Casino Owner Trump Stacks the Deck of His Climate Denial Committee
Should we trust a Las Vegas Casino owner to make up an impartial committee to evaluate the climate change reports? Trump seemed to have asked three or four leaders of climate denialism to join his climate committee to counter the government reports. But by stacking the deck and pre-determining the outcome, the committee becomes much more of an embarrassment before the country and the world. This raises the question of whether to play the slot machines at a casino run by an owner who doesn’t even care if he publicly stacks the deck in front of the whole world. Not to mention an owner with 9,000 public lies in two years. Maybe stacking the deck is the hidden meaning of “The Art of the Deal”. In any case, Trump is dealing from the bottom of the deck, as usual.
So lets see, you own a Las Vegas casino with consistent summer temperatures of 100 ºF, and your government scientists report that it will eventually become 110ºF during long heat waves. What does this do to your property value? Or, you own casinos in Atlantic City, with clients who enjoy the beach. Yet New Jersey is a prime target for sea level rise and storm damage. A check shows that all of those properties in Atlantic City, including a marina, went bankrupt. The same sea level rise will affect many golf courses by the ocean, or their nearby resort cities. Trump has a lot of property value at stake, talking about Presidential conflicts of interest.
Actually, Trump tries to fix everything that affects him. We now know of Michael Cohen’’s 500 threats to people who could challenge or embarrass Trump. Whatever Trump’s mediocre grades might be, it is far more embarrassing that Trump would threaten his military academy, Fordham, Wharton, and even the SAT test organization not to release his grades or scores. Like all schools and universities, grades and test scores are automatically secure personal information. The standard casino motto is that “the house always wins”. In this case it was the House of Representatives that won.
There are a lot of political opposition research and manipulation, but using foreign powers Russia and Cambridge Analytica are illegal. Getting loans from foreign countries that you are dealing with in foreign affairs is also ruled as unethical and illegal emoluments.
Of course, Trump is denying climate because the oilgarchs Koch brothers, and Harold Hamm are his key funders as well as the Republican Party, and conservative organizations and PACs. The Saudis also come in here, as you often stack the deck with Kings and Crown Princes.
Then there are the sales and rentals of Trump properties to Saudi Princes and Russian oilgarchs, not to mention trading yachts among themselves. And the memberships in Mar a Lago sold to those seeking personnel influence or the distinction of possibly having influence.
I knew that Trump would blame his failure in North Korea on Michael Cohen and the hearings. Did Trump break off negotiations early because he didn’t want to do anything for America when America was dealing him a bad hand? I recall that Cinton’s impeachment weakened his reputation and power so much that Sadam Hussein thought that he could get away with taking over Kuwait.
Why do I keep writing about Trump? “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” From a movie about the mob, I guess. Because I care about climate change, universities, and government conflicts of interest. And both the Michael Cohen testimony and the fake climate committee occurred during this last week. Actually, the quote is from Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III.
