Granddaddy used to say "always make sure you shine the back of your shoes...because that's the last thing people will see and that's what they will remember about you...".
Still sage advice from a now long ago time when the lion's share of people cared enough about their personal appearance to even shine their shoes in the first place.
You can tell a lot about people from their shoes.
Hold that thought.
Trump gave an interview to Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business this week. Fox, of course, being the home of Fox News, Fox Business and, arguably, the only cable network that can rightfully be subtitled "Trump TV", given its current status as the only cable network where Donald feels like he can go without reporters being mean to him by asking him questions that require some ability to answer intelligently.
The interview, as should come as no surprise to anyone anymore, has been referred to, in news accounts of it on all the other news sources on the planet, as everything from "giggly" to "giddy", with an occasional "confusing" thrown in and one word showing up frequently and accurately in those accounts.
Weird.
I'm not really sure how you qualify a Trump interview as weird anymore. Sure, and of course, if you're measuring what he says at any given time against the yard stick of what a reasonably normal, reasonably intelligent, reasonably literate, reasonably mentally and emotionally stable seventy year old man might have to say, then, weird would seem both fitting and correct.
But we're not talking about talking to a reasonably normal, reasonably intelligent, reasonably literate, reasonably mentally and emotionally stable seventy year old man, so, weird seems less accurate as a descriptive and more like a clear grasp of the obvious. Not to mention both a little annoying and not just a little wearying.
There are a veritable plethora (and I do enjoy those opportunities to use fun phrases like veritable plethora) of news stories and/or video clips of the interview which covers a wide range of subjects on which Trump is equally inarticulate, incompetent and arguably illiterate and I'm not interested in any piling on to that pile.
What caught my ear and eye as per the interview, and the purpose of this piece, is Trump's mangling of the message in response to Bartiromo's query regarding Kim Jong Un's garden variety saber rattling and the wanna be terrifying Teletubby of North Korea's threat to use nukes if America tries any funny business.
This is what the current commander in chief of the mightiest armed forces on the planet Earth had to to say.
"He's making a big mistake. I don't know him, but he's doing the wrong thing. We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier, that I can tell you. We have the best military people on earth. And I will say this. He is doing the wrong thing. He is doing the wrong thing."
Wow.
Defenders, supporters, advocates and other charter members of the Kool Aid Klub will see and hear, of course, only the kind of get tough, tell it like it is crap they've been buying from this guy since the very first shovel full he offered up what seems like such a long, long time ago now.
The rest of us? Well, with apologies for the impoliteness of speaking on their, or your, behalf, I feel pretty confident in offering that the rest of us see and hear this for exactly what it is.
The inarticulate, incompetent, inane babbling of a functional illiterate.
Who is currently, props where due, managing to multi task by simultaneously making America great again while making America an even bigger laughing stock than it was last November.
And, at the same time, improving his golf handicap on a weekly basis to the tune of more taxpayer dollars in a year than the previous, much reviled, President spent in his entire eight year tenure.
But, one might reasonably ask at this point in the narrative, what does any of this have to do with shoes?
Hold on to that thought just a little longer.
There's another word that rears its ugly fairly often when the discussion turns to the topic of Trump's interactions with Kim Jong Tinky Winky and, for that matter, any other world leader or wanna be that likely doesn't own a cap that reads Make America Great Again, even if the cap was made in their country.
That word is "dangerous".
And while the force of temptation is strong within the zealots to dismiss the use of the word as melodramatic and, a personal favorite, "snowflaky", here's a thing.
Given the possible outcomes of any scenario that includes the possible use of weapons of mass destruction and given America's contribution to any of those possible outcomes is an inarticulate, incompetent, functional illiterate, the word dangerous dings a little less dramatic and rings a little more true.
But here's where the plot does a little twist.
None of that is Trump's fault.
First, Trump is only being Trump. He has been true to what he is, and what he has always been, from moment one of day one of his adventures in Electoral-land. If he's guilty of any bait and switch, it's only the switching of practically every position that he took in the campaign to the position or positions that he takes on any given day depending on which of his sitcom sidekick staff he's listening to.
Donald, Jr, informs us, for example, that a very influential voice in convincing Donald, Sr to throw some Tomahawks at Syria was the voice of military/geopolitical/global repercussion expertise that is very often the first voice sought when military/geopolitical/global repercussion expertise is needed.
Ivanka.
But, again, not Trump's fault. He's just being true to what Trump is true to. A lotta attitude, a lotta arrogance and not just a little Annie.
Doin' what comes naturally.
The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the Donald, but in the disciples. The devotees, advocates, admirers, addicts and apostles, the servants, satellites and sycophants, the partisans, promoters, proselytizers and pupils who are, have been, and continue to be everything...except parents.
Parents who understand that empowering begets emboldening.
And that empowering is also, if not carefully bestowed and mindfully monitored, just another word for enabling.
Trump has never felt the need, obligation to be, or even considered the common courtesy of being, accountable to anyone for anything. Ever. In his life. Ever.
And any hope or belief that he would ever change that approach was, at best, an act of incredible naivete' and, at worst, a whole big buncha Borg.
Expectations are futile.
That said, the enablers have managed to take a pretty bad case of the praised and pampered and make it worse.
Because they love their little Donny Wonny.
And while the rest of us see him as Eddie Haskell, they see him...as Anthony Fremont.
Who gets an enabling pass on, literally, everything he does or says.
Obamacare was to be repealed and replaced on day one. It was not. And has not been. And likely will not be in the foreseeable.
"It's a good thing you done, Anthony, a real good thing."
There was to be a wall. And Mexico was going to pay for it. Homeland itself now says there will likely not be a wall. And nobody is paying for anything.
"It's a good thing you done, Anthony, a real good thing."
NATO was obsolete and they owed America millions of dollars and we were probably going to pull out of it if they didn't pony up. NATO is now not obsolete and nobody really owes anybody anything at this point.
"It's a good thing you done, Anthony, a real good thing."
There was a secret plan to defeat ISIS and that plan would start on day one and it would take only thirty days. It's way past thirty days and there is no plan and, for God's sake, people, there never was any fuc.......
"It's a good thing you done, Anthony, a real good thing."
There were to be tax returns released. And then they were not to be released. And they never will be released.
"It's a good thing you done, Anthony, a real good thing."
Donald Trump does what Donald Trump wants to do. Whenever he wants to do it. In whatever way he wants to do it. For as long and for as much as he wants to do it.
No news there.
What's new is that he now has millions of people empowering him, emboldening him, enabling him. Putting into his mind and his mindset, the notion that what he does, whatever he does, is not only acceptable, it is acclaimed.
By people who fancy themselves patriots but who tolerate tantrums, hail hypocrisy, justify injustice.
Parents who gave metaphorical birth to what they perceive as a precious baby boy, but who is, to those not afflicted with the blindness of adoration, that little brat bastard who demolishes the waiting room while Mommy and/or Daddy leaf through last month's People Magazine.
You can tell a lot about people by their shoes.
For example, you can usually spot those who think that it's a real good thing Donald is doing, a real good thing by their continued enabling of the pampered, spoiled little brat bastard.
If the shoe fits.
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