“Can’t You Just Shoot Them?”

[Two introductory notes:

The first observations in this long post are blatantly obvious to anyone closely following our public affairs; I chose to keep them in because they weren’t that blatantly obvious when written – the Trump Administration moves faster than this old blogger can type — and for anyone who hasn’t had the life space to dwell on the wide range of the untoward acts of President Donald Trump and his acolytes.

Second, an insightful friend once remarked to me that I often try to end a post with some hint of optimism — and sometimes conclude on a happier note than I actually feel. He was right. Viewer Discretion Advised: If you’ve already reached the limits of your emotional endurance at Mr. Trump’s and his minions’ destruction of the American way of life, click out NOW. There is little reassurance in what follows.]

President Donald Trump recently declared to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, “You don’t have the cards right now.” Putting the unfolding Ukrainian travesty aside, I would submit that right now, Americans who love true democracy don’t have a strong hand. Although Mr. Trump has been in office only two months, I think we’ve already entered the final countdown. Before contemplating where we may be headed, let’s consider the guardrails now tottering, tattered or demolished:

Through his aberrant behavior Mr. Trump has laid bare that the Founding Fathers, notwithstanding their attempt to design a constitutional system of checks and balances, were at bottom assuming that Americans would elect presidents who were, in the words of Alexander Hamilton writing as “Publius” in Federalist No. 68, to “an eminent degree endowed with … a different kind of merit, to establish … the esteem and confidence of the whole Union.” In the past, we’ve unquestionably had some storied presidents who did what they thought was necessary to protect the nation without fussing over the limits of their own Constitutional authority: Franklin Roosevelt’s 1942 Executive Order was the basis for the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans; Theodore Roosevelt made clear in his autobiography that when he felt it was necessary, he would take any action that he did not consider specifically prohibited to him under the Constitution; and Saint Abraham Lincoln arguably skated over the Constitutional line a few times during the Civil War. In retrospect, these proactive presidents were sometimes misguided, sometimes clearly morally wrong. Even so, what protected our republic overall in these instances was that these presidents were, although far from perfect, “endowed … with a different kind of merit.” Mr. Trump’s own narcissistic insecure vindictive amorality has vitiated this guardrail.

Presidents have generally surrounded themselves with Cabinet and other advisors who were accomplished in their own right, respectful of the president they served without being sycophantic. President George Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Mr. Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, each of whom advised the president loyally while having visions for the nation very different from each other and sometimes at variance from those of Mr. Washington himself. Now, we have the likes of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. So much for that guardrail.

The Legislative Branch was not only supposed to be the co-equal of the Executive Branch in our government; the Founding Fathers arguably intended the Congress to be the preeminent Branch, which they established through the First Article of the Constitution. The envisioned that Senators and Representatives would be estimable individuals who would zealously maintain their own Constitutional prerogatives. Today, in addition to largely impotent Democrats wailing and gnashing their teeth, Congressional Republicans clearly don’t go to the bathroom without the approval of Mr. Trump and his co-President, Elon Musk. Until they receive the okay, these legislators sit there and hold it. This guardrail is not only gone; it’s vaporized.

As to the Judicial Branch: while there are partisan MAGA hacks and toadies on the various levels of the federal bench such as Associate Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and US. District Court FLSD Judge Aileen Cannon, I maintain that the vast majority of federal judges administer the law fairly and accurately. That said, we have already seen multiple instances of the Trump Administration’s willingness to skirt and perhaps outright defy judicial rulings. Now we have the President of the United States calling for the impeachment of a federal circuit judge because he didn’t like the judge’s ruling – which won’t happen, but serves Mr. Trump’s larger purpose: to discredit the judiciary in the eyes of his willingly gullible base. What is a federal court going to be able to do if/when it’s clear that Trump officials are simply disregarding its ruling? You can take this one: Zip. Zilcho. Nada. Guardrail down.

Let’s look next at the so-called “Fourth Branch of Government,” the free press (I still like the old-fashioned phrase 🙂 ). Put aside the Fox News and alt-right propaganda machine and consider the broader picture. The White House is now limiting access to Mr. Trump, punishing transgressors for coverage it doesn’t like. CNN has reordered its lineup in a way that unseated an anchor, Jim Acosta, whom Mr. Trump detests. MSNBC (which has also reorganized its lineup) is being spun off by NBCUniversal. Other news organizations are seemingly altering their commentary. From one perspective, one can sympathize with the challenge credible news organizations face; they have only so many minutes and column inches to address the avalanche of Administration machinations. At the same time, I am increasingly angered with the modulated manner in which media is reporting the Trump Administration’s actions. I believe that if Mr. Trump did shoot five people on 5^th Avenue in New York tomorrow, some of the outlets we listen to would report it in subdued tones, and move on. (I can hear the late Comedian George Carlin as The Weatherman, intoning, “A meteor is now crashing into the earth, so tomorrow it’ll be a bit cloudy.”) We are not transitioning from chocolate to strawberry but from chocolate to strychnine. They should say so. Guardrail – if not destroyed, certainly no bastion.

One might have assumed that the views of the leaders of America’s business community might be a check on the President’s behavior, at least on economic issues such as tariffs. Wrong. These leaders are cowed. Mr. Trump has proven that he will move unscrupulously to crush or cripple any interest that he perceives to disagree with him. CEOs of crushed and crippled companies don’t get to stay CEOs, with their multi-million dollar salaries and corporate perks, for very long. Big business won’t stay boo no matter what Mr. Trump does. Guardrail – if this, indeed, ever amounted to one – gone.

