And The Lord Said, I Am Jesus...And I Approved This Message

At this writing, it is January 13, 2019.

So to many of you...welcome back as you return yourself to your regularly scheduled programming.

Yesterday, January 12 was Quitter's Day.

I can't testify, one way or the other, as to whether or not Hallmark has a card section available for noting the occasion and the observance doesn't yet appear on any printed calendars I've come across, but experts in the field are confident that Quitter's Day is very real and very much a part of the lives of millions and millions and millions of us.

For January 12 is, according to extensive research, study, analysis and a veritable Wal Mart discount bins worth of pie charts and bar graphs, the day when 8 out of ten people who hunkered down, dug in and bigly participated in resolution making on January 1st, lighten up, dig back out and say what is more likely a fonder farewell to that resolution than the farewell they bid the old year that inspired the resolution in the first place. 

If Taylor Swift were inclined to cash in, the lyrical addition to an earlier hit would very likely include the observation that "smokers gotta/ smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke / and eaters gotta/ eat eat eat eat eat / and treadmills need to....well, treadmills need to be returned to the task for which God created them.

A very expensive, capable of motion surface on which to stack laundry baskets and assorted other household this and that that apparently have no other particular place to go.

Actually, the date, January 12, is not, technically, Quitter's Day. The aforementioned super stack of pie charts and bar graphs indicate that it is, in fact, the second Friday every January when the passionate commitment to giving up things ends up actually being the thing being given up. So, the official day floats around, as it were. Kind of like a lot of those holidays "observed" that Federal, state and local governments are so fond of, you know, where the actual commemorative day lands on one date or another, but, conveniently, even brilliantly, if you think about the strategy at work, a day or even two on either side of the day can be "value added" so a one day off from work becomes a four to five day festival, a workplace "--palooza", so to speak.

Makes you wonder why everyone is in such a snit about the government shutdown. Being shut down for four or five days at a time happens so often nowadays, you'd think everyone would be used to it.
Of course, one key difference might be that the paychecks don't stop showing up during "Columbusdaypalooza" or "Arbordaypalooza" and just shy of a million people can't buy food or medicine while the ongoing, no end in sight variety of shutdown continues. Luckily, though, there's help on the way because we have a President and a Congress who put the needs of Americans, all Americans, first at all times, always ready to set aside their own differences and come together to do what they were elected, which is, of course, to serve the needs of Americans, all Americans, no matter what they.......

yeah...I know. Satirical sprinkled with sarcasm is just one of those things I don't always have a lot of control over.

I've made more than one New Year's Resolution to stop doing that.

Never made it past the second Friday in January.

Bad habits die hard. Which is, of course, actually an adaptation of the more common "old" habits die hard.

Bad or old, either way or both, breaking free of the inclination to do that which we shouldn't oughta be doin' is always much more easily said than done.

Cause it's so easy to fall in love / it's so easy to fall in love, but giving up the smokes or the sugar or the super sizing at the drive thru?

It ain't no piece of cake. Yeah, satirical, sprinkled with sarcasm and the occasional pinch of ironic. I know. I need to work on that. Too late for this year, what with it being January 13 and all, but still.

It's hard to not be a smoker if you're a smoker.

It's hard to not be an over-eater if you're an over-eater.

Something else it's hard not to be.

And gettin' harder and harder all the time.

Stand by for that.

Christina Forrester is the director of Christian Democrats of America. Whatever else she's got going on, I always appreciate any organization that has the savvy to save me a lot of time explaining what they do by spelling it all out in the name of their organization.

Forrester published an online piece in which the title of the piece also pretty much spells out her point and her perspective on it.

"In Trump, Many Have Found Their Justification For Hate".

Here's her perspective.


I hear it every day, from people who have lost relationships with loved ones over the past two years: 

“I never would have suspected she was capable of such a merciless attitude!” “I did not know my uncle/cousin/aunt/brother was a racist,” “I had no idea my pastor cared more about his politics than preaching the Gospel of Christ. I don’t even recognize my church friends anymore.” These are the stories being told from church-goers across the country; everyday Americans who no longer recognize those who were once close family and friends. The toxicity in the country — the hate, fear-mongering and propaganda — has revealed the character, underlying attitudes and prejudices of many. This is something that has split up families, churches, and broken long-term relationships. So my question is: Was this always in their hearts? Was it always there, beneath the surface, and it only took an opportune justification, which has come in the form of a red MAGA hat, for them to reveal it, without apology?

I continue to ask myself this question every time I hear another of these stories from people who reach out to me, or see it manifested in my own circle. It is shocking when a person who you always knew as a person of compassion and a good heart comments on a picture of a child who is crying and afraid, “They are illegal.” Or when someone who you know loves their family says to you, “Well, it is sad that children have died, but that is their parents’ fault and that’s why we need a wall.” And then it is heart-breaking when that person you have known so many years, who loves God and goes to church every Sunday, who you have shared potluck dinners and worshiped with, suddenly shares a meme comparing Mexicans to cockroaches who should be “exterminated” by their hero, Trump.

When Steve King came out Thursday morning with a statement questioning why “White Supremacy” was an offensive term, it was something that, prior to 2015, would have rocked the political and social media world. To accept the idea of even questioning White Supremacy would be taboo, would be political suicide and obviously not socially acceptable. But if you needed any evidence of the desensitization to hatred, bigotry and good ole’ fashion racism, just look to this example: no outcry from the good people who love God and country. No memes denouncing White Supremacy – just silence. Complicity. But it is not surprising that people who would sit in silence as children are held in cages, abused and die in the hands of our Border Patrol, would also sit in silence about a “little” thing called White Supremacy.

Many times, attitudes of the heart are revealed when there is an available justification – a mob mentality sits in that reaches across hearts and minds in an invisible thread. With every racist, homophobic, chauvinist or xenophobic remark, the eyes glance around the room, “Are you OK with this? Will you speak out now? OK, then I am OK too.” And the justification continues with each blow. And the desensitization grows…and grows.


Shane Claiborne, meanwhile, is a Christian activist and author. He published a piece last year subtitled "the deadly theology of white supremacy."

Here's a short, spot-on excerpt.


The hatred is bad enough. There’s something even more insidious when religion is used to camouflage hatred. Some of the white supremacists even wear crosses, and carry crosses, and have cross tattoos.

Just as the cross has inspired millions of Christians to stand up for life, to fight for freedom and to come alongside victims of oppression, there have also been times when the cross has been twisted.

And a twisted cross becomes a swastika.

A symbol of love can become a weapon. The icon of redemption can become an instrument of terror.


The title of Claiborne's piece puts a little poetry to the pillory.

"Twisting The Cross."

The case is correctly made that, give or take the addition of things like social media, 24/7 news cycles and/or other technologies that modernize the madness, there's nothing new going on in the year of our Lord 2019 what hasn't gone on, in one place or another, even here in the tried and true, red, white and blue of these here United States of America, in any number of given years of our Lord.

There are, though, some other distinctions involved that, if not making 2019 America new, most certainly make 2019 America different.

First, for the first time in known history, a demagogue has actually made it all the way to the Oval Office.

And, cleansing breath, keepers of the flame, that's not simply a pot shot. It's a factual observation based solely on the dictionary definition of the word.

"A political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument."

Trump not only qualifies in an honest and fair evaluation. He may be the most accomplished demagogue in the history of the club. Hell, he very likely could be elected president of the club.

Prejudice. Desire. Fear. The tippy top three of the voodoo that Donald do so well.

In the tradition of the most gifted of history's demagogues, he has parlayed, and continues to parlay, those prejudices, desires and fears into fervent, feverish support,

The list is long. And time is precious. So let's just hit the current bigl-est of the bigly causes he is championing.

America is in the midst of being invaded by swarms and/or hoardes of one other than Caucasian skin color or another and the only chance America has of surviving the assault is a wall.

And if some children have to be taken from their parents. Or if some children have to die. Well, that's the price they pay for trying to come into our proud, patriotic nation without doing it exactly by the rules. And let's not have any of that libtard snowflake whiny bullshit about them fleeing from persecution or abuse or starvation. Rules are rules. And they either do things by the rules or they are not allowed to play at all. Besides, a lot of them, you know, actually, probably most of them, you know...that cockroach thing.

If where they come from is a land of persecution and abuse and starvation, that's their problem. Not ours. We can't even take care of our own. We don't have the time or money or one percent's worth of give a shit about taking care of them......

....say the native born proud patriots who call this great country their home, with their flags flying high and their red caps firmly in place.

Playing by the rules. Obeying the laws.

Texting their friends, one hand on the steering wheel, that they're just minutes away....as they tailgate each other at eighty miles an hour....weaving in and out of lanes because they're going to be late....for church.

Where they will praise and worship their Savior, born of a carpenter and his wife, who had to escape persecution by going to another country without playing by......

Oh, you know the rest.

That same Savior mentioned in Galatians 6:2.

"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ"

The second Friday every January is Quitter's Day.

And it's understandable that a commitment, a resolution, made in good faith with the best of intentions can only survive a dozen or so days out of three hundred and sixty five.

It's hard to not be a smoker if you're a smoker.

It's hard to not be an over-eater if you're an over-eater.

But those pale next to what is, now more obviously than ever, one of the most excruciatingly difficult habits to break.

It's apparently next to impossible to not be a hypocrite.

If you're a hypocrite.

"What Part Of You Get What You Pay For Is Confusing You?

The real problem in America these days isn't what we know.

The real problem in America is what we don't know about what we know, mostly in the form of what we don't know about what we don't know.

At this point, don't be confused or even alarmed that you don't know what I'm talking about. Even if you knee jerk to the conclusion that even I don't know what I'm talking about.

Because I do.

I know what I'm talking about.

And I absolutely know....what I don't know.

Hang in there with me. And shortly, you'll know, too.

What I know. What I don't know. And what you don't know.

Frustrating. I know, right?

Donald gave his national emergency at the border speech last night, complete with that wacky, zany, fun filled pretzel logic of his, chock full of misstatements, poor or incorrect information and, yes, always with a dollop or two of his very specially patented recipe of fear mongering and lies.

Not to be confused, of course, with Fear Mongering And Lies, the heavy metal duo that used to open for Metallica.

The Democrats response, of course, was "oh, yes we are, oh, no, you're not" with a sassy sprinkling of the predictable"I know you are, but what am I".

And the morning after reactionaries pretty much line up along the same, now well worn, now very much faded and fading faster chalk lines they've been toeing for nigh on coupla years now.

Donald can do no right. Donald can do no wrong. And, as per usual, this morning's tweet will brag about largest audience to ever hear a presidential address...ever.....and, that now most traditional of all traditional set in stone signs of the Savior and/or Apocalypse...

...but...but...her emails.

Meanwhile, our healthcare system remains at the shit end bottom of the world's list of healthcare systems, the irony of which seems to be lost on so many people, given that the wall/fence/speed-bump/badminton net, or whatever the fuck it finally turns out to be is going to ultimately prove to be not only impractical and/or inefficient, but, pointless. There's no need for you to worry about you or your loved ones being invaded, pillaged, robbed and/or raped by the swarm of different colored hoards pouring into the US of A, because long before that infinitesimal chance of happening ever happens, there's an overwhelmingly better chance that you and yours will be dead because you couldn't get the medical care you needed to stay alive.

See the irony there?  But, what the hell, maybe the wall can be turned into one of those memorial dealios with the names of you and your loved one and the other 100 million or so people who will be dead because they couldn't get the medical care they needed to stay alive.

Names, of course, to be inscribed tastefully in small but legible print, just below the monstrous, terrific, just terrific, biggest ever letters T R U M P endlessly and repeatedly gracing the top of that sucker.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled litany of bickerin' and bitchin.

A lifelong brother from a different mother of mine posted his reaction to last night's Wallapalooza on his FB page this morning. We don't speak all that much anymore, but that's about time, distance and a sadly inevitable way life has of putting space between people sometimes. There's still a lotta love in the room, so to speak. One benefit of minimal contact is we don't risk damaging our relationship by gettin' down with Donald. Mostly, of course, since he seems to be pretty strongly down with Donald...while, here's a news flash, I'm fairly well known to be strongly down on, and pretty much done with, Donald.

