Category: Donald Trump

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I have to give Donald Trump credit. He chooses his enemies well. Nicolas Maduro is an unpopular asshole and difficult to defend as he is probably, at least passively, involved in the drug trade. A good portion of his own people are glad to see him go which puts people who question Trump’s action in the awkward position of saying but what about the law. Yeah, well, keep talking because I don’t think it is going to matter much. This would only matter if he had fucked it up and he didn’t.

People will be outraged. Rightfully so, but it will have little effect. What is the frequent theme for television heroes? A guy who doesn’t let the rules get in the way of him doing the right thing. Over and over again. The hero, if ever, is very rarely a rule following fussbudget. The hero isn’t going to get all the right forms completed and then signed off before arresting the villain. The hero is a rule breaking rouge, a bit of a scoundrel, who figures a way to get the villain despite those annoying rules.

This isn’t a television show and Trump is no television hero. Right. That is the theory any way. The reality, I’m afraid, is somewhat different because why has everyone been glued to their televisions for the past year waiting for Trump’s next move. The Trump show keeps coming up with different ways to shock and entertain us. What will he do next?

But this is an illegal operation, done without congressional authorization, against a head of a legally elected government. But but but and blah blah blah.

To be clear, I don’t support this in any way. I am saying that the outrage will be limited to the people who already hate the man. I doubt very much that anyone else will have their minds changed about him particularly when a Trump controlled Venezuelan government floods the energy markets with cheap oil. I hope I am wrong and the world will come to their senses and turn on Trump. Right now, I doubt it.

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I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to the news lately but U.S. troops took over a Venezuelan oil tanker today. I am so confused.

So Putin can invade the Ukraine and act like an all around asshole, killing Ukrainian civilians this way and that, and this isn’t worth one American life while the Venezuela government, who, at worst, may be complicit in the illegal drug trade, is getting direct American military intervention.

There simply is no sense of proportion here. Putin, a nuclear armed, political opponent murdering, kleptocrat supreme, war mongering dictator has to be given at least a small bit of the country he invaded unsuccessfully to whet his appetite while Venezuela can’t even ship a legal product, oil, because it is propping up a Latin American dictatorship who, as far as I know, has made no threats against the United States or any other country for the matter.

And people in the news are talking about a shooting war with Venezuela. A fucking war with Venezuela. Over illegal drug shipments? The world’s foremost military power is going to go toe-to-toe with a military lightweight over little more than a nuisance.

I am pretty certain the reason Trump is taking action against Venezuelan oil tankers is he thinks he can win. Taking on a much weaker nation doesn’t make you look like a tough guy (see Putin and the Ukraine for further information about this). It does make you look like a bully. And it runs the risk, particularly if things don’t go according to plan, of making the U.S.A. military look bad or ineffective (see Putin and the Ukraine).

The thing is you don’t risk your reputation on something that doesn’t really matter and I’m pretty sure the Venezuelan drug trade is secondary, at best, to U.S.A.’s larger interests. But, yeah, ok, let’s invade Venezuela. Go get them boys. I certainly feel a lot safer.

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I have to hand it to Donald Trump. He picks his targets wisely. Trans people are an infinitesimally small minority that most people don’t understand and don’t have any contact with. They are mostly an unknown, not likely to get people out into the streets. Immigrants can’t vote and are being blamed for many of the social ills that afflict the country. Their status is vulnerable because many are here illegally. Now, he has declared foreign drug smugglers as terrorists which gives the government the ability to blow them out of the water without trial. Brilliant. Trump gets to pick on two hated groups for the price of one — they are foreigners so they can’t vote and they are engaging in an illegal act so they aren’t very popular. Bingo.

Defending them is tantamount to saying I want drug smugglers importing their poison into the country. Is that what you want? It’s awkward position to have to defend but, then, defending despicable people is sometimes necessary to defend every citizen’s rights. So here goes nothing.

What is disturbing me is that I thought I understood my legal rights as a citizen. This understanding seems out of steps with what the Trump Administration believes. I thought that terrorists had the same rights as any ordinary thug. It seems like a regular old American drug dealer unloading drugs at a dock in an American city would be treated differently than the drug smugglers killed recently in the Caribbean. They should be given an opportunity to surrender and given an opportunity to explain themselves in court. Right?

