Month: February 2024

It is difficult to read a newspaper or visit a news website these days without several “breaking news” stories about ex-President Trump.

Most of the stories are about his myriad legal problems, his brutal takeover of the Republican Party, and his campaign for the G.O.P. nomination for the 2024 Presidential election. Trump and his army of attorneys are working overtime to delay his many court cases until after November, with the idea that he will, if elected, be immune to any civil or criminal convictions. While this stalling game is in process, he and his stalwart crew of zealots are busy bullying Republican officials nationwide to fall in line with his authoritarian ideas. At the same time, he is running a “campaign”, if one could call it that, wherein he holds press conferences and poorly attended rallies where he is able to spout lies, hate and silliness on his M.A.G.A. cult followers.

The ex-Prez, who once said to his followers that they would have to get used to “so much winning”, has lost virtually every court case that he’s been involved in for the past three years or so, currently is facing something like 90 indictments nationwide, and has been fined something like $450 million thus far for his transgressions. No criminal convictions yet, but Trump will be facing potential jail time in the upcoming classified documents case, the January 6^th Riot debacle, and the Georgia election extortion case.

The poor rich guy can’t seem to catch a break, and he is burning through his cash at a prodigious rate. His daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who he has tabbed to be the co-chair of the Republican National Party, publicly stated that “every cent” generated from G.O.P. donors to the RNC should go to Donald Trump… because the billionaire needs money to fight off the witch hunters. That is bad news to the other Republican candidates for the House, the Senate, and Governorships nationwide.

Accordingly, contributions are pouring into Trump’s several PAC’s from the same blue-collar doofuses who fell for the “Trump’s Wall” and “Stop the Steal” grifts, gifting the disgraced President filthy lucre to the tune of around $250 million. Some of these folks are undoubtedly the same zealots who send their hard-earned cash to televangelists who have promised prayers to heal their cancers, dispense “miracle healing cloths”, weekly rail against sinners like Democrats, homosexuals, scientists and teachers, and publicly state that Donald Trump was sent by God to solve America’s problems.

This is a guy who has violated his wedding vows repeatedly, is a racist and a cheat, and has been convicted of raping a woman and then lying about it, repeatedly. The Almighty couldn’t have chosen a better representative on earth; the “Prince of Peace” must be so proud.

“A sucker is born every minute!” according to the famous con man P.T. Barnum. This is true, and Mr. Trump has cornered the market on our most gullible and stupid citizens.

Donald Trump is bad at a lot of things (like telling the truth, understanding how government works, having empathy for the non-1 percenters in society, etc.), but he is adept at separating people from their money. He has a gift, to be sure; in fact, he may go down as the greatest scam artist that the world has ever known. Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff have nothing on the guy.

Amid this crazy year, with hundreds of attorneys working feverishly at ungodly rates per hour and punitive judgments against Trump ballooning into the hundreds of millions of dollars, “P.T.” Trump has trotted out two more products that are sure to be irresistible to his M.A.G.A. cult:

          Trump signature sneakers, at between $200 and $400 a pair

          Trump signature perfume, at $54 a bottle

These items are, of course, the latest Trump signature products released in recent years, following the Trump M.A.G.A. ball caps, Trump bobbleheads, and the Trump NFT trading cards.

The Grifter-in-Chief has also gotten involved in social media with his Truth Social network, something he ginned up when he got banned from Twitter for repeated bad behavior. Trump is currently in the process of selling this money losing enterprise to some investment group (probably Big Oil/Saudi money) for $4 billion.

Does the phrase “pay to play” seem applicable here? If Trump were re-elected, do you think these savvy investors would have any sway in the White House? How about when the next Supreme Court vacancy pops up? Another Clarence Thomas on the bench, perhaps.

I wonder what the next grift product will be. Trump has already produced a variety of “signature” products that failed miserably, like ties, airlines, pro football teams, casinos, steaks, bottled water, a Monopoly game rip-off, a university, vodka, a mortgage provider, and… a Presidency. (In a recent poll of 54 Presidential historians, something that is done every several years, Donald Trump was voted the worst President of all time.)

How about Trump signature dentures, condoms, wigs, brass knuckles, autographed Bibles, chewing tobacco, man diapers, or crotchless panties (for women who like to get groped)? The possibilities are endless, and I’m sure Trump has people looking into every conceivable option.

This guy will be shilling useless shit until the day he dies.

Luckily for him, there are a lot of suckers out there.

Marriage is going out of style.

According to Census data, almost 25 percent of adults aged 40 in America have never married. This is a sharp increase since 1980, when the comparable statistic was 6 percent. What is going on? And, why?

I am certainly no expert on this subject, as I am married and have been so for the past fifty years. My wife Charlie and I come from two very stable families where our parents both celebrated their Golden Anniversaries. Probably not coincidentally, my brother Terry and wife Kay have been married for over 55 years, and Charlie’s sisters Jan and Lynn have both been married for at least that long. In addition, my wedding “best man” in 1974, Pat Freemon, has been married to his wife Sandee for the past half-century. Many of our friends here in Mesquite, a retirement community, have also enjoyed long-term marriages.

So, we Baby Boomers come from a culture where the institution of marriage was strong, and the idea of divorce was repugnant.

It’s a different world now, apparently.

