Playing Now: Birds Of A Feather... A Trumped-Up Media Production

American mainstream media can't help itself. Their salacious preoccupation with the prototypical carnival barker in our midst provides them with an extended opportunity to make some more mullah...money. That is their business. That is their highest priority. That of course is Donald J. Trump's goal also. The Media as we know it is primarily an entertainment complex. If you are looking for uplifting, meaningful analysis you won't find it here. If what you long for are intelligent conversations about issues affecting our corporate life... Forget about it. What you will find is content drawn from the primal pit of our collective experience. Slime and more slime.  Sex. Violence. Hate. Bigotry. Stuff that appeals to the basest of our sensibilities. Survival stuff. Conflict generation stuff. They thrive on the exploitation of our collective insecurities. Every story is formulated to be resolved via the kind of mayhem that leaves our antagonists in bloody little bits and pieces. What passes for political discourse on any network is nothing more than predictable partisan banter. What passes for conversation is nothing more that a contrived rhetorical con. It's all a terribly shameful farce.

As for Trump, the star of the current media con job, the man is in the business of rigging the game so he can achieve the "deal" of the moment. Nothing complicated about that. He is a noted casino magnate, and that is what casino moguls do. They rig the game. He is effectively a part of the "show" being produced by our entertainment complex. For this monied antagonist the American political landscape is just a piece of real estate to be exploited and eventually flipped for a quick profit. The hopes and dreams of those who seek to be tenants in this fools paradise are just props he is using to dress it up so he can pawn it off to the next political charlatan. A candidate for President of the United States of America? This is a terrible hoax, one being perpetrated to maximize its entertainment value. As has been stated elsewhere, Donald Trump has no fluency in any of the issues that an aspirant to the highest office in the land must command. He has a snowball's chance in hell of being POTUS. This is all a game to him, and one that he is mastering to the chagrin of the Republican Party. They are fainting in their tents in the GOP. But this is the chicken they have hatched after seven years of roosting with the TeaParty. That chicken has come home, and is indiscriminately defecating all over everything they claim to represent.

Even if those cheering him on had the existential clarity to discern his real intentions, they might still follow after him with that disconcerting fealty that vassals show their feudal lord. For these "tenants" of that fool's paradise; to be is to be like, and to be like... is to be like Trump. Yes. They actually want to emulate his lack of virtue. They parrot his ugly bluster as if they were demonstrating fluency in a second language. They cheer his arrogance as if it will add some luster to their dull lives. They flex their ignorance as if it were proof of some philosophical dominance. Never mind the fact that he is as disdainful of them as he seems to be of everyone else; they just long to be near him so that they can breathe in the air that he breathes out... Foul and poisonous though it may be. As disgustingly deficient as their lives may be, they are like him... fear-filled, hateful bigots. Birds of a feather flock together. Even those whose plumage appears more illustrious than the rest.

As Americans we must definitively express our revulsion at the crass bigotry of this character. That has now become our civic duty as a people who cherish the rule of law and decency. For better or for worse the rest of the world is watching this Trumped-Up production. And to most observers this is not in the least entertaining. The twenty five percent of the world's population that are Muslims do not find Mr Trump's antics to be a laughing matter. Those wanting to do us harm for one reason or other are finding enough hurtful content in this clown's performance to potentiate their already volatile inclinations. Our neighbors to the South are definitely NOT entertained. There is something hate-inspiring in being lumped in as rapists, drug mules, and murderers; when most immigrants are just in search of a better life for themselves and their families. No nation is without faults, but the Russians, Iranians, and the Chinese, must be giving undue extra thought to being villainized in the minds of the not so sophisticated among the American public.

Make no mistake about it, the show being put on by Donald J. Trump will have consequences beyond the theater of American political life. These consequences, intended or unintended, have the potential to bring harm to all of us. That is the reason we must now lift our voices in rebuke of a circus that is no longer entertaining. The cheering on of Trump's vile braggadocio must now end. It is time for Donald Trump to pack up his act and exit this stage.