Killing with Impunity

“Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.” Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning.

How does an Israeli soldier shoot an unarmed Palestinian, a human being? What does the soldier feel as he or she brings a man or boy into the crosshairs? Is there any remorse after pulling the trigger, any flicker of conscience hours or days later? Dozens of non-violent Palestinian protesters have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in the past few weeks, thousands more wounded or injured. The protesters pose no lethal threat to Israel, they are not surging across the border, crossing from their occupied territory into Israel, and yet Israeli soldiers fire live ammunition into crowds. Think of the military officers who issue these shoot-to-kill orders. Why don’t Palestinian deaths matter? Palestinians are protesting the longest military occupation in modern history, an occupation that couldn’t be sustained without unquestioned backing from the United States. Why does my country support this slow, ongoing genocide?

To kill with impunity and without remorse requires indoctrination. You must convince your own people that you are killing inferiors or terrorists. Hitler’s regime indoctrinated many Germans to believe that Jews were the source of Germany’s problems, a blight on the purity of the German nation. Jews were systematically dehumanized, their rights abridged, their property stolen; but even this wasn’t enough, the Jews had to be exterminated, wiped out. Hasn’t Israel been doing the very same thing to Palestinians for more than half a century?

Israel has perfected the tactic of deflecting any and all criticism by shouting, screaming, and fulminating that all its critics are anti-Semitic. Israel has a right to exist as a state. It has a right to security. But it doesn’t have a right to murder unarmed people. It doesn’t have the right to bomb Gaza every few years in what is known in Israeli defense circles as “mowing the lawn.” It doesn’t have the right to control who and what enters or exits Gaza, the right to control Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters. Aside from the United States, no nation in the world gets away with murder like Israel does, year after year, decade after decade.

Short Takes:

The Trump kleptocracy is right on track, normalizing corruption, hastening the fall of the American empire. The oligarchs must know, on some level, that the end is near because they’re making a mad grab for as many spoils as they can haul.

Capitalism is killing us, and the planet. Goes to show that any ideology taken to extremes will produce tyranny.

Fukushima is now the worst nuclear disaster in history. Seven years gone and the media has no interest, as if by ignoring the calamity it will vanish. Kind of the same charade Trump and the Republicans play with anthropogenic climate change.

I was fortunate to meet author and activist Tasoula Hadjitofi when she visited Santa Barbara on April 29. I reviewed her book, The Icon Hunter, for the SB Independent. Hadjitofi is a gracious, intelligent and intrepid woman.

Sinking into a Sea of Fire

Another week in TrumpLand. As far as I know, the US hasn’t launched another barrage of cruise missiles at Damascus. How many times have I heard right-wing politicians moaning about “entitlement” programs, but then do a 360 and vote to give the Pentagon and the defense contractors even more money for more bombs? Most of my adult life. War after war after war. The list of supposed enemies of our country is long. We always have money for war, death, destruction, it’s a profitable enterprise, addictive as opium. Meanwhile, there are tent cities in places like Los Angeles, in the shadows of sleek high-rise office buildings; children that go to bed hungry, water that is poisoned. Average people care about these things, but the political class serves other masters and doesn’t care, not even a little. Profit is paramount, making money; money is power, influence, juice, respect, the ultimate in human achievement, the only worthwhile measurement of a human life. Trump wants to up the volume of US arms sales to the world, exceed the heights reached by Barack Obama; Trump must best the black man or the deep inferiority complex he carries everywhere will swallow him.

Keep the peace by making war, by creating a river of refugees, by killing children. Has this country always been depraved, all of my nearly 59 years; did I simply not want to see? Through the Nixon presidency, the first I was really aware of, Ford, Carter, Reagan (who reigned when I was serving in the Air Force overseas and believed that the USA kept the world safe for democracy), both Bushes, Obama, he of the silk tongue and hammer fist, and now this madman, Trump, who launched missiles at Syria for reasons other than those stated to the American public, who he cares not a whit about. No real effect on the Assad regime, of course. Trump thumped his man-boobs and felt virile. Draft dodgers often get orgasmic on war, having never faced the terror and stupidity and absurdity of it, been the target of bullets and bombs, flying metal, glass, plaster, arms, legs, viscera, brain matter.

