At what point does a person’s relentless pursuit of material wealth start raising red flags? Is it pure innocence, wealth being a merely pleasant and well-earned by-product of capitalism or someone’s ambition and know-how and desire to “make a difference”?

I’ve heard people say that the money they make is secondary to the joy and satisfaction they get from doing something they love to do, and I guess I believe some of them, to a certain extent. Still, the skeptic in me is often roused when I hear someone say such a thing. I hear it as something that’s easy to say when one feels safe and secure and money issues appear to be just one less thing they need to worry about.

The hackles are really raised when someone goes on to say that they’d do what they do for nothing.

Anyway, I wonder about people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and the Koch brothers and the Ellisons, along with Donald Trump and his teat-suckling offspring, who appear to have crossed the altruism Rubicon a long time ago.

One person’s altruism is another’s greed and deep-seated need for influence and power, and I feel as though what Trump in particular has been engaged in since he took office– and long before– falls in the latter category. I’m sure he or one of his lawyers would argue otherwise, offering up the tired excuse that The Donald is just a boundary-pusher, maybe even a “groundbreaker,” that everything he’s doing is legal, even above-board. But that whole defense is perhaps the most appalling and maddening aspect of this interminable nightmare.

For Trump, bumping up against acceptable norms and crossing lines is his brand, and The Base love him for that. But for the rest of us, we know a crooked, self-absorbed empty soul when we see one. A self-absorbed empty soul who’s building his own bunker, like the rest of his billionaire… pals?

Has Trump reached the point where he feels unassailable? Like he can do or say anything and there will be no repercussions?

I know, I know—it’s always seemed like that for as long as he’s been in the political arena. But lately he’s been saying and threatening things like a person who either doesn’t give a shit anymore or someone who feels that there is enough of the government under his thumb, enough insulation between an angry public and himself that he can say or do anything he wants with no fear of consequences.

We know he’s always been needy and infantile, but between the Midterm Convention, the SC ruling on mail-in ballots, and his threats regarding the Kennedy Center, it’s starting to feel like he’s closer to being ready to pull out all the stops and go scorched earth while he still can.

He has to be tormented. Even he has to feel tormented sometimes by his own ineptitude, or by the level of criticism that shows up on a daily, hourly–constant– basis. Natalie may feed him only the happy stuff, but he has to have gotten wind of what else is out there.

Many are hoping there is mounting inner turmoil that leads to a series of lethal missteps or some systemic, bodily failure, and not that he is already dead inside. Like a zombie with a wig.

That’s gotta be the ploy—flood the zone with idiocy and distraction. Bludgeon us with daily doses of dumb. Get us to the point where we can’t find the words or summon the outrage anymore.  

Something has to happen soon, something unexpected, something that sends Trump into a tailspin and leaves his handlers at a loss. Something that precipitates celebrations, and maybe an insatiable desire to spit on someone’s grave.

Maddow and Elias are right. The Supreme Court decision putting a stop to Trump’s mail-in ballot debacle may feel like a victory at the moment. But the sad reality is that he and the rest won’t stop trying to sabotage. In fact, they will use this decision to argue that the 2026 midterms were stolen because they didn’t work the way he wanted them to work.

Voter fraud will be rampant, according to Trump, you wait and see.

And of course we already have an inkling about what will happen ahead of the 2028 Presidential election. They may try this again, but with enough time for the SC to perhaps make a different decision!

So… 2 more years of contentious debate, manipulation, and wasted time, coming right up.

Maybe enough of us will finally stop and realize that this administration, instead of pouring energy into addressing issues that affect us all, has instead poured energy into the next election fix, the next grubby paws grift, the next Epstein files distraction. The ballroom will be built, with the bunker underneath it. The arch will be built, maybe the Kennedy Center will be razed because little Donny can’t get his name slapped on that, too.

Holy shit, MAGA. This is your government at work? Were you expecting this level of deceit and outright childish malfeasance? Turns out your hero, your man sent from God, is a liar and a thief, to his core. And he couldn’t care less about you.

But maybe you already knew that, and you didn’t care, either.

The temptation to boast, to stand out like a sore thumb because we so enjoy tooting our own horn, of course leads to becoming the object of someone’s ire. As we are currently viewed in the world, we are no different than the loudmouth braggart who everyone wishes would shut up or maybe meet some deliciously humiliating fate.

