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The Day After: Post-Election Stress Disorder

November 5, 2018
by Peter Feinman

“The Day After” is a TV movie first shown in 1983 about the devastating impact of a nuclear war on the community in Lawrence, Kansas. It was shown with great hype and warning on the devastating impact merely seeing it might have on viewers especially children. The broadcast occurred during a time when the Cold War raged. It also occurred at a time when no one anticipated the in a few years the Soviet Union would collapse and do so peacefully with no loss of life and no armed conflict. So as it turned out the reality of what would happen was unfathomable to the producers and viewers of the movie in 1983.

Still, the movie reminds us that picking up the pieces after a day of infamy is part of the human experience. That condition is particularly applicable to the American elections of 2016 and 2018 where people experienced severe post-election stress disorder.

The example from 2016 is well known. At the time, prognosticators turned out to be as wrong about the immediate future as were people in 1983…and this time Russia, not the Soviet Union was directly involved. It violated the United States not just in Kansas but throughout the country and without suffering any penalty for its actions.

As Election Day, 2016, unfolded, many people expected history to be made. On that day, for the first time, a woman would win the election to be President of the United States. Expectations were high. Everyone knew it was coming. Even her primary opponent had readied his excuses to explain how he was defeated in a rigged election with illegal voters. He was fully prepared to issue that charge and did so even when he won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote.

For a certain segment of the voting population, they approached the evening in great joy. Women, not only elitists, gathered, often with their daughters, at campaign headquarters throughout the land. They were ready to celebrate after witnessing the historic occasion. Then the results started coming in. Florida was not a battleground; there was not even a need for a recount. The same for Ohio. The vaunted Blue Wall was porous. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin went Republican. How as this possible? The election was not merely unexpectedly lost, it was lost to a serial abuser of women with no remorse or morality…to say nothing of all his other shortcomings. It was not simply losing to Romney, it was losing to your worst nightmare and finding out it was not a dream. You were not asleep. You had not imagined it. It had really happened.

The day after, even Election Day evening after the polls closed, witnessed a national example of post-election stress disorder. People were in shock. How could the deplorables have won? The losing candidate had said she could not understand why she was not 50% points ahead in the polls. Perhaps that was part of the problem. The failure to understand that not only was part of why she lost, it became part of why the loss was as devastating psychologically as the movie “The Day After” was supposed to be to all who watched it. The unthinkable had occurred.

This instance of post-election stressed disorder morphed into a rage that has sustained its victims for lo the next two years until the 2018 elections. They say revenge is best served cold but people are still hot with anger. That need to win makes a repeat of post-election stress disorder possible. Victory in the popular vote for the House of Representatives is not enough but what if that is all they get? How will they survive another two years? How will they survive another six years? Hallelujah or OMG!

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Republicans have been preparing for their own post-election stress disorder. There is nothing unusual in the party in power losing in the midterm election. That is par for the course. However, the Republican wave in 2010 afforded Republicans the opportunity to do something the 2006 Democratic wave did not. Because of the census, the Republican victories at the state and federal level allowed Republicans to gerrymander on a scale unprecedented in American history. That rigging the playing field mitigated the potential gains the Democrats would be expected to achieve in electoral results in the midterm elections. As with the Electoral College, winning the plurality or majority in the popular voting for the House of Representatives was no longer sufficient for victory. Voter suppression adds to the edge the Republicans have. So even without a repeat violation of America by the Russians, Republicans had reason to believe they could weather the storm of the midterms and even gain in the Senate due to the electoral perfect storm in its favor in that chamber.

There was just one fly in the ointment. No, not the economy. It should have worked to the Republican advantage. No, not the absence of war. It should have worked to the Republican advantage. Peace and prosperity should work to the advantage of the party in power even if the prosperity is limited to the 1%. But as we all know, the Republican candidate in 2016 and incumbent in 2018 does not play the rules. He makes up his own rules. And truth be told, for the serial business failure they have worked out to be pretty good so far…at least for him.

The rule he deployed for this election is Apocalypse Now. He may not know the Maslow Hierarchy [Wartime President: The Battle Is Engaged, 10/23/18] in the abstract but he does in the field. His rhetoric has consistently ratcheted up until it finally reached apocalyptic proportions. The process above and beyond the normal hyperbolic rhetoric commenced with the showdown between the Kavanoes and the Kavayeses [America’s Third Civil War: Kava-Noes versus Kava-Yeses, 10/9/18]. One would have thought the fate of the world depended on the outcome of this vote…or at least the fate of all white males for whom it was now open season as targets by Democratic women.  One might have thought that that supreme confrontation represented the emotional height or depth of the current campaign. As always in this environment, there is more.

With the refugee caravan, the tenor of the campaign truly reached its eschatological moment. “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.” In the battle for the delegates between Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft at the Republican presidential convention in 1912, Roosevelt concluded a speech with these words. He stood with Abraham Lincoln and objected to what he saw as the selling of the party to corporate interests. His stirring words of deep emotion were not simply some narcissistic binge. There was an agenda. There were issues. There was the future of the Republican Party. There was the future of the country. Maybe even there was the future of the world although no one knew the winner of the 1912 election would be the president in the “war to end all wars.” Roosevelt lost and the recent death of John McCain reminds us that there is no place for Lincoln in the Republican Party today [R.I.P. Party of Lincoln (1856-2016) 3/12/16].

What then is the cause of the apocalyptic language? How did a refugee caravan of civilian men, women, and children who often sought to settle in Mexico become an invading army to America? How did it become a Jewish-financed army of ISIS-trained very bad people that threatened the future of the country? The Canadian burning of the White House during the War of 1812 does not compare to the assault on America the current president faces. The Martian invasion of October 30, 1938, does not compare to the assault on America the current president faces. Even 9/11 pales in comparison to the challenge the current president faces. Only one person stands between us and chaos, between making America great again and total collapse, between the triumph of real Americans and the triumph of, you know… those people. And that one person is Donald Trump.

Democrats are ill-advised to ignore the power of that message and that image. More is at risk than they realize. The existence of the country is at stake. Every night Sean Hannity regales us with the trials and tribulations America is about to experience if God forbid, or at least the American people who have been called to vote do not vote. Then the dreaded Pelosi regains power. Truly this is the time of troubles predicted in the gospels. The moment of truth has arrived. Trump save us.

The day after the midterm elections of 2018 will be an historic one for America.

Who will be fired?
Who will be indicted?
Who will act first?
Who will suffer post-election stress disorder?

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”

October 30, 2018
by Peter Feinman
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (twilightzone.wikia.com)

Opening Narration

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

On March 4, 1960, during the Cold War, Rod Serling gave us a glimpse into life in middle America when fear trumps reason. The episode was entitled “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” It showed us that Lord of the Flies was not just about children and did not need to occur on an isolated island far away from the world of adult supervision. It could happen right here.

For those people not familiar with the story (or who have forgotten it), below is a summary. It can be viewed via the web for those who want more than the printed words alone.

On Maple Street, a strange whoosh is heard and the flashing of lights is seen. Shortly thereafter, almost all the electronics and machines on the street stop working. A small group of neighbors is unsure what has caused this. One little boy suggests it’s the work of aliens, but his assumption is excused as ridiculous.

