When
I walked our dog Nellie to the fields one morning last week it was
minus one degree Fahrenheit with a windchill factor in the negative
teens. When it’s cold like this, and without a nurse to help take care
of Calvin, for the most part I’m stuck indoors traipsing around behind
my kid whose care often epitomizes monotony; he's a non-verbal
twelve-year-old boy who can’t grasp abstractions, can’t dress himself,
use a spoon or play with games or kids or toys. So I’m stuck inside with
just my thoughts, sometimes eking out a few lines on my laptop when
Calvin spins in his jumper.
On these long cold days I find myself thinking a lot about the presidential race, and not just about Hillary and Bernie, but about the field of conservative crackers, particularly the one with the spray tan and peroxide hair that defies every law of nature. I'll refer to him here as Mr. Dump.
In contrast to Mr. Dump, my son Calvin doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He truly is a pure spirit, his every cell bursting with unconditional love, incapable of hurting a fly, at least not on purpose. Calvin's soft light is a precious gift, a refuge amid a barrage of Dump's harsh bombast and the Rights' absurd fighting and yelling and railing.
On these long cold days I find myself thinking a lot about the presidential race, and not just about Hillary and Bernie, but about the field of conservative crackers, particularly the one with the spray tan and peroxide hair that defies every law of nature. I'll refer to him here as Mr. Dump.
In contrast to Mr. Dump, my son Calvin doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He truly is a pure spirit, his every cell bursting with unconditional love, incapable of hurting a fly, at least not on purpose. Calvin's soft light is a precious gift, a refuge amid a barrage of Dump's harsh bombast and the Rights' absurd fighting and yelling and railing.
I don't believe in heaven or hell or angels, or even that things happen for a reason, but I'm beginning to think that Mr. Dump is Satan's twin. He even has the backing of a former KKK grand wizard, who he lied about knowing, and a band of nasty white supremacists. Here are some examples of the baseless and vile garbage that comes out of Dump's mouth in public (I try not to imagine what he says and does behind closed doors):
About Muslims: “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims.”
About Megyn Kelly: “She had blood coming out of her 'whatever'.”
About Mexicans: “they're bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists."
About African Americans and Jews: “I have black guys counting my money ... I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day.”
About African Americans: “Laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that.”
About himself: “The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”
About his daughter: “I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.”
Rising over his sickening rhetoric is the din of angry supporters who—though he openly and blatantly condescends to them—applaud his bigoted, misogynistic, bombastic, racist, fascist and xenophobic filth. He and they hold bitter contempt for any semblance of political correctness, which is really just another term to describe decency, kindness, consideration and respect. I think of Calvin who, if he could reason and speak, would never in a million years revel in offending others.
Dump, it appears, has become the champion for those who wallow in the kind of bile he spews, who want to put up walls to keep refugees out of a nation comprised of immigrants (mind you, they're not talking about Canadians), who want to round up people based on their religion (no, they're not talking about Christians), who have an appetite for torture, a perverse thrill for ridiculing women and mocking the disabled—or at the very least laughing when he does—and a penchant for angry rants. This arrogant narcissist has harnessed, even fueled, hatred toward people who are good. The vileness of his convictions is repulsive to me, perhaps boarders on dangerous. Can you imagine a man like this—who lacks even the guise of basic human decency, humility, consideration, restraint, introspection or remorse and who repeatedly balks when asked to explain his policy—having his finger on the Red Button? With conceit like his and a clear ignorance of the nuance in handling foreign affairs, he'd be liable—perhaps even thrilled—to ignite World War III.
It's cold as hell again today, a bitter wind cutting to the bone. While I'm waiting for Calvin to get off the bus and give me his usual smiles and hugs, I've been writing and wondering how it is we seem to have become a nation of so many fools who have insatiable appetites for garbage and shit.
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| Art by Meike van Schijndel |
I could not agree more, Christie; the guy is a complete farce, an utter imbecile, a self absorbed, ignorant, bigot, racist, fascist scum bag. No surprise here, there are quite a few like him around, luckily for us they do not get as much airtime as he does.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure why he does:
certainly not thanks to his looks, he is like a caricature of a buffoon;
cannot be his 'business acumen', since the fact is that he would be better off financially now if he had just lived on the money left by his dad - another major scumbag - than after all these years of wheeling, dealing, going bankrupt and back to hustling;
not his eloquence, he talks like a simpleton
not his charisma, he has none
so, we should just dismiss him as yet another tv made pseudo celebrity who gets far more attention than he deserves.
HOWEVER, the REALLY troublesome aspect is HOW MANY Americans are embracing wholeheartedly his fascist views of the world.
After many years of pretending it wasn't so (at least in parts of the Country, of course in the South they kept flying their hideous flag all along), finally they are showing their true colour and have no shame to admit they are racist, xenophobes, war mongers.
i know very well that these idiots do not represent the majority of the US population, but unfortunately they are loud and violent; they WILL follow the orders of their supreme leader and line up at the polls when election day comes (unless the Republican Party decides to get rid of him before he completely destroys them too).
The only real hope, in my opinion, would be for Mr. Sanders to be the opponent, he COULD get people motivated enough to show up and vote, and he WOULD change the way things are run in our fake democracy. I really hope the Democrats do not fall for the allure of the status quo presented by Mrs Clinton, who represents all that is wrong with our system; much like her husband before her, she talks a good talk (less Bill's charisma), but walks the walk dictated by her large corporate sponsors.
She does not give a damn about middle class, minorities, women rights, african americans (it is sad to see them cheering her up now, just because she is pretending to be friends with Mr. Obama - another one who talked a great talk and then followed Wall Street's orders).
Mrs. Clinton only cares about herself and to get into power.
The system as a whole is deeply flawed; we live in a fake democracy where we are given the choice between two sides of the same coin, and the decision are always taken by the military industrial apparatus.
The whole "delegates, super delegates, caucases, primaries, unlimited fund raisers" are all parts of a big show made for tv, so that people THINK they can choose.
It must change; the two party system is rigged; we need a new look at the world and a more humane society (yes, more Socialist and less Capitalist).
I have a shred of hope, but if the scumbag "wins" these "elections", the world is in trouble (look what happened when the last village idiot, GW, got the reigns: we are still suffering from his criminal actions today...