HE'S AN EMBARRASSMENT

I have been trying my best to keep my own negative thoughts to myself about the current state of our government. I give up and give in!

The chaos surrounding our new president and his administration still tops all of the daily news headlines. It's hard to miss. Many of us have been disgusted by this man and his shameful rhetoric since before the beginning of the past election campaign. The offensive way he doggedly pursued President Obama's proof of citizenship was despicable -- and ignorant. The way he currently dismisses, condemns, or claims that any news he doesn't agree with is "fake news", as well as spouting erroneous statistics that put him in the position of being called "liar, liar, pants on fire" by many of his detractors only confirms the belief that he is ignorant.

I never watched his show The Apprentice, but a time or two at someone else's house it happened to be turned on. Only seeing and hearing a few minutes of this show, I was shocked at the tyrannical method he used with the guests on his show. He seemed to love saying the words, "You're fired!" And then, there were the words out of his own mouth on TV for all to hear about the way he chose to greet women. Ugh! The backlash he received by way of the huge women's march, thousands around the globe joining in wearing their pink "Pussy Caps", some complete with cat ears, was undeniably a show of outrage from women everywhere for this leader of the most powerful country in the world.

(Wikipedia)

Some of the proposed spending cuts and/or defunding of numerous programs or agencies including National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, and nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood will be cause for more resistance not only from women. If the GOP has its way and the president goes along with proposals to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, the country may experience an uprising akin to a second American Revolution!

From the PBS website this week: "...Post-inauguration reports that the new administration was quick to clamp down on the flow of information from some federal agencies prompted additional anxiety among librarians. 

..There is no scheduled librarian march on Washington, for example, like scientists have planned for Earth Day (though librarians with library science degrees say they will be joining in)......(It is believed that) librarians will coalesce against (the) President.. in large, physical numbers if the administration threatens funding to any major library institutions, such as the Library of Congress or National Archives." ..PBS.org

Read this excellent article about what scientists, programmers, professors and digital librarians are doing. Guerrilla Archivists "Structured like all-day hackathons and organized by volunteers, the events focus on downloading federal science—especially climate-change related—data sets from government websites and uploading them to a new website, datarefuge.org,"

(dangerousintersection.org)

Second Amendment advocates are minuscule compared to the army of  volunteers who are working now and will in the future to preserve and maintain vital scientific data that should be available to the American people. Our First Amendment rights are at risk should they fail in their efforts. (Some data is already being deleted from the White House website.) The lengths these dedicated people are going to in order to keep free public access to important information that may not be in agreement with the current administration's agenda, should make us realize how scary the situation is in today's White House. 

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I have started and not finished several blog posts before this one. It is difficult to keep up with the news coverage. Many articles say what I wish to say, and they often point out the latest White House events that are cause for concern. I decided to go ahead and put my two cents in anyway. After all, he has become the favorite subject of our late night comedians. 

As I began this yesterday, I still tried to keep up with news reports and opinions. I ran across this article in The Atlantic, and had to laugh. As you may have noticed, I do not mention the new president's name. I just can't bring myself to put it in writing, as I feel he represents the worst in our society. Reading this article, I discovered that I am not alone in refusing to use his name. On Not Saying His Name 

When he goes on camera to deliver a speech, it is so obvious that his speeches are written by someone else. He reads them haltingly, using grammar and language not part of his usual speech pattern. It was apparent when he appeared with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada. He was so unconvincing in the spoken words which he read in their entirety that I almost felt sorry for him. The young Prime Minister showed so much more class and was obviously at ease with his own speech, which he delivered without having to read it.

The president is over his head in trying to govern in the manner in which he ran his business. His frustration with the massive bureaucracy is mounting the longer he is in office, and we suspect it won't be long before he blows up in public, truly being the embarrassment we all feel. I suspect the GOP, in their mostly silent support, are waiting until they wring out as much as they can that they've had on their agenda since before Obama's administration. (Then -- maybe -- impeachment? It may be sooner than we think.) The constant flak created by the administration has been a welcome distraction for them as the Republicans go about their business of trying to dismantle Obama's legacy. 

The impromptu, hour and a half long, news conference the president held today to announce his new Secretary of Labor was exhausting. His beating up on the media showed him again as the bully he is. Nothing about this man is presidential. 

When asked what we could do about him, someone said to me "All we can do now is pray for him!"

Peace and Hope,
Marilyn

I just made a correction about the article I read in The Atlantic. I previously said it was from The New Yorker. This was in regards to "not saying his name"!