Chaos & cruelty
Chaos and cruelty. These are the hallmarks of the trump regime.
They are not accidental. They are part of a calculated plan.
Chaos keeps your name “in the news” every hour of every day. That makes everything you do appear more important, no matter how insignificant it really is.
The more cruel the outcome, the better. That tells everyone you mean business, and who knows who might be the next target – maybe even you!
The latest example is the plan to livestream an execution by military firing squad.
Many details remain uncertain. Will there be multiple camera angles and closeups? What about instant replay? Slow motion with lots of blood spatter, like in the movies? High-def sound of the bullets hitting?
So many questions unresolved. Chaos is good!
OK, many religious and political leaders around the globe have condemned the plan as barbaric, and the outcry may cause the ringleaders to walk back their plan. But still, it’s chaos and it’s cruel – it can hardly be beat!
Think of all the ink that’s been spilled about this already! It’s super easy to see who’s on your side and who isn’t! Who needs elections when you’ve got issues like this to sort out your friends and your enemies?
* * * * *
Speaking of cruel chaos and an enemies list, how about sending federal agents on a predawn raid of one of your most frequent critics just a few weeks before she stands for re-election? Likely, Rep. Ilhan Omar will survive this atrocity, maybe even benefit from it – especially if trump comes up with more lies about how Somalians love to eat your pets for lunch.
* * * * *
Of trump’s support of “Doc” Marshall and his lies about Adam Hamilton and Resurrection: A United Methodist Church I will say more later.
* * * * *
Here’s another example of chaos and cruelty.
The other day, in the midst of a long and mostly incoherent speech, trump appeared (to some anyway) to say that it would be OK for Iran to bomb a couple cities in California.
That’s not at all what he meant, supporters say.
Yes, it was.
The idea is to speak so incoherently that nobody can tell exactly what you mean to say, and then when certain people, especially those in the press, pick up on one interpretation, you can denounce them as traitorous leftists. All the while, of course, your supporters know exactly what you meant to say – at least after your own press office sorts it out.
Just follow these threads of rhetoric, they say. Don’t be misled by those who follow different threads to different conclusions. This is the only logical interpretation.
Meantime, our former friends and allies around the world just shake their heads sadly and wonder how soon trump will complete his betrayal of Ukraine and move closer to making the U.S. a new state in the Russian empire.
* * * * *
Monday, Oct. 12, was Indigenous People's Day. It used to have a different name. Think of a bad movie based on a novel by Philip Roth, both titled “Goodbye Columbus.”
* * * * *
This may be the most negative book review I’ve ever written.
The book is Living With Freddie: How a Dog Taught Me to Be Human, by Anna Heyward.
Freddie is a second-hand 8-year-old Italian greyhound that the author tried to live with for several years and finally gave up. The last she saw of him was him panicking as he was being driven away by his new owner. She knows nothing of how he fared afterward.
She was perhaps uniquely unsuited to live with him in the first place. Freddie was an overbred (and inbred) toy lapdog who had huge problems with separation anxiety and demanded near constant attention that she simply could not provide.
As to how Freddie taught her to be human I cannot say because she shows little evidence of any progress on that front. She later got another dog that appears to be a better fit. I’m happy for her and her new dog. I worry about Freddie.
Life with any animal can be difficult, and neither human nor animal always gets it right. I suspect most dog and cat owners have their own horror stories to tell. Despite the struggles, many of these stories have more or less happy endings. I wish this one had both a better story and a better ending.