President Trump and his entourage are so scandalous that other political blaggards have been able to lurk in the shadows. But the current crisis has forced congressional Republicans out of the shadows and made it clear that there is a lot more wrong with our government than Mr. Trump. Of these congressmen, the naive and contemptuous make no attempt to conceal their contempt for truth and law. The cunning are careful to obscure their real motives and attitudes. But in a time of crisis like this the cunnings’ pretenses to statesmanship fall away and their guile and fundamental selfishness are made plain. They are driven not, as it might seem, by mindless partisanship, but by passionate self-interest. What we are now observing in the Republican congressional delegation is not so much politicians putting party before country as individual putting self before all else.
14 XI 2019: Who should speak up for Trump?
There was a political cartoon in today’s Post-Dispatch by Dave Graunland that showed Devin Nunes submitting four “character witnesses” in support of Trump. They are: Kum Yong Un, Vladimir Putin, Prince MbS, and Rodrigo Duterte, rulers that Trump keeps trying to emulate. But I think these four are too far separated from Trump’s milieu and do not know him personally. I would prefer a list of character witnesses who know Trump well and have shown that they share his values. Such a list would include Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Ryan Zinke, David Miller, Wilbur Ross, Andy Puzder, Alex Acosta, Tom Price, Rick Perry, David Shulkin, Scott Pruitt, and we might as well throw in Donny Junior and Jervanka. Of course, that all of the Republican members of Congress fit into this category and would rush to affirm our President’s sterling character goes without saying.
31 – X – 2019: The real meaning of Haloween
Halloween has long been without the saints and has become a celebration of the unholy. I don’t mean neo-paganism, diabolism, witchcraft, vampires, etc. Halloween is one of our national feasts of materialism: greedy kids collect lots of candy; greedy manufacturers and retailers sell lots of candy; Chinese manufacturers produce heaps of Halloween decorations; couturiers are busy with just the right costume; and farmers turn a profit on a relatively unusable crop of pumpkins. Haloween is a very American holiday, for on it social divisions are reinforced as trick-or-treaters are taught what “bad” neighborhoods to avoid, but parents bring van-loads of children from more modest areas to loot the neighborhoods of the wealthy.
30 – X – 2019: Miscellaneous
A. The Republican drive to people the Judicial Branch with reactionaries, qualifications be damned moves on. Lately a Trump nominee for the Ninth Court of Appeals, one Lawrence C.J. VanDyke, has been rated ‘unqualified’ by the American Bar Association. This evoked howls of rage from right-wing pressure groups that supervise the right-wing subversion of the judiciary. A Republican Senator, Mike Lee, from Utah, added his voice to the chorus of outrage, declaring “If this man is not qualified, I don’t know who is.” He is probably right, he does not know who is qualified. I think it is time for Senator Lee to be removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
B. Our Commander in Chief gave the nation a lurid account of the murder of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a report laced with inaccuracies, classified material, and remarkably bad taste. Trump carried on about this raid as if he played a leading part in it. But the fact is that Trump participated in the raid in the way he participated in 9/11, sc., he watched it on television.
Trump gloated over the Isis leader’s death like a kid telling about what finally happened to the bad guy at the end of a kung-fu movie. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was responsible for countless deaths and immeasurable damage, I’m willing to bet he was a better man than Trump.
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.
23 X 2019: Rebellion from the right
Today, Rep. Matt Gaetz stopped licking Trump long enough to lead a mob from the psychiatric wing of the Republican party to force their way into a closed-door meeting of the House Intelligence Committee, to demand, in effect, that they be allowed to shut down the impeachment investigation.
Their leader, Gaetz, is desperate to emerge as the chief of Trump’s little helpers. He was attended by Rep. Mo Brooks, a notorious blowhard from way back, and 35+ others, the ass-lickers, the lunatics, and sheep who follow anything.
These retrogressives know that the TRUMP team is losing, so they want to stop the game, and so are displaying the fundamental lawlessness they have in common with Trump. I do hope the Capitol Police will defend the United States against them.
The behavior of these congressmen is frightening.
Trying to imagine how the future destruction our Government by a reactionary take-over might begin, I thought it might start with reactionaries using ICE to jail their opponents, arrest all the leaders of the military, silence all the media except FOX, and shut down all of the ‘unreliable’ courts. These subversives would then present themselves as a new “American Party” that would select the Dictator who is going to restore America to “the way it used to be.”
But no, I think the assault on the American government could begin with lawless, anti-democratic members of Congress who will shamelessly flout congressional rules and the Constitution to reach their selfish goal. These militant reactionary congressmen know very well that they are nothing without Trump, know that Trump has been caught red-handed and could be impeached and removed from office. They must prevent this at all costs. Hence comes behavior of the sort seen today, behavior that will continue unless sober Republicans restrain these foolish hooligans.
23 X 2019: Trump stars in victim role; Trump rallies his troops.
Trump has begun searching more widely for terms to aggrandize his pathological victimhood. We heard him this week calling himself the victim of a lynching. Soon we will see Trump at the stake instead of Joan of Arc or shot full of arrows in place of Saint Sebastian.
I read that Trump has ordered his servants to “get tough and fight” on his behalf. What could “get tough and fight” mean in the Bog of Trump except “Tell more lies and bigger ones, too”?
21 X 2019: The terrors of oath-taking
So the news reports that Mr. Russ Vought, the Acting Director of the O.M.B., refuses to comply with the request from the House for a deposition, as does Mr. Michael Duffey, a political appointment at OMB. Vought had earlier defied a House subpoena for details about the missing $400M.
I do not understand how all the Trumpites can get away with this behavior. If the law requires that they comply with requests and obey subpoenas, then the law should be enforced severely to coerce them to do their duty. (A sub-poena surely implies some punishment for non-compliance.) On the other hand, if the law does not require their compliance, then why bother with the requests and subpoenas?
I suppose the ritual of request/subpoena and refusal/rejection may make it evident that refusing faction have something to hide. But this is not really a legal process, but a drama of posing and posturing. But is it not evident that these people are no more than brazen scofflaws who refuse to accept the rule of law?
The investigations of Trump & Co. are far, far more important than the usual party vs. party taffy pull. Democrats have their liabilities, who would deny it? But in the Trump Era the Republican party has thrown over their former ideals of government according to law and have signed on to the Trumpian doctrine that what matters is not the law, but only what you can get away with.
The U.S. has from the beginning in fact been a plutocracy with a supporting democracy. But hitherto the plutocrats, their agents, and the people have agreed on the necessity of everyone obeying our laws. In the Age of Trump, however, all this is changed. We now have a plutocracy standing upon an ochlocracy, sc., an ignorant, sentimental, lazy, resentful mob who will believe whatever they are told. And they are being told and shown that smart people, winners, succeed by ignoring the laws and what they require.
18 X 2019: Trump’s great envy
What is behind Trump’s policy of appeasement of Mr. Erdogan? Did Trump do something scandalous in Istanbul that Erdogan can hold over his head? Maybe. Or maybe a more likely explanation lies in Trump’s adulation of ruthless absolute rulers. He must envy them so! No threat of impeachment for them, no annoying legislature, no independent judiciary, no unpredictable elections, no criticism — it must be heaven.
16 X 2019: Let Trump be Trump, really?
We hear said of Trump a cliché in public life: “Let Trump be Trump.” Well, whoever has been saying this got their wish, for today we had a glimpse of the real Trump at his meeting with congressional leaders – another meltdown. We’ve heard that this sort of thing occurs regularly in the privacy of the White House, but now we are seeing it in the open in temper-tantrums that have become his only form of discourse.
I don’t know why this is. Maybe he awakened one day and decided “No more Mr. Nice-guy,” decided to remove the costume of civilization which has made him uncomfortable for so many years. That may be the case, but I am inclined to think that he is coming more unglued. I think of President Truman’s advice: “If you can’t stand the heat, say out of the kitchen.” Trump is now in the kitchen due to revelation upon revelation of his incompetence and dishonesty. So either he will leave the kitchen by following Nixon’s example and resigning or he will stay in the ever-hotter kitchen and suffer increasingly frequent and severe meltdowns. I am afraid to think what this socio-path may do now.