Trumpression

I’m quite sure I have it…do you? Is it a new condition, or just a new name? 

Last night I awoke at about 3am. Not unusual, but in normal times I’d fall back to sleep. Not last night, or several other similar nights. Instead I began considering the possibility of something happening to Joe Biden, perhaps something with Russian sophistication or White Supremacist crudeness.

Then I thought about a less than resounding defeat of Donald Trump and the aftermath of conflict. I saw Institutions being blown apart in the wake and a psychotically pure narcissistic mad man, with the power to inflict martial law and exercise nuclear codes. No…I didn’t get back to sleep.

Take this new form of Depression, I’ll call Trumpression, mix it with the uncertainties we must all now deal with daily regarding a malevolent disease, and sprinkle in social inequities that have finally (and understandably) reached a boiling point, and November 3^rd starts to feel like a lifetime…no, two lifetimes away.

Perhaps if I was a bit stronger or maybe more clever I could compartmentalize. Like many Americans, or others around the world, most of my Trumpression is derived from watching the idiot in the White House, listening to the pundits who rail against him, and railing at the pundits who worship his idiocy.

(Let me pause briefly: the President IS an idiot, not because he is profoundly stupid but because he is woefully lacking in knowledge. But, more importantly, he has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder and therefore his world view, personal or otherwise, is totally subjective. He does not have, nor can he have any empathy or shame. It is the stuff of nightmares for us, but interestingly for him as well. It is why autocrats are such focused, corruptible, and miserable people.)

My life is not significantly different than it was when Obama was President. The economy was tracking up year after year, the United States was still respected around the world for things other than its military, those that supported science began to hold sway, and the realities of wealth inequality and systemic racism were becoming inescapable. Still, none of that affected my day to day life, really.

However, those pleasing abstract realities, ending with a few thousand people voting or failing to vote in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in 2016, have now been replaced. So now my diet, my sleep patterns, and my level of energy are all enslaved to Trumpression. No matter how much I try to tell myself how well off I am compared to so many others, it is inescapable.

Being over 70 I’m supposed to help the impact of the Pandemic by remaining out of circulation. That, of course, only exacerbates the problem. I know that to thrive through these next 66 days I’m going to have to find some ways to apply my time and money to ending my Trumpression.  Perhaps you do too. Maybe I’ll see you out there. We need a universally identifiable mask.

Stay healthy Joe.

Switcharoo

Why do you believe Donald Trump?  I’m not speaking to Republican bureaucrats, Fox News personalities, Christian Conservatives, QAnon nut jobs, or white supremacists. I’m directing that question to Democrats, the Democratic leadership, and non-Fox media. Because Trump says something often enough and loud enough makes it so? Is that correct?

Trump and his Republican cult have been proclaiming for too long that he created the “greatest (US) economy in the history of the Nation”, only to have it woefully snatched away by the “China” virus. Why haven’t I seen his claim of economic prowess challenged by Democrats with the kind of ferocity equal to the fantasy?

US Presidents have very little short term impact on an economy.  The Economy and various markets are like a mammoth oil tanker. They can be torpedoed or otherwise disabled quickly by an unforeseen disaster or accumulated negligence. However, for the captain and crew to make a radical change in course, for better or worse, that ship is going coast in the same direction for some time and distance.

So it goes with a change of Administrations in Washington, especially if it also includes a change in a governing Party.  The most dramatic example was the collapsing economy transitioning from George Bush to Barack Obama in 2009. During Obama’s first year the GDP went negative, the unemployment rate (already a high 7.3%) increased another 34%. The stock market (using the DOW as an index) dropped over 50%.

Trump’s first year in office was no different, and yet also the complete opposite.

The Obama Administration turned it around, constantly attacked by Republicans for shepherding a “too slow” recovery.  The reality is that it began the longest period of sustained economic growth in the country’s history. During the remaining 7 years the stock market increased 203% and unemployment dropped from 9.9% to 4.7%. Just as important, the wounds of mistrust in financial systems were mostly healed.

The first year of the Trump Administration saw the unemployment rate continue to fall to 4.1% and the stock market climbed another 32%.  Conservatives, Republicans, and Fox News were quick to give Trump credit. This was actually the end of the Obama Economy.

What did Trump do to deserve this adoration?  Nothing! His first year was spent trying to dismantle Obama social programs, defend his Russian assisted campaign, anger allies, find money for his wall, travel to and pontificate at “rallies”, Tweet, and watch TV.

It wasn’t until December 22, 2017 that he signed the great Republican Tax giveaway, for which his Republican Congress argued would bring real “life” to the US Economy (albeit with a wink and a nod).

What happened?  Over the next two years, up to the point of the Pandemic, the Unemployment Rate dropped a whopping 0.5%, from 4.1% to 3.6%.  The stock market was actually lower by the end of 2018 and had “skyrocketed” a massive 8% before it fell off the Pandemic cliff. GDP remained basically unchanged. If Obama had presided over similar results during his second and third year, Mitch McConnell and the gang would have been gleefully heating tar and plucking chicken feathers.

Of course I can’t make comparisons regarding what has occurred in 2020. The Corona Virus crippled economies around the globe. However, thanks to the anemic and incredibly stupid response by Trump, our recovery will lag the rest of the world and we will be paying a price for many months to come.

Once again, a Republican President will be handing a Democrat successor an economy the size and odor of a three story cow pile. Yet once again, Republicans will claim the mantle as the Party for Economic growth, and will minimize and disparage the recovery as inadequate. The real tragedy, it appears, is that too many Democrats will believe them.

Lest We Forget

No one in the US is immune from the affects of the Corona Virus Pandemic, one way or the other. So for the Democrats and the Biden campaign to target the Pandemic and expose the many flaws Trump and his administration have applied to its defense is understandable. However, I find their focus too narrow, dwelling excessively on the disease and its impact, both on the national health and economy.

We knew before the Pandemic that Trump was a failed human being, let alone President, and needed to be removed from office. It didn’t take a pandemic to understand that.

So much is not being said. Entire books, for example, will be written about the inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants on our southern border, with the callous separating of children from their families, some never to be reunited, or the indifference given to the American Citizens in Puerto Rico, resulting in over 3000 dead. Were those actions of Trump’s even mentioned at the DNC?

I understand his ineptitude (call it “covfefe”) is not being pursued, but what about his general disregard for the job? He played golf 236 times during his first three years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars (Forbes puts it at over $350 million), much going into his own pocket at the clubs he owns.

He has held 97 (ego) “rallies” since his election victory, again the taxpayers picking up millions in transportation and security expenses. He has tweeted and re-tweeted over 17,000 times during his first 3 years in office. He has tweeted so often on some weekends, it’s difficult to do the math and not conclude he has done nothing else. He watches television constantly, apparently whenever he’s not tweeting or playing golf. He virtually allows Fox News pundits to direct his policy or rage. He doesn’t start his work day until 11am and reads virtually nothing.

Current counters have shown his lies, misstatements, and untruths to now exceed 20,000! 

During his first year in office 34% if the entire White House Administration was either fired or resigned (the average for the previous four Presidents was 8%). He is surrounded by cronies, with enough corruption and indictments to be rivaling the Nixon Administration, always shielded by the Republican Senate. This, of course, includes his own corruptions, one of which led to his impeachment.

There is so much to shine a light on beyond the Pandemic. I have compiled a partial list for my own edification, which I share with you. Please read through and remember, and add any that I missed, which are likely numerous.  They are in a rough chronological order:

-          Inaugural crowd delusion

-          Missing millions from inaugural fund

-          FBI discloses Russia connection

-          Comey fired, Russians in the Oval Office

-          Flynn resigns, later arrested and convicted

-          Manafort arrested, later convicted

-          Gates arrested, later convicted

-          Puerto Rico ignored, 3000 dead

-          Stormy Daniel bribe uncovered

-          Playmate affair exposed

-          NFL slammed

-          Charlottesville and his “fine people” aka Nazis

-          Defends guns after Las Vegas

-          Backs child abuser for Senate

-          Signs Republican tax cut for wealthy

-          “Falls in love” with Kim Jong Un

-          Announces he is a “stable genius”

-          Gives credibility to North Korea

-          Trade wars initiated

-          Trashes Christine Blasey Ford

-          Violates International Iran Nuclear Treaty

-          Attacks Muller

-          Withdraws US from Paris Climate Accords

-          Attacks John McCain

-          Abandons the Kurds

-          His lawyer arrested, later convicted for Trump's crime

-          Holds refugees in detention cages

-          Separates children from families

-          Sides with Putin against CIA/FBI

-          Shuts down Government for 35 days

-          Money illegally diverted for “wall”

-          Withdraws US from Russian Nuclear Treaty

-          Vetos Yemen withdrawal

-          Trump Foundation shut, pays $2MM fine

-          Directs military planes to his Irish golf club

-          Sues to eliminate Affordable Care Act

-          Withholds military aid from Ukraine

-          Pressures Zelenski to investigate Biden

-          Is impeached, with no dispute of facts

-          Orders assassination of Iranian General

If the Covid Pandemic had never reached our shores and the economy, created during the Obama years, had remained intact, there was always a deep well of reason to get rid of this narcissistic clown.

My dream now is to lay down to sleep at night and suddenly realize for the first time in years that I hadn’t heard the name "Trump" once all day.