Donald Is A Failure

5 Watt Bulb by Nancy Ohanian

 

In case you missed the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, sometimes it's good to get a look at our own politics from a perspective somewhat removed. Columnists Ian Hughes and Alan Blotcky made it clear why that hasn't been easy anywhere in the world, since, as they wrote, "For almost four years, there has hardly been a day that Donald Trump has not made front-page news. The unrelenting avalanche of lies and norm-shattering behaviour that Trump has unleashed has presented the mainstream media with an unprecedented challenge. It is a challenge that the media has struggled to meet, largely because of the ethical and practical difficulties that journalists face in dealing with Trump’s mental pathology." Ah, yes... Trump's mental pathology, which is becoming more and more of an issue in the U.S. election as the "president" suffers a complete mental breakdown front and center for everyone to see. Over the weekend, a trio of Washington Post reporters wrote about how undecided voters in states that voted for Trump in 2016 have been making up their minds to vote against him this cycle, "choices they say were either made or reinforced in recent weeks as Trump has stumbled through a disastrous stretch that has included embarrassing leaks about his comments disparaging military members, a ridiculed debate performance and a Rose Garden ceremony that some describe as a superspreader for a deadly virus. In the homestretch of the 2020 campaign, there has been little good news for the incumbent. And that is showing up as an ominous turn for him in the polls as Biden consolidates support. What had been a steady national lead for Biden in the high single digits during the late summer has expanded to 12 points in early October."

One voter who didn't like Trump or Hillary in 2016 ("couldn't stand" was her phrase) voted for the Libertarian. This year she said, "Trump is just so scary at this point that I don’t think I can waste my vote on a third party. It just keeps getting worse. From his pick for the Supreme Court to his racist comments to his degrading anyone who doesn’t agree with him to his handling of the virus. I can go on and on." A North Carolina Republican who wrote in Romney in 2016 is voting for Biden this year. He told the Post reporters that Trump is "dangerous... just horrible."

Four years ago, voters who decided in the presidential campaign’s waning days broke decisively for Trump, a political newcomer, delivering him a shock victory. This year, evidence suggests there are few who have yet to make up their minds. But many of those who had been on the fence appear to be coming down on Biden’s side.

Back to Hughes and Blotcky in Australia-- there was a reminder that "Even before his election, mental health professionals were warning that Trump’s psychopathology posed a threat to US democracy and to global stability. After his election, dozens of mental health experts collaborated on the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump which became a New York Times bestseller. Over the past three or four months, the number of voices expressing alarm at Trump’s pathology has been growing. The media, however, has largely continued to cover Trump’s actions one story at a time, without joining up the dots and accurately describing his pathology. Of all the thousands of headlines, there is one headline that has not been printed but that makes the most sense of all: "Donald Trump suffers from a dangerous incurable narcissistic disorder which makes him incapable of empathy or reason. He is a grave danger to the US and the world."

The failure of the media to emphasise this obvious fact is a lost opportunity to inform and educate the public so that Trump’s pathology is fully appreciated and understood. As mental health professionals know, Trump’s mental disorder manifests itself in a wide variety of behaviours and not in isolated or disconnected events. In these dangerous times, the challenge for the media, difficult though it is, should be to explain Trump’s pathology in all its complexities and ramifications for the public.

...The evidence about Trump is overwhelming. A free press is one of the central pillars of a democracy. Its role is to be a watchdog on our political leaders and to inform the public. The media can play a vital role in engaging with the alarming reality of Trump’s pathology, despite the difficulties in doing so. Donald Trump is part of a much larger picture. Individuals with dangerous personalities have risen to the highest ranks of power throughout modern history-- from Nixon to Mao, Stalin to Pol Pot. Some have played a crucial role in steering our world towards disaster. A widespread understanding of this basic fact has now become essential for the protection of democracy.

Amy Walter wrote an excellent column on Monday putting all this into a very specific electoral context: Trump's failed bet on his base. She identified 4 requirements for his base electoral strategy to have worked for him (over and above a good economy):

• A united, enthusiastic and engaged GOP base
• A deeply flawed opponent
• Decent support among independent voters (Even as Trump ran up the score among his base in 2016, he also carried independent voters by 2-points.)
• Third-party candidates siphoning off enough votes to allow Trump to win key states with a plurality as he did in 2016

None of that-- including the good economy part-- has worked out for him. And he wasn't counting on a pandemic to expose his incompetence. But that aside, the rock solid GOP base it a little shaky. Biden doesn't appear threatening, even if no one actually likes him. Independent voters hate Trump almost as much as Democrats and he's going to lose every swing state because of that, even a state like Arizona that no one ever counted as a swing state before. And Kanye West? That doesn't seem to be working out for Trump, does it? He might even take Republican votes from Trump... since Democrats aren't going to be this crock from him:

Kushner's Other Presidential Campaign-- Kanye

3 stooges

If there is a "brain" behind the curtain of Kanye West's dysfunctional presidential campaign-- a blatant attempt to bolster Trump by drawing black and millennial voters away from Biden-- it is Jared Kushner. Kushner has always projected a higher opinion of himself than his results have merited. His high school tutor told me he was incredibly stupid and could only get into college because of his father's multi-million dollar gifts.

That Kanye's campaign is a non-starter can be lain at Kushner's feet-- as can the illegal nature of the campaign, at least according to Paul Ryan, writing for JustSecurity.org last week.

A provision of federal law known as the “soft money ban” prohibits candidates and their agents like Kushner from soliciting contributions that exceed amount limits or come from prohibited sources (e.g., foreign contributions). Federal law defines “contribution” broadly to include “any gift... of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office” and “anything of value includes all in-kind contributions.” Contributions from one candidate committee to another are limited to $2,000. And the FEC by regulation defines “solicit” to mean “to ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or implicitly, that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value.”

If Kushner has explicitly or implicitly requested or recommended that West spend money on West’s candidacy, with the motivation of having West siphon votes from Joe Biden, then Kushner has arguably violated federal law by soliciting in-kind contributions from West to Trump in excess of the applicable $2,000 contribution limit. Under this theory, every dollar West spends on his campaign with Kushner’s encouragement is an in-kind contribution. And West has spent well in excess of $2,000 on his campaign efforts to date, including, for example, payment of $35,000 filing fee to the State of Oklahoma to have his name on the ballot.

Now if Kanye siphons off a bunch of votes from Biden in totally red states like Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia, who cares? Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia aren't states where Biden will even be competing. And it doesn't matter in overwhelmingly blue states like Illinois and Vermont either, since Trump isn't competing in them. The problem is when Kushner tries getting him onto the ballot-- with the help of GOP operatives-- in swing states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona, Montana and Virginia.

Yesterday Ben Jacobs reported that "In a span of two days, West was booted from the ballot in five states: Illinois, Montana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Illinois, Montana, and West Virginia, it was because he filed an insufficient number of valid signatures. In Wisconsin, it was because West did not file on time. In Ohio, the information and signature on West’s nominating petition and his statement of candidacy did not match those on petitions circulated to be signed. West has filed in several other states in this week: Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia, but it is unclear if he will ultimately qualify to appear on the ballot in all of them."

West may face particular issues in Virginia, where seven of the thirteen electors that West submitted told [Jacobs] they were either unaware that they signed up to cast electoral votes on his behalf, or that they had signed notarized paperwork connected to the rapper’s presidential bid at all.

“Is this a joke?” one of the electors, Ilisa Stillman, asked when reached by [Jacobs]. “Holy guacamole,” she replied when informed it was not. “I’m certainly not supporting Kanye West,” she made clear before ending the conversation.

Another elector, Sariah Cutler, said that someone approached her at the mall for what she was told was “a petition just to put somebody’s name on the ballot.” She went on to ask, “Is there any way I can take my name off?”

“There was no mention of Kanye West,” explained Matthew Wilson, who said he was walking in downtown Norfolk when he was asked to sign for a third party candidate to be on the ballot. He sounded stunned when told what he had signed up for. “Ain’t no way in the world,” Wilson responded, adding that if he had known that he was being approached on the rapper’s behalf, “I would have walked away.”

...Invariably, the electors had been approached during the petition gathering effort in Virginia. The state requires at least 200 valid signatures from each of its 11 congressional districts and a total of at least 2500 valid signatures statewide.

The Virginia strategy marked a change in approach from the campaign’s earlier efforts finding electors-- the people who would, were the candidate to win the state, vote for them in the Electoral College. Early in West’s campaign, the rapper personally selected people to appear on his behalf as electors. The consultation process as he handpicked people reportedly delayed operations in several states and served as further impediment to the campaign’s already-rushed signature gathering efforts.

More recently, West’s elector slates have been jam-packed with Republican operatives and activists. In Vermont, Chuck Wilton, a GOP delegate to next week’s 2020 Republican National Convention, was selected as a West elector. The rapper’s elector slates in both Wisconsin and Colorado had a number of Republican activists, as well. In the latter state, Vice News reported that a Republican operative, Rachel George, had sent an email recruiting electors for West in advance of the filing deadline.

Indeed, a number of Republican operatives have been involved in West’s campaign. Gregg Keller, the former executive director of the American Conservative Union, appeared as the campaign’s point of contact when the rapper filed in Arkansas and, in Wisconsin, Lane Ruhland, a lawyer representing the Trump campaign in court, filed on West’s behalf. In Louisiana, West’s forms and elector slate were notarized by Bryan Jeansonne, a prominent Republican activist and member of the Louisiana Republican Party’s central committee. (His law firm, Doré Jeansonne, was co-founded with Jason Dore, a longtime GOP operative who is currently the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party.)

West’s campaign did have a bipartisan flourish in Tennessee, however: his slate of electors there included not only a 2016 delegate to the Republican National Convention, but two two scions of a Democratic Party political dynasty, Sir Isaac Ford and Newton Ford. They are the sons of former Congressman Harold Ford, Sr. and the brothers of former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. The Ford family has long been a power broker in Memphis Democratic politics, although their influence has [THANKK GOD] waned in recent years.

Aside from his ballot woes, West also missed Thursday’s midnight deadline for him to file a report with the Federal Election Commission. The rapper was required to do so if he was intending to spend at least $100,000 in the course of his campaign. Considering West has mounted paid signature gathering efforts in over a dozen states, held a campaign rally in South Carolina, and paid multiple state filing fees, including $35,000 in Oklahoma alone, it’s almost certain he has exceeded that.

So far, Kanye West is officially on the ballot in four states: Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Vermont-- and almost certain to appear in several others including Louisiana and Utah. Despite the ongoing hiccups, his campaign is moving forward with efforts to appear on the ballot in the swing state of Arizona as well as the deep red states of Idaho, Kentucky, and Wyoming.

Although there has been strong speculation that West is a plant being used by Republicans in an attempt to steal Black voters away from Joe Biden this fall, the rapper’s motivation is certainly more complicated than that. Meanwhile, public polling data shows West being unpopular among all demographics; but particularly among those with an unfavorable opinion of Trump. And West’s candidacy may not benefit the president at all: a private poll fielded by West’s campaign early in the process, which was described as being commissioned by those close to West who did not want him to run, saw the rapper getting around 1 percent of the vote nationally and hurting Trump more than he hurt Biden.

All Kushner needs is for Kanye to get on one or two swing states--say Arizona and Ohio-- to actually deny Biden the electoral votes he needs to oust Trump.

Has Jared Kushner Taken Over Kanye's Mind On Behalf Of The Trumpanzee Campaign?

There are always contrarians-- people who go against the grain just to... go against the grain. In the early 1930s, a Jew voting for Hitler as Germany's fragile democracy was collapsing-- and there were some-- would likely have been a severe contrarian. Those votes didn't prevent them from being rounded up and exterminated in gas chambers. According to Pew Research, 6% of 2016 Black voters cast their ballots for Trump. Contrarianism is one explanation. Can you think of a more clownish contrarian than deranged rap star Kanye West? We covered his presidential "campaign" late Monday night.

