Actually, He’s Worse

I have been under a misconception for some time now. That is, I have always argued that Donald Trump was well known to all of us, way before the election. We knew he was a pathological liar, a sexual predator, a racist, a misogynist, a con man, a dishonest businessman, and, actually, an incompetent businessman.  What we did not realize is that he is worse than the sum total of those awful characteristics.  

He told us, we thought jokingly, that he could go out on Fifth Avenue with a gun, shoot someone and his support would increase. Apparently, he really believes such a scenario, and might even consider the act.  Because, he now seems to think that he is beyond our Constitution. He is above the law, and his "lawyers" have assured him that is so.  Shades of Absolute Monarchies.  I understand that Ivanka has begun thinking of herself as Princess Ivanka.  I guess, in olden tymes, such creatures as "absolute monarchs" actually existed.  But even they had their problems. In one text, the author argues that even the concept of absolute monarchies was problematic for a simple reason: “Nothing so clearly indicates the limits of royal power as the fact that governments were perennially in financial trouble, unable to tap the wealth of those most able to pay, and likely to stir up a costly revolt whenever they attempted to develop an adequate income.”1

So, even if The Donald has begun thinking of himself as a grand monarch, with unlimited powers, his financial supporters will (may?) eventually weigh in whenever he grows “inconvenient”.  In the meantime, however, we the unlucky will need to deal with his powerfully negative and destructive tendencies.  But again, we cannot claim we did not know what he was like. Just that, however awful we thought he was, we did not imagine he was actually this bad.

And I have been thinking all along that at least some of the "powers-that-be" would rein him in, even if just a bit. Turns out there are no actual "powers-that-be",or they are uninterested in doing any reining. See, the problem here is that, if The Donald imagines that he has some absolute power, then it implies that they also have great power, and their limited brain power prevents them from conceiving that their power might eventually clash with his power.  As long as they can roam our country without restraint, why not give him this perception of absolutism? Works for them.  So, the Mitch McConnell’s and Paul Ryan’s of our world seem perfectly ok with this cretin in the White House.  It seems not to matter what he says or does. They have no comment.

And his broadcast network of choice, The Faux News Network, amplifies his message of absolute control, and has been even propagating the stories about “The Deep State”, i.e., the FBI and the Special Council. Sean Hannity has been arguing that they need to be eliminated, as soon as possible, because they pose a threat to His Majesty. With this crew, we have a fairly complete symbiotic relationship, one that benefits The Donald. We have The Donald, his largely ignorant supporters, and The Faux News Network. He says or does something, The Faux News Network amplifies his statements or supports his acts, and his ignorant supporters cheer him on.  It all seems to work wonders.

And now, he has been given almost carte blanche to make judicial appointments, which might well create a more lasting problem for humanity than anything else he has done. His cabinet appointments, Like Pruitt, DeVos, et al, however flawed, are at least limited in time. If we get rid of The Donald, they automatically go away. But his judicial appointments might be getting jobs for life, so they will be around to terrorize us humans for quite a long time.  So, this absolute monarch concept, however much of a teaser, still will manage to plague humanity for quite some time.

But the central question is, what can be done about it?  Again, in normal times, we have three branches of government, intended to hold one another in check.  This system, though still in place in theory, is at best a tattered remnant of its former vigorous self. As noted, Trump has been busily corrupting the judicial branch, and the legislative branch seems corrupt in its own way, and, therefore, disinclined to hold him in check, so long as he does not step directly on their toes.  And he seems not to be doing so, although it is unclear what he would have to do to annoy McConnell, or Ryan, or any of their slavish followers.  Ryan is essentially an anarchist at heart. He wants no government entities to step personally on his toes. Should they step on others’ toes, he seems to care not one whit.  And McConnell just seems a simpleton at heart. So long as folks keep giving him a high-paying job, he is happy.

