I'm Smart About Intelligence, Most Times. But Senator, I'm Telling This Investigative Committee I Don't Know A Thing About America's Intelligence Ops

If this blogger were in position to make large bank but was handcuffed in my business dealings by being bound to secrecy, then I would separate (erect a bulkhead, firewall) my activities from that which binds me.

For instance, if I were a mega-million/alleged multi-billionare, and there were critical payment deadlines coming in my business affairs just as I was about to be sworn in as some country's chief executive, why I would firewall my CEO activities from any compromising national secrets until the coast was clear, say 12-18 months into the 4 year term...know what I mean.

And what is great is the system is set up - I mean, 'the system just might be set up so that my second-in-command could take over the role of directly managing that secret-activities department. You see what I'm getting at? Why, I could hold that top dog position forever and be untouchable as for conflict-of-interest...while, ahem, making very uuuge bank. They don't call me 'OP' for nada.

Sound familiar?

Election 2016: What happened, Why And Can It Be Returned for Credit (No!!)?

After a pause that did not bring clarity or even acceptance, Pericles21 felt it necessary to at least clear the mind of these musings about Election 2016.

At the base of these musings are two proposed 'Lessons for Future Dem Campaigns': (1) Give some love and scenarios for change to the common folk and their stresses, (2) Get serious about winning, stop the squabbling and bickering, get a unified and harmonious platform where the Johnson's and Steins and what else have to give up hoping for a miracle win and instead negotiate for a practical and vote-believable agenda.

Thoughts:
1. The Dems gave away the election.

2. Johnson and Jill acted like grade schoolers when they couldn't win the spotlight at the Democratic Convention and in spite took off with their marbles and doll babies...and wound up losing everything.

3. This topic merits its own item number: more, much more, was expected from the Dem Party women. They were looked at as breakers-of-the-mold (old WM behind-the-curtain deal makers). They were expected to give America and the world a solid, nurturing-of-planet earth but no bullshit seriousness for gamesters who seek only self-profit and delay and detouring of serious efforts by these women to FIX THINGS. Instead, they gave us junior high cliques and queen-bee adolescent, hidey-secret bound-to-fail frothiness and non-seriousness. Was it just only about HC's 'turn'? Wake up Dem women, American politics is not play-house time, this is serous shit times...get YOUR SHIT together..instead of fucking over each other give the opposition a good f'g over...there will be another go round on this story so..be present, be prepared and be serious.

4. On TV, Hillary acted like she was acting so she was not always with us - Hillary did not seem genuinely hungry or pissed. She seemed more tuned into big $ than to decades-ignored common folk who in turn seem to have forgotten her. (Lesson for the future)

5. Dems Forgot what a Convention was supposed to achieve - a unified, coherent and politically appealing platform reflecting a progressive agenda for the nation. An agenda that gave hope for ordinary long-ignored folk and hope for the several millions voters who found themselves left with no recourse for their economic stress except to vote for a default, 60% disliked Change Agent, DT.

Note: even tho there might have been major skullduggery by the Repubs in partnership with Russian state hackers, nevertheless, Pericles21 seemed to notice a vacuum in the Dem messaging when it came to offering help to, and appealing for help from, common folk. (Lesson for future Dem campaigns).

6. All in all, the Dems - party, Hillary, Johnson, Stein, Wasserman-Schultz, Brazile, etall - behaved like junior highschoolers play-acting at a pretend-election, class project that included clique shannanigans, favoritism, secrets...kid stuff. And with all the hacking going on, why didn't the players understand their shifty emailings would be hacked too (DB? W-S? HC?).

Citizen, Have You Heard, 'The Goths Have Entered Rome'?

An oral history, of five parts, in canto style:

Stanza One. Introduction.
The Goths Have Entered Rome. They sit at Caesar's table and gorge on the sacred geese. They eat sloppily off golden plates and slyly slip them into their mangy cloaks. Then toss gnawed bones to the floor. Caesar winces but none of the 'guests' notice his grimaces.

Stanza Two.
The Barbarians have breached Rome's gates. They defile the sacred Vestal Virgins (all 10's) while the august Senate, all acquiescent and smiling through slits in their fool-masks, bent-knee and mock-cheer through open but soundless mouths.

Stanza Three.
The Barbarians strut the Capitol's avenues all in wonder. Yet they yearn to be elsewhere, among more familiar prey, around dancing campfires brightly sparkling with agreeable company agog in wonder at loot and booty pillaged from Rome's coffers. More booty, of various nature, to decorate the fort Towers of this other land, of the Barbarians.

Stanza Four.
Caesar and Romans-publius have yearnings also and offer sacrifice and pleadings that the Gods may grant the Barbarians' wishes and return them forthwith to wherever they dream - places that match their natures, their lusts, their insatiable purposes . In Rome, the Barbarians find no quenching of their lust and restless pacing. Forever are in thrall to the call of their lust-filled horizons.

Stanza Five.
The Barbarians seek to assume Rome's mantle by taking over her affairs of state. They call treaty gatherings and seek to impress ambassadors from Caesar's dependencies. Who they entertain with tossings of gold, banquets served with their most favored and still bloody slain forest creatures, and tales of orgiastic conquests and bold-lie conquerings. Only to see the ambassadors in flight confused, fearful and lamenting.

How shall this tale end? Who shall prevail? What die faces will Fate, gambling, toss? Will sly Comey-tus, Rome's darting-eyed, slithering serpent from the gutters experience chopped head or will his bite be felt again - but this time by his handlers?

Trump #3: End of Act 1 - Intermission

Shock. Disbelief. Unreality. Trump, upon meeting Obama, "A very good man, very good man". Yes, we know.

Trump #2: Post Election Reaction - Recap, Views and Predictions On A Trump Presidency

A FUTURE SOMETIME: America will eventually cross the thresh hold and become a post-racial, economic egalitarian democracy upholding the original theme of the Common Good. Maybe not for a generation but eventually.


This Blog, "The Perched Eye", was begun in 2009 when President Barack Obama was about to be inaugurated. With apologies, 2009 was the first time this author paid close attention to the intricacies of American politics...although in the 70's and 80's and 90's, it was impossible not to be swept into the political dramas around Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagen-Air Controller battle, and the opening of the Mid-East conflicts in Iran and Iraq.

Now, America's political arena has opened with a new production, the Trump presidency.

Here are some views from 'The Perched Eye' about last night's election of Donald Trump to be the 46th president of the United States (and may God bless us all):

1. THE NEXT 4 YEARS?. ??? Who knows. Let's hope something is done for the COMMON GOOD.

2. 'CODED LANGUAGE' - appears to work (the Base seems to have arisen by sub-liminal code words and images).

3. ENERGY will draw tears. The Base's kids will drown in petro-pollution and suffer generations of genetic damage.

4. CLIMATE CHANGE. Ignored by both candidates and will continue to be swept under the rug by the petro lobby.

5. IT'S ALL A SHOW, so grab a large supply of popcorn, buy a wide-screen and settle in for 4 years of TV carnival.

6. REMORSE. Coulda', mighta', O-me-o-mya'. Move on!

7. HILLARY DID WIN, goals were largely met...except the other side, unexpectedly even by them, met theirs more.

8. TRUMP BOUGHT A RIDE ON A WILD BRONCO - he did not sweep the election', more the truth he was 'swept in' by a rogue
tidal wave. Big difference - 'to do' or 'be done to'...who's in control?

9. MIGHTA'S. 'Bernie and Warren', or 'Warren and Biden' or any pairing not including Hillary migha' won, maybe.

10. "BEWARE THE TIDAL WAVE EBBING" should be posted as a banner over President Trump's Oval Office desk.
'What goes around, comes around'.

11. TRUMP WAS (IS) A TOOL (the 'Trumpet') - of grass roots disaffection, disappointment, with the status quo in DC.

12. A TOOL OF HIS BASE, Trump should be careful to watch his step - he's in a cage full of 'angry'.

13. POSITIVES - several of his prior negatives:

Nobody's 'Boy'. Nobody's, Base;

'Cowboy', 'Gunslinger': his actions may be erratic, impromptu, "off-script". You bought it, Base;

Internationally (Russia, China) - now America has a despot just like them. Good or bad, who knows, Putin?

14. PREDICTIONS.

SURPRISES!!;

DISAPPOINTMENTS (Roll-backs - Roe, HealthCare, Education, Social Security, Energy, climate change...lot's of stuff the Base didn't understand...);

'RUSTY NAIL'- not good for anyone, it scrapes and infects;

COMMON GOOD - if he follows this path, he doesn't have to favor any group, race, nationality or religion - he might be enough of a maverick to carry this off;

'TRUMP THE OPERA'. (Seriously), comedy or tragedy, or both (my bet) give it 10-18 months.

15. AMERICA WILL GO ONWARD...but it will not be smooth.

A FUTURE SOMETIME: America will eventually cross the thresh hold of post-racial, economic egality, and the Common Good. Maybe not for a generation but eventually.

Election 2016: Trump #1, A "COMMON GOOD" Plan - A Proposed Domestic Priority Plan for Trump's Presidency

This blogger had prepared a proposed domestic agenda for a Hillary Clinton presidency. Hillary will not be President but the agenda is proposed unchanged as a first priority for the Trump presidency.

The central theme sung in this outline is the same theme proposed when this blog was first started in 2009 - taking care of, restoring and strengthening America's philosophy of the 'Common Good'.

A PROPOSED DOMESTIC AGENDA FOR DONALD TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY

Dear Donald,
Congratulations. America has gone through a hard campaign season and election. You are now the President of the United States of America. Now you have the task to do something lasting for America - something you've promised us and something we hope you can achieve. We will pray that your Oval Office tenure will be indeed marked by programs that have the best interests of all Americans in mind. With these thoughts in mind, you are urged to think on, develop and implement a plan for transforming (updating and strengthening America - the country is overdue in so many ways.

You are urged to do the following:

1. Immediately implement and staff a Permanent President's Oversight Commission to review programs and progress and develop objectives benchmarks.

2. Appoint and convene critical-area Planning Oversight Commissions of experts, bi-partisan elected officials, and private citizens to brainstorm and create an overview of America's needs in their Commission jurisdictions.

