Because He Can

Maybe you’ve heard this joke, which, out of respect for readers, I’ll tidy up: Why do dogs lick their dangly parts? Answer: Because they can.

It perfectly describes Trump’s every action: He does what he does not only because he can, but, metaphorically, also that other thing. Paradoxically, there’s not a lick of forethought or coherence evident in any of it.

At last, in his attention-needy, approval-deficient life, he can do whatever he wants, to whomever and whatever he chooses. It’s nearly absolute power, granted not by voters, a majority of whom disagree with almost everything he’s done, and certainly not the Constitution, but by craven Republican Congress-dwellers and a cynically selected, ideologically predictable, Constitution-rewriting Supreme Court.

We’ve just returned from New York City, where our niece is a tenured professor of immunology at NYU. She runs an internationally recognized lab in which she’s made far-reaching, health-related discoveries. Back when our government recognized the value of science and the importance of the US leading the world, she had several post-doctoral fellows working with her. Now, due to Trump’s funding cuts and punitive immigration flexes, including charging outrageous prices for H-1 visas, because he can, she has only one. To another, whom she described as a “dream candidate,” she offered a job, only to have him choose a better future in China.

Another applicant she’d have loved to hire decided to stay in China. Trump’s no-sightedness harms America’s status in the world, which, if sanity ever returns to governance, will take years to restore. He doesn’t care. Because he can’t.

Because he could, this narcissistic man-child tore down a third of the White House, to be replaced with a grandiose monstrosity of a ballroom which will dwarf the People’s House, making permanent his embarrassing presence there. Because he lies, we should assume his promise not to name it after himself is false. The destruction, which he’d said wouldn’t happen, was completed before permits or final plans, much less authorization by the National Capital Planning Commission, members of which, along with members of the Commission on Fine Arts, he replaced with sycophantic allies. Why? To ensure approval of his ballroom and self-referential Triumphal Arch. And because he can.

Last week, Trump’s Department of Definitely-not-Peace awarded a huge contract to the drone manufacturer “Unusual Machines.” Heard of it? Don Junior has, because he’s an “adviser” to the company (cf: Burisma/Hunter/outrage/Congressional investigations/impeachment threats) and owns millions of dollars of stock in it, the value of which spiked after the deal was announced. It’s astounding, definitional conflict of interest and self-dealing, which Trump knows he needn’t hide. Likewise, his pardon of Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the crypto giant helping Trump, et spawn, enrich themselves while robbing vulnerable MAGAs with their bitcoin scams. He’ll get away with it. Because, between his prostrate hirelings and cowardly Congress, he can.

We’ve also learned that, so desperate was he to demonstrate unchallenged omnipotence, by sending people, illegally, to an inhumane El Salvadorian gulag, he sacrificed several MS-13 informants in return for its President Bukele agreeing to incarcerate his victims. Murdering claimed but unproven drug-runners on international waters is in the same category of illegality and inhumanity.

Commanding an unprincipled Attorney General, Trump got former Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted. Unlike the previously listed transgressions, this one could become amusing. Congressmen Gym Jordan and James Comey have demanded that Smith appear before their Overlooking-Trump Committees. Asking only that the hearings be public, Smith has agreed. Will they let voters see what he had on Trump?

Taking another lick at authoritarianism: Sending “election monitors” to blue states, homes of proven fraud-free elections. The clear purpose is to justify his perseverating, pathological election lies.

Because our Trump-owned Congress will do whatever he demands, they handed ICE more taxpayer money than the FBI and CIA combined, so Trump can have a personal, Constitution-ignoring army. So wanton is their resulting hiring spree, they’ve selected people with criminal histories, including drug use, robbery, and battery. Which, seeing ICE brutality, are probably attractive qualities. Additionally, they’ve been given tools banned from government by President Joe Biden, re-allowed by Trump, to spy on any and all citizens. He can do that, too, unimpeded.

There’s more, of course. It’s reported he’s demanding the DOJ pay him $230 million in taxpayer (your) money as restitution for the indignity of being properly tried and rightfully convicted of multiple felonies, including sexual assault. Ever the defender of Biblical virtue, Holy Mike Johnson, wholly pliant, doesn’t object. Trump’s personal lawyers and other embodiments of amorality in the DOJ are in charge of the decision to pay. If they won’t, he’s in position to order it. Because he can.

