Once in a while, a politician will tell you how he really feels about America and Americans. This does not apply to dear leader…he is not a master of subtlety. He is up front about hating everyone not him. As I watched the Democratic debate, Tom Steyer was blustering about his building a billion dollar business from nothing and how that makes him the best choice to defeat Trump. Wait for it…because I have talked to ordinary Americans. Does anyone consider himself or herself to be ordinary? How about average. Tom Steyer revealed himself to be an elitist in that single sentence. The man who would be king is already in the White House and working overtime to destroy our democracy. We do not need another woefully self absorbed individual leading the nation. And for a while I had thought maybe Steyer could be the guy. Funny, I only watched the debate maybe fifteen minutes.

By the way, does any ordinary individual really care whether Bernie told Elizabeth a woman can’t win the presidency. How about can a white guy who has suffered a heart attack in his seventh decade of life be elected. The two suggestions are equally relevant and equally low minded.

The depressing aspect of this field of candidates is that none of them are likable, or inspiring, or charismatic. Since women are rarely imbued with any of those attributes it could come down to a two woman race. It’s a man’s world is becoming less attractive with each passing wildfire, hurricane, and catastrophic flooding. Please sir, may I have another.

Well it’s really not that funny after all. In spite of SNL skits and news parodies, there is a sadness that is palpable and at times overwhelming. When we were younger as a nation, we were immune to the despair that that which makes our way of life great would be torn asunder. When we were younger as a nation we were strong and resilient and able to bounce back after adversity. But we are older now. And maybe we just don’t have the strength to fight back anymore.

During the spectacle of Watergate, I was serving in the military overseas and was quite removed from the drama. And of course at that time, news was on a strict and limited schedule without all the snippy rhetoric. By the time I came home, Nixon was gone. We had to wait a generation for the next great drama. Where Nixon was the devious, self centered master of ceremonies, Clinton was the good old boy in the mood to knock one off in the Oval Office. And while it was lurid and nasty, there was never a feeling that we were approaching the end of times.

It feels like that now. If you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop you will turn right into a swift kick to the face. While we were sleeping, forces have been at work to undermine not just the constitution, but our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Trump devotees miss the signals when Trump spouts his vitriol. They believe themselves to be in on the joke, but in reality the joke will be on them. Trump is like the one coworker, and there’s one in every workplace, who likes to dish and complain about everybody but you, until you realize he’s saying the same thing about you to everyone else.

Trump likes a good smack down. To that end, it seems fitting that he should succumb to a rear naked choke and ultimately tap out. But let it drag on the full five rounds so that he feels the effects long after the fight is over. Now that’s funny.

Take a lesson from honey bees. They commune and toil and pay total fealty to their queen. And when threatened, they swarm. And they are dying for reasons as yet unknown. When the bees are gone, we are gone. They cannot alter their behavior. They are not products of their environment, but victims.

Humans impact the environment just by virtue of existing. Toxic emissions can and should be regulated. But the most damaging impact to the planet is us. We cannot seem to grasp the concept of population control. Hell, we can’t even keep a lid on animal over- population. As the higher evolved of the species we act irresponsibly in many ways for which we will ultimately pay with extinction.

Ironically, the people who had the greatest love and respect for the planet, the American Indians, were vilified and driven to near eradication by the advancing white settlers. Once the Indian problem was solved, we set about making our mark on everything and leaving behind a trail of waste and destruction. The kind of oppression the settlers fled England to escape was visited on the indigenous populations here.

The one act each human can regulate and take absolute responsibility for is the act of procreation. It is a strong biological drive hard wired into us, but contrary to determinism, we have free will. And with that comes free thinking and forethought. And with that comes the ability to impact the effects of global warming by making one less human.

I understand the fear of being overrun by alien hordes. Anything alien to us is both frightening and evocative of a defensive posture. This is what currently plays into the urgency for border sealing and wall building. Our troublesome southern neighbors. Realizing the riches to be had in the land to the north, they cross over to find hard labor. The wages earned go directly home to their waiting families. There was never a desire to assimilate… but they did have a desire: make the north country their own. To achieve that end, they set about overwhelming the land with greater numbers and they have never wavered from that purpose. By remaining self indulgent and petulant, they hasten the demise of what they are so determined to possess.

We set about making a more perfect union by being perfectly misogynistic and brutal. Karma is about the work of equalization and we are seeing it play out in real time as the oceans and the temperatures rise and our time to prevail falls.

