Ignoring the Irony
I have got to hand it to Republicans, their ability to ignore the irony of their talking points is breathtaking. In 1998 erstwhile Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich voted to impeach former President Clinton on obstruction of justice charges. In June of 2017, when questioned about Donald Trump, Mr. Gingrich said, “Technically, the President of the United States cannot obstruct justice…” Less than a month ago the current Head of the State Department, and former head of the CIA Mike Pompeo responding to the speculation that either the Houthis or Iran attacked oil fields in Saudi Arabia said, “you should say, “the well-known, frequently lying Houthis have said the following.” This statement was his declaration that trusting a known liar is foolish on the part of the press. The topper of all ironic lying is the current President of the United States complaining that the child of the former second in charge of the Executive Branch has a child making money; accusing Joe Biden, and his son Hunter, of being “crooked.”
At a lavish dinner party, in April of 2017 at Mar-a Lago, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner (nee Trump) sat with the first couple of China dining on surf and turf. That day the daughter and adviser to the President signed exclusive patent deals with China to monopolize beads, baubles, and massages sold in the country. Jared Kushner the President’s jack-of-all-trades was in hock, up to his four-foot-high portfolio stack with the 666 Fifth Avenue property in New York, to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars after a 500 million dollar down payment. The President’s son-in-law was mysteriously bailed out by the Qataris, after first refusing, when his father-in-law’s [Donald Trump] May 2017 visit to Saudi Arabia where he inexplicably took the side of the Saudis in a dispute they were having with Qatar.
So, whenever I hear people like Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan or North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows and other sycophants of their ilk talk about the jolly joking President and intimating that we should not take his words “too” seriously, because as Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio says, ‘He’s pretty good at getting everyone fired up. The media responded right on task.’ Mr. Rubio, I think of the grieving Khashoggi family, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and La David Johnson’s children and widow. Pardon my lack of humor if I missed the jokes.
It is obvious the President has traded the political heft of the United States for personal power. Threatening to abandon Ukraine unless they knuckle under his threat of extortion, leaving our long-time NATO allies dangling in the Russian breeze or slamming the door on the Kurds like a bad blind date. His recent change of policy and commitment to the Kurds could be all a big coincidence but the U.S. President repeatedly cozying up to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is yet another sign of his big embrace of murderers and international criminal behavior that makes him feel right at home. He fights with Macron of France but embraces Putin of Russia. He fights with Merkel of Germany but embraces love letters from Kim Jong-un of North Korea. He ridiculed former Prime Minister Theresa May but danced around a glowing orb with the Saudi King.
Something I have always told my kids and friends is, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence but three times is a trend. We have been trending downward since January of 2017.
Vote in 2020 for Change.
