Sucker's Reality

         Some of you will get this, quickly. Some of you may not,

    and therein is the source of my consternation.  I liken this to explaining the fog to my grandchildren.

     It can move in quickly and paint blue skies with a muted and damp grey. Sunshine and cheer can be enveloped in a shroud, rapidly.
    Welcome to Trumpworld!

non conventional

    My life as a journalist, and a sense of fair play compelled us to watch the Republican National Convention. While I wondered what America they were in, I was glad most major news organizations did their own running fact checks and lie detectors.
    It was a carnival of side show hustlers, con artists, weird creatures (why was Kimberly Guilfoyle shouting?) violations of the law, twisted logic, liars and even better liars, shades of  Mussolini and Cry for Me Argentina, but slickly produced with an emphasis on optics and a fireworks display.
   Melania was the default hero as she spoke with a degree of compassion about the victims of the virus her husband helped to kill by his ineptitude, arrogance and imperial ego. 
    She was certainly the best of the Trumps who seemed to dominate the speakers list. Don Jr still has the world wondering what he was on or if his power drinks were laced with lab cocaine and/or amphetamines. 
    Many have praised Mike Pence for being able to say the President's name so many times while his lips remained firmly attached to his bosses butt, in the kisses required to stay in his good graces.
    Democrats are threatening to go after Trumpworld for their  disrespectful abuse of the White House, the violation of 200 years of presidential tradition to not use the people's house for political spectacle, and for a potential violation of the Hatch Act. They should investigate and if need be prosecuted, even if the President's Chief of Staff says "no one outside the beltway cares about the Hatch act."
    Trump as violated and offended, disrespected and trashed  Presidential custom, behavior, deportment and protocol so many times all of his predecessors are either appalled or spinning in their graves. And he is the least qualified, most unfit, and probably the dumbest of the lot. He is also a minority president who has lied to the American people, documented and fact checked, thousands of times. 
     So when you have all of that as the fodder for a national convention, historically, without a platform, without inviting any former President or Presidential Nominee, and when many of his Quisling congressional cowards avoided even showing up, you know it's going to be a weird show.

alternative reality

     Trump built his reputation as a reality show star and the convention gave his core, his base, most of whom were his television fans, a spectacle; Hail to Donnie, who has elevated from the Apprentice to Imperial High Lord of a fabulist world, so far from truth and reality as to threaten this nation's existence and world stability. 
     When you put a man who ran a fraudulent University, went broke running a gambling casino, bankrupted an airline, couldn't get loans from legitimate banks, was bank rolled by Russian Mafia, lost money selling steaks, lost money selling his own deal making book, lost money selling clothing, is an avowed racist, a certified tax cheat, a bunko artist, golf cheat, sexual predator, serial liar, intellectual light weight, surrounded by advisors who are now convicted felons, what can you expect but the disaster we face and a convention that would run away from truth and reality?
     It was and is a sucker's reality. Anyone surprised?

      a word to Trump supporters

     Cleary there are some who find success in his appointments to the federal bench, all far right conservatives and many without adequate legal experience. Why would an unqualified president worry about unqualified judges, as long as they pass a litmus test, that someone whispered in his ear. 
    Some are pleased by his "tax cut," mostly the upper income levels. Some like that he has stripped and cut regulations, giving some businesses a pass, while allowing more junk into the air, water and land. He's turned government watch dog agencies into patsies for industry and has decimated the State Department and Security and Intelligence Agencies, where experience and expertise used to matter to help keep us and the world safe.
    On balance even those presumed positives do not overcome the damage he has done. How hard should it be to see and hear him warn about a nation where violence in the streets would be the status with Joe Biden, when that violence in the streets is happening on his watch, in his term and in many instances is because he has fanned racism, white supremacy and looks the other way at police killing unarmed Black people. 
    If we had a president up to the job there would have been a more sensitive response to the kind of violence done by cops this year. Remember Obama's battle with the NRA-a money trough for Republicans? If we had a president up to the job, we would have responded to the Covid crisis with a plan and strategy. If we had a president up to the job, we would have better managed the economic impact.
    If Trump kept his word, all of us would be better off economically, more secure, coal miners would be back to work instead of having lost more jobs, there would be more factory jobs, the opioid crisis would have been handled, etc.
    So, the convention that I watched was as phony as the ginned up make believe expertise Trump acted in his television series.

suckers to nuts

     Yes, it is true and sad, that he has supporters, who eat up what he says, who believe he's been a success, and some of his more looney base follow the rabbit hole theory that he is the savior of the world doing battle with pedophiles who worship evil.
      Those folks, and those who defied social distancing, the wearing of masks and safety precautions while abusing the White House are his nation. They are suckers and they part of a sucker's reality and the sad thing, the bad thing, the frightening thing is they don't seem to mind living in a world where you don't need or use a brain.
  

celebrating a raptor 

    Let's stay vigilant and focused. A massive vote turnout is essential. Truth is on our side. Reality, as hard as it may be, is where we live. 

     Stay safe, take care of each other.

     See you down the trail.