Must be Jackson Browne week – Running on Empty
Outrage
Outrage: that should be the response of Americans every day to what’s happening in the Trump Administration. We are outraged about detention camps on the border, pedophile friends protected in Court, and blatant daily lying by the White House. We should be even more concerned about the President’s state of mind. Here’s Thursday’s daily tweet.
……The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility since that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady. When I ultimately leave office in six……..years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding), they will quickly go out of business for lack of credibility, or approval, from the public. That’s why they will all be Endorsing me at some point, one way or the other. Could you imagine having Sleepy Joe Biden, or @AlfredENeuman99…..or a very nervous and skinny version of Pocahontas (1000/24th), as your President, rather than what you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius! Sorry to say that even Social Media would be driven out of business along with, and finally, the Fake News Media!
The author of this rambling nonsense is in control of the nuclear “football.” He represents the United States to the world. His command structure has an Acting Secretary of Defense replaced another Acting, and the prospective Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs accused of “inappropriate” contacts. The legitimate question we should ask: who is in charge?
The answer seems to be no one.
Just Another Day
Since Donald Trump came down the “golden escalator” in June of 2015 (not November 2016) at least half of America is on an unhealthy adrenalin rush. Now, over four years later, it is hard to remember what it was like to listen to the news in the morning and not be angry. It’s hard to remember a time when we had confidence in our leadership. The now resigned Ambassador from the United Kingdom said it best:
“As seen from here, we really don’t believe that this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy and inept” and “For a man who has risen to the highest office on the planet, President Trump radiates insecurity … There is no filter [that prevents Trump making offensive comments] … We could also be at the beginning of a downward spiral, rather than just a rollercoaster; something could emerge that leads to disgrace and downfall.”
Thursday we heard the President cave-in on the Census Question. Trying to “make lemons out of lemonade,” he instead ordered the Departments of the Federal Government to find a way to identify citizenship status from their existing databases. But he went even farther, suggesting that states should take that information, and use it to continue the partisan gerrymandering that has been so successful for the Republican Party in the past decade.
His new head hatchet-man, Attorney General Bill Barr, made a sycophantic speech telling Trump he was doing a great job, and suggesting that Congressional Districts be apportioned by citizens rather than by population. The dark shadow of Presidential Advisor Stephen Miller loomed in both speeches.
By the way, Thursday we also got to envision Alan Dershowitz, aging Harvard Professor and Trump apologist, getting a massage at Jeff Epstein’s Florida estate. At least, he says, he kept his “whitey tightys” on. That nightmare is thanks to the reporting of Axios‘s Jonathan Swan. It’s just another day in Washington.
Stay Warm
It’s hard to stay outraged for four years: hard to remember what “normal” used to be. And it’s hard to imagine what our nation and world will be like if Donald Trump is elected again. Many are “running on empty,” it seems like we have little outrage left to give.
There is a not so good “Brat Pack” movie from the 1980’s called Red Dawn, about teenagers who go into the mountains to fight off a Russian invasion of America. C. Thomas Howell starts as one of the freedom fighters. In one scene he is told by a rescued Air Force flyer, “all that hate is going to burn you up, kid.” His reply: “it keeps me warm.”
So “Resistors” I say to you – “stay warm.” Much as we thought the Trump Administration wouldn’t survive a term in office, today it looks easier to defeat him in election than it does to impeach him. We are fifteen months away from the 2020 Presidential election, eighteen months from the potential end of the Trump Presidency. A Trump defeat in 2020 in no sure thing, but the world is “woke” to what a Trump Presidency now means.
Stay warm – we have much to do.
