Even Trump has had to acknowledge that his ill advised Trade War with China is already worrying his base, namely the farmers, who supported him in wide numbers, and are being directly affected by this poor decision. The things he’s said are shifty at best and Tone Deaf at worst. He’s choosing to blame China for Tariffs even though China has more or less begged Trump not to move forward with actions that would force them to also take actions. Then he suggested that while it’s unfortunate for farmers, taking this hit, it will be ok, and that he’ll make sure that he “makes it up to them.” How? Because we can clearly see that he isn’t thinking steps ahead. He isn’t thinking about steps of now. He’s just…reacting…which is a scary place to be.
In another example of ThaTrump either not realizing how long of memory Twitter has, or just not remembering he had a previous heated opinion on a matter, Trump, among his series of weekend, Fire Side Twitter Rants, blamed Obama for not attacking Syria and taking Assad out. Of course, he completely forgot the Tweet he sent out in 2013, in all caps, in which he begged Obama not to attack Syria, saying it would be the worst thing he could possibly do. At the same time, I know that Trump will never, ever address this apparent disparity in opinions. We won’t get to see an entertaining dance explaining away why his opinions don’t clash. He’ll just pretend the disparity doesn’t exist.
I don’t know how true this claim is, but that new book by Ronald Kessler is allegedly claiming that Trump is once again posing as an anonymous source within the White House to leak favorable information. It’s one of those insane things where I can totally imagine it being true, but it would still be totally flabbergasting. He’s the President of the United States. He can organize legit, clandestine information campaigns without having to call Maggie Haberman of the New York Times by himself. It’s just bizarre.
I have to wonder how Shepard Smith still finds himself employed at Fox News. Maybe he’s their diversity hire? Because he is just 100% against the general narrative of the network. This week, he took on Trump’s erroneous/untrue claims against Amazon, especially the claim that they in some way negatively impact the USPS. It’s become kind of his role on the network to buzzkill the editorials by…you know…giving out the facts. And he kind of famously rankles the feathers of the other personalities on Fox News because he calls them out without actually calling them out. It’s a sort of passive aggressive “Screw You” to the rest of the network, which gives him value. Maybe that’s why Fox keeps him around? To draw in those more left of center viewers who would otherwise avoid Fox News like the plague.
So there is now a new tell-all book from inside the White House coming out by a guy named Ronald Kessler. Among his explosive allegations, he’s claiming that Kellyanne Conway was responsible for a fair share of the devastating leaks that have come from the White House, whether intentional or seemingly through incompetence, she seemed to be the person Trump’s team has long sought for releasing sordid details from inside the West Wing. I have to wonder if this will affect Kellyanne’s future with the Trump Team…
During an infrastructure speech in Ohio, Trump joked that he might have been better at his old job. I mean, we say “he joked” but I think most of us are really hoping that Trump was having an aggressive moment of introspection in front of a big crowd of people. I sometimes wonder if he really believes his own propaganda about how great he’s doing, or, if like the rest of us, realizes how much of a catastrophe things have been. It used to be that we didn’t praise a President for acting at least competently, but Trump’s approval rating shoot up when he doesn’t actively cause an international incident. So was he better at his old job? Well seeing as his old job was sitting at the head of a company, doing nothing but being a personality, being his “brand” and letting other more suited people make the day to day decisions…yeah, I think it’s fair to say he did his other job with a little more aplomb.
So, there had been some rumbling around the newsblogs about David Shulkin, VA Secretary, getting ousted from his position. It didn’t seem too out of the blue. I mean, honestly, at this point, no one getting canned is. When your Secretary of State gets put on the chopping block, no position seems safe. But the person that Trump is nominating to replace him feels kind of interesting. Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, on the face of it, might not seem like such a weird choice. But considering how disingenuous RA Jackson’s medical diagnosis of Trump was earlier in the year was…well I can’t be the only one making the connection between his sweet new gig. Am I saying Trump is paying Jackson off with a promotion? No. But it makes for a good joke.
The Border Wall might be concept I want to just go away the most. It’s an entirely pointless, useless construct that will do almost nothing to curb undocumented immigration, because as anyone with a cursory understanding of the subject will tell you, the VAST majority of people here illegally didn’t cross the border in the dead of night, they came over perfectly legally and didn’t leave when they were supposed to. If built, it’s a symbol of our dedication to Security Theater, or providing the visual appearance of impressive security, but lacking any real teeth to do the job. Of course the big selling point Trump originally had was that Mexico would in fact be paying for this massively expensive project. Mexico in laughed in Trump’s face, and now keeps trying to weasel the US and it’s citizens into paying for it. Now he wants the military to pay for it. Not only that, but he thinks having the Military build the damn thing falls well within the purview of national defense. I think any normal person would feel that nagging sensation of embarrassment and shame creeping over them. I have to give it to Trump that he seems unable to feel shame for anything.
So General John Hyten, of course, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that we aren’t doing a Space Military. I mean, he was a bit nicer about it then I would have been. Namely in him not mentioning that the tech to have some kind of military presence in space is non-existent, and that Star Wars, Star Trek, and Buck Rogers all either take place in galaxies far, far away or in the far future. But the general diplomatically said that it just wasn’t the time, that the military has more taxing concerns in front of it and that maybe in the future it would be a possibility (bless him and his optimism).
Joe Biden has been weirdly talking about beating up Donald Trump a lot. It’s…odd. Like, I understand the sentiment, and I imagine a lot of people would love to lay one on Trump, but he’s taking this weirdly high school tone about the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m awfully fond of Biden. He’s kind of like the nation’s precocious old Uncle Joe. But his rhetoric is starting to sound like he just wants us to know, without question, that he thinks the way Trump treats women is disgusting, and he would totally beat the crap out of him for it he could. I don’t know that his white knight attitude is what we need right now. I don’t think it’s making anyone feel better, but at least it’s entertaining. Especially now that Trump feels like he has to defend his masculinity about it. The funny thing about this is that before he took to Twitter to assure the nation that Trump could take down Joe Biden in a fight, I was drawing out this strip.
Mind the Exit 