The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
CAMP DAVID, Ala. — Let me paint a picture for you of where we are this Sunday morning, on day 108 of the Tragic Era of Trump.
We were sitting around last night on the back yard deck waiting on the chicken thighs to cook (no we did not baste the meat with bourbon whiskey like they do at the Kentucky Derby since I do not like my meat “caramelized” on the outside) when a profound thought came up in the conversation about the troubled times we find ourselves living through.
It’s based on a classic question humans have been asking themselves for at least a couple of hundred years.
What will archeologists of the future — especially those from outer space — think about our generation?
Now that an uneducated, narcissistic madman like Donald Trump is in charge of the nuclear football, the top secret device containing our nuclear launch codes, and we now know this football will be housed in Trump Tower in New York, and we know that the doomsday clock has been moved up to two and a half minutes to midnight because of Trump’s election, what will become of us?
Will the alien archeologists make the long trek across the Milky Way galaxy only to find the most promising planet for life in our solar system inhabited by a bunch of radiation fried dead people all holding a cell phone in their hand looking at a picture of themselves? Think about that for a moment. Picture it. Are you dismayed yet?
What will they conclude about us from that information? Will they write a report to send back home talking about how homo sapiens were an incredibly selfish species who thought only of themselves, clearly a species that ignored all the evidence and warning signs of doom about all life on planet earth?
If you think about it, Donald Trump is the perfectly logical dictator for our time. Like many of the people who voted for him, he has little knowledge of history and could care less about anyone but himself. In the grand scheme of the evolutionary competition between the selfish gene and the altruistic gene, the selfish gene is winning.
“The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon,” according to the most recent announcement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 2017.
In February, the presence of the “football” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida caused great concern when a guest took a selfie with the military official carrying it and posted the picture to Facebook. So much concern that the Secret Service and the White House Military Office had to find another place to house it, so they have picked an apartment in Trump Tower.
Thanks to the Internet, the Russians and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un know exactly where it is, as well as all the leaders of ISIS and anyone else in the world who wants to blow everything up.
Sorry this is not a comforting thought of the day for a Sunday. Perhaps you know a preacher, a priest, a rabbi or a mullah who can give you comfort and tell you everything is going to be just fine, because a god will save us in the end. I find little solace in such messages. I find more wisdom in the writings of Mark Twain than anyone who turns to religion for answers.
“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool,” Twain once wrote. History has proved he has it about right.
But not to worry. The mainstream media assures us that Trump will not profit from this transaction at Trump Tower, which I find hard to believe considering what we now know about Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s family staging events in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments, with the prospect of receiving U.S. green cards in return. These are known in China as “golden visas.”
Picture that in your head for a moment.
According to the president’s statements on Twitter and elsewhere, of course, there is nothing unethical or wrong about this. It’s business as usual. This is capitalism as democracy in the self-absorbed, corrupt world we now live in. Nothing to see here folks. Move on to the next distraction.
In Kentucky, Trump’s supporters were sipping mint juleps and watching the derby.
Way down in Alabamaland, in the home town of Jeff Sessions where Trump launched his presidency with a big stadium rally, officials are simply celebrating the 200th birthday of the state with boring political speeches about nothing. Along the Mobile River Friday afternoon, there was a little publicized invitation only celebration that was billed as a party for the public.
In case you missed it, this intrepid reporter crashed the party, and gave one of the politicians some grief. Read about and watch my video interview with Alabama Republican Congressman Bradley Byrne, who defended his vote to repeal Obamacare and replace it with what critics are calling “Trumpcare.” Perhaps they should come up with another name.
#TrumpDontCare
But never mind. It’s spring in Mobile, and people are going about their business, cutting the grass and paying the bills. It’s been about a month since the governor resigned, and everyone has already forgotten. There is no word out of Montgomery on when or if the legislature will find the money to fund Medicaid this year. Have you seen a single story about this? We have not. I may have to go back to Montgomery myself to find out what’s going on, like I did last year.
HUGE Medicaid Crisis Looms in Alabama
See you next Sunday morning — if we are still here.
I will be heading north to Washington, D.C. in less than three weeks. Please consider helping to fund the trip. You will be glad you did.
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