CORPORATE CORUPTION

Trump Says the Stupidest Things

Many politicians create catch-phrases and slogans that seem like good ideas at the time but, in retrospect, are more like a giant slab of pie in their faces. We all remember, “Read my lips,” which was supposed to be a pledge not to raise taxes. Some have used them in defensive posture, “I am not a crook” or the now famous, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” They all seem funny now in the light of day.

I guess Trump’s big talking point, “Drain the swamp,” was just another piece of raw meat thrown to the mob. His fired-up base could repeat it endlessly, while the rest of us saw that a more accurate phrase would be, “Here comes the new boss, just like the old boss.” The draining of the swamp was merely a bullshit campaign slogan. As one Trump voter said in West Virginia recently, “He’s just another politician.”

We are learning now that Donald J. Trump and his “personal lawyer” were involved in a business-as-usual, pay-for-play scheme with several large corporations. Not only did Michael Cohen’s LLC shell company pay a porn star for her silence, it became his in-box for millions of dollars. Before and right after Trump’s election, Cohen was using his proximity to the Donald to sell access to people who wanted to influence the new administration.

Corporate payments to do commerce in certain countries is simply thought to be the cost of doing business. In my experience, $40,000 in India could speed up the start time and circumvent the red-tape of creating a new company there. In China, a payment to a local official can get you into the country when you are a multi-national. The rate card varies.

AT&T, which according to CNBC, gave Cohen “up to $600,000 for ‘insights into understanding the new administration.’ At the time it engaged Cohen, AT&T was seeking tax and regulatory relief, as well as a favorable outlook on its proposed merger with Time Warner.” Ironically, Trump tweeted against the merger. Was that just a coverup of the bribe?

Drug maker Novartis delivered $1.2 million to the Cohen slush fund, saying they wanted health care expertise. Just for the record, Michael Cohen has no experience in this field. And a firm attempting to land a multibillion dollar contract from the Pentagon for military training jets, Korea Aerospace paid Michael Cohen $150,000 for his “accounting expertise.” Seems like his accounting sloppiness has landed him in a huge mess.

Unbelievably, our legal system permits these kinds of left-handed bribes. If a company is a registered lobbyist, they can legally contact, pitch and attempt to affect legislation on Capitol Hill. But Michael Cohen is not a legally registered lobbyist. He used his alleged personal lawyer “fixer” status to bring in the cash. This is perhaps a Federal Election Commission violation. After all, Trump did file for reelection right after the inauguration.

Trump was already a shady character before he was elected. He never played fair in business. For someone who is always decrying things as “unfair,” like the little child not understanding what is right or wrong, the Donald’s ability to use the bankruptcy laws stops just short of defrauding investors out of money. They paid and he left the scene of the crime with all his money intact. What is fair about that?

Michael Cohen is a bottom feeder, but one must put some blame on these douche bag corporate scoundrels for getting sucked into such ridiculous shakedowns. Why would AT&T think that paying this broke-dick lawyer would help them navigate a tricky merger? If I was an AT&T investor, I would be at the next stockholder meeting demanding to be heard. The question is simple. Why would AT&T engage in this kind of activity?

This whole caper should not come as a surprise. Trump is a corporate whore who worships only the holy dollar. Everything he does is designed to help his cronies and capitalists on Wall Street. All the claims that Bernie Sanders and Trump himself made about Hillary Clinton are the total embodiment of who Trump is. Remember, they both said that Hillary and the Clinton foundation were in the pocket of Wall Street and large corporations. Under Trump, the corporations got the big tax cuts, not the average person here in America. The deregulations and disregard for monetary safeguards are aimed at big business, not the health and welfare of the middle class and the long-term stability of our economy.

What we have learned is that Washington continues to run on corruption. Trump claims he will lower drug prices, but he is not in control of the game. Big pharm multinationals like Novartis are in the driver’s seat. Our insurance companies do secret deals with pharmacies and providers so that their drugs are dispensed first at the price they demand. Money paid to Michael Cohen was intended to make sure Trump didn’t mess up their schemes and the business-as-usual attitude of bilking billions from sick people would continue.

And finally, if Trump’s whole deal is “America First,” why would Cohen take money from Korea Aerospace when they are up for a billion-dollar contract with the Pentagon? Why would the president’s personal attorney help a company from Korea? Why shouldn’t that contract go to an American firm? Through his actions, Michael Cohen has urinated on both “America First” and “Drain the Swamp.” Trump is already distancing himself from Cohen and, in the end, will probably pardon him. Nothing to see here folks; just go back to sleep and ignore all this chicanery.

