The Monday Monologue
Fear and trembling as the swamp waters rise
Homo sapiens are very adaptive. We have gotten amazingly comfortable with the million pound shit hammer hanging over our heads. No, Trump is not the shit hammer even for those of us in the United States. Trump is, however, one of the biggest rats gnawing away at the rope holding that implement of doom but he is too busy trying to shoulder away several other rats. Or not, in the case of Putin.
Our misplaced complacency is the normalcy we were warned about back in December 2016. It was obvious to the majority of US citizens that a badly botched election placing an incredibly incompetent and corrupt person in the seat that he would obviously try to turn into a throne was an incredibly dangerous situation. The warnings were everywhere. Don’t allow this to go unresisted. The daily push to authoritarian brutality would, if ignored, come to overwhelm us as a state. So it is coming to pass.
The population of this country has become numb. A never ending sequence of political disasters domestically and internationally are simply papered over by our media. So far the only significant accomplishment is totally the work of the Republican stooges controlling Congress who managed to finagle a spending bill that will do nothing but worsen the hold of a tiny percentage on nearly the entire asset base of this country. The fact that this was promised to provide financial relief to the bulk of the middle class locked in financial stasis for more than forty years is now completely ignored. The fast acknowledgement of that lie is not even news. And to the remaining supporters of the coup it is fake news even though they live with the reality everyday.
The top political joke now is fear of being appointed to Trump’s cabinet.
While none of the political and economic results of this are not that surprising the moral and ethical collapse at the center of the United States government has surpassed human understanding. The toad at the center of the swamp had surrounded himself with family, illegally, and cronies with non existent experience almost all of whom have been indicted for federal crimes, or in the case of family, are pending indictment. The remaining unindicted cronies have failed to live up to the ever more demanding standards of corruption and toadying resulting in their dismissal.
The common political joke now is fear of being appointed to Trump’s cabinet. We may actually see the reinstatement of Selective Service to cycle citizens through open positions in the Trump regime as a duty. Or perhaps just sentence criminals to that to tighten the cycle and eliminate pretense. May we all be saved from that.
With Hope Hicks now having departed the presence of Trump the general word seems to be to expect a significant leap in chaos in the White House. Yes, it’s a bit hard to imagine. There seems to be a Hope succession war between already fairly nasty and/or limited experience folks who want what they can get quickly before the whole thing shuts down. In the interim Kellyanne Conway has been brought out of her closet but only for a short time. Everyone knows how well that works. A very old jazz expression for hard times comes to mind: scoffing fish heads and scrambling for the gills.
On the larger stage der Trump has come up with his very own trade policy ordering old fashioned import duties like those that started the Great Depression almost ninety years ago. This was done totally against the advice of anyone with any expertise which proves that this is Trump’s own game. The sheer stupidity is so great that exemptions are being made for almost everyone except China. With a little luck everyone will agree to let Trump have his duties but everyone, including China, will be exempt. I really don’t want to think about this going any other way.
Trump has been hiding out a lot lately but that’s understandable as lots of people have been completely ignoring him and doing things he can’t do anything about. He can’t even get to his golf course without having to take detours to avoid angry kids who have decided enough is enough.. Trump is getting confused as he wants people shouting “Lock her up!” and not about guns and how stupid he is. So he tried to throw LGBT people out of the military again. That usually fires up his regulars. Not surprisingly it looks as if that is going to end as a return to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ with the addition of ‘and see if anyone cares.’
The other parts of the government, and there aren’t many that aren’t decimated, managed to force the ejection of Russian diplomats. Trump read what he was told and refuses to talk about it. I’m pretty sure he called up Putin and begged for mercy but I don’t know that. The whole thing is terribly worrying as the British are all upset with an ex Russian double agent and daughter killed with a nerve agent for no apparent reason. It does bear the marks of Putin’s KGB style in handling people he doesn’t like anymore. There is a pattern as Putin seems to keep a list of these people who can be done away with rather obviously with poison or a surprise bullet to the head at an airport parking lot to remind folks what can happen anywhere at any time. Wonder who the message was for? Trump’s staying out of public places for now. Very busy according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Just to make matters worse Kim Jong Un took his best toy train to Beijing at the invitation of Xi Jinping. No one knows what they talked about but it doesn’t matter as it neatly drew a nice circle of people in control of Northeast Asia and Trump wasn’t in it. Xi is the new leader on this planet and if Trump isn’t careful he won’t even get to play with Kim Jong Un’s train.
Unfortunately we need to rely on Xi Jinping and even Kim Jong Un to keep this civilized. Trump has no idea what he is doing and makes wild moves in a game that does not reward wild moves. With luck we will have just another case of Trump falling on his face. Unfortunately he has completely screwed up with Japan and keeps playing into Xi Jinping’s hands. The Japanese, having been ignored by Trump and insulted by Kim Jong Un (it’s an old argument) need to rely now on Xi Jinping to sit at the table. This is this the kind of thing that can end very badly because no one is sure what the game is about because the US turned itself over to a three year old.
I suggest now is the time to find a nice safe place for Trump to live with caregivers who will keep him away from sharp objects and things with buttons. Yes, a terrible job requiring personal danger and dealing with a truly disgusting person, but no one would be forced to be alone with Trump. We need to get this done before our luck runs out.
