Doublespeak

You've already viewed this exchange by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell of California and Catherine Glenn Foster, President and CEO of Americans United for Life in a committee hearing on Thursday. However, you have not heard this testimony, which is so telling about forced-birth activists, enough. So beginning at 2:59 of the video below (boldness mine):

E.S.: Miss Foster, do you thin a ten-year-old would choose to carry?

C.F.: In a ten-year-old case, first of all, the Ohio-

E.S.: My question is, would a ten-year-old choose to carry a baby?

C.F.: In the Ohio case, the Ohio Attorney General said that abortion would be justified.

E.S.: I'm asking you, would a ten-year-old choose to carry a baby? Ma'am, focus on the question, please. Would a ten-year-old choose to carry a baby?

C.F.: I cannot-

E.S.: Do you think a ten-year-old should choose to carry a baby?

C.F.: I believe that would probably impact her life and so therefore it would fall under any exception and would not be an abortion.

E.S.: Wait- it would not be an abortion if a ten-year-old with her parents made the decision not to have a baby that was the result of a rape?

C.F.: If a ten-year-old became pregnant as the result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that's not  abortion. So it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation.

(Representative Swalwell then turned to Sarah Warbelow, Legal Director of the Human Rights Campaign, who agreed that Foster's characterization is "disinformation.")

 

The witness from Americans United for Life almost told the truth in her last assertion because abortion is permitted in Ohio if the life of the mother is endangered and in only two states (Arkansas and Louisiana) is there no exception for rape or the life of the mother. However, as Mehdi Hassan points out later in the video above, Ohio law permits abortion only to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman. And as one might reasonably conclude from this analysis, the 10-year would unlikely qualify for an exception and an abortion would have been denied.

So Foster wrongly asserted that when a pregnancy may be terminated in every state when it is caused by rape and threatens the mother's life. That misunderstanding- more likely a lie- pales in importance to her statement that termination of a pregnancy "would not be an abortion."

Abortion is premature termination of pregnancy and neither the circumstances of the fetus nor of impregnation can make it other than an abortion.  Abortion is abortion. This rationalization is analogous to the tactical decision of the anti-choice forces to characterize the woman seeking, requesting, paying for, and receiving an abortion as a "victim."

There have been episodic cases of a woman being prosecuted after an abortion. Nonetheless, it appears there has been no abortion provider in any of these cases. No physician or other midwife was involved and thus none could be charged.   No state, however determined to curtail or end a woman's reproductive freedom, has chosen to establish a specific penalty for a woman terminating a pregnancy.

This may, of course, change as the slippery slope of oppression becomes a steep sliding board.  However, states clearly are far more eager to punish the provider than the woman, even though the patient has actively sought, obtained, and given compensation for what that state has concluded is an unlawful killing of a human being. In forced-birth states, such a female is seen as a pitiful individual, incapable of agency and unable to make her own decisions. 

More than 60 years before Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts," George Orwell wrote "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." If a grown adult exercising reproductive freedom can be labeled a "victim," it should be unsurprising that the anti-choice movement would begin arguing that an abortion is not an abortion.

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Breaking News- Joe Biden Is President!

Booking a liar can be useful for a journalistic purpose but Whoopi Goldberg had nothing of the kind in mind, as this tweeter points out:

The Kellyanne Conway segment on The View today was disgraceful. Whoopi gave a lying, conspiracy theorist, who still thinks the election was stolen..,airtime..airtime that put America back to the trump days. Shame on them at the View.

— Barb (@BarbL219) May 24, 2022

Oh, Sunny Hostin tried (video unavailable; thanks, Disney!). She asked (at 23:23) "Let me ask you this. Can you agree that Trump lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College and that there was a free and fair election?  Conway responded "I think it's pretty obvious that Joe Biden is the President. I can't believe we're still talking about this, respectfully."

Of course,we're still talking about it, and that's because people such as Kellyanne Conway will not admit that Joe Biden won a free and fair election. As other Republicans do periodically, Conway would say only "it's pretty obvious that Joe Biden is the President."  That is so obvious that even Liar-in-Chief Donald Trump acknowledges it with his condemnation of the President.

"Alternative facts" Conway continued " I write extensively in this book that I am the closest person to Donald Trump to tell him the earliest that he came up short." Not that he lost the election, mind you; rather, that he "came up short" among the votes which were counted.

If she is sincere, Conway can barely believe that her guy "came up short" because the election

broke my heart; I wanted him to get re-elected and I wish- I only wish that people who were in charge of the 2020 campaign with the $1.4 billion that they wasted had won outright and overwhelmingly.  He should have won huge. He had all these accomplishments. He's running against the guy who's stuck in the basement....

Hostin attempted a follow-up, which was drowned out by a couple of The View panelists speaking over the questioning along with a smattering of boos, enough that the host believed that Alternative Facts woman might not have the opportunity to continue her shtick.  Thus Goldberg admonished the crowd, remarking "listen, this is The View and this is her view, and she's talking about how she views and what she knows. Please don't boo her." She then went to break.

Kudos to Goldberg for the clever turn-of-a phrase with "this is The View and this is her view." But we don't know that Bowling Green massacre woman really believes this. She seems much too intelligent and much too dishonest.

Hostin tried twice more stating, as a question, to Conway "it's a year later, he's still lying" and "he's still lying."

But it was to no avail.  Conway wouldn't give a straight answer because host Goldberg had no interest in her audience getting an answer to Hostin's question(s). 

The segment featuring Alternative Facts woman did not have to be disgraceful.  Journalism could have been practiced had one of the panelists had her way and the host permitted it. Instead, it was simply "a lying, conspiracy theorist who thinks the election was stolen"- or won't acknowledge what she knows is reality.

.

