RICKY TICKY is TOAST

Rick Gates, 2016 Trump Deputy Campaign Manager, and cohort to one Paulie Manafort, appears to be ready to plead QUILTY to conspiracy and lying to the FBI, according to court papers filed today by special counsel Bobby Mueller, reports the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

The guilty plea, which is scheduled for 2 pm, ET, today, caps a busy week for Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and related issues.

It also ends a tumultuous period for Gates, who found himself re-indicted, changing lawyers and agreeing to plead guilty all within 24 hours.

If this plea does take place, it may signal Gates could be providing the special counsel with valuable information about the inner workings of Trump’s operation: He served as a senior figure in the campaign and had access to the White House as an outside adviser in the early months of the administration.

The hubris from these clowns is just jaw-dropping. Laundering or hiding millions and millions to support their lavish lifestyles with every expectation they’d get away with it.

Bobby Mueller, hopefully, is getting exactly what he wants, and needs, from these cretins of foul-odor.

If NOT, a 6′ x 9′ cell, just one blanket, with a cell mate named Bogdan…at Club Fed.

MORE SANCTIONS…

Our 45th president announced the “heaviest” ever set of US sanctions against North Korea this morning as the administration redoubles its effort to starve Pyongyang of resources and force the isolated regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The new measures target 56 vessels, shipping companies and other entities that  administration officials believe are used by North Korea to conduct trade prohibited under previous sanctions.

Trump made the announcement in the final moments of a more than hour-long address at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington.

Senior US officials described elaborate steps that North Korea has taken to conceal its illicit shipping activities, including conducting prohibited ship-to-ship transfers, falsifying ship names and disabling vessels’ automatic identification systems “to try to intentional mask their movements.”

Speaking of ‘sanctions’ – What happened with the Russian sanctions that the Trump administration is refusing !!! to implement?

 

GRAY RHINOS

In the West, we worry about so-called “black swans,” rare and unexpected events that can upset financial markets.

China, however, is more concerned about “gray rhinos” – large and visible problems in the economy that are ignored until they start moving fast.

The rhinos are a herd of Chinese tycoons who have used a combination of political connections and raw ambition to create sprawling global conglomerates.

Companies like Anbang Insurance Group have feasted on cheap debt provided by state banks, spending lavishly to build their empires.

Well, guess what, the Chinese government said today that it had seized control of Anbang Insurance Group, the troubled Chinese company that owns the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and other marquee properties around the world, and it had charged the company’s former chairman with economic crimes.

The move is Beijing’s biggest effort yet to rein in a new kind of globally ambitious Chinese company. Anbang and others have spent billions of dollars around the world buying up hotels and other high-profile properties.

The deals illustrates China’s growing economic might while feeding into concerns that rising debt levels could slow growth in the world’s second-largest economy, behind the United States.

These deals have also raised questions over who controls many of these companies and whether they have ties to China’s top leaders. Anbang in particular came under scrutiny in the United States and elsewhere for its opaque ownership structure and for the political ties of its former chairman, Wu Xiaohui.

Wu has also tried to extend his political ties into the United States. In November 2016, he met with Jared Kushner, the unsecured-clearance/top adviser of the then president-elect at the time, in a bid to buy a stake in a Manhattan office building owned by Kushner’s family company.

The deal was eventually abandoned after media coverage.

The takeover of Anbang will put the Waldorf Astoria, for decades a symbol of New York elegance, under the control of the Chinese government!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would someone get me Charlie Chan on the phone…please.

Let me close with a simple question: What would have happened if Kushner and Anbang would have reached a deal, then the Chinese government would own part of Kushner’s properties, while the non-security cleared Kushner is serving in Trump’s administration.

As the great Chan was fond of saying, “It is difficult to pick up needle with boxing glove.”

ALOPECIA REDUCTION

I had NO idea what the above procedure was, until I read selected portions of Michael Wolff‘s book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

Alopecia Reduction, aka scalp reduction, is a procedure where a surgeon removes one’s bald spot(s), and then sews the more shaggy skin back together.

Ah, what price vanity?

What we have as a result is the 45th president’s bizarre hairdo – The Weave.

