Donald J. Trump is acting very nervous, Trump is also acting very recklessly, Trump's foreign policy is via Vladimir Putin and Russia, Phish Summer Tour is well underway, Xponential Music Festival, Orange is the New Black, JRAD in Brooklyn, GOP votes against election security, Rams / Aaron Donald Saga, Rams play Baltimore this week, Jeff Sessians is so weird

There is so much to talk about this week.

Donald J. Trump is acting very nervous lately and even more than his normal nervous energy that he exudes by spewing out whatever rhetoric that shows how something is close to him when he speaks at his rallies. Or, when he Tweets. As a matter of fact, Trump is doing more rally's now than actual work.


In reality, the way Trump acts is so reckless.


The lies are absurd but what is most absurd is that his 30% following literally believes his words and what he says. And, Trump exploits that with his base.

First off, he never makes any sense and he very rarely puts together coherent sentences. I do not know how and why people take to that way of public speaking.


Second off, he lies and lies about things in ways to stir up his base. He is pitting wars with his extreme base vs. the Department of Justice and namely against people like Robert Mueller, James Comey, Andrew McCabe and quite frankly anything and anyone that stands in Trump's way, let alone that goes against his odd stances or words that he says every day. Nothing is scared with this guy. His entire state of being is self preservation. And, it shows to anyone with brains and with even the remote astute ability to weigh what is said against what is real or what is not. This guy lies about stuff that not only can be proven in about 14 seconds, he also lies about things you can find on his very own White House web site.


Again, he knows that his base does not read in general let alone go to their website. That is why he lies. He gets away with it so easily.

Third off, he is setting things in place that is only based on his 30% base. He is setting forth law, tax breaks, getting rid of laws and regulations accordingly if it hurts his people and he is setting up Federal Judges based on his 1%.


Watch now as the goal posts move yet again because I think Trump is realizing or admitting to the fact his son, Donald Jr., one of the biggest assholes on this planet (equal to his brother Eric), totally orchestrated getting help from Russian Agents. They had no problem on getting dirt no matter if the property was stolen and hacked out from the Democratic Party computer network and offices.


It has gone from them not knowing anything about some meeting in Trump Tower, to it being about adoption, to now his son having inadvertently to have done something with Russian Agents.


I love how they call it a mistake or how they say nothing came of it.

By that standard, if we shot someone in Times Square and missed people with the bullets used, it would not be a crime in their eyes.

They have also hit the 'empathy' part of the claim where the defendants refers to corrupt people like themselves that act in corrupt ways as 'good people.'

Besides, the FBI has the call record for gods sakes from Donald Jr.'s phone and to the blocked caller. They can easily get that information from Verizon or Sprint and what am I saying? They already that that information.


And, that is the problem. The GOP, Trump and his base just keep allowing more and more horrible issues that breach our Democracy.


The GOP cheats to win.


The last two times they won, they scammed their ways into the White House (setting aside George Bush Jr.'s win after 9/11). And, speaking in part about the content in those parenthesis, they scammed in back 2000 and look at what happened to the United States the subsequent 8 years.


Everyone glosses over that fact and then we have the same thing happening today. Trump scammed his way into the White House losing by almost 3 million true votes, and he is making law that is not in the best interest of the United States.

They only care about his people and that 1%.


His base that makes up so much of that 99%, is blind. They refuse to admit it.

It happened to me in real life. I refuse to hang out with people that not only discount what I have to say, but that also get their viewpoints and total talking points verbatim only from Fox News.


I can care less about who watches Fox News. I have watched it at times. I just won't watch certain shows that are mere conduits from the white House (and that is right out of the playbook from the Kremlin and RT (Russia TV).


Points and counterpoints should be what makes the world go round but not any more. I suppose a liberal and a GOP'er cannot be hanging out in the same room anymore.


The problem is that it is Donald J. Trump pulling these strings and again, I saw it happen in front of my eyes directly to me last week.


Something was on the TV about Trump.
This person made a comment about how it does not matter what Trump does because nothing will get done in the Government and with Congress anyway (I love how these people are saying whomever is now an obstructionist with a straight face after living during the Obama years). I cannot put my finger on what it was about (so many Trump issues have come and go since then quite frankly) precisely and I probably agreed but something escalated it to a subject that I am well versed at. I know what it was. It was about that smoke and mirror GDP 4.1% announcement Trump touted to the world about it being the end all be all GDP number in the history of it.

I explained that (Bill) Clinton did it like 13 times which did not sit well because then they said that Obama never did it. I pulled a Stephanie Rhule saying right away that except for the 4 times the Obama admin did but setting that aside, Trump did whatever the GDP was last month at 4.1%.