So, the only remedy appears to be voting them all out of office. Now whether that will work is still anyone’s guess.  We keep hearing rumors that the Dems are poised to turn some formerly red state blue.  But the Dems are, at best, a flawed remedy. Nancy Pelosi is way past her sell-by-date and needs to move off stage. And folks like Bernie also seem a bit long in the tooth.  I still await the arrival of bright, honest, youngish candidates eager to take back the reins of power from the current crop of cretins.  And I wait . . . and I wait . . . the 2018 elections are not all that far off, and I still am waiting for the bright crew to appear.

Maybe they are simply waiting in the wings.

I do worry actually, about the cretinous MAGA supporters, and how they will react, should their King Donald I be hastened out the door, or even impeached. We might actually be facing the Great Second Civil War. Let us hope not.  

And on that Donald I thing, I stumbled across an actual reference to a King Donald in Wikipedia. Turns out:

 Domnall mac Causantín (Modern Gaelic: Dòmhnall mac Chòiseim), anglicised as Donald II (died 900) was King of the Picts or King of Scotland (Alba) in the late 9th century. He was the son of Constantine I (Causantín mac Cináeda). Donald is given the epithet Dásachtach, "the Madman", by The Prophecy of Berchán.

So Donald could now be viewed properly as successor to The Madman. Seems right somehow . . .

Stay tuned . . .

1.     Bouwsma, William J., in Kimmel, Michael S. Absolutism and Its Discontents: State and Society in Seventeenth-Century France and England. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988

Boycotting America

Will You Ever Visit Us Again?

I wonder when visitors from afar will begin to understand the country we have become, and then decide perhaps they don’t need to visit us anymore. Why? Well, we have turned ourselves into the most violent people on earth. The chances of a foreign visitor dying here by accident seem high, too high to risk. And “by accident”, I do not mean that they might be struck by lightning, or be crushed in an automobile accident.  No, I mean that they might be shot and killed just because they were standing in the wrong place, when one of our many domestic terrorists decided to shoot up some place in which they happened to be standing.  I have begun to wonder about the relative chances of being killed as a visitor in say, Afghanistan, or Iraq, as compared to the United States.  Granted our country is physically larger, so it might seem safer. But is it? Remember Florida, that place of sun and surf? Remember that “Stand your ground” law they passed? It appears to say that, if you feel threatened by someone, it is ok to shoot them. Remember Trayvon Martin?  That’s why he died.  Because an idiot, armed with a pistol, claims he felt threatened and so he shot and killed Martin, after a scuffle between the two.  It actually doesn’t matter to me that the idiot who killed him got off. It matters that Martin died as a result.

And now, we seem to have kids being shot in their schools, by some heavily armed idiot who believes he has a grievance with the school, or with one or more of the kids. And because that idiot is armed, many kids die.  Or people die because they happen to be sitting in a gay bar when one of the idiot domestic terrorists decides to shoot up the place.  

The statistics are by now, well known and alarming. Everytown USA (https://everytown.org) now maintains data on firearm related death and injuries.  On average, 13,000 people are killed each year by firearms in domestic homicides, 96 people die by gunfire every day in the US of A. For every person killed by firearms, two more are injured. Seven children and teens (age 19 or under) are killed with guns in the U.S. on an average day. America’s gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries. Oh, and should you happen to be a person of African American origin, you are 13 times as likely to be killed by firearms as white, Non-Hispanic persons.

And what actions have we taken as a result of all this carnage? Well, nothing.  We can’t even move our Congress to enhance background checks. And any time someone considers something like banning automatic weapons, the chief domestic terrorism agency in the country, The NRA, becomes hysterical and yells that we are violating the Second Amendment.

And what is that precious Second Amendment again? Well, here is what our Constitution actually says:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

It has been argued to death what the real intent of this Amendment was, and what the Framers meant by a “well-regulated militia”. They certainly could not have meant that collection of heavily armed, drooling NRA Trump supporters.  I assume instead they were thinking about, say, the National Guard.

