Trump vs. Kim: Both Seek Limelight and Thrive On It at World Expense

Swap Hair Styles and Have Same Motivation 

(Get and keep bizarre and outrageous attention)

North Korea's latest launch of a missile over Japan was a prelude to more military operations directed at the American territory of Guam, North Korean state media has warned (again). NK’s state-run Korean Central News (KCNA) reports that leader Kim, Jong-Un presided over the dawn launch of the “ultra-modern rocket system (called Hwa-song 12),” the first missile ever fired from the capital Pyongyang. North Korean officials told CNN that Kim “… was very satisfied with the performance of the missile.”

This firing over Japan further fuels tensions between North Korea, the U.S, Japan, South Korea, and American allies. As usual NK says their testing and the on-going ROK/US military exercise drills are to their “prelude to an invasion of NK, hence: “We have to be prepared” (usual standard NK insane and hyperbolic rhetoric spewed for over 60 years).

Carefully staged like everything in North Korea 
(For max show and PR impact)

Now once again NK threatens Guam which is the closest U.S. territory to North Korea and hosts two important US military installations: Andersen Air Force Base, from which has been staging B-1 bomber flights over the Korean Peninsula, often in response to North Korea's missile tests.

Other responses about this latest NK missile firing from this CNN story:

1.  Guam governor's office said in a statement there is no change in the island's threat level. “We knew, based on North Korea events in previous years, that with the joint exercise between the US, South Korea, and its Allies, we can expect rhetoric and activity in North Korea,” said George Charfauros, Guam homeland security adviser.

2.  South Korean President Moon, Jae-In and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe both now believe “pressure on North Korea should be raised to its limit so that North Korea will voluntarily come to the table for dialogue,” South Korean presidential spokesman Park, Su-Hyun said in a statement. The two also agreed that the United Nations Security Council should enact more detailed and effective sanctions against North Korea. A new round of sanctions against Pyongyang were unanimously approved by the Security Council earlier this month. 

3.  U.S. MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said the U.S. “will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves.”

4.  Trump now basically says “No more talk” as he once again warned that all options are on the table adding: “The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”

5.  The global community also swiftly condemned the launch as a violation of international law, e.g.., the UN Security Council demanded North Korea stop further missile launches, strongly condemning the country's “outrageous actions,” adding: “North Korea is deliberately undermining regional peace and stability causing grave concerns around the world,” Egyptian Ambassador and current UN Security Council President Abdellatif Aboulatta said in a prepared statement, agreed to by all 15 Council members.

My conclusion: This is very serious indeed and hair-trigger for both Kim and Trump for one sole reason – no one knows what Kim’s real goal is aside from typical NK barking of crazy propaganda talk about U.S. invasions and “we need to protect ourselves.”

All the while they hold more glitzy staged events with a handful of old generals, all over the hill in age, standing behind Kim taking notes as they always do in those silly posed photos while looking serious and Kim splashes wide grins and looks “leader-like directing things.”

His stunts and PR campaign stunts rival Trump’s as they both hunger for and seek maximum world attention and love at home from “beautiful crowds” who they say adore them both.

Folks, that aspect can’t be good for anyone: Two power hungry, attention-needing whack-job “leaders” trying to out Pee-pee the other.

Stay tuned. This can’t possibly turn out good for anyone anywhere, I’m sad to say.

NRA Today: Angrier, Uglier, Money-Hungry, Sedition Advocates

They Lost Original Rational Focus 

One of NRA’s Strongest Voices Today

You want a scary worrisome story? Well here it is reported on from the AP vis-à-vis NRA’s new tactics. That is: guns in America and who they more so consider to be their “enemy” and their message: “we are coming for you.” That’s the damn scary part – short introduction below. What is most interesting are the comments at the end of the fine article from now and soon to be former NRA members *my emphasis:

ATLANTA (AP) — The election of President Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress meant the National Rifle Association could probably rest easy that gun laws wouldn’t change for at least four years. But the NRA has begun a campaign not against pending legislation but what it sees as liberal forces bent on undoing the progress it’s made — and the political powerhouse is resorting to language that some believe could incite violence.

Using the hashtags #counterresistance and #clenchedfistoftruth, the NRA has put out a series of videos that announce a “shot across the bow,” and say the gun-rights group is “coming for you” and that “elites … threaten our very survival,” terms that suggest opponents are enemy combatants.

