Monday, May 01, 2017

THE TRUMP DIARIES: WEEK FOURTEEN





TRUMP!  GOOD GOD! 

THE TRUMP DIARIES:  WEEK FOURTEEN +
99 Days of Trump

By Jack Random


Thirteen weeks in Donald Trump’s approach to his litany of campaign promises seems to be:  Let’s not and say we did.  This is not the presidency anyone voted for. 

He promised to build a magnificent wall, a wall for the ages, a shining symbol to christen the era of American oppression.  He promised that it wouldn’t cost a plug nickel because Mexico would pay for it.  Well, Mexico has failed to do its part and the wall remains without funding. 

He promised to dump Obamacare on day one but his party failed him.  It turns out they’re not really interested in reforming healthcare.  It’s become the third rail of politics.  Obama gave us a system that nobody really likes but nobody really wants to do without.  Along with a myriad of factors, it may have cost the Democrats the White House.  If the Republicans touch it’ll cost them the house.  They’re already on the path to losing the presidency. 

Above all Donald Trump, the great negotiator, promised success – so much success we’ll get tired of winning.  Thus far the only “successes” he has had are dropping bombs on foreign lands without strategic impact or intent.  We’re still waiting for all that winning and while we wait we’re hoping he doesn’t trigger a world war or a nuclear holocaust. 

This is the fourteenth and final installment of the Trump Diaries. 

DAY 92:  TRUMPCARE REVISITED
April 21, 2017

Despite a distinct lack of interest in the halls of congress, the president proclaims his replacement bill for healthcare is still alive.  Congress is on recess.  When they return they will have to find a way to keep the government running against the wishes of their Freedom Caucus – freedom’s just another word for incompetent government.  Healthcare is not on the agenda. 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announces that we will not be granting waivers to Exxon or any other companies to drill for Russian oil.  The sanction will remain in place for now.  The refusal nixes the $500 billion dollar deal between Rosneft and Exxon to drill in the Arctic Sea – a project Russia is incapable of doing. 

Vladimir Putin cannot be happy about this. 

On Sunday France holds the first round of its presidential election.  In the wake of Thursday’s terrorist shooting on the Champs Elysees in Paris, the Donald Trump of France and Putin’s candidate, Marine Le Pen, is very much in the running. 

DAY 93:  MARCHING FOR SCIENCE
April 22, 2017

Today is Earth Day.  The president makes an impassioned plea to the industrial world to preserve the planet’s natural wonders and precious resources – clean air, drinkable water and fertile land – for future generations. 

That is what presidents should do on Earth Day.  Unfortunately, Trump doesn’t mean a word of it.  As massive crowds take to the streets around the world in a March for Science, streaming in droves by Trump Tower in Manhattan, filling the National Mall in Washington, converging on Parliament Square in London, taking a stand throughout Europe, North, South and Central America, Australia, Africa and Asia, Trump stands with climate change deniers.  He buries his head in the sand and dares the earth to defy him. 

People everywhere understand that the only answer to the global crisis of climate change is science – people everywhere except those inhabiting the White House and the majority in congress.  The glaciers and polar ice caps melt while Trump appoints a climate change denier to administrate protection of the environment.  Miami will be submerged in a rising tide and Trump cuts funding for research and innovation. 

Barring nuclear catastrophe this is where Trump will do the greatest amount of damage in his tenure at the helm of government.  This is the critical time when the world should be united in preparing for the greatest disaster in human history.  This is the time when we should be leading the transition to clean energy.  Instead, we have a president who defends coal and believes that jobs and profit margins trump all other concerns.

DAY 94:  LE PEN V. MACRON
April 23, 2017

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will contend for the French presidency on May 7th.  Macron has been described as a center-right, pro-European, free trade economist without political experience.  Le Pen has been described as an anti-immigrant, anti-European populist with racist leanings. 

The combination of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen has given populism a bad name.  Populism refers to a nonpartisan leader who listens to the people and reflects their concerns in policy proposals.  Populist is not a synonym for demagogue.  Huey Long of Louisiana was a populist whose platform was the foundation for FDR’s New Deal.   Having changed his positions on virtually all issues, Trump is a demagogue.  We’ll have to wait on Le Pen but the racist element of both politicians is undeniable. 

Living in his bubble, Trump demands money for his wall before he allows a spending bill to keep the government running.  He still doesn’t get it:  His party is in control.  If they shut down the government, he gets the blame. 

DAY 95:  TRUMP HAS HEART
April 24, 2017

Breaking News:  Trump discovers he has a heart. 

In an interview with the Associated Press, Trump reveals the difference between being a businessman and a president.  In business he didn’t need a heart.  In government he does.  For example, when Trump made the decision to drop missiles on an airbase in Syria he had to deal with the fact that someone might die. [1]

“People could have been killed.” 

Yes, Mr. President, people were killed.  Are we really supposed to be comforted that our president, 95 days into his presidency, has realized that his actions have real-world consequences? 

With the deadline for government funding coming due on Friday, Trump proposes a deal to congressional Democrats:  Give me funding for the wall and I’ll give you funding for Obamacare. 

