DICTATOR IN TRAINING

by Ruth A. Sheets

A dictator is master of all he surveys.  He controls nearly every aspect of his people's lives from where they can live to what they can learn, even what they can think.  Some dictators have determined how many children a woman can have, how people can act - even in their own homes - where one can work and is allowed to live.

Our president, Donald Trump is taking notes.  He is a dictator in training.  He has many of the qualities of a dictator, (perhaps not a successful one), but nonetheless, he is in serious training.

Mr. Trump got some practice while he ran his own company and was a "boss" on reality TV.  He could make a gesture or give a command and someone who didn't do his bidding was fired or in some other way punished.  He could also distribute largess.  This is at least as important as the punishment because the possibility of receiving acknowledgment from the boss, king, dictator promotes extreme loyalty in some, especially if the gifts are not given often and are considered of great value within the organization, effective conditioning.

Recently, Mr. Trump met alone with one of the world's current total dictators, Kim Jung Un of North Korea.  Mr. Kim has been developing his dictatorship bonifides since birth.  He watched his father and grandfather at work and learned well.  The good little people are rewarded with nice digs in the capital while most of the rest scratch out a life on some of the poorest land in east Asia.  The bad little people, (that is bad enough to be noticed), are sent with their families to concentration camps where the hell to which they are consigned is supposed to be a deterrent to the rest of the population.  Mr. Trump would like such a system here, with a few minor modifications of course.

Mr. Trump's first official visit was to Saudi Arabia, a kingdom where the king or prince in charge can dictate every aspect of life for the people and claim it is all God's will.  He treats women as less than second-class citizens who need Daddy's or brother's permission for whatever they do.  Women were just given the right to drive which until a previous dictator took the "right" away 50 years ago was theirs.  "Oh, thank you beloved dictator, we are so grateful to you for what you have done for women."  Mr. Prince, you threw women who fought for the right to drive into prison, "but the other women can drive now," you whine.  Mr. Trump would like to hear such gratitude from American women too. Why, they should be grateful he notices them and selects a few of them to lie and cheat for him, only demanding complete loyalty and just a few other things too.

Russia's Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, and Stalin wannabe, is a dictator who Mr. Trump admires.  Mr. Putin uses a variety of techniques to keep anyone who opposes him from getting in his way and spreading the truth to the Russian population.  Mr. Putin's fake news machine works overtime to make sure the people learn nothing he doesn't want them to know.  His reach extends to influencing American politics too.  Mr. Trump is well on the way to making this work in America.  He has learned that a dictator can lie with impunity, so he is practicing to see just how many lies he can get away with.  He already has a cult following that loves and believes everything he says, and a media that is afraid to challenge him, except around the edges.

The Philippines elected a president who does not care about the law.  He is totally OK if the police shoot down or otherwise disappear people they "suspect" of dealing drugs.  Thousands have been sacrificed to Mr. Duterte's edict.  The courts turn their heads and pretend they don't see.

Mr. Trump and his sidekick, Attorney General Jeff Sessions want to be able to do the same thing.  They believe that going after "drug dealers," (no matter how dangerous the drug) will clean up the cities and stop the opioid epidemic, or something.  And, if the police had more power, they could shoot down the pesky people of color who mar "our cities."  (Just the bad ones, you know.)

The Syrian dictator has committed atrocities on "his people" because he is desperate to stay in power.  His family has been at it for a long time.  Al Assad can make the people do what he wants.  He has no trouble with gassing, bombing, shooting, and starving the people.  Mr. Trump does not have to resort to that yet.  He can just refuse aid to places like Puerto Rico after a hurricane and a thousand people at least die.  He can encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to cut regulations for clean air and water, champion the increased use of coal, ignore global warming and people will die, especially the pathetic people who just can't afford to get out of the way.  "Ah, isn't that too bad.  They could do better if they worked harder."  We must help business you know.

Separate children from their parents, Trump got that from Nazi Germany and from the U.S. treatment of Native Americans.  Zero tolerance of immigrants, Trump saw that many countries did that to Jews seeking asylum at the start of World War II.  Undermine the institutions of a nation, China is doing that as we speak.  And, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are working on it together.  Mr. Xi has someone from his country's recent history, Mao, to help him out.  Mr. Trump depends on the slimy slugs he has surrounded himself with to guide him along the way.

There is no program that helps struggling Americans that Mr. Trump  has not targeted for destruction.   He gets lots of help from his sycophantic "advisors," the Supreme Court, Republicans in Congress, Republican governors and state legislatures, all of whom seem to have forgotten what it means to serve the common good.  Perhaps Dictator Trump will give his followers even more power, or the illusion of it, a feeling of importance, or a hope that somehow, "those awful people who aren't like us real Americans, will be forced to go away," and, of course, "give us back our country, our white Protestant, male-controlled country."

Donald Trump is learning fast.  He never learned much about history, math, economics, science, or anything else, but dictatorship 101, he is mastering with the help of his willing tutors.  And, we are all paying for his tuition. 

WHEN EVIL STALKS

by Ruth A. Sheets

Evil does not just happen.  It has a cause (and it is not Satan).  The cause is human action and occasionally mental illness.  I dismiss mental illness here because of its limited impact.

The evil I want to discuss is the creeping evil that starts relatively small, then grows as it is nurtured.  Spouse abusers don't start their relationship by one partner beating up the other.  If so, the relationship, unless it is a forced marriage, would stop right there.  The future abuser begins with charm, laughter, joking, to entice the victim into complacency.  If the future abuser slips and commits some violence, there is always a quick apology and promise it won't happen again.  Over time the future abuser divides the spouse from family and friends, isolates the partner, and increases the violence/abuse.

I suggest, as others probably have, the Trump administration is like the spouse abuser, but on a larger scale.  Mr. Trump started out as a barely functioning real estate guy.  He had lots of money from Dad and a big mouth.  He associated with high-profile people and made sure he stayed in the public eye, a kind of fun guy.

Some people around him saw that Mr. Trump liked power, obtained with as little effort as possible.  He published a book that he didn't write.  The book, for some who wanted to make a name for themselves in business, won fans to this deal-making genius.  Mr. Trump went through bankruptcy numerous times (some say 4, others say 6), and each time he came out losing very little.  Everyone else involved took the hit.  The explanation, "It wasn't my fault and I'm only using the tools the Government permits."  His reputation didn't suffer with anyone who mattered.  The abused were powerless to do anything.

Mr. Trump was given a reality show where he strutted around, yelling "You're fired!" no more was necessary, and won a whole new fan base.  He had little to do with the show except come in at the end and look like a CEO.  As always, other people did all the work while his name kept getting bigger.  Who cares about the "fired" ones.  It was all about Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump had his eye on politics for a long time.  He shaped his "beliefs" to what he thought potential supporters believed.  He realized his best chance for any kind of success would be among conservatives, although it is not clear that he was particularly conservative.  To get onto the political map, during President Obama's administration, Mr. Trump's was the voice in the background trying to undermine policies.  He made outrageous claims like that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States, and    that Mr. Obama was a Muslim, (he isn't, but who cares if he were).  Both were carefully designed to show Mr. Obama was not a legitimate president or even American, not like us.  Mr. Trump's prestige  grew.

The evil dripped slowly, albeit loudly; it was spreading into the national discourse.  The whole thing might have been stopped then if the media had unanimously agreed not to cover ANY birther BS, but instead, they amplified it.  That is exactly what Mr. Trump needed to launch his presidential bid.

Mr. Trump had no political experience whatsoever, but claimed he was an amazing businessman, a lie, of course, but his fans didn't care.  They were getting used to his lies and even reveled in them.  As his campaign progressed, Mr. Trump used the co-opted the media, all of it.  it didn't matter what he said or did not say. the media was on board.  And, if they wrote or said anything that did not speak of Mr. Trump in the most glowing terms, he called them fake or claimed the "election is rigged."

Mr. Trump  surrounded himself with people who knew how to make use of his name recognition and media attention.   every word Mr. Trump said was recorded and shared.  The media was by then afraid to use the word "lie." even though much of what Mr. Trump said was untrue. Hardly challenged, Mr. Trump's followers swallowed the lies as facts.  This too was planned by Mr. Trump's handlers.  To them, Mr. Trump presented himself as a strong man who would cut through the crap in Washington and "drain the swamp."  When asked to explain, he was vague and dismissive, knowing it was all just talk. 

He bullied his way through the Republican primaries and debates.  By this point, Mr. Trump was like a runaway freight train.  His fans, people who think they like "strong" men set themselves on his path permitting no deviation.  When interviewed (which was often), Mr. Trump's followers could only say. "He says what he thinks and he'll do what he promises."  They could rarely identify which things they liked about his plan, probably because there was little substance to it.

Mr. Trump tried out his racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic statements on his campaign crowds to see which would work.  If the crowd cheered, the comments stayed in, if not they were gone until they could be reworked to be more acceptable.

Mr. Trump tapped into America's deep racist streak.  Some whites looked at the world and perhaps, for the first time, noticed that white is a minority (as is every other group).  Mr. Trump spoke to their fears, telling them he would fix things for them since it was those people who were the source of all their righteous woes.