The idea behind it was simple: Trump isn't going to get many Black voters-- maybe even less than the 6% he got in 2016. But preventing some from voting for Biden-Kamala in a few swing states-- like Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa-- could swing the electoral college to Trump again. Black voters, it turns out, are way too smart for that, as is apparent in the Morning Consult poll for Politico yesterday. Just 2% of voters say he's their choice and just 2% of African-American voters say he's their choice. Most people see it as either a Trumpist ploy or a typical Kanye publicity stunt. People don't tale his bid seriously, despite a gaggle of experienced Republican Party operatives, like Gregg Keller, former executive director of the American Conservative Union, working to legitimize him and get him on the ballot in key states. This is his 10-point Bible-driven "platform" (for lack of a better word):

• Restore faith and revive our Constitutional commitment to freedom of religion and the free exercise of one’s faith, demonstrated by restoring prayer in the classroom including spiritual foundations.
We will not hide the truth from our children, but will declare to the next generation His praises and wonder. Psalm 78:4

• Restore the sound national economy. Reduce household debt and student loan debt.
God has plans to give us hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

• Provide leadership to restructure our country’s education system to serve the most at-risk and vulnerable populations allowing the widest possible range of educational and vocational paths to job opportunities and career success.
Direct your children on the right path. Proverbs 22:6

• Maintain a strong national defense, fully prepared, but not so quick to tie up our country’s young men and women in foreign quagmires that do not advance our national interest, and which last for decades.
Through God we shall do valiantly. Psalm 60:12

• Reform the legal system to provide true justice, equitable for all citizens, regardless of race or ability to defend oneself in court. Recognize the disparity in verdicts and prison sentences, caused by the lack of financial resources or legal assistance.
There will not be differing weights and differing measures. Proverbs 20:10

• Reform the approach to policing in a manner that treats all Americans the same, regardless of race, color, or ethnicity. Refocus police forces on real crime. Eliminate federal sentencing guidelines that tie the hands of judges, resulting in ridiculous sentences for the most minor offenses.
We will speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Proverbs 31:8

• Take care of the environment, diligently pursuing clean air and water as a national security priority and making renewables top priority.
The past is forgotten and everything can be new 2 Corinthians 5:17

• Ensure that we always place Americans’ best interest first and foremost in dealing with foreign affairs. We must project strength, not aggression. We want trust, but we must also verify. We want fair trade, not one-sided deals that hurt American workers.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

• Support faith-based groups to provide vital local services, giving communities a shared purpose in government.
We will provide ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works Hebrews 10:24

• Creativity and the Arts can be an important source of innovation and development of other national strengths and resources.
He has given them skill in all kinds of work done. Exodus 35:35

The only semi-significant support the poll found for him was among the youngest-- and least reliable-- cohort of voters, Gen Z, where he could get 6% of the vote. Oh... and then there's Jared Kushner, who, the NY Times reported yesterday, "met privately last weekend with Kanye" in Telluride, Kanye leaving a family camping trip to fly in and meet with Trumpanzee's campaign overseer.

After an inquiry, Mr. West tweeted Tuesday evening: “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared,” adding that they had discussed a book about Black empowerment called Powernomics.” He did not elaborate on his meeting with Mr. Kushner in a brief follow-up interview. He instead expressed anger about abortion rates among Black women and said he didn’t reflexively support Democrats.

Forbes went further in their reporting: a Kushner-Kanye yack session daily. A friend of Kanye's told Randall Lane explained that Kanye is "mentally ill. When you have people around him who have the best intentions and don’t need anything from him, you can steer him when he’s in that space into a positive place. When you have people around him who see him as an opportunity, they create a very, very bad scenario." Some in Kanye's circle "feel that Kushner now falls into that latter camp in ways that flirt with exploitation-- concerning, after Kardashian West asked publicly for 'compassion and empathy.' One described their understanding of Kushner’s conversations with West as 'reverse psychology.' Others prescribe less malicious intent, though that narrative would require a level of naiveté that would rank up there with sitting in a meeting at Trump Tower with Russians who promise to have dirt on Hillary Clinton."

I'm not sure how big Kanye is in Montana but the Billings Gazette reported yesterday that Republican operatives are trying to get him on the ballot there, specifically to draw voters away from Biden/Kamala. They've been gathering signatures and telling people explicitly it was to siphon off Biden votes in November.

"You want to help Trump?" one of the organizers called out Tuesday afternoon in front of the Yellowstone County Courthouse. "We're trying to take votes away from creepy Uncle Joe."

...A similar group of organizers were at MetraPark on Tuesday using the same pitch, calling out to fair-goers as they approached the gate, sometimes not even mentioning West's name.

