Rant — Nominees For Most Arrogant Human Alive

WARNING: The following contains political commentary

All cover, no content

Donald Trump: is the personification of the “Ugly American.”  He is brash, loud, bullying, misogynistic, xenophobic, and has no notion of the meaning of the word, “honorable.”  All right, nothing new here. Wait, Trump’s bluntness leads to an accidental honesty.  He admits he regularly buys politicians to build his business, that he declares bankruptcy (screwing over investors and suppliers) as a business strategy, and hates losers including U.S. prisoners of war because they got caught. Logic would extend Trump’s definition of “loser to those wounded in action or victims of catastrophic disease who had an actual reason to declare bankruptcy. Trump inherited his “winner” status, but unlike his moneyed peers, he is very low on the list of charitable givers.  My guess is that should he actually become the next U.S. President, while he screwed over the country, he’d laugh at the losers who voted for him. The question is: Is he important enough to be in this race, let alone one for the presidency?

Where's 007 when you need him?

Vladimir Putin: The Russian leader is so ashamed of his country’s fall from power that he is willing to do anything to anyone in order to restore a Kingdom worthy of his leadership. Much like Trump, Putin is a chest-thumping narcissist. The difference is Trump thinks that’s normal, even desirable. Putin, KGB trained, may be absurd, but he is not harmless. His ability to do harm is global.  There is the old saying that writers don’t like to write; they just want to have written.  I think that while Trump doesn’t want to be president, he wants to have been president. Putin truly wants to restore Russia to what it was under Stalin.  Trump wants to be on TMZ or the cover of People.  Putin wants to be in the history books along side Mao and Adolph. I suspect Russia will be a great country again — creating the art, music and literature it once did  — just not under another ego-driven, bullying war criminal.

What do you want from me? Logic?

Antonin Scalia:  Here is a man not only stuck in time, but also clutching the backward concept that you only have the rights the constitution specifically says you do. It is a negative way of looking at the concept of freedom.  His mind is not at all conceptual.  He cannot or will not extend the logic of the document so that it remains relevant to or in touch with reality as reality evolves. Freedom of speech, for example, now encompasses tweets, or cell phones capturing an arrest, a riot or an accident in the making.  Our forefathers could not have imagined it as they put the document together. But did they need to identify every method by which speech is shared in order for it to be free? On the other hand, a rude and bullying Scalia was quite willing to turn the concept of speech on its head when he sided with Citizens United‘s position that money is speech and worse, corporations are people.  Here he abandoned even his own outdated principles to stretch and twist free speech into a pretzel. Nowhere does the constitution say or even imply that money is speech or that corporations are people. Where is the strict constitutionalist he claims to be? He has turned out to be just another showman with half a brain.  Unlike Trump, however, Scalia can use two syllable words in his prayers for the rich and powerful.

Where's my shotgun?

Dick Cheney: Cheney has talent.  He can calmly lie through his teeth and somehow seem sensible. The man who headed war profiteer Halliburton…the man who sent Americans to die in Iraq over nothing…the man whose military expenditures while part of the Cheney-Bush presidential team nearly destroyed our economy, wants us to go to war with Iran. And he’s getting free airtime to promote this folly.  More lives lost. More money spent. More hatred toward us generated. I’m with group that believes no one contributed more to the creation of ISIS than our former ventriloquist and war criminal VP. The problem is he still talks like he knows what he’s talking about, as if he has not regularly and with an incredibly straight face lied to us and got caught. He talks as if he is actually relevant. And when the right wing talks, we can barely see Cheney’s lips move.

Let's you and him fight!

Benjamin Netanyahu:  Everyone I know has long supported Israel.  We want the country to succeed. Israel has a right to a peaceful, sovereign existence.  The U.S., rightfully, has been a good friend to Israel, providing economic aid when it was needed and military aid and support.  In other words, we have their back. In turn, Israel has been a strong ally in a troubled region of our planet. That we don’t always approve of each other’s actions is to be expected and respected. We should not expect to buy their love or have them act in a way that would conflict with their interests as a nation. However Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has proven to be an arrogant, war-mongering backstabber. While the Mideast situation is beyond complex, Netanyahu’s proclivity toward violence, and his unlawful occupation of land that does not belong to his country shows the same megalomania that inhabits most tyrants.   His appearance in front of the U.S. Congress violated international protocol and showed how little he regards U.S. friendship. His action showed extreme disrespect for our President and our country.  Netanyahu is another bully wanting relevance on the world stage, when what is needed is wisdom and leadership.