Defile, Destroy, and Die

Voice of the Prophet

We just had a gunman/executioner mark his bullets with Deny, Delay and Depose, awakening a massive conversation around the state of health care today. There are many who sympathize with his frustration, hate, and resistance even while condemning his act. Often it takes something large and startling to get our conversation going.

Unfortunately, we are not as aware of nature signaling its deep distress and messages, because in our society, we consider that nature has no voice.

And yet, for a supposedly Christian country, the bible itself heralds nature as a huge force of communication, explanation, and revelation if we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see.

The whale swallowed Jonah, the floods wiped out civilization, and in the end times of Revelation the forces of nature come together in a frightening crescendo of destruction. Nature is constantly used in the bible to inform us of our state in relationship to the divine. Wars and pestilence, famine and drought, earthquakes, volcanoes, the blotting out of the stars, moon, and sun, and it all begins with a rider on a white horse who came conquering and to conquer. Someone who looks very shining but is only the beginning of the destruction of the end, followed by natural disasters, wars, famines, and pestilences.

Now let’s take a few minutes to look at Donald’s last trip through the White House (horse?) as it culminated in 2019);

Defilement:  April 15, 2019 - Notre Dame burned in an amazing conflagration that held the attention of the entire world in a dreaded fascination. How could this happen, we asked ourselves?

Who is Notre Dame – Our Lady. And she burned – her regal spire of beauty toppled and her roof of protection incinerated. This Iconic representation of Lady, the sacredness of her essence, was defiled and burned, and the entire world was horrified. In America today, the defilement of the female is in full swing, and the earth pealed that warning out in fire on April 15, 2019, the third year of the reign of our lord and savior, Donald J Trump. The disrespectful treatment of women in this country spawned by his watch is unprecedented in democratic countries the world over and has continued to grow like an ugly cancer in America since then. Not one democracy treats its women with the lack of respect and equality that we currently do and continue to grow in our doing, here. Attacks upon the rights, freedoms and safety of our ladies will continue under his watch. Our Lady has suffered, and will continue to suffer, in America since the reign of Donald, Defiler of Women, began.

Destruction: Between September 2019 and March 2020, 12.6 million hectares, about 31 million acres, of forest and bushland burned in Australia causing environmental repercussions the world over. About 3 billion animals were impacted and 1700 species of plants animals and eco communities are now threatened with extinction. Again, the world watched in horror as Australia burned. The temperatures leading up to this global disaster, whose ashes were felt across the globe, were record breaking highs. Fire rose up to speak to us next about the destruction of our planet. Our lack of care and the total ignorance of environmental danger are hallmark traits of the reign of DJT. The earth is assured he will continue his campaign of denial and destruction against her as he goes.

Death: March 2020 - And as the fires burned down, another was revving up. A pestilence came upon the land and the people died. By March as the land fires died in Australia, here in America the pestilence of the vile attitudes we have toward our land, our women and each other reached new heights in unrestrained death, despair, anger and division in the form of Covid 19. We lost around 7 million overall as recorded in Covid figures with the estimated global death to be somewhere more, around 18 million, as many countries were not adequately able to record statistics. Here in America a staggering 103 million cases were reported and 1.2 million deaths recorded. Nations have suffered since then, struggling economically and politically, and in our own, the struggle with violence, hate and the unacknowledged role of declining mental and emotional health has led to almost daily acts of depravity, mindlessness, distrust and despair. We drive ourselves into walls, kill the innocent and embrace the guilty.

 Donald’s advent is the incarnation of a trilogy of defilement, destruction, and death.

And still we have not heard or read the signs around us. Still, we are not paying attention to the screaming of the globe and its inhabitants through signs and natural disaster, and even worse, we have attributed savior status to the one who carries the curse. Once more we have installed the golden crowned conqueror, the shiny hopeful thing full of lies and deceit and unfulfilled, inept promises who robs from the poor and gives to the rich.

For the past 4 years DJT has continued to assault our democracy, deride our government and foment hatred and unrest. Be assured he held meetings with the war mongers in Russia and Israel to keep the destruction and death alive to build his palace upon. They willingly agreed but will not bend the knee to peace at his bequest no matter what. He has unleashed uncontrollable forces of evil upon the land and the people, fomenting wars for his own benefit. His regime will not be blessed, but it will continue to be a beacon of world warning as it continues to rob and deceive the people it has purported it will help.

