So let’s see what Trump and the Trumpany (Trump’s Company) were up to this week.
1) Trump continues his war with the press: Trump informed the military that the press is refusing to cover terrorist attacks. He did not provide any examples of any unreported attacks, nor did he offer any reasons why in the world the news would elect not to report them. But he asserted that this has been going on for two years. Then again, he didn’t have to offer any explanation because it is implicit in the assertion: The press is deliberately not reporting on terrorist attacks because they want to downplay the terrorist threat, specifically to make the public despise Trump’s Muslim ban. In Trump’s head, if people KNEW about the terrorist attacks that the press are downplaying or ignoring, they would fully embrace the entire concept. Instead the press is determined to make Trump look bad because he said months ago he wanted to ban Muslims and the press wanted to prevent it. Because for the press, making Trump look bad is far more important than protecting the American people. Unfortunately the downside is that recent polls show that the majority of Americans approve of Trump’s Muslim ban and the majority of respondents trust Trump more than they do the press. Unsurprisingly the polls split down party lines as the vast majority of Democrats feel the exact opposite. Once again we are forced to wonder: What in the world would Trump have to do to have his supporters believe en masse that he is unfit for office?
2) Trump ups his war on the judiciary: It’s bad enough that Trump claimed that a Mexican judge was not qualified to rule on a law suit in which he was involved. Instead Trump is now waging war on the judiciary, one of the key checks in the checks-and-balances system that he swore to uphold January 20 before he then endeavored to throw it all under the bus. Radical left wing judges, who were appointed by George W. Bush and were 100% supported by the Senate, are being mean to Trump because they are paying attention to the Constitution that he is ignoring and fired Sally Yates for remembering was in effect. The fact that he is whining about the courts rightfully putting his ban on hold is not the problem, however. The problem is when he tweeted that if there is an attack on U.S. soil, it is the fault of the judges. Did everyone hear that? Trump has taken the next step from blaming Hillary Clinton for terrorist attacks and is now stating that the judges are responsible. “If something happens, blame him and the court system.” It is bad enough that he is desperately trying to dismiss the paper of record and CNN as “fake news.” Now he is instructing his idiot followers to blame judges for terrorism. Does he not understand that he may well have put a death sentence on their heads. God forbid that some terrorist attack does occur. It’s entirely possible, especially since the countries that have attacked American citizens are unaffected by the ban. If it does, it could be that some Trump morons will come gunning for the judges. Why not? They try to shoot abortion doctors for doing their jobs on an operation that is, for the moment, still legal. There is nothing to stop them from doing what Trump instructed, blaming the judges for a terrorist attack, and seeking vengeance. That didn’t occur to Trump, I’m sure, but even if it did, it wouldn’t deter him from posting his insane tweets. The one benefit to come out of this is that Trump’s nomination for SCOTUS didn’t hesitate to decry Trump’s actions; Trump must’ve loved that.
3) We’re now considering private schools: Because the Democrats could not convince three Republicans to stand up and do the right thing, Mike Pence broke the tie and placed Betsy DeGross in as secretary of education. A woman who knows nothing about and despises public schools is now in charge of public schools. So Trump’s Bizarro opposite nominations for the cabinet, in which he appoints people who are repeatedly on record as despising the department that they are supposed to head, continues. Now I have no idea how much impact DeGross could have on our local schools, but if we see a downward spiral, we will be seriously considering putting Caroline in a private school. Which DeGross would no doubt approve of, but our child’s education comes first. I wonder at what point the Trump heads will realize how insanely dangerous Trump and his decisions are and realize they’ve made the wrong choice and screwed us all.
4) Trump declares war on Nordstrom: Understand that it is not unprecedented for a president to get defensive about their children. Harry Truman once wrote a scathing letter to a reviewer who gave a bad write-up over his daughter’s singing. But Trump’s attacking Nordstrom over their decision to stop carrying Ivanka’s line of crap, as it so happens, has plenty of precedent. Argentina, South Africa, Thailand, South Korea, have all had instances where leaders have used their power to line their pockets. Fortunately we have ethics committees in this country that are determined to prevent it happening here. Thus far they’re losing the battle, as Kellyanne Conway declares everyone should buy Ivanka’s stuff, which is in clear violation of, you know, the law. If this keeps up, Conway will be the first of Trump’s administration to get the shaft, and very likely not the last. The one positive aspect to come out of all this is that Nordstrom’s stock jumped seven percent. Apparently this country rewards people who wind up standing up to Trump, even if it’s simply for business purposes.
5) Did he do anything right?: Well, he got on the phone to China and swore that he would uphold the “One China” policy as the country has done for the last four decades. Unfortunately the reason he had to do that was to undo the damage he accomplished back in November when he originally said he was going to do the exact opposite. So basically the one positive thing he did in the past week was to correct his previous screw up.
So basically he has declared war on the judiciary, the press, and Nordstrom’s, but has temporarily averted it with China, despite Steve Bannon’s claim that we will likely be at war with them within a few years.
All this in a week.
PAD
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Foreign Policy has an interesting piece on whether Trump’s White House is in chaos or if this part of Bannon’s plan. I’m still on the fence on this one.
Is Trump Floundering, or Is Bannon Making Good on His ‘Revolution’? – http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/09/is-trump-floundering-or-is-bannon-making-good-on-his-revolution/
It could very easily be both. Trump is an immature man-child with no clue what he’s doing and seemingly less interest in learning. His flailing, floundering, and creating chaos and Bannon taking advantage of Trump being clueless aren’t necessarily either/or options.
I think Steve Bannon is a nihilist, and that’s more dangerous to the Average Joe than if he were an anarchist: an anarchist wants to Smash the State!, but doesn’t want to hurt innocent people. A nihilist wants to not only Smash the State! but smash the entirety of society, which would include long-distance delivery systems for food, medicine, petroleum and coal, and so forth. A nihilist wants to smash civilization.
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Bannon is the clear and present danger.
I think it’s clear that, in your eyes, TRUMP will never do anything good or worthwhile for the US.
You don’t like him. Fine. But while you’re pointing out all the things you imagine to be wrong with TRUMP, how about turning that keen eye for “character flaws”, against all those perfect Liberals?
Pelosi was recently caught on a hot mic referring to “real people” and encouraging a fellow senator to be sure to let the crowd know he “was a Muslim”.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/31/nancy-pelosi-caught-on-hot-mic-tell-them-youre-a-muslim-video/
She also referred to TRUMP as Bush.
Maxine Waters said that Putin invaded Korea and couldn’t remember the place where Putin was dropping all the bombs (Aleppo). Could it be that it was so traumatic to her, that she couldn’t even remember the name of the place getting bombed, or maybe she just didn’t study her talking points long enough before getting up on the podium? — https://youtu.be/XXPGPMTulDw
To this, all I’ll say is, if these people had an “R” by their political affiliation, instead of a “D”, Liberals would be going on endlessly about how “stupid” these people were. Instead, many Liberals act like Pelosi and Waters are their cherished but stupid pets that they just can’t seem to ever get mad at no matter how many dumb things they do and say.
I can’t wait to see your run for President, Peter. Liberals seem to have all the perfect responses and answers to all of Life’s questions.
With all that intellectual talent, you’d think they’d be running the world by now.
And yet, Peter has publicly criticized Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, and Barack Obama. If your claim that he’s a party line-towing, ideological hypocrite, then I’d say he’s not very good at it.
Luigi, don’t give him facts. Real facts confuse his type.
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PAD
Nancy Pelosi is not a senator, but a member of the House of Reprentatives; nor is the man you describe as her “fellow senator,” Rep. Andre Carson.
Inconsequential slips like yours, and the ones you complain about, happen all the time in heated public discussions. Just last night I heard a cable news host refer to Mohammed Atta as “Mohammed Ali.” What’s not common is the level of calculated dishonesty that was a hallmark of the Trump presidential campaign, and has regularly surfaced in the early days of his executive regime.
There’s a very curious omission from Trump’s list of Islamist terrorist attacks released earlier this week: the massacre of Charlie Hebdo staff and contributors in Paris in 2015. It’s not on the list because shortly after the murders one Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to mock the magazine and the victims slaughtered at its office. Because Donald J. Trump hates journalists who try to hold the rich and powerful accountable, and ridicule their foibles and excesses, more than he dislikes murderous terrorists.
I’ve been a registered Republican for more than thirty years. I’m dispirited by the ways in which my party’s current and recent leaders have sold out its principles and history to well-funded buffoons whose “interest” in public service is merely a facade for narcissistic self-aggrandizement. Donald J. Trump is a vile, dishonest, and disgusting human being who epitomizes that behavior. Americans who support and defend him are not patriots.
Fontaine,
Okay, yes, there are Democrats who do the wrong thing. There are also children in my kids’ schools that do the wrong thing. Neither of these have anything to do with what Trump is doing.
I’d be interested to know if you can provide any defense for the points that PAD listed.
Maxine Waters said that Putin invaded Korea while trying to say Crimea. Not a swift move, but not the first time a politician, reporter, or commentator has garbled two close sounding names that are in the same general topic of conversation. Pelosi- for whatever reason -said one clueless idiot’s name rather than the other clueless idiot’s name. Each of them flubbed one word talking about an overall subject one time.
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Those are your big “Look at the other side!” points from the last week-plus? Those are what you try to compare to Trump’s reign of error?
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Trump launched a so far ruled by multiple courts multiple times unconstitutional ban that was poorly thought out in creation and even less well thought out in implementation. Through it he unjustly detained and denied entry into the country people with valid green cards who were living in this country. This included doctors, researchers, and Olympic athletes among others. Some had family waiting for them in the homes they had here in the states who were left wondering when- or even if -they’d see their loved ones be allowed to come home again.
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You’re going to try to compare that to Kellyanne Conway creating a fictional terror attack in what turned out to be more than one interview- one where she even went into details on it -in order to prove why Trump’s position was valid? You’re going to compare that to Spicer citing fictional Islamic extremist terror attacks in Atlanta to plump up his lists in order to prove why Trump’s position was valid? I mean, I know they know the average Trump supporter would unquestioningly swallow that hogwash, but it’s a little insulting that they thought the rest of us would as well.
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You’re going to try and compare that to launching a deliberate war on the press, on the judiciary, on facts, truth, and reality?
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You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump downplaying the fact that Vladimir Putin has ordered the murder of dozens of political opponents, reporters, and others for saying or writing and things about him while simultaneously trying to minimize the meaning of that by comparing us and US leadership to Putin?
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You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump using the official accounts of the POTUS for attacking a business for following the basic tenants of capitalism and the free market and dropping a currently poor performing brand just because it happens to be his family’s product? You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump letting ethics violations by one of his spokespersons slide because she engaged in that violation on behalf of his daughter’s profit margins?
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You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump firing a woman who gave him accurate- and so far supported by every court ruling -proper legal advice and calling her telling him the facts and the truth of the matter a betrayal?
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You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump repeatedly attacking and insulting our international allies while doing everything he can at seemingly every opportunity to plant his lips squarely on Putin’s ášš?
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You’re going to try and compare that to Donald Trump’s many other daily idiocies?
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okay…
Man, rightwingers sure do get defensive these days when you remind them what they voted for.
Really trying to shift the perspective, aren’t you? “We’re talking about Trump? Then let’s change the discourse to another topic!”
And shut up. You won.
Fontaine: “You don’t like him. Fine. But while you’re pointing out all the things you imagine to be wrong with TRUMP, how about turning that keen eye for “character flaws”, against all those perfect Liberals?”
Take note folks: Fontaine doesn’t deny Trump is as vile as Peter describes him. He doesn’t refute anything Peter has said. Instead he goes for the “But what about your guys over there” approach so popular with people who know they can’t defend their own guys.
“Take note folks: Fontaine doesn’t deny Trump is as vile as Peter describes him.”
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Yes he does, he just does it in an underhanded way. He doesn’t say that Peter is pointing to valid issues with Trump, it’s just things Peter (and the rest of us) “imagine to be wrong with TRUMP.
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I’m sure he’ll eventually explain why nothing Trump is doing is actually as wrong as reality says it is- maybe even telling us why we shouldn’t even be questioning Trump and his actions at all.
@Jerry: “I’m sure he’ll eventually explain why nothing Trump is doing is actually as wrong as reality says it is- maybe even telling us why we shouldn’t even be questioning Trump and his actions at all.”
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Nah. You know as well as I do that he’ll never do that. Because, of course, he can’t. Whining is all he’s got, so that’s all he’ll do.
“Because the Democrats could not convince three Republicans to stand up and do the right thing”
That’s not on the Democrats. To a person, they voted against this.
Devos’ confirmation hearing made it crystal clear that she was utterly unqualified for the position and the public list of her donations makes it quite clear why she got it. What the vote demonstrated is that there are 50 Republican Senators who have put party unity above all other considerations. In the face of that kind of amorality, neither the Democrats nor the thousands upon thousands of citizens who voiced their disapproval were going to have any impact.
Also, Senator Inhofe is apparently one seriously cheap whørë (assuming the $1,0000 public donation from Devos is the only kickback he received)
It’s not a matter of it being “on” anybody. I’m not blaming the Dems or finding fault. It’s a simple statement of fact. They tried to convince three Republicans to vote against her and could only convince two.
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PAD
I live in Inhofe’s state. I doubt the donation had anything to do with his vote. He’s just a party hack who tends to follow the Republican establishment the vast majority of the time.
My favorite moniker for the Education Secy: Betsy DeVoid.
I do have a question, Peter: Was your repeatedly referring to Betsy DeVos as Betsy DeGross deliberate, or caused by autocorrect? 🙂
That was deliberate.
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PAD
I had a much longer exploration of Conservative motives regarding Education, but at the end of the day:
“Children don’t vote.”
And can’t donate millions.
What kind of self centered fool would think that the Media would get all together, forget that they are in competition for the eyes of the viewers, so that they can play a long game in order to muster resistance two years later to a immigration plan, that while newsworthy, is not as much of a ratings bounce as reporting on one terrorist attack?
And don’t forget that in order to do this, they would have had to manipulate things so that he could be President in the first place.
At no point, of course.
An Open Letter to Peter David
Regarded Mister D,
I hope you do not mind me using you as a crutch, but I feel that this entry would work better as a letter. One with lots of questions, but no answers. (I do not do answers. You can blame Anton Chekhov for that. It’s a long story.) So, anyway….
Looking at the world today, I feel the question must be asked….does freedom exist ? Not long ago – from a historical point of few – humanity lived in a class society. (As anybody who has seen Titanic will attest, this was still visible as late as 1912.) Have these days truly passed ? Or have we simply become better at hiding the lines ?
Do we not all follow the expectations of society ? (A good example of this question might be Another Brick in The Wall by Pink Floyd, Part 2. Is it ? Decide for yourself.) We go to school, we get a job and pay the rent. Is this freedom ? After all, how many people actually chase their dreams ? And how many of us put these ‘on hold’ ? For practical reason, we tell ourselves. And we do not have to worry to about our dreams.
After all, as soon as life allows it, we will resume chasing them. Won’t we ? And how many of us are lying to ourselves ? I do not know. I will not say. Instead, I will – as I often do – let people decide for themselves. (Despite not having meant it that way, I seem to have to developed that as a catchphrase. But I digress…*wink*)
To conclude this letter, I would like to speak about why I picked you as the receiving end of this letter. It is The-President-whose-name-shall-not be spoken. Is he not a symptom of the class society attempting to dig its claws into the US of A ? Or am I – as an outsider living the Low Lands – seeing this wrong ? Is this not the true threat to the Land of the Free ?
Should America not demonstrate its principles now ? Which – as I understand them – are that anybody can become anything, as long as they would hard and – this is where it becomes sticky for President Donald Voldemort – play by the rules. (In this case meaning the law and the US Constitution.) And should not demonstrate them by showing that nobody is above said rules ? (No matter how much idiocy they catapult at judges and media.) And is the best way to do this not to remove anybody – regardless of money, rank or status – from office ?
Regards,
Edmond Dantes
P.S. I know the chance of me getting a reply is 0.0 percent. But no pain, no gain. Also – for anybody reading my blog (if there is anybody) – up next in this series….Why did I pick Edmond Dantes as an alias. (Or…why the Netherlands is not perfect either.)
I don’t know if we have a class society in the same way that, say, the UK does, so much as a determination of where you are on the financial side of things that is determined by where you start out. But there are plenty of examples of people being born with nothing (including our previous president) who was able to build himself up. Trump may indeed be a part of the one percent of people who have tons of money, but that doesn’t put him in another class that is exempt from following rules. That is a fact that he is currently discovering, and it’s clearly pìššìņg him off. Thus far throughout his life his money and position have exempted him from having to deal with the same laws that everyone else does. But he’s discovering that the founding fathers indeed saw that someone like him might come along and built safeguards–checks and balances–into the governing process. He wants to do something unconstitutional and the courts are saying, “Nope,” just as Sally Yates knew they would.
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PAD
The reason Trump finally acknowledged the One China policy is because China finally gave him the copyright to the Trump name there, something he’s been fighting in Chinese courts for for decades.