Trump’s lust for power and vengeance has been obvious for years. And now, revealing its claim on “law and order” and “family values” always to have been Trump-level lies, today’s Republican Party is handing it all to him. Because, thanks to SCOTUS-approved gerrymandering and vote suppression, they can.

Rallying 'Round The Flags

Around four thousand people showed up to our Everett “No Kings” rally, including, unexpectedly, Governor Ferguson. He’s a good speaker. My favorite sign: “No Faux King way, Donald.” And thank you to the people who recognized me somehow and urged me to continue writing. I guess I will.

Seven million people, it’s estimated, participated in rallies around the country. Like Everett’s, there was peace, fellowship, American flags, and humor, along with properly serious concern demanded by the threats we all face – even MAGA, yet to recognize it – from Trump and the presidents over him, Stephen Miller and Russell Vought.

What, if anything, did this massive, much bigger than last time, nationwide turnout accomplish? Maybe it won’t immediately bend the arc of history toward justice. But it’s not nothing that those patriotic rallies showed what a profligate liar is Holy Mike Johnson, who speaks directly with God in Heaven but will, if the Ten Commandments mean anything, spend eternity elsewhere, alongside Trump. “Hate America,” he called the rallies, which were, demonstrably, the opposite. There's nothing more pro-America than "No Kings." It was, after all, the story of America's birth.

It must have infuriated every high-level Republican, including Trump and his aforementioned manipulators, that there was virtually no violence. Smarmy, condescending Mike, trusting trusters to trust trustingly, attempted to dismiss it all, but ended up embarrassing himself. One sad lady wrote online that she showed up somewhere in her MAGA hat, hoping to provoke post-worthy video of nasty reactions but was, instead, ignored. In Portland, filming the results for propaganda in Noemansland, ICE agitated the crowd until there were a few arrests. 

Trump, whose ig-Nobel Mideast ceasefire lasted less than a week, and whose lies include not damaging the White House with his self-aggrandizing, bloated blight of a ballroom, lowered to the occasion by posting an AI-generated video of himself flying a fighter jet, wearing a crown (take that, libs!), dumping excrement on protesting Americans. MAGA, no doubt, found it hilarious and affirming: the “president” of their prayers, heir to sacrifices patriotic Americans have made since our founding to preserve America’s most treasured values. A “president” they believe to be sent by God, evacuating his bowels on Constitutional rights. But that’s why they love him.

To marchers in the millions, and millions of other unFoxified Americans, though, it confirms what an infantile, mortifying, unfit leader MAGA has saddled us with. And reinforces the importance of saying so. Meanwhile, seeing their lies falsified in real time, rightwing media filled the air with actual b.s. 

An entire book could be written about the last couple of weeks. If it weren't already taken, it should be titled “The Book of Revelation.” For it was revealed that there are still good people in our country, committed to defying Trump’s burgeoning autocracy. And we were shown what a puerile, unwell man he is. Not that most of us didn’t already know.

Also revealed was how far our morally-deficient Vice President will go to defend “Young Republicans” who exchanged hundreds of vile, racist, antisemitic messages.  Rejecting the opportunity to say there’s no place for that in his party, Vance passed them off as young kids joking around, characterizing objections to their Trumpified hate as “pearl clutching.” Those “kids” were in their thirties. Some had had leadership roles in what remains of the Republican Party. Without doubt, they reflect what Trump’s party currently encompasses and excuses. Do they represent its future, too? Against accumulating evidence, all of America must hope not.

After those Vancy-pants deplorables were dragged into the light, there was revelation and irony in Trump’s crucifixated spokesblond claiming Democrats cater to Hamas terrorists, illegals, and criminals. Same with Trump commuting the sentence of fellow felon, election denier and mulitplicitous scammer, George Santos. They’re brothers in harms.

Lie and commit violence for Trump, get commutations and pardons. Tell the truth about him, get indicted, as it is foretold: “... behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison...” (Revelation 2:10)

For those who hadn’t yet borne witness, last week also saw Trump’s obeisance to Putin reconfirmed. After a phone call between the two, having previously announced his intention to send more Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Taco Trump low-tailed it back to no missiles and Russia keeping the territory it stole. Then he treated Ukraine’s President Zelensky even worse than last time. Because of an un-arted deal, his announced meeting with Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban might not happen; but Trump’s envy of dictators’ unrestrained power and his, uh, flexibility in their presence remain undisguisable.

Having no positive agenda except for rewarding their affluent sponsors and harming everyone else by cutting needed “Democratic” projects, Trump, Vance, Johnson, and all other congressional Republicans know they have no compelling response to the spirit of the “No Kings” marchers and the millions of others who agree with them. So they lie and threaten. 

In time, lies are revealed and threats are withstood. Last Saturday, seven million Americans showed they aren’t among the deceived. It’s a hopeful start.

No Kings, Here Or There

 

Question: If you facilitate a peace plan in the Middle East, but foment brutal reprisals against your political opponents at home and murder people in boats in international waters, do you deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Because pacifying the Middle East has eluded prior presidents, it’s worth asking, despite those mitigating factors.

If the Trump-involved peace plan proves durable, and if displaced Palestinians find permanent, acceptable homes where they can thrive, hand him the prize.

Trump being Trump, he flew to Egypt and Israel to bask in praise, much of which he lavished on himself. Also being Trump, he glorified the area’s dictators, admired their unrestricted power, and disgorged his usual grievances about people he dislikes back home. Nevertheless, the exchange of 20 Israeli prisoners held by Hamas and about 2000 Palestinians held by Israel is an achievement for which Trump deserves credit, whatever his role within the team that pulled it off.

But, knowing Trump to be the grifter he’s been since his simulacrum of adulthood, there are justifiable concerns. In particular, the board of overseers created to supervise the redevelopment and management of Gaza, to be headed by Trump. It’s unknown whether or what he offered to the surrounding states that have signed onto the deal, but we know Trump et fils have been proposing Trump hotels and golf courses there for years, turning the area into a remunerative paradise. Grift я him. As proof, amidst it all, the “president” of the United States is hustling overpriced, low-quality watches like a carnival barker. It’s embarrassing.

It’s reasonable to assume Qatar, for one, will get a piece of the action for its $400 million high-flying gift, and after the Trump-approved military “facility” is completed in Idaho. We refer to the project about which Pentagon Pete exulted, “I’m also proud that today we’re announcing we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho. The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots...”

After the appropriately shocked response, even from MAGA, America’s highly qualified SecWar clarified: “... [T]o be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base...” So, okay. Nothing like a base. A facility. Within an American military base. With planes and pilots. And buildings. Definitely not base-like, though. Welcome in, Hamas-funders but not Hispanic.

If, a year from now, peace prevails, Hamas is defanged, the rebuilding is something other than a cash cow for Trump, sheiks, princes, and emirs, and Palestinians and Israelis are happy and secure, I’ll nominate him if no one else will.

Now that he solved the world’s most enduring geopolitical problem, as opposed to its most existentially grave one, climate change, which he’s intentionally making worse, it’d be great if he’d devote the rest of his term(s?) to brokering peace within the United States, by ending his verbal and military attacks on Democrats and lies about liberals. A nice start would be to acknowledge that this weekend’s nationwide “No Kings” marches are Constitutionally protected, essentially American forms of protest. Even better, he could take its message to heart.

But that would require cerebral processing power; something it increasingly appears he’s lacking. Like when he posted that “the Biden FBI” placed 274 agents within the January 6 crowd at a time when it was he, not Biden, in office. A lie, or dementia? Does it matter?

Instead, we have Holy Mike Johnson, who takes directions directly from God, which means one of them is a liar and I’m guessing it’s Mike, characterizing the marches as “a hate America rally” run by “the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people.” Right. To advocate for free speech, fair elections, equal rights, unsuppressed education, and Constitutionally contained leadership is to hate America. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a comical downgrade from Pete Buttigieg, said they’re paid protestors. I’ll be there. Where do I get my paycheck? Or cash? Will George Soros be there, handing it out?

Declaring Antifa a terrorist organization, Trump, who is demonstrably working to overthrow the United States government, law enforcement, and our system of law, issued a proclamation stating, “Antifa ... explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” Explicitly? Where? Is there a manifesto? Read us, Dear Leader, those explicit words. Where are the terrorists’ headquarters? Why haven’t they been raided?

Yes, there have been people dressed in black, mixed in with and far outnumbered by peaceful protestors, calling themselves Antifa. Some have done bad things. Some, according to the FBI when it was credible, were rightwing provocateurs. So some people call themselves Antifa. That doesn’t make it an organization by any definition, terrorist or otherwise.

America’s “president” is desperate to create violence to justify a permanent, military-backed, authoritarian takeover. Resistance, then, like “No Kings” marches, becomes a zero-sum game. It will end, one way or another.

