Soul Recycling

Split Screens:  The consoler in chief went to Dayton and El Paso yesterday but failed to do much consoling.  Trump was greeted a little more warmly in Dayton than in El Paso, where none of the hospitalized victims had any interest in meeting him although two released ones did come to the hospital to shake his hand.  Although Trump had promised to behave, of course he didn’t.  He started his day by slamming Beto O’Rourke and by the time the day ended he had trashed Ohio’s Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, the Castro Brothers, and assortment of people from El Paso, Joe Biden and Democrats in general.  Trump’s snide comments about Brown and Whaley were particularly unwarranted since the two actually complimented his and Melania’s respectful treatment of the Ohio patients and said that he had been well received.  Press Secretary for now Stephanie Grisham’s chief complaint about Brown and Whaley’s comments was that they hadn’t adequately described how happy the patients were to meet her exalted leader.  Doubling down Dan Scavino Trump’s Director of Social Media, tweeted “Very SAD to see Ohio Senator Brown, & Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley - LYING & completely mischaracterizing what took place w/ the President’s visit to Miami Valley Hospital today. They are disgraceful politicians, doing nothing but politicizing a mass shooting, at every turn they can..”.  He then went on to insist that Trump had been treated like a “rock star,” his way of confirming what we all know, the day was about Trump and not about the victims of the two traumatic mass shootings.  That was further confirmed after Trump’s team released a video of him meeting and greeting “fans” in Ohio.  As to the twin Castro brothers, presidential candidate Julian and his Congressman brother Joaquin, they came in for particular criticism after Joaquin tweeted out some public information listing the names of several of Trump’s large San Antonio area donors, his message to them was that given Trump’s anti-Hispanic messaging they should think twice before donating to his campaign. He was accused of doxing the donors even though he included no phone numbers or addresses and was just retweeting data collated and previously released by the progressive advocacy group Indivisible. During the day a number of Democratic candidates took to the airwaves and/or delivered some previously planned speeches, all of which were retooled to incorporate references to the weekend’s murder sprees and Trump’s racist tendencies, well the racist stuff had probably already been baked in to their speeches.  Cory Booker spoke in Charleston at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site where a white supremacist shot and killed nine black worshippers in 2015.  During his speech he blamed Trump for “sowing” the kind of hatred that inspires white supremacists to murder, citing Trump and the El Paso shooter’s not so coincidental  use of the term invasion to describe migrants crossing into the US from Mexico.  In a speech delivered in Iowa former VP Joe Biden accused Trump of fanning the “flames of white supremacy” going on to say that though he “eagerly attacks Islamic terrorism, he can barely bring himself to use the words ‘white supremacy.’ And even when he says it, he doesn’t appear to believe it. He seems more concerned about losing their votes than beating back this hateful ideology.” Biden was spot on, in both content and delivery, so much better he’s been during his somewhat anemic debate performances.  A number of other candidates including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan also spoke out but not before Trump and his echo chamber questioned why Bernie and Warren weren’t being blamed for the Dayton shooting citing some reports that the Dayton shooter was a fan but failing to note that neither Bernie nor Warren espouse racial hatred.  Ryan is now participating in a caravan heading towards neighboring state Kentucky, toward the home of Moscow/NRA Mitch McConnell, to press the case for gun control legislation.  As to gun control legislation, though a number of Republican politicians seem to be waking up to the need to do something and Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of Ohio, has revealed his 17 point plan, few seem all that interested in passing anything more substantive than “red flag” laws.  At the end of the day even the background check legislation previously proposed by Senators Manchin and Toomey which is now back on the table will probably go nowhere because despite all the rhetoric, Trump is still listening to his NRA friends and Mitch McConnell remains firmly in the pocket of gun advocates.  As a side note,  the embattled NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre who appears to be coated in some of that very protective Trump Teflon, came under fire again yesterday after records uncovered by New York State’s Attorney General, who has been investigating the NRA’s tax exempt status, revealed that he tried to get Ackerman McQueen, the  NRA’s former advertising firm to finagle the purchase of a $6 million mansion in a highly desirable gated golf resort community on his behalf to protect him from all of those angry Parkland protestors, you know those “irrational” students and families who lost their classmates and children to an automatic gun toting murderer.  While Trump was on the road pretending to be caring and unbiased, INS authorities arrested nearly 700 peopole at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi in what officials described as the largest worksite enforcement operation in a single state.  Yesterday was the first day of school in Mississippi, it’s not clear why anyone thought that arresting parents, few if any of whom had criminal records, on the first day of school so that their children could arrive home to empty homes was a good idea, particularly following last week’s racially motivated El Paso shooting.  In other deportation news, Jimmy Aldaoud, a 41 year old man that the Trump administration had forcefully deported to Iraq a couple of months ago died on Tuesday. He was born in Greece, had been in the US since early childhood and had never been to Iraq. He knew no one there. He did not speak Arabic.  It appears that he died because he had been unable to obtain insulin to treat his diabetes in Iraq. The cruelty is the point.

Namaste:  Earlier in the week Jon Huntsman, the US Ambassador to Russia, announced that he is jumping ship something we knew was coming because Trump reportedly discussed the need for a new ambassador during his last call with his buddy Putin.  Kimberly Breier, who has served as the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere since October, has resigned, leaving a key vacancy at the top of the diplomatic office in charge of efforts to control immigration from Mexico and Central America and to build stronger partnerships in South America.  Though the official reason for Beier’s departure is that perenial favorite “personal reasons,” that’s just more Trumpian bunk, the word is that she’s leaving because she’s fed up with dealing with Stephen Miller, Trump’s not so charming immigration guru. Lastly, Stephen Ross, the wealthy real estate developer and majority owner of The Related Companies, who also owns the Miami Dolphins and the Equinox/SoulCycle/Pure Yoga gym conglomerate, is hosting a high end fundraiser for his good buddy Trump tomorrow in Bridgehampton because though he hates Trump’s racist rhetoric and wants us all to know that he’s “never been bashful about expressing” his opinions to Trump he really loves the way Trump’s tax code treats real estate assets and you know money trumps morality.