My Joe Biden Confession

I was disappointed when the Democrats announced that Hillary Clinton would be facing-off against Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election. But not because of any ill-feelings I have towards the former First Lady.

She performed brilliantly in her role as Secretary of State and was a distinguished First Lady, suffering through her husband's infidelities with remarkable dignity.

No, my disappointment stemmed from a what I believe was a prefabricated agenda to serve the Democratic party. Not only would they be the first party to elect a Black president, but the first to elect a woman as well.

Instead of waiting to gauge the national mood and deciding on the best possible candidate for that particular election, Democrats decided to send Clinton into battle—regardless of her opponent.

Yes, there was a fair bit of arrogance in the assumption she would defeat whomever the Republicans ran against her. What's that old expression about counting your chickens?

As it turns out, Clinton was Trump's ideal opponent. Not only was she roundly despised by the GOP, but an issue involving e-mails she sent and received as Secretary of State played right into Trump's hands.

And a perfectly-timed announcement by the F.B.I. just days before the election cinched it.

Despite losing the popular vote by a count of nearly three-million, the orange-haired cretin ended up in the White House thanks to the electoral college.

Next election we were offered Joe Biden. He was a career politician and a longtime Senator from Delaware, yet I wasn't enthused. Nor were any of the Democrats I spoke with. This was the guy who was going to take down Trump and his obsessive-compulsive cult?

Eight years ago, I had rooted for Bernie Sanders. In 2020, it was Elizabeth Warren. Now I would have to choose between Trump and Biden. If I haven't already made it clear, I was under-whelmed.

I shouldn't have been.

It turns out that after four years of Trump's ignorance, arrogance and general fecklessness, Biden's grassroots, plain-as-day sensibility were just the cure Democrats had been looking for. (Modesty requires me to admit that at the time, I just knew his name wasn't 'Trump'.)

This time, Biden took the popular vote by seven-million and pummeled Trump in the electoral college. But despite the sound whipping, Trump's ego would not let him go gently into that dank, dark Republican night.

Nope. President Petulant displayed his rigorous ability to manipulate, stating before Election Day that if he didn't win, the election was 'stolen'.

How's that for covering your ass?

Despite getting the re-counts and investigations he demanded, guess what? He still lost. By 7,059,526 votes.

He carried the lie forward, as did the intellectually-disadvantaged folk who constitute his cult. Seeing a 'Trump Won' banner in 2023 was the saddest and most-pathetic example of voluntary stupidity I have ever seen.

Why not claim that water isn't actually wet? Or that Wendy's was selling nuclear arms to Libya?

Again, I have diverged from the original intent of this post. Joe Biden became president under very trying conditions, not unlike those of Barack Obama. Trump's non-intervention with the pandemic and its fallout created a crisis much worse than it needed to be.

But come to think of it, like anything that didn't directly affect billionaires, it was Trump's standard operating procedure. Like all Trump-centric criticism, it was a hoax. It's rigged. It's a witch-hunt. It's the product of radical left-wingers.

Sigh. Doesn't anyone like Donald?

But I warmed to Joe Biden. As bland and ego-less as he was, Biden settled the ship. He didn't appoint Trump-tards to every judicial opening. He didn't hand additional tax breaks to billionaires and their companies. He worked to maintain voter's rights and championed reproductive rights.

He decried the nation's runaway gun violence and worked to inhibit it.

Best of all, he didn't receive love letters from Kim Jong Un or pretend that Vladimir Putin was anything but what he is.

Yeah, his handling of immigration could have been better. And guilty or not, he was held responsible for inflation not returning to pre-pandemic norms. And let's not forget we're still sending weapons and money to Israel even after they have admitted to genocide.

But he has greatly restored America's position as a world leader and a tireless champion of democracy. That counts for something. Especially when your opposition seeks to destroy it.

And on July 21^st, he made a decision almost unfathomable in the politics of the twenty-first century. Owing to a poor debate performance three weeks earlier, he announced he was—for the good of the party—removing himself as a candidate for President of the United States.

Wait—you mean selflessness isn't dead?

Can you imagine Donald Trump doing the same thing? Even with a central nervous system suffused with fentanyl?

Of course not.

President Biden's acknowledgement of duty and responsibility happened in a city stuffed with preening egos and selfish power grabs.

“Wait. You're doing that because it's the right thing to do? Wow. You're setting a really bad example for the rest of us, bro.”

And so he was. 

Unburdened by the monstrous ego that controls his opponent, Biden took a step back, realized the momentousness of the occasion and realized he wasn't the best man for the job. Democrats are fortunate Donald Trump is incapable of making the same decision.

Thank you, Joe. You are truly a man amongst men.

FYI

Dear Readers of the Square Peg:

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted. I apologize. The world has really knocked me off my axis the past couple of years (as it likely has you).

Between a part-time job, a volunteer gig and exploring some mental health issues (what—you thought this shit came from a balanced and healthy perspective?), I've been pretty busy. And frankly, the national news is often a bit much for me to digest. So there goes a favorite source of material.

2022 is just so fucking weird! I know this isn't factually true, but I feel as if I'm the only one who sees the creepy dude with nothing but a demented gleam and a machete climbing through the bedroom window.

Am I?

Disgusted with the presidency of Joe Biden (I mean, let's face it: Biden could invent sex and sixty-percent of America would say they got screwed), for whom everything that could've gone wrong essentially has, people are actually embracing Republicans.

Republicans!

What the fuck?

You think Republicans are going to fix the supply chain shortage and inflation and keep us safe from the eruption of tyrants happening all over the globe?

The same way Trump protected us from foreign interference in our elections? Or his sparkling handling of the pandemic? Or the laissez faire attitude he took towards Vladimir Putin as Putin was planning to upend the western hemisphere?

That kind of protection?

Oh that's right—Republicans hate the same people I do! Seeing my hate reflected in the faces of my elected representation is worth all...

