AND DOWN THE ROAD.....

     One person said to me that Friday is the end of the world as we know it. Think about that. I do not believe that we will implode, at least on Friday, but think of all the battles we are fighting all over again. The Republicans shout "repeal and replace" without a replacement plan and the Democrats counter with "Making America Sick Again".
      Days away from becoming the supposed president of ALL Americans he gets into a Tweet battle, of all immature things to do, with black leaders, with affronted and appalled white leaders, with plain old people who are disgusted with his statements, denigrating a civil rights hero and by extension, all that we have accomplished in the sphere of civil rights Now we are back in the front line, not only for African Americans but for Latino and for women and for sick Americans and for workers. In fact , the only people who seemed to have done well with this man are the Fat Cats, the very people who gutted laws are now in charge of them!! So down the road...?
     Where on this possible road do we find a place to stop and deal with a president who is compromised with or by accusations of off standard dealings with the enemy. His statements about how good Putin is, how much he hopes to forge a great relationship with Russia even as he denigrates our allies of NATO, well, where do we go from here? His own nominees are refuting him about Russia and with all the lies and accusations back and forth, we are endangering our country, our democracy, our faith in our country and its authorities are weakening. As one person put it: Trump has brought us to the point where he is just about  saying: "there is no such thing as truth, only a battle of opinions proffered by different actors, each of whom strives to be the loudest." So exactly whom to believe, whom to trust?
    When a country is caught in such a dilemma, when there is not trust, then there arises a person who says that he is whom to trust and only him. Law and order - of his preference - becomes the given state of being and we voila! have our own homegrown fascism. Is this where the road is headed?
     And what about the lies of more jobs? So far all the statements have been shall we say misapplied statements. Fiat has these plans from at least two years ago. Carrier still plans to lose about three quarters of the approximately 800 jobs 'saved" and this is through planned automation. Now we have a man who threatens BMW. Is he going to threaten all and every company and country in the world? And we have tried protectionism before - it does not work and more jobs will be lost via this philosophy than through any other way. And of course, all will be planned with the benefit of the companies in mind. Never forget that and if you need reminding then just check who is paying for the Inauguration costs. Why the big companies - that's who, not the little guys, not the politicians who have grown some moral ones and are staying way.
     So this morning a good friend, one whom I admire, sent me a joke, an anecdote basically telling of how a man called Donald played a nasty trick on several hundred people, scamming them,  conning them out of hard earned money, buying a worthless chance at a worthless item and then boasted about it - and that Donald is now moving into the White House. G-d forbid, but I fear he is correct. While I believe this anecdote was a boast for his supposed cleverness, to me it simply displayed the fact that this Trump, this Donald,  is a con artist, a grifter, who cheats people and walks away without a backwards look. This is sad - unless this same story says that my friend has finally accepted the truth about this travesty of a president elect. I hope so.
     In any case, down the road does not look so good for us, does it. So what are we going to do about it? I am not going to lay down and play dead or roll over. Nope and neither will many others. There is always a way, always hope.