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A.H. Scott: Quality Control Two

Poster illustration of Kanye West by Thomcat23 — No Ye. Artwork by Thomcat23, Copyright 2022

Quality Control Two

“A Touch Of Crass” –

With Republicans, there is always a touch of crass.

Like oxygen that fills their lungs and blood that pumps through their veins, that extra dagger of cruelty has to be there. Not just when they are musing about winning, but even after they’ve won an election and their opponent has been defeated.

Take for example, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs’ gleeful chide[16] at Speaker Nancy Pelosi of these following words: “she’s losing the gavel, but finding the hammer”.

“We can’t wait to get back to Washington, D.C. with some new Arizona Congressmen. And, we’re going to show Nancy Pelosi the door very shortly. Don’t let it get you on the backside, Nancy! Yeah, she’s losing the gavel, but finding the hammer” – Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona

As those words leave his lips and that smile came across his face, Biggs has that look of a man who is so damned proud of himself and what he’s saying. Then, he adds a dastardly quip to the audience before him, “Too soon? Too soon…I just didn’t know?”

I guess it must be something in the water out there in Arizona, because Kari Lake had to add her measly two cents into the mix of a morbid snicker[17] at Pelosi also, when she spoke about the violent attack upon the Speaker’s husband, 82-year old Paul Pelosi in the couple’s home in San Francisco.

That crassness in not just wanting to defeat the opposition, but to obliterate it is that chip of callousness upon the shoulders of Republicans is what comes across.

If one looks at a 7-day period of events in November 2022 from Saturday, November 12th to Saturday, November 19th you can see the rollercoaster ride that has been life in America as unfolding in a snapshot of contradictions.

Control of the United States Senate by the Democrats was projected on Saturday, November 12th, with the re-election of Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Mastro in her race against Republican Adam Laxalt. I’ll admit I was surprised with the outcome, but definitely am giving thumbs up to the Democrats for holding onto the Senate with 50 votes, with the possibility of extending to 51 votes with Senator Raphael Warnock winning his December run-off against Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia.

Wow, maybe the sun’s going to shine and the darkness will vanish in the maudlin mist of the past couple of years. Not so fast or easy anything could ever be, I have come to realize.

On Tuesday, November 15th, 2022, like Dracula rising from his crypt, former President Donald Trump announced another bid for his old office. Geez, it’s like one step forward with electoral progress and a thousand steps back to hear him making another run.

Like a gold medallion wearing lounge singer adorned in a super-ruffled shirt stolen from Liberace whose act is as obsolete as a fake spray-tan and failed comb-over, Donald J. Trump waddled onto a flag festooned stage at his ballroom with security blocking the doors for no one in attendance to exit early before deflating to that final note of his incoherent announcement of resurgence of a Republican candidacy for 2024, was something definitely to be bypassed.

Even Roger Stone, who was on hand for his old compatriot’s speech had the gaze of a man in need of a double-martini and quick getaway from a low energy effort by a once entertaining figure. The thrill is gone and so is the enthusiasm from Trump’s cash-infusing benefactors. I guess they’ve decided on a newer and younger dance partner from the Sunshine state.

With the Senate in control of the Democrats, fingers were crossed by yours truly in the hope that the House of Representatives would hold Democratic also. But, it was not meant to be in the Democrats’ hands, as the Republicans have taken control of the lower house of Congress on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022.

Thursday, November 17th, 2022 was the unveiling of what the newly minted House leadership would be focusing upon in the new session starting in January of next year. During a press conference, the incoming chairs of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees did not mince words on their plans for the future. Democracy for the time being has held. Yet, the demonization of Hunter Biden will ensue.

Returning to that old nugget from Mitch’s mouth about candidate quality; here comes up the pachyderm’s ass the twice impeached former President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump, announcing he’s re-animated from the political grave to run again for the same office which he was tossed out of in 2021.

Big liar with his Big Lie is stirring from his crypt in West Palm Beach, spewing the same crap he’s been spewing for the past couple of years.

Some may wonder why is it that Trump is announcing his candidacy for a second go round at being President so far away from 2024. Well, a man of such exacerbated vanity in thinking he alone is the only being in this nation that can be at the helm of the government could be one reason.

But, the more obvious answer to the timing of this announcement can go to something of Donald J. Trump thinking the Feds or New York investigators won’t indict him if he’s murmuring about being a man running for the highest office in the land.

Filing papers with the FEC (Federal Election Commission) in becoming a candidate for presidency and giving a few weak words in a flag festooned ballroom at Mar-A-Lago doesn’t drape you under a super-shield of impenetrability for any illegalities you have committed.

There have been politicians from both political parties in local, state, and federal positions that have faced investigation and indictments during terms in office. So, Donald you ain’t special in thinking that only you can skirt the reach of the Feds slapping you with charges.

So, on Friday, November 18th when Attorney General Merrick Garland named Jack Smith as Special Counsel to investigate the purloined papers the former President had in his possession at Mar-A-Lago and aspects of the fake elector plot the former occupant of the White House was involved in, Donald’s starting to hear the faint sound of silver cuffs and shackles in the distance.

Oh no, this election season is not over. It in some ways has not even begun. This is a conveyor belt of chaos that is just unraveling before the American people’s eyes.

There is an accelerated level of packaging which DeSantis and some others, such as candidate Kari Lake perpetrate on a plateau which Donald J. Trump isn’t even as deft at performing.

When fascism comes to America, it won’t be a howling madman of a citric hue. It will be buffed from any jagged edges and smoothed with a delivery that would make a liberal nod in an off-guarded way of agreeing with the most miniscule of flickers of what is being spoken of. Now, that’s the crisply molded configuration of fascism upon the shores of these United States.

With enough gauzy lighting and calming vocal tone which Kari Lake uses ever so deftly, there will a lulling of many citizen’s senses in thinking nothing so unpleasant shall ever touch these American shores.

You won’t know you are under the boot, until the faint impression of a sole has been left upon your psyche. It won’t be stark, but definitely indelible in what we become transformed within.

Have no doubt that these people are still out there. They may have gone back into the woodwork or the shadows, and not be so loudly heard. Yet, for the rest of us out here in America, it would be an enormous mistake for anyone to be wafted back to dreamland in thinking there is no longer any danger or diminution of what our democracy is.

We must all remain vigilant in keeping an eye out for that trickle of caustic crimson which remains.

There is love in this country, and there is no doubt about that. On the parallel track there is hate in this country, and there is no doubt about that, also.

So, where do we go from here…?

I guess you could call the tactics of the Republican party truly GOP, for they sure as hell are Grooving Off Pantomime. When they need to find a way out of hot water, they gravitate to using a certain prop here and there.

The whole idea of what Trump is doing is just plain quackers, or should I say bonkers.

Oops, speaking of bonkers, there’s Lindsey Graham again.

Senator Lindsey Graham’s head is so far up Trump’s hoop skirt that his neck is twisted, his morals are twisted and other things on that man is in a twist.

Or, maybe I should say a snit, a knot, or just a vapor inducing spat.

It’s amazing to me that a Senator who once seemed placid, all of a sudden has become drunk on being in proximity of Presidential power; almost to the extent of thinking he might have some of that power and prestige cloak him under a state of privilege.

But, uh-uh, Mr. South Carolina; you can’t do what the boy from Queens can do. Trump can call the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and spin a tale of needing a certain number of votes to win that Southern state. Okay, that’s Trump doing what he do. Yet, you, Lindsey are under some assumption in thinking you can do some callin’ n’ sniffin’ around officials to throw out ballots[18] in Georgia and not have your hand smacked or the Fulton County District Attorney come with some questions for you specifically.

So, from one election in 2020 to another in 2022, Graham seems to be that kind of spinning top who is whizzing before our very eyes. With Florida Senator Rick Scott heading up the quest for electing more Republicans to the Senate, it seems that Lindsey Graham took his affinity for the peach state to another level.

You see that aspect of anesthetizing the American public seems to work on some people; but luckily not all of us, for we can see through their game of bait and switch.

During the election run-off in Georgia, the party of pantomime is revving up their engines to slide into the victory lane.

This goes into that pantomime act of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Texas Senator Ted Cruz sitting on either side of Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker and speaking about him[19] without letting him (or wanting him to) speak for himself. They do the talking and the man in the middle does the nodding.

More Marcel Marceau than Edgar Bergen is the situation that gets played out again and again. It doesn’t matter what the speaker is saying, for you can just mute the audio and focus on the visual only. Graham just needs his prop there with him and the segment of people he is trying to communicate the message to shall always understand what he is getting at.

No need for an ideological thesis is needed, when it can be short-circuited by what is seen before your eyes. I have a certain figure situated next to me and you can get the picture for yourself is how this handler’s comes off. Pantomime becomes ever so sublime for those who swallow the party line.

“We fired Nancy Pelosi today. All the crazy crap in the House – that is over!” – Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC[20]

And, I just gotta’ say, what the hell has happened to Lindsey Graham? He’s preening, prissing and flusterin’ around as if someone or something’s been promised or appointed to him. It’s like he’s on another level of casting about for an epiphany to reawaken.

Graham’s snotty, pissy, and Trumped up (pun intended) outrage on behalf of a then Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh seemed that of a faked performance of wishing he could pound his chest like Tarzan, as in reality the South Carolina Senator is more akin to the character of Uncle Arthur from the old “Bewitched” television series.

First off, this is the same Lindsey Graham whom a couple of years back when he was buddies with the late Arizona Senator John McCain, spoke with an eloquent grace[21] towards Joe Biden.

Suddenly, it’s as if Graham has transformed himself into Trump’s henchman to do a few dirty deeds here and there. Once running against Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination with words criticizing the man of the tower; the Senator from South Carolina seems to have penetrated the position of being a faithful helper in the previous election of 2020.

Now, he’s just goin’ off in a televised tizzy for a man whose glory days with a football is decades gone and scratching for a new gig is so far above that man’s mental might.

Hmm, what’s up? Why you? Why now? Why him?

Looks like Lindsey Graham has gone sweet for the exquisite delights of Georgia’s flavors. I mean, damn, what is it with him in particular – always scraping, bowing, and even on the verge of tears [22] in praise and pleasure for touting the need for Herschel Walker to get into that Senate. I mean, there is another Senator from South Carolina that won’t dive so willingly into the tank for Walker’s candidacy. Oh, and by the way, Senator Tim Scott would make for a better exemplar of what Senator Graham speaks of about using Herschel Walker as some sort of credible avatar for African-Americans to vote for the Republican Party in the future.

Graham is treating Walker like he’s his pet…ooops, I meant to say pet project.

The project of diddling away democracy can come in forms that many may actually never see coming. Sometimes it might just come out the blue.

As the seventh day of this maelstrom was underway on Saturday, November 19th, another lump of crap was tossed into the flaming pile. Oh yeah, and then there’s Elon Musk, who seems to embody the essence of an Afrikaner with that chip of arrogance and supremacy in welcoming back to his newly purchased social toy another male who has flexed his German bloodline with that similar hubris, Donald J. Trump.

Going a few feathers beyond that tarnished blue bird, let’s see what else the man of Mar-a-Lago has been up to.

Did you hear the joke about the former President breaking bread with a Holocaust denier?

Yes? No?

STOP!! Just for a sec, re-read that question I just wrote. I am not just making things up out of thin air. Oh no, not this one.

It’s not a joke! It’s real! It happened! And, it wasn’t 20 years ago or 2 years ago! The date this article is being written is after November 8th, 2022. So, this was under the past two weeks before the end of this month.

Okay, so like the Proverb of birds of a feather flock together goes – well, FLOCKERS GONNA’ FLOCK!!

In the realm of the crass, Donald J. Trump isn’t some wayward toddler being taken advantage of by the rapper named Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) in bringing white nationalist, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes[23] to a Tuesday dinner two days before Thanksgiving in November 2022. Donald Trump caresses the ring of crassness and polishes it to a shimmer with his ongoing courtship of the inhabitants of the hate-filled basket of intolerance and violence.

As this news of the November 22nd dinner[24] at Donny’s has gone public, the host with the most at Mar-a-Lago isn’t condemning Fuentes and all which he proudly stands for. But, then again, Trump knows about Boys that are Proud.

By the way, the Secret Service just doesn’t let anybody stroll onto the grounds of Mar-a-Lago and escort them to the dining room to have a quick bite with a former President of the United States. Donald Trump can’t wiggle out of trying to explain this one. Even though he’s trying to push it off on Ye, the host of the meal was YOU, Donald.

So, from the words of Mitch McConnell that are ever so apt in the lane of quality, the Republicans once again have an announced candidate that has a now known history.

Joseph Robinette Biden may be a man whose policies might not be to the vast majority’s liking during his first term. Alongside that factor is one thing that is unequivocal; he is a man of quality.

Joe Biden is a good man. He is a decent man. He is one that is salt of the earth as the saying goes.

Donald John Trump is a doubly-impeached, tax twistin’, financially finaglin’, coup-humpin’, Putin praisin’, authoritarian adorin’, fine people on both sidesin’, shit-hole sneerin’, kitty-kat grabbin’, tantrum-throwin’, man of ashen timber.

For this man to the manor born, there never is any word of goodness, kindness, or humanity which is ever affixed to his name. Yet, he has a chunk of the Republican Party in his pocket that can be taken out and dangled over those who would wish him away.

Well, he’s not going away. As I wrote earlier, the election of 2022 is not really over. The votes may be counted for Democrats as victorious in several of the races. Yet, with the numbers of the election deniers who were elected across the country, that metastasis of Trumpism and all which underlies it penetrates the body politic of hypnotic duality of both remembrance and forgetfulness in the same breath.

Republicans are working to their last breath in wanting to wish away that which is seen, that which is heard. Whisper comes, just forget, just forget…..go back to sleep…just sleep through what’s coming next……

Stay awake! Keep awake! Don’t let the anesthesia and amnesia get to ya’, Americans!!

Vigilance is the antidote!!

“Quality Control”

A.H. Scott

“Quality Control” – The Footnotes:

1.- McConnell Discusses Importance Of ‘Candidate Quality’ In Senate Races – NBC News

2.- Trump Intensifies Attacks on McConnell With ‘death wish’ Remark – CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/01/trump-intensifies-attacks-on-mcconnell-with-death-wish-remark-on-his-social-media-platform.html

3.- McConnell Complains About ‘Candidate Quality’ – FOX News Channel

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-complains-candidate-quality-investing-senate-races-gop-contenders

4.- 2022 elections were “the funeral for the Republican Party – CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/midterm-2022-elections-funeral-for-republican-party/

5.- Transcript: The fourth Jan. 6 committee hearing on its Investigation – NPR

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1105848096/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

6.- Sen. Mitt Romney Says He Thanked Officer Eugene Goodman – Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com/romney-thanks-officer-goodman-leading-him-to-safety-capitol-riot-2021-2

7.- Trump Ally Mike Lee Begs For Mitt Romney’s Endorsement On TV – New York Magazine

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/trump-ally-mike-lee-begs-for-mitt-romneys-endorsement-on-tv.html

8.- GOP Congressman EXPOSES Pelosi, Jan 6 Committee – Newsmax TV

9.- CNN Exclusive: New Footage Shows Congressional Leadership at Fort McNair on January 6 – CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/pelosi-jan-6-capitol-riot-video

10.- Millions of Youth Cast Ballots to Decide Key 2022 Races – CIRCLE

https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/millions-youth-cast-ballots-decide-key-2022-races

11.- There Have Been At Least 554 School Shooting Victims In US Since Columbine – Business Insider

https://www.insider.com/school-shooting-554-victims-since-columbine-high-report-2022-5

12.- Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Gen Z’s First Congressman – Vogue

https://www.vogue.com/article/maxwell-alejandro-frost-gen-z-congressman-elect-interview

13.- God Wants Ron DeSantis to be Governor -FactPointVideo

14.- Here Are 4 Takeaways From DeSantis’ Victory Speech – Miami Herald

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article268489932.html

15.- Documents Show Top DeSantis Officials Were Personally Involved – Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/15/documents-show-top-desantis-officials-were-personally-involved-in-marthas-vineyard-flights-00061981

16.- Andy Biggs Jokes About Nancy Pelosi – Forbes Breaking News

17.- Arizona Governor Candidate Kari Lake Jokes About Paul Pelosi Attack – The Hill

Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake jokes about Paul Pelosi attack

18.- U.S. Supreme Court’s Thomas Temporarily Blocks Graham Election Case Testimony – Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-courts-thomas-temporarily-blocks-graham-election-case-testimony-2022-10-24/

19.- Herschel Walker Slips Up, Humiliates Entire Party On Fox News – The Damage Report

