2019 or 1969?

Imagine that you have access to a time machine, a Tardis or some H.G. Wells-ian device. And you were given a one-way ticket choice: continue to live your life onwards from January, 1969 or January, 2019. Which year would you choose?

It's the known past versus the unknowable future. We know what went down in 1969. But it's kinda intriguing to think of what one's choice would be if you were presented this choice in January, 1969: continue in '69, or jump to 2019 for future frivolous lifestyle pursuits. We'd all be traveling by rocket-jetpack by now, surely!

The present day is always bogged down with the baggage of the past. It frames our perception of reality. But the future appears as open-ended. And unless one is a fan of dystopian films or literature, the future is seen as an escape from the problems of the current age. It's "what if" versus "what it is".

We all know the quandries and dangers of our time. Runaway climate change that threatens our future existence. An ongoing autocratic assault on democratic institutions that will take, at best, years to repair. A ruthless, unregulated and unsustainable capitalism that will teeter and crash down all around us. Out loud racism and misogyny that passes for acceptable dialogue. Bad pop music and the dismal Chicago White Sox. Pick your poison. It's all enough to pine for a different time.

And if we were living in the now of January, 1969... well, it was not a happy time as I recall.

We had survived 1968, so there was that. The murders of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy seemed to have damned the country to some sort of long-term karmic retribution. Cities were burning. Civil rights appeared to have stalled out in the hatred. The Peace Movement staggered into the violence of Chicago, resulting in Richard Nixon being elected by 500,000 votes.

The awful war in Vietnam raged on, with over 1500 soldiers killed just in 1/69, or 375 a week! Also, the wounded: nearly 2300 hospitalized in that January. Nearly 17,000 had died in 1968. Meanwhile, there were 550,000 servicemen stationed in that country.

The Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. A major oil spill fouled the environment all along Santa Barbara. Air and water pollution poured forth across the nation, unabated. The natural world seemed hopelessly vulnerable.

It was The Cold War, too, with thousands of Soviet nuclear warheads aimed at us, poised to launch. Between the Hot War of Vietnam and the Cold War, the sense of unrelenting doom was heavy, every day. Does anyone else have memories of nuclear nightmares?

Richard Nixon began his tumultuous reign, following a tempestous and self-defeating Johnson era. He went on television to make a nationwide address seeking support for his policies, coining the term "the silent majority" for that portion of the public that quietly accepted his positions in our torn-apart nation. (Nixon's "silent majority" and Trump's base have a strong Venn-diagram crossover.)

Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, launched his attacks against the press. "The nattering nabobs of negativism" and "an effete corps of impudent snobs" are phrases that galvanized Nixon's base. Whenever the press coverage turned bad for Nixon, Agnew would be called on to charge forth with new insults that resonated with the party. He even popularized "generation gap".

Tensions with North Korea continued to escalate. The USS Pueblo, a spy ship with 83 crewmen, had been captured by the North Koreans in 1968 and was still detained. The propaganda war really heated up again when the North Koreans shot down a US spy plane, an EC-121, killing 31 on board.

There were skyjackers! And lots of airplane crashes! Rupert Murdoch began his march towards world domination! Later in the year there was Woodstock! And Altamont! And the Manson Family murders! The Cubs collapsed and the Mets won it all! We even made it to the moon!

That was the year that was, 1969, in a ridiculously brief synopsis.

So... if you were given the choice in January, 1969 to continue life then or to hop up to 2019, it would be completely understandable to bite the bait for the future. Things didn't look good, but a 50 year jump-ahead could be enough time to heal those late-60's wounds.

But if you took that ticket, what would you find?

The Vietnam War hit its apex in January, 1969. It took far too long, but from that point on the war declined. Now you have the forever War on Terror. Military casualties are much reduced, but civilian totals are awful and so is the worldwide stress caused by hundreds of thousands of refugees. We're still dealing with effects of the Iraq War foreign policy debacle, far greater than that of the Vietnam mess (Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and - waiting in the wings - Iran).

Our society remains in major turmoil, but widespread rioting and destruction is absent. Yay! Civil rights that had advanced since 1969 are being challenged, blocked and scaled back. Ugh.

The environmental crisis of 1969 found a solution that same year with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage in the next years of the landmark Clean Air and Water Acts and subsequent regulations. Today, though, we are scrapping that progress and are the only nation not a part of the Paris Climate Accord. Climate scientists' ugly prognosis for the planet is back to Full Crisis Mode.

North Korea returned the Pueblo and its crew. Since then, it has fortified its defenses, created a nuclear arms program, and continues to play games with our presidents.

The Cold War ended peacefully. The loser, Russia, is now a major player in the governance of our country.

You avoided the crash and burn of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, and now will witness the crash and burn of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

The bad pop music of 1969 has been replaced by the bad pop music of 2019. Air travel is much, much safer. Skyjacking went away for decades; however, made an unfortunate resurgence in September, 2001. The Chicago White Sox remain bad. Bad. Just bad.

So, if you're offered a one-way trip into the future, maybe you should hold off. The issues that drive you into the unknown may change quickly, dramatically, and for the better. Also, there are constants with humankind, therefore expect new but similar problems awaiting your arrival.

We can't escape the past. The present holds us forever in its Now. And the future, though unknowable, is nothing more than a collection of remixes in new packages. Except... except...

Well, listen to the #1 single from mid-January, 1969 versus the #1 single from mid-January, 2019. Marvin Gaye, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and Halsey, "Without Me". Different tastes, different times, different styles... but one easily surpasses the other.

Adios y buen viaje, 2018. Bienvenido, 2019.

Today's Kibitz features the value of saying Goodbye/Good Riddance and why Immigrants are not the boogeymen. We also review our 2018 predictions, and boldly post what's going to happen in 2019!

Good Riddance Day! What could be a better idea for the closing moments of 2018? This has become a tradition in NYC Times Square, where the public is invited to write down what they most want to say 'Sayonara' to. Then, after being posted briefly for everyone to read, these thoughts are placed into a shredder and away they go! Yes, good riddance and it's so therapeutic; if only it could be that simple.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nydn-people-shred-their-2018-bad-memories-at-good-riddance-day-in-times-square-20181228-photogallery.html

Vying for the top spot of The Daily Kibitz's own 'Good Riddance' note is Fox News and specifically Tucker Carlson. In a year that featured a Fox fleet of supertanker's worth of BS being broadcast every day, Carlson finished the season strong with his recent comments about immigrants. They "are making our country poorer, dirtier and more divided" was a just-in-time-for-Christmas feel-good statement.  And before there is any question, Carlson spoke of Immigrants. No "illegal" or "undocumented" qualifiers.

Stay with me here, it may sound crazy but it just might be that Tucker Carlson and his like-minded friends at Fox are simple-minded, nationalist racists. If they aren't, they are broadcasting messages that connect with a simple-minded, nationalist racist audience. You know, the Trump base.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/15/tucker-carlson-said-immigration-makes-america-dirtier-so-an-advertiser-took-action/?utm_term=.31624a0ce056

The overwhelming majority of economists agree that we need immigrants. Our country consistently experiences significant socio-economic churn. Our population ages. We need a constant labor and brain supply to fill the gap of what we can't provide on our own. Immigrants represent the needed "in-take" for our economic engine to expand and thrive. Cutting them off would be like pinching off the gas line of your car. Here's what our friends at the Brooking Institute have to say about this issue:

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/in-defense-of-immigrants-heres-why-america-needs-them-now-more-than-ever/

Immigrants come in all colors and classes. From Laborers to CEOs. When we place an "Immigrants Not Welcome" sign at our door, well... guess where the next generation of non-American doctors, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, etc. are NOT going to go. Our colleges are a major destination for overseas students - for now. But other countries have great colleges too and will be seen as more welcoming. This "No Immigrants Allowed" idea has been a policy goal within the Trump Administration since ever (see Steven Bannon and Stephen Miller). It's nothing new for hard right wingnuts who want a White Christian Nation.

So... Good Riddance! I shredded my note, and I feel a little bit better.


As you may recall, at this time last year I went into a trance and uttered out a brief series of events/scenarios called The Daily Kibitz 2018 Predictions. Let's take a quick peek at what kind of prognosticating skills I have:

-- Trump is not impeached, but may not remain in office past early 2019. His criminal culpability will be revealed. There may be an arrangement made for him to just go away...

-- Jared Kushner and Donald Jr. are toast. Ivanka cuts a deal and skates.

-- Congress does not act to impeach because some GOP-ers are complicit with Russian money, influence and "kompromat". Republican leadership is "circling the wagons" to prevent damning details from emerging.

-- November Mid-Terms will be tumultuous and see Democrats winning back the House by a slender margin. Senate remains Republican by one vote. There will be enormous problems with voter suppression and tech-based voting "glitches". Epic long lines of people waiting to vote.  Russia continues its bot and disinformation campaign in service for the GOP.

-- Threat of war in North Korea (there may even be a coup that ousts Lil' Kim), but the real action takes place in the Persian Gulf region.

-- Many more present and past Members of Congress revealed as sexual harassers/predators... both parties. In fact, the whole #metoo movement will upend virtually every corner of American life. Long overdue!!

-- More drought out West, working its way to the East. Ocean and Air Temps continue to rise.

-- The Chicago White Sox finish last in their division in 2018, but will win the Wild Card in 2019.

OK... not bad. A little wobbly here and there, but what the hey. Some of these happened and others may yet occur. I continue to think that Trump won't be impeached, but he won't finish his term, either. Kushner and Jr. will face a judge at some point, and Ivanka will not.

What I didn't see coming was how a Supreme Court nominee confirmation process could distill the #MeToo movement into a month of outrage, galvanizing both bases which resulted in a historic 40-seat Blue Wave in the House of Representatives.

Another event not foreseeable was the super fun Trump-Putin Helsinki summit. Spending hours with Putin with just a translator - no records were kept and no review of the meeting was ever released - was bad enough. But when The President took Putin's side against all 14 U.S. intelligence agencies... well, I can't imagine any other President remaining President for very long. But then, he had a complicit Congress to protect him.

Oh, I could bore you for hours about other events transpired that were unforeseeable... but instead, let's turn to future unforeseeables - The Daily Kibitz 2019 Predictions!

-- There will be a major reveal through the Mueller investigation that makes everyone say, "huh". By mid-year or so, we see that Mueller, the SDNY and other investigations have plenty on Trump, but he is not the primary target.

-- Chief Justice John Roberts will disappoint the GOP this year. Watch him "manage" Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.

-- There will be some sort of Bump between militaries in the South China Sea, near the artificial islands that China has been constructing.

-- As the US exerts more pressure against Iran, there might be some retaliatory Iranian/Russian cyber shenanigans involving US infrastructure.

-- More Cabinet members will get canned. Likely next on the block: Dr. Ben Carson of H.U.D.

-- There will be a tumultuous confirmation process for Bill Barr as Attorney General. He will get confirmed, but it will be a Pyrrhic Victory with no trust or confidence in his actions or office.

-- The U.S. economy goes into serious wobble mode by Halloween.

-- Another record year for high temperatures world-wide. More droughts here and more rainfall deluges there. Greenland will continue to be in the news as its ice blanket melts. The House of Representatives will hold high-profile hearings on climate change and the immediate socio-economic negative impact it brings.

-- The 2020 primary season kicks in after Labor Day. Trump keeps others out of the GOP race. It's his party. The Democrats squabble and scrabble, looking for messages and candidates. By the end of year, it's Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke, Cory Booker and Amy Klobucher at the head of a crowded pack.

-- The Chicago White Sox will finish last in their division. Injuries and front office screw-ups keep them from progressing. This prediction is on repeat.

Wow. That's a lot going on for 2019. I won't even tell you what I see happening in 2020, because you wouldn't believe me... and I don't believe it, either. Regardless, we're in for a helluva ride this next year. Hope it's safe and healthy and fun for you, and - as always - thanks for reading!!

Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah

Season's Greetings! May 2019 be better than 2018. May our 401Ks recover. And may the president get a lump of beautiful clean coal in his stocking.

For your holiday soundtrack, Bob Dylan (!!!) swings out with a fantastic version of "Must Be Santa". This is my kind of Christmas party:

Can We Cross The Finnish Line?

We at The Daily Kibitz spent the previous week in sun-kissed Southern California. Happy for us? After spending a couple of days at Disneyland for business (weird and kinda fun), we witnessed first hand the conditions that create the infamous California wildfires. While hiking up a Mt. Hollywood trail, we observed wide swaths of recent burns. Fires happen in this kind of terrain because of parched plant growth and dry hot air; when a combustion event happens, it travels fast.

Climate change is the primary culprit, creating long term drought patterns and shifting, strong Santa Ana winds that create classic cases of widespread wildfire catastrophe. Climate change also plays into the overpopulation factor of the region and the ongoing water management dilemma of People v. Crops.

The area was still reacting to President Trump's recent visit to the state. He had memorably toured the  awful Camp Fire site, twice referring to the incinerated town of Paradise, California as "Pleasure." After viewing the charred remains, he commented on how firefighters were working hard to retard the fire. He then remarked on how, as a technique, some firefighters were raking burning leaves on the ground away from trees. On a roll, Trump invented a recent conversation he had had with the Finnish president regarding Finland's lack of mega-wildfires. "They spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don't have any problems," Trump observed. This lead to much ridicule after the Finn Prez denied ever saying anything like that.

Trump shouldn't have stopped with seeking Fire Fighting Tips. Considering how Finland leads the United States in many Quality Of Life categories, he really let an opportunity slip by. We should be getting Finnish tips on improving our Health Care (#6 vs. USA #29), Education (#6 vs. USA #24), and their premier Social Safety Net programs. Also, how they are world leaders with the all-important Happiness rating (#1 vs. USA #18).

Trump famously questioned why there aren't more Norwegians immigrating to America, instead of people from Shithole Countries. Why should they? Scandinavian countries in general rank at the top of any QOL listings. They are taxed much more than here, because, you know, Socialist. But... you get what you pay for. And their citizens seem to think it's just fine.

What is definitely NOT fine is the Trump Administration's stance toward Climate Change. This is the most important issue the world faces, bar none. Trump and the GOP are lockstep in their moves to deregulate and defenestrate environmental standards and policies that affect Business. For example, the new EPA head, a former coal industry lobbyist, announced plans to do away with CO2 emission rules. (To number similar instances of anti-Environment practices supported by Trump/GOP would be much too long, mind-numbing and enraging for our purposes here.)

It is very possible that Trump just doesn't care. Shocking, right? Like other business honchos, he prolly figures that the environment's collapse won't happen until after he is dead... so it just doesn't matter and in the meantime, let's maximize profits! Certainly, his dismissive reaction to the recently released (mandated) report from the EPA, the National Climate Assessment, which portrays a truly dire picture for our world, was Classic Trump. Subsequent follow-up studies are similarly damning. Take two minutes to peruse this powerful thread from the Washington Post environmental writer:

https://twitter.com/chriscmooney/status/1070715518963904514

Yep, Greenland ice melt has kicked into overdrive. Thanks, carbon emissions! Oh, and how is more CO2 affecting other accelerent factors to Climate Change, like methane gas release from thawing permafrost in Alaska, Canada and Siberia? As a "greenhouse gas" methane is 30 times more powerful than CO2. And a whole bunch is already seeping into the atmosphere, with a critical mass more poised to enter, thanks to rising atmospheric temps. Add methane to carbon to spike the atmosphere, which melts the ice, which causes more drastic changes in our world. Refugees by the millions abandoning uninhabitable lands. Widespread drought, crop failure, famine, insect infestation and disease. It's the planet's way of trying to shake off the thing that is hurting it, which is us.

