Friday, May 25, 2018

THIS & THAT #38

TRUMP OR DRUMPF?


Trying to Write World History Now
While Rewriting His Family’s History
 An “immigrant,” who Donald J., the GOP, and “the base” denigrate as part of their daily ritual, and are encouraged to do so by Donald. His latest foray into promulgating extremely negative descriptions of immigrants, include, “These aren’t people, these are animals.”

When it comes to describing south of the border individuals, he unequivocally describes them as “rapists, drug dealers, who are bringing in crime.” He strongly qualifies his off-the-mark rhetoric, by adding, “Some, I assume, are good people.” 
If you look long enough and hard enough, you may be able to find a politician who could be considered “a good person.”

They Came from Europe
Germany, Not Sweden
Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump (or Drumpf) came from Kallstadt, Palatinate, in 1885. It was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He changed his name to Frederick in 1892 when he came to the U.S. at the age of sixteen, and started working as a barber. That’s when the Trump tradition of better hair for the masses, first began.

According to Wikipedia, Friedrich (below left) was approaching the age of military conscription in the Imperial German Army, and immigrated to the United States. Avoiding the draft seems to be another family tradition. Because of his wife Elizabeth’s homesickness, the family returned to Germany in 1904, and Bavarian authorities determined that he was a draft dodger, and should lose his German citizenship.

After an unsuccessful attempt to stay, he and his family returned to New York in June 1905, and their son Frederick C. Trump was born that October. As Donald’s father, Fred Trump (center below), told people that he was of Swedish ancestry, concealing the family’s German heritage.

A Family of Immigrants
Friedrich’s grandfather, Johann Trump, was born in the village of Bobenheim am Berg, where his grandson Friedrich was born in 1869, and was Donald’s grandfather.

Trump’s mother Mary Anne MacLeod, came from the Hebridean island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland.

Of his three wives, Donald’s first wife, Ivana Marie Zelnickova, (left below) was born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, and his third wife, Melania (or Melanija) Knavs (center below), was born in Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia, the present-day Slovenia.

Barron William Trump is the youngest child of Donald and Melania, whom Donald recently referred to as Melanie.

Marla Ann Maples (far right below), Donald’s second wife was born in Dalton, Georgia, making her his only wife who was an American citizen at the time of their marriage
      
A Very Sensitive Man
Donald J., whose thoughts, opinions, and items he deems to consider as important, varies according to his mood. He recently cancelled his meeting with Kim Jong-Un, because of what Trump considered to be an insult to America’s great Vice-President. In a North Korean statement cited by Donald J., a top foreign Ministry official referred to Mike Pence as a “political dummy,” for his comments on the North.

Because of Donald’s warm and cozy relationship with Michael, he was offended by the truth of that description. If that benign remark infuriated him that much, neither he nor Pence are ready to deal with the reality of foreign affairs.

Who Shouldn’t Be Here, Donald?
Today, Donald suggested that those professional football players, who kneel during the playing of our National Anthem, shouldn’t be allowed to remain in the United States.

Bravo, draft evader Donald, who never served in the military.

Lest the country forget, oh patriot, that Donald J. attended the New York Military Academy — a high school. After he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, he was eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. However, the brave, future leader of our great nation, managed to receive a coveted 1-Y medical deferment exempting him from ever wading through the swamps of Vietnam. That’s the medical deferred Trump in the middle of this photograph.

This deferment was one of five Trump received during Vietnam, and it was based on “the fact” that he had bone spurs in his heels. The other deferments were for education. Trump was quoted as saying, “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels.”

He never needed an operation for that devastating problem, but confessed in an interview with the New York Times. “Over a period of time, it healed up.”

“Time heals all wounds,” sayeth Chaucer in “Troilus and Criseyde,” although the exact olde English words were, “As tyme hem hurt, a tyme doth hem cure.”

Others prefer that in the case of Trump, Menander (342 BC – 291 BC) should be given credit with his Greek Version, “Time is the healer of all necessary evils.” More apropos to Donald and has actions, would be “Time wounds all heels,” and the sooner the better.

Sadly, many of Trump’s wounds seem to be more self-inflicted every day.