Gorging myself daily on the antics of Donald Trump and his administration over the next four years will not be a pleasant task.

But I will resist. I will help whoever is reading this resist. Resist what, you ask? The alternative facts  (the plain person pronounces this as lies)and borrowed fascism that, combined, are ripening in the Trump administration as I type these very words. Most Wednesdays you can count on a brief ledger of his malignancy, corruption, and incompetency… basically all the things that matter. If you’ve missed the previous weeks, click here.

 

This week in Trumpland, things with North Korea got more than tense… but Trump’s taxes are on everyone’s mind.

On Wednesday, April 12th…

  • The Daily Mail paid Melania roughly 2.9 million dollars in a settlement after erroneously calling her an escort. The lawsuit was filed on the basis that being called a former escort caused her to miss out on lucrative deals as the first lady. Only in Trump America would this not be considered and admission of conspiracy to commit corruption.
  • Despite saying previously on the campaign trail that NATO was obsolete (and that it didn’t fight terrorism), Trump reversed his statement.
  • The day after the Washington Post reports that the FBI investigated one of Trump’s former campaign advisers Carter Page for Russian ties last year, it is revealed that Paul Manafort received at least 1.2 million from a pro-Russia political party in the Ukraine.
  • Speaking of Russia, Rex Tillerson says Russian ties are “at a low point.”
  • Ben Carson gets stuck in an elevator during a public housing tour. The jokes write themselves.

On Thursday, April 13th…

  • Trump signed legislation that allows states to withhold federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other similar providers
  • The United States drops the largest non-nuclear bomb, allegedly on a series of ISIS caves in Syria. Trump says he’s given the military “total authorization” in response to whether or not he authorized the use of the “mother of all bombs”

On Friday, April 14th…

  • Trump’s white house won’t make logs of visitors to the White House available to the public. This is a break from the previous White House.
  • The American Defamation League volunteers to offer training sessions to Sean Spicer on the Holocaust after he compared the president of Syria to Hitler

On Saturday, April 15th…

  • Protesters around the country gather to demand Trump release his tax returns. There are numerous scuffles between pro and anti Trump supporters, particularly at Berkeley.

  • North Koreans celebrate the birthday of Kim Il Sung and warn America they are “ready to hit back with nuclear attacks.”

On Sunday, April 16th…

  • Trump claims in a tweet that the thousands of people who gathered the day before to demand his taxes be released were paid to do so.

On Monday, April 17th…

  • North Korea says it will continue testing missiles regularly and any military action from America would begin “all out war”
  • A non profit watchdog has expanded its lawsuit that accuses Trump of letting his hotels and restaurants accept payments from foreign governments

On Tuesday, April 18th…

  • Trump signs order that will likely curb the amount of foreign workers. Trump has “criticized employers for abusing the program and using it to avoid hiring higher paid American counterparts.”
  • It is revealed that Ivanka Trump has been involved in a conflict of interest. Kleptocracy and nepotism at work.

North Korea seems like a looming possibility of terror, but the failed missile launch (believed to be thwarted by US military hackers) takes a little bit of the edge off. Meanwhile, It seems like everyone is consumed with pressuring Trump about his tax returns, which Sean Spicer says are under audit. Even though I feel like we’re beating a dead horse at this point by asking for his tax returns, every time I’ve clicked to CNN the past few days all they seem to be talking about is Trump’s tax returns. I believe this is a distraction. But what exactly could this distraction be camouflaging?

What do you think?