POTUS MIA

It's Friday the 13th and no one is at the helm of the ship of state.

Unpresident Donald Trump, the nominal leader of the nation, has retreated to his fortress of solitude, licking his wounds and endlessly seeking someone to blame for his downfall. Are there mirrors in that fortress?

His most visible action so far has been to decapitate the Department of Defense, firing Secretary Mark Esper and several other top defense personnel; others have resigned. The reason for this massacre seems to be perceived disloyalty to the Idiot-in-Chief by those who have been removed. They have been replaced by a bevy of Trump loyalists, some of whom have dodgy credentials, such as retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata, a known Islamophobe who has called former President Barack Obama a terrorist.

One can't be sure how concerned to be about those actions. Is it just Trump showing he still has power over a few people, or is he planning to do something tremendously stupid?

It's well known that Trump demands loyalty above all else, as most tyrants do, and Esper had been notably outspoken--especially about sending federal troops into U. S. cities. What is most troubling is the obvious fact that this temporary restructuring of the DoD virtually gives a delusional and frustrated president direct control of the nation's arsenal, including nuclear weapons. Is the Narcissist-in-Chief demented enough to use them, in an "If I can't have this country, nobody can" Armageddon? And does anyone want to find out?

More importantly, if enemies perceive the DoD shakeup as a weakness, they might be prone to strike. Not so much the big guys, who are always under scrutiny, but smaller nations or terror groups, who could slip in under the radar. Let's not forget it was such a group that brought about the most disastrous attack on American soil in history--and that at a time when we had a stable defense structure.

Most of Trump's post-election time seems to have been spent trying to come up with newer and zanier lawsuits. I have to wonder how he can get so many attorneys to work for him, unless he's illegally using DoJ staff. Surely they know they'll have to get into a very long line to get paid. If they're working pro bono, I'm afraid I don't see any "bono" in it.

At this writing most of those suits have been withdrawn or thrown out. The Supreme Court is holding its own counsel, but doesn't seem keen to deal with any more fluff. As a judge once reminded me, "de minimis non curat lex": "The law does not deal with trifles."

Speaking of which, if the Trifler-in-Chief is going to declare himself hors de combat, he is bound by duty and his by oath to provide a replacement for himself. He can voluntarily invoke the 25th Amendment, put Mike Pence in the Oval Office for a few weeks and go off to sulk.

Or he can put on his big-boy pants and actually act like an adult.

---Diogenes, 11/13/2020

    

Veterans

Today is Veterans Day, or Armistice Day if you're old enough to remember that appellation.

My family tree includes people who have served in every war America has been involved in, from the Revolution to Vietnam.

Some saw battle, some didn't. Some tended to humble jobs in the background like my great-great grandfather, a Civil War wagoner who was nonetheless wounded in battle. Others flew into the thick of things like my uncle, a B-29 flight engineer who flew raids over Germany in WWII.

Those who served did so honorably. I believe that is the case with the great majority of our warriors today. It must be especially difficult in times like these when so many of their senior administrators and commanders, right up to the putative Commander-in-Chief, are corrupt and willing to use them as pawns for their own purposes.

In they next few weeks, when they may be ordered to fight their own people or undertake some other false or unlawful mission at the whim of the president, we can only hope that their innate honor and sense of duty prevails. 

They must understand that the part of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution trumps the part about them obeying the president.

--- Diogenes, 11/11/2020

Reflectiions

I've written elsewhere about thinking I had retired from political dissent until the Orange Obscenity won the presidency. I know I wasn't the only person to be profoundly shocked when the results of the 2016 presidential race were announced. Shock quickly turned to alarm, and finally outrage. 

The very thought of Donald Trump, one of the world's most obnoxious and toxic personalities, in the Oval Office turned my stomach. I'm a retired journalist, but I've not read a newspaper nor watched a TV news program since the 2017 inauguration, because any mention of Trump made me angry and disgusted.

