#the dystopian truth of our world is never more clear than during the American political cycle!

[blurred-honey]

Want to write a banger dystopian novel? Just listen to antihero music, but here’s the real secret; you don’t have YouTube premium, so it’s cut together every 3-4 minutes with a fucking political ad! It’ll really add to the whole ambiance I swear, perfect dystopian mood setting

[thisisnotreallife]

Gut Feeling

A few years ago, I lost my best friend over an “I told you so” moment. She was one of those best friends that you feel--no, you know--is another part of yourself. It turns out she wasn’t, really, but lord, did we have some fun times. 

Anyway, it wasn’t actually an “I told you so” moment. It was a “Maybe I told you so, but...” moment, which--because nobody, and I mean nobody likes to hear those four words--she interrupted in anger before I could finish with the part that mattered most: “there are some things we have to find out on our own.” 

I have felt since late last spring, when it became clear that the DNC was to nominate Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, with utterly despairing certainty that Donald Trump would win the presidency. Disparage polling all you want--and surely many will, now--but the polls remained nearly the same from early on in the primary to general election results: by some forecasts of a Clinton-Trump matchup, Clinton could win by 1-2%, but by others, Trump by the same margin. The risk all along was too great, too uncertain so as to be certain in the opposite direction.

When I would tell a Clinton supporter during the primary that pitting Clinton against Trump in the general was a surefire way to give us, and the rest of the world, “President Trump” (and god, how terrible?), it was as if they had fingers in their ears, ostrich heads in the sand. 

When you know a truth and no one is listening to you scream it, it is the loneliest feeling in the world.

But I am not here to say “I told you so,” even though that is what I hissed through my teeth that Tuesday night in November when I wasn’t leaking tears or throwing back whiskey. Wednesday’s 8:00am class the next morning was not easy--not least of all reckoning with the knowledge that some in that room were not in mourning for our country as I was. Instead, I am here to reckon myself with the fact that--and of course this is true--there are some things we all have to find out on our own. As a college teacher, this is at the center of my philosophy, but as a human, it is easier to forget. 

What was not easy for me to forget throughout the entirety of this election cycle, however, was the anger palpable in the community around me. I could not forget Patrick’s Mexican-American students attending classes at the neighboring campus where he teaches who voted for Donald Trump--for reasons ranging from actual approval of his policies & ideas to a dislike of Clinton rooted not in her femaleness but in her perceived inability to be sincere, or in the case of one student, the release of the DNC emails that revealed a Clinton campaign reference to Latinx political outreach as “taco bowl engagement.”  

I could not forget the kindest man we have met here in eastern Oregon, a dedicated first responder and Trump voter, who brought ten dozen farm-fresh eggs from his “ladies” to his classmates in Patrick’s class, who trades me bread for eggs like some kind of a socialist, and makes me blush with how good he makes the bread out to be. I couldn’t forget his son, either, who--when they invited us to a local rodeo and shared their box seats with us--at one point cited statistics of higher crime rates amongst black Americans, and when I told him those statistics were manipulated and actually showed quite the opposite if you looked at them another way, said to me, “Huh. Okay, I believe that.” 

I could not forget my student, who wore a Make America Great Again hat to my class occasionally, who emailed me after I showed the class the documentary The Hunting Ground to say that he had been so moved by the message of the film that he was sitting down to show it to his girlfriend that same night. 

I could not forget my “liberal” colleagues or the people whom I left Facebook to get away from, who disparaged these people constantly, who relegated them all to the same category of “racist” or “sexist” or “deplorable,” despite their very real and very human qualities, despite their brown skin or their defense of women’s rights and consent, despite the fact that their views & perspectives that are considered backward are largely built out of a lack of knowledge, a lack of awareness, a lack of access to the same experiences and information that you have. 

What I became acutely aware during this past year, and perhaps since moving to Pendleton, is the fact that each American has a different set of information they are working with, and what that set of information contains depends on the media they consume and the people they surround themselves with, both virtually and physically. And no matter what the set of information contains, that is our only lens through which we view the world. 

Do you see how complicated the political divide is? Do you see how we have become the way we have become? Blocking and unfollowing to curate our feeds perfectly to reinforce our own ideas and confirm our own biases? And how ineffectual it is to scream epithets of ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’ when the people at whom you are screaming don’t understand history or current events in at all the same way that you do? 

America’s problem isn’t that one half of Americans have completely different values than the other half. It isn’t that one half of Americans are sexists and racists, or even that one half of Americans think racism and sexism is okay. 

