And it’s worth reminding Americans.
The underlying cause in Trump’s impeachment is that he put U.S. security at
risk.
Postscript: This blogger was unaware of the article
by Bowden until Trott brought it up. Bowden supplies more proof to support the
idea I often float for my wife and friends, who, like me, consider Trump to be an
existential threat. That is, no matter how bad you think he is, the more you
delve into his behavior, the worse you realize it is. Bowden seems to have had
that same eye-popping realization.
“In 20 years of writing about the military, I have never
heard officers in high positions express such alarm about a president.”
A few highlights from what he
writes: “To get a sense of what serving Trump has been like, I
interviewed officers up and down the ranks, as well as several present and
former civilian Pentagon employees.”
Sources included several three- and four-star generals,
Bowden says. Most asked to be quoted off the record.
Military officers are sworn to
serve whomever voters send to the White House. Cognizant of the special
authority they hold, high-level officers epitomize respect for the chain of
command, and are extremely reticent about criticizing their civilian overseers.
That those I spoke with made an exception in Trump’s case is telling, and much
of what they told me is deeply disturbing. In 20 years of writing about the
military, I have never heard officers in high positions express such alarm
about a president.
The military men Bowden interviewed warn that we have a
“rudderless captaincy,” a president who makes and unmakes foreign policy by
tweet and then expects the military to react accordingly. Trump’s approach to
North Korea is typical. Threaten “fire and fury” to start. Then go to Twitter to
announce joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises have been canceled.
Then tweet about pulling American troops from the peninsula and tell the world
Kim Jong-un is “your friend.”
“While the lovefest continues for the cameras,” Bowden notes,
“the U.S. has quietly uncanceled the canceled military exercises, and dropped
any mention of a troop withdrawal.”
Bowden warns, “Out in the field, where combat is more than
wordplay, his tweets have consequences. He is not a president who thinks
through consequences—and this, the generals stressed, is not the way serious
nations behave.”
Bowden identifies five characteristics that define Trump’s
leadership style. The military people he talked to believe their
Commander-in-Chief is putting the United States at risk.
First, Trump “disdains expertise.”
As different as George W. Bush
and Barack Obama were in temperament and policy preferences, one general told
me, they were remarkably alike in the Situation Room: Both presidents asked
hard questions, wanted prevailing views challenged, insisted on a variety of
options to consider, and weighed potential outcomes against broader goals. Trump
doesn’t do any of that. Despite commanding the most sophisticated
intelligence-gathering apparatus in the world, this president prefers to be
briefed by Fox News, and then arrives at decisions without input from others.
In other words, the “generals” offering Trump advice are Sean
Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs.
None of the three has ever put on the uniform or defended the
nation with anything more than their mouths.
Typically, Trump claimed on Twitter that ISIS had been
totally defeated—thanks to him. Then he announced that he was going to pull U.S.
troops out of northern Syria, without seeking advice. That meant deserting the
Kurds, who had been battling ISIS by our sides. General Joseph Votel, who had
command in the region, was caught by surprise. Now he “found himself in the
position of having to tell his allies, in effect, ‘We’re screwing you, but
we need you now more than ever.’”
American troops were in the final
stages of crushing the Islamic State, which, contrary to Trump’s assertion, was
collapsing but had not yet been defeated. Its brutal caliphate, which had
briefly stretched from eastern Iraq to western Syria, had been painstakingly
dismantled over the previous five years by an American-led global
coalition, which was close to finishing the job. Now they were to stop and come
home?
Votel did something, as a result, that military men are
reluctant to do. He announced publicly that ISIS was not yet defeated.
Trump next said he would withdraw troops from Syria—but they
would redeploy across the border in Iraq.
Then the Iraqis said our troops wouldn’t be welcome longer
than a month. So Trump sent troops right back to northern Syria—and announced
that we were guarding the oil—and everything was going to be great.
Second, Bowden writes, the president “trusts only his
instincts.” Considering this is a man who believes windmills cause cancer, this
is not the best way to handle serious threats to the nation.
Typically, Trump threatened “to end” Iran after they shot
down an unmanned American drone. He ordered a retaliatory attack on Iranian defense
installations—only to call it off with U.S. planes in the air and only minutes
to spare.
“‘How did we even get to that point?’ the general asked me in
astonishment,” Bowden writes. “Given what a tinderbox that part of the world
is, what kind of commander in chief would risk war with Iran over a drone?”
Third, Bowden warns, the president “resists coherent strategy.”
As a candidate, “he said he would get China to make the North
Korean dictator ‘disappear in one form or another very quickly.’” In fact,
Trump often talks about achieving diplomatic and military ends “very quickly.” Later,
he threatened, in Bowden’s phrase, to “immolate Pyongyang.”
You know, just casually threaten nuclear attack.
See above: threatening to “end Iran.”
Bowden describes what the military men told him were the
results:
To operate outside of an
organized process, as Trump tends to, is to reel from crisis to rapprochement
to crisis, generating little more than noise. This haphazard approach
could lead somewhere good—but it could just as easily start a very big fire.
