Albert Einstein Was Right

Albert Einstein – what a brain, what a mind.

E=MC2, was he right? Does Energy Equal Mass Times the Speed of Light Squared? I suppose so, but how would I know? I got beyond the multiplication tables in school but not far beyond.

But I do know from experience and observation that Einstein was right when he observed:

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. “

Right, there is no limit to one’s stupidity (your faithful blogger here included).

Donald J Trump is many things – mean, uncaring, ignorant, narcissistic,  vengeful, vulgar, a liar and the list goes on into ad infinitum.

But above all else, Donald J Trump is stupid!

Why else would one man do so many things every day that, if left unchecked, will destroy this Country, destroy a way of life for most Americans that have made us the envy of the World, destroy himself?

Someone might say he is Evil, not Stupid, and is brilliantly executing a plan of destruction for destruction’s sake.

Not so.

Steve Bannon has a plan, is following a course  designed to destroy the Country as it exists today. Many of us think that in so doing Bannon is Evil.

But Donald J Trump has no plan; he is simply fumbling along from tweet to tweet, from stumble to stumble, from one incoherent thought to another, often contradictory, never firm, usually ludicrous and laughable. And since he is president, dangerous. But not by design.

At this point some of you may remember my initial promise that I intend to conduct a civil discussion of matters here and not call people “names.”

I have not called Donald J Trump a “name;” I have described his characteristics and actions as we can all see them. He is the things and has done the things I have described so let me lay out just a small amount of the evidence to back up what I say; if time and space permitted I could deliver volumes more.

Trump demands personal loyalty of the FBI director and when it is not forthcoming in the form of acquiesce in shutting down an Investigation, fires him.  When the Attorney General properly and on the advice of Justice Department ethics officials “recuses” himself from an Investigation, Trump castigates him in public and complains he is not being loyal to the president.  Those two official’s loyalty is owed to their oath to defend the Constitution, not to the president (does he not know this or simply not care).

Trump praises a House-passed repeal of the Affordable Care act, then tells associates it is “mean, cold hearted and a-son-of-a-bitch.” He demands the Congress repeal the Act no matter what happens to the Country just as long as he gets a “win.”

Trump works to expel the DACA children, then makes a deal with Democratic leaders to allow them to stay, then reverses himself  in the face of pressure from his Base.

Trump tells his Secretary of State he’s wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korea then on his Asian trip declares he is making progress in negotiating with North Korea.

Trump says he believes Vladimir Putin is sincere in his denials Russia tried to interfere with our election, and calls the top U S Intelligence Chiefs who disagree “political hacks.” Only to grudgingly backtrack after the massive domestic “blowback” from such nonsense.

Trump says “I said it” when confronted with the Access Hollywood tape recording of his vulgar bragging that he grabs women by their private parts but now tells associates the tape is a fake that calls for an investigation.

Trump declares his predecessor in the Oval Office “bugged” his office building in New York. When asked for a scintilla of evidence to back up this accusation, he offers none but insists it is true.

Trump praises Philippine president Duterte who makes no effort to hide his disregard for law and due process when he encourages the murder of thousands of suspected drug dealers and political opponents. Trump’s spokes person says Trump briefly raised the subject of Human Rights in their talk; Duterte’s spokesman said it never came up.

Trump withdraws our Country from the Paris Climate Accord, the Pacific Trade Pact and  threatens to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Iranian Nuclear Agreement. He demands that NATO members pay what they owe without apparently knowing that the commitment is to spend a certain percentage on their own military, not send a check to the NATO Headquarters. He threatens to withdraw the U S from NATO if they don’t.

Trump threatens the Constitutional safeguards of Freedom of Speech and the Press. He encourages demonstrators against him to be “roughed up,” calls all reporting he doesn’t like “fake news,” tweets mock pictures of himself destroying news organizations he doesn’t like. All the while repeating false stories and conspiracy theories, twice having been “dressed down” for so doing in matters concerning Britain by the British Prime Minister.

Trump says there are some “good people” among a group of self described Nazis and racial and homophobic bigots and says there is  “blame on both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville when such people marched.

Trump champions the cause of White Supremacy in a land built on the phrase E Pluribus Unam (does he know what that means or simply disagrees with its premise) and threatens to ban people from the Country on the basis of their religion (a threat to the “establishment clause” in the 1st Constitutional Amendment – does he know what that is or just doesn’t care).

Trump soils the splendor and dignity of the Office of President by his vulgarity of language (“Crooked” Hillary, “Liddle Bob” Corker) and by his violent hatred of his critics and opponents such as demanding that his political opponent Hillary Clinton be investigated and jailed (with no evidence shown to require it) and disparagement of John McCain, a true American hero, for being shot down while fighting for our Country, something Trump managed to avoid by obtaining five Vietnam war deferments.

Trump refuses to place his holdings in a truly blind trust but instead enjoys personally profiting in his businesses as a result of holding the presidential office.

Trump defends Roy Moore of Alabama from charges by four women of sexual misconduct by saying that Moore “flatly denies it.” Of course, that is Trump’s defense against the accusations of ten women that he sexual abused them.

Trump was the prime mover of the accusation that Barack Obama was not Constitutionally eligible to be president on the grounds that he was not born in the United States but in Kenya. Finally, Trump conceded Obama was born in the United States, claiming it was a Clinton aide who originated the accusation and that he, Trump, should be praised here at the end for ferreting out the falsity of the accusation. Period, end of story? Well, no, as those of us who used to be in the news business would say “This just in” – Trump is now telling associates that he still suspects that Obama was not born in the United States!

Trump lies – about the size of his inaugural crowd in the face of photographic evidence to the contrary, about the number of times he has been on the cover of Time magazine when the number is not in doubt, about his not benefiting from the tax bill when plainly he will, about his electoral college win as the biggest since Reagan (if you don’t count Bush 41, Clinton and Obama which were all bigger than Trump’s), in saying that “the FBI person reports directly to the President of the United States” when in fact he reports directly to the Attorney General, and on and on and on the lies. Or is it something else?

Is Trump delusional, mentally ill, does not realize he deals in fiction, not fact? Does not recognize that approximately two thirds of the Country thinks he is incompetent, a joke, is afraid of him, is dedicated to his removal from the presidency?

We are now in the “weeds” of personality disorder, mental illness and such, but whatever is going on behind the golden locks results in a finding of STUPIDITY.

And why is it stupid to do and say the things he does? Forget the rest of us, the Country, the World.

It is stupid because all that he is and does wars against the very things that clearly mean the most to him – to be a winner, to be thought smart, to be idolized, admired above all others, to go down in history as the Greatest, the most successful president this Country has ever seen. Move over Washington, stand aside Lincoln, sit back Roosevelt. Trump Triumphant!

He is working hard each day (unknowing, apparently) to make certain he will achieve none of that. Clearly, to date, he is according to American standards of competency, dedication to our values and decency, the worst president it has ever been our misfortune to have had.

Yes, Albert Einstein, Genius has it’s limits, Trump’s stupidity has none. It rolls on like an ocean and will consume him, destroy him (prey God, not the rest of us with him)

Trump’s Ocean (of Stupidity) as described in Lord Byron’s poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, will destroy him.

“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll.  Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;  Man marks the earth with ruin; his control Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain  The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain   A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own, When, for a moment, like a drop of rain  He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.”

RIP Donald J Trump