America’s problem is with education and information. The problem is with insulation of ideas and beliefs. The problem is with a culture that does not encourage understanding, and instead encourages dichotomies. I don’t know about you, but I learned about the danger of binary thinking--red vs. blue, liberal vs. conservative, good politics vs. the other side--from my main man Jacques Derrida back in ENG313 at Western Washington University, and I never looked back. 

Know this: You are not different from a Trump voter. Sure, perhaps you are different from the Trump voter who is actually a virulent racist.* But you are not different from a Trump voter like Patrick’s egg-sharing student. You just have a different set of information. 

I began writing this post the day after the election, but it has sat, unfinished, in my Drafts folder since then. I haven’t wanted to think about politics much, or about what was going to happen today, on inauguration day, or for the next four years after. When I did, I felt sick to my stomach, and so I stopped reading the essays and articles and think pieces, stopped looking at Twitter and watching the news, unfollowed the blogs that were scapegoating varying voter demographics rather than placing the blame (where blame was due) with the Democratic Party who lost the election, and praised Obama that I had quit Facebook last June, so that I didn’t have to see what was going on in that unreality. 

I expect that, while I will follow policy changes and resist threats to our nation’s core values of freedom, equ(al)ity, and democracy, I will not be paying much attention to the news over the next few years. The media played its own part in today’s dystopian farce, and in many ways has only served to further the political divide we have now the monumental task of facing down.

I believe very strongly that the only way to move forward is to actually reject the divisiveness. I may not have believed that before moving to an area where my ideas and beliefs were in the minority--or perhaps more accurately to an area where most of the people had access to an entirely different set of information than my own, unlike when I lived in Seattle amongst (mostly) like-minded folks. 

But now that I have lived here, now that I have listened to friend after friend in insulated, liberal communities avow that they do not know a single Trump supporter and have felt confusion and disbelief since the election, I know that it is up to those of us who do feel sick with heartache and also fear in this moment to reach across the divide that is only there because of superficial reasons--reasons like access to information. And how sad, to let one’s access to information prevent you from thinking one is a good person, a person with whom it is worth working together toward a better future for our country. 

The day after the election, I had a text exchange initiated by my father with the two words “We’re fucked.” We discussed the importance of learning history, and of critical thinking, and we joked about the inanity of it all. And then, at the end, I thanked him, for raising me to be a compassionate & kind human being first and foremost, and then a thinker second of all. 

If these are our priorities--our true priorities, and in that order--then there is no chance that love won’t win. No chance at all. 

*Perhaps, but I tend to think not even then. 

[clubofinfo]

