Do You Know the Muppet Man?

Fact: we don’t always heed our own advice. Fact: I published a blog post a couple weeks ago, “Stress Relief”, that advised readers to minimize politically induced stress, in part by reducing exposure to the ubiquitous 45 drama. Fact: I failed to heed my own advice and succumbed to political catatonia. But my crazy, quiet week is over and I’m here to share my factual and reflective findings. Game on!

It’s dangerous out there folks. I’m old enough to remember Watergate, although I didn’t truly understand it at the age of 13, and back then I wasn’t sensing the omnipresent fear that people are feeling now, i.e fear that our country has been hijacked by rich, greedy male conspirators. It’s overwhelming to even think this could happen, and now it appears to be highly probable; hence the catatonia I’ve been feeling for the last week.

Although there is presently no hard evidence, there is a ton of circumstantial evidence that points to a conspiracy, at minimum, to affect US and France elections. There is also a distinct possibility that there was/is collusion between the US, Russia et al to reduce Russian sanctions in order to support efforts to drill in the Arctic as part of a conspiratorial multi-billion dollar project.

As if all this drama isn’t enough to send one reeling, we have to contend with continuous 45 fake news, tweet rampages, and attempts to dismantle most, if not all, of the Obama administration’s legislation. How much of this vitriolic chaos can we take? More important, will all the drama cause people to feel disenfranchised, apathetic and immune to it?

I’m so glad you asked! There is a silver lining folks. When you need a break from the insanity—and I’m talking to myself as well as all of you—take stock in yourself and your fellow citizens. Just look at the record-breaking number of people who attended the Women’s March on Washington when 45 stole the election. Look at the number of people attending town halls across the country—even in the red, 45-supporting states! And look at the number of citizens, professional organizations and congressional Republicans who opposed repealing the ACA! We’re not apathetic. Maybe we’re a bit apoplectic from the unbelievable BS that keeps emanating from 45 and his political appointees, but we have not rolled over.

We are rallying at an unprecedented rate of citizen involvement. People like you are reading more, reacting more and responding to rallying cries. We know trouble when we hear and see it, and there’s a 45 crapload of it. So don’t allow yourself to become a victim of political catatonia but rather a participant in political accountability. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

Greetings Dear Readers. Sorry it’s been a few days since my last political confession. Having a power-interrupting snow storm, combined with uber heavy shoveling, frigid fingers and a failing iPad, kills a blogger’s productivity. The good news is the storm has passed, I own a new Samsung tablet and 45 has begun to show cracks in his gold leaf exoskeleton. Ah there’s nothing better than a crackling skeleton, some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

So despite the recent freezing temperatures, 45 is feeling some heat. More good news! What goes around comes around, and it’s all coming to a theater near you. Some, i.e. those who voted for the satanic White House denizen, might find his cackling refreshing, but the factual majority, emphasis on factual not alternative factual, find him crude and vapid. What person is their right mind would accuse a former president of wiretapping his office and subsequently fail to provide any evidence of its occurrence? You know the answer to this lies in the right mind part.

Just look at all of the daily drama emanating from his office of misguided minions. Russian spies, ethnic bans, fake news media claims ad nauseum and judicial attacks. Not only are these actions unprofessional, they are plain distractions from the truth. What’s the truth you ask? Well, that’s what the real news media and investigators have been edging closer to every day. And that’s why 45 launches daily false claims and political actions. He hears the footsteps of the truth creeping up behind him and tries to outrun it by creating more unbelievable headlines to interrupt the truth’s path.

But thanks to Rachel Maddow et al they see through and past his verbal clutter and continue to uncover the real facts. This is a man on the run. One who knows nothing substantive about the policies he’s pushing and is only a babbling figurehead for the conservative right wing. He can’t even compute simple math. When you add Russian spy, wiretapping and missing tax facts then multiply that number by a thousand allegations of fake news (sans his beloved Fox News), the sum equals the number of media hounds hunting for evidence of your footprints. And these dogs can hunt!

It’s just a matter of time until all of the evidence is uncovered and compiled. In the meantime we would best be served by not paying much, if any, attention to his false allegations and empty rhetoric. In other words, we should handle him the same way we handle a child’s temper tantrum. Ignore him! Do not give him and his false claims the attention he’s seeking for his distracting behavior. When a child loses his audience he tends to stop acting out. As much as I respect and appreciate the hard-working media, they need to stop reporting so much on his distracting tantrums. Providing him with frequent coverage of his crazy antics only fuels his barrage of current and future distractions. The media dogs are doing their jobs following the odiferous 45 scents so stay the course. And keep thinking national divorce! We can make it work and thus put an end to the liars, spyers and bears….oh my!

Good Morning Readers. It’s been a long week so far and I have missed posting my political ponderances for your reading pleasure. So let’s get right to it. Now we know that Russia owns part of the US and that 45 tried diligently for the first time to act presidential the other night. Any correlation?

Well if the New York Times and Washington Post are on point with their stories it seems that Russian Easter eggs were hidden throughout the White House during Obama’s final days in office and the scavenger hunt for them resulted in a bumper crop. The former White House staff et al preserved evidence of numerous communications between 45’s campaign staff and the Russians prior to the election. This intel was derived from the ongoing investigation of Russia’s alleged hacking and interference with our national election. Apparently Barack was concerned that 45 and his minions might alter or destroy the evidence so they made sure it was preserveld.

So Barry, are you saying you didn’t trust 45? Shocking. It looks like you thought or knew that he had something illicit or illegal going on and you didn’t have time in your remaining oval days to formally address it so you played hide and seek. You are the man! I so wish you could run for office again and reclaim the gaudy gold Oval Office from the narcissist. And I wish you could do so with a fair and unified Congress. But I digress.

Let’s relish this moment, this possible beginning of the end moment. If the reporters’ sources provide the evidence that 45 and his posse colluded with Russia prior to the election–and yes Jeff Sessions, I’m talking especially to you–we could soon be watching televised impeachment hearings. In fact, I’m visualizing the birth of a contemporary mini-series on the horizon, “This Is Us…and Russia.” Move over Moonlight because this could be a blockbuster; or better, a blockhead buster.

I can see the coming 45 tweets. Blah, blah, fake news; CNN and MSNBC suck; bitter Obama made this up after Hillary lost, blah, blah, blah. Hey 45 here’s some unsolicited advice–start packing your hair products. Something wicked this way is coming that may blow your reversed hairline backward, along with your planned Russian oil collaboration.

As I watched the daily political drama unfold my brain started wondering where the phrase “Mexican standoff” originated. So of course I went straight to Google and there I found the following definition:

“A Mexican standoff is a confrontation between two or more parties in which no participant can proceed or retreat without being exposed to danger. As a result, all participants need to maintain the strategic tension, which remains unresolved until some outside event makes it possible to resolve it. The Mexican standoff is a recurring trope in cinema, where several armed characters hold each other at gunpoint.”

Very interesting. It’s also a physics law, hence the blog title, but the result is lack of movement. This is where the following two parts of this definition stand out:  “which remains unresolved until some outside event makes it possible to resolve it” and “where several armed characters hold each other at gunpoint.” It’s actually more than interesting, it describes what has been occurring in our country for a long time. Our two-party system has been in a Mexican standoff during the last six decades and there is no end in sight. And, as a result, our country spins in perpetual neutral with minimalist four-year policy changes. Until now that is.

Now we are seeing major policy shifts, e.g. immigration, foreign relations (think Russia), and transgender rights, that are policy positions with which the majority of Americans disagree. Despite 45’s claim that most Americans agree with these policies–yet another alternative fact from this delusional man–the real facts demonstrate that Americans do not want these policies. Just look at the crowds around the country who are storming into town halls and berating politicians for their radical right-wing policy positions. We have not seen this volume of Americans take to the streets to protest our government’s actions since the 70s. Back then most Americans were against the war, for equal rights and for reproductive freedom. Now here we are again fighting over the same policies. Sounds like a Mexican standoff to me.

