TALK, TALK, TALK

     Why all this talk of Trump? Why not speak of other things, of music, of art, of the Public Art in the Second Ave. subway, or of some thoughtful books recently read or simply of the flowers and the trees, so damaged here and destroyed by the hurricanes all over the Caribbean?
     Why? Because it seems that once all roads led to Rome, but today they lead to Trump because like it or not, this man and his misdeeds have affected us already and he is haring off to do more damage and tell more lies. He apparently is a big believer and practitioner of the Big Lie philosophy. 
      Let's take taxes, the "reform" that is not yet laid out, especially let's look at the estate or deathtax as he calls it. No more tax on any estates over $5 million. Well, that is one in 500 estates and guess who will benefit on that - not the poor bottom income earners, for sure. Reform or prizes for the 2%? You answer that.
     Their whole math is off. Scott and Pruitt took on their positions so they could live the high life on our backs, chartering planes, building special structures for themselves, unnecessary ones at that, and could not figure out why people were so angry. Duh!! And Cohn, the great financial wiz, or so they say, has now told us that the average American family makes $100,000 a year. Ah, bigly wrong on that one. The average family makes $74,000 before taxes and the median family makes $55,000. With those incorrect figures, Cohn goes on to state that with the $1,000 saved by these families they will be able to do much, such as buy a car or renovate their kitchens!! Is he out of his mind? Obviously.
     Take another road, say the terrible attitude and behavior of some men towards and with women. We were finally making progress on this issue, especially on campus where there is apparently little to rein in wild parties, keggers and advantage taken with nefarious plans to dope some coeds or get them drunk and then have their way with them, a polite way of saying rape them. Programs were established to raise the consciousness of the men who seemed not to understand that a person drunk or doped is not capable of making any rational decisions and plans to get them that way are major legal no nos! The coeds were believed, finally, at least to some extent and football and other sports lost some of their headway in this area. But wait! Along comes DeVos with her backward planning and here we go again, reducing it to a he said/she said level once more. Shame on her!!
     Okay, next? The American dream. A country where all can live together, no hatred, prejudice looked down upon, a country that at least tried to reach that standard, made errors, but tried, made progress but here we go again. Trump to the rescue? There are "fine" people among neo Nazis. David Duke is a fine fellow and his support welcome, the Republican party now supports Moore in Alabama, a pure bigot, a "Christian" who scares the bejesus out of me with his emphasis on that, a man who states openly that the rights we have are not governmental and man given, but are G-d given. So if one is an atheist what, do we deny him those rights, ship him off, force him to kneel in front of the huge Ten Commandments monument that Moore put up by the courthouse? And how did such a man, removed TWICE from judgeship ever get allowed to run and then win!?
     Continuing on, we have the wonderful stress and major action by ICE this week, arresting record numbers of immigrants in the sanctuary cities, I guess showing them who's the boss according to the Trump bible and never mind the fact that the same bible allows for lack of ethics, for fiddling with the same devices and emails that they wanted to hang Hillary for! And to add insult to injury they have fallen for some spammer who sends all sorts of queries to them in the name of the rest of that crew and they are doozies! What fools those mortals be!
     Black students in an Air Force school receive threats and "advice". Puerto Rico is left devastated even as Trump pats himself on the back and says it will get even better for he is going to go there and in the meanwhile, the only area getting help is San Juan and never mind the rest of the island. What will happen when so many will come over to the mainland so they can live, eat, breathe - will ICE come after them too? Make some excuse to get them?  Haul them out of their relatives' homes? Make major raids in the Orlando area where so many Puerto Ricans have settled, working, living?
     So there ya' go. All roads lead to Trump, even the books read. Read T. Jefferson Parker's latest one , check it out. Frightening book. Well written.
     It used to be that most people spoke of vacation plans, of renovation plans, of education plans, but today not so much. We question if we will be alive or nuclear ash, living the life we lead or living in a world where all computer chips are gone, damaged by an EMP attack and we are blasted back to a world of candles and horses, with tribal wars all over the country. Why do all roads lead to Trump? Because he has put himself there in his constant grandiose and dangerous schemes, in his megalomania, in his definite unfitness to be president. Uh, anyone for pickleball?