Trump is a Loser

One of our President’s favorite pejorative terms is “loser.”  He has used that term to describe journalists, POW’s, people who pay taxes, media outlets, terrorists, public schools, protestors, the judicial branch, judges, etc.  Every time I hear him call someone or some group losers I hear him saying “You’re Fired” from the days of his reality TV show.  It is as though he is empowered as judge and jury, and I for one am glad he will not be standing at the pearly gates when I arrive.  But the real question is, if these folks are losers, what game are they playing?

President Trump has made two very candid remarks that I find incredibly revealing.  First, he said that health care is really complicated and he did not know that.  Secondly, he said that being President was much harder than he thought it would be.  Both remarks, and many others, lead me to believe that Trump has yet to start playing the game that is before him.

Trump plays Monopoly.  The US and the world play chess.  Trump keeps making decisions and statements as though he is amassing property, is the boss, can tell people what to do, and can bankrupt anyone once he is in control.  He believes he is in control.  The real problem is the world and the US don’t play monopoly at the policy level.  They play chess.  Each move is strategic and each move looks way down the road to consequences both for our nation and the planet.  While Trump plays Monopoly he is losing the chess game.  Yes, Trump is a loser once we agree on the game we are playing. 

Trump has no idea how to play chess.  His background, his history, his areas of expertise are in no way suited to play chess.  He plays Monopoly where bold acquisitions and decisions pay off and not only is control the ultimate goal, but winning is the accumulation of great wealth and the demise of one’s competitors.  One can enter a game of Monopoly with one central strategy:  get property and get rich.  Chess is very different.  Chess is a game of thought, planning and expertise.  None of those are Trump qualities.  Yes, there is a winner in each chess game, but to win one must respect the opponent and his or her strengths, weaknesses, and strategies.  To enter a chess game with a predetermined strategy and not have the ability to adjust as circumstances change, as science changes, as alliances change, as other players develop improved skills, is to enter a chess game and lose.  Trump senses, I believe, that the game he finds going on around him is not his game.  It does not play by his rules.  It does not align with his proclivities.  It is a game based on wisdom and experience.  Trump has no experience and virtually no wisdom.  Monopoly does not require a lot of wisdom or experience.  Roll the dice.

Trump’s most recent moves continue to imply he is not capable of making the shift to chess.  He wants to pound the competition.  His move to establish a War Room to take on those nasty media types who keep challenging him is a classic competitive move.  A chess player would seek to discover what the media wants, how to woo them, how to be transparent, how to make them allies.  Not Trump.  He continues to use the term “fake news” for any reporting he does not like.  Oh so sad.  Meanwhile, Trump thinks he hit a home run on his first international trip.  No one outside this country agrees.  The world is shaking its collective head trying to figure this guy out.  All they have to do is learn to play monopoly and they will understand him.

Trump values wealth and those who acquire wealth.  He sees the rest of us, the non-wealthy, as losers.  Health care is about protecting the winners.  The budget is about protecting the winners.  Tax proposals are about protecting the winners.  Environmental issues are about protecting the winners.  If you are a winner, you are good.  There is not a moral theme running through any of his proposals.  Do we have a responsibility to improve our climate?  Do we have a responsibility to support the needy?  Do we have an obligation to those who suffer and are persecuted internationally?  On and on, those are not considerations when one plays Monopoly. 

I fervently hope Trump learns to play chess.  I hope he learns that wisdom and expertise and the long view and the moral view are more important than protecting winners. I hope that those who have supported Trump realize that in his game he considers many of his supporters as losers as well, and is proposing policies that will severely hurt the middle class, the working class, and the poor in our nation. 

But I see very little evidence that he is learning.  He is more determined than ever to play Monopoly on the chess board.  And though many may have thought that the cure for our problems was to change the game and voted for Trump, it should be more and more clear that if we want to be world leaders, have a growing economy, employ more people, and put policies and programs in place that improve the lives of not only Americans but the rest of the world we have got to play chess.  Trump already has the lowest approval rating of any President in history, and abroad he is a source of fear, concern and laughter.  I am sure he writes all that off because those who do not support him are losers and that he believes he is winning. 

But Trump is a loser because he is not playing the right game and does not know how to do so.  His victories will be our nation’s defeat.  Then way too late we will realize what a loser he is.

