Bizarro World

I've been back on social media for three days now (it was three when I wrote this, now it's a full week and I need to publish this because it's already out of date!) and it's all just as awful, if not more so, than before. A completely unqualified woman who wants to do away with public education to put Jesus back in the classroom confirmed as head of the Department of Education and immediately a Republican introduces a bill to completely dismantle that very same department because who needs an educated population? Certainly not a country that considers itself the world leader. And why on earth should we pay to educate our citizens when we can import our medical personnel and scientists from overseas? Already about 20% of those positions are filled by the foreign born.

And now bigoted and racist Sessions as the new Attorney General who questioned Sally Yates at her confirmation hearing about whether or not she would say no to Obama if he wanted to do something unconstitutional. My question is does he practice what he preaches? Will he say no to Trump when Trump wants to do something unconstitutional? I'm not so sure he will. Rumor is Bannon is the real president who is calling the shots but there is another rumor that it is Sessions who is pulling Trump's strings.

Meanwhile Trump inhabits the White House alone and wanders around during the wee hours in his bathrobe, binging on fast food and hiding in the residence to watch movies and SNL, berating everyone, tweeting out his disgust and insults even during briefings, ordering his staff to not wear any clothes that come from Nordstrom's because they declined to carry Ivanka's clothing line and Kellyanne goes on Fox to tell everyone to buy Ivanka's stuff, a clearly illegal act. He and Spicer continue to lie about unreported terror attacks and the murder/crime rate, misrepresenting whatever it is they are saying and as to that nothing is a fact unless Trump says so and his staff can't even figure out how to turn on the lights in the West Wing. This would be a hilarious soap opera if it weren't our real life.

We have no ambassadors and he has alienated and insulted our closest allies. He insults Australia, one of the Five Eyes group that we share everything with, about our honoring an agreement forged with Obama and basically hung up on their Prime Minister. He chastises Mexico, our third largest trade partner, and threatens to send in the US armed forces to take care of their “bad hombres” if the President of Mexico couldn't and, of course, the Wall. He demanded France give back the money we sent them for NATO and he put Putin on hold so one of his aides could explain the non-proliferation treaty to him (apparently he doesn't bother with briefings from the intelligence and state advisors before these calls which always include him telling the other person how popular he is) and then proceeded to tell Putin that we got a bad deal (also how he characterized the deal with Australia to take in 1250 refugees). This is his guiding principal...it's not a good deal unless he gets some kind of advantage. Never mind compromise or both sides winning. If he doesn't always have the better end of the deal then it's a bad deal.

The first military foray under his watch was a complete disaster as the intended target was not killed but a bunch of innocent people were including an 8 year old girl and a Navy Seal and Trump is claiming it was a complete success and then insisted military actions should not be criticized.

Meanwhile, again, Republicans are doing all kinds of arrogant, complicit, and shady things to prevent any investigations into their behavior and actions from ever taking place and complaining bitterly that the Democrats are, astonishingly, being obstructive. The nerve of them. How dare they do to us what we did to them for 8 years. In addition to the bill above to dismantle the Department of Education, there is also one to dismantle the EPA, rescind it's regulations and dismantle it. Another to sell off our public lands to their highest buddy bidder and let the banks get on with their shenanigans. And shut those mouthy women legislators up.

#resist