Send In The Clowns...Or Not

Time to add another name to my personal Hall of Shame

When a fool utters all kinds of insults against you in a social media group without even knowing you or without any worthwhile reason or provocation usually they are merely sad & pathetic attention seeking trolls who we should all feel sorry for. They don't deserve our anger.

They deserve our pity.

• R.M. Engelhardt, COFFEE ASS BLUES & OTHER POEMS

I was going to write something about Mango Mussolini’s speech at CPAC when I suddenly felt nauseous. I immediately understood that it wasn’t anything I’d ingested but rather the thought of devoting yet more brain cells and column inches to Donald Trump that was making me ill.

After giving it a few seconds, I realized that over the past eight years, I’d devoted far too much mental energy and attention to someone wholly unworthy of it. I’ve done it because…well, because, like many Americans, I was angry and frustrated. And that anger and frustration accomplished precisely nothing.

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I know I touched on his CPAC speech earlier this morning, and I have to confess to feeling a bit queasy as I did it. Now I understand why, and it wasn’t an enjoyable feeling.

Over the years, I’ve promised myself and my readers that I’d stop writing about several Right-wing losers- Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Dinesh D’Souza and a few others I’ve probably forgotten about. And good riddance to all. I- and my readers- are better off without them. None of us need that sort of negative energy; it accomplishes nothing save for frustrating and angering ourselves.

I can only speak for myself, but I can certainly live without that B.S.

With that in mind, I’m committing- primarily to myself but also to my readers- to stop writing about Donald Trump. There’s no longer anything to be gained (as if there ever was) by devoting more attention to the ambulatory meat sack of ignorance, arrogance, and hate that is Orange Jesus. I’m done falling into the trap of wasting time, energy, and brain cells on someone who runs on negative energy. There is nothing remotely positive about Donald Trump. He adds nothing constructive to this world; his only purpose is to take and accumulate for his self-aggrandizement.

Besides, the world will hardly be poorer for the lack of my contribution on the topic of Donald Trump. Lord knows there are enough pundits, columnists, and journalists out there who will more than make up for my departure from TrumpWatch. Not only that, they get paid to put up with the bullshit. I might make a few bucks from subscriptions, but it’s not worth jumping back on board.

There’s so much more I can devote my attention and efforts to, things that are more positive and add to this world instead of subtracting at every juncture. I’m tired of feeling like I need a shower every time I write something that involves Orange Jesus, even in a small way. It just makes me feel dirty.

I’ve tried to wean myself off politics in the past, and I may try to head in that direction in the future, but I’m no longer going to deny that politics is where my passion lies. Sure, there are many things I can write about that aren’t political, and I’m always looking for those ideas. But politics is about what we choose to do together and it impacts all of us in one way or another. That’s important, and the weight that it carries is something I think needs to be respected. We can no more avoid politics than we can avoid breathing. Those who do ignore politics do so at their own peril.

So, yeah, I'm sick to death of someone who’s been so detrimental to America’s collective well-being for so long. And I want to focus on those who can help to keep us heading in the right direction. Regardless of what you may think of Joe Biden, he and his Administration have been righting wrongs and getting shit done. No, it hasn’t been perfect, but they’ve nailed it more often than they’ve missed. And that’s far more than can be said for his predecessor.

America has always been a place that’s trafficked in big ideas. But, then, Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” was replaced by the GOP’s collective “No We Can’t.” Big ideas became codes for “Liberal big spending” and “Big government.” America became a country that wanted to shrink back within its borders. Except that 70 years after assuming the mantle of the world’s only true superpower shedding that role wouldn’t be easy or uncomplicated.

But we could, and did, become a running joke among the international community. America, it became widely known, was no longer a country to be trusted. It no longer kept its commitments. Instead, it cozied up to dictators and autocrats. And it threatened to back out of long-running international security commitments, all because of the whims of one immature dumbass leader.

Joe Biden is now repairing some of the damage done to America’s reputation, though it’s far more challenging to rebuild trust than to break it. Nevertheless, at least the international community knows America is back to being a serious participant in international affairs, even with the looming specter of the possible return of Mango Mussolini.

There’s so much going on here in America and elsewhere that I don’t need to “entertain” myself with the exploits of an immature asshole wearing a dead weasel on his head. And so I’m committing to looking elsewhere for that “entertainment.” That shouldn’t be too challenging; it’s just a matter of breaking some old habits. I’ve gotten lazy over the past few years and defaulted to what seemed easy. I’m sick of that easy anger and frustration because it accomplished nothing, leaving me feeling hollow and empty.

There’s so much more I can do with this space. Perhaps I’ll try to figure out how to buy Greenland.

Wait…we already tried that and failed?? Damn. OK; I’ll figure something else out.

As always, if any of y’all have ideas, I’m open to suggestions. Now and again, I do follow up on reader suggestions and come up with something fascinating.

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll be discussing spring planting season. Or corporate greed. It depends on what kind of mood I wake up in. :-)