Michael Che's gratifying response to President Trump's Puerto Rico bigotry — and —what's wrong with Secretary of State Tillerson?

© 2017 Peter Free

 

03 October 2017

 

 

Two points today

 

One, regarding Michael Che's perfect knee-capping of President Trump's anti-Puerto Rican bigotry.

 

And the other, the evidently unprincipled folks who continue to serve the Commander in Chief.

 

 

Point one — "unappealing" met its sarcastic match

 

President Trump's genius for contentiously inserting himself into the limelight met the perfect rejoinder.

 

Saturday Night Live's Michael Che responded to the President's (following) tweet regarding San Juan (Puerto Rico) Mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz:

 

 

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.

 

 

Che retorted:

 

 

Oh really, Donald? You bitch. Was she nasty to you? How nasty? Are you shaking? Do you want to smoke a Virginia Slim until your hand stops moving?

 

This isn’t a complicated issue, man, it’s hurricane relief. You just did this very same thing for white people, twice. So, tell Melania to put on her flood heels, get some bottled water, some food, pack up some extra Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl T-shirts and write them a check with our money, you cheap cracker!

 

In one month you have mishandled Puerto Rico, DACA, the NFL. It’s like when anybody darker than your golf pants has a problem you’re thinking, how can I make this worse?

 

© 2017 Matt Wilstein, SNL’s Michael Che Calls Trump a ‘Cheap Cracker’ Over Puerto Rico Response, Daily Beast (01 October 2017) (with embedded Saturday Night Live video clip) (pertinent portion starts at 01:55 minutes)

 

 

Point two — does Secretary of State Tillerson have no spine?

 

I mentioned yesterday that President Trump contemptuously undercut Tillerson's negotiation mission to North Korea via the following untimely tweet:

 

 

I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...

 

...Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done! Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.

 

 

Days having passed, Secretary Tillerson is apparently okay with the interference, as well as the contempt displayed.

 

 

Eliot A. Cohen's perspective on Tillerson's dilemma is apt

 

He wrote that:

 

 

Tillerson has to quit. His boss has publicly and mockingly stripped him of his credibility as the chief diplomat of the United States. As an envoy, he is useless, because he will speak only for himself and the tiny embattled coterie of aides that surround him.

 

But Tillerson may very well stay on, as others have until Trump has decided that it’s more fun to kick them out than simply to kick them. If he does remain, it will be yet another sign of the collapse of self-respect among those who are now willing to serve in senior positions in government.

 

© 2017 Eliot A. Cohen, Rex Tillerson Must Go, Defense One (02 October 2017) (excerpts)

 

 

It does not matter whether the President and Secretary elected to play a "good cop bad cop" game.

 

Belittled as Tillerson was, he lost all ability to do his job in any likely context. No self-respecting nation will waste high-level time speaking to such a delegitimized patsy.

 

 

The moral? — President Trump deftly recruits ambitiously twisted people into his service

 

The President's people-manipulating skills are "awesome".

 

Too bad that his talent consistently points us (and his staff) in wrong directions.

 

What might have been (more positively accomplished) with such gifts, narcissistically inspired or not?