Verdicts Speak Louder

PBS reports: Trump avoids mention of Cohen, Manafort legal drama at West Virginia rally

Hours before the rally, Manafort was convicted in federal court in Virginia on eight counts of financial crimes. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to eight felonies, including breaking federal campaign finance law by arranging payments to two women who said they had sexual relationships with Trump before he became president.

 

Trump has denied the relationships.

 


 

He called his supporters to gather
And whipped them up into a lather.
But Cohen and Manafort
Had a bad day in court:
Bigger news than the president’s blather.

2018 Colleen Anderson

 


About Worth


What fantasies are those of which you speak,
of all the ways you’ve made our country great;
how leaderships before yours were too weak
and how superior genes assure your fate.

Inheriting a fortune has its perks.
It let you hone your business expertise
and grow your fame by any means that works
to revel in each moment that you seize.

Your unrelenting braggadocio
of power fame and wealth your talents brought
are not enough and never will be so.
Your psyche will not find the worth it sought.

Your saddest bankruptcy is of your soul.
You’re squandering all hope to make it whole.


cc 2018 Susan Eckenrode

Marblehead



Donald Trump Looks And Acts Mentally Ill, Says CNBC Correspondent John Harwood
“He did not look well to me in that press conference. He was not speaking logically or rationally. There was something about his affect which was oddly kind of languid from him. I don’t know what it means, but he did not look well to me.”

Inquisitr reports:

Trump’s behavior at the G7 summit, during which he’s railed against “unfair” trade practices with America’s closest allies, suggested allowing Russia back into the fold, threatening retaliatory tariffs, and criticized presidents going back to the Eisenhower administration, has been described as “harsh” even by Fox News. But for Harwood and his CNBC colleagues, it’s more concerning than that.

 

This is not the first time Trump’s mental health has come up in conversation. Back in April, as Vanity Fair reported at the time, Trump advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they were concerned with the president’s mental health. In particular, they were worried about what Trump might say or do during a five-day vacation at Mar-a-Lago with nothing on his schedule, in advance of a summit with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

 

Similarly, as Fox News reports, Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, endured a barrage of questions about the president’s mental health. Jackson tried to ease concerns by pointing out that the president had scored perfectly on a cognitive test that included being told to draw a clock.

 

Lost his mind long ago, no doubt, but is he also losing the support of his base?


Marblehead

He bragged about his expertise to lead
and many all too trustingly agreed,
unmindful that his feet are cast in lead
and leaden marbles roll inside his head.

Susan Eckenrode, 6/29/18

Stable Genius President (Singalong Parody)

(with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan)

BABY DONALD
I am the very model of a stable genius president,
the oldest living toddler in America’s chief residence.
My finger’s on the button of the Arsenal of Nuclear
diverting your attention to that other guy who’s spookier.

Because I see the writing on the wall and need a shock immense
enough to hide behind when Mueller comes with legal documents,
I’ll stamp my foot and contradict the evidence connecting me
to Putin while the GOP goes bigly down protecting me.

The party bought a ticket to the taming of democracy.
I’ll hold it down, they’ll kick it to the radical theocracy
who loves to hear me reading from the book of Two Corinthian.
They’ll revolutionize the world in matters labyrinthian.

GOP CHORUS
With many cheerful lies about our pretty kakistocracy!
With many cheerful lies about our pretty kakistocracy!
With many cheerful lies about our pretty kakistocra-stocracy!

BABY DONALD
I’m very good at coloring with crayons on the diagram
provided by my generals who think they’re smarter than I am.
In short, my hands are big and my intelligence is evident
I am the very model of a stable genius president.

TRUMPISTA CHORUS
In short, his hands are big and his intelligence is evident,
He is the very model of a stable genius president!

BABY DONALD
I have the words my alter egos, Tweetledum and Tweetledee,
can fling in haste when anyone is trying to outwheedle me.
I proudly shout down idiots who still consider hate a sin.
Nobody else is qualified to make the country great again.

