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Archive for the ‘essay’ Category

Still struggling + El Trumpo

Hi! This is a notification that, yes, I am alive and continue to struggle, if not thrive.

As you know, I wallow in political satire. It would be cruel and mucho unfair to make fun of the war in Ukraine while people are dying and the country is being raped. That’s what my long silence and personal depression are about.

I have plenty to say, but I haven’t spoken publicly, since whatever I say will get taken wrong.

On the upside, I can share some gen on our former president.

  1. Donald Trump is definitely running in 2024.
  2. Once he grabs a hold of Twitter by the short hairs, Elon Musk will welcome in Donald J. Trump. We’ll see a repeat of 2016, with Trump scorching his opponents on Twitter day in and day out. It will get ugly.
  3. Donald Trump will never be found criminally liable, which would disqualify him to run for president. Why? His supporters have guns. Everyone in Washington, DC is scared shirtless of them gun-totin’ Trump supporters. With good reason. Finding Trump guilty of a crime would cause a civil war, and no official wants to be responsible for that.
  4. Donald Trump will get the Republican nomination and we’re back in 2016 all over again. He has his pick of running mate among the right-wing firebrands mouthing off and making mischief. You know who you are, dudes and ladies. Enjoy the moment!
  5. A study of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Third Reich will help you see more clearly that, yes, Virginia, history does repeat itself.
  6. Trump’s second four years will not be the bloodbath some liberals envision, but we will see a constant erosion of democratic principles. We can kiss goodbye to the America we currently have.

Have a great summer!

America at a Crossroad

Dear America,

You choose. You can stymie the Biden administration, defeat the Build Back Better Act and see that the Democrats get nothing passed in the Senate in 2022. But if you do, Donald Trump will get elected president in 2024.

Believe me, it’s going to happen and you heard it here first.

You are so busy thumbing your nose at Biden, you may not realize that the alternative is El Trumpo.

Short of suffering a stroke, Trump is definitely running. His media empire has amassed a $100 million war chest to see that he wins. Being Trump, he’ll pussyfoot around right up until the last minute, but let’s not fool ourselves, the man is running at the head of the Republican ticket. The Republicans love Trump.

His running mate? I predict Josh Hawley. He and The Donald are cut from the same cloth, share the same pragmatic style and they both are very tall. American presidents are very tall, it has become a requirement in order to get elected.

It’s a dichotomy. Either you let the current administration have a bit of success or you re-elect a rule-breaking, authoritarian narcissist three years from now. At which point, you can kiss American democracy, in its current form, goodbye. You choose. There is no longer some magical middle road where you can both beat up the Bidens and avoid the Trumps.

“The Democrats are eunuchs! They get nothing done!” the Republican candidates will shout this November, with justification. And they will get elected, taking over both houses of Congress.

Joseph Biden has backed himself into a corner. An old-style politician, he seems unaware of politics in the age of the Internet. Rather than keep his mouth shut and get Congress to pass hundreds of line items in small bits of legislation, President Biden has unfurled a grandiose $1.4 trillion plan (down from an original $3.5 trillion) with a dumb title that plays on his name: B as in Biden. B as in Build Back Better. Talk about painting a bull’s eye on your back! Well, okay, FDR had his New Deal, Truman had his Marshall Plan, Kennedy had his New Frontier, LBJ had his Great Society.

Biden is competing with ghosts.

The Democrats ran on a lie in 2020, and I don’t mean any mythological conspiracy theories about voter fraud. The Democrats promised the voters that if the Democrats just won the White House and a majority in both houses of Congress, this country would finally get back to the basic business of governing, instead of building walls and spouting happy talk about hydroxychloroquine.

America came through: Joseph Biden was elected president. The House maintained a Democratic majority. The state of Georgia  elected two Democratic Senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, creating a 50-50 Senate with Vice President Harris supplying the tie-breaking vote.

Bravo!

It’s a year later and despite all the big plans during the campaign, the Biden people now blame their abject failure on the filibuster.

The filibuster! Stop the presses, it’s the filibuster!

So what is it, this lumbering monster, this fire-breathing Godzilla of the legislature? Originally, a filibuster was Cicero-style oratory carried out on the floor of the Senate, for hours at a time, to block a bill from ever reaching a vote. Nowadays, they don’t even bother making the speeches. Mitch McConnell merely threatens to filibuster and all non-budgetary legislation stops dead. As minority leader, Mitch McConnell rules the Senate. This is not the way it is supposed to be, but the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, does not lead. Reactive instead of proactive, Schumer gets a sour look on his face and makes pointed remarks. This is not leadership.

How do you beat the filibuster? It turns out all non-budgetary legislation requires a supermajority of 60 senators to get passed. This is called cloture and it shuts down a filibuster. However, when can you get 60 senators to agree on anything? I mean, now they tell us! Why didn’t the Democrats inform the American people about the filibuster and the supermajority during the 2020 campaign? Were they afraid the voters would throw in the towel and stay home?

The Senate filibuster was created in the 1800’s. It is not part of the Constitution. A simple “yea” vote of 50 senators plus Vice President Harris would send the filibuster to the scrap heap of history. Yet, like fretting Hamlets, the Democrats cannot bring themselves to forego their lamentations and actually take action, by dumping the filibuster once and for all.

There are a thousand reasons for maintaining the filibuster. There are only three reasons to dump it: Governance. Passing legislation. Accomplishing something.   

The Republicans, meanwhile, are busy lining up behind their Great Leader and kowtowing to the angriest rightwing elements of the electorate.

It’s not that the Republicans are so strong, it’s that the Democrats are so weak and divided.    

Incredibly, at the moment, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are blocking passage of the Build Back Better Act. Way to go, team! Now that’s what I call solidarity. Not.      

You choose, America. According to a Washington Post – University of Maryland poll, a third of the populace believes that violence against the federal government is justifiable. Never mind democracy or majority rule, fair play or good sportsmanship, Christian charity or the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

One out of three Americans don’t care about all that. They want to see their champion return to the White House. Even if it takes a putsch to do it. They are hell-bent on defending their freedom. Their freedom.

You choose, America. You can play politics, give the federal government the bird, spit on the Bidens and elect Trump in 2024. Or you can stake out a path of your own and surprise the world by abandoning fanciful conspiracy theories, acting like adults and voting for the Democrats.

Not because the Democrats are any damn good, but because they are the lesser of two evils.

Be careful and stay well.

Kevin

Goals & Intentions

Today, the written word is a torrent. Seemingly, there’s more being written than ever can be read. Thankfully, my barbs and snide remarks on Twitter, @k_feingold, get a few likes, always one or two, never three. Once, amazingly, one of my comments went viral, garnering 34,000 likes. Once! That was the one where I joked that Dr. Anthony Fauci was secretly Fao Chi and Chinese.

