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.

Cheeto Jesus didn’t disappoint tonight in his appearance for devotees in Phoenix.  He shoveled manure in copious quantities.  A few of his gems:

1. He reread his Saturday Charlottesville statement, but left out the “many sides” line.
2. Announced that indeed his first pardon was going to former Joe Arpaio, convicted criminal and country’s third most notorious racist.  (Number one is Cheeto Jesus, of course, followed by David Duke.  Luckily, Duke is not currently convicted of any race crimes, so no pardon currently needed.  However, since Charles Manson is not eligible for parole until 2027, Trump could well go for him next.)
3. Lies again about Washington’s statues.
4. He’s going to cancel NAFTA.
5. The media is the real enemy that caused the violence in Charlottesville. That’s right, it wasn’t the racists wearing body armor and carrying clubs; it was those panty waist reporters.
6. He was hoping to take candy away from a kid on stage, but apparently they couldn’t find a kid willing to go up there.

It was Trump’s normal appalling performance that we have come to expect and continues to make us the laughingstock of the world.

Well, they would be laughing if he didn’t have the nuclear codes.  I just wish someone would tell this stupid sumbitch that the election is over, and he doesn’t need to do this (but for his insatiable ego).

This morning, as I listen to all the MoJo talking heads recounting the stream of lies spewing out of the White House I am actually physically revulsed. Since the night of November 8th, my emotions have ranged from anger to despair.  My anger was directed at virtually everyone – those who supported Hillary’s nomination when her flaws were obvious to those not devoted to her (I know, I know), those who didn’t bother to vote, those who voted for third parties, and especially those who were so stupid as to vote for the worst presidential candidate in US history.  Those people were overcome with Trump’s celebrity, his crass word salad, his tacky gold-plated lifestyle, his obvious mental instability, and his absolutely undeniable immoral existence.  After he took office, despair overwhelmed me as my worst fears were realized.  Not only was Trump as bad as I feared, he surrounded himself with the worst WH staff imaginable.  It seemed his priority was to pick the absolute worst nominee you could imagine for each role, from an education secretary who opposes education, a housing secretary who knows nothing of housing, to a strategist who is a known bigot.

Trump also tightened his grip on power with the judiciary in his pocket and a cowed legislature.  I had hoped that the career professionals around him could at least hold him in check, but he’s now fired an acting attorney general, every single ambassador around the world, 46 US attorneys including Preet Bharara, the head of the Census Bureau, and now the head of the FBI who was investigating his corruption and ties to Russia.

Just this week, after firing Comey, Trump mustered his merry band of liars to go in front of the cameras and blatantly spin tales, not bothering to even try to square those tales with actual timelines or even with each other.  The only consistent lie that night was that Cheeto Jesus took “swift and decisive action”, and that was most certainly one of the worst lies after he later admitted to Lester Holt that he had decided long ago to fire Comey.  I sat and watched Holt try to get Trump to answer for his lies, and the result was the most concentrated collection of falsehood that has ever been emitted on national television.

As I watch this rolling disaster, I’m nostalgic for past days where we had a president who was precisely the opposite of  this creature now infesting OUR White House.  Barack Obama was known for his steadiness, his caution (some would say too cautious), his ability to speak to the nation’s heart at times of tragedy.  He occupied this very same house for a scandal-free 8 years, leading the country through some of its toughest times.

So I have to ask: Do you miss him yet?

As for me, I answer, you’re damned right I do, every single day.

Where to start, where to start – In the last 24 hours it’s come to light, despite the frantic efforts of the WH to spin the story differently, that Trump was outraged at Comey’s investigation of his ties to Russia. His impatience with Comey boiled over when, while testifying before the Congress Comey said that he was “mildly nauseous” to think that he had a hand in electing Trump. He then decided to fire Comey, and ordered the letter from Rosenstein to make a case against him.  When the letter was finished, Jeff Sessions, who had supposedly recused himself from the Russia investigation, was called to the Oval Office where Trump told him he was using the letter as justification to fire Comey.

That evening and yesterday morning, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway went on national television and lied on every network that Rosenstein had acted on his own when, in fact, he was ordered to write the letter.  The evening of the firing, a clearly rattled Sean Spicer was cornered by the press apparently hiding from reporters behind the bushes on the north lawn of the WH.  When discovered, he reluctantly gave an interview in the dark, insisting he didn’t want to be on camera.

THEN, the next day, Trump was played by the Russians when foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak were invited to the Oval Office for a closed door meeting.  The only photographs of the meeting were from an agent of Tass, the Russian state news agency who tweeted them out live.  That’s correct, US press photographers were blocked from the meeting, while the Trump WH allowed a Russian propaganda agent into the Oval Office who live tweeted the meeting through the Tass website.   No breach of security there, eh?

This morning, the aftershocks of this latest disaster are actually getting worse.  The NY Times has published an open letter to Rosenstein urging him to appoint an independent counsel from outside the FBI and DOJ to run a fully independent investigation of the Trump-Russia connection, telling him that is his only choice.  The talking heads on MoJo are exploding today.

We may be closer to the end that even the most optimistic among us can imagine.  Reports of Trump sitting in the residence shouting at his television are common, and I can imagine that most WH staff are preparing resumes to get the hell out of there.  The Republicans on the Hill will reluctantly begin to acknowledge that they’re being herded over the cliff as part of this slow motion catastrophe and begin to move against him.

I see no scenario where this presidency doesn’t end disastrously, and it can’t come soon enough.

UPDATE:  Try this link.

Yesterday, the reliably right wing The Wall Street Journal awoke and turned on Cheeto Jesus yesterday, speaking to what has been obvious to the rest of the planet for months now – CJ is a liar, and clings to his lies “like a drunk to an empty gin bottle.”  The WSJ goes on to say that when the real crisis comes (and it will), will Americans believe the words he spews, or will they just dismiss it as another reality television show rant?

The incendiary tweets, bumbling second grade level language, repetition of lies he’s heard on Fox Noise and Infowars, and erratic behavior have taken their toll.

It only gets worse from here, folks.  Better strap in.