20.- ‘We Fired Nancy Pelosi Today!’: Lindsey Graham Celebrates GOP House Takeover – Forbes Breaking News

21.- Lindsey Graham Chokes Up Talking About Joe Biden – HuffPost

22.- Lindsey Graham Says Herschel Walker Would Inspire Black Children to Be Republican – Roland Martin

23.- How Will Trump’s Dinner With Kanye West, Nick Fuentes Impact His Presidential Ambitions? – Global News Channel

24.- Donald Trump dined with white nationalist, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes – Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/25/trump-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-kanye-00070825

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A.H. Scott is a poet and essayist based in New York City. Miss Scott is a veteran contributor to this blog. To access additional articles by A.H. Scott, click here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/your-choice-to-vote/

Bob Shell: Political Thoughts on The Eve of An Election

VOTE PSA FOR NOVEMBER 8, 2022 ELECTION — PSA: Tony Ward Studio, Copyright 2022

Political Thoughts on The Eve of An Election

Since we’re now just days away from major elections that can seriously alter the United States, I want to put out a few of my thoughts on the major issues.
I’ve been reading about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which essentially says governments can print all the money they want, deficits don’t matter, and related concepts. After reading what these ‘economists’ believe, I’ve come to think they belong in zoos. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the more money you create out of nothing, called fiat money, the less it will be worth in the real world of goods and services.
By the way, it is called fiat money because the Latin word fiat means, ‘let there be’ as in the Latin Bible, which has God say, “Fiat lux,” ‘Let there be light,’ since God created light from darkness, nothingness. Fiat money is backed by absolutely nothing except faith in the government that prints it. Few people understand this. U S money was originally backed by gold and silver, the gold standard, that we abandoned in the 1970s. Look at money printed before that, and it says ‘Silver Certificate’ on it, meaning the government would, on request, redeem it for silver. Try going to the government today and asking for silver or gold and see how fast the door slams in your face.
Any person with a functioning brain can see that government debt, paid in fiat money, causes inflation. The massive spending and give-away programs of the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Obama and Bush administrations before them, have reduced the value of our money. They couldn’t have any other effect.
The reason that Bitcoin and its copiers go up in value instead of down like government-issued money is that there is a fixed, finite number of Bitcoins and the others. No one can ‘print’ more, no government controls them.
Right now, because of Putin’s disastrous policies, the Russian ruble, another fiat currency, is practically worthless.
We should learn the lessons of the old German Weimar Republic that printed so much money the joke was you’d go to the store with a wheelbarrow full of banknotes and come home with a loaf of bread. People wallpapered their houses with money.
That hasn’t happened to the U S dollar yet, but it could if our elected officials continue to act irresponsibly.
And another point. If the government can just print all the money it needs to pay its bills, as MMT theorists say, there is no need or justification for taxes. Think about it.
Now, personally, I think MMT is a load of bollocks, but some very influential academics are spouting it to anyone who will listen, and indoctrinating future generations of economists in it.
And, BTW, the Federal Reserve that controls the money supply is not Federal and keeps no reserve. Fact.
The Federal Reserve was created in 1910 by a cabal of bankers who met in absolute secrecy at Jekyll Island in Georgia to plan how to take control of the USA by controlling the money supply. They included Henry P. Davison, senior partner of JP Morgan, Paul Warburg, founder of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., Frank A. Vanderlip, VP of what is Citibank today, Charles D. Norton, president of Morgan’s First National bank of New York, and other powerful bankers. They wrote what became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Thus was born ‘The Creature From Jekyll Island,’ the Federal Reserve.

Inflation is sure to be a big factor in the November elections, but as long as the printing presses roll out tons of money daily and the Federal Reserve keeps adding zeros to the bank’s balances, there’s very little the politicians can do about it.
There is nothing in the U S Constitution suggesting a central bank.

Now for the hottest of the hot potatoes, the abortion issue. Personally, I will take the antiabortion folks seriously if every single one of them signs a binding agreement to adopt at least one unwanted baby and raise that baby to adulthood. Put your money where your mouth is, folks!
I know a number of women whose lives were made better by choosing not to have a child they were not equipped to raise.
Abortion is a difficult personal decision that the government has no business intruding into, in my opinion. Because I am a man, I’ve never had to face that heart rending decision that can cause serious psychological harm, no matter which way it is decided.
We have politicized the courts in this country so much that judges can now make law, something they are manifestly not qualified to do. That was never their job. Legislatures exist to create the law, courts exist to enforce it. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, as it is expected to do this summer, this will he a radically different country afterwards. Generations of women have believed their bodies belong to themselves. Now they’re going to learn that their bodies belong to the state. This thought is positively chilling! Orwellian!
Unfortunately, the writers of our Constitution didn’t think to include a right of personal privacy. They probably took it for granted. But we simply have no constitutional right to personal privacy in this country.
France does, as I learned while there. It is illegal there to photograph a private citizen without their permission. Public figures lose a degree of this right, and crowd scenes are another exception. Otherwise I couldn’t photograph the Eiffel Tower without the permission of everyone in the crowd at the base.
But, overall, I think this is an excellent law. French citizens own their bodies, their images, themselves. I imagine some other enlightened European countries have similar privacy laws.

And while I’m on the subject of law, I believe all judges, from the Supreme Court justices down to your local magistrate, should have term limits. Term limits insure an influx of fresh ideas and minds.

Those are just some of my thoughts on the political front. More some other time.

