"The Emperor Has No Clothes!"

Here we are folks, almost the end of another year. This week after Christmas and before the New Year is when we review the past year and plan for the new year.

This is what I call the "dead week."  Most of the regular folks I see on TV are off to warmer climes like Aruba or some other exotic warm breeze palm tree swaying location like Hawaii or the Caribbean. 

This is the week that commentators on TV review the past year with lists like "the ten best of . . ." or the "ten worst of . . ."

I usually hate those lists because I don't want to relive some of the "ten worst" or the "ten best".  And also I know these lists are just time fillers until the regular TV folk come back.  They pre tape all those shows you know.

But the more I got to thinking about these year end lists I thought of my own year end list.

Here goes:

The worst thing to happen this past year:

This one is easy:  Donald Trump

This disaster, this danger to our democratic norms, this purveyor of the diminution of our sense of self worth and pride as a nation easily is the worst scourge ever to infect this wonderful country of ours.  All my life I have been proud to be an American and our American ideals. 

Are we perfect? Of course not but look around us at the rest of the world. Our country, with its diversity of cultures and people who make up this country has always been a beacon of goodwill and hope for a better life in this world and our lives. This country, which is the one country in the world where one has the freedom to say what you think and to be as successful in your life as you're willing to work hard. This country which has so many natural resources from people to mineral resources. For the first time in my lifetime our exceptionalism is now being questioned and challenged worldwide as a result of the (stolen) election of this cretin called Donald Trump.

Perhaps the most telling revelation that has been exposed since the election of Trump is the craven opportunism and total lack of character and honesty of those elected officials and others in public who have and continue to enable Trump and his family run criminal enterprise that is now seated in the White House. They remind me of the "good Germans" who supported Hitler during his rise to power. They were either too cowardly or too craven to voice opposition to what they clearly saw was wrong for their country.  

I know of sound very dystopian in my views but I cannot express my concern enough over what a danger Trump and his enablers are to our country and our way of life. Already they have passed this scam of a tax bill which gives even more money to the rich and super rich and puts our country deeper into debt for generations to come. This development from the "fiscal responsibility party" the Republicans. Their craven mendacity can no better be illustrated by the actions of Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. This is the senator who said he would not vote for a tax bill that "added one penny to the deficit". 

Then, of course, when some anonymous lawmakers in a backroom put a provision in the so called "tax reform" bill that enriches real estate millionaire like Corker,

he inexplicably changes his vote, claiming he didn't know about this provision because he "hadn't read the bill."  Think about it, this so called Conscience of the Senate is voting for a tax bill that he hasn't even read and yet he changes his mind and votes for the bill. 

Then you have the other so called "moderate Senators" like Jeff Flake of Arizona

and Susan Collins of Maine, who criticize Trump but vote for his bills.  At least I thought we had some home with the sweet and angelic Senator Collins of Maine who has (now had) a reputation as a moderate, reasonable Republican.

Even in the end she caved, thus throwing away her years long reputation in one single vote just to appease Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who made a promise to her for funding of a future health care provision (which was not kept - of course).  

I could go on and on folks and I apologize for my rant in this, what was supposed to be a light hearted year end "countdown" review but once I got started and revved up these embers of my huge disappointment in the direction this country is going, it's hard for me to stop.  But you know what folks?  I also think the best thing to happen to our country is, wait for it:  

Donald Trump

Why? Trump is a stress test for our country and democracy.  I do think (I hope) that right will win out in the end. Our democratic (and "democratic" not "democrat" as the Republicans love to spew out, thus changing the meaning of that word because it sounds more harsh to say "democrat") will prevail. 

Trump is entertaining, I'll give him that. And he is a master manipulator.  He is good. But like a con man, he is only in this for himself and his own selfish need for self aggrandizement and narcissistic feeding of his never enough ego. 

I'll end this screed with two quotes that I have known and often referred to in my long life. Those quotes were applicable to the world at the time they were made and they are applicable today.  

"You Can Fool All the People" (usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln:

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

There are too many people that Trump is fooling now (scary actually how many people he is fooling) but thank God there are even more people who see right through his falseness and for the small minded selfish bigot that Trump really is. 

Another quote that often comes to my mind when I see Trump's enablers

make excuses and justify Trump's lies and harmful decisions which is a great danger to our country. These enablers know that they only have to praise "Dear Leader" and they can get Trump to sign any bill or executive order they put in front of Trump because they know Trump doesn't read what he signs but is only interested in being in front of the cameras and the center of attention.  They have figured out Trump and they're playing him just like Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders have figured out Trump, praise him and put a big military parade on for him and Trump is putty in their hands. Criticize him and he'll Tweet you.

This quote is a poem written b the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984). It is about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Folks, I know to some I may sound alarmist but consider this:

We have a vice president who considers homosexuality an abomination, Chief Toady Mike Pence. Even Trump said:

Donald Trump 'joked Mike Pence wanted to hang all gay people'

Pence and his so called "Christian values" is perhaps even a greater danger to this country than Trump's craven stupidity. But that's a subject for another whole long blog posting and I've gone on enough with this blog posting.

I'll leave you, my faithful blog followers and even you those of you who are visiting my blog for the first time.  This is a quote that I first heard when I was a very young man. At first I didn't understand what it meant but as I progressed in my life I came to understand exactly what it means.  This quote is a perfect summation of the man who now occupies the White House and all his enablers and supporters. And I friends am that little boy who cries out "The emperor has no clothes!"