Interview: Black History, POTUS Obama, Et al

DeViney: Mr. Green, from the outset, before I go getting carried away and forget, thank you, from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the swashbucklers who comprise the staff of ModState, thank you for making an appearance with us and being willing to talk about your experience(s). This is a real honor for us as a media enterprise and for myself personally, as well, given our prior service in Twentynine Palms together. Our audience won’t fully grasp that, but it’s fantastic to be speaking again about, well, anything. Thanks again for agreeing to go over some of your thoughts, et al.

DeViney: As a bit of a launching point here, we’ve had countless discussions about greater America (or lesser, depending upon who you ask), and both being from the Deep South, we’ve been able to engage in candid conversations about race and where things’ve been and where they’re headed…you’ve surely got an opinion on this, but as you know I feel like President Obama did a good job handling the pressures inherent in being the first minority president of any sort, let alone the first black president. What are your thoughts on this?

Green, Mr. I would be lying if I said that President Obama’s election didn’t bring joy to my heart from a social and emotional standpoint. Being a Black man in America, I descend from slaves and sharecroppers who were treated horrendously. We live in a great nation yet have a troubled past. I digress. President Obama gave hope to generations. There are no excuses for success in this country. The administration accomplished a tremendous amount for the LGBT community and made strides to make healthcare accessible to all people while promoting a competitive market. Though unpopular with many, the Affordable Healthcare Act is a modern example of utilitarianism. I happen to concur with things that improve the general well-being/quality of life of all people. Politically, President Obama missed the mark in some areas however he and his wife are class acts.

DeViney: I’m sure this is going to come off as a really, “Well, duh!” question, but indulge me for the sake of our audience, please: you’re incredibly well-read, as in our time of messaging back and forth and all of our discussions prior to this “official” sit-down interview you’ve always had some bit of general societal information or some cultural reference, so with that having been said, when you hear that phrase, “Uncle Tom,” or you read it as it has so often been used, does it come off to you as an unbridled attempt to besmirch the reputation of a black man, to sully his name just because he doesn’t automatically adhere to what the left expects and, apparently, demands of the general “you”? I don’t see how this term can be seen as anything other than incredibly racist given the role that he played in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Green: The term Uncle Tom angers me. There are many Black people who arbitrarily label you as opposition if your opinion differs from theirs even in the slightest. As a youth, I wanted to speak intelligently, achieve academically, and pursue business. My peers viewed this as me attempting to “be or act like a White person”. Sadly, those sad individuals fell victim the same cycles of gang affiliation, illegal narcotics distribution, and single unwed teen pregnancy that they were products of. I didn’t take it personally. I knew myself. I knew my worth. My parents encouraged me and kept me grounded. I was a wolf amongst sheep. Wolves don’t fear the bleating of sheep. I encourage all young men and women to be themselves. Surround themselves with positivity. Your personal integrity has nothing to do with popular opinion.

DeViney: Now for a bit of an obvious shift you surely knew was coming, while the man’s been POTUS for less than three months, how do you see race relations in general, shifting in America? And, as a caveat, how do you see black/white relations moving? Has the needle moved for the better or worse? And, to put all of this in perhaps a more feasible macro perspective, how much blame and/or credit do you ascribe to President Trump for the positive or negative of all of this?

Green: I feel that President Trump’s election is inconsequential to race relations in our nation. We have made strides (abolition of Jim Crow and the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) but racism has and will continue reinvent itself in many other ways. It is human nature to want to not only survive but to thrive and dominate. I choose to disassociate myself with people who buy into racism regardless of their color. If you pause and think deeply about racism it is utterly the most ignorant ideal mankind has ever invented. What could I or anyone else (President Trump) do or say to change someone’s mind about racism? Rhetorical question… I perceive our society as classist and in my opinion there only 2: financially enslaved or financially free. Poor people have nothing. Our society created a middle class to give people a false since of security and satiety by promoting indebtedness. Wealthy people continue to increase their margins. The 1% have it figured. The other 99% think they have it figured out. That is my perspective and within that perspective race relations are irrelevant. I do care about equality and will always fight for and advocate it. Jack… you and I are the dream that Dr. King dreamed.

