The Witness Chronicles, 11/18/24

Yet more White House ugliness

Photo by D A V I D S O N L U N A on Unsplash

Trump Appoints Mouth of Sauron as Communications Director

Stephen Cheung’s potty mouth adds dignity to White House

Those of us who are Lord of the Rings fans will recognize the character in my title. Sauron is the bad guy who no longer lives in a body so he has a spokesperson, known as the Mouth of Sauron, who delivers an ultimatum to the good guys. And who is dead ringer metaphor for the despicable creature Trump named as Communications Director.

He even looks the part. During the campaign, as spokesperson for Trump, his role was to fling ugly insults whenever confronted with facts about his boss. Now he is yet another symbol of the disdain Trump is openly showing for the American people.

That disdain may be what eventually brings him down, a common fate for dictators who no longer feel any need to connect with real life. It’s pretty obvious that unless he dies we are stuck with Trump for a long time and maybe we deserve what we get, at least those of us who fell for the grift and elected him.

We will be debating that for a long, long time. But just ten or so days in, a lot of those voters are belatedly realizing who and what this man is. Too little too late. So we are going to have to listen to a scumbag verbal hitman defining the tenor of White House communication.

All through my writing about the events of the past year I have made an effort to avoid overt cynicism and sarcasm when I can and to put an optimistic spin on my take about what has been going on. But it is now extremely difficult not to descend into insulting these despicable humans.

I’m struggling a bit with that, so bear with me.

I spent a minute or two being angry at my fellow voters for getting us into a mess that we knew was coming because their damn eggs cost too much. Now I’m settling down and living with the fact that a lot of my fellow citizens are selfish people who have little respect for things like the rule of law, decency, and civility, the things that make democracy possible.

At least I now know with certainty that willful ignorance is rampant in our country. But I also need to think that Trump’s actions this time around will be so unhinged that even they will start to resist. Maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part but it’s the best I’ve got right now.

In my conversations this past week I’ve heard a lot of despair from others. Understandable, especially as I live in a solid blue place. But I’m not despairing, not yet anyway. Right now it’s resignation and observation as we watch things blow up in DC, and hope that a few voters wake up and realize what they have collectively done.

I can dream.

My daily reaction this entire election cycle has been you can’t make this stuff up and that has not changed. If anything I am even more incredulous daily as we see Trump choosing the most fringe characters imaginable to advise him and make whatever passes for policy in his administration.

One of things that stands out for me is the utter lack of any actions to deal with climate issues, issues that are in our faces right now as smoke fills the air in Manhattan and we see fires in places where they were recently unthinkable.

This administration is not only going to ignore that threat, it is actively recruiting those who seek to profit by making it worse. Trump has appointed the CEO of a fossil fuel fracking business as Energy Secretary, no big surprise. Interestingly, this week the CEO of Exxon made a statement that we have to shift focus to sustainable clean energy sources.

A huge company like Exxon has long term planners to find ways to make their business sustainable and this statement by their CEO tells us they know their business cannot remain a strictly oil and gas business. If we lived in ordinary times, this would be big news. But it was buried in the hoopla and chaos Trump’s actions have created.

The younger voters, particularly young men who voted for him will be living in times of unimaginable destruction and instability. I’d argue we already live in those times as evidenced by the destruction of places like Asheville that until recently were seen as climate refuges. In just a few hours a storm like Helene caused billions of dollars in damages across a huge swath of the country.

Drill baby drill will not do anything to rebuild those homes, businesses, and highways destroyed by our unwillingness to accept what we have done. And now we have a government controlled by a single man who thinks the whole thing is a hoax.

The appointment of people like Stephen Cheung to clarify what passes as policy for Trump is a finger in the face of the American people. A finger that has been there every minute since the election only days ago and it is not going away. That should bother you. It sure as hell bothers me.

We need a little good news right now but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it. I just don’t see any silver lining in the events we are witnessing. One possibility is a revolt in the Senate but, frankly, I will be shocked if those Republicans tell Trump his power is not absolute.

He has made a bet that they won’t and that competence can be purged from the government. It is easily the most cynical attitude I’ve ever seen from anyone in power here and right now it is not going anywhere.

By the way, the forces of good defeated Sauron, but right now I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, something it pains me to admit.

I guess I’ll do what everyone else is doing and watch football and pretend everything is normal. Shelter from the storm or maybe head in the sand.

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