"The Death of Outrage"

 William Bennett wrote that book, the Death of Outrage, back in 1999. In it, he lamented about how Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair was an "assault on the American ideals", and how most Americans were willing to look away as long as they were doing alright economically.   

 I saw  William Bennett on a political talk show recently and he was making excuses for Donald Trump's behavior and encouraging him to keep pushing his agenda. The same William Bennett who wrote that the moral failings of Bill Clinton was disqualifying, was now encouraging republicans and those on the right to keep supporting Mr. Trump. 

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with America. And it's why no matter what Donald Trump does, he will have half of the country behind him. 

To his credit, Donald Trump has figured it out: Lean in on white nationalism and white pride to let white folks believe that rolling back progress in the area of civil rights does not affect them. Trampling the concept of due process and ignoring the rule of law is fine, as long as it does not affect those in the majority. Bullying and threatening large law firms who have the clout and the money to fight injustice is cool, because they won't be fighting for causes that affect  "red blooded American" white people.   

He is already doing all of these things, and there is no outrage. Not from William Bennett, not from  the elected politicians (in either party), not from the press, and certainly not from the majority of white Americans.  I watched in horror as those ICE agents snatched that doctorial student off the street in Boston because of her political views, and I thought to myself, this is it, this has to be the breaking point. Certainly, I thought,  this has to be where Americans open their eyes and say,  this could happen to me. But it wasn't. Sure it was a news story, and we all watched the video on various news programs. But most of  you just watched and  chalked it up to the Trump administration doing what they promised. 

We watched those undocumented immigrants being shipped off to one of the world's most notorious prisons without any due process, and we shrugged that off as well.  Trump promised that he would round up all the gang members and trouble makers and ship them out of our country. And we thought, looking at those images, that they all fit the profile:  Young,  brown, and male.  So no harm no foul. Just Trump doing what he promised. Outrage is not even on life support at this point. It's dead. 

This past week there was Signalgate. I won't get into it because  if you read this blog you're pretty plugged in politically. This story seems to have legs, not because we are shocked by the conduct of the uniquely unqualified sycophants that Donald Trump has placed in positions of power, but because of their hubris and total disregard for the safety of the country. 

The folks who are saying that planning a military strike and revealing war plans while on a public email chat is no big deal, are the same ones who were clutching their pearls until they choked over Hillary Clinton's email server being used to conduct State Department business. This is no big deal they say, because the mission was a success. (There are questions about that as well.) This is like saying don't prosecute the bank robber because he  didn't get away with any money.  Whether the mission was a success or not is beside the point. Imagine what could have happened in the alternative because of the incompetence and conduct of these people? 

I suspect, though, that this too well pass. There is no outrage from the right, because they are  in a cult, and they can't speak against Dear Leader no mater what. There is outrage from the left, but they feel hopeless  because no one else seems to care. The folks in the middle watch and stay disengaged because they do not believe that all of this affects them. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump keeps issuing executive order after order. He is skirting the rule of law, and daring the courts to stop him. His Attorney General has threatened to go after the very Judges who must interpret the law. And his agenda for his second term is to go after his perceived  enemies, and those who are not showing fealty towards him.  Sadly, at least for now,  those of us who fall into the latter category are in the minority. 

   

"State of the Union causes State of Confusion"

 

The state of this fragile American union is not good. It's not good because the leader is intentionally trying to divide us and destroy it. I am not one to dabble in conspiracy theories, but I am really starting to believe this one about the Russians having something very incriminating on Donald J. trump. 

  How else do you explain his latest move to isolate Ukraine and allow Russia to take some of the land they took from that country? How else do you explain his appointment of Tulsi Gabbard, a known Assad and Putin sympathizer, as Director of National Intelligence? For years many folks believed that she was a Russian asset, and she still very well might be. Donald trump disparages every world leader, including the Prime Minister of Canada, but he is afraid to say a bad word about Putin.  Why?  

What's scary is that he now has most of his followers (the MAGA cult members) believing that the Russians are the good guys, and all the other countries in Europe are bad. The same Russians who kill  their political enemies,  bomb hospitals,  and slaughter innocent  children. This is  what MAGA is embracing, because their leader told them that it's alright to do so. 