DeViney: We’ve discussed eugenics and you’ve been rather outspoken in your criticism of progressives due to their involvement in such, and forget the fact that the worst, arguably, race riots occurred in Boston during the Civil Rights Era but, is it just me or is it outrageous that these progressives, with so brazen a background in wanting to selectively “breed out” the black race yet then have the temerity to play the race-card, to wield it as, effectively, a weapon to silence, usually, anyone with whom they don’t agree? How has this brazen hypocrisy been gotten away with for so long?

Green: The architects of eugenics have always intrigued me and confused me simultaneously. What drives them? What is their motive? I can understand the desire to eliminate undesirable diseases but to aim to eliminate an entire race under the guise of “improving the genetic quality of the human race” the word genocide comes to mind. If you asked 100 people to define eugenics I am confident that less than 50% would be able to. People in general, are caught up in their micro sphere of influence. They are sheep. Wolves hide in the shadows and observe. Lack of education and awareness is the culprit in the advancement of eugenics.

DeViney: We also talked recently about the remarks of Dr. Ben Carson in labeling African slaves (here in the U.S., specifically) as “immigrants” who also had high hopes for their children. It goes without saying that most everyone has hopes and dreams for their children, but it’s an obviously ridiculous remark. You were quick to point out that, yes, while the majority of blacks can point to their African brethren and thank them for selling them, that’s a bit outside the framework of his remarks. What are your thoughts here now with the opportunity to have let it all simmer for a bit?

Green: I have a lot of respect for Dr. Carson. His testimony is incredible. He overcame staggering odds, became an unprecedented innovator in the field of neurosurgery, and was devoted to his patients. I am not one to crucify a man or woman for poor phrasing. Slaves WERE sold as war captives by their fellow Africans in exchange for gold and goods. This fact doesn’t detract from the fact that slavery was horrendous. Dr. Carson’s statement on slavery was ridiculous but I condone his message: don’t make excuses and make the most out of your life. We have far more opportunities than our ancestors and we take them for granted. I always look at the glass half full and again I try not to crucify people for misspeaking.

DeViney: Part of what we’ve discussed is that there’s a great deal of hope with Generation X ascending to the proverbial throne in the country, but there also seems to be a bit of a disconnect with the so-called Millennials and how quick they seem to be in silencing anyone they don’t agree with, particularly on college campuses. What do you make of their assertions in the Ivy League, specifically, that they’re not there to learn but to be in a safe space?

Green: I try to only encourage Generation Y. We are amidst constant chastisement and degradation from our predecessors. Historically we have been the most technically innovative and will continue to do be. You can order a plane ticket, pay your mortgage, and lock your home from anywhere on the planet from the palm of your hand. Thanks, Millennials. I digress.

Life isn’t fucking safe. The men who were drafted against their to go fight in the trenches of WWI, storm the beaches of WWII, and the jungles of Vietnam weren’t able to sit and talk about their feelings. We have gotten soft mentally and it would behoove us to reincorporate the spirit of the men and women who made it possible to have safe spaces. Stress is a reality. Learning to adapt and overcome is an essential skillset that we are failing to develop. In this sense we have to pause and get back to our resilient roots.

DeViney: As you wind down your career in the US Navy, looking back, how big of a problem of racism have you witnessed and/or experienced? And is it primarily whites taking out their alleged superiority or privilege on others? Or what’s the story as you see it?

Green: I can honestly say that I never witnessed racism in Navy. Some of the fine men that I had the privilege of serving with came from areas or backgrounds were that sort of thing was status quo. But brotherhood overcame and that’s a beautiful thing. I can assure you that if I would have witnessed it subjectively or objectively I would have addressed it. I’d be naive to think that it doesn’t still occur.

DeViney: Bit of a follow-up here to the previous question, with your final year in the Navy underway, and you prepare to leave the enlisted service and return to private life and enroll in college again, we’ve had some rather intensive discussions and you’ve made clear your intention to join the ranks here at ModState…with that, what compels you to drive on through and be a part of the editorial and multimedia process here? Sure, there’s a lot of promise here, but with being non-partisan and largely centrist there’s also a lot of undue criticism and heartache (being accused of bias by everyone by catering to no one, i.e.), so what cemented that decision in your mind, to where roughly a year out, it was, “Yeah, I’m coming to ModState after the Navy”?

Green: I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of ModState. Though I honor and value my enlistment obligation, I am looking forward to having the time to read more, focus and become more organized. That means delivering timely and consistently. The truth has always compelled me. The current status of our media is appalling. The truth seems to be irrelevant. Being first seems to be more important. Though I may be Machiavellian in approach, I strive to internally always tell the truth no matter how unpopular. I am confident that ModState will provide that for me.

