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One of the great scenes in movie history is when Oskar Schindler, on an otherwise idyllic horse ride with his attractive companion in Warsaw, gets a hillside seat for the liquidation of the city’s Jewish ghetto. Spielberg takes extraordinary care in portraying a situation so systematically chaotic, so absurdly violent, and utterly evil that a man who thought he realized his life’s dream of war’s riches suddenly understands it’s a pact with the devil, and he’s looking at hell itself. From that point on, for the sake of his very soul, he must atone. Enter Ben Kingsley…

One can only imagine, if provided a similar vista overlooking our southern border, what kind of images an equestrian could witness unfolding as desperate mothers have their children ripped from them to be taken away screaming and crying, embraced by the type of horror reserved for the bleakest circumstance. Yet here we sit, as people we know and maybe even once respected mouth inanities like “the law is the law.” News flash douchebags…the stormtroopers in Warsaw were doing nothing deemed “illegal”!

The crux of our situation remains the same as it has been since last January: how far will we follow a hateful nihilist. How low will we have to go before selfies with friends and graduations begin to lose their luster, dimmed by a palpable sense of national shame, and some inkling of a determination to turn course? It all feels so willful at this point; millions doing their damndest to ignore the fate of their country, and the damage this Administration extends on the hour. And let’s be as clear as we can be; if those doing their best to “only focus on what really matters” raised their voices, called their Reps., told their friends, posted on social media, and otherwise simply demanded better, we would be well on our way to cleaning up this mess.

But right now one is still left to ponder how much further this road goes. Trump is for all intents and purposes destroying our most basic alliance, fully disputing 75-year old core foundations. The transformation from ally to economic usurper to enemy can be swift once we allow ourselves to be set adrift, losing control of events. If one assumes that Europe’s elected leaders are loyal to the national interest, unlike our own, how long should we expect them to abide Trump’s recklessness. He has no vision for new trade arrangements, only punchlines about deficits and “horrible” past deals. Perhaps they are hoping to soldier on until 2020, when we come to our senses. What if Trump is re-elected? If they take the initiative to put together new military, political and economic agreements, freezing us out, what sort of response can we expect from this White House? It’s not a slippery slope, it’s a ruinous cliff.

Had our first Black POTUS hastily arranged a personal summit with the world’s most repressive tyrant, and then breezily admitted to not preparing for the encounter, confident his life experience was sufficient, a bipartisan outcry would have echoed through the land. Oh, that’s right, Art of the Deal!

Meanwhile, a GOP Trumpie running for Governor drives around pledging to fill his bus with “illegals”. And in West Virginia, Democratic incumbent Senator Joe Manchin is more than implying he will endorse Trump’s re-election in 2020. Were Trump to win in 2020 it would mean roughly a decade of his pestilence on our political and cultural life. Where could we end up? Consider that in 1928 Hitler and the Nazis were scarcely known other than “the butt of jokes.” By 33’ Goebbels was overseeing book burnings in Berlin. 1938 gave us Munich. Ten years is more than ample on the road to ruin.

We as a nation had, before 2016, long ago collectively agreed that prosperity and freedom required looking out and leading by example, understanding the parts were meant to add up to the whole. Leaders don’t keep score and bitch and moan about what they aren’t getting. They focus on the big picture, fully committed to the long game. Trumpism rebukes that common wisdom with nothing to replace it other than satisfaction that “liberals’ heads are exploding.” It’s the Greg Gutfeld doctrine.

And always the question is how far will it be allowed to go. Wholesale round ups of profiled Hispanics? Arrests of reporters? War with Iran? Refusal to accept electoral results? Is there anything Trump won’t do if the legal noose begins to tighten? To gaslight these scenarios as paranoia requires one to discount what is already happening and present a cogent defense for actions already being taken. The silence on that front is deafening. Moreover, it is worth noting that some of Trumpism’s fiercest critics are Republicans, fully aghast at the complicity of the party.

A very dear friend, who I worked with in the 80s, is married to a wonderful woman… smart, obscenely charismatic and likable, really fantastic. Although we lost touch of each other when he moved north years ago, Facebook revived our relationship. It is clear his wife suffered and fully conquered some health challenges through feverish devotion to positive lifestyle changes – diet, exercise, attitude, etc. Her transformation was remarkable, fully justifying her evangelical desire to share it with others as a “life coach.”

But she has made clear to me there is not a sliver of her life available, at least publicly, for the downer of politics. No place whatsoever. She is nothing but positive; it was her salvation and it’s now her brand. The other day she posted a perfectly innocuous post about being stopped by a state trooper and how she was respectful and cooperative, and how nice he ended up being etc.etc. Many of the commenters, all white as she is, went right to the ol’ “see, if you are respectful to the law, it’ll all end up fine.” There was no doubt what informed their comments, and someone as sharp as she could never miss it. Yet she merely replied back with inane thanks and agreement. I pasted my DR column, “Division” about taking a knee and Black Lives Matter as a comment. She promptly, without a word, deleted it. That is where we are. Where we may go depends on when, if ever, she leaves that comment up…or maybe shares it. BC

Anybody intent on indicting the American educational system should watch Ken Burns’ The Civil War. The 9-episode, 11 1/2 hour documentary classic takes the viewer through our worst years from start to finish. I remember vividly watching its premeire back in 1990 and thinking how bad it made my Jr. and High School history teachers look; how did they manage to make such an important and compelling subject so deathly dull? How could it be that this riveting tale of American self immolation bored me to tears as a teenager?

Burns checks off all the boxes, conveying both war’s senselessness and glory, the human bonds it creates and destroys, and the lives it defines and ruins. But in so fully documenting America’s march to the brink of destruction and back again, Burns provides an emphatic answer to the conflagration’s most pertinent question: yes, the Civil War began and ended with slavery and race. Case closed.