Trump lies many times a day. He may create a war in the Middle East or he may get lucky and denuclearize the Korean peninsula, but no matter what happens he will NEVER help the middle class. He doesn’t care about the little guy. He just wants them to shout and mimic his tag lines. Trump is a clown in orange makeup, embarrassing the United States of America with his act.

Donald J. Trump and all his millionaire and billionaire friends will get rich and the corporate corruption will continue. Sad but true. The only aspect of American life that is more soulless than corporations is the government. Trump is just another politician.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

These daily diatribes from a delusional blogger give you a day by day overview of the 45th President’s first two-hundred days in office. Follow Donald Trump through the tough times on his way to impeachment. Kindle Version HERE, or Get the printed book now, CLICK HERE.

New Book about Terrorism

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Now available on Amazon.

NO COUNTRY IS A MAN

Is Trump Really Just a Dictator with a Long Tie?

What are we missing here? The fear of Obama brought together millions of gun buyers, who bought weapons. In case you don’t remember, that paranoia about our first African-American President coming to get your guns never happened.

The word spread quickly through the evangelical communities of our great land that the only party that would protect their religious rights has an elephant mascot. That myth drove their involvement in shaping the political landscape by making a move to the far right. There should be a separation of church and state, but evangelicals don’t believe this Jeffersonian creed.

The other group of people who voted and made Trump the 45^th President of the United States of America has been frustrated for decades because of a lack of protection for their jobs and livelihood here at home. We get this and, yes, we probably need to repair this problem in the boardrooms of America.

We now have a leader who truly believes that he, and he alone, can fix all the problems which have ever been created by the past administrations. According to our Great Orange Leader, everything that has ever happened in another era was wrong and helped “destroy” America. Thus, the need for this one man to “make America great again.”

The positive, long-term results of some of Trump’s accomplishments are overshadowed by his obsessive need to attack and tweet. His narcissistic personality sets the media agenda and gets in the way of his smattering of leadership achievements. While most people focus on the firestorms and eruptions from this self-centered demigod, he has brought about major policy changes that will affect America in deeply negative ways.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: immigration. America has always had a strange relationship with the rest of the world. The first fact is that many people love America around the world. They watch our movies and TV shows and they want to come here. They visit for vacation and sometimes they just stay. Our border to the south is a minor player in what the administration calls illegal immigration and drug problems. There are millions of people who have come to America on airliners from other countries. Trump uses the building of a wall on the Mexican border as a visual to demonstrate his desires. Let’s not forget that the American drug epidemic starts not at the Mexican border but in our local pharmacies with bad doctors over-prescribing.

The big headline in the Washington Post this morning (5-9-2018) said, “U.S. embassy cables warned against expelling 300,000 immigrants. Trump officials did it anyway.” The burden that will be placed on the home countries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) people in the USA could be a diplomatic nightmare. Once again, Trump is using these executive orders to “clean up the neighborhood” without any understanding about how these moves could destabilize certain countries. War costs more than diplomacy and aid. That is what the Marshall Plan was all about.

Our Attorney General announced that families coming through Mexico because of the violence and unrest in their Central American countries will be divided and children will be taken away from their mothers and fathers. We seem to have lost our morality.

Trump is promoting an isolationist foreign policy. This President, without an end game plan, terminated DACA, walked away from the TPP (an agreement to reel in trade with China) pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord (an agreement to really clean up the world we live in) and now has ended the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement between Iran and the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union. This was a campaign promise that Trump made and kept, without any long-range strategy other than his little round mouth saying he wants a better deal. Trump even used old data presented by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as proof that Iran is in violation of the agreement. This was the Donald’s “WMD” moment.

Trump has gotten rid of more people in the first year of his administration than any other president. He has slowly weeded out common sense thinkers and replaced them with people who agree with him. The real question is whether his actions make America safer or is the world more likely to blow up into proxy and real wars? Sanctions returned to Iran will only weaken European and Asian nations relationships. If you drink the Trump Kool-Aid, you probably believe his huffing and puffing rhetoric will keep our house safe. However, history shows that most of what the U.S. has done in the Middle East has failed.

Speaking on the Daily Show, historian Jon Meacham was rather positive about the power of the Constitution and how even a dipshit like Trump will be controlled sufficiently by time and the rule of law. I am a skeptic, believing Trump will move forward with renewed vigor after getting the three detainees released from North Korea and seeing slight improvements in his approval scores due to an upcoming meeting with Kim Jung-Un.

And what is the meaning of Russian oligarchs and mega-companies depositing large sums of money into the Michael Cohen-Trump slush fund LLC right after the election? It signifies that Trump was either using his lawyer to collect “pay-for-play” fees from companies wanting something, or Michael Cohen was using his proximity to Trump to create a business. The fact that the same account paid hush money to a porn star was Cohen’s big mistake. If a quid-pro-quo can be proven, those payments are bribes.

We must keep our eyes on the prize here. The reward will be a strong democracy not tainted by the aggressive actions of an unchecked President. Trump will probably not be impeached without strong evidence that he was involved in a conspiracy with Russia, but the people must check his bullshit and lies with clear minds when they go to the ballot box. The government that runs the greatest country in the world is in the hands of an amateur who thinks he can do anything. We must not let him ruin what centuries have built.

With all the possible successes of a strong economy and movement in the world toward a more peaceful climate, maybe we can get back to protecting the actual planet. Or am I dreaming?

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

Now available on Amazon.

WHEN A LAWYER NEEDS A GOOD LAWYER

Trump Reimburses His Fixer and Rudy Screws Up

Once again, Donald J. Trump has been caught in a lie. His newest, used-to-be highly talented, unhinged and senile attorney, Rudy Giuliani, just threw his client under the bus. Rudy admitted on last night’s Sean Hannity show (5-2-2018) that Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for his hush-money payment to the porn-star Stormy Daniels.

It is reported that after the campaign was over, Trump set up a reimbursement payment schedule of $35,000 per month out of what has been defined as Trump’s personal family account. Giuliani admitted on TV that Cohen’s payments totaled between $460,000 to $470,000, which included “incidental expenses.”

Giuliani’s performance unleashed an all-nighter at the White House to create a tweet blast. The writing of the tweet is covered with the fingerprints of attorneys. The language is far too elegant and precise to have come from our writing-challenged president. It’s clear that the tweets attempt to legally cover the damage that Rudy brought on the President with his loose, quivering lips and maniacally bulging eyeballs.

So, here’s the “morning after” tweet we got from Trump’s lawyer’s: “Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.”

What the President and his attorneys don’t seem to realize is that campaign finance laws are clear about payments or contributions that give a candidate an advantage in an election. Remember the case against John Edwards who was running for the same office who used money from his campaign to hide an affair he was having with a photojournalist? Keeping Stormy Daniels quiet mere days before the American people went to the polls helped candidate Donald Trump.

To double-down on the backfiring truck, Rudy, “America’s mayor” (said in sarcasm) attempted damage control. Today on Fox and Friends, this crippled counsel tried to explain what he meant the night before by pitching yet a different story, saying that Trump didn’t know the purpose of the reimbursement money and attempting to reinforce that no law was broken. This new song sings that Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels without Trump’s knowledge. An attorney cannot ethically enter into an agreement under his or her client’s name without disclosing said agreement to the client. Rudy is trying to shovel a notion that Cohen was just being a good lawyer. Huh?

Here we have the latest chapter in the book which could be titled, IDIOT PRESIDENT. John Kelly had it right. As this legal matter unfurls, we see that the flag they wave keeps changing. They bring in extenuating circumstances, lies and hate speech to cloud the facts. They attack the Justice Department for simply doing its job. When Raving Rudy calls the FBI team that gathered evidence from Michael Cohen’s office and home “stormtroopers” he used a word that disturbs many people who suffered in another time.

During World War I, special forces of soldiers were known as Sturmmann (“storm man”, usually translated as “stormtrooper”). That doesn’t nearly match what the Federal Bureau of Investigation does when they execute a search warrant signed by a judge. I could call Rudy Giuliani “Trump’s Joseph Goebbels,” Hitler’s propaganda minister, but that would be rude. While Mr. Giuliani retrofits his answers to what the president says he did or didn’t do, the squirming and backtracking shows a profound lack of discipline and focus on the part of the president’s defense team. Why would Rudy be talking so much before Emmet Flood IV has gotten situated in the team?

Trump will probably fire Rudy G. for his bungling, senseless comments. If this is a calculated legal strategy, they are on thin-ice. The heat of this investigation, and the pending defamation litigations, will drop them into a legal abyss not even a peace treaty with North Korea could correct. Trump is a liar.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

Now available on Amazon.

