My friend truly fears for the sanity of her friend, for the future of her children. A few months ago, knowing my friend would see her friend shortly, I took a deep breath and asked my friend to ask her friend, directly, why she considers Trump a biblical character of intangible power.
And her friend's husband joined in and said Trump's power over their 401K says all. For four years it has risen, as promised.
This morning I listened to NPR's Morning Edition, interviewing Michigan residents, in conjunction with Trump signing the first phase of his trade deal with China. In the last presidential election, Trump took Michigan, a first for a Republican since H.W. in 88.
There was a lot of talk of the hundreds of thousands who threw away their vote on a third party candidate rather than vote for a woman; that useless woulda, coulda, shoulda talk. The main point was, Michigan is energized to elect a Democrat as president.
Except Detroit. It seems Detroit remains a crap shoot. Its population is decimated, and those remaining seem apportioned between haves and have nots. The later still live in substandard housing, have substandard city services, have borderline jobs. And the former watch their 401K's climb.
Personally, I feel we all are treading black treacle every day. Hang on; we go to the polls in November.
Another day in the sixties, but descending to thirty some degrees for the rest of the week. Whenever I go past, I look closely at my pots for signs of bulbs popping up. In spite of the weather, nothing.
Well, one of two things. One, my bulbs have followed the calendar, not the weather, and are hibernating until spring. Two, my bulbs have become fertilizer.
Dad gum, Joanne. It's strange how our lives follow similar lines! I am feeling sick to my stomach. Just read a post on FB by my cousin in FL. She says "President Trump gave up living the life of a millionaire and puts up with being lied about and picked on just because he loves this country." Oh, my.............
ReplyDeleteBut, then again, when I told her and my Alabama Aunt back then that I was going to vote for Obama, they said that I just didn't understand how "different those people are from us." I don't do FB, but look at it once in a while. Usually end up depressed.
How can so many people be so blind???
We had 84 on the back yard thermometer today. I almost gave in and put on shorts, I hope your bulbs decide to grow.
Having lived in Detroit I have some hope. I see a lot of Trump support but most of it is from people who have never voted and never will. When Clinton was running the first time Michigan was getting ready to declare for George H W Bush. Suddenly the Detroit precincts started to come in.Clinton took the state. I have my fingers crossed for this one.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of this thing about Trump and the Rapture also. How is all of this bizarre thinking becoming normalized? I just can't understand this Trump worship.
ReplyDeleteShe's basing her 'Rapture' on her 401K? That's her retirement fund? Which she can't take with her when she goes to her final rapture.
ReplyDeleteI like money too and wish I had more of it, but I wouldn't raise any politician to God status just because he increased my superannuation fund amount. Not even if he did the same for all citizens across the board, especially the poor, who need more help than anyone. Am I making sense?
You are. And I agree with you.
DeleteYour friend's friend is frightening. I hate to think of too many people feeling like she does but dang, Trump did get elected and I never thought it could happen.
ReplyDeleteI believe we have been seeing far too big a divide between the haves and have nots for quite some time now. Are we losing the middle class? I think there are too many politicians that would like that.
I just hope the past few years have taught people something about the importance of their vote. Because I still believe our country is better than what we have seen since Trump stepped in the picture.
It is truly scary how some people think...or don't think is probably more to the point.
ReplyDeleteIt's all frightening, not just where you are.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope sanity is restored in November.
ReplyDeleteBest blog title of the year.
ReplyDeleteHas their 401K never gained before? If so, did the president at the time deserve to be made a god also? I am truly frightened - and angry - at the magical thinking that goes on by grown men and women.
ReplyDeleteI heard your part of the country was having warmer than usual weather! I think some parts were actually warmer than here in Phoenix! Hoping the cold won't be too hard to get used to after the warm days you all had!
ReplyDeletebetty
I know some people think like this deluded crazy woman but I insist on having faith that more people are rational and care about this country and its citizens and want to protect it and them...We must do a better job of helping educate people to have some critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteUltra-creep Jim Bakker has also landed on the band-wagon & affirmed that trump is heaven-sent. Televangelists has a strangle-hold on a lot of folks. I wonder if your friend's friend is wrapped up in watching people like Bakker spread the 'gospel'?
ReplyDelete*have*
DeleteBob Hope once said of Bing Crosby "He's taking it all with him. He's buying an asbestos suitcase."
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteThe scary thing is, this insanity has infected several other parts of the world... All the people I talk with are rational, sane people - ah but yes, I am in the country which is one quarter of a group of four that make up the UK in which all are governed by only one of those group members, whether we voted for them or not... We're going to have to do something about that. YAM xx
I think a lot of people feel politically disenfranchised.
ReplyDeleteThree... your bulbs really think Trump will get re-elected.
ReplyDeleteLX
My friend gave me a pot of bulbs which are leafy now and soon to erupt in blooms! It takes my mind off the snow which falls every day now.
ReplyDeleteGod, guns and Trump, hard to understand, but it is real and frightening.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking today about how I always start my day: before doing anything else, scan the news on my iPad to see if Trump's blown up the world yet.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to Marty's comment above- I check frequently to see if he's succumbed to heart disease.
ReplyDeleteI think that the only rationale I can find for the continued support of Trump (or the original support, for that matter) is that (a.) There are a lot more idiots in the US than I ever would have believed, and (b.) There are a lot more racists than I ever would have imagined.
Once upon a time I knew someone that embezzled company money, grabbed up wife/kids and headed to a mountain retreat awaiting the rapture - back in the 1980s. Five steps into crazy.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Joanne and so many who live here have US relatives who worship 45 and I see their comments on posts and I'm all whoa Nelly. I am watching Messiah nightly on Netflix and it is riveting how so many get caught in this alternative universe web. We are all looking for something but having critical thinking is an enormous gift to avoid charlatans and the Emperor-Wears-No- Clothes Syndrome that surrounds 45. Sadly lacking in so many. And those in power count on that.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
and that is the only thing keeping Trump his high end supporters...the stock market and their 401Ks. ruined small farms who lost their markets, closing factories and stores, children stolen from their parents and put in cages or adopted out, higher prices, crumbling infrastructure, the loss of our allies, 44% of Americans making on average $18,000 a year, crappy jobs that don't pay a living wage, increased pollution, cuts to food assistance and free lunch program,etc., etc, etc. doesn't matter to them as long as they personally think they're getting rich.
ReplyDeleteas for the rapture, how many times has it been predicted and not happened? it may all come tumbling down because of Trump but I guarantee no one will be lifted into heaven. and how can any sane person believe that that will happen?
Honestly, if the supporters of this guy want to go all out Evangelical, they should seriously consider if he is the anti-Christ.
ReplyDeleteDear Joanne, I read a book once by a well-known non-fiction writer whose name I can't recall. He's written a number of books on the brain and the functions of its various parts. It has helped me--a little, a VERY little--to accept that the formation of our brains determines whether we are empathetic or logical, etc. etc. That little tidbit helps me--a LITTLE--when I watch/listen to the news at night and hear what is coming out of that man's mouth. Peace.
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how I love and appreciate all of you who remember all these statistics I listen to every day. All these facts, and the faces of children, and people with no health insurance that weigh me down and make the slog harder every day. Thanks for knowing all the reasons I no longer remember, but surely feel.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I was brought up evangelical and heard in a sermon circa 1960 that the world surely couldn't last for more than 10 years because all of the signs were there.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 401K going up and up, we are really talking about the stock market, which always goes up unless times are very bad. Then it staggers a bit before going up and up some more.
I gather a 401K is a type of pension. The British government doesn't have much say over private or occupational pensions. Either you've got one or you haven't and either it's generous or it isn't. The government does however control the state pension, which is not only a miserable fraction of other European state pensions but is being withheld till a later and later age - currently 67.
ReplyDeletePersonally have no space in my mind for the rapture Rump folks, but nice that someone checks in now and then to see if they need to call the white coats. So much insanity in this country, we live in a blessed liberal bubble up here, i forget how the rest of the USA is.
ReplyDeleteOn my monitor the glass ornament looked like a parakeet, I wondered why you have not mentioned your parakeet before. embiggened- not a parakeet.
It's a silly glass garden ornament another tenant left behind, and the super stuck it in my old garden. It's a green glass bird that used to light up. No idea how. It has been through weather accidents that cost it its beak and its tail. I haven't given up on it yet.
DeleteThose folks need to quit listening/reading the fake news that Trump and his supporters are spreading. Hope the bulbs are just following the calendar.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend whose late husband was a follower of an evangelist named Camping. When Camping set a date for the rapture, it really annoyed my friend--she said, "Now Pete will use this as an excuse not to repair the lock on our storage shed." PS. The rapture, like the lock repair, was indefinitely postponed and Camping reportedly died a disillusioned man.
ReplyDeleteIt just baffles me as to how his supporters fail to see him for the grifter that he is.
ReplyDelete