THE WHEELS ARE COMING OFF

Trump and Pence Must Go Away

A song came into my head when I woke up today. The noir refrain of Bullet with Butterfly Wings by the Smashing Pumpkins brought me to the computer keyboard. It’s a great metaphor for where we find ourselves right now. The bullet is the COVID-19 virus. The butterfly wings are the camouflage of misinformation and unreasonable goals for the economy coming from the Trump administration. The lyrics of song cut deeply, “The world is a vampire, sent to drain, secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames, And what do I get, for my pain? Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game.” Who is the vampire sucking the life out of America?

As we watch events unfold, it certainly seems like our President is playing a game in which the health of American citizens is far less important that his reelection. Happily, the wheels are falling off the Trump truck of fallacies, and people are now asking relevant questions. They WANT to know the facts. It’s Trump’s fault that people are not wearing masks and Vice President Mike Pence is an evil enabler and damaging distributor of lies. These people are hurting America. Why not put a doctor in the position or maybe a nurse, perhaps a social worker or even an intelligent eight-year-old child?

The President of the United States ignored the advice of medical, scientific and virologic experts by forcing a reopening of the economy before the country was ready. He took the position that a “few people” dying is okay. Trump reads Richard Nixon’s playbook and spouts rhetoric about protesters, Antifa and other imagery ghosts, but the average Joe and Jolene just want to pay their bills, send their kids back to school and return to work.

Trump would rather kill more Americans than seriously deal with the stark health aspects of the global pandemic, which has shown the world how weak the infrastructure of our healthcare system. This lyric of the Smashing Pumpkin’s song gives us more doubt than hope, “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage, then someone will say what is lost can never be saved.” Donald John Trump cannot be repaired or saved. He should be thrown out like a swollen bag of stinking garbage. The Donald is the rat in a cage, and he is asking you to crawl right in there with him. When the cheese runs out, he will fucking eat you. Our rage is good, but what is the action to rid ourselves of this evil.

Mike Pence lies repeatedly, and the press gives him too much undeserved respect. The press needs to call out them and their LIES every time they occur. The administration might consider the media rude and thrown them off the island of the Washington correspondence club, but its time reporters study the Mike Wallace’s and Dan Rather’s of the past. Media must diligently confront the priggery and trick them into telling the truth.

Our President doesn’t merit respect. He’s a dolt, unable to do anything more complicated than arranging the paper currency in his wallet. While more and more people are dying, Trump wants us to go out and play in this COVID world without protection, why?

His statement that we would have lost millions more US lives sounds like the old baseball player talking about the big game, “Hey if I didn’t hit that eight-inning homerun the score would’ve been worse.” Donald’s teammates are sitting in the dugout, holding their heads and knowing the truth. THEY LOST THE GAME! We currently have the second highest infection rate per one million persons. Brazil is currently #1 but that country, believe it or not. has a leader who is stupider than Trump.

Bragging about your individual achievements while things are getting worse doesn’t comfort the family at the cemetery throwing dirt on their dead loved one’s casket. Trump’s lack of empathy and continual put down of those who give sound advice is more than astonishing, it’s demonic.

Donald Trump loves to kick a man when he is down. There will be only one to blame when those poor, naïve people who attended the unnecessary MAGA rallies come down with the coronavirus, Donald Trump.

Remember how Trump put down John McCain? “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured!” Well then, people of America, see where you stand. You have been captured by a virus and the orange baboon in the White House considers you nothing but collateral damage in his quest for power. That creature hears no voices unless they aren’t praising him. His staff tries to cover for him by saying he was joking or being sarcastic, but then his reply is, “I don’t kid.” This administration is a bucketful of lies.

It’s not one wheel that has fallen off the bus; all four are gone and our leader left the spare in the garage. Even as it unfolded in plain view, Trump didn’t believe something bad was happening. His lack of preparation is obvious. Life is not an adlib, Mr. Trump, it’s a well-defined structure with a beginning, middle and end. Trump’s toxic presidency must come to an end. NOW!

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs: If you only read one chapter of this book, try “Take a Knee for America” and think about our never-ending conflicts between minorities and the police. I’m not asking you to take a stand but having a deep and honest conversation about why some people think the way they do would be productive. This is a book for the moment which seeks to start a conservation about peace. And if you are worried about social media, you really should check out the chapter called “Social Media Menace.”

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TRUMP SHOUTING WHISPERS

What the hell is White Power?

Us Americans love a strong marketing hook, but clichés and slogans can’t beat a virus. Donald Trump’s ego has been pumped up by the pundits and talking heads on TV saying how well he hypes and teases what is coming next. To them, everything is a “reveal.” They mention his reality TV roots and his alleged instruction to his White House team to think of every day as another episode of a show. Well we hear that, but this ain’t no television show.

It wasn’t surprising to hear the screams when “our” President retweeted a video originating here in Florida at a retirement community known as The Villages. 123,000 people live there, the same number of COVID-19 dead American bodies. At the start of the global pandemic, TV stations took their cameras to this small city of retirees who were highly vocal about the virus. Echoing their hero, they said it was a “hoax.” The University of Florida did a research project and went into the community to administer free coronavirus tests. We didn’t hear the results of either, but The Villages population is obviously hyper conservative and pro-Trump. The video was a stupid golf cart parade celebrating Trump’s birthday (June 14) and all the vehicles were decked out with Trump signs. One of the locals can be seen pumping his fist while chanting “White Power! White Power!”

