The world thinks we’re crazy or worse…here’s why

 

My bride and I, along with another couple, took a trip to France the last two weeks of July. The main purpose of the trip was to check off a bucket-list item; see the Tour de France bike race in person. We also planned the trip to include visits to several places in Paris, the south of France, the French Alps, and a visit to the beaches of Normandy. It was a busy couple of weeks!

We arrived in Paris on a beautiful Friday morning and immediately began exploring. Over the next 4 days, we:

• ·         Enjoyed a food tour, led by a Brit who had lived in Paris for a decade. His pleasant nature and wit, along with an extensive knowledge of foods and dining locations, made for a very enjoyable five hours. 
  
  
  
• ·         Dined aboard a river boat on the Seine. This cruise began at 8:30 pm and wound up around 11:00. Since the dock was located near the Eiffel Tower, we returned just as the lovely site lit up and began its nightly sparkling. It was magical! 
  
  
  
• ·         Visited several markets in the city. I’m always amazed at the multitudes of these whenever I visit Europe. The markets are fascinating in terms of their size and the wide variety of products they offer. Great for eating and buying gifts for the folks back home!
• ·         Visited famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Bastille, and Notre Dame Cathedral to which, unfortunately, we were unable to gain entry. You may recall it suffered horrible damage in a fire in April of 2019. While repairs will continue for a long time, much of the cathedral is available to visit and so many people are doing so – 30,000 per day – that getting one of the timed entry slots is difficult. We walked around the outside and learned all about the rebuilding and renovation. The combination of modern technology and old world craftsmanship is fascinating to see.

After enjoying Paris, and all the food and drink we could manage, we took the train to Avignon in the south to begin our Tour de France adventure. Train travel is so delightful in Europe! Fast, inexpensive, and civilized, it’s one of my favorite parts of a European trip.

In Avignon, we rented a car big enough to hold four adults and luggage (it took the largest SUV they had which wasn’t big compared to American vehicles) and headed into the country. We rented a “Chalet Atypique” through booking.com and it was very rural. It consisted of two small buildings on a farm near the town of Bedoin where decent cell service is not yet a thing. Just the same, it was delightful to be off the grid for a few days. 

 I had also arranged to rent Ebikes for the four of us and they were delivered shortly after we arrived. Having never ridden one, I was looking forward to seeing the difference. 

The next morning, we packed lunches, along with the requisite bottles of wine, and headed off to Mt. Ventoux, a very famous climb of the Tour, which began about 5 kilometers away. Almost immediately, I realized that ebikes are amazing! These provided a boost to your pedaling and you could adjust the amount of assistance with a lever. With almost no effort, we easily managed about 20 kmh, uphill. Amazing!

We reached the entrance to the road leading up the hill and headed up along with thousands of other bike fans, stopping for a break about the halfway point. The weather was gorgeous, our stopping point was in the shade and so we decided to watch from there and proceeded to picnic and party with everyone for the next 5 hours or so.

I had the opportunity to speak with a few folks from the surrounding area, all of whom were kind enough to speak English and not let me butcher their native tongue. By the end of the day, we had made a few friends and acquaintances before heading back down the hill. (There were so many that we were forced to walk about halfway back because of the crowds.)

The next morning we packed up and headed north to the French Alps, to a ski resort called La Plagne. The Tour would finish there two days later and we had a condo at the top of the mountain. These next two days were filled with hiking and eating and drinking and game playing with our friends. Topped off with a hike over one summit to another one where the stage ended. MB and I secured a spot 150 meters from the finish line with a giant video screen across the road from us. As a result, we were able to watch the entire race and then catch the riders as they blazed past us. Such a good time!

The next morning, we drove to Albertville and turned in our rental car and caught a train to Paris where we checked into another hotel for two nights. Our stay included sauntering across the city to the Champs Elysee to watch the final stage finish of this year’s tour. We stood with thousands of other fans in, at times, a driving rainstorm as the riders passed by 3 times before finishing a few hundred meters from our position. What an amazing spectacle this is!

We walked slowly back across the city to our hotel, stopping for dinner at a brasserie, before turning in for the night.

Next morning, we took a train to a town called Caen where we rented another car to drive to Normandy. Our stay for two nights was at a bed and breakfast about fifty meters from Omaha Beach, site of the D-Day Landing.

Our guide for the Normandy tour was a delightful local man who guided us from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm, driving us around the area while providing a detailed description of every place we visited; the German cemetery, the American cemetery (where we caught Taps being played and the colors being stricken for the night) the town of Bayeux and Caen where several of the battles took place during the first three days of the invasion, Omaha Beach and the German bunkers that had been built for defending against the invasion. These exist today as a testament to what the Allies had to overcome to secure our freedom and remove the Occupation from France.

