Dear Siggy

 

My mentor Sidney Freedman told me he used to write to you when he was an Army doctor in Korea.  He said it helped keep him sane.  I hope you won't think me presumptuous if I do the same.  I'm not in an actual war zone but it sure feels like one.

The minority of Americans who bothered to vote last year decided that a deranged felon and Russian puppet was the best possible choice to be in charge of this country and I've stopped trying to understand why.  The picture above -- which he himself posted on his discount social media site -- is not a joke, at least not in the sense you wrote about in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.  He saw a movie on WLRN in south Florida called Escape from Alcatraz and decided that he must re-open the prison which was closed in 1963 because -- who knows why?  There are plenty of others including an infamous slave-labor camp in El Salvador where he wants to send all the Hispanic people.  Maybe the name appealed to him.  During the campaign he talked admiringly of "the late, great Alphonse Capone," who was imprisoned there for almost five years.  It's near San Francisco, a city he hates.  It would cost millions of dollars to restore the place as a prison for "America's most ruthless and violent Offenders," millions more to operate, but when questioned he explained, "I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker."  This is typical of his decision making.  (I know you appreciate irony -- WLRN is a PBS station and he is defunding public broadcasting because it relies on facts and does not praise him.)

By the time I finish this letter he may have forgotten the whole idea.  Last week he was demanding that American ships enjoy free passage through all the canals, and we haven't heard any more about that.  He inherited an economy that some called "the envy of the world" and set about systematically destroying it.  To begin with, he does not understand the Econ 101 concept of tariffs and seems to believe that the exporting country will pay them to him.  He gets fixated on words like tariff and groceries -- right now it's dolls.  Today the tariff on China is 145% and we import everything from electronics to fireworks from China.  When the impact on Christmas toys was pointed out he began babbling about how girls don't need a lot of dolls.  "A young lady, ten year old girl, 9 year old girl, 15 year old girl, doesn't need 37 dolls.  She could be very happy with 2 or 3 or 4 or 5."  And pencils.  Yesterday he was ranting about pencils.  The boys presumably get a football.  Don't even get me started about correct gendering, another weird obsession.

Still on the Alcatraz kick, he decided to invent a hundred percent tariff on foreign films as "a National Security threat."  This one was probably suggested by a one-time actor named Jon Voight whose most recent performances have been disturbing social media monologues of Trump idolatry.  The American movie industry has reacted with dismay, anticipating retaliatory tariffs which will cost them the foreign market they rely on.  Econ 101 again.  

The stated purpose of tariffs is to protect American industries, not just movies, but of course the opposite is happening.  Ford, one of the biggest, says it expects to lose $1.5 billion this year because of supply-chain disruptions and uncertainty about taxes and emission standards.  Trump thinks he can decree something and make it so -- factories will spring up to build things here as if it were 1955, full of skilled workers assembling EVs and computers for third-world wages.  What can you say to someone so proudly, happily ignorant?  Siggy, he bankrupts casinos.  I don't know how you do that even deliberately.

You'll love this, Siggy -- last week he wanted to be pope.  As in head of the Roman Catholic Church, although being a Catholic is usually the baseline requirement.  Asked by a "reporter" (most of them are rightwing propagandists and "influencers" now) who he'd like to see chosen, he actually said, "I'd like to be pope.  That'd be my number one choice."  Now he pretends it was a joke but he has no actual understanding of humor, only raging rants and childish name-calling.  Maybe he found out that the pope gets up early every day and goes to church, something he can't even manage on Easter.  It ain't all waving from a balcony.  

As you can see, we're armpit deep in Scheiss with the sound of flushing all around.  Well, I don't have to tell you, a survivor of the Anschluss.  Thanks for letting me vent.  You were right -- it helps to talk.

B. Sky