American Beliefs at War

 

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.                                                                             Robert Heinlein                                                                        writer, aeronautical engineer  

    The norm shattering of the last four years, as much of an assault on American values as it has been, is coming now to its dark maturity. 

    Beginning with his inauguration he worked to divide America. Now Donald Trump prepares to take America to war.

    The examination ahead will be frank, and difficult to abide so before we begin with a few scenes from a recent walk on the shore. May they be pleasing and soothe our troubled hearts.

History is the only register of crimes and misfortunes.                                             Voltaire

    Trump's behavior since being rejected by a record number of Americans has been to sabotage the nation. People were shocked to learn he explored options for a war against Iraq after replacing top military command officials.

    He continues to violate the Presidential Records Act by destroying files and papers. Some staff have surreptitiously tried to tape and stash documents.

    His delay in transition will only worsen the pandemic he ignored and lied about. It puts our national security on uneven ground.

    Trying to leverage his bent for an authoritarian control of the government he's signaled his supporters to refuse to accept the legitimacy of the new government. His supporters march and violence follows. It is the type of thing we see in some nations and we have seen it in history. 

    The "Brown Shirts" and the Storm Division paramilitary supporters of populist demagogue and madman Adolf Hitler began with demonstrations and street fights in 1924. 

     They were "militias," supporters of a movement leader who demanded loyalty. The appeal was based on grievances, anger  and division.

    Fix in your mind how Trump took over the Republican party by bullying and grievance. Adolph Hitler went from outsider and built a non conventional base of the disaffected. His Nazi movement, a fringe element, gained enough power in the Conservative coalition,  that it could not rule without him. That was in 1932. By 1933 Hitler was elected Chancellor and he dismissed the Parliment.

        The Nazi Party established control of the courts and controlled the judges. Those who spoke against him were run through a mock judicial process. The free press was attacked, opposition groups were run over by Nazi paramilitary. The Dachau concentration camp was built in 1933, others followed and we know the history. The regime lied, repeatedly. 

    The Nazis were specialists at propaganda and image with the intent of brainwashing. They didn't need a Fox News they had Joesph Goebbels a government minister of propaganda.

     Most Fox News viewers fail to know its founder was also a propagandist. Roger Ailes was Richard Nixon's television producer and advisor. Later he worked for Ronald Reagan, to help with spin and party line. He advised the Bush campaigns. 

    Most news organizations evolved from a role of public service. Fox News began with a mission to spin, and to tilt right. That is to be a propaganda mill.

    A document found in the Richard Nixon library outlines the first draft of Fox News. Ailes authored "A Plan for Putting the GOP on Television." The idea was to put party doctrine over fair and balanced reporting over what Ailes said was the "bias" of journalism. Years later it was a cruel irony then,  when Ailes launched the conservative to right wing news network using "fair and balanced" as their moniker. I suspect his karma is still in deficit. 

    Ailes and Trump were a match. Ailes like Trump was thrice married and like Trump a sexual predator. In fact allegations of sexual harrassment by 23 women forced his resignation in disgrace. But he created a monster in America, a "news by flavor" outlet that in truth functions as a mouth piece, a propagandist for right wing Republican politics. But no more. Most traditional conservatives and Republicans have left the party to fight back with their own words and pictures. Fox News helped to kill the Republican party, helping turn it into a Trumpist party.

    Trump, an egoist, learned early he could use TV by breaking norms. People who have studied him, see similarities in his speaking manner to another "right wing crack pot."

    Trump often strikes poses similar to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. 

    Mussolini was also a narcissist. The pouting face, jutting jaw

   crossed arms and fist making hand gestures are frequent 

     Trump moves. History is always revealing.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Mark Twain

    

    The scene above, of a Nazi rally should be particularly chilling, especially to those who say it can't happen here.

    That image is Madison Square Garden, 1939.

     "Americanism" and America First were catch phrases of a far right wing to conservative sentiment.

    20 Thousand Americans filled the Garden that night to celebrate George Washington's birthday.

    At the next "Stop the Steal" or "Four More Years" rally, as people clearly ignore the facts, certified even by Trump apointees in government, you may feel a quick retraction of time.

    Street violence is a tool. Another attack on our belief in our system.

      History may indeed repeat, if we are ignorant of it. Ignorance is a fuel for populists. Ignorance is rampant in America now.

       Trump's refusal to cooperate with a transition is a belligerent personal act of narcissistic defiance, but it is also dangerous and undermining.

    He has been a divider for four years. He has worked since 2016 to erode the credibility of our electoral process and our American traditions and norms, which have been a standard for the world, a beacon of democracy. 

    It appears he plans to stay vocal. That serves him personally as he can continue to fund raise. It serves him to have a pulpit from which to spew, to prance and dance and bathe in the adoration of the ignorant. But it also divides this nation. It drives hatred into the heart of the body politic. It is a cancer to the sinews and muscle of the Republic that has held, except for the civil war. And there again the eyes of history are on us.

And so are other eyes.

    Generations of our children and grand children deserve better than what they see in us now. A democratic republic is hard work. But for most of two and half centuries we have observed norms, traditions, respected honesty, searched for fact and truth. Donald Trump does none of that and each day  he remains the toxic being he is, he moves us closer to the battle lines, in our own nation, and unless he is checked, perhaps in some war making effort abroad. 

    We've had our fill of mistaken foreign wars. We've survived a a civil war. Donald Trump is a fuse.

    There is no longer any decent explanation for supporting him, as a citizen or as a member of the Senate. He lost, fair and square. His law suites are without a cause. There is another reason he deserves no support, he is evil.

    Authoritarianism is growing. Trumpism is likely to survive, for a while at least. Fighting that is in our interest, but it will be a detailed process and it involves fellow citizens, abused humans. We'll look at that fight in future posts. 

    The past should be remembered, and the future should be honored. 

    Stay safe. Stay well. Be vigilant.

    See you down the trail.

American Petulance

 

      Historic passages are fraught with peril even when intentions are honorable. American history is presently being cast in the shadow a mad tyrant and his coterie of cowards making pact with our enemies. It is a time of subversion and carnage.  

    understatement

       President-elect Joe Biden was understated when he called Trump's behavior "embarrassing."  However you describe it, it is also dangerous. 

    Several national security and military experts have emphasized periods of transition are high alert times anyway. Trumps decapitating of our intelligence, security and defense communities is irresponsible and in some minds, traitorous.

    His behavior remains unAmerican as he continues to defy norms and intentionally seeks to undermine citizen's trust. He has no respect for the traditions that have given this diverse and rancorous nation a sense of center and cohesion.

    This is the first transition in 220 years that has not been honorable. He is the first president not to concede. That should tell everyone he is exactly what was said of him in 2015; Unfit, unqualified and lacking character. Now the loser is like a petulant punk and so, he is bent on destruction.  Sadly he has allies.                    

republican extinction

    Honor and decency have fled the Republican party and today it is nothing more than a gaggle of spineless accomplices. That is bad for the nation, destructive of the party of Lincoln and ever more a brownshirt and nazi like cult. 

    I take no pride in warning here 4 years ago we were witnessing the rise of an authoritarian regime, a slow moving coup borrowing from how the nazi's brainwashed a German nation. Others saw it as well. 

    It is important to know history and to pay close attention to the complexity of governance and to watch social norms. As a nation we have failed on this last point. Some of us were chastised for our take down of Donald Trump and the refusal of Republicans, those in office and those of rank and history, to call out the man who cares only for himself.

    Senate leader McConnell was technically correct in saying there are "options available" to the president, but there was no truth in the Trump allegations and McConnell knows that and he could see the American public soundly rejected Trump.

    McConnell is a hollow soul, there is only duplicity, greed, and a sycophant's cancerous black hole where there should be a heart. Honor and decency would be like a silver stake. He is a jackal in human form and a racist to boot.

    Bill Barr has so anguished Department of Justice professionals, past and present as to give rise to a sentiment that drawing and quartering would be an apt sentence for this delusional behemoth in horn rims. He is Trump's personal beast of burden as they lumber and hulk their way on a path of shame as they rape and bludgeon lady liberty and try to steal America.

where is courage

    How many times in the last couple of years have you heard someone ask, "what is wrong with the Republicans?"  I have wondered why some in the senate, traditionalists, have not yelled "enough is enough!"

    Trump took over and now rules the republican party. Politicians fear him. They worry he will sick his frenzied cult following on them by supporting an opponent, cutting off their life support to stand next to the till as Trump Inc. plunders public money, gives it to wealthy friends and to himself, destroys American credibility, rips apart our nation, plays the Russian stooge and dances with the devil.

    I've been reminded I should be about reconciliation and lowering the volume, but just in case no one sees what's happening here, I cannot hold my tongue. At least this leaves a record to surf algorithms for my grand kids. 

    I understand there are philosophical, political, and analytical differences. I get that people have their favorites and reasons for liking or disliking candidates. There is so much poison in the political system it is a challenge to navigate the truth, and facts. 

    Trump does not respect truth and is ignorant of many, many facts. So, regardless of your "politics," if you were one of the 70 some million who voted for him, you have ignored the truth and are ignorant of glaringly public facts. You may not like the other candidates or the other party, or their sense of things, but at least they are in touch with reality. You cannot make that claim of Donald Trump. To ignore all that he has done and all that he is doing now would have made you a good candidate to have been one of the supporters of the Nazi and fascist movement in the last century. You are how history goes so dark, and how human decency and logic is overwhelmed by madness and ignorance and grievance. 

    By the way the tax fraud who pretended to be an executive, the liar who bullied his way into leadership of the Republican party, the sexual predator who blundered this nation into ripping apart at the seams getting sick by the millions, and making the world unsafe by playing with dictators, lost the election. And you know what else, he will soon owe Russian mobsters and others some hundreds of millions in loans due, because he's the guy wrote "the art of the deal."

     Oh and there are several jurisdictions who have some legal questions to ask him. So, please for own sanity say to "the Donald," you're fired! The rest of us have. We have to live together and jointly should send Trump to the ash pile of ignominy. 

     Stay safe. Stay vigilant.

     See you down the trail.

    

    

American Gratitude-Thank You Women

 she landed it!

    The Women's march that began as a spasm of reaction to the 2016 Russian assisted and colluded election ends this weekend with the celebratory outbreaks across America.

    The resistance to a criminal administration has been motivated time and time again by that movement. 

     We'll spend a lot of time reading the entrails, analyzing the demographics, trying to understand and explain the vote. The early take, women won this election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They were the bedrock of activism, political organization and most importantly they delivered the vote.

      Hats off to many women, Secretaries of State, and voter registration and vote count managers who we saw interviewed repeatedly as an anxious nation awaited.

     A movement that mobilized in 2016 was joined later by the women who organized BLM.  It was an historic vote turn out and we thank the women who provided the spark.

    Congratulations America, listen carefully and you can hear Lady Liberty sigh in relief.

     See you down the trail.

America in Waiting

 

                    President Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Indianapolis courtesy photo

    As America waits I share history and sentiment. I spent a lot of time at this wonderful historic site, serving on the board and eventually as president of the Benjamin Harrison Home board of directors. There is a connection to where we are now.

        Harrison was elected in 1888, defeating Grover Cleveland in a campaign that had its share of controversy and dispute. Harrison, who had served in the Senate, lost the popular vote by 90 thousand but won the electoral college 233 to 168. Almost 80% of eligible voters, some 11million, cast their ballots.

    Harrison was an advocate of civil rights and voting rights but America at that time was not ready. It would be another 32 years before women were extended the right to vote. Harrison spoke often in favor of African American rights. Most modern Americans know little if any of Benjamin Harrison, who's Grandfather was William Henry Harrison, the 9th President. He was also the great grandson of a name sake who signed the Declaration of Independence. Dispute over tariffs cost him his re-election bid, as he was defeated by Cleveland, the man he beat four years earlier. His one term is a rich tapestry of an emerging American nation on the cusp of the 20th Century.

    Watching recent campaigns painfully serves to inform how poorly educated we Americans are about our history. The last 4 years has been a catalogue of ignorance and lies. If we knew our history, perhaps we'd be better citizens. 

    The 2020 campaign will be studied as an oddity. There will be volumes to come but already Tom Friedman writes the US is the loser in this election.

    "We have just experienced four year of the most divisive and dishonest presidency in American history, which attacked the twin pillars of our democracy-truth and trust." Friedman wrote and I agree.

    My Irish friend Jack, a devotee of US history and culture, wrote to me on election day with a powerful assessment I share here.

    This could be a day of days or the end of days.

I expect Joe Biden to be elected with a significant majority in the Electoral College and a big majority in the popular vote.

However, if Trump is re-elected the American people will not be able to claim that they did not know what 4 more years of Trump will entail, even if the Democrats take the Senate. They will have chosen corruption, moral bankruptcy, division, lies, lies and more lies. The US will be shown to no longer be a democracy. It will be a plutocracy, put in place by the Supreme Court (Citizens United), enabled by the Supreme Court (the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act) and by a once great political party, the party of Lincoln; a bandit country in which people armed with weapons capable of firing 60 rounds a minute can invade a state capitol without hindrance or consequence (Supreme Court on 2nd amendment; a justice system which is getting more and more unjust; a country in which civil rights are in retreat; a country which is a pariah in the world; a country which is reaping the harvest of a criminal lack of investment in public education and no investment in public health (socialism!); a country in which the First Amendment right to protest will be suppressed by troups, whether federal, National Guard, ICE or other; a country where the media have been captured by the plutocracy (Murdoch/Fox 'News', spreading like a malevolent virus across the nation, shutting down local newspapers, radio and television); a country where JFK's 'Ask not what your country can do for you...' would be laughed at... I could go on. We all could. The list is endless and the 'appalling vista' (Lord Denning in Bermingham 6 appeal) would become a rooted reality in a once great country, a country to which the free world (does it exist anymore?) looked for leadership.

It is staggering that it has come to this but, as many have pointed out, this did not start with Trump, it has been many years in the making.

Let's pray that Biden's election will be the first step in the re-building of the USA, a re-building that will take generations, a re-buildng that so many good, decent Americans of all political hues deserve.

    It is truth and logic. I am embarrassed at America's decline in the eyes of the world. I am embarrassed by Trump, his destruction of the Republican party, and those who support him and condone his attack on truth and trust. His gains for his partisans are not worth the destruction he has rendered.

   It troubles me this nation has descended where millions can condone unAmerican and boorish behavior by a man who is ultimately a Russian stooge playing a starring role in sowing division, discord and eroding our confidence and trust in who we are. He did it for his own aggrandizement. It is a fact that we cannot dismiss. And as we pick through the next four years and beyond, it is a recent history we must account for. He fueled it for gain and greed and we are a divided people.

    There is work to do, rebuilding the United States, despite ourselves. We hope the days of the divider, working only for his base, are over. We need a uniter, a healer, a president for all Americans and a leader for the world. 

    For the time being, stay positive. Catch up on your sleep.

       Thanks to Bruce, the editor.

       See you down the trail.

America Enduring

      When respected historians tell us our political drama is without precedent we understand we face uncertainty.The last 4 years tells us we face challenges, difficult challenges. 

    One of the most used adjectives of our era is existential, often paired with threat. The days ahead will test resolve, will, and our belief in the constitutionally coded aspirations of our democratic republic.

fault line warnings

    It foreshadows what may come when a headline reads the "President maintained control" in a debate. Simply making a nod to being to being civil obfuscates there was nothing new, just more of the same old boasts, self worship, lies, of course lies, and bogus allegations coming out of a foreign intelligence playbook to divide us and to sew doubts. But much was made of the style. Again appearance trumps substance. It repeats a pattern of the last four years; diversion, something else to talk about, a new bright shiny object.

     Joe Biden is a known commodity. An old fashioned centrist to liberal Democrat who knows how government and foreign policy works. Donald Trump is a clinical narcissist with a history of fraud, racism, personal scandal, sexual abuse and failure after failure with the exception of a reality television show. This has been obvious to the world. 

      Still, the nation is divided over these men and what they represent about human dignity, liberty, science and health. A choice will be made, a leader chosen and we will find a way to live with the consequence.

      This writer has a preferred hope for the future.

   The ideas from both ends of Pennsylvania Ave will soothe the troubled soul of the Republic, once Trump is removed, deposed by the majority will and this is no small point. 

    It is a season of change and US citizens are exercising their franchise at an historic early pace. The will of the majority is an

   awesome and powerful force, the rock solid granite mountain of our constitution. 

    Since the founding, the US has done a slow walk toward greater emancipation for all souls. As bright as the originators were, they were captive of their age that approved slavery, saw women as not fully vested citizens, Blacks as property and even then with a worth only 3/5 of a white man.

    Still, they provided for majority rule, gave us the structure of a government of law, provided for flexibility in the constitution, laid the path for law making, and established three branches of government to be a check and balance on each other. The American story has been the expansion of liberty, human dignity and the sacredness of the vote, giving the power to the citizen. We voters hire and fire our political representatives.

gaming the system    

    Only 5 times in US history have those who won the majority of the vote been denied the Presidency and two of those have been in the last 20 years. Al Gore was more popular than George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton more popular than Donald Trump.

     Not only was the will of the majority cheated but a deep cancer was set upon the American nation. The majority of the sitting US Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Presidents who were rejected by the majority of American citizens. Let that sink in.

    The Republican party's lies and duplicity, going back to the denial of an appointment to President Obama and the rush job to put an anti abortion Coney-Barrett on the court is the icon symbol for how the court is being steered further away from the wishes and will of most Americans. That reality threatens fairness, justice and could erode confidence in the Supreme Court itself. Enemies of the US must be delighted by this.

      The Electoral College, the allotment of the US Senate, and the Republican packing of the Judiciary undermines the fundamental need for majority rule. The vote of each citizen, the expression of their wishes, is foundational to the legitimacy of the government. It makes no difference where they live. 

    As it is now and unless efforts are made to change it, we are on a path where the majority of Americans can be under represented, while a minority, gaming the system, can be over represented. 

    In the days ahead we need to be vigilant about vote integrity, access and calculation. And we need to be diligent about gaming the antiquated and now dangerous electoral college system again.

    

the trump believers    

    Trump's ineptitude and unfitness has delivered nothing but failure and decline with a couple of exceptions, based on your perspective. 

    The Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell used him to fill the federal judiciary with conservatives, at best, to right wing zealots and many lacking what had been previously required experience. They've done so in an effort to undo the Affordable Care act, upend Roe V. Wade and to drive the judiciary into a direction that is on a different page than the majority of Americans and even more distant from the attitudes of millions more in upcoming generations. That is dangerous. 

    The Trump republican party did a favor for their wealthiest supporters, by giving them another tax cut, and by bailing out banks and corporations while being miserly on the Covid relief aid given to working citizens and small businesses. The House passed a wide ranging help to cities, states and working people months ago, but the Trump administration and his senate republicans are so dysfunctional they can't agree amongst themselves and they've delayed vital aid.

    To his credit the administration was able to extend a peace framework for Israel and a couple of small Arab nations. 

But his foreign policy failures overshadow that. 

