Pariah Nation

Used to be that the nations known as "pariahs" had tin pot despots running them.

You know,  Amin's Uganda, Qaddafi's Libya,  Duvalier's Haiti, Hussein's Iraq, Marco's Philippines, Assad's Syria, and North Korea under whomever.

All of these places were/are characterized by wide spread corruption, disregard for human rights and the rule of law, brutality towards anyone who appeared to challenge them, kleptocracy, plutocracy, and, of course, rampant nepotism by the ruling families.

Any of that sound familiar?

There was a time when we sneered at despots, decried their awful deeds, and by example tried to lead the civilized world.

Hahaha. That was then, this is now.

We, the good ol' US, are now officially a pariah nation.

Let's go down the check list:

Ignore Climate Change? You better believe it! As long as there's a drop of fossil fuel to be sold, Global Warming is just an "unproven theory".

Universal Health Care? Na. Too hard. Too complicated. Too, uh, "socialist".

Religious persecution? Yep. Certainly if you're a Jew or a Muslim or a non-believer. Those swastikas don't spray paint themselves!

Kleptocracy?  All of those proposed tax cuts for the rich? Selling off public lands to the highest bidders? The Republicans would take the pennies off a dead man's eyes and replace them with vouchers.

Oligarchy? Have you seen Der Trump's appointments? A rainbow coalition of rich, white, mostly males, with dollar signs where their consciences should be.

Rampant nepotism? Are you kidding? It's only a measure of how little Der Trump cares for Tiffany that she isn't at least a trusted advisor, perhaps even a cabinet member by now.

Admire, and even buddy up to, the scum of the earth? Our Piece of Shit in Chief is overly fond of other Pieces of Shit, like the Philippines' Duterte, who is nothing more or less than a psychopathic murderer. Then there's Der Trump's bromances with the likes of Putin, Sisi, Erdogan, and the entire House of Saud. Assholes always seek out other assholes. It's a law of nature.

To be fair, so far the Trump administration hasn't jailed or murdered any journalists or dissidents.

So far...