Of.

This.

How can people embrace the short-term, zero-sum ideas that constitute Republican “policy”? Even with my modest eyesight I can see where they will lead. And how monstrously difficult they will be to undo.

While the scientific community continues its debate over time travel, it is incredibly ironic the party which makes such a show of denying that community is the one to accomplish it and get to the finish line first.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dark Ages.

Teflon Man

There appeared to be some light in the effort to hold Donald Trump accountable for decades of shady business practices, first and foremost lying about his assets and their valuations in order to receive preferential loans from lenders.

Unlike you or I, no one questioned him. Lenders took him (and his claims) at face value. Imagine. His well-known reputation as an inveterate liar was somehow pushed off to the side and forgotten.

But just as a case seeking to prosecute Trump for these actions was gaining traction, Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney for New York County, has stepped in and announced he has “doubts” about the case. Doubts which provoked its two lead prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, to abruptly resign after years of work.

That the timing of this is incredibly suspicious goes without saying. What were you offered, Alvin? Or perhaps more to the point: what were you threatened with?

With apologies to Ronald Reagan, it must be asked: is Donald Trump the real Teflon president? Trump's repeated dodges of consequence call to mind the expression “I'd rather be lucky than good.”

But is he that lucky? Really?

To put it mildly, I am not a fan. He is the most contemptuous public figure of my lifetime. More plainly, I wouldn't wipe my ass with him. His recent endorsement of Vladimir Putin again confirms the emptiness and blackness of his soul. 

If Donald is the question, a lingering, painful death is the answer.

That being the case, I'm trying to conceive of the irony in having a core Republicant tenet turned against them. Namely, the rash of 'Stand Your Ground' legislation awaiting passage in red states across the country.

To anyone with a half a brain, these statutes legalize murder, permitting anyone who feels “threatened” to unload the contents of their AR-15 assault rifle into the torso of the alleged offender.

With just one side of the story available in court, feel free to hazard a guess as to the outcome.

Just for fun, imagine a red state resident who feels threatened by Donald Trump. Does that mean a resident of, say, Florida, can buy an AR-15 assault rifle and empty the contents of the gun's magazine into said threat?

Ah, what delicious irony.

Alas, the phalanx of taxpayer-funded Secret Service protection Donald and his family enjoys into perpetuity makes that a remote possibility at best.

But in the face of such an execrable man, the thought alone is a comfort.

And these days, I'll take whatever comfort I can get.

Truth

 

“Ukraine has no reason to exist.” —V. Putin

“Right back at ya, Vladimir.” —Ukraine

 

Happy Anniversary

Tradition dictates that to celebrate a first anniversary, a gift of paper is the time-honored way to recognize the occasion.

And I agree.

So it is only appropriate that on this, the first anniversary of the seditious attacks on the nation's capitol, a blizzard of paper gifts be bestowed upon the participants. Things like warrants. Subpoenas. Complaints. Indictments. Citations. Etcetera.

While a fair number of the rioters have already been charged, too few have been treated with the severity their acts of insurrection demand.

Sentencing is always a nebulous affair, with judges given to wide interpretation of events and circumstances. But how is that tears and flimsy excuses are exchanged for slap-on-the-wrist sentences of (gulp) probation and home detention?

Seriously?

That's the price for participating in an organized effort to overturn and deny the results of a presidential election? For storming the nation's capitol and killing three cops? Taking part in a mission with a stated goal of hanging the vice-president?

Huh?

Too typical is the case of Anna Morgan-Lloyd. In an Oscar-worthy performance, Morgan-Lloyd convinced judge Royce Lamberth she was ashamed of the “savage display of violence” she oh so eagerly partook in.

Just a day later she related to Fox News that people were actually “very polite” during the riot and that she saw “relaxed” police offers conversing with rioters and that she didn't really believe the events of that day constituted an insurrection..

(Don't you just hate it when Trumpers don't take their meds?)

Furthermore, when do Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Josh Hawley take the stand? Ted Cruz? Tommy Tuberville? How about Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who ordered—in advance—that the National Guard not respond to any calls for help originating from the nation's capitol?

The events of January sixth were as spontaneous, as impulsive as the Super Bowl. We know everything we need to know. January 6^th demands top-to-bottom accountability. Scrutiny. Investigation. Hearings, trials and imprisonment.

Excuse the raw language, but we need to treat the participants as if they were Black.

We need to get angry. Stay angry. And make sure January 6th is treated as seriously as it needs to be, with severe punishment for the participants at each and every level.

And to impart to the mentally-ill folks across the aisle and their brain-damaged supporters that sedition is not okay.

Never.

Ever.

Business and Government--Inverted

In the United States, “we” have given enormous power to our businesses. If you're a Republican, you feel this is a great and good thing. If you're a Democrat, probably not so much.

We is in quotations because no one asked us—the American public—if we were okay with that. It was just done. Case in point was the 2010 Citizens United decision, which had nothing to do with citizens or unity.

Ostensibly about campaign finance reform, it served to weaponize Republican's biggest advantage (money) and removed any and all constraints from corporate campaign donations. This because in the words of our friends across the aisle, corporations are people, too.

And that being the case, deserve their first amendment rights, also. 

Sniff.

This not only further entrenched the culture of special interests and lobbyists in Washington DC, but made running for office a whole helluva lot more expensive. You are no doubt shocked to learn a Republican-majority in the Supreme Court found in its favor.

As the U.S. economy has moved from one based in manufacturing to one based in more nebulous things like buying and selling stuff like debt and data, it has moved out of brick and mortar structures into cyberspace.

It has changed more-quickly than the government can adapt to it. Tech entities like Apple, Google, Twitter and Facebook frequently operate in an unregulated environment that often leaves them to (gulp) police themselves.

Which brings us to Facebook's suspension of Donald Trump.

