To the Right of Nixon

“I know progressives who are nostalgic for Richard Nixon.” Ralph Nader

I particularly enjoy this time of the year on California’s Platinum Coast. The light arrives early in the morning and remains until well into the evening. I usually wake to the twittering of birds; the days are fine, neither chilly or too warm. Santa Barbara is still full of itself, still entranced by its own image, a distant cry from the town I grew up in many years ago, but what the hell. So what if the foodies and the wine aficionados and yoga parlors and private wealth managers have taken over, and State Street is just a carnival for out-of-town hipsters. Let the good times keep rolling.

It’s funny what Ralph Nader said about his progressive pals who are nostalgic for Richard Nixon. Those of us who are old enough to remember Dick Nixon in all his many political guises, but in particular the Nixon of 1972 to 1974, may be hard pressed to view Nixon as a friend of anything remotely resembling a progressive position, but the point Nader is making is that the American political scene has shifted so far to the right that many policies advanced by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama actually lie to the right of Nixon. Think about that. And don’t for a moment believe that Madam Clinton will reverse the trend. Madam Clinton is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Fuck all New Democrats is what I say, they have bent us over and rammed it home. Barack Obama is viewed as a peace-loving leader at the same time his administration is busy provoking Russia, encircling China, selling weaponry to Vietnam, and conducting drone warfare all over the planet. Oh, and let’s not forget that Obama, the man of peace, is proposing to spend around a trillion of our tax dollars to “modernize” America’s nuclear arsenal. This modernization isn’t mentioned by Bernie Sanders or Madam Clinton.

We will be at war with someone, somewhere, forever. We will maintain a military presence in Afghanistan in the same way we have maintained one in Japan, Germany, Okinawa, and South Korea. We will occupy most of the planet militarily until the sheer expense of this empire crushes us. We are the drooling ogre with a learning disability who cannot learn the lessons of the past. We tell ourselves that our armaments are used only for noble ends, to protect our freedom or to free others from the grip of despots.

We lie to ourselves, always have, because to do otherwise is to expose the corrupt underbelly of this country. The lights are dim all over the city on the hill.

We are reassured repeatedly by our corporate propagandists that we are blessed to live in a democracy where our vote and our voice matters. This is bullshit. In the United States those that govern do not fear the governed. Why should they? Our votes are nullified by money, drowned out by money; our governors serve the money masters, gerrymander the electoral map to insure their perpetuation in office. We, the governed, pay 535 people to represent our interests, to advance policies that will provide us the most life, liberty and happiness, and they repay us with betrayal, with sell-outs, with austerity and endless war.

And look at our choice for the highest office in the land, the leader of our empire, two representatives of the ultra-rich who haven’t the faintest idea what it means to be an average, wage-earning person. Bernie Sanders understands, at least when it comes to economics, but the system will not let him past the velvet ropes.

Damn, what a downer. Is such pessimism warranted?

Election 2016: The Farce Continues

“And so we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust.” Martin Luther King Jr., 1967

The farce continues. Donald Trump will be the standard bearer of the Republican Party, whose movers and shakers must now swallow their bile and put on a display of party “unity.” Much was made of Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill last week for a meeting with Paul Ryan, the putative Party genius. It doesn’t matter that Ryan has never hatched an idea beyond the typical Party doctrine -- he’s the man whose ring must be kissed. Media reports concluded that Trump and Ryan didn’t agree on anything major. No surprise there. Trump is a wild card, totally unpredictable, and therefore uncontrollable, and most of the GOP big shots have denounced him at least once during this campaign.

Bernie Sanders won the West Virginia primary, though the mainstream media continue to write him off because the delegate math favors Hillary Clinton. The honchos in the Democratic Party call on Sanders to submit to the inevitable and call it a day, urge his supporters to tip their energy and money and votes to Queen Clinton. So far, Sanders vows to fight on, though the day of his capitulation is only a matter of the changing of the calendar.

For those of us out here in Reality Land, where the impact of neoliberal policies (low-wage, contingent jobs, student loan debt, crushing medical expenses, etc.) is felt and paid for, the choice offered us is no choice at all. Trump is a gilt-edged novelty for media moguls and pundits, but the man is a dangerous buffoon with no core beliefs other than money and celebrity. Clinton, on the other hand, is more of the same: austerity for the needy and welfare for the rich; imperial wars and domestic surveillance; lip service for the existential crisis posed by climate change; and continued privatization of the assets and services we are supposed to own in common for the good of us all.

