Some things we know, yet somehow pretend we discover anew now and then. It’s not rocket science.
Donald Trump is a convicted felon.
Donald Trump is a racist.
Donald Trump is a child rapist.
Donald Trump is a dangerous psychopathic narcissist.
Donald Trump’s agenda is in writing. It’s called Project 2025 sometimes masked as Agenda 47. It’s evil.
J.D. Vance is a self-serving opportunist and a useful idiot.
Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are bought and paid for looking to cash in further on you.
The party that used to be the GOP embraces and coddles criminals of all stripes instead of wanting to see them in stripes.
Those that support Trump/Vance/GOP will not be content until they can turn back the clock on the things that they irrationally fear.
If you think there’s a choice in this November’s election, or if you feel like debating what the choices are, you support all of the above. If you wonder why someone may vote for Trump, stop wondering. They support all of the above and either don’t care or think this is who we are or should be.
It’s that simple.
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.
The world just changed. I’ve said that a few times in my life when major events occur. Joe Biden stepping down as a presidential candidate is one of those events. History can hit hard whether expected or not. It can be both a blessing and a curse that when we feel the earth shift under our feet we have no idea of what will be once it stops shaking and we assess the changes.
I’m relieved for Joe Biden and relieved that the energy his endorsement of Kamala Harris has generated. Even more so by the follow on cascade of other endorsements. I feel like there’s a shot at winning the actual fight it’s been all along: toppling the convicted felon, child rapist Donald Trump and his cult this fall.
If, as expected, Harris is the nominee one of the many beneifts of her candidcacy is that it should further draw out into the open the bad blood in our country that festers in racism and misogny. I like to clearly see where the bad guys are.
There’s no guarantees. It’s going to be an alley fight. And even after the votes are counted I don’t think it’s going to be over for awhile. So there’s still anxiety. But it’s a different kind of anxiety. We may not know where this is all headed, but in a few days there should be clarity for the fight ahead.
Time to get busy.
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.
Pick your metaphor. Pick your favorite song lyric from Hamilton. Pick your poison. The U.S. political and media world is nothing short of a mess as the GOP Coronation, excuse me, Convention, continues in Milwaukee.
I’m not watching the event, but have seen enough highlights (lowlights?) to know that bending the knee has leapt beyond typical humiliating political expediency into something that absurdist playwrights, much less contemporary fiction authors, couldn’t possibly imagine. Public ass kissing may not be an Olympic sport, but if it was, America could field one helluva team based on the competition in Milwaukee.
It’s really not fair to blame the media for coverage of the event. They seem to know no better than a child sticking their hand in a fire and there’s nothing normal or predictable about this election cycle. There used to be journalists who would call things as they saw them. There also used to be dinosaurs.
Watching the watchers cover what looks like the closest thing we’ve seen to a Nazi rally in this country for several generations and not calling it what it is pisses me off. The media’s problem is that this is a playbook that’s been plagiarized from the 1930’s in ways that large language models must envy. But the media capitulated then and so here we are. Again. It may not be new, but it’s damn dangerous and they are trying to shoehorn that into an old world model that failed then and will fail again. Things may not be normal but they are too damn predictable. Guess what? That’s the damn story.
Set aside the clichés about not presenting both sides when one side says it’s raining and the other doesn’t. We’re witnessing a complete capitulation to something that’s beyond my understanding. If the red hat brigade takes power, most of those currently sucking up will be in line for internment camps once they’ve reported on how many migrant families have been separated. At least they will be credentialed.
Granted the media isn’t getting much help from the Democrats. That helpless bunch wants to play fair. Again. Thinking the high road will get them there, while the other side is tunneling out the ground underneath them is simply shrinking from the real challenge while grasping at straw men. The only fight they can seem to muster is one against themselves. Hell, they don’t even have the guts to really have that fight, much less finish it. But go ahead. Play nice.
So. Today is my birthday. Given family history I never thought I’d make it this far. But I have. I have two birthday wishes. Here’s the first: I’d love to see some Democratic politician when confronted with some MAGAt gish galloping their well rehearsed rhetoric say directly “take your white supremacist, fascist, misogynistic bullshit and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.” Hell. Don’t even wait to do it to their face, just do it in front of a camera. Often. Call them on their bullshit hourly. Make them defend against the comment.
For the uninitiated, that’s called politics.
The second wish is that I’d love to see a headline somewhere that says, “The GOP has nominated a convicted felon to run for president.” The lede should read: “The party once proud to wrap itself in the mantle of law and order has now disrobed and re-draped itself as the party that welcomes and supports criminality.” Tell me, what’s not factual about that?
I won’t get either of those wishes. I’m pissed about that. And I’m pissed that it looks like I’m going to be around to watch what this country stood for during the six plus decades of my life rapidly decline and disintegrate during what’s left of it.
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.
High stakes gambling going on. But there’s a hedge.
The tech bros are going all in, pushing all of their chips onto the table in favor of convicted felon, child rapist, and national security threat, Donald Trump. Well, not really. They’ve got a hedge.
The cynic in me (it’s a very large cynic that overwhelms sometimes) thinks that the big tech bros donating to Trump are gambling that he gets elected, expires or is removed from office somehow, making Trump’s new VP pick, J.D. Vance, their penny ante puppet. They’ve already paid plenty of pretty pennies to pull Vance’s strings.
The hedge is that even if Trump continues to hang in there he’ll create enough chaos to let them run rampant without any real adult (read government) supervision. It’s the same gamble Putin, Xi, other world leaders and CEOs are making.
Either way, they’re priming the pump gambling they won’t have to dump it.
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.
A terrific video primer on Project 2025. Don’t say we weren’t warned.
