Just wait - Trump Will Skate

You just wait;
He’s gonna skate.

And there’s the extent of my poetic skills. Twenty four hours ago, at this writing, I hoped that there would be justice, poetic or otherwise, but I knew in my mind, my heart, my soul that this would blow over. Twenty four hours ago the ruckus over Trump’s Helsinki press conference was universal. Even some Republicans were holding Trump up as a cross between Aaron Burr, Benedict Arnold and John Walker. All except in Russia where they were probably having free caviar and vodka day in celebration of an American president giving Vladimir Putin a public blow job.

There were cries of treason, incompetence, impeachment and the 25th Amendment. Trump certainly couldn’t survive that inglorious press conference in which a sitting American President looked for all the world, and to all the world, like a bootlicking little sissy compared to the domineering KGB officer.

It started with John McCain, “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory, The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.”

Ryan Costello, R-Pa. “I haven’t seen anything that was so weak and so pathetic as that press conference.”

Even Paul Ryan, seemed to temporarily locate one of his longtime missing balls, “Vladimir Putin does not share our interests. Vladimir Putin does not share our values.They did interfere in our elections. It’s really clear. There should be no doubt about that.” He made this statement at his weekly presser which could more accurately described as his weakly presser.

Social media was blowing up with outrage. This was surely the end of the Trump presidency. The deafening sound of crickets was coming out of Air Force One and later the White House. Would Trump even dare to show his face ever again? I suggested to my wife that this was so bad that Mike Pompeo should just leave a loaded revolver on Trump’s desk and let him do the honorable thing and go out like those disgraced Russian officers in the movies.  How could he possibly survive this? How could he survive Arnold the “governator” calling Trump a “wet noodle.” Oh, how indeed.

First of all the condemnation wasn’t at all universal. Some Republicans seemed to have been watching something completely different from what the rest of the world was watching with mouths agape.

Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-La.), “I thought he did a good job.”

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), “The good news is there was a summit.”

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), called it “perfect.”

Second and most importantly, I’ve seen this movie before. It’s like those Westerns in which the bad guys terrorize (choose one), a sodbuster, a sheep rancher, the weakling who struck a vein of gold, a rich widow or a town full of cowardly men. It’s the same basic plot with slightly different characters and circumstances but these movies all come out the same. So, yeah I’ve seen this plot before, in the form of, “they’re (Mexicans) bringing drugs,” “blood coming out of her (Megyn Kelly) whatever,” “grab em by the pussy,” and Charleston’s “very fine” Nazis. Outrage, demonstrations, he’s plumbed the absolute depths and he can’t last after this.  And yet – he does; last that is. Why should this potboiler end any differently?

I went to bed hoping that everyone but the die hard sycophants and snake oil addicts would say we’ve reached bottom and figure there’s only one way to go but up. That’s what Chris Cuomo said. “We’ve reached bottom.” But I knew in a gut that was boiling with anger and outrage that this probably isn’t the bottom and even if it is bedrock bottom, Trump will somehow escape demise to wreak havoc and terror again, just like that guy with the hockey mask in that series of slasher movies.

And so Trump said with a grin;

Wiping Putin’s cum from his chin,

“Let’s do damage control.”

I guess after a few suggestions were floated around someone came up with the “my dog ate my homework,” countermeasure. Hell if it’s good enough for a 10 year old kid it must be good enough for the President of the United States. Right?

And so 28 hours after the train wreck, Trump came out of hiding and explained it all away saying that he misspoke in one of his answers.

The question?

“Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? My second question is would you now with the whole world watching tell President Putin — would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again?”

And then came the answer that had Republicans from sea to shining sea putting their heads between their knees to stave off those panic attacks. “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

So Trump claimed that he just missed the contraction wouldn’t and said would instead. He didn’t mention all the other instances in which he tossed America under the bus. To add insult to injury he read his statement and looked so strained and unconvincing that a commentator likened it to a hostage’s forced statement. CNN’s Erin Burnett asked what should be a reasonable question, “How stupid does he think we are?”  But these aren’t reasonable times.

Erin, he was elected President of the United States so let me turn the question to you, “How fucking stupid do you think we are?”  And we’re not getting much smarter. When I heard Trump’s lame excuse I had no doubt that the GOP was reveling in that immense sense of relief that you feel after you’ve dropped off your date and you can finally let out that massive fart that’s been percolating in your belly for 2 hours. Yeah, Trump farted and it’s all good now.

And so the Republicans got a hall pass. They’ve been spared that bothersome scavenger hunt for their backbones.

One of the first up was that annoying little poodle dog Marco Rubio who yipped, “I’m just glad he clarified it. I can’t read his intentions or what he meant to say at the time. suffice it to say that for me as a policy maker, what really matters is what we do moving forward.”

Bob Portman of Ohio, “I take him at his word if he said he misspoke, absolutely.” How stupid are we Erin Burnett? Well this clown takes Donald J. Trump at his word!.

I listened to a Trump sycophant named Michael Caputo on CNN swallow Trump’s would/wouldn’t bait, hook, line and sinker, while swiping at the media for hitting the President with a “gotcha” question. Yeah it was a real brain twister, even for a stable genius.

Today there were calls for Congressional investigations, a bill to force Trump to release his tax returns and a push to question the translator who was in the meeting with Trump and Putin. And I’m sure all of that’s going to happen – on the 35th of Octember. Shit’s not going to happen. The Republicans are going to say that we need to put this misstep behind us and come together as a nation. Hey Erin, “How stupid?”

Over 80% of Republicans think Trump is doing just fine thank you and so the Republicans in the House and Senate continue to shake in their oxfords, keep their morals and their love of country in deep freeze and do the bidding of Donald J. Trump even with the full knowledge that when the history of this era is written they will be among the damned.

Yesterday as the drama was unfolding and America was being sold down the river by a charlatan, I hinted on Facebook that this would blow over. A friend responded, “I do not think it will, my friend. Many Repubs. are calling him out. And who will believe him when he blames Obama for mess he created?”

I would love for this to be the beginning of Trump’s end, but while I wish for a good ending I don’t get my hopes up anymore. I’m like the Cleveland Browns fan who yearns for a Super Bowl and watches with hope all the while knowing that each season is the same recurring tragedy starting with his team drafting a bust in the making at quarterback who will lead his team to another league worst finish so that they can draft another bust in the making at quarterback.

This thing is going to have the shelf life of an avocado. In a couple of weeks most Americans won’t know Helsinki from Moscow. How do I know this? Well, have you heard anything about those immigrant children lately?

President Janus

Saying one thing on the campaign trail and doing the opposite after being elected is nothing new.  It has been going on ever since there were campaigns, nationally and internationally.  It doesn’t have to equate to lying or intent to deceive.  Bill Clinton, during a post-presidency interview, said that until he became president he didn’t realize how difficult it is to get things done at the federal level in Washington.

Dormant and Discombobulated

If you thought that I’ve been in hibernation for the last couple of weeks, well you’d be wrong.  My co-conspirator in Oregon has been keeping our little blog breathing and I’m thankful for that.  But I have been dormant for far too long for a blog to remain relevant.  And relevance is part of the problem.  I’m finding it hard to keep up with the little Trump engine that can’t.  Things change so quickly in that insane asylum, once known proudly as the White House, that it’s damn nigh impossible to write a post that’s up to date before Trump or one of his stooges changes direction.

Climate Change vs. Alfred E. Neuman

Those of us who read Mad magazine in our youth each had our favorite regular feature (mine was “Snappy answers to stupid questions”).   The editor and writers referred to themselves as the “usual gang of idiots”.  That title should now be bestowed on the advisors to and cabinet of the Dark Lord in the Oval Office.  They respond to any questions about climate change with the equivalent of Neuman’s famous “What, me worry?”

