There is one word that isn’t used much to describe the Trump administration, but a powerful one.  I mean, we all use descriptors like criminal, corrupt, bankrupt, immoral. deplorable, cruel, and many other accurate terms.  One word we don’t use much, but is appropriate, and that’s chickenshit.  Trump, his goons, and sycophants are truly chickenshit, boasting and talking big on television and Twitter, but shrinking from facing the music when the time comes.  Trump always fires people on Twitter or gets someone else to do the deed because he’s too weak to do it in person, like when he fired James Comey on Twitter.  It happened again yesterday when Bill Barr stupidly tried to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York by press release.  Barr lied in the press release saying that Berman had “resigned”.  The problem is that Berman hadn’t resigned and responded to Barr’s chickenshitiness with a Screw You response that he most certainly had NOT resigned and had no intention of resigning.  It was a rare golden moment in a vast landscape of darkness.

Since his appointment, Berman has drawn Trump’s ire by aggressively investigating his personal businesses, Giuliani, and Giuliani’s associates.  He’s the one who indicted Michael Cohen drawing his guilty plea.  Trump’s been wanting to get rid of him for months.

The hilarious part is that Barr can’t fire Berman because he was actually appointed by federal judges, not Trump, and confirmed by the Senate. To avoid oversight, Trump’s primary tactic is to make everyone in his cabinet and many leadership positions “acting”.  Like every other tradition and rule, Trump has shattered norms of past presidents by violating these traditions, rules, and even federal laws in plain sight, defying anyone with actual authority to do anything.  And, up until last night, it has worked like a charm.  Trump fired Preet Bharara in 2017, and has since not nominated a replacement for him. Joon Kim took his place, but stepped down in 2018.  Berman was appointed as acting US Attorney, but that was only good for 120 days.  Trump never forwarded his appointment to the Senate, so the US District Court for the Southern District stepped in and appointed Berman to the post.  In other words, Trump didn’t do his damn job, so the court did it for him.  Since the court appointed Berman, he is defying Barr by refusing to step down until the Senate confirms a new US Attorney.  I find this development and humiliation of Barr exceedingly entertaining.

Perhaps all this corruption is plain sight is now finally at least slowing?  Maybe, but one characteristic is stubbornly hanging on and that is Trump’s Chickenshitiness.

It appears that Trump is looking for work.

Yesterday, he tweeted an ad for one of his friends.

Well, not the Amazon Best Seller #1 or #20.  And, come to find out.  If you dial the 800 number instead of ordering it on Amazon, you’re gonna get a little surprise.

It’s called a negative option marketing scheme.  Which pretty much describes Trump’s entire presidency. Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen thinks Trump should just go ahead and start selling ginsu knives on twitter.  Plus, you get a potato peeler and a matching fork.

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.

Trump is on an ego roll today.

President Trump told the Wall Street Journal that coronavirus testing is “overrated” and claimed that some Americans may be wearing masks to signal disapproval of him — not as a preventative measure.

He added: “I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history.”

You didn’t create anything ‘cept a mess, Honey.

Then Axios reports that there was something special about Juneteeth and Trump. Trump claimed that nobody ever heard of Juneteeth before now.

“I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous.”

I think he expects a statue at the Civil Rights Museum.

And then he tweets —

.

And, yes, that generally is the basis for all Supreme Court decisions – even before Trump was born.

And speaking of before he was born, he doesn’t want to rename military installations named after Confederate soldiers because the names were a way to help unite the North and the South after the war.

Yeah, well, Fort Hood was built and named in 1942, as was Fort Killeen, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett, and Fort Rucker.  I think there was something else pulling us all together about that time.  Fort Bragg (Oddly enough, considered the worst general in the Civil War) was built and named in 1918, as was Fort Benning. There was a great coming together at that time, too.

Everything is all about him.

I just love this.  Judge Byrd is a friend of a friend of mine.

Thanks to Pam for the heads up.

I think I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about John Bolton.  I think we should tie him to a fire ant hill and pour honey on top.

However, I do not think his testimony during the impeachment hearing would have done one whiff of good. First, even I don’t believe him. I want to believe him, but I cannot justify doing so because I don’t trust him.  I think of this: maybe, just maybe, Bolton did not testify because he would have been under oath.  Books are books and oaths are oaths.

We had people with far better reputations and motivation than Bolton and they got dismissed as liars during the hearings, or sometimes just ignored.

I have come to think it’s folly to believe that Republicans in the Senate would have listened to fifty people testify under oath that Trump is a danger to society and is going to get us all killed (face it, he’s trying his damnest) and Senate Republicans would have changed their minds.

Honey, the spines of Senate Republicans are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Bubba just hollered at me as he was leaving for court – the Supreme Court just ruled for DACA.   Hope I heard him right.

Okay, this 5-4 decision simply stalls Trump’s efforts to end DACA – Roberts wrote the opinion.  The court said the Trump administration did not follow the law in HOW he tried to roll back DACA.  If Trump is re-elected, he can go after it again.

After some pondering, I suspect that John Roberts does not want his legacy to be the most political court in the nation’s history.  Please don’t forget that the is the man who gave us Citizen’s United and shook his head NO during the President Obama’s State of the Union when Obama suggested it was a harmful decision.  He has not switched sides, he’s just picking his fights.

… more to come!