I have written about Moh Moh’s email four years ago on election night. Essentially, she wanted to know what had happened to America. Moh Moh couldn’t believe that America elected Trump. To be honest with you, I couldn’t believe it either. That feeling of disbelief and concern wasn’t just in Myanmar but most of the world except for Russia. Everything for which America stood was quickly being reversed. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, America First, anti-NATO, anti-Obamacare, pro-authoritarian dictators, etc. all became part of Trump’s agenda.

For four years, Americans have had to listen to Trump spurt out all the negative -isms, which America had tried to remove from our country during the last two and a half centuries. America was an experiment, a beacon on the hill, which quickly became swamp infested. Trump has endeavored to replace the Statue of Liberty.

Trump’s version of history

I can’t believe four years ago that any thinking American could have voted for the perfect example of the worst possible American. Thomas Jefferson said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” That is a fairly clear statement. “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” Trump is precisely about which Jefferson warned us. Finally, Jefferson’s understood the underpinning of our government. “The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.”

Obviously, Jefferson was correct. It was apparent that four years ago that we are not a nation with an educated electorate. Okay, we really messed up in 2016 with electing Trump. For the past four years, we have listened to lies or misleading comments over 22,000 times uttered by Trump.

However, after four years of our Tweeter President, I would have thought that some of the not so educated electorate would have learned a lesson about life. Trump was an inane loser in business and worst as a president. For example, on January 20 this year, the first person in the US was diagnosed with the coronavirus. On January 22, Trump said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” On January 28, a National Security advisor told Trump, “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency...This is going to be the roughest thing you face.”

While knowing all this a week after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed, Trump did nothing other than to spout bs about this pandemic, “One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Trump’s sentence doesn’t even make sense. How are miracles related to disappearing? Regardless, we have 4.2% of the world’s population and have more than 20% of the world’s confirmed COVID-19 cases and the same percentage of deaths due to the coronavirus.

Despite Trump’s ineptitude, he has a following who buy into the notion that Trump is doing a great job stopping COVID-19. To assist these non-thinkers, on October 27, the White House gave a press release enumerating all Trumps litany of accomplishments. At the top of the list, it read, “Ending the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Johns Hopkins University’s dashboard on COVID-19 doesn’t accept that Trump has ended the pandemic. Just click on their website reporting on the entire world’s cases of the coronavirus. On the left side, there is a list of nations with confirmed cases and on the right side is a list of deaths. Look at the country which tops both columns. Those numbers increase each time the dashboard is updated.

Despite the sickness and deaths due to our Killer in Chief, Donald the Dumb, Election Day is tomorrow. It is obvious to me that Donald the Dumb will be out of office due to the election results. However, on the other side of the world in Myanmar, they are celebrating Full Moon Day of Thadingyut. Thadingyut is the name of the seventh lunar month.

In every home or monastery, they are commemorating this holiday. The streets have stalls to buy traditional foods and treats.

The candles at the Thadingyut Festival

Candles are seen in homes and fireworks go up all over Myanmar. They have fire balloons that float above the homes. This holiday is especially a fun time for the younger generation. The celebration lasts around ten days.

Ti Ti, my oldest granddaughter in Myanmar, has put captions under my photos, which I took on my last two visits to my family. Under one of her captions of an open-air market, she wrote something about tour guides could take me to an open-air market in the morning and pick me up in the evening after looking at everything. Ti Ti is correct. I wish that I were back with my family now. We could wander through markets just because I am fascinated with seeing everything. However, I can imagine what the open air would be selling during this festival.

Nightlife during the Thadingyut Festival

A more serious aspect of Thadingyut Festival is that all Buddhists pay homage to their elders, which includes asking to be forgiven for mistakes that they have made. Interestingly, the elders forgive the younger generation and then bless them.

This is a video, which Moh Moh took of Ko Ko, Ti Ti, and Fatty launching their balloon aloft during the Thadingyut Festival.

I wonder how many of this type of hot-air balloons would be needed to be launched into the skies of Myanmar by Trump during the festival to begin to atone for Trump’s egregious behavior in the past four years. Regardless, Trump’s days as our white supremacist president who did nothing to address COID-19 will soon end.