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| Two Faced Liars |
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| No Education, No Food Stamps, No Mercy... For Children |
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| Sixth Extinction Prequel |
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| No One Knows Which Way the Wind Blows |
Summer solstice 2018. The temperatures in the high desert are in the triple digits today, somewhere around 100 and even higher in direct sunlight. Combine the limiting heat with the daily news grind and few of us desert dwellers want to venture out of our air conditioned bubbles. It's a fact that the Trump Effect is causing millions worldwide to start reinforcing these bubbles with underground bunkers and hoarded canned goods. I've even re-read the Cormac McCarthy dirge, The Road, took a stab at The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, and started wading through Steven Pinker's latest, Enlightenment Now, a book that sheds a glimmer of light in my increasingly dark world.
The authors of these books point out how humans have changed the paradise known as earth. Lately, tree huggers like me feel real guilt using our air conditioners, plastic straws and toothbrushes. If I could withstand triple digit heat, I'd ditch the AC, instead it's set at 82 degrees, barely tolerable for me. No straws and bamboo toothbrushes help I guess. Fact is, our mother earth is endangered. We worry that she's on the verge of being nuked, smothered with CO2s and plastics, killed for no rational reason. What good is comfort, religion, ideology, wealth, or power on a sterile planet without viable human life?
Despite the smoke and mirrors erected by the anti-climate change, anti-nuclear disarmament proponents, we all suffer with this crazy weather and worry about 14,000+ nukes in our world. Even staunch trumpists feel the heat and fear the bomb. So, why don't these supporters and their political party do more to avoid annihilation? It is obvious to me that republicans believe that we can't avoid it, so let's be the nation to strike first. I conclude that republicans believe that the world is a hostile place and America must isolate itself to continue to retain dominance and control. The latest defense authorization bill (H.R. 5515) coming out of the US Congress supports this conclusion. It ramps up missile defense spending and adds funding for "space warfighting" just one among an array of Dr. Strangelovian programs. As far as taking care of mother earth and humans, the US Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Act (S. 1460) is likely to pass and provides a bi partisan glimmer of hope for keeping the status quo and moving forward an inch or two.
The wild card in all of this is President Trump and his arbitrary approvals of his own party's skimpy legislation efforts. His revolving door administration has become a facade for the necessary bureaucracy which is government. His wife and daughter have more political influence than appointed cabinet members and advisers. His criteria for decision making seems to hinge on what promotes his brand best, and/or how to retaliate against his competitors and detractors. He embraces his "end times" supporters with inappropriate sardonic wit, even when exploiting issues that pave the way toward annihilation. Heads spin, fingers point, frenzy ensues distracting the populous from ways to mitigate or steer clear of disaster. Members of the democratic party are spared Trump's witticisms and are treated to thuggish threats, slander, lies and tantrums. Any planet saving legislation proposed by the dems containing a realistic component of corporate limitation for the common good is doomed. The famous Jimmy Carter advice of "bite the bullet" now for an oil-independent future is toast. No biting bullets for the trumpites - protecting bullets at the expense of public safety is more in line with their bunker mentality.
So. Americans must once again, endure a bat shit crazy President and administration bent on world wide destruction. Sure, we can handle it, but the rest of the world..? What I find almost unendurable is the republican victim-hood pity party going on. These brain washed, Fox News clones piss and moan about winning the election. That's right. They won the prize. They now own it, are breaking it, and crying like babies that the democrats, Obama, Hilary, the media, the NFL, Amazon.com, women, immigrants are not bowing down and bending over far enough. In today's GOP whoever wins owes nothing but contempt for the losers. Conciliation, cooperation and compromise are not tolerated. The losers almost 66 million of us, have become useful scape goats for republican failures. The winners, almost 63 million voters, support a president and congress who lie, break laws, renege on treaties, make enemies of allies, shred safety nets and claim the losers are weak and don't take enough personal responsibility for their lives. Where is the personal responsibility in shifting blame for their own mess to others, often at the expense of the truth?
There is a special truth going around these days, an untruthful truth. In the "us vs them" world of the far right, America is a free country so they should be able to promote and support white supremacy, freedom of hate speech, slanderous tweets, violent threats and trolling, whatever it takes to protect against the others. Anything goes now, so long as Dear Leader points his followers in the direction of his enemies. As much of a "strongman" as he says he is, competitors and critics really chap his hide and need to be regulated so he can do gawdz work without interference from the germy, unwashed masses. You know who they are, those degenerate agitators. Trump wants to tear gas those protesters who oppose deporting millions of dreamers; crush those resistors of environmental destruction; run over the nasty women demanding reproductive rights and equal opportunity; knock the hell out of the people of color tired of harassment and jailing; and completely ignore the majority who want affordable health care, social security and medicare. So, to instill the wingnut brand of personal responsibility into the others, less freedom, fewer choices, and more suffering is what it takes. Republicans have become the party of accomplices in massive human and planet rights violations - looking the other way while the the Trump administration wages a war on the poor, dispossessed, and vulnerable. His message is to avoid being your brother's keeper - kick him to the curb if he can't find the money and health to dredge up personal responsibility. Trump did it with only a $1,000,000 gift from his good old dad. Isn't he the perfect example of boot strap success? And, let's keep fvcking the planet. We won't be around when it implodes.
In 2016, this was a puzzling and boring phenomena. Now, the republican party has become a sinister delusion. They fear they are besieged by toddlers and domestic abuse victims from Central America - Oooooh! Nasty! My Gawd! What next- dangerous puppies and kittens, killer "Africanized" bees, swarming monarch butterflies? Get a grip wing nuts. You are the only dangerous people I see causing extreme harm to America. Wake up. You own America and she needs you to vote out Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, or better yet, don't vote. You screwed it up last time. Sit this one out.
