Month: February 2017

There is an old saying (of Hebrew origin, I think) to the effect that: “things need to get much worse before they can get better”. The electoral college selection of “the Donald” as President Of The United States is perhaps the clearest proof of how appropriate that adage is to the present time. It is difficult to imagine how the next four years could be any worse for America than what the Trump agenda portends, but it certainly does not promise to be any better.

Republicans knew very well what “the Donald” was. The primary campaign exposed without any doubt how completely unfit this con man was to be President of the United States. Yet, they saw an opening. Clinton’s lackluster campaign was faltering. If the Republicans could only combine their traditional base with Trump’s crowds, then add the Tea Party, and the legions of Clinton-haters, they would have a shot at the big prize. To Republicans, this was Nirvana, the Holy Grail they had coveted since Ronald Reagan gave them that taste of power in the 80s, (they were almost able to grab it again after Obama screwed up so badly in his first two years in office). The devil offered a deal they simply could not refuse: abandon “never trump”; accept “the Donald” as America’s Savior, and pour all your resources into getting him elected. If you do this, I will give you absolute power for generations to come. That was simply too good. They dropped “never trump” like the hottest potato, and the rest is history. We are now watching the historic dismantling of virtually everything good our elected government has done for the country for the past 70 years.

Those of us who witnessed Mussolini in the 30s and early 40s performing his speeches before an adoring, carefully chosen audience, are having flashbacks watching “the Donald” do the same.

Americans opened their hearts and pocketbooks to pay for rebuilding the arson-burned mosque (20,000 people pledged over $1 million in just a few hours), and in another town, Americans put together $76,000 to fix the vandalized Jewish cemetery headstones. When you see this response, you realize we do not need Trump to make America great again. We are far greater than anythingTrump ever has or ever will produce.

Americans opened their hearts and pocketbooks to pay for rebuilding the arson-burned mosque (20,000 people pledged over $1 million in just a few hours); and in another town, Americans put together $76,000 to fix vandalized Jewish cemetery headstones. You see this response, and realize we do not need Trump to make America great again. We are far greater than anytyhing Trump ever has or ever will produce.

Did anyone ever think America would some day have its own Rasputin?
Probably not, but how else could one describe Steve Bannon?

All signs point to a catastrophe of colossal proportions, just waiting to explode. . The various villains Trump has chosen to fill out his cabinet and head up the agencies, bureaus, and offices of government are a veritable rogue’s gallery of “hit men” who make no secret of their intention to emasculate some of the important institutions, laws, and regulations, America has developed over the past 2 1/2 centuries. The only hope for the future of America-as-we- know-it is for right-thinking ( as opposed to “ right-wing”) Americans to get out of the house and join, participate, contribute, support, write and/or call your Congressman. In other words, don’t wait for the next election. Respond, react, protest every evil move coming out of Washington. You can be sure there will be plenty.

Right now, Republicans seem to be happy with everything “the Donald” does. They keep repeating: “Hey, he won the election, and he’s only doing what he promised in the campaign.” Never mind that most leading Republicans were vehemently against everything Trump stood for during the campaign, and only cottoned up to him when they realized his voters could help them beat Hillary. Now, they cheer everything he does, no matter how dumb, including all the alligators he is dumping into the swamp he promised to drain. Republicans are enabling Trump at every turn, and will need to pay the piper sooner or later.

We have been wondering how (finally) “the Donald” would react to having one of his executive orders invalidated or put on hold by a Federal Court. Now we know, and it is not reassuring. A top aide, one Stephen Miller, has clarified the Trump administration policy, which is that the president’s orders “shall not be questioned.” In other words: the presidency is above the law. What “the Donald” says or does cannot be reviewed by any court of law. Okay. If this is official Trump policy, and if it is allowed to stand, it would be an attempt to thwart the very clear separation of powers principle of the United States Constitution, leaving the country at the tender mercy of a mildly deranged dictator. Not nearly as bad as Kim Jong Un, of course, but bad enough to warrant the full fledged reaction by both parties in both houses of Congress. This should be a good test of Republican backbone.

By now there should be no uncertainty about The Donald, either as a person, or as President of the United States. He is completely unaware of his own weaknesses and vulnerabilities; firmly vindictive, inflexible, and misogynistic; totally lacking in compassion ; vain to a fault; hyper-materialistic; of limited intellect, without the ability to absorb information not in line with his own restrictive ideology; but the most distressing is his straight-faced mendacity, which makes his every utterance suspect. You never know what to believe. Then, there is the problem of his judgment: how he reacts to pressure; what issues to pursue; whether to divest or show his tax returns. In these situations, he has shown the poorest of judgment. So whoever has any dealings with this guy, has to be constantly on guard. And what does all this say about America?