What have we learned in 100 days?
So we have been watching the new play in our political theater for a while now. Somewhere along the line the first 100 days were chosen to tell us something. I'm not sure I can tell you what it is supposed to be.
Meanwhile these things are out there and are really no where near new.
Trump is a very good actor (or con man if you like) but a very poor leader.
The system is insensitive to who is "managing" it. (Or mismanaging it)
Elections are a distraction.
The aftermath of elections is a distraction as well.
War is good for business.
The congress is filled with sociopaths and one bunch now has control but looks pretty silly as usual.
The condition of the planet is deteriorating by the day and there really is no longer any hope.
I know I write these things over and over again and they have little impact.
Meanwhile it has been a nice trip and thanks for all the fish.
Comments
I, for one,
very much appreciate your musings, observations and insights into this reality we live in. Are they dystopian and depressing? Yes, but that is our reality.
Tilting at windmills? What else is there to do.
Shit's bad and getting worse. Love one another while we still can.
peace
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
First 100 Days Concept
The concept of the first 100 days of a president's term was pioneered by FDR when he took office in 1933. It's understandable why FDR promoted this artificial timeline since the country was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. Now the concept has degenerated into political theatrics.
Ironically,
the totally arbitrary and pointless "100 days" concept is the only part of FDR's legacy that isn't kryptonite to the current pols and MSM.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Bernie Sanders & FDR
There's one politician who's not afraid to mention FDR:
I will never forget what the Democratic establishment did to Senator Sanders and his supporters. After being a life long Democrat, I became an independent after the 2016 Democratic primary. The Democratic party will continue to lose power unless they embrace their FDR roots.
I think media promotes it, because of FDR.
FDR accomplished such an astounding amount by the end of his first 100 days that media could not help but comment. Thereafter, the first 100 days of new presidents were compared to the first 100 of FDR's administration. Eventually, media dropped the direct comparison, but still looked at what a new President accomplished during his first 100 days in office.
We have learned that Trump isn't calling the shots
He has given the generals control of the military which goes against the constitution because the founders knew that it would be bad if they got control of the military. It has been bad since before 9/11 but since the war of terror started it has gotten much worse.
Obama was responsible for heinous war crimes, but the one thing he did that pissed the military off was not putting large numbers of troops into the countries that we were using drones on and in Libya and Syria. It also pissed off the neocons like McCain, Graham and the Kagan family. Robert Kagan helped write the PNAC and his wife Victoria Nuland was responsible for the Ukrainian coup.
The pentagon pushed back against Barack when they deliberately broke the ceasefire in Syria, killed 82 Syrian troops and let ISIS have the airport that the Syrians had held for two years.
I don't remember Barack doing anything about that.
Trump has also changed how many civilians can be killed and we can see the results by the increasing number of people who are being killed.
Over 300 people were killed in March.
I agree with you that congress is full of sociopaths and has been for two centuries. How else can anyone explain why they continue to put the military in positions that they know will kill civilians?
I just wish I believed in hell.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Excellent synopsis, Don
The last three presidents have been a remarkable contrast vis-a-vis leadership.
Dubya charged blindly ahead, lance lowered, striking at anything in his way.
O'Bummer lead from behind (an oxymoron if ever there was one).
Trumposaurus is a dog chasing its tail--it has no f'ing idea whats its doing but won't stop until it falls over in exhaustion.
@Alligator Ed
The dog likely has the excuse of an itchy tail that it can never properly scratch. (They generally have people to do that for them.)
In Trump's case, the seemingly pointless tail-chasing might display a need for him to go a lot further in than the base of the tail to scratch whatever itches he may have - but at least there's always the hope that he might completely disappear up there and never find his way out again.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Keep on speaking Don, some of
Keep on speaking Don, some of are reading...Sadly no one of power or the money.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Here is Bernie's analysis of the first 100 days
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqgSUtJ2tl0]
love this...
Due to the late Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3078120-so-long-and-thanks-for-all...
One could compare Trump to Zaphod Beeblebrox, whose enormous ego leads to him being made president of the Galaxy.
Note that the most powerful man in the Galaxy is someone else entirely, however, a person almost nobody knows about, who lives on an obscure planet out in the country where he talks to his cat.
ear-to-ear pleasure, on that didn't get to list...
Got any gin?
small fly attracts big fish; more than worth the effort, to learn, many thanks.
Every time any of us buys something through Amazon,
we’re helping Jeff Bezos (who owns the Washington Post) shape the national narrative?
And anytime we use FaceBook and let it pillage our personal data, we’re helping Mark Zuckerberg (the next Donald Trump) become president?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/is-mark-zuckerberg-running-for-pre...
Edited to add:
FaceBook, and by implication, Zuckerberg are hewing to the Democrats’ line on 2016 election manipulation (Russia-gate).
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/04/facebook-hews-democratic-party-li...
Good reminders about using Amazon and FB, thanks lotlizard.
Remember also how Twitter covered for Her Heinous, as well as diminished Occupy Wall St's presence too?
Liberals, my ass.
Neoliberal, most definitely.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
I'm thankful I'm not
a 20-something or 30-something looking at another 40, 50 years before I can start cashing S.S. checks.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
The USA is now essentially leaderless.
The American electorate in its infinite wisdom, has chosen a virtual ignoramus to serve as a kind of bloated figurehead for the loose amalgamation of self-interested, power-hungry globalists commonly referred to as the "Deep State". Being himself functionally illiterate, President Trump has very little idea of either how or why these forces operate. He is in effect blind as a bat, and finds himself for the most part at the mercy of people who are far more knowledgeable, ruthless, and influential than he is.
The President's rambling and largely incoherent "tweets" are in no way indicative of what actual US policy might be. The more of them he makes, the less anyone believes there is any substance to them. Increasingly, he appears to be more of a professional gasbag than an actual leader. His idea of national leadership seems based on the practice of dealing out lucrative portfolios to opportunistic friends and associates, in the expectation of buying their loyalty. Hey, it worked for Henry VIII, maybe it'll work for Trump too... but I kinda doubt it. I don't think The Donald has anywhere near the smarts that The Henry had.
Be that as it may, the architects of our would-be American Empire stumble onward into the vasty unknown... "Living in the Land of Nod, trusting their fate to the hands of God". Me, I'm thinking the USA is like that guy who has jumped out of a 40th floor window, and as he falls past the 20th floor he's waving to somebody inside yelling, "So far, so good!"
native
@native
The saddest part is that he's still better than the Clintons would have been in that he delayed some things a little longer than the Mad Bomber would have. What kind of 'fireworks display' might Her have had planned on the ship, intended to celebrate Her Royal Coronation? s/ (maybe?)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
... I know I write these
No, they need to be said over and over again - until everyone finally asks why we allow this. And thanks for 'doing the necessary' so well!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.