letsgetitoutfront

Trump’s Mein Kampf

The man with the unruly haircut and the orange face has decided to take it one step further. How better to garner attention and to bolster support from like-minded individuals than to invoke the name of the most hated man on the planet. Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” provided the stepping stone for Nazi Germany and ultimately led to the murder of more than 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Trump insists he has never read the book. Does Orange Jesus have a hidden love affair with the deceased Adolf Hitler? On December 19, 2023, Trump spoke at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa telling the crowd gathered there that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America echoing Hitler’s language used to describe his enemies. Then the man, Trump, who is known for speaking from both ends went on to say, “It’s true. They’re destroying the blood of the country, they’re destroying the fabric of our country and we’re going to have to get them out!” When he was president, he asked his chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Kelly responded by saying, Nazi generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” Did it sink in? Obviously not! Later, he boasted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had told him there was “only one leader in history who had attracted crowds as large as Trump.” He went on to say, “She told me she was amazed at the size of the crowds that came to see me speak. She told me that there was only other political leader who ever got crowds as big as mine.”

Huh?!! You do know she was talking about Hitler right? Perhaps the orange paste you slater on your face and the accumulated wax buildup in your ears has altered your sense of reality or more specifically your sense of right and wrong. Is Trump a dictator-in-training? According to Seth Meyers, Trump has changed his opinions on almost everything but for one thing. ”He used to be pro-choice, now he’s anti-abortion. He used to be for gun control, now he’s against it. But the one thing he’s been consistent on his entire life is his support for dictators.” He has a long standing love affair for them. Meyers went on to say, “Trump has been very clear that in the second term he will aspire to be a dictator by using the language of dictators.” Oh what lofty aspirations that is. Someone should tell him that the world does not speak the language of dictators or neither does it take kindly to it except for a few.

Whether he has read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is not the question here. If you are echoing Hitler every time you open your mouth, IS! Orange Jesus instigated the January 6th insurrection. In a 70-minute address he pleaded and cajoled his supporters to march on Congress and the attack began just moments after he took the applause. Perhaps the more appropriate question might be, does he have a little Hitler running around inside him just busting to get out? Mein Kampf translated means my struggle and perhaps that folks is the real problem here.

Is is not about the size of his hands, his orange persona or the words he uses over and over again like HUGE, GREAT or whatever else he deems fit. It is about what he will bring to the table, the presidential table. Is he a moderate? That’s a big no. Is he a dictator in the making? What do you think?

Staring into the Abyss

A Series on Getting Back on Track

I heard this somewhere, not sure where and not sure who said it but it stuck with me. It goes like this.

Standing on top of a cliff and looking down, I hear myself say, “What if I fall?” A voice comes back and says, “Oh, my darling, what if you fly?”

It stuck with me because there were many times when I’ve stood on that cliff and asked that very same question, “What if I fall?” I refused to contemplate that I might just fly. I stayed where I was afraid to take that step forward. Fear of the unknown kept me there, of what I couldn’t see did the rest. I knew that staying where I was would keep me captive but staring into that abyss has kept me a prisoner.

After my divorce, I stood at the crossroads and wondered which way I should go? Every fibre in me told me to take the road less travelled. Go embrace the unknown it said. ”What have you got to lose?” I stayed put and took the other turn. The one that was familiar, the one my heart knew so I embraced the pain that was still there and refused to budge.

Along my journey, I met men who reminded me of “him.” Mostly mediocre relationships with mediocre men. My heart was content because there was comfort in the familiar and I did not have to navigate unfamiliar territory. I knew the path well. Mediocre relationships is defined as a “relationship with another person which is typically a symptom of a mediocre relationship with yourself. When you don’t know yourself or honor your needs, it’s easy to stay in a mediocre relationship. Mediocre can be safe, familiar, just enough….but not deeply fulfulling or vibrant.”

Accepting how I was treated made me believe I was loved. Afterall, it was familiar territory. I felt safe thinking this is the real deal. I knew there was more out there than someone blurting out, “I love you,” without any thought as to what it really meant. It didn’t matter, I was on cloud nine but the reality was mediocre brings mediocrity. Why do we accept it? ”It comes from a fear of failing as well as not being willing to deal with others tearing you down.” The truth is, I saw it, I felt it and I accepted it and so I stayed to fight another day.

