Kim Jong Un came out swinging to kick off the week on Friday in the only language Trump understands, Social Media, branding Trump the Shakespearean insult “a dotard,” a clear hit-and-run victory for the little lunatic.
Week #37 was also a week that saw 3-1/2 million Americans plunged into darkness and chaos on Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, and the Department of Justice notify 21 States that their elections had been hacked by Russia. The President needed to act, and to act fast and decisively to deal with these multiple crises.
Trump rose admirably to the occasion with the Mother Of All Deflections.
Letting Puerto Rico languish in death and misery while completely ignoring the Russian hacking evidence, Trump started a sensational headline war with the National Football League, a sport second in popularity only to Jesus in Trump-voting America (a very close second).
It took Trump until Monday to even mention Puerto Rico, and only at first by mocking their debt (far smaller than that of Florida or Texas) and poor infrastructure (See: no mention of poor infrastructure in Houston) in a series of inane and callous Tweets.
He also waited too long to lift the shipping limitations he routinely lifted when Florida and Texas were stricken, delaying much needed medical and emergency supplies as more and more Americans suffered, blaming damaged harbors (again, not a problem for the mainland hurricanes).
By attacking the patriotism of Black athletes and letting millions of Brown Americans drown in darkness, Trump finally figured out a way to simultaneously snatch the headlines back from Mother Nature and please his racist base, his beloved “poorly educated.”
Being there is just so much headline space, a few other developments during Week #37 were reported in smaller fonts on higher-numbered pages. The travel ban was reintroduced, this one called a “Targeted Ban” and just as confusing as his other attempts since “targeted” is expressly forbidden in the Constitution and the word that got the other targeted travel bans thrown out of court.
Also lifted were the strict anti-rape regulations Obama imposed on colleges, once again giving the (wink-wink!) benefit of the doubt to the rapists of your daughters.
The 61st attempt to repeal Obamacare also failed this week, when several Republican Senators liked the idea of being called a hero for refusing to sign on for mass murder.
Facebook is cooperating with Congressional investigators by handing over all records of Russian-paid political ad campaigns, and the president’s beloved Twitter was soundly rebuked by a prominent Senator for failing to report foreign interference in politics via their immensely popular website and Trump’s main form of communication.
Meanwhile, Trump responded to Robert Mueller’s heat with his patented crooked Hillary spiel, pretty much mailing it in, with nothing from the new album, greatest hits only.
Then came the coup-de-gras, Trump’s new tax plan, ultra-light on details except that the rich get uncounted billions directly from the pockets of the poor, who will be getting a tax hike. For the doubters out there, this is bigly different from Regular Trickle Down Economics that failed each time it was tried, because this is Trump Trickle Down Economics; bigger, shinier and more fabulous than anything you’ve ever seen, believe me.
Already lobbyists are swarming the capital with briefcases full of currency to make certain their mega-wealthy clients’ huge tax loopholes don’t get closed. You know, just in case the massive reduction in their personal and corporate taxes wasn’t enough for them.
Then to cap off a bad week, an interior White House investigation was launched into the criminal use of (!) private email servers for official business, with the main suspects being (!!) Jared Kushner and his wife (and the president’s daughter) Ivanka Trump.
Trump’s response to this potential filing of criminal charges against his own daughter by his own staff was to pull more US Diplomats out of Cuba and to announce an Asian trip, mainly for the purpose of skipping North Korea.
We can at least say that Trump is growing as president, as evidenced by his startling admission that he did not know islands were surrounded by “very big oceans,“ but now he knows that and won’t forget it next time. Okay, a teeny-tiny silver lining, but still…