If you’re wondering why Trump’s new press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, is not talking to the press or holding press conferences it’s because she’s … well … probably drunk or stealing something.

She was arrested for driving under the influence, speeding, and driving with an invalid license in 2013, according to the report, and the charges were later reduced to reckless driving. Grisham was also arrested for driving under the influence in December 2015, ultimately pleading guilty. She paid a fine and was ordered by the court into a treatment program.

One of the DUIs took place while she was a press aid to Trump’s campaign.

Her previous employment also seems a bit underwhelming.

Grisham reportedly left AAA after facing allegations of filing false claims for travel and other expenses and lost the job at Mindspace for plagiarism.

She also worked for an Arizona Attorney General who was fined for campaign finance violations and defeated for reelection.  During that time she called the press “overreaching, an invasion of privacy and abusive use of your role in the media” when they asked questions about it.

All the best people.

Thanks to S Gray for the heads up.

It seems that the economy ain’t chugging along full steam.

The economy had about 501,000 fewer jobs as of March 2019 than the Bureau of Labor Statistics initially calculated in its survey of business establishments. That’s the largest revision since the waning stages of the Great Recession in 2009.

Market Watch says, “The newly revised figures indicate the economy didn’t get a huge boost last year from President Trump’s tax cuts and higher federal spending.”  Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. Tax cuts for the rich have worked so well in the past, and we know that is true because Trump and Mitch McConnell tell us it’s true.

By the way, the new NBC / Wall Street Journal poll shows that a large majority of Americans say they are angry at the nation’s political and financial establishment and increasingly anxious about their economic future.

The poll finds that 70% of Americans say they feel angry “because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington.”

The anger is reflected across all demographic groups, regardless of age, race, income and party identification.

It’s going to be a change election which I think is why we’re seeing the upswing for Elizabeth Warren.

British Prime minister Boris Johnson warned everybody that he was going to go after Trump last weekend over his trade war.  Well, he chickened out.

I think the G7 Summit mostly decided to walk on eggshells for the weekend.

“Ever so gingerly, as if determined not to rouse the American’s well-known temper, the other Group of 7 leaders sought to nudge him toward their views on the pressing issues of the day, or at least register their differences — while making sure to wrap them in a French crepe of flattery, as they know he prefers.”

And when asked if there was criticism to his Trade War, Trump responded …

“No, not at all,” he said. “I haven’t heard that at all, no. I think they respect the trade war.” He added: “The answer is, nobody has told me that, and nobody would tell me that.”

Nobody would tell him that?  That’s creepy-talk.

And the upside news for Trump?  He’s going to make money off the meeting in the US next year.  But, you figured that already, didn’t you?

The Washington Post reports that Trump wants Doral Country Club.

In a press conference, Trump said that his staff had scoured the country and determined that — of all America’s resorts and resort towns — Trump’s own club was the best-situated to host the international meeting.

“They went places all over the country and they came back and said, ‘This is where we’d like to be,’” Trumps aid. “It’s not about me. It’s about getting the right location.”

I guess nobody would tell him that Doral wasn’t the best.

He obviously hasn’t used the boxes of Pampers because, Honey, that man is still full of it.

Okay, so this is how weird it has gotten.

Trump is having ideas. Really bad ideas. He thinks maybe dropping a nuke into a hurricane to stop it.

During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” according to one source who was there. “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” the source added, paraphrasing the president’s remarks.

Oh dear Lord, he can’t wait to nuke some damn thing.  Why not wait until just before it makes landfall?

So if a nuclear power plant goes bad, we should nuke it?  That would make it even?  They would cancel each other out and it would suddenly become just a pleasant day?

• Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, “Sir, we’ll look into that.”

• Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall.

• The briefer “was knocked back on his heels,” the source in the room added. “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”

I dunno.  Cry.

UPDATED BELOW:

We all heard Trump’s inane ranting this week from calling himself the “chosen one” to him saying he’s going to cut payroll taxes (never mind) to escalating his trade war with China that was doomed from the start.  The outrage of the week, though, after China retaliated by slapping a 5% tariff on crude oil (crushing US oil prices), Trump appointed himself “Emperor of All Commerce” and tweeted out:

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”

The response on Twitter was EXACTLY what you’d expect:  Republicans ran for the exits and were virtually radio silent, and Democrats as well as Trump critics pounced, and #iherebyorder started trending.  Adam Schiff tweeted:

“As long as we are claiming constitutional powers we don’t have, I hereby order the President to stop tweeting.”

George Conway got into the act, hilariously tweeting:

“I hereby order everyone on Twitter to hereby order something. #Iherebyorder” and “I hereby order Republicans to get real about Trump’s mental state.”

The hashtag is extremely entertaining, but let’s be clear – President of the United States is president, not king, emperor, or dictator.  It’s the most powerful position in the world (I shuddered as I typed that), but it’s limited.  He can’t order private business to do ANYTHING. That’s why they call it the private sector.  What he could do, though, is lead by example, and get his own goddam businesses out of China.  Both he and Ivanka’s cheesy crap is made in China as well as his 2020 campaign banners.

Trump is completely off the rails, driving the global economy in the ditch with his idiotic trade war.  His latest tantrum is only an attempt to control what he has no authority over, and I expect this to get worse and worse.  Think about it – when he was campaigning, he said over and over that only HE could fix what was “wrong” with America (even though the economy was fine, thank you very much). He also repeated that he knew more about the economy, warfare, ISIS, technology, and trade than ANYONE when, in fact, he didn’t know shit about any of those things.  All Trump knows about is reality television and that’s how he’s running the government, with his daily episodes of out of control tweeting and stupefying chaos.

We’re in this pickle because a huge portion of the electorate is stupid.  That’s a given.  However, we remain in this pickle because the Congress is broken.  Over the years it has ceded its Constitutional authority over to the Executive branch.  Trade policy is the Congress’s, not the president’s.  Trump is using national security as his reason for driving his personal vendetta against allies and trading partners, and Mitch McConnell is sitting on his fat ass letting it happen. McConnell has blocked every effort to stop the wrecking of the US and global economies and for this reason, is actually worse than Trump, since he actually DOES know better.

Enough of this is enough.  Get off your ass, Mitch, and do your goddam job.  Either do that, or get out of the way and let someone else do it.

UPDATE:  Trump asserted on Twitter early this am that he indeed CAN order companies to leave China.  He quoted the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 as his authority, but, of course, he’s wrong.  This law was passed to provide a framework for dealing with criminal regimes and terrorists organizations and was enacted to LIMIT a president’s authority to unilaterally act without proper declarations of emergencies that affect immediate national security.  It has NEVER been used for commercial trade disputes.  My feeling is that, per usual, Trump shot off his Twitter and some law library rat has been scurrying around trying to find some legal thread to tie it to, just like the Muslim ban and his “zero tolerance” policy that has created one of the largest human rights crisis in US history at the southern border.

This one, like all the others, won’t end well for either Trump or the US’ standing in the international community.