Watch over these next few years and see what the earth coughs up to help us see as dictators and wars rise, economies and people suffer, and who knows what further outbursts of natural unrest and upheaval continue while Donald cannot make peace or prosperity happen. Listen to nature, look, record and remember.

Remember in the days of the bible how the prophets spoke, the earth shook, and the people did not listen.

Shark Tank

 

Back in 2020 I offered an Animal Tarot card reading on the post election energies. To my dismay, Shark came up as the final outcome card. Not knowing what time-frame my reading was encompassing, I have waited and watched. I think perhaps the time is now. 

The message of Shark is that it is death and destruction, but it is not personal. A shark has no personal connection. It just sees prey, food, and is ultimately equipped to eat it, ravenously. It never looks at you when it does. Its lack-life eyes roll back in its head so it can devour you without ever seeing you. 

The antidote to Shark, the Destroyer, in the message, was to stay out of its path. Shark will destroy everything in its path with no thought or care. Just beware and watch out for it.The deal is to stay out of its way.

Once again, Shark has swum into our home waters. This poem came through and I offer it here as the vision appeared as I was writing it:

The Shark Tank

 

It’s a feeding frenzy on the American Economy.

Watch as the sharks circle waiting to close in on Washington

The gleam in their emotionless eyes

Is the reflection of their supporters’ surprise

As they find themselves the prize

Meal on the table

 

The crumbs of our meager fortunes

Are their meat and bones

To be crunched and imbibed

Benefits and freedoms denied

As we cough up our innards and strive to survive

 

The sharks are circling in glutenous greed

The vampire’s meal, with jubilation, to feed

On America’s flesh and blood, sweetened with sweat.

We are the entrée – the scent of our death drives them mad

 

We squeeze up all we have into the giant never satisfied maw

Delighting the deceivers who lured us

Into the shallows of thoughtlessness

Tempting us with more

When we are it – all they were hoping for.

HOPE

The dust is settling

The political fires are over

Some lost hope

Some are rolling in clover….

Another election has gone by, and I have post-election thoughts to share. I have resurrected my Google blog as this is where I feel comfortable posting about things of politics, beliefs, and hope.

Right now, 51% of our country is rolling in hope and joy. They have felt dis-inherited from their own country and have threatened violence in their deep angers and bitterness. Now they have their hero coming into place. Their hopes are high.

Forty-eight percent of the country is in despair, holding their breath, making contingency plans and hunkering down for a long - hopefully only 4 - years.

There is hope for all.

Now is the time for all of us - the 51 and the 48 - to come together to hold our newly elected leader accountable for his words both vague and clear, unpromised or dimly promised promises, and his actions. Fifty-one percent are expectant. Let them be fulfilled and joyous – may their times of hoped-for prosperity come to fruition. May inflation go down, wars end, small farmers flourish, and the rural working people prosper. May they receive the more affordable living they hope for, may they receive good health care for their daughters and themselves, be able to care for their elders, earn good wages and enjoy happy retirement. May they live in freedom and may the values of family living and integrity be preserved. May they feel safe and heard and may America be regarded as a great and good influence upon the world. May the national debt go down and our economy thrive.

And may the 48 percent be present to highlight these expected accomplishments, or the lack of them.

What can we, the disappointed, do?

Now is the time to watch, observe and comment. As things fail to live up to our countrymates expectations, we must be the patient and kind vocal commentators that help to keep the dreams alive. When the economy gets worse instead of better, when our allies do not view us as friends and our supporters are those who oppress, we need to raise a voice of comment to our 51 percent family and friends, calmly and lovingly pointing out where words, actions and results do not match or produce the desired and expected effects.

