SUICIDE BY BOOMERANG – Trump’s Ultimate Comeuppance

It's Donald Trump’s stock in trade: so thoroughly inundate his perceived enemies with lies, lawlessness and outrageous behavior that it confuses and exhausts us.

It’s the same tactic starlings use to outwit falcons. They form a murmuration, a swirling, undulating mass that confronts the preda-
tor with one huge, impenetrable target instead of individual victims.

Herring do it too. The best a sailfish or marlin can do is pick off a few outliers around the edges of the shoal.

PHOTO: Nick Dunlop

In Trump’s case, somewhere in the swarm fly his impeachable crimes. And we (the Resistance, the remaining honorable members of Congress, and the still-credible media) are the falcon. 

POLITICAL JUJITSU 
Well, it dawns on me that this can work both ways. What if we were to counter the Crimbecile’s deluge with our own deluge? You know, turn the tables on him. A swarm of falcons to his swarm of lying starlings.

This isn’t something just any Joe Blow from Kokomo can pull off. TinyHands, this monumentally insecure little man, can ignore jabs from people like us with no power or fame, but he’s shown us consistently that he can’t shake off a put-down by someone rich or famous. 

PHOTO: Wall Street Journal

This is how California Governor Gavin Newsom has so clever-
ly gotten under that flabby orange skin. Google’s AI overview says, “Newsom and his office have purposefully adopted Trump's all-caps, aggressive social media style to troll the former president and get his attention. This mimicry is a form 
of political jujitsu that uses Trump's own tactics against him.”

    Not even Faux News will be able 
    to resist these trash-taunts.

TAKING THE BAIT
What if we—I guess it would have to be the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—identify and recruit other notables like Newsom with enough visibility to command Trump’s attention, and have them take up the same tactics? Troll him. Make absurd accusations. Call him names. Question his manhood. Blame him for dirty tricks right before we use them on him. 

And always, always, meet his objections just like he does ours: by doubling down. 

Now if the attacks were to come from just a bunch of everyday liberal elites—you know, teachers, scientists, theologians…decent, thinking, caring Americans, they’d just get tossed into the virtual wastebasket Trumpublican State Media use for stuff they don’t like. But not even Faux News could resist these trash-taunts. 

What a story! Not just iconic newsmakers-turned-raptors biting at Orange Julius Caesar’s lily-white blubber-butt, but the small-cap president totally taking the bait and throwing a series of ever-more-deranged (and entertaining) tantrums. 

PHOTO: Governor Newsom Press Office

PHOTO: Wikipedia

There’s no shortage of candidates to take up the troll—folks who’ve already provoked Trump’s rage. Rosie O’Donnell, Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Stephen Colbert…oh, and one who, with a little grooming, might undo the Crimbecile like no other: Elon Musk.

Sometimes we have to nearly 
kill the patient to save them.

Will it work? We know this man; he can no more resist well-placed ridicule than he can flattery. It’s a weakness even our country’s worst enemies learned long ago how to exploit.

Trump’s reckless, undisciplined rants are already troubling some of his supporters. He’s starting to pick up some of the signs that he and his improbable power trip have peaked. So this new, right-back-atcha trick is sure to catch fire deep in the void that is his soul. The rage will eventually consume him. 

At long last, this vulgar charlatan, the con man of our age, will fall. Not to rejection by his party, not to impeachment, but to his very own vileness turned against him.

PHOTO: David Becker / Reuters

                      
I know. Intelligent, virtuous people might find this tactic incredibly hard to pull off. It’s anathema to us, something that, for very good reasons, doesn’t come naturally. Well, neither does zapping ourselves with deadly radiation. But hey, when it’s cancer, we’ve learned that sometimes we have to nearly kill the patient to save them.

So… think about it. Who would you include in the dream team to pull off the backatcha maneuver? C’mon, think outside the box. Jimmy Kimmel? Hillary Clinton? Michael Moore? Pope Leo?…ooh, ooh, I know someone who might rattle him more than anyone: a Joe Biden doppelgänger! 

What do you think? Folks in this little slice of the Resistance would love to hear from you!

LOSER

I'm not proud of it, but I fantasize about ways to weaponize shame in some way that might penetrate the Orange Turd's seemingly impenetrable defenses. I mean a way that leaves him with nothing but a deep, heart-and-soul realization of what a worthless POS he is.

One such fantasy sees him shackled to a chair in a sound-proof room. No cameras, no microphone, no lawyers. He can't cover his ears, but a large, silvery X of heavy-duty duct tape covers that stupid, kissy-lips little mouth.

And then I play this for him—not quite loud enough to injure his ear drums—on a continuous loop. Over and over...and over again until he says the magic wordl

Donny Boy, you laughable little twerp, here's why—despite your obsession since childhood with winning; despite your lying, cheating, boasting, bullying, lawyering up and doubling down—you are what you are:

FAMILY LIFE
It's about as dysfunctional as it gets, isn't it? No signs of love here. You're condemned to the same relationship with your sons that you had with your father, one based solely on business...and fear. You've failed at all three of your marriages. You've repeatedly cheated on your wives—and bragged about it. It's quite obvious Melania's nothing but a showpiece to you. She hates you and sees you for the impotent crybaby you are. If she weren't legally obligated to stay with you, she'd leave you for a real man in an instant. You're so afraid your family will turn on you that you've made them all sign NDAs.
What does this say about you? It says you're a LOSER.

PERSONAL LIFE
You have no friends. Not one. Those who have to interact with you fear you and know very well the relationship hell they're in: Do your bidding, they're in; cross you once and you destroy them. You have no interest in music, art, ideas...hell, you don't even read. With your insatiable craving for attention, the only happiness you're capable of comes from the folks forced to lie about your fake accomplishments.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

BUSINESS
Born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth, you've failed at most of your own business ventures. You've routinely lied to get regulatory passes and financial backing. You stick it to suppliers and assault employees with your chaotic, egomaniacal management style. And still you fail. You're worth a fraction of what you claim, having filed for bankruptcy six times and refusing to disclose your tax returns—as nearly all U.S. presidents have. And you've been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
What does this prove about you? It proves you're a LOSER.

     You lack any trace of the key elements of intelligence.

POLITICS
Like every other aspect of your life, you've achieved nothing without lying, cheating and intimidation. Your obvious envy of despots like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin proves your weakness. You quickly turned the White House and much of the federal government to chaos. You soiled the reputation of our country, dissing our allies and making us the laughing stock of the world. Obsessed with crowd sizes, hogging the stage and demanding a place in history, you're the poster boy for insecurity. You're one of just 12 U.S. presidents to fail at getting reelected.
What does this indicate? It indicates you're a LOSER.

INTELLECT
Once again, if you're constantly crowing about how smart you are, you're probably not that smart. You were, by all accounts, a very poor student. Otherwise, why would you have gone to such great lengths to keep your school transcripts under wraps? You lack any trace of the key elements of intelligence: curiosity, creativity or discipline. And you have the attention span of a toddler.  
What does this show about you? It shows you're a LOSER.

SPIRITUAL LIFE
Despite an occasional Bible-totin' pose for the Christian right suckers who follow you, you're about as Christian as Attila the Hun. You exhibit not one quality espoused by Jesus Christ. Hard to acknowledge a higher power, isn't it, when you're convinced there is none higher than yourself. You're a pitiful, spiritually empty little man doomed to suffer your own private hell.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

        Hey, you know what they say about small hands.

PATRIOTISM
You're a draft-dodging coward. You called true American hero John McCain a loser for his five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. You've debased other veterans and the very idea of military service. You've consistently expressed admiration for our country's—for Democracy's—most brazen enemies. You've sought to undermine America's democratic institutions and instigated a deadly, armed insurrection in your failed attempt to overturn your election loss.
What does this reveal about you? It reveals you're a LOSER.

MASCULINITY
You exhibit classic behavior of someone who's extremely insecure about his manhood: bragging,  degrading women, obsessing over symbols of masculinity: big cars, too-long neckties and that oversized, over-bold signature that any shrink will tell you is just a long row of tiny erections. Beneath all your desperate efforts to compensate, you're a shriveled, impotent wuss. Hey, you know what they say about small hands.
What does this tell us? It tells us you're a LOSER.

PHYSICAL CONDITION
You're a pale, flabby dough ball. Despite your constant posturing, you're a weakling with no self-awareness or discipline. Your much-parodied diet is that of someone who, deep down, hates himself. Your idea of fitness is having the help drive you around a golf course (where you kick your ball out of trouble so often that your playing partners call you Pele). No wonder you refuse to release the results of your physicals.
What does this disclose about you? It discloses that you're a LOSER.

      You're a textbook narcissist, a pathological liar.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
You have the temperament of a spoiled-rotten four-year old. You lack four of the five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Beyond your flaccid ego's constant need for affirmation—and your rage at those who know you don't warrant it—you're utterly incapable of emotion.
What does this say about you? It says you're a LOSER.

PERSONALITY
You're a textbook narcissist, a pathological liar. You possess not one iota of curiosity, empathy or honor. You've never had a real friend. That's because a) you care only about yourself; b) you can't stand anyone else getting the slightest attention; c) you're a user; and d) you have absolutely nothing to offer a friend. No intelligence, no wisdom, no kindness, no generosity...hell, there's nothing at all even interesting about you.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

(... and REPEAT) 

So, little Donny, we can keep doing this all day. All you have to do is complete this sentence: I, Donald J. Trump, am and always have been a total and absolute__________. Need a hint? Okay, let's roll it again...

What do you think? Should we add a visual element to the verbal shock treatment? Maybe some images of his gross, doughy body? His face without makeup? Some powerful people mocking him? Thoughts from people he's ruined? Testimonials from women who've witnessed his inadequacy? Other ideas?

CUT HIM OFF – Breaking the Media’s Trump Addiction

Here's a piece I recently submitted to the Opinions Editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune:

Donald Trump is a con man the likes of whom we’ve not met in my generation.

Among his many tricks, he knows that outrageousness, no matter how sordid, sells. And the media—including the Star Tribune—have been all too eager to buy.

It’s no merit whatsoever that’s earned him his notoriety; it’s simply the media’s weakness for his fools-gold patina of fame, his winners-and-losers style, his lies, boasts and grievances. That is the only thing that’s elevated Trump to his role as a cult leader and, preposterously, to his recent status as one of the most powerful people in the world.

As the next presidential election looms, it cannot be overstated how vital it is for the future of our embattled Democracy that, this time around, you in the media reclaim your discipline, your journalistic integrity, in the way you cover this simpleton.

PRESIDENT BUTTHEAD?
If Trump should somehow manage to win the 2024 election, of course you’ll have to keep reporting on him, even if he presides over nothing but chaos. (Hell, you’d have to cover the presidency even if the post were held by Beavis or Butthead.)

(That said, you must avoid normalizing—“sane-washing,” many are calling it—Trump’s absurd comments and behavior as many of your media counterparts have in their efforts to be even-handed. Let your readers see and read exactly how unstable the man is.)

