THE FOURTH HORSEMAN – Aim For the Plump One With the Tiny Hands

Here we are, mired in a compound national crisis of historic proportions. It’s occurring on four fronts.

First, there’s the COVID 19 pandemic, which promises to challenge the devastating 1918 Spanish flu pandemic for its worldwide death toll. The U.S. is, through our shameful inaction, soaring past the rest of the world in both cases and deaths.

Then there’s the generation-defining paroxysm of outrage and self-examination over systemic racism, rekindled by the indefensible Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police—a reaction fed in part by the fears and frustrations of the pandemic.

Third, if we can even pretend to one day gain the upper hand on the both of these afflictions, our worries will be far from over. We’ll still have to face the dire threat of global climate change. The impact on lives, health, economies, cannot be overstated—and it’s already occurring.

Finally, as if that weren’t enough, while all three of these calamities threaten the security and the very lives of every single American, we find ourselves struggling to face any of them, gasping in a suffocating vacuum of national leadership. Oh, and did I mention the Trumpublicans’ continuing, full-on assault on democratic institutions?

      Others have had to step up and show us
      the way, kicking aside the shattered pieces
      of American exceptionalism.

THE ENVY OF NO ONE
So here we sit, those we wish would lead so consumed in their hubris that they no longer see beyond the reach of their own thieving grasp. So jealously hunched over what they insist is theirs to possess, that they see not, care not, that the states and the rest of the world—even places these ugly Americans love to diminish—have had to step up and show us the way, kicking aside the shattered pieces of American exceptionalism.

Leading the heroic effort to get ahead of COVID 19, cooperating to at least try saving the planet, delegitimizing hatred, reclaiming truth, defending freedom, fostering a vision of peace, love and happiness…all are opportunities our gutless, amoral president and his republican enablers have pointedly refused to seize.

These now represent ideals our country can no longer pretend to espouse. Values that, for nearly two-and-a-half centuries, have distinguished the United States of America, and stood as the envy of the rest of the world.

       It’s a mistaken idea of liberty as the right
       to do what ever they want…period.

THE FOOLS-GOLD EMPIRE
Here we sit, abandoned by our own president, who, having sold his soul to the devil by the time he was ten, still prizes wealth above wisdom, loyalty above respect, rumor above reality, the approval of dictators above the honor of his nation.

And his equally soulless disciples keep begging to be in on the deal, cheering on the hate and intolerance they’d inflict themselves if they thought they could get away with it. Howling for a piece of his vapid, fools-gold empire.

All so they can enjoy their mistaken idea of liberty as the right exclude anyone not like them and simply do whatever they want…period.

A FUNCTIONING ADULT
Of these four desperate crises, three will require years, perhaps even decades, of smart, vision-driven work. There will be more heart-rending sacrifices. And staggering investments.

The fourth disaster, the hijacked presidency of the United States, begs for a much easier resolution (and thank God this remedy has not yet fallen victim to the republican party’s wrecking ball approach to our Constitution): The presidential election just four months hence.

       It will not be enough for us democrats to
       simply get to the polls on election day.

Though I appreciate the lawn signs I’ve been seeing which read: “Any Functioning Adult - 2020,” we do have a better alternative than that to oust the man who’s brought America to its knees. Former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden, while he has his flaws, is still a capable, accomplished public servant, and, perhaps even more important right now, a genuine, thinking, caring…yes…functioning adult.

With the all-but-certain interference of Russia and other adversaries in the November election, and the republicans’ dogged efforts at voter suppression, it will not be enough for us democrats to simply get to the polls on election day.

Each one of us who cares about this country’s true, time-honored values must find a way to leverage our own power of the vote and convince at least one or two others who might not yet know which side they’re on, or who are considering not voting at all, TO VOTE!

• Talk to people.
• Write letters through VoteForward, the organization mobilizing a massive, ten-million-letter, get-out-the-vote mail blitz right before election day.
• Join up with the League of Women Voters, Let America Vote, Fair Fight or another fair-voting advocacy group.
• Inform older or more vulnerable family members and acquaintances about easy alternatives to in-person, at-the-polls voting.
• Do something!

 Please! We may not yet have a whole lot of power over COVID 19, and it could well take a generation to quash congenital racism or mitigate climate change, but for the small-hand, small-mind, big-ego traitor now infecting the presidency, there is a timely, sure-fire cure.

VOTE…and help others to vote.

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.

PREDATORY CREDIT – How He Will Claim He Saved Us

It’s March 29, exactly a month since the Donald J. Trump, the reality-show “president” of the United States, declared the coronavirus “a hoax” and then minimized it by comparing it with the common seasonal flu.

Now, with the nation’s having surpassed China in the number of COVID 19 cases, he’s saying everything’s okay, insisting his only regret is not getting good press, and suggesting we’ll all be back to normal by Easter (two weeks from now).

