Evening In America

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons. (Quoted by Stephen Colbert.)

In 1980, Ronald Reagan famously ran a mostly-optimistic campaign with the slogan "Morning In America."

If you aren't worried that the sun is setting and it's evening in America, you've not paid attention these last few days, and that's all there is to it.

As predicted, the Senate voted to acquit Trump yesterday. We knew it was coming. But, on the heels of the Iowa caucus mess, that's still kind of depressing. But ya know, not every Republican knuckled under, surprisingly. Mitt Romney voted with the Democrats.

Thanks, Mitt.

Signed, a guy who didn't vote for you.

Predictably, Trump is going nuts talking stupid today. He's slurring his words, talking like a badly-dubbed foreign film and in general lashing out and making a fool of himself, openly plotting revenge against America for not worshiping the shit that comes out of his ass. Nancy Pelosi ripped up her copy of the State of the Union speech, and who can blame her.

Trump is probably jealous because yesterday morning everybody was talking about her, and not him.

All told, nothing unusual for this son of a bitch.

What bothers me about this, is the level of hate I've seen directed at Mitt Romney thus far by Fox News and the Trump Supporters. Lou Dobbs said Mitt would compare to Benedict Arnold, Brutus and Judas Iscariot.

Altogether, it's not the comparison Republicans think it is.

Benedict Arnold was one of the better generals in the earlier Continental Army, and responsible wholly or in part for a number of American victories. Marcus Junius Brutus was a major figure in Roman history, later immortalized by Shakespeare.

Judas, most likely was a fictional character, or perhaps a composite of several actual people. The name Judas is equivalent to Judah, the original nation of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, and a common name among Jews even today.  Iscariot is the Greek pronunciation of Sicarii, which means Dagger-wielder, the name for the Jewish militant zealots who fought an insurgent war against the Roman Army in Israel.

Lou Dobbs and the rest of Fox News has all the awareness of a dog licking its own ass in public. But that's what defines conservatives anymore, an unspoken, generalized contempt for everyone and everything. Up to and including the GOP's last pre-Trump presidential candidate, I guess.

Meanwhile while this is going on, Coronavirus is out of control in China and our own government is in denial and lying about it...even as 90% of Chinese manufacturing is shut down right now, and likely to be so for at least two weeks. The world economy is already teetering...and its barely an item on US news cycles.

Our government is breaking down under the strain of Republican partisanship, the president is nuts, our economy is about to be proven a mirage, and there's the threat of this disease. Also, we've got one shot left at righting the ship in November. We'd best not fuck it up.

And don't be surprised when the far-right starts shooting at the rest of us if they lose.

Meanwhile Republicans are plotting revenge against America and their idiot voters are fantasizing about shooting people in the streets. Trump doesn't need the military or the police, in fact all those laws, procedures and rules of engagement would probably just get in the way. But there's millions of randos out there, who won't shut up about wanting to commit war crimes against their own neighbors. Under such circumstances, the military, the police, other aspects of the government...will fragment and factionalize as surely as will the rest of society...just with bigger targets on their backs. See also Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, etc.

So...

What are you doing?

Either you're willing to take a stand and push back against the fall of night or you're not.

There are no half measures, Truth really is a thing and will out, and the only easy day was yesterday.

What is an oath then but words we say to God? ~Thomas More.