Expert: The US midterm elections are almost upon us, but this is a needless bit of inconsequential trivia. It really doesn’t matter. All the Republicans can win or all the Democrats.  Either way it means about as much as a fart in a category 5 hurricane. The net result of actions taken, legislature composed, or honesty with the populace will be inconsequential. The primary difference between the two parties, who are merely playing a game of good cop/bad cop, is only if you’d prefer to see a rapid more authoritarian style ecological collapse or if you’d prefer one with a soothing dulcet voice reassuring you everything will be fine at two minutes to midnight. Neither have a workable plan on the table to get the US in a sustainable ecological state before it all comes crashing down, nor do they have any notion of creating such a plan. The best the Democrats offer are conciliatory gestures in policy shifts, but they have not the wisdom, fortitude, or honest intent to stop the devilish system at the heart of the matter. During Obama’s presidency there was a time when the Democrats controlled the senate and the house and they showed their true motivations. They did nothing to pass policies to assuage the damage being done and stop the plunder of Earth for profit, or to end the wars, or to quell mass incarceration system. Even with total control we know what the Democrats offer amounts to platitudes. And keep in mind, even if the entirety of congress, SCOTUS, and POTUS were controlled by Democrats we still would not find ourselves in a sustainable society, as again, no workable sustainability assessment and plan of transition has ever been done by the party, nor do they care to do something which might lead to such blunt truths. Because those truths would mean decentralization of power and reduction of economic influence for the neoliberal class. Monied elites know the game, and their egos immediately nix any solution set that doesn’t focus the onus of power and attention directly on them. So what are we doing here in this system? We don’t have a pragmatic solution on the table to avoid ecological collapse, which is accelerating much faster than most think. Meanwhile the people are simultaneously being told by proponents of faux democracy that by not voting for one of the major political parties one is wasting a vote, and not voting at all is akin to a crime by their measures. What such people either don’t know or won’t admit to is that we are stuck in a system where a financial gun is held at the head of the people at all times. This communicates to the people that if you change, the elites will pull their money out of markets and go Galt. The powers that be will make sure you suffer for your insolence to stand against them. They’ll make finding a livable wage impossible and thus threaten the plebs housing, supply of food, and ability to get healthcare for no other reason than a puerile egotistical insistence that they get their way. They simply don’t care what happens to the people or mother Gaia. Their self interests are why they sought out power to begin with and they’ve devoted their lives to it, and they aren’t surrendering anytime soon. As it stands, this finger trap of a system will forever spin in place and only create varying levels of profit for capitalist interests. What the system won’t do is solve any of the real problems it has created because it’s been designed to operate to do exactly what it’s doing now, which is drive profits and power directly to the 1%. Democrats only push back enough with pretty sounding words to win your vote over the other guy they are running against, but they’re going to sell out just like their opponent because they themselves are part of the problem. If this sounds like I’m discouraging people from voting, then good. Fuck voting in this system designed to oppress. As the saying goes, if voting changed something they’d make it illegal. What should be common questions routinely go unanswered around the voting system, like why are we still dealing with the same issues generation after generation; e.g., homelessness. After a couple hundred years of voting it seems like we could have solved this issue as it’s rather easy to work out when there are enough structures to house everyone. And why would we construct a system at all that awards so much power to so few, and a system that is so corrupted that people ascertain by not voting it leads to tyranny. The system itself should never allow for such a thing, but it’s innately authoritarian in premise, and continuing to vote and pretending like it makes a difference is false hope. It’s like tugging on the controls on an arcade machine without inserting a quarter, where it kinda looks like you’re making something happen on the screen, but everything is on rails. Your input makes zero difference in this undemocratic system which is designed to ignore you. And in response to the hordes of people who will insist that not voting is irresponsible and support the age old lie that if we just can get the right people in power then, then, the system will turn around – Such naive assertions should be met with a dose of reality which is glaringly clear through a cursory look at history. Such people should have to explain at what point in time there has been a sea change in our system from where it started from genocidal slavers to benevolent rulers, because such a change is nonexistent, and all one need do to figure this out is pick up a copy of Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States. What’s been there from the get go to present is abuse, stemming from the very origins of western civilization and top down social hierarchy. When the people claim they achieved a victory what they have really achieved amounts to a gesture that shuts them up. It’s analogous to a hungry child crying that has just irritated their abusive parent enough they finally concede to give them an extra morsel of food. The child then celebrates like they won a battle; however, the child is still in the abusive state but now thinks their wails do something. What they don’t realize is if they get annoying enough what they will be met with is not another conciliatory gesture but a beating. Thus I call on the people to grow a spine and stand up to our abusers. Stop choosing between which pro-mass-murder psychopath in a suit you want ruling over you and start fighting for something worth having. Should we not at least try to come up with some kind of plan as a people to organize a real solution that could potentially shake monied elites from their elevated perches? If we are to change, then a real stand has to be made against this archaic and draconian system of social hierarchy presently installed because the powerful aren’t going away and they cannot be reasoned with. They have no plans of surrendering their ill gotten gains accumulated over several centuries of abusive behavior. Many of our problems are very solvable, as they are merely the result of childish power grabs and a desire to control the labor of others. By not subscribing to this system it doesn’t mean giving up, it means shifting focus. It means incorporating real pragmatism to stop the nose dive into dystopian apocalypse and take a swing at a sustainable egalitarian borderless global society where humanity finally rids itself of the parasites who continue to insist they are more crucial to the world than the hosts they feed from. If we rid ourselves of those arrogant parasites and their system of abuse, we will find freedom again. A freedom like Native Americans and Aboriginals knew for thousands of years before the bloodsuckers latched upon us. Many will find this vantage point to be highly impractical, but I find naive half-assed solutions, endless extreme unnecessary suffering, and a trajectory leading directly to societal collapse to be far more impractical Revolt! Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. — Dylan Thomas http://clubof.info/

[nothingman]

After 100 days, if things aren’t as different or as altered as you expected them to be under President Donald Trump, it’s not for lack of trying on his part. You only need to look at his 100-day action plan, which he unveiled in October, to see what Trump himself had expected to accomplish during his first months as president. For a reality check, read NPR’s annotated version to see how much the president has actually achieved.

As I thought about what my expectations were for Trump’s presidency back in January, I realized the darker scenarios I envisioned were not exaggerated fabrications of my imagination, but real possibilities based on reports about what Trump was planning to do. Thankfully, many of his plans were stymied as he was stood up to by the courts, the press, his advisors, and the voters. That is to say, if Trump’s America is not as alarming as I expected, it’s not because Trump’s a more democratic and careful leader than I gave him credit for, but because American institutions have, so far, stood up to his worst impulses.

