From the start, Trump has been trying to convince his marks, I mean “voters,” that he’s some great deal-maker. So far, though, he’s failed to make any deals other than to sign the one the GOP Congress passed to lower taxes for the wealthy in this country so that everyone else could make up the difference for a few generations. While that is a deal, it’s not a good one for the vast majority of Americans. Other than that tax scam which we mostly blame on Congress, he’s made no deals. In fact, Trump’s already reneged on agreements like the Paris Accords and TPP, and he’s made it clear he intends to back out of more.
Perhaps he made a deal with Russia? We’ll find out at some point, I suppose. It probably wouldn’t count for where I’m going though.
In 2012, President Obama signed an executive order called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The intent of the order was to identify some of the people who had been brought into the United States as minors, who’ve been living here ever since, and arranging for protections for some of them, maybe even a path toward citizenship. These are law-abiding citizens who didn’t get to choose to come here; they were too young to choose. There have been almost 800,000 of these people known as DREAMers (for the act in Congress meant to be a permanent solution). Some of them have served in our armed forces. DREAMers are Americans in every way except their legal status. They pay taxes, keep homes, have families, go to school, and work like any other American. DREAMers are our teachers, our soldiers, our customers, our neighbors, our friends. They are part of our communities, part of us; they are us.
The DACA was a temporary fix, like the braces used to hold up a structure while it is under construction. The idea was to have those braces in place while Congress builds the permanent structure, at which point, the braces would no longer be needed. When Congress passed a bill into law to provide protections and a path to citizenship for our DREAMers the DACA could be rescinded; the braces could be removed. Congress hasn’t passed that bill, yet.
Last autumn, for no apparent reason*, Trump rescinded the DACA and gave Congress until 5 March 2018 to complete construction on the permanent structure, to pass the bill. Even though the majority of Americans want this law, our GOP Congress fucked around and didn’t even try to pass a bill. Why?
Does a person who is elected to represent the People kick down the braces of a structure the People want built before it’s done? or is that the sort of thing a weak and pathetic bully does just to be vindictive and spiteful?
It turns out that, as I was writing this post, the court asked why (rescind DACA), too. Handy, that. They’ve ordered the braces be put back.
Then there’s the Iran nuclear deal from 2015 which was struck between Iran and six other world powers. It’s much more complicated than I’ll go into here, but suffice it to say it’s a good deal for all. It lifts crippling sanctions from Iran. It gives the world oversight of Iran’s nuclear program, their uranium stockpile is set to be reduced by 98%, and it prevents Iran building a nuclear bomb/missile for ten years or more, among other things.
The Whiner-In-Chief’s complaint about this deal is that it is too lenient and he claims, with no evidence whatsoever, that Iran has already broken the deal. They have not. That’s not the point, though. This deal is Iran agreeing not to do a lot of things for a long time. Things the world does not want them to do. Trump wants to renege on this agreement, too. What would that mean? Nobody would have oversight in Iran, and they build nuclear weapons sooner. They could start back up right away. That’s not good. The deal we already have is a whole lot more than just a little something, and even if it weren’t, something is better than nothing. Why talk about trashing the deal especially when Trump has nothing in mind to replace it? It’s like kicking out the braces when you have nothing permanent built all over again. Such talk is dangerous and stupid. Why would a good deal like this, one that’s already in place and working, between Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, and Germany sound bad to our fool of a president? Is Putin behind this? or is it. . .
Bolton? And Pompeo?
So, John Bolton, former chairman of Gatestone Institute, a disgusting propaganda site for bigots (they like to think they’re a right-wing, anti-Muslim think tank), is working in the White House now, and his bigotry isn’t even the biggest concern. It’s no secret that Bolton, notorious hawk and Trump’s new national security adviser, wants war in order to destroy Iran and North Korea. He has no interest whatsoever in diplomacy and wants to bomb Iran and North Korea. He wants to strike first. Literally. Bannon was pushing for them to bring on Bolton from the start. I cannot stress how awful this man is for America, for the world, for diplomacy. He’s now been in his new office for about three weeks. Bolton’s already got us bombing in Syria. That happened five days into his new job. Five days.
Add to the volatile mix of idiots, warmongers, and bigots in the White House the possibility of Mike Pompeo becoming Secretary of State, and we have no reason to believe we could avoid war (barring getting these crazy fucks OUT of our house and out of our government yesterday). We might even get it on multiple fronts. Pompeo is already known for ignoring the evidence that Russia interfered in our election and for failing to disclose business with China. We know he’s an Islamophobe, he believes homosexuality is a perversion, he never bothered to correct the lies about him serving in the Gulf War, isn’t interested in diplomacy with Iran, and he supports torture. Pompeo is former director of the CIA with a degree in engineering. He is not a diplomat nor is he a representative of Americans or of Americans’ interests.
We have millions of people in the United States. We have intelligent, experienced, qualified people who could fill these posts. Our elected leaders are intentionally choosing the worst, the cruelest, the most corrupt. And they’re intentionally breaking deals America has already made. They’re threatening to renege on more, on important deals we need, agreements the world needs us to keep.
Before he had any power or authority to represent any of us, before experts were consulted about coming up with a plan, Mike Pompeo was sent secretly to North Korea (one of the countries Bolton wants to bomb) to discuss nuclear disarmament. I kid you not.
Meanwhile, the ignorant, spiteful president talks about breaking deals. He does whatever he feels like doing on the spur of the moment, based on his mood, not on facts and certainly not on the welfare of the American people. Damn the consequences. Make no mistake, Trump’s jealousy of our former president figures in to his decisions, especially those to undo agreements we’re already bound to. Pompeo doesn’t care about diplomacy. And Bolton is on record repeatedly talking about skipping diplomacy and bombing the shit out of Iran and North Korea.
This president has shown himself to be a deal-breaker, not a deal-maker. And he doesn’t care if there is anything else in place when he goes back on our word. He simply doesn’t care, and he’s appointing people around him who don’t care or who want war.
Why would North Korea have any reason to trust the USA? Why would they consider entering into an agreement with us? Why would anyone?
*’for no apparent’ reason was a nice way to avoid admitting that we all know Trump’s reason for rescinding the DACA is the malice and racism of our disgusting president, his cabinet, and his advisers.
(As always, thanks for taking the time to read this post. I can’t adequately express my gratitude for your time. *hug*)
Link: “Federal Judge Upholds DACA, Calling White House Decision To Rescind It ‘Capricious‘” – by Scott Neuman at NPR
Link: “Who is John Bolton, Trump’s new national security adviser?” – by Ed Pilkington at The Guardian
Link: “With Pompeo’s rise, uncertainty deepens for Iran nuclear deal” – by Arshad Mohammed, John Irish, and Robin Emmott at Reuters
Link: “Mike Pompeo, your likely new — and Trump-friendly — secretary of state” – by Alex Ward at Vox
Featured image is a cartoon by Jim Morin. Based on this piece, I’ll have to look through more of his work.
Cool construction photo from concreteconstruction.net.
Link to original Tweet from Ashley Parker, White House reporter for the Washington Post, among other credits.
Link: Do What You Can – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
#GMSomething