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The political term for physically-challenged waterfowl has been appearing with increasing regularity in the media this week, to describe the president. But is Donald Trump really a "lame duck" yet? Or is he more of a duck that happened to sprain an ankle or perhaps stub a toe (do ducks technically have ankles... or toes? I must admit, I have no idea...)?
Larry Summers has now become the first prominent American to be publicly disgraced for his association with Jeffrey Epstein, but he certainly won't be the last. Since the release of emails between Summers and Epstein, Summers has swiftly been disappearing from public life. He has either resigned or been kicked off many lucrative positions he held with various companies and other institutions, and he has now had to step back from his teaching position at Harvard University (after an attempt to cling to the job by admitting his shame to his students didn't go over very well). My guess is he won't be appearing on many news programs as an expert economist anymore either. But again, the fall of Summers is just the first in what will likely be a series of people who will be ostracized and shunned in public life. Because he certainly wasn't the only friend of Epstein who is in a prominent public position (and therefore has a lot to lose). [I should add, for the record, that former-Prince Andrew has also paid a steep price for what was recently revealed, but the woes of British royalty don't really interest me that much, so I consider him more of a footnote to the story here in America.]
Wow, that was fast!
Congress can indeed move quickly, when they want to. The House speaker could have delayed the vote until just before or after Thanksgiving, but instead he scheduled it for today. After this weekend's about-face from Donald Trump, almost the entire Republican Party (with only one vote against in either chamber) passed the bill through both houses in one day.
Donald Trump has done an about-face on two big (but completely unrelated) issues, which took place within a few days of each other. While it's impossible to know what he was thinking, the reasons behind these two major reversals can probably be summed up as: (1) he was about to lose, and: (2) he was already losing. Trump has a pathological fear of being on the losing side of anything, so both of these U-turns was pretty obviously intended to put him on the side of winning, at the last possible minute.
So, let's review, shall we? Last weekend, seven million Americans took to the streets to protest Donald Trump, in the biggest political protest this country has ever seen. The theme of the protest was: "No Kings!" So this week, Trump responded by acting in what can only be described as kingly fashion, in as many ways as he could dream up -- including a rushed demolition of one-third of the White House, without consulting anyone or even attempting to get anyone's permission. He sent the demolition crews in, and within a few days the entire East Wing was nothing more than a pile of rubble. All because a royal decree had been issued.
Donald Trump actually achieved something worthwhile this week. A ceasefire deal that will result in all the hostages being released was hammered out between Israel and Hamas, and the guns have gone silent in Gaza. Whether this results in a long-lasting peace deal remain to be seen (there are a lot of details that are still "to be determined" in the deal), but progress has definitely been made. However, Trump did not achieve what he really wanted in all this, as the Nobel Peace Prize was announced today -- for someone else. Maybe he'll be considered next year, but so far the petulance and anger from the MAGA crowd has already begun.
Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for the office of Virginia's attorney general, should immediately withdraw his nomination.
That's a tough thing for me to say, less than a month from Election Day and with early voting having already begun. But I feel it is necessary at this point, even if it means the Republican candidate would win.
Normally, on a Friday following the end of a month, we would all be talking about the new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics right about now. We can't do that today, because the report didn't appear on schedule. This was due to the government being shut down, of course.
The United States of America now seems to have officially become a banana republic. That's really the only conclusion one can draw, after the events of the past week (and the past eight months, for good measure).
[Program Note: Once again, we are pre-empting the entire format of this column due to the seriousness of the situation America now finds itself in. Most weeks, we strive to rise above the firehose of distractions from Donald Trump and his administration, to focus instead on things which truly matter -- which, this week, include Trump once again rolling over for Vladimir Putin while he invades another NATO country's airspace, as well as Trump blowing up boats in international waters just because he feels like it. But this week the distraction truly was what really mattered. Because this week we had a direct assault on the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press in a way not seen since Joe McCarthy trod the halls of the U.S. Capitol. So we had to write an extended rant instead of our usual column, just to warn everyone in advance.]
Our subtitle this week is meant to honor the passing of Rick Davies, one of the founding members of the musical group Supertramp, who passed away less than two weeks ago. In one of their biggest hits ("The Logical Song"), one lyric seems to sum up where we now stand as a nation: