Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Thoughts from Galicia: 14.3.17

Today's main theme is madness . . .

Here's a schedule of the comments on Trump I've noted in articles over just the last few days. I might update it in due course. That said, I might not, as it's hard to believe there's anything relevant – however accurate – left to say. It's even harder to conclude: 1. that Trump isn't suffering from one or more psychological conditions; and 2. that many millions of Americans felt this guy was the solution to their undoubted problems and a real alternative to the dysfunctional US political system with which they had, rightly, become so disaffected. It can only end in tears.

      Aspects of the man
     What he's been responsible for
      His team
  • Unseasoned
  • Lashes out
  • Has an elementary schoolkid's urge to upend the board when the game isn't going his way
  • Predilection for asserting and clinging to untruths in the face of contrary evidence
  • Questionable ability to absorb and act upon unwelcome information
  • A tenuous connection to the truth
  • Lives in a world of vanity, hate, arrogance, untruth and recklessness
  • A demonstrably mendacious, ignorant bully
  • Displays fury over paltry things such as the crowd numbers
  • Makes calculations that have a propensity to boomerang
  • No practical program beyond division
  • America's Juan Perón
  • A swaggering approach
  • A rogue - a big target and thin-skinned but not easy to wound
  • Slapdash
  • An American strongman – a response to earlier paralysis of the political system
  • A man of many anomalies
  • The first real post ColdWar president
  • Seems capable of misshaping the republic but for no greater cause than himself
  • Harbours a deep dislike of the intelligence agencies and an ambivalent view of their output
  • Willing to allow prisoners to be subjected to “a hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding.
  • Cavalier
  • Shows few signs of being very curious
  • Doesn't seem to be much of a reader
  • The first president to be disdainful of the intelligence agencies
  • Has a notoriously strained relationship with the truth
  • Indiscreet nature
  • Known for vitriol and vulgarity
  • A penchant for vicious attacks often very untethered from reality
  • Wild claims
  • Unhinged tweets
  • Problems arise from his use of language
  • An endless series of self-inflicted wounds
  • Unforced errors
  • Has thrown sand in the gears of the constitutional machinery
  • A continuing feud with the intelligence community erodes rapport and trust
  • A rocky start with key allies.
  • Losing the credibility of the office
  • A hellscape of lies and distorted reality
  • A raw spume of blurtings at his first press conference
  • Both using and demonising the media
  • Risky handling of the constitution's emoluments clause
  • Polarisation of the electorate, divided equally but not amicably
  • Blustering at allies
  • Dissing the intelligence agencies is worse than stupid
  • A despicable display of self-aggrandisement in front of the CIA's memorial wall.
  • His remarks on torture are off the edge of the screen
  • Destabilising the relationship between spies and the government
  • Trump’s war has begun: it is the First Cyber War. Like all wars, its first casualty was truth. Unlike other wars, it will have no last casualty, as it is a war without end. Get used to it. Or get rid of your computer.

  • Wobbly
  • Absence of key personnel
  • Cynical populists
  • Bannon's appointment to the Security Council is stone cold crazy

By the way, everything seems pretty spot on to me but I have close American friends who'd certainly disagree with this, seeing me as the victim of a biased, Lefty media. Though I do read papers which pass for right-of-centre, in the UK at least. But, then, many Americans think Europe is a socialist hell for there's Right and Right, I don't do Breitbart or Fox News, for example. RT News is enough for me. Perhaps not coincidentally, the latter sources much material from the former.

A wise American friend once said to me: Colin, You have to remember that the US has the very best and the very worst of everything you can imagine. Indeed, but it's such a shame that so much of the latter is on display to the rest of the world right now, for it remains a wonderful country, full of (largely) wonderful people. The rest of them are busy killing each other, of course. And more than a few innocents along the way.

On the theme of US insanity . . . With a HT to Lenox of Business Over Tapas, here's a web page which I initially thought just had to be a joke. But when you go herehere and here, you're forced to the conclusion it isn't and that the USA has more than its share of nutters.

Just in case you don't go to all of those locations, I can't resist this paragraph on the Quitter Mansion, which awaits me: This is a home that will never be lived in because the person slated for this lot was a believer in name only. Angels began to build him a mansion, but they stopped work when it was clear the client had no intention of fulfilling his commitment.

Final comment . . . The web page's motto - Behold I come quickly – really would be more at home at the top of a bad porn site.

And now onto something Spanish . . . Reader Eamon has provided these follow-ups on the electric companies:
  • A guy came to convince me Endesa was part of Fenosa and I could get cheaper electricity. He said a new office was opened in La Coruña which would save money instead of the billing from Barcelona. He left me all kinds of bunk so I sent a letter to Endesa and they came back with an apology saying it was a mistake. So, a blatantly fraudulent attempt to get Eamon to change from Fenosa to Endesa, a completely different company. 
  • Last Friday a young lady representing Fenosa rang my door bell. After identifying herself she asked why I was not taking the opportunity of a discount on my bill. I said I had no idea what she was talking about and she asked me for my latest bill. Looking at the bill she said I used under 3 kilowatts of power so I should go to the office and claim my discount. I will do that shortly and report what happens. So has Fenosa been told to get the message out to their customers I wonder? 

My response: 
Are you sure this isn't to trick you from leaving the regulated market to go into the unregulated market, for which you will pay the price later?

Today's cartoon:

"God, I wish someone would shut that baby up"







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