Strangely enough no matter how many times I got hurt and the truth kept staring me in the face, I held on for dear life. I was basically saying there isn’t anything better out there. Why do you need better? Isn’t this enough? The “this” being a lukewarm relationship with no substance to it. You see the person I am alluding to was having a mediocre relationship with himself and so did not see “me”, the real me, he was busy slaying his own demons. Like attracts like? Perhaps but here is where I found myself until I saw what Mark Sterling had to say.

If you want to soar in life, you must learn to

F.L.Y (First Love Yourself)

I realized at this very moment that I had lost myself along the way. I had stopped loving myself, the reason for all my woes. The divorce wasn’t my fault, the aftermath painful but it had nothing to do with me. I was not the reason for the pain and suffering. It was thrown in front of me and I had to deal with it. Through it all, I put myself in the background and learned to crawl. So here I am standing on the cliff again and staring into the abyss before me. One step forward will take me into the unknown, the uncomfortable, into the midst of terror and then I hear a voice say, “Oh, my darling, but what if you fly?”

“You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideals and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly. (Rumi)

Here I go.…….

Aging Gracefully

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Viktor E. Frankl

I hate getting old, that is the mantra that runs through my mind nowadays. I never gave the aging process much thought but recently it is there and refuses to leave centerstage. I am not at that stage yet where my bones creak or turning or moving a certain way tells me that I need to be gentle with myself. I do know, however, that time is moving faster than I want it to and that my friends makes me want to challenge the situation.

I have had this love affair with keeping fit. It started when I was 18 and it has kept up with me to the present. Breathing in the fresh air as I do a fast paced walk with only the forest and mountains for company is my definition of a good time. Nothing invigorates like a trek in the outdoors. Time is not of an essence here, it is relegated to where it belongs, just out of reach until I give it permission to return again or the next time I take a look in the mirror and I see that the reflection staring back at me is no longer the person I used to know. I say to myself, “I was beautiful once, who is this stranger staring back at me? I vaguely remember her.” Yet I know that I am my worst critic. My hair is still long, dark and silky, my skin unlined but that one tiny crease on my forehead seems to scream, “Watch out, more is on the way!” Time changes things and aging does the rest but if you put enough effort into stopping Father Time, maybe just maybe this inevitable journey will take a breather and give you enough of a respite from what aging does to a person.

Cindy McDonal once said, “Aging is not an option, not for anyone. It is how gracefully we handle the process and how lucky we are, as the process handles us.”

Perhaps there is some truth to that but does luck have anything to do with it? How about this quote, Eleanor Roosevelt’s wondrous interpretation of aging, “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.” Hmm….this one makes me want to jump up and yell Hallelujah! Finally someone who understands what it is all about but really….works of art? Really? Whatever aging is, it is a preoccupation with the inevitable. You can stave off the wrinkles with potions and creams that promise much but deliver little as “age” marches on with a smug smile on its face. Going down south is a journey that can’t be stopped because sooner or later we are all faced with it whether we want to or not. So what’s left?

I choose to wake up with a beautiful smile on my face, stretch and take a couple of deep breaths to oxygenate those oxygen deprived cells, put on my sports shoes and get out there to walk, march or jog to get my tired and sometimes lethargic muscles moving. Later I follow up with half an hour of weight training and then meditate for all I’m worth! There is something about stopping the incessant chatter and clutter of your mind by staring into the dark abyss between your brows. It does stop time for a little while. Permanency is persona non grata here. It is as fleeting as a butterfly and after all is said and done, you’ll still have to ward off the signs as gracefully as you can and that is a conundrum in itself.

Perhaps this quote makes it just a tad easier to bear.

“Wrinkles mean you laughed, grey hair means you cared, and scars mean you lived!”

Prolific but if that doesn’t work, try this one on for size.

“Sometimes you just have to put on your big girl panties and deal with it…”

It has been said that “time stops for no man” and neither does it for a woman. The marching of time with booted feet will drone on as it leaves its signs of aging behind but like with everything else in life, it’s how you choose to approach it that counts. The light within, that little spark of light that flickers with uncertaintly over the daunting task of accepting this next phase in life will seem too delicate to take on the inevitable at first. The slowing down of a body that no longer has the power of a spring chicken to jump, dance and twirl with no regard for the emphasis it places on the hardening muscles will be a thing of the past. Slowing down will become your key word and for some of us, the challenge will be in how to sparkle with renewed vitality, how to make the wrinkles less important, the laugh lines a little less visible and the going down south syndrome more bearable. In the end and according to the Viktor Frankl quote in the beginning, when you can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Perhaps therein lies the whole crux of the matter.

