Скотт 1967 - 2026: Living Obit of an Incurable Fascist
Скотт on Manhattan Beach, 1987 2016. Acrylic on paper, 17 x 24"
My friend Скотт died suddenly on Super Bowl Sunday, 2026. He is 58 years old and still living in a physical state, though his mental health deranged, and not in a “safe” way, like some creative genius or blabbering village idiot. Скотт is no longer the friend of my youth, which are the only friends we should keep before we lay ourselves down to sleep as innocent as the day we got reborn. Youth is a state of mind, if we choose (fight) to keep it. Скотт forsook his youth and the gift of wonder-in-maturity for a federal cult, which has pushed its death thoughts into millions of minds across the nation. Its Lord, for the time being, is Donald Trump—the King of Arrogant Ignorance. Скотт died yesterday, and I was born again, again—a blessing unto me and a tragedy for the ever-tragic hero, my living-deceased, old friend Скотт.
He is in the MAGA cult. You’ve heard of it and most likely inhaled its breath from infected friends and family. Скотт was officially indoctrinated in 2015. This is the same cult that stole the retirement joys from my father’s prefrontal cortex via the hypnotism of Australian propagandist Rupert Murdoch and family. It lured his questioning cynicism, which is natural with aging, yet controllable with practice, into a dark and frightening cave of bigot-stoked fear and anger. FOX News pumped propaganda into millions of homes, night after night, making mincemeat of traditional, conservative minds, and their natural inclinations toward a retired life of wonder-in-maturity. For the record, I dream Murdoch and family tried and executed for being accessory to millions of murders. I call for their severed heads displayed on pikes for all to see, and be warned. I wish this wasn’t a recurring dream and people in my father’s demographic historically repelled billionaire propaganda with a sturdy faith in the gifts of wonder-in-maturity and harmonious aging. Unfortunately, this was (is) not the case. The power of propaganda is very real, and it does kill. Billionaires do not crave what’s best for our macro and micro clans. Harmony for all is greed’s initial conflict of interest. Propaganda is its number one investment tool. It takes vigilance, stamina and a truckload of imagination to keep the trappings of propaganda at bay, especially as we age and become more vulnerable to it. People need healing before they die. Otherwise, what a horrible rotten end to life!
Forest Life and Death of a Propagandist 2010. Acrylic on wood, 15 x 21"
And again, for the record, neo-liberal media outlets like The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC are equally guilty for trapping the joy of wonder-in-maturity, even if their effort is more like a “have a heart” rather than a “chew off your own limb to be free” type of trap. Older folks loyal to this less bigoted, “kindler and gentler” propaganda are also denying themselves life at a time when life is most precious because it’s ending soon. They are making themselves unnecessarily anxious by ingesting the lies and obfuscation of propaganda—the non-stop whitewashing of federal crimes, both foreign and domestic. But at least they’ve escaped the clutches of the most dangerous contemporary cult. For now. Today, neoliberals aren’t openly justifying the murder of innocents. But they certainly have in the recent past, and continue to do so under different circumstances, like the genocide in Palestine and the many war crimes committed by their favored President.
Скотт and I have been friends since middle school. Both born and raised in the same town, as twenty-somethings we roomed together in different cities. Bosom buddies. I could always be me around him, and vice-versa. No dislike or suspicion. Unconditional love. He was the only friend invited to my wedding. He was the only person besides Rose whom I trusted with my life.
Then in 2002, Скотт applied for a job as a New York State corrections officer. He had recently quit a lucrative career in insurance because he was about to be fired for incompetence while getting dangerously close on the job to a married female employee. Скотт was a slacker for sure. Happy-go-lucky, though feeling sorry for himself for reaching his thirties without a partner to marry. Little did he realize that his first 8 weeks at the Academy was training for future cult work. Nor could I foresee how quickly he’d transform his identity into a violent arm of the state system. This was howdy doody Скотт, let’s go get a beer and chase girls Скотт, I never have a thought deeper than having a good time Скотт—suddenly dressed in uniform among new peers pressuring him to push an inmate up against the wall.
Last year, at the prison where he works, (or did work; I’ll get to that shortly), six corrections officers beat to death a prisoner named Robert Brooks. You can watch it on TV. A gang murder. I recall a brief conversation with Скотт about a week later, when he admitted how fearful he was because people across the nation were outraged, and he was afraid that he would be singled out and scapegoated for their crime. There was never any mention in our conversation about the actual murder committed by the very officers he bonded with shift after shift in an institutional hellscape. I didn’t ask his opinion because I didn’t think it possible that another human being, wanting to remain a human being, would defend the gang murder of a defenseless man.