As the neighbors continue to talking, one neighbor’s car starts on its own. The group instantly grow suspicious of the man and his family. The owner of the car denies any knowledge as to why this is happening, but few believe him.

The blame keeps getting passed around, as someone reports of a neighbor who stares up at the sky on some nights, looking for something, as well as tinkering with something in his basement.

As night settles, a dark figure is seen coming towards the group. One man takes a rifle and shoots the figure, who crumples to the ground. Upon further inspection, it is revealed that the figure was another neighbor, who had supposedly left the street to see if anyone over in nearby streets was experiencing the same issues.

The shooter is soon looked on with suspicion: why was he so quick to fire that gun? The person who fired the gun is then further surprised when his house’s lights turn on by themselves. Several people attempt to stone him, before he crazily yells that he believes the alien to be the boy from before, who talked of aliens.

As the panic rises, the once simple people place the blame on each other. The final scene of the human beings on Maple Street shows them all running around in complete chaos.

On a hilltop some distance away, two aliens observe the panic. One explains to the other that mankind is very easy panic, and that they can just as easily turn on the other. The divided people targeting each other will make domination over the species by the aliens rather easy.

Closing Narration

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill – and suspicion can destroy – and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children – and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is – that these things cannot be confined – to the Twilight Zone (the closing narration).

At the time of the broadcast, the American fear was of the Soviet Union. The McCarthy era was over but there was still the space race and the upcoming Cuban Missile Crisis. Students were trained to hide under desks in the event of a nuclear war.

Times have changed. Now schools are the hunting ground for domestic terrorists often too young even to be charged as an adults. Now it is Russia that violates America in the hopes of dividing us from within. Back then we expected our President to stand up against those who would divide us. Now we have one leading the charge.

The absence of adult supervision in the White House has ripple effects throughout the country and the world. On one level it may be fun for the press to designate certain individuals in the White House as adults…and to watch their numbers dwindle and their influence wane. On another level, the repercussions of that absence are stark. When there is no adult supervision in the White House, there is no adult supervision in the country and no adult supervision in the world. There is no figure of authority to appear at the end of the story of Lord of the Flies to make right what has gone awry. And the figures of power and therefore authority at the end of the Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street are not those who support the freedom of human beings.

The words of the divider in chief to the press on October 27 tell the tale of the violent chaos encompassing us.

It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world.  And something has to be done.  Something has to be done.

Perhaps he would consider a vow of silence, a pledge not to use Twitter.

If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better.  This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect.  But if they had some kind of a protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a very much different situation, but they didn’t.

Armed guards everywhere. Everyone always prepared for a maniac to show up guns blazing. Capital punishment. With these words of comfort from our leader, America should now rest easier!

Instead what has happened is that people at home and abroad have been issued their 007, license to kill. With impunity.  There are consequences to the relentless words of evil and hate spewing forth from the divider in chief that he lacks the mental necessities to understand.

Tom Malinowski, former State department official and Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey, said:

These words are like sparks to the gasoline of disturbed minds. These words can kill.

These words appeared in an article entitled “Chief Consoler Quickly Veers Back to the Attack” (10/29/18), in the New York Times, the publication whose acceptance he desperately craves and which he assaults as Fake News (and failing) when he does not get it.

The gas has been poured. The fire has been lit. The war is underway. As Anne Landman, a liberal blogger from Colorado wrote about the forces which have been unleashed:

It’s scary to see it. And now that box has been opened. I’m not sure how we close it again.

The headline today on CNN by Chris Cillizza:

How Donald Trump’s war on political correctness opened a Pandora’s box of hate speech

shares the same thought and metaphor.

Although he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh and not Paris, he was not elected by the citizens of Pittsburgh. They voted for his opponent. Now in their moment of grief, they do not even want him to come to their city. Stay away. The contrast with his predecessor singing “Amazing Grace” following another massacre in a religious building tells the story of where America is today. The scripted words of pretend grief by a person who lacks a sense of empathy and who cannot wait to get back to the battle in a string of professional wrestling performances before Election Day sound hollow, forced, and labored.  So how is he doing representing the citizens of Pittsburgh? A+. Never in American history has a President done a better job expressing grief and inspiring hope save maybe Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. It’s the evil enemy Fake News to claim otherwise.

America’s Third Civil War: Kava-Noes versus Kava-Yeses

October 9, 2018
by Peter Feinman
America's Third Civil War: The Battle Is Engaged (Photo by Getty)

America has had three civil wars. The first one is over, the second one is still being fought, the third one is accelerating. What should be done?

America’s First Civil War: The American Revolution

The American Revolution was not simply American colonials versus the British military. There were plenty of Loyalists here. John Adams famously divided the American population into thirds including the “Go away and leave me alone” group. More likely the majority just wanted to be left alone on their farm and were only dragged into the conflict because of neighbors or occupying armies. Nonetheless, it was a war which split families and communities.

The resolution was comparatively simple. The losing side tended to leave. In New York, where I live, the upstate Loyalists tended to migrate further upstate until they were in Canada. In Westchester where I live in New York, Loyalist lands were confiscated, most conspicuously those of Philipsburg Manor along the Hudson. Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, marked the departure of British troops and Loyalists from New York City. That departure was celebrated annually in the city especially by the Irish immigrants in the 19th century who loved saying goodbye to the British. The holiday ceased to be celebrated in World War I when the British became our allies. Recently the Lower Manhattan Historical Association (LMHA, I am on the Board), revived the celebration and successfully petitioned the New York City Council to rename a street by Bowling Green as “Evacuation Plaza.”

I am not as familiar with what happen to Loyalists in the South. There do not seem to be many statues by subsequent generations of Southerners honoring these fighting ancestors.

Given the popularity of princesses Diana, Kate, and Meghan, I think it is safe to say that the war with England-Great Britain-the United Kingdom has ended peacefully with no lingering hard feelings.

America’s Second Civil War: The War of Northern Aggression

The situation is not so pacific with America’s second civil war. That war continues to this very day. The violence is almost negligible but not non-existent. The bloodiest of all American wars has been redefined. A generation after the cessation of battleground confrontations, the war became the Lost Cause. In that guise it has developed an identity of its own as alternate facts can become gospel over time. The cause was aided by the release of America’s greatest movie based on percentage of the population reached and inflation-adjusted revenues. Gone with the Wind created the definitive image of America’s second civil war for generations to come just as The Ten Commandments did for the Exodus. While Charlton Heston portrayed a real figure in history and Clark Gable did not, Rhett Butler has become as real as Ben Hur.

There is no end in sight for ending America’s second civil war. The time has come to accept the truth expressed by Abraham Lincoln prior to the outbreak of violence: a house divided cannot stand.  The Sesquicentennial has come and gone and still the hostility lingers. The resolution to this enduring division cannot replicate the resolution to the first civil war: the losing side cannot sail off into the sunset separate from the lands of the winning side.

However, there is another way to separate the two comparatively geographically distinct political entities – CONFEDEXIT. The time has come to call an end to the experiment of uniting 13 colonies into one country. The time has come to recognize that except for rare moments like the American Revolution and the Second World War, the Union and the Confederacy have not been united. Despite the Exodus, Israel eventually divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. The time has come for the United States of America to follow that example and that of Czechoslovakia, Pakistan, the USSR, and Yugoslavia and divide into its constituent parts.

I proposed that We the People declare July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to be the target date for CONFEDEXIT.  Let that day mark the official end to the American experiment and the formal recognition that we are a house divided and cannot stand.

The starting point for the Confederacy should be the Republican congressional districts in the original states of the Confederacy excluding any based on Cuban-American citizens. These districts form the natural basis for reviving the Confederacy. We must recognize that there were pockets of Federalists in the South in the second civil war. There were people who made the reverse decision Robert E. Lee made and who were loyal to the United States. In Virginia, they even broke away to form a new state. Starting with the Republican congressional districts within the Confederacy enables Unionist American citizens in the South outside those districts to remain part of the United States once the Confederate districts separate from it.

The Confederacy has the advantage of starting off with an already written constitution. Slavery has not been abolished. Women and 18 year-olds cannot vote. There is no income tax. There is no two-term limit on the president. Confederates now will have the opportunity to add the amendments they want and delete or revise the amendments they do not want. They should be able to hit the ground running with a fully-functional government by July 4, 2026.

The negotiations will not be easy. There is a lot to discuss. But despite all the obstacles, it should be possible for a clean break. The Union is just as willing to say good riddance to the southerners as the South is to Rise Again. And with a president who mocks and demeans Southerners as less worthy than northern elitists, the incentive to separate should be even stronger. With the world’s greatest negotiator at the helm, I am confident that CONFEDEXIT is doable by July 4, 2026, and the end of the second civil war finally will be at hand.

America’s Third Civil War: Kava-Noes versus Kava-Yeses

The third civil is different from the previous two.

It may be said to have begun in the 1960s. At that time, baby boomer males could be drafted into a war they did not want to fight and baby boomer females could have babies they did not want to have.

It may be said to have begun on August 17, 1992, when Pat Buchanan delivered his “Culture War” speech to the Republican National Convention.

It may be said to have begun in 2008 with Sarah Palin’s rally cry “to take back the country.”

Regardless of the preliminaries, history may well record that with the contentious and close vote on October 6, 2018, of 50-48 between Kava-Yeses and Kava-Noes the battle was fully engaged. There is no turning back now. When Charles Blow writes an op-ed in the New York Times that “Liberals, This Is War,” he fails to recognize that for conservatives it has been war for decades and appointing a fifth Republican legislator to the Supreme Court is a long overdue victory.

As with America’s first civil war, America’s third civil war will be intensely divisive at the local level. People who have known each other for years as best friends for life suddenly will morph into combatants. The family Thanksgiving meal will become a battleground. While it will be illegal for Kava-Noes and Kava-Yeses to marry, there is always the possibility that some of the guests will be from opposite sides of the divide. Any social engagement will run the risk of degenerating into a brawl. Hosts and hostesses will be obligated to do due diligence to ensure a peaceful event. College admission officers will need to scrutinize applicants carefully to maintain the purity of the campus. God forbid people from different sides should be assigned as roommates!  In short, people will constantly have to be on guard to make sure they know when it is safe to speak.

CONFEDEXIT will help end the third civil war but it is no solution. The proponents of the Kava-Noes and Kava-Yeses exist in every electoral district. A mass exodus as with the Loyalists in the first civil war is not possible. A geographic split within the United States is not possible even after CONFEDEXIT removes many Confederate Kava-Noes from the United States. In short there is no solution. Over time, people will vote with their feet to move to an area where they feel safe. That relocation will take time. In the meantime, the situation will remain tense everywhere.

Fortunately we have a president who feasts on divisiveness. There will be no “come let us reason together” in this administration. Far from it. Instead he will stoke the flames of hatred and rejoice in the dividing of America. Never have We the People had a president who is so antagonistic to the very idea of We the People. Never have We the People had a president who is so willing, eager, and ready to campaign on behalf of hatred. Never have We the People had a president who is so antagonistic to the very goal of e pluribus unum, a motto that has been abandoned by both national political parties and mocked by our president. But there should not be any surprise that our president promotes the division of the country. What else would you expect from Putin’s poodle?

Kavanaugh and the Elephant in the Room: What Do Blind People See?

September 27, 2018
by Peter Feinman
And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right And all were in the wrong! Illustrator unknown - From Charles Maurice Stebbins & Mary H. Coolidge, Golden Treasury Readers: Primer, American Book Co. (New York), p. 89. (Wikipedia)

There is a parable about a group of blind people encountering an elephant for the first time. None of them know what an elephant is or looks like. To understand what the elephant is, each of the blind people touches the animal. However they do not touch the same part of the beast, therein hangs the tale.

Each blind person knows only the part they touch…and an elephant consists of many parts. One touches the thick legs, another the fan-like ears, a third the tusk, a fourth the trunk, a fifth the tale, a sixth the body. Each individual interpreted the whole of the elephant based on the part they had touched. Unfortunately, no one of them experienced the elephant in its entirety. They knew the truth only for the part they had touched and not for the elephant as a whole.

I was reminded of this fable when reading about the different ways people understand Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. People seem to focus on the different facets of his being, the facet that is of most importance to them or the one that they know.

For example, to his wife of 17 years, he is a good and loving husband and father. That’s the part of his life that she knows. It is quite reasonable that this perception is truly what she believes and is accurate.

Similarly for the daughters. They know him only as their father, even for less time than his wife has known him. Once again, their perception of him seems quite reasonable, is what they truly believe, and is accurate.

In this instance I am reminded of the scene from the end of Field of Dreams. Kevin Costner sees his father as a young man before he had been worn down from life. He had never seen of known his father when he still had his whole life before him. He only knew him later in life when the dreams of youth had not been fulfilled. For Costner to glimpse the youth of the man who would become his father was like the story of the blind people and the elephant. The difference is we exist over time. The person we once were is not exactly who we are today. We grow up, usually. We mature, usually. We have life experiences which shape who we become and therefore who we are in the present. The perception Costner the child and teenager had of his father seems quite reasonable, is what he truly believed, and was quite accurate…and incomplete. He did not see the big picture until the magic of the Field of Dreams.

On the other hand, some people remain trapped in their Glory Days, reliving and retelling the stories of the big game when they were king and queen of the prom. In these cases, it is easy to see their past because they never stopped living in it.

Kavanaugh’s wife and children are seeing a part of their husband and father they should not have to see. People do grow up. People do mature. People do stop being teenagers. That part of their life always remains part of the adult’s life, but it is one they choose not to share with others. World War II veterans are notorious for not sharing their life in the war with their spouse, children, and grandchildren. It is something that at most they can talk about with their fellow band of brothers who had the same or similar experiences.

Strange as it may seem, when Democrats and Republicans see Kavanaugh, they see the exact same person. Each sees the potential 5th Republican legislator on the Supreme Court who will reverse Roe vs. Wade and support Republican legislation. They have different responses to that prospect but they both see him the same way. Each side then is dedicated to either confirming or rejecting Kavanaugh accordingly.

To do so each focuses on different aspects of Kavanaugh’s life. For the Republicans, he is the frequently FBI-vetted judge with a stellar career conducted in an honorable manner who in the standard hyperbole is the best qualified person ever nominated (until he isn’t).

By contrast, Democrats have questions about his adult career as a clerk for a sanctioned judge and for Ken Starr. They also have questions have his rulings and the meaning of those rulings if he were to be confirmed.

