Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump's clandestine lovers, I wasn't just a witness to the president's rise, I was an active and eager participant.

I'll assume that all of you have read the complete foreward to Disloyal, the upcoming book from former Trump attorney/fixer Michael Cohen from which the above quote comes. I can't wait to see who gets the movie rights to the book. Just the forward itself would make for a fine, very fine, trailer!

Since Trump's Christonut supporters back their mental case no matter what, I will also assume that they will not only shrug as always but continue to embrace him right down to his attitudes towards people, our country, and the world. They applaud and endorse everything he does so I can't wait to see them all wearing their Trump Golden Showers hats. Far be it for me to be judgmental, but would it surprise you if they've been to that same Vegas sex club? Maybe the unzipped Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his unzipped gal pal go there too? How long before Golden Showers are their #1 Christian blessed sacrament?

How Many Times Did The Russian Hookers Putin Sent Trump Pee On Him? New Proof

Bloomberg uncovered proof that-- at the very least-- Señor Trumpanzee was lying about the pee-pee tapes. Trump's defense-- that he's a germaphobe make no sense. Urine is not sterile but, as Trump, a long time golden showers aficionado, knows urine is no less sterile than any other part of us.

Microbes are an indelible part of our bodies and the world around us. Not even the uterus and placenta, long thought to enshroud fetuses in sterile envelopes during gestation, are actually germ-free zones. They contain complex, varied microbial colonies-- microbiomes-- that help prepare us for the real world... Okay, so, to recap. Urine: not sterile. But on the other hand, bacteria: not inherently bad. So if you don't have a UTI, is drinking your urine okay?

All golden showers fans, like Trump and his obsessed urine pal Mercer are aware that "drinking your own urine is probably okay for a day or two. Any longer, and you risk over-taxing your kidneys and falling into deeper dehydration troubles."

Trump has always lied about how long he stayed in Moscow and how many hookers he had in the room. Yesterday Bloomberg reporter wrote that he "twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn’t be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI director, according to Comey’s memos about the conversations.

Yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it’s substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.

Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide fresh details. Combined with existing accounts and Trump’s own social-media posts, they capture two days that, nearly five years later, loom large in the controversy engulfing the White House and at the heart of the Comey memos, which the Justice Department turned over last week to Congress.

...According to Comey’s accounts of his 2017 meetings with the president, Trump said the Moscow trip was so quick that his head never hit a pillow-- even for one night. Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017.

The first denial came over dinner at the White House in late January 2017. “He said he arrived in the morning, did events, then showered and dressed for the pageant at the hotel," and then left for the event, Comey wrote. “Afterwards, he returned only to get his things because they departed for New York by plane that same night."

On the second occasion in February 2017, Trump “explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn’t stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip," Comey wrote.

A reconstruction of events shows the future U.S. president’s journey to Moscow began in North Carolina, where he attended a birthday tribute to evangelist Billy Graham on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. While flight records show Trump’s own Cessna jet headed back to New York that night from Asheville, North Carolina, Trump himself apparently wasn’t aboard.

Instead, Trump flew to Moscow on a Bombardier Global 5000 private jet owned by Phil Ruffin, his partner in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Las Vegas, the New York Times reported in January 2017. Trump’s use of Ruffin’s jet is also reported in the newly published book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

The jet-- tail number N443PR-- had flown from Las Vegas to Asheville on Nov. 6, according to the flight records that Bloomberg purchased from FlightAware, an aviation data company. The flight records don’t say who was aboard the jet, which took off from Asheville at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, bound for Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport.

The Bombardier jet landed in Moscow on Friday, Nov. 8, at a time unspecified in the records. From Vnukovo airport, it’s less than an hour’s drive to the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where Trump stayed, according to the pageant’s host, developer Aras Agalarov.

Trump surfaced online later that day in a Facebook post by the restaurant Nobu Moscow. That night he attended a birthday party for Agalarov.

