Discerning Patterns

THE FACTS in the case are well known. In April, 1989 a young woman was brutally raped while jogging in Central park. Aside from the fact that it is not wise to jog, or to do anything else in Central park at night, it was a night during which numerous people were assaulted. Half a dozen young men of color were arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime, having confessed under interrogations, then later recanting the confessions. Upon appeal, the convictions were upheld, and they all spent several years in prison. During their trials, middle aged real estate wheeler dealer Donald Trump, whose own dubious behavior towards women would later come to light, took out a full page ad in the new York Times which proclaimed the young men guilty, and demanded justice. In 2002, a serial rapist, from prison, confessed to having committed the crime, and his confession proved true due to a perfect match between his DNA and the semen found in and near the rape victim. The wrongfully convicted men, having already served time, were released from prison, and later sued both the city and the state of New York, and won large sums of compensatory damages. In the event you are waiting to read that Donald Trump took out another full page ad in the Times expressing egret for his first full page ad, don't bother. It never happened. Such behavior is not part of Trump's character, and can never be expected from him. Eventually Trump became president, and said that not only was he not sorry for having jumped to conclusions, but that he still believes the "central park five" as they came to be called, were guilty. This, in spite of indisputable DNA proof to the contrary. Patterns become apparent. Donald Trump refuses to accept the findings of science, even when such findings are irrefutably proven, when they do not mesh with his personal opinions and prejudices. Donald Trump refuses to admit mistakes on his part. Donald Trump lives in his own reality, quite apart from anything remotely objective. No matter how cruel, unjust, and harmful to others the behavior of Donald Trump, he steadfastly refuses to acknowledge even the slightest hint of error, instead exhibiting a pettiness so great that it boggles the minds of decent people. Patterns emerge early in life. Most of what we are, we are by the age of five. After that, our personalities are fairly well established. Donald Trump has been lying, harming people, and doing so with no trace of self doubt for decades. As a former mayor of New York City once said: "I wouldn't believe a word Donald Trump says if he had his tongue notarized". Trump's time as president has been a ceaseless cascade of pathological dishonesty, vicious insults hurled at good people, and behavior no proper gentleman could possibly condone, let alone engage in. Not only is Trump not a proper gentleman, he is not a decent human being, and this assessment is based not on personal animus towards him, but rather, on rock solid, verifiable fact. That after over than two years as president he still enjoys a considerable degree of support among the American people says a great deal about the American people, and it is not good. The life and presidency of Donald Trump will eventually come to be regarded as one of the great tragedies of American history, along with slavery, and the genocidal extermination of an existing civilization, along with persistent, widespread poverty in a nation of abundant wealth, along with a history of wars of aggression instigated on false pretenses for nothing other that the conquest of foreign nations and the plundering of foreign resources. The amount of arrogance and pride the United States has in itself is one of the great miracles of human history, considering all that, considering the truth, considering the enduring popularity of Donald Trump among a significant percentage of the tragically misguided American people.