Acting Without Reason

THE EXPRESSION, if I'm not mistaken (I'm not), is "arbitrary and capricious". The two words are always paired in tandem, like "clear and present", "black and blue", or "love and marriage", "constitutional crisis". Or, as Festus Haggen eloquently put it: "like ugly on ape" (apes tend to be better looking than most humans, depending on one's point of view.). "Arbitrary" means without rreason, and "capricious" means intending harm, if only overtly. What could be more arbitrary than renaming the Gulf of Mexico "The Gulf of America?" Renaming Greenland "Redwhiteandblueland", maybe, or renaming the Mississippi River the "Missamerica River", perhaps. On the capricious side, for the president of the United States to take over personal control of the Kennedy Center only in order to insure that no artistic productions run counter to the wishes and whimsical values of the chief executive comes to mind, values which include a hatred of the term and concept of wakefulness, awareness, aka "woke". God forbid that we the American people be entertained with any stage production which acknowledges the reality of lingering systemic racism in these United States of Apartheid. Simply don't talk about it, and it either vanishes, or never existed. Only by mentioning racism does racism spring, like lilacs breeding out of the dead ground, as T.S. Eliot might have put it, into existence, for all to see, ignore, or deny. Henceforth nobody will appear in drag at the Kennedy Center, and nothing will be said or heard about gay or transgender people. Behold the newly reformatted schedule of events, in which only artists whose current gender matches that on their birth certificates are allowed to strut and fret on stage. It is not beyond the realm of possibility in the world according to Trump that eventually only lilly white Christian nationalists are deemed suitable for public consumption. Can there by any doubt that the "Kenned Center" will sooner rather than later by renamed "The Trump Center"? Speaking of Christian nationalism, Trump recently issued an executive order establishing something called the "Office of Faith", or something like that. Accordingly, he appointed a widely seen fire and brimstone lady from Florida, a well known televangelist with her own mega church, to the position of chief of religion, religion of the conservative Christian kind, the kind in which the gospel according to Jesus Christ is twisted like a badly made pretzel into an endorsement of far right American politics. No other religions allowed, of course. Contrary to what John Adams said and the constitution still says, it seems that the U.S. is indeed more a Christian than Islamic nation. Unbridled capitalism becomes sacred, gay and transgnder people become a scourge, that sort of thing. This, notwithstanding the admonitions of the actual Christ to render uto Caesar, and to give unto the poor, and to welcome the stranger, even without work requirements or visas. (At least the nation's prevaricator-in-chief spared us Joel Osteen.) More,many more than one legal scholar has clearly indicated that not only are nearly all of Trump's edicts blatantly unconstitutional, but that ther are, by definition....arbitrary and capricious. And yes, there is indeed a federal law prohibiting any law enacted from being without reason and being with the intent of malice. All twelve of our federal circuit court magistrates seem to agree; Trump is way out of constitutional line. Asssuming that the appellate courts assume likewise, we are left to await the renderings of SCOTUS, which, being packed like sardines with Trump loving MAGA injustices, can be expected to do most anything, including upholding the Trump agenda of unreason. Like somebody said on the "Colbert" show the ohter night, "buckle up". The great American fun house will only become more quixotic as Trump, with the full support of his lurking mob, in and out of Congress, leads us on an even more convoluted journey into the arbitrary and capricious. Our best consolation might be that we will once again be allowed, perhaps forced, to use plastic straws. After all, what's a little oceanic garbage and a few whates and dophins choking to death among friends of the far, capricious right wing?