When The White House Went Dark

 Sunday night May 31^st 2020 The White House goes dark. President Donald Trump hides in the bunker beneath the main floors strickened in personal terror. Police and protesters clash in the streets outside; around the surrounding grounds of the White House and throughout other parts of the nation’s capital. 

Metaphorically and philosophically the White House and nation went dark in a somewhat gradual and very real moral way when Mr. Trump was sworn into office January 1^st 2016. His presidential  lies, half-truths and fabrications began with Trump disputing the crowd size of his inauguration over President  Obama’s.  He declared war on the press calling  all reportage that painted him in a bad light or was contrary to his twisted narratives “Fake News.” He extended his ire to his own intelligence community and the FBI. He was out of the blocks with a vengeance and there was no “Honey Moon” for “Mr. Trump,”   

The current climate of unrest is tied to the death of African American Citizen; George Floyd at the bidding of four Minneapolis police officers, Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic  and a greatly suffering economy. 

 At the present Trump continues to tout false cures, untested procedures and quackery as remedies for the corona virus and uses race bating and brutality as solutions to civil disobedience. In his own mind the crumbling economy and unemployment rates are fine so these things are not even addressed. If at all he wants to dangerously reopen all businesses and social activities. This in spite of warnings from his own medical advisors and scientific authorities. Members of his cabinet and appointees are filling the jails as much as they are implementing  policy. Many of the president’s men have been indicted and many convicted (at least six individuals) for criminal activities, a number of which they have admit to. The numbers include his personal lawyer’s paying of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels for various extra marital escapades with his boss. Most recently his advisor Steve Bannon was arrested for fraud and is currently out on bail as he awaits trial. 

                                                          Unrest @ The White House

Trump when not playing  golf remains busy. He is at this moment trying to suppress voting by shutting down the USPS with the aid of his crony Louis DeJoy; Post Master General who is also his ardent supporter and campaign donor.  DeJoy is removing mail sorting machines, mail boxes and cutting workers over-time hours across the country.  This due to Trump believing fewer voters equal fewer votes against him and will benefit his campaign in the end. The Trump  abuses of power, ignorance and attempts to form a sort of dictatorship  not unlike Putin’s Russia are very important to him. His intentions are to subvert the constitution while staying in power for as many years as possible.  He would love to destroy our system of a three branch system of government with clear separation of powers at the federal level. In this he is most dangerous; a true threat to democracy. 

  

Lastly and equally distressing is Trump’s allusions  to and possibly mentally delusional remarks on the fore mentioned idea of his staying in office after what he will surely call an unfair and rigged election. This is of course if and when he hopefully and prayerfully loses his bid for reelection.  The election happens in a period just over two month from now. Given that he might   attempt to stay in the White House beyond his term I am convinced that he will be evicted shortly after the swearing in of former Vice President and Senator Joe Biden. He will be removed (if not by his own free will) then by members of the Secret Service or if need be the United States’ Armed Forces (Rule of Law will prevail) as Biden takes over the reins of Commander in Chief after his swearing into office; the afternoon of January 1^st 2021.

The Trump Bomb

Bill Sienkiewicz "REVOLUTION"

 The arrival of Bill Sienkiewicz’s “Revolution” has been cause for much personal celebration and many declarations. I am a committed and constant follower and admirer of his art. I remember him from his early “Neal Adams Clone Days” and still seeing something of a potential and particular originality in what he was doing. Many comic book artists of the period were doing Adams; he was the standard of the times, so Sienkiewicz was hardly alone in following the Adams example.  At the outset Bill Sienkiewicz had the distinction of being the best of the Adams’ influenced. Even in that he stood out. He captured the broad strokes and the nuances along with the imagination and innovation that made Neal Adams famous. Bill Sienkiewicz would ultimately come into his on with a vengeance when; as he describes in “Revolution” stops attempting to emulate someone else and becomes himself. He always wanted to experiment, explore and in his own way influence the world. He has done that in many ways and in the process influenced many others as he entertains and inspires while daring to express himself in what many considered a limited medium.

                                                                                     

I more or less initially looked at this treasure of a book in two extended sessions. The opening ten pages spoke more than many enclypedic collections of other art and artists. Then I followed with the reading of the heart felt, precisely intriguing, witty and decisively cunning introduction by Neil Gaiman. The two; Gaiman and Sienkiewicz have collaborated successfully together in the past. They are equally noted for their experimental risks, daring natures and contributions as talents. That in turn was enough for me to absorb on one late evening after my copy arrived.

Returning to and then reading the informative and insightful Ben Davis essay and the compelling interview by Churl R. Kim I felt even more enamored of what could be described as the modest and uniquely American Mystique of Sienkiewicz’s persona.  Both essay and interview were further illuminated with yet more beautifully executed fine art influenced illustrations. I was in something of an intellectual and artistic bliss.

Finally I decided to take in the nearly one hundred fifty color and black & white plates of the expressive works; water-colors, acrylic, collage, mixed-medium and pen & ink works of pure genius. Here; I took a cue from Neil Gaiman. He detailed in the introduction that when working with Sienkiewicz he had taken the drawings sent to him for a Sandman story and played with them. Gaiman deviated from the sequence of his original narrative and essentially reversed and mixed the story sequence images and events. This established the need for an almost complete re-write for the material Gaiman had previously plotted. This option took him into uncharted and magnificent new places in his own uniquely personal imaginative spaces.   

I decided on following Gaiman’s lead in viewing  the remainder of the book starting from the last plate and reviewing them in reverse.  The material consisted of Jimi Hendrix, The New Mutants, Stray Toasters, Dare Devil and Elektra; along with pages from his sketch book and fine art renderings all generously offered. This came together into something thrilling, challenging, provocative and entertaining. I found myself touched and as well moved. Ultimately there was a sense of certainty and complexity; in the best way, a personal restoration of significant satisfaction. 

Bill Sienkiewicz Quotes

“I made a decision to love and respect comics as a medium. I believed it was a medium that could do anything.”

“I pursue the emotional truth of something as opposed to simply the visual truth.”

“We are all an evolving combination of all the things we experience. We are an end result of our influences, subconscious or otherwise.”

“If my work influences or touches other people scares them, makes them uncomfortable or brings them joy, it’s a method of communication.”

“At one point everything is brand new, but with time the new wave becomes the old guard.”

“Art is an ongoing and never ending process…you’re not done. You’re never done.”