If the president eschews the
process, this general told me, then when a challenging national-security issue
arises, he won’t have information at hand about what the cascading effects of
pursuing different options might be. “He’s kind of shooting blind.” Military
commanders find that disconcerting.
Fourth, the Commander-in-Chief “is reflexively contrary.”
According to those who have worked with the president, he “resents
advice and instruction. He likes to be agreed with. Efforts to broaden his
understanding irritate him.” Trump’s attention span is short, too. He’s not
interested in detailed military briefings. He’d rather go tweet.
Distrusting expertise, Trump has
contradicted and disparaged the intelligence community and presided over a dismantling
of the State Department. This has meant leaving open ambassadorships around the
world, including in countries vital to American interests such as Brazil,
Canada, Honduras, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, and Ukraine. High-level
foreign officers, seeing no opportunities for advancement, have been leaving.
“When you lose these diplomats
and ambassadors that have all this experience, this language capability, this
cultural understanding, that makes things very, very difficult for us,” one of
the generals said. “And it leads to poor decisions down the line.”
Trump so resists being led that
his instinct is nearly always to upend prevailing opinion.
“He is reflexively contrary,”
another of the generals told me.
“Trying to shape this president’s approach to the world into
a cogent philosophy is a fool’s errand,” Bowden says. “For those commanding
America’s armed forces, it’s best to keep binoculars trained on his Twitter
feed.”
And if you’ve ever checked out Donald J. Trump’s Twitter feed, you
know how nutso it usually is.
“If you treat civilians disrespectfully, you’re working
for the enemy! Trump doesn’t understand.”
A general, commenting for attribution
Fifth, and finally, the president “has a simplistic and
antiquated notion of soldiering.” And in this respect, Trump may be damaging
our military in the end. On several occasions he has overruled the decisions of
the military courts. Bowden lists examples—pardoning “Army Lieutenant Michael
Behenna, who had been convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner” and overturning
the decision of a tribunal in the case of Special Operations Chief Edward
Gallagher, a Navy SEAL. Gallagher had been “accused by his own team members of
fatally stabbing a teenage ISIS prisoner and shooting unarmed civilians.”
And lest we forget, “war crimes” do occur. Ask General
Chivington, who ordered the butchery of Native Americans at Sand Creek in 1864.
Ask the Nazis what happened the town of Lidice in 1942. Remember the torture of
U.S. prisoners during the Bataan Death March the same year
Or consider the monstrous behavior of ISIS fighters in recent
times.
There are war crimes; but President Bone Spurs avoided
service; and he doesn’t grasp that fact.
“He doesn’t understand the
warrior ethos,” one general said of the president. “The warrior ethos is
important because it’s sort of a sacred covenant not just among members of the
military profession, but between the profession and the society in whose name
we fight and serve. The warrior ethos…makes wars less inhumane and allows our
profession to maintain our self-respect and to be respected by others. Man, if
the warrior ethos gets misconstrued into ‘Kill them all …’ ” he
said, trailing off. Teaching soldiers about ethical conduct in war is not just
about morality: “If you treat civilians disrespectfully, you’re working
for the enemy! Trump doesn’t understand.”
Bowden admits that the “military is hard to change.” There
are bad generals and good. But, as one general told him, “the military’s
experienced leaders have steered Trump away from disaster. So far.”
“The hard part,” one general said, “is that he may be
president for another five years.”
12/25/19: “Merry Christmas,” to all Trump lovers
everywhere, who think it’s safe to say “Merry Christmas” again.
This liberal can attest to the
fact that it has been safe to say, “Merry Christmas,” since at least 1954, when
he was in kindergarten.
You may also safely say,
“Happy holidays,” if you think a person is not a practicing member of some
Christian faith.
Or you may in complete safety say,
“Happy holidays,” if you want a shorter salutation than, “Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year.”
You can even wear a festive
sweater, emblazoned with the words, “Fuck Trump and the sleigh he rode in on,”
if the holiday spirit moves you. Because this is a great country, and you have
rights; and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that profanity is, in most
settings, and in most usages, a form of free speech.
See, for example, the decision
in Cohen v. California.
*
THE PRESIDENT issues his annual Christmas message, which,
considering the messenger, could be mistaken for a hoax.
“A culture of deeper understanding and respect.”
“While the challenges that face our
country are great,” he says, “the bonds that unite us as Americans are much
stronger.”
Together, we must strive to foster a culture of deeper
understanding and respect—traits that exemplify the teachings of Christ.
We
hope your heart is filled with the love and joy of your faith, family, and
friends this Christmas. We send our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a
happy and prosperous New Year.
Postscript: Trump’s Christmas mood of understanding and
respect doesn’t last more than a few hours.
By the time he dons his
pajamas and prepares for bed, he’s tweeting
about “Crazy Nancy Pelosi” and the “scam” impeachment case. (See:
12/26/19.)
12/26/19: The president is on vacation at Mar-a-Lago;
but his foul mood doesn’t improve, even after a night’s rest.
By 7:18 a.m., he’s tweet-ranting
again:
The
Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats said they wanted to RUSH everything through
to the Senate because “President Trump is a threat to National Security” (they
are vicious, will say anything!), but now they don’t want to go fast
anymore, they want to go very slowly. Liars!
