Trump’s Sinister Moves Behind Our Backs

The NY Times Editorial Board published a piece today about how Trump is eroding our democracy, bit by bit. They track 12 categories he is operating in in order to take away our freedom. It’s an important read.

The Natalie Harp comment by Georgia Senator Jon Ossof struck a nerve.

"He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."

If you are not aware of who Harp is, she is a 30-something woman who has attached herself to Trump as sort of his help-mate. No one is sure what she does, except her nickname is “human printer” because she makes printouts for Trump all the time, at a moments notice. He loves things in print. She follows him everywhere. She posts his dictated, sometimes incindiary, social media missives. Harp was one of the very few people Trump took with him on a secret, “safer plane” as they departed Turkey (he left the press and most of his staff in the decoy plane). It’s also reported that in another incident, she jumped in the trunk of his car when told there was no room for her in the actual car. Her estranged brother on CNN said she is obsessed with Trump, which he feels is an “unhealthy” obsession.

We all are aware of the phenomena of elderly men who love the attention of young, pretty women, whether physical or not. And we are aware of young women who take advantage (and yes the genders can be switched in both cases). Maybe it’s all just fine. What’s concerning is how much influence does she have? And should we care that Trump has a yes-woman constantly at his side? Trump has stated (I am paraphrasing) that all of his staff will leave him to earn money, he claims Natalie will never leave.

But here’s the thing: what is of note is how viral Ossoff’s comment became and how angry it made Trump. We need more politicians to go after Trump in very well-written, succinct ways, timed perfectly. Like Ossoff did.

Angie Nixon won a decisive Democratic primary election on Tuesday in Florida. A union organizer, single mother of five, democratic socialist who joined the Democratic Socialist Party in June but was not endorsed by the DSA, Nixon doesn’t agree with much of their platform. She is campaigning on universal child care and Medicare-for-all, she knows how to harness the enthusiasm of grass-roots Democrats and volunteers, and deftly uses social media. Nixon is riding the socialist wave, but to my mind, she is really a normal left-leaning Democrat, one who is appealing to a certain branch of the left because she doesn’t “seem” traditional. We shall see if she can win, but it’s interesting to watch the scrambling of terms beginning to happen: she may claim the term “socialist” but is not a tried-and-true DSA politician.

We are witnessing the rebranding of the Democratic party before our own eyes.

Someone stop him! Trump keeps building his ballroom, despite it being tied up in court. According to the NY Times headline: Trump’s Ballroom Is Rising at Breakneck Speed: 20 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week. Are we paying for this?? His appeal to the Supreme Court to let him complete his pet project: his ballroom is too far along to be stopped. I don’t buy it, we can stop it and will gladly take it down. I’ll help.

Finally, as a horse lover and former rider, this infurates me. Here is a New Yorker cartoon of mine, one I am so glad they bought and published.

Arrived in Maine last night, will share photos tomorrow. I hope your Thursday is going well. Thanks for being here! Keep your hope up, we can do this thing.

See you tomorrow.