These days. Heavy. Like being on a ship that is slowly sinking into a sea of fire, but powerless to stop it. The captain is on the bridge, mad as a hatter, a blend of Ahab and Queeg, barking commands as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening, as if the lower decks aren’t taking on water, drowning poor passengers; on the luxury deck, under the crystal chandeliers, booze flows, food is plentiful, music plays, waiters in white coats step lively, beautiful people shimmy on the dance floor, diamonds winking in the light. The rich people on this level can’t hear the screams of the people below, and even if they could, it wouldn’t move them to relinquish an ounce of their privilege, which they believe with all their might is deserved, earned, justified, even if handed to them on a platter, even if ill-gotten, made off the sweat or gullibility of other human beings.

That’s what it feels like. Not drowning yet, but the threat hangs on the horizon, always, a gray smudge that only grows darker.

Short Takes:

Just finished reading and interviewing Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, a wonderful novel that seeped into my skin. Doerr is a friendly, down-to-earth guy, wonderful to converse with, and a fine writer.

I can’t believe the amount of building activity I see around town these days; the new stadium project at Santa Barbara High, the condo complex rising near the Santa Barbara Bowl, more condos down Milpas; backhoes, cement trucks, a huge machine that slices perfect lines in the street, skip-loaders; I think of money flowing into SB from other places, Los Angeles, New York, who knows? Money has no home these days. Money moves through the ether, ducks, dodges, takes refuge, hides, stands out, blends in, invariably finds the pockets of the very few.

My Chelsea boys have won two straight away league games for the first time in 2018, and are trailing Spurs for a Top 4 place by five points. I still believe Chelsea will finish fifth, where we belong, because we have played inconsistent and sometimes maddening football this year. Too many matches lost against sides we should beat, home and away, a dismal, fearful, abject performance at Man City, a loss at Old Trafford, a loss at home to Spurs. Not enough goals scored, too many let in by a defense that has often been shambolic. Antonio Conte has moped on the touch line, his face pinched, all the joy and passion sucked out of him. Game in and game out, he can only depend on N’Golo Kante and Cesar Azpilicueta to put in a shift.

The Coward's Pulpit

The other day I was thinking about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his fireside chats that were broadcast on radio across the country. I’m not old enough to have heard FDR in real time, but I have heard recordings. That patrician voice coming from the box, families gathered around hungry for hope, some certainty in a time of economic hardship at home and growing turmoil in Europe and Asia. Roosevelt said he understood their worries and fears -- and people believed him. Roosevelt used his bully pulpit to lift people’s spirits and assure them that America would come out all right.

Then I thought of Donald J. Trump and how he abuses the most powerful bully pulpit on the planet, creating divisions between people, inciting others to follow their basest instincts, spreading falsehoods, and attacking anyone who challenges, contradicts or criticizes him. Has any American president since the turn of the 20th century used such coarse and imbecilic language as Trump does almost every day via Twitter? Has any American president in that same time threatened to bomb countries with whom the United States isn’t at war so cavalierly, as if the bombs will only harm the “bad guys,” never innocent men, women, and children? Has any American president been so obsessed with appearing strong? How many people has Trump called “weak” or “sad” or “pathetic” since he was inaugurated?

Trump World is a frightening, dystopian place ever on the verge of chaos, the border is porous and dangerous people are always breaching it, hell bent on mayhem, plunder, rape, and murder; other countries take advantage, refuse to play by our rules or show enough deference for our greatness; laws are onerous things for others to abide by; the media is dishonest; judges are biased; minorities are greedy. In Trump World we must fear the Other, the outside world, and each other. Strength must be our highest virtue, all else is subordinate. The weak are unworthy. Women should know their place and stay in it. Dissent of any kind is unpatriotic. Empathy and compassion are for suckers.

