I remember where I was, watching results roll in from each State in our Republic in 2016. Visiting a friend and former colleague, I sat alone on his couch long after he’d gone to bed. He’s black, and already knew what was coming. I didn’t want to believe it, and had to watch it play out in real time. Maybe we weren’t going to be this stupid. I’m a white dude.
But nope! Here I was laughing about how monumentally short-sighted and poorly-conceived the whole BREXIT thing was going, and there we were — Hold my BEER! I thought about how things were likely to play out.
I figured we’d taken the title of laughing stock firmly — Brexit would have to settle for Silver this time around. I’d had very little exposure to the Distractumph until his ‘campaign’ … but I can tell a maniac when I see one. I wondered how long the GOP lockdown on all three branches of our government could manage to run roughshod before being forced to remove him from office to save their party from utter destruction. As he appointed lobbyist shills and immediate family members to every post available, I actually laughed at how reckless his egocentric frenzy was, and how much it would hasten his removal. I remember how Clinton faced impeachment hearings for a bj. This guy was gonna get ROASTED.
At some point early on, I realized that no — the reality was that the GOP was going to take full advantage of this clown to break as much as they could manage before public pressure forced them to cast him aside in shame. Trump was too stupid to realize he was gonna be the fall guy, and he was gonna end up taking his family down with him. Ouch. It was obvious that whether or not coordinated collusion had taken place, that Drumpty was intent on pleasing Russian oligarchs, if for no other reason than he admired them and wanted to be one of the big boys!
And then, as the public began to roar and churn, and they grew reliable in their defenses, it became impossible to deny that they are — several of them, at least — as compromised and corrupt as individual-1 himself so obviously is. That forced me to reconsider the scope of what is going on. It’s forced me to think in terms of organizational partnerships and corporate mergers. It’s forced me to look at the situation in terms of much deeper, culturally-held ideologies … and history.
How can it be that so many people can be so easily distracted — from one outrage to the next, like a Sunday demolition derby event but with TRAINS! Any one of hundreds of acts that this idiot has performed every day would bring the swiftest curtain call in history to the political career of ANY democratic executive. And yet they allow him to continue. They don’t JUST allow his flagrant disregard for political norms and common decency (while still rapidly denouncing anyone else who happens to slip a little expletive into their commentary about this SHITSHOW) — they ASSIST HIM in holding government workers hostage in exchange for an arbitrary amount for a project that hasn’t been surveyed, hasn’t been designed, hasn’t been sourced (you get the point) and isn’t even WANTED by the very agencies who would (I guess) be who it was for.
So yeah — there is no wall. They want an allocation of several billion (with a B) dollars to use for something defense something after shifting the tax burden even further toward the least fortunate. And they don’t give one whit about workers anywhere because you should have planned for their shenanigans. You should have known they were going to fuck everything up and change the rules and give themselves ultimate power over everything because THAT’S WHAT THEY DO. They know better than you how to run a country, for the people by the people and of the people that pay us nicely! Can we make it better for my bottom line? Who cares who it kills!
And we still have these kids who aren’t taught empathy or respect for fellow human beings — they’re allowed to revel in mocking others. There’s no appreciation for differing viewpoints or the experience of elders. They know everything and are masters of their domain as teens — they can be anything they want, so the fact that those people haven’t gotten rich or successful is because they’re obviously lazy and stupid. Because they don’t know no better. And they never will.
Because if you’re one of them, all doors are open. Indiscretions driven by hormones and illegal alcohol are forgiven as antics of youth. The thought of ruining a promising career is packaged as cruel punishment — just for inflicting pain and suffering and costly therapy sessions on a … lady?
It’s nature, they say. It’s just natural for males to dominate and copulate with females. It’s natural for cultures to protect each other. It’s natural for the best and strongest to survive while the weaker die! It happens all the time. It’s natural for old men to be attracted to young ladies. They should feel glad that they are wanted.
Woe the other who accepts these straightforward proclamations of natural order. These rules don’t apply to you! You’d better know your place; when you’re to say yes, sir. Keep your toes behind the line. If you don’t we’ll kill you in a moment. Our god gave us this land and all upon it. Entertain us or prove useful, and we may allow you sustenance. Babies are useful — if they’re compliant and able-bodied … they’ll be the judge of their worth.
Nevermind that a favorite book charges them with charity, extols the folly of sins, and dictates that they protect and care for all they have. Those rules are outdated, but the fun stuff never gets old.
Those old ways of doing things aren’t their fault — slavery was ended — we can’t bring back folk from the dead. And civilization marches on, burial grounds be damned.