Trump Cancels White House Christmas Party For The Press

There was no formal White House announcement as the president took on the role of Scrooge for members of the media during this Christmas season. Instead, Fox media reporter Howard Kurtz issued what is labeled as an “Exclusive” for all to read. I have never posted an entire news story written by any organization, but believe it’s important for those not in the news business to read this in entirety. It shows how the depth of pettiness and anger emanating from the White House is playing out for those journalists who cover the White House all year long, let alone during this time.

“Trump Cancels White House Christmas Party For The Press”

“President Trump has canceled the White House holiday party for the media, making the decades-old tradition a victim of his increasingly contentious relationship with major news organizations.

The annual Christmas-season gathering was a significant perk for those covering the White House, as well as other Washington reporters, anchors and commentators, and New York media executives would regularly fly in for the occasion. At its peak, the invitation-only soirees grew so large that there were two back-to-back events, one for broadcast outlets and one for print organizations.

Journalists who attended the events, which featured a catered buffet of lamb chops, crab claws and elaborate desserts, got to roam the decorated mansion with a spouse or other family member, a friend or a colleague, adding to the invitation's allure.

But the biggest fringe-benefit was the picture-taking sessions, in which the president and first lady would patiently pose with guests and briefly chat with them in front of a Christmas tree, with the White House sending out the photos — copies of which were invariably sent home to mom. This would take a couple of hours, with long lines snaking across the building's first floor. Bill Clinton even posed for pictures with journalists days after he was impeached.

The White House made no announcement that it was dropping the press party. The president and first lady threw such a gathering last December but did not pose for pictures. Trump made a brief appearance with his wife and offered a few welcoming remarks.

Top White House officials, especially the communications staff, routinely circulated at these media parties and often talked shop. Last year, chief of staff John Kelly held forth with reporters for at least 15 minutes, making informal remarks that turned into a mini-press conference.

The decision is hardly shocking, given Trump’s constant attacks on "fake news" and the overwhelmingly negative coverage of him and his administration. In recent weeks, the White House pulled the credentials of CNN's Jim Acosta after he refused to give up the microphone at a news conference and restored his pass only after the network filed a lawsuit.

Trump has also twice refused to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, a tony media awards dinner attended by every president since Richard Nixon.

While dropping the media party, the White House is in the midst of a full panoply of other parties this holiday season. Selected media people generally favorable to Trump, including a few Fox News hosts, have made those guest lists.

When Democrats have been in the White House, more liberal commentators have gotten invitations, while more conservative pundits have shown up during Republican administrations.

Some critics questioned whether those who cover or comment on the White House should engage in such socializing, but few turned down the invitations. Many Trump supporters who view his coverage as unfairly harsh will undoubtedly welcome the president’s decision to exclude the media establishment, at least for this year.”

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

Trump's Tawdry Life: Women And Illegal Use Of Money

Photo By Gage Skidmore/CC BY -SA 2.0

For many years, I lived in New York City not far from Trump Tower, the Plaza Hotel once owned by Donald Trump, and Wollman Rink that now has his name splashed all over the Central Park institution. It was near impossible to miss all of the sensational stories about Trump’s personal life and questionable business practices over the decades. Somehow, staring in 2015, the bold and brassy Donald thought he could pull a fast one and run for president, sweeping all of his dirty linen, pun intended, under the bed. It was just another business thing to be dealt with

In the 2016 election, Trump lost his home city and home state, New York City and New York State, because we knew the guy. The rest of the country has been learning all about him ever since. The tawdry and illegal associated with our president is now being validated by state and Federal legal authorities. The coverup orchestrated by Trump has formally begun to be exposed.

On April 10, 2018, I published a Political & Otherwise post entitled: Will Women Be The Ones To Bring Down Trump? Eight months later, the answer to that question has taken a giant leap forward to becoming a “yes”. Porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate model Karen McDougal have become household names since April, and the man publicly lying about them to cover for his boss is on his way to three years in jail.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer has pled guilty for what he described as hiding Donald Trump’s dirty deeds. He admitted that hush money had been paid to both women, saying it was done at the direction of his boss. The payment to Daniels of $130,000 and $150,000 to McDougal shortly before the 2016 election is being referred to as a violation of Federal election law.

Last Spring audio tapes were found during the raid of Cohen’s office. We heard Michael Cohen’s discussion on tape with Donald Trump about putting together a shell corporation to pay for “all the stuff” that could be damaging to the candidate. It was factual evidence of payments to women that the president has continued to deny. We can only wonder how many other payoffs were made and to whom.

There’s been a third man directly involved in Trump’s efforts to hide his scandals during the campaign. David Pecker has been a Trump buddy as well as publisher of the National Enquirer. who always did everything he could to help his friend. That friendship is probably history now that we’ve learned Pecker has provided key testimony to Federal prosecutors investigating Michael Cohen, and in his own way turned on Trump.

David Pecker and the Enquirer’s parent company American Media, Inc. (AMI) negotiated an immunity deal based upon continued cooperation and a critical admission. In an agreement dated September 21, 2018 but only publicly released on December 12, AMI admits that it worked with Trump’s campaign to kill, or not publish, stories about the presidential candidate’s relationships with women that would have been damaging to candidate Trump beginning in 2015. American Media, Inc. admitted that it made the $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal shortly before the election:

AMI’s principal purpose in entering into the agreement was to suppress the model’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.

The infamous tabloid company now has a story worthy of its own front page.

The hush money paid to Daniels and McDougal by Trump’s lawyer and AMI were made shortly before one of the closet presidential elections in history. We know they were made to hide Donald Trump’s sleazy behavior from the public, especially key women voters.

A yearlong affair with a Playboy Playmate. A brief relationship with a porn star. Both shortly after Melania Trump had given birth to their child. The man is a sleaze. That’s what we’d say privately, but now we get to say it publicly. We also get to say he’s a crook hiding behind his current presidential shield. This is who the 2016 election elected.

There is nothing inspiring about any of this. Trump’s presidency should never have happened. It was based on lies. Facts that were never made public. And the enormous amount of egotistical naivete that Donald Trump possessed thinking he could run for President of the United States with all of his skeletons locked away. In Trump’s mind, they would never be discovered.

Don’t Let Fear And Intimidation Win: Midterms 2018

The midterm elections on November 6th, 2018 are firmly placed at the halfway point of President Donald Trump’s term in office. In two years, Trump has worked hard to undermine our democratic principles, institutions and place in the world order while succeeding in his efforts to turn us against one another. All this, as he bathes in the light of a man obsessed with power. The president has become the antithesis of what the term “leader of the free world” was meant to describe.

This congressional election season has carried with it an intensity that has alternated between suffocating and invigorating in direct correlation to the extraordinary anger, bullying and fear mongering emanating from Trump. I use the word extraordinary rather than what’s become the go-to word for most things describing Trump, unprecedented, because extraordinary has to be repeated. And repeated again to remind us how far off course our current president has driven us.

Republicans now controlling the Senate and House of Representatives will go down in history as having served as Trump’s enablers. There has been no check and balance or overall concern for the greater good. Instead we have been met with arrogance and self-righteousness. Their votes have been turned into weapons of partisan negativity while their voices have gone silent when President Trump speaks words of hatred, bigotry and untruth. Their actions and silence cannot be rewarded.

The respected statistics and analysis site, FiveThirtyEight, has created a section entitled, “Tracking Congress In The Age Of Trump.” This site enables you see the actual percentages of how often every member of Congress has voted with President Trump. Look up Senators and Congressmen and women to see the reality in numbers for yourself before you vote.

This midterm election is one of the most important in a long time. It’s the only opportunity we have to curb Trump’s abuses of power and change the direction our country is headed for two more years. Every day the stakes grow higher and the imperative to vote Democratic becomes greater. We have a president who knows no shame. He leaves the shame for us to live with every day as do too many members of Congress. It’s time to clean house.

The Assault on the Supreme Court Confirmation Process

I did not need to know or want to hear Brett Kavanaugh tell me and a Fox cable news audience that he was a virgin throughout his high school years. That he hadn’t had sexual intercourse for years after that. Seriously? This from a man who wants to be the next Supreme Court Judge. This from a man who has not taken a lie detector test concerning any accusations women have made about his role in sexual assault. Instead, he went to Fox News to preach his purity and innocence.

Wrong move, Brett.

The entire Supreme Court nomination process currently taking place has been wrong from the beginning. It’s brought our country to a new low when we’ve been wondering how much lower it can get. A cloud of shame should be hung over the Republicans promulgating this nightmare of a show that should be no show at all. There is no virtue in their behavior. Remember that as you watch the upcoming hearing.