The financial markets remain one intriguing guardrail for which Mr. Trump’s reaction cannot yet be assessed. They are faceless, can’t be bullied, and reassuring them was a priority for Mr. Trump during his first term. That said, while the Administration clearly was at first a bit unnerved when the stock market dropped 10% when Mr. Trump imposed his tariffs, it has since seemingly become more indifferent to the market’s concerns. (It remains to be seen how Mr. Trump will react if the markets drop another 10% or more.)

There was another guardrail that I thought might hold: Mr. Trump’s own insecurity. What seemingly hasn’t yet penetrated the consciousness of average MAGAs is that Mr. Trump doesn’t need their votes anymore. (I suspect the President views his own undeniable physical degradation a greater impediment to a third term than a mere Constitutional prohibition.) I have previously noted my belief that the speed at which the Trump Administration curtailed government benefits and services relied upon by Trump voters would be an indicator whether it intended to subject itself to free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028. I thought the President’s continuing need for his supporters’ adulation might stay his hand from adversely impacting programs they valued, but if reports that the Administration is advising Congressional Republicans to avoid town hall meetings are accurate, it is a telling sign that the Trump Team no longer cares about its supporters’ concerns. (Despite its protestations, the Administration is certainly aware that many irate attendees are Trump voters, not nonlocal crashers.) At present, the sturdiness of this guardrail remains unclear.

The foregoing may have been as tedious as it was demoralizing, but perhaps served to highlight both how quickly we’ve advanced toward authoritarianism and that we’re going way too fast to expect the MAGA Administration to voluntarily apply any restraint. As I said in a note about a month ago, the efforts of Messrs. Trump and Musk couldn’t suit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s purposes any better than if the Russian President had specified them himself. That said, Americans who believe in democracy still have cards to play; how highly one values their hand depends upon how one thinks Mr. Trump will respond when it is played.

As the Trump Administration’s cuts to Medicaid, Veterans Benefits, the IRS, federal emergency services, state and municipal funding, farm aid, in the offing Social Security and Medicare, etc., etc., increasingly ripple through the economy, they will cost additional federal public sector jobs, further limit or withdraw federal services, cascade into state and local public sector jobs and services, affect the private sector, and diminish or eliminate benefits to which Trump supporters consider themselves entitled. Watch a Wyoming farmer losing subsidies or a Mississippi senior citizen losing Medicaid. Wait until Bird Flu or Measles outbreaks decimate less vaccinated (i.e., MAGA) areas. Wait until a major hurricane hits the southern Atlantic or the Gulf (of Mexico 🙂 ) coasts and FEMA has no resources to help devastated citizens. 2024 Trump voters will no longer be distracted by inane diversions; a pivotal segment will feel betrayed. They won’t be sad; they’ll be mad. They will join the 49% of the citizenry who already bitterly opposes the Trump Administration. It’s already starting.

(An aside: I completely agree with U.S. Senate Minority Leader U.S. NY Sen. Chuck Schumer’s tactical decision to capitulate to the Republicans’ one-sided Continuing Resolution to fund the government rather than shut the government down. At that juncture it was too early to make a stand; the bulk of our citizens had not yet begun to experience the full consequences of Republicans’ initiatives. Shutting the government down would have simply made it appear to many Americans that any ensuing loss of government services was the Democrats’ fault. By acquiescing to the Republican bill, Democrats have ensured that Mr. Trump will own any pain voters hereafter feel due to Republican initiatives. If democracy is saved, Mr. Schumer’s maneuver may in retrospect be seen to have played a significant part.)

As the effects of the Administration’s actions become ever more apparent – just as the weather warms – the number of demonstrations (which are already occurring) could well grow. They could well be large, raucous, and widespread. If Mr. Trump comes to confront a people in which over 60% bitterly and vociferously oppose him, he will have a challenge not faced by Adolf Hitler in Germany in the 1930s or Putin in Russia in the 2000s. Neither of these countries had deep democratic roots when Hitler and Putin respectively took power. Their citizens, accustomed to centuries of autocracy, had no visceral belief that what they thought mattered. On the contrary, after 250 years of democracy, Americans across the political spectrum inherently expect their leaders to listen to them.

[Another aside: at this point in the Trump term, U.S. VT Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently conducting rallies across the country (sometimes accompanied by U.S. NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), is the perfect spearhead for the anti-Trump movement. He has credibility across the political spectrum as an advocate for working people and the disadvantaged, while clearly being too old to still entertain presidential aspirations. I am guessing that Mr. Sanders has determined that his last great service to America is to inspire the resistance to MAGA until the Democratic Party coalesces behind its next leader.]

Confronted by widespread discontent in their countries, the response would be simple for either Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping: you send your military out, shoot some demonstrators, throw a thousand others in jail, and everybody else will get in line.

What will Mr. Trump do if the protests envisioned here do materialize? I would suggest that the best result that Americans who love democracy can expect is that Mr. Trump will back off, at least to a certain extent (to the extent he can; I think a lot of what he has already broken can’t be easily reconstructed). But how strong a hand is it?

I have seen it reported that Mark Esper, the last Secretary of Defense in the first Trump Administration, related in his memoir, A Sacred Oath, that when demonstrators protested in Washington, D.C., after the murder of George Floyd, Mr. Trump asked authorities, “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

I leave it to you to decide how you think Mr. Trump will respond if he ever feels truly threatened by widespread rallies and demonstrations. Although I am confident that today, U.S. ME Sen. Susan Collins would say, “President Trump would never deploy our armed forces against American citizens,” to any realist, concerted anti-MAGA activism will not be without risk.

