Sen. Dianne Feinstein didn't take long to do a flip-flop on a halfway positive comment about President Trump. She said in a speech: "I just hope he has the ability to learn and to change, and if he does,he can be a good president." A short time later she issued a statement repeating her past slams against Trump to reassure her fellow Democrats. 

Critics of the Trump White House had a field day sniping at the first lady's choice of footwear for the first couple's visit to the hurricane-ravaged areas of south Texas. Truth is, Melania Trump would draw criticism if she had worn hip boots.

On a serious note, I join my colleagues in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in helping raise disaster relief funds. We are urging our readers to send contributions to the organizations of their choice, including the American Red Cross http://tinyurl.com/y9r2eq7q, the Salvation Army http://tinyurl.com/5r59fvd and the Houston Flood Relief Fund http://tinyurl.com/y9ry46am.

Pope Francis continues to pound away at President Trump for his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He voices his criticism from the Vatican City, which is surrounded by massive walls rising 40 feet tall.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dramatically stated, "There are tears running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty" (and teared up himself) in condemning President Trump for ordering a temporary halt on immigrants from seven countries. But less than two years ago he said "a pause may be necessary" in the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. Voters are fed up with double-talking politicians.

Members of Congress are supposed to be intelligent and well informed in order to make important decisions about national and world affairs. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., failed the test. While blabbering about impeaching President Trump she declared, "he is wrapping his arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into...Korea?" Suppose she meant Crimea?

Democrats protesting President Trump's executive orders on immigrating had some sound problems, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came through loud and clear when she prompted Rep. Andrew Carson, D-Ind.) on a hot mike to say, "Tell them you're a Muslim."

When is a ban not a ban? When Donald Trump says so. When the president announced he had signed executive orders barring people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to the U.S. for 90 days, he said, "We're going to have a very strict ban." But his press secretary, Sean Spicer, strongly emphasized that "It's not a travel ban. It's a vetting system to keep America safe."

While many of her colleagues were speaking out about President Trump's Supreme Court nomination and his "get tough" policy on immigration, Sen. Tammy Spicer, D- Wis.) was more concerned about soy and almond milk. In a letter to the president she said plant-based drinks sold as milk are "unfair to dairy farmers" and urged an FDA crackdown on mislabeling of non-dairy products.

Chelsea Handler said she wouldn't have Melania Trump on her TV show because she "can barely speak English." The first lady not only speaks English but also French, Italian, German and Slovene. Handler speaks profanity, vulgarity and smut.



Billionaire Donald Trump's presidential salary must be cramping his style. His Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, is doubling its membership fees.



"I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian and found out later my family was Jewish. I stand ready to register as Muslim." Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. But the strongly partisan Democrat is not about to become a Republican.

Builder Donald Trump. Reality TV star Donald Trump. Now he's President Donald Trump. And he's letting no  grass grow under his feet. While engaging in inaugural festivities and other traditional activities, he made a special trip to the CIA, talked on the phone with foreign leaders and signed dozens of executive orders.

Chief executives commonly have "to do" lists. President Trump has an "undo" list, focusing on reversing many of his predecessor's actions. He targeted Obamacare, telling agencies to ease the burden of the law where possible while "repeal and replace" legislation was being perfected. He also withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and reinstated a ban on promoting abortions overseas.

Presidential wannabe Ted Cruz has become more of a team player in the U.S. Senate. Not only is he supporting Trump administration appointees and issues, politico.com reports the Texas Republican is hosting a weekly pick-up basketball game "to get his fellow senators to like him.

Donald Trump gave an indication of how he'll work with Republican members of Congress as President when he saved them from their own stupidity. In a tweet, he pointed out what a bad impression it would make with voters for the House majority to make its first order of business gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Joe Biden is still being frisky in his final days as vice president. During the swearing-in ceremony on the Senate floor, he gave the wife of Sen. Chuck Grassley a full kiss on the lips.

The new Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, fired his opening shots after virtually declaring war against the incoming president by poking fun at Donald Trump's main campaign theme, "Make America Great Again." Never mind that a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, used the slogan in his 1992 presidential campaign.

Blogger Bob, like many political newsmakers, is taking some time off for the holidays.

President Obama failed to slow the rise of the oceans as promised in his 2009 inaugural address, but he seized control of parts of the Atlantic and Arctic by using his executive authority to ban offshore drilling in those waters. His action is raw meat for the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress.

