Anarchy

 It’s really amazing how Donald Trump simply ignores all safeguards, like that Constitutional thingy, or ordinary laws. He just does what he likes, often via that thing called an Executive Order. What’s an Executive Order you ask? Well, it’s simply an expression of desire, or something that The Donald wishes to see happen.  You know, like if he was sitting in the Oval Office and he turned to his idiot secretary and said, “Get me a pizza”.  See, he expects that thing called a pizza to suddenly appear on his desk within, say 15-20 minutes.

So, when he says, via his Executive Order, “Go to that dude’s house, drag him out of it, and send him off to El Salvador, he assumes that dude will soon be headed to some prison in El Salvador.

And what happens if a court issues a statement that says, “No, you cannot legally send that man to a prison in El Salvador, so stop that plane and return him to the US.”? And then nothing happens, cuz The Donald really pays no attention to Courts or the Law generally. He simply says, “Hmmm, No I can’t do that. Sorry”.

And then, there is no general uproar, from any Congressfolks of either political party. Nope, everyone just says, “Huh, well we’re still on for dinner right?” Or, “Well, I gotta go pickup my kid from school. Bye”.

See, and that’s how our world now works. Trump does or says something, something happens and then everyone goes back to whatever they were doing.  Whether he is doing stuff legally, or not in accordance with the law, seems no longer to matter. He does whatever he wants, and everyone else just goes about their business.

So, now I have begun to wonder. Are we living in a new kind of country, where you can simply do whatever you want, and there is no consequence? Suppose, the working gentry in whatever department Trump was ordering about decided they didn’t feel like doing whatever Trump wanted, and simply ignored him? Like, Trump issues an Executive Order, that says, “Abolish that Office in NIH that does Cancer research on children”. And then nobody does anything. That office keeps on truck’n, folks still get paid, and everyone just goes back to work. And Trump yells again, and nothing happens.

Or Trump says, “Eliminate all contracts and grants with Harvard University.” And again, nothing happens. The contracts remain in place and Harvard still gets paid.  And Trump yells a lot, but nothing happens.

Wouldn’t that be interesting? In other words, the working stiffs throughout government, decide that Trump doesn’t actually exist, so nothing he says or writes  about matters, and they are free to ignore everything coming from Trump.  Now that would be funny. Scary for us, maybe, cuz it would mean we have no functioning government, or rather, we have a government on autopilot, no longer susceptible to our pseudo-president.  Yeah, I understand that would be a terrifying situation, but would it be any more terrifying than what we have now??? Hmmm, I no longer know.

We have now a system of government, in which no one is really in charge of anything any longer. Trump is a kind of Absolute King. He says something, and everyone is expected to obey. We have courts but they seem no longer to operate in any sensible way. And Trump does or says something terminally stupid, and no one does anything.

So maybe everyone should simply ignore him when he says anything obviously stupid, or even illegal. And how would we know it is stupid or illegal? Well, think about it, you Government workers, something Trump can’t or won’t do, cuz his brain seems not to function.

So, we then have a Government in which thousands of people can decide to do or not to do whatever they decide is a good thing for America.  Hahahahahahaha.

Life With The Drumpf

 And Life goes on. The fact that I am 90 is of little interest to anyone, barely so to me. Occasionally, I see someone who is, say, 75, who looks older than me, and I scratch my head, and say, Whoa, really??? 75??? Wow!

And then I move on. And that’s how it is with Donald Trump. He rants to a mike about water coming or not coming out of a shower, And I think, This is our President??? Seriously? Then we have all this shit about the Tariffs. They are on, they are off, well maybe they are on, except for Apple I-Phones??  Oh, probably Trump has an Apple I-Phone. Sort of like the stocks that waned and then surged. Remind me, how much money he made??

And then his BFF bombs some place in Ukraine that is exclusively private, with no war effort inside, and dozens or hundreds die. And The Drumpf says nothing and does nothing. He has only been in office a few months, but he has already turned the Presidency into a bad joke. And do I hear anything from the Democrats??? No, they are still debating why Kamala lost, I guess. And the GOP?? Well, the GOP now stands for the General Opposition Portal. Whenever anyone says or writes anything negative about Trump, the GOP mouths something terminally stupid in response.

And we are facing the better part of four more years of this insanity. And see, I was young but much alive when FDR told us on the radio about Pearl Harbor. So, I have lived through Nixon, and Shrub and even Ronald Reagan. And as difficult as those times were for all of us, Democrats and republicans alike, there is simply no comparison with today and the Drumpf. Knowing that our President is a crook, and a con man, and way more incompetent than any politician we have ever witnessed, makes facing each day very difficult.  Plus, we have a Hitleresque figure sitting over the Kremlin, currently raining death and destruction all over the Ukraine, with our President apparently giving him the two thumbs up, making life even more difficult.