My "uh, huh, okay...really?" switch was set off, though, by his posting. And his thoughts actually inspired my thoughts on the whole what we know about what we dont know that we think we know thing that started us off here this time around.

I know. You don't know what he said. Well, stay calm and listen up. Here's his unedited, unaltered post:

"When Schumer and Pelosi say the wall is too expensive, how is it OK to send foreign countries, as they voted to do this past week, 155 billion dollars for who knows what? The ONLY reason they really oppose it is b/c Trump's name would be on it and that would encumber their 2020 presidential bid. Those two hypocrites are the ones holding the hostage for the sake of their own political gain. They can try to move the blame on the president BUT when 79% of citizens side with their POTUS it's really the dems who are to blame for the shutdown."

First, here's what I don't know. I don't know where that "79% of citizens side with their POTUS" thing comes from. I'm only human, not infallible and do make mistakes or miss out on this intel or that now and then, but there's not a single poll I've seen anywhere from any side about any issues involving Donald in which 79% of those asked side with their POTUS....with the possible exception of the poll of all the voices Donald hears in his head every day and that number can't be right, because if he's polling all the voices in his head then you just gotta know that the most voices, the most voices ever, terrific, just terrific voices side with their POTUS on that one....I mean, it's gotta be, what 121, 136% easy.

But it's too easy to get tar pit trapped into the same hamster wheel of "I know you are, but what am I", so let me ratchet down the broad bed of gunfire and laser in on the two major reasons I started writing about my brother's thoughts in the first place.

The first is what I think is irrefutable in terms of definition.

The person having the ransom demanded of them cannot also be the person demanding the ransom.

Uh, that would have to be pretty much restricted to the person actually demanding the ransom.

Trump wants a wall.

He is demanding 5 billion dollars to pay for that wall (and we're going to take the high road just long enough to avoid getting even close to the "why isn't he demanding the ransom from Mexico instead of Democrats"?)

In this scenario, the 5 billion dollars is correctly defined as "the ransom."

To be paid in order to "free the hostage".

The hostage, in this scenario, is correctly defined as the livelihoods of the six or seven hundred thousand people who are not currently able to go to work.

The Democrats aren't holding anybody, or anything, hostage.

The attempt at selling that point of view is a very poorly played moment of "I know you are, but what am I?"

But I semi-digress.

Because even the "you're demanding ransom / no, YOU'RE demanding ransom" absurdity isn't what inspired my idea to share about this what you don't know business.

And, mercifully, for you, I'm sure, at last, here you go.

"....how is it OK to send foreign countries, as they voted to do this past week, 155 billion dollars for who knows what?..."

Gotta be honest. I don't know. But only because I don't know.

And neither do you.

More than a couple of times over the past year or so, that very seemingly logical train of thought has come on down the tracks and chugged into whatever discussion we were having on talk radio.

It's a deceptively obvious, even easy to answer, question.

And in the current climate, it's become a classic, frequently used, "go-to".

Why do we, in America, have to do without (fill in the blank with whatever gets you all panty twisted about what we have to do without) because it costs (fill in the blank with the cost of whatever gets you all panty twisted that we have to do without) when we send (fill in the blank of how much you hear, read, think, imagine or even make up we send to other countries)?

Yeah. How come. Huh?

Again, I don't know. And that's the answer you need to start trying to understand.

Let's break it down into easy to digest bits.

You belong to a club. The dues are ten bucks, payable in one dollar bills. You pay the dues without question, if for no other reason, because you have no choice if you want to remain in the club. As a rule you don't even think about where that ten bucks goes. But, today, you've decided you'd like to learn a little more about those dues.

So you discreetly follow the club treasurer as they carry on with their day.

The club treasurer, walking down the street, comes upon two people.

One is obviously homeless, malnourished, ill and in obvious need of medical attention, but also a seemingly good person, perhaps even very nice, deserving of  time, attention, mercy, compassion, assistance. Maybe you can even tell that they are a military veteran, having served our nation with distinction at great sacrifice.

The other is reasonably well dressed, seemingly healthy, no apparent signs of distress, deficiency or need at all.

You watch very carefully as the club treasurer counts out each of the one's you forked over earlier...and hands all ten of them to the well dressed of the two, giving the homeless a facial expression of sympathy, even regret, but, with a shrug, turns and walks away.

Well, you gotta be outraged by that, right?

What reasonable, intelligent, decent human being wouldn't be incensed, outraged, mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore?

And so you reveal yourself to the club treasurer and offer up a snarly WTF?

The treasurer, to your surprise, isn't particularly rattled at your outburst and suggests a quiet sit down and a cup of coffee so you can be enlightened.

Yes, that homeless guy was malnourished, in need of medical attention and, yes, he is a military veteran, having served his country with distinction and at great sacrifice.

The other guy?

The other guy owns a piece of property that sits between the only water supply within a thousand miles...and a small town where hundreds of veterans, senior citizens, small children all live and the pipeline that provides them the water they need to stay alive runs.....do you see where this is going?.....right through the property owned by the well dressed guy.

The well dressed guy is a scumbag who doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone or anything in this life except himself.

But he owns the property with the pipeline. And the price he charges to keep that pipeline open...is ten bucks.

Now imagine that the well dressed guy is another country. And America has, within the borders of this country, a military base essential to the well being of not only the thousands of personnel on the base itself, but thousands of Americans and American allies who travel, or even live, close enough to that base to need protection.

And the country's leader is a scumbag who doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone or anything in this life but himself.

But he owns the country with the American military base. And the ten bucks he charges to allow that base to stay operational...adds up to 155 billion dollars.

The real problem in America isn't what what we know.

It's what we don't know.

And here's something you didn't know until today.

There's all kinds of ransoms being demanded of us at any given time.

And there's all kinds of ransoms being paid by us at any given time.

Why, just this past week, we paid out 155 billion.

And you were furious that we paid out 155 billion for God knows what while the "Dems" refuse to pay 5 billion for a wall that anyone with genuine credentials insists is an irrefutable waste of money.

Well, okay. You didn't know why we paid out that 155 billion.

But now you do.