Take a concept and totally corrupt it.

Affirmative action is now the act of seeking out news sources that affirm a point of view. Yours. It is comfortable and somehow empowering to hear Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity give voice to what you’ve been saying all along. As if.
Much the same way Trump takes his cues and talking points from Putin. Not an original thought or capacity for critical thinking. So boring.

This is how ridiculous we have become. But it’s not amusing. A coworker said to me,”the Democrats need to stop the sham impeachment and get back to the business of the country.” That’s original. Actually, the Democrats are about the business of preserving our democracy. You know, that thing that makes us different and special. Special now seems to mean mentally challenged.

It is clear now that the wagons are circled around Trump while the Democrats attempt to lob an arrow or two. They have inflicted minimal damage due mostly to affirmative action. No one outside DC and inside the bubble will receive the alien messages. Plenty of tinfoil to go around.

And so we are left to contemplate what our country, our democracy, will look like post Trump. It will certainly be irrevocably changed and not for the better. Maybe all the wing nuts believe all the Mexicans will move back home. Or die of the flu. Or perhaps they believe the Trump promise of the American dream, you know, that dream where white is right, women stay home and incest is best.

Sounds like paradise to me. Oh right. Global warming burned Paradise to the ground. Backup plan?

In Vegas, the good mayor has decided to take bold steps to curb the homelessness problem. It is a burgeoning population, visible almost everywhere you look. She proposes making it illegal to “camp out” or sleep on the street. Ooh, I don’t know. If these folks were capable of not “camping out” I am thinking they would get jobs, get clean and sober and reassemble their broken minds.

Easy.

And that’s the problem. Right? It’s not easy. The same way we went wrong in criminalizing drug abuse, we go wrong in thinking punishing homelessness will prevent homelessness. The tendency is to turn away from deviance in a way that makes us feel cold and hard. But because we can’t fix them, it’s easier to pretend they’re not there. Ignore them at every intersection where they walk dangerously close to and between cars to scrimp a handout.

Like Elizabeth Warren, I have a plan for that. If your sensibilities run toward squeamish, look away. Bring back insane asylums. Yep, those horrid institutions dramatized in movies like “Snake Pit” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”. These were places where the crazy uncle or skittish auntie were sent away so the delicate amongst us would not be tormented with their presence. What I am suggesting is a place funded philanthropically to shelter and treat the mentally ill population. There is no other way realistically speaking to repatriate these individuals into the general population. And as with any of the other medical conditions which afflict us, not everyone will be cured. The homeless population is reduced by treating with the goal of reversing mental disease and more directly by removing them from the streets.

Tom Steyer, Bill Gates, Zuckerman, Buffet come to mind as representative members of that one percent club who hold ninety percent of the wealth. Put your name on a building.

We have become a nation of rubes. If unfamiliar with the term, it means a person who is an easy mark, someone not in tune with subtlety, someone who has something of value for the taking, a term derisively used by carnies who rigged the midway games to never be beat. Carnies feed off the greed of the game player by encouraging and complimenting and then consoling, incredulous that someone of such high ability cannot win. Try it again! Here, let me show you a winner technique. Come on man. Make America great.

Carnies are a different sort with a special sort of fraternity. And the more slippery of the group makes the most money. Commerce. So what might the qualifications be to become a carnie. Beats me. Call them entrepreneurs perhaps. Like the snake oil salesmen before them or the traveling flim flam artist, it’s a successful business model for clever thieves.

So how might we apply that model in today’s world. Hmm. We had thought for a time, perhaps mistakenly, that dear leader is a useful idiot, a rube if you will, on Putin’s midway. But…what if. What if they really are chums of the same fraternity. What if they really are working as coequal scumbags toward a common purpose. In Vegas, the best cheating scams are perpetrated by fumble fingered idiots. Mostly discounted, they fly below the radar. Which is why everyone gets equal scrutiny. No one is above the law or below the radar. It’s a business model that works for us.

About that common purpose. Follow the money. Putin is filthy rich. So is Kim. Think there’s income inequality here…Trump would love to have what Putin has. More money and unlimited, above the law, below the radar, power. So far, it’s a business model that’s working for him. These behind closed door, no reporters allowed, no nobody allowed to observe meetings between dear leader and Putin, not to mention the phone calls to Vlad, are just a couple of guys planning and scheming their way to enriching themselves while fomenting untold misery to everyone else. The amazing part of the story is how incredibly patient they have been in getting to the payoff.

