Days of Shame

Back when Bill Clinton was scrambling to fend off impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair, it bothered me that Hillary stood by him rather than walk out like many red-blooded American women would have. Her priority was her future political career, i.e. to be elected President.

Now we are bringing in a new President with a much more sordid history, whose third wife cannot but be painfully aware of her husband's waywardness, but appears to care more for her trophy wife status than for her spouse's devotion. Melania should stand up and prove what she's made of by taking her horny husband to divorce court. Aside from being free to stay with her spoiled, rich, brat of a son in New York, she would be doing us all a favor. TRump would be so enmeshed in divorce proceedings and fighting sexual harassment complaints that his staff and the VP could tend to governmental matters while tRump's job would be to sign edicts whenever required. Oh, and tweet, of course.

At least dealing with all of his dirty laundry will give the President something to do, since he will not be able to control Congress or restore his waning popularity among the people. Whenever the GOP leadership feels that the tyrannical tRump is trying to actually control anything of importance and is no longer toeing the line, they will cooperate in impeaching him in order to bring in one of their own kind - former Congressman Mike Pence. Congress will have plenty of high crimes and misdemeanors on which to base its case.

When my wife and I happened to be traveling home today from Washington, D.C. and were stopped in order to allow safe passage of the President-elect's MASSIVE motorcade speeding toward town on the far side of the widely divided Suitland Parkway, among the negative emotions that lingered from the experience was a sense of shame to be an American.  Knowing what a thug sat behind the blackened backseat windows of one of the many armored vehicles, making such an intimidating intrusion on mere passersby, and realizing that he was given that privilege by millions of fellow Americans, left me in despair and shame.

Individually, I am but a reed in the wind, but with hundreds of thousands of others on Inauguration Day making known their objections to this abomination of the Presidency, at least we can have the pleasure of shaming him in return. Though my major objection is to tRump's climate denial, the sexual misconduct allegations alone would have kept me from voting for him. TRump's misogyny is so objectionable to women, in particular, that the day after the inauguration, hundreds of thousands of Gloria Allred avatars are going to take him to task for it. I've offered to push my wife, Bonnie, in her wheelchair to join in, (though I will pass on the pussyhat, thank-you).

Norfolk photographer Deb Markham - Women's March demonstrator

District of Dystopia

Veteran politician and civil-rights pioneer John Lewis dealt a masterstroke against the TRump administration going into the Martin Luther King, Jr. day weekend. Remembrances of King and the Freedom Marchers will be magnified today as Americans reflect on Lewis' sacrifices alongside the black Moses. TRump's reflective deficit disorder landed him in trouble when he retaliated against Lewis for passing on the inauguration. +Reince Preibus dug the hole deeper by calling Lewis' decision "insanity." If you think that's insanity, Reince, just wait until Friday.

Riot by Jean-Claude Dufourd

The word "inauguration" originates in the Latin inauguratio or "installment under good omens." Rest assured, there will be no such inauguration for TRump. Other than the no-shows by Democratic officialdom, other omens bode ill for the 45th President. The groundwork is already being laid with marches that began last Saturday and will continue through the week. VIPs coming from out of town this Friday morning may be excessively delayed on certain routes by Antifascists of D.C. (staging "breakdowns" in key traffic choke points?) as attendees motor in from the airports or Joint Airbase Andrews. Nearly one million demonstrators will swarm around the Mall and Pennsylvania Avenue in organized, intentional chaos. Many of the protesters will attempt to block ticketed guests from entering the ceremony. Guests that make it in will have a hard time hearing anything above the din of jeers from the rabble.

Police and National Guard units expect to counter violent outbreaks, but they will be outnumbered about 25-to-1 by demonstrators, so they will have their hands full stopping several #DisruptJ20 incursions, security violations, and fights between pro- and anti-TRumpists. Bikers for TRump plans to position their hemorrhoidal heft in a "wall of meat" between their exalted TRump and the wailing hordes of protesters.

Terrorists can enjoy a day off on Friday watching the U.S.A. gnash on itself, not only in the Capital, but in hundreds of other cities across the country. Let's hope terrorists realize that it would be supremely stupid for them to interfere with this schism, because if and when they do conduct another large-scale terror attack in the U.S., the new battle cry will become #AmericanLivesMatter, and our collective outrage will override the divided polity on display in this most inauspicious inauguration.

Lowlight of the Transition

A limited command of the English language is helpful to trump's political career. With minimal ability to express himself definitively and a tendency to limit his remarks to 140 characters, it is hard to pin trump down on his promises or intentions. When he blasted the reports of his alleged hidden dealings with Russia as "fake news," it landed like a foul ball outside the chalked lines of consensus on the meaning of the phrase. That's alright though. trump can have his "fake news." I'll revert to using the term "propaganda" despite the cold war overtones. In this case, neither term applies.

The thirty-five page dossier detailing instances of trump's miscreancy, with implications of treason, was not from an open news source, but from covert intelligence sources. It wasn't made up by news organizations, it was obtained under much higher stakes than typical investigative journalism demands. The fact that the lead private investigator, former MI6 Russia desk chief, Christopher Steele was compelled to go into hiding as attribution became public implies that there was no prearranged public release date (otherwise Steele would have been long gone before yesterday). Buzzfeed apparently took it on themselves to publish the dossier, though, after the FBI put it into the hands of various news organizations, it was just a matter of time before someone did.

"The King's Bedroom" by ClaraDon

The story of how this hot potato was passed around has all the hallmarks of a John LeCarre novel. Who needs RT's fantastic tales to make news interesting? The Guardian has a great synopsis of the opening chapters of what could well become the political scandal of the century. If you want to explore some of the nuances and possible motivations involved, FAIR covers it nicely.

Truth Seeking

It seems disingenuous that so many liberals cling to RT and other sources distorted by Russian propaganda when there are many liberal homegrown options that don't have the ulterior motive of sowing chaos through disinformation. One might conclude that adopting such a post-truth stance, whereby you can pick a narrative arbitrarily and ignore any evidence to the contrary, betrays an unprincipled intent to destroy the existing economic and political structure in order to replace it with one that is more socialistic. Maybe this expedient to promoting revolution stems from affinity to socialist ideals which Russia tried and then corrupted, as opposed to capitalist ideals which are flawed at inception. The latter motivation is more noble, but there are surely news sources with more integrity that align with socialism.

Much fuss has been made over The List of over 200 websites that turned out to be Russian stooges, but, as much as I hate to banish sites like "Assassination Science" and "Bare Naked Islam" from my reading list, there are still more real news sources to be tapped than I would ever have time for. There are also numerous weekly news magazines that aren't beholden to big corporate interests. Here are some independent sources that publish breaking news and commentary:

• The Real News Network - Baltimore based, left wing news with sights on becoming a TV station
• The Christian Science Monitor - Global, balanced news of significance with humanitarian focus
• Reuters - The largest international multimedia news agency, a division of Thompson-Reuters
• Reuters TV - Video-rich Internet TV reports of Reuters news; app available for mobile devices
• The Nation - Opinionated and aspirational writings by mostly young progressives
• ProPublica - In-depth investigative reporting on topics of significance to U.S. citizens
• The Center for Public Integrity - Investigative reporting within the U.S., mainly on the public sector  
• Reveal (The Center for Investigative Reporting) - San Francisco Bay area investigative news covering stories around the U.S. and internationally. Also produces a podcast.
• AllSides - Reporting from left, right, and center from various sources with the hope of reconciling understanding of clashing views
• FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) - Alternative news organization seeking to reduce the power of mainstream media
• Who, What, Why - Unvarnished forensic journalism. Podcast and blog, too.
• WorldNews (WN) Network - A news junkie's paradise with over 750 sources for multiple perspectives
• Watchdog - Investigative reporting to hold government (states, in particular) more accountable

              Sources cited were obtained from Gemini Fox's Soapboxie post after removing Russian propagandists.

Photo by Joe Clay

As for myself, after running back into the arms of the Washington Post when I learned that I'd been snookered by the Russian fake news machine, I have become more aware of the slanted perspective of our own mainstream news, as well. The Green Party platform aided my awareness of this, noting that:

Our media laws and rules promote the formation of huge media conglomerates while discouraging competing voices. As a result, the mainstream media is increasingly cozy with the economic and political elites whom they should be investigating. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints in the mass media. With U.S. media overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, investigative journalism is in an alarming decline.

