I wrote the poem below after thinking about what I had seen in the news about how President Trump rewards his faithful servants with the best possible healthcare THAT IS NOT MADE AVAILABLE to the general public.
In my poem I ask the obvious question: "Why do some get the good medicine and some don't?" The poem reveals the obvious answer is in two parts. 1. Political favoritism or 2. the lack of being politically favored become the obvious reasons a few get the treatment that works or the reason that many just suffer. This conclusion is justified on the basis the President knew from the beginning how dire the situation was and how high the stakes were. The rest is history "It is what it is".
The world is watching to see if the Trump / Republican Coup attempt will be successful. I personally hope it fails. Democracy and liberty are being weighed in the balances by American politicians right now. It is not something the Average American has ever considered could, or would, happen. But Trump changed everything and now we are seeing an attempted coup right before our very eyes. The Young Turks Cenk Uygur has some commentary that inspired the poem below.
The terrible problem Americans are facing is that those supporting President Trump are not fans of the Voting Class of Americans. The in your face facts have been that in this time of great trouble Republicans and Democrats have been less than useless and decidedly harmful to the wellbeing of the residents of Main Street America.
Politically powerful members of the Republican Party are doing all they can to subvert the voting process and pervert the outcome of the election. That is what an attempted coup looks like to outside observers. In the meantime Democrats have been as useless as the Republicans have been harmful.
This leaves me wondering if Americans have accepted that this is the way it must be and will just give up and let it get worse and worse until all hope is a pleasant memory we once took comfort in.
The effects of the President refusing to accept the verdict of THE PEOPLE has left many Americans asking how they could have been bamboozled to the point of considering giving up the democratic republic created by the writers of the constitution to be ruled by the whims of a man like Donald Trump.
Having nearly 50 percent of the American electorate willing to dispose of the democratic process in favor of a big mouthed braggart has left the community of nations shaking it's collective head in disbelief. Whether the majority of Americans want a representative form of government is a question waiting to be answered.
How much of the last four years has been on the up and up? If we can take William Casey at his word, the words 'Mission Accomplished' fit the mood and mind of the Republican and Democratic created status quo. If you're not bewildered from trying to make sense of what's happening you have not been paying attention.
Americans have been run through the ringer and hung out to dry by the complicity of the Republican and Democratic Parties. Neither one of these Parties behaved as if the vitality of democracy was something that concerned them as they went about their duties during the Trump Administration.
Both the Republicans and the Democrats agreed to help the Wall Street class and dump on Main Street. The decision of Republicans and Democrats to turn their back on Main Street and let average Americans suffer in order to keep Wall Street profits high holds many lessons. Have the American People learned those lessons?
One lesson that can be garnered from the past four years is that Republican and Democratic lawmakers are not producing the help needed by the Average American during the COVID crisis. They have shown themselves to be good at lying and finger pointing and not much else when it comes to making life easier on Main Street.
Average Americans need living wage jobs, healthcare, education, a place to live, safe workplaces and a government of elected representatives that responds to the needs of the Voting Class without having to have their arms twisted.
We've seen, throughout this four year ordeal, that the Republican and Democratic Parties have acted in concert seeing to it that the suffering of the American People continued unabated. Escaping responsibility for the condition of American society is not possible for them because it has been Republican and Democratic lawmakers making ALL THE DECISIONS. Therefore they hold all the responsibility for the present condition Americans find themselves in.
With the consequences of the last four years of Republican and Democratic malfeasance there has arisen from the hearts of the American People the desire for a government that exists to benefit the Average American.
The American People have begun to question why they have a government that treats them this way. They are not content with what the Republicans and the Democrats have done to them. Americans are asking why their government is not responsive to their needs. The answer many arrive at is that Republicans and Democrats simply have another agenda and other more pressing concerns than the needs of average working class American voters.
The solution some Americans are considering is a THIRD PARTY. A Party with a pro-human agenda. A Party that would require that the resources of the nation serve the People of the nation. This Party would represent human beings rather than the non-voting Donor Class that is the special concern of Republican and Democratic lawmakers. This Third Party would make real the promises a democratic republic makes. This would be a truly revolutionary Party.
What do you think Americans will do? Will they keep things the way they are? Or will they decide they've had enough and make the necessary changes?