But if he loses—again—I urge you to take a hard look at how—and why—you might want to continue covering Donald Trump. Consider letting his second defeat be the end of your love-hate addiction to this charlatan. Do a reset, work the Twelve Steps and leave this silly, shallow little man alone to the fate he most fears and has always deserved: oblivion. 

PHOTO: The Atlantic

BACK TO REALITY
All it will take is what it would have taken back in 2015: honest, principled journalism, not the yellow kind. Guarding the distinction between news and sensation. Realizing that covering the ravings of a narcissist and pathological liar is no more news than is the reality-show world that begot him.

Yes, we know Trump’s MO for failure: deny, play the victim, accuse others, double down; he will simply not accept defeat. And we know he’ll rally his MAGA base to once again attack the officials and democratic institutions he blames for his short- comings. This will be hard to resist. Maybe you’ll need to wean yourselves gradually.

If, for fear of losing a few readers, you just can’t resist the bait, at least put this trivia in Faces, your page-two entertainment column, or in the Variety section. Just not with the hard news.

Better yet, bite the bullet. Let Donald J. Trump end up where he belongs, back on reality TV. Please!  Just let him go.

PHOTO: Pool / Getty

Given the topic's surging presence in social media, I suppose by now you've heard of Project 2025.

That's the right-wing Heritage Foundation's vision for a second Donald Trump presidency. This vision is so out there, so frightening, that even the Trumpublican party's poster boy is claiming to know nothing about it. 

Right. 

The cretin is mentioned by name 240 times in the document. And CNN found nearly 140 former Trump aides and advisers who have contributed to Project 2025, including six former members of his Cabinet, four of his ambassadors, and Republican National Committee members appointed to their positions in coordination with the Trump campaign.

It's hard to think of an adequate way of responding to such a blatant anti-Democracy, fascist intention. Millions of our countrymen and women have fought and died to defend our country against such ambitions. And this one's taking place right here at home, right under our noses.

PHOTO: Mediadrum Images / NARA

Lacking a military option, we should be facing the threat with whatever weapons we do possess. Writing about it. Sharing it with friends. Flooding social media with it. Taking it to the streets...

...and calling to task major news media for what to date has been their paltry coverage of this existential threat to our democratic way of life.  To wit the letter to the editors I just submitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

To Star Tribune editorial department:

Why is the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 once again not front page news today? Why is it not every day?

This 900-plus-page document is chilling in both scope and detail—nothing less than a manifesto for a fascist, Christian nationalist Trump regime.

From a wholesale dismantling of hard-won environmental and consumer-protection regulations, to blurring the separation of church and state, to undermining longstanding safeguards against abuses of executive power, to supplanting capable public servants with regime loyalists, to gutting our government’s vital checks-and-balances design, to suppressing dissent, Project 2025 is a blueprint for the destruction of Democracy.

How much more disturbing would this ultra-right-wing playbook have to be before
the Star Tribune gives it the urgent coverage it deserves?

I urge you to consider Project 2025’s newsworthiness in light of other events and issues which would surely capture front-page, banner-headline coverage in your paper. Like a nationwide power blackout, a major airplane crash, or the U.S. Capitol being overrun by an angry mob of the same kind of traitors who would find new empowerment in Project 2025.

Please, I urge you to pick up whatever weapon of expression you possess and use it to expose the shocking reality of Project 2025. Your voice, your feet, your wit, or, as I have, your pen.

Our precious Democracy—the peace and freedom most of us have enjoyed all our lives and that we so dearly wish for our children and grandchildren—is at stake.

ILLUSTRATION: Norman Rockwell

GUILTY! But Not Gone

I told myself if this slimy bastard got tried and convicted of multiple felonies, I'd mix up a batch of my famous mango margaritas and go dance in the street.

And today, Thursday, May 30, 2024, the jury in the Orange Turd's New York hush money trial handed down its verdict: guilty on every single one of the 34 charges in the indictment. As CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell slowly read off the verdict on on each count, I felt a chill of relief and, dare I say, delight.

This slam-dunk outcome shines a glint of hope in a world that seems to be seriously considering if fascism might be the way forward. Hope that there's still a cross-section of people in this country who can think for themselves and actually believe thoroughly documented, damning evidence, even against the conman of our generation.

But that's really all it is, a glint. For we all know this creep. He's a cockroach, and cockroaches are really tough to catch and squash.

                      Each and every decent American…
                      must make a solemn commitment.

IT’S NOT OVER
Before the cretin even leaves the courthouse he's pulling out all his tattered cards. Poor me! Rigged. Conspiracy. Travesty. And, of course, he'll appeal…for as long as any court—some of their judges hand picked by him--will hear the case.

So yes, I'm enjoying my margaritas, but I'm not dancing in the street. Because this isn't over.
But a taste of justice, even if it's just on paper, should inspire us to start and continue the hard work of making sure this vile little man can no longer pretend to lead this great country toward the collapse of our Democracy—a way of life that’s the envy of the world, and which millions of our countrymen and women have fought and died to defend.

Each and every decent American—those of us who believe our president should defend and bolster Democracy, not sabotage it; those of us who think it’s about hope and helping people, not fear and controlling them—must make a solemn commitment.

                 During the last campaign we mailed some
                 6,000,000 letters…with a phenomenal success
                 rate ranging from 1% to 3%.

TAKE THE PLEDGE

We must pledge not just to vote come November; that’s the easy part. We must also find ways to encourage others to vote, especially those who might otherwise be unlikely to do so. Maybe they don't believe their one vote can make a difference. Maybe they find both candidates lacking. Could be they're just worn out by the vitriol that Donald Trump has stirred up in our politics.

I've taken that pledge. I looked for a way to turn my outrage into action, a hands-on way of turning out potential progressive voters who might need a little encouragement to speak up for Democracy. It had to be something I knew I could stick with and that would bear results.

What I discovered was VOTE FORWARD, a 501(c)(4) non-profit that empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans in key districts to vote. During the last presidential campaign we mailed some 6,000,000 letters—600 of them were mine—with a phenomenal success rate ranging from 1% to 3%.*

This time, we’re aiming for 10,000,000.

PIECE OF CAKE
It's easy. I craft my own (non-partisan) message. I can write letters just about anywhere and in my own time. And it risks none of the face-to-face, slamming-door rejection one encounters with that old reliable get-out-the-vote go-to: door knocking.

Let’s make sure this charlatan, this proxy hoodlum for a generation of bloated billionaires and bitter Billy-Bobs, never again controls anything more than his own miserable, fools-gold life and those of his NDA-muzzled spawn.

¡Salud!

* Vote Forward impact

NO TWO WAYS – Drawing the Line On T***pist Absurdity

[With my previous post here, I thought—and prayed with all my heart—that we were through with Donald T****. (I've vowed, following Stephen Colbert's lead, to never again soil a sheet of paper or an LED screen with the man's name.) But, though his own antics have been mercifully absent from the media for a few weeks, those of his disciples have muscled their way back into our consciousness. 

And, as the necessary but futile efforts to convict the scumbag in his second impeachment proceed in the Senate, it appears his influence will continue to infect many of our countrymen for a long time.

Thus, the fight—and this modest effort to resist—goes on.]

                                                                   ~  •  •  •  ~

As I contemplate the deadly disease running rampant across my country, I keep wondering, how did this happen? Why weren’t we better prepared? Will we eventually subdue it? Or will it just lay low for a while and then come creeping back and once again lay waste to all we hold dear?

Oh, you thought I was talking about the coronavirus? Nope, the disease I’m more concerned about is the plague of resentment and conceit, the mass delusion, that enabled a bumbling tyrant to hijack the American presidency and rather systematically dismantle our democracy for the last four years.

In my more charitable moments, I might say to people who still support that demagogue alright, you’re entitled to your opinion. I suppose you’re even entitled to your own lies.

Go ahead. If you want to look at a man who’s spent his entire life proving what a narcissistic, corrupt, racist, amoral total asshole he is and see the answer to your prayers, fine.

Care to keep those forward-view blinders on, denying the future for your addiction to a past we’ve long since outgrown both as a country and as human beings? Clutching to your breast those good old authoritarian sacred cows: law enforcement, “the troops,” the Bible, Old Glory—whatever—instead of embracing the glory of possibility? Be my guest.

Question a thoroughly-validated election simply because your guy lost? Sadly, that’s your right too.

     Those who expect to have it both ways deserve neither.

CAUGHT IN A LIE
But what you’re not entitled to is extolling one set of truths when things are going your way and another when they’re not. Rules that apply to folks you’re afraid of, but not to you.

Seems to me a “principle” that applies when you want it to, but not when you don’t isn’t a principle; it’s a ruse. As aggrieved and entitled as you may genuinely feel, you don’t get to have it both ways.

I’ll call you out on that duplicity every time. Why? Because we’re political enemies? To settle some perceived score? Because I’m “elite” and you’re “deplorable?” No, those are your kinds of reasons.

The reason you’ll get caught is because any fourth-grader could tell you it’s plain bullshit. Because it defiles the trust that’s the stock-in-trade of a functional democracy. And because it’s intellectually and morally indefensible.

DISAPPEARING ACT
You can’t be for authority when it’s used to control and punish others, but defy authority when it applies to you. Like flaunting COVID-control mandates because they deny you your “individual liberties?” Don’t get me started!

And you can’t be a Christian to justify your passing judgement on others, but then treat them in ways Jesus would never have condoned. (So there goes your cherry-picking from the Holy Bible for reasons why its teachings don’t apply to you.)

       A leg to stand on is not the only skeletal part you lack.

You can’t pretend to see tens of thousands of people who didn’t attend your esteemed leader’s first and only inauguration, and then pretend not to see the 81,283,098 certified voters who did indeed make him, for once and for all, a loser.

Nor can you claim to be a patriotic American and then cheer on a petty demagogue who clearly admires our country’s most ruthless enemies. And you can’t love the electoral process when it delivers your popular-vote-losing candidate, and then hate it enough, when both the popular and electoral votes decisively reject him, to desecrate the U.S. Capitol and threaten not just members of Congress, but the Vice President you adored just last week.

And now, during the second impeachment trial in the Senate, we see your T***publican representatives stooping to a new having-it-both-ways low—as if that were even possible. They say the first time your muck-raking messiah got caught red-handed he couldn’t be held responsible because he was president. Now they insist he’s immune because he isn’t president.

You just can’t make this stuff up. A leg to stand on is not the only skeletal part you lack.

SURVIVING ON SCRAPS
To all you poor schmucks locked in a death spiral with this despicable man: I’d love to see you evolve, along with the rest of us, to ways of thinking and acting that embrace a kinder, gentler, smarter future. To restoring the kind of democracy where individual liberties are balanced, as intended by the country’s founders—and God, I should add—by collective responsibilities.

But somehow I just can’t see that happening.

So if you can’t overcome your mass inferiority complex and join us, then I guess you’ll just have to slither back into those dank recesses where you and the rest of the cockroaches skulk till your next opportunity to scurry out and terrorize those of us on whose scraps you’ll, sadly, have to depend.  

