So I read that Donald the Despot may not allow former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to testify tomorrow. Frankly, I do not understand how he could have the right to prevent her. Are we going to see yet another abuse of “executive privilege”? Trump and Barr buried the Mueller report in “executive privilege.” This document was the result of millions of dollars with of investigation and predictably held some answers to questions the country had been asking. Trump invoked executive privilege to prevent Gordon Sunderland’s testifying. What the hell! We’re not talking about top-secret matters, star-wars stuff or how to track American submarines or how many nuclear devices Israel possesses. Abuse of presidential power is the issue. Does it seem right to anyone that the President is using a supposed presidential privilege to prevent investigation of his own abuse of presidential power?

I read too about the hot tub of sleaze in which Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, and N.B.C. are currently soaking. In the case of N.B.C. a familiar bit of jiggery-pokery is mentioned: non-disclosure agreement. Trump, I recall, made widespread and constant use of non-disclosure agreements to maintain the secrecy of his “sporting life.” Now we see that Trump has simply substituted “executive privilege” for the good old non-disclosure contract. 

Why does Trump have to maintain constant secrecy one way or another? It’s because he is constantly behaving in reprehensible ways.