Re: The Trump severed head âjokeâ: Kathy Griffin isn’t funny, and this wasnât a joke. Here’s the problem with what Griffin did: A joke has to be funny, and this simply wasn’t. The only message you can take from her severed Trump head photo is: “look at me, I’m Kathy Griffin!” Griffin is getting what she deserves for putting her desire for attention ahead of everything else.
Yes, she has the right to produce the image, but that doesnât mean it has to be accepted by the rest of us. If you mimic what ISIS does to their victims, you deserve to lose your job on CNN. She needs to grow up; CNN did the right thing.
On to cartoons. Quite the week for climate change drama. Trumpâs action on Paris could have been inspired by the Saudi sword dance, but it is it different than Griffinâs?
Trump said he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Trump lost Pittsburgh to Clinton, and Pittsburgâs mayor says the city will follow the Paris Accords. But, in Trump speak:
Trump seems intent on completely eradicating the Obama legacy:
The news about back-channel communications with Russia leads to Jared Kushner:
The medicine in Trumpcare II is no better than in Trumpcare I:
Trolltunga (Trollâs Tongue) Norway â photo by B. Krustev
What is left to say about Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement? The world is looking at a post-agreement future as if we were standing on the edge of Troll’s Tongue. The Paris deal wasnât a binding agreement, it was aspirational, with voluntary targets and no mechanism for enforcement. But, this quote from Abu Ivanka tells all:
At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment. We donât want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore.
This is the core problem with Trumpâs view of the world: He and the members of his Party see the world agenda as a zero-sum game, in which only one nation can win. Therefore, we gotta win, or else we lose, and God forbid, we canât lose. At anything.
Zero-sum thinking is what causes voluntary agreements to fail; they require non-zero sum thinking to succeed.
But, in a zero-sum world, there will always be someone in some country who thinks, rightly or wrongly, that theyâre being screwed over, that other countries are using the climate issue to pursue an economic advantage.
In this case, Trump gets into power. He then abandons the agreement, or attempts to renegotiate it.
The new terms on offer will be unacceptable, possibly even designed to fail. So it will be with Trump, who is looking to force both China and India into binding targets in order to continue with the agreement. Thatâs what Republicans consider âfair treatmentâ.
But Americaâs coal miners gotta work. Trump is in thrall with an industry that is among those dying out in America. In March, the WaPo reported that:
The coal industry employed 76,572 people in 2014, the latest year for which data is available. That number includes not just miners but also office workers, sales staff and all of the other individuals who work at coal-mining companies.
Thatâs fewer people employed than at other shrinking industries, like travel agencies (99,888), used-car dealerships (138,000), or carwash employment (150,000).
Maybe Trump will gin up a reason why climate change is killing jobs in those industries as well.
You need to relax, you need to think about something other than Trump, Ivanka and Jared, or Putin and Megyn Kelly. In other words, you need to turn off your devices, sit quietly and take a long look out the window at the natural world. It helps if you can have a strong cuppa something while you kick back.
Gouldian Finch, native to Australia â photo by Melinda Moore
(This post is an expansion of the ideas in Wrongoâs Memorial Day column)
Ms. Oh So Right suggested while we were in Europe that we stop calling it the “War on Terror” and begin calling it the “Hundred Year War.” Why? Because it seems that the Middle East has an unbreakable hold on us. Tom Friedman offers this take on the Trump doctrine:
The Trump doctrine is very simple: There are just four threats in the world: terrorists who will kill us, immigrants who will rape us or take our jobs, importers and exporters who will take our industries â and North Korea.
Last week, Trump took the decision to insert the US into what promises to be a never-ending war between the Sunni and the Shia for control of the ME. Rather than try to keep a balanced political position between these two religions, Trump has tilted America towards the Sunnis. This from Paul Mulshine:
The pivotal moment on his foreign trip came when Trump cuddled up to Saudi Arabia, a country he accused of “paying ISIS” back when he was campaigning for the presidency.
ISIS is of course, a Sunni group. So is al Qaeda. And Saudi Arabia is at the center of the Sunni universe.
There was a peaceful and democratic change of power in the ME while Trump was away. It was the re-election of Hassan Rouhani in Iran. In that contest, 41.2 million voters, or 73% of the Iranian electorate, turned out to vote. So who did Trump lash out at during his speech in Riyadh? Not Saudi Arabia, but Iran:
From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region…
This ignores the fact that Saudi Arabia funds more terror than does Iran, and it isnât a democracy. This despite the fact that we share with the Iranians the goal of ousting ISIS from Syria. Yet, on May 18, US planes attacked a convoy of Syrian Army forces that included Iranian militias, and probably a few Russian advisers.
Back when Trump appointed Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, there was some hope that we might become more calculated in our involvement in the region. But both individuals seem to be hot to go to war with Iran. The fear is that the Trump administration will adopt the “on to Tehran” strategy the people around George W. Bush endorsed back when it seemed that Bushâs Iraq invasion had succeeded.
This is where we start getting into “Hundred Years’ War” territory. (The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of France, over the succession of the French throne.)
This is why Wrongo thinks we must re-instate the draft. Let America debate about why Trump and the neo-cons think a war with Iran is a good idea. Let them explain to draft-age kids and their parents why American should get involved in a civil war between the Shia and the Sunni.
Why will this keep us safe?
Trump is embarking on a hard-line anti-Iranian journey, precisely when Iranians re-elected a moderate to lead their country. Trump risks making a mistake that would be similar to GW Bushâs. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein permitted the Iranian Shia majority to link up with the Iraqi Shia majority, thus giving the Iranians the first step towards creating the “Shia Crescent.”
If Trump takes an aggressive attitude toward Tehran, he’ll be playing into the hands of the Iranian hard-liners. Trump campaigned at least in part, on not repeating Bushâs ME mistakes. But now he is aligning himself with the Sunnis, who plan to keep the Syrian civil war going for at least another generation (25 years).
What happens then?
We’ll still have 58 years to figure it out.
Letâs close with a tune. Here are Todd Rundgren and Donald Fagan doing âTin Foil Hatâ from Toddâs new album âWhite Knightâ. Itâs a song about Donald Trump:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
On Memorial Day we commemorate those who died in the military service of our country. In 1974, a sci-fi novel called âThe Forever Warâ was released. It is military science fiction, telling the story of soldiers fighting an interstellar war. The protagonist, named Mandella, is sent across the galaxy to fight a poorly understood, apparently undefeatable foe.
Sound familiar? Today the forever war is not simply fiction. Our all-volunteer military has been fighting in the Middle East for the past 16 years in the longest war in American history. And there is little reason to hope that we will not be fighting there 16 years from now. Brian Castner, a former explosive ordnance disposal officer who served three tours in Iraq, observes:
Our country has created a self-selected and battle-hardened cohort of frequent fliers, one that is almost entirely separate from mainstream civilian culture, because service in the Forever War, as many of us call it, isnât so much about going as returning. According to data provided by the Center for a New American Security, of the 2.7 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, half have done multiple tours. More telling, 223,000 have gone at least four times, and 51,000 have done six or more deployments.
We canât get our fill of war. In fact, since 1943, the year the picture above was taken in New York City, the US has been at peace for just five years: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1997 and 2000 were the only years with no major war.
So today, we gather to celebrate those who have died in service of our global ambitions. We watch a parade, we shop at the mall, and we attend a cookout. Perhaps we should be required to spend more time thinking about how America can increase the number of years when we are not at war.
Wrongo canât escape the idea that if we re-instituted a military draft, and required military service of all young Americans, it would soon become impossible for the politicians and generals to justify the forever war.
So, wake up America! Instead of observing Memorial Day with another burger, get involved in a plan to re-institute the draft. It wonât stop our involvement in war, but it will unite American mothers and fathers to bring about the end of this forever war, and any future âforever warâ.
To help you wake up, we also remember the death of Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band. Here is âBlue Skyâ from their âEat a Peachâ album. Wrongo loves the guitar interplay between the long-gone Duane Allman and Dickey Betts on this tune:
Dickey Betts wrote this about his Native American girlfriend, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
In Saudi Arabia, The LA Times’ Molly Hennessy-Fiske reports that Donald Trump is now called âAbu Ivankaâ. Abu means âthe father ofâ. Â Apparently Saudi Arabia is fascinated with Ivanka Trump, and thus, The Donald gets a new title.
The Saudi Pipeline:
In his speech, Trump called Saudi Arabia the country that contributes more to peace than any other Muslim country. Really? The Saudis?
Trump got the arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Now, he plans to sell off half the US oil reserve so we can once again be dependent on OPEC oil:
Trump is impressed by Wailing Wall:
When Donny visited the Pope, he received a copy of the Popeâs Climate Encyclical:
His Assholiness gives the Pope a religious education:
Trump returns from his international visits having moved the US into siding with the Sunnis in the Middle East. In this, he has also sided with his generals. This also puts him on the side of al Qaeda, a Sunni terror organization that did you-know-what.
Significantly, it is clear that the entire Trump foreign policy is anti-terrorism. That is one approach, but Trumpâs take is mystifying: He calls Iran an enemy because they are a sponsor of terror, which is true. But he embraces Saudi Arabia, the largest sponsor of terrorism by far in the ME, and has attempted to make them his ally in the War on Terror.
The Saudis will now expect that the US will accept that their $110 billion in defense purchases and $40 billion in contributions from the Saudi state’s sovereign wealth fund will buy them enhanced power in Washington and that their demands will be greeted with great receptivity in the future.
That will probably be a difficult pill for Israel to swallow.
Siding with the Sunnis means that the âShia Crescentâ (Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria) will be difficult for the US to maintain as friends, partners, or allies. In fact, it was reported this week that Russia, Syria and Iran have been proclaimed as allies by the Iraqi Interior Minister. For all the money and blood that we spent, for all of the domestic programs that we sacrificed, the US now has little to show for its last 15 years in Iraq except a huge, and under Donald Trump, a growing national debt.
We are obviously and irredeemably ignorant, and apparently determined to remain so. The Shia Crescent will be an Iranian/Shia alliance extending through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the sea, with Russian and Chinese backing to boot.
Whomever heads ME strategy for Trump needs to hear: âYouâre fired!â
Trump also met with NATO and the EU, and both relationships look less confident than at any time in recent history. In fact, European Council President Donald Tusk has said that Trump and senior European Union officials failed to find common ground on the main issues at their meeting in Brussels.
Consider this: Trump emerges from this trip as closer to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Israel than he is with the democracies of Western Europe. We can now start preparing for US War on Terror Part B; followed by Sunni insurgency 3.0: now with even better weapons and funding.
Do these thoughts make you feel that you need something to help you calm down? Wrongoâs advice is stop watching or reading the news for a few days, as he did while traveling in Europe. Talk to locals in your area. Ask them about why they think as they do.
Then grab a vente cuppa chamomile tea and listen to Janine Jansen play French composer Jules Massenetâs âMeditation from ThaĂŻsâ:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
On Friday night in Cologne Germany, Wrongo and Ms. Right had the chance to see a great young female duo who play classical music. Sophie Moser (violin) and Katja Huhn (piano) played selections for a mostly American audience. They perform under the name Duo Moser-Huhn. Here they are playing the Romanian Folk Dances by Bartok, composed in 1915. Sophie was a child prodigy, and plays an Amati violin built in 1743. They have few YouTube performances, so hopefully, you will enjoy this:
On to cartoons. Der Donald is on his first overseas tour as president. He is in Saudi as this is written, before his big speech on Islamic Terrorism. So you will already know just how well that was received by the 50 or so heads of state in the audience.
Trump prepares for landing:
Opinions on his Middle East visit vary:
John Fugelsang called Trumpâs meeting with the Pope âHis Holiness meets His Assholinessâ:
Calf born on Tuesday, May 16, Kuiperâs dairy, Giessenburg, Netherlands â photo by Wrongo
Wrongo visited an artisanal cheese business in The Netherlands. The farmâs owners have worked and owned the land for six generations. Jan and Thera Kuiper, the current generation, have been running the business for 31 years, since shortly after they married. When they were just starting out, milk prices were falling, and there was a surplus of dairy cows in The Netherlands. They decided to move up the value chain, and begin producing cheese. Today the farm produces 4000 pounds of cheese a week, and sells throughout the EU. They have completed the preliminary work to sell their product in the US, and could begin exporting to America soon.
Because their roots are in a dairy farm, the main raw material cost for their product is quite low, particularly compared to many artisanal cheese makers in the US who have to purchase milk as they expand and become more successful.
Like all family businesses, a huge question is who from the next generation will take over the business when it is time for the current owners to retire. One of their three kids is interested and able to take over, while the others have assumed urban-based careers.
It was inspiring to talk with them about daily life in the business of artisanal cheese-making, and it is another lesson that fulfilling a version of the American Dream can happen anywhere.
 Your score of 60 shows you’ve had more factors working in your favor, but still some you’ve had to overcome. To see what your score means compared to others, click here.
What about you?
With all of the news about a Special Counsel, this article about Mueller and Comey is a valuable insight. Forged Under FireâBob Mueller and Jim Comeyâs Unusual Friendship is from the Washingtonian Magazine in May 2013. It is a longer piece, but well worth the time to understand Robert Mueller and why he might be sympathetic to Jim Comey.
(Wrongo and Ms. Oh So Right are heading to Europe today. We will be gone for 10 days, so blogging may be sparse. Please keep America great while we are away.)
Happy Motherâs Day to all. A few more thoughts about BLOTUS (Big Liar of the US): Not only does he have the worst approval ratings of any president at this point in his term, but heâs also incapable of moving the needle of public opinion toward his positions. Ironically, for all of Trumpâs sycophantsâ talk that Trumpâs words ARE his actions, his tweets and public pronouncements are making his positions more unpopular.
