8.0 Paint it Black

There've been a lot of stories lately on the boost in popularity of dystopian fiction, in particular, 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, and It Can’t Happen Here, that’s coincided with the transfer to the new administration. I love dystopian stories. I’m writing one myself! They can be wickedly fun and frightening. What makes them fun is a faith that humanity is just a little too humane to allow society to ever devolve that far. What makes them frightening is our understanding that humanity always feels like it’s teetering on the brink of allowing it to happen. The fact that, historically, we have occasionally allowed it to happen, however, makes the idea of dystopia genuinely terrifying. If Europe under Nazi control wasn’t a dystopia, perhaps I have a poor understanding of the term.

If you heard Don Presidente’s inauguration speech—I did, albeit not live; I waited until I was off work and appropriately self-medicated—you’d think we already live in a dystopia.

...for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

This is actually optimistic when compared to his Convention speech.

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life…

...Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

Now, I’m not saying there’s absolutely no truth to behind his words, but all great lies require some truth to be believed. There’s no denying his vision of where America stands in this point in history is a dark, violent place. The irony of this is that it’s only what he’s done and said that makes it feel as if the country is slipping into dystopia.

While his dystopic speeches are little more than an over dramatization of what’s happening on the ground in tiny pockets of the country, it’s the administration’s attempts to delegitimize the media, to promote alternative facts as real facts, its pockets of admiration for, even coziness with, totalitarians and oligarchs that actually threaten to derail this country and set us on a path down that dark, dystopic spiral.

Even the decision to add Alt-Right (aka White Supremacist) kingpin Steve Bannon to his National Security Council (NSC) while the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will only be invited to attend “when issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are being discussed” smells like burnt coffee. Considering this is the government body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to protecting us all, how is including Bannon, while limiting the attendance of the other two players, supposed to make us feel secure?

It’s not. It’s a purely political move, one that George W. Bush avoided with Karl Rove,  Barack Obama avoided with David Axelrod, and every president in modern memory was able to avoid. This is akin to the elevation of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s infamous Minister of Propaganda. Why? Because it points to how important the administration imagines having a professional propagandist in the NSC. This means Don Presidente intends on setting policy based on and framed by Bannon’s White Supremacist ideas. That’s frightening.

The roll out of the executive order temporarily halting travel from seven predominantly muslim countries, and indefinitely from Syria, is a perfect example. Several reliable sources claim that, rather than vetting the order through Homeland Security, the State Department, etc., Bannon was the primary go to guy in developing this foolhardy policy. Sure, Rudy Giuliani was instrumental in having an order drafted that could avoid being labeled as a muslim ban, but the concept? That was all Bannon, all part of his America First strategy.

Lest we forget, this is not the first time there was an America First movement in the U.S. The original America First Committee was formed in 1940, presumably as an attempt to avoid having the country dragged into World War II. Like the ban, it used homeland security as an excuse to prevent refugees from entering the country, particularly Jews. It’s no surprise that, years later, when reconstituting the idea of America First, Pat Buchanan praised the actions of the original organization.  It’s also no surprise that the man who finds a way to insert the name of that movement into his inauguration speech signs an order that mirrors, in many ways, what the original movement did in the 1940s.

And his supporters are thrilled! They fell for this black, dystopic view of America that’s been fed to them for years, so of course, they are just as ready to believe in the administration’s solutions. Until reality wakes them up, assuming it ever does, they will be perfectly happy to allow Ill Douche to rule by fiat, issuing executive orders at an alarming rate, despite the fact that Obama’s judicious use of them made him a tyrant. It begs the question: Are his supporters perfectly happy to trade democracy for national and economic security?

