President Donald John Trump is missing his advisors that Chief of Staff John Kelly ran off. He made a big political mistake in getting involved in the Republican Senate primary in Alabama where Roy Moore, who Trump opposed, won.

He should have stayed out, but instead he got in on the wrong side and wasted his time and political capital campaigning for Sen. Luther Strange over Moore. Strange is one of the swamp creatures that Trump said he would run out of Washington. Moore is much more closely aligned with Trump politically.

Trump needed the advice of a savvy political consultant who would have advised him that Moore was going to win and there was no good reason to support Strange.

It appears that McConnell, or some of his people, talked Trump into it, because McConnell put millions of dollars into the campaign for Strange, who was appointed to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions. McConnell wanted Strange because Strange was on the McConnell team. Moore, like Trump, is a loose cannon.

You have to hope that Trump struck a deal with McConnell before agreeing to campaign for Strange. Wouldn’t it be great if McConnell promised to resign if Trump campaigned for Strange and Moore won? A deal like that would make it worthwhile, but I haven’t seen any reports of McConnell packing his bags.

If Trump supported Strange simply because McConnell asked him to, that is a sign that Trump is forgetting the reason that he was elected president. Trump is supposed to be draining the swamp. McConnell is the epitome of what Trump said he would get rid of in Washington. Trump should be doing everything in his power to get McConnell sent home.

A special prosecutor to investigate McConnell would not be a bad idea; certainly they could find something. Maybe if a special prosecutor searched into McConnell’s background enough they could even find his spine.

The backstory on why Trump would support McConnell’s chosen candidate is one that I’d love to read. If it was at the urging of his chief of staff, Kelly, it’s a really bad sign both for Trump and Kelly.

Trump ignored his advisors, including Kelly, and gave a powerful speech at the United Nations, but if he has to ignore his advisors too often, that means he needs new advisors. Kelly has reportedly done a great job of bringing some order to the Oval Office. But if Kelly is advising Trump to be more moderate, his usefulness has ended. Trump is only successful when he is Trump.

If he had gone to the UN and made the kind of speech that his advisors told him he should make – and the kind an American president is supposed to make – it would have been a nail in his coffin with his base; and after too many nails, the lid is sealed shut. His base is getting anxious about the wall, Obamacare’s repeal, sending illegal immigrants home and ending DACA. Trump is going to have to deliver something.

Trump didn’t win the presidency by going around the country and making a typical stump speech. He won by going around the country and telling the American people what he thought. At nearly every campaign event he said things that political pundits said would be the end of his campaign; but Trump was right to trust is instincts and the pundits never learned to appreciate what Trump was doing.

The Americans who elected Trump are tired of the same old pabulum from politicians. They want red meat, and that is what Trump delivered day after day in city after city. He can’t expect them to accept pabulum now.

*****

Trump came to politics late in life, but his instincts have proven to be better than all the focus groups, political consultants and polling numbers of his opponents.

This week he’s been talking and tweeting about the protests by professional football and basketball players during the national anthem. Most Americans don’t like the protests and Trump left no doubt that he is against them and thinks they should be stopped.

What is the protest about? Nobody can say for sure. Some say it’s a protest against Trump. Others say it is a protest against the disenfranchisement of people of color. If it is a legitimate protest, shouldn’t it be about a particular thing?

Most Americans seem to think that professional athletes have been treated pretty well by society. They get paid millions of dollars every year for playing a game, so are they protesting against the society that makes it possible for them to be in the top 0.2 percent of wage earners in this country? Are they protesting against the billionaires that own the teams and make their huge salaries possible?

The National Football League – which has an entire book on how players are supposed to behave and has fined players for the crime of wearing an unauthorized T-shirt – has decided not to enforce its own rule on proper behavior during the national anthem.

Not enforcing that rule has turned out to be a huge mistake. The popularity of the NFL was already falling for a variety of reasons, and this is giving people another reason not to attend games or sit glued to the couch for hours watching games on television. Once some people realize that their team does fine at winning or losing without their help, it’s going to be hard to get them back.

The NFL should consult with daily newspapers about how hard it is to get people back once they have learned they can live without you.

Trump will win this one because the NFL is big business, and the goal is not to score touchdowns but to make money. Attendance and viewership are down and the NFL can’t continue to lose fans because fans are money.

