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THE 2026 STATE OF THE NON-UNION ADDRESS
STARRING HUMPTY DUMPTY AS PINOCCHIO
(A… Through the Looking Glass Production)

 

 

Irish John Walsh… C.C. Shamrock 1963

You recently wrote, “Detroit still has a primal hold on my heart, and I am protective of it.” Lyrical and well said. John, please allow me to discuss some MAGA (“Drinking the Kool Aid”), kitchen table issues that come to mind when you say “primal” and “protective.

Primal | ˈprīm(ə) …

Adjective. Relating to an early stage in evolutionary development; Primeval… (Apple Dictionary)

When I use the word “primal” (aka primeval), I think of the “evolutionary instinct of survival.” More than 100,000 years ago, that “evolutionary instinct of survival” was located in that prehistorical portion of the evolving, human brain, known as the “amygdala.” That amygdala is still with us today in the 21st Century… the very same, small part of the prehistoric brain that continues to serve our (still evolving) species in the art of survival i.e. “fight or flight.”

Amygdala | əˈmiɡdələ 

Noun. A roughly almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions. (Apple Dictionary).

The amygdala’s main function is to process emotions, especially fear and anxiety, acting as the brain’s alarm system to detect threats and trigger survival responses, like “fight or flight”… while also forming emotional memories and influencing social behavior (AI Google). No doubt, the amygdala is connected to our “primal humanness.” See Rumblin’ in the D, Chapter 2 (in rhyme scheme). Slaying of The “Innocent”

In (and even out of) Courtrooms, it helps Judge and Jury (and citizen alike) to understand that… while under the influence of fear, stress, confusion, anger or exhaustion, we can all react and respond (key word “react”) “without deliberation” (no Murder One if no “deliberation”) or do something without the “specific intent” to create a specific harm (no crime of Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm… if no specific intent to harm. Or, in a civil, fraud case… withholding information during contract negotiations with the specific intent to defraud). When the prehistoric Amygdala is activated (due to fear, stress, confusion, anger or exhaustion)… free will, human logic, deductive reasoning and critical analysis are all compromised to some degree or other.

Stated differently, when we humans are beset by fear, stress, confusion, anger or exhaustion… our human cognitive ability to think and our human volitional ability to fully consider our “free will” choices are (at a minimum) “compromised” or (at a maximum) “cancelled” out by the chaos of the moment (involved in the “fight or flight” syndrome).

Tribalism | ˈtrībəˌlizəm

Noun. (Mainly derogatory)… the behavior and attitudes that stem from strong loyalty to one’s own tribe or social group (Apple Dictionary)
Tribalism is the “us against them” dynamic of human response. It engenders a perception of a “shared identity” or a perceived “common ground” which, in turn, produces a social, cultural or politically powerful “reflex”… a reflex of group think, group identity and group loyalty.

Those “us against them” group sentiments were never (more dangerously) on display in my lifetime than during President Trump’s State of the Union address last night (2/24/2026). Even while viewing that non-thinking debacle on my television screen (safe within the confines of my own home), I felt like I was witnessing a self-righteous, lynch mob in the antebellum South terrorizing their, quaking victim as he lived out his last moments. Last night’s State of the Union address was that very, circus-like atmosphere Bob Dylan sang about in Desolation Row (his greatest song in my view).

They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlors filled with sailors
And the circus is in town.

The rat-a-tat-tat avalanche of “us against them” sentiments in last night’s State of the Union Address (and its wild, acceptance by the cheerleading, Republican mob… USA ! USA !! USA !!! ) was, I suspect, the tribal, group reflex, of a non-thinking, Republican party whipped into a crescendo of patriotic frenzy by an “historical echo”… the echo of a White Supremacist Hitler seeking “Lebensraum.”

As usually happens, last night’s falsetto Patriotism will be paid for in the future with the blood of the innocents, the “expendables” aka the Los Pobres, the Non-Whites, the Immigrants and the Universal Soldier… who this moment floats in the Persian Gulf near the Straits of Hormuz wondering if he (or she) will be called upon to pay the ultimate sacrifice for Trump’s Iran war. The ultimate price that my Greatest Generation parents knew oh so well when Hitler thought he was Trump (typo for emphasis only). And, when the song, I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places was heard on every American radio in the early 1940s.

