At Random | 12 | Shame

Going down the proverbial rabbit hole to see what I can find

I tossed and turned last night between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. Couldn’t get back to sleep. Replayed my round of golf from the day before, trying to figure where I could have made up a shot here or there. Went through what would take most of my time this week, flipping the calendar pages in my mind to identify what’s important … and what isn’t. Quietly sang to myself Crosby, Stills & Nash’s classic “Helplessly Hoping,” impressed that I still remember all of the lyrics.

Then, still sleepless and for some reason turning my attention to domestic and world affairs, I found I was able to articulate my increasing frustration with current political events:

The executive branch of our government is a chaotic mess. Fealty to the president appears to be the only way to succeed, and Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, Patel, McMahon, Bessent — all of the President’s men and women are scraping their bended knees in deference, no, homage to their wannabe king.

We the people can only hope that the judicial and/or the legislative branches do what they’re supposed to do: ensure that the balance of power prevents the chaos from overwhelming the guiding principles of our governance, not to mention the Constitution.

But the Supremes are factionalized themselves, for decades having been made political pawns in presidents’ and the Senate’s chess moves to control the judicial branch. And when they’re not being guided by their own political leanings — how else can you explain the overturning of Roe v. Wade as precedent — they do little more than sit back in their black robes and watch rather than participate in what surely they see is a giant shit show?

Here’s what I settled on: Congressional members represent themselves first, their parties second, and their constituents third, if at all, and only when it’s time to be reelected … so that they can go on representing themselves first and their parties second. (After all, they need their party’s support; without it, King Trump will endorse someone else to replace them.)

I’m tempted to do a mic drop now because the truth of it all has become so obvious to me. Perhaps it’s obvious to you as well.

Millions of acres in Alaska now open for drilling? Lisa Murkowski, what do your constituents think of that? What are you going to do about it?

The President on his own declares war on Iran and drops g-normous bombs on what we’re told are nuclear development sites? Hey, John Thune and Mike Johnson, I thought the legislative was the only branch that could declare war? You okay with that?

Heather Cox Richardson: “For the first time in history, the United States dropped its 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs)—twelve of them—on another country.... One pattern is clear from yesterday’s events: Trump’s determination to act without check by the Constitution.”

The decision to ship plane loads of ICE captures to an African country that only a small percentage of Americans could name, much less find on a map? No due process. No apologies. Who are we becoming?

“Congress, now more than ever, our nation needs your cowardice …” — The Onion

When masked ICE agents last week visited Dodger Stadium expecting welcome access to the parking lot, fortunately the spirit of Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Junior Gilliam, and other HoFers gave Dodger leaders the courage to just say no.

And don’t get me started on the pardons …

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The aging but still engaged cultural phenomenon affectionately known as “The Boss,” Bruce Springsteen, is willing to go toe-to-toe with King Trump, serving as a lighthouse beacon for truth, justice, and the real American way.

“It’s an American tragedy,” said Springsteen to The New York Times.

“I think that it was the combination of the deindustrialization of the country and then the incredible increase in wealth disparity that left so many people behind. It was ripe for a demagogue,” he added. “And while I can’t believe it was this moron that came along, he fit the bill for some people. But what we’ve been living through in the last 70 days is things that we all said, ‘This can’t happen here.’ ‘This will never happen in America.’ And here we are.”

Springsteen said he still has hope: “Because we have a long democratic history. We don’t have an autocratic history as a nation. It’s fundamentally democratic, and I believe that at some point that’s going to rear its head and things will swing back.” Trump didn’t like it, but I did. His courage is in keeping with the image I’ve always had of him, ever since I was first introduced to “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ” in 1972. He’s authentic.

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Frank Bruni: “I understand all the talk of emigrating and rich people’s fascination with golden visas and with second (or, rather, third or fourth) homes abroad as upsized, seafront panic rooms of a sort. I too am horrified by what’s happening here, terrified of where Trump and his enablers may take us and disillusioned, bitterly, by how many people rationalize that or retreat to fiction, which eclipses fact as seldom before.

“But this is my country every bit as much as it is Trump’s. It’s my home, and my ease in its presence, my understanding of its foibles, my awareness of its potential and my investment in its welfare are as foundational as my attachment to my family is. I wouldn’t be able to purge my two brothers and my sister from my heart and my thoughts if I wanted to — which I don’t. The same goes for my country.”

If The Onion can do it — in a full page New York Times ad, no less — and Betty Poore and a dozen or more of her friends can do it, let’s hope that SCOTUS and Congress will step up, allow themselves to be guided by principles instead of whatever else seems to be (de)motivating them, and take the road (so far) not taken …

The final stanza of Frost’s poem came to mind as I — as we all wait for concerned, courageous, authentic members of the Supremes and Congress to do their jobs.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

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By the way, I was finally able to go back to sleep, my mind settled and the subject of this post clearly in focus. Thanks for reading.