So, here are 10 things that Trump has attempted during his first 100 days, which if he succeeded, the country might look and feel a lot different. 

10 Times Trump Was Stopped (in no particular order):

Michael Flynn — The country dodged a bullet when Flynn, Trump’s national security advisor, resigned on Feb. 13. Flynn is being investigated by the FBI for his connections and communications with the Russian government while part of the Trump campaign and during the transition. Since leaving government he’s registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department for lobbying work he did for Turkey throughout last year, and he’s requested immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying. It’s since come out that he failed to disclose a $45,000 payment from the state-sponsored Russian television network RT on a 2016 security clearance application, which could lead to felony charges and jail time.

While he had a long career as a well-respected military intelligence officer, Flynn’s behavior since he joined the Trump campaign (yelling “Lock her up!” at the Republican National Convention) left former military and Pentagon colleagues shocked about how he appeared to be changing. While serving in the White House, Flynn seemed eager to lead the US into war with Iran and ready to promote an Islamophobic national security policy.

His replacement as National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, brings none of the controversy — either in style or substance — that Flynn embraced. For one, he doesn’t think using the term “radical Islamic extremism,” is a panacea for today’s terrorism problems. McMaster has also tried to make some personnel changes at the National Security Council, getting rid of some of Flynn’s people and creating his own team of more experienced policy advisors. Although, he hasn’t always been successful. That we now have a well-respected expert in McMaster advising Trump on national security and foreign policy instead of someone with a record as worrisome as Flynn’s is a huge win for the American public. 

The Inauguration that Wasn’t — Trump’s inauguration — with his “American carnage” speech, the fight over crowd size, and the unusual entertainment — was a bit dystopian, but it could have been worse. First, the Trump team played with the idea of adding tanks and missile launchers to his Inauguration Day parade, but the idea fizzled partially due to pushback from the Pentagon, which worried it would resemble the military parades of countries like North Korea, and that the heavy military equipment could damage D.C. roads. Trump also weighed giving Fox News the exclusive rights to televise the event, but Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide, told him that was crazy.

Muslim ban — Trump’s campaign website still has the Dec. 2015 press release, which states, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” His first travel ban executive order, signed in January, was a step toward achieving this vision, but 24 hours after it was signed, a federal judge in Brooklyn blocked its enactment, staying deportations. She wasn’t alone in her decision: a federal appeals court eventually ruled against it too. So, the Trump administration went back to the drawing board and published a revised version of the order, which was also quickly blocked by the courts. This legal battle is not yet over, and may wind up at the Supreme Court, but so far, Trump’s case for banning immigration to the US from six Muslim-majority countries is not convincing the country’s judges that it’s necessary, and more importantly, that it’s legal.

Meanwhile, just this week, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled against Trump’s executive order aimed at punishing Sanctuary Cities through denying them federal funds. Had Trump’s executive orders not run into these legal challenges, it’s safe to say that many would feel that the US had become an even less welcoming, more paranoid, and less safe place than it is today.

Torture — Trump really wanted to bring back torture and he was not shy about it. A draft executive order was prepared that would “clear the way for the C.I.A. to reopen overseas ‘black site’ prisons,” where prohibited interrogation techniques could potentially be revived. Only problem was: his pick to lead the Defense Department, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, told him early on it was a bad idea and Trump decided to defer to him. After it was leaked, the draft executive order was never finalized.

Repealing Obamacare — Undoing former President Barack Obama’s landmark legislation was a central campaign promise for Trump. But despite controlling the House, Senate and the presidency, the Republican Party has been unable to do so, thanks largely to policy disagreements between different factions of the GOP. Angry voters who didn’t want their health insurance taken away didn’t help either. With the arbitrary 100-day deadline fast approaching, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration are taking one more stab at it, but it will be an uphill, and potentially politically damaging, battle again.

The Wall — “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” This was practically a mantra for Trump on the campaign trail. But 100 days in, Mexico has made it clear that it’s not paying for Trump’s wall, and neither is Congress. To avoid a government shutdown, Trump had to drop his demand that funding for his wall be included in the short-term spending bill being debated by Congress this week. While Trump and his advisors say the wall will eventually be built, and that Mexico will somehow be convinced to pay for it, the truth is: voters don’t really want it, and even lawmakers from the border region where the wall would be built weren’t supportive of Trump’s funding request.

European Trumps are failing — Trump is part of a new wave of populist leaders who are gaining in popularity not just in the West, but around the world. No doubt, Trump’s embrace of autocratic leaders marks a dangerous and depressing departure for the US, and promises to diminish American power, which has always been amplified by America’s promotion of democratic values. But Trump’s support (plus meddling by the Russians) is not always proving decisive in European elections, and for this we can be very grateful. The likely defeat of people like Marine Le Pen in France and the March election loss for Geert Wilders in the Netherlands mean things are not as bad as they could be.

International Institutions — Trump has flipped on NATO, deciding it’s not so obsolete after all (and he’s admitted that he didn’t fully understand the organization or what it did before he became president). And he’s also seemingly changing his views on the UN. Before, he thought it was “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” But this week, Trump told a working lunch of UN Security Council ambassadors that he thinks it “has tremendous potential.” This could just be talk, and Trump’s intent for the US to retreat from its leadership role at the UN could still be realized. But a draft executive order that would drastically reduce US funding to the UN and other international organizations has never materialized. Neither has a separate draft order that was leaked to The New York Times titled, “Moratorium on New Multilateral Treaties,” which asked for which negotiations or treaties the US should leave.

Political opponents are not in jail — This is when you realize how low the bar has been set for Trump, but I think we can all be grateful that Trump hasn’t “Locked her up.” Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail that Hillary Clinton “has to go to jail” because of the scandal over her email server. After he won the election, he told 60 Minutes that he wasn’t sure yet whether he was going to ask for a special prosecutor to investigate her, but that he didn’t want to hurt the Clintons. “They’re good people,” he said. Trump has since accused Obama of committing a felony by illegally wiretapping Trump Tower, a charge that no one in the government — from the FBI to members of Congress — has seen evidence to support. Trump also told the New York Times that he thinks Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice also committed a crime for her role in the made-up wiretapping scheme, an accusation for which there is no proof either. Trump’s baseless accusations are misleading the American public, especially Trump’s base, but they have not led to political witch-hunts backed by the resources of the US government. So … phew.

Robust press — Trump has labeled the media the “enemy of the people,” and constantly tweets about “Fake News,” whenever he doesn’t like a story about him or his administration. Of course, Trump threatens press freedoms and he’s successfully convinced his voters not to trust negative stories about him — whether they’re about infighting in his administration or the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into allegations his campaign colluded with the Russian government during the election. But Trump hasn’t been able to stop journalists from doing their jobs, even if he’s making them work a bit harder to sift through the administration’s lies. And he’s also been good for the media business. Shares of New York Times Co. have been up 30 percent since Trump was elected. And even Trump admits — through his repeated conversations and interviews with the paper — that you still need to talk to the “Failing New York Times” if you’re president. In January, the White House toyed with moving the press corps out of the White House to a nearby building and to hold briefings somewhere other than the West Wing. Not only was this shot down, but White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s daily press briefings draw big tv audiences and the journalists who hammer him with questions are better known now than they were pre-Trump. It is fair to say, American journalism is alive and as well today as it was before Trump became president (which is to say, it still suffers major problems).

***

Things are not as bad as they could be under Trump, but this should by no means inspire complacency, because things are also worse than they seem. We are getting used to a new normal, and the “unthinkable is now unremarkable.” Trump has managed to quickly and easily erode all sorts of norms and standards for government ethics and presidential conduct. His administration has announced its intent to roll back government regulations across the board, from banking rules that protect consumers to environmental standards put in place to make sure the air we breathe and the water we drink is safe. The government is understaffed and his foreign policy is unpredictable and at times reckless. When it comes to corruption and conflicts of interest, Trump has stunned his worst critics: not divesting from his business and spending almost every weekend at Mar-a-Lago, all while his sons, whom he speaks to frequently, expand the Trump brand across the world. And even if he’s lost Flynn, he’s still got Stephen Bannon, Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions and Sebastian Gorka whispering in his ear. The list could go on and on. The thing to remember is: Trump is going to keep trying to test the legal, ethical, and democratic limits of his presidency, and it’s up to American institutions — the press, the courts, civil servants, Congress, and voters — to push back and defend the Constitution and American values when Trump and his staff set out to trample them.

Image: Drew Angerer/Getty

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[scoutshonor56]

Viva La Trump!

Here you go America, a bloated, vainglorious, dumpy-assed, absolutely clueless orange-skinned buffoon, with more plugs in his head than a third-rate, high school football field with cheap, second-hand Astroturf (donated by one of the nicer schools after they converted to natural grass)... and YOU elected him!

 Clueless?  Come on Bob, you’re being a little harsh aren’t you?  I mean, after all, this guy is a billionaire and successful businessman, surely he knows something… ah, no he isn’t a successful businessman - see continuing lawsuits over questionable business practices (mostly stiffing contractors), multiple bankruptcies, and a failed “University” that was sued, resulting in a quietly and conveniently settled lawsuit (coughing up $25 million) just after he became “president” - and no, he does not “know something”, other than the fact that every time he signs a piece of paper at a White House desk he comes a little in his pants, but that’s a whole other blog.  

 Go ahead, take the Pepsi challenge: I dare you to watch this 8 minute clip from Thursday night’s “The Daily Show” and not want to run out of your house screaming with a large can of gasoline to then set yourself on fire like a Buddhist monk.  Not want to rummage around in that kitchen drawer that contains all the crappy gadgets that you thought you just had to have but never use, looking for that “Home Lobotomy” kit.  Go ahead!    

 Yes America, you elected this imposter – you let it happen. Oh, “but Clinton won the popular vote…”; “if it wasn’t for our antiquated Electoral College system…”  Please – just stop.  The fact that this clown wasn’t exposed and vetted out within the first 4 months of the primaries, let alone won, is all the evidence this court requires.  Let me be perfectly clear: my issue isn’t just with Donald J. Trump; my issue is equally with an irresponsible media that traded in its journalistic integrity for ratings; my issue is equally with the millions of Americans who are SO STUPID, and SO GULLIBLE that they bought what this pompous, preening asshole was selling like a cure for baldness.  My issue is equally with a voting populous who now are able to selectively shop for their “news” like they do for a box of cereal or a set of new tires.  “Oh, I only buy Bridgestone!”  Well, get ready for a lot of flats all you Gomers and Thelma Lu’s, and hopefully a recall.

 Even ultra-conservative editorialist Charles Krauthammer, who regularly wrote about our last president like he was the illegitimate love child of Angela Davis and Karl Marx, has of late been harshly critiquing Trump as dangerously ill-informed, with grandiose, self-driven motives that will ultimately bring this country and our international standing down to an unprecedented level.  

 When Chuck starts slamming a GOP president, we’ve clearly got a red flag the size of my bed sheet.

 But let’s focus this story a little bit; let’s take a look today at one of Donny’s biggest campaign banner issues: the building of a border wall. Odd that so many in the GOP party are standing behind this, as Ronald Reagan, the man who they adore with the fervor and intensity equal only to the Catholic church’s deification of saints, once famously stood at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany (June 12, 1987), and delivered probably his most famous line, "Mr.Gorbachev, tear down  this  wall!"  As the world approached the end of the 20th century, even Ronnie knew that from both a political and economic standpoint, fences and walls were a thing of the past; holdovers from a different era, when nationalism and isolationism held sway.  Any politician today under the age of 50 knows that in this 21st century, openness and cooperation – even with your enemies – is the heart of a relationship that greases the wheels of true world powers and their economy.  

 Even stripped down to an ideological core, walls represent one thing and one thing alone – division.  KEEP OUT! says the sign on either side.  In today’s world, those few still left who think they can go it alone, with only their self interest as a primary motivator and negotiation tool, are doomed to stagnate and wither on the vine as they watch their competitors race by.  Today the world is interconnected in ways never seen before; sorry all you Trumpsters with your eyes nostalgically glued to a past never to return, it is now more than ever a techno-global community, and everybody gets to play.  You don’t play smart and you will all too soon be sitting out the game.  May as well get yourself a beer and some snacks, go into the living room, and binge watch re-runs of “The Apprentice” on Netflix.  

 Speaking of which, only Donny could come up with a show that climaxes every week with him yelling at some poor bastard, “You’re fired!!”  Oh, the gleeful sentiment!

  Latest estimated cost of Donny’s version of the Great Wall of China, complete with 10ft. tall DJT gold letters on both sides every other mile? Upwards of $25 billion.  And once again the core of my anger with this current GOP party lies in its hypocrisy. For eight years we were treated to their hair-pulling hysterics about Obama “shoving things down our throat”, and “big government interference”, yet they are now ready to back a massive folly that is not only antiquated and self-destructive, but THAT NO ONE WANTS!  I’ve lived here in Texas for forty years now, and I read a lot – every day.  Nor is this the first time the ridiculous idea of a border wall been brought up. Every administration change since the year 2000 this rancid proposal floats to the surface like a bloated corpse, filled with noxious, conservative Republican gases.  But trust me when I say you would be hard-pressed to find a single politician or local law enforcement agency in favor of a nearly 2,000 mile long wall running through their state, be they in California, Arizona, New Mexico, OR Texas.  

