Francisco Goya, one of his "Dark" paintings
Wall mural from residence
The report on the first quarter of the year is in, and the Trump administration has taken
our economy into a nose dive; the economy has stopped growing and is now shrinking.
Economists are saying that if the second quarter is as bad as the first, the country will be
in a recession. Under the Biden administration, our economy was showing renewed
growth and was the envy of the world; but now Donald Trump, the leader of the MAGA
cult, and his totally inept cabinet are destroying all of the policies which were truly making
America great again, while at the same time they are removing the personal protections
for our health and welfare. Trump's cabinet members were not chosen because of
extraordinary training or experience or ability; they were chosen simply because of
their lap-dog loyalty to Trump. His cabinet meetings are nothing but an opportunity
for each of these sycophant toadies to worship Trump with love and lavish praises.
Goya's darkly satirical view of cults, as seen in the wall mural above, clearly shows
his low opinion of the intelligence of the human race, and our willingness to worship at
the feet of whatever false profit comes along with an empty promise to cure all of our
problems.
We should all remember that cult leaders are just con-artists, selling another brand
of snake oil. Cults have been with us since the beginnings of civilization; they can be
religious or political or a combination of both. Political cult leaders often rely on
portraying themselves as being like a savior: the only person in the world who has the
ability to give his followers all that they need or desire. Popular cult leaders such as
Trump, often speak to their followers for hours without ever saying anything sensible
or even logical, but filled with repeated doses of hatred and lies about those "others"
who are the cause of all of the country's problems. He promotes xenophobia and
homophobia and any other kind of racist phobia which amplifys the fears of
the MAGA followers. Hitler did the same thing at his rallies, blaming his countries
financial and social problems on the "wrong" kind of people, who he said were
poisoning society. Nazism and Magaism are two sides of one coin.
We should all be familiar with the great cataclysm of World War Two, which
resulted when Hitler gained complete control of his country, and caused the deaths
of many millions, and massive destruction around the globe. Then in the end,
when he was faced with giving up control of the lives of millions of people, he
blamed his losses on his countrymen and shot himself. That is a familiar pattern
with cult leaders. When Jim Jones was faced with the prospect of giving up
control of the followers in his Peoples Temple, he had them all drink poisoned
Cool Aid, and shot himself. And when David Karesh was being forced to
give up control of his followers, in the Branch Davidian cult compound, he
shot and burned them to death, and killed himself.
Like Hitler, Trump has no interest in public service, he is a fascist who only
wanted the presidency for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. Now we hear
that he is planning for a military parade for his birthday, which will cost the tax-payers
about a hundred million dollars. Perhaps he is jealous of the Chinese premier, who
gets to celebrate his power by reviewing military parades with thousands of troops,
tanks, missiles and rockets, rolling past him in the grand public square in Beijing.
It should have been obvious to any rationally thinking person, that the fascist
Trump was lying when he promised to reduce the price of groceries and reduce
inflation as soon as he was elected president. It should have been equally obvious
that he was lying when he said that he would end Russia's invasion of Ukraine on
day one of his presidency. It should be obvious to everyone by now, that
everything Trump says is a lie and he is incapable of telling the truth about anything.
And yet his cult of followers voted for him because they think those "other" kinds
of people are getting too big of a slice of the American pie. It will be interesting
to see how many of the MAGA followers begin to realize that Trump is not
working for them, when they begin to see ever higher prices on everything they
buy, and rows of empty shelves when they go shopping.
So what has the MAGA cult given us? Our government which was designed
to serve for the good of the people, is now being chopped off piece by piece,
until it serves only Donald Trump and his billionaire pals. What a gift!
Eugene P. McNerney
