The Age of Reason

     Donald Trump gave "his first press conference since the election," according to a banner on CNN while the president-elect stood behind a podium, flanked by the usual American flags, his arrogant prick son, Donald, Jr., and daughter/incestuous sexual fantasy object Ivanka standing to his right, Governor Pence to his left.
     We heard in a statement by Trump's attorney that President Trump's sons, Donald and Eric, will run the business and not communicate with their father about it.  This absurd arrangement suggests that two corrupt heirs of one of the most corrupt men in America won't work out ways to convey information about the money-making opportunities to be had when a powerful political figure is in a position to make clandestine deals, to operate on a quid pro quo basis with businesspeople worldwide.  Taiwan's president's controversial phone call within days of Trump's win pointed to such corrupt and lucrative practices coming in the next U.S. administration (not that this kind of thing hasn't been going on for a long time).
     Trump is the kind of man who takes interest in many opportunities, always in movement, operating on several levels simultaneously, his adult children (excepting Tiffany) acting as further extensions of his will as they increase their own fortunes.  Trump gave Ivanka's husband a cabinet level advisory position, a clear case of nepotism, yet, while some in the news media condemn this, nothing will be done about it.
     Trump's control of mainstream journalists' courage will follow on his successful campaign, when not even plausible sexual assault lawsuits filed against him in the past few years knocked him off track.  Female journalists in direct contact with Trump never got on his case about his "grab em by the pussy" comments recorded in 2005.  Would MSNBC's Katy Tur, an attractive woman who extensively covered the Trump campaign, enjoy Trump's actions in a one-on-one situation in which he pushes his body against hers and tries to kiss her, groping her and behaving like a rich sexual predator who knows he'll never go to prison?  He's not questioned by the press about this kind of loathsome behavior because rich, powerful men can get away with almost anything.  This particular sexual predator, as the head of CBS put it, is great for ratings.
     Trump's alleged ties to Russian oligarchs, a compromising position for any U.S. politician, won't matter if ratings are of prime concern.  If these so far murky stories prove true, all the better for news corporations--what a story!  In a culture of bullshit, a bullshitter running the nation doesn't stir the consciences of those other bullshitters who sift what news is chosen to be shared in mainstream outlets with the American people.
     What I saw while watching Trump's press conference today was a liar talking to a roomful of people willing to be lied to, because they also tell lies in their well-paid work for corporations that lie to the American people in conjunction with a government that practices deceit regularly.
     I saw a news fragment move across the TV screen's bottom while Trump "answered" a reporter's question.  It said that a Congressional panel questioned former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson (Trump's pick for Secretary of State) about his relationship with Vladimir Putin.  I've seen pictures of Putin and Tillerson in Moscow, smiling at each other.  This doesn't mean anything by itself, although let's not forget the photograph of two grim reapers, Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld, smiling and shaking hands in 1983 after the Iraqi leader's military gassed thousands of Iranian soldiers.
     Tillerson, one of the major oil business assholes of the world, knows Putin because the latter runs a country with important energy concerns and enterprises.  I didn't see Tillerson's confirmation hearing, but I suspect the politicians conducting it were deferential to a man who has more money and influence than all of them put together.  Putin, too, reportedly abundantly rich, has far more money than Trump, whose likely exaggerated wealth is believed in by far too many journalists and American citizens.  Trump may have wanted the presidency as a way of making a shitload of money to pay off a shitload of debts (to some, maybe, whose first language was Russian), and to make a shitload beyond that, like his former golfing partner Bill Clinton, in partnership with his morally deprived warmongering wife, have been doing with their "Global Initiative," a charity for desperate people that also amasses treasure to further the Clintons' questionable political interests.
     I suggest possibilities, but the powerful ones mentioned in this essay don't operate according to what most of us would regard as normal ways of doing business in a fair way that benefits the many.
     For instance, drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean when development of wind and solar energy as a much cleaner alternative that won't ultimately accelerate disastrous climate change is a fucking insane thing to do, right?  To minds like Tillerson's and Putin's, though, the Arctic Ocean is just an untapped resource covered over by an inconvenient ice cap that's conveniently disappearing due to the climate change caused significantly by the fossil fuels industries and human dependence on them, since alternate and more sensible energy possibilities aren't being developed and utilized enough.
     Trump in his press conference slammed journalists at one point for "going after Hillary," and then brought up Donna Brazile's leaking of debate questions to Mrs. Clinton before a CNN debate.  Trump, turning on his former opponent quickly after sympathizing with her, demonstrated his sociopathy succinctly when he said, "She [Clinton] got the questions before the debate, and she didn't tell the press?  Imagine if I had done that, it would've been the biggest story in the history of stories!"
     Really?  Jesus?  World War One?  Pearl Harbor?  The Cuban Missile Crisis?  Anything along these lines ringing a bell in your warped brain, Donald?  The French Revolution?  Luther taking on the Catholic Church?  The Battle of Actium?  Moses?  The emigrations from Europe to America that made this country "a melting pot," a story your own grandfather, Drumpf, participated in?
     No, I guess the president-elect is right.  The greatest story ever told (sorry George Stevens, who made a movie about Jesus called that), would've been candidate Trump receiving two or three debate questions from an insider at the news network conducting the upcoming debate, and then not sharing that mildly scandalous information with the press.  Holy shit, go back to 1431 and tell Joan of Arc she will have died for nothing.

                                                                             Vic Neptune