Regardless of who wins this tarnished election, private profit will remain the primary organizing principle of the U S of A.

The whole game is rigged, of course, designed to keep the duopoly in power and limit the issues that are allowed to be discussed and the people invited to discuss them. Flip on the network shows and it’s the same faces all the time talking about the same trivial BS. Can anyone remember a period in US history when the country was involved in so many wars simultaneously, none of them formally declared or approved by Congress? I cannot. And these contemporary wars grind on and on, year after year, with no end ever coming into view. Trump claims that he will “rebuild” the US military, though one has to wonder what this might look like given the disproportionate amount of taxpayer money that is siphoned off by the military-security-intelligence apparatus. We outspend every other nation on armaments. The network pundits don’t talk about this at all.

The political system is corrupt and dysfunctional, and this year it has vomited up two presidential hopefuls who most of the voting-age public either despises or distrusts. I have been ruminating lately on the question of whether or not the country deserves Donald Trump, if his ascent is the logical end to decades of lies and disinformation, patriotic mumbo-jumbo about freedom and democracy and the American Way, enormous giveaways to plunderers and plutocrats, and deliberate attempts to anesthetize the populace. The media moguls are more than happy to gin up controversy about transgender restrooms but cannot be troubled to tell the scary truth about the economy, climate change or nuclear proliferation.

I did hear the economist Richard Wolff say something that cheered me. In a lecture about how pressure for social change often builds unseen and then explodes all at once, Wolff said, “The aristocrats never see it coming.”

Could we be at such a turning point now? I’m fairly certain that our collective survival depends on it.

5000-1

Leicester City Football Club pulled off one of the greatest feats in the history of English football, capturing the Premier League title with two matches to spare. Start with the fact that only a year ago the Foxes had to play their way out of a hole that seemed certain to see them relegated. Add the fact that at the start of the 2015-2016 season, oddsmakers set Leicester’s chances at winning the title at 5000-1. (For an American this is hard to wrap one’s head around, but I suppose it would be like a Triple A baseball team, such as the Fresno Grizzlies, winning the World Series.) What’s even more startling is Leicester’s puny team payroll of 48.2 million pounds, compared to the huge payrolls of giants like Liverpool (152 million pounds), Arsenal (192 million pounds), and Manchester City (193 million pounds). I suppose the moral is that while money can buy talent, it cannot buy heart and desire and belief.

By all that is logical and holy in football the Foxes should not be champions of the Premier League. But don’t tell them that. All season long this remarkable club played with a freedom and abandon that defied logic and was often beautiful to watch; they won with spectacular play and they won by grinding matches out; they won with Jamie Vardy leading the line -- and they won without him. Mainly, they won together, that was what made watching them so enjoyable.Their talent was complimentary and reinforcing and expertly marshalled by manager Claudio Ranieri. They won because the spine of the side, Kasper Schmeichel in goal, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan at center back, and N’Golo Kante in the holding midfielder role, was consistently better than any comparable side in the league. In fact, Kante may be the most valuable player of all. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and Leonardo Ulloa score goals, but Kante is the constant in midfield, intercepting passes, winning challenges, and making timely tackles that frustrate the opposition and kill counterattacks. Kante never stops running -- he is perpetual and determined motion.

This was a title 132 years in the making and I for one hope Leicester supporters enjoy every minute of their turn in the winner’s circle.  

I’ve been thinking about Leicester’s accomplishment since Monday night when my beloved Chelsea (huge payroll, disinterested players, dismal season) erased a two goal deficit to earn a draw against Tottenham, the result of which tipped the title to Leicester. It was a match marred by cheap fouls and bad behavior. Twelve yellow cards were issued, nine against Tottenham. At the end of the match, Guus Hiddink, Chelsea’s 69-year-old interim manager, was knocked to the ground. Ugly stuff. But that wasn’t the focus of my rumination; I was thinking about Leicester in relation to American politics and the rise of Donald Trump, and wondering if there is any possibility that Trump will pull off a political miracle as unfathomable as Leicester’s footballing miracle.

