Yes, we’re a country that’s packed with tens of millions of cruel idiots, but it seems that some of Trump’s most outrageous ideas (like the one expressed at left) may be starting to backfire and unravel his presidency.
Former Bush Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Donald Trump: “I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair. He is stubbornly uninformed…he is unqualified and unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.”
It sure would have been nice if statements like these, that are as obvious as the nose on your face, could have dominated the public discourse in time to have made a difference.
Also, not to pick nits, but “beyond repair” implies that there was a former state to which the subject could be restored, e.g., “He repaired the damaged automobile.” This is not the case with Trump, who appears to have been a sociopath all his life.
About this now-famous photograph at left, a woman wrote: “Imagine. More than 77 million gullible fools.”
I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, lady. “Gullible fools” isn’t the half of it. These are 77 million people who are (generally) cruel, meanspirited racists.
That’s the real tragedy here, i.e., learning that we live among some truly horrible people.
I believe, however, that the fever may be starting to break. This hasn’t been a good couple of days for Trump.
Trump flip-flops? Who cares? Anyone who believes a single word coming out of his mouth is an idiot.
Seeing Steve Bannon go to prison for raising millions of dollars from the MAGA imbeciles to “Build That Wall!” and then putting that money into his pocket would break no one’s heart.
If anyone but a huge Trump donor did that, we’d be doing at least 10 years.
When I was in college in the 1970s, I knew a guy, the son of an extremely wealthy family in Vermont, who was furious that the white race in the United States was being polluted by interracial marriage. “Soon,” he said, “We’ll all have slanty eyes, flat noses, and thick lips. What’s the matter with preserving the White Race in America?”
That was more than 50 years ago, when thinking like that was associated with Neanderthals. Now, we have half of the electorate voting for the full-on racist Donald Trump. We can only live in astonishment as to how far into tribalism and ignorance we’ve fallen since.
There is no doubt that “sustainability” should be a core lesson in schools. But let’s put a little bit of thought behind the definition of “sustainability.” My favorite: The capacity for our society to satisfy its own need without destroying future generations’ capacity to satisfy theirs.
So, what are the main things we’re doing wrong?
It’s really not growing our own food. You’re reading the words of a guy who grew his own vegetables for many years. It was satisfying, and my tomatoes tasted great, but the resources I poured into carting around and composting organic waste, tilling the soil and adding in the compost, planting, irrigating, weeding, and harvesting a plot of ground that was perhaps 1/10th of an acre could hardly be described as “sustainable.”
There are two main arenas in which we’re going wrong as a civilization:
1) The consumption of fossil fuels.
2) The destruction of rainforests to make room for more beef cattle.
If we want to make a difference, we need to electrify the energy and transportation sectors and cut back on meat.
Let’s not think we’re making any material gain by growing our own corn, as tasty as it may be.
We also need to jettison the idea that we can add elements to our school curricula, e.g., gardening, without subtracting something else, e.g., math and science. If you want the coming generation not to be able to hold any careers that require academic training, replace core academic disciplines with agronomy.
This may mean more Trump supporters, but it will mean the end of all American doctors, teachers, lawyers, and scientists.
Barbra Streisand writes: Trump is too old, too unhinged, and too unstable for the most demanding job in the world.We all wonder how history will regard Donald Trump after he’s gone.
To me the photo at left summarizes it nicely. It captures Trump at left and a man at right who has collapsed during a meeting in the Oval Office beneath a gaggle of actual human being who have come to his aid. What we are seeing is something we already knew: Trump couldn’t care less about anyone but himself.
What was going through his head? Call a doctor? An ambulance? Why?
The presidency of the United States has been marred throughout its history with selfish, cruel, and dishonest people. Frequently ranked as the worst are James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, and Warren G. Harding. Nobody sees too concerned about Andrew Jackson, the master butcherer of the Native Americans, or Richard Nixon, a complex and intelligent man, but garden slime nonetheless.
Yet none of these can touch Trump.
Keep in mind that the president knew pictures were being taken but couldn’t find a way to at least appear sympathetic.
He was born without that gene. Perhaps literally; he comes from a line of total assholes.
I know there are tens of millions of Americans who are thrilled about mass deportation, but, if you’re one of them, here’s a question for you: Has this improved your life in any way at all?
Are you wealthier or safer? Better prepared for retirement? Getting more and better sex? Traveling abroad more? Is your business doing better as a result? Has this lowered the prices of gasoline or groceries?
The only possible benefit this could provide is the knowledge that your country, at your behest, has inflicted more pain on the nation’s poorest, most miserable people.
Let that percolate through your soul.
