Trump Jump

According to legend, the Van Halen rocker "Jump" was inspired by one of those tragedies when a person was standing on a ledge and threatening to committ suicide. A crowd of people gathered beneath the ledge and began yelling "Go ahead and JUMP" which the sad soul eventually did to the bemusement of the onlookers.

I kinda feel like that guy now as I begin, once again, to write about politics.

I know from past attempts that writing about politics has a short shelf life, much like a ledge.

Especially since so much of our political reality is alleged.

Political writing is trendy. When I look back at political writing I have done, it's like reading yesterday's paper. It's on the muscle for that time but as time passes, that muscle atrophies and turns into blabbering blubber.

Still, everybody keeps bugging me for my impressions of Trump.

So I might as well Jump.

First off, I'm not a Tump hater which separates me from most of my friends.

I can't blame Trump for the conditions in the US and the world in general that made his election possible. He saw the writing on the wall and he read it correctly. According to the rules of our democracy, he got elected.

He may or may not have had help from Putin and the gang

or the FBI

or the KKK.

Scoreboard says: He got elected.

Dude's the President...the chief executive...the Leader of the Free World.

Word.

So off he goes with the full support of Hillary's basket of deplorables plus millions of other patriotic Americans.

Most of whom, like myself, respect the office and the electoral process.

The haters who are legion and who neither saw the writing on the wall nor read it are out for blood and maybe they should be....I'm not a hater so I don't know.

I see there are a lot of ledges no doubt.

The main question has been and continues to be the difference between the literal and the figurative when it comes to Trump's communication. Haters take him literally. His base takes him figuratively. We all know that.

I'm giving the guy the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe Comey really is a nut job as is alledged.

He did manage to alienate both sides during the election.

If he IS a nut and if that nut is leading a very sensitive and crucila investigation, shouldn't he be shitcanned?

How long would Comey have survived if Hillary had been elected?

The over/under is how long he lasted under Trump.

With Hillary, I'm betting under.

Both Trump and Hillary have had trouble with "classified information". The big difference is that Hillary had that problem while Secretary of State. Trump has it while President...yet the President is allowed morre liberty with the sharing of classified information.

At Potsdam, Truman revealed to Stalin that the US had a new weapon. He sure as hell did. My father was in the Phillipines at the time getting ready to invade Japan. Without that weapon, I might not have been around to take this leap.

Trump's at war with the media and the media is art war with itself. Between Fox and Cnn we continually get conflicting stories. Yet ratingsx for both nerworks are going through the roof. Trump's a rating's guy.

Guess what...so is this country.

We watch a lot of teevee.

Reading not so much.

Local newspapers are disappearing and politics is always local.

So now, we depend on teevee, on national rather than local sources.

This leads to resentment in states other than California and New York.  

Teevee created Trump and played a big part in creating the wrioting on the wall that enabled Trump.

Now, segmenrts o teevee are doing their best to disable Donald.

Take Stephen Colbert for example.

Please.

Every night his show begins with a "monologue"/diatribe savagely and phallically mocking our President. I know. I watch every night and I'm not even a hater.

I am starting to hate Colbert however.

Yeah, I know he's a comedian and his job is to speak truth to power and make us laugh.

His bigger job is to make money for his network and to keep his job.

Colbert is reading the writing on his wall which is a very different wall than the wall that Trump is reading . Is being a late night host as powerful a job as being President, it's a pretty close call. It's a very tall wall.

So I watch these competing walls and try to stay objective yet I find myself leaping from the top of each of them.

I've gone ahead and jumped.

I'm like the guy jumping from the fiftieth floor who passes an onlooker on the thrity fifth floor who yells at me as I'm going by "How's it goin?"

I yell back.

"Not bad so far".

Stay tuned