I gotta laugh.

If you have the technical expertise and/or contact network to put my blog out there in a big way, this would be an ideal time for you to forward the link. Right now, we’re a pretty wonderful but exclusive bunch of diehards. There are about 50 of us, you my readers and me your writer. That you stick with me is a wonder to behold.

I have readers in the USA and China. This makes me very proud. Occasionally, someone in France, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland or Italy also reads my blog. I thank you all!

I write about politics to maintain my sanity. Society is going downhill fast. I try to impede this catastrophe by crying “Wolf!” I also feel like I am a canary in a coal mine.

I really put time and effort into my writing. I do not claim to have secret sources salted away in the government, but occasionally I do get a nugget of intel around which I can write a paragraph.

Trump is an idiot. The question for me is why Americans elected him and why his reelection is even under discussion.

Global warming causes extreme weather, pandemics, catastrophic wildfires on every continent but the poles, mass annihilation of animal life, damage to the ocean, damage to the Amazon, melting glaciers, calving ice shelves, rising sea levels, desalination of the oceans and a rapidly deteriorating atmosphere.

Guess if I’m worried.

I am. Deeply!

Do I want to influence the upcoming American presidential election? Damn straight I do!

Stay well. Stay safe!

Yours, Kev

 

Screwing with the Election

A little history. The 2016 election of Donald Trump consisted of multiple train wrecks.

A reality TV star and erstwhile businessman, DJ Trump had been in people’s living rooms for 14 seasons of The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. These programs were structured and edited by producer Mark Burnett of “Survivor” fame to make Trump appear a boardroom guru. They sold the television-addicted American people the illusion that Trump was a business genius. Trump’s five bankruptcies might say otherwise, but once people became fans, no amount of bitter reality will ever dispel their loyalty: Good season or bad, Yankee fans are Yankee fans. Trump fans love their man. The more outrageous he behaves, the more they love him!

Trump was able to convince rural and suburban white America that he— a New Yawk real estate mogul— cared about them. America’s “forgotten” men and women, smarting from liberal neglect, they flocked to Trump, who promised to be their champion. A genius at branding, he copyrighted the slogan Make America Great Again. His followers are able to read into that whatever they want.

People may not have been sold on The Donald, but they truly hated privileged, money-grubbing Bill and Hillary Clinton who shamelessly pawed home ridiculous speaking fees on the lecture circuit. A vote for Donald Trump was a vote against decadent liberal corruption.

(What a joke! Far from Draining the Swamp, Trump Inc. has turned the federal government into a cash cow. Many government employees, including the Secret Service and Vice President Pence, have stayed overnight at many Trump properties, paying top dollar. In taxpayer money. A graduate of the Wharton School of Business, Class of ’68, Trump is a genius at manipulating financial systems to his advantage.)

The media went gaga over Trump in 2016, broadcasting his rallies day and night, free of charge. Even when Trump belittled them over their fixation on ratings… “I get the best ratings!…” like lapdogs, they came trotting back for more. At one point, in a fit of pique, Trump prohibited journalists from The Washington Post from attending his morning rally. Yet, four hours later, there he was, giving a one-on-one interview to Post journalist Philip Rucker. By running for president, Trump made fools of the media.

Twitter has completely changed the communication landscape, allowing @realDonaldTrump to communicate directly with his followers anytime day or night, unfiltered and uncensored.

Glavset, The Internet Research Agency troll farm in St. Petersburg, Russia, hijacked Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in 2016, sowing division among Americans. Who knew? Cyber warfare, they used clever memes and fake persona. Stoking Americans’ anger, their disinformation campaigns were incredibly successful.

At the Clinton-Trump debates, Trump bullied, interrupted, lied and wandered the stage. Unprepared for his shenanigans, the moderators sat helplessly by, playing stooge to Trump’s comedian. “You’re the puppet!” shouted Donald Trump and no one called him to order. When he went walk-about on-stage, bodily threatening Hillary, no moderator politely requested that Trump return to his place at the lectern.

A dissembler, Hillary Clinton had great difficulty displaying honesty. Brittle and apprehensive, she wouldn’t even admit having pneumonia on the campaign trail until she collapsed on the sidewalk.

Like a throbbing toothache, WikiLeaks released a daily dribble of Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails all 30 days leading up to the election. A Russian military intelligence cyber espionage group codenamed “Fancy Bear” has been credited with the hack. More cyber warfare, these gmail missives were a total disaster, displaying the Democrats at their worst.

Ten days before the election, FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau was re-opening the investigation into Hillary’s emails. Just when the campaign thought they had successfully left the issue of Hillary’s private email account behind them… BAM! There it was again.

Trump gamed the Electoral College brilliantly, winning the presidential election even without winning the popular vote. One vote in Wyoming is equal to 3.6 votes in California. Trump made sure to get those red state votes. That gave him the election.

Election night TV coverage completely missed the boat. It sounded like this: “…Hillary… Hillary… Hillary… Trump has won Michigan… Hillary… Hillary… Trump has won Wisconsin… Hillary… Hillary… Trump has taken Ohio… Hillary… Hillary… Hillary… Trump has won Pennsylvania and Florida…. Meanwhile, Hillary… Oh, my God! Donald John Trump is the next President of the United States of America.”

Who decides?

At 60%, White Americans are the majority.

Hispanic and Latino Americans, the largest ethnic minority, comprise 18% of the population.

African Americans comprise 13.4% of the population.

Asian Americans are 5.6% of the population.

If the election of 2020 is a last gasp of white dominance over American life, these numbers show that the minority vote alone cannot carry a national election.

On any given day, Trump has the support of 35% of the electorate. Unshakable, they are his fan base. Whether traditional Republicans, Confederate flag-waving patriots, supporters of the Second Amendment, adherents to The Lost Cause of the War Between the States, QAnon true believers or “I Got Mine” blacks and Latinos, come Hell or high water, they will vote for Trump.

Trump supporters will believe anything he says. With their short attention span, they even allow him to change his story from one press conference to the next.

As Chico of the Marx Brothers said, “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

Like a good soap opera, every day Trump presents a new episode, dominating the news cycle.

California and the western states are getting burnt to a cinder, but El Trumpo considers global warming to be a hoax… invented by China!

No, Mr. President, the military doesn’t wish to fight endless wars in order to please the armaments industry. Read my lips: The Pentagon is not manned by war profiteers. Slurs against the military— like your slights against the United States Postal Service— force Americans to choose between loyalty to you, sir, or to the country’s most cherished traditions. Being asked to choose between a Johnny-come-lately like Donald J. Trump and the Pony Express, most people choose the mail carriers of 1860. Americans are proud of their heritage, despite Republican gaslighting to the contrary.

Just as he did in 2016, Trump claims the election is rigged against him, questioning the entire process. Apparently, democratic elections don’t suit him. Afraid that he cannot win fair and square, he’s busy farting around.

Russia is up to its old tricks, attacking the Democrats and trying to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, but Donald J. Trump insists on willfully ignoring foreign meddling.   

Trump even prevaricates over whether he will peacefully leave office, should he fail to win.

Now that’s entertainment! That’s Trump.

You decide!

Desperate to win re-election, Trump hems and haws about a vaccine for the coronavirus, faux predicting a roll-out as soon as… October!!!

An October Surprise, as they call it in presidential elections.

Yeah. Right.

Since the pandemic will lead to record levels of mail-in voting, Trump insists— without proof— that mail-in voting leads to voter fraud. Meanwhile, Melania and he— claiming the Mar-a-Lago Country Club in Florida as their official place of residence— are mailing in their ballots. Talk about cognitive dissonance, even Trump appears confused.

Trump’s newly installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seems intent on mucking up the election. He has overseen the removal of mailboxes and the dismantling of sorting machines, even while governors all across the country warn that they may not be able to handle the expected volume of mail-in voting. Is this man purposely crippling the postal system and, if so, on whose order, Mr. President?

Everywhere, Americans fueled by white grievance continue to vent over Obama and the Democrats.

Those white Americans will not vote for Kamala Harris who is part Indian and part black. Interestingly, now that the Republican Party is led by a wild card, the Dems have gone white bread in Joe Biden. We shall see if “Drain the Swamp!” Trumpers are in sufficient pain to cross over and vote for Biden, an Establishment figure.

According to the Trump family members who spoke at the four-day Republican Convention— dutiful sons Don Jr. and Eric, Melania dressed in military garb, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, plus daughter-in-law Lara Trump— Joe Biden is a socialist Prince of Darkness, a pawn of the radical left who will destroy America’s lily white suburbs by flooding them with low-cost apartment houses!

I shudder at the thought.

But it’s a funny thing, people are tired of the anger and acrimony. The more strident Trump becomes nearing Election Day, the more people tune him out.

The presidency of Donald John Trump is a white American problem. No amount of marching in the streets, protests by Black Lives Matter protesters, night-time demonstrations, riots, looting, vandals or bullsheit news coverage both online and off will decide this election.

White America will decide this election.

Multi-cultural America is suffering growing pains. The entire world is watching as America struggles to decide what kind of country it wants to be.

 

RNC 2020 Convention in Tweets

I grew up adjacent to The 1812 Hwy, a classic sunken road in Oxburg, Maryland left over from the Civil War. At football games, our high school cheerleaders would lead us in a chant: “Push ‘em back, push ‘em back, way-y-y-y-y back!” At the Republican National Convention of 2020, I hear a lot of cheerleading.

Personally, I think Donald J. Trump is a dud. He’s like a faulty Chinese firecracker, fuse sputtering, releasing white smoke and sparks, but zero bang. What he does do, signing Executive Orders, invariably turns into an unmitigated disaster. This reality is a given, just ask the people of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The man is a failed businessman who survived six bankruptcies. “That shows I’m smart,” brays Donald J. Trump.

No, sir. That shows U R an a-hole.

Trump’s tweet storms have ignited the country.

So I wasn’t under any illusions going into the Republican Convention.

I sat watching the Democratic Convention on TV with a feeling of dread, hoping against hope that they would just squeak through without blowing up the candy store. Eureka! They did it. The streets are filled with Black Lives Matter protesters, but the Democrats maintained message discipline. Which was a good thing. It meant fewer gaffes, less cannon fodder for the Republican attack dogs to gnaw on.

I fully ascribe to whatever complaints were leveled at the Democratic National Convention. We are who we are, warts and all. AOC, bless her heart, never got the memo, seconding the nomination of Bernie Sanders at a convention celebrating the selection of Joe Biden to lead the party in November. Yes, there’s a left wing to the Democratic Party, waving copies of Das Kapital by Karl Marx, but I experience that as a good thing. They add leaven to the bread.

We Democrats never said we were perfect.

The Republicans, on the other hand, consider themselves perfect. Donnie only speaks in superlatives: His is the greatest economy in history, he has the largest crowds and best TV ratings, only the very best people work in his administration. Mo’ better. But as Obama explained in his excellent critique leveled at Trump during the DNC Convention, The Donald has never fully engaged in the work. Clueless, he never gets the job done. Instead, El Trumpo spends an inordinate amount of time watching Fox News, tweeting, and speaking at press conferences and rallies, bragging about his accomplishments. If Obama the professor drove us to distraction during his presidency by constantly mansplaining, El Trumpo drives us crazy with his endless bragging. Childish behavior by any other name is still a pain in the butt.

My Tweets

Is that an elephant I hear TRUMPeting in the distance? Welcome to the March of the Dodo Birds.

Donald John Trump tells us climate change is a hoax invented by China, Mexicans are murderers & rapists and there was no Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump puts children in cages, yet this GOP Convention calls him a hero.

THIS JUST IN: Unconfirmed report that President Trump will address convention on Day Four. In Russian!

Blond, blue-eyed Natalie Harp from California, pretty & compelling, tells us that if not for President Trump, we would all be living in Pottersville. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a good metaphor, Natalie, but slightly misplaced: No one more closely resembles Mr. Potter than real estate mogul Donald John Trump!

 

NOTE: Listening to Ms. Harp, one is bowled over. As sweet as a Spring morning, she claims she owes her very life to President Trump. His Right-To-Try legislation gave her access to the medicine that defeated her bone cancer. Wow! What can you say to that??? It feels a little suspicious that she is part of Trump’s reelection campaign, but after all, maybe they like each other. Then I read a thread by a medical professional who points out that her treatments took place before RTT was even passed, that the meds Natalie used were already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, that she and The Donald participated together in a previous forum, and that only about 10 people in the whole wide world have in fact been treated under Right-To-Try. Apparently the drug companies want no part of unclinical trials that would leave them open to litigation.

 

These people are salesmen and saleswomen, selling us the Trump brand. Ms. Harp’s ready smile, widening of the eyes and unbridled sincerity is a performance. Ugh! Another snake oil salesperson in the long list of disappointments in the Trump universe.

[ Re the McCloskeys ] What is wrong with this picture? It’ll be a miracle if he doesn’t accidentally shoot his wife. Textbook example of how NOT to handle a firearm.

Don Jr gave an incredible performance: he preached like a televangelist, lectured us about freedom and quoted Thomas Jefferson. Don Jr’s worldview, however, leads to Jim Crow segregation, gun massacres and lynchings. Nostalgia for a bloodstained past. FREEDOM! For white people.

