Revanche of America's Soul?

 

     The once resolute American nation needs a tune up and a new MO.

      In these last weeks we've been living a Shakespearean derangement, a hell scape, tossed between a twilight of madness and a dawn, where we have bet our hopes.

       Two Presidents of divergent character, different visions and from separate worlds.

        Peter Wehner, who worked for Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, say's Donald Trump's enduring legacy is "a nihilistic political culture, one that is tribalistic, distrustful and sometimes delusional, swimming in conspiracy theories."

         We are wounded, cut to our aspirational soul.

    In the previous post we explored the founding principle of this American republic, and how far we have strayed. 

    Now we examine how it is time for telling the truth. 

the truth liberates

    President elect Joe Biden is assembling a team of experienced, competent professionals. The levers and controls of government will be handled by people of substance and knowledge.

    President Donald Trump undermines the credibility of our very system, erodes confidence in America, and proliferates his destructive lies and conspiracy. He is a despot, out of time, trapped in a bunker, and determined to destroy everything around him.

deadly delays

    Biden has been denied access to critical defense and covid information. That is dangerous and un-American.

    The transition of power is being forced upon the swindler and his behavior these last weeks will mark his legacy. 

     America's future is the first priority of Joe Biden. Donald Trump's priority is, and always was, Donald Trump.

"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those 

who issue oppressive decrees, who deprive 

the poor of their rights and who withhold justice

from the oppressed."*

  truth and cowardice 

    What does it say about a political party and their members in the House and Senate when they are afraid of Trump? It is true they are cowards. They will not speak up for American ways. They placate a man who undermines the legitimacy of our government and seeks to overturn and invalidate the majority of US citizens. They are co-conspirators engaged in an attempt to violate us.

    We are in a war with authoritarianism. It is a rising tide.

    It will take time to fight authoritarianism. Our public knowledge base has been poisoned by unchecked deception. True believers have been brainwashed. 

    The healing required for this "experiment of a democratic republic" to survive, needs to begin immediately.

agitate against the algorithms 

     A good place to begin is on social media. It is a land of festering animosity, full of distortion, verbal war and invective.

    Individually we can avoid the trolling and comments. Division reigns there. Minds are not changed and it is fertile ground for those who seek to divide and destroy.

     As users we can demand more stringent protection against falsehoods and distortions. Imagine the impact if Facebook or Twitter users were to stage a strike, that is to stay off social media for a day, or a designated time. The algorithms would sleep and the tech billionaire overlords would see how ephemeral is their power to command data and sell it for fortunes. If no one is using the platform, it is worthless. 

    Want to end the hate and lies? Use your power as a user.  

arming with knowledge

    The path to a more tranquil America will require lots of public education.

    Knowledge of history, understanding how our system works, and simply demanding the truth will be a light that cleanses. 

            Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is 

bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the 

community. 

Andrew Carnegie

        Imagine how Koch, Bezos, Steyer, Bloomberg, and Soros money could fuel a dynamic social media, educational and entertainment blitz to awaken a distracted nation! 

    Old fashioned media taught us the danger of smoking, the wisdom of seatbelts, the folly of littering, the crime of child abuse.

     Over the last months I've been engaged in interviews with intelligence, national security, defense and diplomatic officials. While the US has been obsessed with the artful deception of flash and trash and shiny object distractions of an emotionally stunted and morally compromised would be dictator, fault lines have shifted and the world is more dangerous but we have not been paying attention.

    A major takeaway is the degradation of the US, in the eyes of the world, in leadership capacity, in the ability to be trusted and in the stability and credibility of our own belief in ourselves. 

    At this very minute, acting like a mob boss, Trump is bludgeoning a coalition of cultists from the House and a now perverted Republican claque in last stand efforts to defraud 240 years of principle and tradition.

