Author: plinyblogcom

As a brief “time-out” from the vexing discussion of the disgraceful Trump quagmire, we have elected to temporarily comply with readers who have expressed a desire for additional “ancient lore” regarding our 1940’s childhood in the exotic Askenazi Jewish immigrant ambiance of 1940’s Brooklyn, New York. We may have previously attempted to verbally reprise the outdoor, savoury cooking redolence emanating from the tenement dwellings at mealtimes and the variety of comestibles sold by the ubiquitous street food vendors; however, the subject of the commercial sale of ethnic food specialties may permissibly bear some further discussion.

In Eastern European tradition, bread was unquestionably the metaphysically understood, basic life-giver, both symbolically and empirically. The breads of Eastern Europe were heavier and considerably more nutritious than the lighter breads of America and France, and indeed were the “staple of life.” The popular breads of our immigrant neighbors were pumpernickel (dark) and rye (lighter), but never “White Bread.” Challah was the special bread for the Sabbath, sweet Challah for the Sabbath, and round, sweet Challah for the Jewish New Year.

We have bitter-sweet recollections of going to the local bakery (“Segaloff’s”) each week, with maternal instructions to purchase a “two-pound rye and six rolls”, such request responsibly repeated by the elderly, toothless, proprietess, Mrs. Segaloff, in an exotic, liquified rendition; the recollection of the latter request, apparently, eternally available to the nostalgic ear of our ancient recollection.

On the same street as the bakery, “Belmont Avenue,” there stood three ethnically iconic representatives of the representative” cuisine of the local residents. The “Appetizing Store” ( baked and salted fish and savouries, cheeses, bagels, mixed salads, egg, tuna, salmon, herring, whitefish). The harmonious symphony of redolent piquancy was an unspoken but irresistible invitation to breakfast and an irresistible solicitation to purchase.

Two contextually significant iconic institutions were ensconced on the same city block, completing the savoury, ethnic mis-en-scene. These may have, to our recollection, represented the most articulate and ethnically representative institutions, beneficially afforded to the mundane lives and basic culinary experiences of the newly arrived, Eastern European refugees, fleeing from World prosecution; they were the reverential, large wooden barrels, containing, respectively, sour dill pickles and salt herring.

We have never been able to successfully replicate the taste of the dill pickles, fished out for sale from the huge redolent pickle barrel and sold for an individual price of three cents. Notably, we adhered to the empirical theory that such pickles, eaten in the rain, had enhanced taste; however, we were not able to discern whether the dynamics of the empirical result were chemical or emotional.

The fat, salty herrings had their own exclusive taste and were highly prized by our Lithuanian-Russian father, whose available caviar was “Schmaltz” (fat) herring, boiled potato, and pumpernickel bread, the royal repast of Olympian Dieties. The vendor, after fishing out the purchased salot herring from the expansive barrel. would wrap the savoury aquatic delectable, diagonally, in a page of the daily Jewish newspaper.

It has eternally been our contemplative opinion that olfactory and taste recollections are, like “muscle memory,” not the empirical product of cerebral recollection.

-p.

The less-than-genial, tight-lipped Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, referring to Donald J. Trump, as reported. stated: “He is the worst person I ever met in my life.” Canada’s Prime Minister, Carney, publicly declared… “Trump has destroyed the World Order.”

For quite some time, we had unsuccessfully sought some conceivable answer to the intriguing question of Trump’s singularly nuanced persona and motivation. However, we have recently come to affirm our earliest thematic caricature of Donald J. Trump, as a life-long veritable “enfant terrible,” one who would, expectedly, kick his mother in the shins to neurotically gain her exclusive attention. Despite his awareness of its predictable retribution, the irresistible lust for childish personal attention overriding all other considerations. We are now confident that our early caricatured analogy has analogical merit in understanding Donald Trump’s systematic motivation.

In our considered view, contrary to Trump’s ostensible portrayal of himself as a confident and celebrated leader, he suffers from a neurotically insatiable appetite for acceptance and approval, with the possibility of success analogous to the ultimate inability to fill a wooden bucket rife with leaks at its bottom. Like the Grecian mythological Tantalus, the desired grapes remain, eternally “out of reach.”

Neither arrogantly overriding the Nation’s constitution and rule of law, unilaterally declaring war, organizing a private, masked army to arrest and make the lives of Hispanic Americans unbearable, aggressively employing his misunderstanding of tariffs to purportedly intimidate other trading nations, nor arbitrary elimination of the utilitarian Federal Civil Service, the gauche act of gilding of the Nation’s White House, notably, at a time when 40% of the Nation is living, patcheck to paycheck, his directed demolition of its historical “East Wing,” the arrogant and improper placement of his name on the Nation’s venerated cultural Centers, the romancing of foreign autocrats, suicidal attacks on NATO, aggrandizing threats to take over foreign sovereign nations, like Greenland and our good neighbor, Canada, his asserted intimidation of our Nation’s institutions of Higher Education, and Cultural Centers, demands for the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and senseless intimidation of Panama, his autocratic elimination of funding to National Educationa Radio and Television, nor his bizarre assertion of entitlement to the Nobel Prize, has sufficed to assuage his insecure and eternally frustrated need for admiration. The law of gravity seems bent on leaking all of the watery substance of his desperate acts through the eternally present leakholes in his empirical bucket.

We have come to the empirically based realization that, to the exclusion of other conceivably laudable aspirations, such as a sense of competent achievement, moral reverence, honor, and recognizedly wise mature judgment, contrastingly Trump’s desperately nuanced thirst for general approval as a “winner” has been the singular North Star in his lifelong misdirected voyage to the land of perceived potential sainthood or reverential honor. The more impure water added to the leaky bucket of his neurotically monomaniacal need, the more leaky his biographical bucket.

The “leaky wooden bucket” analogy, we have, at last, come to realize, is the dynamic motivation for his insatiable egocentrism and the systemic attribution for his dystopian behavior. Regardless of his asserted bravado and vociferous pretension, the underlying dynamic energy source is fear and infantile insecurity.

We must be more selective in our acceptance of Presidential aspirants.

-p.

The shameful period of the Spanish and Portuguese “Conquistadors” evinced great cruelty in the bloody conquest of vast parts of the Americas, driven by gold, glory, and God (Christianity). History recites the abominable cruelty practiced against the indigenous empires, like that of the Aztecs and the Incas, by such villains as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro. ( 15th – 17th Century). There has unfortunately been a surfeit of wars between sovereign states since that time, but notably, few instances of colonialism.

It is remarkable to observe that Donald J. Trump, albeit in his second time at bat as American President, suffers from such systemic myopia as not to realize that the metaphysical history of our Nation is one of rebellion against colonialism. Perhaps less time on the golf course, hanging out at the local McDonald’s, and a little time at the Presidential library might help.

Trump seems to harbor the neurotic illusion that, as a uniquely skilled negotiator, he can easily and skillfully accomplish desirable or profitable (rare Earth minerals) results. Yet, his only negotiating skill seems to be limited to the act of demanding; nothing further. His alleged book, “Art of the Deal,” was written by a ghostwriter, who we understand was not paid for his authorship. Better that the book (and his misplaced Greenland intentions) were entitled, “Art of the Steal.”

The outrageously hubristic claims regarding Denmark’s sovereign State of Greenland ( like Trump’s bromance with Putin and his claims regarding Ukraine) have been criticised by political leaders, domestic and international, as unwarranted and legally outrageous, Nevertheless,t Trump, in his impenetrable, myopic, and egoistic bubble, seems adamant on his unjustified and irrational themat aspiration, even to the extreme extent of threatening military intervention. A dilemma, apparently ignored by the dystopic President and his menagerie of side-show Cabinet Ministers, is that Denmark is a member of the European Union and NATO. The latter organization is confirmed in its obligation of mutual defense if any one of its members is threatened by war. The latter agreement has salubriously ensured decades of World peace,

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump is more than amoral and embarrassingly incompetent; it also pollutes world progress toward lasting peace and humanistic advancement. The Greenland example is but one of his ample litany of unwise and injudicial performance.

-p.

Mainstream America is struggling to accept the unprecedentedly bizarre state of the Nation under the present Trump Administration. It is notably stunned at the breakneck speed at which it has been transformed from a Nation beneficially advancing toward “a more perfect union” to its present (hopefully temporary) condition of undemocratic, dystopian rule.

One of Trump’s plethora of shameful, un-American practices is his establishment and support of a private, large, (masked) armed and uniformed militia to implement his Gestapo-style, xenophobic detestation of Hispanic Americans. The selective Presidential pogrom is redolent of Adolph Hitler’s memorable “Kristallnacht” of the 1930’s. Peaceabiding, productive, taxpaying, Hispanic Americans, many of whom have resided in the Nation for decades, are being ethnically uprooted, criminally charged, incarcerated, and even banished to foreign torture prisons, without just cause or due process.

To empirically convey an adequately realistic picture of such horrendous iniquity, we have elected to reprise an eye-opening employment advertisement from the local newspaper of West Pennsyltucky, Ohio, “The Tobacco Road Sentinel:

“Help Wanted-Federal Jobs.””Well-paying government positions- available (no required interview or paperwork) at the Federal Agency of International Customs and Immigration Enforcement [“ICE”]. free starched khaki uniforms, heavy nail boots, thick leather belts, black face masks, leather gloves, guns, crowd-persuasive equipment, including electrical stun-guns, bear spray, with free refills. Free pool hall, chips, and weekend beer,

Applicants must be indisputably white, at least 19 years of age, and born in the United States or its Territories. No educational requirements; bonus paid for applicants with criminal records, double bonus if for assault and battery. Free legal representation and guaranteed pardon, in the event of legal conviction. Free group truck transport to work, heavy gloves, beer, and free medical attention, including orthopedic surgery. MAGA voters preferred.”

The recent notable rise in employment status, proclaimed by Donald J. Trump, has been authoritatively attributed to a recent surge in ICE applicants.

-p.

We are thoroughly exasperated at the lack of critical response to the propagandistic misuse of the modern term “woke,” tactically reconfigured by the bigoted citizen to represent a populist epithet. It has no such epithetical intent or meaning, and we are disappointed that the responsible media have failed to criticise such misuse. A distasteful example of its misuse is the populist boast of the right-wing Governor of the State of Florida, Ron DeSantis: “Florida is the State where ‘woke’ goes to die.”The dystopian misdemeanor is termed “wokism.”

Right-wing politicians tactically solicit support from their regressive MAGA supporters with the application of the misused word in sundry forms, like “wokeness” to indicate unacceptability or even un-American. As indicated, we are angered and frustrated with said ignorant practice, which anger is exacerbated by the empirical absence of critical comments concerning such miscreant use.

The thematic term “woke” is a populist form of the adjective “awakened” and connotes awareness, consciousness, and recognition, especially social consciousness. Does the Florida Governor intend to indicate pride in his boastful assertion that “woke” or social consciousness comes to die in Florida, from his observed views and actions, he may well be effectively accurate.

The sincere efforts of right-thinking, constitutionally observant Americans of every skin color and ethnos to attain “a more perfect union,” in which “equality” is universal has been a long, arduous, albeit positive, movement, aggravated by the past, historically inhumane chattel slavery of black people. While the aspiration for universal equality is socially challenging, social interaction and relevant legislation have advanced such avowed American ideal, albeit slowly.

In the interim, relative to many social phenomena, the plight of black and colored people, relative to various contexts, is empirically more problematic than that of white people. Finance, domicile, mortgaging, employment, admission to Country Clubs, and certain organizations are representative examples. Although unintended by right-thinking American citizens, this societal difference is sociologically termed “White Privilege,” the somber recognition of which is existentially important in the pursuit of the Nation’s traditionally avowed, universal equality.

Such humanistic, societal recognition is the pragmatic prerequisite to the ultimate attainment of universal American equality; it is referred to as “woke.”

-p.

Much has been written about the unprecedented, dystopian term of office of Donald J. Trump. Its evident incompetence is overshadowed by its plethora of hubristic, illegal, and monomaniacal acts that have, in a short space of time, notably despoiled the rational salubrity of our Nation’s founding and demoted our world standing. Many Americans have conveniently relegated the Trump phenomenon to his presumed status as a sui generis persona charged with the singular goal of self-aggrandizement. We shared the latter opinion until our thematic epiphany.

The huge “No Kings” citizen demonstrations were in proximate response to the objectionable, unlimited exercise of autocratic power by an American President. The egocentric and bizarrely unprecedented acts of Donald J. Trump were performed, irrespective of the Nation’s constitution, system of laws, and all too often, contrary to the societal moral compass. Professionalism, precedent, decency, and humanism were overthrown by Trump’s neurotic need for public adoration and recognition as a majestic leader.

Other similar demonstrations were in response to his draconian policies concerning immigration, his irrational and unjustified claims of territorial aggrandizement, overweening personal enrichment, and general arbitrary rule. These historic traits are inarguably comparable to the perverse monarchical privilege, against which the American colonies successfully revolted.

The latter observation usefully provided a cogent explanation (“epiphany”) for the observably bizarre, atavistic policies and actions of Donald Trump, supplemental to his empirically demonstrated personal egocentrism.

