Did you think it would be this bad? Seriously? Didn’t you have hope for a pivot? Some maturity? Moderation? This is bad. This is by far the worst we’ve ever had running this country. And I’m not just talking about that lying, conspiracy believing, misinformed, spoiled brat of a lunatic residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I am including his White House flying monkeys and his evil tentacles that have infiltrated all Cabinet offices and, soon, all government agencies. If you’re not frightened, you’re not paying attention.

A most radical agenda is now being foisted on the American public in conflict with the country’s long history of freedom and equality. Note well that I am not referring to a conservative agenda here. These methods and goals don’t follow a true conservative philosophy. What we have here is an unalduterated power grab based primarily on greed and control. Let’s review just a few of the fronts in this all out war.

Our Senses – I am not being facetious. The never-ending tweets about imagined slights, conspiracies, and enemies composed with the nastiest language and sentiments. From the President of the United States. There is a nefarious outcome to being continuously bombarded with outrageous words and actions. You become inured. The ridiculous becomes the norm and your ability to be incensed decreases. The end result is that you tire and you begin to accept, or at least ignore, the outlandish and that permits this White House to move forward (backward?) without opposition.

The Environment – The Trump legacy in the environment will likely be catastrophic. Climate change is real. Climate change is not even close to being controversial in the scientific community. Climate change is here already and getting worse. The US has dithered for 20 years on this subject and has played virtually no role in solving the crisis. Now, we won’t even be part of the conversation much less the solution. Trump is pushing hard to stop all of the critical science and data collection at NOAA and EPA that provides the foundation for determining the role and the impacts of climate change. This information will not be collected and analyzed by any other entity. On this critical problem, where there is now science, there will be darkness.

On a wider front, EPA Administrator Pruitt is packing the upper levels of the agency with political hacks from his home, fossil-fuel focused state of Oklahoma. Two of the highest EPA positions appear to be slated for the current and former chiefs of staff for Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, the loudest and most ill informed denier of climate change in the US government. You may remember ol’ Jim – he’s the Senator that brought a snowball into the Senate to prove to the “eggheads” that there was no warming going on. Christ, the man actually thinks that a cold day during winter in a city in North America disproves a 60 years global trend. Well, actually, he thinks whatever the oil companies tell him to think.

One more point about the environment. Administrator Pruitt is going to run for Inhofe’s Senate seat in 2020. In the meantime, Pruitt is going to shred the EPA to prove his bona fides to represent the great state of Oklahoma. Plus Trump’s 25% cuts. Bloodbath!

Women’s Rights – I don’t think Trump or the white males around him can even grasp the concept of complete equality for women. I doubt that they’re all “died in the wool”misogynists (though some certainly are), but it is more that they view women in some circa 1950’s perspective. They’re not going to change or be convinced. They just need to be pushed aside.

When it comes to reproductive rights, though, the philosophy and intent of these men are centered on control and suppression. From the state legislators to the White House, and everywhere in between, Republican policy is to take control of a woman’s decision and of her body. It’s not pro life. It’s control by white males and loss of freedom for women. They know what’s best for you.

Health Care – I’ve written twice before on this subject, but the big Republican plan has finally seen the light of day. It’s not good. It’s not “repeal and replace”. This bill represents a retrenchment of the status quo prior to Obamacare. A principle element of this plan is to eliminate the tax on the super wealthy that helped fund medical insurance for the poor in this country. I am going to write a complete essay on this plan, but the Republican bill will throw at least 10 million people out of the insured pool and make medical insurance prohibitively expensive for millions of others. To Republicans, being poor represents a moral defect, so why should we insure them? Well, don’t worry, we won’t any longer. The good news is that the bill provides a tax break for insurance executives earning over $500,000 per year. I know I’ll sleep better now. Who do you think wrote this legislation?

Civil Rights – One of the first acts of the new Attorney General Jeff Sessions was to close down the Justice Department’s review of police departments with documented records of discrimination and brutality towards minorities. Our esteemed AG even stated that the Justice Department should not be telling the police how to run their departments. These are the reviews that found egregious police activities against minority populations in East St. Louis, Chicago, and Baltimore. The people who won this election passionately hated the group “Black Lives Matter”. Their philosophy is to do whatever you need to keep crime down and, particularly, away from white people. Civil rights will be literally and figuratively under the gun for the next 4 years.

Immigrants – From his first speech as a candidate right up to his inaugural address, Trump has singled out immigrants for his nastiest vituperation. His nativist view of the world is “us” against “everyone else” and the “us” is white Americans – maybe even Republican, white Americans. We have already seen the policy ramifications of this myopic view and the actions abetted by the policies will get worse.

Ask yourself this question, 2 years ago could you have foreseen the possibility of uniformed ICE officers outside polling places asking to see IDs for people of color waiting to vote? Could you now see that happening for the 2020 election?

We’re less than 2 months in and almost nothing is beyond the pale.

post script – If you would like to know where the phrase “beyond the pale” originated, you came to the right place. As the English brutalized the Irish in their own land for centuries, they concentrated their English culture primarily in Dublin for a time and they built a fence or pale around the area. Anything that happened “beyond the pale” was what those animal Irish were doing, such as their own language, religion, schools, and even sports (Irish football). All of these were outlawed, by the way. So that’s where “beyond the pale” comes from. Thank us shanty Irish.