Off Message: With a single tweet yesterday, President Trump virtually dismissed the movement of women coming forward to accuse men of sexual harassment and assault.

He said, “Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

That’s perfectly in line with Trump’s defense of accused friends, male colleagues, fellow politicians, and not least, himself. Amazingly the President who labelled his presidential opponent “Crooked Hillary” and questioned President Obama’s citizenship, is complaining about the court of public opinion destroying sexual harassers and abusers.

Trump appeared to be bemoaning the loss of his Staff Secretary Rob Porter and speechwriter David Sorensen, although the accusations against those two men were well documented. His tweet though, was a much broader protest.

In politics, in addition to being impolitic, this is what’s called being “off message.” As Republicans gear up for mid-term elections, Trump is riling his opposition rather than reveling in de-regulation and the passage of tax reform.

Columnist Maureen Dowd writes in The NY Times, “We want our president to be a moral beacon, not a ratings-obsessed id. We want a president who understands that sexual and physical abuse are wrong. As a more lucid Trump tweeted in 2012 about Rihanna getting back together with Chris Brown, ‘A beater is always a beater.’”

It’s Political: President Trump in a Twitter post described the Democratic response to the so-called “Nunes memo” claiming political bias in the FBI as, “political.” He said, “The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted.”

Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut told The NY Times, “There is just no way that man will allow the release of information that shows that the Nunes memo is just plain wrong.”

Global Warming: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to come north for a meeting. Moon had lunch yesterday with Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who is attending the Winter Olympics in the south as an envoy from her country. This warming of relations between North and South takes place even as Vice President Mike Pence has ratcheted up the language about the North. He’s been critical of North Korea’s participation in the Olympics. Friday night he sat six feet from Kim’s sister during the opening ceremonies wearing a red, white, and blue jacket and refusing to acknowledge her presence. He remained seated when the unified Korean Olympic team marched into the stadium.

In other diplomatic news, Korea’s joint North/South women’s hockey team was shellacked 8-0 by Switzerland.

Mayhem: Two police officers from Westerville, Ohio, were shot and killed yesterday responding to a 911 caller who had hung up the phone, authorities said. “As they went into the apartment, they were immediately met with gunfire and both officers were shot,” an Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said while struggling with his emotions.  Off. Eric Joering, 39, was killed outright and Off. Anthony Morelli, 54, died about an hour later in a hospital. The shooter was wounded and taken into custody. — Five people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting spree in northeast Kentucky. Two people were found dead in the kitchen of a house, and two more were killed in an apartment. The gunman killed himself outside the apartment. Police had not yet sorted what it was all about. — Three people were killed and four injured early yesterday evening in the crash of a tourist helicopter in the Grand Canyon.

Permawar: Israel bombed both Syrian and Iranian forces in Syria after one of its F-16 fighter jets was shot down by Syrian fire. The clash started when Israel detected an Iranian drone launched across the border from Syria. Israel hit what it believed was the command center for that drone, and lost one of its own jets in anti-aircraft fire. Israel responded by pounding eight targets in Syria, escalating the danger of bigger confrontations involving the three countries.

Five Rings: Seventeen-year-old Red Gerard became the first US gold medalist in the Pyeongchang Olympics, winning the slopestyle snowboard event. For those left behind, slopestyle involves grinding on metal rails, jumps, and multi-flips like a switch backside 1260. Sorry, we have no idea what that is.

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