I don’t know if the odds of Trump’s winning are 5000-1, but I assume they are long. It’s one thing to win primaries, another to prevail in a general election. Will Trump’s atavistic message resonate with a wider electorate, particularly women and Latinos? Doubtful. Trump is the candidate of fearful, resentful, and spiteful white men who yearn for the days when women and minorities knew their place, and America built stuff. Those days are long gone. It’s like yearning for the days when Great Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent and a mediocre white bloke could pretend he was a royal. Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, has a theory that Trump doesn’t want to be president as much as he wants to win the presidency. Five minutes after his inauguration I think Trump would be asking himself, “OK, now what?” It’s not that Trump is anyone’s puppet -- his ego is too massive for that -- but I think his temperament is completely ill-suited for high political office. Emperor maybe, president never.

Leicester’s march to the Premier League crown was full of passion and joy; by contrast, the American general election in November will be full of lies and bombast. Whether the winner is Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, millions of people will have a foul taste in their mouths the day after.

Torches and Pitchforks

It’s almost reality, the presidential matchup the corporate media has been salivating for, Trump versus Clinton. The major commercial networks will use the public airwaves, for which they pay nothing, to earn buckets of cash carrying Trump and Clinton campaign ads, and the inevitable debates. It will be great for the corporate bottom line, wonderful fodder for the pundit class, and downright terrible for the nation. This is where we are. The oligarchy is alive and still in control.

Despair is an easy option. Watching the Republican Party reap the reward it has sowed for years alleviates some, but not anywhere close to all, my despair. The party strategists and bigwigs have blown the dog whistle for decades and what finally came home to them is the atavistic Donald Trump. Bummer.

What bothers me is the other party, the Democrats, the one that is supposed to be all-inclusive, champion of working people and the environment, women, equality and social justice. We know this isn’t the case any longer. As Thomas Frank points out in his new book, Listen, Liberal, the Democrats have been sprinting away from their traditional constituencies since the early 1970’s. As a result, the Party apparatus was hijacked by the Clintons and others of their ilk, so called New Democrats (Barack Obama included, which explains his energetic support of the Trans Pacific Partnership secret trade agreement) who embrace a savage neoliberal agenda that has devastated the middle class.

Our democracy is weak, the game rigged to produce preordained results. This is nothing new in American history -- we’ve traveled this rutted sideroad before. The wealthy and powerful always do everything they possibly can to limit direct democracy simply because they can’t control it. They talk about the “will of the people” and all that blather, but what they really mean is the will of their kind of people. So, we see arcane nominating rules and outright efforts to deny people their right to cast a ballot; we see how potential third parties are ignored and marginalized by the media, prevented from participating in debates and candidate forums.

The political duopoly serves its masters and makes serfs and slaves of the rest of us. As Robert McChesney and John Nichols note in their book, People Get Ready, “Unemployment, inequality, and poverty are best understood not, in the end, as economic problems, but instead as political problems. They require political solutions.” McChesney and Nichols go on to say that the level of corruption in contemporary American politics -- the blatant buying of politicians from both parties -- would make Gilded Age icons blush. The wealthy have never had it so good; 40-plus years of propaganda and scheming and manipulation has put them in the catbird seat.

But cracks are appearing in the foundation of this deeply entrenched oligarchy. The economic pain has become so widespread and pervasive that people are once again receptive to New Deal-style solutions. Bernie Sanders never had a prayer of winning the Democratic nomination -- the whole Party edifice was arrayed against him -- but he has succeeded in dragging bedrock middle class issues like income inequality back into the light. And when movements like Black Lives Matter, the Fight for $15, climate justice, humane immigration reform and voting rights, to name a few, coalesce with the understanding that their separate struggles are in reality one overarching struggle, the cracks will become fissures.

It has happened before. It will happen again. The People know the current arrangement is not only inequitable but unsustainable. Hell, the oligarchs themselves know this is true, which is why they are so desperate to delay the day of reckoning.

Tick, tock, torches and pitchforks.

Oligarchs Paradise

“I know not why it should be a matter of congratulation that persons who are already richer than any one needs to be, should have doubled their means of consuming things which give little or no pleasure except as representative of wealth.” J.S. Mill

Slick Willie still has balls. It takes a hefty pair to stand in front of a crowd in Philadelphia and tell African-American protestors that government policies that hurt them and their communities were really, at heart, for their benefit.

Your lives mattered so much to my administration that I made them a living hell. I had to destroy your communities in order to save them.

No apology required.

Bill Clinton’s crime bill, passed back in the mid-90’s, was not designed to protect the lives of African-American teenagers; the intent was to allay the fears of white people who thought black gangs like the Crips and Bloods were about to overrun suburbia, and to demonstrate that Bill Clinton was as tough on crime as any Republican.

The Clintons triangulate everything for political advantage. Yes, I physically beat you to a pulp, but surely you can see it was for your own good? Turn the tables, blame the victims. The Clintons have made this tactic into an art form.

The thought of another Clinton administration is nauseating. We deserve better than someone who has used her position in government to enrich herself. Who asks us to believe that Wall Street banks are happy to pay her upwards of $200,000 for a single speech without expecting anything in return. This is insulting -- we know how the world works.

Our democracy is a democracy in name only because the political system, at least at the national level, is deaf to the needs of average citizens. How many times have I written this or something similar on this blog? The disconnect between the rulers and the ruled is severe. It’s clear that people from all walks of life and circumstances want peace, decent jobs, some measure of economic security, safe drinking water, breathable air, food that isn’t laced with poison, and a voice. The political machinery produces few of these things because to do so would require the rulers who own and operate the machinery to give up their privilege, and that never happens.  

As Robert McChesney and John Nichols note in their new book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy,  the solution to all these issues is political. Income inequality is about distribution of wealth, and that involves politics; climate change is all politics; the impact of technology on employment opportunities for our children is about government policy. But we have to understand that from the very beginning, the leading lights of the American colony, and then the American nation, feared the masses, the passions of the mob, and protected private property, the landed, and the slave owners. If the status quo is going to change, we cannot ask politely and wait for an answer -- we must demand.

Repeatedly.

Democracy is messy and unpredictable. The alternative, however, is what we see happening now: environmental degradation, extreme income inequality, political paralysis, a weak and debased corporate media that only serves to distract citizens from reality, and wars abroad that go on for decades. Poll after poll shows that this is not the America people want.

I know it’s not the America I want. I want this country to live up to its ideals, and I’d like my children to have half a shot at lives that are not reduced to toil, want and insecurity.

Hey, Bartender

Don’t ignore the little people; don’t look right through us as if we are wearing Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. I can assure you that our money is as good, and our thirst as pronounced, as the strapping gentleman, or the buxom female, who garners all your attention.

What am I talking about you ask. Fair question. The other night my wife and I went to a well known music club in Santa Barbara to hear Eric Hutchinson and his band. The place wasn’t crowded when we arrived; we stood at the bar trying to decide what libations we fancied. Two bartenders on duty. One of them, bearded, wearing a white shirt and gray vest, was talking wine with a couple seated at the bar. The other was rinsing glasses two feet from us. Neither acknowledged us or made eye contact. Being polite types, we waited patiently. Surely one of them would raise his head and take our order. Nope. The first guy kept talking, the second kept rinsing glasses. We may as well have been invisible.

I was immediately transported back several months, to the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I was attending a conference and staying at the hotel, and one evening I went down to the casino and sat at the bar, less than three feet from a bartender who did everything but look at me or acknowledge my existence. I was so stunned by his absolute indifference that I didn’t say anything -- I just sat there and waited, fascinated to see how long he could go without acknowledging me. After seven and a half minutes -- yes, I timed it with the stop- watch on my iPhone -- I gave up.

This happened to me three times at the Westgate, which says more about that crappy joint than it does about me. After the third time I strolled over to the concierge and asked to speak to a manager. An African-American woman listened to my tale, told me that the hotel was under new management, and promised to relay my concerns during the next all-staff meeting. No apology, no chit for a drink, not even a smile, now that I think of it.

I’m not a tall man, I’m a runt, and this I think, more than anything else, explains the troubles I’ve experienced with bartenders. The two examples I note here are not the only times I have failed to get service; this happens frequently, in establishments all over my hometown. My wife is convinced that I bear some sort of secret marking visible only to bartenders. Now, I know that some of you are thinking that this dilemma (which, in the big scheme of life is really, really minor, boo-hoo can’t get a drink,) is easily solved if I adopt a more forceful approach, call out to the bartender, tap my debit card on the bar or wave a fistful of dollars to get his or her attention (to be fair to female bartenders, I can say that they ignore me less often than do their male counterparts). But here’s my point: tall men don’t need to resort to these kinds of histrionics -- they step up and are served -- or are at least recognized.

