September 7, 2025: Paying a Price, Caesar Or Republic, Constitutional Vandalism

 For the second time in as many weeks the courts have ruled against our Caesar Disgustus, this time relating to his use of federal troops in the streets of Los Angeles. The Court of Appeals ruled that he violated the Posse Comitas Act which forbids the use of federal soldiers against the citizens of this country unless requested by a state's Governor or confronted with actual insurrection. In so ruling, the courts threaten yet another toy of our errant toddler pending yet another challenge before the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Supreme Court is now paying a price for its errant granting of near unlimited power and immunity awarded the Chief Executive. Finding itself facing a barrage of lawsuits seeking to define just what are the limits of said powers, the Court has now the posture of a jackass left out in a hail storm. Hunkered down, and bracing itself in the tempest, it must sort out the consequences of outrageous jurisprudence. Disgustus is now flooding the docket and this court has no one but itself to blame.

Once again, should the court not let the ruling of the lower courts stand, it faces the same binary decision as confronting the tariffs fiasco: either confirm legal precedent and neuter this maladministration or overrule the lower courts and further the cause of fascism. The first a calamity for our Caesar Disgustus; the last a tragedy for the republic. It must choose Caesar or Republic.

Which will it be? Given the repeated constitutional vandalism, the nation trembles at the prospect.

Impeach and Imprison

September 5, 2025: Children at Play, Gangster Fascism, Stench of Disgustus

 

“Maturity is seeing through the eyes of another.”

----Quotations of Chairman Joe

Caesar Disgustus has made his reappearance after nearly a week of silence. The Turd hadn't shown his face, nor called in to “Fox and Fiends” his morning propaganda outlet. Throughout the week rumors ran rampant that he had either suffered a major health event or, perhaps, he was dead. The prospect of his passing is, of course, awaited with baited breath as millions clutch their pearls in high hopes. Many, it was rumored, were planning the inevitable celebration, the announcement of which is sure to send hundreds of millions dancing in the streets.

“ I finally died

which started the whole world living”

---Brothers Gibb, “I Started a Joke”.

He hasn't been looking well. His ankles are swollen, He is overweight. His eyes are puffy and he has deep dark bruises on his hands which he desperately tries to hide with ill-applied makeup. He was recorded walking with uncertain balance as he zigzagged down the red carpet he had thrown before Putin. But, as Lawrence O'Brien on his MSNBC broadcast “The Last Word” has noted: “If Donald Trump suffered a stroke or was in advanced stages of dementia or Alzheimer's how would you know?”

How would one know indeed.

Even his critics miss the point. Telling us with a straight face that he is less cogent than he was ten, five or even a year ago, they speculate that perhaps there is some deterioration. But he has always been this way. He's always been pulling shit out of his ass and throwing it up against the wall. He has always been resistant, even immune, to immutable fact. Like any toddler, he has always lived in a fantasy world in which reality is re-ordered to his mere whim.

How this nation can tolerate this escapes me. The spectacles surrounding his cabinet meetings in which Pam Blondi, Howard Nutlick and the sycophants that surround him spend hours not discussing solutions to our nation's unraveling, but drone on in high praise to the Supreme Leader as he sits on his throne like a bloated toad, like Jabba the Hut, on a stool basking, as he struggles to stay awake, in their faux praise. This is beneath the dignity of the office. This is beneath the dignity of this republic. These are disgusting spectacles befitting our Caesar Disgustus, our Orange Turd, our Golden Swine. These are perhaps the kind of scenes one would witness among children at play. Children who have not yet outgrown their sadism. Children who have yet to learn to see through the eyes, nor feel the pain of the “other”. Children who are yet to learn that actions have consequence. And children they are.

I'm reminded of a story related by tRUMP historian David Cay Johnston in his The Making of Donald Trump”, in which he relates that as a boy he persuaded his friends to throw stones at a baby in its crib so that he could hear it cry. They were too immature to see through the eyes of another, much less feel the pain. They can only revel in it. That, in prelude, is the relationship of Caesar Disgustus to his adoring Maggots. They inflict pain because they cannot feel it; they can only revel in it. And pain is the point.

This is Gangster Fascism and it is time bring it to an end.

In any case we can treasure our brief respite from this madness; from the stench of Disgustus; from the pungent, foul, putrid odor; for, albeit briefly, we could breathe again.

Impeach and Imprison the Bastard.

September 3, 2025: Mind of Revolta, Cannot be Taught, The Last Maggot

 

“Only from the Mind of Minolta”

-----from a television commercial ca 1980s

“Only from the mind of Revolta”, to paraphrase. Revolta meaning, of course, our very own Caesar Disgustus, the Orange Turd, our Shitting “President”; the pole cat at every barn dance, the greasy fart let loose in every congregation.

Of late there has emerged at least two podcasts attempting to plumb the vast emptiness that is the 'mind', if you can call it that, of our putative Caesar. One is “Shrinking Trump” hosted by two psychologists, the other is hosted by Michael Wolff, tRUMP chronicler and author of Fire and Fury one of the first to reveal the chaos that surrounds this man hopelessly out of his depth.

Attempting to assign the 'reasons' tRUMP is the way he is has become something of a cottage industry. Everyone from political analysts, to psychological professionals, to his niece and nephew have attempted to convey their understandings of the vast emotional and intellectual vacuum that is The Donald.

What emerges is a toddler now approaching his 80^th year. This is evidenced by his emotional immaturity, getting his way by bullying and throwing temper tantrums, as well as his obvious mental retardation in that he evidences so little basic understanding.

Take his comments on the conflict in Gaza. Disgustus stated with a straight fact that “They (meaning Israel) gave them all this ocean front property and what did that get them?”. Disgustus has no understanding of the history of the region. Israel didn't 'give' Gaza to the Palestinians. Gaza was and is a spit of land not yet stolen from Palestine as is what is left of the West Bank.

Take his understanding of tariffs. As noted in earlier columns, the trade deficit divided by the total trade with a particular country DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A TARIFF. Donald has no idea what a tariff is and all efforts to instruct are pointless.