    The nihilistic, tribal and delusional culture of the Trump reign of carnage is bound for the history books as a low point in US presidential behavior. But the people who bought into the lies, were brought to their seething anger, and hatred by his five year attempt to divide. Despite the facts, the truth, which they were told to deny, they believe Trump won. Still, they are no better off. Now they have become a shadow nation that believes in fantasy and fraud.

the "dangerous class"

     University of Texas professor Clyde Barrow is out with a new book that is getting deserved attention. The DANGEROUS CLASS is a take on what is called the Lumpenproletariat. 

    Barrow and other analysts say Trump was good at reaching them, promising them the sky. He has failed to deliver and those angry, hurting, discontented folks continue in their spiral. Since they do not read widely, do not view much more than Fox News propaganda or right wing media, they are stuck in a vortex of fantasy and anger. 

    These people need our help and understanding, as contemptible as they may appear when they begin their frequently camo and weapon bedecked rage, insane Q assertions or support of fraudulent Trump claims. 

    Barrow says the Lumpenproletariat are victims of an economy that passed them by. They are among the populace for which there are no jobs. Too many people, not enough work. At best they try to make it in a gig economy, hard work, low pay and no benefits. They see the rich get richer. They are the poor than gets poorer. They live day to day. They build resentment. That resentment was harnessed by Trump and directed toward others, those with education, people of different origin or race. They find themselves in league with racists, and the poorly educated in a movement of grievances. Anger is the outlet. Trump chums them, stirs their discontent and seems to offer them a way to fight back. Increasingly they are detached from the rest of the culture and they are a danger, to themselves and to everyone else. 

    The nation must find a way to feed them the truth. Strategies are needed to counter the lunacy of conspiracy theories Trump has fostered. 

    Joe Biden must find a way to reach them, to communicate his understanding of their plight, and to explain how they were used and abused.

   we are in this together

    

    As we look for a way back to a functioning nation it would be good to remember not all republicans have become lock stop members of the Trump party. Secretaries of state, and state officials around the nation have stood toe to toe with the Trump Gestapo. America matters more than loyalty to Trump.

    Some of the most bitter attacks on Trump have come from now former Republicans, who look to someday reclaim their party from insanity and cowardice.

    As citizens, all of us, even the Trump nation, worry about the grade drops and devaluation of education the pandemic has produced. We all have a better understanding of how important are teachers and professional educators.

    We are amazed by the vast advance in medical science and the historic research and break throughs that will impact all of our lives and well being. 

    We've begun to gain a new appreciation of friends, family and our church, or temple, or mosque. 

    We miss social contact, dinner parties, family gatherings, travel, theatre, movies, being able to hug or shake hands. 

    All Americans have been victims, even those poor sad souls who still deny the virus is real. They've been victimized twice.

    We've always had "flat-earthers," gullible,  ill informed and easily manipulated folks. Racists and haters have always been with us. It has been over a century since they had a leader. 

    We have to wonder that as this whiny, despicable, fraudster and liar no longer has power if some of those who supported him will not begin to see the truth and the light? Some, not all.

    As we watch an administration of professionals, veterans and competent people wrestle with the staggering issues before us, might we not settle into a level of confidence that will be undeniable to even the most strident?

    Seeing a President, act Presidential, with dignity and honor certainly must be a welcome change.  

    It will good for this nation to see the Republican party return to their traditional form, if they can. That will be a fight.

    What influence might Trump try to parlay? Or will he be enjoined by legal battles that will bury him?

    

   Despite what may come, the majority of this nation must commit to fight against the vestige of authoritarianism. 

    The Trump departure and the Biden arrival is important, but it is only the first step of reviving America's soul.

*   I would bet Joe Biden and a vast majority of his 81 million voters not only know the source of this passage, but believe it.

    I would bet Donald Trump does not. I can't think many of his supporters know or understand it.

    Stay well. Take care of each other.

    See you down the trail.

American Petulance

 

      Historic passages are fraught with peril even when intentions are honorable. American history is presently being cast in the shadow a mad tyrant and his coterie of cowards making pact with our enemies. It is a time of subversion and carnage.  

    understatement

       President-elect Joe Biden was understated when he called Trump's behavior "embarrassing."  However you describe it, it is also dangerous. 

