Our Brain-less, Gut-Less President

By Calvin Hill

Does Donald Trump even know what he is doing? There, it had to be asked. For all of his bluster about having a “good brain” and the “going by (his) gut” decisions, the evidence seems to prove an erratic lack of confidence, a childish insecurity, an overwhelming and pathological penchant for lying, and a total lack of ability to understand working class Americans, the needs and desires of their families, the capacity to defer to those much more experienced and a lot better educated on topics he has no basic knowledge of – like medicine and the United States Constitution.

Most of the political professionals working early in the Trump administration are now gone. Some are gone for refusing to follow directives that were unconstitutional or illegal. Trump’s history of lawsuits indicates a clear understanding of the law – he just doesn’t like to obey it. Subsequently, he abhors anyone taking notes or tape recording meetings. A previous report alleges that he does not allow cell phones into Oval Office meetings. Trump has learned, perhaps the hard way, not to have any witnesses to, or record of, any illegal plans or deeds. His many settlements involving large fines with “no admission of guilt,” does not make him innocent. To this day, whenever he is caught, he claims he “was treated unfairly.”

Now, unless he sees an opposing right-wing Tweet or a Fox News Channel rant, Trump appears hell bent on exposing the population of the United States to extraordinary physical danger. There are positive tested Covid-19 patients in all 50 states, yet we have tested the equivalent of less than half the residents of New York City. Donald Trump is about to treat the entire country as he did an infected cruise ship just to keep the positive coronavirus numbers down. There can be no other reason for his staunch opposition to testing on a massive scale. America has the worst per capita testing than many of the top ten infected countries – why? What is in his brain, or his gut, that tells him this is in America’s best interest?

We cannot trust this President’s brain, or his gut. We have witnessed Trump sit around a White House table and come to a bipartisan decision on gun legislation, that 90% of Americans agree with, only to change his mind after a phone call and a visit from the head of the National Rifle Association. We have seen him come to a bipartisan agreement on DACA and immigration reform, only to change his mind after Fox News Channel hosts began to berate him. On the verge of signing a bipartisan spending bill, wherein his own Republican Party members told him that his vanity wall was a waste of taxpayer money, a mean Tweet from Ann Coulter had him scurrying under the Oval Office desk. Does he even know what he is doing? For his entire swagger, it appears that Trump’s brain and his gut are constantly ruled by outside sources unelected by the people of the United States. He has not sought advice on the presidency from Obama or GW Bush because he asserts he “Can’t learn anything from them.” Instead, Trump seeks advice and direction from presidential amateurs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and his golf and dining buddies at Mar-a-Lago.

His obvious hatred for his much smarter, well read, more charismatic, and more beloved predecessor has made Trump a menace of such tremendous proportion, that he endangers, not only the United States, but also the world at large that expects our leadership. The George W. Bush and the Obama administrations understood the dangers of not being prepared for the probability of a global pandemic, and that it was incumbent upon the United States to lead in preparation for its eventuality. The new administration ignored the 69-page report prepared by the Obama White House pandemic response team and the Dept. of Homeland Security. When asked why he disbanded the office, Trump denied doing so and said he didn’t know anything about it. In Trump’s mind, he is never responsible for any of his decisions that have negative outcomes.

But we knew he was incapable of taking responsibility for his bad decisions when GOP Sen. Ted Cruz called Trump a coward. We knew he would not take responsibility for his inciting rhetoric that wrought higher incidents of violence against Muslims, Blacks, Jews and Latinos when GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham called him a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot – not to mention a jackass. One has to wonder if not responsible was Trump’s excuse after the multiple bankruptcies when his daddy had to bail him out every time he needed money.

Mitt Romney and Mike Bloomberg, among others, warned voters that Donald Trump is a con man. Trump is so bad at the art of the deal; he got to the point where no American bank would lend him money. Thus, he became the walking, talking epitome of why the founders wrote an emoluments clause into the Constitution. With no daddy to write him checks, foreign banks bailed him out with money funneled to them by foreign governments. Trump was a sitting duck for an operative like Vladimir Putin. The Russian easily suckered Trump into believing he could build a Trump Hotel in Moscow. Who is the weak, easily manipulated Donald Trump going to be indebted to, the countries that helped him, or the country that stopped helping him?

Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the aforementioned Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and at least 17 other Republican Senators, Donald Trump continues to have the keys to Fort Knox at his personal disposal. He needlessly moves American troops and puts money in his pocket. He sends his daughter and son-in-law overseas on official business, and puts money in his pocket. And he charges exorbitant room rates for the Secret Service so he can play golf and put more money in his pocket.

