Freak Out Friday = July 6, 2018

Well, last week was certainly something of a f-ckfest as Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, which means that Trump will have the opportunity to put yet another judge on the SCOTUS. This is, of course, a disaster. Kennedy was conservative, but he was reasonable on some issues which made him a swing vote on some cases which resulted in liberals holding a favorable view of him. We can rest assured that Trump will not select any sort of reasonable individual, and that means that it’s going to take an entire generation to undo the damage he will cause. Roe v. Wade is the most immediate decision under fire, and a conservative dream court will now be sitting and ruling on any cases involving abortion. And you know that conservatives are going to fast track one even before the dust settles on the confirmation hearing.

Of course liberals are taking the tack of echoing Mitch McConnell’s words by declaring that it’s not right to put in a new judge in an election year. That makes sense; if the November election flips the Senate to Democratic, that would put an entirely new spin on the outcome. The problem is, of course, that McConnell didn’t really mean it. All he wanted was to prevent Obama from putting a new judge in place, and came up with his lame ášš pronouncement to try and justify some sort of reason even though there was none. Now that we’re back in an election year and selecting a new justice, McConnell wants to make that happen as quickly as possible, his own words forgotten as rapidly as Trump forgets his own words.

So be prepared for abortion to be switched back to states’ rights, which means it’s going to become illegal in over half the states of the US. New York, California, you’ll be able to get them there, but if you’re a poor young woman in Bumblef*ck, Montana, you’re gonna be screwed.

Meanwhile Trump has been at more of his usual bull.

1). He never met a lie he didn’t like.. Speaking of Montana, Trump held another of his typical rallies because that’s what he likes: A mob of people showing up and cheering everything he says, including the falsehoods. Indeed, there are some that he adores so thoroughly that he brings them up at any public gathering. Claiming that the US pays up to 90 percent of NATO’s defense spending? Check. (It’s 72, actually). “Obama was very close to going to war with North Korea? Check. (No proof ever presented.). Claiming that Hillary earned 223 electoral votes? Yup. (She took 232.). Claimed 20,000 people were turned away at a recent rally? Yes. (Didn’t happen.). Stating that the $700 billion military budget he signed was “the biggest ever.” Check. (Obama signed a bigger version in 2011.). The wall is under construction in San Diego. Check. (It’s not.). Wages are rising for the first time in eighteen years. Sort-of check; previously he’d said nineteen and twenty-two years. Either way, it’s all false; wages have been rising since 2014. The trade deficit with China is over $500 billion. Check; he really likes saying that one. Too bad it’s $337 billion. And so on and so on. He has set records with the number of lies he has told during his term. Yet he has the nerve to keep complaining about the “fake media” when he is the biggest fake who has ever held the office. Indeed, pretty much any office.

2). Indian giver.. And yet he cannot stop obsessing about the alleged lie that Elizabeth Warren told decades ago. She believed the stories that her grandmother told her, mentioned that she had Native American blood in her, and pundits in general and Trump in specific have railed at her about that ever since a university where she taught mentioned it in their literature. The man who has literally told thousands of lies in his first year, wants her to get a DNA test and if it comes back positive, claims he’ll donate a million dollars to a charity of hers.

First of all, no, he won’t. She could come back one quarter Apache and Trump will still not pay out a million dollars to anybody. Second, sure she’ll do it, right after he releases his tax returns.

The bottom line is this: He’s targeting Warren because he’s afraid of her; he’s concerned she’ll run against him in 2020. Whenever he makes fun of her, it means he’s running scared over the prospect of having to face her. Trump has lost the right to call anyone else a liar, ever. Not with the thousands of lies that he has repeatedly stated to serve his base of non-discriminating chowderheads.

3). The China syndrome.. And for pretty much no reason at all, he’s launching a trade war against China this week which, when China lashes back, is going to wind up crippling–among others–farmers who were stupid enough to vote for Trump in the first place.

As I said: a generation to fix the damage he’s done. Maybe more.

PAD