As a result of the President going around the nation encouraging the spread of COVID by the assembling of mass gatherings I made a video from art I made earlier. We are not suffering only from COVID. We are suffering as well from Trump's anti-human economic and social policies,
I put together a series of images I created that were impressed on me by the spectacle of the President's behavior. My thoughts were moderated by the thoughts in the Old Testament book of Job.
"Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause":Job Chapter 5: 1-8.
The book of Job fascinates me. I'm amazed at the literary quality of the story written long ago during the bronze age. The plot and the theme are worthy of current consideration. The dramatic work J.B. is an example of such a consideration from the near past.
The theme of Job presents a story that seeks to come to grips with existence in the face of existence seemingly seeking to exterminate Job. Since Job represents the human condition by that token the story of Job represents the condition of you and me as well.
You would not want to be in Job's shoes, but in a sense our condition is not much better. Job was left sitting in a pile of ashes scraping boils that covered his entire body. While he was doing this his 'friends' spent their time trying to convince him that his problems were his own damned fault and that he had better shape up or else!
On top of that Job had a wife who urged him to kill himself to avoid suffering.
Job's sentiments in all of this are summed up in the following words. Job 19:25-27
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."
With the chaos in the U.S caused by Donald Trump's policies, asking "what the hell is going on, why is existence doing this to us?" is a question everyone should find an answer to.
When compared with what we've seen so far between Trump and Biden, Presidential debates in the past reveal vast differences in decorum and candidate behavior between then until now.
I took a look back at the Kennedy / Nixon debate and then the current election years Trump / Biden 'debate'. Both debates are complete. The difference between the two is astonishing isn't it? (Both debates at highlighted links.)
What happened between the time of Kennedy and Trump to transform the Presidential debates from a serious production with serious contestants discussing solutions to world problems into a side show? We saw something very different in the so called Trump /Biden 'debate' than what we saw in the Kennedy / Nixon debate.
The Trump / Biden 'debate' resembled an argument between two senile residents in a geriatric community confronting one another over an old dispute from high school. I was sickened at the sight. And then the President and his staff come down with COVID...or so they want you to believe.
What differences did you make note of between the two debates and the four contestants? Which debate seemed more appropriate to a debate between two men seeking the office of President of the United States? Which one made you ask yourself: "What the hell is going on?" In the Trump / Biden 'debate' I thought the President behaved like an unruly high school student who needed to be sent to the principal's office.
Kennedy inspired the creation of the Peace Corps and introduced the nation to the space age following the Soviet Union's lead. The Soviet Union was the first in space and the space race was on. History flowing from the Kennedy Administration reminds us of those things.
From Trump's history we know of one business failure after another from Mr. Trump. If his Administration has inspired anyone it is not the current generation which is facing a collapsing, polluted and unhealthy eco-system in which to reproduce and raise their young. Who has Trump inspired?Oh yeah he inspired the Michigan 13. What kind of a future does that inspiration portend?
Questions for the reader:
1. What do you think America will be like if Trump remains President?
During the contentious period of the 1960's America was involved in losing a long protracted war with the small nation of Vietnam far away from American shores. The period was contentious because the war was an illegal war and American teenagers were being forced against their will to fight the war.
In the end over 58,000 Americans, average age close to 19, died waging this war. During that period Pete Seeger sang a song the censors didn't like. "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy" finally made it to TV on a popular socially conscious variety program, The Smothers Brothers. that was subsequently canceled because of its social commentary.
So now that you've listened to the song you can see Americans in the 21st century are waist deep, neck deep, almost over our head in another 'Big Muddy' and once again the Big Fool is saying "push on."
If all we are being told about the President's health and those around him is true we're in deep trouble. It means the President, as demonstrated by his behavior and rhetoric, doesn't care if WE THE PEOPLE live or die. He is fully aware of the deadliness of the virus and yet his public behavior is telling people to ignore the proper health precautions.
The heads of the military are all in quarantine meaning our military response is in one way or another restricted. The President is responsible for this. The President is denying reality as the second wave of the COVID pandemic sweeps across the states. America is in deep trouble if this trajectory is not altered. Why is the President behaving so dangerously and erratically?
If the internal threat to domestic welfare and tranquility poised by the virus and the President were not enough there is the threat of White Supremacist violence. The Trump Administration has embraced this ideology and has emboldened his base to accept violence and heavy handedness as the proper way to govern. Trump has done this while denying a White Supremacist threat is real. In doing so he's, in effect, calling the investigators liars or dummies. He's ignoring the warning the way Bush did.
