Can You Imagine a Blabbering Nutcase and a “No Kidding—No Joke” Guy in 2024?    

There is little doubt that the 2024 presidential election in the Divided States of America is probably the most important election in this country and the world for decades— possibly centuries, depending upon what happens in this country and the world in the next few months. Pick a few issues: economic and religious wars, climate change, economic inequality, civil wars, and the dissolution and creation of cultures and empires to name just a few.  

There’s an old myth that lightning will never strike in the same place twice. That’s why a recent incident in Switzerland made the international news. Two Swiss farmers working in a field were struck by lightning. As they were being assisted by a policeman and a helicopter pilot who had been called in the emergency, another bolt struck the two rescuers, but they were not seriously hurt. One observer said: “Lightning never strikes twice until it does!”

Myths hardly ever die—but our own Empire State building is struck an average of 25 times a year. This is why we have to think seriously about another Trump-Biden contest in 2024. We sure as hell don’t want to go through a second strike. A big majority does not want to see another match between an old blabbering nutcase and an older “no kidding – no joke” politician who has seen better days.  

On top of the very questionable abilities of the two blabbermouths, we have to face the fact our planet has us in a DEFCON 1 mode as summarized by Noam Chomsky: “It brings to mind the ultimate insanity of our institutional structure. If you want to stop destroying the planet and human life on Earth, you have to bribe the rich and powerful, so maybe they’ll come along.  If we offer them enough candy, maybe they’ll stop killing people. That’s savage capitalism. If you want to get anything done, you have to bribe those who own the place.”

If either one is elected, he will be unable to cope with the future world because of age, infirmities, and disabilities. Because of climate change it is absolutely necessary the world go to civilian DEFCON 1, often used to describe the top level of military readiness necessary to win a difficult war. If we don’t kill climate change, everybody dies.  

We Cannot Win the Climate War if Led by Losers    

Because they have analyzed the millions of words already expressed by Donald Trump daily over the last seven years, 27 expert psychiatrists and psychologists have used the current American Psychiatric Association’s Manual of Mental Disabilities to diagnose him as both a sociopath and psychopath with malignant narcissism. King Donald mesmerized the MAGA guys and dolls who walked to the capitol as tourists but quickly converted to treason on the steps and an insurrection broke out.  

A recent NBC News poll hinted that MAGA may be in political hospice. Only 24% of Americans have positive views about MAGA while 45% voice negative views. On the Black Lives Matter Movement, the poll is very close: 38% positive to 40% negative. On the two political parties, 10% of Americans are equally more negative than positive about both parties.  

Senator Bernie Sanders, who still lists himself as a Socialist but politically is a Scandinavian Democratic-Socialist who caucuses with Democrats, keeps repeating his list of Congressional political failures every time he gets on news programs. Here are direct quotes from his well-known list:

1.  “Along with the rest of the world, we need to make major investments to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into more efficient and sustainable energy sources, or the life our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and precarious.”

2.  “While the insurance companies and the drug industry make hundreds of billions in profit, 85 million Americans are uninsur3d or underinsured, our life expectancy is declining, and we have a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health practitioners  and dentists.”

3.  “While we have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any major country, millions of parents cannot find affordable and quality childcare. The number of our young people who graduate from college is falling behind many other countries and 45 million Americans are struggling under the weight of student debt.”

4.  “While gentrification is causing rents to soar in many parts of our country some 600,000 Americans are homeless, and 18 million are spending more than half of their limited incomes on housing.”

5.  “More military spending is unnecessary. The $886 billion in defense spending…is more than sufficient to protect the United States and our allies. The U.S. spends more than three times what China spends on its military. This record high defense spending would come in spite of the end of the war in Afghanistan and despite the fact the U.S. spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. As a nation, the time is long overdue for fundamental changes to our national priorities. Cutting military spending is a good first step.”  

To sum up, it was these policies expressed by Bernie Sanders rather than Joe Biden that won the 2020 election for Biden. Bernie was the Pied Piper of Democrats who convinced voters between the ages of 18 and 29 to vote for an 80-year-old piper who had run out of gassy wind long ago. I still insist that, although the two are about the same age, Sanders is a very young and spicey 81 to young voters while Biden is a doddering tasteless bore to the same voters at 80.  

Why Doesn’t the World’s Greatest Artist of the Deal Make One—or Plead Insanity?      

