strip the new governor of any appointment abilities, going so far as to pass a bill to reduce the court from 15 to 12 so that newly elected Roy Cooper cannot fill any vacancies. An attempt to override Cooper’s veto leaves the governor with a small window of opportunity. Cooper’s new appointment, Judge John Arrowood, is the first openly gay member of the North Carolina court of appeals. McCullough is a man with ethics.

DDT: Week Thirteen on the Foreign Front

Right before Earth Day tomorrow, the planet won a victory when the Treasury Department refused to grant ExxonMobil a waiver for a joint drilling deal in the Black Sea with Russia’s state oil company. Current U.S. sanctions against Russia after its annexation of Crimea require waivers. President Obama opposed the same plan in 2015 after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson created it as Exxon’s CEO. In the words of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “Are you crazy?” My cynic bone wonders what the current administration is planning that is worse that the waiver to the sanctions.

Thus far, DDT’s only victory in over 90 days was getting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court although it required breaking Senate rules. Gorsuch made his first public decision—to kill a man. In its rush to kill eight inmates on death row for 24-26 years before state drugs expired, Arkansas decided to kill them in eleven days. Judicial stays kept these men alive for a few days, but Gorsuch joined the conservative block on the high court to kill at least one of them. Ledell Lee, the first man executed, had fetal alcohol syndrome disorder with significant brain damage and intellectual disability. He has always claimed that he is innocent and that one of his lawyers was drunk and another was mentally ill. The state refused to allow him to take a DNA test to compare evidence collected at the scene of the crime. The judge in the case was having an affair with the prosecutor and later married her. None of the blood at the crime scene belonged to Lee, and forensic evidence of hairs has been discredited. It’s not surprising for Gorsuch to kill the Arkansas inmate because he had ruled in Colorado that a man should lose his job if he chose to save his life.

In the Company of Tyrants: Even conservatives are outraged that DDT called to congratulate Turkish President ­Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his new, almost dictatorial powers by winning a referendum after possible election tampering. Erdogan’s authoritarian rule has destroyed any separation of church and state in an Islamic regime and arrested any critics as well as a roundup of journalists. After last summer’s attempted coup, Erdogan had already detained, suspended, or dismissed almost 200,000 people including state officials and teachers. The new referendum would replace the parliamentary system with a presidential one and abolish the prime minister. Erdogan, who could stay in power until 2029, could intervene in the judiciary, control the nominees for parliament’s nominees, directly appoint top government officials, and declare a state of emergency with no justification. DDT’s congratulatory statement not only contradicts the official message from the U.S. State Department but also was made before the vote is final. It is still being contested. Reasons given for DDT’s congratulations include ignorance, carelessness, or an agreement with Erdogan’s ideology. Or it could simply be because he has business interests in Turkey: in the past, he said that he had a “conflict of interest” in the country (tower on right). If the referendum wins the “yes” votes, Turkey will become a total dictatorship.

Question of Chemical Attacks in Syria: DDT may hope that problems in North Korea keep people from wondering if his April 7 preemptive strikes on Syria—his first open act of war—was based on false information. Although the deaths of people on April 4 have not been contested, questions about the type of gas and the perpetrators remain because of no independent, international investigation. Two longtime experts in war studies and missile systems maintain that DDT’s intelligence report about Syria’s role is “false” and “fraudulent” as well as a “coverup.” They purport that the intelligence report about an air attack is not substantiated by evidence and that the official report did not use the methodologies that it claimed: the information released by the White House is political, not scientific. In 2013, President Obama was given incorrect information that Syria perpetrated an attack but did not retaliate because intelligence did not support that information. Instead, DDT, like George W. Bush, made preemptive strikes against a country that didn’t attack the United States, without accurate information. Support for the experts’ information is that there is no plan for an investigation—just a move forward to inflame North Korea into military action. The world has become a far more dangerous place in DDT’s less than 100 days.

