The Tactics of Despots

I think therefore I rant.

 

If Donald Trump has incredibly made me nostalgic for the likes of Dick Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Attorney General Bill Barr has made me nostalgic for John Mitchell and Ed Meese. Indeed, Barr has turned into such a corrupt errand boy for The Donald that his total sycophancy induces feelings of genuine pathos. Three years ago, by means of electronic mischief and other form of skullduggery, a hostile foreign nation interfered with - and may very well have altered - the American election. Naturally, the FBI launched an investigation. Fast forward three years and we learn that the attorney general, at Trump's behest, has launched his own criminal investigation - into the investigators! You know you have stepped one foot into totalitarianism when this sort of thing happens.

 

The very fact that this is occurring in the United States of America at the dawn of the third decade of the twenty-first century would under normal circumstances be shocking. But it's not shocking. As a matter of fact, three years ago in one of his debates with Hillary Clinton, he openly threatened to send her to jail if elected. On what charges he was somewhat vague on. Perhaps it was the crime of being Hillary Clinton that so offended the common pervert and tweeting twit who now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Only last summer he attempted to extort the president of Ukraine into manufacturing a criminal case against the son of the man whom, in all likelihood, will be the Democratic nominee a year from now. This is an abuse of power that is so monumentally blatant that it should outrage and offend every American. Still, alarmingly, his approval rating stands at roughly forty percent.

Idiot Nation.

One must wonder if Bill Barr ever ponders his historical legacy. Does he understand that posterity will view him with utter contempt? Or are they planning to issue in the future state-approved "official" history books? Don't put it past these hideous bastards and bitches. They've already dipped their toes in that rancid water with high school history texts that equate Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis on the same moral plane. Ain't that something?

Eighty years ago the writer Sinclair Lewis wrote a tale of a fascist takeover on the USA. The book was called, "It Can't Happen Here", the overall message was that it could very well happen here. Look out upon America's political landscape. It's happening - with a prescient vengeance. I can just about hear Mr. Lewis doing somersaults in his grave. It's all too strange for words.  

Pay close attention to the doings of your representatives in the next twelve months - and by that I mean TURN OFF FOX NOISE. These are unfathomable and extraordinary moments in history we are now witnessing. Not even during those dark and depressing days of Watergate did things get quite this weird. The bright side is that, for every inch of rope he is given by his enablers, Donald Trump continues the process of publically hanging himself. That very fact alone is more-than-worth the price of the ticket.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Afterthought:

Since writing the last piece in this blog, I was distraught to learn on the passing of Elijah Cummings. When the history of our time is written, he will be remembered as one of the heroes. It just keeps getting darker.

 

Dark Days Indeed

 

 

Let's work out a deal! You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy - and I will.

 

Donald Trump, in a letter to the president of Turkey

 

When that letter was first released to the public yesterday, news outlets across the nation for White House confirmation of its authenticity. Many believed it to be a joke or some kind of satire from The Onion. It couldn't possibly be real. It was.

 

 Waking up to the news of the unexpected passing of Elijah Cummings makes this morning a particularly gloomy one in what can only be described as dark times. The Baltimore congressman was one of the dwindling number of shining lights in the House of Reprehensibles. Since coming to Washington nearly twenty-four years ago, few members of congress impressed m half as much as this undeniably great man. To say that he will be deeply missed almost sounds cliché. They don't get any better than Elijah Cummings.

 

It is becoming more undeniable with the passing of each day that the president of the United States is a paid agent of a hostile foreign power. Abandoning the Kurds in Syria only benefits Vladimir Putin and his allies in the region. Even the Republicans (most of them anyway) realize what a monstrously stupid and reckless idea this is. Congress has voted overwhelmingly to condemn the move. The GOP is finally waking up to the idea that standing by this jackass will eventually prove to be political suicide. This is more-than-likely the dawn of the final and fatal decline. My prediction is that by Thanksgiving, this disgusting administration will no longer be sustainable. We shall see.

 

We must also come to terms with another, equally undeniable fact: The president of the United States is insane. His meeting with the Democrats at the White House yesterday seems to have been another example of his precarious grip on reality. Afterwards, in an impromptu press briefing, both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi seemed genuinely alarmed by Trump's unhinged behavior, calling it "a meltdown". The damage that he is doing to the United States is, without any doubt, catastrophic. His shameless cow-towing to the whims of Putin is the ultimate nightmare in  very real time. This is day one-thousand of the Trump presidency. It cannot be allowed to continue for another fifteen months and three days. I used to be of the belief that impeaching The Donald and installing an imbecile like Mike Pence in the oval office was futile. I'm no longer of that opinion. Trump is an existential danger to the world. He needs to be removed from office as soon as legally possible - by federal gunpoint if necessary. 

 

How can it be reasonable people could not see this disaster coming when they cast their votes for this unhinged sociopath on Election Day 2016? I'm not talking about the morons in Shit-For-Brains, Mississippi, I'm referring to otherwise intelligent people - neighbors and friends of mine! - who somehow, incredibly believed that sending Donald Trump to the White House would be a really neat idea. And, please, don't give me the argument that he lost the popular vote. This should have been a landslide.

 

I'll say it again: this is going to end very badly.

 

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

 

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

 

The latest from the incomparable Randy Rainbow:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBCQo5bkJc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1vfuZgnNLMMQUiQ_PWaN-2mOd1SPEArbO1-mgph3tajgLKlq-qvQGhfWY

 

The man is the perfect tonic for the troubling times we live in.

Post #872: Random Observations

 

There is no excuse for going nearly two weeks without a single post - other than to say that my heart hasn't really been in it lately. The age of Donald Trump is light years past the point of being comically amusing. That this hideous sociopath and common pervert has plans to completely subvert the Constitution is not merely obvious, it's happening before our eyes. Ordering his underlings not to submit to congressional scrutiny is displaying an authoritarian bent that has never been seen in this country. Not even under Dick Nixon did things get this weird. The next year-and-a-half is going to be quite interesting. We'll just leave it at that. Some thoughts:

 

1. "My Great and Unmatched Wisdom"

 

In case you missed it that was Trump a few days ago referring to his own judgment. When the hell was the last time you heard and leader of a democracy refer to himself in such away? That was a trick question. You haven't! You need to go back to Saddam Hussein for that kind of self-praise. It's bad enough that by now it is painfully obvious to anyone paying even scant attention that the president of the United States is a fucking idiot, but he's nuttier than any despot to come down the pike since Idi Amin. This rolling constitutional crisis has fifteen months to play itself out. Unless and until he is forcibly removed from office, we've no other choice but to ride this catastrophe out. Hang in there, folks!

 

2. Abandoning the Kurds

 

This week we had another stark example presented to us (as if any more examples were really needed) that Donald J. Trump is a paid asset of a hostile foreign power. Conceding the fate of the Kurdish people to the hands of ISIS is as reckless and cruel an act of diplomacy that has ever been committed by an American president. The only human being on the planet that this benefits is Vladimir Putin. Where I come from it's called "treason". Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death for as much sixty-five years ago. I'm just putting the idea out there.

 

3. Shut up, Rudy

 

Someone really ought to check Rudy Giuliani's calendar. It is a perfect illustration of Trump's judgment that he has chosen the former New York mayor to be his legal representative on the talk show circuit. Like Trump, when one views interviews with Rudy recorded three-or-more decades ago, it is pathetically apparent that something has gone seriously haywire between his ears between then and now. The man's reputation would have been better off if, after having left office in the months after September 11, 2001, he had gone into quiet retirement and written his memoirs. As it stands, his historical reputation will be eternally soiled for the way he has conducted himself. It's all pretty pathetic.

5. FLASHBACK (10/11/19):

The impeachment of Dick Nixon only reached the 51 percent number about a week before he was forced to resign. As of today, the number of Americans supporting Trump's impeachment is at 52 percent. It's time to get the ball rolling.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY