We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. —Aesop, legendary fabulist, 6thcentury BCE
Asked in an interview if he’d made mistakes, DT replied, hiring Jeff Sessions. Here are some mistakes he didn’t mention, interspersed by slogans and quotes. “Mistakes” is a misnomer and if the list were comprehensive, we’d be here all day. Feel free to add your own faves in comments on the blog.
- Directing the Dept. of Justice to ask the courts to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act
- Raising the cost of ACA coverage to levels that will force many to drop it
- Weakening the ACA rule that prohibits discrimination
- Allowing employers to leave traditional health plans and instead offer individual plans with little employer contribution, thus moving costs onto employees. Goes into effect in 2020. Better start saving for it.
- Separating families, keeping children in cages and camps, some dying there
London protest sign: Kids in cages have heartbeats too.
José Revueltas, a Mexican writer passionate about changing society, describes what I’m doing here: Estoy escribiendo y esa es mi manera de llorar. I am writing and this is how I cry.
One of many Women’s March signs in several languages
- Instead of draining the swamp as promised, creating a worse one
- Lack of professional vetting of candidates for his administration, hence cabinet officials with no expertise in their field and with records of domestic abuse, ethics violations and fraud charges
- For example, selecting an EPA chief who doesn’t believe in science; an Education director who wants to privatize education
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor, and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect them from each other.
—Oscar Ameringer
- Instead of ending wars, trying to start new ones, first vs. North Korea and now Iran, a crisis we started by breaking our word and walking out on the treaty
- Triggering the longest government shutdown in U.S. history in a failed attempt to get wall money
- Declaring a national emergency to divert military funds for the wall, something the Supreme Court, 5 – 4, in their own mistake, said in July he could do
For the past 7 years, we’ve acquired more illegal immigrants by people overstaying their visas than by crossing the border illegally. Walls address a problem that barely exists.
12. Border judges have complained for a decade about being understaffed and overwhelmed: more so now with the increase in Central American asylum-seekers. Yet DT isn’t funding more judges to alleviate the backlog that crowds 400 people into 100-person rooms.
13. We had a Central American aid program aimed at reducing gang crime and increasing employment. It was having some success, so fewer were fleeing their homeland. DT cut that funding.
Have you seen the video of the Coast Guard guys jumping on the drug submarine at full throttle? Or the speed boat dumping boxed drugs as fast as an Amazon assembly line while trying to outrace them? The Coast Guard is awesome. Most illegal drugs enter the country by sea or air or through a port of entry. Walls address a problem that barely exists. I believe I said that before.
Walls are a human and ecological disaster, separating wildlife from water, proposed to cut through a butterfly sanctuary, Native American land, among other outrages.
Politicians are people, who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. —John Quinton
14. Expelling transgender people from the military; reducing LGBTQ access to health care, military service, ordinary civil rights
- Demonizing black athletes; demonizing minorities and immigrants of all types, slandering and denigrating minority and female politicians and diverse American cities—Baltimore the latest to be accused of being “infested”
London protest sign: You’re not sending us your best president. Where’s the one that got 3 million more votes? We liked her.
Women’s March sign: Stop pretending your racism is patriotism
16. Mocking the “Me Too” movement; attacking women’s health care rights
17. Throwing paper towels at Puerto Ricans and reducing their federal aid after their devastating hurricane
- Firing James Comey and the other nine instances of obstruction of justice documented in the Mueller report. Asked if DT could be charged with a crime when he leaves the presidency, Mueller answered, “Yes.”
DT is the first president in our history with no military or government experience
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. —Tex Guinan
19. Cabinet turnover higher than any of the previous five presidents. Most recently Intelligence chief Dan Coats left, after DT repeatedly suppressed Coats’ warnings about Russian election interference. DT and Moscow Mitch work together on this.
- Undermining the scientific integrity of the EPA; hiding/disregarding reports on climate change, pollution
- Making it harder for Muslims and those from non-white countries to come here, promoting white supremacy
London protest sign: First they came for the Muslims and we said—not this time motherfuckers
Those who have ears, let them hear. Those who have eyes, let them read. Those who have brains, let them think. DT is only in office to enrich himself and anyone who happens to be like him. He is a tyrant, a poltroon, a buffoon and a traitor to his country. It is a damn shame that there are people who can still support him.
A Facebook contact says ‘it’s the news that’s causing all the racial hatred.’ I want to ask, “If the news is only quoting what the pres. and others of his ilk have said and done, how is it the fault of the news?”I fear it would do no good, for this is a person who believes DT is doing a good job, is doing the necessary. And I’m certain it would do no good to say that every time I see his initials, I’m reminded of an older meaning for those two letters, delirium tremens—in this case, drunk with power, and his mindless, heartless flailing is doing terrible harm.
And exactly the reason I decided to go with DT. Thanks, Bob!
There,seriously, are no words
Disdain for intelligence; disinterest in history; disregard for rule of law; incurious about culture; pride in boorishness (we dare not bring up decorum, and don’t even let the word “gravitas” try to sneak into your brain). He is a mockery of a man, a boor. Our Scottish friends have been the most creative in trying to encapsulate him, to wit: “idiot cockwomble,” “hamster-headed person of low intelligence and hooliganistic tendencies, (go boil your head)”; “weaselheaded fucknugget”; “leather faced, shit-tobogganist”; “custard-flavoured jobby”; “mangled apricot hellbeast”; “onion-eyed flap dragon”; and “mop-headed fud.” We are deeply in debt to the Scots.
I have new respect for the Scots, as of this minute. Wow. And Marilyn Auer wasn’t shabby in articulation herself with that first list.
I persist in my apoplexy, which is daily fed by DT’s astounding assholishness. What can one do other than vote and encourage others to vote this nitwit out? Stew and stew, as my dear departed mother would say. Although I am 7 poems in to a sequence that is helping to clear my mental arteries, all about The Orange Ape. But I like apes, so I’m conflicted. Orange Cockroach? Orange Blobfish?* Any animal is superior to this creature, so the put-down becomes an elevation in status. He is a distinctive form of human that we’ve seen before. (Think Mussolini.**) Very dangerous….
* https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2f/e8/40/2fe840c62e6c375abd207530734bd66b.jpg
** https://brewminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/082518-67-Trump-Fascism-Mussolini-Politics.jpg?w=640