Author: BC

People of Color, Deliver us from Evil

Jon Schwartz

If America consisted only of white people, there would be no democratic party and virtually every voting district in America would be Red. This all-white scenario has traveled some distance in my lifetime, from a fringe notion amongst the extreme, quiet racist voices to an increasingly popular utopian “make America great again” dream for many of our countrymen.

Indeed, if only white people lived in America, Donald Trump would’ve won in a landslide, likely not losing a single electoral college vote. Most every Senator, Congressman, Governor, and statehouse would be red. The Supreme Court would be on call to aid and abet every money grab that the White-only private sector might request. The country would sing a unified chorus of political homogeneity.

But it would no longer be America.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, foodstamps, housing assistance, Pell grants, the Veterans Administration, the US post office, and virtually every government funded institution would be privatized. We’d have no EPA, FEC, FCC, IRA, or any other government entity to check the inevitable by-products of purely profit driven systems.

There would be no Centers for Disease Control or National Institutes of Health, just big pharma research labs in search of the next ED remedy or weight loss panacea. Gone would be free public education for our children; rich kids might attend “the Apple school” or “Tesla Academy;” “Jiffy Lube U” or “McDonalds A&M” for the middle class; a donated church basement and chalkboard for the poor. Our military would be mercenary, the tool of emperors and oligarchs, tailored for conquest and occupation. Gun laws would not exist, open carry the norm.

Does this MAGA paradise sound familiar?

Welcome to Russia, America.

Fortunately we are not all white. People of color live in America, which is excellent news if you’re a fan of the US Constitution. They are the levee protecting us from a red tidal wave.

Are you glad Roy Moore isn’t a US Senator? Thank black Alabama voters, 96% of whom voted for Doug Jones as opposed to 70% of white voters who cast their ballots for Moore, troubled more by a Democrat than a child molester.

The myth created by media repetition that white women deliver us from the right wing was repudiated in the last election. While women of color overwhelmingly rejected Trump, more white women voted for him than not, deciding a first ever female POTUS was less desirable than a self-described p***y grabber.

The divide is not gender. It’s not economic. It’s not rural vs. urban. What divides us most is race.

As a result, people of color are the only voting bloc in America that presents any hope of preserving the Constitution of our nation. Their vote continues to preserve the institutions and programs that have elevated our country from an audacious idea to history’s greatest, most benevolent (believe it or not) empire. They alone now hold back the morally gangrenous rot that has infiltrated the US from the Caucasian red tide currently addling responsible governance.

This may seem a harsh over-simplification. Race issues which highlight the non-white American voting bloc’s opposition to totalitarian impulses of this Caucasian red administration can be uncomfortable, but they are no less true. Consider the following anti-American facts from the Trump administration:

*More than half of Republicans favor suspending the 2020 election (let that one sink in!).

*The US under Trump is the only country out of the Paris Climate Treaty.

*The US under Trump took the unprecedented step of breaking our multinational non-nuclear treaty with Iran.

*The US under Trump seeks to dismantle NATO, a multinational democratic partnership that has preserved relative peace and prosperity in this world for the past 70 years during the nuclear era.

The last 18 months can’t be analyzed within a left vs right paradigm because the creation and support of the earth Trump is scorching was fully bipartisan. No previous administration would have survived such recklessness because it would have cast itself adrift from any bloc of support. But the times they are a changin’. Trump’s MAGA bloc is the only reason his presidency still exists. Trump’s GOP is now The Caucasian Red Party. They’d elect Putin in a heartbeat over any Democratic or old guard Republican candidate.

Without those who make us racially heterogeneous, the coalition comprised of the “Christian” right, NRA and the full spectrum of formerly extreme/currently mainstream elements of the “politically incorrect” universe would steamroll national US elections and render us unrecognizable.

How ironic that people of color, whose “blessings of liberty” promise has been historically shortchanged, are most responsible for preserving the US Constitution’s viability! Despite being denied the promise and protection of our founders’ vision, it is people of color whose voting record suggests a patriotism and constitutional ardor not found among the Caucasian red, who cuts with matricidal zeal at the tree of liberty that they planted and has blessed them with sumptuous shade and fruitful abundance for two and one half centuries.

The United States of America, through our Constitution, has acted as the Earth’s crust, imposing a hard layer of discipline and overarching values to keep the chaotic magma from exploding forth. But that crust is as thin and vulnerable as it’s ever been. The melting pot theory’s success requires the dominant white cultures’ embrace. It is startlingly, undeniably clear that MAGA voters have wholeheartedly rejected this concept. As the MAGA magma pressure bubbles and boils beneath, people of color, people of good faith, and the world waits atop a trembling crust in hopes of surviving the molten devastation of the dismal Caucasian red tide.

There were a myriad of grave concerns the morning after Donald Trump was elected. His campaign had been a travesty, defined by bigotry and ingnorance. The candidate refused to release basic tax information, and was immersed in personal scandals, including then unsubstantiated rumors of payoffs to past lovers, as well as fully vetted accounts by multiple women of sexual harassment. The candidate would not cooperate in removing himself from his countless and complex business connections. Moreover, there was already evidence of disturbing outreach by the winner’s campaign team and Russian government officials. And, of course, his unhinged behavior on the stump was unlike anything ever witnessed in American Presidential politics.

But nothing topped the simple fact that for the first time American voters had elected a man, who not only didn’t expect to win, but never wanted to win. Neither the President-elect or his campaign had initiated any preparation for governing. Zero! No transition team. No policy white papers. No lists of possible cabinet appointments. No decision-making flow charts, or any sort of proactive anticipation of White House organization. Nothing!

As the first Tuesday of November arrived, the entire Trump campaign leadership was plotting their next career move after an electoral defeat every last one of them would have bet their 401K on, were anyone dumb enough to offer up such a wager. Forget two months, this group would need two years to get their act together.

In any other administration, Mike Pompeo’s appointment as CIA Director would have been a stunning head scratcher, sure to face a rough confirmation ride. But amidst the incredible group of neophytes, incompetents, and out and out overt enemies of the missions defining the very agencies they were picked to lead, Pompeo did not stand out as particularly grievous. Still, Democrats had no problem reciting from a long list of nutty positions and quotes Pompeo put forth as a Fox/AM prototype.

The 3-term Kansas Congressman, a Koch/Tea Party creation, was most well known for particularly shrill and inane questioning of Hillary Clinton as part of the Benghazi inquisition. And his public statements were littered with tid bits typical of so many Fox/AM regurgitaters the 2010 wave washed into DC.

From his campaign twitter account calling a Democratic Indian opponent for Congress a “turbon topper,” to declaring that diplomacy with Iran wouldn’t replace “2000 US sorties” when it came to halting their nuclear ambitions, Pompeo was target rich in the unhinged department. In 2013 he toured Guantanamo Bay, where a number of inmates were on a hunger strike, Pompeo, ever the Tea Party wit, quipped they “look like they gained weight.”

Still, compared to a Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, or a Ben Carson, Pompeo was relatively tenable and had no serious problem getting confirmed. When Trump used him as window dressing during the disastrous initial visit to the CIA – “where’s Mike? There he is.” – gushing about how smart his guy was in between waxing on the need to abscond with Iraqi oil, Pompeo was shown for exactly the Trump lackey he didn’t seem to mind becoming.

In contrast to Pompeo, Rex Tillerson qualified as a heavyweight within the Trump cabinet. The incoming Secretary of State, while without any diplomatic experience at all, still headed Exxon for 14 years. His extensive experience dealing with Russia, and indeed Putin, was spun as a positive by GOP Senators guiding his confirmation, a fact that time and information have rendered increasingly significant. But Tillerson was never going to fit serving Trump because he was everything the Donald wasn’t, but wished he was. Tillerson was a real CEO, a genuine business titan, craven and souless to be sure, but legitimate nonetheless, not the reality TV phoney he would be working for. When both men predictably found the situation untenable, and the Texan was cut loose, sycophancy moved to the top of the list of requirements for his replacement.

Pompeo, after spending the previous year cheerfully eating the President’s shit sandwiches about the incompetence and dishonesty of US intelligence services, fit that bill perfectly. And so the office once inhabited by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Dean Acheson and Henry Kissinger was now occupied by a man, who just a few years earlier declared Islam to be part of “the evil” surrounding the US, which only need to turn to Jesus to defend itself until the Rapture. Who said you need optimism to be a diplomat?

Which brings us to Trump’s recent European tour and its fallout. Watching Pompeo testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, one could have mistaken him for an aide or some other staffer, so stiff and rote were his responses to questions geared to establish where the POTUS’ traitorous performance ended and US policy began. Pompeo was of little help on that score. The US Secretary of State was rude and short… and worthless, in other words doing his job exactly as his boss wanted him to do it.

Senators wanted the top US diplomat to brief them on what the President and Putin discussed. Reasonable in the extreme, routine procedure really, a simple debrief for the legislative branch. Only one problem, they were asking the wrong guy; Pompeo knew as much about the subject as they did…nada!

Instead of simply admitting he was not privy to any of Trump and his handler’s conversation, Pompeo curtly recited “current US policy has not changed” when a Senator inquired about whether it had been discussed at the Summit. Syria? Policy hasn’t changed. Crimea? Policy hasn’t changed. When they didn’t let him get away with such nonsense and pushed back, for example did Trump secretly give away the store on Crimea, Pompeo robotically affirmed sanctions remained in place. Rude and inanely partisan, the Secretary of State was blissfully inept at his job; again, exactly how his jefe likes it.

Anyone with any delusions that adults are present anywhere in Northwest DC to prevent L’Enfant Terrible from doing his worst got a fire hose in the face Wednesday. Pompeo’s performance was no different than when he sat next to Trump in Brussels, with the same vacant look, as the President expressed guttural disdain for the defining Western alliance of the last 70 years. Government by Sean Hannity and the Mar-A-Lago regulars. Believe it! BC

Anybody who web surfed over to The California Republican could be forgiven for believing they were perusing an actual news site. A google search yields the description: “US, California, Central Valley news and sports.” The home page breaks down menu options such as national security and regional sports, along with water issues, a prominent concern in California’s Central Valley, and US news. The enterprise’s Facebook page labels it a “Media/News Company.” Nothing stands out to dissuade the casual browser they are looking at anything other than a regional internet news operation. Until they check who is funding it.

Perhaps nobody other than Trump, himself, rails against the press more than Devin Nunes. Like the man he seems ready to go to jail to protect, Nunes is a constant on Twitter, labeling virtually anything not wholly supportive of him the figment of mainstream media conspiracy. Certainly nobody with as important a committee chairmanship has been as willing to attack the media, parroting Trump’s “enemy of the people” sedition.

In fact, Nunes actually has his own fake news operation…really! …The California Republican. That’s right, if you can’t depend on others to carry your water, build your own well! Like Willy Wonka’s exacting confection standards, Nunes has gone in-house to make sure he gets the propaganda blend juuusst right.