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Danger On The (Non-Insurrectionist) Right

In this excerpt from the portion (below) of an interview Friday evening on Bill Maher's Real Time, former Trump adviser Kelly Ann Conway contends

You know, the people who believed in Donald Trump, the forgotten man or forgotten woman, they appreciate an expansion of school choice and charter schools. Why should all- why should just the rich kids have all the opportunities?

You probably missed the "Support Charter Schools" banners amidst the Capitol Hill rioters with Stop the Steal signs, Confederate flags, "MAGA Civil War" and a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt. The weakened public school system, aided and abetted by President Obama's Administration, fortunately was another failure of the Trump Administration, which was unable to muster the financial and public support sought by Education secretary DeVos. Their loss but our gain as students, parents of students, teachers, and taxpayers.

Maher didn't take the bait, instead continuing his line of questioning. At one point, Conway claimed

... I think it's important to recognize you have dead terrorists named Soleimani al-Baghdad. You have whole judiciary, the dead terrorist, you have- well, that doesn't happen by accident.

Soleimani wasn't the only prominent individual killed in the Middle East. We recall that Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and Saudi national resident in the USA who wrote for The Washington Post, was dismembered by bone saw, almost certainly by people close to the Saudi regime.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman bore major responsibility for the assassination, a situation which never once discomfited presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner, "the prince's most important defender inside the White House."

Conway neglected to mention Khashoggi, though she did applaud

policy gains, where you do have de-regulation and taxes lowered for people where it matters. I think his legacy on the policy stuff will survive a lot of this. Other people will be just fine, okay. Last week was horrible. I made that very clear. Last week was inexcusable, it's disgraceful.

The passive voice, "last week," does a lot of work there as substitute for supporters of Donald Trump, who did all he could to incite a riot and overthrow the government of the United States of America.

Nevertheless, the references to charter schools, judges, taxes, and de-regulation were most telling and significant.  Though omitting "far-right authoritarian" and "would-be monarch," David Frum recognizes a growing danger:

There's a legend building among the non-deadend Trumpers, that Trump had a decent record before some arbitrary date: before the election, before the pandemic. It needs to be stressed that Trump was a crook, charlatan, bigot, thug, and incompetent from the start to the end.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 16, 2021

There is a legend building among the non-deadend Trumpers, that Trump had a decent record before some arbitrary date: before the election, before the pandemic. It needs to be stressed that Trump was a crook, charlatan, bigot, thug, and incompetent from the start to the end.

What Kellyanne Conway calls "legacy" is a false narrative building among non-dead end Trumpers, but also likely to generate support among a wide range of conservatives, including Jeff Flake, Joe Scarborough, maybe Conway's husband George, and many others. They tend to be media darlings because they dislike Donald Trump but long for a Republican Party which promoted the policies which led us down the road to a President Donald Trump. The light is blinking red and spelling danger.

 

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Conway Lets Down Her Guard

The media and Democrats are much too kind.

It is much too kind to President Trump, and much too kind to Kellyanne Conway. When Conway on Wednesday demanded to know the ethnicity of White House reporter Andrew Feinberg, she was rightfully criticized by Nicole Wallace, Joe Scarborough, and others.

After Conway's question, which Feinberg bravely and wisely refused to answer, she remarked

A lot of us are sick and tired of this country. Of America coming last- to people who swore an oath of office; sick and tired of our military being denigrated; sick and tired of Customs and Boarder people, Protection people, who are overwhelmingly Hispanic by the way...

Conway's mouth runs a mile a minute, and her mind probably nearly as fast. Maybe no one noticed. Maybe they're intimidated by the Administration. Or maybe they simply don't want to help the Administration dodge an important question (about ethnicity) with the Trumpian tactic of diversion

But Kellyanne Conway stated "A lot of us are sick and tired of this country." Yep, finally the truth, stated bluntly.

She thinks extraordinarily quickly, recognized that this wouldn't sound good, and went into her "of" riff.





Nonetheless, the Counselor to the President (drug counselor? mental health counselor?) has now followed down the rathole the man who denied "American exceptionalism," referred to the USA as a "laughingstock," and spoke of "American carnage." Conway has laid it all out there: "a lot us are sick and tired of this country."

How refreshing it would have been for the media, which realizes but won't acknowledge that Donald J. Trump is racist, and Democrats, who sometimes will speak of little else, would recognize the contempt that the President and his close adviser have for this country.



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The Obnoxious Mrs. Conway And Pathetic Ms. Bash

After all these years, I don't know what to make of the James Carville-Mary Matalin marriage, let alone of the George Conway-Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway marriage. Is it real- or is it Memorex?

But Dana Bash knows- or thinks she does.

In a puff piece to end all puff pieces, the CNN reporter begins her profile "Kellyanne Conway is a consistent figure in the otherwise revolving-door world of the Trump White House. She is a survivor."

Remarkably, it went downhill from there. It's bad enough that she gushed "But to really understand Conway's survival skills, we went to where the Jersey Girl honed them -- Atco, New Jersey, to be exact."

A trivial point: MIss Fitzgerald, as he was then, does not hail from Atco, which is merely a place name in a state in which every place is incorporated. She actually grew up in Waterford Township, a relatively rural municipality in a highly urbanized state.

Less trivial: the young Miss Fitzgerald was not a "Jersey girl." A slang term, it connotes someone from the northern, rather than the southern (where she grew up), part of the state, at a time when there was a large and distinct difference. It is not synonymous with "obnoxious."

This clarification is crucial because Bash's caricature is of a tough and genuine gal who wouldn't let circumstances keep her down. Bash writes

After law school Conway entered the man's world of Republican polling where she said she often missed out on getting clients because she wasn't on the golf course or in the bar where one would normally learn about a chance to bid on a project.

"I didn't know when I was being excluded, because I had no idea that they were doing big projects, or that five firms got to bid on something, and I never did," she said.

"But it happened."

She's making sure that she's not being excluded now. An insider with Trump both during the campaign and since his election, Conway now has made it clear what she thinks of the man's world, and she likes it just fine. Politico reported Wednesday

“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”

Trump later on Wednesday took the Twitter feud offline, telling reporters that George Conway is a “whack job” and doing a “tremendous disservice to a wonderful wife.”

George Conway responded in kind to the latest attacks, sending more than two dozen tweets on Wednesday in which he called Trump “nuts” and re-upped his claim that the president suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.

Mrs. Conway told Bash "I think my gender helps me with the President in that he has never been afraid, and in fact, always been willing to treat men and women in his employment the same." So when the man who treats male and female employees the same called her husband "whack job." she told Politico

The president is obviously defending me. He could privately say to me, ‘Honey you’re a distraction. We love you. You'll always be a part of the family but go be with your kids. They need you. Go make a million dollars an hour. Go do that honey.’ It’s the opposite.

"I don't feel like he listens to me any less or any differently, or any less seriously," says the woman who evidently enjoys being called "honey" and wants to be thought of as "part of the family." 

This may all be choreographed by the Conways. Otherwise, it's a woman who either wants to smack her husband around in public or one who likes her man, Donald Trump, to smack her around, figuratively.   It's one of the oldest games in the book: man or woman sells out to power, media figure portrays her as heroic.

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Fondness For Leaks

The owner, general manager, and head coach for Team Russia are all in place while several players are attending the tryouts for quarterback. One of them appears to be U.S. Representative Peter King of New York's mildly Republican 2nd congressional district, comprised of parts of Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Right wing cyber-mag Newsmax reported that on Monday, January, 28

"That is disgraceful to have no evidence and to be investigating the president of the United States," said King. "To me, this is not an indictment of President Trump. This is an indictment of the FBI leadership."

Other reports during the weekend claimed that Trump hid the evidence of his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and King said he does not blame Trump at all for concealing records of conversations, given the leaks that were occurring at the time.

The last thing President Trump would want was his conversations with any world leader ending up on The New York Times," said King. "I don't blame the president at all...you are talking to a foreign leader, a person that can be an adversary, the last thing you want is that all over the news."

Republican King may be as slick as he is obsequious.  Maintaining Putin can be an adversary, the congressman will be able to avoid characterizing the President as a traitor once evidence of Trump's cozy relationship with the Russian president is fully revealed.

Nonetheless, the timing of King's assertion that President Trump is deeply concerned with leaks was really, really bad.  On Wednesday, Vanity Fair published anexcerpt from "Team of Vipers: by former White House aide Cliff Sims, who contends that there were several leakers in the Administration, though none so prolific as Counsel to the President Kellyanne Conway.  When Conway was accused by the Morning Joe team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of heaping praise upon Trump publicly but privately ridiculing him, Sims was directed to respond and

I assumed this was because she feared Trump would believe the charges ... I had not brought my work laptop upstairs with me when she called, so Kellyanne pointed over to her personal MacBook sitting on the conference table on the other side of the room. “Just use that and type something up for me,” she said.

I sat down and started slowly pecking out a statement. ... I was also getting distracted by the nonstop stream of iMessages popping up on the screen. At that point, personal phones had not yet been banned in the West Wing, so Kellyanne was sitting at her desk texting away. And since her iMes­sage account was tied to both her phone and her laptop, ... I could inadvertently see every conversation she was having.

Over the course of 20 minutes or so, she was having simultaneous conversations with no fewer than a half­-dozen reporters, most of them from outlets the White House frequently trashed for publishing “fake news.”

Jour­nalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, and Bloomberg were all popping up on the screen. ... As I sat there trying to type, she bashed Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer, all by name.

("The real leakers, past and present, get much more positive press than I do. While it’s rare, I prefer to knife people from the front, so they see it coming," Conway said in a statement shortly after publication.) ...

She also recounted private conversations she’d had with the president, during which, at least in her telling, she’d convinced him to see things her way, which she said was a challenge when you’re deal­ing with someone so unpredictable and unrestrained. She wasn’t totally trashing the president, ... but she definitely wasn’t painting him in the most favorable light. She was talking about him like a child she had to set straight. ...

I was supposed to be writing a statement, defending her against accusations that she had done almost exactly what I was watch­ing her do that very moment.

It is now several days since this incident was revealed, and Conway remains one of the President's most trusted advisers, as she will remain. There has been no censure, rebuke, or criticism because she is truly trusted by Donald Trump. She is trusted to leak like a sieve because that is what the President wants her to do.

If the President were as concerned about leaks as Representative King claims he is, he could direct one- and only one- adviser on his foreign policy team to join him with Vladimir Putin. It could be the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Adviser or any one lesser figure. If there then were a leak (which there likely would not be), the source would be obvious.

But he hasn't, and he won't.  Representative King may or may not understand why. However, the Speaker of the House (below, from last July, as Minority Leader) appears to understand:

What does Putin have on @realDonaldTrump, politically, personally or financially?

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 26, 2019

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Verify, Do Not Trust

Huffington Post reports

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told a meeting of Democratic lawmakers that President Donald Trump’s campaign pledges to curb immigration ― including his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border ― were uninformed, and that such a structure was unlikely to happen in full, according to multiple media reports.

Kelly made the comments to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday in a closed-door session that was first reported by The Washington Post. His comments were confirmed by Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), who was at the meeting.

“I can confirm that Chief of Staff Kelly said today that the President’s campaign was not fully informed about the wall he was promising to voters,” Gutiérrez said in a statement. “Kelly went on to say that many campaigns are not fully informed about every policy and that campaigning and governing are two different things and that governing is harder.”

We don't have a quote from the Chief of Staff himself, but only an interpretation of his remarks by a member of Congress and immigration advocate.  But it sounds as if Kelly was, if he referred to "campaigns," giving the boss cover while attempting to make himself out as the voice of reason. The latter seems likely because

Gutiérrez also went on to confirm reporting by The New York Times that Kelly took credit as the “one who tempered” Trump’s more extreme opinions on the wall and the viability of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, also known as DACA.

“Kelly took credit for educating the President on the wall and that a concrete barrier from sea to shining sea was no longer the conception of border security barriers supported today by the White House,” Gutiérrez said.

It surely is comforting to know, through Representative Gutierrez, that the Chief of Staff does not except a concrete wall to arise out of the Rio Grande and the Colorado River.  The next day the President went even further, backing down from his campaign boasts while pretending otherwise:

The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water.....

The old joke runs "how do you know when X is lying?" Donald Trump has shattered the punch line "when his lips are moving," for he does it quite effortlessly when he tweets as well as when he speaks (no rhyme intended).

Nonetheless, that puts the President not at odds but on the same terrain as his chief of staff. Let us not forget

Video of a 2015 speech delivered by Representative Frederica S. Wilson revealed Friday that John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, misrepresented her remarks when he accused her of bragging about securing $20 million for a South Florida F.B.I. building and twisting President Barack Obama’s arm.

Mr. Kelly, escalating a feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. Wilson, had cast the congresswoman on Thursday as a publicity-seeking opportunist. However, the video, released by The Sun Sentinel, a newspaper in South Florida, showed that during her nine-minute speech, Ms. Wilson never took credit for getting the money for the building, only for helping pass legislation naming the building after two fallen federal agents.

She never mentioned pleading with Mr. Obama, and she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then the House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo; and Senator Marco Rubio.

John Kelly is different than Donald Trump or Kellyanne Conway or Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He is more serious and reputable, and probably tells the truth more often than he utters falsehoods. But there is a reason all these individuals serve this particular President.





For the latter three, truth is an unpleasant option. For General Kelly, it can be thrown overboard when necessary, which puts him on an ethical plane above Sanders, Conway, or Trump. However, he is a reminder that service in uniform to the country does not inoculate one from dishonesty. As the immigration debate continues, nothing he (or anyone in the Administration) says can be assumed to  be completely accurate.

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The Pendulum Swings Again

The jig is up. Master propagandist Kellyanne Conway won't admit it but gave Chris Cuomo an opportunity to explain it (beginning at approximately 13:00 of the video below) when he interviewed the Counsel to the President on Wednesday night.

Cuomo began "and you had the President walk into that meeting and say "Look, the wall, can be different things in different places. I'm open to- I'll agree to whtever you guys come up with." After Conway  replied "You realize part of it is mountainous," the intense but controlled Cuomo responded

No, no, not what I realize. Do you realize when the President was promising it's going to be a big, new wall all across. I'll build in in a year. People said exactly what you're saying now and he shook his head in definace and said "no, not me, that's these other guys. They're saying they're going to compromise. Not me- big, brand new wall." That's what he said- it's not a metaphor. It doesn't mean a fence, it doesn't mean sensors. It's a wall. 

That's what he said- it's not a metaphor.  It doesn't mean a fence, it doesn't mean sensors. It's a wall. He changed. He changed at the meeting- Republicans say it, Democrats say it.

The unflappable Conway, exposed as the flunky who defends whatever Trump says minute-to-minute, admitted

You know what's changed? That he has said in order to do a deal on DACA it includes a wall it includes an end to chain migration. It includes an end to the visa lottery system and what bothers a lot of folks out there-it seems including you- is that you're going to get the main tool out of the  way if he surprises you and actually does a deal on DACA. ....





Donald Trump's words have changed. He hasn't changed over the course of  the past two-and-a-half years, in the period since the Voice of the Common Man, accompanied by a trophy wife, announced his presidential candidacy at the $1.5 billion, 58-story skyscraper he owns.

He hasn't changed over the past two years, in the period since the then-primary candidate vowed "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

Nor has he changed since September 1, 2015, after he first promised to build a great, geat wall on our southern border, and well before othr times he has repeated that. He had met with Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Javier Palomerez, who stated

The Donald Trump I sat with today was hospitable, he was a gentleman. He listened much more than he spoke. He asked questions.

We continue to disagree, particularly on the wall. We agreed on this notion of mass deportation of 11 million people. And we continued to agree on the fact that we will not use Trump properties.

Hw peobably has not changed since February 2016, when he made to the New York Times editorial board off-the-record remarks which apparently contradicted his public statements, widely speculated to be about immigration.

Donald Trump probably has never believed in a wall. He did not believe in it while speaking to illegal immigration-advocate Palomarez, but does advocate it when speaking to his nativist base. It doesn't matter, because all Trump believes in is himself and his views change upon a whim, depending on whom he is speaking to.

His public position has transitioned in the past couple of days. However, now that his openness to deal with Democrats on immigration has been exposed, the President probably will have contradicted that position by the time this has been posted.

He will reverse course, for a time, because he has no point-of-view at all. He has advocated a "big, beautiful wall," opposed a wall, supported it, and now is open to a deal so he can say he has succeeded where no President ever has. He has evolved, devolved, and evolved again. Intimidated, he will back down in light of criticism from his cultural right, including that from talk-show host Laura Ingraham, who- neither deaf nor blind- on Wednesday night warned

I’m going to wait and see what the final DACA proposal looks like. But if it does not include a wall – a real wall, not a see-through wall, expect a political revolt from the base, which means losing the House and maybe even the Senate. And by the way, [ending] chain migration — absolutely necessary".... He promised them a wall — a big, beautiful wall. And unless it’s built, unless chain migration is ended, I fear, Mr. President, your most ardent supporters will write you off as just another politician who said something you really didn’t mean.




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Uncorking Criticism

On Sunday morning, Tennessee Republican Bob Corker tweeted "It's a shame White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

On "Fox and Friends," Conway blasted the Senator's tweet as "incredibly irresponsible" which "adds to the insulting that the mainstream media and the president's detractors ... to their ability and their cover to speak about the president of the United States ... in ways that no president should be talked about."

You do realize what you're saying, don't you, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway?

That same president has derided "cryin' Chuck, " "crazy Mika," "psycho Joe (Scarborough)," and "very WEAK" Jeff Sessions. Before taking office, he ridiculed a major opponent as "little Marco" for an allegedly small penis, and an American POW and US Senator as "not a hero" because he "was captured" before he was given a room to be tortured at the Hanoi Hilton. (There are many more examples.)

House Freedom Caucus chairman Meadows tweeted "it's easy to be bold when you're not coming back," tacitly acknowledging that he (as well as virtually every other Republican) is holding his fire because he's afraid of a primary challenge from the right or of a temper tantrum from the President.

You do realize what you're saying, don't you, Mark Meadows?

Corker had been prompted by a Sunday morning tweet from Trump in which the President falsely accused the Senator of having "begged" him for an endorsement and falsely (and bizarrely) of having been "largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!" In remarks he made to the New York Times published Sunday night, Corker maintained Trump "would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation" and "every single day at the White House, it's a situation of trying to contain him." He behaves "like he's doing 'The Apprentice' or something," the Senator maintained.





Although he has been a fairly consistent vote for Trump's extremist agenda, in speaking truth to power, Corker has done what few Republican members of Congress have done.  It can be awfully lonely, even if not running for re-election, to be out on the limb, here other Republicans can cut it off.

On Monday night, Steve Bannon argued on Fox News "if Bob Corker has any honor... he should resign," a clear sign the Senator should stick it out until his term ends, and encourage his colleagues to join him in admitting the emperor has no clothes. It's not up to him now to be the voice crying out in the wilderness, but for other Republicans to show some backbone they lack.





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Significantly Less Than Meets The Eye

The National Rifle Association raised a lot of eyebrows when in response to the firearm controversy following the mass shooting in Las Vegas, it issued a statement reading

The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations. In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans' Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities. To that end, on behalf of our 5 million members across the country, we urge Congress to pass National Right-to-Carry reciprocity, which will allow law-abiding Americans to defend themselves and their families from acts of violence.

It's not clear whether the NRA is suggesting it would support regulation of bump stocks only in return for national right-to-carry reciprocity. It's not clear even if the organization was referring to bump stocks. However, former US Representative Harold Ford (D-TN), a centrist Democrat (to the extent Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would be considered center-left), assumes it was. On Friday evening's Real Time, Ford stated

I was for restrictions and some restraints. 

The real takeaway from this is that for the first time in my lifetime, the NRA has demonstrated support for some kind of restraint, therefore blocking, at least for a conversation, this chip that you can put on one of these guns and make it an automatic weapon...

After Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine, tried to inject a word, Ford continued

Let me finish my point. But I'm not crazy- understand what I'm saying. I'm 47 years od. I served in Congress ten years. They never expressed even a willingness to have this conversation. Now, that doesn't mean that we should folow their leadership. The fact that we're even here, we shouldn't have these weapons. I would agree with Steve 100% but the reality is I think we're making some progress here, and if Paul Ryan is true to what he (says) that he's going to bring this bill to the floor, you're going to have Democrat and Republican alike supporting this. I think the NRA did this.

Skeptical that this is a major reform, Bill Maher responded "....and that is what you're happy with?"  The former congressman replied "No, no, don't put  words in my mouth. This is the first time the NRA has ever stepped forward I'm not praising- I'm not a member of the NRA."

Helpfully correcting Ford, Nuzzi noted

If you look at what LaPierre actually said about bump stocks, he said they would maybe look at the issue.  He then had to reassure his supporters- the supporters of the NRA- that they would not be banning these things, that they would not be confiscating them.





The technology chief at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in 2010 issued an opinionF that "we find that the bump stock is a  firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act" because "The stock has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical function when installed." The New York Times now explains

The stock “bumps” back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger, causing the rifle to rapidly fire again and again. The shooter holds his or her trigger finger in place, while maintaining forward pressure on the barrel and backward pressure on the pistol grip while firing.

The bump stock is not banned under federal law even though it allows a weapon to fire at nearly the rate of a machine gun without technically converting it to a fully automatic firearm. (It is illegal for private citizens to possess fully automatic firearms manufactured after May 19, 1986; ownership of earlier models requires a federal license.)

“The classification of these devices depends on whether they mechanically alter the function of the firearm to fire fully automatic,” Jill Snyder, a special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at a news conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “Bump-fire stocks, while simulating automatic fire, do not actually alter the firearm to fire automatically, making them legal under current federal law.”

Recall that the NRA suggested "additional regulations" for "devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles."   But the ATF believes bump stocks do not allow the  firearm to fire automatically and therefore did not call for regulation of these devices.

By issuing its statement, the NRA might have been pretending it is reasonable. Or it may have been trying to co-opt any initiative to implement real gun safety legislation. Perhaps it was even attempting to give cover to pro-gun (as most are) GOP members of  Congress, as when it (and White House advisor Kellyanne Conway) tweaked the "Obama administration" for having "approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions."  Whatever its motivation, however, the National Rifle Association has successfully confused and/or convinced much of the mainstrea media and such public figures as Harold Ford.






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Yet

Politico reports

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Friday that “the goalposts have been moved” when it comes to proving cooperation between the campaign of President Donald Trump and the Russian government.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Conway said, is among the small handful still clinging to theories of collusion.

“I mean, we were promised systemic, hard evidence of systemic, sustained, furtive collusion that not only interfered with our election process but indeed dictated the electoral outcome,” Conway said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “And one of the only people who says that seriously these days is still Hillary Clinton and nobody believes it. We know why she lost. It's obvious.”

You weren't "promised" anything but an investigation into the facts, and that is unrelated to the matter of whether it "dictated" the electoral outcome, which is an instead for political scientists instead of politicians and public relations flacks such as yourself.   Hillary Clinton has not been terribly vocal, there are others who recognize the likelihood of collusion, and if we "know why she lost," there wouldn't be 86 different explanations which have been offered.

Aside from that, Conway's statement is accurate.

But it is no more accurate than it is ironic. "One of the only people who says" there was "systemic, sustained furtive collusion," Conway claims, is Hillary Clinton.

Granted that Hillary Clinton recognizes the obvious. Also, unexpectedly and oddly, is another prominent individual: Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway.

And so it was that

On Wednesday night, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told Sean Hannity on his Fox News show that there was not “yet” evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, despite the recent revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected attorney during the campaign on the premise of being promised, via email, evidence to “incriminate” Hillary Clinton as a “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Conway made her comment while holding up two sheets of white paper, one with the words “conclusion?” above the word “collusion,” and the other with the word “illusion” above the word “delusion” (“collusion” had been crossed out). Pointing to the first page Conway said, “What’s the conclusion? Collusion? No. We don’t have that yet.” After which she pointed to the other saying, “I see illusion and delusion. Just so we’re clear. Conclusion? Collusion. No. Illusion. Delusion. Yes.”





It's only fair that we critics of President Trump help Mrs. Conway by suggesting an alternative sentence for her:

I mean, we were promised systemic, hard evidence of systemic, sustained, furtive collusion that not only interfered with our election process but indeed dictated the electoral outcome. And two of the only people who say that seriously these days are still Hillary Clinton and myself.. It's the only thing I'll admit. We know why she lost. It's obvious.






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Conway Confused About Patriotism

"This is appalling," said Eliot Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and former counsel to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "If accidental, it would be a firing offense for anyone else. If deliberate, it would be treason."

"It's so mind-boggling, I don't even know what to say," Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense during the George W. Bush administration, told The Wall Street Journal. "I'm completely gobsmacked. It's jeopardizing a human source. It's the one thing you're trained to never do. If what Post is reporting is true, it's a stunning indication of his unfitness for office."

Those were among the responses when The Washington Post revealed in May that in revealing classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian ambassador Kislyak," the President had "jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State" which "had been provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the US government."

Trump responded "I have the absolute right to do this."

In a news conference during the campaign, Trump declared "I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

In March, 2014 Trump had glowingly tweeted "I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire. He has zero respect for Obama or the U.S.!"

Trump's family may be in hock to Russian banks. However, he Trump couldn't possibly be a witting agent for the Kremlin; it's too obvious.  But he has made it clear he admires Vladimir Putin and appreciates what he has brought to Russia, a nation dramatically differing from the country which he believes must be made "great again."

Yet Friday, responding to a question on ABC's Good Morning America about the President's feud with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway stated

I like the fact that the president uses social media platforms to connect directly with Americans and in this case, what [White House spokeswoman] Sarah Sanders said yesterday is true, that the president normally does not draw first blood. He is a counterpuncher as he said on the campaign trail. There are personal attacks about his physicalities, about his fitness for office. He’s called a goon, thug, mentally ill, talking about dementia, armchair psychologists all over television every day.

It doesn’t help the American people to have a president covered in this light. I’m sorry. It’s neither productive nor patriotic. The toxicity is over the top.

Really. This is a close adviser to President Donald J. Trump, who denounces Barack Obama, praises Vladimir Putin, and believes the USA is a flaming heap of garbage, a nation beset by carnage, "American carnage."   But it's the free press which is "neither productive nor patriotic."

Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway is not a" goon, thug, or mentally ill." She is, however, someone without any redeeming social value, a mouthpiece for a guy who's willing to sell his country out as long as the deal he is able to make profits his family's portfolio.










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Blame Game

"If I was shot and killed tomorrow, half of Twitter would explode in applause and excitement. This is the world we live in now.”

So declared presidential counselor Kellyanne Fiutzpatrick Conway on Fox & Friends the morning after the mass shooting at the ballfield in Alexandria, Virginia.

Violence directed against Mrs. Conway would be reprehensible, and any glee at her killing also would be appalling.  But her remark was placed in context by Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars:

“I went back and looked at exactly what was being discussed on all the TV shows, except yours, at 7:09 a.m. on Wednesday, when this happened, and it’s a really curious exercise."

"Because as Steve Scalise was fighting for his life and crawling into right field in a trail of blood, you should go back and see what people were saying about the president and Republicans at that very moment.”

“Of course, they had to break in with the news of this tragedy, and since then there’s been some introspection — some quieter, more muted voices toning down the rhetoric.”

“But look at Twitter,” she said.

“If I was shot and killed tomorrow, half of Twitter would explode in applause and excitement. This is the world we live in now.”

"You can't attack people personally and think tragedies like this won't happen."





Oh, dear. She went there. She went there even though last August

Repeating his contention that Mrs. Clinton wanted to abolish the right to bear arms, Mr. Trump warned at a rally here that it would be “a horrible day” if Mrs. Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tiebreaking Supreme Court justice.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd began to boo. He quickly added: “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”





No slip of the tongue, that. The following month, Trump complained "She (Clinton) doesn’t want guns, take their — let’s see what happens to her,” Trump said. "Take their guns away, okay? It’ll be very dangerous."

Two days before several people were shot at a baseball practice, Newsweek had reported

Earlier this year, one of Trump’s favorite broadcasters, Alex Jones, threatened on air to “beat” Democratic Representative Adam Schiff and told the California congressman to “fill your hand”—a reference to taking up a pistol. An attorney with expertise in federal law told Newsweek at the time that the threats appeared to break a federal law, U.S. Code Title 18, Section 115, which makes it illegal to threaten to assault a U.S. official and provides a penalty of up to six years in prison.  

Jones was never charged.

Jones was never charged- but neither was U.S. Representative Michael Grimm, when three years earlier he expressed his displeasure when questioned on a balcony in the Cannon House building in Washington. Grimm told the reporter from CNN affiliate NY 1 "Let me be clear to you: If you ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this f***ing balcony.  When the reporter noted he was merely asking "a valid question," the congressman responded "You're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half, like a boy.."





Michael Grimm didn't shoot Steve Scalise and the four other individuals. Neither did the evil Twitter people Kellyanne fears, nor even Donald Trump. It was James Hodgkinson.  And when Kellyanne Conway and other Republicans understand that, they'll begin to feel less like victims, and hold people accountable for their own actions.






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The Fear Card

There are in Trump's November victory many lessons, of which a major one is: never underestimate the power of fear.

A lot of the variations of fear were present. Among them were the fear of coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia losing their jobs upon election of a president from the party committed to environmentalism and combatting climate change; of crime running rampant because of blacks and immigrants; of terrorism committed by refugees fleeing a civil war; of immigrants who might want the chance to vote, benefit from the social safety net, and even (Lord forbid!) become Americans; and of a female president succeeding a black president and gosh, when are we ever going to get another white male president?

And thus I believe it is more than a standard Kellyanne Conway lie when

In a wide-ranging interview Sunday at her home in Alpine, where she lives with her husband and their four children, Conway, who managed Trump’s presidential campaign before taking the job as one of the president's closest advisers, suggested that the alleged monitoring of activities at Trump’s campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in Manhattan may have involved far more than wiretapping.

“What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other,” Conway said as the Trump presidency marked its 50th day in office during the weekend. “You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways.”

Conway went on to say that the monitoring could be done with “microwaves that turn into cameras,” adding: “We know this is a fact of modern life.”

Steve M. points out that when on Monday's "Good Morning America" Conway stated "Of course I don't have any evidence for those allegations, and that answer has nothing to do with what the president said last week,"  her "faux-offended response" was meant for general consumption, not for consumption by the fan base." He adds

The fan base now believes that one or more of the surveillance techniques mentioned by Conway was actually used to surveil Trump. If Conway were to tell an interviewer that a person of Valerie Jarrett's approximate height, weight, age and physical condition could have rappelled into Donald Trump's office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower and personally placed a monitoring device in Trump's taco bowl, the deplorables would believe that literally happened. Conway would then go on a national news program and huffily insist that she was merely suggesting that such a thing could have happened to a random person somewhere in the world in theory.

But there was an additional purpose, revealed by Conway's remark "we know this is a fact of modern life" that "you can surveil someone... any number of ways." When she adds "I wasn't making a suggestion about Trump Tower. Those are two separate things," she wants to make sure that as many people as possible believe it could happen to them and their loved ones. "It was about surveillance generally," she told CNN's Chris Cuomo Monday morning.







It's about fear. In an otherwise disappointing episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver on Sunday addresed this claim (beginning at approximately 4:15 of the video below).   He noted

But if you read the document, you'll find this program applies to Samsung TVs from 2012 to 2013 and the malware was installed by USB, so presumably the CIA needed to stick that physically into your TV and even if that happened, experts advise there is a  way of circumventing it.  It's a little complicated so I will walk your way through it. Step 1: Unplug the TV and that is it, end of steps; you're off the grid.







Be very afraid.  Republican strategist Rick Wilson, a Never-Trumper who ran Evan McMullin's presidential campaign last fall, told Molly Ball "When people are under stress, the hind brain takes over... Fear of Mexicans, fear of the Chinese, fear of African Americans- Donald Trump has very deliberately stoked it and inflamed it and made it a centerpiece of his campaign."

That was in late summer but Trump has governed as he campaigned, and Conway's lies- such as her three references to the legendary "Bowling Green massacre"- neatly fit the narative.  "You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening," the boss stated on February 6. Two weeks later he would continue the theme with "We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”

Probably quite a few people, but that is probably unnecessary.  Repeat, frighten, repeat: after a while, any action by Daddy Trump in the name of "safety" or "security" may be accepted by the American people.







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Not A Tireless Advocate of Women's Rights

Kellyanne Conway is right!

Don't let it ever be said that I won't give credit where credit is due. Kellyanne Conway got it right where she needs to be "right"- at the annual convention this week of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Interviewed by conservative political strategist and columnist Mercedes Schlapp, Conway admitted (as reported by Talking Points Memo)"it's difficult for me to call myself a feminist...."

You can't argue with that, though the Special Counsellor to the President added "in the classic sense," whatever that might mean.  She noted "I'm neither anti-male and (sic) pro-abortion."  As she has demonstrated, she certainly is not anti-male, but rather is adoring and obsequious when it comes to a powerful male who exclaims (segment beginning at approximately 18:25) "thank you, baby!":

Pictures may tell a thousand words or they may be misleading, as is- coming from Conway- "there's an individual feminism, if you will, that you make your own choices."

Those choices, evidently, do not include the ones made by a woman about her own body.  "Classic" feminism, Conway argued, "is very pro-abortion in this context."

Of course, pro-choice is not "pro-abortion," nor is it even the ability to have an abortion any time, anwhere, especially because abortions are unobtainable in 87% of counties nationwide.  Were it not conservative boilerplate, it would be odd for a forced-birth advocate to claim "you make your own choices" when exercising "individual feminism."

That shouldn't be surprising from someone who claims facts are only as credible as "alternative facts" and who has lied repeatedly about terrorism.  Add to that the twisted reasoning that someone can oppose reproductive freedom, yet be a "feminist."  Anti-abortion advocates are many things, some of them, honorable- but feminst, not. And Kellyanne Conway may be many things, some of them perhaps, in a distant galaxy, even honorable- but a feminist, not.












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The Minister Of Propaganda Strikes Again

Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway told Chris Matthews Thursday evening

I bet there was very little coverage. I bet it's brand new information to people that President Obama has a six month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people didn't know that because it didn't get covered.

There is a good reason the "Bowling Green massacre" wasn't covered.  There was no massacre and it didn't happen in Bowling Green.  By now you all know that the FBI learned an Iraqi refugee and member of Al Qaeda was living in Bowling Green, Kentucky and

an undercover agent fooled him into thinking he was helping Al Qaeda in Iraq by sending rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, sniper rifles and more.

Alwan enlisted the help of Hammadi, who was also living in Bowling Green, according to documents.

Once authorities were confident the pair was not part of a larger terrorist cell, they arrested Hammadi and Alwan. The former was sentenced to life in prison, the latter to 40 years behind bars.





Contrary to Conway's claim, if there had been a massacre masterminded by Iraqi nationals living in the USA, it would have been covered. However, if  the perpetrator were someone evidently not Arab or Muslim, someone named, for example, "Alexandre," it might not have been major news in the USA. In such an attack largely ignored here in the states

The 27-year-old suspect in a terrorist attack against Muslims at Quebec City during evening prayers was charged on Monday with six counts of first degree murder and five counts of attempted murder.

The massacre on Sunday evening, which Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau condemned as a "cowardly terrorist attack on Muslims", left five others in critical condition.

A further 12 worshippers managed to escape the chaos with minor injuries.

Police initially arrested two men but later said just one, Alexandre Bissonnette, remained a suspect.

Given even less attention than this real massacre- in contrast to the fake massacres brought to us by Propaganda Minister Conway- is that

Bissonnette is a French-Canadian student,  according to local news website TVA, which cited police sources. A Facebook page reportedly belonging to Bissonnette included "likes" for Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, the far-right French presidential candidate. 

And if  it is up to the Grump Administration, murders by individuals with names dissimilar to Shareef or Waad will continue to get little attention. Reuters reports

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.

Chelsea Clinton responded to Conway by tweeting "very grateful no one seriously hurt in the Louvre attack ...or the (completely fake) Bowling Green Massacre. Please don't make up attacks." That's wishful thinking, though.

"We live in a post-fact world," Steve M. recognizes, in which the GOP base believes the Bowling Green Massacre "could have been true, so it is true." (his emphasis). Conflating Trump's refugee ban with President Obama's travel slowdown, she frightens the base further about Islamic terrorism, ratcheting up hatred of Muslims and laying the  groundwork for more punitive action.  Making this sort of thing up, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway realizes, is a win-win for Donald Trump.







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Minister Of Propaganda

Bill Maher observed the first week (!) of the Trump presidency and recalled

Before the election, I was saying there's a slow-moving coup happening and fascism could come to America. This week the President talked about sending troops into Chicago.   He said I'm going to send the Feds in. By the way, Chicago- only the 18th worst murder rate of cities in America. The idea of Donald Trump sending a private army into an American city is not a precedent I really want to see, talked about. 

Starting up black sites for torture overseas. His chief strategist and the media said the media should keep their mouth shut and just listen. He muzzled agencies- EPA can't tweeet or talk any morein comination with this concept of alternative facts, so you can't get out the real facts.  EPA- the only facts we hear are the alternative facts. I'm just saying it's easy to get distracted.








Sean Spicer seems to be one of the culprits (although it has been learned he was not primarily responsible for the following).  President Trump announces the refugee ban on the same day as Holocaust Remembrance Day and forgets Jews were its primary victims. As Trump's mouthpiece, Spicer states

I gotta be honest. The president went out of his way to recognize the Holocaust and the suffering that went through it and the people affected by it and the loss of life. And to make sure that America never forgets what so many people went through, whether they were Jews or gypsies, gays, disability, priests…

Still no mention of the primary victims, constituting what is a hop, step, and a way from Holocaust denial.

There is a rumor that Spicer and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway are an item, and not in a good way, which at least adds a little intrigue to the unprecedented conentration of power in the Executive branch.  On Fox News Sunday, in the portion (beginning at 16:56 of video below) of her rant which seemed least unhinged, Conway contended

And yet we deal with him every single day. We turn the other cheek. If you are part of team Trump, you walk around with these gaping, seeping wounds every single day, and that's fine. I believe in a full and fair press. I'm here every Sunday morning. I haven't slept in a month. I believe in a full and fair press. But with the free press comes responsibility.

Sure enough, the First Amendment begins "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," a provision deeply offensive to resident theocrat Mike Pence. In the Conway version, it continues as

.... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press- unless that press is not acting responsibly- or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What's that? Not accurate? But that's the alternative facts of the Counselor to the President, in which freedom of the press may not be abridged by government unless the press is not acting with "responsibility."





And that, boys and girls, is the presidential adviser not named Sean Spicer or Steve Bannon, but instead the one-time winner of the New Jersey Blueberry Princess Pageant and World Champion Blueberry competition, now a mover and shaker in an Administration determined to establish an authoritarian state.








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