Tag: Trump

There’s No Happy Endings For This Trump Fairy Tale

Yowsa did the howls go up! Trump’s bond in the civil fraud case got reduced on appeal from $454 million to $175 million and he got a ten-day stay before he has to cough up the dough. If the intital judgment had been for $175 million instead of $454 million I’d bet we see this differently today if that  amount had been upheld. But that’s fiction. In a werid Sartre-esque reality show of our own making. And it shouldn’t be surprising.

That’s how screwed up we’ve allowed this sad excuse of a man to warp most of the world around us. On every conceivable level. We can continue to pretend the institutions we’ve relied on will offer some protections from the likes of this decaying orange turd and someday after he’s gone the world returns to a better place. But he’s crushed any hopes of that. At least for a few generations. Besides it’s a fiction he’s exposed, not one he’s created. Most fairy tales don’t end with happily ever after.

Yes, this vedict is a lifeline. Yes, it seems like he’s getting a break. And you know what? He is. And he will continue to get them. He might one day be held accountable for all of this, but I’m betting not whle he’s still breathing. Life ain’t fair damnit, especially when you’re trying to play by the rules and the other side doesn’t give fuck all about rules.

One of these days we’ll learn that. It will be messy. But at least it’ll be more honest.

Meanwhile: The judge in the porn star hush money case that trial will begin jury selection on April 15th. And so it goes.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Things We Know: All Things Rot

Some things we suspect. Some things we know. Some things are just rotten.

Donald Trump is a degenerate criminal, a rapist, an insurrectionist, a scumbag, a loser, a lousy liar, and more beyond redemption than most of the evil people in recorded history. And he’s the Republican nominee for President of the United States. If you’re voting for him I feel sorry for your grandkids’ future. 

The Republican Party doesn’t exist anymore. It hasn’t for awhile, but we’ve been pretending/hoping. The media should just start calling it for what it is. Dead and rotting. Quit dancing around and call them the Orange Party. If you’re a registered Republican, you own this rot and this death. If you’re proud of that I don’t know what to say. And if you’re in the media, I hope there’s a heaven to help your soul.

The Supreme Court is only supreme in its craven cowardice. 

Donald Trump won’t need to “terminate the constitution” when he’s elected. The Supreme Court essentially did that with its recent ruling. 

“Money talks and bullshit walks” used to be a truism. Both money and bullshit seem to be doing most of the talking these days.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

SCOTUS Hearing Marks The Middle of the Ending

Today is not the beginning of the end. It’s not anywhere close to the end. It’s smack dab in the middle. The US Supreme Court will hear a case on disqualifying everyone’s, including many of his supporters, most detested human from running for the presidency of the United States. As we’ve gotten closer to the moment the back and forth has been backed and forthed enough to make the Veritigo episodes I’m currently experiencing seem like I’m firmly rooted and well balanced on solid ground.

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For what it’s worth I don’t have a middle ground. I think the guy should be tossed out on his oversized orange keister, and that the well compromised Supreme Court should take a flyer to cover their asses in a few blankets shy of complete ignominy. Sure that might lead to violence, but I think that’s coming regardless. Just a matter of when. Call me cynical. But you’ll call me right before we get to the end.

What’s going to happen today? No one knows. That’s why this is such a fraught moment. The drama and the stakes don’t get any higher. The only problem with this drama is that no self-respecting writer would populate it with such transparently screwed up characters and motivations. Hell, even farceurs wouldn’t touch this list of characters. If you believe, as I do, that we’ve already done irreparable damage to what was the United States and all it stood for, today is the middle act of a tragedy heading to its conclusion.

I’m linking here to a good rundown of what the arguments in the court may be about today. For those interested in placing bets on the outcome here’s a link to what the oddsmakers are thinking. I’m mean if the ship of state is  going down, you might as well try to make a buck or two on how long it’s going to take.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome and check out The Lehman Trilogy Diaries here. 

