Trump is a blowhard, we all know that.  But he’s also a coward.  He skipped the White House Correspondents dinner in April, which was understandable, since he simply can’t deal with withering attacks on his lies and mob-like lifestyle.  But he also skipped the Kennedy Center honors, which is being aired tonight on CBS.  Why did he do that?  Because most artists won’t tolerate his bullshit, and knew that few people in the theatre respected him and that many attendees would boycott if Trump infested the ceremony with his rapacious presence.

Rather than face the music, Trump chooses to hide out in one of his properties, raking in money from foreign government officials and sycophants. It’s so embarrassing to be an American today where the president hides from critics while tweeting from his iPhone while sitting on the toilet, insulting every single institution which is precious to our culture and society.

He can’t leave too soon.

The only consistency in the most erratic presidency in US history is falsehood.  Trump’s entire career and image are build on a mountain of lies, and lying is so deeply imbedded in his DNA that he will tell a lie even if telling the truth is easier and better for him.  NBC News culled through the encyclopedia of his lies and picked out their top 9.  Here they are:

1. More people watched his inaugural than ever before.
2. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote because of voter fraud.
3. Michael Flynn did nothing wrong.
4. “Look what happened last night in Sweden”.
5. Obama bugged Cheeto Tower.
6. Russian meddling in the election was “a made up story”.
7. Counter protestors in Charlottesville lacked a permit.
8. America pays the most in taxes.
9. Tax “reform” will cost me a fortune.

This is a pretty deplorable list, for sure.  What’s your favorite lie told by Trump this year?

After hastily signing the Make America Poor Again bill on Friday, His Orangeness fled to Cheeto Lago to defile the Christmas holiday on home turf among his sycophants.  In his wake, he left fellow Republicans who were also getting the hell out of Dodge to get away from inquisitive reporters.  All during this debacle, there was one BIG LIE that rose above all other lies, and that was that this bill was focused on tax cuts for the middle class.  Anyone actually paying attention knew that assertion was completely false, but Trumpists and billionaires alike supported it for obvious reasons.

Trump, as we all are painfully aware, is in constant need of praise and admiration, and their is no better place for him than Cheeto Lago, where he surrounds himself with his own rapacious crowd mingling within the cheesy gold-plated walls and dining on “beautiful chocolate cake”.  In these surroundings, when he is immersed in praise and adoration, Trump often lets the truth slip out; Friday was not different.  When mingling among guests Friday night, he told them, “You just got a lot richer.”

And there it is.  This bill was not about kick starting the economy, because it doesn’t.  It’s not about companies creating new jobs with the billions of dollars in tax relief, because they won’t.  The deficit hawks cowered under the Trump McConnell cabal, blowing a trillion dollar plus hole in spending.  This bill was about one thing, and one thing only; fulfilling promises to donors.  It repeals the healthcare mandate; makes the corporate tax cut permanent; it puts over a trillion dollars in the pockets of the rich; it forces mandatory cuts in medicare and other social spending; it even opens the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil and gas development.  What the hell do any of those things have to do with improving the lives of Americans?  Answer: Nothing.

It was never about the middle class, and those people in that class who voted for him were (and are) chumps who inflicted this regime on the US and indeed the world.

Thanks for nothing.

You’ve experienced it, I’ve experienced it.  The entire country is suffering Trump fatigue as we witness him upend our most sacred traditions and indeed turn the presidency of the United States on it’s ear.  As we’ve discussed before, it’s turned into a drinking game – think of the worst possible person for an office, a jolting insult to blurt out, a tradition on which to urinate, and when he does it, DRINK!  My liver is under great stress.  Another of his maddening traits is the way he and his entire sleazy family has made the White House over into their own gaudy image, complete with gold-plated everything and Traditional Tacky being the style of choice.

AND, he’s now done it again, this time with the challenge coin tradition.  What’s a challenge coin, you ask?  Well, it’s a tradition started in the military where branches or units will have commemorative coins minted with mottos and imagery that honors that particular unit or senior officer.  Those coins have been traded and collected for years; one tradition for the coins is for officers to put their own coins on a bar in a sort of “challenge”.  The last officer to put up his coin (or if he/she doesn’t have a coin), gets to buy a round of drinks for everyone else.

Presidential challenge coins have become popular in recent years.  I was given one of President Obama’s coins during his first term.  I also have his first Inaugural challenge coin.  The coins are normally bronze or pewter, with the official seal of the president, the president’s name, and the motto of the Founders, E Pluribus Unum.  Here is President Obama’s:

And. Then. Comes. Trump.  Like everything else he’s touched, HIS challenge coin needed to be bigger, gaudier, even thicker.  The phallic parallels with his new coin are, uh, disturbing.  Instead of bronze or pewter, of course it clad in a cheesy gold color.  As well, he’s replaced our country’s motto, with…wait for it…”Make America Great Again”.  For the first time EVER, Trump has politicized the challenge coin tradition with a campaign slogan.  He took off the original 13 arrows on the seal (which represented the original 13 states).  AND, to make sure you know it’s HIS coin, his name is emblazoned  on it THREE TIMES, two on a rocker below the coin that also serves as a makeshift base.  Here it is, in all it’s tackiness (compared to traditional coins):

Oh, and it’s SO thick:

This toad infesting our White House is an ever-present threat to our democracy.  Worse, he’s making us a laughing stock in front of the entire planet.  He doesn’t give a hoot-in-how-chow about our country or anyone outside of his mob-like family.  His entire tenure is not about America, its citizens, or the common good.  It’s ALL about him, 24/7, 365.  His behavior, even in the tiniest detail, is predictably deplorable.  He makes me want to puke.

This nightmare can’t end too soon.

NBC News has broken the story that Trump was personally warned by counterintelligence agents of the FBI in JULY of 2016 that the Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign.  He and senior campaign officials were told to communicate to the FBI about ANY attempt by the Russians to contact them.  There is NO evidence that any Trump official did so.  Instead of taking the warning, Trump cronies were actively communicating with the Russians on multiple levels.

Hold the presses!  Remember that story about Trump’s private intelligence operation?  The ones about his support of pedophile Roy Moore? Trump’s travel ban?  The tax bill that will plunge the economy into recession?  How about nuclear war with North Korea?  None of those are current, so let’s move on to the next big crisis…

TRUMP JUST ANNOUNCED, IN THE FACE OF WORLDWIDE OPPOSITION, TO NAME JERUSALEM AS CAPITAL OF ISRAEL.  He also announced his intention to move the US embassy, touching off a Middle East crisis.

So, upending the US government isn’t enough; threatening nuclear war with North Korea wasn’t enough; NOW, we’re going to start a Middle East war because…it’s Tuesday.