This, Too, Shall Pass

     OK, time for a little less structure and to just free ball it for a few minutes.
     I know a couple of you have been wondering what I've been up to for the last week. That's how it's been since I last posted anything of any substance. The reasons are manifold- I'm still coping with the suicide of a friend of mine. He did away with himself right after Election Day but in some gruesome development right out of Breaking Bad, they didn't find his remains in New Mexico until four or five days ago. Out of respect for his and his family's privacy, I won't mention his name or what few particulars I know. But I will say it was very sudden. He gave no one any warning he was going to do this, although his reasons for seeking a very permanent solution for a very temporary set of problems were made known to me. And the person personally responsible for much of this will be dealt with in due time, believe you me.
     But there are other reasons for my absence. I've been hammering away at my upcoming novel, part of a new series, that I started and shelved about four and a half years ago when I got mixed up with Tatterdemalion then Gods of Our Fathers. Plus, I've been networking like crazy since my return to Facebook (And, thank you, Les Edgerton and Barry Eisler for your help in kick-starting this shambling zombie that I call a writing career.).
     Last but certainly not least, there's this fucking Mike Judge fever dream we insist on calling The Trump Administration, or what I prefer to call Fear the Walking Brain Dead. Frankly, this government, for want of a better word, leaves me more than speechless. For the last week, save for my fiction, my brain's been frozen, paralyzed with disbelief. I half wait for the alarm clock to go off so I can start another day in another world when someone, anyone else whose name isn't Donald Trump isn't the most powerful man in the Free World.
     But Trump isn't the only problem, is he? There's also the problem of the Republican Party that Trump both represents and doesn't represent, sort of like a Schrödinger's cat with a bad combover. If the newer and more prolific Twitter account of the Fifth Column within the Fifth Column within our government is to be believed, the GOP has their own agenda and for now are using Trump as their useful idiot knowing he'll sign into law any batshit insane bill the Republicans put on his desk and he won't even read it.
     That would be the same GOP that voted to defund ObamaCare and cost 22,000,000 people their health insurance because God fucking forbid we have a government that actually works (even though the ACA does little more than open a massive gateway to the health care free market).
     That would be the same GOP that still by and large denies that ice is melting in what is plainly a warming planet while oil company fuck sticks like Jim Inhofe walk onto the Senate floor with a cooler containing the snowball that he brandished like that red headed goober in A Christmas Story.
     Yes, even though we keep re-electing nearly 90% of a GOP-dominated Congress every two and four years despite giving it approval rating in single digits...
     ...this, too, shall pass.
     72 years ago, we repelled a Nazi menace, a world-wide menace in three different theaters. And we will do it again. I have faith in the indomitable American spirit. Regardless of these neonazi and white nationalist dead-enders, I have an enduring faith in the American love of freedom. We saw it in the Women's March that took place on all seven continents the day after inauguration day. We're seeing it in the usually useless MSM that now are finally, slowly, doing their jobs since Trump's jackbooted thugs began tossing certain outlets from attending even untelevised gaggles.
     We've reached that tipping point when we find ourselves windmilling our arms before we lose our balance when we're told up is down. This laughable palimpsest that we call the Trump administration doesn't even have a passing regard for the concept of plausible deniability and keeps relying on the eroding reputation and respect for the Office of the Presidency to keep giving them that plausible deniability.
     We all know there was no terror attack in Sweden or Bowling Green or Atlanta. Like habitually lying children, they keep throwing shit out there, hoping some of it will stick, testing boundaries to see how much bullshit we'll swallow before we choke.
     Sure, some gleefully eat that shit sandwich served up daily but they will be laughed into the margins of society because we're seeing indisputable signs that more and more of these Trumpers are experiencing the sticker shock of their lives. And one doesn't need to be a Beltway insider, any political pundit or a Poli Sci major to know this will be the second, certainly the third briefest administration in history.
     White House insiders are saying the GOP is patiently awaiting the coronation of President Pence and then we can deal with that idiot when the time comes. But Donald Trump is a splinter in the body politic. He is just so wrong for the job, like seeing a hired clown at a wake. And we will push him out when we reach that final tipping point, when there clearly comes a time when we have to decide what we love more: Our democratic soul or a corrupt government.
     He, too, shall pass.