Trump Will Not Go Quietly

“With so much wealth sloshing around, it should not come as a surprise that Blackstone is the largest landlord in the world. Run by Stephen Schwarzman, who spent close to $20 million on his 70th birthday party and is a good pal of fellow real estate magnate Donald Trump, it is the driving force behind gentrification everywhere.” Louis Proyect, Counterpunch

There are no fires burning in Santa Barbara County, yet, but the sky is hazy from fires burning in Ventura, and the air has a familiar burnt smell. Last I heard there were eleven major blazes in our state, and it feels like an apocalypse is drawing nigh. Has a breaking point been reached? Will climate deniers finally acknowledge that climate change is real, global, and happening right now? Not likely. Odds are much better that politicians and their capitalist bagmen will cling to business as usual as long as possible. 

Remember Baghdad Bob or Chemical Ali as he was also known? His real name was Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf and in 2003 he was Saddam Hussein’s spokesman as the United States unleashed shock and awe on Iraq. Even as American ordnance was raining down, Baghdad Bob insisted that the Iraqi forces were repelling the invaders, blowing fighter jets and bombers out of the sky, and killing Americans by the score. “The Tigris is running with the blood of American soldiers!” Bob would insist, even though it was abundantly clear that Iraq was being bombed into submission. Climate deniers, including King Donald I, remind me of Baghdad Bob. They will keep repeating, “Climate change is a hoax,” until sea water laps up to the doorstep of their estates and the only birds left in existence are seagulls and crows. 

I read on Democracy Now that about 20% of the men and women fighting California’s rash of wildfires are prison inmates. They do the same work, with the same risks to their health and safety, but for pennies per hour, and their service protecting homes and property earns them little in regard to reducing their sentences. No thank you for your service salutes for these inmates, even though the dangerous work they do is far more useful than that of soldiers chasing shadows in Afghanistan or guarding oil fields in northern Syria. 

Some people understand that it’s the oligarchs against the rest of us, and that the only way to beat them is to flood the streets. Ecuador. Venezuela. Hong Kong. Iraq. Puerto Rico. Haiti. Lebanon. People are tired of austerity policies, lack of democracy, perverse wealth inequality, high prices for fuel and food, and inaction on climate change. People are fed up with being deemed disposable. They are tired of being trod upon by the rich. I can’t help but believe a reckoning is coming. 

Trump will not go quietly -- unless he loses the support of enough Republicans, and at the moment his cult followers are holding firm. To move most Republicans to ditch Trump, the impeachment inquiry must produce irrefutable evidence and enough public outcry to make Republicans worry about being on the losing side. If Trump survives impeachment -- and he very well might -- it will be down to November 2020. The Democratic Party machinery is working overtime to secure the nomination for Joe Biden (or someone of similar ilk, corporate-friendly, supporter of tax cuts and free market solutions to all problems, etc.) which likely portends a repeat of 2016. Mainstream Democrats would rather have a second Trump term than lose control of their party to Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. This is familiar territory, 1968 and 1972 redux. Joe Biden is out of ideas, out of step, and out of touch. If he wins the nomination and Sanders or Warren do what the party will expect them to do -- hold their noses and climb onboard -- how many young voters and women will stay home on election day? 

If Trump isn’t soundly defeated at the polls and in the Electoral College he will not accept the election result. If he loses by a slender margin, a questionable margin, Trump will contest the results, and unlike Al Gore in 2000, Trump will never, ever, concede defeat for the good of the country. Trump is for Trump and only for Trump. He will give the middle finger to every norm established for the smooth transition of power. Every autocratic impulse in Trump’s bloated body will twitch at the prospect of being the first American president to refuse to hand over the reins.   

General Bone Spurs

“The only way for a reporter to look at a politician is down.” H.L. Mencken

Press Event, The White House, Washington D.C.

President Trump enters the press briefing room looking agitated, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. After wiping his nose several times, Trump begins reading his prepared statement. 