I knew I had to find some way to express my rage, or I would explode. On February 1, 2017 I launched the Trump Alphabet Project on Facebook, inviting everyone to come up with a daily adjective to describe Trump, beginning with A and running through the alphabet. It was a bit lighthearted, but provided an outlet for a surprising number of people. There were some among my "friends" who were already into the Trump Kool-Aid pretty deep, who expressed their displeasure--some with surprising acerbity. I was surprised and a bit saddened, but it was clear that lines were being drawn.

About the time we hit T I was still seething, and knew I had to find another outlet. The world of blogs and blogging was foreign to me, but it seemed a reasonable way to express my anger in essays of some length, so I looked up my old buddy Diogenes, and on February 28, 2017 we inaugurated the Vox Populi blog, of which he has over time become the principal writer.

That run of Vox went through November 3, 2018. It was mostly anti-Trump, but also looked at other subjects, including the unpresident's confrontation with Bashar al-Assad, the policies of the Democratic National Committee, and a four-part piece on the dangers of stored nerve gas.

Following the 2018 election we went dark, feeling that we had finally said all we had to say at the time, although our anger had not entirely subsided. We returned, perhaps fittingly, on April Fools Day of this year when it became clear that Trump and his actions (I can hardly say policies) were becoming increasingly dangerous.

At the time we supported Bernie Sanders for president, believing that his brashness and chutzpah would counter Trump's bluster. When Bernie left the primary race we shifted our allegiance to Joe Biden, not without misgivings. We have said many times that Democrats, and particularly the DNC, play too nice, and need to counter the Republican fire with fire of their own. We thought that Joe Biden was too mild to excite voters.

We were also skeptical of his choice of a woman, regardless of race, as his running mate. We knew that Hillary had won the popular vote in 2016, but we also knew how militant Trump's followers had become, and were afraid the choice of a woman would hurt Biden's chances.

We we wrong on both counts; decency trumped belligerence, and Kamala Harris turned out to be the perfect choice. During the candidates' victory speeches I felt a weight lift off me. I know what a cliche that is, but it's the best metaphor to describe the feeling. I still feel the lightness and excitement that came over me watching the spontaneous celebrations taking place in several cities. America was happy again.

In his victory speech Biden quoted the hymn "On Eagles' Wings." It was a good choice in that context, but the hymn that's been running through my head is "Once To Ev'ry Man and Nation." Here are the lyrics of the first verse: "Once to ev'ry man and nation/Comes the moment to decide,/In the strife of truth and falsehood,/For the good or evil side;/Some great cause, some great decision,/Off'ring each the bloom or blight,/And the choice goes by forever/'Twixt that darkness and that light."

We, the people of the United States of America, have made the choice for light and turned away darkness. I genuinely believe Trump to be an evil force; we've not seen the end of him, but we've removed him from power. As he himself predicted, we've turned a corner.

Going forward I expect we'll be considering the unpresident's actions at least through January 20, but I foresee a lot more time looking at the positive developments of the transition period.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Richard Brown, 11/10/2020 

 

270! Thanks, Pennsylvania!

The Orange Obscenity is now officially irrelevant. He will no doubt spend his Lame Duck period doing as much mischief to the country as he can in his diminished state, but his loss to Biden will almost certainly reduce his power and influence among his former supporters, in Congress and elsewhere. 

Even the Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell is beginning to distance himself. Brown-nosing lickspittles Mike Pence and Lindsay Graham continue to hang on, however, the result of being fully immersed in the Trump Kool-Aid.

We have to remember that it's not over. I have faith that none of Trump's legal stratagems will succeed, but we still have to be aware and ready to support President-elect Biden in any way we can. Dirty tricks know no season, and there's always the danger of a yob pushback.

But for now, light a candle, drink champagne, shoot off firecrackers, give thanks to God. Celebrate and relax.