“The times are burning and the media elites have been caught holding the match,” NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch says in one video aired on NRATV, the gun lobby’s web video site, as it shows footage of people fighting police, breaking storefront glass and burning the American flag.

Later, she specifically calls out The New York Times: “We’ve had it with your narratives, your propaganda, and your fake news. We’ve had it with your constant protection of your Democrat overlords, your refusal to acknowledge any truth that upsets the fragile construct that you believe is real life. And we’ve had it with your tone-deaf assertion that you are in any way truth or fact-based journalism. Consider this the shot across your proverbial bow. … In short? We’re coming for you.”

Continue at the link… worthwhile reading and keeping handy. 

My last word: A democratic congressional candidate in AR wrote this: “If the NRA does not stop their hate campaign, I will call them out on sedition. Sedition is the willful undermining of the legal authority, the Incitement of Violence.”

I agree with that statement, and as I said, damn scary stuff for some on the “edge” of reality – perhaps just a enough to push them over the proverbial edge like we have seen in some many other places with “open carry laws” and guns in our collective face.

Shame on the NRA. I belonged to them but tore up my membership card years ago, and yes, I do support the 2^nd Amendment, just like I do the entire Constitution, but Wayne LaPierre and his gang of thugs are bent on violence to get their way…!!!

BTW “Out of Bounds / Off the Mark” NRA: My right to say that is the 1^st Amendment… something you always seem to always skip over.

Shame on you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump Won't Directly Disavow Alt-Right and David Duke Types: Why Not

Charlottesville, VA (August 12) 

Basically a Growing Scene Across America

Trump angrily denounced the so-called alt-left at his Trump Tower news conference (August 15) claiming that the group attacked followers of the so-called alt-right at a white supremacist rally that exploded into deadly violence in Charlottesville, VA (on August 12).

Short clip from that Trump-Press encounter in this short 2-minute segment on this exact subject:

The full press conference (25-minutes) is here:

He said in part – time and time again: “What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at the, as you say, the ‘alt-right’? Do they have any semblance of guilt? There was blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it.”

(My Note: Trump cannot and still has not directly disavowed David Duke’s support statement – why we must wonder – why no indeed).

Reporters then were like a dog with a bone – they countered him and he loved it. 

Trump went so far as to blast, insult, and name-call others, including Sen. John McCain for his “no” vote (that took about good health care away from everyone) – which basically killed Trump’s dream and signature issue: The “repeal and replacement the ACA (Obama-care).”

So, a lot of terms are tossed about lightly for impact and nastiness, like these for simple clarification (extracted from this fine NY Times article and also with more details; however, I simply wanted to highlight these three words in particular as the ones we hear almost daily):

Alt-Right: The “alt-right” is a racist, far-right movement based on an ideology of white nationalism and anti-Semitism. Many news organizations do not use the term, preferring terms like “white nationalism” and “far right.”

The movement’s self-professed goal is the creation of a white state and the destruction of “leftism,” which it calls “an ideology of death.” Richard B. Spencer, a leader in the movement, has described the movement as “identity politics for white people.”

It is also anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights. It is highly decentralized but has a wide online presence, where its ideology is spread via racist or sexist memes with a satirical edge.

It believes that higher education is “only appropriate for a cognitive elite” and that most citizens should be educated in trade schools or apprenticeships.

Alt-Left: A lot of researchers who study extremist groups in the United States say there is no such thing as the “alt-left.”

Mark Pitcavage, an analyst at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), says the word had been made up to create a false equivalence between the far right and “anything vaguely left-seeming that they didn’t like. It did not arise organically, and it refers to no actual group or movement or network. It’s just a made-up epithet, similar to certain people calling any news they don’t like as “fake news” (the #1 favorite word used by Trump practically daily in everything he talks about).

Antifa: This word is a contraction of the word “anti-fascist.”

It was coined in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s by a network of groups that spread across Europe to confront right-wing extremists, according to ADL’s Pitcavage.

A similar movement emerged in the 1980s in the United States and has grown as the “alt-right” has risen to prominence. 

