When I first joined secondary school I was the kind of kid who got picked on (unless you knew me of course - see below). I was skinny, bespectacled and nerdy. Everything that I believe our American cousins would call a Poindexter. To all intents and purposes this made me a ripe target for bullies.
Or so they thought!
There was one boy, NIck, a full three years older than me that decided I was an easy picking and thus he began a campaign of bullying and intimidation aimed at me. Much of it was nasty name calling, as he probably wouldn't have got away with directly beating me.
The thing is that he didn't know me, nor my middle school experiences. Subjected to bullying, I reached a trigger point at the age of 8 after a particular set of incidents, that I can't share on here. The end result was that rather than being cowed into perpetual victimhood I grew a thick skin to the name calling and had become pretty handy especially with my fists. My step-father in particular encouraged this, because he knew all to well that it is impossible for an adult to provide 100% protection 100% of time. I was told never to start anything, but be more than ready to finish it if the need arises.
Knock on my door and I'll knock right back!
Back to Nick.
After enduring several weeks of his taunting and nastiness, something snapped inside me - and I can still see it clear as day more than 40 years later. He wasn't any worse than he had been, but enough was enough. I marched up to him and he was towering over me; the top of my head didn't even reach his chin, and I launched my fist near vertical like a missile and it struck the target right under his chin. His head rolled back with the power I'd unleashed and stunned and hurt he was paralysed in complete shock...
... he never bothered me again.
Why am I telling you this? Well, a certain Mr Trump is no different to Nick. First time round he bullied his way into power in the way he conducted the debates with Hillary Clinton. He hovered around her like a vulture stalking its carrion and was just nasty. Then just as a lot of bullies do when it came to Joe Biden in particular (and to some extent Kamala Harris) he resorted to juvenile name calling. "Stupid sleepy Joe,' was about as mild as it got. At the same time he made outrageous claims about his prowess that were more about his ego than anything else. Remember how he was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
Please note - especially my American friends this is not about politics (although they are a cause of alarm imho), but about his defects as a human being.
Then on Friday he met a certain Vladimir Putin (who I am certainly no fan of) and he kissed his ass all the way down the red carpet, fawning and over-courteous to a man who has wrought war death and chaos wherever he has stretched his hands. This is a man who has been indicted as a war criminal and yet he is given full honours, a courtesy that he didn't extend Zelenskyy, who is making the best of the hand he's got. Then came the awkward press conference which Putin dominated and Trump blustered his way through as though clutching at straws.
Trump was found out, it's just a shame that it took another bully to expose what we've already known. Like all bullies, Trump is nothing without his aura of invincibility.
That aura has gone and that means Trump is nothing.
Incidentally if you'd like to hear more about how I turned bullies around in my school days I may well post more here. Let me know.
As always stay safe and stay well my friends.
