Once Upon A Time...

In A Land Not Far Away

When I was a kid I loved reading Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Not all of the stories had happy endings- some of them were downright dark and scary. But there were definitely lessons in most of the tales. I still own a very old edition of the book that was passed down to me from my mother.

I was thinking how Trump’s presidency has been a Grim Fairy Tale. Also dark and scary. Also offering lessons.

In Trump’s fantastical mind (which is not the same thing as a fantastic mind) perhaps he believes some of the crap he peddles. Like that we won the Iran war. Not only didn’t we win, but we also lost BIGLY. Yesterday Iran attacked a cargo ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The same strait that Trump declared they did not control. He also stated that the attack violated the ceasefire. But what’s he going to do about it? Attack them again so that we can pay them even more in “reparations?” That cargo ship has sailed. Is he gonna threaten them? His threats no longer scare them- in fact, judging by the way they trolled him, they think he’s a joke.

Yesterday Trump wrote on Lie Social that 45,000 people showed up at his State Fair but he seems to have inflated that number by about 80%. He also wrote that “Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America.” However, video of people leaving (fleeing) the venue has been circulating on the internet. Once again, do we believe our eyes or his lies?

Project 2025 has NOT been a big success, most Americans are NOT better off under this administration, no one other than Trump “vandalized” the Reflecting Pool, and we didn’t need to spend a gazillion dollars on a new East Wing. What is happening with that anyway? Is the pile of rubble permanent? A new healthcare plan is NOT two weeks away, he DID know Epstein and had a close relationship with him, the 2020 election was NOT rigged, there was no voter fraud, January 6^th was not a “day of love” and the thugs who violated OUR Capitol were NOT “great patriots.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did NOT beg Trump to take a picture with her; he is not the healthiest president ever- he’s not even remotely healthy. In fact, he’s most likely living on borrowed time- maybe thanks in part to an experimental drug that Eli Lilly is providing to him on the sly.

I could write 10,000 more words and not even cover a fraction of Trump’s lies but I think we all get the point. If his lips are moving he’s bragging and making shit up.

Now for the lessons we need to learn from Trump’s fairy tales.

· Never trust someone with a history of stealing, cheating, and lying. If they did it to others, they will do it to you.

· Know what you are getting: those of us who actually read Project 2025 understood exactly what was coming. Protect the Constitution.

· Learn from history. Germany in the 1930s and Hungary (until the recent election), offered a roadmap for what can happen when people elect and then submit to an authoritarian.

In The Fisherman And His Wife, the wife learns that being greedy doesn’t pay off. In the original Cinderella, the stepsisters maim their feet to fit into the glass Florsheim slipper and magical white doves peck out their eyes at Cinderella’s wedding. And so on and so forth.

I hope that the American people are capable of learning the moral to this horrible all-too- real story. And I hope that just like in Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Trump and his wicked administration get what’s coming to them. Perhaps even a little eye-pecking.

-The End.