I strongly suspect that the “tribal” instinct of group loyalty (in pursuit of saving White American) USA ! USA !! USA !!!… was fully on display last night during President Trump’s State of the Non-Union Address. I suspect that the survival instinct is hard-wired into humanity’s tribalism. I suspect that all of us inherit the survival gene that says, seek shelter in the familiar… our own tribe, our own race, our own color, our own family, our own team, our own gang, our own peers, our own religion, our own theology, our own group… all without deliberation, logic, deductive reasoning, critical analysis or nuance. For MAGA, I also suspect, it is much more important “to belong” … to MAGA than “to think” beyond the biased, political soundbites of President Pinocchio & Friends.
MAGA projects as Tribal non-thinkers who (in knee-jerk reaction) belong to the “strength in numbers,” White Supremacists’ group from which they came and to which they still belong (as they desperately try to hang on to “their” White America). That opens MAGA up for the very blatant, non-thinking behavior we saw on our television sets last night… blatant “group think” overwhelming and trumping the rigors of actual thinking, the rigors of logic, the rigors of deductive reasoning, the rigors of critical analysis and the rigors of subtlety and nuance. MAGA and Trump supporters just stood by (and around) their television sets, last night, transfixed by President Pinocchio who “insults” and “humiliates” all who disagree with him… mugging on cue for the camera, mimicking the “smug” poses of a Mussolini, all the while thriving on half-truths and outright deception. Boy you talk about “Fake News.” The entire State of the Non-Union Address was a poster child for Fake News… insults, half-truths, whole lies and some pompous poses sprinkled in.

 

Other than the January 6th insurrection by Trump’s followers, I never saw a more dangerous and volatile mix of group think and group identity … than I saw last night in President Pinocchio’s State of the Non-Union address. Even viewing it on a television screen in my own home, triggered my amygdala, telling me to flee my home and break free from the Southern, lynch mob, mentality that was closing in on me… bound and determined to Capital Punish me for not being a “true believing, God fearing, White Christian male” and a great Patriot like they were. It was a surreal, dream-like, Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass… with the Orange-faced Man, the Red Queen, the Drag Queen and King Trump (and Friends) all closing in on me. But then, I awoke from this nightmare and after the shock wore off, my lifetime of resisting those who would “control” me… kicked in again and I shouted out the words, “F_ _ _  you Donald Trump and your MAGA ‘group think.”‘ As I always have in my life, I will stand up and be heard for what… I know is right. I will never stop challenging “group think” and “mob mentality” at every turn with resistance and by exposing those who would try to strong-arm America’s, 250-year-old Life, Liberty and Happiness. See Strong Arming America’s Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness

What has led to this sad state of American affairs ??? Answer. “Indoctrination” of those who let others do their thinking for them. MAGA does not have the strength, the resolve and/or the command of logic, deductive reasoning, critical analysis and subtlety and nuance needed to think their way out of their Trumpian Tribalism and break free from the grip of their amygdala… a grip that funnels all their energy into a “group think,” “group identity” and common cause. MAGA does not have the motivation and/or the resolve to decipher truth and reality and separate that truth and reality from the lies, exaggerations and the political theatre that Trump & Friends use to control them.

No MAGA !!! It is not enough to “just belong” to the monolithic, closed minded, non-nuanced, group-think, mindset of Trump & Friends. You must have the courage and intestinal fortitude to stand up with your God-given free will and challenge those who want to do your thinking for you and control you with their MAGA soundbites. You must have the courage to open your mind up and loosen it from the grip of your amygdala and your MAGA tribalism and consider and evaluate MAGA’s soundbites with logic, deductive reasoning, critical analysis, subtlety and nuance and connect the dots that show what is true, what is not, what is real, what is not, what is debatable and what is not.