When You Can't Tell A Wall From A Hole In The Ground

A new year.

As we say a fond farewell to Jack O Lantern, Tom Turkey, Santa Claus and all the other icons, symbols and representatives of the year end holiday season just completed.

Yes, Jesus is the reason for that season, Mr. Helper, but, I'm taking the glass half full approach here and having faith that those with faith will continue to exercise that faith the whole year through and not put that groovy guy from Galilee away in that attic space with the Trick or Treat bags, brightly crayoned gobblers and those remarkably well wrapped bundles of lights that will, mysteriously, come out of the box this coming December unexplainedly all gnarled and globbed with little or no hope of finding the plug end without hours of frustrated searching. 

Out of the box, of course, or the flat screen, as it were, the icons, symbols and representatives of our assorted and sundry bad habits.

Nutri-System, Jenny Craig, Chantix, Planet Fitness. The list, like the beat and the doctor's concern at your cholesterol numbers, goes on.

Because, obviously, if Christmas ain't Christmas without Kris Kringle up on the rooftop, click, click, click, January is a no show until Marie Osmond shows up ready to offer relief to what inflates us.

She's not only a little bit country, she's pretty much become a first month tradition.

With Ray Liotta coming up fast on the outside.

You can just call him Ray.

Both of them, and their ilk, ready, willing and corporately compensated for their assistance in our efforts to resolution our assorted and sundry bad habits out of our presents and into our pasts.

Too much weight.

Smoking.

Failing to exercise regularly if not diligently. 

The top three on the charts, kats and kitties, of those bad behaviors that put the kibosh on the quality, corrode the caliber, even put a fixed number on the days, of our lives.

But just like the proverbial new kid, there's a new harmful habit in town.

And America is awash in the affliction.

Diagnosis divulged directly.

First, it's time for another episode of  Gettin Down with Definitions.

Today's word: wall.

Noun: a continuous vertical brick or stone structure that encloses or divides an area of land.

Verb: to enclose an area, especially to protect it or lend it some privacy.

That's the clinical, no frills definitions of the word.

Like our friends the onion and the artichoke, though, there's a whole lot more here than meets the eye.

Acclaimed author and friend Alanna Nash recently Facebook posted an article relating the government shutdown Trump is currently using in an attempt to extort five billion dollars to build his definition of "the wall". The use of the word "extort" is mine, not Alanna's. She was voicing passionate displeasure, and understandable concern, about Trump's publicly stating that, if necessary, he would endorse the shutdown for "months, even years."

Let's skip the chapter and verse bullet point listing of who, what and what's not currently resulting from the shutdown. That information is easily available on line. And I encourage you to avail yourselves of it, because, Kellyanne Conway's gospel according to Donald aside, there really is no such thing as too much correct information or actual facts.

For our purposes here, let's sketch the thing out this way. Almost three quarters of a million people are without paychecks. And went without paychecks as the expensive holiday season peaked.

If only out of respectful human compassion, Alanna opined that Donald Trump was "completely crazy".

Yeah. What she said. You go, girl.

But, more to the point at hand, a commenter on her page had this retort locked and loaded.

"Crazy like a fox...he is applying leverage...as any good negotiator does".

To ramp up the dramatic value, if inadvertently adding comic relief, the commenter provided this punchline.

"Make no mistake. He will get the wall built."

Alanna, a skilled wordsmith, replied succinctly.

"He won't."

Here's a quick two cents on their exchange.

At the level this game is being played...and make no mistake, it's a game by every definition, what Trump is doing is not leverage. Important services aside, there are people going without paychecks.

Those paychecks are being held as ransom.

Where there is ransom there is extortion.

The dollar store word for extortion...is blackmail.

And a President of the United States, legally and constitutionally sworn to preserve, protect and defend the nation while, if only in theory, morally sworn to protect and defend all of the citizens of the nation, is essentially holding the well being of three quarters of a million citizens hostage. 

Stretch limos, marble columns and Marine Bands ironically, even now insultingly, playing Hail To The Chief notwithstanding, what's going on here is no different than someone stealing one of your kids from their school bus stop and threatening their safety unless you fork over big bucks.

Just so it gets said, yet again, one more unneeded piece of evidence of how staggeringly unqualified this spoiled brat doorknob of a real estate hustler con man is for the office that he lost by three million votes. 25% of that number, by the way, the number of people currently without a way to pay their bills.

But make no mistake, the commenter says, he will get the wall built.

He won't. The efficient Ms. Nash rebuts.

Earlier, I offered up the noun and verb, dozen words or less, definitions of "wall".

By now, although it doesn't find its way into the conversation much, it should come as no surprise that there are a number of other definitions that have been either overlooked...or ignored.

I'm a more bang for my bucks kind of guy when it comes to the King's English so, allow me, if you will, to expand a little on the what it is...and what it isn't....when we talk "wall".

In this instance, Donald's wall. Which, to minimize any additionally unnecessary, and way, way already overused spotlighting of Trump as a brand name, we'll simply refer to as "this wall".

This wall is, first and foremost, a deceit, a mendacity, a fraud, a flim flam, a dupery, a snow job, a trickery and a treachery, all of the aforementioned being officially recognized synonyms for one really fun, free spirited word:

Boondoggle. Noun. A work or activity that is wasteful or pointless...but...gives the appearance of having value.

In verb form, it means to waste time or money or both on unnecessary or questionable projects.

And just so there's no confusion amongst those who get all of their insight from either Fox News or MeTV, we're talking boondoggle. Not Gidget's boyfriend Moondoggie.

One is a comedic character in a plot that seems laughably ridiculous, while entertaining, even exciting millions of Americans.

The other, of course, is Gidget's boyfriend.

And, yo, zealots, demagogue darlings and defenders of the Realm, calm down, sit down and be cool.

No reasonable person is against improvement in security for our nation, whether it be protecting and preventing unwanted, unsavory undesirables from sneaking over the border to rape and pillage...or uninformed, unenlightened deplorables sneaking into the voting booth to make America great again.

But any fifth grade student, let alone a caravan of educated experts on the matter, could testify under oath that "this wall" is impractical and unlikely. And, turns out, not so much for what it isn't, which is an intelligently researched, expertly studied and firmly feasible plan for a means of streamlining the way we control who comes in, and who stays out of, this country, but because of what "this wall" really is.

