I read with rising bile how the Trump and this Trump-pets celebrated in last night’s dinner honoring Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Fiddling while Rome burns? Let’s hope.
Read about Morrision and the dinner here.
Excerpt from USA Today:
Morrison, 51, is Australia’s 30th prime minister. He took office in 2018, succeeding Turnbull, and held onto power after his center-right government scored an astounding win in an election that pundits and pollsters had predicted it was certain to lose.
Sound familiar? Morrison’s upset victory has drawn comparisons to Trump’s unexpected win against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Before he became prime minister, Morrison served in the Australian parliament, where he once carried a chunk of coal onto the Parliament floor and proclaimed: “This is coal! Don’t be afraid!” Morrison was using the prop – against Parliament rules – to attack the Labor Party, which wanted to phase out coal power and press for more renewable energy.
He also previously served as Australia’s immigration minister, where he helped develop a hardline policy to keep asylum-seekers from entering the country through its seaports.
A story in the Washington Post describes the festivities: Trump brushes off political controversy to wine and dine Australia at state dinner. The story is behind a subscription paywall. Suffice to say a glorious time was had by all.
The only “news” about the guests including Fox's Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, Henry Kissinger, Clarence and Ginni Thomas, Stephen Miller and new girlfriend Katie Waldman — but not Javanka as they are in Rome, which is worth sharing is that Kellyanne Conway came without her husband George who co-authored Trump has done plenty to warrant impeachment. But the Ukraine allegations are over the top with Neil Katyal in the Washington Post today.
Excerpt:
It is high time for Congress to do its duty, in the manner the framers intended. Given how Trump seems ever bent on putting himself above the law, something like what might have happened between him and Ukraine — abusing presidential authority for personal benefit — was almost inevitable. Yet if that is what occurred, part of the responsibility lies with Congress, which has failed to act on the blatant obstruction that Mueller detailed months ago.
Congressional procrastination has probably emboldened Trump, and it risks emboldening future presidents who might turn out to be of his sorry ilk. To borrow John Dean’s haunting Watergate-era metaphor once again, there is a cancer on the presidency, and cancers, if not removed, only grow. Congress bears the duty to use the tools provided by the Constitution to remove that cancer now, before it’s too late. As Elbridge Gerry put it at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, “A good magistrate will not fear [impeachments]. A bad one ought to be kept in fear of them.” By now, Congress should know which one Trump is.
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The other noteworthy item is that Morrison acknowledged in the most offhand way that he has a sense that things are not quite normal in Trumpland. This is how the Washington Post reports it (emphasis added)
It was a famously American way to finish off the night, during which the prime minister compared Trump to one of the most famous presidents in American history.
"This, of course, was once the home of President Teddy Roosevelt, who I have always greatly admired," Morrison said. "He was also a New Yorker. He was also unconventional."
Trump smiled, and the dinner guests laughed at the sole acknowledgment of presidential roguery on this otherwise traditional night.
I haven’t been able to find a critical OpEd about Morrison’s Trump ass-kissery in an Australian paper, not surprising considering most of them are owned by Rupert Murdoch. I did find this interesting article about Morrison in “The Age” which is not owned by Murdoch. Crisis building while Morrison plays king of the Canberra bubble
Morrison may not be the next Aussie PM. We can only hope Bill Shorten will beat him the next time. This is from the South China Morning Post: Bill Shorten could be Australia’s next prime minister. He once described Donald Trump as ‘barking mad’