For a while last night there was a rumour flying around Washington that General John Kelly, Donald Trump's Chief of Staff, was about to resign.
Having finally given up trying to control Trump, after the orange oaf sent a shiver around the world by claiming that it was "the calm before the storm."
And then refusing to explain himself.
Just few days after Rex Tillerson, his Secretary of State, was slapped down by Trump for trying to arrange talks with North Korea.
And was publicly forced to deny he was planning to resign, after calling Trump a "moron."
Just a few days after James Mattis, Trump's Defence Secretary, publicly declared the Iran nuclear deal was in the national interest.
Only to have Trump come out and announce it wasn't.
And not long after the Republican Senator Bob Corker issued his own ominous warning.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker suggested Wednesday that Gens. John Kelly and James Mattis, as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are the "people that help separate our country from chaos," a stinging criticism of President Donald Trump from a man once considered an ally in Washington.
Which caused even more people to wonder whether Trump is out of control...
And too mentally disturbed to be allowed to remain in office.
Which just happens to coincide with the publication of a book written by 27 psychiatrists called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.
Which as MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell reports, also questions Trump's mental capacity...
As for myself, as we wait to find out what Trump means by the "calm before the storm," I just want to say that I have never had the slightest doubt that Trump is unfit for office.
And if you remember, I predicted that we'd end up in this dangerous place right from the beginning...
The emperor has no clothes, he is losing his marbles.
And he must be removed from office, before he kills us all...
Same here, anyone with a brain could see this coming from miles away. Hillary Clinton tried to warn them, man.
ReplyDeletehi anon...It's not for me to tell Americans what they should do, but I can't help feeling that too many are either in a hypnotic trance, or resigned to there own destruction...
DeleteTrump won the WWE Championship last November and I don't think he's going to drop the title anytime soon. However as a spectator you are entitled to cheer or boo whichever superstar you choose. As much as the referees and crowd want Trump disqualified I don't think it's going to happen. There is a rematch clause coming up in a couple episodes.
ReplyDeletehi anon...if it's just a wrestling match then Trump can be declared the winner. But that doesn't stop Monster Mueller from coming up behind him and braining him with a frying pan. Trump is clearly insane so anything goes...
DeleteMatt Taibbi said it best a few weeks ago in Rolling Stone:
ReplyDeleteTrump is no malfunction. He's a perfect representation of who, as a country, we are and always have been: an insane monster. Frankly, we're lucky he's not walking around using a child's femur as a toothpick.
When it's not trembling in terror, the rest of the world must be laughing its ass off. America, land of the mad pig president. Shove that up your exceptionalism.
hi anon...I have to admit that's pretty good, and funny. But how do we know he isn't using a child's femur as a toothpick? And when is someone going to pick up a leg bone and chase him right out of the Oval Office?
DeleteTrump will be wanting to kill that attractive young shrink, for being a woman, an attractive woman he can't have and a (insert whatever hateful term he uses for East Asian people, bigoted scum that he is). And of course intense feelings of hatred for his ghost writer (inserting hateful term he uses for Jewish people, same reason). He is also intensely envious of people obviously more intelligent than he is...
ReplyDeleteNot a pleasant scenario.
hi lagatta...yes, I wish one of Trump's flunkies would discreetly leave a copy of that book on his desk, and bookmark all the best parts. Maybe it would cause him to have the stroke I pray for every night before going to bed. But since he doesn't read books, and can only absorb as much written material that can fit on the back of a cigarette pack, there's not much hope of that. But one thing is for sure: if you normalize crazy bad things will happen...
DeleteLawrence O'Donnell looks amazingly like Bob Hope.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm showing my age.
I think we have seen Trump worsen fairly rapidly since his election. He was clearly unfit for the office, heck, he was unfit for the office of municipal dogcatcher but he seemed, roughly speaking, coherent and had some ability to remain on topic during the campaign.
My impression is that he is losing verbal fluency and the performance/fiasco in Puerto Rico suggests an inability to integrate new facts quickly enougd and well enough to rationally talk about a situation. It was fairly clear that he had not understood the immensity of the catastrophe nor the US Federal response needed.
He was not even able to fake some concern for the victims of the hurricane. When a crooked businessman turned crooked politician cannot even bullshit competently, it's clear that he is completely delusional and must go.
Trump needs to be gone as soon as possible but the combination of spineless, corrupt, politicians and a fixed-term presidency makes it difficult unless a lot of the Republicans' paymasters start getting really alarmed. Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of the American oligarchs grip on reality is really all that much firmer than Trump's.
