DUFO, WHAT A CRAZY GUY

Donald Trump likes to insult people.  This is known.  This weekend, in one of his rage-tweets, he called his Attorney General “Mr. Magoo,” and his Deputy Attorney General “Mr. Peepers.” 

J. Quincy Magoo’s career lasted long enough that people of a certain age probably get the reference, although J. Beauregard Sessions looks more like the Keebler Elf than the near-sighted Mr. Magoo.

On the other hand, Rod Rosenstein does indeed bear a passing resemblance to Mr. Peepers.  But how many people recognized the reference?  Mr. Peepers was a sitcom from the primitive days of early 50s television.  It starred Wally Cox as a mild mannered junior high science teacher.  Mr. Peepers was probably a little too mild-mannered, even for the Eisenhower era.  It was kind of an anemic version of the 70s hit Welcome Back Kotter, minus John Travolta and the Sweathogs.  The show only lasted three seasons.

Wally Cox, on the other hand, led a more interesting life.  Cox and Marlon Brando were best friends, and even roommates for a while early in their careers.  This story sounds an urban legend, but Wikipedia says that when Cox died in 1973, Brando claimed his ashes and kept them in his bedroom, where he “conversed with them nightly.”

That’s enough nostalgia for the moment. 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  Neither Sessions nor Rosenstein are Deep State moles.  Donald Trump appointed both of them just last year.  Because Trump’s intention is to only hires toadies, he was dumbfounded when Sessions recused himself from the Trump-Russia investigation (which may be the only principled thing Sessions has done in his entire political career), and when Rosenstein decided to take his oath of office seriously.

Trump was confused because he had no previous experience in dealing with honorable men.  He obviously loathes both Sessions and Rosenstein, but although he could theoretically fire them, doing so at this point would simply feed into the obstruction of justice narrative that Robert Mueller is building.  Instead, he tries to humiliate them, hoping that they’ll resign in shame, which is how he deal with his toadies.  But his Trump Inc. toadies didn’t take an oath to uphold the Constitution.

What Trump doesn’t understand – and is probably incapable of understanding – is that tweeting insults at his employees makes him, not them, look petty and foolish. 

In theory, Trump is the most powerful man in the world.  In practice, he can't wield that power effectively because he and his legion of grifters don't understand the rules they're trying to break.