Blast #285

             
                                     The Fish Stinks from the Head

                 I first heard this old adage from my Sicilian immigrant grandfather, muttered in his coarse, broken English  when I was a boy (No doubt it's an old Italian Proverb, too).  It’s been in the news lately, of course, relating to our “Commander-in-Chief,” particularly pertaining to his (lack of) moral leadership.  The Blast has repeatedly mentioned how the “President” seems unable to mention Heather Heyer or the 17 sailors killed at sea --- and getting him to say a word about the victims in Houston took days!  His “good people” comment about those marching with Neo-Nazis and KKK members was a nod and a wink to white supremacists and he continues to never mention Russia as an adversary state.  This is the chum Trump feeds his base --- letting them read between his lines or into his silences.  It is disgraceful and, in case we needed graphic proof of this “leader’s” disrespect for the “law and order” he trumpets, we have to look no farther than the two videos below.  The first is Trump speaking to police officers in my old Suffolk County neighborhood on Long Island several weeks ago.  The second is body-cam footage from a hospital in Utah taken this week.

         ​Now there are those who will say, “Oh, Trump.  You know he was just engaging in his ‘truthful hyperbole’ on Long Island --- you’re making something out of nothing.”  And others will claim “That officer in Utah has nothing to do with Trump!  That’s ‘fake news’ again.”  But I don’t think so.  I’ve been watching the U.S. Open (tennis) this week and noticed that the companies sponsoring various players (Nike, Izod, Adidas, etc.) have engaged in a subtle but very cunning subliminal advertising campaign.  All  the players each product sponsors are wearing the same outfits, basically, so the viewer, in a subtle way, unconsciously notes all the cerise Nike swooshes, and socks, and shoes, that the Nike sponsored players are wearing.  All the Izod players have the same Piet Mondrain style block designs on their shirts.  What’s the connection between the U.S. Open outfits and Trump’s subliminal leadership?  The idea sinks in!  Whether it’s “brand” association or giving police officers the “okay” to “rough up” suspects, people get the message.

            In this case, the messages from the White House are morally bankrupt and lack any sense of decency.  But they sink in and we see police, consciously or otherwise, noting that the “President” has given them license to take the law into their own hands.  That’s Trump’s vision of “law and order.”