This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

I get it; I get it. I feel absolutely the same way about it myself! I’m sick of it all, too! I understand that there is a national Trump fatigue. A desire to do or say anything that doesn’t remind you of Donald Trump and stop wondering what he’s up to today? But it’s been one stunt or kerfuffle or another since the jump. Sometimes only stupid stunts, and sometimes, like now, dangerous.  A  compelling desire to look away and focus on my baseball card collection or something silly and superficial, and just avoid the news entirely. To get up each morning and look out the window and if there’s no mushroom cloud on the horizon or the radiation detector doesn’t go off, it’s gonna be a good day, Winston, a real good day.

A true masterpiece of modern propaganda. The Associated Press has Mr. Trump’s popularity at 31% while FOX News says it’s 42? It’s only nine points different, or nearly 25% of the total number. A laughably huge number. This is the campaign that made gas prices a big deal. Gas shoots up over 40% and Trump answers, “What? It’s no big deal. This too shall pass.”

I was watching a documentary about the last days of the war in Berlin. That as the war ended, there was euphoria and confusion. People were happy just to have survived the war. The Allies worked to purge National Socialism from the public consciousness. As this Berliner explained, once the euphoria faded and people realized what sort of miserable shape they were left in. The public turned on National Socialism all by itself. I fear it will be like that for us as well. We’re in that moment between hitting the brakes and the crash. Why is Peckerhead Pete Hegseth cashiering admirals and generals in the middle of a hugely successful war?

That is clearly a sign of distress and displeasure. Our victory is so complete, we’ve fired everyone responsible. History teaches us that when regimes start firing generals and admirals for failed campaigns, all is not well. The administration said the admiral has had a contentious relationship with the administration for some time. Contentious about what? What did he say this time to get himself fired? And the Army Chief of Staff too, huh? I wonder what he did or said to put himself out. These men didn’t quit; they were fired for disagreeing with the boss.  This is a huge story, or it should be a huge story.

“DRY DRUNK FIRES HALF HIS BRAINTRUST!” New guys taking over in the middle of a war. What could possibly go wrong? The lesson is clear to our military. If asked, lie. Tell them whatever they want to hear. Remember, your future depends on it. Promotion awaits, smile and say, “yes sir!” or tell the troublesome truth and watch other less qualified soldiers get promoted past you. “Shhh, don’t let anyone hear you say that!”

No one wants to admit it, though we all know it. It’s as obvious and unavoidable as the weather. A criminal cabal with a mobster crime boss has become the President of the United States. Forget about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson; this isn’t the same thing at all. This is Donald Trump world where the motto is: How can I wet my beak today? The President has his own untraceable crypto currency. Insert the money in the slot and fully explain the favor you wish granted and President Al Capone will oblige. “Ghislaine wants a puppy and a big screen TV.”

Sure, I understand. Who wouldn’t want to look away? Every time you look at the TV, it’s something awful. I guess what bothers me is that this is just the beginning. Like the Berliner; this is going to take a decade, or more, maybe two to recover from this catastrophe. That is, if we can recover at all. I don’t have that many decades left, so I’d appreciate it if the politicians would stop fucking them up for me. I remember halcyon days when we worked to eliminate disco music. Such a wonderful time. We didn’t know how good we had it.

Livable wages and V-8 cars without touchscreens. Kick-Ass car stereos and good music and good sinsemilla. No Trump. Centrist Democrats and reactionary Fascist Republicans, and suddenly the world doesn’t work so good anymore. Americans priced out of homes and cars, and working two jobs. Huge, great TVs and poor programming. Access to any popular music instantly, but nothing worth listening to. I understand, I do it myself. I tune Trump out and drink heavily. Read a nice book, or watch a nice baseball game, or an old movie. Anything to try and forget the situation we’re in.

The machines and mechanisms designed to save us aren’t saving us. Donald Trump could dance naked in the White House fountain. And Republicans would only comment on what a good dancer Mr. Trump is. The media would focus on the dancing argument. Is Mr. Trump a good dancer? No 25^th Amendment and no impeachment. The Commerce Department opened an internet portal where vendors can request tariff refunds. But first, a few threatening words from Donald Trump. Trump advises; you best forget about the refunds. Mr. Trump says he’s making a list and you better not be on it. He has a long memory. You had better not apply! Not if you know what’s good for you.

You know, in Orwell’s novel 1984, Big Brother was only watching you. Now, in Trump’s 2026, Big Brother will come and get you, if you don’t watch out. That’s difficult to avoid. A Gestapo arresting people on the street. That’s hard to avoid. A Gestapo killing citizens on the street. For years, I’ve heard the hypothetical question. What would you have done if you had found yourself living inside the Third Reich? Well, now you know! You’d be doing whatever you’re doing right now. Looking away when it’s too hard to look at the truth. Especially when it’s just easier to look away, just like everyone else.

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn,