Burke: A birdwatcher’s guide to 2018 and the year ahead
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 1, 2019
By Tom Burke
It’s a kinda tradition that columnists’ end-of-year-writing is either a retrospective of the past twelve months or a prognostication for the coming annum. Let’s try both.
We’ll start with my characterization of 2018: It was for the birds.
All Trump’s chickens began coming home to roost. Trump’s every last boast, lie, tax scheme, lie, poor appointment, lie, bribe, lie, BS campaign promise, lie, policy disaster, lie, payoff to a porn star, lie, collusion, and lie is being examined, revealing him to be a giant albatross around democracy’s neck.
There are vultures circling the White House; they can sense his administration’s imminent, political demise. His businesses, his campaign, his inauguration, his appointments, his policy decisions, his charity, and his family are all under scrutiny not just by the “fake media,” the FBI, Robert Mueller, and the Southern District of New York; but even the attorney general of New York state is investigating him. And there’s more to come: House Democrats will start by auditing his tax returns, then work north.
There’s an ostrich living in the Rose Garden with its head in the sand muttering: “Witch hunt, witch hunt, witch hunt.”
And birds of a feather all flocked together (in federal court) with his former campaign chairman (Manafort), deputy campaign chairman (Gates), foreign policy advisor (Papadopoulos), national security advisor (Flynn), and personal lawyer (Cohen) all pleading “guilty” to federal crimes. (“Only the best people.”)
To review:
• Trump shut down the government in a fit of pique (and fear of Limbaugh/Coulter/Fox) after he backtracked on a deal and the Senate refused him $5 billion in taxpayer money for the wall he said Mexico would pay for.
• Trump crashed the stock market with his economic, political, international, legal and personal chaos; and everyone’s investments or 401(k)s are in real danger.
• His chief of staff, defense secretary, attorney general, EPA administrator and interior secretary, are all “acting.”
• The last “adult” in the room, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, quit because Trump’s impulsive, ill-conceived, stupid decisions about national security were too much for him. And then he was “fired” after his resignation letter told the truth about Trump’s incompetence.
• Trump’s trade war with China (and everyone else) combined with his world commerce and tariffs ignorance helped sink the stock market. Oh, U.S. farmers’ soybean sales are down 91 percent, forcing Trump to ask for another $4.5 billion to add to the $12 billion in un-budgeted, deficit-inducing-aid needed to keep them whole after his “Tariff Man” trade moves.
• His tax program isn’t working as promised: no large business investments or worker raises, and only the uber-rich get a lasting benefit.
• Trump’s deficit hit $21.6 trillion, an all-time high. (My typo from my last column is now corrected.)
• Our historic, last-70-years-allies (Canada, the UK, France, Germany, even Mexico) ain’t allies no more according to Trump; and our enemies (Russia, China, and North Korea) are now beloved, admired and treated better than our allies.
• He flat-out lied, right to our soldiers’ faces, about their raises.
• Not one factory has been built (just ask GM or US Steel) as Trump bragged.
• Trump’s done squat about opioids and his wall won’t solve our drug problem, says his DEA.
• He lost the House. The whole House. The whole House of Representatives to the Democrats. Oops.
• And people are afraid – for their finances, health care, national security; and for democracy, the rule of law, our institutions, and even the Constitution.
My prognostication for 2019: Trump will resign. He’ll quit. He’ll walk out on his supporters, his promises, and the American people.
Trump will quit:
Because he ain’t got the guts to face the future. (Name one “courage-testing” thing Cadet BoneSpurs ever did — and NO “what-about-ism.”)
Because he ain’t got the smarts to face the future.
Because he ain’t got the resources to face the future.
Because he ain’t got the truth, the facts, or the American people on his side.
Because he’s Trump.
Then it will be, “Hello, President Pence.”
And the 30 percent to 40 percent who “believed” will be gobsmacked by the depth of his perfidy, stupidity, narcissism and incompetence, and wonder deep inside how they ever trusted him.
Now I think 2019 will be better than 2018. And my hopes for 2019 are buoyed by my belief — not that Mike Pence or Nancy or Chuck or Mitch are miracle workers — but that the American people are tough, and smart and resilient.
So 2019 won’t be the year of the (Trump) birds, 2019 will be the year of the Phoenix; and America will rise from the ashes of Der Furor’s fulminations and the White House albatross hanging around our necks will be gone; with Trumpism as extinct as the dodo bird. Tweet. Tweet.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
