Trump’s return from Europe reminds us that his blundering policies are currently threatening alliances that have held the modern world together for the last three quarters of a century. The fat moron in the White House has attacked NATO, the European Alliance and the European Union all of which have done their part in keeping the world at relative peace since the end of WWII.
Trump in his overwhelming ignorance has assumed that only the economic aspects of these organizations have any significance. He has attacked them all on the basis that we spend more on them than any of the other members. But what is spend and what the various alliances cost has almost no significance to their value. The fact they have held disparate nations together and formed the basis for a bastion against aggression by the Soviet Union and now its bastard child the Russian Federation, as well as any nation that ferments aggression against its neighbor, is the real value of these alliances and unfortunately something that completely escapes Trump.
We see the same short sightedness in Trump’s abandonment of the TPP in the Pacific. Yes, it’s a trade organization but with that as its basis it had already become a barrier to China’s ambitious expansion plans in that area. Of course Trump doesn’t see this. His background as a cheap real estate con man gave him no insight into concepts of international aggression or intercontinental national movements and his inability to learn or accept anything not conjured up in his tiny twisted brain keeps him from being open to those concepts necessary to be a world leader. We can only hope that world events move slowly enough so that his shortcomings will not have enough time to do too much damage before he’s thrown out of office and lodged in an appropriate cell.
*****
The Trump advocates are praising their lying leader this week but almost everyone else is chuckling over the latest example of Trump’s pathetic negotiating tactics.
It has become increasingly clear that Trump has only one negotiating style, a bumbling approach that is clearly in step with his bullying personality. First he attacks the one he’s supposed to negotiate with. Name-calling and threats are a normal part of this. Then he stumbles into the negotiating part where he usually makes a less than functional deal for this country. Next he praises the awful deal as well as his ability as a deal maker, telling the world how good he is at what he has just fucked up.
This was made clear in the, so far completely unsuccessful North Korea meetings covering nuclear negotiations. It is also clear in our confrontation with Iran, which will, if we are very lucky, end up only as bad as the meetings with North Korea. The latest fiasco is with Mexico, where he threatens tariffs and then pulls them back in order to get some help with his muddied attempts to solve our already disastrous immigration problems. In fact the end result of this action could be good, if Trump can finally find a way to keep his mouth shut and doesn’t invent a new way to screw it up. But using tariffs as a wedge to fix his border control blunders will never be a good idea.
Incredibly, Trump seems to be completely unaware that the real solution to immigration from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras is in those countries themselves, not at our border. Somehow this bit of information, know by everyone except Trump, has managed to evade the fat liar. Maybe if he learned to read he could develop a better grasp of even these simple concepts.
*****
Trump’s venture overseas has left us to contemplate the big question. Are we better off with him out of the country and unavailable to create more chaos here or is his behavior while on foreign soil so unacceptable and embarrassing that we need to bring him back and keep him here?
Before the gross clown even landed in Great Britain he was insulting the Mayor of London, the granddaughter in-law of the Queen and for some slight no one could even identify Bette Midler. At the reception given by the Queen he somehow managed not to wet his baggy pants or dribble on his shirt and then he staggered off to France, followed by a gaggle of his progeny who were, as usual, taking advantage of the inattention of the American voter to access a free trip to Europe.
While in France for a memorial celebration of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day he managed to give a couple of interviews in which, while on foreign soil, he attacked our former Vice-President and our current Speaker of the Hous, a no-no since the Revolutionary War. Of course to understand his blunders he would have to have some knowledge of history but then that would require the ability to read, something he is able to do only on the most rudimentary level as was exhibited in his D-Day speech.
So let’s take just a second to reflect on that speech, one for which he was actually given reluctant acceptance. Naturally, he didn’t write it, so we can exempt substance from any praise he might receive, but that leaves only performance and no matter how low the bar, and it seems that even at rock bottom, some felt obligated to seek a pat on the head by praising his delivery, no one with any level of taste would find his stultifying monotone anything but desultory.