That’s all I want, really, to be recognized, acknowledged, noticed. As a rule, I’m very appreciative of servers and bartenders and busboys, their work isn’t easy and customers can be a pain in the ass. My wife and I tip well because we are working-class people ourselves. I don’t expect anyone to kiss my ass; I do expect people in service businesses to provide service.

So, bartenders, don’t overlook us short people. Like I said, our money is good.

My Interview with Amy Goodman - Santa Barbara Independent - April 5, 2016

Amy Goodman Talks 20 Years of Independent Journalism

Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now, the only public media program that airs simultaneously on radio, cable, satellite television, and the Internet, will be speaking at UCSB on April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Goodman, along with longtime writing partners Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, are on a 100-city book tour to promote their latest book, Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America. 

UCSB

Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman’s list of journalism awards and accolades is too lengthy to mention. Suffice it to say that Goodman has walked the walk in war zones and areas wrecked by natural disasters, and has been on the ground to cover major stories such as the recent Paris climate negotiations and the Black Lives Matter movement. 


Brian Tanguay caught up with Amy Goodman on the eve of her book tour. 

When you started the broadcast back in 1996, did you have any idea it would become what it is today?We thought it would be a nine-month project, ending with the election, however that turned out. We were the only daily election coverage in public broadcasting. But there was more demand the day after the election than before. More and more stations wanted to pick us up. First it was community radio stations, then NPR, and public access television stations. Then PBS stations asked to air us. It just grew and grew. We’re translated into Spanish and Democracy Now is now carried on 1,400 public stations. Our growth is an indication of the hunger for independent voices.

Democracy Now started at a time when media consolidation in the United States was gathering momentum. Did the prospect of trying to establish an authentic voice in a corporate-dominated environment give you pause? Sadly, they have left such a huge niche — in fact, the corporate broadcasters are now niche broadcasters. These corporate networks feature such a small circle of pundits who know so little about so much. Our work at Democracy Now is giving voice to the vast majority of people whose voices are not represented. That’s what gives us our authenticity.

You and your team at Democracy Now have profiled, featured, and interviewed people that the corporate media ignore. I’m thinking of Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Scahill, Angela Davis, Arundhati Roy — a long list of important voices that the average American knows little if anything about. Was providing a platform for voices like these part of your original vision or did that evolve? These are voices that need to be heard. I won’t say these voices have been blacked-out — maybe whited-out is more accurate — but we’re talking about thinkers and grassroots leaders, and people closest to the issues that impact their lives and communities and nations. 

Of all the interviews you’ve done and events covered, is there one that stands out more than the rest? No, it’s more the inspiration of so many different voices. Our team at Democracy Now uses all its skill and diligence to give voice to people closest to the issues. This is critical in a democracy.

Can you recall the number of times you’ve been arrested in the course of reporting? (Laughs.) I don’t have the exact number, but I will say that it’s unacceptable that police arrest reporters. Our job is to be in the streets covering events and talking to people who are excluded from the conversation. 

Which corporate media broadcasts do you watch? As many as I can. It’s important to understand how events are framed, and what questions aren’t being asked. 

What unsettles you when you look at the contemporary political landscape, particularly the election coverage? The lack of diversity. 

What gives you hope? The movement. There’s no question about it. This book, written with my colleagues Denis Moynihan and my brother David Goodman, is about people all over the world who are challenging discrimination against immigrants or fighting for gay and lesbian rights or economic and environmental justice. The persistence and dedication and ingenuity of these people is inspiring.

I have to ask you this question, Amy, because it’s one of the most important questions of our time. Have you seen Hamilton? I can’t believe you’re asking me this question! It’s as if you have a little lens into my life. I have been wanting to see Hamilton, but of course there’s no way because the show is sold out for months. But then a week ago a friend of mine came into town for my birthday bearing tickets for the show! It’s an unbelievable work that is changing the face of Broadway. Who would have thought American history could be told through hip-hop and rap?

