Author: BC

Seems in every high school class there is the one guy and girl who rise above the needless parameters idiotic cliques impose. Since I wasn’t yet much on fully interacting with girls back then, I’ll limit my observation to Churchill 78’s baddest dude. His name was Lester and he was something to behold. Blond and Adonis-like, but with a slight scar on his face that only added credibility, he moved with confidence through the halls and meeting areas, fully comfortable in his own genetically blessed skin.

It was impossible to label him. He was way too athletically gifted and involved to be a stoner, even though few appreciated Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull or not inhaling more. And while he was one of the track team’s fastest runners, and may still hold a record or two at his swim club, nobody bemoaned him as some oafish jock. Although he sometimes joined us chronic truants at the house of somebody’s working mom, more of a rarity back then, I always enviously assumed his academic performance was more than adequate.

What Lester effortlessly demonstrated back when Carter was President is the priceless freedom self-assurance provides, the blessings of the road less traveled. He moved free from inane narratives about who was and wasn’t worth befriending, who could or couldn’t elevate your stature, who had or didn’t have something worth offering.

He liked to run, so he ran, and enjoyed the friendship of other runners. He loved rock and roll and partying, so he counted all of us as amigos. He saw girls as fellow humans rather than startling enigmas or prey grazing on hormonal hunting grounds, so he enjoyed their company. It was all so easy for him because it came so natural; nothing was overthought, no pretense entertained. If it felt right he did it, free of any taint pre-judgement could impose.

For those of us bound by adolescent insecurities and the failure ghosts they conjured, Lester was viewed as, say Ted Williams, on a different playing field we weren’t qualified for. When I was in his company I felt fortunate and paid attention. He had a way of casually admonishing inanity with a sarcastic chuckle as he intoned your last name with a hint of dismissiveness; it was all that was required. He hailed from one of those families everybody knew, each of his siblings both receiving and getting respect for their loyalty to the other. If his older brother was intimidating and a bit aloof, his younger brother was easy to talk to and great to hang around with; each was their own person, but proud to be part of a set.

After graduation I believe he and a good buddy hitchhiked across the country, a saga fully in line with his gigantic persona. While my opportunities to hang with him during my 20s and early 30s were spotty, they were always rewarding. He never became rich and famous, instead settling down and raising a family like most of us. Yet and still, the natural awe and respect for him I always felt never substantially waned, and enjoying his company was always a privilege.

Today is his 60th birthday and I was honored with an invitation. No doubt the party will reflect his life, attended by folks who feel as I do about the good fortune of counting him as a friend. His wife is wonderful, his 20-something kids are as attractive and refreshingly genuine as he was at their age. Years pass, but the song usually remains the same. Who we become generally owes to who we were. In this case that’s an indisputably good thing.

I’m fairly certain most of us have occasional fantasies of what we would do differently if somehow permitted to revisit our formative years. Who doesn’t ponder the senseless counter-productiveness of youth with an eye toward solutions impossible revisionism can provide? Speaking for myself, the answers are never very hard and always take me back to the same proposition…. I would have been more like Lester. BC

The rivalries of the various Eastern European peoples go back centuries upon centuries. To adequately understand why Hungary now has testy relations with Ukraine would, at minimum require returning to before WWI and the days of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Ten to twelve paragraphs will not get that job done. Suffice it to say that a sizable minority of ethnic Hungarians – more than 150,000 – reside within Ukraine. Many have pursued duel citizenship even though it violates Ukrainian law. Their native tongue is Hungarian, which they insist their children should be permitted to be taught in, lest they lose the foundations of their ethnic identity. Such sensitivities and other cross-border issues make for tensions ripe to be manipulated in service to nationalist political agendas.

From his arrival on the international scene with nothing but, first handlers futilely trying to keep his worst under wraps, then the guff that came when he was eventually left to his own devices, Trump has offered seasoned strong men around the globe a soft target to take full advantage of. Enamored by the imagery of world leaders coming to DC to pay him homage, Trump’s objectives for face-to-faces with a plethora of previously persona non gratas have seemed little more than photo ops designed to simply propagate the idea he was actually doing something. Intentions on the other side have been a bit more focused and most often yielded desired results, none more than Hungarian aims toward Ukraine.

Within the loathsome history of The Holocaust perhaps no subplot stirs anger in one’s soul more than the destruction of Hungary’s Jews. By mid-1944, with Germany’s fate sealed by its defeat in Stalingrad, Hungary’s government decided that maybe it had backed the wrong horse when it fell in with the Axis powers and sought distance from the alliance. Hitler wasn’t having it and invaded Hungary to ensure its obedience. Within just several months Hungary’s Jewish population was annihilated with the methodical efficiency Adolph Eichmann would later be hunted worldwide for. More than 550,000 perished in an operation that had no chance of succeeding without the full servility of the native infrastructure. An indelible stain on the country.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is as experienced and savvy a European politician as one will find. Since his election in 2010, he has also near fully transformed into an autocrat with ever lessening tolerance for constitutional restraints and a burgeoning docket of corruption allegations. Perhaps more odious has been Orban’s “double game” of pursuing close ties with Israel’s Netanyahu even as he plays to a burgeoning bloc of right-wing anti-semites, going so far as to openly question history’s emphatic verdict of Hungary’s Holocaust complicity. In short, just the type of “great friend” Trump wants at a podium several feet away while he tells most Americans how awful they are.

When adults were still allowed into the West Wing, no effort was spared to make certain Orbán would never get near the White House. All understood nothing good could come of it. But as McMaster and Mattis and most any other counselor with the national interest in mind ran for their lives – or at least reputations – the Pompeos and Millers and Mulvaneys took charge of Trump’s itinerary…. and Orbán suited them just fine. By May of this year he received the coveted invite, and proceeded to DC with a focused agenda pertaining to the discrediting of Ukraine’s incoming government.

It’s a mystery why anyone would be shocked that Trump would embrace any or all nonsensically dangerous conspiracy theories for explaining events he has never mustered the ambition to study factual sources about. After all, during the 2016 campaign he held the sinister Alex Jones close, and was never shy of, say, baselessly accusing a primary opponent’s father of helping to kill JFK, or giving comfort to any and all internet fever dreams about the Clintons.

How does this impact foreign policy, in Ukraine for example? Start with a base of macro-assumptions such as NATO allies are moochers, always looking to duck their fair share, and the image of immigrant hordes storming civilization as hapless libs do nothing. Throw in a phone call with Putin, who relentlessly pounds the narrative of Ukraine as an ultra- corrupt failed state. Add to that whatever wild rumors or quarter-truths an Iago-like lackey, say a Guiliani or Miller, may hiss into his ear, and voila!…. our current decision-making process.

Last May, as Viktor Orbán made his way for his photo-op, this was the chaotic prism Trump was looking through. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a foreign service stalwart, was already targeted for termination for not sufficiently resembling US Ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein, a former jeweler and virulent Trumpie, who enthusiastically coddled Orban even as he moved steadily toward authoritarianism. Conversely, Yovanovitch had relentlessly pressured Ukraine’s chief prosecutor to address the corruption that had become endemic before reformist Volodymyr Zelensky swept into office.

Since 2017 Orban had intensified efforts to make Ukraine a straw man for his ultra-nationalism, railing at a mandate ethnic Hungarian middle and high school kids in Ukraine – Ukrainian citizens – be taught exclusively in the native tongue. Hungary aggressively opposed Ukrainian membership in NATO, and was accused of promoting illegal duel citizenships for ethnic Hungarians within Ukraine. On most all things Ukraine, Orban moved in lockstep with Putin, which was surely conveyed when he sat down with our feckless anti-statesman.

So it now appears last May the President, ever resistant to any sort of “deep state” policy briefings that reflected established US policy and common US-European interests, near solely relied on, first a lengthy telephone call with Putin, and then a White House meeting with Orban to fully poison his view of Ukraine and it’s resistance to Russian incursions. Meanwhile, America had already, with full bi-partisan Capitol Hill support, pledged more than $400 million in military aid to assist Ukraine’s fight against Russian hegemony. Although it seems clear neither of the autocrats suggested relegating Ukraine to merely a platform in service to Trump’s vile domestic political schemes, they succeeded in fully discrediting the country and its cause, convincing their vapid audience to view providing any US resources as far from the done deal everyone else in his government assumed it was. The sad sack plot to transform the aid package into a quid pro quo for extortion soon followed.

What’s so stunning about Trump’s disgusting odyssey with Ukraine, which has ended up in a basement House hearing room, a procession of witnesses fully connecting the dots of impeachable idiocy, is the certainty its far more rule than aberration. Autocrats everywhere, from China to North Korea, Poland to Russia, Turkey to Egypt understand orange chum is in the water. America is there for the fleecing, get in front of Trump while you can…… Another shade of ruin. BC

The most shocking epiphany Trumpism has foisted is the ease with which American politics, media, law enforcement and citizenry have digested a now near daily menu of unprecedented outrages. Anybody predicting back in January, 2017 that Trump would brazenly steer the premiere conference for Western allies to one of his resorts, and then cart out his chief-of-staff to flip off reporters and assure them taxpayers, who will foot much of the event’s bill, were not privy to the selection process, would have surely been labeled an alarmist.

Ditto for the surreality of the same servile minion admonishing the press to “get over” it’s interest in a quid pro quo for extorting a foreign government to screw with a Trump political opponent that the lackey was in the process of admitting to. Mindless authoritarianism requires the hits to just keep coming, and we’re doing our best to keep integrating them into lifestyles still attuned to the pre-2016 luxury that our politics can be categorized from our daily routine. As our mad king does his worst, most simply now rely on Decision 2020 to deliver us, even as more than a few mutter it’s the Democrats we really have to worry about, at least Trump’s a capitalist.

The canvas of the US electorate has never been more discouraging. As Democrats argue over plans for everything from tax policy to health care to gun control, one seems to always come back to the disclaimer “what does it really matter?!” Whatever merits or liabilities reside in any particular plan, the sad fact is there are precious few left whose vote next November actually rides on any distinctions. Abiding this conclusion makes the other night’s Democratic debate seem futile, almost an exercise in collective delusion. It also makes candidates concerned about dotting policy i’s and t’s appear petty and needlessly combative. After all, the menace we face is nihilist populism; the bar is very low for demonstrating wonkish bona fides.

Thirty-five years ago GOP god Ronald Reagan was clear as he could be that assault weapons belonged only on the battlefield. Now the Republican Party will crucify any of its own for the suggestion such guns even deserve additional scrutiny, or modifications to make them even more lethal may need to be prohibited. Do what you will with that information, but it strikes me anyone all in with that proposition isn’t voting for anybody on the stage last week. Moreover, it’s doubtful they are very receptive to any details of a buyback program, which is more for reassurance there will be some carrot with the stick than any step-by-step blueprint.

Yet there was Mayor Pete disdaining Beto O’Rourke’s plan to insist on gun sanity with jabs that the plan isn’t fully thought through. Does anyone believe the people who own these weapons care about the details right now, or are they simply ready to burn Beto in effigy for proposing it. In other words, at present it’s the balls that count, not the cerebral specifics. Following one mass killing after another the real issue is will one party demand we return our national sensibilities to what even the Gipper was glad to embrace. No program for doing it is going to be pretty because most of the people it effects are ugly on the issue. And they will surely get uglier regardless of details. Dismissing the moxie to insist on it says, at least to me, more about trying to gain traction with debate points than a focus on the crisis at hand.

Democrats make a needless mistake by failing to distinguish positions that reflect the existential battle against Trumpist nihilism and those where intelligent people can reasonably disagree. Culture war issues for the most part reflect what was either settled before 2016 or should be finally settled after it. Banning assault weapons, gay rights, abortion law, voting rights, climate change awareness and other environmental safeguards, the assumption arbitrary tariff regimes are economic liabilities, all of these areas were under an umbrella of national consensus before 2016, reflecting the fruits of American progress we attained through often painful trial and error.

That Fox/AM retrograde madness has assaulted such hard-earned lessons, should be labeled what it has been, a destructive aberration, going into next November. In other words, you think Climate Change is a hoax, that’s your problem, we’ll trust science and our own eyes; there is no discussion here, we’re going to get back on track. Now, is there really any chance a voter who wants to make that conflict the crucible of their decision going to vote Democrat under any circumstance? Of course not. Getting rid of assault weapons should be like the sun comes up in the east as far as the Democratic platform is concerned. Why pick a fight about details more than a year out? Thoughtful gun owners will draw a distinction, radicalized dittoheads won’t.

Conversely, arguments concerning health care or tax policy or higher education assistance should follow a different path. Details matter. We’ve seen before exactly how public fear and uncertainty can weaponize GOP messaging which now knows no restraint when it comes to the slimmest obligation to fact. Debating big approaches to policy and their execution is prudent, although one minute debate snippets are not exactly explanation-friendly.

Yet and still, whatever the time restraints, any discussion of Democratic ambitions must be tied at the hip with Trump’s wretched record on the matter. Constantly, relentlessly. Democrats suffer for intelligence in the messaging wars. The GOP has long known repetition is the key, boredom be damned. And while it’s true a smarter audience may demand more variety, the same thing can be pressed in different ways.

Whether it’s Medicare For All (MFA), a more relaxed hybrid or simply fixing Obama Care, the alternative is Trump’s nihilist policy of trying to wipe out all progress that has been made with nothing else on offer. Talking about one without assailing the other lets failure off the hook. If you are self-employed another Trump term will end your coverage., that simple. Tax policy? Well after Trump has needlessly blown up the debt during full employment with a near $2 billion giveaway to the upper brackets, here’s a plan to restore some sanity and economic equilibrium. One 30 seconds must always either proceed or follow the other 30 seconds of the answer. Every time. Without fail.

It’s inconceivable the coming Presidential election should be anything but a referendum on Trump’s disastrous first term. By next November his re-election should be a horrid specter to anyone other than his wretched core, who any effective campaign will do its best to identify and segregate; they are lost to us. More than a few worry making MFA a campaign centerpiece could scare undecideds into voting Trump for fear of losing their private health coverage. While I won’t dismiss such a concern, supporting MFA in itself won’t result in a Trump win. Only embracing a “horse race” strategy that fecklessly assumes the onus is on Democrats to “win the battle of ideas” and then offering policy seminars as campaign speeches instead of taking dead aim at our current pestilence will snatch defeat from victory.

This isn’t going to be Jimmy Carter futilely attempting to paint Reagan as the end of days in 80’. This is whether a Democrat will be determined and insistent enough to force undecideds to look past the unemployment rate and Dow to admit what most understand…. it has been four years of the perilously abnormal and four more years will only bring worse. The President at all times wants to be the centerpiece issue; next November is one time he should be. Trump’s term in office has been one vile outrage diluted by the next, creating a web of chaotic confusion. His effort to get re-elected must become a reckoning, a public education of how harmful he and the GOP have been, if for no other reason than we can be sure of where things stand the first Wednesday morning next November. If Trump is gone, it should be a mandate for never again. If he isn’t we’ll be certain what Americans want, or don’t want, and decide accordingly on how to proceed. BC

In 2005, when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals, the owner of the company I worked for, ever the marketer searching for fresh signage opportunities, became one of the franchise’s first sponsors. Back then the line was not long for companies eager to jump onto the team’s bandwagon and the price was certainly right. Moreover the partnership came with perks, and as one of our sales staff’s bigger hitters, I was able to partake in most of them.

At the time Major League Baseball owned the team. With no new ownership group yet on the horizon, the Nats’ marketing and sales department was working on a shoestring budget that year. They focused much of their efforts on making sure those who had taken the leap of faith and signed on received access to the very basic menu of goodies they had to offer. Early in the season they flew my boss and I down to Atlanta for a game against the Braves. I don’t believe we were put up in the Ritz, but the downtown hotel was more than plush. Even better was a round of golf we were treated to at a local club.

However, best of all came that evening at the game when, dining from a nice buffet in the Turner Field VIP area, Henry Aaron ambled over to our table to shake hands. I felt weak in the knees as I rose to try and make intelligent conversation with the game’s greatest living legend! As he smiled and reached his elegant hand out to me, the best I could do was “Mr. Aaron, Ernie Banks will always be my number 1 but I God you’re a very close number 2!” He smiled graciously and said simply “Ernie is a good friend. You must be from Chicago.” I started to say yes I was and saw him get no-hit by Ken Holtzman but he was already pivoting to someone else. It was more than enough.

The spring of 2005 was a great sports period for me. Tiger won his fourth green jacket at Augusta, finally beating pesky and unheralded Chris DeMarco on the first hole of sudden death; I had 50-1 winner Giacomo in the Kentucky Derby (although I only got 28-1 when I bet my $80 on him in an early March future pool and favorite Afleet Alex getting necked out of second by 70-1 Closing Argument cost me a multi-thousand exacta payoff); and I could enjoy near any Nats home game from box seats about 12 rows up from home plate. Winning or losing was beside the point. Like glorious Redskin games from years past, Metro dropped you off a stone’s throw from RFK; the whole experience couldn’t have been easier.

So, after more than a decade of devout fantasy baseball participation and the calculated cynicism it engendered, I once again became a genuine fan. It was the Nats or bust for me… emphasis often on bust. Indeed the 2005 Nats were a team only a real partisan could love, frustratingly uneven, offering hope and futility in even doses. Like most expansion franchises, the lineup was a hodgepodge of journeymen and diminished stars, rookies and cast offs existing on the margins. Yet and still, there was one name in the team’s game guide that stood out above all others, granting enduring credibility follies on the field could not tarnish….. Manager Frank Robinson.

Class can’t be faked; it can be earned, but often is simply a trait people either possess or are bereft of….. you know it when in its presence. With Frank Robinson it stemmed from both avenues. When speaking of baseball royalty there is usually a two camps approach. There is the old school – i.e Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig, Wagner, Johnson et al – and there is the “modern” game elites, who begin with DiMaggio and progress through Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Koufax, Gibson …. and of course Frank Robinson.

When Robinson retired his 586 home runs trailed only Aaron, Ruth and Mays; could it possibly get more elite than that? He won MVPs in both leagues, the result of the worst trade in sports history…. the Baltimore Orioles sent Milt Pappas to the Cincinnati Reds for their best player, who front office idiots figured was over-the-hill at 31! Robinson showed just how feeble he was, carrying the Orioles on his back to the 66’ World Championship over Koufax and Drysdale’s LA Dodgers.

Of course, by 2005 Robinson had long ago broken historic ground by becoming Baseball’s first black manager when he took over the Cleveland Indians as player-manager in 1975. Thirty years later, his career now squarely in the rear-view, he would slog through the Nats’ first season in DC along with the rest of us, generously granting his experience and wisdom to an enterprise often within the throes of futility, but showing gleams of promise. Whether it was calmly taking somebody to task for shoddy fielding or getting tossed for arguing an umpire decision on the base paths, offering lessons to rookie Ryan Zimmerman, who had Cal Ripken potential written all over him, or mercilessly giving a starter the early hook after being roughed up, “Robby” was the grizzled face of a team hoping for a future, even as it often stunk up the joint in the present.

Incredibly, at season’s end, the Nats stood at a respectable 81-81, .500 ball from a big bunch of nothing much! And all played out in a venue that wasn’t simply dying, it had already passed on and was now resurrected. Even so, stale hot dog buns and nasty restrooms only accentuated things to my eyes. The 2006 season was a struggle for the team as its roster limitations had their say, but also saw the emergence of a well heeled new ownership group, who showed their gratitude to my company by choosing an industry competitor at our expense for a new sponsorship deal, and their regard to Robinson by promptly firing him as manager. As I said before, you know class, or lack of it, when you see it. By the time Nationals Park opened in 2008, my privileged access to games and the club was history.

I reminisced about that wonderful first season last night watching today’s incarnation wipe their now pristine field with the Cardinals to take a 3-0 lead in the NLCS. Despite a recent history of choking up playoff advancement, there is zero chance this squad isn’t going to the World Series, the first in DC since Franklin Roosevelt was President. Only Ryan Zimmerman remains from the 2005 roster; and while the Hall of Fame will never mistake him for Cal, he has remained the face of the franchise while providing solidly consistent production and leadership.