But whatever they meant, their intent has been so distorted by the NRA domestic terrorists that their intent no longer matters. Now, it is up to our Congress, and maybe even state legislatures (yeah, right) to declare what kind of gun policies this nation shall endure.

Right now, with 300 million guns floating around the country, it seems increasingly clear that no one is actually safe. Idiots abound in the land (see election of Trump) and they all seem to be heavily armed. And that “good guy with a gun” thing? Yeah, right. When has that ever happened (ever!)?

And now, the NRA terrorists wish to arm our schools. Yeah, more guns . . . that’ll really cut down on the violence.  I suppose if everyone in school, including all those pre-schoolers, is armed, nobody is likely to enter the school. Right??? Right??? But then, what happens when some pissed off 13-year old doesn’t like it when his rival in school insults him. It’s guns drawn at full noon . . . in the courtyard everyone. And don't forget your smartie-phone-camera.

So, at any rate, suppose I’m a Canadian, thinking of driving down into the Netherworld of America. Shouldn’t they also come in armed to the teeth?  Or maybe, just maybe, Canadians might consider erecting a big wall instead. Want to go touring? Visit Afghanistan. Lovely in the spring time, I hear.

And you Brits?? Forget about New York, or Boston. And do not even think about Florida. Try the Caribbean instead.

Yeah, maybe a global boycott of America would be good, until we enact some sensible gun control legislation. Maybe get the number of guns down to, oh I don’t know, perhaps 50 million instead of 300 million.  Yeah, sell the other 250 million guns to the Russians, or the Chinese to improve our trade balance picture.  So, if our old friends should decide to boycott America until we begin acting like intelligent adults, instead of whiny idiots, we could blame the resulting revenue losses on the NRA, making them and their supporters anathema to American business interests. Maybe then . . .

We can hope can’t we?

Iran Accord & Trump

So, he’s done it. He has broken the contract that required us to abide by the same terms as Iran and all of our European allies.  So, now we are alone in abrogating the contract.  And now the folks who don’t know anything will begin to weigh in on Facebook and other social media forums. That includes me of course, because most of us have little access to high quality information about Iran’s behavior relative to the agreement. On one side, Benjamin Netanyahu claims that Iran has been systematically cheating and that they are moving closer to having a full nuclear capability, including a bomb and a means of delivery. On the other side, most of our allies, including the UN inspection brigade that has been overseeing the deal, claims that Iran has largely operated within the constraints of the agreement and has not cheated. Who to believe?

From my perspective, Netanyahu has moved closer and closer to a fascist mentality, emulating the very people that created our Second World War. I believe firmly, that Netanyahu is not a credible source of information within the Middle East.   I am certain that Trump’s advisers, Bolton and Pompeio, have argued to strike the accord. And now, he has sided with them and with the Israeli’s.

From an American public perspective, we must simply choose sides depending on whom we choose to believe.  And I have grave difficulty believing our President, mainly because he is a congenital liar. He lies, we know, whenever it is convenient to him, or whenever a lie will benefit him. In this case, a lie (that Iran routinely cheats on the accord) benefits him by drawing attention away from his myriad personal difficulties and from his potential legal difficulties with the Special Counsel, and places the Nation on a possible war footing. He has not yet declared war on Iran, but he is only a minor step away from such a declaration.  Under such a scenario, fewer people than normal may be drawn to continuing the critical commentary, although we will simply have to sit back and wait, watch and observe the ebb and flow of arguments that are sure to follow his lead here.

His timing is interesting here, since he is also moving towards North Korea on essentially the identical topic—how to prevent an authoritarian regime from possessing nuclear weapons capability.  He can and will surely deflect attention from the Iran mess, by arguing that he is entering a new era with a dangerous regime, one that has remained troublesome to the world for the past 65 years.  If indeed he and Kim succeed in reaching a successful accord, it would be a very large milestone towards peace in Asia, one that would certainly take away from the criticism of the Middle East mess he seems to have created.

Plus, he always gets to blame Obama for whatever mess results from his decision today.

It is all too early to say anything with certainty. Now, most of the next steps are within the decision halls of our allies, and within the Iranian regime itself.  One question is whether this will push the Iranians closer to Europe, Russia, and China, and therefore away from the USA. What the USA will do should that occur (impose sanctions on our European allies?) remains to be seen.  It seems clear that Trump’s decision will create a whole new game, with uncertain rules and highly uncertain outcomes for us and for our allies. Whether we still have allies after the dust settles is another of those, “remains to be seen” things.  It all gives me goosebumps thinking about a USA operating on the world stage without any serious allies.  But, as Trump keeps saying, “we will have to wait and see what happens”. 

 Because, given his inability to think beyond the next five minutes, he surely has no clue what will happen.

Post Truth

An interesting and disturbing series of articles this morning in the Sunday Times.  One was on what they are calling our “Post-Truth” era, thanks to our President who apparently cannot tell the difference between truth and fiction.  But the article attempts to explain the continuing support for him, even when he is clearly lying. They attribute the support to folks’ ability to think, “well, it could be true” . . . sort of a “wannabe truth”.  For example, Sarah Huckleberry engages in this kind of explanation routinely, since she is the chief splainer for the Liar-in-Chief.  Her explanation for his lies about having the biggest audience ever for his inauguration. “Well, it could have been . . . had the weather cooperated”.  In other words, in another universe, his audience might have grown to the largest ever.

Now the problem I have with the explanation, is that it implies that nothing anyone does or says has any relationship to fact or truth. If we are to follow that logic, then nothing anyone says or does also has any consequences. For example, if someone runs a red light and strikes a pedestrian, the driver might say, well, my light could have been green . . . ergo, I am guilty of nothing.  And of course, that explanation could well have been used to justify the invasion of Iraq . . . “well they could have had WMDs”.

And if that explanation is the rationale being used by his supporters to eliminate any issues concerning “truthiness” by The Liar-in-Chief, then it truly no longer matters what he says or does. But I wonder about such an explanation. I understand that Sarah Huckleberry might use such a rationale. I mean, she lies for a living and so has to construct whatever rationale works for her.  But I wonder about his supporters at large. Could it be that they simply no longer care what he says, or whether his words have any relationship to the Truth? I am brought to the belief that his supporters simply like what he is doing or saying, and the truth, to them, is irrelevant. If he proposes to ban all Muslims, and they don’t like Muslims, then whatever his rationale, his supporters will cheer, regardless of whether he is truth-telling or lying.  And if he is bashing Gays, or people of color, and they don’t like such folks, then again, it matters little his rationale.  What happens as a consequence, of course, is that the Nazi’s are allowed out of their closets and can now proceed to demonstrate for Nazi-rights on our streets . . . you know, the freedom to kill people they don’t like, just cuz.  And the Evangels of our Land, our very own Christian Taliban, can also yell and scream and try force as a method of shutting down programs such as the Planned Parenthood clinics, because they could be providing abortions.

And nobody does anything.

We could vote I suppose, but even that drastic course (well, remember, at least half of our voting age public does not routinely vote) is subject to the rules dictated by the Republican Guard in many of our states and precincts. First they gerrymandered, then next they try intimidation at the polls.