3. These Commissions will, in the first year of your term, convene, address and develop plans for: transportation (rail, commuter, air), communication (national internet, FCC representation, ), education (college funding, post secondary (technical school) expansion, community college expansion and articulation pathways, ...), health Care (expansion of Affordable Care Act and Medicare, a plan for eventual national health care,...), Energy ( ), Environment (water, air, ), agriculture and food quality standards ( ), America's youth ( Domestic Service, Jobs Apprenticeship Program, Peace Corps expansion,), New Industries Commission (Planning and implementaion of new industries for the next decade and possibly into 2050, establish a fraework of permanent study-planning groups focusing on continual tracking of technical, industry movements which will also identify jobs training and new curricula in secondary - graduate school)

4. The Commission plans will develop implementation priorities for the 3 years into your first term, and following on scenarios for the next 5 years. Overall, an eight year the timeline for transforming America.

5. Plan and implement a Public Works jobs program with preference for workers with families.

6. Promote, plan and issue bonds for public investment in these programs.


With these few steps the Office of the Presdient will have at his touch the apparatus for looking at America, seeing where America needs to improve and assuring the well-being, educaton and security of all Americans into the rest of the first half of this century.

Election 2016: A Letter to Madam President, Hillary Clinton

Dear Hillary,
Congratulations. We've gone through a terribly hard election and the goal has been achieved - You are the President of the United States as we have prayed for. Now you have a hard road remaining to do something lasting for America while the rest of us cheer you on from the sidelines. We will pray for your success in your Oval Office programs because we know you will have the best interests of all Americans in mind. I, as only one of your supporters, urge you to think on, develop and implement a plan for transforming (updating) America - the country is overdue in so many ways.

I urge you to do the following:
1 Appoint and convene critical-area Planning Commissions of experts, bi-partisan elected officials, and private citizens to brainstorm an overview of America's needs in their Commission jurisdictions.

2. These Commissions will, in the first year of your term, convene, address and develop plans for: transportation (rail, commuter, air), communication (national internet, FCC representation, ), education (college funding, post secondary (technical school) expansion, community college expansion and articulation pathways, ...), health Care (expansion of Affordable Care Act and Medicare, a plan for eventual national health care,...), Energy ( ), Environment (water, air, ), agriculture and food quality standards ( ), America's youth ( Domestic Service, Jobs Apprenticeship Program, Peace Corps expansion,), New Industries Commission (Planning and implementaion of new industries for the next decade and possibly into 2050, establish a fraework of permanent study-planning groups focusing on continual tracking of technical, industry movements which will also identify jobs training and new curricula in secondary - graduate school
)

3. The Commission plans will develop implementation priorities for the 3 years into your first term, and following on scenarios for the next 5 years. Overall, an eight year the timeline for transforming America.

4. Plan and implement a Public Works jobs program with preference for workers with families.

4. Promote, plan and issue bonds for public investment in these programs.

5. Immediately implement and staff a permanent Oversight Commission to review programs and progress and develop objectives benchmarks.

with these few steps the Office of the Presdient will have at her touvh the apparatus for looking at America, seeing where America needs to improve and assuring the well-being, educaton and security of all Americans into the rest of the first half of this century.

Election 2016: Trump's Alter Ego. An Election Song For America...Pale the Moon and Dark the night, Coyote howls and laughs in delight, life so full, of sheep so many, so fat, so easy

"A Player at Play". Or, "Trump Over-cums all". Yup.

Donald Trump. (OP, 'Original Player', 'Orange Pimpin', 'BC' - big Con, etc., take your pick.) Donald Trump is America's 'Trickster', a 'Master Manipulator'. A more impolite term (but appropriate), and especially if one is deeply appalled by his lack of moral compass(as is the case with most of us where Trump is concerned), is to say he is straight out 'Pimpin Don'. Take your pick. (This blogger prefers in private to use 'OP' - 'Orange Pimpin')

'OP'. 'OP' is always hard...and ready for the next score...or grope. (RIP, 'Easy'). But, what is real and what is hype? 'Why, that's the 'con', Chickies!'

But Trump has loyalties, if not scruples. He knows where buttered bread lays - why, right here in America. Trump even has a song he sings to America before, during and after each Pimpin' play:

'Pale the Moon and Dark the Night, Coyote Howls and Laughs with Delight, Life is Breezy, So Many Sheep, So Fat, So Easy' - 'OP's' song for America.

There is much for OP to sing about, this 2016 election is special, much tasty lambs to trick, much fame-hungry girls to grope.

Where are the American satirists to give meaning in razor edged words to this 2016 election feast?

There was Mencken , or Paul Krassner ...but ,imho, the better eye on the 2016 political circus would be Hunter Thompson (RIP, Hunter, wish you were still around...things have slimed beyond bizarre...and there's no one left on this orb who's been closer to living Hell than you...Please, beg 'mercy' for us still here.)

But...what's going on, America, in 2016?

Well,...'Election 2016', is like the farcical performance'Act' in the American tragi-comedy..and this Act belongs to 'Trickster'. Yes, OP is the clever Buffoon, the Falstaff, the Pantagruel, the Sancho Panza. But he, the Master of Trickery is also at the same time their polar doppelganger, their Henry V, their Gargantua, their Don Quixote. This is the ultimate Trump trick. Because, underneath that synth-chem dye job is the grinning, glassy eyed Zombie, the soul-less ánti’įhnii. Believe. America, be woke and learn.

'OP' will lose the election but he will 'make big bank'...do not doubt that.

Every culture throughout human history has recognized the 'Trickster' element in us. (And has usually links this 'quality' with an animal behavior - usually the Fox. (See Note #1, below.)

But...what's going on in 2016, America? Bleak days and dark nights. Confusion, anger. Blame and blaming abound, but no time to look close. Hands are wrung and spirits flagg. Ma'il, the Navaho trickster coyote, lopes over far hills. Loki the Norse trickster smirks. Irish Leprechauns giggle and hide their little pointy teeth. Hawaiian Menehune...well, they bark in disbelief how easy the sheep fall.

Look closely. Do you SEE Trump's 'shadow' in what's happening now? Many peoples in many times and places have seen and named what is Trump.

A fitting time for Trump, The Orange Flash,'Original Player' ('Orangish Pimpin') to go out to prey... constantly changing costumes from one to another of the Trickster's many forms. As the Navaho 'Ma'il', he sniffs and laughs. As the Norseman's Loki, his nose twitches in the blood on the wind. Trickster presents in all of his forms and masks.

Coyote shivers with happy anticipation. Salivates. His purse snapping open, hungry for gain.

No matter the bleakest day and darkest night, Coyote howls and laughs with delight. Adjusts the night's mask. So much a Player's heart to warm, to fatten the purse with the thin coin of others, so many sheep, so easy.

Life is Good for Orangish Pimpin'. Game is on. The 80s are forgotten and left to the past...so much P..ssy to grope. (They'll get over those awkward tapes, especially with the sacrificial lamb slaughtered and consumed, 'Thank you, Billy'.)

Hear! If, you haven't yet figured it out, Trump is a true Jungian Archetype. America's 'Treasure' from tiny feet and hands to flaming crop. (Maybe more, the Leprechaun, but that's a matter of opinion.)

He's America's 'Trickster" from the deepest dark corners of the human psyche. He's the midnight rider wearing many masks and riding his choice from many of his 'Caballos' (his Vodou horses).

Believe and be 'woke', this 'Trump' is dark s...t ('Stuff', not), and what is seen is not real. And what is revealed is not all. He's good. What 'Orisha' is presenting through Trump depends on what gain is possible and what 'Trick' is in play.

Some of Trickter's other masks are:

Huli jing (Fox spirit) and Nezha and Red Boy (China), Sun Wukong (Monkey King)Raven (British Columbia Cheyenne), Huehuecoyotl (Aztec), Menehune & Kapua (Hawaiian), San Martin Txiki (Basque), Iktomi (Lakota)...

And there is the terrifying, bloody-mouthed 'Papa' Legba (Baron Samedi)' (Haiti Vodou and Santera).

America knows these names, tho' we have learned to keep them from our conscious thoughts...such is the power of assimilation. But they are names logged into the collective memories of the great American cultural melting pot.

Learn these names, America, they belong to our collective heritages, the heritages we;ve been taught to forget...to our loss. Learn them again, they will help us to understand who or what is mugging us in the future, maybe as soon as tomorrow.

To us, in the 21st Century, Trump is the 'Original Player'. He is the 'trick bag' and takes nothing seriously, flouting society's norms, and laughing at our inconsequential complaining with his posturing and fakery.

America, since campaigning started, haven't you seen enough of Trump's moves to recognize the Con? What is it that you can't see? Can't believe? Can it be possible that what's troubling is 'the nature of Trump's game'? Is that 'What's troubling us? "Baaa".

And on these dark nights in America, Coyote lopes on and over the hills. Howling, Laughing with anticipatory delight, Life so breezy, So many sheep, So easy.

Notes:
1/ "Trickster" Names in Global and Historical Culture:

Ma'il and ánti’įhnii (Navaho),'Renard' (French}, Loki (Norse), Scratch (Anglo Saxon), Kokopelli and Iwutstiku (Hopi), Brer' Rabbit (Uncle remus, African-American), Orishas red-cloaked Elegua and Chango(Afro-Yoruba-Cuban), Anansi (Ghana, Caribbean), Morgan Le Fay (Welsh), Eris (classical Greece), Laverna (Roman), Leprechaun and Lugh and Lugh Chromain (Celtic, Ireland)

There are many more.

Election 2016: Did Trump Really Put "Nasty Woman" Out There? The Donald be Gaming? For Sure. (Or, The Advent of Hip-Hop Politics). Plus, 'Watch out for Them Chickens, GOP'ers, - After Defunding and Watering Down National Education, They Do Come Home to Roost'

Did the Donald really put "Nasty Woman" on Hillary? Yup he did!. At Debate 3 of election 2016 (held in 'Vegas', no less), Donald Trump (aka DT ('The Donald'), aka OP ('Orange Pimpin'), aka 'Scratch' aka 'The Vegas Flash') described Hillary Clinton as a 'Nasty Woman'.

And Donald Trump's future after-election rape, er' 'reaping', of mega-profits from his Presidential 'run' will surely happen, especially helped along with that 'Nasty' thing. And American media-culture will cooperate fully (and get it's share of profits, of course).

Thema:
With "Nasty Woman", DT has 'done did it'. He has introduced into American politics a new meme ("Nasty") and inaugurated (his only inauguration) a new American politico-cultura era - an era where heretofore serious American Presidential politics is now melded with pop culture (R&B, Disco-Hip-Hop and soul)...and made American politics easily accessible to and 'Grokked' (also made vulnerable?) by the watered down (dumbed down?) American intellect.

Listen closely and learn, GOP'ers, 'watch out for them chickens - after defunding and generally ignoring national education, they do come home to roost'.

"Nasty Woman". What? Mercy! Heavens! What did he say? Wha' he say? 'He say What?' That boy crazzah! Ole Scratch done did it again!!

My,my! But is what's bothering 'us' (the Media and some viewers and readers) the nature of Trumps game?

Really, OP is just a left-over, over-tinted, disco prince from the 80s. So "Nasty Woman" (ref. Janet Jackson's hit single, 'Nasty' on her 1986 hit album, 'Control') has been imbedded in his skull just waiting to slide on out at an appropriate moment. Of course, to give 'props' to Prince and 'Vanity 6' (1982),Nasty Girl' should also be referenced. (Unlike now, OP was a 'biiiig' player in the 80s when he was friends with all the Players (Bros, too) in lower and upper Manhattan!) Now, of course, his playing is done at his WPB digs...at least in public.

But 'retorno a thema'. Predictably, that Debate-3 'Trump moment'(as, master gamer that he is, he no doubt intended) has caused much turmoil in America. And for OP the turmoil he causes means 'bank' - the Media is in frenzy and there is an outcry from the women's movement. (And Janet Jackson is salivating over the coming sales from the resurrection of 'Nasty". 'OP' sees much coin coming down the slot.

Most ironically, 'Nasty', combined with Janet's album, 'Control', must have been a double-coded message to OP's 'Yuge' following of womens:

'What' say you DT haters? Word, nay - OP is talking to his women, who are all women who deserve respect,
'I, DT, the 'OP' am speaking in code to you womens,...what your ears hear as dissing this lovely lady facing me is really 'props' to all fem-hood, 'Word' again! (And let's make 'Monay', my dears.)

So, let's not jump hasty. Give 'OP' some slack for again out thinking the herd. ...and keeping his eye on what is real in all of this...that 'Monay'! The OP does not never let go of focus, learn that. Especially for just a 450,000 (USD) Washington, DC gig...when there is much more to the game for a smart Player. And OP is that.

With 'Nasty', DT spoke from the heights of his genius (or in ADHD condition on all cylinders ... or whatever health or substance issue has made for his sniffles).

In that exalted state, 'OP' spoke both to the squares, and in code for all the Players, when he laid 'Nasty Woman' on Hillary. Creds, 'OP'! OP was not speaking to Hillary Clinton but to send the message to his posse to watch and learn.

Note well, Players and grasshoppers, debutantes, Marco Rubio and other GOP 'masks', this blogger used 'DT' then 'OP'. (Who knows what or who speaks from those heights, but put it together.)

Now, no major-demographic male uses 'Nasty Woman' and carries it off except for Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson - both of whom have earned much 'cred' for living real all their lives - and having too much sense to run for President, despite they have no fears of anything life can throw at them,. (RIP and respect, Johnny.)

But DT is allowed space on using this word because he has shown much courage to actually run for President while he was unprepared, no experience in public office and generally speaking, unqualified.

But DT has done himself proper by chasing away the GOP 99% establishment, highjacking the party, laying out almost no 'Monay' and generally having a most good time doing all these things - in other words, righteously 'representing' all players and down-with-it'nasty women' (all 'nasty women' think on that). For these accomplishments, DT has to be recognized as a genuine 'Player'. ('Props' to you, DT. i.e., BOP aka Big Orange Pimpin')')

Now BOP is a bit grey in the temples to 'Ball' with the bros, but with 'Nasty' he let us know he's still got 'game'!

As for "Nasty".

With'Nasty', DT was shaking a flag to all his fellow 'Players':

"Hey, no biggy, Wiggy, here's word to let ya' know your boy is in tha' house..and rocking out...these clowns (with a JB rhythm riff). After this small time farce, let's go for a 'yac attack' and do some real partying. What say we shake it down away from this small time money, while we think on making this politics thing into some real 'Monay'. ('I got a lead on some big bank about starting a media company after the November day")

With "Nasty", DT has opened the gate to let in a new meme and introduced a new American politico-cultura era - an era where heretofore serious American playtime, Presidential politics, is melded with pop culture and made accessible (also vulnerable?) to the watered down (dumbed down?) American intellect. GOP chickens, defunding national education, come home to roost.

But back to BOP's game. BOP got much media coverage without spending hardly anything. Plus, he guaranteed he won't be elected - all of this is part of BOP's 'Master Plan' to maximize the after-election profits from his Play in 'The President Game'.

BOP's after-election rape, er' reaping', of mega-profits from his Presidential 'run' will happen, American media-culture will make sure of it.

Election 2016: Trump as Performance: Operas Buffa (Falstaff ) and Tragedy (Lear) With Some Gatsby Thrown In - Starring Villains and Buffoons, and Wolves and Lambs, and Despots and Martyrs.....but Few Genuine Heroes (Except Warren and Sanders Who Were Squeezed Out Like Good Money)

I've found a new style device for lazy bloggers - repeating at the beginning of a post, the post's conclusion after stream-of-consciousness drafting (because I'm not a professional writer).

Is it appropriate to say that Donald Trump is a 'retro-1920s-Gatsby ala F Scot Fitzgerald'?

I kind of buy into this comparison. Trump can sometimes seem a 'modern' Gatsby because of his 'flash' and glitzy 'armament' which he is not shy to boast about. But this 'retro-ness' is not a true synthesis of current and Gatsbyan types because he has carried out the Gatsbyan charade for so long without crashing. (But Trump's financial reality might reveal that DT is indeed a reincarnate Gatsby, who knows?)

But where DT does resemble Fitzgerald's 'Gatsby' is DT's quality of 'superfluosity ....an even exaggerated superfluosity marked by glitzy, overdone tastes in material possessions (large, 'neo-pharonic' buildings) and blonde, superficially adorned, physically endowed women who he touts for all to hear about... even when he is describing his own daughter. Yet all these outward signs of success carry with them, or emit, a somewhat 'off' fragrance like a person wearing a not-quite fitted suit, purchased bespoke from a good, though not top tier, tailor. Also, a person wearing a strange, ill-fit, badly dyed hairpiece that turns out to be real hair!

This might sound unfair and a bit unkind so I will end this introduction to the Preface by saying, 'Just as some complain about the seeming plastic, impervious surface Hillary presents and compare her lack of projection with Trump's 'out-there-for-all-to-see', we don't really know who lives inside Trump's bluster and energy...but from what is implied, if there is something beneath Trump's flash and glitz, there might not be much to like...and much to run from in abject fear. DT might make for good literature but let not him become President...that's too real for comfort.

And, just as, for some, Hillary appears to be emotionally monochromatic, Trump appears to have successfully substituted money for morality...or maybe, just as likely, Trump didn't have to substitute for morality because morality was maybe never there.

All of this is to say that this election, taken willy-nilly with no regard for consequences, is highly entertaining like a retro Louis-Schmelling heavyweight boxing match of the 1930s. But this election also seems simultaneously vacuous and lacking in substance - this election lacks an energy of vision that a thinking person can bite into, and yet the stakes are so high:

we can't seem to free ourselves from special interests (profitable status quo corporations) to tackle global climate warming with threat of rising sea levels flooding significant portions of all coasts; America's up-to-the-neck self-entrapment in an out-of-date and endangering oil economy (and energy base), our racial impasse, our Congressional paralysis left-over from the Civil War (no, from the pre-Civil War, Clay-Calhoun states' rights debates that were never resolved, etc.

It seems that after 160 years America hasn't been able to shake off it's demons that caused the Civil War and has prevented America from moving on. Kindly speaking, Trump represents going back to the 1830's and reclaiming states rights (embodied in the 'Alt-Right' catch-bag of neo-confederate, hooded thug, revisionists who have glombed onto Trump like roaches around rotten meat).

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton seems to represent continuing 'partnering'('coddling'?) of government cozying up to big banks and big corporations - just about anything big and making money. Let's hope a 'mandate'election win for her will free Hillary from these chains.

Meanwhile, the interests of working America are stuck in a no-man's land yet America has little time and maybe no remaining chances to resolve this problem.

PREFACE:
First, I am an opera fan and despite my 'run-now!' aversion to TD (Tricky Dick), "Nixon in China" (Adams, 1987) is an opera I like very much. (My fav operas are "Norma" (Bellini, 1831) with of course Joan Sutherland, and Mozart's (1786) "Marriage of Figaro". In a good year, I can enjoy a 'Der Ring..')

But to the point of this, I see real opera material in the tragi-comedic figure of Donald Trump. What might be a title for an opera about Trump? Hmmmm, maybe ...'Vice is Nice but Retribution is like a Tidal Wave', ...or something. Trump will someday be an American literary tragi-hero, if he is not elected, or if elected, an American icon of a post-modern monster...as his hypothetical Presidency will so f...k up the world... (that's just the way Trump rolls).

So on to this 'thing' ("Thing' being a memic, Bush I word that this 2016 election process seems to have resurrected from the '80s).

