Even as spring glories around us we find ourselves between "The Winters of our Discontent." Winters because Shakespeare's opening in Richard III and Steinbeck's 1961 The Winter of Our Discontent are the pole stars in our current fate.
We'll unpack what I'm getting at after we pause to regard beauty that can make us forget, even if only for a moment. But for this moment enjoy early spring on California's central coast, curated in this case by Lana and her mentor mother nature.
the winter of our discontent
And so to the Winter of our Discontent-in Richard III it was the sun (son) of York, Edward IV who brought an end to discontent-the rein of Richard III. The first two lines;
Now is the winter of our discontent/made glorious by this son (sun) of York.
A story of a rise to power by manipulation.
John Steinbeck's novel The Winter of our Discontent, is a morality tale of a man who tosses away integrity to gain wealth and status by cheating, lying and betrayal. By whichever pole you navigate this discontent, there are messages for our time.
Now is the winter of our discontent/made glorious by this son (sun) of York.
A story of a rise to power by manipulation.
John Steinbeck's novel The Winter of our Discontent, is a morality tale of a man who tosses away integrity to gain wealth and status by cheating, lying and betrayal. By whichever pole you navigate this discontent, there are messages for our time.
circus trumpus
or
government by mayhem
The White House should be renamed Bedlam.
After the predator President's twitter storm about being phone tapped, Mike Pence should have called together that stellar cabinet and asked them seriously, "do you think we have a problem with the President?"
What ever did we do to deserve the insanity that has become this administration? It was clear to most Americans Donald Trump was unfit, unqualified and unprepared, so we should not be surprised but even those who despise this slimy character are embarrassed by how sleazy and adolescent-stupidly things are playing out.
time to use the 25th Amendment
Trump should be slapped silly for the rude and childish manner in how he treated the German Chancellor Merkel. He embarrassed this Republic, despite your party affiliation or political views. Childish, brutish, rank amateur.
Pence should have called the cabinet together again and re-read the 25th Amendment paying attention to clause 4.4.
I know you can't impeach a President for lying, but this man lies so frequently as to perhaps qualify him for insanity.
How can we trust him to make critical decisions with our military forces when he is so untethered from reality?
Pence should have called the cabinet together again and re-read the 25th Amendment paying attention to clause 4.4.
I know you can't impeach a President for lying, but this man lies so frequently as to perhaps qualify him for insanity.
How can we trust him to make critical decisions with our military forces when he is so untethered from reality?
Donald Trump may be a billionaire but he is liar, cheat, sexual predator, bully and a phony. By my logic that alone crosses the threshold to invoke the 25th-4.4. It is bad already but now the real stuff begins.
art of the russian deal
It is hard to believe but it may end there is no smoking gun or finger prints in the Russian investigation but still the Trump Presidency is crashing and burning and the gas on the fire is the federal investigations.
Charles Schumer may be playing to the hometown crowd when he raises the question as to whether to proceed with the Gorsuch nomination, but there is a shred of Washington wisdom at work.
Trump is on the ropes, his administration is floundering horribly and it will be tied up with details of the federal probe. Remember Clinton with impeachment, Reagan with Iran Contra, Carter with the hostages, Nixon with Watergate. It becomes the obsession and everything else stalls.
If there is a finding of collusion there will be criminal prosecutions. If Trump had contact with Russians-and that is still only an if-he could go to prison.
Speculation on outcome is iffy, but the fact an administration is being investigated for conspiring with a foreign power who tried to rig an election is mind blowingly historic. It is also very Trumpish. The investigation will do damage to this swamp creature regime.
His war with the Republican party is real. His approval rating drop is staggering and for a narcissist like Trump it could cause his brain or heart to explode.
Charles Schumer may be playing to the hometown crowd when he raises the question as to whether to proceed with the Gorsuch nomination, but there is a shred of Washington wisdom at work.
Trump is on the ropes, his administration is floundering horribly and it will be tied up with details of the federal probe. Remember Clinton with impeachment, Reagan with Iran Contra, Carter with the hostages, Nixon with Watergate. It becomes the obsession and everything else stalls.
If there is a finding of collusion there will be criminal prosecutions. If Trump had contact with Russians-and that is still only an if-he could go to prison.
Speculation on outcome is iffy, but the fact an administration is being investigated for conspiring with a foreign power who tried to rig an election is mind blowingly historic. It is also very Trumpish. The investigation will do damage to this swamp creature regime.
trump=ruin
He is irrational. He's mixed family and government-business and policy. We see him lie and demonstrate he really doesn't know reality. He's turned Sean Spicer, who people say used to be a nice guy, into a lying whore and embarrassment to all press secretaries. (I apologize to whores because they don't pretend to be anything else.) Trump means ruin.
use the 25th
Someone in the Republican party needs to grab Pence by the collar and force him to read the 25th Amendment and to consider the long arc of history.
This goes beyond politics and policy-I defy anyone to describe what are Trump's politics or his policies. He's a hustler and he's perverting politics, not a simple feat given the state of things, but he's a scum even by swamp standards. He's so out of touch with reality as to present a danger.
In the Reagan years there was talk about his mental slippage, early dementia and his fitness to serve. So it's time for the nation to begin looking for a way to get Trump out of office before he does the damage that is inevitable.
See you down the trail.
See you down the trail.
He will die in prison.
ReplyDeleteAs a fixer in the Islands said, "Soon come, mon. Soon come."
DeleteI'm not a fan of Pence, who is a skilled politician who knows how to get things done, things I DON'T want done, but he would be better fore the country than Trump. The hell with political parties and ideologies; we need to save our nation.
ReplyDeleteIn such a grave situation as this, I think Pence would be sober about history. He can and should lead as a Republican conservative and not as an evangelical ideologue. It is the latter which weakens him. You are right, we can quibble about politics and policy but the priority is to remove the sick and dangerous jerk who could get us all killed or who can over see such grevious damage to the federal government and economy as to move us into "third world" status. He personally does not have a clue about anything but hustle and sale and con. He's getting advice from a zealot and neither have government or public service experience.
Delete"Maybe what we learn from the least of our presidents—apart from the fact that even the worst often have remarkably redeeming features—is that it requires a rare combination of qualities to be among the best. Strength of character, principles, and political skills are necessary, to be sure, but so are the flexibility and judgment that allow them to gauge the needs of a time. If the worst help us understand the great, they also remind us of how merely good leaders often fail."
ReplyDeleteThis was written by an astute writer/historian who compiled a list of the "worst Presidents." He also characterized what made the BEST Presidents (above). In less than 100 days our current President has exhibited qualities that are unredeemable, obviously. So it is just a matter of time where he is either removed from office, impeached, or voted out. Obviously, another four years just seems unconscionable. Yet the wheels of an entrenched party are likely to roll very slowly.
I share Tom's well articulated concerns. As the author of a new book about how Canadians and Americans can achieve Obama's characterization of our two countries as "one big town, I am greatly concerned that a renegotation of Nafta (maybe outright axing) will set relations back very, very far. Mexico is on the chopping block as well, and Nieto has suggested that the country could become an actual ENEMY of the U.S. if Trump pursues a Wall, deportations and a Nafta re-do.
In just the ways that Trump is treating allies/neighbors, we are fouling our own nest(s). Incredible.
Bill-
DeleteIt is incredible. Your point about the negative impact on our relations with our two neighbors is another index of how far off this guy is. We can not be rid of him soon enough.
But how will it happen, this 'removal', well-deserved, of trump? I'm not at all sure that either Pence, who had kowtowed to Trump often and well, would dream of invoking the 25th. His party, the once-respectable GOP, has lost all will to do anything of the sort, and the Dems are so out of touch as to not have a chance in impeaching.
ReplyDeleteSo, as so many have asked, "What is to be done"?
I fear that we have become so bureaucratically incompetent that we have no clear path to removal. I think, to get trump out of office, something that has never happened here would have to occur: a sort of coup.
Now, if he becomes completely unhinged, starts masturbating in press sessions, sure. But he's been forgiven, not even noticed or called out, for lying, blatantly. What else does it take? His recordings of how he assaults women make no difference. His racial, incoherent tweets go unremarked except by the comics, faze no one.
Imagine President Obama, and the outrage by some, if he had done any one of the acts trump has done.
A lone time ago, there was a comedy album (remember albums), titled "We're all Bozo's on this Bus" by the Firesign Theater", and it fit's the current 'governing' party.
I remember that great old line-"We're all bozos on this bus!" That time seems so idealistic and joyful now, now that life has walked so many miles across our idealism.
DeleteIt is disturbing, as you point out, that despite his many cretin characteristics the vulgarian remains entrenched in power. It is time to seriously consider the issue of competence.