Monkey Business

 “The body is strong, but the world always ends up crushing it.” Aleksandar Hemon

Wildfires in Canada. Floods in Vermont and Pennsylvania. Killer heat across the American southwest. Donald Trump. A summer of threats that residents of the open air asylum that is America will do their best to ignore. America is still a powerful nation, but we’re not a serious one. 

In 1987, Senator Gary Hart was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when he took an ill-fated boat trip out of Miami with a young woman, not his wife. When the press questioned Hart his initial reaction was to deny the allegation, but there were photographs, and the shamed candidate withdrew from the race to repair his marriage. A few months later Hart attempted to restart his bid for the nomination, but the damage to his reputation was done. The Democrats ran Michael Dukakis against Pappy Bush and lost. 

How far we’ve traveled on the road to normalized corruption. Shame no longer has any influence over powerful people. Look at Trump. He has paid no cost for bragging about grabbing women by their vaginas, for paying hush money to a porn actress, for shaking down the president of Ukraine, for stealing classified information and withholding it from the government for more than a year, for being impeached twice, and for instigating an attempted coup. People have forgotten that Trump’s incompetence caused thousands of unnecessary fatalities during the early days of the Covid pandemic. 

Like a landfill, our collective memory hole is running out of capacity. 

In a normal country, Donald Trump wouldn’t be a candidate for president because people with a functioning moral compass wouldn’t allow it. In a normal country, Trump would be shunned, ignored; his name and image would be synonymous with failure and corruption; if he had the temerity to appear in public he would be jeered and mocked, laughed at, ridiculed. His fact-free word salad speeches would draw boos, not cheers. 

The orange-hued Dragon of Lies cannot be shamed. That’s Trump’s super power. It’s also what makes him a sociopath. 

Who turned the world upside down?

A summer of threats. A summer of dancing and baseball and hot dog eating contests in the courtyard of the open air asylum. Don’t worry inmates, we can consume our way out of any difficulty. Eat, drink, be merry, and pay no attention to the choking smoke, withering heat and rising floodwaters. Don’t worry, be happy. All we need is make-believe and Amazon Prime. 

The boat that left Miami with Gary Hart and the woman not his wife on board was called the Monkey Business. Those were more innocent times. If Donald Trump took a cruise tomorrow with an underage Ivanka look-alike, the corporate media would yawn.

No shame. No honor. No decency. 

Get Behind The Mule

 “My generation takes what it can get/Are you surprised that the kids are all upset?/They’re looking at Nothing and Nothing turns away and yawns.” Greg Brown, “Whatever It Was”

I’ve got this suspicion that when the January 6 committee wraps up its labor and delivers a comprehensive and damning report to the DOJ, nothing will happen. No indictment of Trump. Possibly indictments for some easier targets like Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, but not the kingpin himself or his many enablers and co-conspirators, like Mark Meadows. Not indicting Trump will come down in the end to fear. Fear that an indictment might spark civil unrest and violence from Trump’s heavily-armed tribe. Fear of losing what should be an open and shut case on multiple charges. Fear of Steve Bannon’s podcast. Fear that voters will turn against Democrats. Whatever. The excuse will sound reasoned but naked fear will still be the reason for inaction.  Nothing is in shorter supply in Washington D.C. than courage. Justice, rule of law, and enforcement is reserved for targets that are poor or working-class -- black or brown or female -- not the mandarins and the owners and powerful political bosses. Elites in every society are adept at ducking accountability and punishment; the worst offenders often walk away, unscathed, like the many Nazi’s that escaped to South America. The worst butchers, the truly despotic, slip the net and vanish. When the elites write the rules, they always weave in loopholes and exceptions. It’s just the way power works, and it’s as corrosive as salt water on metal. 

Why can’t I let this go? Because of what I predicted when Trump was elected, and what I saw with my own eyes on January 6. Because if Trump isn’t held accountable the jig is up on American democracy. I know both parties are corrupted by lobbyists and corporate money and untraceable money, by the madness of perpetual foreign wars, because I’ve been writing about this shit for nearly 20 years. Racism. Militarism. Class Warfare. The creeping cruelty of American life. Dark shit, from George W. Bush to Donald J. Trump. My understanding of American politics, how it works, how it fails to work, its inherent corruption, is better than most. If I could bury my head in the proverbial sand, I would, but I can’t; I’ve got children to consider. I predicted in 2016 that Trump would do grave damage to the country; his manifest incompetence and authoritarian bent were as obvious to me as the wrinkles on my face. If I have an obsession it’s with the fact that a complete fraud like Donald Trump can convince millions of Americans that he’s their champion. My God, after all that happened with Covid and the election, can’t you see that Trump is for Trump and nothing else? How many Covid deaths can be attributed to the Trump administration’s criminal mishandling of the federal response? 10,000? 50,000? 100,000? All Americans, fellow citizens, fellow human beings. 

OK, so I’ll tell you what you already perceive: the order is shifting and the corridors of power are being rearranged, and it’s time for people of decency and goodwill to get off the couch and up behind the mule, because there is much work to be done, many seeds to plant. Turn off Fox News and tune in to your own inherent sense of right and wrong. Trump lied about the 2020 election -- before, during and after -- because he knew he was going to lose, and nothing terrified him more than being exposed for the loser he has been all his misbegotten and miserable life. Trump is a coward at heart, a draft evader, a tax cheat, an elite punk who has never been properly put in his place. He’s an attention-seeking moron who never understood even the most basic functions of government. He disgraced the United States on the world stage, sucked up to Vladimir Putin, ran interference for Mohammed bin Salman after the Saudi prince set his killers on Jamal Khashoggi. How can you put your faith in a man like Trump? Is it just because you despise the same people he does? 

There can be no justice without courage. 

 

The Isolation/Rebellion Diaries No. 8

“It signifies a fact that has not fundamentally changed since the defeat of Reconstruction: black people can be subjected, usually with impunity, to arbitrary aggression.” Fintan O’Toole, New York Review of Books

Covid-19 days, nights, weeks and months. It feels that we’re almost back where we started in March, as if the virus sent us back to the starting line. Covid-19 is active in Santa Barbara, though tourists roam State Street and dine outdoors; people in masks queue outside the Apple Store, still hungry for the latest gadgets. Life in a pandemic is strange to begin with, but when you live in a country with corrupt and incompetent political leaders, strange becomes surreal. 

Our Trumpian nightmare, our American Horror Show, eternal night. As expected, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, punted the question of Trump’s tax returns back to the lower courts, where the matter will be drowned in briefs and motions and legal stalling for God knows how long. This has been Trump’s way of dodging accountability for decades. Sue, countersue. The secrets in Trump’s financial records will not be seen by American voters prior to November. Trump won the round. Yes, Roberts and the Court upheld the most basic legal concept -- that no one is above the law -- but if reinforcing that assertion is what passes for courage or justice -- we really are in deep water. 

The wealthy buy justice. No surprise. Even the law has a price tag. 

I studied the architectural plans for the office’s HVAC system while heating a cup of water in the microwave. The schematic might have been Sanskrit and I understood little of what it communicated. In my next human incarnation I wish to have two skills: carpentry and music. I want to be able to build a tool shed or a doghouse, erect a fence. My father was a butcher, a skilled one, but he had no mechanical aptitude and neither do I. Taking things apart to understand how they work never has intrigued me, and I regret this fact. Same with music, I like many forms of music but I don’t understand how it works and my attempt to learn the guitar was a failure. I am tone deaf, can’t keep a rhythm. I remember being in the second or third grade, forced to play an instrument; my mother chose the clarinet. I was inept. All I made that instrument do was screech like nails on a chalkboard. It was torture, an embarassment. 

I’m deep into Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography. Like his legendary live performances, the book is long. I’m to the part where Springsteen has just released Nebraska, his dark, spare, and haunting masterpiece. I’ve always liked the album, though I didn’t discover it until many years after it was released in 1982. “Nothing feels better than blood on blood.” The early 1980’s. I was living in Japan then, cut off from what was happening in America. The early days of the conservative political revolt led by Uncle Ronnie Reagan, the AIDS crisis, the death twitch of American manufacturing. The Japanese economic juggernaut was going to eclipse us in an avalanche of Honda and Toyota automobiles and SONY boomboxes. Long ago. When I think of the 1980’s my memories are dim as ash. 

Springsteen’s quieter albums, Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad, Devils & Dust, Magic, and Western Stars won my respect and admiration. The imagery, mood, and beauty of the writing, the empathy are why I return to them over and over. The autobiography fills in some of the spaces, explains Springsteen’s state of mind and circumstances; his childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, exerted a tremendous pull on his imagination and heart. Poor, working-class, houses with thin walls and no hot water, a taciturn, distant and sometimes menacing father, a vivacious and loving mother. Springsteen willed himself to become the leader of a band that could follow his voice, ambition and vision. The man’s a product of hard work. Springsteen hauled his Catholic guilt around for years. Many of his songs are rooted in the fear of, and longing for, his father’s love. 

