Posting will be light today here but our hard-working staff (i.e., me) came across these links of interest…
- Matt Taibbi on how on the campaign trail, Trump promised all sorts of things that would reduce corruption among financiers and lobbyists…and among the first orders of business at his White House is making sure the government doesn't stop those folks from doing whatever they want. Did anyone really believe Trump when he said he'd put Wall Street on a leash? Anyone?
- So are a Republican House and Senate really interested in a proper investigation of Russian influence in the Trump administration? That's what John Cassidy wants to know. Heck, that's what a lot of us want to know.
- Steve Benen says Trump is really, really afraid of major news outlets. You know the major news outlets…they're the ones who in a few cases are starting to do real fact-checking.
- And we now have a lot of psychiatrists saying all kinds of things from afar about the (perceived) mental and emotional stability of Donald J. Trump. I have a hard time taking this stuff seriously. I mean, I'm not sure a lot of doctors who deal in this kind of thing can even properly diagnosis patients with whom they've spent a lot of time. Evaluating someone they've never met? Based on public speeches? No, sorry. When you become a licensed practitioner in the field, you have a responsibility to not say those things as casually as us laypersons.
You get the feeling that Trump still doesn't grasp the "public servant" aspect of his job and the fact that there are laws and other branches of government that limit what the President of the United States can do? That's feeling like the subtext for all that's gone wrong since he was elected. That's not a psychiatric evaluation. I just don't see anything in his speeches or actions to indicate that he wants to "work with" anyone unless you define "work with" as taking orders from him.