politics

From Gilded Age to Golden Age

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contemplative images flickr.com

In President Trump’s Inaugural Address he boldly stated, “The golden age of America begins right now.” It has a nice ring to it but when you think about it, America’s last attempt at a golden age was called the Gilded Age.

Our Gilded Age was a time that was between the Civil War and the and turn of the 20th Century. It was a time when America was unfolding itself from sea to shining sea. History.com describes it as an era where “America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology.” But it was also an era as History.com says, that “had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class. In fact, it was wealthy tycoons, not politicians, who inconspicuously held the most political power during the Gilded Age.”

For a Golden Age to be golden it needs to fit the following criteria:

  • The age must have stable economic growth, trade and the creation of wealth;
  • The age must have significant advancements in the arts, literature and science that contributes to the advancement of civilization;
  • The age must be one of discovery and innovation where progress pushes the envelope of what is possible;
  • Finally, it must be an age where there are peaceful relations among citizens and other countries.

Granted very few eras in history have hit all of the above criteria in full. It could be argued that for most of the United States history the US has come close to meeting most of the criteria to some degree some of the time; and at other times completely disregarded others. But even the Gilded Age with its moments of great wealth had its moments of economic panics, followed once again with the creation of great wealth. It was a time when the captains of industry controlled entire industries creating monopolies and trusts. and full employment. But it was a time where workers barley made $500 a year.

 Like today, New York City was the center of the financial system. Between 1863 and 1913, eight banking panics occurred in the money center of Manhattan. The panics in 1884, 1890, 1899, 1901, and 1908 were confined to New York and nearby cities and states. The panics in 1873, 1893, and 1907 spread throughout the nation.–federalreservehistory.org

According to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, “In 1879, he made an incandescent bulb that burned long enough to be practical, long enough to light a home for many hours.” Within 60 years there would be night baseball.

Louis Bachrach Studios Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

It was a period of peace and innovation. Inventors like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell pushed the boundaries of science. Their inventions had a great impact on raising America’s standard of living and helped push the world into an electronic age of light and communication.

Alexander Bell places the first long-distance call from New York to Chicago in 1892. There were no free minutes at that time or unlimited texting.

Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

With the influx of immigrants, a segregated population became more segregated with laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was a law that restricted Chinese laborers from entering the country, among other restrictions. It also affected Chinese immigrants already in the country by making them permanent aliens. It was an act of denying them citizenship. It was also a time where women, citizens, were denied the right to vote.

And it was a time of full employment fueled by immigrants, where workers barley made $500 a year. It was also a time dangerous working and conditions for labor. One slip or injury could cause economic devastation for a family. Unions fought for survival. However most were crushed from the weight of business interests working in conjunction with the government.

  • There was the Haymarket Riot of 1886 where workers were rallying for an 8 hour day. A bomb exploded killing workers and seven policemen.
  • There was the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 where workers battled Pinkerton Detectives brought in by Andrew Carnegie’s chief executive Henry Clay Frick to break the strike. Eventually the Pennsylvania Militia was called out and the union organization was crushed.
  • And two years later there was the Pullman Strike. Pullman manufactured railroad cars. In 1893 George Pullman laid off seventy-five percent of the work force and reduced wages for those still working. The the American Railway Union called for a nationwide strike shutting down rail travel in 27 states. Eventually, President Grover Cleveland sent in 10,000 troops to quash the strike.

The annual income of an American worker in 1890, at the height of the Gilded Age. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just under $1,500 in today’s dollars.–Investopedia

Sticking with the railroad motif, Louisiana in 1890 passed The Separate Car Act. Railroads were required to provide “equal but separate accommodations for white and African American passengers.” Additionally, according to Britannica.com, the law prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race.

The argument necessarily assumes … that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured to the negro except by an enforced commingling of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other’s merits, and a voluntary consent of individuals. (From Brown’s majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson. In other words, don’t trip over the color line on the way out.

Original published in The American Magazine in 1905 Frances Benjamin Johnston

It is amazing how educated legal minds can interpret the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. When this law was challenged in court it made its way to the Supreme Court. In Plessy v Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate accommodations did not violate the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Amendments. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote for the majority. He “argued, because the amendment was intended to secure only the legal equality of African Americans and whites, not their social equality. Legal equality was adequately respected in the act because the accommodations provided for each race.” The lone dissenting vote came from John Marshall Harlan who fundamentally objected to the statute because “it interferes with the personal freedom of citizens.” The ruling gave us the concept of “separate but equal.” A dogmatic principle that hung around for another 50 plus years.

A Golden Age is a term used to describe a period in history where a culture, society, or nation experiences a period of prosperity, peace, and advancements. This era is characterized by significant achievements, significant contributions, and a collective sense of prosperity and unity. Golden ages are often marked by major advances in science, technology, art, and literature.–California Learning Resource Network

Before declaring a golden age Trump and company should look at what they are up against. They may have a hard time competing with the likes of ancient Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty. We might be going back more than 4500 years but in its golden age these pharaohs put up some impressive feats, like building pyramids. According to Pharaoh.se “the pharaohs of this dynasty only ruled for a little more than a century (and we think eight years is a long time), and yet they managed to have the three pyramids of Giza built in that time.” The pharaoh Sneferu started construction of the first pyramid and built three more, (no doubt letting the Nubians to pay for last two).

