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Odd Bedfellows

Howell Hurst Defining Trump

 

Decoding the innumerable ciphers of politics is a tricky business. Put more plainly: trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of the ever-shifting human alliances of politicians is like squeezing a handful of thumbtacks. Or it’s like attempting to understand who is trying to get in bed with whom for what reason. Anyway you put it – it’s a brain strainer.

Time magazine recently spelled out that Mr. Putin (an arch Atheist) has combined tactics to get better inside the U.S. Government’s new leadership: by building friends with Christians and gun owners. Simultaneously, on an entirely different tack, Mr. Trump (an arch Capitalist) is busy opening up doors for the coal industry while predominant market forces indicate economics are tending much more toward renewable energy like wind and solar.

There are logical reasons for both of these illogical-appearing phenomena.

One: Fundamentalist Christians are key Trump supporters. Two: The NRA (National Rifle Association) is rife with gun owners. A no-brainer for Mr. Putin. An official gun-loving Atheist catering to Christians? Why not if it gets him closer to our leadership? Smart thinking for a pragmatic dictator.

Three: Mr. Trump is seeking to appease his climate-change deniers by striving to drop support for the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) clean-energy-efficient solar/wind initiatives. Four: In the process save some coal jobs as a byproduct. This makes sense for his political needs.

For once, I am not trying here to be entirely cynical or satirical. But since I claim to be an Independent thinker, rather than a Liberal or Conservative ideologue, I am trying to discover some sort of middling philosophical turf where both sides may at least stand one another’s company. And maybe if we’re lucky finally get something done together.

Jobs do need to be saved. People’s incomes need to be protected. Clean air and water and safe hazardous waste management need guarding. How do you accomplish all this at the same time? It isn’t easy. Liberals, I believe, might want to relax and give Mr. Trump a little space in his eagerness to test part of his alleged Free-Market philosophy. His doesn’t quite feel precisely like the old dribble-down Republican economic model we’re familiar with.

Some freedom in his protecting jobs is rational. It is unlikely Mr. Trump’s actions announce the immediate destruction of the human race. Liberals need to acquire a tad of faith in the resiliency of the planet regarding what they perceive to be all of mankind and womankind plummeting down the track to Armageddon on some kind of a cosmically-uncontrollable runaway train. I doubt it’s that serious. Not yet, anyhow.

On the other hand, Conservatives might entertain trying a bit of reflective meditation. I mean that almost literally. They have just shown a massive disregard for the human thinking process in their quite inept handling of their much-beloved attempt at the assassination of Obama Care.

Republicans really could focus on getting their mental processes in order. It is hard to run a country. It is not as easy as cajoling a profit out of a consuming-addicted population of marginally-educated, free-wheeling, spoiled spenders.

I don’t admire Mr. Trump’s style. But I don’t admire the Democrat’s style either. Will Rogers, the comic patron saint of Oklahoma, always made a lot of fun of his personally-preferred Democrats for what he perceived as their over-emotional behavior. I think much the same can be said for Republicans. Plenty of people, myself included, don’t think a country can be run like a business.

But everybody ought to cool off some.

I have long suspected that the apparently infinite Universe cannot be harmed by any actions of human beings. If we goof up really bad, we’re the ones who’ll go extinct, not the Earth or all that big Space out there. They’re going to hang in a long time.

So, for what it’s worth, I propose we all glance in the mirror, acknowledge our own irrational prejudices, push them on the back burner, and trust that many, if not most, of us will continue breathing for the next four or eight years.

What do you say? Let’s try to appear to cooperate while we continue to stealthily plan each other’s demise. Remember, as the French like to say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Back to more serious stuff tomorrow.

Odd Bedfellows

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9 thoughts on “Odd Bedfellows

  1. Glad to comment. First, I am curious how you get my blog. Were you in Will Rogers High School as many of my readers are? Or what? I do not immediately recognize your name. Sorry. As to writing, I first was taught by my former Literary Agent to write in the following fashion: She said: “Picture visually in your mind what you want to say and then describe it in words. That helped a lot. How you get the picture to describe is the Key. I found out all my life as I was a marketing consultant and a video writer/producer/director, that if I would consider a situation or a problem I wanted to solve or write about, and if I would imagine placing that situation or problem or subject down a tube leading from my mind to my subconscious – as if I were sending it to a basement of my mind, that some time later, sometimes a few hours, sometime a day or two, I would always receive later a conscious thought or solution of how to approach the subject, or situation, or problem. I still do this; and I alway get a thought sometime later. I often actually dream it. That is very common. This makes sense, because several science books have proposed the brain will work on it subconsciously and return to you with the solution. It works, repeatedly. I have also meditated for years. I do this with some regularity, where I sit quietly daily several minutes, sometimes 10 or 15 or longer, and allow my mind to empty as much as I can of any and all thoughts. This seems to help the process along. Hope that helps. Regards, Hal. Come back to me with your comments.

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