This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

The pages of history are resplendent with Kings, Dictators and potentates. Who believed they had a higher understanding of situations. Only to discover too late, they really had no understanding at all. The Israelis politely patted Greta Thunberg on her head put her on a plane and immediately shipped her home. The Great Dictator takes joy in arresting Mayors (Charges dropped) Union Presidents and threatens even to arrest the Governor of California. Calling out the Marines and National Guard by the thousands. Okay, they forgot to bring food and water along, but it will be fine. The Great Dictator said, to  be here immediately. “Hello, Grub hub? I’d like to order 3,000 Big Macs with large fries and large Cokes. And don’t forget the ketchup this time.”

The Great Dictator thinks he’s got a handle on this situation, and everything is going  along to plan. Without realizing the Great Dictator is the one fueling the issue and giving it it’s power. It is no longer simply an issue about immigration, but about people feeling tired and scared of being pushed around. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland turned a peaceful strike into a violent one. Acting in conjunction with corporate interests. Cleveland did what any overbearing Capitalist would do when the peasants dared to raise their heads and complain. He sent in the Army.

The head of the Union (Eugene Debs) was arrested. A court issued an injunction against Debs. Even though he was the Union President he was prohibited from speaking to his union. After pay cuts by the Pullman Company the Union had gone out on strike. Rather than negotiate, they sent in the Army. With the net result of 70 killed and most of the Chicago rail yards burned to the ground and $80 million in 1894 dollars in losses. “Heck of a job there, Brownie!”

And it can happen to anyone. The Great Emancipator himself, Abe Lincoln. Held the Emancipation Proclamation in his back pocket as a high card to prevent Europe from recognizing the Confederacy. When he finally played his high card, he was roundly criticized for it. Abolitionists complained it only applied to states in rebellion. Europe was confused, was he doing away with slavery or not? Lincoln himself had always maintained the Civil War was about preserving the Union. And not about freeing the slaves and yet, here he was freeing the slaves.

The perception is everything. Images of the Chicago police beating demonstrators unmercifully outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Along with Mayor Daley screaming “Fuck You!” at the podium helped to elect Richard Nixon. The Watts riots started over a DUI arrest. It wasn’t the arrest itself, but the undercurrent of a people feeling frustrated, violated  and oppressed.

Lies, lies and more lies! I remember in 68. The media said the demonstrators were throwing golf balls with nails driven through them at police. Okay, it was summertime in Chicago. Just how exactly would demonstrators carry such items around? Also, they said the demonstrators were throwing bottles of Urine at police. “Hey Frank! Did you bring along the golf balls and bottles of urine?”

The Great Dictator claimed he saw men with hammers breaking up curbs for stones. That’s how you can spot someone who has never done a day’s hard work in their life. If you think you’re going to break up concrete curbs with claw hammers, you have another thing coming. Why not just throw the claw hammers? Maybe if you had a powered Jack hammer you could break up the concrete. The Great Dictator appeals to base nationalism claiming he saw American flags being burnt. (Oh heavens!)  Fox News missed it. And he proposes a new (Fox News) law to put people in jail for burning the American flag, despite courts already ruling it to be free speech.

It’s the clearest sign the Administration is dimly starting to recognize the danger they have put themselves in. The protests expand and feed off of each other. Now the Great Dictator’s North Korean style military parade will have to be fenced off from the public to prevent demonstrations. Effective immediately: No displays of freedom will be allowed during our display of freedom parade. Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Mr. President, is that shit on your shoe?

Threatening to arrest the Governor of California, smooth move! Now, it has nothing to do with immigration. Now, it’s purely political. An autocratic Dictator issuing bomb threats from the palace. The Great Dictator compares the demonstrations with California wildfires. See the connection? Me neither. The Great Dictator has driven too close to the pond and now is stuck in the mud, with no way of gracefully backing out. To paraphrase Churchill, the demonstrators need only to persevere to win. I’ve always pondered which had more to do with bringing about civil rights in the 1960s. Martin Luther King’s oratory or angry insurance company CEOs facing billions in losses.

The North Vietnamese lost the Tet offensive. They lost huge numbers of men and equipment. They lost their underground agents by the score. But Lyndon Johnson had told the American public the War was well in hand and the Tet offensive proved that it wasn’t. The Vietnamese  had lost the battle but won the war, as the American public lost confidence in their leadership.

The Ukrainians masterfully crippled the Russian air force recently. It won’t win the war for them, but it will go a long way towards convincing the Russians the war is lost just the same. The event made Russia look terribly incompetent. It made the Russian leaders look like a bunch of stumbling, bumbling fools. (Any similarity to our own leadership is purely coincidental)

The Great Dictator faces a similar conundrum. He must either press forward his attacks against the demonstrations or back off. Pressing forward could bring about a potential violent catastrophe. While backing off could bring about a loss of face. The best way not to paint yourself into a corner is not to try painting at all. Donald Trump could implode his entire administration, any minute now.

The Great Dictator’s big, beautiful murder bill is in trouble. RFJ (Robert Francis Junkie) fires all the vaccine experts at the CDC. ICE is the new Gestapo. Just brilliant! The Great Dictator’s military parade and phony $1,000 dollar birth accounts are covered up in the news, like turds in a cat box by the growing demonstrations. Leaving the Great Dictator with shit on his shoe and no way of politely scraping it off.  “Heck of a job there, Brownie!”

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”  ― Sun Tzu