Month: February 2022

It smells a lot lately like a shooting war is developing in the Ukraine.

Most Americans couldn’t find this country on a map if their lives depended upon it. It is located in central Europe, bordered by the Black Sea on the south, Russia on the north, and several countries including Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary on the west. It is simultaneously one of the largest grain exporting countries in the world and the poorest nation in Europe.

The Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union before that country broke into many parts in 1991. Since that time, Ukraine has tried to keep a neutral position between Russia and the N.A.T.O. bloc countries. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes this and has instigated a lot of political and military mischief to regain control of the Ukraine.

One of his cute ploys was to infiltrate “Little Green Men” (Russian combat soldiers in non-descript camoflauge outfits) into the Ukraine, posing as citizen soldiers opposed to the government. Another clever antic was to smear the Ukrainian President (and President Biden’s son Hunter) with allegations of graft and official misconduct, a ruse that was perpetuated by Republicans in Congress and the Trump for President 20204 campaign.

Russia now seems poised to undertake a military attack on Ukraine, something that the Western powers oppose. Ukrainian officials have asked for N.A.T.O. protection and it appears that the United States, Britain, France and Germany are willing to help. President Biden today warned President Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia invades the Ukraine.

Who knows how far this gamesmanship will go? Why should Americans care about this?

Well, Vladimir Putin is a very clever strategist and his goal has always been to reconstitute the former Soviet Union empire. Because of its agricultural bounty, the Ukraine was always considered the “breadbasket” of Russia. It also fronts on the Black Sea, which Russia considers its own private lake. The idea that Ukraine might possibly join N.A.T.O. and foreign warships might have a friendly port in the Black Sea is repugnant to Russians.

Russia, although a large, strategically located country (straddles Europe and Asia), is underdeveloped economically. Its gross domestic product (a measure of economic activity) is $1.6 trillion, which places it far behind the largest countries in Europe, and only a fraction of the strength of the largest economies (United States and China). For example, the State of California has a GDP twice the size of Russia.

So, if Putin’s ambitions are to be achieved, he needs to develop his economy. Up until now, he and his henchmen have feasted upon the carcass of the old Soviet Union, seizing for their own industries and assets. They have also resorted to criminal enterprise, like stealing technology and hacking worldwide computer networks for ransom. The term for this kind of government is kleptocracy, or rule by thieves.

More recently, the Russia has begun to develop its vast strategic resources, like oil and natural gas, to feed the ravenous industries and populations of Western Europe. The world’s longest pipeline (Nord Stream) connects the plentiful natural gas of Eastern Russia with Germany. Although it is a legitimate money maker for Russia, it also serves as leverage against N.A.T.O. countries (particularly Germany) from becoming too frisky, lest Russia cut off the supply and starve German industries of energy.

The oil-rich nations of the Middle East have been playing this game for one hundred years.

So, add extortion to the several tools that Vladimir Putin has at his disposal to affect the politics of Europe. He probably feels enabled by this Sword of Damocles hanging over Germany to attempt an “in-plain-sight” acquisition of the Ukraine, with only token resistance by N.A.T.O.

Adolf Hitler began his Third Reich by intimidation and gobbling up small territories, while simply professing that he was unifying Aryan peoples that had always been Germanic. No biggee. That is essentially what Putin is attempting… to re-unify historic Russians to the Mother Country. In this case, however, the Ukraine is one of the most populous countries in Europe (40 million people) and they have demonstrated by their choice of leaders that they do not want to become part of Putin’s empire.

This could become a very messy war, if one was to erupt. World War I began with the assassination of a Hungarian archduke and rapidly got out of control. It seems that people in the bowels of Europe are constantly itching for a fight. And this region is just north of the Middle East, which has been “at war” pretty much constantly since the dawn of time.

The major superpowers, the United States and China, have strategic interests in this region, not to mention the goal of keeping Russia contained in its own playground. No one wants Vladimir Putin to get into any more mischief than he already has.

And my grandson Craig is going into the Navy in a few months. I sure don’t want him sailing into harm’s way.

Poor President Biden: he has China bobbing and weaving in the Pacific Theatre, making moves designed to reduce American influence there, and now he has to contend with Vladimir Putin making a nuisance of himself in Europe. It’s almost as if they’ve teamed up to torment his Administration.

Back in his own country, the President is tackling the pandemic, inflation, those pesky Republicans, and the ghost of Donald Trump.

Oh, well, he wanted the job.