Not only is employment moving toward the “gig” situation, but human relationships are trending in the same direction, with formal unions between loving individuals becoming short-term like car leases. The average marriage in the U.S. now lasts 8.2 years, and 5 percent of married people have taken the “sacred vows” three times.

I suspect that many young folks ask the question, “Why bother to get married?” In today’s society, there is no stigma to being a single adult, nor is there much fuss over two consenting adults “living together”. Such arrangements used to be considered “sinful”, but that was back when most Americans were faithful Bible thumpers. This is not the case now, when most people identifying as Christian don’t attend church regularly, and high percentages of the younger generations are non-religious.

Pew research reveals that 51 percent of individuals aged 18 and over were married in 2020, in comparison to 72 percent of similarly aged folks in 1960. What has changed to drive down marriage rates so dramatically?

Maybe it’s because there is so much uncertainty in modern life. Gone are the days (i.e. those of my parents and their progeny) when a burgeoning American economy provided the prospect of lengthy careers in many occupations. Rapid technological change and the shift toward the global economic model have greatly changed employment prospects for young people. Many jobs that we and our parents enjoyed have been outsourced or simply disappeared through automation. Reliable employment, with decent pay, is harder to come by in the 2020’s.

The old path to success, i.e. get that education, work hard, make yourself valuable to your company, may not cut the mustard in today’s world. A college education is now extremely expensive, and a degree earned is no longer a guarantee of future success. Jobs that require thinking, as opposed to manual labor, are rapidly being replaced by machines that can think and learn (artificial intelligence). How does one plan for the future, i.e. marry and have kids, when the family income stream is sketchy? Inflation has not helped, either. Not surprisingly, households where both spouses work have increased by 50 percent since 1980.

It’s a sign of the times.

Marriage has never been easy. It is a team sport and, just like in the pro leagues, there are many more losers than champions. Making a go of marriage requires a large investment in understanding, compromise, planning, mutual support, tenderness, and compassion. If children are involved, spouses must agree on the rules of the house, discipline, how to impart wisdom, and instilling shared values in the youngsters. A lack of commitment by both spouses to a shared “game plan” is nearly always a recipe for disaster. Children are not dumb and will invariably find ways to test their parents’ resolve, including “whipsawing” (pitting one parent against the other). A united front is the only way that child raising works; failure to work together reaps crummy children and marriages that fail.

Love is the essential ingredient; without copious amount of same, couples are just fooling themselves. And I’m not talking about sex. Sure, young people often have supercharged hormones, which is natural, as they are in their reproductive prime. But, that phase passes, replaced by the stronger purpose of thriving in the group enterprise. Successful couples, married or not, are components of a team which will only achieve goals through mutual support. Knowing that your partner “has your back” and wants you to succeed even more than you do is key. Love does that to people who are well-matched.

That’s the trick, of course… finding one’s soul mate among the billions of people who are also searching.

Charlie and I watch a lot of crime docudramas on TV. Typically, something horrible has happened and the crime detectives are tasked with figuring out why. Quite often, violence occurs between spouses, and the program delves into the history of the union, the nuclear family, and the impact of the “relatives”. After watching hundreds of these dramas, it is hard to deny that most of the problem marriages are unions that should have never occurred in the first place: immature young people who confused “sex”, partying, and the desire to “play house”, with love and commitment. So many of the problems were created by hormonally-charged young women chasing “bad boys” or “Good Time Charlies” who have neither maturity or commitment in their toolkit. These are the young couples who get married, have a bunch of kids, and split up after five years… because they have nothing in common except the memories of those brief good times. Invariably, their divorce turns the couple into mortal enemies, particularly if alimony and child support are involved. And, then, bad things (like murder) happen.

Who’d have thought?!

Maybe because the younger generations are watching these shows or are picking up on the unimpressive marriage statistics that I’ve previously noted, individuals opting for a traditional marriage are not as plentiful as in my day. Maybe that’s a good thing, because marriage is not easy… it’s something that both parties must work on each day. Certainly, choosing the right partner (to marry or simply live with) is vitally important; as the old saying goes, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” If long-term marriage is desired, it is necessary to find a serious partner who just do happens to love the heck out of you.

Finding the lost Ark of the Covenant might be easier.

I got lucky fifty years ago. I wasn’t looking for love when I met Charlie, having just emerged from a four-year stint in the Air Force. I had previously done a lot of dating while in college, really enjoyed every one of the four dozen or so gals that I spent time (and learned things with each one) with but was now focusing on finishing up my degree and starting a career. I ran into Charlie, who was a nurse, while I was working in a hospital as an x-ray tech. On paper, she was not a good prospect: divorced with four young boys. However, she was a hard worker, a good mother, had ambition, and came from a good family. And she was excited to find real love… for the first time. We hooked up and never looked back.

We have been a great team for the past fifty years, focusing on love, respect, and mutual support. We’ve had some challenges like everyone else, but we’ve stuck together and overcome the rough patches when they’ve occurred.

If I were young right now, and looking for love and commitment, I don’t know if I’d opt for marriage. It worked for me, for sure, but times are different in the 2020’s: who knows what’s going to happen with the economy, with politics, and with society? I could see hooking up with a good female friend for companionship but committing to a long-term relationship and/or fathering children would probably not appeal to me given the uncertainty out there.

A better choice, given the situation, might be a canine companion: love, devotion, and companionship… in spades, with no strings attached.

I hope my grandson Craig is listening.