With the above list of trustworthy independent news sources, I am looking forward to expanding my perspective of important topics, and having a firmer grasp of ground truth.

Fake President

Image by Alan Davey

Allowing The Donald to adjust to his new upcoming role as POTUS by giving him the benefit of a honeymoon period is tempting; something we would do for most people in the early stages of a new relationship. In this case, since we've been through the courtship stage already and ended up in an unhappy forced marriage, we aren't going to reward the lout with a happy honeymoon. We are going to make him crave an annulment.

Multiple grounds exist for annulling his illegitimate claim to the Presidency.

• He was elevated to that office with the help of a foreign adversary with whom he has business and political ties.
• His tax returns over several years may show that he has evaded his responsibility to the U.S., but he refuses to disclose them to the public.
• His foundation was caught abusing the system and failing to report truthfully to the IRS.
• He personally dishonors American military heroes by disparaging their sacrifices.
• The elections were rigged, by his own admission.
• His conflicts of interest would make him ineligible, under longstanding ethics rules, to participate in any material decisions regarding numerous entities potentially affected by the oval office.

A similar set of disqualifications was compiled by activist Nancy Altman and Ira Lupu, an Emeritus professor of law at George Washington University. They break these down into transgressions of political legitimacy and moral authority and list four presumptions we should all hold regarding communications, activities, subordinates, and decisions of the head huckster. They conclude by calling for his opponents in Congress to set the tone for the resistance movement and for a provisional withdrawal of the customary respect due the office of the President:

At noon on January 20, 2017, we will have a new president. The office of the presidency deserves respect, but the new occupant has relied on illegitimate means to seize power, and he deserves moral contempt.

In his speech, The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplain urged soldiers to resist brutal leaders who treat them as machines. Trump's objectivist worldview lends itself to such high-handedness. As a career U.S. military officer, it is discomfiting to my imbued sense of rank and honor to treat the President that way, but Trump may well not have been elected President without the nefarious designs of Putin and his den of liars and thieves. The fact that Trump will hardly even acknowledge that Russia was involved in hacking or propaganda marks him as a self-serving crook undeserving of respect at home or abroad.

No Time for Apathy

It is noteworthy that the PEOTUS dictates his tweets. Donald Trump is chomping at the bit to assume executive power over the U.S. His recent history on Twitter - decrying the UN vote against Israeli settlements, praising Vladimir Putin, calling for federal help to fight Chicago's crime spree - match the persona of a proactive boss. After his twittervention in Congressional attempts to loosen oversight of internal unethical behavior, @RealDonaldTrump looks more like a tool for dictatorship than merely a bully pulpit.

Just wait 'til he becomes President! Once in office, his tweets will be augmented with executive orders, backed by the weight of Trump's rabid fan base. It is this daily end-around with populist support that gives Trump extra leverage over the already Republican-led Congress, and consequently, unprecedented executive authority. His railings and boasts are reminiscent of the constant bombardment of mass media bullets in Orwell's '1984.'

Following a fairly steady expansion of executive power beginning with Lyndon Johnson, approaching the climax of our fourth turning we are now near becoming a totalitarian oligarchy in the mold of Putin's Russia. Even four to eight years of dictatorship is anathema to the American spirit, but desperation has brought us to the verge of abdicating democracy for the sake of another piece of American pie.

I am inclined to stand against our burgeoning ruler, at least until mass imprisonments and executions begin. It may be possible to keep him in check by drawing disenchanted Trumpists into the resistance movement. The focus of resistance should be on particular issues, not on the person. However, lest he gain more widespread allegiance, the more successful he becomes on different programs (many of which could be beneficial), the harder the resistance much push against his agenda on important matters under dispute.

If the dictator wannabe can be kept in check, keeping governmental continuity may be better than changing horses in the middle of his 4-year term. If he cannot be kept in check or deposed, after opposing him, we may eventually have to go to ground in order to preserve our lives, with the hope that one day we will again be home free.

