A Letter of Guidance to an Illiterate, Obsessive, Narcissistic Juvenile.

Most of us have known about the “letters of recommendations” outgoing presidents leave for their successors.  Though; I’ve neither heard nor seen any of the contents of those letters until now, my assumption was that they contain information not meant for the public, or contain reasons many of the promises the incoming cannot be met.  Maybe parts of it fall well into that category, for it seems many “promises” the then candidates made on their campaign trails never see the light of day.

However; at least parts of President Obama’s letter have been publicized in the past two days by many media outlets, revealing words of encouragement and advice that any sane man would both appreciate and follow, from an outgoing president.

CNN printed this much of it, and who knows, perhaps it’s the full letter:

Dear Mr. President -
Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.
This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don't know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. Still, let me offer a few reflections from the past 8 years.
First, we've both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune. Not everyone is so lucky. It's up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that's willing to work hard.
Second, American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It's up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that's expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.
Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions -- like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties -- that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it's up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.
And finally, take time, in the rush of events and responsibilities, for friends and family. They'll get you through the inevitable rough patches.
Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.
Good luck and Godspeed,
BO

Now, personally, had I received such a letter from anyone with the experience and credentials of President Obama, not only would I read it, I would memorize and recall it daily in an attempt to follow the suggested outlines of success.  The letter is not just a guide towards decency for all human beings, but to a successful role as the nation’s leader.

First Point of advice: Building Ladders to Success:  Use the gift of wealth and influence we have that many of the world will never see to build ladders for others to rise to success.

Sadly; the only ladder Trump has built is the ladder to HeII for the U.S.  Every effort Trump exerts is an effort to achieve a negative outcome for us all, placing us at the foot of that ladder, holding it steady while he, in his own world, climbs that ladder.

In his arrogance; an arrogance so absolute, so utterly extreme, Trump’s incapable of taking advice, incapable, of listening to any who have gone before him and learned the lessons from which he could benefit; he’s incapable of understanding that there are many, many who have gone before him who can guide him.

Instead, he took the opportunity to show his clownish, juvenile view of all who, in his mind, are beneath him (all other human beings), waving the letter mocking its sender as though it was a love letter between two lovers and he'd discovered it and wished to amuse and make himself feel taller than all others with it by exposing it to the world.

And; this effort is not entirely due to Trumps absolute ineptness at virtually everything he does, but many of his efforts seem to be intentional disregard for the purpose of childishly thumbing his nose at President Obama.  Trump’s obsessive character trait will not allow him to accomplish anything other than to display his obsession for revenge politics, his bigoted perspective of the world and his disgusting treatment of the poor and disabled.

However; remember those academic credentials he flaunted not long ago? “I went to to better schools and received better grades than any of them did.

Well, I suppose, if “you're like this really smart guy who earned a four-year degree at Wharton's School of Finance and Commerce”, you have the right to flaunt that degree in the faces of the likes of Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar (something that would make graduating from Wharton's look like graduating from pre-school), and Obama's Occidental College, Columbia Thesis for his Master's Degree, and his Doctorate in Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.

Well, I take that back. I doubt you have any right at all to compare yourself to either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama in any form of education and certainly not in intelligence. That Wharton degree?  Keep it for when we have a TP shortage.  It’ll look really good next to your gold-leafed vanity mirror.

Trump’s myopic view of the world is a direct result of his extremely sheltered, wealthy childhood.  Though most wealthy children grow up with a healthy perspective towards life and are highly educated, Trump’s dangerous narcissism accompanied with his pampered childhood has created a man whose only thoughts, indeed obsessions, are of himself and how he can get more for himself.  

His arrogance undoubtedly interfered drastically in the outcome of his education, too arrogant to listen to anyone.  What else would explain his semi-severe illiteracy?

However; I simply don't see any effort whatsoever by Trump to follow the advice of forty-four on any of the 4 main points he suggested.  In fact; what I do perceive are a malignant narcissist’s efforts to, not just ignore them, but to make every attempt to deny and defile the very nature of the advice.

