The reality TV show that is our lives now

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How hard can it be to write a blog post? Shouldn't be that hard. I'm reading books, we just finished watching season one of Happy Valley, we saw Hidden Figures (quick review: a well-executed, sanitized version of racism as presented by Hallmark wherein Kevin Coster breaks down the barriers by chopping a "colored" restroom sign down), and the dog keeps doing cute things. BUT. What I'm most preoccupied by leaves me inarticulate. Every day, I read check in with The Washington Post and The New York Times (I have digital subscriptions to both now because it has suddenly become very important to me to support journalism with integrity), and the headlines are always about some new and outrageous thing DT has done, or said, or mandated or some white crazy inexperienced billionaire he's appointed, or some bullshit he's tweeted, alternately accusing President Obama of wire-tapping Trump Tower or insulting Arnold Schwarzenegger for quitting The Apprentice, or it's about the slow to unravel Iron Curtain story about how he colluded with Russia to win the election. I mean, it's not like there is one thing to be frighted or enraged by--it's a whole buffet of bad decisions and actions that I truly think endanger the security of our country. I imagine that if we were ever going to be attacked, now would be the perfect time, because our government is in chaos and led by a lot of people who don't actually know how to get it functional.

The agenda he's setting is so against everything I believe in. He wants to spend billions of dollars building up an already bloated military. He wants to keep out people from other countries based on their religion (this is not an immigration ban for our safety. It's a Muslim ban). He's hired someone to run the Dept. of Education who went to private schools, has never worked in a public school, and has no clue about how that system works. He is eager to roll back all of the environmental protections in the face of global warming. And I'm not talking about ducks covered in oil, I'm talking about the water we drink and the air we breath. He talks about sending federal officers into inner cities (synonymous to him with problematic black people) which will lead to more shootings and violence, not less. He wants to deregulate the banks so that they can go back to giving out bad loans to people who can't afford them. He is not going to bring back coal, he is not going to increase manufacturing jobs in the United States, he is not going to help your kid get through college without becoming utterly mired in student loan debt. He hates the free press and is doing the best he can to suppress it, he cannot distinguish the difference between a world crisis and a television, and has no ability to be self-reflective and realize that his rants on Twitter take away from his credibility. And that's just off the top of my head. It's every day--it's something new every day that's terrifying. But it's hard to keep feeling surprised, because he is behaving exactly the same way he did before he was elected. Only now, he has the power to kill people. Lots and lots and lots of people.

What's strange is that sometimes, I'll see a picture of him and feel sad--for him. Because he looks so unhappy all of the time, and because his tie is always flying in the wind with a piece of Scotch tape on it, and because he has a comb over that gets messed up, and because I do not think he wants this job at all. I think his ego will force him to keep it, but I think he could actually possibly enjoy life if he wasn't having to try to run the country.

So, how can I write about it every day? And how can I write about anything else?

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