PT: I have big news today, very big news. The biggest. At my direction, our brave military forces launched a raid in Northern Syria and killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the most vicious killers of all time. al-Baghdadi died like a whimpering dog, begging for mercy, but on my order he was afforded none. We took him out very beautifully. Only a military leader such as President Trump -- the greatest president in American history -- could have planned and executed this operation. It was extremely dangerous, ten times more dangerous than the raid that  killed Osama bin Laden. I want to thank our wonderful allies Russia and Turkey for their assistance. They are great countries with strong leaders who lead strongly. al-Baghdadi was a very bad hombre, many times more dangerous than Osama bin Laden. I took out the worst of the worst. 

Reporter: Mr. President, you stated that you planned this raid. Can you tell us when you did that planning?

PT: I planned the whole thing on the 14th hole at my golf club, a beautiful course by the way, world class, and by the time I arrived on the 15th tee I called my generals and told them how to take this killer out. I’m the best strategist, even better than George Washington. Then I teed off on 15, drove the ball right down the middle about 350 yards. I’m a big hitter, you know, the best golfer to ever occupy the White House. I could beat Obama with a putter, a pitching wedge, and a 4-wood. Even if I let Obama tee off from the ladies tees I’d still beat him. 

Reporter: Will you toss out the first pitch for Game 5 of the World Series?

PT: We’re still considering that. The last time I threw out the first pitch was for a game between the Yankees and the Mets. The pitch was clocked at 95mph and had so much movement on it that the Mets offered me a contract on the spot. I turned them down because I was too busy making billions of dollars. People have always said that I was one of the best baseball players in the history of New York City, a phenom, the next Mickey Mantle. I was a classic 5-tool player which is why it’s insane for the dirty Democrats to talk about impeachment. Witch hunt! 

Reporter: Mr. President, the news on the impeachment front over the past two weeks hasn’t been favorable. Are you concerned about the reaction you might receive from fans at the World Series? 

PT: That’s fake news. The economy is the best it’s ever been, my administration has created like a billion new jobs, we’re building the Wall to keep our country safe, and many people are saying that no American president has ever been more popular. They love what I’m doing with China on trade. You should see the massive crowds at my campaign rallies! So many people, so many red hats, so many signs. They love their great president. They can’t get enough of me. My only concern with attending the World Series is that I’ll get a very long standing ovation that will disrupt the game. 

Reporter: The latest polling shows your approval rating at less than 40%. 

PT: Fake news. Fake news. Fake news. My poll numbers are consistently high, 60, 70 percent of Americans think I’m doing a fantastic job. And now that I’ve taken out this very bad hombre, al-Baghdadi, I expect my approval rating to go even higher. The dirty Democrats know I’m unbeatable in 2020, which is why they’ve launched this illegal and very phony impeachment. Adam Schiff is like a rabid dog. He’s got nothing on Trump, nothing but smoke. The whole thing is very illegitimate and the Democrats know it, they know it, especially now that Trump is a war hero, the man who took out al-Baghdadi, who was a very bad hombre with a lot of blood on his hands. Many people are saying nobody except Trump could have pulled this off. You think Joe Biden could have done this? No way. Joe’s too busy trying to help his loser son. 

Reporter: Mr. President, speaking of loser children -

PT: It’s illegitimate, the whole thing, because the House hasn’t voted to impeach. It’s right there in the Constitution, in black and white, and the Democrats know it, they know it. They’re making it up as they go, with no respect for the law. They will learn a hard lesson in 2020. My very good friend Vladimir Putin told me not to worry. 

Burning In The Dark

“The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a common provenance in pain.” Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Parts of California are burning again, and here on the coast it’s nearly 90 degrees at the tail end of October. A few days ago local residents were advised to prepare to be without power for 24 to 48 hours as Southern California Edison planned to shut down its transmission lines to prevent potential fire danger, much as beleaguered Pacific Gas and Electric had already done up north. Both utilities are desperate to avoid further liability. Stock up on batteries, bottled water, canned food, fill the gas tank in the car. As I write this, half a million people in Sonoma County are without power. 