--- Diogenes, 11/7/2020

E-Day

Here we are, for better or for worse. Election Day this year has been more anticipated than most major holidays combined; its approach has also been filled with trepidation, because whatever the outcome, the United States of America will be forever changed.

There have been other controversial elections throughout the nation's history, but it's questionable if any others since the very earliest ones were so fraught with existential concern for the Constitution, the foundation of our government.

If you're voting today, go early, expect anything, and take your phone with a fully-charged battery with you. Avoid confrontation; if you see someone trying to keep anyone from voting, alert the election officials. If you can't get to them, call 911. If you are confronted, don't be intimidated. Stay calm and keep your place in line. You have every right to cast your ballot. Again, if there is the threat of violence, call 911. 

If there is a problem and you can do so inconspicuously, take photos of troublemakers and their vehicle license plates.

I'll be working as a poll monitor today, and I will definitely be taking my own best advice.

I will offer just one historical fact today: At least since the middle of the 20th century, the majority of election cheats and scandals have been perpetrated by the Republican Party.

Be alert, be aware, and stay safe.

 

--- Diogenes, 11/3/2020

Killing America

November 3 will be a tipping point for the United States. 

If the unspeakable unpresident is re-elected, we are almost certainly doomed to fall into a tyrannical state that none of us will recognize as America. 

If Joe Biden wins he will face the possibility of armed insurrection, the continuing spread of COVID-19, and the need to repair a government in shambles. Above all, he will have to rid the country of the stink of Donald Trump that lies over it like a pernicious pall.

I believe he will accomplish all those things, but it will  be a struggle. It is imperative that he win, because his election will be necessary to save this democracy. 

Trump's ultimate goal, in the unthinkable case he wins a second term and has a friendly Congress, is to dismantle American government.

One has to ask what his motivation to do so could possibly be. Some of you may have better ideas, which I welcome you to share with me, but I can come up with only two possibilities: 

1) He is doing so in collusion with a foreign power, most likely Vladimir Putin, to make the United States a vassal state; or

2) He wants to create a new nation from scratch, in the form of what he believes an ideal state should be. Let's call it Trumptopia.

Everything I know, or think I know, about the Tyrant-in-Chief suggests the latter, because he doesn't like to share. Despite his fame and alleged wealth, Trump has consistently failed upward. The presidency should be his last stop, the culmination of his version of the Peter Principle. But he wants more, as he always has. And more for him would mean a nation reconstructed in his own image.

If you think he couldn't possibly do such a thing, think again. Read this article, titled "How Did Hitler Happen," and consider the parallels: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/how-did-hitler-happen

The transformation has already started. He has tried at least a couple of times to use the Supreme Court to reduce the power and authority of Congress. As screwed up as it is, Congress is an institution we need to protect because it has oversight of presidential powers, and the Bully-in-Chief doesn't like being overseen. 

As we've recently witnessed, one of the roles Congress plays is to vet the president's candidates for the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court. At the present moment that power is largely symbolic, but it still stands as a safeguard against unilateral action by the president to make the federal bench a political tool. I know that sounds naive in the light of today's realpolitik, but if we lose faith in the spirit of the Constitution we have nothing.

That said, it must be pointed out that the tyrant's minions must also be turned out or diminished in their power. If there was true justice in the world, the Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell and his imp, the loathsome Lindsey Graham, would be voted out of office. If that doesn't happen, then we have to trust the voters to give Democrats a solid majority in both houses of Congress in order to keep them caged.

Trumptopia would be an autocracy, with all power vested in Trump alone. In order to make that happen the Constitution would effectively have to disappear. Not the document itself, which resides in the National Archives, but the idea of it and the code of law that is established upon it.

Hitler and other tyrants have arisen by using parts of existing systems that could further their ends and by simply ignoring others. The wannabe autocrat has used the process of nominating justices to the Supreme Court to seat three conservative justices. With an insuperable conservative majority he has effectively guaranteed the rollback of civil and healthcare rights regardless of who wins this election--and several after it.

