government shutdown

The State of Disunion Speech

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President Donald Trump’s State of Disunion speech will be little remembered and soon forgotten.

It was actually two speeches in a mashup that was both contradictory and ironic.

The opening and closing sections of the speech were soaring patriotic paeans to the “Greatest Generation” that liberated the world from fascism for the 75th anniversary year of D-Day this June — ironic for a Russian asset who has threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO, for which he has been rebuked by his own party, US Senate votes to defend NATO as Trump attacks alliance, and who has vigorously attacked our European allies while currying favor with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. And Trumpism is the new American fascism.

While feigning calls for unity and bipartisanship — Before Expected Call for Unity, Trump Laced Into Democrats at Lunch for TV Anchors — the middle part of his speech was actually his campaign themes for 2020, a rehash of his divisive 2016 campaign — build the wall, make abortions illegal, tax cuts for plutocrats, eliminate consumer protection regulations, repeal and replace “Obamacare,” and an “America First” foreign policy withdrawing America from its role as the leader of the free world. Trump also made the fantastical claim that the U.S. would be at war with North Korea today if he had not been elected president — this from the man who elevated war tensions with North Korea with his “rocket man” insults until he sought to curry favor with another dictator, Kim Jong-un.

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‘ I can’t tell where the lies end and the dementia begins’

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On Friday, President Trump held a press availability to make claims about his “big beautiful wall” on the Mexico border that was incoherent nonsense. Video Link.

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REPORTER: Mr. President, why not just go ahead and do the national emergency now? (talk over)

TRUMP: We’re building the wall now. We’re building the wall. People don’t understand that, they’re starting to learn. We’re spending a lot of money that we have on hand. It’s like in a business, but we have money on hand, and we’re building, I would say we will have 115 miles of wall, maybe a little more than that shortly. Uh, it’s being built. Some of it’s already completed. And in San Diego, if you look, it’s been completed. It’s really beautiful, brand new. Uh, we have other wall that’s under construction, and we’re giving out a lot of contracts. So we’re building the wall. It’s getting built one way or the other.

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Deal, no deal on federal government shutdown

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In December, the Senate approved unanimously by voice vote a spending bill that had been approved by party leadership to which President Trump had agreed.

But then racist polemicists Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter told the president that he was done with his white nationalist racist base if he did not build the “big beautiful wall” on the Mexico border that Mexico was going to pay for, as he had promised his gullible MAGA supporters. Trump then reneged on the deal he had agreed to with his party leadership.

House Speaker Paul Ryan dutifully substituted a bill which contained $5 billion dollars for a border wall, a round number which Trump simply pulled out of his ass, which the lame-duck losers of the Republican caucus who had just been tossed out of office by the largest Democratic landslide since the post-Watergate 1974 election voted for the bill on their way out the door. Good riddance.

The new Democratic majority Congress that took office in January passed the Senate bill to which President Trump had previously agreed (before reneging on his deal), and sent it back to the Senate where it should have been a no-brainer to pass (it already passed the Senate unanimously).

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Negotiating with yourself does not constitute a ‘compromise’ (updated)

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The White House alerted the media that Trump plans to make ‘major announcement’ on shutdown, and the border on Saturday afternoon.

Trump is given to hyperbole and superlatives, and this speech was no exception. This was an over-hyped PR stunt.

The speech began with Stephen Miller’s highlights of the xenophobic, racist, anti-immigrant talking points of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, et. al., heard almost daily on conservative hate talk radio to gin up white anxiety and white grievances among Trump’s white nationalist base.

It then veered into a rehash of previous proposals (which were rejected by the prior Republican Congress) on DACA and TPS beneficiaries: a temporary stay of Trump’s policies for 3 years in exchange for $5.7 billion for Trump’s “big beautiful wall” on the Mexico border.

This was something Trump negotiated with his white nationalist racist adviser Stephen Miller, and his son-in-law Secretary of Everything, Jared Kushner. There was no effort to negotiate with the Democratic leadership in good faith. Trump’s attempt to call this a “compromise” rings hollow. Negotiating with yourself does not constitute a “compromise.”

This was another lame attempt to reframe the issue solely as a PR stunt. It was an epic failure.

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Trump manufactures a ‘national emergency’ to abuse the power of his office

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“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” – General George S. Patton

Donald Trump has shut down the federal government over his demand for $5 billion (now $5.6 billion) for his “big beautiful wall” on the Mexico border, a monument to the stupidity of this man. The amount of money being fought over is a rounding error in what it would actually cost to build his wall. See the Brookings Institute, The Wall: The real costs of a barrier between the United States and Mexico.

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This is a “crisis” manufactured by the Trump administration in an effort to extort money from Congress, which has routinely rejected his request in appropriations bills. Trump himself has agreed to these appropriations bills until he reneged on the latest deal in December after right-wing propagandists in the conservative media entertainment complex attacked him for agreeing to the appropriations bills. Do we really want right-wing propagandists like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity dictating public policy?

Oh, and Mexico is not paying for this monument to the stupidity of this man, you will.

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