genuinely a
different reality
of no normal rules

Adapted from the article in the Atlantic by Anne Applebaum where she writes:

Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.

Think about where this is leading. One possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? If the invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. Is that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.

For the past year, American allies around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s behavior. Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are all words that have been thrown around. But in the end, the president himself defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.” He is locked into a world of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.

The people around Trump could find ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or too power-hungry to try. That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests. He is at risk of alienating friends in not only Europe but also India, whose leader he also snubbed for failing to nominate him for a Nobel Prize, as well as South Korea, Japan, Australia. Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk because senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him. Now is the time.

Try to imagine it.

An American military occupation of Greenland.

Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk.

Senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him.

WHO KNOW BETTER!

Who know better have refused.

Now is the time.

Look at the first line that I use from the article.

Genuinely lives in a different reality.

Look at that first word.

Genuinely.

It is an adverb of the word genuine.

According to the online Merriam-Webster, genuine means sincerely and honestly felt or experienced or something that is actual or true.

Truly lives in a different reallity.

Truly.

It is TRUE.

In that movie My Cousin Vinnie, when the girlfriend takes the stand and delivers a statement on the car used in the crime, the District Attorney yells out an objection and demands clarification on whether her statement is an opinion or a fact.

The Judge looks at the girlfriend and asks, “Is this your opinion?”

The girlfriend replies in a voice that leaves no doubt, “It’s a FACT!”

Folks, the guy sitting at the desk in the oval office genuinely lives in a different reality.

It’s a FACT!

In God we trust?

Oh, I hope so!

As Thomas Jefferson said, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

were pinpoints somewhere
as far away as the stars
and not part of now

Driving to work this morning, I was listening to the book, The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard.

Neither here nor there but Mr. Leonard’s step by step description of a breaking and entering of a Lake Huron beach house while every one is on the beach is truly terrifying in its normalness. No suspension of disbelief necessary to see it all happening, but I digress.

Driving over the bridge to the island, I heard this short passage:

In the darkness, but they were pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

That phrase stuck with me as I drove.

In the darkness, but they were pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

It was how I felt about current events.

Folks are saying this is not us, this is not how things should be in this country.

But who we used to be, who many want to be again is out there in the darkness, pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

Not part of now.

And what do we got now?

It was my wife who hit that nail on the head when she said it was like watching a reality TV show.

You have to watch to see what crazy thing they can come up with next.

We got a guy who sits at the desk of the president of the United States who gets upset over not getting an award and has the power to upend the world over the supposed slight.

Not to worry has this country is governed by a document that outlines three avenues of power and responsibility so that there are checks and balances in place.

Oh wait, two of other three branches of power have checked out and let that guy sitting at the desk run unchecked.

Saying the quiet part out loud, I am of the opinion that this guy is crazy and I don’t mean like some sports fan fanatic crazy but crazy in the sense that he needs managed care and not allowed to work in food service, operate machinery or have sharp objects.

Instead this guy has the nuclear codes and can and would and will at some point fire off a nuclear weapon at someone.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone can support this guy.

In their hearts, where they are truly honest, those people have to know the wrong in all of this, but they have sold their souls and backed themselves out on a cliff and there is no going back.

As for his staff, the adults in the room, they are reaching out to William Shatner as they feel the most recent incantation of Star Trek has become too woke.

Not content with tearing the country apart, they are also worried about the state of things in a fictional world 1000 years from the current date.

Greenland.

Star Trek.

It’s been a year of this insanity.

I cannot imagine the next three years.

Not alone there as I cannot think of any science fiction novel or dystopian world where anyone dared come up with a plot where things could have gone so far off the rails.

Fiction is governed by that rule of suspension of disbeleif.

To get here, the amount of disbelief to be suspended was too much of lift.

Maybe Mr. Orwell got close in 1984 but I put it to you that the in the book, 1984, those in charge cared what the little people thought.

They cared so much that the book tells the story of the effort those in charge made to change the mind of just one man, Winston Adams, to bring him to the point that he would finally betray his closest friend and come to admit to himself that he did indeed, love Big Brother.

This group in Washington?

They could care less what anyone thinks.

They effort made to retrain the mind of Winston Adams to love Big Brother is far to much trouble.

They don’t want to win over anybody.

They want to run over everybody.

And if they don’t get their way?

If they don’t get the trophy?

Well.

They will piss in they pool everyone else is swimming in and go home.

I still feel America is out there.

Out there.

In the darkness.

Pinpoints, cold little dots off somewhere in the night, as far away as stars and not part of the beach, not part of now.

he added, we take
the world as it is – not as
we wish it to be

Adapted from the article, Mark Carney in China positions Canada for ‘the world as it is, not as we wish it’ by Amy Hawkins and Leyland Cecco in Toronto.

The story has the slug line of “PM’s visit to Beijing seen as a welcome reset to relations in a ‘new world order’ but critics worry what trade deal could mean for Canadian workers”.

It closes with this line.

Carney also spoke of “red lines” for Ottawa, including concerns about human rights and interference in Canadian elections. But : “We take the world as it is – not as we wish it to be.”

This poll was NOT a part of this story but it goes to the point of the world as it is.

I am aware that this plays right into the hands of those who feel that the USA has not part to play on the world stage.

There are those who feel that the USA has no role in world events.

There are those who says that the USA should stay home and take care of itself.

So how has they been working out you ask?

Somehow how we got a president who does not care about right or wrong, who treats truth as a tool, who shows little interest in a coherent world view, who dismisses the struggles of poor people as inconveniences, who treats the Constitution as an obstacle, who mocks rules of decency as weakness, and who bends or breaks the law whenever it serves his ego, because power and attention matter more to him than principle, responsibility, empathy, or accountability, leaving supporters and critics alike to confront a politics driven by grievance, spectacle, and self interest rather than justice, shared norms, or democratic restraint.

GOSH!

I admit, I asked Chat GPT to describe that current mad in office and that was the response.

Gotta agree with but thinking of famous story of Ben Franklin telling Thomas Jefferson about the man with the sign saying that the man made hats. The sign was cut in the shape of a hat and also had the man’s name on it. Franklin show Jefferson that all that was needed was the sign in the shape of the hat and the man’s name and cut all the words about hats for sale and such.

With that in mind can we work on what Chat GPT wrote?

How about we get by with saying just, we got a president who does not care about right or wrong.

Thinking about this some more, all we really need is, we got a president who does not care.

arc of the moral
universe is long, but it
bends toward justice

On March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after the completion of the Selma to Montgomery March.

Rhetorically he asked a question.

“How Long?”

And he answered himself, “Not long.”

Dr. King said:

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.”

How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.”

How long? Not long:

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne,

Yet that scaffold sways the future,

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

Keeping watch above his own.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

For today, remember that Dr. King said that, ” … however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

And with that in mind, remember that Dr. King said:

Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.

Let us march on ballot boxes until the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs will be transformed into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Let us march on ballot boxes until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence.

Let us march on ballot boxes until we send to our city councils, state legislatures, and the United States Congress, men who will not fear to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.

Let us march on ballot boxes until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda.

For today

Let us march on ballot boxes until the Trumps of our nation tremble away in silence.

Let us march on ballot boxes until we send to our city councils …

State legislatures …

And the United States Congress …

people who will not fear to do justly …

love mercy …

And walk humbly with thy God!

(I digress but how cannot this simple line burn through with white hot fire into the consciousness of Christians in America today as a comment on that man in office?

And ask, How Long?

And answer, “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Say that outloud.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

That applies to all people regardless of the level of their own personal “morality”.

And I will point some important aspects of the calendar.

This nation hold mid-term elections in 9 months.

This nations hold a Presidential referendum in 33 months.

And I thought I might mention that in the State of Minnesota, indictments or complaints for any crime resulting in the death of the victim may be found or made at any time after the death of the person killed.

In Minnesota, there is no statute of limitations on a charge on murder and in the United States, murder is a State not a Federal crime.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

morally bankrupt
past the point of no return
unhinged entirely

I asked ChatGPT to give me words that describe someone who has finally gone too far, gone past the limit.

ChatGPT responded!

Here are words and phrases that capture the idea of someone who’s finally crossed the line / gone past the limit, grouped by tone and nuance:

Blunt / Strong
Unhinged
Out of control
Over the edge
Beyond saving
Past the point of no return
Too far gone
Irredeemable

Psychological / Emotional
Unraveled
Broken
Fractured
Unstable
Snapped
Lost
Unmoored

Moral / Ethical
Corrupted
Depraved
Debased
Morally bankrupt
Tainted
Fallen

Poetic / Dramatic
Crossed the Rubicon
Burned the last bridge
Stepped into the abyss
Past the brink
Overreached
Damned
Claimed by the dark

Colloquial / Modern
Off the rails
Went feral
Lost the plot
Unchecked
Unhinged entirely

Quiet but Heavy
There’s no coming back
Something in them broke
They chose the wrong side
They crossed a line they can’t uncross

I ask you, which of these terms has NOT been used in a headline at sometime, somewhere in the last year to describe some action by the current person in office and his administration?

Then, I ask you, when will enough be enough?

Famously, Senator Joseph McCarthy also met this grading scale and most of these terms were used to describe his actions and his list of 205, 57, no 81, to finally, 1 known communist in the State Department is 1 too many.

According to Wikipedia:

While he never produced a verified list of communists, his investigations had significant consequences:
> 500+ people were called to testify before his subcommittee.
> Over 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of his investigations and the general climate of the “Red Scare”.
> Zero of the individuals he publicly named were ever convicted of subversion or espionage.

The Senator kept at it until finally, in the famous televised Army-McCarthy hearings (televised by the way, because network newcomer ABC had such a weak afternoon programming schedule they could afford to broadcast the hearings live), Joseph Welch, the defense attorney appearing for the US Army looked at the Senator and on live TV asked, “At long last, have you no decency?”

If you have ever seen the movie, Anatomy of a Murder, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Joseph Welch was hired by the director Otto Preminger as a legal consultant and Preminger ended up casting Mr. Welch as the mild mannered Judge in the movie.

This quiet, unassuming man, looked at Joe McCarthy and said in his quiet, unassuming voice, “At long last, have you no decency?”

And he held up a mirror to the country and the country said, BLEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, where did this McCarthy guy come from?

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you …