Each year Congress invites the president up to the Hill to present a State of the Union before a joint session. Recently, though less than sixty days in office, Congress invited Mr Trump to address that joint session and present some idea of his forward agenda, though considering the content, one could easily submit that he invited himself. In what was tantamount to a campaign speech, interspersed with a huge dose of self adulation, Mr Trump offered the usual dose of egotism and fear mongering. It was not, however, what was said so much that should be the cause for concern. Rather, it was, is and will continue to be the goings on behind closed doors in this administration that warrants great concern.  In reality, there are three schemes at work here and all need to be closely followed. It is, in a manner of speaking, a matter of life and death for our nation as a nation.
The first, if you will, is the “… destruction of the administrative state…” as clearly articulated by the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Surrounded by a team of close advisors who are devoted to principles of the “…destruction of the administrative state…”, the inner circle has carved out an agenda purposed exclusively to bring about the elimination of most of the federal government system, particularly those parts which, in their opinion, represent overreach on the part of all three branches of government and the executive agencies of which they are composed.This is, by no means, a single nation agenda but rather a significant part of a global agenda formulated in Russia by the extreme right wing political scientist, Aleksandr Dugin. It represents an extreme right wing posture and, while rooted in conspiracy theory, the aim is to reduce government to its most basic and most limited functions. For some idea of the direction this is going, take a look at key cabinet members who all are carefully placed with a hidden purpose to either severely cut back operations or eliminate the  very agency to which they were appointed.                                                                                                                   The second is the enhancement of wealth for the top ten per cent and that it might come at the expense of the quality of life for the other ninety per cent matters naught. It has been a long standing far right agenda we saw back in the days of the emerging Tea Party Caucus and now has become the overall marching orders of both the House and the Senate. With little or no doubt, it is purposed to virtually eliminate the taxes on the upper two per cent and use the cessation of government providing any of the safety net services it has been providing for decades to compensate. There are numerous items that support this proposition but one need only to look at the legislative package presented by the House to be convinced. The diluting of any and all regulatory packages such as Dodd-Frank ; the elimination of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau ; the elimination of regulatory packages, if not the entire agency from EPA and FDA ; the elimination for the Department of Education. These all point to the agenda to save and redistribute not just  the wealth but also the burden. Of these though, the prime elements of this agenda are the privatization of Social Security, the capping of Medicare allowed expenses and making it a voucher system and the block granting of Medicaid back to the states with the elimination of the “Ten Essential Services” currently available under the Affordable Care Act.                                                                                             The third plan is the calculated subversion of the political fabric with complete distraction, keeping the public overly focused on nonsense rather than the two above.Now every week, if not every weekend, the nation is treated to the rant and ravings of this so called president about matters which , gleaned from the likes of Breitbart and Mark Levin, have little or no basis in reality. At least, to date there is not any concrete evidence in support of them.In the meantime, while the gaslighting with these calculated distractions continues, the real secretive agenda is being moved forward. Far right wing baseless rants are being turned in to policy and we are seeing the undoing of decades of progress. Follow the road to chaos over the past two months and get some idea as to the direction the country is being dragged.

The gaslight guru and his minions have not only set a new low in terms of ethics but an even lower bar as it relates to actually governing. The Saturday morning tweets have replaced policy memoranda. Press conferences have been replaced by a circus of backtracking and excusing and the president is treating his position as if he were a corporate CEO , taking off every weekend to play golf. All in all, we are being treated to a complete farce instead of government and sadly, it will be the middle class and the less fortunate who will eventually pay the price. Dementia is defined as a persistent disorder manifest by impaired reasoning. One, in looking inside the beltway, can only conclude that this is the prevalent condition.