The Brutal Beating Death of Bakari Henderson

070817-news-Bakari-Henderson-1-896x600

Nine men were arrested and charged with the intentional homicide of American tourist, Bakari Henderson on July 2017 on the idyllic Greek island of Zakynthos. It’s been almost a year since the brutal attack and killing of the young American outside a bar on the island and we have yet to see justice prevail in this case. The suspects are a 34-year-old Greek bartender, a 32-year-old British citizen of Serbian origin and seven Serbian men.

Why was Henderson attacked and beaten to death? According to reports, it was because he had taken a selfie with a woman of Serbian descent who had requested the selfie from him. A man nearby was heard saying, “There are a lot of Serbs in the bar, why are you talking to a black guy?” and proceeded to hit Henderson on the side of the head. This set-off the chain of events which led to the young man’s death.

Henderson was 22-years-old at the time and a recent graduate of the University of Arizona. He had big plans for his future and he was in Greece trying to get a new clothing venture off the ground. He was accompanied by some friends and until that fateful night, he had been having fun on the Greek island.

According to his mother, Jill Henderson, in an interview with Gayle King of CBS News, he was, “more comfortable overseas than in the United States. He just felt it was safer over in Europe and overseas in general,” referring to the racial climate against black men in the United States.

It could have been this misconception that cost him his life. After the altercation in the bar, a surveillance footage shows Anderson being chased out of the bar by a group of men, surrounded and then beaten to death. According to Greek police spokesman, Theodore Chronopoulous, “They kicked and punched him to his body and his head. His death came from hits to the head.” Henderson was on his own against the angry mob who pummeled him to the ground and there was nothing anyone could do except to stand and watch the incident take place. After the beating, his friends tried to resuscitate him but he died on the way to hospital.

In the same interview with Gayle King of CBS News, Jill Henderson had this to say about her son’s death. “What parents would raise such barbarians to do such an evil thing to another human thing.?” Perhaps that is the exact question that ran through all of our minds as we read about the beating death of this young man. However, could a more pertinent question be, “Was it racially motivated?” Was he targeted because of his skin color? The woman who approached him for the selfie was of Serbian descent and reports state that she knew the men involved in the attack. Could it have been a set-up right from the beginning? Why did she go up to a total stranger for a selfie and why did she pick Bakari Henderson? These are just unanswered questions that do need answers.

Coming back to the question of race, was Bakari Henderson a walking target because of his skin color? If so, nothing could have prepared him for the “hate” he faced on that July night, a potent force so violent that the end result was the loss of a life. This was certainly not because of one selfie with a stranger.

What animals will do this to a human being? The kind that have no respect for human life. The kind that refuses to see the human beneath the coating of skin color and the kind that decided he deserved to die because of a selfie with a Serbian woman. That is the sad reality folks.

Bakari Henderson was wrong in his assumption that it was safer in Europe than in the United States. The under-current of racism, hate and violence runs deep here just as it does elsewhere and from time to time it rears its ugly head when you least expect it like it did in that bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

A life lost but not forgotten.

The Killing of Christopher Lane

A series on murders that made sensational headlines because of the “senselessness” of the crime.

4895170-3x2-940x627

He was a young man from Melbourne, Australia. He was handsome, he was ambitious, he was in love and he had everything going for him. He was two weeks away from celebrating his 23rd birthday when his life came to a screeching halt when a bullet from a passing car found its way to his back and he was pronounced dead within a matter of minutes.

Christopher Lane had won a baseball scholarship with Oklahoma/s East Central University and he was feeling on top of the world on August 13, 2013. What happened on that hot, humid day and how he lost his life is beyond imagination. His father, Peter Lane, put it this way as he tried to make sense of his son’s death. “It is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity. There is not gonna be any good to come out of this, cause it was just so senseless.” He was right. The senselessness of the killing would make headlines around the world and would make many of us sit up and take notice at man’s inhumanity to man.

They are James Edwards, 15, Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 17, and they were at the other end of the spectrum. All three were restless with no future in sight. They had spent the night partying away, smoking meth amphetamine, drinking alcohol and taking Xanax. On the day of the murder, Edwards and Luna stepped into Jones’s Ford Focus for a joyride. It would quickly turn into tragedy for Christopher Lane. He was jogging, minding his own business when Chancey Luna saw him and decided to take aim from the backseat of the car. The bullet penetrated just below Lane’s shoulder blade piercing his heart and lungs leaving him gasping for breath in a roadside ditch. There was no chance for survival.

According to Jones, “We were bored and didn’t have anything to do so we decided to kill somebody.” Remorse was a long time coming if at all. Instead they were on an euphoric high and the exact words used were, “You got that n***a, you shot him, you got him.”

The three teenagers were sentenced as adults. Jones 17, was charged with accessory after the fact of first degree murder, later upgraded to first-degree murder. James Edwards, 15, was sentenced to 25 years jail with 10 years off the sentence suspended and triggerman, Luna was sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, in 2016, Luna’s conviction was overturned by the appeals court because, “the juvenile’s chronological age and immaturity” were not taken into account at time of sentencing. No date has been set as to when a new sentencing will be held.

This is a story that needs retelling because no matter how much time has gone by between then and now, the senselessness of the crime is horrific to say the least and will never get old. Violence has become an all too familiar part of our lives and killings are nothing new. Each new day brings another story of killing or killings and we have become jaded to the violence all around us. However, in this case, the brutality of the crime stands out because the victim and perpetrators had no prior history. Christopher Lane lost his life because he was seen as a thrill-inducing object not as a human being and therein lies the horror of this specific crime.

“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”

Terry Pratchett

“Evil is as Evil Does”

It was a cold October night in 2017, as I made myself ready for bed but somehow I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that clouded my thoughts. It was as if something was waiting in the shadows ready to pounce when I least expected it. I said a prayer as usual for my son who was away at college and finally fell asleep at around midnight but that uneasy feeling was still there as I drifted off to sleep.

Around 3 a.m., the phone started ringing. I sat up immediately as the jarring sound in the early morning hours woke me into consciousness. I knew it was nothing good. The voice on the other end sounded vaguely familiar as I suddenly realized that it was my son, Christopher. He was a first-year law student and he had just started college about three months ago. Living away from home was his dream come true and we seldom heard from him unless he needed something from us as is the case with most college students, I guess. So, what did he want this late at night?

“Mum, don’t panic. I’m in the hospital but I’m fine. The police are here with me!” Visions of horror swirled through my mind as I gripped the phone tighter. I tried to understand the words from the other side but all I could hear screaming through my head was, “Oh God, no!” Was my worst nightmare coming true? I called the police station to get more details but all they would say was, “Your son is not fine, he’ll have to stay in hospital!”

The next morning, we made the dreaded journey there. It was a two-hour drive with my head going into panic mode. “How badly was he injured?” kept pounding through my sleep-deprived head. We finally arrived at our destination and walked into the hospital room and immediately I am confused. The young man staring back at me from the hospital bed seemed familiar and at the same time unfamiliar. His face was twice the normal size and his eyes seemed lost as they looked at me apologetically. There was a bloody discharge oozing out of the side of his mouth. I could see he was in pain as I reached out and held his hand. The doctor told us that they had to wire his mouth shut after the surgery to make sure the wound healed properly! He had suffered a broken jaw that needed restructuring to make sure that his bite and his jaw would return to normalcy. I could feel the anger rising up within me. I wanted to know the details but I had to keep my panic and my anger in check.

We learn that there had been a scuffle and that he and his friend had gone to the Bahnhof Viertel, the railway station area, to get a snack at around 2 in the morning. They were students feeling free and invincible. No parental noose around their necks and no curfew either! It was time to let loose and enjoy the freedom. Evil had another plan for them that night. Just as they were heading back, laughing and enjoying their burgers, evil stepped in. It came in the form of a 21-year-old German man, just a year older than my son. He approached them demanding that they give him their wallets and their cellphones. The boys stared back at the angry young man not really comprehending what was happening but before they could react, the assailant lunged at them throwing punches and kicks. One of those punches caught my son squarely on his jaw and his glasses went flying. His friend also lost his glasses but only suffered minor bruises. The boys took off running and made their way to the police station about a mile away. The policeman took one look at my son and immediately called the ambulance. Emergency surgery was performed and screws and a plate were inserted into his jaw.

