The Elite

This Jeff Sessions thing is a microcosm of Trump and his modus operandi, a frightening prospect from the person holding the office of the Presidency.  I know many people are happy with Trump and what he's done or not done so far.  Some of his performance has been laudatory, but to me, not much.

I think his appt of Neil Gorsuch was a big plus.  Withdrawing from the Paris Accords exposed a sham of an agreement.  Perhaps his greatest achievement really wasn't his at all, preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming President.  Of course, he didn't do that; voters did.  But he was the engine, the means by which Clinton was sent to the sidelines.  That's not a small thing.

All in all, though, I've not been impressed.  He's not delivered on many of his promises, most egregiously, not pushing for repeal of Obamacare.  Oh, he continues to babble on about it, but that's all it's been--talk.  I know I've been told to "be patient," but that is not going to happen.  I've "been patient" for decades, waiting for the Establishment to turn things around and it's not happening.  Trump is no different.  How much longer do I have to "be patient?"  Years??????

That said, back to L'Affair Sessions.  If people didn't realize it before, Trump is exposing his true self now.  He's a vindictive man, one who holds grudges and carries out vendettas.  When it suits him, for whatever reasons, he turns on people, even those close to him, those who have supported him.  The reasons may or may not be legitimate.  It's all about Trump.  If he hurts someone else, even unnecessarily, that's OK if it benefits him.

He demands loyalty, faithfulness, and/or allegiance from others without requiring it of/from himself.  When he feels the need, again legitimately or otherwise, he says, "You're fired!"  (I never saw his television show, whatever it was called.  But I believe that was the signature phrase he uttered.)

He is dishonest, openly so.  He can't be trusted.  Someone might claim he's made good appointments; that is debatable.  But even granting that he has, what good is it if he stabs those appointments in the back for doing their jobs?

I know I really have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.  But I am not confident.  I am reminded of one of my high school teachers, when I met up with him some years after I graduated.  I was not impressed with him as a teacher then and my opinion has slid even farther while I've become a teacher.  We disagreed over Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and their Vietnam policies.  My teacher's claim was that we had to trust, blindly trust, what Johnson and Nixon did because they knew more than we did.  Well, he was right about one thing:  they did "know more than we did."  And they lied and lied and lied, committing more and more Americans and others to death while covering their lies.  This, I think, is what I feel most frightened about with Trump.

I've e-mailed several folks about John McCain.  I have no doubts he is a good man.  I equated him with Ted Kennedy, but only in this way.  Kennedy was wrongly, perversely, held up as "The Lion of the Senate" when he was known to have fatal cancer.  That was a sobriquet he didn't deserve; ask Mary Jo Kopechne.  Oh, sorry......we can't.  She died at Chappaquiddick.  I realize there's no comparison between Kennedy's immorality and McCain's morality.  That's not my point.  I merely hope they aren't gong to do with McCain that they did with Kennedy.  Again, I'm not equating McCain with Kennedy relative to morality.  Kennedy had few morals/ethics.  McCain seems like a genuinely good man--and has a notable record of courage, esp in the military.  But politically, he's been a disaster.  He's been a liberal in sheep's clothing.  If he wasn't to be a liberal or at least support so many liberal causes, the right thing to have done was to have quit the Republican Party and become a Democrat.  Changing parties would have been the honorable thing to do.  Instead, he hid behind the Republican name.  (I will refrain from going off on the Establishment Republicans, for today.)

Now he's again talking about the need to "compromise."  Congress has to "compromise."  He's been doing and saying that for years, playing both sides.  (I will refrain from going off on Establishment Republicans today.)  See where that's landed us?  We've had more and more of the doo-good (and I do mean "doo") agenda.  Perhaps McCain lacks a true political moral compass.  I wish the best for Senator McCain and hope all of the prayers for him bring peace.  But to lionize him is wrong.  It demeans and belittles people who really deserve to be lionized.

I can't believe Kid Rock is running for the US Senate.  Seriously?  (OK, many of you know I don't care for his music and, in fact, think I might recognize only one of his "hits.")  I have several problems with that. First, anyone who can defeat Debbie Stabenow is good.  She has not been a good Senator, wrong on almost everything.  But does this guy have any qualifications, other than those in the Constitution?  I'm talking about knowing things.  Haven't Jesse Ventura's, Al Franken's (That doesn't say much for Minnesotans, does it?), and other celebrities' tenures taught us anything?  (Of course, it might be legitimately argued that they are no worse than the professional politicians!)  But celebrity has become synonymous with success.  Most important, will "Rock's" (I love how the Detroit newspapers refer to him as "Rock," as if that's a last name.  Is it?) celebrity cause a far more qualified Republican candidate (esp Robert Young) to lose?

We live in strange, curious even, times.  And they are frightening.