When the truth is found to be lies.

In his own twisted way, Rudy Giuliani was right, the truth is not the truth.  To a select few, truth is perception; whatever is perceived to be the truth, to them, becomes the truth.  By that logic, a lie repeated often enough to gain believers, becomes the perceived truth-ergo, the truth.  It doesn’t mean anything to them that what is true will still be true and what is false will still be false.  They only care about perception and how they can bend perceptions to steer the will of others to their cause, no matter how corrupt that cause may be.

Donald J. Trump has adopted this philosophy with gusto.  He tells his lies and half-truths with the straight face only a sociopath could muster.  Perhaps we haven’t been judged worthy of the truth by Trump.  While I doubt he ever read Mark Twain, it is possible he has heard Twain’s admonishment, “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”  After over three years in office, it is only now that social media is being vilified by our liar-in-chief because Twitter, Facebook, et.al., are attempting to bring some semblance of regulation to their heretofore wholly open and unregulated platforms.  Yes, Trump’s beloved Twitter has placed his recent tweet behind a warning label that indicates the hidden tweet violates Twitter’s Rules in that it is “glorifying violence.”

The fact that some social media platforms have been forced to police the content of their users is a sign of the times.  Beneath the Twitter warning was just Trump being his usual bullying self.  Trump’s post was, “....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.  Thank you!”  Trump was apparently quoting the former Miami police chief Walter Headley, who in December 1967 promised violent reprisals to protests over stop and frisk tactics.

From Walter Headley obituary August of 1968

Trump’s earlier tweets about mail-in ballots being rife with fraud were not hidden behind a banner but were tagged with a link to find the actual facts about such voting methods.  So, Trump was permitted to lie about mail-in balloting but the truth was just a click away.  The “get the facts about mail-in ballots," link would take anyone concerned about the truth to real information and not the unsubstantiated false claims made by the president.  Even his own Justice Department had been forced to abandon their investigation into mail-in voter fraud for lack of evidence.

I am not on Twitter beyond an account I set up years ago to see if I had any interest in the platform.  I am, however, on Facebook where I have seen their fact-checkers at work.  A recent post by a Trump supporter on my feed got a Facebook version of the Twitter warning label.  In that post, a family member had posted a meme about Greta Thunberg that was filled with false information.  He had falsely claimed that she had protested the manufacture of chopsticks as it killed trees.  It went on to falsely claim that the Chinese government reminded her that chopsticks were made from bamboo, a grass.  The truth is that 1. Greta never said anything about chopsticks, 2. China never responded to any such claim and 3. China does use real wood in many of its chopsticks as well as bamboo.  When this was pointed out by me the poster’s reply was just that he stood by his opinion.  A copy of the FB warning is provided below for reference.

"When the truth is found
To be lies
And all the joy
Within you dies"

“Somebody to Love” was written by Darby Slick (Grace Slick’s brother-in-law) and was originally performed by The Great Society in 1965 with Grace Slick on vocals.  The song later became a hit when Grace took it with her and the Jefferson Airplane performed it live at Woodstock in 1969.

The real truth here is that, with all the power that the Internet provides, lies a responsibility to seek the truth.  It requires some effort but it is readily available for all who want to find real information and not some justification of preconceived notions.  Trump and his supporters will no doubt continue to post anything they stumble upon that validates their way of thinking while either ignoring the truth or branding it as Fake News without bothering to justify their opinions.  Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.  Think of it--always.” 

Trump, meanwhile, has decided to retaliate against these social media platforms by issuing an executive order that directs the executive branch agencies to ask independent rule-making agencies including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to study whether they can place new regulations on the companies.  Without an act of Congress, this would appear to be him flailing in the wind.  To quote Macbeth, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  To further paraphrase The Bard of Avon, Trump is but another poor player strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.  We can all only hope.  Remember in November.


