Dangerous Trump

It is difficult to decide which of the two figures is worse.

More than 100,000 dead through the coronavirus.

One man killed by four policemen.

Both figures originate, of course, from the United States of America.

Both figures are a direct result of Donald Trump's signal failure to act as a President.

Trump has demonstrated little but megalomania, xenophobia, misogynism, antipathy, crudity, vulgarity… during his time as President of the USA. (Anyone who thought that these typical pre-president-Trump characteristics would be better controlled when he became President must feel greatly disillusioned.)

Trump has made the USA a pariah in the world.

Trump blames everyone but himself for what is happening in the USA.

The truth is, the 100,000 deaths and the death of George Floyd are direct results of Trump's bumbling non-leadership.

Trump chooses not to listen to the many experts that surround him and provide him with the information he requires to make fact-based decisions. Instead, he blabbers out his own crazy theories: the coronavirus is no more than a flu; the coronavirus problem will be cleared up by a miracle; drink disinfectant to clear the coronavirus from your insides; it's all the fault of the WHO; it's all the fault of the Chinese; it's all the fault (as is everything else) of Obama.

No, Trump, it's all your fault, with your childish, petulant Tweets, which are little more than veiled attempts to divert attention from your own errors and to target minority groups, women, foreigners, and anyone who disagrees with you.

You are supposed to be a President. You are supposed to be the President for all Americans. You are supposed to lead by example. Instead, you strut around without a mask, you go to Florida to visit a rocket launch, you use demeaning language to describe protesters against the killing of George Floyd, yet you use praise in Tweets regarding ultra right-wing protestors and those calling for the relaxation of lockdown rules.

Indeed, Trump's failure to denounce white supremacists in the USA has now led to the killing in broad daylight, in full public view, of an African American, who pleaded for his life, whilst offering no resistance. This was not just a killing, rather it was a lynching by no less than four police officers.

Trump's rise to power and his misuse of power remind me frighteningly of Hitler's rise. Hitler had the crazy idea that the Arian race was in some way superior to others. He gradually built up hatred of other races, especially the Jews, amongst his followers. He banned books and other publications that spoke against his own ideas, he surrounded himself with yes-men whose only interest was self-aggrandisement… And now we see Trump attempting to manipulate the press, belittling certain reporters, especially female ones, especially non-white ones; we see him surrounding himself with his own yes-men and one by one removing those that dare to contradict him or speak against him.

America, do you not see what this fool is doing to your country?

Sublime, ridiculous

Barack Obama's farewell speech as president of the good old USA on 10 January was just excellent.

He was his usual controlled, gentlemanly, presidential self and wowed his enthusiastic audience with a summing up of the achievements realised during his terms in office.

(Not least of these is the achievement to offer the citizens of the USA at least some type of social security in the form of the so-called Obamacare, a health insurance system that a supposedly developed nation should have provided its people with long, long ago.)

I'm not one for political speeches, nor for politics, nor for politicians—can't really give them the time of day, but I followed Obama's speech from beginning to end and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As my late Auntie Ruth would have said, "Sublime personified."

What a contrast to the theatricals of buffoon Donald Trump a few hours later, when he gave his first press conference as president elect. The man is clearly incapable of normal activity and how such a juvenile-minded individual (as evidenced in his "tweets") can still be considered suitable to occupy the most important seat in the USA quite simply beggars belief.

Trump's reaction to a CNN reporter's request for a question was that of a spoilt 10-year-old brat. And, unfortunately, this reaction was only one instance of such juvenile tendencies.

Some days earlier, Meryl Streep made a speech in which she chided Trump, especially for his imitation of a disabled reporter. Trump's come-back was a series of "tweets" in which he first declared that Streep was an "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood."

Now that's very strange, for in 2015, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when asked if there were any actresses he liked,Trump answered, “Julia Roberts is terrific, and many others. Meryl Streep is excellent; she’s a fine person, too.”

As for imitating a disabled reporter, Trump then tweeted a denial, stating, "For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that)…"

Well, Donald, that's a downright lie, for you mocked that reporter on 24 November, 2016, during a campaign speech at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and your actions were filmed.

Trump, lad, you lied.

Either that, or you don't know what you are doing for a great part of your waking existence.

USA

To quote another obnoxious American, "You cannot be serious!"

Still, at least we now know the real meaning of USA:

Unbelievably
Stupid
Americans

To allow a creep like Donald Trump to run in the primaries for the election of the new President of the USA is crazy enough; that such a buffoon, such a mountebank, such an obnoxious, megalomaniacal, clearly prejudiced individual can then actually gain sufficient support to win numerous primaries and to look as if he stands a good chance of becoming the Republican Presidential candidate is just grotesque (as if the Republicans were not already grotesque enough!); it is frightening, not only for the USA (the country and those Unbelievably Stupid Americans), but also for the rest of the world.

Eat your heart out, Dr. Strangelove, for here comes someone far more sinister.

Trump trumped

I do not follow the shenanigans of politicians very much, nor am I particularly interested in politics. I was, however, delighted to learn that arch-idiot Donald Trump lost the recent Iowa Caucuses to rival Republican Ted Cruz.

Not that any sensible individual would want Cruz as president of the USA, mind you: he's an ultra conservative, fundamentalist Christian (just as dangerous as fundamentalist any-other-religion-you-care-to-name), who is anti-abortion, anti-greenhouse effect (it doesn't exist), and probably anti anything else other than freedom to own guns and shoot the hell out of others (more on this below).

The Democrats seem to have a more sensible couple of front-runners, in the shape of Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton has at least some experience, even if she's not someone I'd care to trust. Sanders is the most appealing and offers some interesting comments on the social conditions in the USA, which, let's face it, are deplorable. If Americans could get over their peculiar fixation that Socialism is the same as Communism, Sanders might even have a chance at the presidency. He's a bit old, of course, but at least he sees things with an openness and clarity that no other candidate possesses.

Do you understand the US gun lobby? I don't. Their arguments are based on the second amendment to the constitution, written more than 200 years ago and reflecting the conditions of the time. It made sense then to allow people who could not be protected by the authorities to have some meand of protection. These means then included arms such as muskets and flint-lock pistols, with an accuracy of a few metres and a limitied firing capacity. The amendment takes no account of rapid-fire, super powerful modern automatic weapons of frightening destructive capability, nor of the type of society in which we live today.

Grow up, Americans, and forget your guns.

Trump trumps Trump

We all know that Donald Trump is a megalomaniac fool. Yet, despite his ridiculous outbursts during the past few weeks, he has now even managed to trump himself with the totally bonkers call to ban all Moslems from entering the USA.

Yes, Donny, that’s really going to solve the problem of Daesh terrorism, isn’t it.

Do you really think that true Moslems have anything, anything whatsoever, to do with Daesh? Islam is a peaceful religion (well, as peaceful as any organised religion is) and Daesh’s use of that religion is pure and simple manipulation.

Donny, boy, your pronouncements serve only to whip up the xenophobia, the prejudice, the white power, the Christian fundamentalism that exists just below the surface of America.

Take detention and write 500 lines, “I must constantly endeavour to shut up.”