With only a short time remaining in his presidency, Barack Obama delivered a sharp blow to police groups and their supporters in Congress by giving a four-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to Debo Adegbile, who defended former Black Panther and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal. The action was branded a "slap in the face" and a "kick in the teeth" by opponents.

And while innocent shoppers were killed and injured in an apparent terrorist attack in a German Christmas market and the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in Ankara, President Obama plays golf in Hawaii on his final taxpayer-funded vacation.

Donald Trump told voters he would go to Washington and "drain the swamp." He's not the only politician to make that promise.
In fact, Ben Carson, one of his primary rivals, also used the phrase. "Washington is built on a swamp," he said. "Together we can drain the swamp and protect our children's future." (President-elect Trump has given Carson the responsibility of "draining the swamp" in the bureaucracy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.")
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reports the phrase first became popular in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan said he was in Washington "to drain the swamp" of big government.
Even Democrat Nancy Pelosi, when she became House Speaker in 2006, said one of her priorities was to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule.
Trump, with his selection of so many Washington "insiders" for his administration, now finds the promise coming back to haunt him.

How Your Taxes Are Spent

The Internal Revenue Service allowed 27 of its employees to spent more than $1.4 million on travel expenses in the 2015 fiscal year, including luxury apartment bookings and stays in five-star hotels. Don't try claiming this kind of exhorbitant expenditure on your tax return.

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange insists the Russian government was not the source of emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman blasted the U.S. for "groundlessly" accusing Russia of meddling in America's elections. lBut the White House, despite calling for a "smooth transition", points to President-elect Donald Trump as the guilty party.

In the Watergate drama of Richard Nixon's administration, a source known as "Deep Throat" gave reporter Bob Woodward inside information that led to the president's resignation. A man claiming to be a player in the WikiLeaks release of emails damaging to Hillary Clinton in her campaign said a source passed the documents to him in a meeting in a Washington, D.C. park.

Among the stream of callers at Trump Tower was rapper Kanye West. He said he wanted to meet with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss "multicultural issues."

"All our senators and congressmen are away from Washington now. This is the season of the year when they do the least damage to their country." - Will Rogers

How Your Taxes Are Spent
In Florida, an agency paid an estimated $26.2 million in Medicaid benefits over a five-year period to dead people. A government watchdog said the agency neglected to keep up to date on beneficiaries' deaths.

How Your Taxes Are Spent
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) spent more than $100 million over the last few years to ferry illegal immigrant children around the U.S., shuttling them to relatives or among government agencies. The Immigration Reform Law Institute said the money could have been better spent on enforcement.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one of the early losers who then endorsed Donald Trump, is said to be in the running for Secretary of Energy. He had told the Trump transition team he wanted to run the Defense Department and sources said he had been offered  a job heading an agency that he said in a debate he would abolish -- but couldn't remember which one.

The Daily Caller reports the Obamas have sent out their last Christmas card from the White House, but there's something missing: Christmas.  The card, signed by the president, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their two daughters, with paw prints by their dogs, Bo and Sunny, wishes everyone "Happy Holidays."

Frenzied opponents of Scott Pruitt , President-elect Donald Trump's choice to head the EPA, would have people believe he would change it to the Environmental Pollution Agency. Business owners favor "Economic Protection Agency."


It must be difficult for Hillary Clinton to accept the "real news" of her defeat as a presidential candidate. In a rare appearance in Washington she unleashed an attack on "fake news."

Donald Trump hasn't released his tax returns, but now we know what kind of music he likes. His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said he's "a huge Elton John fan" - despite the singer being a longtime Democratic supporter.

He hasn't even been sworn in yet but President-elect Donald Trump already is actively engaged in creating jobs. He persuaded Carrier to keep 1,100 employees from losing their jobs in Indiana. And after a meeting with a Japanese bank CEO, Masayoshi Son, he announced that Son would invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 new jobs.

John Kasich finally did something right. The Ohio governor, one of the 16 Republican candidates who lost to Donald Trump in the primaries, broke his loyalty pledge and refused to endorse him. He boycotted the Republican National Convention held in his state. But as members of the Electoral College prepare to gather later this month with anti-Trump feelings still running high in some circles, Kasich sent a message: "I am not a candidate for president and ask that electors not vote for me..."

