A Tale Of Two Cities

 

At last week’s Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’s speeches were far from the characterizations that followed from Trump and Trumpists (socialist! communist!). Her statements on foreign policy and military support were mainstream Republican until Trump. Healthcare for all? More affordable housing? Only communist ideas? She’s a mainstream liberal, is what she is. Thankfully, America has always had them.

Most of the country is ready to leave behind the grievance-fueled, insult-driven, truth-avoidance of Trump and his eponymous ism. The RNC was a festival of those things. And Trump. Sent from God Trump. Lying Trump. Weirdly-bandaged-ear Trump. Yes, Democratic delegates cheered their speakers, too; but less for who they are than for what they said.

The RNC was insular. The DNC was outsular. It was about love of country, positivity, freedom. And football. Welcoming everyone. It voiced concern even for Trump voters while encouraging them to reconsider their support. As Reverend/Senator Raphael Warnock said, a vote is a kind of prayer. For true conservatives, it ought to be for an end to the cult of Trump; for America, a plea to raise from the dead the Republican Party of old. Kamala Harris won’t end the rule of law. Trump tried once and has promised to again.

In Chicago, the DNC showcased its current and past leaders. In Milwaukee, the RNC purposefully turned to division, disparagement of all things not-Trump, and avoided mention of its former heroes. Which makes sense: the party of Trump has no respect for any of them. In part, that explains why of 44 members of Trump’s inner circle, 40 refused to attend and most are stating he should never be president again. At the DNC, we heard some of the reasons why.

Fox “news” refused to show the speech of Republican Adam Kinzinger, who urged fellow conservatives to vote for Kamala Harris; not, he said, in agreement with her policies but as an act of true conservatism: preservation of the Republic, bringing their party back to the party. Most people reading this will have seen it, but for those who haven’t and would allow themselves to think outside the Fox, here’s a link. 

If Kinzinger had become a party outsider, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham was as inside as it gets; considered the Trumps family, spent holidays at Mar-a-Lago. Carefully taught to reject truths that threaten their cultish adoration, Trumpists will dismiss her as a liar, including her revelation that Trump refers to his supporters as “basement dwellers.” But his disrespect for them, evident from the confidence he has in their believing his lies, has been obvious for years, at least since his Obama birth certificate con. I’ve sent operatives to Hawaii, he asserted, and they’re finding “amazing” things. The first was a lie. The second never happened. But it took hold and, for many MAGAs, lives on. That’s Trumpism.

In his DNC speech, Pete Buttigieg succinctly characterized the contrast between Vice-President Kamala Harris and Trump, in what might be the most telling words heard at the convention: leaders matter, he said, “because they bring out the good or the bad.” MAGA’s intentionally cruel responses to Tim Walz’s son Gus’ tearful delight while watching his father speak made clear which leader does what. And it wasn’t only the odious Ann Coulter. As if we hadn’t already known who’s who, watching Trump’s rallies and seeing his sociopathic nastiness get the biggest cheers. MAGA cruelty comes from the top and feeds the bottom.

The Harris/Walz ticket may well win, but Trump won’t lose. He and his family have made millions from his “presidency,” and the grift continues. His latest is a video not unlike those late-night “but wait, there’s more” commercials, though delivered with decidedly less energy; selling his weird superhero “digital cards,” for the low, low price of $99. It’s an easy laugh, but it’ll collect containers of cash from the corruptly conned. Hawking goods like a carnival barker, by a person who once held the job considered the world’s most prestigious, till him. How can anyone consider that presidential? An embarrassment is what it is.

But wait: there IS more. Faker than flag-hugging, he made a look-at-me trip to Arlington Cemetery to pretend he honors the fallen. Forcing his way into an off-limits area, he got himself photographed behind a tombstone with an inappropriate, thumbs-up, s-e grin. Convinced?

Even more: Conservative Juleanna Glover, who worked for several honorable Republican politicians when there were some, spent months tracking down shady, Trump-created shell corporations to which his campaign has sent untraceable and unaccountable millions.

After seeing the two conventions, it ought to be obvious what to do. Unlike overlooking Trump’s dangers and deceptions, a vote for Vice President Harris doesn’t threaten America’s rule of law and its place in the world. If they don’t like what they see in four years, and if one shows up after the end of Trumpism, Republicans can vote for a real conservative next time.