Charlie and I are big fans of the Lee Child “Jack Reacher” franchise.

We’ve read many of the 25 books in the series while on vacation, recovering from an illness or surgery, or just wasting time until the next exciting phase of our life. The good guy always wins in the end, which is probably why we eat the stuff up. Besides, Reacher is a buff guy that men wish they were and women probably wish they could get into the sack.

The character of Jack Reacher is a loner, ex-Army MP inspector Major, who is built like the proverbial brick shithouse: 6’5” tall and 250 pounds of muscle. He’s also very smart: imagine Sylvester Stallone with brains.

There’s a new Amazon Prime series out now called “Reacher”. I binge-watched the series yesterday and today (all 8 episodes) while Charlie and her friend Sandy were having some fun in Las Vegas. It was pretty good; I will probably watch it again with Charlie because she will enjoy ogling Reacher (the actor) and I will know what’s coming and can act like Johnny Carson’s “Carnac the Magnificent”, predicting who the villains are. Hee, hee.

This isn’t the first adaptation of the Lee Child “Reacher” character. In 2012, and again in 2016, there were two “Reacher” movies that starred actor Tom Cruise in the lead. They were entertaining and Cruise did his normal Tom Cruise action figure best. However, the whole menacing Lee Child “Reacher” character was lost in the translation, as pipsqueak Cruise easily man-handled punks, thugs, and trained assassins with biceps as large as Cruise’s thighs. It seemed, in a word, unlikely. Particularly when bad guys had the drop on midget Cruise with guns, baseball bats, and such. For some reason, they took those opportunities to let “Reacher” disarm them or to make speeches before dispatching the hero. It never fails: the guy with the gun who gets talkative usually bites the dust.

I used to enjoy watching Steven Seagal movies before he got morbidly obese. The guy had a menacing presence and some moves, to boot. He could clear out a biker bar in less than a minute with his bare hands and make chop suey out of a gang of Bruce Lee wannabe’s armed with numchucks and katana knives. No problem for Seagal: he simply destroyed them with his Akido bullshit slap-fighting moves and chucked his attackers through windows and such. I think “Under Siege” was his best one, in which he rescued the U.S.S. Missouri and its crew from a mob of lunatic terrorists, thrusting a K-bar knife into Tommy Lee Jones’ cranium to conclude the festivities.

The funny thing about Seagal movies is that the bad guys never shoot him with their drawn guns but… it’s hard to believe… choose to go mano-a-mano with a very large Kung Foo master. It makes for good theater, if you like broken bones and maimed bad guys (which I do). But, after awhile (say about twenty Seagal movies), the plot gets old, particularly as Seagal has gained an extra hundred pounds which he tries to hide under huge garments. It would be cool if, just once, the cur holding the sawed-off shotgun on Seagal would pull the trigger. At this point, I’d pay admission for that, particularly since Seagal is the screwball buddy of Vladimir Putin in real life.

Anyway, back to Jack Reacher. The newest actor to play our hero is built just like the “Reacher” in the Lee Child novels and doesn’t seem as full of himself as did Mr. Cruise. As in most of the novels, “Reacher” finds himself at odds with local police from the get-go, despite being innocent of anything except being a hobo, and then must set things right in the community, one maimed bad guy at a time.

I hadn’t thought of it until now but that is how the Sylvester Stallone “First Blood” epic began, as well. Guy wanders into town, minding his own business, the police unfairly pick on him, and all Hell breaks loose. I wonder if the John Rambo character was the model for Jack Reacher? Of course, Rambo was an ex-Seal with PTSD while Reacher was a spent ex-Army MP just content to be friendly. Both of them, though, had oodles of specific skills to make things right, if they had to. Trouble seems to seek out both of these guys…continuously. It’s always good, though, to see bad police officers and Sheriffs get their asses handed to them by our action heroes. Justice will be done.

John Wayne would be appalled by all of the gratuitous mayhem in the Rambo/Seagal/Reacher movies. They didn’t do things that way in the Old West, particularly in the movies. Yes, Wayne would occasionally break a chair over some guy’s head in a saloon or maybe throw him through a window onto the street. Occasionally, The Duke would get cold-cocked by his sidekick or get tomahawked by a guy with an axe handle. But the real beefs would be settled in a manly fashion… with bullets. Why break a guy’s wrist (a la Seagal) or kick a guys balls up into his groin (Reacher) when you can shoot him where he stands? The good thing about blowing a hole in someone’s noggin is that they can’t miraculously get back up and continue fighting (like they do in Rambo/Seagal/Reacher dramas). It cuts down on the speeches, too.

