MEXICO WILL PAY…

Toddlers don’t make good presidents!

Our current president threatened earlier this morning to shut down the federal government this fall if Congress does NOT pass sweeping changes to immigration laws, including appropriating !!! more public money to build his long-promised border wall.

“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” Trump tweeted. “Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!”

Take out the trash, America. Vote!

Trump’s shutdown warning, which he has made before, escalates the stakes ahead of a September 30th government funding deadline, raising the possibility of a political showdown before the November 6th midterm elections that Republican congressional leaders had hoped to avoid.

A funding fight also could prove a distraction from Republican efforts in the Senate to confirm ? Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by October 1st.

Break glass and resort to False Equivalency!

Trump has sought to make immigration a core campaign theme heading into the midterms. He has defended his administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, arguing that some parents who have been separated from their children under this policy are criminals [show us some specific details, Donnie!].

Where’s Kirstjen and Alex?

It is unclear whether simply threatening to shut down the government will push Democrats to agree to fund construction of the wall, particularly because Trump has backed down at the last minute during previous standoffs.

Just another brick in the proposed wall…

Whose got a set of big onions, aunts and uncles?

Oh, you know it’s the time of year, when witches and ghosts appear…

 

FURTHER GOOD NEWS

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that relations between the two countries may be warming to the point that he could forsee US forces returning there to find more American remains, hours after a US Air Force C-17 returned from North Korea with the first US war remains to come HOME in years, this past Friday.

The return of the remains was seen as an important step in actions BOTH sides have taken to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula. The US has suspended its military exercises with South Korea as part of the US terms of the agreement.

“It was a coordination effort over the last month to determine where they would deliver the remains to, where our plane would fly in, where they would be taken to for the initial review,” Mattis said.

Mattis said based on this round of interactions, it “is certainly under consideration” that US military teams may return ! to North Korea to scout additional remains recovery sites.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the last time US teams were on the ground in North Korea was in 2005.

TUESDAY COUNTDOWN is ON

Remember “Paulie” Manafort?

With ALL that’s been in the news lately, it would be understandable if the name Manafort had slipped your memory [joking; let me put this way, you’d have had to have been stranded on Treasure Island with Ben Gunn].

The first trial from special counsel Bobby Mueller’s investigation is set to begin Tuesday in Alexandria, Va., in what will serve as a major test !!! of Mueller’s 14-month effort that has overshadowed the Trump presidency.

But, Paulie hasn’t squealed yet! A whispered pardon, maybe?

Personally, I hope the SOB hangs…

The Russian interference in the 2016 election has resulted, thus far, in charges against 25 Russians and four former advisers to Donald John Trump.

With that being said, the case against Paulie Manafort,  Trump’s former campaign chief, will delve into Manafort’s personal finances largely before his work on the campaign.

A conviction would provide Mueller momentum as he pushes to complete the investigation amid criticism from some Republicans [specifically from “Waterboy” Nunes] that he is leading a partisan inquiry.

An acquittal would give Mueller’s critics ammunition to push for a quick end to the special counsel’s investigative operation.

Manafort has pleaded NOT guilty and denies ALL of the charges, which include tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to file reports on foreign bank accounts.

From my vantage point, Manafort also faces a second, related criminal trial [probably in September] in Washington, DC, after this one, and could face intense pressure ! to cooperate with Mueller, depending on the outcome of the first trial.

NONE of the charges, to date, have anything to do with the 45th president.

The 32-count indictment charges Manafort with disguising more than $30 million in overseas income by moving it through offshore accounts, lying to banks and evading taxes.

Keep in mind, this first trial, in Virginia, faces an uphill battle, notably with the judge.

The judge in this Virginia case, TS Ellis III, suggested in court, earlier, that the prosecutors were simply pursuing the case as a way of pressuring Manafort to provide evidence that could implicate Trump.

Be sure there’s plenty of buttered popcorn and Diet Coke available, at any given moment.

Is this a great country, or what?

WELCOME HOME…at long last

Exactly 65 years after the signing of an armistice that ended hostilities in the conflict, a US military plane flew some of the remains to Osan Air Base in South Korea, after collecting them from North Korean officials in the port city of Wonsan.

North Korea, earlier today, local time, handed over remains of some US warriors who died during the 1950-53 Korean War, giving new momentum, hopefully, to a diplomatic détente that had shown signs of stalling in recent weeks.

“We are encouraged by North Korea’s actions and the momentum for positive change,” the White House said in a statement. “Today’s actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations in North Korea to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who have not yet returned home.”

Trump welcomed the news in a tweet. “After so many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. Thank you to Kim Jong Un, ” he said.

55 wooden boxes containing the combatants’ remains, draped in sky-blue United Nations flags, were unloaded from a C-17 aircraft after it touched down in South Korea.

The next step will be for the US to conduct DNA tests to match the remains with the identities of US military personnel killed in the conflict.