After Trump’s retweet hit the internet, liberals and the cable news networks, well, all but one, highly criticized Donald Trump’s repost of the video. Tim Scott, the only African American member of the Senate was quick to decry the action of the President, but Trump took his good old time taking it down. Here are two important questions. 1. How did that video get past the Twitter censors? 2. Why is the President retweeting things that aren’t vetted? He said he never heard the yelled words “White Power!” in the video. Really? So, he’s fucking deaf?

Twitter, like all the other social media platforms, is utterly inconsistent in the way they handle matters of hate, truth, and violence. Twitter banned me for life, claiming I “interrupted conversations.” Excuse my ADD, but why wasn’t a pro-Trump video, featuring a shouted, racially insensitive slogan removed from Twitter? Do they adjust their censorship policy based on the person posting? I use the word “censorship” because that is precisely what it is. Several stories have been written by credible writers saying that Facebook and Twitter executives met with Trump face-to-face and then adjusted their policies to suit him. We have always known these platforms are money whores, but now they seem like political whores as well. Can I say that? Well, I just did.

Let me return now to the stupid things people say. There are two hallmarks of our Trumpean dystopia. One is the automatic acceptance by some of the blatant lies continuously blasted from that unnaturally small-sized presidential pie-hole. The other is the incredible amount of meaningless or hijacked words in the “newspeak dictionary.” I’m hearing the term “unprecedented” so much that I am beginning to wonder if something can be precedented. Then there’s the distraction of claims about Obama doing this or that. What a mindless trick! Most of what the far right says about what happened during Obama’s eight-year term are blatant lies.

Mike Pence stood in front of the press and said the White House refusal to demand or decree that everyone must wear a mask has something to do with the First Amendment. I’m calling BULLSHIT. I can’t smoke a cigarette in some public places due to laws concerning public health. Tell me how these words in any way relate to public health, “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” Mike Pence and other lunatics like him in this administration don’t know how important the word, “peaceably” is to us.

So, WHAT THE HELL IS WHITE POWER? If you are just lightly aware of American history, you know that for hundreds of years citizens could not vote unless they were white, male and a landowner. White men have long enjoyed the unconditional and unchallenged right to rule. When an old man chants “white power” while riding his $4,000 golf cart, and a sitting president blasts the video of that to more than 80 million people, something is grossly wrong. One might defend this racist stupidity as tongue-in-cheek, but are we totally unaware of the uprising against police brutality and unnecessary death following the violent acts against people of color by law enforcement? Do we need to be reminded that The Villages love Trump, while 125,000 people are dead because of a virus in our country?

This is the big story people!

News broke over the weekend that the Russian government was allegedly paying the Taliban to kill US troops. Was that a clue that maybe someone wanted us to talk about WHITE POWER? If Trump knew about this and didn’t confront his buddy Putin, or take action to protect our soldiers in Afghanistan, he would be guilty of treason, the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government. If the president knew this as fact and did nothing, he put our men and women in danger. Some say as many as twenty soldiers were killed since this report was ignored by Trump.

Orange Boy will probably say he never saw the report or that intelligence couldn’t confirm it. Okay, but the deeper question is, WHO WILL YOU FIRE FOR NOT RAISING THIS MORE FORCEFULLY? It’s time to get serious, folks. We need a Congressional hearing ASAP. Maybe the hearing could take place in the whitest chamber, the Senate. Let’s put the power of all those old white guys to use for a constructive purpose.

Consider these words, “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000.” If Trump did not act on this intelligence, he was giving “aid and comfort” to not only the Taliban, but to Russia as well. Why do all of Trump’s roads lead to Russia?

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THE OTHER BIG DUMMY

Charlie McCarthy Is Smarter Than Mike Pence

In the middle of the last century, Edgar Bergen was an entertainer and ventriloquist whose partner was a wooden dummy named Charlie McCarthy. Oh, in case you are wondering, yes, Candice Bergen is Edgar’s daughter, but let’s talk about dummies. A puppet or dummy takes on the personality of the person who operates them. Someone must manipulate the gestures, words and movements of something that has no IQ or human intelligence.

Mike Pence is big, pale dummy. I am not sure if he’s being operated by someone who can throw his voice, but when the Vice President talks I think I see Trump’s lips moving while they are connected to Pence’s brain. For those who watched the old day antics of Bergen and McCarthy, you knew that all the punchlines came from the 40-pound collection of wood and cloth. McCarthy was the smart one. In the case of Trump’s Veep puppet, he’s dumber than Donald. By the way, Charlie is also smarter than Trump.

I know there are some who think Mike Pence is honest, but that pious piece of baloney is full of bad advice and lies just like his boss. No American can swallow anything he says. Why do we let these propagandists waste our time with charts and graphs and running out of the room before they have presented a sound plan and genuine guidance? At the first COVID-19 Task Force press briefing in months. Pence was questioned about why the Trump campaign is putting people in harm’s way by holding rallies in vulnerable states, Mike the dummy talked about the First Amendment. What?

All Trump needs to do to keep more people from getting infected is STOP HOLDING THE RALLIES. All the administration must do to lower virus spread in the US is issue an executive order that EVERYONE MUST WEAR A MASK IN PUBLIC. Even if the ventriloquist were to pull his hand from the backside of the Vice President long enough for him to think about what he is saying, we still would get a heap of horseshit. Mike Pence is incapable of saying anything helpful.

