Given the low unemployment rate, it seems there is an uptick in the number of stories which reference the difficulties employers are experiencing in finding suitable candidates for employment.

An apprentice is “a person who is learning a trade from a skilled employer, having to agreed to work for a fixed period at low wages.”¹ And so today we consider the bungler-in-chief, the apprentice who continues his cage match with the office of President of the United States and the standard he continues to bear lower and lower.

Leadership Tyranny and Nepotism:

Trump has installed his daughter, her spouse,  and his own friends and followers in prominent positions of power or influence.

Take-away: Lucky sperm, affluent eggs, and proximity carry more weight than education, dedication, and experience.  If your last name, your <skin color, gender, connections, insert affirmative action descriptor here> don’t align with our “values”, get outta here. Better luck in the next life!

Measured constraint Abandon and Arrogance:

Trump communicates international policy Tweets “fire and fury” poking the unstable bear in the Hermit Kingdom.  Presumably this tweet was an end-run around Secretary of State Tillerson. And that poor US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley!

Although I disagree with her politics, I would hazard that a talented, devoted, and serious politician has thrown her card in the ring under the bus.  How to represent the US in an international forum when her manager is keen on watching shit hit a fan?

Take-away: Your boss can’t be trusted.  He can damage years of planning, hard work, and relationship building by impetuous, angry, ill-considered 140-character blasts on his worldwide bullhorn, Twitter.

Building relationships, using professional communications, maintaining confidentiality between co-workers is overrated.  Wild-mood swings and a healthy potty-mouth will get you all the way to the White House!

Thoughtfulness Thoughtlessness:

Trump reading material.  He doesn’t need to read daily intelligence briefings.  He gets a twice-daily — that’s more than once, it’s just terrific, it’s the best, it’s great, it’s simple — it’s a folder full of praise for him.

Take-away #1: Reading for the sake of learning something new, reading for the pure joy of escape or learning, or reading for the sake of staying up-to-date on the daily concerns of the Republic are overrated and, trust me, are not even necessary. I’m here to announce that in 2017, the concept of a “President’s reading list” is an oxymoron and none of your business but it is all about him.

Take-away #2: Move along.  Nothing wrong with the narcissism of Trump.  If it’s not about him, it’s not worth his time and that includes you and any concerns you may have. Worried about that crazy Kim in the Hermit Kingdom? We have our own crazy Don to worry about here.  Get back to work …

Work ethic Time off/Golf habit:

Speaking of getting back to work, as of this writing, Trump has been in office 201 days. In those 201 days, he has golfed 46 times.  The cost to the taxpayer (again, to date) is $57,648,904. Assuming he plays a 18- hole round each time, he has played 828 holes. Assuming a 4-stroke average of par for a hole and giving The Donald the benefit of the doubt that he shoots par each hole even though we know he lies like the rug on his head, he has taken 3,312 strokes while POTUS.

And! $57,648,904 divided by 3,312 works out to a cost of $17,406 to the taxpayer every time Prescedense Trump takes a swing! Whoa!

(For comparison purposes, according to Golf Digest, Rory McIlroy is the 2017 highest paid golfer, $49,514,505. Arnold Palmer remains second. Whoa! Nice work Mr. Palmer.)

Trump’s annual take of $400,000 salary as POTUS divided by golf swings works out to a cost of $120.77/swing. Ah, a number that is understated for sure. It doesn’t include itemized costs like transportation (Air Force One), security (Secret Service) and other costs intrinsic with protection of the POTUS.

Take-away: Hard work is overrated and underpaid. Until you get caught, use other people’s money (OPM).

Well, this has been a dispiriting exercise. The POTUS Donald reliably demonstrates a blatant disregard for anything other than his own self. In a position of power and authority, he should be a leader, but he does not inspire; he is lazy; he is incompetent.

Dollars to donuts, he is a grifter running his business out of the White House, bilking the US out of billions. Dollars to donuts.

¹Until he releases his income tax returns, we can assume that President Trump is making less money from his role as President of the United States than he makes from the Trump Organization.

As a plausible conspiracy theory to defraud the United States — the country, the entire Republic, the all of our resources, the all of us — I believe Trump is using the Secret Service and the military power of the United States for protection from foreign powers that do not think as much of him as he does. As an elected pol, he is using us all for cover.

Who are the endless foreign powers who own a piece of him and his? I contend that he’s also been kept afloat and is still in business because the people dealing with him have had the cushion of interpreters and legal personnel between them and him. They don’t want to deal one-on-one with the man who sits POTUS. Sit with that for a bit.