WHERE ARE WE?

      Knowing where one is on the map is an important part of knowing and getting to where one wants to go. However, we must also remember that too many people do not rely on advice and direction and/or choose the wrong destinations and end up where they should not be. Worse, they often take along others who do not know better or who should know better. And then we have the deniers of the obvious, shivering in their bathing suits as they pass the sign to Arctic Circle, claiming the signs are the wrong ones here, not them. Fake sign! Denial of reality.

Worse for the world, for us here in America, is the strained efforts of those who voted for Trump to continue to support him, even unto today, days after he incited an insurrection, days after he openly became the first president ever to turn traitor to the country and its people, riling up those under his evil spell, and actively take part in trying to manage a coup, to overthrow the democratic aspects of this country. Not so much anymore, America the Beautiful. Nope. There was too much ugliness underneath the ever thinning out ground cover.

The pen is mightier than the sword. How often has that adage been promulgated. That included the power of words, the unfathomable attraction that people have to the Big Lie, a philosophy which actively makes use of repetition and exaggeration of untruths, to the point where they totally displace the truth, as if it never had existed. The words of these lies are used by dictators and would be dictators around the world, and none today are better at it than Trump and his adherents. But he has been caught up in the nest of his own dastardly words and deeds, hoist by his own petard, but, a major but - is it too late for any repair work, any work that can return this nation to the one nation, one country, it is supposed to be. We need new directions and maps.

In the midst of a major pandemic, in the midst of perhaps a Great Great Depression, we are headed by the most incompetent and uncaring administration ever. Worse than Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Johnson, Harding, this administration has most egregiously been the most incompetent, uncaring, corrupt and corrupting one ever in our history, particularly when the president himself clings to enemies , alienates allies, and could care less re the harm he has done and fostered, not only in the present, but unfortunately, will persist into the future. A bitter future at that.

So who caused this? Who allowed this to happen? Who were the blind that could perhaps now at least glimpse the truth? And who are those that continue to enable this man described as a dangerous psychopath, a megalomaniac, bizarre, and out of his mind. More so than any other president in our history, there is genuine concern that during the next week and a half this man could, in his madness, destroy the world - literally, with the power of his thumb and office and , as the vernacular goes, 'push the button'. Ashes to ashes.

Many are now looking backwards and wondering how and why they ever supported this man? How did they not see the truth? Or did they and proceed anyway? Good for this, or good for that, and never mind his weirdness. He is just different, we were told, a fresh breeze. So is the wind that results from a firestorm or a nuclear blast, and neither of those winds are helpful and neither was his "freshness". Continuing to defend him and his sniveling enablers, they watched, confirmed their choices though they knew the truth in their hearts, perhaps too proud to admit his nakedness, reassured by the actions of irresponsible legislators, and the unbelievable conspiracy he and his planned, carried out, defended, caused the death of four, the destruction of the confidence of a country, raised its fear factor beyond description or end, and even interfered with the everyday life of people and this country as they endangered planes in flight.

This was not spontaneous. This was not a sudden push via his words, though they for sure played a major role in the growth and use of violence during the insurrection - which is not over yet. They came loaded for bear, the country being the bear. The cubs - the legislators who still had some sense within their heads. Arms and ammunition were found on the insurrectionists, in their cars, megaphones and plans, allies in the building to open doors to allow them in,  orderly transfers of people for fresh might to push open doors, to crush a doing his job Capital Police, to underestimate the number of security personnel needed on hand, the slowness of response, the viciousness, the noose hanging in the chamber, the threats to all who did not adhere to their version, Trump's version, of the right thing to do - even to chanting "Death to Mike Pence" - ain't that a twist! Now it is known that they plan further disruptions this coming weekend and a major attack on Inauguration Day. Armed even more. Tempers raised to the burning point, to the point of implosion, the destruction of our country.

Time to wake up, to shoulder and accept the blame where it belongs, to plan for our survival and better future than our present. Now that Congress is going to hear the stories of UFOs and other such formerly classified data, perhaps we will find that he is indeed an alien. Hmmm....that would explain a lot!! That orange skin. That weird hair. The inability to read or write or spell or punctuate or make sense. The inability to use his supposed mother tongue, English. Hmmmm. Stranger things....

Seriously, though, there are and were many forces and factors here, but certainly one of the biggest was the bad, oh so bad, choice of too many, though not the majority, to support this guy, to back him up as he began his four year meltdown, refuse to admit their error in all that. Even today for some. Even as they support a man and his ilk, people who wear shirts reading Camp Auschwitz. People who carry the Confederate Flag, another time when there was a rebellion, a civil war, and much of it fought over slavery. Is that what we are supposed to wish to return to, to live again?

As for myself, I refuse to accept guilt. I have fought against this man from the beginning. For four years I have railed against him on my blog, (Estherblogspot.blogspot.com) almost daily, even worse, predicting what would happen, even unto the blood in the streets. Told I was too extreme, told I was exaggerating the dangers, but unfortunately I was proven correct. Wish I were not. But it was out there for all to see, a logical and obvious plan. Too many simply refused to see the truth, dressed him in clothing not truly there. Now they wonder? Now they worry? Well so they should but where are they now? Have they truly woken up? Have they accepted their enabling roles, their willful blindness and deafness, their intellectual shutdowns? I have not too much hope, for people are too prideful, too unwilling to admit error, particularly when that error was HUGE!

Told you so does not make me happy, only even more worried ad concerned. I love America, proud to live here, to be a citizen of the best country in the world and yet.... where is that America, my America? Please answer me if you can find it. I do ask for directions, willing to accept logical and good ones, ones that take the correct roads, avoid going off the shoulders, the ones that get us to where we need to go and be. Our proper stance and role in the life and preservation of this country and the world.