I’m Tired

By Hank Silverberg

You know what? I am tired. Oh, I try to get enough sleep, but that’s not the issue.

I’m tired of waking up every morning to some new revelation in the continuing investigation of our dysfunctional president.

I’m tired of his lies, his attacks on anyone he doesn’t like or who criticizes him. 

I’m tired of hearing journalists deliver their product with exasperation in their voices because they know they’ve been lied to again.   

The country is getting tired too.  And it may be stressing Americans out.

After all those years as a reporter, I tend to hold back on partisanship on most issues, but I have been unable to do that with Donald Trump. He is just so far off from what America is supposed to be that just the thought of another four years of this raises my blood pressure. But much of my opinion here is still based on facts.

There are a lot of other reasons for stress, but the Trump presidency may be making Americans sick. First there’s simply the polarization of America, which has gotten worse since NBC highlighted this issue two years ago. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/could-stress-trump-presidency-make-americans-sick-n769441

Add to that the health care mess, which has made mental health care difficult to get and hard to afford. Then there is an administration and a Congress which have made no efforts or no proposals to change that.  

We’ve all had increased stress before. The entire nation suffered from it after 9-11 when we worried about frequent terrorist attacks. They didn’t happen as much as we thought they would, thanks to some hard work by law enforcement and our military.

But somehow the stress went up again after Donald Trump’s election, and not just for his opponents. His supporters deal with it too. For some of them it's disappointment that he hasn’t been able to do much of what he promised—mainly because he doesn’t know how. For others its anger that he is constantly attacked and for still others it’s regret about their vote and for the embarrassment he has become at home and abroad.

For those who oppose him, and there are many who do, the list of reasons why grows every day.

One of my Facebook friends, a classmate from high school whom I won’t name, confessed he loves Trump (he is proud of it) and he posted this meme.  

Lots of people agreed with him. But many others did not. NO surprise. I sent him a list of reasons not to support Trump.

Just writing the list was a great stress release for me. I have added more things here than to the short list I posted to his meme.  

    1)   Adulterer (with a porn star he paid $130K in hush money).

    2) Consistently spending some down time at his own resorts and golf courses so he can charge the government for the stay and enrich his own company.

    3) Cozying up to authoritarian leaders like Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin, both of whom time and again have murdered opponents. Trump has endangered U.S. interests by doing so.  

    4)   Ruining 70 years of foreign policy in Europe put in place by bi-partisan American presidents thereby alienating our allies.

    5)   Taking what had been a modest success in Syria in defeating ISIS and turning it into a disaster that is killing our Kurdish allies and revitalizing ISIS.  

    6)   Eliminating decades old pollution controls on air and water. The latest example was loosening auto emission standards.

    7)   Pushing through a massive tax cut that has increased the federal deficit dramatically with little gain for the average middle or working class family in the United States.

    8) Taking us out of two key treaties—the one that had some limited success with preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and the other which had put the USA among the leaders in trying to stop climate change.

    9)   And perhaps the most un-American thing of all—putting children in cages, which is not good for any reason!

There are more, but those are the highlights.

Notice I didn’t say anything about collusion or impeachment. Like many Americans, I believe that Congress can investigate the President's behavior completely as they are SUPPOSED TO DO under the U.S. Constitution as an equal branch of government.  It’s their job!

So, I’m tired. Trouble is, all these issues make it hard to get a good nights' sleep.

News Notes:

 Watch the birdy? Maybe not much longer. A new report from the National Audubon Society says climate change is producing rising temperatures and is threatening the habitat of 389 species of birds. They will either be killed off and become extinct or migrate elsewhere for a better climate. That could make 12 U.S. states birdless. You can read the details here:

https://www.audubon.org/climate/survivalbydegrees

You should also take note of this:

Ten cities across the country say the Trump campaign has not reimbursed them for the costs of added security for Donald Trump’s political rallies. Those rallies are campaign events and not part of his official function as President, so his campaign must pay for the added security. Most of it is police overtime for traffic and crowd control. So far, the campaign hasn’t paid up. The debt totals more than a million dollars.

El Paso, Texas, billed the campaign $570,000 for a visit in February.  Lebanon, Ohio, says the campaign owes the city  $16,000 for an October 2018 event. 

Of the 10 cities listed in a Center for Public Integrity report,  Tucson, AZ,  Green Bay and  Eau Clair, WI, Burlington, VT and Spokane, WA, are owed money dating back to Trump’s run in 2016.

https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/minneapolis-mayor-donald-trump-rally-police-bills/ 

To be fair, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders also have some unpaid bills from 2016.

But It’s not like the Trump campaign doesn’t have the money . The Republican National Committee raised $125 million in just the last quarter.

This is a pattern for Trump. A USA Today investigation in 2016 found at least 60 lawsuits and more than 200 liens against Trump and his companies for failing to pay scores of employees and businesses for their work.

The Trump campaign also owes Washington, D.C. more than $7 million in unpaid bills from his 2017 inauguration.

           (Your comments and suggestions are welcome) 

(Copies of my book can be purchased retail at Amazon.com, BN.Com or at a reduced price from me by emailing me at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for instructions.)