“Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.” (Carl Sagan); “Nothing ever dies on the Internet.” (anon.); “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” (Madison Ave. [m]adman). My posts amalgamate these three philosophical elements into one novel experience; they champion critical thinking, human dignity / equality, levelheaded / even-handed / liberty-based governance and solid environmental stewardship. C’mon in!
Back in 1980, during the Iran hostage crisis, on behalf of POTUS wannabe AND sneaky li’l shit Ronald Reagan, the private citizen and sneaky li’l shit William Casey, in flagrant violation of the 1799 Logan Act, undermined sitting President Jimmy Carter’s authority, by cutting a secret, quid pro quo deal with Iran. The Terms: Iran agreed to hold their American hostages until after the elections; thereby causing the voters to punish Democrat Carter and reward Republican Reagan. Soon after Inauguration Day, fraudulent president Reagan presided over the big payoff; namely, arranged for Israel to ship badass weaponry to Iran. The End!
Back in 2000, a corrupt, conservative bloc of U.S. Supreme Court judicial hacks blatantly denied Democrat POTUS wannabe Al Gore his legally requested recount of contested Florida ballots. Yep, the net effect was sneaky li’l shit judges had illegally elected sneaky li’l shit Republican George W. Bush. Scant months later, W, who was far more interested in the POTUS title, itself, than in actually doing that job’s heavy lifting, promptly flipped off his 08/06/2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, which had ominously forewarned of Osama bin Laden’s intent to nine-eleven America. Post attack, it was left up to W’s eager beaver handlers / image consultants to, somehow, rebrand / mutate that stick-figure, figurehead loser into some sort of caped, leotarded Super Hero (complete with codpiece). As such, little Georgie had risen from the Ground Zero ashes / rubble by 2004; at which time the voters had actually forgotten how W had let America down. Consequently, they rewarded that muck-up with a second term. The End!
Fast forwarding to 2020, bear witness to the sneaky li’l shit Republican and Fascist wannabe Donald J. Trump. Courtesy of journalist / author Bob Woodward’s phone interviews with Donny, we now know that the fake prez clearly understood, as early as January 2020, that the coronavirus pandemic would lay wholesale waste to American lives and livelihoods! YET, he repeatedly downplayed this deadly threat to humanity; didn’t even do the easy lifting to protect any of us (e.g., issuing a nationwide mask-up decree). His willful neglect allowed COVID-19 to go on a rampage; to the point where now, even HE has become infected by this scourge. So, will he hoodwink the voters into accepting the 215,000 Americans (and still counting), who’ve died on his watch? Will America’s electorate actually reward sneaky li’l shit Donald J. Trump another four or more years? Will this be The End?
History suggests such an outcome is more likely than not.
Tomorrow it’ll be 18 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks… since nearly 3,000 souls needlessly perished. What that breech of national security had actually proven is that who sits behind the Oval Office desk really, Really, REALLY does matter. Let’s explore this further by time tripping back to events circa the early 2000s.
• George W. Bush ascends the throne, owing to a corrupt rightwing Supreme Court majority ruling, which flat-out denies presidential wannabe Al Gore his legal right to a Florida ballot recount.
• In the role of the illegitimate prez, W soon realizes that his desire to be POTUS pales in comparison to his lust for that title.
• With such a lousy, lazy attitude, W totally flips off his August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing. What part of its dire, alarming, headlined warning does he not dig? Check it out…
• The ne’er-do-well prez proceeds to squander five weeks… doesn’t even lift a pinkie finger to beef up homeland security.
• The post 9/11 prez… in political panic mode… on the pretext of capturing ObL… plods onward to wage two, too little, too late, in the wrong “theater”, no-win wars. Along the way he even resorts to torturing / waterboarding the enemies of his own making.
• Next, W and his like-minded, legislative, fascist cronies… on the pretext of beefing up homeland security… all conspire to trot out the U.S. Patriot Act, which, like a vampire, promptly sucks the lifeblood from the body… i.e., the body of the U.S. Constitution.
