General Pershing's Bullets

Another Weaponized Vehicle: Yesterday was a very sad and lethal day in Spain.  At least thirteen people were killed and up to one hundred others were injured when a car was intentionally driven into a crowded pedestrian area in Barcelona and more were hurt and five attackers were shot dead 125 miles south of the city in Cambrils.  All this after what is believed to be a related bomb factory exploded earlier in the day.  ISIS has taken credit for the attacks.  Trump, who took his time waiting for all the “facts” to come in before commenting on last weekend’s tiki torch “party” and murder in Charlottesville responded quickly to events in Barcelona, initially with a sympathetic tweet offering help and love to the victims.  For a few minutes, he sounded almost presidential, but then he returned to Trump normal tweeting out “Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught.  There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years.” If you had the pleasure of attending a Trump campaign rally, you would have heard him tell this bizarre story before. For the rest of us, the explanation is that his tweet refers to a widely debunked claim that General Pershing killed 49 Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs blood during the Philippine-American War, sparing the fiftieth person to tell the rest of the Muslim population what happened. This is one of those four Pinocchio stories, it never happened and even if it had, sending that tweet would have been woefully inappropriate.  It should come as no surprise that Trump knows he is lying but since the White Nationalist crowd eats stories like this up he repeats this myth whenever he can.    

Infrastructure Week:  You aren’t alone if you missed that this was supposed to be Trump’s much anticipated infrastructure week. Instead of going off on a deranged tangent during Tuesday’s press conference Trump was supposed to turn the presentation over to his Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao aka Mrs. Majority Leader McConnell and Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, AKA the disgusted Jewish guy who is now teetering on the edge. Rumors that Cohn was calling it quits in response to Trump’s inability to acknowledge that the KKK and neo-Nazis are evil, pushed the stock market down Thursday fueling fears that if Cohn goes so goes tax reform.  As of now Cohn is remaining on board the sinking Trump ship; my guess is that he will try to stick it out through September to get the debt ceiling raised, after that it’s anyone’s guess.  Trump’s planned infrastructure advisory panel has been cancelled for lack of interest, no corporate leaders will sign on.  The outlook for new roads and bridges looks bad but there will be plenty of free time for improvements and repairs at Mar a Lago.  In the wake of Trump’s failure to condemn the KKK, neo-Nazis and the other White supremacists, three major charities have cancelled planned fundraising galas.  The Cleveland Clinic, the American Cancer Society and the American Friends of Magen David (the Israeli Red Cross) have all decided to hold their annual funding raising events somewhere else.  

The Big Red Wall:  The bigly red Republican wall is starting to spring a few leaks.  Speaking at an event in his home state, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker told local press that “we need some radical changes because the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability or some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.  He doesn’t understand the character of the nation or what it is that makes the nation great.  Without this the nation will go through a great peril.”  Basically, he voiced what more timid Republican are saying in private, Trump is bat sh-t crazy.  Corker’s comments are particularly notable because he is widely respected, is the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and is a former Trump ally who was considered for a cabinet position.  Though he hasn’t voiced his full views in public, Senate Majority Leader McConnell is a man on the verge of a Trump induced breakdown.  In order to maintain the Republican Majority and his majority leader position, McConnell needs all of his Senators to keep their seats in the upcoming 2018 election so he is furious that Trump continues to threaten Arizona Senator Flake who faces a close election in an increasingly purple state.  While Trump called Flake toxic and tweeted support for Kelli Ward, Flake’s primary opponent, McConnell tweeted that “Jeff Flake is an excellent Senator and a tireless advocate for Arizona and our nation.  He has my full support.”  For what it’s worth, Democrats are boiling too. Though it probably  won’t go very far, in response to Trump’s remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, a growing number of Democratic Representatives are planning to introduce a formal censure resolution when the House gets back in session.  

Camp David:  VP Pence is on his way home to attend this weekend’s Camp David strategy session.  In addition to addressing North Korea and other world hotspots, now including Spain, the primary focus of the meeting will be Afghanistan.  To date Trump has refused to sign off on his Generals’ request for additional resources and may even be considering outsourcing the Afghanistan war to mercenaries, an idea being pushed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ billionaire brother, Erik Prince who founded the discredited Blackwater firm that did some really sadistic things in Iraq.  The Generals, including security advisor McMaster, are adamantly opposed to this solution but Trump is intrigued at the idea of a “cheaper” solution, even one that will likely lead to even more horrific outcomes.  Pence’s involvement is a bit of a mystery. To date, his exclusion from meetings and decision making has kept him out of the way of many of the accusations levied against Trump.  Possibly, the Generals have requested his presence because they need a sane, influence in the room.  It’s a sad commentary on the state of the union that the complicit Pence wind-up doll is a better alternative than the Donald.  Or maybe, Trump is starting to shift his responsibilities off to Pence in anticipation of an early departure.  Okay, I know that’s delusional but these are crazy times and Tina Fey has eaten all the sheet cake.