When their and our daughters suffer and die from preventable reproductive issues and the infant and maternal mortality rates rise as they have been, we need to talk about it. When costs are higher, not lower, when tax breaks and sweet favors flow to the very rich while the working people suffer, we need to talk about it with our families and friends. When health care becomes hard to get and does not cover what is needed, we need to talk about it – not accusingly, but commentatively. When small farmers see their lands and livelihood suffer and disappear, we need to talk about it. When internment camps and ethnic and gender group persecutions disrupt the flow of daily American life and when federal disaster response is a disaster, we need to talk about it. When prices rise due to tariffs, when higher education is unaffordable and public education puts our children behind the economic world curve, we need to converse around the supper table, in the grocery store, at the mall, in the parents’ meetings.

We are all in this together, 

for better or for worse. Let us ride the times with gentleness but with clarity and compassionate courage and speak, speak, speak in kindness with our neighbors.

These may not be the times we hoped for, but they will present the opportunities we need to bring our country’s people together. And that is the true source of hope.

The Appalling Loss of Political Ethics

 

Well, the rats are finally and slowly beginning to leave the sinking ship.

Over the past almost 4 years we have seen a handful of ethical Republican leaders stand by the principles of honesty and accountability that we have a voted right to expect in all our public SERVANTS.

They braved the castrating effects of caustic, repulsive bullying, defamation, and personal attack from a verbal weapon-wielding presidential poser, his scathing rebuke and retribution, and held their ground.

During all of this, many of us have been wondering – where are the Republican leaders? Where have they been? Why are they silent in the face of this massive and preposterous attack on the Republic for Which They Stand? Their silence has been deafening, mystifying, horrifying and sad. Worse yet, the tacit support indicated by their silence has been frightening. Our hearts have been broken, our hopes deflated, our trust badly battered, and our sense of democracy threatened.

Now, as the skies darken over this administration, with no hope of pulling any publicly approved millions-of-voter hoax over the American people’s eyes congealing into undeniable fact, the hangers on, the coat-tailers, the helping-themselves-at-the-table satellites circling around the horn of plenty of handouts for those who flatter me, or at least shut up – because shutting up is complicity – are sensing the sinking of their golden goose ship of power and plenty and leaving the table. They are jumping off by disagreeing with an illogical, unfactual, unskilled, unmanageable, demagogic, presumptive, unqualified impostor. They are speaking the truth, facing the facts, and publicly acknowledging them to what may be left of their voters. Whew. Finally. Some real reality.

But may we watch and count and remember with our eyes open. These late-leavers are those who sold their political souls for personal gain. If they did it once, they will do it again. It is in the nature and grain of their political persona, hidden beneath the surface, showing in actions and screaming in silence. No personal gain at the political table, they leave and go looking for crumbs of approval from the voters who put them there in the first place. Did they do their job standing up for the welfare of those whom they were charged to serve as they gobbled at the table of Trump plenty of power for a few, maybe for you if you are loyal? You decide. You are the voter. But remember what they did not say, what they did not do, as they sat at the table with a wanna be dictator. Remember.

We can shine the light of the failure of political ethics clearly on Republicans in this instance, but in truth what is at stake here is political ethics in all arenas, in all parties, in all individuals seeking to take on the role of SERVING the people of this country. And one thing we may have lost in this muck is the personal ethics we bring to the process of choosing and voting for our servant leaders. If we can be led to vote for someone with no appropriate life experience and qualifications perhaps we are not as familiar with the qualifications of the job position that needs to be filled. Perhaps we are voting with unhealed emotions of anger, fear, pain and revenge. These origins will never lead us to healthy leadership. We, as a people, have personal healing and self-examination to do so that we have clear eyes minds and hearts to vote with. Ethics and self-honesty begins in each person and becomes a communal expression as we choose our leaders. Ethics begins with us, the voters, and ends in Washington DC.

Farewell

 

Well folks, the show is almost over.

After January 20^th people can go home and begin to watch the re-runs.

It’s been a good four-year season for a “reality” TV show packed with hype, hyperbole, and shockingly exciting autocracy. Featuring rip-roaring conflict, hidden drama, blatant manipulation, comedic conspiracies, subtle violence, unacknowledged repression, a demagogic main character, sad humor, and magnificent mismanagement, the longest running season of The Apprentice is over.

Trump has kept his audience well entertained, with exciting new episodes occurring almost weekly and daily twitter promotions that kept his followers on the edges of their chairs with delight.

We bid adieu to a fantasy run. The one where everyone wants to be in the seat of power and tell others what to do and where to get off. The private dreams of control and revenge acted out through a surrogate playing to his best accolades.

The show is over folks.

Go Home

Watch the re-runs.

Law and Order - for Some or All?

 

Of course, we must have law and order. The basis of any society is organization and cooperation for the benefit of all. Laws and order are essential to our communal survival and prosperity. And in America so are the freedoms, equality and self-government contained and guaranteed for all within our constitution.

Society is constructed to give greater power and survival to its members through shared communal resources, skills and talents. They must be for the benefit of all for a society to survive successfully, otherwise it will topple. The big, huge vision of a Democracy is to do just that. Provide a society in which all can flourish together. This society, with its attendant rules and structures, law and order, exists for the benefit and welfare of all its members. None of our societal institutions were meant to treat one segment of the population differently than others. 

The operation of Law and Order today we are told by Black, Indigenous, LBGTQ and People of Color, is doing just that. It is, they say, the work of Bias and Prejudice, built-in preference and privileges expressed in so many, many facets in our society that we white, straight folk are not aware of because we are used to current conditions we consider "normal" and "just fine." Right down to religious values that support our views. We will use everything we have to make ourselves right.  

While Law and Order were purported to be the instrument of a perfect society to preserve and defend freedoms for all, they were actually created to protect and defend white people against all possibly threatening others. Research it. Our white ideals have been subverted, often with very clear intention by some, but for most of us, completely without our knowing, realizing or understanding. The problems of racial and sexual persecution and suppression are couched in the ignorance of our minds and the hardness of our hearts.

And that is what all the fuss is about today as we stand polarized over is there a race problem or is there not in America. We are not a perfect people and we do not therefore create perfect societal structures. The United States is a people in process, moving toward an ideal with a set of values that embraces life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all within its borders. This ideal naturally and logically excludes the concept of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for one segment of its population at the expense of other segments of its population. When, as a people, we become aware of these kinds of inequities in our country it is our duty as citizens of these United States to examine the issues and make every attempt to correct our course and keep us on the mark set by our struggling forbearers who gave up so much in pursuit of this ideal; they sacrificed everything for it to create a place of freedom and safety for future generations. That is the purpose of the democratic government they created for us, and the charge they have handed down to Americans through the generations. Do we take it or leave it? To leave it is to leave Democracy and drift into autocracy....

We must always be on guard for the subtle slips and sidewinders that distract us from our path as a country and very slowly change the operation of our systems to different outcomes. They are the result of our personal griefs and angers, fears and hates that influence and determine our choices and our votes, our actions and our speech. We are each responsible for holding the values and vision entrusted to us by preceding generations. That means we are each charged with examining the values instilled by our parents and theirs before them, to the values expressed in our Constitution. We are each charged with allowing that Constitutional vision to expand and grow with each new generation and every global situation we face in our life journeys. 

We cannot, as Americans, blindly trust in the proper application of our national values by agencies and institutions set up to do so, but must continually re-visit these institutions, holding them and ourselves accountable for making conscious choices to apply the founding values we profess in the ever-changing landscape of human existence and interaction within our borders.  We, the people, are responsible for the slow gentle twisting of our national values and vision, through whatever life incidents have shaped them, to support unrecognized biases. We are responsible. Our institutions reflect the choices we make and carry out our wishes. Not only is Law and Order not exactly what we think it is, many of our core assumptions about the equality of  social opportunities and benefits reflect these same discrepancies. Today is one of those times of shining an uncomfortable light on places that need change.

Law and order of the people, by the people and for the people, is a big inheritance and huge responsibility to embrace and grow with the changes needed to serve all ethnicities and cultures citizened within our borders. This is the charge of our Constitution. And let's not forget that our founding vision and the economics of what was really happening in America, a land discovered and exploited by European countries for economic gain and world power through colonization and imperialism, differ greatly. Our real history and our story are not congruous. Teaching a realistic view of the forces that actually shaped our country, one that includes this disparity between our intentions and our origins and actions, will help provide a solid basis for making informed decisions. 

