Writer’s Note: The real President does not recognize the term, but the attempt to keep up with his rapidly shape-shifting shenanigans is nothing short of, “Chaos”

(POTUS is in dialog with his alter ego.)

ALTER EGO: Are you nuts?!
POTUS: What do you mean?

ALTER EGO: Why all this research about pardonings – including yourself?
POTUS: I don’t follow you.

ALTER EGO: Only the guilty need pardons.
POTUS: That sonofabitch is now digging into my private business and tax returns. It’s possible some of my really shrewd dealings may be interpreted as extra-legal.

ALTER EGO: You just fired the FBI director, and now you’re making it known you’re trying to get rid of the untouchable sleuth named in the aftermath.
POTUS: Can’t you see what’s happening? Those bastards can’t stand the fact that I beat out Crooked Hillary, so they’re doing their damnedness to dig up dirt on me.

ALTER EGO: Uh-h-h... – excuse me. There is overwhelming evidence the Russians interfered in our election process. You should be leading the charge by the CIA and FBI into rooting out and defending the country against this blatant cyber war against our sovereign nation!
POTUS: Why are you repeating all that fake-news nonsense? Everybody does it. Why put all the blame on Russia?

ALTER EGO: That’s another thing – you’re not helping your case any, with this staunch defense of a decades-long antagonist of the United States. Your perpetual promotion of Putin purity is positively perplexing to the populace!
POTUS: Don’t try to dazzle me with your asinine alliteration. They’re always trying to dump on Vladimir. Why can’t they see him through my eyes?

ALTER EGO: Perhaps because your eyes don’t reflect the fact that he despises and attacks American values and influence; he steals the territory of former Soviet Union satellites and attempts to control their governments; he holds an iron grip on his country’s politics, and has made himself a virtual dictator; he jails and murders opposition leaders; journalists and others who oppose him are either poisoned, thrown out of windows or shot dead in the streets – elevators, or wherever; he controls a cabal of super-rich oligarchs – incidentally, here is where you come in...
POTUS: What do you mean?

ALTER EGO: Come on, admit it – you are so indebted to that chorus line of Cossacks that they make you sing, “Oh, Chichonya,” at will.
POTUS: That’s ridiculous! They are my good friends and business partners.

ALTER EGO: (Sarcastically) Yeah, ri-i-igt! They are the custodians of your bullocks, you boob! That so-called, “Dossier” looms ever more clearly with each Russian ass you kiss and each U.S. investigator you fire.
POTUS: They are exceeding their authority...

ALTER EGO: They are following the money.
POTUS: I’ve got to protect the presidency...
ALTER EGO: Your only concern is that body, dressed up in the president suit. There are no bounds to your perfidy. It was even low by your standards to throw your attorney general under the bus, in an attempt to get him to resign from the shame of it all. Since he has recused himself from the Russia investigations, you need to replace him with a puppet whom you can order to fire the FBI investigator.
POTUS: But, he’s digging into my business deals and my taxes...

ALTER EGO: You know, if you go that route, you will open the very gates of hell. You will stop nothing. The congress will mount a select committee and name a special prosecutor. Don’t you read history, you dumb bastard?!
POTUS: I can sign a presidential order...

ALTER EGO: Yeah, next you’ll be telling me, “If the president does it, it’s not against the law.”
POTUS: But, it’s not – right, Mooch?
SCARY MOOCHIE: You got it, boss – love ya!

ALTER EGO: Who the hell is Mooch?
POTUS: Tony Scary Moochie, my new Consigliere.

ALTER EGO: There’s no consigliere in the U.S. Government.
POTUS: There is now. Wait ‘til you get a load of his lexicon.

ALTER EGO: What do you mean?
POTUS: We both grew up in New York, but this guy is a hell of a lot more street-wise than I am, He’s got a vocabulary that puts me to shame.

ALTER EGO: You make it sound as though his words are weaponized.
POTUS: A closer analogy is that they are used like a plumber’s tool.

ALTER EGO: Plumber’s tool...?
POTUS: ...and an exterminator’s device.

ALTER EGO: What are you getting at?
POTUS: Just watch how the Mooch plugs the leaks and gets rid of the rats in the West Wing.

ALTER EGO: Oops!
POTUS: what happened?

ALTER EGO: Your new Chief of Staff just gave the Mooch the boot!