The Thug-in-Chief has shown that he has no compunction about ignoring laws he doesn't like, and that extends to elements of the Constitution. There is an orderly process to amend the Constitution; the Founders were aware that no system is eternal. But the Idiot Child-in-Chief has no patience with processes. Like Hitler and other dictators, Trump would prefer to rule by fiat: what he says is the law, period. That is the motivation behind all those Executive Orders he issues, that so far have been inconsequential.

With traitors like Graham and McConnell in his pocket, and with a spineless vice-president and Cabinet, Trumptopia could become reality almost overnight.

There are enough books exposing and deriding Trump in print to stock a small library. One that should be given attention is Rick Wilson's Everything Trump Touches Dies. Don't be fooled by Wilson's humor. It doesn't lighten the dire message of the title. We can't let the United States of America be one more corpse that the most corrupt and criminal of presidents leaves shriveled in his wake.

So be alert, be vigilant, and if you haven't done so yet, get out and vote for Joe Biden. Every vote counts and every voice must be heard. We are Americans, not Trumptopians. The monster in the White House must be extirpated.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Diogenes, 11/1/2020  

Keep Fighting

If you watched the debate last night, you probably didn't learn anything new, except that it really is possible for Trump to remain silent for several minutes at a time. The unpresident stuck to the same tired old rhetoric that he's been spewing ad nauseam since February, plus some fake charges that Biden has accepted foreign money.

For his part, Biden displayed the poise I expected, never rising to Trump's bait. He spoke well and with authority, and finally said to Trump's face that he has no business being president.

Biden outlined programs and policies he expects to put in place if elected, while the Idiot Child-in-Chief had only his three I's: insults, indirection, and innuendo.

But no resting on laurels, please. It ain't over 'til it's over, to quote the sainted Yogi. And it's likely not to be over for a while after Nov. 3, depending on how adept this nation's election workers are at counting ballots.

So hang in there for the long term. There are fights yet to be fought. 

And for God's sake, contact your senators and any you might know from other states and tell them in clear language to vote down Amy Coney Barrett. The loathsome Lindsey Graham broke his own rules to get her election pushed forward. We need to push back hard.

--- Diogenes, 10/23/2020

Time For A Break

Thanks to all who expressed concerns about my welfare during my absence. The simple fact is that life intrudes everywhere, even in Parnassus.

I've recently been asked why I continue trashing Trump. It seems a foregone conclusion that he's going to lose the election, I'm told. But ah-ah-ah: remember 2016, and how we all got fooled. 

We must keep the sentiment of "Won't Get Fooled Again," the great protest song by The Who, in front of us, and not let our guard drop for an instant.

But really, my interlocutors continue, why not write something positive about Joe Biden?

Well, really--what else could one write about Joe Biden? He is a good person of sterling character, supremely ethical, a loyal family man and public servant. He served the state of Delaware as a senator for 36 years, sponsoring or co-sponsoring 162 bills, all of which passed into law. He held several important committee positions, including Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that role he oversaw and helped to defeat the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. 

What is Joe Biden not? He is not a tyrannical self-server, nor a bully, nor a foolish buffoon, nor an existential threat to the United States of America. 

Donald Trump is all those things, which is one reason why I will continue speaking against him. The other reason is that I have so much vitriol against him accumulated that I have a strong need to express it. That won't necessarily be here, however.

With this post I am declaring a hiatus for Vox Populi. I've written 173 posts in 2020, and I want to take the next two critical weeks working locally. I may drop in with something from time to time, or repost a piece that seems germane to current circumstances, but my online presence until Election Day will be minimal.

Thanks to all of you for tuning in and sharing your comments. Get out and vote, and keep up the good fight.

La lutte continue!

 

Diogenes --- 10/20/2020

 

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

Please share widely.

 

America v. Америка (Repost)

Diogenes is on his way back. Here's another repost from his greatest hits.

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   (Reposted 10/11/2020)

Please share widely


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