Day: February 17, 2017

Let’s start off on an amusing note:

1) I play him on TV: As much as Trump might be complaining how poorly he is being portrayed on TV sketches, apparently it was enough to fool the newspaper El Nacional in the Dominican Republic. In running an article about Israeli settlements, they illustrated it with a picture labeled “Donald Trump,” except it was in fact Alec Baldwin in his SNL makeup. The newspaper subsequently apologized, but really, I’d take Baldwin over Trump as president any day. I’m looking forward to seeing an article on Putin with a shirtless Beck Bennett accompanying it.

2) Putting the “dìçk” in dictator: Brand new senior policy advisor Stephen Miller made the following pronouncement on a Sunday morning news show: “The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial, and will not be questioned.” So apparently the Trumpany is moving beyond the notion that challenging the president is unpatriotic or dangerous. Instead now it is simply to not happen. Judges, the media, American citizens, are all to keep their mouths shut because if the president says or does something, that’s the end of the story. His authority is beyond scrutiny, which of course is the case for any tyrant.

3) State of Denial: Governor Jerry Brown requested $162 million in federal funds to help California with a series of disasters, including an evacuation of a potentially flooding dam. The government’s response? No, of course. According to a government source, ““The President has no incentive in helping the state of California.” Naturally, because Sacramento is a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, and there was talk about seceding from the union, and, oh right, they supported Hillary. Now one would think that being president and vowing to uphold the constitution would be incentive enough, but not in the world of Donald Trump, apparently. What matters is who voted for him and who slavishly swears to uphold every aspect of his declarations. You’re sympathetic to illegal aliens? Congratulations, you’re on your own. There’s talk about leaving the country? Fine; we’ll provide you all the incentive you need by showing you the government isn’t the least bit interested in helping you at your time of need. Good move.

4) Out Like Flynn: Before Sally Yates correctly decided not to try and defend Trump’s Muslim ban, no doubt intuiting that every court would strike it down, she also warned the President about Michael Flynn and his involvement with the Russians. Trump ignored that as well and now of course Flynn had to resign because he was busy committing…oh, what’s the word?…treason some months back. Of course, the hilarious thing is that if this had been Hillary and it had been her National Security Advisor who had been illegally speaking with foreign nationals, the Senate would be hastening to launch a full blown investigation to determine what Hillary knew and when, and would never accept “I didn’t know about it” for an answer. But Trump? No investigation. No nothing. The hypocrisy of the right is truly reaching new heights. The fact of the matter is that if Richard Nixon were in office now and had done all the things he did, the right would make sure there was no impeachment. Meanwhile, as another commentator pointed out, remember when the House wanted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about one thing? One thing?

5) Press ganged: In a surprising decision that I’m sure Trump’s people actively tried to dissuade him from making, Trump scheduled a press conference. It was pretty much exactly what one would have expected: Trump spending long minutes snapping at the reporters, telling them that they were liars and insulting, which he conveyed to them with lies and insults. I swear, Nixon didn’t have this adversarial relationship with the press, and they drove him out of office. Trump’s pattern is clear: berate and question the legitimacy of anyone who poses a threat to his notions of absolute power. That’s why judges are termed “so-called” and the press is dismissed as “fake news.” And the truth is that if anyone knows about fake news, it is Donald Trump, the single largest dispenser of fake news in modern history. His lies are incessant and his calumnies come so rapidly that there have been occasions where he has contradicted himself, not only in the same press conference, but in the same answer.

Did he do anything right? Well, he met with several world leaders and didn’t get us into any wars, so that was a plus. But even the meetings were marred with weirdness. His dinner meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan was interrupted by news that North Korea had fired a missile. Did they immediately retire to a secure location so they could discuss proper responses in the privacy one would expect in such a situation? Of course not: they discussed it in the middle of a crowded restaurant at Trump’s resort while people recorded it with their cell phones. This is the guy who condemned Hillary Clinton for alleged security breaches? His meeting with Bibi Netanyahu didn’t go much better, where he spent time boasting about his electoral win that was allegedly the biggest since Reagan (it wasn’t) and taking no position on a one vs. two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis beyond saying that it was up to the individuals. Which I suppose it is, but it might have been nice to pick a side on behalf of, well, everyone.

Bottom line, any week where he hasn’t launched the nukes is a good one. Because that’s how low we’ve placed the bar.

PAD