For some so-called antifa members, their goal is to physically confront white supremacists or as Pitcavage says: “If they can get at them, to assault them and engage in street fighting.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group “an old left-wing extremist movement” and alt-right members broadly portray protesters who oppose them as “antifa,” or the “alt-left,” and say they bear some responsibility for any violence that ensues — precise claim Trump made during his Trump Tower face-to-face with the press.

With all we have seen over the past 12 or so years as depicted by the photo above and remarks from Trump and the most-recent violence in Charlottesville, VA.

I ask the high court: Is this what the Supreme Court wants for America?

In all honesty it is hard for me to fathom that they expected to see this and for any rational logical answer – none fit.

My Conclusion: Armed groups on our streets looking a segment from some SWAT movie or latest 24-hour TV show or worse, ISIS types roaming the streets looking for what, pray tell?

This is not the country I served for over 40 years, the country I fought for and bled for, and not the one I want for future generations.

Our rights and freedoms are critical, for sure, but armed militia by any name they self-label themselves taking to the streets the way they do now – and: 

I simply ask: Why??

Thanks for stopping by.

Half-Wit, No-Wit, Wit-Less: Did Not Vote for Nepotism — Got It Anyway

 

“All that Green” surrounded by all that “Gold” Equals More Profits 

/s/ Trump Empire, Inc.

Trump and Indian PM Modi both announced on Twitter that Ivanka Trump-Kushner will lead the U.S. delegation to India for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in November. 

The summit’s goal is to connect U.S. investors and entrepreneurs with global partners and startups.

The delegation is traditionally hosted by the State Department, which is precisely why the appointment of Ivanka “I try to avoid politics” Trump, whose qualifications include owning a fashion line that exploits and underpays its workers and little else, is raising so many eyebrows — including those of an unnamed Indian diplomat who had some words to say in the Hindustan Times.

That Indian diplomat said: “We regard Ivanka Trump the way we do a half-wit Saudi Princess. It’s in our national interest to flatter them.”

Ethics experts have accused Trump of nepotism for appointing his daughter and son-in-law to White House roles.

However, in true style: Trump spokesman Jason Miller has claimed that the appointment is above reproach since Ivanka and Jared are both unpaid for their roles.

I would conclude: They expect to earn big bucks via their name marketing and high-profile contacts world-wide at government expense – for later down the road. Just like their father – a pretty obvious fact.

The Trump motto: “Nepotism is best for us – for those who don’t like it – so what?”

However all this all plays out – nepotism is wrong and no standard of weak excuses can ever justify it, period. But, Trump Empire, Inc. could care less who cares – they surely do not. It’s routine for them.

No wonder the world is wiser to how Trump operates. That can't be a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump Dives into Shallow End of Empty Pool and Rates It As a 10

The Face of a Man Who Thinks Nuclear War is a Passing Fad 

Donald J. Trump is impulsive, erratic, unprepared, but one man who has the sole control over the nuclear codes.

Background: Many of his supporters still today as before have acknowledged that he is erratic yet they still voted for him and still support and stick by him today. 

The obvious question is why?

Many people presumed he would settle down once in office thus becoming presidential and less crazy in his taunts as a cocoon of security advisers around him would keep him in check. 

Clearly, that presumption was wrong and remains wrong more so today with more and more of his nuclear war threats while competing with Kim, Jung-un - already a basket case himself. 

Trump now ramps it up even higher. 

So, where are those close kit security advisers to keep him in check?

About those advisers who will keep him in check, well - quite frankly, they are nowhere in sight and besides, raw reality is setting in to test that theory. 

More and more Americans are coming to conclusions both predictable and surprising regarding his latest round of “fire and fury the likes the world has never seen” threats to nuke North Korea is clearly evidence of this president gone over the edge and has lost all his mental faculties.

He is fulfilling expectations of someone who lashes out dangerously at real and perceived challengers. Now he raises more so the risk of a nuclear war while proving time and again he is not capable of problem solving with a deft hand at diplomacy that we have grown to expect from sound thinkers in our presidents. He lacks that skill.

Conversely, his defenders see all this as him simply working from the gut, with admirable instincts to protect the nation, and take pride in American power. 

Recall these from Trump while he was campaigning:

“I would bomb the shit out of them. I want to be unpredictable. I love war.”

“We have nuclear weapons – why can't we use nuclear weapons?”

“Then why are we making them” he responded to a Chris Matthews question in an interview.

