America v. Америка

There was a time when "America" was synonymous with strength, justice, freedom, opportunity, enlightenment, peace, cooperation, fairness, and understanding.

Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.

Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.

Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.

This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.

The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.

Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.

He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.

After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.

He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:

• The Paris Climate Agreement
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc
• UNESCO, the UN's culture and education body
• The UN Human Rights Council, responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe
• The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Near East
• The Iran nuclear accord
• The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the U. S. and the Soviet Union to eliminate all nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers
• The Open Skies Treaty allows member nations to overfly other members' territory to collect data on military forces and activities
• and others, including a possible withdrawal from the World Health Organization; he has threatened to withdraw but not carried through

Two trends are clear: (1) The Divider-in-Chief is taking the U.S. out of organizations and treaties that involve helping or dealing with ethnicities or races he doesn't like; (2) He is trying to control foreign nuclear weapon expansion while removing hindrances on American weapons development.

The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.

Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹

American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.

That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.

Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.

Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.


--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020

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¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832

Hope, Light, and Love

The Democratic National Convention has proved the ancient art of speechifying has evolved and is still lively.

Oratory has softened from bombastic to urbane and antagonism has given way to pointedness, but the barbs are sharper when delivered in the calm context of a virtual auditorium instead of in front of a raucous crowd.

The Biden/Harris campaign has settled on a message of love, hope, and light. Such words are uncommon in political campaigns, but I expect they were chosen because they are exactly opposite the Hater-in-Chief's message. As Joe Biden said toward the end of his acceptance speech, "love is more powerful than hate, hope is more powerful than fear, and light is more powerful than dark."¹

Don't take that to mean the Democrats are floating on a hazy platform of unicorns and rainbows. Before her nomination Kamala Harris may not have been a household word for many of us, but you can bet she's going to become one.

She is nothing if not straightforward: "Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you’re a parent struggling with your child’s remote learning, or you’re a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know what we’re doing right now is not working."²

And she's not shy about taking on the oligarchy: "I fought against transnational criminal organizations. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one." That last sentence was a barely veiled reference to Trump.

Neither is Biden any cream puff. The man has stealth. He'll talk along for a while in an almost conversational style, then, without raising his voice, increase in startling intensity. Consider this:
   "For our seniors, Social Security is a sacred obligation, a sacred promise made that they paid for. The current president is threatening to break that promise. He’s proposing to eliminate a tax that pays for almost half of Social Security, without any way of making up for that lost revenue, resulting in cuts. I will not let that happen." While you could hear the point coming, the last sentence was suddenly stated forcefully, with his finger pointing toward the camera and eyes drilling into it. I was transfixed.

And just a couple of more promises: "I’ll be a president who’ll stand with our allies and friends and make it clear to our adversaries, the days of cozying up to dictators is over. Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on their heads of American soldiers, nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise, voting." And, "Character is on the ballot, compassion is on the ballot, decency, science, democracy, they’re all on the ballot. Who we are as a nation, what we stand for, and most importantly, who we want to be, that’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be more clear. No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this president on the facts." This was followed by a long litany of the Loser-in-Chief's failures.

Throughout his address Biden enumerated several policies he intends to put into place, beginning with seriously addressing COVID-19, and including education reform, reinstatement of the Affordable Care Act, and economic restructuring: "it’s long past time the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in this country paid their fair share."

From the Democratic side this looks to be a lively and well thought out campaign.

And what of the upcoming Trumpalalooza?  As for the Bloviating Gasbag-in-Chief, Shakespeare had him. Everything he says “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing."³

And plans, or anything like a platform? "The plan is to frighten voters and appeal to any latent racist fears. Since Biden is not a radical, the claim is that he's not really in charge; he's a Trojan Horse. And Harris -- she may seem too tough, too nasty, but she's not tough enough. Got that?"⁴

Expect the same responses to questions--"We're going to take care of that;" "I'll look into that;" "We'll fix that;" "It's going to go away."

