A Day Late and a Dollar Short: The Trump Presidency*
Now that I've given the president*'s Monday remarks all the thought they deserved, I have concluded that they should not have surprised us. After all, a day late and a dollar short always has been the essential business plan of the Trump Organization.
Apparently, sometime since Saturday's bloodletting in Virginia, the White House staff managed to put electrodes in the president*'s pants and adjust the voltage sufficiently as to get him to mention the KKK, the neo-Nazis, and the white supremacists. I assume White House employees Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and the ludicrous Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D. were all having their lunch and would not take offense in any case. Democratic Senator Mark Warner leaped onto MSNBC to declare this part of the speech to be "presidential." I know Warner's in a tough spot and all but, my Lord above, that was approximately as presidential as a dribble glass.
You knew things were going sideways when the president* opened the speech by reminding the country of the economic glories his administration already has brought about. Nevertheless, this is still a president* who needed almost three days to decide how to condemn Nazi violence and he still needed to clear his throat by extolling his own greatness before he got around to it.
Meanwhile, around the country, other things were happening. In Oklahoma, the FBI allegedly suckered another violent loser into participating in a terrorist plot to blow up government buildings. From the WaPo:
Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested shortly after an early Saturday morning attempt to detonate a fake bomb packed into what he believed was a stolen cargo van outside a bank in Oklahoma City, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. He was charged with attempted destruction of a building by means of an explosive. According to the complaint, over the course of a months-long undercover investigation by the FBI, Varnell made repeated statements about the extent of his hatred of the federal government…In one conversation he said he believed in the "Three Percenter" ideology - a form of anti-government activism that pledges resistance against the United States government on the belief it has infringed on the Constitution, according to court papers. Those who subscribe to the ideology incorrectly believe that only 3 percent of the colonial population participated in the American Revolution, and they see themselves as their heirs.
Yes, our violent right wing extremists have a house with many mansions, some of them with padded walls. I don't mind that none of these clowns have read the actual history of the country they purport to defend. I mind that apparently none of them have watched a movie or looked at a television set ever in their lives. And, again, I remain concerned about this particular tactic of the FBI. I fear that one of these days, their target is going to be one day smarter than the agents handling him and that will be all that it takes.
Also, down in Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe-who, I admit, has been a far better governor than I ever thought he'd be-has tried to give the Charlottesville police some cover on criticism that they were lax in keeping events from spiraling out of hand. From Business Insider:
McAuliffe told The New York Times in an impromptu street interview Sunday morning that police in Charlottesville did their best considering the circumstances. "It's easy to criticize, but I can tell you this, 80% of the people here had semiautomatic weapons," McAuliffe said. Law enforcement in Charlottesville have received widespread criticism from counterprotesters, bystanders, and participants of the white nationalist "Unite The Right" rally. Many called the police's handling of the event hands-off, often appearing outnumbered and waiting too long to break up skirmishes between protesters and counter-protesters.
I don't know if I buy that entirely. Certainly, the Virginia state police are as militarized as are most state police these days. But the firepower that popped up around the park in which the Nazi bastards were going to have their rally was probably the most frightening thing about the events besides the murderous automobile rampage. For years, police have been warning us that the militia right and their adherents are much better armed than we think they are, and that some of them are too well-armed for local police to handle. (In 1991, I was working on a story in eastern Washington, near the Idaho border, and I talked to a local cop who told me he was terrified at every traffic stop, Idaho then being Crazy Central for rightwing terrorists.)
This is the country the president* purports to lead today. To say he's not up to that job is beside the point. He doesn't think it is his job and so, rudderless, without human hand on the wheel, the republic sails on toward an uncertain horizon.
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