Even back in October 2016, voters made it clear that they trusted Hillary Clinton vastly more than Trump on the use of nuclear weapons by a 57 to 31 percent margin – and that poll was conducted by FOX News.

This is worse than the 13 days in October 1963 known as the Cuban missile crisis... by far worse. 

JFK was level-headed. 

Donald J. Trump is empty-headed.

This probably will not end well for mankind in general.

Donald J. Trump: One-man Wrecking Ball Armed With Government Haters

Hired anti-government regulators. Almost ready. Who are they? 

(My Lips Are Sealed)

When President Trump ordered federal agencies to form teams to dismantle government regulations, the Transportation Department turned to people with deep industry ties.

Examples are lingering and coming clearer:

1.  One appointee had previously lobbied the department on behalf of American Airlines.

2.  Another held executive roles for several electric and hybrid car companies regulated by the department.

3.  A third was a lawyer who represented United Airlines in regulatory matters.

The Trump administration is and has stacked the teams with political appointees, some of whom may be reviewing rules their former employers sought to weaken or kill. A full vetting of industry connections has been difficult because some agencies have declined to provide information about the appointees — not even their names.

Since the publication, news organizations have identified more than a dozen other appointees through interviews, public records and reader tips — including the three appointees to the deregulation team at the Transportation Department. 

In all, there are now 85 known current and former team members, including 34 with potential conflicts.

NOTE: At least two of the appointees may be positioned to profit if certain regulations are undone and at least four were registered to lobby the agencies they now work for.

Significant:

1.  One Transportation Department appointee: Daniel Elwell, was previously a top lobbyist for American Airlines who sought to influence the Transportation Department.

2.  Another Transportation appointee: Marianne McInerney, was president of a trade group representing car dealers. She also held executive positions at several electric and hybrid automotive companies.

3.  A third Transportation appointee: Jonathan Moss, was previously managing director of international and regulatory affairs at United Airlines.

The deregulation teams are part of Trump’s push to cut red tape across government, and they have presented a new avenue for industries to shed rules they have argued for years are hurting profits, depressing job creation and raising prices.

Environmental, consumer and other liberal groups have argued that such regulations protect the public, keeping drinking water clean and roads safe, for example.

In the recent past, presidents from both parties have entered office pledging to scrutinize regulations, but Trump’s order goes further, putting a premium on cutting rules and empowering teams of political appointees who are typically less wedded to an agency’s existing guidelines. The agencies have also been opaque about their deregulation teams.

Note: The DOJ has released the names of only two appointees currently working on its team. In an email exchange, a spokesman, Ian Prior, said he could not provide additional names because “the Task Force is made up of components, not particular employees,” adding: “A component may have multiple employees assisting with the work.”

When asked if he could name any of those employees, he responded: “Decline.” DOD and DHS provided only the titles for most appointees to their review teams, but not the names.

DEMS in Congress Responded with Letter to the White House: “It is unacceptable for federal agencies to operate in such a clandestine and unaccountable manner especially when the result could be the undoing of critical public health and safety protections.”

The letter was signed by Reps. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, and David Cicilline of Rhode Island.

They cited a recent investigation by ProPublica and the NY Times revealing that members of the deregulation teams have included lawyers who represented businesses in cases against government regulators, staff members of political dark money groups and employees of industry-funded organizations opposed to environmental rules.

In their letter to the White House, the Democratic lawmakers suggested that with holding names could violate the Freedom of Information Act, saying in part: 

“These Task Forces must have an effective and transparent guard against conflicts of interest, especially those in which industry lobbyists seek to overturn environmental and health protections for financial gain.”

Those members are the ranking on the House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Committee on the Judiciary; Subcommittee on Government Operations; and Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.

Their letter concluded: “It appears that the current Task Forces are already failing on this front, and instead are actively hiding their members and their meetings from public view.”

Also, Note: The Reps’ letter was addressed to Mick Mulvaney, Director of OMB, and to Neomi Rao, the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which vets regulatory changes coming out of federal agencies.

I conclude: Who in the world hires lobbyists and those who worked against government oversight and accountability regarding public safety and health to serve in government agencies they railed against? 

Oh, easy answer: The Trump administration.

Thanks for stopping by – this is a critical issue.