I should have known there was something sickly wrong with Скотт for not wanting to quit immediately. Was it trauma? Colleagues committing murder, and then having to go to work the next day like nothing happened. Come to think of it, how could anyone not already in a cult, choose to continue work in law enforcement that is so over-the-top violent, exposing the many negative attributes and emotions? Fear, hate, distrust, disgust, discrimination, prejudice, racism, anxiety, suspicion, self-hate, cowardice, revulsion, timidity… Can an American corrections officer go to work with any self respect under such a system of obvious abuse? We’ve know that power corrupts—all power, not just the absolutist type. Conversely, I approach work void of any power outside the boundary of my own body. I work with self-respect, enthusiasm, even love sometimes, and yes, the darker emotions come and go all day. But they’re under control, I believe, because I am fortunate to appreciate life as a gift. Likewise, the cashier stands behind the counter in her own state of dreaming. Even when her thoughts turn negative, she cannot gang up with other cashiers and the stock boy to beat to a coma, then from a coma to death, a handcuffed customer. That system just doesn’t exist. And there are a million more jobs like painter and cashier, that will not commit murder under any condition whatsoever. People with their pride and person still in tact, could not continue to work for state-approved gang violence and murder. Easy-peasey decision among citizens in any sane society.
Unfortunately Скотт, and many thousands like him, working under such stressful conditions, was initiated into a cult long before billionaire shyster Donald Trump came onto the scene. The New York State Penal System is first to blame. It laid out Скотт’s career path, showing him exactly what was to be expected at work for the next 25 years. It was a dark path of violence, yet he chose it anyway. Nearly a million other law enforcement personnel are treading a similar path. A frightening scenario indeed since the majority of police also politically worship a lawless, billionaire cult leader, one who has built a late career for himself by openly flattering violence. An isolated and disrespected police force will lean toward the love of whoever gives them the most positive attention. It’s an effective way to balance such negative and degrading work. One could say that today, police across the U.S.A., might already be moonlighting as a volunteer paramilitary force waiting on Trump’s beck and call.
Police reacting violently to legal protest is nothing new. Pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and bully clubs are staple weapons used at any public demonstration where corporatists and their adjuncts feel the money flow is being threatened. You can watch video after video of armed-to-the-teeth police attacking college kids while they march down a road chanting slogans and holding signs. The self-loathing exhibited by these officers is astounding. Who do they work for actually? How is this keeping the peace? In the majority of these situations, violent protest exists because a paid for police mob is put in position to escalate the situation. Both parties of government know this yet give their consent anyway.
And then just like that, a couple citizens are murdered by ICE in Minneapolis. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three is shot in the face and called a “bitch” by her masked killer, and “domestic terrorist” by leaders and representatives of federal government. A couple weeks later, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, is executed by a gang of masked ICE agents, shooting 10 bullets into his body. These are federally sponsored murders by unidentified, masked thugs who to this day have not been prosecuted. At many of these anti-ICE protests, local law enforcement is called in to accomplice themselves alongside the masked criminals. This implicates the state and local governments as well. Mayors and governors are complicit. The violence is already here, and more is coming, most assuredly, because the police aren’t quitting to become cashiers. Embedded cronies like Скотт are fully dedicated to this “band of brothers” mentality, even if said brothers are apologists for each other’s egregious crimes. They brandish their non-lethal weapon, arrogant ignorance, across social media nationwide, and use it to justify brutal violence by their associates. I don’t need to ask Скотт his opinion on the recent state murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Trump has already declared that they were domestic terrorists. It’s the nurses and teachers Скотт ! Go get ’em!
Fortunately, the cult has one less active member in Скотт. Even if he has a gun and working finger, he won’t be chasing down any Antifa grandmas tossing dildos at rented SUVs full of ICE. He’s just a couch potato now, on the state dole, getting treated for cancer. As a dedicated socialist (a term that would infuriate him, and many other cops most likely), he’s milked the clock for 5 months while on sick leave. Protestors pay for his pension and also the state subsidized insurance that has spent thousands of tax-payer dollars keeping him out of a coffin. While cheating the system he doesn’t think others are entitled to, Скотт has saved up enough money to purchase a retirement house in South Carolina, on the coast, where many other cult members hope to retire and die someday.
