We're A Happy Family-- Swamp Creature Roger Stone To The Defense

The Trumpist forces of authoritarianism are circling the wagons. Trump and his allies have no intention of going down quietly and care not a whit of what damages they do to a constitutional democracy— which they abhor anyway— in the process of preserving their own grasp on power. This week one of Trump’s long time closest confidents, wrote a “How To” for a neo-fascist website, “How The President Can Checkmate Mueller And Dismiss His Partisan Hit-Squad.” It’s what all the kids on the far right fringe are talking about— on Fox and Hate Talk Radio, among the worst partisans in Congress (like Florida’s neo-nazi stooge Matt Gaetz) and all through the fringes of the far right. Señor Trumpanzee “has only one viable option,” wrote Stone, “to repel the partisan lynch mob now nipping at his heels in the form of a taxpayer-funded pack of legal hyenas. These hyenas are masquerading as objective prosecutors under the droopy eyes of old reliable deep state hatchet man Robert Swan Mueller III, the special counsel appointed to ‘investigate’ the Clinton-Podesta-Schiff-Democrat Party-Corporate Media fabricated Russia collusion delusion. As the GOP Congress finally begins to stir, as events make it increasingly impossible to deny the true nature of Mueller’s handpicked partisan hit squad of Trump-hating, Hillary-supporting D.C. swamp lawyers and arrogant federal careerists, as firings and other departures quickly erode the carefully-contrived, totally-counterfeit veneer of credibility ascribed to Mueller and his hench-people, my advice to the president has only become more apropos…and more imperative.”

He urges Trumpanzee to act— to “kill two birds with one stone.” Trump has no sense of history and no dignity. Expect him to follow Stone’s recipe, at least in part, for and end to our democracy, regardless of consequences. Stone calls on him to “completely disempower and dismantle Robert S. Mueller’s fraudulent rogue prosecution gang, which is merely an extension of a larger corruption of power that is unparalleled in our history [and… to] use every resource at his disposal to prosecute the almost-seditious abuses of power by lawless Clinton-Obama FBI and NSA apparatchiks who:

1) Politically weaponized the federal government’s electronic intelligence capabilities to spy on a presidential candidate and his campaign,
2) Colluded with foreign and non-state intelligence agents to manufacture evidence used as false pretexts for securing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrants(s) that employed the national security laws of the United States to give illicit, illegal cover to this political espionage,
3) Used the fruits of this political espionage activity to damage or otherwise hinder this candidate after he had become president-elect and eventually president of the United States through surreptitious releases of the criminally-procured information,
4) Fabricated and instigated false allegations about foreign state collusion implicating the president’s election campaign and family members, and
5) Perpetuated this massive criminal fraud on the American people for nearly a full year by manipulating and abusing the investigatory and prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice.

This is the kind of crap and simpleminded conspiracy theory pablum those on the fringes are being brainwashed with. Now, come omn— who didn’t always know that the Ramones were way ahead of their time:



And another one from Rocket To Russia. No coincidence, believe me, no coincidence.



Stone keeps referring to him as “President Trump.” I just can’t do it, so I’ve substituted the more accurate term, “Señor Trumpanzee,” each time Stone tries conveying some kind of legitimacy on him.

To this end, Señor Trumpanzee must begin at the intersection of these seditious current and former federal officials who had previously facilitated and covered up a similarly-breathtaking criminal fraud on the country during the previous presidential administration, to include the previous president.

El Señor T must order his attorney general to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Obama-Clinton-Mueller-Rosenstein criminal collusion that enriched the Clinton-Democrat crime syndicate by hundreds of millions of dollars and further embedded the power of the deep state operators who facilitated the multi-billion-dollar Uranium One pay-to-play scam.

This incredible scheme perpetrated by the criminal Clintons— and their coterie of minions and fellow travelers— implicates top officials of our federal government…including and especially the U.S Department of Justice, including and especially Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.

An investigation is manifestly in the best interests of this country and of justice. It is not some political maneuver against el Señor’s cynical partisan persecutors or some clever machination to spare his presidency from the illegitimate cabal that is single-minded in its intent to fraudulently remove el Señor from office, by any means possible.

This course of action by el Señor is both legally and constitutionally necessary to preserve any remaining credibility in our institutions of government, which now hinges on whether or not justice will, once and for all, be visited upon the Clintons and their well-placed partisan accomplices, finally vindicating our system of law and justice after decades of yet-unpunished corruption that the Clintons and their ilk have insinuated into these institutions, bringing unparalleled and a now-accelerating degradation to American civic life itself.

Proactive Republican lawmakers have already demanded the resignation of Robert Mueller, as a start, and are calling for a thorough probe of his entire ad hoc operation, which is now coming apart at the seams with almost daily revelations of its rotten fraudulent core.

Mueller’s decades as an establishment federal careerist, which only ended with his ceding of the FBI’s top job to his good pal, criminal leaker and manipulator Big Jim Comey, offer more than enough grounds for Mueller’s disqualification for merely the appearances of impropriety and professional conflicts of interest they raise. They are of such incestuous nature as it concerns key figures of the conspiracy to remove the president that Mueller should never even have been considered for appointment.

That Mueller took the special counsel appointment without even blinking, despite his own close professional and personal connections to key figures implicated in the Department of Justice, National Security Agency and FBI corruption in service to ulterior partisan ends, via the Clinton crime family, was a major red flag, right from the beginning.

Reinforcing this red flag was the fact that Mueller’s entire (supposed) vetting for this sensitive, consequential special counsel position amounted a single-sentence approval letter signed by some faceless deputy attorney general barely a day after the appointment was promulgated.

Aside from Mueller’s blatant disregard for both attorney and public service ethics in accepting the special counsel appointment, some GOP lawmakers have also cited the former FBI director’s close involvement with the Obama administration’s secret Russian-U.S. uranium deal as more than enough reason for his immediate removal and the commencement of a real (untainted) investigation of the Obama-Clinton Russia-connected treason that Mueller has been instrumental in abetting and covering up.

