Sh**holes

Frankly...I'm exhausted.  Our national dialog has become so polarized, so prejudicial, so intense that I'm exhausted.  If you've been reading at all you know I'm not a huge Trump fan.  But I'm aligned with his thinking much more than the other side.  I think he's been given a raw deal by the #resistance crowd.  They are so opposed to virtually everything that he does, that anything that is accomplished is only one sided.  But every time he takes a step forward, he takes two steps back.  He literally shoots himself in the foot at every turn.  But I really don't think he cares.  He's going to do what he does.  His comment today in the oval office should have never seen the light of day.  Plenty of Presidents have used salty language but have never had to worry about being outed by enemies.  But a few Dems are in the meeting and the next thing you know the world knows about his offensive remark about immigrants from "shithole" countries.  There are three things about the comment.  First, it's the kind of comment that in any previous administration would never have been reported.  Second, it's not Presidential.  He is the President of all of us.  This only alienates people.  Third, there is some truth to the sentiment.  A lot of these countries are shitholes in a way.  They have unbelievably corrupt leaders and governments that are exploiting and even killing their own people.  There's probably a better way to describe them, but at the end of the day...they are shitholes.  But here's a caveat to number three.  It's okay for me to use that kind of language in some anonymous little blog that very few people read.  Or maybe in a bar talking to your buds.  If you're reading, you either get it and agree or don't.  But it's not okay for the President of the United States to use that language in any setting in which there is ANY danger that he will be quoted by his enemies.  It is maddening though when on one day he puts on a great performance on live TV to lead a bipartisan meeting on immigration and largely debunks that stupid book recently written about his White House and then just a few days later this erupts.  Like I said, it's exhausting.  So I'm going to take it one step at a time, but I've got to refocus.  I've got to care less and pay attention less to all this craziness.  My first step was that today I got rid of Twitter on all my devices.  The vitriol on that platform was driving me crazy.  So, for the time being at least, no Twitter for me.  Not sure if Facebook is next but I'm considering it.  The thing about FB though is that I've largely gotten rid of the knuckleheads and only see things from friendly faces that are largely apolitical.  So for now it's all good.  I've turned off the cable news as much as possible.  The repetition is driving me crazy.  The talking heads, the overtly biased opinions, the back and forth...all of it is just so, so tiresome.  So a lot of that is going by the wayside.  As for this blog, I'm not sure.  For now I'll keep commenting.  I'm hoping that since I will be a little removed from the day to day craziness, that I can lighten up a bit.  Because I'm getting too strident, too pissed off, too sure of myself.  So standby for more Dogs Are Cool and Cool Pics.  And maybe a few other fun things.  But my level of "give a shit" about all this day to day political craziness has reached overload.

Update:  Jonah Goldberg's weekly newletter addresses this issue very well this week.  You can read it here.  I resonate very strongly with his thoughts!