Reading time – 2:41; Viewing time – 3:59 . . .
Preface: This is being recorded on the 4th of July, a day for pancakes in the park, a parade, picnics and barbecue and, of course, fireworks. There is much to celebrate in the red, white and blue.
At the same time we have challenges – you could call them opportunities to form a more perfect union. The biggest one of all, though, isn’t about that more perfect union; it’s about whether we will have a union at all. That is the focus of this offering.
Spoiler alert: Magicians don’t do magic.
They don’t make something vanish or appear by supernatural means and the lady doesn’t get sawed in half. Instead, they fool us by getting us to pay attention to something they’re doing right in front of us while at the same time and out of sight they are crafting the part that really matters. That is to say, what they do directs our focus so that we don’t pay attention to what is critically important. That accurately describes what Donald Trump does every day.
He is the best in the world at creating distractions so that we don’t look at what’s most important. He tweets flamboyant personal attacks, makes idiotic claims and acts like a 10-year-old brat on the playground. He lies about easily provable facts and when he’s caught lying he doubles down on his lies. He publicly contradicts the people in his own administration. He promises to abandon our allies, sucks up to vicious autocrats and threatens world stability.
As dangerous as all of his stupid stuff is, it’s actually a collection of distractions this magician is using to keep us from focusing on the one existentially important issue: Russia is taking control of the United States of America.
Seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies have declared unequivocally that the Russians hacked the DNC, John Podesta and voter databases in at least 20 states. They used Wikileaks to make public some emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s prospects, thus enhancing Trump’s chances of winning. They micro-targeted innocent Americans with fake news in order to influence them to vote against Hillary and for Trump. Were any of this a physical assault instead of virtual, it would be a Russian invasion of our country with enemy troops storming our shores and darkening our skies.
Here’s the critical piece: It’s just short of 6 months into the Trump administration and Donald Trump has done absolutely nothing to investigate, sanction or even acknowledge the Russians’ actions. NOTHING!
Instead of protecting the security, integrity and sovereignty of the United States, Trump has fired the FBI director.and he’s threatened to fire the independent counsel investigating Russian hacking. Get that we’ve been attacked and the President of the United States, whose paramount function is national security, has tried to impede the investigations of the attacker and otherwise just sits on his hands refusing to protect our country.
The July 4th flag waving is over and it’s time to acknowledge that there has been a coup in America. Have a look at Keith Olbermann’s comments here and here about this. Then lean hard on your senators and representative to take action to preserve and protect our country. Tell your family and friends to join you on the streets. Otherwise, there won’t be a sovereign United States of America and we can kiss the American dream good-bye.
This isn’t a Republicans versus Democrats, conservatives versus liberals issue. This is a test of patriotism. Don’t flunk this one.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage. Thanks! JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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3 Responses to The Magician
Brian Muldoon July 5, 2017
Excellent point. We typically outgrow our fascination with magic–but here, we already flunked because enough voters actually decided to play dumb and applaud the slimy guy who pretended to pull a rabbit out of his ass. Aggressive–and possibly fatal–suspension of disbelief. Half the country has lost any interest in reality, much less, democracy…
dominickpalella July 5, 2017
Jack, if our President is a stupid and incompetent fool, or intentionally acting for his own interests, over that of our country, just remember that we have checks and balances in our autocratic republic political system. This involves our legislators or judicial system coming into play, IF THEY DECIDE TO DO SO. Therefore, we have several options as citizens.
1. We can plead and beg our President to act in the interests of our country by marching in the streets and carrying banners, signing petitions to express our disapproval, or giving money to organizations that will do this for us. Unfortunately, our current President is too stupid to realize that our First Amendment must be protected to allow citizens to blow off steam in between elections, so they can have hope for electing better sounding politicians to lead them as political slaves in the future.
2. We can contact our members of Congress, when they aren’t dialing for dollars or swimming in the pool provided for their particular chamber. We can even show up at their offices to complain or plead with these employees of ours to do the right thing. Then hope for the best. We must always be aware that their decisions are always final, regardless of how many temper tantrums they witness, even from their own constituents.
3. We can approach the Supreme Court and wait for five to six years for their response to our grievances.
4. Actually, waiting for the next election remains for those who are politically engaged, although thoroughly indoctrinated that they can hold their politicians “accountable” at their next election. One can only imagine the tragic consequences for Governor Snyder after his decisions resulted in the deaths and poisoning of this Michigan constituents, if not reelected next year. With an estimated net worth of only 200 million dollars, will he need to take to the streets, begging for change at busy intersections in Detroit? Will the President appoint him to director of the EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water?
There will always be more elections in the future for those who prefer to be the servants of politicians, instead of their leaders, assuming they can live through the abuse heaped upon them. Until, some of us take a responsible adult leadership role in government affairs, this cycle will not change. http://TrueDemocracyNow.org
John Calia July 5, 2017
Good piece, Jack. First, the media does its best to elect Trump and succeeds. Now, the media is getting played by him and fails to focus on issues of substance.