January 21, 2018: Sen. Duckworth Has a Message for Cadet Bone Spurs

 

1/21/18: As breakfast time approaches in Washington D.C., Trump can take solace knowing all Americans and all peoples round the globe love him. 

He knows this to be true because he binge-watches Fox News. Did you realize that Brad Blakeman gave the president excellent marks for his first year on the throne? Well, the president believes we all should know. “Thank you to Brad Blakeman on @FoxNews for grading year one of my presidency with an ‘A’ - and likewise to Doug Schoen for the very good grade and statements,” he tweets. 

 

“A message for Cadet Bone Spurs.” 

Year Two begins with Congress unable to pass a budget. There are warnings that the deficit for 2018 may surpass $1 trillion. The U.S. Treasury reports it will borrow $441 billion during the first quarter of this year. This kind of deficit spending used to bother GOP “fiscal hawks.” 

Now Paul Ryan pecks for corn and clucks like a hen. 

Meanwhile, the reputation of the United States has suffered grievously in a year under Trump. To be more precise: It has reached the lowest level ever recorded. According to Gallup, respect for America was 48 percent during President Obama’s final year in office. Under Trump it stands at 30 percent. 

Respect has fallen by at least 10 percentage points in countries normally our allies. These include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and South Korea. And approval fell by 40 points in Norway. That’s the place where the president says all the best potential immigrants live! (See: 1/11/18.)

 

With the government shut down, all the White House toadies are making the cable news rounds, blaming Democrats. According to Kellyanne Conway, Democrats hate the U.S. military. 

Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois hits back. (Duckworth lost both legs in 2004, when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down near Taji, Iraq.) In a speech on the Senate floor, she responds to the president’s claims that Democrats hate the military: 

I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five deferment draft-dodger. And I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops and millions of innocent civilians in danger.

 

Now we wait. Will Trump offer up some furious tweet-insult in response? Perhaps he’ll howl: “Duckworth is no hero. I like people who don’t get shot down and lose both legs.” The man has no class. 

You know he might.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

July 6, 2019: The Blogger Gets One Wrong

7/6/19: The U.S. added 224,000 jobs last month. This means 5,613,000 jobs have been added in the first 29 full months of President Trump’s term. In other words, it’s a good jobs report. 

It’s just not as good as the 6,359,000 jobs added in Obama’s last 29 full months in the White House.

On jobs, Obama continues to lead.

 

* 

TODAY, the Trump administration kept us all safe from dangerous undocumented types hoping to sneak across the border, by denying a hearing to Roman Sabal, 58. Um…a Marine Corps veteran, who served for six years.  That means Sabal served more time in uniform than all the members of the Trump clan since the president’s grandfather first sank family roots on our shores in 1885. 

His story has a few twists and turns which make it more complicated than you can explain in a Trump tweet (which is how the president makes immigration policy). Sabal’s lawyer notes that his client is one of seven deported veterans with pending citizenship cases. His two children are U.S. citizens, and his partner is a U.S. citizen. 

So, how did this country benefit by deporting Sabal to begin – and then keeping him away from people who love him…who are…citizens? You might think the tweeting fool living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would take such matters seriously. If he paid any attention at all. 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (5/12/22): During a light editing of my blog, I did a quick internet search to see if I could learn Sabal’s fate. It turns out he was deported in 2008, when George W. Bush was in the Oval Office. That would be long before Donald Trump ever took charge, and started warning us all about dangerous immigrants, especially those with dark skins. The Obama administration had been no help, and Sabal languished in his home country, Belize, until 2019, when his lawyers finally won him a hearing. Sabal had been scheduled to return to San Diego for a citizenship appeal. He was denied entry, however, and unable to win his case until October 2020. 

His successful appeal for U.S. citizenship was finally advanced after Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a veteran herself, stepped in to push officials to do what was right. 

Sorry, Mr. Trump, you were innocent for a change.

January 10, 2020: Explaining "Patriotism" to President Trump

1/10/20: In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, President Trump says he will try to block any attempt by former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify during the Senate impeachment trial. 

Bolton, of course, was listening in on Trump’s “perfect” July 25 call with the President of Ukraine.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth.

 

____________________ 

A twisted understanding of what patriotism is really about.

____________________

 

 

Trump says he’s only thinking of future presidents, who might have a hard time conducting official business if every time they thought about breaking the law, someone might rat them out. 

Ingraham lets Trump slide and doesn’t bring up the fact that Republicans during House Intelligence Committee hearings kept howling about how it was mean to impeach Trump without “firsthand knowledge.” 

No sense either, reminding Trump fans that their tangerine-tinted hero had tweeted on November 26: 

The D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify before Congress. I am fighting for future presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify. Don McGahn’s respected lawyer has already stated that I did nothing wrong.

 

John Bolton is a patriot [emphasis added] and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also. Likewise, I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax.

 

Ingraham lets Trump have a second pass when he explains his decision to send additional troops to Saudi Arabia. “Listen, you’re a very rich country,” he tells her he told the Saudis. “You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.” 

New U.S. Army recruiting slogan: “See Saudi Arabia – because the Saud royal family can afford our mercenary services.” 

It’s yet another example of the president’s twisted understanding of what patriotism is really about.

 

* 

NOR IS TRUMP the only Republican voice shouting about patriotism without seeming to understand what patriotism is. On Wednesday, Rep. Doug Collins appeared on Fox News and blasted Democrats for questioning Trump’s decision to “terminate” General Qassem Soleimani. 

“They’re in love with terrorists, we see that,” he angrily asserted. “They mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families who are the ones who suffered under Soleimani.” 

By Saturday, however, Collins relented. He explained that a tour of duty in Iraq, as an Air Force chaplain, had something to do with his outburst. 

As someone who served in Iraq in 2008, I witnessed firsthand the brutal death of countless soldiers who were torn to shreds by this vicious terrorist. Soleimani was nothing less than an evil mastermind who viciously killed and wounded thousands of Americans. These images will live with me for the rest of my life, but that does not excuse my response on Wednesday evening.

 

As a Democrat myself, this blogger would note that he joined the Marines in 1968. In other words, he was ready to go into combat, but got lucky, and was never sent overseas. He can attest he is not currently, nor has he ever been “in love with terrorists.” 

More to the point, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat who did serve in combat, blasted Collins. “I’m not going to dignify that with a response,” the former Black Hawk pilot, who lost both legs when her chopper was shot down, told CNN on Thursday. “I left parts of my body in Iraq fighting terrorists. I don’t need to justify myself to anyone.” 

Duckworth later pointed out that it was Trump, himself, who has often attacked Gold Star families.

 

Patriotism can be expressed in all kinds of ways, by all kinds of people, on and off the battlefield. Nor is it ever the province of just one side in politics. If some feel that the decision to kill Soleimani might lead to a bloody confrontation with Iran – then it would be patriotic to stand up and question the president’s decision. Patriotism doesn’t mean we must blindly agree with this president – or any other to come. 

This blogger would suggest that Trump and his fans remember that patriotism has also been referred to as “the last refuge of scoundrels.” 

“Patriotism” is often a complex matter, and Rep. Collins should have known better from the start.