Thursday 6 April 2023

The Mobster Arraigned

 

                               Cranky Donny - Pic courtesy Business Insider


I've avoided posting about Trump for quite a while, gentle reader, perhaps in the hope that if he was ignored, he'd disappear. He reminds me of a particularly irritating carbuncle, but I guess, to stretch the metaphor a little, a carbuncle needs to be treated, so ignoring doesn't work.

The USA media certainly can't. They are addicted.

Perhaps his arraignment is the first step in that treatment. One can only hope. He remains probably the most clear and present threat to the Republic.

(Note I haven't called the USA a "democracy". After being told by many Americans that their country is a constitutional republic, and not a democracy, I'll toe their line. It is their country, after all).

Perhaps the best description is "A constitutional republic with occasional democratic features". If you like it you can use it....

Besides, an electoral system through which a President can be elected by 59% of voters, despite the fact that his rival actually received more votes than he did, cannot be defined as a "democracy".  Abe Lincoln did not talk about "some of the people" in his famous quote.

It's passing strange to understand that if you add the 41% of voters who didn't show up in 2016 to the 48% who voted for Clinton, the vast majority of American voters did not support the person elected. 45.9% supported Trump, and 41% didn't support anyone. Democracy? Not so much....

Anyway, Trump is behaving true to form and upbringing. He was raised in the tradition of the New York mobsters, which means he uses financial power, intimidation and personal threats of violence to get his way.

It looks like that formula has begun to fail him. We can only hope.

Imagine if he did end up in the White House in 2024. What price AUKUS in Trump's isolationist "America First?"

This country could be left looking like the proverbial Cervus Elaphus on an igneous object.

Jetstar

Pic courtesy Jetstar I thought I had retired, gentle reader, but now I’m working for Jetstar. I haven’t flown with them for a while, and the...