Pick your favorite analogy

Analogies. With an incumbent president prone to being untruthful, bullying, angry, autocratic, and fraudulent, analogies toward his behavior abound. Here are a few to consider:

Dress over head – this is a personal favorite. When the incumbent is on one of his tirades, to me it is akin to a little girl getting her dress stuck over head while trying to remove it without unbuttoning it. She becomes quite agitated.

Cookie jar – this occurs when he is caught in a lie akin to a little boy with cooke crumbs on his face, his hand in the jar telling his mother he did not take the cookies.

Sand toys – this occurs when he storms home angry with sand toys in hand after he ran off any potential friends by being a difficult play mate.

Queen of Hearts – this may be my favorite character reference for his bad behavior. Think of the Disney cartoon version of “Alice in Wonderland.” The Queen of Hearts would get red-faced and scream “off with his head!” To me, this is a good visual when he is screaming at people.

Mad King – for fans of “Game of Thrones,” there is consistent references to a Mad King who killed many, but also threatened to torch his own capitol city with a liquid accelerant buried beneath should he ever be cornered. As the incumbent’s niece Mary said of her uncle, he would burn it all down to avoid saying he lost the election. While her point was metaphorical, he did incite an insurrection to change the election outcome and tried to extort votes in Georgia.

Yertle the Turtle – another different character could represent the narcissistic nature of the incumbent. Dr. Seuss wrote about Yertle who felt as King, he would rule over all he could see. So, Yertle decided to stand atop a teetering stack of turtles. As yiu might guess, the stack would get too high and come tumbling down.

Wizard of Oz – the final analogy was my first one that came to mind. Don’t look behind the curtain was the mantra that resonated in the movie. A traveling salesman with cure-alls boards his balloon and is blown into Oz. With no managerial or leadership abilities, he masks his incompetence with fear. Think of that – don’t look at what I am really doing and acquiesce to the frightening figure of Oz.

Please note these are analogies of behavior. Focus on the behavior not the reference. What are your favorites?

Trump former National Security Advisor opines on Iran attack

The following are excerpts from an article penned about the comments on Iran by John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor in his first term.

“While Bolton praised Trump’s strikes on Iran as the ‘most consequential decision’ of his presidency, he warned that Trump and his administration could have acted impulsively without any appreciation for the complex aftermath of what is now a power vacuum.…

For now, Bolton said, it would be wrong to assume that Trump will take any long-term consistent position on the future of Iran: The full consequences of Saturday’s strikes are still unknown and the risk of increased bloodshed is high. Bolton said it remains to be seen if voters will credit Trump for the results in Iran — or if it will be seen as another foreign policy distraction that compromises his ability to deliver for Americans.

‘He can swing wildly on a given issue in the course of a day and he’s obviously swung all the way from where he was in the first term to regime change,’ Bolton said. ‘He could swing back.’”

Trump and his more strident supporters were celebrating victory early in the first quarter of the game. There is a lot more to come. Sadly for Iranis and us, there are more decisions that need to be made by the incumbent president.

Bombing things is easy. What happens next is the hard part. Trump has a modus operandi of not thinking about the “hard part.” This is similar to what Bolton is saying above. Unfortunately, our reputation as a rogue nation continues to solidify. And, it will only get worse.

Allies left high and dry

An article by Andrew Roth in The Guardian called “US allies and foes left scrambling as Trump catches them off-guard on Iran,” is not a surprising headline. The US president has a modus operandi of not informing others of his rash decisions. The subheading tells more: “War highlights strained alliances, unfettered militaries and a Washington with renewed appetite for regime change.” Here are a few select paragraphs:

“The war unleashed by the US and Israel on Saturday has exposed the new rules of geopolitics in Trump’s second presidency, with strained alliances, unfettered militaries and a Washington that has regained its appetite for regime change.

Despite an administration that claimed it would pull back from the Middle East and Europe in order to focus instead on the growing threat from China, the White House has toppled one leader in Latin America and has launched another war – that could easily become a regional conflict – with no clear plan for a transfer of power in Iran.

The US’s closest European allies have been effectively pushed out of the decision-making – unable to influence Trump or even understand his future designs for Iran, allied leaders have walked a tightrope between condemning and condoning the attacks.”

In short, Trump truly does not care to hear from others who may question what he is doing. Whereas other presidents took the time to build consensus and coalitions, Trump is not prone to do that. Sadly, he has not surrounded himself with well-schooled advisors who can try to make him think more about what he is doing. He likes “yes people” who agree with his gut reactions. Unfortunately, we pay the price for his rashness and lack of humanity and comprehension.

Note: Our friend Jill has a must read post on untangling the Iran issues ahead of the White House:

Trying To Untangle The Tangled Web

Note to a Female Democrat Congressional candidate

I was included on a text by the campaign of Zelda Briarwood, a female candidate running for Congress as a Democrat in a different district. She has an interesting set of skills, but also noted she had seven years of sobriety as a former alcoholic. I sent her this note of encouragement.

“While I am not in your district, best wishes on your campaign. I am an independent voter, but encourage you to follow the template of other recent successful female Democrats like Abigail Spanberger in VA and Mikie Sherrill in NJ. Like you, they and others who have won, were credible candidates who focused on economic and healthcare issues. Republicans who still drum up Trump’s bogus election fraud, wokeness (which is a non-issue), and values (whatever that is) deserve to lose.

The US has become a rogue nation following this incumbent president, denigrating and attacking both other countries and our own people by not following due process or a sense of humanity. We have also made it easier for polluting companies to pollute. People who support this president cannot claim “values” in my view. Lying and bullying are not values.

Good luck to you. By the way, I am an alcoholic as well, but it’s been over 17 years since my last drink. If someone gives you crap on this, just tell them if you are looking for a perfect candidate, that is not me.”