I'm convinced one-hundred percent of us know Donald Trump is a shit. But only fifty-percent of us will admit it because denying for Donnie has become a cause. A declaration of contempt for people who see things differently than you do.

For those of us not in the cult, Donald Trump is a cancerous skin lesion. Left untreated, it will envelop the body and kill it. And unlike most cancers, the best and most-effective treatment for this strain is silence.

Unplugging the lie machine that seeks only its own affirmation even at the expense of a nation. 

Republicans can yammer about freedom of speech til they turn blue. (Heh heh heh.) Donnie can cry “It's rigged!” til his BMI is appropriate to his age, weight and height. But as they so often do, Republican's own actions hollow-out even their most-pointed accusations until they're nothing but empty shells.

Much like Republicans themselves.

Until government catches up, we are most fortunate to have tech entities like Facebook that realize the greater threat, and have acted accordingly. Ironic, isn't it?

The Other Side of the Asile

If you're like me, you might have winced ever so slightly when Republicans accused Twitter and Facebook (and by extension—“cancel culture” Democrats) of denying Donald Trump his First Amendment rights. His right to free speech.

Of censorship and banishment.

And um, I agree. In the tiniest, most-literal sense imaginable.

But this is Donald Trump. The cancer who stood in front of a mob of right-wing nut jobs and exhorted them to do his bidding for him. To march on the Capitol building and prevent the “stolen” election results from being etched in stone—by any and all means necessary.

But like so much of what emanates from the mouths of Republicans, we needn't have worried.

Republicans have taken it upon themselves to administer their own brand of censorship by their efforts to remove, silence or, at the very least, censure those in elected office who didn't march in lockstep with president 45 on everything.

Up to and including sedition.

Sadly, the poster child for this foolishness is Liz Cheney, a congresswoman from Wyoming. Her words, more than any other, articulated the dismay so many of us felt after the events of January sixth.

She said Donald Trump had betrayed the oath he took when he became president. Yes. Betrayed. As in cheating a spouse. Jilting a lover. The word carries a powerful human component of hurt and loss. Of being lied to. It is the perfect choice.

If that weren't enough, Cheney had the temerity to vote for impeachment of Crazy Don, an act which didn't escape the notice of the Wyoming GOP. They voted 66 to 8 to censure her.

Want to talk to me again about the First Amendment, gentlemen? Oh that's right. Only Democrats censor people. You're just ensuring party homogeny.

Sore loser Darin Smith even went so far as to publicly answer the question 'You want to know how far down the Trump rabbit hole I am?' by speaking thusly:

“We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election.”

Which he got—weeks before this charade.

I'm trying to imagine the Republican response had it been President Obama speaking Trump's words in front of a crowd of BLM supporters. Telling them “You need to fight like hell! Because if you don't, you're not going to have a country any more!” Or having Obama's faux Giuliani suggest “Let's have trial by combat!”

Yes, Republicans would be falling all over themselves to hang Obama from a tree. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)

But coming from Trump and addressed to an angry, roiling mob armed with guns, ammunition, helmets, bullet proof vests, police shields and filled with a soon-to-be-acted-on murderous rage?

Nah. It's just Don being Don. 

If you say so. 

The Shifting Sands of Republicanism

After four years of angry and contrarian Republican rule that saw them wield power like a policeman does their truncheon, Republicans are suddenly concerned with healing.

Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) are reluctant to consider impeachment because it might—in their words—add to our collective sense of divisiveness and interfere with our nation's unity. Awww.

What a shame that wasn't on the agenda in 2017. Or 2018. Or 2019. Or most spectacularly, in 2020.

Why weren't you concerned about healing two months ago instead of fueling the fire of a deranged mob's belief that the election had been stolen? Why weren't you concerned a month ago? Why did it take the loss of the White House, the Senate and a violent mob's break-in of the Capitol to work 'healing' into your vocabulary?

Listen. I'm all for healing. Unity. I pray for them. The reduction in national stress would be profound.

But in diverting attention away from an unhinged psychopath and allowing him to continue in office—yes, even for eight days—you're doing more harm than healing. The law-abiding portions of this country demand consequences for Donald Trump.

You belong to the self-declared party of law and order. Don't you?

I ask you, Senators: what's more pressing than disconnecting a terrorist from his ability to terrorize? From acting to ensure the democracy of the United States survives him and the legion of goons at his beck and call?

It's probably because I'm a libtard and/or radicalized socialist, but I can't think of anything. When the house is on fire gentlemen, job number-one is to put out the fire.

Too many Republicans continue to fear Trump. They fear backlash should they grow a spine and say “Enough!”

Snowflake I may be, but I know a self-centered pig interested only in nourishing his bottomless craving for adulation and attention when I see one. This is not about conservatism. It's not about immigration. It's not about abortion. It's not about god. Or guns. Or country.

It's about Donald J. Trump. It's about the United States of Don. Make no mistake. It's not about you or what you believe. It's about Don. 

First, last and always.

To his followers, I'm sorry you're unhappy and angry and desperate to the point where Donald Trump is an answer. I respectfully inquire: to what?

Is the ability to freely call a Black person a nigger or to harass gays or to abuse women really that important to you? Is it really worth of all of....this?

Is it?

Again, I'm sorry for your pain. I'm sorry you feel ignored. But um, didn't your guy win last time? Didn't you have four years of government just the way you like it? Tell me: after having it your way for four years, are you any happier? Do you feel more satisfied? Fulfilled?

Or are you just more angry?

I invite your commentary.

And Senators? Some things are more-important than party. I hope you're big-enough to acknowledge it. But I'm not holding my breath.

The Trump Tantrum: Day 64

With an unbalanced and deranged man presently heading the United States, you have to ask yourself what's next?

This creature, completely unable to process the events of November 3^rd, is suffering a catastrophic psychological episode and everything—everything—is on the table that might reconcile his battered psyche with what is no doubt an unimaginably twisted sense of retribution.