This wall is... a very catchy, but essentially empty promise made on the campaign trail where promises are like popsicles at the county fair on a hot summer day...impossible to resist, but very likely melted away before they can do anything for you. 1900 William McKinley promising "A full dinner pail"...Herbert Hoover's 1928 pledge of "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. Even the failed campaigns of Huey Long's 1935 vow that every man would be "a king" or the 1856 razzle dazzle of John Fremont who waved "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men" in front of voter's faces, adding, of course, a little "Fre"mont to correctly conclude the catchiness. Each promise set in stone sure to fire up the crowd, more than very likely, once dissected and examined thoroughly, nothing more than blindingly red, white and blue bullshit.

This wall...is a shiny thing, a distraction, a detour sign. Designed and, thus far, succeeding in changing the narrative, the high priced wonk way of saying steering the conversation....away from  a cross between a bad sitcom, a worse reality show and "presidency", starting with a presidential "campaign" that should have been fatally wounded at the first mention of pussy grabbing...let alone the mocking ridicule of everyone in the political process, let alone a reporter with a congenital challenge.

And detour is diversion. This wall diverts the masses, and the media who report on the masses, who then act in ways that bring the media back around to report on the masses (and you wonder why you have a low grade headache pretty much all the time these days), this wall diverts the masses from not only holding the once upon a time candidate accountable for the other promises he made during that campaign. How's that great, terrific, just terrific new Trumpcare health insurance program working out for you? Yeah. Me, too. And not only not accountable for that. But not accountable for any, not even one, of the inept moves, amateur night implementations and, drum roll, please, tens if not by now dozens of clear violations of the oath of office he took to preserve, protect and defend?

This wall...is a Star of David spray painted on the side of  a Jewish bodega in Manhattan. It is a Swastika flying freely and proudly during a parade through American streets, you know, those parades of those "very fine people". This wall...is a burning cross.

Oh, it's advertised as the one wall fits all solution to the dangers of those unwanted, unsavory undesirables sneaking over the border to rape and pillage. But if we sued and won and the pitch man was required by the judgement to adhere to the truth-in-advertising statutes, what you'd learn, assuming you don't already know what I've been talking about and what I am now talking about, that this wall is just the oldest trick in the open for business business.

Bait and switch.

Come on in for the impractical, badly planned, totally unresearched, inevitably doomed to fail protection from unwanted, unsavory undesirables.

Only to find that what you've purchased is an endorsement of religious intolerance .White supremacy. Bigotry. Racism.

Hatred.

This wall....isn't a wall...at all. It's a door. A portal. An entrance to an America of thirty, forty, sixty, a hundred years ago. Above which is inscribed, in a modernized re-boot of that oldie but goodie, "abandon brotherhood, all ye who enter here."

You remember brotherhood, don't you? Yeah, it was in that song. What was the name of that....oh....yeah.

It was that one that went "and crown thy good / with brotherhood......say it with me.....

"...from sea to shining sea..."

This wall... is a deceit, a mendacity, a fraud, a flim flam, a dupery, a snow job, a trickery and a treachery.

And here's one we left out earlier. And, hand to God, you just can't make this shit up.

The definition..."noun: attractive articles of little value or use....verb: showy...but worthless."

The word...trumpery.

A new year.

And new resolutions to put an end to our assorted and sundry bad habits.

But a new bad habit that really needs some serious attention, pronto.

Making important decisions about presidential candidates without coming within a mile of thinking it through or having a clue.

Some time ago, during a segment I was hosting on talk radio, a not all that transparently annoyed caller asked me..."don't you liberals think that some of us out here got enough common sense to know what should or shouldn't happen...and what should or shouldn't be done?"

It turns out, in too many instances, that the correct answer to that question is no, we honestly don't think you do.

Because too many people. Far too many people obviously, and regrettably, can't even tell the difference between a wall...and a detour sign.

Wipe Off Blackface...There's White Underneath...Scratch Whiteness..Find A Different Kind Of Blackness

Racism, bigotry, hatred.

They're still unacceptable.

Social media suffers from no shortage of shared experiences, anecdotes, even videos that immediately go viral, documenting, in what may end up being seen some day as the textbook example of irony, the inhumanity that humanity seems more and more predisposed to inflicting on itself these days.

In one of those videos, for example, a white woman in line in a grocery store in Oregon overhears a black woman's phone conversation. She believes the woman is trying to sell food stamps illegally. She confronts the woman and the exchange becomes heated, the white woman being told, in impossible to miss terms, to mind her business. The white woman responds "oh, it is my business...because I pay my taxes..."

That's not the end of her response. The end of that response might surprise you. Sadly, though, it might not surprise you at all. And, no, she doesn't yank the N word from her holster and open fire with it.

The injury she added to insult....momentarily.

In June of 1968, Bobby Kennedy stood before a packed room of supporters and followers celebrating his victory in the California Presidential primary.

He ended a poignant and optimistic acceptance speech with these words.....

"....I think we can end the divisions in the United States...we are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. And I intend to make that my basis for running over the period of the next few months. So, my thanks to all of you and it's on Chicago and let's win there."

Those were the last public words he ever spoke.

Shot in the head a few minutes later, he died a few hours later and was buried a few days later in Arlington near his assassinated brother.

The romantic and/or sentimentalist in all of us would, most likely, like to think that, were he around today, Bobby would still believe that America is a great country...an unselfish country...a compassionate country.

It's getting increasingly more difficult each day to resist the temptation to cynically suggest that would be a mountain even a Kennedy couldn't climb.

Eddie Glaude, Jr. is a Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. In a piece he wrote for Time Magazine this past September, he relates the story of the Oregon grocery store food stamp confrontation and goes on to offer some insight worth more than just a little consideration.

It's relatively easy...to blame our current struggles on the loud racists who have been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump. But this is typical American racial melodrama. We need easily marked villains and happy endings. 

The fact is that Americans have grown comfortable with racism resting just beneath the surface of our politics...to be activated whenever a politician or a community needs it, exposed when a racist incident exhumes it, only to see us bury it again.  The result was the illusion that America has become less racist merely because racists were not as brazen as they once were.