SCE and PG&E are loathe, as is most of corporate America, to connect the dots between climate change, prolonged drought and deadly wildfires, but their silence can’t change the reality that climate change is already impacting our lives, and most thinking people know this is just the beginning. California is drier and wildfires burn hotter and longer. I don’t know if shutting down power lines is useful except as a way of limiting corporate liability. 

I’m reading American War by Omar El Akkad, a novel that imagines an America at war with itself in the year 2075, when most of Louisiana is submerged by water, and the capital of the north has relocated from storm-battered Washington D.C to Columbus, Ohio. Mexico has reclaimed most of the territory it lost to the United States in the 19th century. A few southern states have banded together, not because of slavery this time, but because they refuse to stop using fossil fuels. The entire state of South Carolina is under quarantine, completely walled off due to a virus so virulent it killed 110 million people. The world’s superpowers are now China and a conglomeration of former Middle Eastern countries called the Bouazizi empire, who provide basic material aid to war-torn America. Mighty no more is America, either militarily or economically, hopelessly divided against itself, and dependent on the generosity of other countries.   

American War is a depressing read because, like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it feels plausible, particularly at the speed we are moving toward climate catastrophe. I’ve never been able to re-read The Road; once was enough. The novel terrified me, probably because when I read it my son was five or six years old. In the years since, we’ve moved nearer to McCarthy’s dark vision. When the imbecile who occupies the White House isn’t stoking the fires of division and hatred, he’s doing everything he can to make life easier for fossil fuel extractors and polluters. The very wealthy in this country seem to believe they can sidestep the climate bullet. Perhaps they will, for a while, but even if they buy a little time, the degradation of our air, soil, water, and infrastructure will ensnare them eventually. 

Meanwhile, the Kincade Fire has scorched 20,000 acres. Here in Santa Barbara the air outside feels reminiscent of fires past -- the Tea, Gap and Thomas. I keep waiting for a plume of smoke to rise from behind our mountains. It’s not windy now, but later in the afternoon the wind will likely pick up, adding to the danger. 

1000 Days of Madness

“If we are not currently an authoritarian nation it’s thanks in part to the insubordinate spirit of a good deal of the American public and the underlying confidence behind this relative fearlessness.”  Rebecca Solnit

1,000 days of the madness of would-be King Donald I. At times it feels like a bad dream and I long to snap wide awake and breathe a sigh of relief that Trump never happened except in our imagination. The idiocy, cruelty, venality and mendacity is almost too heavy a burden. When we look back at this period -- if the republic survives and what remains of our institutions hold -- one question that must be answered is why many of our fellow citizens followed Trump, believed in him, and thought he was doing good for the nation. Any conscious, sane person who listens to Trump for more than a minute should reach the conclusion that the man is nuts, insane, a sociopath. I don’t think all of Trump’s supporters and followers are bad people, but I do marvel at how misinformed they are.

Trump is P.T. Barnum on crack. 

Has Trump made us stupid or did we make Trump because we are stupid? During the reign of George W. Bush the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson often said that America was trapped in a downward spiral of dumbness. W. Bush, now being rehabilitated as a kindly nitwit, seemed the epitome of elite decay, a man buoyed by his family name and connections and wealth, a serial fuck-up who always landed on his feet, smiling, a faux cowboy. Donald J. Trump makes George W. Bush look eloquent by comparison. I never thought I would see that. Trump doesn’t have as much blood on his hands as Bush does, not yet anyway, but who knows if he manages to escape impeachment and scandal and win another term via the undemocratic Electoral College. 

As we saw this week, any translator who has to make sense of Trump’s gibberish is in a most difficult spot. “The Kurds have sand, a lot of sand. More sand than is good for them. Lot of sand, too much. It’s hard to imagine so much sand. You can’t believe it. Sand everywhere. Gets in your shoes and your hair. Hard to get the sand out of your hair. I’ve got great hair, the best hair of any American president, ever. Very soft, very shiny, it’s beautiful, my hair, my great and unmatched hair.”

