Less than a week
away from the midterms, and only time for a final edition of The
Events, October. What follows are
further clarifications of the system and a summary of the past month.
One of the efforts of The
Events is to follow continuing developments on particular issues.
For instance, the long running effort of the Trump administration to
deter immigrants by denigrating them, separating them from their
children, and threatening them with gunfire can be cataloged with a
clear pattern of self awareness and escalation.
Some of the events
clearly connect to President Donald Trump, but readers might find
other connections more tenuous. For example, there is the issue of
Khashoggi. Trump did nothing to precipitate this man's death (except
continually vilify journalists, thereby allowing other more dangerous
dictators in more corrupt countries, to use the President of the
United State's words
to justify their own atrocities),
yet Khashoggi does not make the list for this alone. In this case,
Trump inserted himself into the conversation, onto the Event list, by
absurdly, grotesquely, insisting that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
Mohammad
bin Salman is innocent until proven
guilty (as if he would ever be tried in a courtroom) and that pulling
out of the arms deal with would be too punishing to the United States
to hold the murderers accountable.
With that explanation, a
quick summary of October 2018.
October began with a
conclusion; Paul Manafort's trial was wrapped up and put away.
Eventually the public may hear his testimony, but not until at least
the end of November. Following Manafort was the end of Kavanaugh's
time on the hot seat. Flake insisted on a FBI background check
(during which the President mocked the accuser at his rallies), but
the investigation was limited by the White House, and did not even
include an interview with Kavanaugh or Ford. After the short search,
the FBI issued a secret report the public did not see, and the Senate
confirmed him.
During the middle of the month it was revealed that a Saudi citizen
and United States resident (and fiance to a United States citizen),
named Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered at the Saudi embassy in Turkey,
where he had gone to receive papers for his upcoming marriage. The
Saudi's denied it, the President strongly supported their denial. He
offered two reasons. The first, they were innocent until proven
guilty, and the second, he didn't care, even if they executed the
murder.
The middle of the month
was punctuated by Mitch McConnell informing the public that
government programs for the poor, not the 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut
for the wealthy and corporations, was responsible for the ballooning
deficit even with a booming economy.
Everything else in the
month was overshadowed by the president's continuing migrant crisis,
which has festered. Even though news of the massive family
separation has receded from view, it has continued. Worse, the
president has escalated the issue, as a caravan of desperate people,
seeking shelter from abuse and violence, fled their central American
countries and started moving north toward the United States. The
President has used them to incite hatred and anger. He sent 5,000
soldiers to the border, insisted he could revoke birthright
citizenship, and threatened to cut aid to foreign countries.
This concluded in a
collection of right-wing attacks (at least partially incited by the
President) against current and former Democratic politicians
(including two former presidents), African Americans, and Jewish
citizens. When questioned by the media, the President refused to
shoulder any blame or reduce his rhetoric, and instead blamed the
media, as the enemy of the people.
Also during October there
were credible accusations of corruption against Zinke, Trump,
Kushner, Tillerson, and Wilber Ross.
Two major stories remained
largely unremarked upon, and failed to break into the news cycle
despite their significance. First, the New York Times revealed a
comprehensive examination of how the President made his money. Most
of it was gifted from his father in a combination of both legal (but
shady) and illegal maneuvers. Two, Politico reported that many days
the President works only three hours, with nine hours reserved for
unstructured Executive Time, which involves watching TV and composing
lying, inciting tweets.
In the last two weeks
before the election Trump has done the impossible and increased the
quantity and quality of his lies. Particularly galling is Trump's
attempts to lie about the Republican position of preexisting
conditions. Though Republican policy has been for the last eight
years to remove protections, the President and some of his allies are
claiming the exact opposite. His increased incitement of hatred
against a ragtag group of travelers seeking legal asylum is
unprecedented as well.
We'll see on Tuesday night
and Wednesday morning how the citizens of the United States of
America respond.
Recent:
Relevant:
Comments
Post a Comment