When Don Jr begins quoting Thomas Jefferson at me, I have had enough.

What branch of the military has Melania joined, since she was dressed in olive drab? Smart, the media knew her costume was a provocation and ignored it. But seeing her dressed like that felt like a throwback to Germany in the 1930’s.

(I’m not the only one on Twitter who finds Melania’s garb inappropriate. One tweet declares that her brownshirt uniform was the message. Nicely put.)

If we were curious about what the Trump children are really like, they have done us the favor of introducing themselves. Trust fund babies lecturing the middle class about the omnipotence of their father.

Bring on the clowns!

Where do they get this SOCIALISM straw man? Apparently das Trumf volk really believe they are in a time warp battle against sozialismus. Bernie Sanders & the Gang of Four are radicals but they don’t rule the Democrats. Political opponents are not enemies. It’s called democracy.

Mike Pence, I cannot hear what you are saying because what you are speaks so loudly.

[ Day Three, Pence speech at Ft McHenry, Maryland ] Good speech. Enough with the riots. But why are these young Americans rioting? Perhaps they are fed up with police brutality, racism and President Trump’s abusive taunts. Stop the violence, Mr. Vice President, but offer an alternative. What’s the plan, Mike?

Daughter-in-law Lara Trump describes a wonderful, helpful, kind and generous man, who only wants the best for every American. That’s great! I would be delighted to meet such a person. Unfortunately, that’s not the meanness & venom this country has experienced in the last three and a half years.

You give love a bad name.

If I hear one more person describe Trump as a successful businessman, I am going to hurl. Six bankruptcies, Trump is NOT a successful businessman. He is a con artist salesman posing as a businessman.

The Revenge of the Blondes, after years of being the butt of “dumb blonde” jokes, blond women have been chosen almost exclusively by the Trump Reelection Committee to speak on the president’s behalf. Beware the red dress!

If DJT had any cajones, he would stand up and shout “YES! I am a barroom brawler & proud of it!” Instead, we get his children’s putrid portrait of a lovey-dovey father figure, all sweetness & light. Yuk!

So I ask you: When is Trump finally going to show us his birth certificate?

A vaccine by the New Year? Don’t try to buy milk with that phony $3 bill.

What jungle does that Tarzan reside in?

Dems give “free reign to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens” says DJ Trump. Moi? A violent anarchist?

Was this speech transcribed from the original Russian?

I Got Mine

What do all of the speakers have in common? A philosophy of “I got mine!” They are the children of good fortune, but as Maximo Alvarez says, they aren’t going to let anyone take their wealth away from them.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey with their 52-room house (according to Dan Zak in The Washington Post) in St. Louis, Missouri, warn us that if we elect a Democrat as president, there goes the neighborhood! We’ll have anarchy and chaos on our streets, the defunding of police, and the ending of cash bail, so criminals can get out of jail to riot once again.  According to the McCloskeys, the Dems support radicals who want to abolish suburbs altogether! By changing the zoning laws, ending single family home zoning, they’ll bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into now-thriving suburban neighborhoods. Says Pat McCloskey. Under Democratic rule, they insist, we’ll experience what they did:  An out-of-control mob of radicals roaming the streets of suburbia with bullhorns, screaming “You can’t stop the revolution!”

An apocalyptic vision, to say the least.

The McCloskeys are lawyers. Like Trump, they sue people left, right and center. Mark destroyed beehives adjacent to their property belonging to a religious day school and then threatened the congregation with a restraining order. Scratch the surface and you find a lot of these seemingly attractive people who are giving testimonials turn out to be pretty unpleasant characters. Not kind, not nice, uncivil. Aggressive and egocentric.

Most shocking is that every last speaker at the RNC Convention seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid: Whether black or white, these privileged individuals appear to truly believe that their place in life is at the top of the food chain, that the silver spoon is theirs for the asking, and that hordes of socialist terrorists are preparing to take over this country.

These people are selling us their brand of America, almost a parody, where they are top dog— through hard work, talent, luck, wealth and, in some cases,  family connections— while the rest of us mediocrities slave away in penal servitude to the top 1%, the big capitalists.

It’s true that we political operatives are cynical and view the entire world as performance. During the convention, disturbingly, I keep expecting to see the little red and white box in the lower right hand corner of the screen announcing “As Seen On TV.” Have I stumbled onto a mutant form of campaign coverage as presented by the shopping channel?

WAIT! Trust fund babe Ivanka Trump speaks on behalf of “the people.” She tells us that real estate billionaire Donald J. Trump is “the people’s president.” Are you kiddin’ me? And that hair! Well, at least Ivanka got her dad’s middle initial right. Although it was touch and go there for a second.

Disappointments being what they are, Donald J. Tяump never did address the amerikanskii people in the original Russian. It might have added clarity to his presentation. (Nyet! Yust yoking!)

Vaccine?

You don’t even need to listen to the speech to know that Trump— the endless huckster— will float the idea of a vaccine for Covid-19— AGAIN! This time, maybe, who knows… maybe it’ll even be ready before the New Year. A miraculous vaccine, best in the world. Definitely before the New Year. Maybe.

That is the topic on everyone’s mind, so, of course, that is where he makes the night’s emptiest promises.

Less testing.

Stick our heads in the sand and it’ll disappear. POOF! Like a miracle.

Oh, WAIT! That line didn’t work last time either.

So now the miracle vaccine is somehow linked to reelecting El Trumpo. I mean, the world is working on a cure, we are going to get a vaccine eventually. Meanwhile, we can put Old Donnie the bull artist out to pasture.

Nixon promised that if elected, he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam war.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Trump is going to release his tax statements… real soon!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Don’t misunderstand me, this is standup comedy of the highest order. Listen closely and you’ll realize that Trump is being ironic. He’s yust yoking! There’s no vaccine, he’s purposely mixing positive thinking with voodoo wish fulfillment. He’s being ironic. It’s the South Lawn of the White House, Day Four of the convention, everybody’s tired. Adding a little levity to a somber occasion, The Donald is joking around. Vaccine up yer ass, bubba!

Upon leaving the White House, once outside the fence enclosure, attendees get harassed by a dozen angry young protesters.  Reap the whirlwind. People shout in their faces. We’re in a very sad state of disunion, witnessing the dismantling of America. It’s 9:30 in the morning in the Kremlin. Putin must be pleased. At least the weather is good.

Tяump

 Donald John Trump is methodically dismantling American government and American society. A full-time Russian agent couldn’t do a more thorough job. Intelligence reports indicate that during the 2016 election campaign, the Trump team had contact at least 140 times with Russian nationals and Wikileaks or their intermediaries. Facts on the ground, this is upsetting stuff.

Then there are those disturbing photos of Trump on May 10, 2017 in the Oval Office yukking it up with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov  and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Once viewed, those images, provided by the Russian news agency TASS, are hard to forget.

At the 2018 Russia – United States Summit on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland, Trump spoke privately with Vladimir Putin for almost two hours with only a single female interpreter present. We still don’t know what they discussed during those 120 minutes. Dachas? Trump Tower Moskva? Later, at their joint press conference, Trump said Putin denied interfering in the 2016 presidential election and that Trump believed Putin’s denial. This caused an uproar worldwide. The next day, Trump “corrected” his previous statement.

Nobody can sue a sitting president, but a sitting president can sue everybody. No one is immune from prosecution except the president. No one is above the law except the president. You can impeach him, but you cannot find him guilty. Nor can he be removed from office. Such is the law in Tяump’s America. Trump is litigious and nobody wants to get sued, so everyone has kept their mouths shut, leaving America’s democratic way of life hanging by a thread. Dousing the fire with gasoline, on September 27, 2020, the Showtime network will begin airing The Comey Rule, a two-part drama that raises the question whether Donald J. Trump is a Russian asset. Five weeks before the election. Unless there’s an injunction.

 

Forget the White Vote!

 White folks will not vote for Kamala Harris. I say this with great regret, but it’s true.

She is an ABW, an Angry Black Woman.

She is from California.

She is super-liberal.

She is another candidate with an Arab-sounding name.

The lady has an uppity attitude.

She does not play well with others.

Her primary campaign fell apart = she can’t get elected dogcatcher. (Not to disparage dogcatchers.)

White folks are still smarting from eight years of Obama.

 

The lesson of Trump is that the hinterlands don’t want far-out liberal candidates. Love her, hate her or feel undecided, Kamala is a liberal fringe candidate. Forget about her ever getting the white vote.

White Americans are going to vote as a bloc and that bloc is not going for the Biden-Harris ticket. Way to go, Dems! Are you going to shoot yourselves in the other foot?

Having relinquished the largest voting bloc, the Democrats’ road to victory consists of rallying and getting registered every single minority vote out there, Latino, black, Asian, liberal, Jewish, Catholic, you name it. Rally the Minorities!

 

Be well, stay safe!

(Although currently inactive, one of my hats is political consultant, often to underdog candidates. My track record is 50% wins and 50% losses.)

 

Not Even A Flag

I need an American flag for the background to a video our rap band is making. Rather than order online, I really want to just jump in my car and drive to a store and buy a flag. For example, I can drive to the Flags of All Nations store and spend $32 for a silk screened Stars and Stripes, but the stars won’t even be embroidered. So I check online and find that the Big Box Store wants $30 for an embroidered flag. The Gardening Appliance store wants $20. Target has a 3′ X 5′ American flag, embroidered, for $10. It’s exactly what I’m looking for at a price even I can afford. According to their website, my local Target store has one in stock in section D1.

It’s December 31st, the New Year, not the Fourth of July. Flags aren’t exactly in season. I drive over there and ask the salespeople where I can find section D1.

“D1?” they reply, aghast. “Over there in the back of the store.”

D1 is in the far right back corner of the store. All that lines the three shelves in D1 is disinfectant. No flags.

Returning to the middle of the store, I flag down a salesperson and ask where, perchance, he might have American flags. “Let me check inventory,” he suggests kindly and pulls out his Target tablet. Scrolling, he explains that there aren’t any in that store, but if I go to Store B, another four miles away, they should have some in stock. “Write down the UPC number and telephone them and they can check their inventory,” he adds helpfully. Gangbusters! I thank the man.

Now it’s true that my local Target never has what I am looking for. I always have to traipse to Store B, so this is neither a hindrance nor a hardship. I don’t have time to zip over there before New Year’s Eve, but I figure one day won’t matter.

Before I go there today, January 1, I go to the Target website and specify Store B as my desired location. Behold! When I click on the 3′ X 5′ embroidered American flag, the site indicates “In stock.” Cool! In order to make my purchase, I need to open a Target account. Yada, yada, yada. I open an account. Then I purchase the 3′ X 5′ American flag for $10 plus tax, using my credit card. I specify Two Hour Store Pickup. I even sign up for a text message on my cellphone indicating when the item is ready for me to come get it.

As I am making the purchase, I receive the notification “Only one left in stock. Order now.” Cripes! Every time I go to make a purchase online, it’s Super Mario Panic Button Time again. Last one in stock, BUY NOW! Alternatively, why can’t Target keep up its inventory? AN AMERICAN FLAG costing $10 should not be such an exotic item that Target only stocks them individually. Nu?

You know where I am going with this.

I wait. I wait to get a text message. Hearing naught, I check my emails. “An item is no longer available for pickup” says the subject line.

“We went to grab the item listed below, but it looks like someone snagged the last one,” claims the text.

Which is pure unadulterated poppycock. Booooo! Get real! You never had it to begin with. Maybe flags go rushing off the shelves on the Fourth of July. On January 1, 2020 in the middle of the afternoon, not a chance. There wasn’t any 3′ X 5′ embroidered American flag at that store location. Nope. Never happen. Target is blowing smoke rings.

I am then given the opportunity to let my purchase lapse, choose a different store or accept having the flag shipped free of charge through the mail. Target lists half a dozen stores in the vicinity, one after another. Forget about having to drive ten miles to pick up the flag, do they really think I’m gonna spend two hours online at each location I choose only to hear, “We went to grab the item listed below, but it looks like someone snagged the last one”?

I choose free shipping. The item will be delivered to my door by Saturday, January 4. Then I get a big white tab: They want my shipping address.

Once I give them my shipping address, nothing happens. Nothing. So I click on the red “ship to me” button again. You’ll notice I still haven’t gotten a receipt for my purchase. Now I can’t even get a confirmation that the flag will be sent through the mail.

Using the “Contact us” function, I get a Customer Service number. Sitting at my laptop, I call that number and speak with a young man in Mumbai. Since I know his accent will defeat me, I do most of the talking. I give him my order number. I explain that there aren’t any flags in the stores. I am choosing the free shipping option. I confirm my delivery address. Since the order had not been changed to home delivery… What?! Shit!… he makes that change. He again confirms my delivery name and address. He also keeps insisting that the flag will arrive by Saturday, January 4th.

Ya think?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! 

My younger brother Tim has explained that online mail order is killing the bricks and mortar retail trade. “The same thing happened with video stores when Netflix came along,” he points out. “Each store had thousands of dollars tied up in inventory. Netflix had all their DVD’s in one big warehouse. Economy of scale.”

Apparently Target is so dirt poor at this point, they can’t even afford to stock a decent number of American flags in each location.

This is a very sad commentary on the state of America.

 

 

realPfft på svenska

 

Singeln heter “Fake News.” Bandet heter realPfft. Alltså, falska nyheter av äkta nollor.

