Summations Only

When the goal is to keep government from working, and make no mistake, that is the goal of US Conservatives, this Administration and Congress has been remarkably effective.Trump has nominated and Congress accepted a long list of totally incompetent heads of agencies and US Federal Court Judges and also succeeded in making sure no bills that will hurt Trumps wealth get passed.Quid Pro Quo ... ?

Anarchists.

If you call the White House comments line at 202.456.1111 you are greeted with this recorded message:

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"Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding including funding for our troops and other national security priorities hostage to an unrelated immigration debate.

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"Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down."

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--PercyEdited by Percy, : Grammar.

Yup. More success.

That's Roy Cohn on the left, McCarthy's lapdog, and Stephen Miller on the right, Trump's brutally conservative front-man on immigration.--Percy

or

What would be the coincidence? Do these guys look anything alike? I see two men in ties. They both have eyes... Edited by NoNukes, : spelling of they

It's the "dead behind the eyes" look that Miller has which creeps me out. You get the feeling that his expression wouldn't change if he was having sex, committing genocide, or on megadoses of Haldol.

Found this sentence concluding the editorial Is President Trump a Stealth Postmodernist or Just a Liar? in today's New York Times, seemed to sum Trump up pretty well:

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Instead of granting him the title of postmodernist, let’s say instead that Trump is a nihilist who seeks to trample, to trash, to blight, to break and to burn.

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If you're inclined toward reading the full editorial be forewarned that it is long and delves deeply into modernist and postmodernist thought.--Percy

This is taken from The Daily 202: Trump surprises his lawyers and alarms his friends by saying he will talk with Mueller in today's Washington Post, but the same information can be found in many places. The general idea is threefold: a) Trump has stated intentions that his lawyers have had to walk back; b) Trump's lawyers and friends all know that he is a walking lie-machine/blabbermouth who should under no circumstances ever be interviewed or examined by the Mueller team; c) Trump's lawyers and Republican friends, both in Congress and elsewhere, are working hard to characterize the Mueller investigation as a "perjury trap."One thing that stands out is that for someone who has supposedly done nothing wrong, Trump and his supporters are working very hard at acting like he's guilty as sin.All the links in this quote should work.

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President Trump announced last night that he is looking forward to speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller's team, that he absolutely would do so under oath and that an interview could happen in the next two or three weeks. I would love to do it, and I would like to do it as soon as possible, the president said.
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Josh Dawsey, David Nakamura and Devlin Barrett report: "The president’s lawyers have repeatedly encouraged him not to post tweets or make comments about the investigation without their knowledge, saying such comments could damage him."
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The president’s lawyers quickly sought to clarify his statements. From the front page of today's New York Times: Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer leading the response to the investigation, said Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly and intended only to say that he was willing to meet. ‘He’s ready to meet with them, but he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,’ Mr. Cobb said. He said the arrangements were being worked out between Mr. Mueller’s team and the president’s personal lawyers.

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Cobb [a Trump lawyer] expressed concern last week that Trump might be walking into a perjury trap by talking to Mueller: I would hope that a fair-minded Office of Special Counsel would approach it in a dutiful way consistent with precedent and it wouldn't just be a perjury trap, the White House lawyer told CBS News.
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People who have appeared before Mueller’s team say prosecutors have detailed accounts of events, sometimes to the minute, and have surprised witnesses by showing them emails or documents they were unaware that the team had or that their colleagues had written, per Josh, David and Devlin.
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The lawyer-to-lawyer discussions about Trump's possible testimony are informal and Mueller is not obligated to accept the terms presented by the President's team, CNN notes. If negotiations break down, Mueller could seek a subpoena to compel wide-ranging testimony from the President before a grand jury.
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Former Trump adviser and longtime confidant Roger Stone said last night that going through with plans to talk to Mueller would be a suicide mission. On Laura Ingraham’s prime time show, Stone said that a first year law student would advise the president that Mueller is setting an obvious perjury trap.
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Andrew Napolitano, a former judge and Fox News legal analyst, also said emphatically that Trump should never agree to any interview. He explained that it’s a bad idea because the president can never know what Mueller's team knows and what evidence they already have ahead of time.

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Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade made the same point during his show yesterday: It seems to me not in the president's interest to sit down and try to recall every single interaction, if somebody is there trying to maybe catch you in a perjury trap.
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No lawyer worth his or her salt would let a client like Trump go in for an interview, Cristian Farias writes in New York Magazine. A person with knowledge of the Mueller investigation who asked to remain anonymous told me that Trump is the kind of client who would ‘humiliate you and destroy you because he just can’t follow directions.’ ‘The man’s uncontrollable. He’s a loose cannon,’ the person with knowledge of the Mueller investigation said. ‘No matter how much you prep him, no matter what small words you use to explain to him the potential landmines he could step on he will leap in blindly and say whatever pops into his head, and that could be a potential disaster. The absolute last thing I want to do in my life is be sitting next to Donald Trump being questioned by the special counsel.’

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--Percy

He's like the guy who claims that he can beat up every guy in the room with his superior Kung-fu if it wasn't for his friends holding him back. He will huff and puff in order to look tough in front of his supporters, but he has absolutely no intention of voluntarily talking to Mueller. He will use the old "my lawyers stopped me from doing it" ploy.

For display in their personal living quarters the Trump's requested the loan of the van Gogh painting Landscape With Snow from the Guggenheim Museum: The request was denied and the Guggenheim instead suggested an 18-kt gold fully functioning toilet by artist Maurizio Cattelan that had been on display in a public restroom on the museum’s fifth floor for visitors to use: How appropriate. I've never been to the Guggenheim, but I think I like them a lot.AbE:Source, 1/25/18 Washington Post: The White House asked to borrow a van Gogh. The Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead. From the article:

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It is common for presidents and first ladies to borrow major works of art to decorate the Oval Office, the first family’s residence and various rooms at the White House. The Smithsonian loaned the Kennedys a Eugne Delacroix painting, The Smoker. The Obamas preferred abstract art, choosing works by Mark Rothko and Jasper Johns.

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--PercyEdited by Percy, : AbE.

Is this a normal request? Have other presidents asked museums for the loan of pieces of art for their personal use? "Can we borrow your Van Gogh". Really?

Sorry, forgot to include a link to the article, I've added it to the bottom of Message 1767, along with a couple comments.--Percy

Trump Intended To Fire Special Counsel Mueller In June, 'New York Times' Says ....this from NPR.Trump, of course, calls it fake news.The New York Times is not some rag publication like the National Enquirer, however. I suppose all that counts for Mr.Trump is for his usual hillbilly populist base of support to believe him.