Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Trump's Rats Are Jumping Ship

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump assumed the presidency, an office for which he was totally unprepared, less than four months ago, and during the several weeks of his reign of petulance and bombast he has proven time and again that he is completely unfit to lead our nation.   Even without Trump's continuous and shameless attempts to promote his personal businesses through the presidency - and his unnerving closeness to Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin, Trump shows an almost daily determination to be his own worst enemy.   Regrettably, as he destroys himself, he is also pulling our country down with him.

Yesterday the Washington Post broke a story that Trump had shared classified information with Russia's ambassador and foreign minister when they visited the White House last week.  The nature of the information was apparently something which would expose covert American intelligence sources to the Russians.  The information was reportedly so sensitive that it had not even shared with our allies.  Today it was reported that the source of the intelligence was Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East.  That probably has Netanyahu wishing he had his old nemesis, Barack Obama, back in the White House.

(Be careful what you pray for, Benjie!)

One of the scenarios being floated as to how something this outrageous could have happened has the pompous Trump bloviating to his Russian guests, trying to impress them with his deep knowledge of world affairs, - and proving his point by openly discussing highly classified information.

The White House initially went into full-denial mode, but Trump later owned up to the incident through his favorite medium - Twitter.    Essentially he said that a president can declassify and discuss whatever he damn well pleases - and, for once, he is right.  But being right about process does not abate the potential of harm caused by his rash and careless action. 

Donnie Boy, if you were a reader and/or had even a basic knowledge of American history, you would have undoubtedly come across the old World War II slogan that encouraged all of America to be very cautious regarding military information    Posters across the nation reminded the patriotic folks at home as well as those on the front lines that  "Loose Lips Sink Ships."  Sooner or later people with the ability to start the impeachment process are going to get tired of watching you sink your own battleships - and ours!

Democrats, with the possible exception of Senator Joe Manchin, are fairly open in their disgust with the reckless behavior and excesses of Donald Trump.  Now, not too surprisingly, Republicans, who stood pretty much en masse behind their deeply flawed candidate last November, are also starting to air concerns.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Bloomberg News:

"I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House - on a lot of things."
 Or, to paraphrase The Mitchster:  "Hey Fat Boy, STFU!"

John McCain, the geriatric senator from Arizona, said that he is "disturbed" about Trump's erratic behavior - and if McCain is disturbed, Lindsey probably has the vapors!

Tennessee's Bob Corker,  one of the more respected and sensible GOP members of the Senate, observed that the Trump presidency appears to be in a "downward spiral."

But, perhaps most damning of all are the views currently being expressed by Satan's Pit Bull, Ann Coulter.  The rabid right-wing commentator and book huckster is openly talking a splitting with Trump, a candidate she ardently supported last year despite what she saw as his "grotesque personality."  The severely disillusioned Ms. Coulter laments the fact that Trump is utterly failing to keep his campaign promises - and she seems to be especially chagrined that construction of the much vaunted wall between the United States and Mexico no longer appears to be a Trump priority.

Rats, it would seem, know instinctively when a ship is about to sink.

1 comment:

Xobekim said...

The exercise of a legal right is not always the right thing to do. Yes, a President may declassify unencumbered because until now no President has done so without first engaging in a thoughtful and deliberate process with the Intelligence Community. The Congress now has to rethink this presumption that the Commander-in-Chief is a mature, sensible, rational person is full control of his faculties.

There is a fine line between liberty and license. President Trump has crossed that line and is governing licentiously. Whether it be his decision to violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution in his “Muslim ban”, his deliberate deceit in claiming his assets are in a blind trust which insulate him from the Emoluments Clause, while he sells access to the Oval Office, his systematic removal of office of all who investigate his relationship with Russia (its tyrant and oligarchy), or now placing an intelligence asset’s life at risk because the law does not yet forbid his actions; the President is being licentious.

There is a difference between doing something which is his legal right to do and running off into unknown territory by doing something no President has ever done before. We often write laws because some idiot does not comprehend the difference between doing the right thing and being petulant.

We can have a long conversation about the Senator from Tennessee and his reasonableness at another time. I am certain the autoworkers would disagree that he epitomizes reason.