Tag Archives: Donald J.Trump

THE PRINCE OF IRONY

You’re in deep shit when you elect a president who would be King.

Was there ever another president, or national ruler, whose every action, decision or statement would effortlessly cascade across his country in a torrent of irony?

Starting with the obvious, this Coronavirus from which we all seek protection or recovery, was detected and reported to President Trump sometime in late January. That he fully understood the danger it posed for the country and its citizens is made clear in the tapes Bob Woodward released with his latest book, “Rage.”

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump confides to Woodward on February 7th of this year. “And so that’s a very tricky one,” he continued. “That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu…This is deadly stuff.” 

Compare those words from a fully informed president with the actions, or lack of action, Trump subsequently undertook, and you’re left standing on a quickly melting iceberg in a sea of irony. 

Faced with the greatest threat of his presidency, Trump always managed to find a golf course to relieve the pressure.

Rather than marshal the forces of the US government to withstand this looming invasive threat, rather than invoke the power of the Defense Production Act to offset predictable shortages of medical equipment the country would need, Trump imposed a partial ban of travel from China and went about his business as usual. Choosing to view the ensuing death and calamity as a problem best left to the states to manage.

Not only did President Trump fail to take ample measures to protect the country, his words and actions up until this past weekend were all designed to give the public a false sense of security. 

Trump often projects his behavior onto others

Knowing full well that the virus was passed in the air, he nevertheless chose to model irresponsible behavior by not wearing a mask and making those who sensibly chose to wear masks subject to derision and ridicule, setting one group of Americans against another. So, yes, the irony of turning a life-saving measure like mask-wearing into a political schism, amongst other actions to obscure the truth of the virus from Americans, will haunt Trump’s presidential legacy down through history.

Two Russian Bears in full gallop

The ironies of this Prince of Irony are countless, though the motivations behind them still remain obscure. Many of Trump’s questionable decisions about American foreign relations defy comprehension. Most of them can only be answered by leaps of logic that border on treason and traitorous behavior. The abandonment of our Kurd allies in Syria, the crumbling of relations with age-old NATO allies, the withholding of critical military supplies from Ukraine, all redound to the interest of Russia instead of America.

And now, we are left to face the biggest irony of all. The man who famously denied the virus has been struck down by it. The billionaire who paid either nothing or $750 a year in taxes during the last 15 years, is now enjoying taxpayer-funded medical care only a monarch could normally afford.

But that’s not the biggest irony we now face. Those of us who dislike, distrust and resent Trump’s boorish and irresponsible  behavior in office are left to face our own intractable irony. 

As compassionate human beings we cannot help but wish a safe—but maybe not so speedy—recovery to this man we fear will complete the destruction of American democracy if he’s left to pursue another four years as President of the United States.

If that’s not irony, what is?

THE LEGEND OF SWAMP CREATURE

Swamp Creature

Folks in these parts recall how this damn nasty swamp you see in front of you was once a modern Capital City, name of Washington, D.C. Then, of course, as the legend goes, Swamp Creature moved into the environs and quick as a jumping frog on a hot stove started draining the swamp, as he repeatedly promised, to get himself elected President of These United States.

‘Course Swamp Creature never exactly mentioned which swamp he’d be draining and to where he’d be releasing the stinking, toxic swamp effluence. As it later turned out, he was talking about draining the swamp filled from his business dealings back in New York City, which contained all the swampy murkiness of Swamp Creature’s previous questionable dealings; like his improper bank loans, his bogus charity; his questionable real estate transactions; his unprovoked acts of sexual aggression. And, of course, his falsified tax filings and other mob-like shenanigans. 

Truth is, when you drain one swamp, reason dictates, somewhere there’s a swamp getting swampier from the draining. In this case, the locale of that swampier swamp was that aforesaid Capital City mentioned above. 

But anyone who believes bringing in Swamp Creature to drain a swamp will result in anything ‘cept more swampiness deserves to spend two hours at lunch with Mitch McConnell. You remember Mitch, if only from remembering the one kid in grade school you wanted to punch in the face; the kid you could always count on to snitch on everyone else in class. Mitch was only one of the many swamp denizens enlisted by Swamp Creature to do his bidding and to help transform the capital city into a nightmarish City of Swamp. 

Nobody, least of all the citizens of Capital City, expected Swamp Creature to so quickly transmogrify normal, rule-of-law Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham into soulless, lying and cheating, ass-kissing Swamp Creature sycophants. But he did, and without raising a sweat.

Swamp Creature’s other top henchmen included Billy “The Kid” Barr, enlisted to shoot up and tear down the once proud Department of Justice; Mike Pence, particularly effective as “The Smiling Stooge” who immediately gave Swamp Creature the patina of Republican respectability he needed after his Russian-assisted election victory. And then there was Mike “The Ass Kisser” Pompeo who would sacrifice his own children, as well as the entire Department of State, on the altar of Swamp Creature’s thirst for a second elected term.

A second elected term, legend has it, in which Swamp Creature could finish draining the United States Treasury to pay for all his Florida golf expeditions. And to complete the job of desecrating all the familiar landmarks and traditions that once made the Capital City a beacon on a hill for the planet’s meek, humble and poor.

And, as legend declares, a second term to finish the task Vladimir Putin had set for him before his first term…the destruction of American democracy and America’s network of Western allies who once, in the time before Swamp Creature moved to Capital City, stood together like a solid wall as a bulwark against Russian aggression. 

Swamp Creature loves walls.

But not that one.

This is a reissue of a past blog post that was mysteriously taken down.