The next day, Saturday, Nov. 9, Facebook posts showed Trump at the Ritz during the day, and in the afternoon he tweeted that he’d gotten a tour of Moscow. That evening, he attended the Miss Universe pageant, followed by an after-party whose scheduled start time was 1 a.m.-- by that time, Sunday, Nov. 10. American rock band Panic! at the Disco, which had performed at the pageant, put on a second set for the 1,200 after-party attendees.

At this point, the flight records support a narrow slice of what Trump told Comey: On the night of the pageant itself, the plane Trump was said to be using didn’t fully overnight in Russia. Ruffin’s Bombardier took off from Vnukovo airport at 3:58 a.m. Moscow time, the records show.

When the jet touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport, just outside New York City, it was still Sunday morning-- 4:11 a.m. local time. That evening, Trump tweeted about his return, “I just got back from Russia-learned lots & lots. Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place!"

Sex Crimes And The Orangeman, 2.0

-by Helen Klein

Once he was elected, Trump must have taken a deep sigh of relief, thinking that his past sexual escapades were behind him and no longer worthy of scrutiny. Although the press has unfortunately left this topic alone for a while, this is likely to change very soon. In light of the Russian brouhaha going on, this aspect of Trump’s background now deserves focus under a microscope. Surely there is plenty more fodder along this vein to support the case for Russian blackmail, and it would be unfathomable for the media to ignore any aspects of Trump’s history that would shed further light on his actions and predilections.

Now that Alexander Acosta is up for Congressional approval as Secretary of Labor, this is a new opportunity to revisit Acosta’s past court cases, particularly the one involving Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime associate of Trump’s.

The February 16th Politico article, Trump’s Labor Nominee Oversaw ‘Sweetheart Plea Deal’ in Billionaire’s Sex Case, reviews Acosta’s role in the case against Jeffrey Epstein.

Acosta could face a grilling in the Senate over claims that-- while he was the top federal prosecutor in Miami-- he cut a sweetheart pleas deal in 2008 with a billionaire investor accused of having sex with dozens of underage girls. As the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, Acosta agreed not to file any federal charges against the wealthy financier, Jeffrey Epstein, if he pled guilty to state charges involving soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Acosta’s involvement in the saga could be personally or politically awkward for Trump, drawing fresh attention to his ties to Epstein-- including the financier’s tenure as a member at Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine back in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it-- Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Despite a decade of alleged serial sexual abuse and rape of an unknowable number of girls, some as many as 100 times according to court filings, Epstein was offered a deal. He received an 18 month jail sentence, of which he served only 13 months-- this included a 6-day "work permit" allowing him to stay home most of the time. Basically it was a slap on the wrist. This led to outrage from his other alleged victims.

Officially, Epstein is a convicted rapist and sex offender, although he minimizes this and laughs it off.

“I’m not a sexual predator, I’m an offender,” he told the New York Post in 2011, shortly after a New York judge classified him as a level 3 offender, “or a threat to public safety”… ”It’s the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel,” Epstein said.

Epstein is notorious for his relationships with underage girls. His plane, nicknamed The Lolita Express, and known as a hot-spot for underaged sex orgies, flew many friends and associates, including Trump, to his private island, referred to as Sex Slave Island. He also has a mansion in Manhattan, where various nefarious activities of a sexual nature are alleged to have taken place.

Some further information about the Trump-Epstein connection was provided by Amanda Prestigiacomo in the May 2016 edition of the Daily Wire:

When under oath, while Epstein acknowledged he knew Trump, he “curiously pled the Fifth to Trump attending sex parties with underage girls.”

At least one of Epstein’s underage sex victims was recruited from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, which he frequented often.

Trump was subpoenaed in 2009 for his connection to Epstein’s underage sex slave rings. Trump has denied ever being served. The lawyer who served him said this was patently false.

This may be only the tip of the iceberg regarding Trump’s sexual exploits. More could and should be exposed that would be hugely embarrassing to him.

