In many ways Trump is akin to his base, as he himself has not had the business acumen, focused primarily on real estate in a time when real estate was tanking. He did not invest in new tech, did not take part in any of the advances that have completely changed how we communicate, how we socialize, how we buy things, and how we travel from point A, to B, and back again.

“Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.” 

Siddhārtha Gautama

Staring down the muzzle of a future for their children that scares them, that looks nothing like what they expected, like what they once had believed in, thought was possible, in lumbers this guy stage right, the strong man, the deal maker, the hyperbole and bravado, spouting nonsense and mayhem.

In fact, he is familiar to a segment of the American population who have not been so lucky, have not had the skill sets to take advantage of all the technological changes and industries created from those technologies, of those with basic educations, and living in a world where just reading, writing and arithmetic won’t cut it anymore, and men take the back seat, and they don’t like where it’s all going.

At some level, I realize Trump isn’t really as much a president as he is a weapon. The housing market crash and the huge losses many Americans faced have taken their toll, coupled with job losses due to manufacturing going off shore for well over a decade, and various other tech related industries changing the whole economic landscape, large and small over the course of the opening decades of the 21st century, for some the heart and soul of what they believed had made America great, well, wasn’t so great, least not for them.

As so many aspects of his persona begin to crumble around his feet, as the man behind the billionaire status is revealed to be better at losing a billion, than growing a billion, better at borrowing than creating.

The New York Times illuminated more of his shady cons, with an article detailing that over the years of 1985 to 1994, tax transcripts they obtained document that he lost just over 1 billion – with the caveat being he didn’t have to pay taxes for 8 of the 10 years they had the transcripts for.

Yet the wheels of justice move slowly, and with Trump blocking all access to his financial records at every turn, it is going to be some time before we can be enlightened on his current financial status. How he made his money, with whom, and all the profits and losses, frauds and cons, or other tidbits. What we do know is that much of his persona as the billionaire super deal maker is based on bogus accounting.

Now, of course, we’ve learned over the course of his presidency that nothing with this guy is as it appears, and what we do not know is if in fact he REALLY lost money, OR, did he just hide income in some fashion to make it appear as though he lost money? Yes, crooked con that he is, we really can’t answer that, least not yet.

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”

Pema Chodron

Makes you wonder, is he hiding foreign investors, or is he hiding fraudulent finances?

What I suppose all this financial stuff is beginning to show is that the man is better at losing money than making money, more significantly that he is better at losing other’s people money, and even better at getting people to give him more money – of which it would appear he generally loses.

His tariff’s with China are in turn, not hurting China at all really, but rather drawing business away from American shores and depositing it elsewhere.

Trump backing out of trade deals, such as the Trans Atlantic, and others has in effect removed America from the equation, and internationally new deals are struck with everyone BUT the pesky hard to deal with United States – Canada one of the beneficiaries, thank you very much.

So, maybe knocking them down a peg or two may in fact help to spread the wealth, but I’m by no mean a financial guru by any stretch of the imagination.

Just pondering, but I guess that like tea once the vessel has been cracked, some liquid seeps out, spreading out to be drawn up by the sun, refreshing the earth.

“Tightly held by rocks
Through winter, the ice today
Begins to come undone:
A way-seeker also is the water,
Melting, murmuring from the moss.” 

Saigyo, Mirror for the Moon

So I suppose as everything is turning out its new leaves, waking up, so all will be revealed in time, I think it is all coming undone, piece by piece. Also, remember that a weapon is only as powerful as its user, and any weapon may be turned against the user – just sayin’ (◕‿◕✿)

***********************************************

All images from my garden – May 7th, 2019

***********************************************