Contempt

 I looked it up: the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. If this is the case, I have been guilty of contempt on several occasions. I spent twelve of the past twenty years in a nearly constant state of contempt. It just so happens that my feelings are not at odds with the will and direction of our elected officials. Not in the way that someone like Steve Bannon's are.

That's a different kind of contempt. I looked that up, too. That one would be: the offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful of a court of law and its officers. In Mister Bannon's case, I believe the term "thumbing his nose" would be appropriate. That one is defined thus:- to show very clearly that one does not like or care about something. This comes from: To place a thumb upon the tip of the nose, typically with the fingers spread and while simultaneously wiggling one's fingers, in a gesture of disrespect.

Again, as gestures go, I have confess to using many of them to illustrate my disrespect for so very much of what has taken place in and around the White House over the past two decades. My thumb may or may not have been the digit I used in these consciously orchestrated fits of derision. 

And once again I feel compelled to state that at no time was I summoned to appear before any body or magistrate to discuss these gestures of my willingness to divulge the reasons behind my disregard. What you are reading now is pretty much a continuing list of those disappointments and grievances. If someone from the United States Congress called me up, or delivered one of those subpoena things to my door, I suppose it might give me pause. But I would probably go ahead and hand over whatever it is that I have got to explain my position. 

Because it's the government calling, after all. I don't believe that I am above the government, in spite of all that kvetching and whining that I have done. They wouldn't have to come to my door with guns and tasers and handcuffs. Mister Bannon is not an elected official. He is the host of a podcast. He has insisted over and over that his old boss, the host of a game show, maintains executive privilege. I looked that one up too: to withhold information in the public interest. It has been used by our nation's chief executive since George Washington. 

Only here's the deal: Neither the game show host nor the podcast host is currently our nation's chief executive. 

I looked that up, too. And it fills me with contempt. For Steve Bannon and the game show host for whom he once worked.