On August 20th, this writer wrote a DWT post entitled, A Potential Death Knell for Trump?-- A Case of Underage Rape. Matt Taibbi of the Rolling Stone mentioned the case in his article, Summer of the Shill. Unconscionably, this story got virtually no traction in the press during the campaign. The case was eventually dropped by the plaintiff, who apparently received threatening phone calls and felt intimidated.

Short version: On June 20, 2016, a case was filed in the United States District Court in the southern district of New York by Jane Doe, Plaintiff, proceeding under a pseudonym, against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, Defendants. A trial by jury is demanded. The incidents described took place in 1994. What are Trump and Epstein being accused of?

Rape, sexual misconduct, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, battery, intentional and reckless infliction of emotional distress, duress, false imprisonment and defamation.

After the disgusting video of Trump with Billy Bush the week before the election, many women came forward to reveal inappropriate sexual behavior by Trump.



Buzzfeed’s incredible revelations from Christopher Steele, British intelligence agent, received considerable media attention.

Former top intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB.

One which has borne fruit for them was to exploit Trump’s personal obsessions and sexual perversion in order to obtain suitable ‘kompromat’ (compromising material) on him. According to source D, where s/he had been present, Trump’s (perverted) conduct in Moscow included hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President and Mrs. Obama (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia, and defiled the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all of the main rooms to record anything they wanted to.

According to the recent Vox article, The 3 Trump-Russia Scandals Explained, the third leg of the scandal is, “Does Russia have dirt on Trump?”

The third scandal is, by far, the least supported of the three. It stems almost entirely from anonymous allegations in the Steele dossier, and involves deeply bizarre and hard to believe stuff. (Bizarre perhaps, but not actually so hard to believe.)

In 2013, Trump travelled to Russia to host the Miss Universe pageant. Before he went, he tweeted this: “Do you think Putin will be going to the Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow? If so-- will he become my new best friend?”

According to Steele’s source, Trump did some very naughty things during his visits to Russia… Russian agents filmed these acts, according to Steele’s sources, and are wielding them to blackmail Trump into taking pro-Russian positions.

“Trump’s unorthodox behavior in Russia over the years have provided the authorities there with enough embarrassing material on the Republican Presidential candidate to be able to blackmail him if they so wished.”

Basically, the Russian connection will be a problem for Trump for the foreseeable future. And it’s all his own fault.

In conclusion, further investigative reporting on Trump’s history of sexual exploits would be important at this time. Potentially worthy of a great deal of embarrassment, such revelations may empower women who have been mistreated by him and have been intimidated to reconsider pursuing civil suits and/or criminal prosecution. Revelations would also provide more substance to any further accusations about misconduct in Russia worthy of blackmail.

Trump, Flynn, Putin, The Golden Showers-- Why Members of Congress Are Demanding Trump Fire Flynn

Friday, two progressive Democrats who served in the military and are especially concerned about National Security issues, Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), demanded Trump fire his scandal-plagued National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. They pointed out in a joint statement that "Flynn sought to undermine the foreign policy of a sitting American President.  And then he lied-- repeatedly and egregiously-- about his actions. Donald Trump should fire Michael Flynn immediately. Flynn communicated with high-ranking Russian officials both before and after a presidential election that, according to our intelligence community, Russia actively worked to influence on behalf of Donald Trump.  When President Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its unprecedented efforts to disrupt our democracy, Flynn made a series of phone calls to the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, offering assurances that the incoming administration would lift these measures after Trump was sworn-in. General Flynn then compounded this outrageous misconduct by lying on multiple occasions about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak, claiming that sanctions had never been discussed. Not only did Flynn mislead Congress and the American people, he also apparently deceived Vice President Mike Pence, who made false statements on Flynn’s behalf in an interview with Face the Nation."

The two congressmen concluded by pointing out that "at a minimum, Flynn recklessly violated the sacred principle that America only has one president at a time. But a compelling case can also be made that Flynn violated federal law by collaborating with foreign officials while still a private citizen. The American people deserve competence-- not corruption-- from the leaders entrusted with our national security. They deserve to be told the truth by the men and women who advise the President. And they deserve a full accounting of how and when President Trump’s advisors colluded with a foreign power that sought to alter the outcome of an American election. For all of these reasons, President Trump should fire General Flynn."

OK, fair enough-- and Lieu and Gallego didn't even get into the sordid details which should all come out in investigations and, hopefully a trial. According to a report in the NY Times Thursday, "current and former American officials said that conversation [between Flynn and Putin's man Kislyak]-- which took place the day before the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia over accusations that it used cyberattacks to help sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favor-- ranged far beyond the logistics of a post-inauguration phone call. And they said it was only one in a series of contacts between the two men that began before the election..." Flynn is feigning memory loss in regard to what is clearly treason.

Pence's lie on Face The Nation was when he said Flynn and Kislyak "did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia." But that's exactly what intelligence agency tapes of the conversation-- how dumb is Flynn not to comprehend that all Kislyak conversations are routinely monitored?-- show was talked about. At the very least, Flynn was violating the Logan Act-- and Pence was covering up for him.

Federal officials who have read the transcript of the call were surprised by Mr. Flynn’s comments, since he would have known that American eavesdroppers closely monitor such calls. They were even more surprised that Mr. Trump’s team publicly denied that the topics of conversation included sanctions.

The call is the latest example of how Mr. Trump’s advisers have come under scrutiny from American counterintelligence officials. The F.B.I. is also investigating Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign; and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.

Prosecutions in these types of cases are rare, and the law is murky, particularly around people involved in presidential transitions. The officials who had read the transcripts acknowledged that while the conversation warranted investigation, it was unlikely, by itself, to lead to charges against a sitting national security adviser.

But, at the very least, openly engaging in policy discussions with a foreign government during a presidential transition is a remarkable breach of protocol. The norm has been for the president-elect’s team to respect the sitting president, and to limit discussions with foreign governments to pleasantries. Any policy discussions, even with allies, would ordinarily be kept as vague as possible.

“It’s largely shunned, period. But one cannot rule it out with an ally like the U.K.,” said Derek Chollet, who was part of the Obama transition in 2008 and then served in senior roles at the State Department, White House and Pentagon.

“But it’s way out of bounds when the said country is an adversary, and one that has been judged to have meddled in the election,” he added. “It’s just hard to imagine anyone having a substantive discussion with an adversary, particularly if it’s about trying to be reassuring.”

Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) put out a similar statement to the one Lieu and Gallego put out: "There is no good way to explain today’s report that Michael Flynn was coordinating sanctions relief for Russia before his boss was inaugurated. Either Donald Trump directed his National Security Adviser to undermine U.S. foreign policy on Russia, or Michael Flynn went rogue and did it on his own. Then he either lied to the Vice President or the Vice President went on television to lie to the American people. Whatever transpired, the President needs to get his White House under control."



As if that weren't bad enough, late yesterday, Jake Tapper reported on CNN, although CNN was careful to point out that there is still no definitive proof that Trump was hiring Russian prostitutes to piss on him, the part of the story that gave the dossier the nickname, the "Golden Showers Dossier." Essentially what CNN is reporting is that intelligence agency intercepts "confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier." But there are still no publicly available tapes of the hookers pissing on Trump, who claims he's germaphobic and therefore would never allow a Russian hooker or multiple Russian hookers-- virtually all of whom are HIV positive-- to pee on him. CNN reported that "The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement 'greater confidence' in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say," but everyone is staying mum on how many hookers pissed on Trump and if they pissed on him one at a time or they all pissed on him together at the same time. There are also some people who like being pissed on in the mouth and Trump might-- or, to be fair-- might not be one of those.

