Frequently Mariner is asked to respond to Donald this and Donald that. Mariner does not follow Donald. Mariner spends most of his news gathering time catching up on the world and other matters non-Donald. The world is quite busy at the moment with war, political upheaval, scientific invention, even social events like a Prince and wife giving birth to a baby. Monsoons literally are wiping out a nation. These things are new news. Donald is not new news.

Consider:

We already know Donald is incompetent.

We already know Donald is emotionally disadvantaged.

We already know Donald is a pathological liar.

We already know Donald hates Barack Obama and wants to wipe his accomplishments out of existence.

We already know Donald intends to keep America divided and paranoid.

We already know Donald’s cabinet is destroying thirty years of regulations covering everything from oil spills to health services to the humane aspects of immigration to global destruction of the environment.

We already know Donald ‘says’ he wants to build a wall but really he wants to keep populism on the front page.

We already know Donald wants to be king.

We already know Donald is unscrupulous and immoral in his business and political dealings.

So what’s new news?

Know what? Donald is all he can be, to quote a phrase. What he can be isn’t very acceptable; indeed it is harmful. But one knows who Donald is and what he will be. Mariner, though frightfully concerned about the ramifications of Donald, is not angry at Donald.

Mariner is very, very angry at Senate Republicans. They have demonstrated the most egregious behavior one can imagine. America is not their concern. America is devastatingly broken – far beyond anything Donald could invoke. Nevertheless, the first allegiance of Republican Senators is to the 2020 primaries. A Republican Senator may lose his $175,000 job with excessive benefits if that Senator must win a primary without Donald’s base. In any other circumstance,  Donald would have been impeached for treason as soon as he was elected. But Republican Senators allow the scourge of Donald to do great damage to America and its position as leader of the world – a nation among nations – not for ideological reasons but just so they can keep their job in 2020.

Twenty-two Republican Senators are up for reelection in 2020. A curse on them all.

So what is new news? Donald is gone. Republican Senators are gone. The Electoral College is gone. Gerrymandering is gone. PAC money is gone.

That’s news!

Ancient Mariner