Thank you, Thomas, for your column on the death of accountability. You light brightens our descending darkness.
By temperament, I am not a depressed soul. But I have been depressed and deeply so since it became clear long ago that there would be no accountability for Donald Trump. Our system failed largely because any system is dependent on the quality of people leading it, and most of those leaders simply sold out the country and Constitution to a two-bit conman.
I had hope that the American people would provide the accountability. No! The people, many of them, frankly, dumber than doorknobs, voted for a convicted felon who never should have been allowed to seek the presidency in 2024.
My generation, the generation of Vietnam and Watergate, has failed. The failure breaks my heart.
I don’t know how long I have left in this life. I am 80 and in good health. But I feel such a deep sense of failure and heartbreak regarding how far my country has fallen toward dictatorship and oligarchy.
There is a lot of finger-pointing at the wrong targets, including the Democratic Party. There is not enough fault placed at the simple fact that it is difficult to overcoming dumb. That is a hard thing for even this scribe to write, but it is spot on. Two many voters are either dumb or absent a moral compass, if, indeed, they ever had a moral compass.
As a young man, I was introduced to the works of English novelist Thomas Hardy. He believed that those who do evil in the world eventually reap the whirlwind. Deep in my soul, I know that reckoning is coming to lots of folks, including the president-elect. In the meantime, our country and its citizens will pay an enormous cost as all the fat cats sell out to Mr. Trump and his trail of grift.
We all have a legacy. Whatever else will be said of me, no honest appraisal can say I embraced a crook and his rabble as they, like the Joan Baez song says of Dixie, drove my country down.
In the United States of American "might makes right" is the operational principle. There is no distinction between the so called Democrats and Republicans. Ask the Vietnamese, the Indonesians, the Venezuelans, the Argentinians, the Koreans, the Chileans, the Brazilians, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, the Ecuadorians, ask just about any people in any country what they think of the USA and the rule of law.
Why do people here think they are any different or that people here matter to people who have violence on their side? Dems and Repubs are birds of the same feather. We are only kidding ourselves. One guy here believes an "economic catastrophe" will "restore the democrats to control and democracy." "Its the American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."
I just don't understand why people don't wake up. Compare our progress to China's. Look at what they are building. Look at what they have accomplished for their people. Then look in a mirror: homelessness up 18% since 2023, the richest five people in the world have doubled their wealth since 2024, no universal health care, rotting infrastructure, schools being bled to death and insurance and interest rates bleeding everyone, All we have to do is stop voting for people who accomplish nothing for us and everything for their owners. I don't see how Trump can make anything worse.
How many of you people rant every day about the carnage in Palestine; the mass murder of children that our resources enable? How many of you have written to your congressman/senator, to your local paper about the ongoing slaughter? That should answer any questions as to who we are or why we have the representation we have and why things are the way they are.
Thank you for speaking the truth about the power structure. I am deeply disappointed about our species, Homo sapiens. It appears that we have a fatal flaw, greed, which is capable of overwhelming our better qualities which would allow us all to live securely in communities. There are those of us who will continue to make the effort to avoid what seems to be inevitable...but time is not on our side...and history is littered with once great civilizations that didn't make it. This time, it appears that we are well on our way to making our planet uninhabitable for life itself.
The Wilmington Coup of 1898 was a violent overthrow of a biracial local government in Wilmington, North Carolina, by white supremacists. They attacked African Americans, forced local officials to resign at gunpoint, and resulted in the deaths of 60 to 250 Black citizens. This is considered the only successful coup d'état in U.S. history.
There is a parallel between this event and the January 6th Capitol riot, the difference being that the latter was unsuccessful. The one factor remains persistent in Trump’s ventures, they all end in failure. But one must admire the skill MAGA movement in convincing people of alternate narratives. Accusing the Antifa of instigating the Jan 6 escapade, then promising to pardon the rioters if he is elected is beyond human comprehension.
Even though multiple investigations (some conducted by Republicans) found evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with numerous reports detailing contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and influence operations authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help Trump and hurt his Democratic opponent.
Comedian and western song writer Ron White’s song “You Can't Fix Stupid" appears to encapsulate the situation.
If you are inclined to pray, it is time to shift focus from Trump to "democracy" itself. It will need all the divine intervention it can get to withstand this MAGA takeover.
The GOP can’t allow neutral and fair elections because they know their policies are not popular and they (nationally) are in the minority. If they fight fair, they lose. Add in that we have too many voters who can’t be bothered to educate themselves (Faux News doesn’t count) coupled with the clout of social media to run amok and we have a perfect storm of doom.
The Dems should steal a page from Newt Gingrich and promulgate an oath for every candidate to take ... or not to put law before party and other good ethical things. Though cat-herding has proven impossible for Democrats in the past, if they are to have any meaningful future, they need to get their cats in line and vote the rascals out.
All so true. It’s a very sad day for sure. The rule of law has become a joke. No man is above the law. Total BS. We thought we could count on the checks and balances of our democratic system. Unfortunately, we can not. No telling what the future holds for us.
February may be America’s watershed month. We’ll either see Congress and the courts act to reverse any anti-Constitutional actions the Trump administration may take or we can kiss Democracy goodbye for at least several generations, if not forever.
Thank you, Thomas, for your column on the death of accountability. You light brightens our descending darkness.