Echoes, faint perhaps, of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. If he could, Trump would purge the government of rivals and institute loyalty oaths -- not to the United States or its citizens -- to him.

Short Takes:

I’m delighted that the cruel Ayn Rand disciple, Paul Ryan, has decided to turn in his speaker’s gavel and retire to a lucrative career doing God-knows-what for the Koch Brothers. Good riddance to a true political hack.

Trump’s knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip response to a chemical attack in Syria, allegedly perpetrated by the Assad regime, who Trump referred to as an “animal,” is another example of his manifest unfitness for office. Nobody knows with anything approaching certainty who is responsible for the chemical attack. It could be the Assad regime, of course, but it could also be opponents of the government or some splinter group; the situation in Syria is very complicated and Trump’s stupidity is making a bad situation tense and dangerous.

Once again, Israel is getting away with murdering unarmed Palestinians. The Israeli propaganda machine works overtime to paint the protesters as tools of Hamas, an absurd but useful claim. As usual, the US corporate media turns a blind eye and deaf ear. The US must support Israel -- no matter what crimes the latter commits.

How does Sarah Huckabee Sanders sleep at night? All the lies she vomits up on behalf of Trump has to take a toll.

Hats off to football club AS Roma, who knocked FC Barcelona out of the Champions League tournament. Talk about David versus Goliath.

Poem: Black and Unarmed

50 years since Dr. King was gunned

down in Memphis,

a sad milestone.

Rivers of black blood have flowed

since that April day,

coast to coast,

in big cities and small towns.

Dr. King was unarmed in 1968,

so was Oscar Grant in 2009

Trayvon Martin in 2012

and Michael Brown in 2014.

Tamir Rice packed a toy gun in 2014,

Freddie Gray an illegal knife in 2015.

Anton Sterling was unarmed when

he went down in 2016,

shot,

like Philando Castile the same year

and Stephon Clark two years later.

Black and unarmed,

empty hands in the air,

but still a threat

to the peace,

property

or the man behind the badge

always presumed guilty.

There are many more names than these,

a roll call of victims, testament to white America’s
fear and savagery. 

Enough

I remember fragments of a poem

by Gil Scott-Heron

I think the title was “Not Enough”

or “Never Enough”

something like that

GHS said, not enough that we were chained;

you had to be superior

to something,

so your ancestors raped my foremothers;

what in hell is enough?

In Sacramento,

another African-American male

has been gunned down by

police officers

in the dark,

8 of 20 shots

in his back,

Stephon Clark, father of 2,

dead.

GSH knew because he

saw it all the time

that black men get shot and

white men walk.

The white ex-student who killed 17 former

classmates in Parkland

was captured,

led away in handcuffs,

very much alive.

Stephon Clark, father of 2

is dead,

dead,

dead.

How many

more Stephon Clark’s will there

be

before enough

is

enough?

Hey Mr. Jefferson

America was conceived as a nation

of property

whether African flesh,

land

or the tallow factory.

Yet the 18th century minds that

wrote the rules

understood the dangers of concentrated

power.

Where is that notion now, Mr. Jefferson?

No way you and the boys

could imagine Google, Amazon, or Facebook;

undeclared wars that drag on so long we forget

why we fight them;

a spent and disgraceful 2-party system

stymied and rent

by

factionalism

irrationality

and money, money, money;

dark money, dirty money, blood money

chased by prostitutes who claim

to represent the

people.

You knew the face of tyranny

if you could see us now,

sir,

waiting for the next insane

pronouncement

from our duly (by the antiquated, un-democratic Electoral College)

elected

Mad “Would Be” King.

It’s all going to shit, Mr. Jefferson

the dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit

of property.

Too few have too much

too many have too little.

Is this what you had in mind?

Time To Be Afraid

If you weren’t

scared of Trump before

you should be now

that unrepentant warmonger

John Bolton

will be

whispering in Trump’s ear.

Bolton insists that our

invasion

of Iraq

in 2003

was a success.

His wettest wet dream

is war with

Iran,

but a pre-emptive strike

against

North Korea

might satisfy.

Listen for the

drums of war

it’s a good bet that

they will

begin

beating

soon.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

“The only certain way of remaining above suspicion was to regurgitate the official catchphrases and to echo the insipid pronouncements of the Leader. Statistics were as threatening as hand grenades…” Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky

Shock & Awe turns 15 this week
an American War of Choice
sold to the American public and the world as absolutely necessary

Once the missiles began to slam Baghdad, 
the American media shifted into full war overdrive,
fawning over ex-Generals who praised the US military
day and night on cable TV
millions of people around the globe who marched against this manufactured war
were ignored as if invisible

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Missile strikes described as surgical
harmless to civilians, women and children, old men, newborn babies
meant only for Saddam, the dictator, the evil tyrant holding WMD’s that were never found
because they never existed

Bush knew that, Blair knew that, Cheney knew that, Powell knew that, Rumsfeld knew that,
but emblematic of our time, none of them were held to account for the chaos they unleashed;
W. Bush paints portraits and tosses out the first pitch at the World Series,
plays the jovial ex-president,
oblivious to the bloodstains on his hands;
his accomplices walk free

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Sold with sleight of hand worthy of a traveling carnival,
flogged by the best PR machine the Pentagon could buy
hired masters of illusion,
wizards of “perception management,” 
dim and dark arts
more potent than any wielded by Joseph Goebbels

Embedded reporters loyal to everything but the simple, obvious Truth -- Shock & Awe was unnecessary, unjustified, illegal, a crime against humanity 

Never did we bother to accurately count the Iraqis killed as we “liberated” them
from Saddam’s iron fist;
200,000, 600,000, 1,000,000?
most Americans could care less,
crowds roared when F-14’s streaked over baseball and football stadiums
the lowliest private feted as a conquering hero,
a defender of every beautiful American myth;
we learned to repeat thank you for your service,
until the words were bled of meaning

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Deeper into blissful ignorance we sank
Bush said we won, toppled Saddam, made the world safe again
war had produced peace,
the use of overwhelming military force against a nation that posed
no threat was justified then sanctified
Mission Accomplished

It’s said that the meek shall inherit the Earth
try the line on an Iraqi from Fallujah
who lost his wife, his brother, his baby daughter
everything he once held dear;
now the street where he played as a child
is divided by a bullet-pocked blast wall

Operation Iraqi Freedom

A lie then, a lie now,
a crime then, a crime now
A war of choice waged by the ultimate rogue nation;
for the Iraqi people the war and the suffering are present,
not past

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.

A Shot at a Meaningful Life

“I think after going through the common humiliations of a human life, I realized it just doesn’t matter. There’s nobody who can disguise himself. Eventually we’re all outed in one way or another.” Denis Johnson

Survived another week in TrumpLand. The Orange Menace didn’t blow up the world. Trump and his mafia family, Jared and Ivanka, all the corrupt hangers-on, the grifters, and the outright idiots, profaning the White House, day after day. Mike Pence and the Mad Hatter Christians wait in the shadows, Paul Ryan holds the bloody scalps of the poor. Cruel nation, up by your bootstraps or into the gutter with the rest of the losers.

My wife is on the phone with Verizon Wireless, trying to add international calling to her mother’s line ahead of an upcoming trip to the UK. The voice on the other end is that of an African-American male, and he’s obviously reading from a script, and I’m certain that he’s a prison inmate, somewhere. I give him the name Jerome Pettis, guest of the state, working for a Verizon call center, cheap, accessible labor with no rights -- a capitalist’s dream of heaven. Jerome has a southern accent, Arkansas or Mississippi, and talks slowly: “I can definitely help you with that, Ma’am, can I tell you about our packages…” I wonder what Jerome did that landed him in prison, armed robbery, rape, murder? More likely a minor drug crime for which, in the great American tradition of injustice, the big book was flung at him. Black and poor has always equaled injustice. At heart I imagine Jerome is a decent man, simply trying to make the best of his situation, there are worse things than talking to a cranky widow from Toledo, Ohio about her new iPhone. Jerome is patient as he reads from the approved script, but of course, he’s got nothing but time, slow time. Jerome tears me in two: part of me applauds his desire to improve his circumstances, and part wants him to rebel, to refuse, to rise from his cubicle quoting Malcolm X, and demand to be remanded to his cell.