Let’s look at the definition again, specifically the part that asserts the standoff continues until an outside event makes it possible to resolve it. What outside event(s) could resolve it? Obviously the four-year party power shifts influence the two conflicted sides, but it never resolves the conflict. One side gets some of what they want and then we flip back to the other party who reverses the policies. The end result is that neither side is completely happy for long and we return to neutral growth and change. As I’ve chanted ad nauseum, doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Perhaps this is one of many reasons other countries resent us. We talk a big game but the predictable end game is small ball.

It seems that the only way to make the vast majority of Americans happy is to have two separate systems, not a two-party system. Yes, I’m still promoting a national divorce, and I hope you are seeing the larger dysfunctional picture. And if you’re not, just turn on coverage of the CPAC conference and listen to the conservative rhetoric and praise for 45. It’s truly nauseating. Folks, this is the other party, and we will never come to agreement or permanent compromise. The political pendulum will keep moving a tad to the right and then a tad to the left. California is seeing the big picture and momentum is growing for their secession movement. Yes, there are hurdles for them to overcome that may not allow them to secede; but alas, there is always strength in numbers. And if other blue states start thinking bigger we may finally stop the insanity. Think big folks, and think sanity.

Another day, another day of fake news as per 45. Is it me or is this line getting old? How is it that prior to the election 45 often cited the news as reference for his rise in the polls, and yet, when the press reports, a) his approval rating is the lowest of any incoming president, 2) there were astronomical numbers of people who attended the Women’s March in Washington, and 3) Mike Flynn and other 45 campaign staff may have been meeting with Putin’s posse prior to the election, that all of this is fake news? Me thinks me smells a double standard.

This guy ran a 77-minute, impromptu Q&A session in which he frequently berated the media for fake news, disrespectfully shushed the press when they were in mid-sentence, and repeatedly refused to answer direct questions while simultaneously overpowering reporters with “Quiet, quiet” as he then changed the subject. A couple days later he referenced Sweden and seemed to suggest they had a terror attack, which they did not, and in the process ticked off the Swedish PM. Seriously, quiet and friendly Sweden! What next, Switzerland? His Sweden tweet was based on comments by Tucker Carlson from the ‘reliable’ Fox News where Carlson implied that Sweden accepted numerous Syrian refugees, thus causing a large uptick in the Swedish crime rate. The Swedish Embassy subsequently asked the US to explain 45’s tweet and the former Swedish Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, tweeted that he is wondering what 45 is smoking! OMG I was thinking the same thing!

Well at least we now know that 45 gets his alternative facts from the latest Fox reports. And we also know that Kellyanne Conway did not invent the concept of alternative facts and has been nothing more than 45’s marching band hand puppet. By the way, where in the world is Kellyanne these days? Is band camp having their annual retreat? It seems as though she’s been removed as the White House mouthpiece in favor of Reince Priebus. Now there’s a true wing man. Kellyanne simply can’t compete with his level of whining about the press and his blind reinforcement of 45’s disrespect for the concept of a free press. This is where 45 is becoming more dangerous by the day.

Our society has always supported the need for a free press. I mean, it’s the first amendment in action! But when the press doesn’t agree with 45 or they report something he doesn’t like, 45 goes ballistic and tweets “The press is the enemy of the people.” Seriously? You know things are bad when even John McCain, a politician that I don’t often support or quote, publicly stated that 45 is wrong to ‘dis’ the press and added that we need to have a free press to keep us honest. I guess John isn’t in the market for any of the 515 still vacant White House positions. Apparently neither are a bunch of generals and admirals who declined 45’s offers to replace Mike Flynn. Wow, when Petraeus turns down a job offer you know this job has to suck.

