The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

While we’re all in the mood for rewriting history, let’s revisit that claim from Michael Cohen that Trump falsified his bone spurs to avoid the Viet Nam draft. He wasn’t, the Donald told Mike, stupid. Okay, let’s not debate that point again. If he claims he’s got a very high IQ, very high, maybe one of the highest ever,let’s keep it in mind and move along. With apologies to Albert Einstein….

You probably saw the photo of him hugging the American flag the way he might hug Stormy Daniels, you know, before the hush money, so I ask you, does that look like the portrait of a draft dodger? No, in case you didn’t know, the man just came back from … that’s right, Viet Nam. Hanoi, in fact. North Viet Nam. John Kerry, that phony silver star recipient, never made it to Hanoi, now did he? Just mucked around the rivers in his gunboat pretending to be a hero so years later he could run for President like he was some Jack Kennedy on P.T. 109. And of course Jack probably faked his heroism too.

But Donald made it up the Ho Chi Minh Trail all the way to the capitol, now named after the little commie. Flew in bone spurs and all as Commander-in-Chief so you tell me if that sounds like a draft dodger or does it sound like a Viet Nam vet? Maybe it sounds more like a hero, you stop and think about it. He dined with Little Rocket Man, barely anyone there to protect him, and you didn’t hear him complain about bone spurs once, not once! It may not qualify him for a purple heart, but the silver star, someone should put his name forward. The man’s bravery was on view, bro!

When I think of heroism, first guy that comes to mind is you-know-who. Okay, he has other folks fire his people, not really liking that confrontational stuff. I mean, it’s not a TV show now, it’s the real thing and who needs some apprentice shouting back when he’s let go? And yeah, the man had a ‘fixer’ to handle the rough stuff, the threats of lawsuits when workers didn’t get their pay, but sometimes heroes delegate. Doesn’t mean they’re afraid. Doesn’t mean that at all.

John McCain spent years in a North Vietnamese prison and like Donald pointed out, how does that make him a hero? Heroes don’t get taken prisoner! Heroes are winners! Donald Trump flew out of North Korea on Air Force One. You tell me who’s the hero. Maybe the biggest hero of all time, the stuff of legend. A genius AND a hero. Roll the cameras.

In the Land of Equal Opportunity we all love a good success story, a pull-yourself-up-from-the bottom mythology, a rags-to-riches saga ready made for Netflix. Something to give hope to those without, dreams for the downtrodden, possibilities for the impoverished. Thank god for the Trumps! All you need to rise to the top in America is, well, frankly, to be born at the top. The Donald claims to be a self-made man, a brilliant deal-maker, a real estate developer without parallel. You could do the same … if you had a brain as big as his.

It should give us all hope. Start out with a few measly millions and you too could parlay that into even more millions. In fact you could do pretty well just investing in Treasury bonds and sitting back while the interest accrues year after compounding year. Try that with a car payment, rent due and a job that pays minimum wage. A job that year after year makes less as inflation eats up your earnings.

It’s a pretty myth, the bootstrap, Horation Alger story. Too bad it’s bogus. Check the ranking of America in the world when it comes to rising up in income. Sort of like checking our rank in health care. Or education. We can crow that we’re #1 but only if you don’t bother checking the statistics. What we’re #1 at is creating billionaires. The rest of you, good luck. Play the Lottery, pal, but if you think you’re going to start down near the bottom and end up with your very own Trump Tower, well, dream on if it gives you hope.

Ivanka thinks the poor should eat cake. Or Big Macs. She thinks socialism will kill the American Dream. She thinks she’s the poster babe for hard work and earned success. The rest of the folks who talk about raising minimum wage obviously want a free handout. If they could, they’d take welfare instead. Marie Antoinette couldn’t have said it better. The mobs are lazy, the mobs deserve what they get. The mobs just don’t have what it takes to be successful. On that last point, I have to agree.

Not being a particularly religious fellow myself, I can’t help but watch the ongoing Confession of the Catholic Church the way a passerby might hurry past a sidewalk suicide, trying to move quickly but casting a curious eye to the crime scene. If this were a national political party or a sports franchise, we might shake our heads at a cover-up of incredible proportions. And actually we do.

But … when it’s a religion, one that numbers between a billion and two billion people, the largest organized religion on the planet, it does make a person wonder What the Hell??? This week the Vatican and the Holy See are gathering to get to the bottom of this sorry state of affairs. Cardinals and bishops and priests, the entire bureaucracy of the Lord is in attendance for some soul searching and no doubt some final atonement, plenty of Hail Mary’s, no doubt, as recompense for sins committed. For years, for decades, for centuries these folks have conspired to protect child predators. They’ve moved wayward pedophile priests from parish to parish, covered up their sins – no, let’s call them crimes, okay? – and protected the guilty from their victims and the victims’ parents and family. They’ve paid billions from their coffers to compensate these people. And still they keep those records hidden or they destroy them or they never bothered in the first place. Protecting the good name of the church was paramount.

I give the Pope credit. A little, anyway. He’s slowly come around after some initial lapses in judgement. And who knows, maybe these holy men will see the error of their ways and wise up. But mostly I think they’ll make their public confession and absolve themselves. Forgiveness is divine, you bet, and I think it’s healthy for a person to forgive himself, learn from his mistakes and move on in a better direction. But when the entire cast forgives itself and declares absolution, not so much. Crimes were committed, crimes were covered up, crimes are going on now, and crimes need to be punished. Not by mumbling some Hail Mary’s, boys, but by jail time. Not by ponying up some pesos, but by a secular system of justice. And yeah, I know they’ve paid a terrible price in public relations, terrible, one they deserve. What kind of religion is this? What kind of monsters do this? What kind of criminals cover it up? And who would still worship at that altar?

Not being a religious fellow myself, I have no clue. Mostly I just want to hurry past this sidewalk scene, go take a hot shower and try to rid myself of the memory of this creepy horror. Someone else is going to have to cast stones. Vengeance, saith the Lord, is Mine. I’m going to leave it in Her Hands.

Lock him up! Lock him up!

Maybe you were bizzy working today and missed the Cohen testimony before the House. Lucky you! Anyone half interested in impromptu lessons in American Civics 101 that glued their eyeballs and ears to television cable coverage witnessed something we haven’t seen since the Watergate hearings back in the ‘70’s, not quite half a century ago. Nixon’s people were on the docket back then for some illegal search and seizures of political enemies. I was unemployed and so I spent an inordinate amount of time watching the daily investigation on live TV. Explosive stuff, all culminating in Nixon’s resignation. Even his own party drew a line in the sand and told him, step off or face impeachment. Nixon was no dummy. Mean as a viper, but not stupid. He stepped off.

What you saw today was just another example of Profiles in Courage. Not. The Trump party, terrified that their boy who holds an 85% approval rating from the GOP base, ignored any facts or evidence from the guy who was Donald’s personal attorney, his ‘fixer’, a man who now is singing like a canary on meth. They attacked his credibility, they attacked his personality, they attacked his ethics, they attacked his motives. All perfectly reasonable … unless you reject the corroborating evidence he brought to bear.

Not one of these brave Republicans confronted the evidence itself or offered refutation. No, easier to shoot the messenger. If you wanted a glimpse into what an impeachment hearing for high crimes and treason would look like, you got more than a peek, you got the spectacle of rats scurrying in a sinking ship, blaming the crew for catastrophic leakage. Cohen himself was contrite, apologetic for crimes against the nation, for supporting and abetting a con man, a fraud, a crook and a cheat. His closing statement was poignant and bittersweet from a man who had lost everything. His name, his wealth, his law practice, his family’s love, his respect and in a few days, his freedom. He had been blinded by the Trumpster and no doubt his own greed. He told the Republicans they were doing exactly what he had been doing and they would regret protecting a man who deserved no loyalty. He admonished them to cease and desist before it was too late. All this from the man who said he would take a bullet for his boss.

Apparently there are plenty more who would defend a crook and a con rather than their country just to stay in power. These men apparently are willing to take a slug for the boss and hopefully they get the chance.

Yowzir, it’s sure good to be back in the news flow, back to the vitriolic emails and trollers, back to the 2020 Election. Seems like just yesterday when the Trumpster was insulting all his opponents and no one except Steve Bannon thought he had a rapist’s chance in the world to win the primaries, much less the election of 2016. My my, how time’s change … and not necessarily for the better, despite making America great again.

I’m already on the receiving end of right wing (read: Russian) trolling factories. The Democratic candidates are socialists and communists, dangerous people advocating free college, Medicare for All, Green New Deals, free daycare, all those radical un-American plans and programs destined to make America losers again. They want to let criminal immigrants and massive drug shipments pour through our borders. They want to pay the indolent NOT to work. They want to expand welfare. They want to weaken our gun laws and allow terrorists free rein. They want to tax the rich, can you believe it?? They are crazy liberal whackos, that’s what they are! And they want to destroy this country!!

I’m not sure I’m ready for two more years of this PLUS Trump. I know, and you do too, all these proposals will make for interesting primary fodder and may even propel someone to the top of the ticket. But the depressing aspect of all this is that when legislation gets to Congress, the buck and the bill, as well as the hopes and dreams of the country, stop there. Maybe gridlock is what the Founding Fathers wanted. Maybe we should wish there were Founding Mothers. Course back then, they couldn’t vote. Democracy, kind of an ongoing experiment….

Lately you’ve probably started to realize what a fragile concept it is, this thing called Democracy. Sure, you can vote, maybe thinking your one vote is equal, say, to the NRA lobby or Big Pharma’s lobby or Hobby Lobby’s lobby, but wait a minute, your vote, if you’re in a less populated state that still gets two Senators, well, it counts a little more. And you might think in a Democracy your taxes might be fair and equal … but only if you’ve been living under a rock. You know the laws are written by the rich. You might even suspect the country is ruled by the wealthy, but if you say it out loud, you’re a socialist, an anti-capitalist, a left wing bomb thrower.

The bomb throwers are running for President this election. I don’t know if they’ll win the primaries and I don’t know if they can win the election. But at least they’re raising some issues. If you think America was made great, again, well, you probably aren’t looking for changes. If you think we got some serious problems, you might roll the dice. If you think it’ll make much difference once Congress debates, well, I got some choice real estate here on the South End you might want to consider buying. But I am glad that some real choices are being floated, not slogans, not MAGA, not just insults and pejoratives. They may not fly, but I’m willing to find out.