January 20, 2017, is just around the bend. Just like the Deutsche Reichsbahn’s trains of yore, it is chugging along to a horrific end, to the coronation of Trump and his cronies. I would not be surprised if Trump takes the oath of office wearing a vintage Hugo Boss–designed uniform from the thirties and forties.
Turbulent times are nigh. Facts won’t be fully digested after the fateful day when Trump is sworn in as the Electoral College’s president. Instead, alternative facts will be regurgitated, skewed, and spewed upon an alt-right press for consumption. Fox & Friends will then pass them on to Trump’s trumpeters as absolute truths that Trump’s delusional supporters will eagerly feast upon, reminiscent of a starving pack of hyenas unleashed and sent to a feeding trough.
We are in trouble. Serious trouble: 1920s–1940s German-esque trouble. The signs have been going up for well over a year now, and they have finally been firmly planted. The cognitive press has been demonized. The scapegoating of others (Muslims, Mexicans, intellectuals, gays, ad infinitum) is openly discussed. The Donald has convinced his cohorts and his political followers and the alt-right (press included) that he knows more than our military high commanders about our enemies and how to defeat them. He has declared to the choir that he alone can fix the problems facing the United States. The choir is singing, triggering visions of Nero playing his violin. Any of this sound familiar? It should. It better!
History is a tricky thing. Especially when juxtaposing a despicable historical chapter with current realities. It is even more so when the comparison of past to present is with a collective self, or nation to nation. The instinctual reaction is to deny the similarities. To dismiss them. To exile them like one would an incessantly flatulent hitchhiker.
Donald Trump has mocked the disabled. He has encouraged and incited violence at his rallies and has offered to pay for the defense of violent perpetrators. He has attacked any and all who dare to disagree with him. He has recruited the most horrendous parasitic life-forms on earth, disguised as humans, with which to fill his cabinet and the White House. He has not drained the swamp but has filled it to its brim. He has refused to be transparent with his investments and conflicts of interests. He has refused to release his taxes. He has circled the wagons by authorizing the infiltration of his administration with nepotism. He’s bringing in his son-in-law as an equal to his chief of staff. His daughter, whom he said he’d like to date, and probably grab by the pussy, too, will most likely have an office in the West Wing (in case he gets the urge?). There was a man in Germany who had similar affections for his half niece.
If Trump’s sidekick, Mike Pence, gets to dictate, citizens who do not practice sex the “old-fashioned, American man on top, get it over with quick” way will be sent to reeducation camps for conversion therapy. Be forewarned, Trump: nothing kinky with Ivanka—just mount and dismount.
Racists are being confirmed by Senate committees. Most notably the previously rejected Jeff Sessions will now ascend to head the Justice Department. Thugs are being given access and assigned to high posts. Goebbels-esque communications flow from the orifice of Kellyanne Conway. A plagiarist, Monica Crowley, will be in charge of communications for the National Security Council (editorial note 1/16/2017: in light of being exposed, Crowley capitulated, withdrew, and dismounted from Trump’s stag party). Ex-military personnel are being installed in civilian military oversight positions, effectively ending civilian rule and oversight of the war machine. National security meetings are not being attended by the president-elect. Warnings from the FBI, CIA, and NSA are being rejected. Blame for cyber-hacking is being redirected to victims instead of being owned by Trump for requesting it: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” If all that is not enough to give us pause, there’s this breaking news: “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.”
The crème de la crème is that the First Amendment will soon be placed on life support. Roe v. Wade is already an endangered species. Health care for twenty million citizens will vanish. Intellect is leaving the Oval Office. Respectful discourse will be put on a train and banished. Authoritarian leaders around the globe are burning the midnight oil and laughing so hard that they are pissing their pants in anticipation of Trump’s reign. And now it’s winter. Winter in America. In addition to the seasonal climatic winter, a Gil Scott-Heron–esque winter in America is also upon us, upon the US. I quote Gil:
From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffaloes who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain
Just like the cities that stagger on the coastline
In a nation that just can’t stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It’s winter
Winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting
’Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America
The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but they died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
And it lookin’ like it
Hoping
Hoping for some rain
And I see the robins
Perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow . . .
It’s winter in America, people. Wake up! Before it is too late. History is about to repeat itself. Break the cycle in which the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn a goddamned thing from history.
The New Right is here. It is the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Reich combined. It is Donald J. Trump and his trumpeters. And just like the Third Reich, reasoning with it is impossible. The New Right Reich views attempting to reason with it as weakness. It respects nothing but absolute power and intimidation. That is what it dispenses. That is the only thing that will get its attention. It’s the only thing it will respect. That is all that will derail it. Annihilation is the only course of action and final solution. Not a violent annihilation but rather a political and social annihilation. We must give them back what they dished out.
The bully in grade school never had an epiphany. He never gave a second thought to picking on the weak. Attacking a pacifist was a badge of honor to him. What stopped him was when he got his ass kicked, kicked and kicked hard. And the only thing that will derail this Hitler-esque train pulling into the station on Inauguration Day is a massive dose of its own medicine. A pimp-daddy smackdown! An all-in Hells Angels ass kicking!
“If liberals are so fucking smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?”
Toughen up, people. Stop trying to get the political bullies to have an epiphany. They never will. They will just continue to laugh, to mock, and to continue to kick our asses . . . until we kick back. Get your political boots on—our future depends on it.
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