Otherwise, it’s a slow news
day in America, at least.
*
A CHECK OF WORLD NEWS hints at
metastasizing troubles. We learn, for instance, that farm run-off from Poland
is polluting wide
swaths of the Baltic Sea. Pesticide run-off builds up to become a threat to
humans who consume fish. Fertilizer run-off “saves” humans by killing fish
instead.
If you like algae you’re in
luck. Algae thrives on fertilizer run-off. It blooms in the Baltic, as it does
off the mouth of the Mississippi, where a dead zone
the size of Massachusetts was predicted for 2019. That would be the largest
expanse ever recorded. Toxic algae blooms turned
much of Lake Erie a sick shade of green last summer. A similar problem has left
beaches in France covered with “killer slime,” not exactly helpful to the
tourist industry, as any fool could see.
While the President of the
United States is focused on issues like how many times it takes to flush a toilet—and
let’s just say, kudos, because the man does not give up, not if it takes ten
tries. Even fifteen.
Meanwhile, pesticides have
contributed to a steep decline in honeybee populations, including
a 40% decline last winter.
Pollution all across North
America has caused a dramatic decline in bird populations, too. The Audubon
Society notes
that “1 in 4 birds” in North America have already been lost in the past fifty
years. This particular blogger, already age 70, won’t be around another fifty
years. But my grandkids (and yours) will be, and may curse us all for failure
to address serious problems before it was too late.
Think government regulation is
the main issue when it comes to environmental protection? You have to be ignoring
the evidence.
Or you may be too busy
flushing, like Donald J. Trump.
*
But wait! I just stumbled
on an old story. Did you know that one expert has estimated that the president’s
IQ is 156!
Trump,
of course, has described himself as a “very stable genius” since taking office—so,
assuming he can get that damn toilet to flush, maybe he can save us in the end.
Certainly, one man agrees that Trump is a genius—and that would be Trump. In 2013
he slapped at critics, saying, “Sorry losers and haters, but
my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel
so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault”
By contrast, he likes to refer to critics and foes of all
kinds as “low I.Q. people.” Jon Stewart managed to get under Trump’s orange
skin several years ago. Trump lashed out, calling him as an “obnoxious
lightweight with a lower I.Q.” Mika Brzezinski, a political commentator, was “low
I.Q. Crazy.” “Weak and totally conflicted people” like Rick Wilson “shouldn’t
be allowed on television unless given an I.Q. test. Dumb as a rock!” Trump
howled. Actor Robert DeNiro was “a very low I.Q. individual.” And in his best
worst moment, Trump tweet-quoted Kim Jong-un, the murderous dictator, who had called
former Vice President Joe Biden “a fool of low I.Q.”
Trump loved that.
Besides, the murderous dictator is his “friend.”
Trump is insensitive and crude, vulgar and uncouth. For example,
he feels compelled to label opponents as “dumb.” The writer Tim O’Brien, a man
with three masters’ degrees from Columbia, he called a “dumb guy with no clue.”
Jon Stewart, again, was a “dumb clown.” George Will, a conservative of the old
school, a school you could still respect, was “the dumbest” political
commentator of TV. Bill Maher was “the dumbest man on television.”
And for some reason one popular show irritated Citizen Trump
to no end. “Just tried watching Modern Family - written by a moron, really
boring,” he tweeted in 2013. “Writer has the mind of a very dumb and
backward child. Sorry Danny!”
Yeah. Sorry.
The Wall
of Insults.
Someday there will be a Trump Presidential Library—located at
Mar-a-Lago, no doubt. It will not be complete unless a Wall of Insults is one
of the first displays. Visitors will stop and marvel at all the abuse a
petulant president once hurled at other Americans. The wall will be covered with
the furious offerings of a very small man. Former C.I.A. Director John Brennan will
be described, in perpetuity, as “even dumber” than former F.B.I. Director James
Comey. Don Lemon, like Maher, will live on at the library as “the dumbest man
on television.” Perhaps this will cause a few quizzical looks. Future Americans
will wonder how both Lemon and Maher could be the dumbest men on TV.
They will move on. There will be an entire section crammed
with misogynistic comments. Another large section will highlight veiled racist
insults. This wall will immortalize the words of a man who knew how to hate.
Tourists who visit the Trump Presidential Library will marvel
at all the tactless offerings of a man who rose to the greatest office in a
great land. Justin Amash, who left the Republican Party in protest will make
the wall, forever listed as “one of the dumbest” people in Congress. Mayor Bill
di Blasio will be there, “dumb and incompetent.” General Stanley McChrystal (Trump
puts “General” in quotations when he describes him) will be known for “a big,
dumb mouth.” Chris Cuomo, on CNN, will not be just dumb. He will be both “Dumb
and Sick.”
Even the president’s first choice for Secretary of State will
go down in history as dumb—which is another oddity, since the man with an I.Q.
of 156 wasn’t smart enough to see that to begin. “Rex Tillerson,” visitors to
the Trump Library will learn, “didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He
was dumb as a rock.”
That insult and hundreds of others will be forever chiseled
in stone on the Wall of Insults.