It took him months to recover from such an ordeal which started out with only soft food. Getting fluids down was difficult too but I was thankful it wasn’t worse than that! “He could have lost his life!” kept rushing through my head so I was alright for the moment but the anger I felt refused to leave me alone. Who or what gave this young man the right to attack in such a brutal fashion? The police told us my son and his friend were just victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time but that didn’t help to calm the rage I was feeling. We also learned that my son and his friend weren’t the only victims that night. The angry young man had gone on a rampage of violence injuring six others but none were hurt as badly as my son. Three months later, the victims received a small cash compensation for their pain and ordeal and the perpetrator was sent to youth detention to learn, hopefully, how to behave in a regimented society. I don’t know if he will continue to do what he has done but I hope for my son’s sake and for others who lead lives away from evil that this angry young man has learned his lesson before he goes out and does this again and kills someone the next time around.

Christopher went back to college several months after the attack. His jaw has healed although the plate still remains and will remain there forever. Just as he was leaving for college, I decided to talk to him about his ordeal and to give him some safety tips. The young man I had raised with such loving care and who now has the titanium plate in his jaw said, “Mum, I will not let that “animal” dictate how I live my life!” There was nothing more to say after that. I had raised him right.

Here is a quote that speaks to the heart of the problem.

“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

On that particular night in question, the angry young man chose to cross the battleline and in so doing, he brought harm to his fellowman. Sometimes raising your children right doesn’t guarantee their safety and all it takes for evil to find them is as the police officers said, “They were at the wrong place at the wrong time.” More often than not, this is all it takes for someone to lose a life or to carry their injuries for a lifetime because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I have come to terms with what happened to my son, thankful that his life was spared on that night. He is back to normal and psychologically he seems to be doing fine there too. However, I am sure that this won’t be the last time that he will come face to face with evil but I hope if and when he does that the angels will be out in full force watching over him. Evil thrives and it hits home when we least expect it just as it did on that October night.

Stephon Clark, A Senseless Killing

March 18, 2018 dawned like any other day for Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American male but before the day was done, he would belong to the same club as all those killed before him, the likes of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin just to name a few who are now card-carrying members of the “shot dead by the police” club.

On that particular evening, the officers of the Sacramento Police Department were looking for a male suspect who was captured on film breaking windows in the Meadowview neighborhood. The police camera shows officers breathing heavily as they run around the neighborhood trying to apprehend the suspect. They come across Clark standing in the yard of his grandmother’s house with a cellphone in one hand. What ensued is hard to watch as is and was the case in many other shootings involving black males in the U.S. The camera footage takes you through the encounter and then one officer is heard shouting, “Gun! gun! gun!” and a barrage of shots follows. The aftermath shows the victim on the ground his life seeping away. The officers had fired 20 rounds, eight shots found their mark, six of them in Stephon Clark’s back. He died about 3 to 10 minutes after being shot. The officers opened fire just seconds, six seconds in all, after they encountered Clark.

This is nothing new. The “overkill” by law enforcement of black males is nothing new, it has happened often enough. The horror and anger is nothing new either and so are the protests that ensued as hundreds if not thousands took to the streets looking for justice. We have yet to see justice prevail in such shootings because police officers are held to different standards and they march to a different drum beat or so it seems in this country.

According to the police, they believed that Clark was holding a weapon in his hand as they chased him into the backyard and opened fire at an unarmed man. The weapon was a white iPhone. The officers have claimed that they “feared for their lives.” We’ve heard this excuse often enough. Take Michael Brown for instance. The officer, Darren Wilson, who shot him claimed that he feared for his life against an unarmed Brown. The young teenager had been shot six times at least twice in the head, those were the last two shots he delivered. According to Darren Wilson, it was a “fight for survival” and he shot him because he feared for his life. Sound familiar?

Coming back to the case at hand, no aid was administered to Stephon Clark after the shooting. It took about 5 minutes before a female officer is heard saying, “We need to know if you’re OK. We need to get you medics, so we can’t go over and get you help until we know you don’t have a weapon.” Right, how many bullets does it take to believe that a shooting victim is no longer a threat? After five minutes, they walk over and handcuff the man lying bleeding on the ground. More officers arrive at the scene and one officer is heard saying, “Hey, mute,” and that was the end of the audio recording.

This is just another shooting of yet another black male in the scheme of things. The use of deadly force is also the norm where black males are concerned. Shoot first and ask questions later is the stance law enforcement takes when it comes to black suspects. The latest incident has sparked protests but this too is nothing new. The anger will simmer long after the protests have died down but justice will take a long time coming, if at all.