Moreover, at the end of the day, the war’s primary legacy was the challenge for America to create the necessary circumstances for former slaves and their future generations to meld into the fabric of US society, as part of one community, all beholden to and protected by the Constitution. The degree to which we succeeded at that single task, Burns more than implied, would go far in determining our future prospects as a nation.

Of course our successes and failures at addressing the challenge are well documented; and, up to 2008, depending on who one asked, the glass was either half full or half empty. One man’s progress was another’s stagnation. Indeed, the issue of exactly how far we had come became central to the culture war as years slipped by and the memories of Jim Crow faded.

The election of Barack Obama provided a brief but glorious euphoria that the mountaintop, if not reached, was at least in view. For many African-Americans who had suffered through the shameful indignities of poll tests and klan thuggery, Obama validated their aspirations and sacrifice. More than simply a salve for the past, he represented the best opportunity yet for securing the future…walking the walk, not just talking. In January of 09’ even the most hardened and cynical could admit good things seemed possible.

But where one group felt hope and opportunity another feared the apocalypse. Many in white America, particularly baby boomers, saw, if not their worst fears realized, certainly those of their parents. Suddenly, “this thing has gone far enough” became “this thing has gone too far!”

Of course it’s probable that, sans the relentless drumbeat of Fox/AM, and a Republican Party not committed to full throated dog whistles and obstruction, many of those initially inclined to bigotry and grievance would have grudgingly accepted the sky had not fallen, and in fact, there was a good bit to like in this youthful and charismatic POTUS. One only needs to view the limbo like setting of Trump’s bar to appreciate how different things may have been if many in flyover country had afforded Obama the slightest bit of slack. Ailes, Limbaugh, Levin et al had other plans.

To Fox/AM the 2008 election was an ATM. Historians may be interested how much of the rotten hash Shit River personalities actually believed and how much was just business. Seems irrelevant. What is irrefutable is the billions upon billions of dollars the make-Obama-Satan machine raked in with nothing less than a 24/7 multimedia propaganda operation. Any pause an Iowa farmer may have had toward something decent he heard our first black President did never made it to the dinner table, as Fox got a hold of it.

Everything intersected at the crossroads of police conduct. Departments throughout the US, stocked with post 9/11 war machinery, and employing enough bad apples to cause problems now fully documented for public viewing, dealt with charges of brutality the way they always had… by circling the wagons. Nobody got the memo about a new sheriff in town on that score. Minority citizens were unreasonable enough to expect that, at minimum, a black POTUS should translate into basic personal freedom. One could argue about economic progress, or the nuances of income disparity, but walking to the corner store without being brutalized by cops should be a given.

Bill O’Reilly didn’t see it that way. In the tightly closed little chambers of his brain Black America was the victim of its own ugly vices. Empathy, never an O’Reilly strong suit, was for others, like heroic cops forced to patrol hell zones every day and clean up the garbage. O’Reilly appointed himself their patron, and when a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minnesota were caught on tape chanting “pigs in a blanket”, Bill O had all he needed. “I’m going to shut them down,” he hissed on his show that evening after declaring BLM a terrorist organization. From that point on BLM was never mentioned on any Fox/AM show as anything other than Hezbollah’s equal.

Obama, ever the deft politician, tried his best to placate flyover denizens on the issue, speaking eloquently of the challenges police departments face, while expressing empathy through his own humanity for victims of brutality. He could have saved his breath. A thoughtful statement issued in the morning, was Louis Farrakhan by Fox’s prime time line up. Mythology became common Shit River wisdom during a single news cycle. Anybody who doubts this need only have listened to Trump toadie Rick Santorum expel it word for word the other night on CNN.

After weaving its way through places like Ferguson, Mo., New York City and Cleveland, where young Tamir Rice was shot by jittery officers for playing with a toy gun, the issue of police conduct toward minorities has morphed into nothing less than the kind of pivotal challenge Ken Burns pointed out 28 years ago. The sorry fact that less than a minuscule number of officers ever get worse than fired for outrageous conduct often documented by camera, makes it a systemic issue, with a sum far greater than its parts.

Our nihilist POTUS, dividing us as his instincts always dictate, while also settling a score with a group who once refused to let him join, has moved things to the football field. And while the venue has changed, the principles remain the same: one group expecting nothing more than to be treated as the rest of America, to be part of a national community; and another unwilling to even acknowledge any problem exists, and ready to demand the same indifference from its elected officials.

Watching Sterling Brown get mugged by a bunch of cowards in Milwaukee the other night, that mountaintop seemed as far away as I can remember. BC

The Marshall Plan remains one of the sparkling highlights of America’s WWII triumph. While revisionists have questioned how much it affected the pace of European economic recovery, and its scope is certainly not what the American exceptionalist crowd extols in their efforts to argue for permanent US moral righteousness, it was a visionary act of generosity. Without it, the speed of post-war economic recovery would have been greatly reduced, imperiling the vitality of democratic governments challenged by communist movements as well as remnants of right wing populism.

The $13 billion dollar program cemented American consensus away from pre-war isolationism, and underwrote a new global economy, as well as geo-political strategy. The free trade regime that emerged from Bretton Woods promised generations of US prosperity, as we exported the goods our wartime industrial machine was fully ready to produce. The synergy of post-war European potential and available US resources and capability was undeniable. George Marshall was no fool.

How we benefited from The Marshall Plan, and free trade, as well as how our political system allowed itself to be corrupted, wounding the golden goose we created at Bretton Woods, are particularly relevant to the folly Trumpism is currently pursuing.