He certainly can’t rely on his area’s real news operation, The Fresno Bee, whose editorial board has aptly tagged Nunes as “Trump’s stooge” for attacking the FBI and DOJ on the President’s behalf. A January editorial was to the point:

“He certainly isn’t representing his Central Valley constituents or Californians, who care much more about health care, jobs and, yes, protecting Dreamers than about the latest conspiracy theory”

Ouch! And it gets worse. The Bee has devoted investigative staff to digging into his financial interest in a winery being sued for sexual harassment, lurid allegations about cocaine use and sex professionals on a yacht owned by the company. This, apparently, was the last straw for Nunes, who has waged war against the Bee, devoting some of the $7 million his fealty to Trump has helped him raise to ads attacking the paper as allied with “radical left wing groups to promote fake news stories about me.”

Of course the Fox/AM universe has made 24/7 support of one of its darlings a top priority. It used to be called Hannity and Colmes before Fox conceded it insulted even the intelligence of its viewers and got rid of the latter. But calling it Hannity and Nunes would certainly be justified, given how often the congressman comes on to spin the latest outrage. On line, both The Daily Caller and Breitbart can’t produce enough Nunes content. Article after article on his quixotic quest against the Deep State Goliath. But that’s still not enough. If you want it done right…

Nobody can say The California Republican is shoddy, or done on the cheap. Its stories are crisply written and efficiently formatted. But the titles betray an agenda. On the national security front, support of ICE is a common theme. “Why did only 18 Dems” support a resolution backing ICE? The “Abolish Ice crowd won’t like the alternative,” avows another faux headline. On the more benign Agriculture and Water front…”Trump administration approves Central Valley water storage project.” “A massive win,” according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Nunes is featured throughout, there’s even a sports item of him “welcoming” LeBron to California… with its “King Tax.” Public Union control of Sacramento, the lies of socialism, liberal meltdown over Kavanaugh, California’s budget future isn’t as good as it looks, etc. etc. The entire operation paid for out of Nunes campaign funds.

The subscription page actually has a box to check avowing one isn’t a robot, rather rich given the site and content seem tailor made for bot distribution schemes. One thing is clear; a good deal of thought went into the enterprise, and fair and balanced it ain’t. Nunes and his backers defend the site as sadly necessary to counter the plethora of lies the beleaguered crusader must endure. Seven million big ones can staunch a lot of slander!

The Federalist Papers pointed out the Founding Fathers differing views on just how free the US press should be, and what succinct protections should be accorded what even then they understood to be a powerful force for good and bad. Still, I doubt Hamilton could have imagined lawmakers literally creating their own set of facts. A monthly news letter is one thing, The California Republican quite another.

Like the sick joke that is Fox’s “Fair and Balanced” motto, Nunes and company, foremost the POTUS, traffic in disdain for the foundations of the republic. They aren’t simply oblivious to what freedom of the press means to pluralist governance, they are actively disdainful and nefarious toward the entire idea. Democracies respect and are guided by the best efforts to grasp truth. Authoritarians are guided by their best efforts to manufacture lies. Don’t believe me? Click on The California Republican. BC

“I don’t call it protectionism; I call it destructionism.”

Ronald Reagan

“Tariffs are the greatest!”

Donald Trump

Mid-Continent Nail of Poplar Bluff, Missouri doesn’t quite know what hit it. One day there were more orders than it could handle, the next it was laying off 60 workers from a force of 500. By Labor Day it may cease to be a going concern. Welcome to MAGAnomics.

That the POTUS has little idea how tariffs and protectionism affect the economy has been clear since he started down the road toward what may end up being his most damaging legacy, no small feat. The random imposition of duties on both friend and foe, begun with a 25% tax on foreign steel, may drive America’s largest nail producer out of business, and threatens widespread job losses by the end of summer. There is no evidence of any specific plan these unilateral actions support, merely blustering from the President that habitual cheaters, allowed to prosper by all previous administrations, are getting their due and will soon come crawling for relief, ready to fully surrender to the will of our great negotiator.

That can’t come fast enough for the now beleaguered employees of Mid-Continent, whose orders plunged 50% when it adjusted for the higher costs of raw materials. In an ugly irony that is sure to be repeated across the country, the once vibrant jobs creator may have to move to Mexico in order to survive, where it can escape the steel tariffs and produce nails to be shipped back to the US market. For now they have joined the long and ever growing line of companies seeking exemptions from Trump madness. Can you say crony capitalism?

Trump swears trade wars are easy to win. If only US Auto Manufacturers, presumably the primary beneficiary of such a conflict, shared his confidence. Under the umbrella title of the Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers, virtually the entire US Auto as well as cottage industries penned a document that urges the President to “consider” other avenues in working to “ensure free trade”. Urging Trump to consider anything is like trying to get rid of sand in your eye after cutting onions; the effort isn’t just futile, it’s surely going to make things worse.

Free trade has been a GOP brand for decades, the one discussion in which they could proudly stick out their chests and be the adults in the room. Now there is a child in the White House throwing protectionist fits and pandering to a base with an infantile understanding of the subject… crickets are chirping. Nobody, it seems, has any appetite for becoming the subject of a 6AM tweet storm or rally anecdote. In June, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell couldn’t throw up his arms fast enough, declaring it would be futile to pass legislation to check the ridiculous loop hole that allows Trump to cite national security concerns for starting a multi-front trade war. “Why waste time,” said the man behind countless resolutions to terminate Obamacare sent to its creator for signature.

Trump has repeatedly declared that any trade deficit means we’ve been hoodwinked. His punitive actions against Canada were launched in the name of dairy farmers, one of America’s most legislatively coddled collectives. Yet and still, as a rule, US farmers will suffer across the board in any trade war. Soybean producers, heavily dependent on buyers in China, are already suffering from reprisals solely the result of Trump inanity.

But fear not! Today Trump announced he is ready to toss $12 billion around to ease pain in the hustings. Subsidize specific losers of unilateral sanctions he bestows trying to produce specific winners. Nice.

The plan has been received with what has become signature GOP subservience. “Mr. President, of course we’ll take the pork, but please reconsider this thing. Far be it for us to do anything to ruffle your free flowing, and fully natural tresses, but we’re getting killed here. When markets are gone, they are gone. Aren’t we maybe shooting ourselves in the foot… sir!”

Perhaps no lesson the 20th century taught US policy makers was more widely accepted on a bipartisan basis than the conclusion Smoot-Hartley protectionism was disastrous to our economic well being. Everything we have done since the Great Depression has been in line with the maxim that free trade is fundamental to prosperity. Now an unhinged nihilist is aggressively destroying what it took 70 years to meticulously craft, having convinced his base of wretched malcontents that he knows more than all who came before him.

How far will this folly go? Remember Mid-Continent Nail? It is both telling and disturbing that laid off workers, Trump voters all, were willing to give their career destroyer more than the benefit of the doubt, expressing faith the President knew best and would ultimately deliver them to a better fate. They better get in line quick, because like every other group who believed in Trump and lost big, that line is going to do nothing but grow. BC

In the early hours of the morning after America’s worst civic failure, an hour or so after I had finally gone to sleep with the help of science, the most awful realization of all snapped me wide awake. Rush Limbaugh had been right all along! My Lord!

Since Obama routed McCain in 2008, Limbaugh, who had no brand other than to go all in with fringe elements, blamed the whupping on whatever declining vestiges of moderation were left in the Party of Lincoln. Until Republicans were ready to go full George Wallace, he screeched every week day for three hours, things would only get worse.

Of course, when Obama was re-elected comfortably in 2012, Limbaugh and Fox/AM doubled down. The establishment was betraying the base promoting these candidates who spoke complete sentences and wouldn’t carry around pictures of aborted fetuses. Honor is vastly overrated, the Fat Ass droned, all-you-can-eat red meat and good conspiracy will get the job done.

Throughout the run up to November in 2016 every time Trump would try to derail his candidacy, Rush would lead the Fox/AM chorus, poo pooing the little things – lying, misogyny, ugly bigotry, complete policy ignorance – and imploring the faithful to keep their eyes on the ball. Trump is the extremist we have been waiting for; governance and decency do not matter to him. He won’t let us down.

Sweating and up for good at 3AM, the full horror that an imbecile was now going to go on-air in a few hours and be fully validated for a decade of nasty gibberish felt like a very sharp knife in the right kidney. And we now see, even though any worst case scenario last January couldn’t come close to describing the last 18 months, the GOP leadership has acceded to Limbaugh’s prescriptions as it heads into mid-terms. Trumpie acolytes are everywhere, running unabashedly as toadies ready to go to the mat with him, come what may. In Virginia we will see whether we need to update our passports and look into foreign residency requirements…Corey Stewart is running against Tim Kaine. If their debate last night is a predicter, there will be nothing left to interpretation, Stewart is a Limbaugh wet dream. And were he to make a contest of what should be decided very early in the evening, it will be hard to argue Trumpism is but an unsightly blip on our screen.

Stewart, the former Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, made his bones scapegoating immigrants. A Trumpie from the beginning, he was actually deemed too toxic by the Donald’s team and unceremoniously replaced as member of the VA Presidential effort. Yet and still, there is little doubt Trump will devote plenty of time to this race, if for no other reason it provides proximate locales for rallies, which we know usually extend hopefuls meant to benefit with but cursory mention amidst his meglomanical monologues.

The binary choice in Virginia will mirror many across the country, competence and reason vs. “politically incorrect” white grievance. Stewart checks off all of those boxes. In addition to bashing immigrants and, forget apologizing, cheerleading for family separation, Stewart never met a confederate monument he didn’t want to use as a dog whistle in service to the “attacks on our heritage” narrative. Indeed, aside from Trump tax cuts and the obligatory pro life extremism, it’s hard to find much else in the Stewart platform. He will spend the campaign not apologizing for, until Trump, was an automatically disqualifying resume.

Tim Kaine should dispatch Stewart with prejudice, which is why anything else will have far larger implications. A popular Governor and Senator, Kaine wasn’t sheepish calling out his opponent’s ugliness, while casting aside Stewart’s efforts to label him a radical left winger. But Stewart is example A of the emerging Trumpie playbook: start with the premise you’ve lost and stay unhinged; the base is all that matters, don’t ever give them reason to doubt you. Truth is not your friend, lie first, you can always gaslight or walk it back. Everything is zero-sum, never agree with your opponent; if he wants to cure cancer, you’re against overpopulation. Finally, you owe it all to Trump; anything you are or will be is due to him, and he is always right.

On paper the Virginia Senate race should be over before dessert. But Kaine is a breathing reminder of the last time we took for granted America’s decency. That night it was when Hillary Clinton actually trailed Trump in Virginia at bedtime that it began to occur the worst was possible. The stakes this time may be even higher. If Stewart is even close election night, things are dire. Trumpism as our future…instead of a wretched mistake we are relegating to our past. BC

Anyone shocked by our President’s performance in Brussels, London and Helsinki hasn’t been paying attention. Trump so much as pledged embarrassment to his wretched core at his rally in Montana, openly questioning why we even participate in NATO. His political brand is now “delivering on promises” with vulgarity only he can deliver to a base of people proud of the shortcomings they conflate with personal identity. The enemy is anyone not enamored with the nihilist destruction their champion pursues – and, like him, they are willing to fight for what they hardly understand.

Band of Brothers, the universally lauded HBO production of Easy Company’s exploits in World War II, produced countless classic scenes, but two always stand out. The first is when Webster, the writer and intellect of the unit, looks down from a bridge at thousands of captured German soldiers and in a fit of rage screams “You servile scum!”, even as they continue to march in lockstep, punctuating his denunciation.

Another memorable image is the title speech Major Winters allows a captured German Colonel to give his men, which transcends their differences and perfectly encapsulates his own feelings, In it, the German officer extols the comraderie war so naturally creates, the honor organized human conflict perpetuates on the battlefield, regardless how misguided it’s objectives are, and the dignity that bravery and sacrifice imbue any campaign, even folly.

I have pondered the dichotomy of these two scenes since Trump’s idiocy abroad, and the desperate attempts since by the GOP to mop up the mess, even as their leader refuses to leave his rabbit hole. That such a feckless poser is the Commander and Chief of history’s most powerful military seems incomprehensible.

In fact, from the beginning of his ascent Trump has relentlessly worked to co-opt anyone wearing a uniform into his grievance platform. Our soldiers are mistreated by the VA, our cops are targeted by those ungrateful enough to expect them to follow laws they enforce, ICE doesn’t have the tools they need and are hamstrung by MS-13 loving liberals, Obama’s never visited the Boy Scouts, and on and on. The success he seems to enjoy with these constituencies naturally begs the question whether they mistake empty flattery for a sense of any responsible mission they would find honor in pursuing.

Hitler convinced millions their destiny was clear and one with his ambitions; Trump hasn’t bothered to cultivate a vision past a nihilist break from the Dystopia he concocted and blames all of his predecessors for helping to create. The evolving definition of America’s enemies appears to be anybody he deems “unfair” to his whim, anybody taking issue with his recklessness. After only eighteen months, anyone with even a loose grasp of history knows what sociopaths like Trump require to feel secure… conflict. None of it makes sense… like war itself.

America First is ugly white nationalism, ready to do most anything to anyone that comes within its cross-hairs; and Trump will point them out. We know this clearly now. It may be within our borders, it may be an external target, but Trump in office is going to produce hostilities.

Whatever conflict we may lurch into, whatever acts our people in uniform may ultimately be expected to commit at the whim of this ugly testament to our civic failure, we know that even history’s worst, most ghastly military crusades still produced strands of the best in human character, even by its servile prosecutors. In the end soldiers also pay the price for the power their leaders seek, or the insecurity they try to fend off, or the paranoia and delusion from which they suffer.

Trump has from the beginning cynically sought to manipulate the unique bonds instilled by the armed services, even as he did everything possible to exempt himself from experiencing them. That he is not unequivocally discredited, even as he repeatedly attacks one of the country’s most recognized military heroes, illustrates the depravity of a political base fully disconnected from the values it claims to worship.

Trump has repeatedly made clear his fealty to tyrants in the name of peace. The disdain he exhibited for the membership of NATO, an alliance that has actually prevented cataclysm in Europe for 70 years, and he is supposed to lead, is sadly part and parcel of his desperation, which fully mirrors manic despots of the past. He equates isolation with the prudence only he can employ. And while most saw his treachery for what it was, millions still look to Sean Hannity for the only explanation they will accept…and then adopt as their will.

This Presidency can’t coexist with peace and prosperity because it is cut from the same cloth as countless regimes past, who all confirmed this point. Where our sons and daughters will be sent and what they will be asked to do in service to anything but the national interest, will impact yet another generation, just as Iraq and Afghanistan continues to weigh on the one before it. And just know that most of America would give at least a little toe to have even that group of chickenhawks back rather than our current pestilence.

Whatever camaraderie, honor and faith is conveyed on the battlefield better be substantial because it’s the only silver lining anything America First conjures up will ever offer. BC

There is no greater gift than my son, Luke. This seems trite, I know; what decent parent doesn’t say that about their child? Yet and still, Luke is very special. God gave him to my wife, Sue and I because he had faith in us to protect and nurture one of his greatest treasures. Not sure why, but who am I to quibble with the almighty.

A tall and strikingly handsome 18 year old, Luke is as close to a sinless human being as you will find. He has no malice in his make up, no personal agendas that include lessening somebody else, and telling a lie is close to impossible for him. Now, he will fib for an advantage in scrabble or some other board game, but dishonesty in the service of intrigue is fully alien to him.

Luke falls into what they call the autism spectrum, but his primary deficit is his inability to innately grasp time. What does this mean? If I asked you when you first understood time; you would shrug and have no answer. Like talking, it was simply a concept you grasped from earliest memory, like breathing or taking a leak. Tuesday has always followed Monday, July has always come after June, and you have effortlessly structured your very existence around that understanding. If I came up to you, snapped my fingers, and suddenly that instinctual grasp of this universal continuum was gone, I can assure you things would get very confusing.