As far as I can tell, they weren’t given an opportunity to surrender. Again this seems like a reasonable first step in any police action where lethal force might be used. Why kill the suspect when you can get them to surrender. But these suspects weren’t warned. This doesn’t seem like a difficult step to take. Put a helicopter in the air, have someone with a megaphone explain the situation to the trapped smugglers and give them an opportunity to surrender.

Then there is the killing. My understanding of using lethal force is that it is limited to imminent danger. Someone’s life has to be in danger now, not some person who might use the drugs a week from now. This doesn’t seem to be the case here. The U.S. Navy was in control. They didn’t ask them to surrender and there was no imminent danger to anyone until the Navy attacked the drug smugglers.

Finally, drug smuggling isn’t a capital crime. No where in the United States can anyone be executed for drug smuggling. Again, what would have happened if this had happened on U.S. soil? Also has the status of terrorists been designated to local drug dealers? Can we expect executions in the streets to ensue?

Of all the shitty things that Donald Trump has done, this, I believe, is the worst because he has undermined my notion of what my rights are. I used to be able to say with some confidence what they were. Now you can say well as long as you don’t engage in drug smuggling you are safe. For now, maybe, but this man has intimidated his way into being the final say about what the law is and how the government interprets the law. So far he has used them against unpopular and marginal targets. As I am gay and reside in a more vulnerable part of the population, I question how safe I really am. All I can say is I don’t feel particularly safe anymore.

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I love Bill Maher’s response to Karoline Leavitt’s defense of Trump calling a reporter piggy. Leavitt thinks it is good that Trump is so honest and frank with reporters. Maher took her up on her defense of being honest and frank and called her a bitch. Good for him.

Trump is nearly 80 year old man. He knows that he crossed a line when he called a woman he has a professional relationship piggy. Anyone, as Trump has been, involved in the business world of the last 50 years knows it. The woman deserves an apology but won’t get one because Trump, in that warped little mind of his, thinks that apologizing is some form of weakness and he is so worried about being perceived as weak that he will never deign to apologize to anyone.

This isn’t really the worst problem this little foot-in-mouth incident exposes. Getting an apology is between Trump and the reporter. What is troubling is that Leavitt and other Trump lackeys aren’t willing to call him out for it. No one is willing to remind him of the hard truths of living in the 21st century and how he should conduct himself in his professional relationships.

Yes, she wants to keep her job but this would seem like a good opportunity to help the boss out. An apology would end this relatively minor dust up. Now he looks like an asshole when he could look like less of asshole, sorry he will always be an asshole in my eyes, with a simple I’m sorry. Since Leavitt isn’t saying that an apology is order, it speaks volumes about Trump’s management style. You can’t speak honestly with him even when the stakes are low.

This is a terrible person to be in charge of a business and potentially disastrous person to be running a country. But hey ho at least those Commie Democrats aren’t in charge.

The good news is I think every reporter in the White House pool should feel free to address him as President Fatso. I mean just to be honest and frank with him. He clearly values that kind of honesty.

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Having been Wily Coyote to Roadrunner Donald Trump numerous times since Trump took office, I am a bit suspicious that the Epstein Files are going to change anything. Truly, if the Democrats had anything significant on him they would have released it before now and Trump has changed his mind about releasing them, I think, then, there can’t be anything more damaging to Trump than what we already know.

Consider:

  1. The Justice Department has had this information for years. If there was something worth pursing, it would have been pursued by now. It just beggars belief that Democrats would sit on something that was damaging to Trump for this long. If they did, then they should be sued for political malpractice.
  2. The new evidence would have to be undeniable and horrible. Barring videos depicting Trump struggling with an underage girl then I think he is going to be fine. Let’s face it, he was convicted of sexual abuse and still won the 2024 election. There would have to be something truly damning for this to matter and if they had this damning evidence why did the Justice department sit on it so Trump could win the 2024 election. It doesn’t make any sense.
  3. If all the new evidence shows is that Trump knew Epstein and Epstein thought Trump was an asshole, then I am afraid that is a lot of nothing. Lots of people knew Epstein and lots of people think Trump is an asshole. Tell me something new.
  4. Trump is willing to release the evidence. I don’t mean to give Trump a compliment here but he isn’t that dim. The thought that he would willingly release evidence that would prove he was involved in child sex trafficking and rape is under estimating the man who has bested his betters quite a lot.

