HOW WHEN WHY

     Not sleeping, I just doodled around with some games this AM and the mind began to roam. How, when and why do we find ourselves both as a country and as individuals at this point in  history? Why would we have allowed an incompetent individual on such a level, a failure at life, depending upon OPM and his father's money to support his gilt encrusted lifestyle to have reached the pinnacle of our country, the office which should be held as an example to the country and the rest of the world.
     We allowed it because we became cynical, overly blasé and so, so sophisticated that we were just too important, too focused on our own lives to the exclusion of others, and so we allowed a joke of a man, a man who was crude in manners, a boor, who delighted in embarrassing people in public to allow his own overblown ego to subsume others as we all turned away from reality.
     Still, up to this point in time, our political figures were something of Renaissance people, with interests that extended into other areas with an expertise in something constructive and contributory to society. Yes, they all had egos, for without one they would not have been able to absorb that which was thrown at them, yet still, under it all there was an understanding of public service. There is nothing of that here at all, only a man who is consumed by himself, so self absorbed that as a citizen he would demand attention from the media, calling them as John Miller or John Barron, putting on a fake voice and "leaking" gossip about Donald Trump, himself, and then sit back and demand that this leaking stop. Huh! Sounds familiar, does it not.
     Pitiful - and tragic, now that he sits in the Oval Office. So this very limited man, limited in talent, in skill, in awareness of the other, this man who is a low life and low level individual who delights in demeaning women and any person who does not fall in line with his overblown ego and plans for himself now, basically, has the existential level of the world in his pathetic small hands!
     He will demand more money for Defense even as his pick for Secretary of the Navy declines the appointment and he struggles to retain some intelligent people for related aspects. He will coldly and callously cut social safety net programs in order to pay for this. To hell with the hungry, the poor, those needing assistance. To hell with food programs, charitable enterprises, cultural entities for what does one need other than low brow reality shows that emphasize the worst in us.
     Trump is delusional as well as a liar and a poor judge of character. More of his staffers have failed to pass the standards for working in the White House and more should, particularly those who cannot and will not divest themselves of their connections to Wall Street, to bankers, to industrialists, to Goldman Sachs - to all the things which he railed about in his campaign and has now welcomed into his home with open arms - except that WE are paying the rent and upkeep on that home!!
    
 "I can say that after four weeks, it's been a lot of fun," he said. "We've accomplished almost everything we set out to accomplish. The borders are stricter. ... There are some  big problems in the world, you know that very well. But we're very happy with the way things are working," Trump said.
"We've made a lot of promises over the last two years and many of those promises already are kept. So we're very honored by that."
     The man is delusional. Big time! The mess of which he often speaks is one of his own making for he inherited an economy that was working, that was reducing unemployment and had it at a low 4.8%. There were no immediate world crises that had to be taken care NOW, just some chronic ones which were being looked at. Was Obama the best? No, definitely not, but there was a sense and sensibility to his administration that there is not within this one. And most important of all we KNEW who we were - we were Americans in America and we had values, principles, which come what might, would not be violated.
    And yet, along came Trump and here we are. A man who hates the free press and Peter Zenger is rolling over in his grave. A man who cannot take criticism yet invites it with his every deed and every time he opens his mouth. A man who does not understand our system of government and interferes with all and reacts with anger when others do not play nicely with him. He will try to coerce the judiciary branch and insult those who do not follow his dictates. He will interfere with the FBI and he will treat with the enemy and for that alone he needs to be gone, a traitor to the very country he is supposed to serve, yet he sees all this as an opportunity to increase his personal wealth. And now we are at the point where we actually have the press being banned from various agendas of his WH and so the NY Times has a campaign based on the fact that “The truth is under attack. The truth is worth defending.” Yes, it is and we must never forget that. Never.
     And yet the truth is constantly under attack by this man and his henchmen. "Many Iowans worry Trump might cut support for wind-energy and ethanol programs; that his trade policies could hurt farms that export their crops; that mass deportations would empty the state’s factories and meat-packing plants; and that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would yank health insurance away from thousands. While the hyper-simplicity of Trump’s campaign promises helped him win over voters, they are no match for the hyper-complexity of Iowa’s economy and values."
     This is exactly what I have been saying all along. There is a lack of long term thought as to consequences of actions. And yet here we are and now there is open talk of resistance? Of hatred. Of a split so deep within our society that we must fear for its survival. We have a man with fascistic tendencies, a mental disorder and "advisers" who push him along this path, this path which allows for hatred to flourish, this path which allowed for another Jewish cemetery, this one in Philadelphia to have a massive vandalism attack on headstones.
     These peculiar traits of his are not unique to him, only in the degree and extent of them, but we have such a man right here in the Village, a man who sees the administration of that Village as an opportunity to enhance his own particular view of power, a man who demeans others, who regularly throws people under the bus, a man who is incompetent and has led us down not the garden path, but the path to financial ruin, a man who ignores all laws and legalities if it serves him to do so and a man who continuously plugs his own agenda to the detriment of all others.
     Now he is still pushing that Atlantic Broadband and why? What is he getting for it? And why would we want a company with no record, certainly not one of positive performance over a company, Comcast, who is the big elephant in this world in this area and who has steadily improved over the past years. Why would we throw them out only to worry over whether a company will actually have its wiring in place and will actually be ready to push the button. There are many a slip and years between  plans and actuality. And why does David Israel think he had the right to even instigate this negotiation since UCO is not entitled to discuss Internet in bulk for the Village - only cable. Period. And how does he dare sign a contract for a half a million dollars when the delegates were never even apprised of this. The arrogance is breathtaking.
     There are many reasons why these two people, these two individuals, must be gone from their offices. A person whom I respect even after a short time of knowing her, said to me that there are now three groups of people in the country. There are the Trump lovers, the Trump haters and those who are afraid to speak. That last category took my breath away. There are those who are afraid to speak here in the Village as well and how sad that is for us all and how frightening that is for us as a society, large or small.
     As a consequence, in today's world we turn to other Renaissance people, those who are stars and legends in their own world yet who have not turned their backs on others. Thus we have cinematic stars speaking up and producers and sports figures and authors and columnists. Perfect people? No, but evidently thinking people. John Legend, that brilliant song writer, actor and producer, who plays Douglass in Underground on WGN - watch it when it comes on this week - the same Douglass that Trump thinks is still alive - duh! - that Legend actually put into words why I despise these people. Besides the fact that they are liars, a class of people which turn my stomach, they are political animals of the worst degree, revolting in the extreme, and as for the rest of us, too many of us are living in bubbles of our own making thinking that if we do not see it or think about it, it will go away. "Wrong, wrong." As the man says.
     And finally, the definitive answer as to why I dislike and have only contempt for him? Read and weep, for we have allowed this to be so.
     "I don't think that Trump has read a book in his adult life, or that he knows anything about American history, black history, or any history. I don't think he knows what's in the Constitution. I don't think he knows anything about Civil War history or just about any kind of history. We can't expect him to know much of anything."
     Read that again and ask again how and when and why we have allowed this situation to be. So join the group Indivisible and resist. March in the Village or elsewhere on April 1 at 10, leaving from the Clubhouse. Speak up. Shout out. Demand and demand, from Trump and from David Israel. Let us try to remedy what we can - Now - before it is beyond all rescue. Fascism is none too pretty no matter what name it hides behind. Is that what you truly wish and do you think you will not be affected? Think again. How When Why. Answer that.