There Are Lies, Damned Lies and Donald Trump's

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari Goldstein)

It's been a little more than four weeks, now. We've seen and heard enough. So let's get real, folks:

      George W. Bush was a great President and a masterful statesman... compared to the bloated Oompa Loompa who's now lumbering through the White House. Indeed, the more we see of this oaf, the more one's memory casts its lonely mind's eye to that famous meme of George Bush waving over the caption, "Miss me, yet?"

     In this reverse political version of The Evolution of Man chart, it's becoming more and more obvious that the Republican Party still hasn't finished devolving. Sarah Palin? She at least had a half term as Alaska's Governor under her belt when she called it quits and went for the reality TV gigs. Trump expanded his brand in reality TV first, then became President. What could go wrong? said over 60,000,000 voters.

     Yet in the first 30 days of this administration, it's becoming increasingly obvious that not just something but many things are very, very wrong with this administration. Let's start with last Thursday. It's a story that hasn't been covered by the "fake news" outlets such as CNN or the New York Times. Because that day, just as Trump was itching to get back to his southern White House in Mar-a-Lago, the FBI raided the real White House and removed six of his staffers (At the same time Trump was bragging to the media about his administration running like "a well-oiled machine."). Why?

     It seems they'd lied about their past and credentials on their SF86 applications. In case you don't know what that is, the long name for it is the "Questionnaire for National Security Positions." I'll write that again, emphasis mine: "Questionnaire for National Security Positions." Such as the kind held by Steve Bannon (without Senate vetting or approval) and, until recently, disgraced liar and traitor Michael Flynn.

     If you want an indication of just how completely dysfunctional this administration is, just peruse the Twitter feed of a person named @AngryWHStaffer and you'll be treated to a front row seat of a political nightmare straight out of the mind of Stanley Kubrick or Mike Judge on a bad acid trip. Sean Spicer, according to the covert staffer, is on the way out. Trump hates the Presidency and the burden and impositions that come with the territory. He stalks through the halls of ultimate power suspicious of everything and everyone like King Lear with a ludicrous combover. Essentially, this staffer paints a picture of a resentful, frustrated temp who's watching the clock at a Kinko's every Friday afternoon.

     And then there was his cockwanding rally last night in Melbourne, Florida.

Today, We Are All Sweden. And Bowling Green. And Atlanta...

It's ironic that the guy who'd promised to "drain the swamp" would set up his southern White House in a state that's a glorified swamp. And, to prove what a go-getter he is, Trump held a 2020 campaign rally in Melbourne last night in his honor that drew more than a couple of comparisons to Hitler and Nazi Germany. After all, sitting Presidents don't have rallies in their dubious honor- Dictators do.

     This came at the same time John McCain's statement about Trump was going viral on social media: That stifling the mainstream media is how dictatorships get started. Granted, McCain's own history with the media has hardly been any more cordial. But McCain's anger management issues aside, it can't be said the senior Senator from Arizona ever accused the news of being fake or called out for "a friendly reporter". One must grudgingly admit McCain is right about a very basic political science truism: Dictators on both ends of the political spectrum despise the media until they can control it. Because a free press is the first step to accountability and dictators such as Trump simply don't want that.

     So, just to be clear, the White House has essentially not told the truth, or at least the whole truth, about anything since January 20th. Not. One. Thing. And last night in Melbourne, Trump threw another fake log that will nonetheless catch fire for the goobers who were in attendance: Sweden was hit with a terrorist attack last Friday night.

     And by, "Sweden was hit with a terrorist attack last Friday night", I mean to say Sweden wasn't hit with a terrorist attack last Friday night. And, just like that, Sweden joined the growing fraternity of phantom jihad hot spots like Bowling Green (Kellyanne Conway) and Atlanta (Sean Spicer).

     Hitler at least had a Reichstagg fire to point to to ramp up his fascist agenda. Trump and his flaks have to make theirs up.

     Our nation is being run by a man who's genetically allergic to accountability and can't even be bothered to tell the truth about the weather or the size of his inaugural crowd or the number of "illegal aliens" who voted against him and for Hillary Clinton. And now he's following the lead of flaks who are fun fodder on SNL and making up terrorist attacks in Scandinavia completely out of whole cloth.

     No honeymoon period for this man with Congress, the media or with voters who actually have a pair of neurons to rub together. This administration's brand has been damaged since the moment Trump took his tiny hand off that Bible that belonged to Lincoln (to whom he'd compared himself last night). Just 30 days in power and this is turning into what will surely be, if it isn't already, the worst, least transparent, most evil and disingenuous presidential administration in the 228 year-long history of the American presidency.

     And we should be reminding our lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about the power of the 25th Amendment.