Evangelical Christians were co-opted too.  As crazy as this sounds, it shows how easily evil can creep into communities where people might otherwise stand against it.  Evangelicals perhaps thought of Mr. Trump as a work in progress.  They excused him of everything they would never have permitted in a member of their community.  They dismissed true people of faith as unworthy

So, Mr. Trump was elected with lots of help, small and large drops of evil that buoyed him up.  He didn't win the popular vote (by nearly 3 million votes), but that was in some way a boon for him too.  He could use that to  distract the country from the small evils he would perpetrate.  The Russia investigation, a feud with the FBI, nomination of incompetent, inappropriate, often evil people for all positions in the government would hide the actual dismantling of the government and the programs that supported the American people.

Mr. Trump, by the second year of his term, had pulled in the majority of the Republican leadership.  They too have capitulated, gradually, but inexorably.  Nearly anything Mr. Trump wants, they will agree to with few exceptions, that is until now.

Immigration has been a point of contention for Mr. Trump and his followers for years.  He began his campaign by accusing Mexicans who come here of being rapists.  He has tried to ban Muslims and for no reason except that he can, he tried to stop the "Dreamer" program )DACA), only temporarily halted by the courts.  He stepped up deportations, taking people who have families here to support, who have been here for decades and who have made positive impacts on their communities.  He wants a ridiculous wall and kept claiming it would be higher and higher, as if that would stop desperate people.

In April, he started separating children as young as one year old from their parents at the southern border (as a deterrent), with no specific plans to reunite them.  Children were sent to "baby jails" (now euphemistically called "Tender Age Shelters).  They are cages where children are held without their parents.  Mr. Trump hoped no one would notice, and at first few did.  To date, nearly 25400 children have been separated and taken away.  Mr. Trump makes a lot of claims about the children which sound a lot like the claims about Jewish children made by some Germans in the 1930s, like "they're an infection."  Alas, for Mr. Trump and his evil team, people did take notice and actually stood up to stop it.  Mr. Trump finally signed an executive order to stop stealing the children from their parents, but neglected to say how those already stolen would be reunited.  The order allows establishment of family jails to take the place of the baby jails.  Amazing!  Beware, though, we will all pay for this in some way.  The machine of evil is whirring on and it is guaranteed something currently off the radar will come to bite us or someone else while we are focused on this cruelty.  A man like Mr. Trump who has lied and cheated his way into power will not stop just because he has been checked.  Watch for it!

WHEN THEY ARE WRONG

by Ruth A. Sheets

In the Pennsylvania legislature, Republicans are working to change the way judges in the state are elected.  This isn't because the current system is not working, but because it is not working for them. 

The Republican party is furious that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the Republican-drawn/gerrymandered districts as unfair.  Of course, the Republican legislators know very well that their district lines were not drawn fairly.  A lot of time and effort was put into making sure that despite the fact that Pennsylvania has significantly more Democratic voters than Republicans, the Republicans would always have most of the US Congressional and state representatives in their column.  They want the courts too.

This phenomenon is becoming a frequent presence on the American political scene.  Republicans are the most common practitioners.  What is this phenomenon?

When you are caught doing what you know or suspect is wrong, unamerican, or probably illegal, double down on your wrong actions.  If possible, make those you don't like or respect suffer even more.

-Don't hold hearings and a vote on President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice (as the Constitution requires), then approve someone perhaps, just barely qualified but conservative enough he will approve anything you want the Court to do for your party and your followers.  then approve only the most ult-right, compliant (to conservative whims) nominees for all Federal court positions, nominees who will regularly rule against women and minorities.

- Your voter I.D. law doesn't pass muster, so work to eliminate as many voting days as possible to inconvenience and discourage poor and minority voters.  Then, make voter registration as difficult as possible for those who don't have easy access to the few registration locations. 

- Purge voter rolls, close to Election Day, mostly of Democratic voters, of course, and when caught, take the case to the Supreme Court which 5-4 says, "OK," when they should have said "No.  Everyone has a right to vote."  Now it's legal, Don't get caught cutting too many minorities on purpose, though.  Just accidentally.

- Migrants and refugees are a terrible problem and those people just keep coming.  We'll build a fence, no, a wall, hire thousands of people to guard the southern border, destroy cashes of water and supplies that would help people crossing the desert.  Since the people keep coming, we'll call them animals and take the children from their mothers at the border as a deterrence.  Oh yes, then the Republican president claims these actions are the fault of Democrats, a lie, but what can you expect.

- Women want control over their own reproduction.  They are moving into the male sphere.  Tell women that birth control is harmful and that abortion will destroy them for life physically and emotionally.  Oh no!  Women know the truth!  We have to stop them, so we'll force insurance companies not to cover birth control.   We'll approve of clinics that lie to patients about everything related to their reproduction.  We'll keep making it harder and harder to get an abortion.  We want the Supreme Court, that we have packed, to say abortion is illegal.  Why is abortion so horrific, you might ask them.  Ummm, it must be in the Bible or something.  Oh wait, it's murder, or something.  Oh yes, it's definitely murder.  We should punish the women who have abortions and the doctors who perform them.

