Donald Trump may be back in the White House, after his disastrous tour of the Middle East and Europe. But he's not a happy man.
He has "family problems."
Jared Kushner deserves a bit of sympathy. All his life he’s been serving his father or father-in-law. All his career he’s been thrust into roles he’s not ready for. His background has ill prepared him for national government. Now he is in a realm where his instincts seem to lead him astray and where there’s a chance he will end up in disgrace and possibly under indictment.
He must be wondering whether Jared and him are going to end up in the Big House together.
So it couldn't be a worse homecoming.
It was a bizarre sight, and a deeply disturbing one.
Andrew Scheer preparing to address his caucus for the first time as leader.
Looking like a minister about to deliver a sermon, or lead his Con flock to the Promised Land.
But still claiming that he is not a religious fanatic.
I'm pretty sure that most Canadians know very little about Andrew Scheer, the new leader of the Cons, who likes to call himself "Harper with a smile."
They just see a friendly looking man who always has a smile on his face, even when he's talking about the recent death of his mother.
Or trying to stick a metaphorical knife into the back of Justin Trudeau.
But sadly, Scheer is not as nice as he appears to be. He's a dangerous religious fanatic who could threaten the rights of millions of Canadians.
Just don't expect our Con media to warn people about that, because they're too busy trying to make Ol' Smiley look like a nice guy, and a real leader.
When I saw Rona Ambrose at the Con convention giving her farewell speech, praising herself extravagantly and bragging about how "she could kick Trudeau in the balls," I knew it was going to be a weird night.
And that I was right, Ambrose has no class.
But who knew the Cons would end up giving themselves, and their chances of winning the next election, a kick in the same place?
After electing as their new leader a religious fanatic described as "Harper with a smile."
After nine days abroad in Europe and the Middle East Donald Trump is on his back to Washington and calling his trip a "home run."
When in fact it was a total disaster, and Trump never looked so crazy and dangerous.
President Trump failed to commit to remaining within the Paris climate agreement during a two-day meeting with world leaders that ended here Saturday, but he tweeted that he was still considering it and would announce a final decision “next week.”
He was however able to dodge questions from the media, but as the Simpsons predict, now it's back to reality.
As I watched the Con leadership candidates deliver their final speeches yesterday evening I was struck by three things:
How small the convention room was, how old and white the audience.
And how absurd were those speeches
Thirteen candidates vying to replace Stephen Harper as permanent Conservative leader delivered their final speeches Friday night, pitching their vision for the country and urging party unity in the wake of a long and sometimes divisive campaign.
When most of the Cons had already voted.
Well there he was at the Western Wall the other day, trying to look as pious as possible.
But when you're Donald Trump that's not easy.
No matter how hard you try...
And by the time he visited the pope his first family act was looking a little monstrous...
The timing couldn't have been more embarrassing for the Cons.
On Saturday they will choose a new leader, and Rona Ambrose is still desperately trying to whip up interest in the event...
As well as trying to make Canadians believe that the Cons have changed, and are now the New/Nouveau Conservative Party.
When along comes a blast from the past, to remind us who they really are...
With just three days to go before the Cons choose a new leader, I see that Rona Ambrose is still trying to whip up some interest in the event.
Still claiming that she was always planning to leave.
“If I was going to stay in politics, I would have run for the full leadership. I made that choice then. I knew I was going to leave.”
And still insisting that her decision to run for the exit had nothing to do with the dilapidated state of the Harper Party.
Oh boy. I thought I was going to be able to completely ignore Donald Trump's Magical Mystery Tour of the Middle East this week end.
Which would have been good, because quite frankly I've got to break my Trump Show addiction, before I end up like him. Bellowing incoherently, feeling sorry for myself. And making no sense.
But then I saw that photo of Lord Blobby with the Egyptian dictator, and the senile King of Saudi Arabia, and the glowing orb.
And I was hooked again....
It's getting pretty close to my favourite time of the year. Time to think about harnessing the wind out on the lake, and getting away from it all.
Now that I have almost recovered from my motorcycle accident.
Or just taking to my hammock, reading some real books, and making a list of the many reasons I love living in Canada.
And this would would be one of them.
Oh well, at least now we know why those Russian diplomats seemed to be having such a good time in the Oval Office, while Donald Trump seemed strangely out of it.
Not only had he shared some top-secret intelligence with them, after ordering the White House media out of the room.
It seems Trump also told the Russians why he had fired the FBI director James Comey.
And once again managed to shoot himself in the foot.
By making himself sound both guilty AND crazy.
It's not a very good picture, but I thought I'd keep it anyway, because it's historic.
Sort of.
A picture of the Con Queen Rona Ambrose announcing that she's retiring from federal politics.
Which as you can imagine had the Cons and the pathetic Con media in a tizzy, praising her as the Greatest Prime Minister Canada Never Had.
And had the idiot Ambrose aka The Village Idiot, no doubt thinking it was only what she deserved.
It's hardly surprising that Donald Trump is not happy with the appointment of a special counsel.
