Prologue: The End Game

Four years ago, right after the 2016 Presidential Election, we started this site. In 2016, we were appalled that we, as a nation, elected an unqualified fascist game show host to our nation’s highest office.

For four years, we watched in horror as the United States Government worked in our name to rip babies away from their mothers at the border, ban immigrants from this the land of opportunity, walk away from our worldwide commitments, destroy government agencies from within, bankrupt our country in both the literal and moral sense.

Like the majority of us, we managed to muddle through the daily onslaught of nonsensical tweets, nonexistent press conferences, the yelling, the screaming, the lies, the idiocy, all while fighting the shock that this cheap imitation, wannabe dictator born out of reality television and conspiracy echo chambers in control of our government.

We watched as the sycophants refused to publicly denounce this traitor to reasoned, democratic government. We watched as this buffoon, this play-action mafia Don cozied up to our enemies while distancing from our friends. We watched as he perpetrated his corruption in real-time, on television, on the phone, on his Twitter account, before our very eyes.

We watched while the once proud Republican Party, the party that for decades professed itself to be the party of law and order, family values, the Norman Rockwell, Apple Pie Party, excused, enabled and sold out our nation to this New York conman with daddy issues in order to hold on to the last vestiges of power at all costs, the nation, the world, be damned.

We watched. We listened. We cried. We screamed into the darkness.

Over the last four years, so much has been written, so much has been said, we wondered really what could this site possibly say or do to add positively to the conversation.

The few posts we did print seemed more of the same. We are not the only ones to see this past administration for what it was, a deeply disturbed caricature of the United States of America. We were not the only ones to rail against the abuses, the ineptitude, the callousness, the overall descent into hell that was the last four years.

Then, along came 2020. The year began with the impeachment. Surely, here the Republicans would put country above party, stand up and show the world that we take our democracy, our government and our principles seriously. Nope.

Then, along came the coronavirus. Surely, now, our country would put politics aside and work together to ensure we are safe and fight a common threat. Nope.

Then, came the 2020 Presidential Election. Surely, the electorate would send this guy packing. Yep.

Still, we watched in awe as over 70 million people voted for little Donny J and his merry band of fascists.

Now, to be clear, this election was not close. It was not a nail-biter. It was not the election of 2000 or the election of 1960. Biden won the popular vote by over 5 million. The only reason we all sat on the edge of our seat waiting for the results is because of the archaic, undemocratic, infuriating electoral college. In a democracy the majority wins. In the United States, even with a majority, it could still be a loss (see 2016 election).

70 million of our fellow citizens looked at this guy in the White House, his corrupt accomplices, his incompetent family, his daily tweet storms and said, “Yep, this is the America I want to live in.”

If the 2016 election brought tears to our eyes, the 2020 election brought utter confusion. How could 70 million people possibly vote for four more years of this??

The last four years, frankly, we did not think we really had anything to add to the discussion. For like-minded individuals, our articles, our posts, would have added to the reinforcement that none of what we were all experiencing was normal by any stretch of the imagination. For those who worshipped at the altar Donny J, our posts would have not broken through the fog of personality. In other words, all the posts would have done is add to the incessant back and forth. No one needed that when we have more than enough from Newsmax, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. The posts would have just piled up tagged lovely by one side, labelled awful by the other.

Now, here today, on the other hand, maybe there is a place for Our Civic Duty here in the discussion.

We are not the first to say it and we will not be the last but, look, democracy is a messy adventure. We do not, nor should we, agree on everything. We should debate, discuss, dive deep into issues that affect all of us. But, there are ground rules.

What we saw in the 2020 election is that 70 million of our fellow citizens are not overly concerned with ground rules or Democracy. 70 million Americans look at this man pouting in the White House, the house we own, and are just fine with this man-child refusing to accept an election in which he lost by over 5 million votes. Then, inciting a riot on January 6th as a grotesque attempt to derail certification of the new president. How did it come to this?

Personally, we neglected this site, Our Civic Duty. We let others do the talking and thinking for us. We said, in today’s world, the problems, the challenges are just too much.

We as a nation have done the same with our democracy. We abdicated our responsibility to our country and let unqualified, unhinged , and uninformed representatives grab the reins of power and run ramshackle across the landscape of our democracy. All the while, we watched 42 different streaming services, played video games, and worked hundreds of hours a week. And, for those so inclined, we said, yeah, you Donny J, the man with a trail of failed businesses, the man with a carnival barker attitude, you run the show.

To literally 70 million of us, the very idea of a functioning democracy was too much to handle and despite unbridled ineptitude, unimaginable corruption and unhinged lies, here in 2020, they say, democracy is hard, let’s get rid of it and, sure, let this loser refuse to concede, refuse to transfer power. The overwhelming majority of the Republican Representatives along with a dozen Senators refuse to acknowledge that the election has passed and it is time to wind things down at the Executive Branch. How did we get here? We think that is something we should be talking about.

Part One: 1964

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover, the Republican incumbent President in a landslide trouncing Hoover by a margin of nearly 7 million votes. Yet, even during the depths of the Great Depression, 15 million people in the United States said, “Yeah, what we need four more years of this. Looks good.”

FDR’s Presidency cast a long shadow. To save people from poverty and starvation, FDR put the strength and the power of the United States Government to work creating a host of work programs, social safety nets including social security and dozens of other programs under the New Deal.

There is an argument to be made that despite the New Deal programs, what really got the United States out of the Depression was World War II and the massive manufacturing boom required to fight the war. However, there can be little argument that the New Deal dramatically changed the United States Government and its role in our society.

Despite the obvious need and the obvious success, the dramatic government intervention into our economy, business, a social wellbeing did not, and has not, set well with the ultra-conservative crowd. In fact, through the magic of the Google Machine, it is easy to go back to 1932, work your way forward to 2020 and hear the same arguments, the same lines, the same fearmongering time and time again. In short, to many, the New Deal represents the downfall of the United States rather the life raft it was to a nation on the brink of despair and the basis for what was to become the strongest middle class the world had ever seen.

