Let's talk a little magic.
There's magic tricks.
Magic spells, magic powers, magic potions.
Magic words, magic carpet, magic moments.
But that's not the magic mostly in mind today.
Magic number.
And the magic number is 40.
As in 40%.
Or, for those for whom complicated mathematical terminology is overly complicated and confusing, four out of ten.
A brief wander on to the Google offers up an eclectic and entertaining array of examples of 40 percentages.
Or, to be more grammatically precise, 40 percent percentages.
Sucking at mathematics is no reason to let our grammatical muscles get all flabby, as well.
40% of food eaten in the United States is never eaten, tossed out, wasted.
40% of the buildings currently up and running in Manhattan could not meet contemporary codes and would not be allowed to be constructed.
40% of moms fake a positive reaction to the gifts they receive on Mother's Day. One assumes that number skyrockets when you start talking anniversary gifts from the husband.
40% of people's first memory in life is fiction.
And according to a traditional Navy Seal rule, when your mind tells you that "you're done"...you're actually only 40% done.
Meanwhile, unless you've been hanging out with Gilligan and the Skipper and the gang for the last three years or so, you have heard that, at any given time, give or take a point or two, 40% of Americans approve of the Donald Trump presidency.
For those of you who approve of the Donald Trump presidency, that's four out of ten.
But here's a 40% percent percentage that should, by any reasonable measure, cause 100% of people in 100% of America to say we are 100% not gonna stand for this shit.
According to research and polling done by the global marketing research and consulting firm Ipsos, 40% of Republicans believe that Donald Trump should have the right to shut down news outlets as he sees fit and/or necessary.
Yeah.
You know what?
We're not gonna waste any time or get bogged down into any mindless, useless, superfluous endless loop yammering back at forth at each other regarding the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and that pesky little hair in Donald's demagogue soup dealing with the "free press".
Because, at some point in every experience that occurs in mankind's timeline, there comes a point where debate/discussion/dissent/dissection and assorted other distractions need to be put back in the bottle that needs to be corked and put back on the shelf.
This is one of those times. And it's a particularly enjoyable time for me, personally, because I am always delighted to put a period at the end of this sentence which, all due credit where due, I copped from a relatively obscure movie starring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah.
"Save time. See things my way."
There is no debate and/or discussion required or, for that matter, permitted on this subject.
Constitution says free press.
Here endeth the debate and/or discussion.
For those of you who approve of the Donald Trump presidency, what this means is that you don't get to wave the Second Amendment in my face until I wave the First Amendment in yours.
For those of you who approve of the Donald Trump presidency and wear red caps, the Second Amendment is that right to bear arms one.
For those of you who approve of the Donald Trump presidency, wear red caps AND show up at the "love me, need me, hold me, thrill me, kiss me" meetings, that's the one that says you can has all the guns you kin git yore hands on.
But about 90% of me has digressed, at this point, from our chat about 40%.
The magic number.
Four out of ten people approve of this "president" and this "presidency".
Four out of ten people who call themselves Republicans think this "president" should be able to violate the Constitution by shutting down part or all of the "free press."
Yeah.
You know what?
We're gonna also skip over the obvious, legitimate, but ultimately intellectually exhausting debate and/or discussion about the part of the presidential oath that says "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" and how shutting down any news outlet would be a violation of that oath because, again, mankind timeline, back in the bottle, re-cork the bottle, back on the shelf.
Yada to the yada.
Let's abracadabra, presto chango back to our chit chat as regards the magic number.
40%.
And what needs to start happening now, 100% of the time.
We need to cut out losses.
And start disregarding four out of ten people.
Primarily because, at this point in that mankind timeline, there's very little, actually, make that there's nothing, literally nothing, that will, from all the evidence we've seen, knock those four out of ten people out of their starry eyed adoration for this guy.
And as regards continued efforts, or wishful thinking, to change those minds, here's a little nugget I wrote a long time ago that more than applies in this situation.
If you are faced with a large brick wall in your path, you take a few steps back, then, at all the speed you can muster, run full bore, smashing into that wall face first to knock it down...and you stagger back, broken and bloodied.....
...is it the wall's fault?
Cue the Al Wilson paraphrase.
You knew durn well /it was a wall / before your face smashed in.
And as far as disregarding those four out of ten is concerned?
It's a matter of simply finding ways to work around them. Back the candidates who inspire and don't incite, do what you can to encourage those in your circle to register and to show up and to vote, not just the next time, but every time. Call, write, email and make it clear to the elected officials in your town, county, district and state that you are holding them accountable for every single move they make, every motion they endorse, every vote they cast. And not just at the next election. Remind them of words like recall and impeachment.
The days of delaying accountability by waiting for an election two or four or six years down the road need to end.
And they need to end now.
And every effort made, every voice raised, every march marched in support of ending this mutation of a "presidency" will be met with dissent and disgust and derision and hostility by those people who have cast their lot with someone who will, in the end, leave them bitter and resentful and betrayed when he returns to his tax sheltered millions and they finally realize that they were conned like no one has ever been conned before.
Just like the child who insists on touching the hot plate, some people simply have to be burned before they learn their lesson.
At last count, that would be four people.
Out of ten.
Regardless of what they say or do or protest or scream at the top of their "love me, need me, hold me, thrill me, kiss me" meeting voices, though, they're headed for a fall.
Because they're outnumbered.
See, 40% of Americans approve of the Donald Trump presidency.
That means 60% are ready to pull the plug.
All they have to do....is show up.
And this mutation in the mankind timeline comes to an end.
Guaranteed.
100%
The real magic number.
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