Then there is the “stable genius” telling his Maggots with a straight face that he is going to reduce the cost of prescription drugs by 1100, 1200, 1500 per cent, not 30 or 40 or 50 per cent. Any fool knows you can't reduce prices by more that 100 per cent, unless the manufacturer and retailer is paying you to take the item home. Donald doesn't understand percentages. Donald, after all this time, has the mind of a per-pubescent youth, till stuck in the 2^nd grade. Donald hasn't mastered 3^rd grade math.

Oh, you protest, he graduated from an Ivy League School, certainly he must be a genius. I would retort that Former Washington Redskins star Dexter Manly testified before Congress that he got through school, including a major university, without learning to read. As Ted Cruz, J.D. Vance, George W. Bush, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy and a host of others readily attest, diplomas from our nations most prestigious educational institutions are, more often than not, the product of legacy programs and contributions not academic merit.

Donald's sister Maryanne was quoted as saying that she did his homework for him while he was struggling in school and that his father paid someone to take his university entrance exams. One suspects, since no one can remember him being in class, that someone else took his college exams as well. Clearly, there is no evidence that he ever learned anything.

As his biographer David Cay Johnston has repeatedly said, “Donald doesn't know anything.” Political commentator George Will famously quipped “Donald doesn't know what it is to know”, and clearly cannot be taught. Ambrose Bierce once defined “War” as God's way of teaching American's geography. That is, Americans have no idea where a particular place is on the map unless we are at war with it. I seriously doubt Donald could find Vietnam on the map. Another lesson “studiously” left unlearned.

His total lack of curiosity is staggering and, I suspect, has been so since birth. Normally when a young child approaches school, or any learning, there is wide-eyed curiosity coupled with a burning desire to learn and master. Each new discovery a revelation.

Not so The Donald. As with any religious fundamentalist worthy of the name, tRUMP reacts to each new 'discovery' as an affront challenging his already fixed universe, a space filled with narrow narcissistic ambition Each new discovery reveals his ignorance and misunderstandings and, therefore, must be avoided. The answer: away with discovery. “Stop the testing” he screamed as the Covid Pandemic swept the nation; cut funding for NOAA and the monitoring of climate; eliminate research into cancer and Alzheimer's disease; fire the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics lest the truth about the condition of the economy be discovered. And the Last Maggot nods and blinks.

There is a price to be paid for elevating an empty shirt and an empty head to positions of power; and we are about to be confronted with the bill..

Impeach and Imprison this ignorant bastard.

September 1, 2025: The Toddler's Toys, Tariffs ruled illegal, What Further Vandalism

A federal appeals court ruled 7-4 that Caesar Disgustus' insane tariff regimen is illegal and unconstitutional. This affirms a lower court ruling stating the obvious, first there is no 'emergency' warranting the action and secondly, the statute cited by the idiots in this maladministration does not mention tariffs and lastly, Article one of the Federal Constitution assigns to Congress the sole power to levy duties and taxes.

Regardless of whatever our shitting 'president' says about the matter, tariffs ARE TAXES, paid by the consumer as anyone now shopping for groceries can readily attest, and the courts have so ruled. Coffee, thanks to the idiot's levy of a 50% tariff on Brazil and other Latin Countries, is now twice as expensive as it was just a few weeks ago. Vegetables went up 41 percent in just the last 2 weeks.

As the year began I had the misfortune of encountering a 'tRUMPist, a dyed-in-the-wool fool, who told me with a straight face that January 6^th was a peaceful demonstration. Recently he has been heard telling relatives that prices are coming down. Whatever the Orange Turd says gets repeated like a sick echo by these fools. I informed him that Caesar Disgustus is a blithering idiot, a man totally bereft of any knowledge whatsoever and that the country will pay a very dear price for imposing ignorance this breathtaking upon a complex economic, social and political system.

Sure enough, here we are. Welcome to the tRUMPian nightmare. What the Maggots have wrought.

For five months this Disgustus has been wreaking havoc upon not only the U.S. Economy but the World economic order. Instead of swiftly moving to restrain this idiot, the courts have dragged their feet putting the house of cards in serious jeopardy. In May the court of original jurisdiction ruled against The Donald, now the Court of Appeals has done likewise, ratifying the lower court's ruling. Now it goes to the Supreme Court in whose uncertain hands the fate of the welfare of the republic now rests. We tremble at the prospect.

What is disturbing is that the full Appeals Court heard the case, all 11 jurists deciding 7-4 against Caesar Disgustus. How 4 of these fools could side with the Orange Turd on a matter so clearly the province of Congress escapes me. The Courts have narrowly decided this case ruling on the wording of the Economic Emergency Act of 1974 in which the courts ruled that there is no emergency and that the act in question speaks only of sanctions and does not mention tariffs at all. The Courts should have gone further stating that even if the act did it specify tariffs it would be unconstitutional given that to grant the executive Cart Blanche authority to unilaterally levy taxes, duties or imposts would constitute an unconstitutional delegation of Congressional power, responsibility and duty to levy taxes. Any court in any previous period in the history of this republic would have so ruled. What is worrisome is that none of the 11 saw fit to cite Supreme Court precedent regarding unconstitutional delegation of Legislative functions and 4 of them actually sided with the Orange Turd. What the Supreme Court, with it's hopelessly partisan and politically bankrupt majority, will do with this one can only surmise.

The Court, should it take up the case, will be confronted with a binary choice, either take the toys away from this hopeless idiot and neuter this rouge maladministration or once again perform acts of vandalism upon legal precedent and the constitution and yield to this growing fascism. Previous courts would simply let the lower courts ruling stand. But, as with the immunity decision and others , one cannot rest safely upon the assumption that this court has either wisdom nor judgment.

\We shall see what further vandalism awaits, as the Fascist Party moves to consolidate power.

Impeach and Imprison the Bastard. 

 

August 22, 2025: Rise of Barbarism, The Lizard King, Potemkin Regimes

 

“Every state has its Alabama”

-----Quotations of Chairman Joe

Our Caesar Disgustus, greeting his paramour as swine greet the morning swill, presented a clearly disgusting, albeit entirely predictable, spectacle. But this outrage, such as it was, pales in comparison to the grovelling, the kneeling and scraping, of the leadership of Europe before the Golden Swine that immediately followed the debacle in Alaska.

I am currently rereading Jose Ortega y Gassett's “Revolt of the Masses”, material assigned in my 20^th Century History course back in my college days. The author laments the twilight of European leadership in the world which he, quite rightly it presently appears, saw a century ago as a great loss. The rise of mass man posses the most curious and contradictory of circumstance, apparent freedom with rise of barbarism. The thesis could be reduced to a simple sentence: What good is power to the people if the people turn out to be dolts?

This is the conundrum of our times.

The rise of Mass Man produced first the Soviet experiment in Russia and then Fascism in Italy, Germany and Spain. Ortega y Gassett was writing in defense of the Spanish Republic as he saw the rising tide of fascism about to engulf his own country.

Ortega points out that Moscow and New York are mere lunar lights, reflecting ideas originating in Europe, communism from Germany's Marx, capitalism from Scotland's Smith. The world order founded at Bretton Woods in the aftermath of the Second Great War created a certain peace but did not pass the torch to superior economic or political understanding.

Instead the baton was passed to those least likely to not only follow leadership but to lead. And, therein, lies the greatest threat to the modern world.

What we are witnessing, especially within the United States, is the vertical rise of barbarism; not barbarians at the gates but a barbarism from within our own ranks; a growing celebration of ignorance; a destroying and defacing of statues; an iconoclasm worthy of ISIS or the Taliban. Jim Morrison's “Celebration of the Lizard”.

“I am the Lizard King;

I can do...Anything”

-----Jim Morrison and the Doors

This is the age ushered in by our Caesar Disgustus, the hollow Golden Swine before which the “Generation of Swine” and its larvae genuflect and kneel prostrate.

Disgustus claims for himself the trophy of a world cup competition; declares himself the champion at all his golf courses; bestows upon himself numerous awards; declares himself head of the Kennedy Center and pledges to honor himself at next year's awards.

Disgustus declared himself “in charge of America, and in charge of the world”.

“I am the Lizard King

I can do...anything”.

He is cleansing our museums of our history and re-writing the history books; he is flaunting the law with impunity as our legal institutions bow and scrape before him; he is assaulting our colleges and universities demanding to dictate curriculum and discipline faculty; he is bleaching the bureaucracy of all remnants of independent reporting, firing those who publish inconvenient truth and replacing them with hopeless political hacks.

I am the Lizard King

I can do...anything”

And so, in the wake of the “Disastah in Alaska” Europe's heads of state met with our erstwhile Caesar, the Golden Swine in his Golden Palace, in an effort to avert total capitulation to Vladimir Putin.

Bowing and scraping, Europe's most formidable personages acted as if tRUMP were holding one of his obscene cabinet meetings, genuflecting before the Emperor, profuse in praise, telling him how thankful they all were that he had brought the war criminal Putin back unto the world stage.

This is unseemly. This is disgusting.

Caesar Disgustus went on SEEN Hannity's show shortly thereafter to tell the nation how powerful Russia is and that it was a mistake for Ukraine to start a fight with a nation ten times it's size. Disgustus was wrong on both counts.

I'm reminded of the first maladministration during which Disgustus was presented with a map of the United States showing all the counties in the country colored red in which he prevailed and those won by Hillary Clinton. Of course, the map was about 90 percent red. Disgustus, predictably for a seven year old mentality, interpreted the graphic to prove he had won by overwhelming landslide and couldn't possibly have lost the popular vote. Of course cows and other livestock vote, so too the grasses and trees. So it is with his view of Europe; Russia a vast territory of 11 time zones made even greater by impressing a globe upon a flat surface appears huge compared with Ukraine. This is how tRUMP sees power. This is his central error, his grievous miscalculation.

As noted earlier in these columns (1), Russia is not a world power. This much Ukraine, the poorest of Europe's nations, has amply demonstrated. Russia's GDP, it has been pointed out is bested by Italy and Spain. It is worse than that. Russia's GDP is, as I have pointed out, smaller than that of New York City!

Much has been made of Russia's nuclear threat. It is said to possess a slightly larger number of warheads than the United States. But the U.S. Spends as much on maintaining its nuclear stockpile as the Russian Federation spends on its entire military. The question begs; in what condition is this vaunted military prowess. One can reasonably conclude that it is in the same condition as the rest of the Russian Potemkin Military, stilts supporting a Potemkin Regime about to collapse. Already the Russians are moving ordnance to the front using donkey's and carts and men to the field using moped scooters.

The emerging Potemkin regime in Washington confronts the Potemkin Regime of Moscow and Europe trembles at the prospect.

Yes, every state has its Alabama. But the United States, until recently, didn't put George Wallace in the White House. Yes Europe has its Hungary, its Romania, its Serbia. But it cannot let these states distract from the central charge put before it; to reassert itself and forcibly do so. Ukraine can win this war with or without the United States; and so can Europe. Russia is back on its heels, its economy is collapsing, already the official prime interest rate is 21 percent, and god knows what the real rate is. Unemployment is rising, inflation is out of control. Russia cannot protect its oil refineries, nor its oil and gas pipelines. It cannot protect its military supply lines. It cannot protect anything. It has lost a million men in this war with no end in sight. It is time to call Putin's bluff.

It is time for Europe to reassert its role in World Affairs. The United States has proven itself, at last, unequal to the task. Europe must rediscover its central place in world affairs knowing that America is hopelessly incompetent and Russia is hopelessly ignorant. Europe must tell both the U.S. And Russia to go to hell, that no agreement at the 'border', that is about Ukraine, will be acceptable that does not involve the repatriation of all territory illegally and illegitimately taken by Russia since 2014, that ALL land must immediately be returned and that Russia must pay reparations to be determined by international tribunals. Moreover, Russia must yield up Putin and his henchmen responsible for these outrages for trials on war crimes at the Hague.

And, Europe must tell our Orange Turd in no uncertain terms that he does not 'rule the world', that his a complete incompetent with no justification for being in the Oval Office or, for that matter, on this planet. That Europe will organize, to the best that it can, a world-wide boycott of all trade with the United States until such time as the Orange Turd and his minions are removed from power. Already much is underway as the world re-configures itself around U.S. Imperial interests. Europe must not only embrace this movement, it must lead it.

Impeach and Imprison

1. Protagonist: May 30, 2023: Paper Tiger, No Joseph Stalin, A Vassal State

August 16, 2025: Disastah in Alaska, How NOT to Negotiate, Disgustus Got Nothing

 “I am embarrassed for my country”

------tRUMP biographer David Cay Johnston

Donald tRUMP is, in Mark Twain's memorable phrase, an innocent abroad. That is, he is an ignoramus trying to negotiate environments which are totally foreign.

Always exaggerating his over-matched skills, and believing his own press releases tRUMP, under siege of the Epstein Scandal and desperate to change the subject, proceeded to Alaska to meet his man-crush Vladimir Putin in search of the holy grail.

The 'holy grail' in this instance is his comical attempt to get a peace deal in Ukraine both to make good on a central campaign promise and set the foundation for his bogus claims to the Nobel Peace Prize.

In truth, he doesn't give a damn about his campaign promises, his economic policies make that clear enough. But he pants after the Nobel Prize because it was awarded to Obama and since he believes, as much as he believes anything, that he is far more deserving than anyone else, especially America's first black president and, therefore, he is entitled to it.

And so, north to Alaska.

tRUMP chronicler Michael Wolff appeared today on a Daily Beast podcast “Inside the Mind of Donald tRUMP”(1) wherein the principals openly speculated upon whether Donald could reliably find Alaska on a map. Leading up to the encounter our intrepid Caesar twice declared that he was going to Russia to meet his paramour. The problem, of course, is that Disgustus hasn't a clue what the outcome of such 'negotiations' would entail.

Caesar Disgustus hasn't a clue, never did and never will.

Negotiations are about detail and tRUMP has a pronounced aversion to detail. This is compounded by his steadfast unwillingness to delegate anything he deems important and his 'management' of Putin is, in his fevered mind, of utmost importance. This, predictably, is a prescription for disaster.

Caesar Disgustus is constantly painting himself in a corner. If he has any pronounced skills at all it is his ability to squirm his way out of tight places. He does this by diversion, blame, and spectacle, criterion that fits this summit to a 'T”.

Our modern Houdini currently finds himself under siege by the Epstein Scandal, a child trafficking enterprise that threatens tRUMP in ways that have yet to be discovered. Clearly, he his worried about where the facts, if ever revealed, will lead. To that end he has had his personal attorney and Deputy Attorney General meet with Maxwell to discuss what she would reveal were she to be brought before congressional committees, or a grand jury or two. Hours later, it was announced that she was being transferred from a maximum security penitentiary in Florida to what is referred to as “Club Fed” in Texas, a minimum security facility complete with tennis courts and golf greens. Later, it transpired it that she would be allowed out in the general community on work release. Clearly Dementia Don is in panic. His behavior, once again, betrays his protestations.

Reports are that he has been roaming the halls of the White House telling aides that he need a really big distraction. Ergo, a Putin Summit.

As is his wont, there was no preparation for this encounter. Disgustus has such an inflated view of himself that the really believes he can dominate any setting. This is the kind of hubris that led to the awful embarrassment at Helsinki 7 years ago. But, learning nothing from experience, our Orange Caesar prepared for the meeting by applying more facial foundation than Tammy Faye Baker thinking, no doubt, that this would put Putin back on his heels.

To this end, tRUMP first announced that this encounter would produce a 'deal' and then backtracked, under pressure from our allies, to the more modest goal of getting a 'cease-fire'.

When dealing with international diplomacy any meeting of a 'council' or of two or more principals only occurs after lengthy negotiations by lower level experts and diplomats laying the groundwork for a document already agreed upon. The meeting of the heads of state are purely ceremonial as pleasantries are exchanged, dinners served, and joint press releases issued. None of this occurred. The preparation, if one could call it that, his Foreign Minister wearing a CCP shirt under his jacket, the 'president' of the United States standing there eager as the family dog to greet his master. The rest of the debacle was even uglier.

Disgustus got nothing, save getting the Epstein Scandal off the front pages for a day or two. He got nothing. Not even a cease fire.

Michael Wolff, surveying the wreckage, said that the aftermath leaves tRUMP with two possible courses of action. He could try to force some wholly unpalatable solution down the throat of Zelenskyy and our Allies or he could simply walk away and leave Ukraine to it's inevitable fate. There is a third alternative: Caesar Disgustus, his ego wounded, gets angry and decides to back Ukraine against Russia in a full court press of Putin's forces in Ukraine. But this is counterbalanced by the stark realization that to do this would involve confessing error; confessing that he had 'misread' Putin, that his 'buddy' isn't who he thought he was. This course of action would involve having to go back to NATO, hat in hand, and confess his sins. Our Caesar Disgustus has not been known to attend confession.

And, therein, the tragedy.

Impeach and Imprison

-------------------------

1. Wolff, Michael. “Inside the Mind of Donald Trump” The Daily Beast podcast. August 16, 2025.

August 12, 2025: Shooting the Messenger, Dumbing Down America, Puncturing the Facade

 

He has shot the messenger. Caesar Disgustus has shot the messenger.

Confronted with facts he finds distasteful, our faux Caesar simply dismisses those who bring the message replacing them with hopeless sycophants and unconscionable political hacks. This is the hallmark of every kakistocracy, of every dictatorship. In his unquenchable thirst for power, Disgustus is dumbing down America.

Disgustus has fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and replaced her with a yet another Maggot. She was fired because she had the temerity to not only publish statistics showing not only a lower number of jobs created but a revised number of jobs created in the previous two months. Numbers that show the economy produced little more than thirty thousand jobs in the two months previous and an anemic report for last month. Numbers that show that the economy has stalled, that the tariffs are taking their tole, that DOGE has done its worst and the numbers are beginning to show it.

Unemployment, as inflation, are lagging indicators. It takes months for economic trends to work their way through the economy. It doesn't turn on a dime. Heretofore Disgustus and his Maggots have been dismissing fears that his ignorance would do lasting harm to the U.S. Economy. Now the numbers are beginning to emerge and fear is gripping the White House.

Several years ago, I wrote a column analyzing tRUMP's management 'style'. (1) I would add here that another characteristic of his 'management style' is, when confronted with inconvenient and uncomfortable truth, to shoot the messenger. This wholly predictable outcome happens because the truth punctures, or threatens to puncture, an elaborately constructed facade, a mirage that takes not only a great deal of resources but a great deal of energy to create and maintain. Witness the constant stream of lies and falsehoods as well as the pounds of cosmetics that have gone into the enterprise. Witness his need to be surrounded and supported by a horde of sycophants singing his praises as is he were some kind of Messiah in our midst.

Now we have the summary dismissal of a central figure in our economic forecasting, a debasement, literally, of the currency. A debasement of an agency upon which markets move and investments are made. Is there no doubt that the Federal Reserve is next? If this is allowed to stand, if this emerging celebration of ignorance continues it will not be long before the world will demand that the financial world move from the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Already things are moving in this direction.

Ignorance is being imposed upon the system and the consequences will be frightening.

_____________

1. See Protagonist: August 2, 2017: Hollow to the Core, Ode to Ralph, Only Confusion Now

August 1, 2025: Turd In the Bowl, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, In Plain Sight

 

August 1, 2025: Turd In the Bowl, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, In Plain Sight

Will no one flush this turd? It has been ten years now since our orange-tainted Caesar Disgustus descended his elevator at tRUMP Tower to address a pre-paid audience and rail against immigrants and howl at the moon. The madness, which has proven contagious has spread throughout the republic. For a decade now he has stunk up the village forum with a foul stench that has made it increasingly difficult to breath. Nevertheless, his Maggots, drawn to the stench as Maggots will, enthusiastically sing his praises. My god, a band of plumbers must be called to flush this turd and get the offal and his maggots safely down the soil pipe and into the cesspool before, gassed by the stench, all reason is lost.

There is hope on the horizon. For most of the past month the sordid relationship between our erstwhile Caesar and Jeffry Epstein has dominated the headlines. Ever since the Muskrat, Elon published his 'tweet' that tRUMP was all over the Epstein files, the world of Maggotry has gone apocalyptic.

Steeped in conspiracy theories by the likes of Alex Jones your Maggot, a deeply paranoid soul prone to see perfidious Democracy behind every bush and beneath every bed, had become convinced that Disgustus, returned to power, would release the “Epstein Files” and reveal, once and for all time, the evil cabal that is the Democratic Party; an evil political enterprise led by blood sucking pedophiles of which the Clinton's, Obama's and now the Biden's are principal criminals.

But, alas, it was Elon, the darling of the idiot wrong, who has come forward and proclaimed that it is our very own Caesar Disgustus whose name is all over the criminal record.

Enter Ghislaine Maxwell, consigliere to Jeffrey Epstein and convicted participant in his child sex trafficking operations. Spotting an opportunity she let it be known that she was willing to testify before any Congressional Committee about what she had witnessed should the opportunity present itself. Maxwell was about to lower her hammer upon the numb skull of our pretend and pretentious leader.

This led first to Pam Blondie, our so-called 'attorney general' to declare that although she had the list of Epstein's clients on her desk weeks before that there are, in fact, no such lists; and our bug-eyed director of the FBI, Cash Pray-tell to declare much the same thing. Maggotry howled in protest.

Pray-tell sent his minion to the federal prison in Florida to discuss with Maxwell the nature of her testimony which later emerged as a complete exoneration of our Orange Turd in exchange for transfer from a maximum security prison to a 'club Fed' facility in Texas complete with putting greens and tennis courts. Word is that she will be released on work detail and spend only nights in the joint, much as Epstein had done while he served time in the aughts, time during which he continued to abuse young girls.

Once again, the fix is in in plain sight. A truly disgusting spectacle.

Impeach and Imprison

July 25, 2025: Opposing Barbarism, Pilgrimage to Ionia, Curious and Instructive

 

Last weekend, I made a pilgrimage back to Ionia, Michigan to pay my respects to my old friend Gloria Cook. Gloria was the wife of David Cook, former president of the Kent-Ionia Labor Council and former Chairman of the Ionia County Democratic Party.

In 1968 I was installed as the new Chairman of the Grand Valley State College Democrats by the Merrick Machine. I had met Dick Merrick in Professor Tevebaugh's 19^th Century American History class in the spring of that year and, along with Steve Pekich, was tasked with producing two 50 page papers on the political life of the century. Dick was then Chairmen of the College Democrats and an alternate delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Later in the year I was introduced as the newly elected Chairman at my first meeting with the group having been elected in abstention.

Similarly, I was installed by the Cook Machine decades later as Chairman of the Ionia County Democratic Party in 1994, although I had attended meetings and been previously elected Secretary a couple of years earlier. The Cook's, known in the jurisdiction as Mr. and Mrs. Democrat were then the moving force behind the local Democracy. When governors and United States Congressmen and Senators passed through town, they were sure to stop at the residence of David and Gloria Cook.

In any case, in 1995 the political community was under siege by a group calling itself the Ethics in Good Government Committee or, as they fashioned themselves EGG. EGG was called into existence to oppose Zoning, Ionia then being one of a handful of counties in Michigan totally unfamiliar with the concept.

In any case, on my sojourn back to my old haunts I stopped by the library to retrieve from oblivion a letter to the editor that I submitted in the heat of the battle. What follows is a transcript of that letter along with a cover letter I sent to my daughter who went to school with the Cook's granddaughter and who, like Cook's descendant is a staunch Democrat. The cover letter, addressed to my dear “Shoes” will put the matter in context.