And the same string of lies, disinformation, nonsense, lies, horsefeathers, codswallop, lies, drivel, balderdash, flapdoodle, lies, and, ahem, lies.

Would it kill the Boondoggler-in-Chief to tell the truth just once? I'd like to find out.


--- Diogenes, 8/21/2020


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 ¹ Biden quotes are from the transcript of his acceptance speech, at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-biden-2020-dnc-speech-transcript
 ² Harris quotes are from the transcript of her acceptance speech, at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/kamala-harris-2020-dnc-speech-transcript
³ William Shakespeare, "Macbeth," Act 5, scene 5.

⁴ Frida Ghitis, CNN Opinion, "Kamala Harris throws Trump off balance," https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/opinions/kamala-harris-throws-trump-off-balance-ghitis/index.html

Not In Our House!

"I Pray Heaven Bestow the Best of Blessings on This House and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof."

So wrote President John Adams on November 2, 1800, in a letter to his wife after spending his first night in the White House. Perhaps to remind future presidents of the expectations placed on them, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the passage inscribed in the fireplace of the State Dining Room.

Adams, Roosevelt, and all other deceased presidents are no doubt spinning in their graves because the current tenant is neither honest nor wise, nor does he deserve any blessings.

The White House is the oldest government building in Washington, D. C. It is also the most important because it's where we house our president. Yes, "we," not some faceless "they." The government is still of, by, and for us, and we ultimately own it; Blacks have a special claim to it because their ancestors provided the labor to build it.

The Blasphemer-in-Chief has now declared he will deliver his acceptance speech as the Republican presidential candidate from the White House. He is facing a good deal of resistance to this, including from within his party and senior staff. Typically he's giving it no attention. It doesn't matter, because his plan, however distasteful and galling, is legal.

By now you've probably heard a lot about the Hatch Act. I love its official title: "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities." The act is named for Senator Carl Hatch, a New Mexico Democrat, and was signed into law in August 1939. One wants to ask what Senator Hatch was thinking when he inserted the word "pernicious." Perhaps he had a vision of #45, the Pernicious President.

The gist of the Hatch Act is that it prohibits employees of the executive branch from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty or in the federal workplace. The problem is, it exempts the president and vice-president.

It seems to me that that exemption is a fatal flaw. I suppose back in the day it went without saying that people who had the goods to become president were upstanding individuals of wisdom and honesty. We should apologize to history and bow our heads in shame for having allowed such a putz as DJTrump into the White House.

When we finally get out of all this craziness I'm going to propose doing away with that exemption. No one is above the law, and the chief executive and his assistant should not be allowed to do something their employees can't.¹

Theoretically, if the president does engage in political activity on government property he would have to do it as a solo gig. If he involved on-duty employees in any capacity he would be causing them to break the law. Trump does this frequently, especially in press conferences and interviews when he regularly trash talks Biden and Harris. Any federal staff who assist in such activities are automatically in violation of the act. The same goes for travel on Air Force One to political events. And any executive branch employee, for instance a press secretary, who publicly speaks of partisan political matters is also in violation.

Penalties for violation are not terribly severe, but they're nothing to sneeze at:  "The penalty structure for violations of the Hatch Act by federal employees includes removal from federal service, reduction in grade, debarment from federal employment for a period not to exceed 5 years, suspension, reprimand, or a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000."²

The elements of this structure that would hit employees hardest would be removal and/or debarment from federal service. I have said elsewhere that people who work for the government, particularly at the executive level, tend to be power junkies. Removing them from the federal workforce would be like uprooting a plant.

Does the Slavemaster-in-Chief care? No. Those employees are, to use an archaic term, cannon fodder. He is exempt from the act and that is all that matters to him. So in his employees we see yet another sector of the American public that Trump doesn't realize actually exists. They are lives that he can disrupt and molest without a thought as if they were no more than insects.

That is why we have to say to his plan to speak from the White House: Not In Our House!


--- Diogenes, 8/20/2020

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¹ Perhaps a compromise could be reached in which the president would have to ask permission from the House to hold such an event.
² U. S. Office of Special Counsel: https://osc.gov/Services/Pages/HatchAct-Federal.aspx#tabGroup51

The Vote

As Americans, the most important thing we own is the right to vote. If we were ever to lose that right we would soon lose every other. The United States of America would be on the way to extinction.

Donald J. Trump is attempting to rob us of the vote.

The right to vote is central to our freedom, indeed to the very existence of our country. The popular election of a chief executive was such a new idea in the 18th century that the  Framers spelled out its process at length in Article II, Section 1 (since amended) of the Constitution.

The Constitution itself has been amended no fewer than six times for the purpose of expanding suffrage: 15th Amendment, 1870, allowed voting regardless of race, color, previous condition of servitude; 17th, 1913, provided direct election of senators; 19th, 1920, allowed voting regardless of sex; 23rd, 1961, D.C. residents allowed to vote in presidential elections; 24th, 1964, banned poll taxes; and 26th, 1971, dropped voting age from 21 to 18. Additionally, many Congressional acts expanded the right to vote.

Maintaining a democracy takes work. Everyone has a part to play, and our part as voters is the most important. We decide the shape and makeup of the government.

Our elected officials do the heavy lifting, but we elect them and can remove them from office when we think they're not doing the job we elected them to do.

It all works as long as everyone plays by the rules. It worked until 2016, when the voting public suffered a psychotic break and elected¹ as president a freakish person who has no use for rules and has no history whatsoever of public service.

That person, the unpresident, Donald John Trump, believes he owns everything he controls, and he believes he controls the office of president of the United States of America. He will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to remain in that office.

That's why he wants to steal the vote from all of us.

Although he and his family regularly use them, Trump has long criticized mail-in ballots as a source of voting fraud. There is no truth to those claims.

Mail-in ballots are used by people who can't get to their polling place on Election Day. It's also called an absentee ballot because it was first used by Civil War soldiers far from their homes. It's still widely used by members of the armed forces and many others: disabled and/or homebound persons, business travelers, hospitalized people, people with second homes, and the Hypocrite-in-Chief and his family.

Since the beginning of this year it's been anticipated that a greater number of Americans than usual will use it to avoid exposure to COVID-19. That scares the Jackass-in-Chief because he knows a lot of those people won't vote for him, and he can't control or manipulate that part of the vote.

So he's decided to disable the U. S. Postal Service. It's like using a shotgun to kill a fly, but overkill has always been the Trump way.

He is attempting, through his puppet Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, to gut the Postal Service, making it impossible for it to get ballots to people who want them and for mail-in voters to get their ballots to their election officers by the deadline. He has removed sorting machines and other equipment and technology central to mail delivery from post offices and other stations, taken away curbside mailboxes, and will no doubt begin closing post offices wholesale if he isn't stopped.

Dejoy is a toady who essentially bought his position with a $2 million donation to the Trump campaign, and now he's doing his master's bidding: Doing his best to slow down, if not stop, mail delivery, and lying through his teeth about the state of the Postal Service.

Ten states now have universal mail-in voting: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Need I say that nine of them are "blue" states? Denying the vote to those states alone will disenfranchise approximately 29 million Americans.

Then there are the approximately 650,000 military personnel whom Trump claims to value who won't be able to vote.

The most bizarre thing about this is that Trump seems not to understand that he's disenfranchising members of both parties. He doesn't care. when he has an idea in his diseased mind he pursues it relentlessly.

Congress might be able to do something about the situation, but they're treating it all as business as usual, and have all gone home for their summer break. That, I say, is unconscionable. The economy is in a mess, people have no money, our most important right is at peril, and they're on vacation.

I don't know about you, but that's not what I voted for them to do.

And every day they're out of their offices the Idiot Child-in-Chief is running amok in Washington, looking for other institutions to destroy.

Someone needs to be finding a way to invoke the 25th Amendment, and I sure as hell don't think it's going to get done on vacation.

Messing with our right to vote is the most dangerous thing Trump has yet done.

