Wednesday 23 October 2019

Hurtling Toward the End of the Empire

You know, there was a time when I followed politics like sports. I watched debates with a beer and popcorn, ready for a battle of ideas.

What's going on now is not that. The United States government is basically headless, with an enormous number of crucial federal roles unfilled or occupied by "acting" figures, unvetted by Congress and beholden only to Trump for their posts. Congress and beholden only to Trump for their posts. McConnell continues to defend Trump, whom he owes for his wealthy wife's important role that has allowed millions to be directed to Kentucky, while his state built things like a Deripaska-collab aluminum operation. After McConnell helped lift sanctions against Russia, of course. While he himself became very, even mysteriously, wealthy. Corruption of the highest order.

Our allies are being slaughtered, abandoned by us in haste because Trump swoons for dictators (Putin, Erdogan, Duterte, Bolsonaro, Kim, etc.). He has signed off on the burning of the Amazon (ongoing).

There are children in concentration camps, protections are being eroded for endangered species, as well as our water and air. Our sacred wild places are being opened up for exploitation, even as science shows that we need more and more trees to push back against climate catastrophe.

This ignorant, corrupt, self-dealing, venal administration must go. The Republican party is dead. Today's theatrics, in an area of our Capitol that is secured for national security needs, are a desperate display of loyalty to a deeply unfit leader.

History will not look upon the GOP kindly. Every empire falls, and Trump has batted his eyelashes at Putin as he hastens our decline. (Putin himself is facing political upheaval at home and deeper disapproval ratings, which partly explains his meddling abroad.)

These are weak men, and they are supported by those ignorant of history, the greedy, and those angry at the wrong parties. They are all trying to make their last buck before shuffling off this mortal coil, and they make the future darker for all of the rest of us in the process.

Enough. Impeach, convict, remove.

Remember: we outnumber them. This government is supposed to work for the American people, and if it doesn't, we must change it with ruthless vigor.