June 9, 2017
Dear Everyone:
Oh, my goodness! I
practically have
whiplash from trying to keep track of what’s going on
in the political world these days.
For those of you just returning from intergalactic travel, a quick
update:
Donald J. Trump,
television personality and self-proclaimed “businessman”, won the
2016
Presidential Election, in part because of his
promises to “shake up
Washington” and to “drain the swamp”.
Before he was even sworn into office, Donny the Trumpet began filling
his Cabinet positions with fellow businessmen, some of whom had
questionable relations with a certain foreign government that we will
call “Russia”. That would be
the same Russia suspected of having tried to influence the
aforementioned 2016 Presidential Election through a variety of nefarious
dealings including, but not exclusive to,
hacking emails from the
Democratic National Committee and supplying them to something called
“Wikileaks”; and planting false news articles to influence potential
voters.
One of these “good friends” of Donny the Trumpet was a certain former
general named Michael Flynn.
He was forced to resign after it was made public that he had lied to the
Vice President about his having a little “arrangement” with the Russian
government. And, because
National Security was involved, he was also investigated by the
Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Enter the (soon-to-be-former) Director of the FBI, one
James Comey.
Some time last month, Donny held a meeting in the Oval Office
with a number of Important People.
Then, in a scene almost out of one of the
Godfather movies,
he asked all the Important People
to leave the room so he could have a private conversation with Comey.
At that time, Donny implied that Comey should drop the
investigation of Flynn on the grounds that Flynn was “a good guy”.
When Comey failed to comply, Donny
fired him in a rather inelegant way.
Donny further threatened Comey with the possibility of “tapes” of
their conversation.
Evidently, Donny was unaware that Comey kept scrupulous notes of all
their conversations and quite cheerfully arranged for a friend to supply
some of the information to a group of interested people loosely known as
the News Media.
At that point the Fit Hit the Shan.
Next
Congress decided to question Comey in a public session that
drew so much attention that local bars were holding “Comey Cocktail
Hour” so people could watch the proceedings much as they would a
basketball championship game.
In fact, if they wanted to, they could watch the Congressional
Comedy Hour in the morning and a championship game the same afternoon
without ever leaving the establishment.
Also, Congress requested that Donny release the aforementioned “tapes”
of the conversation. Donny,
in a single breath, claimed that no such “tapes” existed and, if they
did, would be disappointing to anyone who listened.
Meanwhile, Comey happily answered questions for hours and equally
happily proclaimed that Donny was a liar “plain and simple”.
Donny’s comeback was that Comey had completely and totally vindicated
Donny and, by the way, Comey was a complete and total liar.
And, for good measure, Donny had his personal lawyer proclaim
that Comey “leaked” his information before Donny’s threat about the
so-called tapes, a fact that seems to be based purely on wishful
thinking.
Everybody still with me? To
recap: Donny promised to
“shake up” Washington.
Evidently, no told him that Washington is perfectly capable of shaking
back. A fact that the
Republican Party is trying to assuage by telling everyone:
“Hey, he’s new at this!
Give him a little time to get used to the job.”
Question: How much more
on-the-job training can we stand?
Love, as always,
Pete
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