I understand that longing. My dad passed away long ago, aged 57, his body ravished by a pack-a-day smoking habit and too many years of heavy drinking. He never met his grandson. He wasn’t present when I got married. I assume he would be proud of me. I wish I could talk to him about his life, his dreams and desires. 

Covid-19 summer. Fruit falls from the trees, rots on the ground. My emotions swing like a frayed rope bridge over a deep ravine. Am I a fraud and a failure? Have I slept-walked through my days and nights, always searching for a prize I cannot see or name? I wrestle with my contradictions, kick myself for wasting time searching for clues in dark corners. Too selfish I conclude, too stingy with my love, too walled off from other people, too solitary, too locked in my own head. Feels too late to slip this skin now. I have to harvest the seeds I’ve sown. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 13

“This is a flu. This is like a flu.” Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, February 26, 2020

Trump holds a propaganda briefing even when he has nothing to report except stale talking points, half-baked fantasies about magic drugs, and outright lies about the information he’s receiving from hospitals and medical professionals across our Covid-19 blighted nation. Referring to hospitals and supplies of ventilators and PPE, Trump said on Sunday that they are “thrilled to be where they are.” Does Trump have any idea where he is? 

In Trump’s alternate universe he is providing heroic leadership and his administration is doing a fantastic job on all fronts. He shut down immigration from China early, signed a gargantuan economic stimulus bill, mobilized great companies to produce the equipment and supplies needed to contain the virus. All the while, his hair looked perfect, just like his phone call with the president of Ukraine was perfect. Nobody, except Trump, saw this pandemic coming. He has been tremendous, great, strong, and powerful, many people are saying. 

On January 8, 2020, the CDC issued a public warning about Covid-19. Think about all the statements Donald Trump made between that date and today, think of the dismissals, denials, and denunciations of those who tried to sound the alarm. Hoax, fake news, just like the flu, it will disappear like a miracle. The US will be open for business by Easter. I have a feeling. 

In the real world of death, infection, desperate doctors and nurses, unemployed workers, shut down cities and towns, overwhelmed morgues, nobody is saying that Trump has done a good job except the pinheads on FOX News, but the Orange Menace will go on trying to will his rosy vision into existence; he will continue to claim that there isn’t a shortage of ventilators and face masks and gloves; he will continue to erase and revise what he said yesterday, two weeks ago, last month. It makes for compelling TV -- and TV is the only thing Trump has a clue about. It would be a mistake to think for a minute that Trump doesn’t dig on some level of his twisted psyche, the role he’s got now, with the spotlight on him all the time, and the hated media forced to listen to his every pronouncement. Gaslighting the press and the public, knowing it will be beamed out on FOX News and Breitbart? Owning the libs? Blatantly contradicting experts, forcing them to take his view or fall out of favor? This is Trump’s man-juice, and it’s stronger than heroin. That’s why he has taken center stage at these daily briefings, shoving Mike Pence, purported Head Honcho of the Coronavirus Task Force, out of the way. Medical experts play secondary roles here -- this is Trump’s unreality show, where deaths in the hundreds of thousands are considered with a shrug of the shoulders and a blank stare. 

What batshit remark will Trump make this evening, which governor will he insult with a schoolyard taunt, how many times will he interrupt his own experts? Will he claim that at his direction more than a billion ventilators are on their way to hospitals and clinics all over America? “Every American who needs one will get a ventilator, free of charge, autographed by me, President Trump. Nobody has done the job we’ve done. Great, beautiful, big, strong, fantasic, powerful, nobody, anybody, people are saying, pandemic response. We saved millions of lives! Do you know how many people could have died if we hadn’t acted as perfectly as we did? Look at the transcript, it’s perfect.” 

Trump is insane. How long can this masquerade continue before the gilded carriage reverts to a lumpy, moldy, three-wheeled pumpkin, owned and operated by a morally and intellectually bankrupt second-rate TV personality?

Ten million unemployed and as I write this the NYSE has posted a gain of 1,627 points. The rich prosper when working people suffer. Fine country, yes indeed. Not a terminally ill nation at all. 

I admit to grudging admiration for die-hard Trump supporters. They are like football fans of a once properous club that dwells in the relegation zone every season, fighting to the last fixture to avoid going down, but no matter the mayhem on the pitch, the fans hold steadfast to the belief that their beloved club will miraculously rise to the top of the league. They never allow themselves to believe what they see with their own eyes, week after week. Crushing losses are seen as valiant stands against superior opposition. Delusion comforts them. 