But we have apparently simply given up on demanding anything of our President. We now accept his behavior, regardless of what he says or does.  He lies about something, and now, our collective response seems to be, “OK so who needs a beer?” And so life goes on, and we no longer have any standards of behavior.  See, it isn’t really any longer about just Trump. A large change is occurring, or perhaps, has occurred in the American people. If we no longer care about “truthiness” then we are no longer a worthy people.  And are we now ok with that assertion? Are we really ok with no longer being a worthy people?  Because the Nazi’s in the 1930s Germany were no longer a worthy people. And the slaveholders in the 16^th-19^th centuries were no longer worthy people.   We imagined that we had grown more civilized, at least I thought we had. I imagined that the Civil War, and World Wars I & II meant that we had standards of morality that were better than what I see being demonstrated on a daily basis here in America of 2018. Maybe we have retreated now and, although we can blame Trump, it really is ourselves we must blame. We allow his behavior and tell him repeatedly that such behavior is actually ok with us.  He continues because he is allowed to continue.  And my question is . . . are we really ok with that position? If so, then we really are finished as a Nation and we only need a new Edward Gibbon to document the “, The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire,  So, think hard American people. Think hard.

And I also began thinking about our Liar-in-Chief and his constant campaigning.  He avoided the White House Correspondents dinner in order to campaign in Washington, Wherever. Two things: first, he avoided the dinner because he is incapable of listening to any critical commentary about himself—that’s his extreme narcissism in action.  But second, and perhaps more important, he has never actually stopped campaigning since he won the Electoral College vote. No president on record has ever done that. And I wondered. But finally, I have concluded that it is because he never actually wanted to be president. He simply wanted to campaign for president, Campaigning delivers large crowds (yuge crowds . . . the biggest ever on record anywhere in the universe) that cheer him on.  The crowds deliver smiles and that is what he needs, all the time. So, maybe, instead of governing, he intends to continue campaigning. And maybe there could be worse things. Whenever he actually attempts “governance”, we see one disaster unfold after another.  So maybe we should encourage him to continue campaigning. He will do less damage to the world.  The government will be on hold for a few years. Couldn’t be worse than having him actually making decisions.

So, ta ta folks. And do think about that voting thing. If you check out instead of voting, then you don’t get to complain.

Weirder & Weirder

We seem to be continuing on our path to either an actual Civil War, or a Civil War without guns.  Our now totally weird President continues on his path of wandering narcissism, where he runs down and labels anyone who criticizes him, while ignoring even the slightest hint of civilized behavior.  After promising to “drain the swamp”, he is instead populating his own dismal swamp with creatures no one even dreamed of to run Federal agencies. Mr. Zinke is busily trying to sell off all of the nation’s protected park lands to the highest bidder, and doing it as quietly as possible, so as to attract no attention. He has in fact no appointees who are remotely in synch with the missions of the agencies they are appointed to manage.

He continues to tweet in synch with the Fox Fake News programs, to the point that Fox appears to be directing our main policy positions.  He might as well appoint Hannity as his senior policy advisor, maybe even his foreign policy advisor (Hannity as Secretary of State??).

The news about the president, generated mainly through his inane tweets in the middle of the night/morning, and by the onslaught of news about his private lives that are hopelessly intertwined with his presidency, not merely dominates the news, but has become THE NEWS. It’s as though there is no other news around the globe.

And yet, I note the ongoing commentary on Facebook and in published articles in the news media, is filled with vitriolic comments about either the articles, or, more often, about the left side of the political aisle support for opposing this destructive president. The right wing has emerged from its closets and is now in full, righteous anger against those in the country (folks like me) who seem to despise our president.  For the most part, the right wing anger and resulting commentary contains no new facts to dispute any of the indictments against the president. They apparently, like Fox News, do not engage in facts.

But why, I keep asking myself? Why/how could these folks continue to support this destructive clown, who practically reveals his idiocy and his biases every time he opens his mouth. He lies with such frequency that he simply is useless in any discussion venue in which policy positions are to be discussed.  If one cannot trust meeting participants to speak from facts and to voice truth, then there is little point in the discussion.

