Give Trump a Break? Really?

There are a few people out there who are actively telling us to give Trump a break. I'm all for that if we can see some kind of learning curve. But really, there is no visible learning curve at this point. Trump is going about business just as he did throughout the campaign period --- all kinds of disrespect for other people, childish name calling, and delusional claims of fake news and rigged electoral processes.

When the chief executive is a compulsive liar, doesn't seem to understand basic government, disregards the Constitution, wants to grasp complete power, and belittles anyone who dares to criticize him, you do not give him a break; you call him for what he is.

Believe me, I wish that Donald Trump would somehow grow up and become an intelligent adult and grow into the highest office in our government. I am waiting, but I am not optimistic.

Trump's Actions vs. Trump's Talk

I am going to keep a running record of Trump's actions here. So far there is little that coincides with his populist talk.

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In his inaugural address he said the "anti-police attitudes stop here" --- of course, it hasn't been "anti-police" but rather criticism of policing. So Trump wants an obedient and uncritical attitude toward police which turns into a police state.

Filled his cabinet with billionaires and others who want to end regulation of foods and drugs, abandon public education, and limit women's health protections.

Signed an order to suspend Obama's reduction of FHA payments which would have saved the average FHA household $500 this year.

Signed an executive order that begins the process of taking down the Affordable Care Act which may eventually take away health care from 30 million people. [By the way, the reason why simply revoking the ACA is so troubling is that the Republicans will never be able to replace it with anything because they don't have the votes to do anything constructive. They can easily throw out the ACA because they have a horde of ultra right-wing nuts who will vote against it. But the same right-wing nuts will not vote for anything positive.]

Went to the CIA his first full day in office where he proceeded to deny that he's ever had a problem with them, then got off on "false reporting" of the people count on inauguration day, and finally assailed the media (again). Trump's war against the media is one key thing that all dictators do; they take down the media. Next it will be the universities and science in particular.

1/23: Trump reinstated a Reagan-era ban on funding international health organizations that mention abortion as options to women's health issues.

1/24: Today he gave the green light to both the Keystone and the Dakota Access pipelines. So much for the environment! But probably the scariest thing that Trump has done in his first few days is attempt to gag Federal employees. Yes, no one can talk to outside agencies (like the free press) about what the government is doing. If you can't stop the press, you can try to hide everything from them and that means hiding everything from the people of our country. When government is no longer transparent a lot of bad stuff can happen.

1/25: Having put a freeze on Federal hiring, he wants to mount a huge investigation of voter fraud (because of his obsession about losing to Hillary by almost 3 million votes) and he wants to go ahead with the infamous wall (granting that was a campaign promise). These, of course, will cost taxpayers millions of dollars and, since the ultra rich like him are not really taxpayers, you know who is actually paying his bills.

1/27: Well Trump continued his governance-by-executive-order today by terminating immigration by refugees from seven different Muslim majority countries (except, of course, those countries with which he does business). So much for "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" It was HUGE while it lasted. Meanwhile, it seems to me that his ban violates the Constitution by making an executive order that mentions a religion. It even suggests that preferential treatment might be given to Christians. 

1/30: Trump fired the acting attorney general who had announced she would not defend his immigration ban for fear of it's violation of the Constitution. He quickly replaced her with an older white male acting AG who said he would defend Trump's action. What is happening here (though it will take a while) is that Trump is going to corrupt the entire government. In these first few weeks, there is resistance because many Federal employees and officials are carry-overs from Obama's administration. But once Trump has weeded these people out, there will be no internal resistance. What we are looking at is the process of creating a government that can do anything it wishes and is impenetrable to resistance. 

2/6: Thus far, I see very little that Trump has done to improve the lives of the people who voted for him. He loves to take credit for the current job growth and unemployment statistics but all that happened under Obama's administration. Let's wait and see what Trumps stats look like. He also loves to have us think that he has personally brought jobs back into the US but, in fact, all of these decisions were made well before the election and the numbers involved are hardly significant. Meanwhile, he and his GOP Congress has stripped financial restraints and begun to take apart the EPA, including allowing mining companies to dump wastes into local rivers. Is that really going to help those people?

Liberals and Elites

For a long time now Republicans have used the term ‘liberal’ as a swear word. Liberals, they say, have caused everything bad in the country. I suppose that “making America great again” sort of means getting rid of liberals and everything they stand for. It takes gumption to stand up and say that you are a liberal.

But our recent election and the various analyses of this catastrophe have produced a new swear word to replace ‘liberal’. Now, we are elites. It is as though the Republicans now want to identify with the Third Estate and the whole French Revolution. They see themselves as the great leaders who will carry the poor and down trodden to victory over the elite First Estate. How absurd is that! Look at Trump’s cabinet choices; this is not the poor and down trodden taking over Washington. This is Trump’s billionaire buddies taking over Washington. As a friend of mine says, “Democrats in office try to help the people; Republicans in office try to help themselves.”

But who are the elites and why should they shut up? They are the well educated, the professionals, the scientists, etc. And the Republicans’ disregard for facts and reasoned discussion is why they think the elites should shut up. 