I saw this sentence in The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos: “Suffering injustice is the natural condition of mankind.”

Greenland!

“An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests that racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences -- that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group.” Ibram X. Kendi 

Jared Kushner, Bill Barr and Mick Mulvaney sit in the Oval Office waiting for President Trump to come down from the residence. The President is a half hour late. It’s just after 1:00 p.m. on another humid D.C. summer afternoon. The three men are used to Trump arriving late or skipping scheduled meetings altogether. Barr stares out the window. Kushner and Mulvaney stare at their phones. It’s eerily quiet in the White House. Many offices are dark. Others look vacant.

Trump enters the Oval Office with a scowl on his face and sits behind his desk. Except for a telephone and three remote controls, the desk is absolutely bare. “We’re bombing Denmark, Trump says. “If they won’t deal with Trump for Greenland within 24 hours, they will get the shit bombed out of them. America First. Get that nasty woman on the phone and tell her the deal. Trump wants it done!”

Barr looks at Kushner. Kushner shrugs and looks over at Mulvaney. Mulvaney looks at the rug.

“No woman tells Trump no,” says Trump. “I’m virile, beautiful, the second coming of God, and the King of Israel. Who says no to the King of Israel?” Mulvaney starts to say something then thinks better of it and returns to staring at the floor. He knows it’s wise to let Trump get the venom out of his system. Early that morning Trump unleashed a storm on Twitter, accusing Hillary Clinton of interfering in his plan to buy Greenland, attacking the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates and the New York Times, MSNBC, CBS, and CNN for falsely reporting that the economy was taking a downturn, when in fact many people (three people on FOX News) were saying the economy was growing ten times faster than it did under Obama. Trump ended his Tweet barrage with a tirade against China and a guarantee that America will win the trade war and bring China to its knees.  

Turning toward the Attorney General Trump says, “You’re fat, Bill. You disgust me. You look like a sad sack. Get some exercise, lose some weight. Look at me, look at this perfect physique, I’ve got the body of a 25-year-old and I never exercise. My doctor thinks I’m a miracle. I could run a marathon if I wanted to. Probably break the world record.”

Mulvaney sucks his bottom lip into his mouth to stifle a snort. 

“Yes, Mr. President,” Barr says, “you’re absolutely right, I’m fat, I’m disgusting, but you sir are a tremendous physical specimen.”

Trump waves his hand dismissively and starts talking about how the United States deserves to own Greenland. Trump can see no reason for Denmark not to sell, other than to spite him, a mistake for which Denmark will pay. He orders Kushner to follow-up with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about a missile strike. “And see if Mnuchin can slap them with sanctions.” 

“I’m not getting any credit for the economy,” Trump says, looking accusingly at Mulvaney. “Why not? The economy’s booming, we’re making tons of money, terrific amounts of money. I’m the greatest American president since George Washington, I have more beautiful hair, better teeth, I’m smarter, richer. Women adore me. Men want to be me. Children worship me. I should give myself the Medal of Honor, just for being me. Yeah, a Medal of Honor is good for Trump. I want a big parade, Jared, the biggest in history. I want this to happen right after we bomb Denmark and they agree to sell Greenland. Once we have Greenland, I’ll award myself the medal. Obama never got a Medal of Honor.”

Bill Barr stares out the window, trying to block out the voice inside his head that chides him for selling his soul to Trump. 

Mulvaney again stifles the urge to say something, to tell Trump that awarding himself the Medal of Honor is a terrible idea, even worse than his inexplicable obsession with buying Greenland. Mulvaney feels dizzy and disoriented. Working for Donald Trump is like being incarcerated in a wind tunnel. 

“No, sir,” Jared says, “he didn’t. He didn’t deserve it. Obama made America weak. You’re making America strong. Who should present you with the medal? It has to be someone with great stature.”

“That’s a hard one,” says Trump, “since nobody’s stature is as great as mine. I might have to give it to myself. But I want Greenland first!”

  

The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle

“But no U.S. president has ever lied as prolifically, constantly, insidiously and dangerously as Donald Trump. He never stops. He’s the Energizer Bunny of endless falsehood.” Paul Street

The beat of xenophobia, racism, fear mongering and lies goes on, orchestrated and revved up by the Trump junta ahead of the midterm elections. The language coming from Trump and his enablers is violent, and it encourages marginalized, broken, and wounded people to emerge from the shadows, from behind closed doors, convinced that their time has come, that the injustices they’ve suffered, real or imagined, are about to be rectified.

