It crossed my attention today that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was looking a bit dewey-eyed at a town hall with her Alaskan constituents, saying, “We are all afraid”. She also expressed concern for possible retaliations from her party and the administration for not toeing the line on the issues of the dismantling of Social Security, and other essential services targeted by Musk and the DOGE-bags.
Well, I have news for her. Fear doesn’t cut it. Fear is what Trump and his flying monkeys want us to feel. Let me suggest some alternatives: How about some determination? A bit of steely-eyed grit to moderate and modulate the cold rage simmering within us?
Because these assaults on our neighbors, our homes, our democratic way of life; on the safety and security of our nation; these offenses against law, institutions, and the balance and peace they have made for us thus far… these CRIMES cannot be allowed to continue.
So we have reached the crisis: I, for one, am only surprised at how quickly it’s arrived.
We see the Chief Executive, when not selling his office away to an unelected billionaire, then ruling by scores of orders, most of which fly in the face of law, tradition, and common sense. Many of them contradicting previous thoughtless choices.
We see this convicted felon, rapist, and fraud crashing the markets and the world economy, and triggering massive inflation at home, while placing the burden of government costs on the middle class, and sparing his billionaire cronies several trillions more in tax breaks.
We hear him plotting to extend the kidnapping and rendition of common people to a foreign dictator’s gulag, not just those on student visas, or awaiting migration hearings, but to include those with legal residency, and birthright citizenship, and, no doubt, eventually to perhaps all who would resist the rise of the new totalitarian United States.
Our bright and shining Kakistocracy.
Our gleaming Oligarchy.
Our brilliant Kleptocracy.
So, Lisa Murkowski, please quell your fears, and find your nerve, and resolve to do the necessary work to form a coalition in Congress to thwart this gang of thugs, and return the nation to some semblance of balance.
kak·i·sto·cra·cy
/kakəˈstäkrəsē/
government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
ol·i·gar·chy
/ˈäləˌɡärkē/
a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
klep·toc·ra·cy
/ˌklepˈtäkrəsē/
a society or system ruled by people who use their power to steal their country’s resources.
A majority of all the voters did NOT VOTE FOR Donald Trump last November.
Keep that in mind.
True, more voted for him than Kamala Harris. He was re-elected. But the majority of voters, nationwide, would have preferred someone else back in November.
Here it is, today: The Ides of March. A date that symbolizes political chaos perhaps more than any other.
Our nation has been plunged into political, economic and social chaos because lies are promoted more aggressively than the truth, and those lies are calculated to extend personal power and wealth to the greediest and most cynical ones among us.
Trump celebrates greed, cynicism, and aggression: It defines for him the meritorious. His meritocracy makes room for liars and criminals, fraudsters and murderers.
Our legal and political institutions flail, and fail to defend the nation from them.
Trump’s supporters have no interest in a fair or inclusive America. They would re-write our Constitution to limit its protections to Whites over other races; to Fundamentalist Christians over other faiths; to the Cis-gendered over all others; to Men over women; and to the Ultra Wealthy first and foremost.
If you are MAGA and have believed Trump’s lie of “America First”, I’d point out that Trump has offered to sell citizenship to the highest bidders. He has clearly “sold the presidency” to the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, who, himself, broke immigration law to get started in this land.
We are slouching into a period of history that will be dominated by such thugs, and the protection of the law will be apportioned to the privileged. The party of Trump wants to be the ONE AND ONLY PARTY. Just as there is only one party in China, in Korea, in Russia… And, should this come to pass here, if you are not a member of The Party, don’t expect to enjoy free speech, the protection of the law, the right to assemble, the freedom to travel, or to be yourself, as you see yourself. The State of Trump is neigh.
Be very afraid?
NO. BE VERY ANGRY. AND PURPOSEFUL. ASSERT YOUR TRUTH. LOUDLY. AND PERSISTENTLY. TO ALL WHO WILL LISTEN. AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO DO LIKEWISE. NOW IS THE TIME.
How can doing the right thing be so depressing? In January 2025, I returned to Walt Disney World for Marathon Weekend. It was my twelfth year in a row, and along with about 375 other people, I was a Perfect Dopey, meaning I’d completed each of the previous 11 Dopey Challenges. For the uninitiated, a Dopey Challenge is a 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon over four consecutive days. Each year, about 7,000 runners (or walkers, in my case) take on the challenge. Most finish. But worldwide, only 375 or so of us had completed each and every one that Disney has held and, at 73, I was one of the eldest women—and inordinately proud of it. It was and is an exclusive group, composed of both A-level runners and those of us considerably slower. Timing is everything.
