Trump Was The Week That Was

If Joe Biden wins the presidential election in November, history will record that is his comeback began this past week, when Donald Trump seemed to stumble from one disaster to the next.

At a campaign rally about a week ago in Conway, South Carolina, Trump said that he "saved" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by getting more countries to pay their fair share on defense, telling an obviously false story of how the leader of a "big country,"  at a NATO conference during Trump's occupation of the White House, asked Trump if the United States will still come to the aid of a NATO country that was invaded by an enemy nation if said NATO member hadn't spent 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense - which Trump conflated with paying dues.  Not only would Trump refuse t help, he said, he'd encourage the enemy nation to "do whatever the hell they want" with the invaded country, giving Vladimir Putin license to go after the Baltic States (or, as Michael Moore once called them, "Nazi collaborators"). 

On Thursday and Friday, Trump advisor Michael Roman's effort to aid Trump (and, coincidentally, himself) by trying to get Fani Willis off the Georgia election interference and racketeering case (in which both he and Trump were indicted) backfired when Willis herself took the stand at the hearing for her own conduct review.  Willis had been accused of dating her assistant prosecutor, Nathan Wade, since before the 2020 election and favoring him by giving him a plum assignment on the investigation in the election case.  None of those who testified against Willis were able to pin a relationship in progress at the time the investigation began, indicating that they had begun a relationship after the investigation started, and Willis' preference for paying for goods and services in cash had been a lifelong practice due to subtle racism against blacks who try to purchase anything on credit.  Her father, also known for carrying cash, backed her up.  Roman's case suddenly looked less likely to torpedo Willis and the prosecution of her case against Trump than it did before the hearing started.   

With the start date of the January 6 election interference trial in Washington still uncertain, the election interference case involving the payment of hush money to a porn star Trump had an affair with was set for March 25 - on time, and no schedule.  Trump accounted for the hush money by, allegedly, falsifying his company's records, which is a criminal offense.  Trump's attorneys sought to delay the trial to allow their client more time for . . . the presidential campaign.  

Finally, Trump was fined over $453 million (including interest) for committing fraud by inflating the values of his properties and then enriching himself by applying for loans based on the inflated values of said properties, adding to the $83 million he already has to pay to Elizabeth Jean Carroll for defaming her.  Trump can't do business in New York for three years, which is likely to influence voters wondering whether or not to let him run the country for four years. 

Also, Donald Trump, Jr. and his brother Eric cannot run any business in New York for two years.  Judge Arthur Engoron didn't have much nice to say about their sister Ivanka, either: "She consistently denied recalling the contents of documentary evidence that confirmed that she actively participated in events, even after she was confronted with the evidence," he declared. "The Court found her inconsistent recall, depending on whether she was questioned by [New York State Attorney General Letitia James's office]  or the defense, suspect. In any event, what Ms. Trump cannot recall is memorialized in contemporaneous emails and documents; in the absence of her memory, the documents speak for themselves."

But Ivanka obviously doesn't care abut that, as the truth can be whatever other people think it is.

Truth isn't truth.

"So, Steve," you're saying, "which of these developments convinced you the most that Biden will win the presidential election in November?"

No, no . . . remember, I said, "If!" 

And anyone who can sell out gold-plated shoes for $400 like Trump did this past weekend knows how to win elections.

Oh, dem golden sneakers! 😮

Idiot Abroad

Donald Trump always brags about he big crowds he attracts.  Well, by the criterion of bringing out his detractors, his European trip has been a bug success.

I will give Trump credit for his handling of American allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as he has successfully re-affirmed the NATO alliance in a statement guaranteeing active American participation in the treaty despite his earlier threats to pull out of it.  Wait!  Correction: That was a bipartisan resolution that passed the Senate before he even made it to Brussels.  But his classiest coup was getting the European allies to agree to increase defense spending.  Oops!  Correction: They agreed to do that in 2006.  And his attempt to involved himself in British politics over who should be prime minister and handle the British withdrawal from the European Union only serves to remind us why so many Britons publicly supported Hillary for President in 2016. 

And then, with European politics in turmoil as a result of his doing, Trump went off to Scotland to play golf. Because he doesn't know how to play the fiddle.

In between insulting Queen Elizabeth II - something even Martin O'Malley, an Irish Catholic, wouldn't have done - and criticizing the abilities of European leaders with two X chromosomes (May, Merkel), Trump has managed to have a pretty good time on our tax dollars, visiting historic European capitals most of us will never get to see because we can't afford to, and now he meets with Putin just as an indictment from Robert Mueller's special investigation has fingered twelve Russian military intelligence officers for trying to hack into voter registration systems.  Democrats - still attempting to recover from Whig-like irrelevance - have asked Trump to call off tomorrow's meeting with the Russian leader, or at least ask him about this charge from the special prosecutor's office.

What do you think he'll do?

There is nothing scarier than to have such a diplomatically challenged xenophobe whose massive ego does not comport with his abilities as President of the United States.  More than hip-hop, sport utility vehicles, or adulterated food - more than anything with the exception of our gun culture - nothing these days is a greater embarrassment to these United States than Donald J. Trump.            

