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.

Red flags abound in the Trump Administration, and this week is a doozy. 

On Wednesday, March 15th…

  • Trump calls out Pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston for releasing his tax returns. Says the journalists claim that the tax returns were left in his mailbox is “fake news”
  • Federal Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii authorizes a temporary restraining order on Trump’s revised travel ban. It was supposed to go into effect on March 16th,
  • House Intelligence committee member Devin Nunes tells reporters “I dont think there was an actual tap of Trump Towers.”
  • Trump calls Snoop Dogg, who artistically executed a Trump Clown in a video, a failing artist, musing that if he had done the same to Obama he’d have been sent to jail.
  • There are reports of Texans receiving letters from the Justice Department trying to buy their land for the wall between Mexico and America
  • Rex Tillerson leaves for Japan, South Korea, & China, three countries recently criticized by Trump. He brings along one conservative journalist, which is a break from tradition
  • Former Indiana senator Dan Coats is approved as Director of National Intelligence. He’s a well-known Washington lobbyist, former Indiana senator, and a pal to Mike Pence.

On Thursday, March 16th…

  • More Intelligence Committee chairmen deny Trump Tower wiretapping claims
  • It is revealed that Michael Flynn was paid about $34,000 in 2015 to attend an event with Vladamir Putin. This money was given to him by the state run Russian Television Network… about two months before he began working for Trump. Per House Intelligence Committee chairman Elijah Cummings, “Basically, [Flynn] was acting as an employee basically of the Russian government, but at the same time he was working and getting the secrets from President Trump.” CBS also reports, “Flynn also received over $11,000 from a Russian cargo airline and $11,000 from Kaspersky Labs, a well-known cyber security company with ties to Russian officials.” This outrageously corrupt news takes a backseat to Trump’s new budget proposal, and is also talked about significantly less than Trump’s wiretapping claims, which is dominating media outlets. Misdirection or coincidence?
  • Speaking of Trump’s new budget proposal, 62 agencies and programs, largely in education and energy but also in the independent sectors, face budget cuts under Trump’s new budget proposal. Programs on the chopping block include Meals on Wheels, the Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which gives up to $4000 a year to college students in need. Several [former?] Trump supporters voiced their outrage on twitter, especially his older and disabled voters who rely on Meals and Wheels. The proposed budget would also remove 100% of the funding for The National Endowment of The Arts, community development block grants (funds public housing, infrastructure development, and anti-poverty programs), The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  • House republicans release their complex replacement for the Affordable Care Act, with many critics (and even some supporters) noticing that millions of Americans will lose coverage under the new plan. In fact, deductibles and out of pocket costs will actually increase under the GOP replacement. Read about the 7 biggest cons of the GOP replacement bill here.

On Friday, March 17th…

  • Rex Tillerson says “the policy of strategic patience” with North Korea has ended. He hints that he is willing to go to war with them.
  • A secret service member’s laptop was allegedly stolen, and it contained sensitive information (and a lot of it was regarding Hillary Clinton). Something tells me this is a backup plan for when sensitive information about the Trump administration is released by a third party. The Trump administration will be able to do what they’re best at- misdirect- about the crime of stealing a secret service member’s laptop
  • Trump meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ignores her when asked by media to give her a handshake. Either Trump’s 70 year old hearing is suddenly starting to get to him or he was just being petty. Here’s the awkward and/or embarrassingly misogynistic footage.

On Saturday, March 18th…

  • There are reports that Trump has chosen Kellyanne Conway’s husband to head the civil division of the US Department of Justice.
  • The Trump administration asks Hawaii federal court to revise ruling that paused travel ban
  • Trump tweets that Germany owes America money for NATO defense.

On Sunday, March 19th…

  • All 100 African delegates invited to the annual African Global Economic and Development Summit are denied travel visas. This has never happened before. As a result, there are no Africans present…at a meeting about African development.
  • Trump says North Korea leader King Jong Un is “acting very, very badly”
  • Even more politicians come forward and say they have not received any proof of wiretapping by Obama
  • Ted Cruz announces he won’t vote for GOP health bill because it doesn’t solve the problem of rising premiums
  • Sean Spicer mentions that Trump may begin overhaul of the US tax code as early as late spring.
  • A man falsely claiming to have a bomb arrested near the White House

On Monday, March 20th…

  • The Iraqi Prime Minister says he’s gained support from the US in fighting Islamic State militants, but warns that the US military might not be enough.
  • Sean Spicer defends Trump’s golfing habits during a press conference. He also attempts to distance the White House from the publicly disgraced Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, who have both been revealed to have Russian ties. Spicer claims Flynn was simply a “volunteer” in the Trump campaign, nothing more. Read more about what he said here.
  • FBI Director James Comey confirmed that there is an active investigation into the relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also denies wiretapping claims against Obama, saying “I have no information that supports those tweets.”
  • The Trump Administration toys with the idea of cutting North Korea off from the global finance system as punishment for its nuclear mischief.
  • It is revealed that Ivanka Trump is getting her own office in the White House, which requires security clearance… which is something she claimed a few months back that she wouldn’t seek.