But the fact that our president has now practically destroyed  the norms by which we govern ourselves, setting new standards of behavior that leave truth behind, seems lost on his supporters. I had serious questions during the election process and immediately after, about how anyone in the country could have voted for him, since we knew almost everything that was needed to declare him totally unfit to be president (of anything, no less our nation).  But those questions not only continue, but have enlarged to the point that I have difficulty treating any of his supporters with anything but total disdain. Still, I do not even remotely understand these folks. They are ostensibly American, with some American value system operating. I understand that many of his supporters are racists, and that they voted for Trump because they really hated that we had a Black President. Yes, they disliked, maybe even hated Hillary, but I always thought that was just an excuse to partly disguise their hatred of our Black President, and that they continue to hate anyone who supports that Black President. Their ongoing support of Trump seems to be a way of dismissing their own inadequacies as people who actually voted for our current president.  I was going to again say our “clown” president, but I now understand that use of the clown label demeans any and all actual clowns in the world. Trump is not a clown. He is a mean-spirited, bigoted, narcissist, who is also arguably one of the most ignorant humans on the planet.  He is apparently ignorant because he cannot or will not read. It may be that his ADHD is so serious that he cannot focus on reading anything more than a few paragraphs.  Or that his narcissism is so severe that he cannot read anything that fails to mention/focus on him. So, we should not call Trump a clown. He is way more serious and destructive than that playful term suggests. Trump is not funny, or even faintly amusing. I realize that our comedians all find great and ongoing material provided by him every day. But they are in the business of providing comedic relief to a world bordering on mental collapse from the daily raging of our idiotic president. I think many people are close to being terrified all the time, at the thought he could simply end the world. His close colleagues are certainly busy destroying much of that world built up over the centuries by our forefathers.  And, when people are terrified much of the time, comedic relief helps to maintain sanity.  Maybe our comedians are the court of last resort for a population ready to explode.  See, I think that, while the right wing racists of our world (Trump supporters especially) always seem angry, and always on the edge of violence (see Charlottesville), there could come a time when the terrified left wing actually does explode in a fury of righteous anger.  And then we may have an actual Civil War, with guns ablazing and all that.

In the past, I have always been gratified that our nation’s people could come together around righteous causes. I think of World Wars I & II. Even for the Korean War, we were less united, but still we remained a solid block. But I also remember the 1960s, and Vietnam. That coherent, unified stance that brought us together in the past failed to unite us. That war, built largely on lies and Cold War rhetoric, began dismantling our nation, and we came to close to a Civil War.  And the fracturing that occurred during those tumultuous years never left our land. The left and right separated along rhetorical lines and, though the yelling diminished, the differences of opinion never left. Then came Reagan and the 1980s. I always though Reagan made it ok again to be a racist, so some folks left their closets.  And the schisms continued to widen throughout the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush years. But then the nation elected its first Black President, and the fracturing broke wide open. It did not matter that President Obama was an intelligent, decent, thoughtful human being, whose every effort was intended to better our nation.  Still, the right wing persisted and expanded its efforts to discredit him, even to the ongoing lies about his heritage, and even his beliefs. They would credit him never.

And that schism remains today and is, I think, responsible for what we observe in the ongoing support for arguably the worst, most potentially destructive president in the nation’s history.  And the calls for impeachment, whether warranted or not, will continue to fall on deaf ears, even if the evidence begins to support those cries.  Whenever I think about impeachment, and its frivolous uses in the case of Bill Clinton, I believe it could introduce actual armed rebellion.  I understand that the ongoing case of Russian interference could yet produce the evidence needed to impeach Trump and even convict him.  But such an ending, however deserved would never provide the closure we need as a nation.  

Only if we go to the polls and vote him out of office will the nation have a pathway to peace. Only then could Americans begin again to walk and talk without hatred of “the other”.

We will see which path America follows.  The pathway is not clear at the moment. And many opponents of America (Vlad the Impaler come to mind) desperately wish for us to fail and to fall apart.  

I continue to hope. But hope is in increasingly scarce supply at this stage.

Liars Beware

And so Stormy “testified” against the Drumpf on Sixty Minutes. And, the Donald denies everything.  And how would we know whether The Donald is lying? Well, the sure test is:

“Whenever The Donald opens his mouth and words come tumbling out, he is lying.”