Standing in one of the bunkers, looking through a narrow slit at the beach and ocean, I kept imagining what it must have been like to be a young German soldier; looking out onto the ocean and suddenly seeing, as the sky brightened with dawn, over 7,000 ships spread out as far as his eyes could see. Over 150,000 troops were on their way to take back what had been stolen. How frightening and discouraging that must have felt!

We had dinner that night at our hotel and talked about what all we’d seen and experienced over the last two weeks. We also talked about the conversations we’d had with the people we’d met and how we found the French people to be very friendly and welcoming to us. The ones that we engaged in deeper conversation were especially more friendly when they found that all four of us did not vote for the current administration and, in fact, are adamantly opposed to it. They were almost unanimously on our side of the conversation and wondering, openly, “How did he get elected?” (Our answers focused on our election process and systems, including a discussion about how many Americans don’t bother to vote. Most were surprised by that.)

The flight home two days later started me thinking about why the world is questioning everything about America and where she stands, at this moment. After all, the US had been responsible for helping to overthrow the murderous regimes of the Nazis along with Italy and Japan. Our ability to crank out necessary arms and munitions was one of the deal makers in winning the war.

Along the way, the US was instrumental in helping Europe to rebuild through the Marshall Plan, and assisted those economies in getting back on their feet. The treaties that were signed, and the partnerships that were formed, allowed all the free countries of the world to develop powerful economies and raise standards of living for nearly everyone.

When Trump was elected the first time, it left most of the free world scratching its head and wondering what happened? The chaos, the pomposity, the brusqueness, the cozying up to dictators (Putin, Un, etc.) seemed so unamerican to everyone. When he was defeated in 2020, there was almost a collective silent prayer of thanks from all those countries. Almost as if to say, “Okay, the Americans are back on track again! Thanks heavens!”

Now that he’s back in power and was elected by “the same people that voted him out” they’re stunned even more so! He’s even more obnoxious, he appears to be a racist, and a fascist, is an adjudged sex offender, isn’t particularly intelligent, and is bringing a host of unqualified people in to run the US Government whose sole qualification is they follow Trump. He’s overseeing the cutting of programs that directly improve the lives of people around the globe and is looking to charge tariffs (without knowing how they actually work) to countries that have been our trading partners for decades under the accusation that those “supposed trading partners” have been “ripping us off for years!”

Why does the world think we’re crazy or worse?

I think part of it is that, unlike most of the rest of the free world, Americans are far less likely to register to vote and, once registered, are less likely to cast a vote.

Want some data?

79.8% of Americans that are eligible to vote, have actually registered as of 2025. 18-34 year olds really hurt the average as they’re around 62%. And actual voting is lower than the average of all countries with free and fair election – right around 60% vs over 70% for the rest.

Since Europeans typically vote more frequently, I suspect they are expecting Americans to do so, as well. After all, we’re the ones who really helped save the world from authoritarian domination in WW2 along with the cold war. Americans must believe in democracy then, right? Right??

If that’s so, then HOW THE HELL DID THEY ELECT A DICTATOR, WHO COZIES UP TO OLIGARCHS? WHO BRINGS THE MILITARY IN AGAINST HIS OWN PEOPLE? WHO IS A THIRTY FOUR TIMES CONVICTED FELON? WHO APPOINTS THE LEAST QUALIFIED PEOPLE INTO POSITIONS OF POWER SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR LOYALTY TO HIM? WHO APPEARS TO BE A RACIST AND A SEXIST? DOES IT MEAN THAT ALL OR MOST AMERICANS ARE LIKE THAT? HAVE THEY BEEN THAT WAY ALL ALONG?

If you aren’t yet aware of it, people in other countries think we’re crazy or worse. These are the reasons why!

Just know that they're also rooting for us to get out of this current situation we've put ourselves into. They think we can do it!

I sure hope they're right...

 

Donald J. Trump – the man we elected President

 

The thoughts expressed here are solely my own.

A few people have pointed out on social media that we should stop attacking his policies and give them time to work their “magic.” Fair enough. (Although nearly every economist, with any credibility at all, is saying the results are going to be terrible. And that’s just on the economic actions! How about that foreign policy?)

Let’s focus on Trump, the man, then.

What do we know about him?

He was born into wealth and yet claims that he built his entire fortune himself, pulling himself up by his bootstraps. He says he was an incredible student at Fordham University and then at Wharton Business school where he graduated with a BS in economics in 1968. His grades have never been seen by the public and for someone who leans heavily to the vainglorious, I can only imagine how awful they must have been, or he would have been waving them around for all to see. (He claims to have won his golf club “championship” 18 times over the years. Does everyone else just not show up?)

He claims that his track record as a businessman gives him incredible insight into how the economy works and is best maximized. For the record, his various enterprises have filed for bankruptcy six times, including a casino. Casinos are among the most lucrative businesses in the world because the house always wins. The only way to bankrupt one is through horrible mismanagement.