Conservative?

Do you tend to blame poor people for being poor?

Do you tend to resent subsidies to poor people for food and shelter?

Do you secretly wish everyone in America was an Anglo?

Do you believe males should be able to limit the ability of females to make decisions about their bodies?

Do you want to see your particular religious beliefs enacted into law?

Do you believe we are a Christian nation rather than a nation of religious freedom and tolerance?

Do you believe that private sector, marketplace competition should be the model for public services like schools, police, prisons, armed forces, etc.?

Do you believe improving the likelihood of private sector, corporate profit is in the best interest of our nation and most likely will create the highest standard of living for the most people?

Do you believe that those who pursue increased income are likely to consistently make decisions that are ethical and protect the common good?

Do you believe we must highly regulate public education to ensure that students learn content more than critical thinking and problem solving?

Do you believe that leaving health care in the hands of the profit motivated insurance, medical and pharmaceutical industries is in the best interest of the overall health care of US citizens?

Do you believe that those who pursue a life of service to others in education, nursing, child protective services, etc., are somehow losers compared to those who pursue maximizing their income?

Do you believe in local control, even if local control is discriminatory?

Do you believe that promoting athletics in public schools will have a more positive impact on students long term than promoting academics and the arts?

Do you believe privately held companies should be allowed to discriminate based on the religious beliefs of the owner or CEO?

Do you believe that there should not be a limit on the amount of money corporations and wealthy individuals contribute to political campaigns?

Do you believe that what is good for business is good for the USA?

Do you believe that the regulations monitoring and ensuring the safety of our water, our food, our atmosphere and the safety of our work place should be eliminated as it creates too great a burden on producers?

Do you believe that there is one dominant US culture and everyone who lives here or comes here should subscribe to that culture in ways that include such attributes as religion, dress, art, and language?

Do you believe the most important part of the federal budget should be defense spending?

Do you believe that a basis of our foreign policy should be to avoid interactions with other nations and alliances as much as possible?

Do you believe that a basis of our foreign policy should include our ability to tell other sovereign nations what to do and how to behave?

Do you believe the widening gap between the wealthy and the middle and lower class is not an issue?

Do you believe that the right to own a firearm supersedes the right to public safety and protection of the common good?

Do you believe the protection of the fossil fuel industry is more important than our global climate?

Do you believe that the right to peaceably assemble should only apply to protesters whose position is aligned with your position?

Do you believe that we should limit the rights of anyone who does not subscribe to fierce patriotism, Christianity, and other conservative attributes?

Do you make over $365,000 per year?

Do you believe Jesus is a conservative?

No.  But if yes, then you are a conservative.  

Choice and Charter Schools are Inefficient and Immoral

Here we go again, or perhaps I should say we are still going.  Public school choice.  The most irrational, illogical, immoral notion to come along in a long time is not only still with us, it has advanced to the level of presidential support and secretary of education support.  These emperors are naked and someone must grab the American public and wake them up.  “Choice” sounds so democratic, so American.  But in the context of schools it is worse than inefficient.  Choice and charter schools are immoral.

Let’s talk about the word choice.  We use it as a basis for our consumerism.  People buy stuff, and as long as there is choice there are market forces to keep production going and prices low.  I stand in the grocery store on the cereal aisle and I have choices.  Lots and lots of choices.  That is a good thing.  I need gas for my car and I have choice, well some, and that is a good thing.  I want a soft drink other than water and I have lots of choices.  Such market choice drives free enterprise.  The theory is it improves the quality of production and regulates price.  Though I am somewhat a skeptic of that notion, let’s just say for now (but not always) that the theory is sound and that it works in the private sector.  (I will simply ask the obvious question:  if choice is so fundamental to the notion of free enterprise then why do producers continue to merge in an effort to eliminate such choice?)