1,000 days of madness, drifts of BS up and down Pennsylvania Avenue, Abraham Lincoln turning in his grave, George Washington sobbing uncontrollably as King Donald tramps over the republic. This can’t be happening, yet it is. It’s not a dream. Trump and the fourth string crew who surround him are becoming more and more blatant and defiant of every norm. Wholesale disregard for the Legislative branch. Total disdain for the rule of law. This is dangerous territory. 

A Quick Flash of Light

“The government’s central evil is its willful failure to distinguish the quality of intent or motive.” Jim Harrison, The Beast God Forgot to Invent

I am having a long conversation with myself about this blog and why I keep writing it. 15 years. Through George W. Bush and the Iraq Disaster, that unbellievably stupid strategic blunder, which has since caused distress and death for thousands of people, from Egypt and Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. We meddled, and we’re paying and paying and paying. I doubt  they can even keep count of all the money the US spent destroying those countries. 18 years in Afghanistan. Longest war in American history, and nobody’s pissed about the milestone except a few middle-aged liberal cranks like me. The Obama years were disappointing to me, a fumbled opportunity. Obama lost his political nerve and turned in the direction he was oriented in anyway, center-right. Outwardly kinder and far more sophisticated but no less deadly than W. Smoother by a mile. With no push forward, we stayed in place. But the optics as they say, the presentation of Barack and Michelle Obama, was to me always reassuring, even hopeful. Cautious man, that Obama. Measured. Honestly seemed to be a very decent person, and never for a minute did I doubt that Obama was doing his best for the country. The man was calm, cool, polished to perfection, and that drove some people in this country into anger, then near madness. I believe, historically speaking, in black backlash. Happens every time there are any widespread gains for people of color. 

Obama didn’t do much for the Democrats as a party. But he stayed smart and elegant and cool until the last day of his term. Only doubted the policies and decisions and compromises, not the man.

And then the system goes haywire and vomits up Donald Trump. And here I am three years and countless unread blog posts later, living in Trump Time. America is an amusement park violently flipped upside down. Donald Trump. Fuck! I don’t know what else to say. I cannot even keep track of all Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors. Everyday there’s a new transgression. And his party of supposedly rational, decent people, the Grand Old Party, continues to follow Trump, fear Trump and, if not licking Trump’s ass, at least kissing it. They keep turning a blind eye and a deaf ear, afraid of Dear Leader and his Twitter machine, but secretly hoping he falls, and falls hard. 

The ship’s taking on a lot of water. The captain is addled, to say the least, but pretends that everything’s alright, that he’s the greatest man ever to sail, king of the sea, even though he knows deep down that this is the caper he’s not getting away with. The ship’s not listing, yet, but it’s taking on a lot of water. When are the rats going to start jumping, by ones and twos, and then trios and quartets? When will the sailors turn on the captain? This captain will sell his mother’s soul if it means saving his own. He’s fucked things up pretty well, and now it looks like his treasure maps are soon to be let out in the world. 

The age of Obama feels a long way back, a quick flash of light in the dark. The man read real books. He understood the law. He followed the law, for the most part. He was eloquent, even inspiring. Obama in eight years left no stain on America’s soul or hole in her heart. He kept the world at bay and the American empire humming. That takes a bucketful of skill. Obama had that. He also hired competent people. There were no personal scandals during Obama’s tenure in the White House. And then Trump and Company tramp in and the beautiful white walls turn a shade of ochre, the windows grow a film, a smell of rot permeates the whole place, and soon the only people that remain are the most immoral, crooked, cruel, and stupid. Barr. Pompeo. Mulvaney. Mnuchin. It’s not even the fourth string. It’s a coup alright, a coup by a bunch of people you’d never invite into your home for a cup of coffee. Redolent of sloth, all of them. The bottom of the barrel, the dogshit on the bottom of your boot. A decent God would smote them one by one, or at least plague them with disease, but as Tom Waits sang, God’s away on business. 

