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Trump has been charged by the Feds in the documents case, and has pled not guilty to 31 very serious charges, all violations of the Espionage Act. The Trump-infused Supreme Court votes in favor of voting rights for Blacks, essentially across the nation. Trump is now using just about all Capital letters in his Truth Social posts. Trump likes the PGA/LIV/Saudi golf deal, the country that lent two billion to Jared Kushner after carving up the body of Jamil Kashogee. Christie, Pence, and DeSantis have entered the race against Trump and are talking trash against him. CNN’s chief honcho has been forced out after he engineered the MAGA town hall to be especially “Trumpy.”

Trump’s thin veneer is cracking as I write. I can’t even keep up with it as the capital letters flow from his panicky fingers like the Roadrunner’s Beep, Beep legs. The American Wily E. Coyote is about to meet his match…finally. The capital letters, in fact, are quite interesting. As a retired social service professional, I used to see a preponderance of capital letters in the emails of psychotic, often sociopathic, people who were expressing their rage through such literary screaming. It’s symptomatic of sociopathy. Mary Trump has been warning us all along about her crazy uncle.

This marks the first time in our history that a former president has been indicted for a criminal offense.

But Trump is still running for president again and is using the indictment to raise even more money. In fact, our Constitution does not prohibit a president from running for office or even serving as president if convicted and imprisoned. In this case, it was the Lost and Founding Fathers!

In addition, the DOJ’s special counsel continues investigating Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection, and Georgia continues its investigation into Trump’s attempt to overthrow the election in that state through coercion, fraud, and deception. They have on tape him doing so. And we know what happened to the last president who was caught on tape committing a crime.

So the walls of justice are slowly advancing inward on the ample girth of Donald J. Trump. He, of course, will try every delaying tactic known to humankind. He will summons his minions to political violence. He will tacitly comply with the death threats his supporters foist on his growing list of enemies. He will continue to cozy up to Putin while denigrating Ukraine, and encouraging the war criminal Rus to help him get elected as he has in the past.

Trump has not accomplished all this destruction by himself. He was elected in 2016 by voters in a limited number of battleground states who were influenced by dirty trick operatives manipulating information on selected social media accounts. A cult of Trump backers, including voters and state and federal legislators have continued to back him and base the Republican Party on his leadership. The use of death threats, a very effective mafia tactic, bludgeoned the way for this Don to infect our great nation.

Yes, the Trump fabric is moth-eaten and badly torn. But we are deep in the coal pit he has dug for us. Many died, but as a country, and a world, we survived the pandemic. But the hurricane that is Donald Trump still rages, though down considerably from a Category 5.

As I have in the past, I cannot stress too strongly the importance of ending the political career of Trump at this time. Any success that he might have next year will take our country, and possibly the world, towards a dictatorial direction we haven’t seen since the start of World War II. Like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, Trump is intent on retribution and revenge, laying waste to our free press, our two-party system, our separation of church ond state, our freedom of speech and expression, and particularly our bedrock principle that all people are created equal, entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe Trump is bent on a totalitarian system and the effective end to the grand experiment of representative democracy in America.

Conviction in any or all of these criminal cases should put a stop to his political career and his personal freedom. In a system devoted and beholden to no one being above the law and equal justice for all, this should certainly be the outcome, assuming he is convicted.

I hope, I urge, I pray that this, indeed, happens.

OK, here’s the deal (as our president likes to say): Biden agrees to cut some spending–not all of what McCarthy is demanding but enough to cut this deal–and McCarthy agrees to a comprehensive assault weapons ban to take effect immediately in response to a national emergency around mass killings. Simply said, the Second Amendment notwithstanding, we citizens, as the mayor of Allen, Texas just said, also have an inviolable right to life, liberty, safety, and the pursuit of happiness. The proliferation of assault weapons violates that latter right that the Constitution guarantees. And before some citizen sues the federal government for that violation, we need to enact quid quo pro legislation that gets assault weapons off the streets and only in the hands of local police. Things have devolved to the point where it’s Russian Roulette to even go food shopping these days. Anyone is a potential mass murder victim. That should not be happening in our great country, and, yes, the proliferation of these weapons are at the heart of the problem.

As a retired mental health counselor, I’ve worked with troubled people of all ages, genders, races, and economic situations. And I can assure you that what determines their capacity to commit mass murder (or suicide) depends not on their mental state but on whether they own a gun or not.

In addition to a ban, the deal should also state that all guns, like all cars, need to require a permit/license to own and operate, an extensive background check, and stringent restrictions on open carry.

And one more part of the deal: abandon this absurd plan to hold the people of this country and the world hostage around denying approval of raising the debt ceiling. You are a responsible political party, House GOP: not five-year-olds throwing a tantrum to get a toy back!

So enough of this crap of using the Second Amendment, which only applied to state militias at the time and front-end-loading long rifles in use at that time, as a rationale for all guns/all the time/anywhere. Applying that Amendment as it reads to our situation today is a mockery of our what our Founders intended. It’s a desecration of the principles our system is based on, i.e, reason, reasonableness, common sense, a caring for the commonwealth which includes all the people, of the people, and by the people, all the time and everywhere.

And based on these Constitutional guarantees of safety and security, I, and I hope others, will work to sue any legislative body that continues to perpetrate a toxic atmosphere where mass murders have become so commonplace that bots will soon replace the need for disingenuous politicians to profess their hypocritical “thoughts and prayers.” Bots and AI will do it for them.

Congress used to work quite well on quid pro quo deals. It’s time for another major one, NOW!

I know we’ve been bracing ourselves seemingly forever in our country, but this time, that call to brace ourselves is rooted in an upcoming Supreme Court decision, possibly in June, of a case out of North Carolina. If the case is voted in the affirmative, it would, in effect, allow state legislatures to nullify the vote of the electorate and declare a different winner in the federal election. Yes, MAGA Republican legislatures could, in effect, swing the state to Donald Trump, for example, even though he lost the state’s popular vote. Why the Supreme Court would do this is not entirely clear, but conservatives have been trying to give states more power than the federal government since well before the Civil War. Back then the intent was to preserve the practice of slavery in the Southern states, and they almost pulled it off. Only Lincoln and the Civil War blocked their evil attempt.

Well, the extremist conservatives are still at it, I’m afraid, and if successful, they will further fray the fabric of our democracy, weakening the vital threads of trust in our electoral rules and regulations. And once that’s accomplished via the Trump-infused Supreme Court, they won’t stop there.

For trust in our government is the ultimate element that holds the entire embroidery together. Current MAGA Republicans are trying to undermine that trust with using the debt ceiling crisis to hold the Biden government hostage in order to make it impossible for the government to honor its debts, thereby shaking ours, and the world’s, economic foundations to collapse. In a means-justify-the-ends mentality, they are willing to risk world economic stability for their push towards power. Can they be stopped?

As for the Supreme Court and the damage it has and will do, no, it cannot be stopped. Our Constitution didn’t account for idiots to be appointed to that Court. The court can be packed for more balance by the President, but Biden was just a get-Trump-defeated–candidate. He really doesn’t know what to do with Trump and his sordid legacy now. He’s not too old, but is a bit too old-school.

Not only does Trump need to be stopped, but the entire Republican Party needs to be stopped, and stopped fast before our democratic fabric is in shreds. We say, just vote them out, but people are so disheartened, so demotivated, so burnt out, so downright tired, along with the young being so angry due to Biden’s reversals on fossil fuel and the environment, that I doubt they will enter the polling booth–if they indeed do enter those now figurative booths. And if many will still vote, they will vote as if in a retro fog of 1955, when the echo of Trump’s MAGA harangue reverberates in their mind’s ears.

These words are good examples of where such warnings will wind up. Of my few hundred “friends” on Facebook, perhaps three will click a Like and two will comment. The rest will scroll on down to the next puzzle or prank or pratfall or puppy or precious whatever they stumble upon. Most in our society are sleeping while awake and awake while sleeping. And the Republicans, being the fascists that they are, know this and take full advantage. The Democrats live in a kind of bubble, thinking that all will eventually balance out and that the American People will come around, as always, and rescue us from the mean GOP.

