AMERICA IN PERIL

 

 

 

“Fascism originates from aggressive Nationalism and massive intolerance for minorities.”

Origin by Dan Brown. 

 

The New Your Review of Books, June 28, 2019 publishes the review of a book on the Fascism movement in Nazi Germany, titled It Can Happen Here.   It is easy to make a comparison from this article to the United States under the Trump administration. 

 

The premise of the piece is, that during the Hitler years Germany was a nation gone mad.   It wasn’t a tyrannical few at the top, but a mass movement – a willingness of people to be governed by chaos.   Hitler was elected in a free and fair election.

 

Fascism was a right-wing movement that attacked freedom of speech, treated critics as enemies of the state, dissolved checks and balances in government and vilified newspapers using the term (Lugenpresse) lying press, along with a constant attack on Jews and Romany declaring them morally degenerate.   It was a movement of the people, of “aggressive nationalism and massive intolerance for minorities.”    This is also the mantra of the Republican Party today.

 

Hitler was painted as a fascist dictator; but he was actually an avatar of the people who enthusiastically supported him.

We are in a dangerous place today with a President who seems intent on dismantling our constitutional government, undermining our rule of law, demeaning our allies, aligning himself with dictatorial strong men, vilifying minorities and destroying a free press.     

 

Trump is only an avatar of a base that blindly support him beyond all reason.  We can’t change the Trump base, but we outnumber them.  They are a minority whose candidate lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, but was declared winner by a gerrymandered electoral college. 

 

Every voter that couldn’t vote for Hillary because of her e-mails, elected Donald Trump.   You can’t change that vote now; but perhaps this will be a reality check.  There are only two viable parties, and either Trump or Joe Biden will be elected.  

 

This is a time to put aside ‘purity test’.      The only test of Democrat nominees should be, who can best defeat Donald Trump.

 

If the Republican candidates are your choice, by all means vote Republican; but if the Republican candidates and Republican policies are not palatable for you, you must vote for the Joe Biden.

the Ol'Buzzard

 

NATURE’S REVOLT

 

 

One thing about being old is you have seen a lot to use as comparison. 

 

We are all seeing unprecedented fires in the west and an unusual number and severity of storms in the Atlantic.  

 

However, I can account, on a more personal basis, changes that have been taken place during my lifetime.

 

As a school age child, I was raised in the Mississippi Delta.   There were no fire ants.   No one had ever heard of them.   A couple of decades ago I visited Mississippi and fire ant mounds were everywhere.

 

During the 1960’s, I was a survival instructor in Maine.   I hunted, fished and canoed all over the state.    I often slept on the ground and there were no ticks in Maine.   It wasn’t until I went to New Jersey in the early 1970’S that I was aware of the existence of ticks.   Now, ticks and subsequently lime disease, are a scourge in the Maine woods.  Moose and deer and other small animals are loaded with ticks.   Precautions have to be taken when kids and adults are outside.

 

During the 1970 I was attached to a squadron in the Navy that furnished an airborne platform (aircraft) for scientist measuring the thickness of Ice, ahead of an icebreaker attempting to make a trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean.   Now cruise ships offer regular sailings through the Northwest Passage. 

 

When I first went to Alaska in 1981, shore Ice on the north shore and magnificent glaciers were the norm.   When I was back in 2007 the glaciers had noticeably receded, and arctic villages were more dangerous from polar bears because the shore ice, which bears usually hunted on during the short summer months, was gone.

 

This day and age, it is not unusual to see bag worms in trees; but this summer there has been an explosion of bag worms.   I don’t mean double the amount, but many times over.  Many trees are covered with them.  I have never seen anything like this in all my years in Maine.  I wonder if this is the new norm?

 

Another sure sign of change is that man who appears in the mirror when I am in the bathroom is so fucking old looking.   How did that happen?

 

The Ol’Buzzard