The age of stupidity

Donald Trump believes he gave a rousing and memorable speech on July 4 at the Lincoln Memorial
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For a nation that was founded by some of the most intelligent people who then lived on the planet - Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, to name but a few, the United States has plummeted into a new age, not one of enlightenment, but one of stupidity.

Donald Trump believes he gave a rousing and memorable speech on July 4 at the Lincoln Memorial. It will be memorable, not for any iconic quotes, but for its foolish rendition of American history. Trump said the following, obviously mixing up the Revolutionary War of the late 18th century and the War of 1812, but with one additional bizarre reference:

"In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified Army out of the Revolutionary Forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket's red glare it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant."

The historical record shows that the Continental Army was named after no one, not Washington or anyone else. It was simply called the Continental Army. The Continental Army never "manned the air." The U.S. Army did not obtain its first airplane until 1909, when it purchased a Wright Model A for use by the Signal Corps.

The Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the "Star Spangled Banner," occurred during the War of 1812. Neither the Continental Army nor the U.S. Army took over any airports during either the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812. The first airport did not begin operation until 1909, when Wilbur Wright used an airstrip built in College Park, Maryland, to train two Army officers to fly his Model A airplane.

What was even more pathetic than Trump's "Fractured Fairy Tales" view of history was the applause from his rain-soaked fan club who gathered to hear their hero's speech. Like a gaggle of clapping circus seals waiting for another herring to be tossed their way, the audience cheered Trump's every line. A few wore T-shirts bearing the photo-shopped image of the late John F. Kennedy Jr. wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. These crackpots actually believed that Kennedy faked his own death in an airplane crash in 1999 and anxiously anticipated that Kennedy would join Trump on stage at the Lincoln Memorial. This editor, who was slated to work for Kennedy in a new investigative unit at his "George" magazine, continues to grieve over such a tragic loss of someone who was destined to become our second President JFK. The despicable actions of Trump's "Q" kooks, therefore, personally cut very deep.

Trump represents an administration that is jam-packed with other dullards. Ironically, they include the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who once proposed that schools should be allowed to keep guns in order to fight off grizzly bears. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson once opined that the pyramids in Egypt were constructed to be granaries, not tombs. Carson is a retired neurosurgeon whose most critical brain-diseased patient happens to be himself. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that it is possible that Trump was sent by God to "save the Jewish people."

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, once called Pompeo "stupid and dangerous." The highest-ranking North Korean female official has been on a roll. She also called Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy." It is truly amazing that a North Korean official is better able to size up the Trump administration than the entire U.S. Republican Party!

Choe Son Hui is actually on the same page as several former Trump administration officials. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump had the grasp of a "fifth- or sixth-grader." To be fair to fifth and sixth graders, Trump couldn't hold a candle to most of today's fifth and sixth grade students. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Trump: "He's a f*cking moron." Former White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly said Trump was an "unhinged idiot." Others allegedly calling Trump an idiot include former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Former National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn said Trump was "dumb as sh*t." Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster called Trump a "idiot" and a "dope" with the intelligence of a "kindergartner."

Before they were diplomatic lovers, Kim Jong Un called Trump a "dotard." Recently, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Trump was "suffering from mental disability." Argentine President Mauricio Macri, an erstwhile real estate business partner of Trump, said, during 2016, that Trump is a "totally crackpot presidential candidate." Former Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull privately mocked Trump as a clown.

America's founding fathers (and mothers) formed the United States during the Age of Enlightenment. America gained economic power in the late 1800s during the Industrial Age. President Dwight Eisenhower was at the helm during the rise of America's consumer-driven middle class. Ike's decade of economic growth yielded to President John Kennedy's Age of Camelot, a brief period in which America's success in the arts, music, entertainment, and science created a new "soft power" giant on the world stage. Trump is at the helm of the United States and has ushered in the Age of Stupidity, where facts, history, science, diplomacy, human rights, and education no longer matter. From Brazil and Italy to Great Britain and Colombia, others are following Trump's lead and the world is a more dangerous place because of the Trump disease.