Monitoring lab test for the United States government, a young man falsely certified a positive marijuana urinalysis as negative.  For this foolishness, he served 27 months in federal prison.  Now middle-aged, the erstwhile offender bears the stigma and consequences of being a “convicted felon.”   

January 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump orchestrated and ordered a seditious assault on our United States Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  In the aftermath of this attempted coup, Attorney General Merrick Garland is pursuing upward of 700 Trump MAGA minions.  Around ten percent have received criminal sentences.  The rest await trials or plea agreements.

Their Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump, remains unindicted.  Before confronting would-be King Donald’s Legal Eagles, it is imperative the Attorney General builds a proverbial ironclad case, cross every “t” dot every “I.”  He must not screw this one up!    

Chiseled above the portico of the United States Supreme Court building is, EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.  If, for falsifying a single document, the Law locks away a young man for over two years, and Donald J. Trump remains unindicted, rampantly spewing his lies and vitriol, in Mr. Bumble’s words from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, “the law is a ass – a idiot!”

Fox News asked Donald Trump, “What should we do about Ukraine?”

Trump’s answer, “Well what I would do is, I would, we would, we have tremendous military capability, and what we can do with our planes, to be honest with you, without forty-four-year-old jets, what we can do is enormous, and we should be doing it and we should be helping them to survive and they’re doing an amazing job.”

Well, there you have it!  Plain and simple!   

If Donald were president, instead of shooting, poor ol’ Putin would be sweating bullets!

M*A*S*H’s Major Frank Burns captured today’s Rightwing, Trumpian mindset:

“The way I see it, if we don’t all march in step, if we don’t do as we’re told, if we don’t follow our leaders blindly, there’s no hope of saving our freedom.”

To avoid the frustration and anguish of political argument, we each might recall a bit of Mark Twain‘s wisdom,

“Don’t try to teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig.” 

 January 9, in “Five Truths” I wrote, “Happiness is our default.  Suffering is a choice.”  Today, I see Ukrainians massacred and fleeing Vladimir Putin’s missiles; I see Americans living on sidewalk and in tents.  My cavalier claim about suffering demands serious scrutiny.

People denied food, shelter, and healthcare, victims of war, famine, earthquake, tsunami, suffer!  In hindsight, I’m chagrined to realize the “choice” I had in mind is a luxury a fortunate few, like me, can afforded, what someone—Albert Camus?—labeled “existential angst.” 

I remain convinced happiness is our birthright.  Genes and life screw it up.

If you’re puzzled by Donald Trump’s fawning over and obvious envy of Vladimir Putin, it’s simple.  The wannabe American and real-life Russian Dictator are alter-egos, matched, sociopathic, narcissistic, Sixth Grade Bullies!  Incarnations of Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.

Will it never end?

If this site is worth a look, please tell others.

Thank you.

Today, it is important to keep our life in perspective.

While we Americans fret over $5 for a pound hamburger or gallon of gasoline, Ukrainians crowd onto railcars, or walk into Poland, carrying their worldly possessions in a plastic bag, leaving daughters, sons, spouses, mothers, and fathers amid the smoldering remains of homes and apartments demolished by Vladimir Putin’s missiles.

Since his ham-fisted assault on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s grows increasingly isolated.  From Australia to Switzerland countries put the economic squeeze on Russia.  Global protests erupt.  In Russian streets, Vladimir’s people rally against his savagery.       

It is ironic and astonishing that vociferous praise for Russia’s Dictator comes from Americans!  Donald Trump calls the Russian dictator a “genius  .  .  .  How smart is that?”  At a Florida weekend conference, the Americans First Political Action Committee’s Nick Fuentes called for, “a round of applause for Russia!”  His audience responded, “Putin, Putin, Putin!”

How, in the country of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, where “all men are created equal,” where millions sacrificed, suffered, and died protecting our country from a demagogue like Vladimir Putin and wannabe demagogue Donald Trump, could this happen?  What in the names of God and common sense are these people thinking‽ 

Many Americans were puzzled by Donald’s fawning over Vladimir.  We know that Putin worked to get Trump elected and reelected.  We recognize his subversion behind reactionary right-wing efforts to commandeer America’s government.  With “genius  .  .  .  How smart is that,”  “a round of applause for Russia,” “Putin, Putin, Putin!”, this evil force rears its ugly head.

A psychopathic, narcissistic, Vladimir Putin is Russia’s dictator.  Cheered on by mindless MAGA Minions, a psychopathic narcissistic, Donald Trump yearns to become America’s dictator.

Feb. 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent.  The following day, on the right-wing Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Donald Trump was asked, “What went wrong, what has the current occupant of the Oval Office done that he could have done differently?”  Trump’s answer, “What went wrong was a rigged election.  What went wrong is a candidate that shouldn’t be there.  .  .  . I went in and there was a television screen and I said ‘this is genius  .  .  .  How smart is that?’  .  .  .  and he’s going to go in and he’s going to be a peacekeeper.  This is a guy who’s very savvy.  .  .  .  By the way, had I been in office this would never have happened, not even think of it.”

The evening of Feb. 23, Trump called Fox News to advise Laura Ingram that, “(Putin) was going to be satisfied with peace, and now he sees the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity of this administration, and, as an American, I’m angry about it, and I’m saddened by it  .  .  .  And it all happened because of a rigged election.  This (Putin’s threat to invade Ukraine) would have never happened.” 

The next morning Russian forces invaded Ukraine.  After five days, Putin’s “peace keepers” continue slugging and slugging their way into Ukraine, destroying infrastructure, demolishing apartment buildings, slaughtering a sovereign nation’s defenseless citizens!  

Recalling, “had I been in office this would never have happened,” by what irresistible force might Donald have persuaded his ‘ol Pal in Moscow not to invade an effectively defenseless neighbor?  (1) Friendly persuasion: “Hey Good Buddy, I don’t give a damn about Ukraine, but I’d have to cover for you in American?  Don’t make me look bad.”  (2) Threaten to send the 1^st Cav., the 82nd Airborne.  Start World War III‽  Go figure.  I can’t.

What Donald Trump calls, “weakness .  .  .  incompetence .  .  .  stupidity” is rational, civilized people’s refusal to fall back on the ignorance and bestiality of war!  NATO’s economic and physical isolation of Russian are sane responses to the acts of an insane mind.    

As always, sixth-grade bully Donald J. Trump boasts big but, as with his “rigged election,” details and facts to support the big bluff are nonexistent. 

Beneath the bravado there’s nothing.  But, the hazard is, while Donald personifies Macbeth’s “sound and fury,” his mindless, irresponsible babble and acts could “signify” the end of American democracy.