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So, let's see, last week Iran became our new worst enemy. The week before that it was Mexico. The week before that it was China. Australia, which used to be one of our best friends, isn't anymore. Now Russia is our best friend. Which is a little, um, awkward, since Russia and Iran are best friends. They've been best friends a long time. Do you think our so-called President, Donald Trump, gets this? Does he get that Vladimir Putin and the Ayatollah go 'way back,    ...that they're the home boys from the same 'hood, living right around the corner from each other,  ...while he, Donald Trump, is the rich kid who lives off over in the rich part of town? But the spoiled rich kid wants to pal around with the bad tough kid so that everyone will think that he's a bad tough kid, too. Putin's a killer? So what, sniffs Donald Trump, we do a lot of killing where I come from, too.
 ...so much so that he'll not only overlook Putin's tyranny and corruption, his poisonings of his opponents and murders of journalists, his anschluss of the people of Crimea, his invasion of Ukraine, and his interference in our own elections. For his part, Donald seems more than happy to leave behind our good, staunch, long-time Western allies while he carries on his flirtation with Putin by flirting with the idea of abandoning NATO, the treaty organization that has kept Europe in a strong and peaceful co-existence for over 70 years. Does Donald believe that his Russian love interest will over-look his boom-lowering on Russia's best friend and homie?  Eh, maybe Putin will overlook the dust-up with Iran and let the rich American wanna-be hang with him and be one of the guys. But only until he can get his hands on the rich kid's house keys.  References
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin/index.html http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170205/trump-brushes-off-description-of-putin-as-killer-says-us-has-a-lot-of-killers-itself
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 ...for requesting a halt on Donald Trump's travel ban on citizens from the primarily Muslim countries of Yemen, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Iraq. And three cheers for Federal Judge James Robart - a George W. Bush appointee, by the way with a penchant for stylish ties,-    ...as well a justice. It was Judge Robart who granted a restraining order on Donald Trump's Muslim ban. Judge Robart's order means that our country's laws regarding travelers entering the United States have returned to what they were a week ago, before Donald Trump decided to whip out without warning an impetuous, not-thought-out executive order that plunged airports across the U.S. and around globe into disorder and confusion, sparked world-wide outrage and protests, and left 60,000 travelers in difficult straits, some with their lives in chaos. But what now? Unmoved by all the hardship and anxiety he's inflicted upon these many thousands of men, women, and children with the stroke of a pen, Donald Trump, in a seething tweet denigrating Judge Robart's qualifications, promised to overturn the Judge's order and has already ordered the Department of Justice to appeal the ruling. This is not the formulation of a policy of immigration and border control for the security of our nation. This is irresponsibility and pure heartlessness. Can you imagine all these people, people who've called our country home for years, contributing members of our society, doctors, university professors, students, ordinary law-abiding tax-paying, legal residents, working, home-owning people, people whose families are here, or who were traveling with their families, their children? Can you imagine all these people arriving back home to the States after their trip abroad, an 8, 10, 12, 14-hour plane trip, being stopped at Customs and told to their bewilderment that it's suddenly against the law for them to be here? Can you imagine all the travelers who innocently procured their travel visas to come to the U.S. to study, work, live, visit, go on vacation, whatever, who unsuspectingly bought their plane tickets, got on the plane, then were stopped at their layover point and told they couldn't continue on? And what about the thousands of refugees, men, women and children who suffered war, loss and privation then spent years of their lives waiting their turn in camps, only to suffer the random and horrible bad luck of be given the travel date of the day when Donald Trump impulsively and without warning slammed the door to them? It's said that now that the travel ban has been blocked, people whose visas were not physically cancelled may be able to try to get another plane ticket and book a return flight to the U.S. but they'd better do it quickly because Trump's travel ban could be reinstated at any time by ruling of an appeals court. But what about the refugees and those people whose visas, in the confusion, were physically cancelled? They may well be out of luck, the least fortunate of all. In truth nobody seems to know what's going on, what the outcome will be for any of those who were turned away last week but who now seek to return to the United States. And the airlines are still in chaos, with beleaguered airline workers who have no idea what to do. So while confusion reigns amidst legal uncertainty, tens of thousands of immigrants, refugees, and travelers are left with their lives still in limbo. Where are they all now? Returned to the countries from which they departed, countries that they were only visiting but may not now be able to leave? What about the people who are stranded in the countries where they were supposed to change planes? What about families with children, with babies? What are these people doing for food and shelter and clean clothes and diapers and baby food? What about the people who need to get back to their jobs and schools and families in the U.S.? What about those who can't afford the expense of food and lodging for themselves and their families? What if they can't get back here? What about the people who will become lost in the shuffle, who will fall through the cracks? What about the children? Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to be the law and order President. Instead he's revealed himself to be the Imp of disorder, chaos, and cruelty  References
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/airlines-airports-trump-travel-ban/index.html It's impossible to escape Donald Trump. He's kind of like the cosmic cloud mother who floats above New York City to the bedevilment of Woody Allen in the movie "Oedipus Wrecks."  Except that Donald Trump is more like the personification of a nuclear winter cloud, the aftermath of a disaster - his election - that now hangs noxiously- or rather, whirls noxiously, up, down, and all over the place like a flatus in a blender - over the whole wide world. I'd call one of the many movies that will someday be made about him: "Trumpius Wrecks"  Since the ascendancy of Trumpius Wrecks we've had no real freedom from his foul presence. You can become occupied with some other diversion for a while - your work, your kids, your friends, a night at the movies - but he's always there, disturbing the air above and around you. He's the thorn in your rose. The fly in your soup. The worm in your apple.
One night last week while I was teaching a piano lesson in a student's home I received a phone call. I glanced at my phone screen and saw that it was a friend calling. After the lesson I was talking to my student's mother, a busy young professional woman, about her child's practice assignment for the week. After I'd finished talking about the piano lesson the young mother exclaimed, "I still can't believe that man is President!" She was feeling down and distraught, worried for her children, herself, her country, the world. "What can I do?" she sighed. I told her not to worry. I told her to do her work and take care of those children of hers and leave the resistance to us older folks and younger folks without small children who have the time and the resources. I told her we got it done in the '60's and we'd get it done again this time. Later that night when I returned home from teaching I called my friend back. She, too, was suffering a case of the Trumpius Wrecks blues and was sorely in need of cheering up. While I was giving my friend a pep-talk my daughter called. When I called my daughter back she was feeling Trump-down, and while I was consoling my daughter my sister called. My sister was actually okay but she was concerned about a friend whose spirits were in the Trumpits. And so it goes. Even my piano tuner, the other day as he was leaving my house, turned to me and said, "I've been depressed lately." Trump, I thought to myself. "It's because of Trump," he sighed woefully. But to all those suffering under the manic miasma of the endless misdeeds of Trumpius Wrecks, I say take heart and fear not. Return to my post from 1/26/2017, in which I left instructions for contacting your Representatives in Washington. Stay on top of the news, painful as it may be since it's never about anything but Donald Trump anymore, but stay informed anyway and if you've already contacted your Representative about last week's Trumpius Wrecks debacle, contact them again about last week's and this week's and the week's before. Pile up your phone calls, emails and complaints to your Representatives. Write to your newspaper. Bee-atch to your friends. Make your voice heard however you can. And if you can't make it to a public demonstration - which are proliferating around the country by the day - then leave the demonstrations to those of us who can and will make them. That's how we got it done in the 60's. |
"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY Archives
March 2026
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