Raising and financing a private army, expressing imperial requests for acquiring other sovereign States, arbitrarily waging war against foreign nations, sinking foreign ships on the high seas, enriching himself and family, granting pardons to egregious criminals, availing himself of an underage harem (a la Epstein), accumulating gold to decorate his living environment, taking repressive actions against political opponents, using the Nation’s military for desired domestic purposes, instituting arbitrary tariffs on trading partners, granting tax and other benefits to his billionnaire supporters while ignoring the plight of the poor.

A cursory review of history will readily disclose that the above-enumerated traits of our present Chief Executive are analogous to those of the historic European kings, the latter observation providing the thematic context for this writing, i,e., the sought-for, but unaccountable explanation for the bizarre Trump Presidency.

Donald Trump is a modern-day anachronism, a leftover from past history, analogous to a vestigial organ such as the tonsils or the appendix. There are no uses for such appendages, and the same are best excised before they become toxic. The American voter will soon doubtlessly demonstrate the surgical procedure concerning its highest office.

-p.

In the course of our years of writing experience, we have observed that the contextual utility of descriptive adjectives is properly limited by the writer’s intended context. Thus, by example, “thoughtless” proves to be inadequate to describe “cruel,” and the bland word “partial” is too bland to indicate “love.” On the other hand, “homicidal” is overkill when the writer simply intends “angry” and “starving,” when “feeling hungry” is intended.

Notably, there appears to be no adjective, too excessive to adequately describe the bizarre, declared desire of Donald J. Trump, to be awarded the historically venerable “Nobel Peace Prize.” Such a request would be equally dystopian, were it made by Genghis Khan or Kemal Atatürk. Trump’s delusional request is characteristic of his innate, systemic delusion, or should we rather employ the clinical term schizophrenia? The latter diagnosis may be as clinically applicable as that demonstrated by the mythical Emperor sans clothes.

Trump, in this illustration of his singularly bizarre perception of reality, would like to be included with the likes of Doctors Without Borders, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, and Mother Theresa, for their recognized contributions to World peace and human empathy. Donald J. Trump, by such declared aspiration, has awakened universal contempt to the extent of bitter derision; yet Trump, esconced in his self-contained, egomaniacal bubble, observes reality distortedly through a self-serving, neurotically myopic lens; such bizarre pathology, robotically confirmed by his menagerie of loyal Cabinet Ministers and a large disgruntled horde of MAGA sycophantic worshipers.

We might conceptually review some of the features of the Trump Administration, bearing on the merits ( and sanity) of his delusional claim of entitlement to be awarded the historically esteemed Nobel Prize for World Peace:

(1) Donald Trump has (illegally) raised and financed a private (masked )army to harass, intimidate, arrest, imprison, and banish law-abiding American Hispanic residents, without a semblance of basic due process, in the pursuit of his populist xenophobic mania.

(2) He has (unconstitutionally, and illegally [posse comitatus) used the Nation’s military for perceived domestic purposes,

(3) Trump has unauthorizedly bombed Venezuela and its seagoing vessels, murdering the struggling naval survivors, the latter, contrary to the Law of Warfare and basic decency,

(4) He has unilaterally decided to bomb Iran, Syria, and certain African nations without Congressional authorization,

(4) Donald Trump has made irrational imperialist claims against our peaceful neighbor, Canada, and against fellow NATO member, Finland, regarding its sovereign territory, Greenland.

(5) Trump has inhumanely discontinued USAID and the Nation’s other humanistic programs of medical and financial assistance to needy Nations, has opposed the Nation’s empathic programs regarding healthcare, food, and other relief to the needy, simultaneously rewarding the Nation’s billionaires for their financial support by cutting their tax rate,

(6) Trump has defunded National Public Radio, as well as other institutions of public service and human enlightenment such as The Smithsonian Institution and America’s Institutions of higher Education,,

(7) Trump has arbitrarily and irresponsibly dismissed the Nation’s invaluably existential institutions of public health and medical research,

(8) Donald Trump has 34 Felony convictions and is the named accused in a plethora of Federal Criminal convictions,

(9) Trump has been convicted of tax fraud, paying hush money regarding prostitutes with whom he did steady commerce has =been shown to be a close colleague and customer of Jeremy Epstein, the box-store underage sex merchandiser, a defamer, and the acknowledged producer and director of the infamous insurrection against the Capitol.

(10) There are many more dumpster-fulls of shameful acts; however, it is felt that the horrendous carte du jour are certainly judgmentally descriptive of Donald Trump’s request for civil beatification.

Returning to the initial subject referred to above, we were unable to find in the English lexicon a suitable adjective or noun to describe the audacity of Trump’s request and, as we have in such instances in the past, sought relief in the omni-expressive language of Yiddish. The word is: “Chutzpah,” [ trans: the demonstration of shameless, ignorant hubris].

-p.

When one refers to “Democracy,” they speak of the salubrious governmental recognition of the will of the citizenry, in the dynamic context of a Nation governed “by, and for the People.” It was the style of polity that the Framers of the Constitution intended, and its ultimate perfection, an aspirational goal since the nation’s advent. i.

Incongruently, the attainment of such a salubrious goal empirically appears to be dependent upon the mundane dynamics of arithmetic, rather than the idealistic principle of just governance. In a Nation affording to every mature citizen the equal franchise of the vote, the salubrious existence of governmental”Democracy” is existentially dependent upon the ultimate demonstrative (i.e., arithmetical) decision of the voters. Songs of praise about the virtues of freedom and democracy which must be adequately resonant and ultimately effective to be determinative.

As famously instructed by Jefferson and Franklin, the successful endurance of a Democratic Republic is dynamically contingent upon the educational quality of its citizenry; Thomas Jefferson famously observed that the success of a democratic style of government is dependent upon the level of literacyand political awareness of the citizenry; Franklin, in a memorable response to the question, “What kind of government have you created?” replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Unless a sufficiently determinative number of voters express their desire for democratic governance, less representative modes of rule, inclusive of atavistic autocracy, will prevail. Thus, it must be conceded that, from a metaphysically dynamic viewpoint, the empirically procedural (arithmetical) element relative to the choice of polity is pragmatically more relevant than the avowed, conceptual nature of its substantive features.

Accordingly, we have often quoted the admonition of Thomas Jefferson that the successful duration of a Democratic Republic requires a literate and informed citizenry, and the admonition of fellow Founder, Benjamin Franklin, who, in response to the question, “What kind of a government have you created ? ” famously, replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it!”

Together, presumably, with most mainstream American citizens, we would principally condemn the dangerous, dystopic policies of the miscreant Trump Administration; the latter, contextually elected by a populist majority of voters, evincing insufficient education and thus hampered by limited judgment. Such aberrant elevation of Donald J. Trump to the Oval Office amounted to the election of a delusional, incompetent, and amoral Chief Executive, who, with the dystopian compliance of his selected menagerie of loyal, but “Mad Hatter,” Cabinet Ministers, has been successful in conflating the Nation’s traditionally avowed goals and shamefully deflating its historically venerable standing,

It is empirically diagnostic that the publicly declared, “would be dictator,” as part of his initial autocratic program, programmatically set about to toxically destroy empirical “truth” with his pernicious demogogic preaching of “alternative facts,” attacked the educational integrity of the Nation’s institutions of higher education, together with the Nation’s institutes of science, including those relative to citizen health, its pragmatic ally needed civil service, along with elective and other civil rights, and the psychopathic discomtinuance of its programs of National and International empathy.

The ignorant underbelly of the Nation, selfishly financed by the profit-making, anti-regulation, air- polluting industrial enterprises, combined to elect their perceived, long=awaited, redeemer. Not unlike “Lemmings” haplessly led, en masse, to the precipice of their ultimately lethal cliff, the cultural saga of MAGA is a grim tale fueled by misguided ignorance.

We have been greatly heartened to observe the recent huge public outrage of the Nation against the cruel, autocratic, and often ignorantly damaging actions of the Trump Administration and are principally convinced that the Nation, steeped in the tradition of freedom and equality, must continue to publicly and articulatedly express its repulsion at the arbitrary, neurotic, and miscreant acts of the perverse Trump Administration. However, such temporally righteous reactions, while affirmingly appropriate, are not equivalent to the administration of an effective vaccination nor the harbingers of ultimate immunity from toxic political disease to which a free society is eternally vulnerable.

The pansacea is in the salubrious establishment of an improved and universal emphasis on the quality of citizen education and joint, mutual involvement in the enterprise of a healthy, citizen-affirming polity, where relationships, differences in physical appearance, sexual orientation, and foundational beliefs are recognized, but not judgmental.

We have also relevantly recommended the non-partisan vetting of candidates for the American Presidency.

=p.

There would appear to exist a useful dynamic in the analogy between the dynamics of agricultural husbandry and the political nurturance of the Democratic Republic; both have the empirical capacity to yield fruitful abundance, yet are haplessly vulnerable to external harm.

A fall harvest, consisting of firm ears of white speckled corn, hard sweet apples, and legions of firm sweet. raspberries, blueberries, and crisp heads of lettuce are the deserved rewards of diligent and knowledgeable husbandry. A bountiful harvest is the appropriate, long-awaited reward for tireless and dedicated solicitude.

On occasion, unhappily, the occurrence of such bountiful success is displaced by agricultural tragedy, viz., dry, underdeveloped plants, washed out. rotted root systems, and denuded branches, the latter tragedy often the consequence of locust or other destructive pest infestation.

Notably, the pestilential assault against the growing healthy development of a “More Perfect Union,” engendered by Donald J. Trump and his insurrectionist swarm of MAGA locusts, has wreaked an unconscionably virulent, toxic blight on the American Nation’s hard-fought and belabored tradition of systemic freedom and individual liberty. The increasing blight and invasive rot of atavistic autocracy seem to have clinically metastasized into the temporal suspension of the Nation’s fundamental tri-partite architecture, in autocratic favor of the executive branch, the hibernation of its democratically protective process of”Checks and Balances,” and the dystopian subversion of the Supreme Court; at best, an extremely disappointing and bitter seasonal harvest.

Nevertheless, the American Nation, for almost two centuries, having consistently and memorably tasted the fresh, sweet fruits of humanistic, constitutional freedoms and personal liberty, renders us supremely confident that, sooner than later, fresh, dynamic shoots of American democracy will again take root and prosper, emphatically restoring the familiar salubrious bounty of a golden harvest and the prompt restoration of unfettered American liberty.

-p.

Recent governmental dynamics reveal a notably nightmarish transformation from the Founders’ beneficial creation of a modern, enlightened, Democratic Republic to the dystopian character of classic “Fascism.”

An acceptable description of “Fascism” would be exemplified by a snapped “selfie” of the extant morbidity of the American Nation, whose empirical virulent etiology was the introduction into the bloodstream of the body politic of a virulent strain of toxic”Trumpism.”

“Fascism” has been acceptably defined as a far-right, authoritarian political ideology, prioritizing the “Nation” above the individual citizen, characterized by extreme nationalism and a strong centralized government suppression of opposition, a contempt for human rights, and ostensible militarism led by an autocratic leader. Take a close look at the “selfie.”

The offensive designation has eternally been seen as systemically outlandish to American citizens of every stripe in contrast to our long-standing democratic tradition; nor does such past merit lend acceptable credence to the present Administration’s tactically distorted recitations of reality, in its perverse attempt to recontextualize its against basic human rights, ubiquitous autocratic offenses.

The concerned, mainstream citizen is responsibly mandated, despite the autocratic double -speak, to instead trust his own objective observation and not permit its tactical dilution by “alternative facts,” the latter an ubiquitously frequent, Orwellian style of Trumpist propaganda and tactically delusional ideation.

If permitted an optimistic note, we have, of late, perceived a wakening and developing inclination on the part of the Trump-enthralled, MAGA constituency, to reluctantly characterize the plethora of horrific acts undertaken by the Trump Administration, regardless of their falsely ascribed nature. The relevant acts are such that intrinsically defy tactically rational interpretation or socially acceptable motives, regardless of ardent partisanship or preconceived bias.

The illegal bombing of small vessels and the re-bombing of their struggling survivors is not drug interdiction; it is the irrefutable commission of murder. The Administration’s (Congressionally) unauthorized bombing of foreign Nations by a demented leader empirically amounts to aggressive and illegal warfare and not any version of acceptable power politics. The raising of a private (masked) army to arrest, convict, and banish Hispanic Americans, without due process, the inhumane separation of familires and caging of children can never permissably be seen as morally acceptable immigration policy, aggressive, unjustified demands for sovereignty over foreign nations, is totalitarian aggression, publically declared retribution against political adversaries is classic fascism, as is derogagation of the media and institutions of higher learning. Bogus science and ersatz medicine, and repression of racial and religious minorities, are inarguably classic fascism.

It is our thematic perception that the ubiquitous narcotic, fueling Trump support, is, ultimately, not so dystopian in effect as to entirely blind the most ardent MAGA cultist to the evident nature of such empirical facts and their objectivized impact and universal significance. Sanity may well prevail over Trump’s distortions and “alternate facts,” and it might well, ultimately appear that Trump himself is his own effective antidote.

-p.