To some extent, all this is par for the course. But now there is the part of his life that normally is not seen in middle age. What did you do as a teenager? What did you do during the time in life when people are most likely to do something stupid and which they will regret later in life? What did you do as a youth that you prefer not to talk about now yet alone be exposed to a national audience?

I am reminded of a scene from the movie Amazon Women on the Moon, where a teenage boy seeks to quietly buy some condoms for immediate use with his date. He turns out to be the 1,000,000th customer and the next thing you he is part of a big celebration with banners, balloons, an emcee, and his parents. A nightmare come true. I certainly hope Kavanaugh’s parents are not alive to witness this spectacle.

Over the past few years, teenagers have learned there are unintended consequences to the events posted on social media. College admission officers may look at them. Potential employers may look at them. Even decades from now, the actions posted on social media today may continue to haunt the teenagers and young adults of today. Imagine what will happen when children of the future search on the web for what their parents did as teenagers.

The glimpse we get today in the teenage life of a Supreme Court nominee is exactly that…just a glimpse. Republicans do not want to know the truth of Kavanaugh’s life as a teenager; Democrats want to exploit it or at least what they think it is. The likelihood is that the full circus will not play out. After one day of hearings, the decision will be made that enough is enough. We have seen what just happened to Bill Cosby. We know that a defamation suit against our immature child President is working its way through the legal system with the possibility that one day he will have to appear on Fox and in court to defend himself. We know that his pledge to sue after the election the 19 women who have claimed harassment remains and will remain an unfulfilled campaign promise.  We also know that it is always about him so the longer Kavanaugh remains in the public arena the more comparisons will be made not simply to the Clarence Thomas hearings but to the life of Donald Trump who never really outgrew his teenage years.

Therefore, my prediction is the process will be cut short before it spirals out of control and begins to affect the political fortunes of others.

Queens versus Manhattan: The Battle for America

September 18, 2018
by Peter Feinman
Courtesy Conde Nast Store

New York City prides itself as being at the crossroads of the universe, the island at the center of the world. But when people say “New York City,” exactly what do they mean? For example, New York State government people like to tout the success and increased tourism in New York State. When so doing, they tend to mean increased tourism to New York City. Actually they tend to mean increased tourism to Manhattan and not to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island. And they tend to mean not simply Manhattan. They mean midtown around Times Square and Lower Manhattan where the city began under the Dutch extending from the Battery up to Wall Street. Beyond that, they may also mean Niagara Falls (we seem to have forgiven Canada for the burning of the White House!) and Woodbury Commons, a historic shopping center.

People from the outer boroughs know they are not from the city meaning Manhattan often called New York. Remember the fierce fights when the 212 area code became restricted (see The Area Code Universe and Your Sense of Place). Now the people in the outer boroughs who lost the cachet of the 212 area code would immediately be identified as people who did not rate. Your whole identity could be summed up in a three digit number.

Our stories expressed this divide between the outer boroughs and the city.

Saturday Night Fever tells the story of Tony Manero, a 19 year old Italian American from Brooklyn facing a bleak future after highs school. Fellow dancer Stephanie Mangano dreams of the world beyond Brooklyn and plans to move to Manhattan to fulfill her dreams.

Working Girl updates the Cinderella story. Tess McGill is a 30 year could-be-Scottish-but-more-likely Irish American from Staten Island who works in Manhattan in a dead end job and dreams of better things through self-improvement. Her Irish American boyfriend has no such dreams and ends up marrying a local Italian American girl in what was then a mixed marriage. In the meantime, Tess succeeds in Manhattan and marries up because the force is with her.

The iconic image from Working Girl is the ferry ride to Manhattan (and not the one to Staten Island). Before her is Oz, a magical land. She successfully crosses the waters to this wonderland. She does so to the sound of Carly Simon singing “Bless the new Jerusalem.” Boston may have been the original city on a hill in America and Iowa has the field of dreams, but it is Manhattan that is the New Jerusalem. As part of her journey in this 1988 movie release, she gazes at the World Trade Towers not knowing that in 13 years they will be targeted and collapse.

Tess McGill ends up living the happily-ever-after dream in Manhattan while Tony Manero remains in Brooklyn and does not.

And then there is Queens. In the current issue of City & State NewYork, Ben Adler wrote “The Belligerent Style in American Politics: How New Yorkers Hijacked the Republican Party.” The article is about two TV characters from Queens, Archie Bunker and Donald Trump. The creation of the Bunker character did not work exactly as planned. Norman Lear expected the blustering bigot whose rantings were stupid and outdated to be the joke. He thought viewers would laugh at Archie. While many did, something else unexpected happened. Viewers laughed with Archie instead. They identified with his frustrations against the world around him and cheered the person who voiced what they thought but did not say.

Adler writes:

“All in the Family” proved that a portly, angry old white man from Queens could effectively articulate the anxiety about a changing society among social conservatives across the country, winning their affection in the process.

He notes that at the time, it never occurred to anyone that there could be a rich and famous real-life Archie Bunker who could go into politics and succeed. He concludes:

…Trump’s distinctly New York brand of right-wing politics not only attracted Republican voters: It has become the dominant paradigm of the contemporary Republican Party. Call it the Belligerent Style in American Politics.

Adler characterizes this attitude as the triumph of the outer boroughs (and white suburbs of former residents of the outer boroughs who moved out especially to Long Island). He depicts these people as nonideological but viscerally reactionary and perpetually enraged, longing for a bygone era and the strongman who promises to restore it. Maybe it is appropriate that Queens have a third-world airport given this desire for a strongman.

There is a certain irony in the focus of these sentiments on Donald Trump. There is probably no person in America who wanted more to cross the river from Queens to Manhattan and be accepted by the Manhattan elite. There is no one who more wants the New York Times to sing his praises than the boy from Queens who now occupies the White House. Manhattan is where he built. Manhattan is where he stamped his name on buildings galore. He was a longterm Democrat, a supporter of and contributor to the Clintons. He did everything he could to be visible. And he succeeded. The only thing he could not do was be accepted. Being a narcissistic serial failure who could not tell the truth did not help his cause. He had no future in the Democratic Party or among the elitists. So he tried elsewhere.

The Belligerent Style is now dominant. Rarely does one encounter it on CNN or MSNBC…although Cuomo from Queens sometimes edges into it. The Belligerent Style thrives on Fox. If you want pugnacious, Fox is your network. If you want “in your face,” Fox is your network. If you want a younger Archie Bunker who speaks better, Fox is your network. And since Republicans, like the Chinese, get their news from only one source, the state-authorized propaganda network, if you want to reach Republicans, Fox is your network.

Adler identifies the luminaries who have made Fox the political powerhouse that it is. “The belligerent style is embodied in its purest form by its talking heads, such as (Sean) Hannity and Jeanine Pirro [does her Lebanese descent mean she is a person of color?].” I remember her 32-seconds of silence when she misplaced a page of speech in her abortive Senate campaign. Her once-promising political career came crashing to an end. She seems to be making up for not speaking then. Adler calls her “a Trump attack dog.” Is that legal? One can call a man an attack dog, but is it still permissible to call a woman that? We need a ruling from the Thought Police.

