Wastrel
It's not that he didn't pay federal taxes, it's that he's on the hook for hundreds of millions. But to who?
I’m pretty exhausted from a not leisurely drive from Olympia to Santa Fe in two days. My brother, Bill, and I are visiting with my sister, Pam and her husband, Ed.
We also have my faithful hound, Sally, in tow.
Last night at the pet friendly La Quinta Inn in Twin Falls, Sally decided at 3:40AM Idaho time (2:40AM her normal Pacific Standard Time) that ‘the spirit was moving her’ and that I needed to get her to some green grass posthaste. As per usual, once I am called to action, I have a hard time returning to sawing logs and wandering amongst the surreal scenarios that manifest as dreams.
So, I will make this brief.
I heard wastrel used in reference to Dear Leader the other day and, after the disinterment of a couple of decades of tax and financial records by the New York Times, it appears to be a very accurate description of the scurrilous rascal and teller of lies.
wast•rel wā′strəl
n.
One who wastes, especially one who wastes money; a profligate.
n.
An idler or a loafer.
n.
Anything cast away as spoiled in the making, or bad; waste; refuse.
The man’s a wastrel and I know it wouldn’t have scored a single point in the UFC match tonight that was promoted as a ‘debate’ but I sure wish Joe Biden could have squeezed it in. “I know a wastrel when I see one. I worked for wastrels and, you, sir, are the weaseliest of wastrels I have ever met!”
What else should you call someone who has lost billions, owes hundreds of millions, filed for bankruptcy four times and has failed at so many varied enterprises? Steaks, casinos, football leagues, golf courses and universities just to name a few.
What else should you call someone who watches 8 hours of trash television daily, goes golfing when he is not tweeting or watching television and is, otherwise, exhorting his flying monkeys at his rallies to go and do his bidding?
(Did you know there have been studies that show the more tee times the chief executive officer at a company has the more likely the company will fail or will have failed?)
As for the “spoiled in the making” part, Mary L. Trump succinctly summed it up with her title for the book about her rapacious uncle - “Too Much and Never Enough.”
What else should you call the person who is so deeply in debt he has lobbied the Federal Reserve Board for “negative” interest rates?
A wastrel.
Bar none.
Which means he is the best wastrel of his kind.
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My most prolific AAR, Nancy Enz Lill, sent an article to me from Outside magazine about the new generation beginning to seriously appreciate the value of recreation and leisure. Music to the ears, of course, for someone who has been involved in the field of recreation for what seems like forever and knows the value of recreation in general. Could this be the start of a digital backlash?
Also, Anand Giridharadas interviews Sarah Kendzior for his column, The.Ink. Sarah is an expert on authoritarian governments and the author of “The View from Flyover Country” and “Hiding in Plain Sight”. To have the two of them sharing thoughts on our current state of affairs is very much worth the price of admission, if there was one.
After tonight’s debate, I need it.