New series name; same weekly summary
This week’s tension was broken by a bit of levity as the world laughed, joked, and made memes about the meaning of “covfefe,” from Donald Trump’s late-Tuesday-night tweet, which circulated in the twitterverse until Wednesday morning when someone finally saw and deleted it. The incomplete tweet, “Despite the negative press covfefe,” was obviously going to be a criticism of DT’s favorite target, the press; it seems simple enough to figure out that “covfefe” was meant to be “coverage”; and the unfinished thought, typed late at night, would seem to indicate that the typist dozed off mid-sentence. Nothing sinister here; well, except for the intended attack on the press. Dozing off late at night in the middle of watching a movie, grading papers, or tweeting is a pretty human thing to do. Hitting the wrong keys, especially on a tiny iPhone keyboard, is equally common; and sending out an embarrassing auto-correct version of one’s thoughts—well, none of us want to be reminded of the times we’ve done that. So the question which begs to be answered here is “Why not just admit it?” Why not say, “I was tweeting, and I fell asleep—haha”? That would be the normal thing to do; but since no one can accuse anyone in the DT administration of being normal, sycophant-in-chief Sean Spicer explained to the press (with a straight face!): “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.” Spicer’s statement, to me, sums up the depth of dishonesty embodied in this administration. The inability to admit even the most trivial error, the need to turn a simple mistake into something important and symbolic, and the constant challenge to intelligent people’s reason by telling lies so transparent that none can give them a moment’s consideration is corruption at its most profound. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius sees his son Laertes off on a long journey with some fatherly advice that culminates in this line: “This above all—to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou canst not then be false to any man.” In 2017, we’d say, “Here’s the most important thing: If you’re honest with yourself first, you can’t be dishonest with anyone else.” I would argue that if a statement is true, its opposite is also true. In this case, that would mean that if one is dishonest with oneself, it’s not possible for that person to be honest with anyone else. And that, friends, sums up the integrity problem at the core of this nightmare administration: the leader is so self-deluded that truth is non-existent except in the moment, in whatever serves his need and his ego at any given time. To be at the mercy of such a morally decadent person is terrifying.
Here’s a snapshot of the week.
- With the Trump-Russia scandal at the center of the news for what looks like a long time to come, we have begun to pin our hopes each day on some promising announcement that the truth is being discovered and justice will eventually be done. This week’s good news is that James Comey has been scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, June 8. This portion of Comey’s testimony will be public and is expected to center on the question of whether 45 attempted to persuade Comey to drop his investigation of Michael Flynn. Since 45’s doing so would constitute obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense, the world will be waiting to hear Mr. Comey’s answers to those questions. Although we will probably hear a great deal about Comey’s extemporaneous memos recording 45’s alleged attempts to influence the investigation into Flynn, much of the information which Mr. Comey can share will no doubt be reserved for closed-door sessions with the Senate committee and others.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed his share of the spotlight this week, again. A CNN article reminds us of Sessions’ statement during his confirmation hearing on January 10 that he “’did not have any communications with the Russians’ during the campaign. He also said in a written statement submitted to the Senate judiciary committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the election.” Sessions has repeatedly denied having had any inappropriate contact with Russian officials, and he failed to report any meetings with Russians on his security forms filed when being vetted for the AG position. In March, however, we learned that he actually had two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; and this week we learned there is a potential third meeting which Mr. Sessions apparently “forgot about” when filling out those pesky security forms. Investigators are looking at evidence of an alleged meeting between Sessions and Kislyak, this one on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, where Trump was making a campaign speech. I guess when your boss is a serial liar, truth becomes whatever you want it to be. Facts be damned!
- After last week’s defeat in a federal appeals court of Richmond, Virginia, which issued a 10-3 decision to uphold the block on 45’s travel ban, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking the case all the way to the SCOTUS. Since DT’s only hope for sustaining his political power is to keep his base of deplorables happy, it seems he’ll do anything—including fighting for his travel ban and damning the planet by withdrawing from the Paris Accord—to bolster his ego and keep himself politically afloat. It’s all about him!
- On Wednesday of this week, 45 issued a dozen or so ethics waivers which have caused quite a stir. Ethics waivers are apparently intended to allow specific government officials to do specific things which would otherwise be forbidden by ethics laws. It’s not uncommon for these waivers to be granted; but there are, of course, rules and guidelines governing to whom and for what they can be issued. No one should be surprised to learn that DT did not follow those rules or guidelines. Two particular points of concern are the facts that a number of the waivers made public on Wednesday do not include dates, making it impossible to prove when they were issued or went into effect; and some appear to have been issued retroactively, to cover violations already committed. Walter M Shaub Jr., director of the Office of Government Ethics, provided the voice of reason: “If you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule.” Richard W. Painter, White House ethics lawyer under GWB, puts it more pointedly: “The only retroactive waiver I have ever heard of is called a pardon.” It should go without saying that the White House employee to benefit most from these waivers is Steve Bannon, who has violated ethics restrictions by continuing his communications with his old employer, the alt-right Breitbart News. Voila! Now all of those chats with Breitbart editors are okey dokey! What’s next? Waivers for meetings with Russian officials?
- Subpoenas have been flying around our nation’s capital this week, as both House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the special prosecutor continue their investigation of Russian election meddling and possible collusion by the Trump campaign. On Wednesday, the House committee approved subpoenas for Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who as we all know has so far not been cooperative. According to the HuffPost, “The committee also approved subpoenas seeking information on requests made by former Obama administration officials to unmask the names of individuals mentioned in classified surveillance reports, the Wall Street Journal reported. The subpoenas reportedly focus on requests made by former national security adviser Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan and former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power.”