Credibility Gap

Before addressing the main topic of this post, an explanation of why I have frequently called Donald Trump “He who must not be named”.  For those unfamiliar with the Harry Potter books, it is a term applied throughout that series to Lord Voldemort, a somewhat shadowy antagonist to Harry Potter and most others in the wizarding world.  The series creator, J.K. Rowling, described Voldemort as a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He appears to have no conscience or feelings of remorse.

Darkness and Rage in the Days of Trump

The 1461 days of Trump. They’re pervasive, loathsome and relentless.  They disturb what would otherwise be our quiet times.  They inflame us with a heretofore unknown rage. They spawn the worst in us and they bleed us dry of hope, aspiration and our expectations of prosperity and basic comforts. They rob us of security and leech our souls of optimism. They’re deathless zombies that foment our rage, haunt our nights and pillage our dreams.  As Americans they leave us fearful about rights and justice and mortified as citizens of the world. These are the days of Trump.

Affordable Care Act Replaced By ??

"We're going to have insurance for everybody"— the current inhabitant of the Oval Office, Washington Post interview, Jan.15 2017

The administration in the White House is racing to get the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repealed and replaced by end of April.   More than a few Republicans in Congress are not in favor of the plan being pushed at the American people.  Many demonstrations in town hall meetings have erupted from people who don’t want to see the ACA scrapped for something inferior and have their health care coverage put at risk.  Why rush?  Get it right.  Other countries have done it well with national health care systems that are derided by some as “socialism”

Clueless

I have a real dilemma here.  Sometimes I'm baffled,  And sometimes I'm righteously pissed off.  Sometimes I can't figure out how they can exist in such a blissful vacuum. And sometimes I want to slap the shit out of them for being in that vacuum.  How? Why?  What's their secret?  What's their motivation? Okay that last question was the stupid question that puts to rest the notion that there are no stupid questions.  

Some weeks ago we posted about the people who choose to remain detached from life beyond fluff.  We opined that while doing so might very well make one feel comfortable it's this sort of detachment that's the very ally of Donald Trump. If a fair segment of the adult population is in full on “what me worry,” then Trump and his stooges can also be in full on "what me worry."  It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship; the clueless and indifferent blindly collaborating with the clueless and incompetent.

Oh What a Week

One thing is certain when doing a blog about the current presidential administration from a liberal perspective.  There will never be a shortage of material.  Consider the weirdness within the past week or so.

Good Ol' Donnie - A Wild and Crazy Guy

It’s all been cleared up for me. The President of the United States is a different guy. He’s a breath of fresh air who’s just a little eccentric. He’s just wacky Donnie.  Don’t take him too seriously.  It’s just the way he is.  He's a harmless cross between the weird uncle who farts and tells ethnic jokes at the Thanksgiving table and an exaggerating salesman.

 

It’s Party Time (or The Disunited States of The GOP)

“…the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

George Washington – 1^st President of the United States and one of the founders

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

John Adams – 2^nd President of the United States and one of the founders

“I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party,” We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing Obamacare if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense.”

Rand Paul – A United States Senator

I’m going to draw up a petition.  Draw up a petition and then go stand in front of the local supermarket with a copy on each of about a dozen clipboards.  You’ve seen those guys.  They camp out at one of the store entrances and you do one of two things.  You either take a detour to another entrance or, and this is the option you often regret, you walk slowly past the guy so that he’ll engage you and you can find out what all the hubbub is about.

My petition is going to propose changing the name of our country from The United States of America to, The  Disunited States of GOP.  Seriously folks, let’s stop pretending.  That gang of knaves from the Republican Party doesn’t really give a shit about America.  America, the country and people that the Republicans are supposed to be serving is located somewhere in the deep dark bowels of the GOP priority list. There’s a lot of lip service paid to “the American people” and what “we will leave for our grandchildren” but the only American people they’re interested in are the ones that feather their nests.  And as for the grandchildren; unless they turn out to be large donors or CEO’s the GOP won’t leave them a pot to piss in.  

The Logan Act, Nixon, and the Current President

The Logan Act, in place since 1799, is a federal law intended to prevent unauthorized individuals from meddling with foreign governments which are having a dispute with the United States. The Act was passed following unauthorized negotiations by George Logan, a Pennsylvania legislator, with France in 1798 during the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France. The Logan Act was signed into law by President John Adams the following year. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony.  To date, nobody has been prosecuted for violations of this law.

Nuclear Don

“I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power. It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack”   ~ Donald Trump, February 24^th, 2017.

Trump’s recent comment about nuclear weapons wasn’t his only foray into that topic.

 There was the December 2015 interview with Hugh Hewitt in which Trump was asked about the nuclear triad.  Trump’s answer was sheer gobbledygook because he had no idea what the triad is and so he sounded like the high school kid who is called on to describe the previous night’s homework assignment when he didn’t even crack the book.  (For the sake of clarification, the triad includes ground based ICBMs, submarine launched ICBMs and strategic bombers).

There was the suggestion, made several times by Trump that he wants to be “unpredictable” as regards a first strike.

In March of 2016 he suggested that he wouldn’t rule out the use of nukes against ISIS.

Two months later Trump declared that he would see no problem with a nuclear arms race in Asia. 

Trump has made other statements about nuclear weapons and suffice to say that they all fluctuated between nonsense and terrifying. 

Trump’s proclamation may have been lost on many Americans.  After all every day presents a new chore of sorting through another one of Trump’s toxic spills. It’s easy to lose track of one of Trump’s turds floating by when you have to deal with his daily massive release of crap.

It didn’t get by me though.  You see I lived through much of the Cold War. Many, many Americans either have forgotten about or never experienced those years when the world was on a razor’s edge of destruction.  I lived through that period in history of brinkmanship; of nations (particularly The United States and The Soviet Union) contending for the biggest arsenal with the most potent yields. 

The Cesspool that is Trumpistan

As I sit here fighting the flu for the first time in years, I’m struggling to sit upright while doing a short post commenting on “A journey to the center of Trumpistan”.  I have lived in a conservative county in Oregon for two years and am looking for work elsewhere so I can leave this area populated by dimwits.  My experience with supporters of the Tweeting Twit is similar to the examples given about Trumpistan.  Most of them are so stupid that they couldn’t spell God even if you spotted them the g & d.  They are convinced that the Tweeting Twit is already a much better president than Obama.  They are convinced that all Muslims are evil.  They are proud of their Christianity, even though they espouse ideas and values that would make Jesus want to slam down a fifth of tequila in frustration.  The Bill of Rights for them is only about the Second Amendment, which is frightening given that Oregon is an open carry state.

Reading the examples of idiocy mentioned in the Trumpistan post is making me feel more physically ill than I already am.  As is the case with my collaborator, I have lost patience with the morons who think that the Tweeting Twit is going to be good for America.  I have a good friend who I haven’t spoken with in a few months.  The last time I was in his presence, he labeled Bernie Sanders a “Commie Jew bastard”.  I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even want to engage in a political discussion with supporters of the Tweeting Twit.  They are generally stupid, ill-informed, and would have fit in well in George Wallace’s Alabama and Lester Maddox’s Georgia.

~ Posted by Exile in Oregon - Medford OR

A Journey to the Center of Trumpistan (With apologies to Jules Verne)

Have you ever watched one of those movies in which a brave protagonist risks taking a new, untested potion or goes into the unfinished time machine against the warnings of colleagues?

“You can’t!  It hasn’t been tested.  You could die or come out of it horribly damaged.”

But the hero proceeds, despite entreaties and comes out of the experience exhausted and dazed with a profound change in his personality. 

Recently I had just such an experience.  A fellow on a liberal Facebook page had posted that he was going to troll a pro-Trump page and correct spelling errors.  Right off I concluded that the task would be like fishing with sticks of dynamite.  I mean really, where is the sport?

But his post did inspire me to explore the page myself.  I knew that there would be inherent dangers in this kind of a mission.  I could conceivably return from my journey a changed man; an evangelist perhaps; or maybe suspicious of foreign headgear like the dreaded hijab.  I might emerge with a belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old – and flat as a billiard table.  And I might return with a hatred for the Chinese for hatching that global warming hooey.

And then there would be the physical risks.  There was always the chance of my sides being completely split asunder from laughter or permanent neck damage from repetitive head shaking.  But I damned those risks and determined that I would take A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TRUMPISTAN!

The Press is the Enemy - redux

We’ve heard that paranoid line before, those of us who lived through the Nixon years.  Richard Nixon was probably the most paranoid president in American history up to now.  In one of his taped Oval Office conversations with Henry Kissinger in December 1972, Nixon told Kissinger “Never forget, the press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy.”  

Nixon went so far as to create an enemies list in 1971.  In a memo of that year from John Dean, White House Counsel, Dean stated “This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”  The plan was to accomplish this by means of tax audits from the IRS and by manipulating grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, and prosecution.  Paul Newman was on that enemies list and often said that being on the list was one of his proudest accomplishments.

The ICE Man Cometh

The Latino workers who drive the forklifts, do the shipping, receiving, clerical work and run our production line walked off the job last Thursday.  I wasn’t there (the office that I work in is a 30 minute drive away) but I imagine you could’ve heard a pin drop.  That is, I imagine, when a manager wasn’t having a fit.  The news trickled into our office building around mid-morning and there were varying reactions. I was in the break room when one of my co-workers walked in and said jokingly to another sitting at a table, “See what happens when you voted for Trump?”

I turned to the seated man, “You voted for Trump?  Howabout if I  come over there and kick your ass.” And yeah I was joking – sort of.

Seated man said, “You heard what happened?  That’s not right.”  I told him that I supported the warehouse workers.  ‘ Fuck that!” I’m right on board with ‘em.”

There were varied reactions in our office. I can guess what the managers in that building thought but they were more or less hamstrung for the short term; can’t fire the entire crew on each shift. But I’m not ruling out some reprisal down the road.  The warehouse manager isn’t exactly a sweetheart and the company lost a full day of receiving, producing and shipping; and of course, revenue. Because that’s what it’s all about - money, money and more money.  The cause of human rights and compassion are fine but do it on your own time and don’t get in the way of revenue. Thursday was the Day Without Immigrants protest and it hit our company right in the bank account which was of course part of the overall goal; show the nation and most importantly the Trump regime that immigrants help keep the machine moving.

That Was the Week That Was

Since I last did a post about the rampant insanity surrounding the administration of He Who Must Not Be Named (HWMNBN), I decided to observe the never ending looney happenings for about a week and reflect on them.  Here’s what happened in a big ugly nutshell.

The Three R's

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Hope is...

Our last post was about the Trump triggered gloom that so many of us are waking up to every morning.  We get up in the morning with a case of the heebie-jeebies wondering what Trumpian mischief we’ll be greeted with.  And then we continue through the day to learn that the President of the United States actually tweeted another inanity or vomited more vengeful bile. It's a routine that's become demoralizing and physically tiring.   

We’re less than three weeks into what’s already seemed like a blackish eternity and hope has been a rarity; a little flicker in a dark dank cavern of tyranny.  But it’s made its presence known, hope has.  And when it does we smile, pump a fist and exclaim, “Yes!”  In any resistance even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant little victory is cause for hope. It serves to bolster the notion that we’re keeping at bay the degradation of our democracy and all that America is supposed to stand for.  Every victory is a promise to repair the damage to America’s reputation that’s being done by the charlatan squatter currently occupying the White House.    

Hope started the very first day with the Women’s Marches where legions of like-minded men and women in all 50 states and 60 countries told Trump and his minions that no, we are not going to go gentle into your dark night.  And since that first day we’ve seen what hope can be and what hope is.