W and Obama, Coincidence?

Posted on October 20, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 20, 2017

I looked up coincidence in two dictionaries and found “a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance” and “a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.” I’m not a big believer in coincidence, which by definition is a rare event. Unless you rely on providence, the more striking coinciding events are, the less likely it is that they really represent a coincidence.

Perhaps yesterday’s speeches by Barrack Obama and George W. Bush which decried the divisive politics of Trumpism really were two random events not causally linked. If that’s true they were the best possible kind of coincidence, unrelated events that shined a light on the damage being done to our democratic values from sources that until recently would have seemed diametrically opposed. What the two former presidents have in common is far more important than what separates them: levels of decency and compassion that are completely foreign to the current resident of the White House and the fact that both have been targets of vicious unrelenting attacks by the very same Mr. Trump.

There’s an opinion column on the CNN website this morning titled, “Why Presidents’ Rebuke of Trump Won’t Matter” (http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/20/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-george-w-bush-presidents/index.html). It suggests that what Bush and Obama said won’t make any difference because Trump has no respect for either former president and thus their comments will wash off his back unheeded. That may be correct, but it might also miss a more essential point.

Trump’s current public approval rating sits at 38%, while both Gallup and Politico reported as of last June that after two years of Trump’s nonstop ridicule and hyperbolic criticism, Bush’s approval rating had risen to 59% (from a low of 35% when he left office) and Obama’s had climbed to a remarkable 63% five months into the Trump administration. To the extent that the majority of our electorate suffers from voters’ remorse, the words of our two most recent former presidents ought to carry a lot of weight. I was excited to hear both men speak out. Their common threads of bringing people together rather than dividing them and looking outward to the rest of the world rather than retreating into fear-based isolationism made me more optimistic than I’ve felt since Trump was elected.

After leaving office as governor of California, Ronald Reagan adopted the role of gadfly through the vehicle of more than a thousand radio addresses. Reagan understood that even out of office, his popularity gave him a different sort of pulpit, and he used it effectively prior to running for president in 1980. While neither W nor Obama will ever run for president again, Reagan’s example demonstrates the power of a respected, popular voice in times of turmoil.

Whether they coordinate their efforts or not, I believe there is a huge audience of the discontented that hungers for what the two former presidents have to say. Together, they can overcome the seeds of hate and despair that have been planted by Trump and his followers. Together, they can remind us of the American values we grew up with and silence the sounds of racism and xenophobia that have been driving our politics for the past two years. And perhaps more important, as different as these two men’s political beliefs are, they can re-establish the role model of morality and decency that has atrophied under Trump’s leadership. Our children need that. Imagine what growing up under eight years of Trump’s fundamental meanness and lack of moral center could do to them if they don’t have the examples of other leaders of stature who never reduced politics to the depths Trump has.

This isn’t about politics or whether these three presidents have made mistakes in office. Bush and Obama both made some egregious errors during their tenures, but honest errors are quite different from mean-spirited hatefulness. When they were president, I never felt the disgust and embarrassment that I have experienced every day since Donald Trump has taken over the media scene.

The most positive thing I remember about last year’s election (perhaps the only positive thing) was the frequent reminder that our children were watching. They still are, every day. It’s time we changed the tone and content of what they see and hear, and our best hope of that may the re-engagement of Bush and Obama.

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Raqqa

Posted on October 17, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 17, 2017

Where, a mere five years ago, a thriving city of a quarter million (and more including its environs) stood on the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria, this is what’s there now.

raqqa.

Somehow, the world allowed ISIS to take over this city and turn it into a charnel house of terror and death. Everyone stood by and watched it happen, the United States, Europe, Russia, and the rest of the Middle East. And while ISIS destroyed the moral fabric and culture of the city, its physical destruction was the price of its liberation. As is always the case in war, an entrenched fanatical occupying force would rather see a city destroyed than concede defeat.

As of this morning, as news services around the world report the final defeat of ISIS in its self-declared capital, I am disappointed in the White House’s response. This is a vitally important story, easily worth equal time with who did what in Puerto Rico and whether overpaid football players stand for the national anthem. Yet, all the president had to say was that the victory was achieved because of the changes he made to the military, even though it is the result of a strategic initiative orchestrated by his predecessor more than a year ago. The significance of driving ISIS out of Raqqa deserves a better response than who gets to take credit for it.

The victory has been inevitable for months, once we declared our determination to see it through. Did the administration spend that time planning the disposition of over a half million refugees stuck in makeshift camps in Syria and elsewhere? And what of the physical reconstruction of the city in the midst of Syria’s civil war when its government controls only a fraction of the country around Damascus?

