REJECTED! — The Weekly Opine

Trump suffers stinging defeats at the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Trumpers face reality (their man’s a fraud)

Last week, the incredibly out-of-touch, mentally ill U.S. president put on full display what losing looks like. Donald J. “Chump” Trump suffered a succession of rebukes that may cause him to retreat to the White House bunker fearing further public humiliation.

His really bad week began with video of a feeble-looking Trump struggling to raise a glass of water to his mouth while speaking at West Point, requiring both hands to do so. Then he shuffled down a ramp looking like he might tumble at any moment. (I said back in 2016 that GOP candidate Jeb Bush should have challenged Trump to a foot race after Trump branded Bush “Low Energy.”)

Next, the U.S. Supreme Court, taking seriously its role as co-equal to the president, ruled against Trump and reaffirmed LGBT civil rights protections. The conservative-stacked court also went against Trump ruling in favor of DACA, allowing 11 million “Dreamers” to provisionally retain their right to remain in America.

Overly dramatic Trump tweeted “the Supreme Court doesn’t like me” and likened their rulings to “shotgun blasts into the face of conservatives.” (Presumably, if Trump could get away with shooting someone on 5th Avenue then so could the Supreme Court.)

Not to be outdone by the nine Big Dogs, a D.C. federal court judge announced John Bolten can distribute his book to the masses. Advance copies were already handed-out to the media, who immediately shared sordid details with a blood-thirsty electorate. Learning that Trump begged China’s President Xi Jinping to buy American soybeans to pacify U.S. farmers and help him get reelected comes as no surprise. Trump is, after all, a criminal.

Bolton, an unpatriotic coward, says House Democrats committed “impeachment malpractice” by narrowly limiting articles of impeachment to Ukrainegate. Bolten is correct. It remains inexcusable that Dems ignored the Mueller Report impeachment yellow brick road.

A stroke of luck will be if Bolton is forced to forfeit his $2 million advance and proceeds from book sales. Judge Royce Lamberth more than hinted that Bolten was sloppy during the standard review process that ensures classified information is not divulged. Let us hope Bolten loses the huge payday he sought to protect when refusing to testify during Trump’s impeachment.

Trump’s biggest legal problems reside in Manhattan at the Southern District of New York. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Twice punk’d

As did Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping, the top U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, lay bare how easily Trump fails as a negotiator. Facing Trump’s top henchman, crooked Attorney General Bill Barr, Berman quickly outmaneuvered the ham-handed attorney general.

Last Friday, Barr lied claiming Berman resigned. Berman said not so and reported to work Saturday morning. Only after Barr was forced, by law, to accept Berman’s deputy attorney as his replacement did Berman step aside. Now, investigations into Rudy Giuliani and alleged Trump criminal activity can proceed. Berman punk’d Chump Trump and Barr the Buffoon. I swear teenagers could outsmart Trump...

Word is that Trump’s wild claim of 1 million RSVPs for his Tulsa rally was in part precipitated by teenagers duping the president. Several outlets reported teens, who had graduations, proms, and spring sports cancelled (solely because Trump bungled the U.S. response to COVID-19), coordinated on social media platform Tik Tok to flood the rally registration website with bogus ticket requests. Delightfully, teens sabotaged Trump’s desperately hoped for triumphant return to rallying.

During an otherwise boring rally, with those in attendance appearing largely disinterested, Trump maybe sealed his fate. In a bombshell much worse than the quid pro quo call with Ukraine, the ignorant president bragged he asked his administration to slow down testing to reduce case numbers. In other words, Trump’s fascist ‘American’ government was instructed to allow preventable American deaths so Trump can win reelection.

Unlike the Ukraine call evidence, which was dependent on testimony and transcripts, everyone watching the rally heard Trump’s admission with their own ears. Coronavirus task force head, the fake Christian VP Mike Pence, should be summoned to testify about testing. Pence bragged for months about U.S. testing prowess. Compel Pence to tell us what’s happening.

Watching workers dismantle the overflow stage before the rally started was hilarious! So was seeing the BOK Center arena upper bowl nearly empty. Trump’s prediction of a crowd of 1 million turned out to be 6,600. (Trump whiffs big-time with numbers. Recall his “15 cases will soon be near zero” morphed into 2.3 million coronavirus cases, and counting. No wonder he hides his tax returns!)

Of course, Trump lied and blamed Black Lives Matter protestors claiming they blocked gate entrances used by rally attendees. Really? Didn’t Trump threaten that protesters would be roughed up if they messed with his rally?

