Would it Have Made A Difference?

 

When most people hear that Trump was thinking of firing missiles into Mexico to take out the cartels and then act as if maybe some other country did it, I'd like to think they would see all the many problems with the plan right off the bat. Like. leaving aside the moral or legal questions (which never would occur to Trump, anyway), we are firing over what border with what missiles, now? It wouldn't exactly take Sherlock Holmes to sort out what had taken place. Are we sure we could pin-point the location of cartels without so-called "collateral damage"? 

It's bad because it violated international law, sure, but it's also really fucking stupid. And yet, from the stable genius mind that wanted to make a moat next to the border wall and booby-trap it, is it so hard to believe? That's right--we heard crazy-ass shit from behind the scenes of the Trump Administration quite a few times. We already knew he wanted to shoot immigrants in the legs (they did get tear gassed). It's not, then, a shock to also know he wanted George Floyd protesters shot in the legs, as well. (They also got tear gassed. Apparently, Trump's bloodlust is mollified by having a little chemical warfare, as a treat.) 

Trump fans knew what he was when they picked him up. I don't think they would have been put off by those things at the time, any more than they were put off by the prospect of extortion of other world leaders or some light treason. Not when Trump could point to the wreckage and say "See? I was doing something."

That may sound incredibly pessimistic, and it is. We can criticize Esper for saving it for the book, but unlike with journalists whose principal duty should be getting these things out, I can appreciate what Esper saw his duty as being (swatting these sorts of things down--weekly!?) at the time. 

I just know that if there is a next time, Trump will find people less inclined to swat him down. He will have his own Lavrovs, Peskovs and Shoigus. 

I don't think we can say how things would be different for sure if Esper told the world then. It's like conservatives pointing out the violation of the Alito leak rather than looking at the scope of the argument. The real horror is that Trump is a mad idiot--but we knew that. The real horror is also that a large part of the population still likes their mad idiot. That's the bit to organize against. Everything else is theater criticism. 

TWGB: What a Day Trump is Having

Trump tells Hannity that he "very recently" "aced" a cognitive test: "I took it at Walter Reed, a medical center, in front of doctors, and they were very surprised" pic.twitter.com/CavfF4BdKB

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) July 10, 2020

Because Trump speaks in superlatives without any view as to how they might resonate, I just want to ponder for a minute over someone "acing" a cognitive test. He performed baseline mental activities well enough to be considered not impaired (it isn't an IQ test, or the SAT's). And the doctors (plural) were very surprised!

Doctor 1: Say, would you get a load of that: Trump is not actually mentally deficient.

Doctor 2: Well slap my ass and call me a timpani drum.

Doctor 3: I shouldn't have bet the under. Fuck.

Doctor 2: So we're....gonna let him still have the nuclear codes and just scoot on out of here?

Doctor 1: Sadly, yes. It isn't....(puts on sunglasses) brain surgery.

Forgive me, it's been a long day, but maybe not so long for me as for the president, who got a little bit of awkward news in that he doesn't have, contrary to his previous and probably current opinion, absolute immunity regarding subpoenas, in this case for his tax returns, as requested by NY DA Vance. (As for US Congress, they need to clean up their act and figure out why they really want it, but you know. They could probably get them.) Trump took this with his usual grace and equanimity, which is to say: no, he didn't have those things. But Kayleigh McEnany says he actually got a win today. And like, why not? She could have just done a five minute drum solo with a couple of pens and walked away doing finger guns. No one cares.

So, what else happened today--Esper kind of admitted he never got told about "bounties" but like, Russian payments to the Taliban? Yeah, he probably knew about those. (He's pretty concerned this got leaked though, although if it's as much as that it happened, I am super unsure. I know what I'd rather he be concerned about.) Also, he doesn't seem to have protected Lt. Col. Vindman from retaliatory treatment regarding his impeachment testimony at all. (He also says he doesn't know who gave the order to clear Lafayette Park, and you know what? Whatever. Esper knows just about what he should know and makes a job of not knowing what he shouldn't.) Lou Dobbs called Esper "incompetent" today over something quite else, so who knows where Trump will stand regarding that guy's future.

Judge Emmet Sullivan isn't done with Gen Flynn, last seen this holiday weekend pledging to Q, whatever that means. Somehow, the DOJ's determination to not, like, make a federal case out of the actual federal case that Flynn plead guilty to just seems kind of suspect, you know? As if the person running the DOJ was trying to make things comfortable for Trump's associates. So weird!

And while we're so obviously on the topic of Bill Barr (who should be impeached) we also got treated to former US Attorney Geoffrey Berman's take on Barr's really way-out approach to getting his ass fired. It really feels like Barr was using the bait of other job offers as a bribe to get Berman to step down because of possibly some investigation he was involved in (and as I've said, those investigations were considerable and revolved around TrumpWorld).

It's really like Trump doesn't have the best people, but the ones that are around him are covering him like a badly-fitting suit. It's a little like some threads are unraveling. It's a lot like he should be regularly getting a check-up from the neck up if he thinks people don't understand that his White House is corrupted by grift, incompetence and deception. Many of us certainly do.

The revolution against Trump might not be televised on Fox News as being from anyone but "The Left" (and it isn't only us lefties, not anymore), but it will be televised.

TrumpWorld must fall. Orbis Trumpi delenda est.