Quick Hits, 1 August 17

My mood:   Just a few thoughts on recent developments: 1) Kelly in as Chief of Staff: If anyone can bring order to the playpen that is the present White House, it’s General John Kelly. He is among some of the notables I’ve met in my past life. But I am proposing a big “if” here. It is being reported that Trump has pledged his full support to his new Chief. But Trump and promises are a fungible relationship at best! Witness number 2 next.

2) During the G20 pretend summit, media reports of Donald Trump Jr.’s contact with Russians hit the streets. Big Donald immediately huddled with his people and it was decided that the administration would lay it all on the line and face this thing head on. The plan was to get ahead of the story by being blatantly honest and transparent. Three hours later, Trump cut his own people off at the knees, as usual. He dictated a different position. Specifically, he said that the meeting between Junior and the Russian agent was about Russian adoption. Of course the story had to be walked back before the day was out. But the difficulty of working for a man who can be swayed by the slightest flattery or distraction, or even his own fleeting whims cannot be overstated here. And that is what Kelly has to deal with.  

  3) I had predicted that Kelly’ first order of business would be to fire Anthony Scaramucci. The Mooch is a conniving and vindictive creature suffering from a severe Napoleon Complex. I wish I had put this prediction online. Stupid me! I do so enjoy watching as my predictions come true. Almost all of them do. So I’ll make up for the oversight here. Prediction: Rex Tillerson will give Kelly 60-90 days to bring order to the White House. If Kelly succeeds, Tillerson will stay on at State until the end of the term or until someone denounces him while blowing sunshine up Trump’s ass. At that point he’ll be asked to resign because someone who flattered Trump said he should. Of course that would negate the first qualifier in this prediction. Just the same, we will witness a new maturity inside the administration or watch Tillerson leave within three months. He finds the present environment undignified, and he is correct. It is.   4) Again in reference to para 2, I hear constantly that Donald Trump is great because he is not like all the others. As has been demonstrated countless times since the first moments of his campaign, this is a fallacy. Start with his pronouncements about abortion over three days in 2016 and end with his impetuous burning of his staff with the Donald Jr. lie, and we see time and time again that Trump is EXACTLY like the rest of DC. Worse, he sucks at it. At least the other slime balls are skillful and articulate in the way they lie. It takes a long time and a lot of explaining to call them out on their BS. But Trump embarrasses himself within days, sometimes hours of blurting out a promise or an insult. The apologists like Charles Hurt, Laura Ingram and even Rush now, are finding it difficult to explain away a Trump gaffe. At one time they would completely make up a whole new quote or narrative having nothing to do with what Trump did or said. Even that isn’t working anymore.   5) The situation in North Korea has only gotten worse since I published this article. I heard a comment the other day that planners believe we are within 3 months of conflict. If this is so, and we have not initiated a military draft, many people will die with nothing gained on the Korean Peninsula. If we enter into hostilities in Korea with the same perverse, "John McNamara" attitude that has become commonplace in the Pentagon and the White House, we will not prevail. This time around we must go with the resolve to utterly annihilate the North’s war fighting capability. If not we face financial ruin and will lose tens of thousands of troops killed or maimed FOR NOTHING!

So, what is there to celebrate?

Politically? Not much. The items listed above can all come out right, depending on whether the President and Congress can get their act together in a big, fat hurry. The economy is crawling back. Employment is improving. There is a chance that Trump will pull the exemptions from Obamacare and eliminate the insurance industry bailouts. While I applaud this, he’s doing it for the wrong reasons. He has been suckered by flattery into supporting the GOP’s efforts to make Obamacare permanent, never having made the argument for complete repeal (not that has the ability to do so). He is only threatening exemptions and bailouts to try to force holdouts in Congress to give in to the stupidity. Geez! This is quite the sad sack of issues here. I will write something more chipper tomorrow. Matt Jordan is the author of Street Politics: It Ain't Your Daddy's GOP Anymore! Grab your copy here.

Kindle version here!

Or just start reading for free on Kindle Unlimited!

GIF via GIPHY