A Hollow Man
With Limited Shelf Life
Donald John Trump is a corrupt businessman with a lucrative side gig as 47th president of the United States. He a sick, weak, cruel, petty, vindictive, insecure, and hollow man. He is plagued by rumors that refuse to die about the nature of his association with an influential pedophile.
He operates in a context of immunity and conspiracy.
By word and deed, he is consequential.
However, he is not essential.
And he knows it.
He is the self-serving and vainglorious tool of the Heritage Foundation and its horrific Project 2025 playbook. He is totally replaceable.
In 1925 T. S. Elliot wrote a poem entitled “The Hollow Men.” Its last stanza is a famously unhappy prophesy:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.[
Well, here’s the deal. With apologies to Dylan Thomas. While Mr. Big Stuff indisputably is a hollow man, he has less than no intention whatsoever of going gentle into the good night of his decline and demise. He is burning and raving at the dying of his light and might.
The crazy old coot is going to war everywhere, all at once to demonstrate the power of his brand.
He bombed Iran to dismiss a lack luster 79th birthday parade in the national capital while 5 million residents of the country celebrated “No Kings Day” elsewhere across the land.
His wounded pride likely will deliver some equally foolish and shocking outrage in response to the spanking the voters delivered to his brand on 04 Nov 25.
Already and before that poor performance review, his administration was picking fights in the weirdest places for the flimsiest of reasons.
Boots on the ground are threatened in:
1. Venezuela;
Nigeria; and,
Mexico.
The Tyrant Trump already has placed boots on the ground at home.
Credit. The Week On a “test case” basis, select American cities are occupied by armed agents of the National Guard, ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies. Residents are warned not to resist cruel, unusual, immoral, and illegal assaults on the human and constitutional rights of individuals targeted by skin color.
Doubling down on idiocy, and in a bid for attention and respect, Captain Bone Spurs recently ordered the resumption of nuclear weapon testing. That is just so old school. The approach would be just too, too precious were it not so ignorant. And dangerous. It is sobering to consider a commander in chief that out of step with history, technology, tactics, and strategy. Oh, and so unconcerned about the health and welfare of vegetable, animal, and mineral life on this planet and in near space.
Let the Record Show
The second Trump administration has been a total hash of hate, corruption, purposeful chaos, sustained lawlessness, and malicious entitlement.
Donald John Trump is a useful fool and expendable tool to forces and powers disdainful of his weaknesses. His time on the stage has a shelf life approaching its disposal date. He has little to excuse his downfall. He is:
1. A thug. He overreaches.
2. A bully. He demands dominance. When he encounters resistance, he reflexively pushes harder. And, he prefers to punch down.
3. A coward. TACO when his foolishness leaves his brand in a bind.
The first nine months of his second term in high office have:
1. Domestically--Transformed the character and operation of the 249-year-old American experiment in enlightened self-interest and -governance from a complacent and wobbly democratic republic to a vicious unitary executive headlock on affairs of state (read monarchy); and,
2. Internationally--Diminished national reputation, prestige, power, and influence among allies and enemies alike
Credit. Globecartoon A Norman Rockwell Moment
On 04 Nov 25, Texas offered its residents an opportunity to accept or deny 17 separate changes to the constitution proposed by the last session of the legislature. No persons were running for office. No political parties were present. Just bone-dry tax, property, and justice issues presented in lawyer language.
2,568 souls call the City of Pantego, Texas home. It has one of the three polling stations serving Arlington, Texas (population 403,672 in 2024). At 2:00 PM, a cross-section of America’s middle-class snaked through the lobby and out the door. The gathering was a good mix of ages, mostly Caucasian. A broad range of mobility devices were in use.
Everyone was surprised at and delighted with the crowd size. It was a more robust turn out than some presidential elections. There were only three voting stations. One was occupied by a blind woman. Her booth had technical problems that made it impossible for her to vote “No” on any given proposition. She hung tough for remedy. The poll attendants wrestled with the system for almost an hour to obtain her right of full and free expression.
The crowd was patient with the delay. The assembly was orderly, friendly, mutually respectful, and dedicated to the proposition of exercising its individual wills and opinions.
It was a Norman Rockwell Moment. Against attempts of suppression, Norman would paint middle-class faces of every age quietly assembling and patiently waiting for their chance to insist upon a democratic republic. Yes, Benjamin Franklin—we’re keeping the republic embodied in our founding documents. Yes, Thomas Jefferson, we are ever more urgently vigilant about our precious freedoms.
Power to the People
Donald John Trump is not essential. We the People are.
Credit. The Washington Post
And, we know it. It is important to show it at every opportunity, everywhere all the time for the next 12 months.
No one can quite explain Election 2024 results.
We all are living with its terrible consequences. And, in Pantego, Texas on 04 Nov 25 it was commonly evident that We the People are not apathetic. We are interested, informed, and eager to express our will.
The level of participation of Resistance 2.0 voters one year hence is critical. While the national results of votes cast on 04 Nov 25 were encouraging, hard work remains to be done all across this beleaguered land. In Texas, the statistics indicate that the well-attended and beautifully behaved Pantego polling station might have been an anomaly. Statewide, the participation rate was only 1.4 out of 18.4 million eligible voters—a dispiriting 50% of the number of voters who took the time and trouble to express an opinion at the last constitutional election in 2023.
I live in a 53-year-old house in a marginally middle-income suburban neighborhood. The modest houses and generous yards are well maintained. Families have children who can walk the easy distance to the elementary and junior high schools serving our area. The City of Arlington maintains a large and wonderful park across from the elementary school. Most of my neighbors wear brown skins and like lively salsa music. As do the 2 gardeners, 2 yard men, and 1 cleaning lady who keep my property clean and lovely.
All 17 proposed changes to the state constitution were approved. I voted against 8 out of 17.
For example, I am leery of refusing bail to persons apprehended by ICE for the felony offense of working while brown. If I can find them three days after ICE disappears my Hispanic neighbors and friends, I want them released from illegal custody in insanitary and inhumane conditions.
I am not happy to finance portions of a southern border wall (across MAGA property) with which I do not agree for reasons almost without number.
However, I accept the results of a fair and free election as binding. Until such time as I can cause partisan laws to be retired or reversed to the favor of my opinions. Which require simple allegiance to the plain face reading of the founding documents:
1. The Declaration of Independence;
2. The Constitution; and,
3. The Bill of Rights.
Time to Walk the Walk
The wisdom of Tip O’Neill remains true--all politics are local.
To take back the House and the Senate, grab a voice on the School Board and City Council. Be or find a new true state legislator. Cultivate the local breeding grounds for persons of good character willing and eager to serve the public interest at the national level.
It is scary time in Texas these days for persons of color. Driving while black and working while brown takes courage and cunning. Survival on a given day no longer is sufficient. Every person of color who failed to cast a vote on 04 Nov 25 now will be subject to penalties and prejudices made into law in their absence.
For those of us still enjoying a protected status--giving a good God damn about racism and suspended nutrition assistance programs is not optional. Action is required.
A New Third Rail
The optics of the ill-timed and tone-deaf Great Gatsby Bash at Mar a Lago on The Night SNAP Expired may prove as troublesome for Dictator Donnie as the release of the full and unredacted Epstein files.
Hungry people are a political problem for those responsible for their suffering and anger.
Anthem
About 7 million persons participated in the second No Kings Day. A third event with a 10-million-person participation rate will help achieve the Election 2026 result necessary to reclaim human rights in a nation ruled by law rather than personality or privilege.
Apathy is the enemy of freedom. Liberty and justice require constant effort and close attention.
Callous cruelty is the mode of Trump 2.0 operation. Frequency and volume of contradictory information is the hammer numbing all will to absorb, comprehend, and reorder chaos.
Accordingly, Resistance 2.0 must take sanity, truth, and aspiration as its primary battlelines.
Politicians and pundits dissemble and distract by calling these times a contest between democracy and more repressive forms of government.
The battle is more ancient, important, and inescapable than politics.
Call it what it is—a holy war for identity, agency, and decency. Human aspirations and rights always must resist the temptation to surrender themselves in whole or part to an urge to trade down or surrender vitality for security. Where and when faith is lost, redemption and renewal remain as true and recommended action options. Embrace them personally. Advocate for them to every faint heart, confused mind, and troubled soul.
Today is dicey.
Tomorrow is ours.Let us covenant to:
Be faithful
Be firm
Be resolved
Be present
Be strategic
And, further, to:
Rise
Remain
Resist
Persist
Prevail
And, to continue to wonder and ask— “What’s in those Epstein files?”
Go, team, go.
When this PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING DIES, I WILL UNASHAMEDLY CELEBRATE.
I will salt a margarita with tears of MAGATs, but there are so many that are breaking ranks with him that I suspect that not many will truly MOURN him other than going through the motions out of a respect that he's never really deserved or earned.
This is terrific! Put a smile on my face!