So, here it is, the repeated 'finale', and of course it's all about Donald Trump who this blogger feels is an iconic, living fossil, example of 20th Century Americana at this stage of its decline, or at its cusp of a needed self-transformation whose occurrence is yet to fade away unconsummated. Note: this blog post has lain in draft form for more than a month because I felt it's premise, that Donald Trump is a genuine American comedic-tragedy - a Falstaffian Fool, yes, but more, a genuine 'American Psycho-Bright Lights- Ellisian-McInerny character flesh-rendered from the '80s,...and destined (doomed) to walk amongst us as a modern, living, walking, sniffin' (Debate #1) tragedy. And Trump is easily recognized - from his actual 1980s, days of sparkle and libido - as a shadow character in Tom Wolfe's, 'Bonfire of the Vanities' (1987). Trump is real, just 30 years out of date - he really believes his 'style' of 'courtship' is ....what ever he believes.

And if G.. is kind, 'It' will find the time and inclination to save America from a Trump Presidency.

This article's conclusion, post-Debate #1:

Trump (The Donald, DT, OD (Our Donald),'Scratch' (from Stephen Vincent Benet's 1936,'The Devil and Dan Webster') is a post-modern, but time-revisted Shakespeare-Quixotish-Rabelaisian-Shelley-Bram Stokerish monster-buffon ala Falstaff, Pantagruel,Sancho Panza and straight-man sidekick Don Quixote, Shelley's monster, Henry !V and V, Count Dracula,Philip K Dickian lamenting cyborg,and the all-time modern monster-tragedy icon - Richard Don't-kick-me-again-but-if-you-must-I-know-how-you-feel-I'm-such-a-fool-mama-said Nixon). Buffoonish and over-exaggerated but at the same time tragically out of date and worse, worth attention from our entertainment-warped culture that morphs serious sh..t with laughs.

Donald Trump, or should one say, 'Trumpism, (or maybe both) will be discussed and parsed for many years to come. One could guess that future times will look back on 'Trump' as the nadir of American or even global politics before the renaissance of government for the people, or 'Trump' will be seen as the peak of American capitalist-democracy, or democratic capitalism, before the Great Fall. Writing about the Trump phenomenon is as challenging a struggle as Trump himself is to 'see' clearly - he is this or that, seemingly changeable at a moment's notice ..or with no notice or logical pre-disposition. Trump is as close to an embodiment of the neither-here-nor-there 'Cheshire Cat' as anything yet seen outside of a theoretical physics construct.

So, after one of Trump's non-sensical detours from normalcy ('normalcy' being, relatively speaking for Mr Trump, only a bit less scary than full on psychotic), one is driven to ask,

'Is Trump real?'

To that self-posed question, one is also self-driven to respond,

'Trump is as real as I feel about him ight now, but I don't know how I might feel about him tomorrow,... but probably worse.'

So,after this preamble, this lead-in to what is almost universally acknowledged (despite harsh disagreements about the person) about Trumpism being a genuine and significant American phenomenon, this blogger comes to the nub of this post:

'Trump' and all the irrational trappings surrounding the person - the lore, exaggerations, psychological analyses and theories about him and about his supporters and his non-supporters-but-tolerators, and about his country and about his culture and about his political-economic backdrop,...Trumpism as embodied by Donald Trump the person, is and will be for a looo-ong time a fertile compost of 'guano' (a pile of bird shit for political satirists) or the highest quality 'Green Thumb Fertilizer' for the boutique gardener of the left (i.e., Ivy League scholars and psycho-analysts), or the rallying cry of the (cranially deformed, hmmm shouldn't say that), ecstatic-drenched extreme right. Take your choice.

There will be plays, songs, short stories, off-broadway pieces, and lengthy (serious) works created to express the inner wonderment many thinkers will hve for Trump the man and Trumpism of which Donald Trump is but one minor god's badly or well-done creative example, depending on one's point-of-view.

But only a few of future devotees and scholars will clearly understand how Trump and Trumpism is all of 'us'. 'Us' being the totality of America - our nation, our culture(s), regions and each person residing in America.

How every person residing in America, legal and illegal, contributes in deed or story to our collective esprit and body. As an example, it is fitting for a discussion of 'Trumpism' to mention illegal immigrants are demonized by Trump (supposedly demonized, if one is to go only by his words rather than by who he hires to do the gardening and cooking at his Florida mansion); yet these supposedly (in the Trumpian world) extraneous, worthless and demon-folk play significant and mostly positive roles in the portrayal of America's cultural memes, i.e., the illegal immigrants of especially Mexican origin have a somewhat 'uber' work ethic ...which in America is comical!

So, to the finale: Trump (The Donald, DT, OD (Our Donald),'Scratch' (from Stephen Vincent Benet's 1936,'The Devil and Dan Webster') a post-modern, but time-revisted Shakespeare-Shelley-Bram Stokerish monster (Falstaff, Shelley's monster, Henry !V and V, Count Dracula,Philip K Dickian's lamenting cyborgs ('Blade Runner' ex 'Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?',and the all-time modern monster-tragedy icon - Richard Don't-kick-me-again-but-if-you-must-I-know-how-you-feel-I'm-such-a-fool-mama-said Nixon.

Election 2016: The First Debate, September 26, 2016 - Didn't She Rumble, Children

The First Debate. What's that song line, 'Didn't she rumble, children, didn't she roll over that ...."

Well, something like that. You get my meaning. As I commented post debate, September 26, 2016, in the DailyKos webzine (She.Just.Destroyed.Him),

'
pericleswrites Sep 26 · 08:59:14 PM
Have to feel a kind of merciful regard for DT as he fades away, he really didn’t do it (the debate). With Hillary going full detail, quant and prepared, DT came across almost less than amateurish. Two things: 1, it was kinda nice over the past 10 months to see the working man for once in a long time (second Roosevelt?) have a mouthpiece even though DT from the start was destined to crash and never seriously shared or understood the interests of the working ‘man’; 2, it’s all on Hillary now, the country needs a boost in just the points she won the debate on — a major make-over for America: energy, infrastructure, education funding for college attendance for everyone, a completion of the healthcare start under Obama, to start. Hillary’s tasks will cost but America is falling apart (like Trump said) but Trump is not the one to carry it off. Trump is an off-the-cuff idea person not suited for the day-to-day over the long term. Hillary is that person. Just pray she gives it all she has...it might be the last chance for America.

Some points about the Debate and its surrounding context:

1/ The Debate unmasked Trump as a substance-missing rabble rouser whose bite is toothless without the rebel yells of his usual xenophobic (all-phobic actually, except white males) audience.
2/ The Debate, for me, unveiled Hillary to actually be the person her job resume indicates - poised, assured, measured, expert and subtle, Senator and top administrator (Secretary of State, 8 Years).
3/ God save the American worker. Trump is proved not the messiah of, but the exploiting scallywag seeking to make not points but money off his adopted championing the working 'man'.
4/ Hillary still seems less than a heartfelt visionary (mission driven) of a better future for 'work' in America than a perhaps superb administrator.
5/ 'What are you hiding?'. Indeed what is Trump hiding? Do we even need to know now that we know whatever "It" is, the mere alluding to "It's" existence has already caused Trump terminal irritation and visible emotional distress. Point made, Hillary.
6/ Emails. Catch a clue - the '30,000' emails (probably a Trump exaggeration) were handled by a closely-held service provider...via directive. Hillary has nothing to do with their handling, retention or privacy. She's not sweating anything.
7/ All in all, though, if Hillary wins the grand election on November 8, I believe America will be in the hands of the better candidate.

Future Debates. Trump shot his wad, nothing left. Hillary do deftly neutralized the email issue, there's practically nothing left he can prepare himself to attack, but if Trump does not back out from future debates, Hillary should simply do a 'clean up' job and essentially erase Trump the minds of all voters except the die-hard Trumpists. But, again, once in office Hillary must attend to transforming the economic and general life-quality of the American worker.

Election 2016: About HILLARY ("The other is psychotic".)

About HILLARY ("...the other is psychotic."). Michael Tomasky put it well in his Sept 19, 2016, piece in the DailyBeast site, An Open Letter to Swing Voters Still Considering Donald Trump.

There's not much one can add to Mike's blurb to emphasize the choice in the coming 2016 election.

Election 2016: Are We Post Racial America when White Pimps Run for President? 'Pimpin' Might be Easy' (DTrump)

This is a tough world and to make it really big in America takes a hero's effort. So it used to go. Now, it is maybe more appropriate to say, 'this world is bat-s..t crazy and getting crazier, but there is a high ground we might all look for before it, too, is swallowed up.' So, let's get to it.

By coincidence, and after this blog was posted, this blogger happened upon a striking cartoon in OpedNews webzine submitted by Shawn Hamilton,'The PIMPS, a Cartoon by Ralph Hamilton'. Ralph Hamilton was a caucasian, WW2 Combat pilot (1918-1999) who rendered his concept of the American 'PIMPS system' as described to him by Ralph Hamilton's impressions after a 1981 Dick Gregory speech. Dick Gregory, a notable African-American, has since 1953 continued to speak out as one of the most iconic satirists of American cultural-politics. Gregory's 1981,'PIMPS' described an evolved stage beyond Eisenhower's 'Military-Industrial Complex:

PIMPS = Political, Industrial, Military Power Syndicate (1981, Dick Gregory).

Here is Ralph Hamilton's drawing of Dick Gregory's 1981 spoken image of the American political PIMPS (Political, Industrial, Military Power Syndicate):

The essence of Mr Gregory's and Mr Hamilton's melding of thought is thoroughly shared by Pericles21 who had heretofore felt this post was perhaps stepping out a bit far applying the 'title' of "Pimp" to Mr Trump, one of the current two presidential candidates. This blogger feels not only relieved and bolstered learning the ideas expressed in this post is shared by so esteemed an observer of American cultural-politics as Dick Gregory.

Pericles21 takes the further step in extracting one of Ralph Hamilton's 'PIMPS' characters as the dopplegang of Donald Trump (the resemblance seems uncanny, but a Pimp is a known thing):

So, onward.

WHO SAID IT:
Like a pimp, pimping his target and forthwith bragging about his next bling-grab (as Pimps and pimpin' cons do), Trump, in 2000 predicted, “I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it...”, (Fortune, April 3, 2000). Hear that silken tonality like from a true 'Player', feel it?. GSA.

Classically American - in 2000, Trump felt he might one day run for President. But, more importantly, that was a 'Fortune' piece and Fortune does not waste print on just any Bozo, usually. So, what might Fortune have noted in April 2000 that might we read and be educated or warned about Trump today?