That was the hypocrite Скотт I tolerated for many years while I grew peacefully with love and he shrunk to practically nothing in hate. Now he is dead to me.
Part II “Everything I am inside kills fascists”
A German saying (maybe):
“If a decent person sits down with 9 fascists, there are now 10 fascists at the table.”
Yesterday, before Скотт died, he texted me.
Скотт: “Yo Hinkley, What Up?”
Me: Trump and Clinton’s penises at a daycare center.
Скотт: “Yes. Just don’t push a presidential assassination to impress the far left to show your love for them.”
Me: What does that have to do with a child trafficking ring of pedophiles made up of billionaires, Presidents, academics and celebrities?
Скотт: “And don’t keep pushing the leftist narrative that Trump is a pedo without having actual proof.”
Me: Oh Скотт, you’re in a cult.
Then I smiley-faced emoji’ed him and he is forever dead to me. After blocking him from phone and social media, I felt a breeze of peace flow through my body.
I don’t know why Скотт accused me of “pushing for presidential assassination to impress the far left”—maybe he wrongly interpreted a provocative title from one of my paintings? He definitely does not know what the term “left” means. In a world without justice for the weakest among us, I actually do wish a speedy natural death upon any President who protects his power at the expense of the nation’s general health and well being. I don’t respect abuse of power by any person, from low-level agency to those among the highest. I am already the most “left” person I know, and can’t go much further without going to jail, or worse. Anyway, there is no “left” party in the U.S.A. The party in charge at present is on the far right, and the other one exists to do its public relations. Both parties feed and ignore the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Both parties are harboring a President, present and past, who might have had sex with kids, and/or helped cover up the crimes of those who did. FOX News, CNN, The New York Times, WAPO, MSNBC, and PBS are aiding in the cover up.
The President of the United States is withholding evidence in the Epstein Files, which is against the law. Скотт knows this is true, but he would rather poke the bear than abide by either the actual law or any personal, righteous code. I set down the phone and just walked away, for good. Oh damn! I spent too many years tolerating his hateful rhetoric, always hoping a semblance of Скотт’s youthful self would rise up to surprise me. The fascist clique want the non-fascists to argue and debate, ad nauseam. It’s all they have until they’re organized, and then it’s too late, just more round up and violence. My gut sense of history has been telling me for years to sever ties with Скотт, and then begin taking note of the many Скоттs living around me. Good Germans of 1933 could have saved the world from war and holocaust if they did the same. Nazis happened because “good” people allowed them to happen. Fascists need violence for control, so they deserve to be answered with the same, pronto. A violence of words first, and then we’ll have to see. I’m that amateur historian who believes turning the other cheek gives us holocaust and genocide. I prefer the teachings and actions of a Malcolm X over a Dr. King because love can get you dead very quickly in a fascist takeover. Скотт represents a large base of armchair and open white supremacists who have never read a book, yet have opinions, profoundly unlearned ones, about how the world should behave when they go to the grocery store. And they’re ready to kill for it, or support those who do. Frightened cowards, the lot of them, not worth a second more of my time, unless I’m out sabotaging their days and nights, turning fear back onto them. If preemptive war is not your thing (I learned the term “preemptive war” and witnessed its execution on millions of people from my government, therefore it must be legal), I say make an effort to isolate your local fascist. A proper shunning might not stop him, but it could hold the beast at bay while you strengthen the systems that keep the peace.
You know, all those hospitals and schools harboring the domestic terrorists!
I believe that openly mocking and marginalizing fascist-thinking will aide in the restructure and de-militarization of law enforcement, which is a top priority at this time to save us from killing ourselves. However, major reform of other corrupt and dehumanizing systems must coincide if change is to be effective. Meanwhile, I don’t want to look at my old friend who is a fascist ever again. We share beautiful memories before he became a crooked cop and died. I cherish them, and love the him that he once was. But since joining a cult he’s just soured our private relationship while stoking fear and anger in the broader community. I don’t worry about Скотт anymore since I know where he lives if I need to start worrying.
Rupert Murdoch Taking a Long Walk Off a Short Penthouse 2016. Acrylic on paper, 17 x 23"
Look Mike, There Were No Guns at our Lunch in the Japanese Restaurant, and Now There are Eight! 2018. Acrylic on paper, 27 x 18"