Keep in mind, in 2011, North Korea returned the remains of a dead animal to the U.K. during a similar diplomatic détente.

The process of repatriating the US warriors’ remains from North Korea has taken longer than many had expected, and questions remain over how many Pyongyang still holds.

Prayers that peace comes to the families…

 

YOUR T-shirt SMELLS, MARKY

An article of investor faith collapsing?

FACEBOOK.

Shattered?

Investors responded yesterday by hammering the stock of Facebook, one of the world’s most valuable companies. Shares of the social media giant fell 19 percent, wiping out roughly $120 billion of shareholder wealth, among the largest one-day destruction of market value that a company has ever suffered.

Facebook has NEVER been anything but smoke and mirrors – an empty vessel that suckers people into freely giving it information that it does NOT own, that it then turns around and sells for a profit – with NO value [except a friends’ list and a whole bunch of narcissistic selfies].

It has made us a nation of suckers, and has commoditized our humanity to a degree NO other industry has ever done, to the best of my memory.

It didn’t make us happier and better-connected; it made us resentful and anxious.

Be honest!

It created a perfect pipeline for disseminated lies and divisive propaganda.

It gave us Trump…

Frankenbook!
 

TRUE VALUE of an iPod

Number three son has been ALL over me about NOT having seen it.

It being “Baby Driver.”

Well, aunts and uncles, I finally got around to watching it last night, almost a year late to the party.

Fabulous!!!

Writer/director Edgar Wright sets the viewer’s heart racing from the first few seconds of the movie with a superlative car-chase that skillfully – in fact, astonishingly – blends speed with music.

Baby (great performance by Ansel Elgort) is an Atlanta driver who works for Doc, a crime boss (Kevin Spacey). Baby understands what’s going on in every caper, but his job is to drive. And to do that perfectly, he plugs into his iPod and listens to his music.

The film has an incredible soundtrack, tunes going back to the ’60s. In fact, it becomes a character to the story.

Baby hasn’t had an easy life. He now takes care of the man who was his foster father (CJ Jones, in a role that was meant for him, and only him – he’s great), who does NOT approve of his “dirt money.”

But, Baby plans to do one more job, then go straight.

Maybe…

He makes the acquaintance of the sweet waitress Debora (Lily James, from Downton Abbey and Cinderella fame; it’s ok, it works).

In the meantime, Doc has a new job for Baby, who is to drive a group of robbers on a supposedly concluding heist. The crew includes Griff (Jon Bernthal) Buddy (Jon Hamm), Darling (Eliza Gonzalez), and Bats (Jamie Foxx, a part NO one else could play).

The true genius of the movie is the action sequences, and there are many of these, are perfectly geared to the songs Baby hears, whether they are chases or shoot-outs.

Best segments of the film for me…

It’s simply an entertaining two hours…

 

“I spoke to Allen about it…”

Bring me the head of the accountant…

Get familiar with the name of Allen Weisselberg, we may well begin to heard it endlessly before the 45th president is impeached [a hope and wish by the old lobsterman; reality may NOT come to pass, however].

It was the “Fixer” – Michael Cohen – who, in the last 56 hours, has shone the strobe lights on this multi-tasking CFO for Donald John Trump.

Weisselberg surfaced prominently this week when Cohen, through his lawyer, released a recording of a September 2016 conversation that he had with Trump about buying the rights to a former Playboy model’s story.

The former model, Karen McDougal, alleges an affair with The Weave and had sold the rights to her story for $150,000 that summer to The National Enquirer.

The newspaper, whose parent company’s chief executive is a friend of Trump’s, sat on the story, a practice known in the tabloid industry as “catch and kill.”

Our current president has denied an affair.

Cohen told Trump he needed to form a company to buy those rights from the magazine. On the aforementioned tape, Cohen repeatedly referred to Weisselberg.

“I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” Cohen told Trump. Later, he added, “I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time to the financing.”

Uh, oh…

Now even more people won’t be sleeping very well.

Why?

Well, because the plot thickens, if a Wall Street Journal story is true.

It alleges Weisselberg has been subpoenaed.

Weisselberg has been deeply involved in Trump’s business and finances, going as far back as having been an ‘accountant’ for Trump’s father, Fred, in the ’70s.

…the head of the accountant, now.

Over the years, Weisselberg’s professional duties also came to include handling Trump’s personal finances as well as the Trump Organization’s corporate finances. He has paid household bills, made large purchases for Trump, and has communicated with Trump’s outside investment advisers.

After Trump became president his lawyers created a trust that safeguards his interest in the Trump Organization while ostensibly managing the company without his input [I don’t think so!!!].

The trust is run by Weisselberg and the president’s two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.

In other words, Weisselberg has served as something of a jack-of-all-trades for Trump.

We’re getting closer and closer to a Royal Flush!

 

 

THE STAIN!!!

This is a stain on America that will take a long time to wash away.

Our “Zero-Tolerance Policy” at our borders.

Before the Trump Administration ended its policy of forcibly separating immigrant parents from their children at the border, late last month, more than twenty-five hundred children wound up in federal custody.

In June, a federal judge in San Diego, Dana Sabraw, gave the government until yesterday at 6 pm, ET, to reunite the families it had split up.

As expected, it did NOT happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Trump administration NEVER had any plans to reunite these children with their parents. Many of them were seized from people legally asking for asylum.

And most of the kids were shipped off to orphanages, with little to NO data-base mechanism in place controlling who, from what family, went where…

Apparently, what we’re being told [the government’s comments/responses changes hourly] they are still holding 431 children whose parents were deported.

Understand this, deporting parents without their children is barbaric.

Claiming that the 431 children are therefore ineligible !!! to be reunited is sick.

That our government is treating people in this cavalier manner and then attempting to deceive the public about their culpability is despicable.

It is equally despicable, this morning, that reports of more than 900 children have been forcibly taken, and may NEVER be reunited, due the ‘snatch and grab’ procedure(s) at our borders.

What does Alex Azar and Kirsten Nielsen think should happen to these children?!!?

How about the hundreds of children who have been without their parents for weeks, or even months, who remain in federal custody, because the government has determined that their parents are “ineligible” for reunification.

Traumatic care and counseling?

The feeling of insecurity in these children is likely to last a lifetime…

Simply hateful, cruel and disgusting!

 

ORCA out of his DEPTH

Our Secretary of State, Mike “Orca” Pompeo, was in turbulent waters yesterday.

Pompeo faced an impatient and critical panel of senators at a hearing, drawing criticism for the Trump administration’s handling of talks with Russia and North Korea, and for other top foreign-policy initiatives.

Senators summoned Pompeo to testify after Trump met with Comrade Putin in Helsinki last week.

I watched much of this “made for TV” exhibition…boring, embarrassing and scary.

The usual suspects made the usual fools of themselves, including “Orca” himself with their pandering to the camera.

NOTHING plays well to the cameras…when in DC.

It’s hard to believe that so many of the blowhards on display yesterday reached the level of US Senator, let alone Secretary of State.

NEVER has the need for term limits been more apparent, as well as proper vetting for cabinet-level positions!

The White House has provided few details [LET’S BE HONEST…none!] of the Helsinki meeting, information that typically would be shared rapidly with administration officials and key figures on Capitol Hill.

It was obvious, during the time I watched, that “Orca” didn’t know poop from pesto, aunts and uncles.

Plus, he displayed, between countless gulps of Diet Coke, his temper was on a very, very short fuse, which is nothing new to several of us on the Prairie.

Pompeo declined to elaborate or to say, with any clarity, what/where/how concerns pertaining to the Syrian Civil War; refugees in general; Russia; North Korean negotiations; NATO; Crimea, etc. etc., were/would be handled and/or addressed in the future by him, the 45th president and the administration moving forward.

Sometimes the Orca whale finds the pressure at certain levels too much.

 

A POLARIZING NATIONAL DEBATE

Knee or stand during our National Anthem?

The issue still hangs over the National Football League (NFL), and their $40 million commissioner [talk about the need for a Congressional hearing].

The 2018 preseason is scheduled to begin August 2nd. The regular season is to start September 6th.

The latest consternation over the anthem policy plays out as every NFL team reports to training camp this week.

The clock is ticking for the owners and those league leaders who have expressed a strong desire to put the focus of fans back on the NFL’s on-field product, contending that being in the middle of such a contentious issue is NO way to run a multi-billion dollar business.

NFL’s previous policy required players to be on the sideline for the anthem. It suggested but did NOT require that they stand.

That allowed for the players’ protest movement begun in 2016.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, then with the San Francisco 49ers [still NOT employed, since his released] refused to stand ! for the anthem in protest of racial inequality and police treatment of African Americans.

The new policy approved in May [without any involvement/conversation with the players’ union] amounted to an attempt by the league and the owners to make everyone happy, or at least happy enough.

Players would be expected to stand for the anthem if they were on the sideline but were given the option of remaining in the locker room instead.

The league would fine a team for any protest by one of its players but the decision about whether to discipline a player for a protest was left to the team involved.

The policy made few happy…

Here’s my latest thoughts: Tell the owners that NO beer or food will be sold or eaten during the national anthem, that ALL employees will stop serving or preparing food, that NO merchandise will be sold, and all gate personnel will stop allowing ticket holders to enter and fans MUST stand while the National Anthem is being played or every son of a bitch will be fired or asked to leave.

AND, any season ticket holder who falls into any of these categories will have the ticket price refunded  along with any expense incurred getting back home.

See then how patriotic these pompous owners are if they have to refund money!!!