The Real Donald Trump

Belieeeeeve me, as Donald Trump likes to say, when I tell you that I'm still struggling with getting my head around the idea of Trump as the Republican nominee. Not because he actually made it this far – in a nation of morons consumed by Reality TV, this was bound to happen eventually. But more so out of fear for the future – the ultimate threat that a Trump presidency brings to the world – that on any given day, in his turret-syndrome like state of mind, he could blurt out something that might piss off some nuke-abled foreign dictator enough to cause said dictator to commence to firing, as it were. Sure, it probably won't be Russia's Putin, given the love that has sprung up between the two, but in the realm of national security, nothing is a sure thing.

So who, in truth, is this Trump guy?  The crowning affirmation of Fox News' 20-year mantra of "hate, hate, hate?"

He's a guy who flits about in his own 757 who claims the problems of America seem to stem from the elite. Really. He said this. And he's probably right. And he's one of them.

He's a guy who fancies himself a rebel, yet, with his first political decision, did the most politically expedient thing of all in naming Mike Pence as his VP candidate.

He's a guy who, I believe, has come to think that, thanks to his psychotic delusions, he is truly indestructible as a human being as well as being untouchable politically.

He's a guy whose juvenile, blustery behavior was, I'd long thought, that of a simple buffoon. But over this summer of our discontent, I've come to realize he's truly a psychopath who has no business being near that Red Button, despite any perceived business acumen.

Oh, yeah … his business acumen …

Fact: He's lost more money than he's made in his life.

Fact: 90% of his businesses have failed.

Fact: His father gave him $1 million to play with when he turned 18. Currently he's worth just under $5 billion, putting his net gain to date at around 5,000%. Sounds pretty good, right? However, I started at 18 with about $1 (like most people, probably), and I can tell you that my total assets, while not in the seven-figure range, are worth more than $5,000. (Many others, too, I bet.) Which makes many of us better business people than Trump.

And, by the way, rumor has it that early on, his father set him up with a lawyer who knew how to manipulate the tax code and bankruptcy laws to favor Trump. (Yes, Donald, you're right – the system IS rigged – and you're the biggest benefactor.)

That's the real Donald Trump. And now the Republicans are stuck with him.

"Exterminate all the Brutes."

It's been a long and painful wait, but after seven years of trying, following a proclamation early in the Obama presidency that his singular duty as a U.S. Senator would be to block the new president at every turn, 70-year-old Mitch McConnell may get his way. McConnell's vow to and block Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court may just succeed – much to the detriment of our nation, our democracy and the Constitution itself.

Hard to believe, but not everyone is enamored with the inclusive, progressive leadership Obama has delivered – old dinosaurs like McConnell are more abundant than you may think. And the truth is that there are factions in this nation who would take us back to a time when women couldn't vote, blacks were slaves and we had prohibition. Hell, we've had three presidential candidates in this current campaign cycle who would, on Day 1, shred the Constitution and rule by the Bible – a fine book for day-to-day personal guidance and inspiration, but not (so far) The Law of The Land. Incidentally, one of those revisionists is still in the hunt for the White House. But more on that later. Right now, Mitch McConnell and the old-timers have another problem, which could derail his attempt to stymie Obama.

Earlier this year, as this unbelievably horrid campaign for president really began to take shape, I figured Ted Cruz for the True Nut; that Donald Trump was just a buffoon who wanted nothing more than to bury China, or even own it. Yeah, the trade deficit with Mexico bothers him, too, but the easy solution to that would be to just make the damn place the 51^st state and OWN all those "brown ones," as George H. W. Bush so infamously referred to them. In a Trump administration, the so-called "social" issues would just fade away. Abortion? Second Amendment? Immigration? To hell with that boring stuff – it's time to make a deal, baby! That's Trump – and I've been counting on him.

Not Cruz, of course – the social agenda is at the top of his list. It's been clear as long as we've known of Cruz that this freak has been hell-bent – much like his long-disposed cohorts, Huckabee and Santorum – to shred the U.S. Constitution, hold the Bible aloft as the Law of the Land and, in doing so, take us back to 16^th Century England. And I still believe Cruz would do that.

That said, Trump revealed himself yesterday to be something more of a concern than first anticipated. His latest rantings about abortion and women and doctors are frightening, and one comes to realize that it's more than China that Trump wants in his back pocket. It's the whole world. If he could flip a switch and eliminate everyone on the planet except for a few choice requisite Trumpettes, he would. It's now obvious that Trump wants to be an undisputable king, even if there's nothing left over which to reign.

As his rants have risen to a new level, though, it's become more and more obvious that Trump may well, indeed, be out his element. Of late, his verbal meanderings have reminded me of the passage from Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," at which point Marlow realizes that Kurtz "could not have been more irretrievably lost than he was at this very moment, when the foundations of our intimacy were being laid – to endure – to endure – even to the end – even beyond."

Ah, yes … the intimacy. It was a disillusioning moment for Marlow when he discovered just how far around the bend Kurtz had gone. And it must be equally so for Trump disciples. Have they reached the tipping point yet? Or perhaps, the boiling point? Who knows? It seems as if we've been in this place before, only to see the madman escape. But now? As I ponder Donald Trump's fate, I must say that I'm torn.

On one hand, Democrats need Trump to enter the convention in Cleveland this July with enough primary votes to already have the nomination locked down upon arrival, given that polls show Hillary Clinton wiping the floor with the poor slob come The General in November. But on the other hand, I feel a macabre sensation about the upcoming GOP convention; a strange anticipation to witness history, what with the real possibility of an open convention.