I, Noogerer

 

Sometimes, pointing out Trump’s mental decline and undeniable unfitness for office begins to feel like piling on. With his outrageous lies, insults to those who serve, and transparently impossible promises, he confirms it without need for comment. So, for a strategic break, during which he’ll undoubtedly keep doing it, here’s an off-topic column, from eight years ago:

I think it might be about 12,000. Somewhere I've seen the number of new words people learn in medical school, and whatever the correct amount, it's impressive. Here and there on my surgery blog (surgeonsblog.blogspot.com), I've mentioned some words I enjoy just for the saying: inspissated. Neovascularization. Tachyarrhythmia. Intussusception. Radiculopathy. (Switch one letter, it applies to Trump. Oops. I did it again.) Bezoar.

It's pronounced BEE-zore. I say it like the taunting "air-ball" at a basketball game. (Digression: It's been shown that at every venue, whenever that chant is chunt, it's always in the same notes on the musical scale. F - D, matter of fact.)

In addition to the daunting medical vocabulary we learn, there’s a more esoteric lexicon: unofficial terminology that bubbled into the vernacular and have become universal within certain sub-cultures: gomer; O-sign; Q-sign; lipstick sign; flail. One such has it all: nice sound, excellent meaning, and, in my case, a connection to one of my favorite people. The word is NOOGER.

In the memoir I wrote about surgical training, I described learning to dissect through distorted, inflamed, difficult anatomy. I called the method "delicate brutality." (Too late, it occurred to me that that would have been a better title.) Central to the technique is the ability to nooger; namely, to ootz a finger into a sticky place and wiggle it, pinch it, until you find a way through without poking a hole where you don’t want it. Improper noogering can lead to death, or something similar. In certain circumstances, though, it’s safer than sharp dissection.

Noogering can be done with instruments, too: a sucker, a blunt clamp, closed scissors, often along with the finger. Indeed it requires a combination of delicacy and brutality, plus a sense of touch; of tissue turgor (another good word: turgor) and confidence of anatomy. If you can't tell exactly where a thing is, anatomically, you need to be fairly sure where it isn't.

Not all surgeons need to nooger. Orthopods and neurosurgeons don't. Bone isn't noogerable, and brain, well, God help us... But a general surgeon unfamiliar with noogering is bound for trouble. Important as it is, I can't say how I learned it, or how properly to teach it. But I did, both.

Among my favorite characters from training was the chief cardiac resident, a gangly, soft-spoken but fast-thinking Southern boy, Joe (full name: Joe) Utley. In contrast to the others populating that department, who were various combinations of volatile, egomaniacal, nasty, or, in one case, all at once, Joe was laid-back, engaging, and highly talented. He told dumb jokes, quoted lines from movies (Patton, mostly), played the flugelhorn while wearing a sombrero, and treated me -- his over-worked intern and, later, junior resident -- with respect (although, it could be argued, having an intern and his girlfriend [now wife] over and subjecting them to the horn and the hat was anything but respectful).

I loved the guy. He died recently. I sent a copy of my book, in which he played a prominent role, to his wife; she wrote back that she knew he'd have loved it, and she could imagine him laughing out loud while reading it. That felt good.

When connecting a person to the heart-lung machine, it's necessary to control blood returning to the heart via the vena cava. That requires (did then, anyway) slinging the veins with ties; to do so necessitates dissecting behind those thin-walled, delicate structures, completely encircling them, within the tight confines of the pericardium. Joe had a favorite instrument for the job, a huge clamp with a curved, rounded tip. This he referred to as the "Giant Noogerer."

In those early days in its development, open-heart surgery could be tense and, often, very lengthy. As an intern on the service, because there was always work waiting to be done, stretching into sleeplessness, time in the cardiac room was -- depending on who was in charge -- often unpleasant. With no opportunity to do anything but stand there and answer gotcha questions, the hours dragged on, pushing the day's work further into the night.

With Joe, though, it was fun. Among other reasons, I looked forward each time, as the moment approached, to hearing him ask for the tool. "Giant noogerer," he'd say, hand out, and it always arrived with no need for clarification. With his gentle accent, it sounded like "jahnt nurgrer." If I ever knew, I’ve forgotten what the real name is. In my practice, I never used one. But I noogered, more times than I’d like to count.

Who Loves Ya, Baby?

 

Raise your hand if you love America. For what it is; for what it can be. Nope, sorry, MAGA folk. You lost that claim when you gave yourselves over to Donald Trump.