Applying the same notion to the public sector, however, is absolutely ridiculous.  It may sound “American” but it is not.  What are public sector services?  Law enforcement, fire fighters, drinking water, testing the water we drink, sewage treatment, streets, highways, forest rangers, public libraries, public museums, and public schools.  Each of these entities and a host of others provide services to citizens funded by tax dollars.  We all pay in, and the service is there if we need it or want it.  No one ever argues that when you dial 9-1-1 you should have choice.  You just want someone to come quickly.  No one ever argues that they will not travel our highways because there is no choice:  all roads are built by one government or another.  No one argues that when they flush they should have choices regarding where it goes.  Clearly, when providing the same service to a given population having a single server makes great sense.  It is efficient.  It can be monitored.  In such a case, “choice” becomes ludicrous and inefficient.  In fact it would be stupid.  Why would we run an additional set of water lines, sewer lines, police forces, fire fighters, libraries, highways, etc., etc?  Makes no sense.  It would be very inefficient to provide choice in the areas of tax-supported public services.

Public schools are the same.  Buildings are built with tax dollars to house the number of kids in a given geographical area.  If only 1,000 kids live in a given area then buildings will be built to house those kids, the courses they will take and the teachers to teach those courses.  There is no need to duplicate that construction.  That would be wasteful and inefficient.  There would be no need to hire a second team of teachers to teach these children.  That would be redundant and inefficient.  In fact, if money was taken from the existing school buildings and teachers to fund the duplicate school buildings and teachers that would not only be inefficient.  It would be immoral.  And that is exactly what charter schools do. 

Everywhere there is a charter school there is a public school system that has existed all along.  The public schools already had the buildings and staff to teach the kids that live in that area.  Once the charter came in they were superimposed over the public school and had to create duplicate facilities and faculties.  Education is expensive enough, but if one begins to duplicate it everywhere it will become ridiculous. Kids leave the public schools to attend the charter school.  When they do so, they take their per-pupil funding with them.  The public school loses tax revenue.  The charter school gets tax revenue.  They both serve kids in the same geographic location.  Does that sound like good business to you?  Of course not. 

But it gets even worse.  Public school employees are paid a salary that is posted on their website.  Public school employees are governed by a local Board of Trustees who hold public meetings, post the budget, propose a tax rate, etc.  Charter schools do not do any of that.  They are governed privately.  One may not even know when their board meets, much less what is on the agenda.  Administrators in charter schools make much more money than public school administrators.  The reason is the charter is not required by law to offer many of the courses required of the public schools, transparency as required of public schools, and/or accountability as required of public schools.  All the while they get the same funding as the public school. 

There is a false notion that private sector characteristics would improve public services.  At the heart of that false notion is the notion of competition and choice.  Neither notion makes sense in public schools.  In fact, such notions are immoral as far as I am concerned.  Let’s say that as a teacher I develop a strategy that dramatically improves the success of students with learning disabilities.  In a competitive world I would patent such a notion and become the sole provider requiring entities to pay me to use my strategy.  That would be immoral in education because if there is a way to help students with special needs and we refrain from sharing so that a teacher earns a profit we are acting in unethical ways.  To withhold successful strategies for kids is immoral.  In fact what really happens is that the teacher who develops such a strategy writes about it, conducts staff development on it, presents it at professional conferences, etc.  We share!  Why do we share?  Because to keep anything secret in the effort to improve the success of kids becomes immoral.  It harms kids.  By definition, if kids are intentionally harmed such action is abusive and immoral.  The core argument of charter schools is that the developers of such schools should be paid tax dollars that deprive the vast majority of students served by public schools.  Reduce the funding of public schools and the likely success of students declines.  Reducing public school funding so that charter school developers can make money is, therefore, immoral.  It hurts kids.

Even worse is the fact that study after study demonstrates that charter schools are not more effective than public schools, and when we account for demographics, public schools are better.  Why in the world would we cut the funding of the vast majority of pupils so that private sector operators can make a profit off tax payer dollars and by doing so they duplicate efforts, create massive inefficiencies, perform at or below the public schools, and harm public school students?  That is immoral and it must stop.

In fact, to measure the efficacy of charter schools we should not look at just charter school students.  If this is a program to help in the education of children then we must look at the results for all children, not just those in charter schools.  These results are clear in a number of ways.  Schools that spend the most money per pupil have the most success.  Redirecting per-pupil funding from public schools to private sector operators is therefore harmful to public school students.  The creation of charter schools provides for entrepreneurs to grow wealthy on tax dollars while harming public school students.  In no other area of public service do we argue that entrepreneurs should have the right to receive tax dollars to duplicate services that lowers the outcomes desired of the public service.  An elected official proposing such a notion would have little chance of getting elected.  And yet somehow we have been sold snake oil that says choice in public education is a good thing.  It is not.  It is not a good thing for kids.  It is not a good thing for education.  It is inefficient.  It exists solely to enrich entrepreneurs.

