Here are some mangled aphorisms I have stumbled upon over the years:
1. If you can keep your head when all anout you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the problem.
2. To err is human, to forgive practically impossible.
3. If your nose runs and your feet smell, you're built upside down.
The last one is not so much an aphorism as a scientific observation. Rudyard Kipling and Alexander Pope are undoubtedly turning over in their graves at this point. I don't know who authored the third one. It sounds a great deal like the sort of thing comedian Steven Wright or comedian Rita Rudner might say, and neither of them has a grave yet.
Two days have now elapsed since the American electorate chose Donald J. Trump to serve a second albeit non-consecutive term as President of the United States. As far as I can tell, our country is still intact. It is my fervent hope that it will remain so for a very long time to come.
In 1972, after being sworn in to succeed the resigned U.S. president Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford said, "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." Today a great many Americans think his statement applies once again, that our long national nightmare is over. A great many others think it is just beginning.
Stay tuned. Keep your eyes and ears open. Don't be swayed by partisan voices on either side in the media. Think for yourself. Make up your own mind. Time will eventually tell whose views were right.
The feeling here is that he won't last long, but our pundits got it all so horribly wrong that I don't really trust their judgement.
ReplyDeleteDo they think he will be assassinated? Impeached? Overthrown shortly? Hounded out of office? Imprisoned? I don’t know what you are hinting at exactly. Regarding impeachment, the House of Representatives impeaches (similar to indictment by a grand jury) and the Senate conducts the trial. He was impeached twice during his first term in the Democrat-majority House but not convicted in the Republican-majority Senate. We don’t have votes of no confidence that dissolve parliaments here like you have in the UK. The presidential term is fixed at four years (barring death, resignation, or invoking the 25th Amendment). Thank you, Janice.
DeletePerhaps we are slowly being shaken out of the dream that the world can be a better place.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I can play Jackie DeShannon’s 1969 song “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” (how’s that for an esoteric reference?) on an endless loop inside my head I will always believe that the world can be a better place. Thank you, Tasker.
DeleteI'm sure the country and indeed, the world, will go on. Will there be damage done that takes decades of recovery?
ReplyDeleteI persist in believing the world can be better but progress tends to be three steps forward and two back
The predictions of doomsday at our doorstep seem, I don’t know, excessive, overwrought, premature, pessimistic, over the top — take your pick. That’s just one man’s opinion, you understand. Thank you, kylie.
DeleteI'm no expert on US politics or politicians but I will say that if things change, it could be almost guaranteed that the marginalised will be the first to suffer
DeleteI agree. Those without means or influence, those relegated to the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder, those least able to survive physically or financially, those who do not conform to what the controlling elites deem acceptable have always been and will always be the first to suffer. Shame on everyone who knows better and could help yet does nothing. Thank you, kylie.
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