That’s precisely what Russia did. The rise of Putin had plenty to do with a desire within the country to rein in the power of the oligarchs who had been perfectly positioned to take advantage of Russia’s, then, new free market economy. Putin stepped in, in his now patented strongman style, and took care of it. The oligarchs could either support him or be bankrupted, jailed or both. Those who fell in line became part of the regime. Those who didn’t are either poor, incarcerated, or dead. So is free speech. Just recently, we’ve seen one Putin appointment hospitalized, in critical condition, poisoned for the second time in a year. Another, Alexei Navalny— an anti-corruption blogger considered to be Putin’s primary opponent in their upcoming election, was convicted of embezzlement. While Navalny was lucky enough to only receive a suspended sentence, he will likely be barred from running against Putin.

Fortunately, Don Presidente can’t use Putin’s playbook, easily. The Constitution offers us some protection for the media, so we won’t see the same government takeover of media outlets that Russia was able to institute, and the chances that we will see his allies buying up enough media outlets to make a difference are slim. I also doubt we will see the illegitimate jailing of his opponents. None of that is to say that there aren’t things Agent Orange can do. We may very well see legislation introduced to suppress the media, and we all already know how effectively Twitter can be used for character assassination. As leaks are another obvious problem for the administration, I wouldn’t be surprised to see journalists dragged into court and threatened with jail if they don’t reveal their sources. And of course, by directing his most ardent followers to use only “trusted” news sources, he’s trying to close off the information loop, so those still in his thrall will automatically dismiss everything outside of that loops as false, or propaganda. All of this points to some very dark days to come.

There have been rays of light. The travel ban has been stayed by the courts, for now. Every day seems to reveal more of Chump’s connection to Russia, whether the fact that the ongoing investigation has substantiated some of what was uncovered in the infamous Russian Dossier, or the resignation of National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, famous for being anti-muslim and espousing even some of the more obscure conspiracy theories out there, due to his lying about the content of his calls with Russian diplomats. While some Republicans seem open, few are eager to see this investigation through. Who can say what the Justice Department will do about any of this, especially now, with Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions, III at the helm.

While the country may be spared the dystopia that makes many of us lose sleep at night, one thing is undeniable. The administration itself is, irrefutably, its own dystopia. The chaos. The leaks. The lies. The everyone for themselves attitude. The casualties. The atmosphere in the White House is being compared to Game of Thrones. How sad would it be if the story of our country turned from American Dream to pure nightmare, not because we were being led by a mad tyrant, but simply because those running it are just too fucking inept. That’s terrifying!

The midterm elections in 2018 will prove incredibly important. It’s our last, best chance to check Ill Douche’s power by electing more voices of dissension. Unfortunately, voters on the left, the very voters who most oppose the administration and its misguided policies, have tended to avoid the polls during midterms. The best example of the effect of this lack of drive took place in Colorado, where after the Sandy Hook and Aurora shootings, despite a majority of voters approving of new, common sense, gun laws, voters were able to recall two of the state senators that voted for the measures. Why? Because the people that actually made it to the polls on election day were the ones that were pissed off, because of NRA propaganda turning any gun safety law into an attack on the 2nd Amendment. The theory holds that pissed off voters are more likely to vote than contented ones.

Well, there’s little doubt that we have plenty of pissed off centrists, left leaning, and progressive voters, now. The question remains, however, can we be effective? Gerrymandering has made genuinely free and fair elections difficult, and the courts have yet to make a final determination on voter ID laws. I’m afraid, unless Don Presidente repels enough of his voters that were already on the fence about him, and unless we can coax voters that felt too disgusted, by either the candidates or the process, to even make it to the polls this past November, we won’t see many, if any, gains next year.

We can’t afford more losses, or a stalemate. It’s clear that elected Republicans are more than willing to put power before country. They will continue to appease him, as long as they believe he will sign off on their agenda and make their bills laws. Rumor has it that they are happy to get along with little complaint, but that they expect that he will eventually fuck up so badly that he will be forced to resign or face impeachment. Chump is seen as little more than a seat warmer for Mike Pence, until he’s no longer politically viable. Perhaps they forget Chump’s been counted out, before.