The American people don’t like the idea of millionaire athletes protesting about being mistreated by society at a football game. If the players want to protest, there are plenty of opportunities that don’t involve showing disrespect for the flag and the national anthem.

One reason people watch football is to forget about all that stuff. They want to be able to get absorbed in the game, and they see the pampered professional athletes as a bunch of crybabies who seem to have no idea how good they have it.

Trump, once again, has his finger on the pulse of the American people. If Hillary Clinton had one-tenth of his political savvy she would be president.

But Hillary Clinton not only has a tin ear when it comes to people and politics, she is so arrogant that she refused to take advice from those who really understand people and politics – like her husband Bill Clinton.

She ran her campaign her own way, which was arrogant, impersonal and boring, and it turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. She blames everyone else under the sun in her book, but the truth is that it took hundreds of bad decisions on her part to lose that election. People who have followed her knew that she thought most Americans were deplorable, but nobody ever thought she would actually say it; and now she defends that statement.

*****

In all the overheated rhetoric about the constitutional rights of NFL players, a few key points seem to be forgotten.

An NFL player has a constitutional right to wear any brand of T-shirt he wants, but if he wears a T-shirt other than one made by Nike for a televised interview, he will be fined. If he wears a T-shirt with a political slogan on it, he will be fined.

The NFL has a book of regulations that the players have to follow, and if they don’t, they can be fined by the league, forced to sit out games or thrown out of the league all together.

One of those rules requires players to stand on the sideline during the national anthem with their helmets under their left arms. That’s pretty specific. But Roger Goodell chose not to enforce that rule.

It’s pretty nice when you’re dictator: You can decide what rules are going to be strictly enforced, like wearing non-Nike T-shirts, and which ones are not going to be enforced at all – respecting the flag and national anthem of the United States.

But more importantly, it is disrespectful to the United States not to treat the flag and national anthem with respect. It is the player’s constitutional right to do so, and it is the constitutional right of anyone watching to turn off the television or walk out of the stadium because they are offended.

It is also the constitutional right of the president of the United States to point out public figures who are showing disrespect for the flag and national anthem, and Trump did.

The fact that an entire team of 8-year-olds took a knee for the national anthem at a game demonstrates how much power professional athletes have over kids. Is this the message that the NFL wants to be sending to the youth of the nation – that the flag and national anthem should be shown disrespect? I hope not.

The American flag is just a piece of cloth; it is not the piece of cloth that people show respect for, but rather the country it symbolizes. The national anthem is simply a song that is incredibly hard to sing well, but it isn’t the song itself that is important but the nation that it represents.

Those who disrespect the flag and the national anthem aren’t showing disrespect for a piece of cloth and a song, but for the nation.

*****

In the end, it’s all about money. NFL Commissioner Goodell was paid more than the highest paid player, but his salary has been reduced, so now he is a little below the top paid players. The reason he is paid so much is that he makes huge profits for the owners. The reason his salary has dropped is that those profits have dropped. If those profits continue to slide, Goodell will be out the door quicker than a NFL player can take a knee during the national anthem.

At this point it appears that Goodell has missed this call. He can talk all he wants about the great things the NFL does, but his job is to make money for the owners of the teams. It will be interesting to see how long the owners put up with falling profits because the commissioner they selected refuses to enforce the rules of the league.

*****

From what I read, the Republican tax reform plan is a framework at this point with the details to be filled in.

One detail they need to get out of there is raising the lowest rate from 10 percent to 12 percent. The increase is supposed to be offset by other deductions and increasing the standard deduction. But the optics are terrible – the top tax rate is being lowered and the tax rate for those with the lowest incomes being raised looks awful.

It’s like the Republicans are giving the Democrats a club to beat them with.

It doesn’t matter if there is some way to figure that raising the tax rate is actually lowering the tax rate, because your average American voter isn’t going to buy it.

The government tells us all kinds of lies all the time: Obamacare was going to lower rates and let you could keep your own doctor and your own plan. Those were all lies, but they were lies from the Democrats.

Now the Republicans are going to go out with charts and graphs that prove raising the tax rate actually lowers the tax rate.

Sorry, but that’s pretty simple math. If you were paying 10 percent and are now paying 12 percent, that right there is a tax increase and it doesn’t matter that more folks won’t be paying any taxes. It really doesn’t even matter if those at the bottom will be paying less because they won’t know that until after the bill passes, and it sure doesn’t look like 12 percent is lower than 10 percent.

The Republicans are asking for a lot of trust from the American people and if there is one thing Americans have learned it is that you can’t trust the government.

If they want to be smart, the Republicans will eliminate some of those tax breaks and simply lower the rate back to where it is now. It would be even better if they could find a way to lower the rate to 9 percent.

You simply can’t tell the American people that you are lowering their tax rates when the tax rates for the poorest taxpayers are increasing, even if their tax bill doesn’t increase.

The top rate has actually been lowered so that the wealthy pay less, but presumably they get the same deductions as those at the bottom.

The Republicans are already in huge trouble with their base for not repealing Obamacare like they said they would; now the tax decrease for the rich reduces the rate and the “tax decrease” for the poorest taxpayers increases the tax rate. They don’t call it the stupid party for nothing.

*****

It’s all politics, but if McConnell had guts, he would have forced the senators who said they would vote against the Obamacare repeal to cast that no vote. Maybe they would have.

Maybe they would have started thinking about getting reelected and they would have voted for it. But McConnell should have gotten them on the record as twice voting against repealing Obamacare and then let them go back to their constituents and explain why they said they were in favor of the Obamacare repeal but they kept voting against it.

Instead, they got a pass. Now they can go back to their constituents and say that they almost had the problems in the bill fixed and they could have voted for it in another day or two. The problem, they will tell their constituents, is not that they were against repealing Obamacare but that the Senate leadership pulled the plug too quickly.

Perhaps instead of calling it Obamacare, the new name should be McConnellcare, because he appears to love the healthcare bill so much he won’t repeal it.

*****

Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was under surveillance, or in the terms of Trump, had his “wires tapped,” by the FBI off and on since 2014. It seems that if the FBI had found evidence of criminal activity they would have arrested Manafort and charged him with a crime.

The mainstream media are reporting as if working with and for Russian entities is a crime, but it isn’t. The US does business with Russia. Hillary Clinton infamously went to Russia in 2009 to “reset” relations. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton were involved in the deal where a Russian company acquired 20 percent of the US uranium mining interests.

From what I read in the mainstream media, it is perfectly legal and acceptable for Democrats to do business with Russia, but illegal for Republicans to even meet with Russians. I would like to see that federal law. It’s a little difficult for me to believe that it exists, but then after eight years of Barack Obama in the White House, anything is possible.

And where are all the apologies to Trump? When Trump said he had his “wires tapped,” the mainstream media said that was absurd. But it turns out once again that Trump was right.

It’s pretty funny that some experts are saying that it’s possible that some of Trump’s calls were picked up by the electronic surveillance on Manafort.

Really? Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager during part of the time he was under surveillance. Don’t you think that Trump talked to his campaign manager by phone? It would seem highly unlikely that Trump didn’t talk to Manafort numerous times every day. If he did then the FBI was listening.

And Manafort had a residence in the Trump Tower, which means the Trump Tower was bugged, as Trump claimed, but the retractions and apologies have been slow to materialize.

*****

Some people seem to be questioning why Sen. John McCain is against the latest Obamacare repeal bill. The answer is easy: ego and revenge.

By killing the bill, McCain is the star of the show and he gets to stab Trump in the back.

A lot of Republicans may consider McCain the villain, but it doesn’t matter because he still has top billing. If he supports the bill, his is one of 50 Republicans supporting the bill, and that does nothing for his fame.

Voting for Obamacare repeal would also help Trump, and McCain has not forgotten the comment Trump made about McCain being a prisoner of war. Trump shouldn’t have said it, but McCain should put his country above his ego and pride.

*****

McConnell, after all of his years in the leadership in the Senate, evidently has no tricks up his sleeve to get votes.

He is like a boxer who has stayed in the ring too long; his jabs don’t have any snap and his knockout punch is so slow they see it coming in the cheap seats before it is halfway to the mark. Except, from everything I’ve read, McConnell never had a jab and never had anything like a knockout punch.

