Trump and Hitler Promises of Greatness

08/18/2018 by Pat Shiplett 1 Comment

To be fair to Donald Trump, he is not Adolf Hitler.

But they both promised to make their countries “great” again. Both are selling an ugly, false greatness. Theirs is a vision of greatness that can absolutely destroy a nation like ours.

The Fuhrer convinced his followers they were morally and racial superior by preaching that certain groups were sub-humans who preyed on society. Genocide followed.

Donald Trump has his own vocabulary drenched in hatred and fear. He is given to Nuremburg-style rallies that had served the Nazi so well.

Trump followers argue that he’s simply ‘trolling’ his political adversaries — just being Trump — and that we should laugh off his jokes about violence. Yuck it up, America.

Eighty years ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, decent citizens who saw themselves a pillars of society surrendered their souls. By remaining silent they were complicit.

The U.S. Constitution equips us with the power to impeach a president who threatens our country. The Founders didn’t assign that awesome power as a gift. They gave it to us as a responsibility to be used soberly. We will have to see.

Attack on Free Speech

08/04/2018 by Pat Shiplett 1 Comment

You too may be declared an enemy of the American people.

The first thing guys like Putin and Khamenei do is launch a war on the free press. Hitler did it. Stalin did it. Three generations of Kims have done it.

And now comes our own Donald Trump. This past week he whipped a rally in Tampa into a frenzy against those journalists he can’t control.

Our Founding Fathers were criticized as sharply as any officeholder today but they refused to ratify the constitution until it included an amendment to protect the very voices that challenged them.

Donald Trump has claimed the entire U.S. intelligence community, our courts, respected war heroes and broad sections of our population are conspiring to undermine his authority.

It’s possible that one day Donald Trump will accuse even his followers of being enemies of the people. They’ll realize that he’s coming for them. And that the Freedom of the Press helps protect all of us from thugs and tyrants.

The Transformer

07/28/2018 by Pat Shiplett Leave a Comment

You wouldn’t know it from the TV ads but the Optimal Optimus was a good listener.

Almost everyday the boy spent hours alone with his extruded companion. There were things he needed to talk about, and that included the fact that he wasn’t nearly the boy everybody wanted him to be.

For a time their chats went only in one direction, until the boy started to pretend Optimal was talking back to him. He invented a voice he thought Opt would use if he had a voice. Eventually the boy forgot he was talking to himself.

Neither the transformer or the boy realized it, but at a certain point the communications between them made an extraordinary leap. Optimal Optimus had appropriated the child’s vocal tract and began to formulate and express his own thoughts. He wanted only to help.

He helped the boy visualize how to dive onto the merry-go-round thing on the playground and how to side-step into a grouch to keep his Schwinn upright.

He taught him about making lists of pros and cons (yes to Cub Scouts, no to Boy Scouts).

He helped him lead little kids to aquatics camp and later prepared him for the driving instructor who trapped him a midtown gridlock.

They played catch-up with advanced-placement courses.

The one area where Opt couldn’t help had to do with the birds and the bees. He simply had no idea what a gland is or what it is capable of doing.

The night before the boy went off to college, Opt articulated what both of them knew — the kid was ready to face life on his own. As they were taking their leave the young man asked one final favor.

His mother and father were rigid, irrational, prone to questionable judgment. He wondered if Opt would take them aside and give them a few pointers.

By the time the boy graduated from college, his parents were so much savvier than they had been when they dropped him off at his freshman dorm, four years earlier.

Putin and Trump Summit

07/18/2018 by Pat Shiplett Leave a Comment

Vladimir Putin did to Donald Trump what Donald Trump did to Stormy Daniels.

He lured Forty Five up to a room in Helsinki and had his way with him behind closed doors.

The Russian must have been so dominant that the U.S. president stood In front of the world media and betrayed his own U.S. intelligence community, embracing the lies of a guy who invaded, murdered, poisoned, shot down and rigged our elections.

“…adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

That’s how Article III of our Constitution defines treason. No president has gotten closer to that description than Donald Trump did with Vladimir Putin.

Katy, Barista Extraordinaire

07/10/2018 by Pat Shiplett 1 Comment

Tattoos, piercings and assorted hairstyles that have something to say.“I look for weirdoes” Katie Ujimori says, using that word as a sign of admiration.

She laughed when I suggested some of her baristas seem conventional enough. “You might be surprised.” she replied.

Recruiting is one of Katie’s many duties here at the coffee shop. She can get a new hire up to speed in a matter of hours or in a matter of days. She’s proud of her record.

Katie searches for people with evident energy, who bring a touch of theater to everything they do. But none of them comes off as hipper-than-thou.

For those of us escaping copays, two-step logins and texts from the daycare center, Katie keeps a supply of humor next to the creamers, the sweeteners and the bagel toaster.

You’ll hear her call out customers’ orders in a voice worth its weight in Kopi Luwak coffee (beans harvested from the droppings of the palm civet of Southeast Asia; $320 a pound).

The hum of machines and the crowd and the always-present music helps people concentrate — productivity hangs in the air. But the baristas are careful about using the drip-coffee grinder. Its sound sets off the children with autistic spectrum disorder.

As a rookie Katie was overwhelmed by the crush of commuters on the way to the train, and double-parkers desperate for their a.m. dose. On her first day the neighborhood was buried by the infamous ‘Snowpocalypse’ that sent the multitudes to the coffee shop instead of to work.

The Brothers K is the sweet spot of our part of town. Unlike places that sell alcohol, mood adjustment here is based on caffeine. Debates yes, but heated arguments are few and far between.

“It’s a safe space.” Katie says.