STAND BY – The War Between Trump’s Enablers and Moral Rebels

There’s an interesting and timely article in the current Amherst College alumni magazine. Psychology professor Catherine Sanderson explains the science of bystander inaction—why otherwise nice people fail to act when they witness something that, in other, clearer-headed circumstances, they might not allow.

Of course, the author cites last May’s police killing of George Floyd as an example. But it strikes me how this bystander-inaction science might also apply on a broader, societal level, accounting for the political debacle that's played out over the past four years.

Specifically, how millions of Americans have stood by and not lifted a finger as the leader they chose, and who represents them, allows thousands and thousands of their countrymen to die of COVID-19 while he's Twitter-twiddled his little thumbs. Not to mention as he's systematically trashed our democratic institutions and norms of civility.

 

 

The hands are those of a great nation, drowning while Trumpublicans turn away.

             Are there enough of them to
             bring down the massive, gaudy
             dam that’s been holding back
             America’s incredible potential
             for the past four years?

MORAL REBELS
Sanderson calls those who do step forward and act to thwart cruelty “moral rebels.” These, her study suggests, tend to be people with a more accurate sense of what others around them are thinking. And who, in many cases, grew up free of heavy-handed, authoritarian parental control.

So, who have the moral rebels been who've broken from the lock-step Trumpublican ranks to act with integrity and courage? Certainly not the likes of the McConnells, the Grahams, the Barrs, who are ultimately going down with the ship. And not those who've scrambled like rats to abandon ship at the last minute.

Nor those, like John Bolton or Michael Cohen, who've only shown up when they no longer had anything to lose.

No, the moral rebels were those folks, like Mitt Romney, John McCain or Christine Whitman, who did have something to lose and acted with decency anyway. We’ve witnessed, over the past year or so, more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against an angry, vengeful bully.

There are many other pre-Trump Republicans who have consistently spoken out: Colin Powell, John Kasich, hundreds of former Justice Department officials, the former Republican strategists behind the Lincoln Project and many more.

We’ve witnessed more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against a tyrant. An angry, vengeful bully who, literally since birth, has had nothing on his feeble little mind but feeding his insatiable ego.

LEAKS IN THE DAMN DAM
I wonder, on this, Election Day 2020: Have there been, among political leaders and the ranks of erstwhile Trump supporters, enough moral rebels who, like pinprick leaks in the massive, gaudy dam that’s been holding back America’s incredible potential for the past four years, have grown and joined and brought that dam down? We shall see…

 

THE SQUEEZE IS ON – The Trump Debacle Comes to a Head

I’ve spent the better part of the past four years torn between my deeply-felt need to resist the worst president in American history and what just might be a better instinct: to spare myself the damage I know intense, sustained anger and fear can inflict on one’s body and soul.

I’ve been moderately successful in following my mantra: Channel your fear and rage into resolve. I started, way back in March, to volunteer with Vote Forward, hand-writing get-out-the-vote letters to folks identified as likely non-voters in key districts across the country.

Whenever I watched, heard or read anything—anything at all—about the little brat-monster pretending to be smart and important enough to run a country, I simply turned off the offended senses, walked to the dining room table, and started writing.

Thank God for that pressure-relief valve. (I ended up writing 560 of the more than 17,000,000 letters Vote Forward volunteers mailed out October 17.)

A SHIFT IN THE FORCE
Now, with the election just a couple weeks away, I’m finding it even easier to just ignore the lying, hateful bullshit spewing from the philanderer-in-chief and his lackeys. 

No, I still can’t resist the chance to share an especially clever Trump-mocking Facebook post. But I’m also starting to realize a deep sense of letting go, of relief and peace. The kind marathoners feel when the chute is in sight and, no matter where they place, they know they’ve given it their all and are going to make it.

Between my own effort to both resist and take positive action, and those I’m sure millions of other have made in their own ways, I’m feeling a growing sense of momentum. And, besides this “earned” glow of satisfaction, there’s also an inkling of destiny. I’ve just got to believe that there are millions and millions of people who might have voted for the idiot four years ago who’ve noticed something at least a little troubling about him.

It’s like there’s been a shift in The Force. Americans, this amazing country, is simply too good to go the way of this hateful, self-obsessed little man a second time. I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief—more likely the kind of hooting and hollering one hears after one’s team just won the Super Bowl—echoing from the streets around this great land.

            Enough of us have finally taken
            a look in the mirror.

TO A HEAD
I really, really want to say that the celebration will begin sometime late on the evening of November 3. But thanks to the systematic undermining of the democratic process by Trumpublicans for the past four years—and the fake president’s and his base’s probable tantrum when they see he’s losing—it’s doubtful the results will be known for weeks.

So be patient, my friends. We’ve waited nearly four years; we can wait another few weeks.

Make no mistake; the moment of truth is at hand. This painful, pus-filled boil on our country’s face has come to a head. Enough of us have finally taken a look in the mirror. We hate how it disfigures us; our friends hate it…and it really, really hurts. 

The hand of reason, of vision, of decency, of love is reaching up, drawing thumb and index finger together around the offending abscess. And slowly, surely, they squeeze…

NO UNCERTAIN TERMS – A Word-pairs Quiz for the Trump Era

I’ve been a student of words my whole life. I’ve made the choice of words, the arrangement of words, my career—as a marketing communications man, author and blogger.

I also think constantly about how to make sense of this overwhelmingly complex world and where we sit in history by categorizing, contrasting, analogizing.

