D.C. these days is Donald’s Coliseum

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Nowadays the emperor's crowd chants "send her back!" (Omar) or "Lock her up!" (Hillary). The Lions of the past have given way to more of an abstract crucifixion of the victims, intended to bleed the life force from them more slowly. And it’s all only a part of the greater over-all scenario wherein Donald tweets while our world burns (in this slightly-mixed metaphor.)

NOTE FROM THE INTERNET—“In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome for six days, destroying 70 percent of the city and leaving half its population homeless. According to a well-known expression, Rome’s emperor at the time, the decadent and unpopular Nero, ‘fiddled while Rome burned.’ The expression has a double meaning: Not only did Nero play music while his people suffered, but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis. It’s been pretty easy to cast blame on Nero, who had many enemies and is remembered as one of history’s most sadistic and cruelest leaders . . .”

(Nowadays, its not so much playing music as it’s playing golf.)

Actually, the modern “fiddle” didn’t exist in Nero’s time and when the Great Fire broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. “Though he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust him. Some even believed he had ordered the fire started, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens. Nero himself blamed the Christians (then an obscure religious sect) for the fire, and had many arrested and executed.”

That blaming the Christians bit is a lot like Donald today forever trying to blame the catastrophe that is himself on Democrats. And the earth actually is beginning to burn via Global Warming as Donald just fiddles around in his self-serving way, trying to build his own golden empire.

OF INTEREST THIS PAST WEEK—An Associated Press story July 18 headlined “AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts Omar's words on terrorism.” Space doesn’t permit full repetition here, but here’s an excerpt: Trump quotes Omar as saying: "You don't say 'America' with this intensity. You say 'al-Qaida,' it makes you proud. Al-Qaida makes you proud. You don't speak that way about America.” Just another sick and rotten twist of reality by Donald.

THE FACTS: This is a wholly distorted account of what the Minnesota Democrat said. She did not voice pride in the terrorist group. Trump is referring to an interview Omar gave in 2013. In it, she talked about studying terrorism history or theory under a professor who dramatically pronounced the names of terrorist groups, as if to emphasize their evil nature. "The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said 'al-Qaida,' he sort of like — his shoulders went up and he used a menacing, intense tone,” she said. Her point was that the professor was subtly rousing suspicions of Muslims with his theatrical presentation, while pronouncing "America" without the intensity he afforded the names of terrorist groups.

At no point did she say "al-Qaida" should be uttered with intensity or pride and that "America" shouldn’t be. This recommended-reading story also covers more Omar, Osario-Cortez, health care, the economy . . . read it at https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-trump-falsely-214112904.html

AND MEANWHILE—Here’s a July 19 headline: “Trump EPA Refuses To Ban Chlorpyrifos, A Pesticide Linked To Brain Damage In Children.” The Environmental Protection Agency has said it will not ban the pesticide (commonly “Lorsban”). It already has been banned for household use but remains in widespread use by farmers for more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal and vegetable crops. Obama proposed a complete ban in November 2015 but the EPA changed course as soon as Trump took office. In 2016 more than 640,000 acres were treated with chlorpyrifos in California alone. See https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-epa-chlorpyrifos-final-order-225754021.html

Let’s hear it for local farmers’ markets! And organic produce in general.

ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS—July 19: The Trump administration says it is planning to make straws great again. Donald’s campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted “LIberal paper straws don’t work. STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today.” The words appear on the Trump campaign website along with a link where one can buy a 10-pack of the red plastic “Trump”-emblazoned straws for $15.
Just another small step backwards in the effort to lessen the ongoing pollution of earth.

It is assumed, of course, that everyone will dutifully recycle these plastic straws, so no need at all to resort to biodegradable paper ones.