Category Archives: Uncategorized Rants

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.

How do you feel?

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Be

 

Four words, a construct of social interplay designed to initiate an exchange between two people. It’s up there with Good morning, How’s it going, and Hey there. It’s a question asked and a question answered with equally uninformative phrases like: Doing good, not bad, or I’m okay. Many add the required: how about you, for which round two concludes in the same innocuous manner.

Such lackluster exchanges point to a deficiency in emphasis and genuineness. As a whole, we’re good at the former and not so much the latter. How do you feel? If you stop to consider the question, it’s not a greeting, but an invitation. If you apply emphasis on the last word, how do you FEEL, the asker is being genuine, as if they really want to know. It’s then incumbent on the askee to be honest. That’s usually where the bond crumbles. How often do you pose the question, just to break the ice in greeting, really hoping that you get one of the standard answers from the list? After all, who wants to be the recipient of someone capable of grabbing your ear for an hour on the subject? How often do you avoid the answer because you simply believe the other person is just being polite, or you don’t feel comfortable bearing your soul, or you simply haven’t taken inventory of the real answers? You could ask yourself the question to step away from being two-dimensional, but let’s face it; we’re not really adept at being honest with ourselves either.

There’s a reason therapists belabor their patients with this question. Feelings, something that humans try to usurp as being one of the hallmarks that set our species apart (a blatant fallacy) are what drive us. A feeling is the steering wheel that turns us in the direction of action. I suspect many of our actions derive from a superficial sense of feelings we haven’t adequately analyzed, for if we did, would we truly be racist, or homophobic, or hateful? How can we expect the world to behave better if we individually act from a perspective of inattentiveness to our own feelings? Feeling is the one tool that drives empathy, and empathy breeds tolerance and acceptance. To ignore feeling opens a channel to destruction and hate. If Omar Mateen had stopped to consider the intrinsic value of seeing two men kissing, that the simple expression of love was of far more worth than hate and murder, he would have been able to override the nonsensical and bombastic canon all religions foist on their followers and seen the truth of that moment. He would never have pulled the trigger.

We’ve become too used to spouting words devoid of genuineness. The other morning, watching news coverage on the Pulse Nightclub shootings, the anchor opened the stage to a local journalist on the scene. As the line of communications opened, the journalist began by saying, “Good Morning”. My only thought was, no, it’s really not. The journalist wasn’t trying to be insensitive; he was using a salutation that was simply polite, even though it was horribly inappropriate to the moment. It speaks to the notion that we do so many things by rote.

The element of global danger is escalating at the speed of sound. Many hear the nauseating rhetoric of Donald Trump (the man who would set our society firmly on a path to the dark ages) and react to his hateful invective because on the surface he offers a solution to the issues that strike at the heart of what angers us. He garners support on the principal of mob mentality. The polls suggest an uncomfortably titanic number of people are stupid enough to fall for it. News reports of death and devastation abound everywhere; the United States is not the only target and is frequently the aggressor of the same destruction we rally against. We emphasize our thoughts and reactions from the standpoint of anger and hatred, but fail to infuse our thinking with intelligence. We employ the inelegant methods of a club-wielding troll. We do need to act. We do need to consider how best to dial back the ability of those who seek to do harm. We do need to change the way the country operates. Politicians are, for the most part, useless individuals at best, malcontent enablers at worst. They refuse to act on issues based on truth, honesty, and necessity; instead, they tout party lines, willfully ignorant – to our detriment. Most frightening to consider is that our elected officials lack the essential aptitude needed to deepen the quality of our country. They stand in positions to serve with bought and paid-for elections and by the grace of great campaign managers. So, they serve the masters of finance and corporate greed selling out the American people like the good puppets they are. We stand by and let it happen, time and again. Vote they say. That’s all well and good, but when the offerings are as useless as deciding what flavor of yogurt to have for breakfast, there is little opportunity for any significant change. Never has there been a time when it was more important to close the distance between what we feel and how we act. Not six months or a year from now, but RIGHT NOW.

Dig in, ask your friends, your family, people you work with: how do you FEEL. When someone asks you the same question, think hard on it. Tunnel down and figure it out, then tell them. Your challenge is to find the best method of delivery to effect a change. I’m a writer, the only tool in my arsenal is written expression. You must find your own way; don’t shirk on this responsibility. The only rule of the game is to consider all sides. Test yourself by asking if what you feel really makes sense. There was a common theme of apathy in movies and media in the 1970s; it clearly lingers in the 2000s. Don’t fall prey to that. I don’t care, nor is it important who originally coined the axiom, but it bears repeating: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. I’ve said it before, there is no cure for what ails us as a whole; there is a rising tide of terminally evil people. Sprinkling your dose of honesty and well-considered feelings on an expanding web of well-thinking and well-meaning people might abate the disease long enough that cooler heads prevail as we search for the elusive, and likely unattainable goal of peace and understanding.

So, how do you feel?