Agatha Christie redux in the White House: now there are two

Here's the graffiti version of a "power photo) - Donald Trump pretending to be presidential, to his left, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, Mike Flynn and seated in the middle is Vice President Mike Pence. A photograph depicting failed leadership.

Every White House has it's "power photo". It's typically a particularly well staged portrait, created to depict power in action.
  
This photo was intended to exhibit high level
executive authority- like, "Look at us, we are so important!", A top heaving team, working with their once exulted (now deflated!) leader, Donald Trump.  

Guess what happened? They are now a failed group of miserable people.

Will the National Portrait Gallery put this picture in their White House collections?  (Maybe the gallery can create a dedicated Apprentice room.)

This photograph is surely "Rockwellien"? Certainly, Norman Rockwell would have created a wonderful rendering, were he alive to cover the fall out created by each departing person who was forced to leave the administration.

In my opinion, this photograph has a sense of being a modern Agatha Christie mystery playbill cover. 

Who is the next one to disappear?

Donald Trump failure grade "0"= first 100 days

Here's my report card on @realdonaldtrump, the handle used to post his Tweets (when he's not impersonating somebody else). Although Mark Cuban gives Donald Trump a "C" for his first 100 days, I'd complete the three-hundred-and-sixty degree angle to create the proper grade of "0".

Here's a report card to support the zero score, deserved for the Donald Trump first 100 days in office (when he's not in Mar-a-lago, FL):

1.  January 21, 2017: Failed communications compromised Seal Team 6 raid in Yemen- Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan killed and an expensive intelligence helicopter lost, all while newly inaugurated Donald Trump was busy "Tweeting".

2.  Hiring Sean Spicer to be the White House press secretary, the creator of "Spicey facts", a pseudonym for propaganda.

3.  Allowing Lt. General Mike Flynn to sit in on White House security briefings when he was being paid to work for Turkey, without registering as an agent of a foreign government, and who also had clandestine ties to Russia. (This information puts cold shivers up my spine!)

4.  Not shaking the hand of world leader Chancellor Angela Merkel, of Germany, during her visit to the White House. 

5.  April attack on Syria air base, but runways didn't sustain damage; in fact, the airport's runways were operational the next day! Donald Trump claimed his 59-missile strike on Assad’s Syrian air base missed their targets, saying he ‘didn’t want to hit the runways’. In fact, the Sharyat Air Base was back up-and-running with military jets using it as usual. HELLO? 59 Tomahawks?

6. Bombing Afghanistan with a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB pronounced /ˈmoʊ.æb/, commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs) without killing the ISIS leaders or anybody of importance, that we're aware of- like ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for example.

7.  Misrepresenting the location of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the armada, in the Pacific, as being directed to prevent a nuclear attack against the US by North Korea. In fact, the naval operations were, instead, headed to Australia!

8.  Appointing "Ken and Barbie" his daughter Ivanka and son in law Jared Kushner, to be his advisers when neither one of them has any diplomatic or political experience. Frankly, their role is to keep Donald Trump's erratic behavior under control. Obviously, Donald Trump isn't allowed to be alone and unsupervised, because it's proven he's a danger to himself and others.

9.  Accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping the Donald Trump Towers in New York City, without any proof whatsoever (a proven Trump lie).

10.  Putting the world at risk for nuclear war for the purpose of diverting attention away from the Trump-Russia clandestine connections and the infamously salacious "dossier".

Report card for Donald Trump and his failed administration during the first 100 days is ZERO.  In fact, the Trump failures are lower than an F grade and his leadership demonstrates incompetence.  

DANGER White House is Sad House- internal morale

The truth of the matter is that President Trump has a huge, unprecedented, and alarming problem of saying things that are false too often.- Brent Budowsky

Sean Spicer's veracity become more ridiculous every day as he spends an inordinate amount of time defending lies told by Donald Trump- like voter fraud and false wire tap accusations. (In my opinion, his arguments in support of Donald Trump lies are  a huge waste of tax payer money.)

It's difficult to imagine what it must be like to work inside the White House.  After all, if the current morale of the nation is any indicator, the internal White House operations must be in disarray.  Some evidence of this fact is the reactionary behavior of Press Secretary Sean Spicer. He's like a mirror on what the internal White House operations must be like because he just can't seem to find his stride. In other words, nobody seems to be is mentoring him.

Here's an interesting perspective reported in The Hill. Simply put, he should resign before he does any harm to his career and, by extension, to our national security.

Sean Spicer should resign as White House press secretary

One of the most dramatic news stories in the coming months will probably be one or more major resignations in protest of high-level Trump administration officials over matters of policy, practice or personnel.


The Trump administration, internally, is deeply divided on some fundamental matters of policy and vision about America's role in the world. For example, there are fundamentally different world views between Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, on one side, and White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon and his internal allies, on the other.The views of Mattis and McMaster versus the views of Bannon and his allies cannot be reconciled. The differences, and the dangers, will be brought into crystal-clear perspective once world events include dangerous conflicts where presidential decisions must be made and radically conflicting advice will be offered.

Is there a point where disagreements over presidential decisions on core national security decisions compel Mattis or Bannon to resign, or one of them is asked to leave by the president?

You bet there is.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, is the first senior administration to be so visibly under public pressure that he is the first to face what will be a dramatic choice for others in the Trump administration: stay or leave.

The truth of the matter is that President Trump has a huge, unprecedented, and alarming problem of saying things that are false too often.

When Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.) says that Trump is a "pathological liar," he is speaking with his usual directness to say something that virtually every Republican or Democrat privately believes.

Some Republicans go very far in publicly criticizing Trump's habit of speaking falsehoods; others are more genteel in their public phrasing about what Sanders calls pathological lying, but make no mistake: Most Republicans are just as offended and worried by Trump's habit of bearing false witness as Democrats.

Spicer is a highly skilled communications professional with a well-earned reputation for integrity among those who have worked with him. He is a good man and talented professional who is now in the impossible situation of having to publicly address the press, and the people of the nation through the media, supporting or defending things Trump says or does that Spicer must surely know are false or untrue.

When I suggest that Spicer should resign, I do not mean this as a disrespect of Spicer, but as a show of enough respect for Spicer to worry that he is doing himself, and the nation, a major disservice by attaching his good name to Trump's practices of speaking falsehoods.

Trump falsely claimed Obama committed the criminal act of wiretapping Trump's phones before the election. The entire Democratic and Republican leadership of the House and Senate, and of the House and Senate intelligence committees as well, have totally and unequivocally debunked Trump's false charge against Obama.

Spicer is forced to publicly defend and explain Trump's lie, day after day, with increasing emotion and intensity, most recently with a bizarre presentation at the White House press briefing on Thursday.

(Maine Writer- this statement is sad...)-The press secretary is obviously under intense pressure from Trump and other senior aides in the White House to aggressively defend the president's statements. When Spicer spent a full eight minutes at the Thursday briefing reading news stories purportedly justifying Trump's attack against Obama, he included a story that falsely accused the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a British intelligence service, of colluding with Obama to eavesdrop against Trump.

This led to protests by the British government, followed by apologies to Britain from Spicer and McMaster — further proof of how Trump's false statements and Spicer's defense of them can offend close allies and harm American security.

Does Spicer want to be the public voice of a president who often states falsehoods and never admits he is wrong?

Spicer could resign with a blast, stating in some detail why he cannot continue to work for this president, or he could resign quietly and gracefully, giving no reason and letting everyone else draw the obviously correct conclusion.

Either way, the point would be dramatically made.

Spicer would be doing a service to the president by resigning — if the president draws the right conclusions and changes his self-destructive behavior. And if this president is incapable of changing his ways, Spicer would perform an even more valuable service to the nation by leaving.
If President Trump does not change his ways, our nation and world are headed into stormy and dangerous seas.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He is a longtime regular columnist for The Hill and can be contacted at brentbbi@webtv.net.

(Can't imagine what the low White House morale must be like.)

Wire tap allegation - Wait! Wait! Who lied? @RealDonaldTrump

“I think when Sean Spicer isn’t even willing to talk about it, you know there’s a real problem.”- Rep. Schiff

It seems like anytime a truthful news report is published, the source is from the moderate media. In this case Huffington Post seems to be on top of this breaking story, datelined "TRUTH". So, if there  is no evidence about the false claim made in a temper tantrum fit of Tweets by @realdonaldtrump a week ago Saturday March 4th, then why isn't he being held accountable for telling lies?