Macho man Trump, who, like most authoritarian men, is a coward at heart, orders a ridiculous number of US troops to our southern border to defend against an “invasion” of Central American migrants. This is all spectacle for Trump’s base, another empty stunt in his reality show, since a. The migrants, young men, women, and children, have no capacity or inclination to invade a hamlet let alone the US, and b. The caravan will not come near the US border until well after the midterm elections, and by then might be much smaller than it is now. But the spectacle and the emotion it engenders now are the point. It reinforces the fears of many of Trump’s supporters and makes Trump look like a tough guy, the great white protector of his great white flock. Forget the fact that it’s like a man using a bazooka to kill a mouse.

The Commander-in-Chief is abusing his power and using US military personnel as props in his midterm election theater. How can any US service member, officer or enlisted, go along with this madness without feeling used and befouled? Hey Private Jones, is this why you enlisted, to “protect” the US border from economic, political, and environmental refugees? Did you sign up to be a pawn? Don’t be surprised if, after this pitiful episode, you are not thanked for your service and allowed to board airline flights ahead of others. So much for our noble warriors. Let’s hope that when the migrants arrive, a month or two from now, US soldiers don’t overreact like the police so often do and start shooting children. I won’t be surprised if this happens, sickened yes, surprised, no.

The violent genie is out of the bottle, not only in the US, but in Brazil, which has just elected a strongman of its own, Jair Bolsonaro, whose past statements about women and gay people are even more outrageous than Trump’s. Brazil may be in for a very rough ride, one that will no doubt exacerbate the very conditions that brought Bolsonaro to power. Trump, Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Putin, MBS, Orban -- the authoritarians are on the march, bolstered by the seen and unseen hands of the world’s capitalist masters. A half century of neoliberal economics, the ascendancy of the Market (all-powerful, all-knowing, fair and equitable, etc.), has created a few spectacular winners and billions of desperate losers, and, of course, put too much power in too few hands. As people grasp that they’ve been played for suckers, that neoliberalism and so-called free-trade is a rigged game, they start to protest, and the state, serving the capitalists who have bought its services, cracks down. Harder and harder. This is only the beginning.

This from Jeffrey St. Clair at Counterpunch:

“From 1970 to 2014, 60 percent of all animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — were wiped out by human activity, according to an ongoing survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations scattered across the globe.”

Ruminate on that 60% figure in light of what the Trump junta is doing to accelerate a climate disaster, and what Bolsonaro has promised to do in the Amazon.

The storm gathers on the horizon and dark clouds block out the harvest moon. Up on the hill, the lights in the shining city have almost all gone out.

Lost at Sea

“The prime constant factor in American politics across the past six decades has been a counterattack by the rich against the social reforms of the 1930’s.” Alexander Cockburn

All week I’ve felt this terrible sense of foreboding, even though my personal life, and that of my family, is fine, nobody sick or living in poverty, nobody going hungry or struggling to find  clean water, nobody running for their lives because of political or environmental upheaval. Right now mornings in Santa Barbara are cool, but by midday the sun is out, the sky is blue, and all is well.

I’m prone to bouts of depression, dark, somber moods. I’d be better off if I stopped reading dozens of online news sources every day, but it’s hard to look away from the most bizarre political era of my life. I think Trump fatigue is as real as any ailment the pharmaceutical industry hawks during the evening news. If only there was a little oval -- purple, blue or white -- pill to cure Trumpism. The Orange Menace must be worried about the midterm elections because he’s really gone off the rails this week, even by his lofty standards of sheer madness. Provoking a nuclear arms race with Russia and China. Promising his supporters a tax cut before the midterms, even though Congress isn’t in session until after the election. Opening the Alaskan coast to oil drilling. Identifying himself as a nationalist, which means “white” nationalist. Calling for unity after spending nearly two years pouring gasoline on the flames of division. Claiming that the ranks of a Central American caravan of migrants headed toward the US are infiltrated with MS-13 gang members and Muslim terrorists, hell-bent on “invading” the country that spends more on its military than any other on the planet. The corporate media, playing along with Trump, calls the migrants an “army.” (If it’s an army, it’s an army of the desperate, the fearful, the displaced, and the impoverished.) Spewing utter nonsense about the great US jobs his proposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia will produce, pulling numbers out of his ass and flinging them at reporters, all fabrications, of course.  

