A Most Unusual Dream Event

I promise you, I was actually sleeping for this--it was not some conscious or semi-conscious thought piece that I "dreamed up".  Fortunately, it was experienced shortly before the alarm woke me, so I remember it well. 

A group of us were in the office.  Then, something strange happened:  someone pressed the Start button on the copier, but nothing happened. No error message, just--nothing.  We looked out the window; everything was frozen still, no movement. We tried a couple other things, similarly ineffectually.  Somehow, we determined that time had stopped.

We sat and discussed.  Eventually--I would say it was 'after awhile", but that's not quite correct--we came to the conclusion that there was nothing we could do, no more cause and effect.  For example, to cook something you need to apply heat over time. A copier would be quicker, but still there is a sequence.

Our discussion turned to the question of what we should do, if and when time started up again.  We were grateful when it did, knew exactly what we wanted to do first, second, etc. and that pretty much ended the dream.   Like many of my dreams, it was quite vivid, and both then and now seems to have captured the experience for me in a way. that seems real  I'm sure it's partially the result of seeing too many movies with the same point of departure, though their stories weren't quite the same as my experience.

Now, upon reflection in the light of day, a few points I take away:

•   First,  I would conclude that always living in the present is not exactly what we think it means.   Neither does "the fierce urgency of now" (to quote President Lyndon Johnson) seem as accurate. 
•   Second, my experience suggests to me that maybe it's a good idea, sometime each day, to freeze time and take an extended moment to plan what to do. 
•   Lastly, now I have some empathy for the experience of those ghosts that may or may not be haunting us.  The point is not whether you can be seen; it's what's the use of being seen if you can't do anything? 

On the Difficulty of Flushing the Great Orange Turd

We Be Sweden'
I apologize for the quiet time here--really, I've been quite busy--but I think it has been appropriate for me to refrain from reacting to every antic coming from this colossal jerk we now have occupying the office which combines head of state, Commander-in-Chief, and chief executive of our Federal government.  I am trying to model the behavior; we must not get so excited when he does something that appears to have a psychotic disregard for the truth, as with his twittering; neither should anyone get excited when he performs a normal duty of his task adequately well, like reading his Teleprompter to a joint session of Congress or signing a "mulligan" order correcting the egregious legal oversights of his first effort at a Muslim ban.

I don't care if he takes a call on his (unsecured) cellphone while at dinner in his club with the Japanese Prime Minister to hear that the runt North Korean dictator--an insecure attention-seeker like Trump himself--has ordered the launch of another faulty medium-range missile.  What's Trump  going to do about it, anyway?  I don't care if he tweets in the middle of the night a random libelous accusation he heard from some radio ranter (Mark Levin) picked up by a fake news blog (Breitbart)--although I would love to see President Obama sue him for libel, he will not do so. All it really did was call attention to the fact that his campaign staff was going rogue beyond all bounds in their contacts with Russian spies, following the foolish direction of some ridiculous impulse.  And I really don't care if he mouths off in some speech about a non-existent terrorism problem in Sweden based on some dated Fox News program he watched instead of reading his briefing books.

The point is, we all have to stop paying attention to the stuff that Donald Trump emits as though, I don't know, he were the President of the United States or something.  Even if that's what he may be. I know it's tough for the officials of other nations, not being able to go by what the President says, and having only a bunch of psychopaths and sycophants around him to help interpret the nonsense, but that is the unfortunate reality that faces us, in all likelihood, for another 1400 days or so.  I feel sorry for them, and I feel shame for us.

That Ineradicable Blemish
Call that election what you will--an aberration, a fluke, a travesty, a mockery of a sham, a theft, a usurpation, a coup, a waking nightmare, a consensual hallucination, a sin against humanity, a predictable result of a flawed electoral system,  or just simply a blunder of historic proportion--we are not going to escape magically from this mess.

The principal reason that we should not deceive ourselves is that Trump has proven, through the course of his campaign, during the transition to power, and in this seemingly endless but actually brief period of his administration, that there is nothing he can do or say which will disqualify himself from the office.  For his removal by legal means, it will require his (rock-hard but minority) popular support to crumble, followed by abandonment by the rank and file of his party, which has so far been almost universally cowed by his capacity to cut down his opponents.  It would take a betrayal of almost unimaginable proportion or an act of utter madness, plainly visible and undeniable, to cause them to act.  The Democrats can do nothing on their own, so there is no use agitating for them to try.

As for the journalists, "the enemy of the people",  they will make the effort, with integrity and persistence. Those with some honor and dignity will be governed by their professional ethic to rake the muck, to dig out the leaks, to try to interpret the chaos, but theirs is a thankless, futile task when it comes to Drumpfistan. We have the example of Dan Rather,  a veteran journalist, finally loosed from the bonds of network conformity and totally free, and practically apoplectic at the lies and misbehavior without precedent in his lengthy career of observing them (even from Nixon), but it makes no difference.  He just has an opinion, and just like an asshole, most everyone has one, and his doesn't count much more than anyone else's.   Particularly in the anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-factual environment of Donald Trump's Washington (or Mar-a-Lago).

So, they will go after Jeff Sessions, that miserable little toady and closet racist:  what difference will it really make if they get him?  Yes, he is about the worst choice possible for Attorney General, but if he goes, Trump will find someone yet worse, just to spite everyone.  I'm sure Steve "Race" Bannon would feel he could do the job, could convince Trump, and the Republican Senate would confirm him.

Now, there is another possibility to rid ourselves of Trump sooner than January 20, 2021:  he could die.  I am little impressed by the robustness of his health:  he is 70 years old and overweight, with poor habits. Or someone could put poison in his ketchup or something.  (If his advisers really had his interests at heart they would taste his food for him.) If something like that happened, I wouldn't mourn for a minute.  As for the Wherever Man, :an early involuntary departure might be his best option to escape the disastrous natural outcome of his governance, and he probably knows it.

Still, it's nothing upon which to build hope:  even if Mike Pence and Trump's team of evils, that Cabinet of scoundrels, cretins and true enemies of the people, were to disappear almost entirely, along with the President pro tempore of the Senate (whoever that is) and Paul Ryan, leaving only the Designated Survivor, we'd probably still be in the same position we have now:  at the mercy of an unloved, unqualified misanthropic hack and an unfettered Congress hostile to the interests of most Americans and most everyone else, too.

What I want to contribute toward is a group that will assist people in getting the ID's they will need to overcome voter suppression in those states that are trying to impose it.  An enraged and empowered anti-Trump electorate is our only hope for the immediate future.

AND NOW...A few choice insults: 
(courtesy of that honorable soul, John Oliver, and my invaluable DVR)

• Trump dominates the media like a fart dominates the interior of a VW Beetle
• (referring to his press conference) But what is it essentially but random sparks and flames sputtering out of a damaged asshole?
• America's wealthiest hemorrhoid
• A walking-talking brushfire
• An ill-fitting suit filled with chickens coming home to roost
• This sentient circus peanut
• A racist voodoo doll covered in cat hair
• An old piece of luggage covered in cheese whiz.