Tag: Donald Trump

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I have been looking for an example of what is wrong with the present political system that isn’t about Donald Trump doing something outrageous. This has been a difficult task because Trump is consistently behaving outrageously. It is so frequent that I started writing the present blog minutes before I discovered Trump kidnapped the Venezuelan president and his wife. I had to stop this blog to write another blog because kidnapping a president and taking over another country is pretty big news.

I now feel comfortable to return to the less outrageous, but concerning, actions of a politician I happen to like — Nancy Pelosi. She believes there is something wrong with Donald Trump’s mental capacity related to his advanced age. I happen to agree with her. The problem I have is her diagnosis is tainted by her previous toleration of Joe Biden’s declining mental capacity while he was president. She was quite willing to foist a declining senior citizen who also happened to be a Democrat on us until it became obvious to the general public that Biden was no longer capable of doing the job.

So thanks but no thanks for this helpful information about Trump. Her words here are meaningless because she changes her tune depending on what party the declining senior citizen is a member. The same criticism goes for all the many Republican and conservative pundits who delighted in pointing out Biden’s decline while presently ignoring the deteriorating health of Trump. How can you take seriously people who complain about putting an old man into power while simultaneously nominating a 78 year old man for president. Huh?

But Trump isn’t the same as Biden. Maybe, maybe not. The issue, however, is putting an aging person in a position of power. The health of 78 year old can change and change rapidly. It isn’t a particularly wise move particularly if you say you are concerned about an aging person in power. What makes putting a 78 year old in power in 2024 different from putting a 79 year old in power in 2020?

So talk all you want about your concerns but it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in your opinion when you selectively use arguments that are important when your party is out of power and not so important when your party is in power. It is, in fact, irritating to hear such hypocrisy roll of the tongues of leaders who expect, in return, that you take it as received wisdom. So blah blah blah right back at you.

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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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Republicans are complaining about Virginians electing Jay Jones as Attorney General. Jones’ emails were released that showed him wishing violence on both his opponent and his opponent’s kids. Wow. What would be thought of as a disqualifying action with the voters wasn’t enough to defeat Jones.

I feel their pain. This is how I felt when Trump defeated Harris in 2024. How the voters could elect such a nakedly corrupt individual over a rather mundane political hack was beyond me. But the voters had a choice. A lot of voters felt they had a bad choice but a choice nonetheless. They choose the nakedly corrupt Trump which means that they feared Harris more than they did from Trump.

Now I disagree with the voters who opted for Trump over Harris as the lesser of two evils. But when Democrats got upset about it, I felt they were missing the point. When Trump is seen as the lesser of two evils, the problem isn’t with the voters. The problem is your candidate. Something was turning marginal voters against the Democrat’s candidate. Instead of complaining about the voters, it might be wiser to look at why people made this decision and alter your course.

The Republican brand might just be having a similar problem right now. Given a bad choice between a man who would like to see his opponent shot and a Republican incumbent then it might be time for a little self reflection on how voters see the Republican Party. I am fairly certain that they will resist this temptation. But, honestly, if you can’t beat a candidate with such negative press and a weak defense of his actions, you are in bigger trouble than you can comprehend.