My Seventy Year Old Eyes

The Inauguration was quite a spectacle, wasn’t it? Or, was it a Coronation? Watching and listening, I thought that President Donald Trump was going to reach under the lectern for the Crown and then pull a Napoleon Bonaparte while Crowning Himself Emperor Trump!! It wouldn’t have surprised me, as nothing he says, or does would anymore! No other Inauguration, since 1981 when I became a Citizen of this country, was this event hyped as much! As for the post swearing-in Speech? Trump immediately began brazenly trashing Everything Biden Administration! It was a Vengeful, Mean-spirited and Petty display of Retribution! Goodness Gracious How Audacious! Much as I despise Genocide Joe and always will, this Tactless Exhibition of Pure Insolent Vengeance made me cringe! Yet, Genocide Joe and Joyful Kamala listened with all the Poise and Grace that they could muster, and it was quite classy of them to do so, because in their place I would have had a major stroke!

From that point on and up to this minute as I am writing this it has been non-stop Executive Orders; Immigration Orders; Pardoning of the January 6 Insurrectionists (and securing his Own Militia should he need them to cause trouble at any point? You know what he told them once: stand down and stand by?); Reversing Everything Biden had done; Purging Government Career Employees; Withdrawing from the WHO (World Health Organization) and the Paris Climate Accords; addressing the Davos Attendees with another Bombastic Speech; Television Interviews from the White House and the Long List Goes On and On and On! This is how it will be for the Coming Four Years! The Energizer Bunny now resides in the White House! Let not One Person pretend that they are surprised or outraged! The “Golden Age?” of America will be unfolding in front of our very eyes, and if you listen to Trump pontificating about it you would really believe that!! (Inshallah, I say!) He is also our No More Wars President (who is targeting the Nobel Peace Prize?). We are naive if we just listen to the overt lobbing of bombs left, right and center as he throws red meat to his sheeple followers, because the dangers are not in those overtly lobbed bombs but in that hidden insidious agenda that is being executed and that we are not meant to be aware of. Breathtaking! World Organizations are aghast! World Leaders are Totally Befuddled as to how they should react to such an Outrageous Goodness Gracious How Audacious Phenomenon! All except Netanyahu who is cocksure that he can twiddle the Donald plus all the Trump Administration around his little finger! Who will prevail in this battle of two Alpha Males? It should be quite interesting in this Second Term of the Quid Pro Quo Era! Nevertheless, how will this Quid Pro Quo Par Excellence dealmaker handle the “Price Of Eggs” – an item that has recently become the proverbial synonym for Inflation? Because if that doesn’t happen he will be in hot water soon enough!

Meanwhile, it is explained that clowning around Elon Musk gave a Nazi Salute as he was “performing” at the Capitol Arena. Was it? Or, as some are describing that it was a Roman Salute? I have no idea. However, it would be very surprising for someone who is Jewish to be exhibiting a Hitlerian salute, wouldn’t it? Goodness Gracious How Audacious! On the one hand this Administration condemns Anti-Semitism, and on the other hand their followers articulate that: Jews Will Not Replace Us? It’s not only contradictory, it’s schizophrenic! Moreover, in Pete Hegseth we now have a Christian Crusading Knight who believes in a White Christian Nation and that the Church is above all institutions? Which Church? What Holy Texts? All this from a guy who is an adulterer, a rapist, and a drunk? Goodness Gracious How Audacious, as well as, again, schizophrenic and contradictory!

Also meanwhile, there supposedly is a Ceasefire in Gaza and Hostages are being exchanged. Of course, for every freed Palestinian Hostage the Israeli Government will arrest two, or more, new Hostages from the West Bank. Standard Procedure! Yet, the killings and atrocities in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon continue unabated, Ceasefire or not! Standard Procedure again, and more Lies, Deceit and Propaganda! Stalling! To what end, I wonder? Is it until the Palestinian Humans trudging back to their rubbled homes in Northern Gaza get shuttled off to neighboring Arab countries as Trump bombastically suggested? To Egypt and Jordan who are known for their brutal interrogation tactics, torture, false imprisonment and total disregard for human rights? Really?? What are we? Cattle in a herd? Disposable? Just like that? With the Remembrance of the atrocious Holocaust in the background this past week could Any One Person no matter who he, or she is suggest such a savage, brutal and totally inhumane and undignified idea? Goodness Gracious How Audacious!

There are more Contradictions to come in Trump’s arsenal! He says that he will stick to the Abraham Accords that “Jared Negotiated” while he fantasizes about Gaza as “Prime Real Estate Property” and promises the West Bank to be part of Greater Israel. Which one is it? He announces that MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) of Saudi Arabia will be investing Billions in the US, as that same MBS, as well as the Qataris promise a Palestinian State as per those same Abraham Accords? Which is it? It cannot be both, so we are all left tearfully, sadly, miserably wondering how this conundrum will play itself out? Tragic!