No deal, Donald.  Let the government shut down.  You have full control of congress and the hammer of an executive veto.  Let the people decide whose responsible for the mess we’re in.  If you want to sabotage healthcare for millions of common people, don’t talk about it, do it!  What happened to that presidential heart? 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announces new sanctions on Syria.  The sanctions target 271 employees of the Scientific Studies and Research Center, the agency responsible for developing chemical weapons.  The action mirrors George W. Bush’s action in 2005 and Barrack Obama’s sanctions in 2016. [2]

Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan.  After reports that Russia is arming the Taliban, Mattis is assessing the situation. [3]

Get ready for the long war getting longer.  Afghan Defense Minister Abdullah Habibi resigned in the wake of a deadly Taliban attack that killed an estimated 140 Afghan soldiers.  General John Nicholson, American commander in Afghanistan, has already requested more troops.  We all know that Trump will give the general what he wants.  Only Mad Dog stands in the way. 

We will not be getting out of Afghanistan or Iraq while Trump is the White House.  Sadly, despite all his lip service about stupid wars, Trump is the president the military has been waiting for. 

DAY 96:  A DOUBLE HEADER OF EXECUTIONS
April 25, 2017

US District Court Judge William Orrick of the ninth circuit court of appeals issues a temporary injunction blocking a Trump executive order intended to punish sanctuary cities by withholding federal grants.  It is yet another judicial loss for Trump and his feckless attorney general. 

Arkansas executes two death row inmates.  It is a reminder that the inhumane, cruel and barbaric practice of capital punishment will continue for the foreseeable future.  With every Trump appointment to the Supreme Court and the judiciary, the practice is cemented into the American system of crime and punishment.  It is a reminder that we are alone among civilized nations that still execute human beings. 

Had the founders the foresight to banish cruel and unnecessary punishment – as opposed to cruel and unusual punishment – executions would have ceased long ago.  Capital punishment does not prevent criminal acts; it satisfies a morbid desire for vengeance. 

A day after Trump announced tariffs on Canadian lumber, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warns Trump that trade between the United States and its neighbor to the north is a two-way street.  After all the campaign lip service about NAFTA, CAFTA, Mexico and China, the irony of Trump going after Canada is rich. 

DAY 97:  FLYNN AGAIN
April 26, 2017

House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) give a joint statement that beleaguered former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn likely broke the law by receiving money from Turkey and Russia and not revealing that fact when he accepted his job in the White House. 

While the story keeps Russia Gate alive, it appears that Flynn is the designated fall guy in this scandal.  Flynn’s offer of testimony in exchange for immunity has fallen on deaf ears.  Congress should accept his offer.  We have no interest in putting the former General behind bars.  We have a great deal of interest in learning how far up this scandal goes. 

Trump signs an executive order calling for a review of lands protected by designation as national monuments.  The review could clear the way for corporate ranchers and energy companies to exploit federal lands.  When it comes to protecting the earth our president is consistently opposed.  It may be the only consistent policy he has advocated to date. 

The White House provides a sneak preview of the promised tax reform to CNN reporter Jim Acosta.  The plan reportedly includes:  Lower taxes for middle-class families, including deductions for childcare, elimination of the estate tax – a break for the Trump children, elimination of the alternative minimum tax – another break for the Trumps, lower tax rates for the wealthy, reduction of the corporate tax rate, elimination of the surtax on speculative investments – an essential funding mechanism for Obamacare, elimination of itemized deductions except mortgage interest and charitable contributions and elimination of taxes on corporate earnings abroad. [4]

At first glance the proposal is typical Republican tax relief for the wealthy.  Much of it seems specifically geared to Trump’s corporate interests.  In exchange they may allow some relief to trickle down to the middle class but they refuse outright to fund the cuts. 

We will see how much of this proposal survives the process.  If it passes in any form the national debt will rise dramatically.  More likely it flounders like the rest of Trump’s agenda. 

House Republicans have reconstituted the healthcare proposal according to the wishes of the rightwing Freedom Caucus.  The GOP now faces the prospect of losing so-called moderate Republicans in the house.  Try again, Donald. 

Trump summons all one hundred members of the United State Senate to the White House for a rare and private briefing on the situation in North Korea.  The White House announces that a missile defense system is being finalized in South Korea.  Does this mean we are about to strike Pyongyang?  If I am thinking this, what does the little dictator think? 

It turns out it was all theater: theater of the absurd. 

DAY 98:  NAFTA JUKE
April 27, 2017

Trump announces that he will not withdraw from NAFTA after all.  He says he was on the verge of triggering the withdrawal process – a necessary step in nullifying the agreement – when he received calls from the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada imploring him to give renegotiation a chance. 

It has become the president’s fallback approach on virtually every issue:  Let’s not and say we did.  This president called out the North America Free Trade Agreement at every stop on his campaign tour of the rust belt states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the states that gave him the White House.  Now it turns out he didn’t mean it at all.  Or maybe he did.  Who can tell?  He called NAFTA the singular worst deal ever negotiated.  Don’t get me started on the Iranian nuclear deal!  Now it’s negotiable.  He was going to repeal NAFTA and its sister CAFTA on day one.  Now it’s wait and see. 

