Interesting show on Frontline – about Mohammed Bin Salman and the murder of Khashoggi. It provided a fair amount of background about the journalist and how MBS turned on him when he thought his power was unlimited. Surprise! It’s not.

But at least for a while longer, despots and demagogues will continue to rule as the sheep amongst us long for some semblence of stability, rather than fighting for the right to say what we think is right. To continue with the parallels with Germany in the 30’s, here’s a quote from William Shirer, The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940.

“There in the floodlit night, jammed together like sardines, in one massive formation, the little men of Germany, who have made Nazism possible, achieved the highest state of being the Germanic man knows: the shedding of their individual souls and minds – with the personal responsibilities and doubts and problems – until under the mystic lights and at the sound of the magic words of the Austrian they were merged completely in the German herd.”

Free speech is soon going to be a thing of the past, because of technology and concentrated power in the wrong hands. So that gives this blog a rather short shelf-life. Maybe generations from now, it’ll be like the last dinosaurs – to be marveled at and mourned in its loss. Baaaa.

A mere 400 days to go, but I sense things are changing. Is it possible we’ll get rid of Trump, and get even more right wing? Yes it is – let me ‘splain how.

I hate to keep beating this damned ‘Germany in the 30’s’ drum, but it really is on point as a roadmap for things to come in the current age. So I’ll tell this as a fable and maybe you’ll see the parallels.

Once upon a time there was an elected Chancellor of Germany whose name was Franz von Papen. His was an old, aristocratic family, and he ruled Germany by decree..essentially, he started the notion of dictatorship at a time when Germans were looking for a strong hand. But poor Franz wasn’t very popular with members of the Reichstag (the legislature) so President Paul Von Hindenberg – another aristocrat – decided to replace him with a military guy named Kurt Von Schleicher.

Von Schleicher still continued the rule of dictatorship, and actually lasted more than a year. But Von Papen was mad that he’d been thrown out, and was good buddies with Von Hindenberg. So Franzie came up with the brilliant notion of replacing Von Schleicher with Hitler, thinking Hitler was an idiot and he – Franz Von Papen – would be the power behind the throne. Genius, huh? He convinced Von Hindenburg that Schleicher was bad for the country, and poof! Von Schleicher out; Hitler in. So Hitler took over the Chancellorship; soon after Von Hindenburg was kind enough to die, so Hitler took over the presidency too. And what was one of the first things he did after taking over? He had Von Schleicher, a brilliant military man, killed in The Night of the Long Knives, as it came to be known. And he got away with it! Nobody wanted to mess with Adolph after that.

So it’s entirely possible we have a repeat of this sort of scenario..the Dems will impeach Trump with enough dirt that will allow at least 20 Republican Senators to see the light and vote to convict. But who will take his place? Why, docile Mike Pence. But is he really all that docile, or is this playing into that religiouso’s fascist plans, in cahoots with McConnell? I’d argue it is, and then we’ll see the real right wing of the party emerge. We don’t need no stinkin’ elections. Do we?

The question for today: will DtheT/crazy even make it in his presidency for another 401 days? Enquiring minds want to know – mine doesn’t care anymore. So why am I counting down the days? Because anything can happen..and likely will. Why not call this reality series Survivor Meets the West Wing? Yeah – I like that.

The only thing people are talking about today is the Trump call to the President of Ukraine and should we/should we not impeach the bastard? As many predicted, this hardens the lines between those for and against DtheT/crazy. So when all this is said & done, how can we ever have a successful election again? I guess that’s the goal – not to have any more.

It sickens and saddens me that we have come to this, but hey – every institution has to end sooner or later, right? It appears to be close to our time to evolve into something much further to the right – institutionalized power tilted to varying degrees of right wingedness. No good will come of this – but then, not much good came from the tilt toward left wingedness

that began during the Great Depression and ended in ’92 with the Gingrich takeover of both houses of Congress. So let’s say from ’32 to ’92 – 60 years; that means we can expect to see the right wing tilt until 2052 when there will likely be a serious economic and political miasma exacerbated – or caused – by the final fruits of climate change. I’d be 102 by then, so it won’t be in my lifetime when we swing back. So what does this mean for me and mine? Three things (isn’t always three things?) First – we will have to declare our allegiance to the right side, or face consequences that will affect our pocketbooks if not our physical freedom. Second – we will worry about attacks on us from the rest of the world – the chickens coming home to roost, euphemistically speaking. Revenge will be exacted for all our misdeeds from the ’20’s ’til now. Finally – and nobody talks about this one – destruction will occur, all the way down to the family level.

I’ve got Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia in mind – those who supported the rise of the two men; those who failed to grasp the extent of each man’s capacity to wreak havoc on everyone to varying degrees. This tore whole families apart. The same will happen here. Civility will go out the window and children will inform on their parents and siblings in the name of honoring the party. It’s a mass psychosis that keeps people from effectively communicating with one another.

Will there be any way to stop it? I don’t think so – it happens so slowly, and the only thing one can do is expect it to run its course and try to keep one’s head down – and on one’s shoulders. Life will be a challenge henceforth, to say the least.

So the question at hand – hotly debated but never fully resolved – will impeachment efforts by the Democratic house help or hinder DtheT/crazy? I’m not sure anyone that is asked to speak on the topic fully understands the depth and complexity of the question or the process. Why is this? Because there are so few precedents upon which to base impeachment.

Depth and complexity. Removing a president – or any high ranking politician in this country – is fraught with peril, as John Yoo said in his op-ed piece in the NY Times. Name sound familiar? He’s the guy who told Baby Bush that waterboarding wasn’t torture – technically and from a purely legal standpoint.

And that’s the problem here as well. Technicalities and from a legal standpoint totally ignore the ultimate court – that of public opinion that can make or break an election. So on the one hand, does impeachment make Trump a martyr, based on talk radio and Fox news rhetoric? Absolutely. Conversely, if he is impeached but the Senate refuses to convict him, will that sway independents and middle of the road Conservative voters to turn out their recalcitrant Senator – or their convicting Senator in the case of the true believers? Maybe. But here’s the proverbial bottom line here. If Trump is impeached based on things he’s said to a foreign leader, the implications for future presidents could be disastrous. Strangely enough, that was what John Yoo said. So I guess that means I agree with John Yoo. Did the world stop turning? It should, for such a strange confluence of things to occur.

If future presidents fear their conversations – either with their aides or with foreign leaders – will get them impeached, either they’ll never write anything down, or they’ll never talk to anyone without first thinking of whether or not they are popular enough – or have sufficient cover in the Senate – to survive impeachment. Because the “I” word will become the new parlor game in D.C. Never mind governing – let’s just get more dirt on the guy in the oval office so our side will take the spot. Then the game will start all over again. This will inevitably cause all of us to lose faith in the process, paving the way for some real trouble, either in the form of a demagogue worse than Trump, or strong man takeover of the slot with associated reforms to eliminate key parts of the democratic process. So Dems in the House – let’s take this nice and slow. Borrow a playing card from the Chinese..talk about it, maybe have a few hearings, but let the real process – the voting process – decide whether DtheT/crazy should stay or go.

The UN opens its fall session today, with an impassioned speech by the Nordic princess of climate change, Greta Thunberg. You gotta admit, the kid has guts and did a great job with her speech, but sadly, to the wrong folk..they have no authority to do anything that will make any changes to the climate – or anything else. Alas.

The only way the world will begin to address climate change is when a critical mass of humans that aren’t poor and brown die. What is really needed here is for someone to find a way to make real money from finding solutions to prevent the earth from heating up. Unfortunately, we aren’t that clever, so it will be a while and a lot of folk will suffer…along the way to achieving that critical mass. How many will it take? 1%? Since there’s 7.7 billion people, that means 770,000 people have to die. So far we’re estimating about 400,000 per year – so we’re halfway there! Anyone volunteering to make up the difference? Not me – not finished with my books yet, and can’t leave my readers hanging.

She’s real fine, my 409, my 409! Old California surf/hot rod car tune by the phony Beach Boys in 1962.

