Not a Panoply of Options

President Trump appears to be in hot water and the water keeps getting hotter. It seems like they are starting to come at him from various angles, with a new one added just recently--former F.B.I. director Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Mueller has been appointed special counsel investigating Russia's ties to the Trump campaign.

Only four months into his presidency and only forty-four months to go. But President Trump, I think, will not make it. He will be impeached. The writing, as they say, is on the wall. Others say, the writing on the wall can sometimes be a forgery.

Well, it doesn't appear to be in this case. What Trump had going for him as a businessman, as an entertainer, and as a campaigner, was that he could say the wildest things and get away with it. The reason being is, he was always playing in the court of public opinion. But in the not-too-distant future, he will be playing in a different court. And they don't offer much leeway.

But after that, the public will make the final determination. And like Nixon, I think Trump's options will be very few.

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Tempers Flare and Confusion Swirls

No, we're not talking about backstage at The Jerry Springer Show. This relates to the president of the United States.

I just read an article in The New York Times that portrays the president's situation as bad, and getting badder by the day. The article, "At a Besieged White House, Tempers Flare and Confusion Swirls," talks about the intensifying stress the president and his staff have been feeling as of late. Especially with "[T]he disclosure that President Trump divulged classified intelligence to two high-ranking Russian officials was a new blow to an already dispirited and besieged White House staff still recovering from the uproar and recriminations from the president's firing of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director."

The article goes on to say that the president's mood has become "sour and dark," and that he has been taking his anger out on his staff. To me, that fits to a T how dysfunctional bosses run their companies. Their sole goal is the maximization of profits, and the quicker, the better. All other concerns are not really a concern. Only if it impinges upon profits and how fast we make them.

President Trump appears to fit in this club. His goal is not profits, but more likely power (and maybe the profits come later down the line). It looks like he and his staff are starting to reap the whirlwind.

The country may be next.

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Talking With a Really, Really Huuuuugeeeeee Forked Tongue

It seems the president is in the news again. Yes I know, President Trump is always in the news, but he appears to be taking up a lot more bandwidth than ever before.

Of course I'm speaking of his ever-growing, ever-mounting situation that is the Trump-campaign/Russia connection. President Trump's recent firing of the head of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, has raised a few eyebrows, more Democratic eyebrows than Republican, but I sense more Republican leaders will come on the bandwagon.

I must say, this appears to be turning into curious amalgam of the Keystone Kops, the Ziegfeld Follies, and Who's on First. I'm sure if it was happening to the Democrats I wouldn't be laughing so hard, but it's hard not to laugh either way.

Poor President Trump reminds me of the title character from The Office, Michael Scott. In a number of episodes Mr. Scott is caught in the middle of  a Catch-22 situation. He tries to wriggle out of these situations by putting on a persona, reaching for creative interpretations of what happened, and pleading all-around misunderstanding by everyone, except himself. Yet these flailing actions usually appease no one.

It seems like the President is starring in a new show (on pretty much most cable channels) called The West Wing Office. He is doing an admirable job fending off the questions and accusations of many. And obviously I don't know if the president is telling the truth or lying, but it sure looks like the latter.

It's beginning to look a lot like 1973, and someone not being a crook.

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About Mary McGrory

Recently I just found out about a fascinating woman. Her name is Mary McGrory and I had never heard of her before. She was basically someone who had no clear career direction when she got out of college but got involved in the newspaper industry, almost by happenstance.

She started out as a book reviewer. But she brought a freshness to her writing that was not seen in the newspapers at that time. Her writing caught on magnificently and, in time, she was allowed to broaden her writing scope. Ultimately, she seemed to fall into the category of investigative journalist/commentator.

It does seem hard to peg here. She seemed to combine the writing of a columnist (e.g., David Brooks, E.J. Dionne Jr., Maureen Dowd, etc.) with the hit-the-streets reporting of a daily reporter.

In any case, her columns are stunning. She seemed to do what political cartoonists do so well--skewer the pompous and grandiose. And do it so well that it is highly entertaining and also informative. And more importantly to me it confirms what Martin Luther King Jr. said about the arc of the moral universe being long, but it bending toward justice. That is, those who misuse their power, to some degree, get their comeuppance.

And hell, now maybe more than ever, at least in the political realm, some are overdo for their skewering and comeuppance.

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