Congress: The ugly week that still is

WELL, IT'S BEEN AN ugly week for America that will live in infamy for the Republican Party. A government shutdown, which may be hours away as I write this, will further divide the nation to the raw between the Tea Party/social conservatives and everybody else. And if that hasn't been enough for those hoping that something good may yet occur, the country's biggest egotist, Donald Trump, once again noted that there are many things about the Teabaggers that he likes. He also assured us that if he should decide to run for president he would doubtless be the best candidate for the job and the best president America has ever had . Toto , we're not in Kansas anymore.

Nothing is ever what it seems to be these days. Some observers have noted that Trump's reckless showboating about President Obama's birthplace is merely his way to boost the ratings of his TV show. As one who has fallen into bankruptcy four times,Trump has made a fanciful entry into the birther ranks that represents a fifth bankruptcy, this one a mental collapse into lunacy.

As far as the fight over the Federal budget is concerned, it appears to boil down to an attack on Planned Parenthood and women's health programs, including the end of cancer screening. That seems to be a preposterous way to bring a nation to its knees. But all of those comfortably fed GOP white guys stepping before the cameras to assure gullible Americans that they merely want us to rise triumphantly from deficit are not only lying but also showing little courage to resist the mindless conservative goons who have stripped the House of Representatives from Speaker John Boehner. They are hopeful of pleasing their masters (including the Koch brothers) with servility and dedication to a plantation society.

The Martians have landed on Capitol Hill and we're quickly learning that they are a ruthless bunch of otherworld creatures for which we have found no means as yet to return them to their original planet. They are loaded with cash and insist that God is on their side. At least, for now.

Last night, I withdrew from their scandalous world to listen to the late Luciano Pavarotti on YouTube. He was a remarkable artist whose restorative gifts will be around long after the Capitol Hill mob moves on. It's a reminder that unlike those Martians up on Hill, not all human beings are our enemies