One of Those Moments Spent Wondering What the Hell Is Wrong With President Trump

#trumpswindle | #WhatTheyVotedFor

This is the sort of question that might well remain beyond any definitive answer:

President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn’t be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI director, according to Comey’s memos about the conversations.

Yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it’s substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.

Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide fresh details. Combined with existing accounts and Trump’s own social-media posts, they capture two days that, nearly five years later, loom large in the controversy engulfing the White House and at the heart of the Comey memos, which the Justice Department turned over last week to Congress.

(Silver)

In all of history, given every stupid gaffe and inadequate excuse we might ever hear from politicians, what part of this was worth lying about, and by what measure would anyone expect to get away with it? The social media aspect is itself ridiculously damning. That is to say, it is perhaps possible to imagine a circumstance whereby someone like Donald Trump might not even bother to think about whether or not flight records can be ultimately hidden, but, you know, posing for promotional pictures and then saying one was not actually there is one of the tougher sells. True, Trump voters will generally be okay with it because whatever Trump says is #WhatTheyVotedFor, but for the rest of society, regardless of any other mystery about the #TrumpRussia debacle, this one just shines.

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Image note: Donald Trump attends the Miss Universe 2013 competition at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia, 9 November 2013. (Photo: Alexander Aleshkin/Epsilon/Getty Images)

Silver, Vernon. “Flight Records Illuminate Mystery of Trump’s Moscow Nights”. Bloomberg. 23 April 2018.

The Price of Belief (#TrumpCare)

#TrumpCare | #WhatTheyVotedFor

Every once in a while, it occurs to wonder if perhaps they are doing it on purpose.

President Donald Trump’s administration made a bold guarantee Sunday morning, telling Americans that health insurance won’t cost more if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through, understanding that they’ll have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

This line could become Price’s “If you like your plan, you can keep it” moment ― a sweeping sound bite that ends up being not true. (President Barack Obama eventually had to apologize for his promise in 2013.)

(Terkel; boldface accent added)

No, really. He actually went and said that.

The Donald Trump Show (What the ‘Thug’ Said)

So you might have heard something or other about how Donald Trump denounced a black supporter as a “thug” and ordered him removed from a rally. Sophia Tesfaye of Salon notes that the supporter, C. J. Cary, later came to Trump’s aid via Twitter. In truth, the result might seem one of the stranger things you read this season, but it isn’t so unusual for internet discourse:

^[1]Consider the One called Jesus of Nazareth. Who suffer unimaginably for a dying & in many cases a dead but walking people. Embarrassed? ^[2]That was not what I felt, being escorted out. I felt joy. God asked if I would I did. Mission accomplished. And please do not think the ^[3]hardship that came out of this mission was not anticipated or described before hand, please do not think I cowered at the chance to get ^[4]Donald’s attention. U can see I did not. In fact, take a look. I still support Donald J Trump 4 president. By the way, i was probably the ^[5]only Black at least at the front. It’s not his fault he did not know who I was at that moment. He has been so traumatized by Black hate.. ^[6]What would he have thought I was doing? We have never met. But yelling C.J. seemed to have stunned him for a second. Black guy with ^[7]sunglasses at night? (document sensitivity to light). Medical. I am lucky I wasn’t thrown under the jail. So U ha(te) ha’ers carry on.See! ^[8]I stand with Team Trump. Thus my prayers shall account & ad to their safety. My friend in Russia said: I am very proud of you. ^[9]You are a brave man. Because they could have mistaken you for a bad guy. She is so correct. Go Team Trump!!!!

(qtd. in Tesfaye)

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Image note: Top ― Donald Trump makes a mean face in uncredited photo. Right ― Donald Trump supporter C.J. Cary was ejected from a rally for the Republican nominee, ostensibly for being black, but defended the game show host afterward. (Image via Twitter).

Tesfaye, Sophia. “Black Donald Trump supporter, mistaken for protestor, gets escorted out of rally and called a ‘thug’ by Trump”. Salon. 28 October 2016.

About as Bad an Idea as You Might Think

So …

Less than a week before its official launch on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders’ new political group is working its way through an internal war that led to the departure of digital director Kenneth Pennington and at least four others from a team of 15, and the return of presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver as the group’s new president.

(Dovere and Debenedetti)

… the thing is that I ought to have been thrilled by Bernie Sanders’ candidacy. He announced the day before my forty-second birthday; what a gift, right? Until the Bern scorched the landscape, most people thought of me as something of a leftist. It’s a little hard to tell anyone what to think of that notion at present, but I am and remain a cynical revolutionary, and thus the decision to wait, to see what Bernie brought before jumping on the bandwagon, feels more than simply justified.

The Importance of Being Stylish

HuffPo associate style editor Jamie Feldman zeroes in on what’s really important:

If you’re supposed to dress for the job you want and not the job you have, perhaps Michelle Obama dreams of being … a garden?

The first lady wowed in yet another floral look — it’s her third this month and second in two days! — for a state dinner in Havana, Cuba Monday night.

And, you know, we really wish she wouldn’t.

To the one, sure, you know, everybody needs to make a living. To the other, this should be neither demand nor excuse for going out of one’s way to be part of the problem.

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Image note: Cuban President Raul Castro (left) poses for a photograph with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. President Barack Obama before a state dinner at the Palace of the Revolution, 21 March 2016, in Havana Cuba. (Detail of photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)

Feldman, Jamie. “Michelle Obama Blends In With The Scenery At The State Dinner In Cuba”. The Huffington Post. 22 March 2016.