Day 1112    What Did You Expect?

Day 1112    What Did You Expect?

Monday October 14, 2019

387 Days until the 2020 election and 469 days until the Inauguration

All the adjectives to describe Donald Trump that I have heard by those outside his circle of sycophants are what we are seeing on display day after day, but they are being generous and kind in their descriptions. I am not. He is stupid and mean. He is naive and gullible. He is narcissistic and a socio or psychopath – take your pick.

What has he accomplished as president? Has he made us safer? Has he made us stronger? Has he helped spread our values around the world? Has he made this* a better place? 

* “this” being the nation or the world.

What are the effects of what he has done? 

Are the institutions that make our democracy work better off because of him?

It was scary at first. He’s easy to imitate in voice and many have done that. 

Many wondered what would happen when he took office.

Wonder no more.

The only thing that seems to continually surprise any of us, is just how bad he can be.

The Kurds are the icing on the cake. This is the second timt they have been royally screwed over by a Republican president. Remember George H. W. Bush and the gassing of the Kurds that he let happen? Yeah. Tough talk, no action.

Reminds me of the Republican debates where Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee and the rest of those yahoos made those chest beating pronouncements how they wouldn’t have made the deal that Barrack and Hillary made with Iran. That they would have been tougher. So we got Mr. Art-of-the-Deal himself as president and what did he do? He pulled out of the deal. What do we have instead? Nothing. Why haven’t any of those chest beating Republicans stepped up to help Donald cut a new deal? 

Then there’s the climate change stuff. He pulled out of that. What do we have? A warming planet and no plan.

There’s the stuff about Hillary’s private email server. After how many investigations they found like what? Nothing much. Meanwhile the very Republicans that bitched about the private email server are using their own and sweet titted Ivanka has been using one for White House business and said she didn’t know you shouldn’t. Not that she stopped mind you.

Okay so what’s the effect of the president’s actions in regards to the Kurds? Hum. Where to begin? Let’s see. Lemme look into my cracked crystal ball. (It lights up. You can put your hands on it and watch shadows on the walls. Bought it from a Saudi guy. Cheap. Good deal.)

– The only real folks in the middle east who would fight for us our getting slaughtered.

– The prisoners they hold, ISIS fighters, will probably get free. Thus allowing the reconstitution of ISIS in the Middle East.

– This will only help Russia and Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally, but not the most trusted one.

– The Kurds, what is left of them, will have to turn somewhere for help and that will be to Assad and his regime thus strengthening Russia’s position in the Middle East.

– The U.S. position in the Middle East has been permanently damaged. Well, not permanently, only for my lifetime and those of the next several generations.

But let us step back and look at the bigger picture. What has Trump done to our government?

– Most of the key administrators are “acting” not really confirmed.

– He has hollowed out The Department of State. Attacked the FBI, the CIA,  and the rest of the intelligence community. He has destroyed farms and farmers with his trade policy, if you can even call it a policy. He has hurt our manufacturing, and plunged our country into hugely needless debt.

– His immigration policies are cruel.

– His Justice Department is making a mockery of Justice.

– HHS? Oh that’s Mike Pence’s baby. Pence and his “Indiana mafia” have hollowed out that department, spreading his nutty religious beliefs deep into that organization. Any organization around the world that helps women and their reproductive rights is a target. If your organization helps women with abortion consoling you are denied money. So what if you are fighting AIDS or malaria or ebola? The effects on poor women in this country and around the world have been devastating. Take Texas for example, they now have one of the highest rates of STDs. They also have more poor women having babies that don’t want them. Let’s wait 18 or so years and see how that plays out in crime statistics. 

Trump’s border wall? The little bit that was built as a test case has become a tourist attraction for climbers. The wall that can’t be climbed? Last I heard the record was 12.87 seconds. 

In an interesting factoid, in the last month Trump has made over 800 tweets versus Chrissy Teigen who made 263. Hum. Let’s think about how long it takes to make 800 tweets. At a minute a tweet that would be 13.3 hours. If it takes five minutes a tweet that 66.7 hours. So, to physically put your thumbs on the keyboard to type 800 tweets will take, I’m guessing, between 13.3 and 66.7 hours – just to physically pump them out. What about time to think about them? Is that twice or three times as long? That would be 26.6 to 133.4 hours at the low end and 39.9 to 200.1 hours at the high end.

