Yes, he did.

You know he did.

He’s just such a jerk.  A real leader parts the opening with his presence.  A jerk shoves people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WqJkWntgSg

Ben Carson, y’all.

“I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind.”

No, but brutal ignorance, indifference, and insensitivity most definitely are.

Honestly, there’s something wrong with that guy.

Well, lookie here. Jeff Sessions forgot that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who must be a very forgettable man because almost every member of the Trump administration met with him and then “forgot” about it.

It’s almost like Kislyak personally picked every member of this administration.  Ha, but that couldn’t happen.

Now here’s what I’m wondering about Grandma Clampett.  His staff is saying that an unnamed FBI agent told them that Sessions didn’t have to include this meeting if the meeting occurred while he was a senator.  The form requires him to list “any contact” he or his family had with a “foreign government” or its “representatives” over the past seven years.

What kind of damn anagram do you have to find in there that says “unless you’re a senator”?

If the meeting was innocent, why not list it just to be on the safe side?

You gotta wonder – are Trump’s appointees coming so slowly because Kislyak has a very busy schedule?

In response to a House Oversight Committee document request, Trump’s lawyers sent a slick pamphlet describing how he’s NOT going to track money he receives from foreign governments, strictly prohibited by the Constitution’s emoluments clause.  Much has been written by legal scholars about Trump’s egregious violations of the Constitutional provision, and it’s all been ignored by the GOP and surprisingly, the press.  The Brookings Institute has published some of the best analysis of Trump’s real and continuing problem of taking money from foreign governments. It’s an impeachable offense, but no one is even trying, at least yet, to do anything about it.  Bloomberg has written about how money is pouring into Trump’s DC hotel which is housed in the Old Post Office building, both from foreign governments and GOP World, which has established the hotel as its new headquarters.  Oh, BTW, Trump is also violating federal rules prohibiting leasing to an elected official, but that’s another story the press is ignoring.

Before the inauguration, Trump said that he was putting all of his interests in a trust, which he didn’t, and wouldn’t be involved, which he is.  The pamphlet generally outlines how his spider web of hotels, resorts, and golf clubs will attempt to track payments, but basically says that it’s just too difficult, “impractical” I believe it says, to track all the payments.

So there.  Emoluments Clause?  We don’t need no Emoluments Clause – it’s just too hard to keep up with the graft, so we’ll just not try.  Just another day in Trumpland.

UPDATE: Fox News has released the audio of the assault.

File in the You Just Can’t Make This Up Department

On the eve of a special election in Montana to fill the congressional seat vacated by newly installed secretary of Interior, Ryan Zinke, GOP candidate and wannabe WWF champion Greg Gianforte body slammed a Guardian reporter.  That’s not really news, of course, since many Republicans are known the be knuckledragging, ignorant thugs.  The NEWS here is that there was a Fox News crew present, and they actually corroborated the story resulting in assault charges against Gianforte.

The whole scene occurred at Gianforte’s Bozeman campaign office and Fox was there to interview him for a segment on Bret Baier’s show scheduled for Thursday. While setting up, Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, walked in and started asking Gianforte about his view on the GOP bill that strips health insurance from 23 million Americans.  Gianforte refused to answer, and when Jacobs persisted, he grabbed the reporter by the neck and body slammed him, got on top of him and started pummeling him yelling “I’m sick and tired of this!”

Apparently, the incident was so egregious that the local sheriff, who is a Gianforte supporter, had to enforce the law and charged him with assault.  Now, I have no illusions that this criminal won’t still be supported by GOP voters.  Being immune to facts, they’ll vote for Gianforte, anyway, and he’ll likely be sworn in from a jail cell.

Oh my God, Republicans are now body-slamming reporters?

Thanks to Deb for the heads up.