So exactly what is the story with Uranium One?

Uranium One 101

The short version is that in 2010, when Mueller was FBI director, members of an interagency committee working under the Obama administration facilitated a highly-suspicious business deal that had grave public implication. The result of it was that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton effectively handed Russia and Vladimir Putin control over as much as 20 percent of the uranium production capacity of the United States.

As this deal was coming to fruition, after years of nefarious Clintonian machinations urging it along, Mueller’s FBI was investigating— and may have uncovered clear evidence of— Russian bribery and fraud to the detriment of U.S. uranium contractors, as part of a larger Russian (Putin) racketeering scheme to gain control of global uranium resources, namely by purchasing the power and influence being peddled by the Clintons to anyone who would meet their terms.

The FBI appears to have been investigating a Moscow-compromised uranium trucking company called Tenex As early as 2009. Tenex was allegedly engaged in racketeering through a pattern of bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Tenex was operating out of Bethesda, Maryland through a subsidiary named “Tenam USA.” The company was run by a Russian official named Vadim Mikerin. As the FBI was investigating Tenam’s alleged extortion and bribery scheme, Russia was seeking permission from the Obama administration and the Clinton State Department to acquire ownership in Uranium One. Despite evidence of Tenex’s and Mikerim’s alleged corruption as early as 2009, the Obama administration rubber-stamped a U.S. work visa twice for Mikerim, as late as 2014.

And what did our intrepid paragon of justice Robert Swan Mueller III do to thwart this alleged scheme and arrest its perpetrators? The answer is absolutely NOTHING. In fact, a confidentiality agreement prevented a key witness to the Clinton-Russia uranium treason from testifying. The Justice Department only just lifted on October 25, 2017, a full seven years after the fact, under pressure from congressional intelligence committee leadership.

Robert Mueller ensured that his own FBI investigators were effectively walled off from exposing the real players in our own government who were complicit in this epic influence-peddling scam founded on the Clintons’ ruthless greed and epic criminality.

Obama’s Justice Department and Mueller’s FBI knowingly kept Congress and the American people in the dark about Russia’s significant and quite possibly illegal manipulations involving American uranium companies and the highest officials of American government, possibly among them U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The result was that the Clintons’ criminal treason, in collusion with Russian nuclear criminals, went full steam ahead, unperturbed.

Mueller’s key role in the covering up of these Russia-Clinton uranium dealings constitutes more than enough justification for Robert Mueller’s immediate and unceremonious removal as an autonomous, secretive inquisitor limitlessly probing the newly-inaugurated president who defeated Mueller’s former Obama administration crony and cohort, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There are probably a dozen other reasons why Mueller should be criminally charged but, for now, let’s just focus on this most heinous of schemes to which Mueller has been party: the transfer of our precious uranium resources to criminal Russian oligarchs to benefit the Clinton-Obama crime junta and sleazy hucksters from the ranks of the Democratic Party.

You might ask: How is it even possible that Russia (a supposed enemy) could acquire an in U.S. uranium capacity? The answer is that while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, was handed official U.S. government authorization to purchase a Canadian company named Uranium One which controlled uranium mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West...

Uranium One, as handed over to the Russians by the Obama-Clinton cabal, was effectively the creation of a Canadian entrepreneur named Frank Giustra. Mr. Giustra conveniently happened to be a major Clinton donor and a personal friend of Bill Clinton.

The Clinton-Giustra genesis of the Uranium One scam was detailed in a lengthy New York Times story in April 2015 titled “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal.”

(Based on the old Grey Lady’s incessant animus for Donald Trump and its complicity in puffing up the Russia collusion delusion about the president, it would seem that Clintonian amnesia is the order of the day at the New York Times.)

In 2005, Clinton was flown on Giustra’s lavish private jet to Kazakhstan, a central Asian country once part of the former Soviet Union. By some estimates, Kazakhstan possesses around 12 percent of the world’s uranium resources and Giustra wanted to acquire ownership interest in several uranium mines.

Using his substantial network of contacts as a former U.S. president, Bill Clinton reportedly had arranged for Giustra and himself to dine with Kazakhstan’s despotic ruler, Nursultan Nazarbeyev. During the meal, Clinton handed the Kazakh president a propaganda coup when Clinton expressed support for Nazarbayev’s bid to head an international elections monitoring group.

Apparently it was of no consequence or concern to officialdom in Washington that this move by Clinton ran directly counter to American foreign policy and undermined much-deserved criticism of Kazakhstan’s poor human rights record by, among others, Clinton’s wife, at the time a U.S. senator.

The new company Giustra formed to effectuate the Uranium One deal, UrAsia Energy Ltd., reportedly signed a preliminary deal giving it stakes in three uranium mines controlled by Kazatomprom, the government agency that runs Kazakhstan’s uranium mines and nuclear energy industry. In 2007 UrAsia merged with Uranium One in what was described as a $3.5 billion transaction, with the successor company retaining the name Uranium One.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, subsequently alleged that then-Senator Hillary Clinton had pressured Kazakh officials to cede the uranium rights to Giustra.

Basically, Hillary served as the stick to her husband Bill’s proverbial carrot in making the deal happen.

According to the Washington Post, Dzhakishev “described the deal as ‘a financing mechanism of the Democratic Party’ and said a Clinton adviser named Tim Phillips championed it in meetings with him and other officials.”

From the same WaPo article:

When all was said and done, UrAsia’s investors controlled the new Uranium One. The chairman of the new company was Canadian Ian Telfer.

Telfer reportedly donated $2.3 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Frank Giustra, who had shepherded Bill Clinton’s influence with the Kazakhstanis, held a personal stake in the deal estimated by some reports at about $45 million. Through a spokesperson, Giustra said he sold his stake in 2007. According to the New York Times, one year after the 2005 uranium deal was final Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation with a promise of $100 million more.

One adviser on the Uranium One-UrAsia merger was Paul Reynolds.

Reynolds reportedly donated $1 to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.

A company called U.S. Global Investors Inc. held $4.7 million in Uranium One shares. A U.S. Global executive named Frank Holmes reportedly donated $250,000 to $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

This is just the short list of Uranium One-connected donations that flowed back to the Clintons. Although the Clintons had an obligation to report these donations, they conveniently waited until 2008 to do so, and only when the New York Times was poised to expose and publish details about this obvious multi-million dollar pay-to-play scheme.

As is modus operandi with all of the Clintons’ sleazy machinations, any questions or suggestions posed about the connections between shady Clinton influence-peddling business deals and the inevitable cash windfalls realized by the Clintons were glibly pooh-poohed as either mere coincidence (please!) or lacking any “evidence” (as if we need signed receipts and written agreements to connect the obvious dots of the Clintons’ epic lucre).

With classic Clintonian prevarication, treating the public as either blind or stupid (or both), the Clintons steadfastly deny the obvious quid pro quo connections at the root of the Uranium One Kazakhstan acquisitions.

Of course, the Clinton crony-beneficiaries of the deal knew enough to follow suit with similar huffy denials, lest they meet with an unfortunate premature demise like so many others who have dared run afoul of the Clintons’ scamming and scheming, all the way back to their Arkansas backwater days.

Russo-Clinton Treason: Phase II

Once Uranium One was set up with the Kazakhstani uranium holdings firmly in the control of Clinton cronies, the stage was set for the next step in the Clintons’ treasonous plot: handing over Uranium One and its holdings to the Russians, or more accurately to Vladimir Putin.

The Clinton cabal’s uranium wheelings and dealings began immediately at the commencement in 2009 of the Obama administration, under the close direction of newly-installed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In order for Russian nuclear entity Rosatom to purchase Uranium One the deal required approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.. The committee consists of top officials from nine different federal agencies. Not surprisingly, given the foreign subject matter intrinsic to the committee’s work, the key agency— the main driver out of all government players involved— is the U.S. Department of State, which was conveniently headed by Mrs. Bill Clinton in 2009.

To be clear, Hillary Clinton did not have the authority to push such a potentially-controversial deal through by herself. Such power ultimately resides with the president, in this case Barack Obama.

The CFIUS voted twice, first in 2010 and then in 2013, to approve Rosatom’s acquisition of Uranium One, thereby conceivably giving Vladimir Putin control of up to 20 percent of all U.S. uranium capacity.

It would be ridiculous to think that Obama, Hillary, Holder and Mueller would not have been well aware of the FBI’s investigation into the Russian racketeering and all of the bribes and kickbacks— in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act— that formed a backdrop to the Uranium One acquisition by Russia.

These sworn federal officials did not step in to expose and halt the tainted Uranium One deal. They may have cleared the way for it.

Robert Mueller appears to have known about the delivery of 10 grams of HEU (highly enriched uranium) to the Russians in September 2009.

The highly enriched uranium in question had been confiscated in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Energy in a “nuclear smuggling sting operation involving one Russian national and several Georgian accomplices.” A cable, one of several released by WikiLeaks, details Director Mueller’s mission to personally deliver the HEU to Russian law enforcement at the behest of Hillary Clinton.

Another interesting bit of “innocent timing” or convenient coincidence (take your pick): In June of 2010, the same month that Rosatom struck its deal for a majority stake in Uranium One, Bill Clinton spoke in Moscow for the tidy sum of $500,000, the second-highest fee he had ever received for a speech.

Clinton’s half-million dollar bonanza for 90 minutes of “work” was paid by Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin.. Renaissance Capital analysts talked up Uranium One’s stock, assigning it a “buy” rating and saying in a July 2010 research report that it was “the best play” in the uranium markets. Of course this, too, is just a “coincidence.”

If you think all of these connections and occurrences are too mind-boggling to accept as mere coincidence, hold onto your seat for this next one. Remember how the alleged Tenam/Rosatom racketeering activities were centered in Bethesda, Maryland at the Tenex U.S. offices? As rank-and-file FBI agents were assiduously investigating these Russian schemes to obtain U.S. uranium resources through corruption of public officials, Robert Mueller handed his longtime legal crony the Uranium One case to be buried and forgotten, clearing the way for approval of the Rosatom deal by the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton.

The crony’s name was Rod Rosenstein.

And the rest is history.

I leave you, good reader, to draw the obvious conclusions about what is really behind this cozy little bromance between Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the two lawyers who promulgated Mueller’s grotesque, unaccountable partisan hit squad that is clearly intent on taking out our president.

Let’s not forget what Donald Trump said to Hillary Clinton and the entire nation in a televised presidential debate on October 9, 2016:

After his election, Donald Trump chose to be magnanimous and forward-looking rather than follow through on his words and appoint that special prosecutor. Trump naively thought he could commence his presidency free from the tentacles of his seething, embittered dragon lady of an opponent.

Donald Trump genuinely did not want his presidency tangled up with the Clinton stain. He knew this would be impossible to avoid were he to see to the much-deserved prosecution of Hillary Clinton and her extensive syndicate of cohorts, cronies, flunkies and fellow travelers, including the likes of Mueller and Rosenstein, for their countless crimes and endless scandals.

Unfortunately for Donald Trump, they turned his debate promise around and gave him his “special prosecutor.” And now this “prosecutor” is ruthlessly and illegitimately driving towards nothing less than a coup d’état, that will only end with Donald Trump’s removal as the duly-elected el Señor of the United States.

It will be ugly. It will be noisy. It will be dirty. It will be extremely difficult. The deep state’s spooky guardians will threaten el Señor with everything they can summon. But, by God, it is high time for Señor Trumpanzee to end this despicable sedition being perpetrated by repugnant, monomaniacal partisan degenerates and begin the work of draining the swamp…for real.