As for Hannity, Adler describes “his on-air presence as reminiscent of an irate driver honking his horn on the Long Island Expressway.” Indeed, it would be foolish to ignore the importance of the physicality of the cable talk show hosts. Hannity is a forceful presence who sometimes seems to be leaping through the screen into your living room. When he calls upon viewers to “buckle up” before delivering his monologue, he means it. Strap yourself down, there’s a storm coming. Regardless of what his actual words are, it is clear that the refined talking head hosts on the other networks do not have that street-fighter presence. The same comparison may be said for the two candidates in 2016: one had a forceful stage presence who stalked his prey in the second presidential debate, the other was a well-behaved good little girl who did not resist. Remember JFK. Remember the first Clinton. We are not ethereal beings floating in the spiritual cosmos; we are real-live flesh and blood people. Democrats excite people based on their hyphen and identity, not because of their presence. The only person who attempts to communicate on this basis is Michael Avenatti.

Adler adds a comment about Southerners that may be partially obsolete by now. The news cycle can be faster than a magazine can keep up with. He addresses the issue of how the New York Belligerent Style plays in Peoria, that is, nationally, especially in the South.

Interviews with Trump supporters across the country – including for example, devout rural Southerners – routinely come back to the idea that’s he a jerk, but a jerk may be the only one tough enough to keep out undesirables and slay political correctness.

Adler cites a Washington Post report of a Southern Baptist saying “We need abrasive right now.” He notes the Suffolk County Republican Party Chairman echoing those sentiments when he said:

Trump speaks our language. He thinks the way we think. He talks the way we talk. He is breaking the political correctness of America.

Southerners now know that they are not immune from ridicule by the jerk. Despite everything he says about the Woodward, despite everything his network says about the Woodward book, the Southerners like everyone else know that the book is true, they know that it is accurate. They may think the anonymous author(s) of the New York Times op-ed piece should come forward, but they do not doubt its truth. Even his followers know he is an impulsive jerk prone to hissy fit tweets. What they did not know is how little he thinks of Southerners. Now they know. What will they do?

Note – Democrat elitists have yet to fully grasp the price Democrats pay for political correctness. Republicans are more concerned about the politically correct assault on America than they are about Russia’s violation of it. Perhaps the elitists do know and simply do not care, confident that the demographic deluge will sweep them into power…if it does not devour them first! The Democrats are still in the “Robert E. Lee” stage where hyphen identity trumps national identity. That shortcoming provides the Queens Belligerent Style unending opportunities to attack the Manhattan Deep State Elitists.

Suppose the New York Times and Anonymous Already Plan on Going Public

September 7, 2018
by Peter Feinman
Another Delivery to the New York Times

Suppose the New York Times and Anonymous already plan on going public. In the past 24-hours or so, I have heard a great many people on radio and TV and I have read articles in print and on the web about Anonymous. One common comment is “Why now?” Another relates to how does this op-ed piece advance the cause to which Anonymous aspires. The follow-up thought declares that its publication makes no difference, causes no change, solves no problem…unless simply ticking off the impulsive child President was the goal.

At the same time, Anonymous is referred to a senior administration official in the singular. One possibility floated about is that Anonymous has military/security/diplomatic experience.

Let’s follow through on that supposition. People with that kind of experience make plans. They consider different scenarios. They ponder alternatives. They anticipate reactions. Is it possible that the New York Times and Anonymous never considered what would happen after the publication? We know they were aware of the possibility of being fired but did it ever occur to them that the identity of Anonymous would not remain a secret for long? Did they expect that everything would go back to normal after Hurricane Anonymous passed?

It seems more likely, that they anticipated the disclosure of the identity of Anonymous and decided to take control of the situation. After all, isn’t that what you expect if Anonymous had military background? We can see that deceptiveness is in the author’s toolkit. The use of the word “lodestar” is not a clue to author’s identity…except showing a familiarity with Mike Pence’s vocabulary. The Capital’s biggest brown nose is on a mission from God to become President. There are no circumstances under which he could be Anonymous.

The delay in announcing the identity of Anonymous is deliberate. It is a set up. It provides an opportunity for people to go on record in response to the op-ed piece. It provides an opportunity to prove the claims in the op-ed piece are true. It provides an opportunity to nail people to the wall and hang them out to dry once they have publicly responded.

Let’s consider the reactions of the target President, Congressional Republicans, and Fox.

As expected, the impulsive immature child was in full volcanic mode. There is nothing new there. What is interesting to observe is his choice of words to condemn the action. He called it “TREASONOUS.” One can be a traitor to one’s country. Even the person who thinks Canada burned the White House and Lincoln was a Democrat probably has heard of Benedict Arnold. Treasonous acts do threaten the national security, should be investigated, and should be punished. However, the narcissist is defining treason in terms of himself and not his country. Again, there should be no surprise there. But it substantiates the claims made about his amoral lack of values.

Between Woodward and Anonymous, he is in full form. He is an A+ president, doing a great job, possibly the greatest job ever by an American President. He anticipates a red wave. His polling numbers are great. No one can touch him in 2020. No doubt, Republicans, who, like the Chinese, only get their news from one source, the government-authorized propaganda media, agree. Anyone who reports otherwise is the enemy of the people engaging in FAKE NEWS.

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about the red wave. Suppose the Democrats win control of the House. Suppose the Democrats act on that basis and investigate all the items on the Republican hit list of potential problems where they are at risk. Will the President honor the election results? If a blue wave puts Democrats in charge will the President of the United States honor the results or will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results?

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about 2020 (assuming he is still in office and chooses to run again)? Will the President honor the election results? Will the President leave the White House voluntarily? Will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results? Will he remain in the White House until the investigation by his Attorney General (not a stupid Southerner)is completed? (Can he go without playing golf for that long?)

Our A+ President who is doing a great job can’t be subpoenaed, can’t be impeached, and can’t be voted out of office.

If Anonymous (and Woodward’s) goal was to expose the truth, getting his reactions has been priceless.

Turning now to the Congressional Republicans, the response to Anonymous is not surprising. They couldn’t care less about the merits of what Anonymous wrote. Their only interest is to punish Anonymous. This reaction confirms my longstanding belief that when the little boy exclaimed that the Emperor was naked, he would immediately be stomped to death by an enraged mob that didn’t want to know the truth.

Finally, there is Fox News. Fox has been hyperventilating about the Deep State subverter of the vote of the American people. They don’t care about the Russian violation of that vote. They do care about how the duly-elected President is being thwarted by unelected people who think they know better than the American people what should be done. Fox vehemently castigates the White House Resistance (plural) who put their judgment over that of the We the People. One almost gets the impression that Fox considers Anonymous and the Resistance to consist of Democrats, holdovers from the Obama administration.

Now let’s return to the original suggestion: suppose the New York Times and Anonymous already plan on going public. Imagine if Anonymous is a composite. Imagine if multiple people contributed to its writing. No one would be trumping if they denied writing it since no one person did write it. Now imagine say, H. R. McMasters, John Kelly, and James Mattis, as military hero John McCain was dying, finally saying, “enough is enough.” Suppose the career military officers who have been repeatedly humiliated by the ignorant 5th grader decided that they had had it. Suppose these people decide to go public and expose Crazytown. Suppose these people decided to set up Congressional Republicans as ballless and Fox as brainless. Suppose these people publicly sited chapter and verse documenting that the incumbent President lacks the emotional maturity, knowledge, and character to hold that position and that he should be removed from office as soon as possible. Then what?

