Mueller's The Word

You know what's funny?

I'll tell you.

There's been so much media attention on Charlottesville and North Korea in the past several days that special counsel Robert Mueller (above) has been able to investigate Trump's Russia connections without a great deal of media attention.  Not since the spring of 1987, when the media's coverage of the Iran-contra affair was overshadowed by coverage of the PTL ministry scandal and the Gary Hart sex scandal, has something so paramount been an afterthought of a story.

Although it looks like things may be picking up again.  I just saw a story about how Mueller wants to talk to former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Shhh!  Let's move on to something else.  Let Mr. Mueller do his work without any media attention, so Trump won't notice!

Bet You Didn't See That Coming

The week gone by in review:

Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) couldn't bear to see any form of repeal of the Affordable Care Act passed, and they couldn't count on at least one Republican to join them in defeating the repeal bill in the Senate.  Then one courageous senator joined them - Arizona's John McCain, just back from brain surgery.  Bet you didn't see that coming.  

After a slew of numerous deaths of black Americans at the hands of trigger-happy police, Donald Trump suggested how police could do a better job of arresting criminal suspects - namely, rough them up and stop worrying about being so brutal with them.  Even for Trump this is beyond the pale.  Bet you didn't see that coming.

Despite having placed himself on the side of gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump tried to get transsexuals thrown out of the military, only to be met with resistance - real resistance - by the military and by Republican members of Congress as well as Democratic members of Congress.  Bet you didn't see that coming.

I used the word "transsexuals" instead of "transgender" because "gender" is a literary, not a anthropological, term.  Bet you didn't see that coming.

Anthony Scaramucci, the incoming White House communications director, used vulgar language while talking with Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, and his comments got published because he failed to make clear - he failed to communicate -  to Lizza that his comments were off the record.  Bet you didn't see that coming.

After all the scuttlebutt about Trump possibly forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of his job for failing to back Trump in the Russia investigation and for making it impossible to stop the investigation - and rumors of Trump possibly replacing Sessions with Chris Christie! - Reince Priebus found himself forced out as White House Chief of Staff and replaced by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.  Bet you didn't see that coming.  

Trump said he would sign the Russia sanctions bill passed by Congress, mainly because it included tough sanctions on Iran.  Now Putin hates him.  Bet you didn't see that coming.

The only senator other than Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky to vote against the Russia sanctions bill was Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, but he did so because of the Iran sanctions that were included, saying that "following Trump's comments that he won't re-certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement I worry new sanctions could endanger it."  Bet you didn't see that coming.

Also . . . the U.S. men's soccer team won the 2017 Gold Cup, defeating Jamaica 2-1.

Bet you didn't see that coming.   

Get On the Priebus

Reince Priebus, a name unfamiliar to average Americans and to spell checkers, was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, making him the de facto leader of the Republican party. As Michele Bachmann would say in reference to Priebus, he da man! He replaces Michael Steele, who was da man until da probs got da better of him. And, having proven myself to be as inept with the contemporary urban vernacular as Bachmann is, I'll cut it out there.

Steele hoped to retain his job by citing the victories the Republicans won in the 2009 and 2010 elections under his watch, but with mismanagement and a $22 million debt, plus some reports on RNC staffers in engaging in some unsavory activities, he sounded like members of the widely discredited United States Olympic Committee trying to take credit for successes at last year's Winter Games. (The Tea Party helped the Republicans win. Steele had little to do with any of that.) Priebus, the recent chairman of the Wisconsin state Republican party, is regarded as a man who can walk and chew gum at the same time - that is, he is a competent manager who knows how to win elections. Certainly the Grand Old Blowout in Wisconsin, where the Republicans won everything this past November, proves that. With control of the U.S. Senate and a presidential election coming up in 2012, the Democrats have a worthy opponent in Reince Preibus.

And Reince Priebus has a worthy ally in campaign donors, freed from those pesky rules and regulations by a reactionary Supreme Court.