So Trump wants a big, opulent military parade, and I feel almost weird talking about it, because you just know that Trump is looking forward to calling a bunch of people out for not supporting the troops by acknowledging how bad it looks. Because a grand parade for the Military isn’t about the soldiers. It’s a display of power. He’s not celebrating a holiday, or emphasizing a victory. He’s just flexing muscles. It’s a political body building contest. But Trump is savvy and duplicitous enough to turn that on it’s ear and stoke the rage flames from all of those who don’t see this move for what it is. Because the fact is that when people think of big military parades, people think of goose stepping Nazis and whatever that weird march step that the North Koreans do is. Make no mistake, this is just one more divide in the body of bipartisanship.
The European Union seems to have read the book Trump didn’t actually write. They’re basically willing to walk away from the negotiating table for anyone not taking part in the Paris agreement. With all his talk about the bad deal the US was getting, and by pulling out, Trump would have the whole world eating out of the palm of our hands, I have to wonder what such a bold declaration by the EU would make Trump do behind closed doors? I’m sure he’s going to come out and say this was either part of the plan or that this is just a non-problem and even a good thing, because who wanted to trade with literally everyone anyway? I mean, he’s alienating us from China, Mexico, and Canada one by one, and now all of Europe is getting ready to say no thanks. At what point are we going to stop pretending that he’s the best deal maker around?
According to President Donald Trump, the Stock Market is basically the entire indicator for the health of our economy. At least, that’s what he was saying when the Stock Market was posting record numbers, numbers he was proud to take the credit for, an indisputable indicator of success under his regime. He wouldn’t hear of it when it was suggested that this wasn’t a result of his time in office, that we might at least in part be feeling the after effects of Obama’s time in office. Fine. That’s fair. So when the stock market starts losing money in record numbers, by President Trump’s logic, then he must also be prepared to take the credit, right?
So a fun political buzzword we keep hearing lately is “Nothing Burger.” I mean, It’s a term that’s been around for like 70 years, but in the age of “fake news” and non-stop information flooding every aspect of our existence, parsing the things that have real significance from the things that don’t is tangible problem. Take the infamous memo released this weekend. While Trump claims it completely vindicates him, eagle eyed viewers would recognize that it’s mostly just an accusatory document attacking the quality of evidence used to secure a surveillance warrant. In political terms, it can, and probably should be argued that it is the dictionary definition of a Nothing Burger. While I don’t think the Republicans are the only people in government utilizing the concept, they are certainly turning it into an art.
So much like his inauguration numbers, Trump’s first State of the Union numbers couldn’t match his predecessor’s. More than that, people’s general reaction to Trump’s State of the Union fell very flat compared to Obama. I think we’re all just waiting for Trump and his people to brag about how successful his SOTU was, how well watched and received it was. I wonder if we’ll even see the revival of “Alternative Facts”? One can only hope.
Update: I came up with the idea of this panel before Trump actually came out and said his ratings were the highest recorded for the State of the Union. I would take credit as some kind of prophet, but let’s face it, anyone could have made that prediction if they were following Trump’s behavior even sort of.
So the State of the Union was a dark time for people paying any kind of attention to the rhetoric. I’ve been combing over transcripts and word choices, because it seems to me that people tend to pay more attention to how things are said, and how the person looked while saying them, then the words actually spoken. For example, we have this little gem:
“Tonight I call on the congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”
In other words, he wants Congress to empower his people to fire whoever they want for whatever reasons they can claim are “unAmerican”. For instance, investigators running witch hunts?
Trump has successfully bullied another person out their position. Andrew McCabe can’t handle the craziness anymore, and I don’t know that anyone can blame him. But it’s really becoming scarier to realize that people who are brave enough to not have any honest allegiances to Trump are becoming de-legitimized, disenfranchised or forced out. Trump supporters keep saying how over the top liberals concerned with Trump’s draconian dictatorial methods are being, but is it only going to be ok to say I told you so when he’s finally named himself emperor of the US? Will it be ok even then?
So, the more I parse through his interview with man/gerbil hybrid Piers Morgan, the funnier things get. Amongst many things, he claims to be very popular in the UK. He says he just gets so much fan mail from the UK! He doesn’t seem to remember that politicians have officially tried to ban his entry from London and England in general, and that the protests that have been threatened have made some of our look quaint by comparison. Not to mention that as someone who personally enjoys a fair amount of British media, I don’t think I’ve ever read or seen anyone from that side of the pond make a positive case for Donald Trump, which is me being kind. But, maybe Trump knows something I don’t.
Trump has allocated $24 million to Boeing to upgrade the refrigerators on Air Force One. Yes. $24 million to update refrigerators. Because when it comes to Air Force One, an upgrade like that can’t be standard. It’s ridiculous, and flies in the face of all the complaining Trump liked to do when he would slam Obama for wasteful spending. Trump claimed back on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t even use Air Force One if elected because of the out of control spending that thing takes up. I guess one changes their mind when the shoe is on the other foot.
So Trump casually walked into an interview John Kelly was having with some reporters and decided to have an impromptu press conference, which is just a delight for everyone, I’m sure. You know that Trump just loves thinking that he is a conversational wizard, and can get the best out of any tete-a-tete with any reporters, even though he comes off sounding like a lunatic, and just makes more cleanup work for those around him. Welcome to the new normal.
Mind the Exit 