'Unforgettable Fire'

Part of the reason Trump and his cohorts are so quick to assign blame for the wildfires in L.A. - besides their cowardice and abject political opportunism - is they need to protect the MAGA lifestyle brand.

The ‘America First’ dudes who drive giant pickup trucks and arrogantly leave ‘em running when they go into stores so they can keep the air conditioning on MUST continue to believe climate change is a hoax or the oil and gas industry that funds their insurrections will be in trouble.

Trumpism can only exist by keeping people in the dark; by keeping them stupid.

Ron DeSantis and ‘Florida’ as a lifestyle brand provide a great example of the sort of willful overconsumption that has become the MAGA way of life.

The problem is their destructive and backwards ways threaten the entire planet now and every species on it. It’s no accident that a fish was featured prominently in Trump’s first tirade against Governor Newsome. He wanted to belittle the smelt and portray the natural world as an enemy of MAGA.

You can’t be a Republican and pro-environment. Not anymore at least.

If ever - Nixon’s founding of the E.P.A. notwithstanding.

They’ve been trying to dismantle environmental regulations on behalf of industry since Reagan’s first term and will essentially have succeeded when Lee Zeldin takes the helm.

It’s a pity what Trumpism does to the human spirit.

To turn against the very essence of life in pursuit of pilfering and profit.

Most of the people who voted for Donald Trump haven’t a clue as to what they signed up for - how could they? Most of them are several generations into the dumbing down of America that began under their beloved Saint Ronnie. A racist cartoon character who spoke directly to the mediocre heart of America.

It was easier to believe fairytales than confront hard facts or work on behalf of an equitable future for all.

Something a truly great country would have chased with vigor.

Especially one with our origin story and centuries of racial subjugation and segregation.

Instead we pursued wealth for those at the top while throwing regressive, racist dog bones to folks at the bottom - while simultaneously closing factories and shipping jobs off shore.

Healthcare, education, cultural institutions were all depleted and destroyed to breed the sort of ignorance that would make people vote for a man like Donald Trump.

Toxic masculinity and an infantilization of tastes and culture became the norm for so many men in this land. They think of themselves as ‘sheepdogs’ but they’re mostly just sheep. Braying to the sounds of an obese grifter who promises them greatness while picking their pockets and stealing their children’s future.

And they tragically and enthusiastically chose it; their minds so mottled from Fox News and a video gamers’ ‘kill ‘em all’ perspective on foreign affairs. They use words like ‘warfighter’ with no real understanding of the true cost of war. If they really understood what was at stake they wouldn’t let a man like Pete Hegseth anywhere near the Pentagon. Or have plans in place to privatize the Veterans Administration.

Men like Hegseth give manhood a bad name. A drunk and sexual predator who seems nearly as fiscally and organizationally incompetent as his drug-addicted, adjudicated rapist of a boss.

Trump left so many breadcrumbs on his march to becoming our nation’s first dictator yet seemingly these folks cannot find their way home. There is nothing brave in that and nothing to be celebrated.

It’s a crime in progress - and we are watching it play out before out very eyes.

God Bless the U.S.A. are empty words if you don’t have the courage to stand up for freedom and democracy.

Blue collar workers in rust belt states elected a mad king and we will be forced to watch his three apostles, Musk, Zuck & Bezos sit on the dais at the U.S. Capitol as he is sworn in.

They will sit amongst his cabinet picks but they will wield much more power than the toadstools like Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi; essentially making a can of White Claw our Attorney General. His first choice was a man who paid Florida teens for sex with Venmo while using drugs with them and probably would have been kicked out of Plato’s Retreat for being too much of a freak.

Trump has always surrounded himself with the most despicable folks he can find; he raised a family that mirrors his defects. These aren’t just bad people, they are the worst among us - and they have convinced MAGA they are the good guys.

I am sure the world at large is holding its breath right now and for good reason. The American experiment could potentially be over soon; a victim of unitarian theory and one incredibly broken man’s unquenchable venality.

It’s sad, pathetic and should piss you off to no end.

What it shouldn’t do is make you feel powerless because we are not.

We still make up the majority of this country, it does not belong to Donald Trump, yet; his co-conspirators on Capitol Hill not withstanding. Tiny men who hold back aid to the great state of California when she needs us most.

The Golden State has always given our nation more than it has taken.

To hear some hogslop hillbilly disparage Los Angeles and spread disinformation while praising ‘the Lord and Savior’ makes one think about what this country would have become without California.

Without its art and music and film and cultural progressivism.

We need more Cali and less ‘Bama if we want to move forward as a nation.

This is not to say there are not great folks in the South but politically they have been backsliding enough to make Neil Young wince. I learned a lot about the South from listening to Randy Newman records, an L.A. boy if ever there was one and a man who had the critical eye and humor to hold up much of the past to the light.

As did so many of the South’s own native sons in literature. There is still much truth and light in that fabled land but it is being drowned out by MAGA.

We need to be honest about our past or we are doomed to repeat it.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is celebrated this week, let us honor his memory with a clear-eyed assessment of just how much racism Trump represents.

We are under threat of oligarchy and they are moving fast. We should be doing all we can to staunch the bleeding of our democracy. And we will - once we move out of the triage phase and the shock of the 2024 election.

Don’t do business with racists. Don’t look the other way - call it out with bravery and righteous, non-violent anger. Rely on your faith in whatever form you chose. Seek out the light and do not be afraid of the darkness.

Trump is an old man in a diaper who spends his days on a golf course and can barely read. He is not as formidable an opponent as the media would have you believe. He will continue to fleece his followers and will steal their futures but there is no way I am gonna stand by and let him steal mine. Or yours.

We can and must fight back in a peaceful and unified democratic fashion.

Here at the advent of Project 2025 & Trump 2.0 is where that battle begins.

We are witnesses to history and it is incumbent upon us to shape it.

Godspeed. Be Safe.