Certainly Donald Trump, known as the “Orange Genius” to his Christian MAGA cult millions, has the dynamic genes and experiences to make a big deal for the ages with the Justice Department to keep his big ass out of prison and stay wealthy until he is welcomed by the heavenly gods into a Vegas-like citadel. His tombstone could read: “Here Lies the World’s Greatest Artist of the Deal” if he pulls it off. I don’t have the space to list all the charges he is facing at personal, state and federal levels, but the paper used by lawyers, if stored in boxes, would certainly equal the number of boxes shown at Mara-Loco containing classified material from the White House stored in toilets and storage rooms. Just the paper used in the rape and sexual harassment cases might fit in 26 boxes, one box for each case, and might fit in the toilet.   He has another option if he doesn’t make a straight deal with the Biden government.

I got the idea about the use of the insanity defense from retired Judge Michael Luttig from the Fourth Circuit. He thinks Trump has a “god complex.” I thought: “Here’s a very conservative judge who also thinks Trump is nuts.”

Insanity defenses have been around since the Greeks and Romans. The Romans used it more. Think of Nero—and compare him to The Donald. Anyway, the defense could be used when you have a defendant who is not responsible for a criminal act because he has a psychiatric disease at the time of the act. Most jurisdictions call for an evaluation by forensic mental health professionals.

In Trump’s case, that examination has already been done by 27 psychiatrists and psychologists in a published book. The insanity plea is based on whether the defendant had the ability to control his behavior at the time of the offense. Trump has exhibited his failure to control himself millions of times.   Normally a person who is declared insane by a court and jury is sentenced to abide in a mental institution of some sort.

In Trump’s case, as a former president who has lifetime Secret Service protections, why not sentence him to live at Mar-a-Loco for the rest of his “natural” life? Force him to split and donate all of his ill-gotten campaign funds to the LBGTQIA+ community and to Black Lives Matter organizations. Ban him from all social media and hamburger joints. To pay for his expenses at Mar-a-Loco, his golf courses could be sold whenever necessary to cover expenses.  

Think and Act!   The Fargo Mass Shooter Could Have Killed Hundreds      

On July 15, when I heard the first seconds of the Fargo mass shooting, I yelled at my wife Corky: “That guy has a machinegun!”

It’s the same thing I yelled at her when I watched the Las Vegas shooting when that mass shooter fired more than 11,000 bullets at 20,000 concert goers waving arms in a cement parking lot. The Vegas shooter had 12 AR-15s, some with bumpstocks, which made them automatics. He killed 60 and wounded about 800 men and women. The sound of automatics is engraved in my brain because I have heard thousands of those automatic rounds. My first command as a Marine Corps officer was a heavy machinegun platoon. We fired every light and heavy machinegun in the military, air or water-cooled, and each squad had one poor little guy who carried a 22-pound Browning Automatic Rifle called a BAR. Every other Marine carried a semi-automatic Garand which fired an eight-round clip. As an officer I carried a 45 caliber Model 1911 Browning pistol which constantly missed the target.    

I know what an automatic firearm sounds like. The shooter had one. It took a week for someone in local law enforcement to admit it. Evidently the three cops and the other victim were hit by automatic fire that should never be available to “civilians.”

If the American gun culture pandemic is to be eliminated, I believe it is necessary to limit civilians to six rounds in magazines or clips, and to eventually ban magazines beyond that capacity. Ammunition over 1,000 ft per second for rifles and 700 ft per second for pistols must be banned and all ammo sales must be limited and recorded. Sales of special ammunition must be limited and recorded. The sale of assault-type weapons, whether rifle, shotgun, or pistol, must be banned. All conceal and carry permit laws must be repealed. All civilian arms must be registered with law authorities. No firearms can be sold or traded without background checks.

There must be a federal “red flag” law to cover the 6% of us that go bonkers each year.   None of the above cures to solve the “gundemic” will be approved until we have a major event—a mass shooting of hundreds or thousands of people. Or perhaps the shooting of a dozen politicians.

It just about happened, but an auto accident on Fargo’s 25th street caught the attention of the shooter who was going downtown to shoot hundreds of people with about $25,000 worth of deadly force. He decided to start early when he saw police and firemen EMTs. A convicted shooter once said: “If you’ve got a fully-loaded gun in your waistband, you don’t have to live in fear.” Think about that statement for a few minutes. Discuss it with a neighbor. A semi-automatic AR-15 can fire 120 rounds in 15 seconds. How many people were enjoying the Downtown Street Fair?