The Obvious Result
It’s finally happening. Trump’s policy pronouncements, probably tweeted while sitting on the toilet, have veered wildly from free trading to isolationist protectionism; from pro gun control to capitulating to the demands of the NRA; from attacking private businesses and the Post Office to insulting television personalities and petty feuds. He’s threatened everything from nuclear war to global trade war. He’s promised to eliminate the deficit while piling on an additional $1.5 trillion with the stroke of a pen. He regularly threatens to jail political opponents. He’s unstable, morally unfit for office, and basically living life in the White House as the cheesy reality television star he is. In short, United States global policy has taken on the characteristics of a washing machine load of soiled towels, on high spin banging from side to side, only to be stopped by a power failure to make it all come to a halt before it floods the floor with filth.
In all of this chaos, Trump’s behavior has now become normalized. The behavior of this shitbag infesting the White House has numbed our population to the most outrageous, totally corrupt conduct by any public official in US history. His public speaking style is that of the ramblings of a moron. He holds no standards of behavior; he has no foundation; he rambles incoherently about critical issues of national security; he has no grounding in true belief. He’s a wind vane spinning wildly in the political winds. He tweets a foundational principle – and within hours, he reverses himself. He went after Amazon, claiming it was cheating the Postal Service out of billions of dollars and not paying sales tax. Trump’s attack temporarily tanked the stock 15% or about $100 billion in market value. His ranting about a trade war with China cost the Dow Jones 3,000 points.
The response of normal people? Depression. Fear. Foreboding. The response of Trumpists who are just as goofy as he is? Euphoria at the prospect of the second coming of the Man in the Sky caused by global chaos. The response of the markets and other global powers? Whipsawed. Only, something changed after the on again off again threat of trade wars and attacks on Amazon. After a year and a half of random idiocy, reversals, threats and nonsense, the markets have learned to ignore him. He’s roiled the markets with wildly divergent tweets, numbing the influential with idiotic ramblings. Those who pull the levers commerce have now learned to disregard his bullshit. The market has learned that his random and wildly divergent tweets really have no basis except to garner attention for himself. There is no basis in policy, no foundation, no ideology. Our national policy has the same characteristics of that of a chimpanzee banging on a laptop keyboard. He tweets simply for self gratification and attention. Business leaders have learned that a random tweet doth not make policy – only when an adult (what few are left) speaks do they listen. Otherwise they ignore His Orangeness.
For the first time, with the possible exception of the depths of the Watergate scandal, our country has no one at the helm. The key lesson that I’ve learned is that the Founders so ingeniously designed our form of government that it can actually operate to some level with no leadership in the White House. Its resiliency is further demonstrated by a hopeless deadlocked Congress which is also providing no direction, no responsible leadership, or even any common sense.
How long can we go like this? Who knows, but my real fear is that as more and more people learn to ignore the rantings of the lunatic in the White House, his anger at being ignored will drive him to more and more outrageous conduct that will hopefully one day awake the Congress from its coma. And that won’t be pretty.
The core issue today is the number of Americans that have signed up for an alternate reality is up to 40%. The U.S. will continue to flail until sufficient bad things happen to bring us back to objective reality.
1This isn’t new territory for the U.S. See Lincoln’s “House divided” speech.
So well stated, but I wonder how long we CAN continue to function in this manner. Even Watergate had an eventual ending. I fear someday he will act on his irrationality.
2The reaction of the people to trumpkin & the rePUKEians will remain the same…they will vote the rePUKEian aholes back into office in 2018 because so many people have been brainwashed into thinking the Democrats are socialist because the ‘mericans are not bright enough to know what real socialists are!
3L.Long: socialism is not a bad word. If having schools that are not leaking, current books for every child, enough firefighters, doctors, and safe hospitals for EVERYONE in need; then label me a socialist. If having bridges that aren’t falling down (there have been two in my county), pot holes that don’t break my back driving down my county roads is a bad thing; then label me a socialist.
4Perhaps the sane 85% of us should start a movement that embraces the word ‘socialism’ as a word that means improvement to everyone’s advantage. It breaks my heart to read that Detroit is spending more money to TURN OFF the water for their poorest than it would cost to leave it on.
Thanks, Democracy is near death. But the good news is that Trump is sooo bad, he’s exposing the rotten, treasonous, corrupt, racist core of Republicanism.
5‘You can’t fix something until you know what the problem is.’
Stop holding back. Tell it like it is.
6What I fear is that as a country the US is showing the same sort of arrogance and hubris as the Clinton campaign showed, and we all know how well that worked.
7The proven facts show active efforts to undermine the country, its Constitition, principles and ideals.
In reaction we get a very slow and delibritive process which allows this wrecking crew to wreak havoc.
To attempt to use those structures of law and power even as they are being torn down and destroyed. Look at demented donnies ongoing poisoning of the judiciary with ideologues and incompetents while counting on the authority of the judiciary to restrain his criminal activitys.
Who knows what secrets (nat. defense) and policies are being sold or given away by this unholy combination of foriegn hostile powers promoted by christianist fanatics and funded by corporate libertarians all with the joint goal of destroying what was known as the US.
Meanwhile with an unfounded arrogance in the ability of the country, and world, to survive this political and social assault by the reactionary luddites determined to return to the 18th century, the powers that be move at a snails pace to protect that they have sworn to defend.
It is similiar to the outset of WW II when obselete Brewster Buffalo’s were offered as a sacrifice to the Zero’s.
Comey’s self serving excuses of why investigation of Hillary’s campaign had to be made public while secreting demented donnie’s dirty laundry is an on point example of this arrogance of assumed strength.
The D’s refusing to introduce and pound the drums for impeachment is another.
I wonder how long it will take for the news to break that Trump Inc. shorted Amazon’s stock and made billions off a couple of tweets.
8I object to use of the term, “shitbag!”
It is a scurrilous slur on shitbags world wide. I suggest “orange headed spunk-monkey,” or the ever popular “rancid breathed Cheeto Jesus.”
9Charles R Phillips:
10My vote still go’s to weaselheaded f**knugget.
Tonight, Rachel Maddow drew a great connection to a lawsuit filed by the Democrats against the Republicans during Watergate and the suit filed today by the Democrats against Trump, his campaign, individuals like Don Jr., Jared, Manafort, Russians who hacked the DNC, Assange etc.
11The former suit was a win for the Dems and the latter could bring out even more info in discovery and depositions. Apparently there is a lower bar for civil suits than for criminal
trials. One can only hope.
The response of many normal people–not yet mentioned–is anger. Deep, implacable anger looking for a legitimate way to get rid of this scum and his Administration before the next Presidential election. Not just Trump, but Pence. Not just Trump and Pence but every single of one of his appointees because he was an illegitimate president from the start.
Not fear. Not despondence. ANGER. DETERMINATION. And a determination not to break the rule of law unless we have to. Unlike the neo-Confeds and the KKK and the Nazis and the other breakaway groups. It would be nice if instead of people who have more political experience or legal experience than we do telling us we’re scared and despondent and helpless in the face of….they told us what steps (besides voting, which we’re doing) can be taken in addition. Contribute to candidates? Done. Voting? Done. Writing/calling our useless blankety-blank GOPoliticians now in office? Done many times. When do we take to the streets, and how?
One thing I know is that telling people they’re scared makes some people more scared; telling them they’re depressed depresses them…so quit it. We don’t need fear and depression. They don’t help.
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