And today’s political bumper sticker/tee-shirt . . . .
Tag Archives: Trump
“Good God, that was Awful”
Those were my sentiments after watching President Biden mumble through the first (and possibly only) presidential debate.
It was the worst debate performance I’ve ever seen.
Trump was Trump. A firehose of lies and misinformation. A verbosity atrocity.
Even though on substance, you can argue that Biden was better (or at the very least, more honest) – presentation and optics matter, and Biden looked old, confused, and unprepared.
The candidates running for President are both unqualified but for radically different reasons.
Biden is unqualified because age has diminished his ability to be an effective leader who instills confidence. Old age and its consequences have caught up to Joe Biden, and those undeniable consequences were on display for all to see in the Presidential debate. Biden’s family, closest friends, and political confidantes should be imploring him to drop out of the race.
Trump is unqualified because of fundamental ineptitude and a dangerous malevolence towards truth, integrity, democracy, and the United States Constitution. He has no redeemable qualities as a politician or person. He is a knife at the throat of our republic.
I often criticize Trump supporters for turning a blind eye to Trump’s ineptitude and utter lack of character—I’d be a hypocrite if I turned a blind eye to Biden’s age issues.
President Biden should ask himself how he wants to be remembered – as the humble public servant who derailed Trump’s naked aggression and assault on truth and integrity in 2020 or as the feeble, discombobulated, old fogey blinded by ego and deaf to public opinion who opened the door and handed the keys of our republic to a convicted felon, traitor, and rapist in 2024?
If Biden digs in his heels and refuses to step aside (which is what he appears to be doing), Americans need to ask themselves which candidate will do more harm as President. What is worse for America (Biden’s age-related degeneration or Trump’s malevolence toward democracy)?
America deserves better.
Hey Nikki!
Read to the tune of Hey Mickey
Oh, Nikki you’re so fine
Stick it to the orange swine
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Oh Nikki, you’re OK
your tan is real, it’s not a spray
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Oh, Nikki
You’re our girl
You don’t make us want to hurl
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Hey Nikki –
He wears a MAGA hat
and always likes to brag
Melania took off
So instead, he humps the flag
He’s flabby and he’s soft
He really makes me gag, Nikki
You seem to know your shit,
debating all those men
Saw one-by-one they fell
and then they fell again
And when compared to him
You score a perfect ten, Nikki
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty, we all understand
He’ll grab you by crotch with his tiny orange hand
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty, we all know his game
Its guys like him Nikki
and what they do,
what they do Nikki
They Kill Democracy
Hey Nikki –
He loves that Kim Jong Un and his Putin Pal
He can’t be gone too soon
Cuz he’s killing our morale
Please send him to the moon
And then you’ll be our gal, Nikki
He screamed to stop the steal
And wanted to kill Pence
He makes our blood congeal
Behind his border fence
He wants us all to kneel
You are the best defense, Nikki
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty,
we all understand
He’ll grab you by crotch
with his tiny orange hand
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty,
we all know his game
Its guys like him Nikki
And what they do
what they do Nikki
They kill democracy
Oh, Nikki you’re so fine
Stick it to the orange swine
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Oh Nikki, you’re OK
your tan is real, it’s not a spray
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Oh, Nikki
You’re our girl
You don’t make us want to hurl
Go Nikki!
Go Nikki!
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty,
we all understand
He’ll grab you by crotch
with his tiny orange hand
Oh Nikki, he’s so shitty,
we all know his game
Its guys like him Nikki
And what they do
what they do Nikki
They kill democracy
Working From Home and the Reflexive “Fuck You!” From a Sixty-Year-Old Man
So, I have noticed this about myself lately.
I’ll randomly blurt out “fuck you” throughout the day, at nothing in particular.
Like a hiccup, my “fuck yous” arrive without warning.
Most of the time, they happen when I’m alone, but not always, as my wife can attest.
I might be walking from the kitchen to the living room when BAM! – a sharp and sincerely felt “fuck you” burst from my lips.
Sometimes the “fuck yous” happen when driving alone in my car.
These car “fuck yous” aren’t preceded by a driver cutting me off or failing to use a turn signal (e.g., the standard “fuck you” driving scenarios). No, instead, it’s just me driving in peace and quiet when out of nowhere comes a terse and curt “fuck you!”
I’m not afflicted by a sudden onset of Tourette Syndrome, but something’s definitely going on with me. So, I’ve been trying to self-diagnose.
The first step in diagnosing Random Fuck You Syndrome (it’s what I’m calling this) is identifying life changes that might be contributing factors.
Change 1: Being Alone
One thing that’s changed for me is the number of hours I spend alone.
I’ve worked from home for more than 20 years — but recently, working from home has transitioned to working from home alone.