I truly don't understand why someone hasn't shot him before now. He is guilty of treason and bribery, both impeachable offenses according to the Constitution. He lied when he took the oath of office because he never intended to respect it. He is clearly out of his mind, as many of us have now said for months.

Congress is on vacation. And they wonder why their approval rating is approaching single digits?

The Postal Service Inspector General has reportedly begun an investigation, but someone needs to be holding their feet to the fire if there are going to be results in time to help the situation.

We in turn have to hold our Congressional representatives' feet to that fire. Call them, email them, be a pain in their ass until you can get assurance from them that they will put the Postal Service scandal at the very top of their agenda and not check it off until we can all see some demonstrable and acceptable progress.

1,000 Americans are dying daily from COVID-19 and Congress can't figure out how to get money to those who need it. And they go on vacation?

I think we need to take a hard look at who's paying for that vacation.


--- Diogenes, 8/16/2020


¹ I know Hillary won the popular vote; the Electoral College elected Trump.

Ship Of Fools

"The Ship of Fools" was a 1965 Stanley Kramer film based on the 1962 novel of the same title by Katherine Anne Porter. The plot followed the stories and interactions of passengers on an ocean liner traveling from Mexico to Germany in 1931. Porter intended the book to be a microcosm of human foibles in the years prior to WWII.

She took her title from a late 15th-century satirical poem by Sebastian Brant that concerned a ship sailing to the Fools' Paradise. Brant in turn based his poem on a section of Book 6 of Plato's Republic. Plato tells an allegorical story of a dysfunctional and incompetent crew trying to sail a ship. The allegory refers to the difficulties experienced by a society trying to develop and live with democracy, a new concept of governance at the time.

Here is that allegory, in a contemporary translation by Tom Griffith. I think it closely resembles the Trump administration:

There’s the shipowner, larger and stronger than everyone in the ship, but somewhat deaf and rather short-sighted, with a knowledge of sailing to match his eyesight. The sailors are quarrelling among themselves over captaincy of the ship, each one thinking that he ought to be captain, though he has never learnt that skill, nor can he point to the person who taught him or a time when he was learning it. On top of which they say it can’t be taught. In fact they’re prepared to cut to pieces anyone who says it can. The shipowner himself is always surrounded by them. They beg him and do everything they can to make him hand over the tiller to them. Sometimes, if other people can persuade him and they can’t, they kill those others or throw them overboard. Then they immobilise their worthy shipowner with drugs or drink or by some other means, and take control of the ship, helping themselves to what it is carrying. Drinking and feasting, they sail in the way you’d expect people like that to sail. More than that, if someone is good at finding them ways of persuading or compelling the shipowner to let them take control, they call him a real seaman, a real captain, and say he really knows about ships. Anyone who can’t do this they treat with contempt, calling him useless. They don’t even begin to understand that if he is to be truly fit to take command of a ship a real ship’s captain must of necessity be thoroughly familiar with the seasons of the year, the stars in the sky, the winds, and everything to do with his art. As for how he is going to steer the ship - regardless of whether anyone wants him to or not - they do not regard this as an additional skill or study which can be acquired over and above the art of being a ship’s captain. If this is the situation on board, don’t you think the person who is genuinely equipped to be captain will be called a stargazer, a chatterer, of no use to them, by those who sail in ships with this kind of crew? ¹ 

This is America today: Adrift with no one capable of steering on board.


--- Diogenes, 8/16/2020

^¹ Plato, The Republic, Tom Griffith, trans., Cambridge University Press. p. 191-192.
  

STOP TRUMP!!! Save The USPS.

". . . absentee good. Universal mail-in, very bad."¹

Pop quiz: What's the difference between an absentee ballot and a mail-in ballot?

Being the smart folks you all are, everyone answered "none," right?

Precisely. That's a test the Jackass-in-Chief couldn't pass, because he thinks they're two separate things.

