As I boot up my computer, I feel sick. I’ve been away from the news for almost a day. So much could have happened. Yesterday Muslims were being detained in the airports, stopped in the street, and made targets by a man who is at best an unthinking fool, at worst an evil megalomaniac messiah, heralding in the new dawn of hate.
Is it already too late?
He’s upset the Queen apparently. This is a woman who can stand in temperatures freezing and hot, for ten hours in a row while over-excited foreigners do inexplicable things in order to put on a show for her. But this time she’s not happy the PM invited him over and she may have to put him up for the night.
She may not like it, but her former foreign secretary William Hague reckons having Trump stay at Buckingham Palace is something the Queen would take “in her stride”, saying she had in the past hosted “tyrants” such as Romania’s former leader, Nicolae Ceausescu.
Nice to know the Queen has had way better tyrants over. You hear that America? You got a cut-rate tyrant, not half as good as the Queen is used to.
Her son isn’t remaining mum. Prince Charles believes climate change is a thing. He wrote a Ladybird book on the subject. Whereas the President of the United States of America thinks this,
So if Trump comes to his mum’s house for a sleepover, the kids may not play nice. Certainly the scientists are still unimpressed. With Astrophysicist Katie Mack tweeting,
But it’s not just staff and scientists; Trump is having trouble getting along with lots of countries too. We all know about the wall on the Mexican border which prompted its president to cancel his playdate. China was also on the hit list. Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (nominee at the time) pledged that America would block China’s access to the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
“We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops,” Tillerson said. “And second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”
If he’s serious, that would likely start a war.
Employees are getting the shaft, no surprises from a man famous for saying ‘You’re fired.’ The country’s top lawyer, Sally Yates was shown the door for not being prepared to carry out an executive order she believed was illegal. Yates ordered justice department lawyers not to enforce the presidential executive order now affectionately known across the world as the Muslim Ban. Her replacement Dana Boente said he was “honoured to serve President Trump” and carried them out. Let’s go to the scientist again for a ruling.
Clearly Trump supporters weighed in there also.
Iran is of course one of the 7 countries from which people are not welcome in the States. Trump’s executive branch sanctioned 25 entities associated with Tehran. In response Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said ‘Iran is unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people. We will never use our weapons against anyone, except in self-defence. Let us see if any of those who complain can make the same statement,’ he tweeted.
Is it just me, or is the concept of world leaders carrying out diplomatic negotiations publically over Twitter maybe too transparent?
Remember when we thought George Bush Jr was the stupidest president ever? The worst puppet of evil ever to stumble into power with patsy written all over him? Not so much now. I genuinely miss his presidency. Who knew that was possible?
But the reign of evil isn’t just about pissing off other countries at the expense of the dignity of his office (that ship sailed when an ex-reality TV star who likes to ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ was elected).
The reign of evil is also about quashing dissent Kremlin style. Dissent cables are the way the admins underlings get to say they don’t like what’s going in. According to the State Department correspondent for the BBC, Barbara Plett Usher, “Hundreds” signed the cable of dissent against the Muslim ban.
The official position on this issue, delivered by Trump straight man (and if Pence has any say, all the men will be straight or suffer the consequences) Sean Spicer, was that if “these career bureaucrats” had a problem, “they should either get with the programme or they can go.”
If Trump were to put out a perfume it would be called ‘Suppression.”
So for those sitting in the corner and rocking, or banging their heads against a wall, or drinking until they pass out, here’s week 2 of the Trump Presidency.
Saturday Jan 28, while protests abound across the nation’s airports, Trump took time to sort out the National Security Council with Steve Bannon made a permanent member of the Principles Committee, now at Cabinet level. He’s the only one required at meetings now with the director of national intelligence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff only attending when pertinent issues come up. Because who needs staff or intelligence?