The carnies are in awe and incredibly jealous. Well played.

I mention the now iconic news show for a specific reason: it marked the end of legitimate news coverage. William Paley was the head of news programming for CBS. He came upon a novel idea…turn the news division from a loss leader to a profit maker. In so doing, it changed the way news is reported on the air and not for the better. Once it became clear that 60 Minutes was a hit, the floodgates opened to a new generation of news shows, not newscasts. A firm tenet of news was always that the facts were the stars, not the reporters and in fact the reporter should never inject himself or herself into the story.

Now, reporters are celebrities. They make in the millions to sit behind a desk and tell us what’s up. But it’s slippery now because it is increasingly difficult to determine what are the hard facts and what is a version based on the reporter’s opinion. So what has transpired is a deepening of the divide between left and right because what is reported, or more importantly not reported, is so biased to attract an audience.

Here is the irony behind the Trump phenomena. He’s president because he caught the bulk of media attention, whether good or bad (after all, there’s no such thing as bad publicity), and capitalized on the media’s greed. It takes a rat to smell one. So the answer as to why the media twist and turn on every word, every tweet, is the lust for a buck. And we see it in every element of our society. And no matter how much discussion ensues around the news tables about why the media doesn’t hold Trump responsible for his lies and actions, or why they ask questions but don’t do the follow up gotcha, would be to admit that it’s all about money and the money follows Trump.

And now Trump turns on the media, calling them “the enemy of the people” not because he believes it, but because it serves his purpose. He would prefer to control all media content to make it only favorable to him, but the truth of it is that he needs the attention only the media can provide. In some ways he has outgrown them, having created enough of an enduring fascination that merely the mention of his name provokes an immediate attraction.

Recall that the role of media as the 5th estate is to ideally be a coequal partner in the governing process. They are the eyes and ears of the rest of us who cannot be present at the seat of government while decisions are made that will irrevocably affect our lives. They are supposed to be extensions of the greater us, but instead have become not us but them. They have lost the ability to be credible in the pursuit of money, power and greed.

It is not surprising that Americans are fed up. But to give up means to give in to some dog and pony, flim flam, con artist celebrity du jour and risk losing it all. Stay strong. Vote.

The coming political battle is not an election. People will vote to be sure and assume that their vote will count. But the gravity of our situation goes beyond merely participating in the electoral process. We must refocus our thoughts toward regime change. Trump has treated the presidency as a means to not only enrich himself but also as a vehicle to attain a status of lifetime, undisputed rule. He desires the unfettered rule of Putin, Kim, Xi and yearns for their acceptance of him into their fraternity. We already know he has love for Kim and that he cleaves to Putin like a silly smitten schoolgirl. A puppet is only animated when the handler pulls the strings.

Trump has evolved into a crazed, maniacal joker. Unable to restrain his anger he shows much too much ranting, flailing at windmills, delusions of grandeur that the more sophisticated tyrants have learned to suppress in front of cameras. He is so dangerous now that anyone who dares to stand up to or get in the way of his plans is in serious jeopardy. He has eluded to the whistleblower as a traitor when in truth the traitor is Trump.

And then consider his enablers. McConnell, Barr, Graham and every quaking Republican currently holding office. Can we assume that IF Trump is thrown out that the dysfunction now firmly in place will somehow become healed? Paranoia is justified if someone is really out to get you. So we find ourselves in a constant state of unease and uncertainty. And we must wonder if things will ever be normal again and just that thought in itself is enough to cause alarm.

Thankfully the process has begun to reign in dear leader and snip his wings. Pelosi finally found the dog whistle that everyone has been listening to. We find ourselves in a state of shimergency: a catastrophic, historic shit storm about to rain down upon us. People should shelter in place. Those at the vortex should immediately don protective gear to prevent leaking and soiling. If Trump is successful at either imprisoning or executing all those engaged in the impeachment inquiry, he will have secured his desired status of dictator. And the idea that he will bestow both power and riches on his loyal sycophants only proves how completely delusional they are. Trump hates a kiss ass. His ego loves it, but his experience tells him they can’t be trusted and must be exterminated.

So, there it is in a nut’s shell. It’s both exhausting and infuriating, but the sad and frightening reality is that a large part of the population thinks Trump’s regime is perfect. A round of impeachment please… and hold the pardons. Thank you.

