Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Last weekend was a day of contrasts like many others if you compare the excesses of the Trump administration and the future of this country, if not the world.

Trump has turned almost everything upside down – and the top side is almost always anything that benefits him and him and his minions.

Consider these issues:

THE POPE’S FUNERAL:  Trump headed off to the Vatican the other day “supposedly” to pay his respects to Pope Francis whose official funeral occurred Saturday. 

But did Trump know what he was doing to pay respects to a Pope who emphasized care for the poor and the marginal, almost the exact opposite of what Trump has done so far in his second presidency?

Who knows?  I suspect not, for Trump does not have the credentials of sympathy or empathy for those who need help in their lives.

Plus, at the Pope’s funeral, Trump violated the suggested dress code.  It was supposed to be in all black with other mourners, but, of course, Trump, ever his own boss, wore blue.  And, during eulogies, when the late Pope was complimented on his care for the poor and needy, Trump frowned.

ANGST AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE:  Here, let me quote from the most recent column by Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post.

“We now know the woefully unqualified a former Fox News personality, Pete Hegseth, is to run the Department of Defense.  He shared details of a military operation in a second Signal chat; this one, the New York Times reported, included his wife, brother and lawyer.  He also had the app put on his Defense Department computer.

“Hegseth has purged his top staff — people he just hired — and blames them for a series of damaging leaks.  He set up a top secret briefing on China for Elon Musk, ignoring an outrageous conflict of interest that even the Trump White House couldn’t stomach.  He brought his wife to sensitive meetings.  He had a makeup studio set up for his TV appearances, CBS News reported.

“Under Hegseth, the whole place has devolved into paranoia and vulgar recriminations…”

AMATEUR HOUR IN OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES:   It’s not just at the Pentagon.  Across the Executive Branch, in agency after agency, it’s amateur hour under the Trump administration.

More from the columnist Milbank:  “A titanic legal battle is now under way with Harvard University over academic freedom and billions of dollars in grants?  The whole thing might have been set off by mistake.  The New York Times reported that the university, after announcing its intention to fight the administration, received a ‘frantic call from a Trump official’ saying the administration’s letter full of outrageous demands that provoked the standoff was ‘unauthorized’ and should not have been sent.”

AND ABOUT UNAUTHORIZED DEPORTATIONS:  In the celebrated case of Kilmar Abrego García, deported from Maryland to El Salvador in violation of a court order, the Trump administration blamed ‘an administrative error and ‘an oversight’ for the original deportation.

And, of course, he nor his minions will do anything to correct their error, so Abrego Garcia remains in a hell-hole of a prison.

Trump also is trying to justify Abrego García’s deportation retroactively with a statement from a disgraced police officer who claims the Maryland resident was an ‘active member’ of the MS-13 gang in Upstate New York — where he has never lived.

And — oops — the administration did it again.  On Wednesday, a Trump-appointed judge ruled that the administration had deported another person, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant, in violation of a court-approved settlement, and must facilitate his return.

FINALLY, A MAJOR DEMOCRAT CALLS OUT TRUMP:  In a fiery address to New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday night, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned what he described as Trump’s “authoritarian power grabs” while also blasting the “do-nothing” Democrats in his party — stating it is “time to fight everywhere, all at once.”

As reported by the Washington Post, the billionaire Democrat governor repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet with acidic attacks on the morals and ethics of the president, adviser and top donor Elon Musk, as well as members of the president’s Cabinet.

“He slammed their efforts to dismantle government programs that the most vulnerable Americans rely on and said the Democratic Party must ‘abandon the culture of incrementalism that has led us to swallow their cruelty.’  It is time for his party, he said, to ‘knock the rust off poll-tested language’ that has obscured ‘our better instincts.’”

Finally, Pritzker, calling out Trump’s “xenophobia” and thirst for power, went on to say that Democrats must “stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman.”

This could have been step number one in a run by Pritzker for president next time around when, of course, Trump will contend that, despite the constitutional bar, he deserves a third term.