POLITICS 03/10/2017

‘No Evidence’ On Trump’s Wiretap Claim, Says Top Democrat On Intelligence Committee- Meeting with FBI Director James Comey leaves Rep. Adam Schiff as puzzled as ever by the president’s accusation.  By Mary Papenfuss

Congressman Adam Schiff of California says FBI Director James Comey might even look forward to publicly discussing the issue of illegal wire taps, as alleged by Donald Trump, given the opportunity to be questioned about the false claims.  Seems to me, if James Comey can call a serendipitous press, conference anytime he wants, during the heat of a presidential campaign, he should be able to do so when the President of the United States is telling lies. 

A day after meeting with FBI Director James Comey, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee declared Friday that he had seen no evidence supporting Donald Trump’s accusations that his phones were wiretapped during the presidential campaign by order of President Barack Obama. (MaineWriter opinion is that #Russia_if_Ur_listening are the culprits.)

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was among the so-called “Gang of Eight” — House members who have access to the most highly classified information — who met with Comey Thursday evening. Schiff came away with no information supporting Trump’s claims. “I think when Sean Spicer isn’t even willing to talk about it, you know there’s a real problem.”

Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the Republican head of the committee, also said earlier this week that he had seen no evidence backing Trump’s accusation. He said after the Comey meeting that nothing had changed. Comey had earlier said there was no truth to Trump’s claim and had asked the Justice Department, now headed by Trump’s pick Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to make a statement to that effect, but the department declined.

Schiff made his comments the same day as a bizarre standoff between the president and an ABC reporter who repeatedly asked Trump if there was any evidence to back his claims. Trump completely ignored him.

Schiff said he believes Comey will answer questions about the issue at a committee hearing this month. “He certainly is prepared for the question,” Schiff told CNN. “I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t answer it. He might even welcome the opportunity.”

Trump unleashed his Twitter attack last Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, calling Obama “sick” for allegedly ordering wiretaps on his Trump Tower phones during the campaign. But when pressed later, Trump offered no further information.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Trump, as the media has speculated over the last week, very likely obtained the information from an unverified Breibart News article. Aides had placed a copy of the article in his Saturday morning reading material, an unnamed White House official told the news service.

The article was based on an accusation by conservative radio personality Mark Levin that Obama was waging a shadowy “silent coup” against Trump, again with no evidence or verification. 

Levin referenced an article in Heat Street that never mentioned the word “wiretap.” (MaineWriter- what I don't understand is how @realdonaldtrump wastes time reading "unverified" information when he should be reading intelligence security briefs.)

Trump’s Twitter language that he had “just found out” about the wiretapping (apparently from a media outlet, not from his own intelligence services) was similar to his controversial comment on Sweden last month that seemed to indicate that there had been a terrorist attack in the country the previous night. “Look at what’s happening in Sweden last night,” he said at a Florida rally. In fact, what was “happening” was that Trump was watching a Fox News program on refugees in Sweden. There was no terrorist attack.

The New York Times reported that within hours of the Mar-a-Lago tweets, Trump was asking aides if there was anyone who could substantiate the information. (MaineWriter- like the spoiled kid who bullies his friends into telling lies on his behalf.)

Request for Donald Trump tax returns- leaks required

Mrs. Mary Anne MacLeod Trump (b. 1912, in Tong, a village on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland- d. 2000 in Hyde Park), was the Scottish immigrant mother of Donald Trump. She was born in the land of the mysterious and never found Loch Ness Monster; but that reality sure doesn't given Donald Trump, her son, the authority to make international intrigue about his hidden taxes.  

The late Mary Anne McLeod Trump - was a Scottish immigrant. 

It makes no sense, whatsoever, for Donald Trump to pretend his tax returns are his business only and play "hard to get" with the information.  His Press Secretary Sean Spicer says there's no "there-there" regarding any scandal or connection to Russia, but it's impossible to believe in "there" when Donald Trump will not prove he is innocent of financial collaboration with the Russians. Talk about a violation of the Constitution's "Emoluments" clause? 
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present,Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” (Wow! The framers of the US Constitution were clairvoyant!  Obviously, they foresaw Donald Trump in their visions.)
At this point, the tax debacle about Donald Trump's tax returns, the speculation about what's in the data are a greater myth than wondering if the Loch Ness Monster existed or if Big Foot is still roaming around in the Pacific Northwest?

Nessie- the shadow of the Loch Ness Monster! 

Like calling for Donald Trump's taxes.

(Maybe, we'd be better off asking for Russia to find the data?)