- In the made-for-reality-tv climax of the week, on Thursday, 45 dramatically announced from the White House Rose Garden that he is pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Seemingly struggling to read his prepared script, which he appeared to be seeing for the first time, Trump “said the landmark 2015 pact imposed wildly unfair environmental standards on American businesses and workers . . . and vowed to stand with the United States against what he called a ‘draconian’ international deal” (New York Times). Draconian? Anyone who’s gritted their teeth through a Trump “speech” knows that’s not a Trump word! Not to worry, though; this decision places us in great company. We’re now in an exclusive group of only three countries who do not participate in the accord; the other two are Syria, which is a bit distracted right now with their civil war, and Nicaragua, who declined to participate because the agreement didn’t go far enough to suit them. But lest anyone should think our esteemed “president” made this decision unadvisedly, fear not! After agonizing over the impact of his momentous choice, before making the public announcement, 45 made a last-minute call to Kimberly Guilfoyle. And who is Kimberly Guilfoyle? you ask. Is she a renowned scientist? No. Is she a climate expert? No. An energy expert? A local politician? No and no. Ms. Guilfoyle is co-host of a FOX News show. Yeah. That’s where 45 goes when he needs expert advice. He did say that he’d consider re-entering after he can renegotiate the agreement; but other leaders were quick to point out that the accord is irreversible—no renegotiation allowed—and that our withdrawal will take several years to be effective. The earliest we can officially leave the agreement is 2020-2021, which means there may yet be hope, because we should have a new president by then. The other leaders also threw in for good measure that our current “president” is an idiot. But that’s not news.
- In the aftermath of 45’s ignorant and selfish decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, we see once again the indomitable spirit that has made this country what it is. When there’s a leadership void, citizens step up to fill that void and to keep our finest values and priorities alive. In the Rose Garden melodrama, DT declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” The problem is that . . . well . . . Pittsburgh doesn’t want him. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto immediately responded with a tweet: “As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement for our people, our economy & future.” Nationwide, 83 mayors have so far vowed to honor the agreement; and they’ve been joined by governors, business leaders, and university presidents. That’s the spirit of the America that has always been great and didn’t need no stinkin’ orange conman to make it great again!
- David Gergen, whom I deeply admire for his astute and rational political commentary, called Trump’s action in withdrawing from the Paris accord “grotesquely irresponsible.” He explained, “Seventy years ago the United States entered an international agreement called the Marshall Plan, when we came to the aid of Europe, and it was one of the noblest acts in human history. Today we have walked away from the rest of the world, and it is one of the most shameful acts in our history. I think it will be widely seen around the world as a terrible, terrible setback for the planet. We represent as a country four percent of the world’s population, but we represent about a third of all the excess carbon dioxide that is now warming the planet. We are the largest contributor to carbon dioxide in the world, and…as this carbon dioxide threatens the future of our grandchildren, for us to walk away from that is grotesquely irresponsible. It is also true that the nations that are going to pay the greatest price for global warming are the poor nations of the world, and they have contributed the least to global warming. We have contributed the most. For us to walk away from that is immoral.” All I can say is “AMEN!”
- Trump’s first trip abroad as the United States’ representative to the world—I can’t believe I’m even saying that!—is being called historic, but not for any reason we can be proud of. Among other results, the trip has left European heads of state frustrated, disappointed, and angry. Germany’s Angela Merkel declared this week that her country’s days of depending on the U.S.A. are “over to a certain extent” and that her country, along with other European nations, “really must take our fate into our own hands.” Most heartbreaking of all is that our president is no longer hailed as “leader of the free world.” That title now goes, according to most analysts, either to Angela Merkel or to a triumvirate of Germany’s Merkel, France’s Macron, and Canada’s Trudeau. My God! What have we done?
- I close with an excerpt from an excellent article published this week by Rebecca Solnit, called “The Loneliness of Donald Trump”:
“The American buffoon’s commands were disobeyed, his secrets leaked at such a rate his office resembled the fountains at Versailles or maybe just a sieve (this spring there was an extraordinary piece in the Washington Post with thirty anonymous sources), his agenda was undermined even by a minority party that was not supposed to have much in the way of power, the judiciary kept suspending his executive orders, and scandals erupted like boils and sores. Instead of the dictator of the little demimondes of beauty pageants, casinos, luxury condominiums, fake universities offering fake educations with real debt, fake reality tv in which he was master of the fake fate of others, an arbiter of all worth and meaning, he became fortune’s fool. He is, of this writing, the most mocked man in the world.”
We must remind ourselves daily that our fellow citizens brought this disaster raining down upon us. As a lifelong educator, I’m convinced one root of the problem lies in our education system’s emphasis on learning job skills to the exclusion of learning critical thinking skills. That has to change. But first, there’s Betsy DeVos. It’s going to be a long, hard struggle.
As I’ve said before, there is one good result that has come from these last 19 weeks of having a toddler in the White House: it has forced the rest of us to become adults. More people are reading the news, joining political groups, speaking out, participating in protests, and in general being politically active and involved than I have seen in my lifetime. Like the alcoholics’ children, we’ve been forced to take on more responsibility for the maintenance of our household than has been common in the recent past. Long after the Orange Menace has been removed from the White House, we need to retain the vigilance this experience has taught us; we need to remain active and involved and above all alert, to ensure that such a national disgrace never occurs again. “Of the people, by the people, for the people” means it’s on us; it’s our responsibility. Kudos to the parents who are involving their young people in the resistance movement; those children will grow into adults who carry the spirit of responsibility to the next generation, so that our work will last beyond our own lives. We’re part of history. What we do matters. Let’s make it good!