Author: BC

 

In the immediate aftermath of Dylann Roof’s mass murder of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church, Rush Limbaugh was anxious. Even a cursory glimpse into Roof’s life revealed an alienated young bigot, filled with grievance and resentment toward minorities in general, blacks in particular. It was clear he was an avid consumer of right wing grievance, and the Carolinas were Rush country, a ratings refuge in his increasingly shrinking nationwide footprint.

Nothing gets the Fox/AM “personalities” touchier than any implication their repetitive toxin may have produced real world consequences, ugly violence carried out by one of their rabid consumers; the Charleston horror was no exception. Limbaugh wanted distance between himself and lone wolf Roof, immediately painting the teenager as “sick” and “disturbed,” even as he assured his audience he was not going to jump to conclusions. Indeed, right-wing terrorist events stand alone in that regard within the Fox/AM universe. Just like Trump, it’s the only time they seem at all deliberate. But early on it was clear Roof was a product of right-wing hate, fully exhibiting its many brands in photos and social media. And so the Rushster was edgy and quick to preempt any sort of speculation that he had any influence at all on the disturbed youngster.

In between attacking then President Obama for politicizing the mass killing, even though Obama had made it a point to say he was waiting for the investigation to proceed before issuing a statement, Limbaugh let his listeners provide him with cover. He couldn’t agree more with Anthony from Henderson, North Carolina, who declared “nowadays you just can’t do anything with a person with mental problems.”  Case closed. Hands washed.

A stochastic terrorist is defined as one who “publically demonizes a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable, but whose specifics are not predicted.” I admit, until very recently, I had no idea such a term existed, yet there it is. Never has one sentence so clearly described so much.

That this has become a Fox/AM Presidency is beyond dispute. Not only does our Chief Executive completely rely on Fox News and the AM talk radio universe for all of his messaging, but also fully depends on it to inform his own worldview, as well as primary advice for carrying out his duties and staffing White House and other high-level government positions. In other words, as clearly articulated by the definition above, US government is in the hands of stochastic terrorists. Hey! ….blame Webster’s!

Our President’s disdain for the toil of governance has left him with a lot of time on his hands. Trapped within the White House gates, and wholly disinterested in performing the job he never wanted, Trump has gone stir crazy since his inauguration. With only so much golf to be played, a ridiculous number of rounds even he can recognize as bad optics, what to do?  Such is the dilemma of a lazy imposter hopelessly over his head, desperately seeking relevance. Rallies to the rescue! Trump rallies have provided him something to do he actually likes, while getting him away from the White House, where all agree he can only destabilize the planet. Even the Trump-branded GOP leadership embraces the benefits of firing up the base for mid-terms. Grievance and resentment gets nihilists out of their recliners!

Yet and still, to watch a Trump rally is to witness the very essence of stochastic terrorism. The press are literally kept in a pen and continually referred to as “evil” and “enemies of the state,” pointed to and continually maligned as Trump’s wretched core jeers and boos lustily. His defeated opponent is regularly denounced, instigating a Pavlovian chant of “lock her up.”  Desperate Central American migrants are continuously decried as the scum of the Earth, rapists and criminals invading our sovereignty. Kneeling black football players are denounced as traitorous rabble. Democrats are existential threats to the country, with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer bent on destruction. On and on… Low IQ Maxine Waters… Lying Pochahantas Elizabeth Warren.

If that isn’t public demonization it’s impossible to imagine what is. Of course, anyone with even a passing familiarity with Fox’s prime time line up, or tired AM talk radio routines, knows the President’s attacks are merely part and parcel of what’s on offer every day, all day, year after year. His is simply the bully pulpit, the ultimate platform.

Now bombs are being mailed to anyone and everyone on Trump’s enemies list; the “statistically probable act” has happened. To hear Trump and his creators tell it, the victims have nobody but themselves to blame. Like Rush with Dylann Roof and every other Fox/AM inspired Travis Bickel, whose hateful dulusions are elevated to shining acts of patriotism, there is nothing to see here; the most we’ll plead to is being part of a wider problem the other side is even more guilty in creating.  It takes two to tango! Start being “fair” and things will resolve themselves.

The dangerous and uncharted territory this Administration has taken our nation gets sketchier and less stable by the day. Trump and his Fox/AM facilitators have created a powder keg they appear fully willing to detonate. This week’s events seem merely an early salvo of a nihilist horde unfazed by the lasting damage it can inflict on the country demagogues have convinced them needs saving. One thing is certain, whatever Trump whines to his wretched core, whatever Rush hisses to his faithful, we have a name for them now….. Stochastic terrorists. Look it up!  BC

When you think about it US democracy is just an honor system. The whole exercise is based on the assumption, tradition, practice, habit – whatever, that the results of nationwide tabulations, monitored state by state, will be accepted by all parties and fully observed. I suppose of all the “miracles” of the American experiment, this peaceful turnover of tangible power is the most amazing. But what if one side refuses to abide the results because they are beholden  to a narrative their base imbibes that equates broad electoral defeat, and accompanying loss of power, with national catastrophe? What then? We may soon find out.