For most of my career, there’s always been another human in the house (for at least part of my workday). But this past year, our younger son moved out, and my wife, who leaves for work at 4:15 in the morning, goes to her mom’s house after work to visit and help with chores.
We have a dog who keeps me company throughout the day, but she’s deaf and, consequently, quiet as a mouse.
So, the number of hours I spend alone during the workday has increased significantly. For long periods, it’s just me, my laptop, the refrigerator’s hum, and my deaf dog snoring.
Being alone is not the sole cause of Randon Fuck You Syndrome, but I think it contributes to it.
Change 2: My TV and Phone
When you work from home alone, your smartphone and television become closer companions to you than they used to be.
I turn my TV on shortly after waking up and listen to the news while going about my morning routine of putting on a pot of coffee, feeding, petting, and talking to my dog (yes, I know she can’t hear me), making the bed, and emptying the dishwasher.
When I’m not absorbing content from work, I’m absorbing it from my smartphone and television. Throughout the day, I’m receiving input constantly – All that input gets stacked in the recesses of my mind, where it sits for hours, without interruption from healthy interactions and conversations with other human beings.
Change 3: Our Turbulent World and the Nature of Content
When the world is a mess, as ours is, having access to information is a double-edged sword. You stay informed, but you worry – a lot.
We have constant access to information about the war in Ukraine, the rise of fascism at home, the climate crisis, inflation, and the looming influence of AI, all contribute to an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty and anxiety.
On top of the pile of the undeniable mess sits a fairly new development (in terms of consequence): the demise of critical thinking and American’s willingness to relinquish their mental and intellectual autonomy to fantastical conspiracy theories and a known crook whose vision for America rests on retribution, revenge, and fascist-ideologies.
I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve seen recently of Qanon followers who believe JFK is still alive, JFK junior faked his own death, and Donald Trump is a Christ-like figure divinely sent to save America from a cannibalistic cabal of elites.
Donald Trump, (a man credibly charged with stealing top-secret documents, directing a collaborative effort to overturn a free and fair election (and strong-arming state officials to do the same) said, “Don’t believe what you see or hear, believe what I tell you.” And millions of Americans are doing just that.
I stew at the knowledge that these people get a seat at the table and have a say in selecting the next president – that their vote counts the same as the vote from rational individuals who use critical thinking to guide their decisions.
This is a significant change, not just for me (a guy working at home alone), but for our country.
Change 4: Work Burnout
At sixty, what’s required of me at work and where I am philosophically have diverged irreconcilably.
I feel it in my bones and gut every morning I wake up.
There’s a nagging sense of entitlement that at this phase of life, I’ve earned the right to slow down, take my foot off the gas, and smell the roses.
I romanticize about a job that doesn’t follow me home every night. A job that ends when the day ends and doesn’t occupy my mind ceaselessly.
When I look at my workstation, I stress out about the amount of work I have to complete – work that no longer interests me – and the mental energy required to barely push through it.
That agitates the shit out of me.
So, these four changes – an increase in the amount of time being alone, unfettered access to information, the shit-state of our world and America’s growing population of unthinking Trump supporters, and job burnout – are contributing factors to the “Fuck Yous!” building inside my head and Random Fuck You Syndrome (RFYS).
At this phase of life, I have both no fucks to give, yet I’m full of “fuck yous” – it’s a strange dichotomy.
As I see it, the cure is retirement (a year or two off) and voting the current Trump culture into oblivion.
After that, I’ll regain control of my “fuck yous.” Until then, Random Fuck Yous will reign.
Clowns at the Shit-Show
Today’s GOP
creates farce out of folly
under the sway
of the Orange Svengali
Awake to the woke
in love with sedition
blind to the broke
with no sense of contrition
a party of grievance
feckless and loud
swearing allegiance
to the vain and the proud
Gaetz in the Doorway
he covets that gavel
winking at young girls
as Kevin unravels
A chamber of stooges
a congress of cowards
Mitt-less and witless
like Moe and Shemp Howard
No mouths were gaping
at Beetlejuice Bimbo
hand jobs and vaping
through a national window
Gym Jordan’s a fool
like we’ve never seen
until we lay eyes
on one Majorie Greene
Then there’s the likes
of Tuberville Tommy
fucks with Core
like a one-man tsunami
In today’s GOP
there’s never too far
they’re crossing the line
to lower the bar
The MAGA Chickens Have Come Home to Roost
What happens to the partnership between the Evangelical Church and the Republican party when compassionate conservatism gets replaced with MAGA mania?
How do Evangelical ministers square the teachings of Christ with their MAGA-infected flock?
What happens when ultra-MAGA Evangelicals sit fidgety in church pews and listen to sermons contradictory to the messages spewed by their political Messiah on the campaign trail?