Reefer Madness Redux

“When the Great Scorer comes to list the main downers of our time, the Nixon Inauguration will have to be ranked Number One.” Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ‘72

Like many people of my generation, I detested Richard Nixon and just about everything he ever stood for. Nixon was an evil dude, and he surrounded himself with authoritarian creeps like H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson. Bad times, unrest in the cities and on college campuses. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. King had been murdered and the heart seemed to have been ripped from the nation.

Like Donald Trump today, Nixon was a Law & Order guy, a tough talking high sheriff who would lock criminals up and bury the key. To rid the nation of the scourge of dangerous drugs, Nixon and his henchman launched the War on Drugs. This bad idea is still with us, all these years later, and our prisons, many of them operated by corporations for profit,  are filled to bursting with former users and junkies.

Nixon’s War on Drugs was erected on a foundation of out and out racism. An interview with John Ehrlichman that came to light recently makes the real intent of the War on Drugs crystal clear. Here’s Ehrlichman, speaking with breathtaking candor in the mid 1990’s:

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

There it is, in all its sinister glory. A diabolical scheme hatched by a paranoid government to put white, pot-toking hippies and black smack junkies back in their boxes and slam the lid. Only Nixon, I think, only that rat bastard was evil enough to conceive of such a plan, and the consequences plague the nation -- not to mention Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, to name a few -- to this day. Obama came out the other day and said that drug use and abuse is more of a health issue than a criminal one, a good start, albeit way too late, but I wonder if he would have said anything if record numbers of white folk weren’t getting hooked on heroin and prescription opioids. When a social problem impacts the pale skins, the government acts and money begins to flow toward solutions.

God, why am I thinking about Nixon? It’s a lovely day outside my window and I’m free of the work clock, there’s lots of cold Lagunitas in the fridge, a couple of bags of sunflower seeds, but more to the point, the current political circus is awful enough without drifting back to our dark past. If I start thinking about Nixon I will invariably think about Henry Kissinger and Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Millions of people killed. Nixon and Kissinger, W. Bush and Cheney -- a gallery of unindicted war criminals. I’m not sure the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Kissinger is considered a sage in some circles; W and Cheney run free still, make speeches for good money, and never bother to hang their heads in shame.

The horror, the horror, the horror!

Death Trap

“My point is, with Hillary Clinton, we know what we’re getting — a corrupt war-mongering, duplicitous neoliberal Wall Street shill posing as a progressive. With Trump, we get a narcissistic businessman posing as a fascist. Neither one as president would actually be what they are pretending to be during the campaign.” David Lindorff

The letter from Honda was alarming. IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL  (in red typeface).  “Honda has decided that a defect which relates to motor vehicle safety exists in certain 2007-2011 model year CR-V vehicles.”

And in bold typeface this: “The defect in these vehicles could kill or injure you or other people in your vehicle.”

Wait a minute...Honda has decided? What about Honda has discovered or determined or learned? Decided?

It gets even more macabre: “Specifically, in some vehicles, the driver’s front airbag inflator could produce excessive internal pressure upon deployment. If an affected airbag deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture (break apart) and deploy abnormally. In the event of an inflator rupture, metal fragments could pass through the airbag cushion material possibly causing serious injury or fatality to you or others in the vehicle. Past ruptures like this have killed and injured vehicle drivers.”

But the best part came next. “The remedy parts needed to conduct driver’s airbag inflator recalls will become available in the Summer of 2016.”

So, if I understand this correctly, my family and I should continue driving our potential death trap until Honda has enough parts available to conduct its recall. Happy motoring from now until Summer 2016, which means what, exactly? July? August? Early September?

Honda is rather blase about the possibility of my or my family’s potential death or dismemberment. Play the odds, take a road trip, avoid rear-ending someone…

Honda’s recall took my attention from the presidential election and the terrorist attack in Belgium. Knowing the American corporate media will draw the wrong conclusions about Brussels, I avoid the news. I still believe that the vast majority of the world’s Muslims are peaceful people who want the same things Americans, English, French, Spanish and Africans want: to exercise some control over their own destinies, to raise their children, to work, play, travel, and worship. All the reasonable human expectations. Extremists, whatever guise they wear, get the attention, and Islamic extremists motivate Western nations to wage war endlessly. Don’t misunderstand -- attacking innocent civilians is barbaric and cowardly -- but so is launching laser-guided missiles at a wedding party from a remote-controlled drone. Both acts terrorize the innocent; both acts stoke the fires of vengeance.