Back in the day my friends and I were given to … er, experimenting with certain substances. Once, down in Ocean City, in the wee hours of a long night, a fellow traveler was having a rough go of it. I asked what was wrong; he looked at me in abject terror and declared… “I’m f**cking freaking out! I forget how to tell time!” Welcome to Luke’s world.

Everything Luke does from dawn to dark aims to cope with this deficit. The world he sees is fully fragmented, like a 10,000 piece puzzle. He gets a bit of order here, a bit there, an idea that makes sense here, a piece that doesn’t fit at all there… often never enough, but sometimes way too much. And whatever he hears from us in the way of help is always unclear because he simply can’t tell us what he needs. It is a life lived by relentless trial and error, with no effective way to discuss the outcomes. A science project without an agreed on conclusion, just vague theories…over and over.

In an ironic way Luke lives as so many life coaches preach – always in the moment. This is perhaps the most painful and frustrating part of loving him; he cannot take the life he just experienced into the next frame. We can spend an hour surfing in ideal conditions, me pushing him into wave after wave that he rides all the way to shore, followed by the indisputable progress of him deftly paddling back out to the line up. During this time he will laugh, and even high five. He will accept my accolades and enthusiastically jump on the next wave. But the minute I see him reach down to undo his leash and walk the board back to our spot on the beach I know it’s over. By the time I get to him the whole thing is miles in the rear view.

“That was great buddy; I’m so proud of you. You caught some fantastic waves. Wasn’t that fun?”

…..

“Hello?”

“Yes, it was good. Dad, I just want to go to the jetty now.”

Life in an endless series of clips, each framed and inaccessible once completed. The hell of it. Of course Sue and I have adapted to this, and take whatever we can get; she won’t allow it get in the way, and lives life dedicated to being her son’s best friend. It may not ever be enough, but it will have to do. Wonderful mothers don’t complain, they adapt…and love with all their heart.

Luke’s big sister, Issie, the only other person in this world he can fully count on… we hope… because someday she will be all he has, has also bent to his limitations, but sometimes still gets frustrated that what just happened stops cold. Yet and still, he is the best sibling one could have, always there, and unconditional in everything toward his sister. There is no greater love.

Luke has forced us all to take it a day at a time. Yet, that doesn’t stop me from lying in bed at 3AM wide awake, ever worse since my aging prostate has expanded and requires two-three trips to the bathroom each night, and contemplating his future once his folks are in the ground. The world is unforgiving and will surely have him by the short hairs when I am gone. My daughter is only 20 and should not have such a burden when her peers are only indulging their own paths.

Whatever plans we formulate can never be enough, and the idea of my son institutionalized and mistreated is what turns insomnia to a panic attack. And just know, because this is really the point of this post, there are thousands upon thousands of parents sharing my life, my exact concerns. Whatever the numbers – 1 in 100, 1 in 85, doesn’t matter – a wave is coming, and my beloved son is part of it. They will surely suffer without community patience and understanding. They can’t ask for it. They shouldn’t have to. BC

History’s Latest Arsonist

By: Jon Schwartz

“People will tell you it can’t happen here. Trust me, they’re wrong.”—Ted Schwartz, US Soldier, Liberator of Dachau, my father.

Marketing research shows that books about World War II sell 20% better if there is a swastika and/or photo of Hitler on the cover. Nothing, it seems, captures our attention and imagination quite like evil.

We’ve all pondered the essence of evil. How, for example, does one go from tyrant to “genocidist”? De-humanizing others is perhaps the most popular explanation for the pure evil of genocide. If we can see another as less than we are, we can excuse horrible acts against them. Certainly we’ve seen this de-humanization technique employed alongside history’s most horrific pogroms.

While de-humanization is an ingredient in the killing of others and arson of a society, it requires much more than just that. A child holding a magnifying glass to an ant is one thing, but killing millions demands more of an explanation.

What do history’s arsonists have in common besides reducing others to a life not worth living? What primary traits do Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Pol Pot, etc. share? What other vital component did their totalitarian treks exhibit? The answer is clear in all their ugly screeds:

I AM A VICTIM!

WE ARE THE VICTIMS!

WE WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT IS OURS!!!

Perceived victimhood is the totalitarian’s best friend and lifelong companion. The delusion of righteousness always precedes the tyrant’s pitch that he alone is endowed with inexplicable power to lead his tribesmen from victim to victor. Genocide becomes merely the “necessary work” to complete the victory.

Saddam, Pol Pot, Hitler, and Stalin surely all believed that “I AM THE VICTIM, AND I AM THE AVENGER!” History’s arsonists never worried about acknowledging their evil because from the start their cruelty was defensive, the fault of their would be oppressors. Whatever actions they were “forced” to take became heroic reactions to conspiracies they concocted and validated through relentless propaganda, another necessity to carry out mass murder.

As they say, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist.

Hitler spent his lifetime emotionally ensconced in a dual belief system of de—humanization (Jews are parasites) and victimhood (Germany is surrounded by the Jewish Bolsheviks to the east and the imperialist Jews to the west). This narrative took root before he ever set foot on World War I soil and 20 years later became the tsunami of hatred Germans set their watches by and went to war for.

And of course this is what incenses us when we look back at 1930’s and 40’s Germany. The people followed. Why? How could they be so servile to such a vision?

I wish I knew, but I suspect there are two societal cornerstones of the spread of evil in this, and all other such episodes: first, to MLK’s point, “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” The decent majority chose the comfort of silence over the necessity of righteous counterattack against the malignant minority. Second, the application of repetitive propaganda is the marinade of every societal barbeque. Keep saying the same thing over and over, and people will eventually believe it.

Enter today’s United States of America. And Trump… And his followers.

Of course today’s America is not Nazi Germany, Baathist Iraq, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, or Stalinist Russia. However, if you believe “it can’t happen here” then you are a fortunate fool, and if you believe that powerful elements of our country aren’t sliding toward evil in active and passive forms alike, you are mistaken.

Is Donald Trump our next historical arsonist? I don’t know, but I am certain he will be unless he’s stopped. We must cease pretending that this isn’t so. While the content of his narrative may not match Hitler’s sentence for sentence, his process is disturbingly similar.

De-humanize his perceived foes? We need not count the ways.

Mold himself as the victim? Check.

Cast himself as the avenger? “I alone can fix this.”

The silence of the masses? Oh God yes!

The “righteous indignation” of the frothing few? Watch a Trump rally.

Assaults on the media? Every minute of every day. “Enemy of the people.”

Use of repetitive, false propaganda? The lyingest liar that ever lied, and it’s not even close.

So what is his end game? King of the world will suffice. Nothing else will do.

And what of his political base? Do they see themselves as victims and Trump as deliverer? Where do they find the emotional fuel required to subjugate facts, vote against their own interests, and lustily inhale the funk of bad deeds all around them?

Who are the Trump supporters reeling from? Who is soiling their ideal, denying them their pursuit of happiness? Two principle villians have emerged, feeding each other and together constituting an existential threat to “the country I knew.”

First, there are the “others”, and the list is long… and expanding. Immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, and everyone else who doesn’t symbolize or respect what America should be – a white nation sprung from Anglo-Europe heritage. We speak English, we forged our constitution from British ideals, and we created the greatest country ever by the toil and moxie of people who need sunscreen. For Trump’s base the apocalypse is scheduled for 2050, when White officially becomes minority status on census sheets.

Second, of course, there is the mainstream media, coastal Ivy League elites, bent on their “celebrate diversity/stronger together” mythology that will subjugate real Americans.

And what is the media’s culpability in all of this? Enter CNN. While Fox News unabashedly serves as Trump’s propaganda platform, CNN also does his bidding, albeit in a cloaked fashion. Just like Fox, Trumpism has been economic boom times for the network which has branded itself the noble resistance. Nonsense! Far from being The Old Man and the Sea, fighting the ocean beast to his last breath, CNN gladly enables Trumpism’s dangerous narrative. If Trump is the Shark, CNN is but the remora hitching a ride on his gills. Their symbiosis is as complete as a tick on a dog’s neck. When Trump crows he is “the best thing that ever happened to CNN,” he stumbles into territory he seldom visits…the truth. Truth to Power? Nonsense! It’s ratings dressed up as the noble warrior.

As the elitist CNN host/ess “turns to the panel” we see a lonely Trump supporter flanked by several ardent anti-Trumpists. it doesn’t matter when each of these outraged elites thrusts perspicacity and moral authority at the Trump surrogate because the Trump viewer isn’t listening. Rather, the Trump viewer watches the Trump surrogate surrounded and “bullied,” and voila: victim narrative confirmed!

While serving snifters of cognitive cognac to those who oppose, CNN simultaneously pours shots of Jack Daniels confirmation bias for the Trump base. CNN cynically gives us all what we seek through this manipulative formula which, in the end, serves Trump in his never ending quest to rain fire and fury on the remnants of our national unity.

Facts and reason are not the amino acid chains of the Trump supporter. Their fuel is victimhood and the enemies responsible for it. Fox News is spinning Trump’s worst for them to be able to digest. But CNN and other media outlets seem to be knowingly playing their role too, with a lack of concern in proportion to increased viewership and more expensive ad spots. The truly awful places Trump may yet take us are unclear; those who will bear responsibility if we go there far more so. JS

Last night my wife dragged me to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the recently released documentary about Fred Rogers and his iconic childrens’ show. By the closing credits I was damn glad she did. While I was not an avid Mr. Rogers fan before, my kids came along in the Barney (God help us) and Wiggles era, I sure am now.

Fred Rogers was a gift to us all, and like most good things was taken for granted when he was here. His show was as important as it was simple and straightforward, an enlightened alternative to the swamp of inane and often violent childrens’ programming. And while Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was easy pickings for parody and cheap shots, the documentary fleshes out an American treasure, the leader of a group of extraordinarily dedicated individuals, who produced magic day in and day out from 1968 to 2001.

Roger’s message was at its heart a Christian one… children are created by God, and each is special. We are born with nothing to prove, our existence is enough to be a blessing to the world. And while Rogers was at the forefront of social progress, for example bringing in from the start a black man as a regular in the neighborhood, and actually explaining the assassination of Robert Kennedy to his young audience, his mission was to take pressure off of kids through relentless empathy and understanding.

He became one of the faces of PBS after ensuring funding early on with heartfelt Senate testimony. Incredibly, right wing critics would later target Rogers as PBS was added to Fox/AM’s ever expanding list of grievances. Watching clips of Brian Kilmeade going after Rogers for telling kids they are special “and don’t have to earn their position in life” has to be seen to be believed.

But ultimately what Won’t You Be My Neighbor leaves one with is both a deep appreciation of a man committed to an idea…a good and necessary idea, and regret, at least for me, that we didn’t appreciate him enough before he died of stomach cancer in 2003. Certainly nobody has filled those blue boat sneakers he changed into each day for 33 years since.