The heaviness of this stupid country, my country, the heaviness of injustice, in contrast to the simple joys of my little family, our spats and petty arguments about who left the milk out all night or forgot to take the trash out. Simple, everyday life. Domestic chores, grocery shopping, my wife watching Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. I want my children to have a solid liberal arts education so they can understand who they are as people, their place in the world; I want them to think independently and to see issues from all sides, to question, to stand up to authority figures who often misuse their power; I hope they will revere books and writers as I do, and painting and theater as their mother does. Like all parents, Syrian, German, Yemeni, Chinese, I want my children to have a shot at a meaningful life. Why do we make this so hard for so many? Why do we cause so much needless suffering? Because some are never satisfied, they must have bigger, faster, shinier, and they must have control over others. Story of humankind -- let me impose my religion, beliefs, culture, and economy upon you. What? You will not submit willingly? Well, no problem, we have many other ways to extract your obedience.

And on it goes, on we go, into the unknown.

Calling BS on Hypocrisy

“The realities of American politics don’t change much from year to year.” Alexander Cockburn

Has the school shooting in Parkland, Florida led us to some kind of turning point in the never-ending gun debate? While money-grubbing political hacks like Marco Rubio continue to do the NRA’s bidding, hiding behind campaign contributions (legalized bribes) and contorted fealty to the 2nd Amendment, teenagers are calling Rubio and other “adults” out for hypocrisy and cowardice.

As in the aftermath of other mass shootings, the NRA’s apologists urged the public not to have a knee-jerk reaction and do something sane and logical like demanding an end to easy access to firearms; Republicans offered thoughts and prayers, as they always do, which is like handing a can of jet fuel and a blowtorch to someone whose home is engulfed in flames; the dipshit in the White House who masquerades as our president called for arming teachers -- one of the lamest ideas, ever. The NRA and their political allies banked on being able to confuse the issue by claiming that the source of the problem of gun violence isn’t guns (it never is, right?), but mental illness, or that the survivors of the shooting who call for decisive action had been put up to it, or Russia was to blame, and even this priceless bit of drivel: many mass shooters turn out to be, wait for it, Democrats!

The United States is a violent country -- at home and abroad -- with zero capacity or inclination to face its most pressing problems. Go right down the list, from climate change, income inequality, mass incarceration, endless war, staggering student loan debt, a nearly extinct middle class, lack of affordable housing, healthcare and education, political gridlock, racism, and you find the same root cause: money. The incentives in this insane society lean toward private profit and property, and legal exploitation of workers, the poor, and minorities. Human needs don’t matter; everything must bow before the God of Profit. If a price tag can’t be slapped on something, it may as well not exist. Social justice is for wimps and dreamers and socialists. The profits of gun and ammunition makers are more important than the safety of citizens, in the same way that the profits of Boeing and Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are more highly valued than helping the unfortunate.

Like the State of Israel, a small nation that wields outsized influence on US policy, the NRA, an organization of 4.5 to 5 million members, exercises too much influence over US politics. Marco Rubio sold his ass to the NRA on national television like a common street hooker. Rubio, and many of his smug, satisfied ilk, weep crocodile tears for the unborn but will not lift a finger to protect the living from the scourge of guns. This is the tyranny of a minority.

The kids are right to call BS and to demand that the adults in charge do more than pay lip service to their concerns; they are right to shame cowards like Marco Rubio who have made a devil’s bargain with the NRA.

Poem: When The Next Time Comes

Add 17 more names to our long list

Of students murdered in school

Bow your head

Wring your hands

Offer your prayers

And then forget

Until the next time

Because there will always be a next time

In a violent country like ours

A gun culture

Where the answer is always

More guns

Not less

Calls to arm school teachers

And deploy more police

Will ring out

As will calls to protect

Our sacred right to bear arms

And the names of the victims will be drowned

Out by noise amplified by

dollars

When the next time comes

We can bow our heads

Wring our hands

Offer our prayers

And bury the dead

The Fearsome Foursome: Leonid, Saddam, Muammar, and Donald

“Money, like vodka, does strange things to a man.” Anton Chekhov

Another fine week in Trump Land which more and more resembles a banana republic where the government steals from the people and the wealthy build taller walls and deeper bunkers. An unarmed citizen like me hardly knows where to begin. On February 5, less than a week after Trump boasted about all the dough his fellow oligarchs were making from the rising stock market, the NYSE took a 1,175 point tumble; three days later, the market took another big hit. Take note: Trump’s casino businesses always went belly up, and the stock market is the largest casino of all.

On February 6 on Good Morning America, the talking heads got to jabbering about the stock market, and determined, after pallaver that might have been written by the US Chamber of Commerce, that Monday’s sharp fall was just one of those periodic corrections, nothing at all to panic about. Besides, they said, the economy is robust, jobs are being added by the thousands, and wages are rising. No relevant statistical data was offered; just take their word for it, and if your personal circumstances don’t mirror their sunny pronouncements, well, it’s your fault because this is America, where every citizen has the same opportunity to make big money.

Trump was reportedly upset with congressional Democrats for not clapping at all the fantastic news he spewed during his droning State of the Union address, going so far as calling the Democrats un-American. Pretty clear that Trump never watched any of Barack Obama’s State of the Union speeches, during which Republicans sat stone-faced, or smirking like Paul Ryan, no matter what Obama said. If Obama had professed his love for the GOP and his admiration for Mitch McConnell, he still would have been met with dead silence. Forget the obvious absurdity for a moment and realize that Trump, like all insecure wannabe dictators, equates loyalty to him with patriotism. This is dangerous.

And then the media reported that Trump had demanded the Pentagon stage a massive military parade in the streets of Washington D.C., for no reason other than to stroke Trump’s frail ego. When I read this news I immediately imagined Trump -- who, let’s remember, dodged the draft -- decked out in military finery, complete with sword and scabbard, his chest festooned with medals and gold braid, saluting as tanks, artillery pieces and troops pass his reviewing stand, just like Leonid Brezhnev, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi once did, and Little Rocket man (Kim Jong-un) in North Korea does in our time. Perfect way to solidify our standing as a bonafide banana republic. The cost can be added to the obscene increase that Senate Republicans and Democrats want to gift the Pentagon. Tax cuts and a huge increase in military spending, like the Reagan years all over again. It’s not difficult to predict what the outcome of this irresponsible spending orgy will be. Groundhog Day in Washington D.C.

One of the most laughable boasts Trump made during his State of the Union speech was that the US is now deadly serious about winning the 16-year-long-undeclared war in Afghanistan. According to Trump, no more fooling around, it’s time to remove the gloves and knock the living hell out of the Taliban because the Taliban is killing people left, right, up, down and sideways; we will win because our warriors are strong, our cause just, our God more righteous, and, most of all, because Donald J. Trump is so-friggin’-awesome that he will triumph where George W. Bush and Barack Obama before him choked on failure.

Sure, and climate change is a hoax, coal burns clean, the surest way to give the middle class a boost is to cut taxes for the wealthy, the only cure for welfare dependency is work (jobs and transportation and child care being affordable and plentiful), Paul Ryan worships Social Security, Jeff Sessions respects the Constitution, and five days from now the sky will glow and all the pigs in America will take glorious flight. Trump is making America great again. We’re back, baby, hear us roar. USA! USA! USA!