Monday, January 22, 2018

Gratitude Monday: hope in dark times

Right after the 2016 election, I gave my thoughts on what we were in for with the least-qualified president in history (yes, worse than Warren G. Harding and James Buchanan). While I was right that we were in for a nightmare, I actually grossly underestimated the scope of the possibilities for catastrophe. I’d been counting on the checks and balances put in place by the founding fathers, and did not anticipate the level of sycophancy to which the GOP in Congress would sink—turns out they’ve all had their spines and their consciences surgically removed, and their only position is self-abasement before the Chaos Monkey in hopes that they can retain control of the legislative branch (and therefore access to their big donors’ money).

At this point, I have no words for the lot of them, from Ryan and McConnell on down. There are a few who talk tough, but in the end vote for whatever the Kleptocrat has decreed. The founding fathers, having just fought a war against a system of government based on the Divine Right of Kings, just never imagined they’d have to hardwire in protections against a class of legislative toadies. Oops.

In the year since the inauguration (fun fact: not only was the event sparsely attended, but turns out that many of those who did show up were Russian “businessmen”, hoping to be first through the door to cut deals with their new tovarich-in-chief; quelle surprise), we’ve seen a constant stream of lies; missteps; unconstitutional executive orders; playground-bully diplomacy; assaults on consumers, immigrants, workers, science,the environment, our allies, history and basically everyone/thing that doesn’t fit into his view of Those Who Can Further Enrich Me. He and his Keystone Kops Kabinet have made the United States an international laughingstock, as he blusters and preens, while the GOP keeps nodding and applauding him.

(I personally had never imagined that we would witness a group of high officials go round the room and give public thanks to God on camera for the opportunity to serve any elected official, much less an American one—but we have, twice. So far.)

And every single revelation of yet another scummy, disgusting behavior only makes his supporters like him all the more. Because he is living proof that—when they win the Powerball—they too can be as disgusting and scummy as he is, and no one will turn away from them. This is especially true of his “Christian” supporters, who have been remarkably silent about his affair with a porn star that began four months after his third wife gave birth and continued for a year. They’re apparently not only down with the adultery, but with him paying the woman $130,000 hush money a month before the 2016 election. Hey—if that was necessary to put a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, ignorant xenophobe with no notion of governing and no human empathy into office, then it was clearly God’s will, and therefore money well spent. (Well, okay—they’re used to that sort of payoff from the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.)

That ignorance of how government works has resulted in this administration looking like amateur hour, from the first immigration bans (overturned again and again by the courts) down to the current government shutdown. Mitch McConnell (R-Bring-back-slavery) basically said he’d be all for whatever the Chaos Monkey wanted, if he could just figure out what that is. And Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared on the Senate floor that trying to deal with the Orange One is like “negotiating with Jell-O.” Klepto, of course (and his supporters) thinks that’s good business practice, when in fact it’s ineptitude.

And so here we are at the #TrumpShutdown.

(I make it a point never to use the Kleptocrat’s name online, because I don’t want to contribute to his Klout score, even if the context is negative; he and his ilk think that every mention of him attests to his greatness. However, given his/their pathetic attempt to place the blame for the current federal shutdown—the result of a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House’s inability to pass even another Continuing Resolution on the budget—on Democrats, has led me, this once, to include this hashtag, which burns his bacon: #TrumpShutdown. Feel free to use it on every social media account you have.)

The Kleptocrat had Air Force One’s engines all warmed up to fly him down to Florida on Friday, so he could get another weekend of golf in and be the star of a fundraiser at his West Palm Beach club. He had every intention of going there no matter what, but someone (my money’s on John Kelly) took away his car keys and told him the optics of him doing that while the government ground to a halt would be bigly bad. So he reverted to type and tweeted how the Democrats were being mean and making him suffer!

As Saturday came and went, with no escape to Florida and counting the $100,000- and $250,000-a-couple gate for the “celebration” of his inaugural anniversary, I’m picturing a toy-tossing tantrum of titanic proportions at the White House. (The event went on, although I wonder if there were refunds of the $250,000 tickets, which included participating in a “roundtable” with the Kleptocrat. No Klepto, no roundtable, so… Yeah, okay, no—obviously it’s harder to pry money out of the Chaos Monkey’s tiny hands than to get sense out of one of his supporters. So there were no refunds.) At any rate, I would not want to be the White House staffer who had to bring him his 14th Diet Coke of the day.

But, hey—you want to celebrate the achievements in the first year of this #shithole administration? How about these for starters: first to be elected with the help of a hostile foreign power; most days vacationing; most games of golf played; least number of bills signed; lowest approval ratings; most provable lies; most cabinet firings/resignations; most criminal indictments. (Also: first to make one of George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on TV publishable in broadsheet newspapers.)

So that’s where we are today. But there’s cause for hope, and therefore for gratitude.

A year ago, I reported on my experience at the Women’s March on DC. There was so much to describe, it took me all week (here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here). It was an extraordinary day, not only being part of it in DC, but also knowing that women (and men and children) across the country and around the world came out in their millions to serve notice that they weren’t going to stand idle while a pussy-grabbing (and—as we now know—porn star-banging) ignoramus used the planet as his personal piggy bank.

By way of reminder, here’s a comparison of the how the National Mall looked at the Kleptocrat’s inauguration:


Versus the same real estate an hour before the Women’s March on DC was supposed to have begun:


This year I was unable to join the first anniversary march, being laid up with what I’m hoping is not the flu. But I am greatly heartened by the reports of hundreds of thousands of women and men and children who took to the streets in US cities in every state, and tens of thousands more who did the same around the world—to remind those who try to pervert the principles of democracy and decency that we the people will resist and we the people will prevail.

(I—and thousands of others—got a laugh out of him tweeting about the great weather across the country on Saturday being perfect for marchers to get out and celebrate all his accomplishments. Although it is concerning that delusions of tertiary syphilitic proportions seem to be the guiding lights for someone with this much power.)

I am grateful today for these people, and the millions of more like them, for literally standing up and being counted. I am grateful today for the voters in elections around the country—from Alabama to Minnesota—serving notice that even in the face of GOP voter suppression, we the people reject the party of plutocrats and racists. I am grateful today for the 23 (so far and counting) congressional Repugnants who’ve announced their retirement or resignation because they know they wouldn’t win if they ran again, or because they’re fleeing the results of being caught out in various crimes. (I resent every nickel in retirement pay they’re getting, and look forward to the door hitting their butts on the way out.) I am grateful today for Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III—USMC combat veteran of Vietnam, former director of the FBI; and generally acknowledged straight-arrow, unflappable, untouchable in pursuit of the truth—and his team, who are continuing their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election despite the #TrumpShutdown, and despite the efforts of GOP apparachiks in fear of being uncovered for their own kompromat to close down the investigation.

And I’m grateful today for a new crop of Democratic politicians who are standing up for the interests of all, regardless of ability to grease their palms. Like Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill., and Lt. Col. USA, Ret.), who lost both legs and suffered damage to an arm when an RPG shot down the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq. A few years ago, while in the House of Representatives, Duckworth neatly flayed a federal contractor with a “disabled veteran” status whose “disability” came from injuring his foot…playing football at a military prep school.

So watch her this weekend flay the five-time-Vietnam-era-draft-deferred Chaos Monkey for flying the false flag that the #TrumpShutdown will cripple and penalize our armed services.


I love her choice of words—she won’t refer to him as president, just current occupant of the White House.

This year has taken a toll on me—the actions of #CadetBoneSpurs, his appointees and his congressional toadies scare the bejesus out of me and depresses me, both for my own future, but also for that of the country, the world and the future. It’s true that the evil that men do lives after their time in power, and we’ll have a crap ton of evil to clean up after this lot are frogmarched out of office. But this weekend’s activities give me hope—the reminder that we march, we run, we vote and we take backand for that I am grateful.



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