In 1932, as in 2020, the far right harbored a deep fear that the citizenry would grow accustom to government “handouts,” leading to socialism which in turn leads to the loss of independence but more specifically the loss of the independent corporation which in turn leads to loss of individual profit. For roughly the last 100 years, the arguments, while voiced in various vernaculars of the times extolled by various players molded to fit the moment are all essentially same, the New deal, social programs are bad for Americans, bad for the economy, bad for business, goes against God, our principals and common sense.

That New deal shadow is long. From 1932 onward, these ultra-conservatives have tried with varying degrees of success to break through to the mainstream and knock back this new role of Government born from the ashes of the Depression. The problem was finding the right messenger and the right message.

In what was perhaps a precursory omen to the ways an idea born of fear and anger has real potential to manifest into grotesque real-world caricatures, the 1950s saw this fear of socialism or communists manifest in the form of the McCarthy Hearings. For about four years, McCarthy delved into Hollywood and other industries and government agencies looking to out communists, convinced there was a “deep state” of communists at every level of government and important industry. His downfall finally came when his fever had him accusing the United States Army of harboring communists. In the annals of history, McCarthy is listed as a dangerous nut, basically. But, for four years, he and his happy wanderers were very real and very serious. His mistake was accusing the Army. Once he did that, he was brushed to the dustbin.

In the end, McCarthy far from the right messenger. He practically foamed at the mouth during his Senate hearings. All it took to puncture this windbag was one simple question from an attorney for the Army: “Have you no decency, sir?” He didn’t. The people finally saw that. It was over.

But, lessons learned.

It took another ten years or so but the ultraright finally found their man, Ronald Reagan.

Enter Ronald Reagan, an actor of limited talent turned GE corporate shill. Here is a good-looking guy, personable, malleable, with camera experience who switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party after he saw the profitability the Republican Party afforded him through corporate wheeling and dealing.

As Screen Actors Guild President, he worked a nice sweetheart deal for his agent that also allowed him to pocket some coin. In 1962, he switched parties claiming he did not leave the Democratic Party but they left him. By 1964, Reagan was the new shill for Barry Goldwater.

Barry Goldwater, 1964 candidate and precursor to today’s Republican party was, back then, a pretty extreme candidate. The campaign needed a shill to soften the edges. Reagan with his acting and camera experience and folksy way was just this ticket—and, boy did he deliver.

On October 27th, 1964, Reagan delivered what would come to be known as “The Speech.” The Speech introduced Reagan to a national audience. It is a pretty fine speech, for sure. The speech hit all the marks. Through one-liners and doses of mitigated fear and anger, Reagan manages to get the point across that in the end, government and those in government are destroying America and the American way of life. Time and again, Reagan regales the audience of government agency waste and ineptitude each time concluding that a failing, over extended government has no business telling the good folks in the audience or those watching from home anything about their lives. To paraphrase one moment, he lets it be known that we the people are individuals rather than “the masses.” A citizen answers to what is good for ourselves not what is good for all. In watching the speech, it is clear the attack is not so much on the opposing candidate but on government itself– with the notable exception of law and order and the military.

Lesson Learned.

The Speech is available online. It is a good watch and it is the seed from whence today’s Republican Party grew.

Part 2: The Reagan Years

Reagan’s 1964 Goldwater speech brought in millions and millions of campaign contributions for the Goldwater campaign from all over the country. Reagan had not only hit the target with the message but delivered the message so effectively, the campaign reaped the huge rewards. That speech was the beginning of Reagan the politician. So much so that his corporate backers had him running for the governor of California and the Presidency within 3 years.

In 1968, Reagan ran for President. It did not go well at all. Despite the turmoil of unrest at home and the Vietnam War, the electorate was not quite ready to thrown in the towel on our government just yet. In 1968, Reagan conservatism was still hardline right. He did not make the ticket. Back to the California Governor’s mansion to rehearse.

Tricky Dick Nixon, the Republican who did make the ticket in 1968, won the Presidency that year. Tricky Dick was certainly aligned on the right edge but his messaging did make it more palatable to the electorate.

Plenty has been said about Dick Nixon. For our purposes, we can skip most of it with a few exceptions. Like Republican candidates to come, Dick Nixon enlisted the aid of a foreign government during the election. In Nixon’s case, the campaign talked South Vietnam into holding off on peace talks until after the election. Never mind that peace talks had the potential to save American lives. Had the talks been successful before the election, it would give the Democrats the edge, or so the thinking went. Like campaigns to follow, the Nixon campaign took in plenty of dark money from dark souls. And like a future Republican President, Nixon let his severe personal demons and shortcomings to get out of hand which, in his case, led to Watergate. Nixon resigned rather than be impeached.

Despite the war in Vietnam, the social unrest of the 1960s and the Watergate break-in, in 1974, 36% of the population still trusted the government, according to polls of the time.

In 1976, Reagan ran again for US President. It was close, but Ford won a spot on the ticket rather than Reagan.

The Democrat, Jimmy Carter won the election that year. That may have been the last time Carter had any joy as President. Between 1976 and 1980, the US had some challenges; a deep recession, an oil shortage, stagnation. Iran took 52 embassy workers hostage. By the time the 1980 election rolled around with an administration seemingly unable to address the deep problems of the day, the Unites States was looking for a change. Reagan with his message of government as the real problem connected with the electorate and won in a landslide.

While never proven, there is a conspiracy theory that like the Nixon campaign before, the Reagan campaign and the transition team worked with a foreign government. This time it was Iran. Minutes after Reagan’s swearing in, Iran released the hostages held for 444 days. Both a Senate and a House of Representative investigation committees concluded that there was no substantive evidence to the allegations. The Reagan Administration also dealt with a pandemic, the AIDS pandemic, in much the same way the Trump Administration has dealt with the COVID pandemic, they completely ignored it.

The Reagan Presidency marked a hard-right turn for American politics. Social services were cut drastically. Industrial regulations were cut drastically. Corporate taxes were cut drastically. Trickle-down economics, a theory that dictates if the richest people in the country pay less in taxes, then that money not taken to fund the government will trickle down to benefit the poorer classes became the mantra.

All while defunding and dismantling government agencies, the Reagan administration’s main message was that government is the problem, government caused the bad economy and the Reagan administration is there to fix it. Basically, the Reagan Administration was the antithesis to the Roosevelt Administration.

Americans responded to the message, in 1984, the polls showed trust in government rose to 46%. The fix was in. The message stuck. The Republican party doubled down on this message and, in fact, has stuck with it for the last 40 years. In fact, the message that our government, by the people, for the people, is simply inept, inefficient, incompetent and just plain awful is pretty much the core tenant of the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln has done nothing but amplify that message over the last four decades. That message? Our government is to be scorned and hated as inefficient, wasteful and dangerous to our way of life. That message has been amplified and refined over the course of the last four decades.

One of the many regulations repealed by the Reagan administration was the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was in place from 1949 through 1987. In basic terms, the doctrine mandated that those corporations holding broadcast licenses had to present controversial issues of public importance equitably and with a careful, deliberate balance of facts. Removing the rule eliminated the roadblock to various media companies devoted to one singular ideology broadcasting a singular point of view to wide swaths of the American public.

Shocked. I am shocked, I tell you. Betsy Devos, a woman with no practical experience and seemingly very little knowledge regarding public education is now our new Education Secretary. Like the seat of power in the free world, we value education so much that we have decided to put a person who knows nothing about the office in office.

What is truly shocking is that here on the day of her confirmation vote, Devos has already taught me something. She taught me, once and for all, that the Republican Senators do not even pretend to care about their constituents.

Over the last several days over a million calls a day were logged into the capital switchboard. The majority of those calls were people demanding that their Senator vote no for Devos. Millions of calls could not combat the millions of dollars the Devos family gave in campaign contributions to the Republicans. Somehow we are going to make America Great Again by dismantling public, free education for our children.

Devos,, a voucher toting, religious zealot, billionaire with nothing to show on her resume but the collapsed education system in Michigan deserves our scorn but not as much as the hypocritical, power-hungry, money taking Republican Senators who, once again, sold our children to the highest bidder. If just one Senator who had taken Devos moneys over the last few years had offered to recuse themselves from the vote for obvious conflict of interest reasons, I would not be able to paint with such a wide brush but, not one Senator had the guts to stand back from the vote.

Donny J. and his Merry Band of Corporate Raiders are dismantling the agencies they do not like. Every cabinet nominee is basically meant to be a placeholder in the dismantling, or corrupting of our agencies. We will be saying goodbye to the EPA, the Department of Education and other agencies while others have a fire sale to corporate interests.

At the moment, we have to watch in horror. The best thing is to have each and every one of those Senators, Congressman and sycophants stay very close to Donny J, no daylight at all. Why?

Donny J. will be impeached. If all goes well, the impeachment will begin in about 1.3 years just before the midterm elections. There is not much I can do about the confirmation hearings. There is a lot we can do about upcoming elections. I mean assuming we still get to vote.

Every man, woman and child of the United States should be on their knees thanking the Good Lord Almighty that Donald J. Trump is our President and Commander-in-Chief. Every. Single. Day.

When done right, the confidence game is a thing of beauty. With a smile, a laugh, sleight of hand and a good line, a good con artist can take your money right before your eyes while you think it was all your idea. The con is an art form.

From the short con to the long con, the main thing is always the money. A small time grifter uses the con to pass off a ten as a twenty before a bartender notices, or deal from the bottom of the deck, or catch a tourist in a quick shell game. A successful con ensures the mark does not even realize that he is being conned. The short con takes confidence, dexterity and some fast-talking. If you can master those skills and with a smile and a touch of humor, the mark will be out a couple of bucks before anyone realizes what happened.

Even in the long cons, the basic skills still apply but the prize can be a whole lot bigger. In every con, whether it is a small barroom con, or the longer con with a million dollar prize, the best cons work when the mark thinks it was his idea to give away his money. When a con goes right, the mark thanks the artist for painting him into a corner.

Two truths about cons; the bigger the prize, the longer the con and, large or small, if you are running the con always keep your eye out for the wild card.

To get the big money, the con game is going to have a lot of moving parts. It takes time and patience. All the players have to get the hook set. The mark has to be primed and ready to be had. A con man does not get your house in one night. It takes days. A con man does not get your million dollar investment in a couple of days, it takes weeks. The bigger the prize, the more players, time, patience and luck that the game needs. A con man passing off fake paintings is not working alone. There are, ropers, shills, players, a number of people who the mark doesn’t even see until it is too late.

The long con takes seed money to build a front, earnest money to show the mark that the con artists also has his own skin in the game.

If you are good at the game, any con, short or the long, is, as they say, easy money. All you have to do is smile, stay calm, read the mark and when you know he wants what you are selling, reel him in, hook, line and sinker.

That is why every man, woman and child should be down on their knees thanking God that Donald J. Trump is our Commander-in-Chief. Little Donny J. is the wild card.

For thirty years, the Neocons have been chipping away at the American public and our institutions. The ropers, the propagandists, Rush, Lars, Laura, Sean, Alex, and the newest mouth, Tomi, have been setting the stage for this play, constantly yelling at the American people telling them exactly what they want to hear. They scream at them for hours a day. In an angry, frenzied fit of hysteria, the propagandists tell them that the government is corrupt, that it is giving away all their hard-earned money to people who do not deserve it, that socialism is the devil’s paycheck, that no one in government is honest, that no one who supports the government is honest. Through all their political fire and brimstone the ropers only comforting word to the mark is to make sure the mark knows that the only, the last, honest person in America is the propagandist.. These ropers, these mouthpieces of the con artist have been filling the mark’s heart with everything they desire to hear for decades. They tell them nothing is their fault. It is the system. It is rigged and always has been rigged. The Democrats keep taking their money and giving it away to others. Meanwhile, ever so slowly and efficiently, the Neocon backed the truck up to the government vault and strategically took the money from the treasury while the American Public thanked them for doing it.

