Chuck Schumer could have not said anything. Then at least Republicans would have one less thing to which to overreact.

As it is, Schumer stuck his neck out and went there—called out Netanyahu and walked that thin line that is U.S. policy regarding what has been unfolding in Gaza since late October. Schumer tried to touch all the bases, prefaced his Bibi/new election haymaker with acknowledgments of his love for Israel and support for a two-state solution—a solution that has next to no chance of happening as long as Netanyahu is Prime Minister.

I’m not sure why I’ve chosen this as a topic to write about, but I think it has something to do with the feeling that Schumer didn’t say anything that a lot of people aren’t already thinking.

What galls me, and probably shouldn’t, is the Republican reaction to Schumer’s speech. Aged relic Mitch McConnell mustered enough breath to mouth that the Democratic party has an anti-Israel problem and that Schumer knifed the Jewish state in the back. Wow, reactive and graphic, though predictable. Others piled on.

This all reflects the moment and the pressure many are feeling and what people are seeing with their own eyes: Gazans are suffering beyond comprehension, and Israel, or perhaps more accurately, Netanyahu, seems not to care.

It lends credence to the theory in the early days of the war that Hamas could see all this coming, or at least envisioned perhaps this exact scenario—that Israel’s relentless and zero-tolerance response to the events of October 7 would eventually swing public sentiment against them and paint them into a corner.

There’s nothing wrong with having an education beyond high school. There’s nothing wrong with questioning the opinions and advice of one’s elders, of testing what one hears against what one has learned and seen after having engaged one’s surrounding cultures and maybe walked a mile in someone else’s shoes.

There’s nothing wrong with being well-traveled, or even a little bit traveled. It makes sense that one who has “been around,” seen something of the world, ventured beyond one’s yard or surrounding ZIP codes, is likely to have been exposed to other customs and cultures, other people, and walked away with a fuller picture of the diversity and differences—and similarities—between and among us.

This all appears to have some bearing on the dynamics that exist today, in terms of the fertile ground that people like Donald Trump and other vermin who peddle disinformation need in order to gain adherents. One begins to realize how much they depend on narrow world views and gullibility and grievance and an aversion to introspection.

People like Trump bank on ignorance and hope to find people who have already been terminally indoctrinated by their jaded elders and peers. They plow and sow in the fertile ground of anger and apathy, trusting that their screeds will be received as gospel. How else to explain an embrace of antisemitism, or an openness to isolationism, or a fear of immigrants?

Trump, Putin, and their ilk? They’re all predators.

It seems apparent that anyone still expecting a timely resolution of any of the Trump cases should probably stop kidding themselves. It’s clear that, as much as the liberal media keeps covering this and keeps the viewing public strung along with the latest updates, the latest breathless predictions and punditry, all the maybes and coulds and mights, the righteous indignation and assurances that Trump is a bad person and things cannot break his way, the reality is that things are breaking his way.

Even Alvin Bragg seems to be backing off, delaying the hush money trial for further review of records. And Fani Willis may or may not be able to continue on the case she’s been building. Everything seems to be coming up roses for one of the most sickening, empty-souled people on earth.

Following this exasperating saga isn’t good for one’s outlook and health. So much handwringing, so much time wasted over such a poor excuse for a human being.

So a TikTok ban is being floated again, or at least a Chinese divestiture.

Trump flip-flops because he’s now benefiting from an influx of cash from someone associated with the app, so his voice continues to be compromised and useless. The House is all for banning it, or at least insistent that it switches hands to American ownership and oversight, while the general public is in so deep that it can’t imagine life without it. Americans across the land are yelling and screaming and threatening to maybe do themselves bodily harm if TikTok is banned.

Here’s the thing: there have been suspicions from the beginning, whether based on paranoia or on legitimate concerns. We knew early on that there were red flags, since it originates in China. The chances of it being solely some innocent money maker for a nerdy developer are likely quite low. The likelihood of there being something nefarious about it are not as low.

It’s no secret that the Chinese government is waging cyber war on us, and here’s an innocent looking app that allows China to pretty much enter past the sleeping dog and through the front door. And of course, with 170 million American users, there is no turning back.

Game, set, and match to China.

Let’s start a conspiracy theory: developers in China hit upon TikTok, need a larger market share, set their eyes on the American market, and develop not just the app, but a virus that becomes a pandemic, isolating people, providing fertile ground and a need for some sort of outlet, some way of staying connected. Voila! TikTok fills the void. China knows Americans’ sweet tooth/Achille’s heel– a fixation on individuality and fame– and what better way to indulge this than an app that allows them to strut their stuff before the world?

That was easy. Maybe far-fetched and inaccurate, but easy.

If Trump happens to win (cue the shuddering), would he really have an easy time transforming the government into his plaything?