Well, I’m here to tell you that that playbook is becoming too old and hackneyed to continue to save us in this post-pandemic, post-(we hope!)Trump, post George Floyd, post Tucker Carlson, post-(we hope not)democracy era. Before we fully enter the autocratic belly of the beast, we need to mount the kind of energy exhibited by Lincoln, by FDR, by Martin Luther King Jr., and by the civil rights and Vietnam protests of the 60s. That will take tremendous initiative, will, determination, and resolve, not so much from our politicians, but from our rational and reasonable populace–black, white, red, yellow, trans, straight, gay, male, female, otherwise, atheist, religious, liberal, conservative, blue state, red state, legal, illegal, gun owner, no gun owner–you name it!–of this great, diverse nation of ours.

You dig it, man?

***

On a lighter note, as a songwriter, I have two songs streaming, and screaming for your attention, on all your favorite formats, including Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and even smart speakers. The songs are called Stones, and Cruisin’ West Out of Vegas. I’d put them in the Country genre. I think you’ll enjoy them. More to come. Thanks.

A lot of people think heaven exists only when we die. A lot of people think heaven is populated by dead relatives and angels and dead pets and even Jesus. In fact they envision Jesus personally escorting them through the pearly gates when they die. A lot of people think the opposite of a heaven in the clouds is a hell underground which is where they will go if they sin. Well, I’m not one to burst religious bubbles, but I have a different take on heaven…and hell.

Heaven, I believe, is right here, right now, right before our eyes if we’d only open them much wider and see what’s around us. Of course, you’ll need a fine filter or two to blot out the cars, the guns, the crime, the coarse talk, the lies, the ignorance, the greed, the hatred, the delusion, the pollution, the wars, the misery of the destitute, the desperation of the poor, the hopelessness of the depressed and deranged, the cruelty towards animals, the impunity of those who have lost their moral compass. OK, now since all that is gone from your mind’s eye. Just sit back, follow the bouncing ball, and sing along with me.

We’re taking a trip to heaven on earth. First, stand beneath a magnolia tree in early spring, close your eyes, a let the fragrance fill your nostrils and your heart. That is heaven on earth. Now visit a waterfall in a natural setting near where you live. Hike there with a child or an older person or your spouse or alone. Look at water fall from a high cliff into a deep, clear pool. That is heaven on earth. Seek out your local symphony and listen to a Bach cantata. All of it. Close your eyes. That is heaven on earth. Buy a book of poetry by Jane Hirshfield or one of your favorite poets, find a nice, comfortable, quiet nook at home, and read a few poems aloud. That is heaven on earth. Take a bite of your favorite food. Savor it and let it linger some in your mouth before you swallow. That is heaven on earth. Have a brief conversation with a curious child of perhaps six or seven years old. That is heaven on earth. Seek out a rushing creek or river near where you live and take the time to watch its flowing water. That is heaven on earth.

I suspect you’re beginning to catch my drift. We live on a planet that may well be one of a kind in the universe. Scientists have spent decades looking for planets with atmospheres that can sustain life as we have here on Earth, and have been unsuccessful. Now a new telescope has been launched, much more powerful than any previously, and, though scientists are cautiously optimistic, still have yet to detect anything like what we have here on our tiny blue and watery and fantastic planet.

Heaven, which I define as a place of peace, contentment, happiness, joy, and complete satisfaction, is right here as we live our lives, if only we can look more deeply what is before our eyes. Even for those who lack sufficient material resources, the very fact that they have been born onto this planet at this time is sufficient to realize how fortunate they are to be alive and have the capacity to feel joy, happiness, and love in any given moment, regardless of how much money they have in the bank, or whether their country is at war, or if they are in poor health, or if they’ve just lost their job or their best friend. I’ve experienced all of the above, including cancer, layoffs, my country at war, and the loss of my dear best friend; and yet, at 77, can still notice and revel in the above heavens on earth and many more as they arise each day within the purview of my fresh eyes and open heart.

Of course, there are still the times of hell on earth, but my Buddhist training has taught me that all things arise and pass away, which is true of all the moments of heaven on earth as well. I’m content with that. I’m at peace with that, and greet each moment as I greet my wife in the morning upon awakening, with love and gratefulness. That, too, is heaven on earth.

***

A song that I’ve written is now streaming on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Soundcloud and just about any streaming service. It’s called Stones, which only involves typing in the title and my name and, if you like it, give it a like and a follow. One more heaven on earth moment, at least from my perspective! Thanks, y’all.

For all of us who were alive in the mid 70s, we witnessed first hand a President of the United States who actively encouraged a crime and its cover up. That of course was Richard Nixon who ordered the break in of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, and then tried to cover up the whole affair after the break in was perpetrated. Fortunately the Republican Party acknowledged his part in the crime and cover up and convinced him to resign. Unfortunately he was never indicted nor convicted of this felony and was eventually pardoned of all such prosecution by his Constitutional successor Gerald Ford. That pardon, a deeply political action, denied us seeing Nixon’s day in court facing the full scale of American justice. President Biden has not issued such a pardon for Trump and his surrogates.

Today, we have a different story. Ex-president Trump has just been indicted for a crime by a Grand Jury in NY for paying off a prostitute to keep her quiet about the affair just before the 2016 election. The last part of that sentence was the actual crime, i.e. tampering with the outcome of the election via fraud, deceit, and payoffs. There are also other cases pending against Trump for election fraud in Georgia just after the election and inciting a riot and insurrection on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol in Washington D.C.

The present-day Republican Party is no longer your father’s GOP. Almost to a person, it is attempting to tear our judicial system down, screaming witch hunt, fraud, outrage, weaponized, political–whatever slander they can muster to feed their base the red, raw meat they crave. What’s missing is anyone acknowledging Trump is innocent. That doesn’t seem to be the point, which is that a former president is immune from indictment or prosecution of a crime. A cursory reading of the Declaration of Independence and the the Constitution, of course, will prove otherwise. In a monarchy or dictatorship that might be true. But in a representative democracy, all people are treated equally. No exceptions. All people are treated equally before the law.

Nuff said. A trial of Trump’s peers, which involve regular citizens like him, will follow. The American system of equal justice for all, and not Republican sycophants, will have the last word.

***

My voice is an admittedly small one in the din of larger platformed voices in our multi-cultural, and, I’m afraid, highly polarized society. But, like all of us, I do what I can in my little niche of the universe to battle the encroaching forces of fascism. The following Native American story, which I share from my FB feed, says it better than I:

“According to an old Native American legend, one day there was a big fire in the forest. All the animals fled in terror in all directions, because it was a very violent fire. Suddenly, the jaguar saw a hummingbird pass over his head, but in the opposite direction. The hummingbird flew towards the fire!
Whatever happened, he wouldn’t stop. Moments later, the jaguar saw him pass again, this time in the same direction as the jaguar was walking. He could observe this coming and going, until he decided to ask the bird about it, because it seemed very bizarre behavior.
“What are you doing, hummingbird?” he asked.
“I am going to the lake,” he answered, “I drink water with my beak and throw it on the fire to extinguish it.” The jaguar laughed. ‘Are you crazy? Do you really think that you can put out that big fire on your own with your very small beak?’
‘No,’ said the hummingbird, ‘I know I can’t. But the forest is my home. It feeds me, it shelters me and my family. I am very grateful for that. And I help the forest grow by pollinating its flowers. I am part of her and the forest is part of me. I know I can’t put out the fire, but I must do my part.’
At that moment, the forest spirits, who listened to the hummingbird, were moved by the birdie and its devotion to the forest. And miraculously they sent a torrential downpour, which put an end to the great fire.
The Native American grandmothers would occasionally tell this story to their grandchildren, then conclude with, “Do you want to attract miracles into your life? Do your part.”
“You have no responsibility to save the world or find the solutions to all problems—but to attend to your particular personal corner of the universe. As each person does that, the world saves itself.’”
Written by: The Lemurian Unicorns~ Luisa Morando

***

I hope you exercise your own small voice, adding truth, wisdom, and a bit of love and care to the symbiosis, as put forth by Drs. James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, that has created and continues to create this beautiful world of ours. As an adjunct to this process, I offer my own wee small voice to help guide and inspire you. It is To Live a Life: 200 Ways to be the Best Person You can be.” Thank you.

While we await indictments and anticipated perp walks and prosecutions of you-know-who, I’ve been reflecting on homelessness and how we, as a society, can better approach it. As far as I can tell, our Native American brethren, before the advent of land-greedy Europeans, had nothing like homelessness for the 21,000 years they inhabited this land. Tribal members took care of one another around basic needs, and everyone had a time tested function to fulfill to insure the survival of all. Today’s Republicans would probably have screamed socialism, but it wasn’t that at all. It was an emphasis and priority on the health and well being of the commonwealth. Individual accomplishments were certainly rewarded but caring for the commonwealth, for the community, was primary. And it wasn’t just survival they attained. On all levels, they thrived.

Today, we European immigrants–and yes, MAGA Republicans, the only ones among us who are not immigrants are the remaining Native Americans–have placed the individual over the community, which has led to homelessness, an increasingly chronic problem which plagues us all, regardless of political party. And have no doubt: We must solve this problem as urgently as we must solve our global climate crisis. Why? Because it is eating at the heart of our basic principle, namely that there is a vital connection between the health of our individual citizens and the health of our communities, collectively called The United States of America. This involves something very difficult, it seems, for our culture: A fundamental shift in our priorities.

For the most part, most of us citizens have divorced ourselves from taking any responsibility for homelessness, foisting it onto local governments, as if those governments were not extensions of ourselves. In fact, that is the core of other problems in our society: It’s not a separation of church and state, but a separation between each citizen and his or her representatives in local, state, and federal legislatures. Due to apathy spawned by anger, antipathy, or frustration, we’ve grown too distant from the workings of government, leading to blaming politicians instead of ourselves where the true blame belongs. That’s right: We have no one to blame but our ourselves. The system toxified over the years primarily because of citizen apathy and a chronic laissez faire attitude.

So any solution to homelessness (or any other societal problem) must involve an acknowledgement that the responsibility for solving the problem is ours not out there somewhere in the halls of government. Without that sine qua non, the problem of homelessness only worsens. But once we accept that responsibility, we can then put our collective heads together and find a viable solution. We have the brain power to do so. We have sufficient compassion as a people, especially when we often see children and pets among the homeless. We have the motivation, spurred every time we see a squalid homeless encampment, stirring the thought, “Human beings just shouldn’t have to live like this.” And yes, when you consider what else we spend it on, or how much taxes big corporations or billionaires avoid paying, we have the money to solve the problem. Yes! We do have the money!

That’s essentially all I have to say right now. Unlike Trump always claims, I do not have all the answers. But the answers are there. President Biden is right when he asserts that we are a great country in that regard: When we set our minds to solving problems, we have solved them, while retaining our hallowed democracy.

Yes, I do have ideas how homelessness can be ameliorated. I think about it a lot, since I am reminded a lot every time I see a homeless person begging on the street or a tent on a downtown sidewalk or a line of broken down RVs with junk strewn about or an older man or woman pushing a shopping cart around filled with rotting possessions and think, “There but for the grace of God go I,” or an immigrant family with several young kids in tow asking for a handout. Such sights are constant reminders that these people are not separate from ourselves. They are our tribal members who need the tribe to lift them to the dignity they deserve as human beings.

Thank you for your attention. Enjoy life. Help others.

***

I was a recent guest on Joey Chmiko’s The Authentic Only video podcast. You can see it wherever podcasts are shown, such as Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. We covered a lot of ground. I think you might enjoy it (or not, as Leonard the Shaman used to add on Northern Exposure years ago!).

It’s coming: the next presidential campaign, I mean. Biden vs Trump, and yes, whether Trump is indicted or not, even if he is convicted or not, it looks like Donald Trump, according to Lincoln Project’s George Conway, will still be permitted to run again for President. What does that say about our country? Not much, really. Shouldn’t there be certain reasonable standards for running for the top elected position in the land? Well, we have practically none. We do have Sec. 3 of our 14th Amendment which says if someone plots to overthrown our government, that person can not run for elected office ever again. That is the case with Trump but will he be banned? Well, seems as if our 14th Amendment has no teeth since no one in power has yet the guts to impose that punishment on him. Not congresspeople. Not the DOJ Attorney General. Not the special prosecutor. Not a Grand Jury. Not a federal judge. Not even you nor I who probably would not have “standing” to take the case before the Supreme Court or any court, as you would think we could.

So Trump–a scoundrel to the core–will seemingly run, after likely decimating similar scoundrel DeSantis in the primaries, and we, as a people, will be traumatized as a result, during the primaries in particular, but also during the general election. He will rant and rave and bluster and blame and lie and divert and distort and deflect and defame and nickname and blaspheme and misrepresent and misinform and disinform and impugn and denigrate and disrupt all and everything in his wake–or is that woke–that he perceives can be disrupted.

For that is Donald Trump’s sole purpose in his political life: to disrupt. He is not a unifier. He is not a connector. He is not a consensus builder. He is not a compromiser. He is not an emancipator. He is not a centrist. He is an autocrat who thinks he, alone, has the answer to everything. That is what a dictator thinks, and a dictator has no interest in, or need for, democracy. Abraham Lincoln, ironically a Republican, is our time-tested and trusted model for the attributes an American president should have, and Trump is no Lincoln. Indeed, he is the polar opposite.

Now you might be thinking, “We’ve had bad Presidents before and we’ve survived them.” And that might well be true. But Trump is in a class by himself. He’s already shown how far he can set back this country, and the next time around will be much worse. He will strip our democracy down to its bare bones. He will mercilessly attack anyone who opposed him. He will unleash his brigade of white supremacy gangs to wreak havoc on the land. He will defund Ukraine and hand it over to his pal Putin who will consequently rape and pillage other neighbors. With another Trump presidency, our American political landscape will be forever transformed into something more approaching China, Russia, Hungary, or even Iran. Anti-immigrant. Anti-truth. Anti-multicultural. Anti-non white Christian religions. Anti-minorities. Anti-gay. Pro-Putin. Pro-Make America White and Christian Again. America was built on and grew on diversity. Without it, we will fall as hard and as fast as the Roman Empire did.

I don’t know what I can say to make the coming firestorm–a fire that creates its own wind–any less intense. And my platform is neither large nor powerful enough to effect any significant change. But as that wee small voice within the thundering herd, I still must speak out, if not for you all, then for me alone–speak out until my final breath leaves me or until a modern-day Brown Shirt knocks on my door and takes me away.

What’s to be done about all this? Just brace yourself, vote accordingly, and encourage your friends, relatives, neighbors, and associates to do the same. If you stumble upon a Trump MAGA cultist, or one of blowhard Tucker Carlson’s faithful three million per night viewers, don’t waste your breath. They’ve got their ironclad answers, all ready for a fight, within a brain that stopped thinking long ago.

***

I’ve written a book that I think could make a difference. And I’ve started to appear on podcasts that might increase my influence. The book is To Live a Life: 200 Ways to be the Best Person you can be. The podcasts include Joey Chmiko’s The Authentic Only Show, found on Spotify, Apple, and others; and Daniel Erichsen M.D.’s weekly show on sleep disorders on YouTube. I’ll be a guest on both soon. Please check them out. Thanks.

I’m not sure what Speaker McCarthy had in mind when he released 44,000 hours of January 6 insurrection tapes, exclusively to…

The remainder of this post can be read at breakablenews.substack.com. Thank you.

Another good source of distinguishing between what is and is not reasonable is my recent book, To Live a Life; 200 Ways of Being the Best Person You Can Be. Check it out.