PROTECTIONISM?

History tells us it doesn’t work out well.

At the stroke of midnight, a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which supply nearly half ! of America’s imported metal, will go into effect.

We are fighting with our allies….

Tariffs declare war before diplomacy as truly started!

The tariffs are meant to make good on Trump’s long-standing promises to protect ?American industry.

But, they have prompted a fierce response from allies, who have already readied lists ! of American products they plan to tax in return, as well as American businesses that use steel and aluminum, which are seeing their costs rise as a result of the measure.

Please, keep your eye out for banana peels…

Be prepared to pay more – immediately – for everything built out of steel or aluminum…cars; boats; homes; TVs; washers/dryers; computers; drones [had to throw it in – wanted to be sure you’re still paying attention]; etc., etc., etc.

Short term profit v Long term Stability. Unify v Divide. Nationalism v The World.

Chop it ALL down, right, Donnie Boy?

Who will be assigned to explain ALL of this bodily fluid to The Deplorables?

Retaliatory tariffs? Count on them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trump seems determined ! to make the US friendless…

In the last half hour, the market is down 246 points.

Has anyone seen “Sleepy” Ross?

50 plus YEARS of GREATNESS

Unless you love music, I mean really love music, you’ve probably NEVER heard of Keith Jarrett.

Since my undergraduate days, and especially during my weekend treks into Boston [actually Cambridge] until today, Jarrett remains the finest Jazz Fusion pianist EVER.

Get acquainted with this genius…

 

You’re welcome.

 

THE PLOT THICKENS

Andy McCabe has resurfaced, according to the New York Times and Washington Post.

It seems like then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe drafted a memo about an event he thought to be problematic in the days after the 45th president fired “Big Jim”Comey as FBI director, last year.

The aforementioned memo says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told McCabe that Trump had asked Rosenstein to mention Russia !!! in his memo laying out the case for firing Comey.

Uh oh…

It’s clear why this is significant for special counsel Bobby Mueller‘s obstruction of justice probe: It would be a written record of a contemporaneous account that contradicted the official, stated reasons for Comey’s firing – that they had to do with job performance and the Hillary Clinton investigation [WHO amongst us believed that crap?].

Trump would later say he had the Russia investigation on his mind when he fired Comey, and this would solidify the evidence that the initial reasons were misleading, at best, and that he, Trump, was trying to impede the investigation.

Complicates matters for Rosenstein, doesn’t it?

To begin with, why did he, Rosenstein, NOT recused himself from overseeing Mueller’s investigation, given that he was/is somewhat wrapped up in the obstruction of justice case through his authorship of that Comey memo?

For the life of me, I don’t know why more hasn’t been made of this point months ago!

It’s clear to me that Rosenstein had actually been instructed !!! by Trump in the writing of the Comey memo.

If Trump told Rosenstein to include Russia in the memo [which, of course, he did, in my opinion] and Rosenstein opted NOT to, that arguably makes him even more of what is legally known as a “fact witness” in the case.

Trump’s frustration(s) have multiple unintended consequences…

But, if we’re being honest with ourselves, Rosenstein has a huge problem.

He is a witness to the obstruction case he is supervising as Acting Attorney General.

And it’s worse than that. He may ? have participated in covering up the corrupt intent.

What does this ALL mean? Unclear…

 

SETTING a NEW STANDARD

Most of a certain age will NEVER forget Richard Milhous Nixon.

The revelation of his “enemies list.”

So on the edge all the time…

How could we have elected a person who was so paranoid?

Well, Donald John Trump has set a new ‘gold’ standard for paranoia.

He paints himself as some kind of “victim” in ALL things.

The glow of the spotlight, and, heaven knows, our Victim-in-Chief adores the spotlight.

Jumping into the public outcry over remarks by the comedian Roseanne Barr, the current president did NOT condemn the Twitter post about a black former aide to  Obama that led to the swift cancellation of Barr’s ABC sitcom.

Instead, Trump expressed his own grievances on Wednesday and yesterday with what the network’s on-air personalities have said about him, and insisted he was the one who deserved an apology.

Does any rational person really care that Trump feels offended for a false equivalency?

A BUSINESS DECISION…

Roseanne Barr was/is obnoxious, but ultimately inconsequential.

NOT just yesterday, but for the last 25 plus years.

About the surrounding hypocrisy of the situation, ABC knew exactly what they were getting with her show, and previous behavior.

On Twitter yesterday, Barr wrote a bigoted, racist message referring to former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, which I have NO intention of posting on my blog.

It was the kind of thing Barr has been doing online for years. This time, however, the backlash was immediate and vigorous.

Barr apologized for her “joke” and blamed it on Ambien.

Within a matter of hours, ABC canceled ! the new “Roseanne” and the original show’s reruns were pulled ! from TV Land, CMT and the Paramount Network.