I am reminded of the G.W. Bush Administration which also ignored intelligence about national security issues. By doing so Bush allowed the WTC Buildings to be demolished by Saudi Arabian funded criminals. We still haven't won the war he started over that, but we're still providing him his pension and healthcare.
My question for you is this. Will Trump's refusal to acknowledge a national security threat from his White Supremacist base as well as the COVID virus lead to an all out race war and societal devastation in the same way as the willingness of George Bush to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING lead to the demolition of the WTC by foreign nationals and a war still going on in one way or another to this very day?
The reader may have noticed that America has been acting more strangely than ever during the Administration of Donald Trump. I think this is because the Republican Party in partnership with Donald Trump has sold us out to the highest bidders and the Democratic Party has stood there saying 'Yes sir, yes sir,' like a eunuch in the court of the king.
The madcap display of a COVID infected President riding the crest of a steroid high telling the American people to stay strong and beat the virus is about the greatest insult to decency this Administration has committed. SO FAR.
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By the time the debate had ended 7 beers had been consumed. I was numb, not from the beer. I was numb from thinking about the consequences of the spectacle I had just witnessed. Watch it in full here.
I had seen two adults wishing to be President behaving like a couple of high school punks in a school yard arguing. Sophomores at that. This display was their attempt to win votes. It's experiences like this that turn the American mind into silly putty.
Donald Trump and his White Christian Nationalist agenda has a real chance of being the direction the U.S. chooses. Democracy Now report. If that happens the entire world is imminently imperiled.
The other candidate, Joe Biden is not the solution to the problems of Americans on Main Street. Biden is the solution to the problems facing the Wall Street status quo. Biden, however, can be a 'plug' in the hole Trump has drilled in the Ship of State. Biden can put out the fires Trump has started, but he WILL sell us out in the long term because of his loyalties to corporate profits. For now Biden is America's life boat that we need to get to shore.
Being allowed to have only these two candidates to choose from is hardly able to be called self-determination when there are so many different points of view which are not included. For instance economic ideas like Socialism and Marxism are anathema in current political discussion. However the problems of Americans trying to scratch out a living on Main Street are an indication that there needs to be new managers in charge of the economy and we have only thought in Capitalist terms up to the present moment when it comes to managing the economy.
Teachers like Richard Wolff have proven that Americans are ready to re-consider whether or not they want to change how the economy is managed. I'm ready, how about you?
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This summer I decided to grow hollyhocks. An entire package of seeds was planted and one plant resulted.
Planted in May it wasn't until July that one plant appeared. When it did I wasn't sure it was a hollyhock but, or so, I let it grow. Despite the frustration of not knowing what it was that was growing until mid-summer I really enjoyed growing this flower.
I was utterly dumbfounded at the size, strength and vigor of the plant. The number of large, showy, vibrant pink flower blossoms was mind-blowing.
Growing the flower garden this summer was spiritually beneficial in a time of COVID stress. The genuineness of the law of 'Karma' is evident every day you do or do not weed and water. Gardening is a genuine life lesson, you reap what you sow. Or as The Buddha said:
I enjoyed growing the hollyhock and was impressed with how big it got. The plant in the picture is not as big as it had been destined to become. Fate intervened, a wind came up and ripped off 4 large blossom laden stalks leaving only the center stalk which was impressive in it's own right.
As a public service with the President racing the length and breadth of the nation hosting disease spreading events there is something you need to remember. Voting this November is a MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
The social unrest in the United States under the supervision of Donald Trump is increasing. Social conditions involving lack of employment, lack of healthcare, environmental devastation caused by global warming and police reform are foremost in the social discussion which the Trump Administration is seeking to stifle. In short living conditions are dire for tens of millions of Americans who are concluding they have been, since the revelations of Donald Trump about COVID contagiousness, hung out to dry.
They are, as a result, raising their voices in dissent. The electorate is coming to understand that their elected lawmakers have abandoned them and subordinated the requirements of their lives and the lives of their families to the profits of Wall Street Profiteers.
Social justice can only exist in an environment in which the institutions of society are free from corruption. Such a condition requires every aspect of society be on the up and up from the king to the bedroom of the shepherd. We know for certain that is not a description of the United States form of government under Donald Trump and AG Barr.