The organizer on the sidewalk in front of the county courthouse called to people as they approached or left the building Tuesday afternoon. His pitch was always the same, help Trump, sign the petition, get West on the ballot and draw votes away from Biden.

The man declined to give his name, saying he had been "told expressly to stay away from the media." He also declined to name the group that recruited him to gather signatures, describing them as clients of the West campaign.

About 6,400 of Montana's 1.1 million people are Black. Kanye probably has a lot more fans than that in the state. The Republican organizers of his ballot effort have until August 19, a week from yesterday, to gather 5,000 verifiable signatures. Many-- in some cases, most-- of these signatures the GOP operatives have been turning in in other states are forgeries. And that's hardly the only dirty trick the GOP is trying to pull off in Montana to protect Trump and Daines and their other candidates. They're also trying-- so far unsuccessfully-- to use the Montana Green Party as a way to divert progressive votes away from Biden.

A couple of free thinkers. How would you like a tape of their presidential strategy meeting? 

Can Kanye West Help Señor Trumpanzee Steal An Election He Can't Win Legitimately?

Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian shrugs off his outlandish behavior by reminding everyone that he's bipolar, trying to generate pity for him and sympathy for herself. He's been committed to a mental hospital at least once and, although not officially diagnosed as psychotic, every indication points right at that. And now he wants to help Trump win a second term-- by appealing to low-info fans of his music who might otherwise vote for Biden. I doubt much is going to come of this-- other than lots of fines for faking signatures on nominating petitions in every state in which he tries, unsuccessfully to get on the ballot.

Yesterday, though, the Washington Post assigned legitimate reporters, Rosalind Helderman and Josh Dawsey, to cover Kayne's clown show. They report that Republican Party operatives in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Ohio and other states are working to help get him on the ballot. Ohio and Wisconsin I can understand... but Arkansas?

"West’s presidential effort," wrote Helderman and Dawsey, "has largely sputtered since he formally filed to run as an independent candidate representing the 'Birthday Party' in July. He has held just one campaign rally last month in North Charleston, S.C., where he appeared onstage wearing a bulletproof vest and broke down in tears, prompting his wife, Kim Kardashian West, to post messages on Instagram asking for the public’s 'compassion and empathy' as he struggles with bipolar disorder. But in at least five states, Republican activists and operatives-- including some who have publicly supported Trump and a lawyer who has worked for his 2020 campaign-- have been involved with efforts to try to get the rapper on the November ballot... Their involvement raises the specter that his candidacy is being propped up by a GOP-driven effort to siphon votes from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden." You think? Señor Trumpanzee, of course, swears he has "nothing to do" with it. It's an open secret that Trump personally persuaded West to do put on they farce. Helderman and Dawsey reported that Sam Nunberg, who worked for Trump for four years as he prepared his presidential run before they had a falling-out in 2015, "said the effort to get West on the ballot was the kind of political scheme that would both appeal to Trump-- and potentially help him. 'Does the Biden campaign want Kanye West campaigning in Cleveland, in Cincinnati, in Milwaukee?' he asked. 'I don’t think they do.'"

A spokesperson for West’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Asked by a reporter for Forbes Magazine this past week if his goal was to take votes from Biden, West said in a text message he was “walking . . . to win.” Told he could serve as a spoiler in the race, West responded, “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”

West’s shoestring campaign appears to consist solely of a bare bones website that until Saturday featured only a hand-scrawled message from the performer, asking supporters to sign a petition to help him get on the South Carolina ballot. He did not ultimately submit paperwork in that state, where he held his sole rally, before the July 20 deadline.

His newly updated site features a montage of disparate images, including a picture of Jesus and a photograph of Earth from space, along with 10-point policy platform that includes restoring prayer to the classroom, reducing household debt burdens and criminal justice reform-- along with an invitation to donate to his campaign.

West’s campaign has so far filed petitions to appear on the ballot in 10 states, but some of those submissions, as in New Jersey, have been found insufficient by state officials.

Others are still being reviewed. On Friday, officials in Illinois found that 60 percent of the signatures the campaign submitted there were invalid, leaving West without the required 2,500 signatures to appear on the ballot. The campaign can still challenge the finding.

Despite his campaign’s struggles, there has been a flurry of activity by GOP operatives to get him on the ballot in recent weeks.

The effort has been particularly striking in the swing state of Wisconsin, where Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by less than 23,000 votes in 2016. Studies have shown that turnout among Wisconsin’s Black voters dipped significantly that year, likely contributing to Clinton’s loss. They are expected to play a key role in the presidential vote again in November.

On Tuesday, as local reporters watched, West’s ballot petition was delivered to state regulators by Lane Ruhland, a Madison lawyer who is the former general counsel for the state Republican Party.

Just weeks ago, Ruhland was listed as an attorney representing the Trump campaign on a document filed in a lawsuit against a local television station, according to court records. She did not respond to requests for comment.

To get on the ballot, Wisconsin law requires a candidate to submit signatures from between 2,000 and 4,000 state residents and identify 10 people who would serve as electors should the candidate win the state.

Of the 10 electors listed on West’s petition, The Post found at least six appear to have ties to the Republican Party.

They included Fred Krumberger, whose wife, Marian, is the immediate past chairwoman of Wisconsin’s Brown County Republican committee. According to pictures she posted on Facebook, the two attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and were photographed with the new president at an event, standing in front of the U.S. and Wisconsin flags as Trump flashed his signature two thumbs up.

Another West elector, JM McKoy, is listed as an officer on the website of the Young Wisconsin Republicans. The Facebook page of a third West elector, Terri Steinbecker, features a banner that includes Trump’s name and a bald eagle and a profile picture featuring the slogan of the conspiracy movement QAnon.

A fourth, Jordan Wieland, has tweeted that he is the brother-in-law of Joe Fadness, the campaign manager of Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s unsuccessful 2018 reelection bid.

...The effort to get West on the ballot was decried by David Crowley, a Democrat who took office in May as the first Black executive of Milwaukee County. Crowley said the effort appeared aimed at peeling off minority voters to boost Trump.

“This is the Republican Party really trying to take advantage of someone’s mental state,” he said, referring to West’s bipolar disorder. “It’s appalling. It’s insulting. Quite frankly, I can’t believe they’re really doing it.”

Crowley said that he believes Black voters would see through the effort.

“We want them to know we will not be tricked,” he said. “If he is on the ballot, we will tell the community what this strategy is and not let them be confused by the Republican Party and Donald Trump.”

Two formal challenges to West’s candidacy were filed on behalf of five Wisconsin voters on Friday, arguing among other things that his forms were filed just past a 5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday and that they failed to include West’s home address, as required by state law.

One included signed affidavits from people who had signed the petition for his candidacy but said afterward that they were misled about its purpose. One said he was told only that it was related to voting. Another said she was told she should sign simply to indicate that she was registered to vote.

“Kanye West would not get my vote, and I think it’s a joke that he’s running for president,” the voter swore.

West’s campaign has until the end of the Monday to respond. State officials will decide likely later this month whether he has qualified for the Wisconsin ballot.

Before declaring his candidacy, West repeatedly praised Trump, saying the two shared “dragon energy.” In October 2018, West visited Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, a surreal scene in which the rapper sat across the Resolute Desk from the president, rattling on incoherently about the 13th Amendment, American manufacturing and his own mental health, dropping profanities in the process.

He wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat and repeatedly complimented Trump, who nodded, speechless for once, as reporters and TV cameras looked on.

West behaved so erratically that even Trump was taken aback, asking aides afterward, “What was up with him?” according to a former senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner argued that hosting West and Kardashian West, who worked closely with the White House on an effort to reform criminal sentencing rules, could improve the president’s standing with Black voters, according to the official, who said Trump was swayed by the electoral argument.

Not long before West announced his candidacy, the host committee for Trump’s convention in Jacksonville discussed inviting the rapper to perform a “revival-style” concert on the eve of the GOP convention, according to a person familiar with the discussions, a sign that Trump’s staff have in recent weeks viewed the rapper as an ally and asset.

Tale Of Two Crackpots: Surprised That A Rapper Is Hoping To Save Trump While A Far Right Hawk Is Working To Bring Him Down?