Still, at this juncture, those who believe in the American way of life as it has existed for the last quarter of a millennium still have cards to play.

(I guess I did end with a slight note of optimism, after all 😉 ).

We’ll see what happens.

BLACK LIVES MAT

As all who care are aware, a mural of the words, “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” which was placed on 16^th Street in Washington, D.C., in 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, is being removed by the city, reportedly due to pressure being applied to city officials by Republican members of Congress. I haven’t seen reports of widespread protest at the removal.

The irony of this note is that I don’t believe in identity politics. I absolutely and viscerally believe in equality – the right of all of our people of every persuasion to be able to freely, fully, and peacefully use their gifts – but I am not convinced that we as a polity benefit from the artificial imposition of diversity. You may correct me – I have not performed detailed research on the data – but it is my impression that although the affirmative action programs implemented since the 1960s have reaped great rewards in certain individual cases, they have not brought about the overall societal changes hoped for when they were initiated. While I am not sure that I have ever been specifically aware of the BLM mural in Washington, D.C., one could not help but be aware of such memorials being created throughout the country after Mr. Floyd was killed, and I remember wondering at the time whether, despite the massive outrage all decent human beings felt at the brazen execution of Mr. Floyd, it was useful to single out the injustices done to any one group of our citizens so markedly.

So, I am surprised at the anger and foreboding I feel as the BLM mural is being removed in our nation’s capital. Once the money had been spent to install it, it certainly wasn’t doing any harm, and its message was a positive one. Removing it is incurring public expense that isn’t required from a structural standpoint. One is merely stating the patently obvious when noting that these self-proclaimed Republican guardians of public coffers are baseless hypocrites who have no trouble wasting public funds when it suits their agenda. However, the wasted expense is just as obviously but a drop in the ocean of the import of the issue. Here, we don’t need to get bound up in a debate regarding the correct approach toward migrants who have admittedly crossed our border illegally. Our government is Making America Great Again by deleting an expression of support for the wellbeing of a segment of our citizens. Its concern for these citizens is literally being erased.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTE

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BLACK LIVES MAT

BLACK LIVES MA

BLACK LIVES M

BLACK LIVES

BLACK LIVE

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Not that concerned?

Who’s next?

It could be me.

It could be you.

What Will Be, Will Be: Redux

Something you and I absolutely agree upon: I’m not that smart. However, this post is entered in shocked reaction to a comment by MSNBC’s Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough today, to the effect that legislators and financiers with whom Mr. Scarborough talks are stunned that President Donald Trump is actually doing … exactly what he said he was going to do during the campaign — now augmented by hints that Mr. Trump and Elon Musk are considering doing what Mr. Trump has always said he wouldn’t do: tamper with Social Security and Medicare. What follows are excerpts (all italics appeared in the original) from a post entitled, “What Will Be, Will Be,” entered in these pages six days after Mr. Trump’s election. (If you care, scroll down to fill in the portions I’ve omitted here.)

“‘Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.’

Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838

…

I have always thought that the American presidency called for a fundamentally good person who was willing to take morally questionable actions to achieve a greater good. It is clear that many Americans are willing to abide a man whom even a large share of his supporters concede is amoral in hopes that he will do good things. [I am particularly struck by those Evangelicals who admit that they wouldn’t want Mr. Trump as a pastor but can abide him as president. Granting that the Bible can be cited for just about anything anyone wants, one cannot help but pause at the seeming … let’s say, incongruity … that any such literalist Christians so readily disregarded Matthew 7: 17-18: ‘Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears rotten fruit. A good tree cannot bear rotten fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.’] It is what it is.

What comes next?

…

Over the next four years, I expect: that Mr. Trump – already exhausted and mentally degrading – to become a figurehead for a radical reformation of our federal government by Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance, Donald Trump, Jr., and the MAGA zealots who have put together Project 2025; that all criminal charges now adjudged or pending against Mr. Trump will be dispensed with; that all of the convicted January 6^th rioters will be pardoned; that many of Mr. Trump’s most prominent political and media critics will be prosecuted by the Trump Justice Department on trumped up (if you will 😉 ) charges … or otherwise pressured into submission; that MAGAs will pass measures that in fact if not in name will serve to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning constituencies; that many legal as well as illegal immigrants will be swept up in the Administration’s deportation initiatives; that MAGA-sympathetic generals will be appointed to lead the American military, and that at some point under their direction our armed forces will take action against peaceful American citizen demonstrators; that violence will increase against African Americans, legal immigrants of color, non-Christians, and Americans with untraditional gender and sexual preferences; that NATO will remain in name, but will have severely reduced effectiveness as America substantially limits its participation; that Russia will absorb at least Ukraine and possibly a number of NATO countries formerly members of the USSR; that Mr. Trump and his cohort will continue their approach of division and distraction; … and that — the bitterest irony of all — the gap between the American rich and those poor who consider Mr. Trump their Messiah will continue to widen. (The cruelest joke will be that because of alt-right propaganda, most are likely not to even realize that Mr. Trump did nothing for them.)