As it stands, we don’t have enough influence in office, and while you get the occasional Republican speaking out on Chump’s foibles, there are never enough of them, at any given time, to mean anything substantial will happen.

I would love to tell you that we’re not slowly slipping into dystopia. I’d love for my piece of fiction to be the closest the world will ever get. But the odds do seem to be against us as we see Putin’s strategy of inserting himself into the elections of other countries being adopted throughout Europe. We have seen the rise of right wing movements throughout the world, and where his influence has failed, we have seen war. We will know, soon enough, how the Putin Strategy works in France and Germany.

Like Putin, Chump is more eager to be a ruler than a leader. We will know soon enough if he can manage to be either. Regardless, he will continue to push forth his dark vision of the country, while his policies will create the real nightmares, and the sheer ineptitude of his administration will continue creating epic chaos. While Chump keeps painting everything black, it’s up to us to protect a brighter future. One way we can do that is to not succumb to the darkness, perceived or real. If we can accomplish that, we can then begin to be the light we want to see in world.

7.0 Master of Puppets

Those of you who are not new to this blog know I’m not a fan of fake news. At best, it offers an unfounded twist on recent events. At worst, these stories are completely fabricated and readily believed by people already primed to believe the worst about the targets of the attacks. These distortions make genuine debate impossible. Most of a conversation is spent trying to disprove the bullshit instead of any attempt to find common ground or build some foundation conducive to any real conversation. Ideas get rejected with insults and bile. Critical thinking is replaced with vile accusations of bias.

Recently, CNN broke a story bringing to light the fact that Obama & Chump both received a two-page addendum to the intelligence report detailing Russian interference in U.S. elections. It reported that there was a dossier circulating throughout the intelligence and political communities that claimed Russia had compromising information on Chump. Later that evening, Buzzfeed released the actual dossier which provided the lurid details: Allegedly, Russia was blackmailing Chump, threatening to release the details of unsanctioned business deals, as well as video evidence of Trump carousing with Russian prostitutes. The Daily Beast went even further, actually reporting some of the more lurid details, including allegations that Chump watched as some of the prostitutes urinated on each other, hence #GoldenShowerGate.

Now Chump, along with his propaganda machine, after defending their own stories that were debunked, are trying to file this story as just another in the wave of fake news that was part of the attempt to derail HRC’s presidential campaign. This story has some major differences, however. First of all, the story CNN reported is true. There is no doubt that both Obama and Chump were briefed on the dossier. In printing the dossier, Buzzfeed pointed out that the allegations in the file were unsubstantiated. And even though they printed the gory details, even The Daily Beast admitted there was no evidence that the stories themselves were true, only that they existed.

The stories were already out there. The only question is, how valid are they? The source for the story, a former MI6 agent who now runs his own company conducting opposition research for political candidates, is considered reliable, having had a long relationship with other intelligence agencies. Some media reports have called him the Real James Bond. Of course, just because he uncovered the information does not make it true. According to a recent BBC report, the Real James Bond isn’t the only source with compromising information. Regardless, without any actual evidence, the story amounts to mere rumors. But, based on what we know about the man already, regarding his sexual proclivities, can anyone really claim with any authority that the allegations are patently false?

Understanding that it’s not so far fetched, let’s imagine for a moment that there is some substance behind the story. Wouldn’t that completely change the narrative of Chump and why he ran, in the first place? If the allegations could be verified, it might also mean the Chump didn’t run by choice. Instead, he only ran at the behest of Vladimir Putin! His highly divisive campaign would make more sense when compared to the techniques that were used to elect pro-Russia candidates in the Ukraine.

It would explain why Putin’s propaganda apparatus, like RT (formerly Russia Times) & Sputnik, were so willing to publish lies and misinformation, why they rebranded Russia & Putin as allies to, not only Chump supporters, but any HRC opponents, in general, as well as Americans already disenchanted with our political system. It wasn’t just important that everyone they targeted voted for Chump. If enough potential voters were disgusted enough to stay home, that in itself could guarantee a Chump victory. I use if, but isn’t that pretty much what happened?