Happy New Year! but Curb Your Enthusiasm

Photo by Seb

Donald Trump's promises to voters during the campaign were, for the most part, encouraging and even plausible. On the other hand, of the 282 Trump vows collected by Jenna Johnson for the Washington Post, there are many that I abjure (mainly regarding capitalism, the environment, and localism), to a degree that I actively oppose the PEOTUS. Rather than rehash those dividing lines, I picked out the statements from the long list that are just a bit too over the top and comment on why I predict that 2017 will not include or lead to these accomplishments:

9. Make the auto industry in Michigan “bigger and better and stronger than ever before.” Trump plans to return to the state each time a new factory or auto plant opens. - This presumes long-term economic growth, but the U.S. is stuck with low or no growth due to financial and resource issues.
10. Bring the coal industry back to life in the Appalachian Mountain region. - The tide is running strongly in favor of growth in renewable and natural gas generation, rather than coal.
18. “My only special interest is you, the American people,” not major donors, the party or corporations. - His very special interests are himself,his family, and their businesses.
39. Eliminate the $19 trillion national debt within eight years by “vigorously eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, ending redundant government programs and growing the economy to increase tax revenues.” - Growth will not happen to that extent, especially while retiring a $19 trillion debt. Many of the inefficiencies are in DoD, but that department will probably not shrink while growing the military. I expect that any growth will come from spending on wartime mobilization, which will actually grow the national debt and drive sweeping change throughout the nation.
161. Target and kill the relatives of suspected terrorists, a violation of international law. - Only if this were covered up would it last for long before someone was prosecuted.
193. Restore and protect the Florida Everglades, even though it’s a “rough-looking sight down there.” - Warming, rising seas will submerge the Everglades.
196. Negotiate rates for these [infrastructure] projects that are one-third of what the United States is currently paying. “Cut wasteful spending on boondoggles” by streamlining the permit and approval processes. - I'm all for stretch goals, but a 67% rate cut is pretty hard to swallow.
228. Rebuild and fix inner cities, especially Detroit. “The inner cities are unbelievably dangerous. The education is no good, the safety is horrible, and there are no jobs. And I tell everybody: ‘What the hell do you have to lose?’ I’m going to fix it.” - Micromanagement by the federal government is not the answer.  In fact, Detroit had a federally appointed city manager for several years, but it still turns out to be, in Trump's estimation, a highly dysfunctional city.

229. Quickly end inner-city violence, which Trump has repeatedly compared to war zones. “I’ll be able to make sure that when you walk down the street in your inner city, or wherever you are, you’re not gonna be shot. Your child isn’t gonna be shot.” - How is he going to stop the crazies? See 252.
232. “And at the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African American vote. I promise you. Because I will produce.” - Race correlates with voting preference in presidential elections, but most of Trump's opponents are better aligned with African Americans. Trump got only 8% of the African American vote this time.

235. “Dismantle every last criminal gang and cartel threatening our cities. . . . They are not going to be here very long, folks. They’re gonna be out of here.” - If he manages to dismantle them, many will regroup under looser, more agile leadership, just as Islamic terrorist groups have over the past decade.
236. Immediately stop the killing of police officers. “It’s going to stop, okay? It’s going to stop. We’re going to be law and order. It’s going to stop.” - See 235.  Anti-police violence may be subdued, especially due to a mobilized citizenry, but it won't stop entirely.
239. Ensure that firefighters are not shot at when they are responding to a fire. - How is he going to stop the crazies? See 252.

247. “We will be one people under one God.” - Revoking or revising the 1st Amendment will be hard, much as he may try. Even if this refers to an inclusive Abrahamic God, it would exclude many other faiths.
252. Use “common sense” to fix the mental health system to prevent mass shootings. Expand treatment programs and reform laws to make it easier to take preventive action. - Identifying likely mass shooters would take a lot more than common sense and is probably beyond current mental health state of the art. "Preventive action" would involve widespread gun seizures, probably directed at people with anti-Trumpist views, e.g. protesters who get arrested and summarily prosecuted.  Could be reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
276. “Whether you vote for me or not, I’m with you. I will never ever let you down.” - You can't please all of the people all of the time.
277. “I will give you everything.” - ('Except what's mine, which will be so much more.')

So, that's only 17 out of 282 campaign promises that I can confidently predict won't be fulfilled the way Trump said. Maybe he would call these obvious exaggerations "locker room talk." Not bad (provided you agree with the 265 other things Trump has promised to deliver). If he is able to make good on even half of those plausible pledges, we are in for a lot of change in 2017.