Finish the guy, I say.

Charlie will probably like the latest “Reacher” incarnation because she is head-over-heels infatuated by another buff good-guy named Rip in the “Yellowstone” series. The series is about cowboying in Montana on a huge ranch that developers want to make into a ski resort and the local Indians want back (from the White Man). Kevin Costner is the Boss of the Yellowstone Ranch and Rip is his Foreman and designated problem solver. Hell hath no fury like Rip on the warpath. He’s Jack Reacher in a permanent state of pissed-off, particularly when it comes to protecting Costner or his daughter, Beth. Awhile back, when some bikers were trespassing on Yellowstone land, Rip drove his Ram 350 Turbo Diesel pick-up truck over about twenty parked Harley choppers and then almost beat the biker chief to death with a branding iron. The bad guy had a gun, by the way, but didn’t shoot Rip: we’ve seen that one before. I guess the biker decided that he’d rather get his brains scrambled by a branding iron than be prosecuted for defending himself with a gun. (I think these script writers must all be high on something.)

Why do I watch this drivel? Why do people read the Bible and go to church? Probably because we all want to see good guys win every now and then.

None of it is reality but, hey, who doesn’t like to see a bully kicked in the testicles?

It is an honor to have provided a home for the newest member of our pack, Vinnie. And he really appreciates it: that’s for sure.

We found out a little more about Vinnie last week. Our vet told us that his original owner, an elderly man, gave him up because he was intimidated by Vinnie’s “medical issues”. I am not sure what he was concerned about. Of course, Vinnie has some allergy issues, like most Boston Terriers. Those can be treated with medicines… no biggee. He also has big time “reverse sneezing” episodes. This malady is common among Bostons, and can startle people, but it is just a breathing issue associated with their short muzzle. Vinnie’s reverse-sneezing can be quite loud and last a couple of minutes, if left alone to abate. I have found that caressing the throat and closing the nostrils for a few seconds will usually resolve the problem. The original owner was probably unfamiliar with this situation and thought that the dog had severe breathing problems that would cost a lot to fix or maybe cause the dog to die.

No, I don’t think so, but Vinnie’s reverse-sneezing sure gets your attention. As does his snoring: Wow, he could raise the dead! Both phenomena are caused by his brachycephalic head (“smush mouth”). He can’t help it.

To the annoyance of our girl dogs, Baby and BonBon, our new man dog seems to have staked a claim on me. If I am loving on Baby or BonBon, Vinnie will find a way to insert himself between me and the other dog. It’s cute but getting to be old.

Vinnie is a stubborn little guy. The possessiveness is one thing. Also, he hasn’t yet acquiesced to the pecking order in the house: Baby is the Alpha, and then there are the others (“No, Vinnie, you are NOT the Boss!”). To her credit, Baby puts up with the aggressiveness of Vinnie, like when he wants to possess a toy or bone that Baby is chewing on. She will humor him to a point, but when he gets nasty about it, some sparks will fly and Vinnie will get pinned to the floor by Baby. Luckily, she hasn’t bit or maimed the little pest… yet.

Mr. Vinnie’s nickname is “Sir Barks-a-Lot”. When he gets excited, and isn’t getting his way, he will bark out of frustration. Barking is fairly unusual for Boston Terriers, who are active but pretty mellow. It is rare for a Boston to bark at strangers or other dogs. Vinnie will bark at another dog because… he can’t get to them, smell their butt, and play. Our other dogs (all four of them) have never exhibited this behavior. I think it is because Vinnie wasn’t properly socialized in his first year or so.

Vinnie has oodles of energy and this is perfect for BonBon, who loves to play with him. They run about the house, up on the beds and sofas, through the doggie door at 100 mph, and chase each other out in the backyard. They like to wrestle, too, and hassle each other over toys. It’s all in good fun and they are a good match, physically. BonBon is chill with Vinnie’s behavior and will go after him if he annoys her, like normal sisters and brothers.

Baby picks her spots, participating when she wants to, letting them know when she’s not in the mood, and naps to recharge her batteries. She’s five years old, in perfect physical condition, and can still run laps around the other two if she cares to do that. She can also stomp Vinnie if he becomes a bore, and she seems to enjoy doing it.

