United States of America – Where Are We?

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If you scan social media like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok you’ll encounter a seemingly endless feed of meme’s and videos spewing hatred or content aimed at Donald Trump or any number of his cabinet members and right-leaning congressmen/women. I know I’ve personally shared many of them rather than write more of the same thing. After all, my voice and input isn’t going to add anything new to the narrative or become the magic pill that effects change.

But here’s the thing that puzzles me about that. Given the steadily increasing amount of vitriol, one might think that in the aggregate, the senators and representatives in Congress would have taken the measure of it all and dealt with the Trump administration by dismantling it. But that hasn’t happened. Yes, some Federal Judges temporarily put a stop to his schemes, but the truly damaging aspects of his actions: the war in Iran, the insane tariffs, the defunding of programs that are actually hurting people, and his undeniably inane propaganda continue unchecked. Of course, the King Kong sized gorilla in the room – the Epstein Files – is still there despite MAGA’s attempts to foment diversions.

Bill Clinton was subjected to impeachment hearings stemming from having had an illicit affair. Richard Nixon faced the same thanks to Watergate and only escaped an ignominious exit due to his resignation and ultimate pardon by Gerald Ford. Put both of those things on one side of the scales of justice and the deeds of Trump on the other. The latter would create a resounding thud as it hit the floor. What does that tell you about where we stand as a country?

Republican lawmakers have clearly demonstrated bold-faced cowardice in allowing our country to spiral out of control, reducing our stature on the world stage from the leading nation of the free world to a circus staffed by evil-minded clowns. The math doesn’t quite add up either. According to estimates posted by the University of Florida, as of 2024, there were roughly 224.7  million eligible voters in the United States. Trump received 77.3 million votes and Kamala Harris 75 million. That leaves 72.4 million voters who remained silent in the last presidential election. It’s interesting to consider the direction the election might have taken had that missing element actually voiced their opinion. If you believe in the goodness of the American people, you’d have to think that within that body of non-voters, the result would have skewed in favor of Harris. To think the opposite would be to realize that as a country, we’ve stepped onto a very dark path.

Republican Senators hold 53 of the 100 seats, and Republican Congressmen hold 218 of the 435 – those are not overwhelming imbalances. If even a small number of people angry with the way the Trump administration is operating made the time and effort to prevail upon their elected Republican officials then it’s possible to think something proactive might have taken place since January 2025. This has not happened, and all I hear now is “let’s see what happens with the mid-terms.” If, after November, the balance changes in favor of the Democratic party and still nothing changes, then I’d say it’s case closed for the United States.

As for how we’re operating now, you have to think MAGA adherents are the driving force of our political machinery. If you took the number of non-voters and distributed them evenly between Republican and Democrat you could still say the total MAGA population would constitute less than 50% of the party. After all, it’s safe to say that every MAGA is a Republican, but not every Republican is MAGA, which means the tail is wagging the dog.

I hate to think our future is bleak. If the Republicans somehow manage to maintain their strangle hold on American politics and foreign relations, then we face being sucked into a black hole. If the Democrats regain control, it will take years if not decades to rebuild what’s been dismantled or destroyed and to restore our credibility with our allies and trading partners.

Doing a deeper dive into the 2024 election’s non-voters, statistics posted by Pew Research show that 30% of the non-voters or 21.6 million people were aged from 18 to 29, mostly Gen Z youths who remained silent. The next 26 million comprised the tail end of Gen X but mostly Millennials. About half of non-voters were white, from lower income families with only a high school education or less. In fact, 23 of the 31 states Trump carried rank in the lowest half of the most and least educated states. Only two of the lower half states voted for Harris. It’s not hard to understand how the Trump administration’s colossally successful propaganda campaigns have taken root. Something not really seen since Hitler’s 1930s rise to power with Joseph Goebbels leading the way. I’m not suggesting that people with less education are stupid – that’s not measured by what degree you have, but less education will result in the likelihood of not grasping the finer points of a situation and be more easily convinced by targeted rhetoric and outright lies. Say a lie often enough and less educated people will start to believe it as truth.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, the mid-terms are around the corner. If you were one of the voters who failed to turn out – DON’T DO THAT AGAIN! If you think America will somehow survive as the country you grew up enjoying, then you’re ignoring how it can just as easily go the other way. Take a look at past empires: The Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire, The Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, and Tsarist Russia, all once formidable and now gone.

It’s time to wake up. Tik tock…

Civil War and the Permanent Loss of International Standing

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I have spoken against Trump beginning the day after his decision to run for President. January 6, 2021 was the defining moment that crystalized my words of caution and derision since that time. If nothing else, the storming of the Capitol was a clear indication that while there has been no formal secession of states or two armies facing one another across a battlefield, we are none the less in the midst of a Civil War. While it may be ideological yet, make no mistake that is where we are. Is it a stretch to consider the danger of armed conflict being far behind? Consider the FBI alert warning that all fifty state capitols are possibly the target of invasion starting next week. Weapons, pipe bombs, and Molotov Cocktails were present during the Siege in Washington D.C. and multiple fatalities resulted.