Sean Spicer is now writing lines for Melissa McCarthy to use on SNL. When CNN reached out to the regime for comments on the corroborated parts of the dossier he snarled "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting." Spicer later said CNN is reporting this as part of a conspiracy to get peoples' attention off some meeting Trump had with Japan's notoriously fascist prime minister Friday.

No one at the FBI, Department of Justice, CIA or Office of the Director of National Intelligence would comment on CNN's report or on if Americans will ever get to see the tapes of Trump being urinated on by Russian prostitutes in a notoriously bugged suite in the Ritz Carlton in Moscow two blocks from the Kremlin, where even novice travelers know that only officially-sanctioned FSB (formerly the KGB) prostitutes are allowed to ply their trade.

Currently Putin is busy arresting and in at least one case, murdering, everyone who was involved in the sordid episode. CNN reported that they were told by US intelligence officials that "some of the individuals involved in the intercepted communications were known to the US intelligence community as 'heavily involved' in collecting information damaging to Hillary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump." They claim they don't know if Putin has the tapes of the hookers pissing on Trump and no one knows if the tapes are clear enough to make out definitively and whether or not you can hear what Trump is saying while the prostitutes are urinating on him. FBI and CIA agents refer to Trump's golden showers episode as "the more salacious things" in the dossier. There are rumors that Larry Flynt of Hustler-- not to be confused with Michael Flynn, a hustler-- is trying to buy the tapes from Putin.

Inauguration Day Weather Forecast: 54 Degrees, Cloudy, Light Wind, Chance Of Golden Showers

-by Skip Kaltenheuser

If the as yet unverified and unsubstantiated report on Russian spies with Trump scandals in their pockets turns out to be even half true, I’ll be gobsmacked. It would be hard to comprehend that when Trump-- a global traveler with insights into the underworld and anything-goes weasels like Roy Cohn-- was traveling in Russia he didn’t quickly grasp that many hotels, loaded with hookers with mobster supervisors, would have rooms wired for surveillance. That could only be ignored by someone with no control over his appetites and/or is a risk-adrenaline junkie and/or is an exhibitionist on an unimagined scale.

Many years ago I stayed in the Cosmos, originally built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, legendary for KGB surveillance targeting guests throughout the massive 1,777 room hotel. No idea if anyone there now watches the lives of others, but when I was there my jaw dropped at hookers-- stunning, roped in from slavic regions, the Ukraine, Georgia, the Balkans, etc...-- parading back and forth on a narrow path along the sides of the huge lobby and up on to a balcony walkway and around and back down to a lobby bar to linger for a tea and conversation. They weren’t allowed to traverse the main area of the lobby so guests wouldn’t panic. Elevators were watched by guys in suits with long scars on their face who kept tabs on their temptresses and watched the clock to make sure that after their original mission they didn’t linger upstairs for a freelance quickie-- girls still tried, adding new context to "elevator pitches." The Chinese are more subtle, but they pull those stunts, too. Perhaps they share a lending library with the Russians. Nothing new here, friends in China swear to me that the Chinese have the goods on a Nixon dalliance from when he passed through Hong Kong. Nothing would surprise.

But I’ve been skeptical about Putin’s hack/leaks involvement, been hard to fully embrace it. Now we’re all parsing Buzzfeed’s offering, which left me in danger of drifting from my anchor of healthy skepticism. Keep reminding oneself that as of this writing, the reports are still not verified and authenticated. I trust legions of journalists are now taking that on, I hope with more success avoiding echo-chambers that trapped them during the election season.

Listening now to Trump’s press conference, the denials came across as spirited and initially somewhat nimble, though parts of the conference were retreats into retreads from campaign speeches. But there seems to be a time limit or pressure point after which Mr. Hyde surfaces, as when Trump jumped down a CNN reporter’s throat. He dodged questions on contacts between his associates and Russia, then concluded the press conference when that question circled back.

Trump’s legal eagles make plausible-sounding defenses of non-divestment trust strategies for family business interests. They were stepped on by Trump's claim that if he had to he had the ability to ably run both his company and his country, and no doubt several alternate Earths as well. But some of that defense amounted to throwing everything into a ball of confusion and implying well, what’s a wild and free-roaming mogul to do? I look forward to seeing conflict-of-interest experts tackle it.

