As we know most of you can appreciate, it can be disheartening and exhausting at times trying to keep up with the evil, the incompetence, and the corruption that are the hallmarks of the regime of neo- fascist existential threat Donald "Rump" Trump. The scale and magnitude of the destructiveness in just the first two months are simply unprecedented, to the extent that we sometimes find it difficult to apportion our efforts on the latest outrage or another, as they come so fast and relentlessly (hence the "firehose" analogy). While in our blogging we try to keep the focus on what we consider to be the most serious threat to our democracy -- the Trump- Russia connection -- the damage to our institutions and our society from actions being taken by the regime or by its enablers in the Republican Congress must also be recorded.
That being said, we're always looking to find some comfort in the fact that others with a bigger megaphone are continuing to sound the alarm on this uniquely disastrous unPresident and his supporting cast of deplorables.
The Los Angeles Times is beginning a four- part editorial series today on Rump's "troubling traits," starting with today's editorial, "Our Dishonest President." Here's a snip, but please look at the entire editorial (we'll follow the other three parts as they're published this week):
It was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.”
Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck. Like millions of other Americans, we clung to a slim hope that the new president would turn out to be all noise and bluster, or that the people around him in the White House would act as a check on his worst instincts, or that he would be sobered and transformed by the awesome responsibilities of office. [snip]
What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous. (our emphasis)The Washington Post looks at what it sees as the "most suspicious aspect" of Rump's regime:
Mark R. Warner (Va.), ranking Democrat on the Senate committee, offered an appeal to common sense: The public, he said, must “not lose sight of what the investigation is about: An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hijack our most critical democratic process, the election for president” in order to “favor one candidate over another.” Unfortunately, Mr. Trump and willing accomplices such as Mr. [Devin] Nunes have been all too effective in clouding this shocking reality and impeding effective investigation of it. [snip]
... Mr. Trump appears to be doing his best to confuse the public about the facts and to prevent the truth from coming out. That, of course, is Russia’s agenda — and it is the strangest and most suspicious aspect of his presidency. (our emphasis)Speaking of confusing the public, The Miami Herald focuses on the efforts of one villain, Rep. Devin "Clouseau" Nunes (Weasel- CA) and his party- before- county Republican cohorts in this diversion and concludes,
Amazing. All this hot air about blocking America’s enemies with border walls and travel bans, and it turns out that the enemies of the American people have been right here all along.
Simply put, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes is acting like a double agent, and not a very good one at that. [snip]
It’s becoming a well-worn cliche among those Americans who are rightly appalled at the damage that the Trump administration plans to inflict — on the environment, on education, on democracy itself — to opine: “Can you imagine what the Republicans would have done if Obama had done/said/known this?
We know what they would have done, because politics instead of concern for the integrity of this republic are, unfortunately, still driving this process. Turns out, America’s enemies are still among us. (our emphasis)None of this is a revelation to us. The attacks on science, truth and facts. The them- vs.- us tactics. The cynical party- before- country pols. The sabotaging of democratic systems and elections. Plutocrats pulling strings. These features and more have been part of our politics especially since the Republican Party started to go off the rails 40- some years ago, abetted by a right wing loon media. Rump is just the pure distillation, the reductio ad absurdum, of their nihilism.
We try not to get overloaded by all of it, but it's a tough pull.