…

If Mr. Trump and his minions actually effect the tariffs and tax cuts for which he’s advocated and bend securities laws to favor powerful oligarchs like Elon Musk, it doesn’t take an economics degree to predict that inflation, the deficit, and accordingly interest rates will soar and the stock market will drop; if they effect the mass deportations of illegal aliens he has promised, certain sectors of our economy dependent on illegal labor will crater, materially adversely affecting the entire economy; and that if they obtain the control over the Federal Reserve Mr. Trump seeks, global confidence in the dollar will plummet along with its value and hasten its abandonment as the world’s reserve currency.

For clues as to whether the MAGA Administration will be willing, contrary to my deepest misgivings, to allow for a free and fair 2028 election, an early indication will be how the Administration approaches issues that do matter to Trump voters. Ones coming to mind are the conservative shibboleths of a nationwide abortion ban, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts (there are a lot of Trump voters who benefit from Medicaid), and repeal of the now-popular Affordable Care Act without an essentially-like replacement. In these areas, Mr. Trump, even in his obviously mentally and emotionally degraded state, is cannier than his doctrinaire followers. If he or his MAGA cohort truly intend to subject their hold on power to the free will of all American citizens in 2028, they will abstain from any actions that they know will outrage their base. A more ominous indicator of any anti-democratic intentions they may harbor will arise, if at all, after the 2026 mid-terms, if MAGA propaganda starts to stoke unfounded fears of civil unrest or insurrection.”

I apologize for taking your time with an unplanned vent, particularly one which is little more than a repeat of what has already been entered here (although surrendering to such impulses is one of the perks of a site like this 😉 ). I am just having trouble grasping that the supposed sophisticates Mr. Scarborough referred to couldn’t see coming what was as plain as the noses on their faces. I hope to post an entry in the not-too-distant future regarding the condition our traditional guardrails – those destroyed, and those remaining. Keep your seatbelt on.

A Sucker’s Bet

My taste buds never grew up. I like what the average two-year-old likes. When left to my own devices, I will often opt for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (after all, it’s The Cheesiest 🙂 ) or Oscar Mayer baloney on bread (although these aren’t as good as those of my youth, since TLOML refuses to buy Wonder Bread, thus depriving me of the opportunity to build my body in 12 ways). That said: of all of the grotesque appointments consummated since Inauguration Day (a close friend noted to me recently that the only qualified person President Donald Trump has chosen seems to be Stormy Daniels), that which is perhaps the most aesthetically absurd although not the most important is Mr. Trump’s becoming Chairman of the Board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His election is akin to me being named Chairman of the Board of the American Culinary Federation.

We regularly see reports that Democrats are “struggling to find their footing” as to how to respond to Mr. Trump’s policy blitzkrieg. This is enough to make one blink. Democrats should emulate MAGAs and alt-right media and KEEP IT SIMPLE: POUND INFLATION and ELON MUSK. If the economists one reads have any competence at all – you can take that one – inflation is not abating and Mr. Trump’s current and proposed tariffs will make it worse. Probably sooner than later, some DOGE initiative is going to cost a swath of Americans some benefit they rely on. Mr. Musk is more inherently unlikeable than former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ever was, and look how Republicans were able to demonize her. Democrats should strive to poison the general public perception of Mr. Musk – which will yield the side benefit of emasculating Mr. Trump. (I was more than a little surprised to see last week that Mr. Trump – who is particularly attuned to television images – let Mr. Musk and Mr. Musk’s son in the Oval Office while Mr. Trump was meeting with reporters; it was not a good look for Mr. Trump, visually diminishing him while further elevating Mr. Musk’s profile.) We’ll see whether the Dems — who since President Bill Clinton left office have seemed to believe that politics is, indeed, bean-bag — can actually mount an effective political counterattack. (Of course, such efforts will only matter if Trump MAGAs permit free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028, which I doubt; a telling clue to their long term intent will be whether Republicans seek cuts in Social Security and Medicare – emotive programs for Trump supporters that could potentially adversely affect their fealty – in future budget negotiations.)

Mr. Trump’s pardoning of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers convicted for their actions in the January 6, 2021, insurrection has provided the President his own private Stermabteilung.

As the Trump Administration digs in, I am heartsick at the havoc being wrought by Mr. Trump and his acolytes on federal employees whose careers are being wantonly and indiscriminately ruined, on our citizens who had the sense to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris but will be engulfed in the commencing maelstrom, and on the compromised and the destitute lacking the bandwidth to even come to grips with what a Trump presidency portends for them. At the same time, I am not nearly as distressed that the misperceptions of some Trump supporters will begin to rebound upon them. Those technology oligarchs who have sought to curry favor with Mr. Trump in recent months (not Mr. Musk, who will be protected by his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin) haven’t studied the history of totalitarian regimes closely enough; ultimately, the Trump Administration will come for them and their organizations, and break them. The admittedly more unfortunate cases will be those at the other end of the Trump spectrum. Although we will never know – the privacy of the voting booth being sacrosanct, at least up to now – if such could be determined, it would seem worthy of betting a dollar that each of the following will occur: the impoverished mother, who voted for Mr. Trump because of the price of eggs, who loses her SNAP payments; the elderly farmer, who voted for Mr. Trump because he hates the Woke, who has a family member die because the hospital formerly nearest to him closed for lack of Medicaid revenue; the Latino male, who wouldn’t vote for a woman, who watches undocumented family members deported, never to be seen again; and the black male, who voted for Mr. Trump because he was so manly, who is gunned down somewhere by some police officer emboldened by Trump rhetoric.

