The many attributes of leaders
Donald Trump sure did not waste any time. He showed the world his ability for fluid recklessness and his danger to politics in its global nature. He capped a decade with a chess move that is fraught with repercussions that at the very least irrevocably damages the United State’s standing as a trusted ally to the world. Even as he is finally being admonished for repeatedly reaching into the cookie jar of unconstitutional fodder available, some of his own design, he tramps onward like Sherman to the Atlantic burning everything in his path. His legions, his gutless lemmings, his witless minions go to jail and he labors and stonewalls under the conception that he never will — at least as sitting president. I think he knows just enough history to know that no president has ever been removed from office. No “game over” echoes from the books. Those other two presidents were allowed to complete their terms, and in this case with even a heavier stench (remember “hold their nose and vote”). He has no soul, no conscience, not even a trace of them. It was clear, from the day he came down the escalator from his gold tower, looking every bit the suspecting shopper, that his sole intent was to hustle America, or just those gullible enough to sell their souls to a man who has none. Lucifer takes many forms. A clue that he was a charlatan, a tell that in the relatively short three of Trump years he would be reeking havoc in the world should have been the reports that many of the crowd in Trump Tower cheering him that day were paid to do so.
Was Qassem Soleimani an accidental death, caught in the cross-fire of an air strike? It is not the point. He was heinous, responsible for many American deaths, yet he was the top military officer, second only to the Ayatollah. His death, it is feared, will precipitate catastrophic reprisal. This was an officer in the Iranian military, a commander in the Quds Force. He was a tactician, and the architect of wars. To kill him might be analogous to killing Donald Rumsfeld, which is ironic because in Bush’s felonious Iraq War he was criticized for not providing body armor designed to withstand tactical situations and weapons Soleimani orchestrated. Presidents need to execute a modicum of constructive deliberative thought in making moves in a world chess game. They don’t have to be Eisenhower, Washington, or even Bobby Fischer. The very least they need to know is the simple physical fact that for every action there is a reaction. For a president of a country that was once looked to as an example for much of the world, that physical fact increases ten fold. Donald Trump has not had to deal with the consequences of his action for much of his life. His casinos go belly-up, get more money from father; drafted to Vietnam, get corrupt doctor to say he has bone spurs; a porn star threatens to go public with their affair, pay her hush money. Trump’s rampant cruelty, narcissism, self-enrichment, and lawlessness was overlooked, sucked into a vacuum of his device by being president, having totes at his beck and call, dredging the swamps of DC for the most rapacious, reptilian, incredulous cabinet possible, and dangling red meat at his mind numb minions who so easily succumb to what he has promulgated to become (sadly) the most basic human denominator, race. The “perfect call” to Zelinsky resulted in the first hustle for which Trump faced music. He was cocky, as is his nature, digging a deeper hole, publicly telling reporters on the WH lawn that he intends to hustle China, to implore their help in maligning Joe Biden.
In real time
It is like a bad movie being shown in the WH screening room. Three years of nearly everyone and everything, and those seeking refuge in America suffering, worse off, all because of an antiquated afterthought of the constitution. He is laughing, his head’s being fed (as dorr mice say), mocking the rules, coasting as a king, a melomaniac chosen out of spite, until the reel hits a blip in the movie. Ukraine brings a knife to a shoot — out. I thought it was an act, political posturing, another incident that could be taken care of by pretending to have bone spurs. In this case it is an aversion to the “I word.” Trump was never shaken (to any necessary means) by the very real punishment of impeachment. It put a cap, a damper, a flickering ember in a dumpster fire, on a long and lucrative spree of unmitigated fleecing of American sheep. In the foreground of a screen, amidst years of acts destructive to America, to its peoples’ lives, to the world and our place in it, comes a random act of destruction. The airstrike that accomplished killing Qassem Soleimani brought to mind the 59 ill-conceived retaliatory Syrian airstrikes of April 2017. The accomplishments were minimal, damaging an airbase and aiding Russia in the war effort. President Obama’s assassination of Bin-Laden, in contrast, was the result of months of planning, with the consultation of generals, key cabinet members, and advisors on security. Bin-Laden was a rouge terrorist, a chief architect of 9/11, founder of the Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda. Not the same, by a random airstrike’s shot. Killing him was analogous to killing Al Capone.
Grim repercussions
Nancy Pelosi was, for years, between an unethical rock and a political comfort zone. Should the child be impeached, taught a lesson, or will he and his equally incorrigible friends find a way to turn this slap on the wrist in their favor. She took a phone call in which bribery took place. She found the simplest dishonest act she could and set about holding him accountable for it imposing the only punishment for a president who abuses his power or obstructs congress the constitution allows. He did both, at least once a week for most of his term. But will branding him to join Bill and Andrew in the footnotes of history texts serve only to bolster his support out of sympathy. I understand that a political principle was in the balance, but the circumstances were kind of unusual. It is an election year. Trump would have stood a much better chance of being voted out of office as a renegade president, unchecked, totally unhinged, and not impeached. By impeaching him, the bar was raised a bit. Before it had nowhere to go but down, and Donald does not disappoint. He also does not think like a “normal” adult, with a healthy appreciation of the importance of his job. He has no desire to ever learn to do it better, or succeed, because in his mind, he has. Impeaching someone like that, that empty mind set, divorced from all reality, impenetrably set to con mode, can only have a positive effect or none at all. My hope is that his most recent act of recklessness will drain the stomachs of the Kool — aide the reptilian senate Republicans drank so long ago.