This man is a terrorist. He needs to be treated as such. Twitter understands this. For starters, he must be censured. Then he must be removed from office.

On a more humane note, he should be checked into a psychiatric facility until he is well. Then it is critical he be made to face the mountain of charges filed against him. Accountability has never been needed more-urgently.

By rights, he should be stripped of his presidential pension and his lifetime of taxpayer-supported security. It is obscene that those who have suffered at his hands financially, materially and health-wise be made to ensure a lifetime of safety for him and his family.

Supporters embraced Donald Trump because he was an outlier. A maverick. I've never fully understood how a billionaire real estate developer from Manhattan qualifies as an outsider, but then I have a brain. 

An outsider as president is a good thing because? 

Finally, isn't it pitiable that the abundant law enforcement agencies in and around Washington DC didn't treat this as a BLM march? Just imagine the scores of heavily-armed militia that would have ringed the Capitol building!

Sigh.

As a nation and a society, we have nowhere to go but up. I pray we make it.

I Can Break the Vaccine Logjam!

 After hearing Trump's phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger plainly seeking to badger/guilt/manipulate Raffensperger into cooking the books of the 2020 election in Trump's favor, I have had it.

I ask you: has there ever been a more heinous, more corrupt jackal in public office? And is it asking too much that he is soon to receive the Benito Mussolini treatment not too long after leaving office, if not before?

Sadly, it seems my New Year's Eve wish has one exception: Donald J. Trump. But I'm forgiving his zombies—for the most part. Read on...

Amazing, isn't it? But yeah, I can. Here's the deal: if you voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, you go to the end of the line.

By casting your vote for Crazy Don, you have endorsed this medical cataclysm which has placed tens of millions of lives at risk, and I see no reason whatsoever why you should benefit alongside those who sought order over chaos; leadership over sedition and fraud.

It is you who swallowed President Petulant's every word and obeyed his every wish. It is you who denied the existence of COVID-19 and belittled those who believed differently. It is you who stridently protested common-sense public health measures meant to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and fought tooth and nail to have them overturned.

(In addition to ignoring them.)

It is you who, like your president, whined and cried without end. It is you who raised the game of victimhood to new heights, claiming that wearing a cloth mask over your nose and mouth amounted to tyranny.

It is you who, like your president, enabled the spread of COVID-19 via your teenaged sense of immortality and now want to partake in a cure.

To which I politely respond “Fuck you.”

It is entirely unsurprising that we fell short of the twenty million vaccinations promised by Vice-President Pence. It is entirely unsurprising that the distribution lags far behind what was promised.

We have only to look at the captain of the ship.

To paraphrase your local stock broker, this is a case where past performance is indicative of future results. Unless it benefited the one-percent and their businesses, is there anything Donald J. Trump didn't fuck up?

Like the trolls you are, you need to follow your leader. This isn't the time to discover your sense of free will and think for yourself. There is no virus, remember? Hence no need for inoculation.

I'd like you to show us snowflakes one more time how indomitable you are. I'd like you to show us your fiery defiance in the face of, well, everything. You can't talk the talk if you won't walk the walk.

C'mon—just one more show. Isn't it better to risk sickness and even death as a true blue Trumper than to live in shame as a RINO?

I thought so.

The Importance of Invisible Things

 

Last week I had my car worked on. Not a terribly significant event, I admit. But one that provoked the opportunity to ponder an endangered quality in our society: trust.

I doubt many of us realize the extent to which we are connected. That we depend on one another. Regardless of our political leanings, skin color, gender or sexual orientation, we are linked and rely on each other pretty heavily.

For instance, when we take our favorite article of clothing to the dry cleaner, we are counting on the store's employees to process it in the appropriate manner and not subject it to a toxic chemical bath which could destroy it.

Even if we're not there to witness it firsthand.

When we order Fetuccine Alfredo we take for granted the dinner will be prepared in a sufficiently sanitary kitchen using the ingredients dictated by the recipe and described in the menu.

Again, even when we're not personally overseeing its preparation.

And when we bring the aforementioned car in for servicing, we depend on an unseen mechanic to service or repair whatever component needs attention even though the car is out of sight and the work often not readily apparent.

So when you gaze upon the landscape of a functioning society, it is staggering to realize the extent to which we lean on this single, invisible thing called trust. A society couldn't function without it. It might even be the linchpin of civilization.

Also startling is the degree to which we take it for granted. And the profound, long-lasting damage that occurs when it is corrupted.

Which brings me to our sitting president.

Donald Trump has proven his willingness to destroy anything to satiate the yawning maw of his ego. To fill the bottomless chasm of his need for adulation and control. Even if that which is being destroyed enables a more-or-less functional society.

Put another way, ask not what Donald can do for you, but what you can do for Donald. Anything is worth sacrificing for his fulfillment. (Just ask the folk who contributed $170 million in donations to his "election defense fund.") 

So as he continues to nurture division and distrust in the name of consolidating political power, he doesn't give a shit that the cost may be a permanently damaged society shot through with suspicion, distrust and entrenched divides.

It works for him. And in the United States of Donald, that's what it's all about. 

 

Going Forward?

There is no joy. Only relief. With a diminished majority in the House and an undetermined alignment in the Senate, there is little worry Democrats will make any significant inroads into our legislative logjam over the next two years.

Joe Biden is mostly a paperweight. While the papers on the desk won't be scattered about the room by Trump-style bluster, they won't be put in order, either. In other words, while we won't be moving forward, the descent into chaos has been halted.

More concerning is the widespread support enjoyed by the most toxic, destructive and ignorant president the nation has ever endured. I heard time and time again “He kept his promises” as justification for casting a ballot for Mr. T.

Really? You mean the Rust Belt is awash with good-paying manufacturing jobs? 'Cause I missed that. He increased our consumption of coal, thereby restoring the economies of West Virginia and Wyoming? 'Cause I missed that, too.

(Residents of those states continued to act as battered wives, awarding the most-decisive pro-Trump percentages in the nation to Sir Lies-A-Lot despite the fact he did nothing whatsoever for their economies.)

Illegal immigration has been brought to a virtual standstill thanks to his stupendous wall—financed by Mexico—along our southern border? It has slowed, but that's because of the pandemic that isn't really a pandemic.

The brilliant health care package he's been promising for nearly four years is ready for implementation? His 'America first' policy has rejuvenated the country and we again enjoy a quality of life unparalleled anywhere in the world?

'Cause I missed those, too.

I mean, Trump did stuff, yeah. 

He awarded Walmart and Amazon and Exxon massive tax cuts. He awarded our raft of billionaires and millionaires with massive tax cuts as well. He packed our courts with right-wing conservatives. Lied, cheated and stole. Undermined our faith in the U.S. mail and in our elections.

Created more division and unrest in this country than any mob of radicalized socialists could ever hope to.

Trump entrenched racism and sexism and our political divide.

But his greatest hit was his manipulation of COVID-19 for political gain.

Caught with his pants down, Trump made lemons from lemonade in the most-grotesque sense of the word as he allowed COVID-19 to sweep throughout the United States practically unabated.

And when he wasn't allowing it, he was provoking it.

His politicization of face masks ensured the virus's spread as rabid conservatives, following their president's lead, repurposed them as symbols of liberal tyranny.

While I admit it's tempting to encourage conservative's denial and anti-mask phobia, it's clear that the Corona virus will infect any and all demographics. Translated, this means none of us are safe. Or, um, immune.

(Well, except that one guy. But you know he's passenger number-one on the crazy train, right?)

Now that the angry and the hateful have had their anti-government, anti-PC tantrum it will be interesting to see where we go from here. I tend to think it will be along the lines of the sequence depicted in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees his hometown as if he had never existed.

It will be coarse, confrontational and crude. Largely bereft of things like civility and kindness. This path is somehow more "real" and more "genuine" to addled Republican males for whom Lord of the Flies is a societal ideal.

Fearful of a world where white men no longer wield absolute power, they cling ever more desperately to ever more desperate models of power and control.

I've never been able to puzzle-out exactly what voting Republican did for working-class conservatives, except perhaps to validate their ethnic, religious, sexual and gender biases. Even at the cost of their own well-being.

But what the hell do I know?

All in all, I feel fortunate to be the age I am. I see a world emerging that is rife with hatred, distrust and manipulated endlessly by social media. Our out-sized egos have grown equally destructive, to the point where any leader who doesn't “look like us” is illegitimate.

This is at the forefront of our descent into tribalism.

Even aided by the necessary technology, I see a world unable to unite in the commonality necessary to stem global warming.

While we have temporarily beat back the Trump-styled darkness, it will retreat, reconfigure and reemerge until it has the necessary components to succeed.

Knowledge is both a burden and a responsibility. We know what we have to do to resist it.

The question is, will we? 

 

Sweet Relief

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God.

 

Thank God. 

 

The Dark Ages are over.

 

Oh thank God. 

Democrats? Vote Hard!

Fatigue. Anxiety. Depression. Rage.

For many of us, these are the words that characterize 2020. We've watched a radical conservative toss the one-percent (the one-percent!) a trillion-dollar tax break under the guise of a—wait for it—jobs act.

Watched him sneer as his servile lead bitch upends protocol and paves the way for Sir Lies-A-Lot to appoint three Supreme Court justices in a single term. We've watched him eliminate any and all constraints on business at the cost of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

We've watched him insult and disparage allies and befriend autocratic terrorists like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. Witnessed his winking approval of white supremacy and voter suppression. And relentlessly provoked chaos because it amuses him.

That it destabilizes nearly every element of life in the United States just adds to the fun.

We've witnessed him gut the post office's ability to sort and deliver mail in anticipation of a dramatic upswing in vote by mail. Seen him plunder his own charity, get convicted, fined and watched the lightly reported story disappear without a trace.

We've seen him blithely delete a much-heralded center for pandemic research merely because it had Obama's fingerprints on it. And besides, what ever goes wrong with cookware, anyway?

Even as the same continues to undermines his precious “fabulously beautiful” economy.

Cause and effect, Don. Cause and effect. Ever hear of it?

Most recently, we've heard him threaten to destroy Social Security and Medicare. Why? Because they fall into his hazy definition of socialism. And then there's the ongoing effort to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional—in the middle of a pandemic.

Crazy Don lies like the rest of us draw breath. He's a supremely manipulative fraud who has succeeded in convincing banks, Congress and a sizeable chunk of the American populace he's the guy to loan money to. Shape policy with. And above all, blindly follow.

And when the Trump-whore isn't lying or self-promoting, he morphs into Whiny Don. The fake news media. Liberal hoaxes. The deep state. Tell me Poor Poor Pitiful Me isn't the number-one most-played song on his Spotify playlist!

Funny how the Indomitable One can stand in front of the hypnotized and let that smarmy smile creep across his face. But alone and minus the adulation, he cowers in the dark with his phone and issues a torrent of blind criticisms, unfounded—even paranoid—accusations and juvenile rants.

Can I add Needy Don to the repertoire?

A Republicant told me in 2016 he thought Trump would “shake things up.”

As we wonder when our kids can again resume their full-fledged educations and when (and if) we'll get our jobs back and how long we can stave off increasingly impatient landlords and when we'll be able to attend a ballgame or go out to dinner or a night club and when will there be a vaccine and when will life in general return to normal I must ask: are you suitably shaken?

We Democrats are a funny bunch. By nature we're diverse and have many agendas. Like our president, we also get a bit peevish when things don't go our way.

We must stop that.

For the time being, we must act like Republicants and become a herd. A bovine mass completely unaware of free will. We must ignore the polls (remember 2016?), the early returns (be they good or bad) and not focus on anything that isn't physically casting a vote against Donald J. Trump.

While I enjoy portraying him as a feckless clown, the damage he has wrought is considerable. Much of it will outlast him. He is the obedient servant of a selfish and extremely wealthy minority interested only in cementing and sustaining its power and its wealth at the expense of us.

They must be stopped. Shattered—like a ceramic figurine.

We can be the hammer. But we must vote hard. And with a vengeance.

And if you can't vote for Joe Biden can you at least vote against Donald Trump? And the party of Mitch McConnell? And of Lindsey Graham?

Given the amorality displayed by this moneyed minority, it's likely more-urgent than we even realize.

 

The Undecideds

At this point in the run-up to the presidential election, we're hearing lots and lots about the undecideds. But who are they? At a time when the political divide is as great as its ever been, how do these folk remain betwixt and between in a race featuring two such starkly different candidates?

Do they see something we don't? Or are they only more confused?

I mean, even as a Democrat I don't embrace everything espoused by progressives. Here are some examples.

The cancel culture? Nope. My hesitation reached critical mass when the idea was floated that John Muir, the esteemed naturalist who provided the impetus to develop the national park system lest these jewels be forever despoiled by runaway capitalism, be castigated and denounced as a racist.

Okay. Does that mean we pull the plug on our national parks system as well, since the idea is inevitably tainted since it sprung from the mind of a racist? And what of Thomas Edison and the cornucopia of inventions that originated from his (presumably) racist mind?

Do we renounce both the man and his contributions? I mean, how far do we take this?

And what of democracy itself? Since it was shaped in part by slave owners, do we renounce not only those who took part but democracy itself? Do we comb the history of medicine and renounce not only the discoveries, inventions and vaccines of anything fouled with the whiff of racism but their creators as well?

Do we scour the classical music repertoire and forbid pieces composed by anyone with a trace of any kind of “ism” to be recorded or performed?

I could go and and on. You probably could as well. Like so many well-intentioned thoughts, this is an idea that should have stayed an idea and never, ever made it to thing-hood.

Defunding the police? My first response was are you serious? You mean we're all grown-ups and/or are ably provided with that which we need to exist and contribute to the greater good without that irksome distraction of poverty?

Sadly, we are not even close to either ideal. And interpretations of this policy are as widespread as our political spectrum.

They range from Ariel Atkins' pathetic justification that the looting of Chicago's Michigan Avenue merchants last May and August meant that her people were going to “get paid.” You mean none of those folk are employed or receiving any kind of aid whatsoever, Ariel? Because several had the wherewithal to rent U-Haul trucks to stash those pilfered goods from Gucci and Cartier and Tiffany. 

Adding that the police needed to be destroyed to your mindless diatribe contrasts greatly with more-reasoned constructs that perhaps instead of endlessly arming our police with more and more weaponry, we need to better enable those institutions which cope with mental health, addiction and homelessness and would likely lessen the load on police.

Hmmm. Okay. I can sign-off on that.

And before I move on, let me make one crazy, wild and stupidly-naive suggestion: beat cops. You know, cops on foot patrolling a neighborhood. People we recognize. Get to know. And who recognize and get to know us. People we have a relationship with.

Which is pretty much the opposite of 'stranger'. Which is the relationship we currently have with cops. And which cops currently have with us.

And we all know how easy it is to demonize/threaten/hate on/stigmatize strangers, right?

Like I said, just a suggestion.

Finally, let me toss one more issue out there: sanctuary cities.

I empathize mightily with the plight of the immigrant. Especially those seeking to escape violent hell-holes like Honduras or El Salvador. Providing them with asylum is nothing less than the fulfillment of our highest ideals.

And yet, not every immigrant is a political refugee, are they? Many are here illegally. And be they an asshole who lives in a white house and wears red ties or someone sleeping in an abandoned car while they attempt to find work unloading a produce truck at 3 AM, I am not especially fond of law-breakers.

And sanctuary cities essentially seem to be a reward for not being caught. And I'm not very fond of that, either.

The United States of America has a very schizophrenic relationship with immigrants, and the faster we can develop a holistic, comprehensive policy regarding them the better off we'll be. The extreme capitalism so many labor under is only serving the marketplace, and I thought we were better than that.

Aren't we?

So yeah, I'm not as knee-jerk a Democrat as the folk in the DNC would like.

But my skin begins to crawl when I consider the options. Libertarians? We already have one, thank you very much. The "official" party of Trump? Pence? McConnell? Graham? Barr? Barrett? Are you fucking serious?

Repulsed by two parties, mildly enthused by another. So it seems destined to be.

As Republicants so well know, we often vote out of fear. I fear Crazy Don and his plans to delete Medicare and Social Security and speed our decent into a hybrid mix of feudalism and oligarchy. The lies. The chaos. The ignorance.

At his willingness to destroy and manipulate anything to remain in power, and the brain-damaged folk who applaud this.

Huh?

This is our law and order president? Really?

Speaking for myself, despite my party affiliation I am voting against Donald Trump and not for Joe Biden. My contempt for Trump overwhelms any certainty I could possess that Biden is the best choice going forward.

Most importantly at this juncture, he's not the worst.

Perhaps the undecided are people not interested in voting against a candidate, but people looking to vote out of hope.

Which might be why they're having such a tough time.

Dodger-hating

Ah. I can't help it. There are just certain sports franchises I love to hate. The Los Angeles Lakers. The San Francisco 49ers. And the New York Yankees—to name three.

Then there are the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yeah, I'm still holding a grudge from the 2008 play-offs, where the Cubs inexplicably lost two straight at home to a team with a 36 - 45 road record and just 84 wins overall. The Cubs never recovered, scoring just six runs in the series before going down 3 – 1 in game number three in L.A.

But there's more to it than that. It's their preening. Their presumptive arrogance by virtue of being the city's favored baseball team.

I was praying for a Dodgers-free World Series, even if watching them stumble on baseball's biggest stage has its benefits. But like Clayton Kershaw, the post-season seems to be the Atlanta Braves' kryptonite.

(I should note that 2020 did mark a breakthrough of sorts for the Braves, who won a post-season series for the first time since 2001 after nine straight first-round exits, and ten in eleven visits.)

Ratcheting up my Dodger-contempt is the fawning adoration on the part of our star-struck media conglomerates.

Sunday night, I thought the Fox network crew was going to bust out of the press box and plant wet kisses all over Cody Bellinger after his seventh-inning home run. And if the first dozen replays weren't enough, the pretty boy shot of Bellinger trying to look like a male centerfold was.

Jesus.

Enough!

But I'm happy to acknowledge the Dodgers' supremacy in one area—cute first names. Let's see, we have a Cody, a Kenley, a Mookie, a Corey and a Clayton. I mean, is this a baseball team or a casting call for a reconstituted version of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch?

Christ!

While Major League Baseball weeps with relief that at least one major-market team made it to the World Series, I'm all-in on the team they didn't want.

This team is the outsider that Sir Lies A Lot claims himself to be. The third-lowest payroll in the game, a half-interested fan base and a Q-rating that could barely fire the bulb in your kitchen's night light.

Like the candidates in this year's presidential election, the contrast between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn't be more vivid. Like Paul Sullivan wrote in this morning's Tribune, this is Team Hollywood versus Team Walmart.

I love the movies, but I'm rooting for Tampa Bay all the way. Even if they weren't playing the #$!%@* Dodgers.

Proof

Donald Trump throws a lot of sticks and expects us to chase each one. His ability to feint, distract and stir the cocktail of chaos borders on a kind of genius. I mean, Trump couldn't lead a parade. But he can reliably be counted on to turn a group of Buddhist monks into a howling, finger-pointing mob.

On the surface, he appears to at least acknowledge women—even when he isn't grabbing their pussies. He's installed several within his administration and recently tossed the electorate a bone by naming a woman to the Supreme Court, even if she's as conservative as a pair of beige khakis.

He's also placed a smattering of minority males within his administration, having discovered outliers like Herman Cain and Hispanics who are somehow able to look past Trump's wholesale demonization and repeated attempts to bar them from entering the U.S.

But Donald is too misshapen, too angry, too transparent to hide his true feelings. No, those emerge like the creature that popped out of John Hurt's belly in Alien. They emerge, squawk and scurry off before anyone is able to recover and process exactly what they've seen.

Donald then plays a game of yes I did/no I didn't with the media and that sentient portion of America's citizenry who are disinclined to wear MAGA gear. When that doesn't work, he throws another stick.

But it's not so easy to walk back an executive order.

Whatever his skills at manipulation, President Petulant can't claim his was quoted out of context or misinterpreted when the words are from his own hand.

In a lightly-reported story buried in last week's Chicago Tribune, Donald Trump recently signed-off on an executive order demanding that all government contractors cease sensitivity and diversity training and that failure to do so will result in the cancellation of their big, fat government contracts.

The administration maintains that such concepts are divisive and anti-American and adds that any program Trump, Inc. deems divisive (which I imagine is anything that doesn't include your lips and his flabby, corpulent ass) will be stripped of government funding.

There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Trump laid bare.

Donald can hem and haw and play dumb about the Proud Boys and have his pretty little blonde designated liar lie until she doesn't know which end is up. But the next time you hear a Black person speaking of systemic racism or a woman speaking of institutionalized sexism, instead of sneering 'get a job' try rolling their words around in your head. 

Then roll the words in this executive order around the same space. Donald's tacit approval of white supremacy and misogyny oozes from every line.  

Hundreds of millions of years of success in the natural world aren't proof enough of the inherent value and viability of diversity.

No. Per usual, the biggest turd in the MAGA toilet knows best.

Physician Heal Thyself

Oh sweet irony. Oh sweet, sweet irony. The Denier-in-Chief has contracted COVID-19.

Of course, depending on the seriousness of the infection, he'll never have to worry about the shortage of hospital beds, ventilators and other medical equipment his inaction sentenced so many others to.

But watching him pull his “Virus? What virus?” act will certainly be made more amusing—not that the zombies who follow him would know the difference.

Gosh, Mr. President. Hurry up and (cough) get well soon. 

I mean that.

 

Kisses!

La Piazza Gancio 

It Goes On

In their bid to cement the administration as the hands-down winner of the “Which presidency most reminds you of an unflushed public toilet?” contest, Donald and his strumpets relentlessly proffer half-truths and lies.

That is, when they're not delusional.

In a rambling interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump spoke of airplanes full of thug-radicals in riot gear and mysterious men in dark shadows controlling the streets and manipulating Joe Biden.

Sadly, Donald couldn't elaborate because all are currently under official investigation.

I can imagine.

Even coming from a habitual liar like Donald Trump these comments are unhinged. Perhaps Sir Lies-A-Lot is so far down the QAnon rabbit hole he can no longer distinguish truth from fiction.

Witness the confused logic of comparing Rusten Shuskey's seven shots into the back of Jacob Blake to a golfer missing a putt.

Or characterizing the Corona virus, where thanks to Donald's sonambulant response, four-percent of the world's population is responsible for twenty-two percent of the world's deaths, as a bump in the road. “It is what it is” quoth Donald.

Try to decipher the laughable, smack-your-forehead idiocy of his rants against mail-in voting, despite the fact he and Melania apparently did just that with complete confidence in Florida recently.

Best of all are the law and order quotes made to stimulate the base's perpetual fear. As Clarence Page asked in last Sunday's Chicago Tribune, does Trump even know he's president?

Trump's assertions that this summer's rioting and civil unrest is what America will look like under Joe Biden gives one ample reason to wonder.