Believe whatever religious creed you want but, you will never find the “way, the truth and the light” (repeat, never find it) when you let others (in your group) do your thinking for you. Just like the Founding Fathers of America did, you also must sacrifice and put aside time to learn the dynamics of Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness and the human rights in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights. There is no free ride. Do your homework and find out which way is up (before it is too late and you lose the American dream). Strive (in fact, work your ass off like others of us have done) and use an open mind and try to figure out what’s up, where “truth” and “reality” lie and what’s going on nationally and worldwide.

Don’t let your God-given gifts of free will, logic, deductive reasoning, critical analysis and your subtlety and nuance lie fallow and unused in a barren field. Stop being a follower. Stop being child-like in your Patriotism and your Christianity. Singing the Star-Spangled Banner, singing God bless America, praying the 1700-year-old Apostle’s Creed, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, flying your oversized (look at me) American flag, taking Scouts of America Loyalty Oaths or shouting out God’s on our side are just words. And, words alone, don’t make you a Patriot nor a follower of the Golden-rule Jesus. Talk is cheap. So is self-promotion. It is mere show. It is merely appearance. It is merely exalting ritual and form over substance. It is meaningless child’s play. If your professed love of America is real, then become an “informed American” rather than just jumping on the Donald Trump Dog and Pony Show, band wagon.

Peeping through the Window… at Trump & MAGA

Think of the tribalism of present day MAGA, America First and other Trump supporters… with Donald Trump himself bragging about the tribal hold he has over his supporters …

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,
and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” (Jan 2016)
— Trump remarked at a campaign stop
 at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.

Donald Trump’s definition of his tribal power over his followers gives the rest of us an invite to expound on the Kool-aid addiction of his supporters… as they all start off each new day by drinking the MAGA Kool Aid. The reference to the Kool-aid, of course… a reference to Christian preacher, James Jones, who (in 1978) talked 600 plus of his Christian followers into killing their children and then themselves by drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid. Then, almost 50 years later the same thing … Déjà Vu all over again (as Yogi Berra would say). The Shakahola Forest murders and suicides of 2023 where over 400 Christian followers of Pastor, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, starved themselves to death (or otherwise murdered one another) in Africa… so they could “meet Jesus.”

Is there a correlation or connection between the “Tribal” grip of Donald Trump on MAGA and the “Tribal” grip of Christian Pastors James Jones and Paul Nthenge Mackenzie on their followers ??? Intuitively, it would seem they are all emotionally connected, all one in the same.

Following up on Donald Trump’s description of his MAGA (and America First) supporters (quoted above), I see our fellow MAGA Americans (and American Firsters) as Primal, Tribal and afflicted with the age-old, “closed mind” syndrome…

• MAGA is blissfully Monolithic (aka non-pluralistic). The only regard those Trump supporters have for their fellow, non-MAGA Americans seems to be… conquer them, control them, beat them up (with Trump promising to pay the defense fees if anyone gets charged) and “Lock ‘em up.”
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the pervasive “Control” that Trump & Friends assert on the rest of their fellow. MAGA-American’s Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. See Strong Arming America’s Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the threat of Authoritarianism, the loss of Freedom and the loss of Democracy that the Authoritarian Trump administration is establishing in the void created by a Republican Congress of “cowardly” lackeys and a “Federalist,” U.S. Supreme Court, Super Majority of Trump Cheerleaders. And, Pinocchio Trump makes the most of this non-democratic void… as he tells the New York Times on 1/11/2026 that the only thing that limits his power and his control is his own “Mind” and his own “Morality.”

“My own morality. My own Mind.
It’s the only thing that can stop me,
And that is very good”

• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the visceral distrust that the rest of the world has of America and our ever-mercurial, threatening and bullying President Pinocchio. An example ??? Bully Trump, ever the Empire builder, constantly insults and threatens America’s allies, including America’s best ally and economic partner, Canada… threatens our allies with outrageous tariffs and the takeover of their Countries. Finally, Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney was forced to say… Enough is Enough !!! Trump can never be trusted. Ditto for (self-proclaimed) Hillbilly, J.D. Vance. As Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, diplomatically told America’s Allies on 1/20/2026 in Davos, Switzerland… Trump & Friends cannot be trusted. We must go on without America. Thanks to Trump’s America, the old order is dead.

 

“Today I will talk about a rupture in the world order,
the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality,
where geopolitics, where the large, main power, geopolitics,
is submitted to no limits, no constraints.

“On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries,
especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless.
They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values,
such as respect for human rights, sustainable development,
 solidarity,
sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.”

(Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney… January 20, 2026 at Davos Switzerland)

 

Carney, a very bright economic guy (much brighter than Trump) realizes that the only way to deal with Trump’s constant bullying, lies, chaos, threats and general unreliability is… not to deal with Trump (at all). Carney, therefore, did what he had to do for Canada. He reduced Canada’s 100% tariff against China’s electric vehicles to 15% and now China will launch a steady stream of imports of China’s well-made, reliable and inexpensive e-vehicles into Canada… as our America’s Big Three Auto Manufacturers lose market share and our American (factory worker) jobs take a hit.

Thank you, President Bully, for your constant insults of our allies (You showed them !!!). Thank you, President Tariff, for destroying our economic relationships with our allies. Thank you, President Chaos, for weakening the America’s economy and the American dollar with your constant threatening bluster and forcing our allies to embrace China as their trading partner rather than the non-to-be trusted, American President Trump and his Oligarch, Billionaire Cronies. Lesson to be learned ??? Hey, TACO Trump (“Trump Always Chickens Out”), you play chicken long enough and the new world order turns its back on America. You cry wolf long enough and America’s bombast from the oval office makes you and America the “not to be trusted” butt of the World’s jokes. And, you run around like Chicken Little long enough, telling us “the sky is falling” and you play yoyo with the Financial Markets long enough and, eventually, you will crash the Financial Markets (and our IRAs along with them) for good … bankrupting America, just like you bankrupted six of your own companies and stiffed everyone else. Congratulations… President King of Debt.

• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the shadow President Pinocchio has cast on our America’s resolve to do the right thing. Think of the unseemly, recent bullying of Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy in our American White House by Trump and his mouthy Hillbilly, V.P.- J.D. Vance, who couldn’t wait to pile on a shell shocked and overwhelmed Zelenskyy. Think of the world leaders… Canada’s Carney, Great Britain’s Starmer, France’s Macron and the rest who shake their collective heads in unison as they try to deal with an uncouth, pussy grabbing, convicted felon, scoundrel and sexual molester (Jury gave millions to E. Jean Carroll for Trump’s sexual assault on her). That’s the very same Trump who wakes up every day ready to reward not right, not truth, not Justice, not the Rule of Law, not his duty, not competence, but to reward those who flatter him. Think tariffs (now you see them, now you don’t) and the chaos and the roiling of the financial markets going around and around, up and down and on and on. Think Greenland (aka “Iceland” in the limited wit of the self-proclaimed, “stable genius” Trump). Think Taiwan’s future… with a most vulnerable Taiwan hoping Trump saves them from China. (Good luck with that Taiwan). Think Gaza’s overwhelming, collateral damage of its innocent citizens… death, starvation, endless suffering and loss of their homeland— while Trump gloats that Gaza is soon to be the World’s new playground resort for his Oligarch friends and Crony Capitalists, all eager to join Trump’s Board of Peace and carve up the world along with Putin and Netanyahu. Think the West Bank expansion by the marauding murderers of innocent Palestinians with Jewish right wingers of Netanyahu’s cabinet applauding and Pinocchio Trump demonizing anyone who dares speak-up as… “antisemitic.” Think Trump’s 34 Felony convictions, Think Trump’s admitted (via consent order) embezzlement of his own Charitable Foundation in New York. Think Trump’s $25 million fraud settlement with young students who trusted their education to Trump University. Think January 6th. Think official Pardons for all the January 6th convictions (including avowed White Supremacists… Enrigue Tarrio, National Chairman of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers… whose 20 plus year sentences for conspiratorial sedition/insurrection were commuted). Think Trump’s cozy relationships with his Dictator buddies… Russia’s Vladimir Putin, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele (and his Super Max Prison, CECOT… where torture and deprivation of human rights are on the menu every day, all day). Think Victor Orban, the Authoritarian Christian leader of Hungary. Think Alexander Lukashenko, leader of Belarus… who gives aid, comfort and support to Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. Think Juan Orlando Hernandez, the President of Nicaragua, who was sentenced in an American Courtroom to 45 years for flooding America with tons and tons of Cocaine and was pardoned by Trump (all the while, Trump is blowing up boatloads of people in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela and portraying himself as a tough, Vigilante Drug Czar and as Judge, Jury and Executioner). Think ICE and American born citizens Rene Good (Mother of three, young kids) and Nurse Alex Pretty… both executed by ICE and now doing time in their coffins. Think Liam Ramos. America must never forget that fragile, innocent 5-year-old, Liam Ramos of Minnesota, who was recently released from doing time in a Federal lockup in Texas by Federal Judge, Fred Biery… who remarked in his Court Order…