Speaking of dog dynamics, last night we entertained some friends (Ken and Nancy) from Scenic, Arizona, which is just across the Virgin River from Mesquite, Nevada. We do a home-and-home game/party night every week on Sunday afternoon. Yesterday, they brought their dog along: “Daisy”, who is a large Labradoodle. She is probably a 60-pound dog and is much taller and longer than Baby. Daisy is a nice, fun-loving dog who gets along well with our pack. However, Baby has a hard time getting used to the fact that, when Daisy is at our house, Baby is not the Alpha dog. Baby has a hard time adjusting to that: doesn’t really feel comfortable in the role and sort of tiptoes around Daisy. BonBon and Vinnie know that they are not in charge and simply enjoy having another dog on the property to have fun with.

It takes about an hour for the four dogs to figure out how to coexist and have fun, and then they are off to the races like four juvenile delinquents, raising Hell.

Mr. Vinnie, like I said, is a stubborn fellow. I am still working on him outdoors on the finer points of walking via leash, not making a damn fool of himself when a human or dog appear nearby, and obeying my directions on a loose leash or without leash. Like the other young Boston Terriers that we’ve had, he’s a “puller” on leash: some passerby called him “Four-wheel Drive”. Booger was like that until she was two-ish, and BonBon, who is about that age, still tugs a bit. Baby, who is much stronger than BonBon or Vinnie, just wanders along, taking her time. Of course, she’s 5-years-old.

The goal of the outdoors training is to be able to trust Vinnie on the beaches of Oregon… to wander freely with Baby and BonBon off-leash and respond to my commands. Our other dogs figured this out easily and we had a lot of fun together without anybody running off, although JayJay would pretend that he couldn’t hear me when he was working hard to dig a disgusting dead seagull out of the sand. (That sonofabitch could have been a great police cadaver dog!)

I sure miss JayJay: he was my man-dog, a wonderful guy, my shadow wherever I went, and a very cuddly and affectionate BFF.

Hopefully, Vinnie can fill his shoes.

The Congressional investigation into the January 6, 2020 Capitol Riot is unearthing all manner of evidence that ex-President Trump and his key advisors fomented the insurrection.

This is not really “news”, as everyone knows what happened and why (i.e. Trump lost the election and was pissed off). The most alarming aspect of the debacle was that our President felt he could encite a mob with impunity, threaten lawmakers, and rejigger the election results in his favor in plain sight. Once again, not surprising since we’re talking about Donald Trump.

A majority of Republican Congressman went along with the Trumpian scheme, claiming that the election had been “stolen”. Of course, all of those Congressmen had been elected in that very same 2020 election. “So, again, Mr. Congressman, what was wrong about that election?”

Had it not been for Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with the January 6th coup, Donald Trump would probably be enjoying a second term right now and a majority of American voters would be incensed and rebellious.

President Trump and his Oval Office conspirators devised a legal assertion that the Vice President, tasked with presiding over tallying of the certified electoral votes from each State on January 6th, could arbitrarily decide which States’ results could be counted and which States’ results (presumably those in States where Trump had lost the popular vote) should be rejected, causing the election to be thrown to the State legislatures (which had a Republican majorities). Those legislatures would then un-do their own State’s results certification and declare Trump the rightful winner.

Trump’s wet-dream scheme flies in the face of history: it would provide a “kingmaking” role to the Vice President, who is historically treated no better than a golf caddie by his President.

John Nance Garner, who was V.P. under Roosevelt in 1933-34, once commented that the Vice Presidency “is not worth a bucket of warm piss”. In other words, the job is fairly irrelevant, lacking power to do anything, window dressing, and not much more. The incumbent is in the position to step up in the unlikely situation where the President dies while in office. Other than that, he cuts ribbons, makes speeches supporting the Administration, drives in motorcades, and acts important when telling stories with his drinking buddies.

Ex-Governor of Indiana and ex-Congressman Mike Pence, a politician who took his Vice President role seriously (“to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”), knew that he had no such power. Not incidentally, he was the running mate of the President in the 2020 election, so for him to assume the role of actually overturning those election results, he would be helping to re-elect himself.

Of course, “self-dealing” is anathema to constitutional democracy and proper conduct by an elected official…unless you’re Donald Trump. Thank goodness that Mike Pence did the honorable thing and excused himself from the seditious plot: the man showed the class that his running mate did not.

Bad-loser, ex-President Trump still continues to loudly assert that V.P. Pence could have reversed the election results on January 6^th. He’s publicly denounced his former V.P. as a “coward” on numerous occasions. Some of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, egged on by the President, were shouting, “Hang Mike Pence!” Luckily, they didn’t get to him.

Yes, folks, shamefully all of this did happen.

I don’t think that Donald Trump does a lot of deep thinking about anything except how to screw women, golf, line his pockets, and keep public attention on himself. It’s just the way he is. On this particular subject, the Vice President’s supposed Constitutional “powers” to decide Presidential elections, Mr. Trump should probably cease and desist his assertions: at this point, he’s working against himself and the Republican Party.

Why?

Kamala Harris, the duly-elected Vice President, now enjoys those supposed powers that the ex-President asserts that his Vice President failed to use. In essence, according to the Trump doctrine, Kamala Harris now has the power to decide who becomes the next President in 2024.

That prospect shouldn’t sit well with the Republican Party base. The Vice President is a loathed California Democrat, a woman, and a daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, to boot, not exactly the type of character that the G.O.P. thinks should be making decisions in the United States. Many Republicans don’t even consider non-White citizens to be real Americans and feel that all Californians are the Devil’s spawn.

G.O.P. leadership is well-aware of this Trump-invented issue and seems to be willing to work with Democrats in Congress (no way, you say!!) to straighten out any areas of confusion. “Anything we can do to help!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would normally rather eat green flies than support ANY Democratic-sponsored legislation, will probably move Heaven and Earth to see a Rules clarification approved so that Vice President Kamala Harris will have no more than a ceremonial role in the 2024 election certification: back to “the bucket of warm piss” for her!

Of course, the Democrats could play McConnell-type hardball and threaten to play according to Trump rules.

Wouldn’t that be interesting?

It seems that the Information Age has been hijacked by social “influencers”.

These media stars appear to be human beings that are not experts on anything, per se, but put their opinions out there in cyberspace for other to “like”. This gives them notoriety, the ability to sway public opinion, and to make money off their opinions because they can influence behavior of the idiots who pay attention to them.

The social media influencer can be a pimply nerd sitting in his basement among his Star Wars collectibles while trying to get attention, a guy who just loves the sound of his own voice (Rush Limbaugh, R.I.P.), a one-issue fanatic (former Playboy centerfold/anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy), a mysterious guy who has a conspiracy theory about everything (Qanon), a megalomaniac (the ex-President), or just about anyone who wants to shout out, “I exist: listen to me!”

We watched a crime documentary the other night where a bored, lonely teenager in a remote Canadian province created some fake personas on social media, ruined some lives of innocent people living thousands of miles away, tried to cash in on associated scams, and then acted as if she’d done nothing wrong and shouldn’t be punished in any way.

With a couple of keystrokes, she influenced behavior (in a destructive way) of folks thousands of miles distant.

There is small dustup going on right now on Spotify, from what I gather. A Rush Limbaugh wannabe named Joe Rogan has a podcast “show” online where he outrageously spouts off on all manner of subjects of which he knows nothing. Rogan taps into conspiracy theories, popular political controversies, race baiting, etc., anything to get attention and have people talking about him.

Rogan has been on tilt for awhile spreading misinformation about the pandemic, Covid-19, vaccines, and the like. Some famous people (performers Neil Young, Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell) have reacted by demanding that Spotify either sanction Mr. Rogan or remove their music from the streaming site. Rogan, in his defense, has stated that even he doesn’t believe a lot of the stuff that he says: it’s just “entertainment”.

Therein lies the rub: there is so much shit floating about in cyberworld that no one can tell what is factual and what is fiction (i.e. entertainment). We all love our Free Speech, but is intentionally harmful free speech something that we should protect? How about the guy who, for fun, yells “Fire!” in a crowded theater? Does he have a right to do this? The Supreme Court ruled many years ago that he doesn’t.

It’s a complicated issue, to be sure.

We had snacks and played a board game with a very nice couple last night. They are “seniors”, like us, and eventually the conversation turned to the pandemic. My friend, the guy, tossed off the old dismissive conspiracy theory line about “It’s overblown: every illness and death nowadays is attributed to Covid-19”, as if the pandemic is a big to-do about nothing spectacular. My friend, the Joe Rogan wannabe, got his medical degree working as an equipment mechanic in the rock mines of Montana.

Of course, in today’s world, this man’s opinion, which he proudly and loudly shares, is as important as the opinion of medical doctors, the CDC, and disease researchers who’ve devoted their entire lives to…science. My friend, and many others, deride science in political debates, but they privately avail themselves of the fruits of science (electricity, cell phones, automobiles, high-yield agriculture, manufacturing, and virtually everything that has advanced human beings from the apes) during virtually every second of their existence.

Yes, they seem to say, science and scientists are great…except when they are talking about viruses: then, of course, they’re clueless.

Many of the same folks, who plan their days using increasingly-accurate weather forecasting by meteorologists (i.e. scientists), also argue that scientists who specialize in climatology don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to “global warming”…because Sean Hannity of Fox News  has told these know-it-alls the truth…that 97 percent of the world’s scientists are lying about climate change and potential impacts.

Expert-for-hire/blowhard Hannity was a paperboy and a house painter before failing to graduate from college. He later became a general contractor before becoming a human bullhorn, Conservative talk show host on Fox News. This is the guy who, according to himself, knows more about science than scientists and more about government than those in government. He is a professional know-it-all.

Hannity’s idol, the recently deceased Rush Limbaugh, was another loser who flunked out of college after two semesters, choosing to become a low-level DJ on local radio. By his own admission he was a “moderate failure” at this occupation and later tried other roles in radio, from which he was fired on several occasions. He finally hooked up with a station in Sacramento, California that would allow him to do a “talk” format, covering any subjects he wanted to, and espouse any opinions that he wanted to, even if they were outrageously misinformed. This format was made to order for a guy who loved the sound of his own voice.

In both Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s defense, they were “entertainment talent”: the audience called in/watched for the shock and awe of their hyperbole. Unfortunately, millions of followers misinterpreted the schtick for factual news, in many cases the only supposed “news” that they consume.

Thus, we have the “fake news” that has now become commonplace in the media, with everyone trying to one-up the other guy with more outlandish claims and conspiracies. Hurtful gossip and hate speech are now accepted coin of the realm in societal discourse, and real experts are derided and harassed.

A good example of what passes for factual information lately was the rumoring by Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) that Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau had fled to the United States to escape the wrath of his constituents. Twice over the past three days Congressman Roy, who represents a Texas district that is all lathered up over Covid-19 restrictions, tweeted the fictional online rumor that Trudeau had fled his country because of the angry protests of truck drivers and others opposed to vaccine mandates, Covid-19 protocols, and such. Congressman Roy, one of 535 individuals who legislate laws in our country, today demanded that Prime Minister Trudeau, who is not in the United States, be deported!

Isn’t it ironic that members of Congress are introduced as “the Honorable…” (name)? Since when do liars have any honor?

It is no wonder that cultism is on the rise.

A cult involves a zealous devotion to a philosophy, often manifested in a charismatic leader. This guy (almost always a man) acts like he knows what he’s talking about and has the manipulative skill to convince gullible individuals to swallow his lies and directions. Examples would be the biblical Apostle Paul, murderer Charles Manson, Rev. Jim Jones (the People’s Temple), David Koresh (Branch Davidians), Bernie Madoff (Ponzi investment scheme), Warren Jeffs (polygamist/child molester), misinformation entertainers Limbaugh and Hannity, and master salesman Trump.

The Trump cult is a doozie. A guy who was known by Americans to be a womanizer, a cheat, and a liar, who failed in numerous businesses, and who couldn’t be elected dog catcher in his hometown, runs for President. He doesn’t know anything about the job and has no experience, either. Because he isn’t a professional politician and isn’t a Democrat (any more… as he was into the early 2000’s), desperate/loyal Republican voters throw their lot in with him.

As happens with personality cults, these diehard Republicans somehow identified with Trump (a narcissistic billionaire!), pushed all of their chips into the pot, and stood with him as his Presidency predictably unraveled, because he didn’t know what he was doing, wanted to do things his way, and couldn’t get qualified people to advise him…even if he was interested in good advice, which he wasn’t.

You know it’s a cult when, even after the twice-impeached President soils himself by trying to pervert our democracy and overthrow an election that he lost by 10 million votes…his followers, for the most part, stayed with him. It’s apparent that their feet are encased in political and cultist concrete: the idea that he is The Savior is too big to fail (and the embarrassment that they were wrong to follow him is too great to bear).

Like Jim Jones’s fan club in Guyana, the cult members are apparently willing to drink the Kool Aid all the way to the bitter end, which could be the creation of a dictatorship in America (if Trump has his way).

This is “the power of one” charismatic person who can convince gullible people that down is up, money grows on trees, and one plus one equals three.