However, the real story is that ABC/Disney successfully tapped the African American market ($1.3B revenue for Black Panther, and spin offs coming fast) and they don’t want to lose it.

Pure and simple: A BUSINESS DECISION.

The last thing ABC/Disney wanted was to face a politically / racially motivated boycott that would have had impact ALL year long and might have impacted their just found African American fan base.

They cut off the problem at the knees, shutting down ! any potential ramifications that might have impacted reputation or revenue.

Make NO mistake, this wasn’t about doing the right thing, this was about money!

Barr is merely a symptom of something fundamentally wrong in our society.

The major problem is that Donald John Trump is a toxic president who amassed his power through the provocation of hate.

Trump often seems like a living embodiment of Barr’s Twitter feed, and many of his most vocal “Deplorables” revel in that. They revel !!! in the freedom and the permission to be racist.

 

SHAMPOO is BETTER than HAIR GEL

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is a piece of work.

Just listen and watch his dance around the campfire as it concerns Spygate and the 45th president this morning on CBS…

 

Trey, leave now, please don’t wait ’til January. You’re a coward, and boring.

…EARLY in the MORNING

Remember the great Charlie Wilson?

How about The Gap Band?

I thought NOT…

’80s Funk!

TOLERANCE of DEATH and DESTRUCTION

Remember Puerto Rico?

How about Hurricane Maria?

Maria was a Category 5 hurricane when it ‘hit land’ on September 18th of last year.

Eight and a half months ago!!!

It literally destroyed ! Puerto Rico.

The official government death toll, we’ve been told, stands at 64.

Like just about everything that come out or is released from the canaries at the White House that above figure is fictitious.

At least 4,645 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria and its devastation across Puerto Rico last year, according to a new Harvard study released earlier today.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts across the US territory, which was thrown into chaos after the September hurricane wiped out ! the electrical grid and had widespread impacts on infrastructure.

Some communities were entirely cut off for weeks amid road closures and communications failures.

Researchers in the United States and Puerto Rico, led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, calculated the number of deaths by surveying nearly 3,300 randomly chosen households across the island and comparing the estimated post-hurricane death rate to the mortality rate for the year before.

Their surveys indicated that the mortality rate was 14.3 deaths per 1,000 residents from Sept. 20 through Dec. 31, 2017, a 62 percent increase in the mortality rate compared to 2016, or 4,645 “excess deaths.”

How many times has our current president been back to visit the island since last Fall?

Z-E-R-O times, aunts and uncles.

Complete failure and indifference at the highest levels of the government.

Do you think little Sean Hannity has Puerto Rico on his nightly agenda to discuss with The Weave?

 

DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL

Preferential treatment?

Of course.

Conflicts of interest?

On-going!!!

The Chinese government awarded !!! Ivanka Trump‘s fashion brand seven new trademarks, according to online records, and currently being reported by CNBC, MSNBC and NBC, just as Daddy Trump pledged to revive ! Chinese telecom giant ZTE.

The trademarks were for items such as baby blankets, bamboo crafts and coffins [how ironic].

Chinese trademarks issued to Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand in May are raising questions over whether the first daughter is receiving special treatment from a foreign government, or is simply the victim of bad timing.

Stop the BS; we need another Special Counsel just to look into the continuous business dealings – in the open, by the way – by Baby Doll and her hubby, Ichabod Kushner.

Their odor is rancid!

MISSING

The official number, as of my post, this morning, is being reported by the media as 1,475.

I don’t believe it.

It’s considerably higher, just based on the chaos surrounding the administration and the attitude toward any specific policy as regards it.

In addition, there’s the lack of courage and conviction by our elected lawmakers in Congress.

What am talking about?

Immigration and “missing” children separated !!! from their families.

The Trump administration has begun separating children from their parents at the United States-Mexico border.

A federal official acknowledged during recent Senate testimony that the government NO longer knew where 1,475 undocumented immigrant children were located.

These children were among more than 7,600 who had recently come to the border unaccompanied. Most were living with an adult sponsor, who had agreed to take them in, but 1,475 couldn’t be accounted for.

Without question, many may have gone off the grid deliberately to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities. Tracking them down could end up endangering more children and immediate families.

It’s also possible that some of the missing children are indeed at grave risk – having been trafficked, by numerous such enterprises.

This is massive matter throughout the Prairie, where labor is in such high demand, at any age.

As for the parent-child separations: It’s a result of a new policy announced this month by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general. Under the policy, the federal government will attempt to prosecute everybody found to be crossing the Southwest border illegally, even if they are seeking asylum.

The consequence is that children will be separated from their parents as the adults are charged with a crime, even if they are seeking asylum, and present themselves at official ports of entry.

Does any one in this contemptuous administration give a fig about these compassionate issues any more?

I’ve totally given up on Congress!

It’s an under-reported crisis!