You Cannot Defeat That Which You Do Not Understand: Plotting a Path to Lose to Donald Trump

You cannot defeat that which you do not understand.

You need to research and study a person or a thing to come to such an understanding.

Posting memes like a wild man or women and regurgitating pointless, inaccurate, vitriolic talking points is not research nor study. It's like going to a fire dance and dancing in the flames, rather than around them. The poster is the one who's gonna get burned.

The vast majority of President Trump's opponents do not understand him.

I do not pretend that I come close to fully understanding President Trump, but I am trying to do so and I readily admit when I do not understand something or someone. I have been trying to "get my hands around" Donald Trump (figuratively, not literally) since February of last year when I became quite convinced that he would be the President of the United States.

I have come to one conclusion about the current President of the United States ... and I think I am correct.

Yes, Donald Trump is an arrogant fellow. But ... I think those folks that long for the demise of this Administration have not figured out where the Commander in Chief's pride lies.

I suggest that the President's ego was wrapped up in winning the race. His objective was being elected President of the United States, and he accomplished that objective.

In my heart of hearts, I sincerely believe that Donald Trump does not particularly want to hold the office of President of the United States. Let's face it ... having to live in the White House is a step down for him, and a big one.

There is an extension of what I think is the reality that Donald Trump achieved his goal when he won in November -- and yes, he won. And no, Hillary Clinton did not even win the popular vote ... she lost the popular vote 30 times on November 8, 2016. Civics 101, folks ... but I digress.

Back to what I think is the extension of President Trump achieving his personal goal by winning the election and that serving as President is not his prime objective. I sincerely believe that the President, on his volition, may make the decision to serve one-term.

This particularly will be the case if he achieves at least some progress in correcting the proverbial train wreck that is the ACA and the literal train wreck that is the infrastructure system in the United States. If President Trump oversees the accomplishment of these two goals, he has two major achievements that would outshine what has been done my many U.S. Presidents in recent years, including the last two. And he will have done so by cobbling together two very different coalitions on Capitol Hill -- one of nearly all Republicans and one of nearly all Democrats.

On the other hand, the President, being the same man who wakes up in the morning and seems to enjoy tweeting about whatever the hell happens to pop into his brain, may decide to respond full-force to the incessant (and oftentimes bizarre and unfounded) attacks on him.

Poke a crocodile in the eyeball with a stick and the fellow's gonna snap off your arm. (There are a bunch of one-armed Democrats busy making memes these days, men and women who instead should be trying to figure out how they are part of party that a recent poll, reported in the New York Times, is less popular than ... Donald Trump.)

In the end, even though it very well may not have been a part of the plan, Donald Trump may decide to run for reelection to show his opponents that he can win the White House a second time.

And President Trump will win reelection.

Why?

Because if the drumbeat of unfounded attacks on the President continue -- and I am not talking about the legitimate ones on policy and some other bona fide issues -- the President's opponents will once again demonstrate they just don't understand the man. I've said it before ... you can't beat Trump by becoming Trump.

And, you cannot defeat that which you do not understand.

Mike Broemmel

Griping About Seeking Resignations of U.S. Attorneys Really is Fake News

From the This is Becoming Ridiculous Department:

I have taken President Trump to task for an ever growing number of issues ... but that doesn't mean I've stopped calling the media and the leadership of the Democratic Party to task for manufacturing completely fake issues. (As an aside, this kind of *stuff* is one of the reasons Democrats keep losing up and down the ticket in election after election ... manufacturing issues where none exist.)

The request by Attorney General Sessions seeking the resignation of all US Attorneys ALWAYS happens at the start of EVERY new Administration.

40-some US Attorneys had not yet tendered their resignations or left office as of last week. (There are over 90 US Attorneys in the country.)

As a matter of practice, the Attorney General asked all of those who had yet to submit letters of resignation to do so now. The current Attorney General used essentially the same letter requesting these resignations as was used by Bill Clinton's Attorney General in March of 1993, at the start of that Administration. (Thanks Jim Coder for sharing this letter.) Indeed, here is the one received by the current AG when he was a US Attorney in the Bush Administration.

Mike Broemmel

The Backstory: The Bonfils Girl by Mike Broemmel

With this being International Women’s Day, and with Helen Bonfils being a woman who I sincerely believe should be known around the world, I’ve decided to write this piece sharing how and why I wrote the script for the play about her life. The Bonfils Girl is beginning its second year in continuous production and is one of the plays that I am most proud of, for many reasons. This includes the tremendous performance of Cathy Washburn, who plays the role of Helen Bonfils in the Colorado production of the play.

Ten years ago, I knew very little about Helen Bonfils – known in the latter part of her life simply as Miss Helen. I am a parishioner of Holy Ghost Church, one of the most beautiful churches in the world that I have ever been in (including the magnificent cathedrals in Europe). The corner stone of Holy Ghost makes note that the church was built by Helen Bonfils in memory of her parents.

After a couple of years as a parishioner at Holy Ghost, I found myself making a special monthly tithe to the church in which I asked that a Mass be said for the repose of Helen Bonfils. I never really pondered on where the idea came from, to ask that Masses be said for the woman who built the church I attend.

Not long after that, I became curious about the circumstances surrounding Miss Helen’s decision to pay the costs – all of them – associated with building an amazing church at the tail end of the Great Depression. As I recollect, the price tag back then was $3.5 million. I did the math. The amount Miss Helen spent building Holy Ghost is the equivalent of about $52 million in today’s dollars.

I discovered that Miss Helen, a devout Catholic, was concerned about the wellbeing of her father in the afterlife. Catholics have something of a three-tier destination for people who pass on: heaven, purgatory, and hell. Purgatory is something of a waystation where a dearly departed can make recompense and atone for wrongdoing during life and then enter heaven. In addition, people on Earth can pray for souls in purgatory as a means of shortening their time in that afterlife state.

Miss Helen’s father, Frederick, was not just the founder of the Denver Post newspaper, but he was a real scoundrel. He owned casinos, speakeasies, houses of prostitution. He managed to get shot in the butt by the attorney for infamous Colorado cannibal Alferd Packer. And rather than his assailant getting convicted for shooting him, Frederick Bonfils himself ended up convicted of jury tampering in the trio of trials of the gun-toting barrister.

Miss Helen worried her father was hell-bound. She made mention that she attempted to make “a deal” with the Lord to permit her father the ability to slide into purgatory. She prayed God give him a second chance to avoid the eternal fires of hell. She bargained that she would build a magnificent church that is now called Holy Ghost and asked the Lord to permit her father a place in purgatory in exchange.

My own response to this “deal” was that Miss Helen was practical and reasonable. She didn’t ask for her father to be let inside the majestic Pearly Gates … just a space in purgatory to allow the man one more shot at being something better than a rapscallion.

I started researching Helen Bonfils, with the intent of writing a biography. (I’d not yet written any plays at that juncture.) I quickly discovered she was the first woman in the U.S. to serve as the publisher of a major daily newspaper – the Denver Post for over 30 years. She was the first woman producer on Broadway.

And, a few months ago, and thanks to the term included in the obituary of her second husband – Tiger Mike Davis who died in September of lasti year … she very well may be the world’s first “cougar.” Yes, Tiger Mike evidently wanted it included in his own obituary that he was married to the world’s first cougar: Helen Bonfils. You see, at the time they wed, Tiger Mike was 28 and Miss Helen … well, she was 69.

Her generosity was boundless. Her money is the reason the Denver Performing Arts Center – one of the biggest in the nation – exists at all (and continues to operate). She founded the largest blood bank system west of the Mississippi (in response to the need for blood donations during the Second World War). The list is endless.

But, what is odd … almost no one knew of Helen Bonfils, including in Denver. Her portrait is buried in the back of a smaller performance space the Denver Performing Arts Center. The whole damn thing should bear her name.

There was literally no trace of her – or her father – anywhere in the Denver Post building. In the aftermath of the premiere of The Bonfils Girl (and I have zero idea if one had anything to do with the other, although I did speak with a couple of reporters from the newspapers), Miss Helen’s desk from her tenure at the Post was found and put into a conference room which now bears the Bonfils moniker.

Miss Helen died, estranged from her sole surviving family member and to be all but forgotten in the three decades that followed her passing.

In the end, I wrote the script to the play about Miss Helen’s life, with the help of a writing partner. The play continues to run. The Bonfils Girl ends with Miss Helen speaking these lines, seemingly from purgatory herself:

"My life … I didn’t do much. I always felt like I lived in Papa’s shadow. Lived in Papa’s shadow. That’s what I think my life was all about.

"The shadows ... they’re still here.

But, they’re not Papa’s shadows. No, they’re not. Not at all.

"The shadows … they are mine.

"Perhaps I am here … until I make my shadows go away."

And then it dawned on me … perhaps, some years ago, as I sat in the church built by Helen Bonfils, as I eventually started having Masses said for Miss Helen, even before I knew her story … perhaps, just perhaps … Miss Helen reached out from where she is today and asked me to remember her. And I have.

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The next performance of The Bonfils Girl will be sponsored by the Loveland, Colorado Historical Society on October 9, 2017. 

Information and reservations: 

http://www.lovelandhistorical.org/#!event-calendar/c19i1

www.mikebroemmel.com

Mike Broemmel