Donald Trump does all this, and more, at the expense of, and without concern for the country he is tasked with leading or the plight of the people who call it home. He has used the fear of Senate and House Republicans to raid the treasury of the American workers and propel them into massively more debt for the benefit of several handfuls of multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires. The White House and their Fox News “advisors” are trying to guilt trip Americans for not being grateful enough to Mike Lindell, (the My Pillow guy), for making masks, and New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, for crossing the ocean to retrieve personal protective equipment for first responders using money they got from the tax cut that Donald Trump promised he was going to give to those American workers that are now spending hours social distancing on food bank lines for the first time in their lives.

Meanwhile, Trump and his enablers continue to press the preposterous position that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, child care and food stamps are socialism, and any help to house, feed, educate and sustain American workers, and their children, would be better spent allowing American capitalists to buy stock. However, those Americans are not really capitalists. They are robber barons.

 

 

A Few Good Truths

By Calvin Hill

            Indulge me the fantasy of playing Naval Officer Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men.” On the witness stand, in the role played by Jack Nicholson will be Donald John Trump.

Q – “Mr. President, if you had everything under control, and the 15 coronavirus cases would soon be down to zero, why would the governors need to be prepared for a pandemic?”

Q – “Mr. President, if you knew it was a pandemic before everyone was calling it a pandemic, why didn’t you warn the governors to prepare for a pandemic?

Q – Mr. President, since this was declared a global pandemic, wasn’t it your responsibility to make sure that the states and the federal government got prepared?

The unfortunate similarities between Colonel Jessep, (the Nicholson character), and Donald Trump is that both are arrogant, egotistical, and have the need to demean their fellow Americans to satisfy their overblown sense of self. Both feel the need to violate the law to get the job done, but possess just enough sense to engage in a cover-up to avoid the consequences. And they both have the audacity to believe that without them the country will fall apart.

Their differences show when Col. Jessep’s lawlessness was exposed before a military tribunal when he was read his rights, carted off to the brig, and undoubtedly paid a price. When Donald Trump’s lawlessness, incompetence and grifting were exposed before a Congressional tribunal, all we could see were the asses of those who had their heads buried in the sand.

Thus, we find ourselves confronted with massive death, and massive lies paraded before us on a daily basis, while being told by the President of the United States, that nobody saw the 3 months of warnings coming. The incompetence and lack of preparation by the Trump administration has left us in short supply of needed commodities from personal protective equipment to hand sanitizer. As a result, Attorney General William Barr publicly warned wholesalers and retailers that the Department of Justice would be aggressively going after, and prosecuting price gougers. However, it is the President, in his limited wisdom, who is enabling price gouging by pitting governors against one another for the very resources that the federal government should be purchasing, at a reasonable set price, and distributing among the states on an as needed and pre-preparation basis.

Meanwhile, as the death and infection rates of the coronavirus pandemic climbs in the US, Donald Trump ignores the plight of dying Americans, and stretched to their limit first responders by telling the governors, in his own warped Col. Jessup imitation, that if they want masks and ventilators, they “Have to ask (him) nicely.”

While Trump campaign rallied and golfed his way through the approaching pandemic, his administration continues to roll back environmental protections threatening the existence of clean air and water – the kind of things you always like to have, and desperately need during a viral pandemic. At the same time, he continues the court battle to obliterate the Affordable Care Act and has closed off access to anyone seeking healthcare through that existing law. By tying the economy to his reelection chances, Trump is willing to “open up the economy” without any knowledge or thought to testing the millions of Americans who may immediately fall victim to this plague.

Presently unable to hold his red hat wearing, QAnon banner waving, adoration stroking rallies of mendacity, misinformation and press insults, Trump has decided to merge an alternative to them with daily, science producing information gatherings called coronavirus press briefings. Unfortunately, his long-winded diatribes have caused his base of supporters, and Fox News Channel “advisers” to almost totally ignore the scientists while inundating social media and the Fox cable channel’s airwaves touting untested remedies, specious miracle recoveries not sourced by any doctors, and attacks on reporters asking legitimate questions.

As 16 million people have now filed for unemployment insurance, and Moscow Mitch and Donald Trump attempt to finagle additional rescue funds to their favored business interests, unchecked by Congress, the cracks in the wall that have led to the many Trump Organization bankruptcies, lawsuits and suspicious foreign bank bailouts have become apparent to a swath of previous Trump true believers.

And as The Donald does his best to maintain his 2016 absurdity that “Only I can fix it,” he does not inspire the confidence of Col. Nathan Jessep. When Jack Nicholson gives his rousing testimony about the danger America faces, the tragic death of Private William Santiago notwithstanding, we believe him when he says that he is the man we want standing on that wall. He is the man we need standing on that wall. Instead, we are faced with a Commander in Chief who was never capable of standing on that wall because his doctor said he’s got bad feet.