Just look at the 2016 Chapman University Survey on the top fears of the average American. The number one fear, over death, over death of a loved one, over a car accident, or being hospitalized, is fear of government corruption. The number one fear is a corrupt government.

For thirty years, the Neocons have been roping in the American Voter.

Of course, each year, each election Necons have been tilting the table toward their own interests more and more just like the crooked card dealer who hands himself a straight while you have three queens. Behind the voters’ backs the Neocons were using sleight of hand, gerrymandering, to make sure that the voters thought they were getting a twenty when they were actually only getting a ten.

Like any good con, the more the tables slid away from the citizens, the more the game looked legit to the mark.. “This government is rigged. You are right. I didn’t believe it at first but this is ridiculous. We are all in trouble. How do we fix this, Neocon?”

“It is just like I have been saying, voter. We need to fight it. I need you to support me and invest in me and together we can fix it. If we don’t both of us will lose everything.”

As the con played out, the mark brought in more marks. The Neocon gerrymandered more districts. The more problems swelled in the country, the cons made sure the marks doubled down on their bets. “It is getting worse by the day.”

The con is all about getting cash. There is no bigger cash prize in the world than the United States Government. The goal over the past thirty years was to get their hands on that vault. The ropers, the propagandists ,have done their job well. The voter does not even know he is being conned. The voter is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is handing his power and voice over to a friend who wants the same thing he wants, a friend to save the people from their own government. A corporation who, for a myriad of small fees for what once we part of our tax, will straighten everything out.

For thirty years, as the table tilted more and more toward the elite, away from the voter, the Neocon told him it was those other guys fault and he was just as appalled as the voter. “We are just going to need more drastic measures, “ said the Neocon. The more he followed the Neocons the mark went from first a house, to an apartment, to a trailer and the more he hated those liberals and the government who, in the mark’s eyes, put him in the trailer park.

The last three decades, we have watched the Neocons gut the government, privatize everything they could, cut social services, not allow the government to provide job programs, rip through the safety net. For every Neocon vote against the American people, the ropers  made sure the mark got the message that the pain the mark was feeling had nothing to do with the Neocons and everything to do with a corrupt and ineffectual government hell-bent on destroying everything the mark had ever worked for. During the last ten years, the Neocons got the mark into a fever pitch. IT IS WORSE THAN EVER. THE SKY IS FALLING, they said. The mark was primed for the final push.

In the last decade, the Neocon began the end game. With a Democrat in the White House, the NeoCon doubled down on the message that the Democrats where not working for the country or the voter. The Neocons refused to even discuss any issues or bills. They froze the country in congressional gridlock.

The ropers had their back. They ramped up the rabid attacks on government. They went full tilt. Even having the first lady suggest  that people should eat vegetables was seen as proof Democrats were corrupt, socialist heathens out to destroy everything American. Only the Neocons had the interest of the voter, they said.

Democrats fell for the con and played the very role the Neocons told the voters they were playing. Democrats abandoned their own base. The Dems wanted to chase after some of that big money as a kind of trickle down democracy. They figured working class would never leave the party. They were wrong.

The Republicans were not quite sure who they wanted to handle the payout of 2016, so they had over a dozen candidates standing up, none of them were that exciting. They all said the same thing which was regurgitated by the propagandists.

But, by 2016, the marks had taken everything the Neocons had told them over the last thirty years, soaked it in butter, broiled it for a while and served it back to the Republicans in a tin foil hat. What came out was a half-baked deep dish hatred of the government, the political parties, Washington DC, information, education and experience. The mark did not want to change the system. After thirty years of being told the government is their enemy, they wanted to blow  up the  entire system.

Beware of the wild card.

Enter Little Donny J.

Little Donny J. has been on the con for a long time. Going back to the early seventies. Little Donny J has conned unions, casinos, tenants, corporations, banks, investors, partners, politicians, pretty much anyone who has come into his circle has been, at one time or another, conned. It is not a fluke or accident that Little Donny J. did not carry the election in New York. People know him there. He is a carnival barker, a golf course owner who cheats at golf, a chairman whose boardroom is made of cardboard, a husband whose wives are set dressing, a father whose children are props. Donny J. is the conman’s conman. Little Donny J. set his sights on the White House in 2016. If all that public money was going to moving anyway, he was going to get a piece of the action.

Like the proverbial fox, Little Donny J. slipped into the henhouse just before the Neocons were going to collect the eggs. Each and every one of us needs to be down on our knees thanking God.

Donny J.’s con has not been particularly clever. Donny J pushed aside the Neocons by force of will and lines of bullshit that can be seen from space. Donny J. came into the Republican Party used his smile along with a specific line of b.s.  to bully himself to the presidency. He used the parties own rhetoric to beat the Neocons at their own game. He knew that the electorate had been primed and ready to be plucked. He saw his opportunity. Little Donny J. swooped in and stole the con out from under the con men.

Don’t believe it? In the last several days Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the Koch brothers have all come out against Little Donny J.’s policies, presidency and woefully inept administration. The designers of the long privatization con came out against the incumbent Republican President. The Koch Brothers? Karl Rove? Only one reason makes them come out against the Republican President, they are not getting a cut.

The only reason Bernie Madoff got caught is because less subtle, more reckless con men of Wall Street brought down the whole shell game through their own greed, lack of dexterity and inability to hide the con. If not for the brutish, less articulate con artist scaring away the marks, Bernie would still be in business today.

With a brutish lout like Donny J. taking the prize, the engineers of the Libertarian con game, Koch, Rove et al, are in the same boat as Madoff. Trump is far less nuanced and methodical about raiding the chicken coop. Had the engineers won, the cabinet would not be a hodge-podge of obvious egg-suckers but rather a carefully selected assemblage of discrete raiders who slowly over time would transfer the government accounts to their accomplices. Trump wants to funnel the cash out of the fault as soon as possible and he is taking a piece of it with him.. His cabinet reflects that. We have an attorney general who does not believe in justice, an education secretary who does not believe in education, an environmental secretary who does not believe in the environment, and the list goes on.

This administration is the very thing that will destroy the Libertarian con and is exactly why we should be thanking the Lord above. Though his bluster and greed, Trump blows the  whole con. Trump may or may not walk away with part of the treasury but The Republican party will never be the same. As they stand side by side with Trump, a man without subtlety, a man without integrity, a man whose con has no art, no finesse, those Republicans who had hoped to get the treasury transferred to their own accounts have been exposed. Trump did to the Neocon just what Wall Street did to Bernie Madoff, ripped the covers of a really sweet con. As we watch the naked corruption and sheer greed assemble in the White House, all the Neocons’ true believers are sickened. In fact, just like poker player who catches the con artists dealing from the bottom of the deck, the marks are pissed. Take a look outside. Those record number protestors, those newspaper columns, those letters to the editor, those are all the same faces you see at a busted shell game on the corner just outside Trump Tower. When Trump goes down, and he will, he will take the Republican Party with him particularly if they continue sticking with every move he makes. Then, like Bernie Madoff before them, they will be forced out of the game.

Of course, we are just now at the top of the con and there is one worry, if the Neocons did not help Trump grab the White House, who did?

I bet, if you crane your neck, put in some thought without rushing to judgment, you can see the con man from your house. A good con is always right in front of your face.

Beware the wild card. A wild card can take down the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

Well, that was an exciting weekend, wasn’t it?

On Friday, along with a very small number of people, I watched the opening to the Hunger Games and learned of the American Carnage strewn among steel tombstones that dot our landscape as road signs along the way to hell.

Saturday I watched the largest protest in U.S. history in cities around our country and the world, or as Rush Limbaugh called it a bunch of babes marching in a Deranged Femanazi walk acting nuts and wearing a pink pussies on their heads.

Yes, Rush, that devilish propagandist with millions of listeners across the country is a pip, boy. He is just thoughtful, witty and really cares about the intelligence of his listener. You can tell that by the way he calls anyone who does not agree with his point of view names or teases them for going to therapy like he did with Ashley Judd yesterday. Yeah, that Rush is a real witty guy. Of course, when you have to fill up three hours a day, nuance must be tough.

But, if I learned anything over the last couple of days, it is that Rush and his minions fear freedom and dissent. The idea of freedom just freaks them out. Plus, if you point out to them that you do not agree them, they are wounded so badly that they just lash out with name-calling, accusations, veiled threats and charges of bullying.. For all their tough talk, question their position and they start spitting and spewing like a rabid bunny.

I have a few examples. Rush is the loudest of course. You should read the transcript of the show. He calls everyone who marched names and attacks them like they stomped on his puppy while marching through his living room. The venom drips off the page.

Then, later on Monday, Sean Spicer came out to the Press Corps and explained that what really got him all riled up on Saturday was that all the news organizations were being negative. He let us know that it gets so “demoralizing” to read negative things all the time. Really? Really? For the love of God this is the office of the leader of the free world and his team is upset because we have not given them a participation trophy? This comes after a year and a half of disabled mocking, pussy grabbing, Muslim and Mexican hating vile spewing out of their mouths only to find that one rough weekend throws them into a tailspin to depressed to get out of bed. What?

So, we have the media giant whose analytical skills are limited only by his ability to think of derogatory names. Then, we have the leader of the free world who gets bummed out because no one is being nice to him. That brings me to my mother’s cousin a follower of both.

.This arch-conservative cousin posted on my Facebook feed that just because people disagree about politics, they should never call each other names because name calling hurts. To illustrate her point, a letter written by another conservative that began “Dear Hypocrites” accompanied the post.

When I asked her if she found any irony in posting this plea not to call each other names with a letter that begins “Dear Hypocrites,” she said she did not use the word. When I pointed out that by posting the letter she did in fact use the word, gave it weight and used the letter to drive home her point about not calling people who disagree with you names, she wrote:

Accusing others of spreading hate when they are the ones doing it, to me is hypocritical. And, yes, I did forward it as written. So, I too can be labeled a hypocrite, should U choose to do so even though I have said that if written by me, I would not have used the term.

I think that sums up the weekend very nicely.

By Vera White

Corruption spread across the land
And it asked to take me by the hand
It warmed my heart
Then chilled it two times over
Making me wonder how long this will span.

Fear gripped my shoulders
But pride filled my heart
A rebel’s soul poised to depart.

No sooner had the 115^th Congress convened than they pushed through a couple of bills to Make America Great Again.

The first proposed bill was to gut the House Ethics. Yes, nothing makes our country great again like eliminating ethics oversight. Unfortunately, the people got wind of that and made some noise. So much noise, in fact, that the Trump tweeted his displeasure. Once they heard the shrill calling of their feathered friend, congress backed away from the bill putting it in the nest for a rainy day. They also learned a lesson about open democracy.

They learned that if you want to get anything nefarious done without the people squawking the best thing to do is work in the dark. So, the Senate voted on the repeal of the ACA in the dead of night. To their credit, voting in the dead of night is best when ripping insurance out from under 20 million people. The house voted to begin de-funding on late Friday afternoon. The representatives can relax over the weekend after a tough decision on whether or not to allow potentially thousands of people to die simply because they cannot afford treatment. It must be difficult to be a representative in the 115^th Congress, so much to attack, so little time.

In the rush to Make America Great Again, the first bills attacked our own people, our health, our ethics oversight and our right to transparency. These were the most important bills congress chose to vote on. Nothing else in the world is as important in our country than repealing the ACA and undermining ethics.

