(from The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen)
". . . The two swindlers invited him to step closer, asking him if it wasn't a beautiful design and if the colors weren't magnificent. They pointed to the empty loom, and the poor old minister opened his eyes wider and wider. He still could see nothing, for nothing was there. "Gracious" he thought. "Is it possible that I am stupid? I have never thought so. Am I unfit for my position? No one must know this. No, it will never do for me to say that I was unable to see the material.". . . "
(from https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/09/politics/trump-line-press-conference/index.html)
". . . 1. "We've concluded a really tremendously successful G7.
2. "And you know the gentlemen up are the legendary Larry Kudlow and the legendary John Bolton."
3. "I made a lot of statements having to do with clarity."
4. "I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States."
5. "I'll be on a mission of peace, and we will carry in, really -- in my heart, we're going to be carrying the hearts of millions of people, people from all over the world."
6. "We really think that North Korea will be a tremendous place in a very short period of time."
7. "Well, there's always everything."
8. "He won't have that opportunity again. It's never going to be there again."
9. "He can take that nation, with those great people, and truly make it great."
10. "And we will watch over, and we'll protect, and we'll do a lot of things."
11. "I have not spoken to Vladimir Putin in quite a while."
12. "Some people like the idea of bringing Russia back in."
13. "And something happened a while ago, where Russia is no longer in."
14. "We pay nothing. We don't want to pay anything. Why should we pay?"
15. "So you go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free."
16. "That's the way you learned at the Wharton School of Finance."
17. "I guess, they got to go back to the drawing and check it out, right?"
18. "It's going to change, 100%."
19. "We're like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing."
20. "And so we are talking to many countries. We're talking to all countries."
21. "So when we try and bring our piece up a little bit so that it's not so bad, and then they go up -- right -- the difference is they do so much more business with us than we do with them that we can't lose that."
22. "The numbers are so astronomically against them in terms of anything, as per your question."
23. "You've studied this very well. Congratulations."
24. "Hispanic doing the best."
25. "Fake News CNN. The worst. But I could tell by the question."
26. "I would say that the level of relationship is a 10."
27. "I will blame them if they don't act smart and do what they have to do -- because they have no choice. I'll be honest with you, they have no choice."
28. "So you can tell that to your fake friends at CNN."
29. "The relationship that I've had with the people, the leaders of these countries, has been -- I would really, rate it on a scale of 0 to 10, I would rate it a 10."
30. "You know, it's like the gig is up. It's like the gig is up. They're not trying to -- there's nothing they can say."
31. "But a lot of these countries actually smile at me when I'm talking. And the smile is -- we couldn't believe we got away with it."
32. "I think that he's going to surprise, on the upside, very much on the upside."
33. "Because, you know, as a deal person, I've done very well with deals."
34. "I think within the first minute I'll know. Just my touch, my feel. That's what I do."
35. "Everyone said -- you know, the haters, they say, 'Oh, you're giving him a meeting.' Give me a break, OK?"
36. "Because the US press is very dishonest, much of it."
37. "There are many people in the press that are unbelievably dishonest. They don't cover stories the way they're supposed to be."
38. "So there's tremendous -- you know, I came up with the term, 'fake news.' It's a lot of fake news. But at the same time, I have great respect for many people in the press."
. . . "
(https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/trump-north-korea-sit-up-attention-648969?cid=apn)
". . . On Friday, when asked why he doesn’t vigorously criticize Kim's human rights record, Trump expressed an interest in preventing a nuclear attack. . . "You know why? I don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family," he said. . ."
That 'interest' or 'concern' never entered his mind when he called Kim 'Rocket Man'.
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin thinks video games, song lyrics and social media kill more people than guns (my interpretation of his statements in a recent post). No action whatsoever on gun control is necessary, because THAT would not reduce the number of innocent deaths from school shootings. (!!!???) While I'm not a fan of violent games, and would much prefer promotion of games that require critical thought instead, does Mr. Bevin truly believe that enacting and enforcing regulation of video games, song lyrics and social media (read 1st Amendment Rights) is a practical and effective route to reducing school shootings? Whatever his answer, you can rest assured he will take much too much of your valuable time and much too many words to express it.
(from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conway%E2%80%99s-husband-blasts-trump-tweet-calling-special-counsel-%E2%80%98unconstitutional%E2%80%99/ar-AAydy3E)
". . . Trump's . . . (asserted last week). . . that the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia probe "is totally unconstitutional.". . . "
(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor#Constitutionality)
". . . The appointment of a special prosecutor raises inherent separation of powers questions under the U.S. Constitution. Since the special prosecutor is a member of the executive branch, it has been argued that the special prosecutor is ultimately answerable to the president, and can therefore be fired by them. Richard Nixon, for example, argued that he could not be compelled by a subpoena issued by his own subordinate. . . The constitutionality of the independent counsel law was affirmed by a 7–1 decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Morrison v. Olson (1988). . ."
