SHIT THE BED – MAGA’S Mine-Or-No-One’s Meanness

PHOTO: The Needling

It’s no secret the last couple of generations of working-class Americans have felt a growing sense of abandonment, discontent and, many of them, rage. They feel cheated out of what they see as the “American Dream:” that everyone born in this country (and no one else), whatever the choices they’ve made about their work, their education, their aspirations, is somehow entitled to prosperity.
 
Their wrath is so intense, their imagination so limited, that their response has been not to work harder, not to retrain, not to compete or evolve, but, like a spiteful two-year-old, simply to shit their bed.

PHOTO: Zero to Three

They've defiled the very Democracy that championed their parents' and grand-
parents' dreams.

HOARD MENTALITY
The little monsters have soiled the very nest that’s reared and protected them. Defiled the welcoming, opportunity-rich, rights-protecting Democracy that championed their parents’ and grandparents’ dreams and made their lives possible. 

All because of two obsessions. First, with what they've been told are invading hordes of immigrants pouring across our borders, stealing their jobs, sucking up government resources…oh, and they’re rapists. 

(These folks must see their jobs as pretty menial if such worthless losers from other countries can snap them up them so easily. Oh, and those government resources MAGA’s so afraid are being sucked dry by Manuel, Maria and Mohammed? Aren’t those the same services these “anti-government” Billy-Bobs have been insisting for decades they don’t want to pay for? Like education, healthcare, roads, utilities and fire fighting?

And, the greatest irony of all, these NIMBY nitwits don’t see the hypocrisy of bashing immigration when their own parents or grandparents were immigrants.)

         What raises their blood pressure even more is that 
         these fancy-pants do-gooders might look down on them.

SMART, MY ASS!
Besides their xenophobia, these poor victims are also possessed by a deep hatred of what they’ve termed our country’s “liberal elite,” those mostly well-educated, cultured snobs whose permissive, “woke” values they blame for giving away their God-given, America-first entitlements in the first place.

ILLUSTRATION: L.A. Progressive

But what raises their blood pressure even more is their sense that these fancy-pants do-gooders might look down on them. (I’ve postulated HERE that this resentment might actually stem from the MAGA cult’s embarrassment at being forced to confront just how ignorant they really are.)

Very simply, MAGA folks, driven by these peeves, would rather live in a pile of their own excrement than in the Utopia handed to them by generations of their forebears who’ve toiled to build it, and who’ve fought and died defending it. 

PHOTO: Joe Rosenthal

It’s Democracy, the bold experiment of an oppressed colonial people, the most successful system of governance ever devised, the envy of the world for two-and-a-half centuries. Very simply, the Pedophile President and his cult fume that if they can’t get their perceived entitlement to all its blessings, then no one should.  

         The true patriots—will eventually insist the bed be changed.

IMAGE: AdWeek

RESIST…AND HOPE
This is the MAGA movement. This is the Donald Trump debacle, the con man of our age validating and acting out his own and his devotees’ worst instincts: aggressive insecurity, hatred, racism, vengeance. 

This is why I resist…and why I hope. Hope more and more Americans—the true patriots—will eventually insist the bed be changed, washing away forever the filth these temper-tantrum traitors have unloaded in the bed of American decency.

Protest on your lawn, in the streets, on bridges…anywhere. Pressure Congress to grow a pair and rein 
in TinyHands’s fascist agenda. Write opinion pieces 
and social media rants. Encourage fellow resistors. Donate to effective resistance organizations—like the Women's March, Indivisible or the Visibility Brigade.

…and keep the faith!

STARS, STRIPES AND BULLSHIT – Reclaiming Our Country’s Venerated Symbols

Fascist governments are about control, often brutal control. But one of their slightly subtler grabs is always that of their country’s venerated symbols. 

The wannabe dictator of the United States of America, Donald Trump, wasted no time in checking this theft off of his to-screw list.

BLEEDING COLORS
Our flag, the good ol’ Stars and Stripes, was already well on its way into the grubby hands of the folks on whose grievances Trump rode to the presidency. Think the Boogaloo Bois, the Christian Nationalist Crusade or just good ol’ Billy Bob freelancin’ in his flag-bedecked, gun-racked pickup. 

IMAGE: Eric Gay / AP

Everyone with a beef—or who feared others might steal their beef—wanted us all to think their hissy-fit “patriotism” was somehow sanctioned by their flag-waving.

Trump, their self-declared gift from God, has done nothing but solidify that hold on the flag. The image of Old Glory waving, alongside the Confederate flag, as a battle standard of the January 6 Insurrection will sicken truly patriotic Americans for generations.

IMAGE: Brent Stirton / Getty Images

        The draft-dodger president thinks he can suddenly grow 
        a pair by slapping his name all over U.S. military assets.

ROAR AND PEACE
Speaking of battle, this draft-dodger president thinks he can suddenly grow a pair by slapping his name all over U.S. military assets, many of them having long evincing our nation’s proud military supremacy.

In one of the most absurd ironies of Trump’s absurd reign, at the same time he’s been obsessed with begging, borrowing or stealing the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s also hijacked the Department of Defense and renamed it his very own “Department of War.” And now he's branded a whole class of U.S. Navy battleships as—you guessed it—the Trump Class.

HOLY CRAP
Then there’s the Bible—a book somewhere between ten and twenty percent of Americans truly abide by—and which holds no special place in our church/state-separated Democracy. Yet most of Trump’s MAGA base claim it as their license to hate. 

Trump has them believing he lives and breathes the Bible, that somewhere in those pages he’s actually discovered a mandate for his egomania, cruelty and rage. This even as he refuses to put his hand on the volume in his last inauguration; even as he hawks his own Trump-branded version of the Good Book at 60 bucks a pop.

PHOTO: Patrick Semansky / AP

             The Oval Office now sports an aesthetic better suited 
             to the tastes of the Real Housewives of Las Vegas.

A ROCOCO HELLSCAPE
Next, it was the White House—the People’s House—which this egomaniac has deemed less than representative of his grandeur. So he’s demolished the venerable East Wing to make room for his ghastly 90,000-square-foot, $400,000,000-plus ballroom, an eyesore that will dwarf what remains of the White House.

PHOTO: POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Trump has turned the Oval Office, long the epitome of elegance, exuding quiet confidence to visiting heads 
of state from every corner of the world, into a space better suited to the tastes of the Real Housewives of Las Vegas. As if afraid of blank wall space—or, God forbid, paintings of America’s true greats—Trump has slapped on gaudy gold flourishes some describe as “polyurethane onlays you could buy online” and a "gilded Rococo hellscape.”

And the Kenne…oops, did I almost mention that loser, John F. Kennedy?…Trump Center for the Performing Arts. He’s installed himself as board chair and foisted 
a multi-million-dollar re-make to his own insipid specs. It’s such a monumental affront to cultured Americans that the only acts likely to stoop that low will be Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock.

       We’re not just fighting against something; we’re fighting 
       for a vision of our country’s Post-Trump Renaissance.

A LUMINOUS VISION
As we witness the Trump shit show unraveling—and there are encouraging signs it’s happening—we must not let up on our defiance of this charlatan and his outlaw regime. Let’s be disciplined. Watch our language. Reject Dear Leader’s desperate distractions from his crimes—especially those whose exposure he fears most. Among them the ones laid bare in the unredacted Epstein files. 

We aim for nothing less than a blue tsunami come the midterm elections in November. 

As we work to turn the tide, we must also keep in mind that we’re not just fighting against something; we’re fighting for a vision of our country’s Post-Trump Renaissance. The return of decency, kindness, intelligence, honor, respect for truth, courageous leadership…and a renewed quest not for fools-gold illusions of greatness, but the true, gold-standard greatness that has defined the United States of America since our singular experiment in Democracy began 250 years ago.  

One vital aspect of that renewal must be to reclaim our once-revered national symbols from their debasement at the hands of this vulgar reality star. It will take at least a generation and billions of dollars—money that could have been invested in better lives for all Americans, not corporations and the filthy rich—to strip those icons’ of their spray-paint veneers and "Trump" epithets, and restore them to their accustomed roles representing both America’s celebrated history and our glorious, big-hearted, evolving future.

Let us all vow to nurture and to share that luminous vision.

PHOTO: Nigel Francis 

THE AWFUL PRICE OF FREEDOM

We Minneapolitans—and residents of several other American cities Donald Trump has targeted with his vindictiveness—confront a question that just might reflect the challenge of our post-World-War-II lifetimes: What might I do if I find myself face to face with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goon squad abusing a neighbor or friend?

As a man who came of age at the height of the Vietnam War, I had to face a decision that tested my character: Do I get drafted? Enlist? Resist? Maybe find another way to serve? (I ended up enlisting and serving for six years in the U.S. Army Reserves.) And, informing that decision, another question: How would I act facing the enemy, and, God forbid, asked to make the ultimate sacrifice? 

PHOTO: Saline County Library

Once my years of draft eligibility passed, I never dreamed I’d have to confront those same life-and-death, mettle-testing questions again. But here we are. 

This time the threat, the enemy, is not some crazed pack of Viet Cong; it is my own government, whose barbarity defies not just our cherished Constitution, but simple decency. And it’s not happening 8,500 miles away; it’s right here in Minneapolis.

       Just pulling out my iPhone and tapping that red 
       circle could put me in the crosshairs of some dude 
       with the training of a night watchman and an urge 
       to kick some ass.

So, let’s say I’m at work—in an office building where some 80 percent of my fellow tenants are Somali-American. It seems quite possible that some of them, even those with legal status, will be targeted by ICE. If that happens, what will I do to stand up for the rights of my neighbors—most of them my fellow citizens—against some agents’ brutality?

PHOTO: Dave Decker - ZumaPress

The violence of federal agents toward even those simply bearing witness to their lawlessness is chilling. Just pulling out my iPhone and tapping that red circle could put me in the crosshairs of some dude with the training of a night watchman and an urge to kick some ass. I’m afraid, in the heat of the moment, incensed by the stark inhumanity of these bullies, I might do more than pull out my phone. 

Should I stop and weigh my options? Consider the prospect of injury, imprisonment…or worse? Calculate my odds of making the slightest difference? Or should I just go ahead and do what I’d hope someone might do for me if I were under attack by masked thugs? Exactly what Alex Pretti was doing. And died for.

Reasonable questions. Ones we Americans, sadly, must all be asking ourselves during this unprecedented attack on our Democracy. How sad, especially for one who’s been around the block a few times. Instead of growing old in peace in the country where I’ve worked and served for six decades, I must once again, right here in my home town, weigh the awful cost of freedom.

OUTRAGE TO ACTION – Ten Acts of Resistance to the Dismantling of Democracy

Are you feeling as frustrated and powerless as I am over the absurdity, the absolute outrage, of another Donald Trump presidency? Below are ten simple acts of resistance you can use to turn that outrage to action against the soon-to be loose-cannon, megalomaniacal, reality-star-turned-president and his loyalist stooges.

Outrage, while understandable, will not be productive. In fact, it's exactly the response the MAGAts love to see: those liberal elites suffering the same grievance they've had to endure for the past four years without their God-given goon in White House giving voice to their worst instincts. Closing the borders, dismantling democratic institutions, encouraging our enemies, banning gays and transsexuals, and making fourteen-year-old rape victims have babies.

Don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of bullshit spewing from the mouths of this pathological liar and his toadies. It's all part of the M.O. his father and other mentors of ruthlessness taught him since about the time he could walk. 

                We must refuse the ruse.

It's like one of those amazing swarms of starlings, called murmurations. The birds, when threatened by a falcon or hawk, gather into huge, undulating clouds so the predator, seeing only that overwhelming shape, can't focus on any one individual.

PHOTO: Australian Geographic

This is exactly what Trump and other seasoned con men do with their lies and outrageous behavior. They inundate us with so much bullshit that we lose focus. There's even a name for it: the Gish Gallop.*

As my good friend Todd suggests, though, we must refuse the ruse. Hard as it is, we must choose one issue and concentrate our defiance—our volunteering, our marching, our calls and letter-writing, our creativity and our financial support—on that target. And leave the rest of it for another time.

