This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it gets worse. Every time you think Trump can’t become more despicable or brazen. He becomes more despicable and brazen. It’s fast becoming like the old Soviet Union, where they lie straight to your face and dare you to say otherwise. Piracy on the high seas and a brazen open contempt for international law. It hurts down to the soul with a mixture of sorrow, anger, rage and frustration.

Congress is apparently mortally paralyzed and powerless to stop him. A NATO French general calls Trump and the United States “the enemy.” The Canadian prime minister says, “Remember, it’s not the average American we are angry with.” Fox News plays their part by pointing out that Russia, China and Hamas have all condemned Trump for his actions. Ignoring the fact that the entire world has condemned Trump for his illegal actions. It’s not just our adversaries; it’s also our former friends. Seven nations issued a formal diplomatic note warning the administration: hands off Greenland. A diplomatic note is an official statement of principle on the road to war. It’s like a nightmare we can’t wake up from. A lawless Hitler- like regime where they make rapid-fire pronouncements, far too many for the average person to keep up with.

The fabricated corporate polling for a violent and murderous thug dictator remains unchanged. Riddle me this one, Batman? Trump can illegally raid a sovereign nation, steal its stuff. Kidnap their leader and the polling remains unchanged? I wonder what would happen if Trump set fire to an orphanage or nuked St. Louis? It signals the fix is in. Trump withdraws the US from 31 UN entities and 35 non-UN entities. We’re just pirates on the high seas now, out looking for targets to plunder. Trump freezes child care assistance in five Democratically held states, affecting millions of Americans with small children. The tyrant’s vengeance knows no bounds, as it not only affects the children, it affects the entire childcare industry and the economy..

In a word, it’s MADNESS! An insane tyrant looks for obedience through punishment but will only foster the opposite response. Mama and Daddy can’t find childcare and can’t go to work. Will that affect the economy? Can employers fire employees for events beyond their control? If providers have to raise rates, how will that help the economy? How long will foreign investors continue to buy US Treasury notes in a country run by a tyrant and a madman? The orange man speaks with forked tongue. When Pokémon cards might be a safer investment. Can the world trust Donald Trump to follow contract law? How long will the US dollar remain the world’s reserve currency under the auspices of a murderous tyrant?

A poorly trained Gestapo thug gunned an American citizen down on the streets of an American city yesterday. Who knows, maybe it’s our tipping point? The McCarthy point. “Sir, have you no decency?” No one ever truly knows what incites a revolution. But when they start gunning citizens down in the streets, it’s a sure sign you have little else left to lose.

Politicians urge calm and patience and restraint. But these are the same politicians who can’t manage to stop the madness peacefully by themselves. Who can’t establish a quorum or consensus to remove the tyrant from power. It seems what they are saying is. Be like us! Do nothing! Don’t make him angry! When what is required is to make him angry. No one ever sang a song sweetly enough to remove a tyrant from power. Maybe we should just have a nice little chat with Mr. Hitler and explain our displeasure?

 “How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” – Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451

To make the tyrants understand that if the politicians won’t do anything about it, the people will. In Iran right now, tens of thousands have taken to the streets in protest. The mullahs have told the police, “Don’t hurt anyone!” Are they nice guys who have suddenly developed a conscience? Or do they understand that firing on the crowd is the last straw. The last straw for the Czar. The last straw for the Shah. The last straw for Herbert Hoover. The last straw.

The Trump administration shot Renee Nicole Macklin Good in the face, killing her instantly. How prophetic, Trump murders Good. It’s traditional in law enforcement shootings for the officer to be placed on leave pending an investigation. What investigation? Kristi Noem, the hat with one hundred pounds of bullshit underneath it, declares Good a domestic terrorist within the hour. Concocting a story that is clearly not true. Who are you going to believe? Me or that lying video? The lie is bullshit But it’s good enough for you peasants!  

What are you going to do about it? Follow your leaders and do nothing? Remain calm and remain patient; it was just an innocent American mother. Nothing to get excited about. When clearly, we are approaching a fork in the road. Stay the course, remain calm, it’s only fascism and murder. It’s only concentration camps. It’s only soldiers in our streets. It’s only arrests without due process. It’s only piracy on the high seas. It’s only outrageous criminal conduct. It’s only the end of American democracy. Nothing to see here. Carry on with your shopping. Move along. Remember the immortal words of Patrick Henry. “Give me liberty or be patient, go home and remain calm.” When the tyrant can shoot you down dead in the street. It’s not your country anymore. It’s his country. And you only exist at his pleasure.

The problem with official pronouncements and official positions on the wings of fantasy is that the liars soon come to believe their own lies. In Venezuela, armed bands of men with guns are hunting down suspected American collaborators. The tyrant says we can begin stealing their oil in as little as eighteen months. Experts say five to ten years. Experts, Pfff. What do they know? “Wanted: Oil company engineers wanted for work in incredibly hostile and dangerous environment. Spanish speaking a plus! Good pay and benefits. Apply within!”

The same rosy predictions we heard  over and over in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. They will welcome us with hearts and flowers. They want to be Americans too! Just like you! Maybe they even believe it themselves, but it’s going to be a long bloody slog in a hostile country with 300,000 armed men. Men who know the country and the terrain. Men who have the support of the local population. Men unwilling to preach patience and restraint. It may be a shitty country, with a shitty government, but it was Their shitty country.

“And this you can know- fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.” – John Steinbeck

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” ― John F. Kennedy