MUCK AND BRASS

     There is an old British saying that where there is muck, there is brass. Muck is filth, dirt, filthy dirt and brass is not the metal per se, but money, that and brassy nervy behavior in the worst sense of the word. As old as this saying is, it still applies, frighteningly so in the climate of today's political world. Its moral world as well.
     Money is the root of all evil, or so it is said, but actually, I think that it is not, for the most part, money as an abstract, to store away under myriad mattresses or millions of rusty tin cans. It is the things, the power that this money seems to buy in a never ending vicious cycle. Get money, get the power, act accordingly, get more money, more power and rule the world, whichever world it is that one chooses.
     Don't think I am correct.? Okay. Look around. Take the filthy administration in DC, the one drowning in its own filth, the polluted swamp we now have there. Read about and tote up all the millions upon millions of dollars that these appointees have assigned to themselves. See the signs of power - according to their twisted and benighted minds - that they have accrued, the use of the funds they have available to them - and allowed to do so by a wimpy, morally deprived Congress, particularly the Republicans which go tsk, tsk, and then have such nice little chats together. This saccharine tinged filth is enough to choke one.
     The top filthmaker and brass gatherer - Trump himself. Take a look at his latest rally in Michigan. What a  load of hooey! Now it is okay to bring in guest workers for the farmers who have no one to reap the crops? Well, of course he was always bringing them in for his hotels, but now that there is beginning to be reason for panic, as crops begin to rot in the fields, as prices begin to rise, so forget what he said before. He does, so what's the dif ?
     So the corporations are having their day again, piling up the cash, not noticing lots of money come back to these shores, anyone, are you, factories are still closing down and more will do so as Trump's crazy tariff war takes deeper hold and roots, and who will have the brass - why Trumpie, old boy, as he gathers his rosebuds from foreign powers in the form of hotel funds and rates, pretty gifts, the trappings of majesty such as 21 gun salutes, and parades. All the trappings of brass in the muck of the world he has created. 
     And this type of behavior does not stop a the boundaries of the DC swamp. Nope, we are graced with this filth and brass connection in almost all the states of the country as figure after figure goes down for the count - bribery, sex scandals, gift taking and whatnot. State level. County level. City and town level. Where does it stop? Who the hell knows what with the pseudo leadership at the top.
     And it transcends borders as well. Choose almost any country of the world, no matter its type or ostensible type of government. Democracies are being challenged and destroyed. Dictatorships are calling themselves democracies even as they lock up journalists and murder them, starting by demonizing them and calling them a danger to the country. Wow!! Sound familiar, anyone? Bribery abounds in so many countries, elected leaders become like the guests who overstay their welcome and remain and remain and remain. And why, well, look at  their personal accounts, the accounts of the families and see the bottom figure rise. Hey, Trump family, sound familiar?
     Now the question is  or should be - how long will the waiting be and what are we waiting for? Are we going to be able to resurrect ourselves, bring back morality, true democracy, stop the denigration, the dangerous denigration of journalism, stop the dangerous practice of the Big Lie? Are we going to encourage hatred and prejudice and encourage the violence that it engenders? Or will we be waiting for the final end, the dystopian world that we have long been warned about?
     Filth and muck and brass and power and waiting. Waiting. Waiting.