WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Mark Esper was three blocks from the FBI’s Washington field office. He had planned to confer there at a security command center, but plans changed with an unexpected call to divert immediately.
Anatomy of a Murder (of the Constitution)
“An abrupt U-turn”
A real President, if he had concerns with the effectiveness of civilian law enforcement, would have just called local and state officials to express his concerns and worked with them to resolve the issues. But Trump is constitutionally unable to work with others, especially if he perceives them as the “enemy”. So he reaches up to the top level of the authoritarian shelf, and pulls down the most drastic measures, unConstitutional, I should add.
It’s directly because of this and that ugly stroll to St. John’s Church that led to the Generals speaking out, thereby kicking off the endgame.
ETA: This is predicated on the idea that he actually had legitimate concerns. Who knows? For him, it’s usually just a power play.
Trump At Odds With …
We’ll add Pentagon to the list. Constitution, Country, Congress, Reality…
Trump at odds with reality. Also, too.
First the chicken crossed the road for a photo op of him pretending to be brave. Then he ran and hid in the bunker.
In a related matter, I’m noticing an upsurge in George Soros references by folks on the other side, e.g. he’s the force behind the protests, riots and looting (as opposed to, I don’t know, POC and non-POC who sympathize with them and/or are trying to exploit the situation), he’s trying to hurt Trump politically (as if Trump isn’t doing a good enough job of it himself), etc. Is this just standard issue let’s blame George Soros for whatever’s wrong with the world, or is something else going on. Even my mom, who loathes Trump and sympathizes with the protesters (but isn’t averse to nursing a CT or two, bless her), wonders if maybe there isn’t some truth to it (but in a good way!).
How did Soros, a self-made capitalist billionaire, Jew and Holocaust survivor, get to be the leader of Antifa, BLM, PP, NOW and the Communist Party, and a leading anti-Semite and Nazi?
Two observations.
Trump is totally alone in the White House. He doesn’t have a single close adviser willing or able to give him good advice. Since he is unread, incurious and lacks impulse control mistakes of the kind we see in this article are going to happen. The next one could be much, much worse.
Esper and Milley are doing what they can to re-write history. They are really concerned about what the retired generals said for publication. We are probably only getting a sanitized view of what senior military officers, both active and retired, are saying to Esper and Milley.
OT: Bill Barr saying pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. Seriously.
You worried, bro? Can’t wait to see you in jail.
“Trump went to the Rose Garden, where he noted Americans’ revulsion at Floyd’s death and declared himself the ‘president of law and order’.”
Trump wants to run on Nixon’s “Law and Order” strategy.
But he doesn’t understand that Nixon exploited voter fear of protests to support “Law and Order”.
50 years later, it’s “Law and Order”, itself, that Americans fear.
Poor Donald’s stuck in a 1968 America that exists only in the fevered imagination of Fox vidiots like him.
https://twitter.com/hunterw/status/1269647355575443456
I will put up a link to this interview as soon as I can.
pressed Bill Barr with masterful questions and a detailed, time stamped video presentation. He responded with clear falsehoods disproved by what we all watched live and even statements of his own colleagues
It’s been a while since there was anyone in the WH or administration able AND willing to give him good advice, especially seeing as how he refuses to listen to let alone follow it. There are actually a number of people capable of giving him good advice, even the Barrs, Conways and Espers, who may be vile but aren’t stupid, but one, they prefer not to, having their own agendas, and two, they know that he won’t accept it and that it will most likely backfire on them. So they won’t.
This is what invariably happens when you’re a deeply mentally ill malignant narcissist and sociopath.
Undoubtedly he still suffers from bone spurs. It would be no additional shame if he got a doctor’s note allowing him to leave this battlefield also
If Trump’s calling for massive power it’s not to solve a problem. It’s to co-opt its image and project it as himself. Trump wanted to “shut them down” like Mussolini did. Kick ass ( always with someone else’s foot ) and then take pride in the phony tough guy image he made for himself.
What he does not get is the real men and women around him who are tough will tire of it all. I think we’re close.
He is an absolutely horrible manager… he has never really properly used the talent in his organization. Nobody can learn any management skills from him… just what NOT to do.
Look at the Corona Virus Task Force. He put Pence in charge of it and in a day or two he had a parallel (background) effort that he had Jared Kushner conducting. If anything, Jared should have been working for Pence. The most basic management constructs are anathema to him. No wonder he goes through sub-managers and staffers with the speed of ‘The Flash’. Who wants to work for someone with very little understanding of organizational structure and functioning. If he were in charge of ‘rules of the road’ for driving… we’d have a national demolition derby going on.
He is a putz!
As George Wallace said “I won’t be pussy footin’ around”.
It’s a diversion. They want to make the argument about the process and means of the inhumane police action, instead of the motivation and outcome.
I saw Malcolm Nance last week talking about the state of Trump’s lawlessness and disrespect for the Constitution. He took pains to note that his ancestors were present in numerous conflicts against enemies of the United States.
Although Nance was magnificent (as usual), hidden in his remarks was his awareness that the Constitution is the ONLY thing that allows for the presence of his ancestors (and MINE) to be listed as men with rights, values and privileges as opposed to beings equivalent to horses and mules
Was that black pepper spray or red pepper spray?
You are right, his yes men don’t want to tell him he is wrong, but even deeply mentally ill, malignant narcissistic sociopaths can be cunning. You have to add stupid to the description of Donald Trump. That is what separates Trump from all the rest.