* Absent relevant details and absent Robert Mueller, the Mueller report remains more Trump bombast than Democratic bombshell. Obviously Mueller, who has earned the respect of anyone who matters over his career of service, has to speak out to un-spin William Barr’s client-agenda. Fortunately, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, concurs–and then some. “(Mueller) will come at some point,” underscores the New York Democrat. “If necessary, we’ll subpoena him.” Hopefully, it won’t be necessary.
* John Bolton is like having Gen. Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay back in the White House orbit. Only Donald Trump, who chose Bolton, is not John F. Kennedy, who inherited LeMay.
* North Korea’s recent launching of (short-range) ballistic missiles has reinforced the reality that negotiations between the Apprentice president and Kim Jong-un are not delivering results. Trump needs a fixer. Maybe Dennis Rodman is available.
* So the Rudy Giuliani plan to go to Ukraine–to urge that government to investigate the origins of the Mueller report as well as the involvement of Joe Biden’s son in a Ukrainian oligarch-owned gas company–has been canceled because of bad optics. How inexplicably perceptive. But Giuliani certainly didn’t cancel the rationale for ironically wanting to go to a country–that’s deeply reliant on the U.S. for financial and military aid–in the first place. “We’re not meddling in an election,” Giuliani had disingenuously explained. “We’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do.”
And we are once again left to ponder: Who the hell scripts this guy? Eugene Ionesco? John Dean has never seemed so patriotically eloquent, honest and competent.
But Giuliani did at least accomplish something–just by working Hunter Biden into the conversation. If Biden Sr. were to be the Democratic nominee, Trump will have a push-back line beyond “sleepy, creepy Joe” to base-pleasingly divert the focus from Don Trump Jr.’s subpoena scenario.
* During his Panhandle rally, Trump reaffirmed, as only he can, that the border was, like, overrun with immigrants and was, like, dangerous and we have to do everything we can to “keep them out.” That sparked, unconscionably, a chant of: “Shoot ’em.” Trump shrugged, smiled and responded: “Only in the Panhandle.” Not exactly a “deplorable-basket” rebuke.
* “The president is almost self-impeaching.”–U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
* Speaking of the constitutional crisis, the Founding Fathers never indicated an advocacy for a system of bounced checks and imbalances.
*Whatever happens as a result of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s stonewalling on Trump’s tax returns, this much we do know. Fred Trump always made a lot of money, and Donald Trump always lost a lot of money. We’re also constantly reminded that those born on third base did not hit a triple.