All posts by Dr. ESP

“This Is America”

Culture

Since January 20, a lot of us have spent a great deal of psychic energy trying to cope with the daily fire hose of lies and nonsense which we all knew would accompany the second coming of Donald J. Trump.  Perhaps the best piece of advice in an effort to remain sane in the face of madness involves a renewed focus on local community.  On Amelia Island there are many ways to reposition one’s perspective on national events.  A small, but close-knit circle of kindred spirits.  Volunteer and charitable efforts directed toward those who already are or will be likely victims of the Trump administration’s rejection of the social contract between a nation of great wealth and those in need.  Despite the abnormally cold temperatures, a twice weekly round of golf at the municipal course where you are greeted by name and with a smile by staff who know your schedule so well they automatically schedule the following week’s tee times without asking.  But most of all, enjoying the natural assets of one of the most unique bio-environments in America, one that includes an ocean seashore, salt marsh and maritime forest.

However, these “sanctuaries” are not immune to the cultish behavior of the MAGA universe.  As you walk from the eighth green to the ninth tee on the South Course at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club, you are greeted by a four by eight foot banner plastered across a homeowner’s fence reminding you Trump is going to make America great again.  But the final straw came on Friday when I biked the nature preserve near our home to see if any of the resident alligators were taking advantage of the warmer weather to make a rare winter appearance.  No gators, but several bird species and a host of turtles enjoying the afternoon sun when I observed a man accompanying his unleashed German Shepherd. 

When I asked him if he had seen the sign at the head of the trail which informed visitors that all dogs needed to be leashed.  His reply?  “This is America.  There are no rules.”  My first instinct was to challenge his premise.  “Oh, there are rules, you simply choose not to follow them.”  But I caught myself; he was correct.  In today’s America, you can desecrate the nation’s Capitol and be pardoned.  You can assault law enforcement officers with no consequences.  You can try to overthrow the government and get off scot free.   Why then would anyone think they have to leash their dog.  Or come to a complete stop at a stop sign.  Or share the road with cyclists.  

As I tried to teach my creativity students, insight does not come from observation alone.  It requires reflection, time for the brain to process what it senses.  In the past two days, I realized the Trump cult is not a monolith.  He and his sycophants have built a coalition of support, not by presenting a single vision of America, but by letting more than enough segments of society believe the administration shares their respective view of our country.  The individual I encountered on Egans Creek Greenway, an apparent libertarian, is thrilled that the United States has embraced anarchy.  The wealthy hope Trump ushers in a Russian-styled oligarchy.  Christian nationalists pray for a theocracy.  Insecure males are thrilled to join the chorus that proudly sings, “It’s a man’s world.”  Racists, homophobes and xenophobes need only believe Trump is focused on their desire for a more white, straight or Eurocentric America.

That’s a mighty big tent, especially when only 63.9 percent of voting age Americans cast a ballot.  Whether intended or not, they will interpret Trump’s words and actions as affirmation by each of these groups that he is with them.  And nothing Democrats or liberals can say will change their mind.  This is not about politics.  It is about culture.  And the cultural question that needs the most attention is simple.  Your vote IS the difference.  The message for the next four years is straight forward. 

  • You did not lose your health care because Trump is president.  You lost it because you did NOT vote. 
  • If you are now paying for child care for your three to five year old because Head Start was terminated, it is not because Trump is president.  It is because you did NOT vote.
  • When consumer goods cost more, it is not because of Trump tariffs.  It is because you did NOT vote.

Upon his election as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin got it wrong.  “The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.”  The real fight is to remind non-voters, any grievance with Trump, oligarchs, incompetent cabinet secretaries and agency heads can only be corrected if they register and cast a ballot.  Again, that requires a change in culture, not politics.  I am sorry to have to inform you if you believe in democracy.  Without broader participation in the political process, “that is NOT today’s America.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Politics

Democrats slammed the confirmation process, with some fuming that lawmakers were not given access to an FBI background check detailing the sordid allegations.

~Juliegrace Brufke/The Daily Beast

In the Coen brothers 2009 film “A Serious Man,” protagonist Larry Gopnik (portrayed by Michael Stuhlbarg), suffering from a growing series of misfortunes, seeks the guidance of his rabbi.  During the session, the rabbi tells Gopnik about another congregant, Sussman the dentist, who had sought his advice.  Sussman, while casting a mold of a non-Jewish (a goy) patient’s teeth, discovers Hebrew letters etched on the inside of his lower teeth, when translated, say, “Help me.”  Is it a sign from God?  The scene ends as follows:

GOPNIK: So what did you tell him?
RABBI:  Sussman?
GOPNIK:  Yes!
RABBI:  Is it…relevant?
GOPNIK:  Well–isn’t that why you’re telling me?
RABBI:  We can’t know everything.
GOPNIK (to himself): It sounds like you don’t know anything.