It’s not Seven Days in May. It’s not Dr. Strangelove. But it’s not General McArthur either.

Obviously I am speculating but it is unreasonable to assume that Anonymous is a one-act event. There’s more to come.

How Many Presidents Will Attend Donald Trump’s Funeral?

September 3, 2018
by Peter Feinman
United We Stand, Divided We Fall (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

John McCain’s funeral will become part of American history. Not since on the footsteps of the Capital after 9/11 has there been such a bipartisan gathering of the American political community (presidential addresses to Congress are partisan – “You lie”). If we are lucky, his funeral may become the most important event of his life and the beginning of the rebirth of America. As the ugliness of our new civil war mounts, we benefit from seeing this moment when we gathered to pay tribute to an individual who embraced and embodied the American way of life.

From the eulogies of the presidents who vanquished him in political battle, his colleagues and friends in the Senate, and his daughter Meghan, John McCain’s funeral served as a wake up call to a divided country. He challenged us to get our act together, to continue to be the great country we are, to remain the leader the world needs us to be. The funeral was not for immature children who are incapable of understanding the life John McCain led and the vision John McCain had for his beloved country. Imagine dismissing Jesus Christ as a hero because he was captured by the enemy and tortured. Such are the depths to which this country temporarily has sunk. But despite all, the great light that John McCain represented has not been extinguished and the day will come when once again it shines in the White House and we continue our journey as the last best hope of this planet.

His funeral also got me thinking about the funeral to come of our current president. What will it be like? Certainly his body will be transported from one professional wrestling arena to another across the land. His followers will assemble to chant

LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!
BUILD A WALL.
FAKE NEWS.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

But what about the music? How will the people of America and the world celebrate the passing of this person? I have taken the liberty to make suggestions about the music for the funeral of Little Donny-Wanny. What are your suggestions?

You’re Terminated Daughter-Trumper

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Dancing in the Street

Happy Days Are Here Again

Conga

P.S. The answer is none. Even if Vladimir Putin is still alive, there will be a warrant out for his arrest if he ever travels here. On the other hand, it is possible Trump’s body will lie in state in the Kremlin.

 

Does Coh-nafort Trump the OJ Trial: Has the Witch Hunter Struck?

August 23, 2018
by Peter Feinman
Gemma Arterton Locked and Loaded in Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters

Where were you when you learned that OJ had gotten away with the murder of two white people? Do you remember exactly where you where and what you were doing?  Did you then shout for joy and start dancing in the street (for real and not like the fake news Jersey City celebration)? Did you wring your hands in anguish and let out a big moan?

The OJ trial riveted the nation…for weeks. There had been nothing like it. For cable TV it was a godsend. Some of the people who made their media mark then are still going strong today. Now we were dealing with not one but two trials. And we are wondering about the big one to come. Although not directly related, the 1990s gave us two trials which changed the national media: the OJ and the impeachment. Now here we are two decades later seeing some of the same people on screens of various sizes.

August 21, 2018, is an historical day of multiple pieces and alternate realities. To begin with there were the trials – “what actually happened” asks the historian. Perhaps not since the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence have two such similar events to each other of historic significance occurred so closely in time.

What Actually Happened

The study of what actually happened is only just beginning. We are now starting to learn the full story. As someone who served on a jury trial where there were 18 charges and we convicted on 6, acquitted on 1, and were hung on 11 all by an 11-1 vote, I am fascinated by this unfolding story what went on behind closed doors. Our case lasted three months and became very intense. So far there are some preliminary conclusions which can be reached:

1. In general jurors do take their responsibilities seriously.
2. Tainted witnesses are not a prosecutors’ strong point but physical evidence is.
3. The tainting of the jury pool by the President and his Flying Monkeys did not succeed in the Cohen case of at least one juror who went public but the jury is still out on why the one holdout held out.

Undoubtedly in the days and weeks to come, we will learn about the group dynamics and psychology about something that may well be destined to become a case study in psychology, history, and law courses.

What’s Next?

Second, the two sets of decisions raised additional questions which cannot yet be answered but which will be in the course of time.

1. Who were the other people in the Trump organization with whom Michael Cohen colluded?
2. Will charges be brought against them and will they implicates others in the conspiracy?
3. What other information will Michael Cohen share?
4. What other information will be gleaned from the documents of Michael Cohen seized by the FBI?
5. When will Paul Manfort be rewarded for his loyalty by the narcissist for whom loyalty is everything?

Undoubtedly the answers to some of these question will lead to further actions so in that sense, these two trials were a beginning and not an end.

The Presidential Performance

Third, on the same day as the verdicts, the President of the United States performed as a professional political wrestler at a rally in West Virginia. Based on the performance one would scarcely know that just hours earlier his longtime fixer and short term presidential campaign chair had been found guilty. Instead it was entertainment as usual with the perennial Republican favorites: Lock her up! Lock her up! Build a Wall! Build a Wall! Fake news. And the new one since the 2016 campaign: rigged witch hunt by 13 or 17 angry Democrats. Indeed, the greatest swamp builder in American history even called for draining the swamp precisely as the legal system had begun draining the very swamps he had built. As with climate change, there is no awareness of irony among Republicans.

The Impact of Pro-Trump Jurors

Fourth, what happens when the Trump supporters on the jury who voted to convict begin interacting with the Trump supporters cheering to drain the swamp? At this point, it is too early to tell. The initial juror foray into the public arena occurred on the President’s propaganda network but not with one of the Flying Monkeys.  The juror’s belief that evidence is evidence and that truth is truth may not play well with them.

Republicans, like the Chinese, only get their news from government approved outlets. They do not include CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. There is a danger in interviewing jurors on the one network they watch if those jurors contradict the party line. There is a disconnect between “the evidence was overwhelming” and “Manafort is brave.” What are the consequences if Republicans start to listen to the jurors who convicted Manafort instead of to the President who defends him? The 11 jurors know Manafort was guilty of everything. He is not a hero. If the jurors who support the President see that he does not realize that, then when else is he wrong? Why believe him on anything? The jurors who live in the real world may be Achilles’ heel to the people who live in the alternate reality. They have seen the truth. They will speak the truth. They have courage and integrity. They are not Republican Senators and Representatives.

Don’t Become Fox Fodder

Fifth, people who hyperventilate and become Fox Fodder are not doing their cause any good. There is no constructive purpose to be served by going into emotional overdrive about traitor Trump who is turning the United States into a banana republic through an authoritarian denial of freedom of speech. I am talking about you Carl Bernstein. I am talking about you John Brennan. I am talking about you Ralph Peters. When your heartfelt spiel becomes Fox Fodder you know you are being ridiculed. And that is the message being communicated to the Republicans you want to reach.

Chill. Freedom of speech has not ended. We have not become a banana republic. Could these trials have happened in Russia? Could these trials have happened in China? Could these trials have happened in North Korea? Need I go on? We are not “Z.” When the world does not come to an end as you describe you lose credibility and become a laughingstock on Fox.

Do not think of Trump as an adult who is evil. Face the reality that he is an immature child and knock off the over-the-top vitriol. Kim Wehle, former Assistant United States Attorney, Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation appearing on MSNBC referred to our President as almost like an adolescent smashing all the crystal in the house because he is not getting what he wants. Exactly right. She was angry when she said it but she was not hyperventilating. She will not become Fox Fodder. Similarly former Congressman Joe Walsh also was furious when he said of the elected Republicans that they have to watch him like a ten-year old child but are afraid to say it publicly. He will not become Fox Fodder. The more you talk about him as the immature child that he is the less likely you are to become quoted on his network and become a joke for your over-the-top comments.