The GOP approaches these midterm elections with the same trepidation Democrats felt in 2010. Despite a booming economy, their President, who has been wildly successful placing his brand on the party’s national profile, limps  into November with personal approval ratings stuck in the mid-40s, a figure that has in the past assured a mid-term trouncing. The most polarizing politician in American history, Trump has limited GOP strategy for maintaining control of both chambers on the Hill to one option… turn out the base and hope the plethora of voter suppression schemes flyover legislatures have introduced bear adequate disenfranchisement necessary to carry just enough shaky incumbents over the finish line. Not exactly juggernaut aspirations.

On Election Day 2016 I came home, after experiencing not a moment’s wait to vote, and told my wife we were in trouble. Low turnout is the Republicans’ best friend, always has been. Apathy amplifies the voices of the elderly white, blue collar, male GOP base, which now has morphed into Trump’s wretched core. The inclinations of a majority of today’s America are at odds with views that Fox/AM narrows and makes more exclusive and intolerant by the day. It is simple math: The more citizens vote, the better Democratic prospects become.

Latest polling implies historic levels of enthusiasm across US demographics to vote this election cycle, a large chunk of it motivated by disdain for the President; that can’t be good for the GOP. But Republicans understand the implications of the latest data and have been overt in efforts to make it as hard as possible for certain blocs of voters to participate, literally tossing out ballots in some cases. The cold fact that the GOP views new voters as inimical to their fortunes translates into a narrative, relentlessly hyped by Fox/AM, that equates voter registration efforts with fraud, most often with “illegals” front and center, but also targeting black get-out-the-vote efforts for the type of scrutiny typical of suppression protocols.

The Brennan Center for Justice catalogs every legal challenge to state laws and technical amendments designed to disenfranchise voters. Not surprisingly, the lion’s share have been filed in southern states, where nothing like what is currently happening has been seen since the 60’s,. Georgia exemplifies how brash suppression efforts have become, as Stacey Abrams, a black Democrat running for Governor, looks to motivate the 31% African-American share of the state’s population.

The national GOP leadership have kept straight faces while Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate, has kept his day job as Secretary of State, responsible for actually overseeing the election’s legitimacy. This is the same Brian Kemp who boasted in a campaign ad, he was prepared to drive his own truck throughout the state and round up “illegals”. Meanwhile, just to tilt the playing field, Kemp has pursued an “exact match” policy which requires voter registration information to mirror to the hyphen data in state computers or the application is thrown out. As many as 50K voters stand to lose their status, more than two-thirds African-American.

Alabama actually passed a voter ID law that allows election officials to vouch for voters without appropriate credentials, essentially granting poll managers arbitrary powers to pick and choose who has to obey the law. In Kansas, Chris Kobach, the head of Trump’s Voter Fairness Commission, tasked with proving his fantasy that millions of immigrants voted for Hillary, is locked in a tight race for Governor, and, like Kemp, is the Secretary of State in charge of electoral credibility. Kobach earlier wasted plenty of taxpayer funds uncovering a grand total of nine cases of state voting irregularities, most addled seniors who forgot they had voted already. The list goes on, and it is exclusively Republican. Democrats want more voters, the GOP doesn’t… that simple.

But what if, despite the Republican’s best efforts, a blue wave does crest this November? What if a perfect storm of unprecedented Democratic turnout and a higher degree of Trump repudiation within the GOP combine to deliver Democrats control of both chambers? Who says Trump and his co-conspirators will do the right thing? Anybody simply assuming they will hasn’t followed Trump very closely, or his congressional abettors.

Before he got the terrible news he actually won, Trump was fully prepared to declare 2016’s election a fraud. And while he has been playing the game at his rallies lately, sporadic references to the “rigged system” are not unusual. Just yesterday he tweeted urgently that government monitors were poised and ready to catch election cheats for full punishment. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman warned confidently that the Trumpist GOP is more than capable of rejecting results they don’t like and throwing the country, and the world, into crisis.

What lends the extraordinary possibility credence is how easy Trump can ignite events and start the dominoes tumbling. A tweetstorm here, a reckless statement there.  Some calls to Nunes and company in the House, a collective refusal of vanquished Trumpie candidates to concede while echoing his rubbish. McConnell and company in the Senate refusing to outright refute it and calling for an investigation “out of an abundance of caution” for the integrity of the system. Fox/AM going 24/7 with all of its “personalities” pushing the lies. Really very easy to start the fire and fan the flames until it takes on a life of its own.

What has always made a Trump Presidency particularly dangerous is the fact he doesn’t care. Not only doesn’t he care, he is attracted to creating chaos for the attention it gets him or the distraction it provides. The idea the world depends on the stability of US elections as the foundation of global order is fully lost on him. What he is utterly unconcerned about beginning will quickly move beyond his ability to control, and all bets will be off. As ugly as Trump’s self-proclaimed “winning” has been since he took office, his losing could be a whole lot worse. Careful what you wish for.  BC

 

One would have to do much thinking and scour far and wide to find a National Security Advisor better suited to the visceral inclinations of our President than John R Bolton. This Administration came to power with an institutional insecurity firmly in place from day one, so it was no surprise that experienced GOP hands – at least those willing to sign on with a nihilist – would be excluded  in favor of those with “it is my greatest honor” on the tip of their tongues, at the ready to be said often…and with Pencelike feeling.

Yet and still,  after Michael Flynn was forced to resign weeks after Inauguration Day, hiring criteria for a replacement was adjusted away from Ailes central casting, even if it meant square pegs for round holes and hoping for the best. Looking back it now seems clear excluding  Bolton was a concession to this sensibility.