DeViney: As this is an addendum to the standard period honoring black heritage by way of “Black History Month,” in what ways do you feel like black America has really made strides and overcome, and in what ways is there a bit of a journey yet to go?

Green: Black Americans have made a substantial amount of progress. They, we, are represented in the pinnacles of business, medicine, politics, and philanthropy. Attitude is everything. Honor the past. Invest in the future. And have an aggressive mentality of personal and community development. That’s the key.

DeViney: In the end here, it has been a privilege talking with you as always, and it truly is an honor to call you not only one of the finest minds I’ve ever encountered but to count you amongst my dearest and most enduring friends. Thank you, ever so much, for helping us follow-up to what was an oddly-uneven coverage (in spite of our efforts to the contrary) of Black History Month. I look forward to our next talk, as always. Love you brother. Strength and honor.

Green, Mr.

Gonzo State: [Untitled]

“Bentley! Bentley. I suggest…I suggest that you do something different with your life right now.” This instruction was delivered by my boss (at the time) to his unruly Huskie, but it might as well have been given to my entire generation.

As always, the day had given way to night and my mind had wrestled with itself long enough. I needed sanctuary, strong drink and a blank expression with which to watch the news on screens behind the heads of the locals. With the mind of a fried pie I careened my car down a thoroughfare of an unincorporated town in West Virginia, roughly sixty miles from Washington D.C.

“Babylon,” I came to call D.C. as a Sailor stationed in Bethesda, which was appropriate enough that no one cares to question the nickname. It was by a sense of awe, despair, disgust and reverence that I came by it the hard way some years ago.

The Christmas lights around Arlington had shone brightly on my most sentimental evening, awash with history and the sort of romance that saw my Army counterpart’s cheek against mine, her words in my ear accompanied by my kiss on her neck.

Then, the other shoe dropped and zang! I’m departing the parking garage of Target near P.F. Chang’s, a sudden desperate attempt to keep a fellow servicemember alive and out of trouble, and barely having arrived in Rockville, Maryland, found myself in the company of a remarkable amount of police officers. While all was eventually sorted out (one way or another), I did discover that being handcuffed, face down on the pavement amidst a soft rain gave me an amazing opportunity to learn and reevaluate the nonsense I’d allowed a foothold in my life. “Teachable moments,” I’ve come to call such events with a wince oft confused for a smile, and rightfully so.

Let no good deed go unpunished.

“It was all downhill from there,” I uttered to my glass and coaster on the bar, awaiting another potent haul of ethanol. “Or is it, ‘down on the bed’ from there? Not nearly as catchy.” The general uproar that passed for ambience as karaoke loomed large made my private social commentaries a non-factor.

“Hell,” I continued, mulling over the equal parts glory and horror of yesteryear, “if I was a woman they’d’ve labeled me a slut.” This was most certainly true, as I had responded to the eventual collapse of the genuine, heartmelting romance that blossomed in Arlington by carousing. I went on to live up to the archetype of heathen in the Navy, only I hadn’t needed a new port. D.C. had an endless supply of trysts for me to temporarily bind the wound of heartbreak with. I had largely imploded things with she myself, but damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead, aye?

“Aye, got it!” I said, louder than intended as my libation arrived. Few noticed, none cared. But I digress.

Every single horror of the corruption of public life crept its way into Walter Reed the two years I’d been there as the primary Army and Navy hospitals merged there in Maryland. It was a handful of miles from the epicenter of our Federal Republic, our Representative Democracy. Whatever label you prefer, the genuine, tender romance and the unnecessary legal crucible were equal parts of the same story.

So it was yesterday and is today and will be tomorrow. Wars and rumors of wars will abound along with the usual ugliness, while the bountiful opportunities, resplendence, and monuments sacred to America and Her Republic will ring hollow for any looking for that chapter. However, for those with a soul not set for self-destruct, there was the beauty and elegance and love that I discovered in Babylon. For my part, I vacillated between the cauldron of brutality and the essence of hallowed humanity.

Lucifer and a third of his fellow angels rebelled (at least in part) over the perception that God valued something fashioned from dirt over them; we hamstrung ourselves with our humanity during that time (2011-2013) in Bethesda, both our frailties and our strengths.

