Having found nothing in their sham “audit” of 2020 election ballots from Maricopa County, they’re now using 5g cameras and black lights searching for bamboo in the paper of the ballots.  Because presence of bamboo is the smoking gun that the ballots came from China, right?  The Arizona GOP is hanging their entire Big Lie premise on the unfounded conspiracy theory that China flew in 40,000 fraudulent ballots on a Korean airliner on election day and then smuggled them into polling places all over Maricopa County.  No matter that China LIKED Trump being president since he handed them Pacific Trade dominance, international markets because of his idiotic trade war, and allowed them to run rampant in the South China Sea during his entire infestation of the WH.

Not only is the Arizona GOP’s efforts to overturn the election dangerous, it makes them look like idiots.

Among the outrages committed by Trump during his 4 year infestation of the WH is the damage he did to the US’s global standing.  Not only did he turn against centuries-long alliances and quit global cooperation (the WHO, Paris Climate Accord, Iranian nuclear deal), he ceded global trade positions to China.  Oh, he talked tough and launched a disastrous trade war, but the real damage he did was allowing China to get a giant leg up on global trade, diplomacy, and even defense.   When Trump was boasting about his “America First” policy, other countries were moving into the vacuum and moving quickly.  After a smaller increase last year due to the pandemic, China announced today an increase in its defense budget of 6.8% as it modernizes and increases its military capabilities.  Xi Jinping, facing no real political opposition, has jumped into the void created by Trump’s bungling cementing not only China’s dominance, but also his own.

Xi saw Trump’s bungling as an opportunity for China, and he took it.  He let Trump think he did the “biggest deal ever”, when, in fact, he pantsed him in front of the entire world, and the only people who didn’t see it were MAGHats and Lindsey Graham.  His trade war and “deal” with China used his crack negotiating skills – he gave China everything it wanted.  The Brookings Institute put it best just before the 2020 election:

“Despite Trump’s claim that “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” the ultimate results of the phase one trade deal between China and the United States — and the trade war that preceded it — have significantly hurt the American economy without solving the underlying economic concerns that the trade war was meant to resolve. The effects of the trade war go beyond economics, though. Trump’s prioritization on the trade deal and de-prioritization of all other dimensions of the relationship produced a more permissive environment for China to advance its interests abroad and oppress its own people at home, secure in the knowledge that American responses would be muted by a president who was reluctant to risk losing the deal.”

Trump’s paper tiger presidency allowed bad actors like Iran, Russian, and China to actually do the opposite of what he boasted would happen.  These countries, without the vigilance of the allies lead by the US to hold them to account, increased their global dominance.  Russia has expanded its cyber operations targeting all global democracies, China stepped into the void to dominate Pacific trade, and Iran is once again expanding its nuclear capability.  Worse, our own allies have backed away from us, and Biden’s aggressive re-engagement has not calmed fears about who the US will elect in 2024 and simply return to Trumpism.  This problem is not going away any time soon, especially with a Senate that can’t even pass a bill that will provide some relief to our long haul misery caused by Trump’s incompetence that was magnified by politicians terrified of his violent supporters.  Remarkably, it seems that Trump’s greatest accomplishment was creating an environment in the US toxic enough to enable domestic terrorism to rise from the shadows out into the light of day for the entire world to witness.  Domestic terrorists espousing fascist ideology and violence doesn’t give our allies confidence in our long term viability and most certainly takes away our moral authority as the biggest proponent of democracy around the world.

The damage Trump did will be long lasting and far reaching.  Republicans, trying to protect their own hides, refuse to acknowledge the problem, and this problem can’t be fixed with more executive orders and the efforts of only one party.  I’m not hopeful.

As if he didn’t have anything better to do, Trump has started restricting Chinese press in it’s access and reporting in the US. In retaliation, China has expelled the NY Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.  So.  Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic where the press is THE most important outlet for information, so what does Trump do?  Start a pissing contest with the largest country in the world.  Jesus.

Just moments ago, Trump brazenly asked China to open an investigation of the Bidens for supposed corruption.  That’s right, he’s just opened another front in the impeachment inquiry that started last week caused by his call to Ukranian president Zelensky as him to did dirt on the Bidens.  The corruption is breathtaking, and it’s clear that Trump truly believes that he can violate any law and smear any person with impunity simply because he is president.  This is beyond Nixon.  Even though Nixon also believed that by definition US presidents can’t commit crimes he clearly had some modicum of shame and when the reality of an actual removal vote being taken, he resigned.  Trump has no shame and has convinced himself that he is truly above the law and can essentially do anything he wants to cheat his way into another term.  If he’s willing to do that, who’s to say that he would actually leave office if defeated, or even at the end of a second term?

We’re now beyond the tipping point and Trump MUST be removed from office with great haste.  That’s going to require invertebrates in the Senate, including our own John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to change their spots from cowards to courageous.  And having witnessed both of them will to permanently damage their own legacies to support this criminal, that is by no means a certainty.

The New Yorker has published a depressing piece by Evan Osnos, about how Trump has stupidly ceded global leadership and how China has rushed in to fill the vacuum.  Trump can very likely become our version of Gorbachev, who, you will recall, oversaw the unraveling of the Soviet Union into a loose amalgamation of oligarchies and totalitarian states dominated by Russia.  From the very first moment of his term, Trump has set about unraveling our country’s generations-old leadership position in the world, and China has gladly Hoovered up every opportunity to exercise its new found world position.
One notable of example of this phenomenon was the World Trade Organization conference in Marakesh last October, convened to update international trade rules.  We’ll let Osnos tell this sorry tale:

“The Trump Administration, which has been critical of the W.T.O., sent an official who delivered a speech and departed early. ‘For two days of meetings, there were no Americans,’ a former U.S. official told me. ‘And the Chinese were going into every session and chortling about how they were now guarantors of the trading system.’”

Trump continually boasts about “Making America Great Again”, and “Putting America First.”  The problem is that he simply doesn’t understand what that means and has made idiotic decisions that has diminished our country, and creating opportunities for other countries, especially China and Russia to jump into the breach.  Exiting the TPP was stupid.  Now American beef comes second to other beef producing countries like Australia.  Withdrawing from the Paris climate accords has damaged our reputation and stature throughout the world.  China is also negotiating to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will form a 16 country free trade zone.  The US is NOT one of the 16 countries.

The damage that Trump has inflicted and continues to inflict will be multi-generational.  Some of the damage may never be repaired.  The US’s unilateral surrender of its prominent position as world leader has emboldened other countries to take over that prominence.  Protectionism and isolation never works, especially in the new, interconnected global market.

Trump has ranted and raved about North Korea and “Little Rocketman” this year, has severely criticized China for not being tougher, and for continuing to truck and ship fuel oil into the country.  Visibility to that practice and further sanctions have served to choke off fuel to the Hermit Kingdom.  For a while, North Korean ships were loading in Russia and delivering into the country.  When that was discovered, surely that would choke off Kim Jong Un’s oil and drive him to the negotiating table, right?  Not so fast.  It’s now come to light that Russia has been loading fuel oils in Russia and then…wait for it…transferring those fuels to North Korean ships on the high seas.  That’s a direct violation of the UN sanctions agreed to by all, including Russia, and now they’ve been caught red handed smuggling into North Korea.  Trump’s response?  Dead silence.  Not one tweet or threat has been made since the news hit the wires today.

Now what is his orangeness to do?  Does he criticize Putin for violating international sanctions risking disclosure of the Pee-Pee Tapes, or does he stay silent, confirming his fealty to Russia?  We’ve never, in the history of the US, had such a compromised and ignorant buffoon infesting the White House.

God help us.