'Head Like A Hole'

Trump’s inauguration will prove to be one of the darkest days in American history; the fact that SO many of our fellow citizens fail to recognize that will never not sting.

You can recollect 9/11 or Pearl Harbor and feel a visceral gut punch at the sudden loss but perhaps it is harder to process over a million of your Yankee brethren lost due to the COVID pandemic - which was made exponentially worse by Trump’s initial mishandling and subsequent slide into conspiracy theories that served his political self-interest and his son-in-law’s grifting.

How many nurses got sick because they couldn’t get PPE in blue states as Jared wanted to help his POTUS -in-law’s political prospects and palm another buck with his slender, uncalloused hands?

Men who never worked an honest day in their lives let rank and file folks fight over toilet paper while they golfed on private resorts. How many kids are growing up without a parent who thought ivermectin was a better solution that science?

They made masks a symbol of ‘wokeness’ and at the end of it all tried to burn down the Capitol and hang the Vice President because they lost an election. Then Trump flew off to Florida with a pile of classified documents under his saggy, old man arms.

Arms that never held a person who felt hope in his presence because he himself always knew it was a grift. Donald Trump doesn’t give a fuck about you and he damn sure doesn’t give a fuck about the U.S.A.

The United States went from a beacon of democracy to a burgeoning alignment with tyrants and the global far-right (Milei, Meloni, Orban, Xi or a representative, will attend Trump’s swearing in) that desires a multipolar world so they can divide up the spoils amongst themselves.

This is indeed what is happening and sadly, albeit unsurprisingly, the billionaire class and tech bros are all to happy to either bow down or align with MAGA this time, while the media bends the knee in an almost humiliating fashion.

Trump has always been a master of using people’s own greed against them. It’s why he got away with so much for so long. He’s cleared his final hurdle and will never be held accountable in this lifetime.

That may be hard to accept but it doesn’t make it untrue. It’s all destruction and profiting for Donald now. Fate may still have the last laugh but his near future was made brighter by misinformation-besieged or apathetic voters and a feckless institutional response.

Nobody is coming to save us this time but ourselves.

From the new ‘America First’ regime will come incalculable suffering in environmental catastrophes alone. Trump and his ilk’s reaction to the L.A. fires show you that in horrific bold face: ’Drill baby, drill!’ is not a sane response to climate change.

It is the worst possible reaction and one motived wholly by ignorance and greed; there’s a whole culture built up around MAGA to insure this regressive attitude towards fossil fuels remains the norm.

Which is the equivalent in our time of believing the world is flat.

History will not be kind to the suckers that believe it.

Climate change is not a hoax. We can not afford to backslide in such a way.

Empathy for this planet and all the creatures on it is part of our natural state as human.

We have to push back on the personalities made of greed and not allow them to sway us from our shared humanity.

Men and women that deny science in pursuit of profit have never had bigger platforms or benefactors. The entire GOP is an ally of the oil and gas industry.

Our judiciary is fundamentally owned by Kochs and Crows.

Essentially crooks and cowards who hide in their private resorts and yachts while the world around them burns.

The natural world is not something you admire from a golf cart or monetize as an asset in a bank account. It doesn’t belong to Elon Musk or Donald Trump or Exxon Mobil.

Neither does democracy; they are both at stake and under attack as a result of this past election.

If we find ourselves angry and frustrated that is only natural.

But we MUST find a way to educate not only our fellow Americans but the world at large of the threats we all face.

This is obviously a global problem - and the bad actors seem to be working in concert like never before.

An axis of avarice has formed and if we are not careful they will take us all down with them.

We can and must work together to create a future that is the opposite of what these forces have in mind.

Fascism cannot be our future and we must focus on preventing it in every way we can.

We will prevail but we have to get busy.

Create, educate, communicate, inspire. In any and every way you can.

An act of kindness is transformative. Practice as much of it as possible.

Rebellion begins with the spirit - only light can drive out darkness.

In the end love always wins. I truly believe this with all of my heart.

I wish you peace. And resilience.