To deny and repress voices of dissent crying for a review of our systems by labeling them as vicious and un-American by exaggerating negative impressions and mis-reporting or mis-interpreting reports, is to ignore the process of democracy instilled within our fabric that pays attention to the voices of all members of society and to repress the only process (that of assessing and revising to extend our vision and values more clearly to all) that keeps us truly free and American. Let’s welcome those who do not feel law and order are being applied justly and equally to all into the discussion tables with those who feel there is not enough law and order. Let's invite them into the legislative halls and the future planning of America. It is the very same cry our visionary founders are shouting to us through the centuries. Are we open enough to listen or will we drown them out with protestations of our rightness under a set of invoked laws and beliefs? Law and order equally for all to ensure the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness without repression and persecution of one group by another only occurs through listening to the voices of all. That is a truly Great America. Let’s work on it – together.

 

Thoughts on Campaign Conversations to have following Meet the Press this morning

 

 

Relief Bill - Authoritarianism in Action: They missed a big opportunity on Meet the Press this morning when discussion of the relief bill came up. Trump’s Chief of Staff said the President has a 1.3 trillion-dollar package that the Democrats are keeping from the American people by not agreeing to Trump's terms.

What is really happening is that Trump is unwilling to negotiate with the Democrats in any way. This is the leadership model he uses and will use for the next four years if re-elected. No negotiation, no listening; his terms his way. It is a clear expression of authoritarianism, which can, in the right clothing, with the right clean up, look like good, strong leadership - but this is misleading.

      Good leadership brings all the pieces to the table and puts together a solution that works for everyone – A win-win or at least an attempt at it in the best form possible. Donald Trump offers no such solutions for the American people. He offers his solutions and his only will he accept, even if he says otherwise. This is the discussion that needs to be held publicly.  The one around Donald’s leadership style. Authoritarianism versus leadership. What the vision of our founding fathers was for presidency in the United States and how has this developed over the years leading to the ability and ease with which the current administration continues to subvert this role? For an interesting article discussion on the historical development of the presidency check this Washington Post Article interview with Ray Raphael who wrote “Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive” Here is another good piece on the Presidency from US History.org. *

       Corona Virus - Leadership skills: the American public needs to understand that Donald’s leadership (or lack of it) on this one event is not the issue. What is being revealed here is Donald’s lack of leadership skills across the board. Because he cannot negotiate, listen to or compromise on anything that involves communication with those who do not agree with his views, he cannot provide leadership here. The leader of a free country voted into office and governing a diverse population needs the ability to delegate and use the skill and expertise of the people on his team for the good of  all the people in times of crisis as well as times of calm. It is a learned, embedded skill. Instead, Donald spent months (of precious activation time) trying to wrap his head around medical matters so that he could appear to be expert in them. Rather than acknowledging a problem and turning to experts to provide swift solutions he doubted the voices around him and spent precious time trying to bring himself up to speed in an area where he had no real knowledge because he wanted to be the one to appear knowledgeable and hold the limelight at the microphone and have the people hail him as an expert and a hero. (Good and honest managers attract and retain good responsible honest people around them and then let them do their jobs.)  His lack of knowing and sensing what was the true issue, lack of ability to listen to chosen experts and lack of ability to coordinate his team and to inspire and bring people together are lack of true leadership skills seen in every area of his administration. The corona virus just hit us all at once instead of in little pockets of areas one at a time as do his other actions and decrees that take away benefits and freedoms from the people. Here, with Covid 19, his lack of leadership skills is more evident because it is widespread and single-pointed in time.

      This conversation needs to be held with the American people. What are true leadership skills and how will they benefit us as a country? Someone who retreats from a crisis and does not believe what experienced experts are reporting and then replaces them all to match his personal beliefs is a person who does not have the skills to guide a nation through any crisis except perhaps for one where he can put his finger on the button and order his troops to war. Leadership skills need to be discussed. Authoritarianism versus Democratic.  People need information to begin to re-assess their own perspectives and we need to consistently repeat and repeat the information over and over and over…. No one has called this behavior out consistently in this repetitive manner. Let’s get on it right away. There are two months left.  We have already seen the efficacy of Donald’s repetition of whatever he wants his base to believe. It works. So let’s use this one successful tactic he has given us from his own arsenal and go for it. Keep repeating ideas and skills to your friends and family. Don't talk Trump, talk leadership skills. Talk the ideology of authoritarianism versus democratic leadership. Ask people what they want the most. Fast relief from pain (authoritarian action) or a cure for the illness (democratic process)? 

             The Rule of Law – Rescue or Repression? The Thin Blue Line, the Law and Order issue:

Again – this sits well within an authoritarian style of government. What you cannot control you suppress, repress and destroy. Every dictatorship on earth has done just that. The solution to problems of racial inequity will not be solved by restoring law and order through suppression of the many voices of American citizens being expressed through civil protest. There is no question Donald Trump wants to outlaw protest. We need to explore motivation honestly here. Everything he does is pulled together within the thread of establishing an authoritarian regime. {Violence is an issue and part of this plan to move us toward a "friendly dictatorship" form of government  – and that just erupted again when Trump support protesters interacted with social justice protesters. Social justice people died at the hands of Trump supporters. This is a violent administration that wants to use images of military dominance to support it - check the pictures and then look at Hitler's rally images} Use of the ideology of Law and Order further puts the country in danger due to escalating the confrontational elements between law enforcement and freedom of expression and putting the police on the line as enforcers rather than protectors. The answers lie in the leadership qualities and skills that Donald Trump does not possess nor does he fill any part of his government with people who have those qualities to stand in for him. The Law and Order mis-ideology needs to be discussed, dissected and explored in public conversation. Peace is not restored through law and order. Peace is restored through addressing the issues.

Donald has not acknowledged the validity of the issues raised by protesters nor promised to address any of their concerns or needs or expressed any honest condolences over the killings of black people and racial inequities in the country. Not acknowledging issues that he is not prepared to handle (anything that opposes his views) is another authoritarian leadership trait exhibited by Donald Trump. What does that say about the leadership currently installed in the White House and its ability to lead all the people of this country, not just its own base and those who agree with Donald's agenda?  The job of a president is to bring us together; those who agree and those who disagree with whomever is voted into office, and take care of the entire country. This is supposed to be a democracy - a free and open society with self-rule, not the rule of  someone's version of "law and order." This concept needs to be discussed and explored in public conversation. We must make space for one another, not repress and deny one another. All must be heard - all - on both sides, and all views must be discussed and dialogued together - all views. Once we are all heard we are not divided. We may disagree, but we are not divided. Humans have a basic ability to hear and understand one another. This builds trust and a strong country where we can act together in spite of our differences. That is role of leadership. 

Basically, we need to spend time taking apart the issues to have a discussion around the leadership qualities and traits we may be looking at living with for the next four years. Exposing authoritarianism and the lack of true leadership and management skills that have dominated both Trump’s presidency and businesses and are changing the face of democracy in this country is an important conversation. Donald Trump’s changeability and inconsistency needs to be re-visited. His constant shedding of advisors and changing of leadership positions must be continually re-highlighted. The issue of how quickly someone falls out of favor and is terminated has created gaps in our leadership at very fundamental levels. The fact that so many of this administration's former leadership team members have expressed dissatisfaction with what they are seeing happen in the White House needs to be remembered verbally and re-visited and talked about consistently as we face the future together. The lack of stability all of this creates which has led to the inability to muster forces in the face of a national health crisis, or any crisis is the danger – not specific issues over which we can argue but conversation around exploring the leadership qualities that have governed in the last four years and the ones that we will choose to govern us for the next four years. Are they truly authoritarian? What does that mean to different segments of our population and what do the terms democracy and authority really embrace? What is healthy authority and what is not? What is a healthy democracy and what is not? Why are we drawn to what we are drawn to and how will our inclinations expressed in our votes make our country truly strong from the inside as a whole, a true leader in a free world that honors the dignity and human rights of all people?  Let's take a closer look and remember we are all eating at the same table.

*            AUTHOR	ushistory.org
TITLE OF PAGE	The Evolution of the Presidency
TITLE OF PROGRAM	American Government Online Textbook
URL OF PAGE	//www.ushistory.org/gov/7a.asp
DATE OF ACCESS	Sunday, August 30, 2020
COPYRIGHT	2020