The last weeks have seen what some might call a role reversal. More accurately, because the truth has always been out there, it’s a perception reversal: Democrats and liberals, it turns out, are the ones who love the real America. MAGA Republicans don’t. They resent what it is and fear what they’re told to believe its future will be if not for Trump. They resent its strength-deriving diversity. And, like Trump, they reject its laws, especially those protecting fair elections and equal rights.

Compare the Harris/Walz rallies to Trump’s and Vance’s. Who presents a positive vision of America and its potential? Whose audience is chanting, enthusiastically, “USA! USA!”? Which candidate said to a huge, happy crowd, “We trust the people, we see the people, we know the people. You know one of the things I love about our country? We are a nation of people who believe in those ideals that were foundational to what made us so special as a nation. … We love our country.” (Okay, MAGA nation doesn’t believe, but still...)

Which candidate, speaking from the darkness of Mar-a-Lago, said the US is “a very, very sick country right now”? Which voters marinate in the carefully crafted animus they feel on hearing that? “We’re not going back” is the opposite of “Make America Great Again.” It’s “Again” that says it all. MAGA is about going back to the time of straight, white, native-born, male-dominant, Christian majority, where everyone else knew their place: silent and submissive.

“Not going back” is about liberation from the oppressive heaviness of Trumpism’s doom, gloom, and dishonesty; its rejection of America’s founding ideals, the nastiness (and craziness) of a Trump rally. “Not going back” is a joyous expression of relief, hope for democracy, an end to Trump’s autocratic fantasies.

When his crowds chanted “Lock her up,” Trump stood silent, basking in the wave of fawning lawlessness. When some in a Harris/Walz crowd started shouting “Lock him up,” both Kamala and Tim shut them down. Let the courts take care of it, they said. Our job is to defeat Trump at the polls. That difference is everything.

Echoing creepy JD Vance’s desperation in facing heartland’s Tim Walz, Trumpists have sunk to attacking his military record. After 24 years in the National Guard, he retired to run for Congress, a year after which his unit was deployed to Iraq. Had the Guard thought his retirement affected mission readiness, they could have disallowed it, which they didn’t. Like the Swiftboating of John Kerry, it’s what Republicans, footstepping the invective of Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich, do to people demonstrating the decency their leadership lacks. (We pause to recall five-times-deferred Trump’s fake bone spurs and saying avoiding STDs was his “personal Vietnam.”)

JD has more: claiming the Harris/Walz campaign is resorting to name-calling and bullying, he ignores Crooked Hillary, Crazy Nancy, Birdbrain Nikki Haley, Lyin’ Ted, Ron DeSanctimonious, Sleepy Joe, whatever Kamabla is, and more. When Trump and Trumpists accuse someone of something, it’s they who are doing it. Psychiatrists call it projection.

Unless applied to Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima, “meltdown” is an overused cliché. But what better describes Trump descending ever deeper into madness as Harris/Walz surge past him in polls, their massive crowds outnumbering his? Last weekend he claimed their Arizona crowd was faked; that there was no one there; that it was all AI. Robbed by Foxotrumpification of the ability to recognize lies, believers believed.

From a favorite troll, I received the Trump-referenced “proof-positive” picture. Since I sent him video proof of her overflow crowd and technological debunkery of Trump’s confabulation, I haven’t heard back. Distinguishing fakery requires intellectual effort that MAGAs have been taught to eschew.

On loop, Trump is also claiming the polls are fake. The only way he loses, he bleats, is by Democrats cheating, deliberately prepping the soil for another, more deadly insurrection, in which he’ll revel as before. Despite repeatedly experiencing it, he’s incapable of graceful acceptance of defeat. Nor are those who, hearing his lies and seeing his incoherence, believe him still. Even when he says (wishes) Joe Biden will retake the nomination.

So desperate are the Project 2025 masterminds to implement their power-cementing, democracy-ending agenda that they’ll continue to prop up a man whose increasingly obvious deterioration makes him unfit to preside over dinner, much less our country. Likely, they see that as a plus, making him all the more easy to convince he’s in charge, while they call the shots. Think about it.

[Edit: originally this had a paragraph about Trump not being able to land in Bozeman because of owing money. It was evidently false info, so I deleted it. Sorry.]