A prickle in the side of Nanny Mitch and Speaker Ryan,
anytime my mouth is open it’s a sign my lips are lyin’
as I reignite the culture wars and cultivate acedia*
by stifling all reports from that infernal nosy media.

GOP CHORUS
We’ll stifle all reports from that infernal nosy media!
We’ll stifle all reports from that infernal nosy media!
We’ll stifle all reports from that infernal nosy medi-media!

BABY DONALD
Then I can sign all legislative bills without congressional
approval. On the Mar-a-Lago greens, I’m inaccessible.
In short, it matters not, for my authority is evident,
I am the very model of a stable genius president.

TRUMPISTA CHORUS
In short, it matters not, for his authority is evident,
He is the very model of a stable genius president!

BABY DONALD
I needn’t know the meaning of the words with many syllables
when I know more of bluster than a crooked lawyer’s billables.
In short, when you’re the target of the purest spittle ever spat,
you’ll say a better stable genius president has never sat!

GOP CHORUS
You’ll say a better stable genius president has never sat!
You’ll say a better stable genius president has never sat!

 


*acedia – Baby Donald heard this word on CNN and thought it meant hero worship.

 

Mary Boren, 1/13/18

Recklessly Juvenile Quips


Esquire reports: Trump’s Locker Room Talk and Nuclear War Talk Finally Converged

It’s almost a courtesy from President Trump: rather than get our hopes up with calm, careful, magnanimous tweets to kick off the new year, we’re back into freezing cold reality. None of the president’s nine tweets Tuesday morning were particularly reassuring to those of us concerned about the future of our country or planet. That particularly goes for those of us who think thermonuclear war sounds like kind of a drag.

 

[…]

 

My big, powerful button. There’s a real macabre fascination to our current national experiment, wherein we’ve given unprecedented powers of destruction to an obviously stunted man whose mind is stuck in a high-school locker room. In case you were wondering, there is not actually a button on the president’s desk—besides the one with which he summons a butler to bring him Diet Cokes, which he apparently presses 12 times a day. However, it is within this individual’s power to unilaterally launch a nuclear weapon at any time. Once again, Happy Freakin’ New Year.

 

Read the article

 

 


“My nuclear button’s much bigger than his,
and my button works!” It’s a Trumpian tiz.
Our president’s recklessly juvenile quips
could tick off a tyrant with missiles on ships
Our generals caution that war is no game
but Trump doesn’t care if it furthers his fame.

Susan Eckenrode, 1/3/18

 

Uber Obnoxious

Snopes fact checks: Did Mad Magazine Publish a Trump Cartoon in 1992?

The magazine lampooned the business leader for his bankruptcies.

 

This is a real comic that was published by Mad Magazine in 1992.

 

Some were skeptical that Mad had really lampooned President Trump in the 1990s, but it’s not really all that surprising. Although Trump has only been president for a five months as of this writing, he has been a public figure for much of his life. In fact, shortly after Trump became president, Mad released a book of previously published comics “chronicling his rise from obnoxious businessman to really obnoxious reality show host to uber obnoxious “Commander-in-Tweet.”

 


 

When the “uber obnoxious commander-in-tweet”
is surrounded by sycophants kissing his feet,
when their greed and self interest are governing guides,
we have all got to stand for a turning of tides.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/18/17

 

Kissed the Girls

Daily Mail reports: President faces new claims over conduct as three women accuse him of harassment

Samantha Holvey, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks had previously made allegations against Trump and appeared on Megyn Kelly ‘Today’ to demand justice as the White House resumed its claim that the issue had been litigated in last year’s election.

 

[…]

 

After declining comment on the matter initially, the White House sprung a statement on Kelly in the middle of her program.

 

‘These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign,’ the statement said, ‘and the American people voiced their judgement by delivering a decisive victory.’

 

It went on to say that the ‘timing and absurdity’ of the accusers’ claims, along with their ‘publicly tour’ they’ve started ‘only further confirms the political motives behind them.’

 

‘It’s laughable,’ Crooks replied a moment later.

 

Crooks has contemporaneous emails that she sent her sister at the time of the alleged assault, in January of 2006, when Trump was already married to his third wife Melania. She said Monday that she’d be ‘more than happy’ for security footage to come out that proves the accuracy of her story.

 

She added, ‘He owns the building. I doubt that’s going to happen.’

 

Leeds says she began telling her story publicly once it became clear that Trump was serious about running for president.

 

As to whether the Democrat thought her allegation would be enough to keep him out of office, she said, ‘I don’t think I thought I had that kind of power. But I really wanted people to know who he is and what he is.

 

‘And I think his core supporters do know. I mean, I think they recognize. But he’s their dog, so they’re gonna stick with their dog,’ she said.

 

 


Donnie, Donnie, pudding and pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
when he got caught: now here’s the thing!
His fans would forgive his every fling.

 

Hope Brown, 12/18/17

 

Pat a Cake

pat a cake

Washington Examiner reports: Doug Jones wants to reach a deal on DACA without funding Trump’s border wall

Alabama Senator-elect Doug Jones wants to work with congressional leaders to come up with a fix for illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children, but it can’t involve funding for a border wall.

 

Jones said on “Fox News Sunday” he’s ready to help come up with a compromise on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program. That program is set to expire in March and Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the government in order to get a deal on the program without funding President Trump’s wall along the Mexican border.

 

“I have said before that I opposed the building of a wall. I think that’s an expense that the taxpayers just don’t have to incur,” he said. “I do think you can increase our border security without having to go to the incredible expense of building that wall, at least the figures that I’ve seen. I do support the DACA program and would love to see that extended. I hope there can be some bipartisan effort to reach to do that.”

 

Jones said one of the reasons he wanted to run for office is he didn’t see anyone in Washington willing to make a deal and reach across the aisle.

 


Pat a cake, pat a cake, Donald’s man
build him a wall as fast as you can.
Pat it and prick it and put him inside
He’ll start the war – and then want to hide.

Hope Brown 12/17

 

Drain the Swamp

drain the swamp
The Atlantic reports: “The president has made a mockery of a promise at the core of his campaign.”

Forget the Russia investigation. Even if no wrongdoing is proved on that matter, the Trump Administration’s behavior would still be epically swampy. A list of examples is clarifying:

 

Corey Lewandowski, who worked as Trump’s campaign manager, moved to Washington, D.C., and started a Beltway lobbying firm, where he accepted lots of money from special interests that were trying to influence Trump. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported, “Established K Street firms were grabbing any Trump people they could find: Jim Murphy, Trump’s former political director, joined the lobbying giant BakerHostetler, while another firm, Fidelis Government Relations, struck up a partnership with Bill Smith, Mike Pence’s former chief of staff. All told, close to 20 ex-aides of Trump, friends, and hangers-on had made their way into Washington’s influence business.”

 

Read the article:
Trump Has Filled, Not Drained, the Swamp

 

 


 

Ah! At last we see
What once was hidden;
you’ve replaced the swamp
with a moral midden.

2017 William John McQuade

 

He’s Still Got the Best Words


Business Insider reports: “People are ripping Trump for a White House statement with a blindingly obvious flaw.”

“We will get rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes your time and your money.” — President Donald J. Trump

 

The quote is from a speech Trump gave on June 9, and it was unintentionally hilarious then, too.

 

“Redundancy” and “duplication” mean the same thing, making the appearance of both of those words, well … redundant.

 

While the irony may have been lost on the White House, it didn’t escape Twitter users, who gave Trump another round of mocking for his linguistic slip-up.

 

 

 


 

“We will get rid of…”
(then eliminate)
“redundancy and duplication.”
Great!
Trump’s funny and amusing,
yet and still,
his presidency’s sliding down the Hill
into the mucky swamp he vowed to drain.
He’ll duplicate redundancy again.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/15/17