“The truth." Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should, therefore, be treated with great caution.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Dear America,

Dear America,

As one of your family, I feel this letter is long overdue.  I have been with you for over seven decades and have thoroughly enjoyed my membership in this proud group of individuals.  You started life with but around 2.5 million American souls in 1776, and our family has grown to over 331 million today.  In my time, I have seen thirteen of our forty-five presidents govern the land we lease from Mother Nature and like to call the United States.  I heard you weren’t feeling well and I thought it would be a good time to drop you a line.

You began your existence with great hope and promise.  You have survived many wars including one among your own citizens.  You have seen greatness in leadership and its folly.  Our stewardship of the land beneath our feet, the air that we breathe, the inland waters and surrounding seas, has been irresponsible at best.  You have seen those precious resources scarred, polluted, deforested, overfished, and poisoned.  You have witnessed the ideals upon which you were founded twisted to suit the greedy.  Our once great nation has been plundered for the benefit of a few; those few now govern what was once a country of, for, and by the people.

Is there hope for our future?  Can we right the ship of liberty and restore it to its former glory?  Can “we the people” gain control of the helm and steer a course that is good and true?  Can the divided states of America be once again united?  I feel the answers lie in the one pillar of our democracy that, while greatly weakened by malice, remains to correct the error of our former ways.  To that end, our election process may be our salvation.  Will we remember in November?  Time will tell.  Until then I hope you can enjoy your 244^th birthday this coming July and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Your friend and fellow citizen,

Jack

Homestead Air Show 2010 by Jack Dallas

Unfit For Office

It should be clear to all now; Donald John Trump is unfit to be the president of the United States.  He may have been amusing to some in the continuation of his role on The Apprentice when he told those on his appointed staff, “You’re fired!”  For those who believe that it was the fault of brown, black, and yellow people for taking the jobs of white Americans and not the fat-cat corporate CEOs who sent those jobs overseas where labor was cheaper, his antics on our southern border perhaps scratched some xenophobic itch. 

Perhaps some among us felt that this self-proclaimed billionaire born with a $300 million platinum spoon in his mouth was some sort of business wonder who would restore US manufacturing and lost coal and steel jobs to their previous glory.  Some may have enjoyed the fact that he could stand in front of a rally crowd and use a vocabulary befitting a high-school dropout to promise them the undeliverable.  Many Americans questioned their own sanity when he told little lies followed by bigger lies and then doubled down on those statements even after proof arose that showed them to be what they were.  Reality TV had come to the White House and it was entertaining, to some.

Now, at a time of his first true national emergency, he has shown that strong leadership and an ability to wisely govern are not among his strengths.  He first tried to deny the existence of any threat to America and then he tried to minimize the risk.  He then stated that he had everything under control.  When things quickly got out of control, he appointed Mike Pence to be his scapegoat.  He needed someone to take the fall for his own incompetence.  He claimed to be in control but denied any responsibility for anything.

Now, after meeting with fellow Republicans, they have decided they need to get Americans focused on the Chinese as being wholly responsible for our nation’s dilemma.  They have to divert attention away from the obvious mismanagement of the COVID-19 epidemic.  They feel that people will be willing to blame China for the fact that our country is suffering far greater losses than any other country in the world.  While it is painfully obvious that, even IF you could find evidence that this virus is a devious plan developed by some Chinese bio-lab or by the mysterious “bat-lady” of Wuhan, the management or mismanagement of the crisis in this country falls squarely on the shoulders of our elected leaders.  More specifically the blame lies with Donald John Trump.  He is where the buck should stop.  The federal government should be managing this crisis and it should not be abdicated to local governors and officials.

This president and his administration, despite vocal claims of “no responsibility for anything,” have shown nothing if not the ineptitude of a failed leader.  Some have compared his management with chess and checkers in that the rest of the world leaders are playing chess and he is playing checkers.  I challenge that analogy because, even in checkers, you have to plan a few moves ahead.  I think the rest of the world is playing chess and he is playing tiddlywinks.

