Illegitimate Trump Régime Inaugurated As The World Weeps

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Everything that can be said, has been said about resistance, about trumpageddon, trumpocalypse, facism, dictatorship, corruption, gold-plated toilet seats. My last post, two days before the election November 6, pretty much covered the hellish daily reporting to come: Hillary, Trump, Election 2016. What did we do to deserve this?

I also entreated people: "But wait! Close your eyes and meditate in your time machine back to 2008, three days before the election. Damn! Life was electric! We were in a state of euphoria! Higher than kites with Hope and Change just around the corner! Our adored and esteemed candidate, Barack Hussein Obama, on the cusp of becoming the next President of the United States! OMG, life was good, life was happy. There was no question who we were going to vote for. Working side-by-side for two solid years with love and respect for our fellow volunteers - all over the country I may add - giddily, we went to the polls, thrilled to be able to vote for a candidate we believed in. What a difference eight years make."

Obama's policies didn't produce the hope and change we strived for. On this blog, I wrote impassioned dissents but never once did I question his sincerity, his intellect, his virtue, his charm. I look forward to Citizen Obama emerging as a forceful leader and defender of our rights and forming a new resistance movement. He is inspirational. People will be motivated to join him. 

And now, I want to acknowledge the greatest grassroots campaign this country has ever seen; and, likely, will never see again. Well, not in my lifetime. The Obama '08 campaign ignited a fierce activism. People forged deep connections by working for a singular goal...to elect Barack Hussein Obama the 44th President of the United States. Yes We Did! Two of the best years of my life.

Love abounds for each and every one of you who was part of the campaign. Soon, I will put up a website where we can post our Stories of Self, memories of the grassroots campaign, and where, hopefully, we can reconnect with dear friends we met during the course of the campaign. We will never forget. 

Dear Hillary - An Open Letter Regarding Your Presidency

Dear Hillary -
You are one tough cookie! I'm saying that admiringly after watching you walk on the hot coals of this campaign, not once flinching, your tight smile and death stare resolute. Grrrl, you've been tested by fire whose burning embers have scorched your opponent leaving him in a pile of ashes. Good, let's sweep him away. (Did you get lucky or what to have him-who-shall-not-be named as the candidate!) You are about to finally summit the highest office in the land, a Sisyphean feat if there ever was one and for that you are to be congratulated! Let's hope all the October surprises have been spent and the next two weeks are a snooze. Somehow, I doubt it but I know you are well-prepared to deflect any onslaught.

I have to admit, I haven't always seen you in this light. Yes, you've been a tenacious combatant skillfully dodging the slings and arrows that came with scandals (self-inflicted or not) and the intense scrutiny of public life. But you have also been very adept at holding your finger up to read the zeitgeist - being 'flexible' with your positions, adept at mis-remembering, being tone deaf to the actual day-to-day misery of the majority of the citizenry and of having a miscreant love affair with Wall Street bankers. I'm still not sure where you stand on climate change. Fracking and the TPP still seem to be in play despite your come to Jesus pivot. The need for middle class jobs and taxing the wealthy are, hopefully, a revelation. I don't doubt your genuine benevolence for children and families, as you often mention, but all that caring cannot divert attention from your record on these other things. And it is your record that keeps me from lining up behind you, not, as some have implied, your hair or your voice or your pantsuits. It's a matter of beliefs and policy that are at issue for me.

As you probably can tell, I am a #stillBernie supporter and I will forever grieve for our country that Bernie wasn't allowed to become our candidate. Forces behind the scenes made sure of that but since you are the least objectionable candidate for President, I will vote for you because...Trump.

Here is what I would like you to do once you have been elected President. Since the DNC has ostensibly adopted the 'most progressive platform ever' and you have promised to follow through with everything you said on the campaign trail...no flipping...it would be great if you followed through by starting with your appointments. Your new BFF, Elizabeth Warren, is the perfect person to consult with about that. You know, no Wall Street snakes in any positions whatsoever period. And consult with Bernie because we know he has his finger on the pulse of the disaffected masses. Absolutely do not disregard the discontent of Trump supporters. They offer valuable lessons on what is not working in this country. Both Bernie and Trump have tapped into the seething rage over a 'rigged' economy, lost jobs, no jobs and terrible trade deals to name a few.

So, this is the way I hope it plays out: At the first meeting of your Clinton Cabinet, all - and I mean ALL - the uncomfortable issues that came up during the campaign are put on the table, analyzed and really 'go deep'. Look at every issue in a new light, from a new angle with creative out-of-the-box thinking. Challenge each other. Upend the status quo. Whether you like it or not, 2016 is a whole new world both culturally and economically. To understand the importance of our disparate American cultures, our distinct tribes - and they are plainly obvious - study them just as I assume you studied the distinct tribes in Iraq: Shia from Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, Iraqi Turkmens. The United States is a hot bed of multiculturalism and must be examined accordingly. The Democratic 'most progressive platform ever' is a perfect road map.

Progressives will be watching you very closely and will keep pressure on you and your administration like a tourniquet. We have seen what establishment politics has gotten us - Donald Trump - so don't be doing the same crazy stuff over again hoping for a different outcome. I'm sure after the schooling of this campaign you recognize that.

As the campaign winds down and it pretty much looks like you're going to win - Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power, has already paid out on your win! - you are looking great, relaxed and full of stamina! I wish you the best of luck in your Presidency, Hillary. Your fortitude will serve you well because this is going to be one hell of a ride.

I wrote a long time ago that if people think the Republicans gave Obama a hard time, just wait until Hillary is President. They hate her to their core (sorry), they hate women and the thought of Bill Clinton roaming the halls of the White House...well, they will all suffer everlasting apoplexy. Not much will get done I'm afraid.

We know you have a penchant for secrecy, playing things close to the vest, but it would be advisable to be as transparent as possible. We, the people, deserve to know what's going on. You're going to be our President and our lives depend on you. That's no small responsibility. I'm rootin' for ya!

Hey, if you ever want some advice or ever need to vent, I'm here for you. Just email me. I'm on a secure server.

Obama Window Just Closed. Where's Bulworth?

Mid-term elections 2010 are finally fucking over. There has got to be a better way to touch voters other than interrupt them 15 times a day with phone calls, robo or otherwise. If I weren't such a 'voterphile', I might have slammed the phone, pulled the plug and said the hell with all of yous. There has to be some sort of technology that indicates a phone number has been called before, like a million times. And it would certainly be helpful to know how many times a number has been called in one’s own campaign. This is software just waiting for an algorithm. Someone get busy before the next onslaught of phone calls that's just around the corner.

Ah yes, the presidential campaign starts now, and we are about to endure hours of pundit prognostications, ruminations and colossally boring chit chat about whether Sarah Palin is going to run, can she actually speak in sentences, hours and hours of microscopic dissection of the Tea Party, watch Christine O'Donnell rise from the cauldron of ignorance to reality show freak, and on and on. But, this isn't going to be as bad as watching the Democratic party flounder like a fish on a Republican hook or as bad as watching President Obama being played by the Republicans like a cat batting around a mouse giving it momentary hope that it's life will be saved only to have it gobbled and spit out like a tasty snack.

That's what it's come to since Obama has squandered his window of opportunity to actually govern with the spine of a leader who could see that 'compromise' with the opposition wasn't going anywhere. Obama, who projected his persona to be the avatar as political savior, the man who was going to take the Washington bulls by the balls and change things up like he was supposed to. He went to Washington and did things old school. He never manned up. And now that precious window of opportunity to get things done is down the toilet.

Oh, I can hear the defenders repeat that old saw of theirs that Obama was never what we progressives thought he was. They say we projected onto him what we wanted to see. Well, my friends, that's not exactly true. You see, Obama was hoisted to victory on the backs of progressives who supported him early on, and Mr. Obama never said to progressives, "Look, I appreciate your support but I just want you to know that's not who I am. I'm a squishy moderate who will capitulate to Republican bullying...just so you know."  He never said, “Thank you” either. Instead, he took progressives for granted and wouldn’t even talk to them until his recent summit with progressive bloggers. Seriously. The defenders will say it's all in his books, and we should have known better. That we were hoping for miracles. Well, yes we were. But no we weren't. We were going with a guy who let us think he was a leader. Yeah, I know the other old saw about how campaigning is different from governing. So what.

And how about those much sought after independents who also believed that Obama would bring some brio to the White House. While independents may have voted to repudiate the Republicans, they also believed in the change Obama promised so relentlessly, that it would be different from the last eight years of unintelligent design by the ignorant enforcers. And now where are they? Driven back to the other side by an unfulfilled vision of what might have been. Yes, independents are notoriously fickle, but you have to give people some love to keep them interested. They didn't get any and neither did progressives. When your base doesn't think you love them, they're gone, onto the next cute boy or girl with pie-in-the-sky possibilities.

Now, more gridlock and Republican bullying, and any chance that any kind of progressive change will happen is as remote as John Boehner becoming a Democrat. And by progressive, I simply mean 'moving forward'.

My hope is that Obama will use his veto power to at least keep the conservative agenda in check. However, according to the following definition, we could be fucked on that score, too, with the Republican majority in Congress: A presidential veto is the rejection of a bill passed by the majority votes of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. While Congress can vote to override a presidential veto, causing the bill to become law without the president's approvals, this is rarely done. (Ha, ha, suuuure. We'll see.) More often than not, the threat of presidential veto is sufficient motivation for Congress to modify the bill prior to its passage. (Republicans laughing)

Yes, in conclusion, I put this mid-term debacle squarely on Obama's shoulders. He said so himself. And I certainly don't think we wouldn't have lost seats, but if there had been any enthusiasm for how Obama was doing, then his base would have shown him some love and done anything to go out and vote. But disappointment prevailed and that was not to be.

Where's our Bulworth?