Exasperated and curious, Gopnik asks, “And what happened to the goy?”  To which the rabbi replies, “The goy?  Who cares?”

I came to the same conclusion as I watched excerpts of the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearings for Defense Secretary designee Pete Hegseth, confirmed in the opening quote.  “Is it…relevant?”  “So, he cheats on his wife, drinks to excess and when it comes to financial management is a complete failure.  Who cares?”  Ulysses S. Grant was a alcoholic.  John Kennedy was a philanderer.  Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy six times.  NOBODY CARES.  So why waste time on the irrelevant.

In a country of 350 million citizens, there are drunks, whoremongers and shysters who would make damn good Defense secretaries because they have the knowledge and experience to understand when and where lethal force is the appropriate response to an international crisis.  The secretary’s primary job is not to count beans or micromanage the HR department.  (The Heritage Foundation will find other loyalists, who do not face Senate confirmation, to do those jobs.)  He is there to advise the president about military options as a tool of foreign policy and whether there exists sufficient capacity to wield that hammer.  Why not ask Hegseth:

  • When do think it is appropriate for the U.S. military to engage in a regional conflict?
  • How many such conflicts do we have the capacity to take on at one time?
  • What criteria will you use to determine the appropriate balance among land, air, naval and space assets in the next defense budget?

Unfortunately, this ship has already sailed.  One can only imagine the vague or inaccurate answers Hegseth might have provided.  Those responses would have had a better chance of embarrassing one more Republican enough to vote no on Friday.

There are other cabinet and agency heads proposed for the administration still to be evaluated.  And the slew of executive orders provide grist for those nomination hearings.  Perhaps the best opportunity to test this approach is the upcoming hearings before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for HHS designee Robert Kennedy, Jr.  Forget the brain worm, dead bear prank and other RFK memes.  Ranking member Bernie Sanders should engage the nominee in the following discussion.

Mr. Kennedy, could you describe for the committee the demographics of the Medicaid program?

If Kennedy says he cannot or gives inaccurate guesses, Sanders should educate him, especially as it relates to the number of retired Americans who depend on a combination of Medicare and Medicaid for their health care.

Mr. Kennedy, the congressional DOGE caucus has circulated a document that includes cuts to Medicare to fund President Trump’s tax cuts.  Are you prepared to strip millions of American’s of their health care to give additional tax breaks to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg?

Regardless of RFK’s answer, I have complete confidence Sanders can produce a sound bite that can be used by every Democratic candidate for Congress in 2026.  The Democratic mantra for the next two years should be:

When it actually has to govern, MAGA is its own worst enemy.  Do not get in its way.  Just be on the record as opposing bad policies and document their impact.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Eggs-cuse Me!

Comic Relief

Americans stocking up on holiday cooking essentials may be greeted with an unwelcome surprise in the grocery aisles: higher prices for eggs, spurred by an intensifying bird flu outbreak.

~Danielle Kaye/New York Times

Kaye’s update on the “great American egg crisis” this morning should come as no surprise.  A February 2024 USDA report on the impact of bird flu listed it as the primary cause of the 229 percent increase in the cost of a dozen eggs.  At the same time, Donald Trump laid the blame on Bidenomics and promised voters they would see a return to pre-pandemic prices as soon as he took office.  Per his “Person of the Year” interview with Time Magazine, the president-elect has conceded lower grocery bills are less likely than pledged 10 months ago, and even more improbable based on his stated priorities for “Day One” and beyond.

This morning, John Fugelsang, host of “Tell Me Everything” on SiriusXM, predicted 2025 will be a comedian’s “gift from God.” The same is true for bloggers; so why wait for 2025.  Therefore, I proudly present Donald Trump’s “TOP TEN THINGS TO LOWER THE PRICE OF EGGS.”

#10:  Retake control of the Panama Canal to lower the cost of imports from EGGuador.

#9:  Change the name of Alaska’s Denali National Park back to McKinley National Park although Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski opposed the move saying, “We already went through this with President Trump at the very, very beginning of his first term.”  Though she could have added, “How many times will he try the same thing OVA and OVA again?”

#8:  Purchase Greenland from the Dutch believing the island could supply bird-flu resistant “green eggs” and “trichinosis-free ham.”

#7:  Sue the Des Moines Register for publishing an inaccurate poll in hopes the newspaper would stop predicting egg futures.