If the Trump administration does not have a a clear objective for dealing with the aftermath, it could be as disastrous as the power vacuum left in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was deposed. And perhaps more important from an international perspective is who will now control and govern this oil-rich region. The victory was achieved by U. S. backed Arabs of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and our most dependable allies in the region, the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units known as the YPG, the armed Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey. While the SDF has grown…to include a notable number of Arab recruits, in practice it remains squarely under YPG command and wholly reliant upon the PKK-trained Kurdish fighters who form its backbone.

There are a number of other major players in this game who all have competing interests: the American-led coalition that provided air support for the assaults on Raqqa, the supporters of Syria’s nominal president Bashar Assad, Iran, Russia, and perhaps most troublesome for the Trump administration, our NATO partner Turkey. Both the United States and Turkey currently list the PKK as a terrorist organization.

It looks like a mess, doesn’t it? I don’t know enough to offer a solution, but if the Trump administration isn’t on top of it, we could soon be facing a new fight more dangerous than the one ISIS posed. Somehow, with all the turmoil over North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal, not to mention the internal struggles in the White House, the situation in Raqqa hasn’t been on anyone’s strategic radar screens, at least not within public view.

The fifteen year disasters of American attempts at nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us not to try it again in Syria. If anything will unite our Congress it will be standing against any attempt to commit serious American resources in Syria, unless the president clearly articulates and defends his end game. Even then, any such initiative will be problematic, as a long-term commitment in Syria would blow both our national budget and the Republicans’ attempt to reduce taxes.

Does the president have a strategy to prevent the predictable explosion when competing forces rush in to fill the new vacuum created by the defeat of ISIS? And what of Russia which is not likely to abandon its long-term investment in Syria? Neither of them is going away, and neither is the YPG. The latter have fought too long and hard for a homeland of their own to simply withdraw into the background now that they’ve proved their value as American allies, but neither Turkey nor Iraq has shown any sign of recognizing the Kurds’ claims for independence.

This situation is going to require the utmost delicacy in American diplomacy, and it will depend on support from our traditional allies in Europe and the so-called moderate Arab nations. All of which raises the question that people have been asking ever since Trump took office. How can we expect our allies to support us when Trump’s actions to date have caused many foreign leaders to question whether they can still trust us diplomatically?

That’s a damn good question. I hope the Trump administration is prepared to answer it.

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Our Flawed Constitution

Posted on October 14, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 14, 2017

Ever since we were children, we’ve been taught that the American system of government is the most progressive, democratic, and overall best system ever invented. Of course, we believed that with all our hearts back then. When I was in school, America was the shining light of the western world. We were the good guys guarding the world against totalitarianism. We’d thrown off the moral stain of slavery, and we were reaching for the stars. What child wouldn’t buy into that?

As early as the 1960 presidential election we saw that there might be a flaw in that ointment. Had the founding fathers, for all their wisdom and good intentions missed something? What the hell was this absurd construct known as the Electoral College, anyway? Shouldn’t an alleged democracy elect its president by popular vote? In 1960, Kennedy won 303 electoral votes, 33 more than the minimum for victory. But charges that Cook County, Illinois may have stolen the election, and Illinois’ 27 electoral votes, are still unresolved today.

1960ElectionMap2Without Illinois, Kennedy would have had 276 votes, but there’s more to the story. 1960 was the beginning of the change from blue to red states in the deep south, and many segregationists rejected Kennedy’s progressive agenda. Fifteen such electors chose to ignore their states’ popular vote counts and cast their votes for the segregationist Harry Bird (note the pale blue on the map).

Imagine the chaos that would have ensued if Illinois had gone to Nixon, and the fifteen electors who disregarded their states’ votes had recruited seven more to their cause. Awful as that sounds, the entire scenario was perfectly legal under our Constitution. When the Electoral College is polled, individual electors may vote however they choose.

If 1960 wasn’t a sufficient wake-up call we had the party-splitting challenges of Eugene McCarthy in 1968, John Anderson in 1980, and H. Ross Perot in 1992, who despite receiving nearly 19% of the popular vote failed to capture a single electoral vote, and contributed greatly to Bill Clinton’s landslide victory. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush when the Supreme Court stepped in to award Florida to Bush. And last year, of course, we had Donald Trump winning the electoral vote count despite losing the popular vote by more than three million.

Is there something wrong with this picture? Why hasn’t it been fixed? The reason, of course, is partisan politics. The majority party in Congress will never act against what it perceives as its self-interest, and it’s clear that abolishing the electoral college would greatly disadvantage Republican candidates. But the flaws in our system are much deeper than the electoral college. What appears to be a system of reasonable checks and balances (remember how our teachers stressed that in civics class?) is also seriously undermined by partisan politics and gerrymandering.

In 2000, the Democrats claimed that the election had been decided by a politicized Supreme Court. The idea that the high court is apolitical has always been a fiction, but perhaps it’s time we looked more closely at the consequences of that pretense.