When I first posted this, Kavanaugh was still a nominee. Now it seems some evidence suppression may have been going on. Of course, nothing to see here.
More accusations. And cries for impeachment. Sure….

Amidst all the political maneuvering, there is a sad and familiar story to be told. Because it’s a woman thing, the matter will be given all the consideration it deserves and then all the men in the room will give a wink and a nod and breathe a collective sigh of relief.  Because they all know in the deepest recesses of their souls, the guy in the hot seat is Everyman. Nothing about Kavanaugh’s behavior is unprecedented. How many rich white males go to all boys private schools and lust after anything with a heart beat.

The problem is easy to explain, but difficult to comprehend. Humans are cruel more than kind. A young male surrounded by other young males form a special bond that is lasting and formative. They never forget their school days and their chums. They all share a common philosophy: get what you can, all you can, whenever you want. After all, you’re entitled. If this wreaks of sour grapes, there is some of that. Everybody wants a piece of the rich pie but not everyone has access to the sweet life the way these kids have. Look no further than the White House to catch a glimpse of the inbred dysfunction exhibited by dear leader. Same fraternity.

Women do not share that kind of comeraderie. The mentality is different when you’re the prey. Have to be ever vigilant at the water hole. One eye open, never get complacent. Because like the antelope on the Serenghetti, your ass is dinner if you fail to be aware of your surroundings. It is rare that any woman makes it past puberty without some kind of incident. The only men who share a glimpse of this mentality are those molested by priests. It’s the same violation, but somehow these now men are seen as greater victims than female rape victims. I certainly cannot recall one of these men being asked if maybe they are mistaken. Maybe it was a different priest who looks just like the guy you’re now accusing. Maybe you should have avoided the sacramental wine. Toxic waste.

To be fair, the altar boys were cultivated. Their parents sent them to church for salvation only to become victims of a sick priest’s deviance. Rape victims don’t get that kind of personal touch. Cultivation not required, only accessibility. Professor Ford was where she should not have been all those years ago. Just like those boys should never have been in church. But it probably wasn’t the first time she went to a party like that because that’s what she and her friends did. The water had always been clear and fresh and maybe just maybe she failed to keep that one eye open. And her ass became dinner.

No matter the years removed, the high brow education and degrees, the learning that comes from what only experiences can teach, Brett Kavanaugh is still the same human being who took advantage of an opportunity to overpower another human being because he felt entitled to do so. No wonder Trump refers to him as “one of the finest human beings I’ve ever met.” Same fraternity.

So I both hope and dread that Professor Ford shares her experience of Brett Kavanaugh with all those aged white guys who will give the matter all the consideration it deserves. Wink. Toxic waste.

#VegasStrong

Holy Jesus, Batman.
So we hear about evangelical Christians, but what the hell is the family.

Perhaps we now know the final link in the chain of mass hysteria. The family references a group of white, super wealthy religious fellows who have methodically worked toward a world order which follows their philosophy that only rich people are entitled to live free and dictate how everyone else lives based on a narrow Christian epistemology. That sounds like a fun group.

If you enjoy being dictated to by a bunch of holier than thou nut cases, the family is not taking new members. Sorry. Born to be wild.

So now we know why the evangelicals cleave to Trump. I confess to never having heard of the family but it sounds like the all powerful Roman Catholic Church in its heyday. The clergy were always well compensated for their proximity to God. The pomp and opulence was an essential element to creating the illusion of exclusivity. Blinded by the light. Power is intoxicating. Combine it with religious determinism and money and the gravitational pull becomes irresistible. But ultimately, they are driven by the desire to bring the word of god to heathens. Insert laughter here. So clinically insane a group are they that they refer to dictators, oligarchs, presidents as “wolf kings”. The title is more than earned and denotes respect, adoration, and most importantly, a means to an end.

So, the wolf pup of the hour is Trump. His gesture to the heavens, proclaiming himself “the chosen one” is no joke, no tongue in cheek, but a slip. Make no mistake, the family had a hand in guaranteeing Trump’s ascension to the presidency, whether by direct donation or by seeing to the corruption of the voting systems. Russia is a diversion, no less culpable, but a bait and switch to make certain the family cannot be implicated.

The major news organizations need to grab this by the balls and squeeze until one of these assholes pops out. And then, somehow, the spell held over the weak minded among us must be broken. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”.

No shit.