Destroying America: You're doing a heck of a job, Orangey

Even if you claim to be a Maher-hater, PLEASE watch the clip embedded above. It's an instant classic. Maher will be remembered many decades after his death for this one.

Incidentally, Glenn Greenwald is still trying to pooh-pooh Russiagate. Yeesh! I can't believe I was ever impressed by that guy.

Killing Puerto Rico. It's time to get serious about the 25th Amendment, because Trump has clearly lost his marbles. A very short while ago, he claimed that O-care repealed lost because a key senator was in the hospital. (Utterly untrue.) He also implied that he was impeded by the 60-vote "filibuster" threshold, even though that impediment did not apply in this case.

On his handling of the Puerto Rico crisis, he used the kind of terminology one would expect from a sleazy Hollywood producer:

“We have had tremendous reviews from government officials, as we have in Texas and Louisiana, and as we have in Florida,” Mr. Trump said...

Oh really? Here's a review from the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz.

“We are dying here. And I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles. So, mayday, we are in trouble.

“Fema [the Federal Emergency Management Administration] asks for documentation, I think we’ve given them enough documentation.”

“They had the gall this morning – look at this [gestures to two large binders filled with paper] – they had the gall this morning of asking me: ‘What are your priorities, mayor?’

“Well, where have you been?

“And I have been very respectful of the Fema employees. I have been patient but we have no time for patience any more.

“So, I am asking the president of the United States to make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives.

She warned that "...the world will see how we are treated not as second-class citizens but as animals that can be disposed of." Also see here:

“The federal response has been a disaster,” said lawmaker Jose Enrique Melendez, a member of Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s New Progressive Party. “It’s been really slow.”

He said the Trump administration had focused more on making a good impression on members of the media gathered at San Juan’s convention center than bringing aid to rural Puerto Rico.

“There are people literally just modeling their uniforms,” Melendez said. “People are suffering outside.”

On Friday, Trump declared that "We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe." Oh really?

Trump jetted to New Jersey that Thursday night to spend a long weekend at his private golf club there, save for a quick trip to Alabama for a political rally. Neither Trump nor any of his senior White House aides said a word publicly about the unfolding crisis.

Trump did hold a meeting at his golf club that Friday with half a dozen Cabinet officials — including acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke, who oversees disaster response — but the gathering was to discuss his new travel ban, not the hurricane. Duke and Trump spoke briefly about Puerto Rico but did not talk again until Tuesday, an administration official said.

Administration officials would not say whether the president spoke with any other top officials involved in the storm response while in Bedminster, N.J. He spent much of his time over those four days fixated on his escalating public feuds with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with fellow Republicans in Congress and with the National Football League over protests during the national anthem.

Last weekend, Trump did not make one single call -- to anyone -- related to the Puerto Rico disaster. He will, however, be making some calls this weekend. A week and a half later.

Meanwhile...

Lock him up. Seriously: LOCK HIM UP. As you no doubt know by now, Team Trump have been involved in an email scandal of their own, doing government business on normal, everyday email systems that are far less secure than the private server that Hillary used. The most egregious transgressor has been Jared Kushner.

Former counter-intelligence Czar says it is likely that foreign intelligence services have compromised the private email server of White House senior advisor Jared Kushner.

“Jared is probably one of the top five or 10 targets in the U.S. government because of his access to the president and because of the portfolios he’s been given,” Richard Clarke told Politico.

“It’s a pretty safe bet that his personal devices have been compromised by foreign intelligence services,” Clarke explained. “And therefore there is some risk that meetings he attends are compromised too.”

Kushner is one of six White House officials who are said to have used a personal email accounts to conduct official government business. The other senior advisors include Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn and senior policy advisor Stephen Miller.

“The National Security Agency warned senior White House officials in classified briefings that improper use of personal cellphones and email could make them vulnerable to espionage by Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries,” Politico reported. “The NSA briefers explained that cyberspies could be using sophisticated malware to turn the personal cellphones of White House aides into clandestine listening devices, to take photos and video without the user’s knowledge and to transfer vast amounts of data via Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth, according to one former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the briefings.”

Hell, lock 'em ALL up. Let's rewrite the criminal code: Hypocrisy on this level, on this scale, should be a capital offense.

It is possible that the use of personal email servers by senior White House advisors threatened leadership of the executive branch.

“Once a foreign intelligence service “hooks” an electronic device, it will vacuum up all of the data, including any work files, and all of their contacts. That allows cyberspies to gain access to the devices of potentially thousands of other people,” Politico explained.

Despite what we heard from the right-wing propagandists, Hillary's server contained no classified material, except for a few trifling accidents such as an utterly unimportant message about Malawi that should never have received a classification stamp in the first place. What the Trumpers have done was far, far worse.

Where are the congressional investigations?