Damn straight, you shouldn't be. Surprised? Why? For a decade or more, I, and quite a number of people have been spitting into the wind, throwing words of warning into the air, hoping that somebody somewhere out there will actually catch them and understand the fraught with danger situation that has now evolved into an actual time of grave and great danger to the world. No, not only us, nor the Venezuelans, for now he has gone and done it, hasn't he! And it only foretells of more and much worse to come.
A nation of people sorely dissatisfied with their lives. Who blamed everyone and everything else other than themselves. Who refused to see their own faults. Who denied the consequences of their eminently incorrect foolish decisions and behavior. We grew selfish. We purchased the stocks of denial.
Unfortunately, the people that we, the public, put into office, were. are, just as bad as the electorate. Perhaps even worse. Yes, worse. They stole the keys to the kingdom and turned it into the plaything of others, of those who screamed and threatened the loudest, who frightened people into blindness, deafness and denial of truth. Who drained our treasury even as they filled their own pockets and bribed their constituents with useless projects even as important topics were left unaddressed, worse off than they were before.
The world stood back agape. How could the most important nation of this world, its defender, it's haven. How could this have happened to it? Why? Why did the nation cooperate with the worst voices of the nation. To take America down eminently wrong paths which denied our soul. Paths which denied our history. Path which denied all that we held sacred and worthy of sharing with all the nations, all the inhabitants of the world.
Americans ceded their authority, muted their voices, turned off their functioning brains, and insured our downward path by the placing of incompetent, selfish, ignorant people into offices of power. The result? There, before your eyes. Look outside. Pick up a paper. Boot up the computer. Turn on the TV. There are the results. The infamy of our recent past.
Is this what America means now? Is this to be our default standing and outlooks? Are these to be the defined lines of what we will stand for? Or back down from? Is this what it means to deny our souls. To deny all that America is, that Americans are supposed to be and act and speak accordingly? Have we lost our own selves, our souls? All that we held dear as Americans, as America, a nation to be spoken about with pride and admiration? A country which maintained its underpinnings, its ethics, its welcome extended to all who needed the security of this nation, who only wished to become Americans, to build and contribute - as did our parents and grandparents and ourselves.
We then took what I hope are not to be our final steps as a democratic nation setting an example to the world. We now, whether we like to admit it or not, have become almost an anathema to the world's nations. We have lost our way. We are, at an ever-quicker pace, crazed, maniacal, denying our history. That which has become us. And in so doing, are we indeed burning the bridges behind us?
Our President, G-d help us, pals around with other dictators. Or rather, the ones he likes. The ones he does not like, well, he merely invades their nation. Disregards rules of warfare. And worse is to come. Zelensky had it right. He stated upon hearing of our invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of Maduro, that basically, if Trump knows what to do with that dictator, he knows what to do with other dictators. He, of course, was referring to Putin.
Not wrong, but are we now on track to invade all nations led by dictators? Or at least the ones that Trump does not like? Who did not bow to his every demand and threat? Is this where we are now to expend the lifeblood of so many men and women? Incidentally, according to whom shall this invasion list be drawn?
According to a man and his sycophants, his baa, baa, black sheep who follow him down into the dungeons of hate and madness? A man who has drawn up a hit list of his enemies. and has instructed his functionaries to basically destroy them by any means possible? A man who has twisted and distorted this nation so, as he uses all departments to attack them, to deny them, even as he is dismantling the structure and independence of these organs of government, driven opponents on the political playing field off, with damages unable to be healed.
A man who intends for his family and followers to become the de facto rulers and arbiters of this nation and its fate. His undignified low life destruction even of physical components of this nation and its very being, have shocked and dismayed many, but then again, who gave him that orb and scepter that he has grown and reinforced?
This would be the time to look in the mirror and see the truth. And acknowledge it. Know that we must act upon it. We must convince those with the legal authority to remove him from office. Along with all who follow in his footsteps. To do otherwise is to shatter this nation. We have an uphill battle or a swim against the currents if we are to have any possibility of returning to what we should be, to what we have striven to be within our history.
Certainly not perfect. But always trying and willing to go back and fix that which we have done wrong.
Where the hell are we now?
How did we actually fall so far?
Can we climb back?
Do we have the willpower to do so?
We are now within a scarce touch away from losing, no, ceding, giving, this nation over to a man most unfit for office. A man who has gone egregiously way beyond the pale. A man, a coward, a bully, who plays with his 'toy' soldiers because he was not brave enough to be one when his country called for him. and used his father's money and influence to avoid it. A man whose very presence in the Oval Office is a travesty of all that is right and just in this world. Even as the right, the power. the authority to 'de office' him stands cowed and unable to move in the face of his threats of retribution.
But the question arises. Why have we reached this point? Have we not learned anything from the past? Do we actually need more war? Are we to shame ourselves in the face of history of the past? Of that to come? And that in which we live? No more guns and better guns and even better ones. No more incompetents and criminals in office. No more amoral, and immoral in office. We must take up our responsibilities to history and get it right.
I leave you with three meaningful quotations.
Read them. Think on them.
" .... Presidency Is Unleashed. A power-hungry president had twisted the government into a tool for his personal political benefit."(Mattheew Purdy, News Analysis, NYT, Jan.4, 2020.)
"Jan. 6 Was Just The Start. ...Years after the Capital riot, lawlessness has triumphed." (Editorial Board., Editorial. NYT. January 4th, 2020.)
" The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it." (Thomas Paine. Rights of Man. Revolutionary America.)
Well, folks, have I not said so lo these many a year?
Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow.
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