On Planes, Subs, and Presidents
A rant, and an update
Dealing with the orange gorilla in the room first, the grafting and corruption are so obviously on display, and on such a humongous scale, that I find myself looking at it wide-eyed and slack-jawed, unable to process the brazen magnitude of it all. It’s like witnessing something being born that has no right to exist, and is, therefore, almost impossible to process.
In fact, it’s all so gob-smacking, it makes me wonder what we’re not seeing. Is the corruption in plain view like the head of a planter’s wart, the roots of the real menace running deep and hidden?
And all the while, elements of the American media, and not all of them on the far right, seem to be saying, “Move along, move along, nothing to see here.” It’s as if the office of the presidency is so sacred that whoever occupies it, even someone as despicable as Trump, can do no wrong. That’s certainly the US Supreme Court’s interpretation.
It’s as if the office of the presidency is so sacred that whoever occupies it, even someone as despicable as Trump, can do no wrong. That’s certainly the US Supreme Court’s interpretation
In Australia, a public figure couldn’t get away with it. We once had a state premier here (a governor would be the American equivalent) who had to resign just because he accepted a bottle of booze as a gift. And he was a popular premier. Puts Qatar’s Jumbo Jet in perspective. Don’t get me started on the Trump family crypto schemes and the deals that include resorts, property developments, and golf courses back-filling presidential handshakes with Middle Eastern funders of terror. And let’s not forget the “Executive Branch,” the club where, for a cool half a million, CEOs can become members and gain access to the Criminal-in-Chief, along with his inner circle of government cronies, and peddle their own money-making schemes.
It’s as if Trump is a black hole of corruption (I’m sure he’d prefer to call himself a “golden hole”) where nothing can escape the gravitational pull of his lust for things bright and shiny.
Past presidents have, at least for a portion of their time in office, made some show of attempting to do some good somewhere. But clearly, this guy is using the presidency purely to leverage himself and his family, mountains and mountains of cash. Because, as I’m sure he’d tell you, one mountain just isn’t enough. The following person sitting behind the Resolute Desk will find the coffers bare, the silver gone from the servery, the copper stripped from the wiring, and the creditors calling.
The following person sitting behind the Resolute Desk will find the coffers bare, the silver gone from the servery, the copper stripped from the wiring, and the creditors calling
“No, David, you’ve got it wrong,” I can hear MAGA saying. “You just can’t see the plan.”
Oh, I can see it all right. And the fact that millions are convinced that he actually has one, other than the monumental grifting, has to make Donald J. Trump the greatest con man of all time — certainly the richest. “No one knows how to con better than I can con,” he would say, and for once, I would believe him.
And then there’s Trump’s assault on other norms, like his penchant for snuggling up to dictators in preference to the US’s longstanding, democratically elected friends and allies. Leaders in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region are asking themselves, “Who is this new America? Has it had some kind of aphasia? Or perhaps a stroke? Maybe there’s a tumor pressing on its pituitary, accounting for this new bizarre personality.”
Leaving aside the sarcasm for a moment, the problem isn’t necessarily Donald; it’s that America’s system of democracy can produce an individual like this King Con in the first place. It wouldn’t be so bad if for the fact that at this time in the history of Western civilization, America happens to possess the world’s most influential economy along with the world’s biggest military, and it’s all put at Donald’s unlimited disposal.
Yes, Trump will eventually leave the stage, but the system that allowed him to occupy it will remain, and here’s the thing. What unspeakably vile critter could the American political system potentially throw up down the track? If Donald can get in, it’s certainly more than possible that worse could follow. And who knows, next time around, it could be Donald-like, but with an actual brain.
If Donald can get in, it’s certainly more than possible that worse could follow. And who knows, next time around, it could be Donald-like, but with an actual brain
America won’t change its Constitution to pinch off this possibility. Sure, when it does finally wake from the Orange Hangover, there will be voices calling for change. And maybe there will be change, but the nutso Electoral College system that boosted Trump into his first term will remain. Yes, yes, I know — he won the popular vote the second time around, and that’s why America also has to adopt compulsory voting to remove the extremism and shift its politics to the center. This it wouldn’t countenance, either, the politically ignorant ironically calling such a move a threat to their freedoms.
Which brings me to the nuclear AUKUS subs — yes, I realise there’s not even the vaguest hint of a segue here, but the shift is relevant, so hang in there. Australia is on the hook to the tune of hundreds of billions for a brace of these American-made Virginia-class submarines. As detailed extensively in a previous column (see below), the lunacy of this deal is that while Australia is paying for the boats, they’ll actually be America’s, meaning that Australia’s national interests will be firmly Velcro-strapped to whatever the White House thinks might be a great idea, militarily speaking, at the time.
And here’s where the relevancy surfaces and the periscope rises. Currently, and scarily, those ideas would be the whims of Trump and his team of low-talent lickspittles. What cockamamie scheme could AUKUS potentially lock us into now or in the aforementioned Trump-with-a-brain future? Things were bad enough when the US had so-called adults in the room, and those guys gave us Vietnam, Afghanistan, and a couple of Gulf Wars, et cetera…
Britain is rethinking AUKUS, considering what a possible AUK might look like without the US. And Australia should definitely follow its lead, because partnering with Trump’s America is looking bloody AUKWARD.
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In a recent article (see below), I examined America’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter program in some detail, which had been put on hold shortly before Donald Trump took office for his second term.
There was speculation that the program would be terminated rather than paused due to both the cost of the program and the changing nature of air combat and air dominance, resulting from advances in both defensive and offensive missile systems developed by peer and near-peer rivals. No need to rehash it all here. Suffice it to say, the United States Air Force brass wanted its new plane badly and presented the 47th President with an audacious, yet sure-fire strategy that they absolutely knew would secure the release of the billions of dollars required to complete the aircraft’s development and finally get the program over the line. The presentation went something like this: “It’ll be faster than any other fighter,” the generals promised.
The President shrugged, disinterested. “Meh…”
“It’ll have a greater range than any other fighter aircraft,” they assured him.
Trump stifled a yawn.
“This aircraft will be almost twice as invisible as its nearest rival, over very own F-22 Raptor, which is still the world’s stealthiest fighter.”
He shuffled papers.
“Best of all, Mr President,” the generals informed him, “we’re gonna call it…the F-47.”
Seduced by this tribute to himself, the greatest president in the history of presidents, greater, even, he’ll tell you, than American presidents stretching back to the time of Julius Caesar, the Commander-in-Chief nodded, grinned broadly, and, picking up his favorite Sharpie, said, “Sounds like a winner. Where do I sign?”
You think it's bad for affecting you, how about those of us who are citizens? The man is batshit crazy, and his cultist followers are often even worse.
More dry-witted, excellent analysis, Dave.