Saturday 21 January 2017

THE TRUMP INAUGURATION

I spent the entire day today watching the Trump inauguration, I don't know why, because his win sent me spiralling into a depression that I'm struggling to get out of. 

I've tried to treat this past few months like an episode of Black Mirror, maybe I will wake up with doctors leaning over me, saying, it's OK, she's back.  But that hasn't happened, the USA actually have elected their biggest loon to be President and Commander in Chief.  In a land brimming with talent and genius, they have somehow chosen an oversized Oompa Loompa with a bad hairdo as the leader of the free world.

To be honest, I wanted the whole inauguration to go badly, mean I know, but my hatred of Trump goes beyond reasoned or rational.  And I wasn't disappointed.  As much as Kay Burley tried to give the impression of cheering crowds, apart from clusters here and there, Washington looked like a ghost town.  She did manage to find a couple of chilled out bad ass Bikers for Trump, the 'meat' who were welcomed into town by the President himself with a tweet, just in case law and order broke down.  Going by their peace and love message, I suspect they were partaking of the free weed being handed out, rather than their own stash of crystal meth.  Perhaps they are keeping that for a punch up tomorrow. 

Up on the podium, it was a sombre crowd, missing was the excitement, hope and good cheer that a new era should hold.  There were few smiles, more funeral than celebration.  And it's got to be said, the music, if you can call it that, was Goddam awful, the words 'make it stop' sprung to mind.  Even Jackie Evancho was terrible, her heart wasn't in it, and sitting in the rain for 2 hours probably didn't help.  I could see from the pained expressions on the senators' faces, that I was not alone.  That Mr. 'I want to do everything' probably chose it himself scares the bejesus out of me.  If his advisors won't tell him his choice in music is shit, what will they say, when he insists on nuking Syria? 

Hilary, bless her, smiled through gritted teeth, not just because of fear for the world, but because the job that should have been hers had been stolen from her, not just by an orange clown, but assisted by a hostile foreign power.  To be honest I don't know which explanation I prefer.  The American people, who I have always loved, voted for a fascist monster with the potential to out Hitler the Fuhrer.  Ie.  Day 1, Build up US weapons, Close Borders, Round up Aliens, or that a hostile super power can fix a US election.   

But let's get personal.  In the case of Donald Trump, ethics go out the window.  The Donald is as fascinating a subject as any of my others, his behaviour is almost textbook, narcissist sociopath, the traits so extreme, they are almost caricature. 

Narcissists are riddled with paranoia, they rarely smile because their heads are buzzing with suspicion, everyone is out to get them.  They can't brush jokes off, because those jokes expose the fears they try so hard to keep hidden.  Trump doesn't forgive and forget, he seeks vengeance.  Some might see his trophy wives and dalliances with beauty contestants and hookers as a form of revenge. Payback to all the bullies who laughed at him in the showers.  Look at me now.

I would like to say as a feminist, that I have sympathy for Melania.  But I don't. I have little time for women who make their appearance their life's work. Watching the old presidents, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton walking down the podium stairs with equally old wives, separates the men from the misogynists.  They have chosen as their partners, and stayed with, women of the same intellectual level and maturity.  Trump, like most men, or women, who choose much younger or less educated partners than themselves, want control, someone easy to impress, who will believe pretty much anything they are told.  Grown ups know this.  Trump believes having a super model on his arm makes him look macho and virile, and he can't understand why the lads in the locker room are still laughing. 

Most of the Trump family look and act like automatons.  Born into a life of opulence and privilege, Trump is raising an army of 'mini me's' and already he is placing them in positions of power.  The two sons with their slicked back hair, look like prototypes for American Psycho, and the proud way in which the cowardly beasts with their guns, display the corpses of the beautiful and often endangered animals that they kill, makes them just like daddy.  As for the golden child Ivanka, her beauty doesn't come from within.  She must be aware of her father's shady business practices that have made other companies go bust and workers without pay.

I applaud all those democrats who stayed away yesterday, and all those protesters who showed dissent.  In treating madness as normal, it becomes normal.  In studying WWII, I couldn't fathom why the German people were able to adapt to such evil ideology.  I don't want to be unfair on the German people, the chances are, they were probably no different to electorates all over the world - that is, the majority are too apathetic to challenge the system.  The most shocking part for me was how easy it became to look away from the atrocities carried out by the Third Reich. 

On his first day in office Trump addressed the world.  He has already given the go ahead to invest in more arms, he wants the borders closed and work to begin on that wall.  Another first week promise was the rounding up of illegal aliens, and so it begins.  Will they be holed up in internment camps or set adrift in leaky boats?  What will he have to do before the sane among those leading senators, churchmen and holders of high office, to realise that their new emperor is not only naked, he has the power to take out entire nations at a whim, especially if they take the piss out of his hair.  No pun intended. 

Those treating Trump and his fucked up white supremacist policies as 'normal' will be complicit in the atrocities to come, and sure as eggs is eggs they will.  When Hitler put it to his cabinet that they should round up all the Jews and undesirables, no-one cared.  Why because they had been indoctrinated with negative spin and rabble rousing rhetoric.  It was easier not to rock the boat or make waves, because given his temperament, Adolf was likely to mellow and give up on his dream of wiping out entire races and taking over the world. 

For Donald Trump, Muslims are this century's Jews.  He has declared war on ISIS.  Not a good move, even George W. Bush raised his eyebrows at that one.  Really Donald?  Is taunting the best way to keep terrorism away from American soil?  The problem is Donald is so ill informed on, well everything, that ISIS and ISLAM are the same thing.  He doesn't seem to understand that you can get extreme hate filled Muslims, just as you can get extreme hate filled Christians.  Religion does that to some people.  Those extreme activists are not representative of our Muslim friends and neighbours who live and work alongside us. 

Trump is trying to cause disharmony where there isn't any, and like every rich, man before him, he is blaming poverty, injustice and hunger on a minority group, so that nobody will notice he is actually stashing everything away for himself. It's not me hoarding all gold and riches and food, it's the greedy stranger asking for a crust of bread.  

Greed isn't good.  It doesn't work.  It invariably brings misery and hardship, the only way to turn a healthy profit is to exploit others, and that I fear is Mr. Trump's only area of expertise.  Only this time he won't just be exploiting the native Americans of Atlantic City, or all the builders and labourers working on his bankrupt projects, he will be exploiting an entire nation.    

I have to say, I was troubled by the amount of religion packed into yesterday's service.  Has the Donald been known as a bible basher?  Methinks he is trying to win over the evangelical Republicans, who didn't get the candidate they wanted. He is also giving a middle finger to the celebrities and liberals, by pretending he prefers church choirs to sassy rock stars.     

I'm glad Donald Trump and his family didn't get the huge crowds and the huge welcome that was given to Barack Obama.  They aren't loved by the people because they have never done anything for the people, and probably never will. They see only further enrichment for themselves.  Their patriarch, the most spoilt kid in the world has got his greedy little hands on the biggest prize.  He is a PROPERTY DEVELOPER who has just torn up every climate change agreement entered into by his predecessor.  How long before there is a Trump tower selling Trump beer and Trump burgers on every street corner all over the globe?  When a megalomaniac says he wants to be US President and then actually becomes US President, anything is possible.   

Those who say Tump's speech was generic, the same grandiose promises from the election trail weren't listening.  He has found an audience for his madcap ideas and he will give them what they want, no matter how cruel or inhumane their demands are.  Happily, that audience is shrinking, it wasn't only the stars who stayed away, it was the people.  All those sane leaders and thinkers on that podium yesterday really need to get together as quickly as possible before the hiccup in their democratic process turns into a global disaster. 

17 comments:

  1. Hi Ros, To be honest there wasn't much choice, both were as bad as each other. I would have voted Trump being the non politician and to be fair saying what he thinks rather than what people want to hear. He reminds me of Thatcher the marmite of the political world, you either loved or hated her. Again I loved her not because of some of her policies but because she was a leader and didn't pretend to be everybody's friend unlike Blair or Cameron.

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    1. Ooh, I was no fan of Thatcher, but at least she didn't seek the billionaire lifestyle like Tony Blair, though her son did.

      Hilary would not have been my choice either John, I preferred Bernie Sanders, but Trump is a raving lunatic! I've been glued to the news reports and the commentaries, and it's not helping my current depressive 'episode' one bit.

      It was heartening on Saturday to see so many stars come out for the Women's March. Some of the language was a bit fruity for my own particular tastes, but I was thinking 'go girlfriend' anyway.

      I'm not sure Thatcher was a Leader, so much a strict dormitory Matron, particularly with a cabinet of public school chinless wonders. She was of course completely loopy, but as we have seen so recently, that can be a plus in a leadership race.

      To be fair I'm not sure who I hate the most, Thatcher or Blair, I think Blair has the edge because I, and my dear old dad, had put so much faith in him. Blimey, that really was a lifetime ago!

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    2. @Ros 20.15

      "Two years after she was ousted from office, her wealth was put at £9.5m. Speaking engagements at £40,000 a pop and a memoir deal worth £3.5m helped to top up the coffers."

      and

      "Margaret Thatcher’s £30m London home is for sale"

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  2. There was anti-semitism before Hitler.
    WWI had destroyed the German economy and damaged Germany’s national pride. Hitler was a ‘feel good dictator’, a leader who made sure Germans were well cared-for by the state and made them feel important again.

    https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3100004205/qid%3D1112189465/sr%3D2-1/ref%3Dsr_2_0_1/028-2506654-1948517

    The Holocaust was kept ‘secret’.

    My mother was very young when her father (non-violent Dutch resistance ‘fighter’) died in a Nazi concentration camp in Germany. Many years after the war she and other family have visited the camp several times. Later on they made contact with the locals who were very hospitable and friendly and felt deeply ashamed. In spite of the distance and isolation, at times screaming was heard coming from the camp. They were told there was a prison filled with criminals. (“Wir haben das alles nicht gewußt”.)

    -------------------------

    Clinton, Trump
    or non of the above?

    It seems almost half of eligible voters didn’t vote.

    NL

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    1. Sickening isn't it NL? All it takes is for good men to do nothing eh. One of the many sparks of sunshine on Saturday (Women's March), was Gloria Steinham (I think?) said, if Muslims are forced to register, we will all become Muslims, or words to that effect.

      I tend to think the American people are inherently good, they are a nation that is built on the lives of the immigrants who have flocked there. People who believe they have gone to a land of freedom and tolerance, where they can prosper and thrive alongside their neighbours. You don't move countries and continents because you have opted for an easy life! You move because you want a better life for yourself and your family, and naturally you will strive to improve the community around you too. Economic migrants create jobs, they see opportunities where others see too much hard work and labour.

      I have to fully digest Sean Spicer's first full briefing to the press. Thus far, he is coming as across as quite charming, and that scares the bejesus out of me. He was easy to hate when he stepped out on Saturday, where I suspect the lines came directly from 'the Donald'. I imagine the conversation after probably went something along the lines of, 'you have just made me, and yourself, look like lying bastards and everyone hates you'.

      We are now seeing the Spicer 'who got the job' doing it 'his way'. Pity he couldn't haven't talked Trump out of that little anthem to narcissism before he took to the dancefloor with Melania.

      But your point is apathy NL, I hear ya. It was good however to see populist heroes and heroines out there speaking 'to the people'. This feels like a new era, historically Hollywood have been overt about their politics. Probably remnants of the McCarthy blacklisting years, when accusations of being a 'commie' or even a Russian sympathiser were enough to ruin careers.

      Social media is spreading the message, though why it didn't reach those voters before the election is baffling. Trump said himself, celebrities are damaging to the 'movement', so better late than never!

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  3. Trump's speech was bang on the nail . '' Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.''
    Superb!

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    1. Err, that was JFK!

      Trump actually plagiarised the Bee Movie and Batman. If we could get a handle on his favourite film, we may get some idea where this whole presidency thing is headed. My money is on a Disney classic.

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    2. Rosalinda @21:01

      "Err, that was JFK!"

      Err, no it wasn't.

      If the quote is correct then it's the inverse of what JFK said originally.

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    3. And that was the idea of my quoting it!!!! Oh DO pay attention.

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    4. @18:28

      Yes, the quote is the inverse of what JFK said. As far as I know Trump said: "What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people."

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  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScZ_Vf0VxvI

    LOL

    NL

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    1. Whooshed, copyright infringement.

      https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1623957/-Message-from-the-Dutch-government-to-Trump

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  5. Hi Rosalinda
    Whatever one may say about Donald Trump, he’s living the American dream in all its shallowness. Being a winner is to many Americans, as it seems, more important than doing the right thing. Anyway, had the two dominating Parties and their delegates at least tried to compromise their self-interests to the larger interests of their country, they would have voted off their two disputed candidates at an early stage, and there would not just have been a contest between Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, but the Libertarian Gary Johnson would also have got a chance to loosen up the ideological rigidity of the traditional American two-party system.

    I’d say, that the voting system allowed Trump to be elected with the reluctant consent of less than 50% of the American people. Still, there isn’t really any need to worry too much, as the American constitution and all its traditional democratic institutions will make it difficult for him to deliver on any of his most opportunistic campaign promises. Democracy is not at stake here, but the political rhetoric will probably be more vulgar

    As for the Weimar Republic, the installed multi-party system as the result of TheTreaty of Versailles, lacked both democratic institutions and traditions, which made it possible for the Nazi Party, which did not represent the majority of the German voters, to create their own undemocratic institutions, one of which was the S A. (The Sturmabteilung), with the main task of protecting the “Führer”

    Hi Anonymous 22 Jan 09.32

    The German people may not have known what was going on in the concentration camps and most of these camps were located outside Germany in occupied countries like Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, but the German people in general could certainly experience the dramatic freedom restrictions, that came about shortly after the “Machtübernahmung”.

    Sebastian Haffner, a German lawyer, who managed to flee to the U K before 1936, when the borders were definitely closed, tries to elucidate in his book Geschichte eines Deutschen” why people did not challenge the Nazis, and he hasn’t, to put it mildly, so much sympathy for the defense of his countrymen’s tacit obedience in these years.

    The German author Anna Seghers, who, during the war and after as well, has published many books on the Nazi theme has said, that she very early had a premonition (she could feel it in the language) of something sinister going to happen, but couldn’t imagine holocaust of course.

    So if you haven’t yet written your story, please do. It’s needed. Let me finally paraphrase what you wrote in German with just some modification.
    (so vielleicht hat man es nicht gewusst, oder nicht wissen wollen)




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    1. Hi Bjorn,

      I imagine at the time Hitler had a lot of support from western governments due to their fear of Communists taking control of Germany. Whilst they were looking for reds under the bed the facists were goose-stepping down the high street. The excellent book Alone In Berlin which is being made into a film and Sophie Scholl shows there was a limited resistance in Germany during the war.

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    2. Hi John 100

      You’re quire right John. Chamberlain's classic statement after his meeting with Hitler "Peace in our time", shows how naive many European politicians were at that time. We in Sweden, were even worse, as we had consistently since WW1 disarmed our defense. History repeats itself, I’d say. Now we’ll have to be careful, when we are negotiating with Putin, whatever the issue may be. Hitler wished to make peace just as Putin wants today, but it’s always on the tyrants conditions, which we should all have in mind. Does Trump understand this?


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  6. As this thread's gone a little bit quiet, I thought I'd offer up a couple of links you might find interesting.

    https://www.exposingtruth.com/the-nazi-bush-connection/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZU0c8DAIU4

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  7. Trump is great. A far better choice than HRC and her crazed globalist. I'm looking forward to 4 years of destroying Obama's legacy.

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