The Gilding Seems To Be Fading
No Klondike strike this time in Alaska
Have you noticed how much Trump likes gold? Everything gilded in gold in the White House remodel. His romantic references to the Gilded Age of the robber barons and bad tariffs. Needless to say, all that glitters is not gold. One of the definitions of gilded: having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth. How telling is that?! Consider that Trump was in financial troubles prior to Trump 45, but his successes came not from construction and building things, one of his many bullshit claims, but from licensing his name. His skill set in construction and development is the “of little worth” element, but allowing his name to be plastered on the highest (any?) bidder was the gilding. Needless to say, the crypto scam he has used to build billions in paper value, reeks of more gilding. He may the most successful carnival barker, con man in history; good for him, and very bad for all of us.
Remember when the Felon was running to become 47? Remember the number of times he claimed that he would have the war in Ukraine settled in 24 hours? That’s equal to one day, and now that he has had 210 days, where is the peace? Could it be that that Nobel Peace Prize may escape him? At this point I am not sure what is worse, the fact that he believes he should receive it, or the fact that his sycophantic supporters would still be claiming that he deserves it! The bottom line is that he got played in Alaska.
I have seen lots of presidential action over the years that I have questioned, but Friday’s meeting set a new standard for embarrassment; of our country, for our allies, and for the world. We literally rolled out a red carpet for a dictator who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the stealing of children. From the first notes of this bad opera, the Felon stood to let Putin walk toward him after Putin arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (a US military base!!). Then we saw a warm, almost obsequious greeting, which, seemingly outside of any normal protocol, was followed by bringing Vlad into the Beast (the President’s armored auto) with no other officials. Let me be clear, that ain’t right!
Am I the only one that sees the irony in the images of the Felon and Putin in front of American fighter jets? Yes, the very same jets that on occasion escort Russian bombers back to Russia when they, oopsie, stray into American air space. As bad as these optics were (just think about all the EU nations, and especially those nations bordering Russia, must have felt to see the US greeting a war criminal for whom an active warrant is in play), think of it in terms of it being Putin’s first visit to the U.S. in a decade, and protocol be damned, he was the first one to address the press. It should be the American president who speaks first, and not the leader of a foreign nation. Does this show strength? Unequivocally, NO! Our President (gulp, I hate saying it, but it is sadly true) was humiliated in front of the press corps by Putin.
To my mind’s eye, not taking any questions was a key indicator that nothing was accomplished. One intrepid reporter asked Putin if he’d stop murdering civilians in Ukraine, and the Vlad look of death (not to be confused with all his other looks, other than the one where he is jolly because he knows he can play the Felon like a bass fiddle) was his only response. Here was the chance for the Liar in Chief to show his strength, to show that he has, dare I say, some balls, but most importantly to show some leadership for good. But did he interject anything about the tragedy of the loss of so many lives, of the civilian casualties, of the loss of so many Russian soldiers’ lives? Of course not, because cowards run from controversy. Trump knows only how to chase a win, you know, the whole art of the deal fantasy, which is to say, it seems he thinks he can run the grift on Putin.
So what was this meeting really about? Was it yet another distraction from his falling polling numbers, from people starting to realize that the Big Boondoggle would only help the uber rich, from the true impact of tariffs, from people in US states wondering about the gerrymandering being promoted by the White House, and, the gold ring on this psychotic merry go round, the Epstein saga? Based upon the entirety of the operation, it was, going back to my sports analogies, a Hail Mary distraction, that Trumplethinskin thought might actually result in at least a cease fire. Oh yeah, that, too, seems off the table, notwithstanding the entire West believing and supporting that as the most important first step. Talk about not playing well with other children!
Much like his alter ego, TACO, Trump let a deadline pass on promised Russian sanctions, and now seems to have no interest in ordering any sanctions, especially ones that could cripple Russia’s economy, which might actually be the way to bring them back to the table. I know, what did they talk about alone in that car ride? Somehow I’m thinking less about Trump St. Petersburg or Trump Red Square and more about either the pee tape or Putin’s own Epstein files. In short, we witnessed a core failure of this presidency, namely, no vision, no strategy, no plan, and no clue. Donny, this is not reality television; this is real life, and this is not bankers that you can mess with, this is a guy with nuclear arms that might just be crazy enough to start an all out war with them.
