COMMANDER IN A BOX
77 Days of Trump
By Jack Random
We have survived ten weeks of the Trump White House. Trump has failed to pass healthcare
legislation. He has failed to get
his Muslim ban past the courts. He
has failed to secure a down payment on The Wall. He has failed to withdraw from NAFTA and CAFTA.
The president has succeeded in stripping away regulations
that deter polluters. He has made
it legal to dump toxic wastes in rivers and streams. He has pushed through major oil pipelines that will
inevitably break and contaminate drinking water.
In the shadows of the Pentagon while our attention was
focused elsewhere, Trump has quietly raised troop levels in Iraq and
Syria. Without official
announcement 400 marines were deployed to Syria in early March. Three hundred paratroopers were added
to Iraq. What appears to be
mission creep is underway as civilian casualties rise under Trump’s reign. [1] There are now 5,200 official troops
in Iraq and 500 in Syria. There
are an additional 1,000 soldiers with “temporary” status and several thousand
mercenaries. Our bombs and air
strikes have killed over a thousand civilians in March alone as Trump fulfills
his promise to “bomb the hell out of them.” [2]
The problem is:
We were supposed to bomb the enemy.
This is the eleventh installment of the Trump Diaries.
DAY 71: TRADE
POLICY RUNAROUND
March 31, 2017
Trump signs executive order on trade policy – one calling
for study of the causes of imbalance and the other calling for stronger
reactions to unfair dumping. These
are hardly the vision of trade policy reform that the candidate trumpeted
during his campaign. Remember when
he knew better than anyone what the causes of trade imbalance were? He has discovered that his own party is
the strongest opposition to fair trade.
They may give him the power to impose selected tariffs but they will not
upend the free trade mandate.
His Secretary of the Treasury
Steve Mnuchin says they are preparing to renegotiate our trade agreements. Whatever happened to withdrawing from
NAFTA and CAFTA? Trump could have
posted notice on day one; now he wants to study the issue.
Secretary of State and former
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson announces that sanctions against Russia for its actions
in Ukraine will remain in place until it reverses its actions.
Is this a gambit meant to
placate the nation’s growing suspicion that Tillerson and Trump are assets
working for the Russian government?
Secretary of Defense Jim “Mad
Dog” Mattis expresses concern in London regarding Russia’s recent support for
the Taliban – America’s enemy in Afghanistan. Should that support take a military turn we could find
ourselves on opposing sides of an Afghan battlefield. Dangerous games.
DAY 72: PREEMPTIVE STRIKE
April 1, 2107
Late at night, Trump calls his
team to the situation room and orders preemptive strikes on Pyongyang (North
Korea) and Tehran (Iran). The
president announces he will bring down the wrath of God on anyone who opposes the
mighty will of the United States of America. Experts fear hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, are
dead as counter attacks are launched on Seoul (South Korea) and Tel Aviv
(Israel). [3]
The president tweets an attack
on NBC’s Chuck Todd for not covering the Obama surveillance scandal.
DAY 73: GOLF WITH RAND PAUL
April 2, 2017
Trump plays golf with Kentucky
Senator Rand Paul ostensibly to discuss the future of healthcare in
America. That should be a short
conversation. Senator Paul fundamentally
does not believe in government healthcare – including Medicare.
Trump teases the idea of using
trade leverage on China to force them into dealing with the North Korea
problem. He will retract the
notion in less than twenty-four hours.
DAY 74: EGYPT COMES TO WASHINGTON
April 3, 2017
Egyptian President-Dictator
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pays an official visit to Trump at the White House. Trump expresses admiration and
support. “You have a great
friend in the United States and in me.”
El-Sisi is responsible for a
brutal crackdown in the wake of a coup that overthrew elected president Mohamed
Morsi, killing hundreds if not thousands of political opponents. He has secured his power through
torture, mass arrests, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killing and
abolishing the right to dissent, the right to assemble in protest and the right
to a free and independent press. [4]
Still, Trump is downright
effusive in his praise of el-Sisi.
Well, we’re all killers anyway, aren’t we? We’re all strong men.
We do what we have to do to obtain and secure power.
The war on terror makes strange
bedfellows indeed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee
puts forth the name of Neil Gorsuch as a nominee to become an associate justice
of the Supreme Court. The Democrats
claim enough pledges to block the vote from coming to the floor in what passes
today as a filibuster. With pained
expressions, the Republicans swear they stand ready to invoke the dreaded
“nuclear option.”
The Democrats better hold on
this one. Goodbye,
filibuster! You will not be
missed.
DAY 75: BLACKWATER BACKCHANNEL
April 4, 2017
The Washington Post reports that
the United Arab Emirates arranged a clandestine meeting between Trump supporter
Erik Prince and an unidentified Putin surrogate on January 9th of
2017.
Prince is the founder of
mercenary contractor Blackwater and a major contributor to Trump’s
“self-financed” campaign. The
alleged purpose of the meeting, according to unnamed UAE sources, was to
explore a deal exchanging Russian concessions on Iran and Syria for reduced
sanctions. [5]
What scandal would be complete
without the involvement of a mercenary army? As noted above, there are several thousand mercenaries under
American contract in Syria and Iraq.