The Pyramids of Giza
Ricardo Liberato, Wikimedia Commons

His son Khufu continually improved upon his dad’s work. No pressure on Don Junior. In Trump’s first term he could not complete a wall along the Southern Border. (It was foiled when Mexico reneged on its fiduciary participation.) However Trump is proposing the Stargate Initiative. According to Forbes, this is “a $500 billion private sector deal to expand U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure. Spearheaded by tech giants OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, Stargate represents the largest AI infrastructure project in history.” Move over pyramids because the Yanks are coming! The sky’s the limit when billionaires get together. (At least three have skirted outer space.)

And then there is the Golden Age of Ukraine. If Trump plans to end Russia’s conquest of Ukraine he might want to bone up on Vladimir I or just Vladimir the Great. And no, this is not Putin but the “founding father” of Kievan Rus’. Putin might be using history to repeat Vladimir I’s medieval accomplishments. We have to harken back the 10th and 11th Century when Kievan Rus’ was Europe’s most powerful European state. A state without nuclear weapons. Vladimir I is credited with expanding Christianity to that region. Originally a pagan, much like Saul of Tarsus, he saw the light. When he converted to Christianity he oversaw the conversion of Kyiv and Novgorod to Christianity as well. For kicks he had all pagan idols thrown into the Dnieper River.

And lest not forget what was once “The Red Menace” from the East, China. Any golden age today has to take into account one of the oldest cultures in human civilization. Just look to the Tang Dynasty. Its first emperor was Gaozu (also Kao-tsu, formerly Li Yuan,-tsu (618-626 C.E.). According to ushistory.org, Gaozu “granted equal amounts of land to each adult male in return for taxes and continued the trend of local government rule…he also created a monetary system of copper coins.” Maybe Trump and Friends are onto something with Bitcoin. And he wrote a set of laws that were revised every two decades that lasted into the 14th century and the Ming dynasty. Sounds a bit like our Presidential Executive Orders, subject change but more frequently.

Emperor Gaozu was a Sui military commander who led a rebellion against his former masters, seized control of the state, and founded the Tang Dynasty
Public Domain

There is a cautionary tale here: “One of Gaozu son’s, General Li Shih-min, succeeded in eliminating all political rivals of the Tang and established firm control of the Tang dynasty over the newly reunified China. He then proceeded to murder his brothers, and forced his father (Gaozu) to abdicate the throne to him. Preferring his temple name, Tai-tsung took the throne in 626 C.E. The Golden Age of China had begun.” Nothing like a little fratricide and shoving the old man off the throne to get a golden age kicked off.

And if Trump wants to purse a Mideast policy he might want to look into the Islamic Golden Age. According Islamic History this golden age “is traditionally dated from the mid-7th century to the mid-13th century during which Muslim rulers established one of the largest empires in history.” It was period when artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, traders contributed “to agriculture, the arts, economics” mathematics and science. This was a time before OPEC, BP, Mobile, Exxon and Chevron–and Israel.

A little closer to our time the Elizabethan Age between 1558 and 1603 is referred to as a Golden Age of England. “According to Britannica, “it was a span of time characterized by relative peace and prosperity and by a flowering of artistic, literary and intellectual culture.” It was a time of Shakespeare.

With America’s stable economy and government, great universities and innovative thinkers, Trump has a lot to work with in getting a golden age cranked up. A lot of the elements needed to create a golden age are already present. They just need to be combined and conducted into a fine symphony. However, it is going to take more than handing out fries under the Golden Arches to create an age greatness.

The Phony Political War is Over

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Now that Donald Trump has been inaugurated and all the campaign’s bombastic swagering, threats, ranting and hectoring are over, we can get down to Trump 2.0. We have endured more than two months of Biden’s phony rule. Some of have been dreading the day when he steps down, while others have been on the Capitol steps just waiting to get started in making America great(er) again, emphasis on the again.

I liken the political time we just experienced to the lull in World War II after the fall of Poland. It was obvious that France and Britain were going to square off with Germany. But, for six months before the Battle of France both sides danced around each other with clenched fists before the beat downs began.

Phony War, (1939–40) a name for the early months of World War II, marked by no major hostilities. The term was coined by journalists to derisively describe the six-month period (October 1939–March 1940) during which no land operations were undertaken by the Allies or the Germans after the German conquest of Poland in September 1939.–Britanica

Since the election, Democrats and Republicans have been like two dogs running along the fence barking at one another. Snarling over cabinet appointments, growling about who closed the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, who caused the California Fires: the real dog fight can begin now that Trump has been unleashed. This time there will be no question about who turned the dogs loose, and there will be nobody running through the neighborhood with leashes to get them back in the yard. But that is what the people voted for, the ouster of a woke, liberal dog catcher.

The Germans were never one to forget how they were not beaten in World War I. Paybacks can be a tough check to cash. The Germans forced the French to sign an armistice at the same location and in the same railway car that the ended World War I.

For the last two months squawking heads from all points on the media scale have been pontificating on the path our country will follow in the next four years. Making predictions if the economy is going to tank or soar to even greater heights under Trump’s proposed tariffs. There is speculating on the overt reach of billionaires: is Elon Musk going to be given space grants to industrialize the exosphere much like in the 1860-80s when the government gave thousands upon thousands of square miles of federal land to railroad barons for laying tracks that crisscrossed the hinterlands. Will the Pentagon become world’s largest twenty-four hour men’s only lounge? Will the government turn the US Postal Service over Jeff Bezos, where voting by mail will be a guaranteed two day delivery where you can track your vote.

Fortunately, we are not at war. In fact Trump sounds very Wilsonesque in keeping America out of wars. Wilson tried for fours years in keeping the US out of World War I. Let us hope Trump’s art of the deal with Putin in Ukraine is better than Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace for Our Time” with Hitler in 1938. That peace lasted for about a year.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, proudly showing the Anglo-German Declaration commiting both countries to peace after his return from Munich on September 30, 1938.

The real question about peace for our time is how well Democrats and Republicans can get things accomplished now that the phony talk is over and the gavels are about to drop in Congress and in the courts. Are the MAGA forces going to try and blitzkrieg the Democrats? Are the Democrats going to roll over in the first 100 days of Trump 2.0 like France in 1940? Or, are the Dems going to proclaim they will never surrender.

Pardon my French but you can…

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Many years ago I was taken aback when a female coworker admonished a colleague in a loud and brusk way. It seems that the colleague was getting on her for some work-related mistake. I was not privy to the conversation until the woman in question, a big ole country gal, boldly and loudly said, “If you ain’t ever made a mistake then I’ll kiss yar ass.” A creative statement that puts a lot to imagine.

You must pardon my retelling of this tale. I normally try to shy away from “fruity language.” It is not that I am against somebody cursing a blue streak. It is so many of us do it with little tact and grace. It usually is, as the above example, the closing statement to a forgone conclusion. However, I can really appreciate those who can poetically string together obscenities. They can be pearls on a necklace worn on the right occasion. And that is the point. If one wants to learn how to use profanity I would suggest a good primer is the movie The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman thread the pearls of profanity as if they were knotting The Barado Pearl Necklace. But it is not the profanity I want to address. It is the pardon, or the reason for the profanity; or the lack of contrition that brings on the profanity; or being the first to throw the proverbial stone.

 A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ,
Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find, –Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

The word pardon is being thrown around lately as if it was some sort of profanity. People are up in arms chucking rocks one way or the other about President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. Republicans are losing their minds on setting free a key member of the Biden Crime Family; and Democrats are flopping around like a hooked bass on the bottom of the boat, gaffed upon ethics that only they follow. For them the worst thing that Old Joe did was telling a simple lie when he said he would not pardon his son. It’s not like he was selling cigarettes without the Surgeon General’s warning on the pack. Lying to the public is nothing new, and lately it has been elevated to a national past time. Organizations have made a living counting public lies. To paraphrase the lyrics to the theme song of the TV show Psych: I know you know I am not telling the truth. But yet here we are.

 Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleas’d too little or too much.
At ev’ry trifle scorn to take offence,
That always shows great pride, or little sense; –Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

Biden did nothing wrong. Article II Section 2 of the Constitution gives Old Joe the power to pardon. It says nothing about family and relatives or the qualifications for a pardon. It simply states: “and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” I wonder if we ever have a female president the phrase and he shall would exclude a “she” and God forbid a they, it, them from pardoning somebody. Something that slipped the framers mind in 1787. Strict interpretation of the Constitution, right up to where the First Amendment delineates money is free speech.

The other thing that has the Dems going is that the pardon sets a bad precedent. The pardoning of a convicted felon, by-passing the legal system. A president doing something that “bends the law.” Come on man, the Supreme Court has taken care of that. A president can now break the law with impunity. Biden could send in Seal Team Six to bust Hunter out if he wanted too. The Glorious Era where the rule of law really matters is over. The rule of law is now just a lukewarm suggestion and only applies to those who can’t afford a well paid team of legal assassins. If anyone making under $50,000 a year was convicted of three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses; or 34 felony convictions on falsifying business records, they would have already been fitted with the orange jumpsuit. They would be well into the first year of their sentence. Let’s get real on governmental norms and precedents, that rocket left the solar system at warp speed when it was launched from a golden escalator in 2015.

But most by numbers judge a poet’s song;
And smooth or rough, with them is right or wrong:
In the bright Muse though thousand charms conspire,
Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire, –Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

The MAGA crowd on the other hand sees the pardon as a reason to set free the January 6 storm troopers. I hate to tell them but when President Elect Trump takes office he doesn’t need a reason to pardon that crowd of tourists. He claims that they have been subjected to America’s twisted legal system. I would say manipulated legal system. So don’t be surprised when he pardons the 1,000 or so people who have pleaded guilty or convicted in crashing the Capitol gates. These J-6 Patriots that were armed with hockey sticks, fire extinguishers, knuckle gloves and even a pitch fork were not looking for the District’s Pickle Ball court. And yet somehow they were ensnared in a weaponized and very corrupt legal system.

