The Fire of fear

I cannot advocate strongly enough for Rachel Maddow's podcasts linked below.  The First one: "Ultra" and the second one "DeJa News" are brilliant to say the least. We who are politically under the freedom umbrella of Democracy should be able to avail ourselves of historical periods that mirror the troublesome moment we find ourselves in today. Democracy is threatened but we've been here before and democracy survived.

If one listens to these podcasts one will learn that we have experienced similar events at different historical time periods and we navigated those choppy waters not succumbing to a take down of Democracy, though, the evil forces in our nation surely tried and are still trying very hard to do achieve that.

Again, today Fascism rears its ugly head. The troublesome Donald Trump and his many allies of evil you will see a repeat performance yet again trying hard to build up allies within the Republican Party all over our nation and, indeed, the world. If one Googles "Ultra" and after you finished its episodes then Google "Deja News" you will listen to Rachel's uncanny ability to put out the fire of fear by showing us much of what this nation finds itself now has been tried by different historical players before without losing Democracy.

As she and her producer Issac-Davy Aronson narrate "Deja News," these podcasts will give one new eyes to see that our political predicament is not new and give us the courage to do battle with its ugly forces yet again.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-news/id1690932739

 

I smile and I worry

When the indictments came through against Trump with 37 counts levied against him, when I read 3/4 of the indictment with some pages to go, when I saw the scrupulously ironclad case Jack Smith has woven and the incontrovertible evidence against Trump's handling of the most sensitive top secret classified documents that were not his to take and held helter skelter at Trump's summer place Mar a Lago, I still managed to smile.  Finally, I plaintively asked, would Teflon Don be made to answer for his lifetime of many unethical, unconscionable grifts and acts?

There are no words to accurately describe my incredulity at his cavalier treatment of cartons of documents that would have had the worst life consequences if they fell into the hands of adversaries.  There are no words to describe the fear I felt when I realized how many human beings could have been killed because of the actions of Trump, a former president.  We have no idea how many people could have been hurt because of Trump's actions.  How many of this nation's longtime allies could have been horribly affected by the frivolity with which Trump treated these secret and sometimes top secret documents with revelations of military battle plans, maps and the most secret nuclear plans. 

My smile turns to worry. I worry about the violence that is attached to right wing fascist authoritarian politics, I worry about the Judge Aileen Cannon appointed by Trump, whose ruling for Trump was rejected by an Appeals Court panel,  most of all I worry about the millions who put him in office and worry about the millions who steadfastly cling to him despite the solid Special Counsel evidence against Trump. The worse it gets for Trump the more money he makes.  He gains support each time he is indicted or has bad news levied against him. I worry, too, that despite the many millions spent in carefully arguing the case for conviction, this poisonous Teflon snake named Trump might never be stopped. My worry will not subside, I fear, unless and until he is fairly convicted by the very system which he so rudely attacks. I hope fervently that he loses every appeal his hapless attorneys mount.

What is left for we the people to do in the interim whether he is acquitted or hopefully ultimately jailed? We must ensure after the hopeful conviction of this dangerous man that we never retreat from pursuing true authoritarian fascists in our country and in other nations so that they do not live again in other forms.  When this malignant era of Trumpian politics is over we must ensure it never again envelops the world as new fascists are born in Trump's image.  Moral and ethical people of all races and colors must make sure Adolph Hitler's ghost does not rise again in other forms and we must ensure other concentration camps are not created yet again.

Finally, it is, I think, appropriate now in the face of those who work mightily to erase civil liberties, free thought and the other to quote the German poet Heinrich Heine in his work Almansor.  "Where people burn books they will ultimately burn men as well" to which I must answer Never Again!