#FakePresident Implodes. Can America Be Saved From His Temper Tantrums?

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Originally published on Planetsave.

Once upon a time, there was a well known British television show popularly called TW3, which stood for “That Was The Week That Was.” If it was still in existence, the past week would certainly qualify as one of the most tempestuous in American history thanks to the putative president continuing to soil his diapers in public. Oh, yes, it was definitely the week that was.

“This is certainly the week in which the Trump administration went off the rails,” said Bill Galston, a former policy adviser to Bill Clinton. “And it’s going to require some heavy lifting equipment to get it back on the rails and off down the track.”

The Jeff Sessions Follies

trump temper tantrumThe week began with Donald The Terrible tweeting up a storm of scorn against Jeff Sessions, his self-appointed attorney general. Sessions was the very first US Senator to endorse The Donald last year and has been one of his staunchest defenders. So, what did Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions do to deserve being called “weak” in public and berating him for recusing himself from any and all investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the last campaign?

That recusal is what led to the appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller to take over the investigation.

Kenneth Starr, the infamous Special Prosecutor who led the seemingly endless pursuit of Bill Clinton over his peccadillos in the Oval Office had a few words for Trump: “Mr President, please cut it out. Tweet to your heart’s content, but stop the wildly inappropriate attacks on the attorney general. An honorable man whom I have known since his days as a US attorney in Alabama, Jeff Sessions has recently become your piñata in one of the most outrageous — and profoundly misguided — courses of presidential conduct I have witnessed in five decades in and around the nation’s capital.”

No mincing of words there. Keep in mind that Starr is a rock-ribbed Republican who has a permanent seat in the pantheon of conservative heroes. If he is speaking out, he is surely saying what is on the mind of many in the Republican Party.

The Boy Scout Debacle

In an appearance before the annual national jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America, Deranged Donald lit into Hillary Clinton, repeated his harangue about voter fraud, and told the youngsters about the thrills of hanging out in New York with hot women. As a former Boy Scout myself, I don’t recall any of those things being in the Boy Scout creed.

Afterwards, the organization apologized for Trump’s remarks — the first time it has had to do so after a president’s speech — after many scouts and their parents expressed disapproval of the president turning the event into a political rally. Trump emphasized the part of the Boy Scout credo that praises loyalty, saying, “We could use some more loyalty, I’ll tell you that.”

But subsequent events last week made it clear that the only one Trump is loyal to is himself. Like a mafia don, he is happy to chop the legs off anyone who dares oppose him, with no remorse or second thought. The Trumpster looked like a preening impostor of a president as he encouraged the Scouts to boo Hillary Clinton.

The man is clearly deranged. But what was truly horrifying was watching many of the impressionable youth lustily booing on demand. No sentient person with more than a 4th grade education could fail to note the disturbing similarity between those Scouts and the young members of the Hitler Youth three generations ago. Loyalty was also an important principle in the Hitler Youth Movement.

Scaramucci Helicopters In

Last week, press secretary Sean Spicer quit over the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as the new White House communications czar. Scaramucci, known as Mooch, made quite an impression. On his second day on the job, he phoned New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza.

Referring to then chief of staff Reince Priebus, he told Lizza, “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.” He then parodied Priebus with these tender words: “Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’”

Next, he teed off on Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s closest advisers and widely believed to be the author of his recent remarks at the G20 conference in Europe. The Mooch reached deep into his extensive vocabulary to say he was different that Bannon because, “I’m not trying to suck my own cock.” Fitting words for a man who now works for the person who says when you are a famous and powerful white male, you can grab women by the pussy and get away with it. How far America has fallen.

The vehemence of his attack did not sit well with the conservative news media. No less a steadfast bastion of far-right orthodoxy than Breitbart News said, the “rambling rant that was so outrageous and discordant that reporters wondered whether Scaramucci drunk-dialed Lizza, was drunk with power, or, reveal[ed] he was unqualified for his communications director job.” Others wondered if he was high on cocaine.

Bill Golston offered, “It’s off the charts. Both the president and the communications director have really defiled the temple of our democracy.”

John McCain Steps Up

Perhaps the worst news of the week for Trump came when John McCain, fresh from being diagnosed with brain cancer, took to the floor of the Senate to cast the final vote that sent the last desperate attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act down to ignominious defeat.

While McCain got all the press headlines, the heavy lifting was done by Senators Murkowski of Alaska and Collins of Maine, who both staunchly opposed what was obviously a bold lie told by Republicans to the nation in order to give a fat tax cut to billionaires. In the new America, the Congress is bought and sold by such people. Saying no to them took extraordinary courage, something few of their Republican colleagues were willing to do.

But the real heroes of the hour where the hundreds of disabled Americans who descended on Washington, DC, to show their disgust with the legislation under consideration. In a new America where people can be prosecuted criminally for laughing during a Senate hearing, they showed the most courage of all.

Just Another Day In Trumpland

Every day, Americans go to bed assuming they have seen the worst of the dysfunctional Trump maladministration. More like a criminal conspiracy than a government, it continues to shock the conscience of decent people everywhere.

And every day, Americans wake up to find that the bloviator in chief, whose epic rants are more reminiscent of Donald Duck than a real human being, find themselves betrayed once again by an aging sociopath who continues to find new ways to humiliate the nation he purports to lead.

It was a helluva week. Could next week be worse? Based on the experience of the past 6 months, the answer, sadly, appears to be “Yes, it could.” In many ways, the Despicable Donald has turned America into a cartoon image of itself.

In the midst of it all, Trump’s admin also continues to throw attacks on clean air, clean water, children’s brainsclean energy, climate science, scientists in general, and climate action.

Source: The Guardian


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Steve Hanley

Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Florida or anywhere else The Force may lead him. He is proud to be "woke" and doesn't really give a damn why the glass broke. He believes passionately in what Socrates said 3000 years ago: "The secret to change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new." You can follow him on Substack and LinkedIn but not on Fakebook or any social media platforms controlled by narcissistic yahoos.

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