Scalp-reduction surgery, time-consuming styling [held in place with tons of strong hairspray!] and ounces and ounces of cheap hair dye, according to daughter Ivanka [who delights in relating her daddy’s procedure and daily practice to friends as reported in Wolff’s carousel of antidotes – a must read for any one who has a couple of hours to spare bent over in raucous laughter].

Just For Men…only the very cheapest for our Commander-in-Chief.

What a complete pansy-waste!

THE PAULIE and RICKY SHOW

Special counsel Bobby Mueller’s office has obtained new tax and bank fraud charges against former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, according to an indictment handed down today.

The indictment was returned by a grand jury in Virginia, adding to a separate case previously filed against the pair in Washington, DC.

They have pleaded NOT guilty in that case.

The new indictment charges Manafort of failing to pay taxes on income, with Gates’ help.

It also accused BOTH Manafort and Gates of fraudulently securing more than $20 million in loans by “falsely inflating” Manafort’s income.

Let’s hope there’s a taste of vodka or someone speaking with a Russian accent involved in this latest indictment…

Multiple threads to a massive tapestry!

Shady $$$ and nasty politics!

IT NEVER TAKES HIM LONG…

Clockwork Orange is alive, and malfunctioning…as usual.

The 45th president doubled down on his idea of arming some teachers as a deterrent for school shootings, and praised the top leadership of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as “Great American Patriots.”

In earlier tweets, The Weave claimed the strategy of arming teachers [NEVER taking into account the specific selection/training of these individuals] would be far less costly than hiring guards and that “ATTACKS WOULD END!”

The strategy of arming teachers has many ! critics, including some law enforcement officers and the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers lobby. In a statement yesterday, NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia said, “Educators need to be focused on teaching our students.”

In his tweets, Trump claimed his strategy had been mischaracterized ?! by some news outlets and is more nuanced [Trump and ‘nuanced’ in the same sentence, what the fudge?!!?] than reported.

He said he envisioned only about 20 percent of teachers having concealed weapons and said they would have “military or special training experience” – just think about that process for a moment, aunts and uncles.

Can’t you just imagine Sister Mary Rambo defending her 6th grade class with her Glock!

“If a potential ‘sicko shooter’ knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school,” Trump said. “Cowards won’t go there … problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!”

Tough talk from our Commander-in-Chief…

I’d love to witness Carrot Top going through Marine Corps boot camp…

It’s ALWAYS interesting to watch and listen to the rough talk by many of our elected officials, especially one Donald John Trump, when it comes to the GUN.

I don’t recall being with any of these “loud-mouths” in Vietnam in ’67-’68.

Some were working on their 5th deferment for BONE SPURS!

YELLOW DOG TAVERN CLOSED

Winnipeg, Canada.

A day of deep mourning.

The regulars – also my friends – at The Yellow Dog Tavern are distraught!

One of the few bright spots in the 2018 Winter Olympics for the USA was today’s upset victory by our Women’s hockey team, over Canada – NO less – for the Gold Medal…3-2 in a shootout…

 

It NOT only gave the team its first gold in the sport since 1998. It also crowned a 24-hour, badly needed American run of eight medals at these Winter Olympics.

Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored on a sixth-round shootout attempt and US goalie Maddie Rooney stopped Canada’s final shot to spark pandemonium on the ice and living-room celebrations in the US, where the game ended well past midnight in most time zones.

Come to think of it…probably best to keep ALL pubs closed for awhile across that large land mass to our north.

 

 

FIX IT!

Hey, I’ve got an idea…

Let’s arm teachers, give students bulletproof vests and make schools look like prisons.

Let’s do everything possible to avoid the obvious solution, a solution that most other countries on earth have advocated: restrict !!! the sale and distribution of firearms.

Why has this great country failed to see the obvious?

One by one at the White House yesterday afternoon, survivors of school shootings and family members of victims shared their stories and their calls to action. The extraordinary public exchange with the current president gave voice to an intensely emotional debate over how to respond to the latest gun massacre in an American school.

A week after a gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle [purchased by the accused shooter when he was 18-years old!!!!!!!] at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people ! and prompting a rash of student-driven lobbying for new gun restrictions.

