Wagering On Trump

I HAVE RELATED, and shall always relish the story of my former friend who verbally accosted me on July 29, 2021, challenging me to bet him on whether Donald Trump would be back in office by the end of the year. This is not a joke. It really happened. It was all his diea, and the bet was a case of imported beer. Of course I took the bet, and won.I really enjoyed the prize. I still have no idea what he was thinking. Did he really think that at some point during the last five months of 2021 that something profound was going to happen to insert Trump back into the prsidency, such as a Suprem Court decision, or another insurrrection a the capitol? I mean, gimme a break. He admited that it was an "emotional wager". And, as far as I know he is every bit as fervant in his suporrt of Trump now as he was then, although I don't hang out, or communicate with him anymore. That level of insanity, temporary or other, alarms me. I sincerely my old friend is doing well. Even more alarming is that,evidently, my old friend is not alone, in fact, is far from alone, in his unreasoning devotion to Trump. Alas, it seems to be rather common. NPR aired a story, now wellknow, about a divided family, in which father and adult soon were at odds politically, for the usual reason. The father was an over the top, hard core right wing Trumper. The son, not exactly far left, but, left of his father. Father wrote down a list of ten predictions, all of which he said would take place within a calendar year. they included predictions that Obama, Biden, and both Clintons would be indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced for treason. Marshall law would be declared in America. All ten of the predictions were crazy, crazy on the same level as my friend's. all obviously rooted in emotion, hatred, anger, intense longing and desire. Father and son actually ended up making a ten tousnad dollar wager on the predictions. Neither of the two was wealthy. As time passed and it became increasingly obvious that the father would lose the bet, the two men remained in contact, and when it was over,the father paid off his son in twenty dollar bills. The whole political love Trump hate Trump thing had torn apart their entire family. A gay daughter and the father finally, after years of stress, had a final fallig out. And, finally, the ten thousand dollar bet, in which you simply had to wonder what in hell the Trump lover was thinking. Was he mentally ill, crazy with some pseudo religious fervor? Even stranger, he responded to his loss of the wager by basically doubling down on his craziness. What he had predicted would still eventually happen, only,not soon enough to keep his ten grand. Arguments like that. A complete refusal to come clean, admit reality. A refusal to accept and understnad the spuditity of his thinking. And, yes frankly, I seem to see teh sae kind of thinking iina lot of Trump supporters. Namely, a coplete willingness to adandon reality, to forsake the truth, in favor of a preferred imaginary reality. Hence, perhpas, the proliferation of conspiracy theories from the far right in recent years. Alarming is the frequency with which Trump spporters either ignore, tolerate, accept, or eagerly endorse Trump's many blatant lies. There are very valid reasons why so many people identify the Trump movement as a "cult". Democrats holding up "false" signs at Trump's speech in Congress was an encouraging indicator. We the remaining sane must, simply must speak out, identify Trump's lies, and vigorously oppose his vile intentions and heinous projects. Our survival depends on it.