Author Archives: cuduke

About cuduke

I am a retired pharmacist with lots of opinions about a variety of subjects. I am two years into this retirement thing and decided I need a hobby. For better or worse this blog is it. I was born and raised in Sheridan WY, attended a Catholic prep school in Richardton ND, and obtained my pharmacy degree from Creighton University in Omaha NE. I married my lovely wife immediately after college and we have lived in Omaha ever since. I have a daughter who lives in San Francisco and a son who lives in Denver and we take advantage of their hospitality as much as possible.

Paying it Backward

Sorry but this is a continuation of stuff I bitched about last time.  I have to after seeing this.. Group Manslaughter  . There is nothing acceptable about this. Intractible anti-vaxers and anti-maskers are responsible for this and can just eat shit.  And if you fall into the catagory of vaccine hesitant, I understand your trepidation. It’s completely normal to question things. I am aware shaming you is counter productive.  But for god’s sake what more proof do you want? These vaccines are miraculously effective and safe. And hardly anything in life is without risk.  Every year over 5000 people die in this country choking on food. Armed with this information it would not surprise me at all if a few hard core conspiracy enthusiasts gave up eating.

Every sane person in this country wants to put this virus behind us.  By now it is obvious what is needed to get that done. Specifically it will require having a population that is as close to universally vaccinated as posssible, and wearing masks, testing and contact tracing  whenever needed until that densely vaccinated population is achieved. At this point in time it is mind-boggling that so many people do not understand this, or even worse, understand it and still refuse to participate in this imperative.

Assholes that believe mandatory vaccination or masking are somehow infringements on their liberty  have a very narrow perspective of the concept.  If we all want freedom from this disease, we need a collective effort to enjoy it.  Without it, we will become locked into an ongoing loop of viral mutation.  Disruptions, health concerns and frustration will continue.  In a vary large measure liberty will evade all of us if we stay on this trajectory.

That is no more apparent than what is happening in our hospitals presently.  With the development of the vaccine, we once had the ability to crush covid, at least in this country.  Because so many people decided, for whatever reason, their individual rights were more important than the common good, we are where we are with covid surging again. Historically this nation has been better than this.  The ideal of freedom and liberty that unvaccinated people are bringing into emergency rooms along with their disease I imagine mutates into the very real concepts of carelessness and selfishness in the eyes of hospital staff.  Who can blame them.  A logical but admitedly dysopian step for hospitals to implement would be mandatory vaccine passports for admission.  Screw these unvaccinated people who believe freedom means they have complete access to a hospital bed at the expense of someone else who is more responsible.

If you have been unfortunate enough to observe local school or county board meetings lately, you might have noticed some people seem to believe freedom of speech belongs only to those who can scream the loudest.  Depending on how well controlled the meeting is, it also seems that is not always an incorrect position.  If you are one of those  dip-shits utilizing this technique to futily argue that proven virus mitigation methods are liberty infriging or don’t work, just review what is going on in the nation’s school districts.  Those without masking mandates are reporting far more covid cases, symptomatic infections and quarantines than schools mandating masks.  The lesson is we should listen to health experts, not politicians or conspiracy theorists.

Man’s Impassioned Speach Inspires Neighbors to Secure Famlies and Homes

Such brave words that Henry gave breath
‘for me it is liberty or death’
how could he know
so long ago
there’d be this many people on meth

 

Brainless Microbe Outwits Most Evolutionary Advanced Form of American Homo Sapiens

I think you can say it’s official.  With so many hospitals once again overflowing with covid patients, you can reasonably say we, the species that has evolved into the masters of the planet, have been outsmarted by a brainless, micron-sized blob.  We were so close to getting back to normal.  We have the antidote to the scurge at hand- a 95% effective vaccine.  But herd immjunity is out of reach because 30% of the adult population in the U.S. is not willing to get a shot.  Why is that?  Why would a superior, sophisticated species capable of reason let something so micoscopic and inferior in every possible way rule its domain, when all that needs to be done to regain control is to utilize  an extremely effective tool that was painstakingly developed by that superior species?