When Mike Pence tried to shovel the drivel that we are better off now than we were three months ago, he should have been more careful not to get the bile on him. He’s just another loser politician who cannot be trusted. When he tells us to pray, remember that is what they said to the Titanic passengers who didn’t get seats on the lifeboats.

Just when Pence could have made a difference and been more firm about guidelines from the CDC and the Task Force, he used the old “not my job” excuse by saying people should do what their state officials tell them. As a taxpayer, I must ask why we are paying Mike Pence? If he won’t share the guidelines and best practices of the medical experts, then what good is he?

This latest debacle and misuse of our citizens’ time make it clear; MIKE PENCE SHOULD NEVER BE PRESIDENT. He’s more than a dummy; he’s a douchebag!

Why am I so upset? While he was on TV babbling stupid things, both Texas and Florida re-closed their bars. While several states were putting the reopening “on pause,” as they say, this manure spreader was telling us the administration has done such a great job handling the global pandemic. You might ask how my words make things better. Well, THEY DON’T, but when I say bad things about Mike Pence, I feel better. Hey, I am wearing a mask when I type these putdowns.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence are harming people. They are feckless, fake fathers of fear and loathing. The revulsion I feel for Mike Pence and his patronizing use of religion is palpable.

Mannequins don’t feel anything. They have no guilt. They have no moral grounding. They are just pieces of cloth, staples and wood controlled by their master. Charlie McCarthy had a sense of humor and obviously understood timing. Our nation really needed an update, but Mike Pence’s words were ineffective and the ground where he stood was shaky and undefendable.

Since we are talking about Mike Pence, let me quote Matthew from the Holy Bible, “…everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” This is the Gospel of the Lord, and Mr. Pence is not worthy.

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TORTURE OF DONALD TRUMP

When do we get to tear down his statue?

Torture is the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. Some in Congress permit Trump to bully and torture them because they fear he will scream at them on Twitter and work against their reelection if they push back. The President can inflict pain on any city or state by withholding Federal funds. He can urge his boy, Bill Barr, to go after a state legally with unnecessary lawsuits and decrees. Barr can withhold tax dollars to any police department or state police force. This needs to change.

When it comes to the health and welfare of the citizens of this country, Trump is working behind the scenes to, at best, downplay or, at worst, to sabotage the fight against COVID-19. His administration asked the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare today, you know, to hurt all the people who signed up after they lost their employer-based healthcare insurance. Trump is claiming Presidential immunity to wearing a mask, alleging he doesn’t have to wear a mask because those around him are tested. His words form an assumption that the only way to stay safe at work would be daily checks of all your co-workers to know their medical status. The lies and misinformation that Trump and his press secretary put out daily could fertilize an acre of tomato plants, if only that bullshit could be bagged.

Donald Trump may say that he wants to reform the police in America, but that is not true, not true at all. Every time Trump speaks about the police he praises, protects and complements them. Trump is fond of police unions but decries those in labor who have come out against him. Trump thinks he has the privilege of picking winners and putting his knee on the neck of unions, groups, movements or policy makers he doesn’t like. This president does not acknowledge the right of people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievance. His only wish about them is they will go away.

Donald Trump feels he’s invincible and genuinely believes the people who don’t wear masks are FOR HIM and those who do wear masks are AGAINST HIM. What a small uninformed, retarded brain. This paranoia and stupidity beg an answer to one question, “Does Donald John Trump care about anyone other than himself?”

John Bolton is making the rounds pumping up interest in his new book, but his sharp Baltimorean accent isn’t an excuse for his lack of logic and denial that his testimony would not have mattered during the Senate impeachment trial against Trump. We’re getting tired of the routine where Trump hires someone, tells America how great they are, then fires them after a couple of years or less, then hearing the ousted person tell us how bad Trump is as a president. Their self-absorbed personalities and brain functions are void of any real patriotic vision.

I wrote a book three years ago about Donald Trump, and while researching I read many hatchet jobs against the President. I took the common threads and patched together a timeline and story, which provided an excellent picture of who Trump is and how he operates. The boisterous, large, orange buffoon doesn’t read, cannot concentrate on important details and is motivated only by his personal gain. He cares not for you, not for me and not for our country or even his political party. He could care less about Republicans, conservatives or evangelicals. He simply craves hearing the applause and the praise of those who adore him.

As we end another week, there are more than 124,000 Americas dead from the COVID-19 virus and more than 47 million Americans have filed unemployment claims in the last 14 weeks. The states that were pushed to open early by Trump are now suffering huge surges in cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, more death.

In my remaining time on this planet, I will protest any city, state or community that wants to erect a statue of Donald Trump. This man has aligned himself against most Americans who would like to see the symbols of slavery and hate be taken away. I refuse to be tortured by Donald Trump’s stupidity, corruption and disregard of norms. Should some place in the US feel so moved to erect a statue of the Donald, I hope my grandkids will pull it down and destroy it. I have a feeling they will do just that.

Trump’s actions cause people pain. To those non-mask-wearers who ventured out to attend one of his rallies because of the foolish influence of the Donald, I hope you don’t get sick. COVID-19 is painful. If one could prove their severe pain was the result of attending an unsafe Trump event, wouldn’t that make him a torturer? Was pain inflicted as a punishment for being too trustful of Trump or was the President of the United States torturing them to do or say something? Finally, I must ask, does Trump find pleasure while inflicting the pain?