Did we make the case against humanity with our failures? I’m not so sure. The defeatism and Apocalypticism of the admittedly conflicted era that was the “new” Walter Reed circa 2011-2013 stands apart from now in several ways. Without the deflating drudgery of rattling them all off, at the very least one could look their friends and enemies in the eye. Betrayal and intrigue might be lurking around the next corner (per the modus operandi of Babylon and the government circuit as a whole) but those seeming eons ago politics was still the art of compromise. Then-POTUS Obama (D-IL) and then-House Speaker Boehner (R-OH) can hardly be soberly accused of engaging in the politics of blood sport we’ve now.

Now? Depending on their background, looking one’s enemies and/or friends in the eye might get you flagged on any number of social media platforms and could very well get you labeled with some sort of “-ism”, as one type of “-ist” or another. A whole decade ago Section 230 was applied within the spirit of its creation, lending the happenings online a sort of Wild West vibe when juxtaposed to the great cosmic gag-reel taking place now.

“What is Section 230?” one might ask. This, too, is a well-placed and unscripted question, but it makes little difference when Louis Farrakhan can spit his vile verbal excrement at hapless passerby on social media, but not Donald Trump. No, indeed. Hardly an avid defender of the former POTUS, I nonetheless present our Federal support and protections for our Silicon Valley overlords as Exhibit A for the how/why (either/and/or) the Federal Communications Commission has adequate pretext to cry foul. This is tantamount to “collateral censorship”, or censorship by proxy. That’s the biggest item George Orwell didn’t foresee in my favorite novel, “1984”: private enterprise conducting the censorship, and not the state itself.

Since I’ve likely lost anyone who hates The Donald for my defending his First Amendment rights, I might as well toss a grenade in this burgeoning dumpster fire. Wouldn’t Joe Manchin lead off that way?

“The wind only blows sometimes.” “He’s exactly right!”

While hardly the binary option both the Communists of the Far Left and the Fascists of the Far Right want all the Sheeple to give an “Amen!” and believe, the conflict between being a John Locke liberal in favor of largely laissez-faire capitalism (not the crony kind) with a strong, (but) limited Federal government and in wanting a respectable return on our investment in Section 230 protections granted Silicon Valley (and company), it is amusing on a perverse level.

“Afterall,” I told myself, “everyone hates a centrist, so you might as well enjoy it, Jack. The good news is, only White elitists are storming off after closing your column a few paragraphs back. They can kick rocks. There’s surely a Mother Jones article or athletic mutant defecating on the very flag that enables their miserable existence out there, somewhere, that they can flee to. Still miserable, but they showed me! No First Amendment for the people who make us think and shit.”

It was only at the end of this paragraph that I realized I wasn’t just thinking this as I tapped it into a note on my phone for later insertion into this very diatribe. I was muttering much of it out loud.

“Ignore the madness of a world that has made this swashbuckler appear normal. Ignore the celebutante-rejects aghast at those not absorbed in Chinese spyware ‘social’ apps available on any mainstream App Store.”

And why not? Afterall, the Communists now want the populace to swallow the latest swill their Thought Police have puked out, and nod slowly, basking in the wisdom of the notion that Black children being taught mathematics is racist. Conversely, the Fascists want the citizenry at-large to embrace their latest, unintelligible Reductio Ad Absurdum that beating cops to a pulp while shouting racist terms at the non-White officers is okay as long as they’re patriots. Thin Blue Line and all. “Thin Blue Line”, you ingrates? Put the straw down.

“Dear God Almighty,” I mumbled into my Long Island Iced Tea, nearly gone due to the urgent need to anesthetize myself. No reply, and not because He wants us to forget He exists, but because it’s the pizza we ordered, and it has arrived with all the trappings. Whose fault is that?

The lunacy in the former example is in those on the Far Left who by proxy think the Black intellect is so dormant, psyche so timid, that there need be no Black doctors, economists, engineers, et cetera, in the future. Mathematics is a rather integral part of the process of those career paths. Who’s holding who back with racist ideology again, exactly?

The madness in the latter example is at least as vivid and particularly poignant from people on the Far Right who think cops can do no wrong. You say The Filth went too far in Example X? “I say they didn’t go too far enough!” some neo-Successionist will bleat with the fervor of a patriot, by God. Just a patriot to another country, and not this one. But why quibble about it? Sure, seems reasonable enough to pass muster on “Squidbillies.”

