'Ahead by a Century'

If the world were a giant classroom the United States would very much be the problem child right now. We are acting out on a global level - and we need to find a national unity and humility to rein it in.

We are preventing progress itself for our fellow students and abandoning the playfield when it comes to addressing climate change, eradicating infectious diseases and tackling global poverty.

We are letting down our teammates at the moment many of them need us the most - which is unforgivable in the eyes of reasonable men and women who understand and respect our alliances, and know the sacrifices it took to achieve them.

Trump is obviously a deeply dysfunctional human being and he has been that way since he was in diapers (sorry, couldn’t help it).

Do you think any members of the Department of Justice who sat and listened to him rant about his perceived enemies for an hour this past Friday think he is not deeply unwell?

They know by now exactly who he is and they are willing to go along with his insanity: this should concern you deeply, as I am sure it does.

The last thing this country needs right now is following up a feckless Department of Justice with a corrupt one but that seems to be exactly what we got. The fact that everyone in the room didn’t get up and walk out when he called the January 6th attackers political prisoners or vented his spleen at the ‘Biden crime family’ tells you how much trouble we are in.

Time was not on our side; A.G. Garland’s lack of urgency and bottom-up approach was a luxury we couldn’t afford. Garland became a placeholder for autocracy; many in our institutions were perhaps unwittingly doing the same during the last administration.

’Business as usual’ was never coming back after Trump’s first election in which he enlisted the aid of our Russian adversaries against his Democratic opponent.

Those left at the D.O.J. with the courage to stand up to Trump have for the most part already been forced out of their positions, while POTUS has built up a veritable army of support among law enforcement.

Which in and of itself will be a threat to the communities of color across this country for generations to come. Trump is pro-racism and pro-police brutality; they know it and he knows it.

The lethally complex issues we now face are the result of one man’s personality disorder and continuous criminality - and a coterie of billionaires willing to exploit his toxic malignancy for their own benefit.

A lifelong racist and sexual predator, Trump has obviously found an alarming amount of support in American culture and civic life at this moment - and that is a very sad thing.

We are being demeaned and defiled; anyone who goes along with this abuse to appease their tormentors has no business in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives.

We need leadership that will recognize the will of the people and act accordingly in the most crucial moment in our history.

The threat we face is existential and very much in our faces - we must use ALL of the powers we can to repudiate what is happening to our republic.

We certainly cannot stay quiet to make it any easier for MAGA.

History will not be kind to those that acquiesce to Trump’s authoritarian instincts and actions. We must protect and defend freedom with the same sense of fierce pride and aversion to tyranny as our forebears possessed upon the birth of our nation.

We must also heed their warnings against a kingdom of the corrupt, peopled with unworthy men who would exploit the loopholes in our system of democracy (that requires decency and trust) for their own self-serving aims.

The ‘honor system’ is outmoded when it comes to men like Donald Trump.

We have been under attack for nearly a decade from the forces behind Trump; most notably Vladimir Putin and the Russian mobsters and oligarchs he commands.

Do you find it strange that most billionaires seem to have a soft spot for Putin? The world’s economy is marbled with laundered money. Those that receive a cut of the funds have no problem with the system as it stands; they just want to insure that they remain in the good graces of the men calling the shots.

This is obviously a very hard time and it is easy to feel powerless - but there is a collective strength and resilience in the American spirit that we have seen beginning to stir in these last several months.

That will only blossom and grow. The seeds of a revolution have been sown and I do believe it will bear fruit in our lifetimes.

There’s more of us that seek the light than there are of those that would drag us back into darkness.

Humanity itself is on the side of the righteous. No other vessel can hold the compassion, equanimity and freedom to love and prosper that is at the core of any sort of progressive beliefs. Or at least that is how it should be; it certainly cannot be found in the reactionary rhetoric and policies of our opponents.

They may wield the power now but they are losing their own crowd, quickly. They will not hold it long unless it is held entirely by force and the fates decree moral justice to be an afterthought.

This is not an outcome any real patriot would ever accept - we must become the messengers of this movement.

We need all Americans to wake up to the reality of what the struggle against MAGA really represents. It comes down to how we define ourselves as a people.

Of who we want to be going forward and what sort of legacy we want to extend to the rest of the world. Most of us would chose equanimity and love over brutality and servitude. We would side with good over evil and recognize the dangers of self-proclaimed demigods and odious despots.

Trump is so erratic and unsteady in his ‘leadership’ and prolific corruption that he will test the limits of our society and its ability to function. The battle has already begun -we must not only bear witness, we must each accept our own role in his defeat.

Their playbook is obvious and in plain sight. We must counter their narrative with actual facts and highlight the consequences of his actions.

They have a well-oiled machine when it comes to spewing out disinformation but markets don’t lie; thanks to Trump they are taking a big and early hit. This will only increase the pressure on his administration and put his insane trade wars in even starker relief.

It was a bad time to help them pass a continuing resolution but the real resolve must come from us, we the people.

This is OUR country - we need to start acting like it.

Keep doing what you’re doing and help others to get involved: we can build a movement so large it will force Trump’s hand and cause his and his cronies’ fascist aims to crumble. It may be messy and it may take awhile but in the end we will prevail, I have no doubt.

Be well and thank you for reading - and for all the continuing support.

Peace.