WHAT ELSE?

     There are black holes in space that swallow up matter and anything it comes into contact with. I am not quite sure of the physics of it all, but there it is and there it is, our own black hole, swallowing all that it meets, one scandal after another, so fast that they are blurred in the public's eyes, so quick that they strain the eye and the mind, not sure of what we have seen or heard or experienced.
     How many of us can recite the first five scandals of the Trump administration? How many can tell the approximate date when Trumpland or Trumpmania or any similar term came into play, announcing thus that we were facing something new. Anyone ever used the term Bushland or Obamaland? Not that I ever heard. So yes, we have acknowledged the fact that this man and his entourage are no, not from TV or the acting arena and yet that is what we have.
     We have fake lovefests with other bullies of the world. We have Putin and Trump. We have Erdogan and Trump. We have Kim Jong-un and Trump. We have all the recent right wingers taking over in Eastern Europe, quashing rights left and right and as for Trump - not a word of condemnation. Nope, what we get are statements that sometimes it is good to be a dictator, to be a strong man and that is what states need many times and gives hints as broad as a slap on the face that he includes our country within that statement.
     I used to laugh at his idiocy. Now I sit and think that maybe all these supposed stupidities of his are simply the manifestation of his contempt for all humans other than himself and his family members that he likes and that these are planned actions, designed to take away attention from whatever recent scandal or act destructive of democracy.
     The man who promised to withdraw our troops is now sending them all over the globe except where they are truly needed. The man who is supposed to protect us and our Constitution and took an oath to that effect, is well on the way to destroying it, and will advance far into that path with his next Supreme Court Justice. I shudder with distaste, with trepidation when I read of his possible nominee. Anti choice, belonging to extreme right wing religious organizations, believing that religion and state belong together, not separate, that increasing the ease and presence of owning and carrying arms is the way to go, that women are okay in their place, that oh yes, force babies to be born but then take away all the safety precautions that will ensure that these unwanted or cannot be cared for babies have no recourse - no SNAP, no housing aid, no care for the mothers, no classes in parenting, no requiring that the father show up and man up, nothing, just nothing. Once more it is all on the woman and it is up to her to find the medical or physical act of abortion again. Again!
     And skipping over all else egregious or not that he has done is the worst thing ever. I love reading how a crowd chased McConnell in a parking lot demanding to know where the babies are. But seriously, is that what we have become? A nation that does its work in crowds, in heckling, in denying the right of free speech, especially if it is anti us, and how do we draw a line. We are being told that our protests are illegal. Really? Since when? We are being told that we endanger the country? Really? How?
     Where will all this end? In civil war? In a defined and definite physical split in the nation into two or three or four separate countries? Think that is not possible? Think again. Take the temperature of the nation. Listen to the words of hate, the trading of insults, the violation of civil rights and worse, the people who support that. Look at the people who think it okay to demean a whole class of people, dehumanizing them and for G-d's sake, did we not have enough of that? We have it going on still with tribal and clans and religious warfare so do we really need it here? In the United States of America? Really?
     My heart breaks with these thoughts. My mind shudders at the possible future we are laying out for ourselves and our kids. My body shakes at the thought of the bloodiness and eternity of a civil war. My eyes pour down tears at the loss of our country and what it has meant to humanity and what its possible loss might mean to the world.
     What else? Is this not enough? Where and when does it end? Or does it ever end? The only end, as I see it, is to dump Trump. Impeach and convict. Trash the rest of the backwards thinking demagogues that follow his nastiness. Impeach and recall. Do not reelect. Do something. But do it. November is fast upon us and August, primary month, is even sooner. Wake up, America. This is no longer the Native American crying at a trashed riverbank. It is the entire nation crying at a trashed country.