America The Pariah

I always supposed that if another Republican got into the Presidency, the United States would be the skunk of the world once again.  But under Donald Trump, we've become the sort of animal even a skunk would avoid.

In his first trip abroad as President, Donald Trump has managed to insult European leaders, lend succor to a feudal regime in Saudi Arabia, picked a fight over trade with the Germans, gotten the rest of the world worried about the fate of the Paris climate agreement, and shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro - a country neither Trump nor his supporters had likely heard of before now - when Montenegro made its debut as a NATO member at the alliance's annual summit.  Even worse, Trump demonstrated his ignorance of how NATO works when he said that the money that 23 of 28 NATO members haven't paid through spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense  was money that the American taxpayers were owed back.

Imagine a leader so ignorant of how diplomacy works that you're glad Rex Tillerson is Secretary of State.

Trump did pull one amazing coup.  He drew old enemies France and Germany closer together by aming them realize what a common enemy they have in him.  French President Emmanuel Macron snubbed Trump at the NATO meeting, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel assumed leadership of the West by declaring in her NATO summit address that Germany was ready to stand for human rights and open borders all over the world - two ideas Trump has always had problems with.  Trump also angered his distant German cousins (his German immigrant grandfather changed the family name from Drumpf) by vowing to stop the exports of German cars to the United States in response to Germany's trade surplus with the U.S.  Trump claims that the Germans have harmed the U.S. auto industry with their unfair trade advantage and their plants in Mexico, somehow forgetting about their plants in the American South.  (Hey, Donald, you don't think it's possible that BMW and Mercedes buyers simply prefer Bimmers and Benzes over Cadillacs, and it is possible the VW owners prefer Volkswagens over Chevrolets and Americanized Toyotas because German engineering is far more sophisticated?)

As of this past week, Volkswagen shares are down 2.2 percent, while BMW and Daimler AG shares are each down 1.5 percent lower.

Uncoincidentally, I have decided to take my sweet time renewing my passport, which expires this fall.  Because I don't see myself going abroad for as long as Donald Trump sits in the White House.  It's a shame, really, because at my age, I have everything I want - a Volkswagen, an impressive record collection, a nice digital camera, et cetera - and my last unfulfilled desire is foreign travel (not counting travel to Canada, which I've been to twice).  When I was in college, I saw my classmates travel to England, Germany, Italy, and Russia when I hadn't even been to Chicago (my trip there in 1994 was my first trip outside the Eastern time zone).  I've always wanted to go to London, Dublin, Paris, possibly Vienna or Berlin, and maybe even Vilnius.  Attempts to visit my maternal grandfather's hometown in Italy with my mother never panned out.  And so now in the middle of middle age, it looks like I'll again have to put foreign travel off indefinitely - not only because of lack of time or money, but because of that blow-dried pantload in the White House.

Because right now, traveling through Europe with a U.S. passport in your pocket is like going anywhere with a "KICK ME" sign on your back.

And if Trump throws VW out of the States, don't expect me to get over it.  If I can't have another VW when my Golf gives up the ghost, I'd sooner ride the bus than buy a Toyota.  

Mr. Trump Goes To Capitol Hill

I listened to Donald Trump's speech to Congress for as long as I could take, and I heard a lot of conciliatory platitudes that had little in common with his mean-spirited inaugural address but had just as much substance.  He invoked Republican President Abraham Lincoln to defend his own isolationist economic views (forgetting that Lincoln had no multilateral or even bilateral relationships to deal with), invoked Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System to promote his infrastructure program (but offered no specifics about what he wanted to build, apart from his great wall along the Mexican border), and again repeated his goal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (again, with no concrete ideas on how to do it).     

He also praised NATO after having dissed it, but thanked NATO members for paying more into the alliance, showing that he still views NATO not as a multilateral union but as a transaction. He tried to strike a positive tone for the future, looking forward to America's quarter-millenial, or 250th, anniversary in 2026 and the wonderful innovations and inventions we could see then.  He cited the great inventions that were displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (a fair from which blacks were mostly absent) and hinted that there could be a similar celebration in 2026 (forget our lousy track record this country has had of late with involvement in world's fairs, and forget also that the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations didn't work out so well).  His speech was easier to swallow than his inaugural address - but then, so is baby aspirin.  It was a kinder, gentler right-wing nationalist manifesto.  And his attempt to capitalize on the botch raid in Yemen by paying tribute to Ryan Owens, the Navy SEAL who died in that raid, was revolting.

And a President who's known for hissy tweets on issues of vital unimportance has a lot of damn gall to call for an end to obsession to trivial politics.  

And Steve Beshear delivering the Whig - oops, Democratic - opposition's response?  Well, it was a strong and solid argument for preserving the Affordable Care Act and standing up for working-class and middle-class values.  But there was just one thing wrong - Beshear is the former Democratic governor of Kentucky.  He defended his move to create a health-insurance exchange in the state, a point as moot as he is, given that his Republican successor has moved to dismantle it.  And if the Democrats need to get a former officeholder to defend the party, that should tell you how irrelevant current Democratic officeholders (not that there are that many of them) are.