Carbon, Coups and Treason

Tokyo Fun:  Trump spent his Memorial Day weekend in Japan, becoming the first official visitor since the coronation of the new emperor.  In addition to seeking out tips on how he too can become an emperor he played golf and attended a Sumo wrestling match, an event near and dear to his heart because watching truly chubby guys go at it makes him feel comparatively svelte.   He boasted about the truly special relationship between the US and Japan, saying that because he’s in charge it’s better than ever but then went on to criticize Japan for its trade imbalance with the US, one that will be fixed with that very bigly trade agreement that he insists will be announced over the next few months.   While in Tokyo, he slammed the US Fed for raising interest rates, saying that the US stock markets would be way higher if it wasn’t for the Fed’s action because he criticizes Fed policy whenever he has a chance and no one really expects him to acknowledge that his trade war with China might be the biggest contributor to the stock market’s current downward trend.  Then Trump went on to contradict national security advisor John Bolton for saying that was there  was “no doubt” that North Korea’s recent missile launches violated UN resolutions and ignoring that his Japanese hosts agree with Bolton by tweeting that “North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me.” Notably experts say that the weapons that North Korea tested, the ones that Trump described as small, are new solid-fuel missiles that are potentially nuclear capable and would strengthen their ability to conduct strikes on targets throughout South Korea.  Trump also  made it clear that he agreed with Kim’s statement that VP Joe Biden’s was “a fool of low IQ” by stating that “he probably is, based on his record” because what US president doesn’t attack the former US Vice President while attending formal state meetings or side with a brutal authoritarian whenever possible?  Trump doubled down on that statement about Biden when asked about it during a press opportunity as did Press Secretary Sarah Sanders who told Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd that there is nothing wrong with Trump and Kim agreeing “in their assessment of former Vice President Joe Biden” because you know, that’s what BFFs do, they agree.

Military Exercises: In one piece of good news, or at least good news for now, Trump did not grant a Memorial Day pardon to any of those servicemen who are being prosecuted for some really heinous war crimes even though he is being pressured to do so by Fox and Friends host Peter Hegseth, among others.  That said, Republican California Congressman Duncan Hunter, who was reelected even though he is himself facing some corruption charges, bragged that he like Edward Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who has been charged with stabbing to death an injured teenage Islamic State fighter under his care in Iraq in 2017 and then holding a reenlistment ceremony with the body, wants us all to know that he too has taken and displayed photos with dead combatants.  Hunter is fully supportive of Trump granting Gallagher one of those pardons.  Also on the military front, on Friday as he was departing for Tokyo Trump announced that he was sending 1500 more troops to the Middle East to serve a “mostly protective” function.  Though 1500 is far less than the 100,000 number that had been bandied about last week, it could be just the start of something more ominous.  Democratic presidential wannabee Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who earlier said that he took a “pretty dim view of Trump’s decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam,” noting that some other less privileged guy had to go in his place, and who has himself served in Afghanistan expressed his concern for the military build-up saying that it's unclear what the administration's policy is, adding “I'm afraid this could actually get away from the president, “it wouldn’t be the first time” that Trump has “lost control of an international dynamic.” Trump “could be starting a chain reaction that even the White House can’t stop.” Though Trump is all in on ignoring war crimes, he and his enablers continue to build the case against all of those really true criminals, the ones who he says committed “treason” by opening the investigation into his crowd’s dalliances with Russians during the 2016 campaign.  To that end, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a chip off the block of her father former VP Dick Cheney, told ABC on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that those sexting messages between then FBI officials Strzok and Page remind her of a coup that “could well be treason.” Putting aside that neither Trump nor Cheney appear to know or care about the true definition of treason, the fact that they continue to attack the intelligence agencies for doing their jobs is truly scary.  To that end Thursday night Corey Lewandowski, one of those former Trump campaign managers who remains in the Trump orbit, told Fox’s Gregg Jarrett who was sitting in for that other Fox luminary Lou Dobbs that come next April James Clapper, Jim Comey, John Brennan, Andrew McCabe and even former VP Biden will all be on trial for trying to launch that coup against Trump.  Sounds crazy but then again last week Trump did give Attorney General Barr the authorization to release any confidential information that he sees fit to release, and the selective release of information is one really effective way of manipulating public opinion, especially in the run up to an election.  Anyway Lewandowski who figured prominently in the Mueller Report for saying that Trump tried to get him to help him engage in some obstruction of justice by  getting former AG Sessions to fire Mueller may just be trying to win back a few points with Trump or it may really be time to break out the bananas.  

International Politics:  Though most of us here in the US hardly noticed that any elections took place, the results of last week’s high turn-out European Parliamentary Elections are in.  In a nutshell, it looks like the center left and center right parties lost their majority with both far right nationalist parties and liberal, left leaning pro- European groups gaining seats at their expense. The gains by the right wing nationalists were notable, not as bad as had been feared, but still significant and an indication that liberal democracy remains under attack by the right.  European centrists will have to reach out to and unite more broadly with liberal coalitions in order to maintain authority in the EU.  Israeli politics took an unpredictable turn.  Prime Minister Netanyahu only has two more days to put together a governing coalition.  So far he has been unable to do so largely because one of his usual coalition partners, Avigdor Lieberman’s ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, whose constituents are mostly secular, Russian-speaking Israelis, wants to see a military draft law that exempts ultra-Orthodox men from military service replaced with one that sets modest quotas for enlisting them, which the religious parties that make up a part of Netanyahu’s coalition oppose. Unless these groups reach agreement by Wednesday night, Israel may end up facing a new election.  Trump, of course, has weighed in, once again throwing his support behind Netanyahu.

Other News:  Maggie Haberman, the New York Times Trump Whisperer thinks that we should all feel really bad for former Trumpster Hope Hicks and her “existential crisis,” the one that she is facing as she decides whether to honor the subpoena commanding her appearance before Congress to testify about all those things she witnessed and participated in while serving as Trump’s gal Friday and Communications guru.  For the record, if any of the rest of us failed to show up when subpoenaed we’d be in bigly trouble, but for Hopey it’s just one of those maybe I will or maybe I won’t decisions, kind of like should I wear blue or teal eye shadow today.  On a more serious note, the Times also reports that the Trump administration plans to ramp up its attack against climate science.  To that end National Security Council member William Happer, who is leading a “climate review” panel, has likened efforts to reduce carbon emissions to the “demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler” because what better way to get people on the side of pollution that to invoke the Holocaust?