AND THE LINE GROWS

     Chickens are coming home to roost and they are not bringing gifts with them. Instead, they are bringing the exact news and facts and events that opponents of Trump, or indeed, anyone with a brain, had predicted. Anyone who followed his policies to their inevitable consequences saw the future - and it ain't good!
     Just as the Kilauea volcano keeps erupting, sending more lava into the sky and through its river like channel, as it builds another cinder cone around fissure#8, so too do the policies of Trump continue to explode on this country and indeed the world and leave us with a growing cinder cone - of unemployment, of trade wars, of distances and anger from allies, and closer ties, personal ties, of Trump and the dictators of the world.
     Harley - Davidson, a nail company, a whisky producing company, all are either moving facilities OUT of the country, the exact opposite of what Trump blasted, or are shutting down, laying off hundreds, if not thousands of workers. And just when they will need help, the anti humanists in the Trump administration are planning on cutting help available in federal programs. So SNAP, the supplemental food program will be cut, drastically and it is not very generous right now. Recipients will be forced to work - but if there are  no jobs then where do they work!!!!!And so many of the recipients are either the poor elderly or the children of these laid off workers. Why are we going to add more people to the rolls of food insecurity, hunger, poor functioning with poor nutrition, of loss of homes, thus increasing homelessness, especially among families with children. What is the matter with us!!! Have we lost both brains and hearts?
     In the meanwhile, we have a President who is threatening to cut due process, claims that adding more immigration judges will lead to graft!!!!???? We have workers who are telling of thousands of kids arriving at shelters far away from their parents, crying for their parents and the kids are getting younger and younger. These are exactly the kind of families we need, with young kids who will grow up as Americans, get educated and fill positions in our economy that will start to empty out as our population ages and our share of workers diminish. Their parents will work hard to raise their families, to make a place for themselves in this country where we are supposed to give hope to people, not kidnap their children!!
     People are getting impatient. They are angry that they have a president who uses foul language, who curses people, who makes it all about him even as he says he does not like that. Well, he asks for it and turnabout is now fair play. We have all descended to a lower level of politics, but there comes a time when taking the higher road does not always work and when people are pushed to their very end of tolerance. The red line grows. The line separating the two Americas is growing by leaps and bounds and it does not bode well for the future of the country as a country, united, as the name states.
     A vision of the future is not good. Unemployment. Hunger. Hatred. Blame games that lead to attacks and even murder. Isolation from the world. Real war from trade wars? A Great Depression that will dwarf that of 1929 and perhaps one we will never recover from? More attacks on families and people of color? Where does it end? Where and when?
     Think I am an outlier here? I am sadly enough not. More and more of mainstream political commentators are saying the same thing. Patience is in short supply. The government is not functioning as it should or at all and our very principles, our very Constitution, are in danger from the very same people who are supposed to guarantee it, insure its survival and place in our lives. Not to take away due process. Not to curse people. Not to make it all about a jackass. We need to be kind, yes, and that means we should compel the President to undergo a complete physical and mental assessment done by a neutral party, not a drunk or someone anxious for a job. When the truth comes out, let us then retire this man and get on with life, having shown people down the line of succession what the people want and what they will no longer tolerate.
     The line of danger, of permanent separation or division of the country, of yes, even the risk of civil war and fighting in the streets - all this, all these possibilities continue to grow. Hunger sharpens the anger as it empties the belly. Anger grows when children are ripped away, not returned, lost in a system, threatened to shut up when reporters come around. When children are not supposed to be hugged or loved or comforted.
     Wake up, folks. Please, wake up. We need not make the nightmare a reality at its worst. Wake up. Look at that line. And look within yourself and be honest. This situation is not what G-d hath wrought, but one that we have wrought.