The current second Trump administration: a compendium of horrors

This is such a horror that I almost want to think Trump misunderstood the question, thinking Hamas is shooting looters rather than rivals:

Reuters:

This was in the news shortly before Trump made the statement above:

AFP: Several Killed As Clashes Erupt Between Hamas And Gaza Clan After Ceasefire

QUALIFICATION:
Since Trump made his statement seeming to OK Hamas killing Gazans during the cease fire, there have been reports of Israelis shooting Gazans and Hamas carrying out public executions. But Trump could not have yet known about that when he gave his OK. So those are not part of this post; I mention them NOT to suggest discussion here, but just to made a limit to what this particular Trump horror could be about.

Maybe Trump will send the National Guard over there. Who knows?

Boston’s Logan Airport isn’t playing it either.

I saw a news report on TV earlier today, I believe on CNN, that the Israelis have established what they call a yellow no-go zone in northern Gaza, but haven’t marked it clearly, and that two Palestinians attempting to go see what if anything was left of their home inadvertently wandered into the yellow zone and were shot dead. Let me look in Google.

Ah. I’m seeing reports now like this one that “multiple people” had crossed the “yellow line” and been fired upon by the Israelis, with some reports stating some were killed.

ETA: I apologize for not citing more extensively on this, but the news media are so saturated with Gaza stories right now it’s hard to sift out the precise points I was looking for.

I wonder who 45/47 will blame when/if the ceasefire collapses?

Since 200 US troops have already been sent to “monitor” how the ceasefire goes – not to be deployed inside Gaza itself, certainly not! Not like advisors in Vietnam, nossirree! – no need for the Guard.

Hillary, Obama, and Sleepy Joe, who else?

Nancy Pelosi, surely…

He would deny it, just as he denies the current reality.

Here’s what he said today about Hamas battles with a weaker Palestinian group, including public executions of captives:

they did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs, and they did take them out and they killed a number of gang members and that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK.

When Trump says “very bad, very, very bad gangs,” he has very, very little idea who they are. And I take Trump’s “to be honest” as a tell that he knows he’s being dishonest.

I earlier mentioned a somewhat similar Trump endorsement of intra-Palestinian violence he voiced yesterday, but now that Trump is endorsing an out and out public execution regime (run by those he said were terrorists only a day or two ago), I’m counting it as a new entry for the compendium of horrors.

Well, look at it from his viewpoint: The more the Palestinians kill off their own, the fewer people that will have to be moved out so the grand Trump resorts can be built once the rubble’s cleared away.

Another airport joins the party:

What’s she going to do about it? Threaten to start shooting service dogs until the airports comply?

Hey! Don’t give her any ideas. You already know how those idjits feel about inclusiveness and disabilities.

So… a large fraction of the population is being encouraged and incentivized to indulge their inherent oppositional defiant disorder?

Pretty much. And it works.

Gerald R. Ford International is not showing it either.

New York Times: Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

When I read the lead, I thought Trump would go after the reporters on grounds they were publishing secrets. But then Trump turned out to be a named source!

Covert actions are, well, secret. It seems to me that Trump personally leaked a significant secret to the Times.

I had the same thought when I saw that headline, “Welp, that cat’s outta the bag.” He’s such a show-off, has to toot his own horn. Pardon he if I leave the room when he does.

He’s much too fat and inflexible to ‘toot his own horn’.

So… Trump has just admitted that he’s breaking international law, and about to go to war with Venezuela. OK then.

At least in the past, when the CIA worked on eliminating another country’s leader, they did so in secret, and had plausible deniability. Now the orange muppet just advertises what they’re doing.

This from yesterday is now more relevant:

Will Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner Stick With Trump?

Hamas is now a central party to the success of this peace plan, that Trump has hung so much of his ego on. He needs them in order to succeed, so of course they’re now Good Guys, and can do no wrong.

How long this will last is very unclear, probably until Hamas starts killing non-Palestinians again.

I heard an interesting analysis on NPR somewhere, sorry no cite, that talked about Trump’s so-called “transactional” approach. That’s just another way of saying that he has no principles. Namely, that he will do whatever it takes to get the deal made. If that means shooting terrorists one day and making them heroes the next, then that’s what he’ll do. Which is why he has been able to do this thing, or at least facilitate this thing that past presidents have not: because he doesn’t have any moral principles at all. All he wants is the result, and the attendant glory for himself that comes with it. If he has to throw everybody under the bus tomorrow for his own glorification, then so be it.