Like the Vietnam War Memorial, only without the redeeming courage
and sense of sacrifice.
Finally, one visitor will tire of reading and wander away. A
second will take their place and begin reading.
Former GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will be chiseled into stone as,
“Weak, ineffective and stupid.” Paul Krugman, a Pulitzer-prize winning
economist, will get a mention, too. “He is obsessed with hatred,” the
Wall of Insults will reveal the president once claimed, “just as others are obsessed
with how stupid he is.” Politicians Trump didn’t like, by the dozens,
will be included as “stupid.” Obama: a “stupid man.” Hillary: a “stupid” woman.
The
British ambassador: “a very stupid guy.”
And finally, even opinion polls
Trump didn’t like—and windmills—will be tagged as “stupid” in the end.
12/27/19: President Trump enjoys a 14-day vacation at Mar-a-Lago, which is kind
of fun if you remember what he used to say about President Obama. This kind of
“behavior” by the dark-skinned guy used to really irritate Citizen Trump. As per this tweet on December 19, 2013: “Pres. Obama is
about to embark on a 17 day vacation in his ‘native’ Hawaii, putting Secret
Service away from families on Christmas. Aloha!”
Note
that little extra touch of dickishness, putting “native” in quotes. Hypocrisy must run in
Trump’s veins as thick as pea soup.
Still, we are happy to announce the results of a poll in
which Donald J. Trump has finished first! Asked which world leader they considered
the “greatest,” um…the “greatest threat to world peace,” 41% of Germans chose Trump!
Rounding out the Top Five were four other authoritarian types,
three of whom Mr. Trump has described in glowing terms. Kim Jong-un, Trump’s
“friend,” came in second at 17%. Vladimir Putin, who agrees that Trump should
not have been impeached, and Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, tied for
third at 8%. President Xi Jinping of China, who Trump said it was cool when he was
declared president for life, came in fifth with 7%.
Only Khamenei has failed to crack the circle of Trump’s best buds.
*
AS OF
TODAY, federal law mandates that an individual must be at least 21 in order to
buy cigarettes, cigars or get his or her hands on a vaping pen.
This is
the Trump administration moving decisively to keep dangerous objects out of the
hands of the young!! As of December 17, CDC had confirmed 54 deaths and nearly 2,000 hospitalizations related
to vaping.
If you
are at least 18, however, in some states you still have a few interesting purchases
you can make. You can march down to your local gun store and purchase a long gun, including an AR-15.
The
limited evidence available shows that families who own guns are more likely to
suffer fatal suicides than families without guns. Family gun ownership is also believed
to be more dangerous to young children. Few guns are used to stop home invaders.
Many are picked up by toddlers and fired by mistake.
The
death rate from guns in the United States is extremely high, topping rates in
almost all other advanced nations by a factor of two or more. But while the CDC
can chart the health risks from vaping, the same agency has steered
clear of tracking gun violence. The last time they tried, a little more than a
quarter-century ago, members of Congress beholden to the N.R.A. cut funding.
And we have
clearly seen that President Trump is never going to challenge the N.R.A., no
matter how many Americans get shot. Trump fears the N.R.A. almost as much as he
fears the American people getting a peak at his taxes.
We cover 12/28 in a post about impeachment.
12/29/19: GOP Sen. James Lankford admits what most Americans have long since
figured out. On Face the Nation, he says: “I don’t
think that President Trump as a person is a role model for a lot of different youth. That’s just
me personally,” he says. “I don’t like the way that he tweets, some of the
things that he says, his word choices at times are not my word choices. He
comes across with more New York City swagger than I do from the Midwest and
definitely not the way that I’m raising my kids.”
Let’s be clear. “New York swagger” is fine.
Trump is just an asshole.
12/30/19: Holy crap! The Trump Winery in Virginia fires at least seven employees who lack legal immigration status.
Omar
Miranda, who gave his name, and a second worker who refused, both said they
worked at Trump Winery for more than a decade. Miranda noted that workers had
finished the harvest season, which meant 60-hour work weeks, sometimes picking
grapes under floodlights.
(Something
tells this blogger that the Trump Winery wasn’t paying overtime for
these workers.)
According
to the Washington Post—“Fake News”—to all Trump fans, but a paper that
contacted the Trump Organization for comment, the Trump Winery “has long relied
on a couple dozen immigrants—primarily from Mexico—who legally arrive year
after year on seasonal work visas, living in a dormitory on the winery property
during the harvest.” But it was another group of year-round staff that got the
axe just before the end of the holiday season.
So,
let’s recap:
1.
Trump can’t find American workers to do the grape-picking.
2.
He’s not willing to pay a wage that would attract them.
3.
He takes a chance and hires Mexicans.
And we
all know, most Mexicans who come here are “murderers” and “rapists.” Trump told
us so.
(Over
the past year, the Post notes, it has spoken with at least 49 former
Trump employees who lacked proper immigration documentation.)
*
IN
OTHER NEWS, Vladimir Putin invites President Trump to come to Moscow next spring, to celebrate
the anniversary of the victory against Germany, during World War II.
You
figure the two leaders can discuss better relations and also plan for the 2020
U.S. election.
If
Trump does attend, he can watch a big military parade; and maybe Putin can give
him tips on how to silence pesky critics.
12/31/19: In three of four draft reports, the Scientific Advisory Board for the
E.P.A. warns that planned regulatory rollbacks conflict with established
science. At least two new rules, one making it easier for coal-fired power
plants to release mercury into the air, and another loosening rules about what
chemicals can be used near waterways, are set to go into effect in January.
So,
Happy New Year! A little extra mercury never hurt anyone. Well, not counting
people who have brains, hearts, kidneys, lungs and immune systems.
And
unborn babies.
January 1, 2020: Stuart Stevens, a GOP consultant, gets 2020 off
to a rousing start when he describes the current state of his party:
Republicans are now officially
the character doesn’t count party, the personal responsibility just proves
you have failed to blame the other guy party, the deficit doesn’t matter party,
the Russia is our ally party, and the I’m-right-and-you-are-human-scum party. Yes, it’s President Trump’s party now, but it stands only for what he has just
tweeted.
Again, on this blog, we rarely quote Democrats to make our case.
It is our official position that Donald J. Trump is a despicable human being.
Our entry for January 2 relates to the
impeachment story.
1/3/20: On the third day of a new
year, the president decides it might be fun to see if he could provoke a war
with Iran.
With that, he orders a drone strike that kills a top Iranian
general, Qasem
Soleimani, a man known to have organized numerous attacks against U.S. forces over
the last decade or two.
Whether
or not this was wise or ill-advised we will know only as events unfold. We do
know it was risky. And if we look at Trump’s “thinking” on the subject of Iran
over the last few years, we come away knowing that idiocy has been a
guiding principle. Donald J. Trump’s tenuous grasp on the complexities and
realities of foreign relations bodes ill for the future.
Take,
for example, this tweet in September 2011. “The Iranians
have just threatened to send warships to our coasts. They laugh at us. We can’t
allow them to develop nuclear weapons.”
Trump wanted to make President Obama sound weak; but Iran
never sent warships “to our coasts.” Nor was there any proof that they so intended
or had the capacity.
And this tweet that October: “Why aren’t we getting any oil
from Iraq before we leave? We are leaving the country wide open for Iran.
Big mistake.”
Yes, big mistake to leave Iraq open for Iran!
Since the drone strike that killed Soleimani was
carried out while he was on Iraqi soil, Iraq’s parliament has voted to expel all 5,200 U.S.
troops in their country. That would be “leaving the country wide open for
Iran.”
*
TRUMP
HAS also made it a habit to offer up bold Twitter predictions, almost all of
which prove wrong. Our current president repeatedly said his predecessor would
attack Iran to insure his reelection.
A sample:
11/14/11: @BarackObama
will attack Iran in the not too distant future because it will help
him win the election.
7/3/12: Just
as I predicted, @BarackObama is preparing a possible attack on Iran right
before November.
10/9/12: Now
that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in
Libya or Iran. He is desperate.
9/16/13: I
predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order
to save face!
In those days, when all Trump had to do was punch a few
buttons on his phone—which, come to think of it, is all he really does now—he was
sure, if he were in charge, he could quickly resolve any problem. “How far has
the United States gone down when we are reduced to accept the imbecilic deal
just agreed to with Iran,” he tweeted in November 2013.
Obama should have, “Read THE ART OF THE DEAL!”
In February 2014, Citizen Trump offered up another heaping
helping of stupidity: “Do you think [Sec. of State] John Kerry is aware of the
fact that they are building nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea
and Pakistan already has them!!”
First, we should note that the Iranians never built a
single nuclear weapon while Obama and Kerry were in charge.
Second, North Korea produced its first nuclear weapons during
the years Bush 43 was in office.
Third, North Korea has continued to expand its nuclear
arsenal in the years Trump has been in the White House.
Fourth, Pakistan started its nuclear weapons program in the
1970s and announced it had nukes in 1998.
Everybody knew it.
*
IN THOSE DAYS, Trump could tweet about how everything would
be better if he was in charge. There was no way of proving it.
2/23/15: “The
talks between the U.S. and Iran are going on forever, WORLD’S LONGEST
NEGOTIATION. Obama has no idea what he is doing - incompetent!”
3/31/15: “Via
@FoxNewsInsider as seen on @foxandfriends: ‘Trump: Iran Nuke Talks
Should Have Taken One Day’”
Yes! Obama should have worked out an Iran deal in one day.
Which makes you wonder why Trump’s not getting a deal done with Iran in the
next 24 hours.
Or the last 24.
Citizen Trump kept attacking:
4/1/15: “Obama’s
offer to Iran will not stop Iran’s breakout capability. It is a
bad, desperate deal negotiated from weakness. Pass sanctions!”
So, let’s be clear, clearer and clearest. Nuclear weapons
produced by Iran during Obama’s eight years in office:
0.
*
DONALD J.’S grasp of the issues never went deeper than what
he might spew in a tweet. And there’s almost no evidence, since he took office,
that his grasp of important matters is any more nuanced.
For instance:
8/11/15: “The
#IranDeal is a catastrophe that must be stopped. Will lead to at least partial
world destruction & make Iran a force like never before.”
Yet, we know the following countries and organizations signed
on to the deal worked out by the Obama administration. They believed it would keep
Iran from developing nuclear weapons until at least 2025:
China
European Union
France
Germany
Russia
United Kingdom
Now that Trump has backed out of the deal the Iranians have said
they will begin breaching treaty limits and produce as much nuclear
fuel as they like.
And don’t forget—Kim Jong-un hasn’t given up a single nuclear
weapon in the last nineteen months.
“One Day Deal” Donald can’t get it done.
*
IN FACT, where Trump is concerned, it’s impossible to tell
where he stands on basic policy. Does he, for instance, care what happens to
the people of the Middle East? Or does he only care about oil? When he first
took office, Trump was on an anti-Muslim crusade. His base was terrified. They
believed Obama was a Muslim. And all the Muslims in the world were out to get
us.
So, we had to block immigration from the Muslim world
entirely. Trump tweeted simplistic warning:
2/12/17: “72%
of refugees admitted into U.S. (2/3 -2/11) during COURT BREAK-DOWN [the federal
courts had blocked a travel ban implemented by the Trump administration] are
from 7 countries: SYRIA, IRAQ, SOMALIA, IRAN, SUDAN, LIBYA & YEMEN”
Our newly-elected president should have known that many refugees from these countries were Christians. Many
were Muslims, but had worked for the U.S. military. That made them
unpopular in their own countries. They sought safety in America, a nation they
helped during the war.
Eventually, he realized that not all Muslims were bad. He
decided he liked Iranians, if they protested against their government:
12/31/17: “Big
protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their
money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they
will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights
violations!”
Of course, under Trump administration policies, if any leaders
of those protests might need to flee to avoid arrest or execution, they
would not be welcome as refugees in this country.
*
WHAT ABOUT OBAMA? When it came to dealing with Iran, Trump
wanted us to know that Obama was weak when he was president.
Trump was a he-man:
7/8/18: “Iranian
Harassment of U.S. Warships: 2015: 22 [incidents] 2016: 36 2017: 14 2018: 0
Source: @USNavy”
And with Trump you also got bluster. In July 2018 he hit the
caps button and started shouting at the Iranians on Twitter.
To Iranian President
Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER
CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED
BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF
VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
Tweeting, of course, is not the same as conducting actual diplomacy.
So, you had to wonder when Trump was going to get around to working out that
“one day” deal with Iran. That was the one he promised he could pull off if he
was president. (Kind of like he said “repeal and replace” would be easy.)
Trump kept insisting that Iran was behind all kinds of
trouble in the Middle East. For once, he was right. Well, then, what better way
to stand up to Iran than to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria!
And to make that decision to withdraw so suddenly that the
U.S. commander in the region said he was caught by surprise.
Which meant Trump had to tweet on the topic:
Getting out of Syria was no
surprise. I’ve been campaigning on it for years, and six months ago, when I
very publicly wanted to do it, I agreed to stay longer. Russia, Iran, Syria
& others are the local enemy of ISIS. We were doing there work. Time to
come home & rebuild. #MAGA
At last, we were bringing our troops home!
Or not.
Trump almost immediately reversed course and said he was
sending most of the troops he was pulling out of Syria to Iraq, and then sent several
hundred U.S. troops to eastern Syria to guard the oil. In fact, that’s a key consideration in
Trump foreign policy. He likes oil. He wants to keep oil. He wants oil to be
safe.
He likes oil more than people.
There were reports in May 2019 that Trump wouldn’t listen to
advisers. He was too lazy to dive into details of foreign policy. He was too
impatient to listen to briefings. He was too incurious to ask questions.
These stories riled him up and he turned defensive:
5/15/19: “....Different
opinions are expressed [in cabinet meetings] and I make a decisive and final
decision - it is a very simple process. All sides, views, and policies are
covered. I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon.”
That prediction also proved incorrect; but more blustering followed:
5/19/19: “If Iran wants
to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the
United States again!”
See also: “Fire and fury” for North Korea.
(Technically, since he was threatening nuclear holocaust, we
should point out that any madman could end a war in ten days, assuming he was
willing to wipe entire populations from the surface of the earth.)
The
North Koreans have accelerated nuclear production.
Trump’s tweets often sounded juvenile:
6/2/19: “Hearing
word that Russia, Syria and, to a lesser extent, Iran, are bombing the
hell out of Idlib Province in Syria, and indiscriminately killing many innocent
civilians. The World is watching this butchery. What is the purpose, what will
it get you? STOP!”
The Iranians were not dissuaded by a Twitter shout. An attack
was launched on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. On June 13, Trump had to admit,
“‘It is the assessment of the U.S. government that Iran is
responsible for today’s attacks in the Gulf of Oman....’ @StateDept @SecPompeo.”
Nine days later, he ordered air strikes after the Iranians shot
down a U.S. drone. At the last minute, he aborted the mission.
Time to tweet excuses. First, it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t
get a deal. It was still Obama’s fault, even though he left office on January
20, 2017.
Iran cannot have Nuclear
Weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to
Nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not
acceptable. We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on
Monday.
Then we had this head-scratcher. “I never called the strike
against Iran ‘BACK,’ as people are incorrectly reporting,” Trump howled,
“I just stopped it from going forward at this time!”
The vague phrase “a short number of years” was of course telling.
The signatories to the deal had agreed that Iran would not produce weapons-grade
nuclear materials before 2025. And international inspectors would check up on
the Iranians until 2030. By comparison, Kim Jong-un and the North Koreans have accelerated
nuclear production since Trump took office.
In other words, nuclear diplomacy is hard. Harder than “One
Day Deal” Donald ever imagined.
That meant threats would have to suffice:
7/3/19: “Iran has
just issued a New Warning. Rouhani says that they will Enrich Uranium to
‘any amount we want’ if there is no new Nuclear Deal. Be careful with the
threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten
before!”
Iran responded by threatening U.S. naval vessels in the Persian
Gulf, which Trump used to say proved Obama was not respected:
7/18/19: “I
want to apprise everyone of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz today,
involving #USSBoxer, a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship. The BOXER took
defensive action against an Iranian drone....”
Next, we had Trump lying: “The Fake News is saying
that I am willing to meet with Iran, ‘No Conditions.’ That is an incorrect
statement (as usual!).”
As it turned out, the “Fake News” people were only reporting what Secretary of State Pompeo and Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin had both said. Trump would meet with the Iranians
without preconditions.
*
FINALLY, in December 2019, Iranian proxy forces in Iraq
launched a mortar attack on a U.S. base. The U.S. retaliated with airstrikes on
bases controlled by pro-Iranian militias inside Iraq.
On December 31, Trump tweeted:
Iran killed an American
contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will.
Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They
will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces
to protect the Embassy, and so notified!
....Iran will be held fully
responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They
will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New
Year!
Ah, that incongruous: “Happy New Year.”
So Trump-like.
Then, the president ordered the drone strike and Soleimani was
killed. This meant it was time to tweet-praise himself. Where other presidents had
failed, he had not failed. Trump was the best ever:
The United States has paid Iraq
Billions of Dollars a year, for many years. That is on top of all else we have
done for them. The people of Iraq don’t want to be dominated & controlled
by Iran, but ultimately, that is their choice. Over the last 15 years, Iran has
gained more....
...and more control over Iraq,
and the people of Iraq are not happy with that. It will never end well!
General Qassem Soleimani has killed
or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and
was plotting to kill many more...but got caught! He was directly and indirectly
responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent
large number....
....of PROTESTERS killed in Iran
itself. While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both
hated and feared within the country. They are not nearly as saddened as the
leaders will let the outside world believe. He should have been taken out many
years ago!
First, a minor note—but one that goes to the heart of how
Trump communicates. How he came up with the idea that General Soleimani was
“responsible for the death of millions of people,” no one can know.
And, as always, in this tweet, we learn that the problems Trump
faced were created by his predecessors, not by his own decisions. Gen. Soleimani
“should have been taken out years ago.”
Trump decided to issue more threats. On January 4, he warned
that the U.S. military had already:
....targeted 52 Iranian
sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years
ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran &
the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE
HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
They attacked us, & we hit
back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we
will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!
At this point, Trump was barking out of his ass. By treaty,
the nations of the world have agreed that attacks on cultural sites are war
crimes.
Secretary of Defense Esper had no choice but to come out and
tell reporters that the U.S. would carry out only lawful attacks.
Next, Secretary of State Pompeo showed up on TV and said Trump wasn’t going to order
airstrikes on cultural targets even though he said he was. Pompeo insisted that
the real threat to Persian culture came from the ayatollahs in charge—which was
partly true. But he did not care to explain how Trump’s threat to blow Persian
culture to bits might appeal to the average Iranian in the street.
Last, but not least, on January 5, we had Trump at his most clueless,
talking about war as if he were playing a video game.
Here we have pure stupidity, the essence of the Trump
presidency, boiled down in one tweet:
The United States just spent Two
Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST
in the World! If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we
will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way...and
without hesitation!
No war has ever been fought by “beautiful equipment.” And Trump
was blithely talking about killing and maiming human beings.
How many Iranians might die, there was no way of knowing.
Other human beings, Americans, would carry the burden of the
fight; and they, too, would be killed and maimed.
You might have thought the President of the United States
would take this matter more seriously.
In fact, within hours of that vacuous tweet, militant Islamist
forces attacked a U.S. base in Kenya. One U.S. soldier, 23-year-old Henry “Mitch” Mayfield Jr., and two Department of Defense contractors were killed. U.S. commanders said the attack by the
al-Shabaab terrorist group, a first in Kenya, involved “indirect and small arms
fire.” Six contractor-operated, civilian aircraft were damaged.
“My son was a great man
and we love him and we’re going to miss him,” his father Henry Mayfield, told an
ABC reporter the next day.
That’s not “beautiful equipment.”
That’s the reality.
1/4/20: John Stipanovich talks about voting for Gerald Ford in 1976.
He helped Ronald Reagan win election in 1984. He advised the Bush 43 team on
how to win the 2000 Florida recount.
Until
this week, he lobbied and did legal work for Republican causes.
Now
he has separated himself from his law firm. He says he plans to dedicate the
next chapter of his life to defeating Donald J. Trump in his
bid for reelection.
In an
interview with Florida Politics he admits to being a “Never Trumper,”
and for the very best reasons:
Is [Trump] the first demagogue
the country has suffered from? Huey Long, Father Coughlin, pick somebody.
But he’s the first to be President of the United States, someone that has
reached that pinnacle of power. And that’s what makes him uniquely dangerous.
And I do consider him to be an
existential threat to American democracy. He attacks the very concept of
truth…
What Donald
Trump represents, the tendencies he exhibits, the emotions he evokes, are
frightening and they’re dangerous in my judgment. He’s the ultimate con man.
He’s the carnival barker, and it’s just amazing how many rubes there are in the
country.
Stipanovich admits the Republican party has long had a “nasty
underbelly,” but the right-wing nuts were a minority. The twisted “genius” of
Trump, he says, has been to sense the rot. He has appealed to the worst
elements of the party and those elements have “metastasized.”
“I find it sad,” he told the interviewer, “but at the same
time, in a perverse way, I find it stimulating.”
I remember reading some history
a long time ago about a French order of the day issued at the beginning of
World War I when the French offensive on the Rhine failed. The Germans were
rushing toward Paris in the west, shattered French units were streaming back.
And the order the day was: “Stop where you are, dig in and fight.” And that’s
what I’m doing.
Stipanovich, knows what he’s talking about when he promises to dig
in and fight. He served with the 1st Recon Marines in Vietnam and
took part in the bloody combat related to the Tet Offensive in 1968. Now he’ll
fight a different battle for the soul of his party, and the soul of this country.
1/5/20: Subject to slight revisions, the final
jobs report for 2019 is out. Preliminary numbers indicate 145,000 jobs were
added in December. That brings the total to a healthy 2,108,000 jobs added for
the year.
Three years into his first term, Trump continues to lag, in terms of job creation,
compared with what President Obama achieved during his last six years in
office.
1/6/20: Reverberations from President
Trump’s decision to take out General Soleimani with a drone strike continue to shake
the Middle East. Crowds for his funeral in Iran are massive. The fervor for
revenge is manifest.
There can be no telling where repercussions will begin or where they
will end. General Hossein Dehghan,
a top Iranian military adviser, tells CNN that his country will strike back at
U.S. military sites in the region. The Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran will
no longer be bound by restrictions set forth in the 2015 deal. They will restart
their nuclear weapons program.
President Trump hits the caps button and tweets: “IRAN WILL
NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
That may be true.
Iran doesn’t have one now—because the 2015 deal was working. So,
we’re right back where we were all along.
But now the risk of war has been magnified.
1/7/20: Tuesday night, the Iranians fire twenty missiles at U.S. military
bases in Iraq. It is thought that some carried 1,500 pound warheads.
Any miscalculation in the next few hours or days could lead
to war between the two nations.
Fortunately, there are no U.S. casualties, which leads to another
tone-deaf tweet from President Twitter Thumbs:
All is well! Missiles launched
from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties &
damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well
equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement
tomorrow morning.
“All is well?”
*
WITH MISSILES FLYING, another interesting story gets buried. Imaad
Zuberi, who claimed he donated $900,000 to Trump’s inauguration, admits to a series of felonies.
To be fair, Zuberi raised money for Democrat candidates and causes
in previous elections. But this time may be different. Zuberi funneled
foreign money to Trump and his minions. Among other questionable actions, which
led to a charge of obstruction of justice, Mr. Zuberi covered up the fact that
at least $50,000 “he” donated came from a foreign individual.
According to CNN, Zuberi deleted emails
related to a number of transactions. Those included “a $5.8 million
transfer from a foreign national that came in around the time of his [$900,000]
political donation.”
That would be Big Money.
Big Foreign Money. Big Foreign Money likely intended to enrich
individuals associated with Team Trump 2016.
Often known as: BRIBERY.
Zuberi had already pled guilty to other charges, including income
tax evasion, and on those charges alone faces fifteen years in jail. In
his latest plea, prosecutors note that Zuberi was desperate enough to offer to pay six witnesses a total of $6,150,000
for false testimony or silence.
Postscript: We might expect Zuberi to
start cooperating with investigators. We know, if we watch news other than Fox
& Friends and Bill Hemmer, that Eliott Broidy, vice president of the Trump Inaugural Committee, is currently
under investigation. And on the topic of felons, we know Broidy pled guilty to
bribery years ago, in a scheme to game the New York State pension system.
He was a felon, too, till he agreed to cooperate with the
investigation.
For that, his conviction was later reduced.
And for the sheer fun of it, let’s remember that Broidy is famous
for paying a Playboy Bunny he says he impregnated a cool $1.6 million to
keep her mouth shut about the matter. Even more amusing: That payment was handled
through the good offices of Michael Cohen, Donald J. Trump’s personal attorney
at the time, and a man currently residing in federal prison.
Finally, we know the Bunny had an abortion.
And there were rumors that Broidy took the fall for none other
than our current president and the real father, Donald J. Trump.
