Day 24

In the past, the ROM used some of his free time to watch the House hearings on the impeachment of our so-called "president."  He even watched the so-called impeachment "trial" in the Senate. 

But the spectacle of the "president's" daily two-hour-plus "briefings" on the Trump flu response is a bridge too far.  The ROM did watch parts of some of them, but it's just too painful.   The lies, the misdirection, the egomania, the vitriol and open animosity towards the free press - it's all too much to bear.  

But during some of my brief tune-ins this week, here is what I did hear and see.  On Monday, the "president" opened the briefing with what I have to assume was an attempt to express empathy over the tornadoes that ravaged the south the night before.  But the words that came out of his mouth were, and I quote:

"It's a tough deal. It was a bad, bad level. That was a bad group. That's as high as it gets. It was bad grouping of tornadoes. Something that's something incredible, the power."

Such eloquence!  Such depth and nuance!  But more disturbing, during that same conference I saw the "president" claim he had total authority over the states, and that the powers of the president are total.  "When somebody is the president of the United States," he said, "the authority is total. And that's the way it's got to be."

On Wednesday, he threatened to suspend Congress because he felt his judicial appointments weren't getting confirmed quickly enough.  Bizarrely, he blamed the Democrats, while confirmation is the responsibility of the Republican-controlled Senate.

This is deeply disturbing.  In third-world countries, tin-pot dictators seize on calamities and strife to declare "absolute" power and to dissolve parliaments.  Trump is following suit.  While he did back off his threat to force governors to end lock-downs are restart the economy (as if he could), it was clear during the briefing that he sincerely believed his authority had no checks or balances, and that he was a Supreme Leader.  While there is a legal provision for a president to suspend Congress when a stalemate threatens national security, it has never been invoked in the history of our country and I will argue that Donnie Douchebag's appointments not getting confirmed at the pace he would like constitutes a "national emergency" that would warrant invoking the statute for the first time.

But wait, there's more.  He's also threatening to withhold or withdraw financial support from the WHO because he's now upset that they didn't challenge China's initial response to the pandemic the way he would have liked.  Remember last November, when he got impeached for withholding financial aid to Ukraine for not investigating his political rival (or at least announcing the intention to investigate his political rival)?  This WHO debacle is basically the same thing.  Setting aside the obvious point on the wisdom of defunding the preeminent world health organization during a global pandemic, how is that not the same kind of corruption as the Ukraine scandal?  He expects the world to tow his line and perform political favors for him, or else he will withdraw financial support already approved by the American people through their congressional representatives.

What now?  Oh, great!  He's having the EPA roll back standards for emissions of mercury from power plants and oil refineries.  Loosening environmental protections at a time when we're being ravaged by a virus that preys on the weakened and the immune-compromised is as stupid as . . .well, defunding the WHO during a global pandemic!  

We're not even going to dignify the remarks made by some in his cabinet and staff that an unspecified number of Americans are going to have to die from the coronavirus as collateral damage for getting the economy back on track again.  

During the campaign, Trump famously said that he could shoot someone in the face on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.  He's now killing the American public in broad daylight, and his base still isn't abandon the fanatical death cult around him.

Meanwhile, the weather's delightful outside today!  I already "walked the dogs" twice today and may once more before this lovely day is over.

Anything to avoid watching today's press briefing.