Today is Wednesday, December 6, 2023. Bluntly portraying himself as the dictator that news outlets are now calling him, the former president blundered massively when he suggested to Sean Hannity at his Iowa town hall the other day that he would actually act as an autocrat, but only on “day one” – all while refusing to clarify whether he would abuse the powers of his office when asked specifically. So this frank exchange just telegraphs what the Orange Hemorrhoid would actually do if given the reins of power once more by misinformed Americans. We must take him at his word, critic after critic have indicated. This blunder is covered in an online Raw Story article by Matthew Chapman entitled “Trump made ‘regrettable’ mistake with dictator comments: former MAGA strategist.”

The person who viewed Chump’s comment as “regrettable” is David Urban, a former strategist to the Orange Blob, who weighed in on CNN Wednesday morning.

Urban further stated, “Look, obviously, regrettable. If I had the president here, I would shake him and say, ‘what the hell are you doing?'” I believe the former insurrectionist needs more than shaking to separate him from his fascistic tendencies!

Now widespread reporting has detailed claims that Chump and his allies plan to use a second term to reshape the government in his golden image, create a loyalty cult out of the civil service, and send the Justice Department after his political enemies which are numerous. No one will be safe if he ever gets reelected.

Yesterday, we mourn the passing of “Mr. Television” himself, Norman Lear, who died peacefully at his home at the age of 101. Over his eight-decade career in showbiz, Lear developed more than 100 shows, many of which presented a more idealistic vision for America: All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, Diff’rent Strokes, and many more. Lear’s shows were quite controversial for their tackling of hot-button issues such as racism, sexuality, misogyny, and abortion with brutal honesty. I watched many of his shows way back in the 70s, enjoying his first celebrated program the most, All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor as bigoted Queens patriarch Archie Bunker who constantly butted heads with Rob Reiner, as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, his progressive son-in-law married to Archie’s daughter, Gloria, played by Sally Struthers.

Here was a man who was unabashedly progressive in his views who flew more than 50 bombing missions over Nazi Germany during World War II and founded People for the American Way to combat the odious Christian right’s political influence to even taking on Donald Chump. A memorial for Lear is presented in an online Rolling Stone article by Marlow Stern in which Rob Reiner was interviewed over the passing of the man he termed his “second father.” His biological father, everyone should know, was comedian and writer Carl Reiner.

Reiner said this about his second father: “The guy was a fighter, and he was tough. I mean, really tough. The guy flew 57 bombing missions over Nazi Germany during the Second World War. He fought for this country and didn’t take crap from anybody. The idea that less than 80 years after we defeat fascism that it’s staring us in the face again, he couldn’t believe it. Where did the country that he loved so much go? I just hope that we get rid of Trump so that we preserve our democracy. All those people in the Second World War worked hard to defeat fascism, so the idea that we would slip into fascism less than 80 years later is unfathomable. He fought this his entire life. Everything he did was to fight for a more perfect Union. And Norman and I had these discussions hundreds of times, and he couldn’t recognize the country he fought for.”

Expounding on how different it is in America now than when All in the Family was on in the 70s, Reiner bemoaned how Americans cannot talk to one another anymore. Though the show highlighted the bigotry and racism of its major character, Archie Bunker, Reiner states that the underside of American cruelty “was submerged then.” He says, “Now, it’s out in the open and we can’t talk to each other anymore. When All in the Family came on, we were a country of about 200 million people, and you had to watch it when it was on, so every single week about 40 million people had to watch it when it was on, so every single week about 40 million people out of 200 million had a shared experience. And we presented issues that everybody talked about and had a water cooler conversation about the show the next day.”

The differences between viewing shows way back then and watching programs today on streaming services and having the use of DVRs to tape something couldn’t be more glaring. Reiner states, “Now, we’re a country of 335 million and if you’ve got 10 million people watching something you have a big hit, and you’re not watching it at the same time, and we don’t have honest discussions anymore. Everyone is in their own silos and listening to what they want to hear. They’re not listening to the other side. At least our show brought on conversations and you could talk to them about people without wanting to kill the other person. It’s devolved into something really ugly and you can’t talk to other people because we don’t share a common set of values. At least, when we were on, there were a common set of values. You knew what America stood for and the Constitution was about. You can’t even agree that two plus two equals four now.”

In an op-ed published in The New York Times on the occasion of his imminent 100th birthday, Lear opined that America elected the embodiment of Archie Bunker in Donald J. Trump. In an interview on Chris Hayes MSNBC show tonight, Reiner qualified Lear’s comment about Bunker being elected in the form of Chump. He indicated that Bunker, despite his racism, loved his family. Reiner said that Trump is not even human; he loves no one, he implied. I would agree with Reiner’s assessment of Trump’s character here.

In any case, rest in peace, Norman Lear!

Anyone even interested in the fourth worthless Republican debate tonight? There were only four prospective debaters this time on stage. And they are all despicable, except for Chris Christie who slams Chump every chance he gets. The cowardly front-runner was again MIA. Shame on him!

Another American ritual occurred today and that was the 80th school shooting of this year, this time transpiring at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in which three people were killed and one person is in stable condition after a suspect was allegedly shot by police. From CNN updates, the suspect was identified as a 67-year-old career college professor whose connection to the university is unknown at this time. That’s quite unusual in my opinion: the age of the suspect and the profession of the murderer. Usually, the psychopaths are young, white males, without established vocations.

President Biden reacted to the latest mass shooting by calling on Republicans in Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity weapons. Already, a fucking lawmaker in Wyoming, I believe, shot down the proposal to ban assault weapons. This is America today! The land of the free and the land of riddled bodies!

Happy Chanukah to those who celebrate the holiday tomorrow.

Stay safe and be well.