Manipulation

Mexico would not pay for the wall. Trade barriers threatened by Trump. Mexico went to South America for their food stuffs, thus stiffing American farmers.

Border crossings further restricted – they could always have done so, with or without a wall – and now farmworkers who normally pick crops for American farmers are in short supply and crops are rotting in the fields. Farmers have complained and now trump says he will allow in farmworkers. How can he tell which is which?

Couldn’t get congress to pay for the border wall so he eliminated DACA. Congress could not solve the DACA problem because Democrats would not cave in to the demand to fund the wall. Republicans played the trump game and both the wall and DACA remain unresolved issues.

Now trump threatens to close down the government unless he gets his wall.

White House correspondents hold an annual dinner; it is a mild roasting of the president and white house staffers. The trump boycotted the dinner in his first year of his term, and then this year. Instead he went to a re-election rally for himself in Michigan. Cooked up by his people for him, and scheduled to compete with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. At the dinner, barbs and humor were ratcheted up to meet the challenge. The white house is thus excoriated along with the trump man. The roast mirrored what trump has made of the white house and his language used in public. Outrage of course was registered by the trump camp.

It is clear the manipulation is in full gear. Has been from the beginning of his term. Clear for all to see. The thrusts and parries are childish play with serious intent. And manipulation is the goal of a now dwindling support base. The trumpets are becoming trumpettes.

All for the good for the rest of us. The non-serious management of the white house and national policy is the laughingstock of the world community. 

How did we get here? 

We got here because too many people focused on their own narrow political whims without considering the cost to the entire nation. Those same people – friends and relatives of ours – have grievances about the quality of their lives, and found someone on the political scene who had daring and bold statements. They were refreshed by that availability of sound bites that explained their situations. And so they took comfort in his words and demeanor – get tough don’t you know – and voted for him.

The trouble came later when the rhetoric of campaigning proved false. No matter, they didn’t want to be found lacking in intelligence and understanding of the issues. So they kept his fan base alive.

For the rest of us, however, history, science, fact and truth of the real world are better understood. It takes guts to make a good life anywhere on the face of the planet. Even in America it takes courage to know thyself and make for a better life. Hopefully most of us do just that, through self-investment and hard work. Education, experimentation and vulnerability teach us things.

Among the best things learned is how to be happy without delivering pain and suffering on others. And to adapt to the constancy of change in our lives. We are not the same person at 70 as we were at 20. Nor is life’s journey of passing time a constant. It changes things we need to recognize and adapt to. All the time. Every day. Adapt and live life more fully.

Stop blaming others for your disappointments. Learn what life has for you. Grasp it and thrive. Do not believe the claptrap others toss around as fact. They are leading you and others to a very disappointing future. And then the rest of us will likely share that same fate with you. All the while the future belongs to all of us and only we can make it better. 

Trump is a little kid in an adult body. His emotions are the same. That explains why he doesn’t play well with others. Nor, at 71, will he change. Too bad for him; let’s not make it too bad for us.

May 2, 2018