By temperament, I am not a depressed soul. But I have been depressed and deeply so since it became clear long ago that there would be no accountability for Donald Trump. Our system failed largely because any system is dependent on the quality of people leading it, and most of those leaders simply sold out the country and Constitution to a two-bit conman.
I had hope that the American people would provide the accountability. No! The people, many of them, frankly, dumber than doorknobs, voted for a convicted felon who never should have been allowed to seek the presidency in 2024.
My generation, the generation of Vietnam and Watergate, has failed. The failure breaks my heart.
I don’t know how long I have left in this life. I am 80 and in good health. But I feel such a deep sense of failure and heartbreak regarding how far my country has fallen toward dictatorship and oligarchy.
There is a lot of finger-pointing at the wrong targets, including the Democratic Party. There is not enough fault placed at the simple fact that it is difficult to overcoming dumb. That is a hard thing for even this scribe to write, but it is spot on. Two many voters are either dumb or absent a moral compass, if, indeed, they ever had a moral compass.
As a young man, I was introduced to the works of English novelist Thomas Hardy. He believed that those who do evil in the world eventually reap the whirlwind. Deep in my soul, I know that reckoning is coming to lots of folks, including the president-elect. In the meantime, our country and its citizens will pay an enormous cost as all the fat cats sell out to Mr. Trump and his trail of grift.
We all have a legacy. Whatever else will be said of me, no honest appraisal can say I embraced a crook and his rabble as they, like the Joan Baez song says of Dixie, drove my country down.
In the United States of American "might makes right" is the operational principle. There is no distinction between the so called Democrats and Republicans. Ask the Vietnamese, the Indonesians, the Venezuelans, the Argentinians, the Koreans, the Chileans, the Brazilians, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, the Ecuadorians, ask just about any people in any country what they think of the USA and the rule of law.
Why do people here think they are any different or that people here matter to people who have violence on their side? Dems and Repubs are birds of the same feather. We are only kidding ourselves. One guy here believes an "economic catastrophe" will "restore the democrats to control and democracy." "Its the American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."
I just don't understand why people don't wake up. Compare our progress to China's. Look at what they are building. Look at what they have accomplished for their people. Then look in a mirror: homelessness up 18% since 2023, the richest five people in the world have doubled their wealth since 2024, no universal health care, rotting infrastructure, schools being bled to death and insurance and interest rates bleeding everyone, All we have to do is stop voting for people who accomplish nothing for us and everything for their owners. I don't see how Trump can make anything worse.
How many of you people rant every day about the carnage in Palestine; the mass murder of children that our resources enable? How many of you have written to your congressman/senator, to your local paper about the ongoing slaughter? That should answer any questions as to who we are or why we have the representation we have and why things are the way they are.
Eventually an economic catastrophe will occur restoring democrats to control and democracy
That's what we're hoping for and sooner rather than later. The tide needs to change with the 2026 elections.
Thank you for speaking the truth about the power structure. I am deeply disappointed about our species, Homo sapiens. It appears that we have a fatal flaw, greed, which is capable of overwhelming our better qualities which would allow us all to live securely in communities. There are those of us who will continue to make the effort to avoid what seems to be inevitable...but time is not on our side...and history is littered with once great civilizations that didn't make it. This time, it appears that we are well on our way to making our planet uninhabitable for life itself.
The Wilmington Coup of 1898 was a violent overthrow of a biracial local government in Wilmington, North Carolina, by white supremacists. They attacked African Americans, forced local officials to resign at gunpoint, and resulted in the deaths of 60 to 250 Black citizens. This is considered the only successful coup d'état in U.S. history.
There is a parallel between this event and the January 6th Capitol riot, the difference being that the latter was unsuccessful. The one factor remains persistent in Trump’s ventures, they all end in failure. But one must admire the skill MAGA movement in convincing people of alternate narratives. Accusing the Antifa of instigating the Jan 6 escapade, then promising to pardon the rioters if he is elected is beyond human comprehension.
Even though multiple investigations (some conducted by Republicans) found evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with numerous reports detailing contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and influence operations authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help Trump and hurt his Democratic opponent.
Comedian and western song writer Ron White’s song “You Can't Fix Stupid" appears to encapsulate the situation.
If you are inclined to pray, it is time to shift focus from Trump to "democracy" itself. It will need all the divine intervention it can get to withstand this MAGA takeover.
The GOP can’t allow neutral and fair elections because they know their policies are not popular and they (nationally) are in the minority. If they fight fair, they lose. Add in that we have too many voters who can’t be bothered to educate themselves (Faux News doesn’t count) coupled with the clout of social media to run amok and we have a perfect storm of doom.
The Dems should steal a page from Newt Gingrich and promulgate an oath for every candidate to take ... or not to put law before party and other good ethical things. Though cat-herding has proven impossible for Democrats in the past, if they are to have any meaningful future, they need to get their cats in line and vote the rascals out.
All so true. It’s a very sad day for sure. The rule of law has become a joke. No man is above the law. Total BS. We thought we could count on the checks and balances of our democratic system. Unfortunately, we can not. No telling what the future holds for us.
Amen
February may be America’s watershed month. We’ll either see Congress and the courts act to reverse any anti-Constitutional actions the Trump administration may take or we can kiss Democracy goodbye for at least several generations, if not forever.