Trumpworld: “One-man/One-vote” v. “One-Man/My Rule” Obey or Leave

Trump likes Aussie “Immigrant Merit” system – but wants this model

Introduction: Trump wants his version of a new immigration policy (see below) – based on the Aussie model he likes and all the statements he and his advisers have made on this subject – perhaps the Aussie model or EU model are not so hot – I suggest based on what he has said and tried to do – adopt the model shown above – that way he gets total, 100%, absolute control – which is a DNA-based Trump gene anyway.

Background – which we all pretty much know and have accepted since our forefathers landed here is this basic school lesson:

The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans.

Many since, and I’d argue most, came here if not broke nearly so and with only the clothes on their backs. Every immigrant since helped made America GREAT. 

What we do not need not is this lopsided, biased and bigoted immigration proposal now floating in the W/H with Trump keen support.  

In nearly 400 years, immigrants have had different reasons to come to America – but mostly they all share one common thread:

1. To escape war,

2. For the freedoms we always broadcast most proudly,

3.  To practice any religion of their choice,

4. For the opportunity to own land, and

5. To have a choice and chance to work, escape poverty, raise a family, and live freely.

Now Trump along with many who share his same “racist bigoted views” plan to end all that by adopting the Australian model based (or so it seems) – one based on “a merit system” for all new legal immigrants. That in essence curbs American citizens’ ability to bring family members here to live with or alongside them. 

Thus, a sick parent, disabled brother or sister, or young relative would not be welcome. Nope – no can do. “Signed Donald J. Trump.”

(MY SHORT MEMO FOR MR. TRUMP: We ARE NOT Australia. We broke free from that Crown and are no longer under a Queen or King. Australia governs itself through its PM, but Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, is still the monarch, and thus since Australia is a constitutional monarchy, the queen has power over them).

Now Trump says: “It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially.”

(I wonder: Did Trump relatives come here rich – did the former Drumpf family, before they changed their name to Trump, all speak fancy. skilled English and did they all have fancy graduate degrees and money dripping out of their suitcases when they arrived”

(I Note: I can’t wait to hear his version of that. My ancestors did not arrive the way he wants immigrants to arrive in the future – re: his new rule – and I’m sure the readers here forefathers did not, either.

This Trump approach — making sure new immigrants are not a burden on the country’s safety net and are able to prosper financially — is at the core of Australia’s immigration laws.

Trump wants “a points-based system, which favors people based on their English proficiency and the skills they have to fill needed jobs, and an employer-nomination system, which allows businesses to sponsor people for jobs.”

Under this Trump plan proposed by two Republican senators (Cotton from AR and Purdue from GA), applicants for legal residency in the United States would be judged on the basis of education, language and job abilities, favoring those who can speak English.

They would be able to financially support themselves and have skills that contribute to the economy. Currently, most legal immigrants are admitted to the United States based on family ties to those already in the country.

This all ties in with the nasty display in the W/H by that moron Stephen Miller – a senior aide who ranted a hot tongue to a CNN reporter:  “One of the things I think is the most compelling about the Australian system is the efforts to make sure that immigrants are financially self-sufficient.” 

Miller continued: “We are establishing a new entry system that’s points-based: Can they support themselves and their families financially? Do they have a skill that will add to the U.S. economy? Are they being paid a high wage?”

(Q for Miller: Where did your rich ancestors come from, um?)

Yeah this Stephen Miller: Miller was a controversial presence on Duke’s campus, writing columns for the college newspaper attacking feminists, atheists, liberals, and beneficiaries of affirmative action at Duke and all in stark raw terms.

He went on to work for then-Alabama senator and now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after his stint at university.

That landed him in the Trump orbit. Miller has been one of the most ardent backers of the “nationalist-populist” agenda seen as the brainchild of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Those two also collaborated on one of the new administration’s most controversial executive orders – the so-called Muslim ban.

One word applies to this latest from Trump is: “Un-American.” And, Sens. Cotton and Purdue should be ashamed, too.

Stay tuned.

Trump Lies: “Piles of Deceit, Distraction, Deception and Public Distrust”

Both in Deep Doo-Doo (Honestly-speaking)

Major update here from the Washington Post, plus more information on this stunning story about President Donald J. Trump’s personal response to this the Post’s expose about how the Trump team responded to the NY Times article wherein they learned about the Donald J. Trump, Jr’s meeting in June 2016 in Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer.

That part is inserted here for reference: Donald J. Trump Jr. admitted that he met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on the pretense of “receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton” then he blatantly lied about the events three different times.

That meeting in June 2016 also included Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort and now apparently a growing number of other Russians, who were not disclosed originally, but then turned out to be at least one or two former Russian intelligence operatives. 

(Note: Jr. said he only met with the lawyer and one other person in the room).

That meeting arranged by music publicist Rob Goldstone (from the UK who holds US/UK citizenships) who had strong ties to Russia. In an email exchange released by Trump Jr. on twitter (but only after the NY Times alerted him to their intention to update his previous denials) he wrote back to Goldstone: “I love it” when told about possibly “getting his hands on material potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign and helping his father win.”

In Goldstone’s words, he told Trump Jr. that the meeting would be with a “Russian government attorney and that the information was part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr. responded enthusiastically, writing: “If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Dear old Dad in defending his son's decision to meet with Veselnitskaya, said in part publicly: “Most people would have taken that meeting.”

Then in France the president said in a full statement: “My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer. From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent.”

First major update from NBC news and the AP: Veselnitskaya was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist who happens to be a former Russian counter-intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence. 

Veselnitskaya acknowledged to NBC News that she was accompanied by at least one other man, though she declined to identify him. NBC News is not naming the lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies. He is a Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

Contacted by NBC News, representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment. A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Veselnitskaya, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, denied having any connection to the Kremlin and insisted the meeting was to discuss sanctions, not the presidential campaign. 

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence.

Noteworthy: That meeting of a Russian-American with former Russian intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller who of course would handle any criminal aspect that the two congressional committees do not.

My Note: Astonishing is perhaps an understatement … the problem here with the Trumps – all them is simple: They are not used to being challenged or questioned on anything they say or do or attempt to do … they simply lie and deny in the face of solid proof otherwise. That is the Trump MO (Modus Operandi).

This event with Trump Jr. and the reactions from Pop and people around the Trumps, mostly die-hard loyalists and others buy unto it as the gospel of sorts or so it seems.

Now this new update: “Anonymous W/H advisers” said they had settled on a plan to be transparent about the meeting, only to have the president come in at the 11th hour and decide to try and withhold the whole truth.

The result of that presidential decision, at his personal direction, was the “statement that claimed the meeting was about adoption,” when in fact “the stated purpose of it was opposition research (proven by a series of emails) and supposedly from the Russian government about “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

The Timeline Key Points on July 8^th as AF-1 was returning from the G-20:

1.  W/H director of strategic communications Hope Hicks spoke by phone with Trump Jr. about the meeting say people familiar with the conversations.

2.  Jared Kushner’s team concluded that the best strategy would be to err on the side of transparency, because they believed the complete story would eventually emerge.

3.  The discussions among the president’s advisers consumed much of the day as they returned home from the recent G20 conference in Germany. They continued as they prepared to board Air Force One that evening for the flight home.

4.  But before everyone boarded the plane, Trump had overruled their consensus, according to people with knowledge of the events.

(Note: It still remains unclear exactly how much the president knew at the time of the flight about Trump Jr.’s meeting).

5.  The president directed that Trump Jr.’s statement to the Times describe the meeting as unimportant.

6.  Trump wanted the statement to say that the meeting had been initiated by the Russian lawyer and primarily was about her pet issue — the adoption of Russian children.

This 2-minute video from the Washington Post offers more clarity:

The whole article continues here and original post follows below. This is surely a stunning story to say the least – raises tons of legal issue, but as with other cases involving this president and his methods, who will do anything about the damaging facts?

1.  The public?  Angry for the most part, but basically incapable collectively to do much. 

2.  The two congressional committees? They have no legal power to press charges only investigative about Russian hacking in 2016.

3.  Special Counsel Robert Mueller? Perhaps, and surely he has a ton of materials and evidence. However, whether it rises to the level of being is criminal remains to be seen. 

However, simply common sense and logic say: Yes, there is criminal intent and blatant obstruction of justice. Whatever route to justice is to be pursued and dished with any clarification by proper authorities’ vis-à-vis Donald J. Trump remains to be seen.

Simply stay tuned.