Imitation being the highest form of flattery, the method to the unorthodoxy of this publication has never been less necessary. Both extremes in the sadly binary world of Castro and Mussolini neophytes demand the long-term vision, the sort of engaging in politics (again, “The Art of Compromise”) as a year-round endeavor that there is no app or “hack” for. The marathon, not the sprint, is what is at hand. I’d rather flatter the Edward Brooke III, the Alexander Hamilton, the Barbra Streisand, the Hunter S. Thompson and even the Master Shake with imitation than embrace the intellectual suicide of either Irredeemable America or Exceptional American Unilateralism.

Whichever clown car takes the stage from either extremist wing of discourse, they both will assure us that we’d feel so much better if only we’d embrace their brand of groupthink. Tsk, tsk, I know, but such is the rot of the putrescence we’ve inexplicably opted to wallow in.

What both teams of malcontents mean is we’ll feel much better carrying all of our favorite shows with us on all of our devices as they continue embezzling and funneling money to the duopoly in Babylon. The royalty on Capitol Hill will then reward our wholehearted faith with continued malignant governance and further insolvency on every level (social, fiscal, geopolitical, et al).

“Who knows?” I mumbled with a shrug. “With any luck, the dead will walk again and we’ll have an existential reason to disallow the Neanderthals in Congress from fucking the same coconut over and over while saying they’re carrying out the people’s business. All, naturally, with a straight face. And pursed lips. Can’t forget the ‘duck face.’ Gotta meet my fellow Millennials halfway.”

“You say something, Hun?”

The bartender had taken notice of my glass being devoid of strong drink, and grew concerned. Animals entering sexual congress with fruit, however, passed muster.

‘Of course it did,’ I thought, but could only reply with a low rasp as I exited my barstool.

“Yes, Ma’am. Check please.”

7 June 2020

Black Lives Matter: Let’s cut through the fat together, shall we? Yes or yes? Good. With that, we have a problem in America. Several, actually. We live in a police state, for one thing, and for another, paramount now, is said police state taking a particular interest in African Americans.

Let’s also consider the unbelievable, highly-classified powers of FISA courts to spy unopposed on our own people without their knowledge indefinitely, the ability of the Federal government to suspend the Constitutional rights of American citizens suspected of terrorism via the Patriot Act and the inexplicable repeal of the Smith-Mundt Act (which forbade the Federal Government from using propaganda on American soil). Are you drinking what I’m pouring?

With no malice in my heart toward the many fine police officers across the land (a few I’ve known personally), I say again: we live in a police state.

Over the past decade alone, we have seen increasing examples of the use of excessive force on a disproportionate number of black Americans. Data clearly shows that Whites compose 76.5% of America’s citizenry while Blacks make up 13.4% of it, the former were shot to death by police 370 times versus 235 for the latter.

For those who want to bring out FBI data displaying prevalence of crime amongst inner city black neighborhoods, recall the negligible difference in drug use between whites and blacks and the parity in gun culture between the two.

America glorifies violence, and that crosses ethnic lines. Don’t believe me? Look at what I call “Dollar Voting”, in essence, what we value and spend our money on. What does our art and culture reflect? If we’re being real, it ain’t peace. Does hip hop culture lend itself to violence? Listen to the top ten hits of the genre and get back to me; but before you get back to me, let me know what Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed and “The Dukes of Hazzard” were all about while you’re at it.

As for the movement itself, “Black Lives Matter” is driving home a simple point: yes, every house in the neighborhood matters but only one of them is on fire.

We hardly need a hashtag for Blue (Police) Lives Matter; they roam about largely unopposed, vested with a badge and lethal weaponry, and we provide a safety net (union, pension, et cetera) and, in general, blanket support to include the high probability that bad actors aren’t held accountable in court.

All Lives Matter? Do they? Maybe I’d be more decisive in answering these questions if every new episode of “Death By Cop” didn’t always star a black man.

– Jack DeViney

*************

New Orleans Police Department preps for ongoing confrontation and protest throughout downtown.

All Lives Matter(?): Two things can be true at once. In fact, very few things in our world are mutually exclusive of themselves. One can, for example, be in favor of the events in the George Floyd case never happening again and find the phrase “Black Lives Matters” offensive. They are not mutually exclusive. Both can be true. This depends on your definitions of words. Words matter. Words have meaning. Facts matter. Facts have meaning.