See, that is the problem Mr. Trump has with everyone.  He acknowledges that, while meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, he lied to him. And he more or less blew it off.  And therein lies the problem. He lies to everybody; ergo, nobody can believe anything he says, even when he is being truthful.  Apparently, the only way to know whether he is being truthful is if someone you know/trust certifies that he is being truthful. Because, see, all of his colleagues/paid serfs/family serfs, lie along with him.  So, it is only if someone you actually know, or someone you can absolutely trust, will say he is truthful that you can sigh and relax.

But what does that mean in practical terms? Well, it means that Trump is useless in any conversation in which agreements are sought.  So, if, say, an arms agreement were being negotiated, one would not want to have Trump in the room. He would screw it up simply by being present.  So, for example, Trump heading off to negotiate with China, or with his buddy Kim Jung Un about nuclear disarmament, is a total waste of time. Mainly, neither Trump nor Kim could be believed in any final agreement. Even if Trump agreed to some final solution, it would not matter, because he might change his mind tomorrow.

The scary thing about Trump and his lying is that it is not actually clear, when he says something, that he knows he is lying, or even knows that he is being truthful. He simply says stuff that he imagines people want to hear, or stuff that he imagines will make him look good.  He may say something not even knowing whether it is truthful. Accompanying his constant lying is his apparent ignorance about most subjects. I guess because he doesn’t/can’t read anything, he really doesn’t seem to understand anything in any detail. Maybe he just deals in headlines, and never reads or understands the accompanying text.  Like when he called his buddy Vlad the Impaler to congratulate him on his election, he perhaps did not understand that Vlad had rigged the election, in ways that most American Presidents would disapprove of. Now, to be fair, he isn’t “most American presidents”. He isn’t like any previous American President, but is rather, in a class by himself—a class of awfulness to be sure.

In any case, what this all means, is that Trump should not be an active participant in any agreement, or conversation leading to an agreement.  His staff should be allowed to negotiate all such agreements without Trump being present. He can sign the agreements, of course. Just don’t let him read any of them (oh, but I forget, he really cannot/would not read them anyway).

The other problem for Mr. Trump is that, because he cannot and should not be believed when he says something, no one will/should believe him, even if he speaks the truth. So, he will lose, even in the unlikely event he is actually saying something truthful.

His lying, his palpable ignorance about most subjects, and his willful behavior really explain his utter lack of success about almost everything he has ever attempted. Three failed/failing marriages, six bankruptcies, the development and then failure of seemingly fraudulent enterprises like Trump University are all explained fully by his standard behavior patterns.  He seems not to understand how anything runs, so he cannot really take charge, or “manage” anything. He needs to have others manage his enterprises, or they would all surely fail.  Having him pretend to be our senior executive over all of our government is way beyond just a horribly bad joke.  His assertions that he would assign responsibility for reorganizing government, and then also resolving the Middle East mess to his son-in-law Jared was so startling that it seemed that he must surely have been joking. But, no, he was as serious as he ever gets, at least at that moment. He simply did not understand what he was saying, because he understands almost nothing.  His constant hiring and firing of the heads of his cabinet posts also is consistent with his standard behavior practices. He hires people now who seemingly have not the slightest understanding of their intended positions or the agencies they are being asked to run.  Then, eventually, he tires of their ineptitude (by his definition of aptitude) and fires them.  It makes one wonder whether he is truly in process of destroying the entire US Government.  I am confident that his supporters would applaud such a finding, but they are as ignorant as our president.

It is difficult to now imagine how this all ends.  He will not be impeached I would guess, because the republican party no longer has any ethical standards at all. In the unlikely event all republicans are voted out of office in 2018 and 2020, I suppose we might depose him and his henchmen.  I no longer have any belief in such an outcome. The seeming constancy of his support, 40% and holding, makes me fear for what that says about America.  I might think/imagine differently were I a 30-something. But I am now in my 45^th 39^th year and my trust in America is now failing. I hope I am wrong and perhaps the youngsters—the teenagers who have behaved so wonderfully and made their “adults” look so tragically awful—perhaps they will rescue all of us from ourselves.  One can only hope, I guess.

