Just lately, I feel a bit overwhelmed with things lately. My son and I took a nice trip out west, the third one in the last four years. It was something that I had been planning and looking forward to for months, if not years. Indeed, it was great, but there was also the knowledge that getting back to new Jersey and trying to get back to what passed for my normal routine - which is to say working many hours between two jobs to try and make ends meet and, hopefully, even to get ahead a bit - would be extremely challenging. This was particularly true since, predictably, the trip out west cost more than I initially expected it to.
There is that, and there was preparing as much as we could for my son's new school year. We had finished reading 'Lord of the Flies' in mid-August, just days before we left for the trip. We read 'White Fang' during the trip, and finished that book just before school started. Now, we are reading an easier book, 'The Cay,' which hopefully will be completed within a couple of weeks, at most. Plus, there was getting prepared for all of the various classes and subjects for the new school year, and all that goes with it.
I wanted to keep covering other things, including entertainment, which is to say books and movies and sports. In fact, for the past couple of weeks or so (since September 8th), I have focused almost exclusively on that stuff, mostly sports.
The thing is, though, I needed a bit of vacation from the crap coming out of Washington. What I found when I went out west is that my own stress levels decreased significantly simply by taking a vacation not only literally, but also from listening to the news. We listened to music instead of the news, because the thought of hearing Trump's voice, and those who support him, was too much while trying to enjoy our trip. And perhaps this vacation has more or less extended past the vacation, too.
Don't get me wrong: I am listening to the news again. But not as much, and when writing here, my focus has not been on Trump or on the national political scene. It actually has helped to decrease stress levels to some degree, even while back here, although things are heating up now. I knew it would not last forever, and there are a whole bunch of things now that are coming to a head. Michael Moore is coming out with a new movie, and definitely, that will be covered here. The Democrats are trying to get control over Congress once again, and it is not entirely sure whether they will succeed or not. Remember how unreliable the polls in 2016 proved to be? Well, it is hard to take any kind of polls seriously anymore, is it not? Seriously, there are experts predicting a blue wave, there are news stories showing that Trump supporters are once again going to feel emboldened and come out in droves, and there are predictions for anything and everything in between. We have the most contentious Supreme Court nominating process since Robert Bork back in the 1980's, with Trump's pick, Brett Kavanaugh, now being grilled for an alleged case of what would amount to rape, if true.
So, it seems time to get political again. And I will start with an author and news figure who has been raising some eyebrows lately: Bob Woodward. He has a new book out, 'Fear: Trump in the White House,' which sold a reported one million copies within the first week of it's release. As the title suggests, Woodward portrays a frightening view of the Trump White House. For all intents and purposes, the anonymous letter by a self-described senior member of the Trump White House - one of the few political posts that I have written and published since coming back from the trip - seems to reinforce Woodward's arguments that some inside of the White House are curbing this President's worst instincts.
The book has obviously generated considerable publicity. Some praise it, some hate it and try to discredit it. Some view it as a warning, and some libraries in West Virginia are apparently trying to keep the book off their shelves. The administration, of course, has actively worked to try and discredit the book and it's author, quite predictably. But that has not obviously stemmed the popularity and relevance of the book. Quite the opposite, actually, is true.
Woodward has explained that he feels this White House is completely dysfunctional. And he is urging people to pay attention to everything that is happening, and to react. Not simply to allow Trump free reign, or to place their blind trust in him, or even simply to ignore him, if they do not like him. He described this book as truly being inside "the belly of the beast." When asked what people should take away from it all, he added:
"That people better wake up to what's going on."
The dysfunction inside of the Trump White House, which prominent administration officials deny exists, but which seems to be on display basically every single day that this administration is in power, makes Woodward uncomfortable. What if there is an emergency, a crisis, like we did on September 11, 2001? Here is what Woodward says, specifically:
"You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, 'Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis.'"
Some people, such as Michael Moore, have suggested that Trump is actually looking for some kind of national emergency in order to manipulate it, and to grab still more power as a result from it. Meanwhile, Woodward reiterates how there is a tendency among members of his administration to curb the President's excesses:
"People who work for him are worried ... that he will sign things or give orders that threaten the national security or the financial security of the country, or of the world."
Here is the article that I used in writing most of this information, including all of the quotes, although I just saw one headline regarding West Virginia libraries trying to keep Woodward's book off of their shelves:
Bob Woodward: "People better wake up to what's going on" in the Oval Office published by CBS News, September 9, 2018:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-woodward-fear-trump-in-the-white-house-people-better-wake-up-to-whats-going-on-in-the-oval-office/
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