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Trump Land: Just Another Whacky Weekend | DCReport.org

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We report what they do, not just what they say.WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 26: President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Thanksgiving on November 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump had earlier made the traditional call to members of the military stationed abroad through video teleconference. (Photo by Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images)&nbsp;Even for Donald Trump and the Republican Tabernacle Choir of the Senate, this weekend was an all-star level of crazy-making. The White House again ignored a pandemic killing 3,000 Americans a day, widespread misery and an attack on the nation while discussing the possibility of martial law over Trump’s election loss.What saved it was the last-minute, roller-coaster deal in the Congress for a coronavirus aid bill, as ugly a compromise as possible, but an agreement nevertheless. Stand by for the conflicting credits and new discoveries about what actually passes today in the multi-hundred-page bill.The whole weekend made me, at least, feel as if I live on a different planet – with theirs being one in which it is impossible to separate the important from the inane. We all can agree the White House continues to make seeing the news an emotionally exhausting experience.Just a sampling:Transition interruptus: Trump ordered halted any transition meetings between the Defense Department and the incoming Joe Biden team for the next few weeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;In what universe other than the Trump ego-fantasy does it make any sense for incoming Pentagon leadership not to know about the readiness of military forces, the global danger signs that the Pentagon is tracking, even the Defense spending patterns. Apparently, such meetings were halted because Trump was angered by seeing a Washington Post article that suggested the Biden team was looking at how many billions of dollars could be saved from re-routing money taken from the Pentagon for the border wall construction back to the military. I would hope that is something they should be considering.Screwing up&nbsp;coronavirus economic aid: Even to their own members, the movement among Republican senators to find new religion for relief from debts and deficits by blocking coronavirus aid to Americans reportedly was being seen as nuts. The situation was fluid, but barely, as Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), led a late charge to stop lending by the supposedly independent Federal Reserve for businesses that need credit to stay afloat. A compromise finally got through around narrowing the proposal, setting Congress toward bill approval. Once again it put hunger and evictions over non-payment of rent for millions on real display and requiring a third, brief reset of the deadline clock for the final votes. Republicans had seen it as a fiscal necessity; Democrats saw a bid to throttle the incoming Biden administration even before it takes office. Though the participants will see it as a victory, it was politics at its worst.Ignoring cybersecurity hacking: Even after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was the Russians who broke through software walls guarding the Pentagon, the Treasury and Commerce Departments and the nuclear areas of the Energy Department, Trump still insisted Saturday it could have been the Chinese. He added they could have skewed voting in the election to account for his loss. Trump thinks we are idiots.Trump’s never-ending election challenges:&nbsp;More than six weeks after the election,&nbsp; the lawyer who’s outlandish arguments about election fraud were considered too far out of line for him to even keep her on as a personal lawyer. They discussed making her a special counsel investigating voter fraud, according to two people briefed on the discussion. Even Rudy Giuliani, present by phone, said no, as did White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Apart from all else, declaring a special counsel is the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, not the Oval Office. Powell is the one arguing conspiracy theories about a Venezuelan plot to rig voting machines in the United States. It was unclear if Trump will move ahead on it. Meanwhile, Trump associate and the disgraced but pardoned former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, is going around the country telling Trump to declare martial law over the election results.The pending pardons:&nbsp;Politico reported that&nbsp; as many as 20 aides and associates before leaving office, even to the frustration of Senate Republicans who are arguing that strategy could backfire politically. Again, pardons are supposed to move through the Justice Department and a review process, and again Trump is insisting on his own rules for family and friends. Those under consideration include Giuliani, campaign staff and several members of his family. Of course, accepting a pardon includes the assumption that there was a crime committed. Perhaps the smartest move Trump might make is to offer Hunter Biden the same pre-criminal pardon he apparently is considering for his own kids.Fast and loose money: It turns out Trump will be leaving with &nbsp;with few legal limits on how he can spend it. And, records now show that&nbsp; to direct hundreds of millions into slush funds controlled by Trump. This brazen attempt to siphon reportable campaign money into accounts for which there is no accounting is questionable on lots of grounds. The reports extend the pattern of loose financial ethics marking the Trump presidency. It was common for Trump to use his official office and functions for personal money-making activities. Everything occurred from spending his time golfing at Trump resorts to re-routing foreign trips to the benefit of his own properties.Expanding Mining: Despite the timing, Trump is moving to open up vast amounts of federal land to widespread mining and drilling, It is a move bound to create yet more consternation and problems for the Biden administration. The new administration, for procedural reasons as well as political ones, is bound to challenge a number of the individual sites involved. Again, whose interests are being served here?And in possibly the dumbest attack of the week: Trump supporters took up the challenge to knock the doctorate earned by Dr. Jill Biden, defending and outdoing a particularly sexist, silly and anti-intellectual column from a Wall Street Journal op-ed that asked her to drop the honorific unless she was going to treat coronavirus patients. Go stuff it, kiddo.Meanwhile, at far ends of the news worlds, both The New York Times and Lou Dobbs ran apologies for getting things wrong. The Times said sorry for trusting a source on ISIS without proper investigation. Under legal threat, Dobbs (or his employer Fox News) gave a mea culpa for allowing unsubstantiated lying about conspiracy theories about election fraud.On the other hand, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence reached the enormously important and contentious decision to label members of Space Force as “guardians,” rather than airmen, sailors, soldiers or Marines. Wasn’t that the name of the universe-traveling robot Gort in “The Day the Earth Stood Still”?Klaatu barada nikto.You think we will miss these weekends after Jan. 20?&nbsp;Comments are closed.You'll receive our Week-In-Review every Sunday, plus special notices when big stories hit.

We report what they do, not just what they say.WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 26: President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Thanksgiving on November 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump had earlier made the traditional call to members of the military stationed abroad through video teleconference. (Photo by Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images)&nbsp;Even for Donald Trump and the Republican Tabernacle Choir of the Senate, this weekend was an all-star level of crazy-making. The White House again ignored a pandemic killing 3,000 Americans a day, widespread misery and an...

Trump Land: Just Another Whacky Weekend | DCReport.org

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