But judging by that tweet this morning, the voices in his head are now all screaming at the same time.
And when Trump visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy yesterday, they did provoke him into an orgy of self pity.
When Donald Trump fired or "terminated" James Comey so soon after blowing him a gangster kiss, hissing in his ear, and seeming to threaten him:
He must have thought he had got rid of the troublesome FBI director.
Scared him off with a horse's head, or a fish wrapped up in a newspaper.
But sadly for Boss Trump, that's not how things how things are working out.
Because now James Comey is back with a vengeance.
When I ran this picture the other day I thought there was something strange about it.
And it wasn't just that the U.S. media had been ordered out of the room. Or that it was the day after Trump had fired James Comey.
I just thought the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador seemed to be having too much of a good time, while Donald Trump looked slightly confused.
And now that I know what was going on, it's even worse than I had imagined.
It seems only fitting that Donald Trump should end his week at Liberty University, invoking the name of God, and denouncing his critics.
Because for Trump it was a week from Hell.
A week when his inner beast, or inner fascist was finally revealed.
And he was seen to be both crazy, and dangerous, AND as dumb as a spoon.
For about four days before he abruptly fired FBI director James Comey, Donald Trump practically disappeared from public view.
Later he'd claim the reason he fired Comey was because "he wasn't doing a good job."
And that his decision had absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that Comey wanted to step up the FBI's investigation into the Trump mob's alleged links with Putin's Russia.
Claim he was just doing what others had recommended.
Or just doing what a good boss president does, staying cool and presidential.
A few days after he was sworn in as President, Donald Trump spotted FBI director James Comey at a White House event and blew a big orange kiss at him.
He was happy with Comey for having knifed Hillary Clinton in the back two weeks before, and helped him win the election.
But in Boss Trump's gangster world one day you're his friend, and the next day you're his enemy.
And for Comey it turned out to be the kiss of death.
They used to work together so well, like two old soft shoe shufflers on the election campaign circuit.
Donald Trump singing out "Lyin' Hillary Clinton" and Gen. Michael Flynn leading the chant "lock her up, lock her up."
It was practically an American love story.
But then Trump made Flynn his national security adviser, and it all went horribly wrong.
It was a beautiful sight. Tens of thousands of people waving red, white, and blue flags, cheering Emmanuel Macron, France's newest and youngest president, after his victory over the far-right demagogue Marine Le Pen.
Emmanuel Macron, a youthful former investment banker, handily won France’s presidential election on Sunday, defeating the staunch nationalist Marine Le Pen after voters firmly rejected her far-right message and backed his call for centrist change.
But while it was a big victory for progressives in France, and a vote of confidence in the battered European Union.
For Le Pen's supporters, and their camp followers like Donald Trump and Ezra Levant, the results couldn't be more devastating...
When I think of all the damage Donald Trump has done in just 100 days, and how many more people he might hurt or kill before his day is done.
Or wonder whether the planet will survive him and his bestial ignorance...
I can't help thinking of all those precious progressives who tried to make us believe that Hillary Clinton would be worse than Trump.
So I'm glad to see Bill Maher go after them with some biting words, and a giant cucumber.
With only 24 hours to go before the French presidential election, and Emmanuel Macron leading Marine Le Pen in the polls, this was hardly surprising.
The campaign of the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was hit on Friday by a large dump of leaked emails and other documents on a file-sharing website.
Le Pen's neo-nazis are about to get thumped, and they are bitter and desperate.
But what is surprising and shocking is the Canadian connection.
The hapless stooges in our corporate media like to describe Lisa Raitt as the most "moderate" candidate in the Con leadership race.
The one who is so "nice" she doesn't stand a chance in that collection of racists and religious fanatics.
But of course we know better. We know that all things are relative.
And that when Raitt is riled up, she can be as crazy as all the others.
The front page of the New York Daily News sums up the situation well.
Donald Trump grins moments after the House of Representatives had passed his Trumpcare bill.
While his Republicans prepared to party...
Even though the bill would take health insurance away from at least 24 million Americans.
And condemn many of the poorest and the most vulnerable citizens of that country to a death most miserable.
Last weekend I watched Donald Trump celebrate his first 100 days in power with a rally in Pennsylvania.
And a speech that Michael Gerson in the Washington Post called the most hate-filled in modern history.
A deranged rant where Trump attacked his political opponents, the media, and refugees in a manner that had to be seen to be believed.
One that culminated with a poem that compared refugees and migrants to vermin.
It may be the most overhyped story to hit the Commons in a long long time. And the most racist.
But the Cons are desperate to find something, anything, to try to hurt the Trudeau government.
So Rona Ambrose really did say this yesterday.
But then of course she should know eh?
The grotesque chicken hawk Rona Ambrose has disgraced herself so many times it's almost impossible to keep a body count.
Whether demanding that we should drop more bombs on one country or another, or attacking the Trudeau children, or trying to prevent doctors from helping dying heroin addicts, she simply has no shame.
And now she has disgraced herself again.