Scottville, Michigan

July 19, 2025

Shoes,

Enclosed please find documents relating to the political fight back in 1995 between the forces of good and the barbarians at the gate. A little background:

The EGG group, see documents for reference, was a bunch of yahoos funded by the county's most notorious slumlord, and fronted by a lay preacher at some local Baptist Church named Cliff Lazarus. The group's benefactor, your mother informed me, would sell properties with huge balloon payments, meaning low or no down payment with balance due in four or five years knowing that his clients wouldn't be able to get a mortgage to meet the payments. He would then evict them. He also sold properties with no floors and with toilets and plumbing simply running out in the yard. He was a known disgrace to the real estate profession and general all around scumbag.

Here were the driving forces behind this movement. Plain greed and unlimited political expediency along with a smattering of idiotlogical nonsense.

Gathering momentum, they launched a recall drive against several township officials over zoning, although I was never aware of any zoning proposals being forwarded by anyone, this being Ionia County. But, nevertheless, here it was.

Ray Vogt, then Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney and Chairman of the Ionia County Republican Party made his monthly appearance on WION's “Viewpoint” program, hosted by newsman Steve Howard. I happened to be in the office when he was on and decided to wait until the program was over to speak with him. At conclusion I went into the studio, sat down and said “Ray, we need to talk about what to do about the barbarians at the gate”. He asked me what I had in mind. I replied that we should join forces and endorse all our elected officials of whatever party, that is I would get the Democrats to support Republican officials if he would get his party to do the same. He asked if I were serious. I replied that I was damn serious and would resign if my party didn't approve the strategy. He agreed.

Fortunately the monthly party meetings were at hand and I immediately raised the business of joining the Republicans to support our beleaguered comrades. There was much murmuring, as you would expect. The Cooks, for instance, were skeptical. I assured them that we wouldn't go forward unless the Republicans voted to join us and that I would resign if we didn't initiate this. It passed, albeit, with all due reluctance.

I then called Ray to give him the news. The ball was in his court, but he had the knowledge that the Democrats were in earnest and that the initiative had been approved by the other side. He carried the day, albeit with similar reluctance.

Armed with support from both parties we met in his office at the County Courthouse and hammered out a joint press release which appeared a few days before this letter to the editor on the front page of the Ionia Sentinel-Standard. This touched off a response from the EGGheads claiming we were denying them their 'constitutional right to speak'. Enclosed is my reply.

This produced, in the aftermath, an immediate visit by Lazarus on our front porch in which he spent between 2 and 3 hours trying to convince me of the righteousness of his and Bob's position. I countered by pointing out the hidden agenda that Cusack was prosecuting, finally telling Cliff that I know the Lord works in mysterious ways but this is ridiculous and that he could lob this lame shit up to the plate but he must know that the ball will leave the yard. This shot cleared the light standards, I told him, that I can do this at will. I told him that the question before him was how long and how often he wanted to subject himself to this. I, and the community, didn't hear from him again.

They did recall one township official in Orleans township, but lost all the other recall elections which, if memory serves were about 7 in total. After that the group disappeared.

This is, in my humble opinion, is a textbook case of what can happen when the power elite closes ranks. It is what should have happened on the national stage when Newt Gingrich raised his ignorant ugly head. It is certainly what should have happened when the Orange Turd began stinking up the place ten years ago.

Anyway, something you can share should you encounter your classmates.

Love,

Daddy.

Here is the letter to the editor:

EGG Should Read Constitution

To the editor:

Ethical Good Government for Ionia County Committee's reaction to the resolutions of both the Democratic and Republican parties in opposition to their recall efforts is both curious and instructive.

It is curious because the leadership of EGG was quoted as saying that we are “depriving them of their constitutional rights to speak”. That is fatuous nonsense.

No one, least of all the major political parties, has prevented them from expressing their views. In fact, their views have found ample expression in print, radio and at several public forums.

No one, least of all the major political parties, has stopped them from recalling local officials. In fact, both major parties have historically supported the Citizen's right to petition, referendum and recall.

We simply oppose EGG's current use of recall as a costly misuse of the political process in the furtherance of agendas that do not warrant such extreme measures.

It is instructive, because at the first sight of opposition, the EGG leadership flatly declared that those opposing them were violating the group's Constitutional rights.

This is both a spurious and singular reading of the Constitution of the United States, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of the democratic process.

While the EGG organization would prefer to remain unopposed, the facts of political life in a free society are otherwise, and we who have worked hard to elect good people to do the public's business can be relied upon to stand in their defense.

EGG is free to speak; it is speaking. EGG is free to advocate; it is advocating. EGG is free to organize; it is organizing. We are free to oppose; we stand in opposition.

No matter how much they cast themselves as the modern reincarnation of Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Adams, these would-be constitutional experts must come to understand that our opposition does not in any way constitute an infringement upon anyone's constitutional rights.

It is, in fact, a free exercise of our rights. EGG may not like our opposition, but that does not make it unconstitutional.

We suggest EGG follow its own well-publicized advice and reread the Constitution of the United States, this time with the help of someone who can explain to them what it means.

Joe Camfield

Chairman, Ionia County Democratic Party. (1)

On the day following the publication of this missive I found myself walking the Main Street of the City of Ionia making my sales rounds when John MacNamara, then City Attorney, came out of his offices shouting “Way to go Joe!”. I met a similar response from the assembled at the annual G. Mennen Williams Tent Dinner at the Ionia Free Fair a few days later. EGG, as noted above, was successful in recalling only one township official and then crawled back under the rocks from which it had emerged.

This is how you deal with the barbarians at the gates. This is what leadership looks like. This is what the major parties should have done to the Teabaggers and the Maggots had they the courage of two local county leaders. Instead they opted for unlimited political expediency betraying a cowardice that has put the republic itself at risk.

Impeach and Imprison

__________

1,Published in the “letters to the editor” section of the Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Tuesday July 15, 1995

July 13, 2025: Banana Republic, What I Predicted, Full-blown Fascism

 

As Donald tRUMP, on the eve of his second maladministration, stood on the podium flanked by a line of billionaires it had become clear who had 'won' the election. No longer feeling compelled to hide behind the curtains the money mongers stood like a phalanx behind their puppet in an open display of contempt and power. They had bought the election; they now own the republic.

What follows is an essay I posted in these columns in January of 2008. What I feared; what I predicted, has come to pass:

“In his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Senator John Kerry pointed out that the middle class controlled a smaller share of the national economy than at any time since before 1929. He could have run on that issue alone in 2004 and won the presidency but decided instead to re-fight the Vietnam War. With median household purchasing power declining by $1,500. Annually the situation has not improved.

What has improved, since the last election cycle, is that all of the Democrats and Mike Huckabee have discovered it. Even Mitt Romney, as he visits at last the gutted remains of the Michigan he once knew, has discovered the fearful plight of the old working class as he tries to inject some air into his gasping campaign. This is important not as a partisan issue, nor is it important solely as a class issue, it is an important political issue that speaks to the condition of the very soul of the Republic.

What distinguishes us from the classic banana republic is that advanced democratic societies have a large, vibrant and controlling middle class. This is no accident. Emerging under the crushing oppression of the old feudal order, modern democratic systems arose to challenge the feudal aristocracies not only for political power but to use that power to improve their own condition. The result was both peaceful and violent. Relatively peaceful in England with the Reform acts of 1832, extending the franchise, and violent in America and France with their respective revolutions. The result was, broadly speaking, the same. Political parties made up of the new urban and industrial professionals, labor unions, and Farm groups replaced the old aristocracies and in varying degrees went about the business of constructing—through a sometimes painful century long process—a vibrant and controlling middle class. In America the process had a head start with some 80% of the electorate originally middling ‘yeoman’ farmers who quickly organized behind the aristocratic Jefferson to oppose the monied ‘eastern interests’ represented by Hamilton and the Federalists. To varying degrees American politics, a balance between conflict and consensus, has since been a contest between these two factions with the modern middle class taking it’s form with the New Deal and the monied interests having long since taken refuge in the Republican Party. Democracy then creates the middle class because politics are driven by numbers, Jeremy Bentham’s dictate that the purpose of any society is to provide the most benefit for the most people. Majorities have used their political strength to oppose concentrations of economic power, break up monopolies, regulate economies, redistribute wealth and construct safety nets for the elderly, impoverished and infirm. The middle class had become so controlling that both parties have had to pay homage to it for the privilege of exercising national power. So the Republicans pushed the expansion of the franchise, busted the trusts, began the environmental movement under Teddy Roosevelt, the Democrats under Wilson advanced on that theme then under FDR began the wholesale restructuring of the middle class after the debacle of the 1920’s. Not only has the democracy created a commanding middle class but the middle class has a vested interest in defending democracy. This was a point entirely missed by Her Hitler.

It is important for the Middle class to be strong enough to counter the weight of the extremes of poverty and wealth. If wealth is concentrated in too few hands then it will simply buy power, as is increasingly the case in the United States. If the poor begin to outnumber the middle class and society is bifurcated into two camps, the wealthy few and the impoverished masses, then the democratic experiment is bound to fail, as in the classic example of the banana republic or the French Revolution. The masses vote and elect huge majorities which quickly demand a redistribution of the fruits of society. The wealthy call out the military and the democratic experiment ends in failure. This is why it has been such a long and painful process to establish representative government in so many parts of the world. And this is why our Founding Fathers understood that the most important function of government is to prevent the rise of a new aristocracy. As Arthur Schlesinger points out in his “Age of Jackson” the revolution in America was not simply a question of home rule but who would rule at home.

Benjamin Franklin, so the legend goes, was stopped on the street as deliberations ended on the new Constitution: A woman walked up to him and asked “What kind of government are we to have Mr. Franklin?”

“A republic if you can keep it”, replied the old inventor.

If we can keep it….the founders knew this was an historical experiment, they knew their creation was a fragile one and many did not expect the republic to outlive them. As Schlesinger points out many not only distrusted the Eastern Mercantile interests but understood from their reading of history that a true republic must be born of a large and controlling class of middling station. And so in their reading of history the great undoing of the early experiments in Greece and Rome was not slavery but empire, and the consequent concentrations of economic power into fewer hands. The Lees and Henry’s of Virginia, not to mention Jefferson, understood the need for a middle class not only to create but be nurtured by a democratic process that would, as Bentham would so eloquently state a century later, bring the most benefits to the most people: A middle class by definition. This had the singular advantage of creating an umpire strong enough to mediate between the extremes of wealth and poverty, to create opportunity with as little oppression and exploitation as decent society will allow. They were quite explicit about this: Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that one of the most important reasons for adopting the proposed constitution is to regulate the economy. Writing in Federalist No. 22 of the defects rendering the Articles of Confederation “altogether unfit for the administration of the affairs of the union”, Hamilton continued, “The want of a power to regulate commerce is by all parties allowed to be of the number…It is indeed evident, on the most superficial view, that there is no object, either as it respects trade or finance, that more strongly demands a federal superintendence…”, something entirely overlooked by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society as they foist their reactionary vision of freedom to mask their agenda of exploitation.

Last week CSPAN televised a forum at the University of Oklahoma featuring, among others, the likes of Mayor Bloomberg of New York, Former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, Gary Hart and former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. The topic was political discourse with the general consensus being that partisan politics have poisoned the well making it difficult to govern in the United States. I have much respect for the members of this panel but I must respectfully say that they have it precisely wrong.

The vitriol that now courses through the veins of American politics has been a long time in the making and whose origins can be traced to the opening statement of Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Taking his place at the podium to address a national audience as he accepted his party’s nomination for president of the United States, Goldwater’s screed ended with:

“Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”.

The house came down as the throng that had booed and hooted Nelson Rockefeller from the stage rose as one to cheer their new champion as he prepared to make war on the national consensus that was the New Deal. Goldwater had stormed the ramparts and taken the party. He had driven the eastern establishment, represented now by Rockefeller who, as Eisenhower and Nixon before him, had accepted the tenets of the New Deal and in their 8 years in power saw no reason to lower capital gains taxes of 45% and upper income taxes in the low 90’s. Nor had they tried to tamper with Social Security, privatize the TVA as Wilke would have done, or break the unions. The Cons went down to historical defeat at the hands of the arch-liberal Lyndon Johnson and all was well with the world.

But they had given birth to vermin. Stink tanks arose housing those who would lie sleepless at night masturbating to visions of taking America back into the 19th century, and recreating the working conditions of the Chicago slaughter houses. Foremost among them were William F. Buckley whose national socialist review became a mouthpiece for the new religion. Then there was Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. These curmudgeons fought for a decade and a half to gain entrance to the corridors of power but were blocked by the likes of Richard Nixon, perhaps America’s last liberal president. Finally, in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam, the surtax and the stagflation, the country was introduced to a new element into the political arena, given legitimacy by a peanut farmer from Georgia, the religious right. Vaulting Carter into the presidency, Jimmy managed in four short years to alienate both his religious conservative base and the liberal wing of the party---for inflation, as noted earlier, is a cruel mistress. The result was that what would become the “Christian Coalition” bolted the Democratic Party and crossed the isle to become the foot soldiers in Ronald Reagan’s assault on the ramparts of the old guard. The rest, as they say, is history. Suddenly the Cons found they had an army at their disposal and could now match the democrats in the field. And so talking the talk of compassion, promising an eternal ‘morning in America’, the Reaganaughts marshaled their army to do battle against the old New Deal. The problem was that to do battle with the New Deal is to do battle with the middle class. To wage war on the New Deal is to wage war on the middle class. To wage war on the New Deal is, in the absence of another middle class Magna Carta, to wage war on the Republic itself.

And so it has been. Beginning with the war against organized labor, the Cons and their Larvae the Neo-cons have destroyed the bargaining position of the middle class in the marketplace. Moreover they have systematically dismantled the “countervailing power”, to use economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s term, of Labor to Corporate America. In the partisan war between the parties the Conservatives have waged a relentless war against the economic foundation of the New Deal not only reducing union membership to levels not seen since before the Wagoner Act was passed but making it imperative that the Democrats, in order to compete, seek funding from the same lobbyists and interests as the Republican Party.

This has produced, on the Democratic side, a complete disconnect between rhetoric and reality. While posturing rhetorically as the tribune of the people the Democrats have substantively offered up agenda’s and enacted legislation that can be characterized at best as “Bush-Lite”. In fact in the 1970’s, even before Reagan, it was the Democrats who championed deregulation and taxed unemployment benefits. But such bi-partisan consensus, born of the near Dictatorship of Capital, cannot mask the growing destruction of the old American Consensus that lies underneath and increasingly clamors to be heard manifesting itself in the tactics of ‘cut and burn’ that has been our politics in recent decades. In fact it has become increasingly important for the elites—representing now only the wealth—to use ever draconian measures to keep their hold on power. Reagan had to negotiate with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election. Bush used Willy Horton and the race card, tried to drive wedges into every fissure at the base of the republic to win temporary political advantage. ‘Ol Two-Cows” had to savage several war heroes and commit the outright theft of two national elections to get and hold power. And now, like any respectable banana republic we now have foreign observers monitoring our elections. It remains to be seen what outrages await us as this election cycle proceeds. Already Dennis Kucinich is questioning the ballot in New Hampshire, pointing out that Hillary won on electronic voting machines, Obama on the paper and mechanical ballots. Harbinger of things to come?

As our language becomes more strident you can hear the indignation from Fox Noise and the Neo-Con spin machine about fear mongering and ‘class war’, conveniently overlooking the fact that the wealthy have been waging war on us for three decades now. But the Liberals are not yet waging war on the rich. No one in the race has called for anything like socialized medicine or even a return to the tax codes of Harry Truman or even Dick Nixon. Still the rhetoric is heating up and will, in the succeeding election cycles, become white hot as the middle class goes the way of the pterodactyl. It cannot be otherwise. For the truth is that it is not the rhetoric that creates the class divisions but class divisions that give voice to the rhetoric. The panel had it precisely on its head. One does not heal class divisions by toning down the rhetoric; one turns down the rhetoric by healing class divisions. Read any speech By FDR referring to the “malefactors of wealth’ or his diatribes against bankers and Wall Street. But FDR healed the nation. In this context the panel at Oklahoma and Barack’s campaign ring hollow. If Barack is to be the transformational figure he portends, he must confront with righteous indignation as Martin, FDR and Lincoln did before him. He must introduce, like Bobby, the ‘other America’ and take his campaign and the cameras to the Mississippi Delta and the slums of New York, to the rural poor and the Indian reservations; foremost he must show the country what it already knows and walk, with the press in tow, the boarded up main streets of America. And he must do it in ways that inspire.” (1)

The Greeks, our history teachers taught us, gave us Democracy. What they didn't teach us is why they did so. The Greeks introduced democracy in order to wrest control of the polity, the polis, from the oligarchs. It was the maldistribution of wealth producing a self-serving 'elite' that gave rise to a democratic movement in ancient Athens. Democracy was birthed by wealth distribution or, rather, lack of it. The question of adequate wealth distribution is foundational to any democratic order.

It is for this reason that modern fascist movements have been at war with the Middle Classes. Among the first casualties of any fascist movement, when it gains power, is to eliminate the labor unions, followed by the creation of a crony capitalist order that rewards not efficiencies but loyalties to the governing elite, the governing oligarchy. Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile, Putin's Russia are cases in point. Once they seize power they immediately begin suppression of all other power centers that dare threaten their growing illegitimacy.

The decades-long assault on the New Deal, the assault on the Middle Classes, has now metastasized into full-blown fascism. Carter didn't understand it; Clinton didn't understand it either. Nor did Obama and Biden. And now here it is. The oligarchs have taken over the country. It is now pointless to call or write your congressman. Unless you contribute significantly to his or her campaign, you will not get a hearing. It is now pay to play. Hell, Caesar Disgustus' own larvae, Don Jr. has created what he calls “The Executive Club” where to become a member and, apparently, to gain quick access to the Orange Turd himself, you must buy a membership of at least $500,000.00. That's half of the current membership now charged at Mar-O-Lardo.

First they purchase power and then, failing that, they call out the military. Up next, I.C.E. And the national guard.

Impeach and Imprison.

__________

1. See Protagonist: January 13, 2008: Banana Republic, Transcendental Meditation