The Apprentice was one of those shows that, although initially entertaining, got old quickly as the novelty of watching snakes in a bucket devour each other at the behest of the Jabba the Hutt they all sought favor from wore off. Of course what was inane entertainment in prime time is similarly dysfunctional as a deliberative paradigm for US policy. That no brainer was on display this week in the White House as the President presided over a death match between his Chief-of-Staff and National Security Advisor.

Trump being Trump, a crisis feel permeates the West Wing as the optics of a “human caravan” heading north from Honduras makes L’ Enfant Terrible feel more insecure than usual. The Thursday meeting of principles charged with whitening America got ugly when Homeland Security Chief, Kirstjen Nielson touted Mexico’s appeal for help from the United Nations Refugee Agency in processing asylum claims from the several-thousand and growing throng of refugees. Bolton, who, despite his historically inappropriate appointment as UN Ambassador under W, detests everything about the organization, deeming it an existential threat to US sovereignty, expressed incredulity that Nielson could be so weak, using ugly adjectives Trump surely appreciated.

Kelly, who has been Nielson’s patron from day one, hand picking her to succeed him when he was elevated to the West Wing, gallantly called out Bolton for the nasty bully he is and it was on. Trump, who never met a woman he didn’t want to demean, or a fight he didn’t love watching, shares his NSA’s disdain for all things multilateral and predictably sided with Bolton and his Iago of a sidekick Stephen Miller, further infuriating Kelly, who stormed out of the White House afterward, swearing for the 1345th time he was done. While Sarah Sanders, less relevant with each passing news cycle, declared the combatants had patched things up, rumors of Kelly’s imminent departure are rife and intensifying… Nielson would almost certainly leave with him.

Where does that leave the issue Trump swears will deliver both chambers on the Hill early next month? Exactly in the place it’s been… squarely at odds with the law and the Constitution, as well as human decency.  Anyone remotely experienced with the menu of challenges at our southern border understands the vagaries are many, but stemming migration from the south requires at its roots addressing systemic issues on the ground that encourage people to flee in the first place. This is as true now as it was in the early 80s, when civil wars and government atrocities throughout the region began the quagmire.

Particularly garish within the well of bankrupt Trumpism/GOP notions is the implication desperately poor and fearful Central Americans are whimsically heading to the US for opportunity, or more detestable, government programs they can take advantage of, Horatio Algers in sandals or welfare reinas, pick your poison.  Trump’s MAGAite disdain for economic, political and humanitarian initiatives designed to improve the lot of those otherwise forced to escape hellish conditions is as unsurprising as his call to deploy more US military manpower to join National Guard divisions already proving fully ineffectual to a task they have no business pursuing. Moreover, his renewed musing about the benefits of family separation makes clear the moral abyss is just where he wants his wretched core-infused GOP to be. The tragic fact his base loves occupying that space, and millions more may be inclined to hold their noses and err on the side of Buzz Windrip in order to feel safer about a few thousand poor and desperate people seeking what we used to sell as a primary part of our greatness, reflects a constituency tailor-made for the foreign policy John Bolton is glad to provide.

When Bolton’s predecessor H.R. McMaster was ousted after a brief and stormy tenure, the storyline emerged he was too volatile and clashed with colleagues like Mattis and Kelly. However, a deeper look reveals McMaster’s devotion to presenting the President complete pictures on questions at hand was really his undoing; Trump simply loathed being confused by too many options, and came to distrust such presentations as devious means for pursuing “weak” approaches by rendering more complex issues he preferred far simpler.

There is nothing more Trumpian than dumbing things down. Since Bolton generally skips anything with nuance and proceeds directly to confrontation and ultimatums, he is now the Donald’s pet, with accompanying access. It’s doubtful Kelly will tolerate the situation much longer. When he leaves, and Nielson follows, there will be no West Wing gate keeper, and DHS, already without a deputy director, will have no leadership whatsoever. That leaves immigration policy fully in the hands of Bolton, Miller and, to a lesser extent, Pompeo. Expect the worst. BC

There is no magic moment when democracies seize up and become their darker alter egos.  Death usually comes from a thousand cuts – a lie here, an arrest there, maybe bogus legislation that codifies the nullification of civil protections. It’s left to future historians to perform the autopsy and better pinpoint when freedom died.

Historians in the 22nd century, if Earth is still a going concern, may settle on this week’s duplicitous shuttle diplomacy mission of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia and Turkey as a point-of-no-return moment when our now suddenly faltering republic spit out the bit.  Wretchedly impotent and sinisterly cooperative, America’s chief diplomat was more about smiling photo ops than demanding answers as to how a prominent journalist, employed by a US flagship newspaper, ended up hacked to bits after entering the Saudi Embassy in Turkey.

If anybody actually believed Pompeo was dispatched for any other reason than the optics necessary to satisfy our President’s empty promises to seek justice,  his embarrassing deference to both of his hosts surely disappointed. Of course, Trump answers only to his wretched core, and their concern about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi and whether it should lead to sanctions against his killers can be measured with an official MAGA golf tee.

Authoritarian regimes are distinguished by their predictability. Understand where the money leads, or how the strong man or junta benefits, and one can be certain on where the government will come down on any question at hand. As Trumpism lurches along, US policy grows more obvious by the day. Our President affords no surprises when confronting the world we used to lead. Figure  out the ugliest, most self-serving direction, and it’s a certainty he’s already heading that way, feints and flat out lies aside.