Here’s some WaPo fact-checking on Trump’s press conference. And here’s the NY Times fact-check take. Here’s the transcript and video if you want to try your hand.

Back to hack, I can’t help but observe that recently Trump often wears an expression like he’s been kissed by a Russian caviar sturgeon. Still, I could round up other usual suspects, from the Chinese moguls Howie has detailed here and here-- some of whom might catch a good deal if Trump suddenly had to do a major divestment; to Likud sympathizers/operatives-- thrilled at the prospect of a US ambassador as extremist and whacky as they are; to Wall Streeters with indictable histories-- who feared the pressure Sanders and Warren might put on Hillary; to a DNC or Clinton Foundation insider who couldn’t stomach what was going on, going rogue. And there’s always the fallback on ? and the Mysterians. But if it can be demonstrated that there’s a big whoopsie going on within the Kremlin, that scenario will intrigue. Until then, this writer will continue to have it both ways.

But why a whoopsie in the Kremlin? Putin ought to be thrilled as revelations pour forth. Credibility of both Hillary and Trump is aflame. Both major parties are hamstrung and weakened, much of mainstream media has been shamed, and the US political establishment is revealed to be as flaky, corrupt and hypocritical as anyone imagined. I hear China is letting in more news reports as cautions against corrupt democracy.

Win-win for Putin.

Unless Putin fears retaliation of a different sort than continued sanctions and a time-out. A few years ago I asked a former ambassador to the Balkans why the US didn’t take the obvious path to undermine Putin and start pushing a gatling gun of items onto the Internet, in Russian, detailing how much Putin and his cronies stole from their countrymen while Russian life expectancies plummeted  particularly for depressed men. Include how the Putin crowd stole it and where they stashed it. And put up Russian translations of books like Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia, by Karen Dawisha, a review of it here. The ambassador thought it a swell idea. That it hasn’t happened makes me wonder if there is some sort of Mexican standoff with US intelligence. Or if there’s fear of a wounded Putin bear with nothing to lose. Maybe now a steady stream of revelations on a kleptocrat without peer will become unavoidable. Perhaps Putin's recipe for radioactive soup.

Meanwhile, I’m intrigued at the prospect of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in Russia by Trump’s outfits, though again that asparagus whiff is in the unverified, unauthenticated leak in Buzzfeed. But if it’s there, and investigators can crack open the shells, there might be lurking dynamite to launch Trumpster to the dumpster. Maybe the Demo’s will eventually again cheer the Comey cha-cha. But consider Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Walter Clayton, from a law firm of Goldman Sachs minions, a lawyer who worked on the public offering of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Company, which was reported to be undergoing an SEC look-see. Clayton has argued for damping down FCPA enforcement. Here’s a contrary point of view on the FCPA from a writer I particularly enjoy.

With some irony, I note that Trump has again been handed a timely distraction from very critical issues-- his cabinet nominees from the Goldman Sachs network of revolving doors, for instance-- that will now get less scrutiny as we become transfixed on every morsel of uncertain origin tumbling from Russia.

Hey, have you ever seen the art of Mark Lombardi? Really sorry he’s not with us now, could sure use him as Washington’s artist-in-residence for narrative structures that chronicle the incoming titans of influence. If you have some time, sit down and watch this amazing, mind-blowing documentary about Lombardi, Death-Defying Acts Of Art And Conspiracy:



Is it too soon to bring back UB40’s "Rat in Mi Kitchen," written for Margaret Thatcher, to become the theme song for the incoming Trumpocalypse? Here’s a version that dropped a lyric but throws in a Herb Albert trumpet solo that’ll put you right. I see anthem potential. Good for marching with pitchforks and torches. And for Trump voters turning on a dime once they feel betrayed, just as many did with the Clintons.