If you are from the US you probably know the song referenced in the blog head. But what happens when the wheels come off the bus?
Right now the US has five "acting" cabinet members ranging from Interior Secretary to Secretary of Defense. Trump said he likes "acting" members because it gave him more freedom but what exactly that meant eluded most people. And anyone who feels better about Trump having more freedom to be Trump needs to think about other developments this week.
NSC head Bolton went to Turkey this week after going to Israel to make an attempt to explain Trump's extemporaneous announcement that the US was pulling out, unilaterally without consultation, from Syria. Trump even claimed in his brief announcement that dead service members were thanking him from heaven for his decision. Besides the complete weirdness of that statement, the announcement precipitated the departure from the Department of Defense of General Mattis. It also freaked out numerous foreign governments (at this point one hesitates to call them allies though one might hope for their forbearance) because there had been no prior information of this intent.
In the time between that statement by Trump and today, multiple governments are asking, "Just what does that mean?" John Bolton tried to explain yesterday in Israel but because of what he said in Israel Turkey's leader, Erdogan, wouldn't even meet with him today. Trump keeps saying that his gut is better than most people's brains but turmoil in international affairs is not usually a sign of smooth sailing ahead.
The White House sent out spokespeople to defend Trump's wall as a necessary for national security but they got corrected in real time by Fox journalists. That opened the door for all investigative bodies to fact check the statements from Nielsen, DHS chief, that had been previously debunked. Now even Fox plans to fact check in real time but probably not on the opinion shows.
So when you watch Trump tonight, if you watch Trump tonight (I am not going to watch it live because there is no point in watching someone who has lied on camera or on Twitter more than 7600 times in 711 days), don't believe what he says about terrorists or even criminals. Nielsen admitted finally that her "criminal" tag was simply because someone had crossed the border without authorization. As much as I despise that action, it's a fact of life here in the US.No clear way for average people to prevent the crossings or to prevent those crossing working in the US since no one has answers for the first or enforces e-verify for the second.
So when the wheels come off the bus, which they are about to do, hold on tight. The ride is going to get bumpier.
Well said. I watched for the entertainment but made sure I took antacids before watching. At lease it was no new news. Same old crap. We need to have the press stop showing him every single day which is what he wants. Ugh.
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