It won’t be long before we see a sectarian split within the Evangelical church and radical versions of Evangelicalism start popping up across the country, like crack houses in the 80s.
These radical Evangelical churches will teach a MAGA-tinged Christianity, where Christ, a muscular blue-eyed-blond-messiah, wields his razor-edged cross to slice and dice woke liberals, immigrants, homosexuals, and atheists, to reestablish truth, order, and the American way.
Break-away Evangelical churches are how MAGA survives and (thrives). These churches will become radicalization factories in America like Wahhabi mosques in Saudi Arabia.
MAGA politicians are no different than any other. They understand religion is a tool for controlling and mobilizing masses – Churches plant seeds dipped in fear and bigotry to grow compliant human saplings so that future outcomes that align with religious ideology can take hold in society.
“The meek shall inherit the earth” will be replaced by a mite-is-right mentality—where the rationalization and justification of cruelty to achieve a particular end is the norm.
The transformation of the Evangelical church will correlate and coincide with criminal charges against former president Trump and his impending legal jeopardy.
Let’s keep our eyes peeled for an upstart-fire-brand Evangelical minister looking to make a name for himself by taking advantage of political chaos.
Donald Trump will be the new radical Evangelical church’s prophet of revenge and retribution.
I hope none of this comes to fruition, but I would not be surprised if it did.
Business Conduct Guidelines and the Impact of an Unethical President
When I worked for IBM, all employees were required to review and sign IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) annually. IBM’s BCGs are the behavioral business principles and standards they expect from their employees.
Many companies send their version of BCGs annually to employees through training materials and reference documents. The employees complete the training, read the documents, and sign indicating compliance.
If an employee violates their company’s BCGs, the employer can terminate them.
Violating the guidelines can also lead to criminal or civil prosecution.
When the Government discovered that former President Trump had taken hundreds of their classified documents, they repeatedly asked (with deference) for him to return them. If former President Trump had done the right thing and returned the documents that were not “declassified,” not “Presidential records,” and that DID NOT BELONG TO HIM, he’d have one less scandal to worry about.
But, of course, Donald Trump didn’t do the right thing. Instead, he lied, deflected, and obstructed his way to a 37-count indictment.
If you or I purposely violated our employer’s Business Conduct Guidelines by stealing proprietary or classified information and then lying about it, we’d be in legal trouble—and rightfully so.
Concerning his conduct in general, former President Trump has a long record of dubious businesses and business deals, for which he’s paid millions of dollars in legal settlements – not to mention his abhorrent personal behavior.
And yet, this crooked, twice-impeached, ethically vacuous convicted felon is the Presidential candidate for the Republican party.
Intelligent and decent-minded people not tainted by political tribalism are appalled at the mere thought of Trump once again sitting at the helm of American democracy.
I usually refrain from making political posts on LinkedIn. But I’m at a point where I have zero fucks to give, so I’ll speak my mind regarding America and American values (regardless of the venue), especially when both are in jeopardy of being trampled.
Additionally, I firmly believe a second Trump presidency will damage the collective psyche of Americans, especially those who genuinely care about conduct, ethics, and integrity.
Our political parties, institutions, and businesses coexist in the same ecosystem. The rot from today’s GOP will seep into other areas of society unless we stop it at the ballot box.
The ballot box is America’s last line of defense against the rot of political grift, intolerance, and authoritarianism, which will erode the fabric of our country, including corporate America.
With that said, here we go.
After the 2020 election and the events of January 6th, most Americans just wanted to put our abusive relationship with Trump in the rearview mirror and return to normalcy.
Unfortunately, Trump lingers like a fart in a closet.
After eight years of Trump polluting our politics with dishonesty and unethical behavior, we continue to wallow in a palpable and inescapable MAGA malaise – because Trump is all around, all the time. He’s on the news, in the newspapers, on social media.
Most Americans are exhausted (not to mention ashamed and embarrassed) by Trump.
When hard-working Americans pull their noses away from the grindstone and look up to see the former highest official in the land lying and disregarding the rule of law, with an entire political party backing that behavior and an onslaught of propaganda aimed at deconstructing our democratic institutions, they begin to question the stability of the country in which they live and work.
And quite honestly, I think that’s the intent of the Trump-led GOP. To weaken Americans’ confidence in democratic institutions and systems so they can dismantle and replace them with authoritarian-based systems.
Americans generally refrain from discussing politics at work (historically, we know nothing good comes from it). We willingly accept our political differences because we know (or at least we thought we knew) that values like honesty and integrity transcend politics – that if a President were demonstrably dishonest and unethical, we’d put aside politics and condemn him uniformly.
Unfortunately, we discovered that with the Trump presidency, the reverse is true – politics transcends values. As former President Trump once said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any of his supporters.
