The Life in My Years

47 – America’s Nightmare: Dispatches From The Ruins of Democracy

Paul

February 19, 2025

“But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it (Hitler’s Mein Kampf) before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe. For whatever accusations can be made against Adolf Hitler, no one can accuse him of not putting down in writing exactly the kind of Germany he intended to make if he ever came to power and the kind of world he meant to create by armed German conquest.” William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich.

Mr. Shirer’s words can be borrowed for the present.

But it might be argued that had more American voters read Project 2025 and listened to Donald Trump’s very words, and had Joe Biden perused the polls carefully while there was still time, both America and the world might have been saved from catastrophe. For whatever accusations can be made against him, no one can accuse Donald Trump and his associates of not putting down in writing, or in words, exactly the kind of America they intended to make if Trump ever came back to power.

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” – Montesquieu, Spirit of the laws, 1748

“I don’t like politics.
“Politics is depressing.”
“I avoid politics.”
“Talking about politics always leads to arguments and bad feelings.”
“No political talk in the house.”
“Politics is ruining Facebook.’

I see that last one a lot.

I’m pretty certain that I’ve been unfollowed by a few of the friends on my Facebook feed. I’m no fun, and I’m too depressing with all this political stuff. Yep – guilty as charged. Since that day, January 20th, most of what I’ve posted has been politics related.

What are those trite rejoinders? Oh yeah, “Too bad, so sad.” “Sorry, not sorry.”

It’s not as if I’m not showing up on lots of feeds. Put up a photo of my grandson playing basketball, or of a Sacher torte in Vienna, or a photo of a castle in Bavaria and the like-o-meter lights up like the DC skies on the Fourth of July.

A post about USAID food meant for starving kids, rotting on a dock because the administration has frozen distribution and –

crickets.

Too depresing.

The silence is deafening

and discouraging.

But guess what. It’s not really politics. Not anymore.

What is politics? Webster defines politics (in part) as:
a: the art or science of government
b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy
c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

Hell we’re beyond those banalities. Right now it’s all about decency, fairness, morality, charity, empathy, propriety, humanity and a whole lot of other “ities.” Because all of those things are absent from the current administration.

And nobody seems to care.

Crickets.

So I have to assume that all of the people who are “above” politics don’t really care about the grotesqueries that the administration is perpetrating in our names. I assume that they are okay that:
The United States is no longer feeding the hungry.
The United States has stopped delivering medicine to the sick.
The Secretary of State worked out a deal that could send American prisoners to a penal colony in El Salvador.
Trans people have gone from being marginalized to being victims of a policy that is literally trying to erase them from society.

There’s nothing political about the list above. You are either a decent person with a functioning moral compass who decides to speak out, or your soul is a silent, empty, unprincipled desert.

Everyone is comfy-cosy about a cabinet composed entirely of ideological imbeciles, sycophants, and unqualified nincompoops who are not beholden to their duties to work for the good of the nation but rather are serving as unyielding loyalists to a vindictive president who is off his rocker? Everyone’s cool with a clown show running most of the agencies that affect daily life from everything we consume, to the air we breathe, to the stewardship of the national parks we visit, to education, medicine, research, and national, personal and financial security. And that’s just a start? I have to assume that everyone, save a select few, are good with the calamity.

47 – America’s Nightmare: They Hate Us

Paul

15 comments

February 14, 2025

At the end of this short post is a link to another short blog written by Jane Fritz, an American expat, now a Canadian citizen. Her piece and the op-ed included in her piece describe what I feared would happen with the election of Donald Trump

The “king” on his throne boasted of “a golden age.” “The golden age of America begins right now,” said the newly minted “king.”

Let’s pause to reflect on some recent ages in American history.

Post-World War II: America had helped to save the world from tyranny. Lady Liberty had beaten back the villain and was helping to rebuild Europe. America could do no wrong. Granted America had plenty of problems of its own but by and large it was as close to a future president’s vision of a “shining city,” as it could achieve.

Vietnam and the 1960’s and 1970’s: The luster had worn off. America, in its paranoia of Communism, meddled in the affairs of sovereign nations around the world, while waging an unpopular war in Southeast Asia. I remember those days. I remember the massive demonstrations, complete with burning flags and effigies, amassed in front of U.S. embassies. It was iffy for Americans to travel to certain areas of the world. “They hate us,” we used to say.

September 11, 2001: It took some time to put a shine back on a tarnished image. America had regained some respect around the world, but she was still not the most popular kid on the block. And then on that horrific morning of September 11, 2001, America learned that it had friends aplenty. Friends that offered aid and comfort. During the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack, thirty-eight planes carrying over 6,000 passengers were allowed to land in various airports around Canada. Americans were given shelter and comfort. It was called Operation Yellow Ribbon.

A short time later, many of our friends and allies offered more than safe harbor. They offered their lives, their national treasures and their reputations, taking part in two endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (in the latter they even humored President George W. Bush’s bogus claim of WMD).

And now through the irresponsible actions and belligerent rhetoric of its “king,” who was chosen by a small minority of the electorate, and is backed by a feckless party of forelock tuggers and bootlickers, America has embarked on a course bullying and isolationism. Despite what the “king” proclaims, America is more vulnerable than it has been in decades, maybe in its entire history. America’s “king” has appointed a cabinet of worthless and unqualified sycophants, particularly in the areas of defense and national security. Another 9/11 is easily within the realm of possibility and if and when that new assault occurs it is also within the realm of possibility that our former friends will tell us to ‘go kick rocks.’

Once again, we can sadly say, “They hate us.” Some in MAGA wear that as a badge of honor. America as the Western anti-hero, the world’s Clint Eastwood portraying, The Outlaw Josey Wales. There’s no honor or heroism in being hated.

My wife and I have been travelling during our retirement years. We’d planned a trip to Vietnam but we’ve scrapped those plans. We cancelled partially because of money concerns, but also because we’re mortified over America’s disgrace.

Because once again, “They hate us.”

I’m angry. But more so, I’m saddened. Americans who travel abroad, either for business or for pleasure, will carry the stain of its monstrous “king.”

I suppose that at some point, America will regain some measure of respect and win back some of its friends. Just as in any relationship, trust has to be earned back. It will take decades. It will take hard work. And it will take a large – a gargantuan – dose or humility. And truth be told, the trust and friendship may never return.

Should we have expected anything different from a “king” who has, throughtout his lifetime, mistreated his friends?

From the bottom of my heart – I am sorry, world.

Something I think Americans really need to read

47 – America’s Nightmare: Crickets and Blue Sheep

Paul

14 comments

January 31, 2025

“You play to win the game. Hello. You play to win the game.” ~ Herm Edwards, American football coach.

Coach Edwards’ point is well taken. That being said, in order to win you have to play and in order to play you have to take the field. And as I look about me I feel pangs of loneliness on the political playing field.

On January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump pardoned approximately 1500 insurrectionist felons who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. With their felony charges expunged they left the jailhouse, and went out and promptly rearmed themselves. It took only one week for one of the perps to be shot and killed by a police officer for resisting arrest. Another is wanted for the crime of soliciting a minor in 2016 (Apparently nobody in the administration bothered to check outstanding warrants before letting him out,). Some of the released prisoners are vowing retribution on judges, witnesses and prosecutors. The President of the United States, in no uncertain terms, told right wing nationalists and militias that insurrection is good – law enforcement is bad.

A full week passed. Crickets.

One week and a day after the pardons, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution condemning the pardons. Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor of the Senate and harrumphed about the pardons. One insurrectionist ran afoul of the law and got killed before the Democratic Senate Leader droned at the podium.

One – week – and – a – day.

What took so long? Were Democrats taken by surprise that Trump did the outrageous thing that he literally promised he would do? Did they think that Russ Vought, his OMB Director, was playing golf for the last four years instead of doing his research and crafting the executive orders that Trump promised to unleash on day one? One of those orders being to pardon the people he called political prisoners and patriots? The very traitors who sang a perverted national anthem that was played at Trump rallies. I certainly expected it. Maybe it was the Democratic leadership that was playing golf.

It appears that Democrats have done what they’ve come to be known for, and that is to clutch their pearls and painstakingly craft a document that they are certain won’t offend a single solitary soul.

One – week – and – a – day.

“Hello. You play to win the game.”

Long before the tardy resolution had been released, the entire world had moved on to any number of the other outrages being perpetrated by the administration.

Immediately after the pardons, my own Congressman, John Garamendi, put out a press release expressing his displeasure over the pardons. Outraged he was – outraged. I’m confident that most Democratic members of Congress put out similar huffy press releases.

I’m confident – but not at all satisfied.

Because?

Because more people pay more attention to press releases from Lebron James than they do their local congressman and literally almost nobody turns on the television to watch a senator drone and harrumph on the floor of the Senate.

“Hello. You play to win the game.”

Two Democratic members of Congress have been outspoken and they’re the two usual suspects, Jasmine Crockett, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who was notably passed over to be Democratic leader of the House Oversight Committee in favor of the perennial old white guy, Gerry Connolly who was described by a colleague as being a “young 74.”).

47 – America’s Nightmare: “Please, I Have Kids”

Paul

12 comments

January 27, 2025

“Please, I have kids.”

It’s the desperate plea from someone staring at the finality of death at the hands of his fellow human being. It was the plea from a man being beaten by a mob that dragged him down a flight of concrete steps, sprayed him in the face with chemicals, beat him with metal pipes, and tased him repeatedly in the back of the neck. The man heard one of his attackers scream, “Kill him with his own gun.”

“Please I have kids,” is what apparently saved the man’s life as some members of the mob that was bent on beating him to death discovered some shred of mercy and dragged the man away from the attackers, and back to his comrades.

During the attack, the man suffered burns, a concussion, traumatic brain injury and a heart attack and his career in law enforcement was cut short due to the extent of his injuries.

The man is former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the capitol to assist Capitol Police when he heard of the January 6, 2021 riot. It was his day off. He didn’t even have to step into the fray. But duty – and fate – called.

Fanone would later testify before the January 6th Committee and at the trials for his attackers. In the years since, Fanone and his family have been the targets of harassment and threats. This week came maybe the ultimate, but likely not the final indignity as the 47th President issued a blanket pardon for the January 6th insurrectionists. Not just the ones who entered the Capitol and strolled around, but for dirtbags like Albuquerque Head, who dragged Fanone down the concrete steps, and Daniel Rodriguez who repeatedly tased Fanone.

Trump had said that he would pardon on a case by case basis, but that was, of course, a lie (surprise), as he later claimed that it would be too cumbersome to go through all of the cases. In defense of the blanket pardon Trump told Sean Hannity, “Some of those people with the police – true – but they were very minor incidents, OK, you know, they get built up by that couple of fake guys that are on CNN all the time. They were very minor incidents and it was time.” (One of those “fake guys” who Trump referred to was Fanone).

Today, Michael Fanone is working to find protective custody, while all of other officers who did their duty feel betrayed. And threatened.

And all the dirtbags, no longer felons, are going out and buying guns.

European Days: Auschwitz And Man’s Inuhumanity

Paul

15 comments

January 25, 2025

Warning: Graphic and disturbing content.

Nick Fuentes posed the word problem on a podcast in 2019. “If I take one hour to cook a batch of cookies and Cookie Monster has fifteen ovens working 24 hours a day for five years, how long does it take Cookie Monster to make six million batches of cookies?” Wearing a supercilious smirk on his face, Fuentes went on with his riddle for a little over two minutes.

It may have been a math problem for sixth graders, but it was not. It was in fact Fuentes’ weak attempt at humor in trying to discredit the fact that the Nazis exterminated six million Jews during World War II. Not surprising. Fuentes is certifiably odious; a self proclaimed incel, unapologetically white supremacist, and a Hitler and Putin fanboy.

We couldn’t understand, there was a chimney and the place was lit up when we got to Auschwitz when it was dark. ‘What is this chimney burning?’ Night and day, and flame is coming out. And the camp is absolutely lit up.” Barbara Stimler, Holocaust survivor describes arriving at Auschwitz.

The bus ride to travel the 66 kilometers from Krakow’s central bus station to Oświęcim, Poland, population 34,000, takes about 90 minutes. Why visit Oświęcim? Most people, at least those who don’t reside in Poland, wouldn’t recognize Oświęcim by its Polish name. More people, wherever they’re from, know the city by its German name – Auschwitz.

Must be a helluva thing when someone asks you where you live and your answer is, “Auschwitz.”

Helluva thing.

Why didn’t they just didn’t rename the town? Did they think that the world would forget? And while on its face that sounds like an absurd question consider this:
One in ten Americans never even heard of the word “holocaust.”
A 2020 survey found that among Millennials and Gen Z, 48 percent of respondents couldn’t name one single World War II concentration camp or ghetto (This is why when I talk to people about my trip to Krakow and bring up Auschwitz, I feel I have to qualify it with, “You know – the concentration camp?”).
People like Nick Fuentes have a large following of zealots.

Cora and I are squeezed into the second row of the bus, seated behind two Italian women who are deep into gossip. My rudimentary Italian only picks up a few naughty bits but whatever I can pick up keeps me occupied on a mostly bland bus ride.

We’re on the 8:40, out of Krakow, one that we just barely made. Squeaked on despite having left our hotel in Stare Miasto (old town) at eight. What was supposed to only take 20 minutes took 35. Turned out we took the correct tram but in the wrong direction and had to double back, and then we got off at what we thought was the wrong stop. As things worked out, the stop where we got off was closer to the station than the stop that Google had suggested.

We’re on our way to take a tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and museum. I don’t know what to expect. All I know is that the tour lasts three and a half hours and that there’s plenty of security screening to get in. I have my camera with me but I’ve been asking myself since we planned the trip to Poland if I want to take photos.

Is it even proper to take photos?

47 – America’s Nightmare: Inauguration Day. A Tsunami of Deceit in a Desert of Morality

Paul

4 comments

January 23, 2025

January 23, 2025
January 20th was Inauguration Day. I’d been dreading that day since weeks before the November election when I’d resigned myself to the blunt reality that Donald Trump would be reelected (It was while we were in Vienna that I turned to my wife and said, “Trump’s going to win”).

By the end of Inauguration Day I was spent. Despite having kept the promise I’d made to myself to avoid Donald Trump’s inauguration, a trickle of news had leaked into my day. They say that one can drown in an inch of water and by day’s end I was left suffocated by the ooze of Trump.

The snippets that had leaked out ran the gamut from the ridiculous and eye rolling (renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Mount Denali back to McKinley) to the brazenly scandalous (pardoning of the January 6th traitors and insurrectionists), to the cruel and unconstitutional (the ending of birthright citizenship). That none of it was unexpected, didn’t blunt the ensuing outrage. But shock and awe was the incoming administration’s strategy from the start.

Late that afternoon, I was sitting on the front porch, reading and listening to music, enjoying the last hours of sun. When Stevie Wonder’s classic, A Place in the Sun came on I was nearly reduced to tears. Is there anymore, as the song says, “hope for everyone?”

47 – America’s Nightmare: The Looming Storm

Paul

12 comments

January 20, 2025

January 20, 2025
It’s early here in San Francisco on Martin Luther King Jr. Day – four in the morning, seven on the east coast. Today is the day that the United States celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Today is also Inauguration Day, when, at Noon Eastern Time, the new President of the United States will be sworn in.

The irony couldn’t be more stark, and the visions of America so conflicting. The only saving fortuity, the only deliverance from a darker blasphemy, is that due to dangerously cold weather conditions in Washington D.C., the swearing in ceremony has been moved indoors from the National Mall where, in August of 1963, Dr. King delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech before a crowd of more than 250,000 (King’s speech was delivered on the opposite end of the Mall from where the inaugural speech would be made).

47 – America’s Nightmare: For Pete’s Sake

Paul

13 comments

January 15, 2025

for Pete’s sake
A mild oath of exasperation, annoyance, frustration, anger, or surprise.

If you’d watched the Senate confirmation hearing of Pete Hegseth and all you saw were the questioning Senators, while the nominee was sequestered behind a screen, you wouldn’t have been faulted for thinking that two nominees were behind that screen.

One; the town drunk who cheats on his wife, shows up to work half in the bag, has tanked a couple of businesses and is generally considered an embarrassing lout.

