Dear America,
A week or two ago, our illustrious president opined that it was possible that the death of a Washington Post reporter critical of the Saudi regime was killed in the course of a "rogue operation," so he was going to give the Saudis the presumption of innocence, which is the wet blanket he throws on any fire involving a friend of his...at least for as long as his loyalty lasts...usually a matter of a few days. In this case, he must have been prescient as well as loyal, at least at the moment when the words fell out of his mouth, because sure enough, a group of 15 Saudis had gone to the embassy on the day of the murder and, as it turns out, killed him. Apparently they were, as our president had speculated, "rogues," and the journalist in question, Jamal Khashogi, was a real tough guy because he took them all on in a fist fight...which he lost. That's the Saudi story, and they are sticking to it, and why not. The idea came from the president of the United States. Of course it's absurd, and even Donald Trump can see that. He has now pronounced what he purported to be an excuse to be the worst cover-up ever (our president has to have a superlative in every sentence). And why wouldn't it be. Our president wouldn't come up with the second worst cover-up, much less the third or fourth. The cover-up Donald Trump devised would have to be second to none; he devised it and he does nothing but the best...or in this case, the worst, ever. And since you can't put anything past Trump, he now renounces his scenario, the cover-up that is, and vows to get to the bottom of it and apparently, someone is going to get fired. That's what Donald Trump does. He looks the person he thinks has failed him, formerly one of his "apprentices," and he says, "You're fired." Ask Michael Flynn, "the mooch," Reince Priebus and the rest of the former this, that or the other things who were at the White House, but now "sleep with the Bannons."
What I am interested to see is how this plays out on Thanksgiving. We're having it at our house this year, and in the crowd of twelve to fourteen people will be at least two Trump voters. We will all be sitting at one long table together, so the odds that the subject won't come up are just 14 to 2. I'm going to sit there and keep my peace because the two in question are my wife's relatives. I don't want to pay the price when we go to bed that night for the fact that my in-laws voted for Trump, so I'm going to keep mum...unless... Sometimes I can't help myself. Someone says something absurd, usually one of them, and in response, I start a sentence with something civil, like, "Well, maybe..." with the intention of leaving it there. But often times, after the maybe comes something that is code for, "you idiot." Then, the uncomfortable silence sets in, and for my wife at least, it can last until the next morning...or the next month in a surreptitious form. If you are married, you know what I mean.
The bottom line is this. Donald Trump is a threat to my marriage, not to mention the rest of the world, so how are you going to vote in 2020, not to mention 2018. We have one chance to limit the havoc he is trying so hard to wreak, and that's to vote him out when he runs again, if he's not impeached first, but to change the partisan hegemony of at least one house of congress in the meantime. He's already got the Supreme Court stacked with his nominees, who seem the type of guys who will feel beholden to the capo if the subject of his wrong-doing comes before them, so impeachment seems out of the question, much less indictment and conviction, so the vote is the only defense we are left with. Of course, some of you think Trump is a great president; how you came to that conclusion I can't say, but you did. In fact, that's probably the way in which the Thanksgiving wars are going to begin at my house. They'll say that Trump has done some great things, and I'll say, name one. They will, and I'll say, and that's a great thing why? Anyone who has a good, genuine answer should feel free to vote for Trump and the congressional Republicans. Everyone else, make sure you're registered and don't forget to go to the polls.
Your friend,
Mike
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