All the rally attendees agreed to indemnify Trump and the Campaign corporation from lawsuits should they get sick. By demanding this agreement, the Campaign and the President showed they were aware of the danger at the rallies, but that doesn’t lessen their moral depravity and disregard. There might be a way to prove you caught a virus from a Trump rally, but don’t expect that man to help you with the costs of being sick. Trump’s track record on healthcare for America can be summed up with his own words, “I take no responsibility. You’re on your own.” He doesn’t care about people. Maybe that is what should be on the base of his statue, Here stands a man who didn’t care about people and almost destroyed America for Putin.

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DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE

Trump Infects Judicial System & DOJ

When I was growing up in America it was all too easy to see corruption and face the reality that who a person was determined how they would be handled by the police and the courts. The mayor’s son was arrested for painting cars in the visitors parking lot of my school. He was never charged. The case just disappeared. Most Americans believe that there are two systems of justice, one for the famous and wealthy and another for the rest of us.

I think we would all like to believe that when facts prove offenses they will be dealt with fairly in the judicial system. We know that our founders wanted to limit the power of judges, so they gave the Chief Executive lots of flexibility in determining how the law was administered. The Executive Branch gets to not only run the Department of Justice that decides which cases are brought to a court, but also which infractions they deem either unworthy of prosecution or below the level for legal action. We put a lot of faith in how they operate because they have the power to ruin a person’s life or allow them to start over and redeem themselves. We can only hope they get it right most of the time.

Let me add a wrinkle here. The President of the United States has the power to appoint judges with congressional confirmation. A president can shape the court by those he appoints. The founders also gave the President the undisputed power to pardon anyone he feels was unjustly charged or convicted. That’s an awesome privilege in the hands of a reasonable person which can be used to overturn the errors of a malicious judge, but what happens if the President is a vindictive lunatic?

Trump bullied, manipulated and forced the DOJ to drop all charges against Michael Flynn, who lied about talking to the Russian ambassador before Trump was sworn into office. Flynn admitted to the infraction in court, twice. He also lied to Mike Pence and this so disturbed the Vice President he demanded that Trump fire Flynn. Trump removed Flynn from government and said it was because he lied, a fact which no one disputes. He plead guilty to the charges and was about to be sentenced when along came William Barr. Attorney General Barr acts more like Trump’s personal attorney instead of caring about American citizens and the law.

Trump keeps declaring himself the “law and order” President while his base claps and cheers and coughs on each other. One thing is crystal clear; Trump is attempting to change the way America does business and, like a third-world dictator, has moved in ways that may make it difficult to recover our democracy when his term is over. If you control the decisions of this country’s judges, why wouldn’t you simply do whatever you want despite your action breaking a law? Trump is undermining the very foundation of our system of government. The three supposedly equal branches are being unduly influenced and controlled by Trump the man, not the President.

The courts don’t always give us logic or reason or even fairness. They give us opinions and those opinions become law.

You might say, “Oh, you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill! Trump’s just joking.” Don’t be such a blind fool. He wakes up every morning asking, “What can I do to take more power and stay here forever?” He’s the demon the forefathers warned us about and if we don’t stand up and demonstrate, we will lose our freedoms and will render the phrase “justice for all” inoperative.

Will other people who lie to the FBI or mislead the courts also get a pass simply because they have a friend in the Oval Office? Does this constitute a precedent, or is it just a goddamn miscarriage of justice? Here is what happened. A US appeals court directed a federal judge to drop the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. It’s no secret that this demand came from Trump to those in the Justice Department, and it prevents a judicial review to determine the propriety of the request. In other words, the Executive Branch has power over the DOJ and can manipulate which cases are brought to court.

Just as William Barr stood before a national TV audience and declared that the Mueller Report didn’t find any laws that were broken, he has now placed himself above the court, and the disrespect he shows for truth and law is more than appalling.

In any other time, Barr would have been impeached. Attorney Generals Alberto Gonzales, Griffin Bell and General Harry M. Daugherty were on the chopping block, but they all exited rather than go through the embarrassment of impeachment. Their offenses were varied. Daugherty was allegedly involved in kickback scam involving bootleggers and the Congress delayed action.

The case of Griffin Bell is somewhat blurred by time, but five Department of Justice attorneys resigned over A.G. Bell’s reluctance to pursue others in the department for illegal activities related to domestic spying. Bell indicted the Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray, Mark Felt and former FBI Assistant Director Edward Miller for authorizing break-ins of New York City radical political activists’ offices and residences. This was in 1978, long after the Watergate break-in. He must have been a true-blue Democrat because President Jimmy Carter appointed him to be his Attorney General, but Bell only served two years before the chicken shit the fan. Oh, by the way, the spying truly took place. It wasn’t a hoax.

The case against George W. Bush’s A.G. Alberto Gonzales is straightforward. He was politically damaged by Democrats who lost confidence in Gonzales and accused him of excessive politicization of the Attorney General’s office. If my memory serves me right, Alberto Gonzales, kowtowed to Bush and VP Dick Cheney and paved the way for justifications of torture and the onerous Patriot Act. Lifelong Republican William Barr, who served in George H.W. Bush’s administration, is nothing but a political operative for the Red States.

Trump has infected the Department of Justice. All those who work in the DOJ should be wearing masks to protect themselves from the orange dementia virus. I have said this before; the first dismissal by the next president should be William Barr. He’s unworthy of the position and will go down in history as a big, fat liar. I can surely prove he’s fat, and so is the President. They have been eating at the same table for decades and taking everything they wanted. I hold hope that justice will eventually be served. Barr and Trump will not swallow the truth, but time will show how dishonest these “hombres” have been behind the scenes.