Last night 12 sad, angry people entered our local library’s meeting room. We all seemed to have the same look of despair and defeat. “How are you?” we asked each other and the answers were all similar; Depressed. Sad. Disbelief. One woman said, "I'm pissed." We had gathered at the invitation of 2 local women and the topic was to be: “Where Do We Go From Here?” We went around the room introducing ourselves, giving a little bio to the others about who we were, what we are worried about and what we hoped to achieve. Two of the people are currently members of our town council and of our local water board. They also are concerned and have the experience of holding public to understand the magnitude of what it takes to run just a local government. They grasp the challenge ahead of accomplishing and preventing devastating changes in policies and laws that we are looking at with a Minority President and a GOP controlled Congress.

We agreed to not interrupt each other, to be respectful and polite and share our ideas on what we could do for ourselves, our families and our community. Our collective decision was to focus on local issues and effect change here with an eye towards state and federal goals. We agreed to put down our rhetorical spears and use our hands for shaking in agreement rather than pointing in blame. When we walked out we looked at each other and shared that we felt better, that we didn’t feel so discouraged and that we had goals to work for and achieve. What we learned from the 2 local public officials was the importance of public support, the value of continuing to follow them AFTER they are elected. So much work is put into winning a political campaign but the real work comes after, when they sit in the chair and have to follow through on campaign promises. Often they sit alone, sometimes they have to face a room of their peers who don’t share their constituency and they are the under-dog. They are out voted, out-talked, ostracized from meetings and events and they find themselves with their hands tied behind their back. What makes the difference? Having voters in the audience showing their support, voters who raise their hands and ask questions or being able to bring a stack of letters or phone messages to the meeting and show them to their fellow officials, “My constituents want me to take this action.” This is the support they need when they go into the council or chamber meeting. They need to be able to point and say, “These people want this action.” All too often no one is there and they go it alone.

That’s where we voters come in. We need to support our candidate before and during their term. Now more than ever we need to discuss, share, email, phone, write letters to our local paper, letters to our elected officials on every level and let them know that we are paying attention. If you can’t show up to your local council meeting, write a letter. If you are too shy to speak up in public, bring a friend with you or send an email. Congressional staff member Emily Ellsworth offers advice on how to get your representative to take notice and hear you out. “But, phone calls! That was a thing that shook up our office. One time, a radio host gave out our district office phone # on air. He was against our immigration policy and told our constituents to call. And they did. All. Day. Long. All I did all day was answer phones. It was exhausting and you can bet my bosses heard about it. We had discussions because of that call to action.”

The 12 of us vowed to work on local issues and inspire each other. We decided that working on our own county’s problems, acting locally but keeping an eye on the state and federal level. We have agreed to ‘bring a friend’ to our next meeting where we will come up with a list of action items. I feel optimistic and even a little energetic, there is nothing like having a goal you share with others to motivate you. Today I have a, ‘Fuck you, Minority President-Elect Trump.’, attitude. (Sorry Mom, I know you don’t like me saying the F-word but if we now live in a country where the man in the White House can grab pussy then we have moved past polite conversation.) Today I feel better than I did yesterday and a lot better than I did last week. Sitting alone in your room is disheartening. Siting among a group, even a small one, of motivated people is empowering. We may not change the world but we will definitely change a small part of our world. One lesson I have learned from this election- we have to be loud. Loud and repeat what we want over and over again until we are heard. We can’t do that from our couch, we have to get up. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

“You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (What you gonna do?)
We gonna stand up for our rights!” Bob Marley

As newly minted POTUS Trump got into the meat cleaver portion of his post-oath-taking peroration, it occurred to me that it would take a brash, insensitive oaf, ignorant of protocol and inter-related world history seriously to tackle head-on the issues he intended to dispose of forthwith.

You’ve done it, America. Ordinarily, you’d need a party-connected, thoughtful, sensitive candidate, prepared to play the usual game of political chess. What other kind of individual could be relied upon to put together the necessary consensus for how to deal with such weighty issues. Why, you would need a ... Exactly!

• The seepage of American industry into foreign venues
• Seemingly unsolvable Chicago gang killings
• Constantly crumbling infrastructure
• Over-financed and under-productive school systems

These are some of the static problems that Trump mentioned, and which seemingly have mystified elected officials for decades. Trump says he can and will fix them. With the inordinate independence he brings with him to this job, he certainly is in the best position to do so, as opposed to a less brash and more obligated person would be.

