TRUMP BEING TRUMP

What more has to go wrong before Trump meets an inglorious, sordid end? In a normal democracy he would already have been sent to the gallows or returned to his shady business. In these United States post-2016 he remains (for the time- being) unscathed, like a brooding Sardanapalus in Eugene Delacroix's painting, in denial of the surrounding havoc of his own making.

This week should have been a via dolorosa for any normal politician. The negatives multiply on all fronts and this president only holds firm because of the opportunistic cowardly Republicans and his base of "Brown Shirts." His pathology which was ludicrous, nouveau riche, is becoming dangerous. His tendency to veer off script and norms is no longer laughable. The just-published Bob Woodward book and the anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times give an alarming insight into the broken mind of a man who appears to be close to dementia.

No wonder the world-at-large observes this meltdown of the American system fascinated and worried. This White House has been compared to Charenton or to a Goya nightmare...wrong. These goings-on come out of a cheap Goodfellas scenario. There is no need to upgrade what is in the gutter. One has to dig deep to come close to what there is to be found. Unfortunately this foreseeable farce might well lead to even more threatening disruptions regarding Iran, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. In Washington politics are now driven by whims and impulse, by unreasonable antipathy rather than by measured consideration. It has been said that to leave the nuclear code in the hands of Trump equals tempting mayhem...rightly so. These last days are sending a warning that should not be ignored. It appears that in Trump's inner-circle there are individuals who are alarmed enough to resort to a guerrilla warfare, aiming to neutralize the unpredictable outbursts of this ever fuming character.

Unfortunately the president is becoming his own cult. He escapes by attending rallies in the American no-man's-land, where the gullible live, procreate and believe in god and guns. In the collective fallacies of the "deplorables" he finds his solace and the confirmation of his (shaky) legitimacy. If only he were capable of doubt, of questioning, he might have been able to overcome the plural of personal negatives. The next months might see him more unhinged than ever.

Those who see the dangerous shift in the world order are shunned. Europe is out, Asia is largely ignored, Africa--well--is Africa (China's hinterland). Australia knows were its interests lie. Latin America is left to its own devices. There is no lofty or intellectual flair in an administration famous for putting kids in cages under the vengeful eye of Stephen Miller (a Harry Potter arch-villain). The president now seeks to change the Flores rule, a change which would allow the administration to detain minors in the custody of Immigration for extended periods of time. Imagine?

Maybe the mid-term elections will punish the Republicans, as they should. Could one count on the Democrats to strategize a smart, creative alternative? The bets are open. Both parties should read some of the Federalist Papers (this illiterate president will not know what they are about).  President Obama suddenly sounds almost out of touch, because the ruling discourse has become so vulgar that the correct vocabulary has left the scene....with the rest, and the best.