Don’s latest folly

Today Don followed through on his threat to pull the USA out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. He made the USA one of only three countries to reject the Agreement, and displayed his usual mix of profound ignorance, utter stupidity, and cluelessness.

In his rambling remarks outside the White House, Don used a cute turn of phrase: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," he said. Trouble is, he lost Pittsburgh bigly. He also lost Allegheny County, which includes the city, winning less than 40% of the vote. Just like he lost the nationwide popular vote, but since he’s deluded about that, he’s probably also deluded about his crushing defeat in Pittsburgh. Still, the Mayor of Pittsburgh told the media that he was outraged that Don would use Pittsburgh as a verbal prop.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Don doesn’t understand the Agreement and how it works because “he doesn’t get close enough to the [briefing] dossiers to fully understand them.” Ouch. He also said that they tried to explain to him several times that he can’t just leave the Agreement, that it would take three to four years for the USA to leave due to international law. With luck by then there will be a new US president.

Don also said he’d “re-negotiate” the accord. Uh huh—riiiight, okay then. The leaders of Germany, France and Italy issued a joint statement declaring: “We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies." You’d think after his disastrous trip to Europe Don would have realised that European nations would refuse to play along with his games. More delusion on his part.

So, Don doesn’t understand what the Paris Agreement is or does, he doesn’t understand how it works or know that he can’t just “quit” the agreement, he cites a city that rejected him as some sort of bizarre reason to do what he did, and he’s even created an opportunity for China to replace the USA as Europe's partner on this issue. What an idiot.

Don is truly awful, but he and his minions are also clearly inept. The thing is, Mike Pence, who is biding his time before deposing Don, would be far worse. Yes, all rational people want Don gone, but right now that would mean getting far right religious authoritarian theocrat Mike as president. The best solution is to defeat Republicans running for Congress and state legislatures. If Democrats can retake Congress, they can stop Don’s agenda in its tracks and take away Mike’s opportunity to seize power. If they can take more state legislatures, they can draw the new electoral maps to restore fairness and equity, thereby shutting out Republicans, and they can also repeal Republicans’ voter suppression laws.

Then, in 2020 a Democratic President can take office with a Democratic Congress and finally get the country moving forward again. But it starts with defeating Republicans wherever possible. That’s the best way to stop Don right now.

The "Make Our Planet Great Again" graphic above was Tweeted by French President Emmanuel Macron who used the phrase in a speech. It was epic trolling by the head of a government formerly friendly with the USA—its first ally, in fact. The other two countries who aren't part of the Paris Agreement are war-torn Syria and also Nicaragua, which refused to sign because the agreement didn't go far enough.