Although his sentence might have been only three or four months in jail, the fact that Michael Flynn is going to get off SCOTT FREE disturbs me greatly. It will be the ultimate slap to the face of justice if Trump brings him back into the administration. Of course, we know Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about having rats in the People’s House. Disgraceful.

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THE UNMASKING OF AMERICA

The Folly of Trumpean Politics

I noticed something in 2002 when SARS hit, and then again in 2009 with the coming of the H1N1 virus. Asians who lived in big cities were wearing face masks. I’ll admit I chuckled then about their worry of catching a bird flu, but now I get it.

Healthcare should be the number one focus the American government. When people cannot work everything else goes to shit. If this global pandemic has taught us anything, it would be that, yes, we are connected and global and our imprudent, populist president cannot change this reality. Always remember that the military is driven by human beings, and a virus that plows through our population will challenge our readiness to defend the country. It’s the commander in chief’s responsibility to protect our nation, but he’s too busy arranging rallies.

Doctor Fauci finally admitted the reason that the Center for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health didn’t advise mask wearing early on was stoked by fear that healthcare workers would run out of protective gear. He knew US stockpiles lacked a sufficient supply of PPE. This is more than a smoking gun. It’s proof that Donald Trump lied about the pandemic and his advice to not worry was total folly. It’s a coverup that Doctors Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci helped facilitate.

The old “I told you so” works only when written in a cover-your-ass memo after the fact. More Americans were exposed to COVID-19 because we were not told the truth. It’s a little like the finger pointing that took place after 9-11. The agencies tasked with protecting us were able to demonstrate the lack of sharing, collaboration and communication, but nowhere in that analysis was there thinking about prevention against it happening again. It did, and the coronavirus proves we have a serious lack of leadership at the top and our trillions-dollars of resources are not properly being used to coordinate our government agencies. Trump should never have been the spokesperson of the effort against COVID. He’s just too brainless to understand or handle it.

As happened in the JFK assassination and the 9-11 attacks, ego, turf and political bullshit are in the way and lives are being lost in this pandemic. Unnecessary death never looks good on your resume. Donald John Trump only makes things worse with his off-center viewpoint that it’s all about him. It appears he will continue to fly around the country hosting dangerous rallies, directly exposing his team members and voter base to COVID-19.

If we believed we could be brought to our knees by a virus, wouldn’t we have had sufficient stockpiles of masks to blunt the disease when it came ashore? Trump never thought it would happen to him, but he failed to understand that he’s not America, we are. His disregard of the advice to wear a mask at the start of this insane ride is utter proof he has done more harm than good in our crisis. He’s like the teenager in the backseat urging his drunk buddy to drive faster and faster during their late-night joyride. Then, just when the driver thought it couldn’t get worse, the bully in the backseat screams, “Turn off the headlights!”

Trump hates virus testing because it reminds him of how deeply damaging this global pandemic is. The orange, overweight cheerleader wants us all to simply think “happy thoughts” and re-elect him, but the citizens of this country are analyzing, thinking and drawing their own conclusion. Many of those in Trump’s base know he’s lying, but the sycophants cannot seem to articulate the reality. They fear the virus and hope Trump is right. He isn’t.

With two perfect storms collide, we hear repeated use of words such as “unprecedented,” “uncharted” and “unknown.” We are witnessing the despicable result that many predicted would happen if Trump was challenged by situations and events his feeble mind can’t comprehend. He gets an “F” grade for the way he’s handled both the COVID pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. He’s on the wrong side of history and will never be able to dig himself out of this mess with his tired political tricks and mudslinging. He can no longer blame others when blood is dripping off his little fingers. What is his goal? Does he want to inflect everyone who works for him with the coronavirus?

Unfortunately, we will soon see states who pushed their openings too quickly falling back, slowing their openings and, once again, enforcing draconian measures to stop the spread of the virus. MASKS must be worn when going out in public. Wait-people in restaurants must wear masks or they will do more than kill their businesses; they will kill their customers.

All of us want Americans to get back to their jobs, but we must create safe places for our workers and customers. With all the smart people in the US who profoundly understand these things, why are we letting a lard-ass lunatic ruin America? John Bolton is right; Trump is unfit, and a second term will flatten the curve of our economy, further tarnish our world status and damage the health of the people who call the USA home. Again, I ask why is this man president?

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WRONG AGAIN, MR. BIG PANTS

Trump’s Dangerous Advice on COVID-19

Why aren’t there higher American authorities on medical issues? There actually are, but they have been pushed aside by the narcissistic dude squatting in the Oval Office. Why do we permit old white Congressional males with large bank accounts to determine how our healthcare works? The President of the United States is not qualified to give advice on viruses and pandemics. Why is he allowed to do that? It’s because the founders of this country never imagined we would have such a brain-dead dolt in the White House.

Imagine Abraham Lincoln giving one of his three to four-hour speeches and in the middle of the oration saying, “I told my people, cut back on that whole freeing the slaves thing when talking to southerners.” I am sure newspapers would have encouraged northerners to heat the tar and pluck the feathers. During his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally, Donald Trump said, “Testing is a double-edged sword. When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people. You’re going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’” Less than 24 hours later, Trump’s minions were on TV saying his words were “tongue in cheek,” or, the typical fallback, “He was joking.”

As Trump makes plans to go to Arizona to address thousands of students in a mega-church, one must ask if he is trying to thin his own herd? Could Donald Trump be so stupid that he believes he’s invincible? We know from videos of the rally in Oklahoma broadcast by every network that lots of out of shape and overweight types entered the arena. They are prime targets for the COVID-19 virus. Why does Donald endanger his fans? Is he lacking logic or simply not caring?

