sonora2sonoma

Like pus from an untreated abscess, new details about trump’s fetid administration keep seeping out and poisoning the national discourse. What began as a trickle just weeks ago has now grown to a steady stream as more and more alarmed officials are joining the chorus of the disaffected, disillusioned and dismayed. Public servants lining their pockets with public funds is nothing new, but the latest revelations concerning trump’s envoy to the EU, Gordon Sondland, are particularly disgusting. While the ranks of the homeless grow daily here at home, this paragon of dubious virtue saw nothing wrong with using public funds to the tune of  over half a million dollars in order that he and his family might enjoy a few home improvements to make his stay in Brussells more bearable. Thanks to the largess of American taxpayers, Mr Sondland was able to renovate his kitchen to the tune of $400,000. And for just $30,000.00 more, he was able to install a new sound system, while it only cost us another $95,000.00 so he could add an outdoor “living pod” with a pergola, electric heating, LED lighting strips and a remote-control system. Oh, and he was allocated an additional $100,000.00 from the public coffers to defray the expenses incurred in securing an alternate residence for the two months it would take to complete the renovations.

Just think how many mouths that money could have fed!

It’s tempting to wonder how someone could misappropriate public funds to this degree while managing to escape the sense that what they’re doing is at least inappropriate if not outright wrong. Normal people could not behave in this manner without feeling some sense of guilt. But
Gordon Sondland, and those like him, defy such categorization. Their sense of duty is supplanted by a sense of self-entitlement that allows them to act with impunity. For these people, normal guidelines don’t apply. Regulations become mere impediments to be overcome.

Birds of a feather, goes the old adage, fly together. trump appears to attract narcissistic opportunists the way feculence draws flies.

Tim Konrad

October 16, 2019