Happy one week anniversary of the treason summit. Due to the cascade of Donald Trump’s tweets and the media’s short attention span, the abomination that was Trump/Putin press conference is out of sight and out of mind.
As much as we’d like to pin it on him, this mess is not Trump’s fault. He’s doing the best he can with a very limited amount of intelligence and acumen. If he was a musician we would say that he is working with a damaged instrument. That’s not exactly true. It would be more akin to a first year piano student playing on an old out of tune upright with 20 broken strings.
The Republicans in Congress are the ones to blame. If they had an ounce of integrity we would be deep into impeachment hearings and a Pence administration would be imminent. (not that a Pence administration would be a day at the beach) Instead we have a few squeaky wheels who are not running for reelection, i.e. John McCain and Bob Corker, and a trove of servile, quiescent lackeys. These scoundrels are content to stack the courts with conservative judges, gut affordable health care, see that the American populous is armed, and rape the ecology.
The fix is in and has been for many years. Welcome to the endgame.
I’ll be honest, I don’t need to read another article telling me why the heartland of the United States voted for Trump. Since Donald Trump’s victory in November of 2016, The New York Times, always noted for its austere gentility, has been on a crusade to explain the nuances of salt of the earth blue collar Americans.
At this point I could care less why they voted for him. In fact, I’m pretty sure I know the reason: Racism. These bible belt didacts could care less about Trump’s boorish behavior – his myriad of marital infidelities or his nefarious business practices – as long as the orange slime makes life in America uncomfortable and untenable for people of color. End of story.
As if Trump’s (largely successful) efforts to alienate allies, ruin the ecology, and stack the courts with reactionary judges aren’t enough I have to be subjected to 500 word Times articles explaining why Trump randomly capitalizes certain words. I can write that same article using just 5 words. Are you ready? Here goes:
For the past several months social media has been rife with snark. Facebook and the Twitterati have turned the decibel level up to 10, gloating over Donald Trump’s poor approval ratings and the inevitable Blue sweep of the Congress in the November midterms. So why was I not surprised when CNN released a poll yesterday saying the the midterm races were in a dead heat?
Puke-faced millennial social media mavens can talk trash until carpal tunnel sets in, but that’s not going to change the fact that we live in an uneducated, racist society that could care less that a narcissistic dullard is president. Throw in the fact that the Republicans that *are* educated are making so much money off of this administration that they, too, are happy to turn a blind eye.
Folks, the fix was in long before Trump became president. Between gerrymandering, the gradual dumbing down of our nation through massive education cuts, and a gluttonous one percent, we have long been a lost cause. Time to batten down the hatches — we’re in for a rough ride.
And now for some baseball madness. I was reading a magazine article about the pitcher, Shohei Ohtani, who the California Angels signed during the off season. Ohtani is a two-way player – a pitcher who can also hit. Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, commented, we’ll be using Othani to pinch hit, as well as pinch run, since we’ll only have a 3 man bench.
My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 3 MAN BENCH?! Is this what baseball has come to? If this is a harbinger, and I think it is, teams will soon be comprised largely of relief pitchers.
It’s hard to get excited about rule changes designed to speed up the game when managers change pitchers more often than Trump changes cabinet members. Pitch count clocks are cute and all, but between booth reviews and 6-10 pitching changes a game, the era of the four hour regulation game has arrived.
Who remembers the musical Scrooge from 1970 starring Albert Finney? There’s a scene, about 2/3 of the way through, where Scrooge, visiting the his future self, views his own funeral celebration. A cast of thousands breaks into a song called Thank You Very Much, singing, dancing, and gala-banding down a London street. Scrooge, of course, thinks the crowd is thanking him for years of service and philanthropy, where in reality they are thanking God for ridding them of a scoundrel.
This is how I envision America to be were Trump to die in office. It wouldn’t be a day of shock, grief, or mourning, such as when J.F.K. was assassinated. No, this would be abject relief, if not joy. Something tells me that Melania would be leading the parade.
The Trump-train chugs on. Last week it was reported that Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, referred to the president as a ‘moron.’ Donald J. Trump, ever the sportsman, challenged Tillerson to an IQ contest. Once the news of this reached the high IQ society known as Mensa, the international society offered to oblige by hosting the test. You can’t make this up!
Mensa is in the news, possibly for the first time ever, and this jogged an old memory of mine. Years ago I had a gig on a cruise ship. My band mate, with whom I shared a cabin, was a member of Mensa. How did I know? He had a Mensa t-shirt which he wore practically every day.
One day we played chess and somehow I beat him. He must have let his guard down, playing a non-genius. I couldn’t believe it, and neither could he. You’ve never seen an angrier sax player. I believe this was the last I saw of his Mensa T-shirt.
Conventional thinking would be that this is a horrible time to be a Republican. President Donald Trump is a disgrace to the office – a detestable, incurious, narcissist who likely is suffering from some form of dementia. The Republican majority Congress has been ineffectual and, with few exceptions, unwilling to challenge the corrupt and incompetent executive office.
I will submit to you, however, that there has never been a better time to be a Republican. Thanks to decades of allowing our public education to go to seed the populace lacks the intelligence to understand relevant issues, and therefore are willing to vote against their interest. Racism is rampant and has not been this blatant since the 1950s – it’s not a stretch to envision a return to the days of Jim Crow.
This is a perfect storm. We have a population that is too stupid and racist to understand that what is holding them back is the divide between rich and poor, and we have a ruling party willing to exploit their ignorance. This is the outcome of years of capitalism run amok.
John McCain voted against Donald Trump’s draconian health care bill and once again people are hailing him as a maverick. I’m happy with his vote but less effusive than most. He’s got nothing to lose by voting his conscience. I’m wondering if he was persuaded to come to Washington by moderate Senators who couldn’t afford to spend the political capital.
At any rate it’s remarkable that so many Senators – 49 – would vote for a bill that would essentially deny many Americans health care, defacto condemning a portion of them to death. These people should rot in hell.
When I was a kid and encountered an alpha-dog, as an introvert I suffered largely in silence. I took comfort in the rationalization was that after high school these dullards would end up in dead-end jobs and would almost certainly become alcoholics, wife-beaters, or felons.
And there you have the most irritating part of the Trump phenomenon. This brainless oaf who never got his come-comeuppance, and was in fact rewarded for his loutish ways. Personally I yearn to see Trump having to resign in disgrace, even though I realize this means that Mike Pence, someone whose politics are just as bad, if not worse than Trump’s, will ascend to the presidency.
The 2016 election actually confirmed one of the tenets of the American dream – anyone can become president. Allow me to rephrase that: Anyone with money can become president.
As we now know, there are no necessary qualifications for the job of United States president. You don’t have to have been a politician, a lawyer, a military officer. There is no need to possess a thorough knowledge of history, science, civics, or economics. I could be president, even though my greatest life-skill is knowing what to play over a C7+9+5 chord.
Yesterday the Washington Post broke the story that Donald Trump may have inadvertently leaked classified information to the Russians. This prompted immediate calls from my left wing brethren for impeachment.
Many people are still upset at the heartland folks who comprise Trump’s base, but I believe that they are now irrelevant. The MAGA (Make America Great Again) folks are no longer the problem. Sure, they did their part to get Fucko elected, but they no longer have any power. Indeed with the absence of affordable health care and job opportunities, they are screwed under the Trump administration’s legislation.
It’s now up to the Republican Congressmen to impeach Trump. They are the only ones that can fix this mess. Not the press, not protesters, and not the Democratic minority. I don’t hold out much hope.
The World According to Keitho 