UNITED STATES SELL-BY DATE: NOVEMBER 8, 2022

 

I find this a particularly hard time to blog.  The MAGA world has brought violence and intimidation into the political processes to an extent not seen since the Civil War; and the Supreme Court is moving the country toward the fundamental Christian far-right.  I fear I am seeing this country, its stability I have always taken for granted, move toward becoming a fascist theocracy.

 

(Fascism: a form of far-right authoritarian, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, exultation of nation and race above the individual, with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader.)

 

This country has a history of good things and terrible things, but it has always strived toward a vision of democracy outlined in our Constitution.

 

I spent 22 years in the military.  When deployed among other nation’s troops I was always proud of the display of the Stars and Stripes – the symbol of our country.

 

But that was in the past.  Now when I see our flag its connotation is insurrection, rebellion and fanatical cult allegiance to a monumental con-man and would be dictator.   To me, the American flag has now become the symbol of the destruction of the democratic government that I have lived under for over eighty years.

 

Perhaps this country is past its sell-by date. 

 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

 

Trump Fatigue

 

I published this in the local e-paper:

I am so looking forward to getting back to some form of normality; to a day I can turn the television on and don’t have to hear Trump bragging about how smart he is, or how great a job he is doing, or attacking some imaginary enemy; a time when Trump isn’t grabbing the headlines with some outrageous action, or his desecration of some democratic norm; a time when every day, all day long, it is not about Trump - Trump - Trump.

Those of you in the Trump cult can build a shrine to your Glorious Leader in your home; hang his picture on the wall and surround it with Confederate flags, Russian Flags, white supremacy and Neo-Nazi memorabilia.  Build an alter for your red hat or have MAGA tattooed on your forehead; but please, give the rest of us a break, don’t make the next four years about Trump – Trump – Trump and how he was cheated out of reelection, even though he lost the popular vote by seven million votes. 

 

 I don't agree that we need to give the Trump Cult Loyalist a pass.   Trump is a racist, supported by the KKK and neo-Nazi, he has colluded with Russia where he has financial interest, he has used his office to enrich himself and his family, he is personally responsible for an out of control pandemic that has killed a quarter of a million Americans, he has tried to overthrow the results of a legitimate election, he has made our country weaker by placing unqualified loyalist in major positions of government, he has vilified the free press, he has encouraged anarchy and even violence from his rabid supporters, he has threatened to jail political rivals, he has destroyed the United States standing over seas with our allies...

I know that his supporters live in the alternate reality of Fox News and other far right propaganda networks, but the damage and destruction to the norms of our democracy perpetrated by Trump will be a problem for our democratic system of government for decades to come.   Trump has taken a wrecking ball to a democracy that has taken two-hundred-and-fifty years to build.  Trump supporters who have blindly followed the Glorious Leader are, in the end, responsible.   

the Ol'Buzzard 

AUTOPSY OF AMERICA 2020

 

  

I am not sure if 2020 is an acid dream that I can’t wake up from.   It started when we began hearing of Donald Trump back in 2008.   After that the world went out of sync. 

 

Donald Trump came on the political scene in 2008, but few paid attentions to him.   . 

  

Trump, the spoiled son of a multi millionaire, received five deferments from military service during the Vietnam war.  He inherited millions from his father upon graduating from college and his bad investments resulted in five bankruptcies.  He made his name as a TV reality star host.  His election as President was a shock to everyone, including himself. 

 

As President he has denigrated John McCain and all POW’ and MIA’s saying he “prefers people who weren’t captured.”  He called the service men that died during the battle of Dunkirk losers.  He has taken children away from their parents at the southern border and placed them in internment camps.  He has used the office of the president for personal enrichment.     He has ruined the standing of the United States among Allied nations.   And, his subservience to Vladimir Putin raises many questions.  Trump is one of only three presidents that have been impeached while in office.

Trump is a womanizer, a racist, a habitual liar a conman and quite possibly a traitor.  His mental stability is easily questioned.  He displays narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and egotism.   Yet, he has become the Glorious Leader of the Republican party.

 

So here we are in 2020, during a virus pandemic infecting one-hundred-thousand-plus people daily with over one-hundred-thirty-five thousand dead and half of the country denying the seriousness of the of the illness. 

 

We have a totally unqualified President running for reelection and half of the population of the United States considers him a cult savior.

 

Trump will eventually go; but half of the U.S. population, members of the Trump cult, will influence our democracy for decades to come and make the United States of the past unrecognizable in the future.

 

Something has happened and I don’t know what it is.   

 

 I wish I could wake up

the Ol'Buzzard

 

 

 

 

 

Machiavellianism  psychopathy