During Tuesday night’s coverage of the Yankees/Red Sox baseball game, the post-game analysts wondered how the potential acquisition of free agent Bryce Harper would change the Yankee’s future championship fortunes (which for 2018, had just ended with a 4-3 loss to Boston). One panelist compared the addition of Harper to the current roster as approaching the 1927 lineup known as “murderers row,” led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

While I cannot predict the impact of one more pinstriped superstar on the “Bronx Bombers,” they will have to compete with a new lineup of deadly opponents for whom the pseudonym “murderers row” is a literal description.  Since taking office, it is no secret Donald Trump prefers the company of world leaders who demonstrate the common trait of making their opponents mysteriously disappear.

Let’s look at the starting line-up.

• Leading off is Trump’s new BFF Kim Jung Un.  Since taking power in North Korea, Kim has ordered the execution of numerous relatives and government officials to solidify his power.  These include Hyon Yong-choi (Minister of the People’s Armed Forces), Choe Yong-gon (Deputy Minister of Construction and Building Materials) and his uncle Kim Yong Jin (Minister of Education).
• In the second position is Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who admits he has been preparing for his major league career from an early age.  At a November, 2017 meeting of the Asian-Pacific Economic Council, Duterte told participants, “When I was a teenager I was in and out of jail…During a fight.  Stabbing. That was when I was 16 years old, just because we looked at each other.”
• Traditionally, the third spot is reserved for the batter with the highest batting average, not necessarily the most home runs.  No one fits this bill better than Chinese President Xi Jinping.  Rather than murder journalists, Xi has earned his MVP bona fides by winning the title of “world’s worst jailer of journalists” for two years in a row.
• In the clean-up spot is Trump perennial go to player Vladimir Putin.  Just this week, the Kremlin denied any involvement in the murder of three Russian journalists last July in the Central African Republic (CAR).  The trio had been investigating Russian arms sales to the CAR government.  The number of Putin opponents and Russian reporters who have died or disappeared just since Trump took office is now approaching 20.

But this has not kept Trump from scouting more free agents to reinforce his line-up.

Last week Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was photographed entering the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.  Intelligence reports including intercepted communications suggest within two hours of his arrival, Khashoggi was murdered and his body was dismembered.  Although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has denied the allegations, intelligence sources say the execution was ordered at the highest levels of the Saudi government. Was the recent USA sale of $1.4 billion in military equipment to Saudi Arabia the Crown Prince’s signing bonus?

You can constantly tell a child not to stick objects in an electrical outlet.  But if the socket is broken, there are no consequences and no ensuing change in behavior.  In days past, the  occupant of the Oval Office was the moral equivalent of the shock which signaled behavior such as that associated with the Trump All-Stars was both unacceptable and potentially dangerous.  Sadly, the outlet is broken with no electrician on call to fix it.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP