| Dear Friends and Fellow Travelers on Planet Earth, |
I am now in my 80s, having tried, in most of my adult years, to contribute to hope for peace and love on Earth. I was born in 1936, during the Great Depression, when Hitler's rise was taking place in Germany. His Nazi party was gaining strength through the politics of fear and violence that would soon wash over all of Europe and the world. World War II was inevitable -- and my generation lived through that war and the succeeding wars of Korea, Vietnam and the cold war, with threats of more wars and nuclear annihilation always in the wind. As I listened to warnings made by brave anti-war leaders like Helen Caldicott, who led the fight against nuclear weapons, I joined with them and marched in Washington -- only to be patted on the head and told by our "leaders" (literally by one Senator!) in Congress, "Go home, little ladies, and bake your cookies, and don't worry -- we are taking care of things here."
Well...we see where that has gotten us. Here are a few of my musings today on how the world has fared during my lifetime -- and where we find ourselves today.
Just as the fall of the Roman Empire was a victim of its own excesses, and Hitler's dream of ruling the world was doomed to failure, so it was inevitable, if we kept on the course we were heading after WWII, that America's leadership role in the world would come to an unglorious end. To those with eyes to see, it certainly looks like that is happening now.
For a while, our capitalistic society looked pretty good, as long as it took care of the less powerful members in the middle class, which supported the whole thing. The New Deal of FDR brought us out of the Great Depression of the 1930s -- and the war, as terrible it was, brought us together as one nation with principles of goodness in view. The GI Bill after the war helped soldiers to get a higher education and buy homes and become contributing members of the middle class. As time went on, it became apparent that the workers would need representation in the process, so they began to form unions. Capitalism look pretty good to us in those days of unions to ensure fairness for the working man in the marketplace. But that was not to last. As always in this still low-consciousness world, greed kept increasing and its power finally took over.
In today's world, capitalism has become bloated and disfigured through greed and power lust, exceeding all natural boundaries of fairness, equality and balance in its return to the people. Without regulation or restriction, it was inevitable that a gorging process would take place in favor of the rich, who just kept on getting richer on the backs of the workers. When unions were killed off by corporate scions afraid of losing their power and profits, workers lost their rights to bargain for their own fair share of corporate profits.
The corporate domination of our country has now reached its peak of power, with its bloated thumb on the scales against the people. The middle class is dying and we are fast becoming a divided nation of "haves" and "have nots." Homelessness is an increasing problem as more and more people cannot afford to pay mortgages and rising rents. Hard workers, even with two or three jobs, are unable to feed themselves and their families on their salaries or have health care in this, the richest country on earth. Education for our children beyond high school is unreachable without incurring huge debt. Corporate money now buys and puts into place the political "representatives" who represent only corporations and their ever-increasing wealth, with all the evil bribes and peddling of favors entailed in the bargain of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Take a good look at Mitch McConnell who, in his majority rule of the Senate, will not even allow votes to take place if it appears his funded-by-corporations "side" will lose.
As he was leaving office, President Eisenhower warned of the takeover of our country by corporations (what he called "the military/industrial complex"), but we ignored his prescient warning (see videos below). Through succeeding years of an ever-quickening downward spiral fueled by corporate greed, we watched as the darker devils of our nature won out over the "better angels" exhorted by Abraham Lincoln to the people of his time. With the advent of Cheney/Bush and their fraudulent takeover of the White House, we were finally and inexorably being led to ultimate authoritarian rule. Cheney/Bush and their evil administration, with all its subterfuge and lies, paved the road of darkness for the Trump dictatorship we are now being forced to endure.
America has long been avoiding karmic retribution for its dark history of seizure of land from the natives -- and the torture and enslavement of the innocent and powerless. Despite the inscription on the Statue of Liberty to "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," we now have a President who encourages prejudice, bigotry, racism and hatred against foreigners in his followers. With black clouds over us now, it appears the time for that karmic payment has come due. Trump is poised now to take away all the rights promised to "We, the people" by our forefathers in the Constitution. All the gains of the common people that have been advanced over the years since 1776 are now being torn away, one by one and group by group, as the fabric of our nation is ripped apart. We are now living in the country we would have been in 1865, had the South won the Civil War. Our national karma was delayed until the present day, but, with the nurturing of greed and power lust to the ultimate degree of today's disgusting excess, it was inevitable. Using the tactics of threats and fear, the Republican Party of the United States, aligning itself with corporate and military power, has brought right-wing fascism in all its ugliness to rulership in our country.
