Trump, Rubio, Biden, Pride Parade, Rays
Trumpster Diving
* Call it Trump-Supporter Epiphany. Yes, it sounds oxymoronic, but there’s an existential fear. “Yeah, he was my guy–damn right–and I was with him–right up until he ____.” Just fill in the foreboding, conceivably apocalyptic, scenario blank that resulted in such a political pivot.
Can’t we, at least in 2020, eliminate this on-going, unhinged menace–and, meanwhile, hope that it won’t already be too late by then? This is manifestly about so much more than partisan politics and the business-as-usual process of over-analyzing voter demographics and motivations and what turns purple states red or blue–yada, yada. This is an end game for America.
* The Iran bottom line: Isn’t this diplomatic malpractice? Ramp up. Wind down. Threaten to “obliterate like you’ve never seen before.” Back off. But this isn’t negotiating with intimidated, leverage-challenged, New York subcontractors.
” The fact is we’re not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. And when they agree to that, they are going to have a wealthy country, they’re going to be so happy and I’m going to be their best friend.” Whatever.
* You know what is still, uh, awkward? The only country to ever actually use the ultimate weapon of mass destruction is the U.S. Yes, we know the context, but you know that’s not rationale enough for some non-allies and is part of what fuels levels of resentment and animus.
* “Appreciating the political judging faculty and extraordinary courage of President Trump, Kim Jong Un said that he would seriously contemplate the interesting content.” That was the official statement by the Korean Central News Agency, in response to the “excellent content” letter that Trump had sent Kim. Two takeaways. First, this is where beyond-nuanced diplomacy-speak meets awkward, calculated translation to English. Second, wonder what Kim really thinks? Did he fall “in love” too?
* Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. Are we any better off?
* Trump complained that networks didn’t cover all of his re-election campaign event in Orlando. Beyond ironic. Frankly, the networks–notably the mainstream, non-Fox ones–helped elect him. Recall all the cutaways from CNN and MSNBC talk shows to go live to one of his “lock her up” rallies? Trump was ratings manna, and this was the new normal of politics as show business. It continues to happen–and to haunt.
* So plans continue, as it were, in the delay to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Technical reasons, according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. We’re now likely looking at 2026 instead of 2020.
Does anyone really doubt the real reason? Does anyone really think this racist, Obama-birther president would countenance replacing his favorite president with an African-American abolitionist on HIS watch? So much for unveiling a Tubman $20 on next year’s centennial of the 19th Amendment, the one that gave women the right to vote.
* Those who will most miss Sarah Huckleberry Sandbag: Donald Trump, late-night comics, cartoonists, “SNL.”
* “The president must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria–big mistake if he does not!” That was Donald Trump’s tweeted take about a president acting unilaterally without congressional approval in 2013. That was then; this is not–even close.
* Imagine America ever needing to have a “family arrest plan” at the border.
* A prominent politician recently published “American Investment in the 21st Century.” It’s a shot-across-the-corporate-bow analysis of how U.S. businesses are sacrificing long-term viability for short-term market gains. It criticizes, among other things, the impact of intemperately prioritizing the boosting of shares. “The stock market is not the economy,” underscored the author. “We now have two or maybe three networks who dedicate most of their time to covering the stock market–they’re like the ESPN of stock markets. There’s a lot more to the economy than the stock market.”
No, that wasn’t Elizabeth Warren or Andrew Yang or Paul Krugman. That was Marco Rubio, who says just enough–but not on Cuba or Venezuela–to get some Trump separation without leaving the reservation or resuming “con man” insults. For “Little Marco,” 2024 still looms big.
* Say it’s so, Joe. Best advice for familial baggage Hunter Biden: Out yourself as a closet Republican and then disappear for a while.