As It Turns Out, Chicken Little Was Right

TUCSON — Winnie-the-Pooh, a whimsical little storybook bear, once made sense: “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”

But when concrete blocks too many ears, it’s time to heed Chicken Little. That old tale taught kids not to fret over small stuff, like the hen bonked on the head by an acorn who yelled “The sky is falling!” Look around today. The sky is falling.

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Particles in the air are killing us softly. Fire rains down on Ukraine, Gaza and places few people can find on a map, unchecked by any “world community.” Apathy, greed, bigotry and mutant new fascism may soon make this unimaginably worse.

Americans soon must choose between two old men to confront these challenges. Joe Biden, sane and humane, has done remarkably well against stiff odds to clean up the mess Donald Trump left behind and to keep the lid on a simmering world.

Yet polls veer increasingly toward Trump, found liable for fraud and sexual abuse, with high-crime trials to come. Obese on an unhealthy diet, he masks age with putty-knife makeup, camera angles and more money on his hair than many of his cultists earn.

True, 80-something is a lot, but “sell-by” dates vary. Authoritarians see Biden as a formidable foe. Should he falter, Kamala Harris is ready to step in, already a familiar face at global summits. She can assure allies of stable continuity until 2028.

No other Democrat in the wings has the depth and earned respect to confront today’s existential crises. But critics and comics love to mock him. “Optics” feed a groundswell against him among voters who overestimate any U.S. president’s actual power.

Trump’s hopefuls, clueless about the world, prefer America Only to America First. They include Marjorie Taylor Greene, an obscure Georgia gym owner who found a safe district and infested the House.

"The distinguished gentlelady,” Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote, “has brought us such unforgettably ignorant phrases like Marshall Law, Gazpacho Police, Jewish Space Lasers - and now "in — dick — table.” (A bill she read aloud said the Homeland Security secretary was indictable.)

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The difference is glaring after Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic gulag at 47. Biden immediately accused Putin of murder and urged allies to double down in Ukraine. Trump remained silent until this unhinged post on his anti-social platform:

“The sudden death…has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.”

Even if Biden wins an Electoral College tossup, America needs Drano and Roto-Rooter to rid America of Trumplican taint. Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman who ran for governor last year, X-tweeted:

“As the world reflects on the murder of Alexei Navalny at the hands of Putin, it’s worth remembering that Democrats are actively doing Biden’s bidding as they also try to imprison his chief political opponent, Donald Trump, remove him from the ballot, and ensure he dies in prison.”

Advancing Russian troops outgun Ukrainians desperately short of weapons. Lapdogs in Congress, terrified by their master’s voice, linked military aid to the U.S. southern border. Biden relented on their harsh demands, but Trump nixed the bill so he can blame Biden for migrants’ death and misery until November.

In an angry White House address, Biden demanded urgent aid to fend off Russia. The House took a two-week break.

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Early polls mean little, but I’ve spent months interviewing eligible voters in Pima County, “Baja Arizona,” a blue zone in a crucial state. From Gen Zs to aging Democrats, a common message is clear. Why bother with a pointless vote?

My high school class of ’61 was that proverbial melting pot with added hot peppers and Indian corn. We “liberals” saw Sen. Barry Goldwater as a monstrous “conservative.” In hindsight, he was just a Republican who compromised, vital to a two-party system.

A black pal and I once stood by the highway with a sign reading, “North to Alaska.” After most of a day, hitching a single ride in an open-bed truck 40 miles up the road, we gave it up. But no one seemed tempted to take a shot at us.

I just sent a note to a class list of 90 suggesting that we help energize voters to consider the complex wider world. A single response came from a guy who turned deep red over the years: “Focused on enjoying life Mort...politics as you say is irrelevant.”

I’d said the opposite. With human life on Earth in the balance, “politics” are hardly a spectator sport.