Meanwhile, even though the great man passed in February, if and when the Nats attain championship glory, Frank Robinson must be one of the first names mentioned when thanking those responsible. Nobody deserves this franchise’s gratitude more than its first skipper, who defined what baseball excellence is and added the luster a struggling new team required to succeed. Washington may have been his last stop, but to him, and us, it was as important as the rest of them. He earned what he is owed. BC

The surging candidacy of Elizabeth Warren seems destined to become a referendum within the Democratic Party on whether to bet the house on the brightest, most adept candidate or play it safe and placate “conservative” – read white – men, who may be put off by her bossy irreverence toward regressive inclinations. The issue goes further than whether or not it is even worth the effort to solicit what was once the prize of national campaigns, or accept most are lost to Trumpist grievance and resentment. Now there is also some talk of Warren softening her edges so as not to “insult” or “needlessly incite” the goateed Ward Cleavers with paunches, lest it create a blowback that impacts other electoral tributaries like their wives perhaps. In other words, do your best not to bring out their worst. Why provoke them?

Exhibit A was an LGBTQ town hall CNN hosted Thursday, where Warren demonstrated why she has gained traction. Asked how she would respond to a voter who declared their strong belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, Warren was top notch, summoning her inner Molly Irvins. After asserting she’d assume it was a man she was dealing with, she flat-toned “I’m going to say… then just marry one woman. I’m cool with that.” Then, with perfect timing, she added: “…Assuming you can find one.”

At 70, Warren seems impossibly well preserved. Next to Biden and Sanders she looks to be a very attractive 50-something. And while age has an insidious way of dulling charisma, Warren showed Thursday that’s not a problem for her. Anybody who has watched her dismantle a petulant CEO in the hearing room appreciates her bona fides as a crusader for those without, or barely enough, or even with enough but doubtful the rules favor their interests. Ironically, it is Warren who suffers most as Trump impeachment takes center stage with Joe Biden an attached subplot, albeit with baggage to explain. As our President will be the first to tell you, even as he denounces “Pocahontas” at his rallies…. if you’re not part of the story, who are you?

Yet and still, it’s a marathon, and so far all Bernie has to show for his efforts is a new stent. Likewise, Biden has not been a world shaker. Dipping poll numbers and a son with no problem cashing in on connections in a very swampy way does not a winning campaign make. Meanwhile, Warren is thriving, gaining ground by the week where it counts, Iowa, New Hampshire, even down south. She is now the assumed heir to Bernie’s bloc, fully acceptable to their exacting anti-corporatism. It seems now only a question of when he will turn his holdings over. At that point, 25% becomes over 40 plus and that should get it done. But then what? What should Warren emerge as the nominee with to sell? And who are the qualified prospects she should be going after assuming Trump remains the nemesis?

The “horse race” crowd weighed in Friday to wonder aloud whether too much Warren is necessarily a good thing. Apparently, she needs to beware appearing too high and mighty. “It’s about telling people that don’t agree with you that they are backward,” warned one Democratic strategist. Her quip Thursday wasn’t so much evidence of her razor sharpness, but instead “a battle cry for men to turn out against Elizabeth Warren.” Better to finesse her response and adeptly ride the rail between what’s right (and the law!) and troglodyte sensitivities that may actually come around in November; but even if they don’t, why get them riled up? Honestly, with advice like that, who needs enemies!

What would be a more measured response? “Yes sir, I share your concern about the sacredness of the institution of marriage and understand your impulse to be selective as to who may enjoy its many blessings. However, perhaps we should expand our perception to possibly allow other more unconventional relationships to be sanctified. What do you say?” Newsflash… those obsessed with excluding gay couples from marriage are now devout Trumpies, far more inclined to yelling “Pocahontas!” and flipping Warren the bird than beseeching her to bless their bigotry.

Culture war nonsense is the flyover sweet spot. Warren isn’t winning Oklahoma no matter how well she behaves for misogyny-addled creationists. Ceding them the credibility of a voting bloc worth anything other than a good punchline is exactly how you turn genuine articles into fakes. Who could forget when the man entrusted to rid us of W, the guy who made his bones protesting senseless militarism, bounded up to the mic to accept his nomination with a ridiculous salute followed by “John Kerry reporting for duty!” There was a candidate only a Democratic strategist could love.

Plenty in the Warren bag of goods needs to be tightened up for next year, most prominently her penchant to come up with costly fixes for everything wrong with America. Campaigns are about establishing priorities and she needs to trim down hers. Moreover, she will need to move from bashing CEOs and corporate greed to calmly schooling voters on how dramatic reform will help everyone’s bottom line.

But most important to her general election candidacy will be Warren’s embodiment of how much better the US can do than what our shirked responsibility produced in 2016. A big part of that is being herself… sharp, dynamic, poised and empathetic…. always the smartest person in the room and never afraid to speak her truth. That includes telling white knuckle draggers they can come along or be left behind, but the ship will leave without them. If they want to use the Bible to pick on those simply trying to make their way in this world with the same milestones to look forward to as the rest of us, they will only marginalize themselves. Four years of going backward is way too long! BC

George Kennan, perhaps America’s greatest diplomat, was fond of saying why people were doing something concerned him less than how they were doing it. Within the tactful arena of old world diplomacy in which Kennan was schooled and operated, less was usually more, and if more was being offered that meant it was prudent to pay particularly close attention. Bluster and careless rants were the dead giveaway a rank amateur was in the house. Words mattered because they were employed with thoughtful purpose. A country whose emissaries were reckless with their language could hardly be relied upon as an ally, and was surely demonstrating weakness as an adversary.

American government is structured to give the Executive Branch wide latitude in representing our positions to the world. Time and again the Supreme Court has dismissed challenges to the President’s role as “the sole organ of American foreign policy.” Of course this is wise, both from a common sense stand point as well as operational necessity. Who else is going to do it? Senators, who foremost answer to the narrow parochial needs of their states? No, micromanaging foreign policy was never a role the founders intended for Congress. They could impose their collective will as a function of approving or rejecting specific funding requests, but as far as US messaging to the world is concerned, the buck stops with the President, who is supposed to lean on the professionals.

This established practice makes Secretary of State a preeminent cabinet position. Whoever oversees Foggy Bottom must enjoy, not only the President’s full confidence, but also complete access to decision making. After all, if foreign countries aren’t confident America’s chief messenger speaks for the White House, how can the message have any resonance? Indeed, it would seem a no brainer that any serious Secretary of State would be adamant such confidence that he/she is fully in the policy loop is essential, and anything less wholly unacceptable…. grounds for resignation.

All of which brings us yet again to current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, burdened with the debilitating onus of translating a sociopath’s rabid tweets for horrified foreign leaders attempting to make sense of dangerous gibberish. Yet and still, anybody bent toward empathizing with Pompeo should resist the urge and first examine the record….. it is ugly and getting uglier, a cautionary tale about servility’s circular trail of tears for those without the integrity to refuse its obligations.

