Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Parade Charade: Trump Once Againt Shamelessly Exploits the Military for Personal Gain

Never in United States history has there been a politician who has mocked, denigrated, disrespected and exploited the military as much as Donald Trump.

Trump's latest transparent stunt came Tuesday with the news that he's directed the Pentagon to plan a Bastille Day-inspired grand military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Like France's iconic warrior Napoleon Bonaparte, Trump's all but crowned himself emperor and sees himself as the great national valiant hero. So what's more fitting than a bit of Napoleonic pomp and circumstance?

And why not, right? Trump, the self-proclaimed "counter-puncher," is proudly touted
as a "street-fighter" by his aides and surrogates. You attack him and he hits you back 100 times harder. He's a ruthless bully on Twitter. Armed with an iPhone, his tiny fingers and 280 characters, Trump wages cyber-warfare with Beethoven-like mastery at the keys. At his rallies, where his bombast and braggadocio run amok, he yells in that loud, gravely "get him outta here!" intimidating tone. Apparently, someone told him that if he pretends to sound tough he is tough.

The only problem is that Trump is anything but tough. Anything but a warrior. Anything but a hero. He's a coward. A draft-dodging coward. Unlike Napoleon, who bled on the battlefield, when it was Trump's time to serve his country during Vietnam he hid behind his rich daddy's coattails and imaginary 'bone-spurs' and received five student and medical deferments.

And while 58,000 of his countrymen had died in Vietnam, Trump, in a 1997 interview with Howard Stern, arrogantly bragged that his years of sleeping around, when he faced the danger of sexually transmitted diseases, was his "personal Vietnam."

"I feel like a great and very brave soldier," he impudently boasted to Stern.

But the closest Trump ever came to actually wearing a uniform was as a teenager when he was sent by his father Fred to the New York Military Academy....the kind of strict military boarding school where exasperated parents often send unruly asshole kids to 'become men.' (Fred, if he were alive, should demand his money back plus interest).

And now Trump wants a parade. With weapons, missiles and tanks rolling past the White House while Dear Leader stands like Kim Jong Un basking in the manufactured glow of self-created adulation as everyone salutes him.

But the official White House explanation for the parade is more altruistic:

“President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.”

Nice try, Sarah, but the duplicity of your statement is staggering. Let's revisit some of the many ways Trump has shown his 'respect' and "support" for the military and its "great service members":

*"I know more than the generals"
*Attacked John McCain: He's "not a war hero... He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured"
*Attacked Gold Star families
*Lied to veterans about a $5-million donation
*"The military is a disaster"
*Took a veteran's Purple Heart at a rally: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier”

But wait there's more, and it's even worse...

Trump is under independent investigation for allegedly colluding with Russia to hack and influence the 2016 election and then wage a merciless campaign to demean and discredit the special prosecutor, the FBI and Department of Justice. He's also attacked the free press as "the enemy of the people." He's called Democrats "treasonous" and "un-American" because they didn't applaud him during his State of the Union speech. And he's repeatedly demonstrated a general disdain for the Constitution and the rule of law.

What could be more unconscionably disrespectful to our brave soldiers than to attack the bedrocks of democracy...the laws and freedoms...that they died defending?  

You can almost hear them shouting from the grave with clench fists...'spare us your fucking parade.'

So make no mistake: the parade charade is not a celebration of our military but rather a pathetic attempt by the Narcissist-in-Chief to celebrate himself and, more so, to once again use the military as pawns in his War of Distraction from the RussiaGate investigation. An investigation that each day moves closer to the Oval Office door and could ultimately bring and end to Trump's reign of terror.

Before that humiliating end occurs, perhaps Trump, like his idol Napoleon, will abdicate his throne and be exiled to the island of Manhattan...

Friday, February 02, 2018

Here's What Trump's Tweets Might Look LIke in Two Years...

We all know how much Donald Trump loves to Tweet. It empowers him and provides a safe platform to be the "street-fighting counter-puncher" to opponents and enemies ranging from Hillary Clinton to Kim Jong Un. He's so addicted to Twitter that it's impossible to imagine him without it, no matter his ultimate fate.

So here's a sampling of what the Tweeter-in-Chief's missives might look like in two years...

"My impeachment hearing was the HIGHEST RATED in history! So much better than Clinton's! And I would've beaten Johnson too if we had TV back in the '20's!"  

"President Pence says my pardon's coming soon. I'm starting to doubt it. Never trusted that guy. He better watch it. I know things...BIGLY things!"

