12/7/18: Trump’s terrible, no good
weekend/week/month/presidency continues to spiral downward.
First, the president announces that White House chief of
staff General John Kelly is leaving; but everything at 1600 Pennsylvania is
ducky. Then we learn Nick Ayers will be taking the job.
Then we learn Ayers won’t be taking the job.
Why not
pick a Russian?
I would like to offer this helpful suggestion: Why not pick a
Russian for the job and cut out the middlemen?
On the international front we have new reports that North
Korea is expanding missile-launching
bases located along the Chinese border, where it would be beyond
dangerous for the U.S. to strike. The North Koreans also appear to be ramping up production of nuclear weapons and missiles.
Total number of nuclear weapons Kim Jong-un has relinquished
since June, when Trump declared North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat:
0.
While we’re on the subject of rogue leaders, CNN acquires a transcript of the tape of the last minutes
journalist Jamal Khashoggi spent on earth. According to the translation,
Khashoggi can be heard gasping three times, “I can’t breathe,” as a Saudi hit
team finishes him off.
Soon a bone saw is heard. A doctor wielding it tells other
members of the team to use ear plugs or listen to music, as he is, if the sound
of dismemberment troubles them. The head of the hit squad can be heard talking
on the phone. Turkish authorities, who have passed the transcript on to
reporters, claim intercepts prove the calls are going to a number at the
Saudi royal palace. The other end of the conversation can’t be heard. The assassin
tells his listener the “job is done.”
None of this bothers our president, or Jared, his son-in-law.
Trump continues to insist there’s no direct link between the murder and the
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Jared does a fluff interview with Sean Hannity. Hannity
chooses not to ask about the Crown Prince and Jared never brings him up.
According to Jared, U.S. intelligence agencies are still trying to figure out
who murdered the journalist. It doesn’t much matter in the end. He and “Dad”
are focused on other matters.
“We’re focused now on the broader region, which is figuring
out how to hopefully bring a deal together between the Israelis and the
Palestinians,” Jared says. Apparently, neither Jared, nor the president
realize: Hey, we’re the United States! We could work on more than one foreign
policy issue at a time.
Regardless, the foreign policy hits keep coming. Trump needs
a new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and pickings are slim. He looks at
his nearly empty bench and sends in Heather Nauert to guard the goal. Because
nothing says, “We intend to bolster America’s preeminent role on the world
stage,” like elevating a former Fox News host to this crucial post.
In an interview with CBS, former Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson reveals the secrets of Trump’s foreign policy “success.” On numerous
occasions, he tells an interviewer, he had to tell Trump that what he wanted
done on the international stage was:
A) Illegal.
B) A
violation of some existing treaty.
C) Both.
Tillerson proves less than complimentary in describing the president’s
deal-making processes. It was difficult, he says,
to go to work for a man who is
pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports,
doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things. But rather just kind
of says, “Look, this is what I believe and you can try to convince me
otherwise,” but most of the time you’re not going to do that.
Trump responds with his usual maturity in a tweet rant: “Rex
Tillerson didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a
rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.”