I’ve given Chump a lot of credit for his apparent mastery of mass manipulation, his ability to enchant the disenchanted into believing he had all the answers. He was able to substitute raw frankness for truth, feelings for facts. He played large swaths of the public perfectly, his foibles attracting new followers, for the most part. There is little doubt Chump is a bit of a puppet master. What would that make Putin?

We already have evidence of sketchy communications between Chump’s camp and Putin’s. Even if the details of #GoldenShowerGate are dubious, evidence still points to some collusion. Chump may be pulling plenty of strings, but Putin’s involvement would make him the Master of Puppets.

There’s no doubt Putin has, or has had, his hands up the backs of world leaders, including deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, to Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president of Russia for a time so Putin could avoid a constitutional crisis for serving too many consecutive terms. Speaking of Yanukovych, his 2010 campaign was spearheaded by no other than Paul Manafort. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he also served as Chairman of Chump's 2016 campaign, until it came out that, in his work with Yanukovych, Manafort may have received $12.7 million in illegal funds.

Of course, we can all try to chalk this all up as nothing more than mere rumors and coincidence. As I have already said, there is no hard evidence linking Chump to Putin. Yet.

What there is, however, is enough to warrant awareness. Better yet, we can’t afford to ignore it. Despite a bipartisan effort to investigate all of these claims, who knows what will happen to these investigations once Chump takes office. There’s nothing stopping enough politicians from making a deal: you pass whatever legislation we want, and we’ll ignore chumminess with Putin. In that case, it will be up to us to protect ourselves from Putinism. We need to start by pushing back on the inane idea that a manipulative, homophobic killer like Putin is harmless, and that we want good relations with Russia. Putin doesn’t want good relations. Putin wants control.

If we can snap enough of those who have fallen under Chump’s sway out of it, when we can feel those strings tugging us all, we can grab onto them tightly and pull back. If we can just tug on them hard enough, I have no doubt we can pull the masters down. We need an America with no strings attached.

3.0 Resistance

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. —Abraham Lincoln

Lest you think this will be little more than some touchy feely, All you need is Love kind of blog, let me take a moment to clarify its purpose. Yes, I believe Love is essential to healing the gashes between us, the gashes expertly exploited by those who prefer power to people, to distract from their misdeeds by turning us into bickering factions. However, while Love is needed, it won't be enough.

We also need to resist. We must fight back. We need to show that bloated baboon of a buffoon that we will not sit back quietly while he dismantles civil rights, dismantles our economy, dismantles our democracy.

This blog is my form of resistance. I want it to serve as a place to rally, to separate the wheat of essential information from the chaff of all the propaganda we're constantly being fed. I also want it to serve as a platform to honor others willing to rise up, willing to speak truth to power.

In that spirit, I want to point your attention to Danielle Muscato. Danielle called Don Presidente out after another of his sad tweets complaining about Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live. 

Not only does she take him down on his thin-skinned pettiness, she goes on to break down the argument against having such a contemptible human being represent Us.

Thank you, Danielle, for saying what so many of us have been thinking. Thank you for your courage and your inspiration. I stand with you.

2.0 Let It Be

I have to try real hard not to hate Don Presidente voters. They've likely just condemned this country to years of regressive policies. We will likely lose a lot of the ground we've made on Climate Change. We will likely see new Supreme Court Justices eager to reverse or curtail reproductive and equal rights. We may very well see families split up for the sake of reducing the number of undocumented residents. Worst of all, perhaps, is that we are likely to witness a freeze in the move to reverse the trend of mass incarceration that has been plaguing black communities for decades—a return to the new Jim Crow that includes a continuation of voter suppression under the guise of voter fraud prevention.

However, they can only be blamed so much. As I've mentioned before, his voters simply gave in to manipulations that started long ago. The rise of right wing media and the demonization of mainstream media helped prime the target audience. The constant drumbeat that failed policies, like Supply Side (Trickle Down) Economics can work. The misdirection of being continually told that the nation's problems were the fault of, well, pick a group: Democrats, liberals, socialists, elitists, immigrants, minorities, feminists...

The list of the demonized is a long one.

Those of us that claim progressive values didn't help. We demonized them right back. We called them stupid, gullible, hateful fearmongers. We shoved our agendas down their throats, and expected them to swallow it without complaint. Between the actions of the manipulators and those of us who only wanted to push the nation forward, at all costs, those poor marks were no longer able to tell what was good or bad, anymore.

I didn't help that we had international trade deals created by elites, for elites. Sure, for many, trade deals are great! A lot of people made tons more money, primarily corporate interests. But not enough care was given to the industries and workers who were affected negatively. Even programs created to offset the bad side effects of these trade deals, like Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), have only invested a fraction of the profits American companies make off them. For every dollar they got, those losing factories and jobs got pennies, and the newer jobs paid less.

It was only natural that the white, working class populations of red states, already primed to distrust the rest of us, would only grow to resent the rest of the country. It was only natural that they would counter progressive messages of unity, love and equal rights for all, and instead, would be drawn to messages of intolerance and division. 

All it took was a Master Manipulator to drop into the arena, like a nuclear bomb. All it took was one man that could help focus all the misinformation, all the outright lies posing as facts, all the mistrust, all the intolerance and hate. All it took was a true cipher, a blank slate upon which they could project their despair and aspirations. The rest is history, assuming there will be such a thing as history left.

So, while I want to hate them, I can't. Better yet, I won't. What's the point? My hate doesn't affect them. It only affects how I feel about them. If it does have any effect, it's only to further alienate them, further drive them away.

And now the hatred is spreading. I'm not talking about the rise of the alt-right, as white supremacists prefer to be called, now. I'm talking about the hatred I alluded to in the inaugural post for this blog, the finger pointing and shaming going on within generally progressive camps. Many of us are mad at Jill Stein voters. Many of us are mad at the people who voted for Gary Johnson. Many of us are mad at those who opted to stay home and give us the lowest turnout in twenty years.

But they were also victims. The far left was just as susceptible to the fake news and conspiracy theories. Many more pragmatic Republicans that couldn't pull the lever for the Worst Case Scenario opted for Johnson. Many tentative voters didn't know what to believe, or were absolutely disgusted by the campaigns. They saw no reason to go to the polls. They didn't see the danger. Like me, they believed the polls. They didn't have to vote to prevent an electoral tragedy.

Like Brexit, there was plenty of remorse in the days following the election. The difference, however, is that we're not just going to be pulled back from the global market. With a majority in both houses of Congress and a conservative Supreme Court, he's essentially been handed a blank check, despite the fact that most Americans didn't vote for him. 

Yet, those who defiantly voted for a third party candidate remain defiant. They stand by their choice, by their insistence that their consciences would not allow them to vote for such a "vile" woman. It makes hating them, too, very easy.

Don't! We can't afford to. We can't afford to hate anyone, even the Hate Pumpkin, himself. We should hate acts, deeds, not the people committing them, anyway.

We can't afford it because when the honeymoon is finally over, when the rest of us finally see the reality of this country's choice, only by uniting will we be able to head off any impending disaster, or at least soften the blow.

I'm not claiming to know how bad things will get. Despite the title of this blog, I don't have any crystal ball to tell me this presidency, unchecked, will lead to the end our grand experiment in democracy. Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe he will end up just being a footnote in American history: mostly harmless. Maybe not, though.

And if not, it's going to take the kind of unity never seen in this nation to put an end to it. We're going to need everyone we can get to rise against even the slightest threat of tyranny, the smallest attack on our freedoms, especially speech. They may be able to shut a some of us up, but they can't shut us all up.