Fighting about who hated refugees more, Trump hung up on the Ozzie PM, Malcolm Turnbull, excited about who hated the media more, he chatted with BFF Vladimir Putin for an hour, then had a quickie in a car with our PM Bill English who was told he should swing by if he’s in the area.
He’s told the Pentagon to hurry up and defeat ISIS already, bringing a new level of hands off delegation to the problem, and another executive order, this one banning admin appointees from lobbying foreign governments, like ever ok.
Sunday Jan 29 A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed in Yemen targeting al-Qaida militants. Trump described the raid as ‘successful’. Considering 24 civilians including a new born and an American 8 year old girl were also killed, one wonders what it would take for a Trump approved covert operation to be described as a total pooch screw.
Protests in American airports continue amidst total chaos due to the #MulimBan.
Monday Jan 30 Fired Sally Yates, because the Muslim Ban is going so great, why fight it? An executive order was signed by Trump saying for every regulation the executive branch proposes, two others must be repealed. What? Randomly? Could we get a mathematician up in here, I foresee a problem when we get into negative numbers.
Tuesday Jan 31 Judge Neil Gorsuch is nominated by Trump to fill the Supreme Court seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia. Protesting going on all over the world, quiet day really.
Wednesday Feb 1 Iran ‘put on notice’ after a ballistic missile test. Trump and Ivanka went to Dover Air Force Base where the remains of Navy SEAL William ‘Ryan’ Owens was being returned to the US after being killed in the “successful” Yemen raid.
Thursday Feb 2 Gets in a fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger and loses. Trump uses the National Prayer Breakfast to say pray for Arnie because he’s doing a crap job at hosting the Celebrity Apprentice. Arnie’s reply,
Also Trump says he’ll repeal the Johnson Amendment, preventing tax-exempt groups, like religious ones, from entering politics. There’s just not enough religion in politics.
Friday Feb 3 The judicial arm grinds itself into alertness and halts the #MuslimBan. New sanctions against Iran and two more exciting executive orders, these stop a federal rule requiring financial advisors to act in the best interests of their clients. Wait, what?
Saturday Feb 4. Flights resume. Trumpy is grumpy and tweets about it. “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”
But it’s not out of his system yet, he’s just so cross a judge would uphold the law, doesn’t she know a despot is trying to president here? It was a “terrible decision,” he Tweeted, “many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country.”
Getting in? One is in charge!
So just as scientists have risen up, so too have the heads of global companies including Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix and Uber, who are suing Trump because the Muslim Ban is bad for business.
With this cartoon doing the rounds it might be tempting to think Dr. Seuss has joined the #resistance from beyond the grave.
I for one would love it if a wave of creatives joined. Jim Henson, feel free to weigh in.
References (I know it’s not usual on a blog, but with all the #altfacts out there I like to site my sources.
Booth, R., (2017, January 29). Prince Charles may raise climate change during Trump’s visit to Britain. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com
Gambino, L., Siddiqui, S., Smith, D., (2017, January 31). Sally Yates firing and Trump cabinet cause partisan ‘bad blood’ to boil over. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com
Johnson, A., (2017, January 30). Trump replaces acting director of immigration enforcement. Retrieved from www.nbcnews.com
Levitz, E., (2017, January 27). All the terrifying things that Trump did lately. Retrieved from www.nymag.com
Neidig, H., (2016, December 14). Critics bash Trump’s children’s presence at tech meeting. Retrieved from www.thehill.com
Unknown. (2017, January 31).Trump sacks defiant acting attorney general Sally Yates. Retrieved from www.bbc.com
Usher, B. P., (2017, January 30). Trump travel ban: Diplomats register dissent. Retrieved from www.bbc.com
Taylor, J., (2017, February 4). Yes, All This Happened. Trump’s first 2 weeks as president. Retrieved from www.npr.com
Andra Jenkin co-wrote Double-Edged Sword- The Simonne Butler Story, and contributed to New Zealand Anthology of Women’s Comics ‘Three Words.’