Tirade Policy

Score another one for the Donald. Serial crises, the likes of which would have normally sunk most presidencies, seem to buoy Trump instead. Indeed, the formula is now well-known and familiar:

Step 1 - create a totally unnecessary crisis of your own making.

Step 2 - threaten and bully your adversary with demands that are completely out of the realm of possibility.

Step 3 - wait until the world bites its collective fingernails to the quick.

Step 4 -  back down.

Step 5 - claim victory for having defused the bogus crisis, regardless of actual costs to yourself or anyone else.

In this particular case, Trump decided to conflate immigration with trade policy, which carried some significant economic costs for his wealthy GOP enablers - so much so that GOP politicos suffered a momentary lapse of spinefulness and muttered and sputtered about swallowing these costs while making maximum effort to avoid provoking the Donald's infamous temper.'

And, to make this whole exercise all the more absurd, the details of the actual "deal" reached with the Government of Mexico turned out to have been negotiated months ago between Mexico and the U.S. It makes me wonder, "Was this all a distraction? What the <bleep> was actually going on while we were so focused on the scary possibility of rapidly escalating tariffs on our #1 trading partner?

The list is probably too long, and probably involves a mixture of gross corrupt practices, obstruction of justice, and evisceration of some critical cornerstone of one of our long-established institutions. Good grief, why does all of that sound so familiar It must be déjà vu all over again and again and again and again...I think I need a nap.