• W’s legacy in the making? At home we witness the loss of Americans’ precious, sweet liberty. Abroad we discover the stench of war crimes / crimes against humanity and genocide… as well as the oceans of spilt red blood and red ink to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq… battles that do not even bring ObL to justice!
• So successful are W’s handlers that, in the “minds” of too many voters, they deem the dullard / coward incumbent a hero… so much so… they foolishly grant him a second term while denying his opponent… genuine war hero John Kerry, his victory.
For them to have bogusly deemed W to be presidential, only proves that some Americans can be groomed into accepting / empowering any disreputable, deplorable dunce imaginable. To prove my point, one need not look any further than the present-day Oval Office.
Let’s rehash George W. Bush… the 9/11 “prez”. For starters, his very rise to power hinged upon his mouthpieces and handlers successfully corrupting 5 of the 9 SCOTUS judges… coercing them into denying his opponent, Al Gore, what should’ve been the mandatory, statewide recount of the disputed Florida ballots.
In the end, W wound up stealing the 2000 elections… cheating his way into the Oval Office. The glaring irony… he had never actually wanted the presidency. He had amply demonstrated his disinterest by turning a blind eye to his 08/06/2001 Presidential Daily Briefing’s figurative, flashing red lights… a deaf ear to the accompanying, figurative, high decibel klaxons. What part of that PDB’s headline “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US” did he not comprehend?
That spot-on, invaluable intel had forewarned W of the imminent hijackings five full weeks before they went down. Why the hell… at the very least… had he not beefed up airport security?
OK… in all fairness… it’s totally possible such an effort would’ve proven insufficient to prevent 9/11. Nonetheless, he should’ve tried. But, instead, W went on vacation… and after a mere seven months into his first term.
And so, his slacking off allowed the jets to crash into the twin towers, five sided architecture and rural real estate… caused nearly 3,000 needless deaths. And so, he was caught with his commander in chief trousers down… staring into the cameras… caught in their unforgiving glare like the proverbial, dazed deer caught in the headlights.
At that point, his in a tizzy spin doctors and image consultants went into damage control mode to beef / stiffen up his flaccid, unpresidential image. Yep, they were already thinking way ahead towards his ’04 reelection campaign. To that end, they’d begun to mutate their little boy W into “The Boy Wonder”… the “blood and guts”, “rampaging”, “superhero” persona he never had and never would. He’d order US troops to pointlessly rampage into Afghanistan and Iraq… to bomb the crap out of them… to commit crimes against humanity such as the waterboarding / torturing of their captured POWs… to permit Osama bin Laden to flee.
And, as if that weren’t bad enough, already, W collaborated with US Congressmen to bulldoze and bury the US Constitution… to gut that once hallowed, Founding Father penned document of any promises that’d “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”
W’s legacy… He became an un-convicted war criminal and bank robber. He needlessly rolled out the tanks and tanked out the economy. He militarily splattered the red blood and monetarily splattered the red ink.
To keep it real… statistically, W blew away one million humans and blew one trillion bucks fighting his no-win, never-win war on terror.
All that had actually accomplished was to set the Republican, presidential expectations bar low. In other words… if the majority of American voters could put up with the stench of George W. Bush, they could easily go nose blind to the far worse stench of Donald J. Trump.
American Peabody Award winning journalist, newscaster and political analyst Gwen Ifill died at age 61 on 11/14/2016… her too brief life and career cut short by Cancer. TV viewers, who frequent PBS, will forever, fondly remember and admire her for both the off and on-the-air contributions she made to society.
As an African-American woman, she had been a trailblazer for and champion of racial and gender equality. As a consummate professional, her impressive résumé included being the moderator / managing editor of Washington Week in Review and co-anchor / managing editor of the PBS News Hour. In both capacities she was and will forever be a role model and inspiration to girls and women of all ages.