My point here is that I lived through too many Trump is finally cornered situations only to see Trump beep beep right out of the corner. Maybe let’s wait on the celebration and champagne until Trump is really backed into a corner. I just don’t think this is it.

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The Trump Administration began raising tariffs back in April. Since then some have been lowered and some have been raised mostly based on the feelings Trump has towards the particular countries involved. In a remarkable display of peevishness, he raised tariffs on Canada based solely on the behavior of one Canadian citizen who deigned to remind Trump of Ronald Reagan’s Free Market philosophy. One Canadian playfully reminds Trump of one of the base tenants of market capitalism and all of Canada must suffer.

There is no explaining Trump at this point so I won’t even try but it is interesting how business people and libertarians continue to support Trump when his actions are contrary to their philosophy. Trump clearly believes that government can be used to interfere in the market and help individual players he likes. This isn’t laissez faire capitalism.

Raise tariffs to protect American businesses. Lower tariffs because Americans need cheaper beef. Raise tariffs because someone was mean to me. How are businesses supposed to rationally price their products in a global economy based on the capricious actions of one man is beyond me. But then, and this is the real lesson here, American Business has never been a big supporter of laissez faire capitalism. No matter what they say.

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I know I hold a minority opinion among Democrats about the shutdown but what is the point of keeping government shutdown any longer. I believe that government has a job to do and it best get back to doing it — even if it is less than perfect and it will always be less than perfect.

There is a segment of the Republican Party who hates government so much that they don’t particularly care if it is open and will use any opportunity to undermine its function and will look with glee at its destruction. This segment of the Republican party doesn’t care if people go hungry. The Rich were not being hurt by the shutdown. The Poor were.

The Democrats, being the minority party, had very little leverage to change minds. Trump holds sway with the Republicans. What he says goes. He wasn’t going to backdown and there is little evidence that there were Republicans getting ready to bolt this position.

The idea that holding out longer would create a Democratic victory was a pipe dream. The Democrats who voted to reopen government are not traitors. They looked at the facts and made a reasonable decision. Continuing the shutdown was pointless and it was hurting actual people.

The Democratic Senators that voted to reopen tended to come from Purple states where either party could win an election. You don’t get to govern unless you win elections. A lesson that Liberal Democrats need to be reminded of all the time. Yes Mamdani won New York but there is little evidence that the same holds true for say New Hampshire or Wisconsin.

Given our forefathers structure of government, this means winning in states with a more conservative electorate. These moderates are needed in order to win future elections. So I think all this talk of punishing them is incredibly unhelpful. Indeed this is how Trump is keeping his party in line — punishing the Republicans who don’t agree 100% with him.

Let’s keep everyone on board.

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I know that a lot of people will disagree with me about this but I think the best way forward is to leave Donald Trump alone. If nobody pays attention to him, he might (notice I said might) just disappear. Now, personally, I admit it would be great fun to see the man in an orange jumpsuit. He certainly deserves it. On the other hand, the effort to get him in the orange jumpsuit might be more trouble than it is worth. All of Trump’s legal trouble keeps him in the public eye which gives him the attention he craves. The problem is people think of Trump as a normal person who might be embarrassed by all of this negative publicity. I know I would be mortified but Trump is not a normal person. He loves attention and because of that there is no such thing as bad publicity. He will take what he can get.

Then there is the media who, despite their seeming outrage over Trump’s behavior, in reality, love the man. And I mean love that has no bounds. Trump actually is aware of it and plays them. He didn’t become a reality television superstar for nothing. The media, however, isn’t so savvy or they just don’t care. Neither of which is particularly comforting. Trump, on the other hand, knows how to generate headlines. The media has to pay attention to headlines. Headlines drive the media.They can’t very well ignore them, can they? They need an audience for their news and Trump supplies it in spades. It is a very sick relationship.

