The Art of Sucking Up and Selling Out

President Donald Trump has just come back from Europe, burning bridges with America's remaining allies while kissing up to a dictator to whom he owes his job.  Is this the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, or is this just another day at the office?

Trump's summit in Helsinki, Finland with Russian president Vladimir Putin was an excellent display in the art of sucking up and selling out.  After meeting one-on-one with only interpreters present, the news conference that followed saw Trump going on and on like a teenage crush about what a great guy Putin was, and how he didn't believe his own government's intelligence concerning Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and their latest cyber attack on the U.S.  Putin didn't have to say a thing.  He was content to let Trump act like a fawning idiot in front of the whole world.

For some time now, Trump has been hollering "no collusion" in the face of Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into the matter (which now includes indictments against 12 Russians) in the same way Richard Nixon insisted during Watergate that he was not a crook.  But the President wasn't ready for the barrage of criticism from both sides of the political aisle (even--horrors!--Fox News) for his summit performance, which ranged from "disgusting" to "treasonous".

Trump tried to correct himself by claiming he "misspoke" about his support for American intelligence agencies, and walking back other such comments as the week went along.  But it's too late.  We heard you the first time.

Earlier, in another gathering with European leaders, Trump walked all over them when he briefly considered getting the U.S. out of NATO and for calling the European Union a "foe".  In England, as a giant blimp of "Baby Trump" sailed (or is it soiled?) over London, he dissed Prime Minister Theresa May and broke protocol with Queen Elizabeth II.

After all this, Congress is still at their wits' end in figuring out what (if anything) they should do about the President's apparent betrayal of his country.  For the Republicans who currently control both houses, they keep getting burned by the man they say they support.  It's going to take more than the midterm elections for the GOP to get it through their thick skulls that Trump is a national security risk.  Short of impeachment (which nobody really wants to deal with in an election year) or voluntary resignation, does he need an intervention by party officials?

And then there's The Base, Trump's loyal followers who still blame Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their problems, and who have more or less shamed their GOP representatives into supporting the President if they want to get re-elected.  Will they still love him, even though he's sold them out?

The more Donald Trump lies and deceives his fellow Americans and their allies, the more he paints himself into a corner.  The more he paints himself in a corner and someone calls him out about it, the more ways he finds to get out of that corner.  Dissing your country while patting the dictator's back should (among other things) be grounds for removal under the U.S. Constitution.  But nobody has the guts to use it.

So it is just another day at the office.

The Supreme Court: Making It Right

Brett Kavanaugh is the second choice President Donald Trump has made for the U.S. Supreme Court since taking office, and he seems to fall into a pattern.  He's a white male, has an Ivy League law school degree, and is young enough (at 53) to steer the Court in a conservative direction for the foreseeable future.

Kavanaugh's bio reads like this:  He's a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.  He once clerked for Anthony Kennedy, the man he hopes to replace on the High Court.  He used to work for Kenneth Starr, who you might recall was breathing down President Bill and Hillary Clinton's necks during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations as special prosecutor.  And he also worked for both George Bushes (H.W. and W.) during their presidencies.  In other words, he's the political insider Trump is not.

Senate Republicans want to get Kavanaugh confirmed before the first Monday in October (when the new Supreme Court term opens) and before the midterm elections, provided they don't find too many skeletons in his closet.  The Democrats, still smarting from having been denied the opportunity to put Merrick Garland where Neil Gorsuch now sits, do not have the numbers to block or delay Kavanaugh's confirmation.  But they're sure going to raise a lot of hell over it considering what's at stake:  Abortion, gay and lesbian rights, guns, health care, political line-drawing, immigrant reform, etc.

There is also the argument that sitting presidents like Trump who are in legal trouble shouldn't be picking any kind of justice until the investigations are over.  (Too late.  He already did that with Gorsuch.)  Kavanaugh is on record as saying that presidents should be immune from lawsuits while they're in office, unless it's about impeachment.  With this president, that's a possibility.  As it stands, Kavanaugh might be Trump's "get out of jail free" card, as Maryland's Democratic Senator Ben Cardin put it.  Which may not be what the framers of the U.S. Constitution (or for that matter, the creators of "Monopoly") had in mind, but there it is.

Whatever happens to Brett Kavanaugh on the way to his nomination, the liberal wing of the Supreme Court has been put on notice.  As long as Trump or any other Republican is in the White House, they could be replaced any day by assembly-line conservative judges who might make life harder and meaner for the rest of us.  It's something to consider as the United States evolves into a majority-minority country with white men still in control.

Being Civil in the Real World

Civility is defined as being polite and courteous in our daily life and activities.  Try finding that anywhere in President Donald Trump's America these days.

Incivility in politics has been around for as long as there's been a United States.  It didn't start with Trump, who struts around fancying himself a martinet with a smartphone in one hand and a raised clenched fist on the other.  It didn't start with Republican lawmakers in Congress who shot down everything President Barack Obama was trying to do from the moment he took office.  It didn't start when President George W. Bush after 9/11/01 declared you're either with us or against us.

But Trump and his enablers are setting a new standard for lowering the bar on civility in office, which is having a negative effect on international relations and invites questions over whether democracy will survive him.  He and his fans have been behaving like loudmouthed schoolyard bullies, frightening and intimidating anyone who crosses their path.  It has taken until now for Democrats, progressives and everyone else to wake up to what's going on.

During the "zero tolerance" crackdown on undocumented migrant families who were trying to cross the border from Mexico, the dominant image was of children being ripped from their parents and put into cages.  Another dominant image was that of First Lady Melania Trump wearing a message on the back of her jacket that read:  "I really don't care.  Do U?"  The President tried to explain it as her being on board with his anti-media message, but it meant so much more.

This has led to incidents where Trump staffers like press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, who were harassed while trying to eat dinner or are no longer welcome at certain restaurants.  There have also been protests across the country concerning the alleged conditions of the migrant families, as well as reports of detainees who claimed that they were treated like animals.

Also, five employees of the Capital Gazette, an Annapolis, Maryland-based newspaper, were gunned down in the latest attack on our society by a disgruntled individual with a gun.  The President, who has made the terms "fake news" and "enemy of the American people" synonymous with his dislike of any media that isn't Fox News, expressed his condolences to the victims' families and had to be convinced to lower the flag to half staff.  Few people think Trump was really sincere about it, and will probably go back to bashing the media in another Twitter rampage soon.  Meanwhile, the Gazette did put out the damn paper the day after the attack.

We have constantly been reminded that the most civil thing you can do to combat the excesses and pettiness of the Trump administration is to vote for Democrats to take over Congress this fall.  That may be true, but it's a long way from July 4th to Election Day in November.  Until then, everyone has to decide (in the words of TV's "Real World") whether the time has come to stop being polite and start getting real.