Author: daniel

I’ve held out hope through all the numbers.  But I think I’ve run out of numbers.  We’ve gotten to billions world-wide.

I’ve just about run out of hope for the loyal Trump base because of the mountain of proof of their blind loyalty.  It doesn’t matter what morals this man breaks.  Doesn’t matter what laws he disregards.  It doesn’t matter what foe he embraces or the allies he stabs in the back, nor who he eliminates or how.  The loyal Trump base will support this man.  They will justify all of his actions.  Excuse all he does. Absolutely place their trust in him.  Sacrifice all to this one man.  Where have I heard of that before?

This blind loyal Trump base has become the enemy of the people.  There, I said it out loud.  This Loyalist base is the enemy of America.  The enemy of what she stands for.  It has totally become anti-American.

No Mueller probe will make a difference in their loyalty.  What happens when they prove he’s a witch?  It doesn’t matter how many Stormy Daniels’ there are.  No shooting someone, no trashing of honored war heroes, no ban on Muslims or any Mexican dragnet, is going to make a difference.  Not one stupid thing he says or does seems to matter.  His loyal base will support him.

All the Republican politicians are so afraid of this base, so afraid they’ll lose the primaries if they go against this base.  They’ll say and do anything to please them and the number one requirement is loyalty to Trump.

With a loyal base that more than proves with the latest Russian fiasco, that they will support him.  No matter what he does!  I wonder if King George III held this much sway with those loyal to him.

Trump supporters could indeed ignore his personal life.  Cheating on wives or taxes, employees or tenants.  All of this was OK with his base.  They support him even if he’s breaking all Ten Commandments.  Support him lumping all Muslims and Mexicans as one.  Liberty of the Individual, America’s sacred Truth we hold, crushed under his fancy shoe.  All of this doesn’t matter.  They still support him.  Still cheer him, whatever he says.

They support him giving tax breaks to the already quite rich, dumping more debt on Americans.  Support him breaking treaties and long-held alliances, stabbing our friends in the back.  Remember those friends who sacrificed their lives beside us on those hallowed beaches and had our backs in those horrific trenches of both our World Wars?  He stabbed them all in the back.  And yet the Trump base still supports this man.

He calls for war on Free Speech and Free Press.  Pillars of our Democracy.  And yet, that’s OK with his base.  They will still cheer him on.  It’s just our foundational Rights, you know.  What’s the big deal, snowflake?

He can now throw all of our intelligence agencies right under the bus and take the word of a proven tyrant and murderer over theirs.  And he’s still OK with his base.  This is absolute proof Trump can do what he wants to and his loyal base will still support him.  I wonder if King George III had it this good.  His supporters were called Loyalists.  Loyal to him no matter what he does.  It’s the same then as it is now.  As long as the king doesn’t hurt me too much and gives me a few things I want, he can do as he wishes to all of the rest.  Our king, unbound by law for the common man, can quash the rabble-rousers as he sees fit.  He can ban anyone he wants to, even whole countries if he likes, or separate, imprison and tear apart families, as long as he keeps me safe.  He can crush any thought of rebellion with the threat of the wrath of his base at his beck and call.  No leader or minion will stand against him.  This is what cowardice we’ve come to.

I’ve held out hope for these loyalists.  Hoped Trump’s actions and words would pile up and folks could eventually see and smell the mountain of crap that he is.  But the numbers are still piling up.

He officially began with being able to shoot a person in the middle of New York City and “not lose one vote”, then denigrate two parents of a fallen, decorated American soldier.  Then he can smear hundreds of women or judges or American prisoners of war at his whim, and separate and destroy hundreds of families at the border.  Next, he can ignore by the thousands, all the victims of our gun culture and not even lift a finger.  Not even shed a tear.  He can go on to lie about the hundreds of thousands who voted illegally or came to his inauguration.  We’ve passed now millions of people with his destroying alliances and waging trade wars with long-held partners and abandoning our friends on the frontlines.

Let’s now try hundreds of millions of lives at risk with the nonchalant rattling of nuclear sabers.  And now billions of people have witnessed Trump hand our ass to Russia and still his loyal base supports him.  They still can’t see or smell this mountain of crap right before them and we’ve exhausted all our numbers.  What number will it take?

I’ve wondered for too long, with our gun culture, how many of our children and loved ones will it cost, before we open our eyes and really try to change things here.  What’s the number?  Thirty-two?  Sixty-eight?  Two-hundred and twelve?  Does it have to pile into a mountain?  Will the blind loyalists even see it then?

Then I remember that picture of that mountain of little shoes, found in the warehouses at Auschwitz.  I remember and I know without a doubt, what blind loyalty is capable of.  For folks with blind loyalty, there is no number.  Blind loyalty really is blind.  No science, no facts, no numbers, not even humanity will do, and it’s proven above all, his base will be loyal.  How long should we wait?  No number, so far, seems to matter.

