Perhaps a way to get rid of Trump...

Part I 

A Proposal 

There is no time to hesitate in beginning a national discussion about the exiting of Trump. He’s inflicted damage with global impact. American security is suffering strategically and domestically. He threatens a global economic meltdown that could quickly throw us all into a maelstrom of panic and desperation. 

 

Now is the time for analysts, commentators, journalists, public officials and statesmen to begin examining means to wrest him from power. It is time for the former US Presidents to engage.

 

The chaos he’s unleashed is building like a chain reaction, and threatens to tip into something not even his own delusional sense of self can begin to manage. 

 

Long before the American Republic existed John Milton wrote “It is lawful and hath been through all ages for anyone who have the power to call account of a tyrant or wicked king and after due conviction to depose and put him to death.”  

 

Getting rid of tyrants is a story as old as social organization.

 

Some may argue this is merely politics, that elected presidents are entitled to put their programs before the public. There is an important context; all presidents work for us, and their policies must work for us. We, the employer and our common wellbeing is priority one, not his or her desires, or revenges, or in this case the delusions of an unqualified and flawed man possessed of extraordinary blithe ignorance.  

 

If he was credible I would argue he should be given a chance. There has never been a less qualified person in the office. A good record would be a leverage for him, but he was a failure, twice impeached, refused to acknowledge defeat, plotted to overturn the election results, stole sensitive documents and used them to his business advantage, and has since been convicted on multiple counts of fraud. He likely would have been convicted of other federal and state crimes had he not run for election, his ploy to avoid trials. I know you know this, but I say it to disabuse ourself there is anything near normal going on.

 

Common sense alone should have prevented his election. Now that he’s on the revenge war path, and there are no sane forces to reign in his malignant nature, we’ve already seen historic damage. It’s time to bring him down.

 

One of history’s guessing games has been the dark calculus of how many millions of lives would have been saved if Adolph Hitler has been deposed or assassinated when it was clear he was a mad man, out of control, a narcissist bent on forcing the world to live his evil delusions and revenge.

 

What I suggest may sound preposterous, but we live in a time of preposterous reality.  George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their former senior counsels for security, intelligence and diplomacy as well as their senior uniformed officers should gather in a closed summit. Out of the spotlight these former most powerful men in the world need to have a serious heart to heart. It could be the most important gathering of American patriots since the founding. There is no nice option forward, nothing we’ve experienced or tested, no play book guideline. But a play has to be made.

 

We’ve already seen Jamie Diamond from banking and finance and other financial analysts and economists begin to speculate what kind of horror could be ahead.  All of this folks in just a couple of months.

 

This financial and banking sector needs to speak to Republican Senate and House leadership and lay the stinking mess right at their door. This MAGA Republican gang have demonstrated their cowardice and ready willingness to be obsequious. They’ve permitted an idiot to have his delusional way. If, and it’s worth a try, if the likes of Mr. Diamond and friends can explain that whatever economic or security catastrophe may come, will be laid at their feet, these quislings might realize Trump has no power if they do not enable him. Thus far they have abrogated legislative influence in the matter of checks and balance. 

 

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Benjamin Franklin

 

As for the true statesmen and women, former Presidents and their senior counsel and advisors, the options begin to enumerate when they begin to talk. 

 

Is there a nice way for former Presidents to convince a sitting lunatic to leave the throne. We are in new territory here. We know that 28 years of Oval Office leadership is a profile of experience and knowledge we can trust. Let them work on it.

 

“It is not unjust that the king be deposed or have his power restricted by the multitude if, becoming a tyrant, he abused the royal power.” Thomas Aquinas.

 

 

 

Part II   MAKING THE CASE

A Reprise

 

 

We the citizens of the US have personally lost $billions. Everyone with a pension or retirement fund that draws wealth from the market, or investments or real estate, or any fungible commodity or exchange. The wealth loss is historic. It didn't need to occur. It was triggered. 

THE OUTRAGEOUS SUMMARY

We’ve attacked enemies and made alliances with butchers. The President is a Russian patsy. (That should be an impossible sentence to publish.) He has embarrassed the US and diminished our status. We are no longer trusted.  

His tariff trade war is a foolish notion, improbable. On the longest of shots and if it were to work it would take decades. But service industry jobs pay more than what factory workers make abroad. New manufacturing will be people light, and mostly automated. His rationale: "It will make us wealthy." Who is the "us?" the Oligarchs? Already the wealthiest nation what good has that done for working Americans, to housing prices, for the homeless? His antiquated idea is a dud.

Donald Trump is not an intelligent man nor a student of history. His only business success was a role he played on TV. He considers everything is "deal making" missing the more complex nature of international stability, diplomacy and keeping the peace. 

The painful truth America, our President is not a genius onto something great, he is simply a blustering moron who has become a clear and present danger not only to the US but to the world. 

 

He threatens to take Greenland. He betrays allies, weakens strategic alliances born out of world history he never studied.  

He’s allowed the agencies that have protected us, medicine, food and drink, water and air to be gutted. We live with less safety and assurance. 

He’s let his DOGE Bro cut government services and then cherry pick those that his companies will benefit from. 

Trump is  too much of a threat, too reckless and too corrupt to be permitted to remain in power. 

Millions of Americans including military veterans think he is a traitor. 

How many warning signs can we ignore before signing our own death warrant?

 

Many of the poor souls who believed his lies or could not see through him, or did not listen to those who knew him best, are now among those who are the first to begin to suffer; job losses, loss of benefits,  the breaking of what had been the world’s best economy. It will get worse.

 

“This tyrant whose sole name blisters our tongue, was once thought honest.”

William Shakespeare

WHO IS HIS MAJORITY? 

Who put him in office? His voters were the least educated, people who felt left out, over looked, those who admire his arrogance, personality and are motivated by the “culture war.” 

They are consumers of right wing media and social media. 

 

As a general rule they are not a sentiment that should guide America's course in trying to fulfill its aspirational goals or to confront its problems and sins. 

Revenge is not a navigating star, ignorance is not a virtue. Neither can ignorance be an excuse. 

One need not think too long about this reality; Trump freed the insurrectionists and police killers, but cracks down on college free speech, threatens law firms and Universities in a kind of extortion and is surrounded by lightweights like the national security cowboy text party and pole dancers or looney’s like Laura Loomer and Stephen Miller.  Already they’ve shredded the idea of due process, sending wrong people to El Salvador’s dark hole prison where people disappear. Who else might they come for? They've fired thousands of important workers, arbitrarily to our detriment.

REVENGES AND MALICE 

It is a knife to the heart that for the first time America has not been able to come to the assistance of those most in need of food, shelter, medicine, and assistance after disaster or the continued evil of war. Shame on us! In the past Americans flooded the zone with relief when humans were suffering. We sent only three relief experts into the quake zone and Trump fired them while they were there. His Rasputin, Elon the strange, said “empathy is a weakness.” Elon, that is dead wrong! That idea is evil. And that attitude is steering our ship of state into a turbulence of Trump and the unelected Musk’s own making.

 

It's past time for Donald Trump. 

 

It felt good for Millions of American citizens and more around the world to hit the streets and demonstrate against this tyrant fool, but that’s not going to knock him off the throne.

So Americans need to start thinking and talking about the need and means to separate Trump from power. Talk and foment and steal the spotlight from his own control of media. Social media, street protests, pushing a news agenda, conversations, wherever and however to raise the issue of deposing a tyrant.  

He is malignant and has created a toxic whirlwind. It is time for the storm to take him. Time to end the chaos. It is time to try to make the world more stable, safe, secure. Don’t you miss the security and value of 100 days ago. Dare you permit a thought of what 3 more years of Trump might do? It’s time to make him go away. Time to build a consensus. 

See you down the trail. 

 

 

A swelling anger in X America...

 

      The anger grows. Even those who voted for the fool are outraged. The courts are rebuffing the capricious ripping up of the federal system. America's reputation is broken. The richest man in the world has free rein and wants to nib into our most sensitive security secrets. Lives are damaged or destroyed by incompetence. Has there ever been such a mean spirit and depravity of soul in the White House? Has there ever been such a deplorable and malignant narcissist with so little knowledge, or skill to hold such power?

    Nearly 250 years of history and progression of self-governance shaken and hammered, beaten and attacked like a petulant demon brat slamming a precious gift on his crib floor as he dirties himself.

    There's a fellow on our local next door posts who I charitably describe as poorly educated and without a wit of knowledge of history, who yammers away as do others, "this is what he was elected to do." If that were so, why are millions of red state, red hatted red faced voters so angry their red republican congressman are now refusing to hold constituent meetings? I would say, too, he was not elected, even by red hatted Magats, to turn our back on our allies, attack our friends and become a kiss ass puppet of one of the truly evil and dangerous brutes in the world. He was not elected to upend veterans rights and access to medicine, or cut the welfare programs so many of his voters depend on. It doesn't matter they were all warned, they believed the lies and now he is destroying their lives too. He's engineered an economic tumble.

    This is what happens in an empire of lies, where revenge is life blood, where the only thing that counts is the mad man at the center and where incompetents bow obsequiously and murder any vestige of morality. Oh and the circle of sycophants extend beyond the cabinet, beyond the House and Senate, to those Universities and heavy hitter law firms, and newsrooms, who toil now in fear of the rotten and stinky bully. 

    But the Courts are holding, for now. There are journalists who remind us that some of those so called narco gangsters "really bad people," stuck in a dark hole El Salvador prison we are paying for, are people like students, refugees, a soccer coach. Their sin? Tattoos and a name the White House white supremicsts didn't like. No one voted for that.

    No one voted for one of the biggest recipients of federal money, an unelected meddler to cut aid to the starving and sick. No one voted for insurrectionists, "cop killers" and attackers, to be freed while college students are arrested or deported for exercising free speech. No one voted to have a chain saw taken to the intricate world of social security and medicare and medicare or to have their most private of records made public by teenaged hackers. No one voted for the vibrant market and healthy economy to suffer only to worsen because of a trade war started by a dolt.

    There is a swelling anger. My village's meeting hall, jammed beyond capacity was locked by the fire marshal as people lined the building, entrance ramps, listening in windows and open doors  to hear a Democratic Congressman give them some assurance that the America we trusted and believe in, the nation that some of us and our fathers and mothers or brothers and sisters served, the nation that struggles forward to provide human dignity and liberty, and to be a friend and ally to nations, that that nation and beacon still exists. That someone in Washington remembers who we profess to be, who we aspire to become, that we are a nation of law, that we are not a nation of selfish, care only for ourselves, narrow minded, uneducated, money worshiping would be mobsters, racists and fascists. 

    Childish and propaganda media think it's important to excoriate Democrats, who have yet to become an effective opposition. At least we know they told us how bad  it would be. Republicans remain the least honorable gaggle of ego, gas and goofballs in modern history. For 8 years they profess their disdain behind closed doors, but fold and cower in the presence of their blustering subjugator. They've abandoned the tradition of legislative power and a co-equal branch of government as quickly as any coward has run from a bully. They define shame.

    I maybe wrong. There may people who did vote for this. A couple of lines from Mark Twain come to mind; "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately defined by stupidity." Hence he offers this caution, "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

    This will take courage. This will take principle. This will take a belief in the aspiration of imperfect people who are better when we jointly seek a more perfect union.

   Stay focused. Keep cool. Tell it like it is. Do not suffer fools easily, but remember a lot of the fools who put us in this position, are just that, in the same boat as we are. We need to give them space, so they can count in the number of citizens who will stand against the destruction. We must think even red hats can learn and change their mind. 

    While the party system stumbles, citizens need to assert objectives. The elected officials work for us. The founders were wary of political parties. We are living validation of their concern.

    Now, enjoy the visual elements.....

    See you down the trail. 

Russian Puppet rules in X-America

         There are several takeaways from this nadir of American leadership.

        Trump is over his head and without a clue to how badly he is being used by Russia's Putin. 

        History recorded his lie about the Russian invasion. This amateur hour "tough guy" routine in the Oval will now be one of histories moments of ignominy. One would be right to assume this man has little if any knowledge of American history, no understanding of the complexity of the post 1945 structure of alliances and stability. I question if he knows about Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, or any of the ensuing chapters of the cold war and containment.       

    Trump's talent is being a blow hard hustler who fancies himself a mob boss. It sickens millions of Americans this low brow miscreant has officially abandoned any sense of honor. The moment above is the absolute lowest and sleaziest point in abandoning American honor. 

    Joe and Kathy Sixpack, your President just tossed an ally and signed this X-nation onto Putin's side. Putin violated Ukraine's sovereignty and by the invasion also thumbed his nose at the world's commitment to the Westphalian System of world order which more or less has been the thread of wisdom that has been repeatedly used to end wars and try to maintain world order. It's the spine of the UN and it is the principle that recognizes national sovereignty. It's been the go to concept since 1647 and has always been enshrined since the first American President entered the flow of history after that. I'm guessing Donald J Trump has never heard of the system. He certainly doesn't recognize the principle of honor, or loyalty to a suffering ally. 

    We knew in Helsinki when he bid his faith to Putin instead of the American intelligence and national security communities. How many times did republicans have to remove the head of the evil snake since then? Let's see how they stand on this. Will they too become Russian backers.

    If those citizens who voted for Trump are not upset by this despicable, dishonorable, and dangerous show boating, then they are either more ignorant of history and decency than I previously reasoned, or they are simply Russian puppets too. Perhaps just plain stupid. You have to be a fool or stupid or both, to back Russia on the invasion of Ukraine, despite how your president lies about it. The world knows.

    Remember all of the talk about low propensity voters making a difference for trump. That is akin to wading in a swamp and thinking you can turn the leaches into shrimp. Now they are Magats. 

    In the long annals of American diplomacy and world affairs, this breaks and destroys what has been centuries of American valor, leadership and respect. Trump is akin to bringing lice and rats into the Nobel peace hall. He broke a precious commodity that has helped keep the world stable. And he doesn't care. He's oblivious to the larger play here, or the the play coming two or three moves down the board. He is, to quote his first secretary of state, a "fucking idiot."

    This is new to this nation. A President who sides with a tricky Russian adversary who has been screwing with American public opinion since the first time this foolish man, this picture of aberrant self infatuation first descended the gold escalator. While trump was calling the New York tabloid press about his love life, Vladimir Putin was an embittered but well schooled KGB officer. Tough, ruthless and with visions of grandeur. When it comes to personal delusions, the x-American con man is all gas, the Russian is a real killer. 

    Do Americans really want to turn Ukraine over to Russia? Do we want to abandon principles of alliance? I was irate the hustler was trying to force Ukraine to sign over its precious materials. In any other situation that would be extortion, a shakedown. So X-America your hustler con man just did the unthinkable and turned you into a nation kissing up to a butcher of his own nation. What's coming next in this nation of disgrace?

    Be strong. If I were a young man I'd be organizing. We need food lines and food supplies, we need places to shelter many many people. We need medicine.  We need to stock up, get tough. A general strike, stopping everything, sending a message to the market, sending a message to the world might have impact. This administration has done nothing well. Its intent is to build a loyalty to a man who has no respect for law or honor. Read the warnings. He's a nasty human who loves only himself. He's mean and mean spirited. And he just blew up two centuries of world leadership. And, the world is turning.....

    See you down the trail.

X-America- It's feeding time.

 X-AMERICA-IT’S FEEDING TIME

 

            Giving him a month to launch seemed fair, but we’ve seen enough. Seems like 6 months, doesn’t it, since the retread raised the curtain on his new reality show, an hallucinogenic cartoon tragedy. Sad, but it’s real. The USA has become X-America.

            The Presidential avatar Trumpty Dumpty, and the billionaire buddies are undertaking a chop shop take down of two centuries of federalism; congressionally written laws, regulations, balance of power-three branches of government all under threat as the MAGAt’s begin greasing the skids to write themselves fat checks. Fewer guidelines on business, no oversight of contracts and legalities and we are on the road to a fat cat capitalism that compelled Teddy Roosevelt, the 26^th President, to say enough is enough to his wealthy Republican party. 

He called it the “Square Deal” busting trusts, enacting corporate law and creating consumer protection, essentially the mirror opposite of what the 21^st Century Republicans and number 47 is doing. Let’s call Dumpty’s the “Raw Deal” with lots of red meat for the meat heads.  

The clown car cabinet is moving in to read the cue cards as they trash the government agencies they won in the “kiss his royal Hiney” audition. Tech geek teens with no security clearance are hacking government computers as unauthorized agents of a fabricated non authorized DOGE, a would-be Gestapo, screws around with finances, operating and administrative systems and sensitive data. Already government employees are noticing breaches of security in their personal information and financial records. Who’s next?. Thank you DOGE.

            That should be frightening to you. It is illegal. It is a breach of the complex eco-system of the federal government, a living experiment in self-rule. But there are a couple of other side shows that reveal how awful this administration is.

            The retread, weaving and vamping as bemuses himself, decides he wants a new beach for the next Trumpty Dumpty resort in sunny Gaza, summarily dismissing the people who own the land and who once lived there before it became the scene of war crimes committed by Hamas and the Israeli Defense forces using X-America made bombs.  I don’t think there has been a moment in history where a President declares we are “taking” a nation, sending the people fleeing so he can build  “a beautiful resort.” There’s yet another signal of how stupid they are.

            The dried out macho jive artist known as Pete the pole dancer pretending to be a Secretary of Defense brought many of us to battle stations when he pimped for Trumpty Dumpty who in turn had been pimping for Russia’s Putin.  Right there on camera, before the entire world, he played one of the weakest, self-destructive, negotiating leads ever! More disgustingly he showed X-America’s  true colors by abandoning Ukraine and ruling out NATO. Slick Pete may have thought he was truly as slick as his hair, but his entire performance and demeanor on the stage with world statesmen looked like that of junior college debater in a league of diplomats. 

#47 may have convinced TV viewers he was a mogul, but he is an amateur at statecraft. Let’s not forget what those who served him in his first debacle said, a “fucking idiot” according to his first Secretary of State. Have you noticed how world leaders are now referring to the US as the “Trump Administration.” Normally nations refer to each other as nations, using the name. Now the shorthand is the Trump administration which is diplomatic code meaning the bunko artist with the metastacized ego is back.

Are there reforms to government that are in order? Absolutely. Does the person elected by the majority of voters deserve a chance to run his own program? Absolutely. Have Democrats and the previous administration been true to our ideals and accepted the election as fair? Absolutely, unlike Dumpty who sulked and lied for 4 years, after leading an insurrection and who plotted revenge including the release of criminals who attacked police officers.  

The “raw deal” is here but there is a glimmer of hope. This nation has for almost 250 years wrestled with itself, its own spotty history, the rising and falling of our worst desires and our better angels. There have been other louts, liars, corrupt, venal and maybe even evil men in the office and in congress, Trumpty Dumpty is not the first.  All of those X-Americans who supported him and who are not surprised or shocked by his actions prove that today’s America is full of people who are not paying attention or are listening only to propaganda. Or they don’t know history or never studied civics. Or they are stupid. Some just may be venal, which is becoming epidemic.

But there is evidence some of those, who for their own reasons, voted for Dumpty are now feigning surprise or shock. What did I say about paying attention? So, to the 838 Billion dollar savant in the room. Years ago I wrote glowingly about the brilliance of Elon Musk. He is a visionary, a smart assembler of scientists, a man with a drive. In the early days he was focused on making new things happen. Since then he’s been struck by “celebrity,” has amassed a posse of sycophants and hangers on and has begun to dabble in power. Well, it’s more than dabbling now. Because of his money, his tech and communications influence, he is probably more than any other individual and group responsible for Dumpty’s election. He’s eminently more intelligent than #47 who was a TV performer, and a fraudulent and bankrupt real estate hustler. He's richer Dumpty. But Mr. Musk is out of his element in the deep history of statecraft, governance and the tricky, complex and arduous work of keeping a federal government, a democratic republic, an experiment in self-government, alive. He has no experience. No skill like that. 

It is not a business, it is the people’s business. It is not the chairman and ceo dictating policy to a board, it is the will of the people working, even painstakingly and frustratingly slow, through a time-honored process of election, legislation, compromise and a value for the greater good of all. It’s hard, does not always work smoothly, rises and falls based on the character and skill of those to whom we entrust the levers of government. Musk has a right to be frustrated. All of us are frustrated by levels of bureaucracy and pockets of inefficiency. But he has no right to turn hackers loose on ripping out systems. He has no moral claim to summarily dismiss entire levels of civil service. He is boneheaded naïve and stupid to undermine human life and increase human suffering. That is abhorrently true in the case of US AID.

Musk was not elected, has not been vetted by the advice and counsel of the legislative branch, has helped to fire or shut down the Inspector Generals who were there to make sure no one robs the people, bends government to his favor. It is a fact he does not have the power and authority to do what he is doing. Advise the president yes, he can do that, but he’s  become the puppet master. Dumpty is  again the stooge. Putin has played Dumpty as a stooge for 10 years, Musk is playing him now. We the people, are on the short end of the stick. We the people elected this retread failure. Elections have consequence. 

It's show time in X-America. Episode one is feeding time. Watch the rich get richer. Watch the consumer prices when Dumpty does his best William McKinley with tariffs. Watch the damage that petulant amateurs can do, as the right wing zealot cabal behind 2025 play their meticulously crafted evil plan to destroy the American federal government. There’s still a play by the people, for the people. But you have to pay attention. 

 

Signing off from the John Steinbeck home in Salinas. We are way east of Eden. 

See you down the trail.