Measuring Madness

In the last 48 hours Trump and his acolytes have done 7 things any one of which would have been the cause of media frenzy – and some even calls for impeachment – under any other president;

1, Trump tweeted the pullout of all US Military from Syria without notifying the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the National Security Council or any of his White House Staff

2. Trump refused to sign an agreement on a continuing resolution, which was worked out and agreed to by him, to prevent a government shut down, because of pressure from the House Freedom Caucus, Fox commentators, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

3, Trump caused Jim Mattis to resign as Secretary of Defense, because of his Syria decision. This is the first resignation in history of a Secretary of Defense, due to policy differences.  Mattis is the most respected member of the Trump cabinet and the last adult in the room.. His departure is viewed as a disaster by our allies.

4. Trump announced the withdrawal of 7,000 troops from Afghanistan within 6 hours of Putin’s public praise of his Syria decision and reminder that there were still 14,000 US troops in  Afghanistan. This, again calls into question the Putin/Trump relationship.

5. The Justice Department announced that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker would not recuse himself from supervision of the Mueller investigation, in spite of  their ethics advisers having told him he should do so. Trump replaced Sessions with Whitaker specifically because Sessions had recused himself

6. Bill Barr, Trump’s nominee for permanent appointment as Attorney General, released an unsolicited 21 page letter to the DOJ stating that the basis of the Mueller investigation is unconstitutional.

7. The administration announced a new policy in which southern border asylum seekers in the US would not be permitted to stay in the US after their interviews here and would have to return to Mexico to await the decision. This could take 2 years or more, because of the huge backlog in such cases and the administration’s refusal to appoint more judges and personnel to handle the load.

Here are some more numbers:

These are the 6 categories that the above investigations fit into:

And more numbers:

On December 10th 44 ex-senators – both Republicans and Democrats – signed an Op-Ed  in The Washington Post stating that “the US is at an inflection point and the core principles of democracy and national security interests are at stake”.

And here’s the last set of numbers. In November 2017, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine, who had previously written “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President”, wrote in the New York Times that there was then a group of concerned mental health professionals, numbering in the thousands,who had come forward to warn against the president’s psychological instability and the dangers it poses.

And things seem to have become much worse since then. The president is reported to be in a tailspin, to be having temper tantrums and to be finding it difficult even to recruit people who want to be around him. He even had to appoint an acting chief of staff , because no one wanted the permanent job, which is usually one of the most prestigious positions in Washington.

Just look at the numbers –  7 horrors in 48 hours: 17 known investigations in 6 categories; 44 ex senators warning of impending disaster; 2000+ mental health professionals questioning Trump’s sanity – and you can’t help coming to the conclusion that no President in his right mind could feel that they represent fulfilling his oath of office to “faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United State and preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States.”

Let’s face it and say what no one seems to want to acknowledge. We have an insane President.

Oh, and here’s another number. Happy 2019