Hamlet and Tropes

Something Rotten: Back in 2016, Senator Ted Cruz who was then running for the Republican nomination for president tweeted about Trump “I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button.  I mean we’re liable to wake up one morning and Donald if he were president would have nuked Denmark.”  Well, the good news is that Trump hasn’t nuked Denmark yet, but he does appear to have inflicted significant damage on an important relationship with a once loyal ally all over their failure to seriously consider his plan to acquire Greenland.  It turns out that Real Estate whiz Don wasn’t kidding when he said that he wanted to buy that highly desirable “property.”  He confirmed that last night when he stunned the Danes by tweet cancelling his scheduled trip, saying “Denmark is a very special country with incredible people but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comment that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time…The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the US and Denmark by being so direct…”  That tweet followed one he’d sent on Monday night that showed a big gold Trump tower photoshopped onto Greenland, the text in that tweet said “I promise not to do this to Greenland.”  The Danes, loyal allies who have suffered casualties supporting the US effort in Afghanistan, had thought Trump was visiting to meet with their Queen and Prime Minister to express appreciation for the two countries’ special relationship.  Instead, they are now so furious about the snub and the whole Greenland thing, that a headline on the website of the state broadcaster reads, “Trump sends Denmark and the US’s relationship to the freezing point.”  As to that whole nuke thing, we should all be concerned.  Last weekend,  a week or so after the Russians accidentally irradiated a few villages and killed some scientists by accidentally exploding an experimental missile of their own, we tested a  medium-range cruise missile, just weeks after pulling out of a key treaty with Russia that had banned such nuclear-capable weapon testing. Arms race aside, Trump remains frustrated that he won’t get to see his good friend Vladimir Putin at the upcoming G 7 meeting so he once again called for Russia to be readmitted, blaming their exclusion from the economic leadership group on his least favorite ex-president, Obama, claiming that he had booted Russia from what was then the G8 because “he got outsmarted” by Putin.  For the record, Russia was kicked out of the group as punishment for invading and annexing Crimea.    

Tropes R Us:  Frustrated that his efforts to gain more Jewish support from the controversy surrounding Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar’s cancelled Israel trip are falling flat, Trump stepped in deep dreck yesterday after he pulled out the dreaded dual loyalty trope saying that Jewish Americans who vote for the Democratic Party show "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”  Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League responded by tweeting “It’s unclear who @POTUS is claiming Jews would be ‘disloyal’ to but charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews.” During a CNN interview Florida Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch  said  Trump should apologize for using “the kind of language that ends up fueling the anger of white nationalists” adding what Trump “is doing is creating an environment in which anti-Semitism can flourish.” The American Jewish Committee said that “political affiliation is not tied to religious identity and urged Trump to stop making his "divisive" and "disrespectful" judgements. Suffice it to say, it’s unlikely that any Jews who weren’t already in Trump’s camp will be joining him in any Hava Nagilas or at the ballot box anytime soon, a problem for Trump because to the extent they are all that predictive recent polls results which show him trending down appear to have him twisted in knots.  A Fox News poll shows Trump losing head-to-head matchups against four of the top Democratic presidential primary contenders. The Fox poll found Trump with 39 percent support among registered voters in head-to-head matchups against Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren with Sanders “beating Trump with 48%, Warren winning over Trump with 45% and Harris winning with 46% support.” The same poll shows Joe Biden, gaffes and all, beating Trump by the most with “50% support among those surveyed, compared to Trump's 38%.”  Notably, despite Trump’s fury at Fox, their poll is no outlier.  As to the battle among the Democrats, a CNN poll shows Joe Biden back up to 32%, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at 15% and 14% respectively and Kamala Harris down to 5%, in the same spot as Mayor Pete Buttigieg. So far ten Democrats including Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke,  Andrew Yang and the five mentioned above have all qualified for the September Democratic debate stage.

No Flu Shot for You:  Yesterday, Customs and Border Patrol stated that they have no plans to provide flu shots to any of the migrants in their custody. Their position is that since they only keep the migrants in custody for a short time period, it’s not their problem and anyway who cares about flu epidemics anyway?  As to that whole short time in detention explanation, it doesn’t really fly as the Trump administration is trying to terminate the Flores settlement, the immigration related court order that prevents most migrant family units from being held in detention centers for more than 20 days. Eliminating the Flores settlement would allow the government to hold migrant children and their families indefinitely while they await their court hearings. Flu may be just the tip of the epidemic iceberg.   

Other News:  Despite claims that the economy is doing fine, Trump is growing increasingly nervous about a recession as are his advisors so they really are considering cutting payroll taxes and inflation adjusting capital gains to minimize capital gains taxes, a plan that has been under consideration for a while.  Who cares about further ballooning the deficit anyway?  As to guns, Trump doesn’t appear all that concerned about them either.  He told NRA head Wayne LaPierre that universal background checks are no longer under consideration.