It had been awhile since I ranted about Donald Trump, but since the biggest traitor in American history is still running around free, telling lies, spewing hatred, making threats, being his despicable self, I felt like venting again, and to cite a particularly noteworthy Trump statement from an appearance in Iowa earlier this year.

To refresh my memory, I turned to Google, and searched for "Trump", "Iowa", "2023", “questions from audience”, sometimes trying "Davenport" (where the remarks were made) and “March 14, 2023” (when they would have been reported).

My efforts turned up many articles and a few Trump-friendly websites that covered his speech. I was surprised that even legitimate news sources did not mention the interesting exchange Trump had with a concerned farmer. (One Trump-worshiping website praised him for having the guts to take questions from the audience, though this particular audience was conditioned to applaud any answer that was given)

FINALLY, in frustration, I googled: Trump Iowa bullshit. Bingo! "Bullshit" turned out to be the key word, and the first article on the Google list, from The Daily Beast, explained how Trump had mastered the art of bullshitting, and provided the information I wanted.

A woman in the audience rose to inquire, “I’d like to know how you can help us in Iowa save our farmland from the CO2 pipeline.”

Trump had no clue what the woman was talking about. Rather than admit his ignorance (which knows no bounds), he faked an answer in his familiar wander-all-over-the-place manner:

“We’re working on that and you know, we had a plan to totally, uh, it’s such a ridiculous situation, isn’t it? But we had a plan and we would’ve instituted that plan and it was all ready, but, uh, if we win, that’s gonna be taken care of. That will be one of the easy things we do.”

THERE WAS no follow-up question, though someone should have asked. "If it'll be so easy the second time, why didn't you do it the first time?"

Had he been asked that question, he would’ve blamed Democrats or RINOs (Republicans in name only), or incompetent underlings, though he still would’ve been unable to explain what he was talking about. CO2 pipeline? Isn’t that the name of a rock group?

The pipeline is needed by Iowa’s ethanol industry, which Trump supports. But his remarks were intended to pacify a farm woman who obviously opposes the pipeline. This was one of about a million examples of why you can’t believe anything Donald Trump says. Yet many people do.

LATE in 2015, Trump asked, “How stupid are the people of Iowa?” He said this while railing against Republican rival Ben Carson, who’d told a story Trump didn’t believe, which prompted The Donald to say anyone who did believe it was stupid.

Since then, Trump has told whopper after whopper, obviously believing — with good reason — there are enough stupid people in the country to put him in the White House. And, in 2016, there were, though he had an assist from the outdated electoral college.

Incredibly, after proving to be the most inept president we've ever had, even more people voted for him in 2020. Fortunately, a record number of Americans voted for his opponent, and Trump lost by seven million votes, though results in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona were close enough to give Trump hope of once again stealing the election via the electoral college.

WHEN the final tally in each state showed Joe Biden to be the winner, we had a new president, but Trump and his cronies plotted to overturn the election, which explains my comment that he is the biggest traitor this country has ever seen. He remains a threat to our democracy, but many people are too lazy or indifferent to look beyond Trump's false claims and often bizarre lies.

Most Republicans continue to support him, and whine about the indictments against the twice impeached former president, who should have been arrested the day after his January 6, 2021 coup attempt.

Since Trump's unexpected "victory" in 2016, the Republican Party has become more like the Chicken Little Party, spreading panic about everything, ignoring events of the Trump years, and sometimes blaming them on President Biden, who wasn't in office then.

To me, the greatest irony is how Trump's biggest bragging point — Operation Warp Speed, and the creation of a vaccine to ward off coronavirus — has been turned into an attack on Biden, who implemented the vaccine. Even Trump seems to have backed away from taking credit for a vaccine that, two years ago, his supporters wanted named in his honor.

CONSIDERING the roadblocks he's faced from the opposition, Joe Biden has done a remarkable job as president, receiving little credit for restoring dignity to the office and passing legislation despite a solid bloc of nay-saying Republicans in Congress (some of whom have taken credit for projects that resulted from bills they voted against, particularly the infrastructure bill).

On their own, however, Republicans would rather hold hearings on gas stoves, Hunter Biden, the "weaponization" of government agencies, Hunter Biden, censorship in the the social media, and Hunter Biden. They ask questions during these hearings, but seldom allow witnesses to answer without interrupting them. They complain about "cancel culture", but are doing their best to ban books and demonize educators who dare speak the truth, and they seek to punish anyone who isn't Christian or holds beliefs different from theirs. They label everything "woke", but don't know the meaning of the word.

One result is the rising to prominence in the GOP of a bunch of idiots. Among them: Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy.

WHAT'S HAPPENING isn't really new in American politics, but today — more than ever, I think — it's easy to find support for your ignorance and your biases. Just go online or search YouTube for someone who writes or says exactly what you want, and remain unaware the person spilling all that garbage doesn't believe anything he or she tells you. Case in point: Fox News personnel who admitted during the Dominion lawsuit against their network that they were told to pander to an audience that can’t handle the truth.

Sean Hannity and others knew there was nothing wrong with Dominion voting machines, but they said otherwise on camera. They knew Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but continue to raise doubts.

It has been said that repeating a lie does not make it true, but Trump continues to prove that statement doesn't apply to those in need of a bullshit detector.

POSTSCRIPT: Since this was written, Trump returned to Iowa and told an audience his policy during what he prefers to call "the China virus" was to sit back and let the governors handle the problem. So don't blame him for the monumental screw-up (or all the lies he told at the height of the pandemic).

He also said that when "the China virus" ended (which it hasn't), he restored the economy, which happened during the administration of Joe Biden. So there he was, taking credit for another man's efforts ... or thinking he really did win the 2020 election and he was still president.

Trump also criticized the way President Biden looks in a bathing suit and warned that Biden will get us into World War Two. Yes, that's right. Trump seemed unaware World War Two already happened ... back when he should have been studying world history.

USA Today recently ran a story under the headline "How worried should Democrats be about Biden’s lackluster polls?" First off, I don't think anyone should be too concerned about a poll taken more than a year before an election. Second, I think the polls in question were bogus. And third, if Biden or any Democratic candidate trailed Donald Trump in a poll taken, say, a week before the election, then that would be worrisome not only for Democrats, but for the entire world.

I saw a clip of an interview with members of the Trump cult, and one of them said Trump was an agent of God. She thinks Trump will save America.

I can't think of any person less likely to be an agent of anyone's God than Donald J. Trump. What America urgently needs is to be saved from Trump and the rest of his MAGA idiots.