Even news watchers, who habitually turn elsewhere to less reliable sources for their “information”, will still likely have strong recollections of Ifill’s topnotch work as debate moderator during the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns.
With an ailment as grave and unpredictable as Cancer, we can only conjecture about its ups and downs… what ushers it into remission… what triggers it to rage out of control.
But, I truly believe, with all my heart, that Ifill’s sudden and far too soon demise is attributable to the horrific outcome of last week’s presidential election… the defeat of Clinton… Hillary’s loss to a misogynist and racist… his campaign, itself, having set back, by centuries, what little progress women and racial minorities have achieved, to date. It’s a certainty that Ifill had known fully well how, once that knuckle-dragging Neanderthal takes the oath of office, he’ll promptly bomb civilized society all the way back to the Stone Age.
In short, although her death certificate lists Cancer as the official cause, Gwen Ifill actually died of a broken heart.
I’ve witnessed, first hand, this phenomenon before. Back in 2003, it involved my own 89-year-old mother, who, to say the least, had been devastated and demoralized by the outcome of the 2000 presidential election… i.e., how George W. Bush and five corrupt, archconservative, bastard SCOTUS “judges” had colluded to deny Al Gore his legal right to a recount of the ballots in Florida… how their screwing over Gore had given birth to W’s illegitimate presidency.
My Mom’s deep depression had only worsened after W, the bungling incompetent, had gotten caught with his Commander-In-Chief pants down on 9/11, AND, in the post apocalyptic aftermath, when his too little / too late preserving, protecting and defending of America caused him to overreact… to strip all Americans of their Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.
In short, although her death certificate lists old age as the official cause, my Mom actually died of a broken heart.
Seeing how we liberals, at present, are sinking into the depths of our own post Election Day funk, we can only speculate on how much this is all shortening our own lifespans. Of course… all in all… that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Come Inauguration Day, when that tyrant begins his reign of terror, We the People, who oppose him, can take some solace in knowing that his depressing us to death… well… this could be our early ticket out.
For us, serving in Heaven (or even winding up in oblivion) would have to be infinitely preferable to watching him ruling in the Hell of his own making… than our being forced to exist within his Hell on Earth.
We’d also be able to rejoice in knowing that, once in Heaven / oblivion, we’d never be forced to cross paths with the likes of him again.
R.I.P. Gwen Ifill… at least there can be peace for you.
America’s Founding Fathers had conceived of the Electoral College to prevent voters from picking pathetic presidents. Unfortunately, too frequently, these College “students” have “flunked out”. They’ve failed to perceive negative character traits and ideological mutations, which pollute the political gene pool… breed true… resulting in one lousy administration propagating the next.
Let’s assign a title to this political procreative process…
The Book of Political Genesis
In the beginning there was Ronald Reagan’s revolting régime… which begat George H.W. Bush’s thousand points of blight… which begat Bill Clinton’s Animal House Oval Office… which begat war criminal / torturer George W. Bush’s reign of terror…
Ronald Reagan ~ In violation of Logan Act of 1799 (which expressly forbids private citizens from meddling in foreign affairs), private citizen Reagan executed an end run around President Jimmy Carter to cut a secret, dirty deal with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who agreed to delay releasing his 52 U.S. Embassy hostages. That made Carter look wimpy in the eyes of the voters and, in turn, assured Reagan victory. Reagan’s payoff to Khomeini was providing him sufficient quantities of US arms and spare parts to help Iran fight their war against Iraq.
In essence, Reagan had prolonged the hostages’ misery… indeed, had endangered their very lives… just for his own political gain.
With that dirty deal with Iran under his belt, Ronnie then raged onward to mercilessly bust labor unions and, via Reaganomics, devastate the American / global economy… plunge the middleclass into poverty… the already impoverished into abject squalor.
George H.W. Bush ~ Reagan’s VP succeeded his X-boss and succeeded at heaping yet another four years’ worth of Reaganomics manure upon the downtrodden masses. He wound up mucking up the U.S. economy so badly that the PO’d voters were more than ready to vote for a Democrat, instead.
Bill Clinton ~ His “It’s the economy, stupid,” presidential campaign catchphrase resonated well with average Jane and Joe voters. He had successfully ridden the tidal wave of voter discontent to rid America of GHWB.
Alas, Billy Boy’s inability to keep his pants zipped up only served to screw up his image. His Republican opponents constantly had him in political CYA mode. In other words, Billy’s infamous female intern, Monica Lewinsky, had helped him blow away a brighter future for America.
And that, in turn, tarnished the image of Clinton’s VP, Al Gore, who had had high hopes for perpetuating eight more years of Democratic Party values. Instead, Billy’s sexcapades had put the voters into a “throw the bums out” mood, which had afforded Gore’s Republican opponent, George W. Bush, the ILLUSION of maturity, morality and respectability.
George W. Bush ~ Knowing he could not win merely on smoke and mirrors, alone, he needed help. Entering stage (far) right was Florida Governor (and W’s own brother) Jeb, who gleefully corrupted the Sunshine State… morphed it into a devoid of free elections Banana Republic “nation”. The net result was a too close to call tally of that state’s ballots.
Following Election Day, for over one month, the political firestorm blazed. The flames were soon licking at the doors of the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court, where five rabidly unscrupulous, archconservative judges practically soiled their underwear in ecstasy while coming to the aid of the lawless Bush family. It hadn’t bothered them, in the least that their ruling had denied Al Gore the recount, which he had been legally entitled to. All that mattered to them was installing the corrupt King George II.
But, after only seven months in office, W had grown listless and bored. Ergo, he decided to take a much-undeserved vacation. So eager to slack off, he had flipped off his August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing… an ominous heads up, titled:
“Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US”
Had W heeded that warning, as it turned out, he would’ve had five weeks to beef up America’s defenses. Seeing how W had chosen not to lift one finger to thwart al Qaeda’s evil plot to take out America… did zip zero nothing to preserve, protect and defend America while Osama’s assault was going down… it becomes easy for us to conclude that the Bush 43 admin had actually wanted America to be attacked.
Even worse, W’s wranglers put a spin on his getting caught with his CIC pants down… created the flat out ILLUSION that their little wittle boy president was a big badass, courageous leader (well at least they correctly assessed the “ass” part of his image).
What ensued next was not a pretty picture. W opted to go to war against an ideology… one, which knows no specific geographical location. He first deployed the troops to bomb the crap out of Afghanistan’s boulders and dirt and then trained his crosshairs on Iraq’s oil.
W told bald-faced lies to the U.S. Senate to give them the impression that Saddam Hussein had ties to 9/11… to successfully dupe Senators into green lighting a bogus war against Iraq.
Ergo, on March 19, 2003, W needlessly deployed U.S. troops… unnecessarily put them in harms way. The resultant destabilization of that entire region has made our world a far more dangerous place.
As of my blog posting time, war criminal mass murderer / torturer W is the butcher who slaughtered an estimated 251,000 people, inclusive of 4,497 American troops.
Barack Obama ~ His administration has been the rare exception… one where recessive, good political traits have surfaced. Enjoy them while they last because his likely successor will be…
Donald Trump ~ He exhibits outrageously inappropriate ignorant, insensitive, incendiary, sexist, and racist attitudes which are totally unpresidential and do not represent what the real America is all about.
But, he is correct about one thing. His telling us the 2016 November elections will be rigged. But, what he isn’t telling us is that he will be the one who’ll be rigging them. Most assuredly, he has the wherewithal to muck everything up just to try to sate his own massive ego and political lust.
Since the Electoral College “class of 2016” is likely to flunk out just like their predecessors… Trump’s bad political traits will breed true. As for what that will begat?
CommonSenseTom 