Did you hear any of this from your moron brother-in-law during Christmas dinner? Any neighbors spouting this scary crap yet? They will.

4-5-6-7... All Good Cretins Go To Heaven

Haaretz is one of the most respected Israeli newspapers. Yesterday they ran an analysis of what was behind Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem in a few years-- less than an hour's drive: Armageddon? Bring It On: The Evangelical Force Behind Trump's Jerusalem Speech. "The U.S. evangelical community," they wrote, "is in raptures over Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel, believing it moves the world closer to Armageddon." He was endangering world peace but shoring up his evangelical cretinous base before the big battle over Mueller and impeachment.

Friday night one of Trump's warm-up acts at his Roy Moore rally in Pensacola was Panhandle state Senator Doug Broxson, a very far right, mentally-disturbed sociopath. (Note: the drive time from Pensacola to Mobile is almost identical to the drive time between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem.) Broxson, a crooked insurance agent, went to Evangel "University" in Missouri. He's best known for in the legislature for pushing a bill that would allow motorists playing music-- especially rap music-- to be fined. But Friday night he may have outdone himself when he told a cheering throng of insane Trump fans in a half filled auditorium that Trump's decision to move the embassy will bring on the End Times. "Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem-- where the King of Kings... where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel."

Messhugannah State Senator Doug Broxson (R-FL), "one of us, one of us"

Earlier in the day every member of the UN Security Council-- except the U.S. condemned Trump's decision as being "not in line with Security Council resolutions and was unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region." That was from a joint statement by the ambassadors from traditional allies Trump has been alienating with his erratic, anti-democratic behavior since Putin placed him in the White House-- Britain, France, Sweden, Germany and Italy. Meanwhile, council members Britain, France, Russia, China, Bolivia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine and Uruguay called for the emergency council meeting, as the Middle East exploded in spasms of protest and violence over Trump's boneheaded decision.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is head America's Reform Union and the Netanyahu Regime is unhappy that he has spoken out against Trump's stupid and dangerous move. According to the Jerusalem Post, Jacobs wrote that although Trump’s declaration "affirms what the Reform Jewish movement has long held: that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Yet while we share the President’s belief that the US Embassy should, at the right time, be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, we cannot support his decision to begin preparing that move now, absent a comprehensive plan for a peace process."

Jacobs also said that the White House should not undermine efforts toward making peace between Israel and the Palestinians by "making unilateral decisions that are all but certain to exacerbate the conflict."

Roger Stone And Alex Jones Publicly Float The Widespread DC Rumor That Señor Trumpanzee Is Drugged Up

So Breitbart's crackpot shtik about a coup and Trump being held hostage in the White House by "the generals" seems to have faded away, at least for now. Instead, we have Alex Jones' latest conspiracy theory, a kind of corollary-- the generals or someone has Señor Trumpanzee drugged up. So this goes beyond what we already know about his addiction to snorting chopped by Adderall when he's stressed (something his cosmetic surgeons in West Palm taught him how to do years ago).

Everyone I know-- from my friends, relatives, casual acquaintances to psychologists, psychiatrists and the kid who bags my groceries at Gelson's-- says Trump is crazy or in some significant way mentally impaired. Even Jones, an admirer, admitted Trump seems out of his mind. On his lunatic fringe InfoWars comedy show he claimed "high level" sources confirmed a plot to control Señor T through drugs, He insists Señor is being sedated. (As you know, Trumpanzee and the Ramones, who all died mysteriously and prematurely, were neighbors in Queens.)



Jones wants everyone to be clear that he doesn't blame Trumpanzee for being a basket case. "They drug presidents," he confided in the lunatic who listen to his show, "because the power structure wants a puppet. The president [he meant the Trumpanzee] needs his blood tested by an outside physician he trusts." Travis Gettys at Raw Story on Monday:

The 71-year-old Trump has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, and analyses have found he showed some symptoms of age-related cognitive impairment-- including observations that he shows symptoms of late-day confusion known as “sundowning.”

“I’ve talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they’re building up that’s also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea, and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged,” Jones said. “Now first they had to isolate him to do that. But, yes, ladies and gentleman, I’ve talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night, he is slurring his words, and I’m going to leave it at that. I’ve talked to folks that have talked to him directly.”

Jones compared Trump’s behavior to former President Ronald Reagan, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease that likely started during his time in the White House.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I was told this by high level sources and it was evident and especially after [Ronald] Reagan was shot in his first year in office when he was acting like Trump, and doing the right things, that he never really recovered,” Jones said. “They gave him cold blood, and his transfusion that causes brain damage. They slowly gave him small amounts of sedatives. It’s known that most presidents end up getting drugged. Small dosages of sedatives till they build it up, Trump’s such a bull he hasn’t fully understood it yet.”

This isn’t the first time one of Trump’s associates has attempted to explain away rumors about the president’s mental health.

Roger Stone, a Jones associate and longtime Trump ally, previously acknowledged whispers in May about the president’s possible mental decline by claiming the rumors were intended to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president from office.

And my pal Roger Stone?

"He is slurring his words on various times, and that’s what's concerning. Let’s be very clear: I have a source at The New York Times, a reporter who expressed to me a concern that in a conversation they had on the phone with the president that he was slurring his words. The president does not drink. The president certainly does not do drugs. The president is sharp as a tack. Now, let’s give some credibility to... Now, in the president’s defense, could he be exhausted? Yeah, he works very hard for the country. He is passionate about his desire for an economic revival, for a boom. He said it to me, “Wait and see. You’ll see. When I get my 15 percent tax rate this economy is going to cook like nothing you’ve ever seen, it will be the greatest advance in job creation this country’s ever seen.” He is deeply committed and passionate about this. But I have now heard not from one, but two different sources, that he seemed disoriented and was slurring his speech in conversations. To me this is a tip off that he may be being medicated. Is General [John] Kelly above this? No."