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Kanye West's new album is Trump-friendly. West, who has been diagnosed as bipolar, lost his mind long ago. Despite his disgusting Trumpist sentiments, West, according to Rolling Stone "is estimated to be the highest-paid hip-hop act of 2019 with $150 million in pre-tax earnings... The closer Kanye aligned himself with some of the most damaging, and profitable, forms of capitalism-- religion, the far-right, tech companies-- the more his business boomed." On Friday he released his new album, Jesus is King. Paris Hilton, a confirmed moron, loves it. Mr. Taliafero called it garbage-- trash.

Maybe it's more surprising than Kanye being, as Tim Pool put it, Trump's 2020 "ace in the hole," is that John Bolton might be the Democrats'. NPR reporters Mara Liasson and Domenico Montanaro explained Bolton's new role in the impeachment inquiry.



Bolton they wrote "hardly fits the profile of someone who would be in 'The Resistance' to Trump. His saber-rattling, hard-line stances toward countries such as Iran have made him something of a boogeyman for liberals through the years, especially after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But now, after testimony about Bolton's role in the battle over the Ukraine affair, a more complicated portrait of the former national security adviser emerges. "I think the portrait that comes through is exactly the person who he is," [AEI's Danielle] Pletka said. 'He's a very shrewd lawyer. He's very attuned to his own principles, and he doesn't get mixed up in dirty stuff.'"

Lawmakers involved in the impeachment inquiry heard from two people who worked with Bolton on Ukraine. They said Bolton was so irritated after he learned about the plan to connect U.S. military assistance to a Ukrainian pledge to investigate conspiracies about the 2016 election and the Bidens that he abruptly ended a meeting.

He told Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official in charge of Russia policy, that she should have "nothing to do with domestic politics." According to Hill, Bolton also called Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer and shadow emissary to Ukraine, a "hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up."

The man who took over for Hill on the National Security Council, Tim Morrison, is scheduled to testify Thursday. House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry have spoken with a lawyer for Bolton about a possible deposition, according to media reports citing unnamed sources. NPR has not confirmed the discussions.

William Taylor, the current acting ambassador to Ukraine, named Morrison, who is still with the White House, more than a dozen times in his deposition. He noted that he and Morrison each had knowledge of-- and opposed-- the withholding of aid.

Taylor also testified that Bolton was also against setting up a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump because he was worried it would "be a disaster."

...There have always been two aspects to Bolton's reputation-- he was a conservative hawk, not afraid to advocate for U.S. military action, but he was also a skilled infighter, a bureaucratic black belt-- and that comes through in the testimony too.

He told Hill to "brief the NSC lawyers" to make sure there was a record of her opposition to the shadow foreign policy.

He told Taylor to send a first-person cable to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that expressed Taylor's concerns.

Groombridge said all this is right in character.

"His bureaucratic skills served him very well in that there is now a paper trail, which essentially exonerates Ambassador Bolton and, in some ways, almost paints him as the hero in this. I mean, I recall the first day I joined the State Department-- it was Oct. 15, 2001. And the only sort of fatherly advice Ambassador Bolton gave me at the time was, he said, 'Always get the process right. That way those who oppose you are forced to engage you on substance.' And I think Ambassador Bolton, in his capacity as [national security adviser], was doing the same thing."

The Ukraine affair isn't the first time Bolton disagreed with Trump during his tenure as Trump's national security adviser. Bolton wanted tougher lines on Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. Trump did not.

Back in September, when Trump fired Bolton by tweet, Bolton's enemies-- and there were plenty of them-- described him anonymously as abrasive, self-promoting, a war monger, disloyal.

And though Bolton, who was once a frequent presence on Fox News, has gone to ground, turning down repeated requests to discuss his role in the Ukraine scandal, he will likely respond. He told the Washington Post that he would have his say in "due course," and he is currently shopping a book deal.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have lots of questions for him, including, "Did Bolton ever bring his concerns to the president directly?" and "What other steps did he take to free up the aid to Ukraine?"

Congress has asked two of Bolton's former aides to testify next week. It's unclear if they'll appear, but the House impeachment inquiry will also, eventually, want to hear from Bolton himself.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Thank you Keith Richards! You are a brilliantly succinct man of words, not to mention one hell of a musician!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

MAGA hat-wearing Kanye West, who recently expressed his love for Trump and called slavery "a choice" has apparently adopted being an uncle tom as part of a marketing plan to reach a new audience. Good luck with that, Kanye. You may find your new audience more than a bit frustrating, though.