Or why this may be the last Christmas.
I have not been writing a lot I know. It is because of two reasons: 1) I have been back and forth to Israel a couple of times this month and 2) I have been watching in abject horror at the actions of the completely worthless man residing ( part time) at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Especially in the last week when the total madness that is the Trump Presidency should have been evident to even the most ardent MAGA hat wearing idiot.
Don’t kid yourself, the last week has seen events that no American should tolerate. If after watching these events unfold, you are still a Trump supporter than you are completely hopeless. It would be best for all concerned if you just went out to your garage, started your car and fell into the oblivion that so richly should await you.
As someone who has devoted the better part of his working life to the service of the United States, I can’t help but think we are watching the death of American Democracy in slow motion. It’s like watching a car wreck that you cannot prevent. All you can do is cover your eyes as the carnage is played out in front of you.
Consider:
— The President of the United States was implicated by his own Department of Justice in the commission of multiple felonies.
—-Trump Just Messed Up the One Thing He Did Better Than Obama, namely that the US working to contain Russia in the Levant. His withdrawal from Syria will save American lives at the expense of thousands of Kurdish ones and Syrian ones. It will boldly enable Iran in the region, as well as Russia, and it will undermine efforts to have Israel take a more restrained posture.
—–Thanks to his “economic policies” such as they are, the stock market if now down 8% for the year and the bottom is not yet in sight.
—–There is clear-cut evidence that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the election. At the minimum, its evident that Russia acted in a coordinated fashion to suppress the turnout of certain voters because they wanted Trump to win. The judge in the Flynn case even used the “T” word, treason, to the callous acts against the country the Trumpers sanctioned.
——The President of the United States provoked a pointless government shutdown because he wants money for his stupid wall. He continues to tell lie after lie about immigration in the hope of whipping up his deranged followers into a lathered frenzy.
—–And finally, in the measured fashion that he is known for, the only competent member of the Trumps cabinet just told him to go fuck himself.
All of which should make you deeply concerned about the future of the United States, if you actually to profess to care about the country, something most Trump supporters don’t really do. Like Trump, all they care about is themselves – like the selfish pigs they are.
The President’s words are increasingly predictive of, or reflected in, his decisions, in large part because he recognizes no authority other than his own. He is America’s most autocratic leader, at least in terms of his mind-set—a tendency that is most clear in foreign policy, where Trump is essentially unconstrained by even the most loudmouthed members of Congress, and he no longer has any Cabinet officers or White House advisers who will stand up to him. When it comes to the world, he can act like an Erdoğan, a Putin, a Xi.
As you probably have surmised in previous posts, I see this as a dangerous and deadly development. And you should not kid yourself, Trump wants to be a dictator like all of the other ones he admires. He does not understand in the slightest the imperatives of a Constitutional Republic. And as I feared from outset, the system of checks and balances is failing. Unless people act to opposed this man soon, all that many of us have worked for will be for nothing.
Donald Trump is dangerous and unfit for office. Nearly every member of the House of Representatives knows this. I bet that every single senator does. History’s eyes are on them, as are the world’s right now. The longer they pretend not to see, the greater the contempt they will earn—and the danger they will invite.
There are no more excuses not to forcefully oppose this truly worthless and despicable human being. One can only hope resignation of James Mattis leaves Congress to face the truth about Trump. I’m not very optimistic that they will, especially the utterly criminal members of the Freedom Caucus and tyrant like Tom Cotton.
So long as Mattis stayed on the job, Republicans in Congress could indulge the hope that responsible people remained in charge of the nation’s security. That hope has now been repudiated by the very person in whom the hope was placed. It’s James Mattis himself who is telling you that the president does not treat allies with respect, does not have a clear-eyed view of malign actors and strategic competitors.
Donald Trump is not even a little bit concerned about cooperation and relationships. He holds his own word notoriously worthless, and he sees no problem in doing the same to the nation’s. His “America First” may not mean “America alone”—but only because his America is now disturbingly and mysteriously beholden to cash-rich counterparts: Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia.
Mattis saw it up close. He bore it as long as he could, in hopes of mitigating the damage. But when Trump broke America’s promise to the Syrian Kurds, he stained Mattis’s honor, too. That, apparently, Mattis could not accept. He leaves and takes his honor with him. And now the question for Congress is: The Klaxon is sounding. The system is failing. What will you do?
Enjoy what may be the last Christmas. Either Trump is finished or we are. A decent country and a despot President cannot exist in the same plane.
