Thursday, July 5, 2018

The Long Dark Psychotic Break of the American Electorate





Like many of the oh-my-fricking-god-how-is-he-still-POTUS contingent, I've been trying to figure out how 25% of the electorate voted for an infamous, notorious con-man, fraud, liar... (you know the drill - fill in the blanks with your own favorite ). 

A bit like trying to figure out how the magician made the Abrams Tank disappear.
 
Since the election (ugh), I've held out hope that once the Orange
Meringue    
Mussolini had screwed the pooch enough times and blathered enough idiocies, bald-faced lies, parapraxis, Freudian slips, Malapropisms and out-right grammatical and syntactic errors, (as he was sure to do) a portion of the mob would come to their senses. 

Call me an optimist. 

However, the vast majority of people who identify themselves as 'Republicans' still support the Mango Madman despite his monstrous policies towards children and young people (e.g. cancelling DACA, stealing children from their pitiable parents,
de-funding meal programs, etc) and despite the wholly appalling actions of his Cabinet officials; Devos, Pruitt, Carson, Zinke - wrecking-balls all - whose sole apparent intention is to ruin and undermine every agency of government, particularly their own.

We've all heard the rambling insanities of Steve King, Jim Jordan, Stephen Miller, the various squawking heads on TV spinning the latest insanity as 'business as usual' with a Trump-twist.  Their rhetoric is detached from rational thought and reality. Their demeanor is that of a gerbil facing a cobra. Crazy people, out in public, amped up on adrenaline, fearful of everything, spouting bull-shit rote-learned from their favorite propaganda program.

Yet, these mannerisms were symptoms rather than the cause, certainly. There was an element missing from my understanding of what has been described by even Republicans as a cult-like mentality.

Then, a minor epiphany.

It occurred to me that what we've had to deal with is a protracted psychotic episode on a large scale. A group psychotic break; a fugue state shared by millions via social and mass media.
Suddenly, Steve King's demented stream of semi-consciousness reminded me of the days of talking down a person having a 'bad trip'. The tripper was no longer sharing a 'common' reality.  Their hallucinations had supplanted that 'common' reality. Imaginary monsters were threatening them just out of sight. Ice was hot and fire was cold. The world was seen through the wrong end of a telescope-turned-kaleidoscope with demons dancing at the far end.

Put on some soothing music, brew some chamomile tea and ride it out.

I contend that's what the majority of people are experiencing these days ; 40% of Americans are experiencing a psychotic break. On the other hand, 60% of Americans view Drumpfen-dork unfavorably (to put it mildly) and don't buy into the Cult of the Orange Gee-Zus. If one factors in those of other nations (Canada, France, the UK, Germany, Japan, China, etc) who see Drumpf as an abhorrent aberration, a deranged malefactor or simply a bumbling buffoon, the odds look much better for us.

Unlike, those inner-astronauts who took the brown acid, unfortunately, there's no chemically determinable end to the delusions of the Cultists about Drumpf being a beneficial - even beatified - entity.  

It has been suggested that the pervasive opioids pandemic might lie at the root of this psychotic break. More study needs to be done, but given the demographics of Drumpf Cult members, it seems plausible. Toss in a few meth-heads in MAGA T-shirts and the picture comes into sharper focus.

For utter wack-jobs like Steve King, though, the bad trip might never end. 

50mg of Thorazine over here, nurse. STAT!

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Our Moral Imbecile




'“Moral imbeciles” - that's what those of Trump's amoral, unethical ilk were called in the 19th Century. '
(Read Gene Lyon's article in the Chicago Sun-Times.)
Trump's actions are determined by his own personal, self-serving interests and need to feed his over-blown, overweening ego.
His is not the kind of rational temperament that is best suited for the position of POTUS. That is more than evident if one has paid the least attention to the nefarious, corrupt actions of his EPA head, Scott Pruitt.

The argument that 'the people have chosen' is not applicable in this case. It was Russian interference in under-mining and poisoning our electoral process which determined - at least in part - the result of the 2016 election. The very fact that Trump is NOT heeding the strongly worded advise of reputable men such as Admiral Rogers and James Clapper who warn that the Russian efforts to thwart our democratic process are real, verifiable and on-going and real should be taken as an indication that Trump cares not for the good of the nation but only for his own aggrandizement.

It's too late to change the election of 2016. It is not too late to act in the defense of the Republic. Donald J. Trump is a palpable and obvious threat to the US Constitution and to the sustainability of the Republic itself


Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Drumpf the Chumpf





Every day, it's another gigantic faux pas for our apprentice president. Now, he's calling for the elimination of due process in addressing the issue of immigration and granting of asylum. Trump has spent much of his adult life skirting the law and breaking the law when it suited him. He has always been a scoff-law and one who thought nothing of violating conventions, social mores and legal contracts. It seems that Mr Trump now consider the Constitution and the Rule of Law as impediments to his agenda of self-aggrandizement.

This is simply unacceptable and quite obviously intolerable behavior from the sitting president. It is long past time to call for his removal from office. The consequences of inaction seems dire. The consequences of Trump's impeachment  and the prospect of a Pence presidency (however short-lived it might be) one the other, when compared to the utter and possibly irreparable harm Trump is doing to international alliances and allegiance to the Rule of Law, are less troublesome.

Caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, we should choose to get our feet wet rather than to submit the soul of our nation to the ravages of the Trump presidency.

Protect Mueller and move to impeach.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Make America Feckless Again





Drumpf's Amerikkka has left the UN Human Rights Council, stating that the Council did not protect human rights and in fact, shielded those nation who are culpable of human rights offenses. A perverted marriage of nonsense that would flabbergast Lewis Caroll, Franz Kafka and George Orwell combined.

Pompeo puffed that the Council was an “exercise in shameless hypocrisy, with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored, and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself.”
“The only thing worse than a council that does almost nothing to protect human rights is a council that covers for human rights abuses, and is therefore an obstacle to progress and an impediment to change.”

Of course, it was, in reality, the UN's chiding of Israel for murdering Palestinians that actually provoked this lamentable action.  

While the UN HRC has (to put it diplomatically) some rather dubious members - most of the nations which sit on the current council have putrid records of systematically violating human rights -  the purpose of the Council is undeniably a proper one.

A touch of bitter-sweet self-effacing satire is provided, however, by the publicly announced resignation.
To wit: By leaving the Council for these admitted reasons, the US is declaring that they have no enduring power and effect no influence on the structure or actions of the Council. Curious, that.

The 9 nations which the US - the wealthiest and most powerful nation in history - could not influence are (get this...) Burundi, Egypt, Rwanda, Cuba, Venezuela, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These are the member states which comprise the UNHCR as of Sep 21, 2017 (according to The Independent).

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and India are all aligned with the US as allies. That's half the Council.
Moreover, Burundi, Rwanda and Cuba are on no one's list of most powerful influential nations.

One would rightfully figure that Cuba would align with China. Venezuela would be opposed to the policies on US on principle.
That makes a minority of 3 on a Council of 10 and Nikki Haley and the weight of the US could not sway or influence the UNHRC.

Twaddle, of course.
Smoke and strobe lights.
 
"Make America Feckless Again" seems to be the standing order of the Drumpf mis-administration.

Ineffectual, impotent, enfeebled and (the word of the hour) feckless.