Arrogance and ignorance, making America worse again

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It appears Orwell’s “1984” is being updated in the Oval Office. 

Our new president appears also to be quite eager to re-write the U.. S. Constitution. For instance, the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” That seems a bit at odds with one of Donald Trump’s executive orders which has established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations. He ordered that Christians and others from minority religions be granted priority over Muslims (the Islamic religion). Despite the “God this” and “God that” freely tossed about by vote-seeking politicians, our country does not have a mandated national religion. I’m also somewhat concerned with the sacred lands of American Indians in North Dakota, which seem to be considered expendable to Big Oil interests.

King Donald continues to spew forth dicta in all directions. He’s in “hog heaven.”  I suspect he’ll be erecting a statue or two of himself soon--with about 50 pounds pared off the reality of his physique, as reality seems to be an enemy in his mind. And his low opinion of the public mentality seems to lead him to believe that we insignificant “losers” aren’t  aware that “the devil’s in the details” of some of the things he’s trying to sneak past us. Things overshadowed by the bright-and-shiny hypnotic issues he dangles before us—such as crowd size at his inauguration or “illegal voters.” That’s why he has such hatred for the news media that enlighten us so, day to day. Well most of the media, certainly not including Fox News, where he is sucked up to by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and others. 

The Daily Beast is one of his top black-listed enemies, along with the prestigious New York Times and Washington Post. For instance, I read this item Jan. 27 in the Beast: “President Trump’s executive order on banning immigrants from certain Middle Eastern countries conveniently excludes countries where he has business deals, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. Citing a draft proposal, the report says the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, all Muslim-majority countries, have been left off of Trump’s blacklist. Coincidentally, these are all also places where the Trump Organization has concluded business deals or has business links. In Turkey, where Trump has admitted that he has a ‘major, major building in Istanbul,’ he has a licensing deal for the use of two luxury towers, the report said. Similar deals are in place in Dubai, and in recent FEC filings he has reportedly listed companies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia thought to be linked to development deals.”

Donald somehow must feel that we will be so impressed by his bombast that we’ll just ignore details such as this. Well, he may snag the inattentive and full-time self-indulgent, but the lot of us have reputable and responsible news media covering our backs.

That Beast item above also is pretty exemplary of what comes out of the meat-grinder whenever we season one of Emperor Donald’s tinseled factoids with dollops of his lying, his hypocrisy, his greed, his paranoia, his egomania . . . but that item’s just our morning wake-up. By tea-time we’re into other such things illustrative of the Imperial One’s dream of world domination. Like, again on Jan. 27, the news report of his dictum to the United Nations (also reported in The Daily Beast).

The Self-Anointed One’s draft executive order directs the federal government to stop funding any United Nations organization that promotes “the performance of abortion or sterilization as a method of family planning.” This is one of a number of prohibitions in the order obtained by theBeast that set up a process for reviewing all American contributions to the UN—and automatically eliminating many others. 

The thing is, Your Majesty, sterilization is a crucial medical procedure for women in a world where an estimated 300,000 women die annually during childbirth. Your blasé (what a perfect adjective at his point) ruling sort of illustrates unreasonable ignorance. There’s lots more. The United Nations Population Fund is one of several UN organizations that would receive a “special review on funding” under the draft order. Its aim is “a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.” The organization fights against child marriage, female genital mutilation and maternal death. It also has played a role in assuring that pregnant women fleeing conflict are able to safely give birth.

During the Syrian conflict, it is estimated that 360,000 pregnant women were directly affected, and 80,200 pregnant Syrian women have fled to neighboring countries.

 Gee! Seems to be a lot of pro-life concern in UN circles, Donald. Shouldn’t someone be advising you on the details of your Tweet-like proclamations? Or perhaps that’s part of your problem, the ego-pumping advisors you have put into place—Bannon, for example. 

And speaking of intelligence, you’ll notice that I used “dicta” and “dictum” in the foregoing comments. And I mentioned Steve Bannon, chief strategist and senior counsel to the president. He formerly headed Breitbart News, a far-right website of opinion and commentary that left him rated at the pond-scum level throughout the journalistic profession and the public at large. He (himself a former news medium person) recently proclaimed that with regard to Trump, “The media should keep its mouth shut.” 

Thing is, Stephen, it’s perhaps for the best you got away from  anything smacking of actual journalism and jumped into the swamp with Donald Trump. “Media” (as “dicta”) is a plural word, takes a plural verb (as I wave to the memory of my high school English and Latin teachers).  “Its mouth” is incorrect. It should be “their mouths.”  The dictionary will tell anyone such as you (or Donald) that “media” is the plural form of “medium” as it refers to  “the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet), regarded collectively.” 

But, then I’m not surprised. The whole damned Trump collective has been concocted of military, billionaire and far-right individuals, many with questionable comprehensive experience in the fields with which they will be dealing—such as we would get from individuals well versed in human behavior, medicine, education  . . . foreign relations. The president continues to determinedly pound square pegs into round holes in clinging to his myopic personal view of the world.

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NEWS UPDATE (Jan. 29)-- In a presidential memorandum, President Donald Trump gave top aide Stephen Bannon a role on the National Security Council, while military and intelligence leaders including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff were downgraded. Bannon, the White House chief strategist and former Breitbart chief, will attend regular meetings of the council, while the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the director of national intelligence will only attend meetings relating to their “responsibilities and expertise.” Chief of staff Reince Priebus was given a similar role to Bannon’s.

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