Transactional Democracy

This is not about political ideology. This caravan of corruption does not represent a political methodology or follow a philosophical party platform. They do not stand for principled values or practice fiscal restraint. Today’s GOP is a cult. They advocate for nothing more than the Rapture, guns, and personal enrichment. Everything else, whether individual rights, racial or gender equality, or systems of government is negotiable, viewed as a commodity in the “art of the deal”.

That’s what is truly scary. They view their success in strictly transactional terms. They function in an us verse them paradigm where their side only wins when the other loses. The more “they” have, the greater America is #MAGA.

Consider the implications! Those who adhere to Trumpism, the modern day GOP, is openly rooting against more than half of our citizenry. They believe they are only doing their job effectively when the majority of their constituents are upset. To say this is an unsustainable form of representative democracy is an understatement. Let’s hope that justice (or karma) intervenes before the whole system collapses.

A New Paradigm

This isn’t about politics, it’s about the sustainability of the human race. There are fanatics on all sides. No political party, religion, race, nationality or creed has a monopoly on crazy. To progress requires we push those voices to the perimeters for the time being. Ignore divisive rhetoric peddled by those who seek to advance personal agenda or religious prophecy.

The challenges of the future will not be solved with nationalism, faith and walls but will require coalitions, common sense & compromise. For humanity to survive the impacts of climate change, overpopulation, antibiotic resistant pandemic and drought will require we as a species to collaborate and cooperate.

To innovate for the future we need to look past our differences, cast aside tribal instinct and lean on compassion and empathy. Those who cling to the naive notion that it will never be your child; karma will take note of your hypocrisy. Your children will bear the scars. It may be unpleasant but Mother Nature does not discriminate.

To protect everything dear requires a paradigm change. To prepare for what is to come we must flip our perspective and begin to wonder “what if that was my child” as you take note of the fleeing refugees, cast judgment on the protestors, observe the destructive force of fire, flood, wind and ice, and the tangled bodies of those left in her wake.

To preserve the dream America needs to lead the world into an age of rationality. One where science, reason & logic triumphs over faith, bigotry & fear.

The American Puzzle

Tune out the flash bangs and peer through the fog of tear gas and you’ll see a new America on the horizon. Change will not occur overnight. Systemic transformation takes time and patience. Progress is incremental and requires commitment and resolve. It requires proactive risk mitigation, resiliency and experimentation. The more care and meticulous planning you put into it, the quicker it occurs.

It’s like the world’s largest puzzle. The picture of a more perfect union painted on the box for all to see. The end state a foregone conclusion so long as we extend the effort. The first step is to build a framework that supports the larger picture. To align the like pieces in a shape and order that will govern and guide the upcoming transformation. A border of individual pieces comprised of all shapes, colors and sizes. In spite of the other differences each of these pieces also has one smooth side that marks its importance. That allows it too stand out from the thousand of other pieces in its midst. Enables the builders to quickly identify and link these pieces with its like neighbors.

The border now complete. Now comes the hard part. Like pieces assembled in support of the whole but the picture on that box still far from complete. Thousands of remaining pieces remain in the box. Most of which remain buried or are turned upside with no visible way to identify where they may fit in.

To make order from this chaos requires a detailed examination of each individual piece. A systematic methodology of review and assortment and a clean work space to ensure no pieces are lost along the way. A means to sort through and group like colors and shapes until the pattern of progress reveals itself. Slowly the pieces come together to reveal the future picture. As you move along frustration sets in. You feel like quitting but pull the box cover back out to remind yourself that the end result is worth it.

You get back to work. Mistakes are discovered, pieces are rearranged and even the strangest, most out of place shapes begin to fit in place. Eventually your sorted piles dwindle. The red, white and blue pieces are all that remain. They may all look the same but day after day through trial and error you plug away. As each section fills in your determination to see it through to the end grows. A beautiful picture begins to emerge before your eyes. A perfect union of shapes and colors, interconnected and dependent on each other to form the greater whole. It’s only a matter of time.