Meanwhile, governors, mayors, doctors, epidemiologists and other functioning, fact-informed heroes across the nation have stepped in to fill the leadership vacuum. They’re the ones actually in touch with the knowledge—and the courage—to face the awful reality, employing the best possible data and infection modeling tech to keep citizens informed.
 
They’re the ones telling us the hard truths we need to know and prescribing the steps necessary to buy time for the necessary infrastructure and supplies—the need for which Trump has insisted for months be ignored—to even begin meeting the expected demand.

DAMNING PROOF
Donald Trump is a man of extremely limited intellect, poor judgement and low regard for anyone but himself and those willing to sell out their own integrity to ingratiate themselves to him.

But one thing the man-baby president does know how to do is delude folks—including himself—into believing he never fails. Let’s be clear, the man has rarely, if ever, accomplished anything without lying, cheating, intimidation and lawsuits. This is why he’s so afraid of any confrontation with the truth, why he’s so zealously concealing his tax returns, banking records, school transcripts—anything that might prove what a loser and crook he truly is.

         It’s a delicate balancing feat: to act
         responsibly for the sake of our country…
         while making their boss believe it’s all his idea.

If such damning proof were ever revealed, the average narcissistic psychopath might start to crumble. Not this psychopath. His ruthless father taught him from an early age that money and power is absolutely all he’d ever need to be “a winner.” He learned those lessons well, and has kept learning, from crooked politicians, corporate robber barons, attack lawyers, and a few of history’s most brutal dictators, all of whom he’s clearly idolized.

It is entirely predictable how this man will act. No matter the situation, he knows only one M.O.: Don’t think. Boast, lie, steal the limelight, deny your failures and claim credit for others’ successes.

So this brings us to the current crisis facing our country—and the human race for that matter. We may not know what our clueless, reckless president will do from day to day. But we do know exactly how this scene will ultimately play out for him.

       They, just as their hero would, will be first
       in line to demand their government save them.

THE CHILDREN OF ADDICTS
Trump has botched the national response to COVID 19, a failing that’s already likely to cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Like the children of addicts, the real infectious disease experts he deigns to share the podium with face a delicate balancing act: to perform responsibly for the sake of our country…while making their boss believe it’s all his idea.

As with anyone appearing to be smarter than he, DJT's patience with Dr. Fauci is wearing thin.

There are other heroes, too, working around Trump’s little ego tornado—like New York’s governor Cuomo, Washington’s Inslee and Minnesota’s Walz; like some visionary philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates. They are the ones who just may be able navigate these turbulent seas for us with a lower casualty rate than many other countries have suffered. Hopefully, most Americans will choose to listen to the real heroes, not the fool's-gold one, and make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish that.

Gov. Tim Walz (D. Minnesota)

Bill Gates

Many among Trump’s base will not. Then they, just as their hero would if he needed anything but admiration, will be first in line to demand their government save them. We know this.

And we know, with 100 percent certainty, that once America’s crest of the pandemic begins to ebb, a certain doughy, tiny-hands reality show star will once again show up to photo-bomb the real heroes, elbow his way to the mic and proclaim that it was his genius that turned the tide.

He's clawing his way up behind them. Wait for it...

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE – Something Positive to Say About Trump

I don't want you to think this blog is just one man's unhinged rants about the 45th president of the United States. I believe in giving credit where credit is due. So I've come up with something positive to say about Donald J. Trump: he is not responsible for the start of COVID 19.



That is the only thing.

THIS GUY'S THE LIMIT – Drawing the Line On Tyranny

 

To any Trump-supporter who feels his/her opinions can withstand a bit of critical thinking:

If you fit the mold of the reality-show president’s base, it seems you have no trouble at all drawing a  line in the sand on what’s acceptable behavior from people you don’t know — political rivals, folks with different beliefs and lifestyles, immigrants, educated people, uppity women…

And I assume that, because you value authority so highly, you let your kids and others in your own families know where their line is. Right?

So where do you draw the line on the behavior of the man you helped put in charge of the sacred trust that is our democracy? In whose hands rest the integrity of our precious democratic institutions; our reputation as a (mostly) honorable, generous, visionary world leader; accountability by corporations for the safety and reliability of things we consume; the habitability of our natural environment for generations to come; and the aspirations of a generation of young people hungry for decent, positive role models?

You are witnessing…no, you are condoning…this man’s systematic desecration and dismantling of one democratic institution, one piece of the moral bedrock of our country, after another. Blatant nepotism and cronyism, self-enrichment, elections tampering, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, benign acceptance of interference by our nation’s adversaries…not to mention adolescent judgement, petty vindictiveness, pathological lying…and other daily — sometimes hourly — offenses of both commission and omission. All to compensate for his wild insecurity and feed an insatiable ego.

