Lest We Forget - Donald Trump Memories

         This is a small example of how much 'respect' for our military Trump has. Does our military matter to him at all? Well, when he takes $3.6 billion out of the Defense Department budget that was meant to help our military and their families in order to stroke his ego with his vanity wall project, what do you think? Trump doesn't care. To him, our military budget = Mexico. Trump's comment at the top, from a Howard Stern radio show, gives you all the insight you need to determine Trump's regard for our military. What happened in Vietnam is the same as avoiding STDs from all the unprotected vaginas Trump managed to assault in the 70s and 80s.  And when you're a star, they let you do it... Just in case anyone in the GOP forgot.

Trump Decay

There is a decay eating at America. A decay personified by the unchecked dishonesty emanating from the office-holder at the highest level of the government. There, resides an individual who lacks any moral character, who fans the flames of division, who encourages chaos among those in his administration and who surround him, who was actually laughed at by the entire world in his speech before the UN last September. That decay is spreading across the land. What a metaphor for what has happened to our country.

Ann Coulter, one of his biggest supporters, writes “For those of us who were ecstatic the night Donald Trump was elected president…it used to be easy to defend him against the charge that he is just a con man who would say anything to get elected. It’s getting harder.”

Sebastian Smith of AFP* wrote from the G-20 meeting in Buenos Ares on Dec. 1, 2018, regarding the announcement that Bush 41 had died:

One US president talked softly, the other harangues. One built international coalitions, the other tears them up. One was a war hero, the other avoided battle.

One was called George Herbert Walker Bush and the other is the current occupant of the White House…Donald J. Trump.

Trump was one of the first of current and past world leaders to praise the life of Bush. But even Trump's courteous statement couldn’t gloss over the undeniable contrast between the two. Using words like "humble," "quiet," "unflappable leadership," and "inspired" in their condolence announcement couldn’t detract from how alien they sounded coming from the Trump administration, especially Mr. Trump himself.

         Honor, honesty, and faithfulness are not words that would describe Mr. Trump. While he was running for president, Donald Trump was heard on tape discussing the payment scheme with Michael Cohen to pay off Karen McDougal for an affair Trump had with her just a year after he married his third wife. Another scheme was confirmed involving a quickie with adult film star Stormy Daniels one month after the birth of his 5^th child Barron when the reimbursement payment to Michael Cohen showed up in the tax filing Trump released last April. What are the odds that those were the only two times that Trump had an extramarital affair covered up? Yet the evangelicals claim to love and support this man because he is the beacon of Christianity to the world. No one is better at the Bible than Trump.

          The Bible calls for people who’ve committed adultery to be put to death. Shouldn’t Trump head the list of the “first to be executed” for dozens of instances of adultery that he admitted to on the Howard Stern radio show, on the Access Hollywood tape, and other times when he publicly bragged about it? Evangelicals tend to cherry-pick what parts of the Bible apply when it comes to Trump.

The Trump Administration sounds like a broken disc that keeps repeating "I-didn't-know-better…I didn’t know better…IDKB…"

Donald Trump sides with dictatorships over and over against the interests of the American people - for personal gain, not to MAGA. (IDKB)

He can’t be bothered to attend a remembrance ceremony honoring US World War One dead, then gets angry with others who didn’t warn him how bad that would look. 

Ivanka’s use of a private email server. (IDKB)

Kellyanne Conway, Dan Scavino, Hope Hicks, and others in his administration, repeatedly violating the Hatch Act. (IDKB)

The self-serving exploits of Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, David Shulkin, Rex Tillerson, Mike Flynn, Ryan Zinke…the list grows every day.

Did Trump collude with the Russians to get elected? Rudi Giuliani rushes to Trump's defense on TV and says that even if he did, collusion is “not a crime.” Is it still alright if the Trump Administration didn’t know better?

Trump puts his stamp of approval on the murder of a legal U.S. resident that was committed by a foreign government…a foreign government that - by Trump’s own admission pays him personally millions of dollars - would not be sanctioned because it would be financially “bad” for the U.S. to hold them accountable. It would especially impact the businesses supplying military hardware to the Saudis, who were fighting a proxy war for the Trump administration in Yemen. As a reward, imported oil suddenly costs less, and Trump tweets congratulations to himself over the Thanksgiving weekend for the lower gas prices. Can your moral compass be compromised over artificially and temporarily lower prices at the pump so the Saudi government can get away with murder?
Speaking of getting away with murder, remember these four soldiers...

        Mr. Trump treats our military like an afterthought. There is no respect for the military. There never has been. To Trump, the military is just a convenient macho-looking backdrop for when he needs to puff up his ego and remind them he's their Commander-in-Chief. His record of avoiding the draft in the late 1960s along with his contrived bone spur excuse still produces a stream of hilarious comedy material because Trump can’t remember which foot had the bone spur that kept him out of the military. Should we be trusting a forgetful, dishonest coward with the nuclear codes?

His unforgivable attitude toward military veterans was on full display when he weighed in on John McCain’s capture and torture during the Vietnam War claiming it was nothing heroic – tweeting his new name for him was “very foul-mouthed Sen. John McCain”, called him incompetent - all the way up to a final disrespect by raising the White House flag after just a few hours at half-staff the day McCain died. Nor did Trump attend the funeral. Those who serve our country mean nothing to him. Veterans mean nothing to him.

That’s why he didn’t do anything on Veteran’s Day 2018.

That’s why he skipped the visit to the Aisne-Marne US cemetery in France on the 100^th anniversary of the end of World War One.

That’s why he threw our intelligence services under the bus twice in the past 6 months. Siding with Saudi Arabia in regards to who killed Jamal Khashoggi, and siding with Putin last July in Helsinki thereby validating his deliberate attack on our election…an election that got Trump into the White House.