Well, voila! Now we read that election boards are fearing Trump’s federal government, and haven’t we known it might come to this—just a blatant show of force, complete with chaos and violence in the streets?

Trump is most likely going down, but not without taking as many of us as he can with him.

Still, time to go, Donnie. Your 15 minutes has lasted way too long. We’re assuming you’re ready to pull out all the stops and go full dictator on us. You really are willing to blow everything up.

You’re a child. You really are a loser. And the sad part is… you’ve chosen to run with that.

Maybe all we need to know is that the Republicans scheduled a Midterm Convention. Someone—maybe Trump himself—figured a couple of nights of Trump the Seer and Sage would be just what the doctor ordered.

The rest of us should be able to see through this pathetic charade and recognize desperation when we see it. And the cherry on top is a promise of $5K for everyone if the Republicans maintain control of Congress.

They really aren’t trying anymore, but at least we get a window on their soul, or lack thereof.

Remember, everyone– we’re winning. Bigly!

I was 47, plenty old enough to at least try to comprehend what had happened and to note the coincidence: 9/11, 9-1-1.

Emergency.

I wondered for a moment if the Al-Qaida brain trust had chosen the date for that reason, but it was more about logistics and a go/no go situation, aided by what many noted as a brilliantly clear September day. Perfect flying conditions.

I had walked to my office at the church and fired up the little 12-inch black and white television with the single extendable antenna that usually sat in a corner, collecting dust. I was watching as UA Flight 175 hit the south tower and put an end to the earlier speculation regarding the collision of American Flight 11 with the north tower being an unfortunate accident.

There were two more grotesque, intentional plane crashes that morning, along with many stories of genuine bravery, followed in the days to come by reactive bravado and pretense, as we were plunged into retaliatory wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the search for bin Laden commenced.

It may have taken a while, but people came to realize that the terrorists had won a battle of sorts—things changed at airports, the TSA was formed, security apparatus was consolidated under the umbrella of Homeland Security, and we perhaps felt violated, or at least vulnerable for a while. Lingering change came that day, whether or not some can yet admit it.

There’s no going back, and the world has become a much uglier, more unforgiving place.

It seemed there was a brief uptick in church attendance, but that didn’t last long. Anger and patriotic fervor led to an increase in armed services enlistments. Islam took a hit, and many took a closer look at the tenets of that faith or simply operated on the assumption that all Muslims aren’t to be trusted. Religious faith in general may have suffered a blow, post-9/11/01.

The date has joined the ranks of other low points in our history— April 14, 1861, April 14, 1865, October 28 & 29, 1929, December 7, 1941, November 22, 1963, a couple days in April and June 1968, along with others since then.

And I cannot shake the thought that we had it coming.

I love the idea of America, but am not an “America–right or wrong” guy. It became apparent to me at some point that others hated us because we were just the latest empire behaving like past empires. We were always calling ourselves the last remaining superpower.

The perception, from the perspective of a conservative Islamic cleric with access to means and resources, was that we were a haughty, liberal den of iniquity, Satan personified, and we had our fingers in way too many cookie jars around the world.

I am by no means condoning what Osama bin Laden and others conceived and a small contingent of zealots carried out, but we have to know that what unfolded really didn’t happen out of the blue. The cost of what we claim to hold near and dear– freedom of speech and religion and the rest, along with self-determination– is high, and even the appearance of such liberty and self-expression is offensive to some, along with the aforementioned omnipresence around the world.

This is not solely about what might have happened if we showed restraint along the way and learned to talk less about American exceptionalism and our status as “shining city on the hill.” September 11, 2001, it seems to me, was about a perhaps inevitable clash of philosophies and visions, which solidified, on the one hand, a rightfully and predictably acquired suspicion and skepticism of religious zeal and fanaticism…

… but on the other hand, exposed the consequences of hubris and greed and ever-expanding spheres of influence– almost as if our power could be absolute, or our supposed “way of life” and ideals were, are or should be desirable by all– paragons of virtue intended to be thrust upon everybody and accepted with a smile and a thank-you.

Of course, given our lingering fixation on and reverence for inanimate structures that are no longer standing, along with the current reality of an entire presidential administration and political party distracted by self-interest, delusions of grandeur, and whatever the opposite of patriotism is, we probably need not worry about our way of life and ideals being all that attractive to much of anyone right now.

In fact, bad guys in other countries might be smiling, and licking their chops, as they monitor some serious cracks in the foundation.