I kinda think this is only the first in a whole lot of waste coming that’ll leak out.

So there’s recordings of Trump talking to Cohen about paying off the Playboy model?  Oh, you know it’ll contain more misogyny per square inch than there is cotton in fine sheets.

Giuliani says there’s nothing illegal on the tapes.  Really?

Y’all, just in case you might ever start feeling the least bit sorry for Rand Paul because his neighbor walked over to his house and beat the crap outta him, don’t.

He earned that beating.

Get a load of this.

Sen. Rand Paul has used political donations to spend more than $11,000 at restaurants in Italy and Malta and thousands more for European hotels and limousine services in connection with fundraising and other political events.

Paul’s political leadership committee also spent $337 on apparel at a Men’s Wearhouse in Omaha, Nebraska, in September 2014, and $438 on apparel at a New York Allen Edmonds in February 2016. The figures were provided by two independent watchdog groups.

The articles itemizes some of the expenditures.

In the 2017-2018 election cycle, Paul’s committee has spent $11,043 at restaurants in Italy and Malta, $4,492 on a limousine service in Rome, and $1,904 at the St. George Lycabettus Hotel in Athens.

There’s also no pity for the poor suckers who gave him their hard earned money to push the libertarian viewpoint.  Stealing money from fools is the libertarian viewpoint.

Thanks to Deb T for the heads up.  

That Russian spy woman gets around.

After weaseling her way into the National Prayer Breakfast Group, which, by the way, is the same way all the heathen Republican congressvarmints get in, she managed to create a stir.

And guess who was on that trip?

Hey, Louie!  You didn’t even send me a postcard?

Thanks to Susan P for the heads up.

The independence of the Federal Reserve is one of the key features of our economic system. To keep near term political pressure off of the Fed, the President NEVER publicly comments on monetary policy or meddles in decisions made by the agency.  Well, never until yesterday.  Yesterday, Trump (as usual) shattered another decades-long practice by publicly complaining to CNBC that he was “not happy” about the Fed raising interest rates, and that rising rates damaged “all the work” that he’s putting into the economy.

Jesus.  After careful consideration and years of observation, I have determined that Trump is an idiot.  His spouting off about interest rates on CNBC certainly demonstrates (for the thousandth time) that he has no understanding or respect for his responsibilities of the office he infests; worse, said spouting also demonstrates that he has no understanding about how interest rates actually work.  So, I’ve decided to help; let’s talk to Trump about Interest Rates 101:

Dear Donnie…HEY! YOU!

First, sit down and shut up.  Zip it and listen.  You need to UNDERSTAND THIS.  You’re bitching about interest rates, but you clearly have the knowledge of a chimpanzee about the subject.  So, let’s talk interest rates; I’ll keep this simple so even you can understand it.  Why is it important that we get this concept through that big hair weave?  Because, dumbass, even as you complain about interest rates going up, YOU are making interest rates go up!  Your idiotic and unneeded tax cut to billionaires accomplished two things: 1) You overheated the economy, fueling inflation, and the Fed is having to raise the Fed funds rate to slow down spending, and 2) You exploded the deficit, forcing the Fed to sell more debt.  To sell more debt, INTEREST RATES HAVE TO GO UP TO GET INVESTORS TO BUY IT.  When you blew a gigantic hole in the deficit with your tax cut, YOU caused the problem.  Also, because of your idiotic and erratic leadership, demand for US bonds internationally is down, especially in China.  Again, dropping demand forces higher interest rates to get investors to buy US debt.  Simple.