Competitive runners have time to stop for photo opportunities with Disney characters, spending 15 and 20 minutes waiting in line for a photo with Captain Jack, Goofy, or any of the other ten or so characters along the course, and then racing to the next one. They also have time to ride the rides that are open at the ungodly hour of 5:00 in the morning. For us back-of-the-packers, however, it takes everything we’ve got to finish in under the 16-minute mile requirement, or seven hours. In my case, that usually meant starting out at 14-minute miles, trying to maintain that until the halfway point, and then slowly allowing myself to finish the 26.2 miles at a more-or-less 18-minute mile. Those who fall behind that pace are picked up by a bus, not so lovingly called the Grim Sweeper.
Two things were at play in January this year: it was bitterly cold for three of the four mornings (the 5k, 10k, and marathon) and rainy for the fourth (the half marathon). And the marathon started 30 minutes earlier than it had in the past. Disney asks runners to be in place at least an hour and preferably two before the race starts, and the marathon was scheduled to start at 4:30 a.m. Because I’m a slower and older (did I mention I’m 73?), I was in the last group to start, which gave me about a two-, possibly four-, minute head start over the balloon ladies, who are the last ones to start and maintain a steady 16-minute mile. If you fall behind them, you are at risk of being swept from the course. So to get to the front of the last corral and gain that precious four-minute head start, my sister Kate and I elected to arrive as soon as the gates opened—and that meant setting our alarms for 1:30 a.m. and getting on the first bus (2:00 a.m.) to the starting point.
But that meant sitting on the ground in the cold temperatures for two and a half hours. I was not a happy camper, but then I never am at the start. This time, though I tried to hide it, I was downright grumpy. I talked to fellow runners, I tried to read a book on my phone, but mostly I just shivered. It didn’t help that the hand warmers I’d brought with me and opened the night before, trying to make my morning ablutions go that much faster, were air activated and not ones you have to shake. Live and learn.
We finally started—remember, we’re last—sometime around 5:30. Elite runners are halfway done, and we’re just starting. (For the first two races, the 5k and 10k, they’re finished before we even start.) And I kept up a “I can do this” attitude until, alas, mile 3, or about 45 minutes. Then for another forty-five minutes, I gave myself pep talks, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was freezing. I was old and cold. What was I doing, making myself miserable? At mile 6, I invented a pain in my left instep so that I could get my sister to go ahead without me. She’s Perfectly Dopey as well, and there was no sense in her risking not finishing just because I wasn’t feeling it. She ran on ahead and I lost sight of her within minutes. And was happy for her. Mostly. Though really, what I was feeling was sorry for myself.
I made it to Cinderella’s Castle, had my photo taken, and gave up sometime thereafter. The balloon ladies were five minutes behind me, and gaining. I voluntarily got on the Grim Sweeper, where they had the heat on. Several runners were already there, having given up for one reason or another. It doesn’t matter. They—we—tried. And knowing when you’ve reached a limit, whether it’s mental or physical, is not a bad thing. It was warm, blessedly warm, in the bus. For that alone, I knew I’d made the right decision. The bus eventually arrived back at the starting point, where we were given a medal, and I found the nearest coffee station. Twice. And waited for my sister, who finished in about six hours forty minutes.
I knew I’d made the right decision for me. We spent the next day hanging around Disney Springs, the room, eating, and performing all our after-marathon rituals. I gave my sister the t-shirts I didn’t earn, and gave the medal to charity. And still, I knew I’d done the right thing.
Until I got home and reality hit. Instead of being one of 350 Perfectly Dopeys, I was now one of 3 billion Perfectly Ordinarys. I cried at the Perfect Dopey Facebook page. I gave away my Mickey Mouse ears. I didn’t walk at all for two weeks. Is it just ego? Pretty much. Though it was part of my identity that I wasn’t ready to give up yet, even though I did it in the full knowledge of what I was doing. Willingly.
And then the recriminations began. How could I be so stupid? I should have just powered through. Why didn’t I train harder? Why didn’t I wear warmer clothes? Should I have eaten the power bar sooner? Later? I know, deep in my guts, I made the right decision to quit. Walking into that nice warm bus was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. Giving up that part of my identity days later, from the warm comfort of home, though, is harder. As I get older and have to give up more and more things (a job I liked, unlimited energy, assuming I’ll bounce back from an injury, caffeine (still working on that one), alcohol, staying up past 9 p.m., and so on), I have to remind myself that I’m lucky to still be here, mostly healthy, mostly sane, mostly still challenged by other things.
Still Perfectly 10k, though it doesn’t have quite the same ring
In a mid-October interview on Fox News Trump said, “We have two enemies—we have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within. And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries.”
He was referring to the nebulous “Deep State”, which in MAGA-speak means anyone and everyone who stands in the way of Trumpism. The cult of Trump, in turn, doesn’t really stand for anything beyond a United States dominated by a single party which favors Trump and his cronies; ultra-wealthy, hyper-conservative, mostly christian, nationalist, and the chauvinistic.
To be considered for his cabinet, you must be a loyalist willing to dismember and dismantle whatever Project 2025 says. Also, a history of sexual abuse, trafficking, drug use, public drunkenness, and a Trump pardon for fraud appear to be a plus.
Additionally, the “big tent” of MAGA-ism has found it useful to include wingnut branches of climate change denial, anti-vax, anti-flouride, anti-pasteurization, and many other anti-science factions. Don’t get me started on Q-Anon.
Trump, as with all demagogues, thrives on fear-driven politics. “They’re eating the cats!” They weren’t eating the cats, dogs, or geese. And to whatever extent the nation was concerned about immigration, Trump clearly didn’t support the bipartisan bill targeting that problem. He used his influence to block it.
Because fear of those immigrants won the election for him.
And because there’s nothing bipartisan about Trumpism.
That this amazing nation built by immigrants could be manipulated to fear them… The irony !
You know where else you could study a nation run by one party? In the 20th century, fascist Germany and Italy, soviet Russia, the Peoples Republic of China , and North Korea. And now in the 21st, Putin’s Russia, the PRC, and North Korea. (Yes, there are others, like Turkmenistan, and a growing list of flailing illiberal democracies.)
But I wanted to underscore what it took to retrieve Germany from totalitarianism.
Hitler was a demagogue cultist, who garnered power by targeting “the enemy within”, whose main project was national “purity”, and the “internal deportation” of “undesirables”.
Sound familiar? 15 to 20 million lives were lost removing fascism from Germany.
And make no mistake: Trumpism is fascism, plain and simple.
If you truly want freedom, defend others from losing theirs.
The project of the new administration is to reestablish a status quo that existed here from the 17th century through the latter 20th century; a nation with white male heterosexual domination, and socioeconomic stratification locking people into immutable roles, lifelong. Our lives have spanned a period which challenged those constraints, and freed so many marginalized lives, fulfilling dreams long repressed.
If we can’t dismantle the orange machine, we can, at least, throw as much sand in its gears as possible.
If you woke up yesterday expecting to vote for Donald J. Trump, wow… you have got a serious reality check to consider: Your candidate, as of 5:15pm yesterday afternoon, is a convicted felon.
If you are one of those Americans, please ask yourself this: If you ran a small business, …say you owned a coffee shop, or a hardware store…, would you hire a new assistant manager after learning he had 34 felony counts on his record?
Ok. Maybe you’re a forgiving type or an optimist. What if he also had a civil judgement and was paying damages to the victim of his sexual assault?
In addition, what if a number of his previous businesses were judged to have committed massive business, tax, and lending fraud? And were now paying penalties, or prohibited from engaging in those businesses?
Oh… this was mostly in New York State, and that makes a difference to you? It really shouldn’t, but let’s allow it anyway.
What if he was pending trial in Georgia for election fraud? And was a conspiring person of interest in another case in Arizona? Or are those states too “purple” to count for you?
Or maybe your shoe store just really needs that assistant manager desperately?
How about two other pending prosecutions? These could land our feisty job applicant in federal penitentiary! One is for stealing and concealing federal property, and top secret documents at that? The other is about fomenting a riot to pervert constitutional democracy, and hang on to the office he’d lost in that election?
I mean what if this guy had hidden plans to steal your secret recipe for french vanilla, and then take over your ice cream stand altogether?
Or is all of this just too silly for you to take seriously?
But, would you hire this guy? To balance your checkbook? To represent your personal interests? To drive your wife to the airport? To watch your kids while you’re away?
In 2020 I had resided in McIntosh County Georgia for 18 years. I voted for Joe Biden in the election there that November. I felt considerable pride for my adopted state as that election count was finished. The Democratic Party succeeded in seating two new Senators, and won 16 electoral votes for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Democracy is exhilarating when you earn a positive outcome honestly.
On January 2nd, 2021, out-going Trump placed an hour-long phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pressured the Secretary to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election.
This wasn’t Trump’s first phone call pressuring the Secretary’s office. On December 23, 2020, Trump called the chief investigator at the secretary’s office, who was then conducting a ballot audit. Raffensperger had ordered the audit in response to Trump’s allegations of fraud. Trump asked her to scrutinize the ballots and said she would find “dishonesty”. She didn’t. No significant fraud was found.
Four years have passed.
Trump is now indicted under both federal law and in the state of Georgia for his criminal attempt to defraud voters and steal the 2020 election. And it wasn’t only those two phone calls, but the fraud involved a coordinated effort by numerous individuals to present and count false electoral ballots from seven different states.
The conspiracy’s success hinged on fomenting utter chaos at the Capitol. Trump’s surrogates summoned armed and violent right wing posses. They moved according to a plan under the cover of the other demonstrators. Capitol policemen defending the building suffered serious injuries. Some died. One civilian was shot dead.
Slates of false electoral ballots were created in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Republican party workers labored to put those fraudulent ballots on the floor of the House on January 6th, where they hoped the pressure of the rioting mob might force their acceptance.
And the plan almost succeeded. The House and Senate chambers were evacuated. Tear gas was discharged in the Rotunda. Windows and doors, interior and exterior, were shattered. The counting of electoral ballots could not take place.
The certification of my chosen candidate was delayed until late that evening, after the rioters withdrew, the building had been cleared and deemed secure, and the legislators and Vice President Pence had returned.
Chaos didn’t succeed that day. But chaos hasn’t given up. Trump recently said that there would be “bedlam” here if he was not re-elected. It’s pretty clear to me and others that’s a call to his violent supporters to engage in armed insurrection again on his behalf.
If you are uncomfortable with the idea of living with ongoing chaos and division, if you’d prefer living with peace and the order of law, then you shouldn’t support Trump, or any faction that supports him.
Here’s my cranky old man’s take on the second film Ann and I ever walked out of, but don’t judge the film too harshly by it. I’m sure it’s better than I make it out to be. While watching it, I kept glancing at Ann, and thinking about Alvy Singer dragging Annie Hall into numerous screenings of ‘The Sorrow and the Pity’ (1969-4hrs.25min).
Anyway, my review emerged in an early morning conversation with my daughter Ellen. Enjoy…
By the way it’s worth mentioning that the first film Ann and I bailed out of years ago was ‘On Golden Pond’, which won Academy Awards for both Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. So don’t listen to me!
Here’s some clarity for you this morning: Fervor has utterly displaced Mellow in these United States.
Remember when you’d hear the complaint, “Hey, Dude! You’re harshing my vibe! Yo, chill!” Maybe mostly on tv, and perhaps only ironically over a beer in a backyard, but the thing was this: In general, back then we valued relaxation.
And, we could indulge in it!
Fast forward to today: No matter which side you’re on, it’s all Urgency. It’s all Crisis. The Right cries out, “Defend Our Freedom!” Everyone else shouts, “Defend Democracy!” The underlying passions are feeding a stridency and tension that may reach a flash point.
Don’t mistake my reflections here as a call to calm down. I am anything but complacent these days about the dangers I’ve seen coming, and, yes, arriving in America.
We are confronted by a small but powerful faction that has built its strength by playing on and magnifying people’s fears and hatreds. The fear and hatred is irrational and tribal. It’s curated to be so by those that generate it because frightened people are easy to manipulate, and also easy to stampede!
There was a guy some time back accused me of being a “sheep” for telling him to calm down. “What’re you so angry about?,” I challenged him.
“You’re one of the SHEEPLE!”, he shouted.
And I closed my eyes and pictured the mob stampeding the Capitol.
Those who would lead you to smash things aren’t thinking about you. The one swinging the sledge isn’t thinking about the hammer. He’s thinking about the target of the blow, and what he might do with the empty space left after destruction. The burning of the Reichstag didn’t liberate Germany.
Those who would lead you to reverse an election in these United States- (they tried on January 6th, and they’re trying again in 2024) ..Those are the ones who pursued only three missions when they held control: increase the wealth of the richest, seize factional control of the courts to shape society to their view, and build a “show-piece” wall to perpetuate fear of the “other”.
Paul Simon wrote a song called ‘Pigs, Sheep, and Wolves’. It’s a simple little story tune; an allegory riffing along axes of culture, politics, and human psychology. If you see what I’ve been saying here, you might enjoy it too. Chill out with it for a bit.
And after that ask yourself who are the sheep, who are the wolves, and what do the pigs really want.
