Thursday, December 15, 2016

Trump's Flying Circus, 12/15/16

So, Vanity Fair ran a snobbish article dissing Trump Grill(e) and Trump retaliated by tweeting, "Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!"  Really, it is time to stop trying to figure out whether Trump's tweets are an attempt to distract from more serious stories or simply reflect a lack of self-discipline. Given that stories Trump would rather see buried and wild undisciplined tweets are both becoming routine occurrences, the distinction is fast becoming one without a difference.

The bad news is that my assumption that the Republican donor class would stand up to Trump over two things, being a Russian agent or infringing on the interests of big business.  Alas, publicly traded corporations appear to be the ultimate pushovers.  Trump can tank their stock with a single tweet and reduce them to submission.  (Privately held corporations, including the Koch Brothers, will presumably be made of sterner stuff).  And the whole Republican Party seems to be willing to get in bed with the Russians if it will advance their partisan interests.

The good new is that the Trump Administration does appear to be subject to pressure by people outside the Republican Establishment.  When a gunman threatened Comet Ping Pong pizzeria over a fabricated story that it was running a child trafficking operation,  Michael Flynn, Jr., son and chief of staff to paranoid National Security Michael Flynn, Sr., posted a tweet defending the story.  He was  forced out by widespread outcry.  When the incoming team running the Department of Energy called for the names of all employees working on global warming, the Department refused and the transition team backed down.  Now granted, these may be mere cosmetic changes, masking deeper activities, but in the end, it shows that Trump is not invulnerable.  This will be important to keep in mind.

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