Ships Far from North Korea: One piece of DDT’s saber-rattling in northeast Asia was to declare that he had ordered an “armada” (actually six ships) close to North Korea. Two weeks later the media discovered that the ships “steaming,” in Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s words, toward North Korea were headed in the opposite direction several thousand miles away after the Navy released photographs and the location of the Carl Vinson in the Sundra Strait, 3,500 miles away. The White House blamed the Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for the mistake although U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster mistakenly told Fox that the ships were rerouted from Singapore to the Korean peninsula as a “prudent” show of force. That’s DDT’s military’s second bad mistake this month: the earlier one referred to the biggest non-nuclear weapon that it used on Afghanistan as “the type of weapon for the type of target” and how it sent a message.

South Korea’s “Concern” with DDT: The egregious “mistake” about the ships’ location upset South Koreans who felt “bewildered, cheated and manipulated by the United States, their country’s most important ally,” according to the New York Times. AP went farther with words such as “unpredictable,” “unhinged,” and “dangerous.” DDT also angered South Koreans by his assertion that the Korean Peninsula “used to be a part of China.” Invaded by its neighbor and forced to pay tribute, Koreans state that the idea that they were once Chinese subjects is highly insulting. DDT is alienating one country almost every every week–South Korea, Great Britain, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and China plus Canada after DDT scolded the nation for what the dairy industry did to our workers.” The addition of Colombia brings the total to nine.

Secret Meeting at Mar-a-Lago: Last weekend, DDT interrupted his golf games to meet undercover with former Columbian presidents Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana, former presidents of Colombia to undermine the current Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to end Latin America’s longest armed conflict. The White House also lied about the meeting: it claimed just a brief “hello” because the two men were at the resort, but Pastrana thanked DDT for the “cordial and very frank conversation” about Colombia’s challenges. DDT also ignored any diplomatic coordination with the State Department. Columbia reported that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), an opponent of the peace plans, set up the meeting with the three men.

State Department v. Tillerson: During his campaign, DDT called the Iran Deal “the worst deal ever negotiated” and promised to rip it up on day one. This week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the deal a failure, warned this week that Iran’s nuclear weapons could be as bad as North Korea, and accused the country of causing “alarming and ongoing provocations.” At the same time, he wrote House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) that Iran was upholding its commitments, and the State Department released the same positive information. In response to Tillerson’s criticism of Iran, its foreign minister, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, faulted the U.S. for trying to distract from its “abysmal” human rights record, which includes DDT’s Muslim ban, and the U.S. support of Israel, which Zarif claimed has an “illegal” nuclear arsenal. Tillerson made his comments about Iran as a disruptive force on the same day that he praised Saudi Arabia that is trying to reinstate Yemen’s ousted president by killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes.

Raising Prices: DDT signed his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order while in Wisconsin. Part of it changes rules for the H-1B visa program which keeps some highly skilled workers from coming to the U.S. and may send companies that employ them out of the country. At the same time, he saved the visa program for lower-paid workers, like his own because, as he said in the past, “it’s very, very hard to get people.” DDT wants to do away with the waivers in these mandates—except ones that let him buy all the products for his business more cheaply from foreign countries. DDT’s order has no weight unless Congress passes a law to support it or changes past laws, for example the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 that treats products made in foreign countries as domestic if the countries, almost 60 at this time, have a trade agreement with the United States. There are no plans to carry out his order, which would cause prices to skyrocket. China steel, for example, is 70 percent cheaper than what is made in the U.S., and a DDT order from last month raised steel prices 19 percent.

Obsession of Gold: Known for wasting taxpayer money in the United States, DDT is moving the selfishness to Britain on his upcoming visit in October. Despite the cost and the lack of security, he demands that he ride to a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in a golden coach—just like Mexican President Peña Nieto, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s the “ugly American” made more hideous than ever.

Tomorrow covers DDT’s damage in domestic issues.