None of this is possible in the state that we're in now. We'll just be a bunch of fools shouting at each other, floundering while the world burns.

Stop unfriending people you don't agree with. Stop calling the friends you've kept names. Understand that they are also hurting. Understand that they also want to see a brighter future for their children. Understand that we've all been conned, to one degree or another. For some, it will take longer for them to see that. Some may never see it.

The best advice I can give you, right now, is to take whatever grudge you're harboring, whatever ill will, give it one last glance, know you never want to be there again, then let it be.

1.0: Come Together

So, here we are. Hopefully, you’ve been paying attention and realize how we got here. Now the questions needs to be: What exactly do we have? How do we survive it? And what can be done about it?

To understand what we have, you first need to understand who’s in control. The answer’s obvious, but I don’t just mean the man who will soon be our president. I mean the man that he is, the man he’s been. What I and others have noticed is that the man fits a specific archetype that’s troubling, even dangerous if combined with potentially darker personality traits. 

Whether he is mostly harmless, a sociopath, a psychopath is still in question. What’s not in question is that he is a Narcissistic Master Manipulator. 

His favorite technique seems to be Pacing & Leading. The manipulator "paces" the public by mimicking his target’s emotional state. He then pushes those emotions by making statements that may be even more extreme than they ever would make. That's what really draws them in. 

"The economy/politicians/media/etc. are even worse than we thought! He gets it. He has my vote!"

Once he's manipulated his target audience into believing he is the biggest badass on a given topic, he can then "lead." Since no one understands said topic(s) as well as he has made them believe he does, he is then free to "lead" them to whatever position he really wants to promote, because his target has already been manipulated to trust him, implicitly.

So, what’s his endgame? What does a Narcissistic Master Manipulator really want? He's likely to "lead" everything to the center in order to widen his trust with the public. That will set him up for an "O, he wasn't that bad" re-election campaign. It's the Narcissist aspect we can't ignore, though. That means whatever he's out for, it needs to benefit him, most. That it actually benefits anyone else is just gravy. Gravy is always a part of any good con.

So, what’s the con?

My guess is that, at best, he just wants to enhance his brand. What better way to expand the brand than to attain the highest office in the land, if not the world. If that's the case, watch for him to be more mascot than president, traveling & making appearances that make America, & by default himself, look Great. Actual governing will be left up to others.

At worse, he wants use the office to benefit his businesses. For signs of that, look for him to do nothing about the conflicts of interest created by his office & his family's business. If he liquidates, we'll know he's thinking of Americans first. If he justs hands it all off to his kids, you can be pretty sure there will be deals being cut that will directly benefit The Organization, both domestically & abroad. If he holds to his proposed economic policy, the nation will suffer.

At worst, he wants power for power’s sake. People like that don’t like to give it up. If that’s the case, look for increased domestic surveillance, suppression of the media & free speech, likely through litigation. The slightest excuse might lead to a state of emergency, extending & possibly prolonging his power. 

We've all been manipulated, to one degree or another, for a long time. None of us are any less guilty than the other. It opened the door for a Master Manipulator to step in & turn it all to his advantage. Everybody already sort of hated the other. All that needed to be done was to stoke the right fires in the right places at the right times, & viola...

In a sense, what's happening now is part of a continuing manipulation. Not only are the divisions of one side against "the other" laid bare & hurting, now there's infighting, groups usually seeking common goals blaming & shaming each other. We've been royally Trumped!

Now we need to heal. We need to come together. ALL of us. If we continue to distract ourselves with the petty squabbles, no one will be watching while he takes it all down, or all for himself. It’s not a question of whether or not we can survive this. We can. We will. Society moves on despite oligarchs & tyrants. The real question is can we come out of this intact? The answer depends on whether we can get past the blaming, the guilt, the fear, and the hate. If we can turn our attention to what really matters, I like our prospects. I hope this blog can play a role in that healing, however small.


Until next time, here's a little mood music: