My main problem with it is that it’s a direct violation of the United States Constitution, a document that, until recently, was a pretty big deal here in America.
A minor problem that further kills the deal for me is that I don’t want squads of lawless goons in my quiet little town.
The words at left come from late-20th Century philosopher and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna.
His observation here echoes those of many other intellectuals who have pondered how it’s possible that an extremely intelligent species can make such poor decisions when it comes to governance.
The problem, I believe, is that intelligence isn’t the only characteristic–or even the main one–that drives the way we elect our leaders and get along with others. Our tribalism and greed are far more important to how human beings behave in groups.
This could be what takes Trump (and countless others) down.
Government officials all around the world have access to the unredacted Epstein files, and the top people in, say, France couldn’t care less about protecting the criminal sociopath in the White House.
In fact, they know that by exposing him, they’ll be doing the world a huge favor.
Most of us can’t.
We’re too old. We have children and grandchildren here, we have a medical team that knows us and keeps use healthy, we’re embedded in careers, etc.
So many of us would love to move away from this budding fascist empire, but we simply cannot.
In response to the question at left:
Of course; it’s their lives. But I’d be saddened.
I told my kids when they were young that they would have far more rewarding lives if they were able to fashion their careers out of working with their minds than their hands.
To an ever-increasing number of us living in modern-day America, the answer would be: Everything we learned in kindergarten, i.e., sharing, being nice to others, and telling the truth.
My kindergarten teacher, Alice Adams, never told us that it was a dog-eat-dog world out there. Or if she did, I must have been home with a cold that day.
In response to the meme at left, a reader notes:
Republican candidates in Texas: “I’m going to fix the mess the Democrats made” – who is more pathetic, those GOP conmen or the morons who keep voting them in?
This is an astute observation. There is always a market where supply and demand meet. It doesn’t matter if that market is a social evil like heroin (there are heroin dealers because there are heroin addicts), or a good one (there are excellent colleges because some parents are willing to pay a great deal to have their kids well educated).
As America descends ever further into ignorance, do not expect voters to have the epiphany to the effect that they’ve been lied to.
There is also a psychological effect at play here. As Carl Sagan said:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Today, about 36% of American voters believe this crap. Next week it will be 34%, etc., etc.
In actuality, the number is lower. Do you think the amoral rich who have huge holdings in the oil companies believe that? Of course not. They’re well educated, and they want tax breaks; they know goddamn well that Trump is the laughingstock of the developed world.
Remarkably, the demise of the United States is of no importance to most American billionaires.
Btw, I could have sworn there was a president between Obama and Biden. What did he do about the so-called “mess?”
I give her high ratings. Her job is to look pretty and, more importantly, to lie convincingly regarding Trump’s honesty, criminal innocence, and competence as president.
It would be essentially impossible to find someone who could do it anywhere nearly as well.
Sorry, but this train has left the station.
The legacy of any president is a function of what they do, rather than what they say. It is for that reason that Trump’s legacy will probably include:
Having more that 50 felony charges against him dropped
Statutory rape
Attempting to overthrow the U.S. federal government
Denying due process to undocumented people
Having armed agents brutalize (and occasionally murder) U.S. residents
