JUST SAYING
By Raul Hernandez
L.A. TIMES’ TORCHES TRUMP
Sunday’s Los Angeles Times editorial titled “Donald Trump’s train-wreck presidency” pulls no punches when describing the mentally unstable and dangerous man at the White House.
It is also brutally frank.
“In a matter of weeks, President Trump has taken dozens of real-life steps that, if they are not reversed, will rip families apart, foul rivers and pollute the air, intensify the calamitous effects of climate change and profoundly weaken the system of American public education for all,” the editorial stated.
Adding, “his attempt to de-insure millions of people who had finally received healthcare coverage and, along with the way, enact a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has been put on hold for the moment. But he is proceeding with his efforts to defang the government’s regulatory agencies and bloat the Pentagon’s budget even as he supposedly retreats from the global stage.”
The Los Angeles Times yesterday began a four-part editorial series, titled “The Problem with Trump.”
It is an excellent analogy about the damage that Trump has caused with the help of the GOP.
Monday’s editorial is titled “Why Trump Lies.”
Click here to read it: Los Angeles Times.
NORTH KOREA
Trump isn’t beyond starting a nuclear war with North Korea if the Russian investigation heats up to the point that Trump is in serious trouble facing impeachment.
He will do this to try and save his ass and deflect attention from the investigation.
Reuters also on Sunday reported that Trump’s top security aides completed a broad review of U.S. options aimed at countering North Korea’s nuclear threat, including economic and military measures.
CNN also reported that Trump “has declared he would be willing to go it alone to restrain North Korea’s nuclear weapons program should China fail to change the situation, saying if Beijing won’t help solve it, then “we will” alone.”
After reading the Los Angeles Times editorial, what Trump says next should be of grave concern to everyone along with what was Time magazine reported Monday.
“China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won’t,” Trump said in an interview published Sunday in the Financial Times. “If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.”
Here is what is troubling: Time magazine reported Monday that a “high-level defector from North Korea warned in a new interview that Kim Jong Un would use nuclear weapons against the U.S. or its allies to stay in power if necessary.”
TRUMP’S BAGMAN
After reading an article last week in the Washington Post about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, I concluded that this man has the characteristics of a slug going up a drain pipe, slow, dull and an insipid pulse.
“Most of his interactions are with an insular circle of political aides who are new to the State Department. Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact,” the Washington Post story stated.
Adding, “On his first three foreign trips, Tillerson skipped visits with State Department employees and their families, embassy stops that were standard morale-boosters under other secretaries of state.”
Tillerson recently bumped the press off his government aircraft with the exception of one publication, a third-rate, right-wing propaganda rag.
Tillerson is by no means an Egyptian enigma, complex and deep.
He was a CEO at Exxon who, like Trump, believes that the world is going to kowtow to his business credentials and the press will pitch softball questions and fawn at this mere presence.
The Russian medal Putin pinned on him didn’t help ground his ego.
Tillerson is probably surprised to learn that diplomacy is much more complex, requires hard work and persuasive skills.
The etched brooding on his man’s face that looks like he is trying to pass a kidney stone isn’t helpful in explaining to the American people, who also pay his salary, about what is going on in the world and how it affects this country and national security.
When he stands there like a deer caught in a headlight during a photo-op and not say a word doesn’t ease concerns about North Korea, China, and Russia.
He should either return to the oil fields or do his job, offer some solutions or at the very least subject himself to some public scrutiny.
FOX’S ON-AIR EMBARASSMENT
NYT story last week: “Bill O’Reilly Thrives at Fox News, Even as Harassment
Settlements Add Up”
O’Reilly is a self-righteous, pompous ass who believes he has the moral authority to pass judgment on others when he is a sexual predator and discredited journalist who inflated and lied about the news stories he covered.
Fox will keep O’Reilly no matter what he does because he makes the network money by fanning fear, paranoia, and conspiracies along with pumping out neatly packaged misinformation and half-truths.
Even if Fox fired him, it would be the equivalent of putting an air freshener inside an outhouse to improve the quality of the air.
Fox is simply a safe harbor for sexual predators like O’Reilly and Ailes, and a breeding ground for lies, conspiracy theories, and misinformation.