Viruses are about as simple as it gets in functionality.  They don’t eat or expend energy.  They’re baically not even living organisms. Microscopic zombies. All they do is reproduce, and in that task they are usually very efficient, but it would seem their method to be extremely boring.  There is no romantic music involved.  No smoking afterwards.  Like most of us are aware, viruses need a host in order to do what they do, and of course in the case of covid the host is a cell that dwells inside of our complicated human bodies.

In the process of reproduction, viruses unfortunatly have one thing in common with cell based life.  They are equiped with nucleic acid genomes based on the same genetic code that is used in human cells.  The really important thing to realize about this is-  viruses have genetic variation and can evolve.

And because of that feature, we could be in a world of shit.  The original alpha covid strain did what it is always inclined to do- evolve, into a more transmissible delta variant, and it is possibly a more deadly one as well.  It is only a matter of time before it mutates into a varient that is resistant to the vaccine.

Some of the public’s vaccination hesitancy is fortunatley starting to crack a bit.  When the stock market sputtered in recent weeks because the Wall Street Journal all of a sudden voiced concern, Sean Hannity did an about face and started encouraging people to get vaccinated.  A pat on the back to capitalism. But when I see a United States congressman Rep. Chip Roy goes Ape Shit  go on a weapons grade tyrant over vaccines and masking, I can almost hear the guffaws of billions of covid capsids.  If thinking were something they could do, I imagine they would be unable to believe their immense good fortune  knowing a person in a position of pubic leadership had blown off his high school biology class.  Instead of making a glaring spectacle of his ignorance by trolling for deep red-dyed attention, he could have very well made a significant impact on the vaccine hesitant in his district by explaining that it is the job of health care professionals to adjust mitigating tactics whenever there is data suggesting a pathogen has detrimentally adapted.

The reason masking is a reemerging policy is because a huge portion of our population won’t get vaccinated.  Because of that hesitancy,  the alpha strain has had time to do what it does best- mutate to delta, which as it turns out is more contageous. What is also new is it  can be transmitted by vaccinated people. That was not likely with the previous strains.  The vaccine remains amazingly protective of those who are vaccinated, but critically they are now another vector that can infect the unvaccinated.  Thus, to save those who are refusing vaccinations from severe sickness and death, and to try and stop the varients from progessing through the entire Greek alphabet all the way to an omega Xtreme Exterminator Super bug, the logical thing to do is to go back to masking up. Any unvaccinated person whining about abridgment of individual freedom should step back and realize a responsible democratic society also believes in collective freedom, which in this case is a freedom, for everyone, to carry on like we were able to do before this oportunistic contagion took over our lives.

There is also something else the unvaccinted should realize.  The inoculated at some point will tire of doing all the heavy lifting. Their patience  will wear thin if trying to save the unvaccinated from themselves contines to be an exercise in fultility.  The stick will replace the carrot in the form of vaccine mandates of some sort or other.  Being refused entrance to a concert or restaurant might not register much alarm for some, but loss of access to a job or college campus might be more signifacant.  The ultimate solution to convert the hesitant could very well arrive this fall.  Tell someone they will not be allowed into a football stadium without proof of vaccination and I believe vaccine hesitancy will come to a screaching halt. Superiority hurts sometimes, but usually its best to just let it play out.

                                               

A Grouping of Viruses                                                              A Grouping of American Homo Sapiens

 

Arizona Ballots Headed to More “Mystery” Sites

Cyber Ninja, the security firm contracted to perform the audit of 2020 election ballots in Arizona that was requested by the state’s Republican Senate, is about to engage in more out of state analysis.  Already facing scrutiny over the reasons and legality of transporting ballots to a secluded cabin in Montana, it has emerged that the company will be sending even more ballots to  locations outside of Arizona.  Although specific details  are still unconfirmed, sites range from an abandoned mine shaft in mountainous  West Virginia where it is rummored an inquisitive band of faerie folk reside, to the impenetrable bayous of Louisiana inhabited by practicing creole sorcerers versed in the conjouring arts.  Because Cyber Ninja’s staff includes a small contingent of people able to communicate intergalactically, it is rumored another possible location for ballot transport is somewhere in Nevada bordering area 51.

