"DON'T LOOK UP" (A FILM) - THIS SHIP OF FOOLS SAILS ON ... "VILE BODIES" AND ALL, VIEWS FROM THE RABBIT HOLE

This blog post is 12+ years old from 2009 with President Obama's first term. Our posts focus on national affairs and culture, and occasionally technology. Sometimes our observations receive a critical eye, but our 'pen' remains unblunted as we keep a sharp eye on the ways and directions of American politics and culture. 

With this said, we report on the recently released, apocalyptic-dystopian-themed movie, Don't Look Up (Adam McKay, author, producer, and director, 2021, Netflix Inc,). [Note: the film's themes ring very true by our close readings of politics, culture, aerospace, and astrobiology.]

This film is a brilliant parody, with excellent acting, excellent script, and excellent scenery and staging. BUT IT IS NOT FUNNY! It hits close to what's happening in America right now, today. It is a mirror of current America reflecting our double speak politics, personal and institutional cynicism and corruption, and above all, the overriding monetization of everything even the coming extinction of planet earth (as if that makes sense).  

Acting: great-as-usual performances by Streep and De Caprio. Also great to see how Jonah Hill has honed and matured his craft. Jennifer Lawrence is significant as a kind of Greek Chorus-like critical eye and commentary that keeps things from slipping entirely into the numbing, erratic madness that was the last president's term. 

Watching "Don't Look Up" was a learning event rich with already-witnessed but newly-processed reflections on the last presidential term that will be recorded as a historic 'low' in America's 250 years. The Trump years are extra sobering when seen through this movie. 

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With the 'Jan 6 (2021)' investigation committee hearings underway in a few days, we can ponder this film about American disfunction and decline into absurdity.

But. Not funny? Why? Because its exaggerations seem like current America  - double-speak politics and players, media crassness, conspiracy and corruption, and a pervasive monetization of everything even extinction, that reduces 'truth' and extinction to this evening's tv ratings.

As the result of reading a few early, at-best non-committal reviews of Don't Look Up, I put off watching it until my daughter 'suggested' I see it. (I've learned to 'hear' my daughter as much by her tone of voice as from just her words. Her message was 'Dad,...a tool.')  With that guidance, needless to say, I was very impressed by the film's crafting, acting and message but disappointed that the film hasn't gotten the praise it deserves... I feel this is coming. 

"Don't Look Up's" portrayal of a ratings-obsessed media corporate bloc even in the face of global extinction is damning but isn't this what appears to be the current media reality?  

This film is not funny because its seeming science fiction content is real: 

1. A potentially planet-killer cosmic body might hit Earth, 2027-2037 (European Space Agency);
2.  NASA already landed a probe on a comet in 2005 (! hmmm!);  
3. Humans leaving Earth - Elon Musk plans to launch his SpaceX Mars colonization ship in 2024-25 (USA DOD has so far given Musk maybe 10 billion dollars and Musk anticipates by 2030 getting a trillion dollars more for transporting a million humans to Mars) 

Mass media's cynical hyping of eventual extinction has long been a 'usual' and we already have in place the film's puppet red-hats, i.e., Trump's MAGA crowd; and the curtain is being drawn back revealing the willingness of the military-industrial combine to go with the flow in order to make and acquire more exotic weapons and gear.

Don't Look Up should be viewed by as many American and global citizens as possible. It should become an important assignment in future college and high school courses on a wide variety of subjects (film making, politics, satire, media conduct and ethics, corruption, history, social movements, astrobiology and extinction, global warming ...and other areas that are, or should be, of national concern but are ignored, downplayed, spun around, demeaned ...all out of a cynical institutional and individual commitments to special interests usually involving money or institutional preservation for the sake of... self-preservation.  (It seems appropriate here to reference the American Supreme Court's 2010 granting of human-like, political-donor status to business corporations and their interests to the political action group, Citizens United (Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee, US Supreme Court, 2010).   

Don't Look Up revisits the spirit and insights of prior classic literary works about the weaknesses and failures of human governance structures. Notably,  my list of such works includes the 'gold standard' of dystopian social illness, 1984, (George Orwell, 1949), which brings into sharp focus the complicity of individuals with our institutions-become-'persons' to oppress,  monitor and imprison...ourselves.  

One should also include in such a list of predictive, dystopian books:  Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932),  Keep The Flags Flying (Evelyn Waugh, 1930), and  Little Brother  (Cory Doctorow, 2008). In these works, a central theme is the overriding dismalness of human constructs and our species' atavistic, not-far-from-monkeys-with-hands-stuck-in-the-cookie-jar inability to let go and save themselves when there is money to be made ... even in the face of a soon-to-come tomorrow when money and material goods will be meaningless. (Note actor, Jonah Hill's, masterful rant lamenting the coming loss of luxury condominiums, 'the good "stuff" of society as if this was the most significant loss from extinction - I am liking how he has continuously honed and broadened his acting craft over the years ... in this case a wicked, nearly perfect portrayal of our former president's erratic ramblings.)

Other important and distinctive themes in these works include keen perceptions of society's inequalities, its dis-and-malfunctions, pervasive cynicism, the manipulation of political and especially populism, the vulnerability of humanity to sharp-eyed 'users and manipulators'.   