If one accepts the notion that to attain the rank of a Congressional Representative or Senator requires even a modicum of intelligence, it becomes all the more difficult to understand how a significant number of Republicans in the House and several in the Senate can justifiably yield to the rhetoric of a madman. Yet, that has happened consistently for years.

In the early morning hours after Election Day in 2016, as an evil man became the next leader-to-be of the free world, the weight of the longer-term problem pressed home; it was the knowledge that seventy million Americans made that possible. Trump would go away one day, but they would not. They became an army populated by people with an agenda, anxious to operate outside the boundaries of decency and law, fueled by racist upbringing, ineffective education, and a willful disregard for truth and reason. While some simply voted along party lines, many more, spellbound by the lies that fueled their immoral beliefs rushed at the chance to do what no other candidate ever offered – a license to be an outspoken and active supremacist.

Where do we go from here? The definition in the Federal Code for treason is this:

“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”

To apply this definition to the insurrectionists, to Giuliani, Donald Trump, Jr., Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Trump himself would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, I am having trouble believing there is sufficient intestinal fortitude to carry the day on that front, especially from the standpoint of fear. Legislators are seeing evidence of becoming targets. Crowds threatened Lindsay Graham at the airport and rioters called to have Pence hung. It sheds light on the commitment to overrun the government. January 6th was a Fort Sumter event. Today, the military is installed at the Capitol for the first time since the actual Civil War. There is no reason to suspect that once Trump is out of office, things will go back to normal. Pandora’s Box has been opened; the true nature of nearly half the country is fully revealed.

On the international front, our enemies: Russia, China, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran are hunkering down in ecstasy that the foundation of the United States is crumbling. If nothing else, it will embolden them to strike while the window of opportunity exists. Our allies are assuredly holding hands to their foreheads that the dependability of our support is seriously compromised. Even with Biden’s return to normalcy, effective repair to the damage done will take a decade or more.

Thomas Paine once said, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” It was to suggest that real Patriots – the ones who put faith in an America that stood for all, free of tyranny and not the pseudo-patriots Trump calls his own – would have the fortitude to remain true to their beliefs. It is the only hope we have, that over time, the extremists will crawl back under their rotting tree stumps like the maggots they are. We need to hold firm to the convictions that made America stand out and become the land of opportunity for a world full of people desperate to escape untenable lives. We need to stand up and continue to speak out against the bullies who lack the understanding of that which they hasten to destroy.

This is the time for the real MAGA to come forth. With Biden and Harris leading the way, we need to Make America Great Again.

Harry Potter: Is It Time To Disapparate?

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As many who share a love of all things Harry Potter, I have been following the backlash toward JK Rowling over her recent twitter posts. Last night, I caught an article in Marie Claire written by Kathleen Walsh. To be honest, it hit hard especially in relation to a blog post I just published dealing with my take on current affairs. Unfortunately, whatever I write will disappear into the void of a blog-post black hole; I don’t have anything resembling the bandwidth Walsh will enjoy by publishing in Marie Claire.

The last statement of her first paragraph ends with: “We must end our Harry Potter fantasy now.” I didn’t care for the tone as I’m not one to be told what I must do, but because I’m invested in the discussion, I waded through the wordy article and then the referenced JK Rowling essay. I’m sensitive to transgender issues, I wrote a post five years ago after research and interviews on the subject. It’s a complicated matter. The shades of existence between traditional male and female standards aren’t the straightforward colors of a Pride flag, but more like a Jackson Pollack painting – the permutations seem infinite.

The problem is not everyone “gets” it. Just like Black Lives Matter, how many people respond with a dismissive All Lives Matter retort? People older than millennials generally grew up without a clear understanding of LGBTQ issues. How often do you still hear gayness is a choice? If they aren’t even capable of accepting how someone can be gay or lesbian, how are they going to absorb transgenderism with all the new acronyms, pronoun assignments, and the multitude of sexual preferences?

As with racial concerns, transgender issues require education. We need more people to believe, like the sign in the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests said: I understand I don’t understand, but I stand with you. Instead of encouraging this, we witness name-calling and character assassination. As I said in my post, argumentation is now performed from the platform of absolutes. If you say one thing counter to the paradigm someone subscribes to, you’re branded a person to be shunned, ignored, and trashed, destined to be a societal pariah. We have many who deserve that moniker: Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, David Duke – people who clearly exhibit fundamental evil. I cannot, and will not, label essentially good people with similar epitaphs.

JK Rowling was wrong in her assessment, but to consider wholesale verbal flogging and boycotting is the opposite extreme. People are now scrutinizing every sentence of all seven books picking any piece of evidence to support the notion Rowling is transphobic and racist. I will say this: there is not one author or one book ever published capable of withstanding the application of everyone’s personal agenda. Instead of accepting the good Rowling has done and continues to do while giving her the opportunity to enrich her education on the subject of transgenderism, we see vultures circling, anxious to devour the flesh of one of the much-loved authors of our time.

My own path to acceptance and to the degree I understand homosexuality, transgenderism, and race was a difficult one. In some cases, it resulted in a 180-degree reversal of thinking and feeling, but I got here, and I’m still learning. I am not a religious person, but for one rare occasion, I will quote the Bible: let s/he who is without sin cast the first stone.

As for Harry Potter – the books and the movies – will I end the fantasy? No, not now, not ever.