And if the means be just, the conduct true,
Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due.
As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit,
T’ avoid great errors, must the less commit: –Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

But this is not the first time a president has pardon a group who could have easily been convicted of treason. Trump’s pardon would fit right in with President Andrew Johnson’s end-of-term blanket pardon of ex Confederates. According to usnews.com, “Andrew Johnson, on Christmas Day 1868, granted full pardons and amnesty to soldiers who had fought for the Confederacy against the Union in the Civil War. Critics say President Johnson was being too lenient with traitors, but Johnson argued that it was time for a massive gesture of reconciliation.”

On the other end of the gun in 1976, President Jimmy Carter pardoned 200,000 Vietnam War draft dodgers “in still another bid for reconciliation.”

According to NPR President Biden “announced he is commuting the prison sentences for nearly 1,500 people and pardoning 39 others in what the White House says was the largest act of clemency in a single day in modern presidential history.” But this in not the first time Biden has had a mass pardon. He issued a presidential proclamations pardoning thousands of people convicted for attempted marijuana possession, simple possession of marijuana and for using marijuana. Talk about rigged system. I think the Feds pulled pot laws right out of the Catholic Church’s “Bless me father” playbook: It is against the law for wanting to smoke pot; it is against the law for having (and not smoking) pot; and it is against the law for smoking pot. The problem, it was not three Hail Marys and an Our Father as penance–and you are back on the streets, as George Carlin joked about confession.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. –Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

I am not sure if English poet and satirist, Alexander Pope, realized the conundrum he would create in the future when he wrote in 1711, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Back then the clergy had the power to forgive or sell an indulgence. Indulgence was based on the belief that in purgatory one could do a little time and wipe out their earthly transgressions. Then they could climb the stairs to the Pearly Gates with their Get Into Heaven Card. Forgiveness is also couched in Jesus asking a group of men who had already passed judgment on woman with questionable credentials. They were ready to exact the needed social religious punishment. With stones in hand, Jesus simply asked the men, who here has not sinned? Jesus did not ask them to pardon her. The thud of rocks hitting the ground followed.

But forgiveness is not the same as a pardon. Jesus made the stoning of Mary Magdalene personal. The men had to search their concessions in regards to their actions, not hers. A pardon is not personal. It is a government legal decision to overturn another government legal decision, for whatever reason or no reason at all. It could be argued in Biden’s case, the pardon was personal; for him but not for me. I did not have a rock in the fight.

As long as humans are around someone is going to trip over the rules; someone is going to deviate from the norm; someone is going to hop the fence and find themselves trespassing on Mr. Gilmore’s property. Hunter Biden is that someone. I know he tried to manipulate a weaponized legal system; but I don’t recall him saying, boldly and loudly: “If you ain’t ever made a mistake then I’ll kiss yar ass.”

He didn’t have to. His Daddy did, figuratively speaking that is.

Mars Attacks! Alien Invasion at the Border

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The 2024 Presidential election has opened up a new topic for squawking heads, political pundits, and anybody with a social media account as how the Democrats lost to Donald Trump for the second time.

Since I fall in the “anybody” category I, too, have a reason why the Democrats lost. Many believe it was “the crisis” at the border that shifted just enough voters across the spectrum into believing we were being invaded. Trump said that Harris had “unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.” And, if enough people believe that our country was a “dumping ground” or “garbage can for the world,” then maybe we are. So it is settled, immigration and not the economy stupid that tipped the election to Trump.

The GOP campaign made good use of the collective consciousness. They utilized the natural fears of invasion and immigration that lingers in the depths of every human. It is the visage of Mongol Hordes streaming across the steppes of Eurasia. But for us, it was much more subtle. The GOP was able to frame it not as an invasion, but a “Crisis at the Border.” This, despite the fact that “this crisis” has been going on in some form or another since the Reagan Administration. Additionally, they were able to give Joe Biden and Kamala Harris each a violin to play Cotton-Eyed Joe at the border, much the same way Nero fiddled away as Rome burned.

The GOP kept it in the realm of reality without creating mass hysteria like Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds. Immigrants at the border were not carrying ray guns. They were just plain old common everyday thugs, murderers, rapists and the criminally insane. According to Reuters, Trump in a campaign speech in Wisconsin said, immigrants “who had committed violent crime (were) “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals”. Anybody who watches the myriad of Law and Order or CSI shows can relate to the vile scum that walks our streets. Despite some of the harsh rhetoric and images, the GOP did kept it comical with hungry dog-eating immigrants chowing down in “Oh me-o, oh my-o, oh” Springfield, Ohio on all sorts of stray pets. These comments create graphic images.

The Democrats, on the other hand, put to much emphasis on Democracy and Fascism. Fascism is real life crisis but a nebulus one at best. I ask, how many fascist are crossing the Rio Grande? My only real understanding of fascism is a graphic picture of Benito Mussolini hanging upside down with his mistress and two other unfourtants in Milan in 1945. Without a doubt fascism played a huge part in World War II. And in the wrong hands, it is a form of government without checks and balances. Collectively speaking, about 80 million Italians and Spaniards were under fascist rule. Americans: zero. Hitler and National Socialism is a whole other political animal. That’s a topic I will leave to the Tiki Torch Brigade.