But I don’t know what is more difficult—watching Vlad the Impaler rain Hell on the Ukraine daily, or watching our Congress, Dems and Reps alike, sit on their asses and do nothing to arrest our President, or at least try to stop him from worsening our world even more.  It is really like all of Congress is simply fast asleep. And yet, we pay each of them something in the range of $174,000 each year.  Think of that! How much do you get paid—no, not you Elon, you ordinary working stiffs out there. And yet, despite that $174,000, they feel it is ok to do nothing to stop the utter destruction of the entire American government??? And I mean NOTHING.

How does that make you feel folks?

Impeachment anyone???

Oh and don’t forget, Vance is worse, so we must rid the world of him too.

Please folks.

Do something to rid America of this diseased entity sitting in the White House. He is a menace to our entire world.

Old and Getting Older

 I’m every bit 90 now, and feeling like it. How does it feel?  Well, I awaken each morning , knowing I really have nothing to do. In olden tymes, I would awaken, get up, shower, dress, knowing I had a purpose—going to my job to do something useful for someone, for a fee-my salary.  Sometimes, I would write down what I was doing and have it published in some form.

But in any case, I knew each day, I had to accomplish something for someone else.

But now, there is no “someone else”. I am done, with doing theoretically useful tasks for other people.  Now, I am stuck with observing the world. And what do I see daily? I see a madman whom the American people elected to the Presidency doing stupid things daily designed to hurt other people . . . people he does not even know.  And why is he hurting other people he does not even know? Well, because he can, as a way of demonstrating that he is in charge of America, and he can do anything he wants, and no one is allowed to interfere. NO ONE!

And so he is deporting people he thinks should be deported? Why? Because he can. It is his way of demonstrating that he is in charge of America. He is acting like King Donald I.  Now I have two theories about all this. Theory One is that Donald now actually believes he can do anything he wants. He thinks MAGA faithful elected him to be King Donald. And he is pissed at America, and he intends showing America that he is pissed. Why is he angry? Well, because other folks said he is an idiot-malenfant (well he is, but he does not like hearing that).  He thinks he is perfect in all respects, so to hear other people say he is an idiot, really pisses him off. And now his MAGA’s gave him unlimited power to take revenge on that outside world. So he is doing just that.

Now the second theory is that The Donald is beholden to Vladimir Putin, maybe even on his payroll, Yeah, he is an employee of the Czar of Russia.  He looks at Czar Putin and he sees a dude who apparently does whatever he wants in Russia, and no one holds him to account.  And at some stage, Putin bought him . . . maybe it was that period when he was 41, bankrupt, visited Russia and then came away with banks loaning him money to buy a grand hotel, Remember that? And maybe he has been on a Russian payroll ever since.  Now what would Putin love to see happen In America? Well, it would be great were America to simply die. Yeah, American institutions would disappear and the entire American government would just break apart and go away. And America would then no longer be a feared adversary. No, it would just be a pathetic little country with essentially no government, ruled by a pathetic old man called The Donald, a man who would do whatever Vlad Putin told him to do. Yeah, that’s my second theory.  And  maybe they are both operating at the same time.

Now what I really do not understand is why the existing American government is allowing Trump to do what I described—just destroy the entire American government.  Yeah, that makes no sense to me.  But it is what I keep watching, and I am beginning to think, maybe it’s all cuz I’m 90 and I just do not understand anything any longer. Maybe I am just dreaming about the destruction of the American government, and it isn’t really happening before my eyes.  Do you think? So, this is all just a horrible dream, and maybe I will awaken sometime in the next century and all will be well with America. OK, so dream on Richard. Awaken next century and all will be well. Won’t that be nice?

Russian Agent Trump

 I am having increasing difficulties daily reading anything said or done by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In only a little over a month since being elevated to the Presidency, Donald Trump has managed to alienate virtually all of our friends and allies all over the globe.  And he has been assisted, inexplicably by Elon Musk, the richest human on the planet.  Together, they seem to be enjoying life while destroying our Nation’s Government, firing workers at random and either doing away with Executive Branch agencies, or threatening to do so.  All this without any action by our Congress either in support of or in opposition to his actions.  Musk isn’t even a legitimate member of our government, but he seems to relish in the job of total destruction.

I keep waiting for the Great debate –Trump Vs. Congress. But NO. No debate, not even a conversation.  How could this be even possible?