So, with that discipline in mind, here, ranging from the purely symbolic to nuts and bolts, are some specific tactics for The Resistance:

1. Refuse to capitalize the title of president in front of the man’s name. A small gesture of defiance.

2. Write or call your congressional representatives—whichever side of the aisle they call home—and call out Trump’s self-serving, fear-mongering policies for the affront they are to the time-honored American Values you believe in, and for which so many of our countrymen have fought and died.

         The UnT takes the faux tycoon's precious brand
         and turns it on its head.

3. Get out and make a statement with your presence. Make a sign and stand on a busy street corner or overpass. (Recruit others to join you.) Attend one of the inauguration day (and next-day) marches—in Washington DC or one of many other cities throughout the U.S. and around the world.

4. Display the UnT (⊥), the new symbol of The Resistance—a design that takes the faux tycoon's precious brand and turns it on its head.
Enlarge the image below to print out your own simple signs. Take it to a printer for bumper stickers, lawn signs. protest placards or t-shirts, and then hand them out to friends. Or make your own simple flag or banner with paint, markers, appliques or even duct tape—with the big, bold, upside-down “T” on it.**
Don't forget to take photos of your displays and post them on social media!

5. Hold the media's feet to the fire. Follow daily news reports of Trump’s outrageous decisions, actions and comments. (Choose sources known for some degree of journalistic integrity.) Then call them out for any editorial decisions that fall for the man's well-documented lying and media manipulation. Or for well-intentioned efforts by some to normalize or "sane-wash" his irrational words and deeds.

Home Depot – big Trump donor

6. Put your money where your mouth is—by donating or volunteering with Planned Parenthood, an environmental protection group, a refugee aid program or any organization you believe in which Trump has threatened to gut.
Or don’t put your money where his mouth is, by boycotting Trump-backing businesses and sponsors of his media content. There’s even an App for that.

 Pray that this embarrassment to our great nation will soon be brought down—as have so many tyrants before him—by his own excesses.

7. Sound off through whatever means at your disposal—conversations, social media, blogs, etc. Keep in mind my admonition not to be distracted by the sheer volume of Trump's bullshit, and pick one or two especially egregious offenses—for example, his refusal to release his tax returns or school academic records—and go for depth and repetition rather than breadth.) Use the #UnT (see tip 4 above), or #UnTSymbolOfTheResistance hashtags.

8. Double down on kindness. Keep greeting folks you pass on the street. Keep looking for ways to lend a hand...or just a smile. Not just to those who look like you, but to everyone. Think of each smile, each cheerful word, each act of generosity as your personal declaration of defiance against the divisiveness that defines Trump's misguided empire.

9. Add a mention and link to this post or the QR code to the right as a Signature to appear automatically at the end of every email you send. Or a feature like “Latest Trump Embarrassment," with the previous day’s biggest presidential blunder or blather. Keep it brief and up to date.

10. Pray. Pray that this embarrassment to our great nation will soon come to ruin—as have so many tyrants before him—perhaps by his own excesses or a mutiny of appointees or congressional republicans he assumed were loyalists. 

* The Gish Gallop involves rapidly throwing out a large number of false claims or misleading arguments, making it nearly impossible for those opposed to address each one individually, often leaving others confused or doubting the opponents' ability to respond effectively.

** The up tack or falsum (⊥, \bot in LaTeX, U+22A5 in Unicode) is a symbol used in the field of logic to denote a proposition that is always false. (It's also called an "absurdum.")

 

KNOCKED TO MY SENSES – A Mugger, An Umbrella and Tough Love

Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness – The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, tells of having once been assaulted by a stranger while riding in a pedicab in Calcutta. As the man tried to wrestle her out, the driver intervened and they were able to escape unharmed. Later, when she told her venerable meditation teacher about the incident, he exclaimed, “Oh, Sharon, you should have hit the man over the head with your umbrella…with loving kindness.”

