Fooling Half of The People

The rock band "The Who" prayed that we wont be fooled again.  But honey, we have remained a nation of fools.

Take Donald J Trump (Please).  Here is a grifter of average intelligence who has refined his art to such a degree that he fooled half the voters in America into believing that he would make America great again.  (By the way, how's that working out for ya, farmers, small businesses, traders, government workers, ...?  How about you dockworkers in ports that are near idle because of idiotic tariffs?  And you egg lovers who are still paying inflationary prices for breakfast?  So long you poor shlubs who will be losing your health insurance....) 

If Trump has any shard of genius it was figuring-out that many white Americans feel indifference towards the plight of others.  He has tapped into that lack of empathy and has seemingly convinced the MAGA crowd that they need an authoritarian leader (perhaps a king) to get America back on track.  Somehow the MAGA faithful do not realize where that track is leading to:  rich and privileged running things for their own benefit.  

Whether your bete noir is Communists, Muslims, LGBTQ, wokeness, or just uppity minorities, there is a place for you in Trump's America.  Never mind that his fiscal policies mainly benefit the top 2% of wealthy elites, he has convinced the hoi polloi that they will better-off under an oligarchy than a democracy.  

I am continually amazed that more people cannot see through this charlatan.  It's obvious to sensible observers that he does not put in the work of being presidential, or diplomatic or serious.  The details are unimportant to him.  He always thinks he is the smartest guy in the room.  More amazing yet are the enablers who protect him from scrutiny.  Did they not learn anything from watching their predecessors being tossed under the bus.  (Remember: most of the witnesses at the Jan 6th impeachment hearing  were former staffers, and most of them who were close to him and who respected the Constitution have declared him unfit for office.  Whether the current batch of courtiers are driven by adulation, self-interest, fear, or evil hearts, I am not sure.

 Call me cynical, but after listening to political interviewees of both sides, I have come to believe that nearly every word out of their mouths contains a known untruth, and therefore is not worth my attention.

Much like interviews with sports figures, whether they be players or managers or former players and managers now doing play-by-play and analysis.  It's all a bunch of bullshit gibberish. The so-called journalists are no better.  In their haste to "bring you the exclusive breaking news" they offer up fragments of half baked accounts that "something has happened and we will bring you more extensive information to you as soon as we find out what it is."  Stay tuned.  

They take us for fools. They are not wrong.

Things Trump Should be Doing Instead of Cutting Essential Programs

I'm hearing a lot of disturbing things about cuts that the Trump administration is making with a machete instead of a scalpel. 

Thousands of workers have been terminated from their positions, without any serious analysis of their impact.  I do not see how hollowing-out government services is going to benefit the average American, since the savings will be passed along to corporate billionaires in the form of tax cuts.  Remember the last time Trump cut corporate taxes, many of the companies took bigger profits, rebought stock, but did not lower prices, or help customers in any way. 

 So I think the current administration should focus on real problems that citizens have.

Colonoscopy prep. In all the years since medical science has been taking pictures of our bowels, there has been one constant: bad-tasting prep. Most patients consider the days'- long ordeal of prep worse than the actual procedure. So I would say, let's stop spending money on stuff that isn't bothering us, like interstellar space travel, and get some scientists working on a decent-flavored prep. Hire more food scientists and fire the telescope analysts.

Other ways to help everyday citizens

Make packages easier to open - 

Check engine light – what's wrong? Just say it!

Noisy lawn mowers - does anyone benefit from loud noise?

Unwanted phone calls - just make them stop!

Usury - it's illegal when the Mafia does it but its ok for Visa and Master Card

ID theft destroys the lives of countless thousands

Porch Pirates - the punishment is too light.  Return to the days when people who steal went to jail.

Gangs - the cops know where they hide, let's go raid those places, take away their guns and get rid of the violent ones who are here illegally

Drugs - it all starts with poppy fields, go back to Afghanistan and burn them

Labor Strikes especially government workers, teachers and civil servants  should be fired if they don't come to work.

Traffic-stopping demonstrations it should be illegal to impede the flow of traffic.  Your pet cause is not more than my mom's ambulance ride to the hospital.

Delays in law courts, investigations, punishment, trials, appeals. Make it speedy.