Here is how we can define Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. He likes a painting which portrays him not just in a flattering way on a personal level, but shows him as historically significant as every other republican president in the history of the nation.
He also likes the Saudis a lot and their money even more. So much so he seems willing to sweep what increasingly appears to be the state sponsored murder of a Saudi journalist under the rug.
The painting in question, titled, "The Republican Club," is by, Andy Thomas. It has all the artistic nuance and talent of that well known portrayal of a bunch of different dogs playing poker. I first saw a print of it decades ago in a Muskogee, OK barbershop. I thought it was kind of cool then, but I was like five years old and my tastes have evolved some since then.
Thomas' painting jumped into the internet limelight when it was caught in the background during Trump's Sunday interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS', 60 Minutes. It puts Trump in a bar scene at a table with Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Abraham Lincoln, and George W. Bush. Standing around the table are George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Theodore Roosevelt. In the back ground there appears to be Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and off to the other side, Ulysses S. Grant.
Besides artistic merit, or lack thereof--Thomas is self taught and you can tell it--there are some other questions which immediately spring to mind about the content. First off, why are all these guys laughing with Trump, because there are several there who, in truth, would have probably loathed him. Secondly, some of the presidents included, honestly, screwed the pooch so badly while they were in office no one in their right mind would want to be associated with them.
We all get the laughing Nixon. He has finally been pictured with someone even more corrupt and vile than he was. Let's face it, compared to Don Trump, Dick Nixon was nothing more that a two bit shoplifter. One can easily imagine him thinking something along the lines of, Finally, a man who makes me seem not so bad.
Teddy Roosevelt on the other hand was the father of the National Park System, an institution Trump is intent on carving up into tiny pieces. As for Eisenhower, his last major address before leaving office warned darkly of the power and influence of what he called, the military-industrial complex, something Trump obviously thinks is a great American asset. Lincoln's presence is an outright twisting of his political beliefs. There isn't a sane person around now who doesn't know for sure that if Honest Abe was alive today he'd be a registered democrat.
The rest were a bunch of crack pots, unrepentant hypocrites, and congenital fools. Reagan might have won the cold war, but he tripled the national deficit doing it, while trying to pass off packets of Heinz ketchup as a vegetable in the school lunch program. In addition, his sage advice to laid off workers in the rust belt was to give up their homes and move someplace else. In other words, become latter day Okies.
Harding and Grant let their cabinet members and pals run amok with vast criminal enterprises. Coolidge's policies set up the economy for the Great Depression and Hoover's reaction to the calamity which followed was, Just ignore it, it will go away on its own. Both Bushes also managed to throw the economy into chaos and one of them started a war we're still fighting. And finally, after Ford pardoned Nixon the country was so filled with revulsion he lost to Jimmy Carter.
Of course hanging a God awful painting in the White House is nothing when compared to The Big Orange Guy's love fest with the Saudis.
Well, why shouldn't he adore them? In 1991, when he was desperately short of money, Trump sold his 284 foot yacht to Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal at the incredible, just for you, must move it now, discount price of $20 million. In 1995, the still cash strapped future president unloaded New York City's Plaza Hotel to a group of investors headed up by the same bin-Talal. In 2001 Saudi interests bought the entire 45th floor of Trump World Tower across from the U.N. Lately his Washington hotel has seen a 13% uptick in occupancy thanks to the number of Saudis staying there.
It doesn't take much to see, Donald John Trump the business man owes a lot to the ultra rich rulers of Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately for Don Trump the President, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Kingdom's Istanbul Consulate on October 2nd and hasn't been seen since.
Khashoggi, whose career including being a columnist for the Washington Post, was considered a pain in the ass by Saudi rulers because he publicly criticized them. Obviously he didn't grasp the depths of their hatred, or realize how far they'd go to silence him. He went to the consulate on the 2nd in order to secure paperwork which would allow him to legally marry his Turkish fiancée. There are unconfirmed reports from Turkey saying he came out piece by hacked up piece.
The King of Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in Kashoggi's disappearance. However there is at least one unnamed Saudi source who claims he died during an interrogation, "which went wrong."
Despite the report, Trump is still shaking his head and holding up his hands, telling us the Saudi royals are, "vehement," about not harming the journalist. You know, like Putin, "strongly denied," interfering in the 2016 election. DJT is contending they're just another victim of the main stream media who always rushes to the verdict of guilty without a trial, like in the case of Brett Kavanaugh. Yeah, he actually used that comparison on Twitter.
At the same time he is hedging his bet.by speculating, "rogue," Saudi elements may have been involved in Khashoggi's disappearance. He also said if the allegations are proven, there will be strong sanctions against the Kingdom, although there is no way in hell he will pull the plug on a massive arms deal we just struck with them.
Hey, sometimes you have to ride the picket fence no matter how sharp the points on the slats are. Especially when a hit like this is pulled by people you're indebted to.
Meanwhile Turkish authorities are tearing through the Consulate building and are demanding to search the residence of the Saudi Consulate General, Mohammed Otabi. Otabi won't be home when they arrive. Almost immediately after the shit hit the fan, he took off for the homeland.
You can smell what is coming next. Trump didn't pull that "rogue elements" crap out of the blue. It's almost a sure thing the Saudi Arabian hierarchy will soon discover the Khashoggi murder was plotted and carried out by some prince we've never heard of. They'll feign outrage and disappointment. Then, since they have so many fucking princes running around nobody will miss just one, they'll cut off his head.
As soon as it happens El Don will say something along the lines of, "See there, our good pals don't put up with criminal behavior any more than I do. We're lucky to have them on our side." What he'll mean is, "These are business partners of mine worth hundreds of millions to me and I don't give a shit if they kill one of their own, or not."
Trust me, some definitions of a man are pieces of trivial kitsch and some aren't. In the end though, both tell us the truth about him.
sic vita est
10-16-18
Now we see that Trump feels like we have rushed to judgement on the Saudi involvement in the matter of the reporter. Well, that is a profound statement coming from perhaps the most loose-lipped president in our history. I learned way back in the days of the "energy shortage," that we don't NEED Arab oil or anything else they have as much as we WANT their money and will do most anything to get it. The prez may well be first in the candy line on this.
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