The Republicans have to replace McConnell with someone who can get the job done. How can McConnell manage to put together a majority to vote for himself as majority leader when he can’t put together the votes for anything else?

 

Periodically I read about a convention of States to rewrite the Constitution. It’s one of the scariest ideas I’ve ever heard. Stephen King should write a book about it.

Imagine what that would look like. We’d have people like Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, John McCain, Maxine Waters and others of the same ilk rewriting the Constitution.

The founding fathers had some faults, but they were all intelligent, thoughtful people who were willing to sacrifice for their country.

*****

It’s hard to feel sorry for Anthony Weiner, the former husband of longtime Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin, who received a 21-month sentence in federal court on Monday.

Weiner has a mental health problem and has had plenty of time to do something about it. A former congressman from New York, Weiner had to resign from his seat because of sexting scandal. Then he ran for mayor of New York, where his campaign became a bad joke when it was discovered that he was still sexting but under the alias Carlos Danger – a name that wouldn’t even be believable in a bad sitcom.

After either of those experiences Weiner could have sought the help that he needs. As a former congressman and a close friend of the Clintons, he had access to the best mental health care the world can provide. The Clinton Foundation could have taken it up as a cause and shown that the foundation does something other than raise money and then spend it on lavish conferences (parties) for the Clintons and their friends. A few million for the best psychiatric help money could buy would be nothing to the multi-billion dollar Clinton Foundation.

But Weiner didn’t do that. Instead he upped the ante by sexting with a 15-year-old girl. He deserves what he got.

But it does raise questions about Abedin. She followed Hillary Clinton from the White House to the Senate, to the Department of State, to the Clinton Foundation and two losing presidential campaigns. She was, whatever her title, Hillary Clinton’s closest confidant and aide.

In the book Shattered, about Clinton’s most recent losing presidential campaign, Abedin was listed as a constant problem for the campaign because she always had Hillary Clinton’s ear. Regardless of her title, she was Hillary Clinton’s most trusted and most powerful advisor.

What does it say about Abedin, that she stayed married to a man with such a serious sexual disorder that it put him in jail? What does it say about Hillary Clinton?

*****

It makes sense for the Democrats to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants because if they become citizens the overwhelming majority are going to register and vote Democrat.

So what sense does it make for two Republican senators to do the same?

It’s hard to figure out why Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. James Lankford would want to sponsor a bill that would give an estimated 3.3 million illegal immigrants who came to this country under the age of 16 and their families amnesty.

If the true number of Dreamers is 3.3 million, and you figure an average of one parent, that gets you to 6.6 million. Then add one other relative and your right at 10 million illegal immigrants who will get amnesty after coming into this country illegally.

Forget the children – the parents who brought them here are going to be rewarded for smuggling their children across the border at great danger and coming to live illegally in the US. You can argue that the children didn’t have a choice, but the parents made that choice for them.

So, in essence, the US government is going to punish people who didn’t smuggle children across the border. What sense does that make?

Responsible parents who decided it was too dangerous to smuggle children across the border and left their children at home are going to be punished for not wanting to risk the lives of their children?

Tillis was elected in 2014. He hasn’t been in Washington three years yet and it appears he is already comfortable in the swamp. Perhaps Tillis should check with his constituents and see what they think.

According to one recent poll, his approval rating among his constituents was down below 30 percent, but his approval rating in the Washington swamp must be soaring. When he runs for reelection in 2020, his swamp buddies will likely poor untold millions into his race.

*****

Some folks might want to think twice before they attack Trump.

Look at where Hillary Clinton is. She has a house next door she bought to rent to the Secret Service that she has to unload and is out peddling her book. Authors say that a book tour is annoying, depressing, mind-numbing and something that as soon as they get enough clout, pledge to never do again.

Then there is Megyn Kelly, who was a rising star on the most popular news network when she decided to take Trump on as an enemy. Now she is doing a daytime fluff talk show where the goal is not to talk about anything important for an hour, and she isn’t doing it well.

As far as Hillary Clinton’s extra house goes, it just occurred to me why she bought it. She bought it to make money.

If she had been elected, the Secret Service would have rented the house and paid far above the market rate. So she could have made a healthy profit during her eight years in the White House, and you know she was planning on being there for eight years.