Of Trumpisms and sewers

It is probably not true that the Roman Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, nor is it likely that he had his horse appointed to the Roman Senate. I’m sure he would have called it fake news.

Which brings me to Donald J. Trump.

While Nero may or may not have fiddled, it is surely a fact that the 45th president of the United States lies, both serially and congenitally, while his agenda and that of his Republican Party hits the skids.

It is also a fact that while Trump has not yet tried to get a horse appointed to a government position, he has appointed members of his own family to some of the highest positions to be had in the White House. And some ask: are they any better qualified than Nero’s horse?

The New York Times’ David Leonhardt has compiled a list of what he considers to be outright lies on Trump’s part and they are on the paper’s website. Some of these lies are real whoppers. Even before he became president there was the birther idea which cast doubt on the citizenship of President Barrack Obama. Then there were the 3 million to 5 million votes Trump says were cast illegally to help his opponent win the popular vote. Just as untruthfully he talked of his inauguration crowd, which he called the largest in history. And more recently, the real number of meetings he had with Vladimir Putin in Hamburg during the G20 summit was hard to come by.

Yet not all his statements are as easy to categorize as simply true or false. For example, there’s something I’ll just call “Trumpisms” that are not only hard to define, but may at times even contain a little of both. Without getting too, too deeply into U.S. politics, it is worth remembering such Trumpisms as: I will agree with the outcome of the presidential election if I win; I will show you my income tax returns; James Comey had better hope there are no tapes, and on and on.

Some say it is the lies and Trumpisms that have led to a plethora of investigations now bedevilling the White House, the president, his aides and associates, and so many others the American people don’t yet know about.

And on July 24th, the president tells the world that Washington is no longer a swamp — it has become a cesspool, a total sewer — and that to the Boy Scouts of America! Not thinking for a moment that he, as president, is the keeper of the sewer.

Here at home we have our own cesspool or sewer, whatever you wish to call it. And we get little but Trumpisms from our successive governments and those the elected officials have put in place. Muskrat is our albatross and our sewer. Only a few days ago, our minister of Natural Resources told us Nalcor will be directed to use its funds to the tune of a quarter billion dollars a year to mitigate the cost of power to you and me, the consumers. Being a total Trumpism, there was absolutely no indication of where that money would come from, who it would go to, or how it would be passed on to the consumer.

As with the lies and Trumpisms in the U.S., I believe the only outcome with Muskrat must be a full-fledged investigation and financial auditing. My question, without being too, too dramatic is this: when the people and the government of Newfoundland and Labrador were given the latest update by Nalcor, why wasn’t the national police — the RCMP forensics unit and the forensic units of Interpol asked/invited to come in and do a full accounting of the whole Muskrat imbroglio? It really should be done, and in my view, for every day we put it off, the sewer just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

Some believe, and I am one of them, that truth still lives and is still the best policy. It is people like Robert Mueller who will put the president straight or in jail.

Here at home, the RCMP/ Interpol could go a long way in helping to drain our sewer.

Wayne Norman St. John’s