About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author, former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine and veteran contributor to this blog. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models. He is serving the 15th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia. To read additional articles by Bob Shell, click here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/cancelling_culture/

A.H. Scott: Your Choice to Vote

Young asian woman sipping tea in European coffee shop — Photo: Tony Ward, Styling by KVaughn. Copyright 2022

Your Choice to Vote

Just remember that your choice to vote is always bigger than just about you

History didn’t begin the second a doctor spanked your newborn ass and you let out a wail

Since the moment of beginning, right now and onto future’s hence

Freedom is more than a bumper sticker of red, white, and blue

No time for false patriotism’s cue

Democracy needs to be held up and respected true

Roe’s gone and Brown can be gone, too

On the ballot are deniers of election, acting like their conspiratorial vision is the only selection

Infected by the dark tide of damning what they see as the other

Some are not seen as equal in the family of humanity

Identity bashed beneath waves of an ideological haze

Banning books and thoughts of progress is the conservative’s latest phase

Odd is it that they want to control what can be read

While those who are adults among them are mathematically inept

Not even knowing how many baby mamas you’ve screwed and left

Over and over the playbook is the same

Snarky they are, as their malarkey has taken them far

You call anyone not to the right of you a commie and lib

But, damn, don’t worry about what I am, cuz’ I can whip a few cold remarks ever so glib

No party holds the key to what loving this country is meant to be

Voting is cornerstone of this republic in which we live

Nobody can easily think democracy can be ripped away

Thus, we better vote like it might be our last

Fascistic winds across the land have not yet passed

Hucksters, opportunists and true believers are on the ballot this year

That which they have planned for America will be something many of us cannot bear

Yet, some say both sides are the same

Well, I know one thing to be beyond a transparent claim

If these ultra-maga conservatives win, our freedoms will go quickly down the drain

A.H. Scott: “Tick Tock (Knockin’ On Reckon’s Door – Second Knock)”

Illustration of President Vladimir Zelensky artwork by Thomcat23 — President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine. Illustration by Thomcat23 Copyright 2022

“Tick Tock (Knockin’ On Reckon’s Door – Second Knock)”

A.H. Scott

“I’m really rich!!” – Donald J. Trump[1]

Those who are just that need not shout it from the rooftops. Only those who fall short must adhere to a sense of elongation of their own shrunken ego.

A lineage of lies from three generations of the Trump family; first, Grandpa Fred, then daddy Donald, and his trio of offspring have known the art of the spiel. Deals are one thing with negotiations and such. Yet, what Donald and the three adults who assist in the family business have done is to perfect the art of the spiel.

Not just a few crumbs or flakes of mistaken assets or decimals on balance sheets this situation is, as it is a cake of corruption. Or, more succinctly on point, a cow-pie of corruption.

Talk faster, talk smoother and lay the manure thick and wide. That’s the Trump way of being too cute by half with regulations, regulators and judicial entities both state and federal. With a perfected smile and a good spiel for any takers, their run of not being held accountable might be coming to an unceremonious halt.

“We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia” – Donald Trump, Jr.[2]

Tick tock. Knock, knock.

Ivanka Trump, are you there?

Tick tock.

Oh, no, I’m Mrs. Kushner. Ivanka Kushner is my name. I don’t know of that name Trump anymore. I’ve moved on with my husband, Jared Kushner and I am his wife only. No longer daughter of that person who used to be somebody. I am just Ivanka.

Tick tock. Knock, knock.

Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump, are you there?

Yes, we remain, for we have the stain of the family name that can never be laundered or forgotten. I’m Don, Jr. and I’m Eric. We are Trump through and through. And, even if we wanted to run, race and do a Chuck Yeager away from that last name, we could never marry out of that financially, fractured lane.

“We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” – Eric Trump[3]

Tick tock. Knock, knock.

A spare daughter from the second wife is somewhere in the Trump kingdom of rusting ruins.

For Tiffany Trump, nobody sees her as part of this crude cocktail. Oh yes, she may have Trump as her last name, but she isn’t in the mix of misery which is the legacy of her father’s administration and its’ sphere.

Tick tock.

Third son is now a father’s last refuge for him to hide behind. Yet, nobody is in the category of believing the last child of Donald J. Trump is a mastermind of machinations and inclinations of illegalities which flowed for decades long before that young man was glint of a droplet of his father’s prowess.

Yet, now it is the former President who wants to twist a legally sanctioned FBI search of Mar-A-Lago into an affront on Donald’s baby boy. I have little doubt that if Barron Trump wasn’t a teenager and just a baby of a few months that his father would have lined and stuffed the crib with some of those classified documents in hopes that the FBI would not do a thorough search of all areas of the property. Oh no, Donald, when the FBI comes to your dwelling with a search warrant they will look everywhere and anywhere they need to in search of those documents. And, if they have to go through your missus’ closets and your teenagers’ domicile inside of that gaudy palace you call home – then they will. Stop your whining, Donald Trump.

Tick tock! Tick tock!

Now, it seems to be Melania Trump’s time to peep up and whine about having someone’s hands on her drawers during the warranted Mar-a-Lago search.

Married to a man of 76, a brooding, smoky eye on the future of self-preservation[4] for a woman who has many more a decade of living knows that time’s a ticking.

Hourglass is being shaken up to a Bossa nova beat for the 52 year old former First Lady, as her melody of keep on, keeping on after the old horse is gone is played.

Tick tock. Melania is gonna’ get her own groove back on in the future.

Donald Trump is acting as if he’s still in his glory days of the 1980’s when the media’s fascination was palpable for him. Here, there, and every-freaking where is the tale of Trump. Yet, as the 1990’s came rolling in, so did the dents and dimmed ash of the reality of this man’s kingdom crumbling from his own actions.