"I don't believe it" just doesn't cut it. The current climate crisis is what our military has been planning for and warning about for years. It's what the Paris Accords are all about, with the US being the only nation to withdraw. It's what oil companies have known for decades, and sought to cover up.

According to the National Climate Assessment, we have a slender window of opportunity to seize the day. No more than a decade or so. After that, the tipping point becomes unstoppable. Meanwhile, our White House, its agencies and the GOP Senate are set to cement their retro-climate policies to 1950s standards, the age they see as When America Was Great. What we really need is to Make America Finnish.


On Thursday, Pete Shelley passed away at age 63. He was the frontman for Buzzcocks, my favorite band from the late 1970s. There were other bands that were more popular and carried greater cachet with pop culture opinion-makers. But Shelley never seemed concerned with being This Year's Model. Buzzcocks emerged with the Sex Pistols in the early British punk scene. But they weren't really Punk, except in their Do It Yourself attitude. Power Pop, oh yes. Shelley's songs were about things falling apart, the frustrations of the everyday, the constancy of romantic despair. Downers? Nope. They were witty and super-smart.  Shelley took his strong sense of poetics and harnessed punk's energy with terrific melodies. Here is a typical song that plays as well today as it did in 1979:

"Everybody's Happy Nowadays". Somewhere in an alternate universe, on Planet Earth X, where everything we always wanted exists, Shelley and Buzzcocks rule the airwaves. They ruled here, too, but too few knew of their realm.

Waving "Bye Bye" to our Dunning-Kruger country?

It is a good start. The Midterm elections are now over. And what seemed, early on, like another version of the 2016 election night debacle has since played out in a satisfying way. But it felt really ugly for a short time.

Mrs. Daily Kibitz and I were at a fun and fancy Election Night Party when the results began to manifest on the TV screens. The crowd was of a decided political Blue persuasion (and I helped provide some "blue" commentary). Expectations for the long-predicted "Blue Wave" were very high. After two years of living in TrumpWorld, everyone wanted to see the electoral push-back that would certify that our country wasn't going anywhere near 1932 Germany.

But by 11pm, the party was experiencing a collective sense of dread in the pit of our stomachs. Florida, which polls had Dems taking for Senate and Governor, was going Racist Red. Polls had also looked good for Indiana, but it flipped from Blue to Red. Missouri and North Dakota flipped Red. Even an indicted Republican Member of Congress was beating his opponent in upstate New York. Texan Beto O'Rourke, though a long-shot, conceded to Ted Cruz.  Everything we knew or hoped for  was wrong, again. Why, O Lord? Was Job a Never-Trumper?

TV talking heads spoke of a No-Wave, even a Red Tide. The Senate races had become a rout against the Democrats, with some experts suddenly predicting a GOP bump of 5 - 8 seats! The presumed House lock for Democrats was not assured. It was going to be a long night. Party glasses of prosecco were exchanged for tall tumblers of vodka and bourbon. Several attendees quietly left.

And then something happened. The results from the Mountain and West Coast time zones began to find their way onto the screens. Blue began to flip Red. Close House races in Virginia and Georgia went to the Dems. The lock on the House was secured for the Democrats. And then, it began to build.

The next morning, Trump held a bat-shit press conference where he announced the Midterms were "very close to a complete victory" for him, despite the House would soon be controlled by Democrats. Evidently, he had gone to bed when the TV pundits were suggesting that the GOP had staunched the Blue Wave. In fact, as time went on, Trump clung to the belief that the votes counted on Election Night were the only ones that mattered. Then he spun some inane BS about voter fraudsters changing disguises, and needing an ID to buy cereal. (As historian Douglas Brinkley has observed, Trump is a bull who brings along his own china shop.)

