Freak Out Friday – June 30, 2017

This has been an interesting week for Trump. Most of the stuff that was developing, while it was related to him, didn’t involve his actions directly but instead stuff resulting from him. Perhaps because he was bored, he then decided to step in and be an asshole personally so he could get our attention. Let’s start outward and work in.

1). Anyone feeling sick yet?. The vote on Health care, which Mitch McConnell was determined to ram through before the 4th of July break, isn’t happening. Apparently both public pressure and politicians’ own concerns about, I dunno, dealing with furious town hall meetings, has caused them to balk at depriving 22 million Americans of their health care, which means we are in a holding pattern. I still think if Trump is smart, he vetoes whatever they come up with and gets positive public image points for himself since he really needs to ingratiate himself with the voters right now much more than he needs to worry about the Senate. After all, senators might go away every few years, but the public is going to be staying right where it is.

2). Give us your poor, your tired, your closely related.. A win for Trump is certainly a loss for anyone who just wanted to go on vacation from one of the countries Trump banned, thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling. Or did your adult child die a year ago and you wanted to come visit your grandchild? Forget it: you can’t come in. Not for three to four months until the Supreme Court finishes listening to arguments for the entire ban. If they wind up upholding this nonsense, it’s going to be a huge blow for a country that people have been dreaming of coming to, or fleeing to, for generations.

3). Irish eyes aren’t smiling. While Trump was on the phone with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadka, he noticed a female Irish reporter named Caitriona Perry and said that she had a nice smile. Now if that’s all he had said, I might well have shrugged it off. I know, I know, everything a president says is subject to micro-scrutiny. But in the interest of fair play, if he had just confined it to that, I would have considered it an offhand remark, an attempt to be pleasant and sociable, and I would have ignored it. I think if a grandfather just makes a casual flattering comment about a woman’s smile, screw it. But no: he then had to say to Varadka, “I bet she treats you well.” What the HELL was THAT about? She treats Varadka well…why? Because Varadka’s a man and so she’s probably subtly hitting on him? Right, because when you’re a female reporter, you want to socially ingratiate yourself with the gay prime minister. That’s going to work out well for everyone. Then again, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at his attitude since Trump’s attitudes toward women are legendary. Case in point:

4). Hey, Joe, what do you know?. I have to admit that I knew absolutely nothing about the TV series, Morning Joe, which features Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezezinski, the daughter of late national security advisor Zbigniew Brezezinski. My entire exposure to it previously was through a bit they did about it on John Oliver. But Trump apparently watches it and he did another rant on Twitter, including a twisted complaint in which he claimed they both wanted to hang out with him on a New Year’s Eve (they didn’t), that he refused them (he didn’t) and that Mika had had a face lift (she hadn’t) and was bleeding from it (she wasn’t as photographs taken at the time have firmly established.). I think we are reaching the point where Trump’s syphilis is completely out of control. Let us put aside the fact that Trump has far too thin a skin to be president, a job where the ability to shrug off or ignore your attacks is part of the responsibilities. One of the simplest aspects of the way to conduct yourself is to ignore people you don’t like. If they rant about you solely to their viewers, shrug it off because their audience is confined. But the moment you shine a light on them, you get their word out to millions of additional people like, well, me, and elevate them on the national stage. This is just simple common sense, something that Trump has no claim to. He has no concept of strategy; instead he reacts entirely from his gut, an organ that has yet to do anything other than provoke him into reacting to his critics in the most showy and insulting ways possible. How in the hell are we supposed to trust this nut job with American security when he goes off on insane diatribes without a second’s hesitation. When he fails to understand that on an international scale, his words can launch wars? I swear, I think about Mike Pence who many people claim is worse, and I’m thinking, He can’t be. He can’t be worse. Aside from maybe Steve Bannon, nobody could be worse.

Did he do anything right? No.

PAD