Belgium coal miners surface in a crammed cage elevator after a long day of work.
Robert Friedland says, “We think there’s a revolution coming in vanadium redox flow batteries.”
The Joy of Trump
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Belgium coal miners
Robert Friedland says, “We think there’s a revolution coming in vanadium redox flow batteries.”
Jim Carrey's Trump portraits impress and infuriate
Jim Carrey's Trump portraits impress and infuriate
Satire
This morning
The Canadian actor has been posting political cartoons for a
while now, he continues his controversial series with a new portrait of
the US president.
Dear Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery @NPG, I know it’s early but I’d like to submit this as the official portrait of our 45th President, Donald J. Trump. It’s called, 'You Scream. I Scream. Will We Ever Stop Screaming?'
Did anyone watch 60 minutes last night? Hell of a piece about a poor kid from Greece named Giannis Antetokounmpo who’s making it big in the NBA. America still has some magic. Pity you have to wade through so much cultural sewage to find it. ;^} pic.twitter.com/H4BTPcw8bu
Lawyer and lucky charm Joe diGenovia hopes to put Dirty Donald's
troubles in the rearview mirror. But the objects in the mirror are
closer than they appear.
Great news! The President's answer to school shootings is to arm the glee club...
Jim Carrey's Trump portraits impress and infuriate
Satire
Yesterday
The Canadian actor has been posting political cartoons for a while now, he continues his controversial series with a…
Friday, March 30, 2018
Sad Farewell to Rhinos on the Brink of Extinction
"The Last Three" Bids a Sad Farewell to Rhinos on the Brink of Extinction
The passing of Sudan is a sobering reminder of the many other endangered species that we must do more to protect. Don't let chimpanzees be next, help us to protect chimps and their habitat here: https://janegoodall.ca/ways-to-give/give-once/ … Photo By: Ami Vitale, National Geographic Creative
"The Last Three" Bids a Sad Farewell to Rhinos on the Brink of Extinction
There were three northern white rhinos
left when Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner unveiled their
monument in New York City. Now there are just two.
The Last Three, an installation created by Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner, is a poignant portrait of an actual animal family and a species that will soon disappear from the face of the earth. The bronze rhinos are accurate in every detail, including the rough, wrinkled skin, although they are slightly larger than the real ones, Gillie says. Together, the three effigies form a tower of tribute―but equally important, they serve as a call to action, since the northern white rhinos of east and central Africa have been hunted to the brink of extinction. Their horns—touted to have medicinal powers—are considered to be among the most expensive substances on the planet, traded for more than the price of gold or cocaine in the markets of China and Vietnam. In fact, the protein that makes up rhino horn has no more potency than human fingernails.
And now there are two. While Gillie and Marc (who sign their works with their first names only) were unveiling their monumental rhino pyramid in New York on March 15, 45-year-old Sudan was taking his final breaths in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The trio of animals lived under a team of devoted caretakers and 24-hour armed guard to protect them from poachers. When Sudan’s age-related medical conditions grew significantly worse, veterinarians decided to euthanize him. In a last-ditch attempt to save the species, the trio had been transferred from a zoo in the Czech Republic in 2009, but efforts to breed the rhinos had failed. Sudan had a low sperm count, perhaps as a result of his advanced age, and Najin and Fatu both proved to have fertility issues that made reproduction impossible.
With no living male and two infertile females, the northern white rhino species (or subspecies, depending on which scientist you talk to) has come to the end of its road. (Najin and Fatu will remain at Ol Pejeta.) “The fact of the matter is that we’ve taken our eye off the ball and allowed this to happen, so the blood is on all of our hands,” Marc says. With the sculpture’s position in Astor Place, one of New York’s busiest hubs, he hopes it will raise awareness of the rhinos’ plight and encourage the city’s residents and tourists to sign an online petition demanding an end to the illegal trade in rhino horn. It’s a crisis that has also brought Sudan’s cousins to the brink of extinction, Marc adds. “The eastern black rhinos are next. They are down to only about 2,000 and their numbers are dwindling. Before we know it, we’ll have no rhinos at all.”
