THE SELLING OF AMERICA BY DONALD J. TRUMP
Op-Ed by Dr. Eugene F. Elander, Dahlonega, GA, USA — use with attribution
Incoming American President Donald J. Trump may be Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, but he has also earned another distinction not so widely recognized: Trump is Man of the Year at the Russian Kremlin. Having now chosen Exxon Oil Tycoon Rex Tillerson as his presumptive Secretary of State, Trump has put our dealings with Russian President-Nearly-For-Life Vladimir Putin into the greedy hands of Putin’s best American friend and major supporter. Having already cut a half-trillion-dollar deal with the Russian State oil company to divide up newly-discovered Arctic oil resources between Russia and Exxon, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State, can now go forward to give his buddy Putin free reign to also divide up the remainder of Ukraine — and perhaps then Eastern Europe, and even beyond. And, best of all for Russia, their computer hackers helped substantially to produce these immensely-favorable results by playing a very significant role in Trump’s electoral victory. That must give Vlad Putin immense satisfaction.
But, the mutual admiration society of Trump, Tillerson, and Putin is only the tip of the iceberg of The Selling of America, as the handwriting on our wall becomes increasingly clear. Trump’s choices for key Cabinet leadership posts and other vital and strategic positions demonstrate unequivocally that Trump fully intends to dismantle the American government as we have known it since its founding, replacing American democracy with a kleptocracy in which our nation is sold to the highest bidders. And there is no shortage of such bidders, who are already standing in line to render homage unto Donald J. Trump and collect the rewards for doing so. {In case you are not familiar with kleptocracy, it has been defined as “a government with corrupt rulers (kleptocrats) that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political power” (per Wikipedia).}
A few of the most blatant examples of the Trump approach to dismantling federal government include putting former Texas governor Rick Perry, who vowed to eliminate federal agencies including the Department of Energy during his failed presidential campaign, in charge of that same Department; putting a climate-change denier in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency; putting an opponent of public education in charge of the Department of Education; and making a leading Congressional racist his Attorney General. The Trump penchant for turning top defense and security positions over to retired generals with extremist views is frightening.
If things are this bad before Donald J. Trump actually assumes the Presidency, aided by the impact of that Russian hacking of our election process, they will undoubtedly be even worse if he is allowed to become president. The Electoral College should refuse to cast its ballots for Donald J. Trump, who is indeed not only totally unfit for the office of President — but quite possibly not even properly and constitutionally elected, given that his opponent garnered nearly three million more popular votes than did Trump. It is clear that Russia used cyber warfare to help Trump to appear to win, which may well not have been the case at all. Even Trump has claimed that the election was rigged — but it was likely rigged in his favor. New elections need to be held early in 2017, while there is yet time to do so. That step is fair and just — and is the only way to prevent an unmitigated disaster, for America and for the world.
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