Hotel hell

Well, it finally hit: Barr's Big Smear Machine is revving up and going public. Barr won't stop until he destroys a victim, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

The first and foremost victim will be John Brennan. I've been predicting this for a while, ever since Roger Stone first started to tweet conspiratorial blatherings about Brennan. That was back in -- oh hell. When was it? Early 2017? Something like that.

Natasha Bertrand also seems to think that Barr will go after Brennan.

Trump, meanwhile, has become “obsessed” with Brennan, who frequently gets under the president’s skin by publicly questioning his mental acuity and fitness for office, according to a former White House official. On Brennan, “it was always, ‘he’s an idiot, he’s a crook, we ought to investigate him,’” this person said, characterizing Trump’s outbursts.

Trump has no choice at this point but to push his absurd Grand Conspiracy Theory which exonerates Russia and damns the Dems. In order to sell this idea, he needs a credible bad guy. He needs a Palpatine. Brennan, a former CIA Director, serves that role nicely.

Gotta admit, it feels a bit strange for an old anti-CIA researcher like me to have to come to Brennan's defense. It also feels strange to smile when I see Max Boot or Bill Kristol on my TV screen. It will feel very, very, very strange if I end up rooting for John effing Bolton as he testifies against Trump.

The battle against fascism maketh for strange bedfellows. Just ask the ghosts of George Patton and Joe Stalin.

Right now, let's talk hospitality. Trump's DC hotel (which used to be the Old Post Office Building) is going up for sale, even though it supposedly is making money hand over fist -- or so says Eric Trump.

A number of groups have over time expressed interest in buying the hotel, Eric Trump said in a statement. “Since we opened our doors, we have received tremendous interest in this hotel and as real-estate developers, we are always willing to explore our options,” he said.

He added that scrutiny of the hotel’s profits was another reason the family is considering a sale: “People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel, and therefore we may be willing to sell.”

The company is hoping to fetch more than $500 million for the lease rights, or a price of about $2 million a room key, say people familiar with the matter. That would make the sale one of the highest-priced hotel deals ever by this popular industry valuation metric.

A Trump who cares about optics and ethics? Don't make me laugh. Something else is up. I'm guessing that Trump has found that he can't stop plans to transform FBI HQ -- the building you see in old X-Files episodes -- into a competing hotel.

Keep in mind that Trump's DC hotel is doing as well as it is doing only because foreigners want to curry favor with the president. They should change the name of the place to Emoluments Clause Violation Inn.

Anyone who buys the place cannot expect current room rates and occupancy rates.

So why would anyone pay that inflated price? The word "bribery" becomes inescapable. It's fair to presume that the buyer would be Middle Eastern, as was the purchaser of the Salvator Mundi. Maybe this is where the painting will end up, if it hasn't been destroyed.

I think Leonardo would rather see the thing sent through a woodchipper than fall into the hands of these fiends.