The other; a good upstanding family man with good Christian morals who rose above some possible failings to be a pillar of society.

It could’ve been a guy named John. And depending on who was doing the speaking and the questioning, it was either Gotti or the Baptist.

Your choice of which ‘John’ was behind the curtain could have been based on the questions asked and the tones with which they were presented. To use a baseball analogy, the Democrats threw some nasty fastballs aimed right at Hegseth’s dome, while the Republicans gently placed the ball on a tee, patted him lovingly on the back and said, ‘go get ‘em, big fella.’

I started to watch from the beginning but my own well being and the well being of those people and objects around me compelled me to be content (or discontented) with occasionally rejoining the spectacle and then clicking ‘off’ on the remote when it all became too sickening to bear. It was a disgusting theater of the bizarre put on by the Republicans.

I skipped dinner and went to bed early last night; depressed, sick at heart, sick in my gut and sick of seeing the feckless, fawning of the Republican Party which is content to watch the country circling the drain.

47 – America’s Nightmare: The Daily Cycle

Paul

15 comments

January 11, 2025

January 11, 2025
Expectancy, anger, frustration, disgust and resignation.

When it comes to life in Donald J. Trump’s America, it’s my almost daily cycle of emotions. A loop that ends in a spin of hopelessness.

It was one of those days yesterday as Trump, convicted of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff scheme, received his sentence. Legal speak for the sentence he received is, “unconditional discharge.” In common everyday parlance, the sentence is, well, nothing. Nothing at all, carry on, nothing to see here, go along on your angry way Mr. Trump.

It wasn’t the sentencing hearing one often sees, in which the convicted stands before the judge and, with a downturned face, teary eyes and a look of remorse, apologizes, promises to do better in the future, and begs for the court’s mercy.

No, this time it was the over worn MAGA theater as the convicted felon appeared virtually and went on another, oh woe is me, I was treated unfairly by a rigged system, tirade. It included some of the usual Trumpian boilerplate: “political witch hunt,” “I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” “weaponization of government,” “lawfare,””I was treated very, very unfairly.”

In the sentencing, Judge Juan Merchan issued a stern rebuke to Trump and concluded with his wish of “Godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”

Fini!

When the first act opened with a bang on March 30th, 2023 with a grand jury indictment – I still have copies of the newspapers – there was plenty of expectancy. Nearly 22 months later the cycle was made complete; anger, frustration, disgust and resignation as the final curtain came down with a whimper.

47 – America’s Nightmare. Imperial America

Paul

17 comments

January 8, 2025

There are still 12 days until inauguration day and the fatigue is already mentally and emotionally crushing. There’s a name for it. It’s called Trump Fatigue (let’s call it TF for short). TF was particularly taxing yesterday as Trump expanded on his plans for a revival of American imperialism.

His proposals range from the annoying to the frightening. All of them seem to have roots in that good old American tradition of jingoism and nostalgia for the days of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine.

Ranked from the bothersome and the petty to the insane, following is a list of Trump’s proposals for remodeling the world’s geopolitical map.

Renaming Denali back to Mount McKinley
A purely domestic issue, this is probably the most doable for him.

Between 1917 and 2015, North America’s tallest mountain was named for the 25th president. In 2015, under President Obama, the peak was given the name Denali, an Athabascan word meaning “the High One”; the State of Alaska actually predated the official U.S. name change by forty years.

There are probably two reasons at play for Trump. McKinley is something of a hero to Trump, likely because McKinley was particularly friendly to the “robber barons” of his time – the 19th century Elons.

The other reason is that Athabascan is a Native American language, and, well, you know, too much melanin.

All Trump needs to do is have a sit down with Doug Burgum, his Secretary of the Interior and the deed can be done.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America
To answer the obvious question, yes, he can do this but he needs the approval of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, which is a division of the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS operates under the direction of the Department of the Interior. Enter Doug Burgum again.

The proposal, “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Gulf of America — what a beautiful name,” had barely left Trump’s lips when Representative and Trump groveler Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she had directed her staff to draft legislation to begin the process.

While the United States can unilaterally change the name, the international community doesn’t have to recognize the change.

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