When Trump visited the hospitalized victims of the recent shooting in Dayton he was attended by the Mayor Whaley of Dayton and Sen. Sheerod Brown. Trump’s behavior in the hospital seems to have been as bad or worse than usual (see https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/trump-el-paso-coverage/index.html). Even so, in a press conference Whaley and Brown praised Trump’s performance at the hospital. However, each also made the mistake of criticizing Trump’s past rhetoric, and that spark set off a bomb. Apparently, Trump was pissed and at once made up the lie that they had ungratefully misrepresented his performance at the hospital. This bit of deceit was picked up immediately by his mouthpieces, and Daniel Scarino and Stephanie Grisham told the same lie. That they produce and spread disinformation does not surprise me, but the rapidity and coordination with which they do it is truly impressive.
7 VIII 2019: Brutal Patriotism?
One Curt James Brockway, a registered violent offender, fractured the skull of a teenager apparently because the kid did not remove his hat during the National Anthem. So you see, there are good people on both sides.
7 VIII 2019: Prince of the Church
If you will google “burke cappa magna” and click on Images, you can see lots of pictures of Raymond Burke wearing his cappa magna and even his ermine. The lad from Richmond Center WI is wearing the garb of a Prince of the Church — the Vatican City is certainly the Land of Opportunity!
Cardinal Burke is, of course, the banner-bearer for retrogressive elements both in the Catholic Church and, to an increasing extent, in the political world. He was a keynote speaker at the recent meeting of the reactionary Napa Institute for which the registration fee for Clergy and Religious was $1,300 (discounted to $1000 for early registration) and the fee for all others was $2600 (discounted to $2300 for early registration). The meeting was held at the austere Meritage Resort and Spa (https://meritagecollection.com/meritage-resort?nck=8664946895). I wonder what honorarium was paid to the Cardinal. (Was he paid more than George Weigel, encomiast of JP II, another keynote speaker). Did he get the discounted price by registering early, or did he have to fork over $1300? Did he have time for a hot-air baloon ride?
Apropos of the cappa magna I refer readers to the article at http://www.eyeofthetiber.com/2015/06/25/missing-burke-found-alive-after-getting-lost-inside-cappa-magna-for-five-days/. As to the meeting of the Napa Institute, it was just another semi-secret reactionary rally, distinguished from the many other similar rallies by the presence of a much-aggrieved Prince of the Church.
6 VIII 2019: A. Why do Trump and Moscow Mitch have so much power? B. Why will Trump do anything to curb gun violence except regulate guns?
A. I am appalled by the power of the American presidency as now constituted. Trump can undermine the U.S. government with “executive orders” and the like and so ignore the Congress. He doesn’t have to go the Congress for funding because he had a large discretionary fund and can move money from one budget line to another to suit his purposes. I must agree with George Will that Congress has over the years turned over an awesome amount of its power and its duties to the President. Then along comes Trump with his absolutist take on the presidency. He reminds me of the Stuart kings of England who ended up dissolving Parliament so they could rule as they pleased by their divine right.
Moscow Mitch is a mere obstructionist, but a very powerful one. How did the majority leader in the Senate accumulate so much power to block the popular will? How is he the arbiter of what will and will not be considered by the Senate? I think that there is a jungle of unconstitutional tradition at work in the Senate that empowes people like Mitch McConnell and it must be trimmed back.
B. A large portion of Trump’s base is the group that adores their fetishized firearms and so are mindless defenders of “gun rights.” Of course, they are drawn to Trump because his manners, language, and sensibilities are so much like theirs, but more than that, I think, because he is owned by the NRA and can be counted on, as we are seeing, not to do anything that anyone might think is a threat to the gun rights with which we have been endowed by their Creator.
Trump won’t talk about guns, but is focused on “mental health.” He had better be careful, because a focus on the mental health of gun owners might be even more threatening than gun control.
3 VIII 2019: Won’t those prophets shut up?
Today’s paper carried a letter denouncing an earlier letter from a Catholic religious about the plight of the migrants. After a couple of goofy points, the author concluded: “I, like many faithful Catholics, are truly sick of hearing liberals, namely the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, telling caring good people that there is injustice being done.” In which world does the writer think she is living? What kind of church is it to which she thinks she belongs?
Trump had to dump his hand-picked nominee, John Ratcliffe. As near as I can tell, Ratcliffe’s only disability was that he is not an accomplished liar.
28 VII 2019: Painting the Trumpwall; Trump raises the white racist banner
What does Trump want the soldiers who are to be pressed into service to paint on the Great Wall. The wall is to say, every 50 yards: “Whites Only.” Trump is now reaching out to those who faint at the thought of true sharing of political power in the U.S.A, and his campaign slogan may as well be “Make America White Again.”