Before her appointment as Ambassador to Ukraine in May, 2016, Marie Yovanovitch had enjoyed what could be termed a brilliant career in the US foreign service. A graduate of Princeton, Yovanovitch was first posted in Ottawa. Assignments in Moscow, London and Mogadishu followed before she was tapped in 1998 for the prestigious slot of Deputy Director of the Russian Desk at State. In August of 2001 she became the Deputy Chief of Mission in Ukraine, and by August 2004 the Bush team thought enough of her to make Yovanovitch senior advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Safe to say, by the time she was appointed as Ukraine’s Ambassador by Obama, Yovanovitch was widely respected as the consummate foreign service professional she had become.

In Ukraine the prevailing issue was corruption, and the US Embassy worked closely with point man VP Joe Biden to make certain demands by both the US and NATO allies that the overt corruption of the country’s recently deposed previous leadership be addressed and rigid new standards be established were heard loud and clear. The US was approving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid for resisting Russian hegemony and it wanted guarantees its investment would not evaporate through rampant graft.

As the Obama era ended and Trump took office, progress had been made in Ukraine to create a judicial system with the teeth necessary to respond to government corruption and discourage its practice. By all accounts, Yovanovitch was aggressive in her efforts to push reform, enough so that she made an enemy of then prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko. Rudy Guiliani would later press Lutsenko to, not only discredit Mueller’s work, but also dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s son, Hunter and his relationship with Barisma, a Ukrainian energy company; this after the prosecutor had declared no impropriety had been uncovered.

From the start Trump was wary of government careerists, eventually lumping most into the “deep state” he maintained was ever out to get him. As he became more fixated on Ukraine as an epicenter of his persecution because of the prosecution of Paul Manafort, who had cashed in for plenty when it’s government was a cesspool, the President railed at the professionals within the US Embassy. His developing agenda to use Ukrainian sources to discredit the Mueller report was never going to fly with straight shooters like Yovanovitch; so he wanted her gone.

It is unclear exactly when Trump made his first demand that Yovanovitch be recalled, and it is equally unclear to what degree Pompeo, or perhaps his own staff, may have ignored the President’s initial impulses. After all, it had become common place for Administration officials to simply ignore unhinged West Wing edicts with the hope Trump would forget the whole thing. But regardless of when Yovanovitch first came into Trump’s crosshairs, as his obsession with putting the elbow on Ukraine’s leadership to do his dirty work grew, there was no doubt her days as ambassador were numbered. The central question became to what degree if any Pompeo had her back.

He didn’t. By May of this year, after a campaign of unsubstantiated innuendo that she was disloyal to the President and had actually been bad mouthing him abroad, which nobody within the State Department career ranks gave any credence to, Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled. On his now famous call July 25 to pressure incoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump hissed that Yovanovitch was “bad news” and ominously assured she “would be going through some things.” At no time has Pompeo offered any public words of support for his employee. In fact, it’s come to light that, prior to Yovanovitch’s recall, Guiliani presented Pompeo with a report outlining outrageous charges that included she was in league with George Soros, but most shrilly whining that Yovanovitch was not adequately pressing the case to look into Hunter Biden. The math from that revelation is not difficult to perform.

The best we can now say about our Secretary of State is he leaves those he pledged to protect flapping in the wind, laid bare to the disgusting intrigues of Trump and his “personal lawyer.” The worst we can say is he takes an active role in development and pursuit of such schemes. Pathetically weak and fully out of the loop or wretchedly corrupt and an accomplice to purges against his own people? Pick your poison. When he replaced indifferent Rex Tillerson, a demoralized foreign service hoped Pompeo would live up to his job’s vivid history and the standards for autonomy it had set. Instead he has ushered in a new nadir for a critical American institution…. just another fitting footnote to the ruin Trumpism has produced. BC

Near the end of Ken Burns’ epic documentary on the Civil War there is a scene which catches the viewer by surprise and produces a torrent of emotion. After hours of storytelling illustrated only by pictures and interviews with commentators, suddenly there is some actual grainy video footage taken at a reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg many years later. Re-enacting Pickett’s Charge, a group of ancient grey-bearded men resemble kids playing in a field, enjoying the horrible glory their hatred for each other created. Now, many decades later they shared a bond only those with a personal knowledge of life’s most desperate moments can understand. The “charge” lasts only a couple minutes as exhausted old foes collapse into each other with hugs and affection. An indelible image for the ages.

One would prefer to believe southern survivors of a reckless battle strategy, educated by the wisdom staying alive teaches, fully comprehended the common humanity their collective exposure to war’s trials forced upon them, strong enough to consume what in retrospect they could view as self-destructive resentments. Yet and still, the tug of war’s glory, and the salve time applies to both emotional and physical wounds, makes it uncertain how they would respond to the simple question of “was it really worth it?” Most rebels had no skin in the game for slavery, in fact, the southern slave economy created a skewed labor structure that surely cost hard working whites income; after all, how can you compete against free? But at the end of the day, the grotesque adage “if you ain’t better than a n*****, who are you better than” subsumed logic and fed sedition, nobody was going to tell them who to treat as a fellow human being.

Fact is, despite the hindsight a lifetime of living provided, the rhetoric responsible for the conflict impacts history’s assessment of it and often furthers an impotent judgement, even for those most directly affected. Union men fought to preserve the nation secession imperiled. Rebs fought to preserve a way of life the North was intent on destroying. What choice did either have? Forget that industrialization was going to end slavery anyway, or that Republicans were only adamant about preventing its spread to western territories, and Lincoln was prepared to do most anything necessary to placate secessionists. Passions rarely bow to facts, and what they produce most often renders why they were stirred meaningless. Once they begin to carry the day, events become increasingly more difficult to control. Spectators were having picnics at the edge of battlefields as the conflict began, by the battle of Cold Harbor, three years later, thousands were dead within half an hour. What most thought would be over within a month or two, morphed into enduring calamity. Wars are like fires; once fed enough, they become impossible to control.

Today in America our President, fully abided by the GOP shaped to his liking, foments civil war without much thought to its consequences. Trump, like secessionists 160 years ago, relies on a victimology narrative to define his own fate as synonymous with that of the nation; he’s a martyr in the making. Should he fall to the tyranny of a deep state coup, all hope will be lost, markets will tumble, immigrant hordes will storm the southern border, and the US will generally collapse into lawless anarchy. Impeachment or even electoral defeat in 2020 equals ruin.

Of course, anybody who wants a good chuckle, before they sob, should read the speeches by various antebellum southern lawmakers intent on secession and compare them to Trump tweets and verbal blusterings. Henry Lewis Benning may have been a racist traitor, but he did at least offer complete sentences:

“ … It follows that there is not within the Union any remedy by which we can escape abolition, and therefore if we wish for a remedy, a remedy we must seek outside the Union. … I say that a separation from the North would be a complete remedy for the disease.”

Today’s nihilist discontents set the bar very low indeed for nourishing their sedition with oratory. Trump’s tweets have trouble even qualifying as legible screeds. It’s a certainty old Jeff Davis wouldn’t allow the Donald onto his doorstep. But make no mistake, Trump delivers the goods on a near hourly basis to unhinged malcontents. Whether it’s libeling Joe Biden or retweeting American Taliban Robert Jeffress’ declaration that impeachment will result in civil war, labeling freshman Democratic congresswomen as Stalinist wannabes or the press as “the enemy of the people,” this President leaves little to the imagination as to what road he’s chosen as impeachment heats up. The only question that appears to still be unanswered is whether America is ready to get the ball rolling. Can we even imagine what civil war would look like?

Adam Kinzinger, an otherwise reliable House GOP Trump appendage from Illinois, knows something of what civil conflict can do to a country. An Air Force pilot with several tours of Iraq to inform him, Kinzinger made clear there is nothing good about it as he took Trump to task for waxing seditious. “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” the veteran asserted, “I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.” It appears Kinzinger’s criticism will have to do as far as GOP lawmakers go, literally nobody else from either chamber had a thing to say about a POTUS fomenting bloodshed.

But what of the good guys in this national dissolution? We can see hourly evidence that Trump and his wretched core are fully radicalized, capable of ruining America’s good thing. What are we willing to abide before our patience has been exhausted and pitchforks look appealing? Four more years of Trump is unfathomable. After W beat John Kerry back in 2004, he smugly held forth on his new mandate. “I’ve got political capital,” Bush declared, “and I plan to use it.” How do we suppose Trump will digest a new term? Like all other nasty people, and he’s the nastiest, the only thing worse than Trump losing is Trump winning. Any other job in the world and our President wouldn’t have lasted a week. Chewing through a $500 million inheritance and President of the United States are the only two positions he’s been capable of keeping, and after three years of his worst, the US may re-sign him. Go figure.

What kind of blows will round two of Trump deliver? Well, millions of undocumented people will rightly fear deportations to countries they are no more familiar with than I am with Ireland. Round ups may very well go into high gear with daily images of cruelty and heartache. Bigotry as legitimate political thought will become the norm. Allies will immediately move to abandon us, no longer willing to wait out our civic madness. Climate Change initiatives will suffer full American opposition. The US will become isolated on all international fronts. The able government careerists who also tried to outlast Trumpism will leave or be purged, precipitating and across-the-board competence crisis here at home. RBG will step down from the Supreme Court, replaced by another young Trumpie. Steven Breyer is not getting any younger; if he were to retire it would be 7-2. Nuff said there. The list is as long as it is horrifying, but the worst thing of all will be an unquestionable desertion of the rule of law Trump’s re-election will consummate. No doubt Trump will be emboldened to ad lib his second Inauguration speech with rally gibberish, but this time there will be no speculation of hopeful “best case scenarios” for his approach to decision making.

The Chuck Todds and Amy Walters of the world enjoy viewing Trumpism as a game, imbuing his constant meltdowns and GOP servility to him as simply one side of Decision 2020’s discussion. Some of us are quite certain this is no game, Trumpism – defined as the all out fight for his rabid political survival and overt corruption – is totalitarian in nature and knows no limits to the means justified to achieving its ends. That’s not alarmist, it’s simply diligent observation. If civil war requires two to tango, it’s now certain one of the partners is ready to boogie. What the rest of us should at least begin to consider is what it will take to get us on the dance floor. BC

“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

HL Mencken

It’s impossible to overstate how dangerous things are for our nation at this moment. And sadly it’s very hard to be optimistic about whether a solution to our predicament is possible. There is no silver bullet available to quell the seditious satisfaction millions derive from a rabidly unhinged President they demand lead them further into the abyss his incompetence and immorality always descends to. However bad he was yesterday won’t be as awful as tomorrow, and tomorrow will always be better than the next day it becomes. Regardless, the wretched core will never harbor second thoughts; MAGA, like any other totalitarian steamroller, only accelerates and never reconsiders. Every day we allow it to move forward is scorched-earth yardage we will have to replant. Five more years is the whole ball game.

All that said, merely replacing a moron with a far more functional and accomplished brain farter, or one far less corrupt opportunist, is certainly not the campaign mission statement one wants to see next November as we fight to save the republic. Perhaps we should demand our best to clean up the mess our worst has made? Shouldn’t we at least aspire to refreshing excellence instead of a stale track record. This is no time for mediocrity and moral ambiguity.

Joe Biden has seen more than his share of both luck and triumph, misfortune and tragedy. If nobody in Hollywood would consider Trump’s self-parody and reality outrageousness as the basis for a serious movie script, a narrative of Biden’s life story would surely get green-lighted. Elected to the US Senate at the preposterously young age of 30, Biden has been front and center for near every seminal event since Watergate. Perhaps no living pol possesses more stature than Delaware’s finest, who served loyally for eight years as our first black President’s VP.

Yet and still, Biden has endured searing tragedy. In 1972 his entire young family was involved in an auto accident that killed both his wife and daughter, leaving him a widower with two young boys. In 1988 Biden came as close as one can to early death himself as doctors successfully caught a brain aneurysm in the nick of time. Just several years ago he again buried one of his children, this time his eldest son Beau from cancer.

Through it all Biden has straddled the line between populist hyperbole and savvy statesmanship, fierce allegiance to the little guy and comfortable lunches at the Palm with donors surely picking up the tab. In short, despite a lifetime of most often admirable public service, he is a target-rich environment for Fox/AM character assassination. He, like Hillary Clinton, provides more than enough for the signature false equivalence of Sean Hannity or Rushbo to equate. The current Ukraine imbroglio involving his son, Hunter is example A.

Mykola Zlochevsky served two stints as a top Ukrainian public servant, both in the embattled country’s energy sector. His most recent post was as ecology minister under the kleptocracy of Russian puppet Victor Yanukovych, who was swept out by reformists in early 2014. During Zlochevsky’s tenure as ecology minister a plethora of energy companies were granted license approvals critical to their activities. Most would become spokes in Bursima, a company Zlochevsky later established, which became the country’s largest energy producer, making its owner a multi-millionaire. One hardly need be a conspiracist to connect those dots.

After the thoroughly corrupt Yanukovych was ousted, with confronting Russia’s incursion into the Crimea the top priority, NATO allies were adamant that any program to furnish the new regime in Kiev with economic and military resources start and end with the confidence that Ukrainian government was no longer the cesspool it became under the previous leadership. To this end, US Vice-President Joe Biden was tasked to put the elbow on the nation’s legal apparatus, which he did with enthusiasm, later boasting of using pending Western aid as a hammer to promote reform. At the end of the day most all agreed, while what replaced Yanukovych was far from perfect, it was a night and day improvement.

Under such circumstances it made perfect sense for any Ukrainian business facing such scrutiny to make cultivating ties to significant US players a priority. Rather than simply wait passively to be put under the microscope, get proactive and enlist those who can provide luster to your defense, credibility to your enterprise. It’s doubtful anyone would serve such a strategy better than the son of the point man for the entire inquisition!

By all accounts Hunter Biden has struggled to make his mark. Addiction, financial and emotional challenges have dotted his adult life with frailties responsible for many a failure. And while his father was inarguably one of America’s most powerful and connected, until he hit the lecture circuit etc. after leaving office in 2017, he was by no means wealthy enough to provide his son with financial certainty. Hunter needed to make his own living., and he was never much concerned about the optics created by his career path. A stint as a K Street lobbyist here, as a “counsel” for a New York law firm there. One has to put food on the table, no?

Most recently, Hunter Biden was a business partner of Chris Heinz, heir to his family’s ketchup fortune and John Kerry’s stepson, who does have the financial wherewithal to be a bit more choosey about where to work and who to work for. When Hunter Biden accepted an invitation to sit on Bursima’s board of directors, Heinz was immediate and adamant in his opposition to the idea. In fact, when Hunter Biden ignored Heinz’s objections and accepted the slot, it ended their business relationship. And while the Bidens have implied there were other reasons for the dissolution, Heinz spokesman Chris Bastardi left no room for doubt, declaring that working for Bursima was “unacceptable” and “a lack of judgement in this matter was a major catalyst” for Heinz ending the partnership. Hunter Biden’s father never raised such concerns, the total sum of his reservations expressed in a passing “I hope you know what you’re doing” admonishment to his son. This despite the pressing concern by his own staffers, understandably worried about appearances.

It can be argued that, years ago as the new Secretary of State was setting up her operation for overseeing Foggy Bottom, had a White House staffer looked her dead in the eyes and called her a foolish diva for insisting her business emails proceed through a server at her home, providing careless fodder for GOP muckrakers, we would all be sleeping better. Now we have a leading candidate for the most important Presidential nomination in our history with a very similar scenario brewing on his stove. Whether either is “fair” is irrelevant; the Fox/AM weaponization of false equivalence is the bedrock of its nihilism, providing them bullets is no longer an option.

Assessing the Biden candidacy already requires one to issue a number of passes for resume hiccups and stumbles his assets presumably outweigh. Moreover, he would be 86 years old at the end of his second term. Now his inexplicable failure to take his son to task when it mattered most will be a constant counter-narrative to the vital business of impeaching the worst blight on our system we have yet experienced. Unlike, most of the slop Trump and his Fox/AM line cooks toss at the wall, this clump has more than enough truth to it to make for a sticky mess. Food for thought. BC

The autism spectrum is a very broad and diverse measure of an epidemic nobody understands. Quantified as a 1 to 10 continuum, the range includes kids unable to care for themselves in any meaningful way, or communicate whatsoever, up to and including those who are fully functional members of society yet possess mannerisms and deficits they themselves can’t recognize to address but are often tormented by.

One of the best friends I ever had was a golden boy. We met as part of the same youth football team; he was the quarterback, I was the center. Even then, one could recognize he was outside the normal mold, as painfully shy as he was talented. Handsome, athletic, incredibly intelligent, practically a musical prodigy, he could have been any kind, in any field of endeavor. But his stilted ability to engage with others and a tendency toward obsessive-compulsiveness meant to fully thrive and make the most of his gifts he required structure, a constructive routine he could embrace. He never got it.

Instead he got me and the rest of our gang, and the idle hours of skateboarding and self-medication that only sabotaged his development. Understand, we loved him and accepted him for exactly who he was, but provided nothing to help him grow. When, living in Ocean City, he contracted an infection from a skateboard injury that turned his leg into a watermelon. I brought him fried chicken from my job down the street, and all were quick to share whatever substances could be acquired to dull the pain. Eventually, I believe, we got him a ride home with somebody and his parents got him the medical attention that literally saved his leg…. that was the extent of what we were good for.

Truth is we were all caught up in our own situations, encumbered by our own frailties and limitations. Each of us had his own narrative, which my pal was only a part of. Had he had the Asperger’s diagnosis back then, perhaps the parents who loved him would have found the intervention he required to reach his limitless potential. But 40 years ago there was no such understanding, and my buddy was on his own.

At his funeral four years ago, the mood was very somber. His passing from alcoholism was not really shocking. Those closest to him were reconciled that his story could end prematurely. He was married to a woman he loved, but few thought him content, and fewer still believed he ended up in a place that suited his God-given attributes. We celebrated who he was, and appreciated everything about him, but all who knew him best saw his story as more cautionary tale than anything else. He didn’t require much, yet the nothing he received was not near enough.

Anybody who has carefully watched Greta Thunberg through the filter of autism awareness quickly recognizes she is on the spectrum. Her cadence is rigid, her statements terse and declarative. When she was testifying before a House committee, the efforts of members to engage her in jocular give and take usually created awkwardness as she struggled a bit with inflections and implied understanding.

Yet and still, her Aspergers and young age don’t prevent her from pursuing the mission she rises and sleeps by. Her singular focus imparts Climate Change with the deadly seriousness it deserves. After sailing across the Atlantic to join the fray in a country that has fully lost its way, Greta Thunberg is exactly who we need to listen to, with exactly the right traits for the task. Her utter indifference to herself as anything more than a messenger with a dire tale to tell couldn’t be more refreshing, even as reason’s arch nemesis shames his country by regurgitating nihilist talking points… mindless throwaway labels like “hoax” and “fraud”. But if Trump is every reason to be pessimistic about our present, Greta is all we need to be optimistic about our future.

Perhaps Greta at her finest was on display when she was testifying before the House Committee on Natural Resources. GOP Rep. Garrett Graves of Louisiana, figuring he’d get cute pushing the climate denial trope that the US is foolish to limit its own carbon footprint when others like China and India lag behind with an analogy a little girl could grasp, asked Greta how she’d feel in her boat on the ocean if every time she picked up one piece of trash other mariners discarded five pieces. Greta was at first puzzled by the question, her Aspergers foisting a literal comprehension as she digested it. So she said simply she was going too fast to pick anything up out of the water. After Graves laughed off that response, she declared she’d simply continue her task while asking the others to stop littering. But after she was given another minute to consider the matter as other witnesses jumped in, she was devastating. I should tell you, she admonished Graves, that in my country others say exactly that about the US, “so you should know that is being turned around against you.” Game Over! Graves had nothing to rejoin with…. thoroughly owned by a 16-year old force of nature.

Who is to say what is and isn’t a strength or weakness? Life is situational and people are different. My friend did the best he could on his own, within the context he wouldn’t leave behind. He became a great skateboarder, pioneering vertical riding on the east coast, pushing the limits until his body rebelled, becoming a bit of a legend to those who came after him. When he passed he was missed by many, and nobody could be found to disparage him. Maybe that’s enough? ……. Maybe not.

