We have nothing to fear, but the president, himself

Opinion by
John Watson

            "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation   must begin by subduing the freedom of speech."

         -  Benjamin Franklin

            "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

         - John F. Kennedy

            "Our liberty depends on freedom of the press."

         - Thomas Jefferson

 

            "Trump is unloved in his own house.  A figure of ridicule, a theatrical creation, he is almost sympathetic.  He was told by the greedy and the outright stupid that he would make a swell president.  The Liars Paradox has spun out of control, with liars lying to a liar who believed the lie.  What would that be called?  Fox News, I think."
                                                                                             - Richard Cohen


   The current president has brought a majority of the citizens of this nation to the edge of insanity through his lies and with the support of his staff of liars.

   And this is not a charge anyone makes lightly.  

   If you care to dig into quotes from learned statesmen of America's history regarding the importance of our nation's freedom of the press, be prepared to be dazzled...and overwhelmed.   Our democracy is based on the premise that we will only survive if we allow our press to remain free.  Throughout history, we have been continuously reminded that only dictators, autocrats, and various species of authoritarians will succeed if they but find the will to turn the people against all media. 

   Continuous lies that the media is "fake news" and  the evil "enemy of the people" spew from the president and many in his administration.  They open the septic system that delivers the dictator's vile lies and "alternative truths" to the masses.

   This process of deceit by Trump, Pence, Sanders, Conway, Barr, and countless others is unprecedented in our history.

   Lying to the people of this nation, our allies, and the world, has disgraced the very values upon which America has been so nobly blessed.  Our reputation as the "shinning city on the hill" has had the sheen rubbed off by this president and his legion of liars.

   Shine the light and the people will find the truth.  Try to hide the truth, and the people will become lost.

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

But should I die before I wake,

I pray the Lord Trump's soul to shake.

 

  

 

-30-

  

  

    

  

We the People can be as dumb as a box of rocks

 

 

 

 

 

   As the phrase goes, "people learns, but they learns awfully  slow."

 

   So,  for a minute, let's forget about all of the problems the "New York Crime Boss, his Family, and his "Swamp Cronies" have stirred up and consider our plan of attack.  Sort of our time to 'lean back into the arms of the dragon' and think about fluffy clouds, fields of daisies, and green, green grass.

 

   At the ripe old age of eighty-one, I've found that there is some truth to the words of poet Edgar Guest: "It takes a heap of living..."  And at my age, I've seen too much good and bad in life to let a gaggle of goons destroy our country - and our very Constitution!

 

   We absolutely must declare war on that which is destroying us from within.  We have hunkered down long enough.  We have argued too much, and to paraphrase what the old feller said, "By Gawd, we just ain't a gonna' take it any more!"

 

   Many years ago, even the good people of Germany saw they had been snookered by an evil, lying, loud-mouth.  They, too, waited too long and nearly lost everything.  Am I comparing this president to Hitler?  Of course not.  But I am comparing the thought process of two men who believed they had mysteriously received ordained rights that were far above the laws that were set for we mortal men.

      This is not a political problem.  It is far above that.

   This is a crisis that can ultimately destroy all that we hold most sacred in our country.   And, we can no longer be satisfied to simply throw verbal and written stones from outside the walls of injustice.  We must  get involved and fight from within, otherwise we will be left witnessing further annihilation from outside the gates. 

   Voices of concern are but words into the void. We will be as unsuccessful as peeing into the wind or winking at the pretty lady in the darkness.

   Get involved!  Act like you care!  The fight is not looking for political "wins"...it's looking for ways to get America back on the right path.

   Lead,  Follow, ...or Get The Hell Out Of The Way.










    

  

   

He's eating America's Soul... one bite at a time

 

 

 

Here's to those outside my gate

who wanders by, so filled with hate.

I hear their vicious chants

and then their mob-like rants,

how long, we ask, must justice wait?

 

 

   More than seventy percent of the American people who own a television set, a radio, are on the Internet, or subscribe to a newspaper readily understands what this president and his "base" are doing to destroy our nation.

 

   Conversely, less than thirty percent of the American people belong to this clump the president calls his "base." Fortunately, we are also being told by some who still hold a modicum of honesty in their bones that those numbers are slowly declining.

   But as the rants and chants and pitchforks and torches of the "base" menace the seventy percent of us across America,  so does the bullying tactics of the president as he eggs on his "base" with his lies, name calling, and more lies.  Whether this "base" believes his lies or not, they will never say.  They have found a savior in Trump and he has found his ego fuel in them.

   When fact checkers begin to lose count of the president's lies (now at more than 10,000) and the White House Press Secretary looks into the nation's television cameras and says, "the president does not lie," we realize that we definitely are in a very deep, dark place.  Remember when the lies were explained away as "alternative facts" by his senior advisor?   

   We have dumbed-down so many things in America, such as how we dress, how we talk, how we think about moral issues, and countless others that were once our American values.  They were the things that made America great. 
But we have now reached the point where we have dumbed-down what we expect in our president... and what we will accept from him or her, as well.  It was what we once called our American Values;  our national pride;  It was called integrity!

   My greatest wish would be that each time the president stands before the nation and tells a whopper, the reporters in attendance would call him on it - immediately.  Why haven't they? It serves little purpose to report it after he has moved on because it has become the daily norm.

   There are even lies as insignificant as when he said his father was born in Germany, when the truth is his father, Fred Trump, was born in the Bronx.  Lies like this are what label him a pathological liar.  Pathological liars do so because it is a sickness they can't control and usually has no relevance to the topic at hand.

   As a former official in the Trump Organization said, "Oh, his little fibs are just exaggerations...just his kidding around. He has always done it."

   Exaggeration about where your father was born?

   Come on...that's not an exaggeration,  that is a sickness!