Friday, January 12, 2018

IS TRUMP TURNING AMERICA INTO ONE OF THE "SHITHOLE" NATIONS HE DESPISES? YOU BE THE JUDGE


Nepotism? Check.

Crony capitalism? Check.

Lying and bumbling incompetence? Check.

Electoral fraud? The jury is still out on that one, but it's not looking good for Trump.

If Donald Trump doesn't think highly of "shithole" countries, like Haiti and those in Africa, then he needs to address why he's doing his level best to run America as if he's leading a Banana Republic. From family nepotism and reckless crony capitalism, to self serving regulatory actions and bumbling incompetence, Donald Trump is following the Banana Republic 101 handbook as if it were an administrative bible. In a few words, Donald Trump is demonstrating that he has no respect for the administrative professionalism and regulatory ethics that have separated countries in the west from the developing world Trump apparently likes to call shitholes.

But wait, it gets better (or is that worse?).


If embarrassing himself and our nation with his bigoted ignorance weren't enough for one day, we're now being treated to the not so surprising revelation that, in spite of his spirited suggestions that he's an educated genius, Donald Trump doesn't have a post-graduate degree, let alone an MBA from any university. In a few words, Trump's endless claims about his intellectual pedigree, and his reality, are a joke and reminiscent of what happens (happened?) in the Third World "shitholes" Trump despises on a regular basis. Check it out.

In 1994 Mexico's then new president, Ernesto Zedillo, put together his cabinet, which included picking a hard-nosed economist to head his department of education. Unfortunately, in spite of demanding that all of his subordinates refer to him as "Doctor ..." - and his claims of having a doctorate from Harvard - a simple review of the record showed there was no degree.

To be sure, claiming a degree from a university you attended, or planned on attending, was a common practice in Mexico at the time. In part because of the "modernization" path the country embraced at the time, Mexico's newly invigorated news sources began investigations on many levels, which included education backgrounds. When it was discovered there was no Ph.D. in the cabinet appointee's background, President Ernesto Zedillo's cabinet pick was forced to resign.

Resumes and biographies across Mexico were suddenly updated.

Yet, here we are, more than 20 years after Mexico began cleaning up its biographical act, with a sitting U.S. president making outlandish claims about his education as if he were living in one of the "shithole"nations in the developing world he ridicules.

It doesn't matter that Trump does not have an MBA, or that one of his professors once referred to him as "the dumbest goddamn student I ever had." Trump continues making claims about how smart he is, as if he were dictator of a Banana Republic.

And why not? With congressional leaders acting more like Banana Republicans than serious policymakers, Donald Trump understands that sycophantic congressional Republicans will continue licking his boots. Meanwhile, his political base will cheer his political missteps, his personal indiscretions, and his bigoted ignorance.


With Trump's nepotism laden administration pushing policies that benefit his personal holdings, and those of America's financial elites, there's no longer any doubt that Donald Trump and the GOP are putting party and class interests above those of the nation. Worse, they're doing it with racial undertones that Trump and the GOP can no longer hide.

They don't care what the rest of the world sees, or what Trump is doing to our nation's reputation over the long term. And they apparently don't care what Trump is doing to America in the immediate term.

Trump Election GIF

Not that it needs to be said, but the blatant nepotism, cronyism and incompetence in America under Trump is what Banana Republics have always done.

What most don't understand is why congressional Republicans are acting like Banana Republicans and allowing this to happen in America today.

Sigh ...

- Mark

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