POOR RONNY JACKSON

Trump Ruins Another Chance

Donald J. Trump is a disastrous failure. He has clearly demonstrated the many disabilities which prevent him from doing his job as the top executive in the country. The case of Dr. Ronny Jackson is the latest example of the White House’s chaotic, haphazard journey through Governance 101. The people who surround this president have neither the nerve nor the knowledge to stop these horrific mistakes. Even the most unskilled observer can simply count the number of people who don’t work out in this administration. If you claim that you will have this “really great vetting” and then you have to reject people after you nominate them, you are a colossal crash.

Listening to Donald Trump on Fox News this morning (4-26-2018), I’m reminded of a babbling old lady on too much coffee. He talked more about Kanye West than Dr. Ronny Jackson. He bounced between subjects like a kid who didn’t take his Ritalin. Why does he feel the need to keep patting himself on the back? I guess now that President Macron of France is gone, he must pleasure himself. What a buffoon. He paints himself the victim and claims everyone is out to get him. Paranoia and power are never good ingredients to mix.

Our Great Orange Leader had a chance to move forward and find a highly qualified person to fix the broken Veterans Administration. It’s rather funny that he said he wanted his private pilot to run the Federal Aviation Administration and his personal doctor to run the VA. It’s like promoting the bag boy at the grocery store to head up the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Makes sense, right? I mean that kid handles more produce in a day than anyone presently in government.

Here are some basic stats on the VA from NBC News: There are 150 VA hospitals, 820 VA community-based outpatient clinics and 300 VA Vet Centers, which offer counseling, suicide prevention and other services. The expanding number of people involved in this enterprise is breathtaking. There were 5.69 million patients in 2013, with 8.92 million people enrolled in VA health care system. There are 3.84 million veterans getting VA disability compensation and 310,000 veterans receiving VA pensions.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs claims that 377,805 people work for the VA and the American Federation of Government Employees represents 230,000 VA employees. It’s clear that the person who runs the Veteran Administration must have experience in dealing with a large labor force and unions. This is a major undertaking.

Perhaps Dr. Jackson has gotten enough beyond his personal problems and alleged prescription drug malfeasance such that he could have done a good job with such an important administration, but the damage is done. A person who was a trusted medical advisor to our Presidents is now not worthy of that job. He cannot stay in his current position, let alone be promoted.

But the more important aspect of this embarrassing event is that the President of the United States is not a clear-thinking human being. Dissonance, distortions and delusions have permanently damaged this dingbat’s brain. Listening to our raving lunatic of a president talking to his enablers on Fox News was frightening on many levels. When will someone explain to the Donald that his frame of reference on the people he considers for these jobs is limited and unqualified? He needs help but refuses to ask for it.

Before Trump antics delivers a massive dose of Ambien to the whole nation, there are some important issues to accomplish. First, we need to prepare the nation for a new president, albeit, President Mike Pence who would be a dull and dogmatically driven fake president, just like Trump.

This morning on Fox News channel, Trump dodged the questions about the decision of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to “take the fifth.” He is now distancing himself from Cohen and his businesses. For those playing along at home, taking the “Fifth Amendment” is a guaranteed protection in the Constitution that says no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Trump in the past has said, “The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” So now we see that the President’s “fixer” has been declared guilty by his boss.

Trump stood by Dr. Ronny Jackson for about 17 hours. That’s perhaps the maximum amount of allegiance that can be expected from the man who demands a loyal pledge from all his minions. Trump’s attacks on anyone with a critical word about him is a never-ending disorder that no doctor can cure. We are already seeing the president’s gentle but obvious disengagement from Michael Cohen. If Trump thinks he has a “get-out-of-jail” pardon card to finally put an end to all his pain, he is dreadfully wrong. The investigation into this corrupt administration and broke-dick president will continue and, in time, we will learn what is truly missing in Donald Trump. He has no core moral value.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

Now available on Amazon.

MORALLY UNFIT

Can Donald Trump Save his Presidency?

There is something sickening in the unseasonable winter winds blowing up the east coast, hitting both Washington and New York City. Those who voted for the President of the United States learn each day that he is not quite what they thought he was. Those of us who have never supported him are finding that he is much worse than we ever believed.

As James Comey continues his book selling tour of the media landscape, we cannot see what is on the horizon for Comey, but it’s becoming clear that Donald Trump is going to have to do more than tweeting to escape his self-inflicted credibility problem. He has entered the labyrinth, and in the end, he will have no one to guide him out.