 You know, what the hell, just a suggestion, but before we let another bloated gasbag talk about a border wall, maybe we should check in with the people who actually live there and would be affected; you know, the folks who live, work, and raise family’s along the southern border of these four states.

 Nope - not our new fearless leader.  He rolls with whatever stirs the fears of his rabid followers.  So let’s begin this issue by debunking one of Donny’s biggest lies that he is effectively selling only to the bitter and racist xenophobes who lead their lives looking for someone other than themselves to explain their personal and professional failures.  

“Illegal border crossing is rampant!  They’re stealing our jobs!!”  And of course, according to Trump’s fear-mongering campaign rhetoric, also raping our women, flooding the country with drugs, and murdering our innocent citizens.  Oh Donny, Donny, Donny… unfortunately, another one of those inconvenient truths, or “facts”, that you habitually refuse to acknowledge or accept, is the FACT that illegal border crossing has been declining since our economy went bust in 2008.  I cite a 2016 article from “The Atlantic” here, but if you don’t like that one, feel free to refer to “FACTANK”, a feature of the Pew Research Center.  As a matter of FACT, according to the Washington Post, fewer “illegals” crossed our southern border during Obama’s tenure than during the Bush administration.  

 But the crime!  THE CRIME!!  Our border towns are a bloody battle zone filled with hoards of violent, fence-jumping, pillaging miscreants!  Actually, contrary to the fearful rhetoric of Donny’s Inauguration speech, which portrayed not just our border, but our entire nation as a gutted out, crime-ridden, dystopian hell-hole, violent crime across the country has been steadily dropping for the last twenty years, and the statistics prove it out.  These same statistics hold true in our southern border town communities: according to a recent Texas Tribune, people there are much safer when compared to their larger, urban brother cities of Texas.  

 But hey, this is the age of “don’t let facts get in your way”, so if you prefer, go ahead – be afraid. Live in fear.  “They” are out there, and they’re coming for you, your women, and your possessions!  Quick, better pack the kids in the car and get down to the local gun store.  

 Speaking of His Highness’s Inauguration speech – ah, so uplifting, so hopeful - did you hear the good news?  One of King Assclown’s first actions in office was to whip out his pen and declare his Inauguration Day as an official “National Day of Patriotic Devotion”!  Jesus fucking Christ, sit down Kim Jung-un you amateur you!  

 But back to Assclown’s wall.  I just can’t help but be amazed at the fact that when talking about a wall along our southern border, ANYONE would even entertain the opinions or thoughts of a pampered billionaire blow-hard who lives in a penthouse occupying the top three floors of a 58 story tower in downtown Manhattan, overlooking Central Park, and pimped out in 24K gold and imported marble.  Well, other than to admit he certainly knows something about seclusion… By the way, I took the liberty of including this link, just so you could take a peek at “this man of the people” and his urban crib; after checking it out I’m sure you’ll agree that he obviously interacts on a daily basis with plenty of working class folks and Hispanics!  Come on, remember his tweet on last year’s Cinco de Mayo day?  “The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”  See?  He’s obviously sort of a modern day melding of Che Guevara and Robin Hood, adored by the common masses.

 OK, let’s back up a little and focus even further on the home turf - Texas: I read somewhere that back in the 1800’s, folks fleeing to Texas in search of a better life would leave their homes and chalk GTT on their doors, letting friends and neighbors know that they had “Gone To Texas”.  Well, back in the late ‘70’s and throughout the ‘80’s, Texas was again being seen as the new land of opportunity and a fresh start to thousands of people fleeing the Northeast and Midwest for greener (and warmer) pastures.  Back in those heady times a similar sentiment was expressed: “Not from Texas, but I got here as soon as I could!”, and it was soon popularly seen on bumper stickers and T-shirts that you would see around town.  No, I never owned or displayed one, but one of those “carpet-bagging Yankees” was me, back in the winter of 1976/77 and at the ripe and blissfully optimistic age of 20.  My point being, I know Texas as well as any Texan; I’ve lived here my entire adult life, even marrying a local who was born and raised right here in Houston.

 Upon my arrival, it didn’t take me long, even back then, to observe that my newly adapted home, like all Texas cities, exercised what I would call a “soft” view, or attitude, toward our Hispanic neighbors and the workforce they provided; it’s just the way it was and will continue to be, and any true and honest Texan will admit it.  It’s called reality.  According to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, the Hispanic demographic will continue to drive the majority of growth in our Texas' population, which is expected to double to 50 million by 2050; and all projections point to a state that will be three fifths Hispanic by then.

 And now, along comes Trump.  So why does he obsess so over Mexico?  Well, Houston Chronicle’s business section columnist, Chris Tomlinson, had a few thoughts on that yesterday:

 “President Trump’s proposal to levy a 20% tariff on imports from Mexico is geopolitical bullying of the worst kind and could have dramatic consequences. When it comes to our foreign trade deficit, Mexico is not even close to our biggest problem.  But Trump doesn’t have the guts to go after more powerful countries, so he leverages American prejudices to kick around Mexico, our much smaller and less wealthy neighbor.”  

Hmmm - ends out our trade deficit with Mexico is only $60.6 billion, while that of China is a whopping $367B.  Germany - $74.9B.  Japan – 68.6B.  Out of our five largest trade partners, only Canada has a smaller deficit than Mexico ($15.5B).  And who wants to fuck with Canada, am I right Donny?  I mean, they’re, well… white.

 Tomlinson goes on: “Trump’s proposed tariff would destroy the largest free trade agreement in the world, trigger a trade war, and drive up the prices of everything we buy from Mexico by at least 20%.  This would also force Mexico to build stronger trade ties with China, while ruining our alliance with our southern neighbor.”  

 “So what”, you say – “who buys shit from Mexico anyways?”  Texas does.  In 2015 we bought $84B in goods while exporting $92B worth.  That’s right, Texas has an $8B trade surplus with Mexico.  And in regards to Trump’s other targeted international agreements, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership)?  To paraphrase Chris Wallace, president of the Texas Association of Business, and quoted in Tomlinson’s editorial, “Texas is the largest exporting state and one of the largest importing states, and by dismantling these trade agreements Texas could suffer severe repercussions.  There is no question that Texas has benefitted more than any other state from NAFTA and will be hurt the most if it is killed.”

 Now imagine Houston’s dismay when our ship channel, America’s busiest seaport, heard the news that President Assclown has already backed out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP). In the last five years or so we spent millions on widening and deepening the channel and installing a new, huge, state of the art multiple crane system to accommodate today’s larger ships and growing shipping industry.  Now, all for naught.  It’s like spending years preparing an Olympic team for competition, then only to see the games get cancelled.  This will greatly affect Texas jobs and will add up to millions and millions in lost revenue.  Briefly back to Krauthammer and his editorial yesterday:

 “We are embarking upon insularity and smallness.  Nor is this just theory.  Trump’s long-promised but nonetheless  abrupt withdrawal  from the Trans-Pacific Partnership is the momentous first fruit of his foreign policy doctrine.  Last year the prime minister of Singapore  told John McCain  that if we pulled out of the TPP ‘you’ll be finished in Asia.’  He knows the region.”

 Are you getting a sense yet, of the brilliance of Donny’s business acumen?  A man who through decades of “in the trenches”, high-level corporate boardroom experience seems to intuitively know his customer and how best to maximize their profit?  I know I am!

 So Bravo Mexican President  Enrique Peña Nieto, who this week chose to back out of his visit with Trump and the White House.  Let’s face it, what would be the point?  Way to go Donny, barely a week in office and already getting cancellations from world leaders!  I think Nieto mentioned there was a scheduling conflict, apparently that was the day he usually straightens out his sock drawer…

 In closing, last night, as I was writing this very blog, around 9:00 I heard quite a continuing festive clamor coming from my open front window up here on the third floor of my apartment building, so I decided it would be a good time to take my ever-faithful companion, Bear, out for a walk and investigate.  It was a nice, clear and cool evening, and as we turned around the block and headed toward the main thoroughfare in my neighborhood, Yale St., I was taken back when I saw a veritable parade of brightly (even gaudily) lit, bicycles and riders of all ages filling the street and spilling out onto the sidewalks, many bearing speakers that were blaring out Hispanic music - awesome!  Curious as to the nature of the celebration, I stopped and chatted with one of the celebrants who was taking a break on the sidewalk.  He told me there’s a group that does this every last Friday of the month, and they start downtown (about 5 miles east of here) before riding out into the surrounding neighborhoods.  Moms, dads, kids, flags and music and smiles – FUCK YOU Trumpasita, that’s the true heart of American spirit and patriotism today, and it’s alive and free, and will not be contained or held back by your false and divisive proclamations issued from your new palace in Washington. My advice to Melania?  Ahh, might want to hold off for 3 or 4 months before ordering all the new furniture and drapery – just sayin’…