Clearly, we are going to need to get used to being attacked from above as Trump tweets down on us.. The repeal of the ACA and the attempt to gut oversight are just the beginning.

Congressman Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight committee, chose this week not to call in Trump’s attorney and financial team to ask them directly just how their non-compliance with divestiture eliminates Trump of any conflict of interest problems or ethics issues or provides any assurance to the American Public that the Trump is not beholding, financially in any way to foreign powers or entities. Nope, while those all seem like valid questions that an oversight committee would want to ask but no.

Instead, after the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Director, Walter Shaub pointed out that the President has several potential ongoing conflicts, Rep.  Chaffetz demanded that the director of the OGE , Walter Shaub, testify to the committee to justify funding his office and his position in closed session. Chaffetz threatened to subpoena Shaub if he did not meet his demand.

Chaffetz,, on Fox News, claims Shaub has not looked at anything and is nothing but a partisan tool unethical because he informed the American Public that the Trump’s “trust” does nothing to eliminate potential conflicts of interest.

Rather than calling on the OGE to assist the oversight committee in understanding any potential issues, Chaffetz, who once said he could not vote for Trump and look his daughter in the eye, goes on Fox news to smear Shaub and the OGE. Is he on Fox smearing Shaub because Shaub did his or because Chaffetz did not do his?

If that were not enough, at an event billed as a press conference but more akin to a street corner shell game, Trump pecked the eyes out of a CNN reporter because CNN reported that Trump was briefed on some information that claim’s Trump may be compromised by a foreign power.

Watching the President-Elect throw a hissy fit at a member of the White House Correspondents Pool should make everyone shudder. Why? Trump works for us. The press corps is our eyes and ears. The press is exactly how we keep tabs on those people who work for us. Having Trump spit at them and threaten to throw them out for asking a question, or printing something he did like or want people to see or ask questions about, is worth a spine tingle.

So, welcome to our new government—against ethics, against saving citizens lives, against healthcare, against those who challenge the narrative and inform the public. And, if we ask questions about any of it, then  be prepared to get bullied, subpoenaed, fired or thrown out of the room.

Well, this should be fun.

Our Civic Duty

The first time is always the hardest, isn’t it? The first piece of kale, the first jalapeno, the first colonoscopy, the first fascist regime led by a reality star, all of them are tough.

I am oddly excited about our new Trump regime.

Like a colonoscopy, I am scared that not only is it going to hurt like hell but also that they might find something that has the potential to kill me. On the other hand, I know that once we get through it, going forward, we may actually feel better and worry less.

With Trump, I know this is the last gasp of the far right. In a few short months, the far right will destroy themselves or they will destroy our body politic once and for all. Either way, we will have come to the end of our thirty-year descent into absurdity. There is comfort in finally hitting bottom.

How did we get to this moment in time?

The moment we, as Americans, said to the actor Ronald Reagan, “yeah, looks good. Go ahead take the reins,” we have been on a collision course toward this national colonoscopy.

After the stagnation of the late 70s, Americans lunged headfirst to the right, enamored of Reagan’s charm and talk of renewing our American Pride. It was “Morning in America.”

It was the start of a new day, a day where right-wing extremism began to take hold, a day where the separation between the have and have-nots gaped wide, a day where the very wealthy and the corporations they oversee declined to pay their fair share, a day where we began to be less concerned with our fellow citizens than we were with our own stock portfolios. The 80s, the Reagan era, has never been left behind. In fact, during the past thirty years, the far right not only doubled down on the 80s, they put the ideals of that decade on steroids and watched the good times roar.

It has been a very long day. Finally, darkness has descended.

Reagan’s presidency was like having your grandpa tell you how tax cuts for the wealthy would benefit the poorest of the poor. As long as you listened to the peaceful, earnest voice of grandpa and did not think too much, it made sense that if the wealthy had more money in their pockets then they, as good God-Fearing people, would be able to toss some crumbs down to the rest of us. Yeah, we are all good people. No one wants the plebes to go without. It is the government that gobbles up all the money and leaves the plebes hungry. Yes, we should have wealth trickle down the wealthy’s pant leg where the rest of us can lap it up. Grandpa wouldn’t lie.

Hey, grandpa, what is this AIDS thing? Don’t worry about it, kid. Okay, Grandpa.

Hey, Grandpa, where are all these homeless people coming from. Don’t worry about it, kid. Okay, Grandpa

For a moment or two, this new system where the rich tossed coins into the street for some urchins to pick up and go buy Christmas Geese seemed to work. The economy boomed for a few minutes. The NeoCons took credit for bringing back American Pride. We were off and running. What could go wrong?

UH-OH

As luck would have all those tax breaks on the wealthy and their corporations caused a gaping hole in our national budget. In fact, Reagan raised deficit spending to new heights. The national debt ballooned. Cutting all those taxes left our government broke. The wise thing to do would be to reinstate those taxes. What could go wrong? After all, we are all Americans and know what is the right thing to do.

UH-OH

It seems that the wealthy, the shareholders and the elite enjoyed not paying taxes. Not to worry. The NeoCons, as patriots, did what they had to do. They raised taxes…on the middle class, on the poor.

As is the case with all these things, it took a while for the people to realize that only a select few were getting tax breaks while working people just trying to keep up with the grocery bill were now paying more. But, as long as we had unions and strong well-paying jobs, everything was gong to work out they said. Our wages will increase as the money trickles down. What could go wrong?

UH-OH

So, once the corporations and the elite got a taste for making more money by not paying taxes, they thought creatively on other ways to make more money to ensure that even more money could just trickle down. Corporations and the elite were the only ones who knew how to handle money, they told us. They needed to claw it back from the government and our pockets in order to help us.

The corporations told the plebes that the executive class, the CEOs, deserved to be paid at least 250 times more than a working plebe. It makes sense, they said, because without a CEO, the corporation doesn’t have a leader. As for the workers, so, funny story…

It seems hiring people was very expensive as the plebes through the unions always asked to be paid a fair wage to keep up with rising costs and their new-found tax burden. This unreasonable demand was cutting into the shareholders’ dividends, said the elite and corporations. Oh, the stress of it all. Well as a country that for nearly 100 years had been devoted to the middle class and the workingman, there was only one thing to do.

