Disaster happens next

This is a ridiculous photograph:

What do you see?

I see a poseur and the affected posture of a phoney tough guy, who thinks that cruelty is strength. I see a fool, and I see danger, but then again, I’m no Bill Gates.

Here is what he saw:

I think Bill Gates is full of shit, but no more so than guys like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Iger and others, who have lined up to get their license to take — even though they need nothing, and should fear for nothing. Yet, it just isn’t who they are.

They are not alone.

Across America, there is great speculation around what will happen next that seems to be completely severed from any connection to what happened before. Shouldn’t before be a guide?

Donald Trump is a cartoon character. He always has been. His election is a sign of national degeneracy and decay. It is a symptom and an answer to decades of unrequited arrogance from America’s political, media and business elites.

He is the match and gasoline arson kit sitting on the lowest shelf imaginable. It is the one that people reach for when they decide to commence a burning season. Make no mistake that this is what is coming.

Fire is something that cannot be understood by seeing. It must be felt, experienced and smelled. Conflagrations are part of the natural world, and also human existence. It has been 80 years since the world drifted into the abyss. When it emerged intact, the victors and survivors said, “Never Again,” and tried to build a world where it could not. They succeeded, but their imagination for the future did not see past this point.

Their titanic vision fell apart like a pillar of salt eroding in the wind. It melted.

George W. Bush said the following 20 years ago at his second inauguration:

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.

And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.

He also said this:

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.

The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause…

We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

George W. Bush will be sitting a few feet from Donald Trump when he burns this vision to the ground.

He should deeply appreciate that, but for the two failed wars he instigated, mismanaged and lost and the economy that he exploded, that Donald Trump would still be a Howard Stern guest and reality show host.

I wonder what Barack Obama will be thinking. The 44th president presided over an ethically pristine administration, except for one glaring exception, which would be his vice president’s son, who engorged himself at every Ukrainian and Chinese trough he could get his snout into.

So with regard to the question that is hanging in the air, posed across a hundred Substacks, editorial pages, cable news commentary and magazine covers about what will happen next, let me be clear.

Disaster happens next. How could it not?

There has never, ever, been a more unworthy coterie of individual Americans who are more unfit, disordered, unqualified, sleazy, criminal and predatory than the gang of misfits that Trump has picked to have power over life and death matters in America.

But, it is more than that.

Donald Trump is wealthy, and in America, that denotes success. The truth, however, is that he has only ever truly succeeded at one thing — and that was as an actor on a reality show trying to be a mogul.

It was always a preposterous conceit.

Everything Donald Trump has ever done has been chaotic, shambolic, and in the end, a failure. All of it.

His presidency will be a failure, and more importantly, making sure that he fails is a moral imperative for every American patriot because what he has promised to do is break the country by breaking the US Constitution.

He has pledged to be a Caesar.

He has pledged to seek retribution against his political opponents, whom he calls his enemies.

He has threatened annexation and conquest of Canada, Mexico, Denmark and Panama.

He has threatened tariffs that will crush the American economy and American workers.

He nominated a moral degenerate with a massive drinking problem, who is a credibly accused rapist, to lead the US Department of Defense.

He nominated a serial liar, moral degenerate, and vaccine denier to lead America’s public health agencies.

He nominated Tulsi Gabbard to lead the nation’s intelligence services.

I don’t wish him luck.

I wish him failure — across the board — because what he has pledged to do across the board is immoral, un-American and corrupt.

I do not need more information, or to wait and see.

What I would like to see is an opposition with teeth and grit and fighting spirit.

The greatest tragedy of this moment isn’t Trump. It is the lack of resistance to Trump.

It is the capitulation to Trump and MAGA, whose 2024 winning margin, on a percentage basis, was the fourth smallest since 1960. The claims of a mandate to burn down the American way of life are as ludicrous as Trump’s photo, which will be hung up again in every American government facility all over the world, precisely at noon on January 20th.

One day, those pictures will come down, but the basic requirement for getting them down is fighting back. That seems to be the crux of the problem to me.

The people who should be digging in and getting ready are as lost as a group of people could be because the blind are following the blind.

Who speaks for the 76 million Americans who said NO to this?

Who fights for them?

Until there is an answer, the Trump steamroller is going to flatten everything in its path. The tragedy of it all is that the news media will say that it is because he is strong, when the truth is that it is because the opposition is weak.

Fascism rose in the 1930s not because it was strong, but because the democracies were weak, sclerotic and corrupt.

Nothing has changed.

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