GRR Martin wrote after the
results of the 2016 presidential election came in.
Trump was the least
qualified candidate ever nominated by a major party for
the presidency. Come January, he will become the worst
president in American history, and a dangerously unstable
player on the world stage... Over the next four years,
our problems are going to get much, much worse.
In a chilling summation ? for
anyone whos spent time in the brutal, politically
precarious Game of Thrones world dreamed up
by Martin ? he hearkened back to one of his own most
iconic fictional lines.
This time, though, it
wasnt a fantasy tale.
Winter is coming, he concluded.
A Facebook Member's Confession:
Bruce Lindner on Facebook:
I have a confession to make. I haven't been a very happy
camper lately. Every so often, the reality of November
8th, 2016 comes crashing down on me, and it makes me wish
I was of some nationality other than an American.
ANYTHING other than an American. I'm embarrassed to be an
American now. Reading the news every day is tantamount to
slow torture. Seeing the disingenuous smirk on
#KellyAnneConjob's face and hearing her reshape facts
whenever I turn on my television is literally bad for my
health. My once semi-weekly nosebleeds have become a
daily nuisance since November.
I think the half of America that didn't vote for
Trumpand yes, I'll say it; the *smarter*
halfis experiencing a kind of PTSD, myself
included. The source of that traumatic stress doesn't
stem from just losing an election per se, but from being
cursed with the prescience to envision where that defeat
is going to take us. They ARE going to hack away at
ObamaCare. They ARE going to install jurists whose main
mission is to overturn Roe vs Wade. They ARE going to put
a man at the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency
who doesn't give a shit about protecting the environment.
They ARE going to make an old school southern racist the
chief law enforcement official in the land. Because We
the People empowered an utterly unqualified creature to
make these decisions.
No matter how I try to distract myself from these facts
(music works, but only temporarily), reality circles back
around and slaps me upside the head. I turned on the
radio before I went to bed last night and I heard the
voice of Mitch McConnell. He was warning Democrats
against blocking the incoming administration's Supreme
Court nominees. "The American people won't tolerate
that sort of political obstruction." Let that sink
in. I thought to myself; should I buy a plane ticket to
Washington, find McConnell's office and beat him to a
pulp with a baseball bat, or should I listen to some old
Stephen Stills and try to relax? I opted for the latter.
This time.
Fascism has come to America. Right-wing extremists will
soon be in control of all three branches of government. A
man who doesn't believe in science, who picks petty
squabbles with anyone and everyone--including our own
intelligence services, who lives in a Fox News bubble, is
about to become the most powerful person on Earth. This
is NOT the Nixon crew. Nor is it the Reagan crew or the
Bush 43 crew. It's finally dawned on me why he didn't
offer Sarah Palin a cabinet position: She would have made
the rest of them look bad. This bunch might as well be of
a different species altogether. The world trembles.
Beginning with me.
For the sake of my own sanity, I'm going to try to
disengage myself somewhat. Yes, I'll always be a politics
junkie, and yes, I'll still offer my 2˘ worth from time
to time. But we've truly entered a period of
unenlightenment, and I refuse to let it destroy my
otherwise sunny disposition. And I also refuse to get
into debates with my fellow liberals over inconsequential
issues such as what their financial motive might be or
theoretical political scenarios.
Who the hell CARES?
At the end of the day, what matters to me are the
ramifications of the election of 2016: the overturning of
healthcare for 20M Americans, the rights of women to make
their own informed healthcare choices being revoked, tax
policies that favors the draft beer folks rather than the
Dom Pérignon set, sane and effective strategies for
dealing with nuclear-armed rogue states such as North
Korea, etc., and oh yes... maybe protecting the planet
itself from a man-made apocalypse.
I'm not optimistic for the future. The only scenario I
can envision that brings me any hope at all, would be if
he does something so outrageous, SO stupid... that it has
immediate and catastrophic consequences upon the lives of
the fools who made this nightmare a reality ... that they
might WAKE UP and make a sharp U-turn in 2018. But that's
a long-shot fantasy. We Americans aren't that bright.
Back to my music. https://www.facebook.com/macbruce/posts/10154755911866145
~~~~~~~~~
Dear Bruce your
confession brought a deep sadness to my
being. I believe its a ubiquitous feeling that
anyone who considers their thoughts to be rational will
encounter.
I empathize completely and my
daily routines like yours, have become so taxed with the
idea that a monster is now in charge of every bit of our
wellbeing even to the air we breathe and tears of sadness
and fear are waiting, beyond my control at the slightest
thought of what this imbecile might unleash upon us, at
any given moment.
I did a Google search to see if
anyone who feels this pain equally and is good with words
as you are, may have written something we can absorb to
lessen our grief OK Google, How will America
stay sane in Trump world and Google gave me this
link: Will Donald Trump
destroy America? Click Link:
Upon reading the few paragraphs I excerpted (below) from
the article, I now feel even more anxiety and know
theres no one who can ease our fear. We are in for
one horrible cookie crumble and I believe, we're going to
experience a stunning test to the documentation the
founding fathers labored so diligently to create... one
of which a new born nation shall base its laws upon, a
nation that we-the-people are ALL citizens of, and only
time will tell if or how long this Constitutional
Document will survive.
"Blessed are the meek, for
they will inherit the earth"
Should be changed to,
"Damned the ignorant, for
they have inherited the earth"
The Founding Fathers were a
revolutionary group, diverse in their professions and yet
unified in their goal: American liberty.
They understood that the citizens should have a say in
their government and that the government only derives its
legitimate power from the consent of the governed.
When Thomas Jefferson penned those timeless, eloquent
words of freedom in the Declaration of Independence it
sent political shock waves around the world that continue
to reverberate in the minds of revolutionaries
everywhere.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed, That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
A challenge was issued that kings did not automatically
have supreme authority.
Rights come from Nature's God and it was time for men to
rise up to secure these rights at any cost because it was
the right thing to do.
He (Trump) makes a
staggering 4,000 appointments, staffing the entire top
layer of government all owing their jobs and total
loyalty to him. So, no, there will be no civil service to
stop Donald Trump. They will be Trumps servants.
(Its said that the military will behave in the same
way: they will not want to be seen resisting
democratically elected, civilian power.)
In other words, Trump will have enormous power from
inauguration day on 20 January 2017. He can build his
border wall if he wants to and, so memorable was
the promise, the political penalty for not doing so will
be enormous. But he can do much, much more besides.
On day one, he can at the stroke of a pen
undo much of the Obama legacy. Trump has had a team of
aides draw up what they call the First Day Project, a
series of executive orders signed by Obama that Trump
could overturn with his signature before he has got his
feet under the desk. Among the measures they have
targeted for repeal are: the Paris agreement on climate
change, the Syrian refugee programme and the rules
demanding checks on the background of someone seeking to
buy a gun. By the end of that first day, America would
already be a changed country.
Once work starts on the border wall, Trumps most
vociferous supporters will demand action on the
president-elects other signature proposal: the
deportation of those migrants. With Republican control of
the House and Senate, he will have no excuses for
inaction or delay. On this, too, there has been some
advance work. One thinktank envisages a force of 90,000
apprehension personnel, equipped to make
raids on farms, restaurants and building sites, rooting
out illegal immigrants. As Osnos reported:
Thousands of chartered buses (54 seats on average)
and planes (which can accommodate 135) would carry
deportees to the border or to their home countries.
Others have talked of putting these unwanted people on
trains and expelling them a method that evokes the
darkest chapter in European history.
In the meantime, Trump could work on his ban on Muslims
entering the US. The constitution might strike that down
as discrimination on grounds of religion, but it would
not be too hard to refashion it. Indeed, Trump has spoken
of banning arrivals from countries associated with
Islamic terrorism, which may be an effective
workaround. And all the while, Trump would be shredding
the legacy of Americas first black president,
abolishing Obamacare which gave millions health
insurance.
But there is another promise Trump will want to
implement. It came during the TV debates when Trump
pledged that, if he won, he would put Hillary Clinton in
jail over her use of a private email server as secretary
of state. He cant do that directly, but he could
steer his Justice Department to pursue her, perhaps via a
special prosecutor. Who would stop him doing that? His
base will demand nothing less: their cries of Lock
her up! are still ringing. (The only thing that
might stay his hand is if he calculates that the threat
of prosecution provides useful leverage, a sword to hang
over the heads of the Clintons, to ensure they keep quiet
and out of his way.)
So this is the country that Trump unshackled and
unbound can forge, starting three months from now.
Oblivious to the environment, hostile to migrants,
snarling towards Muslims and seeking to roll back rights
that took decades to secure. It would be a country that
saw the constitution not as its greatest gift, but as an
obstacle to overcome. It would see diversity not as a
strength, but as a fact to be tolerated, at best. And
anyone objecting to any of this would find the big
institutions, all three branches of government, arrayed
against them. RIP America? It certainly might feel that
way.
For what we saw in the astonishingly ugly campaign fought
by Donald Trumpwould be only an inkling of what is to
follow. Or, as one senior Democrat put it to me:
The horror show has not even started. This is just
the overture.