“Pig’s Blood”

Today, following the Barcelona (Spain) attack of a van crashing into a crowd of people, leaving many dead and injured (ISIS claiming responsibility), President Trump tells a now debunked story of General Pershing using bullets dipped in pig’s blood to shoot 49 of 50 terrorists in the early 1900s during the US war in the Philippines, in a conflict with Islam.  Historians say there is no truth to the story. (BBC news, August 17, 2017)

This is an example of how discredited the Trump presidency has become.  If he does not know the facts, he makes up “the facts.”   If he does not know history, he embellishes what he does know to make a political statement.  Even among the uneducated and unschooled of this nation, this President is a shame, a blot on the face of our country.

Since the tragedy of Charlottesville, VA in which white terrorists descended upon this sleepy little college town, dressed in full armor with guns ready for battle, this president has found himself embroiled in controversy, even among many of the Republican party faithful.  He could not do one simple thing, that is, condemn racial hatred, bigotry and white supremacy terrorism along with the neo-Nazis.  He has attempted to paint both sides as engaging in terrorism, but the “alt-left” as President Trump has chosen to call the protestors against racism, were simply a collection of college students and interested bystanders.  They did not don the white pointed hats of the Ku Klux Klan.  They did not engage in a Nazi salute to Hitler or to our President.  They did not carry guns and march with torches as soldiers ready for battle.  They did not scream epithets and curse words at those who opposed them.  A few engaged in violence, but nothing akin to an automobile mowing down a crowd of innocents, killing one young woman and injuring 19 more!

Our President is a foolish man if he thinks his equivocal statements regarding domestic terrorism speak for any patriotic Americans.  His words may soothe the consciences of the David Dukes, the neo-Nazis and the white supremacists, who should be ashamed to call themselves Americans.  These are those who do not belong in our democratic, pluralistic society.  These are the outcasts, the dung needing to be thrown out on the trash heap of history!  The David Duke’s and others like him are so far removed from the spirit and heart of our democratic American life as to be an anomaly, an anachronism, a dying breed.

I pray to God the cancer of these kind of persons will be quickly expunged and removed from our society, as one cuts out a cancer which is poisoning the whole body politic.  I pray to God this President is expunged from our modern life, too, as what he represents is not good for America!  Except for these bigots, he represents no true American.  He has himself become an anomaly, an anachronism, an embarrassment not only to all Americans, but to those who have in the past supported him, as well.

Those in the Republican establishment, including Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, John McCain, honorable senator from Arizona, Mitt Romney, former Republican Presidential candidate from Massachusetts, and two former Presidents (George H.W.Bush and George W. Bush)  denounced racism after Charlottesville.  I have not included the former President Barak Obama, whose tweet passed 3 million likes, when he quoted Nelson Mandela, who said children must learn to hate, as love comes more naturally to them.  I have not mentioned the former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who says racism and bigotry have no place in America.  I have not even brought to mind the countless chief executives of the largest corporations in the United States who have resigned from the presidential counsels on manufacturing and business, denouncing President Trump’s lack of a clear stand against domestic terrorism.

If our generals in the military abandon their support for him, Trump’s will be a failed presidency.  Among many generals, in reports I have read in the news media, some are now privately saying, “This man is not fit to be president!”  Some are hoping that he resigns.

With all of these illustrious participants in the national arena, I do not think I am too far off the mark in agreeing with their assessment of his man.  I still find his election to the Presidency to be a complete surprise.  Had we known what we were getting, we would not have bought this “pig in a poke!”

I wish no ill will to the man.  I just think he would do better going back to his business affairs and his bombastic speeches on reality TV.  He could find his place in the backwaters of late night TV, perhaps even have his own political show on Fox TV, if he could keep his hands out of women’s privates after the show.  Then we could all simply change the channel on our TV and go on to bed!

Instead, night after night we are forced to watch this unfolding drama on the TV and in the news.  On one day, Trump is being investigated as to his business ties to Russia and whether these influenced the election.  On another day we find out he is about to sack his own attorney general.  Then Steve Bannon chief advisor is on his way out.  The next day Steve Bannon is on his way in.  We have the firing of the chief of staff (or did he quit, I forget), and then the White House Press guy leaves, to be replaced by a man from New York, who also quickly departs.  Finally the general arrives from Homeland Security to “save the day” and stop the chaos at the White House.  Later we learn Trump is threatening “fire and fury” on North Korea, even though his chief advisor Steve Bannon says there will be immediately 10 million casualties in South Korea in the first 30 minutes of the war with the North, making it all “unwinnable”.  Does anyone know what the President will tweet in his outburst tonight or tomorrow night or perhaps the first of next week?

Is anyone beside me sick of all this drama?  I would like to see good, rational, stable government and not this constant churning and regurgitation of a man who seems never to quite know what he is going to say, who makes up speeches on the cuff, with whatever happens to fall from his mind!

I have said enough for one evening.  May God help us!  May God help us all!  “May God bless the United States of America!”  In Jesus name I pray.  “Amen and Amen!”

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!”