Donald John Trump may have been an amusing diversion for some who shared a belief that our country was run by a group of corrupt politicians and that we needed a businessman to come in and clean up the mess.  The old “drain the swamp” attitude prevailed.  We now see that the swamp is still just as corrupt as it ever was and is now possibly even more unscrupulous.  As of the last count, he had eight staffers and associates convicted of crimes from just the Mueller investigation.  Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Richard Pinedo, Alex van der Zwaan, Roger Stone, Rick Gates and Michael Flynn have all been convicted and countless others are under investigation.

Our president took a rising economy left him by the Obama administration, borrowed against our future to pay for the largest ever tax cut for corporate America and its wealthy ruling class, and saw that economy continue to rise.  He didn’t plan for the future.  He didn’t use our strong economy to build our reserves and pay down our national debt.  He did as he had done in business; he borrowed heavily and gambled with our economic future.  Just as in many of his business deals, his gamble was a failure when it faced a crisis.  Trump’s business failures are legendary and now it looks like the legend lives on.

Trump will say that nobody could have foreseen this economic threat and we now know that he was repeatedly warned.  He was even warned by the outgoing Obama administration of the threat of a pandemic being a serious threat to this nation, but Donald John Trump decided he would take that gamble.  As a businessman, he is simply a gambler.  He just uses that wise business adage that says; if you gamble just make sure you are gambling with other people’s money.  In this case, it was both our money and our lives that were being risked.  That gamble has this nation facing economic meltdown with the greatest losses since the great depression.  Worse yet, that gamble has already cost tens of thousands of American lives.

Donald John Trump may go down in our nation's history, as its most inept leader.  He has been a divisive leader when we needed unity.  He has been a science denier at a time when we need someone who understands the benefits of science.  He has been a reckless spender of our nation’s wealth when we needed a more conservative approach.  He has been an alienator of past allies and a friend to current enemies when we are in desperate need of our friends in the spirit of international cooperation.  He has been a threat to our environment at a time when we desperately need to challenge climate change.  He has shown his sociopathic lack of empathy at a time when our nation is mourning the deaths of tens of thousands of its citizens.

Donald John Trump was unfit to serve this country in his twenties when he invented bone spurs to avoid military service; he is certainly unfit to serve this country now.  Ask not how Donald John Trump can serve his country, ask how his country can serve him.  He regularly tests the limits of tradition and established laws and procedures when he finds them inconvenient.  He sees his presidency as an opportunity to reap financial rewards while he pulls the strings of our economy in ways to benefit his business ventures.  He sees this pandemic as a way to further feather his financial nest while the nation's purse strings are being relaxed to print money to bail out businesses.  He has failed to divest himself from his business dealings as demanded by law.  He sees himself as being above the law and an autocrat beyond reproach.

"Ask not how Donald John Trump can serve his country, ask how his country can serve him."

Now more than ever, this nation needs a leader with a mind and heart not given to heartless pursuits.  We need someone who can lead and manage us out of this hole dug ever so much deeper than was necessary by a man known as much by his business failures as his few successes.  Until November, I’ll be Biden my time.

My Days at the Embassy

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to feel like Edward Snowden living in self-imposed exile at an embassy I call home. My last official barbershop haircut was back in January. I periodically start our two cars just to see if they still work. I’ve fallen into somewhat of a routine. I make coffee in the morning. That’s a café Americano for me and a cappuccino for Sue. I pick up the morning Miami Herald from my front lawn, bring it inside, and wipe it down with Lysol before reading. There is always the possibility that the news will be toxic that day.

After breakfast there is the long commute to work; a hard left out of the kitchen and a straight shot through the dining room.  I pass by the scenic living room on my left before coming to the treacherous climb up the four stairs.  At the top of the stairs, it is a short jaunt straight ahead and then a  quick turn to the right and I come to the Great Divide.  Here, if you are not careful, you could make a mistake as you are confronted with three doors and only one gets you to your destination.  For me, it is door number three on the right.

