Growing storm clouds with Trump's presidency

Is it still futile trying to ring alarm bells in connection with the Trump presidency? Do barrels of ink still have to be applied as the media focus on the self-obsessed president? To an extent this might have been amusing at the start. However, can't we be entertained by something outside of politics?
Trump has been good for the media. It has been said multiple times that Trump makes the media's work easy, because "he does their work for them."
My point in writing today is to say it's not funny anymore. The "pull" of this president with certain segments of the population is hanging on way too strong. Trump has severely aggravated divisions in our society. We as Americans are supposed to feel more unity than this.
We have the so-called progressives on one side. But who exactly are on the other side? Are they really "conservative?" Conservatives are supposed to believe in a passive and restrained government. The president is supposed to be a calm and reassuring leader who tries to tamp down problems and keep us fundamentally united. He should take the attitude that the other political party is the "opposition" and not some sort of evil force.
All you people who supported Trump because he's "not a politician": are you happy now? Maybe there is a reason why we have professional politicians, people who basically know the rules of the game. One rule for example is "leave the Federal Reserve alone." "Don't fight the Fed." We are supposed to have occasional economic downturns. Recessions are a natural part of the capitalistic system. The stock market is not the economy.
 
Dilemma with terminology
Are conservatives starting to squirm about even calling themselves conservative anymore? Can they live with the growing perception that the GOP has become a big personality cult? When Trump crossed a line by using the term "Obama judge" as if this was a partisan thing, Justice Roberts spoke out. Roberts said we simply have "a hard-working Federal judiciary," and isn't that incontrovertible? But Charles Grassley of Iowa had to get excited. He attacked Justice Roberts. Roberts was hailed as a conservative when he was appointed.
People in the Republican camp today are not satisfied with the identifying label "conservative." They might mistrust George W. Bush simply because Bush, who they'd now see as part of the "swamp," tried describing himself as a "compassionate conservative."
So many of the sycophantic crowd, the wild-eyed bunch, seem to have no time for basic compassion anymore.
It is not uncommon to hear parallels being drawn with 1930s Germany. It has seemed rather an academic exercise until recently. Until recently all of the hair-pulling in the media about Trump's absurdities was seen as a nice little sugar rush for the media itself. Yes. Trump was doing the media's work for them. They didn't have to work. Even on a Sunday morning, Trump might issue a tweet - hell, several tweets - of an absurd or offensive nature - thus the media had their discussion fodder for the day. And people were more likely to watch and read, rather than pay attention to articles on balance of trade payments.
 

Lindsay Graham: Is he OK?

Close to home, yes
Trump is affecting me personally now. The tariffs and trade war are such that we're being asked to absorb pain. Lindsay Graham has come right out and said we'll have to accept pain. However, this is a very non-Republican thing to do. Republicans and conservatives are supposed to trumpet their philosophy as one that always enhances the maximum potential for prosperity.
Remember Jimmy Carter and the downbeat tone of some of his pronouncements? Carter talked about how Americans would have to "tighten their belt." Most famously he cited "malaise" although I believe that was a paraphrase, not a direct quote. Republicans are not supposed to predict gloom and pain, not the way Gramm is now.
Gramm has done such a turnabout with his feelings about Trump, one has to wonder about his basic mental health. I make this comment in a vein not intended to be funny anymore. We are at a truly serious juncture with a president who pushes protective tariffs, a trade war and an assault on the Federal Reserve to try to get the Fed to essentially erase interest rates completely. It affects me because I depend on interest at the bank to complement my Social Security. So I truly have to deal with "tightening my belt" now.
Are you prepared to live with higher inflation? Really? Don't you sense we're seeing "shrinkflation," you know, when you buy a box of breakfast cereal and notice that a third of it is air?
Do I have to remind you that Vladimir Putin is incredibly sharp as a KGB man? Don't you realize his mind is rapier-like in comparison to Trump who had everything handed to him when he was young? Putin wants to bring back the old Soviet Union. He wants to reduce America's influence and does this by pushing division in our society. Don't you see that it's working?
I see the local Apostolics making their rounds, standing out as they do with their appearance, and I can't help but feel real disappointment with these people, their shallowness. It's disappointment because they are brilliant within some particular fields. But they latch on to a narrow range of cultural issues and decide politicians have to meet that litmus test. Abortion. I assume they're suspicious of gay people. "Lower taxes" are not the simple proposition they might think it is. The Republicans' touted "tax cut" benefited those at the very top and has been converted largely into stock buy-backs, a sugar rush that might keep the "green arrows" going a little further.
The media have backed off on their daily obsession with the stock market. The realization has sunk in that the stock market is not the economy. If the day comes when I have to withdraw my money from bank CDs, due to maybe having to pay the bank to even have a savings account, who do I go to? To the stock market? I have to actually start thinking about this now. I may have to just go to a lawyer. I'll need someone who will simply be my advocate. Look at what happened to Kevin Garnett when he hired a "financial advisor." I should insert a profanity here.
Trump uses profanities, doesn't he? He takes the name of the Lord in vain, doesn't he? Do the Apostolics and evangelicals countenance this? They must.
I suppose I could make Lindsay Gramm happy and admit I'll have to start "feeling pain." I'm 64 years old and I do not want to. I am a Democrat.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com