Trump Trial Cliffhanger and the Consequences

Everyone makes a mistake now and then, but usually these mistakes don’t include six-figure payouts to porn stars while campaigning for president. Americans that care and understand the consequences sit in anticipation of the hush money trial verdict, a decision that could impact American democracy and cast a cloud of immorality and unethical compromise on our standards for leadership and politics. In other words this decision can dramatically hurt or dramatically improve the future of our country. Americans will begin to view leaders through this lens of compromise because the barriers and norms, the moral and ethical expectations for political leadership collapsed with Trump’s cruel, under-educated rhetoric and illegal, authoritarian mandates.

If the jury decides not to convict, autocrats like Trump will rejoice. The standards for leadership, fractured and in steady decline, will ultimately collapse. Our future governance will offer opportunities for profit and power to the exact wrong personality type: more Marjorie Taylor Greenes, more Lauren Bobarts, more strong men icons; a future of chaos and cruelty will become the new norm during a now unavoidable climate crisis. Some argue that this condition of cruelty and chaos, this collapse into civil unrest is a consequence of 9/11 and the political mistakes that followed the misguided war in Iraq. Others argue that this turn in society is non existent because the United States never provided a beacon of hope, that it has always, since slavery, been nothing but a cruel sham.

When I first started to analyze Trump’s speaking style, I considered him a buffoon, a simple minded, blathering idiot, that spewed nonsense and superficial vulgarities. But now I see him differently; I see him as a tool, most likely a Russian tool. The autocratic oppressive mind believes in Trump, whether it be a MAGA follower, an insurrectionist fool, or a power seeking greedy governor. Trump is a destructive, yet perfect, fun way to indulge in your lowest hateful tendencies. Fictionalizing threats, pretending pizza places are porn hubs, denying the death and murder of dozens of school children, and demonizing public sector workers, makes the meaningless mindless every day cycle of work and taxes more palatable for the ordinary, low income adult. Low income adults, people making less than a hundred k in our inflationary, capitalistic society, under a Trump tax plan will carry the debt burden.

Just as it was in the floundering decades of the Roman empire when dictatorships suppressed forensic and deliberative rhetoric, when discourse slipped into frivolities, and democratic ideals became misty memories, the era of Trump performs the same autocratic function, to stifle civil harmony and promote chaos and unrest. Violence is escalating and our civic values of honesty and fairness, compassion and empathy, flounder amidst the negativity. Each citizen must take a new oath, the oath of truth and freedom for all. No matter the outcome of the hush money porn trial, whether Trump steps forward as a presidential candidate, we all must maintain our humanity and continue to fight for equality. Only truth and equality will support civil stability in the new apocalyptic future.

    Today a Porsche SUV parked in the way of my garage on a street where parking is forbidden, and I asked the lady to move. Wait! I write at least one lousy essay everyday, so now I should just try to back up and provide context. This is really a story about a man-child, and the people that own the place next door are even lousier parents than I am. Their son, hereafter referred to as man-child, got them into this financial mess, an unaffordable town home, and no one wants to buy it because they are asking way too much for the place. They need somebody to blame. Instead of looking at their son for the answer, they are over here today doing work to fix the place and took out time from that to threaten me because  "[I] scared their buyer off"! Okay, so the over privileged piece of fluff buyer in the SUV felt insulted because I pointed out that she blocked my driveway. The realtor, another unwitting victim of the parents in crisis, parks in front of another neighbor's driveway. I pointed out that they were blocking the drive and kindly added the additional information that they could get towed. I suggested, quite nicely, that the parking lot is a brief fifty feet away, an easy walk. I am so confused. The realtors were driving a Tesla. Weren't they green thinking people?

    I guess since the parent threatened me, he became paranoid and called the Sheriff's Department. First, they sent the mental health people, and then the real sheriff came because I told the mental health people about the threat. In the meantime, this other gossipy guy that lives on this street allowed his cleaning crew to park in the way of my garage. I don't know why he did that, but he's moving away--Thank God! At one time this afternoon they had four cars parked on the street, all up and down because people are too lazy to walk fifty feet from the lot. Okay, that's fine. Laziness is whatever. But I've been tolerating a lot of garage blocking.

    This retired CTE teacher threatened me today with the words "be careful with what you say" attempting to mark her territory (she's big on proclamations), and show me that she knows I was rude enough to tell people not to park behind my garage. She never shuts up when you talk to her anyway, which is one reason why I avoid her. It's always "I taught school for 31 years" and "I'm a teacher." How is this productive, threatening a fellow teacher? I don't even talk to her, but she spends most evenings sitting around with that guy that is moving away. I guess I'm the bad person because I want people to follow the parking rules. And a few times she used a micro-aggression on me, but I'll save that for my next lousy essay.

    The situation is truly ironic because when the HOA started to enforce the parking rules, I resisted and complained. Then the board president made a good point about emergency vehicles. Some days you could barely drive a sedan down the streets because cars were parked on both sides of our skinny road. No meat wagon or fire truck getting through there. I saw the light, especially when I couldn't get out of my own garage safely, or return back to my garage at night. I couldn't do it because of the parent's man-child. His women were allowed to park behind my garage. I was asked to wait. Time and again, believe it or not, I was made to wait in my car while he socialized. While he swapped out kids and all that.

    I tried for two long years to be nice. I really did. As you can see from the photo, I really tried. But when I'm tired after working all day, I am told, "they will leave soon." I'm told this in different ways by different people from that house, continuously. I was so happy when they moved, but now I'm dealing with the man-child parents, their misguided and misdirected anger. They try to rationalize rather than call to account. That's on them.

Click the image :)