I honestly said that he (Trump) should just have talked about that but instead he lies saying that no one else in the history of mankind has gotten those numbers that he was somehow was able to pull off last month.

I then explained that Trump walked into that trend. I said that it has been headed in that direction gradually for the last 8 years.


I then had to ask the question. I said that besides that so called $1,100 tax refund people got (not me of course, I somehow owed money this year) because of the tax plan, what has Donald J. Trump as the POTUS done for them?

They then segued over to unemployment stating how great he has been for that aspect of the United States workforce. Now I am not sure why that comes into play in this person's life but fine, I said not only the same thing (trend headed upward over last 10 years), I also said that 6,000,000 people need jobs today. And, how that is the most since the second World War (granted that is not accomodating for population growth but regardless, that is that stat today).


I explained that my problem with Trump is that he scammed his way into this office using three states and using Russian Agents to help him win.


The reply was that 'everyone does it.' I said that not everyone scams their way into office unless you are a Republican. I said that Democrats do not suppress votes or try to change votes or try to mislead people from voting and hell, they (the GOP) just out and out try to stop people from voting.


Democrats and Liberals want as many people to vote as humanly possible.


Liberals like me cannot believe how little people vote in the general elections, but regardless, it was then said that Trump cannot get anything done anyway and I said that he should NOT be able to get anything done. I went on saying that he scammed his way in and still lost the overall vote by almost 3 million votes. The win came via three states in the midwest basically and he is catering to what his 30% base.


He is really governing for the 1% which I cannot believe everyone does not see. It is right in front of every one's eyes.


Trump has done nothing to cross over or to gain anyone else besides that base of his which just believes whatever he says. He knows that he can just say anything and that they will believe it.


If he was truly smart, and if he was truly into gaining a serious legacy, day one he would have started to govern across the board with give and takes and with compromises. Instead, he is governing to his base which is NOT a majority or even close to being one. It makes no sense to me unless you just do NOT care.


Regardless, after I explained that he used Russian Agents and after I looked at this person in disbelief that it was now condoned to be able to use Russians Agents to help sway an election here in the United States, I realized nothing that I said mattered.


I was actually stunned that I was hearing this in real life. I had heard about these people on TV but I never really saw the 'sheep' like mentality in real life before now. And, I had a relationship with this person. We hung out a lot. I am not sure why I was fed up this time when it came to what Trump is telling people. And, how these people are spreading those lies. It just has to stop already. It is not a game.


Do NOT get me wrong please, I had random people lash out at me in public doing things like calling Obama a Muslim (I was NOT even an Obama backer) before racing away from the bar and at this restaurant, but I just thought that woman was a total dirt ball and so I did not even engage it.

In this case, I am in this conversation that is ok so far and at the same time, I had the hope that I could just explain facts and anyone would be opened to it.


Then all of a sudden, it was said something about Hillary being corrupt.


I was like what are you talking about?


Then, the next sentence was something about Obama.


I was like wow, you are literally telling me the same weird chants and talking points Trump says every day.


I honestly explained just that. I said that they just did what Trump does like clockwork. I said that they were doing the bidding for a complete lair.


I then showed them the GDP numbers from the White House Government web site and I showed the Department of Labor numbers from that Government website.


I was told that was my 'left winged spin'.


That is their way of calling me a lair.
I was like that ain't happening. I did not get that information off some talking point on CNN or MSNBC and nor did I pull that information out of thin air.

I went off saying that Trump is really screwing things up (ie: debacle at the border with the kids, alienating us from all world leaders and affiliating us with autocrats and dictators, taking away land I have hiked on in order to drill for oil, allowing things like companies being able to dump their wastes and materials into rivers, etc.). I then said that he is the swampiest guy on the planet. I also said that he lies to their face and most of all, that he can give 8 fucks about them.


The Trumpians have no care in the world that this admin is planning foreign policy via Vladimir Putin and Russia. They have no care and zero knowledge of what a dictator is and what how autocrats hate fact based people and outlets.


That is what Trump is doing. He is dividing us. It happened to me this week. It is happening on a huge and on a broad scale all over America.


His people just follow whatever he says. He talks so much about the Department of Justice and the Media caklling them basically the enemy of the people and I am not joking.


This will end in violence.

The Trump people have also lost it last week because they are receiving the documents from the Manifort trial that started up this week. Gates testimony is now visible to everyone and that is why the nut bag Rudy Giuliani is out there babbling about things that make no sense or about there being collusion and how it is not some crime that has ever been on the books.


