Yesterday, there was a story that the Trump administration sent out letters to legal immigrants who were in the United States on visas and had sick children in hospitals -- some critically ill, with cancer, some with heart surgeries scheduled, some with illnesses that couldn't be treated at home and without such care they would die -- that said they had 33 days to leave the country.

There was no official statement announcing this change of policy, but then if this was your policy you probably wouldn't want to announce it either.  Though, in fairness, if this was you, you wouldn't do this.  I don't say "probably wouldn't do this" not knowing precisely who you all are, but "wouldn't," period, without even knowing.  And I feel comfortable with that because, since it takes a psychopathic cruel, malicious personality from a position of power to devise such a plan (and to be clear, I'm not talking about the soulless people who might agree with the plan -- that's easy to do if you're empty inside and have no responsibility for the action-- but people who are in a position to come up with such a plan, think it's a good idea and then chose to put it into operation, which is such a infinitesimal number of human creatures) that I know the odds are in my favor.

Making the story more pathetic is that no department of the government wants to take responsibility for the decision -- one group shifting the action on ICE, and ICE saying, "No way, it wasn't us" sending it back.  But then, again, who'd want to take responsibility for it??  Okay, other than Trump and Stephen Miller, that is.

But I'm not going to go on about how awful this is or why and that it has to be stopped.  After all, you either instantly know why this is pathetically repugnant to all the United States or human beings stand for and therefore don't need it explained -- or you're okay with it, so no explanation will make its way into the hell hole where you live.

All I'll say is what I've said before, though perhaps even a bit more bluntly --

As gut-sickening as this change of Trump administration policy is, this is not about Trump.  We know who he is.  This is about the elected officials of the Republican Party who enable him, have been silent about this action, have not screamed out that this Must Be Stopped because it's not only un-American but inhuman, who sit idly by as it rolls itself out in front of them, and enable it to happen.  And are therefore complicit in it.

This is about the Republican Party.  This is who they are.  This is what they're okay with.  This is what they let happen.  The elected members of the Republican Party are silent about and accepting of taking critically ill children with cancer and life-threatening illnesses without which they will die, and removing them from hospitals to send them out of the United States.  Home of the brave, land of the free, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Or, in some cases, just yearning to breathe.

Happy anniversary!

On this date 5 years ago, August 28, 2014, the Republican Party went bat-dung crazy because President Barack Obama wore a tan suit.

The good news is that at least we know what the GOP will get upset over with a president.

(For the record:  I did not come up with the phrase that I used for the headline above.  It was too wonderful not to use, but I don't want to take credit for it.  It was from some commentator I saw on a montage about the Republican derangement over the suit.)
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Nothing needs to be added to this, other than -- too funny and wonderfully done.

Yesterday, I wrote about Trump's monumentally idiotic suggestion that North Korea had such valuable real estate (no doubt to build a Trump Tower there...) because people had to drive through it to get to South Korea.  Ignoring the reality of airplanes.  And that only Russians, the Chinese and North Koreans are allowed to drive in North Korea.

I thought it was so bizarre that I chose to put off all the incredibly stupid things he did on Monday, one piling up on top of the next.  In a normal world, any one of them would have been the headline -- but all four of them together on the same day was borderline head-exploding.  And yet, it was just another day in Trump World.  What kind of a day was it?  A day like any other -- except the only difference is...You Are There.

So, let's revisit them from just two days ago.  All on the same day.  Monday.  

We'll start with him during a press conference when, for reasons known only to him, hie decided to go off and slam former President Barack Obama (while on foreign soil, to be clear).  Trump's supposed complaint was about when Russia moved into the Ukraine and annexed Crimea, against international law which is the reason why President Obama proposed that Russia be kicked out of the G7.  Which they were, although Trump wants them let back in.  So, what did Trump say about it?  Whether nothing that made sense or was particularly accurate, though what stood out was --

“They took Crimea during his term. That was not a good thing. It could have been stopped with the right whatever."  