But how can the country let such a prominent law breaker like Trump get away with his criminal behavior? It is pretty clear that he has engaged in illegal activities. The man needs to be punished or, at the least, reigned in. I would argue in this special case we would be better off not pursuing it. Half of the country thinks he is a martyr, finding a jury where at least one Trump supporter doesn’t slip through the jury selection is going to be difficult if not impossible. Then, even if the impossible does happen, and he is convicted, he is wily man with access to wily lawyers. Being an overweight 77 year old man, I am pretty sure that he can drag this out long enough that he will die in his own bed. There is a very small chance that he will get convicted and go to prison. In the meantime we are giving Trump endless access to the spotlight he craves. He is a careless man who doesn’t care a whit about anybody but himself. He will burn the country to the ground if he has too. Is it worth it just to see him behind bars?

If by pursuing legal action, we hope to shake loose his supporters and get them to see reason, then give up. It isn’t happening. His crimes seem to have little effect on his followers who, instead of seeing the man for what he is, are opting to take Trump’s complaints against the justice system and the media at face value. It has strengthened their commitment to him which, I am afraid, means that they will follow him with matches if he decides it is a good idea to burn down the country. Given Trump’s insatiable narcissism, I don’t like the odds that Trump can be persuaded to do the right thing.

The continued pursuit of legal action against Trump gives him a platform to talk about the really important issue of how horribly people treat Donald Trump. Again and again, day after day, waah, waah, waah. With his chorus in the media breathlessly asking the important questions. Did you hear what Trump said today? Is he admitting to a crime? How can prosecutors use this information in the coming trials? Will this finally force Republicans to abandon him? All great media fodder but increasingly meaningless sideshows to what really ails the country.

Every minute spent discussing Trump is one less minute Americans are talking about real problems like homelessness, crime, the Ukrainian War, inflation, educational reform and onward and so forth. He won’t stop talking as long as we continue to listen and the bright minds in the media can’t stop themselves from talking about Donald Trump. It would be better for everyone to ignore him and that means biting the bullet and leaving him alone. Let him rot away in the Florida sun.

Some Democrats think that all this attention will force the Republicans to nominate Trump again for president because they believe that Trump will be easier to beat. Maybe. But if all the Democrats have is a weak Republican candidate then the Democrats deserve to loose. The election should be about better ideas and good candidates. Talking about what a stupid asshole the Republicans have nominated is hardly a winning strategy and it is embarrassingly weak too. It is dependent upon the Republicans doing what the Democrats want and is pretty nakedly apparent that’s what the Democrats want. The Republicans might surprise us and change their minds about committing political suicide. Then where would the Democrats be.

It would be better for the country to start with a fresh face. Ron DeSantis maybe an asshole but he is a different asshole with different ideas and different ways of doing things. It is a risk. Yes. But I would much rather face someone like Ron DeSantis or anyone other than Trump. Because if someone other than Trump is the Republican nominee there is a remote possibility that Americans might talk about something other than Donald Trump. If Trump is the nominee, the media spotlight remains focused on Donald Trump. And all that means is waah, waah, waah people are so mean to Donald Trump. The media will give him 24/7 coverage and nothing will change. It is, however, great television. There is that.

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I avoid talking about Donald Trump because he, in my opinion, is a narcissist. As long as people are talking about him, he is happy. It doesn’t matter if they say good things or bad things as long as they are talking about him. But occasionally he says something that irritates me so much, and so obviously wrong, I have to point it out in the futile hope that the people who voted for him will finally come to their senses.

So here goes. In a recent speech, Donald Trump claimed he could end the Russian war immediately with two words. So end it, I say. Why wait? Say the two magic words he thinks will end. But no, Trump is waiting. He is saving this information for a future when he might be President.

There is a lot wrong here. A secret plan is all well in good but if Trump keeps it a secret it is impossible to determine whether he even has a plan at all. It’s all locked away in his head. There is no way to determine whether he knows what he talking about or is full of shit. Not telling anyone what you are thinking is game playing at its worst. He is being positively useless it ending the war while pretending to have superior knowledge about what can be done. Thanks for absolutely nothing.