Then recently, I read about how, when Trump was only 41, and bankrupt, he was invited to visit Moscow. He went and then, shortly thereafter, upon returning from Moscow, the bankrupt Trump suddenly received loans from 16 banks and, without negotiation, purchased The Plaza Hotel for $407.5 million — a record price for a hotel. So, presumptively, Donald Trump was then on a Russian payroll. Now, how/why would they have wanted him on their payroll? This was in the 1980s, way before he became US President. Did they know or predict he would become President?  Ot. More likely, they simply added him into their list of rich people whom they had bought for future corrupt purposes.

Now, we can argue about this forever, without coming to any conclusion. However, virtually all of Trump’s actions since becoming President have been at least supportive of Putin’s Russia.  Now, what troubles me the most is that, prior to our election, none of this news became public. Why was there not even a mention of this possibility that Trump was in fact a Russian agent? Now, to be fair, we do not know that Trump is on Putin’s payroll today, but his actions, especially his recent dealings with Ukraine and Zelensky, seem strongly suggestive of that possibility.

I am not sure how to explain Elon Musk and his total support of Trump. Why would the wealthiest human on the planet suddenly come into play as yet another Russian agent by supporting Trump? Hard to understand.  But I remain even more uncertain about the motives of the Republican party, and, even of the Democratic Party. What we have is something close to total silence on this entire issue – Is Donald Trump, the President of America, an agent of Vladimir Putin? 

Can we at least debate that issue folks???

Understanding The Drumpf

 I am having difficulty knowing what to say anymore.  I guess I do not really remember his first four years. It seems such a long time ago. But this time around, four years into the future seema forever. Partly, that’s because I’m 90. I may or may not last for the entire four years.

I have lived through many presidencies, beginning with FDR and WW II.  Some I really hated, -- Nixon, Reagan especially.  But, now, in comparison, those look almost benign.  Even Trump’s first term seems benign.

But now, I wonder, faced with the prospect of Kamala Harris, an intelligent woman of some Black descent, how could they—anyone—actually vote for Donald Trump?  I can understand someone saying, well I can’t vote for a Black woman, so I will not vote. Now, I disagree with that decision, but I understand it. But for someone to say, I will vote for Donald Trump, because (the reason does not matter, because no reason justifies such a vote).  Trump is so stupid, and so awful, there simply are no valid reasons to vote for him.

And his behavior since the election justifies that reasoning.  Mainly, he seems bent on disassembling the entire US government.  He seems to have begun with USAID. He hates Foreign Aid.  Why? I guess because it involves giving away money, mostly in the form of goods, to other, poorer countries. There are, as it turns out, countries so poor, they cannot feed their own people, or provide them with health care, or in fact protect their borders.  So, our AID program helps them to remain viable and assists in keeping their people alive and somewhat well. I grew to respect USAID, I guess mainly because I worked in India, courtesy of USAID.  This was in the 1960s, when India was just coming into its own. We were friends then (are we now?). India had one population group every bit as well educated as were we, the foreign aid helpers. We, the helpers, were all graduates, mainly in engineering or business.  And we formed the equivalent of a consulting group within the Planning Commission. We carried out studies that could advance India’s economy.  But I also grew to understand that USAID undertook many forms of assistance, from supplying basic food and medicines, to more advanced planning enterprises.

So, Trump disassembling USAID, and thereby disengaging us from other less fortunate countries, was simply a form of international disengagement.  But apparently Trump viewed it simply as giving away his money.  And at one level, that is exactly what it was, as is all forms of charity.

Trump does not see the benefit to him from helping other countries.  I assume he sees Defence as a different matter, so were we to supply weapons and funds to another country for Defence purposes, he might better understand and agree.

Now, his attack on the Department of Education I understand even less. That, I assume, is governed by his religious supporters, who view regular education as partly a form of attack on religion, to the extent that better educated people might be less likely to support right wing religion.

But more, I think Trump prefers keeping the American population as ignorant as possible—perhaps the better to understand and support him.

Now Trump’s selection of JFK, Jr as Health Czar is also at best confusing. Junior is anti-vaccine and apparently anti-advanced health care. So, health research, drug/vaccine development (see FDA, or CDC) would be anathema.  Ergo, all of the Health and Human Services agenda would be on Trump/Junior’s kill list.

And you can keep going down the list –Environment, kill it. Anything vaguely science, kill it. The DEI thing is less understandable. I understand that Trump is both a racist and a misogynist, but I assume the anti-Trans/LGBTQ thing comes from his right wing religious zealots.

