It is so cool and so fun being the richest guy in the world. And did I mention being cool? I mean, I got to sway an entire election with my money and my influencer stuff. What a gas. It’s like I snap my fingers and presto change-o, my guy wins the whole contest. And now I get to hobnob with all the big shots. That’s a trip, dude. I mean, I can tank any bill or policy just by making a few mildly threatening phone calls or a few tweets, no biggies. And I’m like a total new kid on the block, only I bought the block and everybody on it.
And I’m basically top gun. I got the whole country in the palm of my hand. What a rush, man. I’m having the time of my life. It’s the coolest thing ever.
I cut the little loose thread on the sleeve of my hoodie. It’s a cool morning and I put the sweatshirt on as soon as I got up. I really shouldn’t have bothered, it probably wouldn’t have unravelled and even if it had I’ve got other sweatshirts.
But what, I thought, if I have to make a run for it when they come for me and the sweatshirt I have on is all the bed or blanket I will have for months, or maybe years, of desperate flight. Because maybe they won’t come after people who speak up against them like they insinuate, but maybe they will. Maybe they will be as vindictive and ugly as all the stuff they said in their campaign. And we can’t afford loose threads when we’re racing to outrun fascism.
Maybe this talk is absurd, maybe I’m loonier than they are. How paranoid is it sane to be?
We’re going to need heroes. A whole lot of them. We had some last time, after what happened four years ago. But we’re going to need more this time. Thousands of heroes, maybe millions.
We had Michael Fanone and Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn and Caroline Edwards. We had Rusty Bowers and Cassidy Hutchinson. We had Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. We had Brad Raffensperger and Gabriel Sterling. We had B.J. Pak and Al Schmidt and Chris Stirewalt. We had Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. We had Mike Pence. Heroes all. There were unsung heroes, too. We don’t know their names. But we’ll need more this time.
We’ll need generals who remain loyal to their oath and the American people, not to one man in an Oval Office. We’ll need soldiers and police officers and government agents who refuse to carry out unlawful orders intended to punish the innocent or violate civil rights. We’ll need lawyers and trial judges and appeals court judges and Supreme Court Justices who follow the law, not the dictates of an oppressive regime. We’ll need scientists and teachers who spread truth, not superstition or prejudice or illusion or fabrication. We’ll need representatives and senators who work for the common good, not special interests or personal gain or the advantage of one party or faction. We’ll need heroes.
We’ll need all fair-minded Americans to step up. Speak up and stand up, to do the right thing, to say no to hate and cruelty and greed and injustice. Heroes all. We need all of us. We all need all of us. We can be heroes. Together we can be.
Saw my therapist yesterday. She gave me some very important political advice. That guy, the one who’s going to be moving himself and his ego into the White House in January. His whole purpose is to crush our spirits so that we’ll just lie down and give up, and then he can do whatever mischief he wants to do without any resistance. And then he’ll have really won.
But he’s a bully and a coward, and if we stand up to him tall and loud and proud, he will lose his cool and he will be on the defensive and his silly sycophants will start edging away from him and there is no way he will be able to do all those sick, destructive things he talked about doing. And then we will have won, in a way that he, in his moral emptiness, could never understand.
There will always be uneducated, uninformed or easily-misguided voters. But there will not always be a Trump base: sixty million Americans who not only can stomach a racist, misogynist predator but actually like that brand of filth. You see, the guy has a rare talent, he knows how to exploit a certain human character flaw. It’s the rotten part of our soul that loves to hurt others and he exploits it for everything he can get.
We would like to think that our civilized society would discourage those impulses, but in this case civilization has failed. A guy came along who has lived his whole life by those savage tendencies and knows exactly how to awaken them in others. Hence, we have a terrible, terrible specimen of our species as President-elect, a man who would, and will, sell his country to the highest bidder. The “hope” is that, when the next reactionary demagogue comes along, he won’t be quite as talented as this one.
There’s a certain thing in so many of his supporters. It’s way down deep in their gut, they don’t even know it’s there. But it’s there. It’s a mean little sadistic thing. It likes when he talks dirty. It likes when he targets innocent groups. It likes the idea of blaming and punishing someone else for all the problems. It likes being part of a mob and getting a vicarious thrill out of all the venom. It’s an ugly smoldering thing. And without it fascist demagogues would never win elections. And it makes me sick to my stomach.
Fascists and other creeps have a sixth sense. They recognize each other, even in a crowd. Instinctively. They identify through their mutual depravity. They flock together. Vulture-like. It’s really very unnerving.
I suppose on some level we should feel pity for these guys, for the moral emptiness of their souls. But never hesitate to call them out. They have no pity, and we darn well better make sure they have no power.
I can imagine being undecided between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, or between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But can you imagine anybody, at this late date, being undecided between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?
CNN had a focus group, in Erie, Pennsylvania, watching the debate last night. They were all voters who, just prior to the debate, were undecided between the two candidates. After the debate, the majority had made up their minds. But I’m still thunderstruck that anyone could have a problem making up their mind when the choice they’re given is Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for President.
When the CNN reporter interviewed the members of the focus group, it almost seemed like, in the current political climate, they were a unique and different breed of individual. They seemed so unflinchingly moderate, so detached, so unmoved, so unenthusiastic, so ho-hum. I wanted to shake them. But I’m thinking maybe they really are a particular personality type, and can’t help being that way. They just struggle with making up their minds, at least about politics, even very divisive politics. I guess politicians need to find a way to grab the attention of such persons and strike whatever chord inside them that needs to be struck.
“Mr. Doe, you’re a U.S. Senator and a loyal Trump supporter, is that correct?”
“I stand with the President 100%.”
“And you agree with Mr. Trump that the election was somehow rigged against him?”
“It most certainly was.”
“What would it take to satisfy you that the election was free and fair?”
“Well, there would have to be a full investigation of every allegation of fraud.”
“Well, Sir, state election officials have done those investigations and found no fraud. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have also found no fraud. And the Courts have reviewed Mr. Trump’s claims and found no evidence of fraud. So doesn’t that address all your concerns, Senator?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I see. So what WOULD satisfy you that the election was free and fair?”
“Well I don’t know, there has to be proof that there wasn’t any hanky-panky going on.”
“What kind of proof?”
“How should I know, I don’t work in the election office. I’m a Senator.”
“So you’re saying that the people running the election are the ones who would know the actual facts.”
“Of course, that’s just basic horse sense.”
“And those officials have all confirmed the accuracy and fairness of the election, correct?”
“They said it, but they could be wrong.”
“All the state and local election officials across the country could be wrong? And you think you and Mr. Trump are right.”
“Yes I do.”
“And that’s based on . . ?”
“I told you, the election was rigged, there was fraud everywhere.”
“Senator, you’re up for re-election in 2022. Why should the people of your state send you back to Washington in two years?”
“The people of my state know I have always done everything humanly possible to improve their lives in every way.”
“Uh-huh. How much Covid relief for families, workers and small businesses are you voting for, Senator?”
“Well, we’ll have to see about that. This Covid thing has been way overblown. Very few people have died, it’s nowhere near as bad as what the . . .”
“Are you all right, Senator?”
“Yeah I just got a little dizzy there. Feels like there’s a weight or something on my chest, all of a sudden.”
“Gee that’s a deep cough you have there, Senator. How long have you had that?”
“Just the last couple hours, I . . .”
“Senator, the video output of your computer is a little blurry, but you don’t look so good. Do you have someone there who could take your temperature?”
“My wife Elaine is here but she’s in bed. She’s had the worst cold all day, can barely breathe.”
“Senator, my network is gonna call 9-1-1 for you. Okay?”
“9-1-1?”
“Yes, you know. One of those public services that you’re always saying will take us down the road to socialism.”
Until the federal government takes responsibility . . . states, counties and cities need to enact EMERGENCY laws PROHIBITING GUNS IN PUBLIC. Starting now. No guns in public. Big guns, little guns, pretty guns, ugly guns, manly guns, silly guns. Guns.
Otherwise, we are held hostage by angry armed thugs. We know that without their guns they’re cowards. With their guns they’re self-righteous bullies. I like them better without their guns.
I read the New York Times article of April 12 (updated April 29), “Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden”. The writers did not express an ultimate opinion about the truth or falsity of Ms. Reade’s accusation, but the overall weight of the article seemed to raise serious questions about the veracity of her claim. The article had a link to the podcast of Ms. Reade’s interview by Katie Halper in March. So I listened to the podcast of the full interview, more than one hour. She is totally credible. I was spellbound. She describes the incident so well that I can see it in my mind’s eye as if I had been there watching. I can say that about very few of the witnesses I have questioned over the years. I can see Joe Biden saying and doing exactly what Ms. Reade describes.
There are people in the media attempting to find inconsistencies but they focus mainly on outlying and second hand facts that are largely immaterial to the alleged incident itself. And Ms. Reade herself explained why it took so many years for this allegation to evolve, and why Joe Biden still triggers self-doubt and ambivalence for her. Well, there is no doubt in my mind that the incident happened and that it happened exactly or very nearly as she describes it.
The podcast interview is not testimony, in the legal sense. It is a statement, in a loose question and answer format. Ms. Reade is a victim/witness. Because people vary so much in so many ways, witness statements can range from extremely poor to unsatisfactory to average to good to great. In her interview by Katie Halper, Ms. Reade is a great witness. She is not merely credible or plausible, she is just about as good a witness as you could ask for. That’s based on forty years spent mostly in court. To use a well-worn descriptive formula, if I’ve seen one witness I’ve seen fifty thousand. Tara Reade is perceptive and articulate. She has depth and sensibility. She reminds me of my daughter. There are details and nuances in Ms. Reade’s statement. She puts everything in the real-life context of her own personal situation and the atmosphere of Senator Biden’s office. She has insight. Insight into her reactions, as well as Senator Biden’s actions and reactions. She is responsive, she is direct. Her reluctance to answer one of the particular questions is completely appropriate, it’s understandable. It hurts. There are things that she remembers and things she doesn’t. That is also appropriate. She does not try to make up answers for what she doesn’t remember. She is testifying from real memories, for better or for worse.
So, what does Joe Biden do? I will still vote for him either way. But I hope he does what Brett Kavanaugh didn’t do. I hope Joe Biden does what he did last year and admits that he’s not a saint, that he used to take liberties with women and their bodies, that he did something in 1993 that he is very ashamed of and that caused Tara Reade a lot of pain, and that he hopes he has begun to atone by becoming a better person and a champion of women and all the other segments of humanity who really need a champion in the White House right now.
Shouldn’t Propositions be for gut issues like same-sex marriage, assault weapons ban, legalizing marijuana, and the death penalty? Honestly, we’re not qualified to decide whether EMT’s should be on-call during their lunch breaks or not.
I have decided to be a dog. Dogs don’t have a President. And they do just fine without one. Well, they could use a few more parks and a few less kennels.
Or a bird. Even better. Birds can fly above all this nonsense. They can fly to lakes or forests, over mountains or almost as high as the sun. Donald Trump cannot control the sunshine, or the land, or the oceans. Except for global warming, that is, which he won’t lift a finger for.
Our mistake is confusing reality with our society. You won’t find reality in this so-called world that we’ve created. Reality is in nature. It’s in the deserts and canyons and jungles and rivers. It’s in all the beautiful species who cohabitate. Go out and take a hike today, explore the hills, trees, whatever you can find. Be a dog. Chase a rabbit. Howl at the moon.
Chuck Redman 