The result seems to be an American 'normalization' of superficiality... in many areas, we seem to prefer a superficial life of artificiality - of emotions, tastes (ersatz foods), work, etc. More so, is the normalization of societal stress ... on institutions that lose sight of their purposes and on individuals who are so heavily stressed they (we) lose the ability and incentive to protest or even react. (Or, seek artificial means to counteract stress such as opiates, alcohol, and a myriad other palliative means  (open-market or illegal).

My overall reaction to 'Don't Look Up' was the same as one of the movie's messages —  humanity, in the face of truly global dangers, is being badly served by the complicity of Big Media with our other national estates (eg, government, military, politics, ...) to sell and preserve their specific institutional interests rather than protecting the nation's or humanity's well being. 

In this 'New World', global extermination becomes merely another media spin project as if 'extermination' is simply a dictionary entry to be replaced with a nicer sounding synonym ... and as if it all is a fantasy existence whose meaning is how much money one can get and how extravagantly one lives.

"Superficial" is too mild a description of where we were under DT (aka RICO Dedito, aka TFG). Meryl Streep's POTUS is both superficial and evilly so because she knows exactly what, why, how and where-to she is spinning. (Are these the qualities needed to be elected POTUS?)

I didn't laugh watching "Don't Look Up" and I still won't laugh during the twice-more times I plan to watch it. I see its characters - the heroes, the satanic, the naive, the herd, and the corruption, and end-times, all being played out on our stage of reality right now.

[The author - world citizen, educator, technologist, candidate for elected office...santiago-compostela pilgrim.]

AN OVERVIEW AFTER THE 2020 ELECTION - BIDEN WON AND TRUMP LOST! AMERICA HOPEFULLY HAS LEARNED

 Yes, America escaped a dark, dark hole that could have made us a short footnote in some history book a century from now written about failed states.

Hillary. POTUS.

AMERICA NEEDS MORE THAN EVER A WOMAN PRESIDENT.

Pericles21 is open to Hillary POTUS.
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In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote for President of the United States...by a significant margin (3 million more votes than Trump).

Since then, America's eyes have been opened wide by a hard, hard lesson embodied in Trump's 'dis-fit' to be POTUS. Trump's mal-fitness will be the subject of many years of books, plays, operas and club comedy.

America has learned what was lost in 2016 - a guiding, experienced and intelligent leader (Hillary, not DT).

Comared to Trump, or just standing alone, Hillary is refreshingly (vastly) more experienced, more competent, more communicative, a better manager and, finally, more deserving to be POTUS (as she was voted to be in 2016).

For various reasons, and not just because of the Trump POTUS debacle, Hillary appears now as cleansed from doubt and more POTUS-like than before.

AMERICA NEEDS MORE THAN EVER A WOMAN PRESIDENT...ESPECIALLY NOW TO CLEAN UP TRUMP'S MESS, PUT AMERICA BACK ON TRACK AND OPEN THE DOOR TO AMERICA'S FUTURE!

In 2016, Trump promised his Party and supporters a rescuer but instead a travelling snake-oil con man showed up...and who apparently, like the disguised villain in a Hollywood '40s spy movie, might also be a traitor... as seems to be unfolding in the current, formal, House of Representativers impeachment investigations of the Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election.

Not the least lesson with Trump in the Oval Office, is America's discovery that a 'businessman' is not a guaranteed solution to America's problems...at least not with the kind of business 'skills' Trump represents - an unprincipled, rip-the-throat, cry-when-down, always-sniffing-for-money grifter. Even when in the Oval Office, Trump behaves, talks and writes like a warehouse thief, a street corner shakedown thug.

AN EXAMPLE OF TRUMP'S THUG 'SKILLS': his October 16, 2019, "puerile" self-embarrassing letter to Turkey's President Recep Erdogan warning him not to take advantage of Trump's abrupt withdrawal of American troop protection of our Kurd allies in northern Syria).

One of Trump's main 'policy' agendas from the start of his POTUS tenure has been to deregulate America. We soon learned why: Trump's business 'style' thrives in a so-called 'free market'that Trump actually envisions as a 'free style' combat ring uncomplicated by customer protections and legal contracts. The 'winner' is the best knee breaker, eye gouger, ear biter.

This kind of 'free market' enables the businessman predator - a predator who uses, and makes, every opportunity to cheat his customers by running away from legal debts, injuries from bad product and hotel bedbug bites. (In this respect, Trump's business 'success' appears to be a cloaked history of drift-and-graft, e.g., running up service debt then daring his debtors to sue him to pay them...which they usually decide they can't afford to do. This is accomapnied by money laundering, and ultimately, apparently treason.) Trump's talk and policy actions indicate he wants to legalize all of this.

AMERICA NEEDS A WOMAN PRESIDENT...ESPECIALLY NOW.

Much has happened since the election to reaffirm those who voted for Hillary Clinton to be President but even more, the ongoing circus since Trump's January 2017, inauguration clarifies in stark, strobe-flash terms what was lost. To be brief, what appeared to be Hillary's fadeaway, and what appeared to some Hillary-not-quite-supporter-doubters' to be 'something not quite' about her, are thoughts and doubts that have evaporated and left us with regret.

