Childhood Mortality (and some other stuff)

 I am beginning to think Trump really enjoys hurting children, from the forced family separation of the first administration to the withholding of food aid during the current one. The main thing in common between the two is that most of the children impacted are not white, but Trump is not a racist, at least if you listen to the Republicans. There is also a measles outbreak this year, which has caused at least one death, but lack of vaccination has been an ongoing issue, as it seems people like their kids dead, perhaps because they don't act up that way.

On another note, I think Europe is at least working in the right direction for Ukraine, but one thing they need to remember is that Trump is no more trustworthy than Putin. He really would prefer for the US to be aligned with Putin, so his team can engage in a bit of self-dealing just like Putin's collection of oligarchs. Europe needs to appreciate that under Trump the United States is not a reliable ally. Trump's ego is too fragile, and his administration is about chaos and destroying long-standing expectations. Europe needs to work with Ukraine and come up with a proposal that works for them, knowing Russia won't live up to their side of it. If it becomes a peace-keeping force, then by all means make sure the United States doesn't have authority over it, because who know what mischief Trump will ask of them.

On a side note, because of Musk's over-bearing influence on Trump's administration, I do thing all of his companies should be banned from being granted any new contracts and any extensions on current contracts, since then taxpayers would be sure he didn't benefit from his time as a Ginormous Ego.

Humiliator in Chief

 While many people seemed to expect that the President of Ukraine would be happy with the public extortion of minerals that Trump was pushing for him to sign. I am not sure if this agreement was for future aid or something else, but any sort of peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia should, at minimum, have Ukraine and Russia both at the negotiating table. The current farce taking place between the United States and Russia regarding Ukraine, is really more of the United States giving Putin whatever it is that Russia wants, or at least as much as Trump thinks he can pass off on the world stage. Trump won't really be happy until the United States is viewed as a client state of Putin and Russia. Trump and Vance are unhappy that Zelenskyy didn't get on his knees and polish their shoes, thus showing proper appreciation for the ritual humiliation that Trump loves to serve. Maybe my history is a bit messed up, but normally reparations are sought from the aggressor rather than the attacked. Be that as it may, Trump making an ass of himself is nothing new, and it will likely continue on the world stage for the 3.5+ years left of his term, since everyone knows the Republicans in Congress really just want to collect a paycheck without doing much in the way of legislation.

Cockalorum Trump and his lickspittle Musk

 I had actually been looking for an insult using cockle, and found a lovely Merriam-Webster page on older insults, and found a new one, cockalorum, and a favorite that I haven't seen in a while, lickspittle. The last month or so I have been wondering about appropriate names for the Decorative Presidency of Donald Trump, by which I mean he is the President, but he has basically off-loaded all the work to Elon Musk. Off-loading the decisions also means off-loading a percentage of bad press, though I honestly think all that is happening is that Musk is tarnishing whatever good name he may have had.  Not every government department is overstaffed, and his blindness, or should I say rather, willful ignorance that such a thing could be possible is obvious.

The fact that DOGE (Department of Ginormous Egos) can't even properly record what they are doing makes all the havoc that much more unnecessary. It really is too bad the whole thing is about making headlines rather than making good government. Blaming an endless need for clicks on is too easy, but it is certainly one way to look at it. Trump and Musk both live and breath social media, so they want a lot of chatter about them, so much so, that it seems Musk is taking offense when people correct lies proffered.

One thing for myself at least is that while I will likely comment on things periodically, it isn't something I want to do constantly, as it is too tedious with negativity. I have yet to hear either of them say something that offers hope and good will to the entirety of people living in this country.

Long time, no chatter

 Wow... should I be impressed or depressed that is has been almost 4 years since my last post - probably depressed, but I don't want to go on any meds, so I will just say it has been a bit.

Anyway, I think the current US President has done an excellent job in showing how to sell access to the office. Elon and Jeff and so many others gave a fabulous amount of cash, which will somehow make it into the families private coffers, so we know that as long a the "voters" don't complain too loudly, an executive order or three that benefits their businesses can be created.

I really don't have much more to add, except that for some reason at work, rather than something innocuous like Bloomberg, it has been Fox News, and I have to say those opinion people really need to remember they are entertainment and not news.  Some of my colleague don't seem to appreciate me laughing  at them, but seriously, from what I can read, since we don't play it with sound (thank goodness), the opinion hosts must truly decide on a topic for the day and then every show hammers it, over and over again, ad nauseam. Any angle Laura might have had has been pretty much blunted since everyone else slices and dices the same story, often with the same perspective... yawn!

Today's big news is that even with a Senate majority, those poor elephants needed a Vance vote to get the highly questionable defense secretary nominee confirmed into office. Really... you have the majority and your nominee is so lousy you can't get him into office without a tie breaker.  Oh well, as with many recent Republican Presidents, he didn't win the majority of votes cast (something like 49.8% of the votes cast) so he hardly has any sort of mandate, so trouble with the legislative branch is to be expected.

#Trump, #Stupid, #Republican, #FoxNews