Donald Trump Has a Good Day in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — With trumpets blaring, cannons booming and fighter jets streaking overhead trailed by red, white and blue contrails, President Trump arrived in the scorching heat of the Arabian desert on Saturday hoping to realign the politics and diplomacy of the Middle East by forcefully reasserting American support for Sunni Muslim countries and Israel against Iran’s Shiite-led government.  The start of Mr. Trump’s first trip abroad since becoming president — coming amid the scandals and chaos engulfing his administration — was intended to be a blunt rejection of President Barack Obama’s vision for the region. Mr. Obama sought a reconciliation with Iran and negotiated a deal intended to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.  The day proved to be almost everything a besieged White House could have wanted. After weeks of stormy politics and out-of-control news cycles, the president stayed rigorously on script and restrained himself on Twitter. His staff boasted about the business deals being signed, and the visual images beamed to Americans back home showed a president seemingly in command of a world stage.   The Saudis treated him like royalty, with red carpets, lavish meals and American flags flying everywhere. They repeatedly used the word “historic” to describe his visit, gave him a medal, projected a multistory image of his face on the side of the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel where he was staying, and treated him to a colorful dance display in which his staff joined in with scores of white-robed Saudis and even the president swayed back and forth.  My response to all this is “Screw you, Donald Trump”.  It’s the all war all the time president giving a firm rebuke of peace.   I guess Trump had a good day, though.  

WASHINGTON — The Chinese government systematically dismantledC.I.A. spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward.  Current and former American officials described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. It set off a scramble in Washington’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain the fallout, but investigators were bitterly divided over the cause. Some were convinced that a mole within the C.I.A. had betrayed the United States. Others believed that the Chinese had hacked the covert system the C.I.A. used to communicate with its foreign sources. Years later, that debate remains unresolved.   Trump is too busy being cozy with China now to care about any of this. 

Of course Trump is still going to be highly investigated and his troubles are not over yet.  There were two stories late last week I haven't commented upon here.  One was calling Director Comey a "nut job" to the Russians and boasting to them that the pressure was off now because Comey was getting a little too close to the Russian connection.  The other story is that Jered Kushner or some other high official currently in the White House staff has unmistakable and identifiable ties to Russia.  We are waiting for further news.  

Anaheim and Nashville are playing in round three of the NHL play-offs right now on NBC.  It’s a scoreless game and they are tied up at two wins each so far.  Nashville beat St Luis and Chicago to get here.  Anaheim defeated Calgary and Edmonton.  [The results of the game were that Nashville beat the Anaheim Ducks three to one on a late score just before the end of the game.  The Anaheim Ducks now need to win the remaining two games]  There’s a bit more coffee left in Bill’s jar than expected.  I had a cup now to wake me up and knock me out of my negative lethargy.  I had a third Clipper cigarette just now because smoking one of those cigarettes is like not smoking anything at all.  I want to feel like I’ve actually smoked something.