After Meryl Streep’s criticism of Trump on TV the other night, Megan McCain tweeted, in effect, that elites better learn to shut up or they would lose the next election as well. But that is really the last thing they should do. If this is really a war on reason and truth, we must not give in.

2016

OK this past year was not all bad. We made several nice trips to our condo in Mammoth Lakes and to Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez. We consumed a lot of really great wine and some great food. In March, we went to Phoenix to spend a week watching spring practice, and that was fun. This summer, we took a Viking river cruise on the Danube and that proved to be a lot of fun and very interesting. Then we flew to Ireland and spent two weeks in our favorite places. Five times in Ireland! Why don’t they just give us passports! We also spent a week going from Boston to Chicago and seeing my Chicago relatives was wonderful. and, finally, our Christmas week in the Seattle area was great. I should mention, too, that we bought both a new dishwasher and a new refrigerator and think they are both incredible. 

So what made 2016 seem so bad? Well, the presidential election of course. The whole period of advertisements and debates was terrible. We wondered how the political process could become so debased in a country that is supposedly the world leader. We shared the general optimism that Clinton would be elected right up to the evening of election day when it became brutally obvious that she was going to lose. Of course, we were then traumatized by the fact that she won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes and, also, that Russia seems to have had a major role in turning the process toward Trump. But alas Trump will become president of the United States this month and his selections of cabinet members foretell a disastrous destruction of our national government, something Republicans have been wanting to do for years.

So I cry for my country. It is not the country I thought it was or hoped it might be. 

What Is to be Done?

There is an old story about a frog and boiling water. If the frog is dumped into boiling water, it jumps out immediately. But if the frog is placed in cold water and the water is then heated to boiling, the frog dies. We are all relatively insensitive to gradual change, but we will react in perceived emergencies. A lot of people liked and supported what they saw Hitler, Mussolini, and General Franco doing in the 1930s. Small numbers of people saw what was going on and where it was likely to go. By the time Fascism had become full strength in Germany, Italy, and Spain, it was too late. By the end of World War II, the German and Italian people had paid a very heavy toll for the acceptance of Fascism. The Spanish people were, in some sense, “lucky.” Franco continued his modified Fascism for decades after the war and the country was never drawn into the terrible destruction of the World War. That is not to say that the destruction and waste of the Spanish Civil War in the ‘30s was not catastrophic. One point that is good to remember about that period is that conservative Christian groups and Capitalists were usually in support of the Fascists.

Let us look at some genuine facts about the United states today. First, we have by far the largest investment in military power in the world. Second, we deploy our military power everywhere in the world in a way that no other country can claim. Third, we have now elected as president of the United States a man who knows nothing about government or international relations except as they relate to his world-wide real estate investments. Fourth, Trump’s administration is beginning to look like a very sinister group of individuals who will take apart much of the Federal government and isolate us from the rest of the world. The question, I guess, is whether the water is boiling yet.

The problem is not just a Federal problem either. Consider what is going on in North Carolina. The Republican governor who lost the election refused to concede for several weeks. Then, when the issue was finally forced and the Democratic opponent was pronounced governor-elect, the state legislature set about passing laws that would strip the new governor of substantial power. Part of the problem in the US today is that very many states have fallen into extremely conservative hands. This is one reason why it is impossible to secure a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

Did all of this begin way back in 1960 when John Kennedy was elected? It’s unclear but one thing is clear today. Republicans do not want a two-party system; they want a one-party (Republican) system --- and that is final. From the time when Nixon was elected and with the brief exception of four years under Jimmy Carter, the Republicans held sway in Washington until 1992 when Clinton replaced George H. W. Bush. And the Republicans refused to back off; instead, they plagued the Clintons for eight years with numerous personal attacks. Republican resentment and attacking became even worse when Obama became president. They even openly said they intended to make him a one-term president (which failed). The Republicans, in other words, have no interest in governing or serving the people of the United States; their sole concern is power and using power to make rich people richer and crush the small people who are helpless to defend themselves. How ironic that this group of people think of themselves as the Party of Morality.

The “Trump Administration” is growing into an absurd collection of cabinet members who are all antagonistic to the very departments to which they are assigned. This is how you proceed to take apart the Federal government --- something Republicans have wanted to achieve for years. Does that really matter? Does the Federal government actually do good things? Well, how do you like your food? Should meat packers be able to market anything that crawls across the packing house floor. Maybe food inspection isn’t a bad idea. Of course, the Federal government helps create good roads for us to drive on, but I suppose it would be better to let private individuals build our roads and then charge exorbitant tolls for driving on them. The Feds help provide good education and health care (as well as food) to our children. And then there is the issue of civil rights. The Federal government attempts to set a standard for respect of human rights that is national in its scope. We are Americans; this is who we are. Well, guess again. Republicans would prefer to allow local control over who is viewed as human and in possession of rights. In their world, you shouldn’t bother to leave California if you are LGBT, and if you are African American, stay away from the South unless you are just trapped there.

