Uh oh, kind of crappy weather here so time to ponder big thoughts. Crappy but big ones.
My bride recently made a marvelous post about the wonderful
Muslim lady from French Guinea who tended her dad while he was in great decline from Alzheimer’s;
that’s my inspiration today.
We’re only 10 days into the reign of our man/child king and it
is not too soon to draw some conclusions. But first a disclaimer: I have
followed Trump for over 10 yrs due to my interest in business and financial
stuff (interest in, not skill.) I have disliked him intensely pretty much from
the get go. I don’t like his mannerisms, his over-the-top speech and gestures,
his preposterous boastfulness (that seems to hide some Freudian issues). Most
of all I hate his hair.
You don’t have to be a Trump disliker though (hate is such
a strong word) to be getting a little nervous about the dude who is proving
to be the same petty, lying sociopath as president as he was as a candidate.
Quibbling about crowd size? Claiming hooouuge voter fraud for his losing the
popular vote (by more than anyone since 1876.). Puttin’ the lovin’ on Putin, a well-known
devotee of democracy (and perhaps a reason not to release tax records?) And making his surrogates go out and lie to support his
lies. Nice guy.
All politicians lie, especially presidents so it should be
refreshing that Trump is actually following through on his promises. But it’s
not because so far, it’s the worst of them. It remains to be seen what he actually
does for all the poor saps that got him elected. He has selected a cabinet that seems uniquely qualified to
fulfill his promises . . . to gut their respective departments. (Not that there
isn’t a good argument for getting rid of some of them honestly.) No, not shrink
or improve their quality but to literally gut them. With the important
exception of the DoD - thank god, he got that right - Mattis is a good man. Unfortunately, it appears to have been
a fluke or a coincidence based on most of his other selections. This a group
that should swim nicely in the swamp!
Building a wall? Truly stupid and a waste of money. Imposing taxes and tariffs? Raises prices for Americans, mostly hurting the folks that voted for him. Swell. Banning
immigrants from Muslim countries – except, of course, those that have business
ties to his companies. Pretty much unconstitutional. And now word that he may
not follow the court order? His chutzpah is breathtaking!
Freedom of the press anyone? ALL presidents hate the press but it’s not the press’ job to be liked, their job is to try and keep the government
honest. (And yes, most reporters are dinks.) Are they always good at it? Nope. But
now we have a cretin in the office who not only hates them, he wants to destroy
them and crush their ability to do their job. His right-hand man (and I do mean
“right”) Stephen Bannon even went so far as to say the press should shut up! By
the way, Trump has now placed this right-wing zealot on the National Security
Council and reduced the role of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff. What
could possibly go wrong with that?! (I’m kinda hoping the guy carrying the “football” with
the nuclear codes loses the key if Trump asks for it.)
So, yeah, I've come around somewhat to my adult kids' points of view and I’m getting more than a little nervous. And you
should be too, especially if you are one of those conservatives who claim to believe
in the Constitution. If you aren’t afraid too then you are either not paying attention
or you are so blinded by the Snake Oil Saleman in Chief’s false promises that you can’t
see the danger this guy presents to the country.
Obviously it is very early and too soon to panic but it is NOT too early for for Republicans, who basically own the government right now, to get a grip on this guy or they are going to
look like the Democrats in a couple years - or perhaps something even worse. (By the way, have you ever noticed that pretty much every single time one party holds the presidency and Congress they always assume everyone loves their dumbest ideas and immediately try to force them down out gullets rather than things we really want them to do? Every - single - time. Just wait and see what this gaggle does.)
Trump is showing several eerie similarities to another authoritarian
who hated the press, bullied businesses and singled out a religious minority and foreigners. (Did I mention he spoke German?) Can’t happen here? Let’s not find out, talk to your congress critters - especially if they are Republican - and tell them to start worrying too.
Speaking of snake oil, here is a very thoughtful article
that I read in the Tampa Tribune. It is not just about Trump but about why we
poor, sad human beings are such suckers for all types of snake oil salesmen,
from cancer cures . . . to making a country great (again.) Give it read when
you get a chance.
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