First wife, discarded for a Georgia peach in 1992. By the end of that decade, the bloom was off the orchard and it was time to move on. So, like a game of mirrored illusions, the presentation of the glitz and glamour would precede to entice the public with a spectacle of perceived wealth and stability. Yet, everything which Donald J. Trump does is for the sake of performance.

Third wife, well…it might just be the lady’s choice to move on this time. Either that can occur or she can just wait it out as the seconds tick away.

Then, there is the first Mrs. Trump, the recently deceased Ivana.

Every state has its’ own tax code, which can allow certain exemptions. In New Jersey, any land that is used as a cemetery can make taxes, assessments and rates go poof. With a first spouse buried on the grounds of his golf club, Donald Trump suddenly has the elimination of those pesky pennies he’d have to pay in taxes. After all, a man who professes his wealth to blatantly can’t lose a penny to poverty.

A golden lady who Ivana Trump was will forever now be on the green; or should I say in a shabby plot beneath the earth near the first hole[5] at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

By the way, the dearly departed Ivana was 73. Donald is 76.

Tick tock.

Donald, you are not a nubile and naïve ingénue betwixt 19 and 29; but, a weathered, rapscallion of many a decade long in the tooth.

Time waits for no man, Mr. Trump. And, even with you trying to beat off the sands of the hourglass and legal reckoning; the grains keep on falling with a possible indictment tossed in for good measure.

If a human being can live to 100 years, then the tick of the hourglass keeps draining down to that final grain.

Tick tock.

Donald Trump, a man who thinks all which his grubby hands have ever touched, or whose beady eyes have ever glanced upon, thinks every scrap of paper that ever passed his purview in his former position as President of the United States is now his possession for eternity.

Oh, this man is sorely mistaken in his own miserable mind. The top-secret[6], classified, confidential files are NOT YOURS! They belong to the government and the American people.

Since that is a fact, I might as well go down to the National Archives and put in my FOIA to see those files for myself. They do not belong to Donald Trump. They do not belong to any former President.

When a President leaves office, and oh yes, you had to GET OUT of that White House on January 20th, 2021; you leave the documents right where you found them and not pack them up and transport them to whereabouts that would seem unknown.

Donald Trump is a creature of bankruptcy and bloviating; both of which he is well marinated in. He is a man who never met a corner he couldn’t resist buffing down his own mercurial dimensions. He is a man who owes a whole, lotta’ money to a whole lotta’ entities, many which may be way beyond anything considered a financial institution.

Time is finite and on a continuum. Donald Trump cannot outrun justice forever, even if he thinks he can. Unlike the simplistic dismissal and derision that was put upon Special Counsel Robert Mueller, First Impeachment Chairman Adam Schiff, and Second Impeachment Chairman Jerrold Nadler, the former President is dealing with someone that he can’t easily be caricatured in the right-wing Trump-o-sphere.

Although Mr. Mueller, Schiff and Nadler have investigative power via Congressional mandate, the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland has the ability to criminally charge the former President.

In other words, you are now messing with the people with the handcuffs and authority to take you into custody and into a holding cell.

So even as you bark and howl at the injustice of a search warrant being served at your pad in West Palm Beach, just be glad were not at home and you didn’t act a fool to interfere with them gathering the boxes of documents.

At the time of the FBI search Donald Trump was in New York City for a court ordered deposition in an investigation by the New York Attorney General involving the Trump Organization’s financial shenanigans. By the way, the man who consistently scoffed at anyone who took the 5th in any sort of court hearing took it more than 445 times. So, as it always is, do as Donald says and not as Donald does.

Tick tock is the clock and it never stops.

Donald Trump had more than a year’s worth of time to be humble, apologize and give back those files that the National Archives had been gently pleading for you to return to that government agency.

But, oh no, Donald Trump had to be the arrogant son-of-a-Trump he’s always been, in mimicking Daffy Duck’s squawking of “It’s Mine!! It’s Mine!!” and putting up a tantrum on his rancid puss.

Venue shopping for the perfect judge to oversee his case versus the Department of Justice involving those classified documents Donald Trump found a kindred spirit in Judge Aileen Cannon, who’d been rocketed onto the Florida bench by Mitch McConnell during the period between that eleven-week transition to inauguration.

Tick tock. I guess that period of time seems to prove more advantageous as the days go by.

With Judge Cannon, she might as well have gotten down off that bench, tossed off that black robe, and sat with the Trump legal team to give them all the legal assistance that they needed to hold off the Department of Justice’s further investigation.

She even was making up arguments that they even didn’t come up with, as she insinuated that the classified documents were not verified as being classified; even though there is photographic evidence in the DOJ’s affidavit for the search warrant of Mar-a-Lago of multiple folder with labels marked as ‘top secret’.

To all who are swallowing the swill of untruths from the Donald J. Trump spigot, just remember that everyone doesn’t drink from that same well as they do.

Note to Donald Trump – Special Master Raymond Dearie ain’t no punk that can be rolled over by you and lawyers; because his judicial power does not flow from you being the person who nominated him to the bench and also is not in the bucket of being co-opted or compromised to do your bidding in a courthouse.

Judge Raymond Dearie isn’t a ‘dearie’ that needs a patting on the head to get in his good graces. He is the real deal that shouldn’t be mistaken for some cannon of compliance.

Time’s a ticking and Special Master Dearie is ready to get down to business and go through those documents without haste. As the adage goes; be careful what you wish for, Mr. Trump. By your own wisdom you proposed senior US District Judge Raymond Dearie, based in Brooklyn, to be the Special Master in this matter and now you’ve got him.

“He works incredibly well with parties, but doesn’t tolerate nonsense. He will not allow parties, or attorneys, to play games, or play fast-and-loose with the rules.” – Richard Garbarini, lawyer at Garbarini Fitzgerald, New York[7]

Looks like it’s off to a rocky start, as Judge Dearie seems not to be down for any foolishness your lawyers try to step to him with. This special master wants Donald Trump’s legal team to put forward which documents the former President actually declassified. And, unlike saying things on rally stages, radio streams, or written on social media platforms, it would be a crime in and of itself to say the same things in a court of law.

Without showing the paperwork that underlies how and when the documents were declassified, then Donald Trump is just pissing in the wind and howling at the moon at what he supposedly did. You can’t just say you laid the documents on a table and said a four-point blessing of declassification and it would materialize, Donald Trump. This has got to be in black and white and not made up on the fly to get you off the hook for any illegalities you may have committed.

Loose lips sink ships and Trump’s seems to be venturing into S.S. Titanic waters of that iceberg coming up quickly with each and every proclamation that comes from his mouth.

Time can catch up with a person when they least expect it. And, for Donald Trump, it seems all things that would be delayed or held off in his past by virtue of his position as President of the United States or becoming a recent resident of Florida is no longer an option.

Tick tock. Knock, knock.

Who’s there? New York calling.

Obsessed with the size of things, Donald is in a constant state of attempting to make everything of his bigger in every way. Slapped with a civil suit from the New York Attorney General with charges of misrepresentation of his organization’s financial statements from 2011 to 2021, Donald Trump made an enormous distortion of his net worth each year to feather his own pockets.

“This valuation estimated the apartment’s value at $29,738 per square foot. The property was also listed at more than 30,000 square feet when it was really about 11,000 square feet. Trump only lowered his size and valuation estimates of the triplex when Forbes published a 2017 article titled, “Donald Trump Has Been Lying About The Size Of His Penthouse.” – New York Attorney General Letitia James[8]

For Donald Trump and Trump Organization various fillings it’s a game of high-low, like something of a “Card Sharks” game show. Okay, when he needed more loans and financial lines of credit from banking institutions, the evaluation of his properties and developments would need to be sized upward. Then, when it came time to file papers with the IRS to get tax breaks and other goodies for the well-healed, then those same entities would be sized downward to pay a lower tax bill every year.

Tick tock. Plop, plop.

Empire of Trump is going pop, pop.

Yeah, Trump, all of it right down the toilet, just like the papers you rip up and flush with such contempt, so is the camouflage of Presidential prestige you try to hide behind.

January 20th, 2021, the only thing you have from your years of the Presidency to take to Mar-a-Lago or anywhere else you go with you is your Secret Service detail. Air Force One goes bye-bye. Presidential Daily Briefing goes bye-bye. Presidential Seal goes bye-bye. And, lastly, but definitely the most importantly is any modicum of Executive Privilege for one, Donald J. Trump.

But, know this; the Secret Service might not share the color orange in your future; for that is a road which you’ll have to hoe all by yourself. After all, they are a law enforcement entity.

In the crapper is any semblance of a reputation of gilded name.

Tyrannical – Ruthless – Ubiquitous – Mercurial – Phony

My Aggrandizement Grows Assets!

MAGA!!

Tick tock.

Vice-chair of the January 6th Committee, Representative Liz Cheney may have been defeated in her primary in Wyoming, but is not deterred in holding former President Donald Trump accountable for his actions which led up to that chaos on the Capitol and the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.

As if the former occupant of the White House was some kind idol of heavenly being by some; Cheney revisited a few sighs from one of her former colleagues in the Republican conference cloak room when there were objections to the certification of results stating “the things we do for orange Jesus[9]”. Like some bizarre citrus cult, Republican members of Congress bow down[10] to a man who demands loyalty when it only is a one-way effort.

Bullying his way through life, Donald Trump makes us all feel at times as if we were the Prime Minister of Montenegro, being shoved[11] to one side to let Trump trample all which is normal.

“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it. You’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it.” – President Donald J. Trump[12]

Now, I shall share a solemn verse from ‘The Orange Jesus Version of The Holy Bible’:

1st Delassifications: verse 20:22 – “As I thinketh, I maketh so”.

WTF? You can’t just think you’re doing a skit on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and pull a Carnac the Magnificent act on America in saying the thought of declassifying top secret documents is all that you needed to make your illegal act of taking the documents to Mar-a-Lago suddenly legal because you say so. Uh-uh, it ain’t gonna’ fly, even as you said it to one of your biggest supporters[13], Sean Hannity.

Even he can’t swallow that idiotic fluff you’re tossing out, like you once did with paper towels to the survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico five years ago to this year.

Oh yeah, that was also another disaster that was exacerbated in the Trump years.

Donald never misses a chance to make himself the victim and even tries to drag Melania into the arena of being put upon when Mar-a-Lago was legally searched.

“She felt very violated. I mean, this is a terrible thing. They go into her closet, they go through her dresses, and who knows what else, and it wasn’t left the way it – they found it.” – Donald J. Trump[14]

Speaking of that word ‘violate’ and women, well, let’s go down misogyny – oops, I mean memory lane.

When first confronted with the contents of that lewd “Access Hollywood” tape, Trump had the pebbles of intimating that what was said did not sound like him. Wow, even back then he was trying to squeak out something being ‘fake’. Just like he claims investigations into his financial misdeeds and ties to Russia are. But, then again, his old buddy Vladimir knows how it is to spread that numbing salve of misinformation about things being ‘fake’’ as with the maternity hospital that his forces bombed the life out of in Mariupol.

Yeah, Donald may have given a lackluster word of apology, but it wasn’t of remorse. I guess you would have to have honest regret over something for that to be so.

The boy born in Queens to the man in the White House is who Donald J. Trump has always been; with his fellow fanciers[15], predilections[16], gradations of predation[17], crass critiques[18], fallacies[19], and scant apology.

Kind of odd it is that a man who proclaims his prowess of ultra-masculinity gets a shaky bopping to a gay anthem[20] at his rallies. Alas, Donald Trump can convey his softer[21] side when it comes to a friend in being handsy.

They say what goes around comes around. I believe that to be true. Donald Trump being called on the carpet for the first time in his rarified life is something many people who have watched his act over the decades nod in agreement to, as the justice system has slowly creaked up behind him and bit him in his puffy posterior. Delay, deflect and deride is the playbook he uses with deftness. And, it’s worked quite well for him, until now.

You are a fraud of a man who says he holds women in high esteem, when the fact is you spew bitter vile from your lips to enlarge your ego on a poisonous screed. You are a fraud of success; a man who has frittered away millions and maybe billions due to your excess.

Time has boomeranged on you, Mr. Trump, as has the solidified will from corners you probably thought would never snap back. Merrick Garland has the will, as he’s shown you in approving the search warrant for the FBI to get those top-secret documents back. Letitia James has the will in exposing your once golden corporation as being nothing more than a rusted fraud. Fawnee Willis has the will, as she’s in the middle of investigating your scrounging around for 11,780 votes in Georgia.

And, lastly, in an ironic twist of fate, a person who is in the middle of trying to rehabilitate your administration’s flaccid reputation for the history books has stated a sobering truth that is a whiplashed verification to what you’ve done in dynamiting the peaceful transition to Joseph Biden.

“In Washington, it is kind of like a time-duration game, in the sense that you have to accomplish everything you can while you have the opportunity and the other side is doing everything they can to either frustrate you, attack you, stall you.” – Jared Kushner, Trump White House Senior Adviser[22]

As to you, Donald, the ticking hands on the clock are shifting towards karma’s conclusion, as no longer will you stall justice or stall democracy for your own miniscule benefit.

Door of reckoning is opening.

Knock, knock.

Tick tock!!

“Tick Tock (Knockin’ On Reckon’s Door – Second Knock)”

A.H. Scott

“Tick Tock (Knockin’ On Reckon’s Door – Second Knock)” – FOOTNOTES

1.-“I’m Really Rich”: Trump Claims he Doesn’t Even “need financing” as Truth Social Deal Falls Apart – Salon Magazine

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/06/im-really-rich-claims-he-doesnt-even-need-financing-as-truth-social-deal-falls-apart/

2.-Donald Trump’s Ties to Russia Go Back 30 Years – USA TODAY

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/15/donald-trumps-ties-russia-go-back-30-years/97949746

3.-Eric Trump Reportedly Bragged About Access To $100 Million In Russian Money – Vanity Fair

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/eric-trump-russia-investment-golf-course

4.-Donald and Melania Trump’s Most Awkward Moments EVER – On Demand News

5.-Why Did Donald Trump Bury His First Wife Ivana at His Golf Resort? – Irish Central

https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/why-did-donald-trump-bury-ivana-golf-resort

6.-FBI found document on foreign nuclear defenses at Mar-a-Lago – The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/06/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-documents-nuclear-weapons-report

7.-Special Master in Trump Documents Case Described As Fair and No-Nonsense – The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/16/raymond-dearie-trump-documents-special-master

8.-New York’s Fraud Case Against Donald Trump is All About Exaggerating His Wealth – QZ

https://qz.com/new-york-s-fraud-case-against-donald-trump-is-all-about-1849563964

9.-Liz Cheney Describes What She Saw on January 6 Before the Attack Happened – YouTube

10.-Liz Cheney Blasts Party For Treating Trump ‘As Though He Were a King’ – The Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/liz-cheney-blasts-party-for-treating-trump-as-though-he-were-a-king

11.-Trump Appears to Push Past Montenegrin Prime Minister – Washington Post

12.-Trump: I Could Declassify Documents by Thinking About it – Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/trump-i-could-declassify-documents-by-thinking-about-it-00058212

13.-Donald Trump Speaks Out on the FBI’s Raid on Mar-a-Lago – Fox News

14.-Trump says Melania felt ‘violated’ by FBI raid | The Hill

Trump says Melania felt ‘violated’ by FBI raid

15.-NBC Archive Footage Shows Trump Partying With Jeffrey Epstein in 1992 – Hindustan Times

16.-Trump Heard Bragging He Saw Beauty Contestants Naked – CNN

17.-Donald Trump’s Comments About Daughter Raise Eyebrows – CNN

18.-10 Minutes of Donald Trump Demeaning, Objectifying, and Insulting Women – The Briefing

19.-1990s- After Bankruptcies, Donald Trump Goes From Building to Branding – NBC News

20.-Watch: Trump Dances To ‘YMCA’ At His Campaign Rallies – NBC News NOW

21.-That Time Trump Felt Up Giuliani – NYT Opinion

22.-As Trump Investigations Draw Headlines, Kushner and Other Allies Quietly Work to Sculpt his Legacy – TIME

https://time.com/6212843/trump-kushner-legacy-middle-east/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A.H. Scott is a poet and essayist based in New York City. Miss Scott is a veteran contributor to this blog. To access additional articles by A.H. Scott, click here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/under-the-banner-of-heaven-abyss-part-two/

Harvey Finkle: Under One Sky

PRESS RELEASE:

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Under One Sky: Reflecting Immigrant Communities.

The Photographs of Harvey Finkle, A Harvey Finkle Retrospective, 1982-2018.

Curated by David Acosta, Artistic Director for Casa de Duende, opening October 1st, 2022 5-8 PM @

The Dene Louchheim Gallery, Fleisher Art Memorial,

719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA 19147