Sunday, December 18, 2016

Diary 12/18/16 - mighty depressed

While Trevor made me laugh, it wasn't enough to lift me from the dark depression here on the 18th of December living this monstrosity of being an aware yet impotent witness to all this collective madness going down around me.  Last time I felt this much dread was the run up to the Republican Shock'n Awe War of Profit, when my fears were realized.  Here we go again.

We are about to have a man become President of the US by dint of a campaign based on hate-mongering plus fabricating malicious lies and feeding them to a frustrated scared “faith-based” audience that was thirsty for a little hate mongering and demonizing of their imagined enemies.  Was it any surprise after them listening to eight years of relentless, if contrived, but oh so malicious, right-wing media rage.  As a 60+ I wonder, whatever happened to America’s innate sense of Fair Play?  Greed must have swallowed it.

US Representatives who are supposedly servants of The People and our Constitution are shrugging their shoulders, “What me do something?  Forget about it!”  That scares me to my core.  Worst of all is that despite the large citizen outrage that I read about in selected media circles, I wonder if it’s close enough to reach that critical mass need to successful confront the coming Oligarch Blitzkrieg.  I do hope so.

If tomorrow’s protests turn out to be little more than the usual suspects, oh boy are we in for a reaming these next couple years.  If on the other hand citizens from all stripes do show up in massive numbers, that would be a thing of democratic beauty to behold, and a healthy warning shot across Trump's thoughtless bow.

Then, the second most important question of the moment would become: Are they demanding that Democratic Senators vote on Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination January 3rd?  I do hope my pessimism turns out ill placed.  (Why not protest Washington DC New Year's day?  It's a thought.)  

Why my pessimism?  Much of the fuel for Trump’s destructive PR offensive of lies was supplied by the Russian government, but our moralistic self-certain Republicans, suddenly don’t care about such national security issues.  Looking at their stonewalling, they don’t want us Americans to learn any more about it either.

I ask myself why wouldn’t they care that Trump is obviously a Russian Obligate up to his neck in entangles that cross many national interest lines?  Well that would be US national interest lines.  Let me think, okay they did get what they wanted, a blindly pro-big-business President.  If the Russians made it happen bully for them.

Of course, another question is where was USA’s once proud Fourth Estate?  Acting complicit stooges and allowing themselves to be played by Putin, Bannon and Murdoch?  Then again, a valid retort would be, a few did write stories, it was no secret, where was the outcry of concerned informed citizens?  As they say, excellent question.

Now here we are, giving our government over to a group of people who hate our government.  People who trapped in their own self-certain bubble are convinced government with its concern for citizen rights and regulating our complex society is an outmoded notion increasingly at odds with their own ever more megalomaniacal agenda.

The oligarchs have no interest in the United States of America with a President at its helm.  Today’s spun out mega-corporate giants want to transform us into the Corporation of Amerika with a Supreme Promoter at its helm.  The question is: Do We The People give a damned?

We The People have given them the keys and most of us remain in glorious ignorant oblivion.  Then, down the road when cascading consequences start impacting people and when times get really tough the corporate masters of the universe can have Bannon and Murdoch convince everyone all their troubles are the other’s fault.  

Hang on folks, this is for keeps.  Don’t kid yourselves, many in the Trump crowd are thirsting for revenge, perhaps even a little civil war, here and there, hopefully not everywhere.  This is not a drill?

How many Americans spend any time reflecting on our government, what a fantastic feat of organizing and service it is.  Try imaging a modern society without regulations or functioning government agencies that provide the many things and services we depend on, but often don't even recognize.  I’m not saying our government and its laws are perfect, but it’s like a complex engine that’s starting to run rough, you don’t go at it with a slug hammer.  You carefully consider all the evidence and then decide on a constructive way to repair the problems and get the wonderful machine back in tune.  

Don't kid yourselves, we’ll never fix our government if people don’t slow down long enough to soberly recognize where our problems lie.  To have a willingness to learn from our own mistakes.  To spend less time turning each other into enemies and more time focusing on our society's and Earth's realities this year of 2016.  Not squandering yet more time self-destructively chasing some make-believe never was and never can be world. 

I say all that because we are actually handing over our government to a bunch of ideological zealots who believe they are doing their God’s will.  People who are incapable of recognizing or accepting the profound difference between Personal Truths and Universal Truths.  People who see every objection as another holy enemy of their God, to be vanquished by whatever means necessary.  Scary times.

We never know what we have until it’s gone, . . .  (and then we seem to forget in a hurry.  Guess that's the price of living within the hollywood fantasy of ‘too much is never enough’.  So tragic, but like the novel says: So it goes.)

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