Trump

18 VI 2020: Gaetz’s son. If they’d just stop testing for Covid-19 there would be far fewer cases. Will attendance at Trump’s pep-rally drop because of his warning to lowlifes?

News yesterday of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s bad behavior at a House committee meeting. Gaetz, alas, is still not house-broken. He was pitching the white-supremacist slogan, “All lives matter,” and extolling the love of parents for their children. Now Gaetz’s office, the records of Congress, documentation everywhere have always stated that Gaetz is unmarried and has no children. That should not, of course, prevent his having opinions about parenting. But then he appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and as if pulling a rabbit from a hat revealed his hitherto unknown, because never-disclosed, kind-of son, the Cubano Nestor. 

Nestor is the son of Nestor’s aunt with whom Gaetz once lived. Though he never adopted Nestor, Gaetz considers him his virtual son. Nestor lived with Gaetz for four years upon entering the U.S. at age twelve. Then Nestor left to live with his biological father in Miami until he reached the age of eighteen when he moved back in with Gaetz. Gaetz had earlier described Nestor as his “helper” and as “a local student.” But now Nestor has been promoted to “son.” Any adult male who supports and guides a younger male, i.e., serves as a mentor, is doing good work, and Gaetz is to be admired for doing so. But his sudden revelation of Nestor now transformed into his son borders on exploitation.

Two Trumpists, Governors Abbot of Texas and DeSantis of Florida, repeated the party line that the spike in their states in Covid-19 cases is due to increased testing and to outbreaks among people who, in their view, do not count, sc., in prisons, assisted living facilities, and migrant worker communities. It’s a good thing for the Trumpists that they have no sense of humor, for if they did, they would be unable to say such things without laughing themselves.

Well, I’m sure we are all looking forward to the opening battle of World War Trump on Saturday. Trump has been languishing for want of a pep-rally and large crowd where he can tell his lies without fear of contradiction. His craving for this kind of attention has grown so intense that he is willing to risk a dramatic upsurge in Covid-19 cases and violent racial unrest.

Attendees will be mixing together strains of the virus from all over the country, and taking them all home with them when they return. This will be another large contribution by Trump to the on-going pandemic.

Trump has warned “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes” to stay away from the rally or else. I guess that by protesters, anarchists, and looters he means the participants in the many demonstrations currently taking place nationwide. As to “lowlifes,” he’d better not use this term lest he alienate his base, the most enthusiastic members of which are life-long lowlifes.

18 V 2020: We don’t need a super-duper missile

I smiled to see that our President described a weapon in development as a “super-duper missile.” I smiled because the adjective super-duper took me back to high school (c1960). A classmate’s father and uncle ran a small metal-work manufacturing business. One of their more successful products, one ahead of its time, was the Super-duper Puppy Pooper Scooper. Product names like this are delightful to high school boys, so I remember it well.

The United States really needs something super-duper, but not a missile. What we need is more like a Super-duper Trumpy Blooper Scooper. Our President’s staff, the G.O.P., and Fox News (his very own Pravda) have to follow him around, ready to get rid of his droppings. They could use a Scooper.

23 IV 2020: Trump is full of it

I had been thinking of Trump as a weathervane, turning this way and that according to the breezes blowing from Jarrod, Dr. Oz, his employees at Fox News, Lindbaugh, Mitch, and unseen investors. My Sister has suggested a better alternative: Trump is a wind-sack, turning this way and that but always full of hot air.

19 II 2020: Charity begins at home

Trump has been busy pardoning his fellow crooks. A thread of cynical corruption runs through all their cases, and Trump believes corruption makes good business sense. 

Now that he has pardoned a star cast of white-collar criminals, who will next be blessed with his mercy? My guess is that it will be sex offenders. Trump has himself been the victim of cruel misunderstandings in this sphere, so he’s bound to have sympathy for passionate rich men who have been prosecuted by the “Me-too” movement.

18 II 2020: Let’s give Bob a break

Robert Philip Hanssen spied for the Commies for five or more years and provided them with tip-top secret information. He got a pass on the death penalty in return for cooperating with authorities, but even so was sentenced to 15 life terms with no possibility of parole. Can’t the President do something for Bob?

Trump has shown repeatedly the depth of his compassion. He got the murderous Seal off the hook for murder, he stands ready to pardon any of his flunkies who is convicted, and only today we read that he will grant clemency to Eddie Debartolo, a football criminal from a prominent familly.

Look here. Bob Hanssen gave up spying in 1991, that’s almost twenty years ago. He was a devout member of Opus Dei and sent his kids to Opus dei schools. He urged his pals in the FBI to attend Mass.

Obviously his ten-year career in espionage was a case of temporary insanity, a factor that was surely not taken into account at the time of his lynch-mob sentencing. The President of the United States could easily shave off a few life terms for Bob, or, though he would face criticisms from the pinko press, he could grant Bob a pardon, and return him to his loving family and to a nation that is always prepared to forget.

12 II 2020: Birds of a feather are crooks together

So Al Capone thinks the D.A. and Judge are being too hard on Frank Nitti. So he gets word out that he wants they should ease up and like magic the proposed sentence is reduced.