He also calls mail-in voting "universal mail-in," which isn't on anybody's radar except the states that have voting exclusively by mail:  California, Colorado,  Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

Here's the point: Tyrannical Trump has essentially said in so many words that he intends to disable the functionality of the U. S. Postal Service so that mail-in ballots won't go anywhere.

Of course Congress is into its August break, which I frankly find unconscionable. Right now they're the one group of people who might be able to do something about the Psycho-in-Chief and they're on vacation, treating the run-up to the most important election of our lifetimes like business as usual.

But the August break means your Congress critters will probably be near home, so it might be easier than usual to reach them. Please reach out, preferably by phone, and let them know in no uncertain terms that you want them to save the Postal Service. This will be especially important to you if you live in one of the vote-by-mail states.

We need to be fighting and making noise now if we expect success in November.


--- Diogenes, 8/14/2020

Share this with everybody you know.


¹ That absurd quote comes from an 8/13 "press conference" that was nothing but a campaign talk. Here's the link to the transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-press-conference-transcript-august-13

Too Stupid To Live (Repost)

I know--we're running past Diogenes posts the way broadcast TV used to do summer reruns. Just hang on a bit longer, please, and enjoy these if you missed them first time.

Today's title is the favorite saying of a former workmate. It's harsh, but there are some cases in which it seems apt.

To wit: People who blindly follow Donald Trump.

Near the top of the long list of things I do not understand is why anyone would follow Trump for any reason. I think they actually don't follow, because he has proven himself not to be a leader. Perhaps a better word would be adherents: they are drawn to him unconsciously, and just sort of clump around him.

Having thought about this for a while I've decided Trump's human conglomeration can be divided into four groups, as follows:

Toadies and minions

These are people who are in some way beholden to the unpresident or feel a strong attraction to him. The group includes his staff, the Cabinet, associate Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and probably most Congressional Republicans.

For many politicians, bureaucrats, and functionaries, D. C. is Nirvana, the Promised Land, and El Dorado. Most of them are power junkies who prize being near the center of power above all. The closer they can bind themselves to the chief executive, the more power adheres to them. Many of this group don't care who the president is. All they want is to keep hanging on to a job that keeps them near the Omphalos of government, and they will do anything the incumbent asks of them to stay in it.

The Party Faithful

There is some overlap between this group and the toadies and minions, but it isn't huge. By and large these people have been staunch Republicans all their lives, and are likely the children of Republicans. A good number of them have been in office far too long. They still wistfully refer to the Grand Old Party, but deep down they know the Republican Party is broken. The president is nominally Republican, but they can't go to him to fix it, because they now know he's the one who broke it. Nonetheless, when November 3 rolls around they will hold their noses and vote for him, because, by God, they're Republicans, and they vote for Republicans, period.

The Mob

I don't know if The Mob is the largest of these four groups, but they are the ones who are most visible and make the most noise. I equate them with British yobs, who can turn any soccer match into a bar brawl.

They're not political. They come out for the action, to confront protesters and/or cops, to strut around shirtless waving Trump flags, to pointedly defy rules (e.g. wearing masks), and to shout slogans about foreigners and minorities. If they have a goal it is to show the Dumbass-in-Chief that they are men, too, and they identify with his anger and his displeasure with anyone who doesn't agree with him or isn't like him. (I'm sorry for all the masculine pronouns, but this group is testosterone fueled.)

The Fringe

This is the group I was thinking of when I decided on the title. The fringe is the group that gets their news from social media and takes as Gospel anything uttered by their ultra-right authority figure du jour, be it the Idiot Child-in-Chief, Archdemon Mitch McConnell, the faceless Q of Qanon, Sean Hannity, or their foreman at work.

They propagate and embroider conspiracy theories with such outrageous premises that any reasonable (not to say sane) person would reject them out of hand. Yet they hold to these beliefs like religion because someone they believe to be in authority said it was so. It's easy to dismiss them as gullible fools and paranoiacs, but we would do so at our peril.