The husband-and-wife artists knew when they took on the project last year ago that they were fighting the clock. They spent a week at the Kenyan conservancy observing the rhinos at close range, especially the elderly Sudan, who was the most approachable of the three, Gillie says. “We studied them every day. We photographed their skin, faces, bodies. We watched them move. We watched them breathe. We touched them.” She says Sudan had the gentle manner of a friendly dog, while the younger females required more caution.
Back in Sydney, where they live, the Schattners molded clay models of the three animals, which were then cast at a foundry in Thailand and packed into two shipping containers for the voyage to the United States. The artists hope that as many as five million people in New York will see the statue before it travels to Melbourne, Australia, later this year. “Marc and I believe it’s never been more critical to connect people to nature so that we’re visibly confronted with what we’re doing to the planet,” Gillie says. “That’s why it was so important to bring the northern white rhinos to New York.”
The Last Three by Marc and Gillie is currently on display in New York City’s East Village; no closing date has been announced.
onEarth provides reporting and analysis about environmental science, policy, and culture. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of NRDC. Learn more or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Source: https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/last-three-bids-sad-farewell-rhinos-brink-extinction
Donald Trump is a trifecta of evils.
Donald Trump is a trifecta of evils.
Anselm Feuerbach [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Listen to "What are you going to do today to improve the human polis?" by Stoic Meditations
Yale's most popular class teaches 'happiness' https://reut.rs/2pOlJhb
March 29, 2018 - 01:59 The search for one of life's most elusive treasures - happiness - has driven nearly 1,200 students into an enormous concert hall at Yale University for its most popular class ever. Havovi Cooper report
Yale's most popular class teaches 'happiness' https://reut.rs/2pOlJhb
Monday, March 26, 2018
Friday, March 23, 2018
Muellertime to stop
1. We have a lunatic, immature liar as president.
2. We have a lying warmongering arrogant fool as nat security advisor.
The only saving grace in the Trump administration now:
3. Mattis is sec def. Sane guy, smart guy. And Trump wont fire him because he likes his nickname.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Fran Lebowitz: 'You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump'
Fran Lebowitz: ‘The only people who live in Australia are those who came to Australia and couldn’t face the trip back.’ Photograph: Cybele Malinowski/Sydney Opera House
Fran Lebowitz:
'You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump'
She loves to talk, hates to fly and wants to make it clear she takes no responsibility for the state of US politics
by Brigid Delaney
Mon 19 Mar 2018
Be grateful you didn’t sit next to Fran Lebowitz on the plane from New York to Melbourne. The trip was the longest flight she had taken, and therefore the longest time she managed to go without a cigarette. When I ask if it is her first time in Australia, she says: “That makes it sound as if there’s going to be a second time.” She surprised herself by not being taken off the flight in handcuffs for assaulting fellow (first-class) passengers or smoking in the toilets.
“I was like a child on the plane, asking the flight attendant, ‘Are we there?’ And she said, ‘Are you nuts? We’ve only been flying for four hours.’ The only people who live in Australia are those who came to Australia and couldn’t face the trip back – I’m actually one of those people.”
Cultivate joy: five things we learned at the All About Women festival
Lebowitz has been invited to Australia several times but, as a longtime smoker, 30 hours on a flight without a cigarette was out of the question. But she was persuaded to perform shows (which quickly sold out) at the recent All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House, and a Wheeler Centre talk in Melbourne. She got through the flight without being arrested by chewing lots of gum and being able to smoke during a brief stop in LA.
Before our meeting, I spot her standing on the footpath – smoking, naturally – in her sartorial uniform of Levi 501s, a white shirt and custom-made dark blazer. She glances up the street, towards Melbourne’s Fawkner Park, as if she’s not quite sure where she is or how she got here. (She later asks me what day it is.)
https://www.theguardian.com/
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
John Prine That's How Every Empire Falls
Play "That's How Every Em…" |
Caught a train from Alexandria
Just a broken man in flight
Running scared with his devils
Saying prayers all through the night
Oh but mercy can't find him
Not in the shadows where he calls
Forsaking all his better angels
That's how every empire falls
The bells ring out on Sunday mornng
Like echoes from another time
All our innocence and yearning
and sense of wonder left behind
Oh gentle hearts remember
What was that story? Is it lost?
For when religion loses vision
That's how every empire falls.
He toasts his wife and all his family
The providence he brought to bear
They raise their glasses in his honor
Although this union they don't share
A man who lives among them
Was still a stranger to them all
For when the heart is never open
That's how every empire falls
Padlock the door and board the windows
Put the people in the street
"It's just my job," he says "I'm sorry."
And draws a check, goes home to eat
But at night he tells his woman
"I know I hide behind the laws."
She says, "You're only taking orders."
That's how every empire falls.
A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don't see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That's how every empire falls.
Just a broken man in flight
Running scared with his devils
Saying prayers all through the night
Oh but mercy can't find him
Not in the shadows where he calls
Forsaking all his better angels
That's how every empire falls
The bells ring out on Sunday mornng
Like echoes from another time
All our innocence and yearning
and sense of wonder left behind
Oh gentle hearts remember
What was that story? Is it lost?
For when religion loses vision
That's how every empire falls.
He toasts his wife and all his family
The providence he brought to bear
They raise their glasses in his honor
Although this union they don't share
A man who lives among them
Was still a stranger to them all
For when the heart is never open
That's how every empire falls
Padlock the door and board the windows
Put the people in the street
"It's just my job," he says "I'm sorry."
And draws a check, goes home to eat
But at night he tells his woman
"I know I hide behind the laws."
She says, "You're only taking orders."
That's how every empire falls.
A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don't see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That's how every empire falls.
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Felix Sater says Trump sent him to Russia
Businessman says Trump sent him to Russia to 'look after' his kids
Businessman says Trump sent him to Russia to 'look after' his kids
@CNNPolitics
http://cnn.it/2phZRKZ
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/felix-sater-donald-trump-cnntv/index.html
(CNN)
Felix Sater, the Russian-born onetime business associate of Donald Trump's who worked to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, says the then-business magnate asked him to "look after" his kids when they were pursuing business deals in Russia.
Sater told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" Friday that Trump had personally asked him to travel to Russia to be in Moscow with his children.
"The President asked me to be in Russia at the same time as them to look after them," Sater said, adding that Trump had asked him directly.
The Trump Organization's general counsel has said previously Sater was not accompanying the Trump children in Moscow. And Trump himself has downplayed his connections to Sater.
"Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it," Trump said in a December 2015 Associated Press interview. "I'm not that familiar with him."
Sater, a mob-linked felon turned FBI informant, is speaking out now after he has figured prominently amid questions about Trump's connections to Russia for his role in trying to land a Trump Tower in Moscow in late 2015 and early 2016, while the presidential campaign was underway.
Trump signed a letter of intent on the Moscow deal, which was a nonbinding agreement, but the venture was ultimately scuttled in 2016.
Sater worked with Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen on the deal, and emails exchanged between the two show that Sater thought the deal could "get Donald elected," according to The New York Times. Sater also suggested he could get Russian President Vladimir Putin to say "great things" about Trump if the deal went through, according to The Washington Post.
But Sater, who was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the US as a child, said Friday that he did not have connections to Putin's government — though he insisted his statements weren't just hype.
"At the end of the day, I'd start finding people that knew Putin," Sater said. "I'd start finding people that could get Donald on top of this project. I would have, believe me, turned over every rock to make sure everyone was involved."
Sater said he's now speaking out because of his longtime intelligence work on behalf of the US, as his name has continued to surface in the congressional and special counsel investigations into Trump and Russia. Sater said he has spoken with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, but he won't say whether he's talked to special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
"I cannot answer about anything that may be on ongoing investigation," Sater said Friday when asked if he had spoken to Mueller.
"True, except you could say if you haven't spoken to the investigators. You could say that," Cuomo responded.
"I choose not to," Sater said.
Sater denied there was ever any money exchanged or any effort to build a relationship between Putin's allies and the Trump Organization as part of the project.
"To my knowledge and anything I was involved with, absolutely not," he said.
Felix Sater, the Russian-born onetime business associate of Donald Trump's who worked to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, says the then-business magnate asked him to "look after" his kids when they were pursuing business deals in Russia.
Sater told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" Friday that Trump had personally asked him to travel to Russia to be in Moscow with his children.
"The President asked me to be in Russia at the same time as them to look after them," Sater said, adding that Trump had asked him directly.
The Trump Organization's general counsel has said previously Sater was not accompanying the Trump children in Moscow. And Trump himself has downplayed his connections to Sater.
"Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it," Trump said in a December 2015 Associated Press interview. "I'm not that familiar with him."