In case it isn't clear, the common factors in all these cases are race, sex, and poverty, white -- or wannabe white, rich -- or wannabe rich, male (Republicans) and everyone else (Democrat and Independent).  To indicate that a Republican might be racist is the greatest insult, they claim.  I don't understand this.  The amount of thought, scheming, and effort Republicans and their allies use to figure out these ingenious actions against African-Americans, immigrants, and women, one would think they were proud of their work and should stand up and state what all Republicans believe deep down.  White, rich men should rule because they know what's best for everyone else, the inferiors who must be kept in their place. 

This situation will not improve until more people stand up to the fear, anger, and privilege Republicans deliberately infuse into everything these days.  The media will not help because they have become lazy and just skim off the top the people and events they will cover. 

Voting at all levels is the key.  Candidates that spew phony patriotism, imply inferiority of any group of people, and toss off easy answers to complex problems do not deserve anyone's vote.  These candidates are wrong and will only double down on their racism, sexism, and xenophobia to no one's benefit but their own.  We must keep this in mind as we face the lies, deceit, and scheming of the 2018 election.

THE APOLOGY PROBLEM

by Ruth A. Sheets

Lately, apologies are the thing.  Make a slip of the tongue, apologize.  Harass a woman or minority person, apologize.  Get caught bribing someone or making employees open false bank accounts, apologize a little.  Cheat on your partner or visit an escort service, apologize, if you're a Democrat, then resign from office.  Tell some jokes that might offend a member of Mr. Trump's followers/White House family, definitely apologize.  Make sexist or racist comments in public, apologize, well, sort of. 

Apologies can be a way of moving a relationship or connection closer to balance after a crime or even a slight has been committed.  Apologies are important when they are sincere and appropriate.  The consequences of apologies, however, are not in any way equal.

People have apologized for things they have done, sometimes even for things they have not done.  Often people's apologies have been false, said just to make a situation go away.  And, if the apology was appropriately moving, the "right" person could be forgiven anything.

It seems apologies now are only for certain people, in particular, Democrats, liberals, progressives, some men.  On "The Late Show" recently, Stephen Colbert had Bill Clinton as his guest.  He demanded an apology of him for the Monica Lewinski affair that took place twenty years ago.  Mr. Clinton, like him or not has apologized so many times since then it is ridiculous.  He was president at the time of his fling with  Ms. Lewinski, but she was a willing participant.  Yes, a man has more power in this situation, but to claim that Ms. Lewinski had no part in what happened is to remove her agency.  She, of course, is not expected to apologize for putting herself in the position to be drawn into the affair (or whatever it was).  She could not have walked away?  Was she threatened?  I am not blaming her, but when do the apologies end? 

I am concerned about the relentless nature of the demands for Mr. Clinton's apologies.  It seems Republicans and conservatives are rarely held to account for much.  I don't remember anyone asking for George W. Bush's apology for lying to start a war with Iraq in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed and many more were displaced.  His lies were deliberate, convincing Congress to support military action that was inappropriate.  Part of the campaign against Hilary Clinton was that she "supported" the war, the manufactured war. 

Mr. Trump brags that he never apologizes for or regrets anything he does.  He has cheated on his wives, lied over and over to the American people, threatened our allies.  Where are the demands for his apologies?  Republicans are in charge of all branches of the government and they will demand nothing in the way of apologies from anyone in their sphere, including for actions that are clearly unconstitutional. 

It seems for conservative Christians and Republicans (they mostly overlap), a quick apology, possibly sincere, is just the ticket.  It "lets" God forgive whatever behavior over and over.  That, of course, does not work for anyone else because they are just not as holy or worthy, or maybe, rich.  Mr. Trump is special for the Evangelicals because he doesn't even have to apologize and he is recognized as holy.

So, Mr. Clinton will keep having to apologize while those who actually cause real harm like Mr. Bush, the sexually abusing coaches and doctors, and religious zealots won't unless they choose to.   Harvey Weinstein will and should pay for his abuses (not enough), a "liberal" you know, but the banks and companies that wrongly foreclosed on people's homes, overcharged poor people for services they didn't want or need, and produce destructive products make minimal apologies if any at all.  At most they will pay minimal fines and just keep on keeping on. 

The demanded apologies must stop.  They mean nothing and are only used as an attempt to humiliate certain enemies.  There is no "repentance" and rarely an attempt to change behavior or make amends to those harmed. 

Skip the tearful, pathetic apologies and tell us what you will do to fix what you have done.  And truly, we need to have some way of prioritizing wrongdoing.  All acts are not equally heinous and should not be treated as such.  Honest journalists need to step up and put an end to the apology demanding.  Just accurately cover what happened, minus the apologies unless  they are from the journalists themselves for getting swept up in Mr. Trump's misdirection and deceit.