Ten Years Gone

It was ten years ago today that Donald Trump rode down his own golden escalator to announce his 2016 candidacy for President of the United States, a story that was at the time only worthy of coverage on "Access Hollywood" or "Entertainment Tonight."  And everyone laughed - it was just another silly celebrity presidential campaign, like that of Joe Walsh (the Eagles guitarist, not the former Illinois congressman) or Bozo the Clown.

No one is laughing now.

In the past ten years, Trump has pushed right-wing agendas, used his power to grift from the government, restrict civil liberties, and even used his time between his two presidential terms to wreck havoc in Washington through his congressional minions.  His cuts to various programs and agencies since returning to power in January 2025 have more damage - mostly irreversible - to America in five months than anything Trump had done in the nine years and seven months before then.  And because the damage he's done to America in the last five months is mostly irreversible, that is, again, why I am a secessionist today.

But never mind that.  Ten years of Trump's impish mischief-making have pretty much culminated in the past week in the reaping of the mean and stunted fruit that Trumpism has born.  Among the lowlights:

• Trump has tightened his grip on the California National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles, keeping the troops in place as he appeals a judicial ruling saying that he cannot.
• Two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot, one of the couples shot to death, by a MAGA extremist.
• U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) walked into a briefing by Homeland Security Secretary and ICE Barbie Kristi Numbskull and attempted to ask her questions regarding the ongoing mass deportation going on in his state.  Senator Padilla was then accosted and seized by federal officers before being hauled out and pinned to the floor and handcuffed.  The Homeland Security Secretary continued to talk as if nothing were happening.
• Numbskull also threatened to have the governor of California and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass forcibly removed from office.
• Israel bombed suspected Iranian nuclear-research sites, and Trump may have gotten us inadvertently involved. 
• The parade.  That damn military parade.  

But here's some good news.  The Trump birthday military parade was an unmitigated disaster.  So few people bothered to show up that empty bleachers were clearly visible along the parade route.  The soldiers dressed in fatigues rather than dress uniforms, and they don't so much march as they walked.  A quiet protest among the Army personnel for being forced into such a farcical event was plainly obvious not only by their style of dress and casual strolling but also by a tank . . .

. . . with wheels that squeak.

By contrast, the No Kings protests that were held from coast to coast attracted millions of people, like this rally in Chicago.

Anyone not at this rally was likely at the White Sox ball park to hear Pope Leo XIV celebrate Mass from Rome via satellite.

If there was a winner from all of this mishigas, it was California governor Gavin Newsom.  Newsom has always been seen as the Gary Hart of  Generation X - glib, polished, policy wonk - but more recently he's been seen as such for all the wrong reasons - dubious relationships with women, conniving, willing to take right-wingers seriously by communicating with them, too slick for his own good. This past week, however, Newsom threw caution to the wind and delivered a sharp, pointed detailed attack on Trump that more or less accused the Dear Leader of doing exactly what he's doing - attempting to assume dictatorial powers and instigating trouble in the streets of Los Angeles as part of a plan to assume more power.  In other words, he did what most Democratic politicians should do but have not.  He's had enough and he said what needed to be said. 

A week ago, I wrote that Kentucky governor Andy Beshear was the logical choice for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination - that is, if the Democratic Party hasn't been banned under martial law by then - in my argument that we need a white male Protestant.  I didn't even mention Gavin Newsom in that post.  Now I look at him anew and I'm thinking, yes, he ought to be in the running for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination as well.

There's just one little bugaboo - he's a Roman Catholic, and of course a lot of white Protestants don't want a President who might bow to an American Holy Father in Rome.  So let's keep that little detail about Newsom to ourselves. 😉   

P.S.  You might have noticed that Kamala Harris hasn't resurfaced in the past week despite her adopted hometown of Los Angeles being under military occupation.  Most likely, she's ruled out another run for the Presidency (before Democrats adhere to tradition and rule it out for her) and she is now hoping that the next Democratic President will appoint her as U.S. Attorney General - the job she should have had in the Biden administration, because she would have been more aggressive against Trump than Merrick Garland was.