Donald Trump has accomplished very little in his fools-gold lifetime without lying, cheating and intimidation. And you expected somehow he'd rise to the occasion to lead our country competently? Nope, he's done the only thing he knows how to do; he's dragged the office of the Presidency and our country down to his pathetic level.

And all you can do is put on your little red caps and shout for more of the same. What are you thinking? Or have you decided that somehow thinking about the behavior of a man who demands blind allegiance is now blasphemous?

(I’ve heard some of you say that, even if we abhor the man, we still must respect the office of the presidency. How utterly absurd. That’s like saying you’ll overlook your doctor’s incompetence because he’s a doctor.)

You are not president Trump’s children; you are not his subjects. In this democracy you are his constituents, the touchstone of his authority. In this democracy we elect representatives to oversee and maintain limits on that authority.

By not asserting this responsibility, you belittle both yourself and our country.

Nor is Donald Trump your goon, some hit man you hired to exact revenge on all your countrymen you complain have somehow discredited you. To protect you from all those thieving rapists swarming into our country just to impregnate your women, steal your stuff and use up all the resources you thought were yours alone to over-consume.

You, your fears and your sense of entitlement — yes, that’s exactly what it is — are what have opened the door to a despot’s plundering our country. You are what has kept him in power for three years, flaunting the boundaries the Constitution sets down for just such abuses, edging ever-closer to the status he knows better than to proclaim in so many words, but so desperately craves (Supreme Leader for Life).

If you can’t…or won’t…say where that line between right and wrong, integrity and corruption, democracy and oligarchy lies, you dishonor the very “American Values” and “Christian Values” you claim to be defending, and you spit in the faces all those soldiers and other brave defenders of freedom you claim so ardently to support.

DENYING DENIAL – Fighting the False with the Hypothetical

Have you ever tried describing something quite obvious to a person who’s in denial about its very existence? It’s like talking sense to an addict.

This is what’s happening on a massive scale with the Trump debacle. To be fair, part of his base will admit to a few of the reality-show president’s glaring flaws of personality, character, intellect, comportment and leadership.

But they like what he says he’s doing for them, so the flaws don’t matter. At least they’re honest enough to acknowledge some of what’s right there in front of them, manifest in the man’s very words and actions.

  If you don’t like what credible journalists—or 
  even scientists—say, just claim they’re all lying.

The rest of Trump’s base is not so honest. They manage to salve what’s left of their consciences by simply refusing to admit the man is what he has proven himself to be. None of the Twit’s behavior, they insist, rises even to the level of mildly objectionable…because it doesn’t exist.

Not his sexual depravity or abuse; not the business improprieties; not his admiration for—nor collusion with—sworn enemies of American democracy; not his emoluments; not his obstruction of justice; not the corruption; not the nepotism… Not a thing.

Oh my God! These folks would grant carte blanche to Mao Zedong or Josef Stalin if he promised to beat back all the bogeymen Trump’s convinced them are swarming at their door.

Reasoning with these poor suckers is useless. You lay out the proof; you point to examples; you support your contentions with credible sourcing. And their response? Denial. One of two classic devices pathological liars have used since Adam and Eve blurted “What apple?”

Or the other: fake news. If you don’t like what credible journalists—or even scientists—say, just claim they’re all lying.

  What specific actions by some fictional
  president would make Putin and other enemies
  of democracy wring their hands in delight?
 
WHAT IF?
The more truth you lay out for these cretins, the more threatened they are by the prospect of being exposed for their ignorance—or, worse, their true motives. So I’m exploring another approach: instead of trying to fight lies and deception with facts, fight them with something sure to utterly disarm them: hypotheticals.

Here’s how it works:
They say Donald Trump is not immoral. I respond, “Okay, let’s assume for a moment that that’s true. Tell me, please, what would it look like if some future U.S. president were immoral? Exactly what behaviors would be extreme enough to make you uncomfortable?”

They maintain the Twit is not a puppet of Vladimir Putin, methodically undermining democratic institutions, alienating time-honored allies and dividing Americans into warring factions. “I hear you, but if that were happening, what would that look like? What specific actions by some fictional president would make Putin and other enemies of democracy wring their hands in delight?”

They insist their guy knows what he’s doing and is a capable leader? “That’s a good one, but let’s just say he is. List for me some behaviors that might convince you otherwise.”

TAKING THE BAIT
Get the idea? Okay, now those of you for whom facts still mean more than beliefs, let’s get out there and kick some disingenuous butt. Lull your Trumpie friends, relatives or co-workers, by your apparent acknowledgment, into a sense of victory, of smug superiority.

Then totally destroy them using their own propensity for the make-believe against them. Can’t you just picture how they’ll squirm? If they fall for the ruse they’ll be tricked into describing their hero as the incompetent, immoral traitor he is. If not, they’ll just be left speechless, betraying their own ignorance.

Either way, you win. Right?

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.