If the world was not in such a sad state, watching the Trump presidency would be comical.  However, the reality is that Trump appears to be as unhinged, “unqualified,” and incompetent as those who opposed him pre-election predicted.  Of course, at that time, not many people (including Trump from what I’ve read) expected him to be president.  Now, people in the media who were willing to prop him up for the sake of higher ratings and more advertising money during the election are “singing a different tune.”

I had breakfast the other day with a good friend of mine (a diehard republican who voted for Trump) who’s like most Trump supporters and is willing to accept all the baggage that goes with Trump because he believes much of the agenda he supports will get passed with Trump in the White House.  He is also in the “isolationist” mold and has no problem with the United States focusing on America and leaving the rest of the world to “whatever.”  (That’s my characterization of a much longer conversation)  It doesn’t matter to him if the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.  I’m only pointing this out because I believe there’s many Americans who think exactly like that.  My friend says he doesn’t read Breitbart, but when Trump “tweets” some absurd “fake news” that he picked up at Breitbart my friend points it out to me as if it’s true.  Trump has convinced his “followers” that the “liberal media” is “dishonest” and that is where the so-called “fake news” is coming from (actually, of course, “fake news” is one of the main “weapons” of Russia as they are attempting to totally destabilize the “West”) so that his die hard followers are not going to believe the “truth” – whatever it might be – when it finally comes out unless it totally exonerates Trump and his surrogates.

Trump’s tactics, which I personally believe are being orchestrated by Steve Bannon (and, maybe to a lessor extent Stephen Miller), are classic examples of authoritarian takeovers of societies.  Attack the press, the intelligence community, and anyone who disagrees with you – make it more difficult, if not impossible, for opponents to fight against you (In America, the attack on voting rights is likely to become more intense under Attorney General Sessions) using accepted “norms” – ie, voting, protesting, etc,  And, of course, when things look bad, Trump and his surrogates can be counted on to “lash out.”  The latest “lash” is Trump “tweeting” that “sick” President Obama ordered Trump to be wiretapped in the previous election.  I’m guessing he “tweeted” that because he can’t figure out how all the information him and his associates are trying to keep secret keeps coming out in the press.  Again, if this world was not in such a dangerous place, this would all be comical.  Trump, this morning – if I heard it correct – proposed EXPANDING the investigation into his campaigns involvement with the Russians during the election to include whether President Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped!

Personally, I say, YES!  Do this!  People on both sides of the “isle” have been arguing for weeks over how this should be investigated.  I say, get it out into the open and investigate ALL of it!  Absolutely check to see if President Obama ordered surveillance of Trump and EVERYTHING else in question.  Let’s have an independent counsel so there’s no questioning the results.  What were Trump’s surrogates saying and doing in their MANY meetings with Russian officials during the campaign and after the election?  If President Obama felt Trump should be wiretapped, what was the reason?  Wiretaps require a warrant through the FISA court (unless you’re Dick Cheney and George W Bush, of course) so, if Trump was wiretapped, what was the reasoning behind it that allowed the FISA court to authorize it.  (Of course, Obama’s head of intelligence said no such thing happened – but, hey, let’s include this in the investigation)

Here’s what’s the most unnerving about all of this to me.  My friend doesn’t care about what Putin is doing in Russia and believes that if the Eastern European countries (who are now part of NATO – which, by the way, Trump conveniently wants to undermine) can’t defend themselves from Russia, that’s their problem.  He even said that he didn’t believe the Nazi’s would ever have attacked America had we chosen not to enter World War II.  (I’m only pointing this out because I don’t think he’s alone in this thinking) So, I asked him what he thought about the 54 BILLION dollar increase in (what I already believe is a totally BLOATED) defense budget and he said he’s OK with that.  Honestly, it’s really hard for me to make sense of that type of thinking that seems to be contradictory on its face.  I want to be an isolationist AND I want to spend almost 700 BILLION dollars on “defense.”  Yikes!  (Doesn’t it make sense that if we’re going to focus on our own borders $600 BILLION a year on defense is enough???  Maybe a bit too much???)