Of course it helps that it's not my party. My party has its own share of troubles, but certainly not like they had back in '68 when the streets of Chicago became a war zone. And maybe that's why I'm filled with such curious anticipation – because I missed it the first time and always wished I could have been there, but that never again would we as a country witness such chaos. Though this year, we may – in Cleveland.

And that will disappoint about half of Trump's followers who actually believe the crap that spews from his mouth about abortion and the Bible and immigration and guns. But the other half … ah, the other half! They're going to be tickled, right down to their Klan-monogrammed underwear. They don't care which country The Donald buries, as long as he buries SOMEBODY.

Either way – open convention or not – there's a good chance Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee, and perhaps even president. Sad as that seems, there's consolation knowing that under a Trump regime, the survival of our U.S. Constitution – and the concept of a Land of Laws – is much more assured than it would be in the hands of backwards bumpkins like Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.

The Reagan Era Finally Ends

"The evil that men do lives after them … "

- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The news hit at five o'clock last night like an anvil dropping. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was dead – suddenly – overnight, in his sleep, while visiting friends in Texas. Perfect. In Texas. Where all used up, washed up, past their prime and past their time Republican dinosaurs should go to die. With the swiftness and suddenness of the Citizens United decision, which Scalia championed, unashamedly – and has changed the course of elective politics in this nation of ours – the Court's judge who sat furthest right, as it were, was gone. Within hours, the jockeying began, initiated by Republicans with the announcement from Mitch McConnell that the "vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." But let's set that aside for just a few minutes and think about the man and what has just happened.

Through the night and certainly this morning on the talk shows, there was weeping from both sides of the aisle about how beloved the guy was, even if you disagreed with his politics … what his hobbies were, how he was a such a man-about-town, with his wife in tow on the social circuit … everything you'd expect from those who live in the cesspool of shallowness that is Washington, D.C. Well, at this point, I'm less concerned with Scalia's hobbies than I am the damage he did to this country over three decades.

He was a "traditionalist" they've said. Maybe he was – like George Wallace was a traditionalist – a self-proclaimed constitutionalist until he wasn't, always and only for the purpose of satisfying his own personal opinions. As an "originalist" he claimed that his method of constitutional interpretation was to look into the meaning of words and concepts as they were understood by the Founding Fathers. But if that was true, he wouldn't have written the 2008 opinion which overturned Washington D.C.'s handgun ban, freeing up individuals to own a gun for private use – and not just in connection with service in a militia, as stated in the 2^nd Amendment and as intended by the Founding Fathers.

One could go on and on about the evil that Scalia did which will live after him, but if we toss aside everything else, it's impossible to toss aside the fact that it was Scalia, conspiring with his right-wing brethren on the Court, who gave us George W. Bush – a brutal vestige of his time on the bench.

And now, according to a whole herd of elephants, he's not to be replaced until after the election this November when, God willing, a Republican is elected – and the more conservative, the better, by which to properly fill Scalia's place, right? Hell, in last night's Republican date, 'ole Donald Trump called for delaying the process, as if the business of this branch of the government was going to come to a screeching halt for a year-plus. Hey Donald, this may be beyond your abilities of comprehension, we're trying to have democracy here!

There are so many reasons to be joyous about the death of Antonin Scalia. But most of all, this occasion finally and officially marks the end of the Reagan Era; a finale that has been 35 years in the making. Reagan initiated and presided over one of the most despicable chapters in this country's history, defined by a shift to the right that included an unprecedented hatred for minorities, women and gays. In naming Scalia to the Supreme Court in 1986, Reagan ensured that such a legacy would continue, at least for a while. But now Scalia is gone. And the era of Reagan is – thank the Lord – finally over.

Scalia was said to remark to those who complained about his role in the ascension of George W. Bush to the White House, to "get over it." Well, to those who are saddened by the death of Scalia – an unmitigated, unflinching, hypocritical asshole – I would simply laugh, and say, "get over it."

 

Kathleen and Nikki: Together at Last

It's good to see that Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker seems to have finally gotten past her three-decade-plus crush on the Family Bush. It's NOT so good to see that the latest object of her admiration is even crazier than the previous one. In case you missed her column yesterday, Parker's new crush appears to be Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, and newly-touted GOP VP Candidate.

Really?

In trying to protect her old-time Republican party from the Nut Crowd (as she and fellow Washington Post conservative columnist Michael Gerson have been working feverishly to do), Parker probably thinks she has landed in safe territory with Nikki Haley.

Really?

This is the woman who won all sorts of accolades this summer when she (finally) called for and lead the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house property – after four and a half years in office. And only after the murder of nine African Americans in a Charleston church by a Radical Christian Terrorist.

Let's be clear: It took the murder of these nine people for Haley to – on the surface – come to realize that the Confederate flag was still a sign of racism and a dangerous flashpoint.

And Kathleen Parker thinks this is okay.

Really?

Parker claims that Haley has been "changed by her time in office." You bet she has. She's suddenly realized that unlike South Carolina, the nation as a whole won't tolerate a racist in leadership.

Haley likes to tout her immigrant roots, but is too politically savvy, of course, to use her given first name. (She was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa.) She no doubt understands the thinking in South Carolina and throughout much of the Republican Party – "Indian descent? Why, she must be a Muslim!"

Maybe Haley understands the still-prevalent racism in this country all too well.