And this isn't the first scare about Señor Trumpanzee's mental competence from the loony right. In early July, Kali Holloway started the speculation about his sundowning problem. Trumpanzee, she wrote, got off Air Force One after a golfing excursion to Bedminster but instead of getting into the flag-festooned limo waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase, wandered off in a different direction, getting several steps off course until a Secret Service person redirected him to his car. It was a moment in which Trump briefly appeared "befuddled and out of sorts." Watch.

Sundowning, according to the Mayo Clinic, “refers to a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and spanning into the night...that may affect people with dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.” Though numerous commentators have suggested Trump’s behaviors correlate with well-known dementia symptoms, he has not been publicly diagnosed with dementia or any other mental health conditions by a medical expert. Growing concerns about Trump’s mental state are speculative, and based on a pattern of potentially worrisome behavior illustrated by the following incidents.

1. He wandered off in the middle of a foreign press event.

Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference in May. In the middle of the event, as Netanyahu stood for photos, Trump got up from his chair and wandered away from the Israeli leader. A few seconds later, staffers ushered him back toward where he should have been standing. 

2. He forgot to sign an executive order at an executive order signing press event.

Back in April, Trump invited media to watch as he signed two orders focused on trade. He gave brief remarks at the event, then left the podium before signing the documents. Then he absentmindedly opened a door and headed for another room. Mike Pence had to tap the president on his way out to remind him about the unsigned orders. After a brief discussion, Trump continued walking, and Pence followed him out the door with the paperwork.

3. He didn't realize Rudy Giuliani was sitting directly in front of him.

At a press event highlighting Trump's executive orders on cyber security, the president was seated directly across from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. After a brief speech, Trump introduced Giuliani-- who again, was sitting right in front of him-- and began searching confusedly around the room. “Where’s Rudy?” you can hear Trump asking in the footage, as Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directs his attention in the right direction.

4. He couldn't correctly name the country he’d just bombed.

Trump discussed the moments leading up to the U.S. bombing of Syria in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. Describing a dinner with Xi Jinping, Trump informed Bartiromo that he told the Chinese president, "We’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq.” When Bartiromo corrected Trump on the country, he paused for a beat, then seemed to recognize his error.

Trumpanzee is well-known for projecting his own neurosis onto everyone else. Here he was during the campaign accusing Hillary of being on drugs:

Anthony Bourdain Helps Us Ring In 2017

Although Anthony Bourdain is a legitimate chef, he’s best known— certainly outside of NYC— as the host of some notable TV series, the Travel Channel’s No Reservations and, more recently, CNN’s Parts Unknown. You can watch the recent episode of Bourdain with President Obama in Hanoi above. Bourdain seems obsessed with the smells of Vietnam. Remember, he dedicated one of his best-selling books, The Nasty Bits, to Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee. Hs loved the early punk music of NYC and has joked that playing schlocky commercial music by Elton John, Abba and Billy Joel would get you fired in his kitchen.

So… a man with those musical sensibilities probably wouldn’t surprise anyone with some forward political pronouncements. No, he’s not a Trump fan. The day after the electoral college confirmed the bad news, New Zealand writer Alexander Bisley interviewed him for Reason. Not a fan of Trump’s— nor, as you might guess, a fan of political correctness.

Bisley: What concerns you about Trump?

Bourdain: What I am not concerned about with Trump? Wherever one lives in the world right now I wouldn't feel too comfortable about the rise of authoritarianism. I think it's a global trend, and one that should be of concern to everyone.

Bisley: You're a liberal. What should liberals be critiquing their own side for?

Bourdain: There's just so much. I hate the term political correctness, the way in which speech that is found to be unpleasant or offensive is often banned from universities. Which is exactly where speech that is potentially hurtful and offensive should be heard.

The way we demonize comedians for use of language or terminology is unspeakable. Because that's exactly what comedians should be doing, offending and upsetting people, and being offensive. Comedy is there, like art, to make people uncomfortable, and challenge their views, and hopefully have a spirited yet civil argument. If you're a comedian whose bread and butter seems to be language, situations, and jokes that I find racist and offensive, I won't buy tickets to your show or watch you on TV. I will not support you. If people ask me what I think, I will say you suck, and that I think you are racist and offensive. But I'm not going to try to put you out of work. I'm not going to start a boycott, or a hashtag, looking to get you driven out of the business.

The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we're seeing now.

I've spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America. There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love. When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views, however different they may be than ours, when we mock them at every turn, and treat them with contempt, we do no one any good. Nothing nauseates me more than preaching to the converted. The self-congratulatory tone of the privileged left—just repeating and repeating and repeating the outrages of the opposition—this does not win hearts and minds. It doesn't change anyone's opinions. It only solidifies them, and makes things worse for all of us. We should be breaking bread with each other, and finding common ground whenever possible. I fear that is not at all what we've done.

Bisley: In your Brexit episode of Parts Unknown, Ralph Steadman, who illustrated Appetites eye-catching cover, said "I think human beings are still stupid." Does that explain Trump's election?

Bourdain: I don't think we've got the [exclusive] franchise on that. If you look around the world (in the Philippines, in England), the rise of nationalism, the fear of the Other. When people are afraid and feel that their government has failed them they do things that seem completely mad and unreasonable to those of who are perhaps under less pressure. As unhappy and surprised as I am with the outcome, I'm empathetic to the forces that push people towards what I see as an ultimately self-destructive act. Berlusconi, Putin, Duterte, the world is filled with bad choices, made in pressured times.

Bisley: A few years back you were on Real Time with Bill Maher and part of the discussion was about people living inside their own bubbles. What do you think of Bill Maher?

Bourdain: Insufferably smug. Really the worst of the smug, self-congratulatory left. I have a low opinion of him. I did not have an enjoyable experience on his show. Not a show I plan to do again. He's a classic example of the smirking, contemptuous, privileged guy who lives in a bubble. And he is in no way looking to reach outside, or even look outside, of that bubble, in an empathetic way.

And he doesn’t much care for vegetarians either.

The GOP Has A Major #TrumpToddlerTantrum On It's Hands... For The Next 5 Months-- How The Media Should Cope With Him

Jack Shafer is Politico's resident Ramones fanatic and senior media writer. After reading his post yesterday, Donald Trump Is a 2-Year-Old. It’s Time for the Press to Treat Him Like One, I e-mailed him a message: "I'm sure Johnny would have been a major Trump fan." Not Joey, though. Shafer wrote about Trump's Wednesday tantrum-- he rarely misses a day-- when he struck out at reporters for nudgering him about how he tried scamming "the vets" and about his escalating Trump University shit-show. He called it a "towering meltdown." Shafer seemed almost surprised at Trump's infantile callowness towards the media.

Trump angrily called ABC News reporter Tom Llamas “a sleaze” and other members of the press corps “losers” and “unbelievably dishonest.” He called Jim Acosta of CNN “a real beauty” for his reporting.

The performance was vintage Trump and echoed a basic set of behaviors he has exhibited all campaign long. We’ve seen angry candidates before—Richard Nixon was practiced in scowling and the ebullient Ronald Reagan knew how to fire an irate comment in a debate when he needed to—but this is the first time we’ve seen a candidate assume the psychological and reactive profile of a small child. Trump seethed like an irritable 2-year-old instead of exhibiting the kind of restraint and comity we usually associate with a finalist in the presidential sweepstakes. I’m a big baby, the Trump outburst announced to all, and I’ll just act out until my anger is appeased!

On one level, his directness and honesty are refreshing: If only Hillary Clinton could make herself seem so real and human on occasion! But the downside of the tirade, of course, is that indignation and self-pity are limited tools when it comes to practicing the art of statecraft. “I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job,” Trump mewled at the news conference, looking out into the klieg lights for sympathy.

As the emotional equivalent of a toddler, Trump can’t articulate the rage he feels, and the interrogations at news conferences seem to make him only angrier. The press is not Trump’s keeper, but we can help him better handle confrontation. Here’s how:

First, you can’t manage a toddler if you play his game. And in this, we’ve failed with Trump. He never howls for no reason. Indeed, if you go look at the history, we’ve reinforced his anti-social behaviors for an entire year by giving him extra attention every time he throws a nationally televised tantrum. Then, we compound the problem by indulging our natural reflex to lash back at his anger with equal anger, returning his name-calling with name-calling of our own, labeling him a “fascist,” “thug,” a “bully” and more. But this natural reflex is wrong. It only escalates the situation, encouraging a new round of name-calling, and if there’s one thing you don’t want to do is get in a name-calling contest with someone so emotionally stunted and so talented at giving nicknames (“Lyin’ Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco,” “Crazy Bernie,” “Pocahontas,” et al.).

Second, the press needs to be more practical. Sometimes when a toddler acts out the way Trump does, the underlying cause is quite simple. He’s tired. If so, put him down for a nap. Or he’s hungry. Feed him! That’s the route the Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Wolff took recently when he accompanied Baby Donald to his Beverly Hills home to interview him. Donald has been putting in long hours on the campaign, obviously neglecting his material needs. So what did Wolff do to calm the irritable boy down? I can’t recommend this for every frenzy, but having allowed Donald to eat a pint of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream seems to have stilled his anger for the evening.



Third, offer some distractions. The smart parent always keeps in reserve ways to distract his toddler. In Baby Donald’s case, the solution seems to be a few beautiful young women, preferably “10s,” just outside his field of vision. When he starts blustering, place the 10 in front of him and maybe give him a binky to suck on. Other times, all the anger management he needs can be found in burning some of his excess energy off. Try arranging a play date for him with Silvio Berlusconi or Bill Clinton or Ron Burkle, all of whom share his interests.

Positive reinforcement helps, too. Whenever an hour or two passes without him insulting somebody as ugly, a fool, a dummy, dopey, a lowlife, a clown, a dog, a lightweight, a disaster, stupid, grubby, nasty, incompetent or one of his other pet epithets, give him the praise he needs to develop into an ethically centered, considerate human being. “You were such a good boy today,” will succeed in shaping him a lot further than the biting criticism so many have used against him. Remember to be consistent and not to get emotional in your responses. This is when he needs your understanding the most.

As a last resort, you might want to punish Baby Donald if he refuses to behave. What thing in life does he treasure more than than Twitter? If we could only convince him that Twitter is a privilege, not a right, and the punishment for bad behavior will be loss of his account, maybe total Trump behavior modification would be possible. If we really intend to take his Twitter away, we’ll need to bring muscle: He’s not going to surrender it without a fight.

One note of caution: parents who fail to pacify their unruly toddlers too often surrender by parking them in front of a television. This a terrible, terrible stopgap. It may provide some temporary peace, but in the long run it will only teach new anti-social lessons. There’s really only one thing worse that you could do than putting Baby Donald in front of a TV. And that’s putting him in front of a TV camera.

KKK Imperial Wizard Backs Trump While George Will Whines About Making Hillary A One-Term President

In a recent interview with the Imperial Wizard of the KKK, Richmond's NBC-TV affiliate, WWBT, reports why the Klan is backing Trump and find themselves in the #NeverCruz kamp:

"I think Donald Trump would be best for the job," said the Imperial Wizard. "The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in. We want our country to be safe."

The Imperial Wizard said he supports Trump’s calls to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"If Donald Trump dropped out tomorrow I would support Kasich before I would Ted Cruz because he is not an American citizen," said the Imperial Wizard. "Even if I agree with some of the things that Ted Cruz says, I would not support him because he was born in Canada. He is not an American citizen."

The list of Republicans on the #NeverTrump team is puny and without the power to sway the GOP primary base from nominating a fascist for president. Many are self-aggrandizing Hate Talk Radio blowhards with personal grudges-- Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Steve Deace, Charlie Sykes, Michael Berry-- and Republicans retiring from Congress at the end of the year anyway-- Scott Rigell (VA), Richard Hanna (NY) and Reid Ribble (WI)-- or members in blue districts about to get wiped out in November, like Carlos Curbelo (FL) and Bob Dold (IL). Friday Politico reported that Stop-Trump fever has broken and everyone is ready to get on board. After all, on Friday didn't Indiana Gov. Mike Pence-- too scared of Indiana Republicans to do otherwise-- half endorse Trump in a speech meant to rally the base to Ted Cruz? In Boehner's Lucifer remarks about Cruz, he was certainly indicating he prefers Trump. Professional "moderate" billionaire Jon Huntsman: "We've had enough intraparty fighting. Now's the time to stitch together a winning coalition. And it's been clear almost from the beginning that Donald Trump has the ability to assemble a nontraditional bloc of supporters… The ability to cut across traditional party boundaries-- like '80, '92 and 2008-- will be key, and Trump is much better positioned to achieve that."

Now, it looks like it’s the opposition-- not Trump-- who is dividing the GOP.



“We are not doing anything in the interest of party unity,” said Katie Packer, founder of the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, which put out a blistering anti-Trump ad Friday afternoon. “We do not think there is anything noble about wrapping our arms around a candidate who isn't a Republican, doesn't have a serious policy agenda and has not secured a majority of Republican votes.”

“I'm willing to do anything in my power to stop Trump from hijacking our party,” Packer continued.

But pro-Cruz and anti-Trump forces are running out of options to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee. If the real estate developer and reality television star scores a big win in Indiana on Tuesday, Cruz’s only remaining strategy may be a hostile takeover of the Republican National Convention-- a move GOP insiders still see as possible but certainly one that could severely damage the party.

Trump’s growing list of elected allies are encouraging Cruz to discard any such thinking.

"It’d hurt the very party that they want to represent,” Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) told Politico on Friday. "That’s not good and that’s why I believe that the establishment and people in Washington should say this is over. Donald Trump is clearly, clearly who the people want.”

Clearly. But George Will is now claiming that it is the duty of the Republican Party or the Republican Party establishment to prevent Trump from getting into the White House even if he wins the nomination, as he's about to. The damage Trump is doing to his beloved GOP has barely even begun, he hisses menacingly from the sidelines.

Trump would be the most unpopular nominee ever, unable to even come close to Mitt Romney’s insufficient support among women, minorities and young people. In losing disastrously, Trump probably would create down-ballot carnage sufficient to end even Republican control of the House. Ticket splitting is becoming rare in polarized America: In 2012, only 5.7 percent of voters supported a presidential candidate and a congressional candidate of opposite parties.

At least half a dozen Republican senators seeking reelection and Senate aspirants can hope to win if the person at the top of the Republican ticket loses their state by, say, only four points, but not if he loses by 10. A Democratic Senate probably would guarantee a Supreme Court with a liberal cast for a generation. If Clinton is inaugurated next Jan. 20, Merrick Garland probably will already be on the court-- confirmed in a lame-duck Senate session-- and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer will be 83, 80 and 78, respectively.

...Were he to be nominated, conservatives would have two tasks. One would be to help him lose 50 states-- condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials, including the manners and grace that should lubricate the nation’s civic life. Second, conservatives can try to save from the anti-Trump undertow as many senators, representatives, governors and state legislators as possible.

...If Trump is nominated, Republicans working to purge him and his manner from public life will reap the considerable satisfaction of preserving the identity of their 162-year-old party while working to see that they forgo only four years of the enjoyment of executive power. Six times since 1945 a party has tried, and five times failed, to secure a third consecutive presidential term. The one success-- the Republicans’ 1988 election of George H.W. Bush-- produced a one-term president. If Clinton gives her party its first 12 consecutive White House years since 1945, Republicans can help Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, or someone else who has honorably recoiled from Trump, confine her to a single term.

The Ramones-- 40 Years Ago Today

I had dinner with my old friend Danny Fields today. You may know him as the guy who discovered Iggy and the MC5 or as manager of the Ramones or as the guy from the movie, Danny Says, that came out last year. I met Danny 50 years ago. I was still a teenager, in college, and he was ten years older and working in the music buisiness and seemed very much the ideal, cool adult hipster. I had booked an unknown band I had met at a tiny club in New York over the summer to play my school in September, The Doors. I went to see them at the club every night for a couple weeks while they were in New York and got to be friends with Jim Morrison, bonding over DMT, a wretched drug no one liked except he and I, and I agreed to pay them $450 for the concert. A month later they released their first single, "Light My Fire" and it exploded. Although there was no album yet, the single made them famous and the $450 fee looked like a great deal, although some students were disgrunted that I had wasted so much student money on an unknown band. It was one of the greatest rock shows I had ever seen and The Doors introduced me to their A&R guy from Elektra Records, Danny, that night.

Me, then

After the show Danny let me sit in his limo. I had never seen one except on TV and he invited me to his office if I was ever in the city. I soon was and he brought me to a closet and told me to take any records I wanted "but not more than 2 or 3 of any one title" and I felt light-headed and thought I was going to faint. It was the moment I decided I wanted to be in the record business.

Instead, I went to India. I lived in Asia and Europe for almost 7 years and when I got back, I was walking down the street in Manhattan and ran into Danny. "Oh, you've got to come see this new band I'm working with," he said immediately. I was only into Indian music-- Bismillah Khan, the Ali Brothers, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar...-- and had no interest in rock bands. He insisted. It was at the coolest club in town and the band, he swore, was the future of rock'n'roll. I don't know why I let him talk me into it but that night I went to CBGB's for the first time, saw The Ramones for the first time and met my future boss and mentor, Seymour Stein, for the first time. And I got hooked on rock music again, or at least the version of it The Ramones were playing.

Soon after I moved to San Francisco and, as a radio dj, became The Ramones evangelist in that city. It was 40 years ago today that they released their first , eponymous, album. Later I wound up as general manager of their record label, Sire, and because I was an early champion of their cultural revolution, the company picked me to be the president of Reprise Records. I trace it all back to Danny. I was more than happy to pick up the tab at dinner tonight. This was the first single from that first Ramones album. It changed the direction of music and it changed the direction of my life (which had been pretty directionless before then.

2,000 Sets Of State Of The Art Riot Gear Have Been Ordered By A Wary Cleveland As More Republicans Back Out

With crackpot Trumpsters Roger Stone and Alex Jones calling on 5 million Trump fans to show up in Cleveland in July to teach the establishment a lesson, I don't care how much money law enforcement is spending on riot gear, I'm staying away from Cleveland in July. Nor am I the only one who has come to that decision. Plenty of lobbyists will go, but Jeb Bush has already announced that he's staying away. There's a feeling of "anxiety, uncertainty and unease" among Republicans already, many cognizant that Stone has been threatening to report their hotel rooms to the Trump mob if anyone tries to steal the nomination from him.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been hinting he may be cruising somewhere else instead of Brookside Park, Big Creek Reserevation or the Great Northern Mall. And Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has told friends that there is no where on earth she wants to be less than her party's convention this year. Richard Burr (NC) has also been hinting he has a previous appointment that week and can't make it. Sen. Mark Kirk (IL) has just been confiding in friends he might not go, he's been telling the media back home, he's too busy to attend.

Kirk is considered tied with Ron Johnson (R-WI) as the #1 most likely Republican to lose in November. Both have stated that if Trump wins the nomination they intend to put party over country and vote for him in November. Kirk's opponent's campaign has pointed out that even if Kirk avoids the convention itself, "no amount of physical distance will separate Sen. Kirk from his Republican roots, nor from Donald Trump's circus."

There could be as many as two dozen Republican congressmen and senators who avoid that circus, especially if it starts to look more likely that there will be violence and bloodshed. Potentially, though, the biggest loser isn't the GOP but tragically, the city of Cleveland which has been wishing it had lost the bid for the convention. What was supposed to be an opportunity to show off to the country how far it had come since the bad old days of default and urban blight.

Thanks to Donald Trump, Cleveland’s first nominating convention since 1936 might not be the customary coronation and infomercial, despite a $64 million corporate fundraising pledge and $50 million in federal assistance to assure all goes smoothly.

“This has the potential to be very, very good for the city,” said Stephen Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association. “It also has the potential to be very, very bad for the city,”

The prospect of a fight for the Republican nomination, bolstered by Trump’s warning of riots if he doesn’t get the nod, has evoked memories of raucous conventions from long ago when backroom deals by kingmakers often determined the nominee. Those featured fistfights on arena floors and, in Chicago’s 1968 Democratic gathering, violent street disturbances that stained the city as images were broadcast worldwide.

The risk attached to the July 18-21 convention has revived the debate over the economic benefit derived from mega-events such as Super Bowls, NATO summits and the quadrennial gatherings to nominate Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

“For Cleveland, the name recognition and having a chance to tell the turnaround story of downtown brings the potential reward of changing perceptions of the city,” said Ned Hill, an Ohio State University economist. “If it turns out there is blatant Trumpism in the streets, then the good news story will disappear.”

...The possibility of turmoil wasn’t imagined two years ago when the city of 390,000 people beat out Dallas for the right to host the event. Conventional wisdom then suggested former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would coast to the nomination, giving Cleveland the chance to bathe in the positive light of national television exposure.

Trump’s stunning rise, accompanied by violence at his rallies and his own bellicose remarks, has fueled an expectation of disorder. Roger Stone, a Republican operative and Trump ally, invoked the 1968 “days of rage” when he tweeted April 2 his plans to organize protests in Cleveland if Trump isn’t nominated.

...“What you hear from Trump increases the level of anxiety, but we’ll be prepared for whatever happens,” said City Councilman Matt Zone, who heads the safety committee.

About 600 officers from Cleveland’s 1,500 member police force will be on duty for the event, Loomis said, aided by as many as 2,500 security personnel from outside the city. Using $50 million in federal grants, Cleveland will purchase barricades, batons and 2,000 sets of riot gear.

Recent terrorist attacks in France, Brussels and San Bernardino, California, have added to the security concerns. The equipment hasn’t been delivered, Loomis said, and his officers haven’t been thoroughly trained.

“We were excited when we first heard about this,” Loomis said. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was very concerned.”

Trump's OpEd in yesterday's Wall Street Journal wasn't meant to smooth anything over with the party establishment. It was meant to rouse fear and loathing among an already paranoid and conspiracy-happy GOP Base raised on simplistic Hate Talk Radio. "A planned vote had been canceled," he wrote. "And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined." Gone are the days when he used to brag onstage at the debates how he would buy the politicians with campaign contributions so he could have his special interests attended to. Now he's one of the aggrieved fighting "the system" instead of manipulating it. Or... well, he's just using a different tactic of manipulation, a more dangerous one.

In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress-- well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it.

Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family?

I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club-- the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests-- grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated.

No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice.

Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide.

The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.

Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election?

...The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.

My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.

What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters.

The American people can have no faith in such a system. It must be reformed.

Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith-- and the franchise-- of the American people.

We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee.

How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?

Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.

The state of Ohio doesn't allow candidates-- even self-funding ones-- to bribe delegates at conventions. Watch how Maddow explained it Thursday evening: