GAME TIME?

  There are a limited number of timeouts allowed in a game. That is the rule, and it is followed. No debates. Just is. Thus, the question arises as to what happened to the rules of discourse, of governance, of responsibility, of owed loyalty to one's country and to history. We have lost all that, flushed it down the toilet of today's politics, a sewer growing by leaps and bounds. Is it not time to call this game on account of rule breaking beyond repair or acceptance? Where are the referees - or are they an extinct species?

Calling the true violations of the game requires bravery and adherence to the truth. It requires a strength of character which seems to be glaringly absent among the so-called leaders of the day; in fact, they might actually be playing for the other team even as they represent themselves as team members of ours. They are not. In fact, they are probably the largest collection of manifestly dangerous threats to democracy within this country and indeed the world at large. Worse, we have enabled this state of being and will reap the tears that follow unless we act, unless we show, act, upon the belief that this game must be called. Time has run out. Righteous penalties have been ignored, or discarded, consequences of rule breaking missing, empowering others to follow the same dirty trail. That sewer line leads directly to where we stand, ever deeper in the muck and filth, until .... when?

Actually, the when is ... now. Like it or not, the facts are the facts. Ignoring them, playing blind and deaf to them does not change the status and its imminent open appearance in the face of politics today. In truth, it really is already here.

How, you ask? When, you ask? Look around. We underwent the awful divisive presidency of Trump, a man who is now being called out by a judge that “it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired t obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”     Yet here he is, still considered a leader. Outrageous!!! A leader of what? A leader in the decision to take down this country from the inside, to delude enough people into believing that the Kool-Aid remains pure, not harmful at all - and they drink, hearty quaffs of it, enabling the poison to remain a constant in their minds, brains and souls. They believe the lies, the distortions of truth, the facts that are being exhumed, uncovered from the muck in which they were buried, to avoid disclosure of the facts, of the very imminent danger they were, and most importantly, remain, to the integrity of this nation.

Instead of facing reality head-on we attempt to fool ourselves. Even as the evidence mounts. Two openly Fascist members of the GOP were told, belatedly, that they should not have spoken nor joined a white power extremist conference. I kid you not. It amounted to a tsk, tsk, of little value even as they were told that should the GOP win control of the House, well, they are in like Flynn. However, when yet another creep of the GOP stands up and for some unknown reason, perhaps the foolish braying and boasting of the immature asses to be found within the present-day perversion of Lincoln's Republican party, speaks out about corrupt, dissolute members of this twisted sister of a Party - he is called out. Why the difference? In my opinion, because while the second is most probably true, the party members do not like being called out for that. However, the first indiscretions merely reveal the truth a tad too early; hence the damage is not too severe. Many of 'the base' actually are supportive of that extremist  group in the first place!

We are in a bad way here in this country of ours, embattled, conflicted, whether we openly acknowledge it or not. Call it by whatever term you wish - autocracy vs. democracy, good vs. evil, party vs. party, it does not make a whit of difference to the facts and the consequences dependent upon our behavior, the depth of our belief in this country and what it represents. Do we support a man and his followers, many of whom now admit their 'sins', allow him influential voice within his terrified party, or do we finally stand up and out and call out the true nakedness of this man, bare his soul to the light of day, deny the growing power of the darkness that is falling upon us? A dangerous darkness which we have enabled, even ignored, much to our detriment.

Supposed college break students are arrested and 75 firearms are confiscated. An almost 8-hour gap in the records of Trump's Jan. 6 day. Smell the rot yet, the conspiracy of attempted silence, the effort to continue to hide the truth?  Or wholeheartedly buy into its philosophy? 18 minutes of Nixon are nothing in comparison, yet we allow Jan. 6 to go mostly unaccounted for. 

We are told that "everyone's waiting for Putin to die". While that might be true, waiting is not the name of the game here. The people of Russia whom we are told "are not Putin" must take responsibility, admit the truth. They have sacrificed all in the name of the wealth and power game, fallen prey to the greed within, enabling this man, in 20 years, to consolidate his power and immerse them in a most violent, murderous, criminal war. Again and again. Russia will reap the just desserts, we hope, though  cold comfort that is to Ukraine  mourning its dead, including hundreds of children, the pulverization of its entire stock of structures, the devastation and  destruction rained upon its civilians, their abodes and places of work. A violation of every code and yet, consequences of any meaningful result? Doubtful at this point. 

Even as we hear people state that he has 'lost' the war, a manifestly ridiculous statement. He is there, killing his enemies, highlighting the weaknesses and fears of a supposedly united opposition, content to allow the blood to flow in Ukraine, for it is not theirs. He is solidifying his devouring of yet two more regions of Ukraine, not content with the theft of Crimea, or the dissolution of Chechnya, nor the helpings he took from Georgia and Moldova. Nor will he stop and why would he? In fact, he has won. At what cost? He does not care a whit. And in his book - why should he?

How do we delineate clearly what we are facing? Simply look at the list of those nations who refused or abstained to confirm the UN's resolution against Russia.  "North Korea, Eritrea, Syria, Russia and Russia’s close ally Belarus.

Among the nations that abstained were Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, and China." Not that it caried any true weight, but the value statement implicit within was rejected by states who themselves need condemnation for their own egregious violations against the people of their own nations, in fact anyone who gets in their way. They could care less. The same with Russia. No change in sight.

I believe game time is over, for quite some time already. We need to understand that and what it means to us and our descendants, to our country and its future. We need to, but will we? I begin to despair more than hope. Not a healthy situation for all of us. The sooner we recognize the impossibility of standing by and staying neutral in this conflict, the better we will be. Truth is harsh at times but that does not excuse ignoring it, refusing to address it. The game is in overtime, the pressure is on. This is a game for keeps, not to be 'refought' the next weekend afternoon. In fact, the weekend is almost at a close. Perhaps this blog today might have been better named 'Beat the Clock'. 

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