Brace for Impact

heraldstorm

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Tuesday July 16, 2019 · 10:25 AM PDT

2019/07/16 · 10:25

Are you comfortable?

I'm not asking whether your body is positioned to minimize stress. I'm not trying to find out if you enjoy sitting in that particular chair or on your favorite couch. I mean to direct your focus and awareness to the level of comfort you have with the current direction of our country and the direction of our government. Yes, it'll be one of those kinds of diaries.

If the answer to my question is anything other than an emphatic "Yes!!" then we have much in common. On a daily basis, we see the next exhibit in an unending parade of scandal, crime, dishonesty, intentional bad intent, injustice, cowardice, excess, and stupidity. It comes from our President; it comes from our appointed Cabinet members in the Executive Branch; it comes from virtually every single Republican in Congress. It comes from lobbyists, and businessmen, and every little strata of society all the way down to the humble citizens of the U.S.A. Some are your neighbors. Some may even be your family members.

Yes, yes. We already understand all this. The question is, what do we do about it? Well, that's easy! We throw the bums out! Ah. Indeed! I would actually say, prevent the bums from staying. I am actually a proponent of Impeachment investigations, but I don't feel that such investigations are a productive use of the extremely limited focus of public awareness. Mostly, I feel we are, and have been at a point where if you are going to vote to reelect Donald Trump, there's nothing anyone can say, do, or show you that will change your mind. If you want anyone but Trump, you've seen enough already to convince you, and nothing the man does will suffice to bring you back to his camp. There very well may be some fence straddlers, but Trump has been successful in making this an 'us against them' period in socio-political history.

From that perspective, where do we stand? Many current polls suggest that Trump loses to our top 4 candidates. It doesn't matter which candidate you support. My bones to pick are not with the candidates. Our State is in a far more serious position to allow me such luxuries. We're precariously teetering on the edge of being controlled by an authoritarian government. If Trump wins reelection, it's pretty much over for the foreseeable future for the American way of life I grew up with. This is what's at stake. Will we let a small, predominantly white, predominantly aged, predominantly racist minority succeed in keeping their champion in office?

Think about that! They are the minority! Trump did not win by popular vote! He doesn't need the popular vote to win again! Thus we've reached the all-hands-on-deck, five-alarm intent of this diary.

Robert Mueller's investigation concluded that Russia intervened on Trump's behalf. This intervention was State sponsored, State directed, and benefitted the State ultimately through resistance to sanctions that were legally passed by Congress, and even signed by the President…who ultimately slow walked the sanctions until everyone forgot about them. The President then further loosened further sanctions against Russian businessmen. The Intelligence Community (full disclosure, I'm a member of such) came to an unqualified conclusion that Russia intervened in our elections. Countless former justices, generals, and members of Congress have accepted and supported such findings. Trump needed to win the electoral college to become President. Trump needs to win the electoral college to remain President. Russia will do everything they can to keep the United States as a weak adversary by helping Donald Trump win the electoral college.

They will encourage political gerrymandering. They will sow division and discord amongst Democrats. They will sow division and discord amongst the Races. They will sow division and discord along economic classes. Anything they can do to keep small groups from becoming big, influential, and thus powerful groups to take away the Electoral College win from Donald Trump, they will do.

And what Russia does, they will teach the Republicans to do. They have already done so, and the Republicans, good little toadies that they are, are following instructions. They are making a show of Racism, economic inequality, ideological division, and anything else they can to ensure that as many of their base come out and vote. They are doing everything they can to stack the courts so that their gerrymanders stand uncontested. They are doing everything they can to whip Democrats into an emotional frothing mania, so that we act without calculation and efficiency.

Do not congratulate yourself on how well you've resisted. Do not take refuge in the polls that say the four top contenders in the Democratic Primary can win the popular vote (because that's all the polls really mean in the end). Do not think for a second that all the forces of darkness are not actively and strategically arrayed against us, because they invariably are. It's their self-interest against our idealism, and we've seen time after time throughout history which side wins those battles. Greed, Hate, and Cronyism is a tough opponent, and our battle is just beginning, no matter what you’ve done up to this point.

We can win. We can defeat the darkness as long as we don't get distracted. Yes, I'm tired of this too. I'm tired of waking up and going through my entire day demoralized. I'm tired of a relentless drumbeat of despair and sorrow from the news. I'm tired of being ashamed of what my government is doing both at home and on the world stage. It's so very tempting to relish in the soft embrace of promising poll numbers, or the echo-chamber of the like-minded. It's so easy to tell ourselves and our allies that "Yes, we're definitely going to get rid of this Poseur in the President's seat!" But don't be lulled into a false sense of accomplishment! We have accomplished nothing...yet. Not until we have actually achieved what we must achieve! We must prevent Donald Trump from winning the Electoral College. We must maintain our majority in the House. We must win back a majority in the Senate. Until we do so, don't listen to those that would tell us how good we're doing. Don't take your eyes off of the numerous Judgeships that have gone to conservatives. Don't flinch from the pain of seeing children tortured at the border. Don't become numb to the weekly mass-casualties from gun violence. Keep fighting, and

NOT

STOP

UNTIL

WE'VE

WON!

And then, the real work begins.

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