How Trump Pulled Off The Impossible

It wasn’t talking about emptying Gaza of Palestinians and turning it into another Trump resort.

It wasn’t threatening tiny Panama with the Putinesque move of restoring American sovereignty over a canal it built and gave to Panama in the last century.  

Nor was it freezing, without warning, trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, and shuttering USAID, causing havoc, pain, and death, to helpless people across the world. 

It wasn’t shutting entire sections of the US government without notice, causing chaos and confusion.

It wasn’t wreaking retribution on the FBI by firing FBI leaders and investigators who worked the January 6th Insurrection.

It wasn’t his firing of Inspectors General across the Federal Government for no reason, undercutting trust in the entire government.

It wasn’t his placing an ex-Fox “News” bullshitter, retired mid-level Army officer, sexual bully, and alcohol abuser, in charge of the biggest military of the world. 

It wasn’t placing a fellow narcissist, a tech oligarch without even bottom rung security clearance or any government experience because he’s never been elected to anything, in charge of destroying parts of government, the latest of which is the Education Department which oversees 49.6 million students.

And it wasn’t for using parts of the Constitution to take down other parts of the Constitution, which is clever and unexpected. But that’s not new. Hitler used a similar approach in 1933 when he took down the German democracy in less than 2 months.

The impossible? He pissed off the Canadians! 

Not possible! You say. 

Our kind, polite, even-tempered neighbors to the North…pissed?! They haven’t been pissed since we invaded Sandwich, Ontario during the War of 1812. These are people who open the door for each other and help change flat tires. They invade our border by the thousands in the winter and flood Florida and other points South, and are so pleasant, even DeSantis doesn’t complain.  

But Trump finally pissed them off.

How? For months, Trump had been musing about Canada becoming the 51st state, which wasn’t polite or kind. Then, on Saturday, Feb. 1, he announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

That tore it. On Monday, Feb 3, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced, “We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink,” a contract worth $68 million dollars to Co-American Dictator Elon Musk.

”Ontario won’t do business with people hell bent on destroying our economy,” said Ford. ” Trump’s team “wants to destroy families’ incomes, destroy businesses. He wants to take food off the table of hardworking people, and I’m not going to tolerate it.”

And now angry Canadians are booing the US National Anthem at games and emptying store shelves of American products from Vancouver to Toronto, leaving signs that say “Buy Canadian Instead.” (See what I mean about polite?)

Therein lies some much needed advice from our civilized grownups to the North. 

No-one has to accept Rubio’s, Hegseth’s, and Miller’s orders or those of any other subalterns of the American Dictator. Instead we can ignore, refuse, or even ridicule them. As citizens we can demonstrate in the streets.  We can contact our Representatives and Senators over and over again and tell them to get some real cojones and stop this destruction of American democracy.  We can join the political system and encourage neighbors and friends to make themselves heard and seen.

We can explain to those who somehow missed Civics 101, that Fascism didn’t die with Hitler – it just went underground for awhile – and remind them that Democracy dies in silence as much as in darkness.

(If you like this, pass it on. If you don't, pass it on anyway. Why should you suffer alone?)

I’m Considering Getting Old 

There are pluses to getting old.  I get social security money every month and I don’t have to do a thing to earn it.  Plus I have savings which I did earn, but that was years ago. So now, I just “Spend baby, spend!” OK. Not really. I’m actually very frugal. (should any of my kids be reading this). I live in a house I bought from the mortgage company after I bought it from the owner. So when I need to bail to some kind of old people’s place, I can sell the house and say “Bye! Bye!” to snow-shoveling, grass-cutting, and greedy Trick-or-Treaters. 

Against the wishes of my kids, I can spoil the grandkids, endlessly.

I can have the irresponsibilities of a teenager without the grades. As an old person I can drink when I want, ogle my girlfriend, and tell the same stories over and over and over and…  

I don’t have to be good at…anything: golf, house cleaning, cooking, buying Christmas and birthday presents, remembering names,… answering the door… 

Well, I do have to pay my bills and be nice to my neighbors (hey guys, if you’re reading this, don’t read this).

Old is fun, for sure. 

But so is young, because young includes so many choices.

It means I can drive too fast. I can hang out at the local tavern and yell at Eagles and Phillies games. I can teach my kids discipline, integrity, hard work, fortitude, intelligence, etc… or just: “Do as I say and not as I do”.

I can try new things, like writing a local column or serving on my town council and, as long as I have a highly skilled editor and a brilliant town manager, avoid major stumbles.

I can go to every one of my kids games and performances and applaud until my hands hurt. I can, without admitting to a scintilla of bias, defend my kids against every stupid, arrogant teacher who wields grades like a hockey stick, and never, ever admit to  liking helicopters.

I can have a career as a producer-director of Live television and not utter a single “Fuck! Wrong camera!”, especially multiple times a show. As a young producer, I can develop an award winning TV show aimed at old people – and not have viewers, including the crew, shake their heads in disbelief.

That’s the dilemma: old is fun, but young is fun, too. 

Hmmm…

I think I’ll go with young. Because if something becomes old or boring, the young can always try something new…

…like… Hey! Getting old!

See, if getting old becomes boring or frustrating, I can always go back to being young! 

Right?  

(If you like this, pass it on. If you don't, pass it on anyway. Why should you suffer alone?)