Um, Don? You know you're the guy in the White House, right? That this is on you? That this is what America looks like under our (cough) law and order president?

And could be if your base would just vote twice?

If Donald is to become the world's most-famous example of the Peter Principle, we can only wonder at the effect this very public failure will have on his brittle psyche. One thing is for certain—it won't be pretty.

Not unlike Saddam Hussein's retreat from Kuwait following his defeat in the Gulf War, it will be filled with booby traps and destruction. 

Trump may not set fire to oil wells (although I certainly wouldn't put that past him), but further rollbacks of environmental protections, the gutting of Social Security, Medicare and the Post Office and a declaration that he has received the Mandate of Heaven to rule forever wouldn't surprise me at all.

Two Nights in Trumpland

After dusting and organizing my collection of Celine Dion CDs, I felt restless. So I turned on the TV. I scanned the listings, seeking mirth and merriment. It's not that Celine doesn't provide suitable amounts of merriment; I just needed it in another medium.

“Ah! This is just the thing!” I cried as I tuned in to day two of the Republican National Convention. It didn't take long for the mirth and merriment to materialize.

First there was the badly-bearded Eric Trump, speaking with the conviction and sincerity of a Walmart greeter telling you to have a nice day.

But he did hit his punchlines on cue, repeatedly telling us Donald was going to keep us safe. I said to no one in particular “From what? Pandemics? Recessions? Racial unrest? Election meddling? Oligarchies? Gutting the Post Office? Social Security? And Medicaid?”

But the real hilarity began when I realized half the country would believe him.

It is written that you can't fool all the people all the time. But as Trump's base has made perfectly clear, you can fool half the people one-hundred percent of the time.

Then there was the Trump shill who informed me we are in the midst of several “booms”. A car “boom”. A stock “boom”. And a consumer-spending “boom”. While I confess to not removing wax from my ears as frequently as my primary care provider would like, I have not heard any “booms”.

Have you?

Maybe you have to own shares in Apple to hear it.

Next was the first-ever endorsement of a presidential nominee by a sitting Secretary of State. It's unprecedented. It's unethical. And it may be illegal. But as we all should know by now, our law and order president is The Exception.

His law and order applies to you—not him.

Lastly, there was the fair Melania. She evinced glimpses of humanity in her comments addressing COVID-19, but lost me when she stated the Trump Administration “...would not stop” until the COVID pandemic has been vanquished.

I'm not worried about the administration stopping. I'm worried about it starting.

But compared to the ghouls and vermin stumping for Sir Lies-A-Lot, she clearly has a leg up. And by focusing on her party's strengths (such as they are) rather than participating in the de rigueur fear-mongering, she lends a touch of dignity to what has been a decidedly undignified presidency.

As an occasional glutton for punishment, I then tuned in for day three as well. And suffice to say, I found what I was looking for.

Leading off was daughter-in-law Lara Trump, a former waitress who won the life lottery by marrying the son of a billionaire.

Not surprisingly, she praised her father-in-law to the skies. To hear Lara tell it, Sir Lies-A-Lot has not only ripped away the glass ceiling for women in business, but has fostered paths to leadership like Johnny Appleseed sowed seeds.

See what grabbing a woman by the pussy can do?

Lara's incredibly good luck was the product of traditional Republican virtues like hard work and self-sufficiency. Personally, I attribute it to big blues eyes, (bleached) blonde hair and a not-unattractive figure.

That plus being just skanky-enough to appeal to a Trump male.

What do you think of Lara, Ivanka?

But the political equivalent of irritable bowel syndrome didn't end there. Yet to come was our vice-president, Michael R. Pence.

Have you ever known someone so oppressive that their company made you feel as if someone was holding a towel over your breathing apparatus? That their presence can actually be described as suffocating?

Hello and welcome to the Pence portion of tonight's program.

Like the Midwestern conservative he is, ol' Mike played it right down the middle. The flag. Patriotism. Our men in uniform. The flag. God. Guns. The flag again. Law and order. And God bless America.

As if his acceptance speech needed the visual emphasis, it was filmed at Fort McHenry—you know, the place where Francis Scott Key penned the national anthem.

Is your head hurting yet?

Yes, Mike's lone dimension was on display for over thirty excruciating minutes. To hear him tell it, Donald Trump is the strongest, most accomplished and most effective president in U.S. history. Which of course goes a long way towards explaining the mess we're in.

Personally, I can't wait to see it fact-checked.

Just like you're taught in a public speaking course, Mike dug in at the end. Voice rising, he reiterated the underlying RNC theme: “...we will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race, creed and color.”

That remark brought the tepid audience out of its collective stupor and into an arm-waving, standing ovation.

Tell you anything?

Of course, Mike's definition of 'American' is suspect. As is his definition of 'violence'. Last night he defined it not as the sometimes over-eager trigger finger of law enforcement when it encounters Black Americans, but those selfsame citizen's response to it.

OK. Gotcha Mike.

Pence's speech was the same old Republican fear-mongering I've heard all my life. Biden's going to disarm you! Biden's going to open the borders to a flood of immigrants! Biden's going to raise your taxes! Biden's going to grow the government!

His will be an administration of lawlessness and disorder! One where Americans will not feel safe! We will sacrifice our freedom of religion and our sanctity of life! We will not be strong!

Or free.

If you say so, Mike.

On the other hand, with Biden we would have a president with a proven connection with reality. One who understands the job isn't about him. One who recognizes threats to the population at large and is capable of formulating a coherent response.

We'll have a functional Post Office. Trustworthy elections. Robust healthcare. Social Security. An administration not given to stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. Strong controls to keep our land, air and water pure. 

A population not kept on the knife-edge of fear at the whim of a sadistic president who likes nothing better than to stir the pot and chuckle at the resulting chaos.

We will live in a country led by a fully-functional adult.

Imagine.