We have two bedrooms that have been converted into offices. Sue’s office also functions as a guest room with the help of a fold-down Murphy bed. My office functions as both an office and a photography and computer museum. Nobody could ever sleep in my office. Hell, you can barely walk in here. It has been years since I have seen most of my floor. This is the only room in the house with the original 35-year-old carpeting. The new carpet installers just took a glance at my office and laughed. There are cameras that still use film and computers that have built-in floppy and Zip drives. I seem to remember that there is a Playboy collection in the back of the closet that goes to a time when the centerfolds wore clothes. I regularly find electronic equipment that prompts me to say, “What the hell is this, and what was it used for?” The next statement is generally that, “it must be important so I had better hang on to it.”

Yesterday was rather typical. I was doing political research trying to find one redeeming quality that could be attributed to our president. It’s exhausting work but I feel there is an answer out there somewhere. Why would forty-something percent of America think he’s doing a good job? I got very close last week when I found evidence that Donald J. Trump once walked by a small puppy and didn’t kick it. I checked out the story in Snopes and found out that they rated the story Mostly False. It turns out that there was a video that proved Trump never saw the puppy.

So here I was, deep in research and following up on leads when my concentration was interrupted by loud laughter from Sue’s office. I then remembered that she was having a three-way with two guys she hooked up with from high school. I went back to my research only to realize that that last sentence didn’t sound right. I should have explained that Sue has been doing her own research trying to find classmates for her upcoming 50th high school reunion. It was actually a three-way conference call with two classmates she had recently located.

Sue has been working since last fall trying to find her fellow Weston High School alumni. She has become a regular detective of some renown.  Neither Hercule Poirot nor Miss Marple has anything on Sherlock Sue.  If she hasn’t found them by now, they are surely in witness protection.  Her latest success was a musician who had taken up a new stage name and had been difficult to locate. He is a heavy-metal guitarist who played with Alice Cooper in the late ‘80s and wrote most of the songs on two of his albums.

Sue’s high school class differs from mine. While her class of 189 is filled with successful people having varied interests, my class of over 1,000 was a bit more pedestrian. Sue’s class has several millionaires and at least one billionaire. My class has many who have managed to stay out of jail.  I barely made that list.  Among my classmates, you will find people like Steve Carlton who played some professional baseball. He must have been good as he is in the baseball Hall of Fame and he won four Cy Young awards. You will also find in my class, Mickey Munday who was featured in the film, Cocaine Cowboys for his time spent with the Colombian Medellin drug cartel and Pablo Escobar.  Mickey cleaned up his act for a bit but it didn’t last.  He was last heard from when he was sentenced to a 12-year stint in prison for auto-fraud conspiracy in 2018.

So, life goes on in our little “embassy.”  We don't have much to really complain about; we think of all the others out there who are less fortunate. We are both retired and certainly comfortable. Some people, however, are out of work trying to figure out how to pay their rent and wondering how they will feed themselves or their families.  Some people are working essential jobs and perhaps putting their lives at risk. While we have a home with a beautiful backyard and patios lined with trees filled with birds and critters, others are stuck in small apartments.  Count your blessings.

I will leave you with a singular thought perhaps best expressed by Monty Python,

 Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. 
        (click for a link to the video)

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best
And
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the light side of life
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing
And
Always look on the bright side of life
(Come on)
Always look on the right side of life
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow
Forget about your sin
Give the audience a grin
Enjoy it, it's your last chance anyhow
So always look on the bright side of death
A just before you draw your terminal breath
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughin' as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you
And
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the right side of life
(C'mon Brian, cheer up)
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life
I mean, what have you got to lose?
You know, you come from nothing
You're going back to nothing
What have you lost? Nothing
Always look on the right side of life
Nothing will come from nothing, ya know what they say
Cheer up ya old bugga c'mon give us a grin (Always look on the right side of life)
There ya are, see
It's the end of the film
Incidentally this record's available in the foyer (Always look on the right side of life)
Some of us got to live as well, you know
(Always look on the right side of life)
Who do you think pays for all this rubbish
(Always look on the right side of life)
They're not gonna make their money back, you know
I told them, I said to him, Bernie, I said they'll never make their money back
(Always look on the right side of life)

One Nation, Indivisible

Our US Pledge of Allegiance has those three words as descriptors of how we would like to think about our republic. The intent is unity within a democratic society. No two individuals will ever agree on everything in life and the same holds true for our nation. We will always strive for the unity of common purpose but that will necessarily consist of some level of compromise. We are generally thought of as a two-party system of government even though there is rarely complete consensus within each of those parties. Democrats and Republicans have in their ranks people who would further define their ideology with more finite descriptors. We use terms of left, right, center, far-left, far-right, libertarian, tea party, etc.