Was Trump lying all along?  No one on his economic team – a team dominated by Wall Street – is in favor of fair trade. [5] From top economic advisor and former president of Goldman Sachs Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs executive and current Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, billionaire banker and Secretary of Commerce Wilber Ross to son-in-law financier Jared Kushner, they are all globalists committed to the exploitation of labor that Free Trade empowers.  What does that tell us? 

The president signs yet another executive order ostensibly to protect the American aluminum industry.  In fact, the order calls for another study. 
Trump signs an executive order creating the Veterans Affairs Accountability Office.  Isn’t that another bureaucracy?  He wants to protect whistle blowers in the Veterans Administration.  How about protecting whistle blowers in the White House, the CIA, the FBI and NSA? 

Elijah Cummings wants to know why the White House is protecting former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn by refusing to release documents concerning his security clearance.  In a surprise move, spokesman Sean Spicer blames the Obama administration. 

Now that is rich:  Trump relied on Obama to clear his highest-ranking foreign policy advisor!  Fine.  Obama did it.  Let’s move on. 

DAY 99:  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
April 28, 2017

In his 99th day as president Trump confesses he was wrong:  he thought the presidency would be easier.  Who knew? 

Secretary of State Tillerson advocates international sanctions and diplomacy to solve the North Korea problem.  Kim Jung Un fires another missile into the Sea of Japan and Donald Trump tells Reuters News Service that a major military conflict is possible.  He also said he’d like South Korea to pay for the missile defense system we’ve set up to the tune of one billion dollars. 

South Korea has enough problems without an American president trying to extort a billion dollars from their treasury. 

That Donald J. Trump is delusional is convincingly demonstrated by his assertion that he accomplished more in his first ninety days than any president in history. [6] The question is:  Does Trump believe the words that emerge from his vocal chords or is he trying to persuade the rest of us?  Does he keep a scorecard of points accumulated like a basketball game?  What are his criteria?  Does he get a point for shutting up a reporter?  Two points for firing a corrupt advisor?  Three points for signing an executive order that stalls in the courts?  Seven points for legislation that never gets out of the House?  A point per missile in an attack on an empty Syrian airbase?  One hundred points for dropping the Mother of All Bombs? 

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

With one solitary day remaining, I assert that this president has accomplished absolutely nothing. 

Trump!  Good God!  What is he good for?  Absolutely nothing!  Say it again.  [7]

It’s a classic good news, bad news scenario:  The bad news is the president has accomplished nothing.  The good news is the president has accomplished nothing. 

Trump!  Good God!  What is he good for?  Absolutely nothing!  Say it again. 

The president may have broken a record for executive orders but without the support of congress, a congress controlled by the president’s party, few amount to anything.  Many are the standard dodge of assigning an issue to a committee for further study.  Those that do have an impact cannot be characterized as positive accomplishments.  Is it an accomplishment to enable industries to dump toxic waste in rivers?  Is it an accomplishment to break apart families and deport valued members of our society for having brown skin?  Is it an accomplishment to withdraw from a trade agreement (TPP) that was never approved, no less enacted?  Is it an accomplishment to protect the right of mentally disturbed individuals to buy a gun?  Is it an accomplishment to place a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments when (a) it is not binding on the next president and (b) it allows waivers that will surely be granted? 

On and on, Trump gives lip service to his keystone issues but fails to back them up with action.  His signature issue, of course, is The Wall – meaning a spectacular thirty-foot tall border wall from the California coast to the Gulf of Mexico.  While still insisting that Mexico will pay for the wall, he has requested but not received $999 million as a first installment.  He has requested $2.6 billion in 2018.  A Republican controlled congress does not seem eager to provide it and even if it does it would fall dismally short of the amount required. 

No, Donald, the wall is not on your accomplishments list. 

Trump will likely get money to hire more border patrol and ICE agents.  This is only an accomplishment if you favor a mass deportation effort that will create a new and powerful police apparatus and leave numerous American employers in agriculture, construction and service fields with a severe labor shortage. 

Trump has quietly authorized mission creep in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.  In an age of global climate change, Trump is in the process of demolishing the Environmental Protection Agency.  He pushed through the Keystone and Dakota oil pipelines and eviscerated the agencies that will be responsible for cleaning up when the inevitable leaks poison the water supply. 

None of these are accomplishments. 

It all comes down to two things:  The Supreme Court and bombing our adversaries. 

That Trump fulfilled his promise to appoint a corporate conservative to the Supreme Court is undeniable.  If you are obsessed with abortion and believe it is murder you can rejoice.  If you loved the corporate bias of the late Antonin Scalia, you can go all in.  But let’s be clear:  Trump only had to show up and place the name in nomination.  The rest was up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  Had Trump been a more effective advocate, McConnell would not have had to invoke the so-called “nuclear” option.  The antiquated and anti-democratic filibuster moved another step closer to its final and inevitable demise.  While I consider that a positive, Senate Republicans consider it a tragedy. 

No clear-cut accomplishment here. 

That leaves the bombings.  First, those fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles fired at a Syrian airbase.  It accomplished a great deal for politics at home.  The media fawned and the president’s leading critics in the Senate, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, switched from opposing voices to water carriers.  They stood and cheered when the Mother of All Bombs was dropped on a cave complex in Afghanistan. 