Trump feels far more affinity for reactionary tyrants than thoughtful democrats because they think like he does. By his warped calculus, taking the trouble and ordering Pompeo to go fetch was actually a concession, anything more would be outright weakness. Expect increasingly full-throated protestations of Saudi innocence as the evidence becomes more damning and the Hill more demanding. Regardless, generations of American good faith as a patron of the free press, and an advocate  of courageous reporters willing to risk all to uncover truth or criticize tyranny, is evaporating. Forget a wink and a nod, this is shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue.

Audio leaked by Turkey paints a gruesome indictment of the Saudi Government. Agents apparently dispatched by Riyadh laid in wait for the Washington Post reporter and literally dismembered him. It’s hard to imagine any crime more at odds with the values we have been selling, at least until January, 2017. Even if Trump did come out with some rote statement denouncing the murder, who’d take him seriously?  But that hypothetical seems less and less likely in the wake of Pompeo’s love fest. Trump appears prepared to pull a Putin and wait for things to blow over. Does anybody really believe the GOP won’t let him get away with that? Nobody wants to become a part of the nihilist-in-chief’s MAGA rally monologues… better to simply let dismembered journalists lie.

The President says he won’t deploy the FBI to investigate because, after all, Khashoggi was only a “resident”, forget the fact that his now fatherless children are citizens, an inconvenient technicality nefarious West Wing Iagos like Stephen Miller are surely looking to abolish.  Truth is at odds with everything Trump. The Saudis feted him early on, making clear they would play ball under any rules he decided so long as their seat was near the head of the table. The Administration has been a partner in their merciless campaign in Yemen, and emerging rock star autocrat MBS is said to be Jared Kushner’s bestest Muslim buddy. Any expectation Trump will hold Riyadh to account is fantasy. Again, it’s all just become so predictable.

There is a lot of bipartisan noise for sanctions that sting against Saudi Arabia like canceled weapons agreements, and meaningful economic and political pain. Pompeo’s stupid pet tricks make clear Trump will be having none of it, come what may.

“What have you done for me lately” has always been our President’s mantra; his memory is minuscule and gratitude is a concept he is incapable of embracing. Now the world stands ready to turn his frailties right back on us. Who we are right now, how ugly we’ve become in just less than two years is eclipsing generations of steadfast international leadership and at least the presumption of being an honest broker and voice for shared democratic values. Our brand is being destroyed at a breathtaking pace, replaced by scorn and disdain previously reserved for the regimes whose crimes we now enthusiastically help cover up. Ruinous! BC

 

The DR has commented extensively on the inclination by millions of Americans to view Trump’s election and subsequent demeanor as no more or less than his predecessors. This mindset relegates all of the various fires this President starts and pours gasoline on as simply his unique skill set, and accuses those who call out Trump as a wholly abnormal and even existential threat to the national interest of divisive, even seditious partisan hysterics.

As the mid-term national elections approach it has become clear the GOP will rely heavily on this outlook, with words like “mob“ and “arsonists” being bandied about in ads and debates against Democrats. The notion that, despite a historically strong economy, unhinged sufferers of “Trump derangement syndrome” respect no bounds in their obsession to bring down a duly elected POTUS, appears to be what the GOP will hang  it’s hopes on to maintain majorities in both chambers. Nothing to see here, ignore the man behind the curtain.  They are simply anarchical haters bent on avenging Hillary’s defeat. Sour grapes on steroids!

One of the breathtaking tendencies of Trump’s GOP, buoyed hourly by Fox /AM, are full-throated declarations that established facts are actually controversial debates, or even worse, myths cultivated by a partisan media. Nowhere is this more on display than with Climate Change. It’s a certainty that, were  one to ask 1000 people whether or not the sun rises in the east, 60 respondents would aver our star actually comes up in the west, roughly the same percentage of scientists who doubt man-made Climate Change, but more than enough for the Fox-fueled Republican base to grab ahold of.

Mad Hurricane Michael was super charged within 18 hours by a simmering Gulf of Mexico, the DC area experienced  a record number of 80 degree days this year, historic wildfires are destroying swaths of western America, and record flooding is literally ending towns, but US policies now aim to kill previously established ways to address the crisis, labeling already inadequate initiatives job killing regulations any reasonable flat earther should want killed. Concern for preventing Waterworld is for the mob, common sense nihilists know it’s all a scam, which will be clearly confirmed with the next big snowstorm or cold spell.

Much of this denial, of course, caters to the overt corruption of monstrous dark money donors. However, it’s also option A when you desire a wretched core of support keep their eyes on the fear and grievance ball necessary to imbibe the divisions your political survival has always depended on. Diminishing thickness of polar ice masses doesn’t stand a chance against jailing Hillary or abasing Pocahontas.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports the world has 12 years to limit carbon emissions enough to prevent a point-of-no-return temperature rise which will seal our children’s fate, creating a weather purgatory that will reshape coasts everywhere, while dooming entire regions to drought and famine, spreading disease and general human misery on a dystopian scale. Needless to say, such a world will not exactly be fertile soil for freedom and democracy. Fox/AM, when it has mentioned the report, has been inanely derisive,  merely lumping it with other aspects of the mob’s agenda, which is to say efforts to diminish Trump’s emerging status quo against constructive governance. Yet in the scheme of all things Trump, climate change denial rates less than a blink of the news cycle’s eye, such is the seemingly limitless spread of MAGA outrages competing for our attention.

Asked  about the IPCC report, Trump dismissed it as part of an “agenda”. Boasting about how he courageously isolated the US from the rest of the globe by withdrawing from the Paris Accords has become a “promise kept” item routinely cited in Trump rally monologues. From Hugh Hewitt to Mark Levin, Mitch McConnell to GOP Governors of states decimated by hurricanes and wildfires alike, Republicans view disdain for established climate science as synonymous with profiles in courage, a stand against environmental kooks, mob members in good standing.

Of course, Mother Nature is nonpartisan, and does not tolerate being snubbed. Indeed, she has been demonstrating how tough life can become if her requirements are not met. It’s hard to see how any responsible public servant can ignore their duty to do all possible to lessen the wrath we have suffered through recently. Yet the entire GOP is doing just that. Worse, it attacks any sort of activism on the issue as radical impulses, part and parcel of the mob mentality opponents of Trumpie candidates nationwide share and promise to impose on MAGAites everywhere should they prevail in November.  The clock is ticking, but America is consumed with many other fronts, not the least of all its survival as a democratic concern. Mobs are easily distracted that way.

 

 

Election Night, 2016 at Kanye West’s Estate:

“Yo yo, Kanye! What up!”

”Oh, look who it is, my so called agent in charge of keeping me rich. You’re faltering dawg… sales are flat and KW is becoming about yesterday! I’m not happy. They’re starting to call me Mr. Kardashian! “

”Listen, I feel  you, and am here on a mission to put you on top for now and the vicinity! Hear me out!”

”Hear you out?! Brother I need results. I’m tripping! What have you got to say?! Should I take notes! You’re just going to make my ears hurt!”

”Word, KW. I’ve seen your future and it’s all white… which is to say green!”

”Man, get the f**k outta here. What kind of gibberish is that. Sweetheart, find me my Rolodex, I’m looking for a new agent!”

”No, for real. This is golden. Here it is…. we go after the senior cracker market! Aged 50 and up!”

“What! You’ve got to be kidding me!  Why would fossilized white people want anything to do with my brand. Go take another shot of jet fuel and leave me alone!”

”No, KW, for real. Here’s what you do…become Trump’s best black buddy. Come out and tell everybody he’s your President. Prop him right. That orange, peltheaded beast will be our ticket.”

”Oh, so you want me to become  Trump’s token black celebrity?! Where’s my gun?! Do I look like Omarosa?!”

“Lover, this is all business! 100%! What do you care what the world thinks? Never did before. It’s all about getting paid. That fool may even invite you to the White House for a meeting! You’ll be the only game in town! And believe me, those zombies that worship him, you tell them what they want to hear, act as crazy as he is… out comes the plastic! Elmer Gantry time. You’ll be giving 15 minute speeches at 100 K per!”

”Damn, you may be making sense after all. But I don’t relish betraying my people. That shit is sacred!”

”Since when does fleecing white bigots make you a race traitor? Folks will understand. It’s all about the money! Take em for all they’re worth. It’s business, Sonny. It’s nothing personal! Show that blabbermouth blimp some love and I’ll get the wheelbarrow for all the cash!”

So I make the Donald my new pal, call him my President and whatever, wear that hat etc., and Appalachia will follow; is that what you’re saying?”

”Exactly right! You tell those corpses what they want to hear and suddenly you’re Jefferson. Senator Ted Cruz….need I say more. It’s all there KW, ours for the taking. Tabula rasa, baby! Blank checks, fully endorsed by our new POTUS. MAGA money!”

”You know, I must admit this is starting to come together! Some heads will explode! But those flyover $millions are attractive. Damn! Did I say you’re a genius?! Come here!!! Honey, could you bring in a bottle of Dom? We need to celebrate. To our new President, Donald ATM.“ BC

 

 

Watching members of the wretched core interviewed on their world outlooks  as they stand patiently in line for a Trump rally is always good for a laugh…or cry. Of course, by now it’s a fairly meaningless exercise since their thinking doesn’t evolve, so what you knew about Trumpie sensibilities three months ago will be what you understand today. Yet and still, millions of nihilists, immersed in a cult of personality devoted to dismantling US government, and democratic institutions, shouldn’t be ignored.

If you went up and down the line in Erie, PA Wednesday  asking anyone and everyone what their feelings on the Khashoggi  matter were, It is a certainty you’d face an unbroken wall of blank stares. Preferred news sources of Trump loyalists have been slow on the uptake regarding the Saudi journalist’s disappearance, so there is near zero chance rally goers know Khashoggi from an Italian hoagie. Yet and still, this story has legs and details will leech into Youngstown soon enough; Trumpie reactions then will of course reflect the White House take, and that will be enlightening, and probably depressing.

Jamal Khashoggi  is a Saudi journalist employed by the Washington Post, and a US resident. A conscientious critic of the Saudi Royal Family, Khashoggi  long believed, with very good reason, returning to his homeland was not a good idea if he fancied staying above ground. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, his now accepted moniker throughout the world diplomatic community,  the Trump Administration’s go to influencer in the region, recently made clear Khashoggi’s fears were warranted. Despite the journalist’s  praise for recent dictates loosening the regime’s very repressive Wahabi Sunni inclinations, such as allowing women to drive, MBS has labeled Khashoggi a proponent of two Royal Family adversaries, the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar. Indeed, when Khashoggi  disappeared last week after entering the Saudi Embassy in Turkey, all fingers pointed toward Riyadh.

