Bombs Here, There and Everywhere

Sticks and Stones:  It turns out that words do have serious harm potential, especially when they inspire bomb throwers, or in this case bomb mailers.  Yesterday, the Clintons, Obamas, Eric Holder, John Brennan, and Maxine Waters each were gifted with a pipe bomb sent through the US mail, explosive devices that appear to have been sent by the same person or persons who earlier sent a similar lethal package to financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros. In what was either an attempt to further muddy the waters or a feeble try to misdirect investigators, the bomber included Congresswoman and former DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s misspelled name and Florida office address as the return address for the packages. With the exception of the George Soros package, all of the pipe bombs failed to reach their targets, Holder’s was returned to “sender” and ended up sent to Wasserman-Schultz’s Florida address, Brennan’s was mistakenly sent to CNN though he works for MSNBC and the others were caught by security screeners. To be clear whoever the sender turns out to be he, she or they sent lethal missives to two former presidents, a former Secretary of State, a former Attorney General, a former CIA Director and a sitting Congresswoman.  All of them are prominent Democrats and all have been and probably will continue to be frequent targets of Trump, his ardent followers and press cronies.  As recently as Tuesday, when the only known bomb recipient was George Soros, one of those press cronies, Fox TV’s tone deaf Tucker Carlson, “cackled” in response to a suggestion that Soros had been targeted due to Trump’s attacks, instead saying between his laughs that he too had criticized Soros a thousand times” and “I hope he’ll live long enough I can continue to criticize him.”  While a number of politicians reacted immediately, including VP Pence who tweeted “We condemn the attempted attacks against fmr Pres Obama, the Clintons, @CNN & others. These cowardly actions are despicable & have no place in this Country. Grateful for swift response of @SecretService, @FBI & local law enforcement. Those responsible will be brought to justice, initially all Trump did was retweet Pence’s tweet saying he “agreed wholeheartedly.”  Later in the day at an Opioid treatment related press conference, Trump finally read some prepared remarks but only after Melania started the meeting with her own statement of Trumpian concern. Specifically he said “In these times, we have to unify, we have to come together, and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America. We are extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what we witnessed this morning and we will get to the bottom of it.”  All good but kind of hollow and disingenuous since he followed up by going to a prescheduled campaign rally in Wisconsin, one where he was greeted by supporters screaming “lock her up” and where he highlighted how well he was behaving and called out the constant stream of negativity from the press, rather than his constant attack on the bomb targets, as being the real inspiration for the bomb sender.  Trump plans to ramp up his campaign schedule between now and election day and it’s more than fair to assume that his “restraint” and self-described “good behavior” will soon dissipate, he’ll be calling for Clinton to be locked up and will be attacking “low IQ” Waters again, probably by tomorrow, if not sooner.  It doesn’t look like the bomber is finished yet either. As I write this, the NYC police are racing down the FDR Drive to another similar “suspicious package,” one sent to Robert DeNiro, another frequent Trump critic.  One more thing to consider, Trump’s “lock her up” chant was inspired by his calls for Hillary Clinton to be jailed for her use of a personal email server, one that he said made her the nation’s biggest security risk.  Last night, the NY Times reported that despite the warnings and pleas of the FBI and his staff, Trump continues to use a personal, unsecured iPhone when talking to friends such as Blackstone’s Steven Schwarzman and disgraced Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn, to avoid having his calls routed through the White House switchboard and that a number of foreign intelligence agencies, including those from China and Russia routinely listen in on his conversations, because they can.  Trump’s misuse of his phone was leaked to the NY Times by his staff because they’ve given up on being able to get him to abide by security rules and are hoping that embarrassing him in public might cause him to change his behavior.  They add that though his security leaks are concerning, things aren’t all that bad because he doesn’t really retain much of what he’s told anyway so is unlikely to repeat anything too top secret. Isn’t that reassuring?  Who is the security risk now?  Lock him up?!?

Other News:  It’s reported that CIA Director Gina Haspel has listened to the gruesome Turkish tape of dissident Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, one of those perks of her job.  Without assuming any responsibility, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said that the Khashoggi “crime was really painful to all Saudis, and I believe it is really painful to every human in the world” but then went on to speak about what really concerns him, which is the Saudi Arabian economy and his ability to make sure that the country continues to be very, very rich.  This morning the Washington Post reported that Saudi Arabia now admits that Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated and not a reaction to him initiating a fist fight as if we didn’t know that already.  And as to wealth, if you think your portfolio is down, you’re probably right.  The market has given up all of its 2018 gains most likely in reaction to a combination of tariffs, rising interest rates, and a slowdown in the Chinese economy, in part due to the effects of some of those tariffs.  That said, Trump wants us all to believe that the tariffs don’t really exist, they are just a negotiating ploy, or at least that’s what he’s told the Wall Street Journal. They responded by listing all of the tariffs he’s imposed.  Alternative facts and bombs everywhere.