Right Winging It

 

THIS JUST IN:

 

Walter M. Shaub, Jr, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, has resigned. He felt that his job was pointless in the age of Donald Trump. As Mr. Shaub explained to the world in a written statement (that we might logically assume was pieced together by cutting out letters from various magazines and newspaper advertisements):

 

"There isn't much more I could accomplish at the Office of Government Ethics, given the current situation."

Gee, ya think? Last night I heard someone remark that the guy deserved combat pay having gone as long as he did. Hats off to you, Walter!

 

Is anyone aware of a betting pool that is taking wagers on when The Donald is going to pack up voluntarily or be impeached? I'd sure like to get in on that one. My best guess is that the demented little thug will be forced to resign in disgrace before the new year arrives. If not, it will take a year-and-a-half until the Democrats regain control of both houses of congress and they have enough votes to impeach him. If that is indeed the case, the next eighteen-plus months is going to seem to all of us like eighteen-plus years. I am convinced that - whatever the case - Trump is not going to serve four years. Then again, that could be wishful thinking on my part. In fact, conceivably he could be reelected and serve a complete, eight year stretch. We do live in Idiot Nation after all.

The Kiddies

Whichever scenario plays out, the fact that something as ludicrous as a Trump administration was allowed to occur at all spells out the knife in the heart of the American Dream. It might take us a generation or more to recover from the damage that conservatives have done (and are doing - and will continue to do) to a country that used to be a jolly nice place to live in. Every day the unprecedented political scandals seem to compound themselves. The corruption and conflicts of interest are numerous and impossible to dismiss outright. Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace one week before I turned sixteen. I sometimes get the feeling that I am witnessing Watergate trough the eyes of a grown up - only what is happening in the executive mansion at this moment in history is far worse than the misdeeds of Nixon's Gang. I almost wish that the slimy old bastard could have lived to see this. I know it would have given him a feeling of peace to know that, when the final pages of American history are written on some not-too-far-off day, his crimes against the people will seem almost quaint by comparison.

Oh yeah, this is bad, baby - and I'm loving every minute of it.

And why shouldn't people like me get some serious schadenfreude out of this perfectly beautiful political catastrophe. We were laughed at and mocked, publicly and privately, in the months leading up to Election Day 2016 when we vainly tried to warn our more conservative contemporaries the utter disaster that would befall this doomed nation if the people were naïve enough to elevate Putin's stooge to the presidency. An acquaintance of mine, in making an excuse for his support of Trump a year ago, recently said to me: "No one could have foreseen this". My response: "You obviously weren't reading my blog." I'm not going to lie to you; that sure felt good. I had no idea gloating could feel so good. It's oodles of fun being me these days. It really is.

Alcoholics Anonymous never worked for me. The spiritual core of AA is something called The Serenity Prayer. It instructs me to serenely "accept the things I cannot change". That is why I am still a drunk, I suppose. I will never accept the fact that this unhinged sociopath and common pervert has been elevated to the office of the presidency of the United States.

Never.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@fronternet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

When I was a boy, every classroom I attended had this poster on the wall - or a facsimile of it. Back then the list only went as far as the thirty-seventh president, Dick Nixon. It's bad enough that his face will adorn those posters from here to eternity, how the heck are we going to explain to the children of tomorrow the presence of a corrupt and unhinged maniac like Mein Trumpf? We've had a lot of bad presidents in our history, but none of whom were outright traitors. My suggestion is that when those posters are made for the classrooms of these yet-to-be born kids, Trump's face should be silhouetted.

Then again, the truth will probably set the little darlings free.