"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too." -- W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Source: Strictly Personal, 1941
"To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President June 18, 1799
Freedom must be better armed than Tyranny" President Zelensky at the on start of Putin's "special operation".
(In defense of removing President Trump from office by ANY means ASAP please go to the bottom where The WEEK magazine article goes into detail on the dangers ahead.)
Serious question: Is America a place or an ideal? I used to think it was both. And love the American ideal of Freedom that it is our founding principle. Even if we rarely get that right. I also saw America as a beautiful homeland with unlimited opportunity for anyone if they worked hard and played by 'the rules'. But what if those rules were unjust from the start. Starting with the creation of the U.S. Constitution codifying slavery? On top of ethnic cleansing of indigenous tribes. And not allowing women (the foundation of any surviving species) to vote.
But our freedoms which should be scared to any true American patriot is still persistently abused in other ways by many freedom loving Americans. We feeling the freedom to litter, build shopping malls over orchards, stadiums over nature, and industrial parks over (or near) low-income neighborhoods. And even expelling American born people because of their parents identity. Or our Constitution's freedom to recruit any young man to fight - and too often die needlessly abroad - for these 'freedoms' here. Freedoms for anyone who is non-virtuous to others or the environment we all depend on for healthy air, water, food, homes, and exposure to other people. And ignore the special needs of people (often women and children) who are most in need of help here.
Within a week after Ukraine was invaded by Russia's mass murderers under the "Special operation" that war criminal/dictator Putin ordered, President Zelensky said "Freedom must be better armed than tyranny."
I've never been so ashamed - and now gut sick - immediately after watching our bully US President and VP tag team scold an overly grateful and brave Ukrainian President.
It's hard to know how this turns out, but here's some guesses - and a plea.
Trump (and the US) will refuse to give Ukraine the security assurances it needs, in exchange for Trillions of dollars in rare earth metals that we need. Which would be super stupid. And even crueler letting the war continue. The EU and other NATO nations would hopefully unite offering more weapons and even some troops to Ukraine. Putin's Russia will weaken. And in fear of Russia's collapse, some of its oligarchs/kleptocrats will remove Putin from power. Hopefully he will resist and meet the same end as Saddam Hussein. I don't believe he would use nukes. If he did...he would just die faster.
My plea is for anyone who has sworn an oath to protect the U.S. Constitution, will do so ASAP! Use any means (brutal force if necessary) to remove the Trump tag team for tyranny from their offices. Come on generals! War vets or any other brave souls who has lost limbs, lovers, or friends in the forever wars - fighting against the beatable tactic of terrorism, which has only grown in ranks and more places. Even here at home. Here's a chance to honor your pledge - become an All-American hero.
I once supervised an employee who came to work seriously concerned that about their marriage partner who was swearing to murder President Clinton. That angry soul was an air force one pilot...with easy access, a weapon, and with so much distain for that President...the partner was convinced it was going to happen.
That was the level of hate Timothy McVeigh (a US army soldier) had for Clinton when making the decision to bomb the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. His rental truck with explosives killed 168 men, women, and (nearly a dozen) children. McVeigh felt bad about the children (they were in a nursery on the first floor). He saw them as "collateral damage" in his attempt to wake Americans up to the tyranny of our government that he witnessed personally in Iraq and at WACO. The bombing was on the anniversary of that event.
Many of Trumps dictates his first 30 days in command has already caused the death and suffering of individuals both here and abroad. It will be weeks or months before our court system can effectively overturn or stop this lethal insanity of unconstitutional damage. Meanwhile, far more damage will occur...and thousand more (mostly children) will die abroad from blocked lifesaving foreign assistance programs unconstitutionally stopped. Expect Russia and China to move in, making more friends in the same places where we will now made more enemies. Zelensky was right. America will "feel" our failings. Just as we always have by violating "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" with our capitalism and misguided military adventures.
If I were Trump, I'd be seriously concerned for my life. Arrogance may be the death of him.
I don't hold any grudge against him personally. He's a narcissist and maybe genetically he can't help it. I mostly blame both political parties that have allowed the rigging of our economic and political polices that created the decline in our nation's economic conditions. These have led to the loss of the American dream over the last 45 years. A massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the ultra-rich that persists. This was predicted, because it was predictable. An outcome given the math of unregulated capitalism prioritizing profit over people and the environment. These policies were deliberate choices. And they have resulted in enough economic pain - that a majority of voters felt they need to elect the great dumpster fire disrupter - no matter how many lies he told, or how many lives it takes. They found it easy to believe him. Perhaps so they didn't have feel responsible for being so un-virtuous.
In an attempt to counter this persistent "Truth decay" I urge real patriotic Americans to celebrate this 4th of July, and each one after it... to learn about our irreversible interdependence. Americans, and every community globally, should celebrate the "self-evident" "Truths" that freedom and rights are God given to everyone who is born. Anywhere. Every time. God does not make immigrants.
One great Constitutional error was legalized slavery. Now it is criminalizing births. And abusing the freedom loving souls in Ukraine but allowing them to die and suffer by the millions at the hands and projectiles of Trump's buddy in Russia, and his minions.
Unless of course, a majority of House and Senate members urgently decide to remove Trump policies or the 'man' and his clan, from office, by any means. We the people... must choose between the "Rule of Law" or the 'law of the jungle" which the King and his butt licking followers appear to prefer.
The Declaration also said, "all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Wake the F**K up defenders Constitution. Then fix it.
**********
Controversy of the Week, March 7, 2025
Defense: Why is Trump purging the Pentagon?
President Trump shredded “America’s soft power” by gutting USAID, said Max Boot in The Washington Post. “Now he seems bent on damaging U.S. hard power too.” Hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans last week to cut 5,400 civilian Pentagon employees, Trump conducted his own “Friday-night massacre.” He fired a half-dozen top military leaders, including Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.—the second African-American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff— and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of Naval Operations. Hegseth offered no rationale for the dismissals, except that they would somehow refocus the military on its “core mission of deterring, fighting, and winning wars.” But it’s telling that Trump’s chosen replacement for Brown is Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, a white, retired, three-star Air Force officer. Caine’s selection tells “Black and female officers that their prospects for promotion may be gravely limited,” said Fred Kaplan in Slate. Worse is Trump’s stated reason for the pick: that when he met Caine during a 2018 visit to troops in Iraq, Caine put on a MAGA hat and told him, “I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.” Trump’s proud sharing of this story—denied by Caine and other officials—is a “nerve-wracking” clue to the president’s plans for the military once he’s cleansed its upper ranks of diversity and suspected disloyalty.
Gen. Brown “is an honorable man,” said Rich Lowry in National Review, but he had to go. The former F-16 pilot “used his position as a political soapbox,” releasing an emotional video after the 2020 killing of George Floyd about the challenges of being Black in the Air Force. Brown’s job is to be a killer, not to pontificate on “hot-button political and social issues.” Like many of the other fired generals, he is a bland product of an “ossified” system that rewards “bureaucratic conformity” over original thinking. That’s doubly true of the military lawyers known as “judge advocates general” (JAGs), said The Wall Street Journal. When Trump fired the three JAGs overseeing the Army, Navy, and Air Force last week, it set off a predictable “media panic” about imminent “lawlessness.” In truth, the JAGs had long favored “risk elimination over mission success,” leaving America’s military far less lethal and effective than it needs to be in this dangerous world.
Call me paranoid, said Charles P. Pierce in Esquire, but yes, it does feel “troublesome” that Trump specifically fired the lawyers charged with resisting illegal presidential orders. Nor was it reassuring when Hegseth explained the JAGs had been fired to stop them from being “roadblocks to anything that happens.” We know what kind of “anything” Hegseth might have in mind, said Paul McLeary in Politico. The former Fox News host promotes a swaggering “warrior ethos” that rejects the Geneva Conventions. In Trump’s first term, he successfully lobbied Trump to pardon two soldiers charged with war crimes and to reinstate Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of killing civilians and stabbing a teenage ISIS prisoner to death.
Trump’s purge has nothing to do with “lethality, or promoting ‘warfighters,’ or any other buzzwords,” said Tom Nichols in The Atlantic. It’s the next step in his pursuit of total power. After capturing the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the Pentagon is “the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.” With “his generals” in charge, Trump can start building a military that is loyal to him—and not to the Constitution. “It is praetorianism, plain and simple.”
No comments:
Post a Comment