Few would argue that these were not political accomplishments.  They served to change the dynamic.  They triggered that strange patriotic response that begins with the media and courses through the American public.  Drop a bomb and they hold a parade.  But these were neither strategic nor military accomplishments.  The missile attack in Syria did not affect the reality of that war.  The bomb in Afghanistan had no measurable effect in the war on ISIS.  The blowback effect makes it thoroughly unclear. 

The use of military force on such a grand stage does signal a change in American policy.  It signals that we do not intend to extract ourselves from these conflicts any time soon.  It means that one of the hallmarks of candidate Trump’s foreign policy pledges was as empty as his promise to pull out of NAFTA.  We will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria for as long as the military deems it necessary. 

Above all, that is not an accomplishment. 

Jazz. 


1.  “Trump at 100 days: It’s a different kind of presidency” by Julie Pace.  Associated Press, April 24, 2017.  

2.  “US sanctions hundreds of employees of Syrian research center.”  Reuters, April 24, 2017. 

3.  “US general in Afghanistan suggests Russia arming the Taliban” by Robert Burns, AP National Security Writer.  ABC News, April 24, 2017. 

4.  “Trump’s tax plan would repeal AMT, estate tax: report” by Naomi Jagoda.  The Hill, April 26, 2017. 

5.  “Donald Trump: Ruling Class President” by Paul Street.  Counterpunch, April 21, 2017. 

6.  “What Trump has done in his first 100 days in office” by Miriam Valverde.  PolitiFact, April 26, 2017. 

7.  Paraphrase of the protest anthem “War!” by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, originally recorded by The Temptations (1969) and more famously by Edwin Starr (1970) and Bruce Springsteen (1986). 


Sunday, April 23, 2017

TRUMP DIARIES: WEEK 13

 




LITTLE FINGERS & BIG EGOS

91 Days of Trump

By Jack Random


The twelfth week of Trump’s rule was notable for his turn to militarism as well as the total abandonment of campaign promises.  Trump returned to Florida for Easter weekend and no doubt another round of golf.  His twitter feed went strangely silent.  One rumor says we are going to war with North Korea. 

I don’t think so.  Trump got what he wanted out of dropping missiles on Syria and a big bomb in Afghanistan.  He is posturing like a fighting cock with his chest out and his feathers primed.  He is enjoying the respect and media fawning he gets from being “strong” and tempting fate.  He is acting a lot like the little dictator in Pyongyang. 

The media has spent much of its time chronicling Trump’s reversals:  China does not manipulate its currency after all.  President Xi Jinping is Trump’s new best buddy.  His policy of non-intervention in Syria is dead.  He now apparently favors regime change.  He has forgotten about NAFTA and CAFTA.  To the extent he thinks about trade policy at all, he now favors renegotiation over repeal.  He once promised to fire Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve.  Now he likes her.  On and on, Trump is the ultimate pragmatist or an extreme panderer.  We have no idea what operates beneath the curtain of his coifed exterior.  We do know that he is not to be trusted. 

This is the thirteenth installment of the Trump Diaries. 

DAY 85:  STORM CLOUDS OVER PYONGYANG
April 14, 2017

With a US naval strike force heading to the coast of North Korea, a US military exercise with South Korea and North Korea providing a display of their most powerful weapons, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warns both sides that they are drifting toward military conflict.  He describes the situation as “storm clouds” over the Korean peninsula. 

Head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt advocates leaving the Paris agreement on climate change.  The White House is surprisingly divided on the issue with the recently demoted Steve Bannon on one side and Jared Kushner on the other.  The biggest surprise is that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his former company Exxon-Mobil support remaining in the accord. 

DAY 86:  TAX PROTESTS
April 15, 2017 

Thousands of protestors take to the streets in an estimated 150 cities across America to demand that our president release his tax returns.  Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon not to do so.  We all know how it turned out for Tricky Dick, who won the 1972 presidential election by one of the greatest Electoral College margins in history.  How will it turn out for Donald J. Trump? 

Vice president Mike Pence heads to South Korea as the president remains hunkered down in Mar-a-Lago.  Would the president approve a shock and awe attack on Pyongyang while Pence is in the neighborhood? 

A failed missile launch by North Korea leads to speculation that the US sabotaged the effort.  My question:  If they did, did they let Trump know about it?  

DAY 87:  EASTER SUNDAY
April 16, 2017

Trump tweets his conviction founded in the universe of alternative facts that the Saturday tax protesters were paid.  Now that’s a job I’d like to get: getting paid to march in protest!  We could end homelessness overnight.  Where do we sign up?  Happy Easter! 

The Washington Post reports that immigration arrests rose nearly 33 percent in the first weeks of the Trump administration.  Contrary to his expressed policy the arrests have not focused on immigrants with criminal records: 5,441 of 21,362 arrests involved individuals without criminal records. [1] An internal Homeland Security memo suggests they are mobilizing to create a national deportation force, including expanded detention facilities and lowered standards for recruiting 5,000 new ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Anyone who thought Trump would soften his stance on immigration – considering the acute labor shortages in agriculture and service fields – is dead wrong.  Trump and his attorney general intend to deport as many as they can as fast as they can and they want to spend a lot of money doing it. 

The mass deportation is coming and it will create a massive new police apparatus.  It will also trigger a massive resistance and feed an underground economy. 

DAY 88:  LITTLE FINGERS AND BIG EGOS
April 17, 2017

Vice foreign minister Han Song-Ryol informs British Broadcasting that North Korea will continue to test missile technology on a “weekly, monthly and yearly basis.” [2]

Vice president Pence warns the North Koreans “not to test” the commander’s resolve.  Hasn’t the VP heard Trump has no resolve?  He has yielded military decisions to the generals.  He loves the generals.  Civilian control of the military is an overrated and outdated concept – like representative democracy or separation of church and state. 

The pissing contest between the little dictator and the man with little hands (actually little fingers; his hands are fairly large) goes on unabated.  It is developing into a classic game of chicken with literally millions of lives in the balance.  I have to ask those who supported Trump in his march to the White House:  How do you feel about the future of the planet – or at least the planet’s ability to sustain human and animal life – being in those large hands with little fingers?  Is this the gamble you wanted to take?  Is this the message you wanted to drive home to a government that has ignored your welfare for as long as we can remember?  Was it worth it?  Will it still be worth it if Trump drops the big one?  Do you still believe he’s a rational businessman? 

Trump has already yielded control of the military to the generals.  Do the generals want another crack at victory on the Korean peninsula?  Are we counting on China to rescue the world from global catastrophe?  Roll the dice and take your chances.  No one voted for the generals.  And no one voted for war.  I seem to recall a candidate who condemned the warmongering politicians and promised to extract us from stupid wars. 

A Gallup poll reveals that only 45% of the people believe Trump keeps his word.  The number is down from 62% in February.  His daily approval rating is up two points to 41 percent. [3] It seems Trump has to keep bombing people to bolster his support – a dangerous phenomenon for a man who so wants to be liked. 

Trump calls to congratulate Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his success in the recent referendum transforming Turkey into a dictatorship.  The contested referendum abolishes the office of Prime Minister and grants Erdogan final approval of nominees for parliament.  The vote was conducted under a state of emergency with thousands detained in the wake of a failed coup last summer. 

Trump has a vested interest in Turkey:  Trump Towers in Istanbul was completed in 2012.  The ceremony was presided over by then Prime Minister Erdogan. [4] It does not bode well for the Kurds – our strongest ally in Iraq and Syria but Turkey’s mortal enemy. 

The president also has a Trump Tower in the Philippines, where strongman president Rodrigo Duterte is committing his version of genocide under the name of a war on drugs.  In 2015 Duterte promised to kill up to 100,000 people to eradicate the drug problem and compared himself to Hitler. [5] Duterte has expressed admiration for the American president and told reporters that Trump told him in a December phone conversation that he was going about his drug war “the right way.” [6] If the “right way” is extrajudicial assassination let us hope Trump never gets the authoritarian power he seems to admire in other nations. 

DAY 89:  THE LOST ARMADA
April 18, 2017

Those fighting ships that were heading to the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea – the ones described as an armada by our president – were never headed there after all.  Was it miscommunication?  Was it a bluff?  Has our president completely lost touch with the military?  Or was it a fleet of Spanish ghost ships from the sixteenth century?  No one seems to know. 

Trump signs what he calls a “Buy American and Hire American” executive decree that makes modest changes in the hiring of highly skilled foreign workers.  Like his stipulation that the Dakota and Keystone oil pipelines use American steel, it turns out to be little more than lip service.  They will not use American steel.  It was just a talking point.  Buy and hire American is more of the same. 

Trump targets Georgia congressional candidate Jon Ossoff and takes credit when the Democrat falls short of winning the special election outright.  Ossoff will face Republican Karen Handel in a June runoff. 

DAY 90:  KILLING THE DREAM & TILLERSON’S PAYBACK
April 19, 2017

On February 17, 23-year-old Juan Manuel Montes became the first dreamer under the protection of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to be deported by the Trump administration.  DACA was implemented by the Obama administration to protect immigrants who entered the nation as children and who have since led law-abiding lives. 

Immigrant groups rightly fear the beginning of mass deportations without regard for family bonds or humanitarian interests.  Many of the immigrants who arrived as children have no family or community ties in their nations of origin. 

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joins the hypocrisy parade, pledging his undying devotion – formerly reserved for Senator John McCain – to the president.  Said Graham on Fox & Friends:  “We have got a president and a security team that I’ve been dreaming of for eight years.” 

This from the man who led the Never Trump movement and refused to endorse the Republican nominee for president.  All it took was 59 Tomahawk missiles and the Mother of All Bombs to turn on Graham’s love light. 

Bill O’Reilly is out at Fox News.  Fellow woman groper Trump has said he doesn’t think O’Reilly did anything wrong.  Of course you don’t, Donald.  You can get away with anything when you’re rich and famous. 

Exxon Mobil applies to the Treasury Department for a waiver to the sanctions that blocked former CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s deal with Russian oil giant Rosneft. [7] Is this the payback both Putin and Tillerson expected when they made the Donald king?  That it comes only ninety days into Trump’s reign is an indication of their collective arrogance. 

The Trump people do not believe they will be held accountable for anything: corruption, cronyism, conflict-of-interest, tax evasion or collusion to defraud an election.  They believe Russia Gate is a done deal.  The president can get away with pretty much anything he wants to do as long as he’s willing to drop a few bombs and toe the party line.  Out goes Bannon and friends; in come Kushner and the Wall Street Crowd. 

