“The worthless, demented sumbitch just destroyed out economy, got our troops killed, murdered a mess of Iranians, got allies in the Mideast attacked, totally wrecked our economy and then he surrenders and hangs his stupid out on the world stage for all to see.”
It was only 7:30 in the morning but in the back room of Bert’s Diner Walter Campbell, former DA and judge, was in full cocktail rage mode. The subject was obvious. It was the morning after Donald Trump had stumbled across the world stage at the G7, looking alternately lost and stupid, and spent an hour trying to explain to the world how he knew what he was doing. The world was buying it.
Here in our little cornfield corner of the Midwest we weren’t much buying what Trump was selling, either.
“How in the hell is this going to make anything better?” Jordan Jackson, retired journalist, editor and professor asked.
“The Iranians are going to put a toll on the Strait of Hormuz and that’s nothing more than a tariff that every shipper is going to pass onto consumers. Every barrel oil that goes through there, every bit of fertilizer makings is going to continue to cost more,” Jordan said.
“What about the nukes? A mess of liars said they wouldn’t pursue nuclear weapons and Trump just bought it hook line and sinker. Did you hear him say that as of this agreement, there are no enforcement methods? No way of knowing what they will do? He said they weren’t needed because if they don’t comply, he’ll just start bombing the shit out of them,” Hunter Wilde said.
I ordered up my basic bacon-eggs-hash browns breakfast from Roxanne and asked for the floor.
“Bottom line of all this is that we don’t have an ‘agreement.’ An agreement was what Obama negotiated, and Trump tore up in his first term. This is just a total surrender, a way out of one of the dumbest and most costly international mistakes this country ever has made.
“Here is what Trump, and his realtor friend and his son-in-law, ‘negotiated.’ Iran said it won’t pursue nuclear weapons, but what its nuclear program will look like and how anyone outside the country will verify what it is, well, you won’t find it in this document. Iran will get a boatload of money as well. It will have access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund to rebuild what Trump destroyed. Keep in mind the war cost around $200 billion to date so add that $300 billion on top of that. Remember when Republicans went crazy when Obama gave back to Iran what was contractual money, something like $2 billion? And, the US will possibly release more frozen Iranian assets.
“And there’s more. Iran gets to sell its oil on the open market. No more blockades, no more embargoes. Add those profits onto the $300 billion and you can see who the economic winner is here. Now, how about the Strait of Hormuz? It looks like Iran is going to control it and can charge tolls to ships.”
“Yeh, so basically all the gas and diesel prices, fertilizer prices, will stay high,” Dean Etheridge, our retired Ag agent, said. “There may be a bit of a drop without bombs falling but the cost of shipping through the Strait just went up. Keep in mind it was wide open before Trump started bombing. I don’t see the economy getting much better for most Americans. Certainly not for farmers.”
Will Sturgill, our former police chief, put his hand up.
“What really eats at me is just what a trashy, bottom-dwelling image we show the rest of the world. Bombing another country is wrong and stupid. But what about his cage match on the White House lawn, that reflecting pool turned green, his damned arch? And what about his conduct overseas. He called Obama a “stupid son-of-a-bitch” in the middle of a press conference. When did any American president ever do that? Never. And certainly never at an international summit.”
Things settled down after that. What else was there to say. We talked some baseball, some local gossip. Roxanne brought the bills.
Reuben Barnes was the first to depart. He paused at the door and looked back at the rest of us. “I’d go home and shoot myself, but I can’t afford a bullet,” he said and walked out.
Walter looked around at those of us remaining.
“You know, just about every one of us was a Republican at one time. Some of us still are. Can you look at Trump and imagine any of us voting for him, or for any other Republican right now? I don’t care much for the Democrat Party. They’ve shown they could eff up a one-car funeral. But after the last couple of weeks, how the hell else are you going to vote?
On that note we all walked out into a rainy misty June morning, looking for optimism but seeing only gray clouds lowering over the fields. – By Sterling Fields