Breitbart and Fox News go crazy
over the revelation that former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice
sought to identify Trump associates inadvertently recorded in surveillance
operations.
While the Trump propaganda
machine believes it has the real scandal in hand, to the rest of us it seems
reasonable if Trump’s associates were suspected of colluding with an
adversarial foreign government.
Something’s got to give.
A chemical attack in Syria kills
dozens of innocent civilians. The
international community blames Bashar al-Assad and waits for a coherent
statement from the White House.
After hours formulating a response, Trump blames Barrack Obama.
Back in 2013 when Assad used
chemical weapons in Ghouta, Trump pleaded with Obama not to intervene.
North Korea launches yet another
ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, once again challenging Trump to act or
back down. No response from the
president.
Clearly, Trump is in over his
head. He’s already given Iraq, the
Middle East and reorganizing the federal government to his son-in-law. At some point he’s going to have to
take on the presidency himself.
DAY 76: THE BUTCHER’S BILL
April 5, 2017
Images of the
victims of the chemical attack in Idlib province arouse the indignation of the
international community. The
latest death toll is seventy-two – including twenty children. Russia holds up the possibility that
the attack is the result of rebels blowing up a chemical weapons depot.
British clown and foreign
minister Boris Johnson lays the “butcher’s bill” at the feet of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad. UN
Ambassador Nikki Haley goes beyond blaming Assad, demanding that Russia
act. Days after proclaiming a hands-off
policy on Assad, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson joins the chorus of
denunciation. Finally, standing in
the Rose Garden next to King Abdullah of Jordan, Trump points the finger firmly
at Assad.
One day after blaming Obama for
drawing a line in the sand and not following through with military action
(Obama negotiated an agreement with Russia for the removal of chemical
weapons), Trump tells a reporter the events at Idlib go “beyond a red
line.”
It is the first time in his
presidency that Trump has personally challenged a direct ally of Vladimir
Putin. Having drawn the line, he is
obligated to act. If he does we
may soon find out what if anything Putin has on our president.
In a stunning presidential
rebuke, Steve Bannon – the dark mastermind of Trump’s rise to the Oval Office –
is relieved of duty on the National Security Council. The move reportedly comes at the request of Trump’s new
national security advisor, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. There’s a new sheriff in town.
Bye, bye Bannon! We hardly knew you. You should have known the boss would
not long stand for anyone getting credit for his success.
DAY 77: SENATE REPUBLICANS KILL THE FILIBUSTER
April 6, 2017
Senate Republicans in a fit of
righteous indignation revise the antiquated rules of the Senate so that only a
majority is required to confirm a nominee to the Supreme Court. The revision keeps the filibuster (60
vote requirement) alive for legislation but enables Neil Gorsuch to take his
seat on the nation’s highest court.
Congratulations to the Senate
Democrats for holding their ground.
Ultimately, this decision may have the most enduring impact on the
future of the nation. The balance
of the court could move to the far right with two of the court’s liberal
leaning justices – Ginsberg and Breyer – ages 84 and 78 and the traditional
swing vote – Kennedy – age 80.
With the 49-year-old Gorsuch taking his seat, if Trump is allowed two
more nominees, the corporate court could be cemented for decades.
Representative Devin Nunes steps
down from his role as chair of the House Intelligence Committee under the pressure
of an internal ethics investigation.
As the death toll in Syria’s
Idlib province climbs to 86, including 26 children, Trump raises the
possibility of military action.
This is of course the first occasion where our president has broken from
the Putin playbook. The Russians
are challenging Trump to state his policy and take whatever actions he
will. Trump has painted himself
into a corner. If he negotiates
with the Russians and Syrians he will have done precisely what his predecessor
did. If he engages troops to take
on Assad as well as ISIS he will put us in military conflict with Russia and in
the crossfire of a civil war – precisely what he promised he would not do.
What he does next may be the
most important decision of his presidency.
Thursday evening Trump orders a
Tomahawk missile strike at the Syrian airbase where US officials believe the
chemical weapon attack was launched.
The Russian military was given prior notice but nine are reportedly
killed.
This action marks a new and more
aggressive direction in the Trump administration. It is a political coup for an unpopular president, winning
praise from hawks on both sides of the aisle.
What do presidents do when they
have lost the support of the American people? They launch an attack and raise the flag. In this case, the greater question
is: What does Vladimir Putin
do? The next move is his.
Jazz.
1. “Trump administration stops disclosing
troop deployments in Iraq and Syria” by W.J. Hennigan. Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2017.
2. “Under Trump U.S. Military has
allegedly killed over 1,000 civilians in Iraq, Syria in March” by Jason Le
Miere. Newsweek, March 31, 2017.
3. “Breaking News: Trump to Resign” by Kimberly
Morin. The Federalist Papers
Project, April 1, 2107.
4. “We Agree on So Many Things: Despite Human Rights Abuses, Trump
Heaps Praise on Egypt’s Al-Sisi” by Andrea Germanos. Common Dreams, April 3, 2017.
5. “Blackwater founder held secret
Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel” by Adam Entous, Greg
Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung.
Washington Post, April 3, 2017.
JACK
RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES, GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION AND A
PATRIOT DIRGE (CROW DOG PRESS).
