As things continue to heat up and the circle that is the buffer around Individual-1 continues to become smaller and smaller, this situation only increases his defiance and determination to win at all costs!  With the weak-kneed senate – led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch (Mr. Whack-A-Mole) McConnell and the rest of the lily-livered Republicans in the House blindly and fully supporting him, it is full speed ahead!  In his stubborn determination the command from him continually goes out to his sailors, “full speed ahead boys; hold the course…steady as she goes!”  His sailors are scared spitless of the situation but they are even more afraid of defying him.  That is made obvious by the fact that after all of them vehemently called him unfit for command and he took it anyway, after he took command they all stood around helplessly – at least helplessly as defined by them because they desperately want to be reelected so placed their personal ambition above country, while he spat on everything that the Grand-Ole-Party stood for.  Dare I now say, once stood for?

The only problem is that as the Mueller investigation has come so close to him that he can virtually feel Mr. Mueller’s breath on the back of his neck, in his stubbornness, Individual-1 has dug in like a tick.  You are likely familiar with how a tick attaches itself to its host but in the event that you are not, it virtually buries its head in the host’s skin.  Certainly in this posture, Individual-1 cannot see the direction in which he and his sailors are heading.  They could run aground!  But what the heck, helter-skelter and pandemonium has always been his modus operandi so why should he change now?  It’s a tic that during the course of his entire life he has not been able to rid himself of.  Perhaps he has never had the desire to rid himself of it.  But if the ship should run aground, at that point, he will be full and simply fall off wherever he is at.  Anyone else who is still on board will simply have to fend for themselves.

Even as I write this article I can’t help but to think, what a terrible way to describe the leader of our country.  I have some ambivalence even after describing him as such but this roller coaster feeling is the way that I feel (and don’t feel) as I continue to move forward in my everyday paycheck-to-paycheck life and continue to reflect on his unorthodox style of leadership.  With his laser-like focus on representing those who voted for him (to a lesser degree on those people of color who voted for him), punishing those who didn’t vote for him and weakening America in the eyes of the majority of Americans and the world, I feel completely deserted and forgotten by Individual-1.  That is why I can allow myself to describe him as Individual-1 and still have no misgivings about whether or not I respect the Office of The President.

Well, what about the congress, you might say?  They are supporting and enabling him.  Good question.  Unfortunately, the Republicans who have controlled the upper and lower chambers of congress up until very recently have been derelict of duty.  Rather than provide the checks and balances on the executive branch of government as they are meant to do, they have conducted themselves more like Individual-1 toadies than statesmen elected to protect America and the American people.  But as things continue to close in on Individual-1, they too suddenly find themselves under the microscope of public opinion and subject to more in-depth and keenly focused scrutiny.  And in light of the fact that an election is coming up for many of them in 2020, at least those of them who are up for reelection will take time out to take an introspective view of themselves and reflect on what they were actually elected to do.  This does not guarantee that they will not put on their dancing shoes, do the Washington Two Step and try to mislead and thereby fool their constituents to reelect them.  And then once reelected (if they are accomplished dancers), return to their old ways of putting their personal ambitions before country.

There is no doubt that post Individual-1, whenever that might be, America and the American people will have to totally rid ourselves of the virus that was Individual-1, reboot and begin to automatically populate those voids that have been created in who we really are as Americans.  I say “automatically populate” because once the virus has been removed we will be able to once again think clearly.  And then, although we will likely continue to disagree about the path forward that America should take and at times still fight among ourselves as a result of that disagreement; I believe that as a whole, the American people genuinely want what is in the best interest of America and the American people to prevail over anger, hatred and divisiveness and so will commit to reasonable discourse to solve the problem.  We know that we are stronger together!  So no matter how tough things might get, let’s stay in the fight!  And regardless of how many times we are knocked down, let’s get right back up and rejoin the battle!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line

The first article that I wrote and posted to this website in 2019 was about, surprise! Mr. Donald J. Trump.  Mr. Trump has dominated the number of articles posted to Political Pawns And Puppets ever since he was elected to occupy the Oval Office.  So I decided that my second article for this year would not be about Mr. Trump.  If you are a regular visitor to this website, although it is identified as a website dedicated to information about politics, you know that I have already written articles that venture into the realm of sports and music.  So why not write one that ventures into the realm of food, right?  Good food… and drinks!

