What’s Going On Here?

Donald Trump is clearly a maniac and his second administration is like some kind of slapstick/horror movie mashup, but in some ways we’re lucky to live in such crazy and dangerous times.

If part of the purpose of a life is to be of use - to protect and inspire and look out for one another - then those of us alive in this moment are actually very lucky. We’re lucky because just by standing up for decency and truth we have the ability to do great and transformative good. Because just by opposing pointless cruelty and absurd greed and sloppy lies we can help our neighbors and millions of other people we’ll never meet. Because by doing these simple, obvious, necessary things we can help save democracy, and by helping save democracy we make it possible to save the planet.

WHETHER STUCK IN THE MUCK OR RISING ABOVE, in this space we’ll try to support and inspire one another as we navigate the dangers and opportunities of the Current Insanity.

Politics, Music, Creativity and Community for Crazy Times.

Also, there’ll be stuff to make us laugh, because a fierce and defiant joy may be the best superpower of them all - like that smile Denzel flashes just before he kicks the bad guy’s ass. Joy because being on the right side of history when it really matters is a great thing. Joy because pulling down a biblical tyrant is the Lord’s work. Joy because we’re lucky to be the ones to be here now to save the world when it really needs saving. Joy because fascists have no sense of humor, and because the more we laugh the smaller they get, and because you and I and everyone around us could all really use a good laugh.

Welcome.

With all that in mind, there’ll be a good bit of political writing here. In the spirit of Thomas Paine, the intent is to make the political essays entertaining, clarifying and aggressive. Snarky even. Hopefully fun. The intent is also to avoid getting caught up in the trap of simply responding to or arguing against the latest ridiculous/hateful/appalling thing to come out of the Donald’s ridiculous/hateful/appalling mouth. That kind of reactive response is necessary - it’s important to refute lies with facts - but ultimately this kind of compulsive back-and-forth leaves Donald in the driver’s seat and could allow him to lead us in circles forever. For much of the past ten years that’s exactly what he’s done, using the spectacle of his White supremacist, misogynist circus to distract us while he picks our pockets and destroys our world.

Misdirection is the heart of every con.

Once we know how a magician or a street hustler or a pickpocket works, we’re much less likely to allow ourselves to be tricked or taken advantage of, and we’re also much less likely to be drawn in by the seeming magic and drama of the performance. With that in mind, these essays will focus not so much on the details of Donald’s latest outrage but more on the absurd and corrupt mechanisms by which he generates and deploys these outrages, and on the depraved motives from which they emerge. By highlighting the greed and incompetence and cruelty that are the driving forces behind almost everything Donald does, I believe we can break the spell he’s used to captivate the members of his cult, and by which he’s somehow reduced so many of his opponents to ineffective grumbling and hand-wringing. It’s my hope that this focus on process - rather than minutia - will also allow these essays to remain useful and relevant well after publication, rather than being swept away by the next news cycle or the next firehose of lies.

The overarching goal of these essays will generally be to re-frame the conversation and to reconnect us with reality.

Reality is Donald Trump’s kryptonite.

Also, to paraphrase the humane and extremely fabulous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, reality is beautiful and amazing, but facts by themselves are very boring: the point of good writing and good art is to help us FEEL the truth. Amen…

There will also be stuff here that’s not explicitly political, because life goes on - even when fighting depraved fascist nutjobs - and life is composed of lots of strange and wonderful things that need to be noticed and celebrated, now maybe even more than usual because of all The Crazy that’s going on. So the intention is to include music and culture and photos and psychology and current events and who knows what else because that’s life, and because in the words of Margaret Atwood, “It’s got to be fun. If it isn’t fun no one’s going to care.”

ABOUT ME: I’m a writer and musician. Mostly I sing and play guitar. I play fiddle not particularly well but it makes me happy. I’ve worked as a professional tricyclist, as a political speechwriter, and as a trainer for Apple, Inc. The best job I ever had was at a summer camp up in Vermont that grew out of the civil rights movement. A pop-up village of tumbledown cabins beside a little lake, with kids and staff from every possible background and campfires and kayaks and sing-alongs and a shocking number of stars. It’d never occurred to me that being an adolescent - or an adult - could feel that playful and that safe. I’ve secretly tried to make every day since feel as much like camp as possible.

I accidentally lived in Ireland for two years. Having grown up in the Northeast, finding a whole island full of people who seemed to believe it was Perfectly Normal to chat with strangers and have a laugh about nothing in particular was a revelation, and relieved me of a vague sense that there might be something wrong with me.

My first screenplay was inspired by finally hearing the Dandy Warhols’ song “Bohemian Like You” through properly enormous speakers.

In March, 2020 I was finishing a screenplay (set during the American Revolution, intended to annoy and subvert the Donald and his minions) when I got COVID. The COVID messed up my heart, and my messed up heart gave me a stroke, and Long COVID scrambled what was left. After writing for hours every day, suddenly for more than three and a half years I couldn’t write even one creative sentence. It could’ve been much worse and I’m grateful every day that it wasn’t, but getting flattened by COVID was obviously not bow I’d planned on spending those years. Late in 2023, I got COVID again and the antivirals turned my brain back on and I’ve been writing pretty much ever since, with a whole new appreciation for the wonder and magic of words. I’ve also been doing PT, and daddying, and trying to catch back up with my life, and getting periodically crashed by Long COVID and then un-crashing myself and getting back to work. Apologies in advance for those times when my updates may not be as frequent as I’d like them to be. I’m very grateful to be back, and to be able to do my bit to mock and oppose the Donald and his motley crew of Bond villain, Nazi-adjacent-robber-baron-bozos during these most insane and important of times.

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