But Trump was wrong, as usual. In the days following Election Night, the Democratic vote continued to swell. Absentee ballots, provisional ballots and military ballots were added to the mix. Recounts were held. More and more House races went to Democrats. What seemed like a humble ripple early on Election Night has since swelled into a massive Blue Wave.

How big is Big? Pretty damn big.

Before the election, the House was 242 - 193, advantage GOP over Democrats. Today, the sides have switched: 235 Democratic seats to 200 Republicans. The Democrats picked up 42 seats, many more than predicted during Election Night and the most they've achieved since the days of Richard Nixon. Moreover, looking at all 435 House contests as a single nationwide popular vote, the Democrats amassed an 8% surplus over the GOP. That is significant in a democracy (although our Electoral College has something to say about whether we live in a democracy).

Here's a personal benchmark for this being Big: In my hometown of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, there hasn't been a Democratic Member of Congress representing it since... 1938. Yup, since the Great Depression. Since before World War 2. Since before Television. Well, say hello to Democratic Representative Sean Casten!

"OK, but what about the Senate?" The Republicans have added a couple of seats to their Senate total. Their advantage will be 53 - 47.  But the Senate electoral map here was especially tough to contemplate anything better than a "hold" for Democratic best case scenario. The GOP had to defend 9 seats, all in Red States. They lost two of them. The Democrats had to defend 35 seats, including 15 in Red States that Trump won handily. They lost four of them. The Dems did well here, considering the radically uneven playing field.

So... what does it all mean?

It means that beginning January 3, 2019, Democrats will control the House of Representatives. They will chair all House committees. These committees have wide-ranging abilities to conduct oversight and investigations with subpoena power. The potential for unearthing what has been covered up/ignored since the 2016 election campaign is enormous.

The current hallmarks of the GOP Kakistocracy in DC are rank, grifting greed and amoral/unethical  power politics applied to achieve long-standing ideological goals at the expense of the nation's health. These goals have been to kill the ACA/Obamacare, kill Roe v. Wade, kill watchdog regulations across the board, and kill government entitlement programs like Social Security. With a Democratic House, these GOP platform planks become very unlikely.

And despite Mueller-loathing Matthew Whitaker acting as a "temporary" Attorney General, the Special Counsel investigations will continue. There are nearly 36 unidentified sealed indictments on the DC Federal Court docket. There are other ones resting on the Eastern District of Virginia court docket, too. These could drop very soon; moreover, there will many new ones to compile.

And the House Judiciary, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees will now be acting as collaborative agents of Justice with the Special Counsel as the investigations continue. As I've suggested before, there will be a TON of shocking revelations as time goes on. Prison sentences. Careers will be ruined. Businesses will be destroyed. The GOP will be staggered. Some Democrats will be affected, too. It's not wrapping up anytime soon - the scope of these investigations is too enormous for a quick wrap-up. Spend a few minutes with this (pre-Helsinki Conference) extraordinary analysis of Trump as Russian Asset to better envision the real enormity of things:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html

Wowzers. Now use this info to understand the behavior of certain individuals over the last two years... Deny, Deflect, Push Back, Double Down. Repeat.

Anyhow, yes! Big Blue Wave!! If we survive the next six weeks, our country is poised to begin turning things around. Appreciation for quaint and neglected values like integrity and expertise will seep back into the system. We're not near the end. We're not at the beginning of the end. But we are past the end of the beginning.

To help celebrate the Blue Wave, check out this hilarious picture! When a couple posed recently for a Wedding Proposal photo, they were joined by some "significant otters." Sorry about that... Should be quite a wedding party!

On The Eve Of Something Huge About To Go Down

Something is happening with Trump. And though I am skeptical of many things, and not particularly conspiracy theory minded, recent events are kinda puzzling.

