One could say that the battle of facts vs. fake news is how Trump successfully won the presidency — providing comedians with constant material but frightening many others that this might become ‘the new now’ for running campaigns and leading the country. The one bright spot were the many young women, especially in Virginia who won many state elections. In fact, nine thousand women ran for office last year. According to Emily’s List, 22,000 women are now running, concerning some experts that too many, too young, going too much to the left, may result in many overlooking policy and strategies. What we have now is a president only knowing about entertainment and real estate — not knowing what he doesn’t know and seeming to have little interest in knowing about our Constitution and its restrictions on governing. Furthermore, our present President seems to feel that lawyers are legal fixers, obsessed to ‘fix facts’ to meet the needs of the President — not to take care of business.
So ineptly is our government being run, thus constantly running into obstacles – one after another – that our heads spin just trying to keep up with the daily news – too often daily crises. One friend said, echoed by others, “At least with other presidents I didn’t fall asleep each night, wondering if I would wake up to a nuclear war the next morning.” Other friends have just given up altogether trying to ‘keep up with the keep up’ and turn to diversions. I personally discovered Hallmark Hall TV shows featuring happy Christmas family stories 24 hours a day — a nice escape when all else fails.
For those who ‘must keep up with the keep up”, there are the bevy of books such as COLLUSION or Secret Meetings, dirty Money and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding; and Dark Money by Jane Mayer, or The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Sandy Lee, M.D. Psychiatrist and finally the present best seller, Fire and Fury—Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. He got his ‘inside information’ by roaming around the halls of the White House — just listening with no one apparently challenging him on why he was there. Although the White House was unable to stop publication of the book, the only person aiding the author was Steven Bannon of Breitbart, who is now unemployed.
Yet in a recent TV show, Madam Secretary, shocked and stunned as was the inner staff by their liberal democratic President when he abruptly began ordering them around like puppets , readying their country for an air attack by the Russians. Stunned, each advisor with carefully chosen words, suggested he might need more information from the military, but was loudly interrupted by him saying his decisions were not to be questioned, that it was his job to protect the country as he saw fit. If they questioned him, they should consider themselves ‘fired’. After private conversations among themselves including his wife, they all agreed he must be seriously ill. This was not the man they knew. Involving his family and a team of neurosurgeons, they learned he had a tumor in an area of the brain responsible for his erratic behavior that could be readily repaired. This was, after all, a TV show, not reality.