I know. You wouldn’t risk the dollar, even presuming the outcomes could be determined. It’s a sucker’s bet.

CHIEFS, TOO

[DISCLAIMER: In a rational world, it would be silly to add this, but in our current environment in which conspiracy theories spring from nowhere, I hereby declare that I do NOT think that the NFL is conspiring for the Chiefs or against the Eagles. 90% of the fictional memo set forth below wrote itself while I was on the treadmill yesterday. Although the Kelce brothers and Ms. Swift will never be aware of this post, I am confident that if they were, they would not be offended by the tongue-in-cheek effort set forth here.]

Memo to: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

From: League Super Bowl Coordinator

In re: Exploiting Revenue Opportunities Related to the Kansas City Chiefs

This year’s Super Bowl pits the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are an outstanding team. The League, of course, has a vested interest in a Chiefs victory. First, Taylor Swift is romantically involved with one of the Chiefs players, and we want to keep her fans happy so they continue to consume our product; second, and more importantly, the citizens of the states of Missouri and Kansas are both relatively much stauncher supporters of our new President, Donald Trump, than Pennsylvanians, so we want to keep Missourians and Kansans happy so that we can keep him happy. The Chiefs are only about a 1.5 point favorite – coincidentally, about the margin by which Mr. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris last November. These are the steps we plan to put in place to ensure a Chiefs victory:

We’ve dispatched League officials to the Eagles’ offices on the pretext of performing an audit, told all the front office staff to go home, cut off their payment system, and locked them out of the Eagles’ network.

As you’re aware, Eagle Running Back Saquon Barkley has had an extraordinary season this year, running for over 2,000 yards. Given Mr. Barkley’s obvious strategic value, the Chiefs are offering to buy Mr. Barkley. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet had the time to set up a structure under which either the Eagles can be forced to sell Mr. Barkley to the Chiefs, or to enable the Chiefs to simply take Mr. Barkley. Therefore, if Philadelphia ungratefully refuses to sell Mr. Barkley to the Chiefs, we have informed the Eagles that unless they pay at least 2% of their total revenue to the League, they will no longer get the coverage of the League’s TV package.

As you’re also aware, Ms. Swift’s boyfriend’s brother is a retired Eagle player who clearly loves and has provided tremendous support to the Philadelphia community over the years. We are exploring ways to put pressure on him to say that despite what he has stood for throughout his entire professional football career, he never really liked Philadelphia or the Eagles, that he actually always thought that Kansas City and the Chiefs were the best, and that he wants to come back to play for the Chiefs. Given the techniques we have seen successfully employed upon some of the President’s formerly most vociferous detractors who have since become among his most slavish supporters — such as Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – we have high hopes here.

We have made arrangements to remove all security for the Eagles at their hotel and when entering the stadium. They’re big boys; what could go wrong? 😉

We have fired every official who has ever made a call against the Chiefs. We have fired every official who has ever made a call favoring Philadelphia. We’ve fired every official who’s ever been to Philadelphia.

We are going to replace the National Anthem with the theme of God Bless America, but with better lyrics. While still a work in progress, we envision a first verse along the lines, “God Bless the President, the man that we love; stand beside him, and prize him, through the night with the light from above,” while unfurling a flag at midfield with the President’s picture on it. (We’re still considering how it might be received if we add a depiction of Jesus with his hand on Mr. Trump’s shoulder.) It’ll be great.

Any player on either team seen kneeling during the … er … new National Anthem will be found during the coming offseason to have violated some League policy, and banned for life. (Unless it’s Ms. Swift’s boyfriend; we need him, so we’ll simply reprimand him, with quiet apologies to the President.)

For the coin flip, we will be using a coin with the Chiefs and Eagles’ logos and the Lombardi Trophy all crammed on one side, and a flattering depiction of President Trump on the other side. Of course, we will have commemorative bitcoins on sale during the game and thereafter, with proceeds split between the League and Trump Foundations.

As you are aware, for Super Bowls we normally display the name and colors of each team in one end zone. We have decided to change the name of the end zone assigned to the Eagles to, “CHIEFS, TOO,” with the Kansas City colors.

We have added a rule change for the game: the Official Pardon Power. Any official that sees a Chiefs player guilty of a vicious unsportsmanlike hit on an Eagle has the power to immediately pardon the Chief. The game will continue without penalty.

You have asked how we will deal with a distinct risk: that despite all the safeguards we put in place, the Eagles are so good that they still … win. We have opted for a simple course: no matter how much the Eagles might win by, we will simply declare that Kansas City won. We’ll immediately release the confetti with Kansas City colors. Although Kansas City Coach Andy Reid, Chief Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Ms. Swift’s boyfriend will undoubtedly be shocked and wonder what is going on, we’ll simply haul them onto the victor’s podium (maybe he’ll propose to Ms. Swift on the platform — wouldn’t that be a coup?) and give them the Lombardi Trophy. (You’re concerned that the Eagles might object. Not to worry: remember, we aren’t giving them any security.)

Am sure you’re looking forward to the event! Since you’ll be presenting the trophy, you might want to consult Mr. Trump for his advice as to the best makeup!