We’ll hear no more of “deconstructing the administrative state.”  We’ll get tax reform and budget cuts and military adventurism. 

Lindsey Graham joins the party but John McCain steps back, tweeting in response the Wall Street Journal’s story:  Are they crazy? 

Yes, they are, senator.  Crazy like a fox.  Billions upon billions are in the balance – an estimated half a trillion.  If Putin can swing the Arctic deal with Exxon, he would buy a few more years for the stumbling Russian economy. 

DAY 91:  NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
April 20, 2017

The day speaks for itself.  A new CBS poll finds that 61% favor legalization and an even greater number support medical use of cannabis.  Unfortunately, our antebellum attorney general Jeff Sessions is not among the majority. 

Sessions tells a rightwing talk show he is amazed that “a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” can block the actions of the president.  He was referring to U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii with equal amounts of contempt for the judiciary and the state of Hawaii. 

The Department of Justice is preparing to indict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange despite his assistance in putting Trump in the White House and Sessions in the attorney general’s office.  “I love WikiLeaks” used to be a virtual campaign slogan. 

Trump issues an executive order calling for a study of the problem of dumping on the American steel industry.  That’s like a study to determine if smoking cannabis is related to a feeling of euphoria.  He doesn’t mention China – his new best friend – but he has plenty of venom for the Canadian dairy and lumber industries. 

China is on alert and preparing contingencies in the event war breaks out between America and North Korea. 

Secretary of State Tillerson notifies Speaker of the House Paul Ryan that Iran is complying with the agreement not to develop nuclear weapons.  Had the Trump administration refused to certify compliance, Obama’s five-nation deal with Iran – a deal Trump called the worst ever – would have collapsed. 

Clearly, there is nothing Trump the candidate said that Trump the president stands by.  His entire presidency is some kind of charade, a display of smoke and mirrors, a two-bit magic act or a carnival trick show.  Look as hard and long as you like, there is nothing there.  He stands for nothing, envisions nothing, understands nothing and hopes for nothing. In the thirteenth week of his presidency, he is trying to run the clock out. 

Trump swears that his healthcare program is still alive despite the collective groan emanating from the halls of congress.  He swears they’ll bring it up again and maybe they will.  They have nothing else.  They can’t push through tax reform, infrastructure spending or immigration reform.  Trump has no legislative agenda.  He expected Paul Ryan to provide one for him but Ryan wants nothing to do with Trump. 

We are witnessing a presidency that practices incompetence on a level never before experienced.  We have had incompetent presidents but this is a president who doesn’t want the office.  Trump wanted to win the White House but he didn’t want to run it.  He has no clue how to operate government.  He has no idea what to do next.  He knows he’s in over his head.  He just wants to play golf and dream of happier times when he was a billionaire alone in his tower, groping women and boasting about what he would do if he were in the White House. 

Jazz. 

1.  “ICE immigration arrests of noncriminals double under Trump” by Maria Sacchetti.  Washington Post, April 16, 2017. 

2.  “North Korea ‘will test missiles weekly’ senior official tell BBC.”  British Broadcasting Corporation, April 17, 2017. 

3.  “Majority in US No Longer Thinks Trump Keeps His Promises.”  Gallup, April 17, 2017. 

4.  “Donald Trump Has a Conflict of Interest in Turkey.  Just Ask Donald Trump.” By Ashley Dejean.  Mother Jones, April 18, 2017. 

5.  “How Donald Trump’s Business Ties are Already Jeopardizing U.S. Interests” by Kurt Eichenwald.  Newsweek, December 13, 2016. 

6.  “Duterte: Trump Says Philippines tackling drug problem ‘the right way’” by Ivan Watson, Kathy Quiano and Bijan Hosseini.  CNN, December 3, 2016. 

7.  “Exxon Seeks U.S. Waiver to Resume Russia Oil Venture” by Jay Soloman and Bradley Olson.  Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2017. 

Saturday, April 15, 2017

THE TRUMP DIARIES: WEEK TWELVE

 




DRIFTING INTO WAR

84 Days of Trump

By Jack Random


The eleventh week of the Trump presidency brought a dramatic turn of events that have yet to play out.  On Thursday Trump ordered the bombing of a Syrian air base in retaliation for the apparent use of chemical weapons by the regime of Syrian President and Russian ally Bashar al-Assad.  Russia denied that Assad was responsible and condemned Trump’s action. 

In a single day all the alliances shifted.  Trump’s harshest critics, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, assumed the roles of the president’s cheerleaders, urging him on to a deeper commitment and greater acts of war.  After eleven painful weeks of ignoring the assassinations of political opponents, the suppression of dissent and acts of aggression, Trump finally stood up to Vladimir Putin.  Or did he? 

It must be noted that the Russian military was forewarned before the attack and the base was back in operation within twenty-four hours.  Trump desperately needed to do something in opposition to Putin to counteract the daily drumbeat of collusion with Russia to win the White House. 

Was this an elaborate charade or was it a real change in policy?  If Trump has taken a stand against Putin, will his former ally retaliate?  The plot thickens. 

This is the twelfth installment of the Trump Diaries. 

DAY 78:  BEAUTIFUL DESTRUCTION
April 7, 2017

Neil Gorsuch is confirmed to take his seat on the bench of the Supreme Court.  His harshest critics say he is to the right of Antonin Scalia, the man he is replacing.  Respectfully, no one is the right of Antonin Scalia.  The real damage begins with the next Trump appointee – or the next Pence appointee. 

Armed with cruise missiles, a missile defense system, anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes and artillery, the Russian warship Admiral Grigorovich sails to the site of the battleship that launched the missile strike on a Syrian airbase.  Beleaguered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev states that Moscow and Washington are on the verge of military confrontation. 

MSNBC anchor Brian Williams – the same “journalist” who fictionalized an account of coming under fire in Iraq – proclaims the launching of American missiles beautiful.  Fareed Zakaria of CNN declares that Donald Trump “became president of the United States” by his action.  Neocon Elliot Abrams states that Trump’s presidency begins now.  Former Defense Secretary William Cohen declares the president a man of action. 

Across the board the mainstream media that Trump has so often demeaned has heaped praise on the commander for bombing an airbase and placing us at odds with Russia in the center of a civil war.  This is why presidents yield to the drums of war.  The media cannot get enough.  It clamors for more and the people wave the flag and send their children to far away lands to serve as pawns in the cause of geopolitical chess games. 

Here we go again. 

Entertaining Chinese president Xi Jingping at Mar-a-Lago, Trump proclaims “tremendous progress” in China-American relations.  Translation:  Trump beat him by three strokes on the front nine before retiring to watch the Masters golf tournament. 

DAY 79:  BASKING IN THE GLOW
April 8, 2017

Trump is in seclusion at Mar-a-Lago, basking in the glow of positive reviews from talking heads and media pundits.  He takes issue with those critics who claim that the strikes did little real damage.  He didn’t even bomb the runway. 

Trump needs to learn:  On good days you only read the good reviews.  On bad days you don’t read at all. 

The critics are correct that Trump’s bombing did not have an impact on the conflict in Syria except to incite the Russians and inform Assad that we will not tolerate anything he wishes to do.  We have not yet advanced a clear policy. 

What the attack did accomplish was that it changed the topic from Russian collusion to Russian retaliation.  It is a risky maneuver with unpredictable consequences. 

DAY 80:  REGIME CHANGE & 18 HOLES
April 9, 2017

On the final day of the Masters Golf Championship, Trump plays golf at the West Palm Beach golf club. 

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley declares a policy of regime change in Syria – a policy her boss has yet to articulate.  The ambassador seems to be writing her own script.  This is not the first time she has given speeches or made statements that conflict with those of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson or Secretary of Defense James Mattis.  One wonders if she ever communicates with her boss.  Her words reflect the president’s policies like a carnival mirror reflects reality. 

DAY 81:  THE CRY OF PATRIOTISM
April 10, 2017

A CBS polls finds that 57% of those polled support the bombing of a Syrian airbase.  They do not support military intervention to affect regime change. 

Maybe the American people have learned something from our disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Neither the media nor the government seems to have learned much of anything.  Once the cry of patriotism goes forth and the bombs begin to fall, those who should lead line up behind the warmongers and call for blood. 

Neil Gorsuch is sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court. 

DAY 82:  TILLERSON GOES TO MOSCOW
April 11, 2017

Rex Tillerson arrives in Moscow and checks into his hotel with two teams of security experts to scan the room for bugs.  The French foreign minister reports that Tillerson on his recent visit to Europe expressed the opinion that American voters have no reason to care about what happens in Ukraine. 

The Secretary of State is playing both sides against the middle.  The only one who has any idea what to expect may be Vladimir Putin and he’s not talking.  There are no official meetings scheduled between the old friends. 

France and Britain join the United States in demanding United Nations Security Council support for an international investigation of the chemical attack in Syria. 

As the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrives off the coast of North Korea the little dictator Kim Jong Un warns that any military aggression by the Trump administration will be answered with nuclear retaliation. 

The Washington Post reports that a federal judge issued a FISA warrant to monitor Trump advisor Carter Page way back in July.  The walls are closing in on Page.  He’ll talk if he gets the chance. 

DAY 83:  THE SUFFERING OF BABIES
April 12, 2017

Putin welcomes Tillerson by announcing on state television that Russian-American relations have deteriorated.  After Tillerson meets with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for three hours, Putin yields to a face-to-face meeting with his old friend and partner in the oil exploitation business.  [1]

Russia continues to proclaim Bashar al-Assad’s innocence and accuses Trump of acting irrationally and defying international law. 

Either this is an elaborate charade or Trump is teasing a new cold war.  I suspect he has no idea what he’s doing.  After all the hype, neither does Tillerson. 

Trump explains that his policy or non-policy has not changed.  He has no intention of escalating our engagement in Syria despite the fact that he has done exactly that.  He simply could not endure the images of babies and children suffering.  Now that the world understands what moves our president, you can be sure the White House is being inundated with images of suffering infants and toddlers in all parts of the world – Yemen, Somalia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Congo, Sudan, Libya, Myanmar, Ukraine, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico – many of them as the result of our policies, drone strikes or bombing campaigns.  [2, 3]

This is the president whose proposed budget cuts foreign aid to a skeleton.  The childhood misery index will rise as a direct result and the suffering will be chronicled and delivered to the president’s eyes.  Who do you bomb for starvation and disease? 