And now it turns out Trump has had a very recent business interest in Russia, and in order to get the money to build a business in Moscow, he needed to be president of the U.S. so he could remove those unfair sanctions, allowing Russia’s VTB bank to finance Trump Tower Moscow. And the top penthouse would be given as a gift to Vladimir Putin…for getting him into the White House.

How is this NOT a criminal conspiracy?

I can hear the sputtering of the GOP and Trump’s supporters already…”Those are just coincidences…why, he never…that’s absurd…he’s…he’s doing it to protect us…that’s just more fake news…so what if he makes a buck or two off of it…who cares what the Emoluments Clause says…who cares if he continually lies to us about it?”

Hasn’t Trump been leaving clues all along about his intent to use his position to enrich himself at our expense? Keep in mind the tax cut bill he signed last December specifically gives huge tax breaks to real estate developers and golf course owners. Is that what you put him in office for? You are right about one thing though…you Trump supporters are not forgotten anymore. Trump is holding his middle finger up at you right where you can see it. And unless we see to it he dies in prison, Trump will get to keep and enjoy those billions – of your tax dollars - long after he leaves office. Thanks, Republicans.

This is the president we currently have. He is raping the United States in front of the world to expand his bank account. He’s using the power of the presidency in order to justify his own personal financial gains. We will have to start paying for that soon with our taxes. There is no other choice unless we choose suicide via civil war.

        Trump is leading us into a disaster. It’s like approaching Niagara Falls in a large rowboat. You climbed into the rowboat when you voted Trump into office and let him steer the ship of state. You’re already in the middle of the river; you either row for the side as hard and as fast as you can, or you go over the falls.

If you get to shore, what are you going to do about the ship’s captain whose bank account meant more to him than any peril you and the country would face?

Trump is rotting the United States from the inside out because Trump is in it for Trump…and Trump only. His solitary concerned is with his bank account. He doesn't give a damn about yours. If anything he does makes you a little extra money, it is incidental, not deliberate. Make America Great Again is simply a slogan on a hat Trump uses as part of his get-rich-quick scheme that will bankrupt the country. 

        The Trump administration is like a dead fish. The stink starts at the head.

 [*AFP is the world's oldest news agency, and is the third largest news agency in the modern world] 

Trumpin' Syria - Here We Go Again

Why is Syria our problem? In other words, why does the U.S. need to punish Bashar al-Assad for his use (maybe) of chemical weapons...again?

Trump doesn’t mind Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines slaughtering Filipinos. Duterte openly boasts about killing his own people. Trump even praises him for it.

Trump doesn’t have any issues with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey who has killed hundreds of people opposed to his regime. 
          Trump also recently called and congratulated the re-election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt who has massacred thousands of Egyptians. 
          And Trump has literally praised Kim Jong-Un as a smart, “tough little cookie” who has overseen the deaths of close to a million of his countrymen and women. So why is Trump making a big deal about Assad killing other Syrians?

Trump tried out his warmonger stance last year on April 6^th when he authorized the U.S. Navy to launch 59 tomahawk missiles at airfields and infrastructure in Syria. Congress was not notified to approve military action, nor was any legal authority established for the US strike. Some people have a knack for war-making decisions. But not Trump and his administration. They display nothing but weakness, blundering, and cowardice. No one is impressed with Trump's ability, not even Death.

And this is telling, just like he did tonight, last year Trump said the strike was in the “vital national security interests of the  United States." But three days later on Sunday April 9^th, Trump conceded that it was just an “impulsive action” prompted by a video earlier in the week that upset Ivanka of seeing gassed Syrian children. There was no vital national security issue. Trump didn't give a damn about gassed Syrians, he just didn't want to see Ivanka's tears.

How effective was Trump’s attack last year? Reconnaissance photos taken after the strike found four destroyed aircraft with sixteen more damaged, and a few burned out buildings. Yet the runways were left completely intact. Syrian jets even use them later that morning for another bombing run on rebel-held territories in northern Syria. So, do you think this year's strike will be any more effective? What are the odds of getting entangled in a war with Russia and Iran...especially with someone as incompetent at military matters as Trump? There are now indications that, again, the Russians were warned of the missile strike ahead of time. Didn't Trump say he was not going to "telegraph?"
          Still trying to woo his evangelical base, Trump asked people to pray to god, for the troops involved, and for the Syrian people (who by and large believe in a very different version of god.) Why didn't Trump just pray to god to get rid of Assad and save risking any more lives? After all, thoughts and prayers work, Just ask Republican congressmen.

Just last week at a campaign pep rally in Ohio, Trump surprised everyone back at the White House and the Pentagon when he announced U.S. troops were going to be pulled out of Syria “very soon." One source even said Trump had initially planned to withdraw them within 48 hours. He had to be quickly dissuaded by General Mattis because it was an impossible time schedule. So Trump isn’t serious about Syria, nor is he about Assad killing his own people. It’s a distraction from all the legal, ethical, and criminal issues Trump is facing. The problem is, American, British, and French lives are going to be put at risk to protect Trump from his own stupidity.
And I have to wonder, what ever happened to THIS Trump?

Syria is not our problem and there never has been any "vital national security interest." Trump just wants everyone to think he's a big, tough, macho man, even with that painful bone spur in his foot. 
          Only an idiot plows ahead when he knows his decision will create more debt and cause a possible long term conflict. Did Trump get Congressional approval? - Big mistake if he did not.

Addendum - April 14, 2018: After claiming in his press briefing last night that this attack on Syria would be a sustained effort, this morning Trump proved to be as poor a commander-in-chief as George W. Bush when - indicating that that one attack would teach Assad a lesson and also scare the Russians - he tweeted about the early morning missile assault - "Mission Accomplished!"