Wednesday, October 24, 2018

It's the impulsive ignoramous, stupid

In keeping with the motto of the Clinton victory in his first campaign - "It's the economy, stupid", I have suggested a few mottos for this mid-term - "It's the corruption, stupid", "It's the incompetence and neglect, stupid", and "It's the cruelty, stupid."  Here is another....

"It's the impulsive ignoramus, stupid."

I mean Trump, of course, but Republicans are too timid to challenge his ignorance. 

Nothing wrong with being ignorant, we are all ignorant - that is just not knowing something.  All presidents are ignorant about many things.  But, they have the decency and character to explore, ask, listen, learn----learn----learn. 

But an ignoramus is one who is ignorant and refuses to learn, one who is ignorant and thinks he knows it all, one who is ignorant and thinks it is not necessary to learn or be informed.  That pretty well summarizes the TV star who is playing the president on TV, Mr Trump.

A few top of the head examples - trade - he thinks a trade deficit with a country means the country is taking advantage of us, even though it has been explained to him over and over that this is not true.

Trade war - he thinks the way to grow the economy is via a trade war.  Caterpillar today announced that the price of their very heavy products will have to rise because of the increased price of steel, and the stock market dropped 608 points, culminating a bad week and wiping out all the gains of the year.

The economy - I caution against keeping investments in the stock market while this ignorant loose canon is president - between his ignorance of economics, ignorance of diplomacy, and ignorance of actual news rather than just the right wing propaganda he is slave to his impulses are likely to have pretty drastic damage on the economy.

Taxes - he thinks lowering taxes will have no consequences other than getting him votes, and thinks increasing the deficit is of no importance.  Of course, the Reps in Congress are happy to go along because they can use the frightening deficit to cut social programs, which they hate because it helps the people they try to ignore - the poor and middle class, especially those of color.

The Middle East - he has sided with the murderous Saudi Arabia against the murderous Iran.  Hard to imagine anything dumber than to pick a side in the Middle East.  You break it, you own it, and now he owns Mohammed bin Salman who just dismembered a critical media person, Kashoggi, while he was still alive - took him 7 minutes to die.  But, what the heck, they buy weapons from us - to ....

Immigrants - he is whipping up a paranoid frenzy about 5000 desperate people fleeing Latin American countries from poverty, despotism, and cruelty.  All bad folks, he says.  What nonsense. Terrified people needing a refuge.  But that would take compassion, which he and too many of his followers can't muster.  And that would mean abandoning his number one campaign strategy - whipping up fear of brown people.

The list is endless, but this is as much as I can bring myself to remember right now.

It's the impulsive ignoramus, stupid - and his supine Republican politicians running as close to him as they can - the ignoramus caucus.