What I started with was the question of why I continue writing this blog. I’ll put that aside for now. 

It has been a strange week. I feel like I spent three days in a dark tunnel, with the faintest light at one end, and only today did I return to myself. I’ve been depressed. What Ernest Hemingway called the Black Dog. I bet my aura was tar black. I realized all of a sudden that I was garnering little joy for my day job, a job I have always performed very capably, but not one my heart is always in. The job pays the rent and puts food on the table and allows us to go to the clinic or the hospital. 20 years I’ve been there. 60 years old. I wonder about the remainder of my life, how we might survive on some pension money, my freelance work, and maybe a job at Trader Joe’s or something like that. The big worry is losing employer-based health insurance. I’m too young for Medicare. 

Grifter's Carnival

“Impeaching Donald Trump would do nothing to halt the deep decay that has beset the American republic.” Chris Hedges

On the one hand, it’s absolutely comical to watch Donald J. Trump flail around like an orangutan with a mongoose attached to his testicles, but on the other, what we’re witnessing is the outing of the entire corrupt American political system. It’s laughable enough when Trump warns his base that they stand to lose their guns, their religion, and their military if he’s impeached, less so when both Republicans and Democrats have mercilessly pursued whistleblowers like Reality Winner, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden into prison or exile. And when either party spouts off sanctimoniously about doing the business of the American people -- which neither party has done since the mid-1960’s -- it’s hysterical. As I’ve said on this blog many, many times, we do not have a democracy and our government only marginally works for us; we have a tyranny of a minority of people and corporations that have the money and influence to buy legislative favors and judges. Tax holidays for the rich, corporations and special interest groups, and cruel austerity for the poor, is not how a democratic government works for its citizens. 

There are only two instances when the American government can be roused to action: undeclared military interventions that go on without end is one. Cutting taxes for people and corporations who already have more money than they know what to do with is the other. Think I exaggerate? A majority of Americans want decent jobs, affordable housing, health care, educational opportunities, meaningful action to curb the effects of climate change, plus reasonable, commonsense restrictions on the sale of military-style assault weapons. The political class, which purports to represent “the people,” wants none of these things and will never deliver it under the current capitalist framework. 

The journalist Chris Hedges wrote recently that while the impeachment of Donald J. Trump is necessary,Trump’s ouster won’t change the underlying system one iota. Yes, impeachment -- if the Senate convicts (not likely) -- will remove from office the most idiotic, malignant, amoral, and corrupt president in American history and possibly key underlings like Mike Pompeo and William Barr, but loyal servants of the status quo like Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will remain in place, as will douchebags like Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes and Rick Scott and Ted Cruz and Susan Collins. Many congressional districts will remain rigged and widespread voter suppression will continue; North and South Dakota will still have the same disproportionate political clout in the US Senate. The Supreme Court will remain a subsidiary of the Federalist Society. The undemocratic Electoral College will still supersede the will of voters. 

What astonishes me is the utter lack of honor on display in Washington D.C. It’s just a big grifter’s carnival, with damn near everyone in the trough up to his or her neck. Maybe it has always been so. Did Joe Biden make calls and open doors for his wayward son, Hunter? It’s highly likely that he did, but rich, well-connected people do this for their kids every single day. It’s risible to hear Donald J. Trump accuse Joe Biden’s son of being a know-nothing loser who walked away with millions, when his own offspring carry his criminal DNA and would be working behind the counter at Wendy’s without Daddy Trump’s money and name, but no level of hypocrisy, or irony, is too much for The Donald. Born halfway to home plate with a platinum spoon up his ass, Trump still made a hash of every business venture he tried. 

It’s all a perverse joke. I might laugh if it wasn’t so serious. Donald J. Trump has waged a two and a half year siege on the rule of law; the GOP has been content to stand by and help him do it, and the Democrats too feckless to fight.

