"Idiosyncratic" has always been the best thing we could hope for. "Dangerous" is a more worrisome word. We might whistle past the graveyard, in effect, figuring that however stupid and vain this man might seem - a man who assumed his high office with no experience in government or the military - he hasn't planted the seeds for anything truly cataclysmic to happen to this country. My inclination is to think he may have actually planted these seeds. We just haven't seen detonation yet.
An example? Well, it might be the undue pressure he has put on the Federal Reserve. This is a no-no in Washington D.C. circles. "Don't fight the Fed." His supporters can chortle about how he was elected to "reject the establishment." Well fine and dandy, congratulations on your throwaway cliche. He rejects "the establishment" so much, he gets on the phone at the end of a day where the Dow goes down 800 points and negotiates with the big Wall Street bankers.
The "bubble" in the economy has to be kept inflated, you see, with the bottom line being: "Keep the stock market high, albeit artificially, as long as possible." Trump can prop up the illusion of a booming economy even though "the stock market is not the economy," as we always hear. It gets propped up through stock buybacks which should be illegal.
The central bank is a major puppetmaster. Is it just buying time? Does Trump know it's just buying time, continuing the illusion of prosperity long enough for him to be re-elected? And heaven help us all if he gets re-elected and no longer has to be worried about the voters. Surely you don't trust this man to guide the ship of state. Before long we will all be rooting for the "deep state," the people who realize there really ought to be rules. They know there's some sausage-making involved in the process. But the ship of state rolls forward.
Trump's bizarre rallies like the one he had in Minneapolis merely appeal to an ignorant element of the populace who have a general sense of grievance about their lot. These people feel threatened by changes in our society. They are irritated by a more diverse culture. They are in denial about the lot of the poor. They think all the unemployed or underemployed people should just go out and get jobs or work harder. It's a vague American principle.
Well, let me tell you: there is an underbelly of simply "holding a job" like in main street heartland America. I have been there. Some of my detractors might smirk and say I deserved ending up jobless 13 years ago. Actually I have regretted not leaving the job sooner because my parents could have used more focused help. Let's be crystal clear here: anyone who has worked for years at a typical main street type of business in "real" America knows it can be daunting, just getting by with a sense of stability and predictability. In the digital age, with the tremendous disruption and automation going on everywhere?
Those of us with real world experience can tell stories of people who come and go at their places of business, people who "just didn't work out." They were not bad people. They had an attitude of wanting to succeed. But it can be tough. And yet Trump preaches about "the dignity of work" as if this is grounds to justify cutting hundreds of thousands of people off food stamps. As if all these people simply needed to get their act together. In Trump's fantasy world, such a thing is tenable. We'd have to get his focus off porn stars for a while.
Trump has never had to go out and pull himself up by the bootstraps. He has never had the wolf at his door. As president he doesn't "work" because it has become known that he spends most of his time watching Fox News.
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| Ed Schultz RIP |
Trump has no connection to that reality. We all know he's a charlatan when he tries to connect himself to the most zealous forms of Christianity. I guess it's the "evangelicals," the people who feel certain the "end times" are coming soon, therefore we needn't concern ourselves with climate change. I don't want to live my life as if the world as we know it is going to end. If it does end, it might be because we have a bull in the china closet - Trump - dealing in international relations. But he has the extreme Christians eating out of his hand.
We have churches in our Morris MN area where I'm sure the parishioners vote 100 percent Trump. Leading evangelicals bow down at Trump's feet. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, has taken this a step further, saying that the likes of yours truly, critics of Trump, are motivated by the devil. Many shallow people out there are going to buy this. If I'm motivated by the devil, should I not be allowed to celebrate Christmas this year? I think Trump and the crescendo of impeachment has actually cast a pall over Christmas. We are whistling past the graveyard.
We in Morris are dead center in alignment with Trump country, at the very heart of it. We have a Democratic Party congressman in Collin Peterson who probably should change parties like that Benedict Arnold in New Jersey. Peterson is scared of Donald Trump. Years from now, assuming we're all still here, how will he reflect on this? Will he be proud of himself? He says the impeachment process is too political. What does he think he is, a politician?
Sue Dieter has to speak for him now. Actually she seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. She liked the power and prestige of running the Morris paper for that Fargo corporation. Maybe that corporation is getting a bad rap. Seriously, I do know that for whatever they lacked in local sensitivity, they made up for with full benefits for employees. Such as 401K, "Cobra" and other stuff. We got visits from a human resources department person a couple times a year. Hey, even with "powerpoint." Far out. (What if Abe Lincoln had given the Gettysburg Address using powerpoint?)
To what extent do the new "hero" owners of the Morris paper provide benefits? I looked at the new Morris paper yesterday (Tuesday). It looks impressive, no doubt. But I wouldn't buy it. We are all less reliant on the local newspaper today.
The paper was used as a channel for the City of Morris to issue a threat recently, about continuing to use old water softeners. I think that was chickens--t, maybe not on the part of the paper but on the part of the City of Morris. The city has cover, in that they can claim, as the city manager did with me, that "we don't write the newspaper articles." OK so it's not an official source for anything. The City of Morris could put out a direct mailing. Then I could deal with them.
Many local people are saying rather loudly that there's too much Hancock news in the paper. Gee I've never heard that before. But who cares?
We used to get a cash bonus at Christmas from the Morris newspaper owner. Seems quaint I guess. The Fargo corporation put money in our 401K or something equivalent to it, because we didn't have the option of simply saying no to something like a 401K. When I left the Morris paper, I actually got a nice little payout of money that had built up. Interesting. Does the new Morris paper ownership offer health insurance to its employees?
Addendum: Carr's Tree Service came to my neighborhood last spring to trim branches that were judged too close to power lines. A matter of following regulations I'm sure. The neighborhood residents were not charged for this. It must have been contracted by Agralite Electric Co-op. They took responsibility.
Now that we have the City of Morris making legal threats to people who have "old" water softeners - lack of clarification on "old" - it is apparently going to be up to a great many local residents to purchase a new water softener.
It is a maddening question whether the "new" city water, minus a softener, will be good enough. One hears various things. I think the city manager should have set an example by simply disconnecting his softener. But instead he had an on-demand softener put in. He says he did this because of being offered a trade-in, otherwise he would not have done it. But if it's 100 percent fine to disconnect, why did he bother installing a new softener? It really makes you wonder. And, only two city council members have chosen to simply disconnect. The council too, needs to set an example, if they are going to preach to everyone about how you're simply supposed to disconnect.
Disconnect or you're "in violation of the law." That's the word expressed through a page 1 newspaper article. The writer of the article doesn't live in Morris. I bought a new on-demand softener. I could live with this easier, if I felt I had been dealt with in a more forthright way through the whole process. Now I feel almost violated. I'm 64 years old and never before have I felt enmity toward the city council or city hall. Now I do. It tarnishes Christmas. Just like Trump holding his rally.
People will likely say "Brian, you'll really like your new softener." Yes and I would also like a brand-new Chevy Camaro, but I'm not going to go out and buy one tomorrow. What else can the City of Morris force me to do?
Addendum: The Wednesday Trump rally is in Battle Creek MI. I discovered a few years ago on the Internet, a church choir in that city that was performing a composition of my father's for Easter Sunday.
Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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