I assume that research into the stars/universe might be attractive to Musky, even if Trump has no clue. And we really have no idea who is directing the kill/support directives—Trump or Musk.   I guess his philosophy is vaguely –if a group promises to shoot other groups that might harm me, then that’s good. If a group promises to help others, then it depends on how much of my finances might be affected.  Also, if I can spend taxpayer dollars to help some group that promises to support me politically, then that’s good thing.  So he isn’t actually very complicated.  Now why Blacks, Hispanics, or Women support him seems more questionable, except when they are moved by something else he is doing (like religious right-wingers).

So, I guess, in the final analysis, if you are a religious fanatic, a racist, or a right winger politically (you hate Russkies, immigrants, or intellectuals) then you will likely support Trump, even though he is an ignorant POS.

Maybe, I just need to listen to him and decide which part of his dysfunctional brain is yakking at me.  Then I can either laugh, or shiver. In either case, whenever he opens his mouth, my state of depression is likely to intensify. Welcome to our world.

King Donald

 “You have to learn from history,” Trump said. “You can’t keep doing the same mistake over and over again.”

And by that, Trump means that he will take over the Gaza strip and it will then be a piece of American territory.  See, Trump does not either understand or especially care about legal definitions.  I observe that he brings in Elon Musk, or allows Musk to wander into our government, announce the formation of a new government entity and then proceed to simply take over existing US Government entities.

Something for us all to consider. Elon Musk was never elected to office, I suspect that he was never subjected to any security clearance process. I well remember  getting my first security clearance as a new flight test engineer in the 1950s.  It seemed a complex process. But Elon? Nah. He just wandered into government because The Donald said it was ok. Or maybe they didn’t even do that. Elon seems to do whatever the hell he likes, like bringing in his four teenybopper kids to help him in his efforts to dismantle our government. Makes me wonder. Did the boytoys get top secret security clearances?? No, I thought not. Elon and The Donald seem to operate as though there are no rules of the game. 

I guess I no longer understand how our government has changed since the GOP allowed The Donald to take over.  Trump for some reason does not like foreign aid, and especially USAID. And so he simply began tearing it down. He is firing people I think, although I am not really sure he can do that legally. But he seems to be causing foreign aid funding and shipments to cease, causing much grief around the world.  People may well die because of his actions, or inactions.

What gives me great pause is the utter silence arising from our republican friends. They are theoretically in charge of our government. Yet, they allow Trump to act as though he is King Donald I. Not even a single question?  It’s like we have three governments—King Donald, who does whatever he feels like doing, the GOP Majority who do nothing, and the Dem Minority who passively observe what their betters are doing.  We no longer seem to have a government that argues and chats about what to do next. We have a government that sits in its chairs and observes what its leader does, and then, mutters, “Oh dear” before going off for a coffee.

So, Trump says, We are taking ownership of Gaza. And his GOP buds say, “Huh?” But then they go about their business as usual. Now the outside world is saying, “Hmmm, I don’t think so”. Well, to be fair, His Majesty Bibi, is likely saying, “Hmmm, sure, why not?” The Arabs are responding, “NO!”.  But Trump seems not to understand that he is not actually in charge of the World. He does not own Gaza, so he cannot simply declare it as a US territory.  Now he likely does not understand that. Because Trump seems not fully in control of his own mind, he has been acting as though he owns everything and is free to do whatever he wants.  And, his Congressional buds act as though that’s OK. So, we have a weird kind of Monarchical government, and the rest of the world is watching us with increasing dismay.  The Arabs are yelling FU to America, but The Donald does not hear what anyone else is saying. He simply does not care. He wants his Gaza, and Greenland, and Panama, and Canada, and Mexico. See, they all actually belong to him. I think his Nazi dad willed them all to him.

And the rest of us?  Well, we are expected to sit back and just shut up until King Donald wants us to do something. And so both the Dems and the GOP buds are mostly just having another beer, and chatting quietly. Wouldn’t do to upset the Donald after all.  People observing might mistakenly think that Congressmen had brains, whereas we know those things have been tucked away into the attic in the House of Congress.

So, TaTa folks. Anyone thinking of maybe moving to New Zealand? It’s nice there, I understand. But you will have to ask real nice. NZers are beginning to get a bit more serious about who they will allow in.

So, behave , And watch carefully. See if you can tell when The Donald goes fully off the rails.

God and Humans

 I am sitting there watching the BBC report on today’s news. First, they are reporting on the grand celebration of the 80^th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. For those of you too young to understand, Auschwitz was but one of many Nazi Death Camps during World War II. In apparently, January 1945, the Allied troops opened and thereby liberated that Death Camp. And what is a Death Camp you might ask if you are very young?

