Floating Down A River of Sh*t

America is one week into the reign of Trump and his band of corporate hacks, thieves and miscreants. Citizens have already been treated to several Trumpian temper tantrums -- over the paltry turnout for his inauguration, his relations with the corporate media (who adored Trump-the-Candidate and bent over backwards to give Trump free air time), and his address at the CIA, which was either one of the greatest speeches ever made (Trump), or an unhinged, childish rant (according to Anderson Cooper, among others).

And of course Trump has used his presidential pen to sign a flurry of executive orders -- to resurrect the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, to block or slow immigration from predominantly Muslim nations (even those the US has bombed or destabilized, creating a refugee crisis), and to erect the Great Trump Wall along the US-Mexico border.

We have also been subjected to a  blitzkrieg by Trump and Co. of alternate facts, misinformation, false statements, and gag orders  to prevent some federal agencies from sharing information with Congress or the media. This is not a fun time to be working as a scientist for the EPA or the Department of Energy. Facts and reason are about as welcome in Trump-Land as fire ants are at a Sunday picnic.

I feel like I’m floating down a river of shit. I can’t bear to look at or listen to Trump or any of the sycophants that surround him. In my lifetime I have on occasion felt embarrassed to be an American: during Nixon’s fall from grace, through eight years of the bumbling fool George W. Bush, but nothing comes close to the embarrassment I feel today. I understand that Trump is only a symptom of a capitalist system that years ago ceased to work for the mass of people; a system maintained by legal bribery, gerrymandering and elections of dubious validity, a weak judiciary, and a military-surveillance-security complex that devours more than half the nation’s annual budget. Four decades of poorly regulated, predatory and cannibalistic capitalism murdered America’s soul, dulled America’s mind, and now imperils America’s heart.  

I know we have to pay some attention to Trump, but it’s far more important to keep a steady eye on the brigands who whisper in Donald’s ear.

I imagine one of the talking noggins from the corporate media asking Trump about his first week in office. “It was tremendous,” says Trump. “Very, very bigly unprecedented. No president has ever done more in their first week in office than me. Not Washington. Not Lincoln. Not FDR. Certainly not Obama, that loser. People are saying I have transformed the country. Fox News thinks my face will be on Mount Rushmore even before my first term is over. Great week, fantastic week for America, very terrible week for Mexico.”

I am thinking of nicknames for Trump. Here are a few contenders: King Donald I; President Comb-Over; Groper-in-Chief; Supreme (Illegitimate) Leader; The Orange One.

Can you imagine America without Mexican immigrants? Are we to believe Trump’s fantasy that keeping Mexicans out  will in the near future mean that Anglos will be washing our cars at the carwash, picking our fruits and vegetables, cooking our meals in restaurants, and scrubbing our floors and toilets? I’m sure there are many overpaid corporate CEO’s worried about losing pliable, frightened and compliant immigrant labor; Anglos will be harder to exploit and are far more likely to be armed, loaded on opioids, and full of grievance.