We are now watching the death of America's democratic republic, as Trump and Company impose their will on all of us. Our fourth estate, victims also of corporate takeover, is failing us, ensuring that journalistic integrity can no longer be counted on. The power of our news media to warn and protect us has been eroded by greed. Alarms of AHWOOGA! should be sounding loudly, because we now even have a state-supporting network in FOX, watched by millions every day. This Trump-adoring network dictates policies to the President who loves their adulation and sits fixated in front of his TV screen, getting political directions from the pundits on his favorite shows. Our Congress is mostly owned by corporations and, seemingly, so is our Department of Justice. Gerrymandering of districts, corporate ownership of voting machines, foreign interference into our electoral process, and the horrifying unfairness of the electoral college over the popular vote, has led to the near impossibility of fair elections.
As a result, say hello to a "MAGA" country with a dictator as our President.
But it gets worse. Not only is our country endangered, but the planet itself is in great peril from climate change being accelerated by greed-driven corporate practices that further pollute its air, water and earth. With horrific consequences now apparent under Trump's fascist leadership, we go heedlessly on, ignoring all scientific warnings--and even stepping up all the pollution with deregulation and continuing use of coal/oil. Wise proposals intended to save the planet, such as the Green New Deal, are mocked by the ignorant duped supporters of Trump's right wing. We are like the cartoon of a man in a tree, vigorously sawing off the limb he is sitting on.
Those who can see clearly what is happening had set their hopes on Robert Mueller and his investigation to put a halt to the disastrous Trump phenomena that is leading us all to doom. Finally, they thought, with all the revelations of criminality being shown daily to us by Trump's own actions and the actions of his minions, finally truth would triumph over the evil lies being spewed out daily from the right wing. But sadly, justice was not to be. Mueller has proved himself to be a loyal Trumpist Republican to the core. He and his best friend, William Barr, now the Trump-appointed Attorney General, have deliberately loosened the last chains on the Trumpzilla monster, leaving it free to tromp through the country, rallying ever more support from its cheering ignorant followers -- and dealing the final death blow to the democratic principles on which our nation was founded.
As the comic-strip Pogo once sighed in deep sadness and realization, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
So, what to do now? We have to marshal our forces and march in the streets against this takeover of our government -- and we MUST fight Trump to our last breath. And we MUST VOTE, even with the realization that pitfalls against a fair election and an accurately counted vote lurk in dark corners of the Internet, and in all social media. Our only other alternative is to watch as the fascist forces take over, as they did in Hitler's Germany, leaving us suffering a far worse fate than Germany did in the end of that (up till now) worst period of history. In today's world, we stand to lose not only our rights, our country, and our lives, but the planet itself -- and the end of all life on Earth. Thankfully, our children and grandchildren are realizing this and are the hope of the future. What a terrible legacy we are leaving them to try to fix.
Here is a quote from an article I read today by Michael Winship:
...we must address the reality that Donald Trump is not only the carrier but also a symptom of the greater disease that infects the republic, one in which vast inequality and a government controlled by private and corporate wealthy interests and not the people drives us toward our certain doom both as a democracy and a planet.
If we do not confront this head on, Trump and his bullies win, Pyrrhic though their victory may be. AMEN.
I can only add to that the words of Hillel the Elder, Jewish scholar of the 1st century: If not you, WHO? If not now, WHEN? Please call and write your representatives and demand the changes we all deserve -- and vote for the Democratic candidates who most seem capable of bringing about the will of the majority of "We, the people" (us). And NEVER LOSE HOPE. In this world, we can take heart that change is inexorable. What is up, must go down. And what is down (as we seemingly are now), must go UP. 😌💥💟 If countries like Norway, Finland and New Zealand can elect good leadership and improve the lives of their citizens, we can, too! I welcome suggestions and comments from any who feel so inclined, as to how we can hasten the recovery of our country and our planet from the right-wing ideological disease that has befallen us.
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