Enough about the destruction of our nation from the inside. Here is a possible scenario and, while I am sure it will sound far fetched to many people, it is something we should ponder seriously. Trump’s administration continues to rub China the wrong way. China becomes increasingly aggressive until there is an outright act of war. At that point, North Korea, Iran and even Russia join China in an alliance against the United States. The question then is whether the rest of the world is willing to back the US or whether they are more likely to hang back and see what happens. I have my money on hanging back. Why? Because the rest of the world is warranted in being skeptical about the US abuse of military power and about the political situation in the US. The prospect of a nuclear war is still there --- after all these years --- perhaps even more so today than decades ago. It would not be a pretty picture.

Mars Mission

I have no problem with NASA trying to send a person or two to the planet Mars. They might even make a good movie of it. Expensive --- but great PR for American technology. Perhaps it is just an extension of the historic age of exploration --- round the world sailing, invasion of new worlds, climbing the highest mountains. It seems like something that we have to do.

What really burns me up is the ridiculous nonsense about finding a future home for humanity. If that's the real reason, don't put a penny into the project. First of all, do you really think that they are talking about re-locating all 10 billion of us humans? Of course not. The seats will go to the billionaires instead. Second, if we are really seriously going to trash this planet (which seems more and more likely all the time), then why should we have a second chance with another planet. Since Mars is far from a natural human habitat, we would be even more likely to trash our chances there. Third, if we are really such great human beings that we can engage in space travel and space conquest, why don't we put all of this intelligence to work here on Mother Earth and find a way to live sustainably?

So, for heavens sake, NASA and Gov, please stop talking about going to Mars as if that is a salvation plan.

What Is an American?

In the previous post, I suggested that there are two cultures in America with very different views --- one “urban” and the other “rural”. This was painting with a very broad brush indeed and I admit it. Clearly, not everyone who voted for Trump lives in a rural area nor did everyone in the rural areas vote for him. But when you look at the voting map of the US by counties, it is clear where the majority of votes lie in both camps. For my own state of California, the state map shows blue for Clinton, but the county map shows that Clinton supporters fill a narrow swath along the coast with just a few inland bastions. Look at the country as a whole by counties and it is clear that rural America was Trump country and urban America voted for Clinton. Why is that?

There were many times during the last rugged year of electioneering when either Obama or Clinton faced the antagonism toward immigrants, women, or just plain racism and said, “That is not who we are.” And we urban liberals agreed with them; that is not who we are. But now that we have lost and Trump has won, we have to ask precisely what Americans really are. What should America mean to us and to the rest of the world?

The sad truth, I think, is that there are strong differences between urban and rural concepts of being American. Indeed, one of the peculiar consequences of that is the rural preference for state government against the urban preference for a national government. (Hence the Tea Party and other aspects of hating “big government”) Oddly enough, though, to the degree that we weaken the national government, we discard any uniform concept of being American in favor of just belonging to a local cult. The South, which has largely never given up on the Civil War and calls it the “war of northern aggression”, would really prefer to just be “Southerners” and let the Yankees be whatever so long as they don’t try to disrupt Southern life. Northwestern timber families would like to continue their lifestyle of cutting timber and forget the poor spotted owl or any other nationally promoted problem like saving the redwoods. In Appalachia, coal mining families would be happy to see Americans continue to burn coal indefinitely even if that means thousands of people on Pacific Islands not only losing their homes but even their nations. So one thing is clear, rural cultures and desires differ widely from one rural area to another but all agree that they should be able to do their things without intervention from outside. It is the urban dweller who worries about the environment being destroyed, world temperatures increasing out of bounds, and rising ocean waters. In a way, there is no consistent idea of what an American is in rural culture. Rural and urban Americans both largely vote for their self interests, but urban Americans share a more uniform view of self interests than rural people. Where rural people come together is in their Christian practice, their need for social and religious conformity, and their exclusion of people from the outside (the “other”).

The odd thing about this election is that I do not believe Trump represents the rural culture so, while rural people massively voted for him, I think they will be very disappointed in his performance. Trump, actually, represents the worst aspects of the urban culture. He is a bully, a cheater, a con man, and an abuser of women and other vulnerable people. And he is even proud of it. What, then, did rural people think they were getting by voting for Trump. In my opinion, they thought they were getting what they have thought Republicans would give them over every election in the past thirty years --- a take down of Washington and destruction of our national government.

Actually, I can understand why rural people want this to happen. I grew up in Cook County, Illinois (home of Chicago). State politics was always dominated by the rural communities in Illinois and liberal urban dwellers were oppressed. No wonder then that Democrats turned to national government to address and solve urban issues. Those we called “down-state Republicans” had no sympathy for urban issues. As a result, urban dwellers have been relatively happy with the direction of national government, while rural dwellers are rather steamed about it. Also, consider the era of civil rights in the South. It was our national government that intervened and walked little black children to the front doors of Southern schools. Urban dwellers looked to the rights voiced in our Constitutional Amendments and forced rural dwellers to conform to a national identity. But that was a political victory and not a cultural victory. Rural culture remained simply where it was and rural people became oppressed.