This morning (Friday February 16, 2018) yet another report broke of another extramarital affair Trump had with another porn star, Playboy model Karen McDougal.

If true, this latest report adds to McCarthy’s existing concern that Donald Trump is compromised and is at risk of being blackmailed, manipulated, or worse.

Last November, intelligence reporter Howard Blum reported that American intelligence personnel met with their Israeli counterparts and warned them that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has “leverages of pressure” over Trump.

Blum reported the American intelligence personnel warned their Israeli counterparts to be careful what secrets they share because they feared Trump would compromise them.

I join Andrew C. McCarthy in being concerned that President Trump has opened himself up to blackmail, so it’s eminently reasonable to ask:

is President Trump himself a national security risk?

It goes without saying FOX News is free to accept or reject any ads (and money from them) they want.

But this goes to show how blinkered folks can become when they get their ‘news’ and commentary only from sources that confirm and never challenge their biases.

A better way to go for citizens in a republic is to expose one’s self to a variety of viewpoints and opinions, and especially to those that challenge them and perhaps even get them to re-think their point of view.

But in the polarized and tribalized political environment we’re currently in, the business model for not a few media outlets and personalities calls for telling folks what they want to hear, confirming their biases, stoking them up, and vilifying political opponents and media competitors as ‘them’, bad, evil.

Noted economist and social commentator Thomas Sowell said, “When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

This business model of telling people what they want to hear is profitable for the media outlets and personalities from the standpoint of careers, ratings, and revenue.

But what’s good for media companies and their stars doesn’t necessarily equate to what’s good for the country.

As CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said of Donald Trump’s presidential run: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”

On the other, on July 13, 2017, while on a state visit in France Trump said “Most people would’ve taken that meeting.”

Remember when Trump fired FBI director Comey last May? His surrogates put out a carefully-worded memo saying Trump fired Comey because of his failed leadership, etc, but then in a nationally-televised interview on NBC, Trump admitted he fired Comey because of his Trump/Russia investigation!

President Trump is like Colonel Nathan Jessup in the movie, ‘A Few Good Men’, where he’s just itching to tell everyone he ordered the ‘Code Red’, because nobody’s gonna tell him how to run his ice cream stand, dammit!

That’s what’s going on with President Trump’s tweet this morning, Monday July 17, 2017: he’s basically giving the country the middle finger, telling us, Colonel Jessup-like, “You’re damn right Don Jr. had the meeting with the Russians!”

No, Mr. President, Don Jr’s meeting with people who he thought were agents of a hostile foreign power who he thought wanted to help you win the election by delivering damaging information on your domestic political opponent is most certainly not business-as-usual politics!

And if you believe Trump didn’t know about Don Jr’s meeting with the Russians, then I’m a Nigerian prince here to talk with you about a fantastic investment opportunity.

We have a problem, Mr. President. It’s your compulsive tweeting.

Sure, your rabid, die-hard followers who inhabit your cult of personality fever swamp can’t get enough of it. But, Mr. President, have you seen your approval numbers lately?

Remember you said you’d reduce or even stop tweeting right after you got elected? What happened to that, Mr. President?

Here’s the main point, Mr. President: your tweeting is damaging to you. It’s damaging to your presidency. It’s damaging to the legislative agenda of the party you belong to. It’s damaging to the country. It’s damaging to the world.

Apart from your base – you know, the folks who would heartily approve of you ripping the beating heart out of an adorable puppy on live TV – the rest of America is looking at you and saying, ‘What is wrong with this guy?’

As an American citizen and your employer, Mr. President, it is my duty to inform you that America is not happy with you and your compulsive tweeting.

I am hereby directing you to cease and desist from tweeting from this day forward. Please know that failure to comply with this directive will result in progressive discipline, up to and including termination.

Please close the door on your way out.

Named after singer Barbra Streisand, who, in her attempt to stop media and the paparazzi from taking photographs of her exclusive cliffside Malibu estate, actually ended up attracting even more attention and notoriety to it and her.

It looks like President Trump has taken a page from Streisand’s playbook.

Trump says he wants the ‘Kremlingate’ investigation to go away, but he keeps on doing and saying things that make ‘Kremlingate’ stay in the headlines and news cycle.

Case in point: on Friday May 12, 2017 Trump tweeted:

 Trump’s tweet led many to wonder if Trump had recorded conversations he had with James Comey, the F.B.I. Director he fired on May 9, 2017.

As a result, congress-critters on both sides of the aisle went to the Sunday shows on Mother’s Day 2017 (May 14, 2017) to demand Trump turn over the tapes (if they in fact exist).

If Trump’s intention was to try to make the ‘Kremlingate’ story diminish or go away, his words and actions of late had exactly the opposite effect.

Pick your metaphor – pour gasoline on a fire…poke the hornet’s nest…dig the hole you’re in deeper – Trump bears the lion’s share of responsibility for the political poop-storm he currently finds himself in.

Heckuva, job, Mr. President!