All politicians are the same? No difference? Only to those not paying attention!
Image | Occupy Democrats
State Of The Union?… Broken
-“All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again”
Tonight, Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address. No doubt we will hear how great the country is doing under his strong leadership. The official theme of Trump’s monologue will be “building a safe, strong, and proud America.”
The address is sure to be filled with many half-truths and outright lies. Trump will unquestionably take credit for a booming economy (stock market) that had its origins under the Obama administration. He will falsely claim this is all due to his tax cuts and deregulatory agenda.
But no matter what fiction Trump is willing to peddle, the majority of Americans won’t be buying the snake oil. They know better. They can see.
They can see a country divided like never before (at least not since the Vietnam War).
They can see hate crimes on the rise.
They can see racism displayed openly.
They can see a dysfunctional healthcare system.
They can see an unrelenting onslaught on immigrants.
They can see the looting of the treasury to benefit millionaires and corporations.
They can see an assault on the Constitution and the rule of law.
They can see a political party defending and supporting an incompetent and, mostly likely, corrupt president.
They can see the open rejection of political norms and institutions.
They can see a steady and continuing attack on the free press.
Many Americans are hoping the midterm elections will put an end to our national nightmare when it is believed Democrats will regain control of the House.
But even if Democrats flip the House and begin impeachment proceedings, it is the Senate that votes to expel a president. The odds that two-thirds of senators will vote for conviction are best described as slim.
One thing is for sure, however. The Trump regime will eventually come to an end. Unfortunately, it will take years, perhaps decades, to undo the damage done by Trump, and his band of enablers, to that great country Reagan once called “ a beacon of hope, a light unto the nations.”
Photo | tvo.org
So You Think 2017 Was Bad …
By almost any measure, 2017 was a bad year.
As a nation, we (with the help of a hostile foreign power) installed a wannabe dictator into the highest office in the land. A man-child with near total disregard for truth and the rule of law. A narcissist with no sense of shame or empathy. A U.S. president who believes the Constitution is merely a set of suggestions.
Two of our most basic and fundamental institutions, the press and judiciary, came under constant attack last year. No, not by some subversive domestic organization but by the president of the United States himself.
2017 saw an America divided, the likes of which not seen since the days of the Vietnam War.
The world became a more dangerous place in 2017.
Thanks to the deliberate abdication by Donald Trump and his regime, the United States is no longer seen as the leader of the free world. There is no longer that steady hand at the helm that other nations relied on. Deepening conflicts are sprouting up everywhere.
As U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres put it:
“When I took office a year ago, I appealed for 2017 to be a year for peace. Unfortunately, in fundamental ways, the world has gone in reverse. … Global anxieties over nuclear weapons are the highest since the Cold War, and climate change is moving faster than we are. Inequalities are growing, and we see horrific violations of human rights. Nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise.”
Yes, 2017 will be a year to remember… for all the wrong reasons.
Yet, as bad as this past year has been, what lies ahead in 2018 portends to be much worse.
I’m afraid we will look back, fondly, on 2017 as we now view the presidency of George W. Bush … a calamity and a failure, but nothing compared to that of Trump’s wretched rule in 2018.
2018 does hold out one glimmer of hope. No, it’s not the Mueller investigation. The odds of a Republican Congress expelling Trump are slim, no matter what wrongdoing the FBI special counsel may uncover.
This year’s mid-term elections hold the key. They need to be swept by Democrats who will have the power to restore sanity and the rule of law to a government now in distress.
Photo | aljazeera.com