Off

 "There's no such thing as bad publicity." - PT Barnum

"There's a sucker born every minute." -  PT Barnum

"The only thing talked about is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde

You might be familiar with these quotes. They come to us from a time long before there was such a thing as social media, so you can imagine how difficult it was to go viral before the advent of telephones. Mister Wilde was an author and gadfly. Mister Barnum was, if you were to believe Hugh Jackman, the world's greatest showman. They lived their live in the nineteenth century trying to make a name for themselves and, it would seem, they were successful. 

I bring them up here and now in the early part of the twenty-first century to remind us all that everything old can be new again. Or it can just be old again. Like the way the convicted felon continues to live rent-free not just in the ruins of the White House, but inside our brains. I have no doubt that among the various aphorisms and quotes this "very stable genius" has gilded on surfaces that he faces most every day are the words from Barnum and Wilde. 

Or perhaps this is giving him far too much credit. His capacity to retain information is limited to remembering which one is the giraffe. It is our own fault for letting the former game show into our homes in the first place. It is our own fault for believing that he had something to offer us. He is only here for himself. Each word that I write here is only a reminder to us of our willingness to slow down and watch the train wreck that has become our once great nation. Each day is a fresh reminder of just how many suckers have been born here in the United States over the past fifty years. 

This past Sunday I set out to ignore the gaudy spectacle being held on the front lawn of the White House. I tried not to imagine that this twice-impeached cult leader would some how manage to create a media event that would compliment his gladiatorial exhibition, like the long-awaited announcement of a peace settlement to the war that he had started himself to obscure all the other ugliness that thrives within the three ring circus that surrounds him. 

In the midst of all this ugliness, I have completely lost track of where the off switch is.