Tim 'n Stuff

 

Tim Walz is a good choice. So would have been any of the others from among whom VP Harris chose. Walz is a likable guy. With a shiv. It was he who started the “weird” moniker. Like Kamala, he’ll bring the fun. And dead seriousness. Appropriate as “weird” is, it applies better to R “Cubby” FK, Jr. The word for Trump and Trumpists is “creepy.” Let’s go with that from now on.

Also creepy are those who accuse Democrats of “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)” for speaking truth. The real TDS is exemplified by this satirical but accurate video. It’s believing his lies and loving them. It’s being expected to swallow them without chewing, as confirmed by Trump’s appearance at the NABJ, delayed by his demand that there would be no real-time fact-checking. 

The difference is stark: Lying is how Trump appeals to his base. Kamala Harris appeals to hers, and to everyone, by telling the truth. While many of the Trump/Vance lies are laughable, others are dangerously inciteful, deliberately. Examples of the former: she wants to take away your gas stoves and cars. And cows. Wants to change your kids’ gender. The latter: “they” tried to kill him. Because he’s smarter, that shameful lie makes JD Vance more deplorable than Trump.

As Trump contemplates the possibility of losing to a Black (and, yes, Indian) woman, his bitter negativity contrasts ever more with her joyful positivity. Having an unpopular and negative agenda, he can only lie, which, coincidentally, is something he’s perfected over a lifetime. Having policies approved by a majority of Americans, Kamala Harris has only to be truthful.

So he and his mouthers look for distractions: despicable Laura Ingraham stooped to deriding Kamala for hugging people. The human touch is foreign to Fox “news.” Now it’s Doug Emhoff’s affair while married to his former wife. Really? They want to go there? Three words: Trump. And Trump.

Also, Trump.

If ever there were an issue from which Trump and his apologists would like to distract, it’s last week’s revelation of ten million dollars, in cash, weighing two hundred pounds, withdrawn from an Egyptian bank, mysteriously ending up amongst Trump’s campaign funds. Accepting bribes? Unsurprising. It appears he’d already promised oil executives anything they wanted in return for a billion. 

But it’s worse: Attorney General Barr, Trump’s handyman in his weaponized DOJ, quashed investigations into the affair, as he’d done in firing US Attorneys looking into Trump’s pre-presidential crimes. The story is so important that this gifted link is useable for non-WaPo subscribers.

Having excoriated Trump as unsuitable to be president, Barr says he’ll still vote for him. Such spineless and sycophantic amorality makes him perfect to appear regularly on Fox “news” and its imitators. So he does.

Spines are similarly scarce southward. After Trump went on a Cobb salad of a rant in Georgia, about its governor Brian Kemp’s “disloyalty” for not lying for him, Kemp responded: “My focus is on ... saving our country from Kamala Harris ... not engaging in petty personal insults.” He’ll vote for him, in other words, leaving us to wonder: from what dangers of Kamala Harris does the country need saving that outweigh the clear and present ones of Trump? Not to mention his bottomless indecency, which shames us all.

It’s a question for all Republicans disliking but still planning to vote for Trump: Why? What vision of America under Kamala Harris threatens your way of life? How awful would it be for you and your families if she were able, like Governor Walz was in Minnesota, to see that hungry children are fed and homeless are housed? What do you expect from Trump that justifies overlooking his lawlessness, childish pettiness, and promises of governance by dictatorship? Tax breaks? Deregulation? You won’t get those unless you’re a billionaire or polluter. Is it rounding up undocumented aliens?

If you consider yourself conservative, how do you excuse his congratulating Putin for the deal that freed Americans imprisoned in Russia, issuing not a word to the captives or praise for the countries involved? And lying that he never gave anything for his deals? Other than, you know, releasing five hundred Taliban prisoners held by Afghanistan. And these.

Are you distracted from his promise not to “spend a penny” on schools that require vaccines, which is all of them? “For cheers at a rally,” he may as well have said, “I’ll trade children crippled or dying from polio, suffering deadly measles pneumonia, or becoming sterile from mumps.” And cheer they do. You, too? When he says he doesn’t need your votes, does it make you think he expects his certification-deniers to overturn state elections?

If you were to place country over Trump, you wouldn’t be alone. Could this help you decide?

Kamala Harris will win the popular vote massively. The undemocratic, outdated Electoral College, though? Who knows?

Also, Tim Walz is younger than Brad Pitt.