When I first began to write these essays, I believed that this feature would run every week. It did, for a while. Then, I became so overwhelmed with the constant barrage of misinformation, malapropisms, exaggerations, and outright lies that I just couldn’t  wade through all of this each week and dissect some of the worst aspects. He’s really starting to gall me again, though, so I thought I’d resurrect this feature. At least as long as I can last.

It was really a dysfunctional week for Our Leader. He stepped in a lot of it and we can’t cover it all in this space. Here are some of my favorites and I hope they’re some of yours.

Honoring Native American Veterans – As Commander in Chief, Trump is often called on to officiate at important, serious events. For this, he is woefully unprepared and inadequate. In the White House this week, Trump presided over an honor ceremony for Native American vets, the Navajo Code Talkers. During the ceremony, he made an off-the-cuff, nonsensical remark that ended in a racist, anti-Native American slur aimed at Senator Elizabeth Warren. Just ponder that for a moment – the President of the United States departs from his prepared remarks honoring WWII Native American vets to ad lib an anti-Native American, racist slur aimed at a sitting US Senator. WTF? And that was not the worst  aspect to this ceremony.

The honor ceremony, with 3 Code Talkers in attendance, was held directly in front of a huge portrait of President Andrew Jackson, a hero of Our Leader. Now, Jackson’s nickname when he was President was “Indian Killer”. Jackson hated the American Indian and he took no pains to hide that fact. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that forcibly pushed Native Americans from their lands and marched them to uninhabitable reservations. One march became known as “The Trail of Tears” because of the suffering and deaths that were forced on the tribes during the march. If you can stand it, I recommend you read Jackson’s speech to Congress in support of his bill. His speech is one of the most racist, imperialistic messages of white man superiority that you could ever read. Here is just a sample:

“It will separate the Indian from immediate contact with settlements of whites; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude       institutions; . . .and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community”.

Let’s have a gigantic portrait of this man in the background when we have the only Native Americans that this administration will ever have in this White House. A lot of people are saying that this was the best military honor ceremony ever at the White House. The best!

Attacking the Free Press – Seemingly out of nowhere and for no rational reason, Our Leader attacks the press in the most over-the-top, vituperative language that has ever been heard in this Republic. No one reading this essay needs to have explained the importance of a free and active press to the continuation of our method of government and, even, our way of life. This week Trump attacked CNN for how it portrays the US in other countries. He fundamentally doesn’t understand the role of the press, but then he fundamentally doesn’t understand ANYTHING. The President of CNN responded, “It is not the job of our news organization to positively portray the US internationally. That’s your job!”

I don’t know what the long-term consequences are of having the President undermine the valid actions of a free press while touting the merits of sycophantic news organizations (Fox News) and purveyors of true “fake news” (Breitbart). No one knows those consequences because we’ve never witnessed such a continual barrage as we have over the last 11 months. One thing is certain, it’s not good.

Support for Roy Moore – I’m going to make a bold statement here – Roy Moore is the worst major-party candidate for the US Senate in the United States since Reconstruction. The absolute worst. He may have been the worst candidate even before the overwhelming accusations of his decades old pedophilia, but now no one in the history of our country is even close. This man has spouted homophobic diatribes over the last 2 decades, any of which would make him unfit to hold a judgeship or a Senate seat. Also, his ignorance of, and disobedience towards, the US Constitution as Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court was alarming and resulted in his being removed from that position twice. At last count, 8 women have come forward to describe encounters with Old Roy when they were in their teens and Moore was in his 30’s. Their stories are convincing and supportable and his actions from that time have also been described by men who knew or worked with him during those periods. The guy is a pedophile. Even if you don’t believe them, watch Moore’s interview from years ago with a local tv broadcaster about when he first noticed his wife and memorized her name when she was on stage at a teenage dance recital. He proudly says that he married her 8 years later when she was 23 and he was 40. Do the math.

Republican party leaders are running away from this man as fast as their feet can carry them. Not Our Leader. Trump is the only national Republican leader who has come out publicly and supported Roy Moore to be the junior Senator from Alabama. Of course he would. Would you have expected anything different? His rationale for supporting Moore – Moore says he didn’t do it. There you go. Good enough reason to get this guy into our Senate. Trump is a train wreck.

I think the Alabama voters are stupid for electing this man to their Supreme Court repeatedly. I think the Alabama Republicans are stupid for choosing this man to represent their party in this election. I think Our Leader is stupid for – well, for so many reasons, but one of them being his support for a man so incredibly unqualified to be a US Senator. But, here’s the deal, this hate-filled man is coming to Washington. For 6 years.

Until next week, then, or at least until I can force myself to wade through all of this stuff again.