Insurrection Act - Trump's First Resort

The Insurrection Act has been employed 30 times in our 230-year history for various reasons—some honorable and others questionable. Most recently, at the request of the California governor to restore order during the Watts riots in 1992.

The catalyst leading presidents to invoke the Insurrection Act has generally been threats to lives and property and usually comes as a last resort.

President Trump is threatening to use the Act, again.

He’s doing so after spending a lifetime extolling its virtues, calling for its use repeatedly and threatening continually and in varied situations to use it himself.

The Insurrection Act might be needed, he says, to prevent this year’s mid-term election year from being interfered with in Democratic states. He is quite aware that the last attempt to obstruct a national election was when he coaxed thousands of domestic terrorists—they were not patriots by any stretch of the imagination—to the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In that instance, as president, he refused to send in troops even as rioters called for the hanging of his own vice president.

Trump, as president, has the power to carry out his fantasies, but doesn’t have the willpower or insight to restrain himself or to understand the consequences of his actions. We see this in everything he does.

As a candidate, he ran on a peace platform denouncing foreign entanglements as contrary to his “America First” objective.

As president, he has authorized military strikes in seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and Venezuela. Some were with cause, but none were with the consent or even acknowledgement of Congress. He may have been a peace candidate, but he has a lifelong reputation as an angry individual always willing to strike out at his perceived enemies.

He has recently threatened to take over Greenland—either the easy way, which I assume means Greenland just surrenders their sovereignty, or the hard way, which based on previous examples could mean missile attacks or invasion or whatever he feels is necessary to get the deal done.

Threats have always been Trump’s main weapon. Threats of attack, threats of tariffs, threats of lawsuits, threats of withholding support, threats of “I don’t know. We’ll have to see.” These threats usually appear in off-the-cuff talk with reporters or in his late-night social media posts.

America finds itself being led by an angry man who feels he has never received the respect he was due. He has made enemies throughout his adult life and been obsessed with destroying his enemies. He has always relished power and used it to his advantage whenever possible, mostly in the business world.

He continues to threaten using the Insurrection Act to send thousands of federal troops into Minneapolis where thousands of federal troops are already swarming the streets. Their presence is what is actually provoking the protests that Trump claims can only be stopped by more troops. The only death in the city has been at the hands of federal ICE agents.

Most recently he has sent investigators to Georgia to re-investigate the 2020 election while threatening federal intervention might be needed to ensure a free mid-term election.

Trump is like the boy who continually cries “Fire!” and then finds a book of matches and immediately sets fire to a building. For years, he is eagerly awaiting an opportunity, valid or otherwise, to enforce the Insurrection Act on his perceived enemies—generally minorities and cities and states with Democratic leadership.

And now he finds himself the most powerful man in the world with access to the world’s largest military on the world stage and an Insurrection Act in this country that gives him virtually all the authority he needs to do anything he wants. He also has a friendly Supreme court and arguably the weakest Congress in recent memory on his side.

In this the 250^th anniversary of our formal break from England, citizens need to forget for a moment all the issues that seem to consume our politics and instead reacquaint ourselves with the Declaration of Independence. It explains the grievances our forefathers had with a tyrannical King George, the last man who wanted to be king over us—grievances serious enough that we went to war to gain our independence.

That king’s rule divided the colonies much the way Trump is dividing the nation now, pitting one party against the other, states against state, and citizens against each other.

If we are not careful, Trump’s threats and possible invoking of the Insurrection Act, along with other attempts to rule by decree will push our nation to a place we haven’t been in since the Civil War.

On March 25, 2025, I had a piece published in the Baltimore Sun, that spoke to the issue of bad governments: https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/03/20/tocqueville-would-be-wary-of-trumps-overhaul-of-government-guest-commentary/.

I wasn’t talking so much about a government that I didn’t agree with, which most of us would consider to be a bad government. I was talking about the damage a government with bad people in it, unqualified people, people with ulterior motives could do. The answer was provided by 19^th century philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville.

He answered the question “How bad can it get?” this way: “The most dangerous time for a bad government is usually when it begins to reform.”

Just recounting the names that have been in the news in recent weeks—Venezuela, Greenland, Davos, Minneapolis, Fulton County, Epstein—always Epstein, would seem to indicate that this administration is in over its head, and our nation will pay the price for their ignorance.

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Legitimate Political Discourse

 

Stop shouting. I can barely hear myself think

People died, were injured, and/or were terrorized by all that “talking” that Republicans are now calling legitimate political discourse. Yelling “fire” in a movie theater is still wrong and not protected by the first amendment, but something that can get you killed is legitimate political discourse.

Can we now use the word deplorable to describe those who defecated on the floors and walls of the Capitol? For those who don’t like reading about sh*t in their morning newspaper, how would you feel about walking into your office tomorrow and finding sh*t on your desk next to your nameplate?

How does “Hang Mike Pence” even begin to equate with legitimate political discourse like “I don’t think I can vote for that?” Don’t even try to write it off by declaring “Democrats say nasty things, too.” Trump blew that defense out of the water by declaring there were good and bad people on both sides in Charlottesville. Nazis? White supremacists? Good people?

How does “We have to fight like hell” not be a call for violence when the resulting action becomes a violent, no-holds-barred, inflict-as-much-pain-as-possible insurrection?

Republican leaders continue to defend the big lie. They think the only good Americans are Republicans in good standing. What should we expect from a party always demanding loyalty oaths?

Trump, who speaks for all Republicans—at least the good ones (sorry Pence), call Democrats un-American traitors? No Republican said this was wrong. Even “Some Democrats are un-American traitors, and some are not,” would have been a step in the right direction.

Republicans continue to defend the “big lie” because they are, and have been for some time, big liars, tying themselves up in knots trying to explain their behavior. They stand by a man who says, “…if we don’t stand up and fight, we will lose our country,” when this same man is literally destroying our country.

How deplorable must a Republican leader be to cower to this immature coward? How deplorable must voters be to support these leaders?  

Ask someone who says, “I’d rather die than get vaccinated.”

Now they are Deplorable

As a Democrat, I have to say I’m getting a little tired of the constant criticism that Republican leaders are being subjected to, for simply being Republican leaders. This goes for everyone from Trump to Cruz and McConnell, Rubio and Hawley, Ron Johnson, the ever-ridiculous Louie Gohmert, and a whole lot more.

True, they are all hypocrites, clueless and idealess, which is a whole lot more problematic than being an idealist. They stand for nothing other than self-preservation in a dog-eat-dog world of politics, which is why it has become easier than it’s ever been to make fun of them or box them into a corner by throwing their own words back at them.

Nevertheless, ridiculing Republican leaders has become all too easy, because they are simply doing the only thing they feel they must do to hang on to their jobs—appeal to Republican voters by being loyal Republicans. They are wrong of course. They could be leaders, but leadership is not what Republican voters look for in their leaders. Trump won in 2016 because he said what Republican voters wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear.

For this reason, while media fatigue has allowed me to let Republican leaders off the hook, and because they deserve our pity more than our scorn, I am disgusted with Republican voters. Not just because more  of them seem to be white supremacist, racists, bigots, religious fanatics, law-and-order enthusiast who don’t respect the law, Constitutionalist who don’t respect the Constitution, and in many cases, may not have ever read the Constitution, or just plain folks who simply don’t care about anyone other than themselves.

I’m disgusted with them because they just don’t seem to be that smart.

I’ve listened to QAnon conspiracist rationalize why they supported and continue to support Trump and it’s mind-boggling—not only for what they think they know, but what they honestly don’t know, and make no mistake, QAnon conspiracist vote Republican.

So do a lot of other crazies—Proud Boys, boogaloo boys, that old standby KKK, those people who think masks aren’t necessary, or the ones who think guns are not only necessary but vital to our survival.

Too many of these not-so-smart Republicans think a debate on healthcare or wages or the economy or politics can be won by throwing out the words Socialism, traitor, un-American, fake news, Soros and lately Hunter.

They are so ill-informed, and willingly so, that Republicans were able to run in the last election on a platform completely devoid of ideas or policies, other than, we’ll do whatever Donald Trump wants us to do. This was the Republican platform and 74 million Republican voters said, “Sounds good to me.”

When Hillary Clinton declared Trump supporters were deplorable, and was rightfully called on it, she immediately apologized and admitted that not all of the 60 million people who voted for Trump in 2016 were deplorable, only many of them. Of course, she was talking about the white supremacists, bigots, racists, fanatics, conspiracist and extremists, but not every Republican voter fell into these categories.

Some were just lifelong Republicans, probably born and raised in Republican households, just as many Democrats are lifelong Democrats born and raised in Democratic households.

Close elections are generally not won or lost by these voters, but rather by those in the middle who tend to lean one way or the other depending on the year, the issues, or the candidates.

For any number of reasons, 60 million voters chose Trump in 2016, and while they were not a majority, they were strategically well placed to secure an Electoral College win for who turned out to be, the worst president ever.

Twenty-twenty was a different ballgame entirely. Democrats picked up 17 million votes, which wasn’t surprising considering Trump had spent four years bashing Democrats as Socialists and un-American traitors.

What was surprising, was Trump picking up 14 million more votes after a presidency that should have only pleased James Buchanan, a presidency that included a public love-fest with a Korean dictator and murderer, a tax law that benefitted millionaires and billionaires and very few middle class Republicans, two impeachments and the groundwork for numerous lawsuits once he left office. There was also a wall that Mexico never paid for because it was never built, an immigration policy that separated hundreds of children from their families, and a response to a world-wide pandemic that was disastrous for the nation and fatal to 500,000 and counting Americans.  

The events of January 6, 2021, as well as Trump’s behavior in the two months after the election, only solidified for me that Trump is not qualified to be president, and yet, he appears to have lost little support among his base. Seventy-four million Americans voted for Trump in 2020, after a presidency that gave him a leg up in the race for worst president ever. I shudder to think what those voters saw in Trump’s presidency that made them want to go down that road again.

The devotion of Republican politicians to Trump was evidenced recently by their behavior at CPAC, where they publicly proclaimed what we all knew they were doing privately—pledge their allegiance before a cartoonish golden Trump mannequin. I don’t expect them to behave any differently than they do. I’d like to think they answer to the Constitution, but I’m not naïve. They only answer to voters, Trump voters.

Again, maybe not all of those voters are deplorable. It’s possible that some might just be foolish, but the fourteen million new Trump voters, if they had been paying attention—and how could they not have been paying attention—surely they are deplorable.

No one in their right mind could have witnessed the last four years, listened to Trump speak, read about his missteps—no not missteps, but rather crimes since even Republicans attest to his guilt—and not realize that he is a dictatorial demigod, and totally unfit to be president.

As sensible, thinking Republican voters continue to jump ship, making the party less sustainable than a Trump casino, Republican leaders are not the problem so much as Trump voters, the deplorable ones are, and they are not just a problem for the Republican Party, but for the nation.

 

 

How to Win a Propaganda War

We are in the midst of a propaganda war in this country where misinformation abounds and credibility is being put to the test. We are all combatants in this war and our brains are both the weapons we fight with and the targets we must defend from attack.

Common sense, back when it existed in meaningful quantities, gave us the simple axiom, “Garbage in, garbage out.” This suggests that good things in, will result in good outcomes.

Superior education, research and technique result in superior products. Putting a man on the moon began with an inspiring goal that was followed by gathering accurate data, understanding it, analyzing it and building on it. Many would call this the American way.

Conspiracy theories are called conspiracy theories because they are based on—well they are not based on anything. They are baseless. In the past, conspiracy theories existed only in the world of cranks. Intelligent people looked down on both the theories and the cranks, but fortunately, there were no enough of either to threaten the rest of us.

Today, we are living at a time where more and more people, especially people in powerful positions—men and women in the Senate and Congress, governors, state and local leaders are looking at nonsense and concluding that if it works for them, it’s okay. The biggest piece of nonsense being floated is that the recent election was corrupted by election officials, fixed to favor Democrats, and must be overturned. Mind you, they don’t necessarily believe the nonsense. In many cases, they don’t. They are simply evaluating nonsense in terms of how it works for them. They are even willing to look like cranks themselves, if there is something to be gained for them personally.

These leaders are playing into the hands of people who would like to see our government fall because if government falls, democracy falls. Thus far, too many Republicans have refused to stand up to these conspiracist.

Our country has always been able to deal with a small minority of cranks who were out of touch with reality. It cannot deal with a sizable number of leaders unwilling to stand up to them.

Republicans don’t have to do much. They have to simply admit, publicly and en masse that the last election was fair, that Trump lost, and that trying to overturn a free election is the most un-American thing any individual, especially a president can do.

They have to use their brains to fight, not surrender their brains to fear—especially the fear that Trump will somehow punish them for doing the right thing.

Again, our brains are the only weapon we have against ridiculous propaganda, and they are the only things we must protect when they are being attacked. Propaganda is the enemy of democracy. Accepting and promoting propaganda is no different than working with the enemy in a hot or cold war. It is treasonous.

Can you hear me, now? Not Really.

     In 2013, Representative King (IA) infamously said, young girls coming into the U.S. from Mexico “...had calves as big as cantaloupes from lugging drugs across the border.”

     He would not have spoken these extremely hurtful, not to mention stupid, words if he wasn’t certain his constituents would not only approve, but also reward him for them. He was right. They returned him to Congress in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

     For a long time, some would say, too long, it’s been impossible for Republicans to say anything so outrageous that their base would reject them.

     This was good for them because Republicans seem to be uniquely adept at saying things that make no sense. What isn’t unique about Republicans is that like Democrats, Independents, Whigs in the old days, and the Green Party in recent days, they like to talk.

     They kiss babies, eat food they wouldn’t otherwise go near with a ten-foot pole, take endless selfies, and shake countless hands; but most of all they like to hear themselves talk.

     Unlike Democrats who are known for their in-fighting—that’s what a big tent will do for you—Republicans are known for their unity. Reagans eleventh commandment, speak no ill-will of other Republicans has been their guiding principle for over fifty years.

     This has never been more evident than with the current president. Trump has said things so mystifying, so beyond the pale, so utterly ridiculous as to make normal people cringe, yet somehow, Republicans have always found a way to defend him.     

     Senator Graham called Trump an idiot during the 2016 campaign, adding he’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, who will destroy the Republican Party. Today, because Republicans can’t afford to have Trump's base turn against them, Graham can’t say enough good things about the idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. Idiots don’t generally start making sense when they turn seventy. A smarter Graham would understand this.

     Senator Cruz continued to support him through three-plus years of lunacy because the very thought of Trump’s base turning on him was worse than having to endure Trump insults against both his wife and father during the campaign.

     And Trump’s base will make them pay. Those who have stood up to Trump, and when I say stand up I refer to the most minuscule exhibition of courage one could possibly imagine, nevertheless, they have seen their careers ended, primaried out of existence so to speak.

     However, just as Trump appears to be self-destructing before our very eyes, his base is also beginning to crumble, albeit ever so slowly. His poll numbers, never high to begin with, are beginning to fall. People who once proudly wore tee-shirts bragging, “I'm Deplorable” are having second thoughts. They might not be saying it out loud, but the times, they are achangin’.

      The only thing worse than being deplorable is having to admit that the man you voted for no longer meets your deplorable standards. They’d rather you just forget.

     Just because his base can walk away, slither into the darkness and hope no one notices, doesn’t mean everyone can be so lucky.

     As Trump’s base abandons him, the big question is where the Congressmen and women and senators go, after bowing so cowardly before his unholy altar for three excruciating years. Is Trump’s base turning only on him? Do the sheep in Congress fight to hold on to the ones still loyal to Trump, or do they go after the ones that have left?

     Trump’s supporters have been a big question mark from the start. Only now, Republicans are beginning to question what everyone else has questioned from the start—what’s up with Trump’s base. Republicans no longer know which way the wind is blowing, only that something is in the air.

     We are seeing the by-product of this confusion every day in the halls of Congress. Politicians who talk for a living, who thrive on hearing their own voices, who can tell a lie without even blinking an eyelash have suddenly gone mute—afraid to say the wrong thing, afraid to say the right thing, afraid to say anything.

     These habitual motor-mouths can no longer find the words, when asked to comment on the president latest act of lunacy— something they could and did do without thinking just a few months ago. The poor souls have lost their voices, the only thing that ever mattered to them. They are reduced to making excuses, where they used to make waves.

     “I didn’t hear that.”

     “I didn’t read that.”

     “I’ll get back to you.”

     “Did he say that? I don’t know. I wasn’t aware.”

     "Hmmm, sooo, ahh..."

     “I’m late for a meeting.”

     “I’m late for lunch.”

     “I’m late. I’m late. I’m late.”

     Oh, if they could just say what Senator Graham said in the 2016 campaign? Trump is an idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. If only Republicans could cut Trump and his base loose and take their chances with those Americans who have known from day-one that Trump wasn’t going to make anything great. 

     He was only going to make us the laughing stock of the world, trample on the Constitution and tear our country apart. That’s what idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigots do.   

Let's see. How can I screw this up?

This would have been a chance

Let me be clear from the onset. The following is not a real proposal. In fact, to some degree, some of it may have already been considered. I don’t know. I am merely looking not so much, at what the president can and cannot do, but why he is unable to do what he should do.

In the nation’s war against COVID-19, virtually the whole country is united. Healthcare workers are making tremendous sacrifices. The nation realizes this and appreciates their work and are doing whatever they can—sheltering in place and wearing masks to lessen their load, save lives, and put this pandemic behind us.

The list of suspects continue to go against the grain, bucking the advice of doctors, health and state officials. These are the fatigue-clad men showing off their guns, rebels without a cause carrying “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, loudmouths who simply don’t like the government or anyone else telling them what to do, and of course, Trump supporters who don’t believe in science, don’t trust the press and think there is a deep-state in Washington going after the president.

Sadly, there is also the president, himself, taking every opportunity to fight with his own medical advisors, state governors, Congressional leaders, the press, and anyone else bold enough to stand up to him.

He has been in a state of denial about the disease and its spread from the beginning, slow to act when denial was no longer an option, and a spreader of bad, misleading and often dangerous information. To his shame, he has made the simple act of wearing a mask an issue for debate.

The president’s quandary exists in his own mind. He thinks everything that is good for the country—masks, social distancing, and science—must be bad for him. His insecurity forces him to question any idea that doesn’t originate from his own mind. 

What he does believe, unfortunately, is that anything that does pop up in his mind is good for him politically—huge rallies, opening up businesses with as little restrictions as possible, and not listening to medical advice—and can’t be that bad for the country. If he wins, we all win.

The result of all this bad leadership has been the spread of the disease and increased deaths and suffering. He has also seen his poll numbers—the only thing he really cares about—go down. His declining poll numbers result in even more bizarre and destructive behavior.

It didn’t have to be like this. He could have done something early-on that would have helped both the nation and his political standing. I’m not talking about more testing and more equipment. These were never in the realm of something he could or would do because he never saw these as his responsibility.

There was, however, something he could have done that one could have expected a selfish, self-absorbed politician like himself to do.

I’m talking about MAGA masks.

He could have stepped up to a podium in February to address Americans wearing a MAGA mask—not meekly, but proudly. Not self-consciously, but pro-actively. If he had told Americans then that wearing a mask, along with social distancing was the greatest weapon we had, not only to defeat this disease, but to restore America to greatness, he would have been behaving like the strong war-time president he thinks he is. If he had told his supporters that MAGA masks, or any other mask, was not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of moral fortitude against an enemy we might not be able to see, but we clearly need to defeat.

Would his supporters buy this? I don’t know. I do know they have bought every single other thing he has thrown their way. I think they would proudly wear masks if they saw him wearing one.

Those who don’t support the president might’ve worn mask with opposing logos. We are already a divided nation. Why not put some of that division to good use?

No one knows if everyone wearing masks in February would have reduced the number of deaths. I think I can say with certainty that deaths wouldn’t have increased if everyone was taking added precautions. I do think we would have been in better shape today if he had promoted masks instead of speculating (I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t deserve) about injecting bleach or putting lights inside our bodies.

If the number of deaths were down because of something the president said or did instead of up because of things he didn’t say or do, I think that would have been good for his poll numbers.

This isn’t about Trump’s poll numbers or elect-ability. Four years of Trump as president is enough for me. I’m not interested in promoting MAGA either. I think it falls in the category of false and misleading advertising.

I am simply pointing out that this is one more example where given the opportunity to do the right thing and benefit from it, or do the wrong thing and not only do damage to himself, but do damage to the nation, our president will always choose Door Number Two.

He can’t help himself. He’ll destroy the nation. He’ll destroy you. He’ll continue to destroy himself and his presidency.

He’s not the fighter he says he is, as much as he’s a destroyer. He’s taken a complicated immigration problem and destroyed the whole process. He’s tried to destroy Obamacare putting millions of Americans at risk. He’s destroyed our relations with allies. His waffling and indecision at the beginning of the pandemic has destroyed the economy more than it had to be. He is doing everything he can to destroy Constitutional government. He has destroyed departments within the government, including the Justice Department and State. He breaks things faster than a child breaks toys on Christmas morning. It’s what he does.

Destroyers certainly don’t make things. A destroyer like Trump will not make America great again. He couldn’t even pretend to do so by wearing something like a MAGA mask.

Postscript: A check on Google shows there are actually MAGA masks, although they seem to be getting mostly two-star reviews. No way of knowing what him wearing one would have meant for the nation.

Oops

“I was mistaken.”

This was Moscow Mitch McConnell’s explanation for having said President Obama did not provide a 69-page pandemic playbook for the incoming Trump administration.

Admitting mistakes, while sometimes embarrassing, is always a good thing. Realizing we’ve made mistakes is how we learn, admitting them is how we grow.

Because he is unwilling or incapable of doing either, Donald Trump remains an intellectual five-year-old. He is a 250 pound man-child who happens to be president of the United States because sixty million Americans made the mistake of voting for him in 2016.

Not everyone would agree with that statement. They don’t have to. How we vote isn’t necessarily a mistake regardless of the outcome, or whether the winner turns out to be good or bad, competent or incompetent.

In Trump’s case, we know he can’t speak intelligently, he doesn’t read, and is so thin-skinned that those around him must baby him to keep him from flying off the handle. When was the last time the leader of the free world had to be babied?

He also is incapable of making decisions. He simply thinks out loud, tells us what people—real or imagined—are telling him, or what he heard on T.V., or what he concocted in his own “brilliant” mind.

These are all observations from the last three and a half years of his presidency, but these facts were all true and in plain sight when he was running in 2016. That’s why voting for him was a mistake of massive proportion. We are not seeing a new or different Trump. He’s the same man-child, intellectual idiot now that he’s always been.

His presidency began with a mistake and the mistakes continue to mount.

He puts people in positions of authority only to have to remove them because he made a mistake.

Sometimes people remove themselves because they realized joining his team was a mistake.

Every encounter with Speaker Pelosi has turned into a mistake for Trump.

Making that “perfect” phone call was a mistake.

Promoting bleach as a cure for COVID-19 was a mistake. It certainly wasn’t an example of sarcasm.

Every day of his administration, from the estimate of the Inauguration Day crowd size to opening up America without adequate testing, has produced new mistakes by him or his accomplices like McConnell, Barr, Giuliani, Rep. Nunes, Pence and just about everyone else in his inner circle. Until now, few have admitted to making a mistake. 

McConnell’s admission that “he was mistaken” is something—if he was, in fact, merely mistaken.

What exactly is a mistake? The dictionary defines mistake as an action or judgement that is misguided or wrong—like giving the wrong answer to a test question. Most people don’t give the wrong answer intentionally.

So, what is a mistake not?

No Middle-Ground Trump.

Everything is beautiful, in its own way.

Ray Stevens sang those words back in 1970. It was a beautiful song, but the message was all wrong. In the first place, there are all different degrees of beauty.

Chrysanthemums are beautiful, but spelling chrysanthemums correctly in a spelling bee can be even more beautiful.

Obviously, being beautiful is beautiful, but winning a beauty contest is even more beautiful.

And some things, like victories that we think might be beautiful, aren’t beautiful at all, or don’t necessarily have to be.

Winning a track meet can be a beautiful thing, taking your breath away even more than the running did, but wars are ugly no matter whether you win or lose.

The same goes for winning arguments.

Poverty and starvation and disease are never pretty, much less beautiful.

So while it is noble to look for beauty everywhere, it’s foolish to think you’re seeing it everywhere.

In her 1878 novel, Molly Bawn, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, a not-so-beautiful Irish author with a very un-pretty name first coined the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” possibly in self-defense. She may have been right.

On the other hand, she, like Ray Stevens, could have been wrong. Sometimes, beautiful just isn’t there.  

During the Army-McCarthy Hearings, at a point where Senator McCarthy was being particularly ugly, Army lawyer Joseph Welch asked Senator McCarthy the rather poignant question, “Sir, have you left no sense of decency?”  

The same question could be asked of President Trump, who since entering the public arena in 2015, has brought a certain degree of vitriol and hurtfulness to the presidency not normally seen outside a professional wrestling ring.

Nasty, brainless, ugly, unhinged, crazy, crooked, cheatin’, corrupt, sneaky, slippery, shady, slime ball, worst ever, wacky, psycho, reject, human scum, traitor, un-American, and ironically, empty barrel are just a few of the hundreds of insults he has hurled. Not at our enemies, but at Representatives and Senators, allies, department heads, cabinet officers, members of his own party, as well as Democrats, state governors, business leaders, high school students, everyday citizens, virtually every reporter working for the fake news, and even a teenage Noble Prize winner.

Obviously, the president has no sense of decency. For Donald Trump, living on a planet with over six billion people means living on a planet with over six billion stupid people, all of whom are out to get him. I would have liked to see his Christmas card list. I’m guessing, if he had one at all, most of the names had lines drawn through them.

And yet, there is another side to this man who sees nothing but ugliness in practically everyone  he must deal with. Trump has a beautiful relationship with inanimate objects, or things that don’t physically exist, like ideas that pop up in his head.

Opening up the country for business is a beautiful puzzle, and once we put it together, our beautiful economy will be more beautiful than ever.

Easter would be a beautiful time to begin.

All this is possible because of the beautiful tests. “We have beautiful testing.”

Being able to mine beautiful coal again will be a beautiful thing, but we will still need that beautiful pipeline.

And what about those beautiful Confederate statues?

And those beautiful military weapons—beautiful weapons for a beautiful military, and all paid for with beautiful American tax dollars.

When he travels, on his beautiful Air Force One, and lands in beautiful airports, he is treated beautifully by beautiful dictators who he has a beautiful relationship with, especially if they put his beautiful picture up on lights on their beautiful hotels.

The Syrian War was ugly, but we had a beautiful safe zone, where refugees were being taken care of beautifully.

Traitorous Democrats prevented him from signing what would have been a beautiful health bill. Those same un-American Dems are the only thing standing between a beautiful wall at the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico. We signed a beautiful trade agreement with them, but that doesn’t let the Mexican people, who are murderers and rapists off the hook.

On the subject of trade deals, how about that “beautiful, warm, nice call” with Ukrainian president Zelensky. Did I mention it was also perfect?  

Of course, who can forget those beautiful love letters from Kim Jong-un. While we can’t forget those beautiful letters, we must remember Melania, and his beautiful daughter Ivanka. And the other one, too.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention his beautiful temperament, which he never fails to do. Trump’s beautiful temperament is probably what allows him to hover between the ugly real world inhabited by everyone around him and the beautiful world that exists in his mind.

It’d be nice if someone asked Trump’s opinion on something and he said, “I don’t know. I’d have to think about it. I’ll get back to you.” Trump always has an opinion, and it always comes down to two choices—beautiful or despicable.

“Oh yeah, and you’re a jerk for asking.”

There is no middle ground with Trump. 

Another entertainment show, Project Runway, which was unable to launch its host into the presidency because it didn’t have beautiful ratings like The Apprentice, did teach us something. Things, even beautiful things, can change quickly.

One minute you’re up and the next minute you’re down. Just ask anyone who has worked for Trump—one minute you’re beautiful, the next minute, you're (see Nasty, brainless, ugly...paragraph above).

The Greatest Hoax Ever

Every time I hear Trump allude to his economy being the greatest ever, my first thought is “ever” is a long time. My second thought is, his economy was never the greatest, period.

He talked a lot about the stock market when it was going up, not so much now that it’s going down. In the first place, the stock market doesn’t measure the economy so much as it measures wealth. 

Wealth in this country is doing very well, if you happen to be wealthy. The wealthy are buying and selling the way the wealthy have always done business—without leaving their mansions and certainly without wearing masks. When the market goes down and then starts to go up, it means someone sold high and bought back in low. When it’s over, they’ll be even richer than they were before.

The other thing Trump talked a lot about was job creation and unemployment. Job numbers were the highest ever, while unemployment were the lowest ever. The smartest president ever concluded that he must be the greatest president ever.

So, what did the first month of the corona-virus shelter-in-place policy look like? Well, jobs vanished and unemployment went up. No great surprise there. Congress worked quickly to ease the pain by directing money to businesses and affected workers. Of course, it wouldn’t happen overnight, but compared to the way most things go in government, it was moving along damn fast. The problem was, it was not moving fast enough.

Seems that greatest-ever number of workers, working in the greatest-ever number of job weren’t making enough money to hold them over one week.

Investors had seen the stock market go down from highs in the 29,000s to lows in the 17,000s, but after a month, it was already bouncing back into the 23,000s. Of course, it didn’t really matter because those people, the wealthy, are not living day-to-day, week-to-week. When you’re a billionaire, or even a lowly millionaire, you probably don’t even own a calendar. You might own a $10,000 watch—actually $10,000 is the really, really, really low-end for luxury watches—but they are only for show. Just like they don’t care what month or day it is, the wealthy don’t care what time it is. Every time is a good time.

Apparently, the people who work for the super-rich are, by necessity, a lot more time conscious. There’s the day the rent or mortgage is due, the day the car payment is due. Utilities don’t have a specific date when they’re due, but they have to be paid every month, as do credit cards.

All those jobs—the greatest number ever—didn’t give workers—again, the greatest number ever—enough money to get through the week. When 25-million laid-off workers—don’t tell Trump this is the highest number ever—can’t last a week without a paycheck, I think it calls into question whether we had the greatest economy ever, or was someone, I’m not naming names, promoting the greatest con job ever.

It wasn’t a con job on the workers. They have been demanding better pay for decades. Fifteen states are still sticking to the $7.25 number, while others shroud their statistics in secrecy—one can only assume because releasing them would be embarrassing.

This con job was unleashed on voters, especially the ones who, for some reason, didn’t believe the president would lie to them.

If seeing the word “greatest” makes one feel good regardless of the context, there is some good news to report,

While the greatest number of workers, working in the greatest number of jobs, in the greatest economy, under the greatest economy president—now doing double duty as the greatest war-time president—are learning that their emergency funds won’t get them through the week, Forbes Magazine announced earlier this year that there are 671 billionaires in America—the greatest number ever.

In 1970, there were only two billionaires. The minimum wage back then was $1.60, which was the equivalent of $11.00 in 2020. Effectively, many workers today are making almost three dollars less than workers in 1970, which essentially puts most workers in debt.

Here’s a question: Where did those 671 billionaires come from?

Answer: Out of the pockets of the greatest number of workers, working the greatest number of jobs in the greatest economy ever.

A strong leader: "Today, I have declared war on Japan." A bad leader : "I'm not responsible."

     

"The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself"

                             

     It’s one thing to be a bad leader. The world has seen many of those and the price we have paid has been wars, famine, poverty, discrimination, and an abundance of unnecessary suffering.

     The good thing about bad leaders is we know what to do with them. It is rarely easy, but once we realize they are bad leaders, we know we must get rid of them.

     The problem is that bad leaders can come in many shapes and sizes—although their egos come in one size—extra-large. Until bad leadership becomes obvious to everyone, or at least those paying attention, bad leadership will continue to lead—badly.

     Tyrants are generally tyrants from day one, and it doesn’t take long to figure them out. Even in a short space of time, though, they are able to secure enough power and control to make getting rid of them difficult.

     Donald Trump is a bad leader, but that’s not all he’s been.

     

     He has been a bad husband and father.

     He’s been a bad businessman, who has done well enough personally, but has seen his businesses go bankrupt, and/or been taken to and defeated in court countless times.

     He’s been a bad friend, who’s shown zero loyalty to the same people he has demanded total allegiance from.

     And he has been a bad voice of reason, who has become known for what he does not know, and showing little inclination to learn.

     All these shortcomings have affected anywhere from a few to often many people. 

     

     Unfortunately, his greatest failure of leadership, his presidency, is taking its toll on our whole nation, and quite possibly the whole world.

     For many people, it didn’t take long to realize he had no leadership skills. For others, even though they understood the truth, they also understood that a dull saw, a lame horse, a bad book, or an old clunker can provide some comfort, some results, so long as you don’t expect much.

     Then, there are those who still don’t get it. Only one word can describe them. They don’t like hearing that word, but they don’t have to hear it. It’s out there, and it’s not going away.

     Trump is a bad leader, not because he shares the same aggressive behavior shown by most bad leaders—although to be sure, he has aggressively set out, and succeeded in destroying all that he touches, not to mention most who work for him.

     He is a bad leader because he is no leader at all. He is a coward. We’ve always known he is a bully. And we’ve always known bullies are cowards, but seeing him consciously shirk his duty has shown a new light on his cowardice.

     Trump is afraid to act because he is insecure, afraid of being wrong.

     Trump is afraid to act because he is ill-informed, not because the information isn’t there, but because he has no use for facts and science. As you read that last sentence, picture him pointing to his great brain.

     Trump is afraid to act because he has created an image of himself—his brand—that does not allow himself to be wrong.

     He has sold that brand to his supporters, who have wholeheartedly bought into it. 

Exposing that brand to be false would be suicidal. It is all he’s got.

     He’s not the genius he claims to be.

     He doesn’t care—about you, me or anyone else. When he says he does, he has to read it.

     Trump is a leader who would rather do nothing than do the wrong thing. Worse still, he determines what is right and what is wrong for all the wrong reasons. He’d rather do nothing than for his supporters to discover he misled them. His lies tell them all they want to know. No sense allowing the truth to take it all down.

     So he continues to do what he has always done. He attacks real leaders, who are forced to fill the void he creates, for doing the job he refuses to do.

     Trump is the worst of all possibilities. He can’t follow because his ego won’t let him, and he can’t lead because his heart isn’t in it.

     So he goes on, talking, talking, talking—all the while saying nothing.

The only thing you have to fear is me; but hey, whataya got to lose?

                        

   

Party of Lincoln Derailed

Republicans are fond of claiming to be the party of Lincoln. It gives them a sense of respectability that Nixon and Joseph McCarthy never could provide. The last time they were the party of Lincoln was seven score, ten years ago if it was a day. So, the obvious question is what has the party of Lincoln done for us lately.

For a good part of the 20^th century, Democrats struggled to remove racism from within their own party. When they finally exorcised their demons, those who couldn’t stomach reform, who thought giving blacks actual citizenship rights, just one century after giving them full citizenship was moving too fast, sought refuge in the GOP.

