This is my own analysis — I’m not tapping some obscure White House memo I found buried on an obscure GOP web site… just playing a hunch.

There is a reason that people like Dan Coats and other security professionals didn’t know about this summit until the White House tweeted it out on Friday: it’s because Trump wasn’t thinking of national security when he decided to do this.

The president was thinking about saving his ass from a "blue wave Congress" for the next couple of years: a Congress that will subpoena the hell out of the administration, endow oversight committees with sharp, biting teeth,  and refuse to confirm RWNJs to the bench or to federal agencies.  Maybe he’ll even end up with a Congress that isn’t afraid to begin impeaching a disloyal President!

Trump looks at the narrative of his presidency much like he would the season-long narrative of a reality show. He understands about “game changer” episodes — where audiences are presented with events so unexpected, so dramatic and so far-reaching that they change the way the audience looks at the show. (Think “Red Wedding.”)

I am expecting that next fall Trump and Putin  will engage in a dramatic, highly choreographed, well-planned “falling out.” Except it won't be a real falling out, it will be a performance.

In this performance Trump will demonstrate he is a tough negotiator who stands up for America’s interest. He will Shout Putin down, abruptly pull the plug part-way through the summit, and immediately implement a new set of sanctions or do something else that is harmful to Russia.

Millions of Americans will look at this ad say "It's about time," and "He isn't a puppet -- he was just trying to get along and Putin took advantage... but now he's put his foot down."

All of this will lower the anti-trump fever, and will encourage unenthusiastic GOP voters to get out to the polls after all. Mostly, though, it will re-brand Trump from “puppet” to “American tough guy.”

Of course -- when the midterms are all over... they will kiss and make up.  Trump has already done so with Kim, and the ruse is still working with the Trump base.  Trump will cloak the make-up in language about "deal-making" and “problem solving”— bullshit that works with the nase and many independents.

Earlier this week Kavanaugh told Fox News he “… did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter… many years after. I will leave it that. Many years after."

Years and years of hearing true stories about his peers “hooking up,” poor Brett didn’t understand the failure of his preferred methods of courtship: groping a young woman with his hand over her mouth or surprising her by dangling his drunk little penis in her face.

Years and years of wondering why he kept getting pushed away, rejected and humiliated when other guys had steady girlfriends who actually came over and spent the night with them.

Years and years of not getting the sex he felt entitled to- and not understanding why.

Years and years of involuntary celibacy.

Yep — now it all makes sense.    It. All. Makes. Sense.

No surprise here — we’ve all read this story before:

The First Lady never left off quarreling with the other players and shouting, "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" By the end of half an hour or so, all the players, except the King, the Queen and the Princess were in custody of the soldiers and under sentence of execution.

It wasn’t long before the Queen was again in a furious passion and once more went stamping about and shouting,  "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" about once in a minute.

"They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here," thought the anonymous source; "the great wonder is that there's anyone left alive!"

(with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

There’s a pattern here:

• Vladimir Putin told me forcefully the American intelligence community was wrong about him and the election… how can I not believe that?
• The Saudi Crown Prince was very forceful when he told me he had nothing to do with it…. what does the infected CIA know anyway?
• I’ve talked to the German Chancellor, and Herr Hitler has reassured me that Rogue Generals were responsible for the invasion of Poland, Belgium, Austria, Greece, France, Norway, Holland, Belgium and all those other shithole countries. He didn’t even know Germany was at war until he heard it on a BBC wireless newscast
• Ted Bundy keeps telling me he knows nothing about all those dead co-eds.  It’s a witch hunt!  Men aren’t safe any more.
• When John Wilks Booth told me TWICE he had nothing to do with shooting Abraham Lincoln, I knew for sure the whole assassination thing was FAKE NEWS!  Sad!
• I don’t really know Benedict Arnold but he’s a great guy — terrific guy… I can tell because his pamphlets all say he really likes me. ! am sure There was NO COLLUSION WITH THE BRITISH.  IT’S ALL A HOAX!!!
• John Gotti told me the Italian-haters in the  U.S, Attorney’s office tricked his disloyal assistants into FLIPPING.  Bad — FLIPPING SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.  NOT FAIR!!!!
• Those five blacks from. Central Park (and their rigged DNA tests) —I just have to look at their photos in the newspaper and to know they’re GUILTY AS HELL! That’s why I won’t rent to people like that — they’re all rapists!

This is definitely outside the box — but right now the people of NC-09 do not have the benefit of front-line constituency services from their local congress-person — because the cheating GOP invalidated the 2018 election in that district.

If they had a congressional rep, that rep would have a local office (or two or three) staffed by hard-working constituency case-workers who go to bat in a largely non-partisan way for local people who are having a hard time getting through to the federal bureaucracy.  It might be a military vet whose file has been lost by the VA or a local police department which needs help accessing training funds for community policing.  These case-workers main focus is advocacy — there are other staff who focus on political strategy for the elected rep.

What if Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to the district and said:

“It’s unfair to the people of this district that they do not have access to the same constituency services from a house rep as everyone else in America. The Speaker’s Office is going to respond to this extraordinary situation by temporarily stepping in and providing local residents of NC-09 with constituency services at two temporary local offices and a mobile office for rural constituents. 

“These offices will be staffed with professional caseworkers to assist local people with a link to the vast array of services and programs provided by the federal government. When the House seats a new representative after a special election later this year, the provision of constituency services will be handed over to that representative -- which is the natural order of things.

“These constituency services will be non-partisan -- and available to every resident of the district on an equal basis. As Speaker of the House, I will appoint a constituency-services director to manage this operation, which will be delivered to the people of NC-09 on behalf of the entire House of Representatives.

This office would keep its distance from the upcoming special election — but it would make an enormously positive local statement for the Democratic brand, and make it much more difficult for the GOP to demonize Nancy Pelosi during the upcoming campaign.

Plus — it’s just good public service… and that’s, at the root, what should be the driving force behind all progressive politics.

Would this work?

Lori Laughlin’s daughter apparently tweeted she wasn't really that interested in university per se, but she was looking forward to “partying and game days.”

Lori Laughlin’s response:“[to the consultant] And who is the half-million cheque payable to?”

My mother’s response: “You need a couple more years of growing up before you’re ready for college — we’ll help you when you’re ready... but you’re not ready.  In the meantime, get a job and start paying towards groceries if you want to keep living here.” 

(My middle-class parents didn’t actually need help meeting the grocery bills.  This was a parenting message, not an economic one)

William Barr isn’t the first modern Attorney General to serve as handmaiden to a corrupt American President —  and things did not end well for Barr's predecessor.

Six months after Richard Nixon resigned, a federal court found his former AG John Mitchell guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and perjury.  (Hmmm…. sound familiar?)

Unlike Nixon — who was pardoned by President Jerry Ford — Mitchell actually served more than a year and a half at a federal prison camp in Alabama. He was also disbarred, which prevented him from resuming a previously-lucrative legal career upon release from jail.

I am proposing that we  launch a viral campaign to mobilize the vast numbers of people who were disgusted by Barr’s anti-American, constitution-undermining dishonesty and arrogance in front of the Senate committee Wednesday to use their inkjet printers and create a home-made postcard of John Mitchell (pick your favourite non-copyright photo) and send that postcard to Attorney General William Barr.

At the very least it’s a fun bit of political theatre. But it could be much more than that: if bags and bags of such postcards actually arrive at the DoJ postal room, somebody’s bound to leak this to the media, and the publicity reinforces and strengthens the meme that Barr is the real“crooked cop” in today’s Washington.  If nothing else, it will send the Attorney General a strong message that he’s NOT pulling the wool over the public’s eyes.

Here’s the mailing address:
     The Honorable William Barr
     Attorney General of the United States 
     U.S. Department of Justice
     950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
     Washington, DC 20530-0001

I’m suggesting a wordless message — let the photo of Mitchell say it all, and especially no swearing or cheap shots to dilute the meme… just anonymous silent images of an American Attorney General whose reward for loyalty to a crooked President was hard time followed by public disgrace for the balance of his life.

• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service steals and publishes Donald Trump’s tax returns
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service hacks and publishes Donald Trump’s full academic transcript from college and private school, and his disciplinary file from New York Military academy
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service discovers and publishes the identity of the blocked phone number Don Jr. called just before and just after the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service locates and publishes all Russian secret video recordings of Donald Trump entertaining “visitors” in his Moscow hotel room
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service liberates and publishes the full Russian intelligence agency file on Donald Trump 
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service scans and publishes Melania Trump’s secret personal diary
• I hope your Norwegian government intelligence service scans and publishes Ivana Trump’s secret personal diary

Kossacks — please help complete this tongue-in-cheek list.

In May 1943 my father, flying in an Allied bomber during a raid against Nazi Germany was shot down, taken prisoner, and sent to a Luftwaffe POW camp -- where he remained 21 months before being forced-marched to the German heartland in the final months of the war.

Unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, he was an actual and declared enemy of the German state.  Nevertheless, while imprisoned in Germany he:

• unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with a bunk off the floor
• unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with a blanket
• unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with soap;
• unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with access to showers
• unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was allowed to accept practical gifts of clothing and extra blankets from outside humanitarians and humanitarian agencies (like the International Red Cross)

While life was no picnic at Stalag Luft III (re-captured escapees received a bullet in the head as punishment), it is astonishing that 75 years later we are able to point to several measures where the Nazis did a better job of providing basic care to their enemies than the twenty-first century America provides to children who — unlike my father and his aircrew — have never dropped a bomb on the homeland.

Where are the pockets of wretched Amerian poverty really located (along with the rats and garbage-strewn streets that come with poverty)?

First let me acknowledge that armed law enforcement officers risked their lives to save potentially hundreds of lives at the three mass shootings this past week.  They walked into danger to save others.  No question about that.

What these three incidents demonstrate is that when the NRA and its apologists say The only way to stop a badguy with a gun is a good guy with a gun — IT’S NOT TRUE.

In all three of these shootings the good guys with guns were RIGHT THERE. Not only were they right there, they were also trained enough and disciplined enough and brave enough to put a quick end to the carnage. However, when carnage is being perpetrated with a military assault rifle, “a quick end,” means fewer dead. It doesn’t mean “stopped it from happening.”  It doesn’t mean “preventing mass shootings.”  

This “good guy with a gun” meme is bullshit — and the three events of this typical American week (250 mass shootings in the past 215 days) prove it.  The thousands of family members attending funerals next week prove it. 

In other industrialized countries —where this epidemic of mass shootings simply does not happen — it’s not good guys with guns who have prevented these unnecessary deaths, it’s “good guys in legislatures” who have passed laws and regulations that say:

• you absolutely do not get your hands on an assault weapon unless you are a member of the military or police, and even then the weapon is never available to you for personal grievances, and is always locked up unless you are in an active, authorized deployment under direct and close supervision of a commanding officer who in turn answers to a chain of command.
• Any gun you own must be registered and registration requires
  • a background check (for domestic violence, violent criminal activity, gang affiliations, terrorism affiliations, mental illness or a record of uttering threats against individuals identifiable groups (gays, immigrants, uppity women, certain races or religions))
  • In-person training from a legally-recognized gun safety course
  • proof of secure in-home storage for guns
• civilians in urban areas cannot carry guns on their person unless they can demonstrate that they are living under a threat or engaged in a risky occupation (like courier for a jeweller)
• No civilian anywhere can walk around in public with a gun — even hunters would have to secure their guns in locked cases until getting out of the vehicle heading out on the hunt. (Farmers and ranchers could patrol their own lands for predators, but would be subject to full regulations off the property).
• Today when people pass along a motorcycle or car to a friend or family member the change in ownership must be registered. The same would apply to firearms.
• Ammunition could only be sold to registered owners of same-calibre firearm, confirmed and tracked through bar-code on licence.
• Legal guns temporarily confiscated while court-ordered protection orders in effect.

We all know how to bring about “good guys in legislatures” (and the White House/ Governor’s Mansion / Mayor’s Office) — it’s by “good guys” making sure they are on the voters’ list and getting their good-guy ass down to the poll booth on election day.

The vast, vast, vast majority of Americans disagree with the current state of affairs -- only a tiny minority support the NRA-influenced status quo.

America — it has reached the point where mourning these deaths is incomplete unless it includes casting a vote against politicians owned by the American gun industry.  If you really want to respect the dead, kick the politicians who enabled their murderers out of office at the next election.

Trump lands in El Paso in about an hour.

We all know how carefully he manages the imagery of Trump that goes out across TV news and the Internet — one of the reasons he does so many Trump Rallies is because each new event injects fresh new footage of adoring voters publicly cheering and worshiping their Dear Leader.

His visit to El Paso is an opportunity for the citizens of that city (who have been mortally damaged by Trump’s hate-fest rallies and Tweets) to generate countervailing images on the internet and the TV.

The people of El Paso may choose silence instead of criticism — it’s up to them to decide how to express their grief and anger. (I doubt they will be cheering their President today.) They have many reasons to be pissed:

• refusal to support gun-safety legislation
• failure to champion gun safety supported by 90% of voters
• hate-talk directed at Hispanics
• public, politically-motivated lies about public safety in El Paso
• failure to pay his campaign’s bill for local police services at El Paso rally 6 months ago — money that could now be used to help families ofvictims

If they choose to chant criticism of Trump today, what chanted message would be most likely to undermine his brand:

Does anyone know if there is a reliable online database of companies where the high-profile CEOs,  chairs or owners support Trump PACS with big fat checks.  I do not want ANY of muy money go to  Trump’s CREEP.

I keep hearing the “fake news” Republican talking point that compares government-run universal health insurance to a visit to a Department of Moter Vehicles office — more precisely to an underfunded DMV that is short on staff and time-saving technology.

I live in Canada — and want to share my experience today with Canada’s medicare (the British Columbia version) for you to toss in the face of any red-capped relatives or workplace blowhards you hear trying to peddle this particular insurance-lobby/Republican lie.

I was working the soil in my garden with ungloved hands and sliced my finger on a shard of glass.  The shard pushed a whole bunch of dirt into the wound. I haven’t had a tetanus shot in ten years, but — this being Canada and all — here’s what I did to fix that.

1. Phoned my local corner pharmacy to make sure they weren’t too busy. (I could have picked any pharmacy in the province, because in a universal scheme, they all participate. (There is no such thing as “in-system” or “out system”— that is an American construct.)
2. Drove to the not-busy pharmacy, where they already had my personal info on file (from earlier prescriptions).  Alternately, I could have just shown them my government-issued health insurance card.
3. Filled out a two-minute medical questionnaire for the pharmacist.
4. Sat down while the pharmacist gave me the shot — five minutes after I arrived at the store. 
   • No lineup
   • No waiting
   • No “take a number”
5. For tetanus — no need even see a doctor
6. The pharmacist billed the government health insurance for the drug and for his dispensing fee
7. .Neither the pharmacist nor I had to inform or seek permission from a bureaucrat for this charge to be authorized — it is authorized because I am a citizen and because tetanus shots are covered for everyone.  Simple as that.
8. There is no requirement for follow-up paperwork — all pharmacies are online with the government insurance plan

“Now,”
   you can ask your MAGA-hat-wearing person,
“Does that sound like a DMV office to you?”

Pause.

Wait for squirming.

/s

This started off as a comment to another kos diary about Trump’s nasty response to the Danish Prime Minister. My comment grew into a much more generalized diary on the way Trump’s toxic masculinity is increasingly becoming a political liability for his re-election (and an asset to Democrats up and down the ballot).

I think almost every woman in the United States has had to endure at least one overbearing “women have no right to challenge me” asshole who had some kind of power over them: an asshole boss, an asshole boyfriend, an asshole ex-husband, an asshole current husband, an asshole teacher, an asshole father (or — even worse — asshole stepfather) or an asshole pastor.  Many have had more than one; many continue to endure to this day.

At the time they lacked the economic or legal power to escape the constant, deliberate humiliation — humiliation that was amped up every time they got “uppity.” Domestic violence aside, when the know-it-alls were challenged they responded with a torrent of emotional abuse, gaslighting, belittling and extended campaigns to destroy self-esteem.

Even women who have moved on and eliminated this kind of toxic masculinity from their lives still carry the painful scars.  Often these abusive relationships ended with escape, but without closure.  There is unpurged pain still lurking about in the souls of those who suffered.

As Trump increasingly lets his inherent brutishness out into public, I’m thinking that the metaphorical lightbulbs have got to be lighting up — one by one — above the heads of the millions of American women who have had to endure a Trump-like piece of nastiness in their own lives.  When this happens, these women see their own monster in Monster Trump, and in doing so, they see an opportunity to settle scores — to strike back at assholery in a way that was not possible for them back in the day.

They have an opportunity to purge some of their old pain by getting to the polls next year and — even if they never voted before or voted “Republican” or “Green”— in 2020 they can strike back at assholery by voting for the candidate who will kick Donald trump to the Whithouse curb (where he will be met by subpoenas and indictments that ruin the rest of his life).

IN fact, the anger may well spread down-ballot: “Fuck you, Donald Trump… and fuck your syncophant Senate candidate, and fuck your apologist House candidate, and fuck your toady who wants to be Republican governor!!! Fuck you andfuck your Trumpy buddies!!!”

As Trump gets nastier and more bullying in public is the “Fuck you, Asshole… and all the other Assholes like you” voting block going to grow into a distinct and major voting block… or is it already there, but not yet named?

Let’s test our collective Kos wisdom as pundits who correctly predict political events.

Is Donald Trump’s call for Russia to be re-admitted to the G7 without first withdrawing from Crimea just a pretext for the United States withdrawing from the group entirely?  (Because the other countries will — predictably — veto any suggestion that Russia gets back in.  They might even insult the American president by publicly calling the very idea of re-admission “absurd”— and we know how that kind of language infuriates him.)

Remember — little Donnie hates group activities, because all the other kids get to talk and he has to just wait for ages until it’s his turn .

… and remember: if Russia needed to spend $10 billion to buy an American President, they most certainly could scrape together the money… and little Donnie wants nothing more in life than to graduate from “fake billionaire” to “real billionaire.”

Put yourself in the shoes of Justin Trudeau or Emmanuel Macron or any of the G-7 leaders from outside America.  What do they have to look forward to at next year’s meeting:

• The Man-child President of the US will be even more petulant and narcissistic than at previous G-7 meetings because he will not only be in his own country exercising all the prerogatives of host leader but be doing so at a locale where he owns the property, the facilities and the staff.
• The American host will create an “observer” seat at the table for Russia — forcing the other leaders to choose between the chaos of a walkout or the humiliation of sharing a table with the guy who stole Crimea from Ukraine
• They will inevitably be caught up in the stench arising from a national leader holding the event at his own resort and reaping a huge profit as a result

Perhaps it would be wise for the other six to agree that henceforth the G7 needs to meet every second year rather than annually.  This is a way of avoiding the embarrassing dysfunction of a Trump-hosted meeting without explicitly telling Trump to get lost.  (They’ll say “Looking forward to seeing you in 2021, Mr. President.”)

Of course — once Trump is tossed to the curb by American voters next year they can go back to meeting annually as they have done in the past.  (If Trump wins, then they need to meet as G6 to discuss how to deal with Gilead Trump’s America for four more years.)

It is a fact that almost every time we see headlines about another mass shooting in America that headline is followed by news the shooter was a white male in his teens, twenties or thirties.  Sometimes it’s an older white guy and five years ago there was one in San Bernardino with a Saudi couple, but usually it’s a young white guy.

Same thing when the police announce they’ve arrested someone who appears to be planning an attack.  The accused — often discovered hiding a stash of guns and ammo in mom’s basement and posting online death threats against racial or political enemies or mean kids at school — is almost inevitably a young white male loner.

If these tortured souls have a partisan preference, it is usually consistent with wearing a red MAGA cap. Perhaps, then, we should apply Trumpian Logic™ to the challenge of defending America from these poisoned minds and the terrorism and violence they inflict on the nation.

Here is my modest proposal: that government authorities round up all white males at age 18 and ship them “back to where they came from” until middle age reduces the excess testosterone in their bodies and, with it, the constant, raging anger that seems to haunt these guys. Basically — give them a two-decade time out until they start to mellow with age, and then let them back into the United States.

Remember that we are using Trumpian Logic™ here, so “back where they came from” actually means “back where their parents’ or grandparents’ family came from when they arrived on Ellis Island.” 

Send them back to Ireland… or Scotland… or Russia… or whatever European country was such a shithole at the time that arriving in America penniless and lonely was a better prospect than staying home.

This may seem like a radical solution, but I am sure that the right political leadership could fill stadiums full of delirious American voters all chanting in unison “Send them back...”and turn this idea into an election-winning policy platform.

/s

Note: The Author’s family (on his grandmother's side) arrived as economic refugees from Scotland in the British Colony of Virginia decades before the American revolution.  They eventually settled in what is now the state of Tennessee

At what point do Conservatives start realizing that their long-term credibility in the community and in the political arena depends on their future ability to prove they publicly condemned Trump longbefore his inevitable fall.

Ideology, grifting and long-standing personality disorders aside, Trump’s “dotardness”  and confusion is increasing and is becoming increasingly obvious to friend and foe alike.  In a single article, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that:

• Donald Trump has been repeatedly been told about Category 5 hurricanes and followed that by claiming he “never knew” about Cat 5… and then again forgetting he ever discussed category 5 and then again getting briefed and then again forgetting… [How would these conservatives react if their own ageing parent did this?]

• The President delivers a fake weather report that Alabama is in the hurricane's path… either his addled, confused mind believes this made-up "fact" to be true, or he is so out of touch with reality he is unaware of the consequences of failing to carefully check your facts before calling a false alert when you are the effing President of the United States.

It's getting more and more like Grandpa put the toaster away inside the refrigerator and forgot to wipe his ass and the family still pretending nothing's wrong.