By Signing the COVID 'Relief' Bill, Trump Proves He's Been Part of the Swamp All Along
Earlier this month, a rare occurrence took place in which lame duck president Donald Trump addressed the country and said a bunch of words in a row that I actually agreed with.
"Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who needed it," Trump said. "It really is a disgrace."
Trump promised a veto of the Covid relief package which included language to criminalize online streaming and meme sharing. Seriously. The punitive provisions crammed into the enormous bill, warned Evan Greer of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, "threaten ordinary Internet users with up to $30,000 in fines for engaging in everyday activity such as downloading an image and re-uploading it... [or] sharing memes."
As a lame duck, Trump had absolutely nothing to lose by taking a stand against the wasteful spending in the bill and the kick in the teeth that is a $600 payment to Americans. Calling a $600 payment "relief" when the government shut down businesses -- many of them permanently -- and drove unemployment to record highs in the tens of millions is not only an insult to anyone with half a brain but it speaks to the flagrant careless attitude of America's rulers.
Congress essentially said, "Here are some crumbs while we give our special interests the whole loaf."
Trump had one chance to attempt to make things right by vetoing the 5,600-page bill, that was full of bloat, giveaways to special interests, and tyranny. Instead of vetoing the bill -- which he called a "disgrace" -- however, he proved himself to be a member of the very swamp he promised to drain for the past 4 years, and signed this disgrace into law.
Attempting to cover himself from criticism, Trump said he signed the bill while "sending a message" to Congress to fix it.
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said.
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Since the bill is already law, this will not happen, and he knows this.
This decision has cost Trump what little respect was left for him in his base. Even his most ardent supporters like Mike Cernovich were forced to speak out about his capitulation to the swamp.
"Tonight was the end of any remaining hopes - delusional or otherwise - that Trump would remain in office for a second term," Cernovich tweeted Sunday night. "He capitulated totally, a pathetic act of weakness leaving a stain on his presidency. Entered a lion, left a lamb. Mitch’s and Pelosi’s favorite mutton."
To those paying attention, however, Trump was never a lion. Though he talked a big game and became one of, if not the most, divisive president in history, Trump mostly carried out the will of the deep state the entire time. Every time he conceded to the Fed or increased troop presence in the Middle East, or rolled back Second Amendment rights, his supporters -- largely misled by Qanon talking points -- referred to these pro-deep state moves as "4d chess."
In reality, however, this 4d chess was simply a cover to disguise Trump's tyrannical steps as he waded into the swamp and eventually took a swim.
Though many folks saw this from the start, the final nail in the coffin to any doubt that Trump was somehow different than the neocon feudalists he pretends to oppose, was the pardoning of mass murderers while true heroes like Julian Assange, Ross Ulbricht, and Edward Snowden remain enemies of the state.
Last week, instead of pardoning the aforementioned heroes Trump took to pardoning four former employees of the Blackwater mercenary company who were convicted—three of voluntary manslaughter and one of first-degree murder—for participating in a 2007 massacre in which 17 unarmed Iraqis died. One of the victims of the massacre was a 9-year-old boy.
He literally pardoned child murderers over a reporter whose only crime was informing the world of American war crimes. We know that their campaign of disinformation has succeeded when people think that pardoning child murderers is part of "fighting the deep state."
Hopefully the child sniffing senile old man about to take the White House over next month will open the eyes of those who have been asleep during the Trump presidency. Hopefully.