• 

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Well, I have a problem, not terribly serious one, but a problem nevertheless. I am not a fiction writer, creating make believe characters and story lines, primarily because I don’t have that good an imagination. I am stuck with who I am, what I am feeling and thinking, in a constant state of living flux, which I regularly I share on my blog and a couple of FaceBook pages.

Years ago, when I was leadenly laboring over, who I wanted to sound like on these pages, I came up with this style, called ZenGonzo, which is, to the best of my knowledge, an original idea. I am kind of this hybrid personality, longing to be The Buddha, while sinking into the swamp of sloppy self-expression. The Gonzo piece comes from Hunter S. Thompson, an in-your face wild man, who was this terminally, reckless persona, with an incredibly entertaining style of writing. Whatever was happening or whatever he caused to happen, became an integral part of his stories, whether fiction or journalistic reporting.

Here we all are, the weekend before our 2020 election and I don’t know how the hell I could write anything at all and not do a belly whop into the polluted pool of our very own politics. I swear, as if on cue, Bruce is now pounding, Born to Run, which I will take as a sign that I am on the perfect path for this moment.

To me, it is unbelievable what all of us seem to have accepted as normal behavior for the President of United States, without reaching for the airline invented, at-the-ready, puke bag.

Trump is likely the least subtle human being, anywhere in the world, at any time in its history. Quite simply, he doesn’t give a shit about anyone else, other than himself and he is blatantly obvious in that regard. I got seriously spooked, when I saw him, lecherously luring behind a totally soulless Hillary Clinton during the debates. It didn’t matter at all WHAT he said, it was all about HOW he said it. Million and millions of fucked over, white Americans voted for him, because they bought this grifter’s gift of gab.

Who brings their grossly, unqualified offspring into the legendary sanctity of the White House? None of them are terribly bright and all are incredibly spoiled, little brats.

In an act of hubris on criminal steroids, he refuses to distance himself from all his money losing ventures, blatantly profiteering on the filthy, influence peddling of the snake oil salesman he is. There isn’t anything secretive about it, subtle bribery morphing into nothing more than robbery.

Singlehandedly, he has stripped an endless number of regulations, put in place to protect our national forests, our endangered animal brothers and sisters and our at-risk environment. Greed has pushed decency and respect for this planet and how at risk she is, into the bushes of the boogeymen, who care only about their wallets.

Speaking of wallets, the working men and women, who keep this country together, under the threat of splitting apart, because of the rampant greed of a bunch of old white men, are being undermined at every turn. Their plight is of no interest to this bastard. His tax plan returned a trillion and half green backs to the fat cats and corporations, joyously jamming their knees into the necks of all of us.

Here’s the deal, I am a white, Jewish guy from Queens, NY. My father died when I was very young, so money was a precious commodity. However, I am not about to address how fucked up this country’s treatment of African American people has always been and continues to be. I would only say it is inexcusable, a criminal and grotesque blight on the history of our country and on this moment. It is time for real change. We are a country of colors!

I am absorbed by the news of the day, not only about here, but around the world. So many of us like to think we are living in this vacuum of America, but there is endless shit going on in countries, who names you could never spell, let alone pronounce. The world is not simply about us, but you’d never know it, based on the mindless antics of the moron in the Big House. We are part of the world and not apart from it. We are living with a maniacal myopia, more concerned with closing our borders than opening our hearts to a much larger stage. It is time to rejoin the world!

I was no fan of Barack Obama and I enjoyed disassembling his myth, when I wrote my book, Halloween in Portland-Diary of a mind, back in 2013. All these guys have been terribly fallible and subject to huge forces of influence, nuclear in magnitude. So, there has always been imperfection and then there is criminality, which is what we have today and it has become part of our diet, while we really ought to be choking.

Last night, I watched an incredibly moving film, About Face, about Jews from Germany, who miraculously managed to survive Hitler’s lunacy and came back to fight him, whether from their new home in the US or England, etc. I thought I’d watch it to just kill some time and then I found myself completely mesmerized by the stories of these survivors. These men and women were incredibly patriotic people, who believed in the idea of freedom and equality. The German people were rightly angry about their mistreatment after their loss in WWI, putting their brains on hold and blindly following the Pied Piper of Hatred, who looked to scapegoat others for their suffering. It worked and it is happening here. This will not do!

I don’t want my President to get up every morning and for hours and hours, watch cable television channels that spew forth support of him, while he inhales Kentucky Fried Chicken. I will bring up the Boss one more time. He wondered why we have never seen this guy hanging out with family, playing with his son, embracing Melania, or wearing anything other than an ugly suit and red tie, or tan pants and a golf shirt?

In a way, the past is easy to reclaim, but tomorrow is a bitch. I have been around for a lot of elections, going back to Eisenhower and Stevenson in 1952. Whether you agreed with the outcome or not, you were confident that the result would be an affirmation of what makes this imperfect experiment one of the best ever. Today, this coming November 3rd is a frightening prospect.

For a President, the disaster of Covid 19 is the equivalent of game seven of the World Series. It is the bottom of the ninth, the score is tied and you’re at bat, with two outs and a three-two count. This is the moment you dreamed about when you were in LIttle League. This is your time to make history. Instead of punching a single into right field to score the winning run, you close your eyes, drop the bat and walk into the dugout. The greatest opportunity in your life means nothing at all to you. We are paying the horrific price for a rudderless ship, refusing to navigate by the stars, relying on rumors and mindless innuendo to chart our course into the overflowing ER’s around the country. Let us right the ship of America!

Usually, during and after an administration, there are a number of people, who write books about their experience and perspective. There must be at least two dozen books written by former members of this polluted administration and I don’t think even one of them had anything positive to say about this guy.

It is a hell of a lot easier to write about where we have been, but where we are going has ruptured my compass, causing it to spin around in a blur of unpredictability.

Going forward, the bar has been set in the gutter, lower than low, one tweet away from WTF. You know what I miss? I miss the platitudes that used to annoy me so much, insincerely spouted by Trump’s predecessors. Words like “equality” seemed so disingenuous back then, but I miss them very much. I would always hope that one of these guys would get caught off mike, sounding human, but now I long for civility, someone sensitive to the needs of others, someone polite and respectful.

Where are in the middle of a climate catastrophe that has been under reported, which is an incredible short coming of all main stream media. I suppose the only bigger story is the grotesque level of poverty in our country and around the world. Until we take care of each other, the Arctic will continue to melt and it should.

In my best Gonzo, balls are noticeably absent, wherever you look. However, I am blown away by the voter turnout and I think this could be the beginning of a testicular regeneration. I know I am feeling increasingly brave and outspoken, for whatever the hell that’s worth. I’ve got a grandson and today’s shit show is no gift for an innocent kid.

Dr. King was one of those rare people, whose vision of the future is what killed him.The killers of platitudes are alive and well in my America and I want to shine a blinding light on them. We have had four years to experience the off spring of hatred, the lies and the bigotry and that’s enough!

My hope is infinite. Thank you, Dr. King.

RIP the timeless grace of Sean Connery. I saw the first Bond as a kid and I remember strutting out of the theatre and I had no idea why. Man, he was so cool.

My podcast, Mind and the Motorcycle, is up and running. This week, I imagine running for President, setting in motion my vision for the world 100 years after Orwell’s 1984. It sounds pretty damn impressive, even to me!

Next week, after the election, I am revamping my podcast to be news and commentary oriented, with a healthy dose of irreverence and calling it, Real News Plus.