A final note for today. Keep your ears focused on the news in the next 24 hours. Last night MSNBC reported that former 45 campaign advisor Paul Manafort seems to have been involved with Putin’s posse. A former Ukrainian oligarch, Dmitry Firtash, was quickly run out of town by Ukrainians in 2014, and when the Ukrainian people surged into his palatial estate they found numerous documents related to financial transactions that Firtash had with hundreds of people. They also got to view his billion dollar mansion, private zoo, colossal Spanish-style boat that serves as his personal restaurant, his 24 kt gold bathroom fixtures, and the remaining business files that he did not have time to destroy while he was  literally being run out of town. One of the names listed on a docket of payments to the tune of 12.7 million dollars was, you guessed it, Paul Manafort. Hmm. Maybe this is why he abruptly quit his job in August 2016. Well the plot gets even thicker. Firtash has been held by Austrian authorities since 2014. Apparently the FBI requested extradition of him but the Austrians initially did not want to part with him. But now they changed their minds and are supposed to have him extradited to the US today. Yes sirree, it will be very interesting to see how the Justice Department, i.e. Jeff Sessions (also a 45 campaigner and millionaire), handles this matter. Could Firtash and all of his million documents be the smoking gun of a US/Russian billion dollar deal? And if it is, will Sessions let justice prevail, or will he let his boss prevail? Stay tuned. This could be very enlightening.

Wow is all I can say. The constant reports, fake and legitimate, are simply overwhelming. I mean think about it. This is the most important office in the US and the most powerful man in the world; and the information coming out of 45’s mouth and his minions’ mouths is frightening. Considering 45 rarely speaks the truth and frequently spews redundant, fake claims, I think we should cut straight to some real, legitimate news.

Is it any coincidence that the 45 administration continually plays out as various movie scripts? For me to equate the daily Washington drama with movies is huge because I generally don’t watch movies. But this Washington chaos and corruption reeks of movie fiction, although it’s all unfortunately occurring inside the walls of our federal government.

Obviously Mr. Flynn has a [Russian] boatload of secrets, which explains why Sally Yates was fired 3 weeks ago. Apparently when you inform 45 that one of his minions may be subjected to blackmail by Russia the end result is you get fired. So the real question we need an answer to is how much 45 is involved in the ex parte Putin posse discussions. Then there are the million other questions that have yet to receive substantive responses. Here are a few starters. Did 45 instruct Flynn to speak to the Russian Ambassador prior to being elected? If 45 knew about the discussion 3 weeks ago why didn’t he fire Flynn then? Most bosses don’t tolerate breaches, so what gives? One question I would love to ask 45 is why he allowed Flynn to attend the recent administration pow-wow in Mar-a-lago where national security issues were discussed. Something smells a bit rank here. And by rank I’m referring to you know who.

Seriously though, the White House is a hot mess. They change their stories frequently and craftily avoid direct questions from the media. It seems like they’re so busy playing Dungeons and Diversions that they can’t keep their own stories straight. Maybe 45’s mother didn’t teach him the important life lesson that when you tell a lie you end up telling more lies to keep your first lie. So when 45 said today that he knew about the Flynn issue 19 days ago and last Friday he told the media when asked about the possible Flynn problem that he wasn’t briefed on that issue yet, well um, that’s another lie. Then Conway reported today that Flynn resigned voluntarily, but later on Shorty Spicer reported that 45 asked Flynn to step down. Smells a bit rank right?

One final note. If you’re not yet convinced that 45 is the most dangerous person in the world, you might want to rethink your position as we watch the Russian warship that Putin deployed today following the Flynn debacle as it cruises off the Atlantic coast a few hundred miles from Delaware. Yes, many countries take such cruises in free waters, but they don’t do it immediately following a scandal in which they’re a named party. It doesn’t just smell in Washington, it stinks.