[Enjoy the game. Hopefully, it will provide you a worthy distraction. (FYI: Travis Kelce hasn’t let me know whether he intends to propose to Ms. Swift if the Chiefs win. 😉 )]

Just Touching Base

I have entered little of substance here regarding the state of our polity for the last couple of months. I have not resumed regular posts since Donald Trump reassumed the presidency, as I intended last November, partially because family issues have taken up a measure of our time, but also because … I am at a bit of a loss as to what to say. Nothing that has occurred starting on January 20 could be any surprise to anyone with the sense God gave a goose. Posts simply making points of which you’re already well aware, or saying, “What’dja think was gonna happen?” or “Toldja so,” will be tiresome. I am beginning to put together a note that tries to place the Trump Administration’s types of activities into a framework – I do believe that there is a design behind them – but beyond that – and although more declarations regarding Trump malignity and Trump supporters’ states of mind will undoubtedly form the bases of a greater number of future posts than I now intend – I am pondering how to proceed with at least some future entries in a way that is constructive given the vile – albeit completely predictable – political devastation we are now witnessing.

That said: one can remain confident that whatever is hereafter published in these pages will still be only so much Noise. 😉

Stay well – or at least as well as you can.

On the Presidency of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

At the end of 2022, I observed in these pages that “at this [halfway] point in his term,” I considered President Joe Biden to be most consequential president America had had since Franklin Roosevelt.

I will spare you an extended litany of pros and cons of the Biden presidency; you have lived the last four years. Although the President’s defenders are now touting his many substantive achievements, four aspects stand out to me: the effective manner in which his Administration dispensed the COVID vaccines becoming available as he took office, reviving a country literally and figuratively crippled by the pandemic; the manner in which he led an economy – which at the time he took office economists were debating only whether it was headed for a “hard” or soft” landing — through four years of uninterrupted growth; the manner in which he protected America and other global democracies by fostering cohesion among NATO allies when Russia invaded Ukraine at a point that the alliance was in its greatest disarray since its founding; and – perhaps most importantly – the decent, stable, open manner in which he conducted the presidency.

That said, they don’t render a final assessment of a starter’s performance when he’s halfway through the ballgame. Mr. Biden’s second half wasn’t as strong as his first half; he didn’t aggressively address the chaos existing at our southern border until too late, and — crucially, even aside from the ultimate political ramifications – he should have recognized in late 2022 that he substantively simply didn’t have the strength to perform his office effectively for another six years, no matter whom the Republicans nominated.

Ever since starting these pages, I have had the idea of doing a post setting forth my ranking of the worst to the best American presidents of my lifetime (which, despite the hoary nature of these entries, only extends as far back President Harry Truman 🙂 ). If I ever do write such a note, I now expect that Mr. Biden will be placed not at the top, but somewhere in the middle, alongside Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Mr. Johnson’s extraordinary domestic policy achievements were ultimately overshadowed by Vietnam. Mr. Nixon’s extraordinary foreign policy achievements were ultimately overshadowed by Watergate.

While I place exceptional weight on the fact that Mr. Biden is a genuinely good man who means well, in 2020 he didn’t run for president and we didn’t elect him for his managerial, economic, or even foreign policy acumen. He ran and we hired him to perform one mission: rid us of Donald Trump.

He didn’t.

Lessons from Mr. Carter

As all are aware, former President Jimmy Carter, 100, died this past weekend. I’m acutely aware that a number of those reading this note can’t remember when Mr. Carter was president. As is appropriate when marking the passing of such a fine man, commentators – I noted that for the brief time we tuned in, even on Fox News – have emphasized Mr. Carter’s fundamental decency. The grotesque dichotomy between Mr. Carter’s character and that of the next occupant of the Oval Office need not be remarked upon here; it speaks for itself. (I do admit that I relish the notion that older Evangelical leaders’ contemplations of Mr. Carter may be causing them to rue, however briefly, how far their movement has strayed over the last 50 years for what it considers expediency.)

As someone who does remember Mr. Carter’s presidency, a number of lessons have occurred to me:

First, he ran a revolutionary campaign in 1976. As hard as it might be for younger Americans to now appreciate, the Deep South was nowhere, politically, in 1976. To be successful, any presidential candidate’s timing has to be right, and has been repeatedly remarked, Mr. Carter’s sincere morality provided the perfect contrast to the sordid revelations of then-former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate; but it was more than that. Mr. Carter and his advisors [Chief Campaign Strategist (and later White House Chief of Staff) Hamilton Jordan and his closest confidante (aside from Mrs. Carter) (and later White House Press Secretary) Jody Powell (both of whom were about 20 years younger than Mr. Carter, and both of whom passed away in the 2000s)] devised a strategy in which he would make an early first impression – and hopefully win – the Iowa Caucuses and then contrast himself from his multiple liberal adversaries for the Democratic nomination by taking positions that were more conservative (except on civil rights, where Mr. Carter’s record was impeccable; African American support was his base) than those held by the rest of the field. Nobody outside of Iowa had ever heard of the Iowa Caucuses before 1976. The Carter Campaign realized that Mr. Carter’s background – an Evangelical, a farmer, a military background – was perfectly tailored for Iowa, and that the national media loved the new, the different. They made Iowa matter, he won, and rode the momentum to a victory in the New Hampshire primary. He was on his way – and won a bunch of subsequent primaries by taking about 30% of the vote while the liberal field split the remaining 70%. (President-Elect Donald Trump employed a version of the strategy — undoubtedly without recognizing the parallel to Mr. Carter’s – to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination).

Mr. Carter’s narrow victory over then-President Gerald Ford is further evidence of a point I have made here several times in connection with my father, a rock-ribbed Republican who nonetheless passionately supported John F. Kennedy, an Irish Catholic, in 1960: Mr. Carter needed and swept the Electoral College votes of the Deep South, although I would venture that the majority of those states’ voters were closer to Mr. Ford on substantive issues than they were to Mr. Carter. It didn’t matter; Mr. Carter’s election psychologically empowered them in the same manner that Mr. Kennedy’s did for Catholics and former President Barack Obama’s did for African Americans a generation later. (When campaigning in the South, Mr. Carter would grin, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a president who doesn’t speak with an accent?” The South, which had been trending Republican before Mr. Carter’s 1976 run, returned resoundingly to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.) (The one group that has not been decisively motivated by common identity is women, demonstrating both why we should have a woman president, and why we don’t.)

I will venture that as president, Mr. Carter knew how to manage but didn’t know how to lead. (A criticism he himself acknowledged but didn’t agree with.) Legendary Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives “Tip” O’Neill once remarked – my words, but his meaning – that Mr. Carter knew more about policy and less about Congressional dynamics than any president he ever worked with. Last fall, we took a trip to the United Kingdom, and while there I was particularly struck by the simultaneous lunacy and brilliance of the British system. The vast majority of the UK citizens we talked to had respect for and loyalty to King Charles (although clearly not the reverence they held for his late Mum 😉 ) while mostly disparaging their elected representatives (the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, had just assumed his post; I couldn’t remember his name, and most of them couldn’t, either). The allegiance the Brits have for Charles — whose crown in the official photo seems (aptly, to me) slightly askew – who sits in opulence, separated only by an accident of birth from the guy on a pub stool down the street from the Palace — seemed absurd to my American eyes; at the same time, no matter how contentiously Brits may disagree on the policies of the ruling government, they all have the King to rally around. Although Prime Ministers have rallied the UK – Winston Churchill being the most renowned example – for the most part, it is the Monarch who is the communal foundation. I envy the touchstone of unity that the monarchy provides UK citizens. We Americans expect our Presidents to be both King – to lead majestically – and Prime Minister – to get the minutia right. Very, very few men (not only have all of our presidents been men; I fear that all will be men for the remainder of my lifetime) are good at both. Required to choose, we Americans seem to prefer presidents who lead with broad flourishes: in the last century, Messrs. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, Trump. We seemingly have less patience for presidents, no matter how arguably successful on paper, who govern in a more ministerial fashion: Messrs. Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Biden. Mr. Carter made a fine Prime Minister but a poor King. He checked a number of substantive boxes, but failed to hold the American imagination. His challenge as president was perhaps best captured in the Iranian hostage crisis: he did, in the end, through patience and persistence, bring the hostages home – an achievement for which their families and all rejoiced on a human level – but at a cost of leaving Americans feeling impotent, humiliated by Iran, then a third-rate nation with nothing but oil going for it. What Mr. Carter achieved – saving the hostages while avoiding a Mideast war – was commendable. It is not nearly so clear that his approach was the wisest strategically.

Mr. Carter taught me a lesson about myself – one that I suspect he would not appreciate — that indeed was part of the genesis of the title of this site. Never over the last 50 years have I been as passionately for a candidate as I was for Mr. Carter in 1976. (I have since been at least as passionately against a candidate, but you know that 😉 .) In 1976, I had nothing against Mr. Ford; I had simply become a true believer in Mr. Carter. I was absolutely confident that Mr. Carter would really make a difference, truly lead us in a new direction. For me, his presidency was a terrible disappointment. [I guess that at bottom, I am among those Americans that prefer majesty (while hoping the president has an able staff in the background 🙂 ) to ministry.] In 1980, my vote for Ronald Reagan was not a vote for Mr. Reagan but a vote against Mr. Carter. If you now dismiss my initial expectations as youthful exuberance, I will not disagree; but the fact remains that between 1977 and 1981 I realized, and have always thereafter recognized, that if I could be that wrong about a candidate, any notion I had about any candidate or issue, no matter how firmly held, could simply be … only so much noise.

That said, I leave the most important lesson for last: Mr. Carter’s example after leaving the White House. I would venture that there can hardly be a more bitter blow to one’s psyche than to win the U.S. presidency – to ascend to the highest secular height that the modern world offers – to work as hard at the job as Mr. Carter did, and then … to be so humiliatingly cast aside (Mr. Reagan won 44 states). In Mr. Carter’s post presidency – I think that even the notion of a “post presidency,” and the term, “Post-President” were generated because of Mr. Carter – he taught us that even following the most emotionally devastating defeat, there is much good one can do if one has the gumption to get up and do it. So even at this time when some of us are terribly disillusioned, his example provides encouragement that there is much good to be done – not only in the realm of policy and politics, but also to better the everyday situations of those less fortunate around us.

We just need to see what can be done, and get up and do it.

Gratias tibi, Mr. President. Requiescat in pace.

Mr. Trump’s Scent

As all who care are aware, a bipartisan Congressional funding bill required to keep the government open, considered completed but for formal passage, was scuttled this week. For the most part, I’ve been adhering to my intent to distance myself from public affairs throughout the Holidays, so I don’t know whether the bill was substantively good or bad, but do understand that Congress needs to pass a funding measure by midnight tonight to avoid a government shutdown. It’s been reported that the bipartisan compromise was abandoned after Billionaire Financier Elon Musk tweeted against the bill innumerable times on December 18. It’s also been reported that that President-Elect Donald Trump himself suddenly opposed the bill unless it included an increase in the federal debt ceiling while President Joe Biden is still in office, although there is no formal need to extend the debt ceiling until sometime this summer.

