Putin on the Ritz

vlad

The Conman-in-Chief’s latest encounter with Vladimir Putin makes it clear to all but the most obtuse observer that the bloviating blowhard is scared spit-less of the Russian gangster.

Gathered with world leaders for a photo op dressed in a blue silk smock hanging to mid-thigh that violently clashed with his orangeness, looking like an aging overweight hairstylist with a fondness for excessive hair product, Trump turned to the similarly attired little murderous macho man, flashed his best salesman smile and extended a tiny hand.

The resulting grasp exhibited none of the prolonged awkwardness shown with previous world leaders. No grip and yank to show dominance. Just a brief limp-wristed clasp to set the tone for what was to come.

With all things Russian dominating the domestic political stage, the tough-talking, trumpet blaster did not deem it expedient to have a mano-a-mano sit-down with the thug his intelligence agencies say interfered with America’s most sacred democratic institution.

Instead he asked Vlad politely during a brief aside whether the ‘rumours’ he was hearing about election interference were true.

“Nyet,” replied Vlad, apparently showing some annoyance at the trumpet-blaster’s temerity. “Is plot by political foes to ruin great relationship.”

Unspoken, except perhaps by an imperceptible digging in of Vlad’s blood-stained fingernails into the flesh of a tiny hand, or maybe the subtle twitch of a killer’s eye, was the pee tape and money laundering documentation Vlad has squirreled away in the Kremlin for just the right moment.

How else to explain Trump’s take-away from their encounter.

“I asked him again about election interference and he said no. How many times can you ask someone.”

And with that, the commander of the greatest military force the world has ever known, a man who thrives on his perceived toughness, who feigns patriotism for political expediency, who pulls no punches when dealing with adversaries like Rosie O’Donnell, Nordstrom’s, grieving Gold Star families, female network anchors, NFL players and even his own Republican colleagues, one of whom has terminal brain cancer, throws his entire intelligence community under the military bus.

“I believe him,” he said meekly.

After all, why would Vlad lie about something like that. Especially to his new best bro.

For all his shallowness, intellectual deficiency, pettiness and plain out ignorance, no one can deny the Apricot-tinted Conman’s cunning and incredible survival instincts.

Ask yourself why a man facing the pressure of a massive investigation into all things Russia would publicly take the word of his country’s number one enemy, a Russian tyrant who murders his political enemies, over the documented findings of Americans who risk their lives gathering the information in service of their country.

It’s a head-scratcher.

My guess is, money laundering and other financial crimes aside, it dates back to the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas in 2013. According to an account pop-singing Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov gave to a Russian news outlet, as reported in Politico, he met Trump in the lobby of his Las Vegas hotel and developed an instant camaraderie.

“He took me around the shoulder, gave a thumb’s up, saying ‘Everything is cool!’” Agalarov remembered of the Trump Hotel meeting. Later, as the two watched the pageant, Trump regaled Agalarov with his philosophy on prenuptial agreements and gossiped about VIPs in the audience, per the Russian’s account.

In light of the Access Hollywood tape, who could doubt that with the country’s most beautiful women parading on stage, that the conversation with the Russian pop star turned to “boy talk.”

Investigators looking into the existence of the pee tape video are looking in the wrong place. The encounter may not have taken place in Russia, where Trump’s spidey senses would have been on full alert, but instead in a penthouse in the desert, where Trump would have felt safe getting a golden shower. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, except when Russian spies are involved.

That explains the testimony to Congress of Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, who recently told U.S. lawmakers that someone in the Agalarov entourage offered to send five women to Trump’s room during a trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. Schiller says he declined the offer on Trump’s behalf.

Agalarov likely knew the Old Orange Groper had a predilection for doing naughty things with beautiful women from the Viagra-fueled partying they did in Vegas. Like a good host, he wanted to return the favour, Moscow-style, with secret cameras rolling.

From the loyal Schiller’s testimony under oath, we don’t know whether Trump dropped his guard and succumbed to his libidinal yearnings in a far away land. The long-time bodyguard said Trump laughed when he told him about the offer. He said he stood at Trump’s door for several moments but could not testify as to what might have occurred after he left.

Given Trump’s taped admission that he can’t stop himself from kissing women, welcome or not, and his affinity for grabbing them by the pussy, it doesn’t take James Bond to figure out what the Russians might have on the Old Orange Groper.

Locked & Loaded

bloody gun

The next time you’re at a large concert or sporting event, say something with an audience of about 30,000, look around at the crowd and imagine each man, woman and child with a bullet hole in their forehead. That’s how many Americans die every year from gun violence, and that’s not counting the injured.

