If A United States Senator is Scared...Where Does that leave the Rest of Us???

 

Lisa Murkowski is not the typical Republican. After losing the 2010 Republican primary to a Tea Party shitbag she won the general election as a write-in candidate. So for that reason the good senator has an unusually high degree of latitude when it comes to telling her party to fuck off.

Even with my extreme and universal disdain of anything Republican, Senator Murkowski to me does appear to have some small supply of honor and integrity. Too damn bad her supply of courage appears to be exhausted.

Because at a recent town hall, Senator Murkowski admitted that she is afraid of Donald Trump. Yes, there is video where she clearly states without any hesitation that: “We’re all afraid of afraid.”

Really? A United States senator, one of one-hundred of the most politically powerful men and women on the planet is afraid of the individual currently occupying the White House and playing president. It’s an extraordinary statement that implies numerous connotations, all of the them bad.

The senator continued, also saying: “I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”

So help my unpack this information. A politically powerful lady elected by her constituents to represent their best interests and work towards the benefit of the entire nation is afraid to speak up and do the right thing. This begs the question just what the fuck has Trump and his collection of sycophants threatened Senator Murkowski with?

It it the threat of physical violence like assassination for her or her family. Does Trump have some dirt on Murkowski or someone in her family that would bring disgrace or criminal charges? Or is the good senator so comfortable with her power and prestige that she, and all the other spineless Republican worms, are scared to do anything that might end their elevated status? Heaven forbid they have to get a real fucking job without the free healthcare and glorious trips and other perks they all enjoy.

Then there’s the weirdness that out of one-hundred senators sixty-six are millionaires. Couple that with the fact that the annual salary for a United States senator is 174,000 a year, it’s clear as crystal that us proles are being played. And yes, I’m throwing Democrats in with that corrupt group.

The biggest question that should send chills down the spine of any ordinary person like my stupid ass, is that if a senator is afraid what dangers are the rest of us facing? You’d think with the power of the U.S. Senate behind them more of those sorry assholes living off taxpayer dollars would earn their salary.

We’re all screwed.

The Return of Petty Potentates Seeking Glory and Empire

 Say what you will about all the faults of the post-WW2 world order, and there are many, it has been a time of relative peace and economic growth for a majority of people on the planet.

Don’t get your undies in a twist, I’m not saying it was Utopia, not by a long shot. Since then human civilization has lived under the cloud of nuclear annihilation, ecosystems strained to the breaking point, rampant industrial and consumer pollution, and a multitude of other possible world-ending disasters. Throw in the insidious rising power of corporations along with the growing economic chasm between the rich elites and the rest of humanity and its clear the post-WW2 world order desperately needs reforming.

But for all its faults, the post-WW2 geopolitical structure developed and maintained by the United States, Canada, and the nations of Western Europe is responsible for the longest era of peace and economic growth our sorry species has seen in several centuries at least.

The elements of this uneven peace revolve around freedom of the seas, respect for the sovereignty of nations, and growing global free trade. Once again, before any one cries out in existential pain and despair there are glaring holes in this assessment but we’re dealing with humans here and nothing we do is ever perfect. Although our species’ one universal talent is to fuck things up in the worst possible way.

But the fact that even with the high tech death machine toys and poisons developed in the last eighty-years we have refrained from using them says something positive about how the world was being ran.

Well, that has all gone to shit now.

It was bad enough when both Russia and China decided they going to start claiming territory without asking the local residents or staking claims to large areas of open ocean. But now the United States under the Trump regime has taken to the world stage like a caricature of a 19th century colonial power righteously declaring that it will annex Canada, Greenland, and retake the Panama Canal.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Ever since the Tangerine Hitler emerged on the American political scene it’s as if reality has taken a turn into the surreal. I would usually describe it along Twilight Zone terms with the wise Rod Sterling standing over in a corner getting ready to explain how main character in that night’s episode fell from grace.

But we’ve exceeded even that, our reality has mutated beyond pure speculative fiction and is now living in an episode of The Simpsons. The problem though with that comparison is there is nothing to laugh about with the circumstances we find ourselves.

Things further went to shit recently when Putin gave a speech in the Russian city of Murmansk. He essentially gave a nod of approval to the Trump Regime to forcibly take Canada, Greenland, and Panama. That is as long as he gets Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states. Not to leave China out of this 21st century imperialistic revival, there is ample evidence that if Mainland China invades Taiwan, Trump will not lift a finger to help them.

No I’m wrong, this isn’t a caricature of 19th colonial realpolitik, this shit looks a lot like petty bronze age kings trying to build their personal empires and deify themselves.

On a personal note that dovetails with this post. I work in a hospital on the mechanical engineering staff fixing things. My duties take me all over the hospital including places like surgery and Labor and Delivery. For several years now when I walk through Labor and Delivery and hear the cry of a newborn baby, I wish the little one luck because it’s going to be a shitty century.