What The People Are Readng

You can always tell the mental state of the public by what they are reading. "1984" is flying off the digital shelves at Amazon as is Sinclari Lewis' book, "It Can Happen Here," which tells the story of a loudmouth populist who wins the presidency but ends up secretly being a fascists dictator (!).

I'm still wondering who is going to be the first in the alt right to cave and recognize that what they have feared for years from liberals is coming true right now with their guy. Were they just fucking posers all along, secretly dreaming of authoritarianism? Or are they just too childish to admit what they have wrought?

Yet Another Stomp Down The Hallway (Complete With Door Slam)

So, apparently Steve Bannon had yet another hissy fit yesterday and launched into a very played tirade against the media. Only he knows the truth and the media are all liars blah blah blah....stomp stomp stomp....fuck you dad!! (SLAM!!) Like most adolescents, he does this sort of thing to get a reaction and rile up supporters. His rant, like most right wing bloggers and commenters, smacks most of jealousy and insecurity more than anything else. Why do these guys view themselves as so inadequate?

Bannon's latest outburst made me realize something much larger. It's not just the media that they hate but the entertainment world in general. Why? They have a very deep envy of the elites and that's exactly why they vilify them on a daily basis. Because THEY aren't a part of it. Somewhere along the line in their lives they got dissed by someone who was more successful than they were and petty jealousy took over. They just want to be part of the "Hollywood Club."

So, every time a Meryl Streep or some media giant like the New York Times speaks the truth about the alt right, they not only get pissed about what was said but by who said it: the people who they are massively jealous of every day. My advice to people who get pissed off at Bannon and other right wing bloggers and commenters is to ignore them. That's what I do with teenagers who act up. They just want the attention because they then feel like they are important.

Oh, one more thing. The media and the public in general knows why Trump won. In the following order...

1. Russian Propaganda/Psi-Op
2. Voters as conduits of anger, hate and fear
3. Electoral math
4. Mistakes made by the Clinton Campaign
5. Weak, establishment type candidate who ran in a change/populist year.

The same people that voted for Barack Obama twice voted for Donald Trump. I wonder what Steve Bannon has to say about that.

I'm more interested to see how Bannon is going to take responsibility for what he does. Will he own it when his policies don't work? Or will he continue to blame the media/libtards/everyone else?

First Regrets

I have a friend named Bill who owns a manufacturing concern here in the Twin Cities. His hatred of Hillary Clinton was so all consuming that he voted for Trump. He tried a few times to defend him and has always voted Republican but after Trump's first week in office, Bill has finally started expressing regret. Why?

Beer, snacks and cars: How a 20% Mexico tariff could cost US shoppers

President Trump wants so slap a 20% tariff on goods coming from Mexico and use the money to pay for his wall. As any economist knows, this would be a disaster for our country and for Mexico.

Bill can't believe it. His main client has a plant down in Mexico. If there ever actually is a tariff, this client will lose millions of dollars and, thus, Bill will be out of business. I gave him a call yesterday to hear his comments on Trump's announcement.

"Crazy," he said. "What was I thinking? At least with Hillary, I had just another crooked politician. This...this is erratic."

I had explained to him many times during the campaign that this is what Trump was going to do. Bill didn't believe me. He thought Trump was just saying those things and wouldn't really follow through.

I suspect this will be the first of many regrets...:)

Our French Revolution

Last night I was at a baseball association meeting. My son plays high level baseball and I serve as the fundraising coordinator. The mother of one of my son's teammates from last year came up to me and wondered if she could help out with fundraising. We talked briefly about how she could support the organization and then I remembered a conversation we had last spring about the election.

She told me back in June that she had this feeling that Trump was going to win. She seemed gleeful about it. After talking with her for a bit, I realized that she was one of the folks not very connected to politics who went on pure emotion. She's wealthy, white and pissed off about the direction of our country. This is actually a more accurate demographic than the stereotype that's out there about the Trump voter (dumb, toothless, racist etc). At the time, I thought she was nuts but she ended up being right.

The question I'm pondering today is why was she right? How can such a large group of people be so irrational as to vote for Donald Trump? By any indication, he's a despicable person and a horrible image for our country. Yet he is going to keep behaving the way he does until he loses because up until this point, it's worked. People who support Trump are convinced that everything he does is great and the criticism against him is all lies.

When I brought up the Access Hollywood tape, she said that she didn't believe it was him and that it was all taken out of context. She called it a witch hunt! Even his own voice saying his own words didn't fucking matter. I realized in the that moment that we weren't fighting the last battle of the Civil War, as I previously thought.

We are experiencing our own French Revolution complete with massively high levels of irrational thought and behavior.

Consider Trump's assertions over voter fraud and his recent call for an investigation. Even proceeding down this path is crazy. He won. Hillary Clinton lost. The popular vote does not matter. Why seek to undermine your own election? Further, it was Donald Trump himself and his own lawyers who called Jill Stein's recount efforts crazy and worthless and sought to stop them. So, when she says it's rigged it's not true but when he does it is true? Republicans and Democrats alike have called his claims entirely baseless. All 50 secretaries of each state have stated unequivocally that there was no voter fraud in this election and for millions of illegals to vote around the country would be completely impossible. Trump has also misrepresented the studies he says that show there is voter fraud but that doesn't really matter. He believes it's true. His followers believe it's true. So, it's true.

This same kind of thinking was in full gear during the French Revolution. People were so angry at their leaders that they would believe anything. The only saving grace we have now is that Trump takes office with the lowest approval rating of any president. My thought is that patience is required right now. It does indeed seem that Trump is invincible. He can do whatever he wants. But let's remember that's what Al Capone thought as well. They tried many conventional ways to bring him down and in the end it was something small like tax evasion. This is what I think is going to happen with Trump. Interestingly, Vegas has Trump's odds of being impeached in the first six months at 4 to 1. I think that might be a little too good but who knows?

In the meantime, I'm still really bummed that so many people out there are that irrational. How can we bring them down to more grounded reason? The fate of our nation rests on our ability to be critical thinkers and accept reality for what it is. We can ill afford to behave so erratically when it comes to these serious issues. Leaders like Trump and his followers are why civilizations decline and fall apart. Oddly, I think some of Trump's followers want this. They want to tear down the whole playhouse merely because they don't like stuff.

Can we stop them? How?

Two Action Items For The Marchers

I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the marchers around the world on Saturday and Sunday getting out to protect the progress we have made over the last 8 years. I was mildly to moderately irritated that they didn't turn out to vote for Hillary Clinton but we have to deal with the hand that we have been dealt.

I have two action items for the marchers.

1. Getting out the vote in every single election year including the odd years. I want to see above 60% every year. We see that and we will see the end of the Right much faster than already scheduled.

2. Marches and events in rural counties in the Rust Belt started by local people. Bernie can help with this. The electoral college is a reality. Marches in big cities are great but we need that local strategy to win big.

My second action item has already happened with an event in Marcomb County Michigan attended by 5,000 people. Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders were on hand to speak and rally in support of keeping the Affordable Care Act. And take a look at this...

Alaska? Wow!

I say continue to organize in these rural counties all across the US and get out the vote this year in the local elections. Lay the groundwork for 2018 by getting people registered to vote THIS year.

Well, To Be Fair...

Right Wing Commenter in Chief

President Trump spent his first day in office behaving much in the same way he did during the campaign. As AP recently noted...

The day left no doubt that Trump will govern, at least for now, as he campaigned: fixating on seemingly minor issues, letting no perceived slight slip by unchallenged, and, sometimes, creating his own set of facts.

Those own set of facts included questioning how many people attended his inauguration. I noted yesterday that his inauguration was sparsely attended compared to Barack Obama's from 8 years ago. Yet Trump and his angry band of followers want us to disregard our lyin' eyes and believe that the turnout was "Yuge."

What was actually huge was the turnout around the world AGAINST Trump and for women's rights. I seem to recall a whole lot of chiding about how sparsely attended anti gun rallies have been over the years. So, if size does matter to the alt right, what must they think of these crowds compared to the one for their guy on Friday?

It looks like we will continue to enjoy Trump's penchant for not being able to do to bed because someone on the internet is wrong. Most adolescent...

Notice any differences?

The photo below is from yesterday's inaugural ceremony.

Here's the photo from Barack Obama's inaugural in 2009. 

Notice any differences?

Some "revolution."

American Carnage?

Yesterday during his inaugural address, President Trump spoke of "American carnage." As someone who exists within reality, I was trying to figure out what he meant. Then I saw this quote in today's Strib.

"This is history. I heard everything from this guy that I wanted. And I got to see Obama fly away"
--Keith McKinzie, a car salesman from Two Harbors, MN, attending the inauguration.

For folks like McKinzie, the last eight years have been dark. They've watched as liberal policies have run rampant, improving just about every sector of American life. They've seen a president (a black Muslim) with approval ratings in the high 50s. They've seen Americans happy, warm, accepting and open to new ideas. They've seen violence at it's lowest point in decades. They've seen people united in the face of anger, hate and fear.

They've seen a deep embrace of progress and it scares the living hell out of them.

This is the carnage of which Trump spoke. Progress. Change. Things that they don't like. People being responsible. Trump supporters like McKinzie want to be able to do whatever they want and not have some PC bitch telling 'em what to do. They want a consequence free environment in which they can steamroll over anyway who gets in their way. How perfect, then, is President Trump.

The media has been obsessing over how Democrats and smug elites need to pay more attention to rural, white voters and their needs. Essentially, what they are saying is that we have to accept their paranoid, fever dreams that America is falling apart (it's not, btw) and "the other" is all to blame. It's like they all believe in some sort of bizarre stereotype from the 1970s of inner cities.

I completely reject this vision of our country and refuse to placate hate filled nonsense. It bears no resemblance to reality. And it's going to be very interesting to see how they govern without recognizing what is actually happening.

"We Have To Do A Good Job"

In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump's victory last November, one of the first things he said was, "We have to do a good job." As he takes the oath of office today, I'm wondering if he will admit when he's not. I think that's the biggest concern on the mind of most Americans today. How long will his ego hold out in the face of reality? His words and actions up until now, as well as the words and actions of his supporters, say they are going to continue to ignore facts.

But he does have to do a good job, right? More than anything, he wants to be loved by everyone. He seems to have a deep need for affirmation. Being our first right wing blog commenter commander in chief, his insecurity runs as high as his bullying. He can't stand it when someone on the internet is wrong. He can't let things go. Perhaps he can turn that into doing a good job for the country. I'll be the first to admit when he does do a good job and would be happy to be wrong in my predictions for disaster.

Many of my liberal friends are feeling pretty hopeless right now. I share some of their feelings but the one thing I have that they don't right now is some relief. President Trump and his supporters have to be responsible now. They are in charge. Hillary Clinton lost. The Democrats, though gaining seats in both the House and the Senate, are not in charge of Congress. The onus is now on the GOP and their new leader to deliver. No longer can they blame liberals, progressives, Democrats, gun grabbers, the media, Barack Obama and all the other folks they say are destroying the US. It's on them. Are they up to the challenge? Can they govern without whining and blaming others?

Will the fucking own it?

Something tells me the answer is going to be a great salve for current liberal woes:)

Supporting Our New Presdient

As I listened to the testimony of Donald Trump's nominees for his cabinet this week, it struck me how opposite they are in terms of policy from the man that is hiring them. Trump tweeted that he likes people that disagree with him and challenge his ideas. Well, Mr. Future President, that's going to be me as well.

There are many liberals out there who are hiding their heads in the sand and pretending this isn't going to be real. Others have started support groups and the like on social media. Hey, whatever folks need. Me? I don't need any of that because, while I think the next four years are going to be a disaster, we still have to figure out a way to work together and here's the main reason why.

Russia has carried out the best propaganda campaign and psi-op in the history of the world. They have installed a man who they have dirt on in the White House. Donald Trump is going to start off, anyway, as their pawn. The Russians have also successfully used conservatives, especially right wing bloggers and commenters, as conduits in their propaganda campaign. They knew full well that these folks hated liberals more than anything and would easily allow their irrational feelings consume them to the point of voting for a man who is immensely unqualified to be president on a myriad of levels.

Yet, the Russians also knew that our country would be pissed about this. They knew that if they were successful, we'd be split and angry at each other. Considering they are already going to erode our power in the world with what they have done so far, why help them anymore?

I'm not saying we have to support everything that Trump does. Nor am I saying we can't be critical. What I am saying is that we can't give up and hide. We have to hold him and the GOP in Congress accountable. There are still many good people on both sides of the aisle that are going to fight hard for our country's place in the world. Let's help them do it!

The Russians are counting on us being fractured. Let's dispel that shit right now. One of the best things about this county is that we evolve out of our disagreements and thrive on our antagonism towards one another. Let's use that positively by, say, getting more people to the ballot box in 2017 as well as 2018. Pissed of at Trump? Go vote. And then get your representatives on a local, state and federal level to offer something better.

All indications are that Trump's presidency may not even last the whole four years. The investigations into Russian hacking and connections to the Trump campaign will continue. If he is booted out, Mike Pence would at least be a more qualified and experienced leader. Pence definitely has a better temperament and I say this disagreeing with him ideologically in just about every way. Until that time, however, we have to figure out a way to be more united. We have to figure out ways to help out our future president.

The Russians may have won this round but we can't let them win the next.