    He's been played by North Korea, he's hurt US farmers with his failed China trade policies, he's been a laughing stock amongst old allies, he's tried to weaken alliances, he's allowed Iran to advance work on a bomb, he's been a regressive on the Climate Accords, so that corporations, cities and states have gone around him. He's tried to destroy the EPA, the Department of State, and he is vilified by the intelligence community and the Pentagon, both of whom he has tried to undermine. Most of all he has been a stooge for Russia's Putin. Some of his behavior could be traitorous. On at least 10 occasions he tried to obstruct justice. He's continued to run business enterprises enriching his own bank account. He's told more than 20 thousand lies, has failed to keep campaign pledges to build a wall, re open coal mines, bring back manufacturing, repair the infrastructure or drain the swamp. He set a record for the number of people in his administration who have been convicted of crimes. He faces a slew of potential criminal charges himself, and so does his family members who have violated nepotism principles. He is responsible for thousands of deaths from Covid because of failed leadership. He's continued to flaunt safety guidelines and has been responsible for super spreader events. And there is more, but still he has supporters. How is that possible? Who with a working brain can find any reason to support him? 

    Biden's accomplishments fills volumes, but perhaps the most important thing in his resume is his humanity, humility, empathy, and the enduring respect that he gets from Republicans, Democrats, military leaders, foreign policy and  health care experts. On every scale, Biden is a better person, and a better choice. But millions will vote for Trump!

 what to do about the divide

   Of course the best outcome is a landslide win for Biden-Harris, a change of Senate Majority, and Trump's peaceful departure from office. If we are so lucky that still leaves the people who voted for Trump. Biden will reach out to them and will try to show that we are one nation. 

    But when 25% of the US believe the ludicrous Q Anon goofiness, we've got problems. When armed militia knuckleheads storm statehouses or plan kidnappings and prepare for a war, we've got problems. When you simply look at the vehemence or listen to Trump supporters, you know you don't want to live next door to them and we've got problems.

When they believe anything Trump says, we've got problems.

They are not going away, and as simplistic, poorly informed, fabulist, or just stupid as their reasons are, they are entitled to them.

    The challenge is to find a way back to a standard of government that is honest, open and unifying. A more civil public discourse. Less frantic madness from the White House.

     Seeing Trump crushed, and then legally pursued, clearing the senate of the Trumpistas and enablers, may be enough of a reality check that some of the Trump nation will put down the kool aid and rejoin reality. 

    This is not China so we won't build reeducation camps, this is not North Korea so we will not kill or imprison them, this is not Russia so we will not poison them. But we do need to find a way to live with them. 

    We also need to change a lot of things. Trump is a poster boy for a nation that has failed to teach civics and history and personal responsibility as citizens. He is poster boy for a nation that celebrates celebrity and would rather engage in consumerism than thought. He is a poster boy for a nation where people will defy science and their own best interest by refusing to wear a mask or to socially distance in the middle of the most deadly pandemic of a lifetime. 

changes to make

    There is need for more care and concern for others. We need to find a way to teach critical reasoning, certainly to all upcoming children, but even to adults. We need to find a way to teach media literacy.

    People should be able to recognize propaganda when they see it. Folks should be smart enough to call a bull shit artist for who they are whatever their name, channel, or political office. We need to find a way where religion is not a rallying cry for division or political vengeance, judgementalism and pain, but a force for serving, uplift, compassion and caring. We need to find a way to publicly fund elections, eliminating the big money, and ending the election industry, and the idea that government is a business. 

    None of this will be easy. But the US has been broken by a devotion to the temporal, and ignoring the role of the citizen. When we are distracted, the bad players gain ground. Each one of us is responsible to uphold and advance the republic with our devotion to principles of human dignity, liberty, the commonweal, stewardship of natural resources that flow to those who will follow us centuries hence. We should all care about standards of living, health care, education and access for all. Electing Joe Biden will not make all of this happen, but it will improve the atmosphere and character of Washington. It will also flush out the malevolence Trump.

party time

     The founders were not enamored with the idea of political parties. Our party structure today is not what it was once. Once upon a time in America, compromise and public good went hand in hand with philosophic differences and party affiliation.

That was before Newt Gingrich made political collegiality a dirty word. This post is long enough, but suffice it to say there are many who say Gingrich's scorched earth style was a foundational enabler to the politics that destroyed the old GOP and made Donald Trump possible. 

    Joe Biden was around before Gingrich and he remembers how it used to work, and it did work. Maybe Old Joe can teach us old tricks. Maybe he can take us back to the future. Maybe Joe can show us the way to Make America Great Again-the United States of America.

a changing of the guard

   My thanks to James Kranzthor, a reader, for this remarkable photo of vultures over looking the Cambria shoreline. Thanks to his wife Lauren for sending the photo to us. 

    As we head into the election finale, I can think of no better image to close the post. 

     Let's dedicate this stunning shot to the last days of Trump and his gang.

    The other nature photos in this post are from our beloved eastern slope of the High Sierras.  

      Stay safe.

      See you down the trail.

Erratic and Menacing in America---ENDING IT!

take him out

       Talk of implementing the 25th Amendment to end the reign of madness has raised the stakes, but it is overdue.

        As reprehensible as it is, Trump's deceptions, lies and full on fantasy could be tolerated if he were not such a stupid man.   

        Many politicians lie or stretch the truth, but no one ever has so abused the truth as Trump, and no President has so abused law, the constitution, convention, protocol, tradition and the aspirational code that has held our democratic republic together. Now, perhaps because of the medicine, or a further break from reality, this malignant narcissist, is acting so irrationally, being so erratic and talking such lunacy he is no longer capable or fit to serve, not that he ever was. In Russia, North Korea, or some of the other strongman nations he cherishes, he would be shot or poisoned.

        Here, to protect him from the violent or traitor's end he may well deserve, we have law and procedure, the very mechanics he never bothered to study, was capable of understanding, or even respect. 

        When you or I talk about invoking the 25th, well it's just amateur hour, but when the Speaker of the House raises it, it become another chapter in the nation's history. 

        There is a confluence of undeniable that will denote Trump; he was impeached, congressional leaders urged use of the 25th because he was unable to perform his duty, and he was never approved by a majority of citizens.

        My worst fear is beginning to emerge. Trump is playing a superman role and is trying to further diminish the consequence of the virus he so mismanaged that he too became a patient. His discounting of the disease is an offense to the families of and those who have perished or suffered seriously. There are now more active cases of covid in the White House than in some nations.

       Under treatment,  though flaunting safety guidelines, Trump has begun to display manic behavior, raging and raving. He needs to be given a time out. Mike Pence could earn a somewhat revered place in American history, if he were to work with Pelosi, Cabinet members and senior Congressional leadership to bench the raving Trump until he is off the medical treatment. Instead he will likely defer, kowtow as Senate Republicans have, furthering enabling the unstable leader. For his efforts Pence will be remembered as a subservient errand boy to one of the worst presidents.  

       Trump was never qualified, fit, nor did he have the character to be President. Trump on steroids is more than an American nightmare, it is a danger to the republic and the world.  

voting has never been more important

      It's a new day for this old reporter, becoming an early voter. 

      Always enjoyed the banter and ambiance of a polling place. Being a journalist I skipped most primary elections, as one needed to declare party affiliation, but I always loved election day, from the casting of the ballot to those late nights on duty, on the air, reporting the results. And the even later night gathering of the team, exhaling, relaxing and decompressing in a pub. There is no experience like election night, the finish line of months of work and prep. But this year it will be different. 

     Has the dawn begun on a new chapter? The early voting is said to be at record setting levels. Certainly the nation is motivated.

    No longer needing to prep for my slot at the anchor desk, my old research instincts get a little workout on assessing the multiple propositions that fill a California ballot.

   We debated waiting until election day to vote in person, but given the vagaries of the pandemic and the additional load that in person voting puts on election officials, also concerned for their health, we opted for the early vote.

 

    This post was intended to be a gentle reminder of the importance of a vote, but the most recent behavior of you know who and the official worry about his erratic actions inspired another direction. I beg the indulgence of you loyal readers.

    I opine and journal as much for my grand children as for our contemporaries. I hope that someday my daughters may use these offerings to help provide insight and understanding into a time that will be history to their children. It may also reveal the ideas and beliefs of Poppy, that old guy in the family photos or their memory. My parents were active participants in government, politics and the affairs of citizenship. To develop a view, and then contribute to the public square is our opportunity and our obligation. I want my grand children to know and understand that.

a tomato with a schnoz

   One of the cherry tomatoes in Lana's crop, presented with a bit of a beak. Hope that might prompt a smile and the scenery might bring a moment of peace.

       Hope that better days are about to dawn.

     Stay safe and stay well.

     See you down the trail.

Debate America

 

presidential debate: a foggy forecast

   The big winner are the vendors providing the coffee and snacks for the meetings underway at the networks, newspapers, campaign leadership and the debate commission offices or zoom meetings. 

    There's a lot of thrashing to do before another debate goes up. Once again American cultural norms have been savaged by the spurious mongrel called Trump.

Photo by Doug Mills New York Times

    We'll see if suggestions the next two debates be scrapped gains any traction. The Florida Town Hall format doesn't assure a better result. If Trump can't abide by rules, we cannot expect his supporters to behave as though they have been house broken either. 

scoring

• Biden did not hurt himself. Trump did not help himself. 
• Republicans have tried to distance themselves, a signal          Trump pooped on his efforts to get swing voters. One of Frank Luntz's focus group, Ruthie from PA said she was undecided going into the debate, but will vote for Biden becasue Trump behaved like a "crackhead."
• Biden answered any questions about his agility. He was able to hold focus and communicate with voters despite having Trump yammering away. Biden can handle any crisis or critical decision to be made in the Oval Office and there will be no bully clown in the room.
• There was a significant tune out as the melee continued meaning a lot of people are fed up with Trump and his  fouling of America. 

     now what

     One of the Murdoch's had Champaign waiting for Chris Wallace when he arrived home from Cleveland. He said he did not feel like celebrating.

     He was off balance and flustered, but in fairness he had no tool to use but reason and a louder voice and those would fail against Trump in his best "Il Duce" drag.

     In 42 years of journalism and broadcasting I moderated many debates, but never encountered anyone as ignorantly belligerent as Trump. The mic kill switch was something I always wanted and I practiced in a more sane and genteel time.

    Something needs to be done, if the institution of a Presidential Debate is to have meaning, significance and benefit to the electorate. I'd counsel for clowns waiting off stage with seltzer bottles, dispatched when needed. That arrangement of color and hair that rides atop Il Duce's head  would respond in interesting ways to a good soaking. Maybe that could keep him in check. After all that coiffure was expensed for some $70 thousand in his tax returns. If I were Wallace I would have asked about that. Is that hair style worth 

that much?

in closing

   This from historian Jon Meacham:

"No hyperbole: The incumbent's behavior...is the lowest moment in the history of the Presidency since Andrew Johnson's racist state papers."

    From David Brooks   New York Times

"I'm the most horrified I've been in my career as a political journalist and the most relieved. This election won't be close. Have faith in the American people."

   To my friends abroad, I am again embarassed for this nation. I'm not alone. There are millions of us. One of the most forwarded pieces today has been an article about where and how people can leave if Trump is re-elected. 

    On additional reflection, I suggest the debate commission provide the next two hosts, Steve Scully of C-SPAN and Kristen Welker of NBC with cattle prods-turned to high.

    Stay well. Take care of each other.

    See you down the trail.