FEAR - AND CONTEMPLATING THE FUTURE OF OUR REPUBLIC

 A TRULY GREAT LIFE - You know, I’ve had a really great life. Before I retired more than 20 years ago I had a very successful business career and I followed that with a successful second career writing political commentary about local events here and elsewhere.  Even though I’ve throttled that back, this blog has received more than 4.3 million page views and still gets thousands every month. I’m proud of the positive impact I’ve had on my community.

PARTNERS - And all of this has been shared with my wonderful wife, Susie.  For  more than 58 years she has been at my side, through thick and thin, through the many high points and those few low points that happen along the way. I’m a very lucky guy.

DEEP ROOTS - We’ve lived in the same home in the best neighborhood in Costa Mesa for more than 52 years. Our neighbors in this community are also our friends and we’ve helped raise three generations of happy, accomplished children.

I’M A PROUD COSTA MESAN - I’m very proud to live in Costa Mesa. Throughout its nearly three quarters of the century history my town has been a clean, safe place to live. Over the decades it has been guided by some very forward-thinking, dedicated, caring, elected officials and some outstanding city staffers. Yes, we’ve had some bozos who were trying to steer us off the rails a decade ago, but that changed when the voters realize what was going on and voted them out.  I helped with that.

THE PARALLELS ARE UNDENIABLE - But lately I have become very depressed. In the year since Donald J.Trump was inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States I have watched as he seems determined to abandon our hard-earned leadership role in the community of nations, destroy our democracy and turn it into a dictatorship. As a student of history I see the clear parallels between what he is doing and what Adolf Hitler did in the late 1930s. It is terrifying!

FROM DAY ONE IT WAS CLEAR - From the very first day of this term, when Trump pardoned more than 1500 convicted criminals, it was clear that our country was in big trouble.  His heavy-handed attempts to deport “3000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens a day" has resulted in the terrorizing of many of our cities as innocent American citizens are being swept up by the poorly trained thugs that have been hired to accomplish that unrealistic goal.

CHAOS IN MINNEAPOLIS - All this came to a chaotic crescendo in Minneapolis this month when first Renee Good was murdered by a federal agent and then, yesterday, when peaceful demonstrator, Alex Pretti, was murdered -  shot 10 times as he lay helpless in the street after having been pepper sprayed while attempting to help another demonstrator who had been knocked off her feet by a federal agent and pepper sprayed.  Gestapo Barbie, Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, immediately attempted to paint Pretti as a “terrorist”, Intent on inflicting violence on federal agents who were “just doing their jobs”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Video evidence clearly shows him recording events with his cell phone while calmly attempting to direct traffic through the turmoil those agents had created.  He then attempted to assist a woman, who had been knocked from her feet by one of those agents, regain her footing while both were being pepper-sprayed by agents. It was at that point that Pretti was dragged off his feet by an agent, surrounded by at least a half dozen other agents who began kicking and punching him. At one point, one of them removed the pistol from Pretti’s waistband and tossed it aside. Almost immediately thereafter we heard the first shot, followed by a very slight pause, then four more rapid fire shots, then at least five more bullets being pumped into his lifeless body. At no time had there been any visual evidence that Pretti had attempted to reach for his gun or, in any other way, threaten the agents. 

THEY WERE MURDERED! - I’ve watched videos of these two murders - one of a 37 year-old peaceful mother of 3 and the other a 37 year-old Emergency Room nurse at the local Veterans Administration hospital -  several times, trying to understand what happened and trying to see anything that made these two events make sense. I cannot and they do not. The senseless killing of Renee Good was bad enough,  but the slaughter of Alex Pretti, is incomprehensible. As we watch the videos, see him shot multiple times and hear the sounds of the gunfire echoing in the neighborhood, it leaves us aghast and terrified. Those lifeless bodies could be one of us!

IT’S ALL TRUMP’S FAULT - So, my friends, I’m very depressed. All this is happening as a direct result of one person, President Donald J. Trump. That vulgar, ignorant, deranged, vindictive, lunatic is destroying our country. In 12 short months, he’s managed to alienate every ally we have in this world. He invaded a sovereign nation, Venezuela, and kidnapped their president and his wife and dragged them to the United States for trial as drug traffickers. He has threatened to take over Greenland either by purchase or force, if necessary. He has made overt threats that perhaps Cuba and Mexico might also be on his conquest agenda.  He has consistently ignored the Constitution and made our country a much less safe place to live. My friends in the Latino community are terrified. Even brown-skinned American citizens are afraid to take their children to school or go to work or go shopping for food for fear of being swept up by the Gestapo-like federal agents that now infest our cities like some virulent cancer on our society.

CONGRESS MUST ACT - Members of Congress can fix this by invoking the 25th Amendment and removing Trump from office. That, alone, would not be enough, though. It would require sweeping most of his boot-licking sycophants in charge of federal agencies out, as well.  And, I don't know if Vice President J.D. Vance is up to the challenge.  Will he flip again, and return to the guy who articulated what he thought about Trump a couple years ago, repudiate what he's done and provide the necessary leadership to right the ship of state?  Repairing the damage done, both nationally and internationally, seems almost insurmountable.  I just don’t know how that happens peacefully. I feel helpless and, quite honestly, hopeless. Something needs to be done, but I can’t do anything to help.

HOPING FOR DISTRACTION - Today I’m going to watch two football games to try to distract me from what’s going on in this country. I’m not sure it’s going to help. God save us all.