Well, back in 2000, Fortune indeed noted some important things about Donald Trump that we today should be mindful of. For one, Fortune noted that Trump had "far outlasted" many celebs of the fab '80s but Trump survived with his celebrity status intact. On the other hand, although he came through strangely:

"without any discernible personal growth. Like a cryogenically frozen Austin Powers, he stands as an almost perfectly preserved specimen of the era".

Then, and tellingly for an understanding of his current persona, he still comes across in 2000 as

"an unreconstructed hedonist"

That takes some doing...'disco inferno' lives on?

And about Trump's love of, in current lingo, 'Bling', in 2000 Fortune said:

"Trump’s mandarin tastes and almost sensual love of money can seem a refreshing throwback. “I, personally, like feeling the asset,” (Trump)

But what was perhaps the most surprising Fortune information in 2000, was Trump's relationship with minorities - Trumpster was 'in like Flynn' with just about everyone:

"In an 800-person survey conducted by Democratic pollster Rob Schroth, Trump scored a 67% favorable rating among blacks (vs. 21% unfavorable), 62% among Hispanics, and 66% among whites earning under $25,000,..."

'Wha happened' with Trump and the bros, with the muslims, with women? One answer 'seems' likely...and note the use of 'seems'...this blogger is one of the vast many who can't read minds and doesn't really want to know what might be in Trump's head...but the potential answer is Trump sussed out his political future and saw the quick con which required him to drop the bros and muslims, and upstart women. And, since he was going that way, why not include Mexicans, etc?

So, we are here today...and about to face-off with the made-over Trump...whose new 'base' is virtually all-majority race (white). Trump is the new hero of the self-isolated, rebuilt, purged and whacky so-called Republican 'phenomenon' ('phenomenon' since Republicans no longer have a real Party...Trump chased them all away like bug-sprayed ants at the company picnic).

But, we've used some word space, tho' for good reason. Now, in 2016, we see the wonderful transformation Trump has imposed on himself, which his new supporters have swallowed 'foot, line and nipple'.

And all to implement the Trumpster's big score. 'Watch out', America.

This is a tough world and to make it really big in America takes a hero's effort. And Trump made the effort and is now poised to drop a bomb.

Or pull off a pimp's con. Only the smartest, or the crookedest, or the most insane, or the biggest pimpin' cheat and exploiter can join up with the 'club' of American business success. And Donald Trump ('DT', OD (our Donald), 'Scratch'(as tagged by Hillary's 'deplorable', Big Pimpin') is allegedly a member of that club, and now he wants to grab the furriest pimp hat by getting the American Presidency by pulling off the biggest scam yet perpetrated on Barnum's gullible American public.

Even though his mega projects too often fall through eventually, and his suppliers and sub-contractors too often are stiffed, OD (Scratch, DT, The Deplorable One, etc) will show 'em all by 'pulling the wool' again. In OD's mind, he must be thinking 24/7, 'They're wrong. Fools are always ready to be fooled again ...somebody's gonna do it, so why not me'.

Trump is not racist, it's just that he's a closeted pimp searching for respect and wonders why his New York City, 8th Avenue 'cuz's' (the brotherhood of pimps) are always getting more TV 'props' as iconic characters, than himself. Trump feels he is disadvantaged by being not-Black so he takes it out on that club he can never be a member of by virtue of skin color, African-Americans. But have no doubt, behind that Orangeness Trump is a true American product, a quintessential street pimp: he's got the flair, he's got the hair, he's always first at the table, and he's got the 'stable' (which he constantly brags about and flashes in front of interviewers and television cameras like a pimp's 3 carat, Zircon thumb ring).

With these tools, and a mind like a 3 dollar ..., Trump can play his positions like a true pimp exploiter. 'America, the land of milk and honey, be proud of your boy, OD.'

Trump can creep along pretending to be what others 'see' (a maybe-successful, majority race businessman). Meanwhile, in his mind and heart, he is smirking at the gullibility of just about everyone he dupes and cheats. In other words. a pimp up to no good.

But, to Trump, duping others is no sin on his part, it's god's way of punishing the stupid,...right? The are the dupes and to balance things off, there must be the 'dupers' - that's just natural.

Our Trump feels he is a tool of divine purpose and he strives to be the best at his role, The Top Dup-er. Big Pimpin'. And 'No, pimpin can be easy'. If you have what it takes, you can not only win but run the table... again, and again and again...

Not a doubt. Trump probably begins each day reciting (mentally, of course), the pimp's mantra - that of the 80s master rapper of American Hip-Hop, 'Dougie Fresh'...and our Donald sings to himself, it goes something like this,

'Woke up this mornin, with a morning yawnin, put on my Gucci's' ...

...on and on our Donald serenades as he pumps up for the day's exploitations, hmmm challenges.

And our Donald, properly attired and cologned with the best, goes out to beat, err rip, err meet... the world.

Today, OD will try to pull off a scheme he dreamt - to see if regulators have fallen asleep about preventing cycling campaign funds to personal use. OD has to keep up a 'face' of non-chalance as he slices off a couple of hundred 'thou' for socks and new shoes (get's them bespoke in England, don'cha know).

And behold, OD's magic holds tight. No questions asked. The regulators are fast asleep and are mesmerized by his smile behind all that smile and impressive glitz.

'Lo', 'Flash' does it again. OD rips off, err achieves a business success, what regulators and analysts are finally catching a clue about - OD has ripped off 8.2 Million dollars paying personal expenses from his campaign collections (Politico webzine, September 22, 2016).

Does this unveiling faze OD? Of course not. The con's hustle and flow never stops. Chickens are just waiting to hop in the pan. So is OD's philosophy.

Lesson, 'pimpin' can be easy. And lesson number 2, 'What's gone today can be conned tomorrow'.

Repeat after me, 'WHO SAID IT?, “I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,”' Oh Yeah, we know who!
-

Election 2016: "Deplorable": Hillary Clinton Tags Trump with a Word from the Heartland (Trump as 'Old Scratch')

“Deplorable". Hillary Clinton called out DTrump as "Deplorable". And it is a righteous thing.

With this seemingly simple word spoken as from an Iowa front porch, though now claimed as cleverly chosen, Hillary Clinton tagged Donald Trump as a "Deplorable' (SOB). And DT will wear it like the Devil, whom Dan’l Webster debated in the classic American short story, wears "Scratch" The Devil and Daniel Webster, (1936, Stephen Vincent Benet),. Indeed, DTrump is deplorable and DTrump should, as well, wear the tag, "Scratch". Besides, Keith Olbermann calls Trump, a "Demonic Messiah"!

Why has 'deplorable' emerged from the cloud-mass of seemingly-ordinary American vocabulary to cause such consternation in the DT camp (no longer properly referable to as 'Republican' because DT chased the bulk of Republicans, as we've known them since Nixon, out and away from their cozy, pork barrel (and lobbyist-golden parachute) 'public service' nests and to Hell where they stand in trembling fear and confusion.

And why is there in Hillary's camp a growing nodding among her doubters and cheering among her constant supporters? (Read Murfster35's piece in the DailyKos webzine.)

For starters, look at the symptoms resulting from tagging DT with "Deplorable" - the confused running in circles of her opponents. Even Mike Pence, Trump's choice for running-mate and knee-jerk to the alt-right, can't seem to find a comeback to 'Deplorable'...and this blogger has a theory 'why' - truth (Hillary's use of 'Deplorable') can't be rebutted by DT-Pence's blatant falsity or anything from anyone else in the bastardized, neo-Repub party.

And, BTW, who is Mike Pence? And, what is the 'Alt-right'?

Here are Trump and Pence in a recent but classic and appropriate 'Abbott and Costello' pose where the question is, as was with Abbot and Costello in their 1940s comedy films, 'Who's the real dummy?'):

And here is Abbot and Costello from the 1940s, (What a resemblance!):

Again,'Who's the real dummy?


Some features of Mike Pence the Indiana governor, probably chosen for the gleam on his eye shutters that he robbed from an Indiana mule, 'Mike Pence slowly learning his political future is dead':

And what is 'alt-right? It is, in an abbreviated list:

alt-right is a segment of right-wing ideologies presented as an alternative to mainstream conservatism in the United States.[1][2] It has been described as a movement unified by support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump,[3][4] as well as by opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.[2][5]

The alt-right has no official ideology, although various sources have said that it is associated with white nationalism,[1][2][6] white supremacism,[3][7][8] antisemitism,[1][2][9] right-wing populism,[6] nativism,[10] and the neoreactionary movement.[7][11]

And this is the 'APB" on the Trump-highjacked Republican Party...where 'Scratch'(DT) runs the show.

So, let's start to refer to DTrump as, "Scratch', the bald-liar One that Dan'l Webster successfully argued against.

But now to the point of all this.

As a top achieving Yale Law grad (after a Wellesley BA, for god’s sake) and wife of a two term President and a two term Secretary of State under another two term President, Hillary Clinton surely had a vast vocabulary at her command to use to pin DTrump ('Scratch') like a fly to a wall.

Instead Hillary used, in the first hour or so after hearing it, what sounded like a harmless sounding descriptor, “Deplorable’.

What? Was that the best Hillary could come up with...and what exactly was Hillary about, "Deplorable" seems so out of place in today’s charged media atmosphere? But after a few more hours, ‘deplorable’ still hung around one’s brain and it’s power began to take shape...and indeed, ‘deplorable’ continues to grow in force.

What is it about ‘Deplorable’ that makes it hang and swell in the air?

It is that ‘Deplorable’ speaks from the ‘Heartland’ of America, as from a current Dan’l Webster or in the manner of Joseph Welch who called out Joe McCarthy, “have you no sense of decency...” in the McCarthy-Army hearings of 1954 — McCarthy Hearings, 1954).

"Deplorable' speaks from the language base which the 'Trumpists', and all of America, knows and responds to. 'Scratch' could, and can never use words of that kind of truth because he and his minions are through and through False, fake surface dross.