Spokesmen for Cyber Ninja say they are confident the company has the resources and contacts to expose any sort of voting shenanigans 

Cyber Ninja Enlists Pair of Pandas to Assist with Arizona Vote Recount

Cyber Ninja, the cybersecurity firm hired by Arizona Republicans to conduct their 2020 election re-audit of that states Maricopa County, is pulling out all the stops in order to get to the bottom of what is widely perceived in Republican circles to be incomprehensible- a legitimate Democrat victory.  Convinced the American public understands that an election is only free and fair if Republicans win, Arizona Republicans have assigned the task of codifying this new, inovative interpretation of the US constitution to Cyber Ninja.

Though Cyber Ninja has absolutly no experience in elections, company CEO and “stop the steal” conspiracy promoter Doug Logan says that will be no impediment to competent execution of the work at hand.  Logan stated his company has  methods to thoroughly search for signs of fraud that are normally not conducted. Of particular concern to him are the pens filled with disappearing ink that he believes were handed out to Republican voters, and he is confident his knowleged of chemical subsances will facilitate reappearance of markings and detect any traces of lemon juice.

Logan has been even more vigilant in his dogged pursuit of the massive dump of Biden ballots by the Chinese goverment he is certain has occured.  Critical to that exposer, Logan believes, is locating ballots embedded with bamboo filament specific to Chinese paper products.  So far Logan has implemented the use of various lighting techniques, like untraviolet and fluorescent, but says he has not ruled out strobe or backlighting, indoor solar, black, or disco.

Though the rather unconvenional use of bamboo sniffing dogs proved to be a bust, starting this coming week Logan is stepping up that approach. It has emerged that he has clandestinely procured a couple of panda bears that he is certain will turn the tide.  In the words of Mr. Logan, “We’ll just turn the pandas loose and let them go to work. Nothing will deter us from restoring America’s confidence in our electoral system.”  Added Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, ” It is critically important that people know they can always depend on the Republican Party to do what’s right for democracy by insuring every election has enough Republican votes to make it legitimate.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tucker Carlson Provides Marjorie Taylor Greene With Helpful Caucus Modification Recommendations

During his evening program, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson commended Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for her creativity in promoting white nationalism.  Recently criticized for spouting  “great replacement” rhetoric  by suggesting that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate with “voters from the third world,” Carlson nonetheless praised Greene for “telling it like it is” with her bold initiative to establish her nativist America First Caucus.

At the heart of the America First ideology is “respect for Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”  When Democrats and a few scatered Republican colleagues voiced criticism of the proposed organization for it’s blatant racism, Greene decided to shelve the idea for now.  But Carlson said that is a mistake, and suggested that with a simple name change  the central idea would have more appeal.

“A lot of what America First emphasizes is already being done in the GOP’s Freedom Caucus,” Carlson said.  Changing the name of the America First Caucus to the Caucasian Caucus would go a long way to clarify things. First of all, America First’s primary objective appears to actually be discriminatory.  Not racist, but discriminatory.  The organization should make it clear our country accepts ALL white people, not just  Anglo Saxons.  Second, believe it or not there is not one congressional organization that is specifically dedicated to voicing only white demands and grievances.  Representative Greene has identified a need that has been neglected for too long.”

When it was suggested what he was proposing was promoting white supremacy just as egregiously as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Carlson  immediatly assumed his ever familiar appearance of profound, cross-eyed confusion and restated his firm belief that no such thing exists.  “There is no white supremacy in this country.  Show me where there is white supremacy.  Yes some people like myself believe only white people should be living in our country and all non-white people here are occupying precious space reserved for deserving white people, but that doesn’t mean white people consider themselves superior.  We just don’t particlarly care for people with a different pigmentation.  The constitution was written by white people, for white people.  Not one black, brown yellow or red person signed the Declaration of Independence.  Those are the plain facts.”