WE REGRET, DESPITE ANY PREVIOUS DOUBTS, THERE IS NO HILLARY POTUS ...SINCE/BUT/AND... AFTERALL, HILLARY WON!

For various reasons, and not just because of the Trump POTUS debacle, Hillary appears now .cleansed and more POTUS-like than before. By comparison with Trump, or just standing alone, Hillary is refreshingly (vastly) more experienced, more competent, more communicative, a better manager and, finally, more deserving to be POTUS (as she was voted on in 2016).

Shortly before election day, Pericles21 outlined here recommendations for advisory boards for President Hillary to consider implementing. The next day, or soon after, Pericles21 posted nearly the same advisory boards outline for Trump POTUS.

By 4-6 months after his inauguration, Trump's advisory boards and panels (not my agenda, but 'boiler platish' similar) were in disorder, disbanded or about to be disbanded or rendered non-functional because of TRUMP'S whimsy and/or board member resignations.

'Whimsical and capricious', "incompetent" (Rex Tillerson, his Secretary of State). These descriptors have too often been heard from political professionals and experts, of both parties, to describe Trump's policy-making, management and personal behavior nearly every day of Trump's tenure so far. And, as many felt would happen before the first term was up, the House of Representatives have begun impeachment investigations.

All of the above thoughts and more bring Hillary into positive clear focus. Pericles21 thinks it is reassuring to think of Hillary standing for election, again. It's up to her. Just let us be clear, also, in this comparison, Golda M...remember? Reaching too far? Think not. AMERICA NEEDS A WOMAN POTUS!

What Does This All Mean? Experiencing and Thinking About America's Trump Experience

This blog post will be 'dynamic' ...thoughts and analysis will be added as they come and dated when they are written down.


(Oct 22, 2019)
TO BEGIN:
- America, IMHO, has seemed unsatisfied with its political governing for several(or more) past POTUS cycles.
- America has for some time felt a 'business' approach to governing America would be potentially 'better'.

POTUS AS BUSINESSMAN FOR GOVERNMENT
- America's dreamers' view of the Successful Businessman (note, 'Man') would describe his core skills as efficient, effective, adaptive and broadly competent to deal with all challenges that might face American POTUS. (Certainly better than the normal politics-reared POTUS).
- American culture is one of 'Image', not necessarily reality, as we have increasingly come to realize.
- Businessmen don't have to be honest or produce safe products or abide by laws and regulations - it's more a game of 'de facto success'.
- 'De Facto Success' can mean not getting caught through bribery or political leverage.

- TRUMP AS POTUS.
- With Trump, America has had its POTUS-businessman dream actualized ...and has discovered some underlying sobering truths about dreams, businessmen, politics, motivations, men in particular, corruption and money.
- Through Trump, America has discovered that a successful (appearing) businessman does not mean being good at business. It can also mean he is the 'sharkiest' shark, the shadiest thief, the most brutal of brutes, the least ethical....etc., in whatever fishbowl where he is found.

- SURVIVAL BY ANY MEANS - is this the 'Truth' of America?
- Through Trump, America has discovered that what can motivate the businessman is solely money. In fact it appears that business success can mean a different kind of 'Zen' where profit focus and maximization is the end-all and valuation of all effort.

- MONEY!'
- America has discovered a 'Truer' nature of MONEY!. Money 'appears' to be the 'end-all' of everything, today.
- Money is not all that good (helpful to society broadly) when all the money is concentrated at the top.
- Money tends to corrupt principle, especially it seems the principles assumed to be the core of democratic systems.

Oct...TB Continued. Here.

The Big Shake Down & Shuffle: American Politics at What It Does Best These Days or at Least Often Enough (And Whence Pence?)

This blog, The Perched Eye (formally "The Eclectic Commentary from Pericles21') was started in February 2009, at the time of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Initially, this blog would simply serve to chronicle standout happenings and trends in American politics judged to be significant from the the author's experience as a past candidate for elected political office and from extensive foreign travel. Also thrown in would be commentary about anything else in American affairs the author judged to significantly affect American life in general. Since 2008, America's 'life' has evolved in dramatic ways and directions; we appear to be faced with a totally new political paradigm, Trumpist 'populism' which seems to be Populism maybe in demographics and belief as the definition might dictate...but no one is totally certain about the reality of who are the participants or what the base ideology really is...beyond an apparent unity structured around racism and fear...but even that is cloudy. Anyway, times since the Obama presidency have 'morphed' radically in all manner of different and new, often bizarre and certainly unexpected directions that are revealed from the White House in almost every 24 hour cycle. But there seems to be an emerging pattern - things in Trumpland are getting more and more unusual, more and more extending beyond the Constitutional boundaries set by America's founders for the powers of America's chief executive ('Chief Executive' because after all, American democracy was founded on the principle of the separation of co-equal branches (3) whose smooth operation relies mostly on well-intentioned elected officers whose actions are guided in broad stroke with minimal (but strictured where the Founders, from their newly conceptualized and enthusiastic 18th century enlightenment, deemed necessary). Such seems to be where America is today...trying to hold onto the Founders' dream for an enduring Democracy, but faced with a political 'sport' a different kind of 'politician-citizen' whose talents, morality and even election (as far as we can tell) do not appear to fit the position and responsibilities of an American president.
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So far as we know, this morning October 5, 2019, Vice President Pence has not committed readily identifiable, or publicly released, criminal acts like Richard Nixon's VP Agnew who in the 70s received brown paper bags filled with bribery money delivered to his VP office in Washington, DC. But VP Pence might have aided s scheme to to purchase an unlawful political service, by unlawful means from a foreign nation..i.e., to have possibly aided a strong-arm shakedown of a foreign nation, Ukraine, through a $400 million bribe (through a Trump delay of an already Congress-approved, aid package to Ukraine). The ultimate goal was/is to obtain Ukraine's 'quid pro quo' participation in a scheme to influence the 2020 American presidential election bay falsely smirching Joe Biden, Donald Trump's potential 2020 presidential rival.

Overall, it seems at least on the national level, the venue of American political shenanigans has changed since the 70s Nixon-Agnew days. More than ever, American political crime schemes impacting even our domestic politics extend internationally in scope and and utilize degrees-removed foreign nation participation.

Now American politics' criminal activity utilizes impersonal, ultra-sophisticated technology that replaces actual people walking around carrying paper bags of cash,...or at least they use international first class seats. Anyway, the 70s brown paper bags of cash bribes walked into political office buildings, at the national level 'passe'.

But some things remain the same since the Nixon-Agnew 70s. Although there is more 'smoke and mirrors' and newer technologies are used to disguise political crime, there remains at the core the quintessential 'quid pro quo', the 'something-for-something', the 'deal'(why Pericles21 doesn't like to hear 'deal' used to refer to legitimate diplomatic negotiations, agreements and treaty). By this definition Trumps current 'Ukraine' mess is not 'diplomacy' - it is a shakedown deal done in the crime-language of a bad Hollywood gangster film.

In today's political crime, as with more of crime in general (but outside of the world of the poor caste who are capital/imfluence limited to do criminal deals the 'old fashioned way' through direct force and face-to-face threats), the high-level criminal activity has replaced the paper bag with impersonal, multi-tiered, intricately-webbed and hopefully untraceable, electronic-digital systems disguised as 'something else' but intended, ultimately, to deliver criminally obtained, or unlawful, assets or service of value.

In the world of international relations, things criminal or unlawful have changed, too. Modern political international criminal activity is increasingly centered around grey banking transactions involving hidden and/or degrees-removed participants whose intentions and everything possibly linked with the true criminal plot are cloaked under innocent-seeming disguises.

As in the case of some Trump business 'deals (schemes), there are sophisticated, superficially legal-but-disguised financial transactions (sales) that are not 'normal but in reality are 'long-con' political-business deals involving inflated priced assets whose presently-exorbitant price tags are based on hidden or long-term 'dodges'.

An example is the sale of vacant condominiums (at exorbitant prices) to pregnant foreign-national women 'tourists' to deliver their babies on American soil so as to gain future-generational extended family immigration into America and tax-advantages for the women's foreign families when the babies turn 21... when they then have the right to bring primary family into America (or something like that...).

Even shady international political 'deals' begin with the "quid pro quo", though disguised in quasi-diplomatic agreements (in reality criminal 'deals' about the 'give and take').

Finally, there is the sophisticated, global cyber-crime, the disguised bribery of even foreign nations, where at both ends the participants are two or more degrees removed from direct, cash money transactions - like Russia's influencing the 2016 American election through several intermediate cyber-criminal 'cutouts' but where the ultimate 'payoff' was to be the potential-president Trump's lifting of economic sanctions against Russia...a scheme disguised behind a seemingly harmless and innocent 'baby adoption' disagreement. And there is the most recent political crime attempt by Trump and co-actors, whereby strong-arm bribery was used to obtain Ukrainian 'interference' in the upcoming 2020 election by Ukrainian false smirching of the reputations of Trump's political rivals...and their families.

But again, some things are the same... behind the layers of disguise and magician's curtains, there lies the pile of money.

And interestingly, the perpetrators seem drawn to use the same spoken shakedown language... like actors in a 1940s American gangster movie. Only instead of 'you wouldn't want bad things to happen to that nice family you have...', it's now graduated to threats against a president's country, "...it would be a shame if something happened to your beautiful country..." [ 2019, DTrump speaking 1940s Hollywood 'gangsterish' to 'muscle' 2020 election interference from Ukrainian President Zelensky...and possibly using the same delivery to obtain 2020 interference from several other country leaders internationally, e.g, possibly Australia, Denmark, Italy and more]. How did Nixon-Agnew wind up?

American Racism: Justice Thomas, LGBTQA and Just Stuff

This post is motivated by Mark Kaplan's November 27, 2017, article in 'Alternet.org' (Clarence Thomas Must Resign) where he correlates Anita Hill's 1991 allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas, during his Senate Confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, with the current sexual harassment allegations facing Roy Moore of Alabama who is seeking election as a US Senator from Alabama.


In 1991, the US Senate did confirm Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court where he remains to this day, but as Mark Kaplan points out, in hindsight, there was much to regret and puzzle over in the Senate's confirmation - by what occurred then during the hearings and later from Justice Thomas's often puzzling and enigmatic conduct (seen in his rare writings and verbal bench expresions (a marked lack thereof). One item that remains an egregious feature from the 1991 hearings was that in response to the Senators' fierce challenges to Anita Hill's allegations, she agreed to, and passed, a lie detector test ...that Clarence Thomas refused to take.

Overall, the 1991 Hill-Thomas events appear to define a threshold in American history that presaged a growing pattern of revelations, and counter attacks, of past and current sexual harassment in American institutions, both public and private.

But to Justice Thomas. Since his 1991 confirmation, Justice Thomas has acquired a consistent aura of mystery concerning just whose perspective and cause he represents. although one can glimpse through the fog and mist he throws up around his mumblings (literally) he does not 'voice' a progressive point of view,...nor does he always express a reactionary opinion. At best, Justice Thomas has appeared to have struggled to hedge his bets against all critiques and analyses. He seems to have a fear of expressing himself in any way that might identify him as a proponent of anything, and certainly hide his minority group membership. This 'running from himself' seems to originate from unresolved confusion and hurt, from from early age, from racial prejudice. Thomas's unresolved hurts seemingly restrict and throw a fog over his rare, written opinions and utterings from the bench. (In 2016, Justice Thomas made the news by breaking his 10 year silence from the SCOtUs bench.) Thomas's rare and largely unintelligible 'expressions' on the Supreme court stand out (i.e., are uniquely different from) from his colleagues's and when they do appear, seem awkwardly worded and simply different, from his colleagues's - an exception being Justice Scalia (RIP), his legal compatriot, whose anti-LBGTQA and anti-abortion, anti-progressiceness, ...seems to have lived in the same existential void as Thomas.

IMHO, the reason why Thomas' rare writings and 'sayings (rarely recorded because they are like a hurt child's spurts of confused anger. Thomas presents as a physical-appearing adult who disguises those hurts in empty-sounding phrases stemming from empty-meaning thoughts that even he seems to recognize as not worth speaking, as to speak these mind-farts would jeopardize his standing with the public and his SCOTUS peers...as they do when rarely uttered.

Justice Thomas's rare and unintelligible 'expressions' seem to say he has not confronted the hurt he has from past (and presently felt) discriminatory prejudices from others, and come to accept that those prejudices are based on superficial physical qualities he can not correct...no matter how hard he might try and pray to remove. These targeted natural (God-deemed) qualities are for Thomas focused on skin color. Thomas does not appear to have an adult minority person's reaiization that his and others' qualities such as race, color or LGBTQ are 'God-given' ('natural') and that he/she is morally right (and has the Constitutional right) to challenge those prejudices when they restrict his and others' freedoms to live the same as every majority (white, hetero) American citizen, i.e., to enjoy full color-gender-other blind Constitutional rights and protections, including marriage.

Consequently, imho, Thomas's rare and largely unintelligible SCOTUS opinions often appear to be ramblings to himself and his still-tortured soul. It's as if he wants to say he recognizes racial and gender prejudice and discrimination but fears to seem to acknowledge he is a member of the targeted group. Consequently, his opinions in cases of racial/gender nature are absent or simply disregarded as pro-forma (for him) and of little worth.

Thomas has yet to develop an adult's comprehension of 'what's going on' which would allow him to formulate an 'au courant', 'woke' sense of self, his boundaries, and his probable feeling of hurt from imjustly breached personal boundaries. This evolved but unreached selfhood would have given Justice Thomas a self-respecting defiance of those who breach those Constitutionally assured boundaries and justly define the prejudiced and their causes as unjust!. Instead, Thomas appears to struggle, with inarticulate non-success, to render all points of view, even of the prejudiced, in equal light. Thomas seems to think this middle-road stance is safe but it actually makes him appear empty and useless.

Moreover, from his 'waffling', Thomas seems to want to give racial/gender prejudice an equally valid moral weight as the misguided prejudices of the alt-right oppressor of LGBTQA and racial minorities...which also seems to be a hallmark of the present Trumpian (POTUS) philosophy.

(Pericles21 is certain that Justice Thomas, as an adult African-American male, continues to experience hurtful prejudice.) The point though is when might Justice Thomas wake up?

A Solution for the Times: 'Daddy Let Your Mind Roll On' (Or, Why Worry, Suck Down That Kool-Ade) - Why Don'tcha?

Are 'we', America and the rest of Earth's inhabitants (all of 'us' - hominids and lesser 'folks')beset with the projected dis-ease of a 'canted' personality, that of our dear POTUS? Think carefully about that before you answer 'Nyet'! (Catch the insinuation?!?!)

Since the November 2016 POTUS election, it's been tough to gather oneself and 'find' time to ponder and collect one's thoughts about what happened in the election, and what is happening and what might still happen. Basically, it's all been 'batshit' crazy since November 2016.

