So much of what we’re living through in this age of destruction in America was unavoidable before it started, but and yet we avoided doing what was necessary. Damage is happening and will continue. The children’s rhyme of Humpty Dumpty comes to mind and that doesn’t have a pleasant ending.
Even if you can’t put all of the pieces back together in the same way they were before, the attempt is worth it. It’s not easy and it’s not without risk. The question of the moment is all about how American businesses will respond to the Trump tariffs. The general consensus is those costs will be passed along to consumers, in effect creating a tax.
I happen to agree with that consensus. Our problem is that too many American businesses are afraid to confront the bully, and also afraid to cut into their profit margins. The only way to conquer that last fear is to confront the first one.
While not the same by any stretch of the imagination, here’s a story from my past that’s somewhat analogous, at least on the bully fighting part.
I used to run the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Virginia. At the time it was indeed a one stoplight town. The theatre served the local surrounding counties (it sat geographically at the intersection of three counties) and parts of two adjoining states (West Virginia and Maryland). It also served the Washington DC suburbs with easy access down Interstate 66. In the immediate town the theatre helped bring customers to several restaurants and antique stores along its one Main Street. Saturday and Sunday matinees were always a delight to see folks strolling down the sidewalks between the various businesses before and after a show.
After years of the same very local political leadership, a newcomer to the town succeeded in ousting the mayor. One of his first initiatives was to approach me and say that he was going to enact a $1.00 per ticket surcharge on the theatre to increase the town’s revenue.
We argued back and forth about this for few months because obviously I didn’t want to see this happen. When I suggested to him that we’d print out each ticket with his name on it saying “This $1.00 Surcharge Brought To You By Mayor Brown,” he didn’t take me seriously at first, but when I showed him a mock-up of the ticket, he saw the light.
He and I had several other contretemps over the years but ended up being friends in the end, primarily, I believe, because I did stand up to him in that first instance. I’ve won and lost battles to bullies in a similar fashion throughout my life and career.
Again, it’s not a perfect analogy of what we’re facing as a country, as a society, and as a planet. Even so, to my way of thinking, when you’re confronted with a challenge from someone who wants to toss around their power — real or make believe — you need to stand and deliver or sit down and shut up, taking what you deserve. You might indeed lose, but otherwise you’re just a coward for not trying.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
First up, John Gruber in Daring Fireball takes on the broad gulf in the Gulf of Mexico (America) debate in a well reasoned, often too nuanced post entitled 
The documentary itself is excellent work. The six episodes splice together historical footage-some already famous, some new-with interviews from those who were actually there, on all sides of the conflict. We’ve seen similar story telling techniques in other historical documentaries. This time around we get to hear not just from Americans, but also from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong voices. These moments are certainly compelling, as are some of the stories of the journalists and other non-combatants involved.
Add to that what I’ll call the reunion factor. Each episode features a couple of individuals who served together to tell their stories, often with completely different views on the war and its aims. In the episode’s conclusion they are then reunited. It’s effective and at times emotional and effectively reveals the folly and tragedy of division.
As good as the series is at chronicling an inflection point in American and world history, what got me thinking was again witnessing scenes of anti-war protests. While I’ve seen many such scenes before, watching them through the prism of this contemporary moment of peril we’re trying to find our way through in the U.S left me curious and unsettled.
There’s no doubt that those anti-war protests had an impact on America culturally and politically. That tumultuous era created new alliances and divisions over root causes that we are still fighting over today. But as I watch those surging crowds of protesters, knowing how history often repeats and/or rhymes, I remind myself that was a different age. One without the organizing tools like social media and mobile communications that we have at our disposal now.
As I and many others anguish over the lack of leadership defying what is happening currently in Washington DC, I’m left wondering, given the tools we have at our disposal today, what it will take to effectively take advantage of those tools and galvanize, as was done then, to meet the challenges of today. Certainly the forces we’re now in contest with have bought and pillaged some of those services and learned how to use them more effectively than those in the reluctant opposition.
Perhaps we lost this round when most of us left Twitter to avoid the cesspool of Elon Musk’s making, instead of sticking around and forcing them to toss us off.
It took time in that era for anti-government pressure to come together and coalesce with enough momentum to bring change. And yes, it also took events like the murders of student protestors at Kent State, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, not to mention the too many casualties of war.
Let’s hope we don’t need the time, or that type of violence, for leaders to emerge and spark enough outrage to bring a stop to the evil we now face. I’m not talking about leaders emerging from conventional political party structures. I’m talking about from the ground up. The tools are there. It should be easier to organize and get the word out with less effort than it was during the age of the War in Vietnam.
Here’s also hoping we have the courage, conviction, and most importantly the desire to do what is necessary when the time comes.
Because it’s coming.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at 
Of course I’m referring to all of the insane stunts that are happening during these early days of the end of the American Experiment. Don’t blowback on the use of the word “stunts.” People get hurt doing stunt work all the time. Some have died. Both are going to happen at some point in our future.
But make no mistake, these “shock and awe” stunts are literally intended to do real harm while overwhelming any attempt to impede them. It’s designed to create chaos. Sadly, it’s working.
To say the Democrats are in disarray is to spit out a bad cliché like a rotten sunflower seed. To say whatever used to be the GOP has surrendered everything except their daughters to Trump is also old news. That last part might also be premature. To say the fourth estate is complicit misses the point completely. Ask yourself where the cameras were during all of Elon Musk’s frat boy takeovers this weekend. Perhaps if a plane had crashed into the Treasury building they would have been there. To say the oligarchs and tech bros are the real winners is watching a trailer for a comedy action thriller that leaves out the spoiler in which everybody dies in the end.
Josh Marshall has two good pieces about this that are worth reading 
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 