When Carlson was asked what his understanding was of the “all men are created equal” clause in the Declaration of Independence, his deflective reply focused on the importance of the indivdual liberties gauranteed by our foundational documents.  ” We have pleny of diversity in the white American population.  That’s what’s great about our country. The Republicans and this new caucus Representative Greene is proposing is a perfect illustration.   Just look at what Marjorie Taylor Greene herself brings to the table.  She knows the importance of Second Amendment rights and leads by example.  When she spotted an annoyingly unarmed gun safety advocate walking down the street, she threatened and harassed him for an entire city block.  And she was only carrying a concealed hand gun.  Image how intimidating she can be with one of her assault rifles clutched in her hands.  That’s an image that’s American to the core.”

  MTG-  Busy Making America Great

Carlson went on to catalogue the congressmen he was certain the Caucasian Caucus will attract.  Representative Matt Gaetz he believes is a shoo in since he was already on board with America First.  Gaetz represents that segment of the American white male population that, according to Carlson,  believes in the  uninhibited freedom and duty of white men to give counsel and guidance to adolecent females and provide for their interstate transportation needs.

Carslon also believes all indications are that Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan will also  be eager to join the organization.  Jordan recently confronted the GOP’s enemy number one, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and in typical bombastic, jordanary fashion,  solidly established himself as the future of Republican public health information with his whithering rebuke of Fauci implanted socialistic practices like wearing protective face masks.  Jordan’s showdown with Fauci more importantly cemented him as spokseman for all liberty loving caucasians who are sick and tired of big government imposing rational public health guidelines that selfishly protect the health and well being of the nation at the expense of freedom loving Americans who are simply seeking to do whatever they want.   Carlson is confident the GOP will continue asserting this primary perogative- that the freedoms of individual white people should always take precedence over the common good.

 

 

 

 

Mass Shootings: A Very Positive Indication that the Nation is Getting Back to Normal

With two mass shootings in the past week, the American public received possibly the most encouraging sign yet that the covid scourge is in rapid decline.   The nation has been cooped up inside so long people seemed to have given little thought to the colossal carnage a couple of assault weapons can inflict.  “It’s hard to get your head around a half million deaths from a virus,” Dallas resident  Tex Wesson stated. “That’s just not something you see in this country.  But a dozen or so people mowed down in a grocery store, now that’s something you can hang your hat on.”

An even more satisfying sign that things are back to normal is the typical Republican stonewalling of any reasonable gun safety measure proposed by congress and favored by 95 percent of the voting public.  With mass shootings in abatement during the pandemic, nothing in the way of saving American lives from ongoing gun violence has even remotly been addressed legislatively.  Now that Republican Senator Ted Cruz has once again assured the nation that absolutely nothing can be done to stem the slaughter, it can be confidently stated that the U.S. Senate is safely ensconced in its pre-covid cocoon of fruitless stagnation.

Welcome back, America!

 

 

 

Senator Ron Johnson to Force a Senate Reading of Every Word Written by Dr. Seuss

As part of his ongoing war to reshape history, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is about to achieve unparalleled stature as the most significant political figure of the modern era to insufferably waste everybody’s time.  When it was revealed six books written by Dr. Seuss would be discontinued over concerns about racial insensitivity, Johnson interpreted the decision to be the result of liberal cancel culture, ignoring the fact that it was a corporate decision  of conscience.  As a personal protest,  it has emerged that he will enlist the skills of two local area third graders to spend an entire day on the Senate floor reading all the published works of Dr. Seuss. 

The staged event follows Johnson’s day long recital of the entire stimulus bill being debated currently in the Senate.  When asked if there was any issue on the horizon that was important enough to prevent him from egregiousy abusing Senate rules, he mentioned he was looking into passing a law requiring all Mr. and Mrs. Potatoheads to be properly reintroduced as such and retrofitted with gender specific accouterments.

 

 

 

Valentine’s Day

Well here we are.  January’s come and gone and I haven’t accomplished shit.  My New Years resolution was to put Trump in my rear view mirror and head down any scenic highway that leads to normalcy.  And then January 6th happened.  Now it’s Valentines Day.  Wouldn’t you know it it’s 5 below zero and there’s at least three inches of snow in the drive.  Actually it’s seven or eight in some places if you count the drifts by the garbage cans and the ridge of what is now an impenatrable barricade  of ice at the end of my driveway thanks to the asshole driving the city snowplow.