The Democrats, with their Hollywood connection should have dipped into the movie vault to combat the Trump campaign’s attacks. They should have taken their cue from hundreds of alien invasion movies. They should have embraced holding the borders as if it were the last line of civilization. Harris and Walz should have been channeling President Thomas Whitmore and General William Grey in the movie Independence Day. With the world in flames they were marshalling every available resource to avoid the eradication of the human race.

To many voters Harris did very little to halt the “crisis” at the border. It never reached her to do list. If I was in the inner sanctums of Harris campaign I would have strongly suggested that they watch Mars Attacks! They should have seen the disastrous effects on how not to handle an alien invasion. Although Earthlings were able to beat back the Martians, it took a toll on our government. As President James Dale said after the Martians blew up Congress: “I want the people to know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad.” Something that we can attest to now. The real question is which branch is falling to the ground at any given time.

It is interesting that the movie is based on Topps Trading Cards, the same company that gave us Baseball Cards. In 1962, the year after Maris and Mantle were swinging for the fences, Topps released a 55-card set Mars Attacks! Today it would be a graphic novel. The Democrats could have taken a cue from Donald Trump. Trump has his own brand of trading cards and other marketable collectables like Bibles, watches and top secret documents. Dems could have gotten into the collectables business. They could have marketed immigration. They could have gone to Topps Trading Cards to get them to reissue the 55 card collection and handed the cards out at every Harris/Walz rally. They could have enhanced the cards by saying collect them trade them; collect all 55 and you can set yourself in a sub level Cabinet position, or become an ambassador to one of the many “shithole” African countries.

Every generation dating back to the Irish Potato Famine to Cubans fleeing Castro has dealt with some sort of alien invasion. But nothing brings a chill to the spine then movies like the 1951 hit The Day the Earth Stood Still, the 1996 film Independence Day to the 2024 Alien: Ramulus, a continuation of the 1979 movie Alien. People get the idea of Arnold Schwarzenegger battling an outer space predator with his bare hands. The Democrats failed to depict Harris as battling to save our country. Instead, Harris let Trump paint her as being “mentally impaired.” Democrats should have headed General Decker’s advice to President Dale in Mars Attacks! when Dale’s aides were advocating negotiating with the Martians, “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” Decker ranted. “Liberals, intellectuals… peacemongers, idiots!!” Decker encapsulated the John Birch society’s mantra that has resonated through the conservative soul for decades.

Whatever your views are on immigration, Trump played Harris like a set of bongos. Harris, much like President Dale, who did nothing to stop the invasion, ended up supine on the floor.

Ironically, the movie ends with a Mariachi Band playing The Star Spangled Banner on the steps of the destroyed Capitol. There is some interesting symbolism there.

Mars Attacks Cards: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide

The MAGA Drama Continues with The Return of Trump

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In August of 2018 I made a political prediction that Trump would win the 2020 election. It was 20/20 that Trump would win in 2020. I was wrong. However, I am double downing on Trump. I predict Trump will return for the final MAGA Saga act. In 2018.

I felt that all the drama that Trump created would propel him to another four years. in 2020. Instead viewers, and make no mistake we are no longer voters, canceled Mr. Trump goes to Washington after six seasons. Season one premiered with the Golden Escalator ride in June of 2016: Gold Digger of Manhattan. It ended dramatically with lost tourists storming the Capitol in quest of public restrooms in “Who left the Dump Cake?” So much of the saga was left untold. And here we are eight years later anxiously awaiting Trump’s Washington return.

The shocked Trump, and the GOP, was surprised that a show with such a large following was canceled. So many questions. How did a bunch of pointy-headed liberals turned woke warriors manage to pull off an Ocean’s Eleven stealing millions of votes in so many swing states? How could a vast empire be brought down by just several million viewers scattered in key swing slots? How did they turn off the MAGA channel? It had to be election legerdemain. It is impossible to dupe so many Americans.

However, there was still a well-funded PAC production companies a (Fox) studio and plenty of advertisers to keep a Trump show on the air. Undaunted, the GOP tried several Trump spinoffs that flamed out: Dr. Oz Medicine Man bombed in Pennsylvania. And in Georgia the remake of the movie Running Man starring Hershel Walker had a good opening in Georgia but could not get enough market share in Atlanta to get a coveted Senate seat. Other spin offs never got beyond the pilot production.

Despite losing Washington DC production rights, the GOP decided that what MAGA needed was slight face lift, a new location, like so many CSI spinoffs. It needed some glitz beyond the Trump Tower. And despite Trump’s cancellation for a second running, the GOP looked at is a stolen victory. They decided that Mr. Trump goes to Washington would be the first show in the trilogy of The MAGA Saga. Production moved to South Florida and within weeks the second series, It’s Always Sunny in Mar-a-Lago became a hit. But despite the cheery title the show is film noir. The writer cast Trump as the the cynical hero seeking out retribution, a hero standing up for the common man who can take the law into his own hands.

The plot is loosely based on the 1956 film The Searchers starring John Wayne. In this classic John Ford Western, Wayne is searching across Texas for his niece kidnapped by Comanches. In this remake Donald Trump portrays a modern day Ethan Edwards seeking revenge on raping, pillaging and dog eating immigrants. Writers of the show do not deviate from the main themes of Mr Trump Goes to Washington. By now that Trump is unbogged from the Washington swamp, he can now show how truly the demented liberal agenda is in turning the United States into North Mexico.

The final series in the trilogy is The Return of Trump, MAGA Strikes Back. It is set to premiere in late November. The GOP has combined two Star Wars film titles for dramatic cinematography effect. It begins with the triumphant Trump returning to Washington with galactic powers. Backed by a Supreme Court that, in its judicial wisdom, has bestowed total immunity for Trump. He is finally allowed to rule as a modern day Caesar. Who needs executive orders when laws become mere suggestions. Most of the scripts are still works in progress but episode one: Mass Deportations will be followed by the creptic: “Tales from the Swamp: How Federal Bureaucrats Resisted President Trump.” Cut loose of the bothersome bureaucracy America will finally be able to embrace its true conservative, Christian values.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film)

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-searchers-1956

Trump was Turned Inside Out

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Like 50 to 60 million other Americans, I watched the Presidential Debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. I also watched the first Presidential Debate where Joe Biden’s political career dissolved much the way the Wicked Witch of the West fizzled away in The Wizard of Oz.

To many MAGA people, and many on the right, there was reason to cheer the demise of the leftist leader. “Socialism is Dead,” “Hail to Trump!” Trump was all set to grab the burning broom and fly into history. The polls were tight but Trump seemed to have a solid edge in the presidential grudge match. Biden’s quick exit from the ring was like some sort of pro wrestling cage match where the loser leaves. And this could literally be true. With Trump in control of the broom, and the Ruby Slippers, most of the criminal charges against him go away, along with his political antagonists. Trump has made it clear retribution will be swift, unlike his court cases. And sticking with the movie theme, Trump may start to channel mob boss Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

But not so fast, as different as the two debates were, there are some stark comparisons. The two debates could have similar endings. After Biden’s debate, I would say crash and burn but that would mean he actually left the runway and got airborne. The Democratic Party pulled Biden out of the pilot’s seat and managed to park that plane quickly showing Biden the door. Biden was Chauncey Gardiner, Peter Sellers, in the movie Being There, leaving the garden he worked in most of his life. Whatever your political bent is, it was sort of sad to see Biden’s slow, mental meltdown, like a bowl of ice cream in a sauna. I believe it surprised Trump that after 90 minutes he was debating a man who could have been described before the debate as Rocky Road but was now just warm, sticky, mushy Cookies and Cream.

The Trump/Harris debate was different. As the debate went on I thought Harris was channeling Bugs Bunny, leading Trump down a series of rabbit holes as if he were Elmer Fudd wondering if he should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque. To some, Trump is a Looney Tune, but no Elmer Fudd. The longer the debate went on the more he reminded me of Anger, the Lewis Black character in the movie Inside Out. I could visualize a blue blaze of jet flame shooting out of the top of Trump’s head. The only time he opened his eyes was when he was mad.

As for Harris, when she added to the Bugs Bunny rif, she expanded her persona. If we stick with the Inside Out motif, I would say she added equal parts of Fear, Disgust and Joy. During the debate she may have been short on specific policies, but she played upon the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump emotions: Fear, if he gets reelected and the disgust of actually having to live through another Trump administration. But most of all the joy if he loses.

In the first debate we saw President Biden fall off the stage and carried away. In the second debate we may have just witnessed another president exiting the stage. It is hard to judge the impact of the debate on November’s election today. The question is: Will the debate be a reason American voters shove Trump off the stage for good.

A Christian Covenant of not having to vote anymore? Is the Fix in?

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Recently Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, spoke to a group of Christians in West Palm Beach telling them that if they voted for him that they will not have again. “We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” I am not sure where he was going with all of that and I will not speculate what he meant by fixing “it.” “It” most often can be ambiguous and vague, as in this case.

There is nothing new about a politician seeking votes from various groups, or making promises to groups of voters. In Colonial times getting voters plastered on election day was a common practice. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “When twenty-four-year-old George Washington first ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he attributed his defeat to his failure to provide enough alcohol for the voters. When he tried again two years later, Washington floated into office partly on the 144 gallons of rum, punch, hard cider and beer his election agent handed out—roughly half a gallon for every vote he received.” In 1777 James Madison lost his first election because he ran a dry campaign.

Christian groups are the choir in Trump’s congregation. So, there is no surprise when he asks them to turn out in November and sing his praises. But the promise of “Christians, get out and vote, just this time…You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” There is something ominous about “you won’t have to vote anymore.” Is this like a Monopoly “Go Directly to Jail Do not Pass Go, Do not Collect $200 Card; or is it the Get out of Jail Free Card.