The ability to stay awake while suffering through an exhibition of Trump’s pathetic attempt to stumble through more than one sentence of text is far beyond the ability of most. Even those who grudgingly tried to give him some score above zero for this exercise in mesmerizing boredom, far over scored the attempt.
Now he’s back, having disgraced us before what used to be our European friends, and coming face to face with the frightening contemplation of a choice between impeachment or worse, losing an election and going to jail, because when he does lose, his egregious criminal behavior will force any right thinking DA to immediately press changes for everything from obstruction of justice to money laundering, financial fraud and violations of the Emoluments Act.
How will he react to all this? Pretty simple. He will immediately search out the most drastic distraction he can find, no matter how far fetched, and he will inflict it on the American people. Having exhausted border walls, the imprisoning of children, economy destroying tariffs, tax scams and the franchising of white supremacists he will probably go for the single topper left – War!
With choices like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela on the table it still seems beyond the ken of a coward like Trump to choose one of them. They might, after all, be able, at least in some pathetic way, to strike back. No, it seems that the target would have to be some nation far less able to defend itself but one that has an obvious fault that makes it stand out as a target. How about Honduras? They are too small to retaliate and they have all those drug gangs that are chasing terrified people out of the country and sending them up here. A perfect fit. Now all we have to do is sit back and write the headlines,
*****
I love Chris Christie but he’s loaded with tells. He blundered into one of them this past Sunday when he came after Pete Buttigieg, comparing his latest surge to that of Beto O’Rourke. It’s really Christie’s way of saying he’s scared of someone and that someone is the young comer from the Mid-West.
*****
Nicole Wallace had a sterling panel on Monday but one woman stood out. I had never seen Christina Greer, a professor at Fordham University, before but she sure got my attention. She is intelligent, insightful, stunningly well spoken and displayed a knowledge of all subjects that seemed second to none. All I could think of as I watched her was that if she joined the already overstocked Democratic Presidential seekers she would instantly be in the top for or five candidate to be the best president.
That is not the same a saying she would be a top candidate to win because to win one must have a really good shot at beating Trump. That’s one of the big differences right now among the top Democratic candidates. Some would make terrific presidents and some would easily beat the crap out of Donald Trump. Now it’s a question of finding the one who can do both.
I have already done brief capsule reviews of a few of the candidates but haven’t even touched on the above question. I don’t think it’s fair to do so until they all get on stage and have at each other. Maybe we’ll take a shot at that after the debates.
*****
Since the beginning of human occupation of the planet the radical religious right has been trying to tell people how to live their lives. It’s no different now. In 2019 America we have a small minority, 13%, trying to tell women how to treat their bodies. That 13% are the ones who are fighting; despite overwhelming acceptance of Roe v Wade by 77% of the population, to outlaw abortion for any reason, for all women in this country. Unfortunately, that 13% seems rooted in the old, ignorant south. The legislatures of Alabama, Missouri and Georgia have, despite the opposition of the people of each state, passed bills aimed at closing what few clinics still exist in which a woman can get a safe, legal abortion.
But why are these legislators doing this in the face of such heavy voter opposition? In any kind of sane state they would face imminent defeat at the next election. For some reason it doesn’t play out that way in the deep south.
Let’s look at Alabama, easily the most deplorable state in the union, a place where a child molester barely lost the last Senatorial election simply because he was running on the GOP ticket, where the educational system is easily the worst in the nation, but where a man like billionaire Hugh Culverhouse who has donated almost 40 million dollars to the University of Alabama can have his name chiseled off the law school which he funded because of his backing of Row v Wade and his statements supporting Planned Parenthood.
The Board of Directors of U of Alabama as a step toward proving their dearth of intelligence are about to send a check back to Culverhouse for $24 million because of his stance on abortion. These Board members are too stupid to realize that they are not punishing Culverhouse. After all he’s getting $24 million out of the deal. The ones they are punishing are the students who are going into debt to attend what is already a laughing stock academic institution.
It’s not really fair to label an entire state stupid or racist or bigoted but until states like Alabama, Missouri and Georgia move, primarily at the ballot box, to change that image, it’s going to be awfully hard for the rest of us to see them any other way.