The Ball Is At Nancy Pelosi's Feet

“Trump is a habitual criminal.” James Risen

Well, those of us who wanted the Democrats to launch impeach proceedings the minute they took control of the House have finally got our impeachment. We’ve reached Nancy Pelosi’s threshold for serious wrongdoing. Now the question is, how do the Democrats proceed? Stick to the safe middle and base their case on the Ukraine issue alone, or tack on Trump’s multiple other impeachable offenses? Go narrow or wide? Shallow or deep? Slow or fast? This week I’ve read pieces advocating a go-quick approach, and an equal number practically begging the Dems to slow down and be thorough, meticulous. Build a mountain of evidence, so tall that even a modern Republican -- spineless, corrupt, hypocritical as such are now -- has second thoughts about being on the wrong side of history. While not likely, it’s possible that some Republicans will face reality, find their spines, and remember their sworn oath when the evidence against Trump is too overwhelming to ignore. 

Republicans are a strange breed. They’re all about the Constitution and the rule of law when they’re in the minority, but put them in power and the only oath they swear is to the Party, no matter how ridiculous and corrupt it becomes; they throw their weight behind a man like Donald Trump, and then cower before him like little bitches. Terrified of Trump’s tweets, they allow Trump to run roughshod over the Constitution, its separation of powers, checks and balances, and the most elemental norms of decency, like not putting innocent children in cages or denying school lunches to millions of school kids. 

The list of Trump’s high and low crimes, his misdemeanors and felonies, is long. James Risen is correct: Trump is simply a habitual criminal. The man has been like acid on the American republic since the day he placed his hand on the Bible and lied. For the next few months, Trump is going to spin like a top, froth and fulminate against the Democrats at every opportunity, call Adam Schiff names, portray himself as the victim of a Deep State witch hunt, whine, and declare how unfair it all is and how it should be illegal. Get ready. It’s going to be an all-out onslaught of drivel, bullshit, wild claims, boldfaced lies, conspiracy theories and hypocrisy the likes of which Americans have never seen before. 

Before long, Trump will have convinced 40% of Americans that Joe Biden, with assistance from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, shot JFK. 

I doubt that the tone of his chat with the new Ukrainian president was far different from that used by Trump in other instances with other foreign leaders. We have to understand the way Trump perceives the office he holds. In Trump’s criminal mind, a president is like a mafia don, the ultimate authority, the Alpha male, the toughest guy in the neighborhood, and the Man who controls it all because he controls the biggest gang. This may be why Trump cannot fathom how, or why, Congress has any authority over him. In his muddled mind Trump believes he’s back in his tower in New York, his name on top, and every decision his alone to make. Receiving any resistance to his whims freaks Donald out, messes with his sense of himself as a badass with nerves of steel, muscles, a large cock, and real hair. Nobody checks Don Corleone, and Donald Trump thinks nobody can check him. This is why the asshole needs to be impeached.  

All I can say is that the Democrats better not blow this chance. I’d say we keep an eye on Nancy Pelosi to make sure she doesn’t use legislative judo to concede an advantage for no reason. Pelosi only did the right thing when forced, impeachment isn’t the road she chose or wanted because she is a pillar of the Establishment, but now the ball is at her feet and the field is opening before her. When the instant comes, when the goal-scoring chance presents itself, will she make the right decision, pick the correct pass or let the chance go begging?

The other thing I agree with James Risen about is the absurd way the mainstream media covers Trump, as if he’s a serious man rather than the bloviating incompetent that he is. Trump has opinions aplenty but a shocking lack of even basic knowledge. Most of what he says or tweets is unintelligible nonsense. The press should treat Trump as he is: habitual liar, immoral ignoramus, and total grifter. Trump was never in a million years going to grow into the office, and not once in three years has the Orange Menace come close to being Presidential. 