There is no more important guarantee in a constitutional democracy than free, fair, and functional elections. The current Constitution is at once too vague and too specific about the electoral process. It does not explicitly guarantee the right to vote and under specifies the conditions under which elections should be conducted, but also provides for presidential election through a misguided Electoral College. National Constitution Center

When we consider voting is a fundamental right in America, how does one not vote–and still influence an election. It is interesting, however, that the Constitution does not mention the right to vote until the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 while religion pops up from the beginning in the First Amendment. It took almost a one-hundred years after the Constitution was approved for the federal government to address voting rights. Voting was always left up to the individual colony. Later, voting, like so many other nebulus government functions, or “powers not delegated to the United States…nor prohibited” by the Constitution were “reserved to the States respectively or to the people” in the Tenth Amendment. I would assume since the Constitution does not address it, not voting is a right left up to the states, too.

Meaningful freedom requires the ability to make a decisive choice. A person does not have real religious liberty, for instance, if he has a one-in-60-million chance of being able to determine which religion to practice. Similarly, a one-in-60-million chance of deciding which views one is allowed to express in public is not meaningful freedom of speech. Even a one-in-100,000 chance (the odds of casting a decisive vote in some smaller elections) is not enough to provide anything like genuine choice. Ilya Somin Voting with Our Feet

According to Ilya Somin, writing Voting with Our Feet in nationalaffairs.com: “Most people believe ballot-box voting is the ultimate expression of political freedom. It is how we exercise the power to decide what government policies we will live under.” So why would Trump tell Christians they would not have to vote anymore. Will the rapture occur on January 20, 2025. Or, have Christians already ascended to higher plane of voting rights. And does this higher plane of voting rights require some sort of Christian ID card or special Ap not to vote? Thus, leaving non-Christians to be condemned with some sort of heretic mark, banished to a refurbished Devil’s Island as some sort of card-carrying infidel. I am just asking because this could be ripe for some sort of voting fraud and serious misunderstandings on many fronts.

But just maybe we are moving backwards in time. A time in American history when Christian governments did rule. The notion that the United States was founded as a Christian nation has some basis. Not trying to sound sacrilegious, but the big reason we believe this is because a bunch of malcontent European religious dissenters from various sects decided to establish religious colonies in the New World. In some cases, they were colonies of exclusion when religious freedom seeking, like-minded believers congregated together while excluding and forcing other nonconforming believers out. It gave new meaning to Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three gather in my name…”

Without a doubt the first Europeans who came to this shore came to get away from religious persecution, and prosecution, in Europe. Europeans knew how to torture god out of or into somebody. European history is rife with some poor unfortunate soul losing his (or her) head, being hung and then disemboweled (we hate you so much we will kill you twice) or burnt at the stake for their “misplaced” religious conviction. Voting back then was not even an issue.

Maybe what Trump is doing is sort of reverse Toleration Act of 1689 passed by the English Parliament. According to Oxford University Press the Toleration Act granted “freedom of worship to dissenters (excluding Roman Catholics and Unitarians–and no doubt Jews) on certain conditions. Its real purpose was to unite all Protestants under William III against the deposed Roman Catholic James II.” I wonder if Parliament actually defined “certain conditions.” That sounds as foggy as Trump’s “it will be fixed, it will be fine.”

It was in this atmosphere of dissent that various religious groups started voting with their feet to the New World. According to the Library of Congress: Religions and the Founding of the American Republic, “The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that uniformity of religion must exist in any given society.” This belief resulted in some colonies establishing governments to save and protect their souls from the myriad of outside beliefs they were escaping from in Europe.

Early colonial laws had no problem defining what religion ruled the pulpit. It goes beyond a partisan divide. In many cases you either were or you weren’t. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were banished from Massachusetts for who they were (or weren’t) when they started voicing their dissenting religious opinions. Hanging, pillorying and banishing nonconforming heretics from their colonies was not unheard of. Especially when the civil government, composed of “spiritually” like-minded, elected officials who were empowered to enforce religious laws. We will have no Golden Calves in our colony.

“In newly independent America, there was a crazy quilt of state laws regarding religion. In Massachusetts, only Christians were allowed to hold public office, and Catholics were allowed to do so only after renouncing papal authority. In 1777, New York State’s constitution banned Catholics from public office (and would do so until 1806). In Maryland, Catholics had full civil rights, but Jews did not. Delaware required an oath affirming belief in the Trinity. Several states, including Massachusetts and South Carolina, had official, state-supported churches.”–America’s True History of Religious Tolerance, Smithsonian Magazine

Additionally, blasphemers and heroticts “were also considered traitors to their country because they did not belong to the official state religion.” These religious freedom seekers may have been fleeing persecution but they still brought Old World ideas with them. According to thehistoricpresent.com, “This was true throughout Europe in the century following the Protestant Reformation: whatever religion the king chose became the official state religion of his country, and all other religions or sects were made illegal.” In the New World it may have been more democratic but the results could be the same.

