Another Promise Kept

So tweeted, according to the NY Times, Donald Trump Jr as the Motherfucker Of All Bombs was dropped – as if a single bomb and 40 casualties will end the quagmire in Afghanistan or ISIS, and as if 59 Tomohawk missiles specifically targeted at nothing will solve Syria’s intractable problems.

But the President, in his own eyes and I suppose those his supporters, has been keeping his promises. He’s put the Muslim Ban in place (that’s 1) and, when Gorsuch (2) is sworn in, will no doubt take it to the Supreme Court where, if the Republican majority votes with its politics instead of with the law it will be upheld.

Jeff Sessions is ploughing ahead, deporting illegal immigrants (3), Scott Priutt is dismembering the EPA (4), and although TrumpCare was an embarrassment, it meant a lot more to house Republicans than to Trump.

Tax reform is next. As Trump doesn’t do details, he’ll probably be able to claim success no matter what the house agrees, so let’s give him that one (5). And, at least in his own mind and that of his supporters, the Syrian and Afghanistan pyrotechnics will probably count as having made America Great (6). With the military games exercises happening off South Korea this week very likely to end up in a skirmish, which no one involved has the diplomatic skills to prevent developing into a war, that’ll be more Greatness (6), especially as the only outcome if China and Japan get involved is nuclear, thus ending the competition from China (7).

And, as I live in Hong Kong, I’ll be nuked with everyone else on this side of the planet, so that’s one fewer pesky blogger (8 – well, 7.0000000001).

It is difficult to be optimistic under such circumstances. But I am. Short of an all-out nuclear war – which is on the cards – all this exposes what we knew already, which is that the political system in America, while not quite broken, is in need of some serious running repairs. Perhaps a second constitutional congress is overdue?

But I am ultimately optimistic because Imperium Americum, which stopped being a force for good some time back, is coming to a rapid end. That creates a space for a new, and I hope better, world.