First, let’s look at the story that got less coverage because of the high courtroom drama taking place in New York. While everyone was focused on Comey and Michael Cohen’s mystery client, Trump was up to his old tricks with Russia.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said that additional sanctions would be placed on Russia because of their involvement and lack of preventative action in the chemical attack by Assad in Syria. While French President Emmanuel Macron took credit for convincing Trump to keep some troops in Syria, Trump took his eye off the ball back home.

Mr. Trump changed his mind about pulling out of Syria. Now he has changed his mind about imposing Russian sanctions after naming them in the announcement to bomb Syria. What is going on here?

Underneath the announcement of additional sanctions that were to be announced on Monday (4-16-2018), our Great Orange Leader must have heard Putin’s footsteps coming up the hallway because he quickly rescinded them. Once again, Trump is more interested in placating Putin than confronting that leader and his misdeeds. Could it be that the Russians have something on Trump as Comey suggests?

With Trump’s “attorney,” Michael Cohen, being under criminal investigation, the Donald is acting more like someone who has something to hide rather than an open, transparent person. Trump was quick to Twitter with more than 100 words condemning the seizure of Cohen’s data with the cry, “Attorney-Client privilege is dead!” Then Trump sent in his new personal attorney to argue for protection of his communications with Cohen.

What took place in New York yesterday was the same kind of circus we have been subjected to again and again with this White House and President. We learned that Michael Cohen had only three clients in the past year. One, Donald Trump, who he protected with a hush-payment to a porn-star. Two, top GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy, who he shielded from a damaging paternity P.R. nightmare with a payment of $1.6 million to a former Playboy model. Broidy resigned from his post at the RNC after the settlement was revealed. If you are keeping score, a one-night stand gets you $130K, a ten-month affair nets $150K and impregnation goes for $1.6M.

Three, the mysterious client that Cohen and his attorney attempted to cloak turned out to be Fox News channel’s Sean Hannity. As soon as this revelation hit the fan, Hannity was quick to point out that he was never represented by Cohen in any legal matter and never paid him for any advice on what he said were real estate matters and involved no third parties. Hannity, not a true newsman or journalist, never revealed that he was a Cohen client, even when helping him through his nightly harangues about the FBI raids on his TV show which, according to Variety magazine, tops 3 million viewers.

What does it mean to be a “client” of a lawyer? The attorney-client relationship is created by an agreement of representation. It can be verbal, but usually is detailed in a written engagement agreement. It’s important to point out that a lawyer has ethical duties to prospective clients, current clients, and former clients. You don’t have to pay an attorney for representation, but whether you are a perspective client, a current client, or a client from the past, your communication with that lawyer is protected. There is an exception however, the privilege cannot be used to conceal a crime. As a person of privilege, Donald Trump has used that advantage in his business career to work around rules, laws and regulations. While Trump continues to go soft on Russia, Russians and Russian interference, America is seeing one of the worst side shows in its history.

We have learned about “taint” teams and how the law works with the clear message that no one is above the law. With all the daily “BREAKING NEWS” reports, we have a sense that this President cannot exist without chaos and confusion. He even seems perplexed about what he has and hasn’t said.

Does he really believe that the sanctions he requested were not supposed to be executed against Russia? It’s the old case of the boss who yells and screams at his workers, “Who’s stupid idea was this?” and the workers reluctantly answer, “That was your idea.” The closed-minded boss can only deny he ever proposed the idea. Trump paints himself into the corner all the time, proving that he is truly UNFIT to be President.

James Comey claims the President is “morally unfit” to serve but gives him a pass on the mental piece of the puzzle. One day, he says no one has done more to confront Russia, then the next day we get this from his talking sour-head, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “Sanctions were merely under consideration.”

In August 2017, long before the Syrian chemical attack, Congress passed a measure to add Russian sanctions. Trump signed it, and then ignored it. Right after signing, Trump said, “The bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate. Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking.” Even though Trump signed it, he was more interested in putting down Congress instead of taking up the battle against Russia.

For the 60% of Americans who don’t believe this guy, Trump would have to disclose everything about his business and financial structure to save his presidency. He would have to demonstrate, beyond a shadow of doubt, why he gives Putin a pass. Right now, he appears to be the Manchurian Candidate. You might want to watch the movie.

The First 200 Days Of Trump – ONLY ONE MILLION LEFT

New Book about Terrorism

Now available on Amazon.