Hush money is not illegal. Do you really think unreported hush money will qualify as high crimes? More is needed and as it turns out there is more to come. “Dorothy” Mueller has plenty of buckets of water. We have to wait. Hopefully only until September 1 for the next indictments.

Alternate Reality

Sixth, part of the reason why the old campaign refrains still work in the professional wrestling arena is because they are not old. Quite the contrary, practically every night, Republicans hear about Crooked Hillary, her collusion with the Russians, and her exoneration because of the Deep State coverup. For the Republicans chanting “Lock her up!” it’s not old news, its current events.

On August 21, I wanted to make sure at 9:00 Eastern time, I heard from Trump’s Brain on the events of the day. Hannity said he was going to provide us with the news and perspective not found elsewhere.  The lessons of the day were straightforward and he heartily endorsed them:

1. Pay your taxes.
2. Do not lie on bank applications.
3. Do not lie to the FBI.

Then, did we really need Robert Mueller’s Witch hunt to tell us that? And because we have a corrupt two-tier justice system where Democrats can get away with what Republicans go to prison for there is another lesson:

4. Do not be a friend of Trump

Zero collusion. Zero conspiracy. Zero Russia. One might even think that White House staff were doing cartwheels of joy now with the target President high-fiving everyone. Sometimes he seems like the person who jumps off a ten-story building and at the eighth floor says, “so far so good.”

The Iceberg and the Titanic

Speaking of disasters, it is Chris Matthews who keeps asking how long the Trump Titanic can stay afloat after hitting the Mueller iceberg. We do not know how much Mueller knows. But if the jury was impressed by the documents presented in the Manafort case, one can only imagine how the jurors will react to the mountain of evidence dumped in the next round of indictments …or if the indicted Russians are ever extradited.

Perhaps Matthews should slightly change his metaphor. Instead of focusing on how many staterooms can be flooded, watch the rats. The swamp builder is known for the company he keeps and that company includes rats. Michael Cohen served Trump for many years but he did not take a bullet for him. He ratted. In the tape of the hush-money conversation with his co-conspirator, he mentioned needing the help of the longtime Trump organization financial officer whose ties go back to Trump’s father. Does that person want to spend the remaining years of his life in jail? Does he want his life earnings to go to lawyers instead of grandchildren? What will the co-conspirator publisher do (we already know)? If you surround yourself with rats, guess who will desert the sinking ship once they see it has hit iceberg Mueller? It’s even possible to imagine the Attorney General to grow a pair.

The trials mean the trump has hit the fan and he has no good news in sight.

Putin and the American President: Who Has the Right Stuff to Go into the Arena?

July 18, 2018
by Peter Feinman
Trump, the Rough Rider Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

The “in the arena” image resonates with humans. Practically from time immemorial to the present, the stark binary scene of the confrontation to the death of two beings, humans and sometimes animal, grabs us by the gut and doesn’t let go [or “does let go” if I miswrote]. Where would we be without the stories of these one-on-one encounters?

These images stick. Achilles and Hector. David and Goliath. The Battle of O.K. Corral. The showdown at high noon. We know the images. We remember the stories. The names may change from culture to culture, from one time period to the next, but the story line endures. It is part of who we are as a species.

So how do/did our two presidential contestants in 2016 match up against this standard?

The first confrontation occurred in the second high school debate between the two candidates (Predator in Chief, Our Lady of Perpetual Victimhood: A Presidential Election Retrospective). Democrats, in their typically misguided way, think their champion prevailed. Her talking points made her the superior warrior. She trashed the know-nothing simpleminded ignoramus in this one-on-one confrontation. To the victor belongs the spoils. She had triumphed over Trump. The presidency was hers based on the merits of her performance.

Democrats still live in this artificial reality. They still don’t understand. They don’t understand how the talking points could lose. Still unbeknownst to them, while this verbal debate ensued, a second battle was underway. The arena may have been the same stage but the game was different. This game was Survivor; its rules were not of the debate but of the warrior in the arena.

In the second high school debate a known predator roamed the stage.

In the second high school debate a known predator stalked his prey.

In the second high school debate a known predator feasted on his victim.

Everyone knows she was a fighter. She wanted to be a marine. She wanted to be an astronaut. She wanted to be an Olympic athlete. She wanted to be your champion. She would fight for you. Except when the moment of truth came, she didn’t even fight for herself. And everyone saw it live on TV.

As it turns out, her opponent and eventual winner had his “into the arena” moment live on TV as well. Summit meetings sound like confrontations among the gods. Actually, the first summit in modern times occurred on June 11, 1939 between FDR and King George VI at Top Cottage in Hyde Park. It’s a nice place to have dinner if you can swing it with the NPS. They met not as adversaries [or “as adversaries’] battling to be king of the mountain, but as allies seeking to prevent others from becoming king of the mountain.

Since that time, there have been numerous showdowns between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union in World War III. Nixon and Khrushchev meet in a kitchen debate at an exhibition. People feared the young Kennedy would be no match for the fearsome Khrushchev. People feared the old Reagan would no match for the fearsome Gorbachev. But lo and behold, contrary to the wisdom of the elitists of the 1980s, the world was not divided for eternity into two camps of “some people are capitalists, some people are communists, why can’t we all live together.” It was folly to think otherwise, to think we could prevail, that there would be no Soviet Union. All the experts knew that. Then the Iron Curtain collapsed.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

We have now experienced another such encounter between the leaders of the United States and Russia. This meeting scarcely qualified as a summit and nothing was expected of it. Perhaps the only issues were now that the American President had been played by Kim Jung-un, would he also be played by Putin. A second issue was what compromising material did the Russian have over the American. In terms of traditional geo-politics it didn’t seem likely that anything would come of the meeting.

Then the Friday before the Monday meeting, the Special Counsel investigating the Russian violation of the United States and possible collusion, perjury, and obstruction by candidate and his associates dropped the bomb: 12 Russian nationals were indicted for a comprehensive cyber assault on the United States in the 2016 presidential elections. The timing seemed like a setup coming so close to the scheduled visit, but here is where the story gets interesting and overlooked.

First, promptly in his opening monologue at 9:00 on the Bulltrump network, Trump’s Brain referred to “the so-called big news.” Really? Was December 7, “so-called big news”? How about 9/11? Instead we witnessed the immediate denial of any significance to the indictments. They simply were another example of the desperate actions by the Deep State to keep the focus on Russia instead of crooked Hillary. Imagine of all the ways to interpret the disclosure of the Russian assault on America, would ignoring the beneficiary of the violation and focusing instead on crooked Hillary be the first thought that came to mind?

Second, as it turns out, the Department of Justice had given the President a heads-up about the indictment. It even offered to defer the announcement until after the summit meeting if the Commander in-chief deemed it in the national security to do so. He did not and the announcement proceeded on schedule. That guaranteed that it would become a topic for the summit…or the press conference afterwards. Considering what has happened since, one can help but wonder if the very stable genius was played by his smarter Special Counsel.