So, here I am, four years into my struggle to understand the Trump debacle. And the more I try, the more deftly it eludes me how a sizable minority of my countrymen somehow trust—much less condone—this reality-show imbecile leading our country off a cliff.

CAN’T HELP MYSELF
I know I should be more charitable and eschew the divisiveness that marks this petty dictator’s reign, but as I let my wordsmith’s soul have its way, the divisions and the reasons behind them come into such sharp focus that they’re impossible to deny.

It all comes down to words—their meaning, their power and which of them feel comfortable in whose vocabularies.

And it helps explain why American politics under Trump have become so visceral. For these words represent much more than conservative or liberal bents, one candidate or another’s style, or simply favoring this policy or that. They represent deep-seated differences in who we are as individuals and as members of communities, from local to global.

In each of these word pairs, one word is, I believe, likely to hold great value and reveal the best instincts of one who might think, speak or live by that word. The other word is one that might hold great value and reveal the best instincts of someone living by that word.

TELLING WORDS
So here’s the quiz: Consider each word pair. Don’t worry if some pairs aren’t exact opposites. At first impression, without a moment’s thought, circle the word that most appeals to you.

Vision / Reverence
Utility / Invention
Insight / Investigation
Faith / Truth
Hope / Action
Continuity / Aspiration
Personal Growth / Income
Planning / Dreaming
Wonder / Resolution
Preparation / Foresight
Inclusion / Safety
Candor / Inspiration
Idealistic / Practical
Control / Empowerment
Liberty for all / Authority
Personal Liberty / Greater Good
Innocence / Discipline
Small-town / Multicultural
Opportunity / Security
Sharing / Asking
Responsibility / Freedom
Independence / Unity
Creativity / Building
Common Sense / Science
Cooperation / Individualism
Self-reliance / Charity
Conservation / Utilization
Reward / Risk
Reflection / Certainty
Practicality / Culture
Idealistic / Realistic
Respectful / Questioning
Generosity / Merit

   I’d wager that one’s choice of terms
   would prove a fairly accurate determinant
   of her or his political leanings in the
   current landscape.

Now, no changing your answers, okay? Notice how one term of each pair tends to be more concrete, honoring of the past, a sense of control, individual over societal liberty, and holding your “stuff” pretty close to your chest? And the other is perhaps a bit more abstract, oriented toward the future, the positive, the idealistic, the generous?

THE POINT
I’m sure some will say this little challenge simply inflames the polarity. Perhaps. But if the flames don’t cure the disease, at least they might shed some light on it. In fact, I’d wager that one’s choice of terms would prove a fairly accurate determinant of her or his political leanings in the current landscape.

ILLUSTRATION: Erzebet S

And, speaking of second terms, I would hope this exercise might serve to articulate the urgency of denying Donald J. Trump one of them.

Vote!

If you fear a future under the hand of this destructive, criminally incompetent, pretend president, turn that fear to resolve! Leverage your vote by contributing your money and/or time to organizations championing free and fair elections, especially voting by mail in this time of unprecedented challenges to in-person voting.

GET-OUT-THE-VOTE ORGANIZATIONS
   Vote Forward
     Let America Vote
       League of Women Voters
         American Civil Liberties Union

And think positive; conjure up the image of a Re-United States of America…under any functioning adult!

#LeverageYourVote  #VoteFwd

GUNS & POSES – The Destructive Pretense of Fear

Apologists for the worst president in U.S. history may act tough, posturing with their monster trucks, survival stashes and MAGA caps. But anger and hate are proxy emotions; what really motivates these poor SOBs is fear. How do I know this?

Guns.

IN GOD WE...TRUMP?
The tsunami of proof keeps building. Record numbers of FBI background checks, and soaring gun sales since the Trump-denied COVID 19 pandemic took hold—over 2,000,000 purchased in the U.S. in March alone.

Make no mistake; these paranoid gun people are by and large Trump people. Motivated by the same fear and intolerance that dumped this blob of toxic waste in the White House.

This feeble mindset is pure Trump. It’s what he won on, the lie ladled out by him and lapped up so obediently by his gullible base. Seems the God they so ardently trust to judge the quick and the dead, to justify their claiming public resources as their own and then loving them to death, to decide the fate of the planet in some sick vision of Armageddon, is the same God they won’t trust to save themselves from the rest of us. For that they need guns…lots of guns.

                  Great societies, great nations
                  are not built on fear.

It’s as if they had no power of their own. Oh, yeah, that’s right, they’re caught under the oppressive boot of those bleeding-heart liberal elites. You know, those holier-than-thou snobs with the gall to be educated and willing to work for a smarter, kinder, more generous future. Suddenly Trumpies are rendered helpless by ideological bullies like ideas and creativity, like the radical idea that the USA is destined to lead, not isolate, and...well, those pesky facts.

Selling their country’s true promise short, they’re deathly afraid someone will take something from them—freedoms they figure some folks shouldn’t share, rights to do whatever they please—even if it represents a theft from their own kids and grandkids—and, perhaps the most zealously guarded possession of all, their hard-won homogeneity.

The saddest part—and the most troubling—is that their fear, and the hapless, kissy-mouth little prick they’ve hired as their hit man, are all they have. Oh, and all those firearms.
Make America great again? Great societies, great nations are not built on fear. History teems with examples of states which have failed due to corruption, democratic collapse and, ultimately, cultures of fear: Egypt, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Venezuela…the list goes on.

EYES ON THE PRIZE
Corona virus or not, there's an election coming up. It would be no exaggeration to call it the most important election in the nation's history. And one thing's for sure; this president and those who have prostituted themselves to his whim will lie, cheat and throw this great democracy's values and institutions under the bus to consolidate their power.

We must not let this happen. We've got to be smarter, more committed and harder working than they. So, if you're not already doing something—donating to Democrat campaign coffers, signing up to go door-knocking, hosting fund-raisers, promoting registration and voting...whatever—PLEASE, PLEASE research the possibilities, pick one or more and jump in.

And keep your eyes on the prize. Have a vision of a United States of America that's no longer defined not by walls, guns, oligarchy and the fear that drives them, but by our cherished and widely admired founding values: truth, honor, generosity, equality, optimism and, yes, courage.

The gun-toting right would have you believe that fear disguised as outrage somehow justifies putting those ideals on hold. It does not. And it's up to us to prove it.

ACT YOUR RAGE! – Stand Up to the NRA

In a poignant expression of what a vast majority of Americans are feeling, a member of the other day’s audience at the vigil remembering victims of the Dayton massacre interrupted Ohio governor Mike DeWine’s comments, blurting out, “Do something!” As DeWine continued, others added their voices, building to a chant no one could claim not to hear.

Do something? Do anything constructive to control the use of firearms designed for nothing but killing large numbers of people quickly? They will not.

Not as long as not a single republican member of Congress dares face the wrath of the National Rifle Association.

And here’s the most incredible part. These gun-totin’ cavemen insist that their right to bear arms is so they can defend themselves against a tyrannical government.* And yet right under their noses the very government they’ve so fervently been praying for—the regime a sworn enemy of our country has helped deliver for them—has them armed to the teeth, defending their front doors from immigrants, queers, and any number of other contrived bogeymen, while robbing them blind from the back door.

A ruthless, morally dead oligarchy runs rough-shod over them and over one timeless American value and virtue after another in favor of the rich and powerful’s insatiable lust for control, and they claim not to notice it. It is textbook tyranny, the kind any fool should recognize…even with his head up his ass.

     They are high on their taste of power,
     motivated and energized. They are
     counting on our complacency.

A CYBER-9/11
So, our supreme leader, this gutless, draft-dodging, spiritually empty joke of a president, continues his trademark politics of division. Three times now, right after mass shootings, the liar in chief has read scripted words from the teleprompter promising to do something, hoping to placate the ninety percent of Americans who support common-sense gun control measures, only to renege on those words days later.

He is clearly empowering not just the growing list of this country’s enemies around the world, but the real perpetrators of most of these recent mass murders: red-white-and-blue, all-American Billy Bobs who, goaded by his hateful rhetoric, are emboldened to act out their rage.

Meanwhile, Trump’s self-declared soul-mate, Russian megalomaniac Vladimir Putin, and the president's other despotic role models around the world wring their hands in delight. How could an assault on American democracy possibly be delivered to them any more spectacularly? It is nothing less than a cyber-9/11.

What can be done? One can use whatever platform is available to them to speak up. One can hope the NRA will implode on its own depravity. Or one can get involved in supporting political candidates with the cojones to defy this cowardly, thoroughly corrupt republican party and its gun-toting partner-in-crime.

These are the real enemies of our country. They are high on their taste of power, motivated and energized. They are counting on our complacency. We must show them they are wrong.

* Actually, the second amendment of U.S. Constitution says the right to “keep and bear arms.” exists in order to maintain “a well-regulated militia,” not so every Billy Bob out there can be a bad-ass.

APPEASING A THUG – The Misplaced Notion of Moral Equivalency In Hyper-partisanship

As mid-term elections loom, many Americans—I think from both sides of the divide—are bemoaning the sorry state of our political and social discourse. I keep hearing the suggestion that any return to civility will require both sides to tone down their rhetoric and try to see each other’s point of view.

Yes, they say, Trump and his neocons bully, degrade and lie…but the “liberal elite” bitches, moans and schemes right back.

This well-intentioned attempt at some kind of balance should concern every American as much as the political and cultural rift itself.

      When someone breaks into your home, starts taking
      your stuff and threatens the future of your children,
      there is no requirement, no expectation, of civility.

There is no moral equivalency in responsibility for the bitter enmity between Trumpublicans’ systematic trashing of cherished, hard-won American values to feather the nests of the rich and powerful, and the Progressives’ impassioned resistance to it. No more than there was in the deadly Charlottesville standoff between white supremacists and decent, mostly peaceful counterprotesters standing up to them—a clash which Trump was quick to blame on “both sides.”

Nope. When someone breaks into your home, starts taking your stuff, perhaps tells you to get out because you’re not like them, and threatens the future of your children, there are not two equally-valid arguments. There is no requirement, no expectation, of civility. You yell; you scream; you strike back the best you can with whatever you’ve got. And you don’t stop until they’re caught and gone.

A SNOWFLAKE’S CHANCE IN HELL – Fear and Loathing In the Trump Era

Listen to this deluge of campaign ads! Notice how much of the republicans’ message is about fear? A couple of spots running here in MN epitomize it: “I would never vote for so-and-so; he won’t protect us;” and “So-and-so will make Minnesota a sanctuary state for criminals.”

Fear is much easier to incite than any positive passion like hope, excitement or love. With fear, all you have to do is dangle it out there and people—mostly folks who are, I suspect, already deeply insecure—will bite.

It reminds me of Stephen King’s approach to engendering fear. He realized he can stir more fear by merely suggesting the presence of some horror than by actually showing it. That’s because we human beings are so good at filling in the gory details in our imaginations.

Of course, it helps to objectify and demonize the thing you want folks to be afraid of: Cujo, Christine, the Mist…immigrants, the media, smart people…

       It’s easier to be against something that someone
       else’s vision and hard work have created than it is
       to do the work of creating something better yourself.