Blood Ties

“No doubt the future will bring more causes, more necessary repairs to American democracy, and more need for passionate civic activism.” Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour. 

There’s no comparing where I’ve been for the past week with where I am now. Tillamook, Oregon, where my brother lives, is rural, small town America. It’s a place where the school bus driver is your neighbor, and he drops you off in front of your house. For several hours over a couple of days, I sat in my brother’s garage, sipping IPA’s and listening to outlaw country music on his Sirius FM boombox. The sky was gray and cloudy, but the rain stayed away, and on my last afternoon the sun broke through the clouds and it was warm. Every hour or so I’d jump on my brother’s black adult tricycle and pedal around the neighborhood, across the little park to the lumber mill. I didn’t see many people. Some of the streets are paved, full of potholes and rough patches, and some are packed gravel. There are no sidewalks. Homes sit contiguous to each other, though every lot isn’t fenced. I saw dilapidated, fall-down houses the likes of which one almost never sees in Santa Barbara. Pick-up trucks and boats parked on the front lawn, old furniture, car axles, tires, rusted out refrigerators. An easy pitching wedge from my brother’s front gate sits an abandoned house slowly being taken over by blackberry vines. I went past the house several times, wondering each time about its story, its history, and what the sagging walls would tell me if they could speak.

A huge American flag flies over the lumber mill. Along with the Tillamook Creamery, the mill is one of the biggest employers in town. I thought to myself as I rode the tricycle around that I had stepped into an Elizabeth Strout novel. The comforting familiarity of a small town, where people know your family, and most graduate from the same high school, but with a corresponding lack of anonymity and privacy. Although Oregon is a liberal state, it has pockets of conservatism and I’m sure its share of Trump supporters. I tried to stay away from the news and politics on the trip, but when you carry an iPhone it’s hard to completely escape the news and noise, the latest Trump outrage or scandal.  

Saw some lovely country, from the south jetty of the Columbia River to a country road in Sequim, Washington, from Astoria to Port Townsend, through places like Raymond where self-reliance carries real meaning, and a young woman with colorful gel fingernails named Abigail debated with herself over giving me change for a minimart cup of coffee with five ones or a five dollar bill. Exploring Sequim on our bikes, we passed the Dungeness schoolhouse, built in 1892, and now a landmark. It was easy to imagine a procession of children filing through the front door, farm kids who learned to read and write, basic math, geography and history, in this one building. No ipads, Chromebooks, Apple TV’s. White chalk on a dark green blackboard that had to be cleaned every day. Saw a red-tailed hawk not far from the school. Had the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted at the Dungeness Creamery. Talked to an avid bird watcher and a woman who told us of last year’s heavy snowfall in Sequim. 

My brother and I were not close as children. After a certain point he went his way and I went mine and our paths rarely intersected. I went into the Air Force and spent five years in Japan, he went to college for a couple of years and then joined the Forest Service as a firefighter. A lot can happen between siblings, hurts and misunderstandings collect and fester, but, somewhat to my surprise, I’ve found that the pull of shared blood is strong. Accepting our mutual flaws and idiosyncrasies is easier now. I don’t watch the Weather Channel to pass the time, but my brother does and that’s fine. He’d be bored by English Premier League football. Beneath our skins, in our bones, we share a lot of traits and proclivities, along with a love of the outdoors and a sense of time passing.  

After You See the Truth

“And so we come to Donald Trump, the very personification of this low, dishonest age.” Thomas Frank, Rendezvous With Oblivion

There are evenings in this crazy age of Trump when I wish that Hunter S. Thompson was still alive, hunkered down in Woody Creek with a huge supply of weed and coke, 3 cases of Carta Blanca beer, 4 quarts of Jose Cuervo, limes, an assortment of pipes and bongs, writing at his best in the darkest hours of night. I miss his voice, just as I miss Alex Cockburn’s. Blazing wit and intelligence, daring, balls, seeing things exactly as they are and why -- why being most important -- because it leads to who, as in, whose interests are we talking about here? 