Why did the target make that decision? To answer that question provides critical insight into the thinking of our narcissistic immature child-president. He genuinely believed that it would not be the big deal it has become. He genuinely believed that since neither he nor anyone associated with his campaign was indicted, that there was no downside to the indictments. He genuinely believed that since no Americans were indicted there was no downside to the indictments. He genuinely believed that since all the events occurred while Obama was president there was no downside to the indictments. Since it always is about him and there was nothing in the indictments about him, the indictments were nothing more than proof positive of Obama’s failures as president. They were part of a Deep State witch hunt against him that had turned up nothing. It never occurred to him that he had an obligation in the present to stand up for America against an adversary who had violated his country. His loyalty is to himself and not his country. Why should Truman care about a war that started under Roosevelt’s watch? So go ahead and make the indictment announcement. And then when it happened, Trump’s Brain and the Bulltrump network were ready to make it all about crooked Hillary and Obama and no one said anything about putting America first over Putin.

The problem is, everyone saw the press conference. The problem is everyone saw and heard a reporter expose the truth. The problem is everyone saw the weeny passive President defer to the stronger Macho Macho man. Everyone. Not just the usual suspects in the fake news media that almost always gets it right, but the media throughout the world. The headlines tell the story. The photograph tells the story. The actual words even with a “not” added tell the story. He no more stood up to Putin than his Democratic opponent had stood up to him during the second high school debate when he stalked her. This time, he was the one with his tail between his legs obedient to his master. And if Putin doesn’t have any compromising information on the American weeny, that only makes the American President deference to him worse.

From this point forward, it is easy to denounce our Commander in-chief for being a weeny wimp wus.

From this point forward, it is easy to call on his supporters to explain why they support a coward who lacks the right stuff to go into the arena and prevail against our Russian adversary.

From this point forward, it is easy to demean him for his lack of manliness. When he was 13, his father put him in military school in the vain hope that he would man up. It didn’t work. He is still the immature child he was then and now the world has witnessed his cowering before the dominant alpha male who helped elect him President.

John McCain and The Donald: The Warrior and the Swamp Builder

May 17, 2018
by Peter Feinman
“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Donald Trump “John McCain is a hero, a man of grit and guts and character personified. He served and bled and endured unspeakable acts of torture. His captors broke his bones, but they couldn’t break his spirit, which is why he refused early release when he had the chance. That’s heroism, pure and simple, and it is unimpeachable.” John Kerry (www.washingtonpost.com)

John McCain is an American hero. To call him a hero is not to necessarily agree with all that he said and did. Even he has regrets about things he has done. What it does mean is that when the batting average of his life is calculated it will be sufficient to warrant inclusion in the American Hall of Fame.

McCain’s significance extends beyond who he is as an individual. His importance extends to the country he loves and the party which nominated him for the office of President. All things considered, when one looks at the Republican Party today, it is hard to imagine how it could have nominated any of the candidates it nominated in the 21st century prior to 2016 given where we are today. As a result, part of McCain’s story is not only who he is a person, but what he represents. The decade from his nomination in 2008 to the present is one that will be studied by historians seeking to determine what happened to America.

Let’s start by comparing and contrasting the 2008 candidate who lost and the current president.

John McCain dedicated his life to the service of his country.
Little Donny Waany is a narcissist who always puts his own interests first.

John McCain put his life on the line for the country he loves.
Little Donny Waany fights in scripted professional wrestling arena performances and would never put his life on the line for anyone.

John McCain reads books.
Little Donny Waany can’t.

John McCain has favorite authors.
Little Donny Waany has favorite cable TV announcers.

John McCain’s closest Republican friend is Lindsay Graham.
Little Donny Waany closest Republican acolytes are Nunes the Clown and former Christian Mike Pence. Nunes couldn’t detect the Russian violation of America in the 2016 election to help Trump and hurt Clinton even though Senate Republicans and the intelligence community could. He couldn’t detect a Russian operative if she was staring him in the face. Pence is chomping at the bit to replace his chaotic adulterer-with-a-Playmate-and-porn-performer boss.

John McCain has friends who aren’t Republican and whom he invited to speak at his funeral.
Little Donny Waany once donated to the Clintons when he thought it would help him and now demonizes them when he realized it wouldn’t.

John McCain can give a speech.
Little Donny Waany is functionally incoherent even within the limitations of a tweet.

John McCain is an outcast in the Republican Party and can be ridiculed with impunity by the White House without the Republican Party standing up to defend him.
Little Donny Waany sees no reason to apologize for his staff ridiculing John McCain. After all, he did it first.

John McCain is a person of honor.
Little Donny Waany thrives on demeaning and insulting people.

John McCain tells the truth.
Little Donny Waany can’t.

John Mc Cain believes in America’s role in human history.
Little Donny Waany doesn’t even understand the concept.

John McCain is an adult.
Little Donny Waany is an immature child.

It’s hard to believe the two people are members of the same party yet alone could be nominated to the same position a scarce eight years apart.

Already in 2008, change was in the air. McCain now regrets his decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate. In hindsight we can see she was the wave of the future for the Republican Party. All things considered, Palin rates more normal than previously given credit for. Better a candidate who can see Russia from her backyard than Putin’s poodle whose top
priority is to end the sanctions against Russia. If elected do you really think Palin would have refrained from condemning Putin by name for his attempted assassination of Russian dissidents in England and then congratulated the dictator on his election victory? Just as Little Donny Waany has helped boost the memory of the presidency of George Bush in hindsight, so too he will boost the memory of Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008. She may have been many things but a swamp-building-bigoted-liar wasn’t one of them.

What frequently is overlooked in the decade of degradation of the Republican Party since 2008, is the role of the Democratic Party in causing and supporting it. It is easier for Democrats to claim the high road than to look in the mirror. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to blame Putin for the electoral loss just as Donny Waany blames the 5 million illegal voters for the popular vote lost then for them to face the shortcomings of their message. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to look down on the deplorables then to recognize them as worthy of respect who should be treated as human beings. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to salivate over the coming demographic deluge then it is to face the truth of the Party’s own contribution in expanding the voter pool who would find the immature child acceptable as a leader. There was a time when Democrats took pride in feeling your pain, now they relish in causing it and exult in the demographic tidal wave that will wash these people from power forever.

Donny Wanny didn’t create that voter pool, he exploited it for his own purposes. Who would have predicted that there would come a day when evangelicals would embrace a dishonest adulterer with no core values save his own gain? Something had to happen for evangelicals to willingly stoop so low and abandon their values. So far there is nothing to indicate that Democrats even realize their role in causing this to happen, that they care, or that they are going to do anything about it.

Perhaps the non-Peolosi supporting Congressional candidates with military backgrounds demonstrate that the real world is sinking in with Democrats. The cessation of declaring war on people who think of themselves as Americans and not hyphens shows that at least some Democrats have woke and smelled the coffee. Democrats would be better advised to reach out to Republicans who admire John McCain than to condemn all Republicans as Trumpies. Once there were Scoop Jackson Democrats whom the Democrats abandoned and then welcomed their leaving the party and voting Republican. Now there are John McCain Republicans who have been abandoned by the Republican Party, are disgusted with what it has become, and are looking for something better. There is nothing to be gained by insulting them and everything to gain by reaching out to them. The true tragedy would be if there is no place in either party for Americans who admire John McCain, American hero.