Now of course no one ever mentioned the words collusion except for Trump and his people and even still, there is total collusion. Trump basically threw his asshole kid under the bus today with that tweet about him potentially being inadvertently involved.

Mind you that this one meeting (which this is the ONLY one that they were caught doing BTW; I am sure they had more meetings about corrupt and illegal ways to try to beat Hillary) went from them have zero knowledge of it to it being about that Magnitsky Act (press release written by Donald J. Trump himself on Airforce One). To it now being a mistake that they somehow fell into this meeting without any protocols or knowledge of what the meeting was even about.


None of it makes any sense. I don't even know if what I said above here makes any sense because I cannot describe it perfectly. It is all over the place.

Which is the point. That is what they want. They want people to be confused. The problem is that it is not the 80's anymore and if people really want to do it, they can find a fact very easily compared to then. Trump only knows how to govern right out of the 80s. His playbook is right from that era. It is because has no clue about anything else and because he is winging it.

He is also lying. 

Like I said, Trump himself created the press release lying about the meeting. Now, it turns out that Trump Jr. could have somehow inadvertently took a meeting with Russian Agents even saying the sentence 'love it' when it was said about the content that they could get which in turn was stolen material from the Democratic Committee Office.

When Trump Jr. called a blocked number which we know there is one to the White House, Mueller has that information from Verizon or Sprint or whatever company that they happen to use. Even though it is under Subpoena rule to evidently the Committee to not be able to retrieve the 'blocked numbers' recipient name, the FBI can get that their way without a subpoena. They already know who the call was made to that day and the minute after the meeting concluded.

Remember when Gore was given his opponents playbook or something? The first thing that he did was to turn it over to the FBI.


If someone approaches you saying that they have stolen and hacked emails that they could use against one's opponent in an election, you should call the FBI after that sentence is completed and then you should really have that person indicted by the Government.

They knew what they were doing. Please.

I honestly would not have even cared in the broad scheme of life if he was not so corrupt and most of all, not all about himself. I wanted to give him a chance. I feel like he blew it. Now he really has no one on his side.

He should have distracted us Liberals and Dem's with compromises quite frankly. He could have thrown us a few bones so to speak, and no one would have time or the right to raise issue after issue with this administration. If he would have included all of America in some of these decisions and platforms they are trying to build, I guarantee no one would care as much about the Russian probe. The problem is that he does not care about anyone besides himself.

Which is ironic because if he did cater to all Americans, more people than his base would not only like him much, much more, he would also create a legacy that would in turn make him immortal in a positive way (or even like Ronald Reagan who somehow came out of that Presidency looking like a god to Republicans because before Trump started up Reagan was the end all be all Republican POTUS).

Instead, now, he is exposed. He is fast becoming known as being so shady and so corrupt and diabolical all at the same time, while in the end, his legacy could potentially be notorious.

When this Russian things blows up even more, the GOP will start to abandon him. Actually, if they lose the House or the Senate in 90 or whatever days until the mid terms, more GOP'ers will then bail from Trump's spell.
Image result for phish summer tour
Anyhow, let's talk about everything else besides Trump.

Phish Summer Tour began out West in Lake Tahoe, up at the Gorge in Washington State. Then, they played the Bill Graham Civic and the Forum in Cali. They jumped over to Texas for one show in Austin before starting their three night run in Atlanta which was this weekend. They come to Camden and to Merriweather along with one show down in Raleigh before the Curve Ball Festival.

I heard a rumour that would so 9 sets to stand for 9 innings in a baseball game. I also heard there will be no midnight set.

The shows though I think have just been OK. I think they started to turn it on a bit at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, but they really turned on over the weekend in Atlanta. There was signs of sickness in San Francisco but let's be real about the band, they do best back east for some reason. They also do way better in larger scaled environments. And, they are poised to tear through the final part of summer tour. I hope they play some songs they did in Atlanta. I have a newbie going to Camden night two and I think a couple college friends will do the Sunday show in Maryland. Although one has seen them with me at Merriweather. I hope my high school friend goes. Him and I did a ton of Grateful Dead shows together and wait a sec, his brother is the person that basically took us to our first Dead show on November 5th, 1979. My dad got us set up with 5th row tickets on the floor, but it was Peter Margolis that basically took me to my first Grateful Dead show.