Donald Trump shattered that illusion. He rode race, once the third rail of American politics, straight to the White House. He challenged, even refuted, Obama's citizenship, called Mexicans rapists and criminals, proposed banning all Muslims from entering the country, preached the need for "law and order" arguing that immigration was changing the "character" of the United States. 

And he openly courted white supremacists.

Trump exists in a sweet spot between the soft bigotry of self contradictory American liberals...and the loud racism of those who shout "nigger" and demand that Latinos go back to Mexico, all the while stuck in an economic system that sputters and chokes along with a startling gap between the top 1% and those who bust their behinds to make ends meet.

Trump sits right there, amid the mess and false promises....with a smirk on his face.

Professor Glaude goes on to elaborate, correctly, that Donald Trump isn't some cross burning version of a Bond villain, the likes of which we've never seen before. A few quick minutes doing a little Google on the subject and names like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace appear, their presidential campaigns, Thurmond in 1948 and Wallace in 68 and 72, markers on the American history timeline noting candidates who moved the crowds with their "plain talk" and "blunt truth" with little, or no, regard for the consequences. Each of them seeking to, and succeeding at, giving voice to a deeply felt sense of "white victim-hood".

America, in 48 and 68 and 72, responded by endorsing the idea that the grievances may have been valid, but those messengers and their easy to read code of racial pot stirring were a negatory, good buddy. The bottom line turned out to be that America saw these demagogues as "marginal men with marginal thoughts."

In 2016, America, the melting pot, was turned into America, the stirring pot. And the marginal man with marginal thoughts...manipulated the marginal into electoral madness.

Again, with apologies for mangling Shakespeare's spin on Ecclesiastes, Trump ain't nothing new under the sun.

And, yet....

Police are continuing to search for the man who opened fire from a pickup truck on another vehicle early Sunday morning (December 30th) near Houston that had a woman and her four daughters inside, killing one of the girls, seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes. The attack was unprovoked, with the man, who's described as a bearded white male, possibly in his 40s, just pulling up next to LaPorsha Washington's vehicle and opening fire, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The 30-year-old Washington, who suffered a gunshot wound, sobbed from her hospital bed while speaking to reporters about what happened, "Every time I wake up, I want it to be a dream. I want to wake up and see my seven-year-old run through the door and give me a hug and a kiss." .

"...It's relatively easy, Professor Glaude reminds us...to blame our current struggles on the loud racists who have been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump. But this is typical American racial melodrama. We need easily marked villains and happy endings...."
 
The white woman in the Oregon grocery store who confronted the black woman responded, "oh...it is my business....because I pay my taxes..."

And then she landed one more punch.

"...we're going to build this wall..."

...loud racists, the Professor mentions, who have been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump...

The tribal atmosphere that has existed since the day Trump announced distills down to a very basic, primal, inevitable attitude.

When it comes to the Trump Train.....you is either "fer us....or you is agin' us.."

A rock solid case can be made that when it comes to racism, emboldened by the election of someone to the highest office in the land, that office holder's position on the matter distills down to a very basic, primal, inevitable choice.

He is either agin' it. Or he is fer it.

And it's a choice that practically makes itself.

If you're against it, say so. Every hour. Every day. Every time the opportunity presents itself.

Like when a white woman in Oregon warns a black woman that "we're gonna build this wall..."

Like when a seven year old black child is shot to death for no other apparent reason than she is black.

If you're for it, then stop insulting our intelligence, show some spine and say so.

Or just say what you're already saying.

Nothing.

Racism, bigotry, hatred.

They're still unacceptable.

Just not unacceptable enough.

Actually...not even close.

Misplaced Lies The Crown Above The Orange Head

We should stop blaming Donald Trump.

As increasingly difficult as he, himself, makes it, between his continued tweeting tantrums, his inability to keep any reasonably professional, let alone intelligent and mature, Cabinet member working for him longer than a few months and his once appalling, no longer even surprising failure to master even the most rudimentary skill set of operating and governing, let alone leading, an entire nation on the planet Earth in the year 2019, Trump is, in the clear, bright light of day not where blame should be placed, assuming, for the sake of our discussion here, that blame need be placed in the first place.

Props to Mr. Shakespeare, the blame, dear Brutus and my fellow Americans, lies not with he.

Rather, it lies with we.

As in "..we, the people..."

Because, last time the job came open, more than any other time in this writer's life time, anyway, we didn't make clear exactly what it is we expect, no, make that demand, from the person that we hire to fill the position of President of the United States.

And we are all, in one fashion or another, doing an unprecedented amount of crying, screaming, moanin', pleadin', blusterin', bickerin' and bitchin' about what the current job holder is doing.

But not all that much in the way of making clear exactly what we expect.

No, make that demand.

First, a little history lesson.

Conventional wisdom, which turns out to be apocryphal anecdote, has it that when the Revolutionary War was winding down and the Founders were getting about the business of setting up the nation's business, an offer was proffered to the guy most Americans would have chosen as Time Magazine's Man of the Year in those days. You know, if there had been such a thing as Time Magazine. Or magazines, for that matter.

Talkin' bout the beloved chairman of all things cherry tree, George Washington.

The proffered offer, of course, had to do with being the duly chosen and/or elected leader of the newly originated nation. And, according to the conventional turned apocryphal, the offer came in the form of crowning, as opposed to inaugurating.

History buffs have been recounting the king thing for generations. Real live, credentials and everything historians, meanwhile, surface periodically to put a kibosh on king and put their professed approval on president.

Which is, of course, what we got.

Washington himself was not all that ardent an advocate of forming a monarchy. The debate on why or why not goes back a ways, as you might imagine, but I've never run across anybody voicing what I suspect might have had something to do with his declining to be down for it.

Given that at the time of the Revolutionary War, the leader of the nation with whom we were at war, (that's England for all you kids who know all the words to every Ed Sheeran song but wouldn't know Nathan Hale if he showed up with additional lives to give for his country), the King of England was George III who, for you Trivial Pursuit-sters in our studio audience, was the 3rd great grandfather of the current Queen of England, Elizabeth II who, if you draw a wig, beauty mark and Cleopatra eye liner on her picture on the 10 pound note, is a ringer for Amy Winehouse.

