It's cold today in Miami. So there is plenty of time to stay inside and read your favourite blogs. First head over to DOM's blog and check out the short but important guest blog post by Michael Caruso.
Second, read Martin Niemoller's powerful poem, the famous lines of which are these:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
If you visit the battlefields of Europe and Asia like we have, you would have never thought you would live in an America in which 35% of the voting population worships the nonsensical thoughts of a totalitarian idiot. An idiot who admires dictators and who lives for playing people and races and cultures off of each other. An idiot who became president in one of history's most tragic accidents, and who as president called White Supremacists good people. Walk the cemetery in Normandy where 9,387 American boys and men lie buried. Most died before they were 21 and all of them gave their lives fighting against White Supremacists. And yet, we had a president who pandered to racists because he was one.
We live in a country in which 35-40% of people would quickly agree to abolish the First Amendment; would vote to confirm this country as a Christian country; would gleefully agree to the public execution of journalists who report unpopular stories; who believe a cabal of wealthy individuals and government scientists are lying about Covid for their own personal gain; and who can be whipped into a frenzy against simple pandemic solutions like masks and vaccines. Never mind that almost every one of these people came into being in a hospital where doctors and nurses wore masks and where they were given vaccines as children before Fox News existed. Never mind that although these people claim to reject the Covid vaccine because of their own research, were they to need an appendectomy, they would gladly take the intravenous antibiotic drugs without doing any of their own "research." The same goes for that portion of the population that takes insulin for diabetes without one whit of independent research.
We live in a County in which the rule of law is being manipulated into the rule of the populist majority. A County where senators refuse to confirm a Supreme Court nominee because of a pending election - a rule that doesn't exist- and then toss that rule away and quickly vote for another Supreme Court nominee right before another election because it suits their political goals. AND NOT ONE OF THEM HAS BEEN VOTED OUT OF OFFICE FOR THIS HYPOCRISY.
Mark our words. We live in a country in which depending on the outcome of the next Presidential election, "they" may well come for me, and then for you, because there will be no one left to speak up for us.
Sorry to ruin your Saturday. Go have some hot soup and stay warm.