So, with help from the government, they sliced the unions into shreds. They sliced good paying jobs cutting the heart out of the country. They dismantled worker protections for the good of the country. Companies needed to grow, they said, and they cannot grow if they have to take care of their workers particularly when they pay a CEO 250 times. By eliminating organizations devoted to fair and decent wages for employees, corporations would be able to grow and hire more people, they said.

It makes sense, they said, corporations should pay little in taxes and pay workers even less. That way, they can make a profit. If the company makes a profit, it is good for the country. If a CEO makes over 250 million dollars a year, it is good for the country. Those well-paying middle class jobs were replaced by minimum wage service-oriented jobs for the good of the country. States became “right-to-work” states. The unions, you know, the organizations that brought you the weekend, were demonized as corrupt organizations hell-bent on destroying our way of life. The unions are unfair to workers, they said.

No taxes. No wages. Life was good for the corporation. As long as the CEOs had money, they were going to let that trickle down to the plebes. Also, the workers and middle class got saddled with the heaviest tax burden. What could go wrong?

UH-OH

With the tax burden shifted to the workers who no longer had decent wages, taxes were no longer meeting the needs of government again. What to do? Not to worry, as patriots and fellow citizens, the CEOs and Senators sat down to a few dinners to work out the problem. They will do their best to help our country.

The problem, they said, is not that too little tax is coming in. The problem is the government is bloated. We do not need all those government services. We need to slash budgets. So, we slashed government spending just when the people, who once had good paying jobs and low taxes but now had lousy paying jobs with higher taxes, needed the government the most. We cut government spending over and over again. A government that once provided safety nets to the most vulnerable now had few nets to provide.

This was starting to hurt the plebes. More and more plebes had family members affected by the cuts to wages, higher taxes and little avenues to assistance. Plus, many people, even families, were ending up in the street without a home, without money, without hope, without sanity. It was getting difficult to keep the plebes in line with the “Morning In America” brand. What to do?

Well, first, the media was a problem, they said. The media kept telling the plebes how the wage loss, loss of unions, loss of jobs, loss of safety nets is problematic.

The plebes seemed concerned about the homeless, the disadvantaged and those on the edge. It would be much easier for the corporations, the senators and the CEOs if they controlled the message. So, they consolidated the media. Now, the message would be clear. We relaxed the neutrality rules. This way, they could have entire broadcasts devoted to ensuring the plebes were getting the message they needed them to hear. The message, set to repeat, over and over again, goes something like this:

Anyone who looks to the government for safety is a loser. The government is a loser. The government has never done anything for anyone other than get in the way of making money. We need to slash government spending. The government is filled with losers. The homeless families are losers and drug addicts. If those street people can’t make it, it is their own fault. Anyone who uses a government assistance program is a loser sucking on the teat of public funds because of their own failures. But you, you and your family are not losers. You do not support losers. If those losers cannot make it in America, they deserve to sleep on the street. Slashing taxes and creating deals where the government hands corporations millions of dollars in benefits is not welfare. A corporation that pays little taxes and low wages benefits everyone.

The less taxes we collected, the more we slashed the budget and the less the government could do.

The less the government could do, the more the government looked like a loser.

The more they told the plebes what a loser the government, the more the government looked like a loser, the more cuts we made with ease because the government was a loser. Perfect!

All the while, all that money was diverted from the middle class, working class and the government, you know, all the losers of our society to the elite, the winners. Now, rather than depend on our own job or our own government to invest in our citizens and communities, now, we depend on the corporations, the elite and the shareholders to invest in our communities and our neighbors.

During our transition from a country that invested in the middle and working class to a country that invests in the corporations and the elite, those people on the fringe, those who were barely holding on anyway, managed to lose all hope whatsoever. Drug use skyrocketed. Crime skyrocketed. Drugs, crime, unemployment and hopelessness decimated whole sections of the country. What could go wrong?

UH OH

These people are losers, they said.. Crime is up. Drugs are up. These people take no responsibility for their lives. But, the plebes kept seeing them on every corner. The very sight of all these losers was starting to have a negative affect on the trickle down theory. The plebes were scared to drive through certain sections of their hometown. We needed some way to hide these losers.

What we needed to do is put these degenerates in prison. We needed to get tough on crime, they said.

So, we got tough on crime. Got these losers off the streets. We will make the cities safe again.

We shoveled people off to prison as fast as we could. Addicts, mentally ill, the poor, people of color, really anyone who challenged the effectiveness of our trickle down world went to jail.

Of course, the government budgets, slashed to the bone, could not afford to house all those degenerates, those losers, those who did not fit into the trickle down narrative. The prisons became overcrowded, dangerous and verged on the edge of being unconstitutional as the overcrowded prison itself was cruel and unusual. What to do?

Not to worry. Not to worry. The government is full of losers who do not know how to handle money. The government has no idea how to run prisons, they said. We need to privatize prisons. Yes, we will pay corporations to house degenerates in prison.

Hey, while they are in prison, prisoners should work for corporations, for free. This is a win-win for everyone. First the cities are safer. Second, the degenerates have a place to sleep. And best of all the government now pays corporations to hold people in jail while they work for corporations. Perfect. What could go wrong?

Rinse and Repeat—for 30 years.

Now, it is Mourning in America

That whole trickle down theory has dried up. Workers long ago were stripped of decent wages and left to just survive as best they can. If they can’t survive, they cannot go to the government for help because the government has been stripped. The media and the corporations tell us if we can’t survive it is our own fault. If we step out of line, the corporate prison is there to help.

What adds confusion to all this is the smoke and mirrors of technology and globalism. The last 30 years have been witness to a fantastic evolution in technology and global connectivity. Smartphones, computers, the internet, software, treaties, agreements, general peace and other advances hid the simple historical truth that unchecked, unfettered, the powerful always trample on the weaker even here in our own country.

For 30 years now, we watched as we slid from the envy to the world, a champion of the middle class, to a country that allows Flint, Michigan.

In Flint no one can drink the water because those in power did not want to spend $20 a day to ensure the water was safe for everyone. We looked on as North Carolina degenerated to become a state that is not even considered an actual democracy by international standards.

Those who would use power and money to trample on those without have been around since the dawn of time.

As Americans, we failed on our quest to ensure a nation where all men are free more times than we can count. But, as Americans, we are able to at least try to correct our errors.

Now, today we begin this colonoscopy known as the Trump Administration. All of us should be just as worried and just as hopeful as we have ever been in the history of our country.

This is the end of the last thirty years of fighting for the soul of our country. This, right now, this is the end game. Those who began the dismantling of national soul thirty years ago now have everything they want—power over our weakened institutions. Today, these people have the opportunity to prove what these types of people have been trying to prove over and over again throughout the history of man, that the masses, the people, never win.

They could win it all right here and right now.

They have the potential to destroy everything we, as Americans, once the envy of the world, built. They could dismantle our ideals, our dreams. They could take our dreams, our freedoms, and put them in a trophy case only to point to it with a sly grin when future generations speak of freedom, speak about a country by and for the people. Our dream could forever be shrouded in darkness, a passing thought as old men fall to sleep.

This fight had to come down to this, here, now, in our country. This is the way it has to end or it will never end.

I am excited.

We are Americans. We don’t go backwards. We move forward. We will break through this darkness just as we broke through tyranny, slavery, civil rights and so many other injustices on our journey to freedom for all. This is not our first fight for humanity, justice and freedom. We know how to beat back this darkness. We have done it before. We will do it again.

We, the people, will fight, again. We will be vigilant, again. We will win for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We will emerge from the darkness. Tired? Yes. Injured? Yes. Humbled? Definitely.

When we break through this night, we, the people, will own the day. Then, on that day, it will truly be morning In America. Trump is right. He is going to make America great again.

That path to our greatness is not the path he thinks it is.

Our Civic Duty

Let us start here. Let us assume that each and every one of us wants what is best for our country, our family, our friends and neighbors. We each want what is best.

If we cannot begin with that basic assumption, then, this may be a short conversation. If you are not willing to agree with this basic idea that we all want what is best for the nation regardless of gender, race, age, or political affiliation, it may be a good idea for us not to talk. If we are to continue our conversation, we need to agree that we are both patriots. We need to agree that we both believe in the United States of America. We need to agree on this basic principle.

If we agree here, now, we can begin a discussion.

Through the internet, through the media, through the pundits, through the propagandists, through our representatives and through our activists, each of our lives is filled, more than ever before, with information, disinformation, opinion, fact and lies. Every website, every blog, every media outlet, every friend, every relative, every talking head seems to be bombarding each of us with opinions of what we need to believe in and what we need to think. Every pundit, every propagandist would have us believe every issue, every crisis and every fact is black and white, for or against, right or wrong. That is not true.

Take our basic principle we have agreed upon, we want what is best for our country. Each of us takes a unique path, approaches our problems in a different way. If we can agree that we want what is best for our country, why don’t we begin develop a conversation on how best to solve these problems starting with the basic idea that we are one nation. We need each other.

For too long, we have only been listening to that sole pundit, that one media outlet, that singular propagandist who reaffirms our own ideas. Through isolation, we created our own tribal communities based on the rant of a corporation or a propagandist making millions off our divisiveness, fear, anger and bitterness. We are better than that. Let us start acting like it.

Today, begins a resurrection, a resurrection of our Civic Duty. Our civic duty as citizens of the United States is to stand up, take stock and decide on what we as a country are going to be. We need to work together with empathy and intelligence to decide on what our country is. It is not up to corporations. It is not up to the powerful. It is not up to the representatives. It is our country, our voice, our time.

Some of us voted for Trump. Some of us voted for Clinton. Trump won the election by securing the Electoral College. That is fact. On January 20^th, Trump takes office. That is a fact.

Some of us voted for Trump. Some voted to force a change in our federal government. Some voted for Trump because he is a businessman. Some voted  for Trump to build a wall on our southern border. Some voted for jobs. Others voted to remove illegal immigrants. Others voted to lower taxes or repeal the ACA. Some voted because he was not Clinton.

Some of us voted for Clinton. Some voted in order to maintain the status quo. Some voted in order to continue the policies of the last eight years. Some voted because they believed her to be more qualified. Some voted for her because she is a woman. Some voted because of how long history of public service. Some voted because she said jobs. Some voted because she was not Trump.

Every one who cast a ballot cares about this country. Those voters exercised their right to stand up and say which person they believed was best for our country. Each of us has a right to vote.

Are we still in agreement? If so, we can continue.

Voters who chose Trump wanted a change in Washington, a big change. They wanted someone to come in and if not to clean house than to really give it a good scrub. Therefore, every action Trump takes that is outside the “norm,” is meeting the will of the Trump voter. Trump means change. Every action he does that is outside the box on every “normal” transition we have seen going back decades is seen as the change so desired by those who cast their vote. Many Trump voters simply do not care about his tax returns, his business conflicts, his rhetoric, his tweets or his bombastic style. It is all something different and represents a change.

For those who did not vote for Trump, this transition is seen not just as change but simple outrageous actions taken by a man who literally has no idea what he is doing. To these folks, his rhetoric, his avoidance of transparency, he bombastic tweets are unnerving and scary. His cabinet choices represent a complete turnaround from the policies of the past into unknown territory.

This column right here is not here to tell you which side is right and which side is wrong. We will never get anything done if we just look at each other with glaring eyes and steeled nerves as we prepare to defend our position.

No, what we have to do is look at each other and acknowledge that we each want what is best for our country.

It is our civic duty.