Speaking of phonies, then there’s DtheT/crazy. As Stan Laurel always told Oliver Hardy, “Ollie, you’ve done it again!” This time, our esteemed president has involved himself in petty politics and along with weasel Rudy has threatened to withhold military aid used to fight the Russians unless the comedian president of Ukraine investigates bad boy Hunter Biden. This strategy is a non-starter on several fronts. First: everybody already knows Hunter is a bad boy who has badly used his father’s position for gain – along with stealing with dead brother’s wife. Tawdry. Second, Biden isn’t even the Democratic nominee yet, and most folk in the know think he’ll fade. Third, D&R are talkin’ to a comedian, for Christ’s sake. Yes, the President of Ukraine was a comedian who impersonated the president – before he became president. Once this comes out fully, he’ll have a really good time talking about it in a less than diplomatic way. Eew..creepy…but impeachable? Words..not actions..close, but likely no cigar.

410 more days and David Brooks writes scenarios in his column where Elizabeth Warren wins the presidency in 2020. I’m not sure which is more frightening – her or him the incumbent. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see, but I fear Biden will fade, especially with the younger folk. I’d be happy if Arturo Toscanini won…course we’d have to dig him up & prop him up, but I can live with that!

Missed a day yesterday – got started writing in earnest, so there’s only so many brain cells to spare on any given day, eh? OK, lousy excuse, but I’m here, aren’t I?

Topic for today: Country Music series by Ken Burns. Yes, it was Iran, apparently, that blew up the Saudis. Guess they’re getting serious about trying to pressure the world to let up on sanctions, but they just get worse. What about cyberattacks? Nobody wants to talk about them. But anyway: Country Music by Ken Burns.

We’ve covered 4 episodes of the show, and – as usual with Burns – the work is exceptional. I’ve learned a lot about the history of this genre, and it makes me sad that it’s now become so homogenized. But since I don’t listen to any new music forms, guess that is to be expected. It’s all pap and consistency! Too bad.

One fact does stand out to me – and it seems to me now to be a truism: hard times seem to bring out the best in the arts – all of them. The textual works created by the WPA; the murals; and yes, the music of The Carters, Jimmie Rodgers, and then later on Hank Williams. But it must be said that the entire genre really owes a great deal to what was known as ‘race’ music – whatever that is. But many black artists helped people like Rodgers and AP Carter find and recreate the music that African Americans created. They are owed a great deal of gratitude – should it be in the form of reparations? Boy howdy, that’s a big subject for another day, eh?

Big Huh! The song Hard Times, one of my favorites, was written by Stephen Foster. Who knew the guy who wrote Way Down Upon the Suwannee River could produce a set of lyrics and a tune that are so compelling? For example:

While we seek mirth and beauty and music bright and gay there are frail forms fainting at the door. Though their voices are silent their pleading looks will say Oh Hard Times Come Again No More

Doesn’t get much better than that.

Well, I lost three days somewhere along the way. I guess the hurricane blew them away! Hey, it could happen!

So we’re down to 59 weeks until the election. Somebody bombed some oil facilities on the eastern side of Saudi Arabia. Of course, SA & USA blamed Iran, as the remains of the bomb material appeared to resemble Iranian-made stuff. But can we believe anything either country says? Geez – that is a harsh indictment of one’s own country, but really, can you disagree? I have no confidence that this administration would tell the truth if it’s in their interest to lie. Lying is what they do – not just el presidente, but the whole lot of them. Media has to pick up the ball and find independent sources to let us know what really happened.

Questions abound. Do the Houthis – the Yemeni rebels that took credit for the attack – have the technology to accomplish it? Not thus far, but why not now? Was it perpetrated by the Saudis themselves as an excuse to…to what? That’s an unknown. And how does Israel fit into this drama? They have an election this week and goodness knows what their issues might be – internal and external politics may play a big role here for that country.

But the big question is: is this the spark for war we’ve been discussing? Killing real estate isn’t the same as killing citizenry – not that the Saudis would necessarily care about that since they kill their own if they are problemmatic. But somehow all this is tied together with the weird stuff going on with oil ships in the straits of Hormuz in the last few months. If I were to guess, I’d say – per Occam’s razor – the most obvious culprit would be Iran. But what if there’s a rogue faction in Iran the Ayatollah can’t control? There’s nothing out there in the blogosphere to indicate that, but that is no longer trustworthy because of censorship from both sides. This one is a wait and see and hope the truth outs – maybe a 40/60 probability.