A CONSTRUCTIVE VISION
There’s another spineless premise at work in the republicans’ message. Attacking someone else—someone you portray as The Enemy—requires none of the clarity and courage it takes to say what it is you stand for. Easier, it seems, to be against something that someone else’s vision and hard work have created than it is to do the work of creating something better yourself.

Both these intertwined, negative attitudes—fear and negativism—are not only gutless, they’re lazy and undisciplined. They require no constructive imagination, no work whatsoever. And, worse than the ignorance inherent in them is the fact that the beliefs they rest on involve not defensible truths, but—to use their proponents’ own term—“alternative” facts.

ILLUSTRATION: iStock/dane_mark

The problem we progressives face in coming elections is that we’ve found no one—yet—on the national level to lay out a vision of the kind of peaceful, prosperous future intelligence, creativity, joy and hope can inspire. Unlike fear, positive concepts like this have to be articulated. And they have to convince conservatives that being constructive just might address their complaints as well, or better than, being destructive.

Perhaps the most difficult nut to swallow, for both sides of the divide, is that the new, positive approach must embody a measure of reconciliation.

        Not a person famous for nothing but fame
        itself, but one with deep insight, an expansive
        outlook and real integrity.

WHO WILL TURN THE TIDE?
During the disastrous second term of George W. Bush, the only solution I could imagine was for a charismatic leader to emerge who might articulate hope for a nation still on wobbly knees from 9/11. My prayers were answered.

Sadly, though President Obama embodied nearly everything we needed as a leader, he failed to use his eloquence to full advantage. And, for reasons I’m convinced the neo-cons are too smart to ever say out loud—though Trump is all but doing so for them—he was met with a degree of political rancor and obstruction one would have thought reserved for a true tyrant.

Once again I’m praying for a charismatic leader, one who can make the distinction between beliefs and facts, articulate a view of the future that doesn’t require Americans to talk circles around the values we know undergird this great country. Not a person famous for nothing but fame itself, but one with deep insight, an expansive outlook and real integrity. One with a deep, selfless love for both country and planet.

Tall order, right? I figure it won’t be the first time the loving power I call God has called on us to be his instruments in delivering a miracle. So please, please, even if you feel insignificant, even you’re deeply disillusioned with our political system, don’t give up. Come Tuesday, November 6, get out and VOTE! And while you’re at it, see if you can help a couple of other people who might otherwise not be voting to do so too.

We can do this…we must do this!

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES – The True Colors of a President Who Knows Neither

SILVER SPOONS AND RED HANDS
A reality TV star is running this great nation into the ground under the flag of narrow-mindedness. A spoiled-brat bully who grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. A textbook narcissist who's never had to face the consequences of his impulsive, egocentric decisions.

Taught from an early age that decency is a liability. (You don’t have to be nice as long as you win.) Has repeatedly bought, bribed or browbeaten himself out of any culpability—including for sexual assault—or responsibility—including for military service.

  His little tantrums on social media...seem to 
  hold the same perverse appeal to his fans as a 
  ransom note from a psychopathic kidnapper.

This emotional adolescent has always done exactly and only what benefits him and strokes his ego, no matter whom it hurts. Anyone who’s ever tried to hold him accountable for his misdeeds is subject, first, to his little tantrums on social media—which seem to hold the same perverse appeal to his fans as a ransom note from a psychopathic kidnapper.

If that doesn’t get him out the jam, he unleashes his high-powered lawyers on them. His mantra: when people call you out on your illegal, immoral behavior, double down. Crush them. Whatever it takes—lies, threats, countersuits… And in the rare case in which all of this fails, there’s always the big, secret payoff. Bribe them into submission.

      He’s acting out all those insecurities on 
      our country and every single one of its 
      citizens as if to punish us for our ignorance.

FOOLS GOLD AND BROWN NOSES
Compensating for deep-seated insecurities, this small, small man has left a swath of human carnage in his fool’s gold wake - personal relations, business associates, employees, marriage partners…anyone unwilling to enable him and his outsized ambition.

And now, cast in a role he sought only as a prank—and fully expected to dodge—he’s acting out all those insecurities on our country and every single one of its citizens as if to punish us for our ignorance.

As if this scourge weren’t reprehensible enough when he was just a rich, influential businessman and celebrity, he now holds what is arguably the most powerful position in the world. Through his outrageous decisions and behavior as US president, he’s now on track to hurt not just those stupid enough to do business with him, not just those aggrieved and fearful enough to vote for him, but untold millions of innocent people here and around the world—for generations into the future.
 

         It is our only reasonable hope for 
         exterminating this infestation gnawing 
         at the foundations of our decent, daring, 
         democratic nation.

This man and the shameless brown-nosers who do his bidding must be stopped. Fortunately, one institution of this great democracy that still survives, despite this junta’s—and its unlikely, clearly anti-American allies’—best efforts to throttle it, exists for just this purpose: free and fair elections.

SHOW YOUR COLORS
Whatever flaws America’s electoral-college voting system may have, it is, I’m afraid, our only reasonable hope for exterminating this infestation gnawing at the foundations of our decent, daring, democratic nation. Speak up. Get behind candidates—even at the local level—with the decency and courage to stand up to the reckless tyrant in our midst.

Support the Mueller Investigation’s freedom to uncover the facts about Russian assaults on democracy and the crimes committed by Americans involved in the Trump campaign to facilitate foreign influence.

Vote…and see if you can’t help someone who might not otherwise be able to get to the polls do so.