April 23, 2017—“. . . in business most things don’t involve heart. In fact, in business you’re better off without it.”—Donald Trump

As he continues his attempt to treat the American economy as a real estate development business favoring himself, other ultra-rich, assorted bankers, etc. with whom he consorts at his Florida resort. Donald is pretty much hanged by his own petard with the above words. But then, he never could keep his mouth shut—and also doesn’t have sense enough to think before he speaks. He would be “honored,” he said the other day, to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. How’s that for handing legitimacy to a dirty little despot?

When it comes to the matter of “heart,” I appreciated the comment by our governor Jay Inslee with regard to former governor Mike Lowry who died May 1: “Mike Lowry served with compassion and humility. He had a big heart and cared deeply about the people of this state.” And as a former colleague said of Lowry: “He never ran for office to wield power for the sake of having power.” Mike among other things helped pass the 1984 Wilderness Act and was a leader in protecting state marine habitat.

What a contrast to our current president, someone who is just beginning to learn that Congress works for the people—as the Constitution intended—and is not merely a servant of the President. Same for the court system. “I thought it would be easier,” he said the other day; and one of his friends explains: “This is tougher than what he thought. In business, you make a decision and it happens. In government, it’s not like that.” Yes, Donald; our government is not just an extension of your personal empire—although you doggedly refuse to accept that.

Donald, in keeping with his opposition to advancing science in the energy field and lack of concern for the future, remains obsessed with raping the environment for the short-term benefit of big oil, real estate developers such as himself, etc. He has proposed off-shore drilling for oil in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans—and is seeking to take vast amounts of land out of national-monument status and put them into the hands of the public for development. He already has repealed numerous pollution controls on industry. Just more indicators (along with fields such as health care) of  for whom life will be good and for whom it won’t in years ahead.

“We will protect civilization,” Trump said recently. Unfortunately, that remark came only when he was buttering up the King of Jordan and had nothing to do with the domestic side of his “America First” propaganda.  

On to another quote, this one from former general and Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the allied military forces in Europe in World War II: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential of the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Another quote from his 1961 farewell address I also revere was: “As we peer into society’s future—you, I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own use and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

And here we are 56 years later, suffering the ignorance, greed and egomania of Donald Trump as he rips off the American economy, downgrades our social structure and assumes power that illustrates the faulty side of the Peter Principle, whereby people supposedly rise to but often move well beyond their level of competence.

They don’t make many Republicans like Ike any more. I voted for him—twice.

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