And while the reality is that he is no longer of this earth, there remains the immeasurable likelihood that somewhere in the afterlife, the spirit of Sheikh Osama bin Laden is rejoicing over news that the "Great Satan" -- represented these days by donald trump -- has reneged on the Iran Nuclear Agreement and wants to make it legal for the CIA to torture Muslims.
It's also worth noting that the Doomsday Clock -- created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1947 to help calculate how close the world is to a global catastrophe -- was set at three minutes to midnight in 2016, President Barack Obama's final year in office. In 2017 and 2018, the two calendar years during which trump's held office, it has been moved forward twice. It now sits at two minutes until midnight, the closest it's been since 1953.
Taking all of this into consideration, it's hardly an elaborately drawn-out stretch of the imagination to speculate that a perfect storm-like confluence of these and other such trump-influenced or inspired events could easily set forth a chain reaction of global instability which could lead to who knows what. Folks, it's an easy wager. In any game of dueling calamities between bin Laden and trump, the treacherous, florescent-orange business clown wins hands down.
The Enablers
Regrettably, the reality of trump's potential as a clear and present domestic and global threat means little to the kind of supporter who'd have no qualms with trump gunning d own one of them on Fifth Avenue with one hand, while using the other to grab a female supporter's uh"."kitty-cat." For trump, quelling any blow-back from supporters over such behavior is easy. Simply break them off a phat verse or two of "LOCK HER UP!" follow that up with a mix of some "MEXICO WILL PAY FOR THE WALL!" bullshit and they're already running like hell to give him their vote. In that respect, trump can always be relied on to provide truth to the theory that ignorance can turn a passive crowd into a wild stampede.
Obviously, there's a strident contempt here for trump supporters. But that hardly renders that contempt illegitimate. Keep in mind that they represent the enablers. They are the ones who -- to the detriment of us all -- put up with any level of the kind of sh*t trump throws out there, and then mindlessly bellow out for more. There's no doubt that any hypothesis about America and the world being safer with bin Laden alive instead of trump conjures a lurid symmetry to that sub-group of hardcore MAGA-chumps who creepily refer to trump as the "God Emperor ." For them, such a suggestion is more likely recognized as libtard fantasy rooted in sour grapes.
But even if those all-in trump supporters can't fathom the danger his "presidency" poses to the safety of the planet, only a truly next-level degree of clinical incognizance would explain their failure to comprehend the reality of what trump has done to the Republican Party. Presumably, most thinking republicans would now acknowledge that had the Republican Party of 2016 taken heed of warnings about trump from this writer and others, the Republican Party of 2018 would probably be a lot safer -- for republicans.
The late Bob Marley, in the song, "Forever Loving Jah," asserts that: "Only a fool leans upon his own misunderstandings." Perhaps something akin to Marley's bittersweet dose of philosophical reality inspired a moment of serendipity among some of the dozens of elected republicans who've decided they are no longer willing to represent a party led by a fool. Each has his or her own reason for their original foolish misdeed -- embracing a presumption that offered not a speck of hope for success. For these republicans, it was the presumption that a breathtaking combination of irrationality and incompetence would combine to produce a successful and productive presidency. It mattered little to them that their revolutionary and presumably coal-powered, "Trump Train" was no "Straight Talk Express." Instead, like drunkenly optimistic Vegas slot-jockeys, they foolishly gambled that their splendiferous locomotive -- commandeered by an obese charlatan whose professional resume includes periods of running fake university scam operations and bankrupting casinos -- could be kept focused and on track for eight straight years.
Now, at only about one-third the way through its initial run, the train is careening wildly off the rails, creating a reverberating wave of retiring republican officeholders in its wake. There are now more than 30 current republican officeholders (including House Speaker Paul Ryan) who have decided to abstain from running for re-election in 2018. This constitutes a nearly unprecedented red wave of republicans who apparently see no other way to avoid the electoral "blue wave" that's been predicted for 2018.
As for the electorate in general, there's clearly an expanding state of cognitive dissonance within the segment of the republican voter base that remains slavishly loyal to trump. This is worrisome mainly because it precludes the likelihood that they will ever understand the significance of the Dunning-Kruger Effect or how deeply under its spell they appear. In other words if they're not competent enough to recognize their own incompetence, it's a good bet that they won't be able to understand the extent of their own ignorance. This certainly increases the likelihood that any attempt to find common ground with them on the degree to which trump should be considered a global threat will turn out as pointless as flogging a deceased bovine in hopes of bringing it back to life.
Pissing off "snowflakes"
If, as evolutionist Charles Darwin once wrote, "ignorance more frequently (gives rise to) confidence than does knowledge," it could help us to understand that odd mix of senseless gullibility and steadfast certitude about all things trump among his supporters. Let's not be coy. Most of us have indulged the surrealistic atmospherics of a typical trump rally and shared in witnessing the mysterious displays of obstinate ignorance that endlessly baffle even the most seasoned of political and social observers.
But it's no mystery, however, to the fanatics themselves; the ones determined to sustain trump's dreams and the world's nightmares. Their blind allegiance to trump remains steadfastly impenetrable. For these denizens of the dwindling swamp of proudly deplorable trump devotees, any potentially global implications of trump's overall "clear and present danger" antics seem immaterial. Essentially, trump's appeal stems not primarily from some global perspective. And it really doesn't seem overly political. At best, it's just narrow-mindedly tribal -- the "deplorables" vs "lib-tards." Thus for them, the equation is quite simple: whatever might loom as a possible consequence of any act undertaken by a clearly unstable president is well worth the risk as long as it both frightens and pisses off the "snowflakes."
It's why all those broke coal miners who blindly support the $1.5 trillion trump tax cut for example, could care less about the details. Try to point out to them that the 1 percent receive 83 percent of the benefits or that the tax cut is permanent for the corporations but expires in 8 years for workers like themselves.
Among the most durable trump supporters, these disparities are inconsequential. What's most important to them is being able to both enjoy their paltry 17 percent of the tax cut pie for a few years, and wallow in the short-term pleasure of hearing folks like Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders complain about the tax cuts' blatant inequality.
Top republican lawmakers of course, share a similar mindset. Speaker Ryan, for example, claims he's leaving congress because of concerns about not spending enough time with his kids. Ryan seems unconcerned, though, about saddling his kids with tremendous future debt. The Speaker is fully aware that the $1.5 trillion tax cut he fought so hard for will generate a near $1 trillion dollar increase in the federal deficit by the year 2020. He is also likely aware of budget forecasts like the one published in the March edition of Fortune Magazine :
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