Sanity Trip

I badly needed a sanity trip, so I drove to the Ski Valley and checked into a condo.  I’ll be alone up here for several days, self-isolating in nature.  I may meet some folks on the trails or whatever, but I’ve got a mask for that.

As for why I needed this trip, just look at the headlines for the last couple weeks.

Trump’s income taxes were excavated by the New York Times, and weren’t that much of a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention the last five years.  They also revealed that I pay more taxes than Trump!  And assuming you pay taxes at all, you almost certainly pay more taxes than our billionaire president of the United States.

I don’t know about you, but I know why my taxes are higher than Trump’s: I’m a much better businessman!

Yeah!  I pay more in taxes because my business is profitable!   With the exception of his core real estate enterprise, Trump’s businesses mostly lose colossal amounts of money, enough to more than offset his earnings elsewhere.  He’s got hundreds of billions of dollars in debt all coming due in the next few years, with no obvious way to pay it off.  (No legit bank is going to loan him the money, not with his history of declaring bankruptcy and leaving his creditors in the lurch.)

A corollary of this is that I have far more self-control than the President!

Why?  Because when I get some money, I’ll use it to pay down debt, or make some needed repair, or  invest the money, or save it for a rainy day.

When Trump gets some money, he’s like a five-year-old at Toys R Us.  Gimme that!  I want that other thing!  Whatever that orange thing is, I want that too!

He made hundreds of millions from his reality show, and he spent it acquiring businesses that lose money (mostly golf courses).

He also invents businesses that turn out not to exist, like Trump University, Trump Steaks, and the veterans charity that existed to funnel money to his 2016 campaign.  (Remember, veterans, you were “chumps!”  And chumps exist to be bilked.)

So if you’re impressed by Trump’s business acumen, don’t be.  You’re probably much better at business than he is.  After all, you earn enough to pay taxes!

The petulant five-year-old was fully on display in the debate, with his sneering, his belligerence, and his failure to actually answer any awkward questions.  “COVID?  Why, Joe Biden’s a senile liar!“

And let’s not forget the supremely loathsome sight of the President of the United States giving orders to a white supremacist militia on national television.  What’s “stand back and stand by” actually mean?  Don’t start the killing until I give the order.

Then of course Trump got COVID, along with his wife and 20 or so staffers.   (Please tell me you were surprised, so I can laugh.)  Trump turned out to have had a mild case, and of course had the best medical care in the world, so now he’s boasting that no one has anything to fear from the virus that’s killed 220,000 Americans.  He’s returned to the White House and dumped his mask first thing, so now he’s shambling through the corridors of the West Wing drooling toxic spittle on everything and everybody.

Fortunately the West Wing is practically deserted.  Staffers have fled in droves and are working from home.

Even Mitch McConnell won’t go anywhere near Trump.

(Oh— another irony— both remdesivir and the monoclonal antibodies that were given to Trump in the hospital were developed using fetal tissue derived from abortions.  Trump now promises to give the antibody cure free to everybody, so it’s fetal tissue for all!)

Y’know what?  I don’t think my sanity trip is working.  I brought the madness with me.

I’m going to go back onto the balcony and look at the aspens for a while.