Donald J. Trump has spent the past week or two in a manic fit of childish bad behavior.
Our lame duck President has abandoned his White House post amidst the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, gone incommunicado from Congressional and Republican Party officials, spent most of his waking hours publicly airing grievances about people who’ve wronged him, yukked it up on the golf course with buddies, and unleashed a flurry of Presidential pardons to a litany of scumbags.
The Stuntman-in-Chief found some time, however, to exasperate Democrats and Republicans alike, not to mention the tens of millions who are out of work, hungry, and facing eviction.
Many months ago, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives approved a stimulus bill that would throw another lifeline to Americans in need. It included a provision for $2,000 stimulus checks to families in need.
The Trump Administration and the Republican-controlled Senate quashed that effort, instead proposing a miserly $600 stimulus check. Democrats balked, but in the end (Christmas Eve) agreed. Yes, it was going to be a Happy Holiday season for many desperate families.
Then, the President abruptly changed his mind, infuriating his own Treasury Secretary and G.O.P. leadership, by insisting on a $2,000 stimulus check. WTF!
Who knows why Trump does what he does? I suppose the loser wanted to go out a winner in the minds of his MAGA followers.
(He doesn’t brag a lot about his famous “Wall” anymore, the one that was going to keep out all of those dastardly Mexicans. In four long years, his Administration has replaced about 400 miles of existing wall and constructed only 40 new miles. That leaves a gaping hole of 1,700 unwalled border, not exactly the airtight bastion that candidate Trump promised his redneck faithful in 2016. Illegal immigrants continue to climb over, tunnel under, cut holes in, drive through (at checkpoints) and fly over the billion dollar fence.)
Anyway, the President’s latest public relations stunt failed when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell torpedoed it. So, the President “reluctantly” signed the $600 version. Then, with the stingy $600 guaranteed, the House passed a follow-up bill for the $2,000 that the President supposedly now supports. Senate Leader McConnell squashed that one too, letting everyone know who’s in charge when the Prez is a lame duck.
(Of course, the cynic in me suspects that the whole drama might have been orchestrated to make the normally Scrooge-like President look good, frame the Democrats as out-of-control big spenders, and re-position the Republicans as born-again fiscal watchdogs. Oh, Washington D.C….What a bunch of reptilesl!)
Not to be deterred, the petulant President then refused to sign a bi-partisan defense appropriation bill. Buried in it is a provision to rename several military bases which are named after Confederate Army traitors: even most Republicans agree that, after 156 years, it’s time to admit that we won the Civil War. This provision obviously annoys Trump’s redneck political base in the South because it emboldens the Black Lives Matter folks.
Also, the bill didn’t contain language which the President wanted to hamstring social media: the Liar-in-Chief wanted zero censorship so that a prevaricator such as he could continue to electronically disseminate any lie that he wanted without consequence. Congress wasn’t having it.
Having been slighted, our childish leader vetoed the annual defense appropriation bill, which feeds the hungry maw of the Military Industrial Complex.
In a rare show of non-partisanship, Congress voted to override the veto, basically defanging the lame duck Administration. It was the first bi-partisan override of a Trump veto in four years, again reinforcing the reality that this Donald Trump era is officially over.
These two legislative branch actions predictably infuriated the President, who then added “incompetent and weak” Republican Congressmen to his Festivus grievance hit list alongside the conservative Supreme Court, G.O.P. governors who refused to support his coup attempt, and a few Administration officials he appointed who he hasn’t yet fired.
(It is almost as if the soon-to-be-ex-President is preparing to jettison the Republican Party and set up his own Trump Party in exile, biding his time until 2024, when he can make another run for the White House or boost the Presidential prospects of son Donald Jr. or daughter Ivanka. Lots of folks expect the Prez to start up some sort of family-owned media empire which would enable the Trumpian bullhorn to stay relevant in the next four years and beyond.)
Amidst the President’s juvenile tantrums, the gruesome Covid-19 pandemic toll on America continues unabated. Almost 340,000 people have died, untold millions have gotten really sick, and the country’s hospital ICU beds are running at capacity. Public health officials say the worst is yet to come: the post-Holiday Season surge. A record 3,740 Americans died from Covid-19 yesterday, and the CDC fears that another 80,000 citizens could die in January. Our eldest son Tim tested positive this week, endangering his wife Shanon and son Craig. Wow, this is scary!
Our President, who lacks an ounce of compassion in his body, hasn’t uttered a word about the horrendous carnage for a couple of months. He’d rather feel sorry for the real victim of the pandemic: himself.
The rollout of the vaunted vaccines under the Administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” has, like many other Trump productions, left much to be desired. The Jared Kushner-led OWS endeavor had promised 20 million vaccinations by Christmas; the actual number appears to be a fraction of that, perhaps a few million.
Not surprisingly, lots of rich folks and politicians are pushing their way into the vaccination line ahead of elderly and medically at-risk individuals. There was a report the other day that vaccine was being black-marketed at one Walgreens pharmacy. Old folks are panicking. Charlie is 75 and I am 73: when do we get ours? No one seems to know what’s going on.
Isn’t that nice?
Rather than doing anything to speed up the vaccine delivery, the President is spending his time this week golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and lining up a bunch of Trump stalwart Congressmen to engage in civic vandalism at the January 6th delivery of the Electoral College results to Congress.
A few terrified (of Trump) politicians will make speeches about a “stolen election” (i.e. the evidence-free crime that has been laughed out of every court in the land), there will be a media circus for a few hours, and then Joe Biden will formally be declared the next President by Congress.
What will Howdy Doody do then?
I’m guessing that he will empty the Presidential pardon in-basket and grant relief to a wad of degenerate politicians, Administration bootlickers, family members, and redneck criminals…because he can.
A couple of disgusting pardons already granted by the Prez barely got noticed by the press this past week.
Unconscionable pardons were granted to four Blackwater mercenaries (contract employees of the Dept of Defense) who murdered 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and left 17 injured in 2007. These blood-thirsty goons were, at the time of the slaughter, employees of Erik Prince, brother of Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
And, not to be outdone, there was a sickening pardon for Stephanie Mohr, a former Maryland police officer who, just for fun and to amuse her fellow officers, unleashed her vicious K-9 dog on a homeless Hispanic man in 1995, causing him serious injuries.
Presidential pardons for sadists: wouldn’t the Founding Fathers be proud!
What did you expect from our immoral President, who publicly incites criminal behavior against non-Christians, immigrants, and minorities? I guess these pardons bolster Trump’s bonafides with his political base, which he or his designated MAGA candidates in 2024 will surely brag about.
One wonders about the breadth of the President’s pardon power: Is it possible that Boss Trump could have one of his Administration lackeys back a dump truck up to the vaults at Fort Knox, load it with gold bars, sell the proceeds, hide the money in an offshore Trump bank account, turn himself in to authorities, and then be humanely pardoned by the President?
Don’t laugh! Under our U.S. Constitution, this criminal act could be pardoned. As could all participants, including the President and his family.
Don’t think the money-grubbing Trump family hasn’t kicked around such an idea.
And it is only December 31st, which gives our mischievous lame duck leader almost three weeks left in which to “toilet paper” the White House and otherwise entertain his sick mind.
I can’t help dreading that the worst is yet to come.