Those videos of trump and his bully friends ganging up on Zelenskyy in the White House was painful to watch and has been seared in my memory. The poor guy didn't have a chance. In Russia they were celebrating, in America we were wondering, what the f**K just happened?  And then, to top it off, some clown in a clown suit asked him, Zelenskyy, why HE wasn't wearing a suit? Imagine that. Your country is under siege, and you are fighting a war for your very survival, and some MAGA clown admonishes you for not wearing a suit to meet the most cowardly man to ever sit in the White House. A man who lied his way out of having to serve in battle for his own country. Here is another thing, I have seen Zelenskyy in a suit, and he wears one better than all the men who were sitting in that room with him. Apparently trump likes Baroni suits, bur the company should tell him to stop wearing them. On any given day he looks like Alfred Hitchcock in a bathrobe. And if they are bespoken, shame on Baroni for not telling the emperor how f****d up he looks. But I digress. The point is, the MAGA journalist was way out of line, and so was the president and JD Vance for the way they ambushed the poor man. 

But this is where we are in America.  Trump's address to congress was nothing but a plethora of lies, double speak, and misdirection. Nothing, and I mean nothing he said many any sense. "Eight million dollars to experiment on transgendered mice"? No! That is TRANSGENERIC mice. These mice are genetically modified with foreign DNA introduced into their genomes "to study the function of specific genes, model human diseases, or to test potential treatment." I know that science is hard for the MAGA crowd, but without this and other types of research, we would never be able to make advances in medicine.  So either trump can't read or he just flat out lied. It drew a few laughs from the GOP sycophants in congress, but there was nothing funny about what he was doing: Gaslighting the American people.   

We are now almost two months into Mr. trump's administration, and the price of eggs keep going up, gas prices are not going down, and the stock marker is going up and down like a Six Flags rollercoaster. Sadly, I suspect that trump is purposely trying to manipulate the markets for some pump and dump scheme with his buddies, but I obviously can't prove it. It would take a real journalist to look into it, but sadly, there are none of those left in America.   

On the foreign policy front, our traditional adversaries like Russia are now our allies, and our allies (See Canada) are now our enemies.  Trump wants to pull out of NATO, and we are no longer sharing intelligence with Ukraine. And, more importantly, our allies in Europe are going to be sharing less intel with us.  I don't feel safer, and neither should you. 

Shout out to Al Green for walking out of that lieathon to congress and heckling trump. Shame on the ten democrats who voted to censure him. You are what's wrong with the democratic party, not Al Green.

 At some point you will all have to stand up and say enough, before it's too late for the rest of us.         

Are we there yet?

 

" He who saves his Country does not violate any law" ~ Napoleon Bonaparte~ 

The president of the United States posted that quote on Saturday, February 15, 2025. I repeat: The president of the United States posted that quote on Saturday, February 15, 2025. 

Napoleon was a despot, who believed that his regime reflected the will of the people of France.

Are we there yet? 

I need your thoughts and feedback on this one.

*BTW, the image above is that of Benito Mussolini, not Napoleon Bonaparte or Donald J. Trump.  

  

Is DEI the new N word?

These are crazy times, field hands. The felon is now fully in charge, and prices have not gone down, there is looming economic chaos with his trade wars, and the FBI and other agencies charged with keeping us safe and holding criminals accountable, are being gutted because they hurt his feelings. Meanwhile, a feckless and weak democratic party does nothing but give us phony outrage talking points to stay relevant or in front of  news cameras. There are no calls for mobilization, no calls for mass protests, and no real plan to counter the oncoming fascism train that is going to doom us all. At least all of us who aren't in a cult, and who still believe in what America is supposed to stand for. 

This past week there were two tragic plane crashes, one right after the other. I am not blaming the felon for that, things happen, and it could have just as well happened when Biden was president. The thing is, though, the felon blamed the first tragic accident, which cost sixty -seven people their lives, on DEI. Think about that for a minute. Before the bodies were taken out of the cold Potomac River, or the families even had time to grieve, he was playing politics, and trying to score political points. He is truly a sick and demented individual. But we all knew that. Even the misguided people who voted for him had to have known that as well. 

Blaming the accident on DEI without any proof was such a trumpian thing to do. But you  have to understand, this is how he stokes his base, by blaming everything that goes wrong on DEI.  It's another scapegoating tactic that works well with the demographic he appeals to. These are the folks who blame their miserable positions in life on everyone else but themselves. Immigrants, blacks, transgendered people, and Gays. They are the ones making it hard for them to get ahead. Not the billionaires and Oligarchs who are only looking out for themselves, and taking advantage of every loophole to squeeze every penny out of the government and our pockets. These are the folks, by the way, who the felon is looking out for in his second term. Not the poor cult members who hold on to his every word and bow to all of his actions. It's DEI! Everything wrong with the government is because of DEI.  Let's cancel all those holidays that celebrate diversity, and let's scrub our history books of the achievements of black folks. That will make us feel better about ourselves. Sadly for them, it won't add one cent to their pocket, or reduce the cost of groceries or gas.   

The irony is, of course, that the felon has the most unqualified nominees to fill his cabinet positions in the history of the United States. Fox News hosts and television personalities who he views as telegenic will now hold some of the most powerful positions in government. His defense secretary is an alcoholic who has been credibly accused of sexual assault,  and he has zero qualifications for the job. Compare his credentials to the black man who was previously in his position, and you will see why black folks laugh when we hear the DEI refrain. We know it's just code words for n****r you don't deserve that job. It should go to a white man.  Don't even get me started on Tulsi Gabbard, the dog killer, who literally met with Assad and Putin and parroted their talking points at a time when they were committing all kinds of atrocities against their own people. Just today she said she is cool with putting children in Gitmo. Then there is RFK Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is in line to become, wait for it....health secretary! You can't make this stuff up. 

I called a friend from Philly to check on him after the recent plane crash in that city. He said he was fine, but he was really scared of what's to come. "Bro, something just feels off man" he said to me. "And I can't quite put my fingers on it. "  

I feel the same way, but unlike him, I know exactly what it is that's off: We elected a mad man to hold the highest office in the land for a second time. We didn't learn our lesson from the first time when a million Americans died because of his incompetence.  

Now, sadly,  he has more power, and less opposition. Not to mention four more years. That is, of course, if we make it that long. 

*Go Eagles*  

*Correction* Tulsi Gabbard was not the dog killer. That was Kristi Noem*

  

  

The Misinformation Machine.

 

 The level of insanity going on this country right now is mind blowing. On one side you have a cult spreading disinformation, lies, and wallowing in hate and grievance. (You would think they would be celebrating. The did, after all, win the damn election. Or so we were all led to believe.) On the other side of the political spectrum, you have a feckless Attorney General who is afraid of his own shadow, and a political party hell bent on taking a knife to a gun fight. 

 Donald trump now controls every aspect of the American media.  And the disinformation and lies will be taken to new heights with his new found power. The billionaire's boys club is making sure of it. Mark (I want to be more masculine) Zuckerberg, has announced that there will be no more fact checking on Facebook. He  actually went down to Mara-a- Lardo to kiss trump's ring, and beg for forgiveness for all of his past sins. And them he appeared on Joe Rogan's show to heap praise on the right, decry wokeism, and embrace toxic masculinity.  The owners of the Washington Post, and LA Times, have also declared their fealty to trump. This is a stunning development in a country that is supposed to value freedom of the press and journalistic independence. Don't even get me started on the South African who inherited his family's  diamond mine, came to America, and griffted his way into becoming the richest man on earth.  He has gone full replacement theory, and many believe that we actually elected him to be our president.  (Worth repeating: All you Negroes driving Teslas need to sell now! You look really silly driving a car from a company which is owned by a man who wants to replace you. ) And here is the crazy part: When he was going broke he begged for--- and got a bailout---- from the government of...wait for it...Barack Obama, a "Socialist" black man.  

 The torrent of misinformation around the tragic wildfires in Los Angeles has only served to shine a light on the problem. The people in MAGA world don't care about citizens in what they perceive as enemy territory, and there is already talk of trump declaring a federal takeover of the state when he takes office. Don't laugh, the guy wants to invade Canada and take Greenland by force, and the cult is on board.  Remember what I wrote about democrats in the first paragraph?  Yes, that part.  Whatever you thought was just too crazy to be true, is now very possible. 

  In a few days the felon will take office.  Prices will not go down, and our lives will not improve. But, true to form, he will be giving us one distraction after another to take our minds away from the things that REALLY matter in our lives.  His cult members will eat it all up and try to tell us how great America is again, and us normal folks will just shake our heads. Not only at the lunacy of the MAGA sheep, but at the willingness of the American press to play along. 

*To my family and friends in Los Angeles, please stay safe. You are in our thoughts.*