Then there are all the court cases against Trump. Last week he lost in court five time in one day. That’s a record. One was on revealing his taxes. One was on the wall. Three were on immigration. This does not count his letter to the House Intelligence Committee saying they weren’t going to comply with the requests or subpoenas. The weirdest, saddest, most pathetic(?) (it’s hard to know what adjectives to use) was (were) the arguments the lawyers put up as their reasons. 

Then there’s this wacky stuff in Ukraine and trying to get something on Joe Biden. I mean when you got your siblings and their spouses running around the world snatching as much money as they can from whomever they can and you want to go after the former Vice-President’s son for sitting on a board of a gas company? 

Then there’s his time at his resorts playing golf. I read somewhere that the U.S. government has spent the equivalent of 568 years of his salary protecting him on the golf course.

Okay so let’s make a monthly time budget for the prez. The average month is 30.42 days long (365/12).

That’s 729.999 hours (30.42 x 24) Oh what the heck, let’s call it 730 hours. 

How many hours do you spend sleeping, eating, bathing, getting dressed. Sleeping (7), eating (67 minutes), showering (9 minutes), dressing (There have been four Supreme Court cases on this, but my googling found no figure I could use. Let’s go with 20 minutes a day). The total time is 7+67+9+20 = 103 minutes a day or 52.22 hours washing, eating, dressing, (103×30.42/60), and 273.78 hours sleeping (9×30.42) for a total of 326 hours.

So we’ve got 730 hours in a month less 326 hours you have 404 hours left after sleeping and dressing, eating, and washing.

Let’s take out the tweeting. Physically tweeting takes between 13.3 and 66.7 hours. Thinking about it takes between 26.6 to 133.4 hours at the low end and 39.9 to 200.1. Best case (ie least amount of time is 39.9 hours; worst case is 267.8 hours. (Let’s call it 40 hours and 268 hours respectively.)

So from the 404 less 40 or 268; you have 364 or 136 hours left in the month to do the people’s business. But wait! Ya gotta play golf right? And there’s Fox and Friends! And Hannity.

Let’s do the golf first. Eighteen holes of golf takes between 3 to 4 1/2 hours to play (at 10 minutes a hole for pros and 15 for amateurs)  Trump is reportedly going to play 80 rounds of golf this year or 6.6 rounds a month (It is reported he plays every five days versus Obama who played every 12 to 13 days.) Let’s say it take him four hours to play. That’s 26.6 hours (4×6.6).

After the tweeting we have somewhere between 364 and 136 hours left in the month to do something. Less 26.6 you have 337.4 to 109.4 hours left.

Wait! There’s Fox and Friends and Hannity! 

OMG. If I take the high end of tweeting time leaving Donald 109.4 hours in the month to do something, that would mean he’s running the country on a daily basis of 3.6 hours a day, and some of that is while watching TV.

Wait, this ain’t working (that should be in a song!)

According to published reports Trump spends nine hours a day in “Executive Time.” That means he has nothing planned and screws around waiting to see what will come up. He’s making phone calls, watching TV, and tweeting during that time.

So let’s look at it from the nine hours a day in Executive time standpoint.

That’s 273.78 hours a month  (9×30.42)

Take that away from the 404 and you have left 130.22 hours left to do something planned. Oh wait, there’s the golf! (-26.6) 103.62 hours left!

Oh wait, there’s the rallies! Ten in 2017 and 40 in 2018 or one every other week. How long does it take to get to a rally, do it, and return? Ten hours? Maybe six at a minimum, twice a month. Let’s knock off another 12 hours. so were down to 90 hours in a month he could actually do something for the American people. Or about three hours a day.

At best he could send three hours a day on average doing something for the people, but he’s got ceremonies to do. Like giving medals to former crooked Attorney Generals. There are the ceremonies with heads of state, like Finland.

I frankly don’t see that he has time to do his job, and the little time he does spend on it he seems to screw up.

387 Days until the 2020 election and 469 days until the Inauguration

PS Yes, I do. (Fart in Yoga Class.)