9 WEEKS DOWN, 199 TO GO

Helluva week!

) FBI Director sees no evidence that Obama wiretapped the Trumpster.
) But FBI and others continue to look into the Russia-Trumpster bromance.
) Bannon gets authoritarian with the Freedom Caucus, telling them they have to support TrumpCare. (Lesson--you don't tell anti-authoritarians they have to do anything.)
) Chief Congressional suckup Devin Nunes apparently forgets that Congress is a co-equal branch of government with important responsibilities. Nunes runs to White House with allegedly earth-shaking evidence regarding the Trumpster's trumped-up falsehoods, forgetting to inform his Committee colleagues beforehand.
) Greatest deal-maker in history (just ask him) fails to get deal he said more than once he would get on election day. Accepts no responsibility for the failure. Deal-making with sleazy real estate and gambling folks was certainly much easier, maybe because only money was involved and not politics, principles, morality, or other such distactions. 

8 WEEKS DOWN, 200 TO GO

A QUANDRY

You are a loyal patriotic American. You've served your country in a variety of ways, maybe even including wearing your country's uniform. You believe in the principles upon which your country was founded and that it strives to live by. You want your country to succeed.

But the President of your country is a narcissistic prima donna bozo who can't stop telling you and your fellow citizens how great he is. He also lies and fabricates well beyond the degree that is common in the political profession. You want him to fail.

How do you reconcile these divergent desires?

WHY DONALD WON AND HILLARY LOST

Of course, many factors contributed to the Trumpster's victory (in the electoral college, not in the popular vote) over Hillary. One of the most important, however, maybe the most important, was the Trumpster's apparent competence with Twitter versus the email debacle of Hillary and her pals.  

Illustrator Phil McKenney of Montross, Virginia, has captured the essence of the matter in the above 'toon. The Trumpster's Twitter skills gave the impression, most likely false, that he knew what he was doing in the brave new world of the Information Age.

On the other hand, the email mess that the Hillary crowd brought on themselves led many border-line voters to conclude, "I don't want these clowns in charge of the nation." Oh, the Hillary people would blame it all on Russian hacking. But even if there was such hacking (as there probably was), what it revealed was a bunch of technological neophytes who never learned the basic lesson of email: "If you don't want it on the front page of the Washington Post, don't put it in an email."

7 WEEKS DOWN, 201 TO GO

The Trumpster started off week 7 by accusing his predecessor of felonious conduct. The felonious conduct was apparently so obvious that the Trumpster saw no need to provide any collaborating facts, details, proof, whatever.

Then His Highness turned to the difficult issue of repealing, reforming, renaming, whatever, ObamaCare. His negotiating skills were much in evidence as he called various interested parties into his presence for meetings. The nation watched with expectant awe as one of history's greatest deal-makers did his stuff. The outcome was certainly to be the best national healthcare system ever.

House Speaker Paul-three-hour-marathon-Ryan did his part with a power point presentation that had other power point warriors in the nation's capital gasping in admiration. Business schools across the country, knowing outstanding teaching material when they see it, immediately begged for copies.

The Trumpster began the weekend with a round of golf at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia. It was his ninth golf outing in his first seven weeks in office. Not bad work if you can get it.  

6 WEEKS DOWN, 202 TO GO

GREATEST SPEECH EVER!! CERTAINLY ONE OF THE TOP FIVE IN THE NATION'S HISTORY!

In a little over 60 minutes before the U.S. Congress Tuesday night, Donald J. Trump rescued his Presidency from a descent into oblivion, thereby insuring not just four years of his extraordinary leadership but likely an additional four as well.

He handled multi-syllable words as if he knew what they meant. He avoided the "believe me's." He did not label his opponents with "lying," "crooked," or other nasty terms. His exaggerations and distortions were within the range of what previous Presidents had thrown at a Congressional audience. Many in the media were gushingly effusive in their commentary.

In short, he graduated from being just a narcissistic buffoon to being a Presidential narcissistic buffoon.

So most of Wednesday was a fine day for the Trumpster and his team as they envisioned the world turning in their direction. But then Comrade Sessions brought back reality, and the week ended with the Trumpster sulking off to his little hideaway in Mar-a-Lago and the companionship of his fellow one-percenters.