Yes, Republicans are in the majority on Capitol Hill. Yes, that can be changed in the November election. Yes, that’s what this is all about. Republicans are afraid of losing their grasp on power that enables them to appoint the next Supreme Court Justice. Apparently they will do anything to get their way. Women be damned.

Remember that in November.

This is all so tragic. As will be the confirmation hearing being held on Thursday. We will hear Brett Kavanaugh once again defend himself and Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to come forward with allegations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh, will be interrogated. All of the angst of this production is pointless pain because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley have already told us Kavanaugh will be confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice in a matter of days. No matter what is said at the hearing.

Remember that in November.

It’s been abhorrent to watch a group of Republican men trying to jam a Supreme Court nominee down our throats, whether he is qualified or not. The Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and their supporters don’t care to truly hear or understand the women’s voices that are coming forward to speak their intimate truths about the nominee, but they’re fine with Kavanaugh’s description of his purity. I lived through the Anita Hill hearings and disgrace. How can we be there again?

There is so much wrong with this entire ordeal that in no way reaffirms the importance of the honor of the Supreme Court. The confirmation process must be changed going forward if we want to retain the integrity of our nation’s highest court. Its integrity is something we haven’t heard much about lately which only reinforces how far we’ve strayed.

I am ashamed of what is and has been taking place in Washington, D.C. The only good thing to come out of this entire ordeal is that younger men and women are seeing the bravery of women continuing to speak up about sexual assault.

John McCain's Farewell Comforted Us In Our Hour of Need

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0

In the days following his death, Senator John McCain was able to do what no individual political figure has been able to do during these past two years. He gave us a period of mourning that jarred our senses back to believing in the better part of our souls. He gave our collective lives the gift of hope, even if for a moment.          

In McCain's final letter to Americans he wrote:

"We are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do."

Strength. It's what carried Senator McCain through his own life's journey, and what he encouraged us to think about in the week after his final days. It superseded politics or political party at a time when we thought nothing could. His personal story of being a combat fighter pilot shot down during the Vietnam war and held as a prisoner of war for five years, had all the makings of legendary before his death. But the postscript of his meticulously pre-planned funerals will now be etched into modern times. 

The Republican Senator from Arizona brought us together again, a feat that could only be described as Herculean at this point in time. There wasn't one large funeral, but multiple steps along the way that made us feel as if Senator McCain was paying us respect, as we sought to pay him ours. A unique thread of determined purpose that often broke with tradition was unveiled over days.

So much was personal in McCain’s farewell, even if you never met him, it was hard not to have some part of the week touch you. He bid farewell to his beloved Arizona, lying in state at its Capitol in Phoenix.

Sharing the most private of times with the public becomes part of the way of life for many political families, but it's never easy. There was enormous poignancy in the impromptu moments that continually brought us back to the man himself as a husband, father and grandfather. The image of Cindy McCain resting her head on his casket in the Arizona Capitol was heartbreaking. Anyone who has experienced loss understood.

When his time at the Capitol had ended, Senator McCain exited in a way that could only bring a smile and was definitely unique to the man. Music began to play unexpectedly with Frank Sinatra singing "My Way". Of course.

We learned which public figures he personally asked to speak at all of the services in his honor, and which one he did not. The funeral at the Phoenix North Baptist Church began McCain's last shout out across the political aisle with bipartisan becoming the mantra of his farewell.

First it was former Vice President and longtime friend Joe Biden who identified himself as he began to speak, "My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democrat and I loved John McCain." He continued to tell us,  "It wasn’t about politics with John. You could disagree on substance. It was about the underlying values that animated everything John did." Biden spoke of McCain's call for civility and respect in the era of partisanship and divisiveness. "John believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of America."

As the former Navy pilot left Phoenix and began his last flight from the airport that he had used over his many years en route to Washington, D.C., we heard air traffic controllers giving their directions, and then softly adding a personal farewell to the man they had guided on so many flights. “We’d like to say goodbye to a man who has meant so much…And there they go…we’ll direct them back to Andrews Air Force base.”

Senator John McCain became the 32nd person in history to lay in state in the Rotunda of our nation's Capital. His colleagues in Congress paid their respects to a man who had spent over three decades in the U.S. Senate. At his pointed request, and contrary to tradition, both Democrat and Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives jointly placed wreaths around his casket. 

The final public tribute took place at Washington's National Cathedral. It was filled to capacity with invited guests, including three former Presidents of the United States. Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama all came together to honor a man who was both opponent and ally. 

Every funeral service has its eulogies, but never had a United States Senator asked two men who defeated him in his presidential runs, to address those gathered in mourning. John McCain did just that. As President Obama said, "What better way to get a last laugh than to make George (Bush) and I say nice things about him to a national audience. And most of all, it showed a largeness of spirit, an ability to see past differences in search of common ground." President Bush added, "John is the first to tell you he was not a perfect man but he dedicated his life to national ideals that are as perfect as men and women have yet conceived."

Since 2016, we as a country have, in large part, been looking for someone to help lift us up from the depths brought upon us by the actions our current president. It sadly took the death of the Senator John McCain to help us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and realize once again a greater good benefits us all. With all that lay ahead in coming weeks, we need to vividly remember what has taken place during the last week of August 2018 and the feelings it inspired.

That Numbing Feeling About Washington and Trump

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0

It's easy to become numb to all that is emanating out of Washington. In one week President Trump's focus went from Russia and Putin to Iran, with Korea hanging in the background. While trade policies swirled and too many separated immigrant children remain separated, a Supreme Court Judicial nominee tried to gain favor, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's trial approached and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen began to indicate cooperation with federal authorities. A thousand crises a minute. Any one of these issues in any other presidency would be a major one. 

It is not the time to let any of this get lost in a blur of mind fog. That's what Trump would like to have happen as the pieces begin to come together that could burst his self-made bubble of invincibility. Trump's passionate love of money and often careless disregard for the consequences of how he gets it, and how he uses it, are reaching a moment of potential critical exposure.

Money. It has always been what Donald Trump appears to care about more than anything else. His public face of enormous success has often been shadowed by periodic financial troubles, including bankruptcies, that put his so-called financial empire at risk of collapse.

Why should we care now? Because Trump never fully divested himself of ownership of The Trump Organization when he became president. While it’s supposedly run by his two sons, the President of the United States continues to profit from The Trump Organization bringing his personal business right along with him into the White House. 

Trump unabashedly and proudly opened the high-end Trump International Hotel a few blocks from the White House shortly before he took office, retaining full financial involvement. Trump's Washington, D.C. hotel is frequented by foreign government lobbyists, organizations with a myriad of domestic business interests, and those who could be seen as trying to gain favor from the president. In 2017, Trump reportedly earned $40.4 million from his local hotel as he sat close by running our government.

But the days of throwing ethics to the wind may finally be catching up with the president. Earlier this week a judge ruled for a second time that Trump must face a lawsuit accusing him of improperly profiting from his Washington hotel. The judge stated: “A number of foreign governments” have “patronized or have expressed a definite intention to patronize the hotel, some of which have indicated that they are doing so precisely because of the president’s association with it." Lawyers representing the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland claim this violates the Emoluments Clause. Their legal discovery in the case could include a demand for Trump's infamous tax returns.

The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution has come front and center during the Trump presidency because of the flagrant flaunting of his business dealings that remain a personal source of cash flow. The Emoluments Clause was designed to prevent even the slightest appearance of corruption. It states:

“No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them [the United States], 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.”

Trump remains the first post-Watergate President not to release his tax returns. By not releasing them, he has fanned the flames of curiosity. Thousands of reporters, legal minds and the rest of us are left wondering if our president has been guilty of illegal financial transactions that could compromise our country.

Which leads us to the increasingly important upcoming trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. It will be the first time evidence gathered by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling of the 2016 election will be made public. Many issues could prove to have parallels to Trump's handling of his own finances. In part, both men received Russian money for their business ventures. It's always been about the payoff, in one form or another, for Manafort and Trump. Look ahead to hear about where Manafort deposited money. Tax evasion. Money laundering. Greed and arrogance. 

We can move right along to Michael Cohen, who until recently was Trump's attorney and self-proclaimed "fixer." Just what Cohen has fixed and what he knows has prompted its own Federal investigation.

The first bomb was dropped when Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, released an audio tape made by Cohen while he was speaking to Trump. The conversation allowed us to hear the two men talking about setting up a separate corporation, a Limited Liability Corporation, to deal with payment to former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal. The money would be used, we hear on tape, to keep an alleged affair between Trump and McDougal quiet shortly before the 2016 election.

Nothing appears clean and separate when it comes to Trump. It's been reported that another LLC was set up to deal with porn star Stormy Daniel's relationship with Trump. It reportedly received money from a Russian oligarch. Both Trump and Cohen have numerous LLC corporations that provide little, if any, knowledge about their functions and finances.

The scenario keeps coming back to money, Russia and politics. The threads remain woven throughout Trump's presidency. Being honest with the American people from the beginning has never been his style. 

Trust in special counsel Robert Muller has, by necessity, become a new motto.

Robert F. Kennedy: Personal Recollections

From the Private Collection of Marilyn Salenger

The first time I saw Senator Robert Kennedy was September of 1966. Our country was in chaos as the war in Vietnam raged, and race riots and racial divides filled our streets and our lives. Tension permeated the air on a near daily basis as many fought not to suffocate. I was three months into my first job as a television news reporter in Cincinnati, Ohio when Kennedy arrived in town to speak to a large outdoor evening rally. His appearance became my assignment.

The power of the impression Kennedy made on me that night remains vivid in my mind 52 years later. His face was focused as his eyes swept across the crowd. He was making each individual feel as if he was talking to them personally about the issues confronting their lives. He made me feel as if he was talking to me. 

Two years later I left the news business and went to work as a volunteer for Senator Kennedy's presidential campaign. Operating out of the Chicago Kennedy for President office, my home town area of northern Indiana became my base as I settled in heading up the campaign's speaker's bureau. The Indiana primary was a critical must win election to propel Kennedy's candidacy forward and beat his opponents, Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) and Indiana Governor Richard Branigan.

The politics of the state had always been split by its regions. Gary, Indiana had just elected Richard Hatcher the second black mayor of a major U.S. city. The turf was familiar to me having grown up in its ethnic melting pot communities, as were the racial issues that had arisen. Bobby Kennedy needed to put together a strong coalition of black and white voters in order to win.

My campaign days morphed into serving as a bridge between Kennedy's New York advisors and the newly elected Mayor. The New Yorkers sometimes arrived a bit too heavy handed for the locals, and I somehow seemed to help them work through some of their issues. It was an amazing way for a 24-year-old to learn how a presidential campaign was run. In our small store front location and around the country there was an intensity of passionate commitment to elect the man who sought a "Newer World".

Among the many of Robert Kennedy's gift's was his ability to empower people to work on effectuating positive change. He was truly inspiring. Kennedy's focus on equal rights, equal opportunity and hope for our future became our focus. He was a man who quoted scholars but spoke to best of our human spirit.

His victory in the Indiana primary propelled him on to California to claim victory once again. I was in San Francisco with the campaign at an Oakland rally the night before an assassin's bullet struck. Watching the election results, seeing him shot and hearing the news of his death in those early morning hours of June 6, 1968 created overwhelming feelings that were beyond those of personal loss. We knew nothing would ever be the same.

On June 12, I received a letter from Richard Wade, a University of Chicago professor, who headed up the Chicago Kennedy for President office: 

Robert Kennedy was no ordinary politician. To remember him on this 50th anniversary of his death is to remember the man and the enormous power of his commitment to the words he spoke and all that they meant for the times. He came from great wealth and committed to helping the poor through thought and action. He saw the inequities in our society and chose not to tolerate them but help us begin to rectify them. 

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” Robert F. Kennedy

The Morning After The Weekend Before: The Royal Wedding And Us

We didn't know how much we needed it until a wave of calm beauty and love and happiness washed over us as we joined Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their wedding celebration. Our invitations weren't the engraved ones, but we were invited nonetheless. With the young couple making so many of the wedding plans themselves, we were able to just sit back and marvel at it all. Their joy was simply contagious.

Our times have been so dark here in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Chaos. Crisis. A cacophony of noise creating constant stress. Give me a break from Trump and his trumpeters. A congress that is barely functioning. Guns that create tragedy after tragedy. It's all gotten to be way too much. 

Then Saturday arrived. How could we not want to see Diana and Prince Charles’s youngest son marry the woman of his dreams? A beautiful woman who set herself apart from any other princess-to-be by nature of who she is and the history she would be making. Never had there been a woman of professional status like Meghan Markle marrying into British royalty. Never was a previously divorced woman allowed to marry a British royal in a church wedding. And never had there been a biracial woman allowed to marry a British prince. A biracial woman whose maternal ancestors were slaves. 

The Queen of England blessed Harry and Meghan's union leading to an extraordinary wedding that was both grand and down to earth at the same time. The warmth of the couple radiated amidst a glorious setting. I was one of the reported two billion people worldwide who joined the couple in celebration via whatever screens were available. A collective gratitude is being shared by all of us for having the opportunity to bask from afar in loving happiness. And a moment of peace.

When the wedding ended, I didn't want it to end. That's the way fairytales are. But we know that fairytales are pretend, and what we had just seen was real. 

On the wedding day, CNN gave us morning, noon and night time coverage, but BBC America had them beat. The English network rebroadcast the royal nuptials on Sunday so we didn't have to bid Meghan and Harry such an abrupt farewell after all. Thank goodness. Simply listening to our Sunday morning news programs here at home sent me rushing back to Westminster, happy to be reunited with that blissful moment.

It seems we could use a dose of the Royal wedding every day. If getting back to work on Monday is too sharp a return to reality, take a break and change that site on your computer or your phone. You can see the newlyweds in almost a billion places.

Will Women Be The Ones To Bring Down Trump ?

You can't look forward in the presidency of Donald Trump without looking back. Women and real estate have been at the center of Trump’s life for many years. But his New York City playboy life may be catching up with him.

A porn star and former Playboy Playmate could now be the ones to bring down the Trump presidency. Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal have turned the tables on Trump using all the publicity possible to expose their alleged extramarital affairs with the president, as well as the hush money they were paid shortly before the election. The two women claim to have had the affairs with Trump while he was married to his wife Melania.

Attempts to silence Daniels and McDougal have resoundingly failed. The hush money both received became the target of this week's extraordinary FBI raid on Donald Trump's personal attorney’s office and residence. Trump attorney Michael Cohen has admitted paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000.00 and negotiating a non-disclosure agreement just weeks before the election.

Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal's money came via a deal with the National Enquirer which is owned by Trump friend David Pecker. How much additional money, where it came from, and how many others have been paid by Cohen and Pecker to cover for Trump remains in question. The money trail, using a shell corporation(s) for the purpose of making these payments, raised alerts focusing on Federal finance laws and potential money laundering.

Trump is reportedly seething, but he’s not lashing out directly at Daniels and McDougal. Instead, he chooses to distract us with talk once again of firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Republicans appear to be surprisingly vocal in their warnings to the president about the potential firings of these men. If Trump fires anyone in the chain of command over Mueller, or the Special Counsel himself, talk of a constitutional crisis will begin. 

No matter the serious distractions Trump tries to use, investigations into breaking Federal finance laws and money laundering involving payments to women in his life are not going away.

#trumpindictment #stormydaniels

Stop The NRA By Not Allowing Them To Elect Our Politicians

Because I cannot write anymore grief stricken words about the tragedy of the lives lost and lives forever scarred as the result of school shootings, mass shootings and the shootings that take place every day, I am providing you with a list of members of Congress who have taken money from the National Rifle Association, the biggest and most powerful gun lobby in the country.

The National Rifle Association and its affiliates spent approximately $50 million in political advertisements in the 2016 election supporting those who towed their line, and going after Democrats who propose stricter gun laws. $50 million dollars.

Donald Trump was the biggest winner of the NRA's 2016 election advertising, buying Trump's support with $11,438,118 million dollars. They gave $19,756,346 to groups opposing Hillary Clinton.

It's not by chance that Trump didn't call for stricter gun control laws after the horrific school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a semi-automatic rifle was used to kill 17 people and injure 17 others. 

The National Rifel Association has done their best to buy our politicians and prevent stricter gun control regulation. If the only thing that these people understand is money, put your money elsewhere. The names of every politician who accepts money from the NRA is a list that cannot be circulated enough. It has been compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. 

TOP MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WITH HIGHEST AMOUNT OF NRA & AFFILIATE CONTRIBUTIONS IN 2016

Ted Cruz (R, Texas) $360,727

Marco Rubio (R, Florida) $176,030

Paul Ryan (R, Wisconsin) $171,977

Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin) $165,498

Rand Paul (R, Kentucky) $155,605

Pat Toomey (R, Pennsylvania) $ 79,908

Ryan K. Zinke (R, Montana) $ 79,068

Martha McSally ( R, Arizona) $ 77,063

Todd Young (R, Indiana) $ 73,785

Joe Heck (R, Nevada) $ 68,520

Rob Portman (R, Ohio) $ 64,877

Kelly Ayotte (R, New Hampshire) $ 64,796

Mia Love (R, Utah) $ 63,350

Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) $ 53,380

Roy Blunt (R, Missouri) $ 49,430

Richard Burr (R, North Carolina) $ 47,300

Kevin McCarthy (R, California) $ 42,000

John McCain (R, Arizona) $ 38,260