The idea trade relationships, or for that matter any of our dealings with the world, happen in a vacuum, free of any systemic context history creates is infantile. Yet here we are, apparently held hostage by a POTUS convinced fulfilling his nihilist promises to a base of supporters almost as ignorant as he will deliver him from personal ruin. But where knee jerk protectionism is involved, the Democratic response is usually disheartening. To hear Chuck Schumer muse he wanted to give Trump “a pat on the back” for tweeting up a trade fight with China, and then meekly “urging the President” not to issue sweeping tariffs against our closest allies under arcane national security provisions, is to realize there exists no resistance to White House nihilism furiously destroying our position abroad. Allies who have lost soldiers fighting along side US troops in Afghanistan and the Middle East are now treated as threats to our security.

Trump presents trade balances as one would an invoice to a delinquent client (talk about surreal irony)… “You owe us! This isn’t fair.” One can only imagine Trudeau and Merkel et al feeling a punch in their stomachs at the full realization of how ugly, misinformed, and worst of all, unrestrained Trump is. That Trump panders to a base of nihilists is dangerous; that he actually believes the guff he’s selling is a crisis; worst of all, that he enjoys some degree of bipartisan support for his trade arson is truly ruinous.

Both the public and private tone of the allied response to US steel and aluminum tariffs is unprecedented. Sources disclosed a phone conversation between Trump and Macron of France “went terribly”. Macron, applying lipstick to the ugliest pig at the fair, said simply he has a “direct” style of communication. And we all know how well our POTUS takes criticism. Speaking of which, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, interviewed on Meet the Press, flatly labeled the actions “insulting and unacceptable.” As for any new deals the tariffs may be designed to motivate, Trudeau rejected out of hand the Administration’s preference for pacts that end just as the ink dries. “You don’t sign a trade deal that automatically expires every five years,” declared the Prime Minister.

Newly minted Administration lackey Larry Kudlow, fully channeling his Fox/AM skill set for misrepresenting facts, downplayed Trudeau’s dismay, while exposing his own weak hand. He called the whole thing a “family quarrel,” while adding the measures “may go on for a while or may not.” Whether that is Kudlow admitting he has no idea what Trump will do, or lays bare a strategy to simply bully our closest allies and trade partners into concessions based on a false narrative conjured up for Trump’s wretched core base, American credibility is being destroyed in chunks.

Schumer has maintained all along Dems will work with Trump where possible. When he initially made that pledge last spring most read into it a carrot for sanity: reward responsible governance with some degree of bipartisanship and legitimization of Trump’s Presidency. In other words, act like an adult, we’ll treat you like an adult. A year and a half later we have an unhinged, uninformed and wholly adolescent POTUS, who tweets hourly his disinterest in anything other than what reinforces the ardor of his partisans. In other words Chuck, he has failed miserably to live up to his end of the bargain.

Yet and still, Schumer and company, steeped in past myths of “unlevel playing fields”, and accepting of Trump’s “we’ve been taken to the cleaners” guff, seem willing to at least stay muted as 70 years of good faith and trust is assaulted in clear contradiction of the national interest. Which does little for their knight in shining armor bona fides. Last January, after Trump’s worthless 16-minute inaugural diatribe, I declared we are all alone. To be charitable, the “noble opposition” seems deliberately paced at allaying such concerns. Honestly, at this point there is a word for picking and choosing Trumpism you can live with… complicity! Get pissed for your country. BC

There’s the joke about the blonde politician, who asks the voter what she could do to earn his support. The voter says stop pandering and stand for principles…To which the blonde pol replies: Sure, I’ll stop him, but first tell me where to find the principles so I can get the standing out of the way. Er, yea.

Point is, GOP majorities in legislatures across the country, more likely comprised of overweight white men with no need for a comb, have taken slavish indulgence of their bases’ least charitable or community-centric impulses to an art form during the last decade.

Rationalized at the altar of supply-side economics, whittled down to the local level, one GOP dominated flyover House after another has delivered tax relief at the expense of revenue necessary for luxuries their communities can slim down from…like a quality education for their children.

Local chambers of commerce and generous campaign donors, not to mention Fox/AM, have created a political climate where public education is brimming with punching bags – unions, lefty teachers bent on indoctrination, mooching immigrants and welfare princes…even mandated healthier lunch menus. Why should more hard earned tax dollars go to such a cesspool? Better to “give it back” to those who know best how to spend it. Bloomin Onions for all!

Oklahoma teachers- Oklahoma! – finally had enough, and following the example of West Virginia brethren – another state at the bottom of the list for teacher compensation – walked off the job. Governor Mary Fallin, a Fox/AM caricture, was quick to ladle from the Shit River troth in her reaction, likening public servants, many pushed to poverty’s edge by answering their calling, to a “teenaged kid demanding a new car.” To which one striker replied she would settle for being able to afford repairs on her 14-year old Chevy,

Oklahoma’s political graft drug of choice is energy subsidies. The adequate education of children has never stood a chance versus T Boone Pickens et al. The state that burdened DC with James Inhofe wears its priorities on its sleeve. So while near half a billion dollars in various forms of creative tax relief has been bestowed on the state’s energy sector, Oklahoma teachers average $41,380 per year…dead last in the nation.

Of course the disgrace in Oklahoma, aside from a Governor who accuses strikers of being pawns of Antifa, is that it has so many parents utterly indifferent to their children being served such a measley slice of the budget pie. Strikers, to a person, profess the sorry state of the educational system, from antiquated supplies and underfunded programs to 4-day school weeks in a quarter of the state’s schools, as every bit the reason for the walk out as compensation. In fact, adjusted for inflation, the Oklahoma school budget has actually lost 30 percent during the last decade. Meanwhile, the latest Oklahoma Business Incentives and Tax Guide is a full 75 pages of giveaways, Christmas in April.