The morning after the midterm elections, he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and immediately put in Sessions' Chief of Staff, Matthew Whitaker, as Acting Attorney General. The transition was described as frenzied with an imperative rush to get Whitaker into office ASAP. Whitaker is widely seen as a stooge having one job to do: put the kibosh on the Mueller Investigation.

There was an immediate blowback to Trump's placement of Whitaker, with experts insisting that it is an unconstitutional/illegal move. While this crisis plays out, Trump and the GOP are sussing out the Democratic "blue wave" that flipped the House of Representatives. The Democrats will have full oversight responsibilities and subpoena powers in January.

The President flew to Paris for the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War 1. He filled his transatlantic flight time with angry tweets, mostly berating the media, talking up Whitaker,  and accusing Democrats of stealing the election.

Then he arrived in the City of Lights and things became quieter.

On Day One there, Trump chose to not attend the ceremony at the cemetery where 2,289 American soldiers are buried, mostly from the Battle of Belleau Woods. There was drizzling rain. The official excuse was that the presidential helicopter shouldn't fly through inclement weather. However, as a former Obama travel coordinator reports, there is always a back up travel plan for inclement weather regarding presidential visits and travel. In fact, Chief of Staff Kelly, Secretary of State Pompeo, various generals and staff were all there. They drove the 50 miles.

Instead, Trump spent the extra 7 hours holed up in the residence of the US ambassador to France, Jamie McCourt (Trump fundraiser and former Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner). No one knows what was happening inside. The dome of silence had descended.

The next day, he was scheduled to join the leaders of Europe in a unified march down the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe to observe the WW1 centennial remembrance ceremony. Except he didn't show up with the others. So they march on without him. He arrives, late, at the ceremony site.

Coincidentally, so does Vladimir Putin. In fact, they are the only two leaders to not participate in the unified march. As Putin takes his place among the leaders, the recently arrived Trump gives him a rare big creepy smile. Followed later by a thumbs up and friendly ol' pat on the back.

Trump listened to the host French President Macron describe how the demons that caused World War One are returning again. Macron explicitly rails against the notion of nationalism and extols patriotism. Trump, the self-described Nationalist, nearly plotzes! Here is that moment:

Afterwards, Trump's handlers are distressed at the awful PR situation. They assure the press that Trump's Big Moment will be when he delivers the trip's Major Speech at the Suresnes Cemetery before heading home the next day. Meanwhile, more quiet from Trump.

And the next day he did show up, and on time. But he spoke in barely audible tones, in what has been charitably described as "disjointed" and "inarticulate". For a look at this bafflement, check it out:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ideological-battle-lines-clear-at-armistice-centenary-commemorations-1.3694347#.W-nEC3dPgyE.twitter

"Mr. Trump delivers a history lesson for beginners, calling it a 'horrible, horrible war, but a war known as The Great War...' Mr. Trump conveyed no depth of feeling, no sense of gravitas or history. Much of his speech was comprised of lists of American men in the audience: top military brass, congressmen and Second World War veterans. He said "thank you" 33 times, calling out their names individually." Yes, that was a 10-minute Major Speech; Demosthenes would have been proud.

Then it was off to the airport and back to DC. Some more transatlantic tweets about how Democrats are stealing the Midterm elections. Once landed and returned safely yesterday evening to the White House, the Trump quiet grows.

Today is Veteran's Day observance. It is a President's unofficial duty to take the 10 minute drive over to Arlington National Cemetery. To lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and deliver appropriate remarks. But today it was overcast, with a chance of drizzle. So Trump declined to attend the de rigeur event. Something that all other Presidents, like Barack Obama always did, including in 2009 during a steady rainstorm. I love the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Obama later went out of their way to wander into the cemetery proper and spend significant time with surprised, bereaved and wet family members of fallen soldiers.

Obama at Arlington on a rainy Memorial Day

Back to point. Trump has been quiet in the White House all day - no events, nothing on the planner. In fact, Fox News twitter, Wikileaks, and Drudge Report have all been quiet; Fox has been down for over two days.

Someone who was NOT quiet today is Michael Cohen, Trump's onetime personal lawyer. He flew down from NYC today and visited with Robert Mueller's investigators for several hours. They appear to be prepping him for a Grand Jury appearance this Friday.

The brouhaha about appointing Matthew Whitaker spins on the notion of his ability to end the Mueller investigation. Even if he is able fire Mueller and otherwise starve the investigation's budget, it is probably too late. Reports over the weekend indicate that there are DOZENS of sealed indictments ready to go public at a moment's notice.

https://observer.com/2018/11/mueller-holding-dozens-sealed-indictments-intel-source/

"An Intelligence Community official who assisted the Special Counsel's investigation told me this week that Team Mueller is holding "dozens of sealed indictments" of people associated with the president, his 2015-2016 campaign, and his administration. 'Nobody who's close to the Russians is getting out of this,' said the IC official."

This was the same claim made much earlier by Wild Loon Lady and former Member of Parliament, Louise Mensch. As crazy as her assertions have been, she seems to be earning the title of Modern Day Cassandra, delivering predictions that no one believed until they came true. She has insisted that Trump is already the subject of two sealed indictments, and that "dozens" of other sealed indictments exist as of this time last year! When contacted for comment about this common claim, Ms. Mensch said that her sources are different from the source cited by Spy Guy Mr. Schindler. Hmmmmm:

https://patribotics.blog/2018/11/10/the-trump-russia-indictments-what-to-expect/

The upshot here is that many indictments are ready to drop. Sometime between right now and Thanksgiving, most likely. These won't be penny-ante variety. Think Donald Jr, Roger Stone and a cast of A-List players in Trump's D-List Reality TV Administration. And Matthew Whitaker may not be able to do a thing about it.

All this may be my fevered mind playing up a hunch. But why did Rupert Murdoch pay a closed door, after-hours visit to Mitch McConnell while Trump flew to Paris? This is one crazy thread:

https://twitter.com/gregolear/status/1061461804403056640

Following his visit, Murdoch's Fox twitter site goes dark, as do the other aforementioned conservative sites. Trump cancels visits in France and spends inordinate quiet time in isolation. Except a visit with Putin. Then he gets back to DC -- and cancels a visit to Arlington Cemetery. More quiet time in isolation, except for some more bogus tweets about Democrats stealing the election. It's very odd.

Long story short: If you thought October was crazy, the next few weeks are going to be WILD. It won't slow down until January 3, 2019 when the Democrats officially take over the House of Representatives. Then it becomes a very different kind of crazy.

On a concluding note, Stan Lee finally departed from our mortal world after 95 years. Like many others, I viewed Stan Lee as a kind of secret mentor. The creator of the Marvel Universe juggernaut played an integral part in the development of my own early teen values system. The mid-60's was a weird time to be growing up - heck, it was a weird time for everyone. For a goofy, messed-up kid like me, the characters of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, The Silver Surfer, Prince Namor and others provided a moral clarity I often lacked and a sense of union in their vulnerabilities.

Lee's super-hero characters hurt. Sure, they hurt villains - but they themselves hurt, deeply. Their suffering was not the stuff of Superman & Co.. They were filled with human complexity, feeling the sweet sting of life. Lee's stories thrived on moral conundrums and dilemmas. The actions taken by his characters were sometimes successful, but often they opened the way to greater conflict and doubt.

Yesterday, I saw a brilliant slogan: Belief+Doubt = Sanity. It made me think of Stan Lee. Stan Lee's story-telling and stable of relatable characters helped develop my inner compass. In the tumult of a time when civil rights were fought for and a horrible war was fought against, young Americans like me could open a comic book and feel like they were being spoken to directly by a dependable wise man. Here is a prime example: following the conclusion of an issue's story, Stan Lee had a sort of forum where he'd ramble on topics, answer questions, and so forth. I ran into this today, and remember reading it back then. It stuck with me.

Smilin' Stan Lee. Excelsior! You will be missed.