Month: May 2017

It is a complete waste of time to continue to enumerate the many elements of the weirdness of Donald Trump. As historian Eric Foner puts it: “he is the logical extension of the way the Republican Party has been operating since Barry Goldwater. This is how the Republican Party has gotten votes for 50 years – Trump is just tearing off the mask.” And when the party leaders finally realized this, their epiphany miraculously changed “never trump” to “ever trump” without a blink of the eye.

Is it “America first”? Or is it something else? Should a slogan reflect your ambition, your goals, your reason for being? Judging by his actions so far, his executive orders and tweets, but most of all his choice of personnel to make up a government, none of these appear designed to make America “first” in anything. In fact his personnel choices appear to directly oppose Trump’s other slogan as well: “make America great again”. You don’t make America great by emasculating the guardians of her greatness.

Nina Schlobohm’s letter of May 16, 2017, was a commendable attempt to get Americans to allow Trump and his allies the leeway they need in their attempt to make America great again. Never mind that, except for World War II, America has never been greater; the country, that is, if not the pathetic government it suffers under. The problem is: neither Trump nor any of his allies, in or out of Congress has any idea what to do about any of America’s persistent maladies, such as: gross inequality, poverty, housing, education, healthcare, or infrastructure. (Note that border walls, immigrant bans, tax cuts for wealthy, etc. do not make America one iota better in any respect.) Ms.Schlobohm has the right idea: don’t get in the way of those trying to make things better. In the meantime, it is fascinating to watch a genuine con man tried to run a country as great as America.

Headline, page 1, May 20, 2017: “Dems open convention with eye on Trump”. This is exactly what the Democrats should NOT, repeat NOT, be focusing on. Trump is not the Democrats’ enemy. He is his own worst enemy, and will continue to dig himself in deeper and deeper, and needs no help from Democrats in doing so. Further, there is the entire media establishment plus every blogger in the world on constant alert for Trump’s latest gaffes. There is no way in the world the Democrats can match that news-gathering or opinion-generating machine, so they should not waste 10 seconds trying. What Democrats should recognize is that the true enemy of America, those doing the damage, is anyone, on any ballot, local or national, with an “R” by their name. The Republican Party, the GOP, has doing its damage to American small “D” democracy ever since Reagan convinced them that government, taxes, and regulations are “evil forces” to be blocked at every opportunity. So, every message put forth by Democrats from now on should be a recap of some Republican misdeed. Forget Trump. Keep your eye on the real enemy: Republicans!

There is a song in “Fiddler on the Roof” that begins with the words “If I were a rich man…” And goes on to describe how the accumulation of wealth makes a person smarter. The richer you get the smarter you are. People respect your opinion if you’re rich. You get extra privileges in society. You become eligible to join the ruling class. Suddenly, you know more about education than anyone else. You want more private and charter schools so parents will have more choices about where to send their kids to school. Never mind that extensive research by unbiased institutions has shown that charter and private schools produce education outcomes no better – and in some cases not as good – as our lowly, underfunded public schools. Could it be that public schools are more likely to be staffed by experienced and dedicated educators who teach for the love of teaching? There are people who really do know what works and what does not work in educating children. We should listen to them, not to the big money reformers.

Could there be a more flagrant action (even for a cabal known worldwide for their flagrancy), than to fire the person conducting an investigation which just might uncover something the cabal would prefer not see the light of day?