I know we all have plenty to worry about these days, so I apologize in advance for adding another possible item to the list. But we could be heading for a very worrisome situation indeed, because contrary to how Americans have experienced past presidential elections (well... other than in the year 2000...), we may not actually know who won on the night of the election. There are a combination of factors which have set up this rather unique situation, and it may not even come to pass if a few of these variables change by November. But the possibility now exists that we won't know for days -- or even weeks -- who won the Electoral College and thus the presidency. Which, obviously, could lead to chaos, especially considering what Donald Trump will be saying and tweeting in the meantime.

What is especially worrisome is what is happening now in Pennsylvania. The state held its primary election last Tuesday, but as of this writing several of the races have not been called yet, due to the overwhelming increase in the number of voters casting their ballots by mail.

Continue Reading »

This week, an American president ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters -- who were doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble, speak, and petition the government for redress -- from a public park so that he could then walk across the park and hold up a borrowed Bible for a photo opportunity with both the Secretary of Defense and (clad in battle fatigues) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Afterward, the Trump White House immediately issued a propaganda video of the event. Later that evening, a military helicopter clearly marked with a red cross took offensive action against the protesters (which is banned by the Geneva Conventions, and is now under investigation). Later still, the president and all his enablers in the White House lied through their teeth about the entire incident, repeatedly. At week's end, we learned of another affront to the Constitution by the Trump administration, when it was revealed that federal law enforcement had unconstitutionally seized a shipment of cloth face masks created by a Black Lives Matter affiliate, and the only possible reason they did so was that the Department of Justice apparently didn't like the messages displayed on the masks (which read: "Stop killing black people," and: "Defund police").

We can't help but think of an old bumpersticker, which used to be popular a few decades ago: "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention."

Continue Reading »

General James Mattis has broken his silence on the presidency of Donald Trump -- in a big way. Current Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has also noticeably broken with President Trump on the need for active-duty military personnel to be deployed to American cities in response to the mostly-peaceful protests which continue around the country. Other military leaders, both retired and still serving, are speaking out about what their oath actually means. To be blunt, protecting the United States Constitution does not mean violently attacking Americans who are merely exercising their First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, and petition the government for redress. Quite the opposite, in fact -- the military is supposed to support and defend such activities, not subvert or quash them. And there's one very important step the Pentagon could take right now to show solidarity with the people protesting the treatment of African-Americans in this country, and that is to remove the names of Confederate military officers from Army installations.

Continue Reading »

After apparently sleepwalking through the first part of the week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper woke up today and realized his responsibilities as the head of the Pentagon. Perhaps he got some pushback from the generals who are aghast at the thought that the vaunted U.S. military could become to be seen as a political force at the beck and call of a partisan president. Esper had apparently forgotten this bedrock tenet of American government earlier, when participating in Donald Trump's now-infamous "brandishing a Bible in front of a church" photo op. Esper not only walked back this participation (by stating he somehow had no idea it was about to happen), but he also openly contradicted the president's call to mobilize the military to crack down on protests in the streets.

Continue Reading »

President Trump staged a photo opportunity yesterday that went horribly wrong, but the White House doesn't yet seem to have comprehended how bad a look it actually was. In fact, they proudly put up a video montage of the event that seems to strive for the impact of a Leni Riefenstahl production (watch it for yourself if you think this is overstating the case). The whole staged event is nothing more than a naked effort to counter the growing ridicule Trump has gotten for hiding in his bunker over the weekend during the protests, in fact. You see President Trump boldly striding away from the White House, crossing Lafayette Square, pumping a macho fist to all the militarized police standing around, and then appearing in front of a historic (and boarded-up) church where he awkwardly tries to hold a Bible up for the cameras. Trump then (according to the Riefenstahl clip) triumphantly strides back to the White House, to the adoration of all. Mission accomplished. Roll credits.

This bears little resemblance to reality, of course, but then that's really a hallmark of all propaganda. What actually happened was that all of the protesters across from the White House were swept from the streets by combined federal forces (Park Police and Secret Service, but not D.C. cops), who used tear gas and other violent tactics on peaceful protesters for no reason other than to clear the area for a crass and self-serving presidential photo opportunity. It's worth noting that there had been ministers standing on the steps of the church who were engaged in handing out drinks and snacks to the protesters but who got swept aside by this police action. In other words, religious leaders on their own property, in front of their place of worship were treated as just more (as Trump likes to call them) "THUGS" who needed to be taught a lesson. The sweep took place a half-hour before the D.C. curfew was to start, by the way.

Continue Reading »

[Editorial Note: Sometimes, events overtake me while I'm writing. This is obviously one of those times. While I was writing and editing this article, it seems Donald Trump gave a Rose Garden address to the nation. So the following will have to be compared to what Trump actually said. Please read it with this in mind.]

President Donald Trump, not so long ago, took delight in ridiculing Joe Biden for (as he put it) "hiding in his basement." Now, however, the tables have turned and it is Trump who is cowering in the nether regions of White House, while Biden freely visits with protesters in Delaware. Trump has hunkered down over the weekend, at one point reportedly being hustled to a secure facility (in the basement of the White House, ironically enough) as protests raged just outside Trump's own windows. Trump has had no idea what to do about the situation, especially since his call for a "MAGA night" of counterprotests in front of the White House was completely ignored by his supporters (no counterprotest materialized -- much to Trump's dismay, one assumes). Today he conducted a conference call with the nation's governors, where he lashed out in typical Trump fashion -- suggesting that if only protesters were locked up "for 10 years" it would instantly solve the problem. Throughout it all, the American people have had no guidance or leadership from Trump whatsoever.

Apparently, there are two factions within the White House fighting over what Trump's response should now be. On one side are aides urging Trump to issue a primetime Oval Office address designed to unite the country. On the other side are aides who know full well the inherent risks involved in this strategy, who are saying Trump should continue his silence. Their argument is that Trump has nothing new to say and he would risk his political chances of re-election if he said anything particularly incendiary right now.

Continue Reading »

Anyone "tired of all the winning" yet? Just asking....

In the same week America passed the grim milestone of 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, a black man was suffocated by a white police officer while three other cops stood by and either helped him commit this crime or did absolutely nothing to prevent it. Since then, there have been sometimes-violent protests in the streets of not only Minneapolis but in several other cities across the country. The dead man was accused of the crime of trying to use a fake $20 bill at a convenience store. The cops, acting as judge, jury, and executioner, provided him with a death sentence -- for the transgression of trying to pass a fake twenty.

So what has President Donald Trump been up to this week? Issuing an appeal for both calm and justice, as well as sympathizing with the families of the coronavirus victims? Nah. What Trump's been obsessed with instead is getting in an escalating war with Twitter. Because, obviously, Twitter is much more important to him than 100,000 dead from the virus or one dead black man in Minnesota. Never has a Nero metaphor been more apt, because Trump is now fiddling around with Twitter while America is burning.

Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump executed a double-reverse bit of irony today, by signing an executive order that he thinks will threaten social media companies like Twitter into allowing conservatives to spout whatever hate-filled or wildly inaccurate rants they wish to. However, as with many things Trump does, his executive order might just wind up giving companies like Twitter more incentive to police Trump's own tweets. In other words, by attempting to "fight back," Trump may in fact have just shot himself in the foot.

Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump is unclear on the basic concept of the First Amendment's "free speech" clause. This isn't all that surprising, since he's obviously never made it all the way through a reading of the United States Constitution. After all, the Founding Fathers didn't see fit to provide colorful graphics instead of boring blocks of text, and the whole thing just goes on for pages and pages and pages -- both of which absolutely guarantee Trump has never read it.

Continue Reading »

Twitter is at the heart of a storm of controversy today, and rightly so. It just made a timid move to better its own public standing, but it is far too little and far too late to really stem the tide of deserved criticism they're now receiving. Twitter is, to be blunt, scared of President Donald Trump and his legions of followers. So they've allowed him to get away with tweeting pretty much anything that pops into his head, no matter how false or downright destructive his words prove to be. Now, perhaps, they're beginning to pay a price for this timidity in the court of public opinion.

Continue Reading »