When will the Shutdown End?
Accepting that the President is Deeply, Deeply Unwell
If you’re paying attention, and a large majority of Americans are, you know that things aren’t going well here. Let’s focus on the skies overhead.
Last week, due to the GOP government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it would close parts of the airspace by cutting flights. The FAA told airlines to reduce their flights by 4% as of today. Those cuts will increase to 6% on November 11 and then go up to 10% by November 14.
The system, not surprisingly, is buckling under this pressure, too, primarily due to workers not being paid their wages. “We’re seeing air traffic controllers resign,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNN, as reported by The Huffington Post. That can’t be making the skies safer for travelers either, especially with the workers left behind. They are dealing with increased stress due to a lack of resources, no pay, and fewer colleagues to pick up the slack.
Yesterday evening, when I went to dinner with friends to celebrate a pre-birthday meal, this debacle, along with a slew of all the other catastrophes being unleashed upon us by the Trump regime, came up.
My friend thinks that the shutdown will end once the airlines start losing money, and that it will end shortly. I disagreed. Here’s my theory: flights will continue to be cut, by what percentage, I’m not sure. Airlines will lose money; they already are, as of today. If it becomes drastically worse, the airlines will demand a bailout, and we, the taxpayers, will end up on the hook for the Trump regime’s incompetence, because they will be bailed out. I’m not saying this theory is a sure thing. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s one I’ve considered.
I also surmise that the government will not reopen until after January 1. I hope I’m wrong, and I have personal reasons for saying that, trust me.
Which takes me to the second topic of this piece, and that’s how deeply, deeply unwell Trump is, and that makes me wonder, as I’ve pondered here and daily for a long time, who the fuck is running the country?
As many are well aware by now, a guest in the Oval Office fainted the other day, and everyone, but Trump, rushed to his aid. The internet went into a frothing rage about the reasons behind why Trump stood behind the Resolute Desk, staring off into space. Most decried that he stood there stiffly out of malice, angry that he was not the center of attention. In an earlier piece, I even described him as callous. I should have said callously confused. The man is not well. Before the guest fainted, Trump was slumped in his chair, disheveled, and sleeping. It doesn’t take advanced degrees or specialized knowledge in dementia or Alzeiheimer’s to connect the dots here.
First, he is becoming increasingly confused by the day. His symptoms are worsening. When the man fainted, everyone stood up, and so did Trump. (I watched the entire video of the event.) His awareness of things around him has become narrower, as his level of cognition is severely impaired, as was evident in the film. Second, even though Trump is well-known for word-salad responses, they are now beyond garbled. For example, a reporter asked him a simple question regarding the fact that he is demanding compensation from the Federal Government for the insurrection he tried to carry out. Yes, that’s right, Donald J. Trump is demanding money from the government as a result of trying to overthrow the government. He wants $230 million.
She asked him a straightforward question about the amount of money he was seeking in damages. She asked the same question three times. At one point, he said to her, “I don’t receive any money for this job I’m doing. I don’t receive any compensation.” Folks, he had no idea what she was asking him, and this story had just come out in the New York Times article above! He had no inkling as to what she was referring to! None.
Furthermore, when speaking about SNAP, and why he’s refusing to release the funds for it, so 42 million Americans aren’t starved, the man brought up liquidity. He said, “And you know, one other thing, our country has to remain very liquid because problems, catastrophes, wars, could be anything. We have to remain liquid. We can’t give everything away based on a number.” Uhhhhhh, I’m sorry, does he know how the government works?
Finally, there are the gold-lettered signs that have appeared around the White House.
Signs such as the one above, which, as can be seen, is for the Oval Office, are used for memory care patients. It serves as a reminder of where they are and where they might be going.
Collectively, and that includes me, I think we need to acknowledge that this man is far gone. He isn’t the one in charge. This form of slippage is on a continuum. He might appear at times to be “with it,” but I’d wager he’s only really “here” about 40% of the time. The other 60% of the time, he’s not. (Again, I’m not an expert on dementia or Alzheimer’s, but I’ve had family members who have suffered from both diseases.)
I think what’s disturbing is that others behind him are now truly calling the shots.
The question is: once we accept this knowledge, where do we go from here?
A relative who lost her husband to dementia looked at that picture and said "that's exactly how H looked when something stressful happened. He just shut down." Think how many people have had their memory stirred by that picture.
I've long thought that Miller and Vought have been using trump as a front man, because they know that NO ONE with their agenda has the cruel charisma of trump. But that picture encapsulates how the charisma is fading fast. There must be a lot of cult members struggling with their cognitive dissonance right now.
Without the charisma, I'm pretty sure the whole MAGAT agenda will collapse. The inexplicable fear that so many GOP in Congress have will then dissipate. I just hope it happens before we lose kids and grandkids in a Wag The Dog war with Venezuela.
My family lived in N.Va., where I grew up, and we kids would torment my mom about the new name of National Airport. “I’m coming in at Reagan at x o’clock on….” She’d go “Aaggggghhhhh!”