Forked

 

About the shutdown of the government in which Republicans control both houses of Congress and the presidency (if that’s still the right word), the most accurate take came from this guy. Now, the same guy and every Republican in Congress, including Holy Mike Johnson, who talks directly with God, are lying, blatantly, un-ninth-commandmently about what Democrats demand to end the shutdown. They’re NOT arguing for including undocumented immigrants in Medicaid. They DO want to restore Republican-cut funds to it. For citizens. Unable to govern, Congressional Republicans turn to lying.

What Democrats SHOULD be demanding is release of every page of the Epstein files, unredacted; the end of lying about emergencies in blue-state cities; no more sending troops there; a clear statement that Trump turning the DOJ into a vehicle for personal vengeance is illegal and so is murdering people in Venezuelan boats whether or not they’re drug-runners of which no proof has been presented; and an admission from Republicans that they don’t care.

Yep, that'll do it. Shutdown over.

More realistically, Democrats should announce they won’t allow funding of the most corrupt government in the history of our republic until it’s fixed. And they should enumerate examples of that corruption every day till this November and the next.

But the moment demands more. Not MAGAs, because it’ll never happen, but, looking at that raid in Chicago, every clear-eyed American must realize we’re living in an incipient police state whose head of government (“president” no longer applies) claims the right to send US troops into any city he chooses, to round up anyone that displeases him. He just announced, after all, that he’ll imprison, for a year, anyone who burns the American flag, which is constitutionally protected speech. Only dictators declare their own laws. Only dictators unilaterally imprison people. And they ban books, words, history, and speech. Especially when, like MAGAs, enough subjects approve.

After training for Chicago like practicing the raid on Usama bin Laden, Trump sent a helicopter from which troops rappelled onto the roof of a five-story building; military vehicles; and agents with flashbangs who kicked down doors, trashed apartments, and rounded up all residents, including US citizens, offering no proof they’re terrorists as claimed. Children were zip-tied together and hustled out, screaming and crying, some of them naked. When a bystander called on those brutal agents to think of the children, one said “F..k them kids.” That’s what ICE has become. That’s who joins it. And that's not all.

Why those tactics? Why not secure exits and knock on doors? Because it’s about brutality for its own sake and unchecked power. It’s about testing outrage, of which there’s been only some, and only from Democrats. Trump’s fascistic suppression is met with silence from the right. Which means they’re so deep into curated hatred and fear that cruelty is satisfying. They welcome dictatorship because of who they think will be hurt by it and who they think, wrongly, won’t. Stephen Miller, evil incarnate, was caught considering sending the 82nd Airborne into Portland. Paratroopers. Into an American city. Against Americans. Aimed at one group, it’s terroristic. At the other, masturbatory. It’s sickening.

If the Chicago obscenity didn’t cause Republicans in Congress or members of rightwing media to speak out in revulsion, it’s likely too late. It didn’t. So it probably is. Acceptance of Trump’s lawlessness and inhumanity isn’t just cowardice, of which there’s plenty. It’s adoration. It’s what he has unmade of the United States. It’s how Kristallnacht happened. We’re almost there. 

Trump spoke to U.S. Navy sailors in San Diego last weekend: “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats. They want to give all of our money to illegal aliens...” On his Truthless Sociopathic, he referred to Democrats as “the party of hate, evil, and Satan.” And he posted this dark vision of himself. Dictators thrive on hate for the “other.” But, say MAGAs, Trump LOVES America. Our half, anyway, and that’s all that matters. (He doesn’t. It isn’t.)

Since Trump announced his third run, his plans have been clear. After nine months, they’re undeniable: established law means nothing, nor do the courts. He wants absolute power and is taking more every day. That’s not hyperbole, it’s not hate. It’s observable fact. So voters have a defining choice: vote Republican, admit you welcome dictatorship and trust it’ll always be others in Stephen Miller’s and Russell Vought’s crosshairs; or vote for Democrats, even if you’re uncomfortable with same-sex marriage and vaccinations and love canceling 94 million pounds of food for food banks, because you think democracy is worth saving and anyway you’re not gay or sick or hungry.

We’ve come to the inevitable fork in the road. If you rationalize what’s happening in Chicago, if you keep voting Republican, you’re trading constitutional democracy for autocracy. It’s that simple. You can no longer pretend otherwise.

Am I angry? Damn right I am.

The Proverbial Firehose

Addressing the entire daily gusher of Trumpism's willful ignorance and authoritarian madness is impossible. Where to start?

As a doc, here: The only scientifically sound way to study the effects and efficacy of any pharmaceutical is a placebo-controlled, prospective, double-blind study, wherein control and treatment groups are matched for factors other than the medium under study, and in which neither the subjects nor the investigators know who’s taking what until it’s over. Drawing retrospective conclusions from pre-existing, uncontrolled data isn’t.

RFK, Jr, who’s ignorant of science and appoints only people who reject it, promised he’d discover the cause of autism by September. Having no ability to conduct a proper investigation, nor time enough and judgment, he unearthed a publication that aggregated prior Tylenol studies. That it challenged Trump’s ability to pronounce its generic name was likely unintentional. 

The association between acetaminophen and neuro-developmental disorders, of which autism is one, was thin at best, and the authors so stated. Some of the included reports showed none at all. Nevertheless, desperate to have something, anything, by his promised deadline, Bobby regurgitated it, undigested. Lacking comprehension but not self-regard, Trump bought it like bitcoin. Since then, his Truthless Antisocial posts, reminiscent of his bleach, light, ivermectin, and hydroxychloroquine cures for Covid, esteemed physician that he is, have multiplied the recklessness. If it weren’t so dangerous, it’d be laughable. 

With time running out, after years claiming vaccines are culpable, RFKJ, or the worm in his brain, grabbed whatever was handy. Curiously, before this clock-stopping breakthrough, he’d cut millions in funding for autism research. The last thing he wants is proof he was wrong. 

More could be said, but there are other pressing matters.

Remember when America’s assiduous guardians of democracy, U.S. Reps James Comer and Jim Jordan, were rooting out “government weaponization” by President Joe Biden? When, after years of made-for-Fox shoutings (once known as hearings) they came up with nothing? Now, when Trump’s weaponization is as obvious as the bronzer border on his face, the silence from those justice warriors resounds throughout our democracy, the demise of which they’re pursuing with Trumpophilic zeal. 

Blind to historical echoes and current implications, the Make America Gruesome crowd will cheer whatever Trump does. To everyone else, forcing the indictment of James Comey through the compliant hands of Pam Bondi should be recognized as step 999 on the journey of a thousand toward dictatorship. Also his pledge to go after others on his enemies list, including former Democratic presidents. His plan to redefine protest and disagreement, constitutionally protected in times past, as domestic terrorism takes it far past the line. The goal is to eliminate all forms of opposition, on the thinnest of pretenses. It ought to illicit revulsion in every thoughtful American. Among the FoxoMAGAfied, it’s received worshipfully.

The dire ramifications can’t be overstated. Absent pushback from conservatives-in-hiding, it could be the end. “The land of the free and the home of the brave,” indeed.

When Trump-appointed prosecutor Erik Seibert found no grounds to indict Comey and resigned instead, Trump chose a yes-woman with no prosecutorial experience who did as ordered, despite being advised against it by other DOJ prosecutors. Corruption? Weaponization? With Republican-controlled Congress and six-ninths of the Supreme Court scrambled-egging him on, he needn’t hide it. He just threatened federal funds to NYC if its citizens elect a particular mayoral candidate. Holy Mike Johnson refuses to seat a newly-elected Democratic representative who’d be the determinative vote to release the Epstein files. Respect for democracy and elections? Not in MAGAmerica.

Been to Portland lately? Our son and his family live there, happy and unafraid. To justify another military invasion, Trump called it “war-ravaged,” which, even when those few downtown blocks saw not-peaceful protests, it never was. Today, that’s as far from the truth as Trump always is. Local responses have been pure Portlandia, but it’s no joke. More than Trump’s election lies, this unwarranted show of military force augurs the end of freedom, and not just in blue states. His hunger for power is borderless. His aim is intimidation, leading to subjugation everywhere. Does anyone still wonder how it happened in 1930s Germany?

The master plan has been employed by dictators since history began. If Trump is ill-equipped to have studied it, the people truly in control, Project 2025’s Stephen Miller and Russell Vought, know it by cold-blooded heart. They’ve been grooming him as their figurehead since before he rode that escalator down. And downer. 

Before the election, Trump made his anti-democracy intentions unmistakable. MAGA elected him because of it. The only surprise is how quickly American institutions, including media and universities, law firms, and congressional and red state Republicans flecked their genues. Do those hoary final words of the National Anthem still apply?

Will military leaders cave, too? After the embarrassment they were subjected to at Quantico by an obviously unfit Commander in Chief and a preening, peacocking “War” Secretary, maybe not. We can only hope.