I read about something like this in today’s paper. Who says there is no honor among crooks? Trump has issued a back-door pardon to his faithful fixer, Roger Stone, and the so-called Justice Department welcomed this as another instance of the Dictator’s magnanimity and compassion and has caved in altogether. The government prosecutors have left the case so as not to have to participate in a total fraud. Trump says that Stone’s “is a horrible and very unfair situation.” Well, I guess Trump knows all about horrible, but how would he ever know, or care, what is unfair.

5 II 2020: Can’t get the smell out so easily

There was no chance of ditching Trump. I knew it. Who didn’t know it? The fix was in. The majority of the “jurors” were either terrified or bought up or didn’t understand what was going on.

I was relieved that Nancy Pelosi did not have to shake Trump’s hand at the State of the Union address. Politicians often have to hold their noses momentarily, but Trump’s aura has the stink of an open grave that clings to anyone he touches for years. 

And the address showed Trump doing what he does best. It is really hard to tell the difference between the Super Bowl half-time show and one of Trump’s performances. If he’s re-elected, maybe the two events could be combined.

11 XII 2019: Trump tries to liven up the plot. Flunky, Clown, and Angry Cracker in the House GOP drama

Trump tried to add a new dimension to the Page-Strzok saga, retailing to a slavering crowd a make-believe rumor. Trump fantasizes about Page + Strzok as if they were a romantic couple on a TV reality show. The writers know that the show will lose interest if the course of true love runs smoothly, so they think up a big complication they can insert into the lives of the TV lovers to make the plot more suspenseful and interesting. Our President lives in a reality-TV world and his thinking is shaped by this. 

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have been making a lot of speechettes that are sound bites for the folks at home and get-well cards for Trump. They are afraid of the Playground Bully, afraid he’ll go crazy if he’s not handled right, afraid he will come after them if their devotion seems anything short of abject. The behavior of some Republicans in the House makes this obvious. We’ve seen Devin Nunes as the flunky who is more than willing to be a fool for Trump. Matt Graetz is still starring as the class clown. Doug Collins can go from folksy to self-righteous on cue, so he is playing the angry cracker role. Will they receive awards commensurate with their self-abnegation? Tune in later as the unreality show stumbles onward.

23 XI 2019: King Trump; Swamp Mummies; Americans’ Self-Destructive Behavior

rump’s lawyers, some of whom are paid by you and me, are claiming that the Boss don’t have to give ’em nuttin’ because of “presidential immunity.” An article that reports this referred to the President as King Trump, and this is a remarkably apt epithet. 

Trump’s lawyers are trying to cobble together an argument based on “sovereign immunity” which Wikipedia defines as “a legal doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution.” In English law this was expressed as “Rex non potest peccare,” the King cannot do wrong. St. John Newman has fun with this in his Present Position of Catholics in England where he includes a burlesque newspaper article that reports a Russian chauvinist denouncing the British because of the legal tradition

We can transition to this by stealing some lines from Milton:

 His state
 Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed 
 And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest. 

Well, King Trump’s not been sending thousands to find dirt on Joe Biden, but he seems to have sent his lawyer and his star supporter. We are now hearing more indications that Devin Nunes and three of his aides flew to Europe in 2018 to dig up some dirt on Biden — it’s not yet clear whether they spent their own funds on this trip or used our money. Nunes, sounding ever more like Trump, is denying this vigorously and bellowing threats of lawsuits. Well, we will have to wait and see. If this is true it will indicate that Nunes is a hypocritical sneak, something we’ve already strongly suspected.

I saw a piece online headed: “Egypt Unveils Cache of Mummified Cats, Birds and Crocodiles.” For a moment my eyes tricked me, and I read “G.O.P. Unveils Cache of Mummified Cats, Birds and Crocodiles,” from their Swamp of course. 

A warning about the possibility of three major storms during Thanksgiving Week reported that the AAA estimates that 55 million people are expected to travel by road, rail, and air during Thanksgiving Week. Every year I wonder: Why do the American people torment themselves annually in this way. Travel during Thanksgiving Week almost always involves some civil defense crisis. Civic sensibility would suggest that we try for a drastic reduction of crowding at Thanksgiving by making a less stressful trip to visit family at a more tranquil time of year. But no, I don’t care what others may do. I’m going to go to see my family. So 55 million “I“s hit the road, and they and all the rest suffer.

24 X 2019: Where your treasure is, there is your heart also

I think a headline today on CNN’s website describes perfectly what matters and does not matter to our Dictator Trump: “Trump suggests Kurds relocate as US considers deploying armored vehicles to protect oil fields.”

So: Deport the trashy Kurds (we like deportations), but by heaven protect the $ OIL $. 

Trump’s helpful ICE goons can create detention camps for the no-account Kurds, and the lust for oil can continue to rule U.S. policy in the Near East. I will wait to see how Trump reverses his faked withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region. Maybe the Saudis could spare some of the U.S. rent-a-troops Trump has sent them.

I see the House Republican guerilla warriors developing a strategy to defend their King. It is simplicity itself: call truthful witnesses in the impeachment hearings liars. This is their constant game plan, for Trump and the little Trumpies always accuse their critics of the offenses of which he and they are most guilty.