Wednesday, May 30, 2018

The Enemy Of The People

Someone just told me that America's in trouble because too many of us are blinded by our mindless hatred of the president. One would assume he was referring to the fist-bumping, angry, terrorist-loving, fraudulent Muslim president who was born in Africa, but no. Whole different president. Seems like someone has set people like me up as a straw man. After all, there's no need to listen to a mindless hater.

Except that doesn't describe me or my friends. America's in big trouble, but not because of us.

This president? I don't hate him. I do think he's a loathsome, contemptible, ignorant, ill-bred, dangerous, pathetically insecure con man, circus barker, and bullshit artist, but I am a forgiving sort, and do not demand purity from my politicians, and if he did anything laudatory I would acknowledge it. But he hasn't. Across the board, in every sphere, at every level, he is making everything worse. Catastrophically worse. That, I hate.

He's the sort who might be expected to dismiss the Black Lives Matter movement by piously claiming that all lives matter--except for all the people whose lives don't matter to him at all, including our fellow citizens, other nations, tribes, faiths, and his own political opponents. We are being deliberately sliced into factions, for no purpose but to divide us and politically conquer us, to one end. The enrichment of the rich.

We might wish that every Republican who rails against abortion would light up like a bulb if he has personally paid for an abortion. But let us just stipulate that for every one of them who honestly believes in the rights of embryos, there are dozens more who don't care at all, but are willing to use that lever to pry a reliable chunk of the electorate into the Republican column, to one end. The enrichment of the rich.

And somewhere there might be a Republican who suspects that gun rights have gone too far, but he is willing to let that go in order to pry off another reliable chunk of the electorate into the Republican column, to one end. The enrichment of the rich.

And you know what? I care about reproductive rights, and I worry about gun violence. But I would cede it all, and send women back to the coat hanger, and give every man, woman, and fetus a gun, if it meant the modern Republican party would wither and die. Because we're in a heap of trouble, and we're out of time.

It was forty years ago I was first startled to read that carbon might be our most dangerous pollutant. And now we are looking at the extinction of half the world's species in the next eighty years; we're on track to a collapse of all the world's fisheries in thirty; half our coral is dead now; we're running out of fresh water;  our ecosystems are collapsing; and those sounding the alarm are being dismissed as fearmongers and frauds. And a population easily gulled and lulled believes it. We grew up in the oil age with no sense of how special it is, how extraordinary our energy-enhanced abilities are, how unsustainable this existence is. We're a species that has muddled along for a million years and then, pretty much in my own puny lifetime, shot about sixty million years'-worth of buried carbon into the air, and that means that yes, unfortunately, as incredible as it seems, we really are living in the end times. We made them ourselves.

And the time to do something about it was at least thirty years ago, and plenty of people knew it. But the past is not retrievable, and the best we can do is start now. Instead, thanks to the feckless and ignorant occupant of the presidency, and his cynical enablers in the Republican Party, we're all in Thelma and Louise's car with the pedal to the metal. We know what must be done. We have no time left for ignorance. Or dupes. Or mercenaries. Or greed. Or any member of the one party whose only core belief is that--for them and their friends--there is no such thing as too much money.

34 comments:

  1. Seriously, I don't blame Trump so much for the current state of affairs (I mean, did we expect any different?) as I do the craven Republicans in Congress who have the power to limit the damage he does but refuse to, because they want to make their rich friends richer. They've sold out their country (and the globe) for 30 pieces of silver. Traitors, every single one of them.

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    1. I do not think that is too strong a word, at all.

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    2. It is definitely not him who has not done the job of congress.

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  2. Well said, Murr! If I was the least bit religious, at this point I would be screaming "Amen!" or at least some gender-neutral version thereof.

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    1. Now I have to go look up the derivation of "amen."

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    2. Murr, you are a sensitive and talented pianist, and DAMN, GIRL, YOU KNOW HOW TO WRITE. You've put all of my thoughts down eloquently (not sure about the paragraph re sending women back to coathangers, but I'll consider it). Thank you, thank you. Here's to keeping our noses to the grindstone and at the very least getting out the vote to at least put the brakes on doncon and his minions.

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    3. Thanks, Ava--I just want to take the single-issue voters out of the cynical equation, and then we can set things right later. Got some Scarlatti all cued up for you! (You know I do.)

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  3. It's why the only author they ever refer to is Ayn Rand. She makes them feel good about being selfish.

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    1. "I've got mine." That's been a credo for a long time, but more and more it's also "And I'm going after yours."

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  4. Totally agree however we the common folks, who may not be republicans, support this atrocious destruction of our ecosystem by buying fossil fuel eating and spurting out carbon cars, trucks, RVs, etc. We need to be buying electric cars or getting rid of our cars to ride bicycles or using public transportation so less cars, trucks, etc. on the road. Yes, I'm guilty as anyone else who owns a vehicle. Lately I limit my drives to once a week and I pile all chores and errands I need to run into this one day of driving. The drive is limited to 5 mile radius. Otherwise I walk or ride the bus. I don't know if this helps but I try.

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    1. P.S. Other things that I use less..bottled water, toxic lawn chemicals or repellants, my lawn turned brown due to conserving water, pump sprays instead of aerosol sprays, etc.

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    2. Good job! It's bound to help. But the system is so entrenched it's probably a drop in the bucket. We do need to change things at the top. As long as too many people are making too much money digging up carbon, it's going to accelerate. I am not sure how these people are able to look their children in the eye, or sleep at night.

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  5. They look their children in the eye and say, “Daddy helped China give you seven trademarks for shit nobody needs.” And ,”Pay no attention to the huddled masses outside our gated community. There are more than enough servants to replace the ones who die because they have no healthcare or safe communities.” Of course there are zoos for animals they kill off, and they will even name the streets lined by their McMansions after them.

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    1. I have to imagine you're right. Oh lordy. Hey: BIG climate march coming up in July.

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  6. And from me. And sadly similar things are happening here.

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  7. Excellent and timely post. Hate is indeed a too mundane and harmful emotion. I see this man as a serious problem to and for our country and one that needs solving.

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  8. "We're a species that has muddled along for a million years and then, pretty much in my own puny lifetime, shot about sixty million years'-worth of buried carbon into the air, and that means that yes, unfortunately, as incredible as it seems, we really are living in the end times. We made them ourselves."

    In a nutshell, that is the concept that I doubt many (or any) of those people you discussed have ever in their entire lives stood back and realized. They have no sense of history or perspective to temper their greed. Grrr.

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    1. It only takes a generation to get used to things that shouldn't be gotten used to. I probably imagine the paltry representation of birds in my garden is the norm, too.

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  9. Another Thank You! And some sharing.

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  10. I wish I knew what I could personally do, although I freely admit I'm not the "go-getter" type. Planting a couple of fruit bearing trees seems like it would help a bit.

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    1. Just to get it on your radar, I think there's a massive climate march being planned for July. A children's march, but I'll be there.

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  11. I feel lucky to be old so that I don't have to witness the last throes of humanity. My heart is already broken. We should have done more to stop them.

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  12. Amen, sister. As a dual US/Canadian citizen, I used to feel calm as I crossed the border into the US. Home. Now, my shoulders creep up and I'm always on alert.

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    1. And your man Trudeau just sold you down the river, too.

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    2. What? I don't follow. Can you please explain?

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  13. Right on! Thank you Murr! You speak truth.

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    1. If I can't manage the funny, I at least aim for the truth.

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  14. It's tribalism run amok! They'll believe anything Fox "News" tells them now, no matter how far-fetched or otherwise disproven.

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