Stop supporting charter schools.  Stop supporting politicians who support charter schools and choice.  Tell our new Secretary of Education Betsy De Voss that she made her billions on charter schools and that makes her income immoral because she got rich by taking money away from public school students.  Tell the Texas Legislature that increasing the number of charter schools is the promotion of inefficiency and unethical educational practices. 

Until we see charter schools for what they really are, we will continue to fall for the notion that choice in public service is a good thing.  It is not.  It is inefficient and immoral.

Dear Republicans,

Please.  Please stand up.  I get it that you did not want Hillary Clinton to be President.  I get it that Donald Trump is the President of the USA.  I get it that the office of the President merits respect.  I get it that any new President should be allowed a honeymoon period, a time to cement his or her appointees, prepare to implement his or her vision for the country via legislation, prepare to establish new connections with our foreign allies and hostiles.  I get all of that.  And I will argue that Donald Trump via lies and misstatements and tweets and bigotry and poor judgment has abrogated the opportunity to not only have a honeymoon, but the opportunity to complete his term.  No other human other than Donald Trump has ever been afforded an opportunity to assume a leadership position and shoot himself in the foot with an automatic weapon as has Trump. 

Let’s be clear.  His lies are almost beyond listing.  Perhaps “lies” is too strong a word.  His perceptions of reality that are not confirmed by reality are now almost too numerous to list.  3 million fraudulent voters.  He made that up.  It is not true.  His inaugural turnout was the biggest ever.  Not true.  96 million Americans unemployed. Not true.  Highest murder rate ever.  Not true.  Smooth transition.  Not true.  Implementing initial immigrant ban going very smoothly.  Not true.  Obama wiretapped him during the election.  Not true.  No dealings with the Russians prior to election.  Not true.  On and on and on and on.  The embarrassment level alone must surely put you in a position of shunning an invitation to a White House dinner.

Equally appalling to me, and I suspect to many of you, is his habit of tweeting whatever comes to his mind.  That is not healthy, smart, wise or leader-like for anyone to do.

Equally appalling to me is that every time there is a reality problem (that is his reality does not fit reality) he conjures some sort of conspiracy theory to explain why his reality must be right.  We have gone from alternative facts, to voter fraud, to Russians hacking him, to the press is the enemy, to Obama wiretapped him.  All pure conspiracy theories.

Equally appalling to me is the use of his office for product endorsement and petty misogynistic judgments.  Fox news is good.  CNN is bad.  Female candidates have ugly faces.  He will be good for women.  Women who are sexually harassed at work should just quit.

Equally appalling to me is that he is in fact a blatant bigot and a blatant misogynist.  He has and is willing to practice discrimination by gender, ethnicity and religion.  That may not bother some of you so much, especially if you share similar beliefs.  But for me, that is appalling.

Equally appalling to me is the shift from the role of government as a protector of citizens and consumers to the role of government as the protector and promoter of corporate interests.  No longer is the consumer always right. No longer must we protect the environment from corporate goals.  Now we protect corporate goals at the expense of the environment.  Now, it is the corporation and their ambitions that are always right.  Sadly, pursuit of wealth is rarely bound by moral limits.  Every agency that protects us is being dismantled.

We have been thinking about Trump in all the wrong ways.  I suggest we think about his practices and proclivities in other contexts.  Suppose your local school system hired a principal who after one month on the job had been caught in multiple lies, had disparaged some kids and some teachers, had proposed unfounded conspiracy theories, had suggested that the local paper was his enemy, and had proposed to do away with the code of ethics as well as the student handbook.  Would you tolerate the continued employment of such a principal?  As a superintendent of schools I would terminate a person for such behavior.  If your newly elected mayor did similar things, would you tolerate it?  If your chief of police did similar things would you tolerate it?  Then why, oh why are you tolerating this from the President of the United States?  Trump has engaged in behaviors that would guarantee his termination in any other office of public trust in this country.  What does it say of you if you defend a man who lies?  What does it say of you if you defend bigoted behavior?