S.E.P. with Scott Edward Phelps. Come for the commentary. Stay for the entertainingly arcane trivia.

Meanwhile, back to George. The King, not the President. Well, actually, the President, not the King, too. And that's my theory about one minor reason Washington was bent on opting for inauguration as opposed to investiture.

After a long and brutal war and the hardships of getting a new nation up on its feet on the horizon, the last thing anybody needed was to try and figure out who the hell anybody in the Colonies was talking about when they said King George.

Which King. Our king? Their king. Our king. You mean George? Which George? Washington? Or III?

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about the whole president or king thing, just Google the name Lewis Nicola.  The Irish born American military officer. Not anybody having anything to do with the cough drops.

Having fully digressed, let's wander back on the track.

Washington said stuff your sovereign in a sack, mister.

And from that moment forward, we were a United States of which there was a President.

So, how long has it been now that we have been a United States of which there is a President?

Well, I'm glad you asked, there, sparky, because it turns out the answer is one of those rounded off numbers that lends just a dash more drama to the presentation.

This coming spring, it will be 230 years.

Not so fast, though, sparkies and sparkettes. There's a tidbit of trouble with the math.

This coming spring, it will actually be only 228 years that there has been a United States of which there is a President.

And that brings us around to where this was all headed in the first place.

What it is we expect, no make that demand, from the person currently in the employ of the citizens of the United States in the position of President of those United States.

And how we have clearly not been as clear as we could be, should be and have totally got to start being  when it comes to letting that job holder know what those expectations and demands are.

At this point, the temptation is to launch into what would undoubtedly turn into yet another entire program of the line item failures of that current job holder.

And we all know the drill from there. We get distracted and/or diverted from any real substantive conversation by becoming bogged down in an endless space/time loop of "I know you are, but what am I?"

The verbalization version of him escaping the lasso of justice by gittin' us townsfolk to shoot at each other.

Which, is, and has been, and, for the foreseeable, will continue to be, of course, the most successful strategic tactic, either intentional or inadvertent, he has employed since the day he descended from Mount Gold Plated Toilet Tower on his gold plated escalator and got the joint a'rockin with what spawned a hale, hearty, huuuuge laugh out of millions and millions of millions of we, the people: the announcement of an official presidential candidacy.

Insert he who laughs last grabs the Electoral College by the short hairs and knocks the nation more than just a little off its foundation here.

And, besides, when it comes to more "oh, yes he is/ oh, no, he isn't" chapters and verses,  just like too many cooks spoil the soup, too many examples strain the attention span.

So, let's keep eyes on the analytical prize here and zero in on the original indictment.

That, we, the people, stand accused of failure to properly and comprehensively inform, then, job applicant, and, later, new hiree to the position of POTUS exactly, to a pin point certainty what it was, and is, we expect, no, demand of him.

In simple employer/employee jargon, all full of chocolatey human resources goodness, it's called a job description.

There's our first problem.

In terms of laying it all out in easy to understand, do this and/or don't do that subject to being terminated with extreme prejudice, there really is no such thing as an "official" job description for this particular job.

The Constitution, our theoretical go-to source for clearing up what is and isn't, should and shouldn't be, must and/or must not be, is, damn the luck, pretty sketchy, at best, and absolutely nothing close to qualifying as an "employee handbook"

16 year olds hired at McDonald's are better informed about what's expected of them than is the man (and, hang in there, ladies, sooner or later, woman) who is given, among a whole shit load of other things, the power to ban the banning of polluting our air and water, the influence that can send the world financial markets into a tail spin and, oh, yeah, the launch codes.

 "...faithfully execute the office of President of the United States..." is a charming, even noble iota of oration that actually spells out jack-squat in terms of exactly what the country wants, needs, expects and/or demands.

And, of course, "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States..." well, between giving neo-Nazis a little "wink, wink, know what I mean" and saving all his love for Putin alone, clearly the definitions of preserving, protecting and defending are not so much found in the bright light of freedom as they are in a little place we'll call "the gray area".

So, lacking any real documentation that provides us the leverage we need to spring the old "a-ha!" on him and send him and his creepy, crawly cut rate Corleone family back to the gold plated, primordial ooze from which they spawned, let me just get right down to a real nitty gritty here and try to zero in.

Yo, Donald.

No crown for you.

First, if as admired, revered, respected and beloved an American icon as George Washington said a polite, country boy "no, thankee" to being wrapped in royalty, there's not a ice cap's chance since you yanked us out of the Paris accords that we're going to put up with any king crap from, you, ace.

If for no other reason, a lot of us, a whole lot of us know of George Washington, studied George Washington and, dude, you're no George Washington.

You're not even a George Clooney.

In fact, don't even measure up to a Boy George.

But, by George, I digress.

And, by the way, there, MAGA fans from sea to now more threatened by pollution than ever sea, don't waste breath or drool coming back with any deceptively correct examples of how almost every president, at one time or another, has been accused of "king think". Lincoln, Jackson, Roosevelt (Franklin and Teddy, pick a Roosevelt, any Roosevelt), LBJ, Nixon, even the so amazingly animatronic it's hard to believe he was actually alive Ronald Reagan....even the George who would not be king were tarred with that brush from time to time.


The fly in the ointment of your logic there, Costco presidential scholars, is that while tough decision making and/or implementation can be compared to , even confused with, more a royal decree than a politely agreed to submission from the suggestion box, what's going on in year 2019 of the American timeline is a big whole horse of a different color. Yes, orange. But that punchline pretty much writes itself.

The difference is that all the other aforementioned executioners of the office of President of the United States were, all of their individual political stripes, perspectives and allegiances aside, believers and, critically more importantly, supporters of that foundation we mentioned earlier, including, but not limited to, its sacred institutions: the courts, from city to Supreme; the intelligence community from CIA to NSA with a little NCIS thrown in for drama; law enforcement, from FBI to DEA and, yes, ICE...but the ICE that protects and serves, not the ICE that kidnaps and sequesters. You're confusing that ICE with another ICE from a few years back. And that ICE was spelled GESTAPO.

