SNL

Low ratings, record sales and comedy quicksand + this day in history w/the Great New England Hurricane and our song of the day by St. Paul & The Broken Bones on your Morning Monarchy for September 21, 2018.

Trump has zero credibility. Zero. Omarosa doesn't seems like someone who has much credibility either-- but I don't know for sure. She was just a character on a TV show that Trump dragged into the White House with him-- as much a bad joke-- compliments of Vlad Putin-- as he was. Trump I know for sure. Zero. I'd believe Omarosa over him... cautiously.

Rick doesn't have the most money, but he has the best issue for TuesdayThe media tended to cover Kara Eastman's startling-- at least to them-- win of DCCC/Blue Dog Ben Ashbrook in Omaha last week as a win for Medicare-for-All versus a status quo approach. And there is no doubt that that was a part of the equation that, despite the DCCC, catapulted Kara into the Democratic Party nomination. But it wasn't just their two respective approaches to health care.

Yesterday, in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson, described a societal problem of Trumpism in terms of social psychology. It reminded me of George Orwell's post-World War II writing. And Huxley's Brave New World pre-World World War II masterpiece. And Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (1968). There were other authors who tackled the dystopian problems that Trump is thrusting on us today, Margaret Atwood (Handmaid’s Tale), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange), Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games), Stephen King (The Running Man).

"The Mob takes the 5th. If you're innocent why you taking the 5th Amendment?" This video above will be in a Trump memorial "presidential" library and museum some day. (Did I ever tell you I urinated on Nixon's grave at his presidential library and museum in Yorba Linda? I might have just spit; I can't remember.) Anyway, let me stay on track.

Polls show that most Americans know Trump's a liar. Revelations of more lies-- daily revelations of more lies-- isn't going to change anything. That he's a dishonest asshole is baked into the cake. It looks like Señor T was partially correct when he said he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. "Any voters?" Wrong.

Saturday Max Boot played Captain Obvious in a Washington Post OpEd, Trump is drowning in scandal. He can’t focus on Syria. Is that lucky for us? For the Syrians? Like many of us, the bombing raid on Syria is seen strictly as a Wag The Dog moment the regime decided toes if they could pull off.

A psychologist friend of mine diagnosed Trump last night. Prognosis doesn't sound good-- for us. "Trump’s ego has dissipated and his id has risen to the surface of consciousness. Trump has realized he can do whatever he wants and he is letting his id loose. It is growing and morphing into a lethal andromeda strain. A malicious, gleeful, vindictive, wrecking crew of impulses is on the move." Schumer warned him of "severe consequences" if he shuts down the Mueller investigation. Oh, yeah, that'll stop him.

This morning's big political kickoff conversation for the week was set by reporters Burgess Everett and Elana Schor at Politico: The 'attention-deficit-disorder' Congress. Short version: "Donald Trump's fondness for flitting from one topic to another is making it hard for lawmakers to focus." Louisiana Republican John Kennedy came right out and called it "attention deficit disorder" and Susan Collins (R-ME) said "It's unbelievable to me. The attention span just seems to be...

On Friday, fresh off her humiliating defeat at the California Democratic Party convention in San Diego, where her request for an endorsement didn't even get 40% of the delegates' votes, Dianne Feinstein was allowed to give the Democratic Party's weekly address. It was on one of the few issues where she is actually in synch with 21st Century voters: guns. She began by reminding every that she became mayor of San Francisco when a deranged, right-wing politician, ex-policeman Dan White, assassinated Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.