Notes from a Vacation Abroad - A Country Wallows in an Age of Ignorance

"I deeply want to believe that all human beings are a blend of their best and their worst... I can't find any best in Trump. He is simply evil - a dark, deluded, raging product of a childhood from which he cannot recover nor be redeemed." - Tony Schwartz (Ghost Writer, “Trump: The Art of the Deal”)

"You know, it really doesn`t matter what [the media] write as long as you`ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass." – Donald Trump

I've been afloat and I've been aloft for nearly a fortnight, commencing with a flight to Barcelona (pronounce it "Barthelona" tourista), continuing with a luxurious, outdoor hot tub and sparkling vino-dominated cruise, setting ashore in Rome, Pisa, Mallorca, Genoa and Cannes (my body is now comprised of 55% gelato, 25% croquetas and 20% Cava) returning, once more, por dos dias to the Gaudi-styled, Spanish metropolis, before finally boarding an always delayed Delta airship back to the beautiful spacious skies and amber waves of grain of home - possibly, the least civilized, welcoming and charming destination on this lengthy itinerary. Along this Vasco De Gama-ing, my hearty and steadfast travel companion and I had the enjoyable, good fortune of meeting and conversing ("conversating" to daytime T.V. courtroom show aficionados) with fellow world inhabitants from India, Indonesia, England, France, Spain, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Poland, and even (gasp!) Mexico, and were reassured of this following obvious fact (and a chemical and biological fact, it is indeedy - so hold onto your Chinese-manufactured, white-supremacist MAGA chapeaus, Trumpsters) WE ARE ALL THE SAME!! No matter your cultural upbringing, choice of worship or language spoken; we all are kind, thoughtful and considerate, and we're all self-centered, selfish, thoughtless and egomaniacal. We are all the best and worst of times, none of which is determined by hue, tongue or happenstance of location of birth.

A Conveyance Enabling as Escape from Insanity

For any who depart the boundaries of the great 48 (with additional props to Alaska and Hawaii), this time and distance removed from the once-esteemed, now Trump-ghetto'd former U.S. of A, can provide a new and fresh perspective about the planet we are precipitously depleting and destroying, the bigoted antipathy spread from identical human to identical human, and the foreboding fear and fury disseminated by the furor of the Orange Furher and his purposely and proudly, hate-filled, zombie-horde of followers, who both support and propel our nation's rapidly ruinous place in the worldwide society of man to which we belong. To translate for those more mono-syllabic Trump/Fox/Info War-types who may have regrettably happened upon this harangue, in other words, we Americans kind of suck - we do - and you who hug the flag and buss the Bible and stake claim to be the most patriotic and most American amongst the 300 million of us, are truly and easily the worst of us. Congrats, at least you've accomplished something.

When one ponders the horrific nature of what we Americans and those onlookers across the globe have come to accept as the everyday and normal in Trumplandia, added to the sorrowful sin that we citizens aren't taking to the streets in daily outrage, nor storming the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Frankenstein-esque pitchforks and torches in hand, demanding the immediate removal of the sociopathic, Mad-King, the greatest enemy our country has ever encountered, by what possible sick and perverted measure can anyone still blast the ever-annoying daily boast, that the United States is the greatest country in the world - largest number of kidnapped and caged babies growing up and dying in American concentration camps - most gun deaths and school shootings - greatest frequency of synagogue burnings – swiftly expanding wealth disparity between the escalating population of poor and the ever-richer affluent – catastrophically expanding number of uninsured people and the resulting bankruptcies and very avoidable deaths, perhaps? If bloviated repetitive brags, and wishing and hoping and planning and scheming made it so, as Dusty Springfield warbled, "you will be his" and my shiny, naked pate would be topped with a sumptuous mane, while I squired my beloved Freema Agyeman from Michelin touted eatery to Michelin touted eatery. But alas, wild-eyed wishes and felonious fabrications do not make it so.

Ah, Freema!

The question must be asked, is Donald J. Trump - thief, liar, tax evader, philanderer, sexual assaulter, child-rapist, con-man, traitor, racist, the very vision of Mephistopheles on Earth, Messiah to the brainwashed and brain-dead, the cause of America's current endless Pandora's Box of evils and woe, or rather the logical and inevitable result of what we are and what we've always been - a nation built on the back of one enslaved race, on land stolen by the genocide of another? Millions have gleefully and passionately embraced his merciless message of hatred, intolerance and xenophobia, while the pols of the Republican party have found in him someone so soulless, so without compassion, decency, humanity or empathy, a viper so voraciously vindictive and vile; the long sought-after vehicle to fulfill all the poisonous and pestilent, hateful and hurtful policies that previously were just unfulfilled and fruitless fantasies - an America about stealing from the poor to give to the rich, about cheating and harming others, about selfishness, anger, bitterness, prejudice and unfettered hatred, an America solely of, by and for the wealthy white male.

America's Legion of Doom

Take a journey, fly over this cuckoo's nest, sail from these shores (you can use an exotic cruise, there's a bar in far Bombay) partake in a restful and needed sojourn, removed from the lunacy and loathing that emanates every week, every day, every minute from Donald Trump and the fellow traitors that enable him, and sadly see, as a temporary outside observer from this safe distance - there are many great countries in the world, it's doubtful that the United States, 2019, is among them.

"Come Fly with Me, let's fly, let's fly,

Pack up, let's fly away"

Any comments, questions, criticisms, candid confessions, cash contributions?  Contact me at butchersaprons@mail.com