 

“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us,
the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest
knows no bounds and are bereft of human decency.”

•  MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the need to control inflationary, economic forces with TACO Trump always insulting, threatening and playing politics with Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, on interest rates… while many other major Central Banks are pausing interest rates and even thinking about raising them to get inflation under control. President Pinocchio ran on “Inflation” and he seems bound and determined to die on it… and take the rest of us Americans down with him.
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of the perceived dangers of not getting vaccinated for Flu, Covid, Measles, Polio (etc.). Welcome back, measles, and don’t forget to thank the self-proclaimed, “Stable Genius” Donald Trump and the ever-brilliant, Robert Kennedy Jr. and staff for your resurgence. Measles, you are now free to wreak further havoc on America’s most vulnerable victims (our children). To this day, I still remember being four-years-old and suffering from measle hallucinations as my temperature spiked with fever.
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of their refusal to comprehend and acknowledge that the “de minimis” risk from vaccines… far outweighs the untoward, health consequences for (and from) non-vaxers and for our society in general.
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant of Climate Change and the existential threat to Mother Earth… and our Children’s and Grandchildren’s need to live with hope and ample life expectancies.
• MAGA is blissfully ignorant to the loss of Constitutional Rights, the Bill of Rights, Human Rights and the loss of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

Bottom Line

There is much more that can be said about President Pinocchio & Friends and the State of the (Non) Union. But, to the point. The point is MAGA’s Tribalism. Tribalism fosters (in fact, embraces)… a steadfast refusal to be open minded, a refusal to use God’s gift of Free Will, a refusal to use God’s gift of logic, a refusal to use God’s gift of deductive reasoning, a refusal to use God’s gift of critical analysis and a refusal to be an open minded, independent thinker.

I suspect that MAGA’s Tribalism not only “fosters” letting those God-given talents lie fallow, unused, uncultivated and unproductive, but also fosters the knee-jerk reaction of a “closed-mind” syndrome… where we let others (e.g. Political and Religious Leaders) do our thinking for us and tell us which way we must think. ”No fortress is more impenetrable than a closed mind.” (Louis Nizer Esq… My Life in Court). How does this happen ??? Because, being part of the Tribe is everything and knowing what “truth” and “reality” are, well are nothing… of consequence.

Forgiveness

John, let me switch gears and go to the concept of forgiveness, the most powerful force in the Universe (Trumpian as that Superlative may sound). I (myself) am hampered in the art of forgiveness because, I must (repeat “must”) “understand logically” what may be going on emotionally in the minds of others (the fear and the fight or flight of their amygdala ???)… before I can start to understand and chart a course of forgiveness and try to let go of wrongs.

But, I am happy to report that, in my old age, I am catching onto the “need for” and the “how to” of forgiveness… as I measure the words and actions of others in the context of the prehistoric part of their brain, the amygdala i.e. how much of what I see and hear in others may be generated out of their amygdala’s fear when they are under the influence of stress, confusion, anger and exhaustion ??? That strategy gives me a much better chance to rid myself of my own, temporary “fight of flight” and replace it with “Stay put and Love and Forgive.” I wished I would have had this understanding earlier in life. For a more expansive treatment, including the paradox of forgiveness and tough love, see Love One Another

Enough said.
Fred Lauck
Copyright 2026