How did this come together? How could this have fallen so far off the rails? The simple answer is look who the Felon sent to Russia. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, a real estate guy with no diplomatic experience, is the answer in my opinion. He had been visiting Moscow for months to talk about a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine when allegedly he heard through a back channel that Putin might be willing to talk to Trump in person to offer a deal. On August 6, after a meeting in Moscow, Witkoff claimed that Russia was ready to retreat from some of the occupied territory, and this just so happened to occur just 2 days before the Felon’s August 8 deadline for the imposition of severe sanctions against Russia unless it agreed to a ceasefire.
Not surprisingly, in this world of dumb and dumber, it became clear that Witkoff’s description of Putin’s offer was wrong. Was it wrong because Putin had misled him, or because he had misunderstood given that Witkoff does not speak Russian and, according to former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, does not use a notetaker from the U.S. embassy. Rather than impose the promised August 8, sanctions, the Felon announced the Putin meeting, without Zelensky. Since when does the US acting as a peacemaker not bring all parties to the table? So, Don Donny, what the fuck were you thinking?!
We all need to ask what the White House expected from the summit. What happened to Trump’s warning that if Putin didn’t agree to a ceasefire there would be “very severe consequences”? In an astonishingly bold back-tracking, the White House seemed to walk back any expectations of a deal at the summit, downgrading the meeting to a “listening exercise.”
Flying back to DC, or to play golf at one of his courses, further lining his pockets, he spoke with European leaders in a phone call from Air Force One telling them that Putin rejected the idea of a ceasefire and insisted that Ukraine cede territory to Russia. He also suggested that a coalition of the willing, including the U.S., would be required to provide security guarantees to Ukraine. Again, (and if anyone is still surprised at the presidential back-tracking, wake up!), he had dropped his demand for a ceasefire and instead echoed Putin’s position that negotiations for a peace agreement should begin without one. One point to Putin.
In an interview with official state media’s Sean Hannity after the meeting, Trump said he would not impose further sanctions on Russia because the meeting with Putin had gone “very well.” “Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now,” adding “I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now.” Huh? After 7 months of listening to the Felon, I am not sure who is more understandable, the Felon or Pootie Tang; IYKYK.
In yet another example of allowing the insane to run the asylum, Chiara Eisner of NPR reported that officials from the Trump administration left eight pages of information produced by the U.S. State Department in a public printer at the business center of an Alaskan hotel. The pages revealed potentially sensitive information about the August 15 meetings, including the names and phone numbers of three U.S. staff members and thirteen U.S. and Russian state leaders. Sure, there was relatively benign stuff like about a gift Trump had planned on giving Putin and the menu for the lunch that was cancelled after the nothing burger meeting between the two men, but is someone keeping track of the nuclear codes?!
So, where does that leave us? Without any empathy, what can the Felon do? Zelensky will be in DC today, and I swear, if they do another ambush media event, well, I won’t be surprised, but the lack of world leadership will have officially been lost. We are sitting on a precipice, teetering to hold on, but we have someone allegedly in charge, that does not understand anything about international diplomacy. He believes that the world is a series of transactions that are about winning and nothing else. Nobody but Don Donny matters, and that may, and likely will, lead us down a road that will hard to climb back up.
It goes without saying that we cannot become numb to violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, the one that restricts the use of US military in domestic law enforcement. When the National Guard rolled into LA, we hated it. DC hates it now. But some red state governors, South Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia in particular, are sending troops to DC. What seems to get short shrift is the impact on the National Guard members that get called to duty. We cannot lose sight of the fact that these people are not active military, they all have regular jobs and families, and while there are protections around their employment, we are disrupting lives when there is no conflict that is beyond local police resources, and where these folks may be better used for emergencies, such as hurricanes. When you look carefully, what do you see? I think we all see totalitarian leaders using military force to attack its citizens, and there is nothing more un-American than that!
Get up. Stand up.