I share very few values and beliefs with Vice President Pence.  I believe most of what he believes is un-American.  But I believe he is a man who is sane and thoughtful, just misguided.  Please start standing up and saying, “Trump is unacceptable.  Pence is palatable.  Remove Trump.”

Please.  If you want America to be great again then do not tolerate such behaviors from your leaders and continue to make us the laughing stock of the world while scaring and disgusting more than half of our citizens.  Republicans now rule Washington.  If you take no action in this direction it implies support for such behaviors.  That cannot be good for our country and it cannot speak well of you.

Please.

Flat Earth

I was at first amused and then totally dumbfounded that a professional basketball player stated his belief that the earth is flat.  His position, he claims, is self-confirming, “Just look at it.  It’s in front of your eyes.  The earth is flat,” stated Kyrie Irving, an all-star point guard from the Cleveland Cavaliers earning $17.6 million dollars in 2016.  Irving attended Duke University, a prestigious private college, but dropped out after his freshman year to play professional basketball.  Clearly, he needed 3 more years at Duke.

Irving comes from a position that underlies much of today’s headlines:  I believe it, therefore it is true.  Rarely have we seen such an anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-math philosophy represented in key figures in our country.  I love the Neil deGrasse Tyson T-shirt that says, “Science is not a Liberal Conspiracy.”  At this point in our history too many people believe that statement to be false.

There are facts.  Alternative facts are either lies or expressions of belief that run contrary to logic and science.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hate that Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes.  That does not alter that fact.  Claiming that the fact must be wrong and that there must be millions of people who voted fraudulently is a wish, a belief and not a fact.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hate that he now holds the lowest percentage of support of any person entering the Presidency.  Claiming that the numbers are flawed does not change that fact.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hates the press and are spending a lot of energy characterizing the press as the enemy or the opposition party.  It is the duty of the press in a democracy to challenge falsehoods and seek the truth.  If I lie and I get challenged by the press that does not mean the press is my enemy any more than if a doctor diagnoses the flu and prescribes a shot.  There may be pain for the lie tellers and the exaggerators and the folks who are anchored to belief not fact.  But such pain is a step toward wellness.

The earth is not flat.  The earth is more than 6,000 years old.  Evolution is real, intelligent design is not.  The current rapid warming of the earth is due to carbon emissions by human beings, particularly fossil fuels.  Pipelines leak and cause environmental damage.  Charter schools do not help children, they help private entrepreneurs.  Vouchers do not help children, they help the wealthy parents of children.  Anti-abortion legislation and court rulings are not about being pro-life as much as they are about implementing the religious belief of some as the law of the land.  Increased accessibility to firearms and silencers and assault rifles increases the number of deaths due to firearms.  Welfare fraud in the US occurs in less than 1% recipients. Eliminating the oversight of Wall Street that was put in place after the 2008 debacle is just crazy as we know what the bankers and hedge fund folks will do.   Blocking the immigration of 7 countries to keep America safe is a religious, anti-Muslim effort as no one from those 7 countries has ever committed a felony in the US.  Barak Obama is not a Muslim and was born in the United States.  And on and on.

When the facts, when the results of scientific inquiry, hypothesis testing, rigorous review disagree with one’s belief systems we all have a choice.  We can accept reality, or argue that my opinion means more than the facts.  It is our arrival at a day that places us in grave danger when individuals are appointed to leadership positions based on their opinions rather than their knowledge and skill.  If the intellectuals, the experts, the scientists reveal the results of their study and you conclude they must somehow be wrong, then the issue is not science, it is you.  Reviewing the qualifications of the Cabinet appointees it is clear they were not selected for their knowledge, wisdom, experience, but their opinions.

The earth is in fact round, or at least roundish.  To publicly state anything else is a falsehood not based on science and should be called out as an ignorant belief similar to thinking thunder is caused by the gods bowling in heaven, or that man and dinosaurs inhabited the earth at the same time.  It is dangerous to believe that which is not true. It is dangerous to continue to believe that which we wish were true but has been proven false.  If we do not honestly engage reality we live a fantasy life that will be destroyed by reality.  Such an approach to life and leadership is grounded in fallacy and is equivalent to the emperor’s new clothes.  That made worse by name calling and persecution of those who dare to point out that the emperor is naked.  Hence the attack on the press.

At the very least we should expect our leaders to speak the truth as it is known to us, not beliefs in conflict with the truth.  We stand on the shoulders of scientists and reap the benefit of their discoveries and applications every day. Failure to do so is the blatant incompetence and deceit of snake oil sales people, all of whom should sacrifice their cell phones, TVs, cars, medicines, etc., as a part of their rejection of the science we know.  Can one truly have it both ways?  Reject the benefits of science while rejecting those truths from science we find uncomfortable?  Opinion is not fact.  To believe an opinion contrary to known facts is a self-branding process which results in wide-spread knowledge that such a person possesses the fool’s brain.  And such a person should never be looked to leadership.

Attacking those who bring you facts harms no one but the attacker.  We hold those members of the church in utter contempt today for their torture and rejection of the notion that the sun is the center of our solar system, a fact which conflicted with their belief.  If you are correct and they are wrong it will become clear in the end.  The only reason to attack those who question one’s statements or opinions is the fear that the truth will be revealed and the fool’s brain lie transparent.  Made worse by a strong avoidance of transparency and an aura of secrecy and conspiracy. 

Mr. Irving, Ms. Conway, Ms. DeVoss, and President Trump, with all due respect, you are wrong and the facts speak differently than what you claim.  At each instance of such nonsense you declare yourselves fools.  The more adults who know the facts the less likely you are to be able to lead.  So, be honest, base your position on our best science and the best we can be as humans, or plan your departure.  Those who see the earth as flat will roll off the earth.  Or at least their basketballs will.

If

If hate and anger fuel your acts you do not merit love.

If your greatness lies in your past then you doom your future.

If your mantra is me first, you will end up last.

Does your God set an example by loving everyone, or just the people who love him/her?

If your God does not love everyone, get a new God.

If your God does love everyone, get a new President.

Politics and Religion

I’ve read several fascinating studies recently that demonstrate the area of the brain where both religious and political beliefs reside.  Neuroscientists at USC were able to demonstrate via MRI that the same area of the brain went into defensive mode when either religious or political views were challenged.  Once such defenses are triggered, logic and reason are displaced by entrenchment.  (See https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161223115757.htm).

So that explains it!  I have oft wondered why when discussing politics with friends of differing perspectives they are likely to become hostile, vindictive, name-calling, Trump sycophants.  For liberals and conservatives alike, deeply held beliefs are just that, deeply held and not subject to reason and rational thought.  I have suffered from the belief that once my position is explained as a logical, rational position given what I value most many will agree with me.  No amount of reason will convict an atheist to become a Christian, a conservative to become a liberal, or a bigot to support civil liberties and civil rights.  The attempt to change someone’s mind in either of these arenas are likely a waste of time.  “Never wrestle with a pig.  You get dirty and the pig likes it.”  George Bernard Shaw

So, as a human being capable of reason and logic, why do thoughts about politics and religion become so deeply ingrained?  Why do we become instantly irrational when discussing these beliefs?  If I believe an aspirin a day helps me avoid strokes, and then read that taking a nap does so even better, I am likely to abandon the aspirin for a nap.  I am not upset.  I do not feel the need to defend the aspirin I once believed in, but now I have new data and believe differently.  Such rational thought does not exist in religion or politics.  It may be because it is in those two areas, perhaps more, that we define ourselves.  If our personal definition is grounded in falsehood we do not want to know it and will deny to the point of creating falsehoods or maintain our delusion.  If I see myself as a Christian Conservative any effort that uses facts to persuade me of an error in my positioning is attacking my very self-image.  I cannot allow that to happen.  So we have seemingly rational people walking around believing that giving millionaires more money somehow economically helps poor people, or they believe that the earth is 6,000 years old.  Both of those beliefs have been clearly debunked by knowledge and reason and science.  And yet, for some a challenge to belief based on fact remains grounds for verbal war.  Or worse.

We cannot agree on the most simple of facts because our belief blinders stand in our way and we cannot see.  Clinton received almost 3 million more votes than Trump.  That is a fact.  That fact cannot be swept away because we do not want to believe that fact or that fact is not aligned with what I believe or worse that I engage in fantasy about fraudulent votes are the only way that can be true.  Of 58 Presidential elections, Trump ranks 46^th in the number of Electoral College votes received. Any way you slice it, 46 lies on the number line closer to 58 than to 1^st.  He did not receive the most electoral votes ever, he did not win by a landslide.  He enters office with only a 42% approval rating, the lowest ever recorded.  Those are facts.  

But they are facts that Trumpeters do not believe or are not willing to believe when a fact is a fact is a fact whether one believes it or not.  The same is true for the crowd attending the Trump inauguration.  Yes, it was less than Obama’s crowd and even less than the women’s march the next day.  But for the believer, those facts cannot be right, someone must be to blame, someone must be attacking us for some reason, or somehow these facts are tainted and not valid.  If we believe Trump was elected overwhelmingly and enters the White House with a mandate supported by the largest cheering crowd in history we are denying facts to bolster our belief.  And that is scary.  Because if we cannot deal with facts we cannot lead.  If we cannot take one on the chin, we cannot lead.  If we have to have it our way despite the data, then we cannot lead.  I would go so far to say even using the term “alternative facts” hits a serious delusional position wherein the belief system must, absolutely must win no matter what the facts say.  Such a person should not lead.  They should not teach.  They should not serve in law enforcement or the justice system, they should not be employed in a position that handles a lot of money, or is responsible for a lot of weapons.  They should not be high school referees.  The thought of such a person as President is beyond belief.

The most interesting point in all the above discussion is that it does not matter.  Trump won.  Trump is President.  The crowd size, electoral votes, the mandate, the approval rating are all just extraneous facts as opposed to alternative facts.  It does not matter.  Trump won.  What matters is civil liberties, tariffs, pipelines, Mexico, China, Europe, etc.  We are not spending nearly enough time on those issues.

It also matters what the personal characteristics are of this person now our President   Do we really want a President who cannot let go of his belief system even when handed the facts?  Do we want a President who will spend millions on commissions to determine if the facts as he sees them are better than the facts we have, the facts we know, the facts that have already been verified?  Do we want a President whose skin is so thin that he will attack members of the media if he thinks they are putting him in a bad light?  Do we want a President who is not willing to be honest with us about his income taxes whether you care about it or not?  Do we want a President who issues policy, opinion and belief system tenets via Twitter?  Do we want a President whose mantra of “America First” really means “Me First”?  Do we want a President who only knows how to be a top-down boss and does not have a clue how to be a public servant?

And after we honestly answer those questions perhaps we can have a rational conversation about free trade versus tariffs, walls for borders, registry of alternative religious belief systems, rejection of people based on their belief systems and country of origin, more oil pipelines, etc.  Perhaps we can talk about his appointments and the fact that they either know absolutely nothing about the area they are to lead, or are out and out hostile to the department they are to lead.  It is as though the Pope is appointing non-church going atheists as cardinals.

And at last, will my friends who are so quick to vilify and spill vitriol be willing to sit and talk about the America they want to see.  What is your vision?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that built a wall?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that began to register people based on their religious belief?  Do we really want to put ourselves first to the degree that we harm other members of the international family?  What shall we stand for?  What shall we be known for?  In my heart of hearts I truly hope it is to stand for what is right regarding the treatment of any other human being regardless of sex or religious belief, or race, or ethnicity, or handicapping condition, or wealth, or sexual preference or sexual identify.  We should show the world how well diversity can work, not show the world how we are striving to reduce the degree of diversity.  If planet earth, the United States, the 50 states, the cities and towns all devolve to a sense of “me first” we have returned to a new dark age where it is OK to compete with others, it is OK to lie to win, it is OK to persecute those who are different from us, it is OK to continue to allow the billionaires to ride the backs of the middle class.  That is not my view.  I can discuss it rationally. 

I cannot rationally discuss my deep love for human beings, my deep love for education, my deep love for the equal treatment of all, and my deep love of these United States as defenders of liberty including civil liberties.  Those beliefs are tied to my religious beliefs.  I have real difficulty being rational in those areas and am much more likely to become emotional.  How can I possibly say I love God if I hate or fear or persecute my fellow man?  No one born on planet earth, by definition, can be an alien.

Well, perhaps with the exception of Trump.