 

On Tuesday, March 21st…

  • Sean Spicer used a pending rape case against an undocumented immigrant to justify Trump’s immigration ban and stance,  ignoring all of the white American rapists who have been reported by the news in the past few years…. and all of the white American men who raped black women, native american women, and various other groups throughout America’s history. Read more about what he said here
  • Forbes revealed Donald Dump dropped 220 spots on their annual billionaires list. Curious minds wonder how they know how much money he has made and/or lost since he refuses to officially release his tax returns. Trump opponents mocked his downfall. Trump supporters cheered his move down on the list, many saying it makes sense that he’s lost money because he’s now a public servant.
  • Trump tells the House GOP that they’ll lose their seats if they don’t pass the healthcare bill.
  • King Coon Steve Harvey basically admitted that he respects massa– I mean the president- because he doesn’t want to lose his money. He told Snoop Dogg and Bow Wow, “I love Snoop. Bow Wow, always respectful and cordial with one another, me and T.I. I don’t have no problem with T.I. I love the dude. I’m just saying brothers be smart. You gotta be smart man … All y’all talking got money. You got money, man. You got money and they know how to go after that money. Just be smart, let me tell ya man, leave the first lady out of this. Y’all going down another path with these cats now. You start messing with they wives … I’ll tell y’all you going down another path.”
  • A winery owned by Trump’s son has applied to hire 29 foreign workers since Americans don’t want the job. The rational person can assume the job doesn’t pay a liveable wage.
  • Lobbyist and Trump pal Roger Stone acknowledges he’s currently under investigation for ties with Russia, but reiterates that he is innocent.
  • Trump holds a rally for his supporters in Kentucky.
  • Fortune reports that Trump’s costly and frequent trips to Mar a Lago could fund some government agencies for a year. According to various estimates, each of Trump’s trips to Mar-A-Lago cost taxpayers roughly 3 million dollars.

Things are getting more and more complicated and I’m pretty sure most of us would like to just turn off this shit show by flicking to another channel. Unfortunately, ignoring the Trump administration’s antics would do more harm than good. A lot of these incidents seem random, but Trump’s administration has made it clear that they will use the brilliant tactic of misdirection to their advantage. They are hoping we all get exhausted and return to our 24/7 conversations about ass eating, Kim Kardashian, and sports stats. Trump’s wiretapping claims didn’t just come out of nowhere- they are meant to direct attention away from some pretty obvious red flags. In the past week we have learned that Trump’s campaign is inexplicably tied to Russia, and that the FBI is investigating this. We know that the Trump administration is terrified, because they encouraged Spicer to create a visible distance from Flynn and Manafort. Just a few weeks ago Flynn was a trusted member of the Trump team. Now he’s being called a “volunteer”. You can bet your bottom dollar that Trump, his cronies, and his fake news sites will work hard to smear James Comey’s credibility. Sarah Palin is already claiming Trump should get rid of him because of his ties to Hillary Clinton. In case you forgot, many people actually believe Comey’s investigation (and publicized announcement) into Hillary’s emails weeks before the election cost her the win.

We also clearly see this week that the Trump administration is scrambling to maintain support of its core voters. This is why he has been appearing at rallies. This is why his sons wife just announced a pregnancy. This is why Ivanka has announced she’ll be creating a more downscale jewelry line. This is why he’s attacking the media at every chance and carving out which channels are “acceptable”. Despite his efforts, a few supporters are flipping their pillows to the cool side and announcing their regret in voting for him. Obviously, these “Trump Regreters” have only come to see the light because his policies have begun affecting them. They didn’t care when his policies harmed non-whites or non-christians. But now that he’s showing his true colors towards the poor? Faith in Donald Dump is flickering. Though most of us sane people are sure Trump is hiding something scandalous, the more he and his family and administration openly embody third world kleptocrats, we can only imagine what his secrets are in our wildest dreams. I mean… if he’s doing all this horribly transparent shit in the open- what the fuck is he hiding?

Until next week, friends.