I have spent the past week immersed in the wonder of my now 20 month old granddaughter. She is lovely, lively, talking up a storm, and provides, without even knowing, simple, pure joy. She also provides, without knowing, some of my darkest moments as I find myself routinely thinking about the world around her and how her country stands on a precipice.
I worry about the fact that she, at less than two years old, is having her bodily autonomy stripped away by ignorant, misogynistic politicians. I worry about the quality of education she will be afforded should MAGAts find their way back into the Oval. I worry about the volatility of this country, roiling with hatred, anger, pent up and misplaced rage. I worry about every trip she takes to the grocery store, the park, Starbucks for her weekly danish.
I worry because the breath of love I have held for her mother for 32 years, now contains her, too. That breath I will never exhale because I hold it worrying about every what if, skinned knee, heartbreak, lost opportunity, broken heart, possible accident, harm in any way.
So much of it can be traced to a vulgar, bankrupt, narcissistic, dumber-than-dogshit star fucker, so possessed of his own vanity that he rode his gaudy gold escalator down to the ground floor of Trump Tower, dragging us all down into the depths of his personally designed hellscape. This country has been on fire since that fatal fateful day in 2015.
He released every demon that had barely been kept in check by societal correctness. He emboldened every racist to take off their white sheets and parade proudly through the streets. He demonized every "other" - that target moving as fast as his gnat level ability to focus. In office he stripped children from their parents. He destroyed this country's place on the world stage. He flirted with the world's worst demagogues, compromising national security, and every military person stationed abroad. And when faced with the fact that he was going to lose the office he all but stole in the beginning, he and his bought out minions plotted to steal the 2020 election. Fake electors, fake stories of vans full of ballots in the dark, fake lawsuits, and when all else was failing - he ginned up his mouthbreathing, easily led base of gun loving, woman hating, LGBTQ+ attacking, racist, shit smearing MAGAts and had them descend on the halls of Congress.
Deny that last one all they like; obfuscate it all they desire - the videos will never go away. The shit may have been cleaned off the walls, but it will forever stay smeared over their names as J6 treasonists.
Not content to stay ostracized and relegated to the gaudy gold plated halls of Mar-a-Lago, the bronzed bumblefuck set about tightening his grip on the GOP. Whether through blackmail (looking at you Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz), love of power and the limelight (MTG, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, all and sundry other peon MAGAt politicians), or simple hatred of the other (Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, all and sundry peon MAGAt politicians), the past three and a half years have been nothing but a continued ratcheting up of the rhetoric. Fomenting fear, creating bogeymen for FOX viewers, demonizing all who vote blue.
His every rally stop includes talk of retribution, retaliation, dictatorship. Project 2025 that strips rights, protections, entire systems of our government, replacing them with loyalty oaths not to the Constitution, but to Trump. His lackeys go on TV and openly speak of lists created of those who will pay, of blood, of violence, of revolution. And the dumbshits in red hats listen. They believe they belong to some super cool club of patriots who have been sanctioned to shed the blood of anyone who dares question, let alone gets in the way of Dear Leader.
But here's the thing. Rhetoric typically is a one way road , UP. It only gets bigger, the threats grander, the lies bolder, the taunts more vile. And when that happens, it can backfire.
We saw it yesterday as someone took a shot at Trump at his rally. Positioned atop a building adjacent to the gathering, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, PA (I lived there for two years, nice place, my sister attended the high school Crooks later attended) fired towards the podium. One person died, another was injured, and Trump's ear was bloodied by what law enforcement has said was teleprompter glass - although the Orange Hindenburg will ride the "bullet" story to his grave. (Authorities are still investigating but have said they found explosives in his car as well. He was a registered Republican. Just another raging white boy with a gun. True motive TBD.)
In the immediate reaction to the video that went everywhere, yes, cries of "staged" "fake" and Reichstag Fire" went up - after all, this is a lying, grifting, soulless, opportunist we are talking about here. The fact that Secret Service did not bundle him up and get him the fuck off the stage immediately, rather allowing him full access to potential other shooters so that he could pump his fist, shout "Fight, fight, fight!" and provide the photo that will now be on Time magazine speaks to complete dereliction of duty that, yes, could easily be construed as planned. (I refuse to place it here and amplify his photo op further.)
No matter. The image was snapped and within two hours was available on Tshirts, mugs, flags, anything to grift some more.
Here's where I stand. No matter who fired the gun; no matter who was the intended target; no matter what was the motivation, this is not what we do. Fomenting violence, acting out that violence, is unacceptable. I don't care who is in the crosshairs. It simply cannot be what we now slide into as some warped new normal. Personally, I want to see Trump in a jailcell before a casket. I want to see him lose again, in spectacular fashion, a resounding loss that sends a message to him and every person who is riding his spray tanned coattails, that we reject completely them, their vile agenda, their bloodlust.
He is alive. His ear will be fine. And let me make it very clear to those pundits who are now creating a story out of nothing about sympathy votes - NOT HAPPENING. Trump is exactly who he was when he woke up yesterday. A crimped ear changes nothing about his lust for power, his thirst for payback, his full embrace of Project 2025. He is still a pig, a conman, a Soprano wannabe, a stupifyingly ignorant sack of hamburger grease and ketchup.
He wants one thing: POWER. And he will do anything to get it back.
THAT is why there was, and continues to be, so much skepticism about the circumstances of yesterday's events.
Sympathy? He got shot at, that has to suck big time. But no, I will not be genuflecting and shedding a tear for an Aquanetted a-hole who made joke after joke about Nancy Pelosi's husband being attacked; a pompous carnie who attacks and endangers the lives of anyone who he believes wrongs him; a shameless self promoter who watched in glee as his supporters stormed the Capitol and attacked police.
No, I see him clearly for who he is. Yesterday changes nothing. It does not erase his felonies. It does not poof away his presence in the Epstein files or his alleged rape of children. It does not make me suddenly believe his protestations of knowing nothing about Project 2025. IT. DOES. NOT. CHANGE. MY. VOTE.
I will be voting for the side of the aisle that will better protect my trans son, your lesbian daughter, your wife who sadly needs an abortion to save her life from a pregnancy gone terribly wrong. I will be voting for the preservation of Social Security, the Department of Education. My vote will be to keep their warped Christofascist playbook far away from my granddaughter. My vote is for the future I want for her, for your children, your grandchildren, for all of us. My vote will be to save us from what would be an unrecoverable slide into fascism, governmental terrorism, and a smothering of our Constitution.
So to Donald Trump I say, slap a bandaid on it, thank your lucky stars you are alive, and from now on maybe think twice, and speak once.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, who am I kidding? We all know who he is and how he is going to exploit this.
Buckle up, everyone, it's only going to get worse from here. We are voting for our very lives.
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