Another Day

Some of us will demonstrate our frustration by writing our posts or blogs with sarcasm, sadness, sincerity, and ask why any gun violence in this nation is still considered something never to talk about now, but always a subject to speak of later. Some will read of yet another mass shooting, look a friend or family member, sigh, and perhaps shake their head and mutter, here we go again. Some of us will read the headlines of murdered and injured and just as we do with yet one more lie from Trump and his coconspirators, yawn and say so what else is new?

Of course the ritual of prayers and thoughts will ensue, we will have the media play respectful music as they insist they will not mention the name of the murderer, but reflect on the lies of the victims. If the murderer’s are white, the media will bring in mental health professionals, family members from previously murdered innocents, a Democrat politician who will insist murder is murder no matter the color of the skin of the murderer, and perhaps a police detective from a large city who will say something about the proliferation of guns. Of course if the murderer is NOT a caucasian, a person of color and of course someone who shouts the name “Allah”, then the media will provide us with dark dreary music a title with the words terror in the headlines, and we will get the best talking heads from the FBI, ATF, and all kinds of scary institutes covering madmen and their favorite assault weapons.

Republicans will run and hide, or insist NOW is not the time. Dems will immediately plead for some kind of dialogue on guns, the people who use guns and the careless way guns are sold. The same people who could give a shit about the sanctity of the First Amendment, will argue that the special thing about the Second Amendment was that Jesus himself, wrote it. When the white guy murders Americans Trump will purse his lips as dismissive as possible, while when the shooter is of color Trump will make that okay thing with his fingers, puff out his three chins and just shout not in my country, we will find you and destroy the world if we need to find you. And at the end of the day, NOTHING will be done to even address the issue of freelance murder with guns in the nation, and once again some of us will rant with rage, others will sigh and say nothing we can do and others will just admit, another day in America!

So What

What?! Today, in America, another mass shooting! OMG cause this one happened in a Baptist Church. A local community member of the town said this will change our community forever. Of course from Trump to Texas officials, thoughts and prayers were shared. Those words usually summarize the extent by which any government involvement will be shared. If it's a local guy, a white guy, it will be just one more crazy guy who while crazy was permitted to purchase is weapon of death. If it happens to be a dark-skinned guy, either a Muslim or even a Black person, then more will be said, and it will no longer be a madman but be called an act of terrorism. More innocent people died today in Texas, but hey, we have the Second Amendment and didn’t Jesus, himself help write the Constitution.

One more mass shooting, the talking heads have all kinds of ideas about the motive. One more mass shooting and the Cable news networks are peppering their viewers with how could this happen. One more mass shooting and we have a while bunch of thoughts and prayers, but absolutely nothing else. 

In America 2017, it's okay to deny free speech, and freedom of the press, but it AIN’T no darn good to even mention changing the 2nd Amendment. The GOP insists that abortions are evil, The Evangelicals insist that Gays are the Devil. The Republicans call themselves the Party of Life. Nothing to be said about guns, and the people who use them. Today, one more mass shooting in America, so what? 

an authoritarian

Trump tells the media that HE is all that matters when it comes to decisions regarding affairs of the State of the nation. Trump calls them HIS generals. Trump is unhappy with the Department of Justice and many of the judges sitting in courtrooms throughout this nation. Trump insists that the real criminal is Hillary and the Dems, and has done nothing within the powers of the Executive Branch to increase investigations into hacking of the polling places during 2016, and the continued influence of the Russian government into the politics of this nation. Trump ignores the Puerto Ricans and the American Virgin Islands, and their almost annihilation, preferring to pick a fight with two women who argue that Trump and FEMA have done nothing but a poor job. Trump continues to vacation at HIS family owned properties. Trump’s spokespeople cannot state publicly that slavery is and was bad, rather, just like the American Nazi’s there seems to be good reasons for slavery and of course some good Nazi’s! Trump lies is caught in his lies, uses surrogates to continue the lie, they are then caught in the lies and all we get in response is that the truth is fake news.

The Republican politicians, more concerned in pleasing their Donor Masters, appeasing a small and ignorant base of voters, and of course keeping their political profession FOREVER, refuse to stand up for the Constitution and act as checks and balances toward the other two branches of government. FOX News is a propaganda tool of the Trump branch of the Republican party. The Attorney General, Sessions, the man who is supposed to be the head honcho on laws and order, lies and lies and lies. The Secretary of the Interior wants to sell off land to his millionaire buddies. The EPA Secretary gets kicks back from polluting corporations. Steve Bannon is the alter ego to Trump. And Trumps remains in office, his polices still a priority. And all it seems we do is pretend one day this will go away…or worse…MAYBE this will become the norm.

Trump is an AUTHORITARIAN, a DICTATOR, and ENEMY of the STATE, and it seems no matter what he gets away with every treasonous act and acts as would an anarchist. When, I wonder, will just resisting be too little too late, and when will we have realized that we waited one day too late to remove this Trump Monster from office.

What Comes Next

We have been warned, directly by Trump, that he has no respect of the laws explicitly defined in the Constitution, and we have been cued into the fact that if he had his way, governing would change and the President, as in the Dictator, as in Party Leader, as in the Emperor, should, could and would be the person to assign guilt or innocence to not only the common citizen but to anyone considered a political opponent, especially a political opponent threatening the security of the guy identified as President.  We know that speeches and tweets like these coming directly from an ill informed, idiot with no knowledge of American history or government, aimed at the percentage of his followers, who may have never taken a ninth grade civics class, let alone would be able to pass a new citizens test, idolize the simple method of, all we need is one boss and everything bad will go away. Messages like these lead to Authoritarian Style government which fall under a Fascist Regime or a Communist Regime have yet to be questioned by the GOP, let alone alarm the GOP that the landscape is ripe for democracy to die a swift death. The silence of the GOP, because they still believe tax cuts for the wealthy and at least two more Christian Conservative activists Judges on the Supreme Court, is a priority; has become overwhelming, to those of us who appreciate the checks and balances of our government. We watch as placing the petty politics of a bunch of wealthy American oligarchs as THE Republican’s priority, above saving our democratic principles, as well as misinforming a bunch of self victimized uneducated racists and bigots become more normal each day, and worse, uncontrollable each minute it is not stopped.

Polling places in Georgia have been swiped clean as question arise regarding the hacking of those computerized voting machines. We discover unconstitutional voter purges in Wisconsin prior to the 2016 election in predominately democratic districts. Gerrymandered districts popping upon in Red States denying a fair opportunity for the people to make a legitimate choice.  We watch as Senators delay serious meetings on possible Russian collusion with the Trump Campaign. We listen as the Republican leadership in the House is now contemplating yet more Committees on anything Hillary, but stating that there is no reason to investigate anything Trump any more. We speak as if the Russians are the only ones who provided fake news, as we ignore the tactics and outright lies from FOX News. And each day becomes easier for America to slip into the hands of treasonous people and anarchists, afraid of one person one vote.

So, again, I wonder, what do we do? Will history look at the American public as they did with the German’s during WWII, wondering why if the facts were right in front of their faces they denied the death of their democracy? Will America slip into the mode of the 50’s where enemies internal and external abound prompting groups of KKK, Fascists, Anti-Semites to police and purify our society? Will America find itself as did the French, before their revolution, with the wealth divide so great as to cause the need for a revolution? We MUST decide that the minority of the Trump base will not set the future of this nation. We tried resisting, and I wonder what comes next? 

what fools, we have become

There is so much at stake at this moment in history, so many major issues we face, some with great power to shake our democracy even closer to the edge destruction, some seething with enough cracks in the foundation as to assist our democracy to implode, some growing like a rash of weeds ready to choke the very oxygen from within our democracy, and yet we are still debating questions of what is really right, and what defines wrong…what is true evil and what is just acting badly…what is a fact and what can be a fact if we so desire.

Now, to divert the attention away from collusion, money laundering, hacking of our elections and our polling places, the acceptance that there are some good Nazi’s an some patriotic Confederates, we once again must go to our default and blame Hillary. People in Puerto Rico are dying, people in Flint are dying, Republicans in charge of handling both have either stopped dealing with those issues or are just dragging their feet. Anti women’s rights legislation is being forwarded within red state congresses, and once again denying the LGBTQ community equal rights has become a correct thing to do if it relates to personal religious freedom. The divide between church and state is being erased, and now with the new tax plan the wealthier remain the wealthier and everyone else can go to hell. But somehow, the sideshow has opened its tents on Hillary.

A liar, a crook, a self serving, narcissist, sits in the Oval Office, assisted by Republican leadership paid for by 1% of the wealthiest donors having decided that America belongs to them, and are doing everything in their power with the assistance of Putin, to keep this nation a fascist land of governing. A small portion of either too stupid to care about the facts or too wealthy to care about anyone else but themselves control the will or lack of will for the Congress to assert the checks and balances our Constitution demanded to maintain democracy. An now we spend our time on Hillary on uranium, on Bernie, on history which has no meaning at this moment…a moment that if we do not seize upon it and take control, will deny ALL of us any freedoms forever! What fools we have become! 

