The Day the Clown Cried

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World:  Despite the misleading name, the “Free Speech” marchers who went to Boston on Saturday were not the good guys.  They were marching for the right to say and do the things that White supremacists do, like espouse racism and hatred and threaten Blacks and Jews and anyone else not up to their less than lofty standards.  Only a hundred of them turned out and they were drowned out by 40,000 counter protesters who showed up to fight bigotry.  Despite the large crowd the boisterous event which was strictly controlled by the wary Boston Police was fairly uneventful with few incidents, thirty arrests and no significant injuries.  In reference to the large crowd of counter protesters,  Trump initially tweeted that there were “many anti-police agitators in Boston” before someone in the White House told him to stop watching Fox and try one of those “fake new” stations with the real story.  At that point he tweeted “Our great country has been divided for decades.  Sometimes you need protest in order to heel, & we will heel, & be stronger than ever before!”  He then corrected his homophone problem and got the heal part right before adding another tweet applauding the many protestors who “are speaking out against bigotry and hate.”  As to the heel/heal problem, I can relate, but then as Trump likes to say, he’s president and we’re not.  Shouldn’t Hope Hicks, communications guru extraordinaire, be checking this stuff?    

Who’s Minding the Store:  Bannon may be gone from the White House but Trump’s still the big cheese so his critics remain more than a wee bit concerned.  Peggy Noonan, the conservative speech writer turned Pulitzer Prize winning commentator, articulated the point well by saying, the “president hasn’t lost his moral authority because he never had it….in a crisis you need a stable center, not one who tears things apart.” Republican Senator Tim Scott, one of only two sitting African American Senators, called into question Trump’s moral authority to lead. Representative Adam Schiff said that it was great that Bannon who never should have been in the White House in the first place was gone and then called for Nazi sympathizer, cocky expert of nothing Sebastian Gorka and xenophobic speechwriter Stephen Miller to follow him out the door.  Schiff wouldn’t go as far as Representative Jackie Speier who said that its time to invoke the 25^th Amendment, the one that lays out how to get rid of whack-a-doodle presidents, but he did say that Trump is “incapable of introspection” and “needs constraints” though he likely was thinking restraints.  The White House had a hard time finding a surrogate willing to defend Trump’s Charlottesville statements but finally tracked down Evangelical Christian leader and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr who justified Trump’s much maligned claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” in the Charlottesville protest by insisting that the president “had information I didn’t have.” Falwell’s defense of Trump isn’t going over well with a group of Liberty University alumni.  They are returning their diplomas in protest because defending Nazis and White supremacists “is incompatible with Liberty University’s stated values, and incompatible with a Christian witness.” Sadly, most other Evangelicals still have no problem justifying their support for all things Trump. It’s way too early to know if it really means anything, but polls indicate that Trump’s popularity in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the states that threw him over the top, is wavering.  His favorability ratings are running 34-36%, down 12-14% since the election and 60% of voters find him embarrassing.

Which Way to the Front:  Tonight in a Nationally televised prime time speech Trump is expected to reveal plans for dealing with Afghanistan.  Expectations are that he will announce his decision to dispatch an additional 4000 troops, real American soldiers not Erik Prince mercenaries, bringing the total US presence to 12,000.  Trump talked a lot about a rapid wind down of the Afghanistan mess during the election but his Generals have convinced him that additional forces will help regain some territory recently lost to the Taliban and will facilitate the eradication of the terrorist strongholds that serve as launching pads to the west. Expect Trump to talk about better coordination with Pakistan and having secured commitments from NATO allies.  He will also say that US soldiers will be training and advising the Afghans so that they can assume more responsibility for their own destiny and that the additional US commitment hinges on their cooperation squashing local corruption.  Not much is new or remarkable about this strategy but Trump has dithered a lot about Afghanistan so it’s notable that a decision is finally being announced, however it’s questionable whether the announcement warrants a prime time TV slot.  Assuming he isn’t planning another surprise, it’s likely that diverting attention from last week’s miserable events is the real reason you’ll miss America Ninja Warrior San Antonio Qualifiers.              

Scared Stiff:  Kim Jong Un has ramped up his threats in anticipation of the routine US – South Korea “exercises” that began last night.  The war games which consist mostly of computer stimulations run through August 31.  North Korea hates them and Kim always acts out when they occur.  Taking advantage of the uptick in heated rhetoric between the US and North Korea, the Russians and Chinese had called for the exercises, which they routinely oppose, to be cutback or cancelled to help lower the temperature on the Korean Penninsula.  However, any change in plans would have looked like like a concession to Pyongyang so the games go on.  Kim has threatened harsh reprisals at any sign that the exercises are the beginning of a “preventive” war.  Hopefully, he doesn’t intentionally or accidentally misinterpret anything and is just posturing.   

It’s Only Money:  A few more charities have cancelled plans to hold fundraising events at Mar a Lago.  The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach and The Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society have joined the others looking for alternative venues. It’s not entirely clear why the Zoo and Conservation Society would even considered having an event at a Trump property given Eric and Donny Jr’s hunting hobby but that’s a subject for another day.  Nine cancellations, a few hundred thousand dollars a pop, it’s adding up.  

Enjoy the Eclipse but keep those glasses on, or if you’re like me and forgot to get a pair of super special eclipse specs, stay inside!    

RIP Jerry Lewis