Second Point: Leading the World.  In President Obama’s words; “American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It's up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that's expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.” 

But; Trump is nothing, but the world’s worst leader, perhaps ever.  And; in that, I don’t mean bad because he leads us down the wrong path, though that is indeed what he’s doing.

What I mean is he is utterly incapable of leading men and women towards any path; towards any goal.  The man doesn’t even understand the skills it takes for good leadership and he is abdicating every leadership role the U.S. has taken decades and many wars to build, both amongst allies and adversaries alike.

There are many leadership styles, but few to which followers respond well.

Simply through watching him, I can guarantee I know which style of leadership he subscribes to; the style that those most new to leadership, or those who are far too arrogant to learn ALWAYS use.

Trump views leadership as something that automatically comes with and from position and, as a result, the autocratic style that accompanies him and those like him, is oppressive, ineffective, caustic and ruinous at best.

His arrogance and narcissism prevents his learning anything new.

He will never learn anything; anything at all.  Rather; he’ll continue to view those he sees as his “followers” as disposable, even useless sheep who don’t have the brains to follow his “highly valuable” leadership and should be responding to his autocratic rule, or they’re committing acts of treachery.  Hence, Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, James Comey, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, etc, etc….are no longer around.

For all of us who have held leadership roles, we know precisely how hard we must work to EARN the respect of those we lead; how tenuous that leadership can be, how difficult it is to attain, and how so very easily it can be lost.

The long, arduous work had already been accomplished for Trump, all the incompetent fool needed to do was to continue the forward progress.

But, in true Trump fashion and perhaps even through his seething hate for President Obama, or just his sheer embarrassment with himself upon learning he can’t lead, he turned his back on the world and in doing so, placed the interests of you and me, the U.S. and the entire planet in the trunk of the car he’s driving, peddle to the metal, towards the cliff.

But; you can be sure he’ll leave a note behind blaming someone else for his leadership flaws though - probably his lifetime friend Thomas Jefferson b 1743, d 1846, who somehow shared his anger with the U.S. for the U.S. Civil War, fifteen years after his death.

Trump refuses to assume the role many world leaders look to for help in their own nations, because he’s afraid doing so will expose a massive weakness in a man with far more weaknesses than he has strengths.  He can’t lead anything or anyone, especially globally.  The only thing the clown does is leaves decision-making to others as he goes golfing every weekend, then blames any missteps on whomever he can find close at hand.  It’s no wonder he thought leading the nation as a part-time job.

Third point: “we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions -- like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties -- that our forebears fought and bled for.”

The doofus Trump hasn’t a clue as to what integrity is and the moron certainly doesn’t understand the separation of powers.  I can tell you as surely as I’m sitting here writing this this evening, Trump views himself as THE POWER.  Kim Donald-dung.

He’s made that abundantly clear on multiple occasions in his legal battles over the Travel Ban, his efforts to deport masses of people that even includes U.S. Citizens.  He attacked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, threatening to “break them up” because they ruled against his travel ban directed towards Muslims.

Trump was really castrated and infuriated when another Appeals Court shot down his travel ban again, and a Federal Judge blocked part of Trump’s sanctuary cities executive orders.

NONE of his appointees have a clue as to what they’re supposed to be doing and have no understanding whatsoever of their limitations of power.

Jeff Sessions made that perfectly clear when he stated “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” when speaking of the Federal Judge Derrick Watson’s ruling.  In other words; “I don’t see how a mere judge has the power to rule against tyranny and dictatorship”.

Trump’s efforts to ramrod laws limiting the powers of the EPA were blocked as well when the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  prevented Scott Pruitt and Trump from rolling back dozens of President Obama’s environmental rules restricting methane emissions.

Trump has made it perfectly clear too, on where he stands with civil liberties in his comments about Charlottesville and his continued vehement remarks and adamant support for those comments backing the White Supremacy groups.

Despite President Obama’s efforts to guide him, Trump’s continuous lies, falsified story-telling; stories such as General Sherman, during the US/Philippine war in 1891, rolling bullets in pig’s blood before killing “Muslim Terrorist” POWs.

His lies to the Boy Scouts of America; and then of course, there’s truly the absurdest of absurdity: Trump insisting, despite the efforts of all the people who tried to inform him of the error in his claim “he has a close friendship with Frederick Douglass”.  Insisting that it was once again the fake press who has  made a mockery of a personal friend of Trump’s, Frederick Douglass by claiming he’s dead”.   The same Frederick Douglass who died over 132 years ago:

“Based on what Betsy said about me, we could really use Fred’s energy around here,” Trump said.

He lashed out at the press for reporting that Frederick Douglass was dead, calling those reports “very unfair.”

“That’s a nasty thing to say about someone who is alive and doing a great job,” he said. “This is why the press is failing and it's failing very, very badly.”

And with that, I can write no more absurdities, or my own mind will explode.  But then, I have a few more months of Trump before he pushes the U.S. beyond the breaking point and we collectively say to Trump; “your fired”, you moron.”

The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Trump Truth

As an adult, I’ve made a habit of always questioning my own convictions. Introspection is vital to mental health and in evaluating one’s own decisions.  Ignoring the potential that your thought processes may be flawed hinders personal growth; it can also be dangerous as an adult, for making decisions based upon faulty perspectives almost always ends in faulty outcomes.

It’s a constant internal struggle I deal with, an endless process I can't turn off.  I even find myself wondering if my endless introspection is itself an unhealthy obsession.

But as I watch this new so-called “president" I cannot find one reasonable alternative with which to argue against my current perspective, for every time I give him the benefit that he and I may simply have a difference of opinion, I hear him speak; I see his words; I see what he’s doing to the very foundation of our nation.

And it all brings me right back to the same conclusion.

In simple terms; he’s a repugnant, delusional, self-absorbed, ignorant, human being who has no business sitting in the chair he’s in.

Any person who wanders into the CIA, desecrating the very hall they view as hallowed beyond holiness and says; “I know you all voted for me, but but I will not ask you to raise your hands if you did”.

Then again, this very day, he repeated the same words, this time in a room full of military personnel; people who are required to obey his orders; people who die at his command.  To hear it once is disgusting; twice is absolutely repulsive and unconscionable, especially among those with whom he’s speaking.

Oh, he tries to make it appear that he’s joking with them, but he is not joking, he’s deadly serious and he’s piss-poor at hiding his phony-ass “humor”.  

He is completely and hopelessly obsessed that someone, even one person, in this country didn’t vote for him.  Although he’s sitting in the chair he sought, he’s still so completely preoccupied with the thought that someone out there had the misplaced balls to vote for someone other than he.  So much so, in fact, that he’s signed yet another one of his unread burning bush decrees to begin an investigation**, a very expensive investigation, into fraudulent voting.  Three million frauds need to have their voting privileges removed.  Hell; who knows?  Maybe they’ll be his first prisoners at the renewed Gitmo, or one of the other black sites he’s reopening. 

Was it you?  Yes; I am most certainly one of those who derailed the ego of a man who shouldn’t even be outside a mental institution, much less sitting in the office he now occupies.  I know I’m unrepentant in this, but; who else, I ask, would have such unmitigated, spineless gall to vote for someone other than Trump??  How can we, the three million plus (he so damned stupid, he hasn’t even considered the fact that there are far more than just the three million of us) even live with ourselves, whomever the rest of you are?

For the shame of it all!!

** He’s really very good at spending other people’s money - it’s precisely how he became a billionaire, ripping people off and filing bankruptcy until he accumulated everyone else’s money. 

This, his past behavior, his never-ending tirades against any who hold a different view than; “Trump is the light, the truth and the reality of all things” clearly, indisputably is all the proof one should need to come to the same conclusion I have.

For, everything that so much as implies differently; the “dishonest media"; The fake negative polls; The laws of this nation are all wrong; all things true must come from him and only him, for he is the only purveyor of truth, the light of lights; intelligence reports from the people who are pros at intelligence reports are useless, unless it comes from Trump’s mouth (and, of course, unless he’s face to face with those who put their lives on the line for those reports); the judges, especially that one, you know, the one in California that misinterpreted his intent.  After all, he’s not a bigot; how dare they even suggest such a thing?  Judges are all corrupt and shouldn’t be trusted, especially when they interfere with the almighty’s view; the government agencies who gather data, REAL data, are useless liars and do nothing but promulgate hoaxes. The EPA is full of lying scientists; the Department of Interior and National Parks Services employees can no longer speak their minds, for they don’t speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the Trump truth.

Oh, and somehow, in just two weeks, he’s turned the entire economy around and has saved hundreds of thousand of jobs, hell; maybe millions for all we know - all because the Trump Almighty is now holding court in the Oval Office and issuing decree after decree to right all the horrific wrongs perpetrated against those who did truly vote for him. Obama was lying about the jobless numbers, numbers that, in truth (his truth), were closer to 42%, numbers that through some Trump-inspired miracle, in the span of two weeks, have dropped from 42% to 4.7%.  My god!!  He is indeed the miracle-worker.  If you don’t believe it, just ask him.

After all this, I ask but one simple question.  A question anyone could answer, IF they don’t have their eyes and ears shut down; IF they aren’t afraid to see the reality, that this guy, who is truly just a moment away from nuking the entire planet, not if, but WHEN he finds there is someone out there who is not subscribing to the Trump Truth.  The simple question is; how can any human being with even just one brain cell still functioning not agree that this guy is mentally unstable and needs to be removed from office before he creates a real truth - there is no more democracy in the United States?

Or even worse - there is no more planet Earth, for the lunatic pushed the button because he got mad at some lying scientist, government employee, media outlet, judge, pollster, CIA agent, or one of us fraudulent voters who saw through his shallow charade the day he opened his mouth.

I'm kind of wondering myself too; when is he going to replace the god he professes to believe in?

For What It’s Worth

Once again, we are faced with battle lines being drawn; we can all see there’s something happening here.  We can’t avoid the man with the gun over there, telling me I got to beware.

For it is now a grotesquely common cultural oddity unique to the United States; more American than apple pie, baseball and even mom.

Those affected are revisited by grief with each subsequent mass shooting; reminded time and again, that they’re among the statistics that have become the line drawn in the sand.  With each mass shooting, new faces stream across the media, joining the previous; bonded with a common thread that should never have been spun.  Shouting, crying, asking; “why” and repeating over and over; I think it’s time we stop!  And oh how they wish, after every mass shooting, they could take them into their arms, warning them; children what’s that sound?

But they can’t.  They scream “I think it’s time we stop; everybody look - what’s going down?  Our children are gone; our lives are devastated.

But the killers of children, parents, lovers and siblings refuse to admit culpability in the paranoia that is theirs:

“the gun grabbers are after my precious.  They’re there I know they are; clandestinely and insidiously scheming to take from my cold, dead hands my precious. We must defend precious at all costs, even life, for that is but collateral damage, expendable; they can all die in martyrdom for my precious.  As long as that life is someone else’s; preferably the women and children we use as human shields.  After all, we wouldn’t want to die in vain without the drama of their blood flowing into the streets; what good is a bloodless show, a show of someone’s death protecting my precious?”

There’s battle lines being drawn alright, and those battle lines are; the streets of freedom, safety and liberty? 

The bearers of precious are here to guard our freedoms and will gladly gun down any who disagree with them.  Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong, so we’ll simply shoot in the name of freedom.  Oh what lovely freedom!  In the US of A; where we can roam the streets without fear of becoming another statistic!  Not a group of deranged, paranoid killers in sight thanks to those with their precious.

The parents and the lovers of those gone know all too well that paranoia strikes deep; into your life it will creep, without a moment’s notice.  But, we can let freedom ring, for we have given our young people speaking their minds; given the cause our hopes, our loved ones in the name of the second.  Wondrous freedom; such comfort to know we are safe to roam our safe streets.

What a field day for the heat.  A thousand people in the street, singing songs and carrying signs; mostly saying hurray for our side.  They lost their loved ones, but it’s worth it in the name of the second. As long as it’s someone else’s loved ones.

You’ve taken it all out of context you say?  “This is not about guns or the freedom to carry assault weapons to buy hamburgers; this is about outrage against the man.  And so are we.”

Well I MAY have taken the lyrics out of context, but you have MOST CERTAINLY taken out of context, the second amendment.

You have infringed upon my freedom to walk my streets without the fear of being gunned down by the lunatics with access to just about any firearm manufactured; the liberty to own your precious does not trump my freedom to live without fear.

Your precious is not worth one more life; not one more grieving parent whose life has been dubbed collateral damage for a “right” that you grossly misinterpret so you can find your balls while hiding behind dead women and children.”

And these are mass SHOOTINGS!  So your argument "why not control knives, or baseball bats, or steel-toed shoes, or as in one Mother Jones video; bathtubs" or any of your other lame arguments that are absurdly juvenile and utterly nonsensical.  The problem is a lack of control on firearms.  How many people have died in mass knifings?

Paranoia strikes deep

Whose Fault Is All This?

Although I avidly and vociferously support far more stringent laws regulating firearms, I worry that, like so many other issues carved out of our social environment and stuffed under some hyper-focused magnifying glass, perhaps we focus too hard on trimming one single blade of grass when the whole damned lawn needs to be mowed (or hell, maybe burned and replanted).

I’m a voracious consumer of news reported by various small, international media outlets disconnected to our completely biased main stream media.  From a perspective gained in doing so, the culture of our nation seems unlike any other among the developed nations on this planet in that it repeatedly breeds hate, violence, racism, misogyny and murder like rats receiving daily injections of testosterone.

Hell; we're even the only developed country still using the death penalty for christ sake.

I'm neither educated well enough, nor am I equipped with the natural intelligence it would take to find any single factor, or even a group of prevailing causes to pin the parade of horrific violence that streams endlessly across the idiot tube, over the radio waves and through the Net (almost sounds like a Christmas carol).

As much as I would love to blame all this on what is likely the most repulsive lobbyist group that has ever entered the lobby arena, the NRA (and make no mistake, I firmly believe that the NRA and their efforts towards massive firearms proliferation are major factors in all these mass shootings), there’s more to the problem; there must be.

And!  As much as I would love to add the following to my hypothetical causal analysis; evangelical extremists spewing ad-lib Christianity while they promulgate hate against other religions and diversity; myopic politicians owned by special interests; the apathetic white middle class living in the comfort of our indifference, I still cannot find a definitive connection to any one of them, or even collectively that explains the incredible volume of violence Americans summon from whatever "hell" there is to cast upon one another.

Is it the culture of exceptionalism we've been force-fed from the moment we could find our way to K-12? 

Or, is it the incessant barrage of all the mind-numbing drivel combined, scrambling our brains beyond the capability to organize our own thoughts well enough to fix any of them?

I’m not one to read what even looks like a conspiracy theory, much less subscribe to them, but one can't help but wonder; is there some grand manipulation taking place that would make Lysistrata herself proud?

It’s all very baffling and frustrating, especially when we continue to hear the same rhetorical horseshit coming from the same horse’s asses; all the while nothing is resolved.

The only fix, and just perhaps even a contributor to our conundrum, I can see is personal responsibility, and accountability.

Perhaps we spend too much time blaming others and seeking a fix from government, when we we should simply be changing us rather than attempting to change the world around us.