"Spoke with Paul Ryan today. He's still in shock over losing to Bryce last year. Eric Cantor's been helping him. He had a shocking loss too. THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!!" 

"Just visited Don Jr. today. He's still adjusting to prison. And I got to meet his boyfriend. Great guy! LOVES TRUMP!!"  

"I WON'T be visiting Devin, Mike, Paul, Rick, George, Hope, Jeff, Carter or Jared. Will never forget how they turned on me. Besides...Trump HATES prison!"

"I love being back in NY. I can tell everybody really LOVES me! They're all just pretending to hate me and ignore me because it's, like, "coolfveve" to hate Trump. WHATEVER!"

"Since Melania left, I've had more pussy than a cat shelter! Talk about MAGA!"

"Eric was just promoted to MANAGER at the Trump Tower Starbucks! (I pulled some strings...he never would've gotten it on his own). SO PROUD!"

"Hoping that maybe this is the month I'll get to see Barron. I've heard he's maybe, kinda, like, not so angry anymore. He knows Trump loves him!"

"Ivanka and Jared's divorce is final. Trump VERY happy! Never got this whole "Jew" thing anyway...'

"Melania just signed a $20-million book deal. I am SO fucked..."

Thursday, February 01, 2018

I'm Sorry, But It's Racism That's Created, Enables and Protects Trump

"Make America Great Again." There are many who believe that Donald Trump's campaign slogan (which, btw, he stole from Ronald Reagan) is simple code for "Make America White Again." They're not wrong.

To those who claim that Trump voters were and remain motivated by "economic reasons," or that they wanted to "shake things up" and/or wanted a rich "outsider" who'd use his own money and therefore "not be beholden to any special interests"...I say bullshit. It's about race. And racism. Period. End...of...story.

Throughout history racism has driven seemingly normal, law-abiding, religious people to do very, very bad things. Like commit murder. Remember all the lynchings? The Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner killings in '64? People of color get killed every day in racially-motivated hate crimes. Hatred trumps (pun intended) logic and reason.

To be sure, not every racist is a murderer, a thief or any sort of criminal. But, racists can surely elect another racist president and then proceed to justify, defend and enable his racism and his reckless, dangerous, anti-American behavior every day that he's in office.

Racists can cavalierly cast aside the core values that our great nation was built on, and the Constitution which preserves and protects those values as well as our liberties, freedoms and laws.

Racists will sacrifice their own needs and interests and allow themselves to be subjugated by their racist president.

Racists will turn a blind eye to their racist president's complicity in Russia's meddling in our election and its undermining of our democracy despite obvious collusion, obstruction of justice and a blatant cover up.

Racists will believe their racist president when he spews his relentless propaganda about the Russia investigation being a "witch hunt" despite multiple criminal indictments and guilty-pleas to-date.

Racists will believe their racist president when he and his henchmen wage an unconscionable and unprecedented campaign to simultaneously demean, disrespect and discredit the Department of Justice, FBI and the intelligence community.

Racists will allow their racist president to circumvent the rule of law, attack our independent judiciary and label our free and open press "the enemy of the people."

Racists will allow their racist president to convince them that the media and fact-checkers--the very people who's job it is to fight for and report the truth--are the real liars. 

Racists will believe anything their racist president tells them no matter how obvious and staggering the lies.

Racists will still blindly support their racist president no matter how much he's lied to them and reneged on campaign promises.

Racists will hear their racist president condescendingly mock them with "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters"...and without an ounce of dignity or self-respect still support him.

Racists will accept when their racist president grabs pussies, bangs porn stars and cheats on his wife...even when Melania herself appears to have mentally and physically checked out.

Racists have no problem with their racist president attacking the Pope. Or disabled people. Or Gold Star widows and mothers.

Racists will cheer when their racist president summarily scapegoats and discriminates entire segments of the population because of religion and/or skin color.

Racists are ok with their racist president being what many mental health professionals believe is a sociopath.  

Racists will bastardize everything...everything...they claim to believe in and stand for because of racism...allowing their overpowering bigotry to turn them into heartless, soulless, compassion-and-empathy-bankrupt hypocrites.  

Racists are even ok with their racist president possibly committing treason and being a traitor.

Racism makes people crazy. Racism makes people stupid. Racism makes people self-destructive. Racism is poison. And it's that poison that's brought us to the doorstep of a Constitutional crisis. Of a complete and shocking ethical and moral subversion. Of authoritarian rule.

Make no mistake: Trump is who he is, where he is and does what he does with impunity because of racism.