Oval Opioid

I just finished a very telling book examining the well-named opioid epidemic. It’s called “Dreamland” by Sam Quinones and it is dead on.

One of the things I came away with was that many of the people who’ve been swept up by opioids in their many and evil forms seem to be the same kind of disenfranchised Americans who desperately latched on to Trump’s shiny and slippery coattails as a way out of their entirely unfamiliar and existential dilemmas. Opioids were one way out, Trump another, or sometimes both. 

Whatever, as John Kelly would say. Yet there is something of this unstaunched opioid flow that is burrowing out what is left of America that has leeched its way upward. Not an addiction, as such, but something in that realm has entered the White House itself and is swirling about the Oval Office like a miasma of misdirection.

Many people use opioids basically to escape their problems, which natch turns out to be its own little oxymoron. This is like chewing lead paint. 

Right now, for the very life of me, I cannot in my wildest castings imagine anybody with more Big League problems than Donald J. Trump. The dude radiates trouble like some kind of space robot, which he well might be if his actions are any indications. And very well-trained, well-educated, deeply experienced, totally professional, eerily patient, dedicated civil servants are looking into this presidency and he is belittling them and personally insulting them every staggering step of the way. Repeat: they are eerily patient, Mr. President.

And around Trump, the vice is tightening. Manafort needed the toothbrush he brought to his bail hearing and Michael Cohen looks like he might be sprouting some stool pigeon wings.

And just like people use opioids to ditch their problems, Trump used to get away by holding big rallies all over the Nut Belt and saying a lot of nutty things which they all loved and totally believed.

Then he thought maybe he could use Rudy Giuliani as sort of a Heckyll to his Jekyll and they’ve been mouthing off all over the world like two stupid magpies, talking loud and saying nothing. Fucking up the Quebec Conference helped some, but Trump hit the Get-Away-From-Your-Blues jackpot with the Singapore Deal. Wowee! Just for showing up he’s like some king or emperor the way they treat him and they really liked it when he said all those great things about his new and very talented pal Kim Jung Un and liked this very talented little despot so much that he gave away the military and diplomatic store with all the aplomb of a drunken sailor tipping a b-girl. Trump says it is now “No More Nukes” for sure and he trusts Kim and he’s already got Stephen Miller working on his Nobel acceptance speech.

And, yo , the Putin Summit will be the clincher.

But whatever opioids get you through the night, the dawn brings reality – and Robert Mueller and Michael Avenattti and finally and hopefully, the sanctity and sobriety of the American Rule of Law.