This is the very enemy America was born to fight.  Not just a supreme leader with unbridled powers.  America was born to fight this blind loyalty.  Blind loyalty is the enemy of the people.  The numbers have really become a mountain, if his base can’t see it now, then this base has this exact blind loyalty.  And I don’t know if they’ll ever see it.

I’m glad I didn’t post this right away.  Took a few more days to think about it.  I know I said things that have to be said and no, I’m not sorry.  But I don’t want to give up on people.  Even the loyal Trump base.  My goal is to stop this war, to remind us what we all have in common.  To remind us what we have at risk.

I’ve thought about blind loyalty.  Tried to break it down to smaller pieces, to try to understand.  I do respect loyal and the blind are not doomed to never see.

The blind can indeed learn to see.  You don’t have to see with your eyes.  Knowledge can open up our eyes, our mind.  Thinking can change our whole view.  We can help the blind see the way.

Loyalty, itself is sacred.  Loyalty is rarer than Love.  I can truly respect those who know it.  It’s truly a beautiful thing.  It comes from more than just your heart.  It’s not just, “I think you won’t take advantage of me.”  It’s, “I absolutely know you won’t.”  True loyalty takes time to earn.  It’s never just given.  It takes a long time for this trust to be bestowed.  It doesn’t come with just words.  With loyalty everything matters, not just how you treat me.  Your beginnings, your means and your ends are what matters, not simply what I get out of the deal.

I believe America herself deserves this loyalty.  I believe she has truly earned it.  I believe we can make some more people see it.  Because her beginning, her means and her ends have proven, she truly cares about all of us.  She said, at the start, first document, first statement, her goal, her ends, and how to get there, right there, the means.  There in the very beginning.  Her Founding Principle has been there for us.  The words have not wavered one bit.  Our loyalty, she has truly earned.

Many do value loyalty.  How about if we speak of our loyalty to America?  Loyalty to America and what she has always stood for.  I wonder if loyalty to America can override this blind loyalty to one man.

I’ll still hold out hope.  But it won’t be blind.  I see we are running out of numbers and numbers don’t lie.  And we know infinity can go on without us.  We need this to make a difference to all, right now.  Give this reason against blind loyalty.  To show the one thing that absolutely must matter.  We must stop this blind loyalty.  Blind loyalty is the enemy of America.

It truly breaks down to this – ever since July 4, 1776 to now – decide where your loyalty lies.  The same then as it is now.  With one man or to our country?  Because you cannot have both.  The numbers don’t lie.  And the picture is in stark black and white.

 

Hello, it’s Corporal Buzzkill.  BREAKING NEWS – Trump and Russian collusion aren’t the problem.  Arresting him and banishing them all might sound great.  It’s gratifying to see him screw up.  It’s like “Tune in tomorrow to see what else he does stupid”.  It’s almost entertaining.  I wish it were just TV.

But the problem is not with Trump.  He is but a symptom.  The problem is so many voted for him.  The problem was he was even on the stage.  Trump is good at unabashedly stirring up the pot of hate.  The problem is the big pot of hate.

I do hate heinous crimes.  I do hate the pervasive injustice.  Feel hate for that jerk that just cut me off.  It’s hard not to fight hate with hate.  It feels like a primal human instinct.  Right after fear and chasing tail.

We can accept this hate, even go with the flow and fight the hate with even more hate, like we’ve tried since the dawn of mankind.  I see the faces at the Trump rallies when all the various enemies are mentioned.  That’s hate for “others” I see in too many eyes.  I hear the talking heads on Fox and the epitome of hate, Limbaugh, who literally pronounce “liberal” with so much venom they froth.  I don’t know how to stop that hate.  I don’t know if we even can.  I hate that hate.

I’ve always been torn.  I’ve said you can only hate hate itself.  But even that hate doesn’t feel right.  It still, it still feels like hate.  How in the world do you fight that hate, without becoming that hate that you’re fighting?  You know the hate has to be fought.  Where is the line drawn between hate for hate and hate itself?

I think that line starts right here.  It starts right here, in the United States of America.  It was born on that Fourth of July.  When we began our noble fight for all, with equal, unalienable Rights.  Right there is the line between hating hate and hate itself.  We drew the line between all –  and those that wish to divide.  We said all can join, with all created equal.  With dividers, odds are, you can’t.

This is the line drawn between hating hate and hate itself.  We hate hate.  We stand for all.  It’s the difference between Americans and Nazis.  Our Founding Principle states it first, right there in stone.  It’s the Truth we hold.  We stand for all.

We hate the hate.  This is what we fight.  Because we stand for all, with equal, unalienable Rights.  The battle line drawn right there.  Drawn by the United States of America, on that glorious Fourth of July.