There’s this place called Catfish Haven that is located at 4650 Tower Road in Denver, CO that a fraternity brother of mine told me about.  After he told me about it I began to see commercials about it on TV.  Since my wife and I really like good catfish, I decided that I would give the place a try.  One day recently when I was returning home from a couple of errands that I had run I swung by Catfish Haven.  When I went inside there were a number of, in the vernacular, brothers and sisters (African American men and women, in the event that there are any readers who might not recognize the term) having a meal and drinks.  I sat at the bar, which was sort of like an island located in the center of the place, and the bartender asked me if I would like a menu.  I nodded in the affirmative and he brought one to me.  Since I already knew what I wanted, without paying a lot of attention to it, I asked for three orders of catfish – my son likes catfish too, and selected the two side orders that came with each of the regular orders.  By the way, although I did not thoroughly review the menu, I noticed that there were many other soul food items on it that really attracted my attention.  I will have to be sure to try them at another time.

Anyway, as I looked around at the people who were at our island bar, I noticed that the drinks that most of them were having were alcoholic beverages.  Of the three people closest to me, one was having beer, another was having white wine and I couldn’t really determine what the third was having.  There were two fairly young-looking brothers (still in the vernacular) sitting at the bar at a right angle from me who were casually chatting, and occasionally laughing, as they ate.  I couldn’t determine what they were drinking either.  The bartender interrupted my probing thoughts on this place and its atmosphere and asked if I would like a drink.  After having surveyed everyone else at the bar that was having drinks I thought, why not?  I’ll have a Smirnoff and tonic, I said.  They were out of Smirnoff so I ordered Grey Goose and told the bartender to hold the tonic.  On the rocks, he asked?  No, straight up, I said.

Basketball highlights were being aired on the sports channel so when the bartender brought my drink I struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to me.  He was having catfish.  I asked him about his thoughts on Catfish Haven’s catfish and had intended to follow up using the basketball highlights as a conversation piece.   But before he could answer, the guy sitting next to him on his left commented to him about how one of the players in the highlights banged his head off of the backboard while successfully blocking his opponent’s shot.  The conversation immediately switched to basketball and the three of us talked about various teams around the league including the Denver Nuggets.  While we were discussing this, another man who appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties approached the bar and joined the conversation.  He had a distinct Caribbean accent.  He talked about what a good team the Denver Nuggets are now and the great potential that they have to go from their current status of being one of the best teams in the NBA to becoming a world champion.

His conversation drifted into the political realm as he began to talk about violent cities – including Denver, how the police treated people of color versus how they treated white people and the gentrification of neighborhoods from Park Hill in east Denver to the Montbello Green Valley Ranch neighborhoods in far northeast Denver.  Those of us involved in the conversation gently challenged him on his perspective and comments about Denver being one of the most violent cities in the country.  The guy to the left of me asked him how long he had been in Denver.  His response was 10 years.  The guy on my left said that he had been in Denver since 1972 and stated that he disagreed with his assessment of Denver being among the most violent cities in the country.  I told him that I had been in Denver since the mid 1950s and that I too disagreed with him.  Shortly after that the other patrons involved in our conversation appeared to lose interest in what this relatively new-comer to our fair city had to say.  Not me.  Being a writer, I grew even more interested in his perspective on things.

Where are you from, I asked him.  Jamaica; I’m the chef here, he said.  As we continued to talk I gave him one of my cards, it has a picture of my first book on the front with my name on the spine of the book, and told him to Google my name and he would find my website along with a couple of articles in the Denver Post and the Boulder Camera that I had written.  Check it out, I said.  He then told me that he had a music studio in Park Hill and showed me a few rap music videos that he had made.  He said that he was still fine-tuning them but he was pleased with what he had so far.  He spoke fondly of his father as he continued to chat about his videos.  Just then, the bartender brought my order and I politely excused myself and paid for it.  I told him that I would return in the future and that I hoped that we would be able to talk further.  We shook hands and I left.

By the time that I reached my car, my phone rang.  It was my wife.  I realized then that I had been gone for a really long time, especially since I had told her that I was going to run a couple of short errands and would be right back.  I expected that she might be a little bit upset.  But when I told her I had stopped at Catfish Haven for catfish all seemed to have been forgiven because she simply said, great! I’ll see you when you get home!  Married life; ain’t it grand!

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line