Yes, that's right.  All it needed, according to that ace foreign policy expert Trump was the right "whatever."  It's as if Trump was a 14-year-old girl, dismissing her parents criticizing her.  The biggest shame is that no one in the Obama Administration was able to pull off the right whatever, it should have been so easy.  Imagine though if a student answered this way on an essay test.  How did America handle the Russia-Ukraine crisis?  "They should have done the right whatever."  That is your basic F-minus.

Also on Monday Trump said that his wife has met Kim Jong Un and thinks highly of him.   ("Him," of course, being a despotic, murderous dictator.)  "Kim Jong Un — who I’ve gotten to know extremely well; the first lady has gotten to know Kim Jong Un, and I think she’d agree with me — he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential."  

The problem though is that Melania Trump has never met Kim Jong Un.  And apparently wasn't pleased to be quoted by her husband as praising a despotic, murderous dictator.  So, the White House had to later release a statement that in many ways made things worse because it was so incredibly stupid on its own.  They said --

“President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim — and while the First Lady hasn’t met him, the President feels like she’s gotten to know him too." 

This, in a word, is nuts.  In additional words it's pathetic how stupid it suggests they think the American public is.  Now, sure, some of the American public might be stupid enough to think that explanation makes sense, but mot most of the public.  More to the point, though, is the larger point -- not just that Trump lied about something, but that he lied about something that there was absolutely NO reason to even bring up, let alone lie about.  So, what does it say about a person who lies when he doesn't have to?  It says what he have long known -- that Trump lies because he is a pathological liar and seems to lies because he has to.

And continuing the "lying" theme, Trump also said on Monday that he had received calls from China about ending the tariff war.  The problem is that the Chinese Foreign Minister said it didn't happen. There were no phone calls.  Trump just lied about it -- as his foreign diplomacy tactic.  Lied about something that could be easily refuted by the other party -- which they did.

And bringing the Monday Lying Trilogy to a conclusion, Trump skipped the G7 Climate meeting, which is bad enough under any condition, but horrific when the Amazon is on fire!!!  In response, Trump later lied at a press conference, describing himself as an "environmentalist."  What's impressive is that his nose didn't start growing right then and there.  This is the man who not only withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Accord, but made the United Sates the Only Country in the Entire World to not be in Paris Accord.  This is the man who only weeks earlier signed an order to remove protections of endangered species!  And he called himself an "environmentalist."  But the "funniest" lie is when the White House put out an explanation for him missing the Climate conference -- they noted that he had a meeting the prime ministers of Germany and India.  The problem is that this was yet another of those Things That are Easily Refutable by the Other Parties.  And they were -- photos were released of the prime ministers of Germany and India sitting next to each other at the G7 Climate conference!!!!!

And finally, on top of all of this came Trump adman pitch to make his Doral Country Club the site of the next G7 Summit -- with many buildings that we call bungalows which each can hold 50 people, and is near the airport, and has wonderful restaurants and many ballrooms and blah blah blah blah.  The only thing missing was him saying, "And if you call now within the next 15 minutes, you can get a voucher for a free breakfast."  Never mind that this is likely hugely illegal, going against the emoluments clause of the Constitution, not allowing a president to profit from foreign governments -- which he and his company would blatantly do, since all the foreign governments have to pay their costs and staying there.  But at heart, it's just plain stupid and cheesy.  

And what it also did is confirm what so many experts have suggested for the past three years, that Trump isn't anywhere nearly as rich as he claims and desperately wants people to believe, because when is the last time you saw a billionaire hawking his real estate property to get visitors to stay there with its lovely bungalows and wonderful restaurants and ballrooms...??

And ALL of this was on Monday.  All of it.  And it was pretty much just a typical day for Trump.  Though what it wasn't was...normal.  This is not normal.  This can not ever been seen as normal.  And it all came the day after he explained how valuable North Korean real estate was because you had to drive through it to get to South Korea.  And just days after he quoted a stranger calling him the "King of Israel" and the "Second Coming of God" and referred to himself as "The Chosen One."  And days after he cancelled a meeting with the Prime Minister of Denmark because his absurd interesting in buying Greenland had been called "absurd."  And it just goes on and on and on.

