Welcome To The New America

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” – Franklin D Roosevelt

Well that was fun. Sunburnt Stalin’s long awaited press conference commenced with a bellicose attack by Sean Spicer, his new press secretary, on some media outlets (Buzzfeed and CNN) and ended with flippant indifference. At least it was clear why he uses Twitter so much; he’s clearly incapable of completing a coherent sentence.

This may seem strange but for once I actually have some sympathy for Herr Drumpf. I feel compassion for anyone who is exposed to unwarranted embarrassment. The latest allegations about an ostensibly sycophantic relationship with Putin in the form of 35 pages of memos are pretty salacious and highly insulting if untrue. And for a man with skin as thin as a cobweb and with a tendency to react violently and immediately to any perceived slight, this reaction is entirely predictable. That said, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking, keep talking Donald, someday you’ll say something intelligent. So what did he say?

He acknowledges “I think it was Russia” behind election hacks – but he blames the Democrats for not having sufficient cyber security. Oh, and he couldn’t resist praising himself for instructing human weasel, Reince Priebus, to beef up the defences of the Republicans. Hmmm. Remember, Trump is a man who uses phrases like ‘age of computer’ and ‘the cyber’ so that seems dubious. He revisits the Podestra emails and says what he was saying about Hillary was horrible. He viciously attacks CNN with conflated facts. He lies about the number of jobs he saved at Carrier. He promises new and improved Healthcare with no details of a plan. He repositions himself regarding Mexico, the wall and who will pay for it. He castigates the intelligence community again. He wheels out a lawyer to drown us in legal talk when explaining how he intends to avoid conflicts of interest, but not before he says that cinflicts of interest do not apply to him as president. He fails to criticise Putin – and why would he. He states that he will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created (no hyperbole there). And he basically admits to refusing a $2 billion bribe/deal with his ‘a friend of his, great guy’, Hussain Damac, which in itself is WRONG as he would subtly put it; the man in question is called Hussain Sajwani of the Damac Group. Aaaah Donald. Before he came along we were hungry, and now we’re fed up.

Ultimately, the Tangerine Narcissus didn’t answer as many questions as those he ignored, and those that he didn’t ignore had precious detail in the answer. I blame the (mainly) contemptible media for this as they seem incapable of following up an unanswered question with the same question, or at least a variation on the theme. They'd rather avoid sticking their heads above the parapet and indulge in gossip; after all, the worst of cowards are gossips. But at least we understand why he tweets. The man can’t communicate coherently beyond 140 characters. Okay, he can’t communicate coherently within 140 characters but you get my drift. Ordinarily people live and learn but the Donald just lives. Here’s one example of his communication skill when asked about repealing Obamacare:

We're going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously -- shortly thereafter -- a plan. It will be repeal and replace. It will be, essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand but will most likely be on the same day or the same week -- but probably the same day -- could be a same hour. So we're going to do repeal and replace -- very complicated stuff. And we’re going to get a health bill passed -- we’re going to get healthcare taken care of for this country.

What the f***? What does this mean? When a thought crosses Drumpf’s mind it must be pretty lonely.

So there you have it. I could go on about #GoldenShowers and discuss the allegations of the Buzzfeed article but I can only endure so much fake news. Maybe it’s not but time hopefully tells. Suffice to say that Donald needs no help in embarrassing himself, the American people or humanity in general. Welcome to the future. Welcome to Drumpf. The future is bright. The future is orange. And after the dignity and poise of the Obama years, orange Is the new black.