The Rams play Baltimore on Thursday at that stadium. I am staying at the inner harbor at some apartment thing I rented via AirBnB. I won't be able to do any kickboxing or Muay Thai training but I can do the gym. Plus, they have what looks like a sweet rooftop pool. I'll be honest, I need the week off from martial arts and MMA training. My body hearts today. I did two lessons last night both at Tiger Schulman's and at Mission MMA. It was pretty hardcore yesterday. I did skip YOGA and the gym though.


The bottom line is about the Ram team is that they need to sign Aaron Donald. They must find some way to do it but the thing is Donald wants Von Miller numbers which is about 115 Million for whatever amount of years. The Rams can franchise Donald and really screw him over salary wise but they need to pay him a fair wage. He is the best lineman in the NFL. He has had the most sacks the last two years. That shows it is not a fluke and last year he missed all of pre-season again and still ended up with the most sacks in the league. He is not in training camp and so he will not bet at the Game this week.


Aaron Donald has stayed away from Los Angeles Rams training camp for the second straight year as his lengthy contract holdout continues into the month of August. He and the Rams have been negotiating a new deal for quite some time, but the two sides can’t seem to agree on a value.


To make things even worse, Sean McVay wasn’t afraid to say that very little progress has been made since training camp opened two-plus weeks ago.

“There really hasn’t been much progress in terms of the dialogue since camp,” McVay admitted in his press conference Saturday. “I know that we’re very intentional about trying to get him here, love to have him. In the meantime, like we’ve said, really appreciative of the way that guys have worked, that are here, doing a good job of finding ways to get better.”

There’s a soft deadline coming up on Aug. 7, which marks 30 days before the start of the season. If Donald doesn’t report by Tuesday, he’ll lose an accrued season toward free agency, meaning he’ll become a restricted free agent in 2019.

McVay said he was set to meet with Les Snead, Kevin Demoff and Tony Pastoors on Saturday night “to discuss kind of where we are at” with Donald’s situation. As for the deadline, though, it’s unclear if Donald and his agents view that as meaningful, given the fact that the Rams will most likely just tag him after the season regardless.

You know, I’m not really sure,” McVay said of whether Donald will report by Aug. 7. “Certainly that deadline, I don’t really know exactly how they look at it, how we look at it. I just know that we want to try to find a way to get him here, and that’s important to us.”

McVay plans to “talk to him soon” after speaking to Donald on the phone last week, saying that conversation could happen in the next couple days, if he didn’t on Saturday after practice. This is obviously the most pressing issue for the Rams right now as they’d prefer not to head into Week 1 without their best overall player..

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has the oddest vocal pattern. During that speech at High School Leadership Summit, he spoke about free speech on college campuses to a group of conservative high school students attending an event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA. During his remarks, the crowd broke out in a “lock her up” chant about former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “I had not heard that a long time,” responded the attorney general. But he sounds so weird. He slurs or something and I know he gets penned as sounding like Porky Pig but it is not that. It is something more odd. I swear I feel like he is going to dribble spit out of his mouth or something. 




JRAD Brooklyn was sick last month. I cannot wait to see them two times at Lockin'. I did this show old school style without a cell phone or GPS. I used the Rand McNally and I did the park (Prospect Park) for a few hours before eating and grabbing a couple beers at the Park Slope Brewery. I lost my cell but I got the new Google Pixel 2XL. I hope it does me right.
Joe Russo's Almost Dead Setlist Celebrate Brooklyn 2018 2018
What else? Oh the congress floor reminded me of Great Britain's Parliament. On Capital Hill House lawmakers brroke out into 'USA' chant. Certain lawmakers started chanting "U-S-A" on the House floor after Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) called for more election security funding to protect future elections from foreign meddling. They literally voted against election security. Think about that one. There is no good answer for that and/or how they voted. A vote that took place as Government officials showed the extent of the hacking and breaches.

The entire situation is a complete disgrace.

I did the Xponential Music Festival last week down here in Camden, NJ. Produced by Philadelphia’s public radio station WXPN, the musical extravaganza features performances by dozens of local and national artists on three different stages. This year David Byrne performed and then Sturgill Simpson headlined with some other acts. That was held at the BB&T Pavilion and then there were a ton of shows at Wiggins Park, a venue on the Delaware Rover produced by WXPN.

It is described to be known for "its spectacular waterfront views, lush open green spaces and array of local attractions, such as Adventure Aquarium and the Camden Children’s Garden."

I will do a complete review of the entire experience today. Ocelot (cat) went into the hospital for two days. That through me for a loop and the rehab is rough too. So I am just getting back into the swing of things.

Oh, the new Orange is the New Black season is great. It takes a page out of OZ. I was starting to lose it on the show last year but again, I love what they did so far in the season. I think I am 8 episodes deep so far.