“Deplorable’ strips Trump to nakedness and renders with a finality him and his behavior as unworthy to stand among responsible adults. No wonder Pence tries awkwardly, but unsuccessfully, to dance away and around that seemingly simple term because ’Deplorable’ rings as authentically American, and Scratch is not authentic — at best Scratch is a clown, a fool, even.

DTrump was called out in the olde language of America’s regions - East, West, South and North...and has been named as 'Scratach' who merits no place among responsible adults and all Americans. Hillary Clinton tagged the Devil.

Election 2016: Trump and Our Post-McLuhan Madness..That the Democrats Can't Handle...But Must to Save Our Asses

The Democrats' stubborn hubris about proper English and 'good behavior' might win the election for Trump. Maybe if Trump successfully dodges a debate with Hillary Clinton, the Dems might hold an 'in absentia' mock debate paid for entirely by Democrat money - Trump's responses would come from his actual public statements on pertinent subjects, his statements presented in full context, of course.

This post responds to a recent commenting article in the Dailykos website regarding Donald Trump's apparent dread of a prime-time TV-debate with Hillary Clinton, 'Trump Announces His Debate Escape Plan'(Dailykos, july 29, 2016, by 'Brainwap').

Point: Making sense ‘makes no sense’ nowadays. Catch the clue — we’re in a post-McLuhanist age of personal tube projection that transcends Marshall’s “medium is the message” to now where mere media presence, especially when accompanied by extreme emoting, outweighs words.

Mr. Trump has figured out, or it comes naturally (as with many historical demagogues/psychopaths), his rants contain emotional messages and codes that swamp his opponents' nicely phrased logic and Websterian correctness.

Trump's words don’t matter, his words are the new medium serving only as carrier waves for Trump’s emotional displays that win with their ‘’Shock and Awe-some Impact’. 'INCOHERENCE, NON-SEQUITORS, GARBLED NON-SENSE'? So what!

Sadly, the Democrats squint and wince at Trump (’Trump-don’t-buy-ins) and keep parsing Trump’s words, trying to convince him into self-deprecating acceptance of our use of superior word-knowledge that (we feel)sets us apart from the 'masses'….while he skips along unchallenged in another stratum where his blue collar and many, just plain dissatisfied (Bernie followers) audiences resonate to his emotions and non-literal messages. Holding on to the Democrats' stubborn hubris might win the election for Trump.

Election 2016: Hillary Chooses Tim Kaine for VP, Lets The Sun Shine In -- And Satirist "Borowitz" Peels Back the Banana

Ala Andy Borowitz ('Borowitz Report', New Yorker, July 24, 2016, "SEEMINGLY DECENT HUMAN BEING’S INVOLVEMENT IN 2016 ELECTION CONFUSES VOTERS"):

The man’s [Tim Kaine] apparent humanity could spell trouble for his candidacy, as some voters questioned whether he has the capacity for unspeakable evil that is generally considered necessary to win higher office.

But, as Borowitz does, should we add, hedge the kudos, by tacking on 'seemingly'?

'Yes', Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party assumptive Dem candidate for President has filled the very worrisome position of her Vice President running mate with a solid, experienced and a genuine person, Senator Tim Kaine former Governor of Virginia. Tim Kaine is a good fit - for Hillary, for the Democratic Party ticket and especially for the spectrum of America's diverse peoples.

But, 'Yes', as Andy Borowitz messages, Senator Kaine's normalcy and good vibes also serve to put a hard light on America's current moral status - Kaine seems maybe too good, too real, too genuine for jaded America.

Borowitz' peels back America's banana. The title of his July 24 piece says much about American politics, it's lack of what 'jaded' America grudgingly accepts but what America needs to feel good about itself - respect for our political system, our political ways, decision operations and the too often questionable behavior of our elected officials.

Borowitz incisively ends:

“I’m trying to keep an open mind, but I worry about his lack of experience being a dick,” one voter said.

Election 2016: Brexit and Trumpism - We saw it Coming, Where are they Going? Future Benefits.

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http://www.powells.com/post/original-essays/white-trash?utm_source=powellsbooks.news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pbnews_20160629&utm_content=Essay

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.
ORIGINAL ESSAYS
White Trash
- over time, America has seen more downward than upward mobility, and migration often substitutes for actual class security.
- Americans continue to tell themselves they believe in social equality, but history tells a different story.

- "White Trash": The language used to describe classes and the poor can be traced back to the forceful imprint left by British colonization. Before it became that fabled "City upon a Hill," America was, in the eyes of 16th-century English adventurers, a foul, weedy wilderness — a "wasteland," they called it, where the Old World could unload the idle poor.
- Among the unheroic transplants were convicts, Irish rebels, known whores, ex-soldiers, adults in debt, and the children of beggars, all of whom either chose exile in place of a prison term (or hanging!) or else sold themselves into indentured servitude.
- The great majority of the early colonists were classified as a surplus population, as expendable "rubbish" — a rude rather than a robust population.
- These were America's "waste people," who, sometime around the 1820s, came to be called "white trash."
by Nancy Isenberg, June 21, 2016 4:44 PM

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Brexit and Trump-ism share common themes and causes focused on the growing disposability of American and European workers. This was a sensed phenomenon Pericles21 posted on this blog site about some time ago (Pericles21' post of February 6, 2009 - "MBA Follies #1: The Public as Labor Pool [Or, MBA wet dreams gone bad)" was a growing but still, at that time, a somewhat contentious question of 'being' for the American worker - what or who exactly, was the American (and western powers) worker in the world of the now truly big, truly powerful multi-national corporations?

Were developed-nations' workers still, foremost, citizens or were they in the process, or well along the way, of becoming just a cost parameter, a cog, in the profit machine...without countervailing powers, losing respect from the national governance systems, and increasingly having their 'being-hood' (ascendancy as living persons) given to, or high-jacked by, the corporations (viz., the American Supreme Court's 2010 decision favoring virtually unlimited corporate election donations, 'Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'.

Continuing the list of erosions of hard-won benefits and powers suffered by American workers, there has been a ever closer examination by researchers on the decline of unions and real wages since the 1970's. This had resulted in a growing, 'itchy' sense in both researchers and workers that all was not 'ok' in the land of the free, and it's motherland of ideas, Great Britain...and likely including Spain, Greece, and several other nations at this point.

That question about the value and constitutional importance of workers, and the larger worker-middle class (80% of America) could be condensed into a broad question - 'exactly who is the American citizen, what place in American politics does a citizen have in today's America and especially in corporate-globalism, or global-corporatism (the two descriptors are now indistinct since the top-most power element after the 'Elite 1% is the corporate empire which is global and has come to control governments and global electoral processes...until BREXIT and Trump-ism..which caught the pundits, seated politicians and just about everyone else, including BREXIT and Trump supporters by surprise.

On BREXIT and Trump-ism: Not surprisingly, the very democratic principles that the corporate world had cleverly sought (successfully) to manipulate with the result of 'Citizens vs. United', also proved wonderfully robust enough to provide the victims of supposedly all-conquering corporatism with the supreme countervailing power, the referendum and (perhaps) the upcoming vote to elect the American President.

If Trump is not to be the next American President, at least the bells have been rung in this 2016 re-enactment of France's 1790s times of rolling Trumbrils and tumbling heads. Heads may not fall in America, hopefully at least not in reality, but again hopefully we will see balance created in the tug-of-war between the American citizen-worker and the corporate bloc.

Now the question is, 'are there ANY rights left to the worker-citizen?

'Brexit' (and Trumpism) seems to answer for the common folk in both countries, 'Well, one can't be certain where the citizen fits in these days but the common folk have shouted out they do not want to continue to lie in this bed of gross economic inequality.

The ground theme behind Brexit and Trumpism is a combination of lingering, media-romanticized feudalism, dog-whistle racism and habitual knee-bending worship of nobility and its modern equivalent, the corporate and wealthy elites. But why haven't Trumpism and BREXIT exploded before now?

First, Pericles21 challenges the idea that Trumpism and Brexit are original ideas and movements - Trump and Brexit are just terminal signs of a pot that has been building in temperature for several decades and now is exploding its lid.

Pericles21 also proposes that, once again, in America and as well in Great Britain, the roots of citizen passivity-until-eruption derive from the same source - the culturally-engrained, centuries-old, feudalist acceptance by the 'common folk' to be governed by their 'bettors', currently the all-mighty corporate citizens (white collar and those somewhat securely employed under that umbrella) and corporations themselves who in recent years have been given by governments and legal courts astounding recognitions and power in the form of the 'Gift of Beiing' as proferred on bended knee to the corporations by the American Supreme Court in the above-mentioned 'Citizens United' SCOTUS 2010 decision that gifted corporations with personhood.

This class fatalism can still be heard in direct or indirect form among back country, 'White', Scots-Irish-transplanted English folk in the Virginias, Carolinas, Georgia, ...and their generatios later descendants just about anywhere in the south-of-Dixie original states and especially in the family trees of the former Confederate states.

The modern form of this feudal 'inheritance', passivity in the face of corporate excesses, is not a good thing for a modern nation - this passivity is civically unhealthy, but it is ingrained and difficult to get rid of because it is a key theme of American culture that is still programmed into our group think in the iconic symbols of the 'suffering-with-pride', simple-living, uneducated heroes exampled by the Clampett's of television's'Beverly Hillbillys', the 1940's movies' 'Ma and Pa Kettle', ...and many other movie and television creations. These simple folk were held as American memes of truth and quality-of-life, in integrity, while material and social network quality-of life was preserved for their 'bettors', the corporate and upper classes.

This self-delusion had to (must) end and Trump is its voice. If Trump is not eleted President, let's hope that the next President anad Congress will have listened to what Trump's calling out is messaging, deep disatisfaction of the American working class, and implement programs to better the quality of life for the common folk of America (national health care, free college at least at the two-year level, national wage reviews, ...), modernize America's infrastructure to support the businesses of the next century (high-speed rail, national internet, space-resources exploration and mining systems development)

Election 2016: A Clinton-Warren Ticket? Maybe Not in America, Right Now

Let's hope either Hillary, or Warren or both will lead the country for the next eight years.

JACKIE KUCINICH wrote a piece on June 27, 2016,(The Daily Beast) about a possible Warren-Clinton Democratic ticket. Such a pairing seems a natural thing - the two women appear to be the 'head of the class' candidates not only for the Democrats but even when compared to what the Republicans can offer. (I have not included Bernie Sanders in the comparison base as imho he is a class unto himself.) But Clinton and Warren appear to complement each's qualities in a unique way - either could be considered a viable candidate for President by herself.

From a rational point-of-view, 'Clinton-Warren' would be good for America - Clinton the neo-Thatcher administrator and Warren the problem-solver visionary. Finally, a balance to 200+ years of male dominated leadership.

But, America's tendency to preserve its prejudices and fears has in Ms. Kucinich's research has produced a disturbing but predictable thought about a 'Clinton-Warren' ticket - 'is this too much (femaleness) too soon for America?' Once again America's gender prejudice exerts itself. It is a dark force, felt in mostly in America's imagination but as destructive as a reality.

Ms. Kucinich writes that this force as felt in the mind of a female Ohio democrat:

"You’d think the idea of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren on a Democratic ticket would fire up Democratic women. Instead, it’s making... voters very nervous."

From another woman interviewee:

“I’m a little concerned about her [Warren] being the VP choice, I’m not sure about two women, I don’t know if the county’s quite ready for that,” said Susan Knox, a retired human resources professional from Cincinnati, said. “I wouldn’t be unhappy, but I want to win here.”

At the base of things, the prospect of a woman President would be an opportunity for America to congratulate itself especially given the opposing prospect of a Republican Party 'Trump' candidate.

But, Kucinich's article indirectly messages a disappointing American trait: in times of national distress, whether economic or racial bad times, America often detours to the easy road - the tendency to spend its energies not on constructive programs and noble gestures but to waste its energies and human resources on the least rewarding (foreign wars against midget armies), the least palatable (racial violence), most low and distasteful actions and statements revealing our cultural fears, hate and prejudices... about gender, race and the general 'Other'.

Will even just a female President be too much too soon for America? I hope not because it's no longer an issue of whose turn is it to be President - male of female. America needs a woman in the President's chair to recover from over 200 years of testosterone overload that has led us into serial warring, secrecy and assassinations, economic corruption and a general neglect of public infrastructures (transportation and communication such as a national internet system), health care and education, and family and child support systems. The 2016 election could potentially change this history and see America take a new, more healthy road.

Let's hope either Hillary, or Warren or both will lead the country for the next eight years.









Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters


Election 2016: More On Trump - Who, What And Why (And Trump's Angry White Males Who Don't Need to Remain Angry)

Trump...Trump..trump...trump (clumsy, callous, 'mow em down' brutality of words, Asp-quick and cobra-venom of wit)...here he comes...run for your lives just about everyone who is not of a certain demographic - white male working class/blue collar/tea party...(but including Sarah Palin who is her own personal demographic).

Point by Pericles21 to be made further down:

it is likely that Trump is not leading a movement but is 'surfing' a socio-economic swell of disaffection that already existed for decades but just needed a channel (demagogue) to curl and break. Trump is that demagogue. But Trump just might wake up one morning (like the English Labour Party's quick backing away from it's 'Leaving' support only 4 days after the Brexit referendum) and realize that he is not really in control of his 'own' movement and that he could be run over and shoveled aside like road-kill when he becomes a known factor and, consequently, boring. Further, Trump's main constituency - disaffected, white male, working class, self entitled but job-threatened - have reasonably and with savviness found mutual, real sharing of self-interest in Bernie Sanders (thus refuting the lie about their lack of intelligence) Hopefully. Trump's base will find their new home in Elisabeth Warren, who Pericles21 champions as someone whose integrity and message are what America needs.

To be blunt,'Trumpism'is an American phenomenon - a pornography of the ego, typical American 'candy' - that appeals to the very large American population sector that has for several decades suffered serious ego-damage by loss of jobs through outsourcing, loss of real wages and a fair share of income and wealth ('inequality')and just being ignored. America has for decades abandoned the founding principle of the Common Good and turned the Constitution upside down from the rule of law, 'Lex Regis', to become in Trump, 'Rex Legis', the king is law. -

This post was drafted a week ago but things are happening fast in the world, beginning in Europe with the June 23 UK referendum vote for the UK to leave the European Union. This is not a total surprise, but it is unexpected because economically the expectation is that Great Britain will suffer. Also, 'Leaving' doesn't appear to be in the best interests of the constituency most strongly supporting 'Leaving - the working class, the older and the less well-off who live outside the major urban hub of London - the statistics show the radically different degree of support between 'town and country', 'heeled and working' and of course the old 'them and us' racial divide. All of this was barely under the surface, with occasional outbreaks but constantly seething emotions regarded as just the hardly-quaint inability of certain neighborhoods (e.g., Brixton) to adapt to modern multi-culture, multi-nation cooperatives all based on supposedly mutual economic advantages. But, of course, as we have been jolted awake to recognize in the past several years, the vast bulk of economic advantages have gone to the top 5% of every population on the planet. In summary, the referendum paints a picture of Great Britain as a divided union that has been divided since the end of the second world war around 1945.

Why did the referendum turn out the way it did? The better question might be, 'Why did it take this long for the truth about England's ill-at-ease attitude to ward joining the European Union to come to a head? The answer is the referendum outcome is the culmination of a long-recognized drift towards a new global nationalism (Economic Jihadism) that threatens to break apart the European Union - additionally 5 to 7 other Eu countries might be expected to join England's exodus - along with similar disaffections in other treaty arrangement, and return that the planet to a kind of neo-colonial assemblage of distrusting trans-continental princedoms.

'Brexit' has happened. Ostensibly, England (and the rest of the United Kingdom) will proceed to implement June 23'rds referendum mandate to unlink from the European Union and go search for the holy grail of recovering Great Britain's (or at least working class England's) national virginity. This is not too much of an exaggeration and so is the resemblance to America's 'Trumpism' as revealed by the personal-declared alliance between Donald Trump and the assumed next Prime Minister - the right wing, super nationalist, Boris Johnson. Trump has also declared that part of his mission is to recover America's 'Greatness'.

Why is Brexit addended to this post? Because a possible Trump Presidency may mirror what will happen in the UK now that the 'voice of the people' has voted and prevailed.

So let us all pay careful attention to what will happen over the next few weeks in Great Britain. Will there be an 'exit contagion' of a copy-cat sort that will lead Scotland and Northern Ireland (who overall favored remaining in the EU) to leave Great Britain (i.e., leave formal ties with England who is now revealed as having a distinctly different national outlook on being a member of the EU)? Or will Scotland and Northern Ireland cast their lot with independence from the UK and remain with the EU?

What does this 'New Nationalism' movement have to do with Trumpism? The path of nationalism in England, and the potential break-up of te United Kingdom, may foretell the disruption that may occur in America resulting from a totally self-focused, self-centered Trump foreign policy and domestic primitiveness, a new Isolationism.

But back to Donald Trump.
'Trump' is a kind of anti-heroic villain. He is the natural spawn of an un-natural, sinful, evil, inhumane culmination of a century of rabid, run-wild, limitless greed and exploitation put upon the American people by Big Bucks interests and their puppets - bought and sold Washington politicians and leeches of both political parties.

A century of ripping off America - and principally America's working citizens - has resulted in a huge socio-economic imbalance of wealth and income. Currently 5% of American's population owns or earns as much as the other 95%. We have experienced three decades of declining real wages for working Americans. There has been a steady loss of sustaining manufacturing jobs because of off-shore outsourcing to cheap labor markets. Overall, with the rush to greater profits and no countervailing resistance to abandonment of common Americans in the 'lower'95%, there has been an overt, undisguised neglect of the Common Weal. This neglect is reflected in the erosion and abandonment of common weal principles - substantive work, access to education and health ('Obamacare' the only bright exception to this trend)...it goes on in sad, embarrassing sameness, example after example of rampant, capitalist greed and the raping of America - it's resources and people.

But here comes a hero, it seems, of the down-trodden. Trump the billionaire capitalist. 'What?' Billionaire? Isn't he the epitome of who and what has killed the American spirit and social contract? Yes, he is the epitome but he is still the hero of his class's antithesis.

But perhaps the most striking aspect of Trump is he doesn't hide anything but the truth. In other words Trump lies, or rather he 'mis-states' but without apology or offering self-corrections - and somehow, this sits pretty well with his constituency, the mostly male, white and working class American. Trump's message seems to be a 20016 version of McCluhanism where the medium is a given venue of the message but now the 'message' is not the words but how they are spoken. Trump's 'message' is not his words but the emotion and volume of his presentation...and his presentation and anger - even if his anger is mostly off-the-mark and (underneath it all) not serving the best interests of his white male, working class constituency - appears to be unscripted and genuine.

'Unscripted and Genuine' Are these tow attributes of Trump so rare in current America that what Trump's words say or not is just not that critical? Look at the picture. There is a billionaire, trust fund baby, having (apparently) made it bigger, leading a working class movement, although admittedly racist-driven in part. Why do Trump's supporters follow his lead so eagerly and strongly?

The answer is likely that Trump is not leading but is 'surfing' the swell that already existed but just needed a reason (demagogue) to break. Trump just might wake up one morning (like the English Labour Party's quick backing away from it's 'Leaving' support only 4 days after the referendum) and realize that he is not really in control of his 'own' movement and he is about to be run over and shoveled aside like road-kill.

In this respect, Trump has declared 'war' with the American media sector - and has offered them no quarter but to see it his way or get out of the way. Every lie, mis-statement and twisted curve of his psyche is laid open for all to see. And the Media and Democrats and alarmed Republicans indeed see it all. But wtf, it hasn't mattered one bit, Trump's aura protects him from harm and every arrow shot his way seems to look good leaving the bow but turns to dust as it nears his thick skin or is merely deflected straight back to the shooter.

Donald Trump is on the scene. The tension, the tension - it's 'Friday the 13th' every day now, but Trump is nastier, bigger and badder than Freddy ever was. And it will get nastier because the Republican party controllers who lost control are emerging from their cloudy confusion and weak-spined whining and are salivating in anticipation of the skullduggery tricks and dirty tactics they plan to dump on Trump at the Convention. 'Just wait' they are thinking, the GOP Convention will be the 'show of shows' for sure,...a shot-in-the-eye, kick-in-the-pants spectacle. But Pericles21 is betting that Trump and his thugs will turn the tables and complete the destruction of the Party. The Convention will be a debacle of violent emotions and violent retributions. And the worst of it will be a descent into Hell at the Convention will be what Trump's supporters want and will be proud of. The Trumpists need that kind of outlet for the rabid emotions Trump will generate as only he can.

But who, what and why is Trump?

A book review of Michael Kimmel's, 'Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era' (2013, Nation Books)

This review is from Hanna Rosin's NYTimes review of Michael Kimmels Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era (Nation Books, 2013)
Kimmel's 'AWM' doesn't offer solutions but it very adequately explains the 'why's' of angry white men and this brings a kind of relief - at with understanding assisted by Kimmel, least there might be a beginning to a solution and resolution. Personally, from reading between the lines written by the author, there seems to be a 'forgotten' segment of American society, i.e., white men and specifically working class and under-employed (economically poor) white men. I say 'forgotten' because while virtually everyone else (minorities and women of all races) was being 'freed' and brought into equality, white men as a collective profile were regarded as the reference point against which new freedoms were and still are) measured. But we forgot to 'release'(reprogram with understanding and support) white men from the social programming that had entrapped them into their self-entitled (and too often self destructive) corner to begin with. Instead, our media messages from film to television continue to reinforce the idea of privileged, all-powerful, king-of-the-hill, American white males as the only white male worthy of respect - this is almost a criminal misleading of younger white males who must grow up and function in a very different world from the simplistic ones portrayed in the media. This continuing media image leads to dysfunctional self-expectations and acting out from frustration and confusion that the media profiles and formulae for masculine 'success' don't work. We can hope that books like 'AWM' will lead to educating younger generations of white males how to exist (happily) as co-inhabitants in a new America.

Election 2016: Revisiting Hillary, Warren, Bernie and Trump - America Desperately Needs A New Governing Paradigm

Trump...Trump..trump...trump (clumsy, callous, 'mow em down' brutality of words, Asp-quick and cobra-venom of wit)...here he comes...run for your lives just about everyone who is not of a certain demographic - white male working class/blue collar/tea party...(but including Sarah Palin who is her own personal demographic).

Donald Trump is on the scene. The tension, the tension - it's 'Friday the 13th' every day now, but Trump is nastier, bigger and badder than Freddy ever was. And it will get nastier because the Republican party controllers who lost control are emerging from their cloudy confusion and weak-spined whining and are salivating in anticipation of the skullduggery tricks and dirty tactics they plan to dump on Trump at the Convention. 'Just wait' they are thinking, the GOP Convention will be the 'show of shows' for sure,...a shot-in-the-eye, kick-in-the-pants spectacle. But Pericles21 is betting that Trump and his thugs will turn the tables and complete the destruction of the Party. The Convention will be a debacle of violent emotions and violent retributions. And the worst of it will be a descent into Hell at the Convention will be what Trump's supporters want and will be proud of. The Trumpists need that kind of outlet for the rabid emotions Trump will generate as only he can.

First, let's cut right to the core - there has been a lot of proposing various candidate 'tickets' for both parties. As of June 16, it appears Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President unless, by some expected but not really likely drama from Trump's rivals-proved-Wimps, the Republican Party, succeeds in wrestling itself to the mat and excises Trump. What entertainment - a Republican convention where the GOP mauls itself mercilessly while onlooking Trump giggles offstage and takes the nomination anyway.

On the other hand, the Democratic Party seems to have a problem of another kind,..but still odd in its way - who perhaps is best to run as Presidential nominee along with Senator Elizabeth Warren as Vice President? The interesting point is that 'a priori', Senator Warren is the precursor item on the ticket. Senator Warren is the first consideration followed by a search for who can best complement her as President! 'Election 2016' is indeed turning out to be different. We may have Trump and all that might represent, and then we have strange tides under the Democrat ship.

So, the election picture is upside-down. We first start with Senator Warren, the real deal - genuine, 'you-get-what-you-see', articulate, really pissed off but communicating that without histrionics, deadly on point all the time, un-questionned integrity and believable. Then with that out of the way, we next ponder who will best complement Warren - will it be Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? My point is 'what does this 'logic' tell us?'WHo really are we all agreed on is the best candidate for President?

Second, as for POTUS, there is an 'American Crisis' at hand that needs a new leadership paradigm different from past war-focused, testosterone-driven male presidents and the resultant chaos. Don't agree? Then just think about the 'why and what' is going on about Donald Trump who is the ultimate example of 'out-of-control' testosterone-powered strangeness and threat to darken America's political history. Trump's 'solutions' are ..'what?'...other than loud 'woofing'? Should Trump get into the White House, expect anything but real solutions to America's problems.

And 'what is current America'? America appears almost terminally lost, drifting and dis-functional. And too many Americans of both political parties share that opinion ...which is why we have the curious phenomenon where Trump and Sanders supporters are seen to be mutually exchangeable should either one drop out (Sanders) or be forced out (Trump), and where Hillary Clinton is termed by some as the voice of 'sensible, moderate Republicanism'.

Our oligarchist, facist-capialist economy has raped, plundered and ruined the planet and almost completed the same horror on the home front. War-making testosterone, ala Trump, has no real solutions. American needs to lick its self-inflicted wounds and heal.

Out-of-control Trump offers a nightmare future...but maybe Trump is the gross and nasty medicine America needs to hold its nose from and swallow.


Obama's election was a moment of 'now its your turn', American minorities of color. (Even tho, imho, Obama doesn't really qualify as an 'American' minority...he just coincidentally shares the same skin color of many home-grown African-Americans, but his social upbringing is not that of an African-American raised in the straight-jacket of American prejudice and discrimination towards African-Americans. Obama's african-american affiliation is a choice.)

America now, does not need to return to a business-as-usual postering, testosterone dripping (or pretending so) majority male icon (Trump).

America desperately, NEEDS a female POTUS, an intelligent individual with a female sense of 'making things right' and restoring America's social health and confidence...and world image. Senator Warren appears to have these qualities. But America does not need a restrictive, corsetted 'Thatcher', a 'wanna-be-alpha-male' who will strive to out-alpha her political rivals and colleagues. In all, Senator Warren appears to meet both sets of criteria.

Bernie Sanders is a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland' furry, be-hatted creature - well-intentioned and harmless but of what real effectiveness?

Hillary, on the other hand, appears to be un-furry but is she real or a retro Margaret Thatcher act about 40 years out of tune both politically and gender-wise. If Hillary is elected, she is urged to study the Thatcher years to avoid that model.

In this writer's mind, Senator Warren is the class of the Democratic Party's current two contenders despite her never having entered a primary. And she is just as qualified, if not more, than President Obama was when he ran, successfully, for President. The country has benefitted by Obama's steady hand at the tiller. Senator Warren can do that and she has the fire that was banked in Obama's style. Warren has shown she will not face away from Republicans and will call 'BS' on the Republicans whenever they roll out their blocking and do-nothingness. And Warren will slipthe knife in with style and grace. America has work to do and needs to get moving...America needs a Warren, not a Trump who has figured out how to 'game' the working (now unemployed/underemployed) class, white American, lost-and-drifting, male.

The Democratic Party has high regard and respect for Hillary Clinton. The Democrat Party appears to have reserved for Hillary the woman whom the Party would like to reward as the first woman President of the United States. And Hillary appears to be much more qualified (experience-wise and by intelligence measure) than the apparent Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump. Still,among Democrats, there is a 'But factor' that is surfacing in the minds and discussion about this very critical and important 2016 election - Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is smoother than Mrs Clinton and appears to be more than Trump can handle, TV debate-wise and in the sticky, twisty corners of the social web, i.e., 'Twitter', etc..

'We' (the nation and especially Democrats) know Elizabeth Warren. We have witnessed her consistently high level of work in Washington as a new Senator and after the 2008 economic collapse as a special resource 'loan' from academia (Harvard). We know where she stands on national priorities, especially the economy and the interests of the 'lesser 99%'- the 'Common Good' interests of education, healthcare and especially equitable taxes on the rich and corporations to resolve the current vast and scandalous economic inequality between the upper 1% and the rest of the '99%' of Americans.

Elizabeth Warren appears to be custom-made for this challenge. The post by Pericles21:

Senator Elizabeth Warren seems to be the common, ‘wingman’ denominator in maybe everyone’s ideal presidential ticket — whether ‘Hillary-Warren’ or ‘Sanders-Warren’. Aren’t these associations messages of another reality about our assessment of Warren as a quality person, and when will it come to our minds that ‘President Warren’ makes sense?

However, in the thinking of Pericles21 (myself), there is another perspective to the Democratic Party's options regarding Senator Warren, and that is how best to utilize Senator Warren... if the Party chooses not to run her as the candidate for the Presidency. That is a challenge of choice. To my thinking, Senator Warren is not a resource to be wasted on the Vice Presidency who seems, with all highest regard and appreciation for Joe Biden's knightly service as Vice President (America should have this honorary title), to traditionally reside in the background of most things going on in every administration. (Probably the result of every President's alpha-male proclivity to 'rule the roost'.) Senator Warren should not be lost to America as anyone's closeted Vice President. (And likewise, I would not rest easy with Bernie Sanders experience, wisdom and skills lost to America in the choke-cloak of 'Vice President Sanders'.)

The resolution? Personally speaking, Warren must be 'run' (by the Party 'deciders', who decide all things at that level) as the Presidential candidate or be reserved, with continued stellar service, as a 'senior-qualified' Senator to 'ripen-on-the-vine' for a future presidential campaign...if the country survives because it appears, from the wild but not-completely-a-surprise popularity of faux-populist Trump, America is caught in an ice-flow towards a 'Niagra Falls' collapse of any remaining faith in the ability of the system to balance the scales and pay attention to long-overlooked, taken-for-granted needs of the 'common' citizen, that is to say, 99% of America and that's too high a percentage of Americans who are nearing terminal hurt.