Perception and Reality

I once had a boss who was very fond of the phrase “perception is reality.” Used it as an excuse to justify his inaction for almost any employee related conflict. No point in meeting to explain whatever employee issue was being raised that day “perception is reality” he’d say. It drove me crazy each and every time. While it’s true that perception is an individual’s sense of reality. Let’s also be clear, reality is reality. I may perceive the Earth to be flat, but science tells us otherwise.

A transcendent leader, one interested in building consensus and committed to the common good, understands the dangers of false perception. They work tirelessly, oftentimes over communicating with their “constituents” to shape perception to match reality.

Unfortunately, perception is no less important to a leader of ill intent. One who seeks to act only in his own self interest but is nonetheless dependent on the support of the masses to advance his/her agenda. They too work tirelessly to shape perception, only in their case success depends on perception matching a false reality. One that will justify their action and prevent ultimate accountability. One that manipulates others to act against their own self interests.

Our Comrade in Chief and his merry bannon of deplorables have made a career shaping perception to match a false reality. Led by the talentless tycoon turned “reality” show President who bankrupted both real estate conglomerates and casinos at the height of the economy and whose greatest accomplishment is being born into privilege this White House continuously tries to undermine transparency and prevent informed consent. They know the only way to mask incompetence and to hide ill intent, is to mask it. To use misdirection, doublespeak, sleight of hand, technology and sound bites to distract and manipulate the way the brain processes information. Their very hold on power dependent on this perception.

Informed consent is the constitutional responsibility of the American citizenry. Whether dealing with issues of sensible gun control, impacts of climate change, or treason it is our job to push past the sound bites, propaganda and words of those entrusted to represent our interests and find out the truth of the situation. To expose the illusionist and ruin the trick.

Though he didn’t really make the Statute of Liberty disappear David Copperfield once captured the country’s attention when he made the world perceive that he had. Millions clambered for answers wanting to know the truth. Donald Trump on the other hand has in reality rendered Lady Liberty’s words “moot” yet the country continues to chase kneeling squirrels. To quote Twitler, “Sad.”

Kurdish Surprise

Who cares if he is the Commander in Chief. We should not be willing to play Russian roulette with the lives of the men and women of our armed forces, let alone our collective national security. The decision to cede Syria to Turkey and abandon our Kurdish allies is just the latest in a string of foreign policy decisions designed to create a new world order of international superpowers. Each policy decision places our nation at heightened risk for a terrorist attack or hostile foreign action. Since assuming the office of Presidency we have witnessed Trump deliberately and recklessly systematically destabilize old alliances through brazen threats, irrational retractions, troop withdrawals, nonsensical diplomacy and goading insults.

The man now in charge of our very precious national security, entrusted to safeguard the collective us, is actively stripping away our freedoms and alienating us from allies and foes alike. His foreign policy demeans the office he holds and is at odds with the freedoms he swore to protect. It consists of no central doctrine or policy and is conveyed by slogan, threats, propaganda and alternative fact. The effect has been to weaken America’s standing in the world and dim our light as a beacon of hope and freedom for the world’s oppressed.

To openly alienate proven allies and appease known hostile nations and dictators is not normal. Rather, when you view decisions collectively they seem to be the ante in the art of the deal. Trump holds no real values or morals and is motivated solely by money, power and adoration. So long as it advances his own self interests it appears Trump is willing to make any fake promise, cut any deal or betray any ally.

The chickens will come home to roost and history will not reflect kindly on anyone who takes part in advancing his agenda. The more serious question isn’t whether Trump and/or his surrogates colluded with Russia but why Putin actively sought his election in the first place. What was in it for him?

It doesn’t take extreme vetting to realize that the man who lost the popular mandate by nearly 3,000,000 votes but claims to be the one and true voice of the people is the greatest and most immediate threat to our national security and the American dream.

That the man who was supported in the race for President by Russia and Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent who never previously had America’s best interests at heart…

Who in 2008, desperate and bankrupt, sold a dilapidated Palm Beach estate, one that had sat unoccupied for two years, for a $100 million windfall to a Russian oligarch and one of Putin’s most trusted advisors…

Whose closest advisors have openly advocated for the wholesale destruction of America as we know it…

Who believes facts and science have alternatives….

Who let the Head of the NSA serve unfettered for 19 days knowing he may have been compromised by Russia, had lied to the VP and was an imminent potential national security threat.

Who to this day treats the independent journalist and the leaker as the criminal and “enemy of the American people” and General Flynn, Manafort, Stone and his crooked family members as the victims.

To allow such a man to go on implementing his agenda unchecked is insanity. Tack on that the man’s ties to Russia are undeniable. That so many willfully close their eyes to the truth does not make it any less a reality. Until we know that our so called President was elected by and is working for the American people how in good conscience can we allow him sole authority to make decisions that may literally lead to mass genocide and place us closet to the brink of a nuclear war? To allow him to make major foreign policy decisions is beyond appeasement, it is assisted suicide.

Unconventional threats call for unconventional responses. We must be proactive in the battles ahead. We don’t have the luxury of being wrong about this. We must take temporary measures to proactively safeguard this nation from the real possibility that a sitting President is working at the behest of a foreign enemy.

What If….

Two simple words that comprise one of the most powerful phrases in the English language. Once the psyche enters a “what if” wormhole it may be lost for hours, occupied in an endless maze of regrets and gratitudes. What if I had been there…What if i hadn’t quit…What if those chads didn’t hang…What if she had said yes…What if I spoke up…

The one thing I learned in Hebrew School was “never forget,” and I haven’t. We know what happens when a citizenry turns a blind eye to the everyday horrors unfolding around them. When a deluge of carefully orchestrated propaganda, false equivalents, sound bites and alternative facts enable a fearful and threatened demographic to perform acrobatic feats of cognitive dissonance to normalize, what in other times would be considered irrational actions. I will not suffer that fate. There is too much to lose. The only way to preserve the dreams of the future is to heed the lessons of the past.

Donald Trump is far from an original. The recent past alone provides a litany of would be authoritarians who proved capable of hijacking democratic institutions to slowly consolidate power. That Trump is the first to so blatantly do so from the Oval Office hardly makes him unique in his technique.

He seeks to divide the citizens of this country along racial, socioeconomic and political lines in order to deflect from his own scandals and advance the agenda and interests of a select few. He uses his bully pulpit to marginalize, belittle, conflate, delegitimize and, if necessary, squash dissent and opposition. Doing so allows him to continue presenting alternative facts, only now without the alternatives. Lies then become truth, and perception reality.

Though his tactics are tried and true the danger posed is no less real. Donald Trump and his merry bannon of deplorables pose a clear and present danger to the experiment in individual freedoms our founding fathers set in motion generations ago. He makes no secret of his intent; his desire to deconstruct and eliminate outdated democratic institutions. He seeks to rip the very fabric of America’s soul from its identity, to dim the light that serves as a beacon of hope and freedom to the poor, disenfranchised and oppressed who suffer across the globe.

The right to a free and independent press, the right of assembly, the right to be free from religious persecution, the necessity of checks and balances with three equal, though often inept, branches of government. These essential ideals are all under attack. The yuge majority of Americans realize that we are the great melting pot. That diversity IS the American identity and what has always made us great. We can’t change that anymore than a tiger can change its stripes. A list of all the great contributions immigrants and refugees have made to this country would dwarf a list of their misdeeds a million times over. Yet that is what appears to be at stake.

To those who continue to support our so called President, understand this. All you are doing is identifying yourself as a dinosaur. Painting a scarlet letter on your sleeve that your way of thinking and very belief system will soon be relegated to the history books. Think carefully about your next move.