Letters to the Tucson daily paper still say “Sleepy Joe” hides in his basement. Biden, constantly on the move, took an 11-hour train ride to Kyiv under Russian gunsights. Volodymyr Zelensky offered to show Trump up-close reality. He is still waiting.

Cable TV and online echo chambers are scarier still. With Biden-averse write-ins and a spoiler campaign by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that Republicans support, Trump could win despite pending cases that range from the Jan. 6 insurrection to a sexual “indickment.”

Network hosts laugh about hideous gold $399 sneakers paying for judgments and legal fees that could top a billion dollars. But John Dean, with insider savvy since Watergate, warns Saudis or Russians could pony up to rent virtual space in the Oval Office.

Despite Republican packing, the Supreme Court and an appellate system still function mostly as designed. But an amorphous “court of public opinion” supersedes them. Ill-informed voters are easy prey to Trump’s drumbeat.

We all heard the audio again and again. Trump wheedled, then threatened, the Georgia secretary of state to “find” him 11,780 votes. Even if an armed insurrection and the 14th Amendment are not enough to condemn him, that is irrefutable proof of guilt.

Yet defense lawyers badgered Fani Willis with extraneous detail. “These people are on trial for trying to steal the 2020 election,” she said at one point. “I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.” If the judge disqualifies her for showing emotion, the case resets from zero.

CNN and MSNBC covered every moment as attorneys tried to show how a brief office romance overshadowed the substance. For two days, I heard almost no mention of news from the outside world on either one.

Those are the only U.S. cable news channels (Fox doesn’t count). Hallmark’s old movies at times draw more viewers than both combined. France, by comparison, offers six French cable news channels, BBC, Sky, Euronews, CNN International, Al Jazeera and others in a handful of languages.

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Last Sunday on CNN, Fareed Zakaria spoke with David Remnick, The New Yorker editor, who I’ve respected as a Russia expert since he was a Washington Post reporter when we both worked in Moscow the week that Soviet communism died.

Navalny rattled Putin in 2012 with a rally at the Kremlin gates demanding a free, modernized Russia. Early on, he survived a poisoning. In 2021, he flew back from asylum abroad, eyes wide open to the likely result.

Remnick said Navalny told his family he could not ask others to rise against Putin if he was living in safe exile. And Remnick added a stark contrast. In America, he said, politicians often lack the courage to defy a strong-arm leader of their own party.

Asked if Navalny’s murder might cause Republican soul-searching, he held back a bitter laugh. “Has Trump ever had a rethink in a moral or political sense?” he replied. Will Tucker Carlton become a transformed man after what followed his pathetic interview? I seriously doubt that.”

Remnick concluded: “It is up to Biden to make the political and moral distinction between the two (candidates), which he has already done…We’ll see what the United States does going forward. But this is a huge, huge event.”

In the next hour, Jake Tapper grilled Sen. Tim Scott, who pirouetted away from past positions with the absurd flipflops typical of potential Trump vice presidents.

Biden is driving America to ruin after Trump’s economic boom, Scott said. He omitted 2020 when a self-serving Covid response killed Americans en masse and tanked the economy to historic lows. He would not say if he would certify the vote if Biden won.

Tapper pulled up a November clip of Scott calling Putin a tyrant who a strong, united NATO had to contain. What, he asked, had changed? Scott sidestepped to Biden’s “open border,” calling it America’s greatest security threat by far.

Then Tapper showed Trump in South Carolina, the senator’s home state. He displayed what may be the worst presidential treachery in U.S. history.

Like a mob boss demanding protection money, Trump said unless NATO partners paid their fair share – 2 percent of GDP – he would “encourage” Russians to do “whatever the hell they want.”

Scott ignored that. He ticked off Trump calamities he attributed to Biden: signaling Putin that Ukraine would be a pushover; abject capitulation in Afghanistan; and, again, the border crush created by Trump’s multiyear ban on new arrivals.

