Comforting words from our Commander-in-Chief. Well, that’s show business! Break a leg!
Not to make light of death and destruction, but our cartoon president, Donald ‘Goldfinger’ Trump, has taken ownership of these not-so-funny consequences of war, as he does, for his own personal gratification and ambitions.
Two consequences stand out regarding the recent kerfuffle with Iran. Consequence #1 is the 2020 presidential election. There’s nothing like a ‘wartime president‘ hero to bolster approval ratings, summon up emotional feelings of national patriotism, and deflect from an ongoing impeachment scenario. Was this move to antagonize Iran with the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani and the continued saber rattling which followed a ‘Wag the Dog‘ strategy by The Donald and his Unmerry Men? ...
Well, Trump is in show business, and if it was their plan it’s at least comforting to know these guys are capable of actually coming up with a strategy. It has always looked to me like they were shooting from the hip. Maybe they shoot from the hip only on the important things that relate to us and America’s wellbeing.
Consequence #2 is the Ukrainian airliner that crashed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport the night of the Iranian missile strikes at U.S. bases in Iraq. 176 people were killed in the crash. The missiles were launched from Iran, but it is not yet clear where in Iran they were launched form. Iran is not telling, nor willing to turn over the ‘black box‘ from that Boeing 737 aircraft which only adds to both the not-a-coincidence speculation and the suspicion that these 176 poor soles were a consequence of a ‘Wag the Dog‘ war for which Trump would be both indirectly and directly responsible.
Speculating now ...what if, in fact, the Ukrainian airliner was accidentally shot down by Iranian missiles in the heat and confusion of the night lunch scenario? Or, God forgive, not accidentally? I’m sure the Iranians would be devastated by the deadly and tragic mishap and would do everything to cover it up and shift the blame to President Trump. Would they be wrong? Would Trump not be ultimately responsible for the downing of the aircraft?
From day one it was obvious that Trump did not have the moral, intellectual, political or social skills to be President of the United States. He believes himself to be a ‘leader’. I’m sorry, but the man is an idiot. I Googled the word ‘idiot‘ and this is what came up ... https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5b509584bbc511d5068b46c9-750-375.jpg So, it’s official.
Further proof, if you even need it, are the “best people” Trump has hired and appointed. People who found out quickly that he was incompatible with their sensibilities and quit. People like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, and White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, all serious, proven, professional, adult men who have expressed their sentiments for Trump with words like “moron” and “idiot”.
Conversely, there are the Trump-compatible people with which he stacked his deck like Chief Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
So, if you’re not compatible, or not useful, or you don’t kiss his ring, you’re out. Looks like America’s future is down to the bottom of the personnel barrel with “best people” like Mick Mulvaney and Kellyanne Conway calling shots.
But seriously, we’ve had three years plus a lifetime before that to observe this guy and examine how he thinks and acts, how he reacts. Just tune in to one of Trump’s campaign rallies and look and listen. It’s absurd. What’s even more absurd are the supporters cheering him on and encouraging him ...and what is bizarrely absurd is the Republican Party and the senators like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell who blindly sanction this man. What serious adult man, a husband and father, who wants to lead America says things like he can “grab them [women] by the pus*y” because he is a celebrity, a “star.”?
What knee-jerk, infantile, thinking process concedes that saying things like “brand new beautiful military equipment”, “strike 52 cultural sites”, “they’re allowed to bomb us but we can’t bomb them”, and “All is well!” in the middle of an international crisis (which, to his credit, he created) is adult, mature and comforting leadership behavior? Trump is a bad actor in his own show.
The man is no ‘Jimmy Stewart’ or ‘Gary Cooper’, to be sure. No Barack Obama. He’s more like, well, ‘Goldfinger’.
As America continues to falter in political confusion and controversy over this show biz “idiot” in the White House, the closer we come to disaster and the more we demonstrate to the world that we Americans must all be show biz idiots.
Please, let’s prove them wrong.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
Some past articles and op-eds
https://muckrack.com/john-kushma/articles