Sadly, when there are no rules or guardrails anymore, when policies are merely a whim, and, while cowards in our Government, as well as in Governments across the world are standing silent all of this chaos will come back to bite Everyone! Thousands of Philosophers, Poets, Writers, Historians and Social Scientists have warned us about this time and time and time again!

. . . in five days! Aren’t you super excited? Executive Orders will be raining down on the nation; posts and tweets will be clogging the Internet; immigrants will be thrown willy-nilly over the border; interviews galore as the corrupt media interprets, misinterprets and “analyzes?”; Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada: they’re coming for you; International Organizations will be marginalized and trashed even more than they have been already; World Politicians and Leaders will still be holding their breath! Drama and more drama will be the plat du jour non-stop for the coming four years! The now Overt Marriage between the Oligarchs, the Military Industrial Complex and our Corrupt Bribable Politicians, especially those cold war fossilized ones with the “I see an enemy behind every bush” are now in vogue and in power! Don’t believe me. Read My Hero, Bernie Sanders book: “It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism” (and I’m only half way through!) and you will realize this truth and so many others, as well as that Both Parties: Democrats and Republicans alike are, and have been for a long time, in bed with the Oligarchs and the Military Industrial Complex. Four years of Genocide Joe have proven that beyond any doubt! Will Trump go along with them, or, as he has stated with all his usual braggadocio that he doesn’t want any War and that he will stop all Wars on Day One? Remains to be seen, right? However, it might be choreographed/staged for him as most of our wars have been with lies, deceit and propaganda woven into the narrative of why we must go to war, or else? Possible! I am pretty sure though that he will push for a halt in the Ukraine/Russia War. Will he succeed? Remains to be seen. He has also stated that if the hostages are not released by the time he is sworn in: “all hell will break loose in the Middle East.” Quite a few possibilities on that one, right? Today, Monday January 13, and as I write this, it seems that a Ceasefire Deal is closer than it has been since the beginning of this Genocide. We’ll see. However, whatever happens with that elusive Ceasefire Trump will nevertheless subcontract the Middle East to his buddy Netanyahu and have him do Whatever The Hell He Wants as he has been licensed to do forever! After all, almost all of Trump’s entire cabinet and advisors are more pro-Israeli than any other Presidential Entourage to date. And, while the racist, bigoted corporate media schmucks have stopped even mentioning Gaza and the West Bank recently there are 50 to 100 Humans being massacred there Every Single Day! I am not able to read the tea leaves on this Miserable Region at this point! However, I have not one illusion about the future for us Palestinians. I am simply only sorrowful and infuriated!

As for Climate Change? Fires in California? Floods, Hurricanes, Earthquakes? Millions will be uprooted, rendered homeless and penniless? Trump’s Administration will not worry about that! They have more important things to think of such as enacting their ultra-conservative agenda. (A good place to start for Elon and Vivek would be going after Medicare and Medicaid Fraud. Billions could be saved right there!) Moreover, the Oligarchs and Billionaires have bunkers, multiple fully-equipped homes to which they can fly to on their private jets at a moment’s notice, and plans to conquer outer space, as well as their penultimate goal of finding that elusive “Fountain Of Youth” which will presumably be prolonging their lives forever and a day, and which they believe that AI (Artificial Intelligence) can help them achieve? So the rest of us just have to lump whatever climate, Trumpisms or other disasters come our way! Get it? Do they understand that there is no Today, or Tomorrow were it not that there was Yesterday? Although, maybe they have a point about that because looking into history is painful since we have learned nothing from it. To the contrary we continue to repeat and magnify its horrors. Unless! Unless there is a Global World Event that might wake us all up? I have no idea! I don’t think anyone does at this point!

Genocide Joe gave his Foreign Policy Address at the State Department on Monday, January 13 where Worthless Blinken gave the opening remarks. Biden was highlighting his achievements and Whitewashing his Legacy regarding Ukraine and Palestine. However, there is No Ceasefire and No Amount of Whitewashing that he can ever do which will stem the Red Color of Palestinian Blood oozing out and tarnishing that Unforgivable Legacy. Not if he makes a hundred speeches, or gives a hundred justifications, or a hundred explanations! For me, he will Always be right there at the very bottom of the Presidential List, along with Dubya and his Criminal Posse!

Anyway, does all of the above prompt you to go back to bed, get under the covers and hide there until it all blows over, although you might be there for several years yet? Or, do you want to hide your head in the sand and stick to your cocoon and not think of anything else? It might be easier to do that than to be constantly fretting, anxious and depressed. However, as the fires in California have proven, there is no cocoon for us ordinary humans. Our lives can be upturned in one nano second! My humble advice? Remain as Hopeful and as Upbeat as you possibly can!

Finally: RIP Jimmy Carter! Sad that you received so much attention and acknowledgement for all your achievements after you passed from a Nation that purposefully ignored and disregarded you, your accomplishments and your incredible life while you were still amongst us. We should be very ashamed of ourselves for this! Nevertheless Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter will remain for me the Two Best Presidents that this Nation has ever had. Important to note that both of these terrific Men were married to Amazing Women! Respect!