But nobody seems to mind. Scandals of Darwin supplanting Jesus in the classroom get far more mileage than band club being canceled for lack of funds. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…if it is broke, ignore it. Striking teachers demanded a modest $50 million in additional education funding. To put that in perspective, before the strike the GOP dominated legislature was working to ram through a $120 million dollar package of capital gains deductions, tabled after the walkout. Still, Gov. Fallin made clear they weren’t going to force her to be decent when she signed a set of hotel/motel tax breaks, adding to the revenue shortfall. That’ll show em.

The strike was eventually settled, largely because the teachers accepted less. Fallin and the legislature grudgingly gave a $6000/year raise to full-time teachers, while agreeing NOT to sabotage revenue streams that were previously targeted. Of course the GOP messaging, fully informed by Fox/AM and Trumpism, boasted of “standing on principle” against the wannabe communists. Teacher’s Union leadership, for their part, admitted they settled for less but simply conceded they owed it to the kids to get back on the job.

The silver lining? Teachers are going to put parents to the test by running for office. As filing deadlines approached, more than 100 teachers or former educators were slated to run largely single issue campaigns, hoping to take GOP incumbents to task. How parents will respond in the voting booth could transform the state’s political calculus. One thing is certain; Oklahoma’s business and energy fat cats have 75 pages worth of goodies to defend, and they could teach a class on how to do so. BC

In 1994, my wife, then my girlfriend, prodded me to take her to a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, where she had signed us up for a horseback tour of the battlefield sites. When we arrived at the farm that boarded the horses for the ride, it was clear that the couple in charge of the operation were pro-life in a very big way. On every vehicle were several bumper stickers with slogans, and even small posters on the windows, one graphically depicting an aborted fetus with a declaration that the genocide had to be stopped by any means necessary. Nothing subtle at all. This was the fall of 94’, with an off year election approaching, and no less than four signs of various sizes were located around the property exclaiming “Santorum for US Senate.”

Harris Wofford was appointed a US Senator from Pennsylvania in 91’ to serve out the remainder of John Heinz’ term after he was killed in a helicopter crash. Wofford, significantly older than Santorum, would become an early victim of the culture wars, which rewarded zealotry on issues like guns and abortion at the expense of decency and competence. The wave election of 94’ that brought the House under the control of Newt Gingrich and his cadre of flame throwers began the transformation of the GOP from Reaganism, where cultural issues were given some sentences on the stump, but suffered at the requisites for governance, to Trumpism, where the party now floats along on a tsunami of white grievance, fully at odds with making the trains run on time. Nobody has personified that relentless march toward today’s nihilism more than Santorum.

What is now standard fare was back bench extremism when Santorum arrived at the chamber. He could diss evolution and poo poo anything other than the rhythm method, but US Senators were still expected to govern back in 94’. Santorum was looney tunes for sure, but even he at least gave lip service to nonvileness and even participated in bipartisanship.

While pushing the welfare reform agenda, he actually hired recipients for his office staff. He even cosponsored religious freedom legislation with Trump boogie man John Kerry. Call it functional zealotry. Fox/AM was just getting started, so there wasn’t a safe space for nuttiness yet; legislative performance still counted. It was only a matter of time before a show horse like Santorum would wear out his welcome with the electorate in a purple state like PA.

When 06’ voters decided to give the GOP what for after suffering through W’s Iraq folly, Santorum was victim number one. The 18 point spanking Bob Casey Jr. gave him was enough to convince Santorum, and more importantly his donor base, that other career pastures awaited.

Since then, through two Presidential primary runs, Santorum has furiously tried to keep up with the GOP’s race toward extremism. In 2012, he was able to dispense Michelle Bachman’s early challenge to cut into his bloc of Shit River zealots and finished as the runner up to Mitt Romney, who may very well have the distinction of being the last capable and decent GOP nominee. By the 2016 primary Santorum was irrelevant, simply one of 14 bodies crowding the debate stage fighting to be the nastiest champion of white grievance… we’re now hoping to survive the winner.

And Santorum? Just another Trump flunky, spinning insanity day after day, normalizing our ruination by gaslighting outrage after outrage. A couple of nights ago, as Santorum blamed desperate parents seeking a better life for the human rights atrocities ICE is wrecking on their families, it occurred to me that back in 94’ we saw the beginning of a malignancy in the PA Senate race. And just like any cancer that metastasizes and spreads throughout the body, eventually becoming a terminal condition, where it started no longer matters. Santorum got what he wished for, and now, like every other cell in the ugly tumor that is Trump’s GOP, he is left to simply adapt to however it mutates. BC

When we’re born we think we are the Universe. Then, usually around age two, we realize we’re not the Universe, but we think we’re at the center of the Universe. Then, usually a few years later, we finally realize we’re just another part of the Universe. Many people never make that leap from the second to the third stage. Don’t be one of those people, son.”—Ted Schwartz, My Father, circa 1971.

As a child, I had an active imagination. Or, to put it more bluntly, I was delusional.

Depending on the season, at various times I was the starting running back for the Chicago Bears, point guard for the Bulls, and shortstop for the Cubs. Give me a basketball and an empty court, and I could spend hours mentally reconstructing an entire 7 game playoff series, in which I single handedly snatch victory from the chimeric jaws of defeat.

My fantasies were not confined to athletic conquest either. My attractive fourth grade teacher, Ms. Caldwell, preoccupied my thoughts, even as she bored me to tears expounding on prepositions. Alas, my adoration went unrequited, and it wasn’t subtle. Ms. Caldwell’s sole comment on my report card: “Jonathan is an under achiever.”

Then I grew up and put aside…

No, that’s a lie—don’t even bother completing that thought, Walter Mitty.

Throughout the post Caldwellian years I’ve lost hours writing and performing imaginary plays where my greatness made all the difference. If such indulgence is a frailty, call me weak. Other parts of me do, I assure you (come to think of it, is this written by me or the latest iteration of this part of me that now seeks international op-ed prominence?).

When I saw the movie “The Truman Show” in which Jim Carrey’s character discovers that his whole life is a daily TV drama and he’s the unwitting central character, my reaction was “how did they know? I’m the Original Truman–this is MY story!” Honest to God, as a child I was convinced that my life was a TV show and that everyone I encountered was getting paid big acting wages for their time in my presence, with unseen cameras everywhere. Discovering that someone else must’ve had the same delusion was both deflating (That’s my psychosis!) and affirming (what a relief to discover my lunacy is not unique).

So while a ball and an empty court, or the Truman Show might draw me back into delusions of grandeur past, these days my daydreams take me to that mother of all imaginary crossroads-the 2020 Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party—and the chance to slay the slimiest of all delusional foes, Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, that winner of the all—time Truman Show grand prize. Trump is Truman, Truman is Trump. Clearly Trump has spent his life casting himself as the central character of all humanity (trust me, I know the type when I see it) and now he is the central character for all humanity. Lord help us.

And now, we return to my previously recorded scenario: when last left our hero Jonny (referral to myself in the 3rd person—a staple of the delusional soul) he was on the precipice of the Presidency…this Cinderella boy…straight outta Evanston, Illinois.

Why do we need a hero like me (aka. this part of me)? Because the democrats are fighting on their lofty playground of “normal” when the fight is over there in “Crazytown.” The “normal” playing field was incinerated a long time ago. It’s long gone. The democrats are showing up for a gunfight with a butter knife and a Brooks Brothers suit. They have no passion. They have no message. They have no balls!

Take this “spygate” thing for instance. Trump and his Mafiosi peddle yet another absurd nonexistent thing, compelling 15% of republicans to change their opinion and declare that the Mueller investigation is corrupt and should be shut down. In the face of this daily dose of authoritarian fraud, the democrats roll out a series of white Ivy League lawyer lawmakers on cable news. Their talking point? “There’s no evidence of any spy conspiracy” spoken with all the passion of a two toed sloth in a footrace against a slug. And there you have it… the democratic party’s best marketing response to Trump’s war on the truth, decency, and democracy. Nothing else to see here! Really?!!

Meanwhile, 60% of Americans crave and thirst for a hero who will bring this bastard down.

Which leaves it up to the me of my imagination to deliver a nation from this tin plated Sheriff of Nottingham! And how would Super Me rise to the occasion? How would I slay the dragon? Who died and made me the hero???

Glad you asked.

It’s now the dramatic confines of the 2020 Presidential Debate, and Jake Tapper knits his brow and deals my hand.

“Mr. Schwartz, you have 90 seconds for your closing statement. The floor is yours, sir.”

Thanks, Jake…

“America, we’ve endured 4 years of the President’s assault on our Nation, the world, and human decency. The President’s daily insults on the United States of America have left most of us sad, angry, and in shock over his vileness.

As a result we are now a country divided, to the glee of our foreign enemies, and to the sadness of our friends and allies around the world. We’ve gone from the indispensable nation to a corrupt Kleptocracy whom the rest of the world neither relies upon nor respects.

This President’s modus operandi has been that of every failed totalitarian before him: make those who disagree with me hate me, those who support me love me, intimidate those who oppose me, and promote those who bow down to me.

To unify our people is not good for ratings and this Presidents’ greatest fear, above all others, is that people become indifferent and tune out. He’s the biggest attention addict this world has ever produced, and we all know it.

But his time spreading sickness on this great nation is over. He will lose this election, and he’ll lose badly. While there are still 35-40% of our fellow Americans who will vote for him, the rest of us would vote for a ham sandwich over the President and just don’t get it! Frankly, we’re appalled. And that’s the hell of it, a nation divided by a narcissist who couldn’t care less.

So here’s what I want to say to Trump voters and supporters: You no longer get to say you’re voting for him because he’s a Republican and you’re a Republican. Yes, he’s the Republican torch bearer, but only because the cowardly GOP handed him the key. No, you’re voting for him out of spite or anger, or pride. Pride, because you tell yourself he’s one of you. Someone who’s waged the battle against the bad guys, the other America, the blacks and Hispanics and Asians, the LGBTQ community, the Jews and the Mormons and the Catholics and the Muslims, and last but not least, those who immigrated into this country.

And you know what? Vote for him. Really. Vote for him if he represents your worldview. I don’t want your vote. I’m not interested in your vote.

But here’s the thing: I’m going to kick his lyin’ ass on election day, bet that! When I do my top priority over the next 8 years is going to be to tear the Pro Wrestling playbook to shreds. I’m going to meet with you, Trump voter. We’re going to hash this out! We have to figure out how we can really make America great again, accepting that all Americans are Americans whether you like it or not. You don’t have to like me, and you probably never will. But you will never be able to say we didn’t talk and I didn’t listen.

We are the United States of America. We wrote the book and still own the copyright on how to make a democracy that produced the greatest nation ever known. Our story is the envy of world history.

But we must accept that democracy is for grown-ups. It requires everyone’s participation and cooperation. It requires hard work, independent thought, and compassion from which we enjoy the freedom to choose our own destiny and an equal opportunity to chase our dreams. Everything else, all the good stuff that comes from us, our technology, our arts, our culture, our exquisitely diverse yet unified American character exists because all of us accept this responsibility to work, and to care. Thank you.”

And there it is, the end of today’s exercise in grandiosity and self-indulgence. Whew! Delusion is exhausting! I’m beat!

So whadya say? Do I have your vote???

With love, from Truman 2020 headquarters.

A good friend of mine, who matriculated with me in college on the subject of foreign affairs, became a reporter at Congressional Quarterly 20-odd years ago and has kept to it since. He is a reserved guy, not at all given to hyperbole. Often, one has to yank his opinions out like an impacted molar. That’s why I remember our conversation in late afternoon of 9/11 so well. We talked awhile about what to expect in the coming days and so forth, how long preparations would take for some sort of military campaign, which just hours after the attack was already not an if but when. Near the end of our talk I said something like “nothing is going to be the same…” To which he emphatically agreed, and added “this is going to change everything” Indeed it did.

Since 9/11, war without end has cost us much blood and treasure, while ruthlessly baring the limits of US power. But even more damaging, it has facilitated a steady slide toward militarism at home, now fully embraced and accentuated by an emergent nihilist political class, led by a champion who never met a uniform he didn’t want to exploit for his own greater glory.

How societies define patriotism speaks volumes of their political and cultural health. Militarism is apparent when the armed forces, as well as police, are unabashedly used as measuring sticks to divide the population based on who is and isn’t supportive enough of their “mission”, which is heralded in ever more grandiose terms.

The NFL was the first and most ardent practioner of linking the US response to 9/11 with over-the-top displays of reverence for the military. Flyovers, field-sized flag rollouts, reunions, etc. turned pre-game activities into garish homage to our military, the oft declared ensurer of “the freedoms we enjoy.” Is it little wonder that NFL games became a flashpoint for conflict when some players had the treacherous audacity to disturb what had become viewed by so many as a sacred rite of American civics.

Unquestioned allegiance to the military flows seemlessly throughout America now. Increases in the military budget are a bipartisan given, and woe to the candidate, who has to go on the stump and explain voting against such appropriations. Media across the board herald the narrative of US military activity as an exclusive adjunct of freedom and liberty. Judy Woodruff and Chuck Todd are just as likely to parrot the notion as Brett Beir and Sean Hannity. Reports of collateral damage from US air and drone strikes seldom see the light of day, and the idea that enlisting immediately makes one a hero is another sacred cow of our national mentality. Moreover, military service has never before bestowed such exclusivity. Back in high school it was a thing to wear natty old army jackets; now the unfortunate stoner who adopted such garb would be set upon for “Stolen Valor”. From A to Z America places it’s military on a pedestal that grows higher and higher.

Much of what has defined the post 9/11 narrative of how we should view the military springs from assumptions enshrined by the past. The common wisdom that Vietnam veterans were disdained by an ungrateful nation has guided us since 9/11. An unspoken determination not to repeat past mistakes with an all volunteer force has created a cultural landscape, fully exploited by Madison Avenue, where effusive praise is mandatory. “Thank you for your service” now is deemed a minimum courtesy when meeting a veteran. And the synergy between the church and military service has never been more prominent. Evangelicals, in particular, now seem to place US soldiers just under the lord himself as objects worthy of the flock’s rapturous entreaties.

None of this is to imply we shouldn’t be a grateful nation. Veterans, like my nephew, who made a beeline for Afghanistan, have earned our deep respect. Should serving boost a resume? Without a doubt. Should we assume integrity and honor from a veteran? Of course. And should we always be cognizant that service brings a unique perspective to the table that one would disqualify his own views by ignoring? No question. But it is to say that America’s uniqueness rests largely on what is supposed to be a more balanced set of priorities. National well being is not supposed to rely too much on the prospects of our armies. And our military serves us, not vice versa. Nothing is compulsory; the day it becomes so is the day our enemies outside no longer matter.

On Memorial Day weekend, when we honor the fallen, our duty is the same as theirs was, to defend the country. Not just its borders or foreign interests, but its character, which enables our freedoms far more than tanks in Mosul. To abide seditious idolatry, fomented to further the ambitions of nihilists, at the expense of groups they always seek to marginalize in a quest for relevance, dishonors the memories of heroes. Surely, they would take offense that they passed to serve such a purpose. To assume otherwise insults them.

Trump and all the other chicken hawks we know so well cheapen past sacrifice by their willingness to ignore it as they recklessly rattle sabres. He vomits about US military prowess, relegating those who may die to mere abstractions in excursions he sees as sport, corollaries to his bluster. He neither honors the institution or its people; like everything else, he uses them to shine his brand. He deploys our jingoism for self-aggrandizement to a base that makes no distinction between patriotism and militarism, national well being and foreign adventures. That so many now can’t see duty to your nation as anything other than carrying a gun and wearing a uniform imperils our future and diminishes our dead.

The best thing America can do for its fallen soldiers is everything possible to ensure the rightness and nobility of the mission they perished for. Make certain they never die like a German fighter on Normandy…in service to a nation gone mad. Right now we are ceding ground in that battle. BC

Anybody who has been to a race track more than a few times has relied on the “get out”. That’s the final race on the card following a losing day. The get out is when conservative betting strategies, and any sort of discipline you may have sworn to in the morning go bye bye. Whatever you have left in your pocket is either going on a long shot or gimmick bet or both. The goal is to “get better”, which $25 to win on a 2-1 favorite is not going to make happen.More appropriate to take that favorite, key him over a few 10-1s, and hit the superfecta for a real score, one that wipes out the bitter memories of a day full of lost photos and choices trapped on the rail. A winner that warrants a celebration.