( Obs! Denna beskrivning på bandet ska inte tas på grövsta allvar. Den har diktats ihop mest som underhållning!  :-]  )

Jag heter Kevin Feingold, pensionerad yrkesmilitär och bandets PR snubbe härborta i Maryland, USA. Hur kom det sig?

Av alla polare som jag skaffade mig under mitt år som utbytesstudent i Sverige, har endast en enda riktigt bestått. Mutte Fjutt. Det är hans artistnamn, visst, vad annars? Som tonåring, med mitt revolutionära utseende— pipskägget, det långa håret, den brinnande blicken— fick jag apa mig i en studentfilm. Mutte var ljudteknikern.

Vi blev polare för livet. Vi deppar lika mycket. Vi överfokuserar på olika projekt, där varken mat, sömn eller telefon får störa. Mest är det uthålligheten: Vi håller vad vi lovar. Har vi lovat något, så presterar vi detta. Har vi en gång sagt, så levererar vi godset. Den äkta varan, i toppskick. Varje gång. I en värld av blajare som lovar så mycket och presterar mycket mindre, är det inte att undra på att han och jag har blivit fasta vänner.

 

******************* Inte  ABBA *******************

 

Som kranskötare vid sin dator, skapar Mutte musik med elektroniska music loops. Instrumentala verk av diverse slag, typ disco, samba, ballader och julvisor. Sen kom den dagen då han skapade musik till en rap låt. Härlig musik ett steg över Muppets. Det låter som en enträgen combo som står på scen i en nattklubb i Örebro. De spelar ihärdigt och outtröttligt. Sångaren, däremot…

Som medmusiker valde Mutte att arbeta ihop med den smått jobbiga punksångaren från 1980-talet, Clive Flatenbad. Han som kämpar emot det mesta. Tänk Billy Idol om han hade varit svensk, typ exempel. Stockholmaren Clive med den brittiska morsan. Den pajsaren. Som då satte sig ned och skrev en engelskspråkig text till Mutte:s musik. En rap funderare över pajasen i Vita huset.

– Falska nyheter kallar du detta, / Herr president. / Varför är du / Ett nervöst vrak? rappar Clive.

Två minuter 20 sekunders bitande satir. En serie pinsamma frågor som även Vita husets pressekreterare Sarah Huckabee Sanders skulle uppleva som svårsmält. Hellre du än jag, Sarah!

Låten:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEJZNdT54w

 

Vem kan sätta stopp för Clive? Förmodligen ingen. Medan jag kämpar för att få ihop en gnista intresse i bandet härborta i Staterna, tog Clive sig till någon avlägsen bondgård antingen på Gotland eller Öland och skapade en wideo som inte ens kan jämföras till fördel med musikskapelser hos en fritis!

Satans perkele!

Videon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2StFLWAiit0

 

****************** Betala via PayPal! ******************

 

Som låt har “Fake News” möjligheter. Eftersom det är jag som befinner mig i det stora landet i väst, ordnade jag så att… det är någon annan som får sköta affärerna! The business end. Jag är ingen affärsman. Däremot har jag en kompis från armén som kallas för KK. Grannskapets allt-i-allo, vet han hur man bedriver affärsverksamhet. Bokföring. Avtal. Sånt skit. Han bor i Rockville, Maryland. Rockville! Blotta namnet får mig att rysa till och drömma om storvinster.

KK googlade hur man ger ut sin musik själv. Så hittade han TuneCore, ett fristående digitalt musikutgivningsnätverk grundat år 2005. De finns i Brooklyn, New York. För knappt tio dollar gav vi ut “Fake News” som mp3-fil hos iTunes, Amazon, Spotify m. fl. Läckert, minst sagt. Eftersom TuneCore skickar utbetalningar endast till amerikanska bankkonto, öppnade KK även ett enskilt konto åt bandet där vi kan samla våra miljoner när “Fake News” slår över hela världen, vi blir kändisar och vi kammar hem en förmögenhet. Eller två.

Mer begär vi inte.

Över 30 år sedan, slutade Clive bråka tillräckligt länge för att anmäla sig till STIM. Det har resulterat i det att låten “Fake News” nu är anmäld hos musikförlaget Panthersongs.

Det blev mitt ansvar att hitta ett namn för bandet. Något som skulle funka over here. Kommersiellt, men lockande. Beatles var redan förbrukat. Stones likaså. Kinks… finns redan! Eftersom Fjutt blir på engelska ordet “pfft”— som betyder “ingenting”— döpte jag bandet till “Pfft.” Emellertid googlade Mutte det namnet och kom på en asiatisk kille som redan kallar sig för PFFT. Inte nog med att han snappade upp namnet innan vi hann dit, pojken även är en jävel på att kompa och ge ut låtar. Han e döbra, alltså. Det går inte ens att konkurrera med honom. Så bra är han.

Affärsmannen KK hittade ett likartat problem när han försökte registrera domännamnet pfft.com. Detta domännamn är till salu för $12,000. Äsch! Eftersom Donald Trump använder på Twitter signaturen @realDonaldTrump, bestämde KK sig att anmäla domännamnen realpfft.com och realpfft.org. De fick vi!

Hos Twitter, stötte jag på samma krångel, massor med folk som använder variationer på “pfft” i sina logins. Jag ansökte i stället om @realPfft. Och höll andan. Otroligt! Vi fick den med.

Gudarna står på vår sida.

Varpå sa Mutte i telefon, – Varför kallar vi oss inte för realPfft?

Varför inte??? Herregud!

Så döptes bandet till realPfft.

Jag fick skriva om mina press releases.

 

********************* En israelisk omslagsbild??? ******************

 

Israel. Under 60-talet läste folk Leon Uris:s bok Exodus och stödde Israel. Sen kom 70-talet och Aftonbladet:s exposé om israeliskt förtryck gentemot Palestinierna. Utrikesministern Sten Andersson sa sig vara Israelvän och bjöd gång på gång Yassir Arafat till Sverige för att förtala Israel. Inte roligt. Under 80-talet blev det liksom kul grej att semestra på stranden i Tel Aviv eller på badorten Netanya uppför kusten. Det var så jag knöt kontakten med en israelisk konstnärsgubbe som heter Kuny. Han bor i Netanya.

År 2016, inför presidentsvalet, skrev jag en roman som heter Grump:s Amerika. Den lägger ut argument varför det inte vore så bra idé att välja Donald J. Trump till president. Som vanligt saknades det någonting i min skrivstil och / eller uppläggning. Mina böcker attraherar inte läsarna. – Annars e de bra! brukar jag säga. Det roligaste med Grump:s Amerika var själva omslagsbilden, en politisk karikatyr ritad av Kuny, där Trump — iklädd boxningshandskar — står intill sin lilla mur mot Mexico och viftar argsint.

Jag självpublicerade Grump:s Amerika (på engelska förstås) som ebok hos Amazon tills den dagen landet valde Donald J. Trump som president. Fort som fan, tog jag bort boken ur Amazon:s sortiment. Jag tror att jag hade sålt uppåt en kopia.

Så när det blev dags att ordna omslagsbilden till “Fake News,” visste jag mycket väl till vem jag skulle vända mig. Kuny är nu liksom 90-år gammal. Han klippte ut bokstäver som till ett lösensbrev, F-a-k-e-N-e-w-s, och klistrade dem på papper. Sen klistrade han dit sin ritning på Trump. Och till sist ritade han en stor, pissgul kista med orden “by realPfft” på sin sida. Omslagsbilden är ful, dum, knasig och absolut rätt för den här låten.

Grattis, Kuny!

 

********************* Pressens dag *****************

 

Jag har skickat ut publicitetspaket till tidningarna och skvallerskribenter härborta. Jag kvittrar och storvrålar via Twitter, såkallade blasts. Jag skickar hälsningar till TV-kändisar, komiker och ledarskribenter. Jag mejlar. Jag försöker fånga deras intresse.

Vad jag inte vet är hur man väcker intresse hos radion.

Eller får storspridning via, till exemple, Facebook.

Hur slår man hejvilt på nätet? Vad gör man för att go viral?

Hjälp oss etablera realPfft! Få puss o kram! Även min morsa kommer att tacka!

 

Mutte har nu skapat “Mutte’s illegal mix,” en swingversion på “Fake News” som inkluderar saxofon och bongos. Utgivningsdatumet: den 6 april. Tre minuter och nio sekunder, den innehåller ytterligare fyra verser, typ

Som Xi i Kina, / Livstidspresident. / Pröva i Amerika? / Det låter bara kass!

 

Hälsa dem därhemma!

Kevin

 

Fake News by realPfft

 

“R U dead?” texts Mario, my bud from college who is now a huge macher in satellite radio in New York. The man can even score tickets to Hamilton, that’s how big he is!

No, I’m not dead, but after writing still another Great American Novel and facing the grim reality of self-publishing it as an e-book, it did occur to me that there might be something wrong with this picture.

I’m doing publicity for a Swedish band, instead.

If U want the full story, U will B required to click on 2 links. Two! Heavens 2 Betsy!!! Can’t I put it on Twitter and let you just scroll down to the GIF?

Nope.

Yes, I do PR releases that are 280 characters, but it occurred to me that my blog would give me an opportunity to tell my side of the story. Thank you, Roland Hedley!

 

******************* Not ABBA *******************

 

Note: This description of the band isn’t a totally factual account. Its main purpose is to entertain.  :-]

Of all the friends I made during my junior year abroad in Uppsala, Sweden, the most lasting has been Mutte Fjutt. (Not his real name.) With my beard, long hair and Che Guevara good looks, I got chosen to star in a student film. Mutte was the soundman.

We became BFF’s. One link is that we both suffer from clinical depression. It can leave us out of the mix for weeks at a time. Saddled with ADHD, we also tend to over-focus on projects— to the exclusion of things like eating, sleeping and answering the phone. I guess the main glue has been our artistic integrity. Mutte and I never promise what we don’t deliver. Where other people— finding themselves responsible for more than they bargained for— will palm off a fast and dirty, lick and a promise piece of cowpie, Mutte and I bust our balls to deliver top grade shit. We even keep deadlines!

In a world of b.s. artists, he’s a kindred spirit. You see why the dude is an inspiration to me.

As part of the electronic universe of music loops (google it), Mutte has created some nice instrumentals, trying his hand at disco, samba, ballads and Christmas songs. Upon creating the soundtrack to a rap song— it sounds like a benighted combo playing on the stage of a club in the town of Örebro— Mutte teamed up with a relic, the cantankerous 1980’s punk rock singer/songwriter Clive Flatenbad. They be the Svedish music duo realPfft.

Flatenbad is a Swedish name (Clive’s daddy), while “Clive” is British (his mamma). Like so many offspring of mixed marriages, Clive has battled his way through life with a major inferiority complex. This is also Very Swedish. Tro inte att du är nåt. “Don’t think you’re somebody special.” After generations of oppression by King and Church, followed by nanny socialist government, Swedes feel under-utilized and frustrated. They know there’s something missing, they just don’t know what.

Our little “across the pond” project never could have happened in the Old Days, but what with the Internet, Skype and the current administration, the boys have created a song entitled “Fake News,” contemplating the struggles of America’s 45th president.

Sample lyric: “Fake News” U call it, / President Trump. / Y R U / A nervous grump?

Comic rap, it’s 2 minutes and 20 seconds of querulous satire, firing off an endless series of questions that Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t deign to spit at. But enough about us.

The song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEJZNdT54w

The video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2StFLWAiit0

 

There’s no holding down Clive, which explains the wideo. Talk about low production values, I suspect he made it in a farmhouse on the island of Gotland. Sweden has youth centers in every town, Fritidsgårdar, that deliver a higher quality musical product than this! Still, Clive’s a funny old geezer. Compared to the likes of Rihanna and Jay-Z, we’re a herd of dinosaurs.

 

****************** PayPal Me! ******************

 

As a song, “Fake News” ain’t a bad piece of wax. I think it has great potential. Since I’m in America and they are not, I took it upon myself to… hand over the business end to a buddy from my Army days called KK. He looks like Tom Cruise and talks like Bill Murray, but his main claim to fame is being a self-employed handyman in Rockville, Maryland. Rockville! I hear the sweet sound of coin clanking into the cash register already. The dude may spend his days building bookshelves and cleaning attics, but he knows how to run a business.

KK googled the particulars of releasing your own music, and found TuneCore, an independent digital music distribution service founded in 2005, operating out of Brooklyn, New York. For the princely sum of $9.99, we were able to submit Mutte and Clive’s masterpiece for sale as an Mp3 file on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and about a dozen other sites worldwide. “Neat!” doesn’t begin to describe it. And since TuneCore pays the proceeds solely into American bank accounts based on American addresses, KK has opened a bank account for the band where, hopefully, we’ll all become millionaires when “Fake News” becomes the NBT, goes viral and saves the world!

U C what a crew of dreamers we R! If U never dream…

Over 30 years ago, Clive, bless his friggin’ heart, stopped fighting with people long enough to join STIM, the Swedish Composers and Songwriters’ International Music Bureau. So “Fake News” by realPfft is registered with Panther Songs, a music publisher in Stockholm.

It fell upon my lot to name the band. Since Fjutt is the Swedish for pfft, I announced the band name: “Pfft.” Only thing is, Mutte soon googled that and discovered an Asian boy who calls himself PFFT. And he’s fucking fantastic! How can we compete with him??? We can’t. He got there first.

Business manager KK ran into a similar blank wall when he tried to obtain the domain name pfft.com. It’s for sale for $12,000. Ha ha ha ha! Since Donald Trump’s Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, KK solved the problem by applying for the domain names realpfft.com and realpfft.org. We got them.

I then went to Twitter and found the same imbroglio: Many clever individuals use “pfft” in conjunction with their Twitter accounts. Holding my breath, I applied for a Twitter account @realPfft. Shazam! We got that one, too.

The gods are smiling upon us.

At which point Mutte said over the phone, “Why don’t we just call ourselves ‘realPfft’?”

A band was born!

 

********************* Israeli Cover Art??? ******************

 

The. Cover. Art. I wrote a political polemic (a nice word for “hatchet job”) in early 2016 entitled “Grump’s America,” predicting the mess a Trump presidency would likely cause should the dear man ever be elected. As usual, my writing left a lot to be desired. The nicest thing about it was the political cartoon by Kuny on the cover, a picture of The Donald in boxing gloves glowering over his tiny, little wall.

Kuny is an Israeli artist, like, 90 years old, living in Netanya. I met him years back on a trip to Israel. We like each other. It’s a fun cartoon. When El Trumpo won the election, I deleted that e-book from Amazon mucho pronto! No longer an unpublished author, I think I sold one copy.

So when it was time to deliver cover art for the rap song “Fake News,” I knew to whom to turn. Kuny cut out letters, like in a ransom note, and arrayed them across the top: F-a-k-e-N-e-w-s. Then he pasted his cartoon under them. Then he drew a piss yellow casket with the words “by realPfft” on the side. It’s ugly, it’s a mess, it’s all wrong, but precisely right for this song.

We on our way!

 

********************* Press. Release. *****************

 

I sent press releases to the trades and The Washington Post gossip column. I also send out blasts on Twitter from the realPfft account. I tweet people like Stephen Colbert and Colin Jost. Lookin’ for an opening, a nibble, a tug on my single filament line.

Meanwhile, Mutte has created the “Mutte’s illegal mix” swing version of “Fake News.” Saxophone. Bongos. To be released on April 6, 2018. At 3 minutes and 9 seconds, it contains several extra verses. For example:

Like Xi in China, / President for life. / Try it in America?/ That don’t sound so nice.

Full disclosure: We ain’t gone viral yet.

Love, Kevin

PS:  PUT US ON FACEBOOK!  Add realPfft to your network! Help us get out there! Join realPfft Nation! (I just made that one up…)

 

Iran Deal Means Death

 

          Life offers us choices. What we do at the crossroads defines our future.

In 1999, I predicted that Al Gore would be a flawed candidate who would turn a clear electoral advantage into a cliffhanger. But even I could never envision the Decision 2000  mess of butterfly ballots, Pat Buchanan’s candidacy, hanging chads, Republican bullying and Al Gore totally caving. To spare us further agony, nice Al Gore let the Supreme Court hand the presidency to George W. Bush. This was a crossroads and America took the wrong path.

To err is human. An activist and ecologist, Al Gore would have made mistakes during his time in the White House. But they wouldn’t have been the Dick Cheney – George Bush mistakes. Hopefully, Al Gore would have seen the approach of 9/11. George W. Bush, appropriately named, spent August of 2001 thumbing his nose at the Washington press corps (and waving his butt at the cameras), ostensibly clearing brush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Al Gore certainly would not have used Osama bin Laden’s heinous attack as an excuse to go to war with… Saddam Hussein in Iraq?

The Iraq war— deposing, capturing and executing Saddam Hussein— has led directly to ISIS. There’s a reason Saddam was an iron-fisted dictator. Once destabilized, Iraq has proved a disaster. This was a crossroads and we chose wrong. There’s no putting this genie back in Aladdin’s lamp.

Meanwhile, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah blew up the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983, killing 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel. They also bombed the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 U.S. servicemen and wounding 498 other people. And blew a hole in the USS Cole in Yemen in the year 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. Crying “Death to America!”, the Persians in Tehran cheered. No worries. Bush and Cheney responded by attacking… Iraq.

Crossroads.

In 2008, after winning more delegates in the primaries than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton watched while New York Senator Charles Schumer and the so-called super-delegates— the party bosses— handed the nomination to Barack Obama. This was a crossroads and the Democrats went with the basketball player, the superstar. Never mind that Obama was a snake oil salesman, a childish man who snuck cigarettes and misled the voters with glorious promises of a bright new bipartisan future! Say what?

America chose wrong and Iran will get the bomb.

Following the agenda of a closet Muslim, Obama made overtures to Iran. Entering negotiations in Geneva, terrified of coming home empty-handed, Secretary of State John Kerry gave away the kitchen sink, desperately extending deadlines and conceding point after point. You and I could have negotiated a better agreement than Kerry’s!

Obama promised us that “no deal is better than a bad deal”— look it up!— and promptly reneged, proclaiming this hopelessly inadequate treaty to be the deal of the century. He insists that the only alternative is war!

The only alternative is to push the Iranians back to the negotiating table and forcing them to make a few concessions. Let’s get Iran out of the nuclear energy business before the world removes the sanctions. Has no one at the White House ever heard of a dirty bomb? Radioactive waste wrapped around a conventional explosive. Ka-blam!  Contaminating our cities in terrorist attacks. Making them uninhabitable. Well, duh! Doesn’t anyone in the White House have any security training at all?

We are repeating the mistakes of the 1930’s, with Iran taking the place of Nazi Germany. In order to make money, the G5+1 nations— the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China— who are supposed to be in charge, are sacrificing world peace for cash on the barrelhead. Everybody is lining up to trade with Iran! A new market! And the Iranians have oil! Oh, goody! Totally short-sighted, we put trade ahead of world peace. This is the same mentality that had America selling steel to Japan before World War Two and IBM helping the Nazis with data processing, so they could create the extermination lists used to deport people to the concentration camps.

In 2015, Democratic Senators and Congresspeople are busy thumbing their noses at the Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, supporting a nuclear agreement that will propel the world into war within a decade.

The Republicans are no better. Instead of a groundswell of bipartisan opposition to one of the worst deals in American history, the Republicans gathered the Tea Party Patriots on the west lawn of the Capitol, where they listened to the brilliance of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. This is the Republican response to World War Three: Donald Trump.

We are at a crossroads and once again, mankind has chosen the wrong path. Favoring the Iranians— who still shout “Death to America!” and mean it— the Obama administration puts personal vanity, ego and greed before common sense. Paving the way to Armageddon.

Enjoy!