Oh, Bernie ... (he's the one in the middle)
And he's still at it today ...
Like many of us Brooklynites (Bernie, Ben & Jerry, me ...) who gravitated to Vermont as young men with a dream (btw, I did some marketing work for Ben & Jerry in the early days ... long story) you just can't keep us down. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the ice cream marketing geniuses of our time, had something to say, and they said it through ice cream. Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont always has something to say, and it's always worth listening to. And me, well, I eventually ended up in Utah. Go figure. A place from which I am writing this now. Our state chamber of commerce marketing geniuses came up with a slogan for Utah as, "A Pretty Great State". Not a "really" great state, or even just a "great" state ... but merely a pretty great state. Which implies that it's really not that great. Oh, but it is ... although an acquired taste.
But listen, if you are getting sick of Elon Musk's antics, and looking at his foolish manchild face in the news every day, you are not alone. And likewise if you are getting tired of the 24/7 Trump avatar show. I mean, he was a bro-buddy with Jeffrey Epstein ... need I say more about his character. Not to mention his fucked-up business deals, his convictions, all the accusations, and complaints ... the fraud, graft, and lying. Jeez, you think he'd be doing 10 to 20 at Rikers Island by now. They could put him in his buddy Epstein's old cell. The one that he hung himself in. Maybe it would give Trump a few ideas. But no, he's the President of the United States. Can you believe it? Well, hopefully you got what you voted for.
We Americans, We the People, should all feel about the same way Zelensky must feel now about Trump and his America. Yeah, "HIS AMERICA", Trump's America. Betrayed. Ambushed. Mugged. That staged reality show at the White House the other day was taped exclusively for the Russian state media to savor and promote. Many Americans feel that this was a cowardly act of treason. Don't we hang traitors?
Zelensky was even criticized by Trump for not wearing a suit jacket and tie at this White House shakedown. But he is just fine with brother Elon Musk dressed like some jumped-up adolescent skateboarder at Cabinet meetings in the Oval Office with his kid hanging around his neck. We hold this truth to be self-evident.
I just can't believe that our elected senators and congressmen are allowing this to happen ... letting these two thuggish, shortsighted and abusive powerbrokers, and their errand boys and accomplices like Marco Rubio, JD Vance and the rest of the inner circle gang, literally take over America.
Someone made the comment on a newscast the other day, that FDR didn't extort Churchill in 1944 and ask for payment for the U.S. helping England defeat Hitler and Nazi Germany. Good one.
C'mon Bernie! Show your indolent colleague senators and congressmen how to really protest and not just throw hissy fits in television interviews and at congressional hearings. What kind of a cop-out is that? Get your blood up and chain yourself to a Tesla, or to a fire hydrant in front of Trump Tower in New York City ... your hometown. Get yourself arrested again. Proudly, by Trump's goon squad. Show 'em how it's done. Show your long-suffering colleagues ... the Jamie Raskins, Adam Schiffs, the Chuck Schumers and all the others in your Congressional mash-up, who all apparently love the television cameras and vice versa, how to protest like a man and get the job done ...
... they just continue to talk and talk and talk, write letters and send notes to one another. They cry a little and laugh a lot among themselves at their clever slights against Trump, and on TV with the cable news stars and the pundits, thinking that they have done something to solve the problem, when all they've done is increase ratings and audience market share. Their words are useless, mollifying at best. They don't seem to be taking this American crisis seriously enough to put skin in the game. Or they are, but they just don't know how to fight back. Like Bernie did in 1963.
This is no joke. The gloves are off. Battle stations! All hands on deck! We are not just in harm's way anymore, we're in it up to our necks. Time to fight back. Voting apparently does not work anymore in America. It's certainly not a way to judge character or right from wrong. We need to somehow cut the head off this snake and get rid of Trump. It's the only way to make America great again.
Bernie! Where are you? Don't let us down!
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
"Sometimes change is necessary. It can be good, it can be bad. It depends on what is changing, who's doing the changing, and why. And who is affected, and how. It can merely be a matter of social and technological evolution. It can also be a matter of politics, ego, and greed, as we are seeing today in America. It's a matter of perspective. Someone will lose and someone will win."
"History often repeats itself. Our new MAGA leaders seem to have turned in their swastikas for red hats."