“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

So, this is what Armageddon is like. End times and fear of what lies ahead.

I’m not a particularly religious soul, but I can’t quite stop shaking at times thinking about what comes next in the wake of Donald J. Trump’s stunning election victory, which I, and millions of others around the world, thought would never come to pass. It wouldn’t dare to happen, thought stupid, old me. Isn’t there some higher power in charge of these things? Has the world gone mad? Or am I just dumb like millions of others? At least – if I am – I’ve got plenty of company. Small comfort there.

I can hear you saying; get a life Warner. It’s only politics. It’s not the end of the world. And I agree. We haven’t been hit by a comet. The sun still shines in the heavens. The tides still flow. We’re still breathing oxygen and the forces of gravity still make the Earth rotate as it should.

For now.

But unless you’ve been living under a rock the last several decades you’ve got to be aware that something seismic happened Nov. 5. Bad presidents have been elected before. Stupid ones too. But never before has there been a president elected like this. Not even in horror movies. For starters his misogynic  attitude towards women (grab them by the pussy), contempt for the law (convicted on 34 fraud counts and facing dozens of additional criminal charges), a bully of the most venal kind issuing threats against former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi – and near the end of the campaign – against former Congresswoman Liz Cheney who he said should be put in front of a firing squad. It all sounds crazy. But crazy will be in the Oval Office early next year.

And what about his “America First” program of slapping a 10 to 20% world- wide tariff  on all goods exported to the US. Maybe he will make America great again, but it will be at the expense of the entire world. Think of what a tariff like that would do to Canadian industries such as softwood lumber, agriculture, meat,  dairy. automobiles and water for electricity. We have big rivers with ample water for years to come. The US is running out. Where do you think Trump will look for it?

Trump says he’ll end the war in Ukraine “in a day.” We all know that’s impossible and it’s just another lie he doubles down on to avoid the truth. Trump brazenly says he’ll deport more than a million migrants “en masse.” But he didn’t even finish the wall he promised in his first term.

Trump is a liar of the first magnitude. According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.

 Fact checkers have described the scale of Trump’s mendacity as “unprecedented” in American politics. And this born-again liar will soon be sitting in the throne room of world democracy with the power to influence and adjudicate on any issue in the world be it war and peace, national sovereignty, international justice or what can be done to slow climate change. He’ll be the Supreme Influencer of any issue of importance in the world. But he won’t wear a crown like the great influencers of world history be they Caesar, Napolean, Churchill and the like.

No, he’ll wear a red cap and you know what it will say: “Make America Great Again.” Some of you may be all right with that, but I can honestly tell you that it scares the hell out of me.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who still has trouble believing it really happened.

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