And, again , with allowances for the human ego being what the human ego is, all of the aforementioned accused of being a "royal" pain in the ass presidents most certainly hoped, even wanted, to be respected, appreciated, admired, oh, what the hell, even loved, but none of them expected to be worshiped. 

And, again, not because of any lack of ego. Simply because they were all, to varying degrees, pretty clear on the concept of what the presidency of the United States really is. And pretty comfortable in their own skins.

Not to mention being intelligent enough to know better than to tweet every thought, memorable or moronic, that came into their brain in the wee hours of the morning before Fox and Friends came on to make all the boo boos better.

But, enough already with the ain't no monarch gonna go round here manifesto.

And a last refocused zero-ing in on the subject of what's expected.

Donald.

Hi, how you are you? Getting along well in your new duties? Everybody welcoming and helpful? House and staff and limos and all that....okay? Somebody show you where the cafeteria is?

Good. Okay. Listen up.

You're an employee of the United States of America.

Think of the United States of America as a company. Well, yeah, a little like the companies that you're used to, but....honest....and successful....and, well, not saturated with the stench and slime of sociopathic self absorption.

And, oh, yes, this company has had its ups and downs and each new day there are new challenges that we have to overcome, but, you know, Donald, can I call you Donald?....you know, the United States of America, if you will, has managed to survive all those challenges for almost 243 years now. And, I gotta tell ya, that's a long damn time in company history time. I mean it's longer than Apple or Microsoft, even longer than Colgate and DuPont and Remington and Jim Beam....yeah, really...and way, way, way longer than those "businesses" run by that guy from New York, you know, the steaks...and the vodka.....the casinos....oh, and the university, what a total scam.....I'm sorry, what?

Oh. My bad.

Anyway,  you were hired, through a process that, frankly, we're taking a new look at because apparently, there's some kinks in that garden hose, you know?..but that's not your problem....you were hired to contribute the skills, abilities and energies you told us you had when you applied for the job to making the nation a better nation.

Yeah, I know. These abstract, hard to nail down terms. What's a "better" nation, right?

Well, here at the United States of America, it turns out that we actually have a pretty clear concept on what makes for a better nation and what we expect of those who come to work for us to help make that happen. And that's kinda why we asked you to come in and sit with us and let us clarify some of that, because, to be honest, Donald, we've been hearing there are some problems with your job performance. So, here's a real quick, clear the air thing...it'll take just a minute.

We expect you to put in a full day's work. We hear tell that you're inclined to spend a lot of time in the morning watching cable news, which, I suppose, if you're trying to broaden your perspective and get more of a real feel for how all Americans are feeling and thinking and needing, that's okay, but apparently you watch and listen to only one station and that means one mindset and,well, that's just not the American way, man. We are an inclusive company. With liberty and justice...that's right...for all.

We expect you to show courtesy and respect, at all times, to all of your co-workers and most especially to every single one of your employers. Yeah, I know that can get confusing. Let me see if I can unmuddy that water for you. Every citizen of this country gets a vote on who gets chosen to do the job you've been hired to do. Now, naturally, once the "vote" has been taken, there are going to be a lot of folks whose choice wasn't chosen. And from what we hear and read and see of your approach, apparently, you've confused this position with that of, say, the head coach of a football team. We don't want someone who gathers only "his" team around him to go out and crush the other guys. We expect you to keep your people productive, but to also bring in those "other guys" and make them feel like their part of the team, too. Capice? Get my drift?

Well, apparently not, because your public comments...and your interviews...and the tweets...oh, good golly, the tweets. Pretty rude. Not inclusive or inviting or, frankly,  acceptable. The United States of America is...you may have heard this saying somewhere along the way....is a melting pot. It's not a stirring pot where the goal is to keep things in a constant state of chaos and conflict. Seriously, I gotta say, given the number of times you've tried that approach and it's fallen flat on its ass, I'm very surprised you're still using it. You know, the steaks and vodka and casinos....yeah.

We expect you to be a company man at all times. Simply put, there are other companies in the world, like the Saudi Arabia.....the North Korea....oh, of course, the Russia. We all have to do business in the same big market, right? Of course, we do. But those folks are our competitors and we don't sell their products for them, you know what I mean? Yeah, apparently not. This is a real hot button issue in our company. And, since you seem to be a guy who likes straight talk, let me be straight with you. You need to decide pretty much right now which company you'd most like to work for.

We expect you to show compassion, concern, caring and co-operation at all times. We don't tolerate sexism, racism, misogyny. We don't acknowledge, let alone endorse, harmful, toxic people or groups of people like the Klan...or, yeah....neo-Nazis. I'm not going to intentionally embarrass you here, but, "very fine people?"...really?

I could go on, but I'm gonna take a chance on you and assume that you're a little clearer on the concept now.

Oh...we expect you to inspire, not incite. We expect you to lead, not bully. We expect you to play to people's strengths and virtues, their better angels, if you will. There is to be no preying on their fears and flaws and weaknesses. This talk we're hearing of a wall. Come on, we both know that's just cheap shot scare tactic stuff. We're not on board with that. And the children. Being kept in the pens. Again, you are employed by the United States of America.

And that's not the American way.

One last, very important thing.

The position that you have been privileged to be offered is one of enormous authority, power and prestige and it's very, very easy....frankly, way, way, way too easy...for someone being offered all that authority and power and prestige to make the mistake of thinking that it's, well, say, like being a king.

The position you have been privileged to hold, up until now, is not king.

Yeah, looking over your contributions so far, I'm thinking that you've really fallen victim to that misunderstanding. That's why we needed to have this chat.

And just so there's no doubt as we finish up here, let me say this plainly.

We, the people who make up the United States of America don't work for you.

You work for us.

Since you fancy yourself a savvy businessman, let me put it this way.

Think of us, all of us, not just red-state, Fox News, red-cap, love, adore and praise worshipers, but all of us....

...as your board of directors.

Because the company is the United States of America

And the job you've been privileged to hold, up until now, is president.

Not king.

We should stop blaming Donald Trump.

Because nobody seems to have made him crystal clear on what it is we expect of him.

No.

Make that demand.