This all leads me to believe that there are many Trump supporters who are fine with the Russian meddling in our election and that apparently Trump’s “team” colluded with them.  In my heart I have to believe that those who feel as he does are a small minority of our population and that if, after the investigation that Trump himself now is calling for, shows that Trump’s surrogates were involved with the Russian attack on our process (I mean, when they were predicting accurately when the “stuff” that was hacked from Podesta would be made public, most of us can add two plus two, right?) then the Trump administration will be in its final days.  I don’t believe there’s enough Republicans to save Trump if it turns out his campaign workers were colluding with Putin and his underlings.  Yes, republicans have shown an incredible ability to “go with the flow” – that is, they’ve allowed Trump to re-define their party and now they have to live with it but, I can’t imagine people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, for starters, going along with appeasing Vladimir Putin.  Although, I’ve maintained on this site that those who will truly make a “name” for themselves out of all this will be those in the republican party who stand up and say, NO! and point out the obvious – that nothing that Trump represents is “mainstream” in America, it remains to be seen if there’s anyone in the republican party with the “stones” to do so.  (and, I have to add that if an investigation confirms what people like me believe – at that point the republicans won’t seem so courageous when they “jump ship.”)

Yes, there are many good hardworking Americans who voted for Trump because they believe he’s going to bring  “high paying jobs” back to America.  Of course, most of Trump’s job creation claims are pure bloviating (to this point; remember, the first year of his administration he’s working under the previous administration’s policies) or outright “untruths.”  For example, Trump is claiming to have saved jobs in instances where the decisions he’s talking about were made long before he took office.  We’ll see in a couple of years how all this shakes out, if Trump is still in the White House (I still believe MOST republicans would prefer Mike Pense as president) However, there’s soon to be a “crisis” over the debt ceiling.  Wall Street has gone wild expecting huge tax cuts and deregulation – yet, so far, NOTHING has been even initiated.  Trump’s budget is likely to EXPLODE the deficit even farther (Obama had cut GW Bush’s deficit more than in half) and we’ll see if all those “conservatives” in the House still agree with Dick Cheney who famously said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”

Republicans are constantly working on revising HISTORY in a futile attempt to make themselves look better.  The reality is that even retired 6th grade teachers like myself have learned how to “Google” information and get something much closer to the truth than you get on Fox, Breitbart, and wherever else people like Trump get their “talking points.”  I believe when the reality of Trump’s inability to do ANYTHING hits Wall Street we’re all in for another crash – this time with someone at the “helm” who’ll have NO IDEA what to do.  (Have you read the history of 1929 and Herbert Hoover?)  My friend mentioned above told me that no body cares about anything but the economy and he believes the economy will flourish under Trump.  I told him that if in two years Trump is still president and the economy is flourishing I would agree with him that Trump will make it through his term.  I don’t see either of those scenarios coming true.

The reality is that Russia and what they’re doing around the world is DANGEROUS.  GW Bush/Dick Cheney committed the most STUPID action (possibly) in the history of this great nation by invading Iraq.  President Obama spent 8 years trying to clean up the mess and was making progress as he left office (Iraqi’s were in the process of pushing ISIL out of Mosul) and I truly hope Trump’s incompetence doesn’t screw up the progress – but, I have no confidence that will be the case.  Trump clearly is an impulsive person who is liable to do something really STUPID when it comes to decisions relating to foreign policy. (Unfortunately, I believe it’s just a matter of time until Trump “outdoes” The Bush/Cheney fiasco)

Russia is in the process of pushing the white nationalist movement around the Western world and if we continue to take a blind eye to what they’re doing, the damage could be among the worst of the damage we’re going to have to endure because of Trump’s presidency.  While,  as stated above, I’m saying this all would be comical if it weren’t so serious, I’m guessing Vladimir Putin is totally enjoying what’s happening in/to America.  During the campaign I believe he was truly hoping that he could destabilize to some degree Hillary Clinton’s administration.  He clearly feared a Clinton in the White House.  What Putin has accomplished in regard to helping create Trump’s administration, I’m sure, goes beyond his wildest dreams.  Trump’s presidency has put Vladimir Putin into a stronger position world wide anyone could have imagined prior to the election.

As an aside:  Someday our “liberal media” will figure all of this out!