After blissfully avoiding the news on a recent vacation with friends, my impatiently awaiting newsfeed scanned like a notebook of failed B-movie plotlines. At least 1964’s “Seven Days in May” had a great cast. The 2019 version? Not so much. Within a very brief timespan:
- Trump explicitly sided with a North Korean dictator, calling a former Vice President of the United States a “disaster”.
- Trump tweeted, again on foreign soil, that “Joe Bidan” (his spelling) was a “low IQ individual”. Irony’s a bitch.
- Trump decided he wasn’t concerned about North Korea’s recent missile tests, despite strong disagreement from both parties, our military, our allies, the UN, and his own cabinet.
- Trump claimed he knew more about aircraft carrier technology than the U.S Navy, declaring that steam catapults were better than the newer, faster digital catapults on Ford-class carriers: “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated. You have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out.”
- Trump said he was considering pardons for several military personnel convicted in courts martial of war crimes involving the murders of unarmed civilians, bragging about the kills, and posing in pictures with the deceased. In support, a sitting GOP Congressman said that the crimes were nothing he hadn’t committed himself.
- Trump retweeted an obviously doctored video appearing to show a drunk Nancy Pelosi.
- Trump granted Attorney General Barr full access to highly sensitive national intelligence related to investigations of his campaign and full unprecedented authority to declassify anything at Barr’s sole discretion. In essence, this action weaponizes national intelligence for political purposes and will further convince our allies to never share any intelligence with us.
- Trump unilaterally refused to honor all Congressional subpoenas issued for numerous oversight purposes. Lindsay Graham, after voicing support for Trump’s stonewalling, was called out by Fox’s Chris Wallace (!) for telling then-President Clinton “It is not your job to tell us what we need. It is your job to comply with things we need to provide oversight over you.”
- A GOP Congressman from Texas single-handedly delayed needed disaster relief funding for numerous states, including Texas. Despite prior agreement by both parties and the President, he objected that there were no corresponding budget offsets. He had no such qualms voting for Trump’s tax cuts without said offsets.
- Trump called Democratic leaders to the White House to discuss infrastructure issues. However, he immediately stormed out of the meeting to address the pre-positioned press at a podium already fitted with signage supporting his statement that he couldn’t work with a Congress that was investigating him. So… I guess everyone should just go home?
- Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri joined Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi in new legislative attacks on abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.
- Pence, in a Memorial Day address at West Point, promised graduates that it was a “virtual certainty” that they would “lead soldiers in combat.” … Yay?
WTF.
I’m going back on vacation.