As someone who has been to the oval exponentially more than a few times, and has hit my share of get outs, I know it to offer opportunity if approached right. Since the day has already gone to crap, the get out affords the liberation from caution required for bold decisions. Yet and still, there is enough desperation imposed by the possibility of walking out the doors a penniless loser – the very portrait of a bum – to motivate focused analysis imbibed with creativity. And lord there is nothing like hitting the get out to make the world right again. A late trifecta will do that.

America needs a get out score this November. Since last January it’s been one loser after the other. Any hopes Trump would rise to his office were dashed minutes after he took the oath. Then there was a confirmation process that ran like a broken record: nominee demonstrates complete lack of qualifications for appointed position but McConnell goes to the whip and the moron gets confirmed anyway. Next came the frontal assault on responsible government and a nihilist agenda more concerned with trampling progress than setting policy. And all the while the overt corruption and vile indignity of Trump, himself. Yes, it hasn’t been merely a bad day at the races…we’re losing the mortgage here.

But we can all get better in November if Democrats make the right wagers. Trouble is, their leadership seems intent on $2 show bets, which wont get this done! Given our current state of affairs, a focus on “rebuilding the middle class” messaging that has wildly underperformed the last few cycles is like arriving at your neighbor’s house as it’s engulfed in flames and asking “how can I help?” Trumpism isn’t the elephant in the room, it’s the rabid hyena in the elevator.

Nancy Pelosi is not a horrible person, and to put her on a par with Trump defines false equivalence; but as a party leader, placed by history at a crossroads for American democracy’s survival, she is fully wanting. Listening to her the other night on CNN one could be forgiven if they thought it a clip from 2004. Her response to questions about what role Presidential ineptitude and corruption should play in the upcoming campaign sounded like the subject was W instead of Trump. Lecturing about party and national unity as her (and the founders!) top priority, and impeachment’s unfortunate deleterious effects on national kubaya potential was disheartening, particularly as a GOP cabal on the other side of the aisle makes clear the abyss is not deep enough when it comes to abetting Trump’s overt recklessness. Pelosi wants to focus on ideas. How about this for an idea: take back the House and give Steve King the office in the Longworth basement next to the auto-signing machines!

Barbara Comstock of Northern VA now passes for a moderate Republican in the House. To qualify for that designation these days requires one only to refrain from unabashed rhetorical, if not legislative, support of this White House. A gander at Comstock’s office home page and social media participation finds not a mention of Trump by name or otherwise. Six Democrats are going to bloody each other up trying to win the nomination to unseat her. So the advice is to emerge from a primary rumble and talk “kitchen table issues”?

GOP incumbents should be forced to either support Trump or denounce him, nothing in the middle satisfies. What have you done to help check Trump’s outrageous attacks on our institutions? Why haven’t you publicly taken a stand against divisive rhetoric? You seem ok with his tweet stream, are you? Yes or no? Those are the questions to be asked in debates. The idea that focusing too much on Trump may be perceived as lacking ideas is ludicrous; if you present just one proposal, that’s one more than the GOP has put forward since 2007. As for impeachment, one doesn’t have to foam at the mouth to assert it should be on the table. To declare it out of bounds is to imply Trump has stayed in bounds. That’s nuts. Worse, it normalizes nihilism in the White House.

It’s not really a stretch to call Decision 18’ pivotal to whether Trump will ruin us. If the GOP keeps both chambers by even the slimmest of margins we get another 2 years of Trump unleashed; he will herald such a result as a decisive referendum on his prowess. Getting a piece of our grub stake back for some bets tomorrow will not suffice, by then racing may be canceled. We need a win that forces the teller to go to another drawer for more cash; then, as they say on the rail, as a horse prances past with his ears pricked, we can again like our chances. BC

A good argument can be made that my son, Luke, is the greatest person in the world. He is a tall, lanky, handsome 18 year old with nothing but beautiful vulnerability about him. He always aims to please and is incapable of organized intrigue. He doesn’t know what a lie is and couldn’t try to hurt another person on his worst day. While his frailties can frustrate the most patient, he always tries his best; any shortness with him is not something whoever exhibits it will be proud of. Yes, on balance, my boy is as good as it gets in the son department…my hero. He also happens to be pretty darn autistic. In the parlance of the epidemic, he is moderate to high functioning, verbal but not conversational. And though he’s now 6,5” and likes to shoot baskets, there will be no inspirational videos of him getting playing time on his high school’s varsity squad.

Several years ago a neighbor from down the street showed up at my door. Our cul-de-sac is nice, permeated with a level of comfortable cordiality, but there is enough transience to prevent anything more intimate. So when Beth rang my doorbell it was the first time either of us had visited the other.

She said we may have a problem, and I asked her why? She told me a dead squirrel had been left on their front porch and her teen age son had ID’d Luke. I told her the last thing Luke would ever do is touch a dead animal of any kind; he would just as soon pick up a burning log. One of Luke’s therapists, who happened to be in my living room working with him at the time, laughed at the notion. Beth turned a bit defensive and assured me her son wasn’t a liar. I said I’m sure he wasn’t but there was no chance Luke was responsible. She suggested we ask him, so I did.

“Luke, were you down at Beth’s house yesterday?”

“No… I wasn’t,” he replied, his voice tailing off, as it usually did when he was confused.

“Did you see a squirrel yesterday, buddy?”

“Yes, I did see a squirrel.” He answered, telling the truth. Beth gave me an I-told-you-so look.

“Did you see a dead squirrel?”

“No, I did not.” Again, his voice tailing off warily.

Beth, now emboldened, and wanting to close the deal, asserted: “Luke, did you put a squirrel on our porch?”