Then there is the idea that he can end a bloody and costly war with two little words and won’t do it because there is nothing in it for him. Thousands of people will die, billions of dollars will be wasted fighting the war and rebuilding the Ukraine, millions of displaced people will remain refugees while he sits on his surefire solution to a complicated problem. Not too surprisingly, his Republican allies are silent while they are trying to make cuts to balance the budget. If he could end the war, as he says he can, wouldn’t that save the American taxpayer billions and help cut costs in the budget. Of course, they would rather grumble about Medicare and Social Security. Again, thanks for nothing.

Trump needs to stop sulking and spill the beans or keep his big trap shut. But saying you can stop and war and then doing nothing is heartless and unforgivable. People are dying here.

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I lost faith in journalism during the 2016 election. The press likes controversy. It likes big personalities. it likes people who will say crazy things. Who better to provide those things than Donald Trump? Trump is a headline waiting to happen. The press dutifully gave him everything he wanted.

The press portray themselves as innocent in all this. They simply report the facts and leave it to the reader to decide. But this isn’t the way things work. Supplying the world with facts is important but the press really needs to sell advertisements. This means they need to show their potential customers their media outlet has a large customer base. This is the only thing that truly matters to the press. So while, they do print facts, they have a lot of discretion on what facts appear in the headlines and at the top of the hour. If it is likely to grab the audience’s attention, that particular fact has a better chance of seeing the light of day. All Trump had to do in 2016 is to say something crazy and the press aimed their laser like gaze on Donald Trump.

This was particularly true during the Republican Primary where the press couldn’t look away from Trump. Keep in mind, there was well over 10 candidates running for the Republican nomination in 2016. Governors, Senators, Business Leaders but the press ignored them because Donald Trump said crazier things which made for better news which meant more customers watching. All Trump had to do was call a press conference. The full press contingent showed up so they could duly report the facts. Trump received so much press coverage that he spent very little of his own money buying advertisements. He didn’t need ads, he had the press right in his pocket. They provided all the advertising he needed. The other poor saps couldn’t compete with the media savvy Trump.

This love affair continued after he was elected. It was Trump Trump Trump for four long years. Any crazy thing he said was put in the headlines, investigated and discussed endlessly by everyone in the press. While this was all going on, Trump’s allies were doing real damage to environmental and ecological regulation, replacing judges with hardcore conservative ones, giving tax breaks to their pals and undermining any government department they could wreak havoc with. The press, however, couldn’t take their eyes off of the very entertaining Trump and his headline grabbing antics.

So, here we are two years after removing Trump from the presidency and what is the press doing — putting him in the headlines every single day. This raid on his home is ridiculous. The only thing the press can do is speculate. Hour after hour of speculation. How is this valuable? The only facts they can report is that is happened and that Trump and a lot of Republicans are pissed off about it. There isn’t much else to say, at least that is a fact. It certainly doesn’t warrant the coverage Trump is getting and the only person that can be happy about all the attention he is getting is Trump.

And, of course, the press is loving it too. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. They love Trump. It isn’t a healthy love. It is very much a sick co-dependent love. But when Trump speaks, they will be right there reporting. What actual reporting can be done about Mar-a-lago? The press even admits that they don’t know anything yet. They keep saying we will have to wait to know what the raid was about. Why not wait then? But they kept help themselves. Instead, our best and brightest reporters are speculating about what the Mar-a-lago raid means, how it will affect Trump and what Garland might be thinking.

The net effect of this is it gives Trump all the attention he craves. He is a narcissist. He doesn’t care if the press is unfavorable to him, he just wants to be talked about. The press is co-operating with him in spades. Trump is Moby Dick and the press is Captain Ahab. They won’t give up until they put him in prison. Trump is 76 years old. He can drag this on for years and still die in the comfort of his own home. It isn’t going to happen. They also want Trump true believers to admit they were wrong and Trump is a bad man. This isn’t going to happen either. They want to prevent him from running for president in 2024. This could happen but the present strategy is putting Trump in the headlines again and he is loving it and the people who love Trump are back at his beck and call. The very things that propelled him to the White House in2016.

If nothing else, taking Trump off the front page would stop this co-dependent relationship. The press doesn’t have to play Trump’s game. It would require a lot of discipline and, sadly, it doesn’t look like the press understands or even cares to learn the lesson as long as Trump sells advertising.