I held off writing a blog for a few days because I wanted to hear Trump’s inaugural address.  I had hopes of hearing something good.  Anything good.

I didn’t hear it.  In fact, I didn’t hear anything different.  I just heard a bully bellowing the same old song.

If forced to find some silver lining amongst the piles of BS spewed, I would say he was equally as belligerent to all the ‘establishment’ – and they were all just sitting there taking it with smiles plastered on their faces – and that is NOT good but it is NOT all bad, either.  If forced, I would say that he was – as usual – contradictory.  He was all selfish and divisive about America first but, at the same time, acknowledging ‘friends’.  What he really meant; sycophants, toadies, victims, leeches and suck-ups.

But, basically, the speech was just another display of macho-stupidity.  He is just bellowing.  He is an ass.  A one-trick pony.  Trump is Trump and will likely remain so til he dies. The office, the world, facts and circumstances won’t change him.

The thing is; bullying works.  It does NOT work in the long haul, however.  Not long term.  Bullies do carry the moment.  Always have.  But victims eventually learn to avoid them. And, eventually, followers leave bullies in droves.  But, for the immediate moment, a rich, tough, single-minded narcissist can and does have an impact on everyone around him. Things get done.  For better or worse.  Usually, worse.

People eventually sabotage the bully, leave the bully or set up competition of some kind but bullies become bullies because they get results and, generally speaking, bullies have short attention spans – so it works for them.  Bullies do not lose the game they are playing so their actions get reinforced.  And he will definitely get some results.

Bullies also don’t learn from their mistakes.  It seems to be a given with bullies; the mistakes were ‘never their fault’ and so, they just move on to the next scenario and deploy their forces and expect to win at whatever game they have just newly defined.  It’s what they do.  It’s kinda retarded, it’s always disruptive but, at some level, bullying gets enough reinforcement to become a ‘style’.  In Trump’s case, he has also got a brand, a leggy manikin-bimbette and a logo.

I’ve known a few bullies like Trump.  But I won’t bore you with those anecdotes. Suffice to say, beating them up or winning the battle just invites another battle. Reasoning and cooperation just invites further bullying.  The only way I have ever successfully dealt with such idiots is to remove myself from their sphere of influence.

But that is not always possible. How are we to remove ourselves from the sphere of the US’s influence?  That cannot be done.  After five or six decades of promoting their influence in so many ways from war to politics, from trade to actual products and lifestyle, from culture to even language, ‘Merica now resides deep in all first world countries and very influential in most of all the others.

So, how do we deal with this new bigger, uglier bully when, in fact, we have folded like cheap tents to gentler and more charming US bullies of the past?

I have no idea.  Maybe we just wait for four years and let his supporting contingent see who he is for themselves.  Maybe we do ‘mock battle’ and just keep him busy swatting at flies?  I honestly do not know for sure.

But there is one way that might work.  And, frankly, I think it is the way all nations, provinces, counties and neighbourhoods should be working anyway. We have to build more independence in ourselves and our own world.  Local business, local economy, local systems.  The 100 mile diet is possible.  We should make it the default position.  Local economy is half-way viable and 1/4 way enough.  We have schools.  We have experts.  We have resources.  How badly do we, the people, need the global market?  How badly do we need the US market?

I know the answer is – at this point – ‘we need it badly’.  I know that.  But Trump might just be the catalyst to reduce our dependence on that kind of bully-make-the-market.  And even though we may never become truly self-sustaining as a nation or even a province, it would likely help ourselves a great deal to move in that direction.

One thing is for sure, I do NOT want to be part of Trump’s Gold-plated Empire doing what makes just America great again.  If we are not making everyone’s condition in the world better, then to hell with him.