Calling All Patriots

By Calvin Hill

            The only surprise is that it took 3 years to get here. Everyone from Wall St. to K St. and from Reagan Airport to LAX, were waiting for this to happen. Not exactly this, but a crisis of such renowned proportion that after a never-ending torrent of lies, Donald Trump would not have the credibility to lead the country to safe and reasonable solutions. The United States is in danger and the only thing that this President can be counted on, to the benefit of the American people, is that he will affix his signature to the financial rescue legislation with all the flair that he signed his checks to Stormy Daniels.

The coronavirus global pandemic is the kind of life and death calamity that would challenge even the most competent of presidents and administrations. In the hands of the narcissistic, incompetent, fundamental illiteracy of Donald Trump, it has been a recipe for disaster. It is not enough that Trump continues to treat the presidency as though he were hosting The Apprentice by lying that he is in the Top Ten, when actually, his ratings had fallen to outside of the Top Twenty. When his glaring inability to answer the questions of seasoned, professional journalists, he resorts to a weak, tired and pathetic fallback position of insulting the questioner, denigrating their employer and avoiding the question. This is a standard procedure of the ignorant which, unfortunately, appears as strength to those unable or unwilling to peer through the façade.

It is time for you media employers to stop being passive. We have long passed the time when your reporters and correspondents deigned to have to show respect for the office when the man holding the office shows no respect for it or them. Donald Trump has repeatedly shown that the only thing he has any respect for is fear. He loves that the Republicans fear him. He loves that the integrity of the news media allows him to insult them, to their face, without retaliation because of a journalistic principle. And he loves that he controls a television and conservative radio media that advances his lies and propaganda without question.

What he fears, are what all dictators, and aspiring dictators fear. Donald Trump fears the truth – and, of course, Vladimir Putin. It is incumbent upon the media to confront this President with the truth during the coronavirus press conferences, or refuse to show them live. They have the option of cutting to the doctors, live, and fact check any and all Trump statements at a later time. If Trump is going to offer that he knew that coronavirus was a pandemic before it was being called a pandemic, we need to know why he told Americans that the Democrats’ critique was the latest hoax. Why is Trump admitting to know nothing about disbanding the White House office on pandemics when Sen. Sherrod Brown challenged that decision, on paper to the White House, almost 2 years ago? And where is the evidence to substantiate his many claims blaming the Obama administration for causing Trump’s decisions? We cannot count on the talk radio “conservatives,” who have literally abandoned many of the principles they have espoused since the Reagan administration, to get Donald Trump to tell the truth – or confront him when he is not. And we cannot count on Trump’s personal game show host, Sean Hannity, to ask him any questions that solicit honest answers.

The mounting death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, the incompetence and the rabid insolence of the President of the United States denotes that we have reached, yet, another of the many tipping points in this administration where we must demand that the Fourth Estate take back control of the free press segment of the First Amendment. It is not enough for reporters, correspondents and hosts to expose and pontificate the truth to us, and each other, during their appearances on the news talk radio and television circuit.

When Donald Trump acts and speaks with all the insolence and petulance of a spoiled little brat, he needs to be told that, not just us. When he looks at a reporter and tells a bold-faced lie, he needs to be told, “That’s not true,” and have the facts revealed, to his face, in real time. When he attempts to blame Pres. Obama to assuage his own failings, he needs to be told that he has been making false accusations against the former President since before the campaign. The glaring weight of his ineptitude has become too heavy a burden on the thousands of lungs now gasping for breath, and the tens of thousands of lungs yet to be tested. And it is up to those of you with regular access to the airwaves and the pen to expose the fact that the boisterous sword Donald Trump is wielding is nothing more than a TV prop.

The silence of the many retired generals and high-ranking military officers in the face of Donald Trump’s dishonor and violation of the military almost makes me ashamed to call myself a veteran. The damage and desecration that the President has done, and is doing, to the honor and mission of the forces they have proudly served has yet to encourage them to speak out. Sending our forces to string barbed wire for Trump’s vanity project didn’t do it. His brazen attempt to hijack money meant for the well being of military families and military morale didn’t do it. Needlessly shuttling GIs around Europe to make money for the Trump Organization didn’t do it. Lying that the attack by Iran produced no injuries when soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries hasn’t done it. And now, our National Guards are being deployed into danger zones where the body politic itself can be deadly, and the body armor is severely limited.

Will they now speak out? Will their love for their brethren, their country and their oath to defend their democracy loosen their tongues? Will the promise of the First Amendment finally unleash the press to call out the President’s deceptions in real time? Can these adult professionals become, at least, as brave and courageous as those 15 and 16 year-old patriotic students who had the guts to stand up to, and face down, dozens of state legislatures, the US Congress and the National Rifle Association and call “BS?”