It Didn't Have to Be This Way
It didn't have to be this way..
It's all over now. The shit has hit the fan. It is over and done with. The American people wlll never be trusted again by thinking people. Germany, the nation that he USA saved the world from eighty years ago - is now the leader of the free world. Isn't that something?
This is worse than anyone could have dared predict it would be. Donald Trump symbolizes everything that is dark and disturbing in the American psyche: a bent, unenlightened dysfunction that the rest of the world has come to view with a combination of horror and amusement. It will take generations to heal the embarrassment of Trump. For the foreseeable future the rest of the planet will have no good reason to take us seriously. This political cancer is terminal and self-inflicted. Sixty-five years ago the part-comical, part-horrified speculation in liberal salons was what if Joe McCarthy should ever find himself living in the White House. It happened on January 20, 2017 - only this time the new commander-in-chief is a much-worse case scenario. For all of old Joe's recklessness, at least he had a sense of humor and could be a lot of fun to be around. Even Jack Kennedy liked the man! It was said that he was also a great drinking companion. Despite his flaws, from all that I have read about the man, I get the sense that I probably would have liked Joe McCarthy had time an fate bought us together.
EXTRA! EXTRA!
PUTIN FIRES TILLERSON!
Show me a political figure who reflects someone like McCarthy in a positive light, and I'll show you a catastrophe personified. Within hours of finally taking a hard line against Vladimir Putin, Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump. One can only surmise the number of state secrets that the Donald has revealed to his main man in Moscow by now. The damage that has already been done to America in the space of fourteen months is incalculable. What can only be concluded at this point if that we - and our children - will be living with the stigma of this uncouth jackass for the rest of our lives.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
SUGGESTED READING:
Russian Roulette
by David Corn and Michael Isikoff
posted by Tom Degan @ 1:34 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
"As far as my worthless generation is concerned, the party's over. It's time to call it a day. Our generation was handed a nation, that while not perfect, was functional. And what have we handed over to our descendants? A shithole." ~~ Tom Degan
Tom, our generation, like every generation born following a crisis period -- the "winter", has been dubbed the prophets. We play a valuable role, as do the other three archetypes, so don't place all the blame on boomers.
I've mentioned this before. Read The Fourth Turning (Strauss and Howe). It will allow you to make sense of the situation we're all in, and also explain your role in determining whether we come out of it whole or sink into oblivion like so many empires in humankind history.
It's really up to us.
I also blame the boomer generation and the facts back that up.
Great governments and dictators fall. What's left are the people. Hopefully they can be free to rebuild as they see fit, whatever that may be according to their thinking at their time.
War happens when both sides are willing to fight and die over their differences. We have had one Civil War, which does not exclude another Civil War happening.
It's hard to say what the far future will bring, but it will not simply be a rejection of contemporary conservative thinking, although, that will be defeated as our country steps closer to ruination. Nor will we simply turn back to the days of FDR, LBJ government for the people.
The near future is quite clear. It is predetermined by decisions already made. It will be a depressing, slow destruction of our financial strength followed by personal and physical suffering of the people as our government slowly falls apart. It will take years to fix Trump's ruin of government, not to mention the financial destruction the Republicans have caused since 1980.
The 21st century will not be the century of America. As we already see by Trumps (implied if not real) trade war the world is moving on without America as part of their growth plans. Europe will have to deal with Putin's expansionism since Trump and America will not. American corporations (who will not miss out on future profits from future growth businesses) will simply move more of their operations out of America and become more global corporations.
Of course it's up to us, but the change needed to save our civil society is beyond any small change to fix. It will have to be a huge change that happens rather quickly to save the government and society we have been used to, at least since the end of WW II. That great leap and shock to our society will not happen fast enough without sacrificing the American lifestyle as we have come to know it.
People will survive, they always do. it's a fact that the boomers are passing on an Americ in much worse condition than it was given to them and they are vthe only ones to blame for our mess.
Trump is now firing everyone who dared criticize Russia. Interesting.
"Of course it's up to us, but the change needed to save our civil society is beyond any small change to fix. It will have to be a huge change that happens rather quickly to save the government and society we have been used to, at least since the end of WW II."
Paul, I firmly believe society, as we've become accustomed to, will go through a major paradigm shift. There's no doubt about it.
Like you, I believe the existing conservative model will be rejected and collapse upon itself, while, as you said, we will not return to the eras of the FDR/LBJ years. Something entirely new will occur. What that is is anybody's guess right now.
Also like you, I anticipate even greater human suffering before, and if, we move through this crisis period and into another "high".
When I mentioned to Tom that it's really up to us, it was in relation to what's on the other side of this crisis. It could turn out seemingly positive, as after our revolutionary, civil and last world war, or we could disappear into the dustbin of history and be totally forgotten.
It depends not entirely on what current and future events unfold, but mostly how we individually and collectively -- react to those events, and what consciousness change occurs at the same time.
Keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground. The most difficult and challenging times lay ahead of us. It's going to be a wild ride! Let's hope we do the right thing(s).
Mueller is getting closer and closer, and Trump's panicking and retaliating. I view this as Trump's own "Saturday night massacre".
Unlike Nixon, though, he's going to take down everybody, along with our cherished democratic processes and traditions, with him.
This government reflects those early 1930s days in Germany. Let's hope enough people understand this and move to resist the demagogue who obviously doesn't have any regard for our constitutional values.
I wouldn't put too much blame on Boomers.
Trump isn't one of us. Cheney isn't one of us. Murdoch, the Great Destroyer of Democracy, is not one of us. Neither are the Kochs.
True enough, every generation has its minority of right wing authoritarian personalities. It is up to each and every generation to get off their ass and stop them from taking and holding power.
Washington Post
Matt Zapotosky
March 17 at 12:52 AM
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire — a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to slander him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign.
Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department inspector general and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
His firing — which was recommended by the FBI office that handles discipline — stems from a Justice Department inspector general investigation that found McCabe authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to the media about a Clinton-related case, then misled investigators about his actions in the matter, people familiar with the matter have said. He stepped down earlier this year from the No. 2 job in the bureau after FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was briefed on the inspector general’s findings, though he technically was still an employee. "
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