#6:  Nominate his daughter Tiffany’s “billionaire” father-in-law to the post of special Middle East envoy.  Turns out “master dealmaker” Massad Boulos is a salesman for a Nigerian truck and machinery company that reported $66,000 in profits in 2023.  He would have been better positioned if he worked for Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. egg producer and and distributor, which reported FY2024 sales of (drum roll) $2.3 billion and net profit of $277.9 million.

#5:  Pressure Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint daughter-in-law Lara Trump to replace Senator Marco Rubio.  This, of course, negatively affected the egg supply when both the president-elect and daughter-in-law were seen at the Mar-a-Lago omelet bar with egg on their faces.

#4:  Deport millions of undocumented farm workers, especially those from Guatemala, who Trump accused of bringing bags of quetzals, the national bird, across the southern border.  More egg on his face when custom officials informed him “quetzal” is also the name of the Guatemalan currency.

#3:  Nominate alleged drug addict, statutory rapist and sex trafficker Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General.  His choice was based on Trump’s misunderstanding that reports of Gaetz transporting “young chicks” involved repopulating poultry farms with flu-free birds.

#2:  America First.  Beginning January 20, 2025, eggs produced and sold in the United States will be marketed under their scientific name  “gallus domesticus,” not to be confused with someone Matt Gaetz originally met and only dated in Florida.

#1:  Pardon the January 6 insurrectionists.  This is the one action that actually might address the price of eggs.  All those newly vacant prison cells can be used to isolate infected poultry.

Assuming none of the above makes a difference in the price of eggs, Trump will surely revert to his old tricks.  Blame Biden.  Blame the Fed.  Blame RFK, Jr.  Blame the Heritage Foundation.  Blame Obamacare.  Maybe even blame Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for cutting USDA’s food safety programs.

And if that fails, he will step behind the podium in the press room and recommend farmers inject their hens with bleach or add ivermectin to their feed.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Wrong Again, Naturally

Politics

When I first went there [in] 2016, we were, I had a lot of good people. I had a lot of good advice, but I put people in that in some cases, were not what I really wanted because I didn’t know much about Washington.

Donald J. Trump/September 9, 2024

Above is the one time in the past decade, president-elect Trump admitted his first administration was not as successful as he hoped it would be because he did not know how Washington worked.  In a December 16, 2024 unscheduled press briefing at Mar-a-Lago, he suggested he and his team are much better prepared to achieve their agenda.  There is only one problem.  In 2017, he was facing institutions, procedures, rules and traditions associated with a democratic republic.

In the intervening eight years between January 2017 and today, he repeatedly praised autocrats, in particular Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, and based his 2024 campaign on a promise that America would be great again if only he could duplicate their experience here.  However, as he has demonstrated in the past, Trump failed to understand the information right under his nose.  Knowing more about Washington, per his September 2024 declaration, does him no good because he now must negotiate the rules and traditions associated with being the poster child of an oligarchy, not a constitutional democracy.  And based on the last 48 hours of the transition it is clear he failed this important lesson.

Imagine if, in February 2022, Ukrainian-born Mikhail Fridman, head of the Alfa Group, a multinational Russian conglomerate, had announced the invasion of Ukraine.  And then, within hours, Putin posted on social media that he agreed with Fridman.  The lede on the front page of every major world newspaper would begin, “Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman appeared on national television to report that a military convoy was advancing toward Kyiv, Ukraine.   Fridman explained this ‘special military operation’ was designed to demilitarize Ukraine which represented a threat to Russian security.  Within hours of the televised message, President Vladimir Putin posted support of the operation on social media.”

Of course, that did not happen.  Why?  Because Putin and more importantly the oligarchs understand the consequences of exposing the fact their “elected” government is nothing more than a puppet and mouthpiece of the uber-rich.  That is why at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of February 23, 2022, Putin addressed the Russian people, justifying the incursion as a response to requests from the leaders of separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine who accused the Ukraine government of persecution and genocide.  Instead of wondering who was in control at the Kremlin, Russian state media praised Putin as a strongman who was protecting the safety of Russian citizens living in occupied Ukraine since 2014.

Believing Putin’s strongman veneer was real, Trump responded on February 23, 2022, as only he could.

I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.

