What, Me Worry?

Climate change is proving its existence with record heat, fires, drought, famine, and bizarre storm events. Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom from their neighbor aggressor, Russia, and its authoritarian leader, Putin. The gay community both here and abroad is under attack. Religious fanatics and their political stooges have been able to impose their will and have managed to impinge on a woman’s right to manage her own health needs. A housing crisis looms as more citizens are forced to join the unhoused. Domestic education is being attacked by those who attempt to push their own political and social agendas and push a revisionist interpretation of history on pliable youthful minds. To accomplish this and turn a profit besides, public education is being phased out in deference to a for-profit education system.

Fire, Drought, and Fighting in Ukraine are all in the news.

But, who is in the headlines?

With all the above looming large, what is dominating the news? Donald Trump and his “trials” and tribulations. Yes, Donald Trump, is forever the victim of a Jewish conspiracy run by George Soros and the liberal flying monkeys attempting to destroy him. He continues to play the victim card and enough of his minions are willing to part with their money in a bizarre turn of fortunes. I say bizarre as he is the “billionaire” who, when he first ran for office, was going to pay for everything in his campaign. But now he continually asks for donations from the less fortunate. The perpetual campaign is his latest lucrative con. Trump’s role as Robin Hood has taken a turn as he sucks money from the poor like a cash-greedy Roomba. He’s more like Robin Hoodlum.

After his recent surrender in a Federal courthouse in Miami, Trump’s motorcade stopped at a popular Cuban eatery, Versailles. In a grandiose gesture, he yelled, “Food for everyone.” Anyone would have assumed he was offering to buy lunch for the crowd. Anyone who knows Donald Trump would know better; The Donald doesn’t pay for anything unless he is forced and has lost all his appeals. True to his character, Trump did not pick up the tab for anything that day.

Speaking of hoodlums, The Donald’s troubles certainly can’t be that he is following the partly successful gameplan of his doppelganger, John Joseph Gotti Jr. So far, this “Teflon Don” has managed to maintain most of his non-stick coating. However, just like the Dupont product, if the heat rises too high, the coatings break down, toxic chemicals are released into the air, people in close proximity suffer, and things begin to stick. His recent losses in court may be a sign that the temperature is rising. Forget global warming, Chef Karma is in the kitchen.

Time will tell if this Teflon Don can take the heat. His brother in spirit ended up being betrayed by an underboss, Sammy the Bull Gravano, and was eventually sentenced to life in prison. In John Gotti’s case, it was five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion, and loansharking that brought him down. He took the Cosa Nostra with him. As far as we know, Trump isn’t being investigated for murder. However, he does tick many of the same Gotti boxes.

Currently, his legal team is like a rugby scrum where everyone is pushing in different directions. In rugby, the front row of each team is comprised of two “props” and a “hooker.” It wouldn’t be a good Trump analogy without a hooker. The teams vie for possession of the ball after it is thrown in the gap between the two front rows. The hookers and props then try to move the ball to the back of the scrum with their feet while the entire pack of players attempts to push the opposing pack backward. Trump’s legal team is not this organized so there ends the analogy.

This is an actual rugby scrum, it could also be a group photo of 
Trump's legal team hard at work.

The crime boss comparison seems appropriate here as John Gotti seemed to be immune from criminal prosecution, not because he was innocent but because he managed to corrupt the justice system. Legal delays, bribery, witness intimidation, and jury tampering were all used to reap three not-guilty verdicts thus earning him the Teflon Don title. Donald J. Trump has also managed to tie up the legal system like a Gordian knot. But this is "Donald the Trump," not "Alexander the Great." We don’t know yet if he will have his own Sammy the Bull betray him or if it will only be a collection of lawyers and underlings who are backed into legal corners not willing to follow Michael Cohen’s example by going to jail.

While it will be of some interest to see how this all plays out, the fact remains that Donald Trump is still sucking all the oxygen out of the room. He is like a car wreck that you can’t look away from. He is like the clickbait that lingers in the margins of the web page you are reading that wants your eyeballs elsewhere and teases you with the opening line, “Alien baby found at fire station has three…” How otherwise sane individuals of modest means can be attracted to a wealthy conman who speaks about making their lives great escapes me. I guess televangelists have been doing it for years. Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone unless they can do something for him. The moment that person is branded as unnecessary or disloyal they are ridiculed. Donald Trump is so kind and compassionate that, if he passed by an orphanage on fire, he would be the one looking for a bag of marshmallows and a long fork.