The pathway to perdition is paved in ignorance. Do not suffer that fate. Do not remain passive. Future generations need not wonder where you stood when our leaders decided to play Russian roulette with our democracy. Do not be left to wonder what if…

Where were they radicalized?

America has a domestic terrorism problem. We must confront that fact with the same urgency we rightfully demand of Muslim leaders. Whether we like it or not, the threat is similar. We need to take a hard look at what drives each new perpetrator to commit such heinous acts. What motivates these overwhelming number of young, white, males to have such blatant disregard for human life. We need to ask ourselves, “where were they radicalized?”

Behavior matter. This has nothing to do with politics. Look at Donald Trump’s words. Log into twitter and review his timeline of tweets. It is repulsive. You’d be ashamed of your child if that was the method they used to become class President let alone leader of the free world.

When you dehumanize people, treat them as less than human and threaten to “send them back” as if they are defective merchandise. When you use your platform to characterize people who live within our shores as “animals,” as unworthy of the basic inalienable rights bestowed upon all men, you create a culture of indifference. You birth a generation that is losing the ability to empathize. That sees targets and avatars in their crosshairs rather than sons and daughters. You create an expectation of violence and bloodshed. You spit on the vision of our founding fathers and blasphemy the words of our Declaration of Independence. The essential truths set forth therein.

When you draw false equivalents between those who protest for equality and freedom with those who represent hatred and ignorance. Who use tiki torches and strap assault rifles to their bodies to intimidate and snuff out those who seek progress. When you see the good in klansmen, neo-Nazis and white supremacists you give voice to the fringe of society. You enable their message of hate and violence. Allow those who hate for other reasons, who feel excluded, isolated and left out to rationalize their desires.

When you bow to the statues of confederate soldiers, display the hate filled flag on your pick up truck, and conflate the history of the Confederacy with that of the United States you deny the American dream. When you name call, cyberbully, race bait and shame people based on their looks you encourage our kids to do the same. To separate themselves from those they don’t like and humiliate them for it. When a pro- life agenda only includes the unborn, the living become expendable.

We reap what we sow. This is not a problem that can be prayed away. There are no alternative facts. The time for cognitive dissonance, for denial, is past. Save us the hypocrisy of lowering your flags to half mast. In fact, raise them Stars and Stripes high and proud instead. This is America! This is what we’ve come to accept as normal.

This is what we will remain until we elect leaders who understand, who as a nation we were founded to be. Who lead with the knowledge that the American identity exists. That the vast majority of us want the same things. That we share so many more values in common than we do ideas that tear us apart. That there is no “us” or”them”, “red” or “blue.”

From shore to shore America is comprised of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, young and old, Muslim, Christian, Jews, atheists and other, Irish, Italian, Asian, African, European and Native, scientists and clergy, gun enthusiasts and gun control advocates, men and women. We are the great melting pot. That diversity IS the American identity. We can’t change that anymore than a tiger can change its stripes. A list of all the great contributions immigrants and refugees have made to this country would dwarf a list of their misdeeds a million times over.

To solve school violence, immigration, terrorism, or even the opioid epidemic requires we all respect multiple views and ideas. It requires a change in Washington, DC. An understanding that we are a nation built on compromise, trust and acceptance.

Sending Out An S.O.S.

I’m not sure if it’s willful blindness, cowardice or complicitness but Americans, and more importantly our Democratic and opposition leaders need to wake up to a simple fact.

The American system of checks and balances is dead. The constitutional crisis is here.

Newsflash The GOP control the White House, the Senate and the Supreme Court!

You have zero chance of getting answers from the caravan of corrupt criminals and enablers who are already in control and occupy the three most powerful arms of the US government. Perhaps we’ve been too busy paying attention to the distractor in Chief to realize that an entire caste system has been legislated into existence.

More troubling is the entire judiciary has been transformed to enforce the values of white Christian America long past the point demographics would have otherwise allowed. To interpret “we, the people” to include JP Morgan, Halliburton, Monsanto, Bain, Amway and the Koch Brothers; but not JP Hernandez, Halil el Burtun, Juan Santos, LeBain Johnson, Anyone Gay, or the Koch Sisters.

All this time we spend focused on Donald Trump. Countless hours spent reporting on his every outrageous move, sound bite, and tweet. Wake up and smell the coffee! The man himself is not the story. He’s a means to an end, a pawn, a hairy arm to distract you fools. To give you something to talk about. Why on earth do you think nobody in the GOP will hold him to account?!?!.

To date, the McConnell led Senate has confirmed 146 Article III judges nominated by a man who REMAINS an active target of a counterintelligence investigation. This includes 44 judges to the US Court of Appeals and 99 judges to the District Courts, and 2 to Associate Justices to the US Supreme Court.

The majority of these mostly white men will be the ones to determine the limits of Executive Privilege and the House Democrat investigative reach. Do you trust them to stop this bloodless coup?

Rather than face this truth Democrat leaders march on and inspire us to vote Blue in 2020. They choose to take us down the path of traditional checks and balances, blind to the fact an unconventional threat looms. They bellow that our participation in the political process is the last great hope to restore our democracy! To remove the openly corrupt leader from our nation’s highest office and restore common decency!

Meanwhile, Rome burns. This isn’t a political fight. There is no political opposition only a consolidated faction of self interested criminals who seek to control the future of the greatest nation on Earth. To think our participation in the suspect and possibly rigged electoral system which placed the inept and unpopular buffoon into office in the first place is the key to his removal, ridiculous.

Does anyone think the way to remove a corrupt authoritarian from office is to vote him out in a free and fair election that he controls? In the history of the world has a single free and fair election been lost by an incumbent authoritarian in control of that country’s executive branch, and with absolute and penultimate legislative and judicial support behind them as well?

Seeing that Deranged Donald also knows a criminal indictment awaits him upon his return to civilian life and me thinks the Democrats have a better chance of surviving a round of Russian roulette than they do of taking back the White House.

It’s time to get our heads out of our asses and steer this ship away from the iceberg. If our current captains can’t do it than perhaps we need to look beyond the control tower for some help

Fake National Emergency

It’s never been about the god damn wall or our national security. It’s about power and the consolidation of it.

Donald Trump was so afraid of financial ruin, so worried that his family name would become a laughingstock that he conspired with a foreign enemy against the interests of America.

He will go to whatever lengths necessary to preserve his legacy, fortune and freedom. He makes Trump will use these powers to further divide a once proud immigrant nation. He will intimidate and mobilize troops into California and other border states or sanctuary cities to enforce his will. He will declare martial law, suspend due process and otherwise act the strong man.

He will erect his barbed wire along our border and build not a wall to keep Mexicans out, but a prison yard to keep Americans in. He will openly play Russian roulette and won’t stop until the final bullet pierces the very heart of our democracy’s soul #NationalEmergency #Resist

The Emperor Has No Clothes

My voice feels trapped in a time loop. It’s the same old storylines. Each day a callback to a prior episode with nothing original. A shoutout to the die hard fans who have been following along since day one. A carefully baited Easter egg of sorts for the MSM to grab ahold of and to remind the loyalists that despite what else they may hear, he’s with them. Each piece of “breaking news” scripted to serve up the propaganda driven counter narrative. To cue up a personal wink and nod to those wannabe believers and fuel the cognitive dissonance that allows one to follow a golden calf;

Did you hear the latest dog whistle and overt racist and/or misogynistic policy adopted by this administration? Proof he understands the white man can no longer get a fair shake in this country. It’s not racism, it’s reality. Affirmative action and political correctness have no place in democracy and is a tool of facists. That’s why the deep state is trying to bring him down. It’s just like MLK and Gandhi!?! We mustn’t believe the left’s conspiracy theories and or the witchhunt led by 13 angry Democrats. He’s one of us and will never let us down!

Look at his courage as he speaks truth to power and pulls us out of horrible deals and treaties that Obama the Muslim negotiated. Ignore the hippie’s tears that needlessly mourn the demise of regulations meant to end capitalism. Who cares if he alienates essential allies and disrupts the world order in the process. America first you socialist bastards!

Marvel at his strength and resolve to defend America against foreign enemies even in the face of domestic pressure. We are either a nation of law and order or a nation of anarchy. There is no in-between or alternatives. What must be done must be done; empathy has no place in survival. Throw the alien children down a well! Secure our borders! Build the wall!

His methods may be unsettling at times but you have to admit he is dogged in his defense of traditional values and the Christian agenda. The Lord works in mysterious ways but it is now clear our Dear President is his vessel. Next year in Jerusalem! Look what he’s done for our courts already. Stacked them with religious zealots who will restore biblical order. He may be a Russian agent but I can’t wait to see who he selects for the next Supreme Court Justice. One thing for sure is he will overturn generations of judicial activism and restore our nation’s Christian values. Peace on earth for all the white Christian Anglo-Saxons, just the way God intended!

Fake news has you believe that Trump is unprepared or lacks tact but look how magnanimous he truly is. What can be more diplomatic than the trust and handshake he exchanged with Rocketman? The media may try to distract you with details but how can any objective individual deny that he achieved what his predecessors could not. What most elites thought unachievable; peace with North Korea. An opportunity for peace with Russsia. Award the man the Noble Prize now, scream the masses!

Meanwhile the behind the scenes drama, the outtakes, candids, and ad libs conclusively prove the messenger is a fraud. Leaves any sane minded individual no doubt that without a script, a fixer and skilled producer the deal maker is nothing more than an empty suit with a spray tan. A puppet to the corporate suits and foreign investors who prop him up. It explains why so much of the unaired footage that unmasks the villains true remains on the cutting room floor, unreported.

It’s a tried and true reality show formula. Chaos drives ratings; the fog of war exists. Storylines dependent on manufactured drama and carefully selected narrative keeps the audience talking and tuning in while simultaneously distracting them from the producer’s ulterior motives. Prevents the audience from focusing on the otherwise obvious results that lay ahead as the “season” reaches a dramatic conclusion complete with a shocking reveal.

Spoiler alert: Emerging tyrants are not defeated in the ballot boxes or cause du jour movements.

This isn’t some reality show we’re living. History tells us what comes next, what future episodes may hold in store. We understand the relationship between cause and effect. What happens when leaders say certain things to erode traditional norms. What ensues when they openly attack and celebrate the defeat of political enemies and question the independence of the judiciary. We’ve seen what happens when you deputize a civilian force to maintain the peace and enforce the borders, encourage them to shoot first and beg forgiveness later.

There are no surprises here. No logical reason why the majority of the media, the public and opposition party reacts to each new storyline like a stand alone episode. There is an obvious and consistent thread that runs through every act Donald Trump has taken since the pilot episode that began with his trip down that escalator arrival. An obvious framework and narrative that explains the inaction of the party loyalists and traditionalists who would otherwise gag on the idea they would find themselves aligned with the likes of an irascible immoral scoundrel like Donald Trump.

The only way to expose the naked emperor is public transparency. The masses must seize control of the narrative. Ignore the noise around them; the slogans, rumors and innuendos generated by the powers that be. The ones that tell you to ignore your eyes and experience and focus instead on the latest controversy served up for your viewing pleasure.

It is time we all insist that everyone acknowledge the basic truth before the next episode may be aired or script approved. The leader of the free world is under an active and credible investigation as to whether he was elected by and/or is working for the American people.

Let that sink in. How dare we be so reckless with our essential freedoms and democratic institutions. The public, the media and our leaders must analyze every tweet, press conference, Executive Order, proposed legislation, judicial nominee, Cabinet appointee and public appearance through that context before they allow his complicit enablers to frame the narrative and advance his agenda.