Terror

Terror! Terror takes on many shapes, many forms, and meany meanings. Throughout literature and film we have discovered that terror is as simple hiding in the house when there is an electrical storm, fearful that we might be struck by lightening or perhaps the lights will go out…providing us with a bit more complex of terror, what might be lurking in the dark. Terror! Emotional terror, sometimes never seen by anyone but an unlucky victim…spousal abuse, sexual harassment, or an attempt to make you wonder if you are going crazy as in the movie ‘Gaslight’. Terror, in the 1950s we had UFO’s we had little green men, we had the worry that any alien civilization might be just as dangerous as humans and immediately want to attack and kill all of us, making aliens a little too human. Terror, during the Civil War, when white hoods and white robes combed the South, each KKK member carrying a rope, just to make sure, EVERYONE knew who the master of YOUR destiny really was. Terror, planes crashing into buildings, trucks driven by madmen on a rampage to murder. Terror, marching down the street with an arsenal of weapons to intimidate a group of people not of your color, not of your religion. Terror! We all understand it and we all know it when we see it, but do we really?

Trump is on a rampage, deciding that as long as you believe in Islam you provoke terror. You may murder and maim hundreds of people, in a theater, in a school, at a concert, but if your religion is that belonging to Jesus, then your kind of terror is explained as deranged, the action of a mad person, but your choice of terror makes you NOT a Terrorist.  Murder in the name of the incorrect God and you are a Terrorist, murder in the name of the correct God and you are doing the bidding of a Lord and Savior pissed at the bad seeds of his creation. 

Terrorists! We shake at the thought, and well we should, normalcy as we so desire it to be, and sanity diminish and die when Terrorists win. An enemy of the state, we as a nation have added that definition to the term Terrorist. But has anyone noticed, that living in the White House, sitting in the Oval Office, is a man who on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, declared the American Justice system “a joke”. We have an Attorney General who has lied under oath regarding his associations with the Russians. We have the leadership of the Trump Campaign in collusion with the Russians. We have a Republican majority in Congress, forgoing the Constitutional establishment of checks and balances within the three branches of government. So who has provided elements of terror in this nation? Are terrorists only those who shout in Arabic “God is Great”? Terror! It shakes the foundation of life. And yet Trump is pointing fingers at others as Terrorists, when in fact, Trump is like the electrical storm and very soon if we don’t stop him and his enablers, the Republican Party, the lights of democracy may…NO WILL, go out in this nation…and then real terror will roam from sea to shining sea! 

The Silence

With all of the noise being made, regarding the Robert Mueller investigation, one might think it would be difficult to ignore even a mere second of sound bites, talking heads exploding, and even the common citizen commenting on the chances that we have been living in a charade since the hacking of the 2016 election. Stories are sprouting more stories, rumors are robust causing us to ruminate about the NEXT potential shoe falling or bombshell dropping or truth being told. There is no other news, currently that hits the heights of what if’s and whose next; why the words Watergate have been expressed more so since Nixon swore he was not a criminal. One might think that this nation has finally caught on to the con, the hack, the scheme, of anything Trump, and FINALLY we are embracing the promise of democracy, deeming it a doable direction to travel. BUT WAIT…

There is a silence, the kind of eerie quiet, you sense when a couple, in a film, supposedly settle into a log cabin in the woods. THEY say this is their place to reconnect, to get away from the madness of their every day world. The couple gaze into the plush landscape of all shades greens, sighing, holding hands, and all they hear is SILENCE. The SILENCE is almost so quiet it is deafening, it is almost too difficult to listen to. The couple then turn off the porch light, retreat to their bedroom, ah, night, ah sleep, ah to sleep within the quiet of the night, the quiet of the world around them. The lights go dim, and we the audience are lulled into a peaceful bliss. And then the light of the new day arrives, and the camera pans into the bedroom at the back of the cabin, and suddenly we notice blood, red juicy, syrupy blood on the sheets on the walls and as the camera leans in closer we see the body parts of the couple, who the night before were so certain that they were safe and sound in the SILENCE.

Very few Republicans, very few Republican pundents, very few wealthy Republican Donors, have spoken up loudly, joining the chorus of the rest of Americans who want justice, to cheer, and motivate, and push Robert Mueller to do his job. Very few of the leadership from the GOP have raised their voices in support of finding the truth regarding Trump and the Russians. The Republicans prefer to distract, debunk, deny and in doing so become just as dangerous as Trump and Putin. SILENCE can lull you into believing all is well, all is good all is safe. But we know, throughout history that SILENCE can kill!