All of this is to say we have opinions and we are free to voice those opinions in order to define the direction and priorities of our nation. We have regularly done this in an organized fashion where some form of compromise ends up steering us on our course. It is this organized common direction that has kept this nation-ship moving forward.

We have, over the last several decades, sadly diverged from a path of thoughtful compromise to one that might be best described as “my way or the highway.” An unbending might is seen as the singular mindset that decries compromise as weakness.  We see only one path forward and we will fight to the death, as long as that death is someone else's, to make our way a reality.

Your choice, but not much of one

With this as a backdrop, we now find ourselves in a dilemma. We have elected a president who has taken that new national my-way/highway mantra to the extreme. He is an unyielding individual who is neither Democrat nor Republican. We don’t yet have a name for his party as his opinions are often spun in more directions than The Mevlevis. No, that’s not some new type of blue jean but part of a Turkish religious sect who may be better known as whirling dervishes.  President Donald has whirled opinions in all directions; some are his own and some he just picks out of the airspace somewhere between his spray-tanned face and the giant flat-screen television that is tuned to Fox News.  Some are just BS he makes up on the spot.  He is a dervish at heart with opinions that flail and flip like his hair in a strong wind.

Whirling dervishes

Donald J. Trump has spent the first three years of his presidency in self-adulation and pandering to various fringe groups with similar but sometimes destructive intent. Within these groups, there are occasional overlaps of common purpose. Here you will find 2nd Amendment gun-rights extremists, racists, xenophobes, anti-vaxxers, religious extremists, evangelicals, Nazi-sympathizers, militia groups, conspiracy theorists, Neo-Confederates, Proud Boys, and White Supremacists. The president supports these groups because they share his sense of extreme ideals. This president seems to hold these outrageous ideas because they get people to look in his direction. No position is too outlandish as long as it gets people to talk about him. It is his disease of extreme narcissism that requires that all things must be about him. All publicity is good publicity.  No position is too outlandish.  No lie is too big.  No denial will bring shame, even with video proof to the contrary.  No act of cruelty will bring an apology. No mistake will ever be acknowledged.

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes with some MAGA-hatters; not to be confused with Mad Hatters of Alice in Wonderland fame.

The first three years were peppered with outlandish statements and actions. Build a 2,000-mile wall at our border and have Mexico pay for it. Outlandish yes, but it didn’t happen. It wasted money and effort but DJT got some attention. Family separations and kids in cages got him negative publicity, but again, it is all good. All these things and many more were serious and brought about some human suffering but, in his eyes, it was getting him his desired attention.

Now we come to the dangerous part. Not that many of these things up to now weren’t bad, but now Americans were dying by the tens of thousands and our president is coming unhinged. He babbles more than usual and makes statements that are even more outlandish.  Some of these statements are well beyond Fox News’ anchors' ability to explain or support. When he turned to his medical team for affirmation for his claims that bleach or disinfectants might be used internally to cleanse the body of COVID-19, they were forced to look away. He even opined that perhaps we could get UV radiation or cleansing sunlight into our bodies for protection.

Lysol injectable: Don't try this at home.

Donald Trump is like a wounded animal and right now, he is very dangerous. He sees his dreams of a two-term presidency evaporate over his inability to deal with this crisis. Trump is not a problem solver; he is a shapeshifter. Not in the terms of some mythological or speculative-fiction character’s ability to physically transform, but it is his ability to delegate or shift the blame to anyone but himself. He would wholly blame the Chinese for this crisis if he weren’t still hopeful of some super trade deal with China. He will now pick on the WHO for not sounding the alarm sooner. Outside of conspiracy theorists, nobody blames Trump for the virus. Where we may be deservedly critical, however, is for his handling of the response. He could even be forgiven for early delays in isolating us from outside infection. But now, we know what to do, we just don’t have the ability as individuals, local businesses, local governments, or even state governments, to respond as well as our federal government could and should, but doesn’t.

_____________________

"... our federal government could and should, but doesn’t."

_____________________

The acquisition of testing supplies and reagents as well as PPE for the testers will be critical for our recovery process. Every day that goes by that we fail to have a unified federal plan in place to make wide-scale testing possible, will add more time in isolation for the American public. More time for businesses to fail. More time for our economy to fall deeper into the abyss.

Trump’s frailty as a leader is now out there for everyone to see, warts and all. No amount of hairspray and comb-over can hide what is obvious to even Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and Helen Keller; and two of them are dead. This is what makes our wounded sociopathic-president so dangerous. He has hinted at anarchy and violence as a way out. Already, his minions are protesting the lockdowns, attempting to block medical facilities, and forcing weary medical staff to take their time off to stand in defiance of his rabble. They have stormed and even occupied government buildings carrying their semi-automatic phallic symbols. He drops the hints and then, with their pent-up wrath, of a group of semi-literate Neanderthals jump in their pickups and head out to show their support.  Guns and heated speech, nothing could go wrong here.

Armed protesters occupy Kentucky State Capitol

Armed insurrection and anarchy are not beyond the tools this president would consider using if he thought it would get him four more years in the White House. He has tasted supreme power and that aphrodisiac has stimulated his narcissistic brain to euphoric highs he will never again experience. He is desperate to have this psychedelic trip last through 2024.

Remember in November, 

Renewed Hope in January 

_________________________________

Photo by Jack Dallas, Jazzfest New Orleans, 2015

Welcome to TrumpWorld, the latest mega-attraction in the Orlando area where you too can act like a narcissistic billionaire.  You enter TrumpWorld through a replica of Mar-a-Lago. Your $225 entry fee gets you $1,000 in Trump-Bucks that you can spend for rides and at concession stands. Don’t worry about running out of the Trump cash because you can always borrow as much as you want at the Russian and Chinese banks located conveniently around the amusement areas.

TrumpWorld Entrance

Just beyond the entrance is the Wedding Chapel where you can take your pick from a delightful collection of virtual East European supermodel brides. You can marry her and then feel free to cheat at any of the porn-star themed hotels on the premises.  Real hookers are readily available in the lobby of each hotel and don't forget to visit any of our nearby massage parlors.  They all accept Trump-Bucks. If you were already married when you arrived, you may look to your left, next to the chapel entrance, to find the law firm of Shyster and Shyster. At Shyster and Shyster, they never met a situation they couldn’t make worse.  Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen are both on the board of Shyster and Shyster and helped set up your virtual prenup.  Remember too that you are now a virtual rich celebrity and you can approach any female and grab them.., well, you know where.

World Famous Chapel of Trump, Law firm of Shyster and Shyster is next door

We recommend that you visit our Hall of Presidents where you will meet this nation’s two legitimate presidents. Yes, both Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and Donald Trump, president of the Un-United States of America, are part of your experience. Through the use of advanced animatronics, both of our beloved presidents come to life. In the case of Donald Trump, you can’t tell the difference between the machine and the real thing, although some claim the attraction’s replica is a bit smarter. Here you will find out about the malaria connection between these two great men. Yes, Jefferson Davis and his new bride contracted malaria and his wife died just three months after their nuptials. In Trump’s case, he has been touting Chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, to fight COVID-19. For the convenience of park guests, Chloroquine gumball machines are located at key locations throughout the park.