Look what the rich have done in a little less than 50 years. Behold, for this is what concentrated political and economic power looks like. The owners and investors got us to hate the commons and pretty much everything associated with government; got us to believe that capitalism and democracy always walk hand in hand; got us to believe that everything about human life on Earth is just about the money; that it’s every man or woman for himself (except if the woman is pregnant and desires an abortion), and that we can only depend on ourselves; they convinced us that peace and cooperation are unattainable ideals; they got us  to believe that one day we can all be coders and entrepreneurs, winners in the gig economy; that the science of climate change is open to interpretation; that “wars” that go on for decades are normal.    

The shit they got us to believe is incredible! Tip of the cap to the rulers and their associates! It’s no surprise that the rich have ravaged the world, turned it all into commodities, endless wars, poisoned water, and a surveillance camera up your ass or implanted in your arm. 

Spread the news. The rich whipped our asses in the class war! It was a massacre. They buried our ideology along with our bones. 

We let them. We barely fought back. 

Now we have Donald J. Trump, the dumbest motherfucker imaginable, sitting in the Oval Office. My God, doesn’t this freak you out? It sure as hell freaks me out, sends me into deep depressions and prolonged funks. How the fuck did it come to this? I always thought the USA was a serious country, historically immature, of course, but at least pretending to high-mindedness in polite company. I suppose this is a result of all that JFK-rhetoric I imbibed as a young person. We used to be perceived as the good guys, the decent guys, the guys who at least thought twice about torturing prisoners or dropping bombs on civilians. Now? We do it for sport and with the impunity white men enjoyed in the days of chattel slavery. 

I couldn’t bear to watch the Democratic Party debate, that terrible circus of second fiddlers. When Joe Biden, resembling an upright corpse, is the front runner, it’s not an inspiring time. Biden’s sputtering nonsense is too much to watch. I cannot believe that fucker is in this race. His deeds are one of the reasons Donald J. Trump sits in the White House. What does Biden stand for, shill for, sell his ass for, as much as he does right-of-center notions? Biden was better than a Republican when it came to protecting and serving corporate clients like credit card companies, Wall Street investment houses, and the carceral industrial-complex. Wars, too. Biden was all over that shit, like a dog with a bone. He added his voice and position to a center-right, right, and whacky right cacophony and left a visible trail of destruction. But fuck all if despite his record Biden isn’t the man the mainstream media and the DNC is attempting to shove down our throats, force us to swallow. Doddering fucker. Tells batshit stories like your ancient grandpa after he’s tipped back six shots, all kinds of twisted, incoherent shit. Nowhere near Trump’s gibberish, of course, that stuff’s heroic -- (I hope we don’t see its kind again for a very long time) -- but along the same fact-less, ignorance-laden and incoherent line. 

How long will it take to dig out from under Trump’s pile of shit when the asswipe dies in his sleep, chokes on a cheeseburger, or Melania slices his ball-sack off and lets him bleed to death? (Either she’s itching to do it or she’s a robot.) Can you imagine a naked Donald J. Trump climbing on top of you? How fucking sick would that make one feel? 

Hunter Thompson would scorch Trump at every opportunity with both barrels, and it would be beautiful to see. But Hunter would also remind us to keep an eye on the courts, district and federal, because Trump is taking over that branch of our government. Appointing uptight fucktards left and right. Imagine how much more difficult this will make it to erase the shit smear Donald J. Trump leaves on America. Two decades, three? You think fuckers like Gorsich and Kavanaugh will make a philosophical about face and join us in the real world the minute Trump is pronounced dead?

We need wild, but not insane, voices to jar people out of their insta-cart, Facebook, Instagram world. Very few people are willing to face the truth, see what’s really happening, why, and by whose hand. Look deeply, but at your own risk. Not responsible for loss of political or religious ideology, party, group, pack or gang. You see the truth on your own, all by yourself. But it’s what you do after you see the truth that matters.