    Several national security and military experts have emphasized periods of transition are high alert times anyway. Trumps decapitating of our intelligence, security and defense communities is irresponsible and in some minds, traitorous.

    His behavior remains unAmerican as he continues to defy norms and intentionally seeks to undermine citizen's trust. He has no respect for the traditions that have given this diverse and rancorous nation a sense of center and cohesion.

    This is the first transition in 220 years that has not been honorable. He is the first president not to concede. That should tell everyone he is exactly what was said of him in 2015; Unfit, unqualified and lacking character. Now the loser is like a petulant punk and so, he is bent on destruction.  Sadly he has allies.                    

republican extinction

    Honor and decency have fled the Republican party and today it is nothing more than a gaggle of spineless accomplices. That is bad for the nation, destructive of the party of Lincoln and ever more a brownshirt and nazi like cult. 

    I take no pride in warning here 4 years ago we were witnessing the rise of an authoritarian regime, a slow moving coup borrowing from how the nazi's brainwashed a German nation. Others saw it as well. 

    It is important to know history and to pay close attention to the complexity of governance and to watch social norms. As a nation we have failed on this last point. Some of us were chastised for our take down of Donald Trump and the refusal of Republicans, those in office and those of rank and history, to call out the man who cares only for himself.

    Senate leader McConnell was technically correct in saying there are "options available" to the president, but there was no truth in the Trump allegations and McConnell knows that and he could see the American public soundly rejected Trump.

    McConnell is a hollow soul, there is only duplicity, greed, and a sycophant's cancerous black hole where there should be a heart. Honor and decency would be like a silver stake. He is a jackal in human form and a racist to boot.

    Bill Barr has so anguished Department of Justice professionals, past and present as to give rise to a sentiment that drawing and quartering would be an apt sentence for this delusional behemoth in horn rims. He is Trump's personal beast of burden as they lumber and hulk their way on a path of shame as they rape and bludgeon lady liberty and try to steal America.

where is courage

    How many times in the last couple of years have you heard someone ask, "what is wrong with the Republicans?"  I have wondered why some in the senate, traditionalists, have not yelled "enough is enough!"

    Trump took over and now rules the republican party. Politicians fear him. They worry he will sick his frenzied cult following on them by supporting an opponent, cutting off their life support to stand next to the till as Trump Inc. plunders public money, gives it to wealthy friends and to himself, destroys American credibility, rips apart our nation, plays the Russian stooge and dances with the devil.

    I've been reminded I should be about reconciliation and lowering the volume, but just in case no one sees what's happening here, I cannot hold my tongue. At least this leaves a record to surf algorithms for my grand kids. 

    I understand there are philosophical, political, and analytical differences. I get that people have their favorites and reasons for liking or disliking candidates. There is so much poison in the political system it is a challenge to navigate the truth, and facts. 

    Trump does not respect truth and is ignorant of many, many facts. So, regardless of your "politics," if you were one of the 70 some million who voted for him, you have ignored the truth and are ignorant of glaringly public facts. You may not like the other candidates or the other party, or their sense of things, but at least they are in touch with reality. You cannot make that claim of Donald Trump. To ignore all that he has done and all that he is doing now would have made you a good candidate to have been one of the supporters of the Nazi and fascist movement in the last century. You are how history goes so dark, and how human decency and logic is overwhelmed by madness and ignorance and grievance. 

    By the way the tax fraud who pretended to be an executive, the liar who bullied his way into leadership of the Republican party, the sexual predator who blundered this nation into ripping apart at the seams getting sick by the millions, and making the world unsafe by playing with dictators, lost the election. And you know what else, he will soon owe Russian mobsters and others some hundreds of millions in loans due, because he's the guy wrote "the art of the deal."

     Oh and there are several jurisdictions who have some legal questions to ask him. So, please for own sanity say to "the Donald," you're fired! The rest of us have. We have to live together and jointly should send Trump to the ash pile of ignominy. 

     Stay safe. Stay vigilant.