Trump met for more than an hour with grieving people in search of solutions. News cameras captured the unusual listening session, revealing an emotional give-and-take between the president and private citizens.

Whether Trump is really going to follow through and do something concrete about this malignancy that’s tearing our country apart is another question, and the real “end game” to this continuous horror.

Where is the decency, morality, and the social consciences of good men?

NO responsible gun owner, that I’ve known or presently know, believes that the 2nd Amendment creates a “right” for an 18-year old to carry an AR-15!

Z-E-R-O…

To me, it seems as if we can NOT and will NOT rid ourselves of an awful addiction to guns, to rationalizing and making excuses for them, idolizing and treasuring them, sanctifying and nurturing their culture.

Arming teachers will kill education!

America is already 17th in the world when it comes to quality education; putting Dirty Harry in front of each class won’t raise those ratings, or save as many lives as the cowards at the National Rifle Association (NRA) would have you believe.

Time to start shinning a much hotter set of lights on the gun lobby, and their soulless elected/sponsored frauds walking, and talking, along the corridors of power, at the local, state and federal levels of our government.

Courage needs to surface against the likes of the NRA, and the willfulness of armament manufacturers.

There is a complete lack of common sense when it comes to the GUN! in this country.

Spend an hour with someone who has served honorably in the military, or the hunter who lives next to you.

A MUCKY SITUATION?

The general v. boy wonder.

Kelly taking on Kushner.

It’s about time!

Tensions are rising between White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to the White House pool reporters, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

Kelly is trying to rein in access to highly classified information for anyone with temporary security clearances. And, that means Kushner, who despite his lack of a permanent clearance has a broad portfolio and has enjoyed access to the very sensitive President’s Daily Briefing (PDB)…which I’ve NEVER been able to wrap my mind around.

ALL kinds of hell should be raised on this faux pas of security!

Kushner, frustrated about the security clearance issue and concerned that Kelly has targeted him personally with his new directive, has told colleagues at the White House that he is reluctant to give up his high-level access [how would that decision be his to make?].

As is being reported in the Post and Times, Kushner has insisted ?!?! that he maintain his current level of access, including the ability to review the daily intelligence briefing when he sees fit [excuse me while I vomit].

Kelly, who has been privately dismissive of Kushner since taking the post of chief of staff but has rarely taken him on directly, has made NO guarantees, saying only that the president’s son-in-law will still have all the access [what does that mean from a national security standpoint?] he needs to do his job [let’s define JK’s specific duties/responsibilities] under the new system.

In other words, it’s a power struggle with personal suspicions!

Why, in the name of Thomas Aquinas, has it taken so-o-o long for Kushner to receive the appropriate background clearance?

My thought/suggestion as regards Jared, assign him to Gitmo…

SPELL CHECK…

PABLUM is defined by OED as “simplistic thoughts and ideas.”

It very well could, and does, apply to the continuous follies of the 45th president.

Donald John Trump lashed out – again – at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the president’s supporters should pressure Sessions to focus the investigation into Russian election meddling on Obama’s administration.

Taking to Twitter, Trump said that the meddling occurred while Obama was in office and asked why his predecessor didn’t intervene.

Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren’t they the subject of the investigation? Why didn’t Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren’t Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Session! [someone needs to review the names and faces of his cabinet with him…soon]

“Ask Jeff Session!” he concluded, misspelling the last name !!! of his attorney general [Trump later sent a new version of the tweet with the correct spelling].

This morning’s tweet was the latest in Trump’s often angry running commentary on the investigation in the five days since special counsel Mueller announced a sweeping indictment of what prosecutors say is a notorious Russian group of Internet trolls.

As he has in other tweets, Trump tried to deflect attention ! from questions about whether his campaign colluded with Russia – an allegation he has vigorously denied.

The Obama administration did take some actions toward Russia before the election but its most significant retaliatory measure came after Trump’s victory. Obama ordered 35 Russian diplomats and suspected intelligence agents to leave the United States, and he also imposed sanctions on some Russian individuals and organizations.

This past August, Trump signed a sanctions bill that passed with large bipartisan majorities but said it was “seriously flawed” at the time [NEVER clearly defining what he meant!].

Since then, his administration has drawn criticism for failing to implement the sanctions.