And let’s not forget or ignore root causes. Who mid-wifed the birth of ISIS?

The Dance of the Phonies staggers on. Cruz and Trump and Hillary. Bernie Sanders is still in the race, though you’d hardly draw this conclusion from the mainstream media. Hillary is awful on the stump, wooden and pedantic. Little of her hubby’s magic rubbed off. All Slick Willie had to do to make audiences swoon was start his lower lip quivering. Try as she might, and try she does, Hillary cannot convince the masses to like or trust her.

We trudge toward our Hobson’s choice. Dear voter, how would you like your death, brutal and quick, or less painful but more drawn out?

The Fork In The Road

“Throughout the Western world the financial system has become an exploiter of the people and a deadweight loss on economies.” Paul Craig Roberts

Looks like we owe the Feds money again, but may get a refund from Jerry Brown, which means our tax dance for 2015 might be a wash. Had we owed both Federal and State I might have had a nervous breakdown. Our daughter is flunking Physics -- no surprise -- she hates the subject and doesn’t apply herself, and sooner or later will understand the relationship between effort and results. Mom and dad have to go meet with her teacher. The work we do for the money we need to sustain our life is often a soul-sucking grind, and like many Americans in the low-low middle class, though we claw we never seem to get ahead; one calamity and we’re toast. Maybe our lot will improve when Donald Trump becomes president. He’s a winner, or so he tells us at every opportunity, and when he wins, we win.

Forget I said that, I’m joking, of course. Trump, Clinton, Cruz, Rubio, nothing is going to change, no matter which of these people is elected. The American economy is a scam, a house of cards, operated by an oligarchy for the benefit of the oligarchy. As John Jay said when this nation was founded, “The people who own the country run it.”

The mass of people who work for wages understand this, and, at some level, they realize that it is the “system” that causes their struggles, not some fault of their own; not laziness or lack of will or initiative, but a system designed to make them, or keep them, poor. Trump spews plenty of garbage, but when he talks about how trade deals like NAFTA (thanks, Bill Clinton) have decimated the American working class, he’s right, and I think this is why he sounds like a savior to some people.

What about Bernie Sanders? Yes, if Sanders somehow overcomes the Clinton death grip on the Democratic Party and all its machinery, he might shake a few crumbs from the system, but his ability to do so will entirely depend on the makeup of Congress, and this is fraught with uncertainty because so many Democrats are now Republicans, ideologically speaking; Sanders might have difficulty pushing his agenda with Democrats in control of the House and Senate. Of course if those bodies remain in Republican control, Sanders would be stymied at every turn.

Both parties are corrupt, as is the entire electoral system. Voters are offered two unpalatable choices -- isn’t democracy grand! It’s like going to the dentist and being told that your cracked molar can be pulled with needle nose pliers or vice grips, which do you prefer? Politicians, at least at the national level, no longer trouble themselves representing the interests of the voters who elect them. Instead, they represent the corporations and wealthy donors who own them. This guarantees that the critical issues facing the nation will not be addressed, except at the most superficial level. And when it comes to an issue like climate change, superficial measures are a recipe for disaster and death.

Getting back to Trump and his traveling circus for a minute. What is his economic policy? Just win, baby? Knock the Chinese over the head with a two-by-four? Invade Mexico? Any voter -- white, black, brown, or rainbow colored -- who believes that Trump will improve their lot economically is flat nuts.  “I will make great deals,” is not a policy. Running an empire, even one bordering on collapse, is not the same as starring in a make-believe TV show. Blithely declaring that one will “strengthen” America’s military, when 54% of the discretionary budget is already being spent on America’s sprawling military apparatus is not only stupid, it’s suicidal. But that’s Trump. Buffoon, blowhard, egomaniac.

And as of today, the GOP frontrunner.

I’m too tired to think about a Hillary Clinton presidency. I despise the woman; she is mendacious and mediocre and malignant. In my mind, Hillary’s almost as frightening as Trump. Most of her experience is covered with a thick coat of failure, and she has blood beneath her fingernails.

How did America come to this pathetic fork in the road?

Supreme Leader: An imaginary (or is it?) interview with Donald Trump

Editor’s Note: The interminable election coverage is causing me to have wicked nightmares. I wake up in a cold sweat with visions of Donald Trump’s bloated orange face in my head, or I shoot straight out of bed screaming that Hillary Clinton has moved back into the White House. Terrible times. We are trapped in a death spiral.

WOLF BLITZER

Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Mr. Trump.

TRUMP

The pleasure is all yours, Wolf. Let me ask you something, why do you call your show the ‘Situation Room?’ What situation is going on in your ‘Situation Room?’ Just kidding. I’m  messing with you, Wolf. Good show, I watch it whenever I can, which isn’t often, but hey, I’m a busy guy.

WOLF BLITZER

I’d like to ask you about Marco Rubio

DONALD TRUMP

Rubio’s a lightweight. He sweats when he’s nervous and the man is nervous all the time. Look, Wolf, here’s the thing. The Republican Party big shots are scared out of their minds because I’m about to lap the field. Bush is out, Christie’s history, nobody can stop me from the nomination. They never thought I’d be sitting in the catbird seat at this point in time, but here I am. I’m too smart, too rich, too charismatic. Unstoppable, that’s what it comes down to.

WOLF BLITZER

Rubio recently criticized the size of your hands, the implication being that…

TRUMP

Don’t be stupid, Wolf. My schlong is huuuge. Do you think I could have accomplished everything I’ve done with a tiny dick?

WOLF BLITZER

Do you think the campaign has become too negative and petty? What I mean is that instead of talking about the economy or ISIS or climate change, the candidates are insulting one another about the size of their dongs.

TRUMP

My opponents are pussies.

WOLF BLITZER

If you win the nomination...

TRUMP

If? There’s no if, Wolf. I will be the nominee. The Trump juggernaut can’t be stopped. The GOP establishment may not like it, but that’s tough. I’ve got the smart people, I’ve got the dumb people, I’ve got people, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER

Let’s change gears and talk about policy.

TRUMP

Are you kidding me? I don’t get lost in the weeds. What you have to understand about me is this: I’m the ultimate big picture guy. I’ve got people to do the policy stuff. You get down in the weeds and all you do is get your clothes dirty. I don’t like to get my clothes dirty. What I do is make the hard choices, the tough calls, the big decisions. We’re going to make America great again, and that’s all you need to know. Trust me. Everything Donald Trump touches turns to gold. I’m Midas.

WOLF BLITZER

How do you feel about the possibility of going head-to-head with Hillary Clinton in November?

TRUMP

I’ll destroy her. She’s got no chance. Clinton is part of the establishment, she’s out of step, not to mention the fact that she’s bitchy. I’m the only candidate who knows how to make America great again. Do you think I will allow Americans to be pushed around by Mexicans, Chinese or Muslims? No chance. A snowball in hell has a better chance. The deals I’m going to make with these people will make you dizzy, you’ll swear you have vertigo. Hillary’s going down.

And let me just say this right here right now to the people of Mexico. Get ready, wetbacks, because the wall is coming.

WOLF BLITZER

You’ve been embroiled in controversy the last few days about David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK who recently endorsed you. What is your relationship to the KKK?

TRUMP

I don’t know David Duke. Did he endorse me? Look, I’m being endorsed by a tremendous number of people -- a tremendous number. My campaign is so exciting that it’s bringing in Democrats, Republicans, Independents -- bringing people in from all sides. There’s no way I can keep track of all the people who support my candidacy. Are there KKK people who like me? Of course, because I’m very likeable. People are drawn to winners, even KKK types.

WOLF BLITZER

Are you saying you appreciate the support of the KKK?

TRUMP

C’mon, Wolf, did I say that? Listen, anyone who knows me knows that I like the black people, always have. Now, when it comes to Mexicans and Muslims, I think we build a massive wall and drop huuuge cluster bombs.

WOLF BLITZER

Thank you, Mr. Trump. That’s all the time we have today. I’m Wolf Blitzer, and you’ve been watching the Situation Room on CNN, the only network that brings you Donald Trump, 24-hours a day. Every bizarre statement, every racist tweet, every fact-free claim, CNN is there.