A nation is in deep trouble far at sea when facts don’t matter, when a president makes stuff up on the fly, and the media more often than not accepts the mindless drivel, rather than calling BS, loud and incessantly.

Trump is a laughingstock. His administration is a shambles, a cruel, dangerous shambles. What about the children in custody at our border, separated from their parents, in limbo in cages? Have we forgotten them? Yes. The media moves on, fascinated by the next shiny thing, the next outrage, the next scandal, the next heaping pile of lies. What about Fukushima? What about the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, spewing oil as I write these words? What of our endless war in Afghanistan? Silence. Not shiny enough, not as interesting as Trump’s latest Tweet.

I worry about the malignant seeds Trump is spreading in our soil, some of which will wither and die when he finally leaves or is forced from the stage, but others that will take root and grow, with the fruit not to appear until ten or twenty years from now. Sometimes the real danger is unseen. Trump didn’t come from nowhere. He’s the result of a political and economic system turned corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of the people. The tinder was there when Trump rode his escalator down, primed and waiting for a match.

The Sniveler

“Inequality creates liars and delusion.” Rebecca Solnit

Last week I flew up to Oregon to visit my brother who lives in Tillamook. We drove to Astoria, spent one night, and early the following morning crossed the bridge over the Columbia River into Washington, headed for the Olympic Peninsula. Over three days we made an arc from Port Angeles to the Quinault River, stopping along the way in little towns like Forks, where we visited a timber museum, and the lodge at Lake Crescent. The creator, whoever she is, went a bit crazy in this part of the world, creating breathtaking vistas, towering trees and abundant water, hills shrouded in mist. So much beauty you run out of awe. Seeing my brother again was wonderful, and I felt the ties of blood as I never have before. Actually brought me to tears, something that doesn’t happen very often. If you were to ask me why I cried I couldn’t tell you. Although Santa Barbara is holding to its beauty like an old pageant winner and remains a fine city to live in, it was good to get away and see new scenery, different people, container ships on the Columbia, big log trucks jamming down the highway on their way to mill, guys fishing for salmon, dairy cows, old barns, verdant pastures.

Sadly, my sense of renewal and peace quickly faded, this being, after all, Trump’s perverse America, where, according to the Orange Menace, we are winning on every level and becoming great again, where truth is put to the sword every single day, and an unqualified sniveling prep-school prick like Brett Kavanaugh is elevated to the highest court in our land by a gang of Republican mobsters.

Come one, come all to the kangaroo court, behold aging white men as they cast judgment on a brave woman who had lost before she ever sat down to speak. Revel in the tyranny of the minority. 30% of the country dictating how the game will be played by the other 70%. As a father, as a man, as a citizen, I feel powerless, invisible, and irrelevant. Who represents me and my values? Nobody. What do I want? That’s easy. Justice. Fairness. A more equitable distribution of riches. A balance of power. Respect for the environment, and a realization that there is more to life than accumulating money and stuff, that there are limits and natural laws we cannot ignore.  

I didn’t watch the Kavanaugh circus, knowing that it would only infuriate me, but I caught some of Kavanaugh’s remarks via Democracy Now, his poor me and my family routine, we are broken by false accusations, it’s a left-wing conspiracy on behalf of the Clinton’s, and so on, the usual tropes of the whack-job right. Kavanaugh showed no class, no judicial cool, confirming the old saying that the higher a monkey climbs, the more he shows his ass. (Apologies to monkeys.) This charade will result in Kavanaugh’s confirmation, no doubt, proving, again, how busted American “democracy” really is. Then the fun will begin -- for the rich and powerful, the corporations, the crazy evangelical Christians -- but not you or me, my daughter, your sister, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

Here’s an interesting tidbit pointed out by Thom Hartmann on his radio program. Back in 2000, during the Florida recount and shenanigans that gifted the presidency to George W. Bush, there were three lawyers deeply involved on behalf of the GOP: John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Two of these jokers are sitting on the Supreme Court now. The third amigo is about to join them.

The leaders of the world laughed at the President of the United States this week. Laughed at his hubris, his fantasy world, his phony accomplishments, his bluster and stupidity. In this bizarre time certain things bear repeating: Donald Trump, aside from being an idiot, is a failed human being, devoid of empathy, compassion, and decency; the Republican Party is a political party in name only, it is actually a criminal organization; deregulated capitalism is killing the planet; it has been decades since US elites feared the public.

