Who is that Masked Man? It Sure Isn't Batman

Sometimes good guys wear a mask.

Think Batman or Spiderman. 

Or the Flash and Zorro. Don't forget about Captain America or The Green Arrow. 

In the fantasy world heroes also conceal their identities by having alter egos. They may wear masks, but they don't appear sinister because their always helping people out. If Batman shows up brown-skinned people don't have to worry, but in the real world it's a different story.

Cities throughout the country have turned into human hunting grounds, especially if you're a person of color.

Washington DC looks like an occupied city under martial law. Seeing is believing.

Trump has built a multi prong private army that consists of ICE, FBI agents, DOJ agents, national guardsmen, active-duty military, and DEA agents. Local police departments are reduced to secondary rolls as Trump's draconian deportation gangs roam the streets terrifying civilians and disrupting their lives.

The worst part of these roaming vigilante gangs is they wear masks and have no identifying ID on them. People don't know if they are thugs, hijackers, or gangsters protecting their turf. It's not exactly heartwarming to see groups of heavily armed men and women in your neighborhood. 

Trump maggots claim Americans feel safer now that Trump is laying siege to all the major cities in the nation. If that's the case, why are major parks - like MacArthur Park in LA - nearly deserted? It wasn't that long ago when it was safe to take your kids to the park without being interrogated by masked men.

This is not the America I grew up in. At 19-years-old I served my country by putting my life at risk in Vietnam and Cambodia (1970). I've always believed in our democratic republic and felt that the United States was the moral leader in the world since WWII. Now, sadly I don't believe how we've given up our democracy to a convicted felon. Never in my worst dreams did I think America would fall and become an authoritarian state under a dictator. 

On some mornings I wake up and for just a moment and pretend Trump hasn't seized our democracy so quickly and dramatically. It's bad enough that he's the worst president in our history but the fact that he's a demented senile fascist, living in an alternative universe while squatting in the Oval Office is almost unbearable.

My generation fought fascism withs it's Gestapo and other armed thugs that murdered millions. America destroyed Hitler and his 1000-year Reich. That should have been that.

In a twisted turn of events Americans allowed the vilest man in the country to seize the reins of power. It should have never happened. Now we're paying the price as Trump's Gestapo violates every law in the land in a racist attempt to purge America from people of color.

I fear my children, grandchildren and their children will be living in a dystopian nightmare if sane Americans don't fight back now. There's not a day to waste. Democrats need to unite like never before. They face an uphill battle with Trump already trying to rig the midterms next November. We're going to need a record turnout that will overwhelm the increasingly unpopular MAGA party at the polls.

As it Stands, traditionally bad guys like bank robbers wore masks to conceal their identity. History is repeating itself.

Trump's Meeting with World Leaders was a 'Nothing Burger'

Trump's orange face glowed with pleasure as he sat at a table with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a delegation of European leaders Monday.

The European leaders were there to support the Ukranian leader after being left out of talks between Trump and Putin in Alaska last Friday. They have good reason to be concerned as Trump has been bragging about his buddy Putin and even rolled out a red carpet for him in an act that made most Americans disgusted.

Who can blame Zelenskyy for wanting a support team after the treatment he received the last time he visited the White House? Trump and Vance sat on either side of him and accused him of not being grateful enough for U.S. military assistance. It was a sickening display of bullying.

It was quite the spectacle watching world leaders be nice to the man that most of them loathed. A regular tea party. Everyone smiled and tried to act like Trump was not a sociopath and fan boy of Putin.

What was accomplished you ask?

Well let's see, the world leaders wanted a cease fire and Trump doesn't want to now because he thinks they can all sit around a table and get a peace agreement if they'll all just concede Putin is NOT giving back the Ukrainian territories it conquered, and the country has to agree NOT to get in NATO.

If that's the starting point of this "historic" meeting how far do you think it will go? Absolutely nowhere. Trump is only offering US protection for Ukraine - albeit questionable protection (no parameters yet) and no talk about NATO.

Somehow, I doubt those seven world leaders were very reassured by Trump's bluster. It's obvious that Trump is going to back Putin and that's not in their best interests. As they each smiled and thanked Trump for putting together the meeting they must have been thinking that not only was there no progress made it looked like none would be made in the near future despite talk of a future trilateral meeting with Putin, Trump, and Zelenskyy.

Trump let everyone know that he was going to report the meetings progress to his daddy in Moscow after it was over. He'll plead with the Russian dictator tonight to have a trilateral meet, but Putin isn't interested and he'll just string Donny along as he's been doing for the last decade. If he does agree we can count on Trump humiliating our nation again.

What Trump personally accomplished, for a few days at least, was that the Epstein Files didn't dominate the news as the world dialed in to see if any peace progress was being made. As we now all know, it was a "nothing burger" with a side of bullshit.

As it Stands, Trump met with Zelenskyy before meeting with world leaders and informed him that he needed to hand over seized territory and to drop his dreams about belonging to NATO. The rest of the story.

Redistricting Threatens to be another Civil War

America has survived one civil war. 

I'm not sure this nation will survive another. 

It was the blue states against the gray states. Now it's the blue states against the red states. Sounds like two different countries existing unharmoniously on the same continent, doesn't it?

That's our reality today.

When Trump leaned on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to redistrict the state to steal five seats from the democrats despite the fact that only five years have passed since the last census (it's taken every ten years according to law) it was the first salvo in a war against democracy. 

It was a Ft. Sumter moment that quickly got a reaction from the normally docile democrats. The match was lite.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to fight fire-with-fire and is now looking at the state redistricting to take away five republican seats.

Where will this lead? If the rest of the states decide their going to redistrict in retaliation what's going to happen to our nation? The rhetoric has gotten so raw between the two political parties it's like sitting on a time bomb. 

Trump didn't achieve his goal of becoming a dictator the first time around, but he's well on the way to becoming one after getting another shot at it.

While rigging next year's midterm elections with illegal gerrymandering Trump is causing chaos throughout the country by invading states with the national guard and active military troops. The FBI has forsaken its original mission under an insurrectionist, Kash Patel, and is now part of the invading forces in blue states with black mayors. 

Gangs of local police officers, ICE Agents, national guardsmen, and active military soldiers are roaming the streets in Washington DC. It looks an awful lot like martial law.

The democrats seem to be coalescing around Newsom who has taken the national lead in defying Trump's illegal takeovers. A few other democratic governors have shown encouragement while maintaining a wait-and-see attitude.

As resistance to Trump increases among liberals the hard right is facing growing divisions among its members but is still firmly in Trump's grasp and ready to go to war if he tells them too.

It's important to note that it will be a one-sided war. Trump controls the military, and the democrats don't even have an army. It'll be civilians being slaughtered in the streets as they protest the authoritarian takeover.

There are 23 states that have a state defensive force in addition to the national guard. Both are supposed to answer to the governor unless the feds declare an emergency and take their power away. The states with the most active duty and reserve members of the military are California (184,540), Texas (164,234) and Virginia (115,280).

That's a lot of fire power to turn on civilians should Trump call for martial law throughout the country. The burning question is what happens when civilians are targeted and shot? Will they organize against the federal government and fight back? It's all too terrifying to think about.

As it Stands, hang your American flag upside down because we're all in a dire situation.