Writing a denouncement like this makes me feel better, but what does it do for America? The day Trump took a stand against face masks marked the day America lost the war with COVID. Let’s make it clear. Donald John Trump, the 45^th President of the United States, has surrendered to a global pandemic. He’s out there walking away while waving the white flag. Some wartime president, eh?

As we start the week of June 22, 2020, there are crises being played out in those states that fell prey to the illusion of the pandemic being over. The governors of those states must believe their citizens are somehow biologically different than people who live in New York or New Jersey. Surprise! Surprise! Florida humans are just as vulnerable as all other Americans. How could any reasonable leader believe that the coronavirus wouldn’t become a greater problem after reopening the commerce of their state? Wishful thinking? I guess that is what it was, and now more people are dying.

I will never respect Donald Trump and I will always remember that his polices on the virus and his systemic racism showed such blatant disregard for seniors, people with pre-existing conditions, African Americans, LGBT people and Latinos. Trump, the most powerful person in America, has no clue that he dumped a giant, steaming shit pile on the Constitution. I have taken note of those Republicans in Congress who let this happen. They are not only derelict; they are complicit. They don’t deserve to represent their states. Vote the bastards out!

Trump has overtly mishandled the COVID-19 virus and he will pontificate, blame, dodge, lie or steal to convince people he cares. He doesn’t. He’s the poster child for this tragic time in our history. Let’s take his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his daughter Ivanka and all the other hypnotized zombies in the White House and throw them in the river. They need to be baptized in the truth and baked in the sun of accountability.

People need to register to vote and get rid of this loaf of lard. A person who spent more than $20 million (according to Forbes magazine) of the taxpayer’s money on doses of hydroxychloroquine, when there was never any proof it would work, owes us all an apology. The Federal Procurement Data System shows well over $3.02 billion has been spent to date on potential vaccines and cures, and most of that money came from the budget of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. There must be an investigation into how Trump spent that money and whether he, his family or his cronies got rich on those investments.

Trump is an unscrupulous operator who doesn’t understand that hurting people is immoral. I’m thinking about all the evangelicals arriving at the pearly gates and being asked about their political misdeeds. Will they have good answers? At the very least, they owe God a giant apology for promoting this sick narcissist and deviant despot. But who am I to judge? I didn’t vote for Trump and never ever will!

FROM THE WAR ON SCIENCE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER

The book that tells it like it is…

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RAMBLING AND DISCORDANT

The Ever-Slowing Trump Show

I want to be perfectly clear before we get started. The title for this post was borrowed from a Washington Post article of two excellent writers, Philip Rucker and Robert Costa. When I read Trump rallies in red-state America — and faces a sea of empty blue seats, that phrase jumped off the page because it’s an objective and accurate description of Donald Trump’s messaging.

Sunday morning, after Trump’s “big rally” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the never-Trumpers and zealous Democrats quickly pointed out that what the orange man hyped as the “biggest rally” ever turned out to be small crowd that didn’t fill the arena they had leased. The outdoor pre-speech was scrapped at the last minute, its stage quickly torn down and the two-dozen people lingering outside sent away. To some this might be hailed as a “sea change,” a term Shakespeare anointed in The Tempest written in 1610, but hold your horses. Let’s look more closely.

Computer social media strategist and consultant Brad Parscale stole Facebook data to help Candidate Trump in 2016, and the President rewarded Parscale by elevating him to Campaign Manager in 2020. I have always thought Parscale was just another hacker, like Edward Snowden, but he’s clearly not as good as Snowden. He got tricked this weekend. Badly!

Parscale failed to realize that the design of the campaign website to accept requests for tickets didn’t know if the requestors intended to attend the rally. His team used a database of applicants’ cell phone numbers to determine if they were real. Where did they get that list? Well, the answer is simple. Former US president Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 which required FEMA to design a system enabling the president to send mobile phone alerts in national emergencies. The Trump campaign used this database, but don’t wait to hear Trump thank the former White House inhabitant.

Sure, Parscale and his cronies thought they were brilliant while harvesting all those names and email addresses from the database, but as they were basking in the glow of large numbers they failed to comprehend that two forces were at work. The campaign mass mailed Trump supporters directing them to the Tulsa rally site. Many of those hard-core supporters clicked the link and signed up. Maybe they thought they were getting a free red hat or just supporting the old man. Next, a mass of young people organized a “grass roots” effort to request tickets when they had no intention of attending. They knew exactly what they were doing, just like a group of activists flooding cable TV talk show surveys.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted this, “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID!” AOC clearly knows the inner workings of social media.

Parscale’s first response was a stupid claim that protesters had blocked the entrances and metal detectors at one entrance were not working. Reporters on the scene saw no evidence of those inane claims. Trump has never understood the potential of social media being used to create distorted and destructive data. Bolton is right. Our president is totally unfit for office. Payback is a bitch! Will Donald Trump’s income tax returns get posted on WikiLeaks tomorrow?

Genius Brad Parscale failed to understand that the internet is open, free and exploitable. Yes, you had a million requests for tickets, but something else was going on. The Tulsa Fire Marshall released the numbers of those who went through the metal detectors at the Bank of Oklahoma Center and the count was only 6,200 people. With a central stage configuration, BOK Center holds 19,199 guests. Do the math and understand that’s 33% of the venue’s capacity. Pull the camera back and realize that only .62% of the people who said they wanted tickets attended the event. In other words, there just weren’t enough Trump supporters to fill the arena. They didn’t come.

