Night On Trump Mountain

Growing up in the 50s and 60s, films made by Walt Disney were staples of American culture. From "Snow White" to "Pinocchio" to even "Song Of The South," a nostalgic cartoon that featured a Black character, and the film's docile and loveable yarn teller, that were it made today would create a controversy of untold proportions. 

Among Disney's lesser known works was "Fantasia," a piece featuring cartoon renditions of several classical music masterpieces. Among the arrangements featured was "Night On Bald Mountain," based on the symphonic poem of the same name by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, with an arrangement created by his friend Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. 

The simple background to the episode is what takes place one night in a country village surrounded by mountains. The highest peak of those mountains turns out to be the giant body of a massive black winged demon who uses evil powers to summon all the dead spirits, witches and other lesser demons to perform for its pleasure. After wreaking havoc all night long, just as the demon is eat its last supper, the tolling of distant church bells in the village douse his hunger and rage and drive him back into his mountain lair. When dawn arrives, the beast retreats.

What appears to be happening in America today is a political version of this episode. The emergence of another long night of demons running amuck started two years ago when a minority of voters installed New York City reality TV star, phony businessman and inveterate liar and misogynist Donald J. Trump into the Oval Office in Washington D.C.

The witches and spirits dancing on Trump mountain now are white nationalists, xenophobism, and a full cast of characters who comprise the core and sympathetic outer layers of the alt-right movement, whose plan to make America First will turnout to make America Last, and alone.

Two years of Night on Trump Mountain has degraded our once great democracy into a scary turn to the hard right, that's unfortunately gaining popularity in countries other than the US.  The kind of representative democracy our founding fathers crafted when their revulsion was to turn away from the monarchical powers exercised by the then King of England is now endangered 

Night on Trump Mountain is producing stories about pipe bombs being sent to political figures like George Soros, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama. CNN, Trump's leading contender for so-called fake news, also got one at the media company's New York City office.

Demons supporting Trump had a field day last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, where torch-carrying white nationalists proudly marched in the city, creating an atmosphere that incentivised one young man from Ohio to drive his car into a crowd, killing one woman and injuring many more.

One of Trump's first efforts to make America worse again, centered around banning Muslims, especially from selected countries, from entering the country. Called "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States," Trump's executive order, while losing in lower courts, won a 5-4 opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts ruling the president's travel restrictions “squarely” within the president’s authority.

Trump's most recent lies about terrible immigrants come in advance of elections on Nov. 6. Trump accuses Democrats of being behind the movement of thousands of migrants desperately hoping to reach the Southwest border, where they will turn themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities in order to seek asylum. With about 20 tweets from the president on the flow of central Americans northward, making undocumented claims that many among them are criminals and Middle Eastern terrorists, all funded by Democrats who he's labeled a "mob," the sheer volume of mendacious claims is both overwhelming and historic. 

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman weighed in on Night on Trump mountain in his latest opinion piece, "How to Make America America Again." Friedman offers a simple recipe and directive to force Trump and his dark minions to retreat from his mountainous momentum. 

It's centered around one ingredient: voting. Specifically, voting for any Democrat no matter who the candidate may be.

"So, this year: No third party, no Green Party, no throwing up our hands and saying, 'They’re all bad,'” Friedman writes. "All of that’s for another day. For today, in these midterm elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a Democrat, drive someone else to a voting station to vote for a Democrat. It’s the only hope to make America America again."

For Friedman and others like him, the church bells tolling that forced the black demon in Fantasia

back into its hidden lair are the mid-term elections on Nov. 6. Only through voting can Trump and his demons and witches be defeated. 

But voting in America, the single greatest political franchise in world history, is as uncertain today as millennials, hispanics, African Americans and women of color showing up in numbers to turn the ballot box into tolling church bells.

If Trump and his band of 21st century white nationalists retain their hold on both branches of congress, Night on Trump Mountain will turn into four, eight, or more years of evil spirits dancing on the grave of American-style democracy, as we know it.

China is cucumber cool while Trump acts like dumb blond strongman

After three weeks touring China, starting in Beijing then traveling by high-speed rail to Shanghai and Changsha, then up the Yangtze River to Chongqing, in that order, the construction cranes in each of these mega-cities dotted the landscape by the dozens.

China today is planning for China tomorrow, while foul-mouthed leaders back Washington D.C, as detailed in Bob Woodward's book "Fear" based on The Donald's time in the Oval Office todate, act like mean-spirited, xenophobic, paranoid abusers who know that the American century is over.

The Asian century is unfolding before our eyes. America's lunch will soon be eaten alive by China and others, with lots of hot sauce, chili peppers and MSG. 

From half a world away, hurricane Michael that devastated the Florida panhandle looks like a regular rain storm compared to the political hurricane headed to the entire country on November 6. These midterm elections will show whether sleepy-time-tea American voters will again squander their franchise by deciding to again forego voting.

When a minority of the country--as Trump calls his base--is able to control 100 percent of the nation's assets, because the majority of registered voters are too apathetic or lazy to do their civic duty, then the meanness that embodies the America First attitude of the president's swamp will open the doors to more shrinkage as world leaders watch as China advances.

Graham Allison writes in his editorial in China Daily that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Over these four decades, the author of  "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides' Trap?" says "the country has become an economic giant with the world's largest foreign reserves ($3.2 trillion) and second-largest GDP ($12 trillion), while foreign direct investment in China reached $135 billion last year."

With tens of thousands of miles of high-speed rail to ride on as America watches its rail system dissolve further, despite more than a decade of talk and little action on California's quest to build just one line of similar capability between San Francisco and Los Angeles, one respected economist has facts to show that China already has already become the world's largest economy. Other economists say it will take a dozen years, maybe by 2030 for that to happen. What isn't in doubt is that China is moving inexorably forward despite President Trump's silly claims to the contrary.

Through innovation, inclusiveness, sharing and embracing global values, China knows those cards are the winning hand compared to Trump's cards of closed borders, rewarding the already rich with more largesse, and continuing to promote the false claim that reduction of income tax rates is the road to growth and prosperity will only further widen the gap between rich and poor. China's middle class is expanding while America's once great national asset is shrinking.

If democracy is still a value worth pursuing, maybe it's time for mandatory democracy? Australia and other countries have done it. American democracy is in free fall, as the 2016 elections showed with great clarity. Billions are spent to keep voters home. While the USA may complain and point to the horrors of communist or socialist systems, the rise of a once poor but rapidly expanding country like China shows that regular pragmatism, combined with accurate planning, can make a one-party ruler state whose leader is a progressive strong man like Xi Jinping equal to a nation run by elected leaders who think going backward in time, in thought and action, is the same as going forward.

If Trump world retains control of the House and Senate this election cycle, Democrats may be the next political party to be thrown on the trash heap of history. With more voters not voting than voting, Washington's legally dumb blond and wannabe strong man will declare his reprisal brand of democracy to be the best ever.

American under Teddy Roosevelt once spoke softly but carried a big stick. Today, China can make the same claim, as it's economic stick grows stronger by the day. America's big stick remains its nuclear power. The social fabric is bound up in false issues that the rest of the world appears to have moved beyond.

As one former Ohio budget director told me, his fears for the future align with mine. "I share your concern these Asian countries will out hustle and out organize us."