If by any definition, one is not a racist, but they will not stand shoulder to shoulder with Black Lives Matter signs, or they won’t kneel down in front of a mob of protestors, they become….what? Insensitive? Divisive?

To be true to this point, I believe “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” are equally asinine. We don’t protest on things we agree upon. We don’t stand outside and shout “the sky is blue”!

Are things worse now than the mid-1960’s? Or do we see public discord in 3D now? We report, you deride.

The assertion that a black man can not step from his home without fear of imminent death from a racist ‘Mericuh is as equally preposterous as the media’s “1619” narrative that America is as systemically racist as at any time in our history. Really? Where’s the poll of young, black men asking them if they’d rather live in 1865, 1965 or 2020? I must’ve missed that astute revelation.

Instead of regurgitated statistics that the left/media refuse to acknowledge anyway, how about we come at this from a novel approach. [So] what is your suggestion? I mean, with all of the statistics stating the exact opposite of your point, what are we doing wrong? Are our hiring standards too low? Is training being swept aside to fast-track officers onto beats? Do we provide immunity to officers that is unnecessary and counter-productive? Let’s get to the “nut cutting” as they say.

If we want to turn this into another narrative where the right just refuses to admit there is a substantial issue and is instead hiding behind years of conservative practices…show me! Where are the statistics that support any of this nonsense? That show America is systemically racist and prejudiced against black Americans? Where are the politicians that you are particularly citing as responsible for these aggressions? Or is it just “orange man bad”, with his “basket of deplorables”?

Once again, the left/media have overplayed their hands. We were told millions of Americans would die if we didn’t shut the world down indefinitely. Now if you have a small business and want to re-open smartly so that you don’t lose everything, you’re killing grandma! We were told that if we would just allow LGBT marriages, all examples of bigotry would be history. Now if you’re a Millennial male that won’t go out with a trans-woman (a man by all scientific facts and definitions), you’re a homophobe! And now, if you won’t march to the beat of this drum, well, you’re just a racist. Or worse, an “Uncle Tom.”

It’s tiring. It’s divisive. It’s unnecessary. This issue is one we must agree on, or we don’t have a country. You cannot have law and order if one group is being systematically hunted down and killed by those sworn to protect us.

Facts matter. Statistics matter. Two things can be true at once.

– Michael R. DeViney, Jr.

Fabriqué en Babylon: Meanwhile

With the majority of public discourse non-existent and what discussion does occur usually ending acrimoniously, I recalled a lesson (from the past) learned the hard way: in life, there are times the rules are such that, indeed, sometimes the only way to win is not to play.

Politics is considered the art of the compromise, or “the game of compromise,” to suit the lesson. Now, I don’t know if IQs dropped, if we forgot, if the entire paradigm changed despite the entire pantheon of examples (of public discourse), or if it’s an all-of-the-above that’s closer to where we’re at, but we’ve forgotten. One way or another, it’s that simple.

As “The Great Experiment”, that means that this is a failure as a nation. A failure to even try to communicate and find some semblance of common ground, to find a way to even try to be civil and respect one another’s time to speak, to actually listen to a message before deciding what it means and how we view that meaning, to even agree to try and communicate at all.

You see, the trick is in self-control. Before picking up your pitchforks and torches or, worse, leaving altogether, let the damned man have a few final words.

Fistfight breaks out in Turkish parliament

I say “self-control” is the key, if there is one, because in order for public discourse to function where there’s debate, dialogue and (hopefully) resolution at some point, we must individually approach this forum with the intention of conducting one’s self in a civil manner no matter what the opposition says or how they say it.

The first impulse is outrage, I’m aware, followed by some variant of, “So what do we do when [insert example of national Democrats and/or Republicans] start acting the fool?” And that’s precisely where, following my abandonment of my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts that the lesson learned previously (“sometimes the only way to win is not to play”) I remembered that silence isn’t always concession. Sometimes, it might be easy to think, “Ahp! Yep, see, DeViney’s silent so he’s conceding,” when, the truth is, I’ve also come to embrace another tactic summarized best as, “Let them talk; most people will hang themselves given enough rope.”

CNN was really on to something when they debuted the policy debates, featuring an epic duel between Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) versus Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) engaged in an actual, substantive, non-campaign debate. Too bad they didn’t keep the series alive.

In order to pull this off, one must listen to their opponent’s words and, I don’t have chapter and verse from Harvard or Little Sister’s of The Poor and this that or the other study to cite, but I do know that it is humanly impossible for you to absorb as much of what someone else is saying while you’re running your piehole. An easy life “hack” for this (I’m trying to meet you halfway, my fellow Millennials) is to engage in one of America’s most obvious traditions and gently shove, well, pie or any other food one prefers into their gaping maw, which should, advisably, prevent the pie-eater from interrupting while someone else is speaking.

Another idea, and I only mention it in passing, is to teach your children these same concepts so that there’s a generational sort of reboot here, if you will.

Another really good concept, and this brings me back to what we’ve lost in terms of public dialogue, as a nation, as a people, is drop the assumptions. Do I really need to say that, as a Federal republic of 325 million-plus people scattered across 50 nation-states over 3 million-plus square miles, people come from different backgrounds and therefore automatically have their own way of doing things?

Apparently. Just remember: how good is it? Really good.

“Why does any of this matter?” one might ask, certainly a wise and reverent question, and unscripted at that!

As I face the active task of delivering closing remarks that are dually comprehensible and comprehensive, my personal political platform has never stood out more and conversely never kept me directly out of the fray as often. That’s weird. We’re living in a weird era.

As a centrist, I see, for instance, the keen insight President Trump into the general failings of a bloated Federal bureaucracy that feeds right into the national angst of an alienated body of followers who argue the value they get for their investment as taxpayers isn’t worth spending in excess of $4 trillion annually. However crude one views his “one-in, two-out” policy regarding regulations, he was onto something. Specifically, the broader argument that, not because of lack of desire and hardly because of lack of money but because of the inadequacies and failings that are part of the very fabric of a bloated, administrative state; in short, our Federal government is a monstrosity. A monstrosity, I might add, that needs to be shrunk, not given more money.

On the other hand, I also see the benefits of a strong, but limited, leaner Federal government with a decisive Executive having multiple opportunities for reform in bipartisan areas (fringes on both sides notwithstanding) with Congress, and I see those very same opportunities going wanting right now. And that is where, yes, I can see the personality crises stemming from being willing to be at odds with anyone, anytime over anything bringing about, indeed, a sort of “Trump Fatigue.”

That cuts both ways as well: while the people grow weary of the constant drama President Trump’s approach relies upon, they also tire of every single failing in DC being laid at his feet.

The same President who picked a fight (via social media, but of course) with an Autistic foreign teenager over climate change he maintains doesn’t exist to begin with also felt like the status quo that denied opportunities to felons post-release was unfair (See: “The First Step Act”). The very same POTUS who inexplicably disavowed support (however briefly) for our Kurdish allies also did what every Administration since Carter had threatened to by being the American Executive who stood up to Communist China’s underhanded trade practices and illegal valuations of the Yuan (their currency), which gave them unfair advantage(s) in imports/exports against other countries.

I don’t blindly support any politician, and I’m leery of ideologues. I don’t have any heroic, holistic advice on how to approach the President or his (many) conflicts, some contrived and some born of circumstances outside of his control.

These thugs didn’t issue executive orders that restricted travel from other countries into their own. They killed people they didn’t like and/or want. Perhaps a bit of caution, then, before ascribing the President Trump to the ignominious league of names like “Hitler” and “Stalin”, methinks?

But I do know this: the sooner we can get one extreme to stop canonizing every wacky idea the President utters and convince the other side that, no, Sugar, dictators don’t ask other countries to stop immigrants, they just have them shot. Dictators don’t ask, and they don’t Tweet about being treated “very badly” by the judiciary and the media. They don’t have to.

Look at the big picture, and tell me where you’d rather be that would be a better country from which to launch Endeavor A or stand up for Civic Cause B, et al. So, you don’t like the President. I don’t know how much the President likes the President. But you ought to be able to know the difference in there being room for (bigly) improvement in our mixed capitalist system, and in living in a concentration camp as you and your fellow undesirables are systematically exterminated by an authoritarian state.

A dictator? Hitler? Really? See: “Godwin’s Law”

Sound extreme? So do y’all.

Interview: Black History, POTUS Obama, Et al

Green, Mr.

Gonzo State: [Untitled]

Contrast: Black Lives Matter v. All Lives Matter (et al)

Fabriqué en Babylon: Meanwhile