When Dances With Wolves hit theaters in the early 90s, I loved it, saw it three different times with three different dates. It struck me as an indisputable good. A few weeks later I was at a party and was introduced to some guy, the boyfriend of my girl’s best friend. I brought up Wolves and before I could declare how much I liked it, this guy blathered it was the worst flick he had ever seen. Phoney, bleeding-heart liberal blah blah blah. The other people in the group glanced at each other and came to silent agreement about how much of an AHole the guy was, much to the embarrassment of his girlfriend. For years after that, I would often give new acquaintances the Dances With Wolves test to screen for vexatious types.

With the cleavage that now runs through our national life, and the trauma tribal cues frequently cause, perhaps it’s time for a simple Mr. Rogers test to clarify who among us portends decency. Anybody given to gratuitously dissing Fred Rogers doesn’t have much to offer; that’s a profile I can rely on.

Fred Rogers offered everything sorely wanting these days, particularly in high places of our public sector. Kindness, selflessness, tolerance and simple decency pervaded his wonderful enterprise. The documentary is told through the eyes of the people who loved him, those lucky enough to be regular parts of his life. They all understand how special he was and lovingly reflect the lessons he taught, usually by personal example. What he gave us was a gift. The glaring absence today of what he embodied punctuates the crisis we face. There are far worse aspirations we can pursue than working at being better neighbors. BC

“The evolution of caesium-134 and caesium-137 deposited on the territories, and the ensuing dose rates in the air, are decisive elements in guiding strategies with regard to the return of inhabitants to the evacuated zones and decontamination measures.”

This is science speak for everything near the doomed Fukushima Nuclear site is going to throw out rads for a long long time. Anybody wondering just how long can go camp in the Chernobyl region… not a particularly healthful idea. Why is this relevant right now, right here? Because anybody who wants to argue for the proliferation of new nuclear plants in Europe better be one hell of a snake oil salesman.

But what about coal, or as our POTUS likes to slur… cleeaan coal. Turns out it’s not that clean and, along with the rest of Europe, Germany has phased out much of its coal-fired energy capacity in line with other prudent measures to address climate change.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, put on the chalk board back in 97’ when Russia still offered pretensions of partner rather than adversary, has helped make much of Europe’s move away from nukes and coal possible, but not without a cost. Vulnerability to Russia.

To that end, aggressive wind, biomass and solar development efforts have helped create entire cottage industries, complete with the jobs Obama often cited in his rhetoric extolling similar projects in the US. Point is, European, and most particularly German, dependence on the Russian natural gas tap is not a new concern, nor is it something affected governments have taken lightly.

It’s a certainty Donald Trump is a terrible poker player. His tells are apparent almost immediately, and he has no ability to modulate his thinking. Childlike would be the best discription of his body language when interacting with others, particularly as the situation becomes more stressful.

Thus, one needs no degree in psychology, or a seat at the final table in Vegas, to connect the dots of his shameful international incident in Brussels today. He might as well have had a thought bubble above his head.

Equating Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas with subservience to Moscow was as ridiculous as it was gratuitously insulting. It was also stilted and poorly delivered, contrived by a man notorious for his aversion to adequate preparation. That Trump’s addled mind was desperately spinning to lay out his grievances was palpable. As was the piss ant game plan behind the whole shameful exchange.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg started the meeting by ever graciously attending to Trump’s gripe about expenditures, making it clear “billions” have been added to member country contributions and structural commitments are in place. Of course, this wasn’t enough for our Veruca Salt, who first demanded Stoltenberg give him full credit for the increase, illiciting awkward laughter from his lackeys Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Mike Pompeo (John Kelly appeared to be holding back a seizure throughout the whole affair), and promptly complaining it wasn’t enough. Trump being Trump, he then clumsily started in on the Germany-as-Russian-puppet bilge, and lied that he has been pointing out the issue “from the beginning.”

One could almost see the corroded gears of our blackmailer-in-chief’s lil brain tortoriously cranking away and envisioning fresh new material for his rallies back home: “Did you see me give it to what’s his name at the NATO meeting? Germany gets all of its energy from Russia and the fake media says I’m in bed with Putin. They want us to pay to protect them from the country they give billions to! Not going to happen folks!”

It’s even money Trump didn’t come up with this fresh red grievance meat himself, and even Miller would think twice before giving Trump more nitro to blow things up in Brussels… or not. Outside suspects, who would coach up Bevis on this angle? Steve Bannon? Sean Hannity? Gorka? Whoever! The list’s length makes your back hurt.

Our country is currently represented by a vacant nihilist, solely concerned with impressing his micro constituency at the expense of… everything else. It’s not unreasonable to think Trump fully believes the guff he spouts; it all makes sense when it’s hissed to him. Like every other issue our POTUS digests, stopping at C with zero interest in thinking it through to Z, and then allowing Fox/AM to corrupt A and B, it becomes only so much more inane fodder, just another example of the moronic synergy between Trump and his wretched core.

Whatever validity an issue carries, whatever room there is to agree or disagree, will be rendered meaningless by the time Trump is finished. Burden sharing and energy dependence on Moscow, particularly by East European nations, are exactly the questions the annual Brussels conference is meant to address. That they have become cheap throwaway lines of our globally despised President’s transparent preening to a servile political base clarifies the awful damage even only 18 months has wrought. A second Trump term is unimaginable; European leaders are now pondering just that specter and mumbling a tragic new truth… with friends like us, who needs enemies? BC