Congenial-speak #63

Prioritizing America, life

Something supersedes the wisdom of fools. Something is more heroic and contemptible than the common politician. There's a ruinous path, a cataclysmic crash course, that looms over the two-party system. There's something more in life than TV ratings, than getting rich off not paying contractors, or paying porn stars to keep silent. And, as Damascus suffers, as children wonder why a mile away, life's comparatively insignificant battles flourish.

A blue wave is coming, surfing toward us like Maria. So maybe, sooner or later, after Manifort, Cohen and Van Der Zwaan are in jail, the water will be right. It will be blue enough to impeach and convict Trump. Let's assume it happens, the thinkable (for the last two years) happens. What then? Well, according to the constitution—which hasn't been followed from day one—the vice president is on deck, speaker in the hole. Would Pence be any better? He would bring some experience as a homophobic governor to the table, for its worth. Aside from having a normal adult maturity level, a less inflated ego and being more religious, I would say no—as we know religious does not necessarily mean compassion. (At the RNC Michael Cohen used compassion in a list of contradictory words he said the media should use in describing Trump! No kidding, I saw it on tape).

Defying the odds

As I bet in 2016, when no one, apparently not even the Trump campaign, thought this braggart reality star would win, either way the end would watch a slow meltdown that took the pillars of democracy with it. If he lost—as in the last debate he confirmed—he'd have thrown a tantrum claiming that the race was rigged. I can just imagine how that would have gone. It'd have made Bush/Gore in 2000 look like a high school debate. Now that one of the most dangerous tactical errors in history has been allowed to prosper, to malign every concept America ever fought for, when it is brought down, when Mueller and/or the Southern New York District Court get their collar, all the litigation currently in the news will seem like a slow day.

Why is the decades old nefariousness of the Clinton's even a concern? Neither is in the White House, fighting internally, embarrassing America on the world stage, causing fear and suffering of innocents born here, flouting every tenet of the constitution. The sudden acceptance of allegations of harassment, and self-imposed resignation, of Al Franken I think is evidence that the Democrats don't play favorites. Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica, he was investigated, exposed, and impeached. He did not kick and scream, pay off women not to talk. I think, post Watergate, 2017 was the first time I heard the word witchunt. John Conyers resigned willfully amid allegations of sexual harassment. In my lifetime—post Kennedy—the greatest reluctance to face up to errors in conduct, ethical violations, misappropriations of funds, even sexual abuse, has seemed to come disproportionately from the right. The party that preaches ethics and marital fidelity, honesty and a moral way of living (Roy Moore displayed a monument of the Ten Commandments) often fails to keep any of those ideals. Make no doubt about it, Republicans are the last ones who should be condemning anyone for their breeches of ethics.

Fallen deck hands

Mueller's noose is tightening, his slow tow rope of investigation sweeping across water leaving angry panicked heads bobbing like fallen water skiers. The people who want to disassociate themselves from Trump grow in number by the day. The old can retire to a life of shame, but the younger, like Paul Ryan, have the stink of Trump on them forever. What was it all worth? To reek havoc on America and the world, to irrevocably and negatively alter our global image for at least the foreseeable future (I'm sure after the Third Reich Germany's standing in the world was low). I get it. I understand what the Tea-party was trying to accomplish. I even empathize with them. Their voice were not being heard. Whose is in any tangible sense of the word, in any logistically appreciative manifestation? One should ask, how does a Republican play their cards? How does a party steeped in a fantastical antiquated pride get the government to collectively hear them? For decades Democrats have protested, marched, sat and died-in, they exercised their First Amendment right to assemble, lawfully, unless met with resistance. It seems to me Republicans, the founders of the Tea-party, the forgotten “minority,” were too proud, too cowardly, to follow up any weak protest movement with a constructive, legitimate effort to have their needs addressed by a responsible experienced presidential candidate. Kind of like the Democrats—or a faction of them—had a need in 1968 that was not being heard by Lyndon Johnson and then legitimately campaigned for their hand-picked candidate for their party's nomination—Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. No, the Republicans, or the Tea-party—I guess maybe, in a bizzaro world, that faction of Democrats—sought to destroy, intentionally, the American political system, hoping that somehow there would be no collateral damage. What is happening every day that Trump is in office? The line is fraying, the toxic spliced rope that holds the bushel of needs and wants, the promises made, none of which have worked out anywhere near the form in which they were originally voiced. He is affecting the morale and strength of the Democrats, brilliantly displaying Nietzsche's maxim “that which does not kill us makes us stronger,” while slowly unraveling the foundation of his chosen party. Except for the die-hard evangelicals, the “Christian” far right echelons that comprise his base, the basic rusted wired GOP has been in lock-down mode for at least the last three months. Who could have seen this coming? This huckster con-man, this man who failed as a spoiled rich-kid-turned-real-estate-mogul. What other angry man in history was a failure at everything he did and decided to take it out on the world? I saw Trump and his scheme to defraud America, enrich himself, and possibly create a tax-free world in which only people whose daddys gave them a million can get ahead. I saw it at the March 2016 primary as he bought his foreign object onto the debate stage, in no jest talking the walk of a professional wrestler. He did not know it was a damn show, staged so he could reduce little Marco to the gutless water boy he has proved himself to be. No one wanted to believe it though. I truly thought a quarter of the country had a lapse of common sense, of naivete, of being bamboozled like those rubes in River City.

When the chips are down

The once proud, if not fashionably hypocritical, the party with integrity now lies in ruins, desperately trying to regroup before a blue wave washes them out in November. Ryan is one of some 27 House Republicans to step down, to retire, “term out,” resign amid scandal or in light of illness. Call it what it is, the fact remains that it is the biggest mass legislative exodus in modern history at a midterm election. I do not think it is a coincidence. The ship has been sinking for the last year and now most of its navigators, its obsequious handlers, are getting off with a shred of dignity.

The Veteran's Myth

Why is Ronnie Jackson even a candidate for VA director? Trump is the personification of a draft dodger, that pejorative word describing the malingering draftee absent of duty. Among a list of draft “dodgers” were Trump, Bill Clinton, Springsteen, Ted Nuget, Rush Limbaugh, and John Wayne. Draft resister is a more PC term, lacking the irresponsibility of dodger. The people of celebrity on this list (Springsteen in '68 was not a celebrity) all did what they had to do, what they could live with, and in America that is their right. Springsteen later spoke out against the war, used his money and talents to help veterans groups. Clinton served in office, as commander in chief. Yes, he sent military to Bosnia, but they were not drafted, and I think that is the operative word when citing a draft dodging president as a hypocrite. Presidents Johnson and Nixon, each having served in WWII, ordered young men to go to war. Trump also did what he had to do to get out of an illegal war, although I highly doubt its politics figured into his dodging. He did not do anything to protest it, to show his resistance, and when he became president he blatantly dishonored veterans, saying John McCain was no hero because he was a POW. The list of infractions against veterans and active military grows. Veterans of any war should have the best, and a navy physician, having zero experience in administration, is not a candidate to run the VA. Even Donald Trump should figure that out. But it is consistent with a pattern of selecting the least qualified individuals to head offices whose poor management can have serious and dire consequences. His simple minded entry-level (barely) choices for specialized offices begin with laughably, painfully watched congressional hearings in which Democrats eviscerate ill-suited nominees. Trump gets some infantile amusement out of humiliating people working for him. (What did people on the apprentice do for him, if to only hear the words, you're fired!)? He knows that the odds are Jackson will fail, ultimately embarrass himself and lose any credibility he now has as a decorated navy physician. To say nothing of Jackson, how will the veterans be treated in Trump's self-serving administrative game? One of the largest integrated health systems will no doubt suffer, taxing an already controversial facility that faces budgetary decreases and a widely unpopular push for privatization. The bottom line is that we have a inexperienced narcissist making the final decision, picking the candidates, not really caring if they succeed or fail, only how the situation affects him. He was never a veteran and will not even dare to imagine what it might be like. Privileged people, those who could have easily gotten a deferment, went to Vietnam. It is not out of the question. President Johnson's son-in-law did tours as a marine (who was used as leverage to keep Humphrey from dissent).

Fear Itself

Why are Republicans afraid of Trump? Isn't there something larger at stake, something that exceeds power, pride and greed. As a by-stander, an American watching the botched amendment to democracy, I can feel the foundation of America rocking. I hear stories of migrant families torn apart, like, yes, slave times. How can anyone be afraid? What is the worst thing to happen in America? Our government is not know to kill people with chemical agents. I can't believe the sycophancy I've seen in the past two years, on both sides, but mainly the Trump Republicans. He will not go gently anywhere, into any night, good or bad. Is the fear born out of the likelihood that, if crossed, Trump would wage lawsuits, famously threaten every government agency with years of costly defaming litigation? So, just what he, during one of the presidential debates, coyly inferred he would do if he lost the election, the difference being a candidate Trump versus a commander in chief. I thought Watergate culminating in U.S. vs Nixon settled that, knock down that high-horse claim for all future commanders in chief. No on is above the law. On the contrary. The president, if anyone, should be held to the letter of the law, laws that conduct the nation, with a supposed judiciousness. And we are back to privileges; getting out of military service, obstructing justice, doing virtually nothing to protect the constitution, and petty things like steeling your medical records from your doctor so the world won't know you grow your hair. I am tired of watching the news, who sued who today, what woman came out of the skeletal closet can a sitting president be indicted. Never in my life have I been turn off, fed up, not inclined to watch the news as it pertains to the president. It is getting to the point of a show in syndication, when I might say “I've seen this one.”