Yes, folks, this whole NFL stir revolves around America’s Founding Principle.  The part that says “…all men are created equal…” for the unequal justice part (please see most of my prior writings).  And it also revolves around one of the most important words in this Founding Principle.  Another part of this Principle forgotten about, a word you rarely hear.  The word “unalienable”.  This one word means, no one can take away these Rights.  No one can take away your Right to Free Speech.  It is unalienable.  It doesn’t matter if anybody likes what is said.  It doesn’t matter if anyone agrees with it or not.  The President can’t take away this Right nor can some students at Berkeley.  Our Freedom of Speech exposes us to the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We are supposed to be exposed to everything.  I get to decide what is good or bad by being exposed to it all.  The Individual empowered, with this choice.  New concepts can now be opened.  These choices gone, without this unalienable Right to Free Speech.

You know, when you see that player kneeling, then it hits home, and often that’s what it takes to really think about it.  Back in the 60’s and 70’s, here and abroad, to see the flag burning, I know that affected me more than any discussion of it could.  And not hearing about it at all, well, I doubt the thought would have ever crossed my mind, the good or the bad.  To not hear about this, to not see this, to not think about this, windows never opened.  Ignorant.  This would be a much worse fate than just simply being exposed to it.  Whether I like it or not.  Whether I agree with it or not.  These players Right to Free Speech is unalienable.  Our Right, my Right to choose, at the heart of it all.

This is what our flag is a symbol of.  That flag stands for these Rights, unalienable.  We demean that flag if we take away the Right to criticize it.  We demean our Founding Principle when we choose our flag over it.  This Founding Principle is what our glorious flag represents.  What sense does it make to throw away our Principles to honor a flag which represents these Principles?  It makes the flag more important than the Principle.  The fight, more important than the Cause.

I have pride in my ancestors, pride in my kids and my life.  But I have a pride in that flag, those stars and stripes that feels like nothing else.  Seeing our American flag waving in the breeze fills me with a pride like no other pride I know.  I am American.  I know the blood, sweat and tears that have made this beloved country great.  Those sacrifices, my ancestors among them, forever to be honored.  But I, as an American, will not make the sacrifices greater than the Cause.  The Cause is why this pride is like no other.  The Cause of our country, the very first to proclaim, “…all men are created equal…” with Rights “unalienable”.  This is my ultimate pride when I see that star spangled banner.  This is the land of the Free.  With each and every Individual free to speak their mind.  Where no one. Not me, not you, not even the President can take that away.  Our very Founding Principle says it is unalienable.  This, the Cause this flag represents.  The Cause itself the priority, greater than the symbol which represents it.

Free Speech, an unalienable Right.  Our flag disgraced, if we take away this Right.  Our flag is not what makes America great.  Our Founding Principle is.  The Cause, more important than the symbol.  The Cause, our unalienable Rights.  And no one can take them away. Not a person, not a song, not even our flag. *

 

 

*My legal team says to add “without due process” but I say “first things first”.  Our foundation itself, is cracking.

I guess I’m forced to defend the Nazi’s Right to Free Speech, even though I hate the message.  Forced to defend Alex Jones and the KKK, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, most all of Fox News, and yes, even some foreign government’s Right to Free Speech in America, even if I don’t like it.  And so thankful of our Right to protest them.

Our First Amendment is meant to expose us to it all.  The good and the bad and the so very ugly.  So we can hear what it sounds like.  So we can see what it looks like.  We’re supposed to learn how to handle it, to become more informed, to check our sources.  To ask questions, learn to be skeptical and believe it untrue until proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  We are supposed to evolve to a self-thinking citizen.  We are supposed to learn how to not be just blind loyalists.  It’s the whole idea behind our First Amendment.

No, I’m not sure we can handle it.  It doesn’t matter how idealistic I am about filtering untruths and facing known truths and believing (hoping) that mankind can handle it.  Mob and tribal mentalities and individual weaknesses show us quite otherwise.  Brain-washing seems to be rampant.  It does seem like we can’t handle the responsibility.

Many believe these views should be banned from having a platform.  That to protect us, we must try to muzzle them, to try to starve them of their oxygen.  That without that exposure, the message will wither.  That by removing it, people won’t fall for it so much anymore.  What that means is we put an asterisk on our First Amendment.  That we slow down this attempt to evolve critical thinking.  We can leave the Free Speech to those in charge of the platforms.  Free Speech now with fine print at the bottom.

I don’t know if taking things away works like that.  I know if someone tells me “no”, it makes me want to try it more, just to show that they can’t tell me “no”.  It makes me wonder why you don’t want me to hear this.  Is it because you don’t believe in me or you think I’m too weak?  Maybe that you don’t trust me?  Or is there a truth you don’t want me to know?

Because I know in my experience I muzzle myself.  I stop myself from saying things to some people if I don’t think they can really handle it.  And it’s usually because I don’t believe they’re strong enough or capable of reason, or have the confidence in themselves for needed self-reflection.  Or maybe I just don’t trust them.  So I muzzle it.  It goes unsaid.  No one hears it.  Thinking maybe we’re all better off if I don’t say it.

Maybe it’s true, we can’t handle all the voices.  Can’t handle this part of independence and liberty.  That people can’t really be trusted to make these choices.

I wonder what the alternative looks like.  When someone else is making these choices for us.

I wonder if they’ll ban this.