The incident continues a disturbing pattern of authoritarian governments targeting journalists who run afoul of acceptable talktracks. The Saudi government joins Russia, Myanmar, Turkey, Syria and others  who face credible accusations of intimidation and even murder of reporters deemed subversive by ruling parties. In the past the US response has been consistent and straightforward: going after the press is unacceptable behavior, equivalent to the worst human rights transgressions and always a top US priority to address and stop. But that was then and Trump is now.

The silence from the White House, even as it is becoming increasingly clear Khashoggi  was killed by a Saudi team in Turkey, has been deafening. Jared Kushner, known to be close to MBS, has been reportedly pushing the Crown Prince for some explanation on the matter. The official White House position is facts are being gathered and a position will be forthcoming. Capital Hill is way ahead of them, promising a bipartisan push for sanctions against Riyadh once firm conclusions are drawn.

Of course the whole affair places Trump in a pickle, as he incites his rally attendees to spew venom at the press he literally keeps penned up. “These are some of the most evil people you’ve ever seen,” hisses the leader of the free world now three times a week. “They are the enemy of our country.” How do you denounce a regime for basically doing what you wish you could get away with? Who would actually take serious any condemnations on the subject from this Administration?

The fact that Khashoggi  works for the “dishonest” Washington Post adds yet another absurdity to the spectacle. The image of Trump stiltedly reading a statement condemning a regime he has fawned over since day one, on behalf of a man working for a paper he ceaselessly slanders, speaks directly to the grievous injuries our moral authority has suffered in less than just two years.

Fact is there is nothing this President can say regarding freedom of the press that anyone in the world would take seriously. Think about that. In October of 2016, if a journalist came under attack in a foreign country, the US President would be expected to make a forceful statement rendered fully credible by his office’s full respect and protection of our press. Nothing else can suffice. Without it we are simply hypocrites to be ignored or disdained. Now, two years later, that is exactly what we are.  The only difference between Trump and MBS is one can carry out what the other wishes he could but can’t… at least right now. Give it time. BC

On May 1, 1989 Donald Trump paid $85 K and took out a full page advertisement in the New York Times.  It followed the vicious attack and rape of Trisha Meili in Central Park two weeks earlier, during an evening of multiple muggings in the park by “rampaging gangs of youths,” which left her in a coma for 12 days and resulted in the arrest of five minority teenagers, who quickly became known as the Central Park 5.

Projecting the near identical white grievance that would characterize his campaign for the Presidency almost three decades later, Trump bemoaned a city lost to animals who preyed daily on decent folk. Literally calling for visceral hatred, the brash developer declared “I want to punish them…BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.” And while the missive did not specifically signal out the young suspects, all minors, who would confess after marathon interrogation sessions without any lawyers or parents  present, there was no mistaking its target. Trump finished with a fond childhood memory of watching two of New York’s finest rough up a couple of “bullies” in a diner he was at with his father back in the day. “Unshackle” our police, he demanded, criminals do not deserve civil liberties.

In fact, the DNA found at the scene of the brutal attack matched none of the arrested suspects, ages 14-16 years old. All were convicted solely on their confessions, four sentenced as juveniles to 5-10 years, and one as an adult, given a similar prison term. Detectives testified to suspects anxious to implicate others while insisting they played but a minor role in the attacks, but also admitted under oath there were likely other perpetrators that evening.

In 2002 Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, confessed to the attack of Trisha Meili. DNA evidence, in addition to details he provided that could only be known by the assailant, confirmed his guilt. The Central Park  5, who had all served between 7 and 13 years of jail time had their convictions vacated. Years later, New York City settled a civil suit filed by the plaintiffs for $41 million.

Trump, who had called for the group’s execution when none were older than 16, was not happy with the 2014 settlement. Refusing to accept they were innocent in one breath, Trump declared so what anyway, “they were no angels” with another. His twitter feed kept busy declaring their guilt a long established fact, despite whatever corrupt city officials and the media were claiming.  He made clear, if he had his way, the exonerated men would rot in jail. Call it Trump Justice.

Flash forward to Monday’s White House ceremony for Brett Kavanaugh, presumably intended to turn the page on one of modern history’s ugliest confirmation fights. Perhaps, with the entire Supreme Court membership in attendance, some gracious platitudes could be spoken and everyone could move forward. After all, at the end of the day, the institution’s well being outweighs politics… right? Yea, sure thing.

His attempts to sound reverent hobbled by his soullessness, the President personally apologized to the newly minted Associate Justice for “the pain and suffering you and your family have been forced to endure.” “What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process, “ rued American history’s most indecent Chief Executive. So much for fresh starts and new leafs.

The tripe du jour of Trump’s wretched core, fully amplified by the shrill Fox/AM megaphone, as well as various Trumpies on the Hill, is America’s preppies face the crucible of false accusation from harlets with axes to grind, urged on by Soros-funded racketeers with socialist political agendas. Like black teens rampaging through Central Park pre-Rudy, this mob is out for blood. Better vote in your local Trumpie or all is lost!

This Presidency sails through uncharted waters every hour of its repulsive tenure. The new low of yesterday will surely be but a bad memory in the wake of a deeper dive tomorrow. Yet and still, the surreality of this latest kabuki stuns the senses and produces ringing in the ears. If hypocricy is an art form in this town, Trump is surely a Renoir for the age his disgrace will define. Nothing can be more preposterous… it just can’t.