Yet right here and right now, as our planet faces destruction due to equal parts of corporate greed, willful ignorance and the notion comfort zones should not be adjusted, there has perhaps emerged precisely the right person with just the traits required to make an impact. Greta embraces her autism as a “superpower.” Who could argue? At the UN yesterday she towered over the forum for climate action, fully eclipsing our whiner-in-chief, wholly unimpressed by his narcissism. Her direct and uncompromising pursuit of something as basic as her generation’s survival calls for nothing flashy, only focused refusal to accept less than full cooperation. Greta offers no tolerance or forgiveness for the double-tongues, and a personal example that should shame deniers into reconsideration. I’m with her! BC

There’s a climactic scene in A Perfect Storm, the otherwise woefully inadequate screen translation of Sebastian Junger’s fantastic book, that may accurately encapsulate even our most favorable governmental prospects. After struggling through frightening swells to get his fishing boat out of a monstrous storm system it appears George Clooney and his crew have finally found high pressure and the calm seas it promises. For a moment they celebrate, but then Clooney scans the horizon and drops his head. “It’s not going to let us out,” he sadly surrenders, just before a mountain of water capsizes the vessel.

As Decision 2020 approaches, most consider trouncing Trump the grail to be seized. Such an outcome, the conventional wisdom holds, will get us back on track to some sort of normalcy, where the news cycle is not one long ticker tape of outrageous incompetence, lies and corruption. A place where productive government can at least be pursued without constant sabotage from the White House and its posse of Hill nihilists committed to carrying as much water as Trump sloshes their way. A new day, when we are no longer held hostage by an unhinged sociopath slumped on an antique couch, remote in one hand and an unsecured IPhone in the other. A glorious deliverance from a mad king. Certainly not happily ever after, but at least saved from the clutches of ruin. Right? Not so fast.

It becomes more clear every day this crisis won’t be over even if we succeed in sending Trump back to his gilded tower. Anyone spending part of their life they won’t get back watching Congressional hearings on ANY subject, from election security to reforms of police procedures to DC statehood can detect a terrible trend.

Back in 2009, when Sarah Palin sought with feverish indiscretion to cash in on her 15 minutes by diving headlong into Fox/AM’s shit river, conservative pundit David Brooks dismissed her as a “show horse” with little to offer the national discussion. Brooks did his usual nervous laugh thing as he predicted a short run for the budding reality TV regular, while lecturing that political parties require more than simply hissing grievance and resentment 24/7, they demand substance, actual lawmaking. A decade later Brooks is a man without a political home, as the GOP has descended to nihilist depths even Palin couldn’t conjure up as she embraced every ounce of her nastiness.

On Facebook, House Intelligence ranking member Devin Dunes seeks contributions with an ad post calling on all Trumpies to fight back against fake news. Only approved sources, like Nunes’ own print and on-line publications he finances directly can be trusted. Nunes, who has taken to calling Democrats the Democratic/socialist party on Twitter, accuses them of being “under the thumb” of “tech oligarchs” even as he enjoys as prodigious a presence on social media as any member of either caucus, fully mimicking the irreverent shorthand of the tweeter-in-chief. And make no mistake, collaboration on a resolution praising National Cheeseburger Day is as far as Nunes’ bipartisan inclinations extend, whether on matters within or past the water’s edge. Nunes appears content in his niche slot as a constant inhibiter of investigations into Trump malfeasance and ubiquitous presence on the Fox prime-time lineup. Issues and process take a back seat to providing official luster to Hannity fever dreams about the deep state.

Such back benching is no longer an outlier but the norm in today’s GOP. Tuning into a House hearing on how changes to police procedure may decrease the number of unarmed people shot to death during otherwise minor encounters that escalate out of control seemed at first encouraging. Granted, Al Sharpton had been invited to testify, but Reverend Al’s remarks were not controversial, and his tone was constructive, right in line with his remade persona as an MSNBC host. Thoughtful exchanges on topics such as perhaps training recruits coming out of the military to shed their previous predispositions to viewing encounters as dangerous confrontations were constructive, the atmosphere almost convivial. Until Florida Republican Matt Gaetz was allotted his five minutes.

Uninterested in anything other than picking a fight with Sharpton, Gaetz began to read from a resolution none other than Joe Scarborough had introduced years before to condemn Reverend Al for his role in the Crown Heights riots. Of course arguing with bigots is Sharpton’s wheelhouse and what was a pretty decent give and take on an important issue went right off the rails, exactly where Gaetz wanted it. Whatever Sharpton was then or is now meant nothing to Gaetz past providing an opportunity to preen for, first Trump, then Fox/AM. Whether it’s the audience of one in the East Wing or the wretched core, the last thing Gaetz cares about is governing. Later that evening, Tucker Carlson rewarded Gaetz with a special shout out and promised viewers the whole ugly exchange would be uploaded to the show’s page. The “substance” Brooks once demanded is nowhere to be found within the House GOP; instead they are rotten schoolboys, and every day provides a another substitute teacher to torment.

Ditto, it now appears, the Senate Republican leadership, who demonstrate no interest to find consensus for any response to threats to America’s elections, now routine mass shootings, the continued disgrace of family separations at the southern border, or anything else for that matter. They are, however, available to echo their House counterparts and denounce Democrats as socialists…. and the media as fake, albeit in a more reserved and structured manner. Rather than permit votes on legislation, McConnell preferred taking to the Senate floor last week and denouncing the Democrats’ “embrace of one half-baked socialist proposal after another.”

In both national chambers, not to mention flyover state legislatures, the new GOP brand is open disdain for governance, a full redefinition of their job descriptions to focus exclusively on mocking the democratic process, completely in line with their President. Sedition in unapologetically plain view. If this is how they act when they are in a position to actually get laws passed, how do you suppose they will behave with a, say, President Warren? Joe Biden promises he can get things done across the aisle. Not with this bunch. Does anybody really think, were the GOP still to control the Senate in 2021, that Moscow Mitch won’t pull a Garland if Clarence Thomas retires? The wretched core will demand nothing less.

It’s the old chicken before the egg question. Back in the primaries of 2016, the GOP had a stage full of the best talent it could muster…. and Trump. The Donald demonstrated how little power the party possessed to control the mob created by dependency on Roger Ailes for its messaging. The resulting chaos has distracted even those who paid attention to what their game plan was, carried out in full view during the Obama years. Forced after another trouncing in 2012 to choose which way to go as the road forked, a bigger tent or the inferno, Republicans headed south. Today that march continues, Trump has merely forced them to move at the double step, like Patton heading to Bastogne, only this trek leads not to glory in defense of freedom, but shame in pursuit of power. It’s doubtful a new President will be enough to force a turnaround. BC