Thursday, July 13, 2017

President Forrest Trump

I ran into this quote from Stephen King earlier today,  and automatically thought it worth sharing here.

Read this:


"With President Forrest Trump, every day is like a rancid box of chocolates. You never know what kind of shit you're going to get next."


~ Stephen King, Tweeted on April 11, 2017



Pretty apropos,  right?

The whole Forrest Trump thing started,  I believe, with this comedian - Don Friesen.

This was something that I already shared here before at some point,  but it was funny enough to share again. Funny,  because it is true.

Frankly, I still cannot personally think of a single good reason why Trump would even have wanted to run for the presidency.I mean,  other than for some enormous ego trip,  which is likely a huge part of the reason why he ran. But he has no serious ideas,  and frankly,  seems like the least political President that this country has ever had,  if that makes any sense.

One thing seems for sure,  is that his presidency is fitting for where we are as a country right now, albeit for all of the wrong reasons. He has no serious ideas for fixing the nation's myriad of problems, or for helping make life truly better for a majority of Americans. Frankly,  he does not even seem to care about seriously addressing any of the major problems facing the country.

Yet,  he ran. And he won.

And we all saw how his supporters were filled with anger,  and how this man used that,  playing into people's fears and anger and uncertainties. How he tapped into those , and used them for his own personal benefit.

Of course, everything that this man has ever done has been to unapologetically pursue his own selfish desires and wants,  and to buttress the already enormous, and amazingly still growing, edifice of his megalomania.

Remember, this is the guy who puts his own name up high on skyscrapers, and who brags about grabbing women by the pussy. Very dignified and respectful, of course. Very presidential.

Stay classy, Donald!

Now, we have the misfortune of having this man as our president. What seemed like a joke a little over a year ago, when he seemed just like a particularly fortunate candidate who nonetheless was likely to see his campaign run out of gas, has instead turned into a very real national nightmare. To think that this man represents this country for the whole world to see, that he is the name and the face and the voice of the United States for another three and a half years at least, is incredibly depressing. The joke is apparently on all of us, and Mr. Megalomaniac is having the last laugh at all of our expenses.

And his supporters think it is great, that he is basically the equivalent of the middle finger to our broken political system. 

That he is, but what we needed was an intelligent voice of protest, not some moron who's own ego prevents him from seeing anybody but himself. It is just ridiculous!

Still, in the United States today is proof of anything, it is that people will believe whatever they want to believe, regardless of whether or not their beliefs happen to be true. It is a sin, because we in developed and relatively free nations, which for the moment still includes the United States, have greater access to  news,, to information, to debates on virtually any topic, and to facts, than any people before in history have ever had.

But who knows? Perhaps the overwhelming and easy access to such information is the problem. Perhaps it came too quickly, before we were ready for it. Maybe this will begin to feel more normal over time, when it is no longer so new. Indeed, though, perhaps it was too much too fast?

Even if this is the case, that does not excuse the commitment to remain in ignorance that far too many Americans in particular have chosen. We have heard much about the rampant anti-intellectualism that has always existed, and always been a serious and threatening presence in the country. This anti-intellectualism seems to have been getting stronger over the course of recent decades, and it is likely responsible for the rise of Donald Trump to the White House nowadays.

Really, by any reasonable measure, Trump is a pathetic pick to be president. His entire career was a testament to extreme greed, narcissism, and classlessness, and perhaps even to criminality itself. He has never given even the slightest indication that he actually cared about the regular people, and always, always wants to viewed as superior, as above everyone else. Giving him the presidency is just granting him another reward to affirm this opinion of himself, but it will not do the country any good. Already, there are plenty of signs to suggest that this man is using the office to bolster his own assets and business interests, at the expense of the American people who he is supposed to serve.

Of course, we have had other presidents and high-ranking politicians who have done the same, but never has the American voting population seemingly accepted someone who does not even try to hide this. He lied about transparency, lied about releasing his taxes and lied about doing away with his business interests while in office. There is strong evidence to suggest that Trump hotels are benefiting from Trump being the man in the White House right now, and that means that he is personally profiting from the Office of the President, or using the office to literally fatten his wallet.

And yes, to my understanding, that is against the law. This president has made clear, in various ways, that he believes himself to be above the law.

So far, he appears to be. His supporters are not holding him to account, and neither is a Congress dominated by Trump's Republican party. They also seem to be making it crystal clear that they will not hold him accountable to any offense that could get him in trouble, let alone approach impeachment level offense. Many people on the left, especially mainstream Democrats, are convinced that we are witnessing the active downfall of the Trump administration at this very moment, as we speak. However, it seems clear to me that this scenario is very unlikely, because the whole Russia thing seems like a red herring. Perhaps we can say the same thing about all of his stupid tweets, which offends and angers so many. We focus on "covfefe" and not so much on all of the things that he is actually doing, all of the legislation that he is working to get passed, and all of the executive orders that he has already pushed through.