A more serious concern may be the constitutional provisions for removing an unfit president from office. Those procedures were put in place by the founders to protect the nation from the unthinkable possibility that a president not in full control of his faculties could do serious harm to the country. One, of course, is the possibility of impeachment. The constitution discusses impeaching a president who commits “high crimes and misdemeanors,” though those terms are not clearly defined.

However they’re defined, those so-called crimes are not things to be evaluated in a court of law. They’re interpreted by the Congress, which throws everything back into the partisan political arena. The 1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson involved no crime as such, but was based his firing of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Congress viewed this as a violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which was enacted the previous year specifically to be used against Johnson and repealed in 1887. And the impeachment of Bill Clinton, as we all know, was based on his attempt to cover up sexual improprieties. Neither was anything like what the founders intended.

As unpopular as Donald Trump is with Congressional leaders, the likelihood of impeaching him is purely a function of how the Republican Congress perceives it would affect their own futures.  It would take an action as egregious as Trump’s brag about shooting someone in downtown Manhattan to overcome the political realities.

Likewise, the twenty-fifth amendment was passed in reaction to the complete breakdown in office of Richard Nixon. The Congress intended to patch a dangerous hole in the Constitution by passing it, but all it actually did was create another potential situation that could be neutralized by partisan politics. So what if our own respected leaders and allies believe our president is flying off the rails toward oblivion. So what if he violates international agreements and protocols. It’s worth asking what it would take for Vice President Pence and at least half of the Cabinet to agree that Trump had to be removed for the good of the country. And could such an action be taken quickly enough to save us from disaster?

What a tragedy it would be if years from now, our children looked back on this and could only lament, “If only our parents’ generation had acted rationally….”

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Our Collective National Nightmare

Posted on October 13, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 13, 2017

Whether we observe it in our children, friends, peers, or relatives, I can’t think of a more annoying and disagreeable trait than spite and its toxic cousin, vindictiveness. They generally result in nothing positive and are never productive either in terms of relationships or productivity. The one exception may be when the individual displaying those behaviors is so wealthy and powerful, he or she can’t be ignored. When it’s the president of the United States who behaves that way, the result is at best mind-numbing and at worst, catastrophic, though we haven’t yet seen the consequences reach such disastrous heights.

For nearly two years I have tried to convince myself and those who read this blog that while Donald Trump panders to the worst elements of human nature, he may not be inherently evil himself. But the virulent nature of his spiteful hatred for Barrack Obama and anything that Obama was associated with reveals something far darker about Trump than I imagined. This isn’t just his extreme narcissism and arrogant disregard for anyone but himself. This is a darkness that would be unbecoming in anyone, but for a president to behave this way unabashedly displaying it to the entire world is appalling.

Aside from the more racist elements of his base and those who would move heaven and earth to stem the tide of the great transfer of wealth represented by Obamacare, the entire world now sees Trump for what he is – a mean-spirited nasty little man who has no business at all wielding the kind of power he does. All in one day, we see the vindictive side of his nature influencing his decisions on health care, North Korea, Iran, and the unfortunate plight of Puerto Rico. That’s damn scary. How did we ever get to this point?

Despite there being plenty of good cause, I’d been wondering about all the chatter coming from various sources in the media about disgruntled Cabinet officers. The speculation about Tillerson or Mattis being so fed up they were ready to quit never felt credible to me. People at that level either quit or stay but they don’t moan in public about how difficult the decision is. It’s becoming clearer to me now, that all that back chatter was more about the fantasy that displeasure with Trump within the Cabinet might be great enough for the twenty-fifth amendment to come into play. That’s how desperate much of the country has become as a result of Trump’s actions and overall demeanor.

Exactly what does the twenty-fifth amendment to the Constitution prescribe? It was written to assure that if a president were to become unable to perform his duties, there would be a smooth transition allowing the Vice President to take over. But the part of the amendment that’s getting so much attention these days is the provision that the Vice President, with a majority of the president’s Cabinet officers, may jointly declare to the Congress that the president is unfit to serve and have him removed from office.

Aside from the bizarre notion that a bunch of sycophants appointed by the president, none of whom are elected officials, might act to unseat him, does anyone think that’s likely to happen? At the moment it seems like pure fantasy, more an indication of the extremely low esteem (and fear) in which Trump is held by most of the country than a viable solution to the problem.

Looking over the current Cabinet, it’s difficult to imagine a majority taking such an action. Suppose Tillerson and Mattis saw the calamitous handwriting on the wall and decided they’d had enough. Who else would join them? Jeff Sessions, who has seen Trump’s vindictiveness more clearly than anyone? Elaine Chao, acting as Mitch McConnell’s executioner? Mike Pompeo, the CIA Director? Surely not Mike Pence who has been Trump’s most loyal lapdog, Ben Carson, who sold his soul to the devil early on, Rick Perry, who serves a president who demeaned his intelligence from day one, Betsy Devos, who would still be sipping tea at her country club if not for Trump, or the new HHS Secretary who isn’t even confirmed yet.

So don’t bet your mortgage on being saved by the twenty-fifth amendment. Our nasty, vindictive president will go on trying to dismantle everything Obama ever touched until Congress has the courage to stop him, which means our only hope is the 2018 election. If you want this nightmare to end, find someone worth supporting in your Congressional district and do everything you can to help him or her win.

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The Muscovian Candidate

Posted on October 9, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 9, 2017

Many of the people who read this blog knew me first as a science fiction writer (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=alan+zendell). Spending a lot of time with my mind in other universes may be the reason I can tolerate continued scrutiny of the alternate reality that is Donald Trump’s America. But having a peculiar mindset like mine also leads to flights of fancy which are actually last ditch attempts to explain the inexplicable, not that that makes the end product any less terrifying.

All good fiction is based on reality, right up to the moment it spins off the tracks into fantasy. My latest story arc, (pure fiction, I hope,) begins with the infamous golden shower dossier written by former British MI-6 operative Christopher Steele (http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-golden-shower-dossier-679973). Trump has strenuously denied it as totally made up fake news, though Robert Mueller has included the dossier in his investigation of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.

We parallel reality until 2013, when business tycoon Trump allegedly hired two Russian prostitutes to come to the Moscow Ritz-Carlton’s presidential suite to perform for him. The dossier claims the hotel is controlled by the FSB (the successor agency to the KGB), and that Russian intelligence had studied Trump’s perverse sexual proclivities for some time and used them to lure him into a compromising situation because of his interest in doing business with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In my reality, the hotel room is actually a sophisticated spy lab equipped with everything James Bond and Q could only have wished for. It’s a virtual reality suite in which the subject (in this case Mr.Trump) is made to believe he’s experiencing what he paid for, while hi-tech Russian intelligence operatives transform him into a sleeper agent overnight. Think “Manchurian Candidate”.

Always known for playing the long game, former master spy Putin has been luring potential charismatic American leaders with sex for years, sending them home re-programmed to await his opportunity. Thus, the Donald, ecstatic with the prospect of Trump skyscrapers on the Moscow skyline, wakes up the next morning with his perverse sexual desires fully satisfied, totally unsuspecting that he is now the unwitting pawn of our country’s most dangerous adversary. Subtly embedded microchips lie dormant in Trump’s brain awaiting signals sent by FSB operatives stationed at strategic points throughout the world.

Understanding the American psyche better than it understands itself, Putin knows about the racism, gender bias, and xenophobia that lay just beneath the surface of American society. Sensing these same latent tendencies in Trump, combined with greed and extreme narcissism, the former head of the world’s most formidable intelligence organization knows Trump will be easy to manipulate.

If Putin understands anything, it’s how to foment revolution. He recognizes the transformation that Barrack Obama is attempting, which if successful will greatly reduce class inequality and strengthen the United States. While part of him admires the effort, he also understands that Obama is laying the groundwork for class and racial backlashes that could tear the country apart, and Trump is the perfect foil for heightening these divisions.

Carefully tuned signals sent to the appropriate receptors in Trump’s brain begin to stoke an irrational hatred for both Obama and everything he tries to accomplish. Trump’s narcissism is elevated to a nearly psychotic savior complex, and whatever filters previously tempered his public persona are melted away by judicious tweaks of those microchips. A boiling rage against the established order is kindled in Trump, and by June of 2015, Putin is ready to loose the monster he created on an unsuspecting American public. It’s a gamble, but Putin is ecstatic at the response to Trump’s speech announcing his candidacy for President. He has gauged things perfectly.

In a reasonable world, Trump would have no chance of winning, but Putin is prepared to unleash a bag of tricks that have been refined in a dozen countries over the past decade. He has identified soft spots in the American electoral process that he could drive a tank through, though with the insidious methods he has at his disposal, no tanks will be necessary.

He orchestrates a victory for Trump more shocking than Truman over Dewey nearly seventy years earlier, and few if any Americans have any idea of what has been done to them. But now the real battle begins. With Trump as his puppet, Putin has the power to wreck the American political system and destroy the respect America has garnered around the world virtually overnight. He directs Trump’s alienation of America’s allies while amusing himself by causing adoring words about Putin to be tweeted by @POTUS.

Then, he sets about his real task: turning a badly dysfunctional American government into a complete shambles. It doesn’t take long. Less than a year into Trump’s administration he has completely lost the support of the legislative branch, he is under attack by the FBI, and his behavior has people whispering in the corridors about how unstable he is. His out of control belligerence internationally has the entire world on edge, with high-ranking American officials worrying publicly about World War III. It’s a dangerous game, but Putin is confident he can take control when the moment is right.

Great plot, isn’t it? I can almost count the movie royalties. Hollywood loves derivative remakes. I only wish I knew how the story ended.

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War Drums

Posted on October 8, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 8, 2017

Back in the 1960s, Donald Trump and I were among millions of young American men who did everything possible to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. At least according to interviews published decades later, Trump was violently opposed to the war, as was I. Those were probably the last two times the Donald and I ever agreed on anything as I followed his flashy career and ever more repugnant behavior over the years.

Trump spent the Vietnam War learning to make money in his father’s business, sacrificing absolutely nothing in return for his “bone spur” deferment, but freely complaining publicly about our leaders involving us in a war we should never have been involved in. Many of us believed that as well, but most of us found a way to do our duty when asked. I lived my own private horror show from 1968-1971 as part of a military-civilian team working in the bowels of the Pentagon, seeing horrifying things I never imagined I would. I avoided the snake-infested jungles of Southeast Asia, but I, like so many other Americans was severely marked by the senseless conflict while Trump was getting rich.

Most of us who went through all that were left with a strong conviction that war must always be the choice of last resort. I don’t know anyone who experienced Vietnam who came away from it with a jingoistic bellicose attitude prepared to use military force against anyone we disagreed with. But then, most of us are not extreme narcissists who get off on being in charge of the most powerful military in the world.

Most of us, in our seventies, do not behave like children with an arsenal of powerful weapons who just can’t resist using them and showing off how tough we are. Most of us do not believe that going to war makes us better leaders than our predecessors who preferred to work through diplomacy. And most of us do not tremble with excitement over the idea of being able to give orders to the most competent generals and admirals in our armed forces.

Even after years of attacking the last two administrations over their Iraq and Afghanistan policies, our president seems to have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to North Korea and Iran. While our European allies and Trump’s own military and political advisers counsel that it is in our national interest to continue with the Iran nuclear deal, he seems determined to scuttle it and send us down a new uncertain path toward nuclear confrontation.

And North Korea? We’re well past the point where bobbing and weaving and creating confusion on Twitter is entertaining. With a potential loose cannon like Kim Jong Un armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, Trump’s belligerence is irresponsible, not to mention unbecoming the leader of the strongest military in the world. There are certain universal lessons we’ve been taught all our lives, especially when learning to deal with conflict. “Never make a threat you’re not willing to carry out.” “Never point a gun at anyone unless you’re prepared to fire it.” Does that apply to nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles?

I have to wonder whether Trump has any idea what he’s dealing with. I have a degree in nuclear physics and several years of experience analyzing our ability to intercept ICBMs anyone might fire at us, and I would never consider a strategy likely to provoke someone as unstable as Kim. Our military leaders know that our so-called nuclear shield cannot be relied on to protect us. Has anyone ever explained the realities of the situation to Trump? Does he understand? And if he does, can anything overcome his need to convince his supporters that he’s the toughest badass on the planet?

The reality of the consequences of a new war on the Korean peninsula is clear to everyone. Even Trump can’t ignore the obvious impact of artillery shells and rockets fired from the North destroying the city of Seoul without Kim ever having to deploy his army. Nor can he ignore the generational hatred Kim feels for Japan which is almost as intense as his feelings toward the United States. Does Trump care that even if we succeeded in destroying North Korea without losing a single American soldier, Kim could kill millions in South Korea and Japan by pushing a few buttons? Is that what he means by always putting America first?

Of course, there’s another possibility. Maybe all the Rocket Man tweets are part of another feint. Maybe Trump is simply trying to distract us from his next attempt to scuttle Obamacare or from actually reading the tax reform bill he wants Congress to pass. That would certainly fit with his philosophy of governing.

I guess I have to admit that the spectacle of seeing South Korean and Japanese cities destroyed would be a wonderful distraction. Great strategy, Mister President.

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An Interview With a Reality TV Star

Posted on October 7, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 7, 2017

Megan: I’m here today with Ronnie Stomper, the star of the longest running and from a sponsors’ point of view, the most lucrative reality show ever produced. Mr. Stomper has offered this exclusive look into what has made him successful.

Stomper: Please, call me Ronnie, Megan. I don’t usually grant interviews like this one, but I wanted everyone to see how magnanimous I can be even with someone who has been as harsh a critic as you’ve been.

Megan: Thank you, Ronnie, that’s really very generous of you. I’m here because the millions of Americans who watch your show, blog about it, and fill chat rooms talking about it would love to have some insight into how you make it work.

Stomper: It’s about a full team effort, Megan. Everyone rowing in the same direction. Total commitment.

Megan: Every show strives for that kind of effort, but only you seem to be able to pull it off and keep your audience on the edge of their seats. What’s your secret?

Stomper: It’s simple, Megan. I’m not just the star, I’m the Executive Producer, the Head Writer, the one who comes up with the ideas, and the overall production manager. I’m the boss and everyone knows it.

Megan: That’s very impressive, Ronnie. How can you manage all that yourself, especially in an environment when gossip journalists are lurking in every corner looking for dirt?

Stomper: Zero tolerance, Megan. They know we’re doing something great here. Everyone wants to be part of something as wonderful as what we’re doing here. And anyone who speaks out of line or shows even a hint of disloyalty knows I’ll fire his ass in a second. Or her ass, especially if it’s her ass.

Megan (visibly gritting her teeth): So you rule by the sword? But doesn’t that suppress creativity and meaningful input and advice from your staff?

Stomper: Ahh, Megan. I thought you were smart enough not to fall for those liberal Hollywood myths. My show needs only one creative input. We don’t do things by committee, and people who question my ideas don’t survive around here very long. On the other hand, I can be very lavish rewarding people who follow my lead.

Megan: So all those great plot ideas, all the cliffhangers that keep viewers mesmerized, all the apparent infighting. The constant succession of situations that could end in catastrophe, that all comes straight out of your head? Wow, that’s really remarkable.

Stomper (smiling benevolently): That’s the secret, Megan. I’m glad you’re such a quick learner. Always stay a step of ahead of everyone, your staff, your competition, your audience. Keep them guessing and they’ll be back next week glued to their television screens. Throw ideas, threats, terrifying scenarios at them so fast they never know what’s coming and you have them right where you want them.

Megan (appearing starry-eyed now): Ronnie, I can see why anyone with talent would want to be around you. No wonder you have their loyalty. Who knows where clinging to your coattails could take them? I’ve even heard rumors that you’re thinking of getting into politics when you get tired of reality shows.

Stomper: I guess it’s inevitable, what with how incompetent our leaders are, that eventually people would turn to me. People love success, you know. They crave being part of it.

Megan: That’s so true, Ronnie. So what about it? Think what you could accomplish on a bigger stage. I’ve even heard you might run for president.

Stomper: Yes, Megan, so many people see the wonderful job I’ve done here. They come up to me all the time. I’ve even had women throw their arms around me begging, saying things like, “If only you were running the country, things would be so much better.”

Megan: That must be quite a rush for you Ronnie. You think you’ll do it?

Stomper: You’ll just have to wait and see like everyone else, Megan. I know it must be frustrating for you, but I don’t confide that sort of thing unless we’ve developed a special bond of trust first.

Megan: I want you to be able to trust me, Ronnie. It’s very important to me that a powerful, successful man like you feels he can share anything with me.

Stomper: Have you seen the view from the penthouse, Megan? Why don’t I have them send up a couple of bottles of champagne and have my chef prepare us a private dinner, so we can continue our interview in a quieter setting?

* * *

To my loyal followers: no, I did not take Ronnie up on his offer. I was already shaking from the specter of imagining what it would be like to have that narcissistic, self-aggrandizing womanizer running the country. I went home and went straight to bed, unable to sleep, plagued with nightmares. My mother always warned me not to watch horror movies before bedtime. – Love, Megan

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The Agent of Chaos

Posted on October 5, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 4, 2017

It’s not even possible to pretend any more. We’ve all seen the signs for months, but the reality was too horrifying to accept, so we tried to sweep it under the rug. No doubt, the president has some real support in both the Senate and the House, but for the most part, it’s like his voter base, a very vocal  minority made up of fringe splinter groups.

But the rifts between Trump and the steady mainstream members of Congress are real too, and they’re not going away. On the surface, business continues to go on usual, but all those nasty mercurial tweets will not be forgotten. People like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell say what they have to when the microphones are on, implying continued support for the president, but does anyone really believe them any more? Did they ever?

If there was any doubt, consider Senator Bob Corker (R, Tenn), one of the rock-solid, soft-spoken Conservatives in the Republican caucus. For a man like Corker to speak out against the president, something must be seriously wrong.

In August, Corker said that Trump “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.” What a remarkable statement that was coming virtually out of the blue. Its implications were staggering. Corker had been debating whether to run for a third term in 2020. He ultimately decided not to, and if there was any doubt before about why, he eliminated it today.

If Corker’s August statement wasn’t distinct enough he was crystal clear today. He said that our nation’s policies are sound and coherent only because of Rex Tillerson and Generals Kelly and Mattis. Without them there would be total chaos. The message couldn’t have been stated any better. Donald Trump is truly an Agent of Chaos, and that’s incredibly dangerous unless the world chooses to ignore him and pay attention instead to the people who really know how to run things.

Of course, having made the decision to retire next year, Senator Corker can now speak his mind openly. There’s nothing Trump can threaten him with, and he clearly believes that this administration is a train wreck waiting to happen. If Corker feels that way, what about the others?

Senator Jeff Flake has already taken Trump to task in his recent book, but he doesn’t have either Corker’s standing or stature. So ask yourself – if those two have been willing to call Trump what he is in plain English, is it possible that the other leaders of Congress can’t see that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes? How long will it be before they’ve had enough of a president who creates chaos whenever he speaks or tweets without a teleprompter in front of him? How long before the chaos does so much damage both within our country and internationally that they feel they must speak out with the same clarity as Corker and Flake?

Trump says he loves to be unpredictable, and he believes in the crazy man approach to foreign policy that Richard Nixon sometimes espoused. But Nixon believed in a clear strategy of keeping our potential enemies off guard. Trump is simply undisciplined. It’s clear to everyone that without General Kelly slapping his hand off his keyboard, Trump is unable to control himself. How long before the other responsible leaders of our country who’ve sworn oaths to serve and protect stand up and say “Enough!”

I can’t imagine a president undercutting his Secretary of State who is attempting to negotiate with one of the most dangerous adversaries we face. Presidents are not supposed to be playing nuclear chicken as though they were starring in a reality television show. They’re not supposed to insult mayors and senators and governors who are responsibly trying to serve their constituents either. And they’re not supposed to raise finding someone to blame for their own failures to an art form.

This country does not need chaos at the top of the food chain. It’s not cute and it’s not entertaining. At best it’s an embarrassment and at worst it places us in deadly seriously jeopardy. What we need is to silence the Agent of Chaos that calls himself president.

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Saving Ourselves From Trump

Posted on October 2, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, October 2, 2017

The longer this country suffers with Donald Trump as president, the more urgent it feels to counter the negative impact he’s having on it. But as urgent as it seems, it’s also befuddling. It feels like our relatively sane world has somehow descended into a surreal madness.

It’s clear that Trump could only have been elected when frustration with the established order reached a breaking point. We’ve seen this before countless times in history. I think that when the realization that things aren’t working sinks in, it becomes too much for average people who are dealing with their own problems. People who are barely scraping by, who feel they’ll never get ahead. People who can’t afford health insurance for their families or see their kids failing in awful schools. People who see their employers shipping jobs overseas and wonder if they’ll be next.

And those are the ones who still have something to cling to, some reason for hope. What about the ones who feel themselves slipping through the cracks of society and noticing that no one seems to give a damn? What happens when the total number of people living that way reaches a critical mass?

When that happens we become ripe for the kind of unscrupulous, nihilistic populism on which Trump has built his success, though it’s hard to characterize reversing years of excruciating progress toward a better, fairer nation as success. It’s basic human nature that people in desperate straits are susceptible to any charismatic savior who can convince them that their problems are someone else’s fault, and those someones are usually of a different color or gender, or are here through circumstances that are less than legal, though all they want is a chance to live and provide for their families. It makes no sense at all, but somehow it’s easy to convince angry, scared people that they’re victims of some great conspiracy and only their new hero can save them.

It doesn’t matter if he lies or if he has no facts to support anything he says, as long as he’s able to tap into the dormant basic instinctual human need to find someone to blame. And once that ball gets rolling, there’s no stopping it. So when someone like Donald Trump whose lust for power and completely amoral, narcissistic need for followers also has a unique ability to tap into the darkest aspects of what makes us human, and his message is “just blow it all up and let me show you a better way” people react like those mesmerized cults that drink Kool Aid. It’s a lynch mob mentality that can’t be stopped until it’s too late.

It’s too late to keep the scabs from being ripped off decades of gradually healing racial hatred and gender inequality. It’s too late to prevent the wave of xenophobia that created the wall mentality we live with. It’s too late to prevent our Department of Education from being run by someone who wants to destroy our public school systems. It’s too late to prevent someone who has spent his entire career trying to destroy the health care safety net of “entitlements” from heading the Department of Health and Human Services, though his own elitist sense of entitlement seems to have undone him. It’s also too late to reverse the setbacks we’ve suffered from the denial of scientific fact in favor of short term profiteering.

But it’s not too late to open our eyes and look within ourselves. Our worst acts of terror and violence, like today’s heinous events in Las Vegas, have not been committed by outsiders, and could never have occurred in a society that had a sane attitude toward firearms. It’s not too late to realize we’ve been hoodwinked. It’s not too late to recognize the difference between honest journalism and the babbling of sycophants and surrogates. It’s not hard to distinguish the noise that comes out of Trump’s mouth from truth if we simply listen.

Unless Robert Mueller can prove that Trump committed a crime worthy of indictment or impeachment, we’re stuck with him for another forty months. But we don’t have to sit and watch our country come to ruin. It won’t be easy, but if we persist and we make our voices heard, we can turn this around.

And it may not be as difficult as it seems. The truth is that Trump is venal, with no ideology of his own and no moral compass. All he cares about is winning and being adored by the masses. Maybe when the masses wake up and make it clear that they want something different, Trump will suddenly realize that he can win the victory he craves by simply changing his mind. Why not? He’s done it before, repeatedly. He has no belief system guiding him, only the need to come out on top. Maybe all we have to do is promise to love him and if enough of us speak up loudly and clearly, he may hear us.

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Puerto Rico

Posted on September 26, 2017 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, September 26, 2017

Sometimes it’s fun to look at a bunch of seemingly unrelated random facts to see if there’s a previously undiscerned pattern. Let’s try it now. Really, it’ll be fun.

Fact: Donald Trump has been obsessed with his war on the NFL players all week.

Fact: When Hurricane Harvey struck Texas, it occupied his attention for days. He lauded the wonderful people of Texas and promised them immediate massive federal aid to rebuild, deploring the reality that ten percent of Houston was without power. Nice touch except for the campaign rally tone which was devoid of compassion.

Fact: When Hurricane Irma struck Florida, it occupied his attention for a week. He lauded the wonderful people of Florida and promised them immediate massive federal aid to rebuild, deploring the fact that over a million people might be without power for a few days.

Fact: When Hurricane Maria ravaged the entire island of Puerto Rico Trump spoke of the total devastation and pledged help, but he seemed more energized by the ferocity of the storm than the plight of the people, and Puerto Rico seemed to fall off his agenda a day or two later.

Fact: In presidential elections, Texas has 38 electoral votes, Florida has 29, Puerto Rico has 0.

Fact: Texas has 36 voting members of the House of Representatives and two senators, Florida has 27 voting members of the House of Representatives and two senators, and Puerto has 0.

Fact: During the 2016 election Trump conducted 10 campaign rallies in Texas, 30 in Florida, and 0 in Puerto Rico.

Fact: In 2016 Texas voters were ethnically classified as White (non-Hispanic): 11.4 million; White (Hispanic): 9.0 million; Black: 3.1 million; Other: 1.3 million. Florida voters were ethnically classified as White (non-Hispanic): 10.9 million; White (Hispanic): 3.9 million; Black: 3.1 million; Other: 0.6 million. It’s hard to find comparable data for Puerto Rico, but it’s safe to say that most other Americans consider Puerto Ricans almost entirely non-white.

Fact: In recent days, Trump’s tweets have focused entirely on NFL players, touting a terrible health care bill that 80 percent of the country hates, and insulting Kim Jong Un. Not a single mention of Puerto Rico.

Fact: The electric power grid for Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people has been destroyed.

Fact: All of Puerto Rico’s citizens are American citizens with the same right to the protection of the federal government (except voting rights).

FEMA has a presence on the ground in Puerto Rico, but their role is to coordinate aid and resources needed to save lives and rebuild. The problem in Puerto Rico is that there are precious few resources to coordinate.

Puerto Rico ranks in population with Iowa, Connecticut, and Oklahoma. Imagine if any of those states had to live without electricity for up to six months and were largely under water for weeks. That means no air-conditioning or refrigeration, no artificial lighting, no fresh food, and a completely dead tourist industry in a place whose economy is totally dependent on it. It also means very limited ability to move around. You can’t even fill your car with gasoline without electricity unless the pumping station has its own generator. Do you think Donald Trump would be ignoring Oklahoma or Iowa if it suffered the same fate as Puerto Rico?

Our little game of finding a meaningful pattern isn’t a game at all. Puerto Rico isn’t like those states. It’s not part of Trump’s base. Its people mean nothing in terms of his re-election or even his ability to sustain a single term in office. Trump doesn’t own a fancy resort in Puerto Rico. To all appearances, 3.5 million Puerto Ricans don’t matter as much as whether a few athletes offend the president’s sensibilities by silently protesting police brutality while the national anthem is being played, or showing that he’s tougher than some tinhorn dictator in Asia.

Can you imagine living on an island that is running out of food in a tropical climate without power or telephone service? Can you imagine millions of people begging for help and having it fall on deaf ears? We see these things every day in the third world, but these people are Americans! How dare Mr. Trump ignore them. It seems the adoring crowds he’s attracted to only matter if they’re filled with white people who vote for him.

With every compassionless act, our president diminishes our country. We knew he was devoid of moral leadership the day he announced his candidacy. We who have watched his career for decades have always known that he cared only about himself, but to behave this way before the world in the age of 24/7 media is horrifying.

How did our country come to the point at which our president has to be shamed into doing the right thing? I can only imagine General Kelly reading him the riot act. So Donald Trump has finally agreed to visit Puerto Rico 7 DAYS FROM NOW! It took him six days to decide to go to inspect what he himself called apocalyptic destruction, and it will be seven more before finds a break in his schedule to do it. I wonder how long it took to plan his campaign stop in Alabama last week – you know, the one where he started the war with the NFL.

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