He claims to be a devout Christian yet in one interview was unable to name a single Bible verse by which he likes to live. He has been married four times and has proved to be a serial philanderer during each of those. He has been adjudicated as a sexual abuser and ordered to pay millions to E. Jean Carroll. He has lied over 30,000 times in public and each has been documented by the press. His actions clearly don’t match up to the common definition of a Christian. They also don’t line up well with commonly accepted moral standards, for that matter.

He claims to be a patriot and yet he managed to receive five deferments from the military draft during the Vietnam war, the first four for education and the fifth for a medical condition of bone spurs. (The details surrounding this are murky and unclear.) He has been quoted as not wanting to attend veteran funerals because “those guys are all losers!” Unlike other Presidents, he has been unwilling to spend time welcoming injured veterans home from overseas. (He allegedly attended one ceremony early in his first term and said he’d never do it again.)

He claims that our country needs to abolish its DEI efforts, and signed executive orders to do so, because they’re biased against some people (white folks) and that merit and competence will rule the way people are promoted in all government roles. He then appointed administration officials based on their loyalty to him instead of their merit, background, and competence. The Secretaries of Defense and Health and Human Services are just two glaring examples. He has fired many people in top positions of the government, simply because he sees them as disloyal to him and his cause.

With these examples, I believe it is possible to define Donald Trump. He is a lying, philandering, ignorant, immoral, narcissistic, racist, megalomaniac.

That’s who we’ve elected to the most powerful position in the world.

No wonder the world is wondering what happened to the United States. I wonder that, myself.

You call this Unifying? It’s Round 2 of the Bullsh*tter-in-Chief!

Are you kidding me??? 

Admittedly, I was disappointed that Kamala Harris didn’t win the presidential election in November. She had a long climb to make in just over 3 months’ time. And while she did a terrific job across the country about letting people know what she stood for and what her presidency would be about, a large percentage of the voting public was not moved to go and vote for her. Many said they “just didn’t know her” and that stopped them. (Heaven forbid they should do their own research and read her website which was very clear about all of this.)

The result was that a lot of potential voters stayed home, thus electing the 45^th POTUS as the 47^th POTUS – the second time in our history that a President served non-consecutive terms. As of 2 days ago, Donald J. Trump was the President of the United States.

His first administration was something of a disaster and ranked by many presidential scholars as the worst in history. (Having watched them live for the last 60+ years, that’s saying something!) In any case, he promised while campaigning that he would be a great unifier and would get America out of it’s “perilous decline of the disastrous past 4 years.”

It’s important to note that the past 4 years have seen the largest growth in our economy in history, the lowest unemployment rate of the past 50 years, more new businesses started than in the past 50 years, more jobs created than the past 50 years, and a constant reduction in the crime rate during the last 4 years, too. Was there inflation? Yep and while it was painful for many Americans, it was also the lowest of any of the major countries of the world; in other words, it was handled effectively, more so than anywhere else in the world. (If you’re looking at that last paragraph, and wondering where the decline is, your confusion is based in logic and reality. If you disagree with any of it, feel free to do your own research. Each of those statements is a fact.)

Shortly after being sworn in on January 20^th, 2025, which was also MLK Day for the ultimate irony, Trump signed a huge pile of Executive Orders. Some were pure fantasy (removing the citizenry birthright? It’s in the Constitution, dude) and others were just mean (There are only 2 genders, according to the new POTUS, flying in the face of science, of course.) and one was downright sinister. That’s the one that really pisses me off.

With the sweeping of Sharpie, TFG has pardoned or commuted the sentence of every one of the January 6^th insurrectionists; 1506 of them to be exact. Calling them patriots or proud Americans, he has basically said that what they did on that fateful day was just fine!

While he had said he was going to do it while campaigning, I am astonished at this outrageous act. There isn’t a single second of video that shows that group as being anything other than riotous, treasonous, racist, anti-American, anti-Democracy assholes. Their actions that day caused deaths, disabilities, and shook the very pillars of our country. By taking this action, TFG has made it clear that the only Americans he will honor and protect are the ones that are totally loyal to him. If this doesn’t frighten you, you are either not paying attention or are too MAGAfied to understand the ramifications.

The GOP has long described itself as the party of law and order. I have yet to hear a single member of the party stand up and say, “This is wrong!”

Jesus Christ, people he’s just said that police don’t have to uphold the law and people who break it in his name are welcome to do so!

Despite my not voting for him, I had decided that I would support our new President as long as what he was doing was good for all Americans. Based on these actions on the first day in office, he’s lost any support from me for anything he does in record time.

No one will ever convince me that he is anything but an ignorant, racist, narcissistic, bully. The only way to deal with a bully, in my experience, is to punch them in the nose as many times as it takes for them to get the message.

I hope it isn’t too late to save America.