THE WONDER OF EYE DROPS

Another outing. I am sitting in the Costa Cafe at St Thomas’ Hospital waiting for Celia’s cataract op to finish and to get her home safely. It is a 7:30 am start and hopefully will happen without incident. The hospital is becoming  busier as I sit with a toasty and ponder the next event. 

Whilst waiting I have tuned in on YouTube to a CNN broadcast called The Source fronted by Kaitlan Collins, one of Trump’s most hated journalists.  The various guests are reviewing the latest insanities from Trump. His volte-face on sanctions on buying fuel from Russia, which he had just signed. His poor showing on the campaign trail, supposedly in support of candidates featuring in the mid-term elections. His bribery attempt of US voters. His Secretary of Defence’s absurd and despicable performance. The outrageous actions against congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota which is entirely motivated by convicted felon Donald Trump through his stooges, Todd Blanche and Kash Patel, who have no integrity whatsoever. They care not one jot for  any congressional provisions over investigations of congressional representatives within 60 days of an election. 

Trump’s vindictive comments and clear incitement of the crowd urging them to cry out for her removal, is yet another example of his 6th January rhetoric of vilification, insult and provocation. This is a Somali refugee who came to the United States at the age of 13 in 1995 and who became a US Citizen in 2000 at the age of 17. She is a graduate of North Dakota State University with a BA degree having majored in political science and international studies  She won election to congress in 2016 and began her term on the 3rd January 2017. She has served the people of Minnesota  for the last 9 years. She authored 38 bills during the 2017-2018 legislative session. In any event, she is clearly a thorn in the side of convicted felon Donald Trump. This kind of distraction fits right in with the felon’s wheelhouse.

This appeal to mob violence has so often been portrayed, by the American film industry, as a poisonous evil contaminating American public society, it is astonishing that it still goes on. We have so often seen a film’s rabble-rouser defeated ignominiously by the story’s hero (often played by the likes of John Wayne, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda) that it beggars belief the behaviour of convicted felon Donal Trump is not summarily denounced and shut down with instant repudiation. Instead it is repeated ad nauseam to our continued disgust. 

The noted American journalist H.L.Mencken wrote in one of his columns the 18th September 1926:

"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly."

That was written one hundred years ago. It has since been paraphrased as "No one ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the American public". It seems that nothing has changed. Indeed, I feel that my persistent complaint about the decline and extinction of American democracy has been anticipated by others, and has had about the same effect. None. Whilst the downward projection towards extinction has been slow, convicted felon  Donald Trump and his mega movement have put their feet on the accelerator.  

Celia is out now and we are off home. Lots of eye drops to take over the next 14 days. I will make no more comment on the intelligence of the American public until such time as it makes its decision on the 3rd November, I believe I will be administering drops in Celia’s right eye which will improve her vision. Would that I could  administer eye drops to the American public to improve their vision. Ho hum.