Well, today I want to start off talking about the plane.  Trump wants the “gift” 747-8 from Qatar for his future Air Force One and to be gifted to him once he leaves the presidency, which he wants never to do…. and why should he turn down a free plane?  I’m taking the rest of this from a nice video by Belle of the Ranch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Mob2O_c6k) who lays it out as follows:

Trump accepting the plane gives soft power to Qatar.  Even if he never did them any favors, Qatar gets an image boost.  Partisan supporters of Trump who might never have heard of Qatar now recognize the name and have a more positive feeling about it.  Favorable press about the “gift” also gives Qatar an image of having more influence in the Middle East than they actually do.  Trump does not understand soft power and has been busy giving ours away by cutting USAID, abandoning allies and gratuitously insulting foreign leaders for no discernible purpose.  Adding to the insult, Qatar now says that “of course we don’t need to buy influence in the US.  Why would we?  We’ve always been a trusted partner.”  Add more to their side and subtract from ours.

Meanwhile, according to Lawrence O’Donnell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbzXaL5aYVo) the reason Qatar is giving away the plane is because it is thirteen years old and they couldn’t find another buyer.  Only Trump would be stupid enough to take it and stick the taxpayers for another $1B or so to convert it to Air Force One, which likely cannot be done before the end of his term and for which Congress may not even give him the money.  Every way you look at it you lose.

And today, I’m putting the temperature all the way down here and it’s over 90C.  Despite being pulled several different ways with irreconcilable differences, the House passed the horrible budget bill by one vote (with one Republican voting “present”).  It still has to get by the Senate but Congress has given us no reasons to feel hopeful about them doing the right thing or anything close.  

And I’ll close by referring you to this piece by Andy Craig in The UnPopulist (https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/there-is-no-piecing-back-our-badly):

There is No Piecing Back Our Badly Shattered Constitutional Order

If you think anything I’ve said below under The Problem, The Damage or The Response is too extreme, have a look at this one.  It’s a hard read but quite clear and we need to face it.