For people who never tire of telling us they live in the greatest country in the world, shooting each other is an everyday thing.

According to the non-profit monitoring group Gun Violence Archive, in the first year of the Mango Megalomaniac’s debasement of America’s highest office there have been 378 mass shootings, defined as four or more people shot at the same general location and time. This is down from 483 in 2016. Of course, the year isn’t over.

Despite these startling statistics the Conman-in-Chief has Americans convinced that terrorism is the greatest threat facing the country. This is an alternative fact not born out by the numbers.

An exhaustive study by Alex Norasteh of the Cato Institute concluded that from post 9/11 to 2015 there have been 24 Americans killed by foreign-born terrorists. Norasteh went further, crunching numbers from 1975 to 2015. He concluded during that 40-year span that 1.13 billion foreigners entered the U.S. legally and illegally and more than 28 million foreigners entered the country for each terrorist who killed somebody in a terrorist attack, including the thousands who died on 9/11.

Clearly, building a wall and banning visitors from Muslim countries won’t keep Americans safe. Gun-loving good old boys are murdering people with frightening competence, using high-powered weapons capable of killing dozens of their fellow citizens in mere minutes.

The Conman-in-Chief, pandering to his well-armed base of deplorables, signed an executive order in February making it easier for people with mental health issues to obtain firearms. That didn’t stop him from saying the latest outrage in a Texas church wasn’t about guns. It’s a mental health issue, he said, without a hint of shame.

That’s like saying smoking cigarettes is an inhaling issue. Leave them in the pack and they won’t harm your health.

The U.S. could build a 50-foot wall around its entire perimeter and its citizens would not be safe in any aspect of their consumer-driven lives because they have to live with each other in a country suffering from mass psychosis.

Not at elementary school:

Dec. 14, 2012, Newton, Connecticut: Twenty children and six teachers are mowed down at Sandy Hook Elementary with a semiautomatic weapon.

Not at high school:

April 20, 1999, Littleton, Colorado: Twelve students at Columbine High School are killed and 21 injured by two students armed with bombs, guns they borrowed from their parents and knives.

Not at university:

April 16, 2007, Blacksburg, Virginia: A disgruntled senior at Virginia Tech kills 32 people and wounds 17 others before killing himself.

Not on the job:

Workplace killings are too frequent to list them all but it suffices to say the phrase ‘going postal’ originated in the U.S., where making a living can be hazardous, whether you work in a beer warehouse or a financial institution.

Aug. 3, 2010, Manchester, Connecticut: A former employee shoots eight people to death at Hartford Distributors before turning the gun on himself.

July 29, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia: A failed day trader killed his wife and two children with a hammer before heading to his former firms, Momentum Securities and All-Tech Investment Group, with evil in his heart. The final toll—12 dead, 13 injured.

Not while taking in a movie:

July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado: A Batman fan dressed as The Joker shoots 82 moviegoers, killing 12 and injuring 70 during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

Not while eating dinner out:

Oct. 16, 1991, Killeen, Texas. A 35-year-old man crashed his pickup into Luby’s Cafeteria. He shot and killed 23 people before killing himself. Twenty-seven others were wounded. A former roommate said he hated blacks, Hispanics and gays, and thought women were snakes.

Not while dancing to Latin music:

June 12, 2016, Orlando, Florida: A sexually conflicted security guard killed 49 people and wounded 58 others inside Pulse, a gay nightclub hosting Latin Night. He was shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.

Not while listening to country music:

Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas, Nevada: A lone gunman opened fire on a crowd of concert-goers at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured. The man fired hundreds of rounds with a semi-automatic rifle he legally converted to an automatic weapon, firing from his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Not while barbecuing at home with friends and watching football:

Sept. 19, 2017, Plano, Texas: An estranged husband killed eight people on his wedding anniversary while they were watching The Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

Not even while praying at church on Sunday morning:

Nov. 5, 2017, Sutherland, Texas: A mentally ill man who had been drummed out of the military after spending a year in the brig for beating his wife and stepson used a legally acquired semi-automatic rifle to kill 26 people and wound 20 more at First Baptist Church. He was shot by a neighbour who grabbed his own assault rifle and rushed to the scene.

The gun carnage escalates with new records being set yearly while the gun lobby bribes and extorts Washington lawmakers who piously wave the Second Amendment, written in the 1700s by men who wanted to arm slave-owning militias with flintlock muskets against the threat of an uprising by the enslaved.

Americans might want to pause for a moment before allowing their government to build walls and seal their borders. Some of them may want to get out someday.

What a great country.