The Year of Our Lord, 2018: Weirdness, Chaos, and Revulsion

By all accounts the Year of Our Lord 2018 has been weird, at times chaotic, and in many ways outright revulsive. Think not? Let's have a quick review.

January: Donald John Trump stunned just about everyone in the nation by making a measured and downright presidential State of the Union address to congress and the nation. He also made sure his 2020 campaign web site carried the speech live. During the web site's broadcast Trump supporters, who were being actively solicited to contribute to the campaign while the speech was ongoing, were rewarded by having their names scroll across the bottom of the screen as their man spoke. This prompted veteran politico, Fred Wertheimer to state,  "I've never heard of anything like this. It is a no class, money grubbing, misuse of the state of the union address that is way beneath the dignity of the presidency and the occasion."

February: On the 14th of the month former student Nikolas Cruz went to his old school, Marjory Stoneham Douglas High in Parkland, Florida. By the time he was done shooting 17 students and staff were dead. Within 24 hours at least seven different YouTube channels were claiming the nightmare was either faked, or a black flag operation perpetrated by the government in order to whip up anti second amendment sentiment.

March: Stoneham Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez was a speaker at an anti gun rally attended by tens of thousands of high school students and others. A right wing legislative candidate in Maine immediately took to twitter and called her, "a lesbian skin head." The tweet was passed on by actor Adam Baldwin to his 250,000 followers along with the hashtag, "Vorwarts." Vorwarts is German for the English word forward and when repeated twice is the title of the Hitler Youth anthem. In addition, Rick Santorum went on CNN and told the audience, Gonzalez and her fellow Stoneham Douglas students were, "...looking for someone else to solve their problems." He suggested they take action to help themselves, like, "...learn CPR."

April: Oklahoma public school teachers showed up en masse at the state capitol building. Their aim was to get more money not just for themselves, but their students and the schools themselves after a decade of budget cuts had gutted the public school system. Ten contentious days later they went back to work without getting a single concession from legislators.

May: By Memorial Day more American kids had been killed while attending school in the previous five months than U.S. combat troops were in Afghanistan during all of 2017.

June: During a phone call to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump claimed his punitive tariffs on Canadian products were a national security issue and angrily told Trudeau, "You guys burned down the White House once didn't you?" Trudeau later responded by saying, "The idea that Canada is somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable."

July: After declaring himself a, "stable genius," at a NATO conference Trump went to Helsinki, Finland to meet with Vladimir Putin. After a lengthy and private one on one both presidents emerged for a joint press conference. Mr. Trump's performance was so deferential and servile toward Putin even some supporters were revolted. Newt Gingrich described it as, "...the most serious mistake of his presidency." Then Senator John McCain tweeted, "...one of the most disgraceful performances by an American President in memory." John Flake, R-AZ, among other things said, "This is shameful." Trump initially blamed the negative reaction on main stream media reporting. Later he said he had simply used a wrong word to describe Russian interference in U.S. elections.

August: The family of terminally ill Senator John McCain announced they were halting his medication. Kelli Ward, an Arizona GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate immediately smelled a conspiracy. She tweeted, "I think they (McCain's family) just wanted to have a particular narrative that is negative to me." She deleted the tweet, then blamed the uproar on the media. McCain died the next day.

September: Former Oklahoma state Senator, Ralph Shortey, one of those born again Christian, far right political hacks, who once said, "Oklahomans didn't know what they were voting for," was proven right. A federal court sentenced Shortey to 15 years hard time. In 2017 he'd been busted in a Moore, OK motel room with a bag full of condoms, lotion, marijuana, and a 17 year old boy. Because he copped a plea the prosecutors dropped three charges of possession of child pornography.

October: Right wing disinformation forces descended on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford like a swarm of locusts. While she was testifying Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school, all sorts of accusations about her and her past went viral on line. One, by an alt right site called, Grabien claimed Blasey Ford's students had rated her as, "unprofessional," and described her as having a, "dark personality." FOX News host, Laura Ingraham and the Drudge Report immediately began touting the revelation. In reality the students critiques were about Dr. Christine A. Ford who teaches a Human Resources course at Cal State Fullerton. Christine Blasey Ford is a psychology professor at Palo Alto University.

November: After the republicans lost control of the house of representatives, Donald Trump announced to the world that every GOP candidate who lost did so, "...because they failed to embrace me."

December: Danish YouTube personality Andreas Hvid and an unknown female companion broke Egyptian law by climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza. Once on top the woman was shown pulling her blouse off, then the two of them appeared nude in a still photograph while simulating sexual intercourse. At last look the video had five million plus views. The Egyptians were outraged as were many others. Still, some had comments like this, "Looks like a great place to fuck. Most are just jealous it's not them."

Ah, is there anything quite like western civilization?

No, there isn't. That's why at this small desk in central Oklahoma I say, thank God for Smirnoff, tonic water, ice, and limes.



12-28-18