With the astounding results of the just-decided U.S. presidential election, I feel as though I'm the pedicab passenger. That modest little rickshaw has been my conveyance toward a simpler, more peaceful, loving and generous life, a future of hope and continuing intellectual and spiritual evolution. The assailant, a vulgar narcissist who's proven to be nothing but the con man of our lifetimes.

IMAGE: The Washington Post

I had believed, by 2016, that I lived in a nation that, after the decade and a half of profound national insecurity since 9/11, was at last on a course back to sanity—one that valued diplomacy over war, openness over isolationism, inclusion over paranoia, individual freedom over narrowly-defined “morality,” opportunity over prohibition, abundance and generosity over scarcity, vision over hindsight, and hope over fear. This had been a direction I felt was true not only to my own values, but to the time-honored values of my country.

But I, and all those standards I hold so dear, were suddenly assaulted, hijacked by a dimwitted, avaricious, kissy-lips reality TV star who, counting on the grievances and gullibility of Joe Sixpack, saw a chance to indulge his enormous appetite for attention.

And now, after just four years of a decent, sensible, well-grounded man working to restore honor and dignity to this country's persona, the dimwit is back. And this time he's promised to be a dictator and that we'll never have to vote again.

           Folks hang their heads and murmur,
           If only we’d known and done something.

A CITIZEN OF ALL CREATION
And thus my dilemma: Do I assume the mindset I believe derives from the core of my being, one of tranquility, kindness and emotional detachment from outcomes? Or do I allow myself to fully appreciate and be moved by the reality that, once again, my homeland is at the beck and call of a monumentally insecure, irrational, ill-prepared charlatan who has promised—and whose admirers expect—that he will dismantle the very framework of values I embrace, and that so many of our ancestors have fought and died for?

As if that weren’t enough, the president-elect’s aggressive denial of most climate scientists’ and world leaders’ calls for urgent action on human-abetted global climate change threatens not just my country, but our planet and every human being on it.

History tells us quite eloquently that despots do exactly what this man is doing. And that, once the true ravages of their misguided power see the light of day, it is most often too late. Decent folks hang their heads and murmur, If only we’d known and done something when we could. And those he's fooled—not once but twice—say What dictatorship? Give the poor man a chance.

Is it not my sacred duty to act on the moral outrage that drives heroes to say something, do something?

IMAGE: Wikipedia

        I aspire to being able to read the sad story
       that’s unfolding before our nation’s eyes,
       and yet...not let it define who I am. 

DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY
So back to the pedicab-and-umbrella metaphor. In the case of our current national crisis, how can I resolve my dilemma? What does smashing the mugger over the head with loving kindness even look like?

That, I’ve decided—after being unable to think about anything else at all since election day—is what I must reconcile. How can I honor both my responsibility as an intelligent, aware—and patriotic—citizen to defend the values upon which my country was founded and has prospered for two and a half centuries, and my duty to all of Creation to inhabit a place of peace and love?

The answer? All I can say right now is that I’m working on it. I aspire to being able to read the sad story that’s unfolding before our nation’s eyes, and yet not become the story, not let it define who I am. 

Still, as Salzberg’s guru suggested, it will serve no one if we fail to deter a thieving bully. So, while being as patient with myself and others as I can, I will be eagerly watching for doors of opportunity to appear.

Whether it's my venting here on Pop This Boil, bumper stickers, lawn signs or joining protest demonstrations, I trust I will find the certainty to take whatever action I am called to pursue. But I must do so only when I’ve also found the generosity of spirit not to act in fear or anger, but in hope and love.

And then I will swing away.

STOLEN CONSCIOUSNESS – The Trump Disaster Goes Deep

Intelligent, caring Americans are fighting to save our country from the massive indiscre…oh, hell, let’s call them what they are: crimes of the most incompetent, corrupt, unstable president in its history.

Somehow, while we were shrouded in the fog of our political complacency, this reality show imbecile and his handlers—both here and abroad—have managed, methodically and rather quickly, to take over and hobble our democracy. This has backed the majority of Americans—those of us who reject the junta’s ignorance and fear mongering—into a corner, evoking a massive, national fight-or-flight response.