“Yes. I did.” He looked at me seeking approval.

I told her he was simply trying to please her and wasn’t following the sequence of the conversation anymore. But Beth was now certain she had her man. Shaina, the therapist, was getting angry, telling Beth the answer meant nothing and she should go talk to her son. Things were starting to deteriorate, so I reiterated to Beth that I was quite certain Luke was not guilty, but even if so, he meant no harm and I was sorry it had happened. Satisfied, Beth departed, certain the issue was settled. Aside from having to calm Shaina, who wanted to go 10 rounds with Beth, I figured that was the end of it.

A couple days later a very chastened Beth showed up again at my door, this time with her son. She declared he had something to say to me, to which he mumbled how sorry he was for lying, and it wouldn’t happen again. Apparently, some kids were bullying him and thought it funny to leave a dead squirrel on his porch. He was too scared and embarrassed to do anything other than pin the blame on the weird kid up the street. As he slinked away Beth, riddled with guilt, offered to apologize to Luke for the accusation. I responded he would neither know or care what she was apologizing for, to which she seemed to suffer yet another pang of shame. And with that an injustice was righted.

Down in Shreveport, Louisiana, Corey Dewayne Williams was not so lucky. By all accounts lower functioning than my son, Williams was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a pizza deliverer was shot and murdered in January of 98’. Detectives swept the Queensborough neighborhood, picking up Williams for questioning after somebody, never further corroborated, fingered him as the shooter. One can only imagine how that interrogation went, a 16-year old, intellectually disabled black boy, alone for hours with teams of angry white cops. Not surprisingly, he confessed before declaring he was tired and “l’m ready to go home and lay down.” He never did get to do that.

Based solely on his confession, with zero physical evidence, and despite finding some of the victim’s money and pizza boxes near another suspect’s home, Williams was convicted and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. This, a boy who “still sucked his thumb and urinated on himself regularly.”

Twenty years and the constant entreaties of dozens of former federal prosecutors, including a former Attorney General, later Louisiana has grudgingly admitted that the boy’s “constitutional rights were potentially violated at his original trial.” And in a fit of magnanimity, the state has allowed Williams to plead down to manslaughter with time served, so long as he agrees to forego his right to civil liability or any other redress. In other words, he’s still a penniless felon, but he’s free. Case closed…. Makes me want to take a knee. BC

In April of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, enjoying the opulence of White House living that a depression era son of rural Texas never could have dreamed of, went skinny dipping in the presidential pool. With aides Dick Goodwin and Bill Moyers, who he had ordered to get buck naked and join him, the man who would reshape American policy toward its poor, and harness his office to usher in historic civil rights laws at great political expense to himself and his party, held forth on power and the presidency:

“Now, some men want power so they can strut around to “Hail to the Chief”; some want it to make money; I wanted power to use it. And I’m going to use it. And use it right if you boys’ll help me.”

Of course, there’s little mystery where LBJ would sort our current POTUS within his observation. And the irony that the same man who deployed his clout for such constructive reordering of US economic and civic priorities would also oversee the disastrous slippery slope of Vietnam is a cautionary tale of the fine line between ambition and hubris. Moreover, the second irony that most of Trump’s core shrilly advocate hobbling Johnson’s signature accomplishments clarifies the dangers of American populism allowed to guide either corrupt or hapless politicians. The point is US Presidential power is like an AR-15; it means everything who’s hands it is in and why it’s there, and should certainly be regulated.

Trump has laid bare how vulnerable our system is to authoritarian challenge. But equally troubling, this administration highlights our vulnerability to sheer incompetence at a time in history we can least afford it. The vaunted checks and balances we idolized in government classes and election night commentaries are fully wanting when enfeebled by a majority party of cowards and co-conspirators. I suppose it is understandable that our founders, brave enough to risk life and fortune for democratic principle, visionary enough to map out blueprints for political pluralism, and idealistic enough to make protecting minority viewpoints a cornerstone of a new nation, would assume wretched indifference to ethics and courage an aberration instead of the rule for future generations of legislators. But here we are, trapped by a system that may be unable to protect itself. We get the governance we deserve and the GOP proclivity for nihilist opportunism has us by the short hairs. We now know how low they can go!

This Presidency offers nothing redeeming. On every front it assaults the public trust and good will. Its supporters are capable of nothing more than basic totalitarian fare of denying damning facts as media lies, while relying fully on a media that lies around the clock. The cynical tribalism of Trump’s Congressional bloc is now such that most won’t grant interviews to anybody but Fox/AM and trot away silent, as if caught red handed, when asked in public near anything about the POTUS. This is a civil war footing. And it is hard to envision such a group abiding the popular will in any way…up to and including an election drubbing.

At some point it will sink in to even the disinterested that the GOP is no longer adherent to democracy’s strictures, and is conspiring in plain sight to refuse to cede power peacefully when rebuffed in November. Moreover, even a cursory review of states dominated by GOP legislatures clarifies overt efforts to undermine electoral laws and procedures, disenfranchising voters without a hint of hesitation. There isn’t one red state immune to this corruption. All are unapologetically working at every level to restrict the vote. Nonexistent past “voter fraud” is expressed as accepted fact across the Fox/AM table when justifying this blatant campaign to suppress, along with established lies about participation by “illegals”, constantly propagated by the White House.

GOP leaders appear ready to fully throw in with a man so incompetent and corrupt that he exhibits no willingness to even accept responsibility for the actions he claims didn’t break any laws. In other words he lies about things he did, but maintains if he did do them, no laws were broken. The Fox isn’t guarding the hen house; it is eating the hens and daring us to try and do something about it because the farmer hates hens to begin with. BC