Since Messrs. Musk and Trump torpedoed the bipartisan funding bill, Democrats have declared that they won’t support any new bill that House Republican leaders jerry-rig. I’m hoping they stick to it. I sincerely hope that they aren’t idiotic enough to capitulate to Mr. Trump’s sudden demand to expand the debt ceiling when there is no pressing need. If Speaker Mike Johnson gets no Democratic help, I think he might find – since he has proclaimed that the Bible is his worldview – that it was easier for Moses to collaborate with the Almighty on parting the Red Sea than it will be for him to generate a symphony from the Republican House cacophony.

Not to be lost in the chaos: the Dynamic Duo of Messrs. Musk and Trump are pulling in different directions. Mr. Musk seemingly wishes to use the authority Mr. Trump has indicated that he will be granted to cut federal spending with apparently little regard for public reaction. At the same time, Mr. Trump is evidently well aware that the large segment of his electoral base who depend on government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid don’t actually care about reducing the deficit if reduction measures adversely affect their benefits and services.

In terms that Mr. Johnson would understand if not appreciate: the majority of American voters opted for this Tower of Babel, and now they’re beginning their trip to Gehenna.

While Mr. Musk’s billions have obviously provided him significant influence for some time, his overt political ascendance has occurred at stunning speed. I’m wondering whether Mr. Trump yet perceives the risks he has assumed in squirting a Musk scent so liberally over his incoming Administration, and if so, what he is able to do about it.

MAGAs are absolutely excellent at spreading propaganda through their alt-right echo chamber; they’re already trying to spin this debacle as Democrats’ fault despite the fact that they hold the majority in the House. Their claims will undoubtedly be accepted blindly by Fox viewers and the like. If Democrats have any savvy at all – not a given – they should exploit this extraordinary opportunity to make Mr. Musk the issue – and politically emasculate Mr. Trump (whom exit polls indicate some young men voted for because of his manliness) in the process. Nobody likes billionaires, rank-and-file MAGAs no more than anybody else. One and all, House Democrats should message, “We will vote for what was going to be passed by both parties until Donald Trump’s puppeteer, Elon Musk, got in the way. We will vote for nothing more, and nothing less.” Every House Democrat should put this message out every hour of every day in every outlet they can reach.

According to an “AI Overview” generated in response to my Google search:

“Description

Musk is a warm, subtle, and complex scent that can be powdery, sweet, woodsy, or earthy. It can also have fruity or floral undertones. Some say it’s a better version of the natural smell of skin.

Uses

Musk is a common base note in perfumes, adding depth, warmth, and longevity to fragrances. It can also be found in candles and room sprays.

Origins

Musk originally came from the musk deer’s glands, but is now mostly synthetic or plant-based. The name “musk” comes from the Late Greek word moskhos, which is derived from Persian and Sanskrit words meaning “testicle”. The deer’s gland was thought to resemble a scrotum.

Ethical concerns

The use of natural musk in perfumery has been banned due to ethical concerns over the cruel practices involved in obtaining it from deer.”

There are certainly those among Mr. Musk’s detractors who maintain that Mr. Musk will engage in cruel practices. Unless the incoming Administration is willing to quickly institutes autocratic measures to achieve its unpopular aims, Mr. Trump and Congressional Republicans may soon determine that they need to distance themselves from Mr. Musk before he extracts any more from their political moskhos. 😉

On the Power of Faith

[As always, please excuse my use of male pronouns when referring to a Supreme Being without gender.]

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln regularly pondered the irony that two sets of peoples were fervently praying to the same Deity for diametrically opposed ends. In September, 1862, he wrote:

“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for, and against, the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something quite different from the purpose of either party – yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose.” [Emphasis Mr. Lincoln’s]

In a letter to a friend on September 4, 1864, Mr. Lincoln wrote:

“The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. … God knows best … We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains.”

Finally, in his March, 1865, Second Inaugural Address, delivered on the cusp of what had become an overwhelmingly-likely Union victory, Mr. Lincoln noted the aspect that faith was playing in the conflict:

“Both [Union and Confederate adherents] read the same Bible and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. … The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

For someone who has been so viscerally engaged in our current electoral struggle, I find myself, if not serene, with at least a level of equanimity as we contemplate today’s uncertain outcome. I have realized that it is because I believe – as Mr. Lincoln held – that God knows best. What follows is the passage we chose as our wedding Gospel so many decades ago and has since been included in each of our children’s wedding celebrations:

“Therefore, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. … Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they?

… Consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which flourishes today but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not be anxious … But seek first the kingdom of God and His justice ….”

Matthew, 6:25-26, 28-31, 33

As this Election Day unfolds, I know what I think is the best way forward for our country; but about half of my fellow citizens feel just as strongly to the contrary. I have frequently referred in these pages to what I consider to be our struggle to maintain democracy; yet it cannot be forgotten that the peaceful expressions of different views are the essence of a democracy. Given these circumstances, I feel fortunate – nae, blessed – to have the consolation of my faith. Today, I am confining my prayers to this: that the Almighty bring about the victory of the presidential candidate who will do the most good for our nation, our children, our grandchildren, and – given our geopolitical, financial, and military standing in the world – who will provide the most good for all of His people of the earth.

If you haven’t yet voted, quit reading this and go vote. If you have voted, it’s time to sit back and embrace what has been, for over two centuries, the most magnificent expression of public will in the history of the world.