Curiously, Trump began his address by pointedly directing it to the whole world. The gist is that “Sam” no longer will be the post-WWII “Uncle” to the entire globe. That certainly cannot be comforting to the united Europe we urged into to being, and which currently is being diluted by the withdrawal of its major component. Of course, all of this is “Ochi Chernye” to the ears of Vladimir Putin. Maybe the pendulum has swung too far over the past 70 years. Perhaps we had become too comfortable with the wide swing. Maybe it took the leap of a daring, unencumbered kid to slow it down. Oh, yes, the kid did leave us with a surprising, saving grace: He said there was no place for prejudice among us.

At any rate, there we are; this is what we have, this is what we must work with/against.

***** ***** *****

When things seem to get out of hand,
Then, it’s time to strike up the band.
Oh, say can you see.
It’s just you and me.
Next four years, DJT’s the brand.

At first glance, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would appear to be swinging on opposite poles. In a sense, yes, but look closely, and you can see their arcs merge:
• Neither is a party regular
• Both were regarded dismissively when they began their run
• Both placed their respective party hosts in a pot of water, on a low flame
• Each one now is watching his respective party squirm, as the water begins to boil
• Both claim to represent a new movement.
This situation is ripe for metaphor; the reality even more fruitful.

Donald Trump is a lifelong blowhard and amasser of fortune. In a different political system, he could have been:
• A playboy king who found the crown too heavy
• A “fuehrer,” a failed artist who blamed his plight on the Jews and almost destroyed the world
• A “tovarich” who built power upon the slaughter of a royal family, and could have enslaved the world
• “Il Duce,” who foisted his insatiable ego upon a peaceful nation, and ended as an upside-down, desecrated corpse

The comparisons are endless. Just mix a vulnerable people, a vulnerable system and a megalomaniac.

Bernie Sanders is a lifelong Socialist who only tolerates the Democrats. He knew he would be only a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton, but it was an opportunity to get out his word. He had no idea how far that word would go.

In the beginning, he even kowtowed to Clinton, dramatically discarding the importance of her email debacle. As the crowds grew, that deference changed to challenge, with the seeming endless attendance at his noisy rallies. That deference has turned into contempt. It appears that Sanders has convinced himself that he could win this thing. Of course, he could; but it would take the unlikely defection of many of the party faithful.

In contrast to Trump’s mainly White, male, working-to-middle-class supporters, Sanders has zoomed in on young, mainly White, liberal, “digit-agers”. The sociologists will have a field day working this out. It probably confounds Bernie, as well; but he is not looking, “a gift-horse in the mouth.”

In this unexpectedly unusual campaign season, it would appear that the presumed candidates for both parties are set – but, the way things are going, don’t bet on it. As improbable as it may seem, neither of those candidates is set in unbreakable stone. Both could fail to be seated in an unruly (or subtlety controlled) convention. Most of the GOP bigwigs are playing it nicey-nicey with Trump – so far! This may be just a tactic, to keep him quiet until they come up with a stunner at the convention. Hillary Clinton’s lackluster performance, in comparison to the firebrand Bernie, may give those highly placed super delegates something to think about. At any rate, it’s a bet that neither convention will be a cure for insomniacs.

This is turning into a Third American Revolution – albeit, non-shooting. The Democratic and Republican Parties have been the two dominants since 1860, although their poles have shifted with regard to conservatism and liberalism. They were both masters of the scene throughout the 20th century and into the new millennium. Third-party incursions into this duopoly all have crashed. The current attacks upon these two giants were unexpected and defensively unprepared-for. The digital generation has unmasked the jealous party-fealty of the former, “smoke-filled rooms.” Both parties are in a quandary. Their controlling rules for voting are being challenged and trashed. Party leaders on both sides are stunned, and know not how to respond. They can only stand on the sidelines and watch these two outsiders have their way with their respective parties. The party leaders are being disrespected, discarded and dismissed. The party is not over – or is it?! Stay tuned.

***** ***** *****

Two outside kids came on the block.
They upset the neighborhood flock.
Came their turn at bat,
That half-ball went flat.
Moral: “Do not newcomers mock!”