Sater, a mob-linked felon turned FBI informant, is speaking out now after he has figured prominently amid questions about Trump's connections to Russia for his role in trying to land a Trump Tower in Moscow in late 2015 and early 2016, while the presidential campaign was underway.
Trump signed a letter of intent on the Moscow deal, which was a nonbinding agreement, but the venture was ultimately scuttled in 2016.
Sater worked with Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen on the deal, and emails exchanged between the two show that Sater thought the deal could "get Donald elected," according to The New York Times. Sater also suggested he could get Russian President Vladimir Putin to say "great things" about Trump if the deal went through, according to The Washington Post.
But Sater, who was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the US as a child, said Friday that he did not have connections to Putin's government — though he insisted his statements weren't just hype.
"At the end of the day, I'd start finding people that knew Putin," Sater said. "I'd start finding people that could get Donald on top of this project. I would have, believe me, turned over every rock to make sure everyone was involved."
Sater said he's now speaking out because of his longtime intelligence work on behalf of the US, as his name has continued to surface in the congressional and special counsel investigations into Trump and Russia. Sater said he has spoken with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, but he won't say whether he's talked to special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
"I cannot answer about anything that may be on ongoing investigation," Sater said Friday when asked if he had spoken to Mueller.
"True, except you could say if you haven't spoken to the investigators. You could say that," Cuomo responded.
"I choose not to," Sater said.
Sater denied there was ever any money exchanged or any effort to build a relationship between Putin's allies and the Trump Organization as part of the project.
"To my knowledge and anything I was involved with, absolutely not," he said.
Businessman says Trump sent him to Russia to 'look after' his kids
@CNNPolitics
http://cnn.it/2phZRKZ
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/felix-sater-donald-trump-cnntv/index.html
Friday, March 16, 2018
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Jane Mayer Wrote About the Koch Brothers
What Happened to Jane Mayer When She Wrote About the Koch Brothers
About New York
By JIM DWYER JAN. 26, 2016
Out of the blue in the fall of 2010, a blogger asked Jane Mayer, a writer with The New Yorker, how she felt about the private investigator who was digging into her background. Ms. Mayer thought the idea was a joke, she said this week. At a Christmas party a few months later, she ran into a former reporter who had been asked about helping with an investigation into another reporter on behalf of two conservative billionaires.
“The reporter had written a story they disliked,” Ms. Mayer recounts in “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” out this month from Doubleday. Her acquaintance told her, “‘It occurred to me afterward that the reporter they wanted to investigate might be you.’”
As it happened, Ms. Mayer had published a major story in the magazine that August about the brothers David and Charles Koch, and their role in cultivating the power of the Tea Party movement in 2010. Using a network of nonprofits and other donors, they had provided essential financial support for the political voices that have held sway in Republican politics since 2011. “Dark Money” chronicles the vast sums of money from the Koch brothers and other wealthy conservatives that have helped shape public dialogue in opposition to Democratic positions on climate change, the Affordable Care Act and tax policy.
Ms. Mayer began to take the rumored investigation seriously when she heard from her New Yorker editor that she was going to be accused — falsely — of plagiarism, stealing the work of other writers. A dossier of her supposed plagiarism had been provided to reporters at The New York Post and The Daily Caller, but the smears collapsed when the writers who were the purported victims made statements saying that it was nonsense, and that there had been no plagiarism whatsoever. Indeed, as one noted, Ms. Mayer had plainly credited his writing — though this was not mentioned in the bill of particulars that was passed around.
There was more. Ms. Mayer would learn that these same dark forces had dug into a friend from her college years, with some notion of using the friend’s later problems against her. “I’m 60,” Ms. Mayer noted. “That was a long time ago.”
(Ms. Mayer’s husband, William Hamilton, is an editor for The New York Times in Washington.)
Jane Mayer Credit Joe Kohen/Getty Images
Figuring that out took three years, Ms. Mayer said, and she writes that she traced it to a “boiler room” operation involving several people who have worked closely with Koch business concerns. But the private investigation firm may be of particular interest to New Yorkers.
“The firm, it appears, was Vigilant Resources International, whose founder and chairman, Howard Safir, had been New York City’s police commissioner under the former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,” she writes in “Dark Money.”
Mr. Safir served as both the fire commissioner and the police commissioner during the Giuliani mayoralty. He left public office in 2000, a year before the end of Mr. Giuliani’s term, and went to work in the kind of all-purpose consultancy in security and investigations that thrived after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Safir and his son, Adam, and daughter, Jennifer, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, work at Vigilant. The former commissioner could not be reached on Tuesday to discuss his role in the investigation into Ms. Mayer. Adam Safir, however, did speak cordially, briefly and unilluminatingly.
“I subscribe to The New Yorker and I read it,” Adam Safir said. “As far as what we do, we don’t talk about clients, whether we have them or don’t have them. Even answering the question would violate the policy of our business.”
Two other Washington figures identified by Ms. Mayer in the operation, Philip Ellender, who heads Koch’s government affairs arm, and Nancy Pfotenhauer, who has served as president of a nonprofit advocacy group funded by the Kochs, did not respond to messages requesting comment.
Asked about the campaign against Ms. Mayer and the investigation of her, Ken Spain, a spokesman for Koch Industries, issued a statement that criticized her writings on Koch and charged that they were “grossly inaccurate.”
Asked if he was saying that the investigation of Ms. Mayer had not happened, Mr. Spain replied: “We stand by the statement.”
Email: dwyer@nytimes.com Twitter: @jimdwyernyt
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/nyregion/what-happened-to-jane-mayer-when-she-wrote-about-the-koch-brothers.html
Trump Weekly Report Card
Since Sam Nunberg television melt down:
- -Trump says no CHAOS
- -North Korea talks
- -Kellyanne violates Hatch Act
- -Trump admits Russian interference
- -Trump likes watching aides fight
- -Trump promises "very loving" tariffs
- -Gary Cohn resigns
- -UAE adviser cooperates with Mueller
- -Stormy Daniels sues Trump
Verified account
@PhilipRucker
White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post | Political Analyst for MSNBC & NBC News | philip.rucker@washpost.com
Washington, DC
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Gary Cohn Resigns From Trump's Administration
Wall Street reacts to Cohn resignation: He served 'his country with class'
- In a tweet, Lloyd Blankfein said: "Gary Cohn deserves credit for serving his country in a first class way. I'm sure I join many others who are disappointed to see him leave."
- Cohn resigned from his post Tuesday night after Trump announced he would implement tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
- He was seen as a voice of reason in a White House that is seemingly in constant turmoil.
Following Gary Cohn's resignation from President Donald Trump's administration, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein praised him on Tuesday for his work as chief economic advisor.
Cohn — a free trade advocate who opposed implementing tariffs — resigned from his post Tuesday night after Trump announced he would implement tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Earlier on Tuesday, New York Times reported that Cohn would resign if Trump moved forward with his plan.
Bank of America also reacted to the news, with a spokesperson saying: "We thank him for his service to the country in helping drive pro-growth economic policies."
"He is a free trade markets guy and unfortunately until we know his replacement this adds another layer of uncertainty," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR.
"This certainly solidifies the fact that Trump will move ahead with tariffs which in and of themselves may not be a major issue but if they make negotiations on NAFTA arduous or impossible that's a very major deal."
The news of Cohn's resignation sent ripples through global financial markets. U.S. stock futures pointed to sharp losses, with Dow Jones industrial average futures sliding 300 points. The euro rose to $1.2412 against the dollar, its highest level since Feb. 19.
Cohn was seen as a voice of reason in a White House that is seemingly in constant turmoil. His presence in the White House was also well-liked by investors given his track record on Wall Street. Prior to working in the Trump administration, Cohn was a top executive at Goldman Sachs and the heir apparent to Blankfein.
"Cohn has been a voice of moderation, he's been a voice of who understands markets, who understands investors, a voice that's committed to US playing a leadership role in the global system. His departure leaves an enormous void in that sense," said Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income.
Link: cnbc.com/fred-imbert/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/06/goldman-sachs-ceo-on-gary-cohn-he-served-his-country-with-class.html?__source=gplus%7Cmain
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Toxic Trump
Vegas gun range billboard changed to read, “Shoot a school kid only $29”
A guerrilla artist collective called Indecline claimed responsibility for altering the ad. The group says it focuses on “social, ecological, and economic injustices carried out by American and International governments, corporations, and law enforcement agencies.”
Source: https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pam8w8/vegas-gun-range-billboard-changed-to-read-shoot-a-school-kid-only-dollar29?utm_source=vicenewstwitter
Friday, March 2, 2018
The great unraveling: Trump's allies are really worried about him
The great unraveling: Trump's allies are really worried about him
By Gloria Borger, CNN Chief Political Analyst
Not since Richard Nixon started talking to the portraits on the walls of the West Wing has a president seemed so alone against the world.
One source -- who is a presidential ally -- is worried, really worried. The source says this past week is "different," that advisers are scared the President is spiraling, lashing out, just out of control.
For example: Demanding to hold a public session where he made promises on trade tariffs before his staff was ready, not to mention willing. "This has real economic impact," says the source, as the Dow dropped 420 points after the President's news Thursday. "Something is very wrong."
Even by Trumpian standards, the chaos and the unraveling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are a stunning -- and recurring -- problem.
But there's an up-against-the-wall quality to the past couple of weeks that is striking, and the crescendo is loud, clear, unhealthy, even dangerous.
A brief summary: The Rob Porter wife abuse scandal, and the resulting security clearance scandal, in which the President's son-in-law gets his clearance downgraded.
Then the President (yet again) attacks his attorney general. The AG fights back; the President fumes. Meantime, he's also fuming at the free-spending cabinet officials' scandals, the unseemly expenditures brought to you by Trump's version of the best and the brightest. (See: Ben Carson's dining room set.)
Then consider these odd developments: Trump agrees with Democrats on gun control in a public session. Then he takes on Republicans and some of his own economic team by proposing steel and aluminum tariffs.
His career ambassador to Mexico quits after President Peña Nieto cancels a trip to the United States following a bad phone call (build the wall?) with the President.
His communications director, Hope Hicks -- a loyal, longtime aide who provided his "emotional support," according to one source -- resigns. And one friend predicted to me this would likely send the President into a "tailspin." (Consider that box checked.)
Oh, and the Russia probe continues -- with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates flipping to cooperate with the special counsel, who is asking questions about Trump's Russia connections, among other uncomfortable things.
And -- in the midst of all of this tumult -- the President announces the hiring of the man to run his 2020 re-election bid. Because, why not?
The President is stewing, according to one source with knowledge, blaming everyone but himself for the tumult: his chief of staff Gen. John Kelly for mishandling the clearance issue, Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, Republicans for being afraid of the NRA, Democrats for obstructing everything.
So the President has gone rogue, which is not a healthy development. "Morale is as bad as it's ever been," says another source familiar with the situation inside the White House, echoing the comments of Anthony Scaramucci in a CNN interview
Thursday. What's more, the source lamented, "The good people are being driven crazy."
That almost goes without saying.
Multiple sources report an increasingly isolated Trump: cordoned off from old friends by Kelly, getting the cold shoulder from wife Melania (after Stormy Daniels and friends), increasing friction with his daughter and son-in-law over clearance, and home alone without longtime bodyguard/friend Keith Schiller and Hicks. His economic team is split over tariffs; his national security adviser, according to reports, will be replaced soon. No doubt the exodus will continue.
And the President -- who has bullied Jeff Sessions regularly since the summer -- is now furious that the attorney general has dared defend his department against a President who called it "disgraceful." A man who prides himself on his instinct to counterpunch finds it shocking when someone punches back. Oh the irony of Trump!
"Some of these things don't bother him like they do other people," offers another old friend, trying to explain the chaos, or at least how Donald Trump regards it.
That may be true. Maybe this great unraveling doesn't bother him.
But it should bother us.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/opinions/trump-the-great-unraveling-opinion-borger/index.html
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Belarus Hooker Promises Dirt on Trump’s ties to Russia
Belarus Hooker Promises To Spill Dirt On Trump... If The CIA Springs Her From Thai Jail
Model jailed for sex work claims she has dirt on Trump’s ties to Russia
Anastasia Vashukevich
PATTAYA, Thailand — A Belarusian woman jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a work permit says she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.
Anastasia Vashukevich told The Associated Press that she fears for her life.
She wants to exchange information on alleged Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign for asylum.
Source: https://nypost.com/2018/02/28/model-jailed-for-sex-work-says-she-has-dirt-on-trumps-ties-to-russia/
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