Nuclear threat

TPP wants to explain to everyone younger that the world has been here before and it was a very bad thing. TPP was high school age at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, probably the low point of the cold war.  An old friend wrote to wish me well should things go wrong and he hoped I'd remembered all of the duck and cover drills from grade school.  One well-ingrained memory was helping the family of a good friend build a bomb shelter in their basement, and my Father explained that we were not going to do the same thing because one way or another, it wouldn't matter.  Another old friend used to say things never change they just get more chronic.  With two narcissistic leaders each acting like they want to blow something up with nuclear weapons, it's about as chronic as it can get.  Morons! Neither can be trusted to not make the wrong decision. Neither cares about people, only their own reputation.  Both want to look strong, so neither wants to back down. Neither has the intellect to find a diplomatic exit.  So yes, this is very worrisome.  In fact standing up to the POTUS probably enhances Kim's stature in NK.  Hope GnOPe understands this is not a role made for a person like T-rump. Here's some satire from the earlier time frame thanks to the Pharyngula blog. Hope it helps keep your spirits up.  Who ever thought this would become relevant again?  So much progress, so much greatness!  

Avoiding the unpleasant

It's human nature, so we all do it.  And a steady diet of unpleasantness begins to depress TPP.  In terms of nature, 2017 has been great, a good spring. But the news, mostly from Washington DC has been most depressing. How does somebody so remarkably unqualified in so many ways become president? The answer itself is also depressing; it means qualifications don't mean a damn, and the 'Mercan public is poorly prepared to evaluate candidates using the various forums provided.  Presently our duly elected President is doing his best to demonstrate how poorly qualified he is and in so many ways to occupy a position of power and responsibility.  All these demonstrations connect back to his peculiar narcissistic personality, his lazy, untrained intellect, and his history as a privileged rich person.  And even more depressing, his term has another 3.5 years to go! TPP takes small pleasure in the most obvious fact, which is having the office which he coveted does not seem to giving our President great satisfaction because the job is much harder, much different, than he thought, and his gaffes provide everyone with opportunities to criticize his performance, something someone so thin-skinned doesn't like. Our President actually generally predicted that many such errors would take place, but not by himself, but by his opponents.  To bad he is incapable of learning from his own criticisms.  So sorry world, we knew his budget stuff would be bad, we knew his healthcare stuff would be bad, we knew his administrative style would be bad, but that was before his foreign policy and diplomacy kicked into gear. So many potential disasters and all in a little more than 100 days!  And sane people keep asking, how bad could it get? 

Stoopid environmental action

It's just hard to believe how awful President T-rump is, and how much worse it may get. TPP has been reasonably silent about T-rump and his ignorant approach to being president. Dear foreign readers, so sorry.  Rolling back fossil fuel emissions is just about the stoopidest thing any president could do, and with it the USA gives up on clean air and having an environmental leadership role in the world.  And T-rump fancies himself a shrewd businessman, and yet he cannot see that new jobs and emerging industries are what will support a green, sustainable energy future, and that coal is basically dead. Sorry miners, it's the same with lumberjacks; the trees are gone. Getting so it's impossible to watch the news without getting so mad, and listening to Mrs. Phactor and the F1 yelling at the media delivery systems doesn't help except as a certain type of self-help, don't-go-crazy therapy. TPP blogs, sorry readers, you'll have to put up with this every now and again. Hope Mar-a-Lago is the first property to go under as sea levels rise.  

Really smart people

TPP has had a long career in a business, higher education, loaded with very smart people.  And one of the initial reaction to the POTUS elect is that he really doesn't know any really smart people, and this does not mean TPP thinks generals and captains of industry are stupids, just people with rather different priorities.  So no yard stick exists for measuring himself other than having made more money than you, but smarts doesn't directly equal money.   And over at the Just Visiting Blog a similar conclusion was reached:

In response to criticism that he only attends the daily intelligence briefing weekly (or so), Donald Trump told Chris Wallace, “I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”

President-elect Trump has a habit of telling people he’s smart, frequently boasting of having gone to the Wharton School, and using the exact same, “I’m like, a smart person” formulation in one of his earliest primary rallies.

This got me thinking about the smart people I’ve known.

The smartest people I’ve known never tell you how smart they are. In fact, it’s the opposite, as they’re more than willing to tell you about the things they’re ignorant of.

The smartest people I’ve known are insatiably curious. Everything is interesting to them and that interest often takes the form of enthusiasm.

The smartest people I’ve known read constantly and widely in order to feed their curiosity. Their intelligence is reflected in their knowledge.

When you remark to smart people that you think they’re smart they wince and deflect and say they know lots of smarter people.

If my criteria for identifying smart people is accurate, then it’s safe to say that Donald J. Trump will be, by far, the dumbest President of the United States in history.

Hello America, hello world

Dear reasonable people, sorry, our country has done something that didn't seem possible in electing such a person as T-rump president.  More than anything what this shows is that there is and always been an ugly side of the USA, and by ignoring most of the usual GOP talking points, and playing to a largely rural nationalism and giving them voice, it generated a very different voting demographic than past elections; thus the surprise.  Due to our crazy election system, even without winning the popular vote, T-rump won the election. Who knows what will happen as a result?  Having no political experience and no obvious political skills or aptitudes, everyone is left guessing about what actions he will take. If it is any comfort our government has not been good at, or even capable, of making major decisions in a hurry, or at all. So don't panic. Sorry that our politics will have an impact on so many other people in other countries.  Sorry that a person who has not earned any respect will have to be treated with some deference for diplomatic reasons. Personally there isn't much that could happen that will have much of an impact personally, but a number of likely happenings could have a considerable impact on young people and immigrants, and it is doubtful most of his supporters will get what they want or desire. Otherwise it's beautiful fall day, sunny, cool, colored with falling leaves.

German news paper headline on USA election day

Hmm, wonder if the Germans have had some experience with this type of candidate?  Clearly there is enough concern in Germany that the USA election is headline news, (and this was always a very cool movie poster).  When TPP saw it this AM, the sound of helicopter blades could be heard (really! A medical heli-pad is on the next block) and it seemed like there was a whiff of napalm in the fall air (or some leaves burning).  The Phactors voted last week and it was rather heartening to learn that early voting in the USA accounted for more votes than the entire election in 2012, so a lot more people are voting (except in places like North Carolina that still brags about actively suppressing minority voting). Hopefully there is enough concern in the USA too that a bigoted demagogue will not become president.  Unfortunately this compaign was such that the many good reason for supporting HRC were seldom mentioned (so who investigates the FBI?).  It still puzzles TPP  how so many southerners can convince themselves they would be well served by voting for a rich, NY yankee?

Longing for the good ole days & a president to take up back there

The other day a self-professed supporter of T-rump said something to the effect that "those of us who are old enough remember the 50s and 60s and just how good the world was, and all we want is to go back to such good times". And somehow T-rump is the man to do this? TPP doubts this, but being old enough to clearly remember the 50s and 60s, TPP wants to know what this woman was doing, and where was she doing it?  Doesn't she remember the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis? TPP was helping friends build fall out shelters in their basements. Doesn't she remember civil rights, and the marches to Selma and the assassination of MLK?  And she doesn't remember cops beating black people for wanting equal rights. Or JFK? Doesn't she remember Vietnam? How about the anti-war movement?  Guess those Ozzie and Harriet and leave it to beaver reruns were distracting her and she missed all the news. Does that speak to skewed and selective memories filtered by white privilege or what?  This is the wonderful life T-rump supporters want to return to.  TPP says, "Wake up!" And this was a woman supporting the most unequal rights candidate maybe ever, wishing for a past that never was. So easy for a rich grifter to manipulate.

Who will "make America a proud, rich land again, punish nations that defy him, and raise wages very high while keeping prices very low"?

It was a real flash of deja vu all over again when Sinclair Lewis' book It can't happen here was brought up. It was a long time ago the TPP read this book, and was reminded of it once before when one of the candidates for state representative was named Buzz, and his opponent was  a crazy guy named Bang, who ran a little road house filled with antique arcade machines.  TPP did not make this up, Buzz vs. Bang, a crook vs. a clown.  A couple of decades later Buzz made it as far as the US Congress before things caught up to him (he was a crook, just as  Bang stated years before). Lewis' book is about a different Buzz, and it was written a bit over 80 years ago (TPP had to look it up.).  So who did you think this title was about?  If this question doesn't create a bit of a shiver going down your spine, then you may be part of the problem, part of the mass of people who want simplistic slogans and probably fictional answers for complex issues. So do you really think it can't happen here? It's just too scary that so many people want it to happen. 

(T)Rump Roast - Recipe for disaster

So the Donald is running for POTUS. Imagine TPP's excitement. The Donald's message seems simple enough: I'm rich, I'm successful, so vote for me, and you'll have a rich, successful POTUS. So in what way is the Donald successful?  He's made a boat load of money, i.e., he's rich. OK, that was item one.  Got anything else? Any other qualities you think the POTUS should have? Or is it all just such simple ideas? For those of us with very different standards of success, the Donald seems pretty unqualified, but in comparison, candidates like Rick Sanctimonious, Mike Chucklebee, Randy Paul, and Rick "Oops" Parry begin to look better. Ted Cruise not so much. As a guide to understanding the Donald, please turn your attention of exhibit A.  Giving Lincolnland the Rauner-round is another rich, "successful" businessman, who presently thinks inundating citizens with ads blaming his inability to govern (dictate) on Dem guys. Hey, the campaign is over. You won. Now can you do anything constructive without resorting to failed GOP economic  and austerity policies as "solutions"? Can you actually govern? The answer seems obvious. And right now our rich, successful businessman has more political experience than the Donald. So much more fun awaits as states and our country continue to take on water while our successfuls drill holes to let the water out. TPP is so embarrassed that he won't be able to travel overseas anymore.