But all of this was entirely on Monday.  It's like Scrooge being impressed with Jacob Marley at the end of A Christmas Carol for gathering all the three ghosts together and "doing it all in one day."

But that's Trump.  Forgetting everything else, all of this was in one day.

And the thing is -- none of this is actually about Trump.  Because we know who he is.  This is about the elected members of the Republican Party, because they enable him, are silent about ALL of this, and are complicit.

​Whatever.

As readers of these pages have long-since figured out, I really like the music of the wonderful Sara Niemietz.  Which makes it all the more surprising that it's been much too long since I've posted a song from -- so long, in fact, that it turns out she has a new album, Get Right.  Most of the songs on it are originals -- either written by herself alone, or with legendary composer W.G. "Snuffy" Waldron.  This is the only cover, Roy Orbison's "Crying."

"Crying" is a difficult song to tackle -- not just vocally, but in its interpretation.  And I think her version is unique and overall very successful, throwing herself into it with a combination of restraint, raw emotion, and (this being "Crying," after all) the obligatory belting, rather than just skirting the surface and merely showing off one's range (which she manages well).  I also sense a maturity in her voice that wasn't there in her previous album, Travel Light, that was a joy for its flowing flexibility.

My only quibble has nothing to do with the song but her website.  For inexplicable reasons, the webpage under the tab for "Music" is woefully empty, leaving out both this new album and her prior Travel Light (which is terrific), as well as most of her videos.  In fact, you can only find Travel Light by clicking on a homepage link to the new album.  Odd.

​That aside, here's the song.  That's Waldron accompanying her on guitar with effective simplicity

Over the weekend, while bizarrely praising North Korea real estate, Trump said the land in North Korea was so valuable because, in order to get to South Korea, you either "essentially had to fly" to get there or else had to travel through North Korea another way, like take railroads or drive, opening up the entire country to you..

Essentially fly??!

For the record, it is an 800-mile drive from Beijing, China to Seoul, South Korea.  So, if you're a tourist or on business and wanted to get to the South Korean capital...OF COURSE people fly!!!

Renting a car in China and driving through the countryside and then the entirety of North Korea -- praying every moment you don't have a breakdown (a car breakdown, I mean, although the other kind seems almost as possible) or get a ticket or struggle to read the road signs and directions in Korean -- seems overwhelmingly unlikely.  Perhaps Trump thinks that the North Korean version of the AAA is called the Korean Kar Korporation, and he liked the KKK initials so much that, to him, it seemed a natural.
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By the way, there's another way to get to South Korea other than driving through North Korea or flying from China.  It's tricky, but if you look at a map you can probably finesse it.  And that's to...well, "essentially" fly there from Japan, over over the Sea of Japan.  Or take a long boat trip from Japan to South Korea.  True, we know at this point that Trump sees himself as the Chosen One, but other mortals can't walk on water. so one of these two methods or transportation are necessary.  Fun Fact:  both ways of getting to South Korea directly from Japan miss flying over or riding through any part of North Korea entirely. 

OF COURSE PEOPLE WILL FLY TO GET TO SOUTH KOREA. Essentially.

Okay, clearly, he wants to build a Trump Tower in North Korea.  And while that idea is bad enough coming from most anyone but especially from the U.S. president and even-more so coming from him at the podium at the G7 Summit, his reasoning to convince people that this is a great idea is almost loopier.

He thinks people are going to rent a car or take a 12-hour train trip through the entirely of North Korea??!  Rather than just fly to South Korea from Beijng or...Japan?!!

And by the way, lost in all of this is that Trump's whole point of why North Korean real estate is so valuable is the argument that -- you have to go through it to get somewhere else that's better!!!  He's not saying that North Korea is so great, he's saying it's so awful that when you're there you can't wait to get past it until you reach its neighbor which is your actual destination.

And just one more notable Fun Fact:  other than North Koreans, only the Chinese and Russians are authorized to drive through North Korea.

​Oh, just freaking sigh.

And none of this even touches on all the maniacally stupid things Trump did on Monday.  But that's for perhaps tomorrow -- unless something even worse or more idiotic occurs.  Which we know is very possible.