Hall of Presidents:  Jefferson Davis, Donald Trump, "Puckerin' Pence" (lower right)

At the Hall of Presidents, you will also meet Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederate States of America. His animatronic figure stands proudly beside Davis. Mike Pence’s replica is a bit harder to spot as it sits on a stool behind Trump where he repeats, “Donald Trump is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life, and even now I feel that way - this minute.” He then leans forward and kisses Trump’s tuchus. When robot Mike was out for repair, the real Bill Barr worked as a stand-in and hardly anyone noticed the difference.

Get 2 doses of Chloroquine for One Trump-Buck

After visiting with the presidents, you may want to go to the Trump Tower of Terror. It is here you will take a fast ride in an elevator up to the 68th-floor penthouse. This would be fine except for the fact that, just like the real Trump Tower in New York, this building only has 58 floors. The floor numbers just lie like their owner. The elevator flies up wildly for those non-existent 10 floors and it is then pulled back by bungee cords to the actual 58th floor. Here you will exit the elevator and you will be strapped into a seat at a conference table where you will be forced to watch and listen to a 3D film of Donald Trump praising himself for the next twenty minutes. Then, just when you didn’t think you could stand the horror any longer, in walks Rudy Giuliani who proceeds to explain how facts aren’t facts anymore. Your conference chair is then pulled along a track to the 58th-floor window where you are hurled out only to be saved by a window washer platform at the 57th-floor level. This is the end of your ride and you must now walk down 57 flights of stairs to the ground. Feel the terror as your knees tremble.

Trump Tower of Terror

Now it should be time for a more relaxing ride. Might we recommend, It’s a Large World?” Similar in concept to Disney’s It’s a Small World; nothing in TrumpWorld is going to be anything but the biggest the world has ever seen. Large World is a water-based boat ride where passengers are transported around the country to see the impact our namesake has made on planet earth, but with a more nationalistic viewpoint. You will float along a Gulf of Mexico coastline to visit an oil spill complete with dead fish and oil-covered birds. You will float down the Sacramento River to witness the choking wildfires that were brought about by California’s lack of sufficient raking of the forest floor. You will travel up the St. Lucie River where you can count the dead manatee killed by the algae blooms from the wholly-necessary but uncontrolled sugar and agricultural fertilizer runoff. There is a turn up ahead; we are now floating across Sarkar Lake in the Alaskan Tongass National Forest where we will bid a fond farewell to the trees.  These green giants will soon be open to logging with the encouragement of our beloved president. Just remember forest fires can be prevented but only if there are no trees.

Twenty Trump-Bucks

If you get hungry, there are Burger Kings and KFC nearby where your Trump-Bucks are welcome. Choose your poison and let the mayonnaise or chicken grease run down your chin just like a true billionaire. You’ll need all the energy you can muster because, next stop, the Main Street Parade.

Eat like a billionaire

Unlike the Disney Main Street Electrical Parade, this parade requires guest participation. First, you need to rent your Sturmabteilung outfit. Actually, the uniform is the "Braunhemden" or Nazi Brownshirt, and you can rent it with or without a tiki torch.  We had to discontinue the Confederate flag rentals for the Nazi march because the flaming tiki torches caused a fire hazard and the soot they produced made it hard to identify true White Supremacists.  By marching in the parade, you will get to shout out your very own racial, religious, and ethnic slurs without fear of retribution. Just know that you will be marching with some “very fine people, on both sides.” Who else would shell out $225 to visit TrumpWorld other than other like-minded racists?

Make sure you rent your official "Braunhemden" Brownshirt before the march, tiki torches are extra but come with enough fuel for up to two hours of festive marching.

If you miss the Main Street Nazi March, fear not. You can always wait for the midnight KKK March and Cross Burning. Just rent your Klan robes at our convenient store (or bring your own from home) and meet like-minded racists at the bottom of the hill on the north side of the park. You can also rent racist rant posterboard signs with most of the words spelled correctly. Use our signs and people will think you actually made it through high school. At midnight, you will get to march up the hill shouting racial epithets at the top of your lungs. Everyone will then meet at the top for the nightly burning of the cross. Lynchings are no longer allowed because, as we found out, even Florida has a few laws.

Rent an official Klan robe at our store and for that "special someone" you can even get a Grand Dragon outfit along with a thoughtful racist slogan sign with most of the words spelled correctly.  Confederate flags are extra, 

This concludes our day at TrumpWorld. This is a new and ever-expanding attraction. Construction has already started on our West Virginia Coal Mine Experience where visitors will get to enjoy the thrill of working in choking heat below ground with the ever-present threat of collapse. Now that safety precautions have been relaxed in the real mines, this true to life exhibit will bring with it even more danger. Bring your own hard hats but only if you are a wuss.

Science; Deny it, Believe it

Science deniers have been with us for all of recorded history. In the early 17th century, Galileo Galilei created a telescope that allowed us to view the stars.  Those in power who feared his creation simply refused to look through it and denounced its creator rather than acknowledge the observations that were now possible. The denial of science flows from a lack of understanding and a mistrust of any knowledge the deniers don’t understand or possess. Because some science is beyond simple understanding by those not of its community, deniers dismiss it as unnatural, elitist, or politically driven.  They hold it to be contradictory to their personal or religious values.

Our current president may be a science denier.  Who can tell?  If one thing is paramount in his beliefs it is that he will change those beliefs whenever it suits him and he will deny that he ever held another position. He certainly denies science when its’ teachings don’t work for him politically. He denies the science of climate change and mocks proponents with ridiculous analogies that have nothing to do with climate change or are misinterpretations of simple facts. He denies science when it is more profitable to allow pollution. He denied science when it warned him that the economy needed to take the hit and we needed to shut down non-essential businesses and begin social distancing to slow the epidemic.

Trump distanced himself by appointing VP Mike Pence to head the response team. Yes, this is the same Mike Pence who said in March of 2001, "Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill."  It is also the same Mike Pence who allowed an HIV outbreak to get out of hand in southern Indiana by first closing down a Planned Parenthood clinic and then shutting down a scheduled needle exchange program. Pence’s moral beliefs trumped science. The Planned Parenthood clinic was the only one in the area that could conduct HIV testing and the needle exchange would have curbed the spread of both Hepatitis C and HIV.

Science denial affects public health, the welfare of future generations, and the fate of the planet. Science isn’t perfect. Science is sometimes proven wrong. When science is proven wrong, it is generally because science continually challenges itself and reevaluates its’ positions. It is always acceptable to challenge a scientific point of view, but you must use sound logic, reasoning, and facts when making such a challenge. The “because I said so” argument wasn’t valid when your mother used it and it isn’t valid now. Your mother won the day back then and the politicians will win in the short run now, but science doesn’t care. Plagues don’t come explicitly for one group or another; they don’t attack a population because it has gone astray; they’re neither a divine punishment nor a sign of the Rapture.

Protestors deny the science; note the woman with the sign proclaiming COVID-19 is a lie but wearing PPE

"Plagues don’t come explicitly for one group or another; they don’t attack a population because it has gone astray; they’re neither a divine punishment nor a sign of the Rapture."

The Scientific Method, the foundation of all science, uses experimentation to explore and answer questions. It is wrong to deny the science surrounding the current pandemic, ignore the scientific and medical evidence, challenge its conclusions, and then try to demand that science and medicine find treatments and a cure for the virus. You believe either that science is based on observable facts and testable hypotheses or you believe that it is all hokum and you should just go with your gut.  You shouldn’t cherry-pick those things in science that make your point and then deny all of the rest of the science that doesn’t fit some preconceived notion.  Some would use religious and moral beliefs to put self-interest above the best interests of others.  They are ignoring the teachings of their own faith to justify their own selfish actions.

Cries of fake news or fake science will never negate the truth. In the past, this president has been allowed, at least by supporters, to bend and twist the facts to suit his agenda. When it comes to a killer virus, the numbers of sick and dying will always win the argument. Just saying that all is well won’t make it so.  You can’t argue with refrigerated morgue-trailers filled with this pandemic’s victims.

Refrigerated truck morgues

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy."
—Martin Luther King Jr.