Some Things We Just Know On The Merry-Go-Round We Call Life Today

On the merry-go-round of life some things we just know. Some things we just know but find that others want to pretend something different. Here are some things we just know.

Donald Trump is a criminal, a rapist, an insurrectionist, a scumbag, a loser, a lousy liar, and more beyond redemption than most of the evil people in recorded history. He’d love to top even that list. He wants to dismantle the US Constitution and any other aspect of governance as long as he can stay out of a prison jump suit that might clash with the color of his makeup while grifting his way to the grave.

The Republican Party is the largest collecton of cowards and liars ever gathered under the guise of a political party, afraid of any shadow with a hint of orange in it, and terrified of the ignorant constiutents they represent and claim to love. They deserve whatever comes from their cowardice and lying. The rest of us don’t.

Elon Musk is a drug-addled fool who just happens to control a few companies, somehow has a national security clearance, a hoard of wealth, and could care less about anything other than for whatever is in his brain at the moment. Or the next.

Too many American voters don’t know which way to turn because either fork in the road seems like a tortured path. Too many American voters need to pay better attention, because if they are not careful they’ll lose the ability to make choose how severe the torture is going forward.

Big Tech isn’t Big Tech anymore. Big tech, like most other human endeavors, is in the Big “Let’s Make All The Money We Can before the merry-go-round stops” game. The merry-go-round always stops.

Artificial Intelligence can be both a boon and a bust. It will be both. You don’t have to be intelligent or real  to see that coming. 

Social Media can be fun. Social Media can be harmful. In either case, only if you let it. 

Wars are destructive, foolish expressions of ego and and desire. Rules and Laws of War are silly made up sing-songs  to allow men to destroy each other and anyone in their way in service to those egos.

The Media is a mess of its own making in covering any of the above, and seems to enjoy swimming in its own slop with its mouth agape. Anyone in their right minds would have stopped the bleeding by now. Unless they just enjoy self-harm. But if it bleeds it leads. Even it’s draining the lifeblood out of you.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

A Moment Appears in Colorado

We’ve hit a moment. A moment where the fissures, already yawning open quite wide, could widen further, into a destable maw beyond anything most could possibly imagine. And it’s all due to a 4-3 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that will quickly head to the U.S Supreme Court.

The Colorado Supremes saying “Stop” to Trump’s Republican party ballot presence have in essence called the question on and for all of us. Not just on whether he can be on the ballot and thus potentially elected. That’s certainly the immediate stakes. But there are larger stakes that are about to be exposed.

This was always headed to SCOTUS. Depending on which team you root for you probably feel frightened by that or encouraged, given the makeup of that collection of corrupt pseudo-gods in black robes that the constitution enshrines and entrusts as the last line of its own defense.

These nine, for better or worse, are about to make a decision that may just put everything that follows to rest. Or they may just punt and let it linger until the election. Either way there’s going to be chaos.

From what I can tell, (admittedly I’m a bit swamped between work, the holidays and such so I haven’t see everything,) the legal underpinnings of the Colorado court’s decsion are sound. Some even say it’s a decision engineered to make those who use “strict constructionism” as a shield and a weapon to have second thoughts about taking up those well polished and well worn arms. But others say that’s bunkum. Either way, we’re in the slight sliver of the moment when you can say whatever the hell you want because only nine voices matter.

Though the law should be the deciding factor, the stakes I’m talking cut deeper.

Assuming that those who think the decision is legally sound are correct, there is an opportunity to rid us all of this meddlesome miscreant for both his allies as well as his opponents. Set him aside and move on. Us the law to do it. It may be late term, but this is an abortion most would welcome. Although too many will pretend they don’t. Some have had the chance to do this before and let the opportunity pass (U.S. Senate) thinking he’d fade away. We all seem to know that’s not going to happen again.

This is a country that has allowed itself to be bullied and terrorized, while trying to wrap its head around the destruction of cherished concepts (free speech, democracy, etc…) searching for some way out of the mess, hoping for some sort of deus-ex-machina. There’s no way but to go through it. And there’s no savior in the wings.  Regardless of what SCOTUS decides, much of what held us together has been taken from us and tossed in the ash can of history. And here we are at another of those moments.

Should the conservative majority of the Supreme Court steer the decision to keep Trump off the ballot,  I think we’ll have the answer we’ve all suspected for too long now. Vast swaths of our country, terrified of the demographic changes inexorably coming are willing to do just about anything to propel us backwards. Something about burning down a village to save it, I guess. And if things get lit up, why not just get on with it and get it over with. That’s the fear. And it’s a real one. I hope we don’t see that. I think we will, regardless of a SCOTUS decision now or after next November’s election results.

Intriguingly, I think Trumpty Dumpty’s allies would benefit more than his opponents from a decision that keeps him off a ballot or two. What continues to masquerade as the Republican party would probably find some new life after first stumbling over the reactions to such a momentus descion. Whatever they stumbled into would probably have a better chance of beating Biden, assuming they can actually sideline the orange buffoon, which is indeed questionable. But that’s an argument for a rational world. And we don’t have one of those any longer.

My hunch is that SCOTUS will punt rather than puncture the big orange balloon.

There’s A Corner. And Trump Has Backed Us Into It

Forget all of the somber, obligatory admonitons that Trump’s third indictment is a sad day for America. Forget all the “innocent until proven guilty” catechisms. Yes, both are true. But set them aside. They would be worth holding dear if these were ordinary times. These times they are not ordinary.

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Trump has backed himself into a corner and taken the United States, all its systems, institutions, and people with him. After all the posturing, all the lying, and all the bullshit, there’s only one way out for the Donald and that’s straight ahead like the wounded beast he is. Otherwise the walls defining the corner will slam shut on him like a book. And us with him. Either way we’re the collateral damage.

This moment Trump has brought us to is consuming our body poliitc like a flesh-eating bacteria. Necrotizing tissue as it goes, it has already left wounds and scars that will never heal. It will gobble up more. Our political and judicial systems have been rendered to the point of irrelevancy. The media has been over exposed as the leeching parasite it always was, content to slurp up any crumbs and drippings the host leaves in its wake. Churches and religious denominations have been cannibalized from within. Family and friendship bonds have been gnawed down to the marrow.

And yet we keep hoping, praying, and, dare I say, pretending that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is going to bring this despicable criminal to justice so we can turn a corner and find our way back.

There’s no back to find our way to, regardless of the legal outcomes. Frankly there’s no back to find our way to even if somehow this monster suddenly disappeared from the planet. The damage has been done. And I don’t think we collectively have what it takes to bridge the gaping wounds, much less comprehend them.  Our political systems are incapable of stopping the slaughter of children with guns. Our spiritual institutions keep remaking foundational tenets into something unreconcilable with their founding. And we’re going to fix this?

The wounds are fresh. The pain is real. There’s a monster in our midst and it’s going to take extraordinary measures to defeat it. Nothing will be the same if we do. Nothing should be the same as we try. And if there’s any healing to come it’s not going to happen without amputations that alter the way we navigate the world.

Tom Nichols defines the situation many of us will face as we battle through these months ahead in his excellent article “This Is The Case.”  This is the key paragraph:

“But after today, every American citizen who cares about the Constitution should affirm, without hesitation, that any form of association with Trump is reprehensible, that each of us will draw moral conclusions about anyone who continues to support him, and that these conclusions will guide both our political and our personal choices.”

Tough? You bet. Dangerous? Yup. But this is the moment this pitiful excuse of a man has brought us to. If you’re not ready to face the moment, the challenge, and the stakes I’m sorry for you. Know that those who’ve abandoned their senses and their place in the real world for this monster sure are. Know they’re coming. Each of us needs to be ready to stand in their way.