2017 May 23^rd

Now we find that our intelligence service warned the Israelis’ Mossad about sharing their sensitive intelligence with us until we could be sure that Trump was not a conduit for sending it directly to the Russians. If it got to the Russians it would then be available to their friends the Iranians. The Iranians are the sworn enemies of Israel and the Iranians would remove whatever source the Israelis had used to get their information.

The Russians played Trump very effectively and got just what they wanted. We have no idea about what they did with the information Trump gave them; we do know that Mossad, a source for it, is not happy that the Russians got it. H.R. McMasters, Trump’s National Security Advisor, claims Trump gave the Russians nothing they didn’t already have. Then McMaster claims that Trump didn’t know that this Intelligence came from Israel. Trump may not have known that because his intelligence briefers have been cautioned to give him no more than three pieces of information at a time. His attention span is too short to handle more.

There is a 1997 film titled “Being There” about a mentally challenged, out of work, gardener played by Peter Sellers. He becomes an advisor to powerful people and then is tapped as a presidential candidate. The parallels to Trump’s ascendancy are remarkable and frightening. The movie is now considered a classic. I wonder if it will eventually be banned.

Tomorrow Trump is off to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis. Pope Francis is a Franciscan and as far removed from Trump’s excesses of wealth as it is possible to get.

Pope Francis refuses to live in the ornate and luxurious quarters reserved for Popes and instead lives in much more humble quarters. Trump’s residence, before he was elected president, was in an enormous Manhattan tower with his name prominently displayed on it. Inside the tower Trump claimed to own a three floor 33,000 square foot apartment. He doesn’t of course. His apartment is about 11,000 square feet. Well, never mind; many of the fixtures are gold plated and that counts for a lot with the Donald.

Pope Francis has a long record of having been concerned about the poor. So is Donald Trump. For Trump the concern is with the poor taxpayers; that is literally how his budget director Mick Mulvaney described his budget proposal. Mulvaney claimed that the cuts in Medicaid, food stamps, Supplemental Social Security and school lunches are all to provide poor taxpayers with a break. It does too, taxpayers earning a million a year will find a 50,000 dollar a year lower tax bill. Mulvaney keeps saying that he just can’t face taxpayers and ask them to keep funding these medical programs for poor people. I’ll bet the Pope could do that.

Even staunch Republicans say this budget is dead on arrival. This includes such stalwarts as Senator John McCain and Texas Senator Cronyn who are unhappy because the increased amount for defense is too low and Senator Dean Heller of Nevada and Senator Bob Portman of Ohio who are unhappy with cuts to other programs. Portman is unhappy with the cuts to funds to preserve the Great Lakes.

On balance, it looks like it’s back to the drawing boards for the Donald…between golf games of course.