Vice President Joe Biden's mouth is still putting him in the news. Asked about his political future, Biden told a group of reporters, "I am going to run for president in 2020. What the hell man, anyway." Asked if he was kidding, he replied that he is "not committing not to run."  .

A $1.4 billion casino and resort with a 24-story hotel and 3,000-seat theater is opening in the Washington area - on the Maryland shore of the Potomac River -  and it's not a project of real estate tycoon Donald Trump.  Earlier this year, before being elected president, Trump opened the doors to a new Trump hotel in the historic old post office building a few blocks from the White House.

After deliberating since before Thanksgiving on the matter, brain surgeon Ben Carson accepted President-elect Donald Trump's offer to be nominated for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. We can be glad Trump and the rest of his cabinet officers don't take this long to make decisions.

Fidel Castro's final trip to eternity was marred by an embarrassing incident. The Russian-made jeep carrying the ashes of the long-ruling Cuban dictator broke down in the middle of his funeral procession.

Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler broke their promises about leaving the U.S. if Donald Trump won the election, but Wole Soyinka kept his word. The Nobel Prize-winning author threw away his green card and went back to Africa.

President-elect Donald Trump did more than thank voters for their support in a "thank you" tour that began in Ohio, following a stop in Indiana where he spoke at a Carrier plant he kept from closing, saving 1,100 jobs. He also announced he will appoint retired Marine Gen. James N. "Mad Dog" Mattis to be Secretary of Defense.Well, it's California.

 It's now okay to urinate on the sidewalk in San Francisco. A Superior Court judge said he and his colleagues tossed out 66,000 arrest warrants because they felt it made no sense to lock people up for fines they couldn't afford to pay.

"Democrats did it for themselves and now Republicans can do it as well." - CNN's Kate Bolduan, referring to a Senate rules change that makes it easier for a majority party to nuke a filibuster on presidential appointments.

Would-be vice president Tim Kaine automatically took the Democrat party line on Twitter when a Somali-born student at Ohio State University went on a bloody rampage. The Virginia senator tweeted that he was saddened by the "senseless act of gun violence." The attacker used a car and a butcher knife in his apparent act of terrorism.

California, in its campaign against global warming, is now targeting greenhouse gases produced by livestock, the Associated Press reports. To put it bluntly, California is regulating cow farts.

Reaction to the death of Cuba's brutal dictator, Fidel Castro, was mixed:

President Obama: "History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him."

President-elect Trump: “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights ... our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty."

Former president Jimmy Carter - "Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country."

MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthew recalled that when Castro led a revolution and "knocked off the corrupt dictator Batista" he was regarded as a "romantic figure" and "almost like a folk hero." But he acknowledged that when "he began executing people" and turned pro-Soviet, "he was not a friend of the United States by any means at all."

Donald Trump isn't the type to let Michele Obama tell him what he should eat, And he and his family had their choice of 24 items on the menu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. They included "Mr. Trump's Wedge Salad", turkey, beef, lamb or seafood, and "Three-Layer Trump Chocolate Cake."

While Trump's meeting with Mitt Romney triggered speculation about a possible cabinet post for his former critic, the president-elect made a surprise announcement about two women - charter school advocate Betsy DeVos and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley - for high posts in the new administration. Did Trump find them in one of Romney's "binders"?

Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto, stated flatly his country would not pay for the wall Trump wants to build on the south Texas border. But one Mexican firm, a cement maker, has offered to help on the project.

During two campaigns and eight years as president, Barack Obama has been called a lot of names ... but "manspreader"? That's the term a Russian TV anchor used in excoriating Obama for acting in an "uncivilized" fashion toward President-elect Donald Trump. While Trump was behaving "humbly" in their recent meeting in the White House, "Obama sat with his legs wide open ... (manspreading) a demonstration of male domination," said Dmitri Kiselyov.


Trump, a harsh critic of Hillary Clinton in the campaign, now is saying kind words about her. But a shopping mall Santa in Sanford, Fla., told children she is on his "naughty list." He was reassigned and required to take training on being a symbol of goodwill for all.

 Have you heard the Trumps are separating? The president-elect told reporters he would live in the White House. His wife Melania will continue to live in the Trump Tower in New York with their young son Barron.