So carry on teenagers. Our future is now in your hands, as soon as you can pry it from your adult ne’er-do-wells.

Darkness Descending

Lately I have become even darker than my usual cranky old man demeanor.  Partly, I guess, it is a function of aging. The closer to an ending, the darker is my hue. Partly, obviously, our absurd political situation is to blame. To observe this destructive clown (apologies to clowns everywhere) wreaking havoc on a daily basis, because he is both too stupid to understand what he is doing, and also because he simply doesn’t care about the effects of his actions on others, including on the Nation as a whole, is frankly more than disheartening.

And then, of course, one need only look abroad at the continued carnage in that place formerly called the Middle East, and now called Murderers' Row, to see that much of the rest of the world is an absurdity.  People there kill partly out of religious absurdity and partly just because they get off on killing.—sort of like the NRA here.

I have been thinking about our very own home-grown idiocies, and I have difficulty understanding how the moron’s support continues. He carries out some ridiculous action via his 3-4 AM Tweets, and the rest of us just gasp in disbelief. He appoints people to high level positions who are, purposefully, opposed to the very idea of the agency’s they now run.  He appoints people who seemingly know nothing, and we are expected to applaud.  And his supporters do just that.

How? How can they? Are they simply residents in Hillary’s infamous “Basket of Deplorables”? How could that be?

And then, upon ruminating a bit more, I finally conclude that his supporters are like him in attitude. They no longer care. Every time he does something terminally stupid, and his opponents gasp in anger and disbelief, his supporters smile, and perhaps even cheer him on. Because, they are now like bomb-throwers. They are getting someone else to do what they really want to do themselves—burn the place down, blow it up, and whatever comes as a result, let it come, because it couldn’t be worse than what they have been observing with the so-called rational folks in charge.  Many of his supporters are racists who hated the thought of Obama, and the idea of Hillary made them want to throw up.  Hillary and the Dems never really understood the level of hostility generated by Hillary every time she opened her mouth.  So, when the Trump yelled “Lock her up” they cheered in response.  Partly, they were being given an outlet for their rage about Obama, and partly, Hillary just provided a convenient target for their abuse.

And now, they seemingly just don’t care what happens.

So observing this mess that is now our country is dispiriting at best.  

Partly, too, the fact of the ending, now coming into view, pulls me into a worldview that is no longer optimistic and filled with possibilities. I see the missed opportunities more than I see the possible openings, because the openings seem fewer and less plausible. I watched a film the other day with Ben Stiller about Life’s missed opportunities called  Brad’s Status. As I watched, I began thinking back to all the career life mistakes I had made, and the missed opportunities that lay therein. Would’a, could’a should’a wandered through my head all night. Guaranteed to make your day.

But then we return to the wonderful world of Today.  Between The Donald-Doofus-in-Charge, the NRA death-mongrels, and the Facebook thieves of Cambridge Analytica (needs to be shut down) we have a real mess here in Amurrica. Enough to make one wonder just when we plan on descending into some other Hell-hole—the Middle East anyone?

Well, enough Richard. You will die soon enough, so try to enjoy your remaining time here on this spinning globe (take that Flat-Earthers).  And speaking of Flat-Earthers, I wonder whether they are all related to the Donald, who is, as far as we know, the stupidest person on the planet.

Meanwhile, the sun just came out today. So, perhaps my mood will lighten. Ignore all the crap in the world if you can, and there is much there. There are bright angels all around you, people smiling despite the idiot-savants of the world.  When they smile at you, smile back. Pretend you're an elephant and Carol is feeding you Cheerios. See, you can smile after all.

Ta ta.