I grew up in the age of the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.  I was in the 4th grade during the Cuban missile crisis.  I participated in the “duck and cover” drills that did nothing to protect us and scared the crap out of all of us.  During all those years, the guy sitting in the Oval Office was cautious; calculating; surrounded by foreign relations and defense experts.  As a young boy, I feared the Russians and depended on Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and HW Bush to protect us.  In the years since the Soviet Union collapsed and the arms race waned, I didn’t think too much about nuclear weapons or war, nor did most Americans.

Then came Trump.  The Reality Show President loves to stir the pot to stay at the top of the news cycle.  He insults television stars, politicians, foreign leaders, and everyone who gets in the way.  He spends hours a day watching Fox Noise, then tweeting out advertisements for the network on an hourly basis. And he brags.  He brags on himself in a continuous stream, takes credit for everything from the stock market to airline safety and loves to saber rattle.  He’s now in a twitter war with Kim Jong Un arguing over nuclear button size.

Jesus.  As my spouse said just this morning, “I used to worry about nuclear weapons launched by other countries.  I now worry about my own.”  No truer words were ever spoken.  We are now being threatened with nuclear war by our own goddam president.  He thinks this is a reality television episode, where he wins by vanquishing his foes.  This lunatic has shaken the American psyche, and certainly the world, to the core.

Joe Biden said in October that, “Violating the norms of personal conduct generates more anxiety and fear than any policy prescription that this president has enunciated.  Sending his Secretary of State to talk with North Korea and saying he’s on a fool’s errand… it is absolutely bizarre. It’s bizarre conduct.”  And this is the problem;  the job of the President of the United States is to give comfort to its citizens.  It’s to calm fears; instill confidence in the electorate in times of trouble.  The problem with THIS president, though, is that he couldn’t care less about you, me, or anyone else for that matter.  Trump uses the office of president as a giant funnel to fill his needy ego and his wallet.  If that means stirring up long-dormant fears of nuclear wars, so be it.  If it involves childish name calling and bullying, no problem.

We are on a path of certain long term damage to our democracy, if not worse.  The glib references to nuclear war keep the entire globe on edge.  This behavior hurts everyone, including Trump.  It’s time for Congress or the Cabinet to stand on their hind legs and get this guy out of there before he burns down the planet.

Remember Roy Moore’s prissy wife informing the media that the Moores do not hate Jewish people?

In the final days of the contentious Alabama special election, Kayla Moore accused the media of portraying the couple as “anti-Semitic.”

“Fake news would tell you that we don’t care for Jews,” Kayla Moore said at the campaign’s final rally last month.

“I tell you all this because I’ve seen it all, so I just want to set the record straight while they’re here,” she continued, gesturing at the media assembled at the rally. “One of our attorneys is a Jew.”

I think her speech would probably be better in the original German, but I’m gonna suspect she meant that her “Jew” attorney had a mutual admiration for the Moores.

Pull in on them reins, Boys.

A lawyer who once worked for former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) said in a new interview that he’s friends with Moore’s former opponent, Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D), and raised money for Jones’s campaign.

So much for tokens, huh?  The Moores only know one Jew and he don’t like them none at all.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

Today in the NY Times, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch of Fusion GPS hit back at congressional Republicans attacking them and selectively leaking their testimony to far right propaganda outlets.   Who’s Fusion GPS?  They are a political research firm who engaged former British spy Christopher Steele to research Trump’s business ties.  The principals of this firm have become the punching bag of right wing media and congressional Republicans, and they’ve now had enough of it.  In their op-ed today, Simpson and Fritsch are demanding that Congress release their testimony to the public.

In the piece, they talk about how they testified that Steele ran across multiple occasions of Trump’s ties to dubious Russian characters that likely involved money laundering.  They also talk about how Congress has ignored their advice to subpoena Deutschbank records of Trump’s transactions, but the only bank records that have been subpoenaed are their own.  Congress has done nothing to advance an investigation of Trump and have only sought to shoot the messenger, seek to discredit Fusion GPS.

They claim their testimony to Congress included details of Paul Manafort’s cozy relationship with the Russians and evidence they discovered of the Trump campaign’s coordination with Russian to get His Orangeness elected as president.  The fact that the Republican controlled houses of Congress have not released this testimony is all you need to know about the content of those transcripts.

Republicans have been actively covering up the reality of Trump’s collusion with the Russians and clear corruption.  Clearly they are putting party and self-interest before the needs of the American people, and their actions have destabilized our own government and damaged our reputation worldwide.

Congress must release these transcripts immediately.  Our democracy, or what’s left of it, hangs in the balance.

Cover your head!  Incoming!

Orrin Hatch, named Man of the Year in Utah for being a total power hungry devil man, is dropping out.

Now Mitt Romney will run for the seat and Donald Trump hates that because Donald Trump hates Mitt Romney.  It’s like an episode of Old White Men of Utah. There will be backbiting, hair pulling, nail scratching, and some really good hair jokes.

And at the other place in DeeCee, Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Bill Schuster will not be seeking reelection.  Schuster is the guy who wanted to privatize air traffic control while there were ethical questions about his relationship with a top airline lobbyist.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of : Republicans in Decline.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

Now that the excitement of Christmas and New Years is over and the dull dreariness of January has set in, you’ll be proud to know that your entertainment dollar is fixing to stretch further.

The former White House communications director has privately told friends and associates that the president and other members of the Trump family, including White House adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump, miss him and want him back in the West Wing. Three sources close to Scaramucci have independently told The Daily Beast that the Mooch continues to brag that he and President Donald Trump talk on the phone, and that the Mooch believes his resurrection in Trump-world could be imminent.

It sounds like a great teevee series – The Mooch is Back!  Watch Anthony call other staff members vulgar names, hit on every woman in the room, and strut his way down the White House sidewalk.

Sadly, nobody who is anybody believes The Mooch.  They think he’s just shooting off his mouth.  Yu know, like he always does.  But, there’s always hope that we get another round with Scaramucci.

Yesterday, it was reported by several news agencies that the airline industry reported their safest year ever, with no fatal jet airline accidents anywhere in the world.  Among other commercial aircraft such as turboprops and cargo planes there were approximately 44 on planes and 33 on the ground, including 12 killed on December 31 in Costa Rica.  This is a remarkable achievement for commercial airlines, which have been steadily improving safety over a number of years.  The fatality rate for commercial airlines is .06, or 1 death per 16 million flights.

As we’ve come to expect, Trump took credit for the record, falsely claiming that he’s “been very strict” on global l commercial aviation in 2017 directly affecting the outcome.  This laughable lie provoked the response you would expect.  Here’s the tweet and some entertaining responses:

And delusion marches into 2018.