For several months (geez, 6 months actually) Pericles21 has had an unfinished overview post about what happened last November 2016, but it seems - No! It does not 'seem', it 'is the case' - that America, and the world with us (because of us), has fallen into a whirlpool..a whirlpool in the middle of a cesspool..of confusing, too quickly changing but uniformly chaotic..'existence' if one can call it existence. It's hard to adapt to constant chaos isn't it?

How can one use the term 'uniform' with 'chaotic'? Well, for a start, just sit and try to describe what is now going on in Washington, DC, and globally. 'See' - thoughts go round and round...where it all stops is not possible to see. The current world and national situation can't be described using standard expositional structures and analysis and structures. There is so little sense to it all. And it changes so quickly. Too quickly. Chaos is a good term to use.

Some do adapt, though not exactly in a 'healthy' mature manner (depending one one's perspective and personal tools). A Zen perspective might help. But not everyone has the Dalai Llama's reincarnate centuries of Zen training.

'Taking the bullet' and simply ducking and avoiding the stage lights helps, too. Doesn't it?

But the 'normal' person (who gives a shit) is left with just dizziness - but that at least means plenty of company ( isn't that comforting?), over 60% of our American population experiences 'diarrhea-nervosa' trying to get its heads around our dear leader and his antics.

That's comforting, too. Isn't it?.

The rest of the world largely copes by laughing it's collective head off at our arms-a-flailing running around like headless chickens.

And that's real comfort...isn't it?

And there you have it,

there is comfort for everyone... we all can be happy, theoretically, if one is willing to walk around giggling like a mad person, or half asleep or mentally dwelling off-planet.

If these traits (artifices for us) sound familiar it's because they are all found in the person of Dear POTUS. In other 'words' we Americans and the rest of Mother Earths two-legged hominids have been gobbsmocked, bamboozled and smoky-mirrored by an ace carny clown into a state of high dis-ease.

But what does one do, many times, in that state ...of dis-ease? Why kick back, pop a top (or corn), fill a bowl (popped corn, cherries, or might be appropriate in your State, or state?), turn on TV and 'GET OUT' (Paglia). It works. For a while.

America re-discovers it's past remedy for this dis-ease(1970s at least, during the time of the Nixon 'illness').

'Sit right down, Daddy, let your mind roll on'

But, there is, at least, an analysis tool/phraseology that many Americans are familiar with who have experience with military. A unifying phrase, ultimate in simplicity, maximal in American linguistic abstraction that describes our current national state of existence pretty well and has been used a a safe drug by many military recruits whose minds have been have been dizzied by the whirlpool of immersion in a military world of commands and counter-commands and counters-to-counter commands:

'SNAFU..SITUATION NORMAL, ALL FUCKED UP'.

SNAFU pretty well describes the world we live in...a world in a chaotic 'non-sense' state since America's Nov 2017, POTUS election, and largely accelerated in non-sense by the principal (POTUS) of that election.

Are 'we', America and the rest of Earth's inhabitants (all of 'us' - hominids and lesser 'folks')beset with the projected dis-ease of a 'canted' personality, that of our dear POTUS? Think carefully about that before you answer 'Nyet'! (Catch the insinuation?!?!)

There, it's said - America's POTUS is the principal agent of a current, all-enveloping national and global Chaos - our global, existential WhirlPool. Will it end, this mutant sport presently occupying the Office of America's President? Of course it will end, sometime. Meanwhile, cope however one can, or must. Just don't forget.

Trump at Month 5 / Pt 1: What have we got? What did we do? 'Wha Happen'd?' Could We Have Imagined? YES!, And It's Not Good!

The idea for this post was conceived more than a month ago with the intent to draw up a list of thoughts and key bullets linked to Donald Trump's then 3 but now 4 months in the White House - as POTUS not as a hall-wandering guest.

But, regularly every time, just as Pericles21 seemed to see a window of calm in the goings-on in Washington - a point to sit devotedly at writing this post - something would happen with DT that disturbed the apparent calm-in-the-waters and so put off writing this post. Something, an event or utterance from DT, that both strengthened previous opinions about DT's mis-match to his new POTUS 'gig', yet also added something new and more strange that was beyond prior imagining what boundaries, traditions and (even) laws might be twisted, bent and possibly broken to satisfy (or 'sprung from' as the whelping of a two-headed calf) the whims of 'dear POTUS' (nomened with thought ala Kim Jong-un).

Trump has proved to be not a POTUS but an ongoing, depersonalized, continually blossoming, non-scripted event...like a giant fart striking those around with noise and odor, and never ending, going on and on. It seems with Trump's every movement, breath and thought, some American tradition, ethic, law, is breached, tossed aside and/or wrecked.

This description of the first 4 months is written with trepidation but with confidence that the sentiment is shared, increasingly, by a growing majority of Americans whose segments sometimes cheer him as watching the Bull in a 'China-shop', or sneer or quake in fear.

But at the root of things about America's perception of Trump as POTUS, as reflected in current polls (and even in the polls before the November 2016 election), is America's doubt about the 'aptness' of Trump to meet the skills, standards and requirements to be America's president.

The choice of the "Aptness' of Trump is an attempt by Pericles21 to 'ground' this post in phrasing befitting polite and considerate readers. But, 'Polite and Considerate Readers'- maybe that is the dance partner to the current POTUS 'debacle' (oops, there we go again, about to take off.) 'Enablers we are' seems the more accurate label we all must wear as our sharing in the Trump era.

Bluntly, Trump is not qualified to be POTUS. If Trump had lost the election, no one would been surprised (not even Trump). Plus, not only would no one have been surprised but no one would even have felt relief because we couldn't have imagined, without 'It' happening, just how weird, strange, bizarre and f...ked things could get.

And yet to our self-condemnation and self-flagellating angst in post- modern Western culture, it's all so mesmerizing (hypnotizing). To his 'credit', Trump as POTUS is arguably better watching than any television sitcom series...it's free and 'obviously ' written by a team of truly 'gifted' (deranged) writers who seemingly must work 24/7 (around the clock) to dream up this s...t.

Trump as POTUS' been Odd (to be polite)...and the oddness keeps on being there.

But at the root of it all, something not pleasant is going on with the current POTUS. Is he physically ill? Mental? A traitor? Double Agent? Evil genius? Or not evil? Or is Trump just a genius so above every American and the world's leaders that we are toyed with like Barbie and Ken?

'Wha' is happening? To us? Wha's up with this whole piece? When's the commercial break, this s..t is getting too real? Isn't somebody in the control booth, we need relief? This looks, smells, sounds like a staged farce - it can't go on. Fire ASAP the warped agent who hired the burned-out druggies who are writing this. Our brains can't take it? Sniffle, sniffle.

That is what the current polls are describing and increasingly so, by trends.

What have we got? What did we do? 'Wha Happen'd?' How could we..did America ever.. envision ...after the inauguration..no, before the inauguration...no, after the election sabotage... !....

OK, bluntly put, it was, or should have been, always apparent there was something off-kilter with DT so we never looked closer than surface (his too-bright,smallish, eyes and crooked smile and over-the-top, self-exaggerations), and definitely askew with the picture of DT as POTUS, even several presidential cycles ago, that is why DT never got beyond or to the primaries.

Trumpian Times - Exit Left (IN JUST 60 DAYS !) with a Suggested Plan for an Interim 'potus' and New Election), Or, ' Down With the Business Model of Governance , Citizens Are Not A Disposable Labor Pool'

In 2009 and 2014 Pericles21 posted about the fallacy and threat of regarding the American Citizen as a disposable labor pool under a business model governance system run by big corporations and/or their servants.

It's Time to stop filling in the blanks in Trump's performances and statements with hopeful or "fair" interpretations of DT's daily (thrice daily?) gaffes, un-presidential tweets, insults to foreign leaders, threats, bullying, saber rattling, and so on...and look straight on at what sometimes occupies the Oval Office (sometimes its DT). It's a big cow-pie!

DT is a mess, his appointees are a line-up crew, fringe dwellers or zombies..who among will be indicted, investigated and dismissed next?

The majority of voters thought Trump was mess and about half of those who voted for Trump also thought he was a mess!

Now it's the moment, (and JUST 60 DAYS!!) the majority of voters thought would happen, even though willing to give the sobering influence of sitting behind the Oval Office desk to work some kind of magic on DT. It, the rehab of Trump, hasn't happened, it looks like it won't happen and things are getting worse daily.

We've gained INSIGHT from the Trump debacle:

wanting to be President, being President and earning respect (even begrudgingly) requires something Trump doesn't show he has...a basic personal integrity, a love or at least respect for the Constitution and democratic principles, a desire to better the lives of American citizens at all levels.

A tough job? YES! That is why a modern, 21st century America doesn't deserve Trump who is not at the intellectual level with other global leaders, not inspiring global comfortability (just the opposite, in Aces), and definitely not a person of inspiring ideas and vision beyond threatening to bomb the "sh//t" out of the demons of his twisted paranoia.

Pericles 21 has the following suggestions, after today's March 20, 2017, televised hearings between FBI Director Comey and the House Intelligence Committee (Wired Ezine, 03/20/17):

1/ DT given opportunity to walk out the front door, away forever from the White House and not be indicted for treason - with 10 yr suspension of all business licensing in the the USA; if he chooses to remain in the USA, DT has to register as a foreign agent while on American soil, but his family will not be affected, even though some of them might potentially also be in conflict of interest with the Russians.
2/ 2016 election declared void, and all appointee positions not filled be frozen in place with Obama holdovers.
3/ 6-10 month Pro-tem "chief executive" appointed (Obama) to set up real 2017 or 2018 election, with proviso that Obama will not be eligible not be allowed to run in the new election.

Obama is the only person with enough global cache" (trust, experience and confidence inspiring intellect), administrative determination, management skill and patience to reach compromises where required and set up the machinery for the new election.

After this, anyone with imagination can write books...and hopefully America will have had it up to the eyeballs experimenting with a business model leadership.

What we have witnessed - the Business Model just doesn't work...

CITIZENS ARE NOT A DISPOSABLE LABOR POOL TO BE LAID OFF OR DISCARDED TO IMPROVE THE BOTTOM LINE, OTHER SOLUTIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR LIVING STANDARDS INEQUALITY, JOBS, HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION!!!!).

And especially, DeVos should go or be placed aside in favor of a proven public servant (or committee of impartial educators) with national vision, not her.

Trumpian Times: EyeBall Deep in DT's Dialectic Doo Doo ('You Don't know What You Got 'Till It's Gone)

This is a post-in-progress. Stay tuned.

PREFACE:
This blog began in 2009 and was somewhat consistently added to through today, 2017. What a ride it's been since election day 2016! And what a difference from the transition from Presidents Bush II to Obama - a transition that was carried out with mutual self-discipline and regard, and above all, a concern for America's continuity and peace. (Bush 2 is to be congratulated for his decency with which he conducted himself through that smooth transition).

But this transition, the 'Trumpian Tribulations', is a different show - this is a taking of America by force, an occupation by a foreign enemy (in several ways, morally and what looks to be a true coup assisted by a foreign enemy state, Russia)...but no one seems to have the guts to do anything serious about it.

It is also a macabre sign of this transition that so many of this blogger's acquaintances are so deeply affected (shocked, traumatized, mind-zonked ..) by the barbaric and crude disrespect, and unmerciful willy-nilly viciousness and ruination-by-trampling as DT and his gang of troglodytes have raped, pillaged, decimated and 'sold into bondage' sensitive and secure federal government apparatus. (Though all in character for DT, one supposes.)

'Oh, Hillary, Sanders, Stein, Johnson, Brazille, Wasserman-Schultz...what were you thinking? And all you lib-progressives who with miffed, kindergarten egos sat this one out and did not vote at all...well, this is what you (and we all) get. What a price to pay for lib-progressives to be educated for future campaigns.

But what fascinates one most is how the perpetrator (once again our 'DT', 'OBP'(Orange Big Pimp'n), OG (Original Gonzo) so easily (and often) has gotten away with flaunting American standards no POTUS has ever violated ...with only feeble complaints like American Tradition is a sweet deer-fawn being done with by a hyena mauling and eating it live while it simply lays there in wide eyed shock.

One has to wonder why (if one cares)if this 'stick up' is so easy, why no POTUS in one's reading hasn’t done the same previously in America's short history.? One explanation must be that regardless of Party, every modern POTUS except this One has had a basic respect set for the office, the country and humanity, that create built-in borders of some decency.

And, this job is not easy. Every modern POTUS has quickly shown signs of mental exertion trying to seriously juggle and manage America's complexities. Struggled to find the right way.

But THIS ONE makes it look easy because he is unaware of traditions (like the Constitution of the United States), has no behavioral boundaries and knows very little of the significance of the job except for a one-sided misconception that the Presidency is just a job description of something that should be simple because 'obviously' being President means automatic exemption from all laws and the ultimate freedom to do what one wants - like 'grabbing America by the 'Shorts'.

In other words, being POTUS is a simpleton's dream come true - the ultimate freedom to rule like an emperor or a kid in a candy shop. Or, it should be..and if it isn't. then all one has to do is whine, wscrean, threaten and pull any other kind of nasty tricks a man-child can manage or dream up. And, 'regarde', they all fall down ...especially if man-child occasionally throws in a brief second of adult-mimicry that makes them all (mostly) swoon with relief at the prospect that man-child has finally grown up. Only it's all just one more joke on us.

The conflicts of interest and monetizing of the Presidency for private gain is appalling! And the family altogether seem a gang of rug merchants parking their camels on the front lawn and pissing in the corners of the Oval Office. Sorry.

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: 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: 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.

Election 2016: The Next American President - America Badly Needs A Woman POTUS (And The Warren Factor)

This post responds to Leslie Salzillo's article on May 3, 2016 in the Dailykos website: "Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump's Republican win: 'Here's what else is real...'.

First, let's cut right to the core - there has been a lot of proposing various candidate 'tickets' for both parties. As of May8, it appears Donal 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.

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 election picture is kind of upside-down. We first start with Senator Warren, the real deal - genuine, 'you-get-what-you-see', articulate, really pissed off and communicates 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 presidents and chaos. Don't agree? Then just think about the 'why and what' is going on about Donald Trump who is ultimate example of 'out-of-control' testosterone strangeness and threat to darken America's young political history. Trump's 'solutions' are ..'what'...other than loud 'woofing'? Should Trump get into the White House, expect anything but solutions to America's problems.

What is current America? America appears currently almost terminally lost, drifting and dis-functionional. 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).

Our oligarchist, facist-capialisteconomy 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. Trump can't do that...but maybe Trump is the bad-tasting medicine America needs to hold its nose from and swallow.


Obama's election was a moment of 'now its your turn', American minorities. (Even tho, imho, Obama doesn't really qualify as an 'American' minority...he just coincidentally shares the same 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 more a choice.)

America now, desperately, NEEDS a female POTUS, an intelligent individual with a female sense of 'making things right' and restoring America's social health and confidence. Warren appears to have these qualities, and more ... in Aces.

Bernie Sanders is a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland' furry 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.