26 VII 2019: Trumpy furens; missiles for the Muslim maniacs; cash for the Great Wall of Trump; impeachment, though well-deserved, probably not possible
Crazy day. Trump has become even more expansive with his lies and discourtesies. He says the facilities at the border are just fine and very well run (Great job, Brownie!); the overcrowding is the fault of the Democrats (he calls them “clowns”); he stood up for the border guards who, he says, are not trained to treat people decently.
Trump is ignoring Congress and selling arms to the Saudis, a most despotic regime in which the only thing subordinated to religion is self-interest. He is trying to set up a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. O.K. But we’ve learned that it’s very difficult to stay out of a proxy war.
Then the Supreme Court determined 5-4 that King Trump can redirect $2.5 billion appropriated for the military to build his signature wall. RBG says that Gorsuch and Cavanaugh are o.k. I find that hard to accept, especially when it is Blackout Bret who cast the deciding vote.
It’s said Trump is going to have soldiers paint the pieces of the wall still standing, so I wonder if he plans to use convict labor to build the wall, because there’s no way 2.5 billion will be enough.
But he’s wangled 2.5 billion for his ego-affirming wall. He’s paid $10 billion in aid to farmers injured by his personal trade war, and he’s about to pay 14.5 billion more. So King Trump gets the wall that will be his monument, and pays off farmers who are in trouble because of his own stupidity. That comes to $27 billion being wasted or needlessly expended – what if we would put $27 billion into something constructive?
Many still call for Trump’s impeachment. But come on! Even if the House impeached him, can you imagine the Senate finding him guilty? Far too many have now invested in Trump and plan to rise or fall with him. O tempora O mores
25 VII 2019: She must muzzle the old lies and get on with the new
I read that Trump has appointed a woman named Monica Crowley, a sometime Fox News “contributor,” who is also famous for being convicted of academic plagiarism on national T.V. She was a passionate birther, believed that Obama is a crypto-muslim, and marketed a theory of another conspiracy salesman Bill Siegel that Obama was in fact an Islamic Community Organizer. So she has been a member of the anti-Muslim chorus of young right-wing careerists.
But now Trump is giving her a job as mouthpiece in the Treasury Dept. She is a very experienced liar, and that’s in her favor, and good-looking [blond hair, with really amazing teeth], something that always helps someone in a PR job. But she’s going to have to lay off the anti-Islam bit, for a while anyway. Why? Trump loves our allies the Saudis so much that he is going to sell them weapons of mass destruction, never mind that they are violence-prone nut-cases who are also Muslim extremists. But the party line may change. As the elections draw nearer, if Trump starts to feel insecure, he may reprise his Muslim-Hater role, and Monica can return to her habitual vice. But for now she’ll have to devote herself to hawking the lies that originate in the Treasury Dept.
22 VII 2019: Hawley: Nazi or pretending to be one?
Since his election, Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley has done several stunts for the purpose, apparently, of drawing to himself the attention of the far right. Now we read that he’s given a bravura dog-whistle oration to the chauvinist National Conservatism Conference. Urging the “Blut und Boden” values of the 1930s, he denounced “citizens of the world” as “rootless cosmopolitans.” He is quoted as saying of “a powerful upper class” with “cosmopolitan priorities” that they “run businesses or oversee universities here, but their primary loyalty is to the global community.” What a skillful blend of class warfare and anti-intellectualism and old-time anti-semitism. Of course, with a little adjustment he could say the same of American Catholics who work and teach here, but whose primary loyalty is to the City of God.
All this leads me to the question: Is Josh Hawley a genuine neo-nazi, or is he just talking like one to ingratiate himself with those who are?
21 VII 2019: Republicans and Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
Republicans are leaping to Trump’s defense. “Trump is not a racist.” “What he says is not racist.” I don’t know why they bother. The vast majority of his base are very comfortable with Trump the racist, indeed, that’s part of his appeal. So the Republicans could, I think, stand down on this one and save their hypocrisy for when it is really needed.
Trump seems to have a Stalin-like hold on the Republicans. It cannot be that they all agree with or approve of him, but they are all afraid to contradict him. Displeasing Stalin meant a bullet in the brain. Displeasing Trump might mean that he would bad-mouth the offender to Republican voters. So, if in broad daylight Trump says it is dark, the Republican leaders with flood the media with complaints about the darkness.
More and more is coming out about Jeffrey Epstein and about how he has been sheltered from investigation, prosecution, and even opprobrium. What do people in his circle say about him? Is it “Jeffrey’s a great guy, but he does have a problem”? Or do they, like Trump, regard Epstein’s perversion as a matter of preference? If all the truth of it should come out, the Epstein case would be more shocking and incriminate more people than the crimes of his pal, the President.