Abandon Ship!

And now the rats are fleeing the ship.  We now are hearing the clarion call from some of the most important conservative media that Trump should either play the game according to the rules, or the GOP will find a way to abandon him for its own survival.  Sadly for the GOP, the die was cast a long, long time ago.  And when they could have gotten rid of the cancer called Donald Trump, they dilly dallied until it was too late to do anything meaningful to stop Trump.

The soul of a political party is tested now and then.  The Democrats were tested when Bill Clinton was impeached by the house.  No one abandoned him, when he was guilty of a "petty" felony.  They were addicted to the money he knew how to bring to his party. The Democrats failed their test, but I'm not sure they could have passed it without tearing the party apart.  This season, it's the Republican's turn.  And they are failing with no excuse. When political leaders are saying that Trump is a con artist who has no business being president, but they support him anyway in the same breath - this is an example of the ethical and moral bankruptcy of the party. This is a colossal failure with no mitigating factors - and no excuses for their (expected) eventual loss in November.

This is a year where the GOP should have been able to easily win the presidency.  All they had to do was stop leaning towards the extreme right, and let Hillary's failings do her in.  In a news cycle that just reported that the Clinton Foundation placed a well heeled contributor in an important government security post, Trump kept making an ass out of himself, wasting another good chance to rightfully attack Hillary for "business as usual".

Trump is likely making a bogus claim that his taxes are being audited.  I'll bet that he doesn't release his taxes because he'll be shown to be a less than successful businessman who is engaged in many questionable deals.  Trump's history in making deals show that he knows how to prosper at the expense of others.  I can only imagine if this tendency holds true about a presidential run.  After losing miserably, he can set himself up as the ringmaster of another media circus, having a networked radio/TV show available over the air or on the internet, where he'll make more money than he ever did with NBC.  He'll continue to claim he was cheated, and people will pay to hear his nonsense.

Where does this leave the GOP?  The way I see it, they would be smart to abandon the racist wingnuts in their base, and go back to the honest conservatism of a William Buckley and Barry Goldwater.  If they also abandon the evangelicals, they might be a smaller party which fights for survival at first.  But they will be free to promote a more coherent and more palatable policy - something that could easily hurt the Democrats if presented by a charismatic leader like Ronald Reagan. 

By now, you may be wondering who I'm going to vote for.  And I think it will be the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson.  In New York, the Democrat running for president almost always wins the state. Since I don't like Hillary, and I am disgusted with Trump, I think it's a safe bet for me to give Johnson the vote - and hope that they get more votes than the GOP this year.  If this happens, all political hell will break loose - and maybe, just maybe, the political elite will realize that they have to do something for the rest of us, lest we vote them out....

Iran and the remaining folk in the Clown Car.

Most of the people in the GOP "Clown Car" are saying that the deal with Iran is a bad one, and that they will overturn it when in office.  Do any of them understand that pandering to the base only makes them look more idiotic for the general campaign?

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The deal with Iran was not only a deal with America, but a deal with Germany, France, Russia, China, and Great Britain.  Although the Israelis could not be a direct part of the deal and had to condemn the deal for existential reasons, I have no doubt that they have had to have some input into the deal due to their relationship with America.

It is very pleasant to read this statement from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, that the Republican presidential candidates were so “laughable” that “the people of Iran look at them as a form of entertainment.”  Why, you might ask?  Well, he is wise enough to know that even if the USA were to back out of this deal, that it would still be in force with the other G5+1 members.  This deal needs no treaty with the USA, nor does it need America's cooperation to be implemented.  It helped that the USA was on-board when the deal was crafted, as it allowed America and Iran an ability to openly work with each other - something that has not been possible since before 1980.

The Iranian President went on to say the following:

“Can a government become a signatory to an international agreement and then the subsequent government tear it to shreds? This is something that only the likes of Saddam Hussein would do. So, any government that replaces the current government must keep itself committed to the commitments given by the previous administration. Otherwise, that government, that entire country will lose trust internationally,”
To me, this is the most salient point of the conversation noted in a late September post in Raw Story.  Iran's president knows that America's foreign policy can not make rapid flip flops based on which party is in charge of the executive branch.  It took over 50 years for America to start having civil relations with Cuba.  And he expects that it will take more time for America and Iran to learn to work with each other again - this deal being one of many steps geared to fixing the problems of the past.

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Can we trust the Iranians?  If we were to look at it from a different point of view, one could ask - can they trust us?  Right now, the Iranian President is wise enough to know that the "Clown Car" is spewing out noxious fumes, and will likely get its tuneup in the prelude to the general election.....