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We Are Under The Influence


Shit is getting real. We have a new U.S. Defense Secretary who is more acquainted with DUIs than DEI.

The richest man in the world tweeted “DEI means people DIE” referring to the LA fires and the city’s black female Mayor and lesbian Fire Chief. January 6, 2021 has become “a day of love” and every single one of the 1,600 people who illegally trespassed the Capitol that day – including those who seriously hurt police officers – have been let out of prison, pardoned and commuted. We’ve never seen such a “flooding of the zone” of executive orders like we on Inauguration Day. Not only is shit getting real, but – based upon our desire to bury our collective heads in the sand – shit don’t stink any more. But, if you bury your head in the sand, all you get is a messy mouthful. 

We are LUI, Living Under the Influence (of Donald Trump). Capitulation is contagious, but so is courage. We’re exhausted, dispirited, overwhelmed, and feel a sense of learned helplessness (the first step toward clinical depression). We have a village idiot as President who’s a chameleon, just as provisionally committed to the Village People as Trump Bibles. Courage is poking its head out of the sand, but when we have Washington Post cartoonists trying to help us understand our political predicament, they’re getting muzzled by Post owner Jeff Bezos. Where’s our “Tank Man,” the person who stood in front of the tanks during the Chinese Tiananmen Square protests in 1989? That iconic image of him standing alone in defiance of a column of tanks became a symbol of resistance and courage worldwide.

I’ve done my best to keep this daily blog non-political and I’ll continue to do that in the future, but this week, I’m going to propose a few ideas in the next four days. Ideas that are less political and more policy-oriented, hopefully coming from a place of wisdom. If ever there was a time when we needed to summon some wisdom, this is it. 

Eight years ago I wrote a book “Fifteen Days in February” as I scribed a poem a day to make sense of Trump’s first full month in office (you can only find this at our libraries at the MEA campuses in Baja and Santa Fe). The book is full of humor and bemusement based upon the premise the emperor had no clothes (that’s a scary image given this emperor). But, these times are different as there are few guardrails for The Donald as this man has conquered his party. On a good day, I do hope that Trump’s bark is worse than his bite and I have many friends who are quietly happy that we have a strong man in the White House at a time when the world feels dangerous. I get it. But, what if the man is dangerous?

-Chip

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