North Atlantic Terrorist Organisation.

George burns while without grace 'e slouches.

If, "an attack on one is an attack on all", then an attack BY one is an attack BY all. So the decisions of the USA to attack Iraq, wage War in Afghanistan, to invade Libya, to devastate Syria, send "boots on the ground" to stomp heads into the ground in Somalia, while providing chemical weapons to the Saudis with which to attack the poorest nation in the world, are all done with the connivance of our allies who depend on US aid to provide the umbrella under which their citizens cower, safe to provide their citizens benefits Americans must all do without.

It has been suggested to me, just recently, that a good picture of the current POTbelliedUS would be as one of the Killer Clowns from Outer Space. Okaaaay. I get that. But clowns are used, especially if you consider the job of a Rodeo clown, as a distraction. They are seldom if ever, even in the Circus, used as the main attraction. So the depiction of the president as such, should inform those enamored of said image that focusing on the actions of the POTUS instead of the milieu in which he takes those actions falls right into the trap set by those who inflicted him on us in the first place, and nowhere else is that more obvious than in the current brouhaha about NATO and his mistreatment of this alliance.

However, many of those who object to his manners say nothing (despite the fact that they would pose no argument against characterizing the US as the World's #1 supporter of Terrorism around the globe) about the culpability of these Allies in our Global War of Terror.  All these countries that Trump is maligning, or insulting, have all sat back in their comfy chairs and quietly gone along with the US program of Worldwide Terrorist Activity, not a one has threatened to leave the organisation, nor has a single country, never mind a bloc of countries, brought a single UN action against those of its most important ally, they go about their business as if the actions of their Ally bears no reflection on themselves.

And once again the actions of a clown takes all the headlines, is the subject of endless bloviating and gets oceans of ink criticizing his cluelessness ... as though any of it is either new or surprising. ANYthing else other than talk about the real issue of having allies who depend on US to bully whoever we/they want, yet take no action when that bullying takes the shape of illegal drone attacks, invasions, or abrogation of treaties signed in good faith.

When I was bullied as a child, my mother would admonish me not to, "Stoop to their level." I'm still not exactly sure what it was I was supposed to do instead, but it sure seems that whatever it was, it wasn't falling into line to be led by the nose by the cowards who picked on me because I was weaker than them. Somehow I had to set the agenda myself is what she seemed to mean. (How, I have no idea).

That this odious man was presented by the Republican Party as an acceptable leader is so revolting that myriad voices are raised saying we should be revolting as well. It is, however, approaching two years since his electoral victory, and during the same time frame in which his Republican predecessor, GW Bush, held the office, we had been attacked by a ragtag group of Muslims led by the member of a Saudi family his own family was so buddy-buddy with that he grounded all flights except those that whisked them out of danger, after having given the government that harbored our attackers $43 million in taxpayer funds not six months earlier. That group, an asset of the CIA while his Father was its Director, bombed New York and Washington. So Bush embroiled us in two unnecessary Wars, then jerry-rigged the economic system into a financial embezzlement machine and conned the world into buying our useless paper. His cronies at the Carlyle Group, on whose board his father sat, marketed these toxic "securities" to the world and then used their perception of "moneyness" to manipulate the price of oil via speculation to $150/bbl bringing the world's financial system to its knees, and using that calamity to hold the savings of the entire public hostage, blackmailing us to hand them over, or else.

 Although that last was to come later, at this point in his presidency Bush had already aided and abetted the up-to-then, criminal enterprise known as Enron, whose director, Ken Lay, was such a fervent supporter (since Governor GW Bush had allowed his defalcations to go on unchallenged, so hey, You pad my bank account, I'll pad yours) he considered it his due to be awarded a cabinet position along with the rest of the Texas Mafia. Bush demurred, so Lay's Enron used the opportunity afforded him by having one of this own running FERC to manipulate the California electric grid and defraud the state, with the administration's blessing, of millions. When it imploded, Enron became the template they would use in GW's second term to con the ROW to pay for not only his wars but also the tax cuts to the rich Americans that put him in office.

Be, all that you can be.

Now this man, the instigator and defender of "enhanced interrogation", is feted on the talk shows, gladhanded like an ambassador of peace, and celebrated as an "author" and "artist", with all forgiven; as though, "What's a few million lives destroyed between friends?"

Yet time and again I hear that Trump is worse than Bush. Sorry, I just don't see it. He's more repulsive, okay. He's more abrasive, alright. He's actively enriching himself and his cronies at a level the Bushies only dreamed about (although, like the CDO's and MBS's of the Bush era, that gets exactly zero coverage), I have no doubts.

But Yemen, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Korea, were not problems he initiated. He has not yet, and I'm not saying this won't change, however, I think we should deal with facts, and he has not yet turned  the world into a Crescent of Violence in the Middle East, formed alliances among our enemies that didn't exist before, as Bush's "Axis of Evil" did, nor affected the lives of the middle class to anything close to the world-changing (never to be recovered from) nature the arBUSTo regime's ravaging of it did.

I will bite no more, Forever.

And why should he care if he does? Any second thoughts he may have about doing so are quickly assuaged by witnessing how easily a War criminal president can seamlessly segue into a late-night talk show celebrity. Destroy the world as we know it? Oh well. We'll paper over that in Harold and Kumar movies and everyone'll love you for the pot-smoking loser you always seemed to be at heart.

Trump Tarrific may be stoking xenophobia so he can raise the cost of living of his most ardent followers while getting them to cheer him on as he does so, but I can't see how that's any different than Bush administration's doing the same thing for home values, and then using the resultant nosebleed asset values (when does an asset become a liability? At the end of any two-term Republican Presidency) to shanghai the savings of an entire generation, while the oh-so-somnambulant and self-satisfied middle-class sat in smug satisfaction even as it watched its own children lose any hope of ever achieving the American Dream. Bush did such a good job that there isn't a large enough middle class left to raze, so like the banks with their payday loans, Trump's opted to skewer his own base. Why not? They'll love him the more for it.

 ... until they don't.

And that day, the day when they finally see it's because of Trump's policies, instead of despite them, that their lives are being sabotaged, will never come as long as the dishonesty and sheer hypocrisy that I see bandied on the left to pander to their base continues so recklessly. Because it plays right into his hands: it's obstruction of his policies that is to blame, not the policies themselves. He's already  used that rostrum and will continue to do so as long as his opponents Resist in the same manner that Occupy Wall St., or Obama's much ballyhooed Change blandishment did: with no cogent arguments, no agenda, nothing on offer to suggest what change they have in mind besides the same kind Trump deigns to fling in the dirt from his Royal Carriage to entertain himself by watching us fight over it: Chump Change.