We are humoring a lunatic in the White House. This is not new information. As David Frum puts it, Trump is “unfathomably corrupt and wicked and immoral. On the other hand, he’s kind of a goofball, and a fool, and a sucker, and a dupe.” These are not mutually exclusive qualities but I defy anybody who is as corrupt as Trump to be equally as much of a buffoon. The only character that comes to mind at all is Captain Queeg, from The Caine Mutiny. Queeg was obsessed with a quart of strawberries and that folly wound up with a court martial hearing. You see the parallel (and we have clips from the movie below, if you’ve forgotten that great piece of cinema.)
Yesterday was not a good day for the United States. For the first time in history, Moody’s decided to lower America’s credit rating in the world. This was expected and rumors of it happening circulated Trump’s first time in office. But expecting something bad and watching it happen are two different things. Just one more example of the confidence that the functioning countries on this planet have in our current dysfunction.
And then there was the SCOTUS decision, which buried the Alien Enemies Act for all intents and purposes. Donald was not happy with that. He lashed out in an all caps tirade. And then he was still enraged, apparently, and so he displaced his SCOTUS aggression on Joe Biden’s (or somebody’s) autopen. Hey, it makes no sense unless you compare it to the infamous quart of strawberries. Then you understand.
The tweet ends “THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGUN!!!” And indeed it has. And who should sally forth as Trump’s knight errant? You got it. James Comer.
Biden’s alleged use of an autopen has become an obsession on the right, with Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer appearing on Fox News on Friday night, saying “Clearly, from that interview, which was many, many months prior to the heavy use of the autopen, Joe Biden wasn’t capable of making decisions. He wasn’t coherent.”
Conservatives took to social media to question who was “controlling” the autopen during Biden’s stint in the White House and if someone else was “acting” as the president in Biden’s place, without supporting their suggestions with evidence.
Influencer Link Lauren, a former aide to Robert F Kennedy Jr, wrote on X: “Who was controlling the autopen? Who was pulling the strings? Who were the unelected bureaucrats making decisions that negatively impacted our country? I want names. The Democrat Party & the MSM may never recover.”
One X user questioned who was “really acting” as the president, adding, “It obviously was not Joe Biden.”
Another user responded, pointing to former Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, and longtime Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Neera Tanden, who succeeded Rice at the Domestic Policy Council, was also mentioned.
On Friday night, Comer piled on during his appearance on Fox News. The Oversight Committee wants to speak with former top Biden aides Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, and Ashley Williams.
“This is one of the greatest scandals of our generation, and Americans are demanding answers,” he said. “Now that Biden’s top enablers can no longer hide behind the power of the presidency, we’re continuing our investigation to expose the truth.”
Comer’s never been able to expose anything beyond a banana and that’s only because he saw somebody unpeel one once. Nobody in Trump’s MAGA inner circle can get out of campaign mode. They are obsessed with non essentials that tend to make Joe Biden look bad, when they should be focused on governing. But they can’t govern, so they need to do what they excel at, which is slinging mud and creating distractions. As promised, the two film clips that will bring all this into focus: both the ship in these clips and our government are being helmed by lunatics, displacing aggression and focusing on trivia, while the real job, leadership, goes undone.
We may yet live to see Trump Impeachment III. The only question is how sane he’ll make Humphrey Bogart’s character look.
Whoever was controlling the autopen did a fantastic job. President Biden used the pen because his desk was one of the busiest in living memory. In one term he turned the country around from the ravages of Covid and the wreck of an incompetent president, repairing the damage and creating a booming economy with record low unemployment. And all this with the bipartisan support of a fractured Congress.
When are the media going to acknowledge Biden’s achievements and contrast them with what this destructive idiot has wrought?
They never will. They have no concept of anything logical.
I’d love for some of the people being accused of “covering” for President Biden to sue the accusers of slander and/or libel. Demand they PROVE their accusations or make public apologies AND pay tens of millions of dollars in “damages” to their reputations.
After all, isn’t that what THEIR side loves to do? Threaten lawsuits over “damaged reputations” because of wild accusations? (Granted, their side usually threatens the suits because the accusations are true and their side is trying to keep the stuff out of court but still . . . .)
Perhaps one of Trumps law firms that agreed to do pro bono work could recoup some reputation by representing some of the group in a class action?
Poor ol’ Captain Queeg was a damaged officer, burnt out and suffering obvious PTSD, long before such a term was coined. His sad decline was the stuff of personal tragedy. Not so with Trumpler. His sad decline is the stuff of national tragedy.
You are correct…sorry Ursula, although I agree with you about many things, Queeg was no buffoon. Jose Ferrer’s speech at the end challenging Fred McMurray to a fist fight, clearly explained how and why Queeg fell apart. The draft dodging traitor has NOTHING in common with a decorated Navy commander of a ship. Since 99% of you have never served, I’m not surprised by the misrepresented image of Queeg. Humphrey Bogart played him brilliantly. Trump is a criminal and traitor and should have been in prison long ago instead of being essentially installed as a phucking dictator by a country that dishonored every dead solider, sailor, and others serving. This culture is evil and we now have what we asked for…the Devil’s disciple to once again destroy children and mass murder people. The title America is now associated with stupidity, greed, and evil. Fact.