Category: Uncategorized

On the woman named Betsy DeVos.

She’s got billions, but Trump’s now her boss.

She hasn’t a clue.

She won’t know what to do.

So the GOP’s win is kids’ loss.

Crooked media not paying attention to terrorist events like Women’s March. Don’t be fooled by their clothes–they were jihadis in disguise.

If anyone in the Middle East is entitled to our sympathy, it is the Kurds.  While their political system is a far cry from Jeffersonian democracy, it at least works in a fashion, and their soldiers are actually willing to fight.  Over the last several years, they have been our most reliable boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq.

The problem, of course, is that their aspirations for independence are inconsistent with the maintenance of a unified Iraqi state.  Furthermore, they are essentially at war with Turkey.  As a result, getting the Iraqi government, the Turks, and the Kurds to work together against IS has been very difficult, and has slowed down our progress in destroying the “caliphate.”

How will Trump change this picture?  My guess is that he will gravitate to Erdogan, who will successfully portray himself as a fellow strong man and terrorist fighter and the Kurds as dangerous insurgents.

In short, Trump is going to sell the Kurds out.  It is just a matter of time.

If you’re Trump, this is how you will attempt to govern:

1. Hire clearly unqualified people for important government posts.
2. Give them vague instructions which assume that it is not necessary to make policy trade-offs.
3. Take the credit if they somehow succeed.
4. If they get bad ratings, berate them in public and sack them.

Sounds like a great gig, eh?

Bush 43’s massive ground assault against Saddam was patterned after his father’s success in the Gulf War, and with good reason;  an occupation was necessary to uncover the non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and to refashion Iraq as a liberal democracy that would transform the Middle East.  The war, of course, was a disaster that cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.

To Obama, the lesson of Iraq was not to do “stupid stuff.”  He was determined to maintain the Pax Americana at the lowest possible cost, which typically meant relying on allies and unconventional warfare.  He had some successes, and he unquestionably did reduce the direct costs of American intervention.  However, the indirect costs of his unwillingness to escalate in Syria included terrorism, a refugee crisis, and, in all likelihood, some loss of American prestige.

Trump, as we know, has a quick temper and a very short attention span.  He is also determined to make the world feel the power of our military, which he will undoubtedly view as an extension of his own ego.  On the other hand, he has no use for Bush-style occupations and nation building.  How will he square the circle?  By shock and awe aerial campaigns.  It is the only plausible answer.

 

Unelected so-called judge has no right to stop me.  I alone speak for America.

The Nixon team consisted of the following:  a President who thought it useful to pass himself off as a madman with our adversaries (Nixon);  an influential, famously “realist” head of the NSC who brought about a diplomatic revolution (Kissinger); and a Secretary of State who handled routine issues, but had no real influence on things that mattered (Rogers).

If this sounds familiar, it should.  Trump/Flynn/Tillerson looks like the Bizarro World version of the Nixon team.

The new Trump Svengali named Steve.

He says things you wouldn’t believe.

He has the Don’s ear.

That should fill you with fear.

Some gloat, but the rest of us grieve.

So-called “judge” is a typical liberal Bush appointee who is obviously biased against me.  Should not be allowed to hear any cases involving POTUS.  Sad!

For the last eight years, GOP politicians and media have been broadcasting the “alternative fact” that Obama was running around the world apologizing for America.  This was demonstrably false, but the GOP doesn’t believe in letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

In light of this, you can see the irony in the ongoing attempts by members of the Cabinet and Congress to reassure our allies every time Trump drops a rhetorical bomb on them.  In lieu of nonexistent apologies for our country’s past, we now have real and repeated apologies for our President.

The hardest thing about religious events is that I have to pretend I’m not praying to myself.

Who needs Australia, anyway?  All they ever gave us was Foster’s and kangaroos.

President Obama, who understood the need for diplomatic behavior, created an “anger translator” named Luther as a comic device to tell people how intensely he really felt.  Trump, obviously, has no need of such a device; he can handle the job quite nicely himself.  The question for the day is how did Trump’s use of language impact the campaign?

There is nothing about Trump’s background which suggests that he is in any way a suitable mouthpiece for white working people.  He grew up rich, has a flamboyant lifestyle, screwed over his contractors, investors, and customers on a regular basis, and proposed an economic plan that was overwhelmingly favorable to the wealthy.  The only thing connecting him to working people, other than his status as an old white guy, was his, shall we say, frank way of expressing himself.  And so, I have to conclude that Trump largely succeeded because he was the anger translator for millions of discontented Americans.

Of course, that persona becomes a bit of a problem when he deals with the outside world.  If you don’t believe me, just ask the Australians.

In spite of (perhaps more accurately, because of) China’s status as an allegedly Communist state, the country is essentially an oligarchy.  That, in and of itself, does not answer the question as to whether China has effective government. What are the pros and cons of oligarchy?

The chief benefit to oligarchy is obvious; it is a guarantee of stable and at least minimally competent government.  The world will gain a greater appreciation of these qualities as it observes the absurd machinations of the Trump Administration.  The downsides are more subtle;  a poorly-run oligarchy tends to be corrupt, self-serving, unimaginative, and uninspiring.  With few roots in the general public, a limited understanding of public opinion, and little likelihood of reviving itself with new blood, an oligarchy tends to wither away over time (think Venice and the Netherlands).

How does this apply to the Chinese leadership?  Whatever you may think of its views on universal rights or its foreign policy, there is no denying that the rise of China from an economic basket case to the world’s second leading economy over the last 30 years is a truly amazing success story.  Never in human history have so many people been lifted from poverty in such a short period of time, and the government deserves a lot of the credit.  The leadership is perfectly aware of the dangers of insularity and corruption and does battle with them on a daily basis. Whether they can succeed in the long run without creating a more open political system is, in my eyes, very doubtful.

He predicts four years of winter.