Given the dire political situation we’re living through this summer with anxiety increasing in the countdown to this fall’s election, I hope you’ve taken the time to read the MAGAt roadmap called Project 2025. If you haven’t you need to. It’s not an easy or short read, there’s a lot of info there and it’s a bit terrifying.
But if you’re not into long reading, or you just prefer video then you might want to check out this video primer from Molly Jong-Fast and historian Thomas Zimmer. It’s well worth your time.
As Zimmer says Project 2025 is best understood as the “American Right’s Declaration of War on the idea of a multi-racial, pluralistic, diverse society.”
I urge you to check it out and share it. Molly says she thinks it’s the most important thing she’s ever done. I concur.
Don’t say we weren’t warned.
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.
The world gets meaner, uglier, and stupider, but Sunday mornings are still for reading.
The world continues to spin off its axis. And yet, it is another Sunday. So, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.
One of my theatre professors used to say that we weren’t really doing theatre “unless someone with guns showed up at the box office to stop you from selling tickets.” Given how things are going these days those words keep coming back to me. Especially after reading this article about Svetlana Petriychuk and Yegenia Berkovich, who were put on trial by a Russian military court and found guilty of “justifying terrorism.” Check out Valarie Hopkins’ article Russian Playwright and Theater Director Are Convicted of ;Justifying Terrorism.’
Steve Radlauer and Ellis Weiner continue their excellent serialized tale, The Split, with Chapter Thirty-Six at The Wonkette. I highly recommend you check out the entire thing.
You might want to prick up your ears at this one. David Rothkopf discusses America’s Death Wish.
Scammers and Con Artists are in vogue these days. To some it’s the American Way. Check out Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia by Lauren Smiley. It’s a wild ride.
NatashaMH and David Todd McCarty each recently took a dip into the technology and design pool and how it splashes all over our culture. Natasha took a trip to the what she calls ‘Planet Apple’ via the new Apple Store in Kuala Lumpur and not only marvels at the design of the store but might have lost her Android religion in the process. Check out Taking a Bite of the Apple. Meanwhile McCarty thinks that the further technology allows us to advance the dumber we become in Better Than Ever But Worse Than Before.
George Dillard says We’re All Hostages of Ego as he discusses the fate of our country and how it relies on the psychology of two elderly men.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.
The New York Times is out with a highly produced (perhaps over produced) editorial denouncing Donald Trump a week before he’s coronated as the Republican nominee at the GOP Convention in Milwaukee. Titled Donald Trump Is Unfit To Lead, the editorial is unequivocal and unforgiving in its damning the candidate, pointing out most of the flaws most could recite as a catechism these days.
There’s one large exception to that list of flaws. Not once in the editorial does the editorial board mention that Trump is a convicted felon running for the office of the presidency while out on bail. Call me crazy, but that does seem somewhat important.
With the focus on the candidate, the Times also completely looks away from the only reason we’re even faced with Trump still dominating our lives: that the Republican Party has either completely and cowardly surrendered to the decaying orange child rapist’s wishes hoping he’s the sign of some rapture to come, or they’ve just decided to out themselves as what they’ve always been.
There is a discussion about what the party used to stand for, but the editorial choice focuses on the candidate’s character rather than party and platform issues such as Project 2025.
Character is indeed the root of the discussion, as it always has been in most places except the pages of the New York Times. If any publication had insight into Trump’s character it would be the Times, but that’s a story constantly and consistently on their doorstep they’ve largely ignored until now. So, it’s good to see it finally have focus here. Even so, granting a free pass to the character-less characters who’ve allowed us to reach this point after having multiple chances of preventing it the week before they convene in Milwaukee ignores the larger questions and dangers we face.
The omission is as damning as the belated slams against the candidate.
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.
Ron Perlman is the perfect voice for the oily ExxonMobil ad spokesman in this terrific spoof of an ad from YellowDot Studios. It’s one crazy spoof.
But then again, isn’t this just as much a spoof about us?
Be honest. After watching this tell me there’s anything that you didn’t already know ExxonMobil, other oil companies, and politicians were doing.
Carry on. Or as the ad says, “get off your asses and do something, you fucking peasants!”
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.
It’s not a fantasy. It’s Trump and the MAGAts plan.
The Lincoln Project put out this ad called Aftermath.
As the ad says, “This isn’t a fantasy. It’s Trump’s Plan. And he’s counting on you to believe it couldn’t happen.”
Believe it. Share it.
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.
I get asked often why I fight so fiercely about the detestable and dangerous turn our country has taken. Yes, it’s about the larger ramifications of our country now subject to the character and whims of an elected king. Ironically in the week we celebrate our American independence from a king. It’s certainly about that.
Selfishly though, it’s really about the future of my two gandkids. Spending time with them this 4th of July and I fear for their future. I fear for the moments when their small world innocence is lost and I have to tell them how things used to be.
There were joys to hold on to:
Watching my grandson dance with abandon in the middle of a crowd listening to the Detroit Symphony while waiting for fireworks to begin.
Giving my granddaughter her first taste of ice cream and watching her face light up the same way I watched my Dad give her mother, my daughter, her first taste and then try to devour everyone else’s ice cream the same why my granddaughter did.
Watching my wife teach my grandson how to make a wish by tossing a coin in a fountain.
I’m fighting for all of that in hopes one day they will only have to read about what we’re living through as a sad piece of history and not the moment when irreversible change happened.
That’s my wish and my fight.
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.
Selfishly though, it’s really about the future of my two gandkids. Spending time with them this 4th of July and I fear for their future. I fear for the moments when their small world innocence is lost and I have to tell them how things used to be.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 