The excuse that the news media created a panic that kept people away, was ludicrous. The fear that Trump birthed with his screaming about ANTIFA was the source of the nervousness. Being the birther that he is, fear mongering comes easy.

Trump’s long and windy speech Saturday night included his COVID-19 phrase “Kung Flu,” which Asian Americans find highly racist and insulting. Then, out of nowhere, Trump claimed the fundamental problem with the virus is “too much testing!” If this is true, our nation has a long way to go before getting out of this pandemic mess. Will Trump’s loyal, ass-licking state governors direct their health departments to stop testing? What a fucked-up piece of advice! The administration talking heads on the Sunday TV talk shows told us that Trump was just joking. Really? This just in, Arkansas hasn’t published case data for two days, could that be a result of the President’s words?

What I found most disturbing from the Tulsa rally was another display of Donald John Trump’s obsessive behavior. The President spend time trying to explain why he walked so slowly down the ramp at West Point. He has been ridiculed for that walk and the awkward way he drank a glass of water. Of course, the way one walks and drinks are not presidential requirements, but let’s return to Shakespeare and one of his most famous lines, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The more Trump tries to explain away critiques, the worse he makes things. He is truly not a smart man.

The Shakespeare line about protesting too much was from the play Hamlet. Remember how that play ends? Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and then forces him to drink poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and then Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. If Trump dismisses Brad Parscale, will another outsider-looking-in give us a clearer picture of the malfeasance and treason in this presidency? How can there be so many disgruntled former White House people? Is the fucking clown car empty yet? Sorry, but there is at least one clown left.

Trump has no problem going after his enemies, even if it will permanently end his chance of redemption. Trump will throw anyone under the bus and blame them for his incompetence, and that apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree. Witness this Sunday afternoon CNN headline, “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump ‘pissed’ at Trump campaign manager over his rally crowd size predictions.”

Trump will make any dissident drink the poison and die if he believes it will make him look better, but better than what? When the President of the United States uses the word “success” to describe more than 100,000 American deaths and 84 million people are out of work, things must get better. Let’s all vote to make sure HE WILL BE GONE IN 2021.

If you read this book, you can see why all this happened to us.

The book that tells it like it is…

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FATHERS, LEADERSHIP & TRUMP

Ultimate Confrontation with Truth is Coming

For the first thirty years of my life, I didn’t think I would ever be a father. I was unmarried and too busy being successful. Then I took a spouse and managed to have four great kids. I have a fantastic relationship with my ex-wife and an ever-present and caring connection with my kids, even though I live far away from them. Part of this has been facilitated by technology and another part by cooperation and understanding of the importance of family. No matter what, it’s always family first.

The father of any family must exhibit some degree of leadership qualities, regardless of his style or background. Over the years, with “women’s liberation” and progressive feminist viewpoints adopted by mainstream America, the leadership of many families is a cooperative experience. Of course, a single mom must adopt the role of both mother and father. Each year, we celebrate a Mother’s Day and then a Father’s Day. I’m not sure why we need them, but each is a nice gesture and acknowledgement.

This week’s abundance of news has overwhelmed my brain. I guess that’s what we get with Donald John Trump. Thankfully, some of the reports are good for the family of America. The Supreme Court gave the DACA kids a reprieve for now and they also decided that transgender or gay people cannot be discriminated against in the workplace. Yesterday, a judge decided that there was no way to block the new John Bolton book, which has already shipped to merchants. What will happen next? Will the Trump White House ask the Justice Department to arrest John Bolton?

Ultimately, Trump and his minions will have to deal with the ever-enlarging number of people within the government, military and judicial system who are pushing back, pointing out the president’s boldfaced lies and delivering decisions based on law and facts. You know, the truth.

Trump is like the deadbeat father who likes only some of his kids and does everything he can to intimidate, bully and piss off the others. He gives money to the kids he likes, while pushing the wife and his other kids into the shadows. This metaphor is not to say that the Donald is a bad father in real life, but I do believe the man does not feel love unless the spotlight is shining on him.

It’s incomprehensible that the President of the United States would place thousands of his fan base at risk of being infected with an incurable disease. Trump is doing nothing intelligent to keep the COVID-19 virus in check. He’s moving into an immoral denial of reality and creating an ultimate death cult. This evil man has no problem endangering his most loyal voters. If dominating the news was the only thing that mattered, then Trump would be king. In reality, Trump is more than negligent; he’s an appalling miscreant.

Why can’t I respect him? Just as you don’t need to respect a bad father, you don’t have to get down on your knees to worship a president who is unworthy of that office. The people who attended the Tulsa rally wanted to show their support for Trump, but their inarticulate reasons for not fearing the virus are convoluted. One Oklahoma woman said, “Well, I know there is some risk, but I have my health. I’m not worried.” There you have it, folks! She has all her arms and legs now, so why not jump into the alligator-infested pond? By the way, those gators haven’t eaten for a month.

Here is an important question. Is Trump using the Department of Justice to go after his enemies? The Friday night press-release-termination of Geoffrey Berman, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has restoked fears about abuse of power shared by many of us and our government leaders.

Berman issued a statement, “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.” In typical “New Yorker tough guy style,” Berman raised his middle finger to the DOJ and to Attorney General William Barr, who is his boss. By Saturday midday, Mr. Berman did finally step down, but the controversy will not end there. Another investigation is needed.

Donald Trump behaves like a mafia boss, taking out the people who are investigating his friends, donors, operatives and made men. The more leaks we have about Trump’s behind the scenes behavior, the more we see truth in John Bolton’s viewpoint that Trump’s actions are not for the country but solely for himself.

We must confront the many lies, liars and losers that have surrounded Trump over the last four years. Our founding fathers focused on the structure, laws and possibilities of our country, not on the dark, negative side of partisanship. Back then, the US was designed for, and delivered freedom to, only a certain class of citizen. If one was not a male, a landowner or white, they had no voice in this new land. Over time, we have changed the rules, the laws and even the Constitution to make this country better for everyone.

Abraham Lincoln would have laughed at Donald Trump saying he’s done all this imaginary stuff for African Americans. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would have asked him to leave Philadelphia’s Constitutional Hall in 1776. Trump would have been pushed aside by the 40^th President because Ronald Reagan didn’t have time for long, meaningless conversations. Former Presidents Carter, Bush, Clinton and Obama do not take the orange baboon seriously. President George H.W. Bush, before his death, made it clear that Donald Trump was not to be invited to his memorial, which speaks volume about our inane, embarrassing leader.

Every father has an unwritten agreement with the universe to keep his kids and loved ones safe. Donald Trump has asked people to die for him. Dictators do that, but holy men don’t. They say Jesus died for our sins, but God never asked us to give our lives for a political rally. Why would he? His doctrine is love of all people. Trump loves a person only if that person loves him. It’s not America First; it’s Trump First. Sadly, until he is removed from office, it always will be so. What a selfish bastard!

ARDENT PARTISAN NOISE

Trump’s Claptrap Jingoism Jars Common Sense

Why do I feel compelled to state that I love America before writing a harsh evaluation of someone in power? Donald Trump is no more American than anyone else, including a 22-year old DACA Dreamer, and I am no more American than the guy next door. We are all Americans to the same degree.

With all that has happened lately, I feel a tinge of guilt mentioning my ancestors who got to these shores more than 80 years before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed. The time and the way I got to this country has nothing to do with respect to my loyalty to the United States of America. When the ship sailed up the James River and my relatives landed in Virginia, there were no custom agents or forms to fill out. We left Scotland to come to America because we wanted to, and we weren’t forced into the hull of a smelly old ship at gunpoint. Once we got here, all of us were AMERICANS.

Some former Trump aides and advisors are coming out of their slumbers and decrying the 45^th President. The disparaging remarks include words like, “unfit,” “unaware,” “incompetent” and “unhinged.” Of course, anyone who has been paying attention knows that Trump is all those things, and worse.

Maybe people voted for Donald Trump because they believed his lies. Now why would they believe the outrageous things he has said, such as suggesting the injection of bleach would kill the COVID-19 virus? Is it because they trust him? Then why do they trust him?

Most Trump voters get offended when people make fun of their support of Trump. They will continue to trust Trump more than the truth because they are irritated by liberals and some Democrats calling them dumb. The more they are attacked, the more they bond to the Donald’s ardent partisan posts and pontifications. Like the poor soul whose body has sunken halfway into quicksand, the more Donald moves, the deeper he sinks.

I use the term “jingoism” because that is exactly who Trump is. The term means extreme patriotism, with many of its ilk taking the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy. Many people have observed that Trump supports our traditional enemies (Putin, Xi, Jong-Un, Erdoğan), while pissing off our allies (France, UK, Germany). Trump constantly and consistently wages war with Democrats, NATO, Obama, WHO, Hillary Clinton, the UN and anyone who offers even a slight critique of his policies. If you say something bad about Trump, you are labeled a traitor by the bulky baboon in the Oval Office. Fact: the man weighs 245 pounds.

Trump has convinced even the intelligent governors of certain states to forego the advice of medical experts and reopen their states before they achieved the prescribed downward trends. States have such claptrap policies on the virus because Trump failed to step up and deliver national plans and policies. Having a rally in Oklahoma this weekend might be his diabolic tribute to “Sooners,” but most say it’s too soon. Fatso will lead those states into more death and he really doesn’t give a shit. Nice guy, right?

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is telling his fellow Texans that even though COVID-19 numbers are going up, “…the state has lots of ICU beds available.” That is tantamount to a social worker in the suicide ward saying, “Don’t worry we have tons of band-aids.” It’s Trump’s fault for flaunting the face mask and telling the world he would not wear one because it would make him LOOK ridiculous. Really? A protective face mask looks bad on a 74-year-old, overweight heterosexual man who wears orange makeup? A mask would cover up the ugliest part of his body, his mouth.

It’s time for all state officials to treat the pandemic seriously and mandate mask wearing. They are all fools being sucked into a political vortex that is killing people for profit. They could prevent unnecessary death by being more consistent and honest, but they won’t because of the pressure from Trump fanatics. Florida has the same problem as Texas. The lack of leadership and common sense is stunning or, as John Bolton would say, “Stunningly uninformed.”

There is light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not having four more years of Donald Trump. While doing some yardwork this week, a question popped into my mind that genuinely saddened me. What country would I move to if Trump were reelected? The worrisome thought cloud quickly blew away and sunlight streamed down on my face. I heard these words coming from deep inside me, “Fuck him, this is my country.” We all must stay and fight for freedom, justice and the America way of life. It’s a worthy battle.

If you read this book, you can see why all this happened to us.

The book that tells it like it is…

Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.