BTW, did you notice that Saudi Arabia is buying S-400 missile systems from Russia, just as Turkey did a few months ago? This is about as direct arepudiation of Trump and US foreign policy that I can imagine from putative allies.
hi jrk...I know I was bragging at the end of my post about having predicted that Trump would end up starring in a horror version of The Emperor's New Clothes but it is eerily similar to the situation we now find ourselves in. Trump is increasingly unstable, and threatening to nuke millions of people, but in America these days insanity is the new normal, so nobody really gives a damn...
DeleteP.S. Why isn't Trump threatening to nuke Saudi Arabia, and who the hell is Bob Hope?
Never in my wildest nightmares could I ever have imagined that a handful of generals right out of Dr Strangelove, and a billionaire from Mobile Oil, could one day stand between an American president and disaster. Thank you Simon for trying to keep us laughing in that darkness. I'm too old to laugh, but I appreciate the effort. XX Sad Old Sandy
ReplyDeletea handful of generals right out of Dr Strangelove, and a billionaire from Mobile Oil,
DeleteI had not really thought of it that way. Thanks.
I'm too old not to laugh but some people think I have a strange sense of humour.
hi Sandy...nobody is too old to laugh. In fact, I was reading a story about the head of my Scottish clan, who was the last man to be beheaded in Britain for his role in the Jacobite uprising. So many people turned out to witness his execution that one of the stands collapsed killing nine of them. And although he was standing on the scaffold next to his executioner, he burst into laughter, and is apparently responsible for the expression "he laughed his head off." So if he could laugh so can you, and the more we laugh, the easier it will be to get through this dark time. Remember it will have a happy ending, when the axe comes down on Trump... :)
DeleteThe Korean episode is playing like something out of the twilight zone. On one side there are the cryptic Trumpian messages such as "calm before the storm", "only one thing will work" plus his trusted staff stating the obvious such as "moron" while the psychiatrists speculate cuckoo. On the other side in the business and investment universe life goes on as if everything is normal even in South Korea and Japan. Markets are up and volatility/uncertainty are near all time lows. This is the crowd that goes berserk over an unexpected .25% increase in lending rates or a missed profitability forecast never mind the possibility that Kim might have a couple of kamikaze second strike submarines hiding offshore with nuclear bombs/nerve biological agents of proven mass destruction. Except for a slight shift towards bonds there is not a hint of anything out of wack. Are we living in two parallel universes or is somebody being had?
ReplyDeleteRT
hi RT...yes, there is definitely a sense that we are trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone, along with the gang from Dr Strangelove, and the Marx Brothers. And remember we are only getting the synopsis, so imagine what this horror show would look like if we could see the unedited version. My guess is that Trump is loading the cannon, so he can fire it the moment Mueller brings down his indictments. I understand that could happen any moment, so start building your fallout shelter...
DeleteRacial riots and Civil War coming to the USA! Listen to The Future by Leonard Cohen.......
ReplyDeleteTrump is definitely, in my opinion, not mentally fit to be president of anything. However, he may be not insane enough to be removed from his position.
ReplyDeleteThe 3 Generals and Tillerson are simply staying on to protect the country. if they were to leave their positions, the world would be at risk. Tillerson certainly isn't doing it for the money and neither are the Generals. They have had good careers and are at an age when they ought to be retired. However, the continue to work and we ought to be thankful.
Trumps constant wanting to go to war with N. Korea and Iran is certainly beyond the pale of things. it doesn't make sense. Well it sort of does. He can't order either country around and each country has leaders who don't give a shite what Trump says or does and aren't interested in pandering to him.
The U.S.A. does business with countries ever bit as nasty as N.Korea and Iran and really Iran in my books is a lot better than Saudi Arabia. As for N. Korea, hey, it may not be great and but then neither are a lot of other countries. China isn't exactly a bastion of liberty.
The D word in the shadows... Retiring GOP senator calls White House "adult day care centre": https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/08/bob-corker-white-house-adult-day-care-center-trump-twitter
ReplyDeleteI was working on an immigration history project with elderly Italo-Montreaesi; indeed the day centre is a place for assistance and socialization for elderly people who need such help. Not all of them have dementia but many do.
e.a.f., Iran is MUCH better in terms of women's rights than Saudi is; there are far more women working, many in professional jobs. Iran has a long history of educated professional workers; judges and lawyers, writers, doctors and other health professionals. The Islamic revolution was a big setback, but actually since the revolution many more young women, in particular from working-class and rural backgrounds, have reached higher education.
Of course there is still a lot to criticise in terms of women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, workers' rights and democratic rights in general, but there is a civil society struggling for them. Very different from the Saudi kingdom.