Because these people so desperately need something to follow or to believe in, they will believe virtually anything. They become easy to manipulate, and the darker corners of the Web where they like to hang out are perfect places to recruit and persuade them to a cause. If all this sounds just too "out there," I recommend this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/ 

Don't read it before bed.


--- Diogenes, 8/13/2020     Reposted 10/14/2020

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Don't Laugh

Yesterday I caught myself chuckling about a Trump idiocy one of my colleagues here at Vox Populi had related to me.

It suddenly occurred to me to ask if it was really funny. It's almost too easy to laugh at the Lunatic-in-Chief. Even making up names to call him (thereby stooping to his level) makes the process seem whimsical. We laugh at him because he's such a pathetic caricature of a leader. We sometimes even cringe when he says or does something especially egregious, as if we feel sorry for him.

We must not. We must never let empathy or sympathy or compassion cloud our vision of what he truly is: cheat, liar, coward, bully, cretin, adulterer, traitor, imbecile, creep, criminal, ass, bigot, loser.

I am tempted to add mass murderer of the thousands of Americans who have died of COVID-19 because of his criminal negligence in not even attempting to find a response to the disease, but I won't.

The response Americans should have toward him is raw hatred, screaming incandescent anger, a collective emotional pulse to make his head explode, a nationwide prayer for him to contract a massive case of COVID-19.

The thing I fear most about this election is that the Biden-Harris campaign won't fight dirty enough. Republicans almost always fight dirty. It was they who gave us Watergate, the "birther" absurdity, Iran-Contra, and Earl Butz. And that's just a sampling since the middle of the 20th century.

Democrats tend not to get what it takes. They don't get rage. Not paltry anger, but rage: The head-banging, bare-knuckle, red-mist-in-front-of-the-eyes emotion that comes so easily to the Ragged Right. I'm not suggesting that Biden challenge Trump to a fistfight, but I do wish the Democratic Party could muster the gumption to launch an all-out dirty-tricks, in-your-face, no-holds-barred campaign.

They probably won't because they're afraid the Litigant-in-Chief will sue them, but what the hell? He'll sue them anyway. Might as well get sued for something worthwhile. And another thing: The Republicans will sacrifice anything and anyone for victory. The Democrats have to be just as heartless if they're going to win.

I'm not talking about our parents' Democratic Party here, or even my generation's. I'm talking about a party that is going to have to adopt some distasteful practices if it hopes to meet the Republican incumbent and his mass of goons, foreign and domestic, on a level field.

I don't care how melodramatic it sounds, this election will be for the fate of the United States of America.

The Constitution must remain intact if this country is to survive. I fear it won't if Trump is re-elected.


--- Diogenes, 8/12/2020   

J'Accuse

Not enough people are speaking seriously of the widespread criminal behavior that infects the Trump administration. So I will.

I accuse:

Donald J. Trump of treason for his secret collusion with Vladimir Putin and other potential enemies to interfere with the electoral process and to undermine the stability of the U. S. government.

Donald J. Trump of criminally negligent manslaughter for the deaths of 160,000 Americans from COVID-19.

Donald J. Trump of fraud and intent to defraud the American people with false promises and frivolous executive orders made only to enhance his chances of re-election.

Donald J. Trump of misuse of federal funds and resources for political gain.

Michael R. Pence of aiding and abetting the above acts.

The Cabinet, collectively, of violating their oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" by failing to invoke the 25th Amendment, relieving Trump of his presidential duties.

Attorney General William P. Barr of criminal assault, attempted murder, and criminal trespass for allowing federal agents to occupy American cities and act against American citizens exercising their Constitutional rights.

The Congress, collectively, for malfeasance and abandonment of their oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. for inciting other members of Congress to act contrary to their sworn oath.

Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. for conspiring with the president, other members of the administration, and other members of Congress selectively to block or promote legislation that would negatively affect the voting rights of Americans.

The Supreme Court, collectively, for taking blatantly political stands in violation of their oath to "administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and . . . faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me."

Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, and Secret Service Director James M. Murray for grossly endangering the American public by colluding with members of the administration not to hamper the actions of a clearly delusional president.

To this list I add five crimes Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) allege Donald J. Trump committed in connection with his shadowy dealings with Ukraine: 

• Bribery
• Soliciting foreign campaign contribution
• Coercion of political activity
• Misappropriation of federal funds
• Obstruction of Congress

Treason and bribery are specifically named in the Constitution as impeachable offenses. 

The penalty for treason is death.


--- Diogenes, 8/10/2020

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The Open Road

Americans tend to think of it in capital letters.

The Road is a path to new worlds, new people, adventure, and excitement. The Road can take you to oceans, mountains, deserts, and swamps. It can lead you around and through this magnificent land of ours. It offers smooth cruising and white-knuckle cliffside corkscrews. It's the route through old-growth forests and seedy downtowns, to monuments and burned-out neighborhoods, to waterfalls and bayous.

The Road is a legend peopled with wanderers, vagabonds, hoboes, and minstrels. It carried the Great Migration that saw some six million Blacks leave the South for Northern jobs and equality; it gave hope to three million Okies headed for the promised land of California; it's where you go if life becomes unbearable.

The spirit of The Road is best represented by one iconic machine: the motorcycle. Sturdy, agile, and fast, bikes are the ultimate statement of freedom. They're a way out, an escape. No other vehicle represents a quick getaway quite like the motorcycle.

It's estimated there are about 13 million motorcycles in the United States. We all probably have some stereotypical image of a biker, but considering that eight percent of American households own at least one bike, it's almost certainly wrong. Ask anybody which movie best typifies biker culture, and you'll get a range of "wild" answers from "The Wild One" to "The Wild Angels" to "Wild Hogs," and any others, and they'll all be right. Bikers come in all sizes, colors, races, genders, and socioeconomic strata.

Every August thousands of them gather in Sturgis, South Dakota. You remember South Dakota, right? The state governed by pro-Trump COVID-19 denier Kristi Noem where the Fool-in-Chief hired an audience to watch him read a fifth-grade history lesson about the presidents carved into Mount Rushmore before having a photo taken that appears to show him joining them.

But I digress. Governor Noem has imposed virtually no COVID-19 restrictions anywhere, so for 10 days beginning the day before yesterday Sturgis is going to be one huge viral swamp.

I've taken a couple of days off to research this year's event in order to avoid the trap of stereotyping, and I offer the following with reasonable certainty.

Yes, the biker community is heterogeneous, but this year's gathering is likely less so. The 80th Sturgis rally is now estimated to draw between 100,000 and 250,000 bikers and aficionados. That is a lot, but way down from last year's attendance of nearly half a million.

When throngs of people with a special interest are reduced, true believers are the distillate, and I expect the majority of Sturgis attendees are going to be hard-core freedom-loving bikers who aren't going to wear masks or observe COVID-19 precations generally. Sturgis is a party, with lots of drinking, drugs, back slapping, hugging, and sex. Crowds will be shoulder-to-shoulder at bars, concerts, and other rally events.

Sturgis is an international event, which means anyone infected there could pass the virus on to a great many people. Not surprisingly, a lot of attendees are Trump supporters. Why? It's not political. They identify with his "I'm number one," "take what you want" attitude and his incessant anger. Not a few of them, I suspect, are "Sons of Anarchy" wannabes.

Native American communities have closed roads that lead to Sturgis and banned rally traffic on or through their territories. I'm sure the residents of Sturgis wish they could do the same. They were overwhelmingly opposed to the rally this year. But the event brings a lot of income to area businesses. Money talks, and the city council listened.

Thanks to Governor Noem's laissez-faire policy and the city council's avarice, the 2020 Sturgis rally may be remembered less as a party and more as a visitation by the Grim Reaper.

I hope not. I really do. I love The Road, and would hate for anyone's experience of it to be tainted by disease. Still, those who live large and take unnecessary risks have to expect some payback.

Ride fast, party hard, suffer the consequences.


---Diogenes, 8/9/2020


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