Another factor causing Trump’s tiny crowd size was the persistent drumbeat of healthcare experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Kavita Patel. Recognizing reality, some MAGAs finally used their brains and stayed home, ignoring Trump’s obvious lie that the virus “is dying out.” It did not help that six Trump staffers, in Tulsa for several days, tested positive for the coronavirus. By Monday, two more staffers plus two Secret Servicemen tested positive.

Your eyes were not lying. Trump’s rally in Tulsa was a bust. (Photo credit CNN screenshot)

Good. Bad. Incomplete.

Prior to Tulsa, an ABC reporter asked Trump an excellent question: Why does he hire people and then trash them as “losers” when they leave his administration? Without answering Trump glared at her and turned away, repeatedly thanking everyone for attending the meeting.

Predictably, bad reporting came from Fox News before the rally began. A Fox studio host had the temerity to tell viewers the BOK arena “is packed,” even as cameras showed large swaths of empty seats.

Also, Trump predictably trotted out Diamond & Silk to warm up the crowd. Seeing those two losers, I was reminded that Quaker Oats just dropped Aunt Jemima as their syrup brand icon. Isn’t it high time Diamond & Silk slink away, too?

After the rally an MSNBC reporter interviewed a Trumper. The retired Bostonian explained he came to hear Trump talk about solutions to fix the economy and bring jobs back. I sensed he was disappointed with Trump’s speech, but we will never know. The man mentioned cops inadvertently pepper sprayed him. Unfortunately, the reporter focused on the sensational – the pepper spray incident – rather than probe to see if the rally attendee was unhappy with Trump‘s performance.

Ladies, follow Aunt Jemima out the door. (Photo credit MSNBC Screenshot)

Trapped

If MAGAs tepid response in Tulsa portends the future of Trump rallies, the campaign will have few options to re-energize the base (and Trump).

Re-start daily coronavirus task force updates? Not likely. Broadcasters stopped showing updates once ratings declined and Trump proffered dangerous remedies like ingesting Clorox.

Occasional speeches from the West Wing? Doubtful. In prior speeches from the White House Trump lacked the discipline to stick with the teleprompter. He looked hemmed in, miserable and in need of a hamburger and glass of milk before bedtime.

And the Republican National Convention is in trouble. To begin with, moving the convention from Charlotte, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida was moronic. Led by foolish Gov. Ron DeSantis and foolish ex-governor now Sen. Rick Scott, Florida is suffering a wave of coronavirus positive tests showing no signs of abating. Hoping Doc Fauci reverses course and tells GOPers it is OK to attend their convention is as likely as our last real president, Barack Obama, endorsing a pretend president named Trump.

Trump may lose portions of his phalanx of suck-ups. Just as haters gonna hate, gutless wanderers gonna wander when things get difficult. One can easily envision Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and other semi-coherent Trump loyalists pressing the eject button if current trends continue. Even Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as ruthless and evil as anyone alive, will create distance if Trump’s disastrous streak continues.

This week dozens of former Republican national security officials announced the formation of a group that will, in the coming weeks, publicly endorse and campaign for Democrat Joe Biden. The group worked under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George Bush. Translation: former GOP officials now supporting Biden are representative of, and will influence, the older voting bloc that went for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Tired of waiting for legislators to do the right thing, protesters take matters into their own hands and remove shrines to the Confederacy. (Photo credit The Guardian)

Leave ‘em behind

Ever see a National Geographic documentary where a community of elephants is on the move and a calf cannot keep up? The mother goes back and retrieves the calf, bringing it along with the rest of the group.

That should not be the case here. We should not attempt to retrieve racists, such as those who are insistent the Confederate flag fly at NASCAR races and shout the n-word at driver Bubba Wallace. Same goes for any other behind-the-times out-of-touch racists, including Trump.

American society must move on from these relics. Sure, they can continue to hideout in like-minded communities. Some even “pass” living in multi-cultural neighborhoods. When discovered they should be shunned rather than waste time trying to salvage them. They have nothing to offer America and are caught in a backwards, wish-they-could-ride-in-a-horse-and-buggy mentality. They add zero value to a progressive society.

Lastly, Democrats, if you blow this election, on top of messing up impeachment, history will judge you harshly. According to Taegan Goddard’s electoral vote map forecast, Biden has 279 electoral votes to Trump’s 163. The remaining 96 electoral votes are listed as toss ups.

Trump is reeling. Let’s knock the sucker out.