TPM - Marshall - "Trump, Warlords and Failed States" (re today's mess)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-warlords-and-failed-states
By Josh Marshall
February 15, 2019 10:58 am
Today is a really bad day for the country. But it also reminds me it should remind you that
authoritarianism is most often born of incompetence and mismanagement. It seems like a paradox or a disconnect. But its not. They generally go together, as they do here.
Early in his administration Democrats were willing to vote to okay tens of billions of dollars for Trumps vanity project wall. The price of that was little more than confirming in law what was already the case in practice, DACA protections. Trump rejected that, negotiated his way down to about one billion dollars for the kinds of border barriers the US was building before Trump ever proposed his wall. Now hes trying to seize about a 10th of those funds the original $50 billion offer to build his signature wall.
For all the other more important criticisms of President Trump, whats striking is just
how bad he is at being President. The Wall is a stupid waste. But he could have had billions to build it if he wanted to. Now hes going to seize or rather attempt to seize a few billions of dollars in ways that are likely to be at least slowed down for years in litigation.
Many times over the last two years Ive recalled this tag line from Slates Will Saletan:
The GOP is a failed state and Trump is its warlord. Now this half applies to the country at large. It was a remarkably prescient line. It explains and illuminates so much.
snip = read it all at the above link