Flush with adrenaline, we naturally focus on what appears to be the most egregious, in-your-face threat of the day—insults to allies, collusion with enemies, sabotage of democratic institutions, betrayal of environmental responsibility, stifling a free press, condoning of racism…it goes on and on.

But while we’ve been so intent on fighting off the assault on our country’s hard-won freedoms and values, there’s been another, deeper, much less obvious victim of the abuse.

         The worse he proves to be, the better
         they like him...and he feeds on their
         utter lack of self-respect.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Like a filthy old HVAC system run amok, Donald Trump has sucked the air out of the room. After a year and a half of gasping for breath in this vacuum, anyone who remembers what truth and decency are is, in a slight twist of the word, losing unconsciousness.

The media—shame on them—have been unable to resist ennobling his every vile or vacuous word. Social media’s gotten so saturated with both his foolishness and legitimate resistance to it, that folks can no longer get a word in edgewise about their kids, pets, travels or personal epiphanies.

Nope, just as this sniveling bully-brat has somehow always managed to do, he’s made it all about him. Apparently, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. In fact, for his rabid base, the worse a leader—not to mention human being—he proves to be, the better they like him. And he feeds on their utter lack of self-respect.

The toll this great nation will endure for a generation or more will involve more than our freedom, our respected standing in the world, the livability of the planet or our humanity toward one another. It will—already has—involve the loss of our higher consciousness as a nation, our sense of who we are and of the essential interconnectedness of all Creation.

I dare say, for inciting a degree of polarization and lack of civility unknown in my lifetime, it will also affect the health of the millions of people around the world who feel assaulted, abased by this bully. Ironically, as decent people fight for a sane, healthy future for our offspring, chronic stress shrinks our own life expectancy.

  Truth doesn’t play nice with their fear-mongers.

OBAMA CARED
Say what they will about Barack Obama or his policies as president, he was without doubt a real, thinking, caring human being. An evolved person—curious, aware of both himself and others, able to adapt to changing circumstances, whether they required he be fully present in the moment or articulating a grand vision. 

There used to be many other such evolved and evolving leaders, of both political parties. But Donald Trump and many of his henchmen are sworn enemies of any kind of evolution. In fact, they’re systematically weeding out anyone, at any level of government, who pretends allegiance to demonstrable truth over blind loyalty to their visionless, self-serving doctrine.

Truth doesn’t play nice with their fear-mongers. It makes the fear real...but just for them.

EYE ON THE BALL 
So, one moment I’m thinking the very best thing we could do to resist this unprecedented assault on our personal and national values is to simply out-think, out-create, out-care Trump and those working his strings. To avoid falling for the distraction and continue living, despite the aggression, as evolved and evolving human beings.

The next moment, I’m back in that fight-or-flight response. Who cares if the man who’d replace him is even more frightening than he is. Just get this robber of all that’s honest and decent out of my house.

I’m disappointed in myself for this vacillation. That I ever allow my best  instincts to be sapped by the impulse to defend myself against the violation of my life and that of my country.

So, do you experience this same dilemma? How do you deal with it? Are you any better able than I to keep your eye on the ball and remain true to yourself? If not, how do you cope?

P.S.
Assuming that the wheels of justice turn too slowly to squash this swarm of bugs before this fall’s midterm elections, I’m able to find some hope that decent people who still recognize what it is that has made America great will turn out en masse to vote.

We need political candidates, at every level, who’ll articulate a renewed vision of a world that runs not on people’s basest instincts, not at the whim of a ruthless oligarchy, but once again on hope, mindfulness, love and generosity. One that answers to an authority higher than aberrant interpretations of patriotism and and Christianity, or a sniveling bully and his self-loathing, suicidal following.

So find out who are some of the congressional candidates whose races could go either way. Not just in your own state, though that's a good start. Pick a few from other parts of the country. And pitch in...whatever you can afford. A good place to start is the DCCC. (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) Locally, you might consider volunteering to knock on doors or make phone calls, which experts keep saying is quite effective.