A debt rate primer: US debt rates are determined by the demand for government bonds. US Government debt is how we finance deficit spending.  You remember that, right, way back when deficits used to matter when the Black Guy was in the White House? Right?  Anyway, I digress.  When demand for bonds exceeds the supply of bonds, interest rates go down until demand is reduced.  If demand for bonds is less than the supply of bonds, then interest rates go up until demand increases and the bonds sell. Interest rates are increasing now because we’re having to finance more debt.  So, here’s what YOU can do, Donnie, (I know your orange head is going to explode) to lower interest rates, you should:

1. RAISE TAXES.  This will raise revenue and lower the need to issue more US debt.  Interest rates will go down.
2. STOP YOUR ASININE TRADE WAR. Confidence and stability in the US increases demand for US debt, and interest rates will go down.
3. Stop commenting publicly on Fed monetary policy, labor numbers, and Hillary Clinton (Hillary comments have nothing to do with interest rates, but they do make you look like a moron.)

Now, go back up to the residence, but turn off Fox Noise and go play with your Legos.

Sincerely,

El Jefe, Interest Rates 101 Instructor

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

Trump has announced his new $3.9 billion toy, a new pair of Air Force One planes to take him around to his golf vacations.  These are actually the exact same planes that were on order when he came into office that he famously cancelled on Twitter.  Using Trump math, he claims that he saved the taxpayers $1.4 billion, but the original contract he “cancelled” was $4 billion (even acknowledged by him), and the new contract is $3.9 billion.  Of course; $4 billion – $3.9 billion = $1.4 billion in Tdollars.

The surprise, here, though, was not the new aircraft.  The surprise is that Trump’s throwing one more tradition onto the scrap pile, and that is the world famous paint job of Air Force One.  The polished aluminum, white, and sky blue paint job has been on every single Air Force One since JFK changed it from the original red and gold.  Kennedy believed that the previous paint job “looked too regal”.  So, Trump is doing exactly what you would expect, change the paint job.  But this time, he’s insisting on red, white and blue.  Patriotic, right?  Yes.  For Russia.  Here’s Vladimir Putin’s plane:

And now you know the rest of the story.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

On Monday, while French kissing Putin on global television, Trump announced that Putin had proposed “an incredible idea” to him during their private session to address Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.  We now know what that “incredible idea” was, and I had to read it twice to believe it; the story was confirmed by Aunt Lydia Sarah Sanders yesterday in the first WH daily briefing held in two weeks.  The “idea”?  For Trump to allow Russian intelligence to question 11 American citizens, including former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, and businessman Bill Browder, whose attorney was murdered in a Russian prison.

This “incredible idea” cynical demand is nothing more than Putin’s chess move against legitimate indictments of Russian intelligence officials for hacking DNC servers and conducting cyber war against the United States.  Bill Browder has been a thorn in Putin’s side for years for pointing out the corruption in his regime.  The murdered attorney, Sergei Magnitsky, had been arrested for uncovering massive corruption in Russia which lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of laundered money being deposited in banks in the US and around the world.  The law passed in his name froze those assets and banned a number of Russian government officials and oligarchs from entering the US.  Putin and his gang hate that law, and have been trying to undermine it since its adoption.  Don’t forget that the meeting with Russian agents at Trump tower in the summer of 2016 was an effort to get the Magnitsky Act repealed.

The shocking thing about the current chapter in this entire sordid story of the love affair between Trump and his handler is that, instead of categorically condemning this demand, the White House IS ACTUALLY ENTERTAINING IT.  Are you kidding me?  And, of course, the invertebrates in Congress are responding as you would expect, mealy mouthed and cowering in the corner, terrified of Trump’s Twitterfingers.

There is a place for anger, and this is it.

UPDATE:  File this under “No Shit” – Saying he’s considering allowing Russian intelligence to interrogate former US ambassador Michael McFaul and others caused HUGE blowback yesterday and today around the world (especially from McFaul himself).  The invertebrates in Congress were actually able to pull themselves far enough vertical to raise their hands and were preparing a resolution condemning the idea when Aunt Lydia Sarah Sanders announced that Trump “disagrees” with the notion of handing Americans over to Putin’s Gulag.  Apparently, the WH now agrees that allowing US citizens to be interrogated by Russian intelligence is not a great idea.  To that we say, NO SHIT.