"She's Not My Type."

I've tried to not focus on Trump lately. He makes it so hard. 

"She's not my type." 

That's what he said about a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

The President of the US said this. "She's not my type."

So you didn't rape her because she's not your type? What if she were your type; would that make it OK?

If not, why? Because rape is wrong? Maybe you should have started with that. "I didn't rape her because rape is wrong." 

Would have sounded a lot better than, "she's not my type."

Here's another one that is alarming; spoken to a reporter about his conversation with Putin:

“I will have a very good conversation with him,” Trump said, adding, “What I say to him is none of your business.”

It has been verified over and over that Russia interfered with our election. The President continues to deny it and joke about it. Now he says what he says to Putin is none of our business.

This is not just about a person's privacy. What he says when he is speaking as the representative for our country is very much our business. 

Post-Mueller

I didn't write for a while; most days the Trump news was pretty typical. The Mueller Report release went as I expected--pretty clear that Trump did a bunch of bad/dumb stuff, but not enough to demand impeachment or arrest. 

But stuff just keeps building up. And every time it does, I'm dumbfounded again. How in the world did this happen? How does it continue to happen?

He is a disaster! An ego-maniac--everything is about him! Every time he speaks he shows his ignorance and arrogance. Ridiculing and criticizing everyone except his faithful supporters. 

He accuses everyone else of lying, but insists he and his family tell the truth. And his followers believe him. 

He just passed 10,000 lies/untruths since his election. EVEN if only 10% of those lies are really lies, that's 1,000 lies. Unbelievable. 

This week he lied about late-term abortion, saying that laws democrats are passing allow the murder of children. Ridiculous. No truth to it. But his people believe it. 

A couple other things lately got me.

First, tweeting congratulations to the number TWO pick in the NFL draft, while ignoring the number ONE pick in the NFL draft.

Guess which one is white, and which is not. EVEN if your reason isn't racial--you have to know this will APPEAR incredibly racial! 

Why do it? Maybe because the number two pick supports Trump? With Trump, it's not about what people do or accomplish; it's about how people view and treat him. It's always about him. 

This one floored me.

A bit older, but still hanging around...

"Kim tells me he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Trump said in Vietnam.

This is about North Korean president Kim Jong Un. A brutal dictator who has killed members of his own family. 

Trump calls almost everyone a liar--Democrats, reporters, critics, colleagues in government... but a brutal dictator who kills and leads by force; this is whom he chooses to believe and trust.

Fast food for visiting college sports teams. I know he thinks it's cool, but it's really just demeaning. 

The Bullying Continues...

Trump continues to bully:
Little pencil neck Adam Schiff ... got the smallest, thinnest neck I've ever seen. He is not a long ball hitter.
(Michigan rally, 3/28/2019)

His campaign website is even selling T-shirts ridiculing Schiff.

This is not how adults behave. You don't ridicule a person's physical appearance. Yet Trump's supporters ignore this kind of bullying over and over. People who tell their children not to bully others, support and encourage a President who does it over and over. 

These are all things Trump has said about people on Twitter:

Weird
Spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain
Low-class slob
Perv sleaze bag
Crazy
A total low-life
Vicious
Going nuts
Totally unhinged
Despicible
A joke
Went insane
incompetent
Not very bright
weak, both mentally and physically
dopey
mentally deranged
an extraordinarily low-IQ person
unhinged
a total stiff
really dumb puppet
dumbest man on television
dope
know-nothing

I don't speak of other people like that; you probably don't either. We don't let our children speak that way. But Trump supporters seem to like the bullying. Of course, they won't call it bullying, but "toughness."

It makes me sad and angry that this person represents our country. 

Great piece in New York Magazine about Trump's bullying. 

Investigation a Hoax?

Reactions to the completion of the Mueller investigation are all over the place. 

Trump says the entire investigation was a hoax.

That is a lie. It was a real investigation. 
Led by a man with far more character and honor and trustworthiness than Trump.
Investigating real actions committed by real people. 

• 199 criminal counts
• 37 people charged
• 7 people pleaded guilty
• 1 convicted at trial
• 5 sentenced to prison

While the crimes uncovered were not connected to collusion with Russia, that doesn't make the investigation a hoax.

Crimes were committed by people close to Trump, including people who served as his:

• National Security Advisor (Michael Flynn)
• Deputy Campaign Manager (Rick Gates)
• low-level Foreign Policy Advisor (George Papadopoulos)
• Lawyer and Fixer (Michael Cohen)
• Campaign Chair (Paul Manafort)

Attorney General William Barr quotes Mueller:
"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Trump continues to lie, saying in tweets, speeches and interviews:
"It was a complete and total exoneration."

It is ridiculous that every day Trump calls others liars, while lying himself in the same conversations. over and over. 

Sexual Assault Accusations

Joe Biden has been accused of kissing a woman on her head, inappropriately. Disappointing situation. Democrats should respond and deal with it, and I think they will.

Trump supporters cannot speak to this. You gave up that right when you supported (and still support) a president with his history. When the President you support has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, you don't get to condemn others who have been accused.

When you support a President who bragged about kissing women without their consent, and bragged about watching women change clothes during a beauty pageant, and bragged about grabbing women by the p***y, you don't get to say anything about anyone else accused of sexual misconduct. 

Bullying

The First Lady initiated a campaign to combat bullying, especially online bullying. Her husband doesn't seem at all concerned.

George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife's success & angry that I, with her help, didn't give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!
(Trump week 3-20-2019)

Ignoring that it is another lie among thousands of lies (Conway withdrew his name from consideration from the job to which Trump refers), think about what the President of the US is saying. Calling another person a loser. On Twitter. Textbook online bullying. 

Trump says he barely knows Conway, but somehow he knows that people who know him refer to him by his wife's name. 

I hear people say they like that the President fights back. I don't agree. The POTUS should take the high road. Be strong, but be a gentleman. He shouldn't waste his time on Twitter battles. 

Would we tolerate our teachers or pastors or local leaders calling others "loser" or "husband from hell"?

Would you allow your children to say such things to others on social media? If you would not approve of your children saying such things, then why are you OK with our President doing it? Don't we want him to be someone we can look to as an example for how to lead? We don't have to agree with him on everything, but we should expect his behavior to be appropriate, at the least. 

More on McCain:

He has good words to say about Putin, our adversary, he has good words to say about Kim Jong Un yet he disrespects our hero, he disrespects Senator McCain and his family. What a moment of shame for us to have such a commander in chief.

(Khizr Kahn, 3/21/2019)

Trump on McCain. again.

Hypocrisy.

Trump tweets that John McCain was last in his class at the Naval Academy (which is false; he was close, but not last).

At the same time, Trump's lawyers threatened schools that Trump attended if they released Trump's grades.

"He's not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
(Trump about McCain in interview, 7-18-2015) 

I don't often agree with Mitt Romney, but I thought this tweet yesterday was spot on:

I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.
(Romney tweet, 03-19-2019)

I often disagreed with McCain politically. But he was a man of character. Trump is not. Trump is none of those adjectives Romney used to describe McCain. It is unbelievable that the President of the United States continuously disparages an American hero, from his own political party, out of spite.

I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” Trump told the crowd. “I don’t care about this, I didn’t get ‘thank you,’ but that’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.
(Trump speech, 3-20-2019)

Good leaders lead (and serve). They don't look around for thank you's.

There are certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong -- whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or somewhere in between. And attacking a dead man who spent five years as a prisoner of war and another three decades serving the country in elected office is simply wrong. That's true if Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce or whoever the next president will be did it. (None of them would have said what Trump did about a man with as decorated a past as McCain but the point still holds.) 
(Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, 3-19-2019)