Freak Out Friday – April 13, 2018

It’s Friday the 13th, so what could possibly go wrong?

For Trump, the answer is simple: Everything. In the past week, every single thing that could possibly have gone wrong for Trump has done so. It’s like he’s lived through a week of Murphy’s law, Word from insiders is that Trump is figuratively falling apart: lashing out at everyone, fuming incessantly, shouting, having fits. Remember that this is someone who is haunted by two things: the investigation into Russia, and his utter inability to handle criticism. This week has been a banner seven days for both.

1). Never piss off someone who can write a book about you. Once upon a time, James Comey was considered a major villain by the Democrats. His dumbass decision to announce, a month before the elections, that they had reopened the investigation into Hillary’s emails was the final nail in her coffin. Despite the fact that the investigation once again turned up nothing, it was sufficient excuse for many Democrats–who either didn’t know or didn’t care that it was a fruitless undertaking–to stay home since they were unable to see any different between Trump and Clinton. The fact that they can sure as hell see it now should do a lot to convince them to get their asses to the polls next election, but in the meantime took a lot of shit from people.

Yet now opinion is starting to shift and Comey has been a peoples’ hero since Trump stupidly decided to fire him. What’s insane is that the reason for the firing keeps changing. First he was nuts enough to say that it was because he hadn’t treated Clinton “fairly.” Then when the accusation came that it was because of Russia, all of Trump’s people said that wasn’t it, right up until Trump said that was exactly it. Yet his latest rage tweet asserts that it was because Comey had failed to lock up the woman Trump had sworn he would see jailed.

We all understand that’s wrong, correct? That specifically using government agencies to persecute political rivals is straight out of the dictators’ playbook?

Certainly polls are indicating that the rest of the American public understands that. Trump’s supporters have been willing to forgive a ton of things that they would have persecuted Obama and Clinton for, but Trump’s clear disregard for the system of justice has become exceedingly flagrant. So much so that even his core is beginning to wilt.

Meanwhile, the press is going to down on Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” which is already the number one title selling through Amazon even though it doesn’t come out until next Tuesday. Comey describes Trump as a man “Untethered to truth and institutional values,” and “living in a cocoon of alternative reality. .His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty.” Which, y’know, we’ve seen saying for the past year, but when someone on Comey’s level is putting it in print, that kicks it to a new level. Meanwhile Trump, whose excuse for firing Comey keeps changing, trumpets that Comey is a liar.

And that isn’t flying, because everyone knows Comey is so fixated on the truth that he used it as his excuse to sink Hillary. Even the Trumpites are realizing they can’t accept him as a truth teller in one instance and buy into him being a liar in the more recent.

Meanwhile is assaults on Comey are not going unnoticed. John O. Brennan, the former head of the CIA, tweeted at Trump, “Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey. As the greatest Nation history has known, we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger & more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans, including those you have so tragically deceived.” I, of course, immediately did the same thing that you’ve have done upon reading it: I looked up “kakistocracy.” It means a government that is being run by the worst people available. I’ve no idea if the nickname for feces is at the word’s root–probably not–but it certainly could be.

2). Meanwhile, back at the office… The office of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen was raided by the FBI because the justice department suspect that he was up to something criminal. This would put aside attorney/client privilege. And considering that Cohen is notorious for tape recording conversations, that is more than enough to make Trump’s head explode. His excuse that the whole “grabbing pussies” tape wasn’t actually him might have been enough to convince some of his most ardent supporters, but no one is going to accept the notion that any Trump voice on Cohen’s tapes aren’t the president. I’m quite sure that even Trump, with his addled brain, recalls that tape recordings were what sank Richard Nixon, and Cohen’s tapes could have a similar effect. Cohen is so desperate to undo it that today he approached a Federal judge, asking the judge to block the Feds from reading documents related to his representing Trump. I kind of doubt the judge will approve it, because the entire concept of raiding a lawyer’s office for information about his clients is such a rarity that it was doubtlessly vetted up and down the line before the warrant was granted. Which means we might have audio evidence of Trump agreeing to everything from threatening Stormy to advocating aligning himself with the Russians, which would be treason.

3). Trump goes postal. Literally.. Trump loudly declared that the post office was losing money in handling Amazon packages, despite the fact that delivering Amazon packages is actually quite lucrative for the USPS. Their most recent yearly report stated that while they’re making less money over delivering letters (naturally) the losses were somewhat offset by an increase in package delivery. Amazon might well be keeping the USPS afloat. So naturally Trump issued an executive order to explore the post office’s finances.

Naturally Trump couldn’t give a damn about the post office. Instead he has Jeff Bezos–the owner of both Amazon and, more significantly, the Washington Post–in his sights. He wants to find some way to justify banning Amazon from using the USPS which would hurt both businesses.

Why? Because for someone in Trump’s screwed up mindset, the world boils down to two things: winners and losers. Trump believes himself to be a winner and wants to make Bezos a loser. And if it means causing the USPS to go down in flames, well, screw them, they’re losers, too.

Let’s face it: Trump is in a death spiral. His tweet rants become more hysterical and delusional with every passing day. Everyone in the world except Trump is a liar, even though the countless evidences of Trump’s lies become more pronounced as time passes. Everyone except the most devoted staffers are fleeing him, and for good reason. There is no reason to work for Trump because he demands endless loyalty while providing none himself. One day he could be singing your praises and the next day he could be firing you and dismissing you on Twitter.

Did he do anything right? A year after withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trump now asked his people about the prospect of rejoining the alliance that he had previously stated was a “rape of our country.” He’s doing it in an attempt to placate farmers who are terrified of the impact his China trade war could have on them. So basically he did the right thing in order to make up for his screwing up trade.

PAD