You know who has real power in America? It ain’t the president. It’s the person who reads to the president.

Trump, unlike every other president since Gerald R Ford, does not read his Daily Intelligence Briefing.  Instead, he wants it explained to him.  Do you know the last president who did not read Daily Intelligence briefings? Richard Nixon.

Trump has opted to rely on an oral briefing of select intelligence issues in the Oval Office rather than getting the full written document delivered to review separately each day, according to three people familiar with his briefings.

Honestly, I don’t fret over Trump not having diddle squat reading comprehension.  What I worry about is the fact that we don’t have anybody who can tell the damn truth anydamnwhere in the damn White House.

John Kelly?  Nope. Not that guy. Hope Hicks? Oh, sure.

Aides say Trump receives his in-person intelligence briefing nearly every day, although his publicly released schedules indicate that the sessions have been taking place about every two to three days on average in recent months, typically around 11 a.m.

Yeah, they have to wait until Fox and Fools is over.

Are we great again yet?

Republican Congressmen now have to take a number and wait in line to resign.

The latest is California Congressmuck Duncan Hunter.  Hunter is being investigated along with his parents and a female lobbyist he is suspected to be “romantically involved” with. “Romantically involved” is the Republican word for “boinking on the side.”

It strongly appears that Hunter has misspent campaign funds.

According to an ethics report released along with the disclosure, Hunter “may have converted tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds from his congressional campaign committee to personal use to pay for family travel, flights, utilities, healthcare, school uniforms and tuition, jewelry, groceries and other goods, services, and expenses.”

Hunter’s staff also told the Riverside Press-Enterprise in January that he used campaign funds to pay the $600 cost of flying a family rabbit.

This ain’t the first time Hunter has been in trouble for spending campaign funds for fun.  Over a year ago, he had to repay his campaign for 68 video games (he said his son used the wrong credit card), oral surgery, a family trip to Italy and Disneyland gift shop purchases.

You think he would have learned.  But, nooooo …. Trump got elected and made them bulletproof.

Or maybe not.

Thanks to Chloe Bear for the heads up.

Colbert was on a roll last night, mocking His Orangeness for his latest idiocy of demanding a huge military parade to honor himself.  Calling him the “Usain Bolt of stupid,” Colbert said that Trump was his own competition for idiotic ideas.  He also advised Trump to ignore his attorneys and take on Robert Mueller.  It’s was pretty entertaining.  Have look:

And Memorial Day, and pretty much the 4th of July.

Thanks to Tony for the heads up.

If you’ll hop right on this flat boat here, Dewayne and Clive will take you on a tour of the DeeCee Swamp.

Hey, look right over there at the latest nominee to the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, who is not only a coal lobbyist, but also has given major fundraisers for some real special people.

Wheeler, who was first rumored to be tapped for the EPA last March, raised funds for Republican senators on the committee that makes the preliminary decision on confirming appointments to the agency.

One of them was Jim Inhofe, a worthless Republican from Oklahoma, where Wheeler spent 14 years as a staffer.  Wheeler became a coal lobbyist in 2009 and since then has spent day and night snorting and stomping over the Obama coal regulations.  ‘Cuz what we need is way more coal accompanied by black lung disease.

This is just the latest, but it’s fresh and it sends a signal that the swamp is only getting stinkier.  Hold you nose – mixing coal and a swamp will knock you out.

Thanks to Henry for the heads up. 

New York Magazine.

Warning: You cannot unseen this.

Trump is a man obsessed with image in ways that go beyond the normal human concern with looking presentable. Image is Trump’s moral code. He dismisses his political rivals for being short. He sees his succession of wives as visual testament to his own status. He selects his Cabinet on the basis of their looking the part. He conscripts the military as a prop to bathe himself in an aura of presidential grandeur.

And no, we do not do Trump’s hair at The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.  Nor would we. We have standards.

I mean, it ain’t like he’s Sampson, he can cut that stuff.

Not for the faint of heart —

Like seeing Vader without his helmet, right?

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.