Donald J. Trump Presidential Apology Database

Bubba Wallace by Zach Catanzareti Photo /
CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

The president of the United States this week asked NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace to apologize for something Mr. Wallace did not do.

This reminds me of something I have not done, which is to build a database of all this president's public apologies.

Related to that, I mean to build a database of everything he has said or written that includes the words, "I was wrong."

If you would like to contribute to this database, I welcome your involvement as I feel sure there will be many instances, each of which will have been reported by multiple news outlets. We'll need to cross-reference all those so as not to make it appear that the president has been overly contrite.

Our work is cut out for us. If you'd like to pitch in, let me know! 

why are you surprised?

[Brought up from the vault — May 04, 2020 — in the final months of president 47’s first administration when he seemed pretty whiney that people didn’t take his every word at face value. In the history, poetry, novelist, and playwright trades, some practioners might use a word like *foreshadowing* to describe how what happened in those years relates to what’s happening in these years.]

Seriously: Why are you surprised? 

Didn’t you set the rules of engagement?

When you set the dial to
historic
unprecedented
like nobody's ever seen
biggest
greatest
perfect
best
...
but then deliver less[?]

Why are you surprised
that people want an explanation?


When you double down
dehumanize questioners
with insults and juvenile namecalling
when you
kill the messenger
change the subject
play the victim
...
Why are you surprised
when the questions
pull focus to
your honesty
your integrity
your wit and wisdom
your essential grip on reality?

Why, honestly, having set the rules of engagement, are you surprised by any of this?

Red Dawn | the 2020 presidential election

2020 is turning out to be the Red Dawn presidential election — US intelligence agencies spotted Russians landing on US soil and, now, the President has apparently responded by firing the Director of National Intelligence for briefing Congress on the landing.

You know Patrick Swayze — or Chris Hemsworth, if that’s your bent — and the Wolverines would not take this lying down ... nor should any American.

"…give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years." — Donald Trump

From time to time, Salvador Rizzo, reporter for The Fact Checker, delivers a detailed analysis of false or misleading claims made by American political figures from both parties.

I think Rizzo's accounting of Donald Trump's December 18, 2019 rally in Michigan is especially noteworthy because,

A) in his two-hour speech, Mr. Trump made 179 assertions of fact, of which 120 ... two out of three ... were found to be false, mostly false, or unsupported by known evidence, and,

B) one of the most troubling moments in the speech came in a statement that is mostly accurate. 

Donald Trump told the crowd in Michigan:

I see a woman, Carolyn Maloney. I was with her. Her first race, I helped her. She was always so nice. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I made lots of contributions over the years. You know in New York, it’s like, purely Democrat, especially Manhattan. So, what happens? I make lots of contributions for years and years and years. ... ‘I raise my hand to impeach.’ Well, give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years. Let her pay me back all the money.

Mr. Rizzo found confirmation from Federal Election Commission records that Donald Trump did, from 1993 to 2009, contribute $4,000 to Representative Maloney's campaigns — though his first donation was apparently after she was already in Congress, not during her first race.

Most important, to me, is the fact that Mr. Trump regarded those political donations as payments. He asserts that he was buying something from a Member of Congress ... that his $4,000, disbursed over 16 years, were payments to Representative Maloney.

As it turns out, he appears to believe he was buying a "no" vote on articles of impeachment:

"Well, give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years. Let her pay me back all the money.”

What a bizarre and simplemindedly corrupt understanding of citizenship and governance.

Mr. Trump's boyish misjudgment in this matter dates from 1993, when he was just a 47 years-old with a dream and staggering debt.

But he asked for his money back last month, the day he was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives at age 73.

There is, as far as I can imagine, no good reason for a president of the United States of America to think as little of representative democracy as this man does. We will be well shed of him ... the sooner the better.

So we can put you down as a ‘yes’ then...

Among the very best lines of the week, I thought, was Congressman Schiff saying that President Trump repeating "No quid pro quo" over and over again is his "I am not a crook" defense.

Ambassador Sondland put that to bed explicitly in his opening testimony on Wednesday November 20, 2019.

“I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’,” Sondland said. “As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.” It got better — meaning worse, from there.

Read It Yourself | Whistleblower’s Letter to US Congress dated 08.12.19, made public 09.26.19

Here is a searchable PDF of the August 12, 2019 letter from the "Whistleblower" — at this writing not identified — to the chairs of the US Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

The original file, publicly available from a variety of sources, came from The Washington Post, here. 

The optical character recognition function in PDF Editor 6 Pro converted the scanned image to a searchable PDF. No translation errors have been identified.

If I heard Mr. Mueller’s case on a grand jury...

After chewing on the Mueller Report for a month, it occurred to me to ask: 

"If you were seated on a grand jury and heard this case from prosecutors, how would you vote?" 

My answer is: 

"On the weight of this evidence I would vote to indict Mr. Trump for obstruction of justice."

Dear Mr. President | The message Barack Obama left in the Oval Office for Donald Trump

There’s a tradition of outgoing US presidents leaving handwritten notes to their successors on Inauguration Day. CNN obtained a copy of the letter from Barack Obama to Donald Trump — one imagines a mobile phone pic — from someone to whom Mr. Trump showed it. It is, I think, quite remarkable, compared with notes left by George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Dear Mr. President - 

Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and allof us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.

This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don't know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. Still, let me offer a few reflections from the past 8 years.

First, we've both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune. Not everyone is so lucky. It's up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that's willing to work hard.

Second, American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It's up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that's expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.

Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions -- like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties -- that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it's up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.

And finally, take time, in the rush of events and responsibilities, for friends and family. They'll get you through the inevitable rough patches.

Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.

Good luck and Godspeed,

BO

Stop It | meanness + violence are not free speech

Michael Vadon cc

Two weeks ago, the President of the United State took pains# to correct Hillary Clinton supporters who were jeering at a Donald Trump supporter at a Clinton campaign rally. President Obama told the crowd to  respect the man as an apparent veteran, as an elder, and because we live live in a society that respects free speech.

Last night, President-Elect Donald J. Trump looked directly into a 60 Minutes camera and addressed supporters who have treated the outcome of the election as a license to harass, threaten, and even assault brown-skinned Americans, religious and sexual  minorities. He said, "Stop it!"

 That should take care of it, right? We're in this together.