THE DUMBNESS

For many of us, there are times, actually many times, when the overwhelming challenges to our sanity of Trump and his amazingly unfit appointees feel even more agonizing than their cruelty. As in “No, they didn’t really do/say that, right?” And there are times when the blurring of the Onion, the Daily Show, and reality do give many pause. So much in the past 14 months has seemed like satire, that nothing on South Park or Saturday Night Live could match reality. Where to even begin?

Donald Trump and the dumbest war ever? The war that began after the Real Estate king sent one of his real estate buddies to Oman to negotiate a deal with Iran that included an agreement about nuclear weapons, and presumably should have avoided a war? Essentially renegotiating the very deal that the Mad King had scrapped in his first term because Obama. So the very experienced and brilliantly intuitive Steve Witkoff, who was pretending to be a diplomat, was sent with scant knowledge of either the region or of protocol. Apparently he had little grasp of how Iran’s nuclear program operated, and brought with him another man described by the Guardian as a “hawkish essayist and political philosopher.” Took few notes. Witkoff had not done any homework- he even referred to the Strait of Hormuz as the Gulf of Hormuz- look it up, a gulf and a strait are not the same! Iranians, and many in the world including Americans who are paying attention, as well as one Gulf diplomat believe Witkoff and Kushner acted as “Israeli assets that had conspired to force the US president into entering a war from which he is now desperate to get himself out of.” According to the leftist propaganda organ the Wall Street Journal, military strategist Donald Trump was informed by none other than General Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, that “An American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.” But Donny knew better- Tehran would fold just like Venezuela and beg him with tears in their eyes to steal their oil if the big tough American troops went away. We can only watch with train-wreck style rapt attention to see what major errors Donny and his crew of rank amateurs make next- and with Armageddon Pete in charge, the surprises never end.

The level of rank stupidity is hard to even articulate when it comes to RFK Jr and his crusade against public health. How do we even process a man who is given authority over a public health system that, while imperfect, had protected the population from diseases such as measles and polio for decades. A system that had developed an effective vaccine to give lifetime immunity to the miserable disease shingles. A system that was developing treatments for emerging tropical diseases in the United States due to climate destruction. A system that employed brilliant researchers. And he took a sledge hammer to this system- we are seeing the very bare bones beginning of the damage RFK Jr’s anti-vax rhetoric has caused with localized measles clusters. But when the most unqualified HEAD of Health and Human Services ever, makes a statement that the polio vaccine caused more deaths than the disease, we know that he may win a Nobel Prize for Dumb.

The entire Trump project of the denial of global heating and climate disruption is breathtaking. The tariffs on solar panels, as well as elimination of financial incentives, have slowed the expansion of a cheap, user friendly source of power. The return to gas powered vehicles, a huge cost that may break Ford and General Motors for good, and in spite of the fact that every other sizable producer of moving things is moving toward electric power, is essentially handing the future world car and truck market to China, where affordable EV’s are rolling off the assembly line in huge quantities.

This barely needs to be said, but if the very wealthy United States had spent its huge resources right, taking the path to becoming less reliant on fossil fuels, Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz would be a problem, not a disaster. It is clear that Donald Trump is being paid very well by the oil, gas, and chemical industries to try to stop the renewables revolution in its tracks.

Can we even react with genuine disbelief any longer when Donny confuses Azerbaijan with Armenia? When he states that nobody knows how magnets work? When a NEPO baby with dementia claims that Gavin Newsom is unqualified to be president because of dyslexia- a condition that has no bearing on intelligence? The man who suggested drinking bleach for Covid? Who changed the hurricane map with a sharpie? The fun never ends.

And last but not least, we have Pete Hegseth, who actually said to Senator Elissa Slotkin, on March 19: “be careful what you read in books, unless it’s the bible.”

I am no scholar of history. Is fascism always accompanied by such glaring stupidity?Has there been an authoritarian who is as mentally challenged as Donald Trump? And have people propped up such a demented “leader” before? Or are we the victims of a very sick reality version of“The Emperor Has No Clothes?” And if we are not repeating history, how far will those around the Mad King allow him to stray from reality? As long as the damage he is doing benefits the super rich, he will be allowed his fun. What are the limits?