The irony of this is that the US claims to be a Christian Nation. That may be. But it does not deserve the claim to be a nation that applies the principles of Jesus to it's decision making. Christians can be cruel and autocratic. The record of the 4 gospels is that Jesus was never that way.
The principles of the Kingdom Of Heaven will promote social harmony. Abandoning those principles involves embracing a specific type of decision making. In the U S that type of decision making is characterized by prioritizing Wall Street profiteers over ordinary citizens.
Now the problem with this is that Jesus anticipated malefactors making laws and provided the following insight at the link to encourage those of us less fortunate than Wall Street profiteers.
The paragraph below is from a book written by a woman who was acclaimed as a prophet by some and proven to be a plagiarist by others. Her name was Ellen G. White. The author provides a bleak depiction of a future America. Read the words below and ask yourself if these words do not reflect reality.
"In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun “to scorch
men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.”
1076 The
prophets thus describe the condition of the earth at this fearful
time: “The land mourneth; ... because the harvest of the field
is perished.” “All the trees of the field are withered: because
joy is withered away from the sons of men.” “The seed is rotten
under their clods, the garners are laid desolate.” “How do the
beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they
have no pasture.... The rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire
hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” “The songs of the
temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there
shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them
forth with silence.”
1077 The Great Controversy
A question. If you don't speak up and present the government with your grievances how do you think the trajectory of the present course will end up?
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It Just Keeps Getting Crazier And Crazier. America now has a President who disrespects those who have been unfortunate enough to have suffered for the good of their fellow Americans. Rachel Maddow has the down low on this.
I would think the President's stated opinions of wounded veterans (CBS News at link) would discourage people from serving in the military with him as Commander In Chief. Who would serve a man who thinks so little of the worth of the life and health of his own soldiers?
Does the President view the soldiers as 'renewable resources'?
Americans have some soul searching to do. (Poem by Allen Ginsberg at the link) A good number of Americans are doubtful of a positive or desirable outcome from the planning of Trump and the Republican Party for the future of the nation.
I'm just hoping a majority of Americans can defeat the President's plans to fuck up the election. I hope we as a nation are able to reject this impostor to the Republic.
I've made up my mind that my vote will be for Biden if the President is unsuccessful in his attempts to keep me from voting. The President may yet succeed in corrupting the outcome of the election. There's nothing I can do about it so I've made lifestyle changes with the intent to lessen the stress produced by the ongoing social unrest caused by Donald Trump's policies.
I've stopped watching the news more than a few minutes a day because it is non-stop aggravation and unsettling information that is unnecessary since I have made up my mind.
Since I am certain Trump is as un-American as a man can become (link to The Damage Report)I do not need to be further angered by hearing the increasingly distressing accounts of the growing madness that is stalking the halls and rooms of the White House and spreading like a pandemic through the hearts and minds of his followers, the TRUE BELIEVERS. The Damage Report reveals more.
Instead,I decided to make my own sanctuary and grow a garden and feed birds and let the madness blow past. It's all either going to hell or Americans will save themselves from Trump and the Republicans and the Christian Sharia value system of the religious right.
For some reason I am unable to share the embed code that displays the video. Here is the link. That's one of the new features Google has incorporated.
Hopefully the election will reveal that Trump has been voted from office and the Republican Party has been irrevocably and completely disgraced as a byproduct of it's allegiance to the Trump Presidency. That would be nice to wake up some morning post election and find out that was true, wouldn't it?
Maybe the day will arrive when a squad of wounded marine veterans and active military in wheel chairs, with crutches and artificial limbs will have the privilege of escorting him from the White House to Leavenworth.
Americans are under attack from enemies within. Much of the President's time recently has been spent insisting WE THE PEOPLE do not know how to hold an election anymore. Link to NY Times commentary. The Republican Party supports him all the way. This is an unhealthy development for democracy lovers in America and around the world. Noam Chomsky gives his opinion on the COVID-19 epidemic and the response of the American political class to the threat to the nation at the link from The Real News Network.
In the 21 century no word of apology from Donald Trump as he works hand in hand with the "opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
A raccoon destroyed the future held in the duck egg in the picture below. The Ring Of Fire report at the link reveals the Trump Administration's ongoing attempts to deprive the nation's voting class from voting. Like what happened to the raccoon eaten egg below Trump and the Republican Party are eating the heart out of our democracy.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party are attempting to do something similar to the idea of Self Determination. Have a nice day.
