Right Wing Radicals trash our Capitol Building, threaten to murder Pelosi and Pence, and attempt to stop Congress’s certifying Electoral votes. Flying to Florida, Kevin McCarthy pays fealty to an insane man.  Pistol in her belt, an insane woman taunts a Parkland massacre survivor and stalks Congress. 

Has the Republican party descended into madness?  We have to believe the sane majority will step forward and reclaim Honest Abe’s Grand Old Party.  

Americans are angry and exasperated that Congressional Democrats and Republicans can’t agree to disagree, negotiate and get on with The People’s work.  Some describe our Government as a “Swamp.”  It has a name: Democracy!  As Donald Rumsfeld famously observed, Democracy is “messy.” 

Alternatives to America’s “Representative Democracy” are Autocracy, Oligarchy and One-Party rule, which Donald Trump, not so secretly, champions.  Not being messy, each holds an advantage over Democracy.  China’s government, for example, experiences none of the conflict and haggling we seen in Washington D.C.  The tradeoff, of course, under Autocracy, Oligarchy or One-Party Rule the huge majority of “The People” are subjected to the agendas and whims of a powerful handful who have schemed and maneuvered their way to the top.   

Human history hinges on a dynamic balance between folks happy with things as they are and those who are not: Conservatives and Liberals.  Since 1776 America has wrestled over whose beliefs and agendas will prevail.  In my opinion, despite its messiness continuing to slog through Democracy’s Swamp is humankind’s best hope.   

Afterthought: Change is the only constant.  In another metaphor, those who would keep things as they are must drown in the incoming tide.                     

Convinced a young black man he stole her cell phone, a young white woman attacked him.  Turns out, she left her phone in an Uber.  Convinced he won America’s 2020 Presidential election Donald Trump ordered his Minions to assault our Capitol building and stop Congress’s Constitutionally mandated certification of the states’ Electors votes. 

Perhaps arguably, the young woman’s accusation and assault were rooted in her assumption about black people.  As I understand, Donald Trump’s attack on American’s Democracy was rooted in his belief that a “Deep State” conspires to control America’s and the world’s resources and people. 

The cornerstone of our Criminal Justice System is “innocent until proven guilty!”  Proof demands evidence, witnesses, testimony, pictures, videos, fingerprints, documents.  Our young woman’s evidence constituted of nothing more than the young man’s skin color.  As I understand, our President’s “evidence” for a Deep State Conspiracy is codified in wholly groundless, unsubstantiated QAmon and other Social Media imagining.          

Karen tells me Nostradamus predicted mass starvation in 2021.  Regarding predictions, as with UFSs and Big Foot, my Sweetie’s and my beliefs differ.  Claims of predicting the future raise my Super Skeptic. 

It’s the eternal Determinism versus Free Will question.  Predicting the future demands all was decided at some “beginning”; I have no control.  Free Will argues—or hopes—that I do. 

Am I strapped in a Roller Coaster or driving a Bumper Car?  Am I careening down the tracks at the whim of some Cosmic Engineer and gravity?  Or, while continually blindsided and knocked about by showoff operators, can I go, steer and stop?  In the Determinist scenario, the ride was decided by Folks who designed the course.  In my Bumper Car I have some control, but no hint where I’ll be when the Operator cuts the power. 

Police murders of George Floyd, Rashard Brooks and Brianna Taylor keep open the ulcer which has festered on America’s body from the Civil War to beyond Civil Rights.  In protest, “Black Lives Matter” mobs pulled down statues, smashed windows, looted businesses, defaced private and public buildings, fought with police and counter protestors and set fires. 

I appreciate the energy powering their rage, but it’s not what it seems.  At the same time, seeing a charming city like Portland, Oregon, under assault, businesses vandalized and looted, the Federal Courthouse desecrated, stones, bottles and explosives hurled at police, I feel violated and angry! 

In America, “peaceful” protest is respected.  However, many point out that “Black Lives Matter” was highjacked as a motto for mindless violence.  When I step back and consider, the roots for these acts lie much deeper than rampant testosterone, immature male brains and opportunistic vandalism. 

In Anatomy of Human Destructiveness Erik Frome argues that people need to “make a dent.”  If nowhere else, sometimes in someone’s head.  Many “Black Lives Matter” protesters feel victimized and powerless against a faceless “System.”  They make a dent by defacing and toppling perceived oppressors’ statues, smashing windows, looting businesses, desecrating public building, and battling with law enforcement officers. These folks, I call the “Left Behind.” 

April 12, 1861: Confederate States secede, fire on Fort Sumpter
April 15, 1865: President Abraham Lincoln assassinated
July 2, 1881: President James A. Garfield shot, died September 19, 1881
Sept. 6, 1901: President William McKinley shot, died September 14, 1901
Dec. 7, 1941: Empire of Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
Nov. 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy assassinated
March 30, 1981: Failed attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan
Aug. 9, 1974: President Richard F. Nixon resigns
Jan. 9, 2021: President Donald J. Trump coordinates and orders his minions’ assault on the United States Capitol Building and Congress.

Compelling evidence Democrats did not “steal” the 2020 U.S. Presidential election:

1. From the day Joe Biden became the Democrat nominee, hundreds if not a thousand polls, including Fox News’, showed Joe leading Donald by 50 to 100 Electoral votes. Donald knew and fretted over this.
2. Throughout the campaign Trump made clear that if he did not win he would challenge the vote count.
3. For an absolute lack of evidence: witnesses, testimony, documents, affidavits, Judges threw out fifty-odd suits challenging the Electoral vote.
4. The Supreme Court refused to hear a Texas Attorney General’s case against Pennsylvania’s vote.
5. A hand recount in Wisconsin and two in Georgia affirmed the earlier results.
6. Trump’s alleged “steal” would demand cooperation and coordination, across the Unite States, of thousands of conspirators, without one glitch or leak.

In 2017 we sucked it up. Now it’s your turn.

It’s guaranteed that America and the World will be far better with President Joe Biden than after four years under a Mentally Unhinged, Sixth-Grade Bully?

The lives lost in the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 must forever burden the shoulders of Donald J. Trump, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and armed rioters.  As always, Donald will deny responsibility.  Any hope Josh entertained as a rising Republican star were crushed.  As always, Ted is merely a sad footnote.

After the mob he organizing and ordered to, “walk down to Congress, and I’ll be there with you!”—he wasn’t—triggered a Congressional lockdown and suspension of its Constitutional mandate to certificatifythe states’ Electoral votes, President Trump reverted to classic form in calling for prosecution of the rioters.

Finally, in the videos, what’s up with Buffalo Boy?

January 10, 49 BC: Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

November 9-10, 1938 : “Crystal Night” Hitler’s Super-Patriot Storm Troopers destroyed businesses and rounded up Jews.

January 6, 2021: President Donald J. Trump’s Super-Patriot Storm Troopers trashed and desecrated our Capitol Building.

“By rights we shouldn’t even be here.  But we are.  It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.  The ones that really mattered.  Full of darkness and danger they were.  And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.  Because how could the end be happy?  How could the world go back to the ways it was when so much bad had happened?  But in the end it’s only a passing thing this shadow.  Even darkness must pass.”
Samwise Gamgee
Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
J.R.R. Toleiken

It’s said a Buddhist Lama and his student arrived at a stream where, afraid to cross, a girl stood.  The old man took the young woman into his arms and carried her to the opposite shore.

That evening, as they ate their rice the novice spoke, “Master, I have a question.”

Placing his bowl in his lap, the Lama replied, “What is your question?”

“We are instructed,” the lad hesitated, “never to touch a woman.  You carried the girl across the stream.  Please explain.”

The Master’s gazed rested on the campfire.  The hint of a smile. “I left the girl at the stream.  You are still carrying her.”