It is strange to talk about this, because it suggests a more serious and dangerous side to Trump, when really, he is a clown. Yes, a dangerous clown right now, to be sure. A clown who wields frightening power.

But for all that, a clown just the same. 


6 comments:

  1. I meant to contribute my two cents’ worth (adjusted for inflation) sooner, but here goes. Who was it that once quipped, “My opinions are as good as your facts”? That speaks to what you said about people having a wealth of information at their disposal, yet failing to use and process that wisely, generally due to a severe case of intellectual laziness.
    A lot of people feel he probably didn’t even truly want to win the election (and, deep down, wasn’t expecting to). I’m not sure where I stand on that – I suppose it’s speculation that can’t really be proven one way or the other, not that it matters since as you well know the unthinkable wound up happening.
    Here’s a comment I posted about Trump in response to a Yahoo article yesterday:
    There have been many presidents over the years whose platforms were objectionable to me. By and large, I had some modicum of respect for them inasmuch as they at least possessed a greater level of emotional maturity than an infant (as opposed to being so thin-skinned as to transform every criticism and unflattering remark into yet another obsessive personal vendetta), and didn't constantly render themselves guilty of making outlandish, demonstrably untrue statements like "Nobody has more respect for women, believe me" or "I know more about ISIS than the generals". The fact that his name-calling, self-aggrandizement and smugness are mistaken for strength by people who should know better, who deflect scrutiny and criticism with one insipid catchphrase after another ("snowflakes", "libtards", "fake news", "you lost get over it LOL") shows that we've entered very dangerous territory: the ability to handle adversity and criticism like a grown-up is not a prerequisite to becoming president, so much as a quaint relic from the past whose time has apparently come and gone.

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  2. I am not entirely certain if this is the quote that you were thinking of, but Isaac Asimov said something in more or less the same spirit: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
    That more or less addresses much of what you talk about here.
    Obviously, I agree with what you say, and you said it quite well. Instead of informed debate about real issues that are relevant to us all and/or are attempts to try and create a better country or world by a healthy exchange of ideas, we seem to have regressed to a childish, "Nyah nyah!" kind of debate which, sadly, more and more people who identify with the left are also turning to with alarming frequency, as well. For example, while I am less than thrilled with the recent proof that Russia indeed played a role in the election, this whole vilifying Russia again, and attempt by Democrats to take the traditionally Republican hardline against "communist Russia" and suggestions that Putin is the new Stalin are basically tantamount to the same thing. I am not a fan of Putin, but comparing him to a man who killed an estimated 10-20 million of his own people is ridiculous, and believing, as apparently a majority of Americans currently do, that improving relations with Russia would be a bad thing seems to me in the same spirit. Democrats (at least mainstream Democrats) have grown obsessed with Russia and blaming it for Trump's win, thus divorcing themselves from fessing up to their own mediocrity, and it's role in their defeat.

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  3. Published that last part before I meant to. All I was saying was that the mainstream Democrats and their supporters are also avoiding any serious discussion as to why people would be sick and tired of their nonsense and relentless mediocrity. Pretending that Hillary Clinton was truly a progressive voice for empowering regular people is so intellectually dishonest as to be outrageous and offensive, and drowning out any debate or discussion about it by pointing fingers at Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein supporters or James Comey or Russia, or even simply painting every Trump supporter as a racist and/or sexist is also equally inept and absurd. But they keep doing it, because they appear to believe that Russia really was the reason. Perhaps they really cannot see that the winds have shifted, and that people have grown sick and tired of establishment candidates like the Clintons - and not just rightwing extremists and fringe nut jobs, either.

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  4. Hyperbolic comparisons and imagery are often used to try and discredit people, though you're right that if it's not done in an obviously tongue-in-cheek way, it becomes stupid and counterproductive. As previously acknowledged by both of us, even people we like sometimes do this – Jello Biafra's likening Dubya to Hitler, in a way that didn't merely seem intended to elicit a cheap laugh – springs to mind. But I for one am not the least bit surprised by the growing scandal concerning collusion with Russia. As I've said all along, one can despise Hillary and find her to be utterly disingenuous, while still feeling that the collusion charges are entirely plausible (and, as of a couple days ago, substantial). They're not mutually exclusive. Couldn't agree more however that the stigmatization of Russia as a whole, and the trivializing of Stalin's crimes by suggesting there's a comparison to be made between what he did and what Putin has done, are reprehensible and just plain stupid. As for people blaming independent candidates like Ralph Nader, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein for Democrats' defeats, you're preaching to the choir. Those people make me all the more determined never to validate that party's entitlement and complacency. I stubbornly cling to the idea that my vote is something to be earned, not taken for granted. Anyone running for office who doesn't see it that way leads me to an inescapable conclusion: we're not getting off to a very auspicious start, here...

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  5. One last thing: I disagree with the people who say "We're better than this." Correction: we SHOULD be better than this, but we're clearly not. On November 8th that theory was lured into a vast midwestern cornfield, where it was savagely defiled and subjected to unspeakable atrocities before being buried in a shallow, makeshift grave.

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