Thalassophobia

[H2O Man]

"On the coast,
The long and tempting coast,
The cards on the table lie,
And a speech,
So eloquent in reach,
Was made by a passerby,
Passing by the way between
Here and left behind.
And it ripples through the crowds
Who run and cast their doubts
In the deep forbidden lake."
-- Neil Young; Deep Forbidden Lake


In the early morning hours, Donald Trump has a nightmare. He finds himself in deep, dark water, far beyond any point he has ever been at before. For Donald is uncomfortable in water. He attempts to locate a spot where he can stand, but he is in too deep. He is aware that some of his cult members are on the distant shore, waving the confederate rag, singing, "Lock her up!" Ron DeSantis can be heard laughing.

Suddenly, Trump feels something bump into his legs. Trump fears sharks. And this one has a warrent, and a shark with a warrent scares poor Donald greatly. He wakes up in a cold slime. Then he realizes he is in New York City, not deep, dark water. But he cannot rid his mind of the fear.

One can tell a lot about a person, including a president, by considering their relationship with water. My generation remembers John F. Kennedy, either swimming in or sailing on the ocean. We remember PT 109, and his heroics in deep, dark water. More recently, we have seen a trim, physically fit President Obama enjoying activities in water.

Pictures of Richard Nixon, walking on the shore wearing a suit and dress shoes, was intended to communicate one message. But it backfired in showing his discomfort with the water. Now we have an ex-president who exposed his lack of understanding of oceans when he suggested nuking gathering hurricanes in the Atlantic. This, I think, provides us with clues to how he will react to the FBI executing a search warrent at mar-a-lago.

For Trump is a sociopath. When under pressure before, he has always reacted by tossing the biggest bombs available to "enemies" -- those posing a threat to him. He lacks the capacity to have a conscious awareness that he has done wrong. Instead, he seeks to impose on any and all people but him. He will hug the American flag, claim victimhood, and obviously try to capitalize on this by seeking donations from his cult.

Each time he was able to avoid consequences for his misdeeds -- and that spans from his youth until Sunday -- He grew more confident. And every time, he would do something worse, fully believing he was above the law. But this is different. Indeed, poor Donald has never faced more pressure than he is dealing with today. He has never been tossed into this deep of dark waters.

Surely, Trump's legal team has advised him to be quiet. But Trump never listens to any lawyer thinking that they know the law better than him. And under pressure, he listens closely to a cluster of phantoms that inhabit his mind. Enemies everywhere. Conspiracies against him abound. Bad enough that many he believed were loyal, if only for fear, have betrayed him by testifying not only to the January 6 Committee, but have met with the Department of Justice, including the sharks in the FBI. Timing is always important.