The All American Train Wreck

The Grand Old Party indeed

Watching the confirmation hearings of Trump's Attorney General-designate the other day was anything but reassuring. William Barr was evasive when asked about the Mueller investigation. It's possible that he has every intention of sabotaging the inquiry into Russian interference during  the campaign of 2016. Perhaps he is mouthing what he knows his idiotic boss wants to hear. There's no doubt that Barr has all the votes he needs - and then some - to be confirmed. He must understand that if he doesn't hand over the final results of that investigation to the congress, they will be leaked to the press in short order. Also, the storm of outrage that will no-doubt follow any attempt top cover up Team Mueller's findings will rock the country off of its foundations. It's obvious that, by putting Bully Barr on the job, the Donald truly believes that he is going to make this entire mess go away. It's not going to go away. It's here to stay - not only in the lives of Donald Trump and those involved in this - but in the eternal pages of history. As they say, he can run but he can't hide - but he's going to try like hell.

You know very well that this is going to end catastrophically for the president - not to mention us. Some serious political journalists are starting to imply that he's going to spend the rest of his life in federal custody. Last month on the Observer website, writer John R. Schindler quoted a senior intelligence official who told him a week before the 2017 inauguration, "He's going to die in jail". Pretty heavy stuff if you want my opinion. That's why we find ourselves, I think, in an excessively dangerous period: Donald Trump is mentally ill. At the moment he must be wild with rage and paranoia. This is a combination of traits that seems to be a straight path to disaster on many different levels. When crazy people get cornered in the wake of their ill-deeds, they tend to dangerously lash out in ways that get people hurt. If you have a child, friend or loved one who is considering entering the armed services anytime soon, you might want to advise them to wait until the era of Donald Trump blows over. Just a gentle suggestion.

By he way, unlike the official quoted above, I do not believe that Donald Trump should go to "jail". Jail is where you go when you've had one-too-many on a Saturday night and you accidentally back your car into the plate glass window of the local pharmacy. If Donald Trump is guilty of even one half of the things that I seriously suspect he s guilty of, he needs to go to a maximum security federal penitentiary.

These really are extraordinary times.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY