Organized Crime

     The approaching end of a year encourages a psychological phenomenon characterized by a person's growing need to accomplish deeds.  The New Year brings an optimistic belief that new habits can be acquired and practiced regularly.  The efficiency of these goals, enacted or not, depends upon the determination and discipline of the individual, plus some luck.
     In President Trump it's obvious he wanted to get something "big" done before year's end.  His accomplishments as Chief Executive have thus far consisted of selecting a nominee (Gorsuch) to the Supreme Court, an act of choice probably consisting of some consultations with advisors, the coming up of a short list, and a pick by the "decision-maker," hardly a demonstration requiring much intelligence.
     Trump, it's been revealed in the last few days, had doubts early this year about Gorsuch.  Trump can never be absolutely certain of another's loyalty, someone outside his family.  The family depends upon Dad to deliver cash-wise (as in the new Tax Bill's repeal of the Estate Tax, which will benefit Trump's children enormously).  As long as the money's coming, Trump's children and current wife will never speak badly of him.
     Other Trump accomplishments include mass slaughter of human beings in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Syria; the alienation by militaristic threats and tightening of embargoes towards North Korea and Iran; demonstration of a willingness to support a child-molesting Senate candidate over a man who successfully prosecuted one of the white supremacists who bombed a Birmingham church in 1963.  The latter candidate, Doug Jones, winner of the Senate race, was claimed by Trump to be "weak on crime."
     I have to wonder about the cognitive abilities of some of my fellow Americans, those who don't seem able to realize that a man who prosecuted a murderer of children is not "weak on crime," but Trump's man, Roy Moore, who doesn't respect separation of Church and State, is anti-Constitutional in so many other ways as well (rejects all Amendments past the Bill of Rights, including the one that freed the slaves) is somehow "strong on crime."  Moore, if his adult accusers aren't slandering him, molested and sexually assaulted teenaged girls in the 1970s and 1980s; in the words of the illogical, he's not weak on crime.  Although, in reality, he is likely a violent criminal--what's more, a violent criminal supported by Trump and Trump's former propagandist Steve Bannon.
     Violent criminality, though, is a longtime practice of the American government.  Trump's announcement to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, with an accompanying relocation/building of a new U.S. embassy has set that region on fire; Palestinians have protested, been killed, shot at by Israeli security with non-lethal ammo.  Some crap comes out of Trump's mouth, people die.  That's quite an ability to be proud of.
     The U.N. voted overwhelmingly to condemn this idea of a move to Jerusalem, prompting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley to act like the asshole she probably is by saying that the Trump Administration may cut off aid to all the countries who voted for this resolution to condemn the U.S. for proposing the insane idea of using Jerusalem as Israel's capital (a move supported strenuously by Democrat Chuck Schumer, so it's bipartisan antagonism towards Palestinians, nothing new).
     Since only nine nations voted against condemning the U.S., this means the U.S. wants to punish most of the world to get its way in satisfying the sadism of people like Benjamin Netanyahu, who wants Jerusalem to be the capital, and who always loves to antagonize Palestinians.
     I found a dead cat on my property recently, a car-hit victim apparently.  I took the cat to the Animal Shelter; a very nice young woman dealt with me.  It was upsetting to find the cat (I love cats) and to feel how stiff it was, its beauty when living in the patterns of the black and white fur.  The young woman at the Shelter was very kind and respectful towards the body of this dead unknown cat with no identification.  Our moment with this unfortunate animal happened in twenty-first century America, a country run by violent and greedy lunatics.  Most Americans, like most Iraqis or Israelis or Palestinians, are decent people.  Our national identity, and those of others worldwide, is maybe the least important thing about being human, but it's the most important thing when those in power in whatever country group us into lumpy categories called American, or Korean, or Russian, et al.
     The overall philosophy of power and government in America can be seen with the Tax Bill, which looks to be a success, soon, for the Republican majority.  This out in the open mass theft of billions of dollars from the American poor and middle class by the rich will break this country, causing perhaps the ultimate gutting of Social Security and Medicaid to make up for the one and a half trillion dollars the Bill will add to the deficit.  On the plus side, for millionaires and billionaires, the Bill eliminates the Estate Tax, will save Donald Trump about a billion dollars (he claims it will cost him money--but, he's a liar), and will further the cause of making wealthy people in America even wealthier, while the rest of the country becomes more Third World.
     People will lose their insurance but the corporate tax rate will drop about fifteen percentage points, so while a poor person dies from want of decent insurance, he or she can marvel that telecommunication companies and war industry corporations are making shitloads of money with net neutrality rules quashed and the war going as strong as ever, killing more poor children in the Middle East and Africa.  As Trump put it in a celebratory moment with his Republican political supporters arranged around him at the White House, "We're making America great again!"
     Making America great again apparently consists of giving the President of the United States a billion dollars instead of arresting him and every other evildoer who made this Tax Bill happen and then putting them in prison for the rest of their lives.
     Who's more dangerous to ordinary Americans?  ISIS, or these homegrown motherfuckers?  Osama bin Laden's dream to initiate the 9/11 attack and then sit back and watch America economically fuck itself is succeeding beautifully.

                                                                              Vic Neptune