Wisdom, courage, justice and moderation are almost non-existent in America. This week proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Gone Team

“Brilliant, gifted, energetic, yes, but also anxious, greedy, bland, and risk-averse, with no courage and no vision -- that is our elite today.” William Deresiewicz

Imagine the person in the White House whose job it is to update the staff directory, produce stationery, business cards and signage for the offices and the Cabinet. During a “normal” administration, where the key players are largely static for a few years, at least, the gig isn’t too hectic. But we now live in Trump World where chaos and incoherence is the norm, and people come and go in droves. Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State from Exxon-Mobil, is gone; Hope Hicks, gone; Sean Spicer, gone; Gary Cohn, gone; Steve Bannon, gone; Mike Flynn, gone; Tom Price, gone. A host of lesser people have also been escorted out the revolving door of the White House. Trump, who lives in his own fantasy world of made up facts, claims to be close to having the Cabinet he really wants, which means, most likely, a Cabinet and advisors who will not contradict him or make him feel intellectually inferior, but who will constantly tell Trump that he is the greatest president of all time.

A Cabinet and White House staff populated with mediocrities loyal to Trump no matter how outrageous or dangerous his behavior.

It’s no surprise that Trump is making madness ordinary, just as he is making conflicts of interest ordinary, hardly worthy of notice. The corporate media reacts to every Trump tweet but fails to see and acknowledge the rot and gangrene at the heart of the system, and by “system” I mean predatory capitalism at home, and imperial designs abroad. As long as Trump occupies the national stage I’m going to keep saying this: he’s only a symptom, not the disease. If Trump were to keel over and expire tomorrow, the system -- in all its heartless cruelty, stupidity, and disregard for the common good -- would continue to function.

As a society we can’t agree about facts, even when the evidence is compelling and visible. America has lost its vision, its boldness, and its confidence. When polled most citizens express a desire for  government to provide services that will make their lives easier, less precarious; single-payer health care, free tuition at public colleges and universities, affordable housing, retirement security, clean air and water, safe roads and bridges, but the political class consistently, and blatantly, ignores the will of the people, claiming that such social benefits are too costly and a drag on the country’s “producers” and “job creators.” It was once accepted that creating a broad middle-class was a worthy objective, but that was before Ayn Rand and neoliberal economic ideas infected the policy stance of both parties.

This nation’s priorities emerge in stark relief when we look at what is always affordable: weapons of war, military invasions and occupations, tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, subsidies for energy extractors, and bailouts when the elites overreach and crash the economy. Owners and investors are afforded a cushioned landing, no matter the cost, workers and the poor foot the bill.

This is a sobering date in American history, the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, when US soldiers murdered some 500 Vietnamese women, children and elderly villagers. The My Lai carnage lasted four hours. These days the US kills civilians with drones, a more sophisticated method, but one no less savage and immoral.

State of the Union -- According to TRUMP

“But that was some other era, burned out and long gone from the brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord…” Hunter S. Thompson, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

 -Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, and fellow citizens, I stand before you as the greatest president in American history, the most popular, most loved, and most successful. Everybody is saying that my first year in office has been one long winning streak for our great country. The stock market is skyrocketing, because of me; our tax code finally makes sense, because of me; ISIS is defeated, because of me; we are taking control of our borders, because of me; violent crime is way down and our inner cities are being reborn, because of me; the middle-class is growing by leaps and bounds, because of me. In one year I have accomplished more than my predecessor did in eight years. Just goes to show what can happen when a real American, who also happens to be a genius -- a very stable genius -- occupies the White House.

-Our ratings are great, we’re breaking records every day. You may have seen that Apple will soon invest $550 billion in manufacturing plants here in America, which means hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of great jobs for American workers. Think of it, very soon, American workers in Wichita and Youngstown and Camden will be assembling iPhones for the world. This is phenomenal, and something my predecessor could never have accomplished because he never understood the art of the deal.

-America is winning again, and winning large, like my favorite NFL team, the New England Patriots. In my first year in office I met with more world leaders and logged more air miles than any president in modern history, and wherever I traveled, people lined the streets, waving, showing their love for me and my brilliant administration and our great country. The people of Saudi Arabia love me, the jews of Israel love me like one of their own, and the inhabitants of Puerto Rico view me as their savior. We are winning across the globe because I put America first like no previous president has done. Who else but me could toss rolls of paper towels to the people like I did when I personally organized the recovery and rebuilding of Puerto Rico, which, I might add, has been a tremendous success. Puerto Rico is back on track.

-Because I always put America first, I pulled our country out of the Paris Climate deal, a terrible deal, and look what happened: our economy is booming, blacks are doing better than ever, women are doing better than ever. All because of me. And while we’re on the subject of women, people are always saying how much I respect women, which is true, nobody respects women more than I do. This is why ten days or so ago women gathered in the streets by the tens of thousands all across the country to march in support of my administration. The fake news media reported that women were protesting, but we know the truth, don’t we?

-A lot of people are saying that my administration is the most transparent and ethical in American history, filled with individuals of the highest personal qualities, very fine people, who would never place private gain above public good. Only I could drain the Washington swamp in a year. Another promise kept. My administration is a well-oiled machine the likes of which has never been seen before. This is why I have passed more legislation in my first year than any other president.

-On the international front the United States has never been more respected. Iran and North Korea understand that I will not tolerate any threat to our great country. My generals, how I love my generals, are prepared to defend America from any foreign threat, and our fighting men and women are the best the world has ever seen. A lot of people are saying that the morale and spirit of our military forces has improved since I became commander-in-chief. I am not afraid to use our military power, including nuclear weapons. Every one of our enemies should know this. I hope Little Rocket Man is listening very carefully.

-Never has our great country been more united. We are one nation under a benevolent God who protects and keeps us safe from the evil in this world. Only I could make this happen, as only I know how to make America great again. All you need to know is that as long as I’m president, we will keep winning. Thank you, and may God Bless the United States of America, and me, of course, your very own dear leader.

California Burning, America Vanishing

Parts of California are burning. October and November are fire season in the Golden State, but what has happened in the Napa area boggles the imagination -- some neighborhoods look like they were bombed by an invading army. Houses reduced to smoldering ash, cars torched, as if Mother Earth pitched a temper tantrum and decided to retaliate for how shabbily we have treated her. Climate scientists have been warning for years that one potential result of human-caused climate change will be fiercer storms, floods, and wildfires. Houston, Puerto Rico, Napa. Get the idea now?

I have Trump fatigue. How about you?

The Orange Buffoon embodies the most reprehensible and vile aspects of the American character: ignorance, bombast, greed, cruelty, racism, arrogance, and violence. In less than a year, Trump has turned the White House into a risible shitshow. His approval rating is in the low 30’s and will not climb any higher unless he launches war against North Korea or Iran, in which case the political class and corporate media will grovel at his feet and a majority of Americans will rally around him as if he were the reincarnation of George Washington. All occupants of the Oval Office understand this reliable escape route from tanking poll numbers or domestic scandal.

Neal Gabler wrote a piece for the Bill Moyers website recently that put forth the idea that we are viewing Trump and his entourage of miscreants through the wrong lens. We can’t, Gabler wrote, view Trump through the standard political lens but must view him through the lens of entertainment, of ratings and clicks and social media traffic, the same lens through which we see Kim Kardashian. Trump, with his incessant demand for attention and adulation, is flipping the usual script, replacing politics with entertainment, and as long as people keep tuning in, he will keep attacking African-American athletes, US senators, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the people of Puerto Rico, his own Secretary of State, and the corporate media; he will constantly up the ante and create false drama with arch comments like, “You’ll see.” An approval rating in the low 30’s matters little when you can still command all the media attention, and when that attention is all you care about. Gabler’s hypothesis is intriguing and might be the only way to understand the disaster that is Donald Trump.

While Trump preens, postures, lies, attacks, threatens, and makes an ass of himself, the kleptocrats around him are doing serious damage to the nation, making every economic, social and environmental problem worse by dint of their greed and incompetence. The Trump Administration’s response to the devastation of Puerto Rico is criminal, but no matter how many Puerto Ricans suffer or perish, you can bet that no one will be held accountable. That is, unfortunately in this awful year of our lord 2017, how our system works -- the political and economic elites, the wealthy, play by a completely different set of rules. Like white police officers who gun down unarmed black men, there is never a penalty to pay.

When our country is this jacked up and corrupt, nobody is obligated to stand for the national anthem, salute the flag, or recite the pledge of allegiance. No matter what Trump and Mike Pence and Jeff Sessions say, dissent is never unpatriotic. Dissent is the essence of patriotism. If we don’t demand an end to predatory capitalism, rigged elections, shitty medical care, endless wars, racism, gun violence, jingoism, and ecocide, nothing will change. Kneel, sit, bow your head, turn your back, raise a clenched fist, be an American, stand for something and demand better before it’s too late.