The Swamp

I want to offer here my understanding of the meanings of some of the words sed in this Neo-Trumpian era. Like “wasteful spending,” for example. Trump ally Elong Musk recently used this phrase when considering the federal budget. But he was not talking about $640 toilet seat covers sold by Pentagon contractors. He made it clear that he sees public spending wasteful when it goes to help the public. You know, spending on things like Social Security, Medicare, and Obamacare. That’s where people like Musk and Trump want to cut spending – on programs that don’t help enrich their lucre laden friends.

 

By the way, aren’t Musk and Trump an odd couple? They both seem to have the same desire, a desperate longing for public approval. Given this, how long should we expect them to remain allies?  I expect that before long they will clash over some issue, like “who is smarter?” (Musk), or “Who is better at getting gullible people to believe his bullshit?” (Trump). In any case, I’m guessing the betting markets are already taking wagers on when these two will turn against each other.

The issue of what kind of spending is wasteful is likely to affect all of us. Ordinary Americans are bound to suffer, while the corporate rich, i.e., The Swamp continues to flourish and expand. Our cry from the heart for 2024 should be, “We fought the Swamp, and the Swamp won.”

 

Fake news is a phrase rarely heard before the Trmpian era. It should mean disinformation. But for Trump it merely means any news or information that doesn’t praise him. Was Fox News forced to pay a 787-million-dollar settlement to Dominion Voting Systems for lying in support of Trump’s election fraud claims? Yes, it was, and official court records prove it. This is the kind of damming truth that Trump likes to call “fake news.”

And what does “convicted felon” really mean? Perhaps, you thought this phrase referred to an unsavory character. But no, not in Trump World. For Trump a convicted felon is a fine individual, a person of presidential or ambassadorial timber.

And then there’s the Bible. Most Americans see it as a book of inspired scripture. Bur for Trump the Bible is a political prop, particularly useful for getting voters to think you believe in its message of love and forgiveness.

And the so-called deep state? That’s just Trump’s phrase for those institutions of American democracy that don’t quickly crumble under Trumpian bullying

Finally, it isn’t clear to me why Trump is so admiring of America-hating creeps like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. My best guess is that he envies the way they can push their citizens around without having to bother with democratic constraints. Maybe they remind him of the thuggish types who loomed so large in his New York real estate world.

I do not post this item to disparage or upset my Trumpian friends who might see it. Not at all. I simply want them to understand why so many of us consider this self-aggrandizing blowhard to be a threat to American democracy.

 

Florida Man

Florida Man Sees Himself as President

Mark T­­­wain once claimed that America is built on a tilt and everything loose slides to California. Those were the good old days - when California was considered America’s most laughable state. But let’s face reality: Florida has now replaced California as America’s laughingstock. And unfortunately, while California in Mark Twain’s day was seen as wacky in a charming way, today’s Florida is viewed as nutty with a twist of creepy.

Florida’s unlovely reputation has been an established fact for a while as evidenced by the Twitter phenomenon of “Florida Man” a stock figure of idiocy often portrayed as doing outrageous things often involving alligators. But now Governor DeSantis has made Florida’s uniquely hare-brained qualities internationally infamous by banning books and encouraging hostility toward anyone who doesn’t share his prejudices. He shut down a Florida high school course on the African-American experience and attacked the Disney Corporation for resisting his anti-gay laws.

His attack on Disney was supposed to show voters that he is a tough guy. “There’s a new sheriff in town” as he put it. This was supposed to be a boast that would let him swagger out on the campaign trail as a Trump-like bully, but the ploy failed when the anti-Disney deputies appointed by Sheriff DeSantis turned out to be a gaggle of Barney Fifes. Florida under DeSantis has become the state where the ridiculous comes to thrive.

For most of us Floridians, those of us who don’t want to be tarred with the Creepy/Ridiculous label, our options are limited. We can claim to be from somewhere else somewhere that is known for being sensible, like Canada maybe. Or we can just make up a plausible sounding state and claim it is our real home: “I’ll always fondly recall the lush green fields of my West Dakota childhood…”

Or we could look for encouragement about Florida by remembering that DeSantis won’t be governor forever. But that might be interpreted as implying that he could (God forbid) become president. However, after Trump, most Americans are not likely to support another cheesy, self-absorbed, and incompetent bigot for president.

We are just going to have to hope for the best for a while and look forward to another term for Joe Biden. In the meantime, we can take some comfort from the work of sympathetic artists like Barry Blitt whose March 6 New Yorker cover portrayed DeSantis as sharpening a hefty knife and threatening a stack of book. The title: “Florida’s Book of the Month Club.”

Alas, what a state we’re in.