Red Caesarism—Second POTUS baptism
POTUS 45 Donald J. Trump wins election 2024
An atrocity and monstrosity for democracy
My inspirations for this article are quotes from Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, a sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a song by 2016 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Bob Dylan.
Trump recently talked about “the enemy within” and “immigrants with bad genes.” Saying Senator Adam Schiff and former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are ‘racists and fascists.’ This is a typical Trump reversal of what he has proved to be over the time before and during his POTUS 45 term. Trump’s admiration for fascism includes suggesting the use of military against people politically opposed to him, and stochastic terrorism. He recently suggested former Congress member Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who publicly opposes him, should be faced with a 9-rifle firing squad. To make it more hypocritical he called Cheney a “war hawk” who would run away from fighting. We must remember Trump got out of being drafted into the U.S. military by having bone spurs in his feet. Remember House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 80-year-old husband being beaten in the head with a hammer by a Trump supporter? The guy was so incensed after not finding Pelosi at home after Trump had made multiple negative statements about Pelosi, he began hitting her husband in the head right in front of the police who had come to arrest him.
Do any readers remember the stochastic terrorism foisted on the female governor of Michigan and her children after she was insulted and degraded by Trump? Racism and fascism can be found on both sides of Trump’s MAGA coin. How many of his own lies and insults can and will Trump continue to purloin? Older citizens will remember the Central Park 5 accused of rape back in 1989. Trump took out a full-page ad in the New York Times demanding the death penalty for the five Black American young men. All were found guilty. They went to jail for many years but have now been fully exonerated of the crimes they were accused of.
On Trump and misogyny? Think of Trump’s comments when he got off a bus, recorded by Axios, “You can do anything, grab ‘em by the pussy…” Then there is his recent multi-million dollar fine for defaming a woman he was accused of raping in a department store. Now in a campaign speech he says to the TV cameras, “Women, I am your protector.” How about his comments about his own daughter, “I would date her.” Remember his visits to the dressing rooms of beauty pageants he sponsored?
On Trump and the January 2016 insurrection think about the SCOTUS decision on immunity for 45’s actions before, during, and after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
On Trump, dictators, and fascism. Trump’s fascination and admiration for fascistic and Communist dictators is well known throughout the world. Think of the “love letters” he bragged about from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s Putin who is bombing and invading Ukraine.
On Trump and plutocracy, think of his recent introduction, “… we have a new star, Elon!” He refers to Elon Musk who gave out millions of dollars to 45’s campaign and followers and literally jumped up and down with joy over and over on stage when introduced by Trump. Plutocracy is an oligarchic type of government where the few who are wealthy hold power. Ploutos is Greek for “wealth” and Pluto was one of the names used for the Greek god of the underworld where all the earth’s mineral wealth was stored.
Here are some quotes about the years ‘after’ POTUS Trump’s second term:
From Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, Bob Dylan, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Of their words only time will tell and history confirm, read it online and watch it on your telly. Its growth might make you sick in your belly
A quote from Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher, born April 26, 121 A.D. in Rome, Italy and died March 17, 180 A.D. in Sirmium. He was the last of the rulers later known as the ‘Five Good Emperors’ and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 B.C. to 181 AD.
“Keep constantly in your mind an impression of the whole of time and the whole of existence—and the thought that each individual thing is, on the scale of existence, a mere fig seed; on the scale of time, one turn of the drill.”
From Marcus Aurelius, (Meditations X, 17). Here is a sonnet by English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1818. Titled Ozymandias it shows how power is temporary and deteriorates no matter how prideful or tyrannical a ruler is. Ramesses II of Egypt, whom the poem is about, was one of the ancient world’s most powerful rulers. The poem relates the vanity of human glory and power:
OZYMANDIAS
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said -“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains, Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Bob Dylan who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, echoed Shelley’s ideas about time in many songs over the years. They included: “The Times They Are A Changing,” “Blowin In The Wind,” and “Things Have Changed” for which he won an Oscar in 2001. Here is Bob Dylan writing when he was 25 years old, which is the same age Percy Bysshe Shelley was when he wrote Ozymandias. A quote from “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine),” “Then time will tell just who fell and who’s been left behind, When you go your way and I go mine.” (1966).
Joey aka “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
