THE MIDAS EFFECT

A remark by one of the TV talking-heads about the various witnesses involved in the current ‘Hush Money’ case in New York, describing them all as equally ‘unsavory’, reminded me just how much, since 2016, mainstream America has been exposed to, and become familiar with a whole seamy underside of Society that was previously limited to cheap B-Movies and supermarket tabloids.

 Currently we are watching a sordid mud pit wresting match involving a porn star and a Playboy model exploiting their sexual histories, with an embarrassing bevy of seedy, bottom-draw attorneys and sleazy Catch and Kill ‘news’ editors. But over the past several years, since his descent on the Trump elevator in 2015, we have encountered a seemingly endless succession of cringeworthy associates from Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and all their cronies to out-front, dodgy Ukrainian ‘businessmen’ like Lev Parnas and Igor Frumen.

 Even when Trump moves beyond the bottom-feeders among whom he feels most at home, whoever he touches in the normal world becomes contaminated and swiftly sinks to his level. America’s Mayor has sunk without trace, and a list of hitherto respected four-star generals, CEOs, Attorney Generals, Governors and long respected politicians have seen their proud resumes destroyed, overshadowed and forever poisoned by their association with The Donald.

 Donald trump has transformed Presidential politics and the White House into a XXX Gold Adult strip-club.

 AS King Midas eventually discovered, turning everything to gold has its price,

 Democracy vs Dictatorship

My lifelong faith in Democracy is being sorely tested as I witness the daily clown-show in Washington D.C.  Observing our elected representatives squabbling over nonsense is like watching an episode of Mean Girls. While pressure builds on our southern border, Russia destroys its European neighbor, China threatens Taiwan and as tensions in the Middle East spiral out of control, our leaders prove incapable of doing anything except playing musical chairs with the Speaker and indulging in meaningless impeachment trials.

 

Maybe a dictatorship is not such a bad idea after all!

How is it possible?

 

The British Royal Family and its Empire still remain a symbol of historic power and stability in the world but, for the past century, it is the United States of America which has wielded the real power and stability around the planet. More than just its military might, the power of America has resided in the immutable stability of its institutions. The Constitution, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the F.B.I, the Rule of Law and the peaceful transfer of Presidential power are all universally recognized and respected as impregnable foundations of the world’s most unassailable Democracy. Not only has America strength inherited the imperial mantel of the British, defeated the Nazi powers in Europe and even dismantled the world-wide communist threat of the Soviet Union - but it has set the standards for law, order, equality and political constancy by which all civilized nations must now be measured.

 

So how is it possible; how can it be explained that one man, single-handedly threatens to dismantle and destroy the whole edifice and reduce it to the chaos within which he thrives? What is even more inexplicable is that he is not doing this by stealth, or by trickery behind the scenes, but is doing this openly, within full view of all the institutional guardians erected with such care to protect our values and our freedoms. Within just a few short years, the once proud nation that defeated King George III, Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin’s heirs has become a helpless, passive plaything of a vulgar bully from Queens. How is this possible?