Moreover, with all the White House leaks (like a bathtub overflowing) gushing out, including what Donald Trump wears in the middle of the night, seems like somebody should be able to find his tax returns, laying around in a mayonnaise jar someplace.  Even the Clinton's long lost "White Water" billing papers eventually showed up, just like magic, sitting in plain view, on a White House table.
The New York Times archives report from eons ago, in 1996, shows how absolutely anything is possible:

After nearly two years of searches and subpoenas, the White House said this evening that it had unexpectedly discovered copies of missing documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's law firm that describe her work for a failing savings and loan association in the 1980's.

Well, here's the newest mysterious and never to be duplicated story of the 21st century. Where are Donald Trump's taxes? Apparently, there are nefarious reasons why he won't release the information. Otherwise, this mystery would be solved.  

Where's the leaks from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS?). I'd be willing to bet those tax returns are hiding in a dossier underneath
somebody's bed collecting dust bunnies, just waiting for the right time to appear - clandestinely, or course.  They exist someplace outside of the IRS but the exact location is yet to be determined.

Here's one open call for their disclosure:

NYT Staffer Urges IRS to Leak Trump's Tax Returns:

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is urging IRS workers to leak President Donald Trump's tax returns to him.

Kristof, a longtime staffer at the Times, made his plea to the IRS on Twitter:

But if you're in IRS and have a certain president's tax return that you'd like to leak, my address is: NYT, 620 Eighth Ave, NY NY 10018.  One response is as I've already demised: "I have been thinking that very thing. If only a certain tax return WOULD show up..." from a Twitterzin named Steven Tuit at

Of course, The Hill noted that releasing an individual's unauthorized tax returns is a felony.

"While reporters who publish illegally obtained information that they did not solicit are traditionally not prosecuted, the legal picture becomes less clear if the reporters are involved in the leaking of the information," it said. The Times received a portion of Trump's 1995 tax documents from a source last September and printed it a few days later, according to The Hill. It prompted a letter from Trump's attorney, who claimed publishing the documents was "illegal."

Times Editor Dean Baquet has said he would risk jail time to publish Trump's taxes returns. The Daily Caller reported the "unauthorized release of an individual's tax returns is punishable by a fine of $5,000 and up to five years in prison."

(Hmmm, seems like a small risk legal, IMO, to solve one of the greatest political mysteries of all time, after the missing and never found 18 minutes of erased Watergate tape conversations.)

(Nessie?  Hey Nessie? Where are you?)- Trump taxes are like calling up the Loch Ness Monster.  There's obviously something misty lurking in that "Loch Ness", metaphor tax returns. 

("Russia if you are listening?")  

Carter Page exhibits mental illness and puts Americans at risk for PTSD

Meanwhile, with a Russian spy submarine sitting off the coast of Groton Connecticut in international waters, former Donald Trump adviser and crazy person of the day Carter Page denied the Russians are as bit a threat to America as the media is claiming.  
Page is a former investment banker made a name for himself attacking the United States government on Russian state media outlets.  

"Carter Page is mentally ill" BS, MHSA, RN

With the unmitigated gall of a scoundral. the appeared to be hallucinating Carter Page condescendingly stared down Judy Woodruff during her New Hour Interview with him on Feb 15, and said, unconvincingly, he did not believe the Trump administration advisers did anything wrong by communiating with Russia.  It didn't matter at all to Page that the communications have the sinister presumption of treason. Rather than deal with the salient issue and the risks of appearing guilty, Carter Page acted like he was disoriented at times during the interview. Several times, he eve lost trrack of his train of thought while obviously trying to think ahead about how to deny the undeniable. Did he have contact with Russians while he was advising Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign? Well, he said hello to them. That's about as believable as a Russian connisseur mistaking pure water for 80 proof vodka.

This conversation didn't follow the thought process of a mentally healthy person; yet, Carter Page was an adviser to Donald Trump - how can this be so? 
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/former-trump-adviser-says-no-russian-meetings-last-year/
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me just …

CARTER PAGE: And I think — yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Let me just move on by saying, but you were a member of his foreign policy team. We were just talking about that a moment ago.

CARTER PAGE: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But my first question, then, after that, Carter Page, is to ask you, you’re aware of these reports out there that there were officials in the Trump campaign who were in repeated contact with Russian officials, Russian intelligence officials during 2016.

Were you one of those campaign officials?

CARTER PAGE: Well, Judy, you know, that — going back to the question to Sean Spicer about fake news, I mean, this — yes, I’m aware of the reports, which I saw on the front page of The New York Times today.

But I think I can actually answer that question as to why that was fake news. That was just a regurgitation of old reports, based on the dodgy dossier that the Clinton campaign came out with.
So help me God, dear blog readers- the bizarre Carter Page interview was as close to listening to a clinically mentally ill person speaking as you will ever see on television.

Mayday!  Americans must rid ourselves of the absolutely insane influences with Russian penetration that is infecting our government and is corrupting our Republican party.  Unfortunately, by the time Republicans finally figure out how dangerously de-compensating the problem is, we will all, as a nation, need Post Traumatic Stress Counseling to get over the emotional trauma.  No, seriously! Save Our Souls.

Save Our National Souls before we need Post Traumatic Stress Counseling

Russian spies and the Trump administration

Donald Trump continues to project blame for his irresonsible administration's contacts with Russia.  But, evidence mounts that Russia and President Putin have infiltrated the Trump administration.

In a sheer abdication of responsibility, Donald Trump deflects, rather than admits, blame. Yet, the preponderance of the evidence continues to build, all the while Donald Trump responds by demanding apologies from the sources of the incrminating evidence. Incredibly, Donald Trump blames the mainstream media for uncovering factual evidence about  treasonous Russian communications between him and his circle of outrageous advisors. Now, he's demanding an apology from The New York Times for breaking more Russian intelligence information.

There's just too much evidence to ignore, including the proven fact that Russian hackers influenced the outcome of the 2016 election in what amounted to an invasion of American political communications. So the question is, how much evidence is needed before Republicans acknowledge the Donald Trump circle could be the root of treasonous behavior for the purpose of advancing their political ambition? It's the epitomy of selling their souls.  

Here's another report in the growing litany of evidence:

1.  Kellyanne Conway: Special adviser to Donald Trump and one of his litany of campaign managers. In fact, her husband is the man who defended Russians against criminal prosecution. Kellyanne Conway’s husband represented firm accused of Russia bribe. 

In fact, Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway’s husband George recently represented a corporation accused of bribing Russian officials, it has been reported. Scott Dworkin, from the anti-Trump group Democratic Coalition, tweeted images of documents revealing the link. The document appears to show that in 2015 lawyer George Conway represented Hewlett-Packard Co and Hewlett-Packard Mexico in the US District Court in Northern California, San Jose division in a case brought by Petroleos Mexicanos and Pemex Exploracion y Produccion.

It read: “Pemex pleads that HP Russia used a German agent to bribe Russian officials to secure a contract with the prosecutor general of Russia.”

It comes after a series of claims regarding Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his campaign team and their links to Russia.

The President and his team have strongly denied all the reports, calling them “nonsense," - but the evidence mounts in spite of projecting blame.

In an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Ms Conway claimed the revelation that Gen Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence — who then went on television and insisted he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador — was the key factor in his resignation.

“I think misleading the vice president really was the key here,” Ms Conway said.

“But wait a second,” Mr Lauer replied. “You’re saying that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the White House knew about that last month when the Justice Department warned the White House that Flynn had not been completely honest in characterising that conversation with the Russian ambassador. And they even went further to say that as a result of that dishonesty, he was at risk for blackmailing by the Russians.”

“Well, that’s one characterisation, but the fact is that Gen Flynn continued in that position, and was in the presidential daily briefings, was part of the leader calls as recently as yesterday,” Ms Conway said. “As time wore on, obviously the situation had become unsustainable ...”

“Kellyanne that makes no sense,” Mr Lauer interjected. “Last month, the Justice Department warned the White House that Gen Flynn had misled them, and as a result he was vulnerable to blackmail. And at that moment, he still had the complete trust of the president?” (OMG- this is enough evidence to have put any one who is reading this under surveillance for sedition.)

“Matt, I’m telling you what the president has said, which is that he’s accepted Gen Flynn’s resignation and he wishes him well, and that we’re moving on,” Ms Conway answered.

Later, Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Mr Trump’s trust in Gen Flynn had “eroded” over the weeks between the Justice Department’s warning and his decision to step down.

Probably, it's not irony to note that prior to Kellyanne Conway being hired to manage the Donald Trump political campaign, Paul Manafort was let go in a rather weird circumstance when it was revealed how he was too cozy with Russia. 
Business Insider reported the FBI was looking into Donald Trump's former campaign manager's alleged ties to Russia- Paul Manafort indeed had worked in the Ukraine, obviously had contact with Russia.

How much evidence do Repulbicans need before they move forward to censure Donald Trump and his corrupt administration? After experiencing the wasteful money spent on bogus Congressional investigations, about the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya, it seems like the incriminating evidence about "Russia - gate" will come back to haunt all who ignore the evidence; especially when treasonous communications are suspected of influencing the highest levels of the American government. 

Giuliani gives "circular" evidence of Muslim ban

Apparently, the Trump arguments in support of the Muslim ban was a classic case of "circular using of the words"- as frequent SNL host Melissa McCarthy made a surprise appearance on NBC's sketch-comedy show to skewer press secretary Sean Spicer's combative tone with the press. And the resemblance was uncanny.

Melissa McCarthy channels Sean Spicer and "circular words"

Spicer told reporters the Muslim order was not a "ban," even though Trump had used the word in tweets about the measure.

In the SNL skit, McCarthy said- "He's quoting you. It's your words," McCarthy told a cast member who played a reporter asking about the ban. "He's using your words when you use the words and he uses them back. It's circular using of the word, and that's from you."

Federal judges express skepticism about arguments on Trump's travel ban- Chicago Tribune

Trump's travel ban faced its toughest test as a panel of appeals court judges hammered away at the administration's claim that the ban was motivated by terrorism fears, while directing pointed questions to an attorney challenging the executive order on grounds that it unconstitutionally targeted Muslims.  Rudy Giuliani was raised by one of the judges during the conference call appeal. The hearing was conducted by phone — an unusual step. Moreover, it was broadcast live on cable networks, newspaper websites and various social media outlets. It attracted a huge audience, with more than 130,000 alone tuned in to the court's YouTube site to hear audio.

Judge Richard Clifton, a George W. Bush nominee, asked an attorney representing Washington state and Minnesota what evidence he had that the ban was motivated by religion. (The two states are suing to invalidate the ban.)

Clifton went after the government's attorney, asking whether he denied statements by Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said recently that Trump asked him to create a plan for a Muslim ban. Judge Michelle T. Friedland, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, asked why the case should not move forward to determine what motivated the ban?

Federal judges in the 9th District hearing the Department of Justice (DOJ) inadequate arguments to support the Trump immigrant ban called out the words of Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani: Trump asked me how to do a Muslim ban 'legally'
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said in an interview on Saturday that President Trump had previously asked him about legally implementing a "Muslim ban."

But Giuliani then disputed the notion that the president's sweeping executive order barring refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim nations amounts to a ban on Muslims.
"I’ll tell you the whole history of it: When he first announced it, he said ‘Muslim ban,'" Giuliani said on Fox News.

"He called me up, he said, ‘Put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally.’"

Giuliani said he then put together a commission that included lawmakers and expert lawyers.

"And what we did was we focused on, instead of religion, danger," Giuliani said.

"The areas of the world that create danger for us, which is a factual basis, not a religious basis. Perfectly legal, perfectly sensible."

Giuliani reiterated that the ban is "not based on religion."

"It's based on places where there are substantial evidence that people are sending terrorists into our country," he said.

The president on Friday signed an order that bars Syrian refugees indefinitely and halts the country's refugee resettlement program for four months. It also denies entry for 90 days to people from seven majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.

The president on Saturday denied that the executive order was a Muslim ban. He also insisted his new administration was "totally prepared" to carry out the refugee and travel ban.

A federal judge in New York on Saturday night granted an emergency stay temporarily halting the removal of immigrants and refugees detained following Trump's order.

Obviously, the Federal Judges in the 9th District have no patience for "circular use of words".

Trump around the world - Down Under news perspective

"Trump himself was barking at the moon at the CIA's Langley headquarters on Saturday."- George McGeough in Syndey

Donald Trump tried in vain to upstage the highly successful Womens March imagery when he spoke at the "staged for TV photo op" in the CIA's sacred foyer in Langley VA

Repubicans don't realize how America's international reputation is tarnished by the buffoonery of Donald Trump's incompetent leadership.  Well, that's probably "alternative fact", like Kelly Anne Conway is fond of saying.  In fact, Republicans do realize how their unhinged leader is a buffoon but they obviously don't care. Rather, it's power first, political ambition second and "they don't care" third.

Here's what The Sydney Morning Herald reported by George McGeough

WashingtonDC: Donald Trump's ego might dwarf Uluru, a national park in the Australian Outback, but he's exceedingly thin-skinned.

However, Trump's bludgeoning of the news media is (revenge) for their accurate reporting on the puny crowd that turned out for his inauguration - the small crowd was may be just a third of those who poured into the streets of the capital for Saturday's women's protest against his election.

We're familiar with the new President's obsession about any numbers that speak to his sense of his own greatness - rally crowds, polling and TV ratings. And his bilious contempt for those that don't. Trump does not respond well to the words "smaller than" and "Trump" appearing in the same sentence.

Here are some interesting international media links:
Lower turnout and protests usher in Trump's divided state of America

Sean Spicer's denial of the truth gives birth to #SpicerFacts meme

But there's enough data now to state unambiguously that his inauguration crowd was markedly smaller than either of those for Barack Obama - in 2009 and in 2013.

Photographs and video analysis by crowd size experts, reported by The New York Times, suggests Trump's inauguration crowd was 160,000 - just a fraction of Trump's estimate of up to 1.5 million.
The experts estimate the 470,000 participated in the women's march in DC. And when attendance at similar marches in other US states are thrown in, the total protest is estimated to have included from one million to 2.6 million people.

That makes them the biggest protests since the Vietnam War; and in anyone's language, a passionate pushback to a new presidency.

The DC metro service said on Sunday that Saturday's women's march was the second busiest day in its history - more than 1 million passenger trips. It fell just short of the 1.1 million trips taken on the day of Obama's first inauguration in 2009.

Figures reported by Politifact make the Trump inauguration the most poorly attended in more than 20 years. Here are the figures:

• Obama 2009 - 1.8 million
• Obama 2013 - 1 million
• Bush 2001 - 300,000
• Bush 2005 - 400,000
• Clinton 1993 - 800,000
• Clinton 1997 - 250,000.

Trump can't pretend to be surprised. 

In fact, he knew that he lost the popular vote by a good 3 million votes; that he squeaked through the Electoral College thanks to just a handful of votes in three states; and that, historically, he's the least popular incoming president ever. (Maine Writer- the Electorals did not do their job as envisioned by the writers of the US Constitution they should have voted for the qualified candidate Hillary Clinton, but they, sadly, did not.)

And he can't erase the facts that the Russian hacking and the FBI's weird intervention late in the campaign took some of the wind out of Hillary Clinton's campaign sails, thereby leaving many questioning the legitimacy of his "greatest win ever".

A smart man, after the inauguration, might have sucked it all up and rolled up his sleeves to get to work making America great again. For months, Trump has been belting us around the ears with his Day One "to-do" list and his First 100 Days agenda; and, last week, aides claimed breathlessly that he had stockpiled 200 executive orders that were good to go - all they needed was Trump's signature.

It was a given that he would be peeved about the crowd reports. But instead of Trump getting it out of his system with an early hours Twitterstorm, the manner in which key members of his team jumped into the trenches to maul the media suggests a pre-planned barrage intended to damage media integrity.

Trump himself was barking at the moon at the CIA's Langley headquarters on Saturday.

Utterly insensitive to the fact that his backdrop was a memorial to CIA agents who had died in the line of duty, he rambled, from assuring his audience their new commander-in-chief was the full quid: "Trust me, I'm, like, a smart person"; to his fame - he had made the cover of Time magazine 15 times, but football star Tom Brady had made it just once.

Openly stating that he was "at war" with the media, he gave his take on Friday's crowd: "We had a massive field of people. You saw that. Packed.

"I get up this morning. I turn on one of the networks and they show an empty field. I say: 'Wait a minute. I made a speech. I looked out. The field was ... It looked like a million, a million and a half people.' … And they said: 'Donald Trump did not draw well.' "

That's what you'd expect from Trump. But later his newly minted presidential spokesman Sean Spicer harangued reporters in a briefing. It's worth recalling here that, on being appointed earlier this month, Spicer assured reporters: "I've never lied … if you lose the respect and trust of the press corps, you've got nothing."

Spicer told the briefing: "Yesterday, at a time when our nation and the world was watching the peaceful transition of power and, as the President said, the transition and the balance of power from Washington to the citizens of the United States, some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting.

"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration - period - both in person and around the globe. These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm for the inauguration are shameful and wrong."

It brought to mind Saddam Hussein's hapless spokesman Comical Ali, who bizarrely insisted to reporters that Baghdad was safely in the hands of the dictator in 2003 - even as live TV pictures showed that the city had been captured.

Spicer lied demonstrably about the size of the crowd; the numbers that rode the DC metro; the use of magnetometers in security checks which he claimed had stopped people getting in; in claiming that this was the first time that floor covering had been used, which he said accentuated empty space (the coverings were used at Obama's 2013 inauguration).

It was an inauspicious start for a spokesman who claims to not lie and it earned him four Pinocchios from Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post's fact checker.

Next into the fray was Trump's White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who accused the press of attempting to delegitimise Trump. "It's really not about crowd size. It's really about honesty in the media," he told Fox News.

But what Priebus really meant became clear when Trump's former campaign manager and White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway was interviewed on NBC on Sunday morning.

Tackling her on Spicer's loony performance the previous day, host Chuck Todd wanted her to explain the absurdity of Spicer being sent before the cameras to argue what Todd said were "provable falsehoods".

At first Conway deflected: "I don't think presidents are judged by crowd sizes, they're judged by accomplishments."

Todd: "Fair enough, so why lie?"

Conway: "You're saying it's a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts."

Todd, clearly flabbergasted: "Alternative fact are not facts. They're falsehoods."

So on top of fake news, we now have alternative facts.

George Orwell didn't know the half of it, did he? But with Obama and Clinton off his radar, Trump is making very clear that the media is his next biggest enemy - and it must be discredited, if not destroyed.

Conway was on the same page as Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes who, during the campaign, made this breathtaking statement on National Public Radio: "One thing that's been interesting this campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts — they're not really facts. Everybody has a way - it's kind of like looking at ratings or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There's no such thing, unfortunately anymore, of facts."

Evan McMullin, who ran for the presidency as a conservative candidate, put it this way: "[Trump's attacks are] intended to destroy the media's ability to hold him accountable."

These are dangerous days for the mainstream media. Many have struggled since the advent of the internet, which wrecked their traditional business model, and to the extent that they survive financially, budgets are hopelessly tight. Now there is a new existential crisis as the integrity of their reporting comes under a new and relentless attack from social media, led by the President of the United States.

Yes, Trump won the election (i.e. the Electors votes). But if a million or more Americans took to the streets of cities across the country on Saturday, it might mean that he has a bigger fight on his hands - especially if he does want to destroy the American news media.

A terrifying new world order- Trump Putin narcissism bowl

These bookend portraits could be the movie trailer for an international horror story. Which one is the "patsy"?

America's "angry white men" and their wrong minded cohorts decided to vote for Donald Trump. They supported Donald Trump and his angry rhetoric rather than vote for the super well qualified Hillary Clinton, a woman, to lead the free world. Sadly, I sincerely doubt these same #fakenews voters were thinking about the horrible new world order their vote tacitly endorsed.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Donald Trump must stop saying he has additional information about Russian hacking. In fact, Trump has zero information. Rather, Trump is damaging his credibility by even talking about Russian hacking.  Obviously, Trump knows nothing, will not provide any "revelation" because he has no morals.  Trump prefers to defend Russia than to believe the US intelligence information. Outrageous!

Indeed, even Trump's round head press secretary Sean Spicer can't defend the statements his boss is "trumping", when asked to do so by Matt Lauer, on The Today Show. All Spicer sort of said is "wait and see" (or neologisms to that effect).....that's absolutely unacceptable double speak in defense of Trump's inability to criticize Vladimir Putin for the evil wrong doing Russian interference in the US election. Incredulously, Spicer said that maybe the punishment for the interference didn't fit the crime? Unmitigated hypocrisy! Because, if the interference had caused Trump to loose the election, the Republicans would be calling for far worse retaliation than what President Obama did by expelling a few dozen Russian operatives who were living in the US.

Obviously, the new and chilling world order is now humming with a Russian directed duet. Trump looks like a Putin hugging "patsy". Two horrifying individuals, the men are obsessed with their puffed up importance. Trump and Putin evidently want to join hands and rule the world. In my opinion, Donald Trump was never elected to be Vladimir Putin's best friend. In making America great again, no one, not even Trump's white supremacist supporters, voted to create this chilling new world order. 

In the narcissism bowl, the looser will be the American people- we never voted for the mess Donald Trump intends to make by creating a chilling new world order.

Moreover, in the New 2017 year, I make this prediction about Donald Trump and his round head Press Secretary Sean Spicer: They will both fail in their unqualified attempts to be Russian apologists.