Unless he is able to facilitate a wholesale turnover of personnel, one might expect him to have a difficult time convincing certain people to bend the knee, to compromise themselves for the benefit of such a cowardly clown. Not to mention the blowback by more than half the country and their representatives in Congress toward his Presidency being illegitimate due to the four (3 by then?) outstanding indictments and numerous felony counts, including his involvement on January 6.

It seems to me that his path to success would be quite rocky and treacherous even if he made it back to the White House—which just can’t happen. It’d be the Democrats’ turn to delay, delay, delay.

Trump isn’t Putin. Sometimes I think we’re giving him too much credit when it comes to potential post-election scenarios, i.e. that he’ll just fill positions with cronies and lackeys and waltz into the perfect set-up that enables him to take over the Justice Department and dismiss the cases against him.

From all appearances, Trump seems incapable of being as sly and cunning and ruthless as someone like Putin. Trump is intoxicated by power but doesn’t quite know how to wield it, operate its levers. He’s more a bull in the China closet who can’t keep his mouth shut.

Hopefully, all of this handwringing and doomsplaining will never develop beyond conjecture, because Joe Biden confounds the pollsters and kicks the faux Jesus’ sorry ass even worse than last time.

The apple definitely has fallen further from the tree, rolled down a hill, and out into traffic.

Let’s see… Aaron Rodgers or Jesse Ventura for VP? This is where RFK, Jr. is at, as he apparently is serious about a 3^rd party run.

Sure, why not? Let’s add more insanity to an already bonkers election cycle.

It might make one wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. Is Bobby, Jr. closet MAGA? Is this some Republican scheme to syphon votes from Joe, or does Mr. Kennedy feel convicted, compelled to spread his own brand of off-the-wall politics?

Spare us.

Might as well pile on. Katie Britt’s response to Biden’s SOTU was over the top, unnecessarily dramatic, creepy, and of course overflowing with Trumpian, Milleresque darkness.

Always darkness with the Republicans, never a missed opportunity to paint a troubling, gloomy picture, describe a country that had many of us scratching our heads and wondering if she was talking about America.

It’s so predictable—this shit-talking, dystopian-themed fixation. There’s a difference between highlighting legitimate concerns and bald-faced fear mongering. The Republicans apparently majored in the latter in college, or wherever they go to get indoctrinated.

Maybe the Freedom Caucus is offering night courses.  

The morning after. Oscar night is over at last. But Trump is still ugly.

He’s decided to make a thing out of Joe Biden’s stuttering, which comes as no surprise. Maybe it’s a good thing, in a way. Maybe it’s a sign that the loudmouth loser from Queens is desperate, even more desperate than we thought—he doesn’t have much left in his arsenal of grade school tactics.

So, a stutter in the crosshairs. Why not, right Donald? Something else to share with your impressionable subjects at your foolish rallies, something else to laugh at like immature teenagers huddled at a table in the cafeteria.

1300

“Like it or not, we are members of a large and particularly noisy family called the great apes. Our closest living relatives are chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang-utans. The chimpanzees are the closest. Just six million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother.” –Yuval Noah Harari, from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

I guess I had seen the book on Amazon, but didn’t make the effort to tackle it until this past week, after a recent interview Stephen Colbert did with the author. It was published in 2015. It is heavy—both literally and as a work of literature, science, history, anthropology, and sociology. It would make for an interesting, i.e. challenging read in a book-of-the-month club at your average house of worship, since Harari posits that myth-making plays such a huge role in our civic structures and governance, that agreed-upon myths are basically the glue that holds everything together, extending to religious beliefs many hold near and dear.

A bit further along (the above quote is on page 5), Harari focuses on the species Sapiens of the genus Homo, and how they emerged as the alpha among all other human species living on the planet—because they had developed the capacity for myth-making, and living and communicating in very large groups. He covers this in a section entitled The Cognitive Revolution. Somehow– and it’s not clear how– Homo Sapiens gained the ability to, as Harari puts it, cooperate successfully by believing in common myths, myths that only exist in peoples’ collective imagination. Myths that include things like the principles and ideals in the Declaration of Independence, or the tenets of Christianity or Buddhism, or the provisions of LLCs, or the existence of nation states.

One more passage from the book: “Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees, and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations, and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today, the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google.” (pg. 32)

OK, one more: “Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths, the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths– by telling different stories.” (pg. 32)

Might we ponder the implications?

I’m on page 33. I don’t know where this book is going to take me, but I fully expect to enjoy the ride.

Night or day.

Dark or light.

Up or down.

Black or white.

Yes or no.

Depending on where one stands—whether blue or red—this is what one is liable to see, the assessment one is liable to get. No middle ground, just extremes.

Thank you, Donald. You’ve been so good for the country that we need another round of your Prince of Darkness routine. Well, you and the Steves. Or does Mr. Miller prefer Stephen?