It seems the Constitution is following the same sort of downward glide path of 15th and 16th Century religion when a king or queen not only controlled the crown but the state religion, too. Trump’s claim of fixing “it” will involve fixing the Constitution. This is not hard to fathom with the recent Supreme Court ruling making the president immune and above the law. Thus, giving us a monarch much like King George III, whom colonist called a tyrant. It makes Ben Franklin’s response when asked when leaving the Constitutional Convention what they came up with: “A Republic if you can keep.” Today that seems very prophetic.

What does Project 2025 say about religious liberty and the separation of church and state?

Trump: the Nation’s Sweet Tooth

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Way back in August of 2018 I wrote, “Its 20/20: Trump in 2020.” I was wrong. Or maybe I was just off by six years.

And here we are in 2024 watching an election rerun like it was an old TV show canceled by one network now being picked up by a another–or so it seems. The 2024 election is like the animated Fox comedy Futurama, a TV show that aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003; but found new life on Comedy Central, where it lived on until 2013.

I am not sure anyone thought former President Donald Trump would just fade away and settle for reruns of his show. Without a doubt the Trump brand has unique selling and staying power. Unlike Enron it is a brand that defies all economic and social laws. In fact, it is beginning to have a shelf life like a package of Hostess Twinkies.

Like everybody, Trump knows that Twinkies hit the sweet spots. We also know, intrinsically, that something that tastes that good has to have some serious downsides. A package of Twinkies has 32 grams of sugar. And according to Eat This, Not That!, of those “32 grams of the sweet stuff, 31 grams are added sugar.” The American Heart Association recommends that men consume about 36 grams of added sugar while women should keep it to around 25 grams. Just do the math. Scarfing down that much added processed sugar adds no nutritional value to the diet.

I have seen cooking shows where a stick of butter was melted with a cup of sugar and then added to the mixing bowl. I could make the A Section of The New York Times taste palatable with a stick of butter, a cup of sugar and several teaspoons of vanilla extract–even the for most hardcore MAGA-man. (It is probably the only way MAGA would consume the NYT) We may be to the point where we are over indulging in Trump. There is no nutritional information coming from his campaign; and that is saying something when talking heads do not stray far from their talking points.

The former president, in reality, is peddling Hostess Twinkies to the American public in double doses. He knows he has hooked the American people, and in particular the media into delivering Twinkies on demand. We are, as a viewing nation, consuming a package or more of Twinkies a day. We are addicted. We have gotten fat for his crazy, zany antics. In fact, we crave them, hunger for them. We have become obese from Trump sugar nuggets. He has created the ultimate media show and it is presented across multiple media platforms. A show that is impossible to cancel, despite its lack of informational fiber.

Netflix originally introduced streaming in 2007 and debuted its first inhouse-produced programming in 2013; that show, House of Cards, exploded in popularity. While not true crime, its success — and the spotlight it shone on the appeal of binge-watching a series — helped open the coffers for Netflix-produced true crime content to come.

Sheila Flynn Independent

Because Twinkies lack fiber, which helps in digestion, gives us a fuller feeling and can help keep sugar levels stable, we remain in this fiberless hungry state craving more. Cable news networks, social media, late night talk shows, ego bloated bloviators and advertisers adding their own sugar to the mixing bowl of so-called news. They are the sugar delivery device–they package the Twinkies. It makes no difference if you are MAGA, A Never Trumper, a RINO or a far left socialist; there is a good chance you are addicted to cable news or scrolling about on social media for Trump Twinkies. We are like sugar-starved humming birds flapping around a feeder.

The Trump saga has way too much drama to walk away from. And this is not by accident. Particularly now with so many court cases. Cable news and social media have their very own Law & Order Trump spin offs. According to NBC “Law & Order dramas have a decades-long legacy. There are seven U.S. shows total in the franchise, which translates to well over 1,000 episodes — with more on the horizon.” America loves crime stories. The more morbid the better, especially if some celebrity is involved. The OJ Simpson case is an example. Accused of a double murder, Simpson’s trial lasted the better part of eight months. People were riveted to evening news shows for the latest up date. Today, Trump has multiple trials in various stages starting with state cases and federal cases with appeals reaching the Supreme Court. You want drama? Tune into Fox and Friends or Morning Joe.

It’s been 20 years since more than 150 million viewers —57% of the country — tuned in to watch the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial at 10 a.m. on Oct. 3, 1995. The massive viewership of the verdict’s live broadcast was a fitting end to the saga that had captivated the entire nation since the infamous white Bronco chase of the previous June, and its legacy in the media still lasts today.

Time Magazine

We have been led to believe that the Trump drama will end with a conviction in at least one of his trials. But don’t bet on it. So far, Trump’s lawyers have managed to push every trial into the future. And with each court appeal or Supreme Court ruling Trump is creating more processed Twinkies for the American public to feed on. Whether it is additional drama by talking smack about the judges or looking into the sexual escapades of prosecutors it creates more melodrama for all to feast on. Trump may shoot your blood pressure up several notches or flood your brain with dopamine, we are all hooked in to see the next Trump sugar nugget drop–and he knows it.

And if you think the election is going to settle anything, you are wrong. The Trump Saga could run 10 more years with multiple spin offs and thousands of episodes playing across multiple media platforms. There is no cancelation in sight.