Friday, May 12, 2017



Dear America, It’s Time To Stop Calling Donald Trump ‘President’

A president tasks himself or herself with leading an entire nation, undivided ― and this man chooses instead to villainize huge swathes of it.

05/10/2017 03:12 pm ET | Updated 22 hours ago


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So be it.
The biggest threat to my generation’s democracy somehow won’t be the indignant terrorists of 9/11, but a delusional jackass in a power suit. I won’t tell my grandkids I survived an invading army, but invading trolls and bots. I’ll never learn of the threat in film reels or newspaper cartoons, but memes and hashtags. I guess instead of internment camps, it’ll be walls.
But rest assured, the threat we face is no different from that of any great war in American history ― another abuser of power with a weird face and weirder voice thinks if he talks loud enough, and frequently enough, that a country can be his. Except in this case, it’s not in black and white. It’s in meme and GIF. And it’s not some other country: it’s ours. And instead of bombs and bullets, this war’s battles will be fought with spin, and misinformation, and disillusionment. It’s the kind of crazy war that instigates fake wars in order to distract from the real one.
It’s a bad screenplay, but it’s our screenplay, and we’ve gotta live it and survive it.
But before we throw around juicy Jeopardy words like “tyranny” or “dictator,” first let’s frame this as it really is, which isn’t yet political high-treason, cyber crime, and whatever else will come to roost one day, which it will, I promise, pinky-swear: No, right now it’s that silly cartoon where the captain on a sinking ship cut to Swiss cheese from cannon fodder is running around frantically, stopping one leak only to see another sprout up. And one thing is clear:
That funny-looking, funny-sounding captain? He’s going down with the ship. He and his comically stupid crew.
So welcome to the inflection point, which demands some new terminology.
It’s time to stop calling him “president,” because a president he is not. A president tasks himself or herself with leading an entire nation, undivided ― and this man chooses instead to villainize huge swathes of it. You no longer have to call him president because that’s what his title or our constitution says he is ― he’s just the con man who used one to get the other, and believes in neither. He’s not your president because he’s using the office as a means to his end, instead of a means to yours. You don’t have to do it, because he didn’t just break every promise he made to the American people broadly, he’s honoring secret promises he made to other people. The presidency is the highest position in our land, and he thinks that means it is simply our most powerful ― not our most sacred. You don’t have to call him president when his appointments to positions of power are his closest family members, not the candidates who are most capable. You don’t have to call him president if he took your child’s special needs education, or your daughter’s right to choose, or your health care, or the jeopardy of our shared planet’s health. Simply put: You don’t have to call him president because he took these, too.
He isn’t Nixon and he isn’t Hitler (not going there!), but he absolutely thinks he can hijack history. That makes him a villain, and the most special breed of villain: The psycho kind! And yes, I mean that medically: he is delusional, creates his own realities, and appears utterly untethered from truth. The dude still sees himself in a boardroom ― an oval one ― and he’s just crazy enough to think a country can be bought low and sold high, as if this was any other investment in his portfolio. He forgot this country was around long before him, and will be around long after him, especially after he has been bold enough to teach us this very valuable lesson.
So no, you don’t have to call him president.
Especially if we want to get technical here and go to the tape, when the man didn’t even win the election. No, we can’t qualify how many votes were “flipped,” to paraphrase a woefully undermanned (and not independently-fueled) Congressional hearing, but he stole the whole damn thing. And you don’t need to audit internet traffic, fake headlines, and the bots that amplified that fake traffic (uh, I started a novel about this five years ago... and it’s almost done, so hang on!), or anything else to prove it... he’s proving it with every single action in this crappy cable-TV police procedural movie we’re living through. It’s in how he dismisses those who oppose him, installs figureheads who won’t lift a finger, and discredits and distracts anybody “foolish” enough to pay some attention. He thinks he can cover this up like he thinks that orange crap he puts on his face covers him up.
Like I said... delusional.
But here’s the deal.
If we’re all in agreement he didn’t earn the office of president, and hasn’t earned that title through a single shred of action since, then we’re not going to call him president and must do something else.
You have to call everyone else.
Your senators. Your congresspeople. The kinds of folks who can step in where others are being deposed, and carry on the baton.
Because while I hate to say it, welcome to the frontline, America. War. The kind that melts party lines and defines your fireside chats as an old person with grandkids in your lap and cataracts in your eyes. Swap that old-timey pipe for a vape, and envision it: you’re about to define your legacy.
It’s that time. The one when you decide to stand with every other American in our country’s history who shed democrat and republican colors for the unifying colors of the flag, who saw a criminal in a position of power and volunteered to fight. We’re lucky. At least our nation’s great villain is already in retreat, but rest assured, history is still repeating itself, and can still go another way. He has time to do more damage. To start wars. To decimate economies, and climates, and the education of an entire generation.
Forget partisanship and remember the root word, partisan, as in the other meaning of the word—the partisans who fought in shadows against impossible odds, with fewer weapons but truer motives. They fought for what was right on behalf of those who who needed it.
I don’t think anyone wants to belong to the other group, that special fraternity of future apologists who were “just following orders” and “couldn’t have known.” You know the kind. They’re the ones stinking up Congress toeing party lines and avoiding the obvious ― which is due process ― and an independent commission into what happened in the Fall of 2016.
There will never be a draft to fight this war because this, like all battles against democracy and truth, will require democracy to stand up for itself with the one weapon it has and will always have.
You, The People.
(of HuffPost!)
I have no great track record for you to all follow, but I suppose I can make a few suggestions. Make calls to the people constitutionally obligated to listen. Then make some demands. Make donations to the people who have pledged to fight. Then make it recurring. Make amends with what has already happened. Make time to listen, not just to radio, or TV, but to people who might disagree with you. And most of all, make damn sure of one thing:
Never, ever name your son Donald.