He also blamed Biden for the Hamas attack from Gaza and turmoil in Israel. Both are the direct result of Trump’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to occupy West Bank territory and reduce Palestinians to permanent second-class apartheid.

In fact, Poland pays 3.5 percent of GDP to NATO, more than the United States. Greece is close behind. Germany lags, demilitarized after Hitler, but it is rebuilding fast. NATO bases there are contributions in kind. France had tenuous NATO links in the 1960s. Now its tough commandos are often first to respond when trouble flares.

On other Sunday panels, Republicans glossed over stunning news. The FBI arrested a confessed Russian agent, the star witness against Hunter Biden. House inquisitors took on faith for more than a year his fabricated testimony about bribes from Ukrainians.

Networks in quest of ratings allow Trump to suck up the air by repeating his litany at length. He is perfect. Judges and journalists who say otherwise are corrupt.

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Other democracies strictly limit contributions in short campaigns. Candidates get equal airtime on national TV. Contenders lay out platforms. Incumbents run on their record. No one expects the winner to be a beer buddy. Substance outweighs personality.

Most Americans want a president to woo them on their own terms, a tough challenge in a nation of 320 million.

Biden is plagued by poor messaging. Jen Psaki was an excellent press secretary who could shape a convincing “message.” Then she followed the money to MSNBC. Trump had more press conferences than Biden. Most were haranguing, boastful bullroar.

Biden was likely right to blow off a Super Bowl interview. Complexity is lost when pre-game partiers exchange wisecracks. But his venture into TikTok — “LOL hey guys” — was not his finest moment.

Shell games divert voters from what matters. Many overreact to cheap shots.

Hillary Clinton lost largely because FBI Director James Comey focused on her emails close to Election Day. Government officials often use private servers. She faced no charges. But Trump fired up crowds with a battle cry: “Lock her up!”

This time, prosecutor Robert Hur’s report on classified documents added gratuitous slurs about Biden’s mental acuity. Hardly a psychiatrist, he came off as a party hack angling for a job under Trump.

Biden spent five hours with him on the two days following the Oct. 6 Hamas attack. Did he really forget what day his son died? His concentration was elsewhere.

About 50 million documents are classified each year. Presidential aides put some aside for memoirs important to history. When Biden’s cache turned up, he alerted the National Archives for a thorough search. Trump’s offenses were in a different galaxy.

But Biden faced a Gotcha Gang of reporters eager to hype a story. A slip of the tongue, saying Mexico when he meant Egypt, made headlines. He knows the difference. At the time, during heated border negotiations, Washington was obsessed with Mexico.

Trump’s bonehead flubs are legion. Nikki Haley is not Nancy Pelosi. He did not beat Barack Obama in 2016, and he, not Biden, is more likely to start “World War Two.”

He confused Hungary with Turkey, no small detail to those who recall the 1956 uprising. Soviet tanks quickly crushed it, sending 200,000 people into exile. In the 1980s, after Hungarians pried open cracks in the Iron Curtain, more dissidents had to flee.

Viktor Orbán now tilts Hungary back toward Moscow and refuses entry to refugees. He tried stop Hungarian aid to Ukraine, but NATO partners forced him to relent. Turkey, also in NATO, protects the alliance’s southern flank.

Biden has his flaws. In 2020, I expected him to steer America off the rocks and hand over to a fresh successor in 2024. I doubt he is staying on for hubris. Trump won’t go away, and I believe integrity compels him to finish the job.

An unchecked Trump reign would push climate collapse past a tipping point. Despots he admires, restless behind their own borders, amass arms and revive old Fascist rhetoric. A world on the boil needs leaders who unite, not divide.

Liz Cheney summed up the essential point on Tapper’s show. Cheney is a true “conservative,” sensible and hard-headed in a way that merits respect in a two-party system. She is no Chicken Little.

“When you think about Trump pledging retribution,” she said, “what Vladimir Putin did to Navalny is what retribution looks like in a country where a leader is not subject to the rule of law.”