Almost 30 years ago our President wanted five accused teenagers sent to the gallows before anybody knew whether they were guilty or not. After they served hard time  for a crime it was conclusively proven they did not commit, Trump refused to accept their innocence and continued to injure their public standing unabated.

Now, after actively obstructing an investigation into accusations from an accuser even he tacitly admitted was credible when unsure of the wind’s direction, he falsely declares his tarnished champion is innocent of all charges. Moreover, just as he doubled down with boys falsely accused years ago, our fake fro Pinocchio has deemed the whole affair a political winner, red meat that will get the base off of their asses. God help us if he’s right.

As the all wise Yogi Berra once enlightened… “It’s like deja vu all over again.” That’s true, but whether he’s crying crocodile tears  for Kavanaugh or tripling down on past calls to lynch black kids  proven innocent, when it comes to people, boys or girls, being victimized by charlatans  without any concern for right or wrong, fact or fiction, this President is guilty as charged! BC

 

 

 

There is no sugar coating it, my son is unable to make friends. His autism debilitated his language skills to the point any entreaty he makes is fully stilted and uncomfortable, and most often requires a prompt. He has no ability to modulate his tone, and no appreciation of other people’s space. Any spontaneous greeting to a stranger usually means they resemble somebody from his past and is met with awkwardness, and as he has grown into a 6’ 5” man, some trepidation. Safe to say, if you want to be a part of Luke’s life, the effort is going to have to come near completely from you.

Best Buddies is a life line for kids like Luke, who desperately want to be part of the community’s social fabric, but have a limited ability to join in. At Luke’s school, the organization has been vibrant for all of the time he has attended, but two years ago really upped its game.

Let me first advise parents of typical kids who feel the tug of charity, and think giving back to the disabled is a good fit for them, you are either in or out; it can’t be half-assed because disappointing these kids is a sin. There is nothing in my life that prepared me for the pain of seeing simple expectations and hopes my son develops when assured of some future activity dashed by last minute cancellations. Sure, he needs to cope with life’s ups and downs, but he demands so little. Picture the look when you had to tell your four year old a trip to the zoo was postponed – freeze that and apply it for the rest of their lives.  You can’t disappoint these kids!

Luke’s buddy three years ago meant well, but I suppose had a busy schedule. Many a plan was scuttled at the last minute; I saw that look way too often. I’m sure he felt he was doing what he could, all things being equal… they’re not.  Anyway, in September of Luke’s Jr. year, at the initial Best Buddy event where the kids are paired off, I took his new match Neel aside and counseled gently but firmly it was better to make no plans at all than those you may have to cancel. He looked me right in the eye, polite yet direct as can be, and declared “I would never do that.”  I chuckled ok, please just don’t promise if you can’t deliver. I doubt anyone in my life has been truer to their word.

For two years Neel was Luke’s loyal and fully proactive friend.  Not only did he never miss a sponsored event, we often received texts asking if it was alright if he picked up Luke to go to some school activity with him, events Luke never would have attended on his own because even he understands the uncoolness of parental chaperones in high school.

Neel would get up early on Sunday to have breakfast with us at Silver Diner following Luke’s hockey practices. It was during those conversations I got a broader glimpse into how special Neel was, his international parents, college and job aspirations, various activities… simply an incredibly packed schedule I never would have dreamed of at his age. Sky high goals and standards he was calmly, humbly yet relentlessly pursuing. But there was always time for Luke.

When they graduated at DAR last spring, Neel found Luke in the dense and chaotic crowds afterwards. He hugged him, and we took pictures, and I thanked God he brought somebody exceptional enough to take the time and make the effort required to understand how wonderful Luke is. Of course, it didn’t surprise me when Neel checked in this summer to spend time with his friend before heading away on various travels. Luke’s eyes lit up when he saw Neel, but so did Neel’s.

An old high school friend I have reconnected with and genuinely respect seems a big fan of the DR. Yet and still, he has suggested I spend a bit more time being positive, the glass half full thing. Those closest to me have expressed concern I’ve turned dark since November, 16’, too distracted by Trumpism’s pestilence to smell anything on a stem. They may have a point, but should never believe me hopeless about our nation’s future; that’s impossible with kids like Neel around, or Luke’s therapist, Philip, who I’d adopt if he weren’t 30 plus and already spoken for, or Carolina, the proud president of Marshall High School’s Best Buddies chapter, and the best sport possible, accepting over and over Luke’s adoring, if inappropriate hugs, or my daughter Issie, sober and  determined to look after her brother when the time comes.

I look at these kids and couldn’t be more stoked about the future they are capable of building for all of us… given the chance. My time is fast passing, and to be candid, next to the restless accomplishment and creativity of so many of today’s brightest, it’s been underwhelming. But I’m certain my peers and I have an important role to play… right now! Make sure these wonderful kids get a chance to clean up the mess we leave and thrive in a way, frankly, many my age seem disinterested in.

Just like Neel kept his word to me, doing far more than was asked and making a world’s worth of difference to my son,  it’s not too much to request I help safeguard his opportunities. As with Luke, for all of our sakes, we simply can’t disappoint these kids! BC

 

 

When I was a hot shot college journalist, my BFF and I sought out all manner of stories in the New Hampshire seacoast area. In that vein, my buddy once interviewed a zealot named Warren Goddard, who carried out a lonely daily vigil at the Seacoast Women’s Health Clinic, where abortions were performed. Day after day, there he was, carrying a crucified doll, doused in ketchup, along with gruesome photos of all kind of atrocities. The abortion “holocaust” clarified his basic perceptions; the gist of his outlook was no punishment was too severe for providers and their patients alike. Why should an innocent baby suffer the consequences of a rape, and isn’t it simply natural a mother would be willing to die for her child? This was 1981, Goddard a lonely extremist. Today he’d be a member of the Freedom Caucus, or have his own Fox show, perhaps a role on the GOP platform committee.

Not long after I was introduced to Goddard’s views, I was interning for a Congressman on Capital Hill. Some other interns had a place just down Pennsylvania Ave. and were throwing a very wild party one night, fully attended by fellow youthful, twenty-something staffers. In walks  a 50ish Republican Congressman from the heartland,  about as far right on the political spectrum as was possible back then, abortion-as-murder his niche. One hand was around a gorgeous blonde, who surely had voted for the first time in the Reagan landslide the previous year, and the other grasped a six-pack of Hamms,  swear to God on a stack of bibles. A buddy and I laughed ourselves silly at the surreal spectacle, and wondered aloud almost in unison how powerful his save-the-unborn inclinations would be should his eye candy show up at the door with a little conservative in the oven. True believers and hypocrites; it has always been thus.

In the divided United States of 2018 one side has united under an absolute maxim that permeates their entire worldview, and rationalizes any uncomfortable choices they may have to face… abortion is murder. Pro-life extremism is the moral Alamo of Trump’s America, it leeches into any issue, justifies any trade off, and discredits opponents everytime, on all issues. It is there always to fall back to and denounce anyone as morally inferior. So what if I want to execute minors, you’re for killing the unborn. Don’t get preachy with me about families being separated in Laredo, you’re for murdering babies. All I know is Roy Moore will protect the unborn. Nothing and nobody falls outside this umbrella. It’s not simply a litmus test for justices or candidates, it is the root of identity… you are either pro-life or not, and that means conception, buckoo! It is ground zero of the culture war.

The temptation for some time has been to beseech Democrats and women’s organizations to give some ground on the issue. Both Howard Dean and Jimmy Carter have framed this as a necessity to broaden the party’s tent. After all, medical technology is pushing the viability envelope everyday. But what really would be achieved, other than endless crowing from the Fox/AM legions that zealotry prevailed, the killers are surrendering, oh, and alienation of the party’s most ardent following?

Trump’s America needs Pro-Life fanaticism like air to breathe.  It excuses the ever increasing ardor for the morally dispicable, and steady march toward atrocity. In short, they would never take yes for an answer; the goal posts would always be moved.  In Trump’s America, on abortion, compromise means letting masturbators off the hook for cheating so many zygotes out of their destiny.

Of course the wretched core is also white, Christian and fully regressive. US demographics pose an existential threat,  the Obama Presidency a galvanizing experience that validated a conspiracy mindset. The Tea Party gave flesh and bone to that desperation. Patriotism was redefined with a clear set of behaviors and expectations, exclusivity the guiding force. Trump’s candidacy and election was hailed as a defining victory, enabling a broad counterassault on decades of governance that had stacked the deck against “us”. Nothing wrong with reshuffling it to bring the game back to go, come what may.

But all of this can only be done with a conscience that remains clean; there always has to be that end at the exit of the tunnel to justify the means. Saving the unborn provides that moral clarity, that sense of mission required to be able to face the mirror while espousing the full menu of otherwise dreadful things that even Fox/AM’s relentless efforts, can’t completely whitewash.

Trump rallies are his little book reports on how his scorched earth efforts are coming. The toxicity of his venom punctuates his sincerity in the eyes of the wretched core. The more unhinged his attacks, the more genuine his commitment. But he now only rarely mentions abortion in passing, perhaps connected to the Supreme Court. He doesn’t have to. I suppose if there is a judgment day in line with evangelical sensibilities, Trump, like many of his supporters, will have plenty of fast talking to do in order to square personal history with political bona fides on abortion, but right now it’s all good; they are fellow crusaders.

When Brett Kavanaugh takes the oath to the Supreme Court, after the ugliest confirmation fight in memory, he will reflect a divided nation. Pundits have and will continue to spend endless air time debating why this is so. But, really, where is the mystery? It was always going to come to this, seems silly now to have ever hoped it wouldn’t. A middle-aged woman’s PTSD never stood a chance against the decisive blow to Roe v Wade. Trump’s America is about Offreds, not Dr. Fords.

Pope Francis, the otherwise radical leftist Pontiff, said this about abortion:

“Abortion isn’t a lesser evil, it’s a crime. Taking one life to save another, that’s what the Mafia does. It’s a crime. It’s an absolute evil.”

That Trump’s America takes Francis, who they otherwise detest, at his word about abortion clarifies any fellow traveler on the matter is welcome because, at the end of the day, it’s the mission that matters. There is no chasm between religious dogma and governance. Citing friend and foe alike is fine, what counts is that sense of right, the imagery of saving babies… and fighting criminals. A scared teenaged girl as Tony Soprano; if you can rationalize that, you can swallow anything. Can you do that? That’s the choice. BC