Is the US Embarrassed?

Several things happened over the last few days.

1. Donald Trump visited Britain, amid hostile demonstrations, which included a balloon in the shape of, as I understand it, a baby Trump.

2. Trump was received graciously by Queen Elizabeth, but then proceeded to get in front of her, and generally impede her progress while reviewing the troops.  He either does not know how to conduct himself on state occasions in Britain, or intentionally behaved boorishly.

3. He went golfing in Scotland, to the annoyance of hundreds of Scots, who showed up to jeer at him.

4. He met with Vladimir Putin in Finland.  Putin was significantly late, but we're told that that is not unusual.  Once they sat down together, Trump asked Putin whether Russian intelligence had interfered with the American Elections of 2016.  Putin said no, but expressed a willingness to participate in the investigation.

5. At a subsequent press conference, Trump declared that he believed Putin, and was satisfied that Putin's heart was in the right place.  Putin had confessed that he preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton, since Clinton had been tough on the Russians in relation to the invasion of the Crimea, and Ukraine, as well as assassination of certain secret agents.

The International Media seems to say that Trump had made an ass of himself.  But, as we know, and according to the belief that Trump clings to, the media does not reflect the opinion of anything but itself.  (This is not exactly true, but Trump might have someone read this Blog post out to him, so I have to be careful.)

But the point remains: about whose opinion are we anxious?  The opinion of Fox News?  The New York Times?  The Washington Post?  The Russian Press?  The North Korean Invisible News?  The people of the world?  Worrying about the public opinion of the world at large is a senseless idea, because there are at least 20 different opinions that anyone could have at this moment, soon to be boiled down to about 10 broad attitudes.  All of these would be different opinions about Trump, and quite different opinions about the American Public.

By now everyone knows that our electoral system is seriously flawed, since it depends on the good intentions of people in certain offices, but which we cannot depend on in the future.  Or perhaps we should brace ourselves to see a long parade of egotistical fatheads vying to be President.  The GOP is probably convinced by now that politicians are no longer a good farm club for the major leagues, and that only 'reality show' people could win the crucial vote of the chauvinistic Trump electorate.

The Democrats seem to be reeling into philosophical instability.  At their worst, I used to think, they were just a little dazed and confused, but quite able to run the government.  But Trump and his party have depleted the Government Coffers to such an extent that it is virtually impossible to recommence the welfare services that the GOP shut down.  The options are: go on an austerity diet, (something which alienated the working class in Britain, remember?) while slowly paying off the debt created by the GOP.  After four years of that, they're sure to lose the next election, because the dynamics of the situation will be poorly understood by the public (or will be ignored by the public), who will believe the lies of the GOP once again ("Remember, Trump almost got rid of those pesky Mexicans for us, but the Dems and Hillary got in his way!"  Never mind that Hillary Clinton did not hold office while the White House was down with this severe case of Trump-itis), enabling the GOP to distribute the savings among the 1%.

Destroying what the US had achieved, under the leadership of several Democrat presidents, and many Democrat congressmen, congresswomen, senators and senatoresses did not take long; hardly a year and a bit.  Putting Humpty Dumpty together again will take a long time.

One thing is certain: we have to keep an eye on access to the voting booth.  Bring your guns.  (Jk.)

Arch