So that’s just my luck and now I can’t get out and buy that Valentines Day gift for my wife.  This year I was going to make it super special.  Like, it’s our 50th or something like that. I know she would never want me to take the chance driving around on these slick streets, and then you throw in covid and, well of course it just doesn’t make sense to take those kinds of risks. It’s a shame.  I know she really looks forward to this day every year, er, I mean we do.  I guess I’ll just have to make the best of it and watch basketball all day.  It all just sucks.

 

IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BEING HELD HOSTAGE?

Honesty, WTF is going on in the Republican Party.  A couple days after the January 6th insurrection at the National Capitol Building, the Republican Minority Leaders of both  legislative houses issued very forceful statements condemning Trump’s involvement . A few days after that, McConnell and McCarthy  both made  political U-turns that figuratively slammed my brain against the side of my skull.  Concusion therapy required some diligent periodical research.  Specifcally I was curious what would drive the Republican heirarchy to forgive a president that committed sedition and insurrection.  If that isn’t impeachable, what is?

Most of the articles I read universally concluded it was all about power, that basically for the Republicans nothing is out of bounds as long as it helps to regain power, and there certainly is power behind 70 million Trump votes. Naturally money and ethical abandonment play a part in such Machiavelian conduct.  But power is what it is all about.

Then I ran across this. Our Domestic Terrorism Problem

These people are bat shit crazy.  Do you suppose a few of these nut jobs got to the people walking the halls of our hallowed government buildings?  Maybe all the threats and destruction that went on the 6th of January actually served their intimidating purpose.  How much of the Republican vacillation and cowardliness is due to fear of losing power as opposed to outright fear of bodily harm?

Consider Lindsey Graham. After Joe Biden was finally declared the winner of the presidential election on November 7th, Graham, the next day, urged the president to fight on and not concede.  The day of the Electorial College count,  January 6th, after the Capitol Building had finally been cleared of insurectionists, he said “enough is enough.”  He basically denounced the “big lie” and said the election was compeltely legitimate.  A couple of days later he was accosted at the DC airport by a dozen Trump supporters calling him a traitor, and a few days later quickly mended fences with Trump, flying with him on Air Force one to Texas and later in the week castigating fellow Republicans for considering Trump’s second impeachment. During that speech he emphasized those who participated in the storming of the Capitol should be punished to the full extent of the law, but mentioned nothing about Trump’s participation.  I suppose without a spine it’s fairly easy to squeeze through tight spaces.

So, scardy çat or ass kisser? Only Lindsey knows,  What is going on in the GOP?  According to Colorado Dem. Jason Crow, in a conversaion with a few of his fellow Representatives, a couple of them broke down crying  fearing for their lives if they voted for impeachemnt.  Some History of Intimidation in Congress. This article also points out how history is repeating itself with regard to racism.

The crazy shit thought?  I guess there’s nothing more intimidating than a ranting psychopath, and especially one of those with a gun.  Brings to mind Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Here is a card carrying QAnon conspiracy theorist who has openly endorsed hate and violence, including the suggestion of a “bullet to the head” of Nancy Pelosi, likes to pose in photos with White Supremacist leaders, and claims California wildfires were ignited by a space lazer controlled by Jewish bankers.  As more and more of her craziness has been revealed, various members of congress are starting to wonder if Minority Leader McCarthy shouldn’t have a word with her and at least consider pulling her from her committee assignments.  This would seem to be a good idea in light of the fact she is slated for the educational committee and in her mind the Parkland and Sandy Hook Shootings were both a staged hoax.  Ya. I know. WTF!

So McCarthy says he will talk to Greene.  But there’s a problem. Trump loves Marjorie Taylor Greene- says she’s a “rising star” in the Republican Party. McCarthy just spent an entire day at Mar-a-lago spit polishing Trump’s ass. Demoting one of Trump’s fellow “birthers” seems fraught with the risk of Trump’s wrath.  Stay tuned.

Well, there you go.  No matter how you try and get around it the commmon denominator to all this chaos in the Republican party is Trump.  Power quest and bullying and intimidation are certainly Trump trademarks.  For reasons difficuilt to fathom, the Trump voting base, ever clinging to his populist, anti establishment mystique that incorporates racism and anti-immigration,  is willing to look beyond his crimes, divisive rhetoric, incompentence, corruption and moral degeneracy.  As far as craziness goes, the average Trump supporter would consider Trump’s narcisistic personality disorder to be a diagonisis leved only by those bent on defaming him.  But there is no escaping his promotion of consipracy theories, a number or which are related to QAnon.  What he did on January 6th was in no way normal and absolutey impeachable.

Trump is the Republican party, still.  He is the power, the intimidation, the crazy.  Continuing to defer to Trump as the de facto leader of the Republican Party  is to risk labeling the party as the Lunatic Party.  Hauntingly, it is the party that elevated to president someone who once bragged he could shoot someone on New York’s 5th Avenue and get away with it, and proven right.  Five people that died in the Capitol Building on 1/6/2021 would be alive today if Donald Trump had not been president.

Homeland Security just issued a Terror Advisory Bulletin that bullet points several threats to national security posed by Domestic Violence Extremists.  Political commentator Nicole Wallace  relevantly called the warning statement the “manifesto” of the Trump militant base. Terrorism Bulletin

The years of condoning all of Trump’s deceit have put the Republican Party in a difficult fix.  Whether it’s sheer embarassment, want of power, or lack of courage, too many  congressional members of that party find themselves unable to do what is right and tell the truth- that widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election was a big lie and President Trump committed acts of insurrection and sedition. That is the only way this country will even begin to heal.  The unity Republican elected officials are demanding Democrats initiate will only be possible after Republicans concede to, and explain to their constituents, the truth.  It’s that basic.

I sympathise if it is true that the threat of physical violence is the reason an elected official chooses to flush courage down the toilet.  But doing the right thing is the critical part of the job. It is so confoudingly perplexing why so many Republicans insist on maintaing fealty to Trump. As more absurd conspiracy theorists carve out  larger niches in the party, more mainstream conservatives will leave.  Over 9,000 Arizona Republicans changed party affiliation after the January 6th riot.  The party deserves someone better.  And it needs someone better. There are plenty of Republican leaders who favor comprehensive immigration reform without Trump’s attatched racism for one thing. If Republicans keep going down their current path of attempting to restrict voting rather than expanding their voting base, it is an absolute forgone conclusion and demographic fact Democrats will strenghtn their grip on power. There can not possibly be a more logical time to cut Trump loose, and If the Republicans can’t figure out a way to do it,  their party might have to confront a 21st century Bull Moose conundrum that will likewise ensure a long string of Democrats in the White House.

Historian Jon Meacham commented a few days ago about abstractive dilemmas past presidents periodically have had to deal with.  He said FDR had to negotiate between capitalists and labor.  Truman and Eisenhower had to confront the extremes of McCarthyism and Communism.  And Biden, of all things, is in the ridiculous position of having to forge his administration through the 21st century’s clouded view of what is fantasy or reality.  That should be a jarring realization of what is happening to our country.

 

 

 

These are Not the Words and Deeds of a Normal Human Being

These are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.  These are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.  These are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

This is me, gaslighting. I’ve heard it’s a great way to get your messaging across. I thought I’d give it a try.

Geezus crapp where to start.  I am smothered with blogging material.  I have typed up pages of shit the past two days and it’s more disorganized than the Trump response to the pandemic crisis.  So what I intend to do is try and address one topic at a time.  Here goes.

First off, just a quick shout out for Rick Wilson’s book “Everything Trump Touches Dies.” It would seem to be a perfect companion read to what follows.  Hold off your purchase though.  I would guess there will be a second edition coming up. Certainly the Republican party should be added to the list of things Trump has sent to the grave. Here is my blog about that.

And in a freakishly twisted fashion, Donald Trump has actually initiated the demise of his own political career, and subjected himself to criminal charges of insurection in the process.  If you are president of the United States, these are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

Before I go through a compressed time line of Trump’s crazy behavior on the 6th of January, I should point out the ingrediants for self implosion have been obvious for a long time- Trump’s narcissistic tendencies and a consuming compulsion to lie are primary.  Secondary are all the enablers and contributors of misinformation- Republican sycophants and social media trolls.  I could detail that in muliple pages but in the interst of time I will save that for later. Maybe. If I can summon any enthusiasm.

OK, so Trump has his crowd in front of him and things are looking good.  Acolytes address the throng one after another.  Rudy Giuliani: “trial by combat.”  Congressman Mo Brooks: “time for kicking ass.”  Donald Jr.: “we’re coming for you.”  After a suitable period of priming has passed, the president himself addresses his minions with catchy phrases like …the election is an “egregious assault on our democracy” and “you will never take back our country with weakness.”  Trump’s got ’em where he wants ’em now, and sends them on their way to the U.S. Capital. At this point you could easily say these are not the words and deeds of a normal human being, but regardless, Trump is quite pleased with the way things are going.

Although Trump told his MAGA army he would be tagging along with them, he changed his mind and decided to return to the White House and watch events as they developed on television. I can just imagine him sitting on a couch with Stephen Miller munching  popcorn.  Now, how things proceeded next is detail related by Senator Ben Sasse.  I want to emphsize I am not making this up.

According to Sasse, Trump was “delighted” when he saw  the initial breach of the Capitol building.  Apparently, things were going precisely as planned.  In fact it has been reported he was surprised when others (admittedly “others” have not been identified) didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.  These are definitely not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

But it got even worse.  In the middle of all the mayhem, with the members of congress hiding in terror inside building bunkers, Trump and Giuliani made phone calls to senators, not to offer help or inquire about their situation, but to ask if they might do the president a favor and overturn the election. These are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

Wait, there’s more. When Trump finally showed some alarm, it was not because of all the destruction and chaos going on. The optics that bothered him were of the insurrectionists themselves.  He didn’t appreciate their “look.”  There has been no reporting that I know of that has clarified what appearance is expected of a true Trump vandal. My guess is modified buffalo skull headgear is a bit put-offish for him.  You probably shouldn’t count on any production of MAGA hats sized and constructed to accommodate that type of accessory. Anyway, these are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

So to sum up, what unfolded at the U.S. Capital building on January 6th was planned and instigated by the President of the United States, and all pretty much went according to his plan.   The execution of violence, carnage and death upon and inside the building that most of us hold as our nation’s most sacred, and emblomatic of what our country stands for, is the perfect revenge for a sick autocratic president bent on airing his grievance of failing to be re-elected.  These are not the words and deeds of a normal human being.

That book I mentioned at the beginning- “Everyting Trump Touches Dies.”  If the title seems a bit hyperbolic, consider the fate of Mike Pence. To him I imagine there  is something chillingly literal about it when you hear an angry mob’s chant  that includes your name and the word “hang” in it.

It is so ironic that Trump’s final MAGA rally as president, his favorite vehicle for pumping out his lies and airing his grievances, the place where he could do that so successfully and with such resouding approval and applause, turned into a political  Frankenstein that threatens to shatter the reality he created with all his lies.  How he became so absorbed in the moment and found it so despirately necessary to keep feeding his ego because in his mind all the chaos was  justifiable, and was such a riveting form of entertainment for him, is something  psychologists will be studying for years to come.

There is a lot to unpack here.  As incomprehensible as it sounds , we have got to figure out how to persuade people to grasp and appreciate what is true.  And after all of this I think we will have to institute some sort of mental competency assessment of our presidential candidates. I mean this guy was just too much. He has left an odorous trail of things we need to fix. I keep saying that, Trump commits something else nefarious, and I repeat.   As we know, the repetition is desensitizing.  But between the phone call to Secretary of State Raffensberger and this “in your face” sedition, Trump has flat out proven beyond a shadow of doubt he is unfit to hold any elected office of any kind. This is not something we can just let pass, as we have been accomstomed to doing.  These are not the words and deeds of normal human being.