Well, World War II was heavily about Germans capturing Jews in Germany and moving them out of their homes and  into camps. And why did they move them? Well, because, once they were in the camps, their Nazi rulers began murdering them by placing them in gas chambers, after which they burned their bodies.  Why did they do that? Well, Hitler and his Nazi followers thought that Jews were evil people and had to be eliminated from Germany, and maybe even the World. Why did they think that? Well. Apparently Jews were too successful and the less successful Germans thought that Jews had some evil powers ( I think it is now called brainpower). So, to preserve the German core of mediocrity, they began that war on Jews. Eliminate All Jews, and only then would Germany be successful.

And then, in addition to their War on Jews, the German Nazi’s decided they should also rule the World at large. And so Nazi Germany began invading and killing folks from other neighboring countries. And that’s what triggered World War II.

And so, all the non-Nazi’s of the world gathered together and decided that Germany and its allies (Mussolini down in Italy had taken a liking to Adolph and so joined forces with the Germans. ) should try to occupy and thereby control territories beyond Germany—like France maybe?? And then, of course, for odd reasons, Japan joined forces with Germany  and began bombing places like Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and then by invading China.

And so it went on.  Until they exceeded their ability to control and also because they annoyed too many people—like Russia and England and finally America.  Those folks got together and finally beat the crap out of the Germans to the point that Hitler and his BFFs had to say, OK, we give up,  Now by then, the Germans and Japanese had killed  somewhere close to 85 million folks. Here from Wikipedia:

“World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million deaths were caused by the conflict, representing about 3% of the estimated global population of 2.3 billion in 1940.^[1] Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilian deaths totaled 50–55 million. Military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are accounted for by the dead of the Republic of China and of the Soviet Union.”.

And then, of course, there were something close to six million Jews killed in the Nazi Death Camps, just cuz they happened to be Jews. Now what was that all about again? Here again, is the Wiki take on The Holocaust:

“The Holocaust (/ˈhɒləkɔːst/ ^ⓘ),^[1] known in Hebrew as the Shoah (שואה), was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to encompass also the persecution of these other groups.

The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. Meant to force all German Jews to emigrate, regardless of means, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators. By early 1942, the Nazis decided to murder all Jews in Europe. Victims were deported to extermination camps where they were killed with poisonous gas if survived, while others were sent to forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in experiments. Property belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued until the end of the war in May 1945..

But then it all ended. Maybe God had decided that enough was enough??

And then, as I continued to watch the BBC news reports, they turned away from their coverage of the Holocaust, and moved onto that little war thing in the Republic of Congo. Yeah, apparently the folks who live in the African state of the Congo, What’s that you ask?

Here,

“For decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the scene of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. In the latest iteration which began in May, its army has been fighting the M23 rebel group, which is waging its most sustained offensive since a 2012-2013 insurrection when it seized vast swathes of territory.By area, the vast Central African state is the second-largest country on the continent and the 11th-largest in the world.That space, especially its mineral-rich eastern region, has been the battleground for more than a hundred armed groups fighting for control of territory there or using it as a base to launch attacks into some of its immediate neighbours – Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda.Consequently, that has led to the death and displacement of many Congolese citizens.This month, the Norwegian Refugee Council declared the situation in the DRC as the world’s most neglected refugee crisis – for a second year running. At least five million people are internally displaced and one million more fleeing abroad, the aid group said.”

And then their report ended. But did they switch to news of a peaceful rally of folks somewhere celebrating something happy? Ummm, not yet. Nope, their coverage moved onto Gaza where Netanyahu is trying to bring calm to the storm that is Israel. Well, some understandably think that Bibi is beginning to emulate the Nazi’s, but that is but one opinion. At any rate, the BBC report was on the folks moving, walking mainly, north to get out of Gaza without being killed there.

And then I began thinking about God. So, God invented humans?? And you folks seriously worship that God?  Seriously??? Have you never any doubts about your belief system and your following of a God that allowed such awful things to happen? And then, I think about little kids, our Great Grandkids for example, running around giggling and bringing joy to their family. Yeah, those kids. How wonderful are they? Well, maybe God has nothing to do with any of this stuff, wonderful or awful. Maybe, we need to pay attention to what is in front of us. Give Love. Be helpful whenever help is needed. Try to spread love instead of Hate. If our leader of the moment (Trumpie) is always spreading Hate, then maybe we who don’t follow him should spend our time countering with Love and helpfulness.

So that is my take-away message from watching all that awful stuff. Don’t blame God. Look to Humans. And, instead of following awful creatures like Trump, try to follow those who spread Love and Help. Be kind. It works people. Spread Love. Be kind.