The assault on truth and our democracy did not end when Trump-inspired rioters left the capital late in the afternoon on January 6th. The assault is ongoing. Today’s perpetrators are not violent insurrectionists beating police officers with American flags but elected and appointed officials with blind and cult-like allegiance to a corrupt demagogue. The assault and threat are equally, if not more dangerous, as it has the illusion of legitimacy.
Several months ago, Republicans voted unanimously to censure a member of the opposition party for his role in the impeachment trial of former President Trump. Republicans have floated a proposition to “expunge” the impeachments of President Trump, who knowingly tried to extort the leader of a foreign country and overturn a free and fair election.
The GOP crossed the Rubicon by embracing Trump and Trumpism – dragging millions of brainwashed Americans with them.
American corporations who spoke out against the events of January 6th and pulled support from candidates who knowingly lied about that day need to tap back into the sense of urgency and condemn what is happening currently with the Republican Party. So, when former President Trump gets on his social media platform, and spouts lie after lie about the 2020 election, companies need to return to form and explicitly and publicly denounce him and any member of Congress who regurgitates the lies. Silence provides a haven and fertile environment for unethical conduct to grow and spread.
The corporations we work for can help Make Americans Proud Again by speaking out against dishonest and unethical behavior and the assault on truth from Trump and Trump sycophants in the GOP. Otherwise, confidence in American institutions will wane, cynicism will take root, and morale will drop – which isn’t good for business.
Vote Ideas, Not Candidates
Joe Biden is a walk waiting to fall.
But Donald Trump is a creeping fracture on the hip of America’s democracy.
Biden is a danger to himself.
Trump is a danger to the republic and the freedom for which it stands.
Do I think Joe Biden is too old for the presidency? Yes, I do. But that problem will eventually take care of itself, as it does for all of us.
We must stop thinking about 2024 as a contest between two men, one who has clearly lost a step, the other hell-bent on lying his way back to the presidency.
The 2024 election is not about Biden or Trump; it’s about good versus bad ideas.
It’s about whether we move the country forward or backward. It’s about whether we expand rights or restrict them. It’s about whether we try to bridge our gaps and differences or widen them. In 2024, either we embrace and promote the ideas of western Democracy, or we don’t.
Trumpism – the metastasizing malignancy of malevolence and malfeasance has taken root in the Republican party. Trumpism is less of a political platform and more of a manifesto of intolerance, anger, fear-baiting, and grievance. And that’s today’s GOP.
To move the country forward and to trigger a “re-set” for the Republican party, we need to bury it under an avalanche of votes that screams DEMOCRACY MATTERS!
Today, banning books, demonizing “the other,” promoting one religion over others, and protecting unfettered access to weapons, even in the face of mass shooting after mass shootings, are Republican ideals, but they’re not American ideals.
While Republicans bitch and moan about pronouns, wokeness, and drag show readings, broken parents relive the scene of janitors mopping up the blood of their children from the hallways and classrooms in schools.
Most Americans are tired of nonsense in the face of real-life challenges and hardship.
The 2024 election, more than any other past election, is about ideas. Foundational ideas. The ideas upon which America will stand or crumble.
MAGA Nation
Culty MAGA members sing
they bend their knee, they kiss the ring
deny they see a naked king
Banning books and fanning flames
toting guns like Jesse James
thoughts and prayers to stop the bleeding
screaming at a drag show reading
Stripping healthcare, mining coal
pushing myths about the soul
damning those who don’t obey
denying women of their say
Casting stones, suppressing votes
grab our country by the throat
locked into a MAGA craze
they pull us back to darker days
Drinking Kool-Aid from a cup
yelling up is down!
and down is up!
spinning lies and crafting fables
twist the truth to turn the tables
Deny the facts and praise the liar
collectively they all conspire
to set democracy on fire
Culty MAGA members sing
they bend their knee, they kiss the ring
deny they see a naked king
Fodder for Felons
Mar-a-Lago’s a henhouse
guarded by foxes
with top secret files
in taped cardboard boxes
Classified docs
spread all over the floor
fodder for felons
trying to even the score
Millions of lost souls
and Q-cultist bigots
they lap up the lies
from electronic spigots
Looking for purpose
while grasping at straws
praising their savior
despite all his flaws
Empty of knowledge
full of deep longing
Q fits the bill
and their need for belonging
Fingers raised up
they sing and they sway
“The storm is-a-coming”
and so’s judgement day
Engaged in a story
which casts them as heroes
too dumbstruck to know
that they’re dancing to Nero
drinking the Kool-Aid
they’re dope-sick on Q
freebasing lies
and shouting fuck you
There’s fear in not knowing
how this will end
how far Q is going
to strongly defend
the lies of a con man
unwilling to bend
bendingtheneedle 