That is what happens when you confuse Putin with Captain Jean-Luc Picard.  Trump’s takeaway from Putin’s actions vis-a-vis Ukraine was to dream of a day when he too could say, “Make it so!”  During Trump 1.0, he thought “my generals, my justices and my attorney general” would support and carry out his agenda.  He would not make the same mistake twice.  Trump 2.0 will be populated with oligarchs.  Some will masquerade as members of his cabinet, agency heads and ambassadors as evidenced by 11 billionaires nominated for these posts.  At least, Trump can claim these 11 oligarchs “work for me,” and can flex his muscle by firing them.  No so with the two bomb-throwers, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

More importantly, the difference between Putin’s oligarchs and the Musk/Ramaswamy tag team is the latter never agreed to rules of the “me president/you oligarch” game.  Russian oligarchs believe it is to their advantage to hide in the shadows.  Wealth is their prime directive.  Therefore, they are more than willing to let Putin take credit for policies that increase their assets and appreciate Putin taking the heat for mistakes that hurt Russia’s national interests.  They satisfy their huge egos through life styles few can imagine.

Not so with Musk and Ramaswamy. The irony is each think they are the “real” leaders of MAGA world.  And they do not need an “imposter” for a middleman.  Which explains why they saw no need to confer with Trump before undermining the budget agreement negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson.  This morning Trump made a feeble effort to change the narrative with a laughable post on Truth Social, as though the timing of a government shutdown would determine who is to blame.

If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP.” This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!

If this was Trump’s attempt to reassert his claim, “only I can fix it,” it is too late.  The toothpaste is already out of the tube.  Maybe voters should have paid more attention when Hillary Clinton accused Trump of being Putin’s puppet.  At the time, however, even she never imagined who would eventually be pulling the strings.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Whoa Is Me No More!

Random Thoughts

After mending my wounded ego, it’s time to get back on the horse.  What I realized during this recovery period is that everyone’s speculation about the 2024 election, including mine, proved worthless.  And nothing has changed since November 5, except I have decided to get out of the speculation game.  Those who remain on the speculation playing field are producing little, if anything, of value.

The question was, if I wanted to continue blogging, how can I create value.  And the answer came, as it always seems to, from two totally unrelated incidents yesterday.  The first was a phone call with a friend who said he missed getting the occasional blog.  When I told him what I just shared with you (above), he said he understood but reminded me that entries unrelated to politics (e.g. sports, culture) were equally entertaining and often provided a distraction from the news of the day.  We laughed and agreed that distractions are certainly in order for the next four years.

The second was an appearance by Neil DeGrasse Tyson on last night’s edition of “The Daily Show.”  Host Ronny Chieng asked Tyson if he thought he could stand above the political fray, especially if the new administration takes a hostile position toward science, scientists and academic research.  Tyson said he gets that question all the time from media organizations trying to pull him into a give and take by quoting this or that nominee and asking, “What do you have to say to that?”  Tyson did not hesitate.  “I don’t respond to people.  I respond to ideas.”  This morning I looked back at some of my most recent entries and found that when I responded about an idea (e.g. the August 31 entry Civics Advocate, Heal Thyself) the content was still relevant regardless of who was in the White House or Secretary of Education.

Tyson gave his own wonderful example.  Discouraging immigration, regardless who promotes it, is a bad idea.  To make his point, he reminded viewers that more than one third of all Nobel prizes won my Americans went to immigrants.  If they cannot come here, they will take that knowledge and innovation somewhere else until someone realizes the U.S. is no longer the leader in new Nobel laureates.

So if not “mission accomplished,”  my new mission statement is.  Focus on ideas.  Remind readers that there are other interesting things that can distract them, if and when, a chaotic world makes us think we are living in the “upside-down.”  Finally, one new thing I plan on sharing through the blog is my fascination with cinema.  Some of you know I co-host a monthly program at our local bookstore called, “Cinema and Conversation.”  While doing the research for the conversation part of the evening, it is very similar to my experience writing the JFK book.  Just when I think I have uncovered everything I need to know, there is always one more unknown fact that piques my curiosity.  And when I start following that bread crumb, it opens up a whole different perspective on the film I chose to screen.

Two more things I want to share before I close.  First, I am thinking of moving Deprogramming101 from WordPress to Substack.  I have three months to figure that out before my current contract for the site runs out.  If it happens, you will still get the MailChimp notifications with a link to the Substack site.  But will also have the option of subscribing to my content and be notified by Substack when a new article is posted.  And as always, it will still be ad free with no subscription fee.

Second, even on the most serious of topics, I have tried to sprinkle it with a little humor.  So don’t be surprised if you find articles like “Top Things I Am Still Thankful for on Thanksgiving.”  At the top of list would have been, “The sense of unparalleled schadenfreude watching Aaron Rogers lose seven games in a row.”

Thanks for your patience.  I look forward to riding away from (as opposed to into) the sunset.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP