Absolutely incensed. (MAKE AMERICA PURPLE AGAIN!)

I've been watching the slow movement of Trump's antics as too! much! by people that now consider him politics as usual.
Most people are moving on.
They have recalibrated themselves about the whole situation and are back to life as usual.

I'm not.  I can't.  I'm appalled, horrified incensed, dismayed, highly offended, choose a word and it never quite makes it to the level I want.

I'm not alone.

There are some of us that remain inflamed by everything that is happening politically.

We can't get over it.  IT has left us afloat in a world that no longer makes sense.

How can one man run the country---sabotaging the very checks and balances that were built into the government format to prevent that very thing.

We currently have a Republican-held Senate that is working harder and longer trying to not shut down the government while trying not to fund a wall that only a minor portion (about 25 percent--unfortunately it's the same fools that voted in the current president---in the future, everyone needs to vote, everyone, and we need a 28th amendment to stop monied corporations from counting too much, and open primaries with top two so no third candidates will waste anyone's vote, and we need automatic renewal of voting rights once a person has paid his debt to society, and required Civic classes from 7th to 12th grade and gerrymandering "police" to prevent that crap and no more electoral college--every single citizen of this country has a vote that counts as much as every other citizen, and rules for social media that prevent any foreign government from influencing out citizens and an independent group of psychiatrists that test each candidate for mental illness, personality disorders and early onset dementia.)
As I was saying, a small percent want the wall, because it's a stupid idea that will do nothing but waste billions of dollars and screw up more habitat for the creatures that live there.

When the president's name is used, those of us that can't get over it have a drastic rise in blood pressure.  We rant.  We curse.  We seek out others of our ilk that are also ranting and cursing, posting memes about his insane behavior, reposting insane news reports with tacky comments of our own, posting political cartoons and activist rap songs and pictures of t-shirts showing negative things about our president and the current political happenings.

We are also slowly dying inside every time someone normalizes what is going on.
Every time someone implies he is good for the economy, or "look, he is having them fix the ridiculous prison sentences" or "I'm glad he stopped the Iran deal or the Paris deal or NAFTA or Obamacare".  We decry the tacky Christmas decorations and the immigrant wife.  We hate golf and casinos, if not before, then definitely now.

And, we shake inside.

Like a chill has taken us.

Like our own body has become disloyal to our well-being.

Like we have fallen down Alice's hole to a terrible wonderland or our neighbors have been overtaken by pod people.

It's fear.  And I'm not a fearful person.  I can be quite brave, and brazen, and feisty.

But I'm afraid of what is happening in this country.  Even knowing it was never the "greatest nation that ever existed" (let's face it, that is not an award, there are no parameters for that, every country likes to think of itself like that) I feel a deep loss of national identity.

We are now, not just NOT the greatest nation, but not even particularly good.  And we, as a nation, allowed a person that is neither good nor honest, neither well-meaning nor loving, to become our leader and our representation to the world.

We, We the People, we, need to take back our country.
No more excuses about bad behavior, or hate, or corruption or lying or treating people badly because they aren't US.

We need to NOT let this be the new normal.

Russian Influence

The investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russia has been ongoing since before the President-elect was sworn in.

He was voted in by the very people that, 50 years ago would have been trying to shoot anyone with ties to the USSR.

Those people, those far-right, ultra conservative voters that are now making up the fan base (fan is short for fanatic--did you know that?) are swearing there was no influence and thus no collusion.

Sometimes, the truth hurts.

No one wants to admit they were hornswoggled.
No one wants to believe they could be influenced by a bunch of well placed propaganda.
No one want to admit they were WRONG.

It is still confusing, though.

Donald Trump is not a very convincing guy.
He lies badly.
He can't keep his lies straight.
He has 7 billion dollars, or there about but played up the self-made man from simple roots story and that had not the slightest relationship to truth.
He dodged the draft and insulted veterans and that can't be seen as patriotic or respectful of their sacrifices for their country.
He made fun of disable people--which is pretty childish and not generally considered to be a sign of greatness.
He bragged about touching and kissing women without their consent and there are women that are in his fan club.
He went bankrupt multiple times and never once shared in the losses, instead letting everyone else take the loss.  (more villainous than heroic)
He is a philandering  man that has married multiple times and yet is representing the evangelical part of our nation with no hypocrisy seen--still, even after having the whole pay-offs for past indiscretions thing caught and magnified simultaneous to the campaign.
He has maintained his reality TV show method of hiring and firing-everyone, where people whose only qualifications are they hate the very organization they are leading and belong to the group that wants control, and firing them if they show any signs of disloyalty or worse, embarrass him.
Multiple people in his employee have been found to be in talks with Russian "spys" etc, and we are supposed to believe that was not something he knew---but he is obviously a micromanager that wants to know everything.  He even voiced the desire to have Russia interfere in the election during a debate.  (yes, we mostly took that as sarcasm or hyperbole or just plain weird nonsense)

I know that I discovered the need to fact check most of the crap on social media.
I know that I found many of the internet news sites to be highly opinion based sources of news and (dis)information.
I know that people that I considered to be smarter than that or better than that were suddenly only listening to FOX news, or Rush Limbaugh, or Breitbart  (or flip side, to some of the far left sites, although there doesn't seem to be a clear list of those, just that BBC is not on the American Right/Left spectrum)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sirenabergman/2017/02/28/the-news-sites-on-the-far-left-and-far-right-may-be-owned-by-the-same-people/#6aba1256eaaf

The media is apparently more about fanning the flames and keeping the two sides as oppositional as possible.

But what does Russia have to win by doing this?

Or is Putin still mad about any influence the USA had on the disintegration of the USSR.
He was high up in that particular government.  Perhaps he misses the Cold War, a little nostalgia for the old days.