California lawmakers are pushing to make it easier to prosecute police officers who kill civilians. According to the author of the bill, Shirley Weber, “It seems that the worst possible outcome is increasingly the only outcome that we experience.” How right she is. These killings can only be described as an “overkill” to say the least.

In the meantime, another black male is dead, the victim of a police shooting. Far too often we hear, “we feared for our lives,” from the officers after emptying their barrels into the victims but in most cases it was not the officers who had to fear for their lives, it was the victims who had no weapons to protect themselves and are no longer here to give an account of what took place.

Stephon Clark was the father of two young boys, ages 1 and 3 and at the time of his death, he was trying to turn his life around. He had a criminal record but that is not the point here. His record is irrelevant, the shoot to kill mentality is. The case is under investigation but don’t hold your breath. The killing of black males will continue in a culture where it is condoned by the system.

Stephon Clark’s grandmother asked, “Why didn’t you shoot him in the arm? Shoot him in the legs? Send in dogs? Send in a Taser? Why? Why? Those are my questions too. but I will add one more question to that. Why was Clark shot six times in the back if as the officers claimed that they had feared for their lives when they delivered the shots? Finally, did Stephon Clark deserve to die even if he had broken some windows on that late March evening? What do you think?

Terror in Manchester

Shortly after 10.33 pm last night, just after the conclusion of American singer and pop idol Ariana Grande’s concert, a man in a suicide vest with a bomb strapped to it detonated an explosive device killing 22 people and injuring more than 50 people. Most of the dead were children. They are known as “soft targets.” Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

We’ve seen this scenario often enough. Remember the Bataclan in France? On Friday 13, November 2015, three heavily armed men got out of a black Volkswagen Polo and entered the concert hall, three hours later, the carnage included 90 dead and many many critically injured among the victims. In December 2016, a lorry driven by a Tunisian man drove into a crowded Berlin Christmas market killing 12 and leaving 48 injured. Again, there was sorrow and anger at the senseless killing of so many and again, the country involved had to stand tall and not flinch at the slaughter of so many innocents. German author, Anne Wizorek, said it best during her speech to the people gathered to pay their respects at the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin. “We need radical solidarity. We have to stand together and not be torn apart. We cannot let the hate and the fear have a platform.”

So, here we are again, shocked beyond belief at the senseless and horrific killing of so many, including children. It should have been a night of fun and unforgettable memories. Instead, many will carry images of people strewn around like rag dolls and blood and body parts splattered everywhere. Furthermore, for the dead the memories have stopped for all eternity.

Evil has a name, it is called terror. This kind of terror will happen over and over again and stopping it will be like looking for a “needle in a haystack.” Even if they do find a way to stop it, knowing when and where the next attack will take place will be a guessing game.

That is the scary reality.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

An article about President Trump and his inability to keep “secrets.”

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Update: I wrote this during Trump’s first term and nothing has changed it seems. If anything, he is shooting off “bullets” before his mind can catch up with him! The bully is front and center and he is using the office of the presidency to back him up. Talks of taking Greenland by force, talking down to the allies and single-handedly dismantling the “Old World Order” is all within his grasp and he is leaving nothing to chance. This is what I had to say back then.

The 45th President is in hot water again and this just days after the controversial firing of FBI Director, James Comey. The president alleged that the firing was due to Comey “not doing a good job,” and instead of leaving it at that, he went on to tweet a thinly veiled threat suggesting that there was a taped recording of his conversation with Comey further adding, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.” That threw him into the eye of the hurricane where he has been ever since.

As if that wasn’t enough to throw his presidency into a downward spiral, the president was off and running to his next debacle. This one involves allegations that he divulged classified information to Russian diplomats in the Oval Office. The Washington Post reported that Trump revealed highly classified information on the Islamic State group during his meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kialyak. Yes folks, ignorance is bliss and where the new President is concerned, it’s enough to “sink ships,” or his Presidency.

The latest morsel of “red meat” was just what the press needed to send them scrambling to get the best angle on the developing story as dreams of “impeachment” riddled through the minds of die-hard Trump haters. Not so fast people. There is such a thing as damage control and the White House has been doing just that sending in the “big guns” to take care of business. If Spicer’s “stare down the press” tactics hasn’t worked, well, maybe sending in National Security Advisor HR McMaster might just do the job. In his no-nonsense fashion, he denied that the President had revealed, “Intelligence sources or methods,” but reviewed, “a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation.” Was that enough to calm the “storm” and bring it to a screeching halt? Guess again.

Trump’s questionable tweets and actions have put his Presidency in turmoil once again and not even all the President’s men and women can put it back together again. This latest drama is one of his own making and if he doesn’t stop shooting off tweets from the White House during the early morning hours instead of getting some sleep, this situation is only going to get worse. Perhaps, he should take a tip from the 44th President, Barack Obama, when the going gets tough, go golfing. There is no better way to let off some steam than by shooting a small ball into a round hole at the same time cussing under your breath about all the wrongs of the world that needs righting. A surefire way to keep the lid on an explosive situation and you come off looking like a winner.

One last thing, the office of the President deserves a modicum of decorum and spouting off “secrets” at the drop of a coin and shooting off tweets like a teenager is not the way to get it.

–

Trumpenitus

A light-hearted look at the Trump Presidency.

To tell you the truth, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with the 45th President, Donald J. Trump. I guess I’ve got more then that going, I’ve developed a symptom I would like to call Trumpenitus. Read on to find out what it is.

I liked him well-enough at the beginning of his run for the White House. He was funny and a breath of fresh air compared to the other stiff-necked candidates. I could see that it wasn’t going to be politics as usual with him. There was something in the air, some may call it a bunch of “bull” but that slogan, “Make America Great Again,” had me singing his praises and it caught on like wild-fire with his supporters leaving the one other significant candidate, Hillary Clinton, free-falling and into nothingness.

Against all odds, he went on to win the Presidency leaving Democrats in the dust asking, “What happened here?” The 45th President was voted in and inaugurated with pomp and circumstance and I was still on the Trump bandwagon waving my flag and standing tall and with a big smile on my face. I told a friend, “I think he’ll be good for the country. Perhaps he’ll turn things around and “Make America Great Again.” My friend an ardent but sour grapes Democrat was crushed and replied, “You must be out of your mind.” Looking back I must have been or I simply had Trumpenitus, a gushing in my ear of all things Trump. Yes, I was full of it or of something or rather.

It’s been a roller-coaster ride and only a little more than a 100 days into his Presidency when the alarm bells starting ringing. First, it was the banning of Muslims from certain countries. Let’s just say that was obvious since he had been hinting about it throughout his campaign. It was nothing new but to actually put a ban into effect took gumption and a narrow-eyed focus. My first reaction was, “How’s this going to work?” I didn’t think it was fair and with the rise of hate crimes against Muslims in the country, I knew that it would only escalate the situation and cause more problems. I told myself to take the wait and see approach. Perhaps, he had a plan and maybe the ringing in my ears and head might come to a screeching halt. I could only pray but I was still hanging onto that bandwagon, the Trump wagon that is.

No chance, it took off again when he okayed the strike against Syria with very little media hoopla. Gone were the days of putting every move and strategic advantage out there so that the media could dissect every little detail and when the administration finally made a move, the enemy had packed up their assets and left town. This was refreshing indeed, finally a Commander-in-Chief who was willing to show the world, “Who’s the boss?” Good, the love-shine hadn’t worn off yet.

Oh wait, I spoke too soon. Now, the tweets were coming in fast and furious and the digs at the media was causing more than a flurry. They, the media, was waging war on the President except of course for Fox News. They were his darlings (talking about the moderators on Fox News) and could do no wrong as far as he was concerned. Suddenly, North Korea was looming high and mighty and hissing at the fringes. Tough talk from the President didn’t do much to soothe the situation or calm the chubby dictator and get him off his stool of arrogance. Ok, here we go, I thought. He’s going to get us in a war. Trigger-happy? Perhaps.

Trumpenitus was in full swing by now. Tax cuts, picking fights like a school yard bully, border wall disputes, deportation of illegal immigrants, repeal and replace Obamacare and repeal Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch plans. Did I miss anything? Probably but who cares. Just when I thought I had a grasp on one idea, he was off and running to another. Oh Lord, I need something for the ringing….. He’s making my ears ring and my head spin at the same time! What happens when you take on too much in a minimum amount of time? Your guess is as good as mine.

In a nutshell, the 45th President, Donald J. Trump wants to do good for the country but I wonder if he’s on a fast-track to disaster because of the speed-cycle he’s chosen? His chart-busting moves is making me sick. I need a doctor fast!