     See you down the trail.

    

    

FRAUD RELIGION and LOOK AT DAVOS

    Balloons have lifted my spirit since I was a kid. They add cheer to anywhere, including an alley.

        Even the shadows are playful and teasing,

      and something to chase.

where a shadow haunts

Photo by Fabrice Coffrini Agency France-Presse

    The World Economic Summit has commenced again in Davos. 
    60 World leaders, countless corporate and business chieftains, academics and theoreticians gather each year to plumb the world's economy. This year there is more security than ever.

     Terror is a threat, in the form of armed zealots, but nature has done her part as well. A record 6 feet of snow has fallen. It is as though the planet's climate is demanding a place on the agenda.

Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller European Press Photo Agency

        There is also the growing terror of people dislocated by economics, war and disaster. There may have never been more refugees in history and more are likely. There may never have been a wider gap between the haves and the have-nots. The number of wealthy remains small-most of the rest of the world's population faces more struggle. A storm of another kind is brewing.

Photo by Fabrice Coffrini Agency France Presse

they wait for the rupture

    I attempt to avoid religion in these posts. A person's beliefs are their business, a most intimate and personal piece of being human. I think we should afford respect, but today I must speak.

     In the last couple of days two major news organizations have explored the support for donald trump by evangelical Christian groups, mostly right wing. There have been other pieces over the last year, but his recent profanity burst and the leak of his paying hush money to a porn star to be silent about their relationship prompted a new examination.

     They still back the vulgarian. That very support gives their brand of faith a black eye and a crushed credibility. 
     Trump is a liar, a swindler, a serial adulterer, an apparent racist, a sexual predator, a bully, worships money and is by most evidence stupid but conceited. All of that but the stupid makes him an ideal target for the evangelicals to capture- to change his heart, to convert him, to make him a better human being. But there is nothing in that to cause them to step away from the faith of Jesus to back  trump. They must have forgotten that Jesus was a radical rabbi who's rare display of anger was to turn over tables and toss out the swindlers. He spoke of eschewing all of the things that trump worships and does and how he lives and how he behaves.

    Can you imagine trump laying down his life for his followers, or living as a wandering vagrant, urging his followers to give what they have to less advantaged, or to decry violence, to be a peace maker, loving all, even those who are handicapped, or from Haiti, or Mexico, or Syria, etc, etc, etc.?

   So how do you justify going from a devotion to a Christ to a devotion to a trump? How? How in the hell do you do that? Ah, there is that!

      From my understanding of Jesus he would probably be the first to forgive trump and the first to try to bring him into the fold, but also the first to recognize the wrong or evil and perversion of the man's life and his devotion to himself. 
      Someone who purports to be a person with a genuine faith and who uses articles of that faith to support trump is, in my opinion, not to be trusted on matters of faith. Same for those who ignore trumps perversity of character.

      I knew Billy Graham and even worked with him and his senior staff over the course of a couple of years. I was leery of evangelists, but Graham was sincere and devoted to preaching. I came to a new understanding of Graham, his role and impact. Something that he wrote and spoke of is how he had been emotionally and spiritually swindled by Richard Nixon, with whom he had a close relationship. As someone pointed out recently he never got over how he was "snookered" by Nixon.  It would behoove his son Franklin and other evangelicals who somehow find a way to support the behavior and action of trump to learn the Billy Graham lesson. 

     To those who say they are evangelical Christians and who support trump-would you want to spend eternity with him? Not that you have anything to say about that.

     One year of him in the White House has been a kind of hell for the majority of US citizens and others around the globe. Try to save him if you wish, pray for him, but to take a pulpit or a public forum and endorse him or his actions makes you a phony and a fraud, just like trump. Your faith is more important than just another one of us mere mortals with feet of clay. To support trump or to ignore his perversity is to make a mockery of what you say you believe.
      And a reminder to me and everyone else, the founders were right with this idea of separation of church and state.

     And on that note, God bless you and God bless America, please! In fact, God bless this whole planet.

     See you down the trail.