15 comments:

  1. Great post. Thanks, BlueBull.

    It's been one helluva week for America. The so-called POTUS fired the FBI director who was in charge of investigating the Trump-Russia scandal; the so-called POTUS claimed he fired Comey at the recommendation of his deputy AG Rosenstein, then the s-c POTUS contradicted himself (exposed his own lie) in a teevee interview with Lester Holt and said he had decided to get rid of Comey before the letter of recommendation! Trump can't keep up with his own lies.

    It's been clear for a very long time to sane people that the s-c POTUS is a lying s.o.b. and corrupt through and through, not to mention that he's colossally unfit to be president because of his galloping ignorance in all things having to do with our Constitution and the rule of law.

    Donald J. Trump is America's shame. Even though I didn't vote for him, I am ashamed to be in the company of the deluded dupes who didn't see through the fraud and con man that he is. I have to suffer through the mess he's made of America's reputation around the world.

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  2. I don't think Trump has a clue in the world what's going on around him. He is the great Wizard, but behind the curtains, it's the GOP, and they are really up to no good, and they're in a hurry to do as much damage as possible before the demographics catch up with them. All focus should be on getting the GOP out on their tushes asap. Then it won't matter what Trump says and does, as he will no longer be able to get away with anything nefarious, or at least far less than otherwise.

    JMJ

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  3. Wow, the tin foil hat liberals are really reaching.

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  4. Rusty, if Obama had done the same things Trump has done, you'd be screaming bloody murder. You are being a complete hypocrite.

    JMJ

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  5. That describes virtually ALL of the radical right and their worship of Trumputin. Complete hypocrites. you're right, if Obama, Hillary or ANY other Democrat had done any ONE of the myriad scandals done by their Emperor Zero, they'd NEVER shut up about it. How long did they beat the whole "Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi" loonacy - even after it was proved that there was no 'there' there, they kept on whining and bitching and moaning and demanding 'justice'. Now? Nada. Not a peep from these single-celled types who ALWAYS put party over country. ALWAYS.

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  6. Amen Shaw, if we charged Trumputin and his merry band of criminals, liars and thugs for every lie they've told, we'd have paid off the debt, provided every home with it's own Dr. and staff of nurses and given a pony to every 5 year old on the planet.

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  7. Oh Rusty - are you STILL trying to be relevant? Keep trying, Bunky!!

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  8. Blueball....are you still trying to get that janitor position at Mar-A-Lago?

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  9. No Rusty, I'm allergic to low class people so I can't go near Mar-A-Lago, even though I live about 10 miles from it. I can smell the BS from my house.

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  10. BlueBull, don't be too hard on Rusty. He's to be pitied. He came here with absolutely no defense of Trump's lies and dissembling. Not one thing to refute what we've said here. Tin foil? What a joke. What does that have to do with the facts?

    Trump had his v.p., Kellyanne, Spicer, et.al., say he fired Comey on the recommendation of Rosenstein, then said in his interview with Lester Holt that he's the one who decided to fire Comey, and he actually said it was because of the Trump/Russia investigation!

    This is the first time in the history of this country that a president fired the FBI director without cause -- Clinton fired William Sessions because he was corrupt. Trump fired Comey because he didn't like the fact that the FBI was getting too close to the Trump-Russia scandal truth. Obstruction of justice!

    Forget Rusty and his weak little comments that mean nothing. He and his friends know that Trump is a disgrace to the GOP and this country. Rusty just can't face facts. Sad!

    Trump has the support of 36% of the American people. And it's only going to get worse.

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  11. Shoo Luke. We don't want your nonsense here, thanks.

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  12. Shaw - I'm pleased that the number of voices calling for a special prosecutor and impeachment are growing daily. Lawrence Tribe is convinced that we must begin the impeachment process NOW and I fully agree with him on that, though the thought of Pence in charge, frankly, scares me almost as much as Trumputin.
    Rusty doesn't bother me. Nor do any of the swamp people, actually. They honestly do nothing but repeat what they're told by the right wing bubble, so they are easily dismissed.

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  13. The tin foil hat leftwingnutz continue to show that liberalism is logic's retarded cousin.

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    Replies
    1. Awww Rusty, it's almost cute how you think you matter to anyone.

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  14. Ok Swamp People, if you haven't the courage to post using your own name, then don't bother. Your comments will be gone. Grow a spine.

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