IT ISN'T VERY PRETTY WHAT A TOWN WITHOUT PITY

Speaking at the Coast Guard Academy commencement today, Donald Trump said, “No politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly." 

Let’s think about that for a minute.  Trump thinks he’s been treated worse than Abraham Lincoln, who was murdered?  As were James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy.  Assassination is pretty harsh.  Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were both wounded in assassination attempts. 

And those are just American presidents.  Trump said “no politician in history.”  “History” covers a lot of territory.  We could point to victims of political violence all the way back to Julius Caesar (and 25 Roman emperors who were murdered while in office) and all the way up to Arizona’s Gabby Giffords.  How about Gandhi and Nelson Mandela?  And if Trump wants to see a textbook case of politician who’s been treated unfairly, he doesn’t have to look further than the woman who beat him by 3 million popular votes last November.

The job is harder than you think, Donald.  You could do worse than to take your predecessor as a role model.  He was unfairly and irrationally demonized (by you and your friends at Fox and in Congress) for eight years.  He kept calm and carried on.  He never blamed his subordinates for mistakes, even when they made them.  He bore the abuse you gave him with dignity and decorum. 

Pundits have interpreted Trump’s remarks as a signal that he’s determined to fight his critics, rather than resign.  I say, bring it on.  Trump is his own worst enemy.  He has driven his staff to despair.  Congressional Republicans are finally beginning to realize that Trump’s daily diet of scandal is keeping them from implementing their agenda.  I’ll take all of that I can get.  Hang in there, Donald, until you’ve so thoroughly discredited the Republican Party that you take them down with you.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Everything Trump touches turns to shit. 

And just now comes the news that former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been appointed as “special counsel” to oversee the investigations into Russiagate, thereby eliminating the possibility that the new Trump/Sessions FBI Director can derail the process.  Good news, and big trouble for guilty parties.