Republicans were only too happy to welcome them, just as they would grudgingly welcome other hate groups when there were political gains to be had. Clearly “big tent” means something different for Republicans. Today’s Republican Party is not the party of Lincoln. It is the party of Strom Thurmond.

For the last fifty years, the nation has tried to move toward tolerance and acceptance and away from racism and bigotry, not just for blacks, but for all minorities.

During this same period, the Republican Party has relocated to a place where its main constituency is now old white men with money and/or attitude and young, less educated white men with mostly attitude. Oh, and Evangelicals, who used to be all about GOD have also found a home in the GOP.

When Civil Rights legislation was still in its incubator stage, Nixon was putting together, his “law and order southern strategy.” The once solid Democratic south has morphed into the new solid Republican south. Racism and bigotry are the glue holding it together.

The 1976 election wasn’t so much about enforcing law and order or advancing civil rights. Gerald Ford was burdened by blow-back to the Nixon-pardon-baggage. It allowed a southern Democrat who was neither racist nor law-and-order to win the election that even Republican Lincoln would have had difficulty winning.

By 1980, bigotry was back on track. Reagan gave his first post-convention speech near Philadelphia, Mississippi, sight of the 1964 murder of civil rights workers. Republicans claim the location was insignificant and only coincidental, as was his references to states’ rights. No one, in either party, was fooled.

The Republican Party has spent the last 30 years since Reagan was its figurehead working behinds the scenes, sometimes shrouded by smokescreens, to dismantle anti-discrimination legislation and actual civil rights achievements. Knowing they have a problem with minorities, they’ve continually vowed to improve their relationships with them—just as soon as they’ve stopped Blacks from voting, slowed down immigration, and stop catering to people with disabilities.

Republicans would have us believe they are the party of small government, low taxes and individual freedom, but their biggest concerns always seem to be enacting discriminating policies against minorities, protecting gun rights and shifting tax burdens away from the wealthy.

Republicans repeatedly oppose anti-discrimination laws benefiting gays, transgender, blacks, Hispanics, woman and just about any other group looking for not much more than acceptance and equal treatment under the law.

At the same time, their discriminatory practices in the 30 or so states where they control government have led to countless voter ID laws under the pretense of preventing voter fraud. I’m not sure what fewer voting locations and shorter voting periods have to do with stopping voter fraud, but it sure makes it more difficult to vote.

How bad is this fraud? Very bad say predominantly Republican state legislatures.

What do the actual numbers tell us? Out of 197 million votes cast in federal elections between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters were indicted of voter fraud and 26 convicted. That’s a conviction rate of 0.00000013. Probably more cases went undetected. I will admit that. Certainly not enough to justify all the money and time that has been spent making voting harder for legitimate voters.

The only national election decided by a single vote in the history of our nation was the five-four vote by a Conservative Supreme Court to elect a Republican president in 2000.

The only fraud being committed, is by Republicans who under the pretense of making it fairer, make it more difficult.

Today, few Republican leaders are willing to speak out against the obvious bigotry of their presidential nominee. I’m not saying they are bigots. Perhaps, gutless hypocrites is a better word. Trump is able to succeed, not despite his racist comments, but because his racist comments seem to find such a welcoming audience among his supporters. They’ll be the first to say he speaks to them, that he says what they are thinking, what they want to hear.

Obviously not all Republicans feel this way, but enough of them do to cause Lincoln to turn over in his grave and demand they stop using his name in vain.

Grass-roots Republicans—upset that their leaders have failed to fulfill promises, either ignore or don’t understand how hard the Republican establishment has worked for the last 50 years to turn back anti-discrimination movements. The fact that it hasn’t totally succeeded in spite of their efforts isn’t their fault. They tried. They are still trying. It is a tribute to those Americans, who not only say they aren’t racist, but actually aren’t racist, that the struggle for equal rights continues.

Electing a black president did not signal the end of racism in America. It only gave racists more stuff to complain about. Racism is alive and well, and has found a home in the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln continues to deny this, even as white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi groups, and most militias continue to pledge their support to the Republican Party.

The party of Lincoln is now the party of Donald Trump because Republicans have handed it over to him on a silver platter.

Postscript: Trump challenged Blacks with the words, “What have you got to lose?” He has spent the last two years answering his own question. He’s belittled black athletes, business leaders, staff people, and Congresswomen. He’s called them dogs, questioned their intelligence, their patriotism. He’s lied about how well they have done under his presidency.

He’s treated Hispanics with outright scorn, to the point where some families separated at the southern border may never be reunited.

He jumps on every opportunity to divide the nation, pitting one class against another, one state against another, one party against the other.

He’s denigrated the Justice Department and Intelligence community—once the darlings of the “law and order” party to the point where the whole country—well, most of it—are shaking their heads in disbelief.

The party that thrived on the Cold War in the fifties and ended it in the eighties, now finds its leader standing on the same stage with Putin and Jung-un and talking about what great guys they are—even as Putin attacks our elections and Jung-un threatens to attack our west coast.

Republicans haven’t opened the door for Trump so much as they paved the way for him.

Simply put, the GOP has fallen victim to the MAGA scam. As Yogi Berra might have said, it’s SNAFU all over again.