When the dust settles nothing but the politics have changed.  Nine Syrian military personnel are dead, a Syrian airfield suffered minor damage and Russia will have to replace a dozen or so fighter jets but nothing of substance has changed.  We will allow Assad to continue as Syria’s president.  We will soon resume coordinated actions with the Russian military.  More children and babies will suffer and die.  It is not within our power to end this carnage alone and it is beyond the reach of our leader to negotiate an end with others. 

Trump tells reporters at a news conference with the head of NATO that American-Russian relations have reached an “all time low.”  By that he means big league.  Apparently the president has never heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

In a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump reveals he will not accuse China of currency manipulation. [4] He seems to believe he has an understanding with President Xi Jinping: Trump will give China a favorable trade deal if the Chinese help with the North Korea problem. 

DAY 84:  MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS
April 13, 2017

The US military drops the mother of all bombs – the largest non-nuclear bomb in our arsenal – on a cave complex said to shelter Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan. 

This does not appear to be an administration that wants to withdraw from America’s long war in Afghanistan.  The eleven-ton bomb had never been deployed.  Now it has.  It is time to recognize that all that talk by candidate Trump about not getting entangled in foreign wars was just that.  If you give a man with an insecurity complex access to weapons of mass destruction, you cannot be surprised when he uses them. 

The White House declines to take responsibility for the decision to drop the massive bomb, apparently yielding strategic decisions in Afghanistan and elsewhere to the military.  What could go wrong? 

For those who were somewhat surprised by the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan as I was, reports refer to ISIS-K or ISIS affiliates.  ISIS-K refers to ISIS Khurasan: a province traversing the Afghan and Pakistani border.  The peripheral group consists largely of Taliban defectors who have joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. [5]

The group is capable of isolated attacks but it is not considered strategically viable.  ISIS Khurasan is at odds with our enemy, the Taliban, making it exactly the kind of engagement Trump the candidate wanted to avoid.  We are attacking the enemy of our enemy.  Note that Russia recently made overtures of an alliance with the Taliban.  Destroying an enemy of the Taliban may ultimately work to Russia’s favor. 

The situation is clear as mud and the one thing candidate Trump got right was:  We would be wise to stay out of it.  I didn’t believe him then and I don’t believe him now.  Trump has no strategy, no philosophy and no guiding principles.  He loved the adulation his bombing of Syria engendered so he thought he’d try another in Afghanistan. 

TRUMP:  What have you got for me, General? 

GENERAL:  MOAB.  The Massive Ordnance Air Blast.  We call it the mother of all bombs. 

TRUMP:  Bigger than the bunker buster? 

GENERAL:  Bigger.  Much bigger. 

TRUMP:  Where can we drop it? 

GENERAL:  It has to be rural – preferably isolated.  We’ve got our eyes on these caves in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. 

TRUMP:  Is that where we lost bin Laden? 

GENERAL:  I’m not sure, sir. 

TRUMP:  I like it. 

GENERAL:  Would you like cover, sir? 

TRUMP:  How’s that? 

GENERAL:  If things go wrong, we can assign blame.  If everything goes well you get the credit. 

TRUMP:  You can do that? 

GENERAL:  Yes, sir. 

TRUMP:  Drop it, General.  And make sure we have pictures.  The people love pictures.  Big league. 

GENERAL:  Yes, sir. 

Recall that Trump the candidate speculated that we should use whatever weapons we have.  He refused to rule out the first use of nuclear weapons and all but welcomed a new arms race.  The only promise the president has kept thus far is the promise to be unpredictable.  When unpredictable includes the possibility of nuclear annihilation it is not a good thing. 

Dropping the mother of all bombs may be a warning and a challenge to our enemies.  If Putin takes the challenge, he already has an answer: the father of all bombs. [6] The Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power reportedly has four times the destructive force as MOAB.  It has replaced smaller nuclear bombs in the Russian arsenal of weaponry. 

If Putin finds an opportunity to deploy the father of all bombs, he will challenge Trump to take the next step: tactical nuclear weapons. 

Jazz. 

1.  “Putin says trust erodes under Trump, Moscow icily receives Tillerson” by Yeganeh Torbati and Vladimir Soldatkin.  Reuters, April 12, 2017. 

2.  “It had a big impact on me – story behind Trump’s whirlwind missile response” by Luke Harding.  The Guardian, April 7, 2017. 

3.  “10 Conflicts to Watch in 2017” by Jean-Marie Guehenno.  Foreign Policy, January 5, 2017. 

4.  “Trump Says Dollar ‘Getting Too Strong,’ Won’t Label China a Currency Manipulator” by Gerard Baker, Carol E. Lee and Michael C. Bender.  Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2017. 

5.  “What Happened to ISIS’s Afghanistan-Pakistan Province?” by Arif Fasik.  The Diplomat, February 2, 2016. 

6.  “Russia unveils the ‘father of all bombs’” by Luke Harding.  The Guardian, September 11, 2007. 

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES, GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION, PAWNS TO PLAYERS AND OTHER WORKS (CROW DOG PRESS).